Leaderboard: New frontrunner in Round 3

FORT WORTH, Texas – News and notes from Friday’s second round of the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, with a four-way tie for first at 6 under that includes Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner, Danny Lee and Scott Piercy. Click here for more from Colonial. SPANISH ARMADA LURKING Sergio Garcia was 21 years old when he won in his first start at Colonial. At age 22, Jon Rahm is making his first start at Colonial. Nothing would please him more than to duplicate Garcia’s debut back in 2001. “That would be a great thing obviously,â€� Rahm said. But to do it, Rahm will have to knock off, among others, his fellow Spaniard. They each enter the weekend at 5 under, tied for fifth, just one stroke off the lead. Paired together for the first two days, the current and future stars of Spanish golf certainly fed off each other. Rahm had the better score on Thursday, shooting 66. Garcia shot the same score on Friday. “To be honest, I think we played a role that when one of us were struggling, the other one had a good day,â€� Rahm said. “Yesterday I was playing good when he didn’t have his best start, making some amazing par saves. Today he was playing great and I didn’t have my best start. “I think being happy for each other and pulling for each other, that’s how our game ended up under par on a tough day like today and yesterday.â€� Said Garcia: “Jon played really well yesterday. He stayed patient today. I didn’t play quite as well, but it was tough. I managed to play nicely and roll a few putts in today that I wasn’t able to do yesterday.â€� Although they’ve played previous practice rounds and competitive rounds together, the two seemed very happy to enjoy each other’s company for 36 holes at Colonial. They spoke in Spanish for most of the day, lapsing into English when necessary – mainly for the benefit of Rahm’s caddie, or for the third member of their trio, Korea’s Si Woo Kim. Despite ending up with the same scores, Garcia and Rahm will not be paired together on Saturday. Garcia will play with Paul Casey, while Rahm is with Sean O’Hair. Time to get serious. “It’s been great fun,â€� Garcia said. I think we both had two really good days on difficult conditions. I think we’re happy the way we played. Excited going into the weekend.â€� IMPRESSING THE PRESIDENTS CUP CAPTAIN Kevin Kisner just spent 36 holes playing with U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Steve Stricker. Considering that he’s tied for the lead after a pair of 67s that includes just one bogey each day, Kisner certainly made a good impression. It may be a moot point. Kisner started this week ranked sixth on the U.S. list. The top 10 players through Sept. 4 will automatically qualify, with Stricker able to make two Captain’s Picks for the competition at Liberty National in late September. Kisner would like nothing more than to spare Stricker of having to decide if he belongs on the squad. “You never know how that works, how the majors and all the points work,â€� said Kisner, who tied for second at Bay Hill in March and lost in a playoff with teammate Scott Brown at the team event in New Orleans last month. “I’ve got to play well in the majors and I need a win.â€� Kisner and Stricker have played a few practice rounds together, so there’s little the captain learned about the South Carolina native’s game. Ryan Moore was the third member of the group, and he’s No. 11 in Presidents Cup points. He’s at even par through 36 holes. “Those two guys are definitely in the mix,â€� said Stricker, who made the cut at 3 over. “Kisner’s a good guy, a competitor. A little bulldog. He doesn’t back down. … He looks like he’s ready to fight the golf course.â€� SHOT OF THE DAY WEBB SHOWING FONDNESS FOR COLONIAL Blame Webb Simpson’s struggles at the tournament on the other side of the Metroplex for his extended absence from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 2009 and 2010, Simpson played both the AT&T Byron Nelson and the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. He missed the cut in all four starts, and so for the next five years, he took the events off his schedule. “It was always pretty much halfway through the year [and] I always wanted two weeks off,â€� Simpson said. “I didn’t play well at the Byron my first couple of years, so I decided to stay out of Texas.