- Ochoa finishing double-par-bogey-bogey-par-double for a 77 and second place (-9).
- Davies finishing par-bogey-par-par-double-triple for a 79 and third (-7).
- and Lincicome WINNING with a bogey-birdie-par-par-par-bogey finish for a 72 (-10).
But it's the how rather than the what or why that interests me most right now. Were they playing in the dark on 17 and 18? Are there grounds for a controversy here over the Tour forcing the field to finish?
And the field did suck--there were over 40 people under par at the beginning of the day and under 20 by its end. Ai-chan actually got a T24 (and almost $22K) by birdieing the 9th to get back to +1 for the tournament; Gulbis shot an 80 and just missed the top ten anyway; Meena Lee was the only person under par for the day and walked away with a T8 (and over $57K); Juli Inkster's E round (itself a collapse from her -3 start) got her a T4 (and over $118K)! There's more, but I have to run.
So much for my prediction that the conditions would favor the last few groups, eh? Or my all-but-1% concession to FHP at Pandagon.
Please, someone with the Golf Channel just describe 17 and 18 if that's all you have time for! Inquiring minds want to know--and this is definitely tabloid fodder.
[Update: For official Tour propaganda, this'll do. Anyone got more?]
1 comment:
Oh i am sure you will get a stroke-by-stroke from Golf Digest online by tomorrow morning (Tuesday for you), and that will include the distances and the choice of clubs, which made a difference. It was bloody awful and just got worse. Too much time was spent trying to decide to continue play, too much time was lost just in trying to keep the ball even remotely close to the fairways and on the greens. It took almost 45 minutes to play the three holes i think, or so it seemed. The weather was borderline (understatement) intolerable, and it definitely negatively impacted the capacity of the players (top LPGA pros all) to play the game.
The winds got worse and more chaotic, pushing well stroked balls in unforseen directions. Really you can't count on reading a green, controlling the putter, taking a stance, and being blown off the ball, and still have a prayer and chance for the ball to run towards the cup. The PGA simply said NO! we won't play today. That was the difference.
FHP Dangeral would have been correct if they had only counted the front nine. After that it was survival. When your top three players are, as a threesome, six over on the last hole, need one say more?
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