Smith takes a Knapp in Mid-Am Sweet 16

    Tuesday, September 11, 2012
    Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

    Sean Knapp was best man for Nathan Smith at his wedding. The two western Pennsylvanians play golf together often, so much that Smith has felt it in his wallet.
    “He’s been taking my money all year,” Smith said.
    Rest assured that Smith has won his share back, and Tuesday, with only pride on the line, Smith won the biggest match the two have met in, taking 19 holes to capture a Sweet Sixteen match in the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Conway Farms Golf Club.
    “I don’t know where I am right now,” Smith said after winning his second match of the day.
    He’s in a most familiar position. Smith, 34, has won this championship three times, the biggest one designed for post-college age players, most recently two years ago.
    But in all those previous occasions, in all the matches, he was playing either casual acquaintances or complete strangers. Not one of his closest friends.
    “It’s tough playing a friend like that,” Smith said. “When I saw he was in my half of the bracket, I said, ‘Oh, no.’ But once you get out there, you play.”
    Play Smith did, as did Knapp. They traded holes back and forth with regularity. Knapp had a 1-up lead at the turn, and then the fun began. Dual birdies on the par-3 11th hole, Smith sinking his putt from 30 feet and Knapp answering from just a bit less. Smith making a 15-footer for a birdie on the par-5 14th, then another bird on the 15th after driving the green with from the 284-yard forward tee, squaring the match.
    It came down to the first extra hole, Conway’s 385-yard first, a dogleg right that coasts downhill. Smith hit the fairway. Knapp hit the rough and was blocked by trees.
    “I thought he had a shot,” Smith said.
    He didn’t, clipping the trees and missing the green with his approach. That led to his defeat and his friend’s advancement.
    Wednesday brings the quarterfinals and semifinals, the two survivors advancing to Thursday’s 36-hole championship match, where two things will be on the line: Possession of the Robert T. Jones Memorial Mid-Amateur Trophy, and, according to custom, an invitation to next year’s Masters Tournament. The latter is a bauble that would be hard to turn down, even for players thinking of turning pro.
    Garrett Rank, for instance, a Canadian who has survived testicular cancer and referees in the Ontario Hockey League. He’s considering turning pro next year, but not until the fall, and certainly not until after mid-April should be snag the title.
    “No, it’s Q school next year,” Rank said, fully aware of the calendar. The youngest player in the field, he turned 25 and became eligible for the Mid-Am on Sept. 5.
    So is Dennis Bull, an Illinois native who calls Norwalk, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, home. The Illinois State graduate grew up in Fairbury, a town of about 3,900 southeast of Pontiac, and kicked around turning pro before finding business more lucrative. He said he’d missed qualifing for USGA championships by one stroke eight or nine times before advancing to Conway Farms.
    Now, he’s already exempt for next year’s Mid-Amateur by virtue of making the quarterfinal round, and three matches from Augusta National. For Bull, the key shot Wednesday was his last one, a wedge to a foot on the 452-yard par-4 18th that afternoon opponent Charlie Blanchard couldn’t match.
    But Bull has his work cut out on Thursday morning. He faces Tim Jackson, a 53-year-old two-time Mid-Amateur champion who last won in 2001.
    “I have an advantage to be as old as I am,” Jackson said. “I’m still motivated to play. Winning a third Mid-Am would mean as much as the first two, maybe a little more.”
    – Tim Cronin
    -----
    Tuesday’s Round of 16 results: Dennis Bull, Norwalk, Iowa, d. Charlie Blanchard, North Providence, R.I., 2 up; Tim Jackson, Germantown, Tenn., d. John Patterson, Bluffton, S.C., 4 & 2; Corby Segal, Santa Clarita, Calif., d. Uly Grisette, Winston Salem, S.S., 2 up; Nathan Smith, Pittsburgh, d. Sean Knapp, Oakmont, Pa., 19 holes; Todd White, Spartanburg, S.C., d. Kevin Wassmer, Poseyville, Ind., 1 up; Casey Boyns, Monterey, Calif., d. Michael Muehr, Potomac Falls, Va., 1 up; Matthew Mattare, New York, d., Stephen Cox, Jonesboro, Ark., 2 & 1; Garrett Rank, Elmira, Ontario, d. Matt Cohn, San Francisco, 5 & 3.
    Wednesday morning’s quarterfinal matches: Bull vs. Jackson, 7 a.m.; Segan vs. Smith, 7:15 a.m.; Smith vs. White, 7:30 a.m.; Mattare vs. Rank, 7:45 a.m.

McIlroy masters Crooked Stick

    Sunday, September 9, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The best golf courses produce the best champions, those who have a complete game that can stand up in the heat of a final round.
    Crooked Stick Golf Club did that on Sunday, when a rollicking festival of eagles and birdies called the BMW Championship – the 109th edition of the Western Open of yore – brought forth Rory McIlroy as the champion golfer of 2012.
    He’s not bad, this McIlroy. The 23-year-old product of Northern Ireland won three times in his last four starts, including an eight-stroke victory at the PGA Championship last month. He’s the top-ranked player in the world. He’s the future of the game, and the present as well.
    He beat the rest of the best players in the world by scoring 5-under-par 67 in the final round for an aggregate score of 20-under-par 268. The margin was two strokes over Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood, three over Tiger Woods and Robert Garrigus, and four over Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott.
    McIlroy won by hitting 51 greens, 41 of 56 fairways, needing only 108 putts – three-putting only twice – and never stepping into a bunker all week. That likely hasn’t been accomplished by a winner in any event of significance since Tiger Woods did so at the Old Course in annexing the 2000 British Open, the second victory in his Grand Slam.
    McIlroy made six birdies in the final round befor a harmless bogey at the last, and never made a putt of significant length among those birdies.
    “I didn’t need to,” he agreed. “The ball-striking was good. It was a big turnaround from yesterday, which was very nice.”
    It’s fair to say he had his A game from tee to green and a B-minus game on the greens, and the combination was good enough to hold off the fastest field seen in this venerable championship in the six years the Western has been played as the BMW, and as the third round of the playoffs for the FedEx Cup.
    “The difference is the ability to save par,” McIlroy said of his late-summer surge. “A few up-and-downs yesterday gave me the ability to win this tournament.”
    That, and a slight adjustment in his swing after Saturday’s 3-under 69, when he scrambled while hitting only 8-of-14 fairways and only half the greens. He discovered his body was spinning too fast, and made a change. The result: 13-of-14 fairways hit on Sunday.
    “The club was late catching up and I was hitting everything to the right,” McIlroy said of Saturday’s adventure. “Just a little bit of timing, waiting on it at the top of the backswing and releasing it, that straightened up the driver a lot today.
    “The thing about the last two weeks, I’ve just played with complete trust and complete confidence in my ability.”
    McIlroy started the day a stroke behind Mickelson and Vijay Singh. He took the lead with a 4-foot, 8-inch birdie putt on the par-4 10th hole, getting to 19-under. A par save on 14 kept his momentum going, and birdies on the 15th and 16th got him to 21-under sealed the victory. While many threatened, only Westwood and Mickelson took it as deep at 19-under, and for only one hole each. McIlroy was in another world, much like Woods used to be.
    “The more you put yourself in this position and the more you win and the more you pick up trophies, it becomes normal, and it feels like this is what you’re supposed to do,” McIlroy said. “I don’t I’m quite there (to Woods’ previous level) yet, but I’m getting to that stage where I’m thinking, this is what I should be doing. I should be lifting a trophy at the end of the week.”
    This trophy is the J.K. Wadley Trophy, one of the more iconic in the game. In a fortnight, McIlroy may be lifting the FedEx Cup, one of the more garish in the game.
    “I’m going to keep the run going as long as possible,” McIlroy said.
    His peers had nothing but praise for him.
    “A lot of people stayed in neutral and Rory geared ahead,” said Mickelson, whose tie for second at 18-under 270 is his best in the BMW / Western. “He’s playing great, and he’s going to be tough at East Lake.”
    “He’s just maturing all the time,” said Westwood, who matched Mickelson at 270 while playing with McIlroy. “He’s just a very, very good player.”
    And Woods, who has praised him lavishly of late, continued in that vein.
    “He’s doing the things he needs to do,” Woods said. “He’s really playing well and he’s making a ton of putts. That’s a great combo.”
    To go with an impossibly great future.
    – Tim Cronin

Mickelson says he's on the verge

    Sunday, September 9, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Phil Mickelson was right there. The co-leader entering the final round. The leader after a brilliant chip from the collar at the par-4 second. The man who made a little girl’s day by giving her a $99 tip for a $1 glass of lemonade on the ride into Crooked Stick Golf Club on Sunday morning.
    How could he not win?
    By only scoring 2-under-par 70 when Rory McIlroy was zooming past him and the rest of the field with a 5-under 67, that’s how.
    Mickelson didn’t play poorly on Sunday. He just didn’t click when he had to. And he knew it.
    “My timing was just a fraction off,” Mickelson said after finishing at 18-under 270. “I wasn’t quite getting the ball on line with my irons, and my putter was a little bit off, whether the speed or the read.”
    He had some wayward shots – a drive on the par-4 seventh went down the hill and forced a bogey from a bad lie – and in the end, those cost him victory. Both he and McIlroy had 108 putts, and Mickelson never three-putted. McIlroy did so twice.
    So is Mickelson downcast about his play? Not the man who sees even a broken glass as half-full. And he is fourth in the playoff point standings, which means if he wins the Tour Championship at East Lake, he wins the FedEx Cup and the $10 million pot o’gold at rainbow’s end.
    “I had a fourth (in Boston) last week, tied for second this week,” Mickelson said. “I feel really good about where my game is headed.”
    Mickelson has won twice at East Lake, which is another plus.
    “I look at a day like this as just a blip as opposed to a trend,” Mickelson said. “The trend is going up.”

    As the FedEx Cup turned

    Robert Garrigus and Ryan Moore played themselves into the top 30 in the seasons standings and thus punched a ticket for East Lake with finishes of T-4 and T-10, respectively, in the Western. But the numbers fluctuated like a light bulb powered by hamsters most of the day.
    It took until late in the round that Scott Piercy was a lock for 30th place, knocking out Kyle Stanley. And Vijay Singh, who started the week 49th, went until the final holes before his fate of just missing out – he finished 33rd in the season-long race – was sealed.
    Garrigus and Moore was thrilled, but the other half of the story is those who were in and now are out.
    Bill Haas gave it a go, but failed to advance to East Lake, where he won it all last year. four bogeys in the last five holes, including the last three, dropped him from 28th to 32nd.
    “When nerves are an issue and I’m under the gun, I’ve got to be better,” Haas said. “Right now I’m far from competitive.”
    Haas didn’t know it, but if he made a 59-footer for par on the 18th hole, he would have finished 30th.
    “I didn’t think I was even close,” Haas said. “That’s even more frustrating. That said, I hit a nice putt. I’m not mad at the putt, I just didn’t deserve it.”
    Stanley helped decide his fate at the par-3 sixth, where he double-bogeyed. He also bogeyed the 18th.
    “I don’t really know what I feel right now,” Stanley said. “I’ve felt pretty stale for quite some time here.”
    Rickie Fowler advanced to the Tour Championship for the first time, while John Huh was the only player from this year’s crop of rookies to advance.

    Roar of the crowd

    Officials of the Western Golf Association didn’t crow about attendance this week, but should have. A gallery of at least 35,000 was on hand Sunday, as it was Saturday, to go with crowds of around 30,000 on Thursday and Friday.
    The WGA had privately estimated 111,000 for the first six days at Crooked Stick, and that included the rained-out pro-am on Monday, when the Deutsche Bank Classic was wrapping up in Boston. An NBC Sports source familiar with the numbers said the WGA counted only 49,000 for the seven days of the 2011 tournament at Cog Hill.
    “The corporate support has been great in Chicago, great for a long time, but we’ve had a lot more people show up here than we’ve had in recent years in Chicago,” WGA tournament VP Vince Pellegrino told the Associated Press. “The locals into golf here said this would be big, but till you see it in person, you're not really sure.”
    Now he’s sure, and inclined to come back to Crooked Stick, a big supporter of the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation, sooner rather than later. A club source said they’d want the BMW back, but not right away. The club has hosted a large run of tournaments in recent years, including the 2009 U.S. Senior Open and 2005 Solheim Cup, and wants a break of a few years.
    The WGA is taking the old Western Open out of Chicago in even-numbered years now. The 2014 playing is set for Cherry Hills Country Club, near Denver. The 2016 edition will probably go to Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco, as part of the PGA Tour’s deal to play a playoff tournament there. That would make 2018 the next non-Chicago open date.
    Next year’s tournament will be at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, which will probably host the 2015 edition as well. This week, Conway Farms is hosting the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

    Around Crooked Stick

    Pete Dye, the man who made Crooked Stick, both club and course, was at the 18th green to shake winner Rory McIlroy’s hand when he finished play. Dye watched most of the tournament from his modest house adjacent to the 18th fairway, because each time he ventured onto the grounds, he was mobbed by fans seeking his autograph. ... Hunter Mahan finished dead last, carding a 77 for an even 300 this week. He still made $16,000. ... Arnold Palmer, a two-time Western Open winner, turns 83 tomorrow.
    – Tim Cronin

It's a madhouse at Crooked Stick: 4-way tie!

    Sunday, September 9, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The Shootout at the Stick is not a misnomer. Phil Mickelson and his pals, including Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore, and warm-up act Bubba Watson, are once again making a mockery of Crooked Stick Golf Club’s par of 72.
    Watson went around in 7-under-par 65 to finish at 12-under 276. Moore played the front nine in 4-under 32. Mickelson and McIlroy were 2-under for six and seven holes, respectively, with Mickelson holing a 42-foot birdie chip on the par-4 second. But he bogeyed the seventh, falling to -17 and into a four-way tie with McIlroy, Lee Westwood and Vijay Singh. It was only momentary for Singh, who bogeyed the seventh.
    And it became a four-way tie again with Dustin Johnson’s chip-in for eagle from behind the ninth green to get to -17, the latest in a four-day fireworks display. To repeat, he joins Mickelson, McIlroy and Westwood on top as of 3:13 p.m.
    Tiger Woods? He’s 1-under for the day and four off the pace.
    But it’s not easy for everybody. Bill Haas, the defending FedEx Cup champion who is desperately trying to return to East Lake Golf Club, double-bogeyed the sixth hole, a par 3, by dumping his tee shot in a pot bunker to the left of the green. He chunked it into the rough, then flopped it on the green well short of the hole, and two-putted for a double-bogey 5.
    That dropped him to 30th in the PGA Tour point standings, and when Kyle Stanley, in the group behind, birdied the par-5 fifth hole, Haas was shoved to 31st place. But Stanley shoved his tee shot on the sixth into the water, and the standing shifted again. They likely will much of the afternoon. Haas was still 30th in the points through 13 holes.
    The scoring average was 72.068 at 3:13 p.m. Stay with us!
    – Tim Cronin

A feast of golf awaits

    Sunday, September 9, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    It couldn’t be more beautiful at Crooked Stick Golf Club for the final round of the BMW Championship, known to the history-minded, and at least privately to some WGA directors, as the 109th Western Open. There are only a few clouds in the sky, spectators are converging from all points, and the golf course looks magnificent.
    So does the leader board. The prospects for a final round festival of birdies should hardly be negated by a collection of pernicious pin placements, given the softness of the course and the quality of the participants.
    Start with co-leaders Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. They’re 16-under-par, a total of 200 strokes, which is stout. Mickelson fired an 8-under-par 64 – the seventh 64 of the week – on Saturday. Right behind at 15-under 201 are Lee Westwood and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, two of Europe’s brightest stars and Ryder Cup participants. McIlroy scored 64 on Thursday.
    Then we have Adam Scott, often heralded but rarely able to finish on Sunday, and designated lurker Robert Garrigus, sitting pretty at 14-under 202, along with big hitter and 2010 champion Dustin Johnson, who is paired with Tiger Woods, at 13-under 203 in the fourth-from-last group.
    Stars stud the last three hours of pairings. The fan watching Golf Channel or NBC, or on site, will be able to watch Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, defending champion Dustin Rose, defending FedEx Cup champion Bill Haas – who needs a good finish to make the top 30 in the season points race and advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, a fortnight in the future – Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Steve Stricker and Luke Donald, Chicago’s European Ryder Cupper, plus Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson.
    It’s a veritable feast of golf. Lift, clean and place golf for the fourth straight day thanks to the series of downpours over the last week, but a feast nonetheless. Bon appetit!
    – Tim Cronin