Friends in fore,

I feel like we've all got a little Nick Taylor in us. (You know, this weekend's winner and the 4th straight improbable champ to open Golf SZN.)

Before last year, dude was a no-name to all but the most avid golf fans. But those avid golf fans would have told you, "Nick Taylor once shot a 65 as a 21-year-old amateur at the f***ing U.S. Open. He's capable of leaving his body at any moment."

And sure enough, at last year's Canadian Open (his national open, which hadn't been won by a Canadian-born golfer in 100+ years), he came from WAY back to take Tommy Fleetwood to a playoff... and jarred a 72-foot eagle putt for the win, sending all of Canada into a frenzy.

72 feet!

All of us who have ever golfed will gladly tell you about "that one time" when we caught fire. And we'll also tell you about the time we bombed that insane putt (even if it was a 20-footer).

Nick Taylor always has "that one time" in him. He just makes us forget while going through long stretches of forgettable play.

Nick taylor is relatable. Nick Taylor is all of us. And so, in winning the Phoenix Open (by going birdie-birdie in the playoff, of course), Nick Taylor is perhaps the perfect champ for "The People's Open".

In other news, TIGER WOODS IS IN THE FIELD THIS WEEK. Onward we go...

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

What happened, in one paragraph

Nick Taylor opened with a course-record 60 on Thursday, and while weather wreaked havoc on the schedule for the second straight week, the Canadian generally never looked back. Phoenix Open horses Scheff and Sahith both flirted with the title, but in the end it was Taylor and ageless vet Charley Hoffman in a playoff. Birdie, birdie, title for Taylor.

One-and-Done ("YEYPO")

• Avg earnings: $221,812 (2.52% of purse). We finally topped 2%, which is still just an average week by historical standards, but at least we're trending in the right direction. Our 2nd and 3rd picks (Scheff and Burns) finished T3 and our 4th pick (Theegala) finished solo 5th. That made up for just three of us picking Taylor. 
• Winner picks: 3 Through four weeks, we have a TOTAL of 8 picks on a winner. To say that's "unprecedented" almost feels like an understatement. IT WILL GET EASIER!
• Overall Leader(s): @cds1514 at $4,090,750. They held the lead after adding $187K with a JT pick. @102ways is the second to crest $4M after a Theegala pick.
• Interval 1 Leader(s): @cds1514. We have FIVE intervals this year, each with their OWN PRIZES. Top 15 get paid and 1st place gets $200 in each. Interval 1 is Weeks 1-6.
• Best Squad: Roseville Post 7555 at $5.06M. SungJer Im OAD and Strazzeri Stiff Swings are very close behind. (You can still create/join golf squads - you just need 3+ people in the pool to be eligible for Squad Prizes!) 

Survivor #1

• Damage done: 132 down. Our 3rd biggest pick, Max Homa, pulled a Homa and inexplicably missed a cut. Guy is liable to do that sometimes. 
• Survivors: 534 are on to Week 5. 
• Best Squad: 19 Squads left with at least 3 survivors.

Top 10s

• Avg points earned: 1.85. Easily our best week yet. 46% of our picks successfully finished in the top 10, highlighted by Scheff (61% pick rate), Spieth (10%), and Burns (10%). 
• Top 10s actually picked: 8 of 11. We missed Hoffman, Mav McNealy (didn't see that coming), and Novak.
• Best weekly score: 6 (@therustybandit02 and @yjcc). Rusty went Kitayama-Scott and @yjcc went Taylor-Scott.
• Overall Leader(s): @therustybandit02 (14 points). Dude has a perfect 12 in the last two weeks. Our pool-wide average is still just 4.96. LONG way to go.
• Best Squad: Nigel Honoring TigersGreatness (29 pts). This got a LOT tighter. Nine Squads have 20+ points. 

"All 30" One-and-Done

• Avg earnings: $931,537 (4.7% of purse). Again, easily our best performance. Scheff (25% pick rate) and Burns (20%) both bagged $1M+ given we doubled the money for this pool only (to put it on par with the other big money events). 
• Winner picks: 0 But it didn't hold us back that much given otherwise strong picking.
• Overall Leader(s): @garrettcanderson at $7,836,800. Garrett has been the top picker in BOTH weeks of this pool so far. Clark-Aberg last week and Scheff-Burns this week. He's more than $2.5M clear of the field. 
• Best Squad: Nigel Honoring TigersGreatness at $11.98M. Blue Door Pub remains in second place. 

100 Tier One-and-Done

• Avg earnings: $218,304 (2.5% of purse). Very similar story to YEYPO.
• Winner picks: 1 SKIN! Shout-out to @Orriginals for bagging the first skin of Golf SZN. They'd bagged $120K total through 3 weeks and now sit in 6th place overall. That's how fast fortunes can change!
• Overall Leader(s): @Perdyb25 at $3,391,980. We now have four folks at $2M+.
• Interval 1 Leader(s): @Perdyb25. We do 3 intervals in 100 Tier: First half (W1-15), Second half (W16-31) and Majors Only. $400, $200, $150 to the top 3 in each interval. 

Yours in metal stick swinging,
The Commish