â€� Last year, Simpson adjusted his playing schedule in May due to birth of his daughter, Mercy. That opened up a hole late in the month, so he added the DEAN & DELUCA. It was a wise move. On a shot-maker’s course that seems suited for his game, Simpson shot four rounds of 68 or better to tie for third. After 36 holes this week, he’s right back in the mix, ending his second-round 4-under 66 with three consecutive birdies. For the second straight year, he’ll go into the weekend as the co-leader at Colonial. “It’s always tricky around here,â€� Simpson said. “Fairways are not easy to hit. But I kind of hung in there early. “ So what about future plans for Colonial? “Glad I’m back,â€� he said. “Should be on the calendar for a few years now.â€� CALL OF THE DAY CLUB SWITCH PROVES FRUITFUL Anticipating stiff Texas breezes this week, Paul Casey took the 5-wood out of his bag and replaced it with a Mizuno MP-25 3-iron. He leaned on it numerous times Friday, and it paid off with a 4-under 66 and tied for fifth. Opting for the long iron instead of driver for many of his tee shots, Casey has hit 17 of 28 fairways in the first two days – a key barometer for success on Colonial’s tight layout. “I’ve been hitting a 5-wood for a long, long time now, mainly for second shots into par 5s, but I’ve always loved hitting long irons off the tee,â€� said Casey, who has been sorting out his equipment issues since Nike announced last year it would no longer make clubs. “It’s not the longest 3-iron I’ve ever hit, but I’ve got great control with it. It put me in wonderful position numerous times today – or really didn’t get into trouble, because there is a lot of trouble around here.â€� Casey also is happy to see his putting come around, calling it the “missing linkâ€� to his game. He entered the week ranked 140th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting, but in the first two rounds, he ranks first in the field, having gained a total of 5.215 strokes on the field with his putter. He said it helped playing the first two rounds with one of the TOUR’s best putters. “Trying to channel my inner Brandt Snedeker … because he makes everything,â€� Casey said. “That’s really the difference. The ball-striking has been pretty good all year. That hasn’t changed. Just some putting.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Co-leader Danny Lee tied for fifth last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson after a brilliant weekend in which he shot 64-68. Any carryover effect to this week? “A lot, actually,â€� said Lee, who lives in the area. “… I was just struggling the whole year just trying to find my game. I think I finally got it. My head is in a good place right now. I’m just looking forward to the next couple of days.â€� … Although Scott Piercy is tied for the lead after his 4-under 66, he’s not feeling well. He said he’s having a difficult time breathing and has other flu-like symptoms. Oh, and temperatures reached into the 90s on Friday. “I’ve been pounding the medicine and trying to get over this,â€� Piercy said. “The heat definitely didn’t help today.â€� … Tony Finau is one of the TOUR’s biggest hitters, but he doesn’t view himself as a one-trick pony. He thinks Colonial offers him a chance to show off skills other than his length off the tee. He’ll enter the weekend at 3 under after shooting 65, the lowest round in the morning wave on Friday. “I consider myself a shotmaker,â€� Finau said. “I’m very feely when I play and I can shape it both ways. I think that’s what you need on this golf course.â€� … After opening with a 67, Phil Mickelson shot a second-round 75 in which he failed to make a birdie. It was his highest score at Colonial since an opening 78 in 1998. Mickelson’s longest made putt Friday was from 7-1/2 feet, which explains why he was spending extra time on the practice green after his round. … Among the cut casualties: THE PLAYERS Championship winner Si Woo Kim, who shot 72-73; and two-time Long Drive Championship winner Jamie Sadlowski, who shot 73-73 in his first start on the PGA TOUR.

