Curry misses cut, still impresses in pro debut

Brice Garnett and Scott Stallings birdied eight of their last 11 holes, Viktor Hovland and Kris] Ventura birdied nine of their final 12, and both teams shot 10-under 62 in Zurich Classic to share the first-round lead Thursday.

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – The first omen appeared Monday when amateur Lukas Euler, currently a junior on the University of Kentucky golf team, earned an exemption into the Genesis Open by winning the Collegiate Showcase at Riviera. On Sunday, the two most notable active PGA TOUR pros from Kentucky battled for 34 holes to decide a much more lucrative prize. Fittingly, with their home state famous for its equine competition, the final round essentially became a two-horse race. In the end, it was J.B. Holmes, the older of the two thoroughbreds, who caught Justin Thomas down the home stretch to win at Riviera in an afternoon of challenging, windy conditions. In the scoring tent, Thomas noted that the final leaderboard had the Bluegrass State going 1-2. “Obviously wish I was on the other part of that,â€� Thomas said, wondering if it’s “ever happened before on the PGA TOUR, two Kentuckians finishing first and second.â€� Holmes and Thomas have known each other at least 15 years. When Thomas was still in grade schools, Holmes showed him the ropes by allowing him inside-the-ropes access during practice rounds. When Holmes and fellow Kentuckian Kenny Perry were on the American team at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Thomas’ hometown of Louisville, a teenaged Thomas was part of the victory celebration. Holmes said he’s basically a “big brother, mentor a little bitâ€� to Thomas. They’ve played practice rounds together, but this weekend was the first time at a regular TOUR event they’ve been paired in the same group. Due to the schedule adjustment forced by a seven-hour rain delay to start the tournament, rules officials decided not to re-pair the groups between the third and fourth rounds in order to make sure the playing schedule was not pushed into Monday. That meant Holmes and Thomas – along with Australian Adam Scott – played two holes late Saturday afternoon to start the third round, then 16 holes to complete the round Sunday morning before teeing off 20 minutes later for 18 more holes in the final round. “It was great being able to go out and play with him and battle it out,â€� Holmes said. “He’s such a great player, so it was fun being out there, talking and just battling it out.â€� It probably didn’t seem as much fun for Holmes when Thomas appeared to take control of the tournament with a third-round 65 that put him four strokes ahead. But that lead evaporated five holes into the final round, when Holmes gained a stroke on four consecutive holes with a birdie and three Thomas bogeys. Once Scott fell off the pace at the turn, the outcome was left in the hands of Holmes and Thomas. Holmes took his first outright lead of the day with a birdie and a Thomas bogey at the drivable par-4 10th. He promptly gave the lead back with his first three-putt of the week, at the par-5 11th, while Thomas birdied. At that point, Thomas was 15 under, Holmes 14 under. Holmes had entered the week ranked 202nd in Strokes Gained: Putting but found a hot hand on Riviera’s greens. He refused to let his season-long putting struggles create doubt in his mind down the stretch, especially with wind gusts of 30 mph creating indecision with every shot or putt. “I knew were getting on the holes that were very, very difficult and that anything could happen,â€� Holmes said. “For me to get upset was just going to hurt me there. It was over and I had to do the best I could to get back in it.â€� Holmes did exactly that by playing par golf the rest of the way. He made a crucial par-saving putt from 12 feet on the 13th hole and another one from 11 feet at the 16th. Meanwhile, Thomas self-destructed with a double at the 13th and a bogey at the 14th. He admitted to struggling with the putter, adding that it showed a flaw in his game. “J.B. won, he played great,â€� Thomas said. “But it’s always a bummer to hand him a tournament. I feel like I should’ve won that thing.â€� Instead of Thomas winning for the 11th time on TOUR, it was Holmes who claimed his fifth win, and first since the 2015 Houston Open. Known for his length off the tee, it was, surprisingly, the putter that gets most of the credit for ending his victory drought. He credits time spent with his coach Matt Killen. “We spent a lot of time this week with the coach and getting on the green and trying to find the right ball position and how it set up, and putting through some gates, making sure I was starting the ball online,â€� Holmes explained. “I putted for several hours throughout the week in the morning, we changed our routine and we had a string and a mirror and just made sure that everything was dialed in.â€� On the 18th green late Sunday, Holmes made a terrific lag putt to set up a short par putt for his final-round 1-under 70 that won him the tournament when Thomas missed his birdie attempt from 19 feet. The two guys from Kentucky – Holmes is from Campbellsville, Thomas is from Louisville – then hugged, competitors for 36 holes who shared more than just a thirst for victory. Perhaps one day, they’ll race down the stretch again. â€�I’ve known J.B. since I was 7 or 8 or 9 years old,â€� Thomas said. “He was always so great to me. He would always pull me in the ropes in practice rounds in PGAs and stuff like that. I mean, that’s stuff I never forget.” “I just never thought, you know, 15 years later he would beat my ass at Riviera. That was a bummer.â€� But for the Bluegrass State, it was pretty cool.

