The reigning Charles Schwab Cup champion took to Twitter after his opening round at Colonial to reveal that his putter head fell off on his first hole Thursday.
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NORTON, Mass. - They needed no introductions, of course. But if we were hoping for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to re-introduce their impressive talents to us, we'll have to wait because Saturday's third round of THE NORTHERN TRUST didn't show them at their best. Having each grinded Friday afternoon to make the cut at 3 under at TPC Boston, Woods and McIlroy drew the third starting time on a warm and quiet morning. It was the third straight tournament in which Woods has had a tee time with McIlroy - Rounds 1 and 2 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, Rounds 1 and 2 at the PGA Championship - and the 24th time since it first happened in 2012. RELATED: Full leaderboard | DJ settles for 60 in Round 2 after historic start | Projected FedExCup standings OK, so the film cannister stamped "Tiger & Rory, August 22, 2020, Round 3 TNT" will not be filed into the classic vault alongside something like the 1954 Masters playoff between Sam Snead and Ben Hogan or even the 2012 BMW Championship when Woods (65-67) and McIlroy (64-68) went toe-to-toe in the same group to sit T-2 through 36 holes. But, hey, owed to their stature in the game and immense personalities, it's no surprise that Woods and McIlroy provided action worth talking about Saturday - even if for the unexpected scratchy play from lads who are ranked Nos. 3 (McIlroy) and 16 (Woods) in the world order and are the only two-time winners of the FedExCup. The hiccups just came in different manners. For Woods, who shot 2-over 73, his usually stellar iron game was not there, because in hitting 12 of 14 fairways, he only managed to find 11 greens in regulation. For McIlroy, who shot 74, his on-course focus continues to be his Achilles. Consider the 3-8-2 start - translation: birdie, triple-bogey, birdie - that pretty much told the story of his day and his stretch of golf since returning from the pandemic-enforced break. Brilliant in so many flashes, McIlroy continues to hurt himself with big numbers. After burying a 7-foot birdie roll at the first, McIlroy from 222 yards came up short of the green at the par-5 second. Playing out of a marshy hazard, his recovery hit a rock and bounced backward, this time into the water. He compounded matters by three-putting from 40 feet for a triple. Later, McIlroy was left of the fairway at the par-4 sixth, then from 151 yards he went left of the green and in gnarly native grass. There were two whacks with a wedge to get it out of the native grass, then a third to find the green, from where he two-putted from 12 feet. Two triples in six holes is hardly the start McIlroy envisioned and it meant that the two icons were a combined 5 over, but they proceeded onward with improved golf, even if the scoring touch was not present. McIlroy, after the choppy sixth, played his final 12 holes in 1 under, birdies at the par-4 10th and par-5 18th against a lone bogey at the par-4 14th at least giving him a positive close to savor. Woods birdied the par-4 ninth to make the turn in level-par 36, but bogeyed Nos. 11, 12 and 14 before negotiating a deft two-putt birdie from 60 feet, up a steep swale left of the green, then down a slippery slope. Contrasting, the way in which they achieved their scores, because whereas Woods drove it nicely, McIlroy found his way into just six of 14 fairways. And whereas Woods kept losing his way to the green, McIlroy did manage to hit 13 of them. There was, however, a common denominator - misery on the greens. After two positive days in the Strokes Gained: Putting category for Woods, he lost a whopping 3.503 strokes, the lowlight being the par-4 12th when he three-putted from 28 feet. McIlroy, meanwhile, required 32 putts and was minus 1.941 in the SGP category. He only one-putted twice over his final 13 holes. The matching birdies, at least, put a pretty bow on a rather blah day, but if you're keeping score at home, it means that in the 23 times they've been paired in a stroke-play tournament, Woods has had the lower score 11 times, McIlroy on nine occasions, and three times they've been tied. (The other pairing was the 2019 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, which Woods won.) It would have been a best-ball 5-under 66, pretty good for the championship flight of the late-summer member-guest. Just not what you'd expect for world championship titans. Not that you can't put it all into context; it was, after all, the third round of a tournament that each player knew he didn't have a chance to win, with it having little effect on their status for next week's BMW Championship. (Each is going to qualify.) So that made it easier to doff their white caps, exchange smiles, then share a picnic table for lunch and friendly conversation. You can bet that nothing about their rounds factored into the discussion.
