The Open Championship- Carnoustie

PaulinMyrBch

Don't touch his dog food
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2003
8,316
MYRTLE BEACH!!!!
Tiger was going for it. We all loved the fairway bunker shot, but if that hits the lip, we’d be pointing to that shot as the one that did him in. The flop shot was a foot short. If he pulls it off, its double hell yeah from us. He didn’t execute a few shots, but all in all he was aggressive and trying to go low.
 

luckysox

Indiana Jones
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2009
8,075
S.E. Pennsylvania
Tiger was going for it. We all loved the fairway bunker shot, but if that hits the lip, we’d be pointing to that shot as the one that did him in. The flop shot was a foot short. If he pulls it off, its double hell yeah from us. He didn’t execute a few shots, but all in all he was aggressive and trying to go low.
I'm with you here. He doesn't play to hope for a playoff. he plays to fucking win. Period. I loved the flop shot.
 

RedOctober3829

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
55,298
deep inside Guido territory
Tiger was going for it. We all loved the fairway bunker shot, but if that hits the lip, we’d be pointing to that shot as the one that did him in. The flop shot was a foot short. If he pulls it off, its double hell yeah from us. He didn’t execute a few shots, but all in all he was aggressive and trying to go low.
I can't fault him that much for that flop shot. At the time, you had to think he had to keep going low. He was hot at the time and probably had the confidence to pull off that shot. I keep coming back to the point that if he made the bogey putt and kept himself at -6 maybe he rights the ship at 12. We'll never know.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Molinari deserves this, he's been a very underrated player. Mostly because he came up through the European tour and only recently came to the US. It was only a matter of time until he won a major.
 

luckysox

Indiana Jones
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2009
8,075
S.E. Pennsylvania
Who is the other Molinari brother...Eduardo? Where'd he go? When they were both good, I used to think of them in my head as Mario and Luigi. That's pretty messed up on my part.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,948
The flop shot wasn't the issue, missing the fairway with an iron off the tee did him in.
That's exactly right. We never even get to the flop shot if he doesn't miss the fairway with a 3 iron, and then have the rough grab his club head resulting in his next shot shooting into the gallery and ending up on the short side.

Then he compounded that double by missing the fairway on the very next hole with another 3 iron. Prior to those two holes, I don't think he had missed a fairway all day (if he did, he was in the "first cut" which isn't really rough there anyway).
 

PaulinMyrBch

Don't touch his dog food
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2003
8,316
MYRTLE BEACH!!!!
I can't fault him that much for that flop shot. At the time, you had to think he had to keep going low. He was hot at the time and probably had the confidence to pull off that shot. I keep coming back to the point that if he made the bogey putt and kept himself at -6 maybe he rights the ship at 12. We'll never know.
Agreed. And its no accident the guy that made the fewest mistakes the last two days is going to win. Still a huge day for Tiger and a huge day for golf. Congrats to Molinari, he’s been playing great and definitely earned this one.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,948
Who is the other Molinari brother...Eduardo? Where'd he go? When they were both good, I used to think of them in my head as Mario and Luigi. That's pretty messed up on my part.
It's spelled Edoardo or something weird. Pretty sure he's still playing on the European Tour. Interesting guy. SoSHers would love him. He's like the Bill James of professional golfers when it comes to stats.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
I would have loved Sands to ask Tiger: "It seems those two bad holes came right after you took the lead, were you aware of where you were on the leaderboard and do you think it had any impact on how you played those holes?"

I really think Tiger tightened up there.
 

Light-Tower-Power

ask me about My Pillow
SoSH Member
Jun 14, 2013
15,947
Nashua, NH
Great final round until the last hour or so where it really fizzled out, but still a fantastic tournament to watch. NBC should be ashamed with their coverage today, though.
 

Light-Tower-Power

ask me about My Pillow
SoSH Member
Jun 14, 2013
15,947
Nashua, NH
Alright I'm starting to like Molinari a little more. Just won his first major and he's casually sitting on the couch shooting the shit with the low am.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
This was an incredible four days of golf and I'm actually depressed it is over. NBC's coverage was traumatic today, but the coverage on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was solid.
 

