Clark holds one-shot lead at The Honda Classic

Bryson DeChambeau implored the golfing world to not judge a book by its cover after he solidified himself as a player of the future with a thrilling playoff win at Muirfield Village. Welcome to the Monday Finish where DeChambeau claimed a second PGA TOUR win in front of an idol – taking out the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide with Jack Nicklaus looking on. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The saying goes – love him or hate him. And it has been attached to Bryson DeChambeau at times. But there is really no reason to hate the guy some call the mad scientist of golf. Yes, he has ideas and thoughts that are non-conventional. Yes, he advocates things you might think are silly. But he is ultimately likable and downright excellent at golf. His single length irons and one plane swing might not work for you, but they work for him. And the passion he shows for the game and its history is great to watch. This is one guy that actually gets it. “Whenever you look at somebody, don’t judge them by the cover, right? You got to judge them by the results and the work ethic and the dedication and the perseverance that the person has,â€� he said. Indeed. 2. DeChambeau showed some steel in the final round that will certainly help him going forward. As a confidence player he had possibly created some seeds of doubt after missing a few chances to close the deal in regulation and the opening playoff hole. But a stoic approach shot on the second playoff hole was followed by a great putt for the win. The putt came after Byeong An had hit a tremendous flop shot to possibly keep the tournament alive. Bottom line, it was clutch. It is something that Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods would have loved to see. As the upcoming Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup captains they know this guy will play with passion under the American flag. 3. Byeong An can’t be far away from becoming a more consistent performer and clinching a maiden win on the PGA TOUR. His playoff loss was his third top-10 this season and moved him to 46th in the FedExCup. When he is on he is certainly good enough to end up on top. Nerves may have played a factor on Sunday but those suggesting his putt on the 72nd hole was easy (he missed) are way off the mark. Multiple players miss-read that putt, expecting it to come back to the right a little more. Sure DeChambeau made it on a similar line to win a few holes later but An gave his chance a good run. And while some of his playoff shots he’d like back, the flop he hit to have a chance to stay in it was first class. Watch this space. 4. Tiger Woods still knows how to get the crowds rocking. But sadly at Muirfield Village he also took the wind out of our sails at times. And it was because of the putter – a club he used to be deadly with. The roars around the place on Friday when he holed out for an eagle on the par-5 11th and then hit the flag on the par-3 12th were vintage stuff. Hair on the back of your neck standing up stuff. Sadly a rain delay stopped his momentum. And then his putter stayed ice-cold. Woods ranked first in several ball-striking categories at Muirfield Village including Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (+14.157); Strokes Gained: Approach the Green (+11.164) and Proximity (23 feet, eight inches). But he was second last in Strokes Gained: Putting (-7.695). He missed seven putts inside five feet during the tournament, and 15 putts inside 10 feet. If he marries his game together then we might finally see that win we all crave. 5. Joaquin Niemann is another name you need to add to the youth brigade in golf if you haven’t already done so. The Chilean teenager, who is not long removed from being the world’s best amateur, has secured special temporary membership on the PGA TOUR in just his fifth start as a professional. Sunday was a chance to win but while he faded a little to be tied sixth it represented his third top-10. He will now be able to accept unlimited sponsor invites for the rest of the season as he looks to earn enough non-member points to earn a TOUR card for next season. The 95 FedExCup points earned at Muirfield Village takes him to 275 non-member points – the equivalent to around 115th in the standings. If he beats the mark of the man who finishes 125th at season’s end he will automatically get a TOUR card for next season. He has locked up a spot in the Web.com Finals as another potential avenue to the TOUR. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. DeChambeau moved from 22nd to fourth in the FedExCup and at 24 years, 8 months and 18 days, he is the fourth youngest winner in the Memorial Tournament history behind Hideki Matsuyama’s 2014 win (22 years, 3 months and 7 days) and Tiger Woods’ 1999 and 2000 victories. 2. DeChambeau became the 10th winner this season to rank inside the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Putting. He ranked sixth – outperforming the field by +1.366 strokes per round on the greens. A total of 44 percent of his total strokes gained for the week were a result of his performance on the greens at Muirfield Village. It was the third best Strokes Gained: Putting performance of his career. His best was when he won the John Deere Classic last season. 3. DeChambeau led the field in Scrambling, managing to salvage par 80 percent of the time (16 of 20) when missing the green in regulation. His scrambling performance marked the fourth-best by a winner at the Memorial Tournament since 1992. 4. DeChambeau attacked the front nine holes at Muirfield Village to get his victory. Through 72 holes he was 11-under par on the front nine and 4-under on the back nine. 5. Of note leading into the U.S. Open was Rory McIlroy’s weekend performance. After making the cut on the number at even-par, he recorded weekend rounds of 64-69 to move into a tie for eighth. It was his fourth top-10 (T8: 2018, T4: 2016, 5: 2011, T10: 2010) in his seventh career start at the Memorial Tournament. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (+5.630) and his third-round 64 was the lowest round of the tournament.

