Jason Day – on the 5th hole today – courtesy of PGA of America

Jason Day has recorded a third round of 70 at the PGA Championship near San Francisco and although now three shots behind the leader, Dustin Johnson, he remains very much in the hunt as the first major of the year heads into the weekend.

Day began the day perfectly when his approach at the first finished three feet from the hole to move just one behind the third round leader, Haotong Li.

On a layout which gives with one hand and takes with the other, Day would bogey his 6^th and 9^th holes although he kept in touch with a couple of nice bunker saves through the back nine before a birdie at the 16^th saw him finish three back.

It was a day when so many worked their way into contention however and Day slipped from a share of second place to a tied for 7^th. At just three behind he is one of many still very much in with a chance to win this significant title for the second occasion.

“I was 5-under coming into 16, I get to 16, I birdied that with a nice putt from about 20 feet away and then hit a nice one in close on 17, and then you’re sitting there going, I’m only two strokes back if I hole this putt.

“Unfortunately I didn’t, but it’s nice to be able to just hang in there, like major championship weekends you don’t have to do too much to move up the leaderboard, but you can do a lot to move away from the lead, unfortunately, by forcing things too much.

“I feel good about my putting, as well. I feel like that’s coming around nicely. Even though it didn’t look like I putted that great, I’m getting the lines right, unfortunately just not starting it on the line, and sometimes the speed may be just a little bit out, but overall I feel like I’m hitting good putts, just unfortunately they’re not going in.

“Tomorrow is another day, and you can wake up totally different tomorrow and feel great and everything is going to go in, so I’m really positive about how things are progressing.

“Overall it was a solid day even though I didn’t have a lot of birdies. I didn’t have a lot of bogeys, either. Hopefully that’s my poor round for the week and I can move on.”

Johnson leads by one over Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Champ with Collin Morikawa, Paul Casey and Brooks Koepka another shot back and one further back to five players tied for 7^th with Jason Day.

For Johnson this is the fourth time that he has had at least a share of the 54-hole lead at a major, having held that position at the 2010, 2015 and 2018 US Opens.  He finished those tournaments in 8th, 2nd and third places, respectively.

The only players with as many leads entering the fourth round of a major since 2010 are Jordan Spieth (6) and Rory McIlroy (5).  Spieth converted three of those six leads for victory while McIlroy converted four of his five chances.

DJ is the fifth player to start 0-for-3 in major which he had at least a share of a 54-hole lead, joining Harry Cooper, Dai Rees, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Lehman.  No player has ever started 0-for-4 when holding a 54-hole lead at a major.

“Yeah, I’m going to try my best not to do that,” said Johnson referring to that record after his round.

“All I can do is go out and play my game and shoot the best number I can. I’m going to just try and go out and shoot as low as I can tomorrow just like I did today. You know, just take what the golf course gives me and just keep on going because, you know, it doesn’t really matter what other guys are doing. All I can control is myself.

“I definitely have experience in this situation that definitely will help tomorrow. I’ve been in the hunt a bunch of times in a major. I’ve got one major, so having that experience is definitely going to be beneficial tomorrow.

“But it’s one of those things. Still going to have to go out and play really good golf. This is a tough golf course. Greens are getting really firm. They are fast. So I think the wind is going to blow again tomorrow, so it’s going to play difficult.

“I look forward to the challenge, and you know, I will definitely be relying on a lot of that experience that I have.”

Leader, Johnson – can he finally convert a 54 hole major championship lead?

Adam Scott retained an outside hope of a very low round tomorrow sweeping him into contention, his even par 70, losing ground in terms of position but something very special tomorrow might just open the door for him. He is seven shots from the lead.

Scott explained after his round just what he needs to do in order for that to occur.

“You can only be as aggressive as hitting the fairway off the tee. I mean, once you’re not in the fairway, you’re not aggressive. You have no control out of the rough.

“You might have a shot where you can get it on the green, but you’re not really in control. If I can hit a lot of fairways, there’s a low score out there somehow if I can dial in the irons.

“But I just haven’t had them starting on my line and doing what I want in the wind. It’s been difficult for me in that sense but I’m pleased I’ve putted very well.”

Twenty players are within five shots of Johnson, in fact at one stage today eleven players were within one of the lead  suggesting tomorrow might well be one of the most intriguing major championship finishes in recent times.

The make-up of those players has sixteen of those twenty yet to win a major title which may prove significant in tomorrow’s showdown.

We have waited a while for the opening major of the year but if the current leader-board is anything to go by then the final day is very likely to be well worth the wait.

