PGA Championship 2016: Biggest Takeaways from Baltusrol
Finally, the PGA Championship has a winner who is an astrophotographer! Leading off with a bonus takeaway from soggy Baltusrol, Jimmy Walker, who showed steely resolve over 36 holes Sunday en route to a closing-nine three-under 33 and 14-under winning total, is an avid space photographer.
Seriously, he uses a telescope to take pictures of the galaxy. And if the resultant photos don't fill you with wonder and awe, well, you're probably a zombie.
That is, interestingly, exactly what Dustin Johnson looked like over 36 uninspired holes at Baltusrol's famed Lower Course.
We've got another Walker-related takeaway for you and more about the unfortunate Mr. Johnson as well as a slew of other observations after the jump.
'Beef' Is Cooking
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Pardon the pun in the slide title, as golf fans have been inundated with every variety of meat-related reference this week. A folk hero in the vein of John Daly or Boo Weekley, England’s bushy-bearded Andrew “Beef” Johnston has positively taken the golf world by storm this summer.
The Beef phenomenon gathered momentum with Johnston’s Open de Espana win on the European Tour in April. He was a sensation at Royal Troon two weeks ago, finishing eighth amid a chorus of “BEEEFFF!” that seemed to grow louder with each passing hole.
The chant/chorus/collective bellow made its way to rowdy New Jersey with the affable Londoner, and Beef appeared with a new logo on his shirt at Baltusrol this week: Arby’s, appropriately.
Inside the ropes, Johnston fired rounds of 70, 69, 71, before faltering a bit in the final round. He finished tied for 60th.
If he continues to play well, Beef will have more opportunities to tee it up on the PGA Tour, which will only add voices to the chorus of “BEEEFFF!” And of course, in a sport often lacking in dynamic personalities, we need all the Beef we can get.
It's 'Back to the Drawing Board' for Rory McIlroy
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Questions regarding Rory McIlroy’s short game, putting and mental fortitude will follow him from New Jersey after a sloppy 18th-hole bogey in his second round left him outside the cut line. McIlroy told reporters he needs to go “back to the drawing board,” after rounds of 74, 69 at Baltusrol, characterizing his 2016 season as “disappointing” in a post-round press conference.
Indeed, his putting was abysmal on the Tillinghast-designed course’s bentgrass and poa annua greens, and his chipping and pitching weren't much better. McIlroy lost an outrageous 4.57 strokes to the field due to his putting over his two rounds at Baltusrol.
While the absolute mess he made of the course's 18th—chunking a pair of pitches en route to a bogey—will garner much of the attention, the fact McIlroy now looks like one of the worst on tour with a wedge or putter in his hand is the significant takeaway following the final major of the season.
He missed the cut in two of the four major championships this season and hasn’t really been a factor in any of golf’s most significant tournaments since winning the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla.
Back to the drawing board, indeed.
Dustin Johnson Crashed to Earth
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Entering the final major of the year as the odds-on favorite, Johnson never got anything going at Baltusrol and didn't come close to making the cut.
The U.S. Open winner, DJ arrived this week amid an impossibly good run of form that couldn't continue forever. Still, few would have predicted Johnson would card rounds of 77, 72 and disembark New Jersey at nine over par with only four touring pros firing worse two-round totals.
But hey, the sauntering South Carolinian didn't seem too worried, mugging for Snapchat (with dog filter, naturally) with fiancee Paulina Gretzky Friday night (h/t GolfChannel.com).
All good things must end, and the "good thing" that has been Johnson's inspired summer came to an end with a hideous display of driving and putting at Baltusrol.
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Branden Grace and the PGA Championship Are a Good Match
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Branden Grace burst on the international stage with his tied-for-fourth finish at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay last year. And he reprised that good week of work by finishing third at Whistling Straits in the PGA Championship.
He didn't enter this year's PGA Championship firing on all cylinders, but his tied-for-fifth finish at Oakmont should have suggested he'd have another strong performance at the season's fourth major, given the newly established pattern.
Indeed, he did: Carding weekend rounds of 66, 67 to finish tied for fourth at nine under par. So remember this for your DFS team at next year's event: Grace is an emerging horse for the courses on the PGA Championship roster.
The PGA of America Made a Mistake...but Got Away with It
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When the rains came Saturday, halting play for the day at just after 2 p.m. ET, with the final groups still to tee off, questions aimed at the PGA of America (who, of course, organizes the PGA Championship) came fast and fierce as well. The core of the perplexity: Why weren't players sent out early in threesomes off both tees?
ESPN.com's Jason Sobel even offered a timeline of the different course of action the PGA of America could have taken:
"With sunrise at 5:52 a.m., the first tee time on Saturday easily could have been 7 a.m., which would have given the opening groups plenty of time for preparations before the round.
Fifteen groups teeing off each tee in 10-minute intervals would mean the final group teed off at 9:20 a.m. Figuring five-hour rounds, the final groups of the third round would've been done by 2:20 p.m.
All of which would've worked just about perfectly; The weather suspension began at exactly 2:14 p.m.
"
Instead, as Sobel wrote: "Thirty-seven players finished the third round; 39 others teed off without finishing; and 10 never even started."
With 10 golfers needing to play 36 holes Sunday, if there had been any weather delays during the final round, the tournament could have been pushed to a Monday finish—an outcome sponsors, networks, viewers and the golfers themselves wouldn't have wanted. And the PGA of America would have had to answer for not having the foresight to do something along the lines of what Sobel suggested.
Concerns About Jason Day's Health, Preparation Were Unfounded
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Remember when everyone was losing it Wednesday when Day was yet to play a practice round at Baltusrol, was fighting a cold and had spent the night at the hospital with his wife?
Well, it looks like we reached for the panic button a bit too soon: None of the aforementioned seemed to have any bearing on Day's performance at Baltusrol as he came within a stroke of tying Walker after a brilliantly holed eagle putt at the 72nd hole.
Day's weekend rounds of 67 put him at 13 under par for the tournament, three strokes clear of the third-place finisher. Had Walker not made a series of improbable birdie bombs (or holed out from the bunker at the 10th Sunday), Day would have repeated as the PGA champion.
Of course, "what ifs" are silly in sports, but here's the takeaway: Day is the world No. 1 for a reason, and the state of his game is strong. Guess we should have trusted he knew what he was doing in the lead-up to the opening round.
Bearded Jimmy Walker in Majors > Clean-Shaven Jimmy Walker in Majors
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We only have a small sample to work with at this point, but it seems a bearded Walker is vastly superior to the clean-shaven variety in major championships.
Here are the numbers:
- Clean-shaven Walker: Zero wins in 17 starts.
- Bearded Walker: One win in one start.
In all seriousness, though, Walker entered the PGA Championship after tying for 14th at the RBC Canadian Open. It had been a disappointing year for the Texan up until his appearance at Baltusrol, and he'd missed the cut in the last two major championships.
It took Walker 187 starts on the PGA Tour to win, and then he won three times in eight starts. That's odd. But it suggested something that proved to be true at Baltusrol: Walker is a quick learner, and he adapted quickly to playing with a lead in a major championship, looking comfortable across the entirety of the 36 holes he had to play Sunday.
You probably wouldn't have tapped Walker to win prior to the start of the PGA Championship, but after his opening-round 65, he never looked like he was poised to do anything other than hoist the Wanamaker Trophy.
Must be the beard.
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