Weekend Wrap - Bad Nestor Edition

My Sunday afternoon plans included building a fire and hoping our basement wouldn't flood, the plan being to split my viewing between the Yankees and the golf from Mexico.  As you might have sussed out from the header, I watched far more of the golf than intended...

Tony In Full - He seems a solid guy, though they're way over-playing the mano a mano aspect of the week:

While Jon Rahm is still undeniably the hottest player in golf right now, the man who held him off Sunday might submit his name for consideration.

In a rematch of the 2022 Mexico Open, where Rahm picked up his first of seven wins in the last year, Tony Finau came out on top this time.

Finau started Sunday with a two-shot lead over Rahm and Akshay Bhatia and ended it with a bogey-free 66 to finish at 24 under, good for a three-shot win at this year’s Mexico Open at Vindanta over Rahm. The top three on the leaderboard are identical to a year ago with Brandon Wu following his co-runner-up with a solo third this year.

“This tournament propelled me I think into the season that I had last year,” Finau said. “This was the first high finish that I had all season in my season last year. I was playing not very good golf and then I make a run on Sunday and after that, I played great golf throughout the rest of the season.

“To get this win was huge and hopefully propels me to do more great things as the season unfolds.”

The Salinas brothers got good value for their non-designated sponsorship pesos, because the only two A-listers in the field ended up in the final group.  And when looking at things like the Ryder Cup points lists, Finau was the most conspicuous name missing.

Is Rahm the hottest player in golf?  By a certain measure, the hottest evah:

As you probably know, Ford Frick invented the asterisk to protect Babe Ruth, but they don't make them large enough to cover circumstances such as these:

Jon Rahm’s second-place finish in his title defense at the Mexico Open may have been

disappointing, but his runner-up still adds to his record-breaking season.

Rahm collected $839,300 for coming up three shots short of Tony Finau, but that pushed his 2022-2023 season earnings total to $14,462,840. It may be April 30th, but that sets a new PGA Tour single-season official money record.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise given the PGA Tour created the Designated events this season with their $20 million purses — not to mention that Rahm has won four times already. But purse sizes had already been increasing over the past few seasons, with some events offering winners’ shares north of $2 million before this year.

He's on quite the tear, it's just that money has ceased to be an effective metric for comparisons. 

The Tour Confidential panel took time out from its core function of gazing at Tiger's navel to offer some muddled thoughts on Big Tone:

1. Tony Finau proved his 2022 was no fluke, as he won the Mexico Open at Vidanta by three over Jon Rahm on Sunday. For years, Finau was the guy oozing with talent who didn’t pile up enough wins, but he’s now got his first of 2023 after winning three times last year and once late in 2021. What’s been the biggest change with him over the past year and a half?

Jessica Marksbury: I don’t think you can overstate the value of confidence. It’s something even recreational players can relate to. Finau was so close for so long, and kept coming up short. Once he finally notched that breakthrough, the floodgates were open. The fact that he held the lead over multiple rounds with a chaser like Rahm makes Sunday’s victory even more impressive.

Sean Zak: I think we overstate and overuse confidence when it comes to a lot of things, but this is not one of them. Tony’s skillset was incredible before his streak of wins. His mindset was incredible, too. He just needed to pair the two down the stretch once, and it was going to make it easy to continue doing it after. Remember his quote from the Rocket Mortgage Classic last year? “A winner is just a loser who kept on trying.” Might have been quote of the year in 2022.

Dylan Dethier: The thing I appreciated most about this week’s win was his ability to hold a lead with the clear-cut World No. 1 (Rahm, who doubles as Finau’s frequent sparring partner) breathing down his neck. Beating up on one of the PGA Tour’s weaker fields feels a lot more legit when you outduel the tournament favorite. Yes, there’s still another step for Finau to take at the game’s biggest events. But he gets plenty of credit for this one nonetheless.

Jonathan Wall: I don’t think anything changed. Some guys just come close countless times and can’t seem to close — and then all of a sudden it clicks. The competition on Tour has never been better, in my opinion, so you simply can’t make mistakes and expect to close things out. I think Tony’s managing the mistakes and realizing he doesn’t have to force things, especially when he’s out front. Tiger was the best at doing this, and I think Tony’s did his TW impression in Mexico.

It must be confidence.  Unless, yanno, it's momentum.... But I'm pretty sure the answer is to be found in a trite cliche... Of course, nothing has really changed except that Tony had a good week with the putter....

What amuses me about that "Winning with the No. 1 player in the world breathing down his neck" is.... well, as an aside, why the neck?  But perhaps that's not important now... But beating the No. 1 player in the world seems a more substantive feat when the guy is on his game which, excepting that Saturday 61, Rahm didn't seem to be.

