The Irish Golf Club Gazette: TPC Sawgrass

Showing posts with label TPC Sawgrass. Show all posts

5/15/2014

Rory Remains Positive Post Players

Getty Images

Rory McIlroy believes he is getting ever closer to rediscovering top form and is positive about his prospects heading into the busiest stretch of the season.

The two-time major champion fired a final round of 66 at the Players Championship on Sunday to notch his fourth straight top-10 finish on the PGA Tour - and his sixth of the season.

While never seriously in contention at Sawgrass following a second round of 74, McIlroy was nevertheless pleased with the battling qualities he again displayed to finish strongly.

Although he conceded another "backdoor" top-10 was not what he had been looking for, he insisted there was plenty to take forward as some of the biggest tournaments of the season loom on the horizon.

"Overall, it's been another solid week, another top 10 it looks like, another back door top 10 as I like to call them, but it's getting close," he told reporters on Sunday.

"I'm playing really well, I'm playing solid. I equalled my lowest round ever here at Sawgrass today with a 66, so things are heading in the right direction.

"Any time you shoot 66 and you move up a lot of spots on the leaderboard, I think I was 120th at one point in this golf tournament on Friday afternoon. So to go from there to finishing in the top 10 is a good effort."

McIlroy admitted that costly errors were really hurting his chances of contending at present with a disastrous run in round two at Sawgrass leaving him too much ground to make up.

The Northern Irishman made four bogeys and a double in the space of five holes early on Friday, yet demonstrated great maturity to hit back with four birdies on the back nine to ensure he made the halfway cut.

He claims that eradicating such lapses will see him back challenging for victory sooner rather than later.

When asked what he was looking to improve, he added: "Limit the mistakes - just keep the real big numbers off the card and these bogey runs that I seem to be getting on, just kind of keep it a little tighter, whenever I don't quite have my A game and that's really it.

"But as I've been saying the last few weeks, I'm seeing enough really good golf in there to be really positive going into the sort of main stretch of the season."

5/11/2014

Game of Two Halves for McIlroy

Getty Images

Rory McIlroy remains perplexed by the front nine at TPC Sawgrass where he has struggled during the opening three rounds of the Players Championship.

After just making the cut on Friday, the Northern Irishman returned on Saturday to post a third round 69 - his lowest score of the week.

But, once again, the front nine caused him problems with McIlroy needing 38 strokes to reach the turn before notching five birdies coming home - including a hat-trick on the last three.

Teeing-off early, he made a bogey on the first, had a double-bogey on the fourth and another bogey at the sixth.

On day one he suffered three bogeys on the front nine which then required 42 strokes on Friday - when he carded a 74.

So far this week he has played 117 shots - nine-over-par - on holes one-to-nine and has had just 96 on the homeward journey.

And McIlroy said: "If I had just kept it around even par for the front nine, I'd be up near the leaders.

"I'm really happy with how I've been able to come back the last couple of days but it's also a little frustrating that I've had to come back because I feel like I'm playing good enough to not have these little stretches of bad holes.

"I felt like I wasn't playing as badly as the score was suggesting today. I'd hit five greens in seven holes and I was four over par.

"I hadn't really done much wrong. I had three really big lip-outs on the front nine also."

5/10/2014

Rory McIlroy Makes Cut

Getty Images

Rory McIlroy signed for a 74 in the second round at the Players Championship on Friday with four birdies on the back nine, having made the turn in 42 strokes at TPC Sawgrass to sneak in on the cut line.

McIlroy remains 2 shots behind Martin Kaymer who continued his streak with a second round 69 to lead by one from Jordan Spieth.

The Masters runner up reached 36 holes without a single bogey.

Spieth only turned professional in December 2012 and was a 19-year-old special temporary member on the PGA Tour when he won the John DeereClassic last July, the youngest winner on Tour since 1931. But he held a two-shot lead after seven holes of the final round on his debut at Augusta before finishing joint second behind Bubba Watson.

Kaymer, who won the US PGA Championship in August 2010 and became world number one the following February for eight weeks, said: "I was very happy the way I played golf the last four or five weeks, so the next step is just putting yourself in contention, hopefully win.

"If not, it's okay, but as long as you put yourself in contention for the next few weeks, especially now we're coming up to the US Open and British Open."

Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia were all six shots off the lead after adding rounds of 71 to their opening 67s, with England's Brian Davis a shot behind after a 67.

Adam Scott endured a long wait before discovering his latest bid to become world number one remained alive, the Australian rebounding from his opening 77 - which featured double bogeys on the 17th and 18th - to return a 67 with three birdies in his last four holes.

Scott, who could have overtaken the absent defending champion Tiger Woods by simply staying at home, needs at least a top-16 finish and eventually discovered he had made the cut with nothing to spare.

"I don't think I played that much better than yesterday to be honest," said Scott, who revealed he married his long-term girlfriend Marie Kojzar in a small ceremony in the Bahamas last month.

Henrik Stenson, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar are also able to overhaul Woods depending on their results, with Stenson needing a top-six finish, Watson to finish alone in second and Kuchar requiring a victory. European number one Stenson and two-time Masters champion Watson were three under, with Kuchar two under after a second consecutive 71.

Graeme McDowell added a 71 to his first round 69 to share 19th place.

Darren Clarke though misses the cut as his second round 73 was not enough to recover from an opening round of 76.

5/09/2014

GMAC Fares Better at Sawgrass

Getty Images

Graeme McDowell signed for a first round 69 in thursday of The Players Championship after three birdies on the back nine at TPC Sawgrass and remains the better paced Irish challenged. Albeit by a one stroke margin.

Rory McIlroy was 70 strokes at the end of play on the opening day - seven behind tournament leader Martin Kaymer.

The two-time Major champion made the turn in 33 after four birdies and the first two holes on the way home to reach five under. But then three bogeys - on his twelfth, fifteenth and seventeenth - left him just two under for the day.

“I played really solid for the first 11 holes but let a few shots get away from me at the end,” said McIlroy. “Guys are going low so 70 is going to be pretty average by the end of the day but I feel like my game is in good enough shape that I can go out tomorrow and shoot something in the 60s.

“It’s a course that has frustrated me in the past but I feel like I learnt how to play it last year. I’m coming in disappointed with a 70 when maybe a couple of years ago I would have been happy.”

Lee Westwood shrugged off an unusually early start to lead the European challenge for a rare victory at Sawgrass.

Westwood hit the opening tee shot of golf’s so-called ‘fifth major’ at 7.15 local time, but showed no ill-effects to compile a flawless five-under-par 67.

That score was matched 10 minutes later by Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and then equalled by compatriot Sergio Garcia and US Open champion Justin Rose to boost the chances of just a fourth European win in 41 attempts.

“It’s probably been about 21 years since I was the first ball in the air at a tournament,” said Westwood. The 41-year-old Englishman, who won his 41st worldwide title in Malaysia last month, birdied the first, second and sixth to reach the turn in 33 and also picked up shots at the 12th and 16th before safely negotiating the iconic 17th.