The First Look: Barracuda Championship

LA QUINTA, Calif. – After a few difficult months, everything went right for Will Zalatoris in Friday’s second round of The American Express. Even after losing his footing on the last tee, and fearing that his ball was headed for some bushes, he was able to walk off with one more birdie. It was his seventh in a row to end his round, good for a 61 that was 10 shots better than a frustrating first round at this tournament where low scores are a necessity. The player who turned heads last season by going straight from the Korn Ferry Tour to contending in majors is back in contention after a quiet stretch. “I think today I just gave myself chances, I hit a lot close and made a couple 20, 30 footers to keep the round going and obviously … making birdie on 9 from the wrong fairway is kind of the icing on the cake,” Zalatoris said. His drive on that final hole sailed into the rough on the adjacent first hole at PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course. He capitalized on the good break by hitting a 6-iron from 212 yards to 15 feet and lipping in the birdie putt. That final birdie put him on the first page of the leaderboard. He started Friday in 96th place after hitting just 10 greens in his opening round at the 7,060 La Quinta Country Club. That was unacceptable for a player who finished in the top 10 of Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green last season. He blamed the poor performance with his irons on being overly cautious in his first PGA TOUR round since November. Josh Gregory, Zalatoris’ short-game coach, encouraged his student to take more chances, telling him, “If you want to shoot 64, you have to be willing to shoot 74.” “I clipped it today,” Zalatoris said. He entered this week ranked 83rd in the FedExCup. He started the season with a pair of top-15 finishes, but has just one top-10 on TOUR since finishing T8 at the PGA Championship in May. That strong showing at Kiawah Island followed his runner-up finish to Hideki Matsuyama at the Masters and T6 in the U.S. Open in the fall of 2020. Zalatoris admitted Friday that he put too much pressure on himself after contending in those majors. After starting last season without TOUR status, he felt he was playing with “house money” when he parlayed his strong play into special temporary membership and a spot in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. That gratitude lessened the pressure he felt while appearing on the leaderboard at Winged Foot, Augusta National and Kiawah Island. After the Masters, he was discussed as a candidate for the Ryder Cup team and looked to be following a path forged by Jordan Spieth, with whom he’d been competing since they were kids in Dallas. Spieth started his first TOUR season without status, but was able to pick up a win, make it to East Lake and earn a spot on the Presidents Cup team. Zalatoris fell off that pace in the second half of 2021, though. Then he got hurt at The Open Championship and had to withdraw with a back injury. “After Augusta, I thought my expectations and my mindset changed a little bit,” he said. “I was trying to win tournaments, I was working honestly too hard, worked myself all the way into an injury and I knew that that was kind of where I needed to take a step back. “The first six months (of 2021) were incredible. I learned a lot from it, playing that well and being in contention, but the last six months I really gained a lot more out of it, of just not forcing it. … I just need to keep this attitude going in the future.” A return to that free-wheeling mindset could lead to that first win that Zalatoris has been waiting for.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create a team, click the “LEAGUES” tab. Then click on “FEATURED,” and then on the PGA TOUR Experts league that populates. SEASON SEGMENT

