Lift, clean and birdie

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    When someone 20 years in the future looks at the scores from this year’s BMW Championship – or Western Open or whatever it’s called in 2032 – they’ll wonder how much a pushover course Crooked Stick Golf Club really was.
    It isn’t, not in real life. It’s a full-blooded test of golf with more trouble than the average member or guest can handle.
    But the best 70 players on the PGA Tour? In soft conditions? With next to no wind for the better part of 36 holes? And the potential to put the ball in their hands for cleaning on the fairway?
    That’s heaven for low scores, pally.
    There was more a case for playing “lift, clean and place” in fairways on Thursday than on Friday, but the PGA Tour did so for each round, just in case a downpour hit and the course became even more soggy.
    Thursday, said Ryan Moore after his 6-under-par 66, it was completely necessary. He couldn’t even put a number on how many strokes it saved.
    “Considering I had extremely large clumps of mud on the ball every single tee shot (Thursday), who knows?” Moore said. “In those circumstances you can hit great golf shots all day that end up 30 yards off a green.
    “It was a pretty significant difference. Today, not so much. It was the right decision, but it definitely would have played fine today without ball in hand.”
    Moore recalled only two mud balls in the course of the second round.
    Even with slightly more difficult pin placements, the conditions guaranteed low scores, and they were crazy low again. The par-72 course, which was set up for 7,415 yards, played to an average of 69.814, more than two strokes under par, and not too much more than Thursday’s 69.471. There have been 621 birdies in two rounds, along with 21 eagles, which includes Steve Stricker’s ace of the sixth hole.

    As for the ace...

    Stricker didn’t do much more than make that ace on Friday. He scored 1-over 73, one of only 10 rounds over par.
    “All we could see was the reaction from the crowd up around the green,” Stricker said. “It’s nice to win some money for the Evans Scholars. It’s a good cause for a deserving kid.”
    The money, $100,000 in the form of a scholarship, is donated by BMW each time an ace is scored. It was the first ace in the Western / BMW since Sean O’Hair’s on Dubsdread’s second hole in 2010, and the 41st in tournament history.
    
    Shanks, but no thanks

    Even U.S. Open champions have their unthinkable moments. Webb Simpson had one on Friday, with a cold shank of his tee shot on the sixth hole, which Stricker had aced earlier. The ball went so far the right the search was perfunctory, and Simpson re-teed, hitting the green with his third shot. He made a triple-bogey 5, the third of four 5s in succession on a front nine of 2-over 38. He followed Thursday’s 8-under 64 with a 75.

    Around Crooked Stick

    Don’t be surprised if the Western / BMW returns to Crooked Stick in the future, perhaps in 2020. Club officials have loved the show – and the rent – never mind the low scores. ... Bob Estes is the only player in the field to have played Crooked Stick in competition before this week. He wasn’t in the 1991 PGA, but NBC/Golf Channel uncovered Estes’ participation in the 1982 U.S. Junior Amateur. ... A weather scare nearly delayed play in the noon hour. A severe thunderstorm that wasn’t part of the original stormy forecast appeared to the north of Crooked Stick, but lightning was never detected closer than 17 miles out. At 10 miles, play would have been suspended. ... Kudos to Golf Channel for juggling its lineup and adding a three-hour block of live coverage in the window immediately before the original time slot, which then was rerun. And kudos to Joliet native Terry Gannon, the host of GC’s coverage, for taking a fiver from boothmate Frank Nobilo for predicting both Woods and McIlroy would birdie the 18th during a commercial break.
    – Tim Cronin

