Cut prediction: Bermuda Championship

Welcome to the Monday Finish where we literally have finished on a Monday after Jason Day outlasted Alex Noren in a six hole playoff that stretched over two days. Here are observations and insights from the week at Torrey Pines where the return of a big cat and an epic finish had everybody talking.  FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Jason Day is ready to make his push back towards the top of the golfing world. The now 30-year-old has seemingly put a tough 2017 behind him and is driven to make his move. Last season he lacked motivation. He almost didn’t care that Dustin Johnson took his mantle. But his mind is back now. He does care. He’s fired up. He wants to be the best. He wants to dominate. And his 11th PGA TOUR win this week is the start of that chase. With Day, Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy among players looking for a huge year in 2018 and the return of Tiger Woods… wow. 2. Alex Noren should have already been on everyone’s radar before this performance given he has nine European Tour wins and not that long ago was inside the world top 10. But if he was under the radar on American soil the Swede certainly made sure fans won’t be forgetting him any time soon. He produced some great shots when they mattered down the stretch on a tough lay out and more than held his own in Sunday’s playoff holes. His Monday morning shot that found the water was just a fraction off being perfect and setting up a great look at eagle. He went down swinging. In his first season as a member of both the PGA TOUR and the European Tour he is a serious threat at both the FedExCup and the race to Dubai. 3. Tiger Woods is back. Hallelujah. Rounds of 72-71-70-72 left him seven shots off joining a playoff and giving him a shot at an eighth Farmers Insurance Open title but it was certainly a success. It was his first PGA TOUR event in a year and just second official event since August 2015 after back fusion surgery. Torrey Pines played hard this week and Woods sprayed the ball off the tee. Yet still he made the weekend when others would have been looking at rounds of 80. The building blocks are there for one last push towards the all-time TOUR win record. He needs three more wins to tie Sam Snead’s 82. It was also amazing to see the deep galleries around the veteran star. Can’t wait to see him back at the Genesis Open in a few weeks. “I think he’s going to win this year, personally, once he figures (driver) out, once he gets some more competitive rounds under his belt,â€� Jason Day said of the return. 4. There was a lot of chatter about slow play on Sunday at Torrey Pines and while pace of play is always something most of us want to see set at swift – there were some extenuating circumstances that should be highlighted to balance the argument. Things could have certainly been quicker but… Firstly the round was played in three-balls, always slower than two balls obviously. There were wind gusts up around 25 mph making decisions much harder. Greens at Torrey are poa, which gets bouncy, and necessitates marking from closer than usual to be sure you see the breaks etc. C.T. Pan had a horror hole on the par-3 3rd hole, having to return to the tee box after his first shot was deemed unplayable in a canyon. His next effort also found the canyon, forcing his caddy to run down the hill to decide if it was playable. It wasn’t. Long story short he made an eight and multiple groups were backed up on the tee behind him. The final group was in a three-way match play style situation fighting for the win, making every shot worth plenty. That being said, J.B. Holmes certainly took a lot of time before his approach to the 18th hole, leaving Noren waiting, which proved tough. Holmes was unapologetic however as he needed an unlikely eagle to have a chance to win and was trying to figure out how to make it. 5. Ryan Palmer was looking to end an eight-year win drought but ended up just short after making par on the first playoff hole. He secured his PGA TOUR card on a major medical extension at the CareerBuilder Challenge last week and now that he has moved to 31st in the FedExCup he is looking good for a push to the Playoffs. His last appearance there was in 2016 and his last time at the TOUR Championship was 2014 when he finished a career high 14th in the FedExCup. Since 2011, he has the most top-five finishes on TOUR without a win (19) so here’s hoping he can continue to surge towards a breakthrough. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. This was the 17th playoff at the Farmers Insurance Open and first since Jason Day prevailed in a four-man playoff in 2015. In 50 years of the event being played at Torrey Pines, this is just the third playoff to last three holes or more. 2001 – Phil Mickelson def. Frank Lickliter II and Davis Love III (three holes); 1985 – Woody Blackburn def. Ron Streck (four holes). The playoff is the fifth this PGA TOUR season and third in a row. The last time there were three straight playoffs on the PGA TOUR was in 2015 (Travelers Championship, The Greenbrier Classic, John Deere Classic). 2. Day now has 11 PGA TOUR victories after breaking a 20-month drought. He became the ninth player to win the Farmers Insurance Open more than once joining Tiger Woods (1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013), Phil Mickelson (1993, 2000, 2001), Tommy Bolt (1953, 1955), Arnold Palmer (1957, 1961), Steve Pate (1988, 1992), J.C. Snead (1975, 1976), Brandt Snedeker (2012, 2016) and Tom Watson (1977, 1980). 