Halve Ouimet Wins At Jack's Place - Spring Segment Race Heats Up

With another week in the books it was yet again another epic Sunday showdown. The Memorial Tournament at Jack's Place didn't disappoint and we were treated to a three-man playoff that ended on the second playoff hole with a birdie putt that won it. Bryson DeChambeau was automatic on Sunday (off everything except the tee at least). He sank crucial putts and scrambled from the thick chunky rough to finish at 15 under and squared off against Kyle Stanley and Beyong-hun An in the playoff. He sank a 10 foot birdie to eliminate An on the second hole to take down his second title of his young career. 

The fantasy racket saw some good competition as well with several vets vying for the lead throughout the week. That's Wet threw his name in the mix and had the lead at one point on Sunday. But as Patrick Cantlay slowly unraveled so too did anyone who'd staked their outcome on the young upstart. Over the first nine on Sunday it was basically a showdown between teams who had Cantlay and teams who had DeChambeau. Bryson and Patrick were going toe-to-toe for much of the round before Patrick fell back and out of contention. That eliminated much of the fantasy field and left Halve Ouimet, the leader heading into Sunday, Papa Levs and BevGin&Tonic to duel it out. It went back and forth over the back nine but as the Golden Bear prepared to shake hands with the eventual fantasy winner it became clear that Ouimet would be the one to pull it out even before the playoff was concluded. Ouimet scored crucial points when it mattered - collecting big rounds from Dustin and Rory - and secured the win with Bryson's inevitable 1st or 2nd bonus points. It's Ouimet's first win of the season, coming on the heels of his Winter Segment championship. It's his 13th Top 10 overall and 5th of the Spring. He's back in 2nd place for the season with designs on chasing down Miss Daisy for the top spot. Congrats Halve Ouimet. 

Notables

BevGin&Tonic scored his highest finish of the year with a runner-up finish and came up just 6 points shy of the victory. He's been a little bit more of a presence this segment, accruing 4 Top 10s which is above his career average of 2.6 per segment. However, the increased top 10 finishes are not being reflected in his overall performance as he's languishing in 22nd place for the segment and 20th overall. Clearly he's got consistency issues which need to be worked out and some media outlooks are reporting that he's currently seeing a sports psychologist. 

PapaLevs has had his woes this season but collected his second Top 3 finish on Sunday and came up 12 points shy of his first win since week 10 of 2017 at the Valspar Championship. PapaLevs holds down 13th place for the segment and 16th place overall. He's not yet scored any cash and if he wants to continue funding his expensive fantasy schedule then he'll need to pad the bank account shortly. Lucky for Levs, the Summer Segment is where he's historically performed the best with 6 Top 10s in the segment one year ago. 

Race for the Spring Segment

With just three weeks to go in the season's second segment championship the race is on. More like a sprint actually. With just 47 points separating the leader Talkeetna98 from second place Driving Miss Daisy it's practically a dead heat. And then in third is the formidable Whiny Little Pitch who you can never count out at 78 points back. Statistically, Talkeetna98 has performed slightly better than Miss Daisy as he's had 51 of his players make the cut over the segment while Daisy has had 49. Four rounds from two players is certainly enough to account for the 47 point gap between the two. Both Talkeetna and Miss Daisy have picked 4 winning horses this segment accounting for 80 bonus points each while Whiny has picked zero winners and is almost exactly 80 points off the pace. Whiny has staid in the hunt though by fielding more runner up finishers, third place finishers and top 25 finishers than either Talkeetna or Daisy.  

Over the final three weeks we can expect to see each of these fierce competitors going big. Most likely they'll be sending in the Tour's elite names each of the remaining three weeks as they jokey for position. It's going to be an exciting race to the finish as all three are battle tested veterans. And with the US Open coming right in the middle of this race there is sure to be some drama heading into the segment's final week at the Travelers.


NEXT UP is the Fedex St. Jude Classic where Daniel Berger has claimed the title in consecutive years. He's not player exceptionally well this year but if nothing else he's clearly a horse for the course. Some big names are in the field as they tune up their games for the US Open the following week. The TPC Southwind course is set up to be a good warm up for Shinnecock Hills and greens in regulation will be a key stat with the smaller than normal greens in Memphis. DaHoffa enters the week as the defending champ and is in need of getting something going before the spring wraps up. His red hot winter segment of 6 Top 10s and a win did not carry over to the spring so perhaps a place where he feels comfortable will bode well for him. Keep those precious starts in mind as you look to win a week, chase the segment or stay in the hunt for the Jackson Cup.