Determination leads Jason Day to second win of the season

A Bahamas retreat. Decreasing the overall points played for. Increasing the Captain’s picks. Changing the criteria to get on the team. Playing more together. Infiltrating a European think-tank. Importing a vocal football crowd to Royal Melbourne. These were just some of the suggestions thrown up as the International Team began the post mortem on a lopsided result at Liberty National. Having fallen to the U.S. Team 19-11 to go 1-10-1 all-time in the Presidents Cup the Internationals know they need to blow it up and start again. They’ve lost seven straight. Due credit to Steve Stricker’s team. They are possibly about to start a scary good dynasty in team play. But outside of that, the Internationals need to do more. “We need to just find a way like Europe had to at one point,â€� Captain’s Assistant Geoff Ogilvy said. “For a long time, they were outmatched on paper, but they found a way to be the best team. It forced the Americans into their task force and now they’ve found the formula… and we’re paying for it.â€� It is true that this U.S. Team, with an average age of 31.8 years, is the youngest red, white and blue team in the events history. And that includes a 47-year-old Phil Mickelson. The future looks very bright with the likes of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka in form. “Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler are the best team in the world – but they’re not even the best team in the American line-up,â€� Ogilvy says. “Dustin Johnson is actually the best player in the world right now and he’s probably part of their third best combination. That’s hard to beat.â€� But the International Team was even younger at 30.3 average age. They have young stars at the helm also. They just need the magic European formula. Perhaps a call to Paul McGinley or Jose Maria Olazabal or Colin Montgomerie is in order to ask about the secret sauce. They love beating America. Perhaps they’d love to see the Internationals do the same. Adam Scott, who now has tasted defeat in the last seven Cups, couldn’t hide his disappointment. As a stalwart very likely to make his ninth appearance in his home country in two years’ time at Royal Melbourne he is calling for a collective investment. “Unfortunately, it was a bit of a slaughtering this week but we’ve got to stand up and take our ass-whipping like men and walk out of here with our heads high,â€� Scott said. “Then I think everyone who is involved in the Cup going forward should get together, talk about it, talk about what the United States Team have done the last few years, what the European Team (Ryder Cup) has done in years gone by, and try and come up with something to get our guys a little more invested in it. “That’s kind of the key. The players are really going to have to invest more in this as a group collectively on the off-year, and somehow get better, if we don’t want this kind of stuff to happen.â€� One of the suggestions was getting the top 18 or so players on the standings together in the Bahamas, or somewhere similar, during Ryder Cup week for a retreat. Wives, girlfriends and families could bond together while the players also competed and practiced in team events while also strategizing of what they saw on TV. The bonding part isn’t the issue though, as the team was likely the closest International Team on record. They specifically spent extra effort to come together as one off the course. The boys certainly enjoyed each other’s company. They just didn’t play smart. “We had some new guys again this year, and I think some of that showed up a little bit in all of our strategy on the golf course,â€� Scott said. “It’s not everything, because I think they played better, but when you are playing it every year; they are getting good at it now, and they are breeding.â€� Scott admitted to not making clever choices or being more vocal with teammate Jhonattan Vegas in team play to promote better strategic decisions. It was clear in other pairings also. There was not enough discussion on clubs or positioning or things of that nature. Rather players just assumed the individual would do better making his own choices. Match play though, is always a different beast. Away from the course prospective International Captain Ernie Els foreshadowed some heavy negotiations with the powers that be at the PGA TOUR. In 2015 – after heavy lobbying – Nick Price managed to get the overall points played for down from 34 to 30. He wanted 28. It was a hard negotiation as the TOUR is overseeing the interests of both teams. Unlike in the Ryder Cup, where the PGA of America and European Tour handle their respective sides and venues and set up and criteria etc. the Presidents Cup is run solely by the TOUR. “There’s a couple of things we have to sit down and talk to the TOUR about,â€� Els says. “Format is one, and definitely to get our hands on our business personally to make our own decisions, I think that’s definitely a point that we can discuss. “It’s gotten to a stage now where we have to do whatever we can to try and benefit our team. Whether that is logistics, scheduling, golf course setup… I think we have to be more in control, especially when we have a home-course advantage.â€� Els also voiced his want to see more choice in the selection process. Currently the International Team is picked via 10 automatic qualifiers from the world rankings and two Captain’s Picks. The issue there can be form as the world rankings are based on a two-year rolling cycle and players can be terribly out of form as the Cup approaches. Els is calling for up to six Captain’s picks, or just a revolutionary method of qualification. Perhaps a split points list like Europe where players can either make their way via world points or FedExCup points that are heavier weighted as the Cup approaches.  “The Presidents Cup is owned by the PGA TOUR. They have written down the rules. So to change rules to benefit us; there’s got to be a two-way street going,â€� Els said. “But If negotiations don’t go our way I don’t think the guys want to walk away from the Cup. I think the guys are invested into the Cup. The guys want to play. They want to compete. “We just want to feel that we are being treated fairly and that we get something going our way a little bit. The future of the Cup is important.â€� The next Cup is in December 2019 in Australia at Royal Melbourne – the site of the lone International win in 1998. After hearing the New Jersey and New York crowds in their ears all week, the Internationals are already calling on their fans to provide a hostile environment for the Americans. The Fanatics were very vocal at Liberty National for the visiting team, but in small numbers, were easily out gunned. “Obviously the Americans got a lot of support this week. They were big crowds. It was almost a football crowd. I feel like if we could have that in Australia, that might benefit us,â€� Marc Leishman said. “We have to play better golf. But it is possibly on a course that may suit us a little better. And if we can have Aussie and International fans really roaring like they would at an Aussie Rules or rugby match at everything we do I’m sure that might help gain momentum in matches we were just unable to find this week.â€� There is no doubt the next few months will be interesting in terms of what happens next but the losing side do not want to be seen as sore losers or whiners. Credit where credit is due says Price. “You can always blame and point fingers and say this and that and whatever but to be honest, I think we were simply outplayed this week.â€� It doesn’t take a task force to see that.

