Remarkable streak boosts Horschel
On his 10th hole of play at the Memorial Tournament on Thursday, Billy Horschel missed a 37-inch par putt.
Such a flub is common for the hackers among us. Not for a pro. They make more than 99.5% of 3-footers. Horschel had made all 366 of his this year.
But what he did after that 3-footer is something that the rest of us can only dream of: He followed that slip-up on No. 1 Thursday – he started on the back nine – with 44 holes of bogey-free play to give him a five-stroke lead heading into Sunday’s final round at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
“Pretty good,” tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus said before Sunday’s round. “Obviously, he’s taken the half a dozen shots we’ve got here at Muirfield that are really dangerous and made sure he didn’t make any dumb mistakes with them.”
Nicklaus credits Horschel’s simple swing mechanics.
“He doesn’t have a lot of moving parts,” he said. “When he’s on, he’s on.”
Even with a reliable swing, you’d think he’d falter at some point or get a bad lie or unfortunate break. PGA golfers average 2.6 bogeys per round.
That’s partly why Horschel realized he had a long streak without a bogey.
“I’m very aware of everything I do on the golf course,” he said.
What’s remarkable is that Horschel’s bogey-less streak isn’t even close to the Memorial record. John Cook went 74 holes without a bogey starting with his third round in 2003 and extending through his third round in 2004.
Jim Furyk went 69 holes from his fourth round in 1996 until his ninth hole in 1998. That includes his entire 1997 tournament, which was shortened because of weather to three rounds. Furyk didn’t even win that tournament. He finished two shots behind Vijay Singh, though Furyk would win five years later.
Alas, Horschel’s bogey-less streak finally ended at 49 on Sunday when he missed a putt from 9 feet, 7 inches on the par-4 No. 6 hole to cut his Memorial lead to 3.
Nothing lasts forever, even if Horschel made it seem for a time that he might defy golf’s inevitable setbacks.
Nicklaus jokes he never broke a club ... his bag did
The old line attributed to Jack Nicklaus is “I never missed a putt; somehow it just didn’t go in.” Whether he actually said it, who knows? But now we have another witticism to ponder: “The Golden Bear never broke a golf club in anger; his golf bag broke it.”
During the Jack Nicklaus Award ceremony, during which five college players were honored, the Memorial Tournament host noted that he never broke a club “on purpose” during competition.
“In play? Zero,” Nicklaus said. “How many times have I broken one accidentally?
I had a 3-wood that I used since 1958 ... and used until the (1989) PGA Championship in Chicago. I hit a shot (into the water), took my club and put it in the bag and (it) hit the side of the bag. I didn’t mean to hurt anything.”
The only other time Nicklaus broke a club during play was when his 3-wood snapped during a swing, “and all the sudden it wrapped around my back. The shot went down the middle though.”