For Mcphee, there’s no time for down time
GM faces busy run as Knights’ season nears
For George Mcphee, there’s no such thing as a real vacation. There’s simply too much for the Golden Knights’ general manager to do.
He has to finalize a deal with restricted free-agent defenseman Nate Schmidt or have it settled in arbitration Aug. 3.
There’s some input he’ll have on the hiring of the broadcasters and game-night presentation. He and his hockey staff have begun planning their travel schedules to scout various amateur events and tournaments.
“We’ll be busy the next few weeks,” he said Friday from the East Coast, where he’s mixing some business with R&R. “But we’re rolling along and looking forward to training camp in our new facility.”
As for Schmidt, Mcphee said: “We’ll do our best to reach a deal. But we’re comfortable with the arbitration process because it gets the deal done.”
Schmidt is one of 11 defensemen on the Knights’ roster. There has been much speculation that Mcphee would try to move a few of those 11 but he said there’s no urgency to do so.
“We’re at a manageable number right now,” he said. “We’re pretty close to where we want to be and we’re comfortable with the roster we
KNIGHTS
seized control with a 1-under 69 for a two-shot lead over Matt Kuchar going into the weekend.
Spieth turned a bogey or worse into an unlikely par by chipping in from just short of the 10th green. And he learned enough from watching TV to know that going a little long on the par-5 15th would give him a better birdie chance than playing short.
So he switched from a 3-iron to a 3-wood, hit it a little off the neck and watched it run hot and fast some 100 yards along the wet turf to about 18 feet away.
“I mishit the shot, which is probably why it looked so gross,” Spieth said. “I hit it low off the heel, which is easy to do when you’re trying to carve a cut. And it just … one hop, scooted around the group of bunkers there, and then it was obviously fortunate to get all the way to the green.”
Spieth was at 6-under 134. It was the 12th time he has been atop the leaderboard at a major, including the fourth rounds of the Masters and U.S. Open that he won in 2015.
“Anytime you’re in the last group on a weekend in a major … you get nervous. And I’ll be feeling it this weekend a bit,” he said. “But I enjoy it.”
Kuchar played in the morning in strong wind, but without rain, and pieced together a 71. He was at 4-under 136, and it would have been a good bet that he would be leading with the nasty weather that arrived.
“I think that’s what people enjoy about the British Open is watching the hard wind, the rain, the guys just trying to survive out there,” Kuchar said.
He wound up watching another short-game clinic from Spieth.
The key to his round came in the middle, starting with a 10-foot par putt on No. 8 after he drove into a pot bunker.
The biggest break came at No. 10, in pounding rain. Spieth hit into another pot bunker off the tee, could only advance it out sideways, and came up short of the green in light rough.
“Massive,” he said about the chipin par.
And he wasn’t through. Spieth rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt across the 11th green, and then after watching Henrik Stenson’s tee shot on the par-3 12th land softly, Spieth realized he could take on the flag. He hit 7-iron to 2 feet for another birdie, and followed that with a beautiful pitch to tap-in range for par on the 13th.
The chasing pack features U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka, who failed to make a birdie but had 16 pars in a 72, and Ian Poulter, with the support of the English crowd. He shot 70.
Rory Mcilroy recovered from a horrific start Thursday to salvage a 71 and then kept right on rolling.
Mcilroy, who was 5 over through the opening six holes of the tournament, ran off three birdies with full control of every shot on the front nine.
And much like Spieth, he kept his round together with crucial par saves early on the back nine when the wind was at its worse. Mcilroy posted a 68 and was at 1-under 139, only five shots behind with only five players in front of him.
“To be in after two days and be under par for this championship after the way I started, I’m ecstatic with that,” Mcilroy said.