Click here to read the full article…

2019 3M Open, End of Round 2. Top 10 win probabilities: Bryson DeChambeau (1, -14, 42.4%) Adam Hadwin (2, -12, 12.2%) Scott Piercy (T3, -10, 5.7%) Hideki Matsuyama (T11, -8, 4.8%) Kevin Streelman (T7, -9, 3.7%) Sam Burns (T3, -10, 3.2%) Brian Harman (T3, -10, 2.9%) Tony Finau (T11, -8, 2.3%) Collin Morikawa (T11, -8, 1.8%) Charles Howell III (T11, -8, 1.7%) Strokes-gained leaders from Round 2: Putting: Joaquin Niemann + 3.21 Around-the-green: Daniel Berger +2.96 Approach: Stephan Jaeger +5.48 Off-the-tee: Sam Burns +2.24 Total: Bryson DeChambeau +7.44 NOTE: These reports are based off 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.

Click here to read the full article…

Last year's ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP was Tiger Woods' record-tying 82nd victory on the PGA TOUR. This week, he defends that title in the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. It will be the first time since August 2014 that he will play an event as the defending champion. This will be Woods' eighth attempt at his 83rd PGA TOUR victory, an achievement that would move him ahead of Sam Snead and into first place alone on the career wins list. RELATED LINKS: 15th Club | Tiger and Sherwood are a perfect match Of those first 82, which were the most impressive from a statistical perspective? What parts of Woods' game shined brightest in the biggest moments? Some answers were tougher to deduce than others, but I tried to answer those questions. Here are Woods’ best statistical performances from his 82 wins. Off the Tee: 2009 Memorial Tournament Woods' performance at the 2009 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide was a statistical masterpiece off the tee. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, but didn't do it how you may think. Woods hit 87.5% of his fairways, tying his highest percentage as a professional in a PGA TOUR event. That included a run of 18 straight fairways hit to conclude a one-shot victory over Jim Furyk. Non-ShotLink division: 1997 Masters: To this day, partly because of the course changes that came after Woods’ 12-shot win, a 21-year-old Woods holds the Masters Tournament single-week average driving distance record, at 323.1 yards. Woods' advantage over the field average that week was an incomprehensible 46 yards per drive (277.1). For perspective, Bryson DeChambeau averaged 322.1 yards off the tee in 2019-2020, 25.7 yards further than the TOUR average for the season. Woods also hit 47 fairways for the week, one fewer than he hit two years prior as an amateur. Since statistical tracking began about 40 years ago, there are two instances where a player averaged 310 or more yards and hit 45 or more fairways in a Masters. Both were Woods (1995 and 1997). Approach Play: 2006 THE NORTHERN TRUST Woods' performance in the 2000 U.S. Open is the most dominant in the game's history, and his iron play was a huge part of it. We'll get to that tournament in a moment, but first we'll look at his best approach performance in the ShotLink era: the 2006 THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston. That week, Woods racked up a staggering 14.6 Strokes Gained: Approach, six strokes more than anyone else in the field (Robert Karlsson was second, at 8.31). It's the most Strokes Gained: Approach for Woods in any single event in his career. The 2006 season saw Woods reach iron play levels not seen by anyone since: he averaged a TOUR-best 2.07 Strokes Gained: Approach per round, a mark not bettered since. Non-ShotLink division: 2000 U.S. Open: During a week in which the field hit less than 50% of the greens in regulation (48.4%), Woods hit 70.8% for the tournament. His 51 greens hit in regulation were seven more than anyone else (Fred Couples and David Toms each hit 44) and translated to a field-best 21 birdies. Arguably the most dominating performance in pro sports history, Woods' 2000 U.S. Open victory is nearly impossible to top from a ball-striking