Johnson’s implosion spoils RBC Heritage

LOS ANGELES – Magic happens in Hollywood. The Oscars came and went this weekend in Los Angeles as the iconic golden statues were handed out in a celebration of the best motion pictures have to offer. ‘Parasite’ took home plenty of awards, with Best Original Screenplay being one of them. But even those now-decorated writers may not be able to dream up a storyline quite like Tiger Woods winning this week at Riviera Country Club. Woods serves as host of the now-elevated Genesis Invitational this week at Riviera – a tournament that is now on the same level as a pair of other events named after and/or hosted by golf legends: the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide (Jack Nicklaus). Sitting on 82 PGA TOUR wins, tied with Sam Snead at the top of the all-time list, Woods is looking to sit alone atop the list with another victory. It’s already been an incredible career for the 44-year-old, but winning at Riviera has eluded him. Related: Will Woods return as Presidents Cup captain? | TOUR pros: My first time with Tiger | Tiger chasing record 83rd TOUR win Woods has played Riviera Country Club 12 times on the PGA TOUR without a win – the most starts on a course without victory in his storied career. It all began as a 16-year-old in 1992 with the native Californian’s TOUR debut. He was runner up in 1999 and had additional top-10s at Riviera in 2003 and 2004, but otherwise hasn’t had much to get overly excited about. The majority of his starts, 10 of them, happened between 1992 and 2006 before he returned over the last two seasons as host. Back in his prime, Woods would struggle with the inconsistent poa annua greens at the iconic course as well as the thick kikuyu rough that he would often find off the tee. The propensity for the tournament to fall in rare wet weeks for Los Angeles didn’t help either. But this is a new Tiger Woods. A more matured player who, more than ever, knows how to plod his way around to find a score. He doesn’t try to overpower a course; he tries to outthink it. So is he more suited to a win at Riviera Country Club than ever before? And has he allowed himself to think just how incredible such a win would be in the scope of his career? “That’s been mentioned,â€� Woods said with a smile. “To come here in, what, ’92 and play but to come here with my dad and my old pro, Rudy, who took me up here. I remember watching Lanny Wadkins play well here and win, seeing Corey Pavin and Davis and Freddie go after it. There’s a lot of history for me.â€� Woods recounted a story from his childhood where, as a spectator, he ran over to the eighth green to watch Tom Watson hit a chip shot from near the gallery, only to be moved out of the way by Watson’s caddie Bruce Edwards. He recounted it when he joined the TOUR and was told playfully, “well, you were in the way.â€� Woods still beams at such stories from his younger years. “For me to have experiences like that here at Riv and to have now this be my event.. (it’s great), and hopefully on Sunday we’ll be having this discussion a little bit more,â€� Woods added. “I’ve played in a number of events over the years and for me not to win an event that has meant so much to me in my hometown (is tough). I’ve done well in San Diego, I’ve done well at Sherwood, just haven’t done well here. So hopefully I can put together this week and we’ll have a great conversation on Sunday.â€� So what does the man himself say has stood in the way of his success at Riviera? “Historically, never really putted well here,â€� Woods says. “I’ve played here so many rounds. It suits a natural cutter of the golf ball, so I figured that’s what I have done pretty much my entire career, but when it comes right down to it, you’ve got to hit the ball well here because the greens are so small and they’re so slopey. “If you look at the history of champions at this event, they have all been able to shape the golf ball. There are some great alley ways with the eucalyptus trees but you still have to be able to shape the ball. And people don’t realize these greens have a lot of steepness to them. So hitting the ball in the correct spots stresses the iron game but also again, if you are able to shape the ball correctly, it makes these greens, even though they are tiny, a lot bigger.â€� One man who has had success at Riviera is three-time champion Bubba Watson. And he believes Woods is a serious threat to stopping his quest for a fourth title, despite what his previous results indicate. “What I have seen over the last year – the smooth swing… the calm motion of the driver and iron swing look the same now speed-wise… and he just looks so controlled,â€� Watson said. “He can win at any moment. Doesn’t matter the course, the difficulty… with his golf swing so pure, he can win. And he knows this golf course better than most, so it just comes down to trusting his putter. Trusting he has the read and trusting his stroke. In the past, he has played well here, we just expect so much from him and I think he just hasn’t made those momentum putts.â€� With a positive weather forecast this week in Los Angeles, the soft poa greens that bring out more hops and skips won’t surface as much. We certainly won’t be looking at a 34-hole final round like a year ago. “The harder the golf course, the better his chances,â€� Matt Kuchar says. “This place is difficult. If the greens and course is firm he has an even better chance. And I put so much more stock in to how you are playing presently and how much control you have versus historical results.â€� When it comes to form, Woods is doing pretty well. He won The ZOZO Championship earlier this season and was a clear MVP of the victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team, which he also captained, at Royal Melbourne in December. More recently, he was T9 at the Farmers Insurance Open a few weeks back. While he is yet to play enough rounds this season to officially qualify for rankings in TOUR stats, he would be 51st in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green if he were ranked. Woods’ irons might be as good as they have ever been in and his driver no longer produces the wild miss of his younger years. So if he can find the fairway somewhat consistently, the chances are he will have more looks at birdie than others. “I don’t think there is a course he’s not suited to in his current form. What I saw down in Australia – that’s as good as I’ve seen him drive it as long as I have been around him,â€� Steve Stricker said. “He’s always been a great iron player and he looks like he has his putting under control. So I wouldn’t put anything past him. I’m sure he feels a little extra pressure here to win. He got his first start here as a 16-year-old and he grew up right down the road. So I bet he really wants it, which can sometimes get in the way. But no one should be surprised if he does well here this week.â€� Striker might be the missing ingredient this week. The veteran is known for giving putting advice to Woods in the past and does so with countless TOUR players when asked outside of competition rounds. He is paired with Woods over the opening two rounds this week. Perhaps that familiar feeling will help Woods stay at peace with the ebbs and flows of the putting surfaces. And if, come Sunday, Woods can slay the jinx at the place where it all began and take the all-time TOUR wins record outright in his home state, that would be a performance worthy of an Oscar.

