Category: Card of the Week
CotW — From Michigan, to Ohio, and now onto Pennsylvania
Card of the week this week comes not from a tour event like normal, but rather from the US Open sectional qualifying from Monday. Patrick Wilkes-Krier, currently at Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, Michigan plays holes 1-11 at -11 under, and holes 12-18 in both rounds at +6.
I wonder which holes are the hard ones.
Now granted, it’s not the perfect card because W-K started his first round on the 10th hole. meaning that he didn’t start off each round hot and then iceberg in the North Pole cold at the end. The breakdown ends up beine E through the first 7 holes, -9 from holes 8-30, and then +4 holes 31-36. A 9 under stretch in the middle of a USGA qualifier is damn impressive.
Probably made him feel a little uneasy bogeying 4 in a row down the stretch when he was fighting for one of only four spots up for grabs in Springfield. All is well that ends well, and pars on the last two holes gave him a four shot cushion above the playoff that was at 1 under.
Also, shoutout to Ypsi, and to Kyle Mueller, currently at Michigan, who also also qualified in Springfield! Check out full qualifying scores here.
Card of the Week — Albin and his 5 2s
In probably the easiest CotW winner so far goes to Albin Choi during the final round of the Web.com tour’s ridiculously long named BMW Charity Pro-Am Presented by SYNNEX Corporation. I swear, I’m just waiting for when tournaments start putting hashtags in their names. I’m just gonna show the scorecard and you can see for yourself why it’s such an easy pick.
Front 9 — Holy shit a 27
Back 9 — Didn’t know a +1 37 could be so interesting.
Besides the 27 on the front 9 which is absolutely incredible, Choi mad 5 2s in the first 11 holes. Do you realize how difficult making a single 2 is? You gotta stuff a great shot with a long iron on a par 3 and then make a putt. How the hell is he gonna make 5 in the first 11 holes. Also big shoutout for his two birdies on 14 and 15. It’s gotta be pretty demoralizing being 9 under through 11 and then suddenly 5 under through 13. Great bounce back.
With his final round 64, Choi finished in a tie for 8th place. Not the worst, but oh, what could have been.
Choi didn’t even have the low final round! He was tied by Trey Mullinax who shot a weak front 9 30 featuring 6 birdies in a row. But Trey didn’t have a triple, and he only made 2 2s, so the CotW honor easily favors Choi.
CotW: Abroad Edition
While Rory and Troy Merritt had themselves wild days on Sunday at the API, Card of the Week is going down under today to bring you what is most likely the most disappointing 61 in recorded history. It’s a stretch to call it a bad round, because a 61 is… well, it’s 61 – an incredible round and a tremendous feat of golf that is truly the 1% of the 1% for even the best players in the world. Unfortunately, it’s the way that Tim Hart’s score came about that makes it dreadful.
- Tim…
To begin with, the sides at City Golf Club Toowoomba are pretty interesting with a front nine par of just 33 and an overall par of 70. Course quirkiness aside, the numbers Tim Hart was writing on that card were astounding. Going into his 18th hole of the final round of the Coca Cola QLD PGA Championchip, the Queenslander had taken just 54 strokes. For those keeping score at home, that is a stunning average of 3.17 shots per hole. This is good. This put him on pace for a 58 with a par at the last, and a place amongst professional golfs greatest ever rounds. Unfortunately, Hart poked one OB en route to a triple bogey 7 to close his round, leaving him in a playoff for the championship… which he lost. I’ve got a sick feeling in my gut just thinking about it, but just take a look at his back 9. This is sick:
Tim… Tim. Tim. I mean, Tim. Please, Tim, no. Oh God no. Tim.
CotW: WGC Cadillac
Card of the Week is back!! Your weekly update to the best (if not perhaps the actual-best) scorecard of last week’s tournaments returns thanks in large part to one Steven Bowditch.
Mr. Bowditch has shown me the light this past week with a series of truly special performances at the WGC Cadillac. Not only shooting in the 80’s all four rounds, but basically calling it in the 2015 book Slaying The Tiger, saying that he liked WGC events because you can shoot in the 80’s all four rounds and still make money. Sure enough, Steven took home a smooth $48,000 for his prodigious efforts. I’ll only talk about his Friday masterpiece, but rest assured his other three rounds were nothing to sniff at.
Just look at this card for a minute. Drink in that sweet nectar, keeping in mind that he started on the back nine. This means that Bowditch was only +1 through 12 holes (with a 10 on the card!), parred four of his last six, and still shot 80. Every time I look at it, something new gets me. Four birdies in a row! No bogeys or doubles and five birdies! Only three holes worse than par! For the love of God, what the hell is going on. I don’t even know where to begin with this so I guess I’ll just end it here. Good thing he has a sense of humor about it.
Card of the Week: Valero Texas Open
Welcome to Card of the Week, where we take a look at the most interesting scorecards from the preceding week’s play. This week’s action was in the heart of Texas at the aptly named Valero Texas Open.
While I’m loathe to admit it, the most interesting part of the tournament was… the wind. Wind in the morning and early afternoon on Thursday created an incredible advantage for the players with the late-early draw (afternoon tee times on Thursday, morning on Friday). It was crazy, I’ve never before seen a draw so thoroughly eliminate (nearly) half the field from contention. Matt Kuchar played remarkably well and shot even par, five shots back of the eventual lead. Of the 31 (!) players that shot in the 80’s, 23 had morning tee times. All told, it was at least a 5 shot advantage to go off late, and in my opinion cost several contenders a shot at, well, contending.
Card of the Week: Arnold Palmer Invitational
We’re back for the first Card of the Week of the year. Each week I’ll be back with the most unusual, best, worst, overall greatest score card from the proceeding week on Tour. It may be a full round,nine holes, or simply a stretch of holes. Unusual is key. If you see a worthy card, don’t hesitate to send in a submission or tweet at us!
To make this comeback (please don’t call it that) extra special I’ve selected two cards this week, mainly because they have something in common: The Almighty Albatross (aka the double eagle for some odd reason). The most prized of single hole accomplishments, and this week we had two of them, both on the weekend. Daniel Berger had the first one on Saturday with a long iron from the fairway on the 6th hole. On Sunday, Zach Johnson carded his own with a slightly shorter iron on the much shorter 16th. Both players managed to play the par 5’s in a stupid six under par for their respective rounds. Which is helpful.
Daniel Berger’s round. Note that he had an albatross, an eagle, a birdie, and a par on the par fives. Class.
Zach Johnson’s 4th round. Look at all those colors! And the fall-apart! Magic.
I didn’t even notice until now, but apparently the PGA leaderboard doesn’t put the proper color around the Albatrosses (Albatri?). “We’ll just show it as a par,” love it.
Golf On The Mind 