Dirtbags settle for tie with HG
BAUXITE – After trouncing Sheridan 15-2 Thursday, the Saline County Dirtbags came away with a 7-7 tie with Harmony Grove Friday in Bauxite.
Caleb Sollars had a solid game in the tie, going 2 for 2 with two runs at the plate, while also pitching two scoreless innings of relief, giving up two hits while striking out three.
After Harmony Grove went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning, the Dirtbags would respond in the bottom of the inning. Caleb Goines reached on an error to start, stole second and ended up stealing home to tie things up. Sollars followed with a single and scored on Jackson Regan’s RBI double for the 2-1 lead after one.
Aden Palmer singled to start the bottom of the second, stole second and scored on an Austin Hillis RBI single to center for the 3-1 advantage.
After getting the first two outs in the top of the third on two straight ground outs to Jackson Lindsey at third, two singles and two errors kept the inning alive, with Harmony Grove taking advantage with three runs and a 4-3 lead.
The Dirtbags, though, would also take advantage of an inning-extending error. Sollars doubled with two outs before Regan reached on an error, putting runners at second and third. Cole Babcock plated both with a single to right and 5-4 Saline County lead, which it remained until the fifth.
It was the top of the fifth
back home, the Wisley,” Bland said. “I don’t have a hat kind of deal at the minute. … I kind of said to the golf club, ‘Look, it would be quite nice if I wore the hat,’ and they gave me sort of like 10 to come out here with.”
Henley, on the other hand, has a golfing pedigree. The former college golfer of the year award winner at Georgia turned pro 10 years ago and has won three times on the PGA Tour, the last one in 2017. He hasn’t recorded a single top-10 finish in 26 previous major appearances.
“I’ve never been in this position before in a major,” Henley said. “Just feel like I’m going to learn something no matter what happens.”
What the rest of us learned — or at least, were reminded of again — is that the U.S. Open deserves its reputation as the toughest test in golf. Unlike the double-digit birdiefests the PGA Tour stages to favor the big-hitting stars every week, there’s never any question where the United States Golf Association setups fall on the risk-reward scale.
It isn’t just the narrowed fairways and speeded-up greens. The only time a
PGA Tour player encounters anything as tall and gnarly as the rough pinching those fairways and ringing every green is after returning from a month on the road to find out the gardener retired.
That’s not to say, of course, that the game’s stars can’t play tough courses, too. Among others, Matthew
Wolff is at 4 under, Jon
Rahm at 3 under, and Brooks Koepka, Colin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Bryson Dechambeau are all at evenpar. Even 51-year-old Phil Mickelson, at 2 over, is still within shouting distance of the lead.
But when a layout like Torrey Pines punishes mistakes as richly as it rewards birdies, it puts every golfer on the defensive and brings steady, short-hitting players like Bland and Henley into the mix. The other thing it does is fray everyone’s nerves.
The 22-year-old Wolff has talked candidly this week about the two months he stepped away from the game to decompress, and how arriving with no expectations beyond enjoying his rounds has lightened the burden. Just as revealing was the answer Bubba Watson, who’s at 3 under, gave when a reporter asked about his comfort level at Torrey Pines this week.
Watson, a two-time Masters champion, suffers from severe anxiety. He’s uncomfortable being in large crowds, feels self-conscious in the spotlight and worries about being judged – hardly the profile of a top-flight golfer.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Watson began his reply. “Don’t tell nobody; this is a secret. I am nervous over every shot, OK? Told a guy out there … he said, ‘Man, great putt. You make everything.’ I said, ‘I’m trying to lag it, man, but they keep falling in.’
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said finally. “I’m so nervous.”
It’s small consolation, but the USGA has found a way to make even the most coldblooded pros feel the pressure.
“Most times if I’m five back going into a Saturday, I need to probably make 12, 15-plus birdies on the weekend to hang in there,” said Thomas. “But this is a U.S. Open. It’s a little bit different.
“Obviously I’d love to make 12 or 15 birdies,” he added, “but I’m not exactly planning on that.”