Nobody — and we mean NOBODY — gets up for a Viktor Hovland victory quite like the Norwegian broadcast booth. With each passing win by the Oslo-born PGA Tour pro, the Arcadian announcers have gone crazier and crazier, crescendoing on Sunday as Hovland fired a course-record 61, including a Looney-Tunes-eyeball-bulging 28 on the back nine, to clinch the BMW Championship. When Hovland’s final putt clunked into the bottom of the cup, the Norwegian booth exploded like a Mentos in a Coke bottle in a truly unforgettable (and largely unintelligible) outpouring of joy. Sound to 11.

The Norwegian booth call never disappoints ??@PerHaugsrud and @HenrikBjornstad couldn’t contain their excitement over Viktor Hovland’s record breaking round @BMWChamps. pic.twitter.com/jmXYF2rAmp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 22, 2023

As the wise old sage Ron Burgundy once said: GREAT ODIN’S RAVEN! You have to love their passion for their fellow countryman and the yin-yang of the pair is hilarious. One loses his mind, going in for a bear hug, bellowing: “HOLY! … I WANT TO SCREAM THE WORST WORDS I’VE GOT!” while his broadcast partner sits in stunned silence, unsure how to rationalise or contextualise what he has just seen (one of the greatest back nines in PGA Tour history, to be clear).

Like we said, these two have delivered plenty of fireworks over the years but this was easily their best work yet. Now all that’s left is Hovland’s major breakthrough. If and when that happens, run for cover, but it’s going to be raining thunder and lightning from the Norwegian booth. That much we guarantee.

The post The Norwegian booth delivered their most unhinged broadcast yet after Viktor Hovland’s BMW Championship 61 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Heck, even if Hatton did shoot one of those rounds of four-under or better, he’d probably still be angry that he didn’t shoot even lower. But he was extra-miffed after the 71, seemingly fully aware that his season had likely ended.

Evidently, it had not, and a PGA Tour official made sure to inform him of that fact as he was exiting the locker room. Hatton was in no mood to hear this excellent news, however, which made for a hilarious awkward video that the PGA Tour tweeted out Sunday:

Some poor guy got sent into the lion's den with Tyrrell Hatton in the name of content, and it's wonderfully awkward pic.twitter.com/y3lL7I85gU

— Ryan Ballengee (@RyanBallengee) August 21, 2023

Being informed that you’re going to sneak into the Tour Championship, where just showing up and finishing in dead last (30th place) is worth $500,000, should produce a reaction of joy. Shock. Awe. Something along those lines. Hatton’s reaction?

Au contraire, mon frere. You will be there. Save some of that excitement for next week!

Again, in fairness to Hatton, he’s not upset or uninterested in going to East Lake as it’s been assumed on social media. He’s emotionally reeling after finishing with a double-bogey 7 on the 15th hole and with two bogeys on 17 and 18. But there’s still something hilarious about the image of someone being told they are about to make a guaranteed 500 grand and being like “uhh, ok, cool.” Either way, it’s good content, so there’s that.

The post WATCH: No one has ever been less interested in a FedEx Cup standings update than Tyrrell Hatton appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There was a good deal amount of history made in golf on Sunday. At Cherry Hills, Nick Dunlap became the only male player other than Tiger Woods to win a US Junior Amateur and a US Amateur. A fellow named Dan Brown recorded his first DP World Tour win. Alexa Pano did the same on the LPGA and Ladies European Tour event at Galgorm Castle — on her birthday. And at Olympia Fields, Viktor Hovland shot a course-record 61, including an epic back-nine 28, to claim the BMW Championship.

But it was also there that arguably the most boring PGA Tour record was broken. We’ll forgive you for not noticing what Brendon Todd did over four days at Olympia Fields. Because, well, not many people noticed. Todd shot four-over to finish T-41 in the 50-man field. But the way he arrived at that score caused one man — Todd’s swing coach Bradley Hughes — to be curious.

You see, Todd made a whopping 64 pars over 72 holes to go along with six bogeys and just two birdies. Hughes wondered if that was the most pars ever recorded in a PGA Tour event, and, not surprisingly, stats guru Justin Ray delivered the answer.

Brendon Todd made 64 pars this week at the BMW Championship (2 birdies, 6 bogeys).

