Sunday
Sep122010
Moore not merrier, but not peeved, either
Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 3:12PM
Writing from Lemont, Illinois
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Ryan Moore managed not to be disappointed by not winning the Western Open on Sunday.
The consolation prize – a place in the 30-man Tour Championship – was balm for the wound of not holding on to the lead he had as Sunday dawned. He didn’t lock it down until scrambling for bogey on the final hole. After an afternoon where he was as high as 19th in the standings and as low as 33rd, he needed no worse than a 5, and a 5 he managed.
“I had no idea,” Moore said. “I knew I wanted to get that up-and-down, that’s all I knew. I know there are people out there calculating it, but I tried not to worry about it. I was trying to give myself a putt for par.”
That was no bargain after airmailing his approach shot into the gallery behind the green. From there, he chipped to the left fringe, and two-putted from there for the bogey. Next stop, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
“At the beginning of the year, you want to be there,” Moore said. “I played well enough at the right time of year to get into it, so I’m excited to go.”
Moore scored 1-over 73 for a total of 6-under 278, finishing three strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson, in a tie for third with K.J. Choi, Kevin Na and Matt Kuchar.
The crazy numbers game
If the FedEx Cup format is sometimes confusing, the final day of the Western, which brings the unkind cut to the low 30 in the standings, is even more confusing.
Things change with every hole. Take Ryan Moore. He was in at the start of the day, then out, then in, then out, then in, and then needed to make par on the 18th hole to lock himself in.
Until Matt Kuchar bogeyed the 18th right in front of him, that is. Then Moore needed only the bogey described above.
“It always kills you to bogey the last hole,” Moore said.
Little did he know that but for Kuchar’s bogey, it would have been a real killer. Sounds like someone is owed dinner at an Atlanta steakhouse in a couple of weeks.
The final standings saw Ian Poulter out and Wheaton native Kevin Streelman in, the former dramatically, the latter carefully.
Poulter would have made it – knocking out No. 30 Bo Van Pelt – if he’d played better than 4-over golf on the back nine. He bogeyed the 14th and 17 holes, and birdied the 15th, but the real killer was his triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 11th, matching the highest score on any hole this week. A sliced drive out of bounds started the chain of errors, and four shots to negotiate the last 131 yards ended it – and, realistically, his chance to advance.
Streelman, conversely, was Mr. Cool. He made one birdie, on the par-4 seventh, and parred the other 17 holes to smooth his way into 29th place.
“I wasn’t watching (the leaderboard),” Streelman said before catching a plane for Phoenix, where he now lives. “I pretty much knew what I had to do. I had to play a clean round, no bogeys, which I was able to do, but I was hoping to make more birdies.”
He had a 3-footer for par on the 18th, and made it. Even without looking at the big board, “I knew it was important,” he said. “Good thing I buried it.”
The pairing du jour
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods played golf on Sunday.
No big deal there, really.
Together.
Big deal there. Really.
It was only the 25th time they’ve been paired together, and their 10:56 a.m. conjoining coaxed the largest gallery of the week, perhaps 32,500, to Dubsdread. Many of them were around the first hole when their game – which some of the crowd treated like a heavyweight fight – began.
“Go get ‘em, Phil” and “Go Tiger” shouts were heard when they walked onto the range, the putting green, and the first tee. And, for that matter, for the first 200 yards of their walk down the first fairway. It was the most demonstrative gallery ever heard at Cog Hill, though never veered toward the untoward.
Instead, fans rooted for their favorite, with a slight aural edge to Mickelson.
Philly Mick also had the edge on the scorecard, scoring 4-under 67, his best final round ever on Dubsdread, to beat Woods by three strokes and, oh by the way, finish at 4-under-par 280, tied for eighth with Steve Stricker and Charlie Wi.
“He certainly brings out the best in me and, and I enjoy being paired with him,” Mickelson said of his rival. “I wish the PGA Tour would do it more often, on Thursday and Friday.”
Mickelson’s head-to-head win gives him a 6-1-1 record against Woods in their last eight meetings, and knots the lifetime record at 11-11-4.
Mickelson heads to the Tour Championship. Woods does not, the first time since he began his professional career in the late summer of 1996 that he’s not eligible to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament. (He played his first tournaments on sponsor invitations, soon won, and has been eligible to play in everything since.)
“That’s just the way it is,” Woods said. “I didn’t play in the beginning of the year and didn’t play well in the middle of the year. I’m starting to play well now. I’m headed in the right direction.”
He’s also headed home for two weeks. That wasn’t the idea. Woods improved from 51st to 42nd in the PGA Tour standings, and needed to get into the 30th to play at East Lake.
“I was looking forward to only getting a one-week break, but now I’ve got two,” Woods said. “It’ll be good because I can practice at home with Sean (Foley) in peace and away from everybody, put some work in, and also work on my short game and my putting.”
Woods’ next assignment is the Ryder Cup, where he could be paired with anybody but Mickelson, with whom he had an ill-fated alternate shot pairing at Oakland Hills in 2004.
Around Dubsdread
Dustin Johnson won the Western in his second attempt. He tied for 30th last year, backpedaling after an opening 69. ... His winning score of 275 is the highest winning score in the Western since Tiger Woods’ 275, then 13-under-par, in 1997, the first of his five victories. The 9-under score in relation to par is the highest since Billy Mayfair won the 1995 Western with a total of 279 strokes. Par was changed from 72 to 71 on Dubsdread in 2004. ... Only 20 players broke par, with three more at even par 71. ... The final round average was 72.300, while the cumulative average of 71.850 was the highest since 2004. ... Next year’s Western is slated for Cog Hill, but the date hasn’t been set. It may move a week later in the calendar, to the second full week of September, which would move it from the first weekend of the NFL and away from the Labor Day holiday, but likely bring it head-to-head with another attention-getting sports event, the first race of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship. ... Sunday’s gallery brought the four-day total to an estimated 85,500, the lowest in the Cog Hill era, and the smallest for a Western since the Western Golf Association announced 80,700 spectators for the 1979 championship, held July 3-6 at Butler National Golf Club.
– Tim Cronin
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Ryan Moore managed not to be disappointed by not winning the Western Open on Sunday.
The consolation prize – a place in the 30-man Tour Championship – was balm for the wound of not holding on to the lead he had as Sunday dawned. He didn’t lock it down until scrambling for bogey on the final hole. After an afternoon where he was as high as 19th in the standings and as low as 33rd, he needed no worse than a 5, and a 5 he managed.
“I had no idea,” Moore said. “I knew I wanted to get that up-and-down, that’s all I knew. I know there are people out there calculating it, but I tried not to worry about it. I was trying to give myself a putt for par.”
That was no bargain after airmailing his approach shot into the gallery behind the green. From there, he chipped to the left fringe, and two-putted from there for the bogey. Next stop, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
“At the beginning of the year, you want to be there,” Moore said. “I played well enough at the right time of year to get into it, so I’m excited to go.”
Moore scored 1-over 73 for a total of 6-under 278, finishing three strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson, in a tie for third with K.J. Choi, Kevin Na and Matt Kuchar.
The crazy numbers game
If the FedEx Cup format is sometimes confusing, the final day of the Western, which brings the unkind cut to the low 30 in the standings, is even more confusing.
Things change with every hole. Take Ryan Moore. He was in at the start of the day, then out, then in, then out, then in, and then needed to make par on the 18th hole to lock himself in.
Until Matt Kuchar bogeyed the 18th right in front of him, that is. Then Moore needed only the bogey described above.
“It always kills you to bogey the last hole,” Moore said.
Little did he know that but for Kuchar’s bogey, it would have been a real killer. Sounds like someone is owed dinner at an Atlanta steakhouse in a couple of weeks.
The final standings saw Ian Poulter out and Wheaton native Kevin Streelman in, the former dramatically, the latter carefully.
