The Round Table: Rai, Aronimink and bone-headed mistakes
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.
On Sunday, Englishman Aaron Rai broke free of a massive pack of contenders to claim the PGA Championship and his first major. The tournament had plenty of top players floating around the top of the leaderboard but only Rai managed to separate himself from the pack. What were your thoughts on how the tournament unfolded and Rai as the champion?
Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): Rai played an impeccable, conservative round of golf on Sunday, and proved himself a worthy champion. Even his spectacular 70-foot putt on 17 wasn’t necessary to seal the victory, but it certainly put a highlight-reel stamp on it. And 99% of golf fans, who may have been asking “who?” through the last few holes, can rest assured that this fellow is extremely popular with his colleagues, and an exemplary and humble human being. What more could we ask? I hope this isn’t a Rich Beem flash in the pan, and that we see more of this chap in majors to come.
Craig Loughry, Golf Ontario (@craigloughry): I thought it was a great Major all around, hands down the best player won. Rai was the only player hitting fairways on Sunday, and his short game was impeccable. When you add it up, he earned it. Say what you will about the course setup, but I thought it identified the best player this week. Bomb and gouge is a strategy, but it would have been a tough one to succeed at long term. Majors are supposed to test all facets of your game, execution, strength, accuracy, short game/putting and intelligence/strategy. Rai won on all those fronts.
Michael Schurman, Master Professional / Hall of Fame Member, PGA of Canada: Absolutely wonderful! I love low scores in Majors, and I love a bunch of players in contention. I was fascinated by players like Rory, who looked like he might miss the cut, Rahm who started poorly and others who were nowhere suddenly after 54 holes were all in contention. Someone had to come out of the pack, and it was Rai. His back nine was explosive and could have happened to any one of 8 or 9 players but it happened to him. It almost happened to Justin Thomas, but he was too far back.
Hal Quinn, Freelance Writer, Vancouver: Too many PGA Championships seemed to have been set up to not embarrass the PGA club pros in the field. The guys in the new blazers sure changed that and hopefully will stay the course, so to speak. Rai is a great champion, his personal story touching and captivating, and he played incredible golf when all the names faltered — or complained. Sunday was “must see” from start to finish, you know, like a Major ought to be.
Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine: Congrats to Aaron Rai! He outsmarted the bombers by keeping his ball in the fairway and avoiding mistakes. That style of play will serve him well at future U.S. Opens too, and I expect we haven’t heard the last of this delightful Englishman at major championships.
Aronimink Golf Club, a classic Donald Ross layout, was the host of the 108th PGA Championship. Throughout the tournament, players criticized the difficult pin, some calling them stupid and absurd. If the PGA of America wanted to set up the course to create a huge logjam, they achieved their wish. Did you like the course and how it was set up?
Deeks: Yes, and yes. I do get sarcastic joy in hearing players whine and moan about course conditions, while others (come on down, Aaron Rai!) just quietly golf their ball down the middle, hit greens in reg, and one- or two-putt their way to 9 under par. I thought the course was difficult, but fair. Would you like some cheese with your whine, fellas?
Loughry: Loved this course setup. Guys could still make birdies, and bogeys if they weren’t careful. Majors are not regular Tour stops, they shouldn’t be. I thought the PGA Championship was as good a Major as I’ve seen in a long time, that definitely had to do with the host venue, but also the setup.
Schurman: Last week, I used the term ‘spine” when describing the greens. These mounds divide the greens into multiple sections and reject shots away from the hole. They also cause a ‘pooling’ effect where shots roll into ‘gathering’ locations producing a large number of 50 to 90ft putts regardless of how close a player’s pitch mark is from the hole. Everyone is neutralized. When this occurs, nobody can gain ground. Nobody can separate themselves. I wonder what the member’s handicaps are like. Does everyone who would regularly be 1 to 5 all have the same handicap? Is there a bunch of 20 to 30 who are all 30? I did like the heavy rough and fairway bunkers seemed difficult to carry. There are basic standards for setting up a PGA course. They weren’t followed.
