I write these for fun so if I don’t give you a Saturday column, please don’t be angry.

Adam Long did the unthinkable and became an instant legend in the fantasy golf world.

Emergency 9

Here are nine tidbits from the weekend of the 60th Desert Classic that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. The Stadium Course at PGA West serves as the host course.

Adam and Believe

Well that was something! Chunk. Birdie. Knock out a legend and the best player at this event who has never won, not bad! Congrats to the eight of you who stuck him on the roster for the PGATOUR Fantasy Golf game. Exactly none of you had him in One & Done.

This was his fifth event on TOUR and his first top 10. According to his bio he’s never won as a professional on any major tour so to grab your first beating those two guys is something. At 31 he’s been around the block and now has the rest of this season and two more. Reshuffle be damned!

How he did it:

• 63-71-63-65 262 (-26), including a 14-foot putt for birdie on the last to win.
• Only made two bogeys and a double on the week.
• Bogey-free 65 (-7) playing with Mickelson and Hadwin.
• There were four rounds of 63 or better and he had half of them.
• Led the field in Putts per GIR.

The Cut

I tried to warn you! You had to be nine-under or better to play the final round Sunday. 73 players earned that chance and 62 posted par or better. Only seven guys didn’t finish double-digits under-par.

The Fantasy Games

These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGATOUR Fantasy Golf game. If you’re wondering why you’re not doing well, here’s why:

Rank	Player	Place	% Ownership
1	Jon Rahm	6th	63.53
2	Justin Rose	T34	54.45
3	Patrick Cantlay	T9	52.94
4	Charles Howell III	T34	51.30
5	Adam Hadwin	T2	29.29
6	Andrew Putnam	T34	27.86
7	Phil Mickelson	T2	26.90
8	Chez Reavie	T28	19.65
9	Patton Kizzire	MC	16.29
10	Ryan Palmer	MC	15.50

These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf One & Done game. If you’re wondering why you’re not doing well, here’s why:

Rank	Player	Place	% Ownership
1	Patrick Cantlay	T9	15.66
2	Jon Rahm	6th	13.10
3	Adam Hadwin	T2	11.61
4	Charles Howell III	T34	11.60
5	Andrew Putnam	T34	7.34
6	Justin Rose	T34	6.01
7	Chez Reavie	T28	4.51
8	Hudson Swafford	T65	3.07
9	Phil Mickelson	T2	2.03
10	Abraham Ancer	T18	1.69

The Vanquished

There wasn’t much faith in Mickelson this week across the board so that should have been the first clue. Too many skiing video, comments about hitting it poorly but veteran gamers know that Phil is Phil and he plays his best golf in California and/or the desert. The outrage was muted at his inability to close out Adam squared because of the light numbers. I’d expect a major market correction at Pebble Beach.

Hahahadwin

Hadwin has done everything at this event except win it. I’m having TOTAL OAD REMORSE this week as I thought Putnam (T3 birdies; T34 tournament) stayed hot but banged in too many others. Hadwin is 84-under since the new rotation and has only one finish, T6, off the podium. I feel like Bart Simpson writing on the chalkboard I MUST TAKE HADWIN. I MUST TAKE HADWIN. He shot 65-67 on The Stadium Course and didn’t win. The f#ck is that?

Defending Champion

The Spaniard is in wonderful form that has carried over from his win in The Bahamas as he picks up his second top-10 check in his first two events of 2019. Only Roger Sloan (29) and Mickelson (27) made more birdies as Rahm will be the first to tell you he missed too many close ones. He’ll be one of the favorites next week at Torrey Pines unsurprisingly.

Old and New

It was this time last year that Talor Gooch opened with 64 at Sony (T18) and followed it with 65 in the desert (T67). His closing 64 pushed him to solo fourth as he cashed his first top-10 payday on TOUR in his 32nd start. He was solo fourth even if he didn’t make a bomb on the last but that was a sweet finish. He led the field in Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green over the two measured rounds at The Stadium Course.

Reading between the Lines

Dominic Bozzelli will tee it up again this week after a much better Sunday than the one he had at Sony. He closed 64-66 in the desert and played the Par-4 holes in 15-under. Three bogeys was it on the card as he bounced back nicely from 73 and T33 at Waialae.

Study Hall

LaQuinta 68.720, Nicklaus Tournament 69.070 and The Stadium Course 70.220 held true to form this week as did the weather after Round 1. … USC Amateur and Coachella Valley native Charles Reiter fired 63 on the Stadium Course, setting the new TOUR-event record. He missed the cut by a shot. … Lucas Glover had the cleanest card of the week as he squared just one bogey to finish T12. … Vaughn Taylor posted his third top-10 finish in 11 years. … Daniel Berger collected T12 in his first start since TPC Boston in September. His wrist injury looks firmly behind him. … Harold Varner III broke his 0-3 with T18. … Adam Svensson was back at with T18 this week. Shane Lowry won at Abu Dhabi, Paul Casey was T2 and Matthew Fitzpatrick fourth in Singapore while the Web.com will finish Wednesday in The Bahamas.