This threatens to be a non-golf weekend. If only there were some worthwhile golf on the tube....
Mike Bamberger, with his unique take on moving day:
ST. LOUIS — A good golf course on an important occasion will almost always produce a superior leaderboard. Welcome to this 100th PGA Championship, people.
Brooks Koepka, known in this bureau as 205 pounds of golfing whoop-ass, leads by two. All he’s done in the past 14 months is win two U.S Opens and spend nearly four months on the DL with a torn left wrist. Talk about whoop-ass!
His Sunday playing partner is Adam Scott, known in this bureau as the man your wife is most likely to leave you for. Scott, winner of the 2013 Masters, is swinging again as he did then, which is to say as Tiger Woods did in 2000. The Australian golfer trails Koepka by two. The last time these two gents enjoyed each other’s no-hysterics company was on the Sunday of last year’s Presidents Cup, when Scott defeated golf’s Mickey Mantle, 3&2. (Or is he the game’s Roger Maris?) So there’s that.
Good course? Don't go there, Mike... But wait, there's more:
And here come the Nifty Nines, as most everybody around Bellerive is calling the three mega-talents who are at nine under par and one stroke behind Scott: Mr. Jon Rahm, who became engaged (this week!) but is still looking for his first major; Mr. Rickie Fowler, who became engaged (in June!) but is still looking for a first major; and Mr. Gary Woodland, who is married, but is, yes, looking for his first major. In the event that golf needed an understudy for Brooks Koepka, as 205 pounds of golfing whoop-ass, Woodland would be the likely fill-in. He’s a smash-and-grabber, too. Smash the driver, grab the wedge. These guys don’t commit petty crimes. They’re good!
I'm pretty sure that this is the first time anyone has thought to call Gary Woodland a mega-talent, but maybe I'm just cranky on account of the no-golf thing.
Jeff Ritter tries to capture the wonder of it all with math:
5: Front-nine birdies for Brooks Koepka, who broke away from his final-group playing partners, Kevin Kisner and Gary Woodland, and seized control Saturday afternoon. He made a couple of bogeys coming in, but he holds a two-shot lead over Adam Scott.
44: Holes Koepka played without a bogey before the 14th hole in Round 3. He also bogeyed 15, but picked up a key birdie at the par-5 17th to extend his lead.
337: Koepka’s average driving distance in the third round.
It's not that we didn't know that Brooksie could send it, but that driving distance is something given the absence of any discernible roll.
This was a pretty amusing, if all too expected, sequence:
2: Provisional shots Jordan Spieth hit on the 12th hole. After shoving his tee shot into theright-side trees (pictured), Spieth re-loaded. He eventually found his first ball in the woods, so no penalty there, but his escape shot slammed into a tree trunk and caromed away. Spieth dropped for his second provisional and punched out. This time he wasn’t so lucky: his first shot ricocheted O.B., so he had to play that second ball with a penalty. After making four birdies on the front nine to get in contention, he tripled the hole and toppled out of it.
He had just gotten himself into the mix when he hit two especially snarky shots, as if he's not accustomed to being on leaderboards.
Mikey Bams also had this item on the star of the show:
ST. LOUIS — This story, about grass, will likely be the most important story you will read on this golfcentric website — nay, any golfcentric website — this week. Also the most boring. No, that’s too strong. Let’s call it, in web parlance, the least clicky. Thegrass in question here is the tees-and-fairways playing surface at Bellerive. Also the first cut of rough. Please do not stop reading. We know you want to. But your golfing future is at stake here.
As the high priests play in this 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club, here in the Show Me state, they are traversing beautiful magic-carpet fairways woven with a grass you don’t see often, called zoysia. Zoysia is a thick-bladed, hearty grass that stands straight up, even after a drenching rain, as we had here late Friday afternoon. The ball nearly always sits right on top of the grass, begging to be hit, like the new mats at your better driving ranges.
