Almanac Golf – Golf Capital: 59 for Snedeker’s Wyndham title, double playoffs and how to re-boot Monday Night Golf

@hamishneal

 

An historic 59 from Brandt Snedeker set up his win in North Carolina at the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship whilst there were playoffs needed on the LPGA and European Tours before Sung Hyun Park and Paul Waring prevailed in the USA and Gothenberg respectively.

 

This week the PGA Tour starts the finals series with the first leg of the FedEx Cup in New Jersey – the Northern Trust Open.

 

Opening drive

 

An opening round of 59 (11 under) set the platform for Brandt Snedeker’s 13th career title in winning the Wyndham Championship at the Sedgefield Country Club. Snedeker, 37, finished three shots clear of CT Pan and Webb Simpson at 21 under but didn’t have it all his own way late on the final day with Pan in a share of the lead late on until he double-bogeyed the last and Snedeker caped his triumph with a birdie.

 

Sung Hyun Park won for the third time in 2018 when she beat Lizette Salas after her birdie putt at the first playoff hole got the win in Indiana. Park, who is 25 next month, has now won five times on the LPGA Tour and has returned to the world number one ranking with the win at the Indy Women in Tech Championship.

 

Whilst Snedeker’s 59 was historic it was appropriate for England’s Paul Waring winning in Sweden having gone 200 ranking events without having registered a victory until his Nordea Masters breakthrough on the weekend. His 201st event gave him his first triumph after Thomas Aiken chucked his drive on the first playoff hole into the water after both of them finished at 14 under, one clear of Maximilian Kieffer. Waring’s triumph at the Hills Golf Club is another great example of persistence after the 2005 English Amateur winner first started as a professional in 2007.

 

Player performance notes

Brandt Snedeker delivered us back-to-back wins with his Wyndham Championship triumph on the weekend we look to the start of the FedEx Cup at the Ridgewood Country Club in NJ. The venue was last used on tour four years ago.

 

Under 20: Jason Day. Day has gone 5-2 in the last two goes at the Ridgewood track and his last four starts have seen him finish all inside the top 20 (T12-T17-T10-T19) to go with his win in May at the Wells Fargo.

 

Under 20: Brooks Koepka. PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka improved progressively in the finals series last year going T18-T12- 6 over the final three legs so a win in this format seems not far away.

 

20 to 50: Francesco Molinari. Recent weeks on the PGA Tour have taught us winners are winning the big events (somewhat obvious I know) but Molinari appears to be a lock to perform well here given his three wins since the end of May including the Open.

 

50 to 100: Xander Schauffele. Second place at the Open recently Schauffele has a habit of showing up in big events having won the season-ending event last year. The world number 17 was also second at the Players Championship in May.

 

Greens in regulation

 

This week the European Tour heads to Prague and the wonderfully-named Albatross Golf Resort for the Czech Masters won last year by South African Haydn Porteous.

 

After the recent Canadian foray for the men won by Dustin Johnson the LPGA heads to Saskatchewan for the CP Women’s Open. A worrying prospect for the rest of the field is last week’s winner Park is the defending champion.

 

Tap in

Last week I delivered somewhat of a mea culpa over the numerous times I’d written off Tiger Woods but there is no doubt the 42-year-old is back after recent weeks and I wonder if a reported one-on-one match-up set to take place with Phil Mickelson in Las Vegas in November could lead to more exhibition style tournaments.

 

‘Tiger Woods’ the book recently released by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian details many aspects of his life thus far in meticulous detail and one chapter noted the short-lived ‘Monday Night Golf’ match-ups. These match-up events involved Woods playing David Duval initially and over a short period (six years) also included team events. In 2001 Woods and Annika Sorenstam played Duval and Karrie Webb in 2001 with Woods/Sorenstam winning at the first extra hole.

 

Golf’s great rivalries, or even friendships, which currently exist could be used to fire up this concept again. Governed by management and sponsors (a brief return in 2012 saw Woods meet fellow Nike athlete Rory McIlroy played in China) before giving fans the chance to vote on potential match-ups could be an option for marquee games.

 

Thinking from an Australian angle playing matches in Perth during summer would be a great time zone fit for the Eastern seaboard. Jason Day versus Adam Scott, Marc Leishman versus Jordan Spieth down here before another tilt at the Australian Open? Any other match-up ideas?

 

This golfing wrap first appeared on From the sideline of sport