Defender Coody, medalist Thorbjornsen into Western Amateur semis

Writing from Golf, Illinois

Friday, July 30, 2021

Champions don’t surrender easily. Pierceson Coody didn’t surrender at all on Friday.

Down two holes with six holes remaining in his Western Amateur quarterfinal match at the Glen View Club with Luke Potter, Coody, the defending champion, had to make something happen.

He did. Coody birdied the next two holes while Potter did not, briefly squaring the match, and while Potter took the lead with a par on the par-4 16th, Coody had made the point. He wasn’t going away.

Coody, the pride of Plano, Tex., and a Longhorn junior in the fall, would knock off Potter, an Arizona State freshman in the fall, in 20 holes to advance to the semifinals and an 8:12 a.m. match with Gordon Sargent of Birmingham, Ala.

The birdies on the 13th and 14th were important. The birdie on the 17th, a 24-foot downhill putt with what he estimated as eight feet of break, fell into the cup to keep him alive, as Potter subsequently matched with a 14-footer.

“That was a must-make,” Coody said on the driving range, to which he repaired after his match to straight out what he considered a flaw in his swing. “It was almost a 90-degree putt. It took the fall line and went right in the center with good pace.”

That forced the match to the last with Potter still 1-up, but he pulled his drive into the hazard to the left and couldn’t recover for better than a double-bogey, while Coody hit the fairway and green on the 450-yard par-4 in regulation. It was back to the first tee for sudden death, and after Coody and Potter halved the first hole, Coody hit the green on the par-3 second while Potter missed the putting surface. Potter couldn’t get up-and-down and Coody was through to the semis.

Coody won last year at Crooked Stick, and never went past the 18th hole, but was challenged in each match. He drew on that experience Friday.

“This was everything that I experienced last year,” Coody said. “That clutch factor, and a little bit of focus to close out these matches, is everything I drew in today.”

Coody would be the first defending champion to repeat since fellow Texas Longhorn Justin Leonard in 1992-93.

“That’s obviously the goal when you start the week, but it’s such a long, demanding week, you’re just trying to go one step at a time. As I said last week during the Sweet 16 dinner, every match and every day, things move so fast. Tomorrow’s going to go fast, but hopefully it’s because things are going my way.

“Stay in the moment and get to the back nine and see how it goes.”

Sargent beat David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Ga., 4 and 2 in that quarterfinal.

The other semifinal matches medalist Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass., against Austin Greaser of Vandalia, Ohio, at 8 a.m.

Thorbjornsen beat Maxwell Moldovan 2 and 1 in his morning Sweet 16 match, then took on Ricky Castillo, who had advanced to match play in the previous two Western Amateurs, and scored a 2 up victory against the plucky Californian.

Thorbjornsen, who won the Massachusetts Amateur 10 days ago, two-putted from 20 feet above the hole on the 18th green to clinch the win over Castillo, but the putt had to travel some 45 feet, curling to the right all the way, to end up near the cup.

“I’ve had two of those putts in the past three holes,” Thorbjornsen said. “It’s just picking out a spot and hitting it there.”

Castillo had a similar but longer putt, but sent it skittering by, which made Thorbjornsen’s putt that much easier to judge.

Greaser knocked off Brian Stark of Kingsburg, Calif., 2 and 1, to advance to the semis.

– Tim Cronin

Hardy grabs last Phoenix Open spot

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Nick Hardy has this Monday qualifying thing down cold – even when it finishes on a Tuesday.

Hardy, the 25-year-old Northbrook standout, ran down an eight-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Tuesday morning at McCormick Ranch Golf Club’s Pine Course in Scottsdale, Ariz., to grab the final qualifying spot for this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. It wasn’t until Anirban Lahiri missed his five-footer to force a third playoff hole that he could celebrate.

“I’m pretty lucky to beat him,” Hardy said.

Hardy, a regular on the Korn Ferry Tour, Monday qualified for the Sony Open in Hawaii a few weeks ago and went on to finish tied for 14th, earning $113,850. But money doesn’t equal PGA Tour status until you make a lot more of it, so it was back to the Monday qualifying roulette wheel again this week. There were 155 players, including a slew of Tour regulars, chasing those three spots. When the horn blew as dusk Monday, Hardy was on the outside looking in, two strokes out of the last qualifying spot while standing in the fairway of his 16th hole.

