Tag: Mark Hubbard

After forgetting to enter 2024 Procore Championship and Monday qualifying in, Mark Hubbard’s rollercoaster week continues

Catch up on the early action from Napa here.

NAPA, Calif. – Mark Hubbard celebrated a day’s good work at the Procore Championship by wolfing down one of Silverado Resort’s famed burger dogs and then split a second with his wife. He carded nine birdies but made one bad blunder, a triple bogey at No. 17, his eighth hole of the day, but it still added up to 5-under 67 at the North Course on Thursday and two shots off the early lead set by David Lipsky.

When was the last time you made nine birdies and a triple, Hubbard was asked.

He didn’t have to think long. “Never,” Hubbard said.

But that beat the alternative – Hubbard almost missed playing in one of his favorite tournaments on the PGA Tour and it was all his fault. Hubbard missed last Friday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline to register for the Procore Championship, the first event of the FedEx Cup Fall.

Procore: Best merchandise | Photos | Friday tee times | Leaderboard

“I missed the commitment deadline on Friday by about 23 minutes,” Hubbard explained Monday afternoon to PGA Tour.com. “Had some technical difficulties with my phone; I dropped it in a cold plunge on Thursday, so I didn’t really have it for a while, but at the same time I probably should’ve committed a long time ago. I was pretty frustrated after Memphis (FedEx St. Jude Championship) and really just needed to check out from golf, and I did that, and it was a good thing for me mentally and physically for my game, but this is one of the things that fell through the cracks unfortunately.”

There weren’t any sponsor invites available, so Hubbard did the next best thing and decided to go and play the Monday qualifier, where he paced the field with a 7-under 65 at Yolo Fliers Club to secure the first of four available spots in the Procore field, just a couple of hours away from where Hubbard attended college at San Jose State.

“It’s an area that kind of feels like a second home. My wife’s from Sacramento, so all of her family comes out,” he said. “I just have a lot of friends and family in the area too. It’s Napa too. I like wine; we call it one of the wives’ majors. It’s just a great week.”

As Hubbard ran through the highs and lows of his opening round, veteran pro Russell Knox, who was the last man into the field when Hubbard forgot to register, walked by.

“He’s the guy I let in with my blunder,” Hubbard said. “He did come up to me and say if he had a good week, he’d send me a case of wine.”

Hubbard’s first round encapsulated his whole week: the triple bogey was missing the deadline and the nine birdies was the Monday qualifier. After the round, Hubbard complained that his brother Nathan showed up at an inopportune time.

“You only saw me hit bad shots,” Hubbard said. “I went 5-5-6 when you showed up.”

2024 PGA Championship
Mark Hubbard tees off on the eighth hole during the third round of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla. (Clare Grant/Courier Journal)

That included the triple at the par-3 17th, where he blocked his tee shot to the right into the pond.

“I had a little red ass on my tee shot on 18, I went after that one a little more than normal, but by the time I got to that ball there I was completely over it and I hit a great 3-wood, good chip and good putt there and off I went,” he said.

Indeed, he did. He proceeded to birdie five of the next six holes. He credited a putter change for his strong performance.

“I went back to my old black beauty, my Odyssey No. 9 that I putted with since 2014,” said Hubbard, who had been using a TaylorMade Spider mallet model. “I switched back to that for the Monday qualifier and obviously that went well and I carried over into today.”

Lipsky, who entered the week at No. 165 in the FedEx Cup, carded eight birdies and shot 65 to lead by a stroke over Martin Laird. Lipsky spent a couple of weeks at his alma mater, Northwestern University, working with his former coach, Pat Goss, and said being around the current members of the team helped him reset his attitude.

“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out week in and week out,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that, seems like it’s working out.”

Despite his rollercoaster of emotions of being left out of the Procore Championship and then the exuberance of playing his way in, Hubbard’s mental approach to playing this week is also working out.

“As bummed as I was on Friday when I missed the deadline and didn’t think I would be playing this week, because I love this tournament, I love Napa, I feel like I rebounded really quickly,” he said.

Mark Hubbard dropped phone into cold plunge, missed deadline to enter Procore Championship, got in by winning Monday qualifier

The first funny gaffe of the fall goes to Hubbard.

The FedEx Cup Fall starts this week at the Procore Championship (previously the Fortinet Championship and before that the Safeway Open) and the first Monday qualifier for the fall is in the books.

