Olympia Fields the winner through three rounds

Saturday, August 29, 2020

The wind was quieter at Olympia Fields Country Club on Saturday. A few more players, 19 in all, scored under par. Yet, at the top of the leader board, nothing has changed. As was the case on Friday night, only two players are under par on the famed – and now reputation-burnished – North Course of the big south suburban club.

Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner of the Western Open under its current BMW Championship moniker, and Hiedki Matsuyama, who threatened last year on Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 course, are the leaders. They sit at 1-under-par 209 after 54 holes, and lead Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann and Mackenzie Hughes by two strokes.

Honest, they do. This is not a fluke. Nobody else is even at even par, so thoroughly has Olympia strangled the birdie hopes of so many so often.

The best round of the day was 66, recorded by Kevin Streelman early in the day and by Jon Rahm later. Rahm, who jumped up 33 places into a tie for sixth, could have had a 65, but unaccountably lifted his ball on a green without marking it. That brain cramp brought a one-stroke penalty.

“I just hope I don’t lose by one stroke,” Rahm said.

There are 20 players within five strokes of the leaders, but it seems to be a race between a handful of people for the right to pose with the J.K. Wadley Trophy. The 2-over crowd, which includes Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Rahm, has a chance, but does the threesome four in arrears at 3-over? Rahm thinks so.

“Are you kidding? Four shots on this golf course is nothing,” he said. “The golf course is only going to get firmer."

Johnson added a second straight 69 to get to 209. Matsuyama bounced back from Friday’s 73 with a 69 himself. They continue to play the long game, trying to keep the ball in play – even Johnson, one of the era’s biggest bombers – and avoid the rough that swallows golf balls whole and remains thick despite litter watering and no rain since a third of an inch on Tuesday.

“It was a really solid day in tough conditions,” Johnson said. “It really doesn’t matter how far away you are, you’ve just got to be in the fairway. That’s the only way to control the ball and control the spin, and even then it’s still difficult to get it close to the hole.”

Johnson has only had the longest drive on one hole this week, a 376-yard rip on Thursday. Otherwise, he’s been long but not crazy long, trying to keep the ball on the short grass, hitting 21 of 42 fairways entering the final round. Matsuyama’s hit only 15 fairways – just six on Saturday and only three on Friday – but has scrambled exceptionally well, somehow ranking first in tee to green strokes gained. But he knows living on the edge isn’t the best recipe for success.

“I just need to hit the ball well tomorrow,” Matsuyama said. “I just tried to do what I could to stay in (contention).”

Johnson was able to do that, keeping hit wits about him despite opening with a bogey on the par-5 first, and later putting off a green into the rough. Yes, the greens are that fast.

“I know I’m playing well, so you’ve just got to be patient,” Johnson said. “Don’t try to be too aggressive, just keep playing golf. The first hole I just hit a poor bunker shot.

“It’s pretty easy to get into the mindset of ‘4-under is a good score.’ This is pretty much a major championship venue, and the conditions, the way it’s set up, it’s playing just like a major.”

Niemann shot 2-under 68 to climb into the tie for third and was thrilled to do so, not only for this week, but for his chances to make the top 30 in season points and thus qualify for next week’s Tour Championship, where a king’s ransom is available. He, though, downplays that.

“I don’t care if I don’t make it to the Tour Championship or not,” Niemann said. “I know that if I could score just under par, I was going to be right there. I think anything can happen tomorrow.”

For several holes on Saturday afternoon, nobody was under par. Clearly, Olympia, maligned by critics during the 2003 U.S. Open because the scores in the first two rounds were low, has gotten its revenge. Patrick Cantlay, whose Saturday 75 knocked him from a share of the lead into a tie for 15th, may still see his prediction of an over-par winner come to pass.

Rahm’s mental gaffe came on the fifth green, and he had no clue why.

“I hit it 30, 40 feet short right and was holding my marker in my pocket, and for some reason I just picked up the ball thinking I marked it already,” Rahm said. “I was thinking of something else. Took the penalty and moved on. I think the most important shot of the round was that second putt, the 6-footer for bogey.”

Rahm, who first played Olympia North in the Fighting Illini Invitational, played brilliantly otherwise. His 10 fairways hit of 14 tied Matthew Fitzpatrick for first, and he ranked second in putting compared to the rest of the field.

Streelman’s 66, one of only two bogey-free rounds (Daniel Berger was the other), came early in the day, and buoyed his mindset.

