Question I was wondering. If Rahm had won the Memorial (and thus Cantlay got second), would that have swung their pre-East Lake strokes enough that a 1 swing Cantlay win, would have went to Rahm? If so, him getting DQ'ed at the Memorial would have cost him around $12m at least (difference between $15m and $5m at the Tour Championship, $2m to win Memorial).
Just looked it up, if I'm making the correct assumptions he ended the season with 3,063 points (4th place) and would have gotten 550 pts for winning the memorial, or 3,613 pts. Since Finau was 2nd with 3,564, Rahm would have been 2nd going into Tour Championship. Would have been -8 instead of -6 and won by 1 stroke vs. lost by 1.
Yes - he was like ~800 points ahead of Finau so would have stayed one by a pretty wide margin given Rahm staying in the Memorial would have only cost him ~200 points for getting bumped to 2nd. Without doing the full math, it seems like whoever wins the Northern Trust and BMW is at such an advantage that they'll start in the top ~2-3 unless they really came from off the grid. Kind of bizarre how there's such a focus on that (Cantlay-Finau obviously went 1-2)
Yeah, it was not the best course. I go from Streamsong to that in 2 days. It was like putting on a hotel carpet.
The real question is, who would have won the Tour Gross Championship between Na and Rahm. You know, since that is what is actually tracked by OWGR and all.
I’ve largely avoided the discussion surrounding the Captain’s picks, but I’ve seen a lot of tweets about Kevin Na in the last day or so and I don’t get why you’d pick him over some of the other possible guys.
Reed was in the top 12 for qualifying but just got out of the hospital. Webb was ranked higher than Scottie.
Thought the way Na closed the season he would get a look. His consistency and putting were great the last two weeks.
No way. They're going to set up Whistling to be a bombers paradise. Plus, Scottie putted better than Na on the season anyways.
Would guess Stricker has an alternate already informed, on standby, b/w Koepka and Covid Brooks apparently did hit a tree root on #10 but I doubt we hear anything
I hate Na more than any other player in the game, but I think he would be a good Ryder Cup pick. I don't know if a poofer in late fall at Whistling Straights is a good idea though.
Na’s strokes gained stats are atrocious in all ball striking categories, but he makes it up entirely around the greens. Not a great course fit for Whisting Straits.
Another thing to keep in mind is that better putters generally differentiate themselves from the pack on slower, more undulating greens. Flat greens take a lot of green reading and matching line/speed totally out of the equation. Super fast, super undulating greens means nobody is making putts at all. This is why in Europe, you generally see slower green speeds and holes cut on knobs. At Hazetine, it was super fast greens with hole locations in flat areas. Pretty much the recipe for allowing everyone to make putts regardless of skill level. Expect the latter again and the US with a heavy emphasis on trying to win tee-to-green.
Randomly thinking about this I think Na had traction because he’s a better statistical alternative to kiz. If you were someone riding for stricker to go the less conventional route and take kiz, then Na was a better pick. Better putter plus more wins and better recent form.
I misspoke about the putting but the point still stands that Na was statistically a much better player in 2021 than Kisner.
Neither of them had any business on this course. I hope Burns is the alt for Koepka but I'd be fine with Webb too
Na's best attribute is how hateable he is. He would be our answer to Poulter and Sergio domination in Ryder Cups over the years
Why is Na considered hateable? I really don’t pay attention to him closely but always pull for him when I see him in contention because I remember him shredding the AJGA back when I was a junior golfer wishing I was good enough to compete in AJGA events
It starts with the hissy fit that he threw at Erin Hills complaining about the rough on Instagram. He took the video in a spot that no pro would ever possibly hit a ball. He's a loudmouth, annoying, poofer
he also was one of the slowest golfers on tour back then, worked on it, and has sped up drastically. People change
Joel Dahmen told a story on the NLU pod before about people shouting stuff after tee shots. Can’t remember who he was playing with but they got the normal “mashed potatoes” or something but then when Joel hit someone yelled “poof” and he said it was actually funny. So a poofer is someone who doesn’t launch it like the bombers
Not sure if serious but the number of times I’ve heard it used on podcasts I would think someone would have mentioned that if so