Tiger hype understandable, but not sustainable

To quote a wise man, I’m a perfectionist with lowered expectations. Not everyone is on board with my philosophy to target top 10s. I see them as goals with top fives the bonuses and victories reasons to celebrate. That’s fine. At least you’re provided some premise for the picks. Meanwhile, there’s the relevance of long-range strategy. Occasionally, the golfer I like to win now might make more sense later in the context of the fantasy competition. Remember fantasy rule No. 3: Remain fluid. While this explains how I play the One & Done, especially early in a season, I still get after it in the additional events. This week’s Sanderson Farms Championship reserves space for 132 golfers, almost none of whom you’re going to miss in the remaining 41 tournaments of 2018-19. The only entrant who deserves pause is Martin Laird for the Barracuda Championship, but you’re not going to consider him long for the Sanderson Farms, anyway. Therefore, it’s a rare week when I’ll settle for a top 10. Lucas Glover is atop my Power Rankings. He’s popped on a number of occasions in recent week and you can’t rule out a level of comfort in this neck of the woods as a Southeasterner his entire life. Bill Haas, Chris Kirk and Hunter Mahan follow in order. Each is cut from a similar cloth as ball-strikers with impressive résumés. Haas and Kirk are among only four who appear in Future Possibilities below. The Country Club of Jackson has served as a coronation for first-time winners Nick Taylor (2014), Peter Malnati (2015), Cody Gribble (2016) and Ryan Armour (2017), so there’s a surplus of fuel to support your decision to invest in a current non-winner. Harold Varner III is highest among all non-winners in my Power Rankings at No. 5. Dylan Frittelli is No. 8, Cameron Davis is No. 9 and Patrick Rodgers is No. 10. Because Frittelli and Davis are first-time PGA TOUR members, they’re the most intriguing of the bunch and the Sanderson Farms Championship is a proper setting to latch on. If there’s a snub in the Power Rankings, it’s Aaron Baddeley, veteran of a T4 (2015) and T30 (2017) in Jackson. Not dissimilar to Glover’s recent trend, the Aussie connected four top 25s on two tours, and then opened the new season with a T4 at the Safeway Open. Ironically, for a guy best known as one of the best putters of his generation, it was his irons that yielded the top five at Silverado. He led the field in greens hit and ranked T4 in proximity. The advice for two-man gamers is the same. Holster Laird and consider one of the stalwarts to pair with Badds. 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 2018-19. 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. Bill Haas … RSM (7); CareerBuilder (1); Genesis (3); WGC-Match Play (8); Heritage (4); Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Chris Kirk … Sanderson Farms (6); RSM (1); Sony (4); Valero (3); PLAYERS (5); Charles Schwab (2) Martin Laird … CareerBuilder (6); Waste Management (1); Genesis (3); Valero (5); Barracuda (2) Kevin Streelman … Sanderson Farms (3); Shriners (6); Mayakoba (2); CareerBuilder (8); Pebble Beach (1); Valero (9); Heritage (5); Memorial (4); Travelers (7)

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Ahead of the 2020 edition of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, we caught up with the PGA TOUR’s finest to take a look inside their golf bags. In this week’s gallery, we take a look at some cool customs, interesting wedge stampings, and captivating covers. Jason Dufner has some fun with fellow Cobra staffer Bryson DeChambeau with his “King of Math Gymnastics� stamped wedge. Additionally, Dufner (as with other Cobra staffers) has a limited-edition PLAYERS Championship-inspired bag this week. Paul Casey’s custom alligator head cover from Dormie continues the trend of the Englishman sporting bold selections by the Canadian company. Erik Von Rooyen’s Callaway Jaws MD5 wedge has custom dots in the colors of the South African flag. John Rahm has his nickname (Rahmbo) on his TaylorMade MG2 wedges. Were that your nickname, you probably would too! Byeong Hun An, a member of the International team, is still rocking his Presidents Cup putter cover. Gary Woodland proudly sports a University of Kansas Jayhawk putter cover. Vokey’s Aaron Dill had some fun stamping Ryan Armour’s wedges. Denny McCarthy’s worn out putter finish shows that this flatstick has been around the block! A pretty sweet custom Bay Hill rangefinder holder. Peter Malnati’s custom Scotty Cameron features a welded neck

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A familiar face toting an unfamiliar golf bag has emerged at Liberty National as Tiger Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava has jumped in to work for four-time PGA TOUR winner Patrick Cantlay. With Woods sidelined indefinitely due to leg injuries suffered in a car accident earlier this year and Cantlay’s regular looper Matt Minister out with COVID-19, the match was made on a temporary basis. LaCava – who also has had a guest appearance with his former boss Fred Couples on PGA TOUR Champions in June while Woods is in recovery – was able to drive down from Connecticut to help out at short notice. Cantlay is a member at Medalist Golf Club in South Florida, where he and Woods have formed a kinship. Woods was also Cantlay’s playing captain in the 2019 Presidents Cup. “He’s going to have to put up with a scrub caddie this week,” LaCava joked to Golf Digest. How long the pair work together is yet to be seen with Minister needing to get through COVID-19 protocols to return to the TOUR. Cantlay is certain of a place in the TOUR Championship thanks to an excellent Regular Season. He enters THE NORTHERN TRUST in third place in the FedExCup standings thanks to wins at THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Cantlay added a runner-up at The American Express and a T3 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am. Cantlay has made it to East Lake on three previous occasions but is looking to best his career best FedExCup finish of 20th from 2018.

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