“I was contemplating retiring last night, so it’s good – I’ll give it another week,” Streelman kidded. “Obviously I wish I wasn’t so far out of it, but who knows? If I can have another big day (Sunday), anything can happen.”

He’ll start the final round tied for 63rd, 13 strokes back. He’ll not be knocking on the doors of the leaders, but the money will still be good.

Around Olympia

Corey Conners aced the 150-yard sixth hole with a 9-iron. “It was just fighting to work its way to the left, landed just right of the pin, short of the green, got a good bounce and started rolling toward the hole,” Conners said. “I was kind of stretching a 9-iron for me to get it to the green there.” It was the eighth of his career and first on the big circuit. … Sunday’s final round tee times start at 8:10 a.m. with Marc Leishman playing solo. Television coverage begins at noon on Golf Channel and switches to NBC at 2 p.m., five minutes after Johnson and Matsuyama tee off. … The increase in under-par rounds is accounted for in the scoring average, 71.391, which is still 1.391 strokes over par. There were 158 birdies on Saturday, but only three on the 18th hole (Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Champ).

– Tim Cronin

A U.S. Open breaks out at Olympia Fields

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Friday, August 28, 2020

Balls skidding off greens like they were car hoods. Rough you could lose a cat in. Approach shots failing to approach.

Welcome to the U.S. Open, er, Western Open, er, BMW Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s stern North Course.

Two days in, it’s evident the PGA Tour, which controls the setup for everything under its umbrella, is allowing Olympia to show itself off as a stiff test of golf. That’s something that was expected to be on display but was not for the majority of the 2003 U.S. Open on the Willie Park Jr.-designed layout.

Only four players broke par in that Open, which was won by Jim Furyk, but thanks to a pile of low scores the first two days, the reputation of Olympia’s championship layout suffered.

No longer. Not after 36 holes of carnage this time.

The last time 1-under-par – in this case, 139 strokes – led a PGA Tour tournament? Persimmon and balata were still ham-and-egging it on the circuit when 1-under led the 1990 Memorial, and only two players were under par.

A lot changes in 30 years. That was when course setups were generally challenging. Today, the Tour prefers birdies, bundles of which make for fun television broadcasts, but not this week. This week, with a course primed for difficulty and the weather – 94 degrees and the fan on from the southwest – is a beast.

One needed only to look at the color of the greens in the mid-afternoon. Some were beginning to show a purple tinge, which means the grass is gasping for water. The Stimpmeter speed was supposed to be 12.5, which is very fast, but some appeared faster. That means approach shots have to be precise to stay on the green, and in some cases, such as the par-3 16th, that tremendous downhiller that runs due west, it was next to impossible for the last groups of the day.

As a result, only Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay enjoyed a red number next to their name as the sun set across the IC tracks. McIlroy’s 1-under 69 and Cantlay’s 2-under 68 put them at the top at 139, ahead of overnight leader Hideki Matsuyama and Dustin Johnson (even-par 140), and two ahead of Adam Scott, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Louis Oosthuizen and Brendon Todd.

The connection between most of the above-named is their status as major champions. They’re owners of Green Jackets, Claret Jugs and the like, excepting Cantlay and Todd. That experience in the cauldron has served them well so far, and should continue to.

“Every single hole out here is difficult,” Johnson said after his 69. “It’s hard to get it on the green, and then when you’re on the green you’ve got a difficult putt. This golf course demands very good play, and you’ve got to put the ball in the right position, then from there you’ve got to his quality golf shots into the greens.

“It’s firm and fast, and it’s a lot of fun to play this kind of golf. I like it.”

The course isn’t impossible. Johnson proved that at the last, when he ran down a 32-foot putt to complete a brace of birdies. That made up for his bogey on the par-3 16th, where he said “I made three really good shots” en route to a 4.

Saturday is traditionally “moving day,” as Ken Venturi named it decades ago, but the third round may see people moving backward. Horschel is sure of it.

“I would say over par is going to win, 1- or 2-over par,” Horschel said, pondering the weather and an expected wind shift. “If you gave me even par right now I’ll go sit in the clubhouse for the next 48 hours and see how everything goes.

“You can compare it to the USGA, and guys would bash the USGA over this, and it’s different. Our tournament staff does a really good job of putting pins in the right spot, putting tees in the right spot, and it’s very fair. You’ve just got to execute the golf shots perfectly every time.”