PaulinMyrBch

Don't touch his dog food
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2003
8,316
MYRTLE BEACH!!!!
The flop shot wasn't the issue, missing the fairway with an iron off the tee did him in.
And some random luck once he got there. Molinari was 15 feet away in the same rough, got lucky with the lie and made par. But Molinari didn’t do it twice. Those two 3 irons were the difference.
 

The Needler

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
1,803
Molinari deserves this, he's been a very underrated player. Mostly because he came up through the European tour and only recently came to the US. It was only a matter of time until he won a major.
Way overselling this guy. Prior to this season he had four combined professional wins on any tour, and only one in the last five years. At 35, he was a pretty classic journeyman.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,948
Way overselling this guy. Prior to this season he had four combined professional wins on any tour, and only one in the last five years. At 35, he was a pretty classic journeyman.
I said it earlier, but Molinari was like 7/15 hitting fairways today, and finished something like 74th out of 79 golfers for the tournament in driving accuracy. Somehow, he never seemed to find himself in any real trouble, no bad lies, no bad bounces, etc. Every time he needed a bounce, he got one, and of course, he made every 6 foot putt and in that he looked at. Everything just went right for him this week for him to get this victory.

Having had him on my Fantasy team for a number of years, I've probably paid closer attention to him than just about anybody in the US, and this is a shocking victory. Not a surprising one, a shocking one. His entire run the last couple months is shocking. This guy doesn't win tournaments. He'll find his way into a top 10 here and there, but winning and finishing in the top 3, nope. The golf Gods are smiling on him right now, and he has taken full advantage. I expect him to disappear back into obscurity in short order.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

has big, douchey shoulders
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
I said it earlier, but Molinari was like 7/15 hitting fairways today, and finished something like 74th out of 79 golfers for the tournament in driving accuracy. Somehow, he never seemed to find himself in any real trouble, no bad lies, no bad bounces, etc. Every time he needed a bounce, he got one, and of course, he made every 6 foot putt and in that he looked at. Everything just went right for him this week for him to get this victory.

Having had him on my Fantasy team for a number of years, I've probably paid closer attention to him than just about anybody in the US, and this is a shocking victory. Not a surprising one, a shocking one. His entire run the last couple months is shocking. This guy doesn't win tournaments. He'll find his way into a top 10 here and there, but winning and finishing in the top 3, nope. The golf Gods are smiling on him right now, and he has taken full advantage. I expect him to disappear back into obscurity in short order.
He's always been a great ball striker but a relatively shitty putter. During this run, and clearly this tournament, he's been putting like a maniac.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

Homeland Security
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2005
19,615
Portsmouth, NH
I said it earlier, but Molinari was like 7/15 hitting fairways today, and finished something like 74th out of 79 golfers for the tournament in driving accuracy. Somehow, he never seemed to find himself in any real trouble, no bad lies, no bad bounces, etc. Every time he needed a bounce, he got one, and of course, he made every 6 foot putt and in that he looked at. Everything just went right for him this week for him to get this victory.

Having had him on my Fantasy team for a number of years, I've probably paid closer attention to him than just about anybody in the US, and this is a shocking victory. Not a surprising one, a shocking one. His entire run the last couple months is shocking. This guy doesn't win tournaments. He'll find his way into a top 10 here and there, but winning and finishing in the top 3, nope. The golf Gods are smiling on him right now, and he has taken full advantage. I expect him to disappear back into obscurity in short order.
I think outside the legends or top all time, we probably discount how much your first paragraph could apply to the majority of the players. Looking at leaderboards doesn’t really tell us how many of those bounces - good or bad - the next tier down player gets and then it’s kind of crap shoot, imo. Are you putting hot, getting kicks, staying out of trouble? You can win. These guys are all so good that it’s a matter of inches unless you’re dominant. He deserved to win this tournament and a half dozen other guys did too. There’s probably many more we didn’t get coverage on that played just as well and hit the wrong bump or missed a spot by a foot and it cost them. Especially on a course like this it’s mitigating disaster/penalty. He played remarkably and didn’t fold. Good for him.
 

Leon Trotsky

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
2,769
Boston, MA
I picked Molinari in the second round of our fantasy league this year. Seemed like a bit of a reach and I was regretting it until the last month or so when I suddenly started feeling like a genius. But last year something really clicked for him. This is not really out of nowhere. He had top 10's in a very high percentage of his PGA starts and was very highly ranked in GIR and par-4 scoring, which are supposedly good indicators for success. Like others have said, once the putting started coming together, he just became lights out.
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
Frankie’s last 2 months have been insane. MC’d at the Players then 1,2,T25,1,T2,1. Wins include a major and the BMW PGA. As good a heater as one can go on.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
Frankie’s last 2 months have been insane. MC’d at the Players then 1,2,T25,1,T2,1. Wins include a major and the BMW PGA. As good a heater as one can go on.
That is really some kind of run. Out of nowhere is right but something has clicked. You don't run off those finishes with only lucky bounces.

That said, yesterday he really did get every single bounce. It was insane, it was just his day. Maybe he reached out to the universe and asked for the bounces. And they appeared.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Way overselling this guy. Prior to this season he had four combined professional wins on any tour, and only one in the last five years. At 35, he was a pretty classic journeyman.
I don't agree. Since 2009, he's been ranked top 50 in the world by years end in all but 2 years where he was 55 and 66 respectively in 2014 and 2015. He was ranked as high as 15th in 2010 and just got to 6th with his latest win. It's really impressive to be ranked so high for so long with so few wins. He's Italy's Matt Kuchar.

He's been way more than a journeyman. He's a great player that had issues with putting and finishing off wins. It's pretty awesome to see a guy like him finally starting to put it all together.
 

steveluck7

Member
SoSH Member
May 10, 2007
3,994
Burrillville, RI
I wonder how much being paired with Tiger helped him. I'm sure he could feel the crowds, etc. pulling for Tiger and he was able to just plug along until he had his shot to score (14) and he capitalized. If he had been with someone else, he might not have gone unnoticed. Heck, it was in this very thread after 8 or 9 holes where someone mentioned "has he even made anything but par yet today?"
Heck, Tiger even teed off first on every hole up to 12. I'm sure the buzz around the tee box wore off considerably after Tiger's shot on every hole
 

The Needler

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
1,803
I don't agree. Since 2009, he's been ranked top 50 in the world by years end in all but 2 years where he was 55 and 66 respectively in 2014 and 2015. He was ranked as high as 15th in 2010 and just got to 6th with his latest win. It's really impressive to be ranked so high for so long with so few wins. He's Italy's Matt Kuchar.
Sure, but a guy who only has four wins on the Euro Tour, generally floats around 50th in the world rankings, and had only gotten “as high as 15th” for a couple of months years ago by age 35 is not someone about whom I’d say it was only a matter of time before he won a major. He was full time on the Euro Tour for a decade and only finished Top 10 in the Order of Merit once.

If Vegas was giving odds a year ago about whether Molinari would ever win a major, they’d have been astronomical. After last year’s Open, he was 34, had played in 32 majors, and had only two top 10s (a 9th and a 10th, each years ago), and had missed 10 cuts, including his last two. He only had two top-20 finishes in his last 28 majors.
 
Last edited:

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
I wonder how much being paired with Tiger helped him. I'm sure he could feel the crowds, etc. pulling for Tiger and he was able to just plug along until he had his shot to score (14) and he capitalized. If he had been with someone else, he might not have gone unnoticed. Heck, it was in this very thread after 8 or 9 holes where someone mentioned "has he even made anything but par yet today?"
Heck, Tiger even teed off first on every hole up to 12. I'm sure the buzz around the tee box wore off considerably after Tiger's shot on every hole
Molinari and Tiger have played 2 singles matches in the Ryder Cup. I don’t think Molinari was unnoticed as much as he was just as experienced and therefor as prepared as anyone could be for all that goes into playing with Tiger in a pressure packed situation.
 

PaulinMyrBch

Don't touch his dog food
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2003
8,316
MYRTLE BEACH!!!!
I don't agree. Since 2009, he's been ranked top 50 in the world by years end in all but 2 years where he was 55 and 66 respectively in 2014 and 2015. He was ranked as high as 15th in 2010 and just got to 6th with his latest win. It's really impressive to be ranked so high for so long with so few wins. He's Italy's Matt Kuchar.

He's been way more than a journeyman. He's a great player that had issues with putting and finishing off wins. It's pretty awesome to see a guy like him finally starting to put it all together.
I'd add that he's similar to Stewart Cink, one major, some tournament success, some national team success. But a very recognizable player.