The PGA TOUR travels to Jackson, Mississippi, for the Sanderson Farms Championship located at The Country Club of Jackson. The field should be similar to last week’s season-opening A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, with another opportunity for a handful of TOUR veterans and rookies looking to make an early impact. Zach Johnson, Jimmy Walker and Jason Dufner join another slew of rookies such as Doug Ghim, Maverick McNealy, Scottie Scheffler and Kristoffer Ventura looking to gain important FedExCup points as well as an early victory similar to last year’s winner, Cameron Champ. The course will measure at 7,421 yards, sets up as a par-72 and will be putted on Bermuda grass this week. Country Club of Jackson measured as the ninth longest course last season but shouldn’t be an issue for the “non-bombersâ€� on TOUR. The average driving distance is shorter here than the TOUR average and a lot of the distance comes from the four par 5s, three measuring more than 550 yards and one measuring more than 600 yards, as well as the par-4 18th, measuring just over 500 yards. Players such as Champ, Luke List and Wyndham Clark all ranked inside the top-five in driving distance last season, but they might choose to club down this week. The fairways are narrow and recorded 11% less fairways hit in regulation compared to the TOUR average. This is also why the highest approach shot distribution comes from 200-plus yards, with the second-most coming from 125-150 yards. Even though hitting fairways is important, hitting your irons well is a higher priority. In 2018, of the golfers who finished inside the top 10 at Sanderson Farms, nine gained strokes in Strokes Gained: Approach The Green. Looking back to 2017, the top five finishers gained an average of 5.52 with their approach shots, so starting your lineups with golfers who’ve been hitting their irons well isn’t a bad strategy. Another key metric to focus on this week is par-5 scoring average — 56% of the total birdies came from the par 5s in 2018. TOP VALUES Emiliano Grillo ($9,400) Grillo is making his first start of the new season and ranks first in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green over the past six tournaments. He also has gained strokes with his irons in nine of his past 10 starts, averaging three strokes gained over the field in that stretch. Grillo missed just three cuts last season and much of it was due to his poor putting, losing more than 10 strokes on the greens. Grillo has done well during the fall season with two top-10s (2016, 2017 OHL Classic at Mayakoba) and a victory (2015 Safeway Open), so hopefully he leans on experience while showing improvement in his putting. Aaron Wise ($8,500) Even though distance off the tee isn’t a huge advantage over the field, it never hurts. Wise ranked just inside the top 35 in driving distance last season, and he’ll use that to his advantage on the par 5s this week. Speaking of those par 5s, Wise ranks first in par 5 scoring average and second in birdie or better gained in the past 24 rounds. Cameron Tringale ($7,300) Tringale finished a respectable T36 last week at Greenbrier and shot three rounds in the 60s but left room to play better, hitting just 69% of his greens in regulation and 51% of his fairways. He also didn’t do much on the greens when he did hit them, gaining less than a stroke with his putter, but he’s been playing solid golf over the past few months. Coming into last week, Tringale ranked inside the top 15 in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, top 20 in par-5 scoring average and first in birdie or better gained over the past six tournaments. Wes Roach ($6,300) Roach finished his 2019 season gaining strokes through approach in four of his last five tournaments and enters Sanderson ranking 13th in Stroke Gained: Approach the Green, as well as inside the top five in birdie or better gained over the past six tournaments. He struggles on Bermuda greens, ranking 63rd in Strokes Gained: Putting over the past 24 rounds, but is so precise with his irons that he’s worth a look in his salary range. Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Writer’s bio: “I’m a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.â€�
