This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
The Packers were playing the Cowboys in a marquee NFL game. The Braves were playing the Cardinals in a nail-biter of a baseball playoff game. And yet there was something pretty compelling going on in golf — yes, golf — in October.
Kevin Na and Patrick Cantlay were dueling down the stretch of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. And while the scores were super low — north of 20-under — there was tension. Na bogeyed 16, but Cantlay returned the favor by bogeying 17.
They needed a playoff.
Na won by sinking a 4-footer for par on the second extra hole, after Cantlay missed from inside six feet. Besides the bogey on 16, Na had to overcome a triple on No. 10 — and how many times do you see the winner of a golf tournament with a triple bogey on the back nine on Sunday? But Na also shot a surreal 62-61 in the middle two rounds.
After going winless for seven years from 2011 to 2018, Na now has incredibly won three times in the last 16 months and, again, not too many guys do that. He is once more in the top-25 in the world, at No. 24, not far from his peak of No. 19 reached at the end of 2015.
With the Presidents Cup four captain's picks just weeks away, you would think Na is making a compelling argument for selection. He has been an elite putter lately, always a critical
The Packers were playing the Cowboys in a marquee NFL game. The Braves were playing the Cardinals in a nail-biter of a baseball playoff game. And yet there was something pretty compelling going on in golf — yes, golf — in October.
Kevin Na and Patrick Cantlay were dueling down the stretch of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. And while the scores were super low — north of 20-under — there was tension. Na bogeyed 16, but Cantlay returned the favor by bogeying 17.
They needed a playoff.
Na won by sinking a 4-footer for par on the second extra hole, after Cantlay missed from inside six feet. Besides the bogey on 16, Na had to overcome a triple on No. 10 — and how many times do you see the winner of a golf tournament with a triple bogey on the back nine on Sunday? But Na also shot a surreal 62-61 in the middle two rounds.
After going winless for seven years from 2011 to 2018, Na now has incredibly won three times in the last 16 months and, again, not too many guys do that. He is once more in the top-25 in the world, at No. 24, not far from his peak of No. 19 reached at the end of 2015.
With the Presidents Cup four captain's picks just weeks away, you would think Na is making a compelling argument for selection. He has been an elite putter lately, always a critical component of match play. How elite? Na gained more than 14 strokes on the field in strokes gained: putting at TPC Summerlin. Conversely, he became the first golfer in more than seven years to win with negative strokes gained: tee to green (that's really hard to do).
Kevin Na finished the Shriners Open with negative strokes gained tee to green for the week. He is the first player to win a PGA Tour event with negative strokes gained tee to green since Bill Haas at the 2011 Tour Championship.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) October 7, 2019
So while Na certainly is a compelling candidate for a captain's pick, he's still a long shot. Just not quite as long as he was a week ago.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Cantlay certainly likes playing in Vegas, going 1-2-2 the last three years. You'd think he'd have the edge over Na in a playoff, but just one bad shot was the difference. Still, Cantlay is now up to No. 6 in the world and will be in full-fledged major mode next season. He is now ahead of Justin Thomas and right on the heels of Justin Rose for No. 5. Rose fell to fifth in the latest rankings because of this next guy …
The competition was not great, but Jon Rahm rebounded from a rare missed cut to win the Open de Espana in Madrid for the second straight year. He will move to No. 4 in the world, overtaking Justin Rose and finally seems primed to truly contend in the majors next year. Remember, he's still only 24 (for a few more weeks).
Perez had had only one top-10 in 2019. He finished 125th in the point standings. He didn't need that to keep his card, but you wonder what lies ahead for a 43-year-old golfer. Perez last won at the CIMB Classic at the very beginning of the 2017-18 season, in effect given him a three-year exemption, which will expire at the end of 2019-20. But …. he finished solo third at Vegas, giving him 190 points, roughly half of what he'll need all season to keep playing next season. It's an incredible boost for Perez, and another example of many golfers using just a handful of weeks over the course of an entire year to make their mark.
The late-blooming Korn Ferry grad notched top-20s in his first three starts this season — and now he's added a fourth with a tie for 18th at TPC Summerlin. The first two were in very weak fields, but the past two were in good fields — quite strong for fall-season events. Griffin is in the field in Houston this week, and that's a very weak field. But as we see in golf week after week, expect the unexpected.
The former top-20 golfer who was derailed a couple years ago by injury didn't have much success last season when again healthy. Berger had a good start to this season with a top-25 at the Safeway, and he followed it up with a top-20 in Vegas. Those were two pretty strong fields. Berger will tee it up again this week in Houston.
Oh, Phil. … Mickelson missed the cut at the season-opening Greenbrier, and just added a solo 61st at the Shriners. If he was trying to show Tiger Woods he was worthy of a Presidents Cup captain's pick, he's fallen short. If he's simply tried to get off to a good start to the season after a largely terrible 2018-19, he's fallen short. At No. 46, Mickelson is again dangerously close to falling out of the top-50 OWGR in forever (actually since late 1993!).
The Englishman landed his PGA Tour card in a circuitous, albeit completely legit, manner. Lewis used his tie for 11th at the Open Championship accrue enough non-member points in just that one event to qualify for the Korn Ferry playoffs, and he did well there. So here was on the PGA Tour for the second time this season. Lewis missed the cut at the season-opening Greenbrier and now again at Las Vegas. In a very small sample size, Lewis may be seeing the level of play is not what he's familiar with in Europe. Or maybe there's just a learning curve to get acclimated to U.S.-style courses.
The Koepkas
Well, one of them made the cut. No, not that one. Just like we shouldn't read anything into Brooks Koepka missing the weekend in his first start of the season, we shouldn't in the case of younger brother Chase Koepka getting to the weekend in Las Vegas. He finished solo 67th in only his third career PGA Tour event. He previously missed the cut at the 2017 Wells Fargo (the brothers also teamed in 2017 Zurich Classic). Like his world No. 1 sibling, the younger Koepka has been trying to make a go of it in Europe. But he's been stuck largely on the Challenge Tour, and is ranked in the 1800s. He was ranked in the upper-200s a couple of years ago.
Three sponsor exemptions, three missed cuts for the 17-year-old. Bhatia jumped from the amateur ranks without attending college, and with each MC you wonder whether he made the right decision. He has only four more sponsor invites available all season. Bhatia was scheduled to try to Monday qualify for this week's Houston Open — which would save a sponsor invite. If he doesn't get into the field, the plan was to head to the second stage of Korn Ferry Q School in Florida. This can't be what Bhatia and his parents had in mind just a few weeks back.
Van Pelt was a lovely story when he made the cut last week at the Safeway in his first start since 2016. But he missed the cut at the Shriners, illustrating the difficulties a 44-year-old returning after being absent for almost four years will face.
The Dane has his PGA Tour card, thanks to accruing enough non-member points last season. He's putting it to use during the fall season, which might indicate his desire to play more in the States this season. But Bjerregaard missed the cut at the Shriners. He'll try again at the Houston Open this week as he attempts to climb back into the top-50 in the world rankings, an important threshold, by year's end.
Harding failed in his bid to become a PGA Tour member, so he's back in Europe, at least for now. He missed his first two cuts since returning to the Euro Tour, but found his footing in Madrid with a tie for seventh. The South African has fallen outside the top-50 to 60th in the world rankings, but this moved him up to 58th.
