Adam Long’s first PGA TOUR win worth the wait

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s the final day of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. The semifinals will be played Sunday morning at Austin Country Club, with Justin Thomas facing Bubba Watson in one match, while Alex Noren plays Kevin Kisner in the other match. The winners will then meet in the championship match in the afternoon, along with the consolation match. PGATOUR.COM is on the scene in Austin and will provide live coverage throughout the day.  LEADERBOARD | STANDINGS | BRACKET  FINAL FOUR PREVIEW | RECAPS: Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

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SAN DIEGO – When Adam Scott putts well, Adam Scott contends. It’s a simple saying that could apply to most PGA TOUR players but it most certainly applies to the 13-time TOUR winner. Known as a premier ball-striker throughout his career the former PLAYERS champion has long struggled to match up his putting stats with the rest of his game. In 10 of his last 11 seasons Scott’s year-long rank in Strokes Gained: Putting has been outside the top 100 on TOUR with six of those outside the top 150. But on the rare occasions he gets it right – like the Australian did this week at the Farmers Insurance Open – Scott becomes a monster to contend with. Since the beginning of 2016 Scott has finished just 10 tournaments inside the top 25 players of Stroked Gained: Putting. Eight of those weeks resulted in a top six finish, including two wins and two runner ups, the latest at Torrey Pines this week. Scott was 14th in putting at Torrey Pines needing just 28 putts each round across four days. He did it after moving to an armlock putter with a claw grip and leaving the flagstick in for all of his putts. Armlock putting has been successfully used recently by Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson. All have won at least once in the last year. “Making the putter change was a pretty good experiment this week, it worked nicely,â€� Scott admitted. “Definitely something to build on. I learned a lot with that style of putting this week and it was quite a big adjustment and I made some errors out there with it, but it’s looking all positive and I like that. Twenty‑eight putts four straight days is probably the best I’ve ever done.â€� The errors Scott spoke of were certainly ugly. And without them he may just have been able to take down Justin Rose rather than finish two shots behind the Englishman. On Sunday he missed a putt from 21 inches. On Thursday he had a three-putt from six feet. Those were just a few of the miscues. But given he only picked up the armlock putter in the days prior to the event there were sure to be teething problems. Armlock putters have different loft angles because of the setup needed to use them, a visual the 38-year-old veteran certainly wasn’t used to. “All of a sudden six degrees of loft and the grip is three inches in front of the blade, so it was a little fiddley getting into position,â€� Scott said. “And when I didn’t put it in the right position, it was in a more natural position, I didn’t start putts where I was intending. “So I missed a couple really short putts throughout the week, which was carelessness.â€� Scott intends to continue the method at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Open in coming weeks.

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In 2017 at the actual World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, Jon Rahm came oh-so-close to winning it all at Austin Country Club. This week, in our Mythical Match Play Championship, the Spaniard took the last step, earning the fictious title in voting that included experts and fans. No. 2 seed Rahm beat top overall seed Rory McIlroy in a final separated by one vote. Although McIroy was the overwhelming favorite of our readers with 81 percent of the votes, Rahm grabbed 6 of the 10 expert votes for the final tally of 6 votes to 5. Xander Schauffele beat Sungjae Im in the third-place match. Of course, none of this is official. Our Mythical event is the just-for-fun exercise we’re conducting this week in lieu of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, which was among the canceled events by the PGA TOUR in response to the coronavirus pandemic. After the TOUR conducted a draw to produce a bracket, our 10 experts began voting. We released the Round 1 results on Wednesday (click here), the Round 2 results on Thursday (click here) and the Round 3 results on Friday (click here) that determined the 16 also used fan voting to break three ties. On Saturday, we conducted voting for the Round of 16 and quarterfinals, again involving our fans to break three tiebreakers (click here). We asked our fans on the tournament’s Twitter feed to become the 11th vote for our two semifinal matches Sunday morning, and the fans cast the deciding vote by choosing McIlroy over Schauffele. Rahm handily beat Im. No surprise that McIlroy and Rahm reached the finals, as they were the top two seeds entering the tournament. Had this been the real thing, it would’ve been the first time the top two seeds had ever met in the final of the Dell Technologies Match Play. Our 10 expert voters include: GolfBet’s Jason Sobel from The Action Network; GolfTV’s Jamie Kennedy; Tom Alter and Jim McCabe from PGA TOUR Communications; Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton; PGATOUR.COM writers Ben Everill, Sean Martin, Mike McAllister and Cameron Morfit; and a combined vote from the TOUR’s ShotLink team. The results of the final and semifinal matches are below (player seed in parentheses). CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL Rory McIlroy (1) vs. Jon Rahm (2): 6 votes for Rahm, 5 votes for McIlroy (including fan vote). RAHM wins the championship. Why I picked Rahm: “What a final. McIlroy has become a clear World No. 1 but Rahm is on the ascent and his short game and putting carry him through the final against Rory.� – Jamie Kennedy Why I picked Rahm: “So tough to choose between the top two players in the world. Their records at Austin CC are nearly identical (Rory’s 8-5-2 in four years; Rahm is 7-4-2 in last three years). My gut feeling is that Rahm, chasing his first World Golf Championships title, will draw upon his championship match loss to Dustin Johnson in 2017 and figure out how to get the job done this time.� – Mike McAllister Why I picked Rahm: “I had the exact opposite final slated and would have gone with Rahm in the consolation match, so I’ll stick with him here to win it all. Rory would be leaving just a touch in the tank for April and it would be the slim margin Rahm would take.� – Ben Everill Why I picked Rahm: “Remarkable consistency for months.� – Jim McCabe Why we voted for McIlroy: “Both players are powerhouses from Tee-to-Green. We’re going to give the edge to McIlroy, who leads the TOUR in Scrambling this season, salvaging par 70.4% of the time compared to Rahm, who ranks 37th at 64%.� – ShotLink team Why I voted for McIlroy: “McIlroy has won this thing before, albeit at TPC Harding Park, and was annoyed by (and will find motivation in) his loss to Tiger Woods in round of 16 last year.� – Cameron Morfit Fan vote: McIlroy 81%, Rahm 19%. THIRD-PLACE MATCH Xander Schauffele (12) vs. Sungjae Im (23): 8 votes for Schauffele, 2 votes for Im. SCHAUFFELE wins. SEMIFINALS McIlroy vs. Schauffele: 6 votes for McIlroy (including fan vote), 5 votes for Schauffele. McILROY wins. Why we picked McIlroy: “Both players rank inside the top-10 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, so it may come to a putting contest. McIlroy ranks fifth in putting from 15-25 feet this season, making 27% from this distance compared to Schauffele, who is 159th, making 14%.� – ShotLink team Fan vote: McIlroy 79%, Schauffele 21% Rahm vs. Im: 7 votes for Rahm (including fan vote), 4 votes for Im. RAHM wins. Why I picked Rahm: “In a much-anticipated meeting (and hopeful precursor of more to follow), Im finally is upended, but the Match Play debutant has nothing about which to be ashamed as Rahm clinches his 12th podium finish worldwide in the last 11 months.� – Rob Bolton Fan vote: Rahm 67%, Im 33%

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