It's the most pars for any player in a 72-hole PGA Tour event over the last 40 seasons. https://t.co/qucpReNMIt

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) August 21, 2023

That’s a lot of pars. And, well, that’s about all we can say about the mark. Hey, we told you it was a boring stat.

Anyway, congrats(?) to Brendon. Of course, if he ever did that in a US Open at Oakmont, everyone would probably be a bit more excited.

The post Brendon Todd just broke the most boring PGA Tour record imaginable at BMW Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

For all the jockeying for position over 72 holes at Olympia Fields Country Club, for all the drama as players moved in and out of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup points standings, only one player — Matt Fitzpatrick — was able to play his way into the Tour Championship on Sunday.

Fitzpatrick had hoped for more, of course, after beginning the final round of the BMW Championship tied atop the leaderboard with World No 1 Scottie Scheffler. He matched Scheffler with a closing four-under 66, but the Englishman couldn’t counter the magnificent charge of Viktor Hovland, who fired a course-record 61. Fitzpatrick had to settle for joint second place with Scheffler at 15-under 265. Nevertheless, the former U.S. Open winner moved up 30 spots and heads to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in 10th place in the standings.

“Yeah, played great. Can’t do anything about 61,” the Englishman said. “For me, just really pleased again that I played really well final round in contention with world No. 1, and I didn’t lose it. Someone else came from behind and won it. I feel like my game is definitely in better shape than it was, and yeah, looking forward to getting to next week and working on it some more, and hopefully still progressing.”
With a move up, one player had to be pushed out, and that was Atlanta native Chris Kirk, who suffered a miserable finish with bogeys on three of his last six holes, including the 18th. Kirk, winner for the first time in eight years at the Honda Classic in March, dropped from 29th to 33rd after a closing one-over 71.

“I’m not sure how I feel about it. I hit two of the best shots [approaches] of the day the last two holes and went par, bogey,” said Kirk after finishing T-29 at two-under 278. “I’d like to have one more week, but I feel like I’ve had enough golf for the next couple of months.”

Scheffler’s only consolation on the day was overtaking Jon Rahm for the top spot at East Lake, the first time in FedEx Cup playoff history that a player enters the Tour Championship with the lead in back-to-back years. He’ll start the tournament at 10-under par and with a two-stroke advantage over Hovland.

Rory McIlroy, the defending champion and the only three-time winner of the FedEx Cup, will start third and three shots behind Scheffler at seven-under in the staggered-start format. He was seventh a year ago and six shots behind Scheffler before a final-day rally.

“I’m playing great tee to green, the best I’ve played in a long time,” McIlroy said after finishing fourth with a closing 66 on the North Course while paired with Hovland. “Going to have to drive the ball probably a little straighter, but I felt like I found something on the back nine there today to go into next week. but overall I’m in a really good position going into next week, so excited for it.”

Rounding out the top five in the FedEx Cup standings are Rahm, who will start at six-under par, and Lucas Glover, who begins at five-under. Fitzpatrick is in a group with five others who will be staked to a score of four-under.

No fewer than six players were in the hunt for the final few berths in the playoff finale, with Sepp Straka perhaps coming up with the most clutch performance, carding a 66 despite a bogey on the 72nd hole. His two-over 282 left him T-37, but he stayed inside the bubble for the playoff finale in 30th place.

“You watch it, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter because most of it’s out of your control anyway,” said the 30-year-old Austrian native, who had booked two flights out of Chicago, one to Atlanta and one going on home to Birmingham, Ala. “You’ve just got to try to play a good round of golf and see where you end up.”

Straka, Jordan Spieth and Emiliano Grillo began the week inside the top 30 but found themselves projected outside the top 30 after 54 holes only to bounce back to the plus side on Sunday.

Grillo carded a 67, enough to finish T-31 at even-par 280 and qualified in 27th position. Despite bogeys on his final two holes, Spieth advanced. He had dropped as far down as 32 in the projections when he signed for a 71 before getting help from 2018 FedEx Cup champion Justin Rose and Denny McCarthy, who were inside the number as the final round began but couldn’t keep it. Spieth finished T-34 at one-over 281.

