The Course of the Unknown Golfers

Friday, June 16, 2017

The last time four guys were tied for the lead with 36 holes left in the U.S. Open, their names were Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Ray Floyd and Hale Irwin.

That was 1974, in what became known as “The Massacre at Winged Foot.”

There are four guys tied for the lead with 36 holes left in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Erin, Wis. Their names are Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Brian Harman and Brooks Koepka.

This may end up known as “The Unknown Open at Erin Hills.”

These are four good players who, like the next 13 players on the leader board, have never won one of the traditional four major championships.

Let’s meet the leaders:

Casey, the Brit who doesn’t play in Europe and thus no longer is on Ryder Cup teams, made an 8 on the 14th hole on Friday en route to dropping five strokes in four holes and still sits with the other three at 7-under 137. Call him The Snowman.

“Not every day you enjoy a round of golf with an 8 on the card, but I’m a pretty happy man,” Casey said. “It’s a good 8 in the end.”

Fleetwood is 33rd in the world, plays the European Tour, and his scruffy visage couldn’t be picked out of a police lineup, be it run by Interpol or the Washington County Sheriff.

“I’ve never done this before,” said Fleetwood, the veteran of seven previous majors, of contending. It’s his second made cut in a major, the other the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

Harman is well-known for winning the John Deere Classic in 2014, but also hijacked the Wells Fargo that seemed destined for Dustin Johnson earlier this spring. Did you know he’s a righty playing left-handed, like the absent Phil Mickelson?

“Any time you’re up there towards the top, you want to keep playing well, but you’re always wondering, ‘Am I going to play well?’ ” Harman said. “I was proud I hung in there.”

Koepka won the Phoenix Open in 2015, was second in the Texas Open this year, and is 22nd in the world. That may say more about the world than him, but the big hitter revealed something about Erin Hills that helps explain the low scores.

“Seven-iron, that’s the longest club I’ve hit into any par-4,” Koepka said. “When you’re doing that, you’ve got to be able to put it on the green.”

Three players are a stroke back at 6-under 138, including first round co-leader Rickie Fowler, who added a 1-over 73 and is joined by Jamie Lovemark and John “J.B.” Holmes. Players champion Si Woo Kim is tied for eighth at 5-under 139 with Hideki Matsuyama, the No. 4 player in the world. Martin Kaymer, owner of a pair of major titles including a U.S. Open, is lurking four back at 3-under 141 after a 72-69 start, sharing 19th place with Masters champion Sergio Garcia, among others.

There are 23 players within four strokes of the lead, 32 players within five strokes, and 42 players under par. Another dozen, including former champions Jordan Spieth and Jim Furyk, are at par 144. The cut, with 68 survivors, fell at 1-over 145.

Missing from the weekend: world No. 1 and defending champion Dustin Johnson, No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 3 Jason Day, and eight of the top 12 ranked players overall.

What did Dan Jenkins once write? “The tournament is at the airport.”

Johnson needed an albatross at the 676-yard 18th to make the cut after a bogey on the 17th. He hammered a 315-yard 3-wood that bounced over the green on his second shot after a drive of over 350 yards. But he’s out the door. Likewise McIlroy, who said those who couldn’t hit the 40-to-60-yard wide fairways didn’t belong, and then hit 16 of the 28 over two rounds. Likewise Day, tied for 144th, ahead of only eight players.

Bon voyage, laddies.

Those left will soldier on regardless on Saturday morning – presuming overnight downpours don’t cause a delay – in this Open of surprises and low scores. The gaggle tied for 55th at 1-over that made the weekend on the number is only eight strokes behind the Four Whosmen. Eight strokes can be made up in a U.S. Open. Lou Graham was 11 back with 36 to play at Medinah in 1975 and beat John Mahaffey in a playoff. (If the old system of including everyone within 10 strokes of the leader was in effect, 91 players would still be playing, including Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Charl Schwartzel.)

So if you’re among the 145ers, such as Webb Simpson, who has already won one of these, or Zach Johnson, with a Masters and British Open on his resume, or Matt Kuchar, who copped the 1997 U.S. Amateur at Cog Hill – a major for the “Nicklaus has 20” credo to which we subscribe – keep hope alive, make some birdies, and see what happens.

And birdies can be made at Erin Hills. There were 483 of them on Friday, running the two-day total to 931. Players are hitting nearly three-quarters of the fairways off the tee and 65 percent of the greens – which only began to get testy on Friday afternoon – in regulation. Only 13 holes are playing over par, with a two-day scoring average of 73.305 (73.385 in round 1, 73.165 in round 2).