Rees Jones, the architect of record here, reworking his father’s course, loves the surface, as a course designer and as a golfer. Playing a ball off a zoysia fairway, cut here to a half-inch, is almost like playing off a tee. “The hybrid off zoysia — it’s easy as pie,” Jones said the other day.
Oy! Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not a Zoysia-denier.... Do read the entire piece, because it's an exciting development for golf, due to reduced water requirements and it's amateur-friendly lies. But, for the best players in the world, the point I assumed was to challenge them.... Instead, we're letting them throw darts in, as Jordan would put it, a dome....
We've been hearing all week about the great local support for the event, including how knowledgeable the natives are.... But, apparently they're not all that up on Tour players:
Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland are not only two of the longest players on Tour,averaging 311.9 and 313.9 yards off the tee this season, respectively, but they also share a similar hair color, fashionable five o’clock shadows and body type. According to their PGA Tour profiles, Koepka is 6’0″ and 186 lbs, while Woodland is 6’1″ and 195.
The two were paired together in the third round of the PGA Championship at Bellerive on Saturday, and apparently, fans couldn’t decided who was who, confusing Woodland for Koepka, even as they played alongside each other.
Ummm...I don't see the resemblance, but given that one is swooshed and the other is in a chevron, it really shouldn't be hard to tell them apart. But I'm pretty sure it was Woodland that had this bit of misfortune:
ST. LOUIS — Gary Woodland caught a bad break during the third round of the PGA Championship, which in part led to his triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 10th hole. (And dropped him way down the leaderboard.)
Woodland was in solo second at 10 under when he made the turn at Bellerive, but the trouble started when his second shot into the 10th landed in the green-side bunker.
Playing partner Kevin Kisner found the same bunker, and their balls sat just feet from each other. Kisner escaped the sand with little problem, but Woodland blasted out and over the green, landing in another bunker.
It didn’t end there. His next shot rolled across the green again, into the original bunker he started in.
But to make matter worse, Woodland’s ball landed in the un-raked tracks he and Kisner left behind. He had to play it as it lies, barely got out, and from there chipped on and tapped in for a triple bogey, which plummeted him to seven under.
Yanno, you go bunker-to-bunker-to-bunker, it's not gonna end well....
As for the crowds, I'd have gone a different way with this story:
PHOTOS: Massive crowds flood Bellerive for 2018 PGA Championship weekend
Guys, don't you think the F-word hits a little too close to home?
By law, I can't get out of here without at least touching on this guy:
ST. LOUIS — A five-birdie front nine vaulted Tiger Woods up the leaderboard duringthe third round of the PGA Championship on Saturday at Bellerive, but his momentum stalled on the back nine.
Woods made the turn in four-under 31, which put him just two strokes off the lead, but he made all pars on the back nine and signed for a four-under 66. Still, he’s in the mix come Sunday. He’s eight under for the tournament and in a tie for 6th, four back of leader Brooks Koepka (12 under).
A real shocker, for nobody that's watched him play all year. Tiger had this, which is fairly accurate:
“I left pretty much every single putt short on the back nine,” Woods said. “The greens were getting fuzzy, they’re getting slow, and I didn’t hit the putts quite hard enough. And I made sure on 17 I did. And I blew it by about four feet and then pulled the next one.”
Except when he didn't, which caused this truly shocking moment:
On 17, one of the two par-5s on the course, Woods failed to take advantage. He hit a 303-yard drive followed by a pure four-iron from 243 yards, finding the green and giving him a 20-footer for eagle, which would have moved him to solo second. He hit the putt with plenty of pace but ran it by the right edge of the cup. Woods then lipped out a four-footer for birdie, giving him an agonizingly disappointing par, his ninth straight.
His inability to close out rounds is really puzzling.... That Jeff Ritter item linked above had these stats:
-10: Woods’s cumulative score on the front nine through 54 holes.
+2: Woods’s score on the back.
Bear this in mind when Tiger teases us on his first nine today.
