Winner: Cameron Smith
Around the wider world of golf: THE PLAYERS sucked all the air out of the room for golf this week. Nanna Koerstz Madsen got her first LPGA win at the Honda LPGA Thailand; and Pablo Larrazábal won the MyGolfLife Open on the DP World Tour. [UPDATE: Mao Saigo won the JLPGA's Daikin Orchid Ladies Golf Tournament; and Pei Ying Tsai won the Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Ladies Yokohama Tire Golf Tournament, also on the JLPGA. Thanks, IC!]
At least my Twofer Tuesday picks have an excuse this week: weather. My picks were Justin Thomas (T33) and Matt Fitzpatrick (MC). Both landed on the wrong side of the draw but, ironically, JT shot his best score the day he had the worst weather. Go figure...
- Top10s: 10 for 40 (6 Top5, 4 Top10s)
- Winners: 0 for 20
- Top20s: 19 for 40
All kinds of records were set at THE PLAYERS this week, and most of them bad. Things like taking over 80 hours to play the first round. Most of the big name players seem to have been on the wrong side of the draw and spent their delayed weekends heading for the Copperhead Course this week. But that didn't stop Monday's final round from being a nail-biter.
In the end it came down to Paul Casey, Cameron Smith, Keegan Bradley and Anirban Lahiri.
- Casey dropped out first when a bad break on the 16th and a poor shot on the 17th resulted in pars; not enough to keep up.
- Bradley fell out next with a bogey on 17 and a double on 18.
- Smith went birdie/bogey on 17 and 18 to post in the clubhouse.
- And Lahiri came to the 18th with a birdie chip to tie if he made it, but it slipped by.
And so Cam Smith joined the short list of multiple winners this season, jumping to second on the FedExCup points list.
It's true that Cam got lucky with the draw and that he plays TPC Sawgrass pretty often, but that's not enough to take home a trophy at THE PLAYERS. You can't deny that he simply schooled the other players down the stretch, letting them know that they had to play a lot better if they wanted to beat him.
Especially if they wanted to lay their hands on a genuine Limerick Summary. Guys get downright feisty when one of those is on the line!
You can argue he had the best draw.
You can argue he plays lots at Saw-
Grass… and no doubt you’re right.
But on this Monday night
Cam Smith came and laid down the law!
No comments:
Post a Comment