– If everything were reasonably normal, Shane Lowry (-14) and Sepp Straka (-14) should contest the victory tomorrow at the Truist Championship, the sixth Signature Event of the season on the PGA Tour, after carding rounds of 67 and 66 respectively on the third day to share the lead and meet in the star match on Sunday. They will start with a juicy three-shot advantage over their closest pursuers, Justin Thomas (-11) and Keith Mitchell (-11), so it seems most reasonable, indeed, to grant the Irishman and the Austrian a very high percentage of probabilities.
– On the other hand, it would be almost ridiculous to estimate that no other candidate could get close to the leaders and spice things up. In this sense, the name of Thomas stands above any other. Moreover, if the Kentuckian had played the two par 5s of the Wissahickon course, holes 5 and 15, a little better today, he would undoubtedly be at the top of the leaderboard (he signed bogeys on these holes). However, why dwell on the bad, Justin might tell us, on a day when, without being very inspired from the tee, he managed to score up to six birdies. With the current Thomas, once again in his mega-star version, one must be very careful, so it would not be very wise to rule him out.
– If Thomas did not fare very well from the tee this Saturday, what can be said about Rory McIlroy (-8), who only hit three fairways. Obviously, that’s where all his problems began, although he ended up saving a card under par (69 strokes on this par 70). It seems an insufficient haul, however, to think that the Northern Irishman is a great threat. Surely Rory will try to make his presence felt tomorrow, teeing off forty minutes ahead of the star match, but Lowry and Straka are not exactly players who are easily impressed.
– Lowry, as we said yesterday, is undoubtedly going through the best moment of his career, the most consistent. In fact, right now he is the World Number 12, and this is precisely his ceiling in the ranking. It’s hard to believe that this player, a Major winner, has never entered the world top ten, which on the other hand shows how difficult it is to belong to that club, although it is true that it costs him more than usual to win: six victories on the two major tours seem a somewhat short record for such an absolutely brilliant player and a career of more than fifteen years.
– What a thing: Straka has never won a Major, but his ceiling in the world ranking is higher than Lowry’s (he reached Number 11). That’s how the Austrian goes around the world, making much less noise than his numbers dictate, especially in the last five years. This year, for example, he won a PGA Tour tournament (American Express) at the beginning of the year, and he wasn’t awarded points for the Ryder Cup as it coincided with a Rolex Series on the other side of the pond… If he wins tomorrow, he will be a stone’s throw from the top six in the European standings, but he shouldn’t suffer too much: if Luke Donald does even slightly well, he will save him a spot on the team. Who wouldn’t want to have a Straka in their squad?
– With Hideki Matsuyama (-10), author of the best card of the day (63), we must also count. The Japanese player’s performance today at the Philadelphia Cricket Club deserves a separate study. He scored up to nine birdies, but in the first eight, he didn’t need to make a single putt longer than three metres. One of those sublime days for Hideki with the irons, where he seems to catch fire. Curiously, on the ninth and last birdie of the day, he sank a putt of almost 20 metres on the 18th green. Matsuyama, in his element.
– And if we don’t fully count on Rory for the victory, much less with Patrick Cantlay (-7), who today signed a very dull card at par for the course. Is the Californian doing horribly in 2025? Certainly not: he hasn’t missed a single cut and has two top tens… It’s just that he’s dull. He was never the life of the party on the course, but his numbers usually challenged you. He remains one of the best in the world, but it’s been a while since he took on the role of protagonist in a major event.
