The conditions were mild. The course was playable. The scores were good. All those bad things players were saying about Royal St. George’s? They stopped. Will it stay that way for three more rounds?
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AVONDALE, La. — Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown might hold the lead heading to Sunday at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but more than ever the lead is far from safe. Looking for redemption after last year’s playoff loss to Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt, the South Carolina duo sit at 20-under par — one clear of the Tony Finau/Daniel Summerhays and Andrew Putnam/Michael Kim teams. They provided a tidy 8-under 64 in Four-ball play on Saturday. But there are 17 teams within five shots of their lead heading to the always unpredictable and volatile alternate shot format. Anything can happen. We already saw this over the opening two rounds where the scoring average went from 65.888 to an incredible 73.863. The opening round leaders Xinjun Zhang and Zecheng Dou backed up a 60 with an 80 to miss the cut. “There is going to be a lot of big stress out there for some guys on that alternate shot,â€� five-time PGA TOUR winner Jason Dufner said. “You could see it Friday, cut day.â€� But Kisner and Brown almost feel immune as they’ve known each other for decades. “We’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Kisner said. “We know each other pretty well. I think that’s why we gel so well together. “He knows I’m not going to be upset if he’s playing bad, or if I hit a bad shot he’s not going to be upset at me. What did they tell us, your bad shots are the other person’s problem, so have fun.â€� Dufner, who along with Pat Perez are one of the teams chasing the leaders, believes the three shots they have to make up could happen in a flash. They were one of the teams to battle on Friday, shooting even par. Of the top 13 teams on the leaderboard heading to Sunday, only Putnam and Kim broke 70 on Friday. “I’m sure there will be a little pressure, but we’ll be relying on each other, and hopefully have a good time there tomorrow,â€� Kim said. “I think we just got to keep our heads down and keep grinding. We’re both playing pretty good golf, so just shoot the best score we can,â€� Putnam added as they chase a maiden TOUR win. For Finau and Summerhays, the key to this week has been relying on their already great chemistry and not getting in each other’s way. “Last year we were kind of all up in each other’s space. Hey, come read this putt. Let’s read together. What do you think here?â€� Summerhays explained. “This year we’ve just completely backed off everything. I called Tony in to read one putt yesterday and that’s basically it. “It’s the underlying trust, right? He’s trying his darnedest to get me in a good spot. I think that’s the great thing about having a close friend. We’ve played so much golf together. There isn’t any of that judgment. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s going to be difficult, but that’s what we do.â€� NOTABLES Jason Dufner and Pat Perez looked dangerous just three shots off the lead. The pair shot 61 on Saturday to rocket into contention. “Everybody is going to have six or seven birdies and probably no bogeys if they’re playing well,” Dufner said. “So just to get those extra couple long ones to drop, I think that was a big key today.” There are a bunch of international teams lurking at 16 under in a tie for eighth looking to keep America off the winners list since moving to a team format. South African Presidents Cup players Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, countrymen Retief Goosen and Tyrone Van Aswegen, Scotsman Martin Laird and Russell Knox plus Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Paisley are all ready to pounce. Olympic Gold and Silver medal winners Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are an outside chance at 15-under, five shots off the pace. Jason Day and Ryan Ruffels started hot on Saturday and looked like they could make a huge charge. However a double bogey on the ninth hole derailed their run, and they now sit near the back of the pack at 11-under. It was a rough day for Matt Kuchar and Bubba Watson as they sat just one under through 13 holes. Three late birdies added some respectability to the score, but at 13-under and seven shots back they’ll need to go super low Sunday. Denny McCarthy and Joel Dahmen were the last partnership entered this week after Martin Pillar withdrew to be at the birth of his first child. The WD sent Dahmen into a duo with McCarthy and the pair shot 62 Saturday to have an outside chance at 15-under. QUOTABLES I was the horse and he was the jockey. When I got tired he decided to kick in the whip, and he kicked in the whip on himself.When you have hair like this you can pull it off.I had to kind of hold my laugh in while they were hitting. SUPERLATIVES Low Round: 11-under 61 – Three teams: Billy Horschel/Scott Piercy; Jason Dufner/Pat Perez; Brice Garnett/Chesson Hadley. Easiest Holes: Par-5 7th played at 4.250 as did the par-5 11th. Each had two eagles and 23 birdies. Hardest Hole: Par-4 15th played exactly to par with five birdies and five bogeys.