Of the contenders, nobody has made more birdies than Casey and Lovemark (12 each), and nobody has hit more greens in regulation than Koepka (30).

Kaymer isn’t leading any category, but he’s hanging around and knows what to do on the weekend of a major, even though he finished with a bogey. As does Garcia, who did it in April and has the green jacket to prove it. Neither sounded as if they would go for broke in the third round.

“You can’t really be aggressive on Friday or Saturday,” Kaymer said. “You have to wait for the back nine on Sunday if you’re only three or four shots behind.”

“To be 3-under-par with a chance on the weekend, I’m proud of that,” Garcia said. “Keep the momentum and see if we can have a good weekend and have a chance on Sunday.”

Or, the way this is going, on Monday.

Around the Open

The 1-over-par cut tied the Open low, set at Medinah in 1990. ... Amateur Cameron Champ, tied for eighth at 5-under 139, has the best score in relation for par as an amateur since Chick Evans opened with 139 at Midlothian in 1916. ... Wisconsin natives Steve Stricker and Jordan Niebrugge each scored 73-72–145 and made the cut on the number. ... If Casey wins even with the 8 on Friday, he’ll be the first to do so with a triple-bogey on his card since Tiger Woods, who made a 7 on the par-4 third hole at Pebble Beach in the third round in 1990. ... A 94-year-old man from Wauwatosa, Wis., died of natural causes at the Open on Friday after taking ill in the grandstand near the sixth green, USGA officials said. Paramedics were on the scene within three minutes, performed CPR and transferred the man to an ambulance, where efforts to revive him failed. Temperatures Friday were in the low 80s. ... Trevor Thompson, pilot of the blimp that crashed near the course on Thursday, remains in serious condition, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, as it does all aircraft accidents.

– Tim Cronin

Fowler bursts to lead with 7-under 65

Writing from Erin, Wisconsin

Thursday, June 15, 2017 

Is there really a new era at the United States Golf Association?

One designed to help players avoid penalties rather then playing gotcha?

One featuring dozens of competitors under par and roars, rather than groans, from galleries?

One day at the 117th United States Open doesn’t say that definitively, but sympathy, rather than sternness, was in evidence on Thursday at Erin Hills.

And that doesn’t even take into account the expression of sympathy from the USGA to the pilot of a blimp that crashed about a mile feast of the golf course in the morning. The pilot, unidentified, was burned when his advertising blimp went head first into a grass field. He was airlifted to a hospital via medical helicopter.

The Open’s leader is very much identified. It’s Rickie Fowler, who is either searching for his first major championship or chasing his second, depending on one’s view of the Players Championship.

Fowler went around Erin Hills – stretched to an Open-record 7,845 yards on a windy day – in 7-under-par 65, only the third 7-under opening score in an Open. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf shot 7-under 63s on Thursday at Baltusrol in 1980.

Half the world is right behind him and under par. Well, an Open-record 44 players were under par – and another 16 at par 72 – by the conclusion of play, with Paul Casey and Xander Schauffele scoring 6-under 66 to trail Fowler by a stroke with the best rounds of the afternoon. That’s a record 60 players at par or better.

A gaggle at 5-under 67 includes Brian Harman, Brooks Koepka, and Tommy Fleetwood, the best player you’ve never heard of. (The European Tour standout is 33rd in the world rankings.) Patrick Reed and Kevin Na are among a quartet at 4-under 68.

By U.S. Open standards, the scoreboard’s red numbers resemble – speaking of Harman – the John Deere Classic or the old Buick Open, even with the course longer than the line of parched patrons waiting for water on an 85-degree day.

What gives? Simple. Soft greens.

The 1.84 inches of rain that fell from Monday night through Wednesday took the course’s firm greens and made them nearly as plush as “Fescue,” the mascot cow on sale in the merchandise tent. While the fescue fairways continued to run, the soaking allowed the field to throw darts at the bentgrass greens, and stick them.

So, at least for one day, the Open wasn’t a torture chamber for all, but a pleasure palace for most. Throw out erstwhile Masters winner Danny Willett, whose untidy 81 raised eyebrows, and a trio of lessers who also were in the 80s, and the field found Erin Hills and its 40-plus yard wide fairways far more docile than the usual Open course, which features handcuffs on the first tee and other instruments of mayhem along the way.

Fowler had no truck with the potential problems, tooling around without a bogey.