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Most of us can appreciate the travails of Jordan Spieth at the moment. Trying to appreciate his game at its peak was something most of us mere mortals cannot fathom. Solid off the tee, crisp iron shots, and a short game that at times seemed to never miss. He took that game to a FedExCup title, 11 PGA TOUR wins and three majors in his early 20s. But his current efforts over the past few seasons, where one part of his game would be firing but another be off, is something more familiar to most amateur golfers for sure. On Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Spieth found some needed rhythm off the tee and on approach at times, but his putter largely deserted him. He gained as many strokes on the field in his approach game that he had lost on Thursday but rounds of 74-69 will see him miss the weekend. It’s part of a larger slide for the now 26-year-old who is coming up on nearly three years since his last victory at the 2017 Open Championship. Since claiming the claret jug, his only top-five finish came at the 2018 Masters. Related: Leaderboard | Amy paying it forward Despite falling outside of the world top 50 for the first time since he first entered it in 2013 early this week, Spieth’s game is still miles above us weekend warriors. He’s still in another stratosphere and while words can sometimes be cheap and “it’s closeâ€� is one of the most used clichés in the sport, you really believe him when he says a turnaround is coming. “I drove the ball really well, just hit my irons poorly yesterday, which set me back. And then just historically, I’ve had a really hard time reading these greens and it just continued this week,â€� Spieth said after his round. As he signed his card, he had lost nearly three strokes to the field on the greens over the two rounds. “Felt like I put good strokes on it and then I would look up and I missed them by like a foot offline, which was very unusual for me,â€� he added. “But overall I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made off the tee. That was the best I’ve driven the ball in a couple years. So when that happens I know the rest of it’s kind of coming behind. Did a lot today to make it work and I hit 16 greens which is another really good sign.â€� Spieth worked his tail off over the off-season with coach Cameron McCormick to get his swing back to the heady days of 2015, but on Tuesday they made another adjustment. He strengthened his grip by some “five degreesâ€� and is working on getting his shaft flatter with a very closed clubface in his backswing. This makes his accuracy into the greens Friday perhaps even more impressive. But the flip side of that is there could be some more erratic golf as he tries to embed yet another change. “That’s something that takes 2-3 months to nail down,â€� Spieth told Golf Digest of the changes. “It’s an unusual feeling for me and it’s been difficult to trust, especially without having my grip in the perfect place. I miss a lot of left shots given the grip. My hands are pretty good and I’ll be able to figure it out in a couple of weeks, but I did it with the idea that we have a couple of months before the first major.â€� Next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am provides a welcome happy hunting ground for the Texan to continue his efforts. He won the tournament in 2017 and has never missed the cut in seven starts, finishing inside the top 25 in six of them. “When the driver starts to come around… that’s normally last… so when that starts to come around, I’m not worried about the rest of the game. And I’m not worried about the putting either,â€� Spieth continued. “I’ve had bad putting weeks where I’ve walked away saying, I don’t know what’s going on in the stroke. But I hit my lines almost every single putt and just simply misread them all. And I know that that’s not the case historically for me on the three courses next week, so I’m looking forward to that.â€� While he remains upbeat looking forward, he was emotional on course at TPC Scottsdale, even more so than usual. Afterwards, he admitted he felt like he had let down a few of his friends who had flown out to watch the tournament. “(The frustration) was just will. I just really wanted it. I wanted to play the weekend. I had a bunch of buddies come in town. I wanted to kind of give them something to watch the next couple days,â€� he lamented. “So when I just couldn’t do the easy part for me, which is the putting, that’s what was so frustrating. It’s not like overall frustration. I’ve had plenty of that. I’m done with that. I’m on the rebound now.â€� Currently Spieth is not locked into the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship on Feb. 20-23 but can still earn his way in over the next few weeks. If his ranking slides further, he could also find himself out of the World Golf Champions – Dell Match Play Championship on March 25-29.   “I don’t know where I’m at in the world ranking,â€� he said. “Don’t care, don’t look at it. I’m just trying to step up and win a golf tournament and let everything else take care of itself [but] you need to play all four rounds to win a tournament.â€�

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