By E. Michael Johnson
Francesco Molinari already had his game working with rounds of 67-65-65 heading into the final round of the Quicken Loans National. But it was his performance on Sunday that got everyone’s attention and pretty much locked up a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.

Molinari fired a final-round 62, that left him at 21 under par for the tournament, allowing him to cruise to a eight-shot victory at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.

Molinari made just two bogeys for the week and only one over his final 68 holes. Molinari led the field in greens in regulation and on Sunday posted a gaudy 2.236 strokes gained/putting mark with his custom Bettinardi DASS BBZero with a skull and crossbones stamp in the rear cavity in an Italian flag-themed paintfill. Molinari first put the putter in play at the Players Championship and later in May won the BMW PGA Championship with it. Molinari’s putter is only 32.25 inches in length with a loft of 2.5 degrees and a like angle of 70. The grip is Lamkin’s Deep Etch. The putting display was incredibly impressive considering that Molinari entered the week ranked 203rd out of 206 players in strokes gained/putting at -.706 strokes per round.

Molinari also uses a split set of irons, using TaylorMade’s P790 for his 4-iron, while the rest of his irons are the company’s P750 model with True Temper’s Dynamic Gold X100 steel shafts. For the week, Molinari hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation for a 86.1 percent clip.

What Francesco Molinari had in the bag at the Quicken Loans National
Driver: TaylorMade M4 (Mitsubishi Tensei White 60X), 8.5 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade M3, 13 degrees
5-wood: TaylorMade M4, 18 degrees
Irons (4): TaylorMade P790; (5-PW): TaylorMade P750
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind (50, 56 degrees); TaylorMade Milled Grind Hi-Toe (60 degrees)
Putter: Bettinardi DASS BBZero

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By Christopher Powers
The massive crowd following Tiger Woods on Saturday at TPC Potomac were treated to a few impressive moments, like his streak of four consecutive birdies on the front nine. Meanwhile, in the group just ahead, the little-known Abraham Ancer was putting together the most impressive round of the week.

After going out in four-under 31, Ancer backed it up with another 31 on the home nine, giving him a tournament course-record 62, the lowest round of his career on the PGA Tour. Through 54 holes of the Quicken Loans National, Ancer finds himself tied for the lead with Francesco Molinari at 13-under 197, a position he had yet to be in during any of his first 42 careers starts on tour.

“It feels great, I played awesome today,” said Ancer, who hit 12 of his 14 fairways, 15 of 18 greens and needed just 25 putts.”I didn’t really make any mistakes, played really solid, kept the ball in front of me, hit a lot of greens and made some putts. Feels good.”

Ancer, who was born in Texas but is of Mexican descent, does have professional winning experience, including one Web.com Tour victory which came at the 2015 Nova Scotia Open. This season, his second on tour, he’s made 14 of 22 cuts and collected two top 10s and five top 25s.

On Sunday, he’ll play alongside Molinari, who is also in search of his first PGA Tour win as well as his first top 10 this season. That’s part of the reason the Italian is making an appearance in D.C. this week as opposed to the French Open, which is being held at Le Golf National, site of this year’s Ryder Cup, an event Molinari will almost definitely be playing in.

“It wasn’t easy to skip France for me, it’s one of my favourite tournaments and a course where I’ve done well in the past,” said Molinari, who fired a five-under 65 on Sunday. “But it’s just the way I’ve played this year. Obviously, winning at Wentworth and playing well in Italy and not doing so well over here [in America] in the first part of the season. I just needed some FedEx points and so far, so good.”

Despite being a staple on the leaderboard in many of his 120 careers starts on tour, Molinari is still looking for that breakthrough. He’s had no trouble on the European Tour, though, winning five times, including this year’s BMW PGA Championship.

“It’s always going to be a little bit harder for Europeans to win over here,” he said. “We’re not used to the courses. Generally, when we come over here first it takes a little bit of time to get used to it.

“The other thing, I think everyone plays more aggressively over here, so you just need to keep your foot on the gas and keep going and make as many birdies as possible.”

Two back is Zac Blair, another player looking for his first PGA Tour win. Entering the week, Blair had made just six of his 13 cuts, finishing no higher than T-18 last fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship. This week he’s carded rounds of 67, 66 and 66 to get to 11-under 199, which has him in a tie for third with Ryan Armour.

First-round leader Andrew Landry is at 10-under 200, while Kevin Streelman is alone in sixth at nine-under 201. Streelman followed his course-record 62 on Friday with a three-under 67 in the third round. Landry recovered from a second-round 72 with a five-under 65 to get back into contention.

Despite some shaky play, Beau Hossler is still lurking at eight-under 202 thanks to a birdie at his final hole, capping off a back-nine 38 that included four bogeys. Tiger Woods is at seven-under 203 following his “frustrating” third-round 68.

