Good riddance to multi-course setups! After three straight weeks of only partial shot-level data, we now hit a stretch of PGA Tour full-field events through the Texas Open at the start of April where we can fully grasp how players are doing. (And yes, this includes the Mexican Open. It's one of the few non-U.S. events that has strokes-gained data, along with the Canadian and Scottish Opens.)
But the multiple courses at Pebble Beach comprised only one reason we got only two rounds of advanced stats for the second time in three weeks. The other reason we were so limited, of course, was Mother Nature. Despite being a signature event, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was cut to 54 holes (three rounds, two on Pebble Beach Links) with an atmospheric river coming in this past Sunday and scuttling play. It didn't even permit a Monday finish, so great was the damage to the links that Wyndham Clark, who had taken the 54-hole lead, was awarded his third win in less than a year. I bet Thomas Detry of Belgium is FUMING right now.
 |
| This is why the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was cut short (LA Times). |
This seemed a brilliant situation for LIV Golf down in Mayakoba, which itself hosted the World Wide Technology Championship for many years...on the PGA Tour. You know, the event that former Minnesota Gopher Erik van Rooyen won last fall, albeit in Cabo rather than Yucatan. Won by Joaquin Niemann, who led the expansion Legion XIII to victory alongside Jon "Benedict Arnold" Rahm and two others, the LIV opener enjoyed good ratings, but these were still far below the Pebble Beach ratings, even with LIV having Sunday to itself.
So, with all that out of the way, how did the Umcee contingent do across the board? For the most part, I'd say that, considering there were only three Umcees in action last week, it was a good if not great showing. Granted, Frankie Capan III missed his first cut of the Korn Ferry Tour season, dropping to #51 on the points list. But the two Umcees involved at Pebble Beach both finished top-20 (and ties). Van Rooyen finally mustered his first such finish since his WWT win last November anywhere in the world and climbed to #79 in the OWGR. That said, this week's honours go to none other than Tom Hoge, who becomes the first two-time laureate in 2024. Having won on the Monterey Peninsula for what remains his sole triumph on the PGA Tour in 2022, Hoge slogged through a -1/71 at Spyglass Hill (the other course used in the event) before turning on the jets with back-to-back -6/66's on the main links. As usual, his strengths lay in his irons and putter, ranking sixth in strokes gained with the former and eighth with the latter, averaging over 1.5 SG with each category per Pebble Beach Links round.
This week, Troy Merritt will once again seek to reestablish momentum post-Hawai'i, as he hasn't made a cut since the Sony Open. He joins the two Umcees who were at Pebble Beach at TPC Scottsdale near Phoenix for the Super Bowl week tradition that is the Phoenix Open. Additionally, FCIII will look to get back on track in the Andes at the Astara Bogota Championship, and he'll be joined by a fifth Umcee in Van Holmgren. Holmgren was the truest Umcee beneficiary of last year's Q-school, earning a PGA Tour Americas card, but he won't get to use it until next month when the season begins. That he was able to get in, let alone without a sponsor's exemption, speaks to how far he's come.
Edward the Scop
No comments:
Post a Comment