“It was honestly not the smartest play for me to finish (Monday night),” Hardy said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish. I wanted to hit my approach because I thought the ball would be going the furthest. I hit a hard cut 3-wood just short of the green. I had the option to get the up-and-down in the morning or do it there. I finished and luckily I made birdie there.

“This morning I knew I had to get two birdies just to have a chance at a playoff, and I came out like, ‘I’m going to make two birdies, no matter what it took.’ ”

Tuesday’s resumption was even more dramatic. At 5-under with two holes remaining, he was a stroke from joining a gaggle sitting at 6-under and a likely playoff. But Vince Whaley joined Mark Anguiano at 8-under 64 before Hardy was finished, and all the 6-unders dropped to third.

Then Hardy chipped in from 20 feet on the par-3 eighth hole, his first of the morning, to join the 6-under crowd.

“In a tournament, I probably would have putted it,” Hardy said. “In a normal situation, I’d have putted and got my three, but I knew I had to chip for the best shot at making it. Right when it landed, I felt it was going in.”

That was good, but sinking a 10-footer for birdie after a 5-iron approach on the par-4 ninth was better.

Hardy fist pumped with his right arm, then fist pumped again, then double-pumped like he’d sacked Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl, then fist pumped again.

You could say he was pumped.

“I’d been struggling with my driver and didn’t have a lot of good looks because of that, but I hit a good drive on No. 9,” Hardy said. “I finished on the (harder) side to make birdies.”

With Hardy at 7-under 65, all the 6-unders went to their cars. But Lahiri, who has earned $305,575 on the Tour this season, including a sixth-place finish at Puntacana, birdied four of his last six holes, including his last, to match Hardy at 65. It was back to the par-5 18th tee for them, only one to advance. Both were in the fairway off the tee, on the green with their second, and two-putted. Back to the 18th tee again.

This time, both pushed their drives to the right. Lahiri missed the green left, Hardy right, where he was nearly blocked from the hole by a tree. Lahiri chipped to about five feet, Hardy to about eight feet after a big first bounce.

Hardy would putt first, and walked home his birdie putt. No fist pumps this time, not with Lahiri so close. And not after the 33-year-old native of Pune, India missed. Just a handshake, a hug of his girlfriend, and relief.

“I’m pretty proud of myself,” Hardy said. “No matter what happened in the playoff, there were things to be proud of, just the way I handled myself. I took that approach, that attitude, and it worked.”

It’s golf’s little secret that Monday qualifiers, featuring players on the way up, on the way down, and on the way to nowhere, are the fiercest competitions in golf. It’s usually over 100 players for four spots. No trophy, no money, just a chance to make some on the weekend.

Phoenix is even crazier, with only three spots available and eight pre-qualifying tournaments to fill the qualifying tournament field. Over 550 players were in those pre-qualifiers, and Anguaino proved the quest was worth it with his Monday 64 to advance to the big show.

Hardy, as a Korn Ferry member, went straight into the Monday scrap, and came out of it with a ticket to Thursday’s first round at TPC Scottsdale, joining Anguaino and Whaley. He knows the course, because he winters in Scottsdale and plays and practices there.

“I know the golf course well, that’s not a problem,” Hardy said. “I’ve just got to see how it’s playing, firm or soft.”

Two years ago, Hardy lost in a playoff, and had that in his head at times Tuesday morning.

“I was 1-over through six, finished 7-under and lost in a four-for-three playoff,” Hardy recalled. “That moment was crushing to my soul. I think about that all the time. I had six other moments like that where I miss the cut by one or come close right when I turned pro.

“Honestly, I’ve just improved the way I’ve handled myself for those moments.”

Such introspection paid off on Tuesday morning.

– Tim Cronin

Thanks to Bill Ibrahim of the Southwest PGA, which runs the Phoenix Open qualifying tournament, for information, plus photos which should run in the next digital edition of Illinois Golfer.

Back to (new) normal for Illinois PGA

Group's schedule looks forward, not back

Writing from Chicago

Monday, February 1, 2021

A glance at the 2021 Illinois PGA schedule shows the usual highlights are there: the Illinois Open, the Illinois PGA Championship, the Radix Cup Match, and the other traditional battles players anticipate.

Dig a little deeper, and it becomes evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has had lingering effects.