Cantlay has won twice on the circuit and holds the distinction of being runner-up in both the Western Amateur (at North Shore) and the U.S. Amateur. He’s climbed up to 12th in the world rankings, and, after a Friday that included unaccountable bogeys and surprise chip-ins, can’t be counted out. For him, like most fine players, it’s all in the head.

“You’ve got to realize you’re going to make mistakes,” Cantlay said. “You’re going to make some bogeys because of how hard the golf course is, and always having a forward mindset as opposed to thinking about what’s happened or what the mistakes you’ve made it really important.

“I think it’s a fantastic setup.”

McIlroy, who said recently it’s difficult to play inspired golf without spectators, has managed quite well on a course he said was playing six shots harder than TPC Boston last week.

“I think the test is what’s helped me focus and concentrate, because if you lose focus out there for one second – one lapse in concentration can really cost you around here,” McIlroy said.

He blamed himself for his bogey on the classic par-4 14th, but also had five birdies, including the sinking of a 40-foot putt from the fringe on the 16th. He also had advice for the USGA when it comes to setting up a U.S. Open.

“I think what they could do is hire the Western Golf Association to set their courses up,” McIlroy said, smiling. “Yeah, this would be a wonderful test for a U.S. Open.”

Around Olympia

A handful of fans who couldn’t get in watched the action on the third hole from by the fence on Vollmer Road, the north boundary of the club, for the second time in as many days. There might have been a dozen at mid-afternoon. … The scoring average of 72.725, marginally lower than the first round, brought the two-day average to 72.775. There have been only 302 birdies through two rounds, and only four on the par-3 eighth hole, which plays into the teeth of the southwest breeze. ... Bryson DeChambeau, who won the 2015 U.S. Amateur on the North Course, was awarded an honorary membership by the club.

– Tim Cronin

Matsuyama's 67 paces field at Olympia Fields

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Golf tournaments have a way of reminding one of previous tournaments. It happens at the Masters all the time. It happens in the other majors more often than not.

It happened Thursday on several levels at Olympia Fields Country Club, where the first round of the 117th Western Open / BMW Championship was played before an audience of a few hundred volunteers, TV personnel and a handful of others.

The best reminder of the past was almost the last stroke of the day. It came from the magic wand of Hideki Matsuyama, whose 66-foot, 10-inch putt on his final green of the day found the hole, earning him the lead with a 3-under-par 67. It triggered memories because it was on the same green, albeit in the opposite direction, as Jerry Barber’s 60-foot putt that earned him a spot in a playoff for the 1961 PGA Championship against Don January.

Barber’s putt was to the north. Matsuyama’s was to the south. Each had to deal with the ridge that runs through the ninth green – it was used as the 18th hole in the 1961 PGA – and each succeeded. Barber won the title in the playoff, the only native Illinoisan to win a major in his home state. Matsuyama, a stroke ahead of Tyler Duncan and two ahead of Mackenzie Hughes, could match Barber’s feat with three more solid rounds.

The next reminder was in the atmosphere. This was likely the smallest gallery since before 1920, when, thanks to Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, attending golf tournaments became popular.

There might have been 1,000 people on the grounds at any moment, but certainly not many more. Matsuyama, whose 13 greens hit in regulation was exceeded only by the 15 found by Matthew Fitzpatrick, was watched by a handful of people, Tiger Woods, usually the draw for any gallery, by not many more. At one point, NBC / Golf Channel cameras caught a glimpse of perhaps two dozen people congregated around the third and fifth greens, which are only a few yards apart. That, except for a few people watching from the other side of the fence on Vollmer Road, was the extent of the gallery.

“I’m not sure what I had going today, but that last putt, that long putt that went in, very happy with that one,” Matsuyama said.

The third reminder was in the scoring. Even with a stern par of 70, a 3-under 67 just doesn’t lead pro tournaments in this era of bomb and blast. It did on Thursday because the wind blew – out of the southwest at 15 mph with gusts to 22 mph – and because the greens were nearly as hard as car hoods. That meant a properly-struck shot out of the fairway would be rewarded but a shot out of the rough, thick and up to five inches in some places, would be punished and bounce off the putting surface.

“You’ve got to just hit the fairways, hit the greens, otherwise it’s tricky,” said Alex Noren after his 2-over 72. “But I’m all for it.”

An interesting day thus created an unusual leader board. It you had Harry Higgs as one of the 10 players tied for fourth at even-par 70 – along with former champions Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel, along with Fitzpatrick, hats off to you.

