Pick ‘Em Preview: Travelers Championship

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ATLANTA – What an end to the PGA TOUR season. Tiger Woods completed his incredible comeback while Justin Rose was rewarded for his remarkable consistency over the course of the season. “Today was a good day for the old guys, for sure,â€� Rose joked. Instead of being another pundit to pontificate about their performances – there was plenty of that on Sunday – let’s take a look at the numbers. 1. Tiger Woods won the TOUR Championship after four back surgeries. Justin Rose never had to go under the knife, but he struggled with his own back problems in recent years. He revealed Sunday that he was suffering from a back injury when he won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. That injury was part of the reason he went winless in the 2016 and 2017 seasons after six straight years with at least one PGA TOUR win. “I’ve had my challenges. We all know Tiger’s well-documented injury history. I’ve had my fair share along the way, as well,â€� Rose said. “Those are moments that you have to ask yourself how much you do want it because of the amount of time and diligence and sacrifice and doing all the right things constantly day in, day out. It’s not just turn up and play, it’s about doing 50 things every day just to be able to play your best. “I think just as you get older, you have to do — you have to be sort of a lot more diligent, I suppose. But the fire is there. Like you say, that’s what keeps me doing it. I love waking up and trying to improve, and it’s certainly not a chore.â€� With age, comes more responsibility and more steps necessary to compete. Rose had to change his swing to alleviate the pain in his back. Less time getting medical treatment meant more time practicing. It explains how this 38-year-old father of two came to rise to the top of a game that is increasingly dominated by kids. The previous four FedExCup champions had an average age of 25. He is the third-oldest player to win the FedExCup. Only Vijay Singh (2008) and Jim Furyk (2010) were older when they lifted the Cup. They won before the game’s current youth movement, though. After the BMW Championship, Rose became the third-oldest player to reach No. 1 in the world ranking for the first time. “Everyone loves a comeback story because we’re all coming back from something,â€� said Rose’s swing coach, Sean Foley. 2. Rose won the FedExCup with incredible consistency. He finished in the top 10 in 61 percent of his starts, the best percentage on TOUR this season. Dustin Johnson was the only other player to finish in the top 10 more than half the time. Rose’s run really started with last year’s FedExCup Playoffs, where he finished in the top 10 in all four events. He has now finished in the top 10 in 15 of his past 22 starts (68 percent). He’s also finished in the top 10 in seven of the past eight Playoffs events, including three runners-up. He started this year’s Playoffs with a missed cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST, but then had two runners-up and a fourth-place finish to clinch the Cup. “Whenever you win over the course of a season, … (it’s) something special. It’s very unique,â€� Rose said. “This opportunity only presents itself if you play very, very good golf for a long period of time through the course of a season, so I’m proud to have taken my chance this year.â€� He has been so consistent because he addressed the one hole in his game: his putting. Rose was long known as one of the game’s best ball-strikers. Now he’s one of the top putters, as well. His well-rounded game allows him to contend week-in and week-out. He finished the season in the top 30 in all four Strokes Gained statistics: Off-the-Tee (14th), Approach-the-Green (29th), Around-the-Green (7th) and Putting (17th). His drastic rise in Strokes Gained: Putting – he had one of the best single-season improvements in that statistic’s history – gave him the complete game to win the FedExCup. He rose more than 100 strokes in Strokes Gained: Putting since last season. He switched to the claw grip after the 2016 Ryder Cup and utilized multiple methods to improve his green-reading. “From how he eats, to how he trains, to how he breaks down a golf course, he has a very thoughtful approach to maximizing his probability for success,â€� Foley said. “Sometimes people are afraid to change what they do or how they do it. His lack of satisfaction in what he’s doing has really pushed us to look under every rock.â€� 3. Tiger Woods and his Scotty Cameron putter are working well together. Woods used three putters in the first three events of the FedExCup Playoffs, but it looks like the Cameron may stay in the bag for awhile. Woods was second in Strokes Gained: Putting at East Lake (+5.12). It was his best performance with the putter since 2013. He holed five putts of 20 feet or longer, one short of his career-high. He almost led that statistic for just the sixth time in his career. He was atop this week’s Strokes Gained: Putting standings when arrived at the final hole, but he lost six-tenths of a stroke for missing his 7-foot birdie putt. He can be excused, though, because he knew that he just needed two putts for the win. Statistics are important, but none of them trump winning. 4. Woods finished T3 in driving accuracy at East Lake. It’s just the fourth time in the last decade – and the first time since 2012 — that he’s been in the top three of that statistic at a tournament. Sure, it’s a small field at East Lake. But the course is a difficult driving test and the thick Bermudagrass rough makes life tough for those who stray from the fairways. The driver was an asset this week. He’s improved so much with that club since he increased the loft and switched shafts at THE NORTHERN TRUST. Woods hit 36 of 56 fairways (64.3 percent). More importantly, he avoided the big, penal misses and missed the fairways in the correct spot. His ball control was key to winning at an old-school, difficult East Lake layout. 5. The stats out of the TOUR Championship won’t do his iron play justice. He finished 14th in the 30-man field in both greens hit and Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, but controlling his misses was key to his short-game success. He saved par so many times because he left himself easy chip shots. East Lake’s slick greens and thick rough made it very difficult for players to save par when they short-sided themselves. “I think the best thing about my ball-striking this week … is every time I’ve missed it, I’ve missed on the correct angle, so I’ve had control of it going into the greens. And even when I missed the greens, I had pretty simple pitches where I’ve had a lot of green to work with,â€� he said. Woods led the field in scrambling, getting up-and-down 17 of 24 times, and was third in sand saves (7 of 9). His seven bogeys were tied for fewest in the field (he also had one double). For further proof of Woods’ strong ball-striking, look at the season-ending standings for Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. Once again, he finished the season atop that statistic. He’s led the TOUR in that metric in each of the past six seasons in which he’s played enough rounds to be included in the statistical standings (2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2018).

