Low scores at mile-high Cherry Hills

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Saturday, September 6, 2014

    The recipe for low scores in a golf tournament includes the following ingredients:
    1. Skilled players.
    2. Soft greens that accept shots.
    3. Fairways that are slow, keeping balls from skittering into the rough.
    4. Light winds.
    All of the above were present on Saturday at Cherry Hills Country Club. The low scores were posted on cue.
    A course-record 8-under-par 62 by Morgan Hoffman, bringing him into contention. A 63 by Billy Horschel, vaulting him into the lead. A 64 by Martin Kaymer, putting him squarely in the chase. A slew of 67s, including one authored by Ryan Palmer punctuated by a birdie at the last to place him three in arrears of Horschel.
    All that happened in the third round of the mile-high BMW Championship. As did this: Rory McIlroy four-putting his way off the leader board. Winfield’s own Kevin Streelman making a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 12th. William McGirt, seemingly allergic to low scores on the weekend, making back-to-back double bogeys. Henrik Stenson making birdies on his first three holes and shooting 2-over 72.
    Oh, and Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley withdrew before a ball was struck in anger.
    All but the last roundly entertained the gallery of about 27,000 who climbed the hills and cruised the valleys of Cherry Hills. As third rounds of a Western Open go, it had everything, and the collection of players leading the parade hint at a rousing finish to the 111th edition on the morrow.
    Horschel, who had the Deutsche Bank Classic in his grasp on Monday until the fatted 6-iron seen round Boston, is at 13-under-par 197 after his splendid bogey-free 63, which featured birdies on four of the last five holes, the last a right-to-left excursion of 32 feet before disappearing. He’s won once in his career, and, despite considerable questioning, has managed to put the gaffe on last week’s 72nd hole behind him.
    “Last week was more than a bad 6-iron at the end,” Horschel said. “It happens. I’ve got thick skin. Today was a great round. It’s a really challenging golf course. You can easily make bogey if you get out of position. To play bogey-free is one of the best three to five rounds I’ve had all year.”
    His margin over Palmer is three strokes, and would have been four except Palmer also made a 3 at the last, a 30-footer in his case. (This was the exception, not the norm; there were only eight birdies on the 18th in the 66-player field, but the scoring average was 69.424, under the stern par of 70 for the first time.)
    Palmer flew under the radar playing in the final threesome with gallery favorites McIlroy and Sergio Garcia, and lived to tell about it: “I had my few ‘Rory’s and ‘Palmer’s, had my 10 or 15 people following me. I’m taking the next step in my career, I think, and tomorrow can give myself a chance down the end.”
    Kaymer and Bubba Watson are tied for third at 8-under 202, U.S. Open champion Kaymer via the aforementioned 64, Masters champion Watson via a bogey-free 66. And Rickie Fowler, who had the best overall record in the majors this year without winning, is six back at 7-under 203 after a 66. Right behind him: Sergio Garcia at 6-under 204 following a 2-over 72, the only one of the leaders to go backwards on a day meant for going into overdrive.
    All of them are chasing Horschel, who eschews gazing at scoreboards while playing.
    “I’m in the best position I can be in going into Sunday,” Horschel said. “Think I’ve learned enough in the last year or year and a half to deal with what’s going to come from tomorrow. I’m going to do my thing and not let anything effect me, and have fun. Golf’s fun.”
    It was even more fun for Hoffman, whose 62 broke the course record of 64 established by Doug Tewell in the first round of the 1985 PGA by two strokes. (Palmer and Garcia tied it Friday, and Kaymer equaled it Saturday after Hoffman broke it.)
    “I don’t have anything to lose, so I was just trying to have some fun,” Hoffmann said.
    Hoffman started on the back nine, birdied his first three holes, ran three more birds together at 16-17-18 to turn in 6-under 30, then birdied the first and third holes. He was 8-under after 12 holes and needed to birdie three of the last six to shoot 59. He played them in even par, with four pars, a birdie and a bogey.
    “I don’t think you should be out here if you’re scared to go low,” Hoffmann said. “That 59 number was a big goal for me. Hopefully, I can pull it off tomorrow.”
    Hoffman had scored a 10-under 62 in college, but this was his best on the PGA Tour. He was fully aware that setting the record at Cherry Hills was a cut above. He soaked in the history from the Palmer Tee to the rest of it during the 2009 Palmer Cup, a college competition based on the Ryder Cup.
    “It’s as good as I remember,” Hoffman said of the club. “The facilities are great and everybody treats us awesome.”
    Hoffman starts the final round tied for 10th, and might have to duplicate his feat. He almost surely has to finish first or second to advance to the next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Not bad for someone all but off the charts – 124th – after the Wyndham, but has used top-25 finishes the last two weeks to keep going in the playoffs.
    “This whole FedEx Cup has been a bonus, really,” Hoffman said. “Not winning at all, but sneaking in was kind of a high. (I’m) just trying to have some fun out here and keep riding the train.”
    – Tim Cronin

