2022 Travelers Championship

[Zippo]

How about that amateur Thorbjornsen? In second place behind Xander! Nice!

8 minutes ago, Zippo said:

How about that amateur Thorbjornsen? In second place behind Xander! Nice!

Sure. As soon as I say that he cards a bogey. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Zippo

[saevel25]

Just a terrible decision by Theegala in the bunker. 

I mean, does he not now his ball flight enough to realize he could hit the underside of the bank? 

In the end, he should be out in one. Hit a shot on the green and force Schauffele to make birdie to win. Go to a playoff. 

[iacas]

29 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Just a terrible decision by Theegala in the bunker. 

I mean, does he not now his ball flight enough to realize he could hit the underside of the bank? 

In the end, he should be out in one. Hit a shot on the green and force Schauffele to make birdie to win. Go to a playoff. 

You don’t think he mis-hit it?

[Zippo]

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Just a terrible decision by Theegala in the bunker. 

I mean, does he not now his ball flight enough to realize he could hit the underside of the bank? 

In the end, he should be out in one. Hit a shot on the green and force Schauffele to make birdie to win. Go to a playoff. 

As @iacassuggested, I think he did indeed mis-hit it.

[Darkfrog]

He was quoted saying he bladed it, maybe in an ESPN article. 

[iacas]

48 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

He was quoted saying he bladed it, maybe in an ESPN article. 

Yeah. I think he was trying to hit it while still avoiding slamming the clubhead into the lip, maybe? He had to blade it for it not to get above the lip.

[saevel25]

That makes more sense, the camera angle made it look like he had decent contact. 

[WilliamB]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

Yeah. I think he was trying to hit it while still avoiding slamming the clubhead into the lip, maybe? He had to blade it for it not to get above the lip.

Seems a correct assessment to me, although still a poor decision on his part. It looked like he was trying to do too much with his shot which probably put a lot of pressure on himself which in turn caused his poor swing. Sometimes you just have to take your medicine and ensure you get out of the bad situation with the least amount of damage, and not attempt a hero shot. I missed his tee shot but the announcer said it was a poor decision off the tee box. Maybe one could say his biggest mistake was not in the bunker, but back at the Tee Box.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, WilliamB said:

Seems a correct assessment to me, although still a poor decision on his part. It looked like he was trying to do too much with his shot which probably put a lot of pressure on himself which in turn caused his poor swing. Sometimes you just have to take your medicine and ensure you get out of the bad situation with the least amount of damage, and not attempt a hero shot. I missed his tee shot but the announcer said it was a poor decision off the tee box. Maybe one could say his biggest mistake was not in the bunker, but back at the Tee Box.

Meh. It was 105 front.

If he pulls it off we’re all talking about it kinda like Fitzpatrick’s shot on #72 the week before.

[Friz]

So anyone who is a better golfer than me, do you look at this and see clearance to hit ball first, get it up in time, and carry to the green?  The whole time I was watching him I couldn't imagine what he was trying to do...I saw zero chance of reaching the green.  I figured his absolute best case scenario was what he ended up doing on his third and just a short advancement....but even that held a ton of risk this close to the lip.

The only play I saw that close to the lip was open the face wide and just get it out in the safest direction possible.  As mentioned he's still only a wedge and a putt from par....but he absolutely can not leave anything worse than bogey on the table.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Friz said:

So anyone who is a better golfer than me, do you look at this and see clearance to hit ball first, get it up in time, and carry to the green?

Possibly, yeah. And if it hits the bank on the way up/out, it's basically the same as if he'd pitched it out.

We can't tell what angle that bank is at from that camera position. Is it a 30° bank? 45°?

[WilliamB]

18 hours ago, iacas said:

Possibly, yeah. And if it hits the bank on the way up/out, it's basically the same as if he'd pitched it out.

We can't tell what angle that bank is at from that camera position. Is it a 30° bank? 45°?

PGA golfers are such great ball strikers that you never see them blade a shot like he did in this incident. So what's the difference? It was the conditions that he was hitting the ball under. Personally, I think he did try to bite off more than he could chew under those conditions, and yeah if he did pull it off, we would be calling him gutsy, great ball striker, or Tiger-esque. I often see PGA golfers in similar situations just clearing an abutting hill from a bunker by a mere inch or two, they are that good. Occasionally they come down to my level and make a mistake like Theegala apparently did. I was actually pulling for him to win because he hasn't won yet, but maybe that's why he hasn't, making decisions like that under pressure? I don't know if he has been interviewed to discuss it, but it would be interesting to hear what he did have to say.

[boogielicious]

12 minutes ago, WilliamB said:

PGA golfers are such great ball strikers that you never see them blade a shot like he did in this incident. So what's the difference? It was the conditions that he was hitting the ball under. Personally, I think he did try to bite off more than he could chew under those conditions, and yeah if he did pull it off, we would be calling him gutsy, great ball striker, or Tiger-esque. I often see PGA golfers in similar situations just clearing an abutting hill from a bunker by a mere inch or two, they are that good. Occasionally they come down to my level and make a mistake like Theegala apparently did. I was actually pulling for him to win because he hasn't won yet, but maybe that's why he hasn't, making decisions like that under pressure? I don't know if he has been interviewed to discuss it, but it would be interesting to hear what he did have to say.

I think it happens all the time and they just don’t show it on TV. At the US Open we saw lots of poor shots in person by some of the best players. They just didn’t show them on TV. I’m talking fat shots, chunked chips, bad pulls, etc. These guys are really good, but they are human.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, WilliamB said:

PGA golfers are such great ball strikers that you never see them blade a shot like he did in this incident.

Sure you do. Plus, this was a pretty extreme shot he was trying to pull off.

I've worked with plenty of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players. They can hit some pretty bad shots.