Quinn: The designer of the first vanguard of Callaway’s shockingly long drivers said the way to defend against distance was to grow the rough. They did that at Aronimink. Rory played the two par-fives without a birdie. Rai played them in -6. Rai also sunk a 68-footer on one of those absurdly challenging greens, and there were a handful of 65’s on the olde par 70 layout. It was set up for an exciting championship. Aronimink, and the PGA, delivered.
Mumford: Frankly, I didn’t like the course or the way it was set up. On TV it looked long and featureless with enormous sloping greens. Not unfair, just boring and forgettable. Often, when I watch a major, I have a strong desire to play the course. Not this time. It doesn’t bother me at all that I’ll never set foot on Aronimink or give it a second thought. As for the set-up, it was like they staged a PGA Championship and a U.S. Open broke out. Seems like most of Sunday afternoon I was watching way too many pitch outs and long lag putts.
On Thursday morning, Garrick Higgo was assessed a two-shot penalty for being late for his tee time. Higgo was on the property but just not on the tee box. Ultimately, he missed the cut on Friday by one shot, so that two-shot penalty turned out to be huge. Clearly a bone-headed mistake by the South African. What’s the worst brain cramp you ever suffered or observed in tournament play?
Deeks: I’ve told the story before, of my taking 2 1/2 tranquilizers before a Club Championship qualifying round, to calm my nerves, and shooting 39-63 to miss the mark by 19 shots. But my favourite story was my old friend Eric Woods, a surfer-dude Californian who was a brilliant golfer and even better playboy, who was leading by one shot going into the final round of the 1995 Ontario Open in London, ON. Eric arrived about six minutes late for his tee time in the final, dropped off at the first tee by a young lady he had met the night before, in her convertible BMW. He was penalized four shots, before teeing off and running to catch up to his playing partners. Looking and feeling like a dehydrated warthog, Eric managed to shoot 68 and won the tournament by… four shots.
Loughry: Higgo earned this. Argue all you want, last I checked there are massive ROLEX clocks all over the course, on the range, on the putting green, so even if you didn’t have a watch or your phone…there were plenty of places to get the time. Hopefully a learning moment for the young lad. It’s an old one, but Roberto De Vicenzo signing an incorrect scorecard at the Masters and missing out on a Monday playoff to win a Green Jacket comes to mind. Pretty tragic really. Personally, playing in the Ontario Amateur, and the guy in my group picked up his ball (like it was a gimmie) late in the round. I mentioned we kind of have to finish out, he totally blanked, didn’t know what to do, he replaced the ball and tapped in for double, then finished bogey, bogey, to miss the cut by one shot.
Schurman: Talk about bonehead, I have two dandies. We were playing at Charlevois in the Canadian PGA Seniors. I was going along OK at +5 on the front 9 on Saturday when I suddenly went birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie to get -1 and that’s where I finished the round. Starting on Sunday, I was tied for 6th and had a 12:51 time. The driving range was at another course a mile away. At 12:00, I was preparing to leave and got yapping by the car; no problem, lots of time. I drove up to the course to learn my group was hitting into the first green. My time was 12:15. My other bonehead move came at Cambridge in the PGA of Ontario Seniors. I shot 73 in the first round. I was putting and generally messing around. I started to walk towards the tee about 10 minutes early when I noticed my group on the first green. I had missed my time. In those days, I always set my watch 20 minutes fast, so I wouldn’t be late. But the day before I had a new battery put into my watch. The jeweler set the correct time and I didn’t notice it. That’s when I stopped trying to be so fancy.
Quinn: Can still see the look on Ian Woosnam’s face on the 2nd tee at Royal Lytham at the 2001 Open Championship when his caddie told him he had too many clubs in the bag. As the maternal grandfather was born and raised in Wales, was naturally a fan. That blunder also incurred a two-stroke penalty, enough – combined with the shock — to derail what was shaping up as a Woosnam run at the Claret Jug. That was more painful than being late for the dance.
Mumford: Long ago, in a club championship, I picked up my ball on the 16th green to clean it, then settled in behind my marker to assess the line. Except there was no marker. Somehow, I had just picked up the ball and neglected to put my coin down. It was very weird because that’s a routine I’ve used all my life. Out of body experience? Severe brain cramp? No explanation. My bone-headed act cost me a one-stroke penalty and resulted in a missed cut – by one stroke.
