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Post by SUVFan on Aug 6, 2020 19:43:45 GMT -5
2020 PGA Championship -- TPC Harding Park, San Francisco Opening RoundLeaderboardJason Day currently holds a 1 stroke advantage at 5 under par following his first round of play in the year's first major -- the 2020 PGA. The players who started late are still playing.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 22, 2020 15:51:36 GMT -5
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 23, 2020 8:14:59 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Week One
As noted above, I've been posting in the Tiger Woods topic about Tiger's poor play in this tournament.
At the other end of the spectrum, Dustin Johnson is absolutely killing it! DJ shot a 60 on Friday to vault himself to 15 under par at the midpoint, 12 strokes above the -3 cut line! Often after such a great round, there's a drop off. Sir Nick shared the stats for what happens after a player shoots a 59 during yesterday's coverage (DJ's playing partner for the day, Scottie Scheffler, had fired a 59 on Friday): The shoot an average of 69, ten strokes higher. Scheffler followed his 59 with a 4 under par 67 -- 2 strokes better than average after a 59 and normally a pretty good day's work.
Not yesterday. DJ walked up to the par 5 last at -20, already on track to shoot a 66 if he merely parred the hole and, as easy as it was playing, a birdie seemed very likely. But DJ put his driver far down the fairway (the tees were back further than they were on Friday when DJ actually drove through the fairway and ended up making par) and then left himself 40 feet from the cup in 2. But this 40 footer had at least 5 feet of break in it. DJ stepped up an drained it, with the ball "sneaking into the cup like a mouse" as the great Harvey Penick put it in his Little Red Book. So DJ follows up his previous day's 11 under par 60 with a 7 under par 64 and at -22, takes a commanding 5 stroke lead over Scheffler into today's final round.
There's still a lot to play for. Quite a few players in the field are outside the top 70 who advance to next week and, obviously, no more than 30 can be in line to advance to the finals over Labor Day weekend. So today should be very interesting with guys jockeying for position in coming weeks. For example, Scheffler entered the week 24th but with even a 2nd place finish, he'll propel himself high enough in the standings that he should be assured of making the finals.
Developing!
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 23, 2020 18:56:38 GMT -5
After a brief weather delay with the leaders on the 15th, Dustin Johnson won the Northern Trust Open at TPC Boston. That's a major understatatement.
After shooting a 60 on Friday, followed up by a 64 yesterday, he went out and fired a 63 today, fueled early by an eagle on the 2nd. He made a lot of birdies along the way, shooting 30 on the front, and coating to victory with a birdie on the last for a nice 30 under par final score. He won by 11 shots over Harris English, who bogeyed the last to wind up with an impressive 19 under par. It's the largest margin of victory since Phil won the Bell South Classic in 2006 by 13. This was DJ's 22nd win, tieing him with Raymond Floyd and a couple of others for the 27th most tour wins. He hit an astounding 65 greens in regulation! That's an average of under two missed greens each round!!
With DJ off to such a fast start and never looking back, there wasn't any doubt about who would win most of the afternoon. But because it's the initial tournament of the golf championship trifecta, as I expected in my post about 10 hours ago, it was still very interesting due to the qualifying points that were on the line for each spot and the fact that only the top 70 golfers this season qualify to go on to play next week in Chicago. Plus, the points carry over and count toward qualification in the final tournament when scores are reset but there's some kind of handicapping that favors those at the top of the standings. It's going to be pretty tough for a lot of guys to crack that top 30 without a top 5 or better finish next week. The more points they could get this week, the better their chances of either making the following week's field, too, or getting a better deal in the handicapping.
I'll try to take a look at that before play starts in Chicago after I find updated standings.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 12:53:30 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN
Winged Foot CC
Through Round 3
It's a fairly typical US Open so far. Through round 3, only 3 players are under par, led by Micheal Wolfe at -5. Bryson DeChambeau is 2 strokes back at -3 and Louis Oostihuizen is back two more shots at -1. Hideki Matsayama and Xander Schaufle are level par for the tournament, though Xander has completed 2 holes of the final round as of this posting. It's doubtful that anyone else has much of a chance.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 13:53:20 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN
Winged Foot CC
Round 4
The leaders just completed the 5th hole. Both started the difficult first 5 holes strong but Wolff has now bogeyed twice while Bryson managed a birdie on the 4th and then fought hard to make par on the 5th. After 5 holes, Bryson has a one shot lead at -4. No one else is currently under par -- actually Bryson is currently the only player with a below par score for the day.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 14:48:06 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN
Winged Foot CC
Round 4 Update
Both leaders made bogeys on the long par 4 8th.
But on the par 5 9th, both made eagles! So heading to the turn, Bryson holds a 1 shot advantage over Michael Wolff, -5 to -4.
To paraphrase the great Bobby Jones, major tournament championships begin on the back nine on Sunday!
It's looking like a 2 horse race at this point, though it's still 2020, a year in which anything unexpected not only can happen but seems more likely to.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 15:03:45 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN
Winged Foot CC
Round 4 Update
Both played 9 irons on the par 3, 195 yard 10th. 9 irons!
