Senior tour long, long ways off for Phil Mickelson

AVONDALE, La. — Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy won the Zurich Classic Sunday, closing with a bogey-free 5-under 67 in alternate-shot play. Horschel became a two-time winner at TPC Louisiana. He captured his maiden PGA TOUR triumph at the 2013 Zurich Classic when it was a traditional every-man-for-himself event. Horschel and Piercy surged into the lead with birdies on the 10th and 11th holes. They followed that with seven pars to hold off Jason Dufner and Pat Perez by a stroke. Dufner had a 14-foot putt for the tie on 18 but came up short. This was the second year of the Zurich’s switch to a two-player team format. The victory was Horschel’s fifth and Piercy’s fourth. They each earned $1.04 million and 400 FedExCup points. The result did not count toward the world ranking. A year ago, the Zurich format called for best-ball play in the second and final rounds, with alternate-shot on the first and third. But organizers decided this year to switch that around so that the final round would have the alternate-shot format, with one player hitting the tee shots on even-numbered holes and the other on odd numbers. That set the stage for substantial moves up or down the leaderboard; players had no choice but the play the lies their teammates left them on the previous shot. Horschel and Piercy began the day three shots back, but immediately surged into contention with birdies on the first two holes. Piercy’s 146-yard approach set up Horschel’s 5-foot birdie putt on the opening hole. On the par-5 second hole, Piercy chipped to 4 feet to set up another birdie putt for Horschel. Horschel returned the favor on the par-5 seventh with a chip to 3 feet and did even better on the 10th, dropping a 148-yard approach shot a foot from the hole. Horschel’s 88-foot wedge out of a green-side bunker stopped less than 2 feet from the hole on the par-5 11th to set up his team’s final birdie — and that was just enough. Heading into the final round, Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, the 2017 runners-up in a playoff, topped a crowded leaderboard that featured 13 teams within four shots of the lead. By the time the top five teams had all reached the back nine, they were all within two shots of one another. This time, Kisner and Brown faded on the back nine, with three bogeys and one double-bogey on 16 after going into the water. Their final-round 77 dropped them all the way back to a tie for 15th at 15 under. The team of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel finished third at 20 under. Tied for fourth at 19 under were the teams of Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Paisley, and Brice Garnett and Chesson Hadley. Garnett and Hadley began the day two shots off the lead and vaulted to the top of the leader board with four birdies on the front nine, but they bogeyed the par-4 13th when they struggled with a massive fairway bunker on the Pete Dye-designed course, and also bogeys the par-3 14th and par-3 17th.

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It’s a safe assumption that every club in the bag is working when you shoot 34 under and break an all-time scoring record on the PGA TOUR, as Cam Smith did at last week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. That said, in addition to the new Vokey SM9 wedges Smith put in play for his 65-64-64-65 romp at Kapalua, his putter may be the most interesting portion of the bag. Smith putts with a Scotty Cameron 009M prototype. Generally, the 009M is a traditional Anser-style putter most similar to the retail Newport line. The “009” is a reference to San Diego’s zip code, where Cameron’s studio is located, while the ‘M’ stands for ‘masterful.’ Smith said he put the slant-neck Scotty in play at last year’s Sony Open in Hawaii, pointing out that the club is celebrating its birthday this week at Waialae Country Club. He’ll certainly want to buy it a gift. The Australian was 10th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season and is fourth in the young 2021-22 campaign. He led the field in that statistic last week at Kapalua, as well. Smith said he prefers a slant neck and, when considering a new putter last year, told Cameron and company he wanted the neck design in whatever club he would test. “There’s lots of cool stamps in the back there as well,” Smith said. “I’ve always loved the dot on top. I’ve never been a line guy. I feel like I can just feel the putter a little bit better. I don’t get so obsessed with the line. I feel like I’m able to just hit a good putt, and a good putt out of the middle means more chances of going in.” You can see the stamps and the sight dot below. And while there are elements of the design Smith can point to that suit his preferences, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi quality as well. “I just really like this one. I don’t know why,” Smith said. “It just feels great in the hands. I feel like I’m able to hit really good lag putts with it, which is a big thing out here. We leave ourselves some pretty nasty putts sometimes. I feel like I’m able to get the ball rolling real good. And like I said, the biggest thing for me is the strike. So I just feel like I hit lots of good putts with it out of the middle, and it feels so good.” Scotty Cameron TOUR rep Drew Page said Smith had been in a mallet-style Teryllium T22 Fastback model. The pair collaborated on a blade design after Smith, a self-identified “blade guy” said he wanted a similar slant neck on a blade-style putter. “He liked the neck. We put it on a 009 head. We gave it to him here, (at the) 2021 Sony Open, and he has put it in play and used it ever since,” Page said. “It gave him the look and offset that he wanted and gave him back the feel that he wanted with the blade. I think he just wanted to go back to his roots and have a little bit more playability within his stroke with a blade.” If putting is a game of comfort and confidence, clearly Smith has both. We can also add “cool” to that list, as Cam’s Cameron is one of the coolest looking on TOUR.

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