Si Woo Kim goes lights-out, Rory McIlroy squanders another season-opener, Tiger Woods heads to the sidelines, Jessica Korda rallies past Danielle Kang, Tony Finau remains in neutral and more in this week’s edition of Monday Scramble:
Si Woo Kim delivered his first win since the 2017 Players with some clutch shots down the stretch, including a 20-foot birdie on the 71st hole – aka the watery par 3 nicknamed Alcatraz – to nip a red-hot Patrick Cantlay at The American Express. It was Kim’s third career PGA Tour title. A reminder: He’s still just 25.
Kim was bogey-free over the weekend, and in all three rounds at PGA West’s Stadium Course, as he shot 23-under 265.
A year ago, Kim withdrew from the AmEx following a first-round 87, citing a back injury. Talent has never been a question, but his body has betrayed him at times. He started working with swing coach Claude Harmon III and has shown marked improvement over the past six months, culminating with his macho victory at PGA West.
“My goal this year was to have a win, and I’ve got it already this year,” he said. “I just want to have one more win and try to get into the Tour Championship.”
Tyrrell Hatton isn’t feeling glum today.
The star of the European Tour’s latest viral social-media post, Hatton has little reason to extend any finger other than his thumb. Staring at a one-shot deficit through 54 holes in Abu Dhabi, he fired a flawless 66 to cruise to a four-shot victory. For the week, he gained 13.37 strokes tee-to-green on the field – 3.8 strokes more than any other player. It was an absolute clinic.
The Rolex Series title was the fourth of his career, and his third significant title in the past 10 months, following an invitational on the PGA Tour (Bay Hill), the European Tour’s flagship event (BMW PGA) and now a glitzy kickoff event in Abu Dhabi. No one around the globe has won more than Hatton since November 2019.
That’s why it was humorous to hear Hatton talk about how many Ryder Cup points he’d accrued in the first event of 2021 – as if there were any doubt he’d be on the European squad come September. Among Europeans, Hatton, now up to No. 5, trails only Jon Rahm in the world rankings, and he’s overtaken Tommy Fleetwood as the leading Englishman.
He’s one of the best players in the world, period.
Winless over the past 15 months, Rory McIlroy couldn’t convert a narrow third-round lead into victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. His even-par 72 was never going to be good enough to win, especially not with the sublime form Hatton had shown over the past year.
And so continues an incredibly odd career-long statistic for McIlroy, who has now finished inside the top-5 in his first start of the year 13 times in the past 14 years – but never has won. Indeed, only Augusta National, with a dozen appearances but no trophy, has vexed him more than Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
At the start of the week, McIlroy said that this was likely the sharpest he’s ever been heading into the new year, but by Sunday he understandably felt disappointed. “I don’t feel like I played great this week,” he said. “Felt like I was managing my game a bit.”
McIlroy will have plenty more chances over the next two months. Including Abu Dhabi, he’s playing seven times in eight weeks. He made the long flight to Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open.
Tiger Woods now needs two hands to count the number of times he’s gone under the knife.
The latest was a microdiscectomy – his fourth! – to clean up a “pressurized disc fragment” that was pinching a nerve in his back. He said he experienced discomfort at the PNC Championship, but close observers would notice that he hasn’t been right for months. Riviera, Muirfield Village, Augusta National – there were plenty of examples where he’d wake up feeling spry one day, then stiff as a 3-iron the next. That, of course, is the nature of his injury, and of the last-ditch fusion surgery he had a few years ago.
Woods was apparently hitting balls last week, but easy swings on the course are different than competitive action with adrenaline and juicy rough. If he plays at all before the Masters – a big if, since he clearly has only so many swings left in his brittle body – then The Players (March 11-14) is really the only sensible spot.
THIS WEEK’S AWARD WINNERS ...
Stout Stuff: Jessica Korda. Often overlooked because of prior injuries and her uber-talented younger sister, 27-year-old Jessica showed she’s still one of the best Americans in the game, firing a third-round 60 – the best score on the LPGA in more than a dozen years – and then birdieing four of her last six holes to force a playoff with Danielle Kang, which Korda eventually won with a 30-footer on the first extra hole at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. It’s her sixth career title – now three ahead of lil’ sis.
Don’t Count Him Out: Patrick Cantlay. After making the cut on the number, Cantlay shot 126 on the weekend (65-61) to give Kim and the rest of the contenders a serious scare. He’s shot no worse than 67 in the final round of each of his three wins, so clearly he’s not afraid to go out and earn it. Dude has some serious game.
Phil the Still: In his 2,201st round on the PGA Tour, Mickelson did something he’s never done before: record 18 consecutive pars. That’d work at Torrey Pines, not so much in the annual track meet at PGA West, where he missed the cut by a mile and began 2021 much as he ended 2020 – in lackluster form.
That’s More Like It: Francesco Molinari. After a whirlwind 2020 that barely saw him play and included three moves with his family, the former world-beater was back on the grind at PGA West, finishing in a tie for eighth – his first top-10 on Tour since that infamous 2019 Masters.
Tough Break: Danielle Kang. The feisty American didn’t do much wrong at the TOC, shooting 24 under par and making only one bogey. That miscue just happened to come at an unfortunate time, on the 69th hole of the tournament, opening the door for Korda to tie her late. Kang still took plenty of positives from the week, knowing that she hadn’t even fully prepared, twice having to isolate at home after having a close COVID-19 contact.
Stay Tuned: Olympic Games. Rumors continued to swirl last week that the Tokyo Olympics were in a perilous position with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing much of Japan into a state of emergency as it battles a third wave of infections. The make-or-break date isn’t for several more weeks, but the IOC and other committees reaffirmed their desire to have the Games this summer – when, in theory, the virus would be better under control.
Not Even We’ve Been This Desperate: Mark Hubbard. About to miss the cut at the AmEx, Hubbard resorted to a putting stroke he invented called “The Snail,” in which he wraps his right pinky around the shaft, just inches from the ground. It wasn’t the first time he’s done it in competition – just the first time cameras caught him. Weird, to say the least.
Well, this is a new one. 🤷♂️#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/5Ufc6mb0F4
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 22, 2021
We’re Back!: College golf. Starting Monday, the Southwestern Invitational (live on Golf Channel, including coverage from yours truly!) kicks off at Pepperdine’s home track, with the top-ranked Waves and Arizona State leading the way. Even with COVID-19 still wreaking havoc on our lives, all of the best college players will finally get a chance to tee it up – not just the conferences that green-lighted play last fall.
Don’t Want a Preview?: Farmers field. Only three of the top 10 players in the world (Rahm, McIlroy and San Diego native Xander Schauffele) are teeing it up this week at Torrey Pines, which later this year will host the U.S. Open. There are myriad opportunities this time of year to chase cash overseas, but playing a few more rounds at Torrey – even in different conditions than what the players will face in June – doesn’t seem like a terrible idea.
Still Having a Good Time: Darren Clarke. With a closing 64, including a 50-foot bomb on the penultimate hole, the Northern Irishman won the first PGA Tour Champions event of the new year. Clarke also won the penultimate event of the 2020 calendar year.
Newest Ambassador: Harold Varner III. The PGA Tour vet and North Carolina native has linked up with the Country Club of North Carolina to serve as their club ambassador, another platform through which he can serve his community with the HV3 Foundation.
Blown Fantasy Pick of the Week: Patrick Reed. Coming into his own, Reed was returning to an event he torched in 2014 and riding a wave of seven consecutive top-25 worldwide. So, of course, he bottomed out with a bizarro second-round 75 and missed the cut by a bunch. Sigh.
TOP 5 DROUGHTS MOST LIKELY TO END IN 2021
1.) Tony Finau winning, like, anything: Finau let yet another opportunity slip, closing with a good-but-not-great 68 at the American Express and getting lapped by three guys who simply played better: Kim (64), Cantlay (61) and Cameron Davis (64). That meant Finau dropped to 0-for-4 when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead. Still, Finau plays upwards of 28 events a season and gives himself more than a half-dozen realistic opportunities, which means he has to cash in eventually, even if it’s only getting more difficult. Because it almost seems like a misprint: He has 35 top-10s without a win since the start of the 2016-17 season. That’s NINETEEN (!!!) more than the next-closest players, Tommy Fleetwood and Kevin Streelman. Finau just needs a win – any win, anywhere – to make these Sunday scaries go away.
2.) Jon Rahm winning a major: A wholesale equipment change, at this juncture, was a massive risk, but he’s gonna get his share regardless. With the completeness of his game, there isn’t even a major that suits him best – he has top-11s in all of them, already – though that U.S. Open at Torrey looks particularly tasty.
3.) An American winning an LPGA major: Not since Angela Stanford in 2018 has a U.S. player won a women’s major, and there’s only been two American major winners since the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open. But the ladies of the red, white and blue are having a moment, with the Korda sisters and Kang leading the way, Lexi Thompson always a threat and Jennifer Kupcho among the young 20-somethings on deck. They’ve got a long way to go to even challenge the South Koreans, but they can’t be so easily dismissed anymore.
4.) Rory McIlroy winning at Augusta National. If you want to know why Rory hasn’t won a major since August 2014, all you need to do is look at what happened last fall at the Masters. Building up the moment in his mind, he imploded with a first-round 75, only to claw his way back to a respectable T-5 in which he didn’t realistically have a chance to win. It was depressingly familiar. He has three more months to figure out how to get into a better head space.
5.) Jordan Spieth winning a tournament: It’s wild to think that he’s on the verge of dropping outside the top 100 in the world. A trip last fall to see Butch Harmon was either a sign of frustration or a much-needed affirmation that he’s on the right track. We’re banking on the latter. He’s too talented, too smart and too gritty to stay down much longer.