The post PGA Tour rookie uses putter from bunker, which of course ended tragically appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour rookie uses putter from bunker, which of course ended tragically appeared first on Golf.

The fight for survival — or simply just to keep your ball dry — in PGA National’s ‘Bear Trap’ will make you do some crazy things. Just ask Lee Hodges. 

Don’t know Lee Hodges? Well, he’s the 188th-ranked player in the world, and a PGA Tour rookie. This was his first week playing PGA National’s Champion Course as a Tour pro, and he fared quite well, finishing T9 for his second top 10 this season. But that doesn’t mean he was mistake-free. 

Hodges was that guy who the NBC broadcast panned to, out of nowhere, because he had gotten himself into some trouble. He was not in contention to win, but when he stood above his ball in the greenside bunker on the 15th hole, something was off. He didn’t have a wedge in his hands. He held his mallet putter.

Hodges was pin-high, but on the other side of the pin — a dastardly Sunday sucker pin — was the hazard that claims dozens of shots every year during the Honda Classic. There was a ton of green to hit toward, if he wanted to play away from the hole, but he clearly didn’t want to. 

The 26-year-old was 60 feet away, but the majority of that was all carry out of the wide bunker. So instead of splashing a wedge that might catch the slope without enough spin, he decided to slap his putter on the ball in the sand. The result, as you can see below, was less than he had hoped for. 

Hodges’ ball went skidding through the sand as he intended, but it took the lip of the bunker as more of a launch pad than an exit ramp, bounding up out of the trap and onto the green. It had way too much pace by the time it left the bunker that it rolled out, flew by the hole and eventually trickled down the bank and into the edge of the hazard. Everyone watching at home surely did a double-take. 

What Hodges was trying to pull off wasn’t complete lunacy, even if it did look a bit odd. He figured the furry lip would grab enough of the ball as it skidded toward the hole that he would at the least remain hole-high and at the worst be stuck in the rough short of the hole. His pace was just too great.

The only good thing here is that Hodges found his ball only half-submerged in the hazard, so he was able to chop it out for a comfy double bogey, the only blemish on his final-round scorecard. 

Sunday’s theatrics for Hodges in the Bear Trap was only the cap on a rollercoaster week for him at the Honda Classic’s treacherous finish. During round 1, he pulled off the rare feat of birdieing both par-3s, the 15th and 17th. He offset a bogey on 17 with a birdie on 16 during the second round and must have not thought too much of this famous stretch of holes that have crushed even the best players in the world. 

But then the weekend took over. Hodges’ impressive record on the Bear Trap took a major hit on Saturday when he made triple bogey on the 16th hole, leaving his approach short and in the water and then three-putting when he reached the green. He bogeyed the ensuing 17th for good measure, because, apparently that’s what you do in the Bear Trap. Go around that ride enough times and it’ll get you once. Maybe twice. Maybe more. 

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The post ‘That was pretty bold’: Caddie pulls tourney leader off shot — during backswing appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘That was pretty bold’: Caddie pulls tourney leader off shot — during backswing appeared first on Golf.

Lee Hodges stood over his ball, then backed off. The wind on the par-5 8th at the PGA West Stadium Course had changed directions, and he changed his mind on the 212-yard shot. He pulled a different club from his bag, his caddie, Robert Peeler, backed away again, and he addressed his ball again. 

And again the wind blew. 

While the shot of this American Express tournament is still to be decided, its shout came during Saturday’s third round. 

“Hold up, hold up,” Peeler screamed to the right of his man. And Hodges did. 

During his backswing. 

But hold up: Has a caddie ever stopped a player in the middle of his swing? It’s here we’ll note, too, that Hodges was also tied for the lead on the second-to-last day, only two holes in his round remained (he started on the back nine), and he was back in the big leagues after playing last year on the Korn Ferry Tour. So it’s not as if Peeler stopped him on the range, either.     

“Not that late in the game,” analyst — and 2008 Masters champ — Trevor Immelman said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “That was pretty late right there.” 

And you, John Cook? He was also on the call and also a Tour winner. 

“I never got pulled off right there,” he said on the broadcast. “I got pulled off clubs but not when I was over the ball. 

“That was pretty bold,” Immelman said. 

Very. Hodges, after a quick swipe at the grass to the left of his ball, huddled back up with Peeler, then grabbed a different club. On the broadcast, Cook noted that the wind was at Hodges’ back.     

“That caddie is praying that he’s correct now,” Immelman said on the broadcast.  

“Yeah, he is,” Cook said. “He’s going please, please, please.” 

He was. Hodges hit just past the hole, it rolled to the back of the green, and as Peeler handed his player his putter, he smiled. From there, Hodges two-putted for a birdie four, and he’ll enter Sunday’s final round still tied at the top.  

“That is some gutsy caddying right there,” Immelman said on the broadcast.  

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The post The American Express leaderboard: Who’s leading after Round 1 appeared first on Golf.

The post The American Express leaderboard: Who’s leading after Round 1 appeared first on Golf.

Every hole at La Quinta Country Club, Patrick Cantlay said, is “a birdie hole.” “Especially if you drive it in the fairway, and like I said it’s in such good shape that if you start to read the greens really well, it’s easy to make a bunch,” he said. And make birdies in a bunch he did. Here are three things you need to know after Thursday’s first round of the American Express, played at La Quinta, the Pete Dye Stadium Course and the Nicklaus Tournament Course, in La Quinta, Calif. 

Complete leaderboard here. 

Patrick Cantlay and Lee Hodges lead 

And nowhere more did Cantlay and Lee Hodges birdie-binge better than on the front nine at La Quinta. Cantlay birdied 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 and eagled 6 — or played his first seven holes in seven-under — while Hodges birdied 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9 and eagled 5 — or played holes four through nine in six-under — and they each finished with 10-under 62s and a two-shot lead over K.H. Lee and Cameron Young. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hodges also praised La Quinta. 

“It’s one of my favorite golf courses I’ve ever played, to be honest,” he said. “I played it, I guess, three times now, and it’s spectacular. It’s like hitting off of mats half the time. It’s just in perfect shape. You get rewarded for good shots out here, which I like that. Good golf gets rewarded.”

On the back nine, each player birdied 11, 12 and 13. 

“I got off to a roll at the start and kind of made a bunch of putts and then I kind of lagged on the way coming in,” Cantlay said. “But I was happy with everything, I thought I did everything well, and it’s a golf course I really like, it’s in perfect shape, and so if you get the ball rolling on line, it should go in.”

K.H. Lee and Cameron Young are tied for second 

Lee, playing the Stadium Course, and Young, playing La Quinta, are two shots back. Three behind are three players who played the Stadium Course (Joseph Bramlett, Sam Ryder and Brandt Snedeker), four players who played the Nicklaus (Danny Lee, Tom Hoge, Seamus Power and Greyson Sigg) and one player (Wyndham Clark) who played La Quinta.  

Among other players, world No. 1 Jon Rahm is four shots back after a 66 at La Quinta, and Patrick Reed is nine back after a 71 at La Quinta. 

Phil Mickelson shoots 78 

In all, 118 of the 156 players shot par or better. Among those who didn’t were Rickie Fowler, who shot a one-over 73; Phil Mickelson, who shot a six-over 78; and Matthew Wolff, who also shot a six-over 78. 

Also, James Hart du Preez, at 6-foot-9, the tallest player ever to play a PGA Tour event, shot a four-over 76. He hit his second shot into the water and played his first two holes at three-over, then settled down from there. 

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