Worst golf fan screws up Tiger Woods with scream

Bill Haas … The former FedExCup champ continues to grind out paydays but he’s had only one finish better than a T50 in his last dozen starts in individual competition. Still, at 140th in the FedExCup standings, he’s within striking position to return to the Playoffs. There’s no better place than Colonial to make a dent in the ranks as he’s perfect in his last seven appearances with five top 15s, including in each of the last two editions. Talor Gooch … After two months off to allow an injured thumb to heal, he shook off the rust and finished T12 at the Web.com Tour’s Knoxville Open last week, leading the field in fairways hit and ranking T7 in greens in regulation and eighth in scrambling. Suffice it to say that that rust was merely valuable rest. Currently 81st in the FedExCup standings in only nine starts on conditional status thanks to consecutive top fives in January. Despite the limited action, he’s still officially seventh on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation, T9 in proximity to the hole, second in strokes gained: approach-the-green and 30th in putting: birdies-or-better. RELATED: Power Rankings | Tee times | Field Shawn Stefani … Although it’s been two weeks, this is his second straight appearance in Sleepers. His last previewed a T20 at the AT&T Byron Nelson across town, which itself followed a T13 at the Wells Fargo Championship. The Texan seemingly always is part of a conversation in his home state. That includes at Colonial where he’s 4-for-4 with a T19 in 2015. Currently 66th on TOUR in GIR, T22 in par-3 scoring and T35 in par-4 scoring. Carlos Ortiz … He’s heating up near his old stomping grounds at the University of North Texas. After nearly three months without making noise, he hung up a T12 at Trinity Forest where he led the field in greens hit. After a week off, the 28-year-old then breezed into the U.S. Open at sectional qualifying on Monday, also in Dallas. He now returns to Colonial where he hasn’t shown since a T58 in his debut in 2015. Sits 24th on TOUR in total driving and 33rd in GIR. Doug Ghim … It’s been a busy 11 months since the former University of Texas Longhorn turned professional while atop the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Now 23 years of age, he’s gone 3-for-5 with two top 25s in each of the last two PGA TOUR seasons. His most recent leaderboard appearance occurred just two weeks ago at Trinity Forest where he placed a career-best T12 while ranking inside the top 15 in fairways hit, greens in regulation, proximity to the hole and strokes gained: tee-to-green. That balanced attack has defined his early profile on the Web.com Tour where he’s 46th on the money list, and it should serve him well in his first look at Colonial in competition. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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DETROIT – Matthew Wolff made things too complicated after his maiden PGA TOUR victory at the 3M Open last year. He put every facet of his game under a microscope – and got worse. No more wins, not even any top-10 finishes, just aggravation. Changing course, Wolff resolved to keep it simple. He’s obviously sticking to that, because by his own admission he shot a second straight 64 at Detroit Golf Club not because he’d optimized his spin rate or anticipated the nitrogen levels of the grass. No, no. Not even close. “I heard an ice cream truck circling the property,” said Wolff, 21, who will carry a three-shot lead over Ryan Armour (67) and Bryson DeChambeau (67) into the final round. “Seemed like every time I heard that, I made birdie or made a putt, so I’ve got to give a lot of credit to that.” RELATED: Leaderboard | Wolff: ‘Maybe I need to impress the old greats’ | Armour makes quiet ace If that seems like a wacky explanation, then maybe it’s because Wolff, he of the wacky swing trigger, had a decidedly wacky round: five pars, nine birdies, an eagle, and three bogeys. Add it all up and he’ll be aiming for win No. 2 almost exactly one year to the day after his first. Ice cream? The only guy who’s made more of the Fourth of July weekend is Joey Chestnut. “Felt like the putter was really good today,” Wolff said. “Wasn’t really thinking about much over the putt, lining it up, feeling confident in the line and stroking it really nice.” Not thinking about much other than ice cream, that is. (He’s a vanilla guy.) He didn’t even let a missed five-footer at the second hole get to him. He made over 117 feet of putts – second for the week in Strokes Gained: Putting – including a 13 1/2 footer for eagle at the par-5 14th. Now comes the hard part: Keeping his carefree outlook even with the trophy on the line Sunday. It might have been an intriguing study in contrasts had Wolff been paired with DeChambeau on Sunday. Each crushes the ball, each is a classic iconoclast, but they are mondo different between the ears. One guy, DeChambeau, squirts his golf balls with mist to study how they react in the rain. The other guy, Wolff, lets his thoughts drift with the seductive trills of the Mr. Softee truck. Anyway, it’s a mood point because Wolff will play the final round with Armour, whom he calls “a super good guy.” More than twice Wolff’s age, Armour has the same number of career PGA TOUR wins, one, but he may not go away quietly. After missing a three-foot putt to double-bogey the 17th hole, Armour drained a 21 1/2 foot birdie on 18 to get back to 16 under. “You can see a picture in your eye of what shot you want to hit based on the framing of the trees,” Armour said of the Donald Ross-designed Detroit Golf Club, which he said fits his eye and reminds him of his junior golf days in Akron, Ohio. “I think that’s really pretty.” DeChambeau, by the way, was relegated to a share of second place by Wolff’s eagle putt on the 72nd hole at the 3M. No telling whether history will repeat itself at the Rocket Mortgage, but rest assured the Mad Scientist won’t be thinking about ice cream trucks and trees. “Just going out there and being aggressive, being aggressive where need be,” DeChambeau said of his plan for the final round. That shouldn’t be a problem. He nearly drove the green at the par-4 first and 13th holes, birdied both, and leads the field in driving distance (347.3) by a wide margin. Still, he hasn’t quite put it all together. Five more players – Troy Merritt (67), Mark Hubbard (69), Seamus Power (69), Chris Kirk (70) and Wesley Bryan (65) – are at 14 under, five off the lead and with an outside chance. There will be fireworks. There will be ice cream. There will be golf. “I’ve really got to give it to a lot of mindset,” Wolff said of his success. “I feel like there was a lot of times in the past where I had good rounds and I let my head get in the way – I need to close this out or I need to do something, I want to try to make more birdies coming in. “Instead I would go the other way,” he continued, “whereas I’m taking it shot by shot, hole by hole and whatever happens, happens.”

