Dateline: Greensboro, NC - Had I known that this guy would back up his Saturday 61, I would certainly have tuned in. Just, you know, to see the heads exploding:
Who could have dreamed that Jim Herman would have outlasted Sedgefield Country Club’s big three of Si Woo Kim, the 2016 champ and 54-hole leader, Webb Simpson, the 2011 winner and all-time leading money winner of the Wyndham Championship and Billy Horschel, who has shot par or better in 23 consecutive rounds here, on Sunday?
Herman was in the midst of a forgettable season, ranking No. 192 in the FedEx Cup this season. He needed to finish no worse than second this week or his season was over. His best finish? Solo 27th at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions against a 30-man field. He had missed the cut in eight of his last 11 starts. The only golfer who Brooks Koepka beat in the final round of the PGA Championship last week when he shot 74? It was Herman, who finished T-77.
“Usually that’s a good stat, you know, with Brooks,” Herman said. “He’s usually at the top.”
Because he has all the wrong friends... But no need to go there now.
As is often the case, this seems triggered by a putter change:
Herman, 42, made one critical switch this week, changing to a Bettinardi putter he’d used before and going to a cross-handed putting grip. It did wonders as he holed 444 feet of putts this week and rankled third in Strokes Gained: Putting. The short stick has always been Herman’s bugaboo. He used the claw putting stroke when he won the Shell Houston Open in 2016 and a conventional grip at the 2019 Barbasol Championship.
“For those that struggle putting, you definitely experiment often. I thought maybe last summer when I putted so well at Barbasol, maybe I was on to something, it would be something that stuck,” Herman said. “Then I was off the putter and out of that style by the end of the wraparound Fall start.”
Rankles? As relates to typos, I'm hardly without original sin, but you'd still think they'd employ proofreaders somewhere in the process.
Of course throwing that shade at Brooksie is quite timely...
A couple of further notes, first a record:
A week after Collin Morikawa posted the lowest final 36 by a major winner, Herman tied the lowest weekend 36 by a winner in PGA Tour history, writes GolfChannel.com’s Will Gray.
And he did it by playing his final 36 holes in 16 under par, equaling the lowest-ever weekend score by a winner in Tour history.
We certainly didn't expect it last week, if only because of the heavy air and loss of distance... But 61-63 on the weekend reallycan't be dismissed that easily.
And while we're throwing shade at those alpha dogs...
Jim Herman now has as many PGA Tour wins over the past 13 months (two) as Rory McIlroy.
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) August 16, 2020
Our Rors hasn't been much of a factor since the restart... and folks are noticing.
The Tour Confidential panel managed to go one whole week without a Tiger question, though the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach will be upset with the dis to their rousing regular season coda:
World No. 318 (!) Jim Herman fired a final-round 63 to win the Wyndham Championship on Sunday. Herman became the fifth player ranked outside 200 in the world to win on Tour this year (excluding opposite-field events). What does that stat tell you about the state of the Tour in 2020?
Zak: I think it tells you that there are levels to pro golf, and sometimes they just don’t matter.
There’s the level of elite pros in the top 30, who decide generations of legacy, and then there are countless others all vying for a precious piece of the millions. The line between those levels is as blurred as ever.
Shipnuck: It was awesome to watch that old dog get it done hitting all manner of crafty shots. What a clinic in closing! There are hundreds and hundreds of guys who can shoot that low … occasionally. It gives you more appreciation for the top players that they produce that kind of golf so regularly.
Sens: Yet another reminder of how deep the talent runs in professional golf, and how quickly everything can change. How a switch can flip and suddenly a guy who looked lost morphs into a world beater for the week. The shifts don’t just come as a surprise to us fans. You could tell from Herman’s post-round interview what an emotional swing this was.
Bamberger: Jim’s win tells more about Jim than the Tour. In decades of golf-watching I cannot think of another career like his.
It's a young man's game.... except when it isn't. It's so great that a guy like Herman can have some success out there, that we should just enjoy it, but resist the urge to over-interpret it.
Shane Ryan does a deep dive into the bubble boys:
It’s a little bit strange that the man who suffered one of the most anxious Sundays at the Wyndham Championships was, in fact, named Wyndham. It’s even stranger that he wasn’t on the course, that he had missed the cut on Friday and was forced to watch from afar as his position onthe FedEx Cup leader board oscillated above and below the 125th spot, the cutoff for making it into the FedEx Cup Playoff. (That is, if he was watching at all; I’ve often thought CBS should have a live feed on the bubble boys who miss the cut, kind of like how you can see college basketball teams rejoice and deflate as they watch their fate on Selection Sunday.)
Who were Wyndham Clark’s opponents? Abstractly, you could say he was fighting against math, or the rapidly changing live projections. His true foes, thought, were Rafa Cabrera Bello and Rob Oppenheim and Shane Lowry and Peter Malnati and Tom Lewis and Bo Hoag. Based on how those men performed, Clark, who began the day just inside the projected top 125, would either squeak into the Playoffs by fewer points than you can count on your hand, or fall agonizingly short.
Not to worry, we have a happy ending, though I found this unintentionally amusing:
All this meant that for Clark, his playoff fate came down to Rob Oppenheim. They were in a duel, though it’s likely that neither of them understood it. The battle didn’t make the CBS broadcast, but it was dramatic anyway. Oppenheim, who has never competed in the FedEx Cup playoffs, began the week 145th in points, but if he maintained his second-place position that he held entering Sunday, he’d be 77th in points after an incredible surge up the leader board on Saturday with career-best eight-under 62. Oppenheim was in the final twosome with tournament leader Si Woo Kim. If he could shoot a two-under 68 and reach 18 under for the week, he’d knock Clark out and reach his first playoffs. Following a 62, the odds seemed good. Then again, Oppenheim’s career best finish in 74 PGA Tour starts was a T-8.
Ya got that? It's too convoluted (or boring) for CBS to cover, but we'll just have to take Shane's word that it was dramatic indeed...
Lastly, before we span the globe, there's this for the uninitiated:
FedEx Cup Playoffs 2020: Frequently Asked Questions
You mean, like "Is this really the best you could come up with?" That's my cue to move on...
Dateline: Bandon, OR - Yur humble blogger had great fun settling into his easy chair and watching each evening. It doesn't always happen this way, but the final match delivered the goods:
It was a scene out of fiction, a gorgeously sunny day turned damp and gloomy, the fog having crept onto the cliffs and blanketed the Bandon Dunes Golf Course. In the eeriness, a movie ofTyler Strafaci’s making was playing in his head. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, visualizing the 4-iron shot that he was about to strike on the 36th hole in the final of the U.S. Amateur Championship.
“I said, "This is your time to hit a winning shot. Go get it,’ “ Strafaci recalled later when darkness had descended on the Oregon coast. “I've done it a bunch of times back home, and I knew I could execute it, and I trusted myself, and I did it.”
Strafaci powered a draw into the mist and exclaimed, “Oh, please be good!” When a handful of onlookers near the green cheered, he knew he’d reached the par-5 hole in two. It was the shot of Strafaci’s life, and in the fog, considering the pressure cooker of the circumstances, it’s likely one of the greatest on a finishing hole in the 120-year history of America’s national championship.
When opponent Charles [Ollie] Osborne, who had fought back in the tremendous match by winning the 16th and 17th holes, couldn’t get up and down for birdie, the 20-year-old from Reno, Nev., conceded the hole and Strafaci took the match 1 up without rolling a final putt.
It was a fittingly dramatic ending to a tremendous contest in which the combatants combined for 25 birdies and one eagle, including concessions. In the morning alone, they would have shot 60 in best ball.
Plus, don't forget the eye candy... Dream Golf and all.
Of note first, is the family history:
Strafaci's father, Frank Jr., who was on the bag this week, was an accomplished amateur player and competed in three U.S. Amateurs, making match play once. But that was nothing compared to Frank St., Tyler's grandfather who died in 1988, 10 years before Tyler was born. Frank Sr. played 16 U.S. Amateurs, reaching the quarterfinals in 1947 and ’49, and then giving Arnold Palmer his best shot in the first round in 1954 before falling to the eventual champion on the final hole at Country Club of Detroit.
Frank Sr. also won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links and played in a pair of Masters and two U.S. Opens, finishing ninth in 1937. After capturing the one championship that his grandpa always wanted to win, the 22-year-old Strafaci will play in three majors in 2021 – the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship.
Golf Channel had this photo of Gramps from back in the day:
Frank Sr. is next to the Babe.
This is another national amateur win the Georgia Tech, actually nack-to-back:
Strafaci is now the fourth Georgia Tech player to win the Havemeyer Trophy, joining Bobby Jones (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930), Matt Kuchar (1997) and his former teammate Andy Ogletree (2019). The Yellow Jackets are the first program ever to have different players win two consecutive U.S. Amateurs.
The TC gang must have tuned in, because they had a couple of issues:
The U.S. Amateur, where Tyler Strafaci edged Ollie Osborne 1 up at wild and wondrous Bandon Dunes, was a blast to watch. The topsy-turvy layouts at Bandon Dunes (match play) and Bandon Trails (stroke play) required players to hit all kind of shots — and in all kinds of conditions. As the 36-hole final progressed Sunday, the fog grew so thick that players struggled to see their tee shots. Any quibbles with the match continuing in such a soupy haze?Zak: At first I thought no. But then watching Strafaci struggle so much with his lines and distances down the stretch I changed my mind. Though I think at any point he likely could have made a fuss about it. In the end, you’ve been on this course all week. You know it well. You gotta make good swings.