perspective. Short Game: 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational At Bay Hill in 2009, Woods lost strokes to the field on his drives and approach shots (-0.43 for the tournament), yet still got to shake Mr. Palmer's hand and lift the trophy that Sunday afternoon. He did it through sensational short-game play, getting up and down for par 24 times, his most across 79 stroke-play victories on TOUR. Woods led the field for the week in Strokes Gained: Around-The-Green, at 1.69 per round. Non-ShotLink division: 1999 Walt Disney World Classic: Honorable mention here goes to another Orlando-area win 10 years prior, at the 1999 Disney Classic. That week, Woods was a perfect 13-for-13 scrambling and claimed a one-shot victory despite seven three-putts. In the last 35 years, it's one of just four instances where a player had a perfect scrambling percentage for 72 holes (with ten or more attempts) and went on to win the tournament. Putting: 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational Woods' legacy of clutch putts makes this category maybe the most difficult to lock down. From ‘Better Than Most' at the 2001 PLAYERS to ‘Expect Anything Different' at the 2008 U.S. Open (both victories, by the way), memories of big moments abound from Woods' halcyon days. The most complete putting performance, statistically speaking, might have come at Bay Hill in 2013. Woods had 11.2 Strokes Gained: Putting for the week, by far his most in a win since ShotLink tracking began in 2004. He led the field in approach putt performance (a stat that measures lag putting ability) and made nearly 100 feet of putts per round. Woods' 14 putts made outside 10 feet that week are tied for his second-most in any single PGA TOUR event. Best Comeback: 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am While one triumph at Pebble Beach in 2000 has already been mentioned, what Woods did earlier that year at that same site was awe-inspiring, as well. At the 2000 AT&TPebble Beach Pro-Am, Woods trailed by seven strokes with nine holes to play. After a hole-out for eagle at 15, Woods birdied two of the last three to card a bogey-free 64 and win by two strokes. The previous year at Torrey Pines, Woods was tied for 36th place entering the third round, nine shots behind leader Ted Tryba. Woods shot 62-65 on the weekend to win by two strokes. It marks the only time in Woods' career he has won when outside the top 25 through 36 holes. Most Dominant: 2000 U.S. Open There are only two instances since 1900 where a player won a major championship by double digits. Both of those performances were turned in by Woods before he turned 25. Three years after the unthinkable 12-stroke runaway at Augusta National, Woods' 15-shot destruction of the field at Pebble Beach re-wrote the top lines in golf's record books, seemingly in uncrackable stone. While the 2000 U.S. Open (+29.21 Strokes Gained: Total) and 1997 Masters (+25.86) are easily listed as the two most dominant victories of Woods' legendary career, the intrigue comes when pondering what win is next on the list. By Strokes Gained: Total, it's the 2008 Farmers Insurance Open (+23.51), an eight-stroke romp at Torrey Pines where Woods led the field by a wide margin in Strokes Gained: Approach. By simply margin of victory, there are two others vying for the bronze: the 2003 Arnold Palmer Invitational and the 2000 WGC Invitational, both won by eleven strokes. Woods accounts for more than half of the double-digit wins on the PGA TOUR over the last 30 seasons (four of seven). In the 2000 PGA TOUR season, Woods had more wins by 11 strokes or more (two) than rounds of 74 or higher (one). How about the 2005 Open at St. Andrews? Woods won wire-to-wire (no ties after any round) and ended with a five stroke margin of victory - the only player to do both of those things at an Open Championship since World War II. For the most dominant player of his era, the choices seem endless.

Click here to read the full article…