A trip to Australia and the opportunity to represent one’s country aren’t the only perks for the participants in the Junior Presidents Cup. The 24 players on the U.S. and International teams get to interact with the elite players who will compete in this year’s Presidents Cup, set for December at Royal Melbourne. While many juniors will be meeting their heroes for the first time, Preston Summerhays is accustomed to being around the PGA TOUR’s best. That’s what happens when your father is a former TOUR player and successful swing coach. Preston, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion, already knows several of the players who will compete for captains Ernie Els and Tiger Woods. Summerhays’ father, Boyd, was once the top-ranked junior in the country. He played college golf at Oklahoma State, where his teammates included Charles Howell III and Bo Van Pelt, and played 29 events on the PGA TOUR from 2004-06 before injuries ended his career. Now he is the instructor for Tony Finau, J.J. Spaun and Wyndham Clark. Golf success runs in the Summerhays’ genes. The family has featured multiple generations of successful players. Preston and his sister, Grace, who competed in this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior, are continuing that tradition. Preston is waiting to see if the TOUR player with whom he has the closest relationship, Finau, also will be in Australia in December. Finau FaceTimed Preston shortly after that U.S. Junior. Am win. They’ve played hundreds of rounds together. Preston calls him “a great influenceâ€� on his career. “He cares about our family. He always wants to know how we’re doing, how we’re progressing,â€� Preston said. Finau wasn’t the only TOUR player to offer congratulations. Brooks Koepka sent a text to Boyd from The Open Championship. Rory McIlroy congratulated Preston before teeing off in the first round of a recent PGA TOUR event. Finau, who finished ninth in the final U.S. points standings, is a favorite to earn one of Woods’ four Presidents Cup captain’s picks next month (the top eight earned automatic spots on the roster). He bolstered his candidacy with a ninth-place finish at last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where he led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He now has four top-10s in his last five TOUR starts. Finau is a strong candidate to get a pick because of his consistent play and strong ball-striking. He has 25 top-10 finishes in the previous three PGA TOUR seasons and has played in the past three TOUR Championships. His average FedExCup finish in those three seasons is 10.7. He finished in the top 25 in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green last season. Finau’s strong debut in international team competition also helps his candidacy. He was one of just four Americans with a winning record at last year’s Ryder Cup. He went 2-1 at Le Golf National, including a 6-and-4 win in his singles match with Tommy Fleetwood. If Finau is picked, it will mean double duty for Boyd Summerhays. He has been coaching Finau since 2014, after his own professional career came to an end. Finau graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour that year. He’s been on the PGA TOUR ever since, never finishing outside the top 50 in the FedExCup. “Boyd’s been a great mentor to me, he’s been a great teacher and he’s been a great friend,â€� Finau said. “We’ve been through a lot together. He’s helped me fine-tune my game, fine-tune my golf swing and fine-tune the mental side of my game. He’s been a huge part of what I’ve been able to accomplish.â€� Finau said his instructor’s son possesses “the confidence to be a champion.â€� “I’ve played a lot of rounds of golf with him, and to see him play, and to see kind of his swag, and taking his game to another level this summer has been a lot of fun to watch,â€� Finau said. Preston also plays with many of the TOUR players who live in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. That experience has undoubtedly paid dividends. “Preston’s always known he is good because he’s been winning junior tournaments, but when he plays with TOUR players he also gets to see how far he has to go,â€� Boyd said. “He’s very confident in himself, but he still has the humility because he knows what he has to do better. … It gives him a clear picture of what he has to do.