Mickelson, Bradley go AWOL

    Round 3 Notebook

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Saturday, September 6, 2014

    Before Morgan Hoffman came along and carpet-bombed Cherry Hills Country Club with birdies for a course-record 62, the morning talk at the BMW Championship was the surprising leave-taking of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. The duo, a likely Ryder Cup pairing, withdrew for totally different reasons before play began.
    Mickelson, 6-over and 14 strokes off the pace, said he needed rest. He cleaned out his locker on Friday night, but his departure wasn’t revealed until the morning.
    The bigger shocker came at about 9 a.m., when the WD sign went up next to Bradley’s name on the scoreboard. And the reason behind it is amazing.
    Bradley, 3-over after 36 holes, decided a favorable ruling he received from the PGA Tour on an embedded ball near the 18th green on Thursday, and one confirmed by PGA Tour rules chief Slugger White on Friday, was incorrect, and pulled out of the tournament.
    In doing so, he probably lost any shot at advancing to next week’s Tour Championship, which takes the top 30 in the season point standings. Bradley was 28th entering this week and will probably fall out of the eligibles.
    “I just feel withdrawing is the right thing to do to protect the field in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship next week,” Bradley said. “It’s eating me alive.”
    It was the chain of events, more than the ruling, that nagged at Bradley. His 233-yard 4-iron third shot embedded in the steep grass face above the left bunker fronting the green. Under Rule 25-2, Bradley took relief for a ball embedded in its pitch mark. He chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey 6.
    However, he didn’t ask Stuart Appleby or Justin Rose, the other players in his group, to look as the ball, which is customary. He did call for a roving rules official after making the drop, who said he was in the clear.
    He was in the scoring room for a longer-than-usual amount of time on Thursday. At some point Thursday, a fan told he he saw the ball bounce before coming to rest. Bradley then went to White before play on Friday. They went back to the spot, and White confirmed that Bradley didn’t violate a rule.
    That still wasn’t enough for the 2012 PGA Champion.
    “I didn’t call my fellow competitors for help in the first place and that bothers me,” Bradley said in a statement released by his agent. “I know the official approved the drop but I just can’t be absolutely sure it was the right spot.”
    That decision cost Bradley whatever prize money he was going to earn this week, and, presuming he’s out of the top 30, a shot at the $10 million bonus for the FedEx Cup champion and the slice of the regular purse money in Atlanta.
    In other words, a decision that could cost Bradley over $11 million.
    But his pillow will be soft tonight.
    Mickelson’s presumably will be as well, though his departure was more self-serving. With little chance to win and without a berth in the Tour Championship, Mickelson said he was going home to rest up for the Ryder Cup. Similar to how the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, Mickelson left under cover of darkness. This was released by his PR people after midnight:
    “My primary goal is to rest and prepare for the Ryder Cup. Without a chance to contend at the Tour Championship, the most important thing for me now is to prepare for the Ryder Cup.”
    Never mind that there were probably more than a few people in Saturday’s big crowd who traipsed out to Cherry Hills, parked in a muddy lot, rode a shuttle, walked through 150 yards of cattle pen-style fencing and a showroom-sized display of BMW cars and motorcycles before seeing the golf course, who fully expected to see Phil Mickelson.
    Bradley had a crisis of conscience. Mickelson was selfish. Two more days of golf weren’t going to kill him. The Ryder Cup is three weekends away. He would have been well-rested.

    McIlroy pulls a Seve

    Once upon a four-putt, Seve Ballesteros explained his gaffe thusly: “I mees, I mees, I mees, I make.”
    Rory McIlroy could have said as much on Saturday, when he missed the green at the par-3 12th hole, chipped to 4 feet 9 inches, and four-putted for a triple-bogey 6.
    What? The world No. 1 suddenly looking like the world No. 1,000,000?
    “The 12th hole just really derailed me,” McIlroy said. “The first two putts I didn’t lose any concentration. I took my time over them. I just completely misread the first one. Then just hit a bad putt the second, and then the third one I was just going for a tap-in and just lost concentration.”
    He finished with a 2-over 72 for 4-under 206 and is nine back of leader Billy Horschel with a round to play. Arnold Palmer was seven back and won the 1960 U.S. Open on the same course.
    “I just need to go out tomorrow and try to post a low one and finish as high as possible (to) give myself the best possible chance going into Atlanta next week,” McIlroy said.

    Around Cherry Hills

    Looking for a lurker going into the final round? Check those tied for seventh, eight strokes back to 5-under 205: Jim Furyk (a former winner and author of a 59 at Conway Farms last year), Jordan Spieth (winless since last year’s John Deere Classic), and Graham DeLeat. ... Hunter Mahan is 19 strokes off the pace, but he’s a lock to advance to the Tour Championship, and the only player on the circuit who will have played in all 32 playoff tournaments since the format began in 2007. Mickelson and Steve Stricker’s streaks of making the Tour Championship each year of the playoff era have ended ... Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed drove the first green on Saturday, each making birdie. ... With Mickelson and Bradley off the premises, there are 16 Ryder Cup players left in the field, 10 U.S. and six Europeans. Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, at 8-under 202, lead that group.
    – Tim Cronin

