It was great to see five time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney back in the mix at the Wells Fargo. Watney birdied the last to finish T2 and earn his best finish since the 2015 AT&T Pro Am. He has had to deal with injuries the past two years that had stolen his game. He is back working with star making instructor Butch Harmon again, enough said.
Jason Day has won twice in seven starts this season and if he putts like this the rest of the year he’ll be winning a bunch more and tracking down Dustin Johnson for number one in the world.
Quail Hollow once again proved itself a vigorous challenge for the pros. Last year’s winning PGA Championship total was eight under par. Day managed to get to twelve under and as much as the players love that course it’s just as great for us fans watching them play it.
Tiger Woods seems to be back pedaling. After a near miss at The Valspar and playing well early at The Honda and The Arnold Palmer he hasn’t improved but rather lost his game. Yes, he’s longer off the tee but he is so wild he is barely finding the short grass. And now, his most deadly weapon during his Reign of Grass Destruction, his putter has gone stone cold. 30 putts in round four and 126 for the week won’t cut in on the big boy circuit.
The PGA Tour let it be known that Woods will be paired with Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler for the first two rounds of The PLAYERS. That should get a few patrons on the ropes. And in another marque grouping, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy will also play together. Cheers to the Tour for putting such crowd favorites together.
Props to two of Links Life Golf’s favorite players: Sam Saunders finished T9 and Talor Gooch was T13 and both moved up in the Fedex cup Standings. Sam to 110 and Gooch to 105.
There was plenty of exciting happenings over the weekend and I did my best to catch most of it.
What is the story with Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins licking his opponents in the face? He was caught red handed, (red tongued?) slobbering on Ryan Callahan of the Tampa Bay Lighting. And this is the second time this season he couldn’t keep his tongue in his mouth. Happily, his Bruins were sent packing and eliminated by Tampa Bay.
The New York Yankees have retooled with a new and if you can believe it, younger lineup. Joining “Baby Bombers” Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez is a new crop of bombers, Miquel Andujar (23) and Gleyber Torres (21) who have propelled the Yanks to a 15-1 record over the last sixteen games. Torres became the youngest Yankee ever to hit a walk off homer as they came back to beat the Indians on Sunday. This is a fun team to watch.
Finally, on Saturday evening Justify sprinted through the muck and mire at Churchill Downs to win the Kentucky Derby and start talk of another Triple Crown winner. Last year, after a kick ass article in the NY Times on jockey Mike Smith I vowed to always put a few bucks on Smith when I could. Well, I finally was able to on Friday in the Oaks and Saturday in The Derby. The Oaks left me wanting but Smitty didn’t fail me in the Derby and finally I held a winning ticket to the Derby. Too bad I just missed the trifecta. Oh well.
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