Like the cyclists in the velodrome at the London Olympics, Keegan Bradley drafted the back nine in the wake of Jim Furyk’s apparent wire-to-wire victory pace passing him on the last leg on the way to a 64 and a stunning come from behind victory in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

Playing in the final group with Jim Furyk who set a torrid pace with birdies on the first three holes on Sunday, Keegan just kept himself within sight of the leader until they turned the back nine.  Starting with two birdies on the back and a scrambling par on 12 Keegan had that look in his eye that he was not going to be shaken off the leader’s pace.

The key moment was probably at the 16th hole. Louis Oosthuizen who was two back at the time pulled the Tiger Woods Houdini flop shot from the spinach behind the green to make an unlikely birdie and get within one of Furyk.  Furyk playing with the confidence that had built his the lead through 69 holes would not be outdone, he make a 25-footer of his own for birdie to maintain his position.  Keegan then made a statement, making a 15-footer on top of Furyk to stay within striking distance one back.

With a one-shot lead, apparently Furyk failed to heed the warning message screened on his side view mirror coming down eighteen. When they both failed to hit the green in regulation it was Keegan who made a miraculous up and down par from a plugged lie in the green side bunker and Furyk who blinked taking two shots from off the green to get on and two more putts on the way to a disappointing double bogie and a two-shot swing.

As we saw with Keegan at last year’s PGA, this young guy has a knack for making big putts.  He was first or second in all three of the putting stats this week averaging just 26 putts a round over the four days.  As to the final 15-foot par putt that forged him into the lead he said, “I didn’t think for a second I was going to miss it….I knew exactly how it was going to break….I just needed to hit it hard enough….and it was dead center”.

Steve Stricker played some outstanding golf himself shooting 64 on Sunday.  Putting like the Stricker of old he birdied four of the last five holes in a final sprint that grabbed a share of second place.

With only the PGA Championship next week between them and the eight automatic Ryder Cup Team assignments, Keegan consolidated his grip on a valued position moving from 9th to 4th on the list.   Both Stricker (moving from 13th to 10th) and Furyk (moving from 15th to 11th) have positioned themselves for a final push next week.  Finishing outside the top 15 this week, Rickie Fowler, Brandt Snedeker, and Dustin Johnson all have serious work to do if they want to avoid begging for a captain’s choice.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow are less than a month away.  Serious jockeying for improved position in that race is going on and Furyk and Stricker both  moved up significantly to get into the top 16.  Keegan made the biggest move of all from 26th to 7th after today’s win.  There will be a whole lot of listening for footsteps behind them as this qualifying race heads down the final stretch.

August, 2012

This warning is seen around rural Ireland where gravel tends to build on the narrow roadways from shoddy construction and wear and tear. It is an admonishment to drivers to beware because traction and control can be lost when navigating these surfaces.

With the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship over the next two weeks, there are a number of players who need to heed this warning as they try to consolidate their grip on the roadway in an effort to make the Ryder Cup Teams or position themselves to feast on the $32 million available in the four FedEx Cup Playoffs  events starting later this month.  Failing to carefully negotiate this competitive terrain could leave them stranded off to the side of the road with the emergency flashers blinking.

Jim Furyk, who is currently wallowing at 15^th in the Ryder Cup Standings and 25^th in the FedEx Cup race, got everyone’s attention with his opening round 63 at Firestone yesterday.  His seven birdies and an eagle thrust him to the front of the pack in Bridgestone Invitational.  Keegan Bradley who is hanging on by his fingernails to a 9^th spot on the Ryder Cup list relied on a hot putter to make seven birdies to offset four bogies on his way to 67 and a T-9 going into Friday’s second round.  Dustin Johnson and Steve Stricker at 12^th and 13^th in the Ryder Cup list respectively, will need to do better than their one and two under scores from day one if they are going to grab a secure spot in the Ryder top 8 and avoid having to solicit Captain DLIII for a captain’s choice on the squad.

Tiger Woods, in an event that he has won 7 times since 1999,  continued to show the inconsistent form he has displayed all year.  He managed to guide his ball between the shoulders of the roadway yesterday hitting 65% of the fairways and 78% of the greens.  But his putter, or maybe his green reading eye, let him down big time with 33 putts including a gagged 3-footer on the 18^th hole for his third bogey on the back side on the way to a mundane par round and a T-31 to this point.  He has good company in the mediocre pit with Rory, Graeme,  Kootch, and Rickey Fowler all on that number.

So much will be decided over the next eight weeks-Fed Ex Champ, Player of the Year,  Stewards of the Ryder Cup, and much more.  How the top players do at Firestone and Kiawah the next two weeks will have much to say about their chances pursuing the treasures at the end of this road.

August, 2012

Apparently there are no suspended particles because the scoring through the first two rounds in the Evian Masters has been nothing shy of pure!

In a tournament where 15-under generally wins the day Stacy Lewis is already 12-under through two rounds.  Her 9-under performance on Thursday which included 7 birdies in a row was bubbling over the top.  She is back on simmer with a complimenting 69 today and leads the field by one shot.

Other notables are scorching the Evian Masters Golf Club as well.  Inbee Park of South Korea shot an 8-under 63 with a balance of 4 birdies on each side in today’s round.  Paula Creamer shot a 67 to go with her fine 68 and is T-3 with Inbee.  Beatriz Recari had a 66 today and So Yeon Ryu, the U.S. Open champ, found her travel legs after a lackluster 73 on day one and shot 7-under to get herself into the mix for the weekend. Lots of other proven competitiors are within 7 of the lead including Se Ri Pak, Karrie Webb, Jiyai Shin, and Azahra Munoz.

The rough is not what it was last year and the hot weather must have the balls bounding to support this low scoring.  It seems we will be watching a shoot-out on the shores of Lake Geneva on the Golf Channel this weekend.

July, 2012

What we witnessed at the Open Championship this year is hard to fathom.  Ten to fifteen mile an hour winds turned the last day into a slapstick circus act that included final round pie-in-your-face performances by Tiger (+3) who double wall-balled it out of the bunker on #6 on his way to a triple bogie, Sneds (+4) with back-to-back double bogies on #7 and #8, and Gmac (+5), who grew up with the winds of Northern Ireland as his teacher, befuddled by the with wind, carding 7 bogies over the last 18 holes.

But the biggest pie, the grand daddy of them all, was saved for Adam Scott who stood on the 15^th tee with a four shot lead and four letters already etched on the Claret Jug and inexplicably played the final stretch four-over-par to lose to the Big Easy by one.

Ernie must have a regular Saturday foursome at Lytham.  He was second in the Open Championship there back in 1996 and third when it returned in 2001.  His play all week showed total mastery of the complicated driving script, especially on the difficult back nine.  32 on Sunday-four birdies over the last nine holes-capped a 7-under performance on the back nine over the four days.  That lapped the field for the inward half.  The crescendo created when he buried his birdie putt on 18 with authority to post 7-under for the championship clearly unnerved Scott who was half way down a vortex to infamy.

That trip for Adam was slow and agonizing-more a series of fender benders than a full blown crash and burn.

He missed a short one on 15 to make bogie, made a contortionist’s escape from a bunker on 16 only to miss another short one to make bogie.  From the middle of the fairway on 17 he jerked his 170-yard approach into the fur back left of the green.

His playing partner McDowell remarked afterward, “Half of England is to the right of that pin and he missed it left…..the alarm bell started to ring.  I thought, ‘Hold on, we’ve got a problem here’”.  The result was his third bogie in three holes and he was now tied with Ernie sipping iced tea in the clubhouse.

Maybe the least understandable choice was on 18 tee where, needing par to make a playoff, Scott abandoned his strategy of playing iron off this tee in the first three rounds  to avoid the bunker constellation in the driving area and pulled a three wood to try to set up a more aggressive approach hoping to make birdie and win the championship outright.  The three wood did not slide to right as intended and left him in one of those revetted nasties with no shot at the green.  He managed to play a third shot to 10 feet but the par putt never threatened the hole and the last chapter of this sorted tale was now in ink.

Ernie Els, a four time major winner, was as graceful in victory as Scott was in defeat.  Among other supportive condolences Els shared with Scott afterward he said, “I’ve been there before.  I hope he doesn’t take it as hard as I did.”

Bill Dwyre of The Tribune Newspapers said in his article, “Champions come along every day.  Compassionate ones do not.  On Sunday at the British Open, Ernie Els was there for everybody.”

That is true but there is a small lorry full of skeletons being FedExed to Adam Scott this morning.  He will need  a big closet and a very short memory to overcome the disappointment of this one that got away.

July, 2012