It was supposed to be one of the feature threesomes for the first two rounds at the Farmers Insurance Open — Bryson DeChambeau with Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.
Sadly, all three rode the Struggle Bus on Thursday at the Torrey Pines South Course and played their way home early at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Bryson first.
DeChambeau withdrew from the Sony earlier this month citing a sore left wrist. He went on social media, professed he had it checked out and his WD in Hawaii was simply a caution.
He may have a more serious problem than he led on. DeChambeau struggled the entire 18 holes on the tougher of the two courses. It was evident that not only was his wrist hurting, he may also have injured his back. On many of his drives, his swing speed didn’t come close to its normal velocity and he’d turn it right foot out, hang back after impact then clutch at the lower right side of his back.
Things didn’t go all that well during Wednesday’s first round when DeChambeau could only come up with a two-under par 70 on the easy North Course. He was in okay position heading over to the South Course. Bad news is that it was playing four shots harder tan its little brother. It was no surprise that he struggled. Three birdies and two bogeys going out had him one-under at the turn. By the 15th hole he found himself three-over for that side and two-over for the round, even par for the tournament with three-under looming as the cut line.
Bryson just didn’t look right and despite a birdie-birdie finish, found himself on the wrong side of the cut-line.
There are questions regarding his physical health and he’s supposed to be heading to the Middle East next week for the Saudi Invitational.
Next, Spieth.
Spieth made DeChambeau look like a birdie machine. Like DeChambeau, Spieth shot 70 on the birdie-friendly North Course on day one. On Thursday, he chopped up his first nine, making the turn in three-over par. It got worse coming home. Four more bogeys and a lone birdie on a course that was giving them away, had Spieth in with an ugly 78 and his plus-four missed the cut by a whopping seven shots. Spieth had a streak of making 20 straight cuts come to an end.
Rickie kept in the theme that misery loves company.
Rickie showed early promise and did what he was supposed to do — he went low around the North Course, finishing with a six-under par 66 on Wednesday.
But he found out that the South Course will eat your lunch unless all facets of your game are working. Not much was working for Rickie and by day’s end, he pulled the old 10-shot trick in the wrong direction — he followed that 66 with 76 — down the road for Rickie.
It was pretty for this feature group. Bryson appears to be ailing. Spieth looked like the pre-slump Spieth rather than the post-slump Spieth. As for Rickie, well, as one former Butch Harmon student pointed out — “Show me a player who got better after they quit working with Butch.”
Golf Writers Honor Collin Morikawa, Nelly Korda, Phil Mickelson.
The Golf Writers Association of America took a different route for its Player Of The Year and chose Collin Morikawa as the PGA Tour’s best from 2021.
The GWAA also named Nelly Korda as the LPGA Tour Player Of The Year, to no suprise.
Phil Mickelson only played in six senior events last season but won four of them and Lefty was selected as the Champions Player Of The Year.
Jamie Mulligan PGA’s Teacher Of The Year:
Jamie Mulligan, the instructor for both Patrick Cantlay and Nelly Korda, has been named Teacher Of The Year by the PGA Of America.
The announcement came at the start of the 2022 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.
