The PGA Tour’s 2017-2018 Great Golf Overdose has begun.
There are 52 weeks in a year and the first of 49, yeah 49 PGA Tour events is in the books.
But as long as sucker, er sponsors are willing to fork up the big bucks to pay the PGA Tour’s independent contractors, also known as players, the madness will continue.
In case you were watching college and NFL football over the weekend, Brendan Steele re-asserted his supremacy at the Silverado Resort. He has another “magical cask” compliments of Johnny Miller and Silverado and they official sucker, er sponsor — Safeway.
The irony of Sunday’s final round is that the wind was blowing 20-25 miles per hour while over at St. Andrews, the home of golf, the flags were hanging limp for most of the final day of the Dunhill Links.
That wind left just a few contenders and trick-shot artist/old guy Phil Mickelson was one of them. Phil and Tony Finau were the only ones who tried to apply some heat to Steele but they didn’t have enough in their tanks.
Steele basically went out and played a perfect first nine in the gusts. He shot three-under then gave Phil and Tony some hope with bogeys at 12 and 14. He sealed it with a birdie at the 16th and had no stress with two very easy finishing holes and the wind basically going away, making a par-birdie finish at piece of cake for 15-under par, two better than Finau, three up on Phil.
Finau will look back and know that the undifficult par four 14th cost him dearly. He went with an iron off the tee to get his ball in the fairway but botched the shot and ended up with tree troubles. A so-so punch to the fairway then a really poor wedge shot for his third left him 45 feet from the hole. He promptly three-putted for double and a chance to win evaporated.
Mickelson didn’t hit enough fairways when he needed to. Sound familiar?
In the end, Steele had history and shot-making on his side.
Steele finished 33rd in the FedEx Cup for 2017, missing out on the Tour Championship. He hopes to fix that this season.
“I really felt like at the end of the season through the summer, I definitely limited myself to what I was trying to achieve,” Steele explained. “I just wanted to make the TOUR Championship so bad, I was just trying to scratch and claw for every point I could … I wasn’t trying to win. I wasn’t trying to play my best. I was just trying to get whatever points I could – and I played right to that level where you could just barely miss.
“I’m definitely going to try to not do that this year and just really move forward and try to win as many tournaments as I can and get myself into contention in majors and do all the things that everybody wants to do out here.”
