Thomas assured $2 million bonus as tour heads to postseason

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The 14th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s U.S. Senior Open Championship. It begins on Thursday. Scroll for tournament notes, 25 notables and three wild cards from the field of 156 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Most champions who return to the same course on which they prevailed automatically belong on our short list. That’s an obvious statement even for rookie gamers. But every once in a while, all of the arrows are pointing at the defending champion. This is one of those weeks. Kyle Stanley was my Don’t Take during the Facebook Live fantasy show for last week’s Travelers Championship. I cited the course’s prerequisite of being a good putter and his relatively poor record at TPC River Highlands. It’s not that he’s a bad putter, but he profiles as the tee-to-green specialist who can capture a victory when putting isn’t at a premium. Case in point, Stanley eked out a playoff victory at last year’s Quicken Loans National. In line with his projection, he lost strokes to the field on the greens, but unfamiliar surfaces benefit average-to-below average putters. What’s more, the targets are only 5,300 square feet, so fewer putts are totaled. TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm is a ball-striker’s paradise, which is also reflective in the fact that it was the hardest par 70 in all non-majors last season. Yet, what did Stanley do in Connecticut last week? He finished seventh in strokes gained: putting and tied for 15th with four red numbers. Boom. He’s a full bank of green lights as he defends the QLN. The only other no-brainer in the field worth your consideration is Francesco Molinari. He’s also a perfect foil for the ball-striking challenge at TPC Potomac, but he’s also a strategic dream given understood hesitation to burn the likes of Rickie Fowler or Marc Leishman. If the Italian was available to me, he’d be my pick. I could insert Stanley, who I would if I was front-running and who league leaders should play, but I need to force the action. Thus my pivot to Beau Hossler. It’s not overthinking – perhaps that’s what I should do given my position – but I’ve swayed so far from my once-upon-a-time philosophy to play aggressively (and even accept my role as a placebo for you) that it’s time to reset when it seems counterintuitive. I also dig that Hossler is still chasing an exemption into The Open Championship. (He’ll snag one easily for the PGA Championship later.) Jimmy Walker is tempting, but he’d look even better if he commits to next week’s stop at The Greenbrier. Don’t hesitate if you don’t want to play that waiting game. As he often is when he’s active, the elephant on this page is Tiger Woods. He’s No. 8 in my Power Rankings, and I prefer him hitting full shots over relying on what might be a new putter, but he’s never played TPC Potomac in competition. For the Shire among horses for courses, the land of the unknown isn’t desired territory for our purposes. Two-man gamers could nibble on Hossler, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Byeong Hun An and Jamie Lovemark. If 2017 QLN runner-up Charles Howell III is somehow still on your board, your season must have started late. 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. Rickie Fowler … WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) J.B. Holmes … Greenbrier (5) Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship (4) Martin Laird … Barracuda (1) Marc Leishman … Open Championship (1) Kevin Na … John Deere (9); Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Jimmy Walker … Greenbrier (8); Dell Technologies (7) Tiger Woods … WGC-Bridgestone (3) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE U.S. Senior Open Championship With total prize money of $4 million, the national open is the richest tournament on the PGA TOUR Champions. The winner will receive $720,000. Kenny Perry defends and goes for his third U.S. Senior Open title in the last six years. The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, returns as host for the first time since its debut in this tournament in 2008. It’s 10 yarder longer at 7,264 yards, but it’s still a par 36-34=70 with two par 5s. Par is almost always a great score in this tournament, and at over 6,200 feet above sea level, it’s an equal-opportunity event regardless of power off the tee. Eduardo Romero prevailed by four strokes at just 6-under 274 in 2008. Fred Funk was the runner-up. This is the second of three tournaments with a cut. The low 60 plus ties at the conclusion of 36 holes are guaranteed another 36. 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 … U.S. Senior Open (6); Boeing (2); Shaw (7) Fred Couples … Usable everywhere. Defending the Chubb and American Family. Joe Durant … U.S. Senior Open (7); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … U.S. Senior Open (4); 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Fred Funk … Boeing (6); PURE (5) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Paul Goydos … 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Lee Janzen … U.S. Senior Open (2) Miguel Angel Jiménez … U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (3); Senior Open Championship (4); 3M (9); Shaw (7); SAS (12) Brandt Jobe … U.S. Senior Open (4); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (5); Boeing (8) Jerry Kelly … Boeing (1; defending); Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Tom Lehman … U.S. Senior Open (3); SAS (9) Jeff Maggert … Shaw (5) Billy Mayfair … Boeing (2); PURE (1) Scott McCarron … SENIOR PLAYERS (3; defending); Senior Open Championship (10); DICK’S (4; defending); Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … U.S. Senior Open (6); SENIOR PLAYERS (2); Senior Open Championship (10); Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Shaw (3); SAS (5) Kenny Perry … U.S. Senior Open (6); 3M (1); DICK’S (11); SAS (2) Gene Sauers … U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (6); Boeing (1) Vijay Singh … U.S. Senior Open (2); Shaw (5); SAS (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. David Toms … Boeing (2); SAS (4) Kirk Triplett … SENIOR PLAYERS (1); Shaw (4) Duffy Waldorf … Shaw (5) WILD CARDS (short list of golfers not included above but on the rise or still building portfolios after recently turning 50): Steve Flesch; Rocco Mediate; Scott Parel.

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