Emergency 9: Fort Worth Invitational, Round 3

Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. One & Done After a six-hour round, Jason Day, Alex Noren and Ryan Palmer had more work to do. The warm and breezy conditions inflated scores on Sunday as Day (70) had the only card better than par of three. Palmer was eliminated on the first playoff hole as Noren and Day circled birdies. After five holes, the sun finally gave up and went to bed and the competitors were forced to come back on Monday.      The first playoff hole on Monday saw Day collect his 11th win on TOUR with his birdie on No. 18. Day had an eventful 2017 that frustrated gamers but we have to remember these are human beings as well. His mother was sick. His wife had a miscarriage. His caddy, mentor and coach, Col Swatton, was removed from his bag. His back injury scared off plenty on Wednesday but that’s just part of it moving forward. He has issues with it and if he can play through it, he will. If he can’t, well…Not a bad way to start the season as he joins the list of multiple winners at the Farmers Insurance Open and both have come in a playoff. He’s now cashed four top 10’s in nine starts at Torrey Pines. He led the field in birdies with 21 will help from his GIR numbers (T11) and his putter (T4). Swedish Thing Since his return from wrist issues in 2014, Alex Noren has won six times in 63 events worldwide. He’s exempt this season as his cash earned last year as a non-member would have put him in the top 125. Last year he cashed top 10’s at THE PLAYERS (10th), WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (T5) and the Open Championship. The angle with Noren is just how many events he’s going to play but weekly gamers don’t have to worry about that! His P2 is the best of his bunch on U.S. soil and it’s obvious he has plenty of class to improve on that! Ryan’s Hope Ryan Palmer was first man out of the three-man playoff and his P2 was his best finish since T2 at the…2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open, the site of next week’s event. The Texan commented after the round that he’s in a really good place right now. His wife’s cancer is in remission and there’s obviously nothing wrong with his golf game. His monster up-and-down at the final hole to get into the playoff confirmed his sentiment. He finished in the top 10 in both driving categories and was third in putts per GIR.  Pick Your Horse Keegan Bradley followed his T4 from last year with fifth-place earnings this year. I don’t know what the rules on #NappyFactor might but he cashed solo second at the CIMB Classic a month before his son was born in November and adds another nice check this week. … J.B. Holmes made a business decision that took, er, some time on Sunday afternoon. On the final hole, trailing by two, he eventually decided to lay up. He eventually circled a birdie for solo fourth. This was his third top six in the last four years. … Charles Howell III posted one of the two rounds in the 60’s today (69) to claim his eighth top-10 finish in 16 tries. He’s never missed a weekend in those 16 years. Remarkable. It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over The other round in the 60’s on Sunday went to Hideki Matsuyama. His 69 matched Howell’s and moved him up 32 places to T12, his best finish in five tries. The Japanese star never threatened and the key to his success this week was his PUTTER?!?! He hit it all over the shop tee-to-green but when he found the putting surface he cashed in. He was T9 in putts per GIR. I won’t have to remind you he’s the two-time defending champion next week. Out of the Woods If more proof is needed that driving the golf ball accurately isn’t a requirement at Torrey Pines, please look no further. Tiger Woods has never driven the ball this poorly in an event. The large cat hit just 30.4 percent of the fairways this week but still beat Jon Rahm and finished inside the top 25 (T23). Imagine if he hit a few! He’s back at Riviera in a few weeks so gamers will have time to digest and over-analyze this week. Just how we like it! Familiar Names Harris English went three places better on the leaderboard this week with T8. He adds another top 10 to his playoff loss in 2015 and makes it six out of six at Torrey Pines. … Tom Hoge collected T12 after leading the South Course in SG: Tee-to-Green for the week. He’s now cashed in seven of eight starts this season and half have gone for top 25’s. … Brandon Harkins is a native Californian and is racking up the FedExCup points and cash in his home state. He opened the year T9 at the Safeway Open in Napa Valley. Last week he went one better with a T8 at the CareerBuilder Challenge. His T12 this week adds to the pile of top-25 finishes, six in eight events, this season. So Close Yet So Far Jon Rahm was a 7-4 favorite to win the tournament after 36 