“You don’t get many rounds at the U.S. Open that are stress-free,” Fowler said. “Simple day when you look back on it.”

As are all rounds that open with three birdies in five holes. That, and birdieing all four par-5s, the only one of the leaders to do so. And hitting copious numbers of fairways (12 of 14) and greens (15). Do all that, and a 65 is possible.

“I still missed some putts, but it’s just nice to go out and actually execute the game plan and not have to think about ‘what if that one went in’ or anything like that,” Fowler said.

Elsewhere, defending champion and top-ranked Dustin Johnson scored 3-over 75 thanks to visits with heavy fescue, Masters champion Sergio Garcia opened with a smart 2-under 70, and local fan favorite Steve Stricker settled for par 72 after making birdies on the first two holes.

The lack of ferocity in the tenor of the greens is matched by the thin resumes on the top of the leader board. Garcia, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk are among those tied for 18th. Nobody above them has won one of the four professional majors.

Fowler takes the “best player not to have won a major” as a compliment, which is wise. He also knows one round, even at 7-under, does not guarantee a trophy in his hands.

“It is always cool to be part of some sort of history in golf,” Fowler said. “But I’d rather be remembered for something that’s done on Sunday.”

Around the Open

Scottie Scheffler is the low amateur at 3-under 69 in a field of 14 ams. ... Canadian Adam Hadwin birdied six straight holes to tie an Open record and nearly birdied a seventh, running a 90-foot-plus putt within an inch of the hole to the right. He missed the par comebacker and settled for bogey, but added another birdie and finished at 4-under 68, in a tie for seventh. ... While some hospitality areas sold out, tickets were still being sold at the gate on Thursday. Attendance was supposed to be limited to 35,000.

– Tim Cronin

It's Radix Cup Day!

Writing from River Grove, Illinois

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Joel Hirsch, who played in 23 of them, calls the Radix Cup “the premier event in Chicago golf.”

He’s right. The annual match of Illinois’ best amateurs and professionals is a treat for competitor and spectator alike.

Today brings us the 56th edition, held at Oak Park Country Club, as all but three have been since the inaugural at North Shore Country Club in 1962.

Started by North Shore pro Bill Ogden and Oalk Park pro Errie Ball to honor Harry Radix, perhaps the foremost amateur promoter of the game in the Chicago area, they settled at Oak Park because Radix was a member there. It’s been the permanent home since 1972.

Sentimental memories aside, the Radix Cup has evolved from a one-sided walkover by the professionals (who lead 35-17-2) into an annual toss-up. The teams have split the last 10 and last 20 matches evenly, the professionals scoring an 11-7 victory last year, and Wednesday’s encounter could go either way as well.

The matches feature an array of talent:

12:45 p.m.: amateurs Ray Knoll and Paul Schlimm Jr. vs. professionals Kyle Bauer and Adam Schumacher. Knoll won the 2014 Illinois Amateur, while Bauer captured the 2016 Illinois PGA Match Play.

12:55 p.m.: amateurs Dave Ryan and Tim Sheppard vs. professionals Frank Bruno and Brian Carroll. Ryan is the current U.S. Senior Amateur champion, while Sheppard was part of last year’s winning CDGA Senior Four-Ball team. Bruno, Oak Park’s head pro, and Carroll may be up against it.

1:05 p.m.: amateurs Vance Antoniou and Bob Youman vs. professionals Chris Green and Brian Janty. Antoniou won last year’s CDGA Senior Amateur.

1:15 p.m.: amateurs Kyle Nathan and Chadd Slutzky vs. professionals Garrett Chaussard and Mike Small. Nathan and Slutzky won the last two CDGA Mid-Amateurs, while Chaussard narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. Open on Monday, while Hall of Famer Small has won a record 17 state majors.

1:25 p.m.: amateurs Charlie Netzel and Kyle Slattery vs. professionals Travis Johns and Matt Slowinski. Netzel is 22, Slattery 20, and both are Radix Cup rookies, while Johns and Slowinski had a combined seven victories.

1:35 p.m.: amateurs Andy Johnson and Steve Sawtell vs. professionals Brian Brodell and Frank Hohenadel. Sawtell was part of the CDGA Four-Ball title team in 2016, while Brodell and Hohenadel scored three top-10 finishes in IPGA play.

There’s an added treat this year. In an effort to get more spectators beyond the usual friends and family, Oak Park has encouraged members of the PGA Junior Golf League to come out, accompanied by their parents. The lads and lasses get a free lunch. Admission for everyone is free.

