Scott McCarron made a routine drop at the 18th hole Friday at the Dominion Charity Classic. But what happened next was anything but routine.
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Tiger Woods enters the year’s first major ready to compete and full of confidence as always. As we saw with his win last year at the Masters, anything is possible.
Ryan Palmer … There are some guys for whom the inviting fairways and greens of Nine Bridges would neutralize strengths, and then there are others for whom it reinforces the same skill set because they’ve learned how to capitalize. Forever known as a talent whose success is fortified by his game off the tee, the 43-year-old falls into the latter category. A closing 62 in his debut here last year not only established the competitive course record, it also lifted him into a share of third place. He scored progressively lower in every round. This is just his second start of 2019-20 after he dusted off a little rust with a T37 at TPC Summerlin where he nonetheless ranked 10th in total driving and landed three-quarters of the greens in regulation. Joel Dahmen … A repeat performance throughout his bag that yielded a T9 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open two weeks ago will do, thank you. He was inside the top 10 in total driving, greens in regulation, proximity to the hole, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and par-4 scoring. He also ranked 19th in putting: birdies-or-better. Placed T29 in his debut at Nine Bridges last year. Brian Stuard … He’s played well on islands and in the tropics throughout his career, so the veteran always pinged the radar in an event like THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Now he arrives for his second appearance (T52, 2018) with the experience of the course piggybacking terrific current form. Finished T17 at Silverado and T4 at TPC Summerlin in his last two starts. Wrapped the 2018-19 season inside the top 15 on the PGA TOUR in fairways hit, proximity to the hole and scrambling, and he’s opened the new season sustaining those strengths while hitting more greens in regulation relative to most of the competition. Adam Schenk … The 27-year-old continues to piece together imbalanced efforts despite long-range analytics that suggest otherwise. His latest at the Shriners resulted in a T18 during which he scored in the 60s throughout and did everything well on the surface. Digging a little deeper, and despite ranking T8 in scoring opportunities and fifth in conversion percentage inside 10 feet, he was 68th in connecting for par breakers with the putter. This was due primarily to him finishing 63rd in proximity on approach. As it concerns this week, the large greens will allow him to be aggressive as he works on improving his precision. Kyongjun Moon … He’s 37 years of age, he has one win on his native KPGA and he’s a career-best 356th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s also never competed in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event, but he’s in the field as one of five designated golfers representing his circuit. Fresh off a T2 at the Genesis Championship (where Sungjae Im prevailed by two strokes) – one of seven top 10s on the season – he’s seventh on the KPGA in earnings, third in greens in regulation and No. 1 in scoring average. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.
Underdog is an understatement. So said International Presidents Cup Team Captain Trevor Immelman after announcing his six picks for the squad that will take on the mighty U.S. Team at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, Sept. 22-25. RELATED: International Team Captain Trevor Immelman announces six picks for 2022 Presidents Cup “Yeah, I don’t really think I have to play the underdog role up,” Immelman said after announcing Taylor Pendrith, Sebastian Muñoz, Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, K.H. Lee and Cam Davis will join automatic qualifiers Hideki Matsuyama, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Corey Conners, Mito Pereira and Adam Scott in an effort to bring the International Team its first win since 1998. “I think everybody knows it,” Immelman continued. “Everybody sees it clear as day. Our team has had a lot of adversity thrown at us over the last year or so. But adversity makes you stronger.” On paper, the U.S. Team wins this one. But that’s always the case. The Americans were heavily favored in 2019, too, but required a big final-day rally led by playing captain Tiger Woods to come out on top. This U.S. Team will feature automatic qualifiers Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler and Tony Finau, plus six picks to be announced by U.S. Captain Davis Love III on Wednesday morning. It will likely resemble the side that crushed Europe at the 2021 Ryder Cup. But that’s not the only reason they’ll be favored to beat Immelman and company. From just his six qualifiers, Love III has 15 PGA TOUR wins this season. Add victories by Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Billy Horschel, who are expected to be U.S. Team captain’s picks, and the total runs to 19 wins this season. All 12 International Team players combined for just five wins this season. And yet … The International Team will head to Charlotte with a kind of momentum having bettered the Americans for three of the four days last time around at Royal Melbourne. The Internationals did a lot right and hope to parlay the lessons of 2019 into a victory this time around. Immelman assembled his team for a secret mission to Quail Hollow for two days after the recent TOUR Championship. All but