Winner’s Bag: Charles Howell III, The RSM Classic

MEDINAH, Ill. – Neither Gary Woodland nor Jason Day want to settle for being captain’s picks on their respective Presidents Cup teams. “The goal is not to be in that predicament,â€� Woodland said. “I would like to earn my way on,â€� Day added. Yet the reality is this: Unless they can go low in the final round of the BMW Championship, it appears each one will remain on the outside looking in when the eight automatic spots for the U.S. and International teams are confirmed Sunday night. Entering the week, Woodland and Day were each ranked ninth in points. Woodland was about 350 points behind No. 8 Patrick Cantlay in the U.S. standings that are based on a FedExCup points calculation. The Australian Day was less than four points behind Korean C.T. Pan in the International standings that are based on world rankings. Projections through three rounds at Medinah still have each one outside the top eight. Tony Finau, who started the week ranked 10th in the U.S. standings, has leapfrogged Woodland and is projected to fill the opening left by Bryson DeChambeau, who has slid out of the top eight projections. In fact, Woodland is projected to 10th now. Day, tied for 36th through three rounds, needs to finish solo 19th or better to pass fellow Aussie Cameron Smith, who is not in the field this week. An additional factor is No. 10 Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand, who is one stroke off the lead through 54 holes at this week’s Asian Tour event. If Janewattanond wins, he could also gain enough points to move inside the top eight. In the end, though, it likely will not matter for either Woodland or Day if they fail to automatically qualify. Odds are that both will be at Royal Melbourne this December, even if U.S. Captain Tiger Woods and International Captain Ernie Els have to wait a few months before making it official when their picks are announced in early November. Woodland is this year’s U.S. Open champion, and in Presidents Cup history, just a handful of Americans have failed to make the team in the year of their major victory, the last one being in 2011 when Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship. As for Day, it’s hard to imagine Ernie Els leaving one of Australian’s best players and a former world No. 1 off the International team that is hoping to use its home-course advantage at Royal Melbourne. In fact, both Els and assistant captain Trevor Immelman sent Day good-luck texts this week. Automatic spot or captain’s pick? Day and Woodland both said their focus is more on showing good form than fretting over scenarios. Related: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings | Tiger needs miracle to get to East Lake “I’m not really worried about that as much as I need to go out and play some good golf,â€� said Day, who shot a 3-under 69 Saturday to move to 6 under for the week. “If I can go out and shoot a low one tomorrow, hopefully that will take care of it.â€� Day has missed the cut in two of his last three starts, including last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST when he dropped from seventh to ninth in the International standings, and followed by announcing his split with caddie Steve Williams after six starts. Since the Masters when he finished T-5, Day has made eight individual stroke-play starts and has just one top 10. But he feels something good is just around the corner. “I feel like I’m very close to shooting a low one,â€� Day said after his round Saturday. “It’s very, very close. It’s right on the border. Just got to be patient with it. I’ve been saying that pretty much the whole year, it feels like. “Sometimes when you’re trying to work and get back to the good form, you have to be patient. That’s all you can do. I’m still trying my best.â€� Woodland, meanwhile, definitely seemed at his best Saturday when he shot a bogey-free 8-under 64, just one shot off the Medinah course record set by Hideki Matsuyama in the second round. Woodland had a 7-foot putt on the 18th hole to tie the record but missed. “Would’ve been nice to knock that in but it wasn’t a bad putt,â€� Woodland said. “Not going to complain about 64.â€� It’s his lowest round since shooting a 63 in the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last November. It also eclipsed the 65 he shot in the second round at Pebble Beach in June that set him for his weekend run to the U.S. Open title. Since then, Woodland has made four starts, missing two cuts. Wife Gabby also delivered their twin girls earlier this month, and Woodland said Saturday that it was tough emotionally. But he seemed to find his groove in the second round at Liberty National, making the cut by shooting 4 under in his final nine holes that Friday. “Playing four rounds last week was huge for me,â€� said Woodland, 9 under through three rounds. “I’m getting some things worked out on the golf course. It’s a little hard to do it on the range.â€� But he did find something on the Medinah range Friday night, successfully carrying that to the course Saturday. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens. “It’s as good as I’ve hit it in a long time,â€� he said. No doubt that’s good news for Captain Woods. It’ll make it easier to add Woodland to the team no matter what happens Sunday. “The way I played today,â€� Woodland said, “if I continue to do that, everything should be all right.â€�

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Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, remember that bright red – dare we say dorky — wet suit with the short shorts and crash helmet that Ben Crane wore in all those “Golf Boysâ€� videos? Well, he loves dressing up for Halloween, too. That’s why Crane hates that he can’t go trick or treating with his family of five this year. He’s in Las Vegas to play in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. At least he has FaceTime, though. “Our kids are at that sweet age,â€� Crane says. “I’ll miss it for sure.â€� Of course, the themes his family chooses for trick or treating are a little more traditional than his Golf Boys’ garb. Crane’s wife Heather and their three children — CC, Brady and Saylor, who are 11, 9 and 6 years old, respectively – will be pirates this year. “We went to family camp this year and we did the pirate theme there and it was sort of like, we’ve got to carry it into Halloween.â€� Crane says. “So it’s fun.â€� Past Halloweens have seen the Cranes dressed as characters from the “Star Warsâ€� movie – with dad playing Luke Skywalker. A year ago, the five were a vision in blue-and-yellow Minions costumes. “Alice in Wonderlandâ€� was another popular theme. Saylor was born two weeks before Halloween, and on this fairy tale year the family made a dry run in their costumes at the birthday girls’ request. “We said, well, what do you want to do, and she said, I want to go to the pumpkin patch,â€� Crane recalls. “And somehow we figured out she wanted us to keep our outfits on. “So, we were the only people dressed up at the pumpkin patch. But it was fun.â€� Crane, who is follicly challenged, was dressed as the Mad Hatter. “A tall hat — anything to cover up my head I’m good,â€� he says, chuckling. “The secret sauce for me has always been the wig. If I go wig, it’s just a game-changer for me.â€� Small wonder, then, that Luke Skywalker may be the five-time PGA TOUR champ’s favorite costume. “Again, had the wig on,â€� Crane says. “I remember what it was like for the first 15 years of my life when I had hair.â€� Crane’s wife Heather has several go-to websites for their costumes. Once the family’s choice is made – the final decision rotates among the five — she orders everything so there’s plenty of time to get things delivered and make sure all of fits. “Now we’ve got a trunk full so we can all play dress up or whatever if we’ve got a party or something we need to go to,â€� he reports. The Cranes, who have moved from their native Oregon to Nashville, Tennessee, live in a housing development where there are a lot of like-minded families. Halloween is quite the production. “Our neighborhood does a great job,â€� Crane says. “They pull trailers behind their trucks with big bales of hay and people are in golf carts. It’s good fun.â€� Crane knows these years won’t last much longer. In fact, he was a little concerned that his son was going to buck tradition this year and join his friends for the trick-or-treat festivities. “And our oldest daughter just got a disco outfit in the mail so I’m like, is this just falling apart before our very eyes?â€� Crane says with mock alarm. Crane says he was a teenager before he got “too coolâ€� to dress up for Halloween. Brady might be “getting the disease a little earlier than me,â€� he says but Crane’s still hopeful there is some time left.  “These are critical years here,â€� the dad says. “We’d like to draw another three years out of this – it’s crunch time. “We’re on the 15th hole, we’re right around the cut line. So we’ve got to play solid coming in here.â€�

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If you thought that last week was easy, good. This week ain’t. No, I didn’t have Max Homa at the Wells Fargo Championship. No one did. Seriously. Zero gamers in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done selected him. However, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia all finished inside the top five and two-time champ Rory McIlroy checked in at T8. Save Homa’s storybook achievement, it was chalk central in the Queen City. Perhaps one day Trinity Forest will boast a comparable Who’s Who of go-to talent in our format. Until then, we default to logical analysis, sound reasoning and, of course, the spinning dartboard. Rarely does a first-time defending champion who was a rookie when he prevailed deserve attention in fantasy circles, but Aaron Wise defies conventional, ahem, wisdom. Obviously, no one has better course history, but he’s also arriving with solid form in tow. Still, I’m advising him as a tail of a tandem in two-man games. No need to lead. If you need to swing from your heels and Brooks Koepka is burning a hole in your chinos, then I’m not going to stop ya. Just remember that he’s defending two of the remaining three majors and he plays his best in them. He’s available to me and I didn’t think twice at pulling the trigger, but I’m the pacesetter. His offense will be a dandy defense later. Marc Leishman sits atop my Power Rankings and he’s also on my board, but I’m leaving only for my lineup in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. While the Aussie has lifted into the category of the consistently strong, his core value is a reliability to stay hot. If I could use Charles Howell III again, I wouldn’t hesitate. Alas, I’m left with merely endorsing him emphatically if you still possess the pleasure. He connected four sub-70s here en route to a T9 last year and projects to do the same this week. He’s done nothing to suggest that his comfort level dipping deep into red numbers has been adversely affected. Scott Piercy is beside CH3 in terms of my confidence in this format. He’s been fantastic all season and you already know how much he loves to go low. I already invested confidently in his title defense at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (T13). Sungjae Im leads the PGA TOUR in rounds under par and he’s performed well on all kinds of tests. If lightning is to strike twice for rookies at Trinity Forest, he’s most likely to be raising the 1-iron overhead. (He’s yet another who I’ve already exhausted.) Holster Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson and Patrick Reed. There’s too much random to the madness this week. I was torn between Keith Mitchell and Rory Sabbatini, a couple of guys who should present as complementary pieces in two-man formats and not the primary or the only selection, such as in our game. However, both strut in with momentum and success at Trinity Forest last year. In fact, if both are available to you in your two-man league, there’s your ticket. Thomas Pieters, Seamus Power and Scottie Scheffler are calculated fliers for two-man teams as well. 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. Daniel Berger … Travelers (1) Rafa Cabrera Bello … Wyndham (4) Branden Grace … Byron Nelson (5); U.S. Open (4) Bill Haas … Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Brian Harman … Charles Schwab (1); Travelers (5); John Deere (4) Brooks Koepka … PGA Championship (2; defending); Charles Schwab (6); U.S. Open (1; two-time defending); Open Championship (8) Martin Laird … Barracuda (2) Marc Leishman … Byron Nelson (6); Memorial (4); Travelers (3); Open Championship (8) Hideki Matsuyama … PGA Championship (13); Memorial (8); U.S. Open (14); Wyndham (7); TOUR Championship (5) Ryan Moore … Memorial (11); Travelers (6); John Deere (8); Wyndham (2); TOUR Championship (9) Kevin Na … Charles Schwab (3); Wyndham (5) Ryan Palmer … Charles Schwab (4) Scott Piercy … Canadian (7; last winner at Hamilton in 2012) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (4); U.S. Open (3); Travelers (7) Jordan Spieth … PGA Championship (7); Charles Schwab (5); Memorial (13); U.S. Open (4); Travelers (9); Open Championship (6); TOUR Championship (8) Henrik Stenson … PGA Championship (4); Open Championship (6); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (7) Jimmy Walker … Byron Nelson (6)

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