Garcia moves to the top

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Friday, September 5, 2014

    There was a time when the slightest disturbance could get Sergio Garcia off his game. He was the walking realization of P.G. Wodehouse’s character flummoxed by the flapping of butterfly wings in the adjacent meadow.
    Garcia is that person no longer. Because he is not, he’s in the lead after two rounds of the BMW Championship – ye olde Western Open, if you will – at Cherry Hills Country Club.
    The proof of Garcia’s shedding of the rabbit ears came on the 18th green. Garcia had scrambled to save par on the par-5 17th after dunking his second, and, after a solid drive and approach, stood on the edge of the 18th green with an opportunity to wrest the lead from Ryan Palmer. He was over the ball, giving the line on his 22-foot putt a first look, when someone on the balcony of the BMW luxury suite behind the green dropped a glass.
    Garcia backed off and looked up. Once upon a time, he would also have imitated a volcano.
    Instead, with Mount Sergio dormant, he got back to business, lined up again, and rolled the birdie putt home for a 6-under-par 64 and a two-day aggregate of 8-under-par 132, a stroke ahead of Palmer, who posted a 64 a few minutes earlier.
    Need more evidence? How about an eardrum popping when he was on the sixth green, elevation 5,360 feet?
    “It obviously helped, because I made a 2 on the next (the par-4 seventh),” Garcia kidded. “It was uncomfortable for five or six holes. First I heard a popping sound. It’s happened before, but it didn’t feel quite the same as before and still doesn’t. I was uncomfortable for five or six hole.”
    One ear banging away, Garcia holed a full lob wedge from 128 yards for his deuce eagle on the seventh, and after a bogey on the eighth, birdied the 12th and 13th to move to 6-under. Birds at the 16th and 18th, the latter after the balcony clatter, set his final score.
    But a 132, a stroke higher than the halfway-point total for the last three Western / BMWs, doesn’t satisfy Garcia, a tough judge.
    “I need to feel like I played better,” Garcia said. “I didn’t play bad, don’t get me wrong. But I played better at the British Open and at Bridgestone.”
    Not because he doesn’t stand a chance to win the tournament, or win the playoff pot o’gold next week at East Lake. But because the Big One in his eyes, the Ryder Cup, is less than a month distant.
    “The $10 million (for winning the FedEx Cup), that’s obviously a bonus,” Garcia said. “At the PGA and the Barclays, I hit some great shots. I want to build momentum and be where I need to be for the Ryder Cup. That’s the most important thing to me.”
    The cast in pursuit of Garcia, who has two top nines in this affair, is a blue-riband group. Palmer, his 64 highlighted by a second eagle in as many days, is the aforementioned stroke back. Rory McIlroy is two back at 6-under 134 after a second straight 67, highlighted by three birdies in the last four holes. Billy Horschel, the Cinderella runner-up last week in Boston, joins him there.
    And look who’s in a tie for fifth: That old belter himself, Bubba Watson, whose 4-under 66 puts him at 4-under 136 at the halfway point. Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson are in a gaggle at 3-under 137.
    Palmer hit only three fairways – Garcia only hit five – en route to his 64. That’s where the softer conditions paid off.
    “You could play from the rough a lot,” Palmer said. “I had a lot of wedges out of the rough. Balls were even stopping and spinning back out of the rough. I drew a lot of good lies.”
    Palmer’s eagle at No. 7, a 396-yard test, came via a 30-yard pitch. He holed birdie putts of 13 and 7 feet on the last two holes to finish with a flourish.
    Thanks to the tightly bunched field after the first round – 49 players were within five strokes – the top of the scoreboard featured more changes than a Broadway star’s wardrobe. That Garcia is the man standing at the top when the dinner bell rang is impressive. Now, he has to break his bad run of surrendering 36-hole leads. He’s 1-for-9 converting that into victory, with only the 2001 Buick Classic a success.
    “You could be a little more aggressive today,” Garcia said, noting the softer greens courtesy of the half-inch overnight rain made the putting surfaces more receptive. “It played longer and the breeze made it more challenging.”
    The cool temperatures – it never got higher than 64 degrees – negated the distance advantage heat gives a well-struck shot, but the altitude edge was still there. That made for some educated guesses on approaches, not all of them good.
    “You don’t really look at the yardage ... (you) take off 10 percent,” Watson said. “It’s roughly 7,000 yards if you do that. If you look at it that way, it’s a lot shorter than a normal course we play.”
    Watson said he was trying to hit different shots off the tees, then backtracked and said he was hitting drivers “as hard as I can so it gets way down there.”
    Some things never change.
    – Tim Cronin

Softer greens equal lower scores

    Round 2 Notebook

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Friday, September 5, 2014

    From trampolines to pin cushions.
    That’s how the condition of the greens at Cherry Hills Country Club changed from Thursday to Friday. A shot that would bound in the air like a Super Ball in the first round hugged the turf and spun back in the second round.
    Henrik Stenson was the first to find out when he watched his approach shot react on the ninth green in the storm-delayed conclusion of the first round. It hit 12 feet short of the cup. Then the adventure began.
    “I had a lovely 8-iron in,” Stenson said. “Yesterday we couldn’t stop the balls, really. Now with the rain, it spun back 35 feet to short of the green there. That was a bit of a tough start.
    “Then I whacked the first putt seven feet by and left a tricky little downhill putt. I managed to trickle it in. So I got away with it.”
    Stenson expected better overall scoring from the field, and was correct. The first round average was 71.116, over a stroke over par. The second round average, a bit more than a stroke less, was 70.059. That had much more to do with the conditioning than the slightly lesser yardage (7,301 for Round 1, compared to 7,259 for Round 2).
    He contributed to the better numbers with a 1-under 69 that leaves him five adrift of leader Sergio Garcia with two rounds to play.

