PGA Championship- Whistling Straits

cshea

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The final major of the year is upon us. We return to Whistling Straits, which hosted the 2010 PGA Championship, won by Martin Kaymer in a playoff over Bubba Watson. It's a return to the scene of the crime for DJ. Rory is apparently ready to go in his return from injury. He finished 1 shot out of the playoff in 2010.

https://sports.bovada.lv/golf/pga-tour

Favorites are (no real surprises): Spieth, Rory, DJ, Day, Bubba, Rose, Fowler, Scott and Stenson round out the top
10.

Also, Spieth is playing a practice round with Mickelson and intends on taunting Lefty by carrying around the U.S. Open trophy during their round.
 

Number45forever

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Rory is back in the field.  Interesting and seems like a quick comeback.  It would be amazing if he contended this week after not playing a tournament in over a month and, I assume, not playing much at all period the first 2-3 weeks after the injury.
 

cshea

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Rory looked good during his practice round yesterday. Didn't seem to be favoring the ankle at all.

In other news, the bunker rules remain the same. Basically everything is a bunker. Inside the ropes they'll be raked, outside they won't be. If your ball is on dirt/sand, don't ground the club.
 

LogansDad

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cshea said:
Also, Spieth is playing a practice round with Mickelson and intends on taunting Lefty by carrying around the U.S. Open trophy during their round.
In a PGA season that has been pretty awesome since the start, this might be my favorite thing to happen so far.
 

BigMike

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Anyone know what the deal is with the 5th hole.   I saw the golf channel talking heads talking about how great the course is, and even the pros like it,  with the exception of the 5th hole, which at least some people despise
 

Freddy Linn

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BigMike said:
Anyone know what the deal is with the 5th hole.   I saw the golf channel talking heads talking about how great the course is, and even the pros like it,  with the exception of the 5th hole, which at least some people despise
 
It is a double dogleg that the long guys in 2010 could cut off, and now the tee has been moved back so they can't so much and plays like it was designed.  The thought is that the S-shaped hole is a classically gimmicky Dye design.
 

Comfortably Lomb

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Freddy Linn said:
 
It is a double dogleg that the long guys in 2010 could cut off, and now the tee has been moved back so they can't so much and plays like it was designed.  The thought is that the S-shaped hole is a classically gimmicky Dye design.
Gimmicky and contrived.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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Frito Tankona said:
 
Yup.  Couldn't get it to work in Chrome or FF.
 
Same, I have it on my iphone working fine, however would really like to watch it on my monitor at work. If anyone finds any work around or browser I should use, it would be appreciated. 
 

luckysox

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Tiger's playing...eh.  Putter has let him down a bit. Not terrible.  Not good. +1 through 15.  But off the drove it in the rough on the par 5 16th.
 

luckysox

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FL4WL3SS said:
Tiger started on the back nine, so he's actually only through 5 holes.
I meant through actual #15.  I know he's on the back. My bad.  He really should have been 2 under after 2 , but alas, putted poorly.
 
edit: made a birdie on #16, his 7th hole to move back to even.  Bradley is +1 and Kaymer is -2 so far.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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He has missed putts of 7', 9' and 3' today. Every green in regulation through 7 holes and is even par for the day. As a tiger fan that wants to see him do well, I was happy to see his drive on #1 (#10) in the fairway as I feel he really needs a solid first few holes to get on the right track each round. 
 

luckysox

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bostonbeerbelly said:
He has missed putts of 7', 9' and 3' today. Every green in regulation through 7 holes and is even par for the day. As a tiger fan that wants to see him do well, I was happy to see his drive on #1 (#10) in the fairway as I feel he really needs a solid first few holes to get on the right track each round. 
 
Yeah, I want to see him do well, too. He has looked better so far today than in the 1st rounds at the last two majors, but he's clearly still not there. He just missed the green in the giant bunker to the right on #17 (his 8th).  Should be an interesting shot.
 
edit:  And he hit a beautiful shot out of the bunker.
 

cshea

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Nice par save there for Tiger, and a nice drive on 18. He looks good tee to green (only missed 2 fairways, and is 7/8 GIR) but the putter is off. Speed seems to be the issue, he's blown a few well past the hole.

Bradley's having a fun round. 3 birds, 3 bogeys and 2 pass through 8. Just drove it way right into DJ land on 18. PGA decided to put a grandstand there, so he got a saving bounce off of that but it won't be an easy par from there.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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The announcers on the app are painful. I know it must be tough to follow just three guys for an entire 18 and have something to talk about, but they are brutal. 
 

Comfortably Lomb

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SoxJox said:
Somehow, to me, that hole looks neither gimmicky nor contrived.  [Apologies...can't embed images from this computer]
It take two 90 degree turns. Makes the player bail left off the tee which forces a layup or challenge the right to have a shot at the green which is protected by water on the left so then they bail left. So water on both sides. Ideally a player works the ball both ways on the hole and is brave. It looks like it was designed by a focus group.
 

cshea

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Bradley meltdown is on going. +4 now after starting -2 through 3. Tiger 3-putts 3 for a bogey to get to +2.

Too bad they can't switch the featured group to DJ/Fowler/Day.
 

cshea

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DJ shoots 66. 3rd major in a row he's held a first round lead. It may hold up through the afternoon, the wind is picking up a tad. Par on 9 would give Tiger a 75.

Almost big boy time. Spieth and Rory off in 10 minutes. Giddy up.
 

SoxJox

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Comfortably Lomb said:
It take two 90 degree turns. Makes the player bail left off the tee which forces a layup or challenge the right to have a shot at the green which is protected by water on the left so then they bail left. So water on both sides. Ideally a player works the ball both ways on the hole and is brave. It looks like it was designed by a focus group.
Not trying to argue here, but I think what you have described is a perfectly situated risk-reward setup. Layup or go for the green on the 2nd shot.  That it has 2 dog legs is not unusual in itself.  Innisbrook (Valspar Championship), Valhalla, TPC Twin Cities, hell, even the PGA's own National Resort and Spa (Ryder's Cup) have double-dog leg holes.  I guess what I/we don't know is what the natural landscape was when they built the course and/or how much human engineering went into laying the hole out exactly as it is.  If the water is in it's natural location and not re-channeled/filled, they seemed to have incorporated it into the layup quite nicely.
 

Freddy Linn

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SoxJox said:
Not trying to argue here, but I think what you have described is a perfectly situated risk-reward setup. Layup or go for the green on the 2nd shot.  That it has 2 dog legs is not unusual in itself.  Innisbrook (Valspar Championship), Valhalla, TPC Twin Cities, hell, even the PGA's own National Resort and Spa (Ryder's Cup) have double-dog leg holes.  I guess what I/we don't know is what the natural landscape was when they built the course and/or how much human engineering went into laying the hole out exactly as it is.  If the water is in it's natural location and not re-channeled/filled, they seemed to have incorporated it into the layup quite nicely.
The land was flat when Dye got his hands in it. There is nothing natural to the hole.
 

cshea

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Just took the Rory group about 30 minutes to play the 5th. An adventure for Rory and ZJ. Both were in hazards, but Rory's was playable and he escaped with a par.

Wind is really starting to whip.
 

Leon Trotsky

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FL4WL3SS said:
What happened to Lingmerth? Was -3 on the front and got to -8 overall and has dropped 4 strokes since. Yikes.
 
And then birdied 10. My shining light. 
 
This is a pretty cool course. I like it. 
 

johnmd20

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Unless Tiger can find something, he'll miss another cut. He's played on the weekend in only two of the last eight majors. Two those those he didn't play in. Forget about winning a major, right now I'm sure Tiger would love to be playing on Saturday at this point.
 

BigMike

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johnmd20 said:
Unless Tiger can find something, he'll miss another cut. He's played on the weekend in only two of the last eight majors. Two those those he didn't play in. Forget about winning a major, right now I'm sure Tiger would love to be playing on Saturday at this point.
 
Give him some credit, at least he was able to play on Saturday at the British open.