Kuchar leads Sony Open by 2 shots

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy let himself dream. He couldn’t help it. The enormous yellow scoreboard that stood stories above St. Andrews’ final hole stared back at him whenever he looked out the window of his hotel room. He imagined his name in the black, block letters standing atop the list, the same image he surely thought about countless times as a kid. The dream came true a day early. His name occupied the top space Saturday night, after a 66 that put him into a tie for The Open’s lead with Viktor Hovland. McIlroy spoke that evening about his “cocoon,” the place where he could divorce his process from the pressure. But each time he peered out his hotel-room window, he allowed himself to imagine what could have been the most important victory of his career. “You’ve got to let yourself dream,” McIlroy said. “You’ve got to let yourself think about it and what it would be like, but once I was on the golf course it was just task at hand and trying to play the best golf I possibly could.” Only Hovland was McIlroy’s equal over the first 54 holes of The 150th Open. They both shot 16-under 200, including matching 66s in Saturday’s second-to-last group to earn Sunday’s last tee time. They were four clear of the players in third place, Cameron Smith and Cameron Young. McIlroy wasn’t the only one dreaming of him winning in the Home of Golf. A win by Great Britain’s great hope in the game’s spiritual center made too much sense. It had been 12 years since he last played an Open at the Old Course, and eight years since his last major win. The greatest player of his generation, and one of the greatest Europeans of all time, McIlroy had endured close calls in majors earlier this year, finishing in the top 10 in each of the first three. Then on Friday, as he was starting his second round, he crossed paths with Tiger Woods as Woods’ career at St. Andrews likely came to a close. Woods was touched by McIlroy tipping his cap in respect as they walked past each other. Woods’ last Open at St. Andrews, where he won twice, could have concluded with the first win at St. Andrews for the best player since Woods. McIlroy was trying to join Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Europe’s two best of the modern era, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros, by winning at the Old Course, a setting that carries extra significance. A win would have tied Ballesteros with five major triumphs and leave him one short of Faldo’s record for most majors by a European player since World War I. McIlroy is the player in today’s game who gives the most consideration to context. His legacy is his priority at this point in his career, and only a victory at Augusta National would do more for it. Like Jordan Spieth seven years earlier, the sentimental favorite didn’t win at St. Andrews, however. McIlroy was bogey-free Sunday but made just two birdies. His 70 left him in third place, two strokes behind winner Cameron Smith. Smith birdied the first five holes of the back nine and closed with 30 en route to a Sunday 64. TOUR rookie Cameron Young, who played with Smith in the second-to-last group, shot 65 to finish second. McIlroy led most of the day but fell behind after Smith birdied 14. McIlroy could only muster pars on the final holes, however. “I knew that I needed to respond,” McIlroy said. “I just couldn’t find the shots or the putts to do that.” It was a day that was relatively stress-free. He drove it well and didn’t make a bogey, but also couldn’t hit his approach shots close enough or take advantage of the Old Course’s drivable par-4s. This the first time in his career that McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in all four majors. He’s third in the world ranking and fifth in the FedExCup with two wins this season. He spoke this week about the trust he has in his game, and the freedom it has produced. He reunited with longtime swing coach Michael Bannon and won last month’s RBC Canadian Open while his caddie, Harry Diamond, was home with his wife and newborn child. It required him to make more decisions on the course and rely less on his longtime looper. “I’m in more control of my swing and my game,” he said. He left last month’s U.S Open saying he was “closer than I’ve been in a while.” But on Sunday, McIlroy struggled to trust his reads on St. Andrews’ slow greens and watched several birdie putts slide by the hole. While Smith was in the midst of his birdie streak, McIlroy couldn’t capitalize on two of St. Andrews’ drivable par-4s, Nos. 9 and 12, and parred the par-5 14th when a birdie would have pulled him even with Smith. McIlroy missed long birdie putts on 15 and 16, as well, and a 20-footer on the difficult 17th after Smith had two-putted from behind the Road Bunker. Smith’s birdie on the final hole meant McIlroy needed to make eagle on 18. It was over when his second shot ran past the hole. “There were a lot of putts today where I couldn’t just trust myself to start it inside the hole,” he said. “I was always starting it on the edge or just outside thinking it was going to move. More times than not, they just sort of stayed there.” McIlroy focused on the positives in his post-round press conference and tried to place the result in its proper perspective – “It’s not life or death,” he said – but the scene after he stepped away from the microphone painted a fuller picture. A golf cart waited to whisk McIlroy to the locker room. He sat down next to his wife, Erica, and rested his head face-down on her shoulder. He had no more energy to expend. The fight was over. The Old Course is a romantic setting for those with a deep connection to the game. A round on the historic grounds elicits a variety of emotions. Including heartbreak.

