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Archive for May, 2010
The Crowne Plaza Invitational: Rnd 2 Recap
May 29, 2010
Scoring conditions were excellent once again for round two of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, and there were plenty of low scores to prove it.
Bryce Molder Heads Into Weekend With 1-Shot Lead Bryce Molder has had some serious ups and downs this season, missing the cut 6 times in 14 starts. But he’s also had some noteworthy finishes as well. He tied for 10th at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am back in February, and finished tied for 8th in his next event at the Phoenix Open. Two weeks later he picked up his third top-10 finish of the season at the Puerto Rico Open, and three weeks later finished T-8 at the Shell Houston Open.
This week appears to be another “up” for the 31-yr-old. After shooting an opening round of 5-under 65 on Thursday, Bryce managed an 8-under par round of 62 on Friday, putting him in the lead heading into the weekend at 13-under par for the tournament.
Bohn Continues Steady Performance
Jason Bohn continues his assault on Colonial, following up his Thursday round of 63 with another solid round of 65. Bohn started on the back nine Friday and motored along quietly for the first half of his round, picking up a birdie on the par4 18th to make the turn at 1-under 34. He then began his charge, birdieing 4 of his first 6 holes on the back, then finishing the round with another birdie on the 9th. He would come in with 4-under 31, 5-under on the day and 12-under for the tournament. He heads into the weekend only one shot back.
Davis, Blanks, and Overton Keeping Pace
Brian Davis continued his steady play from Thursday into Friday. Davis opened the tournament with a 6-under 64, and pieced a nice round together once again on Friday, shooting 5-under 65. He’s played the toughest stretch of holes on the layout, the infamous “Horrible Horseshoe” stretch of holes 3, 4, and 5, at 3-under par. Through 36 holes, the Englishman has carded only one bogey. He’s 11-under for the event, only two shots back.
Kris Blanks is another streaky player who hasn’t had many issues with Colonial over the first couple of days. Coming into this week’s event, Kris had missed 7 cuts in 15 starts. But two top-5 finishes this season have given him the confidence he’s needed to keep grinding. He finished 2nd in the Puerto Rico Open, then finished T-5 at the Verizon Heritage back in April. This week he’s not only playing well enough to make the cut, but in great position overall heading into the weekend. Blanks opened up the tournament with a 5-under round of 65, and posted a 6-under par round of 64 on Friday, only two shots back of the lead. Blanks has yet to make a single bogey through the first two rounds of play.
Jeff Overton meandered through the first nine holes of play on Thursday, going out in 1-under 34. But he owned the back nine, carding birdies on 6 of the 9 holes, posting a red-hot 29 coming in and shooting a tidy first round of 7-under 63. Friday would be slightly less exciting, as Jeff made the turn at 1-under par. He picked up two more birdies on the inward nine, shooting 3-under 67 and three shots back of the lead heading into the weekend.
Striking Distance
Boo Weekley: After shooting a 3-under round of 67 on Thursday, Boo quickly jumped up the leaderboard on Friday with a bogey-free round of 7-under par 63. He’s currently three shots off the lead, tied for 5th with Jeff Overton as he heads into Saturday.
Corey Pavin: Proving that Colonial is truly a shotmaker’s course, the 50-yr-old Ryder Cup Captain has put together two solid rounds and is in the thick of things heading into the weekend. After shooting 3-under 67 on Thursday, Pavin made easy pickings of the back nine on Friday to post 6-under 64. He’s in a 4-way tie for 7th at 9-under par, with John Mallinger (66 on Friday), Carl Pettersson (66), and Zack Johnson (66).
John Merrick, Ben Crane, Kenny Perry, and Ricky Barnes are all 8-under par at the halfway point, 5 shots back of the lead.
Notables
After a great round of 63 that had him tied for the lead after day one, Blake Adams lost a few steps with an even par round of 70 in his second round.
John Daly will be around for the weekend. After a good bogey-free start of 4-under 66 on Thursday, John parred his first 7 holes on Friday before picking up a birdie on the 8th. He made the turn at 1-under 34. He picked up two more birdies coming in, but closed the round on a sour note by taking a double bogey on his final hole of the round. He’s at 5-under par for the event.
Defending Champ, Steve Stricker, opened up the tournament with a 2-under 68 on Thursday. A closing bogey on the 18th hole on Friday took him back to 3-under on the round, 5 under for the tournament. He’s got some serious work ahead for the weekend to defend his title.
Coming off of his impressive win at the Player’s Championship a few weeks back, Tim Clark has yet to make a move this week at Colonial. Tim fired an opening round of 3-under 67, and posted an even-par round of 70 on Friday. He’s currently tied for 49th, 10 shots back of the lead.
Notable Disappointments
Cutline = -2
Phil Mickelson – Lefty just didn’t have it this week. Despite two days of excellent scoring conditions and a golf course that was ripe for the picking, Mickelson’s game proved to be no match for Colonial’s tight, winding fairways. Through the two days, the southpaw littered his scorecard with 7 bogeys and a double, leading to his first missed cut in over a year. Yes, Phil… you have some work to do.
Jim Furyk – You can’t win the tournament on Thursday, but you can certainly lose it. And that’s precisely what Jim Furyk did in his opening round, uncharacteristically posting four bogeys and a double, leading to a +2 round of 72. On Friday he had a shot at getting into the weekend after posting a birdie on his 15th hole of the day to get to 1-under for the event, but couldn’t find a birdie in his last three remaining holes to get inside the cutline. It’s his second missed cut of the season (first missed cut was at the Masters).
Sean O’Hair – Sean’s yet to find his typical groove, in due part to the stress fracture in his left forearm that caused him to pretty much shut down his off-season practice back near the end of last season. He did manage a T-4 at the season opening SBS Championship in Hawaii and then tied for 18th place at the WGC CA Championship at Doral. He also finished tied for 12th last week at the Byron Nelson Championship, so he’s beginning to get back into the swing of things. But a missed cut this week at Colonial is indeed a disappointment. Tee game and putting this week were sorely lacking.
Hunter Mahan – an opening round of 3-over par put Hunter well behind the 8ball. Friday’s round would be feast or famine. Mahan carded 6 birdies and an eagle, but also ran into three bogeys and a double. It was a 7 pars kinda day, that in the end led to his third missed cut of the season. Very disappointing final 9 holes of play on Friday for Hunter, especially considering that he played 4 of those holes at 5-under par.
For a full recap of Friday’s action at Colonial, click HERE.
CBS has the televised coverage on the weekend, beginning at 3:00 p.m. EST on both days.
Colonial Recap: Day One
May 28, 2010Phil Mickelson’s quest to unseat Tiger Woods from the top spot in the world rankings was the big side-story heading into this week, and scoring conditions during the opening round at Colonial were perfect. But the state of Lefty’s game on Thursday was anything but perfect, as he would struggle greatly on the tight, demanding par-70 layout.
After birdieing the first two opening holes, then managing par on the “Horrible Horseshoe” holes, Mickelson would stumble badly on the par4 7th after a series of wayward shots led to a penalty and a double bogey 6. He would pick up a birdie on the par3 8th, and made the turn at 1-under 35. But Mickelson couldn’t get anything going on the back, then carded bogeys on the par3 16th and the home hole 18th, coming in with a 2-over 37 and an opening round of 1-over 71. Mickelson hit only 5 fairways on the day. Any thoughts of replacing Woods at the top spot in the world rankings this week have suddenly been replaced with him needing a great round on Friday to simply make the cut.
Three Way Tie at the Top
Three guys did manage to take advantage of the good scoring conditions on Thursday. Jeff Overton, Jason Bohn, and Blake Adams fired sensational rounds of 7-under 63′s, sharing a one-stroke lead heading into Friday over Brian Davis. Davis fired a 6-under round of 64 in his opening round on Thursday.
Logjam Rounds Out the top 10
Bill Haas, Nathan Green, Bryce Molder, John Mallinger, Carl Pettersson, Zach Johnson, Spencer Levin, Kris Blanks, and Aron Price all shot 5-under rounds of 65 on Thursday, sharing a tie for 5th place and 2 shots back heading into Friday.
Notables
John Daly fired his first bogey-free round in two years on Thursday, shooting 4-under 66.
Last week’s winner at the Byron Nelson, Jason Day, is only three shots back of the lead after shooting a round of 4-under 66 on day one.
Steve Stricker’s return back to the tour after taking a month off because of a chest injury was uneventful for the most part. Strick fired an opening round of 2-under 68.
Jim Furyk didn’t find much joy in his first round at Colonial on Thursday. His 2-over par start will have him grinding to avoid missing the cut this week.
For a full recap of Thursday’s action at Colonial, click HERE.
Televised Coverage of the 2nd Round at Colonial begins at 3:00 p.m. EST, on TGC.
Ryder Cup 2010: Time Running Out for Sergio
May 27, 2010
It’s hard to believe that as recently as two seasons ago, Sergio Garcia was only two players away from Tiger Woods in the World Rankings. His win at the Players Championship earlier that season had gotten him inside the top 10, and his steady play after that moved him up to 4th. It appeared that Garcia was finally starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together to maybe start living up to the potential that everyone thrusted upon him some several years prior. It looked like things were starting to take shape again.
But a lot can happen over the span of two seasons. Especially when you’re having relationship issues with a significant other, of which he had… especially when your putting falls by the wayside, of which it did… especially when the one strength of your game (ball striking) is suddenly crumbling because of the stress and pressure that mounts, of which is happening currently.
In 10 events this season, Garcia’s best showing was semifinalist at the WGC Accenture Matchplay Championship back in February. Since then, his best finish came at the WGC CA Championship at TPC Doral back in March, where Sergio finished T-37. His game isn’t the only thing that has deteriorated; Garcia has spent much of the season seemingly disinterested in competitive golf. Back at the Masters just a little over a month ago, CBS analyst, Nick Faldo, passed by Garcia as he was walking and just casually asked him if he was expecting to factor into things that week and win his first major. Sergio showed very little emotion and simply said, “no.”
In many cases, his attitude would indicate the typical burnout that comes when nothing appears to be going right and the attitude is in the dumps… nothing that a month or two away from the game might chance a cure. But with Sergio, it’s clearly different. He’s beyond being frustrated. It has morphed into this attitude of “I really don’t want to be here, but I am.”
So when Garcia was asked about this year’s upcoming Ryder Cup event, it was very difficult to sense any real passion in his response. Keep in mind that Garcia has always been a phenomenal player in the Ryder Cup competitions, going from a guy who struggles to comfortably two-putt to expecting to hole 40 footers. If the Ryder Cup was one of golf’s majors, Garcia would have several already.
To hear a player who has played so passionately in these events over the years, a player who has truly assumed the role of a spiritual leader of sorts for his team – suddenly sound so unsure of himself and his future…. the passion is gone.
We very well might have seen the best of Sergio Garcia back in 2008.