Sahith Theegala also figured in the matrix of things, giving himself hope with three straight birdies starting at the par-5 15th, bit then the second-year tour player bogeyed the last for a 67 and 274 total, tied for 15th, which left him in that agonising 31st position, nine points behind Straka.

Rose had played his way in from 34th at the outset of the week with middle rounds of 65 and 68 and then fell away with 73-276, placing T-22. McCarthy was projected in at No. 30 when his final round began, but his even-par 70 wasn’t enough to keep it, ending up 33rd with his T-10 finish at 273.

Here’s the field for East Lake and where they’ll all start on Thursday.
Scottie Scheffler (-10)
Viktor Hovland (-8)
Rory McIlroy (-7)
Jon Rahm (-6)
Lucas Glover (-5)
Max Homa (-4)
Patrick Cantlay (-4)
Brian Harman (-4)
Wyndham Clark (-4)
Matt Fitzpatrick (-4)
Tommy Fleetwood (-3)
Russell Henley (-3)
Keegan Bradley (-3)
Rickie Fowler (-3)
Xander Schauffele (-3)
Tom Kim (-2)
Sungjae Im (-2)
Tony Finau (-2)
Corey Conners (-2)
Si Woo Kim (-2)
Taylor Moore (-1)
Nick Taylor (-1)
Adam Schenk (-1)
Collin Morikawa (-1)
Jason Day (-1)
Sam Burns (E)
Emiliano Grillo (E)
Tyrrell Hatton (E)
Jordan Spieth (E)
Sepp Straka (E)
FedEx Cup payouts

How much each player will make based on their finish at the Tour Championship:
1. $18,000,000
2. $6,500,000
3. $5,000,000
4. $4,000,000
5. $3,000,000
6. $2,500,000
7. $2,000,000
8. $1,500,000
9. $1,250,000
10. $1,000,000
11. $950,000
12. $900,000
13. $850,000
14. $800,000
15. $760,000
16. $720,000
17. $700,000
18. $680,000
19. $660,000
20. $640,000
21. $620,000
22. $600,000
23. $580,000
24. $565,000
25. $550,000
26. $540,000
27. $530,000
28. $520,000
29. $510,000
30. $500,000

The post Who’s in, who’s out at the 2023 Tour Championship: All 30 qualifiers and where they start at East Lake appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you think Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won “enough” during the 2022-23 PGA Tour, you’ll probably say that the 27-year-old Texan “squandered” another title at the BMW Championship despite shooting a closing 66. But here’s the thing: Was there really any stopping Viktor Hovland on Sunday at Olympia Fields?

With 10 birdies, including seven on the final nine holes for a back-nine 28, the 25-year-old from Norway rallied with a course-record 61 to pass Scheffler and win the second leg of the PGA Tour Playoffs by two shots over Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick with a 17-under 263.

When Hovland finished his round, Scheffler trailed by one with two holes to play. But a bogey on 17 and a par on 18 left him with “only” his 16th top-10 finish in 22 starts this season.

If there’s a consolation for Scheffler, he still jumped to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup points standings, and put himself in a prime spot to win the title next week at the Tour Championship that slipped through his fingers a year ago.

Being the No. 1 seed means Scheffler will have a two-shot advantage on Hovland, now No. 2 in the standings, and a 10-shot edge on the final five players in the 30-man field when play starts at East Lake. This was the case a year ago, too, with Scheffler held a six-shot lead heading into the final round only to stumble home and watch Rory McIlroy walk off with the win, the FedEx Cup and the $18 million bonus. Needless to say, Scheffler hopes to make up for those mistakes this time around.

As for the BMW, here’s the prize money payout for each golfer who competed this week at Olympia Fields.