    A 67 with a difference

    Top-ranked Rory McIlroy added a second 3-under 67 to his resume on Friday, but it was hardly like Thursday’s effort.
    He hit three more fairways (10 rather than seven), took as many more putts (30 rather tha 27), and still put the number up, with birdies on three of the last four holes making it happen.
    “It’s amazing what a different finish to a round can do,” McIlroy said. “I tried not to get too frustrated, even though ... I was stuck in neutral for most of the day.”
    McIlroy sank a 27-footer for a birdie 2 on the 15th, a 34-footer for a birdie 3 on the 16th, and two-putted for a birdie 4 on the island-green 17th after slashing his approach shot out of the rough from 223 yards, clearing the moat and landing 40 feet from the cup.
    “I hit a 6-iron and I was in-between a 5 and a 6,” McIlroy said. “I just went with a hard 6 and gave J.P. (caddie J.P. Fitzgerald) a look. I thought it was a little bit shorter than what it was.
    “He gets that look a lot.”

    Back knocks Day out

    Almost always with golfers, it’s the back, and that was the case on Friday for Jason Day. In contention in the first two weeks of the playoffs, Day arrived at Cherry Hills with a strained lower back. He scored even-par 70 on Thursday, and was just 3-over through eight holes on Friday, but pulled out after bogeys on the sixth and eighth holes.
    He underwent treatment in the PGA Tour’s scoring trailer for about an hour after pulling out, and remains hopeful to play in the Tour Championship next week at East Lake.

    Around Cherry Hills

    Rory McIlroy and Graham DeLeat drove the first green on Friday. McIlroy parred, DeLeat birdied. Two players have driven the green each day, with the quartet 4-under on those four drives. ... Phil Mickelson may have won the 1990 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills, but you can’t tell it from this week. He fired a 76 on Friday and is at 6-over 146 at the halfway point. ... Ryan Moore rebounded from Thursday’s 80 with a 1-under 69. ... If this was a few months ago, McIlroy would have a major distraction on Sunday. Former fiancee Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the U.S. Open tennis finals on Friday. The championship match against Serena Williams is Sunday afternoon. Wozniacki is 1-8 against Williams, but has been playing her best tennis of the year since McIlroy got cold feet after the wedding invitations had been mailed. ... Thursday’s half-inch rainfall jumbled the parking situation, but it didn’t appear to dampen the enthusiasm of the gallery. Many people were bussed in from Mile High Stadium. Those lots can be used Saturday, but not Sunday, when the Broncos host Indianapolis in the evening. A pair of large church lots will also be unavailable.
    – Tim Cronin

