Tiger Woods withdraws from Arnold Palmer Invitational due to neck strain

Here are nine tidbits from the third round of A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. The Old White TPC at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia hosts for the eighth time and measures 7,287 yards and plays to Par-70. Know Thy Enemy These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game presented by SERVPRO. With temperatures in dipping into the 70’s the breeze blowing, The Old White TPC showed its teeth, to a degree, in Round 3. After giving up a round of 61 in the first two rounds the lowest total on moving day was just 65. The track and the greens both firmed up nicely and there’s hardly a wonder why the top 10 was turned upside down. The Final Pairing Kelly Kraft has never held the 36-hole lead before and now he’s never lost it. He’ll want to forget he played the three holes in two-over par as he saw his three-shot lead evaporate as he shares the 54-hole lead. The good news is he finished the day in red numbers (69) and he’s 13-under on the Par-4 holes. He’ll be playing alongside another looking for win No. 1 on TOUR, Harold Varner, III, so that should help both of them relax. Varner’s last bogey was 39 holes ago as he posted 66 after 64 in Round 2 to share the lead. The last time we checked in with Varner he was putting all four rounds under-par at TPC Sawgrass for T7, his only top 10 of the year. He’ll be looking to join the first-timers club in the winner’s circle tomorrow. He closed with 67 last year in much different circumstances. Na-ht Out of It Kevin Na backed up his 63 in Round 2 with the co-low round of the day, 65, in Round 3 and sits just one back of the lead. He’ll have no problem stalking two players who have never won as he looks to pick up his first win since 2011. He closed with 61 at Trinity Forest for solo fourth at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May and his only top 10 here was posting 65 in 2012. Country Roads, Take Me Home Bubba Watson isn’t worried about stats or trends and shouldn’t be as well as he’s playing. He’s never led this week so he can join the previous seven winners in keeping that streak alive if he does the business tomorrow. He matched the low round of the day on Saturday with 65 as he led the field in SG: off the tee, tee to green, driving distance and proximity. He fired 63 on Sunday his last time out to win the Travelers so I’m not going to be surprised with another low one tomorrow! Mountain Climbing Tony Finau is looking to keep up his momentum going at The Old White TPC. His worst round of 11 is 69 and his best is 66 so I’m not surprised with his trio of 67’s this week. His third one of 2018 moved him up 10 spots to T14 as he looks to best his T7 from last year. He was second to Watson in the first three categories listed above and third in proximity. He’ll need to make a few tomorrow to get back into the top 10. I’m not betting against him as he’s T4 in birdies for the week. The Defending Champ All the talk of coming from behind to win is great but I’ll also point out that nobody has successfully defended either. Xander Schauffele doesn’t care about any stats or streaks as he became the first rookie to win The TOUR Championship last year. He’ll gladly take his chances on a course he loves as his 65 today pushes his two-year total to 27-under in seven rounds. Moving Day For the second week in a row Bronson Burgoon has forced himself into the conversation with a big round on Saturday. And for the second Saturday running it’s a 65 on Par-70 layout that’s put him in the mix. Last week he backed it up with 67 for his first top-10 TOUR finish and a trip to Carnoustie. He’ll have to feel like he’s playing with house money on Sunday as he moved up 24 spots, the most into the top 10. … J.T. Poston went out early and posted the first 65 of the as he jumped 42 spots to T18. … Brandon Harkins continues to rumble as well as his 66 leapfrogged 39 players to T21. Moving Day: Wrong Way Webb Simpson (T2) and Whee Kim (T5) both shared the worst round of the day with matching 76’s. Simpson dropped 28 spots to T30 while Kim plummeted 43 spots to T48. Simpson’s rough day affected more gamers than Kim’s to say the least. … The next step for cut-maker extraordinaire Tyler Duncan is putting together two solid WEEKEND rounds. He’s made nine cuts in a row but he dropped 52 places from T8 to T60 after 75 Saturday. I’ll keep reminding everyone that he’s a rookie playing his 26th event. Study Hall Saturday’s scoring average was the most difficult of the week but still played under-par at 69.753 (-0.247). Round 1 was 69.340 (-0.660) and Round 2 went lower at 68.636 (-1.364) before the correction in Round 3. … Varner has the cleanest card of week so far with just two bogeys and zero others. … Ollie Schniederjans (T14) has circled the most birdies thus far with 19 but has eight bogeys and a double to go with them. … Every player inside the top 10 SG: approach the green is in the top 21 save for Simpson. … Every player inside the top 10 SG: putting is T21 or better as well. … Only Varner and John Peterson (T38) played bogey-free golf in Round 3. Check yesterday’s Emergency 9 for more info on Peterson.