Also, the first funny gaffe of the season goes to Mark Hubbard.

Hubbard is one of four golfers, along with Sangmoon Bae, Cole Sherwood and Sam Choi, to get through via the Monday qualifier. Hubbard, in fact, won the Monday Q but things didn’t need to be this complicated as he could’ve gotten in the field by simply entering on time.

“Short answer: I missed the commitment deadline Friday by about 23 minutes,” he said Monday, adding that he “had some technical difficulties with my phone. I dropped it into a cold plunge on Thursday.”

He admitted he should have entered well before last week but said he was frustrated about how he played in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He said after that he “checked out” of golf for a while and that break was good for him.

Hubbard won the Monday after a 7-under 65 at Yolo Fliers Club about an hour away from Silverado Resort and Spa, the longtime host of the PGA Tour.

He finished 69th in the FedEx Cup points and made the playoffs so he has full status for the 2025 season but only the top 50 earned entry the signature events next season. A win in any of the eight fall events would punch someone’s ticket to those big-money tournaments.

‘We have a commissioner who is a chicken s—‘: How the rank-and-file feel about signature events

“It’s the stupidest thing we’ve ever done,” said Streelman of 70-man fields with no cut or a limited one.

Not everyone is fond of the signature event structure that was implemented this season on the PGA Tour. Just ask veteran pro Nate Lashley, who pointed the blame directly at Commissioner Jay Monahan.

“Our No. 1 event is the Players and it’s a 144-man field. If that’s the best field all year, then why are these signature events that are supposed to be so good 70 (man fields)? It makes no sense,” Lashley said at the RBC Canadian Open last Saturday after making the cut. “Look at how good the Players was this year. When you have more competition, things stay tighter, more compact. When you’ve got fields with no cuts it spreads things out.

“But we have a commissioner who is a chicken shit and won’t stand up to a handful of guys, that’s what happens. You can’t tell me finishing top 10 in a limited field is similar to a 144- or 156-man field. It’s not even close. There’s no comparison. This is way harder.”

The series of eight Sig events was instituted to encourage the best players in the world to gather more often and play against each other for purses of at least $20 million against mostly limited fields, for jacked-up points and, more often than not, no-cut affairs. This week’s Memorial Tournament marks the seventh Sig event – this one does have a cut – with the Travelers Championship the finale of the Sig events in two weeks.

Count Mark Hubbard among the pros frustrated with the way the signature events are set up.

“It’s obviously set up to let in as few people as possible,” he argued. “They made the AON 10 and Swing 5 categories seem so dreamy but they didn’t tell us that the winner’s category was behind it and the world top 30 category was behind it. I think eight of the 10 (into the Memorial) would otherwise be exempt.” Lashley said he thought he should’ve been in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the first signature event that the lists were used for, off of his good play but was surprised to find that Matthieu Pavon, the winner of the Farmers Insurance Open, was counted in the Aon 5 and bounced him out of the field.

Hubbard said his biggest bone of contention is with the sponsor exemptions.

“Not even saying that I deserve one, but there are so many guys. I love Brandt Snedeker (who was given an invite this week at Jack’s Place along with Matt Kuchar) and he’s had an amazing career but he hasn’t played well in a long time. I don’t think he brings a lot to the tournament. He’s a great dude but Joel (Dahmen) is like the fourth-most famous guy in golf and he’s playing well again. Min Woo Lee, at Waste Management he had 2,000 people walking around dressed like him. The whole point of these changes was to make a better product and to make the sponsors happier. I’m sorry but Kuch and Sneds are not making (Memorial) a better product. Playing with 68 guys is not a better product,” Hubbard said. “I’m not saying I deserve a sponsor invite but if we’re already going to take those categories that were supposed to be the play-your-way-in category and put them at a disadvantage, you have to give sponsor invites to guys who are playing well and deserve it and are going to make the field better.”

He also expressed concern that the limited-field events make it difficult for new stars and unique characters to emerge.

“I know we are trying to keep the top guys here and we had to do something but to shrink the game the way they have, it’s tough because there are 70 guys on the Korn Ferry Tour that could come out and win tomorrow and I think we have just lost sight of that,” he said. “There are just so many people playing really good golf right now and the world has no idea who they are because the Tour has chosen to make it that way. I’m not talking about fringe players, I’m talking about guys that are super good.”