Matsuyama, who was getting neck treatment in Japan, were on hand not just to see the course but also to solidify and cement relationships ahead of the competition. “It was an amazing experience for all of us to spend a little time together and get an early look at the golf course,” Immelman said. “The thing that excites me the most is … I know now that we have 12 players that are hungry, and we have 12 players that wanted to be there.” Team bonding was the key at Royal Melbourne, where Immelman was an assistant to International Captain Ernie Els. It was one great team united under one banner – a newly designed team crest – rather than a team of talented individuals carrying their various flags. Previous International teams wouldn’t come together until the end, and while that would make for some epic Sunday-night parties, it was too late to impact the leaderboards. Els changed all that. He got rid of the cliques. Relying on analytics and data to create complimentary pairings regardless of which continent a player represented, Els was taking a gamble that busted up some friends who expected to play together. He knew he had to get buy-in from his players ahead of time. As such the bonding sessions came thick and fast ahead of the competition, and by tournament week the Internationals were a tight-knit crew. While the final score in Melbourne read 16-14 to the U.S. Team, the proof was indeed in the pudding. The Internationals led 4-1 after Day One, 6.5-3.5 after Day Two, and 9-5 after Saturday’s morning session. Only some late heroics from U.S. players on Saturday evening effectively saved the Cup, but the Internationals took the lead (10-8) into Sunday Singles for the first time since 2003. “We’re definitely underdogs going into the next few weeks,” captain’s pick Bezuidenhout said Tuesday. “But we’ve had multiple team dinners over the last few months with a lot of the guys in the running for making the team joined in. It’s a great vibe. It’s a great bunch of guys in the team. All the guys that narrowly missed out, everyone has been so supportive over the last few months and weeks. “Taking it back to last week, our training camp in Charlotte, team spirit is high. Everyone is excited. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but you never know. We’ll give it our all and see what happens.” Despite his injury absence, Matsuyama made a point to send an inspiring message to the team in Charlotte. Immelman called the camp a success and was excited to see the hunger in his new-look squad that boasts veterans in Scott (10th Cup) and Matsuyama (fifth) but also eight rookies. That’s the most since the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, but all those new faces might not be a bad thing. In Melbourne it was the team’s new blood that drove the new ethos; there were seven rookies on that squad (only Sungjae Im remains) who were devoid of any scar tissue and nearly got the win. “Ernie brought a lot of new, clear, fresh thinking to our system,” Immelman said. “… and it was an extremely powerful experience for us down in Australia. Really that was the baseline. That was the foundation for our team. We absolutely have tried to use that foundation to build off of and jump off of for not only this Presidents Cup in Charlotte but also future Presidents Cups.” We don’t know yet how he will send out his players, and in light of the analytical approach that worked in 2019, he said it would be a mistake to assume he’ll pair Australians Scott and Davis, Canadians Conners and Pendrith, South Americans Pereira and Muñoz, and so on. “We don’t have to match people of the same nationality to get the best out of them,” Immelman said. “We’ve got the squad atmosphere and players are extremely comfortable being with each other, hanging around each other. We have found ways to bridge the communication gaps in certain instances. I have every option available to me. I don’t have to try and match two Canadians together and Koreans together and such. Whilst it is an option, I would not hang your hat on it.” That said, the U.S. Team is 11-1-1 overall in this competition, and an International Team win would be a huge upset. Immelman isn’t pretending otherwise but won the Masters as an outsider; he knows what it’s like to shock the world. His players have embraced the role of David versus Goliath, too. To be on this team bus, Immelman said, means bringing belief, passion, and a team-first ethos. And there’s a chance that the U.S. Team, which is expected to dominate, will feel most of the pressure. “We understand exactly the mountain that we have in front of us,” Immelman said. “Possibly the best American team ever assembled if you look at them on paper with their accomplishments and what their World Rankings are, but hey, when you’re a little kid growing up outside of the U.S. and you dream of playing on the PGA TOUR… this is everything you’ve ever dreamed of is having an opportunity to play against the best on their home soil, and that’s what we’re going to have here in a couple weeks. “… We’ll be representing underdogs all over the world in every facet of life,” he continued, “whether it be business or sport or kids at school… trying to make them proud. I’m extremely proud of my team. They’ve all worked their butts off to get to this point. We look forward to the Presidents Cup every time. Even over the years you look at the history books, everybody knows we’ve had our butts kicked, but that doesn’t mean we’ll come with any less passion and compete to try and win.” For the International Team and its players, captain, assistants, and backers, it’s time to get on the bus.
