Capelle On Golf

Dustin Johnson Overpowers the Field
For those who have been missing Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson did a good imitation with his power game as he turned the Monterey Peninsula’s par fives into par fours.

Despite his long and accurate shots into the par fives, Johnson was leaking oil, having bogeyed 17 to go three over for the day. But, with the tournament on the line, on the 18th tee with water left and OB right, he split the middle with a mammoth  tee shot, avoiding the Ocean to the left and the OB right. He hit a great miss, short and right into the greenside bunker, blasted to 3 feet and calmly sank the knee knocker to defend his title.

Earlier in the day, Johnson had hit a 325 yard blast on the par 5 sixth, followed by a 204 yard 6-iron uphill to 4 feet for his third eagle in two days. The day before at Spyglass Hill Johnson’s 64 featured two one putt eagles on the par fives. For the week he was 11 under on the 14 five pars. In comparison,  David Duval (-3) and JB Holmes (-6), who finished a shot back, lost eight and five shots respectively to Johnson on the long holes.

So much of the talk of who would step up while Woods is gone has been focused on the now familiar suspects - Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, and the gang. Now we must  add the 6’, 4” athletic Johnson and his power game to the mix. With his ability to decimate the par 5s, he could be a threat at Augusta!

Phenom Watch
Rickie Fowler and Ryo Ishikawa got a good look at each other as they were paired together for the first three rounds. Ishikawa then departed, having missed the cut by three shots. In the first round he used 34 putts (horrible for a pro), then hit only seven greens (awful) at Spyglass Hill. This performance on top of a 32t last week suggests that he still has far to go to justify his 35th position in the WGR.
Fowler posted his second respectable showing in five starts, finishing 27t. More encouraging was his GIR stat (he was 8t), which indicates that his swing, which he’s struggled with in the early going, may be coming around.

Pebble’s Volcano Hole
You’ve perhaps played one of the volcano holes in miniature golf where the ball will roll far from the cup if you miss. Well, that’s what the par 5 fourteenth was playing like thanks to the shaved area to the left and behind the smallest target in pro golf. The result: nines by Paul Goydos, Bryce Molder, and Alex Prugh. If they had made bogeys, Goydos moves from 5t to 2t, Molder from 10t to 4t, and Prugh from 27t to 10t.
Let’s hope and pray that the USGA does not mimic this ridiculous set up for the Open in June.

NEW: The USGA, after considering the play on the 14th, has decided to add some rough about 5 yards to the left of the green for the U.S. Open. Good for them!

David Duval - Second Winner
We all love a great comeback story, and none would have been better than a Duval victory considering that his last win came in the 2001 British Open. He did, however, manage a second, and he played some of the best golf on Sunday, closing with a 69 on a day when 68 was the low and only seven players broke 70. While the leaders were gasping for air, Duval coolly rolled home good sized birdie putts on the 11th (19’,9”), 13th (17’,5”) and at the 17th  (11’,8”), which momentarily tied him for the lead. Let’s hope he can build on this fine showing rather than disappearing from the leaderboard as he did following his 2t at last year’s U.S. Open.

The U.S. Open Preview
Much of the talk Sunday was about how Pebble Beach was playing and how it would be different for the Open when the course is expected to dry out, and the rough is taller. Over the first three days, the pins were set in easier than normal position for a tour event to accommodate the amateurs. On Sunday, they toughened them up, leading to few rounds under 70 (see above). The field of 69 averaged 73.2. In 1972 when Jack Nicklaus won the Open at Pebble Beach, the winds gusted to 35 MPH during the final round and the field averaged 78.8!

Phil Mickelson is Close
Mickelson is starting to sound like Woods in 2004 as he keeps telling us he’s getting close. Trouble is, he should already be there as he is coming off a strong 2009 and has been working hard on his game. His lackluster start to the year (19, 45t, 8t) is reminiscent of the second half of 2008 when everyone expected him to make a run at #1 in Woods absence, but failed to capitalize on the opportunity, going winless the rest of the season following two titles in the first half of the year.