Hubbard understands that the Tour was forced to respond to the challenge of the upstart LIV Golf, but pointed out that there are some unforeseen consequences that need to be resolved.

“Everything we have done has been very reactionary. We didn’t have foresight and take the meetings 5-6 years ago (with the Saudis). So we had to be reactionary and when you are reactionary there are kinks that don’t get worked out. I think they will make the changes, some changes for next year, but who knows. The way it is now, they will reassess. Maybe they do what they did with Pebble Beach and say every field is 80. I’m overall fine with the smaller fields, I’m overall fine with the higher points – I think they might be too high but I know we had to do something, I know they had their metrics, which whatever. The not filling the field part really irks me. It goes against everything I believe this game is about.”

2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches
Kevin Streelman hits his tee shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. (Photo: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports)

Kevin Streelman, a member of the Player Advisory Council, didn’t disagree with Hubbard and Lashley’s assessment of the field size for the signature events needing to be revisited.

“It’s the stupidest thing we’ve ever done,” said Streelman of 70-man fields with no cut or a limited one at three of the events. He’s of the belief that 120-man fields are the right size for these elevated events.

“I’d say we’re diligently working to try to appease the top players, our marketing partners, our fans and the integrity of the Tour and their competitions to deliver the greatest product and highlight the best players week after week. I don’t love the way it looks right now but that doesn’t mean much anyway since I’m not an elected board member. If our fans love 70-player signature events 8-10 times a year, then have at it,” he said.

Lanto Griffin, another PAC member, said productive discussions have been held to address inadequacies in field size.

“It makes no sense to have 156 this week and 68 next week. At minimum they should have 72, fill in the field based on current year FedEx Cup points. You’re having onesomes go off on a Thursday. It’s just not right. Everyone is on board on that and they’ll have a board meeting in June to discuss some of it.”

Lanto Griffin plays his shot from the 10th tee during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Griffin has been adamant from the start that the points, which are inflated for the signature events – worth 700 for a win compared to 500 for a regular event — are out of whack.

“If the Green Bay Packers were playing the Dallas Cowboys, you wouldn’t want that to be worth three wins and then Jacksonville Jaguars play the Titans and that’s worth one or half a win,” Griffin said. “Giving out all these points at the big events is not incentivizing the top players to play more.”

He also said the field size needs to be expanded to give Korn Ferry Tour and Q-School grads access to the bigger events. “If you’re a KFT grad this year, you’re not a PGA Tour player. You’re on the B-Tour,” he said.

Lashley, for one, doesn’t hold out much hope for the PAC to come to the rescue, and expressed concern that too much emphasis has been placed on catering to the stars.

“The PAC doesn’t do anything. Now we have a handful of player advisers but two or three of them that are on that are top players using their leverage against the Tour. It’s terrible, they don’t represent the rest of the Tour; they represent themselves,” he said. “We were on a call with Jordan (Spieth) and he wouldn’t even give us an honest answer. It was like Jordan, you know the points are wrong. He was like, well, that’s what the analytics show. He’s been trained or someone told him to say that.”

While it’s never easy to satisfy an entire membership, there’s still time to fix some of the kinks in field size and how to qualify for the signature events before the 2025 season debuts in Maui.

Who is Mark Hubbard? Get to know the PGA Championship contender who once proposed at Pebble Beach

Meet Mark Hubbard, who has had a lot of fun highlights in his PGA Tour career.

You may not know the name Mark Hubbard, but given how he’s playing at the 2024 PGA Championship, you should.

Hubbard came into Valhalla ranked 81st in the world, so he’s no slouch. He once hit a shot at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic that he hated that was a hole in one. He once trolled Canada with his sartorial choice. Dude once invented a putting stroke and even set a record for most PGA Tour starts.

And, on top of all that, he proposed to his girlfriend — now wife, Meghan — after the first round of the Pebble Beeach Pro-Am, as you can see below.

So, yeah. We can’t wait to see what will happen if he wins the Wanamaker Trophy as his first and only PGA Tour title.

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FedEx Cup Fall: Here’s what PGA Tour pros think of the seven-event series (and it’s not all good)

“It’s unfortunate for the events, for the fans and at least locally, it kind of sucks,” Doug Ghim said.

SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – In reviewing this new version of the FedEx Cup Fall, the PGA Tour has to be thrilled with some of its winners: Sahith Theegala’s debut win in Napa; Tom Kim’s repeat in Las Vegas; Collin Morikawa’s winless drought ends in Japan, the country of his ancestors; Erik van Rooyen’s back-nine 28 and emotional win in Cabo; Camilo Villegas’s feel-good story in Bermuda; and capped off by Ludvig Aberg’s 61-61 weekend here at the RSM Classic. The Sunday drama didn’t disappoint.

Underneath the surface, not everyone was so happy, particularly Jimmy Walker. who vented about how he had to keep battling for three additional months to keep his card. (He slipped out of the top 125 and will have conditional status playing out of the Nos. 126-150 category next season.)

Instead of the start to a new wrap-around season, the top 50 locked up their cards at the end of the regular season and no longer had to worry about falling behind in the full slate of tournaments. Rather, those without exempt status had to play on during a seven-event points chase to retain status for the 2024 season, which begins in January. (The Fall also lost two events — CJ Cup and Houston Open — both of which joined the FedEx Cup regular season, with CJ taking over title sponsorship of the Byron Nelson in Dallas and the Houston Open being promoted to a date in the spring.)

The top players finally got the off-season they’d been begging for and the rank-and-file still got several playing opportunities with purses of at least $8 million, full FedEx Cup points on the line and a chance to qualify for two early-season Signature Events for those who finishing in ‘The Next 10’ in the final point standings. As Peter Malnati put it, the FedEx Cup Fall was “fun and exciting, unless you’re one of the ones trying to keep your job and then it’s a strain.”

2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Peter Malnati lines up a putt on the third green during the second round of the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo: Marianna Massey/Getty Images)

In theory, there was something for players of all skill levels to play for – even the top 50 could earn additional years to their exempt status and qualify for tournaments such as the Masters and the Sentry with a win if not already in those fields – but was it a win-win for fans and sponsors too? Only a used car salesman could make that sell, and it begs the question: will the Tour continue to secure sponsors willing to foot the bill for tournaments where the big names barely played, if at all?

Several pros expressed their concern for the future of the fall schedule, which will become increasingly important for players fighting for status for the upcoming season.

“It’s tough for me to see how it’s going to be sustainable,” said Mark Hubbard, one of six players to compete in all seven fall tournaments. “For me, I think there was a noticeable difference in the tournaments and just like how much the course kind of rolled out the red carpet for us and whatnot, you know, just little stuff like courtesy cars or hotel room blocks or the food. Everything just kind of felt like they were probably trying to save a little bit of money because they’re not getting, you know, the turnout, they’re not getting the big names.”

He continued: “I feel bad for a lot of those tournaments like a Jackson (Mississippi, home of the Sanderson Farms Championship) that have worked so hard to become a great event and, you know, now they’re gonna get zero of the top guys coming to their event, ever. It’s just tough for me to see how those [$8 million] purses are going to stay high and, you know, those tournaments are going to want to continue to be big events and there’s just no one coming there.”

“We have a lot of great events this time of year and if they want to host a PGA Tour event they should be allowed and the membership should support it,” veteran pro Ryan Armour said. “A lot of the top guys were looking for time off and if this is what they want, they got it.”

The lack of big names was most pronounced in Las Vegas, where several local pros elected to skip this year, and a sponsor exemption given to the LPGA Tour’s Lexi Thompson brought some much-needed attention.

“More guys would show up for Vegas, for Napa, it’s unfortunate for the events, for the fans and at least locally, it kind of sucks,” said Doug Ghim.

“Vegas is one of the biggest changes. Last year I wouldn’t have gotten in and this year I was in by 20 or something,” said Kramer Hickok.

But Davis Love III, who has hosted the RSM Classic in the fall for the last 14 years, said he’s seen several iterations of the fall during his 30-plus-year career that landed him in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and expects the fall portion of the schedule to continue to evolve.

“It hasn’t looked the same in any five-year period for a long, maybe my whole career,” Love said last week. “Hopefully, it just continues to improve, they come up with new ideas … I think it’s just going to continue to improve, but I don’t know what that is.”

The Tour can only hope that whatever it dreams up next will generate a collection of stories and winners as good as this year.

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Mark Hubbard lives up to @HomelessHubbs handle, setting a PGA Tour record that likely won’t be broken

“When I’m home or in one place for too long, I start to go a little stir crazy.”

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Eat your heart out, SungJae Im, there’s a new iron man on the PGA Tour and his name is Mark Hubbard.