The Illinois Open, returned to a one-course operation in 2020 after five years with two courses hosting the first two rounds, will stay planted at one facility at a time for the next few years. Some one-day stroke-play tournaments for Illinois PGA members – the pros at your course and hundreds of others throughout roughly the northern two-thirds of the state – don’t yet have courses to play on.

Those few holes will be filled in between now and late March, when their season begins with a fundraising pro-am in Las Vegas, Nev. Getting even to this point after last year, when the precisely-set slate of competition was overturned like dinner settings with the tablecloth pulled from the table, has been an adventure. For instance, increased play – a great thing for courses both public and private – means tee times are at a premium. According to Golf Datatech, play in Illinois was up 15.4 percent in 2020, including the six weeks when nobody could play.

“The spike in play has added a new wrinkle,” said Carrie Williams, the Illinois PGA’s executive director. “It’s a challenge that Brad and the tournament committee have accepted.”

Brad is Brad Slocum, the IPGA’s tournament director, the guy who was pulling his hair out last year. He’s largely responsible for the schedule, then runs tournaments through the season.

“We’re comfortable that we’ll be able to do things relatively normally,” Slocum said.

That includes everything from playing the course to player dining, especially at multi-day tournaments. Fortunately, pros at several elite clubs have stepped up and convinced their boards to host tournaments, most of which are played on Mondays, when the clubs are otherwise closed. Along with longstanding hosts Onwentsia (Senior Masters), Shoreacres (Senior Match Play) and Merit Club (Ryne Sandberg IPGA Foundation Pro-Am), the doors have opened at Ivanhoe (Illinois PGA Championship), Knollwood (Players Championship), Bull Valley (Match Play), and Beverly (Senior Players).

Bull Valley’s reappearance on the schedule is especially interesting, as the Woodstock club is hosting the match-play CDGA Championship in June. Differences in how the two groups set up and play the testing layout will be fun to see.

There’s also something new: The Illinois PGA is getting into the junior golf tournament sphere, not to compete with the Illinois Junior Golf Association but complement it.

“We’re impressed with the volume of junior golf the IJGA can provide, and felt we could supplement it with a small, compact schedule with access to elite facilities,” Williams said.

Williams knows the junior scene. She ran the IJGA before returning to the IPGA, and Slocum was the IJGA’s tournament director.

The Illinois PGA Junior Tour schedule includes courses that anyone would be eager to play: Ruth Lake, Merit Club, Westmoreland, Briarwood, and Flossmoor, with the championship at Onwentsia, with one more layout yet to be selected.

“For years, we’ve hosted the Senior Masters at Onwentsia,” said Illinois PGA president Nick Papadakes, the head pro at Onwentsia. “So we thought, why not the Junior Masters in the morning and the Senior Masters in the afternoon? It will be cool to have the junior players and the seniors together in one room for lunch, and maybe explain the history of the game and where we’ve come from.”

IJGA executive director Matt Wennmaker was apprised of the IPGA’s move months ago, but doesn’t see much impact on fields in most of the 120 tournaments his group will run this summer.

“It’ll draw some players, but I would consider it a different niche,” Wennmaker said. “We go to country clubs several times a year, but in our multi-day events, kids can earn points for AJGA events, and that’s what college-bound players look for. In the IPGA series, they won’t get that.”

The Illinois PGA also oversees area Drive, Chip and Putt competitions for children, with the winners advancing to the national competition at Augusta National the Sunday before the Masters. The 2019 winners will be at Augusta this spring, even if they’re older, following the cancellation of last year’s showcase. Even DCP scheduling has been affected by the rise in play.

“Even taking a portion of the range to conduct the long-drive competition can be difficult,” Williams said.

All of the above is subject to the continuing improvement in conditions regarding COVID-19. Last year at this time, such a statement wasn’t necessary. Then the virus hit hard, and every level of society was impacted. Golf was not immune.

“Last year we were faced with unforeseen challenge on top of unforeseen challenge,” Williams said. “Through great collaboration by the staff, our board, host sites and our tournament committee, we were able to provide our members a fantastic tournament schedule, and we’re looking forward to providing them an even better one in 2021, as we return to what is going to look a lot like normal.”

Even while everything is anything but normal. Staffers are still working from home often, and improvisation is the order of the day compared to old routines.