3. Only 11 players were under-par on Sunday, and the field average was 74.779. Since 2000, it was the tournament’s third-highest Sunday scoring average, with the highest being 2016 (77.901) and second-highest being 2008 (74.788). The average of 74.779 is the second-highest single-round scoring average this season. The highest came in the third round of THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES (74.792 / +2.792). 4. Tiger Woods hit 17 fairways, the fewest in his career in a 72-hole tournament. He still finished T23. His stats line looked this way. R1 (South) – Eight of 14 fairways, 12 of 18 greens in regulation, 31 putts.  R2 (North) – Three of 14 fairways, nine of 18 greens in regulation, 24 putts.  R3 – Three of 14 fairways, nine of 18 greens in regulation, 26 putts.  R4 – Three of 14 fairways, 12 of 18 greens in regulation, 29 putts.  Total – 17 of 56 fairways, 42 of 72 greens in regulation, 110 putts.  His proximity to the hole was 40 feet, 10 inches leaving him ranked T52 of the 78 players to make the cut. 5. With world No. 1 on offer, defending champion Jon Rahm ran out of gas after his big few weeks including his win at the CareerBuilder Challenge. He carded a final-round 77 and finished T29. After moving to 10-under with a birdie on No. 10 on Saturday, he played his final 26 holes in 8-over and made eight bogeys, one double bogey and two birdies. Rahm’s weekend scores of 75-77 – 152 is the second-highest 36-hole total of his PGA TOUR career. His high score in consecutive rounds is 72-82 – 154 in the second and third rounds of the 2017 PLAYERS Championship. It is only the third time Rahm has carded two over-par rounds on the weekend. He shot 73-75 at the 2017 Masters, and he shot 73-75 at The Open Championship in 2016.

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Andy Ogletree has imagined hitting that tee shot many times. It always ends up in the same spot, just past the deep bunker that guards the right side of Augusta National’s first fairway. Ogletree was scheduled to hit that tee shot today in the first round of the Masters. But then the world was turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic. Sports, like the rest of life, were impacted, and the Masters is no exception. The tournament was pushed back seven months, to Nov. 12-15. Related: The Masters in November: What to expect | Roundtable: Most emotional Masters | Ranking Tiger’s top 10 clubs Fans and players alike anticipate this rite of spring with unparalleled excitement, but Ogletree has a unique perspective. He wasn’t just scheduled to play his first Masters. He was going to play with Tiger Woods. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I’m not going to lie,â€� he said. He doesn’t let those thoughts travel past the first tee shot, though. “I’ve played that tee shot a lot in my head, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. The gameplan is to focus on the first one and then add them up from there,â€� he said. Pairings for this year’s Masters haven’t been released, but pairing the U.S. Amateur and Masters champions is one of the tournament’s many traditions. Augusta National was co-founded by the greatest amateur of all time, the incomparable Bobby Jones, and its respect for the amateur game runs deep. Woods put on his fifth green jacket last April. Ogletree watched the final round in his apartment with his teammates. “We all went crazy,â€� he said. “It’s definitely a day I’ll remember forever.â€� Another one came four months later, at the historic Pinehurst Resort. Ogletree knew what was at stake when he faced John Augenstein in the final match of the U.S. Amateur. “(Playing with Woods) was a big interview topic throughout the week,â€� Ogletree said. Both finalists already had Masters invitations in hand, but only the winner would play with the 15-time major champion. Ogletree was 4 down after five holes but won four of the final seven holes for a 2-and-1 win. His four-hole deficit is believed to be the fourth-largest overcome by a champion. Woods was 6 down through 13 holes against Trip Kuehne in 1994. Two years later, he was 5 down after the morning round of the 36-hole match, as was Labron Harris in 1962. “I was definitely looking forward to it,â€� Ogletree said about the Masters. “I’ll just keep looking forward to it for a while. It’s all perspective. I just have to have a positive outlook. That’s all I can do now.â€� Ogletree also joins Jones and Matt Kuchar as Georgia Tech alums to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy as the U.S. Amateur champion. Kuchar, Ogletree and Jones’ grandson, Bobby Jones IV, all met at last year’s TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Kuchar also played with Woods in the Masters after winning the 1997 U.S. Amateur. Woods won that year’s Masters by 12 shots. Woods beat Kuchar by just a stroke, 71 to 72, in the first round and just three strokes for the week. Woods finished T8, six shots behind Mark O’Meara, while Kuchar, then a college sophomore, impressed with a T21 finish. He finished T14 at that year’s U.S. Open, as well. Kuchar and Ogletree are scheduled to play a practice round at the Masters, but perhaps Ogletree can also dispense some advice. He’s already played Augusta National in November. Last fall, he played the same weekend that that this year’s tournament is scheduled to be played. Now he has even more time to prepare for his first major. His senior season at Georgia Tech was cut short by coronavirus, so he returned home to Mississippi to be with his family. His hometown of Little Rock, Mississippi, has approximately 2,000 residents. “It’s a lot easier to social-distance here,â€� he said. His U.S. Amateur win also earned him spots in The Open Championship, which has been pushed to back to 2021, and U.S. Open, which is now scheduled to be played in September. These changes have likely delayed his plans to turn pro. Every aspect of life is full of uncertainty right now. For now, Ogletree is working on his game at two local courses. “I’m sure I’ll watch this week. Anytime it’s Masters week, I’m watching with multiple screens,â€� Ogletree said. “It was always a big week for my family, as golf fans.