A tale of the first tee, first green, and first golfer

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Thursday, September 4, 2014

    Rare is the golf course where the first hole is the most talked about of the 18.
    Cherry Hills Country Club is that course, thanks to Arnold Daniel Palmer and one mighty smote in the June heat of 1960.
    From his perch at 5,411 feet, Palmer drove the first green, 346 yards distant and 42 feet downhill. He two-putted for birdie, shot 65, made up seven strokes on Mike Souchak, outbattled Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus, and won the United States Open Championship.
    So, yes, the first hole gets one’s attention. That was the case Thursday morning, when wise golf fans young and old happened to gather at the green to see who, if anyone, would be able to duplicate Palmer’s feat.
    Put it this way: If it was easy, anyone could do it.
    It isn’t. And in the first round of the BMW Championship, many tried, but only a pair of players could match the King.
    One, fittingly, was named Palmer. Ryan Palmer, unrelated to the great man himself, plopped his tee shot on the 346-yard hole 28 feet from the cup, and, trumping Arnie, made the putt for an eagle 2. Charley Hoffman, in the group before, also managed to make hit drive hold on the Fiberglas-fast putting surface, but settled for par.
    Palmer and Hoffman were the only two in the field of 69 to do so.
    Top-ranked Rory McIlroy, whose sparkling start pushed him briefly to the outright lead in this 111th edition of what traditionalists call the Western Open, did not. His 3-wood landed in the right rough, and he chipped close for an easy birdie putt.
    Bubba Watson also missed the target. His wayward drive to the right hit a member of the gallery hard enough for the impact to be heard on the other side of the green. He signed a ball for the wounded fan, then lofted a delicate chip that stopped 11 feet from the cup and sank that for a birdie 3.
    This is the first time the Palmer Tee is being used regularly in a big tournament here since that 1960 Open. The USGA went farther back to a new tee for the 1978 U.S. Open, won by Andy North, and the PGA did the same for the 1985 PGA Championship, which Hubert Green captured. So full marks to the WGA and PGA Tour for both nodding to tradition and creating excitement right from the start of the round.
    The end of the round found McIlroy, from the green fields of Northern Ireland, in a trio tied for the lead at 3-under-par 67 with two fellows who hail from not far from here: Jordan Spieth of Texas and Gary Woodland of Kansas. One stroke back and sitting on the right side of the fairway on the par-4 ninth when play was called for the day because of lightning at 5:51 p.m. Mountain Time is Henrik Stenson, the smooth Swede. He’s the one player among the nine at 2-under yet to sign his scorecard. Nine players in all weren’t able to finish.
    That the scoring wasn’t lower was a surprise to some, but shouldn’t have been. This William Flynn-designed layout, recently refurbished by Tom Doak, has stout architectural defenses, as those who played for the first green discovered. Add in fast fairways, faster greens, and wiry three-inch rough, and it’s precision more than power that sets a player up for a good score.
    McIlroy’s scorecard was al but oblivious of the difficulty. He reached 5-under and was cruising until his 16th hole, the par-4 seventh, when his approach landed in a grassy depression, his third bounded over the green into a bunker, and he failed to save par. Another bogey followed on the par-3 eighth.
    “I was a bit frustrated,” McIlroy admitted. “It’s fairly tricky out there. Low scores are hard to come by; 67s a really good start.
    “The fairways are firm, so even when you hit irons and fairway woods off the tee, they’re running out of the fairway. And the greens have gotten a lot harder in the last 24 hours. You’re having to land shot a good 10-15 yards before you intended to.”
    McIlroy figured out enough to run down five birdies in his first 12 holes, including three in succession starting at his 10th, the famed first.
    “It’s playing a little bit like a U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “Not quite as difficult as that, but thick rough and firm greens. That’s what they need to keep the scoring the way it is.”
    It was McIlroy’s first exposure to Cherry Hills, but Spieth was here two years ago, playing in the U.S. Amateur. He was bounced in the first round of match play, but loved the place, and still does after his six-birdie, three-bogey round.
    “It’s nice to stay with the same family I stayed with back then,” Spieth said. “I kind of feel I’m back at a U.S. Amateur or college event this week. This is one of the few events where I may have more experience than a lot of the guys. I’ll take that mental attitude the next few days.”
    Woodland, who averaged 343 yards off the tee, essentially made his score on the back nine, the tougher and longer of the nines, then hung on. He was 4-under through his 12th, bogeyed the par-4 fourth, then parred in.
    “The greens, they’re concrete out there,” Woodland said. “If we don’t get any rain it can be pretty interesting by the weekend.”
    A few drops fell late in the round, and there was more rain expected overnight, but not enough to make the course anything close to easy.
    “A lot of the fairways were difficult to hit,” said Sergio Garcia, in the 2-under gaggle. “It played very, very firm and you had to be really on to score well.”
    Canadian Graham DeLeat is in the group at 68 after sitting at 3-under down the stretch, and noted one more thing that might have contributed to the clustering of scores close to par.
    “It was a quick week,” DeLeat said, noting the Monday finish in Boston. “I think probably not anyone had the same preparation they normally would have, especially for such a big event. I guess we’re all kind of in the same boat.”
    When play was halted, 21 players were under par and another six, including Watson, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, were at even par 70. If Cherry Hill’s usual par of 72 was in effect, 44 players would have beaten the standard.
    Of the leaders, Woodland’s story is the most intriguing. He’s 29th in the point standings, and only the top 30 advance to next weekend’s jackpot in Atlanta. McIlroy is second, Spieth ninth, and sitting pretty. Woodland, along with Stenson, needs a fast finish to play on.
    “The goal is to move up as far as you can, be in the top 5 going into next week,” Woodland said.
    A high finish would make that happen.
    “I’m still trying to win this thing,” Woodland said.
    The tournament? The pot of gold at the end of next week? Yes and yes. This is professional golf, after all.
    – Tim Cronin