PGA Championship 2017: D.A. Points could be the happiest guy to finish double-double-par you’ve ever met

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 21:22:11 +0000

D.A. Points plays his shot out of the rough on the seventh hole during the second round of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

By Ryan Herrington

D.A. Points was one stroke off Kevin Kisner’s lead with three holes to play during Friday’s second round of the PGA Championship, a position nobody would have predicted to be the case just two days earlier. Including D.A. Points. And then golf intervened on “The Green Mile”.

An errant tee shot on the 16th hole and a poor decision with his second shot resulted in a double-bogey 6. Between clubs on the par-3 17th, Points choice a soft 7-iron, only to pull it into the water and card another double. A par on 18 stopped the skid, but didn’t make things any easier as he had to sign for a two-over 73 that left him at one-over total and eventually seven back of Kisner

Instead of fuming, however, the 40-year-old three-time PGA Tour winner took it in stride. “I’m not happy about it, but it doesn’t do me any good to get mad about it now,” Points said.

He speaks the wisdom of a man who knows from true rock bottom in the game. For the last three seasons, Points hasn’t cracked the top 165 on the PGA Tour money list, his swing an unsolvable mystery.

His 2017 season will go down as a success thanks to his victory at the Puerto Rico Classic in March, but it’s also been a bit befuddling as he has had just one other T-20 finished (T-12 at Wells Fargo). In the last five starts, he’s missed four cuts and finished T-65 at the Quicken Loans.

“My golf swing isn’t right where I want it to be,” Points said. “I’ve kind of manufactured a lot of shots to get it where it needs to be. But I’ve chipped and putted really well. I haven’t been playing bad the last couple months. It’s not like I’m shooting 80 every day. I’m shooting even, one over or one under, and out here that doesn’t get you very far.”

But Points came to Quail Hollow with good memories. In 2012, he had what he his best ball-striking week he had for 72 holes in his entire career before missing a par putt on the last hole to win, then playing against Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy in a playoff eventually won by Fowler.

“Most people forget I was in it, too,” Points joked.

Having not played in a major since the 2015 U.S. Open, Points was determined to take a good attitude into the week, and it translated into an opening-round 68, his best score in his last 22 rounds.

If Points could have a mulligan on his Friday closing stumble, it would be his choice of clubs on the second shot on the 16th. With his ball settled down in the Bermuda rough, Points got overly aggressive with a hybrid when a wedge out was probably the right call. He didn’t catch the ball fully, and it wound up in the right right, 80 yards short of the green with no angle to the flag. Compounding this was a three-putt after being overly aggressive with a 25-footer to try to save par.

For as dark as the finish was, Points insisted on finding the bright side.

“I’m in the top 20 going into the weekend of my only major this year, and the only one in the last few years,” Points said.

“It’s so far from the end of the deal,” Points said. “There’s a chance three or four under could still win this thing. I don’t think it will, but there’s a chance. Like I said, I’m in the Top 20 probably going into the weekend of my only major I’ve played year and the last few years, I’m happy with where I am.”

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PGA Championship 2017: Kevin Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen tied for first-round lead

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 06:25:54 +0000

By Christopher Powers
As far as PGA Championships go, the hype surrounding the 99th edition at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte was as big as it’s been in some time. Can Jordan Spieth complete the career Grand Slam? Will Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson or Jason Day find form and win the final major of the season?

Instead, the golf course was the story on Thursday, yielding just 24 rounds under par in the field of 155 players. Two of them belonged to Kevin Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen, who each posted four-under 67s and lead by one. Spieth opened with a one-over 72.

Olesen, 27, went off in the morning and made six birdies and two bogeys to post his 67, and it seemed like only a matter of time before someone would catch him. About five hours later, Kisner was the only one who did, rolling in his sixth birdie putt of the day on the 494-yard par-4 18th. The pair played the Green Mile (holes 16-18) one under combined.

Olesen, a European Tour player from Denmark, has played in just four PGA Tour events this season, with his best finish (T62) coming at the Open Championship. He’s played well on the Euro Tour though, making 14 of 15 cuts and registering four top-10s. It’s his fifth appearance at the PGA Championship, an event he’s made the cut in three times.

For Kisner, it’s his third start at the PGA Championship, where he’s missed the cut and finished T-18 last season at Baltusrol Golf Club.

Five players carded three-under 68s, including U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, who went out on the back nine in even par 36, but made four birdies and a bogey coming in to get within a stroke of the lead. It should come as no surprise Koepka is once again at the top of the leader board in a major championship. In 16 appearances at majors he has a victory, four top-fives and six top-10s.

Gary Woodland, Grayson Murray and D.A. Points are also at three-under.

Rickie Fowler is among a group of seven players at two under after shooting a 69 that featured a triple-bogey on the par-4 fifth. The four-time tour winner bounced back strong after the “mental mistake” as he called it, making four birdies and just one bogey on his final 13 holes.

Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Jason Day each posted one-under 70s and are just three back.

For Rory McIlroy, who posted a one-over 72, as well as Spieth, it wasn’t what they envisioned, but they are still in the mix, five shots off the leaders.

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PGA Championship 2017: D.A. Points could be the happiest guy to finish double-double-par you’ve ever met

PGA Championship 2017: Kevin Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen tied for first-round lead