A Horschel of a winning color

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Sunday, September 7, 2014

    Here is how you go out and win the BMW Championship six days after after you fatted a 6-iron into the gunch and took yourself out of a shot at a trophy in Boston:
    1. You par the last 11 holes.
    2. You watch your closest pursuers, including the top-ranked player in the world and various pretenders to his crown, blow up down the stretch.
    Not a likely scenario, you say? Too many chances for someone to go wild on the scoreboard?
    Well, it worked on Sunday for Billy Horschel. He scored 1-under-par 69 for a total of 14-under-par 266 and a two-stroke victory over Bubba Watson, who didn’t quite bring Cherry Hills Country Club to its knees with his altitude-influenced length.
    The saving grace for Horschel was that while there were low rounds galore on Sunday – 45 of the 66 remaining players were under the par of 70 – the lowest rounds came from those too far back to challenge. A course-record tying 62 from Russell Knox. A 63 from Morgan Hoffman following a Saturday 62, which got him into next week’s chase for the bullion in Atlanta. And 66s from the likes of Watson, Jim Furyk, Adam Scott and Rory “Four Putt” McIlroy. Yes, he did it again on Sunday, and again on the 12th hole.
    Watson might have challenged had he not bogeyed the first and ninth holes. He was close at the finish only because he birdied the 16th and 17th. Hoffman finished third at 11-under 269 because he played the last 13 holes in 8-under, but a bogey and double-bogey in his first five holes prevented him from forcing the issue.
    Those who had that chance squandered it. Ryan Palmer, three back at dawn, and who tied Horschel briefly on the front nine, played his last seven holes in 5-over, finished with a 71, and stumbled into a tie for fourth at 9-under 271. U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer, also in the final threesome, slept his way to a 73. Sergio Garcia was in the chase until the par-5 17th hole, where he landed in the rough behind the island green with his third shot, then rolled his overcooked pitch into the water. He made an 8. And McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked player, followed Saturday’s four-putt triple bogey 6 on the par-3 12th with a four-putt double-bogey 5. So much for hitting the green in regulation.
    Where was Horschel during all this? Serenely making par after par, 11 in a row to finish after a birdie on the par-4 seventh. The man didn’t three-putt all week, a big reason he ranked first in putting.
    “I sure didn’t make it as easy as I would have loved,” Horschel said. “But I was able to grind something out and get a victory at the end of the day.”
    Which was the point of the exercise. Aside from a photo session with an old trophy and $1.44 million to shove in his pocket, he also moves to the No. 2 spot in the point standings. A win next week in the Tour Championship, and he collects the $10 million FedEx is putting up for first spot.
    It was quite the turnaround from the bobble in Boston.
    “That never crossed my mind,” Horschel said. “I guess you say it’s redemption, but I was coming from behind (there).”
    Here, nobody could surpass him. A 22-foot birdie putt on the par-4 seventh following a bogey on the sixth put him back into the lead. Palmer nipped at his heels for a time, but his bogey on the 12th and double on the 13th took him out of the picture.
    Garcia was two back with two to play until his improbable snowman meltdown on the 548-yard 17th. Into the water with the fourth shot was not something anyone contemplated.
    “It’s what happens when you’re not just mentally sharp,” Garcia said, slyly referencing the four-week playoff grind – though he skipped last week. “If I was mentally sharp, if I was rested, the way I was at the beginning and the middle of the year, I would have talked myself into going for the green (on the second shot). Then just a mistake after another mistake.
    “At least if I’m up there, that’s what is important.”
    Watson ended up up there with a third straight 66. His back nine of 4-under 36 was only surpassed among the top finishers by Hoffman’s 6-under 30.
    “I turned it around,” Watson said.
    All except his putting. He took 119 putts, compared to Horschel’s 113.
    “You’re going to have weeks like that,” Watson said. “I had a chance to scare him (at the last), but I missed it. I’ll take it. Second place is a start in the right direction.”
    Just about the only run that was made was Horschel’s, up the hill in front of the 18th green. It was a 50-yard sprint by a man in need of relief.
    What Horschel is not – at least at this writing – is a well-known winner. Over 111 Western Opens, the old carnival has had its share of lesser-known champions. Joe Durant comes to mind, only because he wouldn’t otherwise come to mind.
    But, unlike Tom Watson’s breakthrough at Butler National in 1974, this isn’t Horschel’s first victory. He won in New Orleans last year. This victory, though, is bigger, thanks to the bonuses: the shot at the $10 million bonus, the automatic berths in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, the exemption through 2016, and the knowledge that he can beat the best, even if he didn’t think he was playing his best. And for someone who wasn’t going to look at leader boards, he broke down and peeked.
    “I looked on the 16th and saw Sergio was two back and Bubba was three back, and I liked my chances,” Horschel said. “On the 17th, before I hit my second, I saw that Sergio chipped into the water.”
    All he had to do was play the last two holes in par, as he had the previous nine. And he did.
    “It means a lot to win, especially an event in the FedEx Cup playoffs,” Horschel said. “Now I’ve got a chance to win $10 million. It’s another step down the road.
    “I like my chances (to win it all). If I was a betting man I’d put some money on me. I’m not going to go ahead and guarantee a victory, but I will say I expect to play very well and expect to have a chance to win on Sunday.”
    – Tim Cronin

Not a Rory-ing finish

    Round 4 Notebook

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Sunday, September 7, 2014

    It can be tough to be Rory McIlroy. Especially when you could have contended in the BMW Championship except for how you played the 12th hole over the course of the week.
    Basically, over the weekend the world’s top player played it like he was wearing boxing gloves instead of a golf glove. A triple-bogey 6 on Saturday. A double-bogey 5 on Sunday. A pair of four-putts.
    It was unfathomable.
    “It hasn’t been what I wanted,” McIlroy said. “But I’m playing solidly and hopefully I can just put everything together next week.”
    But what of the 12th green, the little putting surface of horrors?
    “It’s not my worst, I’ve five-putted before,” McIlroy said. “It’s one of those things that at least I can laugh about and move on.”
    Saturday’s misadventure came into his mind when he was over the second putt on Sunday. He knocked his first putt from 19 feet 4 inches to 5-9. Not gimme range, but he Rory McIlroy, for crying out loud.
    “I said to myself, ‘Let’s not give any more shots away to this hole.’ That was what I said. So maybe I out a little bit too much pressure on myself to hole the second putt,” McIlroy said.
    The putt rolled past the hole, and kept going. It stopped 7 feet 6 inches away.
    “On the third putt, I’m thinking ‘OK, you don’t want to 4-putt again,’ ” he said.
    And it ran 4 feet 3 inches by.
    “I actually holed a decent-length putt for a 4-putt. So.” And there was the boyish grin again.
    McIlroy finished tied for eighth at 8-under 272. Pars on the 12th on Saturday and Sunday, and his total is 13-under 267, a stroke behind winner Billy Horschel. And who knows how the final 25 holes would have played out?
    But McIlroy won’t dwell on the mishaps.
    “It sort of shows everyone out there that we do the same things as they do every weekend,” McIlroy said.

    The road ends for Appleby, Bradley

    That Morgan Hoffman and Ryan Palmer played their way into the top 30 and Tour Championship berths means two players can take next week off. Those two are Stuart Appleby and Keegan Bradley.
    Bradley cast his die snake eyes on Saturday morning, when he withdrew because of personal doubt over an embedded ball ruling on Thursday. He finished 33rd after starting the week 28th.
    Appleby started 26th and finished 31st by playing 46th in the BMW. Hoffman rose from 68th to 21st, while Palmer moved from 37th to 23rd. And Hoffman's 62-63 for 125 over the weekend is a Western Open / BMW record for 36 holes by three strokes.
    The 30-man field will be a man short thanks to Dustin Johnson’s presence in the No. 30 spot. Johnson is in what he and the PGA Tour calls a “leave of absence” but what has been reported as a six-month suspension for a third drug-use violation. Whatever you call it, Johnson will still profit. The 30th spot in the standings earns $303,000 from FedEx, part of their $35 million distribution to the top 125 players, with $10 million going to the winner.
    The top five can win it all next week by winning the tournament: Chris Kirk, Horschel, Bubba Watson, McIlroy and Hunter Mahan. One with no shot is Henrik Stenson, who won last year’s playoffs. He didn’t qualify, finishing 23rd in the BMW for a 52nd-place points finish.

    To Castle Pines in 2018?

    There’s a possible second option for the WGA for a return visit to the Denver area, which could happen as early as 2018. It’s Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Pines, south of downtown Denver by about 23 miles, and 18 miles south of Cherry Hills.
    WGA director and Cherry Hills member George Solich, the prime mover behind the presence of the tournament here this week, is also a member there. Castle Pines owner Jack Vickers, who created the International, the modified Stableford format tournament that was a success for 21 years through 2006 until the PGA Tour asked him to put move to the old Western Open dates when the Western became the BMW and moved to September, might be persuaded to open the gates of his club again.
    The first tee at Cherry Hills is 5,411 feet above sea level, and the ball flies. Castle Pines is even more lofty, at 6,335 feet. Bubba Watson could launch one into orbit there.
    The sticking point, aside from Cherry Hills being interested, is the age of Vickers. He’s 89. At that age, long-term plans aren’t always made.

    Around Cherry Hills

    Defending champion Zach Johnson finished 43rd at 2-over 282. ... For the fifth straight day, the gallery – a sellout of 28,000 – arrived early and stayed late, savoring the appearance of the PGA Tour’s best. ... With 45 players bettering par and another five at par, the field posted a blistering 68.697 strokes on the par-70 (for the week) layout. It’ll be back to a par 72 for the members. The average for the week was 69.840. ... Sergio Garcia’s 3-under 67 started with an outward 29 featuring his second eagle 2 of the week on the par-5 seventh. He’ll not remember that as long as he does the snowman at the 17th. ... Next year’s tournament at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, from Sept. 17-20, two weeks later than this year because there’s no Ryder Cup to jam up the schedule.
    – Tim Cronin

Low scores at mile-high Cherry Hills

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Saturday, September 6, 2014

    The recipe for low scores in a golf tournament includes the following ingredients:
    1. Skilled players.
    2. Soft greens that accept shots.
    3. Fairways that are slow, keeping balls from skittering into the rough.
    4. Light winds.
    All of the above were present on Saturday at Cherry Hills Country Club. The low scores were posted on cue.
    A course-record 8-under-par 62 by Morgan Hoffman, bringing him into contention. A 63 by Billy Horschel, vaulting him into the lead. A 64 by Martin Kaymer, putting him squarely in the chase. A slew of 67s, including one authored by Ryan Palmer punctuated by a birdie at the last to place him three in arrears of Horschel.
    All that happened in the third round of the mile-high BMW Championship. As did this: Rory McIlroy four-putting his way off the leader board. Winfield’s own Kevin Streelman making a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 12th. William McGirt, seemingly allergic to low scores on the weekend, making back-to-back double bogeys. Henrik Stenson making birdies on his first three holes and shooting 2-over 72.
    Oh, and Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley withdrew before a ball was struck in anger.
    All but the last roundly entertained the gallery of about 27,000 who climbed the hills and cruised the valleys of Cherry Hills. As third rounds of a Western Open go, it had everything, and the collection of players leading the parade hint at a rousing finish to the 111th edition on the morrow.
    Horschel, who had the Deutsche Bank Classic in his grasp on Monday until the fatted 6-iron seen round Boston, is at 13-under-par 197 after his splendid bogey-free 63, which featured birdies on four of the last five holes, the last a right-to-left excursion of 32 feet before disappearing. He’s won once in his career, and, despite considerable questioning, has managed to put the gaffe on last week’s 72nd hole behind him.
    “Last week was more than a bad 6-iron at the end,” Horschel said. “It happens. I’ve got thick skin. Today was a great round. It’s a really challenging golf course. You can easily make bogey if you get out of position. To play bogey-free is one of the best three to five rounds I’ve had all year.”
    His margin over Palmer is three strokes, and would have been four except Palmer also made a 3 at the last, a 30-footer in his case. (This was the exception, not the norm; there were only eight birdies on the 18th in the 66-player field, but the scoring average was 69.424, under the stern par of 70 for the first time.)
    Palmer flew under the radar playing in the final threesome with gallery favorites McIlroy and Sergio Garcia, and lived to tell about it: “I had my few ‘Rory’s and ‘Palmer’s, had my 10 or 15 people following me. I’m taking the next step in my career, I think, and tomorrow can give myself a chance down the end.”
    Kaymer and Bubba Watson are tied for third at 8-under 202, U.S. Open champion Kaymer via the aforementioned 64, Masters champion Watson via a bogey-free 66. And Rickie Fowler, who had the best overall record in the majors this year without winning, is six back at 7-under 203 after a 66. Right behind him: Sergio Garcia at 6-under 204 following a 2-over 72, the only one of the leaders to go backwards on a day meant for going into overdrive.
    All of them are chasing Horschel, who eschews gazing at scoreboards while playing.
    “I’m in the best position I can be in going into Sunday,” Horschel said. “Think I’ve learned enough in the last year or year and a half to deal with what’s going to come from tomorrow. I’m going to do my thing and not let anything effect me, and have fun. Golf’s fun.”
    It was even more fun for Hoffman, whose 62 broke the course record of 64 established by Doug Tewell in the first round of the 1985 PGA by two strokes. (Palmer and Garcia tied it Friday, and Kaymer equaled it Saturday after Hoffman broke it.)
    “I don’t have anything to lose, so I was just trying to have some fun,” Hoffmann said.
    Hoffman started on the back nine, birdied his first three holes, ran three more birds together at 16-17-18 to turn in 6-under 30, then birdied the first and third holes. He was 8-under after 12 holes and needed to birdie three of the last six to shoot 59. He played them in even par, with four pars, a birdie and a bogey.
    “I don’t think you should be out here if you’re scared to go low,” Hoffmann said. “That 59 number was a big goal for me. Hopefully, I can pull it off tomorrow.”
    Hoffman had scored a 10-under 62 in college, but this was his best on the PGA Tour. He was fully aware that setting the record at Cherry Hills was a cut above. He soaked in the history from the Palmer Tee to the rest of it during the 2009 Palmer Cup, a college competition based on the Ryder Cup.
    “It’s as good as I remember,” Hoffman said of the club. “The facilities are great and everybody treats us awesome.”
    Hoffman starts the final round tied for 10th, and might have to duplicate his feat. He almost surely has to finish first or second to advance to the next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Not bad for someone all but off the charts – 124th – after the Wyndham, but has used top-25 finishes the last two weeks to keep going in the playoffs.
    “This whole FedEx Cup has been a bonus, really,” Hoffman said. “Not winning at all, but sneaking in was kind of a high. (I’m) just trying to have some fun out here and keep riding the train.”
    – Tim Cronin

Mickelson, Bradley go AWOL

    Round 3 Notebook

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Saturday, September 6, 2014

    Before Morgan Hoffman came along and carpet-bombed Cherry Hills Country Club with birdies for a course-record 62, the morning talk at the BMW Championship was the surprising leave-taking of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. The duo, a likely Ryder Cup pairing, withdrew for totally different reasons before play began.
    Mickelson, 6-over and 14 strokes off the pace, said he needed rest. He cleaned out his locker on Friday night, but his departure wasn’t revealed until the morning.
    The bigger shocker came at about 9 a.m., when the WD sign went up next to Bradley’s name on the scoreboard. And the reason behind it is amazing.
    Bradley, 3-over after 36 holes, decided a favorable ruling he received from the PGA Tour on an embedded ball near the 18th green on Thursday, and one confirmed by PGA Tour rules chief Slugger White on Friday, was incorrect, and pulled out of the tournament.
    In doing so, he probably lost any shot at advancing to next week’s Tour Championship, which takes the top 30 in the season point standings. Bradley was 28th entering this week and will probably fall out of the eligibles.
    “I just feel withdrawing is the right thing to do to protect the field in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship next week,” Bradley said. “It’s eating me alive.”
    It was the chain of events, more than the ruling, that nagged at Bradley. His 233-yard 4-iron third shot embedded in the steep grass face above the left bunker fronting the green. Under Rule 25-2, Bradley took relief for a ball embedded in its pitch mark. He chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey 6.
    However, he didn’t ask Stuart Appleby or Justin Rose, the other players in his group, to look as the ball, which is customary. He did call for a roving rules official after making the drop, who said he was in the clear.
    He was in the scoring room for a longer-than-usual amount of time on Thursday. At some point Thursday, a fan told he he saw the ball bounce before coming to rest. Bradley then went to White before play on Friday. They went back to the spot, and White confirmed that Bradley didn’t violate a rule.
    That still wasn’t enough for the 2012 PGA Champion.
    “I didn’t call my fellow competitors for help in the first place and that bothers me,” Bradley said in a statement released by his agent. “I know the official approved the drop but I just can’t be absolutely sure it was the right spot.”
    That decision cost Bradley whatever prize money he was going to earn this week, and, presuming he’s out of the top 30, a shot at the $10 million bonus for the FedEx Cup champion and the slice of the regular purse money in Atlanta.
    In other words, a decision that could cost Bradley over $11 million.
    But his pillow will be soft tonight.
    Mickelson’s presumably will be as well, though his departure was more self-serving. With little chance to win and without a berth in the Tour Championship, Mickelson said he was going home to rest up for the Ryder Cup. Similar to how the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, Mickelson left under cover of darkness. This was released by his PR people after midnight:
    “My primary goal is to rest and prepare for the Ryder Cup. Without a chance to contend at the Tour Championship, the most important thing for me now is to prepare for the Ryder Cup.”
    Never mind that there were probably more than a few people in Saturday’s big crowd who traipsed out to Cherry Hills, parked in a muddy lot, rode a shuttle, walked through 150 yards of cattle pen-style fencing and a showroom-sized display of BMW cars and motorcycles before seeing the golf course, who fully expected to see Phil Mickelson.
    Bradley had a crisis of conscience. Mickelson was selfish. Two more days of golf weren’t going to kill him. The Ryder Cup is three weekends away. He would have been well-rested.

    McIlroy pulls a Seve

    Once upon a four-putt, Seve Ballesteros explained his gaffe thusly: “I mees, I mees, I mees, I make.”
    Rory McIlroy could have said as much on Saturday, when he missed the green at the par-3 12th hole, chipped to 4 feet 9 inches, and four-putted for a triple-bogey 6.
    What? The world No. 1 suddenly looking like the world No. 1,000,000?
    “The 12th hole just really derailed me,” McIlroy said. “The first two putts I didn’t lose any concentration. I took my time over them. I just completely misread the first one. Then just hit a bad putt the second, and then the third one I was just going for a tap-in and just lost concentration.”
    He finished with a 2-over 72 for 4-under 206 and is nine back of leader Billy Horschel with a round to play. Arnold Palmer was seven back and won the 1960 U.S. Open on the same course.
    “I just need to go out tomorrow and try to post a low one and finish as high as possible (to) give myself the best possible chance going into Atlanta next week,” McIlroy said.

    Around Cherry Hills

    Looking for a lurker going into the final round? Check those tied for seventh, eight strokes back to 5-under 205: Jim Furyk (a former winner and author of a 59 at Conway Farms last year), Jordan Spieth (winless since last year’s John Deere Classic), and Graham DeLeat. ... Hunter Mahan is 19 strokes off the pace, but he’s a lock to advance to the Tour Championship, and the only player on the circuit who will have played in all 32 playoff tournaments since the format began in 2007. Mickelson and Steve Stricker’s streaks of making the Tour Championship each year of the playoff era have ended ... Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed drove the first green on Saturday, each making birdie. ... With Mickelson and Bradley off the premises, there are 16 Ryder Cup players left in the field, 10 U.S. and six Europeans. Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, at 8-under 202, lead that group.
    – Tim Cronin

