Tiger was ‘done,’ but Joe LaCava wasn’t done with Tiger

“Sometimes in these situations, it’s just easier to take the two shots and move on,” Phil Mickelson said after he hit a moving ball with his putter to card a 10 on the 13th hole.

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PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO Gosh, it feels good to back after it, doesn’t it? We took just one week off due to the team format of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but it seems a lot longer ago that we were sizing up the field at the Valero Texas Open. If you can in any way translate that break to the schedule maintained by a touring professional, no matter how much fun we have, you can begin to understand why golfers can’t play every week. Then toss on travel, family and so many other obligations, it’s any wonder that they can zero in once they return to competition given the perception of imbalance. I know it lifts my respect for them and I suppose it does for you, too. Segment 3 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO takes us through the Travelers Championship in the third week of June. Results aside, we shouldn’t have any problem coasting along with little fear of running dry on starts on anyone. FedExCup points leader Dustin Johnson sat out the Masters with an 11th-hour back injury. While unfortunate for him, it opened opportunities for us to be aggressive. This is realized immediately at the Wells Fargo Championship where he garnered 69.6 percent of the faith. More impressive is that Jon Rahm was selected for 72.0 percent to lead the field. Head-to-head, the difference and DJ’s spot in second could be connected to residual concern over his health even though it’s been four weeks since his tumble. The rest of the top 10 aligns appropriately as it concerns cachet, form, and local knowledge, and then Daniel Berger sneaks in at 10th with 17.3 percent. If you ever wondered how much influence I have – or don’t – consider I omitted Berger entirely from my preview material. James Hahn is the defending champion. Even though he’s on Eagle Point Golf Club and not Quail Hollow Club this year, he still slots a respectable 18th at 7.5 percent. Other notables not featured below include Pat Perez (12th, 14.0 percent), Lucas Glover (14th, 11.6%), Patrick Reed (16th, 11.4%) and Alex Noren (32nd, 2.0 percent). NOTE: Rob’s Rating refers to where our Fantasy Insider slotted a golfer in his Power Rankings. Golfers in the Power Rankings and outside the top 10 in most owned PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO Familiar strategies return with individual competition. The Wells Fargo Championship slides us back to square. However, the unknown of Eagle Point Golf Club threw a 7-iron into the usual process of identifying our guy. Form upon arrival is enhanced as a variable in the absence of course history, and few are feeling it as well as Kevin Kisner right now, so it’s not surprising that he had your attention. What is surprising is that he’s an easy No. 1 at 17.8 percent. It would have made more sense if Eagle Point member Webb Simpson sat atop the chart with the same split, but he’s not far behind, positioned in third with 12.7 percent. Jon Rahm was who I expected to occupy the perch, and he’s second at 13.6 percent, but gamers have spoken loudly and proudly for the Palmetto State native and resident. Kisner’s playoff loss at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was the latest in a litany of leaderboard appearances in 2017. Regardless of what happens at the WFC, he’ll again be a talent of interest at next week’s PLAYERS. Defending champion James Hahn populates 0.3 percent of the rosters, good for 26th overall. Other notables outside the top 10 include Francesco Molinari (11th, 1.9 percent), Patrick Reed (15th, 1.0 percent), Lucas Glover (16th, 1.0 percent), Alex Noren (21st, 0.4 percent) and Eagle Point’s course record-holder Carl Pettersson (T32, 0.1 percent).

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SYDNEY — Jason Day and Jordan Spieth went in opposite directions Friday at the Australian Open. Day had four consecutive birdies on the back nine, including a 30-footer, for a 3-under 68 that left him a stroke out of the second-round lead. Australian Lucas Herbert, who shot 66, is in front with a 9-under total of 133 on The Australian course. First-round leader Cameron Davis, who shot 72 Friday, is another stroke behind in third. Defending champion Spieth earlier failed to take advantage of ideal morning scoring conditions and had a 71 to fall further behind the leaders — eight strokes behind Herbert and tied for 19th place with 10 others. Spieth, who hasn’t played since the Presidents Cup in late September, has won the Australian Open two out of the last three years and finished second the other time. Day, who had seven birdies and four bogeys, is aiming to win his first Australian Open title in his first competitive appearance on home soil since 2013. “It was quite tough out there today with the winds,” Day said. “But I played very well and gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdies.” The 21-year-old Herbert led the Australian Open into the final round last year — when he finished seven shots off the pace in a tie for 20th — and is coming off a second-place finish in last week’s New South Wales Open. “I think I warmed up this morning and it felt really good, and I was like, `I hope this sticks around’,” Herbert said. At least Spieth’s morning start Saturday means he will avoid the windy conditions that the leading groups will have to contend with in the afternoon. And that left him optimistic of a comeback. In 2014, he shot a then course-record 63 at The Australian to win his first Australian title by six shots. “I feel like you can make up more ground and come from behind here over I think any tournament I’ve played this entire year,” Spieth said. “The golf course will start to bake out and you get really calm conditions in the morning that leave the windier conditions for the afternoon, so I’ll have a pretty gettable golf course. If I can post something like 5, 6-under, then I’m very much in this tournament.” Day agreed that Spieth is far from out of it. “It’s Jordan Spieth,” Day said. “If he gets something going on the weekend he can hole a lot of putts and make a lot of birdies and make a charge, and usually he does make a charge on the weekend. “Sometimes there’s not a lot of pressure on your shoulders. You just go out there and kind of free-will it and that’s how you make a ton of birdies and move up the leaderboard pretty quick.” Spieth said the seven-week layoff was the longest he’s had since his college days and that he felt rusty and nervous at times during his first round which featured five bogeys in windy conditions. The wind began to pick up late in Spieth’s round Friday, as did his frustration level at times. On the par-4 sixth — his 15th of the day — his drive traveled well over 300 meters, so far that it reached a spectator crossing area that officials obviously felt was far enough from the tee. Spieth took a drop from it, but his approach to the green failed to spin back, leaving him a putt of at least 20 feet. He missed his birdie attempt. “It’s just been the short game rust that’s kind of hurt me a bit the last couple of days that prevents me from being 5 or so under,” Spieth said. At least he birdied the ninth — his last hole Friday. Finishing on even-par would have left him just one stroke away from the projected cut, which could have changed based on afternoon scoring. “That was only my second one-putt of the day,” Spieth said. “The other was for par.” NOTES: Canadian Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, missed the cut, shooting 77-69. He’s set to play in next week’s Australian PGA at Royal Pines on Queensland state’s Gold Coast, where Masters champion Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman are also entered.

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