I really enjoyed the American Express Tournament because of the format, which is unusual but great if you are playing in a weekly golf pool.
Because the PGA players were playing on three different courses instead of the usual two, the cut was after the third round instead of the second. I had selected Tony Finau (Titleist Pro V1) in the weekly PG Golf pool along with Patrick Cantlay (Titleist Pro V1x). I wasn’t the only one. There were multiple teams in the pool that had the same two selections.
You are only allowed to pick a player a maximum of two times during the season, so it’s critical the players you choose make the cut because the overall winner and runnerup in the pool are determined by how much their choices collectively earned the whole season.
I was feeling good about Cantlay at the halfway point when he was leading, but then he started to fade. Finau was struggling at the halfway point, but he managed, just barely, to survive the cut after the third round.
It didn’t really matter in the end because Finau was simply too far back to make any appreciable difference. But at least Cantlay and Finau cashed. Cantlay finished ninth and Finau tied for 40th.
Nobody in the pool picked the winner, Hudson Swafford (Titleist Pro V1) or Tom Hoge (Titleist Pro V1), who finished one stroke behind. In fact, no one picked any of the players who finished in the top eight (that included ties). Gary Krueger finished on top in the pool because he had Cantlay and Si Woo Kim (Callaway Chrome Soft X) who finished tied for 11th with Sungjae Im (Titleist Pro V1x). I had picked Im the week before in the Sony Open and he failed to make the cut – the only time he has done that in seven tournaments so far this season.
It will be interesting to see what happens this week in the Farmers Insurance Open, which began on Wednesday and ends on Saturday to avoid going clashing with the NFL playoff games on Sunday. That’s a brilliant move by the PGA. But the cut this week is after 36 holes, so by the end of Thursday’s round the players you picked either make the cut or you’ll be out of luck. The worst thing is not having the players you pick fail to make the final 36 holes.
By the way, I love those Farmers Insurance commercials with actor J.K. Simmons, who won an Academy Award for his role in Whiplash. He played a musical instructor with over-the-top teaching methods, in particular with an aspiring student playing the drums.
I recommend watching the movie if you haven’t seen it already.