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In 1980, Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo won the first U.S. Senior Open, winning the title by defeating amateur William Campbell by a shot. That same year, in Cordoba, Argentina, 26-year-old amateur golfer Eduardo Romero, turned pro, embarking on his own professional golf career delayed for two years due to his service in the Argentina military. De Vicenzo was one of Romero’s idols, Romero a protégé of the Argentine legend. Twenty-eight years after De Vicenzo’s U.S. Senior Open heroics, Romero would hoist the same trophy De Vicenzo once held. At the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, “El Gato”—The Cat, so nicknamed for the way he stealthily stalked his opponents on the golf course, overcame a four-bogeys-in-four-holes streak on the back nine of the final round and still coasted to a four-shot victory over Fred Funk. When he finally made a par at the 15th hole to end the bogey streak, he pumped his fist as if he had won the tournament. It turned out he essentially had. The victory was an exclamation point that Romero was good enough to beat anybody at any time and anywhere, regardless of his age. He had done it during his career in Latin America and then on the European Tour, and that win, coupled with his initial PGA TOUR Champions title at the JELD-WEN Tradition, merely served as extensions to what he had done in his career prior to turning 50. Romero had been inactive as a competitor for some time as he battled illness, and he died February 13 in Argentina at age 67 after complications from cancer. Doctors sent Romero home from the hospital on February 5 after they told him his disease was terminal. Romero’s passing was confirmed by the Municipality of Villa Allende in Argentina on Sunday evening. The son of a club pro, Romero won and won often in his home country, taking home 44 Argentine Tour titles, including the 1989 Argentine Open. His 44 career titles are second only to De Vicenzo among Argentine professionals. He was victorious in five other Argentina-based tournaments and also prevailed in tournaments in Chile and Mexico. Romero’s eight European Tour wins came during a 13-year span where he beat such luminaries as Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. He won 67 total tournament titles prior to turning 50, and it only took Romero eight starts to pick up that first PGA TOUR Champions title, at the JELD-WEN Tradition. “I realized at the age of nine that my life was going to revolve around golf. In my house my father was a golf professional, and several relatives were dedicated to this sport. I was never good at studying or at football,” said Romero in 2014. “I never thought I would make a living from golf. I didn’t think about how much I was going to win in a tournament. I just played because I loved golf. I loved to hit the ball, and I always went out to enjoy what I did.” Romero held PGA TOUR membership for two seasons, originally earning his playing privileges by tying for 12th at the 1985 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. In 1986, Romero played in 30 TOUR tournaments, and played in 15 more in 1995 after finishing second to Woody Austin at the 1994 Qualifying Tournament. Despite only enjoying two seasons as a TOUR member, he added 51 additional PGA TOUR starts, his best chance at winning coming in 1990 in Colorado, at The International. In the Modified Stableford System scoring event at Castle Pines Golf Club, Romero tied for second, with Steve Pate and Peter Senior, three points behind winner Davis Love III. His performance in Colorado was a harbinger of things to come in the Centennial State. Prior to his victory in Colorado Springs, Romero, won the JELD-WEN Tradition, in the summer of 2006 outside Portland, Oregon. Romero finished regulation tied with Lonnie Nielsen then rolled in a two-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole for the first of his five PGA TOUR Champions titles. That win was also his first triumph in the United States and his first major championship. The U.S. Senior Open would be his second. The majority of Romero’s PGA TOUR Champions action came between 2007 and 2012. He played 102 of his 125 total tournaments in that span. “For that six-year period right after he turned 50, Eduardo’s talent was on full display. A generation after Roberto De Vicenzo played and starred on PGA TOUR Champions, Eduardo followed in his mentor’s footsteps, always proud of his heritage and showing what a great player he was in his own right,” said Miller Brady, PGA TOUR Champions President. “Beyond what he did on the golf course, though, was Eduardo’s humanity. He was a consummate professional, one of the kindest, most-generous players our Tour has seen. We send our condolences to Eduardo’s family, his wife, Adriana, and his daughter, Dolly. We will greatly miss him.” Even with all his globetrotting, Argentina was never far from Romero’s mind, where he always maintained a home regardless of where he was playing. He represented his country 13 times in the World Cup, exceeded only by De Vicenzo’s 15 appearances. His most-memorable performance came when Buenos Aires Golf Club hosted the 2000 World Cup, with Romero teaming with Angel Cabrera, thrilling the local fans as they contended all week, battling the U.S. team of David Duval and Tiger Woods. The Americans eventually prevailed by three strokes, Argentina finishing second. Said Romero after retiring from competition, “I think I’m satisfied with my career. If I had any debt, it was not winning a major in my time. I was close at the British Open, but at the end of the day everything happens for a reason. I did what I could, and I’m happy with what I achieved.”

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