So, where do we think this is going? Sean Zak helpfully provides a listing of the most exciting finishes imaginable, though he seems to have quite the loose definition of that term:
11. [insert one of nine golfers ranked 15th-75th] wins, remarkablyThe likes of Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner, Pat Perez, Daniel Berger, Charl Schwartzel and Thomas Pieters are all within that six-shot range. A win from any of them would be…underwhelming? Not merely because of their lack of star power, but because of the other big names that follow.
Now, if one of them shoots 61 to take the crown, that’s a different story. Just don’t count on it.
OK, I think he's just playing us here....What else you got, Sean:
3. Adam Scott (somehow) putts well enough to win
Few things would have seemed more of a long shot at the beginning of this week than Adam Scott putting his way to a second career major. Scott entered the week ranked 192nd this season in Strokes Gained: Putting, but this week through three rounds he’s a solid 24th.
Scott uses that broomstick putter to make a 10-footer on 18 for a 66. He points to the sky in honor of the late Jarrod Lyle, his fellow countryman and friend who passed earlier this week. Bellerive becomes a historic location for Australian golf.
OK, but my guess is that watching Adam Scott putt today will be more painful than surprising.....
Of course you know where Sean is going with this:
1. Tiger Woods, Major 15, Earth stops spinning
The greatest comeback in golf becomes the greatest comeback in sports. And it would be unlike any of Tiger’s previous major wins — a Sunday rally from multiple shots back. Woods has struggled on the back nine all week, but gets himself moving in the right direction with a birdie on the 11th. He hits an epic (and now historic) approach into the 17th, making eagle on Sunday where he missed on Saturday.
The name ‘WOODS’ in the clubhouse freaks out Koepka, which in turn freaks out Scott. Tiger wins this one in the clubhouse with a third-straight 66, and it leads to a tearful appearance on Good Morning America on Monday [SPONSORED BY MONSTER ENERGY DRINKS]
I don't expect him to shoot another 66, and I also have a feeling that won't be enough.... But hey, with his extensive track record of winning majors from behind.....
The Tour Confidential panel is back for a one-off query, though they sleazily try to scam a twofer:
Brooks Koepka leads the 100th PGA Championship by two with 18 holes to play, eyeing his third career major title. But Adam Scott is two back and several formidable players are within three and four shots (including Tiger Woods). Who wins, and how will Tiger fare?
Sean Zak: Gimme the guy with the two shot lead, who closed out the U.S. Open like there was no other option. Koepka wins at 16 under. Tiger shoots 69, but grabs a boatload of Ryder Cup points, finishing T10.Jeff Ritter: Koepka is absolutely overpowering the place, and I just don’t think he’s going to crack. He wins it with a smooth little 67 to finish 15 under. Rickie comes up two shots short, Tiger three.
It'd be hard to bet against Koepka right now, that two-spot is quite the advantage. But some try:
Dylan Dethier: Good god, is that Rickie Fowler’s music?! Y’all have Koepka covered, but there’s a host of top sticks within four shots of the lead. I think there’s a good chance Koepka stalls while Rickie takes the W at 14 under, two shots ahead of Tiger Woods.Alan Bastable: Nary a mention of Adam Scott?! There will undoubtedly be some added emotional pressure on him was as he tries to memorialize his late countryman Jarrod Lyle, but Bellerive sets up like a dream for him. Soft conditions + target golf = Scott’s happy place. He could and should be awfully dangerous tomorrow. With a 66, he wins by one.
But this seems designed to be intentionally hurtful:
Michael Bamberger: Sunday, Sunday, at Bellerive Raceway: Tiger goes out in 30, takes over the leaderboard and the tournament for a nanosecond, slumbers home in 37 — ouch city — and in the end is an afterthought (if Tiger Woods can ever be an afterthought). Brooks Koepka shoots a Steady Eddie round of even par (that is, 68 — level for him) and wins by a three-ish.
Meshes with my thinking, though I could also see Tiger playing overly-aggressively and failing to even make the front-nine charge.
Enjoy it and I'll see you tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment