THE PLAYERS Championship, Round 1: Leaderboard, tee times, TV schedule

Leap years come and go without much fanfare. After all, they’re just astronomical calibrations just once every four years and, except for maybe the roughly five million people on the planet who celebrate their birthday on Feb. 29, they truly can’t be felt. However, a leap year still is as good as any checkpoint to look back on recent history to see what’s transpired and who has achieved what in that short period of time. At this time in 2016, Rory McIlroy hadn’t yet secured his first FedExCup title, Emiliano Grillo was navigating his season en route to the Arnold Palmer Award as the best rookie, and the likes of Tony Finau, Danny Willett, Branden Grace, Daniel Berger, Si Woo Kim and Jon Rahm all were within a year of experiencing their breakthrough victories on the PGA TOUR. This Saturday is February 29. It’ll share its quadrennial existence with Moving Day at The Honda Classic at PGA National’s Champion Course to launch the annual Florida Swing in Palm Beach Gardens. For details on the stern test and how the field of 144 doesn’t need to dive as many as four years into the history books for an understanding of how to succeed, scroll past the projected contenders. POWER RANKINGS: THE HONDA CLASSIC  Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will include defending champion Keith Mitchell, Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter and Lucas Glover among other notables. A check of the expected conditions always is a smart decision upon arrival in south Florida. The ubiquitous winds that have come to help govern scoring at PGA National will be sustained from 10-15 mph throughout the tournament, but they’re forecast to come out a generally northwesterly direction. The prevailing breeze is from the east, so experience in the alternative should help. After the threat of overnight rain ends early on Thursday morning, the stage will be set for beautiful weather with sunshine and daytime highs in the upper 60s throughout the tournament. All that stated, even when the air was largely calm last year, PGA National still averaged as the hardest par 70 in non-majors all season at 71.016. It was the most difficult of its kind in four of the last five seasons, five of the last seven, and so on. What’s more, Keith Mitchell’s winning score of 9-under 271 marked the sixth time in seven years that the champion didn’t need to reach double digits under par. Last year also served as the debut for new, larger putting surfaces, but the field still averaged just under 10.5 greens in regulation per round, seventh-fewest of all courses in 2018-19. The putting: birdies-or-better percentage aligned perfectly, also ranking seventh at 27.25 percent. So, connecting for as many as three par breakers per round with a putter meant that a golfer was better the field average of 2.86. Mitchell didn’t relent off the tee last year, but it wasn’t the driver that lifted him to victory. While he ranked fifth in distance of all drives and led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, he also paced it in par-3 scoring and finished T2 in scrambling. Numerous parts of the practice area were upgraded since last year, but the only significant work done on the course proper occurred on the tee boxes. They are flatter and firmer. The TifEagle bermuda greens may hit 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. The primary rough, which is overseeded, will be trimmed at about two inches. PGA National tips at 7,125 yards. A preview of The Honda Classic wouldn’t be complete without an analysis of The Bear Trap. You’re going to hear a lot about it, so you might as well understand what’s what. Holes 15, 16 and 17 comprise the challenging trio. It’s a par 3-4-3 stretch that demands confidence and precision. In conditions as docile as it gets last year, these holes averaged just 0.319 strokes over par as a set. It was the lowest aggregate since they were just 0.006 strokes lower in 2013. With breezes up, this week’s field will land in between last year’s clip and the 2018 average of 1.186 strokes over par. En route to his first PGA TOUR title, Mitchell scored 2 under on The Bear Trap with three birdies on the 15th. Of all champions since the course debuted in 2007, only Rory McIlroy has gone lower at bogey-free 3 under in 2012. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Seventy-two holes is a small sample, tiny enough to produce outlier results, but it also provides ample time for regression. That’s what happened to Brooks Koepka on Saturday at Bethpage Black. His record-setting pace slowed, but he still played well enough to put the PGA Championship to a premature end. This thing is over after Koepka shot 70 on Saturday to keep his seven-shot advantage. He sits at 12-under 198 (63-65-70). It’s the largest 54-hole lead in this tournament’s history, one that would require a historic collapse for Koepka to not leave Bethpage Black with the Wanamaker Trophy in hand. “I’m definitely not going to let up,â€� said Koepka, who continued to bash driver with abandon even as his lead neared double-digits early in Saturday’s round. Bethpage Black may feature single-file fairways, but they’re no match for Koepka’s combination of length and accuracy. It was the putter that let him down in the third round. Even though the putts didn’t fall, he still beat the field scoring average by more than two shots on a day when an inconsistent breeze blew through the Black Course. Six shots is the largest 54-hole lead lost in PGA TOUR history. It was done most recently by Dustin Johnson, at the 2017 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Johnson is in the pack of Koepka’s closest pursuers, and he’s the only one with a PGA TOUR victory, let alone a major, to his name. Luke List, Harold Varner III and Jazz Janewattananond also are 5-under par. “I know guys are going to have to push on this golf course, and if you have to push, you’re going to make mistakes,â€� Koepka said. He seems immune to them because he has the strength to recover even on the rare occasions that he does miss his mark. He hit just half his fairways Saturday, but still hit 14 greens. He’s made just five bogeys in 54 holes. The 15th hole provided the perfect example of the advantage that his strength provides. Both he and playing partner Jordan Spieth missed the fairway on that long, uphill par-4. Spieth had to swing with all his might just to get his ball in the front bunker. Koepka was able to give himself a 15-foot birdie putt. Koepka leads the field in greens hit (43 of 54) and proximity (26 feet, 1 inch). His Strokes Gained: Approach is +11.16, four more than the next-best player. “When I’m over the shot, I’m very confident,â€� Koepka said. His iron play was good enough for him to shoot even-par Saturday despite losing more than two strokes on the greens. Two of Saturday’s three bogeys were three-putts, including a miss from 3 feet on the ninth hole. Players can be deserted quickly by a hot putter. It’s less likely that their ball-striking will leave them when they need it most. That’s why it seems unfathomable that Koepka’s incredible week at Bethpage Black would end with him setting an ignominious mark. When asked if he had any doubt that he would win, Koepka was quick to answer. “No.â€� It was the only reasonable answer, even if players are taught to hide behind humility.” “I feel confident. I feel good. I feel excited,â€� Koepka said. “I was excited to get to the golf course and try to build the lead.â€� He did, with birdies on two of his first five holes. But then he had to grind as the wind picked up and he entered Bethpage’s toughest holes. He made back-to-back bogeys on 9 and 10 after making just two in his first 44 holes. Playing the last eight holes in even par, with a birdie on 13 and three-putt on 16, was enough for him to regain a seven-shot advantage. “He’s tough. Major championships are about heart and taking pain,â€� said his instructor, Claude Harmon III. “You ask any of the guys who do it, you’re going to have these runs. He made two bogeys back-to-back and then he made birdie when he needed to and had good looks on 15 and 17. He stands up and hits good shots when it counts.â€� That may be an even bigger asset than his strength. Even brutish Bethpage Black has yet to get the best of him. His demeanor never changed, even when the New York fans booed after he missed short putts. “I know what I’m doing. It’s simpler than what guys think,â€� Koepka said. “It’s just focus. It’s grind it out, suck it up and move on.â€� Koepka kept doing that Saturday, and with each step he got closer to another major championship.

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There were nights when his parents wouldn’t eat so he could, tournament directors who accepted an IOU in lieu of an entry fee, and utility bills that went unpaid. RELATED: Q & A with Vasicki So the moment was choked with emotion when Sarasota mini-tour pro Michael Visacki, 27, Monday-qualified into this week’s Valspar Championship and called home to break the news. “I made it,” he croaks amid the tears, his father alternately cheering and crying. The hundreds of thousands of miles driven on his 2010 Honda Accord. The job cleaning carts. The ball that got stuck in a tree and led to a heartbreaking double bogey in the second stage of Q School in 2019. Visacki, who still lives at home with his parents, has come a long way to arrive at his first PGA TOUR start since turning pro in 2014, and the viral video shows just how long. “Just a lot of people give up on their dreams, probably because they can’t afford it,” Visacki said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, when he was again overcome by emotion as he tried to explain the public’s reaction to his emerging story. “But I’ve been lucky enough to be with my parents and been able to help me out sometimes to keep living it.” Visacki is an only child. His parents, Mike and Donna, own a transport company that ships wheelchairs and stretchers and have done so for about 16 or 17 years. Michael showed great talent as a junior golfer, but developing that talent sometimes proved too costly. “Tournaments would want us to register about two weeks in advance to know that they had so many players in,” he said. “And sometimes money was tight where my parents would call the director and be like, ‘Do you mind putting my son in? I’ll have the money for you when we get to the event.’ And they knew that I was a really good junior golfer, so they would accept that, they would waive that restriction for me back in the junior days.” And Visacki was good. Having played tennis as a boy, he switched to golf at age 8, inspired by his dad. He grew so big and strong the Riverview High School football coach wanted to put him on the offensive line, but Visacki said no, he was a golfer. The coach soon realized he was right. Visacki played one year for the University of Central Florida, then turned pro. Playing 30-45 tournaments a year, he racked up 37 victories on the West Florida Pro Golf Tour and made his reputation as a big-time talent. He qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2018 Kansas City Golf Classic and finished T27. He lived at home to save money and bought a used Honda Accord he’s since driven 170,000 miles, at one point driving to Utah and back. He tried “six or seven” Monday qualifiers, but the closest he had come before this week was missing a playoff by a shot. Keep your head down, his dad told him. Keep grinding. “Because he knew that I had it,” Visacki said. He worked in the cart barn and pro shop at Serenoa Golf Club in Sarasota to make ends meet, sometimes closing the pro shop at 5, 6 o’clock and then hustling out onto the course to chase the sun. Never, he said, did he consider quitting. Not even after his ball got stuck in the tree to derail his Q School hopes by one shot in 2019, an agonizing close call that nearly broke him. “I don’t know how I was able to even drive,” he said of his somber ride home. His dream of playing his way into the Valspar almost fizzled when his tee shot stopped just short of going into a bush on the first extra hole. He chipped out sideways and got up and down from 107 yards and survived when Chris Baker missed his birdie putt. Visacki had his own birdie try from 20 feet on the second extra hole. “The first thing I was like, man, I have a chance to, if I make this putt I’m playing, I’m going to be playing in the Valspar,” he said. “But after that I was like, OK, I got to not think about that, I got to think about putting the best stroke possible, picking out a good line with me and my caddie and we picked out a great line and I hit the spot and it went in the hole.” Visacki embraced his caddie Kaylor Steger, a friend and fellow pro, and broke down. Then came the freighted phone call, and the viral video, and his reputation quickly growing far beyond all those mini-tour victories. Of his chances at establishing a foothold on the Korn Ferry Tour and/or PGA TOUR, and finally being able to make a decent living as a golfer, Visacki said, “I mean I think it’s just trying to get one percent better every day. I feel like I’m not that far off.” He added, not without ample evidence, “I know I’m capable of doing it.” For the Valspar’s newest fan favorite, the dream is coming together right before our eyes.

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