Four relative unknowns who shined in U.S. Open’s first round

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Golf never ceases to remind us that things are never over till they’re over. You can never count your chickens – or birdies if you like – because one minute you can lead by six and are seemingly on your way to an easy win and then you find yourself tied for the lead in the middle of what appears to be an irreversible meltdown. The cool thing about this week’s drama-filled installment on the PGA TOUR at The American Express is that Andrew Landry was able to do something that is usually very tough to do. He turned a momentum shift around when it counted. Welcome to the Monday Finish. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. Landry is a “bulldog.â€� This is how his caddie described him after the win. And it is hard to argue when you look at the evidence. We are used to birdie barrages in the desert at The American Express so when Landry buried his sixth birdie through 12 holes and pushed his lead out to six shots on Sunday you could be forgiven if you figured the tournament was over. The Texan was looking great and his buffer was clearly one that appeared to be more than enough. But then … well … golf. Three successive bogeys and a charging Abraham Ancer meant that – in what must have felt like the blink of an eye to Landry – the buffer was gone and he sat tied for the lead with three to play. Turning momentum in any sport is very tough – but in golf it can be brutal. Especially when the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta saves you some special nervous moments to finish and you’ve missed seven of eight cuts previously in the season. An island green and a daunting final hole with plenty of water still stood in a collapsing Landry’s way. But he collected himself, returned to his best and finished birdie-birdie to claim PGA TOUR win No. 2. “Let’s go get this job done, like, quit messing around,â€� Landry revealed he told his caddie after the collapse. Easy to say, tough to do. But he made it look easy in the end. Get the low down here. 2. Slight man and small town syndrome. Coming in at 5 feet, 7 inches and weighing just 150 pounds, Landry has long looked up at the majority of his competitors. But being the small guy gave him a chip on his shoulder from a young age. Growing up in the town of Groves in east Texas meant most worshipped football. Not really the sport for a small kid. It just added fuel to his fire. Landry’s path in golf has continued to add weight to the chip on his shoulder. He was brilliant in college, but admittedly could have won a lot more. He had a great shot to win a U.S. Open in 2016 but faltered. He took Jon Rahm down the stretch at The American Express in 2018, forcing a playoff, but ended up losing there also. It all helped him towards his first win at the 2018 Valero Texas Open and helped again to find his game this week when it had seemingly deserted him coming in. He shot 77-76 at the Sony Open in Hawaii but found his mongrel again. His 66-64-65-67 this week is proof that when you try to keep an underdog down, he will claw his way above you by whatever means necessary. 3. Putting lights out. Landry only needed 99 total putts for the entire tournament this week (so too did Sebastian Munoz). They joined Justin Harding, Christian Bezuidenhout and Patrick Reed as players with less than 100 putts this season, but Landry is the first to do so while winning. He had 27 in round one, 24 in round two, an incredible 21 in the third round before finishing with 27 in the final round. OBSERVATIONS Abraham Ancer and Scottie Scheffler will win on the PGA TOUR soon. Ancer finished with a course-record 63 on the Stadium Course to challenge Landry while Scheffler shared the 54-hole lead and after early-Sunday falters gave himself a chance late with a fightback of his own. They finished second and third, respectively, but clearly are headed for bigger things. The last 18 months or so of Ancer’s career have shown a sensational uptick, including his awesome efforts at The Presidents Cup. Scheffler is the reigning Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year and strong candidate for Rookie of the Year on the PGA TOUR. Ancer moves to 16th, Scheffler 15th in the FedExCup. Read more of their efforts here.  There were five players with holes-in-one this week. Three came from PGA TOUR professionals in Carlos Ortiz, Martin Laird and John Huh and another was from amateur Jimmy Kirchdorfer from the Pro-Am portion. But it was amateur Laurent Hurtubise who stole the show. He nailed his with one arm. You need to check this out. QUOTEBOARD “It’s one of the greatest feelings. This is what we play golf for.â€� – Andrew Landry after his win. “I’ve seen them, but I haven’t been a part of them. I don’t like being a part of them, either… I don’t want to be a part of something like that ever again.â€� – Andrew Landry on his late collapse. “Top 10s are great. I feel like I’ve been playing pretty consistent. Hoping to get a win soon, though.â€� – Scottie Scheffler after a fourth top-10 this season. “Seeing the ball go in a lot, making a lot of birdies, obviously, moving forward definitely gives me confidence.â€� – Abraham Ancer WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a season-long competition that offers a $10 million bonus for the 10 golfers who end the regular season at the Wyndham Championship inside the top 10 in FedExCup points. The player atop the standings will earn $2 million, with varying payoffs for the others through $500,000 for the 10th place finisher. Justin Thomas, who won the 2017 FedExCup, remains in pole position despite sitting out this week, while Brendon Todd lurks just 121 points behind. Winner Andrew Landry moved to 17th in the FedExCup. Here were the biggest movers from The American Express. This week/Last week/Player 1./1./Justin Thomas 2./2./Brendon Todd 3./4./Sebastian Munoz 4./3./Lanto Griffin 5./5./Cameron Smith 6./6./Rory McIlroy 7./9./Sungjae Im 8./7./Joaquin Niemann 9./11./Kevin Na 10./8./Cameron Champ SOCIAL SNAPSHOT

