The Match to pit Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen

SOUTHPORT, England – News and notes from Thursday’s first round at The Open Championship. Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka were early clubhouse leaders after 5-unders 65 at Royal Birkdale. Rust? What rust? It’s four weeks later. It’s a different course, a different country, heck, even a different continent. Last month had wide fairways; this week, the fairways are tight. And yet, Brooks Koepka turned Thursday into essentially his fifth round at Erin Hills. After tying the all-time lowest winning score at the U.S. Open (16 under) in mid-June, Koepka kept the hot hand with an opening 65 that included a hole-out for eagle from a bad lie in a greenside bunker at the 17th. Though he didn’t swing a club for more than two weeks after winning his first major, Koepka picked up right where we last saw him when he shot 67 on the final day at Erin Hills. “Just fun to get back playing again,â€� Koepka said. “… After taking four weeks off, it’s kind of nice to get back inside the ropes and finally get those competitive juices flowing.â€� Success after a lengthy layoff is nothing new for Koepka. Prior to his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open, he had taken nearly a month off. Instead of getting rusty, he finds the downtime necessary to stay fresh and avoid the week-to-week mental grind. “If I start playing four or five weeks in a row, everything just seems to get nonchalant,â€� he said. “… You get to be in the routine and get used to it. And it just doesn’t seem like I’m fully ready to play. If you take some time off and kind of recharge mentally, physically, I feel like I’m in really good shape right now, even with that time off mentally.â€� So what did he do during this most recent break? He went to Las Vegas with a few friends – and evidently had a great time, since he deftly avoided providing details. (“It was funâ€� was as much as he wanted to offer.) He returned home on July 1, missing the gym more than missing his clubs. It wasn’t until the next week that he got back on the course, playing a fun match with his manager Blake Smith. He gave Smith 13 strokes – and his manager needed just 10 to win. If Koepka maintains his current major form, getting strokes may be the only way the rest of the field can beat him. In his last 12 major starts, he has five top-10 finishes (including his win) and five other top-25 finishes. “Look at all the majors that I’ve played … the record has been pretty good,â€� Koepka said. “Anytime you put something on the line like that, I get up for it.â€� It’s a tie game for Justin Justin Thomas is used to wearing a tie. He wore one every day while attending high school at St. Xavier in Louisville, Kentucky. He wore one during his Walker Cup days. So for Thomas, it was no big deal to wear one as part of his apparel script this week at Royal Birkdale. Yet he figured it would be a conversation starter for everyone else. “Obviously knew it was going to get a lot of publicity,â€� he said. “… But I didn’t come here to dress well. I came here to try to play some good golf. And I guess that just happened.â€� Indeed it did. Thanks to an eagle at 17, Thomas finished with a flourish, carding a 3-under 67. Just like four weeks ago at Erin Hills, Thomas appears ready to contend in another major. In that third round at the U.S. Open, Thomas tied a major record by shooting 63 that left him one shot off the lead and put him in Sunday’s final pairing. But he followed with a disappointing 75 and a tie for ninth. Still, it’s easy for him to shake off the high score and concentrate on his third-round performance. “I can think of 63 shots that come to mind before Sunday,â€� Thomas said. “Yeah, Sunday is definitely not something I’m taking from that week. I’m taking the experience of Sunday and the fact that I was there to start the day on Sunday.â€� As for the tie? It will stay hidden inside the closet for the rest of the week.  