â€� Finau hails from Utah, as does the Summerhays family (though Boyd and his family have since moved to Arizona). The Summerhayses are a golf family, through and through. Boyd’s grandfather, Pres, was the head coach at the University of Utah. Boyd’s father, Lynn, was the captain of Utah’s golf team. Boyd’s uncle Bruce won on PGA TOUR Champions, and Bruce’s daughter, Carrie, played on the LPGA. Boyd’s younger brother, Daniel, has two runners-up on the PGA TOUR and now plays on the Korn Ferry Tour. Boyd encouraged Preston to play other sports, and not simply fall into the family’s preferred pursuit, but the pull toward golf was too strong. Preston’s first memory of the game is accompanying his father to the course with a loaf of bread to feed the ducks while his father practiced. Boyd’s playing career came to an end after playing several events on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada in 2012. Preston was 9 years old when caddied for his father in a tournament in Canada. “The bib was down to his knees,â€� Boyd said. Preston videoed Boyd’s rounds, starting his commentary of each shot with, “Here we are in Canada.â€� Preston has won the past two Utah Amateurs, becoming the first player to go back-to-back since his uncle, Daniel, in 2000-01. Preston was the youngest winner in the tournament’s history when he won in 2018. Preston also turned heads last year when he shot 65-60 to qualify for the U.S. Amateur; it was the lowest qualifying score for that championship since 2011. The Junior Presidents Cup is the next step in his promising career.
HUMBLE, Texas — Ian Poulter has the chance to do something special tomorrow at the Houston Open. But he doesn’t want to think or talk about it. Asked after he posted a bogey-free 65 on Saturday — his second straight round without a blemish on the card — what a return to the Masters would mean if he won on Sunday, Poulter was quick to squash the question. “No, not thinking about it, not talking about it,” Poulter said. “I’m going to go out and have some fun tomorrow. There’s a lot of its and buts.” Poulter is correct; there’s no point in thinking about something that’s still very much up in the air. But considering where Poulter was at the beginning of the week, it’s impossible to not wonder what tomorrow would look like if the 42-year-old managed to secure his first TOUR title since 2012 — a win that would also earn him a spot in the field at Augusta National Golf Club. Poulter opened with 73 on Thursday and looked to be out of contention before he even had a chance to get going — to the point that he packed his suitcase to go home Friday night. Instead of fading into the background, Poulter played the next 36 holes in 16 under to rocket up the leaderboard. For a guy who said he had “no expectations” going into the weekend, Poulter is suddenly playing his best golf in the most pressure-packed of situations while trying to have fun on the course at the same time. Poulter attributed his run of good form this week to an adjustment he made to his shoulder position that helped him find a spark on the greens. Through three rounds he ranks ninth in strokes gained: putting. “Just opened my shoulders slightly,” Poulter said. “I’ve been seeing my lines a lot easier and been rolling a few putts in. So good golf has obviously been rewarded with rolling a few putts in.” With a hot putter in his hands, Poulter will be chasing history tomorrow in Humble. Should he go on to win, he would become the first player in the last 35 years to win a TOUR event after being tied for 123rd or worse after the first round. There’s also a TOUR title and a Masters invite on the line. But Poulter isn’t worried about any of that — at least not yet. “I’m in a funny position, right? I said to you guys I’ve got no expectations going out on the golf course,” Poulter said. “I didn’t have any expectations, I just went out to play golf. I’m going to do exactly the same tomorrow regardless.” OBSERVATIONS With a 76 on Saturday, Lee Westwood’s hopes of making a 14th straight Masters appearance came to a disappointing end. A runner-up at Augusta in 2010 and 2016, Westwood was making his first TOUR start of 2018 in a last-ditch effort to win his way into the field. Asked after his round when he might play again on TOUR, Westwood was non-committal, saying there was a chance he might not make another start in the States before