Who’s feeling confident at Glen Abbey

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Phil Mickelson waited patiently for his opportunity. Then he pounced. With phone in hand, he walked swiftly toward the dignitaries’ box adjacent to the first tee at Liberty National. The first three chairs on the front row were occupied by former Presidents of the United States – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. As Mickelson approached, Clinton gave him a salute. Mickelson took off his cap, shook the hands of all three men, then did what any of us would do in that situation. He asked to take a selfie. “How can you not do that?â€� Mickelson explained, adding, “Their presence really means a lot to this event. That’s what it’s about. It’s the Presidents Cup.â€� Afterwards, Mickelson practically bounded back down the fairway. When he met up with some of his U.S. teammates along with his captain Steve Stricker, he giddily showed them the photo. Alas, it was not perfect. Phil had aimed too high, and half his face was cropped off. “I’m so bad at selfies,â€� shrugged Mickelson. Not to worry. Memories of Thursday’s opening festivities, with three Presidents in attendance for the first time in this event, will never be forgotten. Actually, the interaction between the Presidents Cup teams and the ex-Presidents didn’t just start on Thursday’s first tee. The night before, the teams visited the Freedom Tower, with Clinton and Bush delivering speeches. “Bush was funny, and Clinton was, you know, amazing,â€� Stricker recalled Thursday night as he sat next to International Captain Nick Price after announcing their lineups for Friday’s Four-ball session. “The speech that he gave last night was truly moving, and funny, too. They are so good at what they do. You can see the position that they are in and see why they were there in that position.â€� Asked what exactly was moving about the speech, Stricker replied, “Just talking about 9/11 and I think if I remember right, Clinton talked about having America coming together a little bit more; and what a great opportunity for us during the matches here and golf to bring people together and support all of our countries. “It’s just the way he said it. I can’t even do it justice, you know. I really can’t.â€� Injected Price: “It was almost like they were in a comfort zone talking to sports men, to golfers.â€� Price had met Clinton and Obama during previous visits to the White House, but this week was his first time to meet Bush. Calling them icons, he noted how all three of the ex-Presidents weren’t afraid to proclaim their rooting interest. “They all said the same thing,â€� Price said. “‘Guys, we can’t pull for you, but we want you to have a good match.’ They were great. Of course, you’re not going to pull for us; you guys are Americans. You’re Presidents. But they are golfers and they are great sports men, too. “And our boys really appreciate that. They are very kind and very thoughtful.â€� Still, it was easy to feel a bit intimidated on the tee box Thursday. With each President wearing a short-sleeved golf shirt with the Presidents Cup logo, they posed for plenty of photos, shook lots of hands, smiled and waved to the full stands for more than 30 minutes. U.S. assistant captain Fred Couples spent several minutes chatting with them; you wondered how many rounds of golf Couples has played with each one. When it came time for the competition to start, the ex-Presidents stood together behind the tee box, as looming a presence as any TOUR pro will ever find himself. South African Charl Schwartzel, teeing off first for the Internationals, had the honors of striking the first tee shot in front of them. “It was one of the most exciting moments of my life, standing there,â€� Schwartzel said. “I was looking forward to this Presidents Cup for a very long time, and I didn’t expect all the Presidents to be there. Just to get to meet them was a dream come true for me. You know, then obviously to hit that first tee shot with the wind pumping off the right was quite intimidating. “But I thought I made a pretty good swing.â€� Schwartzel and his partner Hideki Matsuyama were facing Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler in that opening match. Fowler took the opening drive for his team, allowing the newly crowned FedExCup champ and his caddie, Jimmy Johnson, to soak it all in. “That’s the cool thing about golf is it ties us all together so much and they love golf, too,â€� Thomas said. “We have that kind of similarity and thing that we can kind of bounce back to or rely on. They are pulling for us. They just wanted to come out — it’s unbelievable, this being the Presidents Cup. Jimmy and I were saying, we just had three former Presidents of the United States on the first tee cheering us on and shaking our hand and acting like we are all boys, and it’s pretty unbelievable.â€� All three Presidents stuck around through the start of the third match, one that included Americans Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed. Asked what he said to the Presidents, Reed replied, “Hi, how you doing? It’s been a while.