Well, 23-year old, Argentinian Emiliano Grillo defeated 32-year old, Korean-American Kevin Na on the second hole of a playoff today in the PGA Tour’s FRYS.COM tournament on the North Course at Silverado Resort and Spa, Napa, California. They played the par-five eighteenth hole (575 yards) twice. On the first playoff hole, Grillo surprisingly missed a putt of just under two feet that would have given him the win. I watched it today on televsion because I won there 47 years ago, in 1968. (Wow, am I that old? See my other post today about that win.)
Golf is lot about strategy, especially in a two-man playoff which is just like match play. On the second playoff hole, Na had the advantage with a good drive in the narrow fairway while Grillo had to lay up from the fairway bunker to about 150-yards for his third shot to the green. I think Na made a disastrous mistake by electing to hit his driver. He hit it fat causing the ball to hook and finish behind trees about 100 yards from the green.
Hitting a driver off the fairway is risky business. Some players are better at that than others. It mostly depends on how much you dip your head in especially your downswing. (It’s really the dipping of the base of your cervical spine, which is the fulcrum of the swing.) If you swing with a steady head that doesn’t dip, your chances are much better of making solid contact with the ball. Kevin Na has a pretty steady head on his backswing and downswing, so he is better at that than most pros.
But making solid contact is more difficult with a driver off the fairway nowadays than when I played the regular Tour. Why? It’s these jumbo-headed drivers. Driver clubheads that equipment manufacturers make now are so large that the center-of-gravity of the clubface is higher above the sole of the clubhead than the drivers we used to play decades ago. That makes it more critical to make perfect contact when hitting a driver off of the fairway. That is, it’s easier to hit the shot fat with those jumbo-headed drivers.
Furthermore, that particular shot Na had was even more risky with a driver. He could have reached the green in two with either a driver or a hooked three metalwood shot. Two former PGA Tour player-commentators on television approved of Kevin’s club selection before he hit. They said with that club he could further insure a slight fade, leaving his third shot to the right of the green. They were right about it being easier to hit a fade with a driver off the fairway, and they were right that if Kevin missed the green he must miss right and not left. However, I think the correct play was to aim a three metalwood at the right greenside bunker and play a slight hook. Moreover, the green is designed for such a shot.
Instead, Kevin hit a terrible second shot with his driver off the fairway, hitting it fat. When that happens, the ball goes perhaps as much as 100 yards shorter than normal and usually left. That’s exactly the shot Na hit. He then was behind trees and had pretty much no shot to make the green on his third shot.
It was now Grillo’s turn to play. I immediately thought he made a mistake by not walking up and looking at Na’s ball location. Instead, Grillo went for the pin that was tucked close to the left side of the green. You must avoid missing the green left there because the ground slopes left so that the ball usually kicks way left. It’s then almost impossible to pitch close to the hole from the left side of the green. Grillo got lucky. His ball landed in the left fringe, bounced right, and settled about seven feet from the hole for a very makeable birdie putt.
Kevin Na then played his third shot through the trees. It looked like he didn’t really have a reasonable opening and thus was lucky his ball didn’t hit wood. It settled just over the back right side of the green. He then pitched too strong and made bogey six, giving the tournament win to Grillo who then made his putt for a birdie four.
Grillo set records with that win. It was his first PGA Tour tournament in which he has ever competed. That has happened very few times in the long history of the PGA Tour. Plus, he had just gained his Tour card two weeks earlier by winning the Web.Com Tour Championship. Now this win gives Grillo a two-year exemption of the regular Tour instead of his one-year exemption. Plus, it puts him in his first Masters and PGA Championship in 2016.
This tournament was the beginning of the regular PGA Tour’s 2016 season, and it was another exciting tournament. The PGA Tour is really do well.
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