Im played in a league-leading 35 Tour events twice in the last five years but took it easy this year settling for a modest 31. The 34-year-old Hubbard raced past Im for iron man honors, making a PGA Tour record 39 starts during the 2022-23 wrap-around season (which counted the FedEx Cup Fall too so an asterisk needs to be applied to this mark but it’s impressive nevertheless), breaking a five-way tie with 38 starts held by Buddy Gardner (1986), Mike Donald (1988) and Bob Friend (1999) as well as Adam Long and Kevin Tway this season.

Hubbard’s social media handle on X (formerly Twitter) is @HomelessHubbs after all, so being a road warrior is part of his makeup, and he mused that it probably dates back to his parents getting divorced before he was five years old and sharing custody.

“I just kind of grew up going back and forth between their houses, do three days here and there. So I feel like unknowingly that kind of groomed me for this life and I’ve just always kind of felt like very comfortable being a gypsy,” he said. “When I’m home or in one place for too long, I start to go a little stir crazy.”

Hubbard, who compiled six top-10 finishes this season and crossed the $2-million-mark in earnings for the first time, said he didn’t intend to play quite so much but he likes many of the fall events, including the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, and the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi, where he’s had good results. He ended up playing all seven FedEx Cup Fall events this go-round, which is one reason his number of starts reached an all-time high, as he chased status into the Signature Events in 2024.

“I feel like I spent, like I spent the whole season on the bubble of that barrier to get into the top 50,” said Hubbard, who finished 67th in the FedEx Cup regular season, his second best season during his career, earning a spot in the first FedEx Cup Playoff event in Memphis. “In hindsight, I wish I was a little more rested for the playoffs.”

And he would’ve played less this fall had he not been in pursuit of finishing in ‘’The Next 10,’ which guaranteed entry for Nos. 51-60 in the standings to qualify for AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where he proposed to his wife and went to school up the road at San Jose State) and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, which he called just about every pro’s favorite course on Tour and located just eight minutes away from his brother’s home.

“If it were San Diego and Waste Management that were the Signature Events, I probably would’ve played four less times in the fall but because those two events are so special to me I was motivated to keep playing.”

2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Mark Hubbard in the pro-am ahead of the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Hubbard came up short, finishing No. 67 in the FedEx Cup Fall, but he genuinely enjoys playing rather than practicing. Hubbard, who once played 11 straight events including the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, never played more than four straight this season and said he usually needs the first week to dust off the rust and plays his best in the next three weeks of a four-week stretch. Perhaps the most impressive part of his iron man season is that he did it while traveling for much of it with his wife and two kids under the age of three. The hardest part might have been those stretches when he was flying solo, he said.

“Take away just the mental fatigue and, you know, the physical fatigue of playing 39 events, I would say that was probably the hardest part for me this year is those stretches where I had to go two weeks without seeing them,” he said.

How much will Hubbard play in 2024? The new schedule of a calendar-year season presents a big unknown but he guesses he will still be a road warrior.

“Guys like myself outside that top 50 are going to end up having to play more than they normally do, if they’re really trying to get into those [Signature] events. Because you got three weeks or so leading up to qualify for them and then if you do get into those events then you got to play those too, but then you’re not necessarily in the next [Signature] event, so you got to keep playing… in a perfect world, I’ll play less than 30 events next year.”

But don’t bet on it. Homeless Hubbs is the new Sungjae Im.

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Luke List buries birdie putt to win five-way playoff and claim 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship

The win is List’s second on Tour and first since January 2022.

JACKSON, Miss. — Luke List stood nearby as PGA Tour rookie and Ryder Cup champion Ludvig Aberg sent the first putt of a five-man playoff toward the hole on No. 18 at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

When waiting to hit a 43-foot putt of your own, any help on a read is worthwhile.

So List watched, just like the fans gathered in the grandstands as the sun set behind Country Club of Jackson. Then, he stepped up and nailed the putt of a lifetime.

The crowd erupted before quickly silencing for the remaining three shots in the playoff. When Ben Griffin, Scott Stallings and Henrik Norlander missed their birdie attempts, the victory was sealed. For List, it secured his second career PGA Tour win and first since Jan. 29, 2022, when he won the Farmers Insurance Open in a playoff.

“This is why we play and compete,” List said afterward on the broadcast. “For these moments.”