“We’re cyclical,” Slocum said. “In the fall and winter, we put together a tournament schedule. In spring and summer, we run it. Before last year, I could never think of a scenario where we would have to do it (build a schedule) again.”

Golf in Illinois was stopped completely in mid-March – die-hards rushed to play in Wisconsin and Indiana, which largely stayed open – and didn’t resume here until May 1.

“We’re a fraternal organization, and it really brought the section closer together,” Papadakes said. “We’ve kind of flipped our direction towards really interacting with the membership and finding out what they want done. How can we get our members more involved? How do they want 2021 to look?

“We’re acting like a business, asking our customers what they want.”

The resumption of play was the result of negotiations between the governor’s office and the state health department, and the leading state golf associations, including the Illinois PGA and the CDGA.

“The hard part for us was trying to understand how you can get things done within the scope of the intentions of the governor’s office really are,” said Papadakes. “The shutdown made sense, because we really didn’t know what was going on.

“We were trying to understand their language and coach them about what we do and how we can do it safely. It was a matter of education and listening and trying not to be too pushy.

“As we slowly reopened (May 1), the first restrictions were pretty strict. As we understood the intent of each of the restrictions, it gave us a little bit more flexibility to operate. But we had to be careful in how. The toughest part for us was teachers and coaches. They were really hit hard early on. Like we turned driving range(s) into a par-3 course or a pitch-and-putt. You had to run it the same way as you ran the golf course.

“It was very difficult for our four indoor domes in Chicago. Those were the hardest hit. But the silver lining was, by mid-July, there weren’t enough hours in the day for them to work. The surge was so strong coming out of this I don’t think any one of us could keep up.”

Williams, Slocum and the rest of the staff worked the phones rigorously to make a new 2020 schedule happen.

“We still needed to offer services to our PGA members,” Slocum said. “We surveyed our members, and learned the desire and demand to play is really important to them.”

“We began the schedule on July 6, built around the Illinois Open and our section championship, and then the rest of the majors.”

The result was better than might have been expected. The Illinois Open, held at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville, was a big success even before Bryce Emory lifted the old trophy.

“The Illinois Open might have been the highlight of the season,” Williams said. “Putting on an elite championship was a feather in the cap of our staff and board.”

Originally, Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora was to be the second course. Instead, the contraction back to 156 players meant it was at White Eagle only. Stonebridge was offered and eagerly accepted this year’s Illinois Open instead. Players will be greeted to a recently-renovated course some 400 yards longer than it was when the Ameritech Senior Open played through 20 years ago.

“We were reintroduced to the power of the one-site format,” Williams said. “There’s a greater concentration of strength of field, members of the host club can watch, and sponsors are able to engage with the full field. It took living through it to remember it.”

Having the entire staff and all volunteers at one place with strict limitations on movement also guarded against a COVID outbreak. All went well, even with plenty of members mingling with each other. It went so well, the Illinois Open will remain a one-site championship through at least 2023.

The Illinois Section will also conduct the two-site Monday qualifying tournament for the Evans Scholars Invitational, a Korn Ferry Tour dance on Memorial Weekend. Additionally, it’s an induction year for the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, with the two-stage selection meetings expected to run in April and May as usual, with the induction celebration in September or October.

In all, it adds up to a busy year. And, as close as possible, a normal one.

– Tim Cronin

2021 Illinois PGA Schedule Highlights

May 10-13 Illinois PGA Match Play Championship (Bull Valley GC, Woodstock)

May 24 Evans Scholars Invitational Qualifying (Stonewall Orchard, Grayslake; White Deer Run, Vernon Hills)

June 3 31st Thompson Cup (Ridge CC, Chicago)

June 17 59th Radix Cup (Oak Park CC, River Grove)

June 28-29 Illinois Senior Open (Royal Fox CC, St. Charles)

July 26 Senior Masters (Onwentsia C, Lake Forest)

Aug. 2-4 72nd Illinois Open (Stonebridge CC, Aurora)

Aug. 23-25 Illinois PGA Championship (Ivanhoe C, Ivanhoe)

Sept. 27-28 Players Championship (Knollwood C, Lake Forest)

Oct. 4-6 Senior Match Play (Shoreacres, Lake Bluff)

Oct. 11-12 Senior Players Championship (Beverly CC, Chicago)

The full schedule is at the Illinois PGA’s website: www.ipga.com

Rahm rams it home

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Yes, Jon Rahm really made that putt.

