Tag: Jimmy Walker

Golf: AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Preview

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The beautiful Pacific Ocean is the backdrop for this week’s PGA Tour event.  The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am played at the idyllic Pebble Beach, Monterey and Spyglass courses is a tribute to amateur course architecture and will provide the PGA Tours bets players a stern test.

The Course

The course needs very little by way of an introduction.  We’ve all played it on our various computer and video games and we all remember Tiger’s fifteen stroke win in 2000 here.  Pebble Beach Golf Links is a 6,816 yard, par 72 course that has hosted PGA Tour events since 1947 (including five majors).  The course is also flanked by Spyglass Hill GC and Monterey Peninsula CC, courses that will be used during the Pro-Am event.

The Sound Bites

“When you actually dissect the stats like I did at the end of last year, my putting was nowhere near acceptable…[now comparing his stats with another PGA Tour player] but he holed more putts from 10 to 20 feet than I did, he won $3 million more than me last year.” – Ian Poulter on his putting woes.

“It’s one of those courses where even the best photography can’t do it justice. The scenery and the scale of this landscape are simply epic. For any golfer, professional or amateur, itís one of those “bucket list” courses. If you can, you should.” – Ernie Eels quite likes Pebble Beach.

The Defending Champion

Last year Jimmy Walker was on his ridiculously good run of wins and results that launched him to the top of the FedEx Cup standings and into a Ryder Cup position.  Walker, under no final round pressure whatsoever shot a final round 74 to wine by one.

He’s in a similar run of form again this year.  A second at Hyundai was followed by a win at Sony, and just last week he finished T7 at the Farmers Insurance Open.

The Contenders*

Jason Day – $9.00

Jimmy Walker – $9.00

Jordan Spieth – $13.00

Dustin Johnson – $17.00

Jim Furyk – $26.00

*AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am odds courtesy of Sportsbet Australia.

The Winner

Jason Day’s win last week at the Farmers Insurance Open might be the start of something special so he’s definitely in with  shot.  Jimmy Walker won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last year and has been consistently good this season again.  Dustin Johnson finished second here last year and while he might be shaking off some rust, looked hand last week.  Jordan Spieth was winning everything a while back.  And Jim Furyk carries on the trend of only including notables with a J in there name; he’s playing this week for the first time since the Ryder Cup.

We’ll go with Walker.

Golf: Walker improves his closing to win Sony Open

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One week after letting a final round lead slip, Jimmy Walker proved he had learnt his lesson by expertly closing out the Sony Open.  The 36-year-old Oklahoma native won the Waialae hosted Sony Open for the second consecutive year; this time empathically.

Setting the record for the largest victory margin in the tournaments history – a whopping 9 shots – Walker made seven birdies on the closing 11 holes to win at 23-under, and jump into the familiar position of FedEx Cup leader, a position he held for the bulk of last season.

Walker’s repeat win is undoubtedly a big confidence boost after he was rundown by Patrick Reed last week at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but it’s also an excellent example of the best response to a narrow defeat, and a testament to his steely determination.  Rather than overthink the finish at Kapalua, Walker just shot 62-63 over the weekend to round of his 257 total.  In the process he became the first repeat winner at the Sony Open since Ernie Els won in 2003/2004.

He did however admit that he used last week as motivation.  “I really wanted to finish out the day like I didn’t do last week,” Walker said.

He started the final day two clear; where it was expected that Matt Kuchar would provide the sternest challenge.  However, their contrasting rounds – Walker without a bogey in his 63; Kuchar without a birdie in his 71 – meant the challenge never eventuated.  Kuchar’s disappointing effort meant he finished in a tie for third with Harris English and Gary Woodland, who both had 67’s.

Scott Piercy was alone in second thanks to a 66.

The result of Walker’s two stop Hawaiian excursion was a scoring average of 66, just under $1.7 million cash, and an expected leap to number 13 in golf’s official word rankings.  His opinion of Hawaii will be vastly different to the unlucky Robert Allenby.  The Australia golfer was on the receiving end of a scary robbing and kidnapping after missing the cut.

Of the tips we dished out last week, we had Walker (1st), Day (17), Kirk and Howell III (26), Johnson (64) and Matsuyama (MDF).  So we probably didn’t get you too much money unless you picked Walker and nobody else.  See how we do later in the week when we preview the Humana Challenge.