Poulter would have made it – knocking out No. 30 Bo Van Pelt – if he’d played better than 4-over golf on the back nine. He bogeyed the 14th and 17 holes, and birdied the 15th, but the real killer was his triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 11th, matching the highest score on any hole this week. A sliced drive out of bounds started the chain of errors, and four shots to negotiate the last 131 yards ended it – and, realistically, his chance to advance.
Streelman, conversely, was Mr. Cool. He made one birdie, on the par-4 seventh, and parred the other 17 holes to smooth his way into 29th place.
“I wasn’t watching (the leaderboard),” Streelman said before catching a plane for Phoenix, where he now lives. “I pretty much knew what I had to do. I had to play a clean round, no bogeys, which I was able to do, but I was hoping to make more birdies.”
He had a 3-footer for par on the 18th, and made it. Even without looking at the big board, “I knew it was important,” he said. “Good thing I buried it.”
The pairing du jour
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods played golf on Sunday.
No big deal there, really.
Together.
Big deal there. Really.
It was only the 25th time they’ve been paired together, and their 10:56 a.m. conjoining coaxed the largest gallery of the week, perhaps 32,500, to Dubsdread. Many of them were around the first hole when their game – which some of the crowd treated like a heavyweight fight – began.
“Go get ‘em, Phil” and “Go Tiger” shouts were heard when they walked onto the range, the putting green, and the first tee. And, for that matter, for the first 200 yards of their walk down the first fairway. It was the most demonstrative gallery ever heard at Cog Hill, though never veered toward the untoward.
Instead, fans rooted for their favorite, with a slight aural edge to Mickelson.
Philly Mick also had the edge on the scorecard, scoring 4-under 67, his best final round ever on Dubsdread, to beat Woods by three strokes and, oh by the way, finish at 4-under-par 280, tied for eighth with Steve Stricker and Charlie Wi.
“He certainly brings out the best in me and, and I enjoy being paired with him,” Mickelson said of his rival. “I wish the PGA Tour would do it more often, on Thursday and Friday.”
Mickelson’s head-to-head win gives him a 6-1-1 record against Woods in their last eight meetings, and knots the lifetime record at 11-11-4.
Mickelson heads to the Tour Championship. Woods does not, the first time since he began his professional career in the late summer of 1996 that he’s not eligible to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament. (He played his first tournaments on sponsor invitations, soon won, and has been eligible to play in everything since.)
“That’s just the way it is,” Woods said. “I didn’t play in the beginning of the year and didn’t play well in the middle of the year. I’m starting to play well now. I’m headed in the right direction.”
He’s also headed home for two weeks. That wasn’t the idea. Woods improved from 51st to 42nd in the PGA Tour standings, and needed to get into the 30th to play at East Lake.
“I was looking forward to only getting a one-week break, but now I’ve got two,” Woods said. “It’ll be good because I can practice at home with Sean (Foley) in peace and away from everybody, put some work in, and also work on my short game and my putting.”
Woods’ next assignment is the Ryder Cup, where he could be paired with anybody but Mickelson, with whom he had an ill-fated alternate shot pairing at Oakland Hills in 2004.
Around Dubsdread
Dustin Johnson won the Western in his second attempt. He tied for 30th last year, backpedaling after an opening 69. ... His winning score of 275 is the highest winning score in the Western since Tiger Woods’ 275, then 13-under-par, in 1997, the first of his five victories. The 9-under score in relation to par is the highest since Billy Mayfair won the 1995 Western with a total of 279 strokes. Par was changed from 72 to 71 on Dubsdread in 2004. ... Only 20 players broke par, with three more at even par 71. ... The final round average was 72.300, while the cumulative average of 71.850 was the highest since 2004. ... Next year’s Western is slated for Cog Hill, but the date hasn’t been set. It may move a week later in the calendar, to the second full week of September, which would move it from the first weekend of the NFL and away from the Labor Day holiday, but likely bring it head-to-head with another attention-getting sports event, the first race of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship. ... Sunday’s gallery brought the four-day total to an estimated 85,500, the lowest in the Cog Hill era, and the smallest for a Western since the Western Golf Association announced 80,700 spectators for the 1979 championship, held July 3-6 at Butler National Golf Club.
– Tim Cronin
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