Yes, he did so after Dustin Johnson made that other putt.

And when Johnson, whose 43-foot 3-inch putt snaked into the 18th hole on the final hole of regulation, tying Rahm at 4-under-par 276, couldn’t make a 33-footer to equal Rahm’s unfathomable 66-foot 5-inch birdie putt on the first hole of sudden death, the world’s No. 2 player had defeated the world’s No. 1 player to capture the 117th Western Open / BMW Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s North Course.

That’s what it came down to after a final round in which the wind laid down, the course was marginally more yielding to scoring – and still played over par as a whole – and five players, the only five to finish under par, had an opportunity to win the title.

Tony Finau had a shot, closing in 5-under 30 to post a 5-under 65, the second-best score of the week, but needed others to falter and ended up solo fifth at 1-under 279.

Hideki Matsuyama was right there, opening the final round tied with Johnson for the lead and hanging around until the end, finishing tied for third at 2-under 278.

Joaquin Niemann was there as well, climbing into a share of the lead with four birdies on the front nine, but managing no birdies, plus adding a bogey, in the final 10 holes. He matched Matsuyama at 278 and jumped into the top 30 to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship.

That left Rahm, from Spain by way of Arizona State, and Johnson, from South Carolina by way of Coastal Carolina, to duel down the stretch. They just happened to be the top two players in the world ranking, Johnson marginally ahead, and bubbled up to the top of the scoreboard by virtue of equal measures of talent and tenacity.

Rahm was two groups ahead of Johnson, and was in the clubhouse first after a bogey-free 64 that allowed him a few moments to contemplate victory before Johnson forced him back to the range and then back to the first tee.

Johnson, seeking a third title in the BMW, had birdied three of the first four holes to take a commanding lead, then faltered with bogeys on the eighth and 10th before rallying with a two-putt birdie from 32 feet on the par-5 15th and his left-to-right-to-left downhill putt at the last that Olympia members will be trying and failing to recreate, along with Rahm’s, for the next century or so. That center-cut anaconda for 3-under 67 was witnessed by millions on NBC and maybe three dozen volunteers hanging around the 18th green on the final day of the no-spectator spectacle.

Back to the 18th tee he and Rahm went, and both made the 498-yard par-4 green in two, Johnson, at 33 feet distant and about pin-high, seemingly having the upper hand on Rahm, whose drive went into the right rough. The approach, with little spin on it, hit the green and rolled to the back left, cater-corner from the cup on the front right.

Rahm looked at it from every angle. Sane people thought just two-putting from 66 feet, down and across a two-tier slope that dropped two feet, would be an achievement.

No. That would have been failure in comparison to the reality of Rahm’s perfectly-paced sweeping putt that swung right and disappeared, taking with it Johnson’s heart.

“That stretch of waiting for DJ, him making the putt, going in the playoff, me making the putt, then trying to stay mentally in it just in case he made the last putt, it's been a roller coaster but so much fun,” Rahm said. “I certainly don't want the stress that goes along with seeing DJ's ball in the fairway and then my ball in the rough and he hits it to 30 feet, I hit it to 60 and what's going on in my mind, but if you're going to tell me I'm going to make a 66 footer to win a tournament I'll take that any day.”

How he made it while just trying to set up a short uphill par putt was a story in itself, the way Rahm tells it.

“I grew up on golf courses with a lot of slope, so putts with slope is something I enjoy, I like and I'm comfortable reading and putting,” he said. “It fell right in my alley. It was at least 66 feet, so making it, it's a whole different story.

“You can always break it into different parts. When I first stood behind the ball I could see the first two-thirds or three-fourths more or less of the putt were pretty much steady left to right break, and then you get to the big slope, to the top of that hill and it's going to start quick right and then at the end it's going to start turning left towards the pin.

“That's what I saw, and when I'm walking around the hole I'm basically going to the apex or the highest peak of break that I'm going to play and kind of see the ball track from there and try to find a spot, and then when I go back to the ball, I laser on that spot and really make sure I'm putting there and track the ball the way I'm supposed to.

