Rain reset of first round a real relief for both Spieth and Mickelson ... Kuchar and golf in a no-win situation with caddie tipping drama ... Hughes keeps perspective
The Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club got under way twice on Thursday.
Players teed off in a downpour shortly after the sun allegedly came up, only to be called off the course shortly after 7 a.m., 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 that 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 Mickelsonian bunker-to-bunkerto-bunker hole-out par at the driveable par-4 10th never officially happened. It also meant that Jordan Spieth received a juicy do-over after going cartpath-to-cartpathto-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 who played 11 holes and will begin Friday at 1-under for the tournament.
Hadwin’s alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.
“I was awake, I was here, I was warmed up,” he said while walking back to the clubhouse after play was called for darkness at 5:35 p.m. “We were right on the tee box when they called it.”
Hadwin birdied the first hole after the restart, before making eight pars to make the turn at 1-under.
After laying up at the 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-5 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.
Canada’s Nick Taylor played nine holes and sits at 1-over par.
The afternoon pairings, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas — as well as Canadian Mackenzie Hughes — have yet to play a hole. Play will resume at 7 a.m. local time on Friday.
ONE SKETCHY TIPPER?
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 had doubled down on his decision to play local caddie
David (El Tucan) Giral Ortiz
$5,000 after winning $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% (or $130,000 in this case), but that’s where it gets murky. Ortiz is not a tour caddie and this was a one-off 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 said.
Making $5,000 is a great week — unless you made $1.3 million last week. We can all agree that there is a lot of room between $5,000 and $130,000 and that’s the problem.
Now, Kuchar finds himself in violation of Kuchar Rule No. 1: Don’t become a story. Kuchar has made a career and brand 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 general public that’s old news, but it’s an image that 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.
Some argue a deal is a deal, which may be true, but it won’t help Kuchar in the court of public opinion. It’s too late to pay, it’s too late to admit there was a better way to handle this. Perhaps at 40 years old, with $48 million, he simply doesn’t care.
Kuchar will begin his Genesis Open here at Riviera on Friday.
He also plays next week at the WGC Mexico Championship, which is indeed in Mexico. Stay tuned.
MACKENZIE GRINDING
Hughes finished last season making six of seven cuts with three top-20 finishes, but so far this season, is a work in progress.
The Dundas, Ont., native enters the week (he begins his first round on Friday) coming off missed cuts at Pebble Beach and the Waste Management Open. On the range at Riviera this week, Hughes worked with his driver trying to hone-in 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 it’s 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.”
FILL-IN LOOPER
Hadwin, Canada’s topranked golfer, has a new man on his bag this week at the Genesis Open with his regular caddie, Joe Cruz, taking a break after the birth of his child. Canadian Yohann
Benson, who has caddied for Hadwin before and is an accomplished player himself, is filling in.
In 2009, Benson had three top-10 finishes on the now-Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada.