Coming Sunday: Shootout at the Stick

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    This 109th Open Championship of the Western Golf Association now has another name.
    One besides the BMW Championship, that is.
    Welcome to the Shootout at the Stick.
    That’s the only thing to call it after the third straight romp deep into red numbers by players of great skill who were allowed to put the ball in their hand.
    Here’s the leaderboard – gold-plated names to go with red numbers – entering Sunday’s final round at defenseless Crooked Stick Golf Club:
    Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh are co-leaders at 16-under-par 200. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood are a stroke back at 15-under 201. Dustin Johnson, Robert Garrigus and Adam Scott share fourth place at 14-under 202. Tiger Woods is eighth at 13-under 203. Lurking four strokes back at 204 are Zach Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Bo Van Pelt.
    Those top 11 players have combined to win 25 professional majors, plus six Western Opens / BMWs and assorted Players Championships and FedEx Cups.
    Is that any good? Will that guarantee a walkup crowd of mammoth proportions on Sunday morning? Who wouldn’t want to come out and hang with Phil and Rory and Tiger and Bo, the local Hoosier in the hunt?
    “The cream has risen to the top, hasn’t it?” said Westwood after his 4-under 68.
    Short of the butterflies flitting in each player’s stomach during a major championship, this is as good as it gets for them and for those who watch them.
    Of those 11 low-shooting stars, only Woods and Van Pelt failed to break 70 on Saturday, and they scored 1-under 71, Woods fighting knee pain on the front nine. Mickelson, lounging in 13th place entering the day, blistered Crooked Stick with 10 birdies en route to an 8-under 64, the seventh such course record-tying score of the week. Scott and Garrigus barged into the conversation with 6-under 66s, Garrigus posting a 5-under 31 on the course’s difficult back nine.
    Of the 70 players in this third playoff tournament of the four comprising the FedEx Cup series, 17 are 10 or more under par through 54 holes. Ben Curtis made five birdies in a row and six in eight holes, shot 68, and is in an 18th-place logjam with Justin Rose, the defending champion. They’re at 9-under 207, those slackers.
    They’re seven strokes back, but might as well be 70 back, considering the depth of the talent pool ahead of them.
    This particular Saturday was as much positioning day as it was, as Ken Venturi dubbed it long ago, “Moving Day.”
    But Mickelson moved, and brought many in the gallery of approximately 35,000 with him. The stylish lefthander birdied five straight holes and seven in a stretch of nine from the fourth to the 13th, jumping from 7-under to 14-under. From that point, he and Singh swapped the lead.
    “It’s a lot of fun, fun to see putts go in, fun to hit fairways and attack pins,” Mickelson said. “It’s great to be back in the mix at the right time.”
    Mickelson was barely in the mix in 14 appearances at Cog Hill, and never at the end of four days. His best finish, a tie for 10th, came two years ago thanks to a back-door 67 on Sunday. He appeared to be in the hunt in 1994, trailing Nick Price by a stroke after 36 holes, then scored back-to-back 77s and finished in a tie for 64th.
    Now he has a shot to add this title to a glittering resume that goes back to his amateur days, when he won the Tucson Open and Western Amateur in the same year. That was 1991, when the PGA Championship was at Crooked Stick, but Mickelson wasn’t eligible to play. He somehow thought he was, even though he was an amateur, and even though the PGA was and is open to pros only.
    “I look back on that 20 years later and I’m still upset,” Mickelson said after his 64.
    Hey, whatever works as a motivator.
    Mickelson poured in a total of 31 feet of birdie putts from the sixth through nine holes, those to go with six others, including a 15-footer from the collar at the last. The roar for that one echoed off the glass-fronted corporate suites. Unaccountably, it didn’t set off the car alarms on the BMWs parked here and there across this sylvan, if muddy, landscape. But the rest of the field heard it, then played possum about it.
    “They’re just other players,” Singh said, dismissing the resumes of the other notables when considering his challengers. “I’m going to play my game, focus on my game, and see what happens. I think I’m playing good enough to win the golf tournament, and that’s how I’m going to think tomorrow.”
    Singh won the first FedEx Cup in 2007, but hasn’t won on the PGA Tour in four years. At 49, this may be his last best chance to hold a trophy in his hands by beating the kids. And, after five top 10s in the Western, the best a second to Joe Durant in 1998, maybe this is his time.
    There’s karma in golf, though. Singh has never fully escaped from the scorecard scandal that earned him a suspension from the Asian Tour in 1985 and sent him into oblivion. He came all the way back and has been a good, if generally taciturn, citizen of the game since then.
    McIlroy is the future and the present, based on his ranking, his win last Monday in Boston, and his looming presence a stroke in arrears. Hitting only eight fairways and nine greens, he scrambled to a 69 anyway, then went to the range to figure out why he was, in his words, “hitting the ball awfully from tee to green.”
    This from one of the dozen players in the field to post three rounds in the 60s so far, including an opening 64. If he figures things out, there’s no telling how low he can go.
    Meanwhile, there are all those guys chasing the leaders, including Dustin Johnson, who has hit only 26 of 42 fairways so far, but says the course sets up well for him. A Sunday 64 gets Johnson or one of his fellow chasers on television, if not the leader board. Given the firepower and the stakes, the Shootout at the Stick could make fans forget the Bears and Colts on the morrow, even in this town.
    Gentleman, start your birdies.
    – Tim Cronin

Three back, Woods is still in it

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Tiger Woods’ golf weekends have, with three exceptions, been woeful this year.
    He won those three times.
    Woods is at 13-under-par 203 and three strokes behind co-leaders Vijay Singh with a round to play at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
    What will Sunday bring? Does he have one good round in him?
    “You would think,” Woods said after his 1-under-par 71. “I’m just trying to scrape it around out there. I’m just waiting for that one good ball-striking day, and with the way I’m chipping and putting right now, it can be done. I just need to do it.”
    Woods has struck only 79 putts in three rounds, and just 26 on Saturday, because he hit only nine greens in regulation. He has scrambled with alacrity.
    That’s good. But he also had five 5s on his card in that 71, including a pair on back-to-back bogeys on the front nine. That’s why the pitch-in birdie from a nasty lie and stance on the par-5 ninth, immediately following those bogeys, pleased him so.
    “I needed to get back in the tournament,” Woods said. “I hit it about 30 yards left of where I wanted to hit it, then all of a sudden I had an impossible shot, just trying to get it anywhere around for a putt, and a drew a nice lie and chipped it in.”
    Earlier, he had a not-so-nice lie, the ball on a severe sidehill below his feet, which bothered his often-operated on left knee hurts when you played the shot. (He flinched after tee shots on the seventh and ninth, but took a pain pill and was fine thereafter, or so it appeared.)

    So the chip on 9 goes in, Woods salvages a front nine 38, then birdies the 10th, 11th and 13th on the back nine, parring the rest of the holes.
    “I grinded hard,” Woods said. “I probably have to shoot 63 or 64 tomorrow to have a chance.”
    Woods can do that. He has a 62 and two 63s on his Western Open / BMW Championship ledger, one reason why he’s tied with Walter Hagen for the lead in tournament titles with five.

    Department of crazy numbers

    Phil Mickelson’s 10-birdie day was astonishing, but not unusual for him. Mickelson has done that three other times this season and six other times in his career.
    The scoring average for the day was well under par again, 70.771 on the par-72 course, which was set up as a 7,343-yard test on Saturday. That was 1.229 strokes under par, the eighth-lowest round in relation to par in Western Open history. Of course, Thursday and Friday rank first and second by a wide margin.
    The 15th hole, a 507-yard par 5 on Saturday, has settled in as the pushover hole. It played to 4.4 strokes in round three, less than the dogleg par-4 14th, which, at 4.457 strokes, was Saturday’s toughest hole. Those rankings also reflect the week’s play.
    
    Two-by-two tomorrow

    The regular weekend plan for pairings will be in effect on Sunday, with twosomes beginning at 8:05 a.m. ET with William McGirt and Hunter Mahan, whose 8-over 80 on Saturday is the highest score of the three days. Co-leaders Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson start at 1:45 p.m. ET.

    Around Crooked Stick

    Tee times were delayed until noon because of the overnight rains, the severity of which dumped more than 1.5 inches of rain in this tony suburb of Indianapolis in about an hour during the peak of Friday’s severe thunderstorm. The total at the course was 2.94 inches (while downtown Carmel, about a mile to the east, had 2.60 inches), that added to the quarter-inch received on Wednesday and the 2 inches of last weekend. And to think there was a drought in central Indiana from May to late August, and a 66-day stretch without rain. ... The Illinois contingent isn’t lighting it up. Mark Wilson is at 2-over 218, D.A. Points stands at 3-under 213, and Luke Donald, the Land of Lincoln’s England-born Ryder Cupper, is at 6-under 210, 10 strokes behind. ... Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, site of next year’s Western / BMW, is hosting the U.S. Mid-Amateur, a USGA production. Stroke play qualifying is Saturday and Sunday, with the low 64 continuing to match play. The 36-hole final is on Thursday. Admission is free throughout.
    – Tim Cronin

Mickelson on the move on Moving Day

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Phil Mickelson never played very well at Cog Hill, even before Rees Jones made the substantial changes that Mickelson thought unwise. His best finish there was a tie for eighth two years ago, when his total of 8-under 280 was five strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson thanks to a closing 67.
    He seems to be a Pete Dye fan, though. Mickelson opened the third round of the BMW Championship at 8-under, and after a bogey on the third hole, went on a tear. He birdied the fourth to stand level for the day, then birdied five of six holes starting on the par-3 sixth, including four in a row.
    That places Mickelson at 13-under for the tournament, and only a stroke behind leader Vijay Singh, 14-under through seven holes, as of 3 p.m. ET. Rory McIlroy, only 1-under on the day, is also 13-under for the BMW, a.k.a. the 109th Western Open.
    Tiger Woods? He’s going backwards, 3-over for the day and 9-under, tied for 17th after eight holes.
    Updates as warranted; a full report at the end of the day.
    Follow us on Twitter at Illinois Golfer.
    – Tim Cronin

Curtis, Johnson moving on Moving Day

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The entire concept of “the leader in the clubhouse” in golf went out the clubhouse window when electronic scoring allowed everyone to know their standing at any time.
    But it might still have merit to the person who makes a big move on Saturday, which Ken Venturi long ago named Moving Day. Say, to Ben Curtis, who is 3-under for his first 10 holes in the third round of the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the 109th Western Open – at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
    Curtis, in the first threesome to tee off the first hole, thus has moved to within five strokes of leader Vijay Singh some 40 minutes after Singh’s tee time.

   Dustin Johnson was moving as fast, and is even closer. He's 3-under through five holes and has joined world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore at 12-under, a stroke behind Singh.
    The field is destined to be well under par again today, even though there’s a stiff breeze of  12 miles per hour from the northwest, and the mercury has reached only 70. It’s the 2.60 inches of rain that fell here in Carmel from 6 p.m. last night through the wee hours, the highlight a severe thunderstorm that hit in early evening, which has kept the course soft and kept the PGA Tour’s “lift, clean and place” rule in effect.
    The leaders at 2:45 p.m. ET:
    Vijay Singh -13 (3)
    Dustin Johnson -12 (5)
    Ryan Moore -12 (3)
    Rory McIlroy -12 (3)
    Graham DeLaet -11 (4)
    Tiger Woods -11 (3)
    Lee Westwood -11 (3)
    Phil Mickelson -10 (7)
    Television coverage is on NBC until 2:30 p.m. CT, then shifts to Golf Channel for the rest of the afternoon.
    Updates as warranted; a full report at the end of the day’s play.
    – Tim Cronin

