Thursday
Sep092010
Poulter trying to avoid unsweet sixteenth
Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 5:20PM
Writing from Lemont, Illinois
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Ian Poulter understands the importance of making every shot count. He bogeyed the final hole of last year’s Western Open, and missed advancing to the Tour Championship as a result.
“One-sixteenth of a point,” Poulter said Thursday after opening with a 5-under-par 66.
“I finished on the same score with John Senden, but they had to take it down to a decimal point. I don’t want decimal points this year. I’m going to win this golf tournament, and I want to win at East Lake and I want to go and enjoy myself at the Ryder Cup. That’s my goal.”
With all that in mind, he went out and started his round on the 10th hole with a double-bogey.
“Not a very nice first hole, mind you,” Poulter said.
His recovery began with a birdie at the 12th, but really got rolling with a 70-foot birdie putt at the 14th, the other par-3 on the back nine. An eagle at the par-5 15th and chip-in birdie on the 18th followed, and Poulter was on his way.
Now, all he needs to do is climb from 44th in the playoff standings to 30th or better to move on to the Tour Championship. The PGA Tour’s number-crunchers say he needs to finish no worse than 10th to do so.
“The way I look at it is, I’ve either got a week off before the Ryder Cup, or two,” Poulter said. “You can play great all season, you can play poor for two weeks, and you’ll be sitting at home with your feet up having a beer watching the rest of the golf.”
The playoff numbers game
Tiger Woods is 51st in the playoff standings, and must be 30th or better in said standings to advance to the Tour Championship and have a shot at the $10 million pot o’ cash that is the winner’s bonus.
To do that, if the projections are correct, Woods has to finish no worse than fifth this week at Cog Hill.
And to do that, he has to get his act in gear. Woods opened Thursday with a double-bogey, the blackest mark in his 2-over 73. It ended with a bogey, and there were two others along the way, plus three birdies.
Woods, who called the greens “spotty” on Wednesday, took only 29 putts, but that’s because he had to scramble to save par when he wasn’t making bogeys. He hit only five fairways and 10 greens, and saved par from greenside bunkers but once in four attempts.
It may not be the end of the world, however. Harken back to 2005, when the Western was still played in late June and early July. Woods opened with a 73, and, like this time, stood nine strokes in arrears of the leaders, in that case Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Todd Fischer. By Sunday night, following rounds of 66-67-66, Woods nearly caught Furyk, who won by two strokes.
Second place this week would all but lock him into the field at East Lake.
The course numbers game
The complaints of bumpy greens may be borne out by the scoring average. On a cool and nearly windless day, the field of the PGA Tour’s best 70 players averaged 71.629 strokes, slightly over the 71.449 from last year.
The pushover hole, as is typical, was the par-5 15th, which played 527 yards long on Thursday and averaged 4.400 strokes. For golf sadists, that’s one more argument to move up one tee and make the hole a par 4, as was done to the fifth hole in 2004. The fifth, incidentally, averaged 4.314, and tied as the third most difficult hole.
The toughest? The par 3 second, at 3.414 strokes. The cup was back right, just where the green starts to fall off toward the back.
Around Dubsdread
The biggest galleries of the day followed Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on opposite nines during the afternoon. The morning crowd wasn’t as big, but healthy enough to keep the marshals busy. Overall, perhaps 18,000 were on hand. Last year’s first round gallery was estimated at 18,500. ... Scott Verplank, playing despite a sore wrist, toughed out a 5-over 76. Andre Romero was high man with a 9-over 80, the first opening round score above 79 since the Western was converted to a playoff tournament in 2007. Billy Rosinia, the head pro at Flagg Creek in Indian Head Park, opened with an 83 in 2006.
– Tim Cronin
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Ian Poulter understands the importance of making every shot count. He bogeyed the final hole of last year’s Western Open, and missed advancing to the Tour Championship as a result.
“One-sixteenth of a point,” Poulter said Thursday after opening with a 5-under-par 66.
“I finished on the same score with John Senden, but they had to take it down to a decimal point. I don’t want decimal points this year. I’m going to win this golf tournament, and I want to win at East Lake and I want to go and enjoy myself at the Ryder Cup. That’s my goal.”
With all that in mind, he went out and started his round on the 10th hole with a double-bogey.
“Not a very nice first hole, mind you,” Poulter said.
His recovery began with a birdie at the 12th, but really got rolling with a 70-foot birdie putt at the 14th, the other par-3 on the back nine. An eagle at the par-5 15th and chip-in birdie on the 18th followed, and Poulter was on his way.
Now, all he needs to do is climb from 44th in the playoff standings to 30th or better to move on to the Tour Championship. The PGA Tour’s number-crunchers say he needs to finish no worse than 10th to do so.
“The way I look at it is, I’ve either got a week off before the Ryder Cup, or two,” Poulter said. “You can play great all season, you can play poor for two weeks, and you’ll be sitting at home with your feet up having a beer watching the rest of the golf.”
The playoff numbers game
Tiger Woods is 51st in the playoff standings, and must be 30th or better in said standings to advance to the Tour Championship and have a shot at the $10 million pot o’ cash that is the winner’s bonus.
To do that, if the projections are correct, Woods has to finish no worse than fifth this week at Cog Hill.
And to do that, he has to get his act in gear. Woods opened Thursday with a double-bogey, the blackest mark in his 2-over 73. It ended with a bogey, and there were two others along the way, plus three birdies.
Woods, who called the greens “spotty” on Wednesday, took only 29 putts, but that’s because he had to scramble to save par when he wasn’t making bogeys. He hit only five fairways and 10 greens, and saved par from greenside bunkers but once in four attempts.
It may not be the end of the world, however. Harken back to 2005, when the Western was still played in late June and early July. Woods opened with a 73, and, like this time, stood nine strokes in arrears of the leaders, in that case Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Todd Fischer. By Sunday night, following rounds of 66-67-66, Woods nearly caught Furyk, who won by two strokes.
Second place this week would all but lock him into the field at East Lake.
The course numbers game
The complaints of bumpy greens may be borne out by the scoring average. On a cool and nearly windless day, the field of the PGA Tour’s best 70 players averaged 71.629 strokes, slightly over the 71.449 from last year.
The pushover hole, as is typical, was the par-5 15th, which played 527 yards long on Thursday and averaged 4.400 strokes. For golf sadists, that’s one more argument to move up one tee and make the hole a par 4, as was done to the fifth hole in 2004. The fifth, incidentally, averaged 4.314, and tied as the third most difficult hole.
The toughest? The par 3 second, at 3.414 strokes. The cup was back right, just where the green starts to fall off toward the back.
Around Dubsdread
The biggest galleries of the day followed Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on opposite nines during the afternoon. The morning crowd wasn’t as big, but healthy enough to keep the marshals busy. Overall, perhaps 18,000 were on hand. Last year’s first round gallery was estimated at 18,500. ... Scott Verplank, playing despite a sore wrist, toughed out a 5-over 76. Andre Romero was high man with a 9-over 80, the first opening round score above 79 since the Western was converted to a playoff tournament in 2007. Billy Rosinia, the head pro at Flagg Creek in Indian Head Park, opened with an 83 in 2006.
– Tim Cronin
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