But they're all in on this Finau v. Rahm bit:

2. Rahm has dominated this year, with four wins and the second major title of his career, so how much more meaningful is this win for Finau knowing he held off Rahm (aided by a two-shot advantage to start the day) while playing in the same final grouping?

Marksbury: That’s got to feel huge for him. After Rahm’s course-record performance on Saturday, it would be totally understandable to feel a little spooked, even with a two-shot lead. But Finau kept the pedal to the metal. Taking down the World No. 1 is no easy feat. He’s got to be feeling good about his major chances going forward this year.

Zak: It definitely makes the win sweeter! I think Tony would probably like to bag another big event rather than beat Rahm and what was ultimately a pretty weak field, but we don’t need to parse out the meaning of it. Rahm is the king right now. You beat him, especially while playing with him in the final group? You’re ballin’. That’s why Nick Taylor’s solo second at Phoenix was still damn good for his confidence. He lost to Scheffler, but he beat Rahm from the same group. He’ll remember that even while we forget.

Dethier: It looks like I should have read Question 2 before answering Question 1, but yeah, it makes a significant difference. Finau’s game theoretically sets up well anywhere, so when he’s in the mix at Oak Hill in a few weeks, this will be useful to draw on.

Don't be too hard on yourself, Dylan.  It's a silly sequencing...

Wall: I think it’s massive when you’re able to beat back a human cheat code and win by three. The way Rahm has been playing, it’s easy to get caught looking and worry about when — not if — he’s going to catch you. Tony’s been around long enough to know his game is good enough to win. I hate trying to predict Tour wins as a jumping-off point for major success, but I could definitely see this being the kind of W that nets hardware at Oak Hill.

Beating one guy, even Rahmbo, just doesn't amount to a hill of beans, though we've not much else to talk about until Oak Hill.

Gooch, Ascendant - Of course, beating a certain 47 players isn't much more substantial than beating just the one, but this makes your humble blogger laugh:

Talor Gooch is LIV Golf’s first back-to-back winner.

After nearly blowing a 10-shot lead last week in Australia, Gooch defeated Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia in a playoff for his second consecutive win on Sunday at Sentosa Golf Club on

Sentosa Island. Brooks Koepka finished one shot outside the playoff in third at 16 under.

“I know that I’m not going to continue playing this level of golf forever. So you just enjoy it while it comes and try to make it last as long as you can,” said Gooch. “So you try to savor these moments and try to feel these feelings and emotions and try to remember ’em so that when they go away you can really get back as quickly as possible.”

Don't know if you will, either, but I'm heartened by the fact that it will happen inside an hermetically-sealed isolation tank.  Win-win, baby!

Why the mirth?  Because this story was circulating last week:

Talor Gooch thought that he would be exempt into the U.S. Open in June at Los Angeles Country Club.

As Lee Corso would say, not so fast, my friends.

It turns out the USGA made a subtle change to its qualification categories this year that has Gooch instead on the outside looking in with work still to be done.

Gooch, who banked $4 million for winning LIV Adelaide, was suspended from the PGA Tour when he left for the breakaway Saudi-backed league last summer. But the 31-year-old Gooch had played well enough before his departure last season that he finished 29th in the FedEx Cup standings to qualify for the Tour Championship. That typically has earned players a ticket into the four majors. But Gooch wasn’t allowed to compete in the playoffs because he was suspended from the PGA Tour. Therein lies the reason that Gooch isn’t exempt. When the USGA updated its exemption criteria it added a stipulation that players “must be both qualified and eligible for the Tour Championship.”

Goochie is playing up the sympathy angle, though it might be nice if he could so in a more factual manner.  He's accusing the USGA of making the change retroactively, which is simply inaccurate.  

But this is exactly the issue the players were warned of before they jumped to LIV but, to a man, they were perfectly comfortable putting their ability to qualify for majors at risk....  Or maybe the lad took Shark's assurances that they couldn't be suspended from the Tour at face value.  Perhaps he'll know better next time, but there were lots of zeros on the check....

Udder Stuff - Gonna blitz through a few things, so buckle that seatbelt....

JT @ Thirty - I can't explain why it's of interest, other than to note that it's an extremely slow news week in the game:

3. Justin Thomas turned 30 on Saturday, and our Sean Zak profiled the Tour star and went deep on his career evolution and drive to accomplish even more in a recent edition of GOLF Magazine (and online right here). “Having two majors is great, but I want five,” Thomas said at one point. “Fifteen [career] wins is great, but I want 30. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing, but that’s the reality.” ​​Well, since JT brought it up (kind of), how many wins and majors do you see him having by the time he turns 40?