Spieth’s key adjustment The par-4 sixth hole, which faces toward the south, has been the most difficult the last two times Royal Birkdale has hosted the Open. It just so happens that the driving range faces in the same direction. Jordan Spieth used that to his advantage Thursday. Facing an approach shot that was 192 yards to the front of the green and 215 to the pin, Spieth opted for his 4-iron. Normally, he hits that upwards of 225 yards on the range back home in Dallas, Texas. But during his warm-up session Thursday, Spieth’s coach Cameron McCormick brought the TrackMan to calculate how much Spieth would need to adjust his yardage calculations in Thursday’s 55-degree weather. They figured the cooler temperatures resulted in a 10-15 yard reduction. Throw in the wind conditions, and it’s another 20-30 yards. Thanks to the adjustments, Spieth ripped his 4-iron and set up a two-putt par during his bogey-free round of 65. “Because I knew how far balls were carrying from our session this morning, I was able to know how far that ball would carry and then I can trust that,â€� Spieth said. “And that’s the most important thing, because you feel like you’re hitting so much club. You feel like you’re going to fly the world. And then it goes on the front green and I’m 60 feet away. I mis-hit it, it was a good club to get close to the hole. “I thought that was really well done by Cameron, because I didn’t even ask him to. He just brought it out and said, ‘Let’s figure this out, so you know at least when you’re coming into the wind what true effect it’s having.’ And it’s more an effect than anywhere I’ve experienced in the States.â€� Poulter back on track A year ago, Ian Poulter was part of Sky Sports’ broadcast team at Royal Troon. He did not like it. It wasn’t because he doesn’t like to talk. But he’d rather have been swinging a club than holding a microphone. Unfortunately, a foot injury kept the Englishman from making his 15th consecutive start in his national Open. This year, he had to qualify for the Open. Fortunately, one of the venues was his hometown course in Woburn. In front of several thousand fans, Poulter posted a score and then had to sweat out a 45-minute wait before securing one of the three spots that advanced to Royal Birkdale. “I certainly felt a bit of pressure — pressure to obviously make sure I take one of those three spots,â€� Poulter said. Now he’s back at Royal Birkdale. The last time he played here, he shot 69 in the final round in 2008 to finish solo second behind Padraig Harrington. It felt like old times on Thursday, as he shot a 3-under 67. The winds on Thursday were different than in the practice sessions, but Poulter was ready. It was the same kind of wind he played in nine years ago in the final round. On Wednesday night, he took out his old yardage book and adjusted his gameplan. “I almost played a round of golf last night in my head,â€� Poulter said, “and I had a lower score in my head last night than I did today. But don’t we all?â€� Two months ago, Poulter tied for second at THE PLAYERS Championship, his best result on TOUR in nearly four years. He followed that by making six more cuts on his worldwide schedule, including a tie for ninth last week at the Scottish Open. Apparently, he’s found his groove. “THE PLAYERS Championship was a big week for me,â€� he said. “I think that was a huge turning point. And I’m definitely a freer player on the golf course. I can be more aggressive. I can hit more of the shots that I’m kind of visualizing.â€� More playing. Less talking. Poulter is fine with that.

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PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is back for another season. The third of 24 contributing events is this week’s Chubb Classic. It begins on Friday. I wrote a primer for the game, which you can read here. The Expert Picks has returned as well. You’ll find our selections, explanations and other considered on Thursday. And I’ve modified how Future Possibilities for notables for PGA TOUR Champions events is constructed. You’ll always find that section in this weekly column. Scroll for 23 from the field of 78 in Naples, Florida. One & Doners should never whine about a T2 even if it’s split four ways, but in the relative world of fantasy sports, not all T2s are the same. At last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Phil Mickelson (Mark), Jason Day (Sean) and Dustin Johnson (Rob) all came to rest three strokes off Ted Potter’s championship-setting pace. With those FedExCup points being equal, you could wage a winning argument that I suffered the most in losing DJ to what amounted to a push. My objective is a top 10 in every event, but when DJ is your bullet, a four-way T2 in a non-Playoffs event can sting. Now double that agony at this week’s Genesis Open. DJ is atop my Power Rankings in an exponentially thicker field. Toss on the reduced face value of the likes of Mickelson, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and Jimmy Walker – all for different reason in real time – and DJ’s failure to turn his 54-hole co-lead on the Monterey Peninsula into victory suddenly bounced me from his fan club at Riviera. (Yet, I’m still very much bullish in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. It’s not hedging when the investment stands on its own merit, at least that’s what I tell myself when I don’t have a choice.) No matter your measurement, Johnson is the man for the mission. As Frank Sinatra used to belt, L.A. is his lady. Not only is DJ the defending champion, but the Genesis Open slots first in my subjective ranking of his Future Possibilities (below). Unless you’re willing to hurl caution to the wind in favor of any in the aforementioned quartet, you’re going to be plucking from plums currently dialed in. In other words, course history offers little in the way of a solution. Thomas Pieters does check both boxes, but his small sample sizes merely represent evidence that they are better than the alternatives. Still, what he has achieved at Riviera is second to none. He won the NCAA individual title here in 2012 and tied for second in his Genesis debut last year, albeit with a closing 63. Sold. Riviera isn’t a slam dunk in our world for Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar, Paul Casey and Daniel Berger. However, it’s a perfect position for two-man gamers to circle Ollie Schniederjans and K.J. Choi. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … Houston (3); St. Jude (1; two-time defending); Travelers (2) Keegan Bradley … Genesis (4); Houston (3); Memorial (5); WGC-Bridgestone (2) Paul Casey … Genesis (9); Honda (6); WGC-Match Play (7); Masters (1); Travelers (4); WGC-Bridgestone (5); Dell Technologies (2); TOUR Championship (3) Kevin Chappell … Valero (1; defending); St. Jude (5); WGC-Bridgestone (2); Dell Technologies (3) Luke Donald … Honda (2); Valspar (3); Heritage (1) Tony Finau … Valero (5); Memorial (3); Greenbrier (2); Canadian (4) Jim Furyk … Genesis (6); Valspar (5); Heritage (1); Memorial (7); U.S. Open (8); Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (2); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); TOUR Championship (4) Branden Grace … Heritage (1); Valero (2); U.S. Open (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3) Bill Haas … Genesis (3); Valspar (4); WGC-Match Play (5); Wyndham (2) Charley Hoffman … Genesis (6); Heritage (7); Houston (5); Valero (1); DEAN & DELUCA (4); Travelers (2); Canadian (3) J.B. Holmes … Genesis (3); Houston (2); Wells Fargo (7); Greenbrier (5) Billy Horschel … Honda (2); Arnold Palmer (5); Valero (3); St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4) Charles Howell III … Valspar (4); Houston (7) Dustin Johnson … Genesis (1; defending); WGC-Mexico (7; defending); WGC-Match Play (16; defending); Houston (15); Masters (4); Memorial (12); St. Jude (8); U.S. Open (13); Canadian (10); WGC-Bridgestone (14); PGA Championship (9); Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Matt Kuchar … Valspar (8); Masters (5); Heritage (1); Valero (10); PLAYERS (11); DEAN & DELUCA (6); Memorial (2); Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Martin Laird … Genesis (3); Valero (7); Barracuda (1) Marc Leishman … Arnold Palmer (3; defending); DEAN & DELUCA (7); Memorial (5); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1) Jamie Lovemark … Arnold Palmer (3) Graeme McDowell … Honda (1); Heritage (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3) William McGirt … Genesis (3); Heritage (1); Memorial (4) Rory McIlroy … Arnold Palmer (10); WGC-Match Play (11); Masters (2); Wells Fargo (1); PLAYERS (8); Memorial (9); Open Championship (4)WGC-Bridgestone (7); Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3) Phil Mickelson … WGC-Mexico (9); Houston (3); Masters (4); Wells Fargo (2); St. Jude (1); Open Championship (5) Francesco Molinari … Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (2) Ryan Moore … Genesis (9); Valspar (5); Masters (8); Travelers (2); John Deere (3); TOUR Championship (6) Kevin Na … Valspar (5); Arnold Palmer (7); Heritage (6); Memorial (10); John Deere (9); Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Pat Perez … Houston (6); Heritage (5); Valero (7) Charl Schwartzel … Valspar (1); WGC-Match Play (3); Memorial (4); U.S. Open (5); Open Championship (6); WGC-Bridgestone (2) Adam Scott … Genesis (1); Honda (2); Arnold Palmer (11); Masters (4); PLAYERS (5); U.S. Open (10); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (3); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Jordan Spieth … Valspar (8); Houston (11); Masters (1); Heritage (12); DEAN & DELUCA (2); Travelers (6; defending); John Deere (7); Open Championship (9; defending); WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4) Brendan Steele … Honda (5); Valero (6); Wells Fargo (7); Travelers (3) Kevin Streelman … Wells Fargo (3); Memorial (1); Travelers (2) Justin Thomas … WGC-Mexico (7); Valspar (8); Wells Fargo (9); Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Jimmy Walker … Genesis (5); Valero (6); Greenbrier (8); Dell Technologies (7) Bubba Watson … Genesis (2); Memorial (6); Travelers (5); Greenbrier (8); WGC-Bridgestone (1); TOUR Championship (4) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE Chubb Classic The Talon Course at TwinEagles Golf Club in Naples, Florida, has hosted the tournament since 2012. It’s a stock par 72 clipping at 7,193 yards. Bernhard Langer (2013, 2016) is the only multiple champion. Among the five different winners, Kenny Perry (2012), and injured defending champion, Fred Couples, are not in this week’s field. Like last week’s Boca Raton Championship, the Chubb Classic will distribute a season-low-tying $1.6 million in prize money. In fact, it has since 2003. To the victor goes $240,000. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Stephen Ames … Cologuard (3); Mitsubishi Electric Classic (1; defending); Insperity (4); Principal (8); U.S. Senior Open (6); Boeing (2); Shaw (7) Billy Andrade … Cologuard (1); Toshiba (3); Mitsubishi Electric Classic (5); Bass Pro Shops (4) Joe Durant … Toshiba (4); Bass Pro Shops (5); Insperity (15); Principal (2); American Family (8); U.S. Senior Open (7); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … Mitsubishi Electric Classic (6); Bass Pro Shops (3); U.S. Senior Open (4); 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Fred Funk … Toshiba (2); Mitsubishi Electric (4); Bass Pro Shops (1); Regions Tradition (3); Boeing (6); PURE (5) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Paul Goydos … Mitsubishi Electric Classic (6); Bass Pro Shops (2); Insperity (7); 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Lee Janzen … Rapiscan (1); U.S. Senior Open (2) Miguel Angel Jiménez … Chubb (8); Rapiscan (1; two-time defending); Mitsubishi Electric Classic (2); Insperity (13); Senior PGA (6); Principal (10); U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (3); Senior Open Championship (4); 3M (9); Shaw (7); SAS (12) Brandt Jobe … Chubb (7); Mitsubishi Electric Classic (6); Senior PGA (2); Principal (3; defending); U.S. Senior Open (4); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (5); Boeing (8) Jerry Kelly … Chubb (3); Boeing (1; defending); Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Tom Lehman … Cologuard (6; defending); Bass Pro Shops (7); Insperity (8); Regions Tradition (5); Principal (1); U.S. Senior Open (3); SAS (9) Jeff Maggert … Cologuard (2); Rapiscan (4); Insperity (1); American Family (3); Shaw (5) Billy Mayfair … Boeing (2); PURE (1) Scott McCarron … Toshiba (9); Rapiscan (7); Regions Tradition (2); Senior PGA; Principal (1); SENIOR PLAYERS (3; defending); Senior Open Championship (10); DICK’S (4; defending); Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … Chubb (9); Mitsubishi Electric Classic (5); Senior PGA (1); U.S. Senior Open (6); SENIOR PLAYERS (2); Senior Open Championship (10); Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Chubb (4); Cologuard (6); Rapiscan (1); Principal Charity (2); Shaw (3); SAS (5) Gene Sauers … Cologuard (4); Rapiscan (2); Insperity (7); Regions Tradition (3); U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (6); Boeing (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. David Toms … Regions Tradition (3); Boeing (2); SAS (4) Kirk Triplett …  Insperity (2); Regions Tradition (6); American Family (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); Shaw (4) Duffy Waldorf … Cologuard (3); Toshiba (2); Bass Pro Shops (2); Insperity (4); Principal (6); Shaw (5)

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