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Monday, 13 August 2012

US PGA final thoughts

Outright results
3pt win Rory McIlroy at 20/1 (won +60pts)
1pt EW Bo Van Pelt at 66/1 (finished T18)
1pt EW Martin Laird at 125/1 (finished T42nd)
1.5pt EW Bubba Watson at 40/1 (finished T11)
1.5pt EW Jason Dufner at 40/1 (finished T27)
Rory McIlroy found a fitting way to return to number 1 in the World, by landing the Final major of 2012 and the 2nd of his career. And it was easy too. Rory just held it together much, much better than all others. I highlighted in my US PGA preview that, Shaun Micheel apart, this tournament since the turn of the century produced winners who had won on tour and arrived in form. Rory was one of the 14 that could have continued that trend and did. So, expect a cut and paste when I preview this event next year.
Like the British Open, I was left underwhelmed by the inability of many others to get it together when conditions gave them the best chance to do so. Ian Poulter was the only threat on the final day, coming from deep to show the others how it could be done. Justin Rose showed on both days that it was distinctly possible to get hot and post a score too. Finally, the solid weekend from David Lynn in benign conditions to finish solo 2nd was proof evident that not enough players got it together over at least 3 of the 4 days. Lynn is a good player and a solid professional, but his 2nd place will leave others rueful for sure.
Let's look at my selections for the event. My 2nd win only tip of the year (I think - Phil, who lost a play-off to Haas) was a useful one, because I picked Rory McIlroy. He delivered 50 points profit on the week (3pt win at 20/1 minus 10pts on other selections). No need to question whether we got that tip right. The other four picks all are an example of what might have been.
Bo Van Pelt stood on the 14th tee T4th and 2 shots from a locked in automatic Ryder Cup slot. He walked off 18 having dropped 3 shots - no pay out for us then and sadly typical of a season for him which has been wonderfully consistent, but short on top 5 finishes. He might just go and win one of these things out of the blue soon. Bubba Watson's weekend was bettered only by the likes of Rose, Lynn and McIlroy. That he finished 2 shots outside the places is really due to a poor first round. Watson played in the (slightly) trickier afternoon slot, but really left himself in a tough place with that first round of +1. He is back though. Jason Dufner also motored through the field over the weekend, but in the easiest of Thursday conditions imploded late on to post +2. 8 off the lead after day 1 and only 6 from 2nd at the end tells you he could have placed quite easily. Martin Laird was our 125/1 long shot. He played rounds 1, 2 and 4 in -3, which is better playing than almost the entire field, but shot 79 on Saturday, which generally was a great day for scoring.
The major winners this year read as follows:
Bubba Watson - good win for the game and clearly a guy that will contend often for majors.
Webb Simpson - a quieter season having been within a few holes of landing the US Money prize last year.....that was until he won the US Open. Again, a very good winner in the sense that he has proven his class on tour. After a good Presidents Cup in Australia, it will be interesting to see how he fares in Ryder Cup this year.
Ernie Els - while I am glad that he won, I am a little underwhelmed by this one. Els played the most solidly and won. He deserved too as well. Leaderboards don't lie. Els also challenged well in the US Open, but I wonder is this is more more a major title swan song than a sign of things to come.
Rory McIlroy - The returning world no.1 and arguably best placed to take that title forward if he gets the mental side of the game right. A great winner of the event.
All in all, a very good year for bringing class to the winner's enclosure in Major golf. Having Tiger contending in 3 of them did no harm either of course.
Finally, I am going to give a few headline grades for some of the players in the field this week
A* : McIlroy (star pupil) and David Lynn (maximised ability)
A :Keegan Bradley (brilliant follow up to last week and good title defence), John Daly (great run of form and wonderful to see him back), Jamie Donaldson (European Tour winner and now major contender. Great play), Ian Poulter (the course is too long for him, isn't it? Great play), Pettersson/Adams (very solid weeks from both)
A- : Justin Rose (yes a good result, but he should be really contending for the W. Lazy 2nd round), Michael Hoey (great 2nd round and huge credit for admitting the error which caused his DQ)
B+ : Tim Clark (the guy is back, fit and back where he belongs)
B : Tiger Woods (no, not an F. Tiger is the only person who has threatened to win the last 3 majors. He is under huge scrutiny every weekend of every major and will be until he wins again. Solid effort from ONE OF THE best players on the planet, but no longer undisputedly THE best), Steve Stricker (solid week for short hits, but rather fell away after storming in to contention in Rd3), Darren Clarke (huge made cut for him after a horror year)! Webb Simpson (missed cut after an understandable poor first round due to ring-rustiness. Second round of E par 5th best in field was a fine effort and almost made the weekend. Solid tune up ahead of Wyndham defence)
B- : my three of Dufner, Bubba and Van Pelt. All had lapses and all should have finished better, but played generally well
C : Oosthuizen and Harrington. (Harrington is not quite there and Oosthuizen realLy should have have been), Phil (briefly excited and then swiftly exited from the main stage. Another distinctly average week for him. Where has the early season zing gone?)
D : Dustin, Els. No zing at all.
E : Luke. The good final day really strengthened how poor the first 3 days had been. The deposed number 1 was meek in the wake of Rory's glory.
Regards
DAVE (OneBet)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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