holes. The defending champion posted 75-77 on the weekend and couldn’t recreate his 65 from Sunday last year. … Michael Kim now has closing rounds of 80 in 2016 and 78 in 2018 when beginning the final round in touching distance of the lead. He began the day T3 and ended T23. … C.T. Pan went one better and signed for 79 to drop from T5 to T35. … Beau Hossler matched Pan’s 79 and matched his drop from T5 to T35. Hossler had a tough round last Saturday at the CareerBuilder Challenge to stall out but he keeps putting himself into position. … The Hunter Mahan experience continues to be a wait-and-see affair. Maybe I jinxed him after including him in Friday’s column. I try and only use my powers for good! He fired 78-79 on the weekend. He’ll be worth a look at TPC Scottsdale for those who love a long shot. More on that in The Confidence Factor on Tuesday! Study Hall Haotong Li played in the final group with Rory McIlroy Sunday at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. The 23-year old budding star from China matched him shot-for-shot until he birdied the final two holes to win by one. They both shot 69 but Li’s one-shot lead after 54 holes held up. He becomes the first Chinese player to enter the OWGR top 50. … Tommy Fleetwood bags his fourth top-10 finish in a row and fifth in his last six events. …Byeong Hun An played his final three rounds 16-under-par to finish T6. An was in the mix at TPC Scottsdale last year before 73 on Sunday saw him end up sixth. … Ricky Barnes tweeted that he’s received a sponsor’s exemption for the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week. Barnes was T20 at CareerBuilder two weeks ago.

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Players on the PGA TOUR have enjoyed playing the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, South Carolina, for a variety of reasons. The challenging, but fun golf course designed by Pete Dye and consultant Jack Nicklaus. The laid-back atmosphere, which is particularly inviting for those making the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Augusta after playing in the Masters the previous week during a normal TOUR season. Seafood, swimming and all those family-friendly activities, too. TOUR rookie Matt NeSmith had another reason for wanting to play in the RBC Heritage this season. Just over two years ago, in the shadow of the iconic red-and-white lighthouse at Harbour Town Golf Links, he proposed to Abigail Pait on the 18th green. She said, yes, of course, and the two were married on Nov. 1, 2019, during a break from his fourth and fifth tournaments as a card-carrying PGA TOUR member. Competing at the RBC Heritage this year – or any year, for that matter – would have been “awesome,â€� NeSmith says. “We’d be reminiscing about the whole day.â€� NeSmith was playing his best golf of the season when the coronavirus pandemic called an abrupt halt to play on the PGA TOUR, with this week’s previously scheduled RBC Heritage among the canceled tournaments. He’d made the cut in eight of his previous nine starts, posting top-15 finishes in three of those tournaments, and was ranked No. 64 in the FedExCup standings. It’s disappointing that he and his wife aren’t at Hilton Head this week, but the memories of that day and the start of their lives together offer warm feelings. He and Pait had met while both were students at the University of South Carolina. He played golf while she was on the equestrian team. Turns out, the two had a mutual friend in Will Starke, who was NeSmith’s roommate and teammate. Pait used to come over to the dorm and have breakfast with Starke each Friday. “I was sitting on the couch and she came over and said hello and we kind of talked a little bit,â€� NeSmith recalls. “I was very shy, always shy with pretty girls.â€� The two ran into each other later that day. Well, not exactly. Pait was behind the wheel of her car, and she spotted NeSmith walking on campus. “She’s very outgoing and I was a little bit shy and awkward to say at least, probably,â€� he recalls. “And she honked at me with all her friends in the car. She’s like, oh, there’s this nice guy that I just met in Will Starke’s dorm. … “I was like, oh, good Lord, and just kind of kept walking. So, she’s like, oh, I guess he’s just shy.â€� The romance blossomed, though, and endured after NeSmith graduated and turned pro. He played two seasons on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada before heading to the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2018-19 season. A win at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco earned him a TOUR card. NeSmith and Pait fell in love with Hilton Head while he was still an amateur. During his college days, he was regularly on the leaderboard at the Players Amateur played at Berkeley Hall in nearby Bluffton. He won the event in 2015, firing a final-round 65 that enabled him to overtake Chase Koepka, who had started the final round with a five-stroke lead. NeSmith – and later, Pait – became close to his host family, the Andreolettis. “This family has three kids — the youngest one’s now eight .. and I’ve known the youngest one since she was a baby,â€� NeSmith says. “… We’d go down there three or four times a year and spend some time with them.