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Phil Mickelson said the fog has cleared, and now he’s starting to shine at just the right time. Mickelson’s play has quickly gone in the right direction after he recently received medical treatment that he said improved his mental clarity. His improved focus could lead to his ninth TOUR Championship appearance in the 11 seasons of the FedExCup. Mickelson shot a 69 on Saturday at Conway Farms Golf Club and sits T15 at the BMW Championship. He’s currently projected to move up three spots in the FedExCup standings, to No. 33. ShotLink says that he sits one shot outside a TOUR Championship berth, needing a T12 or better to crack the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. He sounded confident on Saturday about his chances. “I know I have to probably shoot 4 or 5 under par. Like I said, I’m playing well enough to do that with ease. I let a lot of shots slide today,â€� Mickelson said. “I’m driving the ball well, playing well. I’m going to go out tomorrow and shoot a good number. It will be plenty.â€� Mickelson sits at 9-under 204 (66-69-69), and is just two shots outside fifth place. He is fifth in greens hit (40 of 54) this week and ninth in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.957 per round). After receiving treatment, Mickelson finished T6 in the previous FedExCup Playoffs event, the Dell Technologies Championship. It was his first top-10 since June and his best finish in a stroke-play event since he finished runner-up to Henrik Stenson at last year’s Open Championship. He has the opportunity to post consecutive top-10s in stroke-play events for the first time since June 2013. If he does that, he’ll be headed to East Lake, where he’ll have a chance to win his first FedExCup. He is a two-time winner at East Lake, claiming the TOUR Championship in both 2000 and 2009. Advancing to East Lake also would give him another opportunity to prepare for the Presidents Cup, which will be played Sept. 28-Oct. 1 at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey. Mickelson was recently named one of Steve Stricker’s two Captain’s Picks, keeping alive his streak of appearances in that event. Mickelson has played in every Presidents Cup since the tournament began in 1994. He has a 23-16-2 record in his 12 appearances. “I’d like to stay sharp heading into the Presidents Cup. I’d like to compete,â€� Mickelson said. “I’m also playing well enough to get in contention and win again and I want to get in that (TOUR Championship) field because I think that if I do, I think I’ll have a really good shot at it.â€� MOVING IN, MOVING OUT TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current Top 5 fared Friday at the BMW. 1. Jordan Spieth (71). Spieth shot a first-round 65 but was only 1 under par on the next 36 holes. He’s still projected to hold onto the top spot in the FedExCup standings. 2. Justin Thomas (71). Like Spieth, Thomas shot a solid first round (67), but could only manage to shoot 70-71 in the following two rounds. He’s still projected to maintain the No. 2 spot in the FedExCup standings. 3. Dustin Johnson (69). The BMW’s defending champion is T55 this week, but is still projected to hold on to the third spot in the FedExCup standings. 4. Hideki Matsuyama (70). His FedExCup Playoffs struggles continue. Matsuyama was No. 1 at the start of the postseason, but is now projected to drop to seventh in the standings. He is T49 this week. 5. Jon Rahm (65). Rahm’s 65 matched the low round of the day and moved him into fifth place. He’s seeking his third consecutive top-five finish in his first Playoffs, and still is projected to begin East Lake at No. 5 in the FedExCup. FEDEXCUP NOTES Sergio Garcia’s season was highlighted by a victory at a course co-founded by famed amateur Bobby Jones. Garcia, the reigning Masters champion, is trying to earn a tee time at another course closely associated closely with Jones, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Garcia is projected to move inside the top 30 of the FedExCup standings, but he’ll start Sunday with only a slim cushion. Garcia is T15 at the BMW Championship. He likely needs to finish T19 at Conway Farms Golf Club to qualify for his first TOUR Championship since 2014. Last season marked the first time that two rookies qualified for the TOUR Championship. We could see a repeat of that feat this year. Both Patrick Cantlay and Mackenzie Hughes are projected to qualify for East Lake after Saturday’s play. Hughes, winner of The RSM Classic, is T15 at the BMW Championship and projected to jump from 31st to 24th in the FedExCup standings. Cantlay, who’s finished in the top 15 in the first two events of this year’s FedExCup Playoffs, is in fifth place at the BMW Championship. Cantlay, who’s making just his 12th start of the season, started the season on a medical extension from his rookie season of 2013-14. Stewart Cink is scheduled to receive the Payne Stewart Award next week at East Lake Golf Club. Cink, who lives in the Atlanta area, may be at East Lake as a competitor, too. He’ll need a low round to do it, though. Cink was inside the top 30 of the projected FedExCup standings for much of Saturday, but bogeys on the final two holes dropped him to No. 46. He’s T12 at the BMW Championship and three shots outside the top 30. ShotLink projects that he will need a fourth-place finish to qualify for his first TOUR Championship since 2009, the year he won The Open Championship.

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