“For people that have seen the movie ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance,' that 18th putt, you can kind of see the light of how the putt is supposed to go. It is somewhat like that. That's how I feel. I kind of visualize the ball rolling like that. So if you had to ask me, yes, the putt was 60 feet but I was trying to hit a spot maybe 30 feet away at most, 30, 40 feet away.”

This is where the smart golf writer would note that if you took a script like this to a Hollywood studio, they would throw you out on your ear, but, why bother?

Now Johnson had to make his to go back to the tee. A fine roll it was, but came up about four inches short and right.

“I thought I made it when it was coming down the hill,” Johnson said. “It just kind of ran out of a little bit of speed and missed just low.”

No. 2 had beaten No. 1 in most dramatic fashion. In the history of the Western Open / BMW, there have been many playoffs, but Rahm’s putt is the longest one to win in the history of the championship on the 72nd hole or beyond. Johnson called it “an even more ridiculous putt” than the 43-footer he made to force the playoff, and nobody argued the point.

Rahm was the steadier player of the two on Sunday, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 17 greens. Johnson hit nine fairways and 12 greens, two wayward shots leading to his only bogeys.

Once upon a time – say, when he was finishing ninth in the 2015 Fighting Illini Invitational or advancing to the quarterfinals of that year’s U.S. Amateur, both times on Olympia North – Rahm had a deserved reputation as a hothead. Not now. He was cool from start to finish at Olympia, even when shooting 5-over 75 on Thursday, in annexing his second win of the year, following a triumph at The Memorial in July. (That 75 is the highest opening score for a winner in a Western / BMW since 1926, when Walter Hagen scored 75 and went on to win at Highland Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis.)

Rahm said Sunday the fiasco of forgetting to mark a putt on Saturday’s fifth hole served as accidental inspiration to play better.

“I don't know if I would have won had it not happened,” Rahm said. “It kind of made me mad at myself, and I just went on with my focus after that and was able to play amazing golf and stayed aggressive. Maybe if I hadn't I would have two-putted and maybe stayed complacent.”

The penalty created a bogey. It was the 10th and last of his week. He played the final 31 holes of regulation in 9-under. Then came the 66-footer for a final birdie, and a finish that will be remembered forever. 

Around Olympia

Mackenzie Hughes made the top 30 and earned a trip to East Lake next week along with Niemann. They knocked out Adam Long and Winfield’s Kevin Streelman. … The final round scoring average of 70.319, making every round one that played over par, with the four-day average 71.815 strokes. Eight holes were under-par on Sunday, including both par 5s. The third hole was hardest for the day, while the 18th was the toughest test across the week. Don’t tell that to Rahm, whose birdie in the playoff made him even on the hole in five attempts, or Johnson, who was 2-under on it. … Rahm’s 51 greens hit in regulation for the week ranked second for the week, behind only Niemann’s 53. … Matthew Fitzpatrick, who spent a semester at Northwestern before turning pro, was a pair of double-bogeys (one Thursday, one Friday) from tying for the lead. … Next year, the tournament goes out of town again, to Caves Valley Golf Club near Baltimore, Md. It’s the second trip to mid-Atlantic area in four years, following the jaunt to Aronimink near Philadelphia in 2018.

– Tim Cronin

Olympia Fields the winner through three rounds

Saturday, August 29, 2020

The wind was quieter at Olympia Fields Country Club on Saturday. A few more players, 19 in all, scored under par. Yet, at the top of the leader board, nothing has changed. As was the case on Friday night, only two players are under par on the famed – and now reputation-burnished – North Course of the big south suburban club.

Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner of the Western Open under its current BMW Championship moniker, and Hiedki Matsuyama, who threatened last year on Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 course, are the leaders. They sit at 1-under-par 209 after 54 holes, and lead Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann and Mackenzie Hughes by two strokes.

Honest, they do. This is not a fluke. Nobody else is even at even par, so thoroughly has Olympia strangled the birdie hopes of so many so often.

The best round of the day was 66, recorded by Kevin Streelman early in the day and by Jon Rahm later. Rahm, who jumped up 33 places into a tie for sixth, could have had a 65, but unaccountably lifted his ball on a green without marking it. That brain cramp brought a one-stroke penalty.

“I just hope I don’t lose by one stroke,” Rahm said.

There are 20 players within five strokes of the leaders, but it seems to be a race between a handful of people for the right to pose with the J.K. Wadley Trophy. The 2-over crowd, which includes Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Rahm, has a chance, but does the threesome four in arrears at 3-over? Rahm thinks so.

