HEAVY RAINS CAUSE RARE REDO AT RIVIERA
Canadian Hadwin among those affected with seven holes to go in his first round
The Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club got underway twice Thursday.
Players teed off in a downpour shortly after the sun came up, only to be called off the course shortly after 7 a.m. PT due to poor visibility. As hard rain began to fill the picturesque Santa Monica canyon, it was decided to scrap scores from before the stoppage to get a fresh start seven hours later. It’s the first time since 2013 the PGA Tour has done a hard reset on a tournament.
Play resumed at 1:40 p.m. local time Thursday. That means Phil Mickelson’s bunker-to-bunkerto-bunker hole-out par at the driveable par-four 10th hole never officially happened. It also meant Jordan Spieth received a juicy do-over after going cart path to cart path to bushes on his first hole. Spieth took full advantage of the restart and will begin Friday tied for the lead with Sung Kang at 5 under.
“Really solid start, but certainly got some breaks,” Spieth said.
It was a long day for many players, including Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., who played 11 holes and will begin Friday at 1 under.
Hadwin’s alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.
“I was awake, I was here, I was warmed up,” he said. “We were right on the tee box when they called it.”
Hadwin birdied the first hole after the restart before making eight pars. After laying up at the driveable par-four 10th, he put his approach in the right greenside bunker before compounding the error by leaving his next shot in the sand. He got up and down from there for bogey to fall back to even par before playing the par-five 11th perfectly and calling it a day.
“It was nice to hit three good shots down my last hole and finish with a tap-in birdie to make dinner taste a little better,” Hadwin said.
Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor played nine holes and sits at 1 over.
The afternoon pairings, including Tiger Woods, Rory Mcilroy, Justin Thomas and Mackenzie Hughes of Hamilton had yet to play a hole.
The big loser of Thursday’s rain delay was Matt Kuchar.
With seven hours to kill, the story of Kuchar stiffing his Mexican caddie continued to dominate sports talk channels and social media. On Wednesday, the 40-year-old American doubled down on his decision to pay caddie David (El Tucan) Giral Ortiz $5,000 after winning US$1.3 million at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico last November.
“I ended up paying him $5,000 and I thought that was more than what we agreed upon,” Kuchar told the Golf Channel. “I kind of think if he had the chance to do it over again, same exact deal, that he’d say yes again.”
The going rate paid to a tour caddie for a win is 10 per cent (or $130,000 in this case), but that’s where it gets murky. Ortiz is not a tour caddie and this was a oneoff gig. He’s a local caddie who hasn’t made the financial and familial sacrifices to follow his player all over the world. Kuchar explained that before the tournament the pair agreed upon a bonus structure that would have paid Ortiz up to $4,000.
“So I certainly don’t lose sleep over this. … Making $5,000 is a great week,” Kuchar told the Golf Channel.
Making $5,000 is a great week unless you made $1.3 million last week. We can all agree there is a lot of room between $5,000 and $130,000 and that’s the problem.
Kuchar, who begins the Genesis Open Friday, has made a career out of staying out of the spotlight with his “golly gee” persona, cashing big cheques, but rarely winning tournaments. With career earnings of $48 million, a shoe deal with Skechers and just eight victories, he had achieved the perfect mix of a filthy rich athlete flying under the radar.
Until now.
Fairly or unfairly, he will be portrayed as a shining example of golf being an elitist sport played by rich folk who look down their nose at “the help.” To the public, that’s old news, but it’s an image golf has been trying to shed.
Ortiz told Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger that Kuchar’s agent Mark Steinberg offered him an extra $15,000 after the fact, but the caddie turned it down, saying he wanted $50,000. Nobody’s looking good in all of this.
Hughes finished last season making six of seven cuts with three top-20 finishes, but this season is a work in progress.
He enters the week coming off missed cuts at Pebble Beach and the Waste Management Open. On the range at Riviera, Hughes worked with his driver, trying to hone in on his preferred fade.
“I’m trying to get my swing path just a bit more left,” Hughes said. “What that does is promotes more of a distinct curve left to right. If your path is too neutral it becomes tough to work the ball.”
While most of us will never know what it’s like to try to add more curve to our shots, we can relate to at least one thing Hughes is going through this week.
“Every week presents its own challenges, like L.A. and this traffic,” he said.
But Hughes is careful not to take life on the PGA Tour for granted.
“I obviously have a great job and I have to remember that as well, that it’s a blessing to do what I do, sometimes it becomes hard work if you’re missing cuts and not playing as well, but I just need to remind myself that it’s a great opportunity and a great job to have.”