the end of the year. Phil Mickelson ended his third round the way it began, at 5 under after 54 holes. The route Mickelson took to shoot 72, however, was anything but conventional. The round included a triple-bogey, double-bogey and two separate stretches where he made three straight birdies. “I’m a little worried that I missed some [drives] that I haven’t been missing and so I’ll have to work on that,” Mickelson said. Four three-putts in the first eight holes had Jordan Spieth wondering “what if” after three rounds. Spieth kept his cool and made two birdies on the back-nine to shoot 71, but without the putter struggles on the front side, the former FedExCup champion would likely be a lot closer than four shots off the lead. “I just got a little anxious trying to get out there early and make a statement, and the greens sped up a good foot today and I didn’t make that adjustment,” Spieth said. If Rickie Fowler comes up short this week, he’ll look back at the par-5 13th hole as the spot where things took a turn for the worse. Fowler battled back from a double-bogey on the front with four birdies to make the turn in 34, but a triple-bogey on the 13th proved to be too much for the four-time TOUR winner to overcome. Fowler lost his ball left off the tee and was forced to drop; he compounded the mistake by three-putting from 11 feet. He’ll start the final round five shots behind Poulter and Hossler. The leaderboard remains bunched with Ian Poulter and Beau Hossler holding a two-shot lead after 54 holes. A total of 14 players are within four, including TOUR winners Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth. Three of the last four Houston Open winners were four or more shots back of the lead entering the final round. Lee Westwood wasn’t the only player in the field who saw his Masters hopes come to an end on Saturday. Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker MDF’d and will miss out as well. Haas is out of the field for the first time since 2009 while Snedeker’s streak ended at seven consecutive starts, dating back to 2010. NOTABLES Henrik Stenson – Stenson followed up a pair of 68’s with a 69 on Sunday. He only has two bogeys on the card after 54 holes and sits three back of the leaders. Made five birdies during the third round, including a 32-footer on the last. Justin Rose – Broke his streak of seven straight sub-70 rounds with a 72. Tripled the 11th but still managed to pour in three birdies on the back to cancel out the big number. Matt Kuchar – Kuchar posted his third straight sub-70 round to move into contention at 11 under. Ranks sixth this week in strokes gained: putting with more than 311 feet worth of made putts. Keith Mitchell – Two bogeys in the last three holes kept Mitchell from the penultimate group. He’ll still have the chance to build on last week’s runner-up finish at the Corales Puntacana just three back. Mitchell’s 67 was highlighted by seven birdies in 10 holes (Nos. 6-15). Julian Suri – The 72nd-ranked player in the world Monday qualified for the Houston Open and sits in a good position to possibly top-10 in his fifth TOUR start of the season. A 73 on Saturday has him three back of a group of six players at T7. Greg Chalmers – Eight birdies in 13 holes vaulted Chalmers 39 spots up the leaderboard. A 65 was his lowest round on TOUR since he posted the same score during the second round of the 2015 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. At 12 under, Chalmers is searching for his second TOUR victory. QUOTABLES I’ll be nervous just like I always am. I’ve learned at each stage of golf that I’ve played from junior golf to amateur golf to now playing professional golf that winning tournaments is difficult and it takes a level of comfortability to do that. SUPERLATIVES Low round: 65 – Thanks to a pair of 65’s, Ian Poulter and Greg Chalmers will go off in the final two groups on Sunday. Longest drive: 381 yards – Tony Finau recorded the longest drive of the day on the par-5 8th hole. Longest putt: 53 feet, 1 inch – Beau Hossler saved par on the par-4 5th hole after his third shot came up well short of the hole. Easiest hole: Par-5, No. 8 (4.589) with 2 eagles, 42 birdies, 38 pars and 7 bogeys and 1 double bogey. Hardest hole: Par-4, No. 5 (4.344) with 8 birdies, 51 pars, 25 bogeys, 4 double bogeys and 2 others. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY
