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Careless Casey Concedes Championship
With the Ryder Cup very much at the forefront of any golf discussion now, I'm afraid that Paul Casey's Sunday slump is simply more interesting than Bubba Watson's impressive victory. It sounds harsh, but it's true. A Saturday 62 put Casey four strokes clear heading into the final round, but a Sunday 72 handed Bubba a three-stroke victory. Casey's collapse did cost him his third PGA Tour title, but the T2 finish was enough to sneak inside Team Europe's automatic qualifying spots. That suddenly begs the question: Do we want Paul Casey at the Ryder Cup?
To sum him up, Casey only has one win on the PGA Tour since 2009 (this year's Valspar Championship), yet the Englishman has not slipped outside the World Top 20 since stepping inside it with a runner-up at the 2016 Deutsche Bank Championship. Two years inside the World Top 20, but not a single day inside the World Top 10. And does anybody remember how that Deutsche Bank Championship runner-up finish came about? That's right, he conceded a three-stroke lead on the final day to hand the title to Rory McIlroy.
He is Mr Consistent, delivering Top-20 after Top-20. But in the Ryder Cup you don't get Top-20s. You get first or you get last. You win or you lose. Unfortunately for Casey, he has a tendency to not win... Especially when the pressure is on.
Elementary, My Dear Watson
From a man who can't play under pressure to a man who seemingly can only play under pressure: Bubba Watson. Picking up his third Travelers Championship win, Watson shot a Sunday 63 (matching his Friday 63) to go -7 for the day and -17 for the tournament. Stewart Cink, Beau Hossler and J.B. Holmes (that's right, Watson beat Holmes) shared second with Paul Casey at -14. The win made Bubba the first three-time PGA Tour winner of 2018, adding to his WGC-Match Play and Genesis Open victories. Emphasising his position as Casey's polar opposite, Bubba is so incredibly sporadic in his form. His WGC-Match Play win came a week after a T66 and a week prior to his T5 the Masters, before going T57-T44-MC and then winning again at the Travelers. He also hadn't gone better than T35 in six tournaments before winning the Genesis Open.
Other Notables
There were some incredible shots at TPC River Highlands, but there's only one place to start: James Hahn's third round slam dunk hole-in-one. Hahn's ball didn't touch the turf on the Par-3 11th as it soared off the tee, rattled the flagstick and nestled in the cup. If you haven't seen it yet, look it up!
Jordan Spieth's victory-clinching hole-out bunker shot at the 72nd in last year's tournament provided one of the PGA Tour season highlights, and apparently he's a big fan of the bunkers in Cromwell. It wasn't quite so dramatic, but his bunker hole-out at the 6th en route to an opening round 63 put plenty of smiles on faces.
From shots to scores, Rory McIlroy finished T12 with -11. That's all good and well, but staying sub-par every day (64-69-69-67) is the big takeaway for him there. Jason Day tied Rory's score and also went sub-par every day. Last week's U.S. Open winner went ten strokes better than he did at Shinnecock Hills, but his -9 was only good enough for a T19. Spieth faded away after Thursday to a -4 T42 and Justin Thomas fell to T56 after a +3 final round left him at -2 for the week.
Bubba Watson - What's in the Bag
Driver: PING G400 LST
Fairway Wood: PING G
Irons: PING iBlade (2 iron), PING S55 (4-PW)
Wedges: PING Glide 2.0
Putter: PING PLD Anser
Golf Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Written by Joe Carabini
