News and notes on the PGA Tour's top 20 golfers -2
11. Y.E. Yang, South Korea:
Following a good-news/bad-news trip to the Far East and a week off to return to the United States, the PGA champion is back in action for the Players Championship. He qualified for the tournament last year for the first time by winning the Honda Classic, his first PGA Tour victory, but shot 73-77—150 at TPC Sawgrass and missed the cut by six strokes. The good on his trip came when he captured the Volvo China Open for the 10th victory of his career, eight of them coming in Asia. Then he played in his homeland for the first time since taking down Tiger Woods at Hazeltine and missed the cut in the Ballantine's Championship, which was even more disappointing than failing to make it to the weekend in defense of his Honda title. However, Yang thoroughly enjoyed the experience, smiling from start to finish despite his subpar performance. He has continually pointed out how different his position is from only two years ago. He lost his PGA Tour card in 2008 and had to go back to Qualifying School to regain his playing privileges before last season. Now he is a major champion, is ranked in the top 20 of the World Golf Rankings and is a national hero as the first Asian male to win a major golf championship. While he is happy for all of that, Yang says the best part is that he has been able to give his family long-term security. He is coming off a tie for eighth in the Masters in his last U.S. event.
12. Stewart Cink, United States:
Cink was trying to build on a tie for 14th in the Verizon Heritage, but he shot 72-75—147 and missed the cut by two strokes last week in the Quail Hollow Championship. It was his third missed cut of the season, all in the last five events he has played, and left him searching for answers heading to the Players Championship. It will be his 13th appearance at TPC Sawgrass and he has only one top-20 finish, when he shot 6-under-par 66 in the final round in 2007 to tie for third, three strokes behind winner Phil Mickelson. The British Open champion has missed the cut four times on the Stadium Course and last year shot 77 on Saturday to miss the secondary cut, winding up in a tie for 76th. He gave himself a chance to make it to the weekend last week with birdies on the fifth and seventh holes Friday, moving to within one stroke of the cut-line. But Cink could make only one birdie while carding two bogeys on the back. His best stretch came when he made three birdies in a span of five holes while finishing his 72 on the front nine, but he put himself in trouble right out of the box by starting round two with bogey-double bogey. After turning around his putting fortunes last year by going back to a standard-length model, he has struggled this season on the greens. That continued at Quail Hollow, where he took 63 putts in 36 holes.
13. Lucas Glover, United States:
Finishing in a tie for 22nd last week in the Quail Hollow Championship was nothing to get excited about, but it was his highest finish since he tied for 25th in the Transitions Championship in March. It's time for Luke to find another level with his game if he is going to have any confidence heading into defense of his U.S. Open title next month at Pebble Beach, but the Players Championship this week might not be the ideal place to find it. He has played in the fifth major four times and has missed the cut each time, failing to equal the par of 72 in any of his eight rounds on the Stadium Course. The closest he came was when he opened with a 73 last year, but he followed that up with a 75 and missed the weekend by four strokes. It was probably of no consolation, but he bettered his previous best 36-hole score by three shots. Last week, Glover shot 71-71 to make the cut by four strokes and seemed to be headed for low rounds on the weekend before stumbling on the back nine. He made three birdies in six holes after making the turn on Saturday before carding bogeys on each of the last three holes to shoot 2-over-par 74. He then made four birdies in the first 10 holes Sunday before recording three bogeys on the back nine and had to settle for a disappointing 70. He hit 51 of 72 greens in regulation but could not take advantage of his accuracy because he averaged 31.0 putts per round.
14. Sean O'Hair, United States:
O'Hair's title defense in the Quail Hollow Championship went nothing like he had hoped as he shot 72-77—149 to miss the cut by three shots. It was the second missed weekend for him this season on the PGA Tour, both in the last four events, and also his second in four appearances at Charlotte. It came after he told reporters at the beginning of the week that winning at Quail Hollow last season was the biggest of his three victories on the circuit because of the strength of the field every year. O'Hair will try to regroup for the Players Championship, in which he has played well only once in four tries. After he tied for 58th in his first time around TPC Sawgrass four years ago, he finished 11th in 2007 before missing the cut the last two years. Sean has broken 70 only twice in the 12 rounds he has played on the Stadium Course, when he shot 66-69 in the middle rounds three years ago. He has posted a score of at least 75 once in all four of his appearances in the tournament. O'Hair was inconsistent in his first round last week, and he did not make a birdie in his second-round 77, his highest score since he missed the cut at 77-77 in the Barclays last August. He was not sharp in any phase of the game but struggled most off the tee and on the green, hitting only 11 of 28 fairways and averaging 33.0 putts per round.
15. Ian Poulter, England:
Poulter withdrew from the Verizon Heritage and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans because he wanted to be sure he was ready for the Players Championship after an old injury to his left knee flared up. He kept his fans up to date on his progress on Twitter, saying he was undergoing therapy, which included swimming and walking, before he started to hit golf balls again about 10 days ago. Poulter, probably the PGA Tour's biggest clotheshorse, returned home to London for a friend's wedding and was frustrated that he was unable to buy a new suit. He wears a 38L jacket and 34 pants, but none of the clothiers would split two suits for him. Poulter added that he would have had a suit tailor-made, but he did not have enough time. The Englishman is playing in the Players Championship for the seventh consecutive year and gave away a good chance to win it last year. He was right with the leaders after starting with 67-68 but did not make a birdie while shooting 75 in the third round. Poulter closed with a solid 70 and wound up alone in second place, four strokes behind winner Henrik Stenson, his Ryder Cup teammate. He said later that he thought he would win if he finished ahead of Tiger Woods, who tied for fourth, but he did not expect anyone to shoot 6-under-par 66, as Stenson did on Sunday. Nevertheless, it was the first time he had finished in the top 20 at TPC Sawgrass, where his best previous result was a tie for 21st in 2008.
16. Angel Cabrera, Argentina:
Finally playing the way he did when he won the 2009 Masters, the Argentine made a run at the Quail Hollow Championship last week before finishing third. He shared the lead with eventual winner Rory McIlroy early on the back nine Sunday but missed six putts inside 10 feet on that side and wound up six strokes behind as the young Irishman ran away with his closing 62. Still, Cabrera finally has to feel good about his game heading to the Players Championship. He made his first good showing in the tournament last year when tied for 14th, but it could have been much better because he posted a 6-over-par 77 in the third round. He shot 65 in the second round and might have been there to challenge winner Henrik Stenson on Sunday if not for that Saturday hiccup. The Argentine had missed the cut four consecutive years and failed to break into the top 25 in any of his previous six appearances on the Stadium Course, and his 65 last year is the only time he has broken 70 in 20 rounds on the course. It wasn't that Cabrera played so badly in the final round last week — he closed with a 4-under-par 68 — it was simply that nobody could keep up with the sizzling McIlroy. Cabrera got himself into the hunt and stayed there by hitting 51 of 72 greens in regulation, with an average drive of 314.1 yards, and tied for seventh in the field by averaging 28.3 putts per round.
17. Dustin Johnson, United States:
DJ was in contention for his fourth PGA Tour victory before shooting 5-over-par 77 in the final round to slide 25 spots down the leaderboard to a tie for 29th in the Quail Hollow Championship last week. He never had a chance Sunday, making bogeys on seven of the first eight holes before playing the last 10 holes in 2-under. It was not any single part of his game that let him down — Johnson hit only 4 of 14 fairways and 8 of 18 greens in regulation in addition to taking 31 putts. He will tee it up in the Players Championship for the third time this week and is another player who has yet to figure out the Stadium Course, but he should not feel bad because he is only 25 and there are veterans who can't play the course well. He shot 73-80—153 to miss the cut by six strokes the first time around at TPC Sawgrass two years ago, but he then shot 72-72 last year to make the weekend by one stroke. However, he shot 6-over-par 78 in round three and was unable to play on Sunday because he missed the secondary cut. Johnson played his best last week when he shot 65 in the second round, recording eight birdies and an eagle, after opening with a 73. He has not been on top of his game since tying for third in the Northern Trust Open and winning at Pebble Beach in February — he has failed to crack the top 30 in his last six tournaments.
18. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland:
Finally overcoming the effects of a back injury that set him back early this season, McIlroy gave himself the perfect present when he torched Quail Hollow for a course-record 10-under-par 62 two days before his 21st birthday. That gave him a six-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson in the Quail Hollow Championship, making him the youngest winner on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods captured the 1996 Walt Disney World Oldsmobile Classic a little more than two months before he turned 21. Anyone paying attention saw this coming after McIlroy captured the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic before finishing in the top 20 in three major championships and in the top four of three PGA Tour-sanctioned events late last year. It will make him a player to watch this week in the Players Championship, even though he shot 74-77—151 in his first appearance at TPC Sawgrass and missed the cut by seven strokes last year. At Quail Hollow, McIlroy had to sink a six-foot eagle putt on the seventh hole while finishing on the front nine to make the cut on the number at 72-73—145. Then he played the weekend in 16 under par to become the first player to win on the PGA Tour after finishing right on the cut-line since Chris Couch in the 2006 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The Irishman hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation in the final round and needed only 26 putts. He might have shot 59, but he could par only two of the par 5s and he lipped out a 40-foot putt on No. 17. During his Saturday 66, he putted for eagle five times but settled for birdie each time.
19. Kenny Perry, United States:
It appeared that Perry's game had finally come around last week when he opened with a 6-under-par 66, his best score of the year, in the Quail Hollow Championship. He was coming off a solid tie for 26th in the Masters, another reason for optimism, but then he stumbled to a 79 the next day to make the cut by only one stroke. KP shot 75-72 on the weekend to finish in a tie for 57th and still has not registered a top-10 result since he tied for sixth in the season-opening SBS Championship. He can't feel too confident about a turnaround in the Players Championship because he has not done particularly well at TPC Sawgrass. He has only two top-10 finishes in 21 tries, and he missed his best chance to win in 2004, when he broke the par of 72 all four days and wound up in a tie for third, four strokes behind champion Adam Scott. Perry shared the lead with Justin Leonard when he shot 65 in the first round in 1996, but he couldn't keep up with winner Fred Couples' 64 on Sunday and wound up in a tie for fourth, five shots behind. He has missed the cut three times in the fifth major, withdrew after the first round twice and finished in a tie for 22nd last year. Perry carded six birdies and an eagle in round one at Quail Hollow but had only six more birdies in the last 54 holes. After taking only 24 putts in the first round, he averaged 33.0 over the last three days.
T20. Sergio Garcia, Spain:
El Nino needs something, anything, to get him going, and perhaps he can find it this week by returning to the site of his biggest triumph as a professional. He took the lead with a 6-under-par 66 in the first round at TPC Sawgrass two years ago and held on to win with a par on the first hole of the playoff when Paul Goydos hit his tee shot into the water on the famed 17th hole. Garcia also finished second in 2007, when he torched the Stadium Course for another 66 in the final round only to finish two strokes behind Phil Mickelson. The Spaniard is playing at TPC Sawgrass for the 11th consecutive year and has one other top-10 finish, a tie for fourth in 2004, when he wound up four strokes behind surprise winner Craig Perks of Australia. Garcia finished in a tie for 22nd last year, closing with a 69, but that was one of his better performances in a season to forget after his girlfriend, Morgan Leigh Norman, dumped him. He has finished in the top 10 just four times since. His best result in a stroke-play event on the PGA Tour this year was a tie for 37th in the WGC-CA Championship, although he did tie for 13th in the Abu Dhabi Championship on the European PGA Tour in January, his first event of the year. In his last three events, his scores in the final rounds he has played have been 78-77-76.
T20. Vijay Singh, Fiji:
Again playing like a guy who has not been able to practice or even play much because of a back injury, Singh shot 77-72—149 and missed the cut by three shots in the Quail Hollow Championship. He failed to make it to the weekend for the second consecutive event, having also missed at the Masters. You might wonder how often that has happened and you probably would be surprised to learn that he has failed to make the weekend in consecutive events once in each of the last four seasons and five of the last six. Singh has never missed three consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour. The Big Fijian will try to get things turned around this week on his home course, TPC Sawgrass, when he competes in the Players Championship for the 18th consecutive year. Surprisingly, he has not performed particularly well on the Stadium Course, finishing in the top 10 only four times, including a tie for ninth last year when he equaled his best score on the Pete Dye layout with a closing 67. His best chance to win came in 2001, when he closed with a 68 but wound up one stroke behind champion Tiger Woods. Last week in Charlotte, Singh made bogeys on the last two holes of his first nine on Friday after starting on No. 18, but he gave himself a chance by making a birdie on No. 5. He needed two more birdies but finished with four consecutive pars. He was at his worst with the driver, hitting only 11 of 28 fairways, and the putter, averaging 32.5 putts per round.
