2015 Quicken Loans National Discussion Thread

[Mr. Desmond]

Staff!

Interesting that this thread devolved to Tiger, while no name Troy and Wilson Staff were busy winning!

Any potential Tiger comeback overshadows everything -- he moves the needle.

[CR McDivot]

Tiger WAS great, and may be again, but this one IS Troy's! BTW- Course record to come from way back, and then play tight to hold lead, finish with an unneeded bird. Give the man credit due!

[jbishop15]

Tiger WAS great, and may be again, but this one IS Troy's!

Nobody is saying it wasn't. He won the tournament. Tiger is at worst the second greatest golfer of all time. whats more interesting: watching a legend try to regain their form or an unknown win a tournament?

[CR McDivot]

On tablet at course, what a pain, back when I can access a real keyboard.

[Aflighter]

Tiger doing something he never does-Oh wait he almost always does this just haters do not give him credit for it.

Phil, hes only standing there because theres a blonde reaching out to him.

[CR McDivot]

OK, I'm back (Tiger's not, yet).

I have to confess that I have a bias towards Staff, and enjoyed seeing Troy (a Staff endorsed pro) win the tourney.

I started playing in my early teens and my first real set of irons were Wilson blades... no such things as GI or SGI then... and my current irons are Wilson blades (1984 era forged in the USA, though not Staff). I do play Staff Fybrid 3W, 19.5 and 4H... love them.

Point of the matter, and allowing for my bias, Troy played an excellent tourney. Set the course record while still far back in the field and capitalized on that to win (with a final hole birdy when a bogey would have done).

Tiger finished 10 back. An improvement, yes. A comeback, nope! Maybe next time.

[golfcarte]

Phil, hes only standing there because theres a blonde reaching out to him.

I see only two kids, admist a sea of middle-aged people, and a lady that could be mistaken for tiger's mother. Some of these tweets just floor me.

[MacDutch]

Congrets to Troy, nice putting, specially on his third round. But I watched Tigers 3rd and worst round. It was painfull and at the same time I've seen him play many shots only played by the best. Even when he is spraying his drives everywhere he is phenomenal. His bogey on the 18th (3rd round) was a good example of bad and incredible good at the same hole.

[nevets88]

God, all those people so close on the left. Even in his suckitude (trending down), he's way better than mere mortals.

[boogielicious]

God, all those people so close on the left. Even in his suckitude (trending down), he's way better than mere mortals.

I guarantee that given this exact same shot, I would hook it into the crowd!

[Natural Patrick]

Congrets to Troy, nice putting, specially on his third round.

But I watched Tigers 3rd and worst round. It was painfull and at the same time I've seen him play many shots only played by the best. Even when he is spraying his drives everywhere he is phenomenal. His bogey on the 18th (3rd round) was a good example of bad and incredible good at the same hole.

The bold makes me LMAO!

[pumaAttack]

I guarantee that given this exact same shot, I would hook it into the crowd!

How about the shot were he went over the fans with his wedge?

The gallery didn't want to move for that one!

[mmoan2]

TW did make some incredible recovery shots and played darn well overall, but his misses were so awful. I'm still wondering how he split the fairway with a 340 yard drive on a Par 5 and bogeyed the hole. I don't know what he hit for his approach, but those kinds of mistakes need to go away if he's ever to win again.

[boogielicious]

TW did make some incredible recovery shots and played darn well overall, but his misses were so awful. I'm still wondering how he split the fairway with a 340 yard drive on a Par 5 and bogeyed the hole. I don't know what he hit for his approach, but those kinds of mistakes need to go away if he's ever to win again.

Agree. Tiger and Phil (and Seve, he was a master at them) have always been known for incredible recover shots. But, in order to have one, you had to have put yourself in that position in the first place. Tiger needs to eliminate most of the misses. Phil too. He's been up and down all year.