Win: Viktor Hovland, 263/-17, $3,600,000
T-2: Matt Fitzpatrick, 265/-15, $1,760,000
T-2: Scottie Scheffler, 265/-15, $1,760,000
4: Rory McIlroy, 268/-12, $990,000
T-5: Brian Harman, 269/-11, $790,000
T-5: Max Homa, 269/-11, $790,000
7: Sungjae Im, 270/-10, $695,000
T-8: Russell Henley, 271/-9, $620,000
T-8: Xander Schauffele, 271/-9, $620,000
T-10: Corey Conners, 273/-7, $480,600
T-10: Harris English, 273/-7, $480,600
T-10: Tom Kim, 273/-7, $480,600
T-10: Denny McCarthy, 273/-7, $480,600
T-10: Andrew Putnam, 273/-7, $480,600
T-15: Patrick Cantlay, 274/-6, $332,000
T-15: Wyndham Clark, 274/-6, $332,000
T-15: Adam Svensson, 274/-6, $332,000
T-15: Sahith Theegala, 274/-6, $332,000
T-15: Cameron Young, 274/-6, $332,000
21: Tom Hoge, 275/-5, $262,000
T-22: Lucas Glover, 276/-4, $229,000
T-22: JT Poston, 276/-4, $229,000
T-22: Justin Rose, 276/-4, $229,000
T-25: Eric Cole, 277/-3, $179,750
T-25: Tommy Fleetwood, 277/-3, $179,750
T-25: Rickie Fowler, 277/-3, $179,750
T-25: Collin Morikawa, 277/-3, $179,750
T-29: Keegan Bradley, 278/-2, $156,500
T-29: Chris Kirk, 278/-2, $156,500
T-31: Emiliano Grillo, 280/E, $139,000
T-31: Si Woo Kim, 280/E, $139,000
T-31: Jon Rahm, 280/E, $139,000
T-34: Tyrrell Hatton, 281/+1, $122,000
T-34: Adam Schenk, 281/+1, $122,000
T-34: Jordan Spieth, 281/+1, $122,000
T-37: Tony Finau, 282/+2, $108,000
T-37: Patrick Rodgers, 282/+2, $108,000
T-37: Sepp Straka, 282/+2, $108,000
40: Cam Davis, 283/+3, $100,000
T-41: Kurt Kitayama, 284/+4, $94,000
T-41: Brendon Todd, 284/+4, $94,000
43: Byeong Hun An, 285/+5, $88,000
44: Adam Hadwin, 286/+6, $84,000
T-45: Jason Day, 287/+7, $78,000
T-45: Lee Hodges, 287/+7, $78,000
47: Nick Taylor, 290/+10, $72,000
48: Seamus Power, 294/+14, $70,000
49: Taylor Moore, 298/+18, $68,000
WD: Hideki Matsuyama

The post Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2023 BMW Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

As he navigated the short staircase to the podium for his post-round press conference on Sunday at the BMW Championship, Viktor Hovland tripped slightly, caught himself and laughed at his own clumsiness. It was about the only misstep he made during a record-setting afternoon defined by one of the most remarkable feats of clutch scoring in the 2023 golf season.

Having shown steady growth as an all-around golfer since turning professional four years ago, Hovland took a giant leap forward as a scary force to be reckoned with by shooting a course-record nine-under 61 at Olympia Fields to win the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The performance, fueled by an inspired surge of ball-striking, included a back-nine 28 on the North Course featuring seven birdies, none longer than 13 feet.

The incomparable finish made a hard-luck loser of Scottie Scheffler, who led for much of the final round but could not come up with the requisite answer as Hovland stormed to a two-stroke victory. Scheffler, who closed with a 66, had to settle for his 13th top-five finish of the season that includes a pair of wins, one of them the Players Championship.

“To win at a place like this and amongst the best players in the world, it’s pretty cool,” Hovland said after finishing at 17-under 263. “And to do it that way, making seven birdies the last nine holes, and yeah, to beat those guys, that was pretty cool.”

The 25-year-old Norwegian was the coolest of them all on a sweltering afternoon, eclipsing by one the course record Max Homa and Sam Burns had posted in previous rounds. Hovland established a record for low score in a FedEx Cup playoff event as well as his career low while winning his fifth PGA Tour title and second this year to go with his victory in the Memorial Tournament.

Hovland moves on to the Tour Championship in Atlanta ranked second in the season-long FedEx Cup standings behind Scheffler and will begin the playoff finale two shots behind the World No. 1 player in the staggered-start format. He remains fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking. For now.

Matt Fitzpatrick, who shared the 54-hole lead with Scheffler, had two late birdies and managed to tie Scheffler for second at 15-under 265. When he saw Hovland outside the scoring room, he grabbed his European Ryder Cup teammate by the shoulders and said something that made him burst out laughing.

“I said he was a little [expletive],” Fitzpatrick said. Actually, he was very big.

The moment Viktor Hovland became a winner @BMWChamps ? pic.twitter.com/megiBh3ZSk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 21, 2023

For much of the day, Scheffler appeared unstoppable, immediately separating himself from Fitzpatrick and keeping his nose ahead throughout the tense afternoon by going five-under through 13 holes. But Hovland, who began the final round three behind, just kept coming with an inward nine of eight 3s and a birdie at the par-5 15th that cut a four-shot deficit at the turn to one. But putting, which has held Scheffler back on many occasions this season, again became his undoing.

After failing to birdie 15, Scheffler missed a seven-footer for birdie at 16, leaving the door open, not that Hovland was obliged to knock it down anyway. A 9-iron to eight feet at 17 and a pitching wedge to six feet at 18 set up the birdies he needed to leapfrog the Texan. When Scheffler three-putted the 17th from 26 feet, the dye was cast. Scheffler added a sixth career runner-up finish to go with six career wins.

“Yeah, pretty amazing round of golf to win this tournament like that,” said Scheffler, who for the second year in a row will enter the Tour Championship as the leader. “I’m just a bit frustrated. I think that would be the way to describe it. I mean, Viktor went out and really just beat me today and played a fantastic round. I can hold my head high and just … I did my best out there today and fought hard. Just ultimately came up a couple shots short.”

Hovland, who didn’t miss a cut this year and finished in the top 20 in all four majors, won the Memorial in large part thanks to a blossoming short game. At Olympia Fields, he had everything going, and that was, perhaps, the most pleasing aspect of the week … other than the $3.6 million pay day. He didn’t lead in any single strokes-gained discipline, but he ranked among the top four across the board.

“If you take everything into account,” he said, “it’s just putting all of that together, and then being clutch at the right times at Memorial and obviously this week and having a chance to contend in those major championships, I think I’ve taken a big step this year compared to other years.”

A course-record 61 for the win! ?

Viktor Hovland is victorious @BMWChamps with a thrilling Sunday performance!#FedExCup pic.twitter.com/8L6WLiPJxa

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 20, 2023

Of course, there’s one more step to take, at least this year. Hovland, who has reached the Tour Championship in each of his four seasons on tour, has momentum and a prime seeding as he goes for the $18 million bonus that comes with winning the FedEx Cup. A long season is wearing on all 30 qualifiers to East Lake, but Hovland will go there with a definite spring in his step.

“Well, I’m about to pass out right now,” Hovland said, alluding to the toll the gruelling final round had on him. “But no, just a good night’s sleep, and we’re right back at it next week at East Lake. I’m sure it’ll be hot, and we’ll be sweating a lot, so I’m definitely feeling that it’s been a lot of golf, but it seems like the more I’ve played recently, I seem to play better. Just need to lean into that and hopefully we have another good week.”

If nothing else, he’s proven eminently capable.

The post Unpacking BMW winner Viktor Hovland’s mind-bending final round at Olympia Fields appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A late burst of crazy piled on top of some exceptional golf on a windy Saturday at Olympia Fields Country Club contributed to a leaderboard top-heavy with players who own PGA Tour victories this season.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who last year saw his FedEx Cup title hopes slip away to Rory McIlroy on the final day of the Tour Championship, appears poised to return to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta as the top seed after grabbing a share of the 54-hole lead in the BMW Championship. Scheffler’s six-under 64 on the North Course propelled the Texan to 11-under 199, tied with Matt Fitzpatrick who shot a 66 that included a bizarre bogey on the par-4 home hole.

Fitzpatrick pulled his second shot from a right fairway bunker across into the left rough near the gallery where a marshal allegedly moved Fitzpatrick’s ball by stepping near it or slightly on it, which adversely affected the lie.

“Like [he] didn’t fully stand on it, but definitely brushed it because you could see the grass was completely moved,” said Fitzpatrick, who chopped his ball out short of the green and got up and down for bogey. “It definitely sat further down than when I got there. They didn’t see it, and they can’t confirm that, so I wasn’t going to be like … I wasn’t going to fight for it, really.”

The fight comes on Sunday, with a posse in pursuit that includes Open Championship winner Brian Harman just one stroke back after a 67. Second-round leader Max Homa recovered from a triple-bogey on the seventh hole to shoot 71 to come in at 201. His day included the conversion of a five-foot birdie putt at the 17th while a fan shouted at him to “pull it” as he was in the midst of his stroke.

“There was a probably drunk, I hope for his case, or else he’s just the biggest loser there is,” Homa said, “but he was cheering and yelling at Chris [Kirk] for missing his putt short, and he kept yelling that he had … one of them had $3 for me to make mine, and I got to the back of my backstroke, and he yelled: ‘Pull it’ pretty loud, and I made it right in the middle.”

Homa and his caddie, Joe Greiner, yelled back at the man as they exited the green.

McIlroy, ranked second in the world and three-time winner of the FedEx Cup, and Viktor Hovland, who is fifth in the world, are tied at 202 after 67 and 65, respectively. Sam Burns leads a large group at seven-under 203 after tying Homa’s day-old course record with a 62.

Driver off the deck ?

This tracer from Scottie Scheffler is ridiculous! pic.twitter.com/Usz1gAgLLr

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 19, 2023

Scheffler, who has two wins this season, including the Players in March, has been on the cusp of a monster season in which he has finished in the top five 12 times. From his first win of the year at the WM Phoenix Open until his T-23 at the British Open, Scheffler didn’t finish worse than T-12.

The ball-striking maven, who leads the field in strokes gained/off the tee, tee to green and approach the green, finally got an assist from his putter, building confidence from one-putting the first five greens.

“It’s definitely been fun,” Scheffler, 27, said of his consistency. “I like being in contention.

It’s why I practise as hard as I do. On the flipside of it, yeah, it’s very draining, especially with this year, I felt like I’ve … this is now the second year where I’ve really been in the spotlight a lot, and yeah, I’d say there’s definitely challenges to it.”

And disappointments. Scheffler, who could become the first player to enter the Tour Championship first in the FedEx Cup standings two years in a row, knows he hasn’t capitalised on his extraordinary tee-to-green performance this year.

“I’m going to look back on my career and I’m going to think I could have nabbed way more tournaments than I’ll end up with. It doesn’t matter if I won eight times this year or if I won twice or none. There’s always more out there,” he said. “You’re never fully satisfied with the results. Tiger Woods won I think 83 times [82 actually], and if you asked him, I’m sure he’s trying to think about getting No. 84. It’s never enough.”

Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has been disappointed in his season a bit, too, after beating Jordan Spieth in a playoff to win the RBC Heritage. He entered the second FedEx Cup playoff event 40th in the points standings and needing a strong showing to qualify for the Tour Championship. So far, so good for East Lake and maybe salvaging his year.

Tree? What tree? ?@MattFitz94 grabs the solo lead in sensational fashion @BMWChamps. pic.twitter.com/CvkjcuexKh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 19, 2023

“Pretty high, yeah. Pretty high, definitely,” Fitzpatrick said of his frustration level this season, especially with a driver that has been holding him back. “After winning Harbour Town, I felt I kind of got a lot more out of my irons all of a sudden in two weeks at Augusta and Harbour Town. They just felt so much better than they had been probably since the US Open. I felt I could really kick on then.

“I’d probably say it wouldn’t match where my expectations of myself can be.”

At the lower end of the battle for the top 30 and a berth in the Tour Championship, Denny McCarthy, after a 65, clings to the last spot. He is one of three players to move from outside the qualifying number to a potential date at East Lake in Atlanta along with Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose, who shot 68 on Saturday and has moved up six places to 26th.

Jordan Spieth, Emiliano Grillo and Sepp Straka occupy places 31-33, respectively, to fall outside the top 30 with 18 holes potentially left of their season.

The post Wild final round on tap at BMW, with clustered leaderboard and Tour Championship implications appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The greens on the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club are tricky. Or so we hear. In fact, they are so diabolical that Max Homa said that they remind him of the greens at Augusta National, which we all know is the place where three putts hold a convention.

We ain’t buying it. Because what Homa did on Friday in the second round of the BMW Championship just couldn’t be done if the greens are as difficult as he and his PGA Tour brethren claim. Homa collected 10 birdies and posted a course-record 62 to seize the lead in the second FedEx Cup playoff event.

