Day to Woods: US PGA winners & losers

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  • Who made the grade and who failed to turn up?

    The PGA Championship proved to be a spectacular tournament yet again as the leader changed throughout the weekend, keeping all golfers and fans on their toes. Sport360’s golf expert Alex Dimond picks out the real winners and losers from from an eventful four days at Whistling Straits. 

    WINNERS

    Jason Day

    It was about time! At 27, the Australian is a positively old first-time major champion by the current standards being set by the likes of McIlroy and Spieth – but everyone has seen this triumph coming a mile off. Day was one shot away from potentially winning The Open this year, and yet that t-4th finish is now just his fifth best result in a major.

    From start to finish this week in Wisconsin Day exuded a calm confidence in his ability to get the job done, with his driver seemingly putting him in position on almost every fairway and his utter refusal to make a mental mistake with his irons (he ranked No. 1 for the week in bogey avoidance) slowly edging him away from the field. When you consider what he has been through recently – his latest bout of vertigo came at the US Open, for crying out loud! – his ability to consistently compete in these big events is truly remarkable.

    A few players occasionally threatened to upset Day’s procession – David Lingmerth had a moment, as did fellow Australian Matt Jones – but Day has certainly served his apprenticeship and this week would not be denied. He hit the ball brilliantly over the weekend, and ultimately even the hottest player golf has seen for many years, Jordan Spieth, could not make a dent over the final 18 holes. Spieth, better than anyone, knew how well his rival had played.

    Day reached 19-under par in a major championship quicker than anyone ever has done in history, and then became the first ever to finish at -20 for good measure. That is a fitting reflection of his quality and consistency across the 72 holes – a deserved and undeniable champion.

    “It’s been a long journey,” Day said in his presentation interview. “All the work I’ve put in since I was a kid. I never expected to play on the PGA Tour. It’s pretty special. I am really pleased with the way I played. I could not ask for anything better.”

    Others may be talking about the McIlroy and Spieth era, but Day’s consistency in majors is on a similar level. It will be interesting to see if he can force his way into golf’s latest ‘Big Three’ over the next 18 months or so.

    Jordan Spieth

    He could not quite clinch the third major of the year that he was targeting, but in coming second on his own Spieth nevertheless managed to supplant Rory McIlroy as world No. 1. We did not quite see the two men thrashing it out on the back nine on Sunday, but in that symbolic switch at the top of the world rankings it still feels like we finally saw their rivalry start in earnest.

    For now, no-one will be betting on McIlroy establishing any sort of clear dominance over the American any time soon. Just consider Spieth’s 2015 in the majors: Win, win, 4th, 2nd. And we thought McIlroy’s effort last year was pretty good!

    As FiveThirtyEight pointed out last week, Spieth is currently compiling a professional season that even McIlroy is yet to enjoy – and one that only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have previously bettered. With the website identifying a sizeable leap in performances by young golfers between the ages of 22 and 23, it seems we might just be seeing the very tip of what Spieth is capable of achieving.

    Spieth will leave Kohler disappointed but will surely get over that quickly – ultimately Day, a player who clearly warranted his first major at some point, was in scintillating form for all four rounds. But for Spieth to contend here, after doing so under similarly great pressure at The Open, speaks volumes for both his stamina, mental strength and coolness under pressure – qualities that, when coupled with the efficiency of his swing, suggest we will only see even greater things from him in the next few years.

    Rory McIlroy

    It was always going to be asking too much of McIlroy to expect to return after over a month on the sidelines (much of it spent not even hitting a full shot) and beat the likes of Day and Spieth in full groove. The Northern Irishman insisted his ankle was back to 100% but rustiness was always going to be an issue – while the fact his offending foot was still taped up suggests that perhaps the truer figure was nearer 95%.

    Still, after a somewhat tentative start, McIlroy managed to get himself towards the fringes of contention over the weekend, ultimately finishing with all four rounds under par. It was not enough to win, or get inside the top-20, but few other players would have been able to do anywhere near as well in the circumstances.

    With the FedEx Cup looming (McIlroy has confirmed he will skip the first event), it would be no surprise to see him back to winning ways right around the time the Tour Championship (and the $10m FedEx bonus) is on the line.