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IRVING, Texas – It actually started with a tee shot that found the water at the 17th hole last week at THE PLAYERS Championship. Billy Horschel had just suffered the same fate as many others who’ve missed the island green at TPC Sawgrass. It had been a frustrating day, a rollercoaster second round, one that would end with his fourth consecutive missed cut in a season that was rapidly unraveling. After hitting from the drop zone, Horschel began making the trek toward the green and a looming double bogey. That’s when his caddie Josh Cassell made a remark that now seems uncannily prescient. “You know what? We’re going to go next week to Dallas, to the Byron Nelson – and we’re going to win,â€� Cassel told Horschel. Horschel didn’t dismiss the remark as merely a confidence-booster on a bad hole. He thought there was something more tangible, more significant to it. “He didn’t say it just to say it,â€� Horschel said. “He saw something.â€� On Sunday, he fulfilled his caddie’s promise, beating world No. 3 Jason Day on the first playoff hole to claim the AT&T Byron Nelson, his first victory since winning the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup in 2014. It ended unexpectedly and abruptly, with Day missing a 4-foot par putt on the 18th hole that would have extended the playoff after both players finished at 12 under in regulation. But perhaps more unexpected – at least to everybody but his caddie and perhaps the rest of their team – was Horschel’s mere presence in the playoff. He had come to the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas in the midst of his least productive stretch on the PGA TOUR since his rookie season of 2011 when he missed 14 cuts in 25 starts. His practice sessions were good, but he couldn’t translate it to competition days. He was sidelined for big tournaments, didn’t play the Masters Tournament this year, vowed he wouldn’t watch – and then couldn’t help himself. His confidence, always high, was severely tested. “The conscious mind sort of tries to knock you off your pedestal,â€� Horschel said, “but the subconscious is shown in the conscious mind, and that was trying to keep reminding myself that, hey, you’re a great player, you can do this.â€� So now it’s Friday of THE PLAYERS. Horschel has found the water at 17, has just signed for a 4-over 76, has just missed the cut in his hometown event. And yet a feeling of calmness came over him. The score didn’t reflect it, but he had just turned the corner with his game. His ball-striking – the thing he does best, the thing that fueled his FedExCup run three years ago – was finally back in rhythm. During his missed-cut stretch, Horschel’s swing had been revved up. “Amped up by 10 times,â€� his coach, Todd Anderson, told him. In the second round at TPC Sawgrass, the swing finally slowed down. It felt more like how Horschel should be swinging. It was a sense of relief. “I felt at peace,â€� Horschel said. “… I walked off the course with a sense of I didn’t feel like compared to three other missed cuts I had.â€� But did he think he would win this week? Not exactly. Only Cassell predicted that. Perhaps there were other factors at work. After all, it’s been a rather interesting stretch. Before finding the water on the 17th hole that Friday at TPC Sawgrass, Horschel was upset about a missed shot on the 13th hole when his shot bounced into the water. Horschel tossed a club at this bag after finishing the hole, and the video went viral, some people assuming he was upset or showing up his caddie. Horschel felt compelled to address the situation on his Twitter account the next day in hopes of clearing the air. It was a terrific move, as he didn’t allow the situation to fester. Then on Sunday, Australian John Senden – who lives in the Dallas area — showed up at TPC Four Seasons with his son Jacob. Senden has taken a leave of absence from the TOUR to be with his son, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. This week, players wore Rubik’s Cube patches on their caps; it’s Jacob’s favorite toy. Guess who used to caddie for Senden? Josh Cassell. In fact, Cassell went to Senden’s house on Thursday. Horschel saw Senden and his son on the range Sunday before his round and said hello. Obviously, Horschel’s win is also Cassell’s win … and by extension, maybe it’s also an uplifting moment for Senden and Jacob. Approached on Sunday after Horschel’s win, Cassell appreciated receiving words of congratulations but preferred not to discuss the win. You got the feeling he might break down emotionally. Even Horschel felt the way. His three previous wins – even the back-to-back ones that fueled his FedExCup victory – never felt like this, he said. “It’s really surreal,â€� Horschel said, adding, “I’m sort of speechless.â€� Anybody who knows Horschel knows that doesn’t happen often. Or ever. Until this week, nothing had really ever happened for Horschel in this event. In his two previous starts, he had missed the cut both times; in fact, he was a cumulative 26 over in his four rounds. TPC Four Seasons didn’t seem to like him. And he didn’t like it. But he will now go down as the last winner of the AT&T Byron Nelson at this course. Next year the tournament moves to its new location, Trinity Forest, a course Horschel has never seen but looks forward to playing. On Sunday, though, the last call at TPC Four Seasons belonged to him. “I was never a fan of this course,â€� Horschel said, “Now I am and I won — and I don’t want to leave.â€�

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