The smile on Mac McLendon’s face was almost as big as the trophy he was holding. Next to him on the 18th green stood partner Hubert Green, holding an identical trophy but a smile not quite as wide. McLendon and Green had teamed together in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, to win the 1974 National Team Championship. For Green, it was his fourth title of the season. McLendon had a little different perspective as he was emerging from the depths of a four-year slump that left the former LSU golfer struggling to make cuts and even considering a career change, putting his accounting degree to use. The one-shot win by McLendon and Green over the uncle-nephew team of Sam and J.C. Snead and the pairing of Ed Sneed and Bert Yancey in the best-ball event at Walt Disney World allowed McLendon to stay in his chosen career and simply use an adding machine and ledger to count the $50,000 the two players split evenly. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I’m one year older than Hubert, but I look 10. That’s what Monday morning qualifying does to you,” McLendon said at a time on the PGA TOUR when non-exempt players had to qualify weekly. “My game left me, just totally left me, about four years ago. I came close to quitting the TOUR. I had some really bad times. But I’m not a quitter. Golf is my life, my profession. This makes it worthwhile. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.” No wonder why McLendon’s smile was so big. That victory began a solid run of play and was the first of four official PGA TOUR titles for Benson Rayfield McLendon, Jr., nicknamed Mac, born in Georgia but an Alabama resident for almost his entire life. McLendon died July 4 in Shoal Creek, Alabama. He was 76. Fresh out of LSU, where he led the Tigers to three consecutive Southeastern Conference titles and was a first-team All-American his senior year, McLendon had immediate success after turning pro, winning in his first start, at the unofficial Magnolia Classic, a Second Tour tournament held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, played opposite the Colonial National Invitation, in 1968. That week, McLendon opened with a 5-under 65 and closed with a 66 to finish 72 holes tied with Pete Fleming. What made the tournament memorable was the nine-hole, sudden-death playoff that ensued, with McLendon finally prevailing over Fleming with a birdie as the sun was quickly setting. McLendon’s second TOUR title came in bittersweet fashion at the 1976 Southern Open at Green Island Country Club Columbus, Georgia. McClendon was the only player in the field to post four rounds in the 60s, and that was enough for him to defeat his friend, Green, by two strokes. Green passed in 2018. McLendon’s best season on TOUR came two years later when he won the Florida Citrus Open at Rio Pinar Country Club, the final event at the course before the tournament moved to the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, current site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. That week, McLendon cashed the largest check of his career—$40,000—by again turning in four sub-70 rounds, including a 36-hole final day, to defeat a leaderboard full of future World Golf Hall of Famers. David Graham finished second, followed by Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Hale Irwin. The victory amazed even McLendon, who told the media following his victory, “I don’t know when I’ve hit the ball worse. I’ve heard players say they had won and they really weren’t playing well. Well, I just put that down as a lot of baloney. Now I know what they’re talking about.” What won McLendon that title in Orlando were the 111 putts he took for the entire week. The win also earned him a spot in the Tournament of Champions a month later in Carlsbad, California, where he tied for fourth. His win in Orlando was a harbinger of things to come in the Sunshine State. At the season-ending Pensacola Open in late-October, just over the border from Alabama, McLendon took a three-shot lead into the final round but couldn’t hold it, shooting a 1-over 73 on the final day to fall into a playoff with Mike Reid. McLendon defeated Reid with a par on the first playoff hole. He finished that season, his best, 22nd on the money list with $107,299 in earnings. In his career, McLendon played in 326 PGA TOUR events. He turned 50 on August 10, 1995, but never attempted to play PGA TOUR Champions. His final TOUR appearances came in 1981, fittingly, at the Pensacola Open and then a week later at the Walt Disney World National Team Championship, paired with Leonard Thompson. Following his TOUR career, McLendon worked in the financial services field in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Montgomery County (Alabama) Sports Hall of Fame. McLendon is survived by his wife of 55 years, Joan; his daughter, Amy (Jason) McLevaine; and two grandchildren. His son, Lance, preceded him in death. Funeral services will be July 8 at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church in Alabama.