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As we hit the last event of the regular season and get ready to ride the rollercoaster of the FedExCup Playoffs, it seems an apropos time to check in on our bold predictions that came way back from last October. It has been another brilliant season full of highlight moments. We’ve seen the resurgence of some stars like THE PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson. We’ve seen Brooks Koepka become a major force. We’ve seen some newcomers emerge with the likes of Austin Cook, Aaron Wise and Satoshi Kodaira leading the rookie race. We’ve seen T.J. Vogel become a Monday king – getting through qualifying an incredible eight times. And we’ve seen some bigger names slide. But they’ve still got time to round back into form. Were we able to predict it all? Let’s see. 18. THE PLAYERS champion Si Woo Kim finds his consistency and becomes a regular threat on the PGA TOUR. Last season Kim shocked the world with his dominant PLAYERS win because for the remainder of the season he was virtually irrelevant. He made 14 cuts in 30 starts with six WDs. While he has certainly been much better this season with 20 made cuts and five top-10s from 27 starts it would be a stretch to claim he’s been a regular threat. We’ll be generous and give ourselves half a point here. 0.5/1 17. Phil Mickelson breaks his win drought. Mickelson arrived at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship having not tasted victory since 2013. But he was able to hold off a red-hot Justin Thomas to finally return to the winner’s circle. Thomas holed out for a dramatic eagle in regulation play to be part of a playoff but Mickelson held his nerve. 1.5/2 16. Three players will have a taste at World No. 1. Oh we were so close. And it could still come true during the last five weeks of the season. Dustin Johnson has continued to be a pretty good mainstay at the top, holding court for all but four weeks of 2018 so far. Justin Thomas was given his first view from the top in May. Justin Rose had a handful of chances to get to the top and still might, and Brooks Koepka is now breathing down Johnson’s neck. 1.5/3 15. Rose will bloom, and win, among the azaleas. As mentioned above Justin Rose has had a couple of chances to climb to No.1 in the world in what has been a pretty decent season. Wins at the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions and the Fort Worth Invitational. He also won the Turkish Airlines Open and Indonesian Masters and was inside the top 25 of all four majors and THE PLAYERS. But he did not go one better than his 2017 runner-up at the Masters, finishing T12. Half a point. 2/4 14. Hideki Matsuyama wins a major. Can’t hide behind it. This one was wrong. After winning plenty of tournaments in 2016-17 it seemed a decent gamble on Japan finally getting a major champion. But instead, Matsuyama has seen a significant drop in form. He has just two top-10 results on the PGA TOUR this season. His best major result was T16 at the U.S. Open. Perhaps we should have seen it coming. Most players have a small dip in results after the birth of a first child. But they also bounce back the season after so let’s watch this space. 2/5 13. Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele will keep on going. This kid is the real deal, so we were right about that. But we also said he’d win again this season, and so far, the trophies have eluded him. Two runner-up finishers. A third. A total of five top-10s and just four missed cuts from 23 starts. Who knows, he may just defend his TOUR Championship title and prove us fully right yet. 2.5/6 12. Tiger Woods plays again on TOUR. What a difference a year makes. This was considered a BOLD prediction last October. We had no idea if Woods would ever return to competitive golf as he recovered from a fourth back surgery, this time a fusion. Of course he has and he’s been amazing. His recent runner-up finish at the PGA Championship was his second of the season. Five top-10s in just 12 starts. Not only has Woods played, he could win this season. If he doesn’t get a trophy, you can be sure the prediction next season will be about claiming an 80th title. And some. 3.5/7 11. Someone will play late Sunday with the career Grand Slam on the line. This was true at the first major of the season as Rory McIlroy moved into the final group behind Patrick Reed at Augusta National. The problem for Rory was he never really threatened from there with a final-round 74 dropping him into a tie for fifth. Phil Mickelson was never a threat at the U.S. Open, and Jordan Spieth needed a late Sunday charge at the PGA Championship to finish T12. 