List finished 18 under for the tournament after carding 2-under 70 on Sunday. He entered the final round four shots back of Griffin.

List opened his week with back-to-back rounds of 66 and shot 68 on Saturday. It seemed like he’d come up shot of victory Sunday. However, with Griffin carding a pair of bogeys across his final three holes, the field opened up for a five-man playoff — the first on the PGA Tour since 2017.

“I thought I played really well all day and just hung in there,” List said. “I didn’t think it was going to be enough, but here we are. I’m so happy to be here.”

List was so convinced that his tournament was over at the end of regulation that he gave his hat to a kid while walking off the No. 18 green. However, as Griffin started to let the lead slip, List realized he needed the hat back.

He found the kid, who was glad to let him wear it for the playoff. After the trophy presentation, the hat was rewarded to the kid again.

“I’ve got another hat in the locker room, so it wouldn’t have been the end of the world,” List said. “But that one did me right.”

List’s 4-year-old daughter Ryann was the first to meet him on the 18th green after the playoff ended. His wife Chloe and his 2-year-old son Harrison, who was in the midst of enjoying a red lollipop, followed closely behind. As he lifted both kids, he leaned in to give Chloe a kiss.

As he leaned back, List’s eyes opened wide as he looked around at the scene.

“All my emotion came out after that putt, and then it was a shock − really, still is,” List said. “To have them there means everything.”

The Sanderson Farms Championship works closely with Friends of Children’s Hospital, which is a nonprofit organization benefiting Children’s of Mississippi − the state’s only children’s hospital.

That’s significant for List, whose son Harrison was born prematurely and battled health issues. The family, which resides in Augusta, Georgia, spent much of its time at Children’s Hospital of Georgia. Because of that, List took a break from play between mid-June and mid-July in 2021.

Now, he’s back on the PGA Tour, where he has collected two wins since his return, and his son is growing to love the game. Plus, the sport has now given them a Sanderson Farms Championship trophy — fittingly, a rooster — to take home.

“My daughter has been kind of on me (saying) it’s time to win another trophy,” List said. “She really enjoyed the surfboard at Torrey Pines. I told her earlier in the week there was a rooster or chicken or whatever you want to call it. She’s pretty excited.”

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2023 Fortinet Championship odds, course history and picks to win

The PGA Tour is back.

After a brief hiatus, the PGA Tour returns to action this week in Napa, California, at the Fortinet Championship.

Max Homa, who was recently in Rome with the United States Ryder Cup team on a scouting mission of Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, returns to Silverado Resort’s North Course as the two-time defending champion.

The 32-year-old comes into the week with five straight top-20 finishes: T-12 (Scottish Open), T-10 (The Open), T-6 (FedEx St. Jude), T-5 (BMW) and T-9 (Tour Championship). After struggling mid-summer, Homa is back to the form we saw from him in the late winter and spring of 2023.

Ryder Cup teammate Justin Thomas, Sahith Theegala and rising star Akshay Bhatia join him in the field.

Golf course

Silverado Resort and Spa (North Course) | Par 72 | 7,123 yards

2022 Fortinet Championship
A general view of the 15th hole during the second round of the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa North course on September 16, 2022 in Napa, California. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

Course history

Betting preview

5 sleeper picks for the 2023 Travelers Championship, including Min Woo Lee at 70/1

Lee tied for 5th last week at the U.S. Open.

The next designated event on the PGA Tour schedule is here as the best players in the world are in Cromwell, Connecticut, for the 2023 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.

The best field in tournament history is set to battle for a $20 million purse with $3.6 million going to the winner. World No. 6 Xander Schauffele, fresh off a T-10 at the U.S. Open, is the defending champion thanks to his two-shot win over J.T. Poston and Sahith Theegala last season.

Scottie Scheffler is the betting favorite +600, followed by Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay at +1100 and Rory McIlroy at +1200.

Despite the plethora of superstar power in the field, there are a few names to keep an eye on further down the odds list.

Here are five sleeper picks for the 2023 Travelers Championship.

Travelers: Odds, picks to win

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On a leaderboard packed with stars, it’s Jimmy Walker with the lead at the RBC Heritage

It was expected the world’s best would rise to the top.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — With 17 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking competing in the 2023 RBC Heritage, it was expected that the cream would rise to the top of the leaderboard.

That was the case on Friday after the early morning wave at Harbour Town Golf Links as World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot up the leaderboard, with Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott all in the mix. But there were a couple unexpected players who made their presence felt with excellent rounds.