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That loud, steady knocking you hear at the door? That’s the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season, or super season if you will, delivering some news: This is it. Last stop. We’ve reached our destination. As Sinatra might say, it’s the final curtain. Fifty events – six of them major championships – across the United States and beyond, giving us an overflowing bushelful of great storylines and winners. We had it all: some powerful resurgences, lots of bonus golf (playoffs), new faces hoisting trophies, and of course, history, like a 51-year-old winning the PGA Championship … all of it wrapped up with a bow and delivered to the front stoop at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this week, where 30 elite golfers have made it to the finish line. Not since 1975 (51 events) had the TOUR staged so many tournaments in one season. The Covid-19 pandemic that halted the 2019-20 TOUR season for three months at THE PLAYERS Championship in March of 2020 would cancel some events and move others, and eventually spin us into a new season unlike any we have seen before. Golfers are creatures of habit, and the new jam-packed schedule threw some off their normal rhythm. Still, through it all, week to week, the golf delivered, from then-47-year-old Stewart Cink winning in Napa in September to Sunday’s stirring six-hole playoff between Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay to decide the second leg of the Playoffs at the BMW Championship. We have witnessed indelible snapshots we will not forget. Hideki Matsuyama became the first male player from golf-rich Japan to win a major championship, donning a green jacket at the 2021 Masters. That was only five months removed from a Masters played in November, another first, in which Dustin Johnson won. Interestingly, Rahm and Johnson would tussle much of the season to be World No. 1. (Currently, Rahm is on top, with Johnson second.) “It’s hard to categorize the year, just because of how much has been going on, especially in the last two months,” Rahm said at last week’s BMW Championship, the second of two FedExCup Playoffs events, and the penultimate tournament of the season. “It’s been a lot.” Rahm’s year, in abbreviated Cliff’s Notes: He twice tested positive for Covid-19 (once when leading The Memorial by six shots through 54 holes), collected his first major championship (the first Spaniard to win a U.S. Open), and had to sit out the Olympics in Tokyo. Rahm was the last person to arrive to the Masters in April, for good reason: He and his wife, Kelley, had just become first-time parents to a son they named Kepa. That’s a lot to jam into a single calendar; Rahm will not soon forget his 26th year on the planet. The events most would consider to be the eight largest tournaments of the 2020-21 season – six majors, THE PLAYERS and the Olympic Games – were divided nicely amongst eight different champions, ranging from 51-year-old Phil Mickelson (2021 PGA Championship) to 24-year-old Collin Morikawa (2021 Open Championship). DeChambeau brought rugged Winged Foot to its knees at a delayed U.S. Open in September. Justin Thomas sizzled on the weekend (64-68) to win THE PLAYERS in March. Fortysomethings such as Cink, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood showed renewed vigor in their games. Cink won twice, opening his campaign by winning the Safeway Open with his son, Reagan, on his bag. It was his first TOUR victory in 11 years. Garcia won at Sanderson Farms, stiffing an 8-iron tight for a winning birdie at the 72nd hole. Westwood, who was fast closing in on his 48th birthday, camped near the top of the leaderboard for two weeks in March, running second in two huge events: the Arnold Palmer Invitational (to DeChambeau) and THE PLAYERS. We had new faces winning, victories posted by such exciting players on the rise as Jason Kokrak (twice a winner), Max Homa, and Mexico’s tandem of Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer. Six majors in the season, along with a PLAYERS, three World Golf Championships and so many other marquee events … it gave us a never-ending drumbeat of big-time golf. Not that it was all was easy, especially for those hitting the shots. They did what they could, and rested when they found windows to do so, but few players ever rested for very long. Instead of making the short trek from the opening FedExCup Playoffs event in New Jersey (THE NORTHERN TRUST) directly to the BMW Championship in Baltimore, Rory McIlroy, a new father himself, stole a day to fly home to Florida to see his wife and baby daughter. It helped him to refresh and recharge. From the start of the post-pandemic schedule in summer 2020 through this week’s TOUR Championship, McIlroy said he will have played in 34 events, which included his first Olympics start in Japan. (McIroy, playing for Ireland, fell short of a bronze medal in a wild seven-man playoff; C.T. Pan of Chinese Tapai took bronze.) The Ryder Cup (McIlroy’s 35th event) in Wisconsin awaits in a few weeks. McIlroy did manage to collect his first PGA TOUR trophy since late 2019 when he captured the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. That was a nice moment. “All that in a space of 15 months, it’s a lot of golf,” McIlroy said at last week’s BMW. “It’s probably too much for me. I’ve played more than I probably should have and feel like it’s just sort of all caught up with me.” For international players on the PGA TOUR, attempting to travel in the era of Covid has proved very challenging. Adam Scott and his family (he has three young children) are based in Switzerland. At the conclusion of the Open Championship at England’s Royal St. George’s, Scott was unable to travel home, as the United Kingdom resided on Switzerland’s “red” list for travelers. So Scott spent his off-week week in Spain instead, his seventh consecutive week away from home. He said travel restrictions made it difficult to spend time in person with his coach in 2021. He didn’t even bother to try to get with his physical trainer. “I’m not complaining about anything,” Scott said at the Wyndham Championship, noting that not many of his fellow pros are playing the PGA TOUR out of Switzerland. “I’ve made a lot of these decisions and I’ll live with whatever it is, but yeah, from a golf side of things, if I just lowered my expectations a bit, I think the frustration levels would have been down. “I missed the boat on finding the right cadence for the ‘super season.’ It certainly feels like here in the States that a lot of things are returning to a bit more normal, you would say, and hopefully as we go into next season, (we can) fall back into so many old rhythms.” There was one player whose World Ranking qualified him to compete at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but he was leaning against going in the months beforehand. With a major championship right in front of the Olympics and a World Golf Championships event (FedEx St. Jude) and FedExCup Playoffs lurking shortly afterward, going all the way to Tokyo might not be the most prudent move in pacing himself. In the end, however, that player opted to go; he simply didn’t want to live with the regrets he might harbor in his heart if he didn’t. Xander Schauffele was glad he went. He left Tokyo with an Olympic gold medal around his neck, fulfilling a dream he shared with his father, Stefan. It was one more big performance, big moment, inside a season that gave us so many. Yes, it has been a season like no other. And we still have one more big finish to go.

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