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Rex Kuramoto couldn’t sit still. So he did the only thing he could think to do in order to help calm his nerves. He grabbed his putter and a began to pace. “I was just so excited,” said the longtime golf commentator and former European Tour player. “I could not sit in a chair and watch the TV. I just walked around my living room for no reason, holding my putter and doing nothing but praying.” Praying, of course, for history. History decades in the making for Kuramoto and his fellow Japanese golf brethren, who for years dreamed that one of their own would someday hoist a major men’s championship. So as Hideki Matsuyama closed in on the first Masters victory by an Asian player on a Sunday afternoon at Augusta National, Kuramoto and his peers stood by with baited breath. “I was trying not to blink, just pinching my cheeks and trying to enjoy every moment,” added Naoyuki Komatsu, who calls golf broadcasts alongside Kuramoto for GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR in Japan. “I’m old enough to think of all those old players who came through Augusta over the years,” he continued. “It felt like all of their challenges in past years, all of their efforts, were all just sitting there, piled up in layers. It really felt like Hideki’s victory was an accumulation of all that.” It may take years to accurately gauge just what type of impact Matsuyama’s achievement will have on Japan, both from an economic and participation standpoint. But if the immediate reaction back home is any indication, the sport’s brightest days still lie ahead. Japanese broadcasters sent messages to TVs throughout the country alerting citizens to the victory. Morning shows continued to discuss the triumph days later. And according to Kuramoto, his friends in the Japan offices of Srixon—Matsuyama’s primary equipment provider—came in early to watch the final round, while Matsuyama’s local high school excused students from the classroom to watch the tournament together. “The Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister, movie stars, athletes, everybody is exulting,” Komatsu said. “They’re telling him, ‘Thank you.’ I guess that’s a Japanese mentality. We’re very grateful of him winning because we hope, we cheer on, we pray. And we know that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on him. “General sports fans are happy, because we have Naomi Osaka winning Grand Slams in tennis, Shohei Otani pitching and hitting home runs, and now Hideki. We hope he can become the next Ichiro Suzuki, who had such longevity in professional baseball.” It should be noted that is not be the first boon for Japanese golf, nor is it likely to be the last. The country’s first big introduction to the sport came in 1957, when a scrawny, 5-foot-2 golfer named Torakichi Nakamura shocked the world by defeating the legendary Sam Snead before going on to win the Canada Cup (known today as the World Cup) at Kasumigaseki Country Club, now the site of the golf competition for the 2021 Olympic Games. Nakamura would become the first Japanese player to compete in the Masters the following year, in turn helping pave the way for a generation of future stars, including PGA TOUR winners such as Shigeki Maruyama, Isao Aoki and World Golf Hall of Famer Jumbo Ozaki. “There are so many more players who had potential, but unfortunately, they hesitated because Japan is so Far East,” Komatsu said. “The Pacific Ocean is so vast. They couldn’t just come to the United States, live here and try it out throughout the year. But now as golf grows globally, the top players have been increasing in Japan.” Consider it the male version of the “Ai Miyazato Effect,” as Kuramoto likes to call it. Many of the female Japanese stars of today credit Miyazato’s rapid ascension to World No. 1—as well as her first professional win while still in high school—for their own path into professional golf. And now? The Japanese youth have even more golf idols to admire. Hinako Shibuno became the second Japanese player to win a women’s major championship in 2019 at the AIG Women’s British Open, and earlier this month 17-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani won on the very same course as Matsuyama, capturing the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in a playoff over Emilia Migliaccio. What comes next from this golf-mad country is anyone’s guess. (Though Komatsu thinks Japan may see an influx of young boys named Hideki, not unlike the Taega name that popped up following Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters victory.) “The PGA of Japan has been working very hard to introduce this game to youngsters, and they’ve started their own version of the First Tee system,” Kuramoto said. “As Matsuyama said in Butler Cabin: I hope young kids watching him now will grow up and compete against him one day. “We need to tell our young stars how Matsuyama became who he is. It did not happen overnight, but through a lot of dedication.” To be clear, Matsuyama isn’t one to one to dive into such significant detail on his personal struggles. Or any other aspect of his life, for that matter. He undergoes great pains to avoid the media attention he constantly receives, regardless of the cadre of Japanese reporters who follow him from one tournament stop to the next. But no words were necessary at the Masters Tournament, where Dustin Johnson slipped the Green Jacket over Matsuyama’s shoulders. Years of reservation melted away in mere seconds, as the 29-year-old raised his hands to the sky in elation. That moment, above all else, said it all. “He’s always hid his emotions so well before,” Kuramoto said. “I loved seeing him smiling like a baby in front of everybody on the golf course.” It was one of two moments that stood out to the GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR commentators, the other being the viral moment of caddie Shouta Hayafuji bowing in respect at the 18th green. Not only did it capture their own hearts, but those of American golf fans, too. And it came at a critical juncture for the United States, where hate crimes against Asians have been on the rise. “We’re so glad that people not just in America, but all over the world think it’s cool what we care for, what we cherish and what we value,” Komatsu said. “The Masters is the most ‘American’ tournament of them all. It’s symbolic of America, but we Japanese love the Masters.” Hayafuji’s bow “reminded us what and how we should be,” Kuramoto added. “I hope the performance by Hideki and his caddie will help lower the wall between different races.” Consider it just one more achievement for Matsuyama, and for the people of Japan. “An entire nation has realized how sports can impact our life and our spirits,” Kuramoto said. “This will have nothing but a positive effect on Japanese golf.” Watch every moment of Hideki Matsuyama in Japan on GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR.

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