“I think everyone found it a grind out there,” McIlroy said. “That felt like Saturday at the U.S. Open out there rather than Thursday at a PGA Tour event.”

If you thought world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner of this fandango, would be tied for 14th at 1-over 71, and joined by Tom Hoge and Joel Dahmen, congratulations.

“It’s a fair test of golf, but it’s just hard,” Johnson said. “If you want a golf course to play tough, grow a little rough, make it firm and fast. If I can get my bad round out of the way today and play three solid ones the next couple days, I’ll be all right.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Amateur on the North Course in 2015, opened with a 3-over 73. So did Tiger Woods, who has won everywhere but Olympia Fields. World No. 2 Jon Rahm opened with a 75. Recent PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa posted a 76, along with former winner Jason Day and Winfield’s own Kevin Streelman. Marc Leishman, who like Day won at Conway Farms, brought up the rear with an 80.

Playing on rather than protesting

Wednesday’s boycott of the NBA playoffs and WNBA games to protest racial injustice, in this case triggered by the shooting in Kenosha, Wis., spread Thursday to include the NHL, MLS and more baseball games, but the PGA Tour played on.

“It didn’t really cross my mind,” said Tony Finau of not playing. “But I understood the magnitude of what the NBA was doing and what they were boycotting for, and I know the PGA Tour is in full support of that. It’s a conversation that’s uncomfortable, sensitive for our country, but if we’re not willing to have those, I don’t think we can move forward as a country.”

Said Tiger Woods, “We’re all on board, on the same page.”

Cameron Champ, who like Finau and Woods is biracial, wore one black shoe and one white shoe to display his feelings.

“It’s part of me, it’s part of my family,” Champ said. “I think it’s a good thing we’re all talking about it, because again, it’s what needs to happen for change to happen.”

Around Olympia

With spectators barred, there were fewer structures built on the course than any Western Open since the 1970s. Only TV towers dotted the landscape. There was nary a hospitality tent. … The course averaged 72.826 strokes, the first over-par round in the BMW since 2014 at Cherry Hills in Denver. At 2.826 strokes over par, it’s the highest single round in relation to par since the playoff era began in 2007. … DeChambeau bombed a 401-yard drive on the 17th hole, the longest of the day, and also hit the longest drive on the fourth, fifth and 11th holes. Justin Thomas hammered his drive on the par-5 first 389 yards.

– Tim Cronin

Welcome golfers, but not fans

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Don’t look now, but the BMW Championship is being played at Olympia Fields Country Club beginning today.

Really, don’t look. At least in person. There’s no admittance for spectators this week, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic. The PGA Tour wants nobody about the premises except players, caddies, a handful of volunteers and a scant number of reporters for print and TV.

You? No. You’re on the outside looking in. There’s Golf Channel and NBC for you.

This is how it’s been since the professional circuit resumed action after taking the spring off when the pandemic hit in mid-March – and after considering plans to play the last three rounds of the Players Championship without fans.

This is how it will be until there’s a vaccine, one would imagine. If the virus is still about, it’s hard to change the reaction to is – unless you’re a governor of a southern state and throws caution to the wind.

Thus, when Richy Werenski goes off No. 1 and Alex Noren does the same off No. 10 at 11:30 a.m., they’ll do so with no gallery, and only the PGA Tour’s online TV service watching.

This isn’t what the good folks at Olympia Fields expected when they renewed acquaintances with the Western Golf Association. A longtime devoted supporter of the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation, Olympia last hosted the Western Open – this is the 14th under the BMW moniker – in 1971. Bruce Crampton won that. Jack Nicklaus won the one before, in 1968. Walter Hagen picked up the title at Olympia in 1925. Machine Gun McGurn was picked up by the police for being McGurn and in the Western Open field in 1933. He missed the cut.

The Olympians were expecting 35,000 fans a day, a profitable cut of the concessions and corporate sales, to go with the 20 hours of network TV coverage and a burnished reputation.

Instead, the gallery ropes were put up for no logical reason at all. Olympia still gets a healthy site fee, but it’s who will be missing this week that hurts.

And we don’t mean Webb Simpson, who figured out he doesn’t have to play this week to play next week in the Tour Championship. Remember, the BMW is the effective semifinal of the PGA Tour season, which ends next week at East Lake in Atlanta, where FedEx will carpet-bomb the fairways with cash.