Sens: Not ideal but no quibbles. They played some of the other days in 40-mile-an-hour winds. This is golf in the elements. And both players were dealing with the same conditions. So it goes. You want a guarantee of golf in sunny stillness? Play it in a dome.
Bamberger: The game came out of the fog and the haar and the mist and the ocean. No quibbles, the opposite.
Well, Mike would certainly know his way around a haar...
It was right on the edge for sure, but the decision to keep playing was obviously correct. And this on that rules kerfuffle:
Segundo Oliva Pinto, a rising junior who just transferred to Arkansas, lost his quarterfinal match at the U.S. Amateur in stunning fashion when his caddie, a local looper Pinto had hired for the week, touched the sand in a bunker on the 18th hole, leading to an automatic loss of hole and ultimately loss of match. Pinto accepted the defeat graciously but it was a cruel way to be ousted. Related question (whether or not it would have applied in the aforementioned scenario): Should the rules allow players to waive a penalty on their opponent if they feel said penalty is too harsh?
Zak: This is tricky. Because it would have been nice for Strafaci (the benefactor of that ruling) to say, “You know what, that didn’t help you at all.” But then again, if we allow players to waive a penalty, where does that end? Can players play with 15 clubs for six holes if their good buddy they’re competing against is feeling generous? I think it’s a somewhat slippery slope that is avoided simply with: “don’t break the rules.”
Shipnuck: It’s a nice thought but would lead to all manner of anarchy. The rules have to be the rules. Period.
Sens: I had a related thought as this incident went down and I remain torn on the question. I get the purist argument, that rules are rules and to try to parse them in any fashion is a slippery slope. But would it really be so entirely unreasonable for there to be a judgment call brought to bear on a situation like this? Where an official could be brought in to assess the situation and ask, did this really have a material influence on the result? If it had zero impact, is loss of hole really the fairest consequence? I realize that would be tricky. But judgment calls apply in other rulings. Why is it entirely out of the realm of reason for them to apply in a situation like this?
Bamberger: The whole thing is a shame. Of course the caddie should be better trained. In casual golf, you could waive, of course, such a violation by a caddie. Not by a player. At this level, it had to be enforced.
Perhaps Josh wouldn't be so upset if we remind him that Pinto still received his participation ribbon...
How perfect is this moment? Yes, let's bring the governance model of Portland and Seattle to golf, as I think we can all agree that the match had been mostly peaceful. But here's another option, we could just publish a rule book and expect the players to know and adhere to it? Just spit ballin' here, but it's an idea so crazy it could work...
Just a great week at Bandon, which I couldn't have enjoyed more.
Dateline: North Berwick, UK - I didn't watch a bit until the final round, but I'm very glad that I made time for that. Who doesn't love a new Mom finding her game again:
It took a while for Stacy Lewis to grab LPGA career win No. 13. Nearly three years to be precise. A lot has happened to the 35-year-old former World No. 1 between her victory at the 2017Cambia Portland Classic and her triumph Sunday at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Most notably, she and her husband, University of Houston women’s golf coach Gerrod Chadwell, welcomed their first child, Chesnee, in 2018.“It’s amazing,” Lewis said of winning for the first time as a mom. “The only disappointing thing is that she’s not here to take a picture with this [the trophy], but I have been trying to get a trophy from the day she was born. That’s been my goal. I just called them, got to FaceTime with them. My husband said she was hitting the TV screen with her plastic golf clubs when I made that putt. So it's just pretty cool. I can’t wait to get home with them in a week or so and celebrate.”
She's got business this week in Ayrshire, but that will be a sweet homecoming...
She did it in dramatic fashion, surviving a four-player playoff:
Lewis shot a one-over 72 in the final round for a five-under 279 total at Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. She then made 23-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to claim the title over Azahara Munoz, Cheyenne Knight and Emily Pedersen, who all made pars. The win came with its own milestone: The $225,000 first-place prize puts Lewis’ career earnings over $13 million, making her just the eighth player in LPGA history to reach the mark.
For reasons that are unclear to me, I liked what I saw of Tom Doak's course much more than I did last year, perhaps because it played much tougher (last year's winning score was -20). It certainly was fun watching the ladies managing their way around the course, as par was very much king this week.
Stacey herself has been prone to whining over the years, something I've had cause to call her out for on more than one occasion. In this case she seemed to demonstrate the necessary self-discipline:
Stacy Lewis has never shied away from the issue of slow play. Last year during the Evian Championship, she took to Twitter to call out the near six-hour rounds in France.
This weekend in Scotland Lewis got more specific, calling out her playing competitors for their pace of play at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.
