British 2016 Al's Reports Day 1 Weather was crappy today, and it became a PERFECT day to hang around the house and watch golf all day. And what a day it was! Perfect conditions for scoring, but none better than Dimpled Ball Phil. It was amazing to see the announcers tee up the possibility of Phil matching, or perhaps even besting, the low Major score of 63. And with an amazing sand shot on 16 leading to birdie, and then draining a sizeable putt on Par 3 17th, he needed par to match and birdie to best that number. His drive barely misses a fairway bunker, his approach is to within 18 feet or so. And... foreshadowing what will happen... the telecast shows u previous best attempts to better that 63. Price at the Masters... Tiger at the PGA... each needing a birdie on the last, and both suffering painful lip-outs on 18. But Phil's putt is pure, looks to be dead in the hole... he has done it, 62!... but somehow, less than 6 inches from the hole where it looks dead in the middle, it bobbles the opposite way of the Faldo predicted break, catches the inside right lip, spins in, then out... and sits behind the hole, for yet another amazing lip out for the unreachable 62. Drama at its best, for sure..... So Phil misses that putt. My man Zach Johnson bogeys 17 and 18. This is where I normally yap about how it sucks to run these pools when I am not even in contention. But at the time that Zach was finishing bogey/bogey, my team had already gotten to 21 under for the day. His 67, along with Finau's 67 and Rose's 68 brought me in at 19 under 265 and first place for Day 1. U all may recall that I did NOT put Finau in my starting 7 for Gabes overall pool, stating that if he or Smiley Kaufman (another one benched in Gabes while playing in the Majors pool) won the BO, I would blow everyone in Indy in September. I now hear that, based on Finau's impressive round, Gabes and Sobo are reconsidering their attendance, and Gabes has ordered for me fishnet stockings and pumps. Speaking of Gabes, he and Willo tied for second place at 10 under 274. Willo finally got some mileage from that slacker Fowler, supporting Haas and Horschel today in the 60's. Gabes rode Sergio, Thomas and Grillo to his finish, with Grillo making a stupid birdie, chipping in from hay/gorse, a two to three stroke swing on one shot. 2 thru 9 remains tight.... But Mags did not hear the starting gun, 7 behind 9th and 25 out of first. I suspect that there will be WILD swings tomorrow, with terrible weather predicted early in the day, when 4 of my players will be on the course. Watch out for Reed, who posted his score early today and gets to play later today, when weather looks to be less severe. Day 2 Andy and Sobo had the hot hands on Day 2, finishing 1 and 2, respectively. And as it happens, they are the only teams who have all five players going this weekend. Impressive! I remain on top overall, with Sobo and Andy both 7 strokes behind, and they will be coming at my 4 man team w/ 5 man teams over the weekend. Gabes took a big step backwards... though he bested Jack and Hans. Hans, not used to seeing u at the bottom of this list, ur teams usually shine in these events. Fox and Hans have three active players for the weekend, the rest have 4. Day 3 Interesting day for the Championship, with Phil hanging on for dear life, while Stenson barely missed a shot all day. Phil did miss a short putt on 14, his first three putt in 117 holes or so... but he got up and down from places that were amazing. His shots were all over the yard, but he somehow cobbled together a one under 70. So Stenson sleeps on the 54 lead, having never won a major, playing head to head again with Phil, with 5 on his resume, tomorrow. Ikey, I like your chances. At 46, tough to keep it going for 4 rounds, and only Phil's short game magic saved from disaster today. Stenson looked like a golfing cyborg. Low rounds of the day both Fri and Sat. If he doesn't crack tomorrow, he should win. But he has cracked before... The bad part is that it looks like an 18 hole stroke play playoff between them, as no one else is close. But u never know. As for our event... Hans, sitting in last and with only 3 golfers, fires an impressive 1 over 214. That was one better than Ikey, whose Stenson got no help from the balance of the team. Willo had a chance to grab the top spot... he had 69's from both Homes and Hass. But the best of his other two players was Fowler's 76. Poor Rickie was playing well until the Railway hole where he pounded not one but TWO iron approach shots out of bounds. Ouch! While Willo's 214 tied Hans for second, Fowler's quad bogey 8 on that hole cost him the top spot for the day. Despite Zach Johnson spitting the bit with a 75 for my Dimpled Balls, I got a bounce back 70 from Rose, a solid 72 from Finau, and Phil's 70. That brought me in 1 under 212, best of Round three. Willo's solid day slips him past Andy and Sobo, with Ikey just behind. I have a hopefully comfy 10 shot lead, but stranger things have happened. But only 4 shots between 2 and 5, with $$$ going to top 3. Fox will appreciate that Andy's team had the lowest standard deviation, with 5 scores of 73, 73, 73, 73 and 71. Could be a new record. As Fox will likely point out, when u have 5 golfers with only three scores counting, and an average score of 72.6, the LAST thing u want is a very low standard deviation. Note to Sobo and Gabes: I am sure that Professor Chang would be proud to know that he had some impact on me! Day 4 What a great final round by the last two players. Congrats to Ikey and Stenson, a super well deserved first major. I'm sure both I and Phil would have signed up for a final round 65 and taken our chances. Stenson shooting a 63 with two 3 putts speaks to how well he struck the ball today, amazing. I cruised to the overall win, but Andy knobbed me by one stroke to take final day honors and clinched second. Ikey was one back of me for second place money today but is consoled by third overall plus the major skin. Sobo, do ur thing with the $$$. 8 plyers cashed at least something... likely most ever. Sorry, Mags and Fox. See u all in a few weeks at the PGA. Ranked by Score 1 Albert 265 286 212 206 969 2 Andy 279 279 217 205 980 3 Ikey 278 284 215 207 984 4 Willo 274 285 214 217 990 5 Gabes 274 293 219 212 998 6 Sobo 276 282 218 223 999 7 Hans 283 296 214 213 1006 8 Mags 290 282 218 216 1006 9 Fox 283 288 219 216 1006 10 Jack 283 294 218 213 1008 11 #1 Daily Al Gabes/Willo #2 Daily Andy Sobo/Mags # 3 Daily Al Hans/Willo # 4 Daily Andy Al Player Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Final Total Al $24.50 $24.50 $10.50 $126.00 $185.50 Andy $24.50 $24.50 $52.50 $101.50 Gabes $5.25 $5.25 Willo $5.25 $5.25 $10.50 Mags $5.25 $5.25 Hans $5.25 $5.25 Ikey $31.50 $31.50 Sobo $5.25 $5.25 Total $35.00 $35.00 $35.00 $35.00 $210.00 $350.00