Singh a song of Vijay, but don't forget McIlroy and Woods

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Here’s a leader board the Western Golf Association needed at Cog Hill the last few years.
    Vijay Singh, the 49-year-old Fijian who came close to winning on Dubsdread on three occasions, is in the lead at Crooked Stick Golf Club by a stroke, at a stylish 13-under-par total of 131.
    Those nipping at his heels: world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, billionaire Tiger Woods, and Ryan Moore, who still calls the BMW Championship by its traditional name, the Western Open. All of them stand at 12-under 132. Indiana native Bo Van Pelt and Lee Westwood, whom should not be forgotten, are two behind at 11-under 133. Twenty-one players are within five strokes of Singh.
    That ought to pack them in over the weekend at Crooked Stick even more than they’ve been packed in the first two days. And with about 30,000 on hand again Friday, dodging thunderstorms projected for later in the day, golf fans in this part of the midwest have been treated to the lowest scoring Western / BMW in history when the relationship to par is considered. And there have been 109 of them going back to 1899.
    The soft conditions, little wind, and the PGA Tour’s decision to continue the “lift, clean and place” policy to eliminate mud on balls in the fairway, along with greens smoother than a newborn’s rump – and usually flatter – has created a perfect storm for scoring, and there’s no sign of a tourniquet being applied to the blood-red leader board. Jimmy Walker and Mark Wilson were the high scorers on Friday. Each fired 4-over-par 76.
    Bill Haas was the low man of the day, at 8-under 64 to tie the course record. Adding in Thursday’s 71 gives the defending FedEx Cup champion an aggregate of 9-under 135, four strokes in arrears of Singh.
    In other words, Haas is very much in the hunt, for the rainstorms that lashed Crooked Stick after the conclusion of play and into the evening drenched an already soggy course once again. And that will mean another round of low scoring on Saturday, when play is once again in threesomes.
    Which both wreaks havoc on the record book and is thrilling for the fans. There have been Augusta-like roars on the golf course. There was even noise early in the morning, when Steve Stricker aced the sixth hole, using a 6-iron from 198 yards. Alas, Stricker promptly doubled the par-4 seventh, giving it all back, but it earned a $100,000 scholarship for the Evans Scholars Foundation thanks to BMW.
    Singh’s 6-under-par 66 was marred by only one bogey, on the par-4 fourth. Otherwise, he was Mr. Smooth, especially in the middle of the round, when he made four straight birdies and five in eight holes.
    “That kind of got me going,” Singh said. “And when I did miss the green, I stuck my chip shot very close.”
    A two-putt birdie from 13 feet at the par-5 ninth finished Singh’s day, and early. With storms looming, even the world’s top practicer didn’t repair to the range or putting green for remedial work. Well, not much, anyway.
    It’s the presence of McIlroy and Woods among the leaders that is creating much of the buzz. They were in the same group for the first two days along with Nick Watney, who might be third in the world but probably felt like a non-competing marker at times. Even on Friday, Watney’s 69 was overshadowed by McIlroy’s 68 and Woods’ 67, as they continued to chase the leaders.
    “Look at those scores!” Woods said. “Guys were running off and away from us. I just wanted to get do double-figures (under par). It’s a lot of pressure when you see guys going low.
    “I don’t think Pete Dye is very happy about this.”
    Dye, the founder and architect of Crooked Stick, said before the tournament began that the soft conditions would bring forth low scores. After all, this is not the octogenarian’s first rodeo. He knows these guys are stupid good.
    Take McIlroy, for instance. You’ve got to be good when your 68 includes four bogeys.
    “I didn’t play as well as yesterday, but I was able to get it around,” McIlroy said.
    And that is the key to consistent brilliance. Scoring when you’re on, as McIlroy was on Thursday, is one thing. Doing so when you’re just a bit off the mark, as in hitting only five of nine greens on the back side, is the mark of a champion. But McIlroy’s putter has been on from the start.
    “You shoot a couple of decent rounds, you’re just going to get lapped,” McIlroy said. “You know you’ve got to go out there and make birdies, and I suppose that’s just your mindset from the start.
    “It seemed like every time I missed the green, I missed it in the wrong spot and left myself difficult chips. And I’m putting so well recently that anytime I get a look at birdie, I’m sort of making those, and that’s making up for some of it. When you keep seeing putts go in, you build up confidence, and I feel I’m pretty high on confidence right now.”
    – Tim Cronin