Jimmy Walker, who entered the week at No. 406 in the world, shot his second straight 6-under 65 and went to the club house with a three-stroke lead at 12 under, three shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Justin Rose. The 44-year-old Texan was on the top of the golf world when he won the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, one of his six wins on Tour.

But he was diagnosed with Lyme disease just before the 2017 Masters and has been struggling to regain his form, battling it ever since. The former Baylor star made seven birdies Friday, including a chip in from 51 feet at the 184-yard, par-3 seventh.

“Yesterday, I got it going, and I was like, okay, wow. Now we need to pedal down, keep it going, and the same today,” Walker said. “It was take advantage, keep your head in the game, keep stroking it good, just keep doing all the things that I felt like I’ve been kind of working on, some old feels, old thoughts, and just stay on them and be really diligent about it because it’s so easy to just check out. It has been for me, especially after being sick.”

Walker was taking a break from the game in April of 2022, and then in September the opportunity arose to take a top 50 all-time money winners exemption when the Tour suspended players who joined LIV Golf, and they were knocked off that list — allowing Walker to rise nine spots in the rankings to No. 50.

He has missed the cut in eight of 12 appearances this season, but has three top-25 finishes in the cuts he’s made.

“It was a pretty easy decision honestly. I was 50, and if I didn’t play, I’d never get it again. I just wouldn’t. So when it happened, it was kind of like, wow, this is incredible,” Walker said. “I immediately shifted gears and talked to my family and said, this is it. This is what we’re going to do.”

Walker said he has the experience and knows what it takes to win, but his illness has taken its toll.

“I haven’t put two really good rounds together back to back out here … since getting sick, mentally and physically feel different damn near every day, and that’s been the hardest part,” Walker said. “The things that I work on one day, I can’t feel it the next day. Some days I’ll get two days out of it. So that’s been the hardest part.

“I’ve never felt like I’ve ever been afraid to go win a golf tournament. I’ve won golf tournaments in all sorts of fashions, big events played on the biggest stages. So there’s nothing I haven’t done. Nothing this weekend is any different than anything I’ve ever done honestly. Just go do it again because it’s fun if you win.”

Mark Hubbard shot a solid 66 to move to 8-under par and in a tie for third after the morning wave. The 33-year old San Jose State graduate has never won a PGA Tour event. He entered the week at No. 132 in the world and is looking to improve on his best RBC Heritage finish of a tie for 33rd last year.

Hubbard’s only slip on the scorecard came at the 16th, a hole that calls for a draw with the driver — a shot that doesn’t fit his eye. But he responded with his sixth birdie of the day on No. 18, draining a nine footer to end his round.

He withdrew from the pro-am Wednesday with a 24-hour bug, but after sleeping it off got off to a great start with birdies at Nos. 1, 2 and 4.

“I think that’s a scoreable part of the course, and it’s very calm this morning, really all day,” Hubbard said. “The greens were a little softer, then they started to firm up a little in the afternoon. I think you’ve got to just kind of get off to that start out here with two of the three par-5s in the first six holes. I felt good.”

Fleetwood is making his fourth appearance at Harbour Town, and the 32-year old Englishman was on top of his game as he made eight birdies, with a pair of bogeys on the back nine (his front nine Friday). His iron game was spot on as he hit 14 of 18 greens and made 112 feet of putts, with the longest being a 37-foot bomb for birdie at No. 18.

“My consistency is sort of all right, but I’m not at the top of the leaderboards, and that’s where I want to get to,” said Fleetwood, who is No. 25 in the World Golf Ranking.

He said Harbour Town suits his game, and he loves competing in tournaments the week after a major.

“It’s not somewhere where you can overpower. I think you have to be very patient. I think you have to be a good iron player,” he said. “There’s definitely aspects of the golf course that I like and I enjoy playing. I’d love the wind to be up a bit more over the weekend and have that challenge to play with.

“I actually enjoy playing the week after majors. I feel like they’re the ultimate in every aspect of your game and the challenges that the game can present you. I think the majors are the ultimate, and I quite like coming the week after. That way you’ve prepared so hard for those, and you feel like you’ve done everything you can. So you sort of come here with the mindset of everything’s done and you just go out and play. I don’t know whether it’s the timing of what this event is or whether it’s the course, but I seem pretty happy with both.”

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