This one was a nail biter. Heading into Sunday’s final round there were 6 teams who had at least some chance to take home the victory and four who were right there till the end. It came down to the wire between the 54 hole leader and favorite to win Fairway to Heaven and Strangers, Better Than Most, and Night Putting. All four teams had McIlroy on the roster and therefore all four teams were guaranteed any bonus points he ended up with. It would be the dark horse players who decided this tournament and in the end it was Sergio Garcia, garnering 20 points on Sunday with a 3 under final round that provided enough fire power for Night Putting to edge out a win, eluding Better than Most and Fairway to Heaven by only 8 points. Night Putting relied heavily on his players from the Continent as Donald, Garcia and Mcllroy accounted for 144 of his 180 total points. He joins Better than Most in the Two-Timers club by getting his second win of the season. Fairway to Heaven absolutely fell apart in the final round shooting a collective 13 over and earning a measly 30 points. He remains a force to be reckoned with though as this was his 4th top 3 finish in a row and he now stands at 3rd in the standings. Better than Most was the only team to have two players awarded bonus points as his uncanny foresight in drafting Russell Knox, the only team to do so, and Mcllroy paid off with a tie for second and moved him to the top of the standings. He was also the only team to bench Mcllroy in the final round which proved to be a wise choice after Mcllroy shot a 4 over final round. Strangers made a strong showing and moved himself into the 2nd overall position on the standings. He made a crucial early round mistake by not taking out Matsuyama after he withdrew in the second round. Keegan Bradley could have helped him out and potentially earned him the win had he not been sidelined for all four rounds.
Notables:
Several teams were asleep at the wheel this week as Your Name Here, Baby Draw, Freeside Links, and Papa Gino did not bother to field a full roster of active players for the tournament. Your Name, Freeside and Baby were lucky to have this score dropped but Papa will have to soldier on while stomaching his second to worst score of the season.
Buddy the Bull had a classic Sunday meltdown going 13 over between three players while his A lister Tiger withdrew due to back spasms and earned no points. The Bull had an outsider’s chance to earn his first W going into Sunday’s action but the pressure proved too much for him and he remains in the 6th spot overall.
Lafferty Daniel Gilmore Happy continues to move up the leader board after a solid score of 160, his third highest score of the season. He showed steely reserve by sticking with his guns in the final round: had he made the tempting decision to put in Tiger, hot off a 5 under 3rd round, instead of sticking with Scott he’d have ended up with zero points and prescription for muscle relaxers. Instead, Scott earned him an extra 16 points and Happy moves to 8th in the standings.
Jowls looked pretty good after the early rounds and it appeared that he could make a charge over the final two rounds to contend. However, after missing out on Brendon de Jonge’s 36 hole 10 under by keeping him on the bench he made the obvious decision to get him into the action. At which point he then went 14 over in the last two rounds and earned zero points. Jowls is still looking for his first top 3 finish of the season.
This week is the second stop on the Florida swing as the WGC – Cadillac Championship at Doral takes place in Miami. The Donald hosts this exclusive cocktail jamboree and all the big names will be there. Let’s hope they don’t get distracted by the toupee.
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