â€� One of those times was the weekend of March 11, 2018. NeSmith had decided to propose. He had bought the engagement ring several months earlier and although he says he’s not the most creative guy in the world, he concocted a plan. “She had voiced that she wanted to go down for her birthday and just kind of hang out and be down there and have a good time,â€� he says. “So it just made sense.â€� First, NeSmith got a tee time at Harbour Town and invited Pait along. She enjoys riding in the cart with him when he goes out to play, which enables NeSmith to get some work in and “we can have some good quality time together,â€� he says. A friend was hiding in the bushes about 100 yards from the 18th green to take photographs when the couple arrived. He didn’t have a telescopic lens to capture the moment when NeSmith got down on one knee but that didn’t put a damper on the proposal. The champagne flowed at Bluffton when the couple returned to the Andreoletti home that afternoon, and they had another celebration after returning home to Aiken, South Carolina. The two were married 18 months later at an Augusta church where three other generations of his family have also said their vows, the first wedding held back in 1899. But Harbour Town and that scenic par 4 closing hole that meanders down the shore of the Cailbogue Sound always will hold a spot in their hearts, even if they need to wait another year. “I thought it’d be special for the both of us,â€� he says with a smile. “It was just a right time, right place kind of thing.â€�

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ORLANDO, Fla. — On the eve of 30 years as NBC Sports’ lead golf analyst, Johnny Miller has chosen to make his final 18th tower call at the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 3 at TPC Scottsdale. “When NBC Sports approached me 30 years ago about a move to TV, I never could have imagined how it would lead to so many lasting relationships and countless memories made alongside a team of talented friends, both in front of and behind the camera,� Miller said. “I’m forever grateful to my family for their support during this fulfilling chapter of my life. As I say farewell to the 18th tower, I look forward to spending more time alongside my wife Linda, our children, and our 24 grandchildren. “Soon it will officially be Miller time.� Miller was named lead analyst of NBC Sports’ golf broadcast team in 1990 and quickly made his mark as the game’s most candid commentator, calling some of golf’s most memorable shots for the past three decades. Garnering eight Emmy nominations for “Outstanding Sports Personality – Sports Event Analyst,� Miller’s insight and frank approach have earned him both critical praise and viewer appreciation, as well as the respect and occasional raised eyebrow from those competing inside the ropes. “When it comes to serving golf fans with sharp insight on what is happening inside the ropes, Johnny Miller is simply the gold standard,� said Tommy Roy, NBC Sports’ lead golf producer. “It has been an honor working with him, and while it might not be Johnny’s personal style, it will be fun to send him off at one of the PGA TOUR’s best parties at TPC Scottsdale.� “Johnny Miller is the best golf analyst ever and he will be missed by millions of fans. Early in his career, he made a commitment to serve the fans by telling it like it is and for three decades he’s served those fans incredibly well,� said Mike McCarley, president, Golf, NBC Sports. “Whether they agree or disagree with Johnny, everyone wants to hear what he has to say. His unfiltered approach has not only been refreshing, but it’s what makes him great. He is a part of the fabric of NBC Sports, and as one of the most influential voices in golf, he will forever have a home here.� “This truly marks the end of a broadcast era,� said Dan Hicks, NBC Sports’ play-by-play host, who – with Miller – owns the record for longest-tenured 18th tower tandem in broadcast golf (2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open marks 20 years). “Johnny changed the landscape of golf commentary and analysis with his unique, unfiltered and honest manner, which made for a deep connection with viewers at home. Johnny was always unpredictable, so there was never a dull moment with Johnny in the booth. To sit next to him will always remain one of the greatest honors I could ever have in this business.�

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