    Brian Gaffney

    The only club professional (out of 20) to make the cut in Wisconsin, the 44-year-old even managed to beat a few of the regular PGA Tour players on his way to a 71st place finish.

    That would not be anything to write home about for most players, but for Gaffney it will serve as a reward for a career devoted to the game. He had never previously made the cut in any of his US PGA appearances – but this week is a story he will be able to tell for some time to come.

    “It’s not the only goal, but it’s something that validates the hard work that I’ve put in over the years,” Gaffney said on Friday. “And I think somewhere deep down in there, it’s going to feel great that I came through and did something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

    “I don’t know, hopefully my kids some day down the road will see some of these articles and be proud of me.”

    – 2015 PGA Championship in quotes: Jason has his Day 
    – VIDEO: Lahiri makes history by finishing tied fifth at PGA Champs
    – VIDEO: Emotional Day reflects on PGA  victory

    LOSERS

    Dustin Johnson

    Another major championship, another meltdown for Dustin Johnson – although this time at least it happened before the 72nd hole. It looked somewhat ominous for the others when the American snatched the first round lead with a six-under par round, even if he slowly began to slip off the pace over the following two days.

    On Sunday he arrived with a small but not insignificant chance of challenging Jason Day… only to open with a quadruple bogey eight at the straightforward first to instantly plummet out of contention. He recovered impressively over the remainder of his round, but never to the point where he was genuinely in tournament contention again. It was almost a repeat of his conspicuous backtracking out of the spotlight at St Andrews – unfortunately, it would seem Johnson has become cowed by the memories of all his major failures.

    That is a shame, if not necessarily a surprise. A break over the winter might do him the world of good – and allow him to return mentally refreshed for another assault on the majors in 2016.

    Adam Scott

    In the final major in which he can use his preferred long putter, Adam Scott shot 76-75 to miss the cut by six. Many worry that Scott will not be the same player once he is forced to return to the short putter in 2016, so this was not the way he will have wanted to fare in what many might end reflecting was his last great chance to add to his career major haul.

    At least Scott will always have the 2013 Masters, a success no-one can take away from him and one that already guarantees his career will be deemed a success in the fullness of time. Yet after that Augusta triumph there were those certain it would only be the start of even greater things to come, something that now looks distinctly unlikely. 

    The long putter and the influence of caddie Steve Williams took Scott to the next level – with one now banned and the other perhaps slipping back into retirement, it is not unreasonable to ask if the 35-year-old is now past his peak.

    Tiger Woods

    So insistent for so long that he turned up every week “looking for that ‘W’”, it was interesting and more than a little illustrative to hear Woods talking ahead of this week’s tournament about simply trying to get back to that position.

    “I’m just trying to get better,” Woods said, as close as he has ever come to admitting he did not think he can win. “I’m just trying to get up there where I can win tournaments.”

    It turned out he was right – an opening 76 followed by a 75 meaning a third successive missed cut in a major, something he has never done before. Woods has suggested he will play at next week’s Wyndham Championship in order to try and qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but there would seem little point in that (he essentially needs to win to make it … and even he doesn’t seem to think he can do that). Perhaps it would be better that he shut things down for the year, returning only to play in the end-of-season events that he is either heavily involved in or heavily recompensed to attend.

    This week it was the putting that was blamed for his struggles, but clearly the issue (as it was at St Andrews) remains a mental one. Woods needs to work out how to regain his hunger – and unfortunately there is not a swing coach for that.

    Whistling Straits

    No player has reached 19-under par in a major quicker than Jason Day managed this weekend – and no player has ever finished at 20-under as the Australian managed. There is certainly nothing wrong with being an easy golf course (and, make no mistake, Day also played as good a tournament of golf as anyone has done for perhaps a decade), but you never want to have the easiest golf course in major championship history. 

    Whistling Straits looks suitably impressive and difficult on television but the reality appears to be that it is something of a dartboard – with that in mind, you wonder if the owners will be plotting a few tweaks before it is next thrust into golf’s big spotlight.

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