Jason Kokrak and Jordan Spieth put on a Bad Golf Clinic Sunday at Colonial and by day’s end, Kokrak managed to upend the local favorite and won the Charles Schwab Challenge by two shots.
Both players were pretty much awful but they were far enough ahead of the rest of the field at the start of the day and it didn’t matter.
The two were tied at 14-under par through nine holes and it was at the ninth where Spieth hit his only two good back-to-back shots all day. He pulled driver, laced it down the middle then nestled a lob wedge about a foot from the cup to square things heading to the final nine.
Spieth couldn’t find a fairway coming home and missed too many greens as well. Kokrak got to 16-under with an 11-footer for birdie at the par five 11th then holed a 17-footer at the par three 13th and looked like he’d cruise from there. But he made back-to-back bogeys at 15 and 16 to give some hope to Spieth. Spieth trailed by a shot on the 72nd hole. But another sloppy drive left him with no chance to hold the green. He went for it anyway and saw his ball go into the water hazard left of the green, taking all the heat off Kokrak, who hit a perfect drive then made routine par.
Kokrak shot an even par 70 and won by two over Spieth, whose double at 18 dropped him back to 12-under, solo second.
“They were rooting for Jordan,” Kokrak acknowledged after picking up his second win of the season. “We both didn’t have our “A” game. Didn’t finish the way I wanted to but still got the win.
As for Spieth, he left the huge crowd cheering him on disappointed. “I could have shot even par today and won the golf tournament, but from the very get-go, just a really bad start, and then tried to fight my way through it,” Spieth said. “But I was just really off with my golf swing. I really lost it this weekend. You just have to be in control around Colonial.”
Spieth ended the day with five bogeys and two birdies. He lost strokes to the field in strokes gained: tee to green, approach the green, around the green and putting. After opening with rounds of 63-66-66, he was simple awful over the final 18.
“I was taking the club back and had no freaking clue where it was going to go,” he lamented. “It’s very rare that you’re in the lead or close to the lead on a Sunday when that’s the case, and it’s not the most enjoyable feeling, but I’ve never been shy on grit, and really belief, in knowing that anything can happen. It was with me ‘til the end, until the shot came off left on 18.”
Kokrak has been a new player since he won at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas earlier this season. As for Spieth, he finished runner-up at Colonial for the third time and scored his eighth top 10 finish in his last 11 starts.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
Kokrak has some serious guts lately. He handled the Spieth slurpers so well.
These two wins on great courses, thanks to much improved putting, and the way he beat a Texas legend Mano a mano— while dealing with that ability to deal with A crowd bordering on unfair —-has to put him strongly in the Ryder Cup conversation; he is 13th just behind Webb and Billy.
Tom Edrington
Jordy couldn’t have played worse, hard to fathom he was just a shot down standing on 18 tee; As for JK, got it done but a display of bunker play worthy of a 14-handicapper.