â€� This year, it will be even bigger.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – There were all sorts of reasons to doubt Francesco Molinari, who heads into the weekend hot after a bogey-free, second-round 67 got him to 7 under par and in a three-way tie for the lead with players still out on the course at the 83rd Masters Tournament. Sure, in the last 12 months he had won four times around the world, including The Open Championship. And OK, he went 5-0-0 at the Ryder Cup, mostly with Tommy Fleetwood. But in seven Masters starts he’d done no better than 19th, in 2012. He didn’t even do very well as a caddie for his brother, then-reigning U.S. Amateur champ Edoardo, at the 2006 Masters. “I didn’t learn a lot, to be honest, about the course, because we were going sideways most of the time,� Francesco said, laughing. He called the two days of pulling clubs for his brother, “a bit of a nightmare.� How uninspiring was Francesco’s record here? It wasn’t a nightmare, but one of his fellow major winners, when presented with the idea of drafting Molinari for a Masters fantasy team, said this week, “He hits it too flat to win at Augusta. Fleetwood, yes, but Molinari doesn’t hit it high enough.� All of which is turning out to be completely wrong. Molinari 2.0 is not the same player, as he continues to prove for the slower learners among us. For starters, he said Friday, he is way more comfortable on the greens. His work with putting coach Phil Kenyon paid big dividends starting last spring, when Molinari won the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, and he kept right on winning at the Quicken Loans National, The Open, and this season’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. What did he change? The question should probably be: What didn’t he change? He transformed his setup, he said, from upright to more of a crouching position. He altered his path, from in-to-out to neutral. He changed his actual putter, in both shape and markings—the old one had an alignment line, this one a dot. And he changed his tempo. “Pretty much I could have started putting left-handed,� he said. “It would have been a similar process.� The payoff has been stark. He’s 23rd in Strokes Gained: Putting (+.564) this season compared to 182nd (-.487) last year. He’s the only player on the PGA TOUR to improve a stroke or more since last season. “I feel a massive difference when I’m on the greens or around the greens, compared to my previous times here,� he said after taking just 25 putts Friday. As for the assertion that he hits it too flat, or isn’t long enough, that’s now completely wrong, too. Molinari admits he used to be that guy. He was playing the 2014 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool when it hit him like a golf ball to the forehead. Paired with uber-long Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy for the third round, Molinari realized he was so comparatively short he didn’t stand a chance, even if he played perfectly. “I saw that I didn’t stand a chance, really,� he said. “I didn’t play my best golf, but even if I had, there wasn’t much I could do to compete against them. That was a big wake-up call.� He went to work on his swing, making a bigger turn on his historically compact swing, and working out for the first time. “I was more of a couch guy a few years ago,� he told the PGA TOUR’s Sean Martin last fall, for a story chronicling Molinari’s distance gains. The result: He has gained 20 yards since 2015. According to Mark Broadie, who invented the Strokes Gained metric and who keeps statistics for Molinari, a 20-yard distance gain can mean up to three strokes per tournament. The par-5 eighth hole is a good example of how that plays out at Augusta National. In the past, Molinari said, he had to aim his tee shot left of the right fairway bunker, but now if the wind is right he can clear it. That can mean the difference between going for the green in two, or laying up. He birdied the eighth Friday, and is 4-under on the par 5s in eight chances so far this week. He’s too short? Too flat? No and no. He’s atop the leaderboard, is what he is. Did he feel overlooked, the way fellow co-leader Brooks Koepka (71) has? Also no. “There’s obviously loads of great players in golf right now,� said Molinari, who is coming off a third-place finish at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. “And you know, I think I’m getting the attention that I deserve, and it’s not something that I seek or that I want desperately. I’m happy to go about my business and keep playing good golf.� Francesco Molinari isn’t going sideways at Augusta anymore.

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