He didn’t blow it today, but the major misses are becoming a part of his legacy. He’s been in position to win several majors but just can’t close them out, especially for someone who has 20 Tour wins.But he gets the T2 - he clearly didn't have his A game today, so that's not the worst result for him. It's not like he had a huge lead and blew it: there was a big chasing pack, and he needed to shoot in the mid-60s to get it done. No disgrace at all.
DJ has absolutely underachieved in majors at the macro level. But at the micro level, I don't think this particular PGA will or should rank very high on his list of might-have-beens. He was the 54-hole leader, but it wasn't a big lead, and there was huge and very talented pack waiting to chase him down. And only one guy passed him, and it took a nails performance from Morikawa for that to happen. He'll be disappointed, sure, but this wasn't a choke like e.g. 2010 at Pebble or 2015 at Chambers Bay.He didn’t blow it today, but the major misses are becoming a part of his legacy. He’s been in position to win several majors but just can’t close them out, especially for someone who has 20 Tour wins.
In addition to the studly Morikawa, in this Major alone, top 10's for Wolff(21), Scheffler(24), Champ(25), DeChambeau(26), and Schauffle(26)The PGA has so many great young players. In really good shape.
I agree that he didn’t choke it away and this one won’t sting as much as Chambers or Pebble.DJ has absolutely underachieved in majors at the macro level. But at the micro level, I don't think this particular PGA will or should rank very high on his list of might-have-beens. He was the 54-hole leader, but it wasn't a big lead, and there was huge and very talented pack waiting to chase him down. And only one guy passed him, and it took a nails performance from Morikawa for that to happen. He'll be disappointed, sure, but this wasn't a choke like e.g. 2010 at Pebble or 2015 at Chambers Bay.
Agreed on all counts.I’m just saying he’s an elite player and he should have more than 1 major victory. He had a chance to add a second yesterday and couldn’t get over the hump.
You've heard the story of Michael Jordan and the 1992 Dream Team, how intense their scrimmages were, with no fans, no media, no nothing, present. Just the players and coaches. You don't get to that level in your sport unless you're uber-competitive, fans or no fans.It's maybe worth thinking about the tournament with a wide-angle lens: apart from the FA Cup and a few other soccer competitions around the world, I think I'm right in saying that the PGA Championship was the first major sporting event - i.e., a competition among the absolute biggest in the sport in question - to finish since the pandemic began, and with no fans in attendance. Did it feel less significant to the players because of the circumstances surrounding it? It certainly didn't feel like it. How much were the absent fans really missed? At some points they were, but we also avoided the worst "Mashed Potato!" excesses of modern fandom as well; it was a net negative, but not a huge negative.
I think a lot of us were worried at the start of the lockdown that pandemic-affected sports wouldn't feel like real sports, and that the players might be going through the motions. From what I've seen on the PGA tour - and in soccer, and in the NBA, the NHL and even MLB - that absolutely isn't the case, and the best sportsmen and women in the world are just as fired up about winning and not losing as they are when fans are in attendance and when circumstances are normal. Which is awesome.