U.S. Open tee times, Rounds 1 & 2

This isn’t your typical Tuesday. It’s Tuesday of the TOUR Championship, which means that this is the last Fantasy Insider of the 2020-21 season. And because the Power Rankings included all 30 qualifiers – Patrick Reed is going to play (see Returning to Competition below) – this Fantasy Insider is abridged. It allows us to narrow the focus on the task at hand. RELATED: Power Rankings | PGATOUR.COM Expert Picks Generally speaking, whenever something new is introduced, there’s going to be confusion about how it works. Starting Strokes to determine opening position for the 30 golfers at East Lake is in its third year, but if you’re a new gamer in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, bonus points will be based on final leaderboard finish to which Starting Strokes contributes. Also, because FedExCup points are not awarded at the TOUR Championship, for the second consecutive year, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf manually will assign bonus points worth the customary one-tenth the value of the FedExCup points in the structure of the first two Playoffs events. For an extreme example for both factors, let’s say that Reed, who opens at even par, bests the field with 15-under 265 but finishes alone in fifth place. Only his leaderboard finish will determine his bonus points. In the first two events of the Playoffs, fifth place rewards 440 FedExCup points, so Reed would be credited with 44 bonus points. Last year, Dustin Johnson’s 72-hole aggregate of 11-under 269 tied for third-lowest score, but because he opened as the top seed with a Starting Strokes value of 10-under, he won the TOUR Championship at 21-under and was credited with 200 bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf (because each of the winners of the first two Playoffs events receives 2,000 FedExCup points). Shifting gears, between now and the Fortinet Championship in two weeks (thus 14 days of birthdays at the bottom), I will be turning over and creating quite a bit of new content for the Fantasy page, so please continue to monitor it and my Twitter if you already don’t. For starters, and as I’ve felt good about repeating in recent weeks since I first broke the news in late April, my full-membership fantasy ranking will publish in early September. The exact date is undetermined as of this moment, but it will be splashed on the Fantasy page and my Twitter when it’s ready. Qualifiers, the Korn Ferry Tour Graduate Reshuffle and Medical Extensions also will be updated soon after the conclusions of the TOUR Championship and KFT Finals. Likewise, exact dates are TBD, and they likely will publish at their own paces. After a season of attending to what were only three rookies and a bevy of non-members who haven’t exhausted rookie eligibility in a previous season in Rookie Watch, I’m as happy as you are that Rookie Ranking will be returning as originally dubbed. Through the second of the three events in the KFT Finals, the class is assured of being at least 23 deep. Because of positive feedback to the pivot to Rookie Watch in 2020-21, I’m keeping the option open to add a section devoted to non-members for 2021-22. Last but hardly least, the new version of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf that I teased in this space during the week of the Olympics will be launching at the Fortinet. At some point, perhaps in the opening of the FI for the Fortinet, I will be reviewing the basics of game play, strategy and whatever else is relevant to your success. To that end, I’m going to be experiencing the new version in a testing environment for the TOUR Championship. I’ve been briefed on what I should expect, so I’m excited about learning the format and how scoring influences ownership philosophy. Gang, there’s so much that goes into a transformation like this and so little time to prep for it in earnest, and at one of the busiest times of the year to boot, but I’m impressed at how it’s come together. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I have high expectations, and often to a fault, especially as it concerns all matters related to the PGA TOUR, so it just feels good to be as curious as I am about this new offering. Until the next time you read and/or engage with me, thank you so very much for your loyalty to all things fantasy and my work throughout the season and, for many of you, over the years. I feel as fortunate to be a part of this community today as I did the first day in early January of 2010, and you’re responsible for that. Peace and love… PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the TOUR Championship (in alphabetical order): Patrick Cantlay Bryson DeChambeau Tony Finau Dustin Johnson Jon Rahm Justin Thomas You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Sam Burns; Harris English; Rory McIlroy; Xander Schauffele; Scottie Scheffler; Cameron Smith; Jordan Spieth Driving: Corey Conners; Harris English; Sergio Garcia; Viktor Hovland; Sungjae Im; Scottie Scheffler RETURNING TO COMPETITION Patrick Reed … After battling an ankle injury and overcoming a bout with double pneumonia, he’s committed to returning to competition at East Lake. He’s the 30-seed and opens at even par, which means that he has nothing to lose, but the general curiosity concerns his stamina. Even in this tiny field with no cut, he doesn’t present emphatically as an option. NOTABLE WDs n/a POWER RANKINGS RECAP – BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Jon Rahm T9 2 Justin Thomas T22 3 Patrick Cantlay Win 4 Xander Schauffele T49 5 Collin Morikawa T63 6 Tony Finau T15 7 Corey Conners T22 8 Cameron Smith T34 9 Sungjae Im 3rd 10 Harris English T26 11 Bryson DeChambeau P2 12 Dustin Johnson T6 13 Sam Burns 8th 14 Brooks Koepka T22 15 Daniel Berger T26 16 Shane Lowry T26 17 Viktor Hovland T17 18 Scottie Scheffler T22 19 Webb Simpson T12 20 Keegan Bradley T60 Wild Card Rory McIlroy 4th SLEEPERS RECAP – BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer (BetMGM prop) Result Cameron Champ (Top 10) T66 Cam Davis (Top 20) T29 Lucas Glover (Top 20) T38 Cameron Tringale (Top 20) T52 Aaron Wise (Top 20) T17 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR August 31 … Padraig Harrington (50); Charl Schwartzel (37) September 1 … Matt Fitzpatrick (27) September 2 … none September 3 … none September 4 … none September 5 … none September 6 … Brice Garnett (38) September 7 … none September 8 … none September 9 … Hudson Swafford (34) September 10 … none September 11 … Satoshi Kodaira (32) September 12 … none September 13 … none Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. 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The adjectives used to describe 2020 are cliché. The word unprecedented speaks to our collective human experience. Lives and careers were uncertain. We suffered painful losses. But as we navigated the new reality golf was well-positioned to lead. The socially distant nature of the sport, spread across acres outdoors, gave the PGA TOUR a chance to safely resume play faster than other sports. Golf thrived in the crisis. The TOUR's robust schedule included the TOUR Championship, a World Golf Championship and trio of majors. With a makeshift easel of tournaments, the world's best players painted impressively. These are the best PGA TOUR statistics of 2020. Hovland, Im set early mark Viktor Hovland and Sungjae Im won in consecutive weeks at the Puerto Rico Open and The Honda Classic, marking the first time in eight years that players age 22 or younger won in back-to-back weeks on TOUR. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, England's Tyrrell Hatton survived brutally tough conditions at Bay Hill: The field hit the green in regulation just 50.5% of the time that week, the lowest rate for any non-major TOUR event since the 2005 Canadian Open. Hatton hung in there for his first TOUR win. As players headed north for THE PLAYERS Championship, defending champion Rory McIlroy entered the week on a streak of seven straight top-five finishes. He had been in the top-ten after 14 consecutive rounds on TOUR and looked poised to make a run at becoming the first player ever to win in back-to-back years at TPC Sawgrass. Then, after just one round, on the evening of Thursday, March 12, the TOUR cancelled the tournament and paused the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Play would not officially resume for nearly three months. Return to Golf featured precious little rust Before 2020, the Charles Schwab Challenge had never featured the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking. This year each of the top five were there, the result of players' pent-up desire to play. Daniel Berger beat Collin Morikawa in a playoff to end the week in dramatic fashion. Berger was in the midst of a remarkable scoring streak - it was his 28th consecutive TOUR round of par or better. His run would end at 32 in a row, which was impressive but well behind Tiger Woods' record of 52 straight from 2000-2001. Berger wasn't the only player who showed no hiatus-induced rust; in fact, the quality of play was unusually high. At the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina, the next week, a record six players finished 19-under or better. For context, just two players from 1969 through 2019 finished 72 holes that many strokes under par at Harbour Town. Morikawa bounced back at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, hitting eight approach shots inside 10 feet in a dramatic final-round duel with Justin Thomas. Later it was Thomas' turn as he won the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational to become the third-youngest player since 1960 to reach 13 TOUR wins, behind only Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Post-hiatus statistical leaders included Johnson, Thomas Of the 177 players with 20 or more ShotLink-measured rounds since the restart, only Dustin Johnson has averaged 2 or more Strokes Gained: Total per round (+2.02). Xander Schauffele (+1.86) is second, Bryson DeChambeau (+1.74) third. Justin Thomas leads in Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green at 1.67 per round. He's second in Strokes Gained: Approach (+0.94) among players to play 30 or more measured rounds in that stretch, trailing only Russell Henley (+1.12). Strokes Gained ‘long game' combines a player's numbers off the tee and on approach shots. Unsurprisingly, Johnson leads in that statistic (+1.50), with Henley (+1.32) and Bubba Watson (+1.29) ranking second and third. Mackenzie Hughes leads all players in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining more than a full stroke (+1.03) per round. Morikawa surprised in San Francisco Over the closing 36 holes at the PGA Championship, Collin Morikawa needed just 129 strokes - the fewest by any player over the last two rounds of any major championship in history. His eagle at the 16th hole was unforgettable, and Morikawa won his first major in just the 27th start of his professional career. Since 1970, only two players have won majors with fewer pro starts under their belts: Tiger Woods (17th start) and Jerry Pate (18th). Maybe even more impressive was Morikawa's statistical triple-play: He led in driving accuracy, approach-shot proximity and Strokes Gained: Putting. There have been 737 TOUR events held since 2003 where those statistics were all tracked, and Morikawa is the only player to win while leading in all three of those statistics. Johnson kicked his season into overdrive At the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs, THE NORTHERN TRUST, Johnson became just the third player in TOUR history to finish a tournament 30-under or better. He was the first to do it outside of the Hawaiian islands. His 11-stroke margin of victory was the largest on TOUR since Phil Mickelson won by 13 in Atlanta in 2006. And his ridiculous total score over the final three rounds - 187 - was the lowest across three rounds in TOUR history. The drama hit a fever pitch as world No. 1 Johnson faced No. 2 Jon Rahm in a playoff at the BMW Championship the next week, the first time Nos. 1 and 2 had clashed in extra holes since the 1995 World Series of Golf, when Greg Norman beat Nick Price. Rahm won with a 66-foot birdie putt - his longest make of the season - marking the first time a sitting world No. 1 had lost a TOUR playoff since Billy Mayfair beat Tiger Woods at the 1998 Nissan Open. Bryson impressed with his bombs He grabbed more headlines than anyone in 2020, and justifiably so: Bryson DeChambeau radically altered his physique, generated unprecedented power with his golf swing, and vaulted into the world top five. DeChambeau finished the 2019-20 TOUR season averaging a TOUR record 322.1 yards off the tee. At the Rocket Mortgage Classic, he averaged 350.6 yards on his eight official measured drives - a TOUR record for a tournament winner. But he was hardly one-dimensional. In winning the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, DeChambeau led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, was third in scrambling, and ranked sixth in average distance of putts made per round. Meanwhile, six players averaged longer off the tee for the week. When the FedExCup race resumes in January, DeChambeau will sit in second place, trailing only Johnson. Records tumbled at Augusta National Johnson re-arranged the Masters record books in November, recording the lowest 72-hole total in tournament history (268, 20-under-par). His 60 greens hit in regulation for the week were the most by any player since Tiger Woods in 2001, and his four bogeys were the fewest ever by a Masters champion. Johnson gained 13.82 strokes on the field on his tee shots and approach shots combined, a staggering five full strokes more than any other player. And his five-stroke margin of victory was the largest at The Masters Tournament since Woods' historic 12-shot win in 1997. For the second straight year, Augusta National yielded the lowest scoring average (71.75) in Masters history. Cameron Smith became the first to shoot in the 60s for all four rounds. Sungjae Im posted the lowest score in tournament history by a player making his debut (15 under). Both set the mark for lowest score by a non-winner at Augusta. Johnson's five-shot win and DeChambeau's six-shot win marked the first time there were multiple majors won by five strokes or more since 2000, when Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open by 15 and The Open Championship by eight. Wild rounds and record-breakers Xinjun Zhang took just 18 putts in the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, tying a TOUR record. The downside? He hit only two greens in regulation and shot 75. Zhang holed out four times from off the green, the most by any player in a single round in 2020. Scottie Scheffler carded the 12th sub-60 round in TOUR history in the second round of THE NORTHERN TRUST. His 10.6 Strokes Gained: Total was the most by any player in a single round in 2020. Later that day, eventual winner Johnson carded a 27 on the front nine at TPC Boston, one stroke off the lowest nine-hole total in TOUR history. Jim Herman shot 61-63 over the final two rounds to win the Wyndham Championship. His closing 36-hole total of 124 tied the lowest by a winner. Stuart Appleby also carded 124 (65-59) at the 2010 Greenbrier Classic. Matthew Wolff finished in the top four in his first two majors, the PGA Championship and U.S. Open - the first to finish fourth or better in each of his first two major starts since Ned Cosgrove at the 1880 and 1881 Open Championships.

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