“Are you kidding? Four shots on this golf course is nothing,” he said. “The golf course is only going to get firmer."

Johnson added a second straight 69 to get to 209. Matsuyama bounced back from Friday’s 73 with a 69 himself. They continue to play the long game, trying to keep the ball in play – even Johnson, one of the era’s biggest bombers – and avoid the rough that swallows golf balls whole and remains thick despite litter watering and no rain since a third of an inch on Tuesday.

“It was a really solid day in tough conditions,” Johnson said. “It really doesn’t matter how far away you are, you’ve just got to be in the fairway. That’s the only way to control the ball and control the spin, and even then it’s still difficult to get it close to the hole.”

Johnson has only had the longest drive on one hole this week, a 376-yard rip on Thursday. Otherwise, he’s been long but not crazy long, trying to keep the ball on the short grass, hitting 21 of 42 fairways entering the final round. Matsuyama’s hit only 15 fairways – just six on Saturday and only three on Friday – but has scrambled exceptionally well, somehow ranking first in tee to green strokes gained. But he knows living on the edge isn’t the best recipe for success.

“I just need to hit the ball well tomorrow,” Matsuyama said. “I just tried to do what I could to stay in (contention).”

Johnson was able to do that, keeping hit wits about him despite opening with a bogey on the par-5 first, and later putting off a green into the rough. Yes, the greens are that fast.

“I know I’m playing well, so you’ve just got to be patient,” Johnson said. “Don’t try to be too aggressive, just keep playing golf. The first hole I just hit a poor bunker shot.

“It’s pretty easy to get into the mindset of ‘4-under is a good score.’ This is pretty much a major championship venue, and the conditions, the way it’s set up, it’s playing just like a major.”

Niemann shot 2-under 68 to climb into the tie for third and was thrilled to do so, not only for this week, but for his chances to make the top 30 in season points and thus qualify for next week’s Tour Championship, where a king’s ransom is available. He, though, downplays that.

“I don’t care if I don’t make it to the Tour Championship or not,” Niemann said. “I know that if I could score just under par, I was going to be right there. I think anything can happen tomorrow.”

For several holes on Saturday afternoon, nobody was under par. Clearly, Olympia, maligned by critics during the 2003 U.S. Open because the scores in the first two rounds were low, has gotten its revenge. Patrick Cantlay, whose Saturday 75 knocked him from a share of the lead into a tie for 15th, may still see his prediction of an over-par winner come to pass.

Rahm’s mental gaffe came on the fifth green, and he had no clue why.

“I hit it 30, 40 feet short right and was holding my marker in my pocket, and for some reason I just picked up the ball thinking I marked it already,” Rahm said. “I was thinking of something else. Took the penalty and moved on. I think the most important shot of the round was that second putt, the 6-footer for bogey.”

Rahm, who first played Olympia North in the Fighting Illini Invitational, played brilliantly otherwise. His 10 fairways hit of 14 tied Matthew Fitzpatrick for first, and he ranked second in putting compared to the rest of the field.

Streelman’s 66, one of only two bogey-free rounds (Daniel Berger was the other), came early in the day, and buoyed his mindset.

“I was contemplating retiring last night, so it’s good – I’ll give it another week,” Streelman kidded. “Obviously I wish I wasn’t so far out of it, but who knows? If I can have another big day (Sunday), anything can happen.”

He’ll start the final round tied for 63rd, 13 strokes back. He’ll not be knocking on the doors of the leaders, but the money will still be good.

Around Olympia

Corey Conners aced the 150-yard sixth hole with a 9-iron. “It was just fighting to work its way to the left, landed just right of the pin, short of the green, got a good bounce and started rolling toward the hole,” Conners said. “I was kind of stretching a 9-iron for me to get it to the green there.” It was the eighth of his career and first on the big circuit. … Sunday’s final round tee times start at 8:10 a.m. with Marc Leishman playing solo. Television coverage begins at noon on Golf Channel and switches to NBC at 2 p.m., five minutes after Johnson and Matsuyama tee off. … The increase in under-par rounds is accounted for in the scoring average, 71.391, which is still 1.391 strokes over par. There were 158 birdies on Saturday, but only three on the 18th hole (Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Champ).

– Tim Cronin