You can call this one the Riviera Horror Picture Show.
Genesis Open? Sorry, this one was a pure horror show.
The misery began at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning as the sun barely rose over Los Angeles and it came to a merciful end some 10 hours later.
Last man standing was J.B. Holmes and the 10-hour day was the perfect camouflage for one of the PGA Tour’s slowest players.
This one looked like the tournament that no one wanted to win.
Justin Thomas started the final round with a four-shot lead over Holmes and Adam Scott and Thomas had proven a good closer, converting six of eight 54-hole leads into victories.
After rounds of 66-65-65, J.T. looked unbeatable until the wind and cold air took its toll on him.
Tiger Woods described the final round and the final day as good as anyone:
“It was a war of attrition out there. Yeah, I got tired. I felt it, energy dropped, wind, cold.”
For the record, Woods had three bogeys over his final nine holes but his 72 still beat most of the field.
Thomas didn’t wait long to start staggering. After an opening birdie, he bogeyed two, four and six and invited Holmes and Scott into the championship fray.
Another bogey by Thomas at the short 10th handed the lead to Holmes.
Scott wasn’t up to the task. His putting was as ugly as the conditions at Riviera. He never had a chance over the final nine holes.
But Holmes, with his low-launch ball flight, hung tough, tougher than Thomas.
Holmes gave Thomas hope with a mind-boggling three-putt for bogey at the 11th from just three feet but things would take a horrible turn for J.T. at 13 and 14.
At 13 Thomas four-putted from 63 feet and walked off the green with a double. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he then proceeded to three-putt from 28 feet for bogey at the 14th. The seven putts over those two holes help gift-wrap this one for Holmes, who ground out seven straight pars to finish this one off.
In the end, J.B.’s 70 crushed Thomas (75) and Scott (76).
Jordan Spieth was the ultimate horror victim. He started the final round in fourth but 81 shots later, he tied for 51st at one-over. And he parred his last eight holes to shoot that. He hit for the cycle with a double, a triple and a quad in his round.
This one went to Holmes because he dug in. The slow play was perfect for him and the high winds (20 miles per hour) worked in his favor with his low-trac iron shots.
“It was really tough on the back side,” said Holmes, who won for the first time since the 2015 Shell Houston Open. “That had to be exciting to watch,” he said of the two-man struggle between him and Thomas.
“That’s the way you want to win,” he added. “Hit good iron shots and make some putts down the stretch.”
That’s exactly what he did and exactly what Thomas and Scott could not do.
When Thomas thinks about this one, he can look back and remind himself that he missed four times inside eight feet on the final nine holes.
That putting horror was just a small part of the big horror show.
Ten hours of total misery.
The Riviera Horror Picture Show.
2 Comments
RM
Well named!
Thomas and Holmes were really grinding but in the end, seemed like J.B. just dug in harder in the crazy conditions. It was strange, but Rory seemed more relaxed, especially when he sunk that shot from the bunker.
Afterwards he was pretty philosophical about it all, like, “I did everything I could to fight the tough conditions, but no sense worrying too much over bad stuff that I have no control over.” Tiger also had a bit of a sense of humor about things were. Maybe they are mellowing a bit.
Tom Edrington
It was the Perfect Storm for JB. Thomas and Scott, two high-ball, high-spin players couldn’t function in the high winds….JB is a low-trac guy and controlled his ball the best down the stretch, made crucial putts and allowed him to make those seven straight pars to finish it off.