4.5/8 10. Sangmoon Bae makes the FedExCup Playoffs – and so does a Chinese player. Well, we were off the mark with Bae as he returned to the TOUR from his Korean military duty. In 16 starts he has just one top-25 finish and ranks 201st in the FedExCup. And our history-making Chinese players haven’t fared much better. Zinjun Zhang sits 165th in the standings and Marty Dou is way back in 227th. 4.5/9 9. Justin Thomas will keep narrowing the gap between himself and Jordan Spieth. This has certainly happened, but just as much for Thomas’ great play as Spieth’s lack of it. The FedExCup champion has a huge chance to the be the first player to go back-to-back and win the FedExCup again after three wins already. His career win total sits at nine, while Spieth has stalled on 11 after a winless season to this point. Spieth has five top 10s – it certainly has not been a terrible season – but by his own standards he has dipped. The good news? There is still time to turn it around in the Playoffs. 5.5/10 8. Expect two or three wins from among this quartet: Maverick McNealy, Beau Hossler, Aaron Wise and Cameron Champ. Well, Wise held up his end of the bargain with an impressive win at the AT&T Byron Nelson, showing great poise down the stretch on Sunday. He’d been runner-up his previous start. Hossler has threatened often, twice a runner-up including a playoff loss at the Houston Open are part of five top 10s. Champ and McNealy have spent the majority of their time on the Web.com Tour where Champ has a win and a locked-up TOUR card for next season. McNealy has been fair without being great but will have a chance to advance from the Web.com Tour Finals. 5.5/11 7. Anirban Lahiri will use the Presidents Cup as a springboard to win on TOUR. Not yet he hasn’t. The Indian national has four top-10 finishes this season without being a serious threat. Still has the potential to be a superstar. 5.5/12 6. Jason Day and Adam Scott return to winning form. This one is already half true and might become full reality. Both players had been winless last season but Day certainly has returned as a TOUR threat. Wins at the Farmers Insurance Open and Wells Fargo Championship proved it. Scott, however, appeared to be heading for a long-term funk until lately. Scott led the PGA Championship with four holes to play before Brooks Koepka stepped up. His third-place finish was just his second top-10 of the season. Maybe he can push through the FedExCup Playoffs with a win. 6/13 5. U.S. Team will win the Ryder Cup in France. This seemed an obvious statement after their demolition of the International Team in the 2017 Presidents Cup, but as we head toward the contest, the European Team looks very strong. Players like Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood bring fresh form and Ian Poulter has his fire back. It should be an epic contest. 4. We will have a three-peat winner. Nope. Justin Thomas missed his chance at the CIMB Classic (T17). Hideki Matsuyama was a WD in his dual title defense in Phoenix, and Daniel Berger couldn’t keep pace with a dominant Dustin Johnson at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. 6/14 3. Justin Thomas will win THE PLAYERS Championship. Not this time. Instead he settled for T11. No one really competed with the resurgent Webb Simpson, who lapped the field with an incredible putting performance over four rounds. 6/15 2. There will be another first-time major winner along with Matsuyama. We did get two first-timers at the majors with Patrick Reed winning the Masters and Francesco Molinari taking Italy’s first major title at The Open Championship. But as Matsuyama was not one of them, we can only claim a half point. 6.5/16 1. The 25-and-under brigade will equal if not better their numbers from 2017. While Justin Thomas has kept winning and others like Aaron Wise and Jon Rahm have helped him out, reaching the incredible 18-win total from last season has remained out of reach. 6.5/17. Final Verdict: Currently 6.5/17. Bold predictions are meant to be just that. But we were still hoping for a better than 50 percent record! With that in mind…we’re hoping to earn more points with win from the U.S. Team at the Ryder Cup, and wish Scott, Hossler, Schauffele, Lahiri and Koepka the best in coming weeks.

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