For the second week in a row……Aloha.
The PGA Tour’s Hawaiian swing wrapped up this week and the Sony Open from Waialae Golf Course (shout out to N64) was won by none other than the lovable doofus (or is it cheapskate?) Matt Kuchar. Kuchar made headlines on and off the course this week when word got out that he only paid his “fill-in” caddy $3000 when he won the Mayakoba Classic last November. A tweet went viral when someone said most caddies make 10% of the players take home cheque for the week but that rule probably does not apply when the caddy is essentially a guy off the street. Kuchar came out and said he paid the guy more than 3K for his troubles or maybe it was just when he was on his death bed, he would achieve true enlightenment.
Kuchar Rolls to Victory #2
Anyways, let’s get to the part where Kuchar made headlines on the course. Kooch opened with back to back rounds of 63 then went 66, 66 on the weekend to win in pretty much a runaway. Long-time grease monkey Andrew Putnam from Putnam & Putnam auto sales took time off this week to put a scare in Kuchar early on Sunday but could not keep with Kuchar on the back nine Sunday. Kuchar took home $1.152 million dollars for the win which is surprisingly a smaller winner cut than Kooch’s last win at the Mayakoba Classic. Fun Fact: last year Patton Kizzire won the Mayakoba and the Sony Open and also booked a spot in the Tour Championship. So, it is safe to say Kooch has booked his ticket to the big dance this year after winning the same two events.
Along with the money he took home, Kooch also took home one of the most underwhelming trophies on the schedule. The Sony Open trophy is not as bad as some of the generic jugs out there, but it certainly leaves a lot to be desired trophy-wise. It kind of looks like something someone gets for a lifetime achievement in local real estate but at the end of the day it’s another trophy for Kooch’s case and hopefully he didn’t stiff his caddy this week.
Top 10 Round Up
I touched on Andrew Putnam earlier in the recap but it should also be noted that Putnam got a bee sting on his toe early in the week and STILL managed to get second. What could have been if that bee picked a different toe to die on. Surprise, surprise the big cat Marc Leishman finished T3 in a week where the wind played a factor. I will be honest I was more interested in Marc’s son Harvey losing his tooth he was working on than how well the big cat did because it was a lock he would be high up on the leaderboard. Mr. Inconsistent Corey Conners finished T3 after qualifying Monday. I don’t know much about gambling, but I would say bet the house on Conners finishing well in weeks he qualifies Mondays. Because you know he is feeling it that week.
Chez don’t call me Shey Reavie also finished tied for third but the most amazing thing about Chez this week was that he holed out for eagle 3 times in one round and not one of them was shown on TV. HOW. DOES. THAT. HAPPEN!! Hudson Swafford, the lanky goofball, was also T3. How cool is DL3? Guy is 51 years old and still bombing it and still finishing 7th at PGA Tour events, then after the round just fly fishing in the ocean next to the course. Never change DL3. Who is Brian Stuard? He finished T8, alongside Chuckie 3 Sticks. CH3 has quite a resume at this tournament. He has 10 top 10s, 18 for 18 cuts made and 2.8 million in earnings. Cash another cheque my dude.
Canadian Contigent
Quite a few Canadians went over to Hawaii this week. 8 in total after Corey Conners qualified on Monday and turned that into a 3rd place finish. Friend of the POD Roger Sloan finished tied for 33rd. A very respectable finish and was looking like it was going to be a much better finish until a Sunday stumble dropped him to 33rd. Don’t worry Roger when you get me on the bag, we will work out those hiccups. First round leader Adam Svensson came out of the gates hot shooting a career low 61. However, he then played the next couple rounds like he drove a cart into a lake. The cut making machine Adam Hadwin made a cut but flirted with the Saturday cut until a couple birdies came late in his round and he finished 57th. Mackenzie Hughes was not so lucky as he was claimed by the dreaded Saturday cut. Ben Silverman, David Hearn and Nick Taylor all missed the cut on Friday. But hey, at least Silverman got to enjoy the beach on Thursday with that late tee time.
Notables
Some of the other notable finishes at the Sony Open were known-cheater Sung Kang finishing T10, no word on whether he cheated this week or not. Patrick Reed and his see-through pants managed to finish tied for 13th. But come on Patrick, no one wants to see that. Very few people can pull off white pants and you ain’t one of them. Ryan Armour had 52 straight fairways hit streak going into this week, seven fairways away from breaking the record. He missed the fairway on his second hole of the week. Dang, but he still finished T22. Jason Dufner was another one claimed by that dreaded Saturday cut, but he signed a big sponsorship deal with Dude Wipes, so you probably couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
WTF is going on with Jordan Spieth? Another missed cut and looks nothing at all like a 3-time major winner when he plays these days. Bubba Watson, man just stop playing tourneys in the wind. I am sure that is what his caddy wants to say to him, but Bubba has berated him so many times for suggestions he cannot bring himself to do it. Adam Scott came out this week and said he may skip WGC events this year for his schedule. I got news for Adam, keep playing like you have been and you don’t have to worry about playing in WGC events ever again. It was a good news bad news week for Vijay Singh. Good news is his work out went viral and his lawsuit with the PGA was dropped. The bad news is he stunk at golf this week and likely cannot hang with PGA tour players anymore.
Tough Week for Peter
The coveted thanks for coming out award this week goes to………. Amateur Peter Jung. I don’t care if you are 16 years old or not, you shoot bogey golf on 9 holes in a PGA event you are claiming this prize. Everyone was hoping this would be a real Cinderella story for the youngster but instead it can be summed up in 3 words. Was. Not. Ready.
Well that wraps up another week on the PGA Tour and the end of evening/night golf for the year. It was a week where there was as much stuff happening off the course as on and that is saying something because there was something like 50 hole outs during the tournament this week. But again, congratulations to Kooch and again PGA Tour pros if you want the DTG boys to call you out on a pod cast don’t hesitate to contact us. Look what it has done for Kuchar.