{"id":20848,"date":"2015-04-20T06:24:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T10:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/?p=20848"},"modified":"2015-04-20T06:24:12","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T10:24:12","slug":"volume_four_hundred_twenty_nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/hittin_the_links\/volume_four_hundred_twenty_nine","title":{"rendered":"Volume Four Hundred Twenty Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hittin' the Links\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/hittin_the_links\/htl_title.gif\" height=\"79\" width=\"125\" \/>Spieth-mania was in full force and hard to miss in the week following young Jordan&#8217;s victory at the Masters. Among his appearances: the Late Show with David Letterman, the TODAY Show, CNBC Squawk Box, Morning Drive, CBS This Morning, the Dan Patrick Show, ESPN Radio, Mike and Mike in the Morning and too many more to mention. <\/p>\n<p>Somewhat surprisingly, Spieth honored his commitment to the RBC Heritage when he could have justifiably begged off. Very surprisingly he didn&#8217;t just go through the motions, he was competitive, finishing T-11. It&#8217;s going to be very interesting to see how Spieth develops over the next few years and to see if the budding Rory-Jordan rivalry can be what we always hoped Tiger-Phil would be.  <\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s hit the links.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>Hole #1: Furyk Wins Again, Finally<\/strong><br \/>\nFour and a half years and seven 2nd place finishes since his last win in 2010, Jim Furyk shot an 8-under 63 and beat Kevin Kisner on the second playoff to claim the RBC Heritage. In 2010, Furyk won three events, including the Heritage. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestate.com\/sports\/golf\/article18908781.html\" title=\"Furyk wins again, finally\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>] <\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #2: Walk-off Eagle<\/strong><br \/>\nFirst, Sei Young Kim chipped in on the final hole to force a playoff with Inbee Park, then she jarred her approach to win the LOTTE Championship on the first hole of sudden death. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/2015\/04\/18\/4484362\/sy-kim-holes-out-twice-to-beat.html\" title=\"Walk-off eagle\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #3: Aphibarnrat Rallies into Playoff and Win<\/strong><br \/>\nKiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand made up two shots on the last two holes to get into a playoff with Li Hao-Tong. He won the Euro Tour&#8217;s Shenzhen International with a birdie on the first playoff hole. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www1.skysports.com\/golf\/news\/12040\/9813117\/kiradech-aphibarnrat-wins-shenzhen-international-in-play-off\" title=\"Aphibarnrat rallies\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #4: Spieth Does Not Finish First or Second<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter a torrid stetch in which he finished 1-2-T2-1 in consecutive starts, freshly minted Masters champ, Jordan Spieth opened the RBC Heritage with a 74, unsurprising considering the week he&#8217;d just had. Then he shot a Friday 62 (bested only by Troy Merritt&#8217;s 61) followed by a 68 Saturday and 71 Sunday. He wound up T11 at 10-under. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/sports\/golf\/2015\/04\/18\/fridays-roundup-merritts-trumps-spieths\/25976433\/\" title=\"Spieth shoots 62\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #5: Math Class to Masters<\/strong><br \/>\nSpeaking of Jordan Spieth, his caddy Michael Greller took a pretty interesting route to carrying a PGA TOUR bag. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/why-masters-champion-jordan-spieth-hired-a-former-schoolteacher-as-his-caddie-1428881077?mod=e2tw\" title=\"Math class to Masters\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #6: China Cracks Down on&#8230; Golf?<\/strong><br \/>\nChinese president Xi Jinping is leading a crackdown on vice and corruption. His latest target: golf. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/04\/19\/world\/asia\/chinas-crackdown-on-corruption-targets-golf-a-sport-for-millionaires.html?_r=0\" title=\"China cracks down on... golf?\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #7: Cart Goes Berserk<\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s not a golf cart, but the similarities are clear. So how do you stop a golf cart that&#8217;s running amok? Someone please tell this guy, please. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eRPuWVVV7UU\" title=\"Cart Goes Berserk\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #8: Brown Is the New Green<\/strong><br \/>\nCalifornia golfers should brace themselves for brown rough and less lush fairways as the state&#8217;s water shortage is forcing irrigation cutbacks for courses.[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desertsun.com\/story\/news\/2015\/04\/18\/california-require-golf-courses-cut-water-use\/25987925\/\" title=\"Brown is the new green\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hole #9: Watson Hints One More Masters<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter making the Harbour Town cut at even par, Tom Watson &#8211; at 65 years young, more than twice the age of much of the field &#8211; commented that he may only play one more Masters and is not sure how much longer he will play regular TOUR events. The two-time Masters champion shot 71-81 this year and missed the Augusta cut for the fifth consecutive year. He finished the RBC Heritage deep in the pack at +3. [<a href=\"http:\/\/golfweek.com\/news\/2015\/apr\/18\/masters-2015-tom-watson-pga-tour-rbc-heritage\/\" title=\"Watson Hints One More Masters\" class=\"external external_icon\">Link<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan Spieth is everywhere. And is Tom Watson pondering retirement?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hittin_the_links"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Volume Four Hundred Twenty Nine (Hittin&#039; the Links) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/hittin_the_links\/volume_four_hundred_twenty_nine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Volume Four Hundred Twenty Nine (Hittin&#039; the Links) - The Sand Trap .com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Jordan Spieth is everywhere. 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