Day hits his tee shot at the 9th – click to open – Photo courtesy of PGA of America

Jason Day might have lost his share of the lead at the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park near San Francisco, but he is well placed heading into the weekend of the first major of the year.

Day’s second round of 69 has him two behind the leader, Haotong Li, and tied for second place with Tommy Fleetwood, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose and Mike Lorenzo Vera.

After three early birdies, Day had a share of the lead with Li, who had started his second round early, before a messy double bogey at the lengthy par 4 12^th hole. He had chances to regain that lost ground in his closing holes but the putter deserted him.

He is, however, very well positioned with Li leading an event of this nature for the first time and the prospect of becoming China’s first male major championship winner, a huge task for the 25-year old.

Leader, Haotong Li – the weight of China’s expectations on his shoulders over the weekend.

“The course played a little bit — obviously a lot harder today for us in the afternoon,” said Day. “I know that the guys got a lot stronger wind yesterday. So to be able to walk off beating the golf course and shooting 69 today, I was pretty pleased with that.

“It’s a big golf course. It’s a big-boy golf course. The strange thing is when we have the southwesterly wind there’s a lot of side-wind golf shots, so you have to really control your ball flight.

“The greens, I think the last time we were here, they had a little bit more poa annua and they were a little more bumpy, but the green surfaces are playing tremendous. They are starting to get that little purple dry look to them, and with this wind, it’s definitely difficult.

“Obviously 12 was a bit of a mess. Wish I could have at least bogeyed that instead of doubled it, but overall, I gave myself plenty of opportunities coming in and just didn’t capitalize on them like I did yesterday.

“So, shooting 69 today, moving in the right direction, which is nice, if I can do that over the weekend, maybe shoot a couple more over the Saturday and Sunday round, hopefully I’m there; Sunday in contention.

“But the game feels good. I’m excited to come out and play every single day. I’m just going to try to tidy up the driving a little bit on the range and try to hole some more putts tomorrow if I can.”

Adam Scott stayed in touch with a round of 70 after being unable to take full advantage of an early tee time on day two. He mentioned after his round that he never felt he was moving forward.

“It was a bit of a mixed bag,” said Scott. “I guess overall my iron play wasn’t very good today, and my scrambling was pretty good. But a round where I never really had the momentum.

“I drove it a lot better than yesterday, which I was happy about, but I just couldn’t get it in there close enough to have really good looks at birdie, and I missed a few extra greens from the fairway, which is kind of not really my style.

“It was a bit of a grind. I’m definitely going to have to find my rhythm with my irons over the weekend.”

In Scott’s defence, it was just his second competitive round in five months so he has importantly kept himself in the mix for a possible run over the final 36 holes on a golf course that appears as if it will become even more demanding.

Of the other Australians, Cameron Smith improved with a second round of 60 to be at even par and tied for 44^th while Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert will have the weekend off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason Day in action today – photo courtesy of  PGA of America

Australian Jason Day has opened with a round of 5 under par 65 at the PGA Championship at the TPC Harding near San Francisco and shares the lead with American Brendon Todd at the end of day one.

That pair is one shot ahead of a group of nine players at 4 under 66 but despite 47 players breaking par on the lakeside layout west of San Francisco, the golf course proved to be demanding with no player able to go really low.

Day played early (7.33 tee time) and was bogey free, recording one of his best opening rounds in championship golf following on from several good finishes in recent weeks on the PGA Tour.

“Today I drove it really nicely, and when I was out of position,” said the 32 year old. “I left myself on the right side of the fairways to be able to at least get somewhere around the greens, and if I did miss the greens I left it in the right spot.

“Yeah, pretty sound the whole way around. I hit a lot of good-quality iron shots coming into the greens. Wasn’t overly aggressive. And there was a couple of shots on 9 and 17 where I hit it pretty tight, but overall it was very solid.

“There was definitely a lot of momentum coming in off the previous finishes that I’ve had, three top 10s, which has been nice. The game feels like it’s coming around. I’m pleased with it.

“I’m not like excited — I shouldn’t say I’m not excited. I am excited to come out and play every day, but I know that I can improve, and mainly my putting can improve a little bit more.

“I feel like I’ve been working very hard in the off-weeks and especially when I come to a tournament to be able to get my putting back to where it is because it’s always been a strength of mine, and I feel like the game is slowly coming around, the confidence is coming around because I’m starting to see the results, which has been good.”

Adam Scott has not played a PGA Tour event since February but he did very well to record a round of 68 to be three from the lead, more especially given he was required to overcome a slow start to a round in which he bogeyed three holes on the way to the turn.

“I just hit it in the rough a lot on the front nine, said Scott who played in the afternoon field today.

“Took me four or five holes to kind of figure out my comfort lines on the tee. You know, I’ll give myself a break on having not played any competitive golf for a while, that it took me awhile to find my rhythm out there, but I worked hard and it didn’t slip away from me, which I was really happy with.

“I ground it out on the back nine, because the wind got strong as we got around to around 13, which that was challenging with it coming in hard off the left shoulder. So I’m very happy with that score today.”

Of the other Australians, Matt Jones and Marc Leishman recorded rounds of even par 70, Cameron Smith a 71 and Lucas Herbert a 3 over par 73 in his first appearance at the PGA Championship.

 

 

Ruffels in action today – photo Chris Keane USGA

Victorian, Gabriela Ruffels, has made a promising start to the defence of her US Women’s Amateur Championship, the 20 year old daughter of tennis champions, Ray Ruffels and Anna-Maria Fernandez, and sister to celebrated young Australian professional, Ryan Ruffels, today finishing equal 5th in the stroke-play phase of the Championship at the Woodmont Golf Club in Rockville in Maryland.

In winning the title in 2019, Ruffels became the first Australian to win the coveted championship and with rounds of 72 and 71 on the demanding Woodmont Golf Club layout this week, she is well placed to advance through the match play phases which begin on Thursday (US time).

Currently ranked 9^th in the World Women’s Amateur rankings, Ruffels takes on  South Africa’s Kajal Mistry in the opening round.

Mistry survived a playoff to get into the field of 64 to contend the match play, bouncing back  from an opening round of 81 with a second round of 69 to scrape into the knockout field.

Ruffels, who currently attends the University of Southern California, will be joined in the early rounds of match play by fellow Australians Emily Mahar and Kirsty Hodgkins who finished in a share of 48^th place and take their place in tomorrow’s field.

Australian Emily Mahar is also into match play

 

 

 

 

Norman Von Nida and this writer at a function in the early 1990’s.

It was July 2000 and, on the eve of what would be Tiger Woods’ first of three Open Championship victories, I was preparing to head to Brisbane for my then regular radio spot on the Radio TAB network.

18 months earlier I had made the decision to leave Graham Marsh’s golf course design company and head into the unknown world of golf media and one of the earliest gigs I secured was as golf betting analyst for the Radio TAB network’s morning sports show which had been established to cater for, and capitalise on, the growing sports betting market.

The role involved twice-weekly appearances (normally ten minutes and by phone) assessing likely chances in professional golf events along with wider golfing issues but if a major such as the Masters or Open Championship was being played I would venture to the Brisbane studio for a longer segment.

Just as I was to leave home on the Gold Coast for Brisbane on the Thursday morning of the Open Championship at St Andrews that year, the producer of the show, Graham Rigby, called to inform me that Australian golfing icon, Norman Von Nida, would be joining us by phone to discuss his thoughts on the event and relate some of his experiences at The Open.

I was delighted that such a figure would be included in our discussion and was quickly onto the net which was still in its infancy at that stage to research just how Norman had played at the Open Championship and how he had done at St Andrews. He actually finished 4th behind Sam Snead there on debut in the event in 1946.

I was a little concerned as I had never met Norman and I felt sure he would be unfamiliar with just who the hell I was. I had a perception of Norman as a feisty character and expected to receive a cold shoulder when introduced to him on air. How wrong I was to be.

When Rigby, who was hosting the show that morning in the absence of regular host, Mark Forbes, introduced Norman to our audience on the phone he also introduced me to Norman.

I expected a vague acknowledgement by Norman of my role but to my absolute shock he spoke in very favourable terms of what had been my role on Radio TAB to that point as he had been a regular listener.

Immediately on finishing our half hour segment I called Norman to thank him for his kind words which he reiterated and suggested we should get together for a game at Royal Queensland some time soon.

At that stage of his life (86) Norman was legally blind but thrived on regular games at Royal Queensland where, of course, some 75 years earlier he had developed his passion for the game by caddying for members at that same course.

We did play that game in August of 2000 and for the next seven years of his life Norman Von Nida and I became great friends. I look back now as being blessed to have gotten to know so well one of Australian golf’s greatest players and characters and perhaps its most significant trailblazer.

Until his death in May of 2007 at the age of 93, Norman and I attended numerous functions, golf events, luncheons or just coffee chats (not that he drank coffee) with he and his wife Elva. My then partner Marilyn and I enjoyed being able to accompany them as they sought to escape an increasingly routine lifestyle in an Aged Care facility on the Gold Coast.

Norman’s regular exposure to actually playing the game in his twilight years had been thwarted by an accident he experienced in 2001 while still living at Scarborough in Brisbane’s bay-side suburbs. It denied him the great pleasure he had of playing at Royal Queensland with his mates and anyone else who wanted to sound him out on his great knowledge of the game.

He had been crossing the road to post a cheque (he told me it was to his bookie) one day when a car struck him and broke his arm. At that stage of his life the injury would effectively prevent him from ever playing again other than the occasional few balls he would hit. (more on that later)

Norman in 1952 – Courtesy of Getty Images

So moved by what I was learning of this very special man and his achievements (three Australian Opens, four Australian PGA Championships and countless European titles), the latter during a period when he was blazing the trail for players such as Peter Thomson and others to follow, that I made the decision in 2003 to put together an audio tribute to him.

I collated, narrated, and essentially produced (with a little help from the aforementioned Graham Rigby) the 38-minute piece. I contacted many of those who were players of his era and those who had benefited from his willingness to help his fellow golfer and fellow man.

Included in the piece were contributions from Norman himself, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Bruce Crampton, the fine Welsh player, Dave Thomas, and even figures from outside golf such as jockey great Scobie Breasley and legendary Australian boxer, Johnny Famechon.

They all spoke at various lengths on what Norman Von Nida had meant to them. The piece won an award and given my relative inexperience in the production of such things I was very proud that I had been able to capture and record such a significant piece of Australian history from such a wide ranging line-up of Australian sporting greats.

For those interested, the piece may be listened to by clicking on the audio bar below. I would encourage you to do so.

There were many outings enjoyed by Norman and I during those seven years, wherever we went, whether it was to the Carbine and Tattersalls Clubs in Brisbane, to the launch and playing of golf events on the Gold Coast or Ipswich, or to any golf-related function. Norman was always the centre of attention, and he loved the chance to have his say and to assist those who sought his help and advice.

As the time between his accident and his gathering years grew, however, Norman was becoming increasingly frustrated by not being able to play his beloved game.

One day in the winter of 2005, it came to a head, and he called to ask if I could find somewhere where no-one would know but where he could have a hit to see if there was any possibility of him playing again at any level.

I arranged to take him to Lakelands Golf Club on the Gold Coast one lazy Sunday mid-winter afternoon. We stood on the first tee, and his deteriorating eyesight would mean that I needed to guide him in the right direction.

He struggled down the first fairway, and it was clear he was embarrassed by the experience. I tried to make him aware of how long it had been since he had actually hit a ball and suggested things weren’t really as bad as he might have thought.

Norman was, however, a very proud man and like all of us golfers, we all want to play to the best level we can and know we are or have been capable of. Imagine, therefore, how it must have been for him, given the great heights he had reached in the game.

I convinced him to play another hole, but after his tee shot on that hole, he declared he had had enough and to my knowledge, that would be the last time he would attempt to play golf on a golf course.

That final tee shot in 2005.

‘‘I’d never contemplated being a good player again, but when I’ve been a reasonably good player, it was embarrassing to see an old geezer trying to do what I did,’’ he told a local newspaper at the time.

The drive back to he and Elva’s aged care facility was an awkward one. Clearly, he was feeling the impact of being resigned to bringing an end to his love affair with playing the game. Anything I was about to add was not going to make any difference to an incredibly poignant moment.

In May of 2007, Norman Von Nida passed away peacefully in his rest home on the Gold Coast. It was the end of one of the greatest stories in Australian golf, from a childhood caddie at Royal Queensland in the 1920’s to the illustrious career which saw him win nearly fifty professional titles.

I was extremely proud to be asked, by his daughter, Kerry, to speak at his funeral, attended by hundreds of Australian golfing dignitaries and others. My role was to finish proceedings, and I immediately thought of the last minute or so of the audio tribute I had created on him four years earlier.

In that segment (which I introduced on the day of his funeral) I had asked Norman what it was that had made him so keen to help others in his amazing life. His voice, speaking over the speakers in the church to close the celebration of his life, was a surreal moment.

His response (below) captures the essence of Norman Von Nida beautifully. He certainly backed his own judgement and was never afraid to voice it but, perhaps because of his upbringing, he knew that there were people out there he could help because of his success.

I feel blessed that his friendship and encouragement helped me also.

 

 

I pose (L) with the fabulous ‘Von Bronze tribute’ at Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane, having hosted the unveiling several years earlier (R)