Moore, Singh deadlocked at 12-under in second round

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Ryan Moore and Vijay Singh could not be more different. Moore is a product of American college golf. Singh is a product of the hardscrabble Asian Tour.
    They are joined atop the 109th Western Open / BMW Championship leader board – hey, it’s Old School Friday here at Crooked Stick Golf Club – midway through the second round.
    Moore, who a few years ago said at Cog Hill, “I’m just here to win the Western Open,” is 12-under-par, and 6-under on his round through 15 holes.
    Singh, who has a trio of top-four finishes, all at Cog Hill, is 5-under on his round through 13 holes.
    They’re followed by world No. 1 Rory McIlroy at 11-under, a score bolstered by an eagle on the par-5 ninth, and and slew of other notables, including Tiger Woods, 8-under for the championship at the moment.
    The soft conditions and lack of wind have made it a BirdieFest for the second straight day. The second round scoring average is 69.673 on this par-72 test as of 12:20 p.m. ET.
    The outstanding individual highlight of the morning was Steve Stricker’s hole-in-one on the sixth hole. Alas, he gave it all back with a double-bogey 6 on the par-4 seventh.
    If you’re near a television, Golf Channel added live coverage beginning 11:30 a.m. CT, with the scheduled 2 p.m. CT slot to carry taped coverage.
    More as the birdies roll in.
    – Tim Cronin

How low can they go?

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The second round of the BMW Championship is underway, and Crooked Stick Golf Club is once again impersonating Harry Cooper, the old boxer. It’s bleeding red.
    Players known and less-known are tearing the joint apart. With stiff-soft greens and calm conditions – the impending thunderstorm front that prompted early tee times is still hours away – the field average is once again under 70, more than two strokes under par, with the first groups having just made the turn.
    As of 10:50 a.m. ET, Ryan Moore is the leader, 10-under-par through 10 holes today. Five players are 9-under, including world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood (5-under on his front nine), Bo Van Pelt, and Seung-Yui Noh, a South Korean newcomer. A slew of players are 8-under, including U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson and Tiger Woods.
    The beat goes on. Only 10 players are over par for the tournament, but they have no worries. There’s no cut, since this is only a 70-player field to start with. So even Bruce Molder, dead last at the moment at a whopping 6-over, will cash in assuming he’s still conscious on Sunday afternoon.
    Updates when warranted, with a full report at the end of the day’s play.
    – Tim Cronin

Only the albatross was missing

    Thursday, September 6, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Until Thursday, Crooked Stick Golf Club was known as a difficult course.
    Now, it’s known nationwide as a pushover. Soft as a fresh Twinkie. A miniature layout, lacking only a windmill.
    Where’s Pete Dye and a backhoe when you need him?
    Here are the totals from the carnage known as the first round of the BMW Championship, which resembles the 109th Western Open in name only: Four players, including world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, are at 8-under-par 64, tying the course record set by 1991 Western Open champion Russ Cochran and Loren Roberts in the 2009 U.S. Senior Open.
    Tiger Woods and 49-year-old Vijay Singh are joint fifth at 7-under 65, with Woods in quest of a record sixth Western / BMW title. Luke Donald, Ryan Moore and Palmer – that’s Ryan, not Arnold – stand seventh at 6-under 66. Half the world is at 5-under 67, including defending champion Justin Rose and Zach Johnson, last seen winning the John Deere Classic.
    Is Crooked Stick the Indiana translation for TPC Deere Run?
    The day’s scoring average was a record in relation to par: 69.471, precisely 2.529 strokes under par, and by far a new standard in that regard. (The old mark was 1.862 strokes under par, in the final round at Cog Hill in 2007.)
    As Tom Carnegie used to say over the PA system at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: “It’s a new track record!” And some Crooked Stick members might be saying it was time for a new track.
    Think the PGA Tour’s lift, clean and place rule doesn’t make a difference? The pros could put their hand on the ball when it was in the fairway on Thursday, and they took advantage. That probably lowered the scoring average by a stroke. The soft conditions that prompted the ruling – almost 2.5 inches of rain since last weekend – had already made the greens receptive to shots with even the least amount of spin on them.
    Thus, lawn darts replaced golf on Thursday at Crooked Stick, where John Daly once won a PGA Championship with a 72-hole score of 12-under-par 276.
    At this pace, the leaders will be 12-under by the time they make the turn Friday morning – and most play will be in the morning, as severe weather is forecast for the late afternoon. Tee times have been adjusted.
    There’s another reason for the low scores, one that smarty pants critics might overlook. The players are phenomenally good. The combination of pure skill, strategic smarts, magical ball and club technology and course conditioning – don’t forget that Crooked Stick’s greens are perfect – adds up to low, low, low numbers.
    Take McIlroy, for instance. Possessed of a silky swing and superior smarts, McIlroy hit 11 of 14 fairways, 15 greens and needed only 26 putts to negotiate a course that measured 7,408 yards and still had more trouble lurking than most layouts.
    “I felt like my iron play was some of the best it’s been all year, basically my whole life,” McIlroy said. “I was giving myself a lot of opportunities to attack the pins from the fairways.”
    And he did, hole after hole. McIlroy’s only miscue was a bogey on the par-4 13th. He’d opened with a birdie on the par-4 10th after hitting his tee shot right of sideways, bounced back from the bogey with a birdie on the 14th, eagled the 15th, birdied the 18th and first, birdied the par-5 fifth, then finished with birdied on the eighth and par-5 ninth. That’s your basic 32-32–64.
    All this came less than 72 hours after McIlroy won the Deutsche Bank Classic in Norton, Mass., evidence that his focus is as phenomenal as the rest of his game.
    “I didn’t really have any time to celebrate or anything like that,” said McIlroy, who didn’t even see all 18 holes in Wednesday’s rain-shortened pro-am. “Just get myself focused and ready for this.”
    And that, among other things, impressed Woods, who came up a stroke short of his young rival, but was gushing in his compliments.
    “I scored well, but he was playing,” Woods said. “This is the next generation of guys coming out. He hits it great, putts it great, and on top of that, he’s just a really nice kid.
    “The game of golf is in great hands with him, and he’s here to stay.”
    The other 64s, posted by Bo Van Pelt and Graham DeLeat, were all but lost in the shuffle. But Van Pelt destroyed the front nine with a 5-under 31, was first to 7-under, and DeLeat, a Canadian who missed the cut last week, finished with a flourish with an eagle 3 on the par-5 ninth, rolling in a 38-foot putt from in front of the green. Ah, the magic of the long putter.
    “I bought it in a golf store in Boise a few weeks back,” DeLeat said.
    Boise?
    “It still had the price tag on it.”
    But of course.
    Simpson, the all-but-forgotten National Open champion, was 4-under through 13 holes, then birdied the next four to charge to the front. And even as McIlroy played with Woods, Simpson played with Van Pelt. Clearly, there were some good vibrations at the Stick.
    “I was watching Bo make everything on the front nine,” Simpson said. “I hadn’t made a lot of putts lately, but once they started going in, it was a good feeling.”
    As was, in Simpson’s mind, the use of lift, clean and place. He said his drives picked up mud upon landing, “More than I’ve ever seen. If we didn’t play lift, clean and place, I would probably have shot 80. It would have been impossible. Half the ball was covered on every hole.”
    Simpson said he expects the rule to be in effect again on Friday. The forecast, then, is not only for thunderstorms late, but low scores early.
    – Tim Cronin

The McIlroy-Woods best-ball score: 59

    Thursday, September 6, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Too bad Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy weren’t paired in a best-ball match on Thursday.
    How good would a cool 59 have looked on the scoreboard?
    Woods and McIlroy combined for 16 birdies and an eagle in the first round at Crooked Stick Golf Club. McIlroy tied the course record with an 8-under-par 64. Woods fired a 65. (Nick Watney, the third man in the group, had to feel like he was in the B Flight. He scored 70 and is tied for 41st, in the back half of the 70-man field.)
    It was the show of shows, the top-ranked player of the moment and the best player of the young century throwing birdies around like they were going out of style, and right from the start, when each birdied their first hole, the par 4 10th. The only holes neither player scored under par on were the 12th, third, fourth, sixth and seventh. It must have been the heat down the stretch.
    “We just want to go out there and play the best we can, that’s my mindset,” McIlroy said. “I’m not going out with the intention of beating Tiger, I’m just there to try and shoot the best number possible.”
    What’s unusual to longtime Woods watchers is how chatty he is with McIlroy as they stroll down fairways. Woods spoke to next to nobody beyond saying, “Good shot,” for years and years. Now, here’s the new kid on the block, less programmed and more naturally talented than Woods was at 23, and Woods is chatting him up like Bob Hope did with Bing Crosby on the Road to Birdieland. And it’s not gamesmanship.
    McIlroy and Woods joust verbally, but only in fun. It’s clear there’s not only mutual respect, but something of admiration, McIlroy for what Woods has accomplished on the course, Woods for what McIlroy has done and will do down the line.
    “You watch him swing the club, watch him putt and play, he doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Woods said. “You can see in the next decade or so, as he really matures and understands some of the nuances of the game, he’s only going to get better, and that’s kind of fun to see.”
    The two are 13 years apart, Woods 36 and McIlroy 23. Speaking of generational rivals, Jack Nicklaus was 10 years younger than Arnold Palmer, and 10 years older than Tom Watson. Woods knows his time as the man to beat is drawing to a close, and that McIlroy may assume that role.
    “As Jack said numerous times, it was nice to be part of the cross-generational conversations with Gary (Player) and Arnold, a little bit of (Ben) Hogan maybe,” Woods said. “He was part of it with Watson and (Tom) Weiskopf and (Lee) Trevino and all those guys.
    “This is my 17th year old here. The guys I battled head-to-head are early 40s if not late 40s, like Vijay (Singh, 49) is. This is the next generation of guys.”
    One guy, the guy from Holywood, Northern Ireland, was 7 when he watched Woods win his first Masters. McIlroy seems to have adapted to playing with him.
    “Chevron was the first time I got to play with him, and I was a little nervous,” McIlroy said. “I still held my own; shot a couple under. I’ve always enjoyed playing with Tiger, and every time we’re paired up we seem to have a good time.”
    Thursday was better than good. It was sublime.

    McDowell’s lament

    Graeme McDowell appeared to have scored 6-under-par 66, but touched a leaf in a bunker on his takeaway swing on the ninth hole, his last of the day, and was slapped with a two-stroke penalty. That gave him a 1-over 6 on the hole and a total of 4-under 68, putting him four strokes behind the leaders entering the second round.
    McDowell, who called the penalty on himself, was not pleased with the rule.
    “It’s a harsh one,” McDowell said. “I know Carl Pettersson was a victim of a similar rule (in the PGA Championship). It’s a horrible rule.”
    The leaf was directly behind McDowell’s ball, which rolled into the bunker. McDowell and his caddie knew the leaf couldn’t be touched, but McDowell, in addressing the ball, still managed to brush it on his takeaway.
    “I didn’t improve my lie, and gained no advantage,” McDowell told a Golf Channel commentator. “It’s a disappointing way to end my round.”

    Around Crooked Stick

    It’s the first four-way tie of the season after one round on the PGA Tour, and the first quadruple tie in a Western since 2006, when eventual winner Trevor Immelman trailed Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Daniel Chopra and David McKenzie by three strokes. ... Seven players had bogey-free rounds on Thursday, including Webb Simpson and Bo Van Pelt en route to a quarter-share of the lead. Forty players broke 70, and 55 of the 70 starters were under par, a record percentage of 78.6. Only 10 players were over par, a record, surpassing the 22 who failed to match or surpass Dubsdread’s par of 71 in 2007, the first year of the limited playoff field. ... The Western Golf Association doesn’t announce attendance, but if there was one person at Crooked Stick on Thursday, there were 30,000, and a good many of those spectators were badged with weekly tickets, so there’s a week’s revenue in the WGA coffers even if Friday’s anticipated bad weather and early tee times scares some people off.
    – Tim Cronin