Forecasting the 2016 Ryder Cup: April 19th
Posted on April 19, 2016 3 Comments
Little excited, Patrick?
We’re only five months out from the 2016 Ryder Cup, and the two teams are starting to take shape for captains Davis Love III and Darren Clarke. Before we take a look at where each team stands, note that Love will be making four additional captains picks after his qualifiers, while Clarke will be selecting three Europeans to take to Hazeltine in addition to his nine qualified players.
Also, whenever a player’s name is bolded, you can go to his match play record page to get full details on all the matches he has played across all competitions.
Previous forecasting posts: February 9th
Branden Grace wins the RBC Heritage
Posted on April 18, 2016 3 Comments
Branden Grace kisses his wife after winning the RBC Heritage.
Branden Grace fired a 66 on Sunday at Harbour Town, leading to his first PGA Tour win by two shots over Russell Knox and 54-hole leader Luke Donald.
Golf GIFs of the Week: April 18th
Posted on April 18, 2016 Leave a Comment
Andrew Johnston celebrates his first European Tour win.
Two tournaments this week, with Andrew Johnston taking the European Tour’s Open de Espana and Branden Grace nabbing his first PGA Tour win at the RBC Heritage. The best moments from the week are below.
Thoughts on the 2016 Masters
Posted on April 12, 2016 Leave a Comment
1. Danny Willett wins his first major
Danny Willett was unbelievably close to not playing in the Masters. His wife was set to give birth on April 10th, Masters Sunday, and there was no chance that Willett was going to miss it to play in a tournament, even if it was the Masters and this was his best chance to date to win his first major championship. When the news broke that Nicole Willett had given birth to Zacariah, Willett became the last official entrant into the tournament and it goes without saying that he’s had a pretty good few weeks.
The 42 minutes that cost Jordan Spieth the Masters
Posted on April 11, 2016 11 Comments
Danny Willett celebrates with his caddie after winning the Masters.
I wasn’t born when Jack Nicklaus won the Masters in 1986. I don’t really have any memories of Nick Faldo taking the title in 1996 after Greg Norman slowly imploded in utterly unbelievable fashion down the stretch. I have watched both of those final rounds in their entirety though, and if I had been around to watch those live, I can’t imagine that I’d ever forget what I had seen.
Both instances, Jack’s charge and Norman’s collapse, took place over several hours and while the eventual outcomes seemed possible, there was still an unlikely feeling about them. Even when you watch them back now knowing the results, it’s so easy to shake your head at what you’re seeing. There are moments in those two tournaments that you just can’t comprehend.
For this generation of golf fans, the 2016 Masters Tournament will fill that void, with one key part being completely different. This wasn’t a slow burn. This was a self inflicted knockout punch that no one saw coming.
Masters Memories: Scott Hoch’s missed chance
Posted on April 4, 2016 Leave a Comment
Scott Hoch looks at what he has left after missing a two footer to win the Masters.
” I just thought, Well, he’s opened the door for me. Then it felt like destiny. ” – Nick Faldo
Winning golf tournaments at the professional level is insanely difficult, and the difference between winning and losing in most cases is razor thin. For a lot of players, getting that win is a massive deal, which is exactly why you saw the kind of emotion that you did from Vaughn Taylor and his family a few weeks ago at Pebble Beach. This was a second chance at life on the PGA Tour for Taylor, and the impact of it all is even more true when we talk about major championships.
Mike Weir was an established winner on the PGA Tour when he won the Masters in a playoff against Len Mattiace in 2003, but Mattiace was a relative unknown who would have had his career made by putting on that green jacket. Since that loss thirteen years ago, Mattiace has four top-10 finishes worldwide with all of them coming on the Web.com Tour. Sergio Garcia, who has more talent than just about anyone the golf world has seen in the last thirty years, has won enough tournaments worldwide in his career to make almost everyone in the game jealous, but the major title has eluded him to date. Whether it’s fair or not (it’s not), that’s what most people will remember about him unless he nails one down.
The point is that the list of players who have missed opportunities at major championships is a long one, and it goes from people like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus all the way down to Jean van de Velde, but there’s an argument to be made that no one, even van de Velde, has suffered a more agonizing defeat at a major than Scott Hoch at the 1989 Masters.
On Tiger skipping the Masters
Posted on April 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
Billy Horschel picks up Tiger’s tee.
” After assessing the present condition of my back, and consulting with my medical team, I’ve decided it’s prudent to miss this year’s Masters. “
The last time we saw Tiger Woods play golf was nearly eight months ago, and with his announcement yesterday that he still has no timetable to return to competitive golf, it’s impossible to predict when we might see him again and that’s the best possible scenario for not only Tiger, but the game as a whole.
Big names missing at the Match Play
Posted on March 22, 2016 Leave a Comment
The look of a completely sane man.
When you look at the players who are competing in the WGC-Dell Match Play this week, there’s something that sticks out that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who has been following the game closely over the last year or so. Many of the sixty four teeing it up either have very little or no professional match play experience, and for a lot of them that do have some experience, it hasn’t come at the WGC, the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup.
Matthew Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas, Emiliano Grillo, Smylie Kaufman, Thomas Pieters and others are making their first appearance at this event, and considering that the field is populated entirely based on the Official World Golf Rankings, we’re absolutely looking at the best players in the game today. The youth movement that the golf world has been waiting for has quite obviously arrived.
The PGA/LPGA Tour agreement
Posted on March 5, 2016 2 Comments
On Friday, there was a “strategic alliance agreement” announced between the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour that should bring many benefits to the LPGA Tour, particularly in the way of the television deal they are looking to sign in a few years. Ron Sirak at Golf World has some further details on what it all means, but there’s one thing that caught my eye that I think could be an awful lot of fun for golf fans. From the release:
AdamSarson.com 