Freddie

Jacobson

The Swede has struggled to find momentum over the last five years. He took a break from the game in 2015 to be with his son who had open-heart surgery. The following year he had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb. Since that surgery, he is just 10-for-37 worldwide with nothing better than a T30 at the 2019 Travelers Championship. As for the most recent season, Jacobson made just five appearances, missing the cut in all five of them. Gamers shouldn’t forget about the 46-year-old entirely but he’s certainly off the fantasy radar until he flashes any sign of form.

The Hobe Sound, Florida, resident, who was out all of last season, landed seven (of 14) fairways and 10 greens in regulation, losing strokes off-the-tee (-0.451) and on approach (-0.479), but gaining 2.009 around-the-green. He squared a lone bogey-4 at hole 5, camouflaged by four birdies at 3, 4 (hole out from 30'3" away), 8 and 11. The Swede recorded 1.700 putts per GIR and 2.479 SG: Putting, converting three times from between 14 and 35 feet, and also saved par two times from between six and 12 feet. This is his 13th Honda with six prior top 25s and three top 10s, most recently a T6 in 2010 (69-69-69-69). Jacobson, who opened with 69 (3 birdies, 2 bogeys) arrived off a missed cut by one at last week’s opposite-field Puerto Rico Open (71-75) and 2-for-7 on the season with a best of T56 at the Genesis (70-71-68-77). The last time he was in the top 10 after any round was T8 after R2 at the 2016 Byron Nelson, eventually finishing T34.

The Swede has 17 starts remaining on a medical extension, needing 333.130 FedExCup Points to meet the terms. No need to panic, just yet. Spending most of his time committed to his family over the last few years, Jacobson has just 12 OWGR “counting events” on his CV. None of them have landed inside the top 50. In his prime, Jacobson was one of the most reliable cut-makers (214-for-308 in his career) but gamers can play the wait-and-see game before re-investing.

It shouldn’t hurt fantasy owners too much, as a very large majority of owners played him this week. His record was stellar at this event and he was a consensus pick to do well by nearly everyone who writes about golf. It didn’t work out, however, as the wind blew and he crumbled, shooting a pair of 6-over par 76’s prior to the weekend. The other Jacobsen, as in Peter, holds the lead at the Senior PGA. One thing golf experts probably didn’t take into consideration is that Fredrik’s wife recently gave birth to their first child. David Duval and Kenny Perry also missed the cut at St. Jude.

This is a relief. The Swedee played his final 12 holes of last week’s RBC Heritage in 11-over en route to an 81, thus creating concern that he may have aggravated his thumb injury. At TPC San Antonio today, he hit 13 greens and suffered just one bogey. A pair of early par saves of 8'0" and 8'3" at the third and fourth holes buoyed the rest of the round during which he circled five birdies. His longest conversion measured 12'8" at the 18th.

The Junkman hit 13 greens and took 27 putts, circling four birdies in his second loop of Harbour Town this week. His conversions included rolls of 12'7" and 16'0" at the 11th and 17th holes, respectively. He maintained his blemish-free scorecard with a par save of 12'10" at the 13th and finished five strokes off the 36-hole clubhouse lead.

The Swede has made the cut in each of his seven events and is coming of a T19 at Augusta National. He finished a consistent T21 and T22 in his last two trips to Harbour Town.

The Swede has fared nicely since returning from torn ligaments in his left thumb. He’s 5-for-5 with a pair of top 20s and sits 96th in FedExCup Points. Look for him again at next week’s Masters.

Jacobson made a charge early, with three consecutive birdies starting at the par-5 second hole. He dropped a shot at the par-4 ninth hole, but he rebounded with a birdie to open his back nine. Jacobson used a red-hot putter to take a three-stroke advantage after back-to-back birdies starting par-4 13th, however he parred in from there and saw his lead cut to two after Louis Oosthuizen two-putt birdied the par-5 final hole.

Better now than during the PGA TOUR season. Since finishing T16 at THE TOUR Championship, the Swede placed solo third at the CIMB and solo second at the WGC-HSBC, rising as high as 32nd in the world ranking. (He’s currently 34th.) If he doesn’t compete in December, his next expected appearance would be at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on Jan. 6. Scott McCarron replaced Jacobson at Greg Norman’s annual shindig.