[nevets88]

Strokes Gained at Quicken Loans [pgatour.com]

Merritt gained 9 strokes on the field in the 3rd round. That's the highest SG for a round I've ever seen.

http://www.pgatour.com/statsreport/2015/08/03/strokes-gained-at-quicken-loans-national.html

[RandallT]

Strokes Gained at Quicken Loans [pgatour.com]

Merritt gained 9 strokes on the field in the 3rd round. That's the highest SG for a round I've ever seen.

http://www.pgatour.com/statsreport/2015/08/03/strokes-gained-at-quicken-loans-national.html

Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the top 10 finishers:

	Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses)
Golfer	Total	Drive	Appr	Short	Putt
Troy Merritt	3.8 (1)	-0.1 (44)	2.4 (1)	0.3 (29)	1.2 (10)
Rickie Fowler	3.0 (2)	0.5 (15)	1.4 (8)	-0.2 (55)	1.3 (9)
David Lingmerth	2.8 (3)	0.7 (7)	0.0 (48)	0.4 (25)	1.8 (3)
Carl Pettersson	2.3 (T4)	0.0 (39)	1.1 (11)	-0.6 (68)	1.7 (4)
Jason Bohn	2.3 (T4)	0.1 (36)	1.0 (14)	-0.5 (66)	1.7 (5)
Bill Haas	2.3 (T4)	0.5 (18)	1.4 (7)	0.6 (15)	-0.2 (52)
Danny Lee	2.3 (T4)	0.5 (13)	1.0 (16)	0.3 (28)	0.4 (31)
Justin Thomas	2.3 (T4)	0.5 (17)	0.5 (27)	0.3 (27)	0.9 (15)
Justin Rose	2.3 (T4)	0.8 (4)	1.0 (17)	0.5 (20)	0.0 (45)
Ryo Ishikawa	2.0 (10)	0.1 (34)	0.5 (26)	1.0 (3)	0.3 (33)
Top 10 average	2.5	0.4	1.1	0.2	0.9
Fraction of total	100%	14%	41%	8%	36%

Seems like Merritt separated himself from the field this week by nearly 10 strokes (2.4 x 4) through his approach shots. I'd have to dig through past tournaments, but that seems like an outlier as well. Nobody else reached 2.0 in any category.

[Yukari]

Dude had missed the last 5 cuts in a row. Pretty special stuff to turn that around and win.

Does that mean Tiger's got a shot at winning the PGA? Not!

[RandallT]

Strokes Gained at Quicken Loans [pgatour.com]

Merritt gained 9 strokes on the field in the 3rd round. That's the highest SG for a round I've ever seen.

http://www.pgatour.com/statsreport/2015/08/03/strokes-gained-at-quicken-loans-national.html

Just stumbled on this after the John Deere (http://www.pgatour.com/statsreport/2015/07/13/strokes-gained-jordan-spieth.html):

		Strokes		Field
Rank	Golfer	gained	Score	average	Round	Finish	Tournament
1	J.B. Holmes	11.36	62	73.36	1	2	WGC-Cadillac Championship
2	Rory McIlroy	10.16	61	71.16	3	1	Wells Fargo Championship
3	Charley Hoffman	9.70	67	76.70	1	T11	Valero Texas Open
4	Jordan Spieth	9.42	64	73.42	1	1	Masters Tournament
5	Jordan Spieth	9.36	61	70.36	3	1	John Deere Classic
6	Ryan Palmer	8.70	61	69.70	2	T10	Humana Challenge
7	Aaron Baddeley	8.70	68	76.70	1	T20	Valero Texas Open
8	Troy Merritt	8.64	61	69.64	2	3	RBC Heritage
9	Steven Bowditch	8.52	62	70.52	1	1	AT&T; Byron Nelson Championship
10	Brooks Koepka	8.38	64	72.38	2	T51	The Honda Classic

This does NOT include rounds after the John Deere. They snuck this chart in for that one tournament, but haven't seen fit to publish it again, from what I see.

Troy Merritt seems to be streaky. He probably has 2 of the top 10 strokes gained over the field rounds this year (unless other recent tourneys displace him). Spieth has 2 as well.

Not sure if this chart is much different than a chart for "best rounds" (without factoring in strokes gained). Charley Hoffman's round of 67 must've been tough conditions for that to be 9.7!!