Wolff came up a little short, finding the edge of the bunker -- not in the sand but in tall grass at the lip. So he had to choke way down -- about a foot from the club face -- on the shaft, managing to make good contact but sending his ball about 10 feet past the hole. He misread his par put and made bogey.
Meanwhile, Bryson's shot ended up on the front, right edge of the green, maybe 20 feet from the hole. It was an uphill putt and Bryson left it surprisingly short but made the par putt to take a two shot lead over Michael and a 5 shot lead over Xander, who's still at level par.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 15:11:24 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN Winged Foot CC
Round 4 Update Bryson just dropped a birdie putt on the 11th, taking a 3 shot lead over Wolff, who chuncked his approach, managing to get up and down for par.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 15:21:06 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN [/b] Winged Foot CC
Round 4 Update
After Xander and Harris English both bogeyed 13, NBC declared it a 2 horse race!
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 16:05:28 GMT -5
2020 US OPEN
Winged Foot CC
Round 4 Update
There was a huge development on the 14th. Bryson put his approach to the par 4 on the left, nearly in a hazard. Advantage Wolff. But then Wolf found the same area, deep rough for both. Bryson was shorter and whacked his ball out of grass that was at about his ankles, over the green with the ball catching on the back side of a steep downslope. But you couldn't see how far he went over. Again, advantage Wolff.
But Wolff left his approach short, his ball rolling down the false front of the green back to the fairway. He was away and chipped up past the hole and the ball fell away, about 7 feet. Bryson hit a delicate little shot off the hillside, barely making contact with the ball with the very top of his club face and nearly doublehitting the ball. The ball landed softly just off the green and then squirted down the slope toward and past the hole, leaving Bryson a 6 footer back up the hill. Advantage Bryson!
Wolff missed his putt for a bogey 5. Bryson's putt was dead straight up the hole and he drained it for a par.
So with 4 holes to go, Bryson is up 4 shots, -6 to -2.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 9, 2020 19:14:24 GMT -5
The third and final major of the 2020 calendar year golf season is this week! It should be a treat to see what the Augusta National Golf Club looks like in the fall! The pressure should be off the announcers -- they won't have to worry about memorizing a bunch of obscure flowering tree and shrub names. Gary McCord allegedly was banned as a broadcaster for irreverently referring to them generically as "flowers". So with play set to get underway on Thursday, here's who Vegas sees as the favorites (only 50-1 or better -- this story has the full list): Bryson DeChambeau 8-1 Dustin Johnson 9-1 Jon Rahm 11-1 Justin Thomas 12-1 Rory McIlroy 14-1 Xander Schauffele 14-1 Brooks Koepka 16-1 Hideki Matsuyama 25-1 Tony Finau 25-1 Patrick Cantlay 25-1 Tyrrell Hatton 28-1 Bubba Watson 28-1 Patrick Reed 28-1 Collin Morikawa 30-1 Jason Day 33-1 Webb Simpson 33-1 Matthew Wolff 33-1 Tiger Woods 35-1 Jordan Spieth 40-1 Adam Scott 40-1 Tommy Fleetwood 40-1 Scottie Scheffler 50-1 Louis Oosthuizen 50-1 Justin Rose 50-1
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Post by jimco22 on Nov 11, 2020 5:09:11 GMT -5
Looking forward to the results of the most prestigious golfing event in my opinion on the PGA calendar. There is always drama on the last day.
There will be no loud cheers and crowds like in past years, a truly sad phenomenon to say the least due to COVID-19 pandemic. The atmosphere will
not be the same but similar to early week practice rounds.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 11, 2020 14:57:04 GMT -5
Agreed, Jimco! The Masters is the tournament I look forward to the most each year and about the only one I ever watch replays from past years. I don't do that much but every once in a while. I'm glad they were able to reschedule it.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 12, 2020 21:52:23 GMT -5
2020 Masters
Paul Casey is making a strong attempt to get out of the race for the title, "Best player never to win a major?" The 43 year old Englishman made an eagle on the par 5 second and added 5 birdies to take the day 1 lead in this year's Masters at -7. He's coming off a 2nd place finish at this year's PGA Championship.
Casey's best previous finish in the Masters was in 2016 when he tied for 4th. That was bookended by 6th place finishes in 2015 and 2017. He missed the cut last year, tied for 82nd at +10 after the 2nd round. In 2015, he had his best score, -9, which would have been good enough to win most years.
Play was suspended because of darkness at 5:30 p.m. ET with 44 players still on the course, many within 3 shots of Casey. 50 players are at 71 or better, on track to shatter the single round record of 38 players under par for a round. The reason? The greens have been soaked with rain, leaving them defenseless to the PGA sharpshooters.
The chance for more rain during the tourney is low. The greens should dry out some, though winds are supposed to stay under 10 mph and temperatures won't get out of the 60s. Overall, it looks like the scoring conditions will be pretty good, so I'm looking for scores to continue to go very low.
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