Not-so-perfect 10 ruins Garcia’s round
Published 5:00 am Sunday, June 16, 2013
ARDMORE, Pa. — If only Sergio Garcia could have a mulligan — or four of them — on the 15th hole, he might be in reasonable shape at the U.S. Open.
The par 4 got the best of the Spaniard in the worst way Saturday. He hit three straight shots out-of-bounds and wound up making a 10. He was 6-over on that one hole and still managed a 75. In the opening round, Garcia hit his tee shot out-of-bounds on the 15th and wound up with an 8.
He is 10-over on the 15th hole, and 1-over on the rest of them at Merion.
“Funny enough, when I made an 8 on Thursday I hit a lot of bad shots,” Garcia said. “Funny enough, I only hit one bad shot today and I made 10. My first shot was into the wind and it went out of bounds. My second one, I thought it was even better and it went out of bounds by 5 inches. And then the third one wasn’t great. And after that, I took a chance and the round came out nicely.”
Add them all up and Garcia was at 11-over 221 going into the final round.
“A 10 is just a 10, nothing more than that,” Garcia said.
He wasn’t the only guy who suffered on Saturday. Kyle Stanley took a 10 on the 14th hole. Robert Karlsson had a tournament-worst 86. Stanley and Shawn Stefani checked in with an 85, while Kevin Sutherland had an 84 and Simon Khan an 82.
In good company: Phil Mickelson doesn’t have a driver in the bag this week so he can carry an extra wedge.
Ian Poulter has opted to go without his 7-iron.
Poulter said on Twitter that he didn’t think he needed a 7-iron for Merion. He said he has had only three yardages where a 7-iron could have been used, and instead he played a soft cut with a 6-iron. It has worked well. He was tied for 11th going into the last round, despite losing four shots over the last four holes Saturday for a 73.
Besides, he’s not the only player to go without a 7-iron.
Ben Hogan didn’t have one in his bag when he won the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion. Asked why he didn’t have one, Hogan dryly replied, “There isn’t a 7-iron shot at Merion.”
The long road to a short week: Those who had the shortest week at the U.S. Open took the longest road to even get to Merion.
For the first time since at least 1997, none of the 20 players who endured 18 holes of local qualifying and 36 holes of sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open made the cut.
That doesn’t mean the experience was a total waste of time.
Take 18-year-old Gavin Hall, who birdied his last four holes to make it through sectional qualifying in New York. Hall went to bed Thursday night with his name on the leaderboard because he was 1 under when the opening round was suspended. He ran off a string of bogeys Friday morning, though he also holed out from the eighth fairway for an eagle to open with a 74.
The second round was tougher — a 40 on the front nine, and then a triple bogey on the 10th hole, the shortest par 4 at Merion. He shot 77, but that included back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, and an experience he wouldn’t trade.
“That’s a special place, a special tournament to play in, and for me to play in this at such a young age is a great learning experience, and it’s just a great tournament to kick off the summer,” said Hall, who clearly had a great time despite missing the cut.
“I’ve gotten exposed to a lot of things and I have a lot to work on,” he said. “But I still feel like if I clean up some things in my game, I belong out here.”