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Editor’s note: Ernie Els has been writing a blog in 2017 and this is his latest installment. For more information on the World Golf Hall of Famer, visit www.ernieels.com. Having had a few weeks off, and needing to recover from a heavy dose of flu, it was a relief to get back into the swing of tournament action at last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.  I’ve played this event in back-to-back years now and it’s a superbly run tournament. Congrats to Shriners on all that they’re doing there and indeed on the amazing work they’re doing in the Las Vegas area across various facilities helping children in need. And nice job Patrick Cantlay getting your first PGA TOUR win there! Anyway, considering I’ve not been able to play as much golf as I’d have liked in the last 3-4 weeks, there was a lot about my game that pleased me at TPC Summerlin. I hit a lot of greens out there, especially across the first three days, and I could have easily shot better scores than I did. Admittedly a bit of a disappointing final round, but never mind. I’m just looking forward to trying to build on some of that good play in this week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico. We’re back at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa Del Carmen, roughly 40 minutes south of Cancun on Mexico’s stunning Yucatan Peninsula. Last year was my first ever visit to this part of the world and it really is beautiful. So, too, is the golf course, a Greg Norman layout that winds its way through three distinct landscapes – tropical jungle, dense mangroves and sand-lined oceanfront. It was a joy to play there last year and I’m excited to be returning this week.  Before that, I just want to recap on some events off the golf course from the last few weeks. First of all, a huge thank you to our family of golfers, donors, sponsors and partners who made this year’s Golf Challenge and last week’s Grand Finale another big success. There is a long list of people and organizations who make this all possible and, in particular, I’d like to take this opportunity to make special mention of our long-time presenting sponsor, SAP, and organizing sponsors RBC, TaylorMade and Wine Spectator. Also our platinum sponsors – EY and Boeing – and our gold sponsors Downsview Kitchens, 18Birdies, Boeing, Duane Morris, Tierra South Florida, EY, eBay and Tata Consulting Services. Thank you all so much. Special congratulations from Liezl and me to Rachel Barcellona, winner of the 2017 Els for Autism Spectrum Award, and to Tanner’s Team Too! who were the year’s highest fundraising team with more than $50,000 on the board, an incredible effort. Honestly, it was a pleasure for me to spend time with you and everyone who earned their place at this year’s Grand Finale. This was the seventh year of the Golf Challenge and we had a new venue for this year’s Grand Finale and I want to thank the whole team at The Breakers in Florida for the great job hosting us.  In the seven years that we’ve been running the Golf Challenge our fundraising total has now topped the $18 million mark. It’s truly humbling to have got to this stage and obviously, the results of our fundraising efforts are evident every day in the wonderful work being done at The Els Center of Excellence. We’ll start the ball rolling on our eighth Golf Challenge in 2018 and we look forward to welcoming back old friends and hopefully some new participants, too. Meanwhile, over in South Africa our final three events on the Drive to SA Open series took place in recent weeks. At St. Francis Links on 5 October our generous custodians Jeff and Liesel Clause once again produced an amazing day, while Mother Nature provided the weather to match! Thank you to the Irish three-ball of Roy Picken, Robert McKormick and Bertie Warwick who kindly donated a prize auction item signed by Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke. Congrats to the day’s winners, Frank Crabstick and Alan Carstens. Next up was Silver Lakes on 20 October and I hear we had great weather there as well. This course is the home of my old friend, and Drive to SA Open organizer, Nico van Rensburg, and the team there did us proud. A total of 128 players took part, including cricketers Mark Boucher and Dean Elgar, and rugby player Chester Williams. The winners on the day were Alastair MacDonald and Dean Asset. Big thanks to Sun International for getting involved as a sponsor on the day.  Last but not least, the flagship event of our 2017 schedule took place at Ebotse on 26 October. Nico tells me the course was again in superb condition. Big thanks to Peps Pretorius for all the work he does to make this such a special day, this year raising an incredible R413 000 and concluding with a prize shoot-out from the top deck of the clubhouse. As always, I send my thanks to everyone who took part, including Lions coach Swys De Bruin.  Lastly thanks again to Sun International and to Imperial KWS logistics for getting on board for the 2018 series. We really appreciate your support. Okay, that’s it for now. Follow me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy.

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