“I think the biggest challenge for me tomorrow is staying in what I’m doing,” Lewis, “and the pace of play is dreadfully slow, and that doesn’t play into my favor. People I’m playing with are pretty slow.”
If that PGA-Lpga Team event ever materializes, a Jennifer Song-J.B. Holmes pairing seems a natural. Just, you know, put them out last....this bit seems especially wise:
Referring to her caddie, Lewis said: “I told him on the second tee, ‘I’m not allowed to complainonce about the pace of play’ So I didn’t allow it to affect me. I was singing songs in my head, just getting away from everything, trying to pass the time. My daughter, she loves Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. So that was actually the song that was stuck in my head today.”The final group took five hours and 16 minutes to complete their round. “It does,” said Lewis of that taking some of the gloss of an enthralling title tussle. “It shouldn’t take that long to play. I knew it was going to; that’s the sad part. I do think an effort needs to be made across the board to play faster. I’m sure it couldn’t have been fun to watch on TV. I’ve been an advocate for changing our pace of play, getting people to play faster for a long time, and we’re still going the other way unfortunately.”
I have a better idea, Stacey...How about you're not allowed to complain about anything? Trust me, it'll work out better for you.
Quick Hits - I'm going to briefly cover a few bits, then release you to your busy day.
Brooks, the Morning After - Some of us wondered in that 2017-19 period about the evolving relationship between Koepka and DJ, including a few who characterized it as Brooks owning DJ's manhood. But I for one forgot the incident in Paris after the Ryder Cup beatdown, in which Tim Rosaforte reported on a fistfight between the Bash Bros. Here's how Brooks responded then:
"This Dustin thing, I just don't get. There was no fight, no argument. He's one of my best friends. I love the kid to death. We talked on the phone Monday and yesterday, so you tell me how we fought. People like to make a story and run with it. It's not the first time there's been a news story that isn't true that's gone out."
Versus after the PGA Championship:
But earlier this month, Koepka said his friendship with Johnson “got blown out of proportion because we worked out in the same gym,” with trainer Joey Diovisalvi. “We no longer do that,”he said.
When asked Thursday whether too much was made of his relationship with Johnson, Koepka told reporters: “You guys make your own stories, so I have no idea what you all do, but I think even the Jordan (Spieth) and Justin (Thomas) thing gets blown out too much. You guys overplay a lot of things.”
I can see where they trusted an unreliable source with that first bit... Elsewhere he said that he's not close to any of the guys out there, and I find that highly believable...
Roarless for Rory? - The Tour Confidential panel led with this silly bit:
Augusta National announced it will conduct the 2020 Masters without fans, on account of the coronavirus. In a statement, club chairman Fred Ridley called the decision necessary but also “deeply disappointing.” Given that the Masters is synonymous with Sunday roars, how much, if at all, will the absence of spectators impact the experience of watching the Masters on TV?
Sean Zak: Boy, it’s gonna be even quieter than normal. Quieter than quiet. With proper boom mic work, though, I think we’ll get clued in to a lot of the player strategy, which is always great at Augusta. Should be crystal clear!
Alan Shipnuck: By then we’ll have had five months of tournament golf without fans, including two majors, so it’ll be old hat. But there is an intimacy at the Masters that will be missed — think about those fans right behind the green at 7, or the tee at 12, or 16, or the amphitheater around 18 green. But it will be awesome to see Augusta National uncluttered. The course is going to look so pure.
Josh Sens: I think it will be extremely strange, even with all the experience we’ll have had by then with fan-free events. With the possible exception of the Ryder Cup, roars help define the Masters more than any other tournament. The sounds are so familiar that longtime viewers can tell a birdie roar from an eagle roar. And we’re all familiar with the TV experience of hearing a roar during the broadcast, then waiting at the edge of our seats to see the highlight of what brought it on. So yeah, very weird. Unbelievably great that the tournament is happening. But it will still be strange.
Michael Bamberger: It’s just so fitting that this golf year will end in this way, completely the opposite of what millions experienced last year. BUT it will surely be a memorable Masters and therefore a good TV show.
I'm actually excited to see the place in its purest state... I would just suggest that we take joy in the fact that we'll have a Masters...
But, as you'll have deduced from my header, I'm thinking this will be Rory's best chance. No distractions and a softer track...
59 With a Bullet - This has to be a first, no?
A 59 with a ball out of bounds? Seth Fair recounts his weirdly fantastic day
But don't we deserve some kind of explanation here?
Wednesday’s round started out with a 12-foot birdie putt left short in the heart. After draining a 30-footer for birdie on the second hole, Fair rifled one “right of right” out of bounds on the third hole. He made a 20-footer to save par, thinking it could’ve been worse.
Seems to have been a reachable Par-5, on which he made the dreaded second-ball eagle... The golf course is barely 6,000 yards, but still...
I'll wrap it up here, with a few open tabs for tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment