What’s happening at the AT&T Byron Nelson

Coming off a dominant performance in 2017, the United States is heavily favored in this Presidents Cup. Eleven U.S. players, including all four captain’s picks, are ahead of the Internationals’ top player, Adam Scott, in the world ranking. The challenge for International Team Captain Ernie Els, who announced his four captain’s picks Wednesday, was constructing a roster that is greater than the sum of its parts. Analytics aided his decision-making process, and it looks like putting may have been a determining factor in selections. Related: Els makes his captain’s picks | International youth movement at Presidents Cup His four picks – Jason Day, Sungjae Im, Adam Hadwin and Joaquin Niemann – all are superior in that area to the two players who narrowly missed making the team, Byeong Hun An and Corey Conners. “I wanted good driving, good ball-striking obviously, but putting is very important,â€� Els said Wednesday. “In my experience in these Cups, it comes down to pressure putting in a lot of instances. “Putting is a pivotal attribute that you need, especially in what we play. Putting was very important to me.â€� Looking at the Strokes Gained statistics, there were two areas where the four captain’s picks outranked the eight players who automatically qualified for the International Team: off the tee and on the green. The average Strokes Gained: Putting rank for the four captain’s picks is a bit misleading and may not accurately represent the putting prowess of those players. Day, Im and Hadwin all rank in the top 50 of that category. Niemann inflated that number by finishing 141st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, but he’s improved drastically since May. Niemann ranked 203rd (out of 208 players) in Strokes Gained: Putting through the Charles Schwab Challenge, losing -0.67 strokes per round on the greens. Since then, his average Strokes Gained: Putting per round has improved by more than a stroke per round. Niemann led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting when he won A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. An and Conners assembled strong Presidents Cup candidacies, but putting was the glaring weakness for both players. Conners was one of just two players to rank in the top 10 in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Approach-the Green last season (Paul Casey was the other). An led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green while posting solid performances in the two ball-striking stats. Both players had shown good form before Els made his picks. Conners, who won this year’s Valero Texas Open, posted four consecutive top-20 finishes, including a T6 at the ZOZO Championship. An had two third-place finishes since August and finished T6-T8-T14 in the three TOUR events in Asia. Conners and An ranked 181st and 182 in Strokes Gained: Putting, respectively, in 2019. Assembling teams with complementary skills is especially important in Foursomes (or alternate-shot), the format that has hexed the International Team. The U.S. and International teams have been basically even in Four-ball competition, but the Internationals own a winning percentage of approximately 37% in Foursomes. It’s likely why Els chose to begin this year’s Presidents Cup with Four-Ball. It’s just the third time (1994, 2013) that the Presidents Cup has started with Four-Balls.

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NAPA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson didn’t end his drought Sunday as he had hoped. But he likes the direction he’s heading – both with his golf game and the next tournament on his schedule. He hopes the confluence of those two things will lead to career win No. 43. Mickelson shot a 2-under 70 in the final round of the Safeway Open to finish at 12 under, three strokes behind winner Brendan Steele. His tie for third is his best result since The Open in 2016 when he finished second in a Sunday duel against Henrik Stenson, and continues his upward trend – his last 12 rounds on TOUR have been at par-or-better. He’ll now take two weeks off, then play the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. Having won twice at Sheshan Golf Club, Mickelson certainly has reason to hope for a third win. If it happens, it would end the 91-start drought since his last victory on TOUR, The Open in 2013. “I’m going to keep giving myself good chances, and it will happen,� Mickelson said. “I get on a course like Sheshan where I’m very comfortable. I know the greens. I know the course well. I think I’ll have a good week there.� He almost had a great week at Silverado. Mickelson posted 23 birdies – tying Chesson Hadley for most of any player this week – and entered the final round four shots off the lead. He had hoped to get off to a fast start and apply pressure on the leaders, including 54-hole leader Tyler Duncan. Sunday’s tough scoring conditions prevented anybody from going low, but Mickelson was still in the mix after his birdie at the par-5 16th. He figured if he could birdie the next two holes, he might have a shot to catch eventual champ Brendan Steele. But he missed the fairway on the par-4 17th to the left, leaving him with a difficult shot over a tall redwood that guards the left side of the green. His approach found the bunker, and he failed to save par. Missing fairways was the only troublesome element for Mickelson’s week – at least from a statistical perspective. He hit just 15 of 56 fairways – only 3 of 14 on Sunday – and that tied for 74th in the field. “He’s very close; he’s been playing really well,� Steele said. “I think the only thing that ever holds him back is just missing a few fairways here and there. If he hits a few more fairways, then he’s probably not far off at all.� But from Mickelson’s perspective, the missed fairways should not be considered cause for alarm. “This is a very skewed golf course to judge fairways hit,� Mickelson said. “I hit three beautiful drives on 18; none of them found the fairway. The fairway’s 13 yards wide. I paced it. “So on a normal TOUR course, I would have hit 10, 11 fairways today. I drove it fairly well. But out here, I think, is a way to kind of protect that, they move the fairways in so that they’re about half what they normally are.� Overall, Mickelson said he enjoyed the challenging conditions at Silverado. He also enjoyed the heat of a back-nine battle. “It was fun to be in the mix. It was fun to have a chance,� he said. He expects there will be many more. So does Steele. “I don’t see any reason why he can’t be competitive for a really long time,� the two-time Safeway Open champ said. “I’ve always said I think Phil can win at Augusta well into his mid- to late-50s. He just knows the course so well. He has such an excitement for getting there and has just the right game for it, so I don’t see him slowing down anytime soon.� But before Augusta, there is China in three weeks. Might be time to start winning again.

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Day 1 was filled with drama at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play as big names like defending champion Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy lost their matches and other players, like Zach Johnson coming back from 4-down to half the match, pulled off the unthinkable. Day 2 promises to be just as exciting. Watch the action on PGA TOUR LIVE.  Round 2 leaderboard Round 2 tee times HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN (ALL TIMES ARE ET) PGA TOUR LIVE: 10:15 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. TELEVISION: 2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (GC) (Golf Channel / NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream) RADIO: 2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com) NOTABLE PAIRINGS 10:52 a.m. Jordan Spieth vs. Haotong Li 11:36 a.m. Jason Day vs. Jason Dufner  MUST-READS Match recaps: Day 1 at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play  Day 1 superlatives List hands tough, despite putting with his wedge

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