2021 Majors Pool PGA Day 1 - Hans It was a sunny, but windy day at Kiawah Ocean. Corey Conners, a Canadian, is the 1st round leader with a 5 under 67. The course looked challenging and most of the scores would validate that feeling. Matt Kuchar 77 Max Homa 78 Sam Burns, so upset he quit after 9 and others well over par. Taking Day one honors are my Ace Holes, with a 350, nine shots better than Gabes in second place. It was fairly bunched up after that, with Season leading Sobo in last place - so far. But we know how his boys can play! Look out. As for the consideration of making this a 7 man team, two of the 7th men shot 2 under 70's. Mickelson and Tringale. At the other end were Adam Scott at 78 and Sergio Garcia at 77. Glad these were not included. I would welcome additional commentary by Al or anyone. I'll try to do better tomorrow. Just hope my boys keep their lead..... Day 2 Albert: Some big names like DJ and Xander won't be there. Sourpuss Justin Thomas has a 12 footer on the 18 pole which he needs to make the cut… I can't wait to see his sourpuss face when he misses. And who has van Royen? He might be my new favorite golfer! Did you see his temper tantrum when his excellent tee shot on number 17 just slipped off the green and into the water? He took a couple of ferocious swings with his club. Not satisfied, he went after the team marker and smashed the daylight out of it, knocking it into the water and snapping his club head off in the process. Classic! JT just missed this part, a great try that just crawled around the whole, and gives him the weekend off. He gave us the complete routine including body gyrations. My boy Hideki Bogie the last hole but still shot a 68 and is only 2 strokes off the lead. How do you say "grand slam" in Japanese? 100 million inquiring Japanese minds want to know. Doc: too bad Hans didn't go with the 7 men teams. Especially that your 7th man is leading the tournament! Yes, Phil is the first 50-year-old to be on the lead at a major since Sam Sneed in 1966. Pretty impressive! I mean, he can't actually win… Can he? He's tied with little Louis, who has one a British open but never a PGA event on American soil. Of course Brooks is lurking just a shot behind, tied with Hideki. So you have 4 golfers at the top, all having won majors, separated by a stroke. Should be a fun Saturday. Hans: Al - thanks for the commentary. and on the mark as always. Yes, Phil has part of the lead with little Louie and Ikey is pissed he didn't put Phil in his top 6. Fox's team came to play this windy Friday and everyone made the cut! The only team that can make that claim. Fox and Sobo tied for Friday's best with 359 scores. At the halfway point, Fox has a 2 shot lead on Gabes and Hans, but Andy and Al are only 3 and 5 shots back respectively. The final standings are likely to come down to how many players are on each team for the weekend. Fox 6 Hans 5 Andy 5 Sobo 5 Mags 5 Al 4 Ikey 4 Jack 4 Gabes 3 It was interesting to listen to PGA Tour radio throughout the day with commentary on everything - but especially the cut line. +3 was the line an hour in, then +4,and finally +5. Noteables to miss the cut: JT, DJ, Schauffele, Fleetwood, Leishman, and Kuchar. What golf I did watch was very entertaining. The wind made for challenging shots. I saw the best golfers in the world hitting from areas normally reserved for us amateurs. Wouldn't you love to know what DeChambeau is thinking? He is a different guy, but what a talent. Can Phil at 50 hang in there with the younger guys (not that Oosthuizen is much younger)? And will Gabes' boy Brooksy play the way he is capable and win another major? Gabes would be proud! I expected a rough day for my Ace Holes. Conners went out early and made a mess of it. + 4 or +5 after about 7 holes. He fortunately came back with a +3 for the day. Sitting on a lead can do that. Enjoy the weekend golf. Sobo: Watching today’s round was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many putts inside three feet missed. The Seekers contributed their part. Leishman was comfortably inside the cut after 16, then took four strokes to get down on 17 for a double and three putted 18 to miss the cut by one. And Tringale was even worse. He started the day -2, picked up a stoke to get to -3 after four, and then went 13 over the next five holes, including a triple, quad, and a quint! Glad I made him my seventh pick. Day 3 Hans: Just about the time that Phil looked like he was going to do a Rory impersonation and run away from the field at Kiawah, he dumped a ball in the water on 13, took double and fell back to 7 under, where he stayed the balance of the round. As it pertains to our pool, Phil's heroics do not matter, since Ikey left him on the bench. I know, don't bring it up again... Jack and Fox had the best team scores today. Fox is leading going into Sunday's final round, with ANDY, taking 3rd place in each of the first three days, is sitting in second overall. Our pool is clearly up for grabs, but as Gabes will tell you, being forced to take the high score or 5 over for Cut players will ruin a good day. It will be interesting to see if any of the players at 2 or 3 under can get hot and post a decent score on Sunday, ahead of the final groups. It will make for a great day of watching golf. Albert: Saturday was "must watch" golf. I had the pleasure of being invited to a family party during the afternoon, but I had the DVR cranking and stayed away from radio updates, etc. I watched through 12 holes last night when I got back and the finish this morning. I unabashedly love Phil Mickelson. And the thought of the 50-year-old version of Phil all being on the lead for the final round of the major championship is pretty amazing. Especially playing alongside Brooks… Ivan Drago to Phil's Rocky. But just as we all rooted Tom Watson to win the British Open in his 50s, only to lose in gut wrenching fashion, I suspect Phil will succumb to the much younger Brooks. Louis and Brooks could have both been on the lead either of them had putted at all. There are numerous players within 4 strokes of the lead but I suspect the winner will come from the top 3 Day 4 I'm certain that despite not having Phil in his Pool team, Ikey is thrilled with his big win today at the PGA. I listened to a lot of the action on PGA Tour radio, but that doesn't compare with watching the action. That said, I would appreciate Al's comments, or anyone who would like to share some thoughts. Lemme guess, Gabes will say that Brooksy sucks. Fox will say he's happy despite McIlroy's poor play since his boys won the overall by 5 shots, with Andy coming in 2nd, my boys taking 3rd 4 behind Andy. The most interesting stat is that 4 teams tied for the best Sunday score - 282. Andy, Mags, Fox and Sobo split 31.50, which happens to be the daily payout. The Ocean Course at Kiawah will continue to be regarded as one of the top 5 toughest courses in the US. 7600 yards didn't scare the pros. The water, extra sand areas and wind though may play challenging. As for my original thought that we should go with 7 man teams, I did a cursory review of Ikey's team with Phil included. Unfortunately, the rest of the team sucked so badly that Phil would not have changed the final, nor the daily results. I will be back with the US Open pool in 4 weeks. Jack will be in attendance at Torrey Pines and we expect daily reports from the course. Winners Hans Gabes Fox Sobo Jack Mags Andy Day 1 22.05 9.45 31.5 Day 2 15.75 15.75 31.5 Day 3 9.45 22.05 31.5 Day 4 7.87 7.87 7.88 23.62 7.88 31.50 Final 28.35 113.40 141.75 47.25 189.00 Total 50.40 9.45 146.47 23.62 22.05 7.88 259.87 55.13 315.00