Golf: Sony Open Preview

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For many of the PGA Tour professionals making the trip to Waialae Country Club for the Sony Open it will be their first golf of 2015.  After a reasonable break, once the wraparound had got underway, players have the luxury of travelling to a place of known luxury.  With scorching temperatures and unbelievable hospitality it’s understandable players would want to make themselves available for this one.

That said, the field is not the strongest that will compete in 2015.  World number 8 Jason Day is the highest ranked player, Matt Kuchar at 11 is next, and then four others in the top 25 make up the main contenders.  Whether the winner comes from that list will be dependent on who handles the heat and the narrow setup of the course the best over the challenging four days.

The Course

Waialae Country Club has been associated with the PGA Tour for 50 years.  It’s no surprise either, for Waialae is a beautifully designed golf course which references plenty of international courses in its 7,044 yards.  The par 70 venue from designers Seth Raynor and Charles Banks may be familiar to a lot of observers because it features in a large number of golfing video games

The Sound Bites

“I think (instructor Butch Harmon) was texting my wife with about four holes to go, and he said, four fairways, four greens, and we’re home…and that’s what we did.” – Jimmy Walker thought he ha done another to win in his final round at Kapalua before he was pipped by Patrick Reed.

“No. I do it myself.” – Japanese superstar Hideki Matsuyama’s quick response when asked if he had a swing coach to help him prepare for the Sony Open.

The Defending Champion

Jimmy Walker was in the middle of a ridiculously good stretch of golf when the tournament was here in 2014.  Walker won for the second time in six starts and perched himself atop of the FedEx Cup points for some time thereafter.

The Contenders*

Jason Day – $14.50

Jimmy Walker – $19.00

Chris Kirk – $21.00

Zach Johnson – $27.00

Hideki Matsuyama – $28.00

Charles Howell III – $50.00

*Sony Open odds courtesy of Betfair Australia.

The Winner

Charles Howell III is attractive.  In thirteen appearances in this event he has an incredible eight top-10’s.  Zach Johnson, who we predicted would win last week but just missed out, is also a popular pick after winning at the course previously.  His accurate game is well-suited to the small greens of Waialae.  However, where going to pick Jason Day.  He’s due a win and will be full of confidence after his final round 62 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Golf: Reed champion of champions at Kapalua

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Patrick Reed rallied to play his last four holes in three under par before making another birdie on the first playoff hole to capture the Hyundai Champion of Champions title ahead of Jimmy Walker.

Reed’s final round 67 meant he grabbed the headlines for the Hawaiian trip despite strong challenges from his own forehead, and a pair of scorching 62’s shot in the final round.  His forehead initially stole the show after images emerged of him without his cap on, revealing an extremely pale brow (check Google images) that raised plenty of eyebrows amongst Twitter uses.  But golfers also contributed; Jason Day and Chris Kirk fired 11-under final rounds that tied the course record.  Kirk’s round propelled him from last place to a tie for 14th.

Despite the excitement all around the golf course, and the obvious burning his skin was enduring, Reed managed to charge back from four behind with four to play to win for the first time since the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Dora.  It’s a fourth PGA Tour win for the 24-year old who once proclaimed he was one of the top 5 players in the game.  The win might help justify the tag considering it was against pretty good opposition who had all experienced the winners circle in the past season.

The closest challenger throughout the final round was Jimmy Walker (69).  Walker held the lead for much of the final day, and regrettably expressed afterwards that the tournament “was there for me to win, it was a bummer I didn’t close the door on it.”

Before Reed’s heroics down 16 and 18, Walker held the ascendancy.  A position he also maintained during the playoff as Reed struggled to get near the green in two.  He would find rough however, and never even get to putt for par as Reed drained an 18ft birdie putt to clinch it.

Walker will look to holes 10 and 14 as the root cause of his second place.  He failed to birdie 10 and made a first bogey for 33 holes on the short 14th.  Those two holes, and Reed’s hole out on 16 were the key turning points.

Jason Day (62), Russell Henley (67) and Hideki Matsuyama (70) all mounted challenges at various times but couldn’t quite get themselves into the playoff.  They will receive FedEx Cup points as consolation, which in Day’s case skyrockets him up 160 places in the standings.

Of the players who featured heavily at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions several have seen their odds to win the money list at BetEasy improve.  Notably:

Jason Day – $26.00

Patrick Reed – $67.00

Chris Kirk – $67.00

Hideki Matsuyama – $67.00

Jimmy Walker – $51.00