– These players are trying to drive us crazy. Hideki Matsuyama had spent half his life trying to win a Fedex Cup play off and he does it when he least expected to, after losing his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, who had his passport stolen in London, where Hideki’s team was making a stopover, en route to Memphis and the Fedex St. Jude Championship.
Without his usual caddie and without the usual putter… Although, in this case, by the player’s own decision, who travels with no less than five or six putters and who decided before the tournament that it was time to find new sensations and use one that Odyssey had sent him over a year ago.
Arrive and kiss the saint: nobody putted better than the Japanese at the TPC Southwind. However, such success does not guarantee his presence in the bag during the second play off, this week. “I will have to see the speed of the greens, the type of grass and make a decision about it,” Matsuyama has said. Yes, they want to drive us crazy.
By the way, Hideki admitted yesterday that after not making the birdie on the 16th, par 5, it crossed his mind that the tournament was going to slip away. “I saw myself one stroke behind and felt that I was losing the tournament, because on holes 17 and 18 it is difficult to make the birdie. I was lucky to make birdie on 17 and immediately thought: wow, now I have a very complicated shot ahead on the 18th tee, I have to keep the ball on the fairway no matter what and I did it,” he explained just after letting off steam: “I am especially happy to have finally been able to win a play off tournament; I had been trying to do it for ten years and it gives me a great feeling to have been able to do it”. Another box ticked in the record of the great oriental player, although more than relief it was what he showed. And it has its merit, as Hideki finds it very difficult to show his emotions.
Let’s hope that the victories don’t come now two by two, because this week, at the BMW, he is going to start as a favourite, given his form (he had just won the bronze medal at the Paris Games, let’s not forget).
– The calculations about who will get first to the last play off, the Tour Championship at East Lake, are very simple. Only Xander Schauffele can snatch Scottie Scheffler the first place and for that he only needs to win this week’s BMW.
In fact, even winning, he would need Scheffler to finish worse than third. Just in case, let’s not rule out any scenario, as the play offs are loaded with surprises. For now, Scheffler should not be very comfortable playing for the big final prize at East Lake, one of Schauffele’s gardens, who has got tired of doing well on that course: with or without the reset that is currently done at the Tour Championship, the worst he has done in seven consecutive appearances has been seventh and he has a win and three second places. Xander, at East Lake, is something like a piranha in a bidet. However, we will have to see how the deep reforms that have been made on the course and that will be premiered in two weeks will suit the Californian.
– The course where the second play off, the BMW Championship, is played is the Castle Pines Golf Club, in Castle Rock, Colorado, about 40 kilometres south of Denver, and the altitude there is a protagonist, as it is played at about 2,000 meters. The PGA Tour, pay attention to this, allows them today, Monday, to practice with buggys, and there are not a few who have decided to change their plans to take advantage of it.
Scottie Scheffler, for example: “normally on Monday I take more of a rest, but this week I’m going to play with the buggys and Tuesday will be the day of more rest, before playing the Pro-Am on Wednesday”. The Number One is not worried about the altitude: “this summer I have been on holiday in Colorado and played golf. I have a system for playing at altitude that works for me and I hope it will do me good this week”, he explains. A pure coincidence to go on holiday precisely to Colorado?
– What version are we going to find of Rory McIlroy at the BMW? The one of the player who is sliding towards irrelevance after a tough season and that dramatic stumble at the US Open, or the one of the great champion who is going to find once again the way to postulate himself as a favourite? In this house we bet on the second option. Keep an eye on the Northern Irishman in Colorado…
