What’s the worst collapse you’ve ever had to lose a tournament?
Each week, we ask our panel of writers, PGA members and golf industry experts to weigh in with their views on the hot topics of the day.
The recently completed Cognizant Classic had only a handful of Top 50 players in its field. Sandwiched between two Signature events before and two after, it’s an obvious week for top players to take off. As it turned out, the tournament was very entertaining, even without the big-name players. Should we be concerned about this kind of imbalance in the schedule?
Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): On the one hand, it’s kinda nice that the rookies and lesser players get a good shot at decent money with these “off-week” events… and as you say, it doesn’t prevent drama and excitement down the stretch. But if I’m the sponsor — in this case, Cognizant — I think I’d be seriously considering pulling out of the PGA Tour when my sponsorship contract is up. It does my brand no real service to be a second-tier event, with few big-name players. Or to be seen as a second-tier event by golf fans. I never did get the rationale behind having Signature events, at the expense of the lesser events. I don’t think the average golf fan pays any extra attention.
Craig Loughry, Golf Ontario (@craigloughry): The Tour should be concerned with this setup, it’s a great way to lose venues, sponsors and some fans. Although closed doors, this plan has to be part of the PGA Tour’s strategy, players want a little more time off, so they should just plan weeks off instead of having top players pass on an event. That also puts the sponsor/organizer in a tough spot to sweat out who’s playing who would assist with ticket sales and general interest. There are a ton of fans (thousands) who won’t go to the event if they know Scheffler/Rory or Tiger aren’t coming…it would help if the event could actually market marquee players (IE the top players) coming rather than “The PGA Tour” is coming to town and “we’re hoping for a good field”.
Michael Schurman, Master Professional / Hall of Fame Member, PGA of Canada: I’ve been making this point for the past 15 years. The PGA TOUR has ridden Tiger for far too long and now they aren’t prepared for the fallout. They should have been planning a lot sooner. Instead of a slow move to the future, there will be big, quick changes that will upset quite a few people.
TJ Rule, Golf Away Tours (@GolfAwayTJ): Well, the top players aren’t going to play 25 events like in years past, so really the only thing they can do is try to bunch the players up in events as often as possible. Unfortunately, that means the secondary events suffer. The one thing to be concerned about is the sponsorship dollars. I really hope it doesn’t negatively impact the RBC Canadian Open any more than it already has. Thankfully we still have RBC on board to draw a few big names.
Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine: It should be a huge concern to sponsors and the tournament hosts that rely on ticket sales. As a fan, it doesn’t bother me and in fact, I often find the second-tier events offer better stories and more compelling competition. Watching some multi-gazillionaire win another few million in a limited field, no cut tournament has lost all meaning. The majors have meaning but as for the rest of the Tour, I’m all about the Cinderella stories.
Shane Lowry is quite a popular player, so it was a bit surprising to learn that he hasn’t won an individual title on the PGA Tour since his Open Championship victory in 2019. Who else on Tour is riding high these days based more on hype than recent accomplishment?
Deeks: It seems to me that the broadcasts will still feature Rickie Fowler if he’s within ten shots of the lead on a Sunday, versus say, an Asian player who may be higher up the leaderboard. I have nothing against Rickie, and I’m happy for the resurgence in his game, but I’m not sure he’s deserving of the attention. I can only assume the ratings needle moves upward whenever Rickie’s on-screen.
Loughry: I hate to say it (because I like him), but probably Viktor Hovland as he hasn’t won since 2023 (Tour Championship), that’s not a long time, but boy everyone had him pegged to be a top 5 world ranked player (not 17th and dropping). 17th isn’t bad, but its also not what was/is expected (Lowry at 27th). Could go with Billy Horschel too.
Schurman: Ricky Fowler has never fulfilled what was predicted for him. He is a great crowd pleaser, fun to watch and greatly supportive of golfers everywhere but didn’t quite do it!
Rule: That is very surprising. He’s been such a consistent player over the past decade, you’d have thought he would have won more than just the team event with Rory. A few players come to mind but the one that I first thought of was Ludvig Aberg. He came on to the Tour all guns a blazin’ but hasn’t really done much recently. Of course, I checked his stats, and it turns out he did win just over a year ago, but he has been quiet lately! I expected him to be one of the top players in the world, but at #23 in the world, he almost looks to be underachieving.
Mumford: Not sure he’s riding too high, but Patrick Cantlay is always in the conversation for Ryder Cup spots and great expectations. However, the record shows he hasn’t won since 2022. He gets a lot of attention due to his involvement with the Tour Advisory Board as well, but that doesn’t seem to be translating into any improved performance on the course. Maybe he needs to smile more.
With three holes to go on Sunday, Lowry held a three-shot lead. It all evaporated thanks to back-to-back double bogeys on 16 and 17 and Nico Echevarria was there to claim the victory. What’s the worst collapse you ever made in a tournament?
Deeks: You had to ask. I was once four-holes-up in a match with four holes to go — dormie — and lost the match on the first playoff hole. It’s a good thing we have gun control in this country. Then there was the time my wife recommended I take a Gravol the night before the Club Championship qualifying round. For several years in a row, I had failed to qualify because of self-inflicted nerves and stress. (As one of the better players in the Club — back then — it seemed fitting to me that I should be in the Club Championship draw.) I had never used Gravol before but took her advice. I got a good night’s restful sleep, so I decided to take another Gravol before teeing off. By golly, it worked! I shot 39 on the front nine. I knew a score of 83 would qualify, so I took another half-Gravol at the turn to keep the nerves down. By the 11th tee, I was wondering if someone had slipped some hashish into my coffee. I nearly fell asleep on the 13th green. By the 15th tee, I couldn’t talk coherently. I had to be picked up in a power cart to make it up to the 18th green. I shot 39-63=102 and missed qualifying by 19 shots. You had to ask.
Loughry: Hmmm, I’ve certainly lost a fair share. I’ve lost in three playoffs (one was a scramble), made a double in another tournament on the 16th hole to lose by 1, and another tourney finished bogey, bogey, bogey to lose by one having a 3-shot lead standing on the 16th tee, that without a doubt was the worst. I just couldn’t stop the bleeding, blocked a tee ball on 16, then on 17 missed a short putt (3-footer), on 18 short sided myself going right at the hole with an 8 iron in my hand and failed to get it up and down. Worst feeling ever.
Schurman: We were playing an event at Peterborough G.C. I was playing really well and was -3 after 16. One of my playing partners wasn’t very good and had a lot of trouble with lost balls and decorum. On #17, I drove fairly well, up the right side but in the rough. I always played with a black Titleist marked with a large “M” on both sides. The other guy snapped his ball into the left bush and then hit a provisional that went up into the right rough on the same line as mine. I went over to help him look and found his ball. I returned to play mine. I found it easily but about 25 yards back of where I thought it was. I played to the green. As I walked forward about 25 yards, I found another Titleist #4 with a big black “M”. It turns out, our friend had taken his provisional ball from my bag because he was out. I finished with 7 on 17 and 7 on 18, out of the money. BTW -1 won the event.
Rule: Oh man, so many to choose from! Actually, I don’t remember too epic of a collapse, but I did double the last two holes in a provincial qualifier once to miss by a shot. But maybe my biggest disappointment was three putting the last hole in the very prestigious Scarboro putting match play tourney to lose the final 1-down. It may have had something to do with the red wine consumed during the event, one of my favourite nights each summer.
Mumford: Years ago I carried a three-shot lead into the final round of our Club Championship. After nine holes my lead had increased to five. Then a funny thing happened: adrenaline kicked in. My 7-iron approach on the tenth hole sailed 20 yards over the green. From there it was a constant fight to do anything normal. As Shane Lowry said, “It felt weird.” Couldn’t feel my hands, had no coherent thoughts and not sure if I even communicated with my playing partners. I was in a daze. On the 16th tee I still had a three-shot lead. Then I finished triple bogey, bogey, double bogey to lose by one.