– Tim Cronin

Oklahoma knocks off Oregon for NCAA men's title

Writing from Sugar Grove, Illinois

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

The smart money in the morning said the NCAA Championship match would come down to the final pair, Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke and Oregon’s Sulman Raza.

Raza was the hero for the Ducks in 2016, needing three extra holes before providing the clinching third point over Texas in the title match at Eugene Country Club.

The junior would not repeat as the hero at Rich Harvest Farms. Dalke, a sophomore with a fullback’s build, built a 3-up lead after 15 holes and closed out Raza with a bogey 5 on the par-4 17th hole for a 2 and 1 match victory and the clinching point for his team in a 3.5-1.5 outcome.

It wasn’t really a surprise. Dalke played in the Masters this year thanks to last year’s runner-up finish in the U.S. Amateur. He won the individual title at the regional hosted by Stanford, and opened stroke play at Rich Harvest with a pair of 2-under 70s.

Now all he had to do, with Blaine Hale and Max McGreevy having disposed of their foes on the 15th and 16th holes, respectively, was knock off Raza, whose resume included winning the Duck Invitational this year, in the final match of the five-match bout.

Dalke won the first two holes, was 2-up after eight, stumbled around the turn to allow Raza to square the match, and then went 3-3-4 beginning at the par-4 12th to move 2-up with four holes to play.

A par at 15 put Dalke dormie 3, and while Raza made an all-world up and down par at the treacherous par-3 16th, winning the hole when Dalke three-putted, the end came at the 17th. Raza sprayed his tee shot into the hay on the right, the start of the bogey that sealed his fate. While Dalke also bogeyed, matching Raza’s score was all that was necessary, and the trophy was soon in his hands.

“It’s been a week to remember, for sure,” Dalke said.

“Brad’s a big-time player,” Sooners coach Ryan Hybl said. “He’s beginning to realize he can dominate like he did at Stanford, not just win.”

Hale beat Norman Xiong 4 and 3, closing him out with a 15-foot par putt at the 15th. McGreevty matched pars with Edwin Yi on the 16th for a 3 and 2 victory. Oregon’s Wyndham Clark, who will return to Illinois for the John Deere Classic in July, beat Oklahoma’s Rylee Reinertson 1 up for the lone Ducks win.

Oklahoma’s Grant Hirschman and Oregon’s Ryan Gronlund were on the 18th hole, Hirschman having just squared the match with a birdie on the 17th, when Dalke scored the victory.

“I got behind the eight-ball early, gave the first two holes to Brad, then made a mistake by three-putting on No. 4,” Raza said.

It’s the second NCAA title for Oklahoma, and the first in the match-play format. The Sooners also won in 1989.

“Our common goal was to win this trophy, and by gosh, we did it,” Hybl said. “We didn’t have a weak link this week.”

Maybe it was the internal team competition Hybl concocted over the summer, what Max McGreevy said was called “optimist prime matches,” to hone their match play skills. After all, the Sooners made the final eight last year in Eugene, only to get bounced by Texas 4-1 in the quarterfinals.

“When we did those matches back at home, it got us into the right frame of mind to bring here,” McGreevy said. “And getting there the first time opens your eyes.”

“Last year we were so excited to get to match play,” Hale said. “ ‘Oh, we’re in match play, it’s been a great year.’ This year, it was, ‘Let’s get a championship.’ ”

They beat Baylor in the quarterfinals, knocked off fan favorite Illinois in the semifinals, and then took down the defending champions.

– Tim Cronin

Illinois falls to Oklahoma in NCAA semifinal

Writing from Sugar Grove, Illinois

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Napoleon had Waterloo.

Titanic captain Edward Smith had the iceberg.

Illinois’ men’s golf team has the 490-yard par-4 17th hole at Rich Harvest Farms.

It was there that the Fighting Illini dream of an NCAA men’s golf title won in their state went and died late on Tuesday afternoon. And while there were countless other miscues in the course of their semifinal match with Oklahoma, beginning at the first tee, the penultimate hole was the killer.

Hours after an improbable and dramatic rally against Southern California in the quarterfinals, the Illini couldn’t stage a repeat, and fell 3.5-1.5.

It wasn’t that the Sooners, who will play Oregon in Wednesday’s championship match, were so tough. It was that Illinois committed too many unforced errors. The 17th is the ultimate example. To Giovanni Tadiotto and Michael Feagles, Illinois’ two freshmen, it might as well have a chalk line around it.