You have to be unconscious to make 10 birdies at Olympia Fields. You also have to be very good. Homa was both. It might not have been the best putting day of his life, but it ranked up there as the best he’s ever had on greens that induce vertigo.

“I don’t know. I’d like to think I’ve been better before,” he said, pondering, “but probably not. I can’t think of where that might be.”

At 10-under 130, Homa holds a two-stroke lead over Chris Kirk and is three ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick and Open champion Brian Harman. He built that lead by making 135 feet of putts on 26 whacks. He gained 4.314 strokes on the greens, which, of course, was tops in the field.

Matches career-low 62
Sets course record at Olympia Fields
Takes solo lead by 2 @BMWChamps

Have a day @MaxHoma23 ? pic.twitter.com/o9jx93x4eT

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2023

Impressive stuff. But to understand how he did it, you have to pull back the camera lens to take in the full picture. Homa hit 10 fairways, which was a huge key, he said. That set up hitting 16 greens in regulation, and it mattered more where he put the ball in relation to the hole as opposed to simply how close. (To wit: he ranked 34th out of 49 players in proximity.)

What Homa did was execute in a way his opponents attempted but failed. He gave himself manageable looks. And then he managed to make a bunch of them.

As World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said after a one-under 69: “It’s just hard to put the ball in the right spots to get the uphill putts.”

Homa had no such issues. Even when he left himself 10-20 feet, he was seeing good lines. He converted six putts outside 10 feet. Not that he could entirely avoid the “odd” and “awkward” little ones, but the California native ranks ninth on tour this season in strokes gained/putting, so he cleaned those up, too.

“I’ve been putting great all year, but it was helpful, like I said, I was in the fairway a lot, so I was able to be a bit more particular of where I was leaving it,” he said. “When you’re in the rough, you’re just trying to hack it on to the green or somewhere near it, so I think that helped a lot because I made a couple sidewinders, of course, but for the most part I did feel like I had a lot easier putts than I had yesterday.”

Homa was aware that he was on the way to breaking the course record, but he had a pretty good idea from another source just how well he was rolling it.

“Yeah, sometimes you’re just zoning, but I knew I was making a lot,” Homa said. “I heard the standard bearer say something about how he’s getting tired because he had to change the numbers on our thing so much because Pat [Cantlay] was making a lot, too. It was just a crazy day.”

Crazy good, in fact.

The post Max Homa’s ‘zoning’ at Olympia Fields leads to 10 birdies and a course-record 62 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The putting woes Lucas Glover endured for a decade have been well documented by now — and well, they should be given just how beautifully he’s played over the last two months highlighted by his back-to-back victories the last two weeks. Open champion Brian Harman was able to put a more compelling — and colourful—spin on Glover’s resurgence by paraphrasing a line from the film “The Shawshank Redemption.”

“To go through what he went through with his putter and to come out the other side, I think about like Andy Dufresne, crawling through the river and coming out clean the other side,” Harman said on Thursday at the BMW Championship where he shot 65 and grabbed a share of the first-round lead with Rory McIlroy. “I’m so proud of him. I’m so happy for him. Gosh, my wife and I were watching him win Wyndham [Championship, two weeks ago] and both of us are in tears watching it, and to follow it back up the next week, it’s awesome.”

“I think all of us … we all struggle from time to time, and Lucas with the putter, he struggled. It’s like … he was talking about putting left-handed,” added Harman, who plays left-handed. “I remember when I first moved down to St Simons [in Georgia], we’d go out and we’d play golf, and it was long before I had a tour card, and I was like: ‘I don’t know how I’m ever going to beat this guy.’ He was so good. He’s got such good hands. He was putting it so great. So he goes through that, and like I said, to come out the other side is just unreal.”

Everyone needs a friend like this

Co-leader @HarmanBrian talks about seeing @Lucas_Glover_ overcome his struggles. pic.twitter.com/dFxQkRKObV

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 17, 2023

Harman, who opened with a five-under 65 on the North Course at Olympia Fields, also had some choice words for an unnamed writer who in a recent story referred to Glover — who hit an even-par 70 for a share of 23rd on Thursday — as a “journeyman”. This was a different river, of, well, we’ll let him just say his piece.

“I read an article the other day that made me very angry. It called Lucas Glover a journeyman. It said, ‘journeyman Lucas Glover’, and I thought, what a ridiculous thing to say,” Harman said. “This guy has made I don’t know how many Tour Championships, won the US Open. He’s won six or seven times now. Lucas Glover is a world beater.”

He sure has been lately. Harman, the Champion Golfer of the Year, hasn’t been too bad, either.

The post Brian Harman shares perfect Shawshank analogy about Lucas Glover, admits tears while watching him win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rory McIlroy, one of golf’s finest drivers of the ball, isn’t one to subscribe to a “grip it and rip it” philosophy, but on Thursday he teed off on Olympia Fields Country Club with a feeling of impunity. This is called taking what the golf course gives you. And the North Course at Olympia Fields was giving the long-hitting Northern Irishman the green light to whale away.

So he did.

McIlroy hit three fairways in the first round of the BMW Championship and couldn’t have cared less about it. We’re just spit-balling here but shooting a bogey-free five-under 65, good for a share of the lead with Brian Harman, undoubtedly contributed greatly to his laissez-faire attitude toward a discipline in which professional golfers usually take great pride.

It’s called aiming.

Apparently, that was highly overrated on the rain-soaked North Course, even though players could put ball in hand and use preferred lies in the closely mown areas. These were the areas McIlroy seldom occupied.

One can make the argument that golf at the highest levels is generally played in this manner these days — all power and with fearless abandon. Lo and behold golf’s governing bodies are making this argument as we speak (not the PGA Tour wants to hear it) and seeks to rein in the offending modern ball. McIlroy, by the way, tends to agree with them.

But at watered down Olympia Fields, Rory made a splash swinging for the fences … if not the general vicinity of his intended target.

“With the golf course being so soft, it’s almost an advantage to be playing out of the rough going into some of these greens because you know the ball is not going to spin,” said the defending FedEx Cup champion. “I’m not saying I was trying to aim for the rough, but … a lot of the tee shots I was just being super aggressive because I knew in the back of my mind I wasn’t really being penalised for it.”

Had McIlroy exhibited a bit more control, we never would have witnessed easily one of the more thrilling holes of the day, the birdie he registered at the par-4 17th. After blasting your basic 347-yard tee ball into the left-field bleachers, er … left rough, McIlroy laced a 7-iron through the trees. His ball appeared to miss a tree trunk by inches and then raced through the greenside bunker and over the green. He proceeded to pitch in his third from 40 feet.

An absurd birdie from @McIlroyRory ?

(Presented by @CDWCorp) pic.twitter.com/PFoTcM2hqO

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2023

“It was a bit of a hit and a hope,” McIlroy, 34, admitted of his second shot through the woods. “Just trying to thread that needle and hit it straight at the 17 sign. Yeah, it was just one of those, it was either sort of chip it out or try to take it on, and it’s only Thursday, I thought, what the heck, I’ll take it on and see what happens.”

Yeah, what the heck. Embrace the chaos.

McIlroy, however, wouldn’t advocate for further impudence the next three days as jockeying for the Tour Championship heats up. He entered the week third in the FedEx Cup standings and no player has successfully defended the title since the inception of the competition in 2007. He is, however, the only three-time winner.

“I rode my luck a little bit,” he said. “I got decent lies in the rough, and from there I was able to get club on the ball and control my distance OK. Going into the next three days, I’d love to hit more fairways.”

Why would he want that? The guy led the field in strokes gained/tee to green at +3.596.

“That seems very unlikely and very wild,” said Chris Kirk, who shot 66. “But yeah, I guess if you’re flying it 330 into the rough and then he’s hitting a wedge out and the greens are soft and receptive still. Yeah, that certainly seems unlikely, but if anybody in the world is going to do that, it would be him.”

Naturally, McIlroy said he was more pleased to play “efficient golf” than he was concerned about his wayward driving. No, he did not plan to hit balls on the range either to fix things. “I don’t lose a lot of confidence with the driver. One bad day is not going to make me lose any sleep,” he said.

The post Rory McIlroy hit only three fairways during first round of BMW Championship and couldn’t have cared less appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.