DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) – Muirfield Village was the toughest test Carl Pettersson has seen in nearly two years, so he was more than satisfied closing with a 2 under 70. Note that it was the only test of the PGA Tour you have taken. faced in almost two years.
“Pretty good for a retired boy,” Pettersson said.
He was only half joking when Memorial ended tied for 38th, earning his first paycheck ($ 43,245) since the Canadian Open three years ago.
You are not suffering financially. Pettersson was a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the Memorial in 2006, and has just over $ 22 million in professional earnings. That’s why he can be considered retired at age 42 with enough love for the game he plays four times a week at his home in North Carolina.
“I’ve had enough,” said Pettersson. ” I was playing so badly two years ago that it wasn’t fun. I decided I wanted to see the kids grow up: 16 and 13. You play this game, you have to be selfish. You travel seven months a year, when you are at home you are practicing and playing. It is all about you.
“If my game hadn’t gone south, I probably would still be,” he said. But I decided that I didn’t want to be miserable at 40. And luckily, I played well enough to be able to do it. If I hadn’t played well enough, I would still be doing it. ”
He plans to return to a full schedule when he turns 50 and is eligible for the PGA Tour Champions.
Pettersson’s best year was 2006, when he finished 18th on the earnings list. His best chance in a major race was in 2012 on Kiawah Island, when he played in the final group with Rory McIlroy in the PGA Championship. McIlroy surprised everyone to win by eight. Pettersson tied for third.
What contributed to Pettersson’s bad play was the decision to ban the anchored hit for his long putter. He made the cut in just four of the 24 events he played in 2016 as he struggled to find a replacement for the only pitching shot he had as a professional.
That is what made his appearance at the Memorial so remarkable. It was the toughest test of the year, the strongest course of the year. Pettersson only plays at home. He does not grind in range. However, it hardly had a dead weight. He made the cut, and then had one of five rounds under par on Sunday.
“Can I buy you that?” Carlos Ortiz joked as he headed for the first tee for the final round.
That increases Pettersson’s priority ranking enough to make him eligible for some opposing field events. For him, that is enough.
“Golf is a strange game,” he said. “I am playing better now than I was three years ago. I still play at home. I don’t practice I play with the members, the professional assistant. And I do a lot of boating.”
The routine of playing the tour is not lost. But he misses seeing the players, Pettersson said he didn’t recognize half of them, the caddies and other acquaintances.
“I looked at it this way,” said Pettersson. ” I will never be as good as before. Why grind it and be miserable?
Pettersson is anything but miserable. That has not changed. It was evident from what appeared to be the logo on his bill for his visor: LdM5.
A corporate sponsor?
“That is the name of my ship,” he said. ” Long haul, do 5 ”.
LPGA RESET
The global nature of the LPGA Tour and the way the schedule falls for the planned resumption of the COVID-19 pandemic strike has created some dynamics rarely seen.
According to Golf Channel, the world’s top eight South Koreans will not be at the LPGA Drive On Championship next week at the Inverness Club in Toledo. That would likely be the case the following week in the Marathon Classic.
Several of the South Koreans have been overcoming the pandemic at home. It would make little sense to come to the United States for two weeks when the next stops are the Ladies Scottish Open and the Women’s British Open.
Meanwhile, the top five Americans in the top 20 in the world ranking will be in the LPGA Drive On Championship.
RORY IN NO. two
It took Rory McIlroy more than four years to return to No. 1 in the world. He doesn’t think he’ll have to wait that long to return after Jon Rahm took charge of his victory at the Memorial.
McIlroy was a clear No. 1 with seven consecutive top-five results, including a victory last fall at a World Golf Championship. Since the return of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has yet to post a top 10 and has three finals outside of the top 30.
“I haven’t played well enough since I came back after closing to keep that place,” McIlroy said after a 78 on Sunday to tie for 32nd place at the Memorial.
Rahm was also not playing his best after the restart, with one exception: he won on Sunday.
“He deserves it,” said McIlroy. “He has been playing very well for a long time.”
McIlroy takes a week off before going to the FedEx St. Jude Invitational, a World Golf Championship where he finished second a year ago, and then to the PGA Championship at Harding Park.
“I need to play better,” said McIlroy. “If I play better and eliminate the big mistakes I’ve been making in the past few weeks, I will have a chance.” There are enough good things for me to go back there. ”
MUIRFIELD LIMITS
Bryson DeChambeau struggled to accept that his shot was off the field on the 15th hole of Muirfield Village, the golf ball inside the black fencing of a beautiful home. “I want to know if I can jump over the fence and hit it,” he told a rules officer in a desperate attempt to save some shots.
That wouldn’t be a problem a few events after Memorial, even if the greens were not uprooted and replaced.
The fence is temporary, and not just on the 15th.
Dublin has a fence ordinance, except for one pool, so for years the Memorial used a pocket mesh fence to prevent owners from spilling onto the field during the tournament. That didn’t work, so in 2013, the tournament bought over 7 miles of black fencing roughly 6 feet tall. Looks good. It seems to be part of the landscape. It is not.
Tournament director Dan Sullivan says it takes about a month to install it (there are sleeves on the ground) before the tournament, and three weeks to dismantle it.
DIVOTS
Justin Rose has missed the cut in three consecutive events, the first time it has happened since 2011. … The PGA Tour Champions added two events in consecutive weeks in August at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri this year. … The Symetra Tour resumes its schedule this week in Michigan. But he said the Alabama Guardian Championship that was scheduled for Sept. 18-20 was canceled this year due to the pandemic. … Ryan Palmer earned $ 1,013,700 for his second place finish at the Memorial. That’s his biggest check on the PGA Tour, beating the $ 990,000 he earned in 2010 for winning the Sony Open.
STATE OF THE WEEK
The Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial hosted just one round in the 1960s on Sunday. Both belonged to Matthew Fitzpatrick, a 69 at Bay Hill and a 68 at Muirfield Village.
FINAL WORD
” You always hear people say that champions make it possible. And at the time, I made it possible .”– Jon Rahm, on his chip behind the green 16 at the Memorial after his eight-shot lead was reduced to three.