Marksbury: I actually sent Sean a message to tell him how much I enjoyed reading that piece. JT is such an interesting player! I loved learning about the lofty goals he sets for himself. But, given how tough it is to win out there, I think one more major and 5-7 regular-season titles over the next decade would be a huge yet feasible addition to an already stellar career.

Jess, you're predicting at least three winless seasons for JT in the next decade?  That's kinda lowballin', no? 

Zak: There is one thing holding him back from having more than 15 and 2 right now. It’s his

putting. But I think the roller coaster with the flatstick will level out soon and we’ll see him go on a stretch of, say, five wins in three years. I think he bags two more majors by 40, and if the putting gets really good, give him a third. He’s just so singularly focused on tallying up those totals. Oh, he also has, what, a top 3 caddie on the bag? That continues to pay dividends we can’t see just yet.

Dethier: Eek, I hate that we’re reducing Thomas’ next decade to two numbers — that feels like the same sort of binary decision-making that already plagues him. But maybe that’s the point: If JT is measuring himself this way, why shouldn’t we? The over/under on JT future majors has to be set at 1.5. Marksbury went under and Zak went over. I’ll join him there with the belief that his putting will come back into the light for a few top-tier years. At age 40, he’s the owner of 24 PGA Tour wins and four majors. Solid haul.

Wall: I mentioned it in my first answer, but I think the competition is making it damn-near impossible to dominate on Tour. I think JT is still one the top talents on Tour, but as he creeps closer to 40, he’s going to lean more on his short game and putting as new bombers enter the arena. And as Sean already mentioned, the putter has been a massive question mark recently. If he can get the flatstick hot, I think a couple of majors and six Tour wins is very feasible.

Kudos to the writers for actually noting that rather obvious deficiency in his game.  In fact, to me JT might well be a candidate for the Academy.... As for majors, when does he win his first (OK, I guess PGAs are still technically majors)?  

Euphemisms Gone Wild - This is quite the trotured logic, but it seems golf faces a uniquely-shaped issue:

McEwan: The Ryder Cup’s LIV-shaped conundrum

I'm sorry, what shape is a LIV?

There isn't actually any conundrum, but Michael McEwan must have been sampling the edibles, because he frames it in a manner beyond our ability to imagine:

Today is John Daly’s 57th birthday. The perfect time, then, to remind yourself that he is the only eligible multiple major champion who has never played in the Ryder Cup.

What makes this all the more surprising is that the larger-than-life American’s two major wins both came in Ryder Cup years.

Any curiosity as to why that might be, Michael?   Did you ever hear about him being fined 21 times for failure to actually try out there?  Sounds like a perfect guy for the team room to me...

I may not know everything about the war between the PGA Tour and LIV, but I know just enough to know that John Daly has nothing to do with it, but why would you even think of him the week after the Tour beclowned itself by allowing him to peg it in NOLA?

Even Daly himself gets it....apparently the only oen that doesn't is McEwan:

In a 2020 podcast appearance, the ‘Wild Thing’ was asked why he thought he had never represented his country on the biggest team stage in golf.

“Probably attitude,” he replied. “Probably some of the things that I did off the course. And some of the things that I didn’t do that I was accused of doing, and there was a lot that I did that I really did.”

Ya think?  So can someone explain this segue to me?

This is all relevant in the context of this year’s match at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club near Rome.

US captain Zach Johnson, much like his European counterpart Luke Donald, faces a conundrum when it comes to fleshing out his side.

It's not relevant in the slightest.... 

With six picks at his disposal, two-time major champ Johnson will have plenty of decisions to make but arguably none bigger than whether or not to choose any players from the LIV Golf League.

Ummm, no!  That will not be a hard decision for Zach, because it won't actually be his decision at all.  And it's a little disconcerting that McEwan doesn't understand this....

But under ths tortured reasoning I'm quite certain that Henrik Stenson will be stopping by to pick up his captaincy....Shessh!.

Too Good To Fact Check - McEwan no doubt expects this guy to be on Zach's roster.  But this also goes on the list of things making your humble blogger laugh this morning:

Dear Internet reader, can we interest you in more potential Patrick Reed subterfuge on this fine spring morning? You bet we can!

A trashed vehicle that looks very much like Patrick Reed’s custom Masters-themed Porsche 911 GT2 RS appeared at salvage auction this week, sending golf sleuths into hysterics. Even the first 10 digits of the VIN match those on Reed’s original vehicle, as The Drive reports. We don’t know for certain that this is the 2018 Masters champ’s former whip. Nothing in life is 100%—some people can’t even agree on whether or not the earth is round—but if it looks like Patrick Reed’s Porsche and talks like Patrick Reed’s Porsche, well, you know how the saying goes.

I'll wait for confirmation from @UseGolfFactsNow.  Justine, are you there?

That will wrap today's programming.  Hope to see you down the road.