Francesco Molinari won The Open on Sunday, outlasting a star-studded field at Carnoustie to clinch his first career major championship.
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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Two-time Sentry Tournament of Champions winner Justin Thomas added the Plantation Course record to his Kapalua superlatives, only to have his new mark matched by world No.1 Jon Rahm just hours later in Saturday’s third round. The pair shot blistering 12-under 61’s with Thomas surging up the leaderboard early before settling into a tie for eighth with a round to go. His place in the record books alone was short-lived as Rahm put on a clinic during an incredible battle with overnight leader Cameron Smith. Rahm’s 61 sent him to 26-under for the tournament, joining Smith (64) at the top of the leaderboard. The lead pair are five clear of the nearest chasers. Pre-tournament favorite Thomas sat dead last after the opening round thanks to a pedestrian 1-over 74 and while he bounced back with a 67 on Friday, he was still miles behind pace-setter Smith. But on Saturday in perfect conditions the 2017 and 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions winner notched up two eagles and eight birdies in a scintillating effort. The 28-year-old played the last seven holes in seven under and barely missed a 22-foot eagle try on the final hole for a 60. “I didn’t do anything crazy, just took advantage of all the easy opportunities and chances that I had and hit a lot of really good drives, quality iron shots and wedges in there to, again, if there’s such a thing as an easy 12-under, I definitely felt like it was,” Thomas said afterwards. “I wasn’t crazy aggressive today. When you have wedges in your hand with soft greens you attack. It doesn’t matter if you’re in last or first. You’re just trying to make birdies and I felt like that’s what I did.” Rahm was even par on his round through four holes after a loose tee shot was lost on the fourth before notching up an eagle and 10 birdies over his last 14. He finished with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie flourish. “It was fun,” Rahm said. “The first few holes are birdieable, but you come out the gates, it’s almost like a little bit of a warmup and then you get to 5 and with a good tee shot it’s reachable and very accessible, actually. I hit a 9-iron today and yesterday. So it kind of gets you going. You get on the birdie train and things like today can happen.” The pair beat the previous record of 62, held by Xander Schauffele, Jason Day, Chris Kirk, Graeme McDowell and K.J. Choi. It was his fifth round of 61 or less since 2015, the most of any player on TOUR. While he found just 11 of 15 fairways off the tee Thomas hit all 18 greens in regulation and made 113-feet, 3-inches worth of putts. Kentucky native Thomas will likely need to replicate his heroics on Sunday and have some help if he is to add a third title at the Plantation Course given he sits nine shots back. But while victory might be beyond his grasp it was still important to him to surge as high as possible. “When I looked up and was in last, I felt like that was pretty humbling,” Thomas said. “But I felt like yesterday closing that round out at least gave myself a chance to get a respectable week, respectable finish out of it, and if I did something berserk this weekend, I might have a chance to win.” He now holds the course record at both Hawaii stops on the PGA TOUR having also shot a 59 at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu during his 2017 victory in the Sony Open. “It’s fun. Every golf course you go to there’s a scorecard in the locker room… whether the people know me or not or whether they know whoever shot the course record or not, it seems like that’s kind of a part of the club at that time. So, it definitely means something,” he said of course records. “I still remember my first. It was a Junior World practice round. I can’t remember the name of the golf course. I was like probably nine years old. It was like an executive course. I just remember because Tiger had the course record, and I remember beating him and it was like the coolest thing obviously I had ever done at that time. “Something tells me it’s not still standing. But that was the first one I had ever broken and I was pretty pumped about that.”
PGA Tour rookie Tyler Duncan takes a one-shot lead over Chesson Hadley going into Sunday’s final round.
When the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play announced a format change for the 2015 edition at TPC Harding Park, some golf fans were skeptical of the impact it would have on the excitement of the competition. For years, the single-elimination, 64-player format provided a thrilling prospect on the opening Wednesday: top players in the world could find themselves on a flight back home that evening. Just ask Tiger Woods, who in 2002 dropped his opening match to unheralded Aussie Peter O'Malley, 2&1. The pool play format guaranteed everyone in the field would play for at least three days, with the top performers from each group advancing to the Round of 16. While every match still has value, a pool play loss wasn't a week-ender: 27.5% of players to advance out of pool play since 2015 have lost one match. While some long-time fans of the event may still long for the madness of that win-or-go-home Wednesday, the early returns on pool play actually say the new format have made the results more democratic, seed-wise. The average seed of a player to advance to the Round of 16 is almost identical under the new format. From 2010-2014, that number was 28.6. Since the beginning of pool play, that number is 28.9. LOW SEEDS ADVANCING In each of the four years this tournament has been held at Austin Country Club, at least one player seeded 50th or lower has made it to the quarterfinals. In 2019, two players did it - Lucas Bjerregaard (50th) and Kevin Na (57th). Four players in the pool play era (since 2015) have been seeded 60th or lower and made the Round of 16. Charles Howell III has made the Round of 16 twice since 2017 when seeded 59th or worse entering the week. When filling out your bracket, consider this: 17% of the players to move on from pool play at Austin Country Club have come from the "D" group - or the players seeded 49 through 64. In 2019, three players seeded outside the top-40 made it to the quarterfinals, while just one of the top-10 seeds - Tiger Woods - joined them there. Each of the last two winners here - Bubba Watson in 2018 and Kevin Kisner in 2019 - beat at least 5 players seeded higher than they were on their way to victory. SITUATIONAL STATS A hot start is paramount in match play. And while colloquially, ‘momentum' is a word fans will frequently hear this week, the numbers bear out that getting a lead is a big advantage at Austin Country Club. Over the last two years, more than 73% of players who held the lead at the turn went on to win their match. More than 80% of those players would either win or earn a halve. In that span, there have been 52 instances where a player was 3-down or more through 9 holes. Not a single player came back to win in those situations. Trailing 1- or 2-down is a bit less dire, but still not a place to be: players 1-down at the turn went on to win 22.4% of the time in 2018 and 2019 at this event. Players 2-down went on to win 19.1% of the time. A lead after 13 holes is even more significant. Over the last 2 years, only 7.5% of players who trailed after 13 have come back to win their match. In 2019, no player came back from more than 1 down through 13 holes to win the entire week. ONE AND NOT DONE Since pool play began in 2015, more than one-quarter of players to move on out of pool play dropped a match (27.5%). Seven times since 2016, a player has lost his opening match of the week and still moved on to the Round of 16 - including Kevin Kisner, the tournament winner two years ago. So while it's possible to move on with a dropped match, the price is still enormous. Of the 80 players to advance beyond pool play since 2015, 63 won their first match of the week (78.8%). 70 of those 80 players either won or halved their opening match. While Fridays under the new format have received a bit of a bad reputation because several players are already mathematically eliminated by that point, consider this: only five players have lost their third match of the week and moved on to the Round of 16 - or less than 7%. In 2019, 44 of the 64 players in the field still mathematically had a chance to move on entering the final day of pool play.