Unlike every professional tournament since the 1997 U.S. Senior Open, Olympia’s testing North Course will play to the rotation architect Willie Park Jr. intended when he designed it in 1923. That means the iconic 14th hole will be just that, and so on.

Among the more interesting groupings is the 1:09 p.m. group off No. 1: newly minted PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, Harris English, and bomber Bryson DeChambeau, whose 2015 U.S. Amateur title on Olympia North thrust him to stardom.

The 12:03 p.m. group off No. 10 isn’t bad either: Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger. Right behind that trio is the 12:14 p.m. group: Carlos Ortiz, Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson.

It should be fun. This is the first tournament for the regular PGA Tour crowd at Olympia since the 2003 U.S. Open, where all manner of low scores were recorded in the first two days, including a 63 by Vijay Singh, and then the wind blew and the rough grew. Four players, led by Jim Furyk, finished under par. The PGA Tour likes birdies, so the numbers will be low – remember last year’s dissection of Medinah No. 3? – but if Johnson or someone else shoots 30-under, as occurred last week at TPC Boston, a certain clock tower might fall over.

– Tim Cronin

Small brings it home again

Writing from Medinah, Illinois

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Mike Small almost went full CaddyShack on Wednesday at Medinah Country Club.

He didn’t say, “Be the ball,” but “Be in the present” was close enough, and it worked.

Keeping his mind on business throughout the final round of the 99th Illinois PGA Championship, Small fired a 3-under-par 68 on Medinah No. 1 and scored a four-stroke victory over Mistwood pros Frank Hohenadel and Andy Mickelson.

Small’s total of 200 was 13 under par for three rounds on No. 1, and that’s fitting. It was Small’s record-extending 13th Illinois PGA title.

“It doesn’t get old and it doesn’t get easier,” Small said. “It’s been a while since I’ve won. It feels good to contend.”

Small led Mickelson and Hohenadel by a stroke entering the final round, birdied the first two holes – the first hole even after plunking his tee shot into a fairway bunker – and was never headed. The Mistwood duo scored matching par 71s, but treading water wasn’t going to cut it with Small going under par for a third straight round.

“I didn’t hit it good, but I competed and a putted really good today,” Small said.

He also stayed in the moment, unlike, by his admission, last year’s final round at Ruth Lake, where he squandered a five-stroke lead on the back nine and opened the door for Medinah director of instruction Travis Johns to win. That was a lesson learned.

“I didn’t look at the scoreboard until the 18th tee, so I didn’t know (the status),” Small said. “I didn’t get wrapped up in the score. … I knew they were close. … I was nervous. I was indecisive a couple times, then reminded myself to stay in the moment and be decisive.”

He was. His only bogey was on the fifth hole. Small added birdies on the 10th and 13th holes to the opening brace and otherwise kept it in play, forcing his challengers to take chances.

Mickelson was two strokes back until a trio of birdies beginning at the 13th hole ended his hopes. He birdied the 17th and 18th to draw even with Hohenadel, who bogeyed the 17th.

“He just played a normal round of golf, and Frank and I had our hiccups,” Mickelson said. “At the most critical time, I had bogeys in the wrong spots. Mike did exactly when he needed to do, came out strong early. That puts you in a spot where you’re playing catch-up.”

Mickelson’s birdie on No. 7 tied him with Small, but a three-putt bogey on No. 9 dropped him back a stroke, and Small’s birdie on No. 10 made it two strokes.

Hohenadel’s birdie on No. 11 pulled him within two, but Small answered with a birdie on No. 13 and that was that.

“Mike played solid, did his thing, and I didn’t take advantage of my opportunities,” Hohenadel said. “I wasn’t aggressive on my putts.”

Johns was fourth at 6-under 207, with Roy Biancalana of Blackberry Oaks fifth at 3-under 210. Chris Green of Glen View Club had the round of the day, a 4-under 67, to finish sixth at 1-under 212. Nobody else was under or at par.

Around Medinah

Course No. 1 averaged 76.07 strokes on Wednesday, with only one birdie recorded on both the sixth (George Goich) and seventh (Andy Mickelson) holes. … Small collected $9,000 from the purse of $75,000. … The annual section championship also served as the qualifier for the national club pro, formally the PGA National Professional Championship. Small, Mickelson, Hohenadel, Johns, Biancalana, Green, Curtis Malm, Jim Billiter, Brian Carroll and section newcomer George Goich of Flossmoor advanced to Port St. Lucie, Fla.

– Tim Cronin