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SYDNEY, Australia – It took three rounds – and doesn’t include Jordan Spieth – but a PGA TOUR experienced crew have taken the Australian Open by the scruff of the neck. Four of the top five players on the leaderboard are regulars and winners on the TOUR, headed by local favorite Jason Day who leads at 10-under. Day has won 10 times on the PGA TOUR but has never won his national Open. The last time he visited his home shores he won the World Cup with Adam Scott in 2013 and his Aussie fans have been begging for an opportunity such as this for the last four years. He may never get a better opportunity than this to carve his name into the Stonehaven Cup, which already has legends of golf including Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth adorned on it. “You can look at the names on the Cup, a lot of Hall of Fame members, a lot of great players, a lot of future Hall of Fame members,â€� Day said. “It would be nice to add my name to that list as well, but the hardest thing for me, you don’t want to get ahead of yourself and it’s easy tonight be able to think about the possibility of holding the Stonehaven Cup for the first time. “I don’t want to win it just once, I’d like to come back and win it multiple times.â€� Young Aussie Lucas Herbert is the outlier at 9-under before the hunting TOUR level pack begins. Former Houston Open winner Matt Jones, who also won the Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club two years ago, sits tied third with three-time TOUR winner Jonas Blixt at 7-under. Jones is a member at The Australian and grew up on the course. “I think anyone that plays a golf course for years and years is going to have an advantage, just knowing where to miss shots and how to manage the course would be an advantage for me,â€� he said ahead of his Sunday chase. “Jason’s a world class player, former No. 1 in the world. He’d be the favourite to win but we’ve seen many upsets before and as long as I manage my game and give myself birdie opportunities, anything to happen.â€� Blixt’s teammate in his 2017 Zurich Classic win, Australian Cameron Smith, is fifth at 6-under. He is hoping to draw on the experience of an epic final round and playoff battle with Scott Brown and Kevin Kisner when chasing Day down. “Zurich was probably one of the best experiences of my life as far as getting in the moment and being in contention,â€� Smith, who has finished inside the top-5 of his two PGA TOUR starts this season, said. “I think that will help me heaps tomorrow, obviously been there and doing it on the big circuit is a big help.â€� For the record, defending champion Spieth sits eight shots back. He hasn’t given up hope but knows it’s an extreme long shot. He is expecting high winds like in 2014 when he blitzed the final round field with an 8-under 63 to win the title. “We need 8-under; that would probably be enough given the conditions for tomorrow, may not even need that much but it’s going to be so difficult tomorrow that I’ll go out and try and get under par early and just see what the golf course gets to,â€� Spieth said. Despite the quality of the chasing pack, Day remains the prohibitive favorite. He hasn’t won since his 2016 PLAYERS Championship triumph, which at the time was an eighth TOUR win in 17 starts. On the TOUR he has converted six of 13 54-hole leads, including five of his last six. But despite his clear experience advantage, he expects to feel the butterflies in the stomach Sunday. His win drought is similar to the ones faced by Rory McIlroy (2013) and Jordan Spieth (2014) before they won in Australia. They then followed the drought-breaker with stellar multiple major winning seasons. “I know it’s going to be a very difficult day tomorrow with regard to what we’re going to have out there, the pressure, the wind, the fans, the media and everything out there,â€� Day said. “It’s been a while since I’ve won, so obviously everyone’s going to be nervous out there. “But it’s a good nervous; without nerves you don’t get in the zone and without being in the zone, you don’t shoot the scores that you can shoot. “I’m going to enjoy the challenge of trying to win again tomorrow and it’s going to be a lot of fun getting out there and playing against these guys out there.â€�

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2021 3M Open, Round 2 Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Ryan Armour (T1, -10, 12.4%) 2. Adam Hadwin (T1, -10, 10.7%) 3. Jhonattan Vegas (T3, -9, 8.3%) 4. Chez Reavie (T3, -9, 7.6%) 5. Bo Hoag (T3, -9, 6.2%) 6. Louis Oosthuizen (T19, -6, 6.0%) 7. Roger Sloan (T3, -9, 5.4%) 8. Keegan Bradley (T9, -7, 5.0%) 9. Maverick McNealy (T7, -8, 4.9%) 10. Cameron Tringale (T9, -7, 4.2%) Top Strokes-Gained Performers from Round 2: Putting: Martin Trainer +4.2 Around the Green: Jimmy Walker +2.7 Approach the Green: Brendon Todd +5.1 Off-the-tee: Ben Taylor +2.2 Total: Brian Stuard +6.6 NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the 3M Open, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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