Garcia moves to the top

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Friday, September 5, 2014

    There was a time when the slightest disturbance could get Sergio Garcia off his game. He was the walking realization of P.G. Wodehouse’s character flummoxed by the flapping of butterfly wings in the adjacent meadow.
    Garcia is that person no longer. Because he is not, he’s in the lead after two rounds of the BMW Championship – ye olde Western Open, if you will – at Cherry Hills Country Club.
    The proof of Garcia’s shedding of the rabbit ears came on the 18th green. Garcia had scrambled to save par on the par-5 17th after dunking his second, and, after a solid drive and approach, stood on the edge of the 18th green with an opportunity to wrest the lead from Ryan Palmer. He was over the ball, giving the line on his 22-foot putt a first look, when someone on the balcony of the BMW luxury suite behind the green dropped a glass.
    Garcia backed off and looked up. Once upon a time, he would also have imitated a volcano.
    Instead, with Mount Sergio dormant, he got back to business, lined up again, and rolled the birdie putt home for a 6-under-par 64 and a two-day aggregate of 8-under-par 132, a stroke ahead of Palmer, who posted a 64 a few minutes earlier.
    Need more evidence? How about an eardrum popping when he was on the sixth green, elevation 5,360 feet?
    “It obviously helped, because I made a 2 on the next (the par-4 seventh),” Garcia kidded. “It was uncomfortable for five or six holes. First I heard a popping sound. It’s happened before, but it didn’t feel quite the same as before and still doesn’t. I was uncomfortable for five or six hole.”
    One ear banging away, Garcia holed a full lob wedge from 128 yards for his deuce eagle on the seventh, and after a bogey on the eighth, birdied the 12th and 13th to move to 6-under. Birds at the 16th and 18th, the latter after the balcony clatter, set his final score.
    But a 132, a stroke higher than the halfway-point total for the last three Western / BMWs, doesn’t satisfy Garcia, a tough judge.
    “I need to feel like I played better,” Garcia said. “I didn’t play bad, don’t get me wrong. But I played better at the British Open and at Bridgestone.”
    Not because he doesn’t stand a chance to win the tournament, or win the playoff pot o’gold next week at East Lake. But because the Big One in his eyes, the Ryder Cup, is less than a month distant.
    “The $10 million (for winning the FedEx Cup), that’s obviously a bonus,” Garcia said. “At the PGA and the Barclays, I hit some great shots. I want to build momentum and be where I need to be for the Ryder Cup. That’s the most important thing to me.”
    The cast in pursuit of Garcia, who has two top nines in this affair, is a blue-riband group. Palmer, his 64 highlighted by a second eagle in as many days, is the aforementioned stroke back. Rory McIlroy is two back at 6-under 134 after a second straight 67, highlighted by three birdies in the last four holes. Billy Horschel, the Cinderella runner-up last week in Boston, joins him there.
    And look who’s in a tie for fifth: That old belter himself, Bubba Watson, whose 4-under 66 puts him at 4-under 136 at the halfway point. Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson are in a gaggle at 3-under 137.
    Palmer hit only three fairways – Garcia only hit five – en route to his 64. That’s where the softer conditions paid off.
    “You could play from the rough a lot,” Palmer said. “I had a lot of wedges out of the rough. Balls were even stopping and spinning back out of the rough. I drew a lot of good lies.”
    Palmer’s eagle at No. 7, a 396-yard test, came via a 30-yard pitch. He holed birdie putts of 13 and 7 feet on the last two holes to finish with a flourish.
    Thanks to the tightly bunched field after the first round – 49 players were within five strokes – the top of the scoreboard featured more changes than a Broadway star’s wardrobe. That Garcia is the man standing at the top when the dinner bell rang is impressive. Now, he has to break his bad run of surrendering 36-hole leads. He’s 1-for-9 converting that into victory, with only the 2001 Buick Classic a success.
    “You could be a little more aggressive today,” Garcia said, noting the softer greens courtesy of the half-inch overnight rain made the putting surfaces more receptive. “It played longer and the breeze made it more challenging.”
    The cool temperatures – it never got higher than 64 degrees – negated the distance advantage heat gives a well-struck shot, but the altitude edge was still there. That made for some educated guesses on approaches, not all of them good.
    “You don’t really look at the yardage ... (you) take off 10 percent,” Watson said. “It’s roughly 7,000 yards if you do that. If you look at it that way, it’s a lot shorter than a normal course we play.”
    Watson said he was trying to hit different shots off the tees, then backtracked and said he was hitting drivers “as hard as I can so it gets way down there.”
    Some things never change.
    – Tim Cronin