The Quicken Loans National finished up yesterday and for the first time in tournament history, a first time winner took home the hardware. Troy Merritt followed up a third round course record, 61, with a solid 4-under round of 67, which gave him a 3-shot cushion over second place finisher, Rickie Fowler. The final round left much to be desired; there were no dramatics, no late runs to make Merritt tighten up and get nervous, the final round was controlled by Merritt and that’s all you need to know.
Early on in the round, Bill Haas attempted to get his name to the top of the leaderboard. With 5 birdies on the front, Haas was able to pull even with Merritt, but as soon as Haas hit the back 9, his swing tightened and mistakes were plentiful. Haas quickly went from the top to sinking 4 bogey and 1 double bogey to slide back to 12-under par and finished T4.
Conversely to Haas, Fowler couldn’t get anything going until the back nine; with 2 birdies and 3 bogies on the front, Fowler seemed to settle down on the back nine with 5 birdies and 2 bogey. Fowler realized the urgency and that he was running out of real estate to pull Merritt back down to reality, unfortunately the move was too little too late. However, Fowler, who has been working with coaching guru, Butch Harmon, continues to flash signs of improvement and it appears it’s just a matter of time until he is able to compete week in and week out – be cognizant of Fowler heading into next week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Not discounting Troy Merritt’s performance this weekend, he indeed became the first time winner at the QLNational. 2015 has been rough for Merritt up until this point, aside from a solo third finish at the RBC Heritage back in April, Merritt had missed 8 cuts in his last 12 tournaments. Merritt wasn’t even a thought for most going into this weekend as a result of missing 5 straight cuts leading into last week. Again, golf is a funny game where on any day any player is able to play. Let us not forget, “these guys are good”.
With Merritt’s victory, he will receive a significant number of exemptions including next week’s WGC event, the PGA Championship, and several events in 2016 including The Masters. For Merritt, this win can and will serve as a springboard into some of the most competitive tournaments and fields on the PGA schedule.
The other conversation most are still interested in is, what did Tiger Woods do? Let’s be honest, the media and golfing fans alike would not be interested in the 185th ranked player in the world if it weren’t Tiger Woods. Will the storylines featuring Tiger only end when he retires? Tiger started the week with two solid performances, shooting under 70 for only the second and third time in 2015 and proceeded to follow that up with 2 more rounds sub-70 to close out his week. Following up his 67 and 65 with a 68 and 69, many would think that he would’ve been right in the thick of things. Unfortunately for Tiger, if you weren’t shooting 4 or 5-under every day, you were simply being lapped by the field.
Tiger did show signs of life, the ability to score is obviously still there, but what is missing? Why can’t Tiger get back on the same level as guys like Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, or for this week, Troy Merritt? It’s simple, Tiger’s mental game is not strong and the recovery process does not appear to have begun quite yet. As has have previously mentioned in previous golf articles, Tiger is undergoing yet another swing change with yet another swing coach. Consistency is what Tiger needs in his life both on and off the course. To get back to the stop, or at least to a place of relevancy again, Tiger will need to find a coach that not only have positively impact his swing, but can also serve as a mental guru to the aging golfer.
The QLNational came in like a lion and went out like a lamb, but like we have been mentioning, the remainder of the 2015 golfing season hit the accelerator starting this week and never slows down. We head from Virginia to Ohio which is the site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational; the top 50 players in the World Golf Rankings, plus special exemptions for select tournament winners and Ryder Cup team members will provide us with one of the strongest fields of the season. After the WGC, we head to Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin for the PGA Championship – the site of the infamous bunker shot that cost Dustin Johnson the Championship back in 2010.
The next several events are expected to be riddled with excitement as names like Jordan Speith, Patrick Reed, and Jason Day return to action and continue their search for glory and the FedEx Cup. If you haven’t been paying close attention to golf thus far in 2015, you should start this week. For the next 7-weeks, the 2015 PGA Season will be finishing up, and in that time period there will be a one major champion and one FedEx Cup Champion named, a very exciting way to close out a season. If you have been paying attention, buckle up, as this is expected to be a fast and memorable ride to the end of the year and President’s Cup in October!