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The 17th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s 3M Championship. It begins on Friday. Scroll for tournament notes, 12 notables and five wild cards from the field of 78 north of Minneapolis. For the stand-alone One & Done for the Barracuda Championship, click here. It’s Turn Back the Clock week at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, for Tiger Woods is in play at Firestone Country Club’s South Course for the first time in four years. If you didn’t bite on Woods at Bay Hill (T5), Augusta National (T32) or Muirfield Village (T23) – all sites of historical success – your patience has been rewarded with one final go in Akron, Ohio. Even if you settle for a top 10, this is the final logical spot to burn the Secretariat of the horses of courses. Balk at the eight-time winner here if you wish, but if you’re forced to invest elsewhere anyway, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood present strong cases for getting the call. Sort through the dwindling assortment of Future Possibilities below and jot down a shot chart of how you might like to play out the string. As you do, remember the value that all of the 73 qualifiers for the final WGC of the season committed to the tournament. In other words, just like the South Course itself, all of the chalk is right there in front of you. An angle that I’ve hit a few times this year involves the curious trend of how well McIlroy has performed in the Playoffs in Ryder Cup years. In 2012, 2014 and 2016, he finished a respective second, third and first in the FedExCup with four wins, a T2 and another three top 10s in the last three events in the Playoffs alone. Furthermore, and oddly, he played in all four Playoffs events in each of those series. Compare that to 2013 and 2017 when he didn’t qualify for the TOUR Championship, and 2015 when he skipped the first event. This is to say that McIlroy is worth the wait especially if you use FedExCup points to measure performance. Dustin Johnson is atop the Power Rankings for the third consecutive week, but he doesn’t present as the smartest option in our game at Firestone. Even though he won here just two years ago, note that the WGC-Bridgestone slots 14th in terms of my confidence in Future Possibilities. The security basked into that subjection is that he looks great almost every time he pegs it, so if he’s still available to you, sit tight. One chance after another will continue to fall onto your lap. Same goes for Justin Thomas. Scorching-hot Francesco Molinari has an uninspiring record in this tournament, but he did at The Open Championship as well. He contended in his debut at the John Deere Classic and played TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in his own fast lane. His confidence is higher than anyone’s right now. Go along for the ride already. I gave a long stare at Fleetwood if for no other reason than he’s the prototypical wild card who will contribute. His form is as fine as his flow, but I’m of the belief that I’d miss Bubba Watson more. So, I’m going with the lefty. For a free spirit, he’s been predictable this season, and since 2015 at Firestone, he’s gone 2nd-T14-T17. This tournament also slots No. 1 on his strongest choices. I considered exhausting Fleetwood now and Watson at East Lake, but I’m saving Rose for the finale at which none of the others in my little league can. Jordan Spieth would also make a ton of sense at the TOUR Championship, but he still has work to do to qualify. Even at 42nd in the FedExCup standings, it’s hard to fathom that he won’t go all the way for the sixth consecutive season, but I’d endorse him at Firestone if you don’t want to play that game. He impressed at Carnoustie, which isn’t supposed to be the kind of track where a guy can find his game. For One & Doners at the end of their rope, you might as well give Hideki Matsuyama a try. While I hope you find a better option on this page, there’s nothing better than the feels of strutting around as the defending champion and with a course-record-tying 61 to close it out to boot. What’s more, he’s been just OK in the Playoffs, so this could be your last best chance. If by chance you’re dry on all of the aforementioned or your plans preclude usage now and you still need a guy at Firestone, consider pivoting to Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Adam Scott, Alex Noren or Patrick Cantlay. Two-man gamers who are swinging for the fences need to consider Russell Knox, Charl Schwartzel and Tyrrell Hatton. 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. Paul Casey … WGC-Bridgestone (5); Dell Technologies (2); TOUR Championship (3) Kevin Chappell … WGC-Bridgestone (2); Dell Technologies (3) Jason Day … WGC-Bridgestone (9); PGA Championship (1); THE NORTHERN TRUST (8); Dell Technologies (5) Rickie Fowler … WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Sergio Garcia … TOUR Championship (4) Branden Grace … WGC-Bridgestone (3) Dustin Johnson … WGC-Bridgestone (14); PGA Championship (9); Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Zach Johnson … WGC-Bridgestone (6); TOUR Championship (8) Kevin Kisner … Wyndham (6) Russell Knox … Dell Technologies (7) Brooks Koepka … WGC-Bridgestone (6); PGA Championship (2) Matt Kuchar … WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Hideki Matsuyama … WGC-Bridgestone (8; defending) Rory McIlroy … WGC-Bridgestone (7); Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3) Kevin Na … Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Louis Oosthuizen … PGA Championship (4); Dell Technologies (3) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (8); Wyndham (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); Dell Technologies (2) Justin Rose … WGC-Bridgestone (7); TOUR Championship (2) Charl Schwartzel … WGC-Bridgestone (2) Adam Scott … WGC-Bridgestone (3); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Webb Simpson … Wyndham (1) Jordan Spieth … WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4) Henrik Stenson … WGC-Bridgestone (4); PGA Championship (7); Wyndham (8; defending); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (2) Justin Thomas … Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Bubba Watson … WGC-Bridgestone (1); TOUR Championship (4) Tiger Woods … WGC-Bridgestone (3) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE 3M Championship This is the last edition of the tournament as it’s been known since it debuted in 1993. Chi Chi Rodriguez’ victory in the inaugural was his last of 22 career titles on the PGA TOUR Champions. Before it transitions into its new role as host of the PGA TOUR’s 3M Open on July 4-7, 2019, TPC Twin Cities will serve as the backdrop for the seniors for the 18th consecutive year. It’s a stock par 72 that tips at 7,114 yards. Paul Goydos returns to defend his title. He emerged from a playoff with Gene Sauers after the duo completed regulation in 20-under 196. All but one of the last eight champions (Bernhard Langer, 2012) are committed, including two-time winner Kenny Perry (2014, 2015). For as long as TPC Twin Cities has hosted, total prize money has been $1.75 million with $262,500 going to the winner. All of the remaining tournaments this season will feature a larger purse. 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. Joe Durant … 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Paul Goydos … 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Tom Lehman … SAS (9) Billy Mayfair … Boeing (2); PURE (1) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Shaw (3); SAS (5) Kenny Perry … 3M (1); DICK’S (11); SAS (2) Gene Sauers … Boeing (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. Kirk Triplett … 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): Bob Estes; Steve Flesch; Rocco Mediate; Scott Parel; Tim Petrovic

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