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By Christopher Powers
Tiger Woods’ third round of the Quicken Loans National began like so many of his third rounds have this season, with an early birdie run that sent those one-of-a-kind roars echoing throughout the course. Unfortunately, it ended like many of those rounds have as well, with Woods letting a few shots get away down the stretch.

But he was still able to move forward, carding a two-under 68 to get to seven-under 203, putting him six shots off the lead of Abraham Ancer, who fired a tournament course-record 62. He made six birdies on the day, five of them coming on the front, but four bogeys, two of them coming at the 13th and the 18th holes, caused Woods to walk off the final green with a bad taste in his mouth.

“One word [to describe it] would be frustrating,” said Woods. “To make four bogeys like that, I couldn’t afford to do that. I figured I had to get to at least 10 [under] by the end of the day, and making four bogeys definitely hurts.”

Even after opening the round with a bogey at the first, Woods got all the way to eight under overall with four straight birdies beginning at the fourth hole. Then he made what looked like a momentum-killing bogey at No. 8, but got it right back with a birdie at the par-3 ninth, giving him a front-nine 32 to get within two of the lead.

“I turned it around because I bogeyed the first, caught a flyer there at one, and then made a 15-footer for par at three and basically that turned everything around,” he said. “And then I went on the run after that.”

Woods couldn’t keep it going, playing his next six holes in one over before finally making another birdie after hitting his approach to five feet at the 16th hole. But he gave that back at the 18th after hitting his drive in the right rough for the third straight day and then failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

Still, Woods can take some positives from Saturday, like another improved round with the putter. At the end of the first round, he ranked well outside the top 90 in both putts per green in regulation and strokes-gained/putting. Through three rounds, he now ranks 27th and 26th, respectively.

“Everything kind of started at Quail Hollow,” he said. “Those greens were so slow and I didn’t putt well at all. After that, I just got into some bad habits and had to try and grind myself out of it and I think I have. I think I’ve gotten to where this entire week I’ve started the ball online again, and I’m starting to see it. Whether they go in or not, that’s great. But I’m starting to see it again.”

As we saw with Bubba Watson last week, Woods is still in the tournament, six shots off of Ancer’s lead and needing to go as low as possible on Sunday. With more sweltering temperatures on the way, Woods is hoping the course plays as challenging as it can so he can give himself a chance.

“If they put a lot of water on it to try and protect it so they don’t lose the golf course, everybody’s going to make birdies. But if they leave it a little on the testy side and I shoot a good round, I might have a chance.”

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By Ryan Herrington
Over-reaction or long overdue? The takes will be coming fast and furious, as social media showed Tiger Woods is experimenting with a new putter on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Quicken Loans Invitational outside of Washington D.C.

Tiger Woods practicing at TPC Potomac with a new putter. Looks like a variant of the TP Black Copper Ardmore. pic.twitter.com/t0D132E7VT

— Ryan Ballengee (@RyanBallengee) June 26, 2018

⁦@TigerWoods⁩ with mallet putter. Could be his new wand. pic.twitter.com/34Tivb2Hbl

— Steve DiMeglio (@Steve_DiMeglio) June 26, 2018

Indeed, there’s Woods at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms with what appears to be a TaylorMade TP Ardmore 3 mallet putter on the practice green.

Mind you, it’s one thing to practice with a new putter, it’s another thing to put it into play. Woods hasn’t commented (yet) on whether that will happen. Another picture showed that Woods had more than one putter in his bag—not uncommon for a tour player on a Tuesday or Wednesday of a tournament week.

Out here with Tiger on the range and there’s definitely two putters in the bag. One is a @TaylorMadeGolf TP mallet headcover. ? pic.twitter.com/wkQ4ueapuc

— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) June 26, 2018

However, according to one source, the belief is that there is a “better than good” chance that Woods makes the switch, which would mean the Scotty Cameron putter that Tiger has used for much of his career—and the entirety of his return to action in 2018—would go on the bench.

Why go away from the old reliable? Well, it has looked a lot more old than reliable of late.

At the Memorial earlier this month, Woods ranked 72nd out of 73 players who made the cut in strokes gained/putting (-1.924), including missing 10 putts inside seven feet for the week. If Woods had just been 0.0 in strokes gained/putting for the week, he would have won the tournament by a stroke rather than finishing T-23.

Two weeks later at the U.S. Open, Woods missed the cut after rounds of 78-72, which included a dismal 58 putts. During the first round, he four-putted the 13th green from 40 feet, his first four-putt in a tour event since 2010.

For the season, Woods ranks 89th in strokes gained/putting, despite ranking ninth in strokes gained/total.

“Obviously, I’d like to roll it better than I’ve been,” Woods said at Shinnecock Hills. “I’m hitting it just fine. I just have not made any putts, and then, importantly, I haven’t made those key ones to keep the momentum going, or if I have any positive momentum, I miss a putt and derail it.”

Positive momentum, of course, is what Woods is looking for this week as he makes his lone expected start ahead of next month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie.

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