“We’re going to put a positive spin on this,” junior Dylan Meyer, who won his match against Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke, 1 up. “We’re going to be stronger, more experienced.”

Tadiotto had hit his drive into the right rough in the morning quarterfinal against USC, so adjusted his line and aimed at the left side of the fairway in his semifinal match against Max McGreevy, who was 1 up. Tadiotto drilled his shot through the wind and ended up behind a pump house for the pond on the hole.

“We were grasping for straws, and he hit a drive five yards off the fairway, and behind the house, which is tough,” coach Mike Small said.

Thus began a 20-minute misadventure that included him getting relief, dropping on wood chips, electing to hit a full shot rather than pitch out, slipping on the swing and whacking the ball no more than 40 yards, hitting his third out of heavy rough over the green, finally reaching the putting surface with his fourth stroke, and two-putting for a double-bogey 6. McGreevy made a less adventurous par 4 to score a 2 and 1 victory.

“I was already 1 down, so it was hard to beat that,” Tadiotto said. “I don’t know if I slipped or not. I just found myself on the ground when I hit.”

That was Oklahoma’s second point of the necessary three to advance. Some 45 minutes earlier, Oklahoma’s Blaine Hale had closed out sophomore Eduardo Lipparelli, 4 and 3, despite Lipparelli chipping in for a matching bogey 5 on the 15th hole. After the match, Lipparelli announced he was returning to Italy and turning pro, expecting a start on the European Challenge Tour within weeks.

Meyer had taken control of his match against Dalke and Nick Hardy was going back and forth with Grant Hirschman. That meant Feagles, who had seen a 2-up lead after five holes evaporate, needed to win the last two holes of his match against Rylee Reinertson to force extra holes and keep Illinois alive.

But Feagles played the 17th similarly to Tadiotto, minus the drop. His tee shot landed on the weed chips to the left, his second flew the green, and after relief from a Golf Channel tower, he left his third in the rough. His fourth skidded 10 feet past the cup, and he lipped out his bogey putt. Another double-bogey 6, and a 3 and 1 loss to Reinertson gave the Sooners the nessessary third point to advance. The Hardy-Hirschman match was ruled all square.

With that, Illinois’ season was over. Five straight finishes in the NCAA top-five and six times in seven years, this time on home turf and with hundreds of Illini fans roaming the vast playground in Jerry Rich’s backyard, but again without a championship.

“We just can’t figure out this second afternoon match,” Hardy said. “But we’ll figure it our way out next year for sure. We know what we came here for. We expected bigger.”

It could have been mental exhaustion. Illinois, specifically Tadiatto and Hardy, had to come back to beat Southern California in the morning, scoring a 3.5-1.5 victory. Lipparelli also won his match, and Meyer halved his. But that grind carried over.

“I gave out a lot of gifts,” Tadiotto said. “Too much stuff like three-putts. In a national championship, you can’t give out gifts.”

“It started on the first hole,” Small said. “The stuff we teach, we didn’t do very good today. Whether it was emotional or mental fatigue, or nerves, we weren’t on point and were always playing catchup. They made a lot of great putts and we made a lot of mistakes.

“The course was tough, but we didn’t play like we’ve been playing.”

Small then turned philosophical.

“Do we all want to win? Yeah, we do,” Small said, “but I’m good with it, I really am. But I told the guys the fun is the ride, the journey. It really is. To get this close, it is tough not to win, but I’m not going to get hung up on that. I’m going to take away being in Chicago, the fans, the way they treated other teams, the way they treated our guys, the response our fans got from Golf Channel and worldwide is really cool. They were awesome. There’s never been consistent crowds like this at the national championship. That speaks volumes for Illini Nation and golf.

“We would have loved to have given them a win, but this was a young team that overachieved. We really did.”

Lipparelli revealed that he decided over the winter to turn pro after the season concluded. That means Small’s starting five will change next year, with either Bryan Baumgarten getting a regular berth or one of his incoming freshmen grabbing the fifth spot.

“I wanted to give all the best effort I could with every shot today,” Lipparelli said. “I love this team. My plan was to stay here four years but I had some opportunities. It’s tough it ended this way. I hoped this would end on a higher note.”

Hardy, meanwhile, will skip defending his Illinois Amateur title in July because of conflicts, but has lined up the Western Amateur, Illinois Open and U.S. Amateur, presuming his qualifies for the latter, in August.

Wednesday’s championship match starts at 2:10 p.m.

– Tim Cronin