â€� Spieth, meanwhile, doesn’t live too far away from Bush in the Dallas area. They’ve played golf together on a few occasions. “He absolutely loves it,â€� Spieth said. “He’s a nut for it, and the other two are known to do it, as well. Cool of them to show up. I know it’s the Presidents Cup, but they certainly have pretty busy schedules.â€� After Reed hit his tee shot, the crowds thinned slightly, American fans in particular opting to follow their team’s powerhouse duo. Obama began making his exit. Before ducking into the tunnel, he noticed a group of American fans in the stands above him, all decked out in red, white and blue. “How you doing, guys? Appreciate ya!â€� he said. Clinton and Bush hung around, though, with Clinton munching on a green apple to help stave off hunger. Finally, Mickelson was back on the tee box, this time for his match, the last one of the day. He and teammate Kevin Kisner were facing the Australian duo of Jason Day and Marc Leishman. Kisner would be teeing off for the Americans – and that allowed Mickelson to provide some strategy tips to Clinton. They stood in the back of the tee, Clinton pointing down the fairway to the big willow tree at the end of the water hazard down the left side. It seemed to be a long carry, especially in these tricky wind conditions. Clinton asked Mickelson, “If you were teeing off, would you hit 3-wood?â€� Replied Mickelson, “No, I’d go ahead and hit driver. We can all reach that tree, even in the wind.â€� A bit more strategy talk ensued, and then Mickelson joined Kisner to walk down the fairway. Bush and Clinton eventually departed, too but only after more handshakes and photos and smiles. Eventually, the dignitaries’ box was empty. All that was left were a scattering of white chairs, each with a name on the backrest. Three of those names were once the most powerful men in the free world who had come on this day to simply watch some golf.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. – Canadians flock to the California desert this time of year to escape the cold and snow. Hadwin comes here to chase PGA TOUR titles. He’s in contention at the Desert Classic for a fourth consecutive year after shooting 65 on Saturday at PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course. It continues an incredible stretch for Hadwin at this event. He has finished no worse than sixth at this event in the past three years. He is 20 under par this week, matching his career-low with a 54-hole score of 196 (65-66-65). He was bogey-free Saturday after missing just two fairways and two greens. “I don’t want to say ho-hum, because golf can never really quite be like that, but it was as stress-free as possible,� he said. “A couple putts went in on the back nine and here I am having a chance again on Sunday.� Ever since the Desert Classic went to its current configuration of courses – PGA West’s Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses and La Quinta Country Club – in 2016, Hadwin has started the final round within three shots of the lead. He was the 54-hole leader in 2017 after shooting 59 at La Quinta Country Club but shot 72 in the final round, matching his highest score at this event. He is 79 under in his past 15 rounds at the Desert Classic. Ten of those rounds are 67 or lower. On Saturday, Hadwin was just 1 under par for the first six holes, but birdied half of his remaining holes. “I was playing one of the easier golf courses, so I knew I had to keep the pedal down,� Hadwin said. “And, again, it was kind of a slow-ish start, but I’ve done that the first three rounds now and then just kind of caught fire midway.� He is seeking his second TOUR win and a second consecutive appearance in the Presidents Cup. He won the Valspar Championship in 2017 and played for the International Team later that year at Liberty National. “When you get up into a position near the top of the leaderboard, nerves kick in and adrenaline an all that, so it’s just a matter of controlling that,� he said. “So far, through three rounds I’ve been doing a good job of it.�

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Welcome to the Monday Finish where we salute one win drought being broken and commiserate with another one that just got a little longer and more heartbreaking. Here’s five observations from the Quicken Loans National where Kyle Stanley outlasted Charles Howell III in a sudden death playoff after both men made a Sunday charge. 1. When Kyle Stanley opened his Sunday with a bogey you’d be hard pressed to believe he would be the man holding the trophy at the end of the day. While he’d fashioned a nice little season thus far with four top-10s including a T4 at THE PLAYERS and T6 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Stanley had been out of the winner’s circle for over five years. When he claimed the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open he looked set to be a young star but it did not work out that way. Sharing tine on the web.com Tour came soon after and he’d been without a top-10 on TOUR for two years before this season. But he was able to beat out some nerves down the stretch, finding five birdies and then most notably making a clutch up and down for par on the 17th hole Sunday. He was clearly emotional after his journey back. 2. The youth brigade rolls on. Stanley, at 29, makes it 20 wins this season for players in their 20s. Golf used to be about biding your time in your 20s, learning the ropes (unless your name was Tiger Woods) and gaining the experience necessary to surge ahead in your 30s – the prime years. 20 is well and truly the new 30. There is no fear amongst the youth on the TOUR. They see each other win and are fired up to replicate. It’s great to see such depth… the future of the game is certainly bright. 3. It was interesting to see TPC Potomac take over as the toughest test (in relation to par) this season. The winning score of 7-under becomes the highest winning mark of the season and just the second in single digits under par after Sergio Garcia’s 9-under at the Masters. Just two weeks after the usually brutal U.S. Open was won at 16-under we saw a return to pars being crucial. Just 25 players ended the week under par with super hard greens and tight driving lines and tough rough a real feature. 4. Charles Howell III now has 294 starts since his last win at the 2007 Genesis Open. He has had 47 top-10s in that span and has banked $18,917,871.60. On this occasion, he was returning from a nine-week injury layoff (rib) and appeared set for the drought breaking win when he rolled in an eagle on the drivable par-4 14th hole. But his last hole birdie look just slid by and when his par attempt on the first hole of sudden death on the same green did the same Stanley shut the door on him. Of course his relative success means the situation is not too heartbreaking – but you still have to feel for him. Particularly as this Augusta born 28-year-old hasn’t played the Masters since 2012, and would have booked a return with a win. 5. Howell III did however book a place at the upcoming Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 20-23. It will be his first time back since 2012. As the first PGA TOUR event of the Open Qualifying Series, the Quicken Loans determined Open Championship berths for the top four players finishing in the top 12 who weren’t otherwise exempt. Winner Stanley and Howell III were joined by Scotland’s Martin Laird and Sung Kang, who got the nod out of an eight-way tie for fifth thanks to his superior world ranking. The hard luck story was certainly Spencer Levin. He could have booked a spot if his eight-foot par putt on 18 had of gone down. Instead it horseshoed out dramatically for a costly bogey. Levin will get another chance at next week’s Greenbrier Classic. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kyle Stanley moved from 38th to 14th in the FedExCup standings, ranking inside the top-15 in the standings for the 24th week in his career. This marked the first time Stanley has ranked inside the top-15 of the FedExCup standings since week #28 of the 2012 PGA TOUR season. Stanley finished 31st that year, narrowly missing the TOUR Championship. He has yet to make it to Atlanta in his career. 2. Stanley becomes the fifth player to rank first in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and go on to win this season. He outperformed the field by +1.467 strokes per round. Stanley gained strokes on 43 of 56 tee shots this week. Stanley’s SG: Off-the-Tee performance was his third best performance in an event of his career and the second best by a winner on TOUR this season behind Justin Thomas at the Sony Open. The winner ranked tied third in Driving Accuracy hitting 71.4% of his fairways compared to the field average of 56.8%. Stanley led the field for Greens in Regulation for the fourth time in his career and the second time in his last three events on TOUR. Stanley has hit 157 of 216 GIR’s (72.7%) in his last three starts. 3. Stanley was able to overcome an average putting performance to win. He ranked 52nd in Strokes Gained: Putting losing -0.276 strokes per round to the field. It marks just the second time this season a player has lost strokes in SG: Putting and gone on to win (Jason Dufner – the Memorial). 4. Rickie Fowler’s nine birdies in the final round represented a career high, and his T3 finish was his seventh top-10 finish of the season, including his win at The Honda Classic. It was also his third top-five finish in his last four starts. 5. Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Curtis Luck finished in an eight-way tie for fifth, marking his first top-10 finish in six professional starts on TOUR. It gets him into next week’s Greenbrier Classic. Now with 112 Non-Member points Luck is chasing 319 points to score special temporary membership but more likely now sits on the cusp of getting a start in the web.com Tour playoffs later this season. He needs to beat the 200th ranked player in the FedExCup to get a start. He currently would be ranked 170th with seven weeks left. Top Three Videos 1. How would you react if your military father showed up on the 18th green with Rickie Fowler? 2. Martin Laird looked stuffed after a wayward drive on the 14th. But you should never give up … 3. Keegan Bradley with the walk off eagle. He literally walks off!

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