Keith

Mitchell

The Georgia Bulldog traded two birdies with 11 pars before dropping back-to-back shots at the 14th and 15th to drop him out of the race today. Ultimately, he finished five shots behind the final pace of Jon Rahm. Mitchell is known for his elite driving skills and lived up to that reputation by finishing 3rd in strokes gained off-the-tee for the week (+3.95) but also gained a whopping 6.52 shots around-the-green this week. That shatters his previous best around-the-green week by three whole shots (+3.5 at the 2019 Honda Classic which he won). That is where the PGA TOUR is heading next week but Mitchell is not in the listed field.

Mitchell posted a balanced attack today, gaining more than a stroke over the field in all four sub-categories of strokes gained. “I hit it better on the front than I did the back, but I chipped and putted better on the back than I did the front, so I just kind of matched the round over 18 holes. Hopefully we can be a little bit more consistent tomorrow in terms of where we are off the tee.” The highlight of his round was hole-out birdie from the greenside bunker at the par-3 14th. Mitchell has now been inside of the top 10 after round one in four of his last seven starts. Currently tied at the top alongside Max Homa, it will be the first time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR (and the same can be said for Homa).

Mitchell took on the host course in round three and rocketed out of the gate with birdies at 3, 4, and 6 but slowed his pace from there. “the wind wasn’t as bad as we expected. But the rain picked up. We had to get some squeegees on the greens. All in all pleased with how I did except really one shot on 17. I hit a poor 7-iron into the, plugged into the bunkers. Couldn’t get it up-and-down.” Mitchell is 7th in the field for scrambling this week (15-for-19) so it’s hard to complain too much about one bad break. He’s now solo 4th heading into the final round, the fourth time in his career that he’s started the final round positioned inside of the top 5.

Mitchell started his week on the toughest test (Spyglass Hill) but passed the test by firing the low round of the day, when only looking at golfers that played the same course today. He was 5.77 shots better than the field. “I was very proud of the way I played. Spyglass is the hardest of the three so to have a good round to start is good. I really only made one mistake today on 6. Other than that we stayed present through the whole round.” Mitchell has now been inside of the top 15 after six rounds at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, over the last five editions plus today. He has just one top-30 finish to show for that on his tournament resume but he’s pieced together another low rounds here to showcase his potential.

Mitchell birdied five of the first eight holes then stalled out with nine pars and a bogey to end his afternoon. “Hit a lot of good shots early and didn’t hit any bad shots except one on 16, which was more of an execution error, kind of hit the wrong shot into that green. But other than that, I hit a lot of good putts. Greens, just after a hundred some guys walking on them just weren’t perfect, but tomorrow morning they probably will be and I’m looking forward to hopefully I can do it again.” Mitchell gained 1.8 strokes putting despite his comments on the greens. He missed the cut in his course debut two years ago but improved with a 41st-place finish last year.

Mitchell was dialed in with his driver and irons today, pelting 14 greens in regulation after splitting 12-of-14 fairways. It’s easy to see where his scoring came from and it wasn’t the short-game department. He lost strokes around-the-green on seven holes and lost strokes putting on six holes (ranked 81st and 64th in each category respectively). Mitchell saved his best for last today with a walk-off eagle from 102 yards at the par-4 18th. The Georgia Bulldog arrived with an 0-for-4 record at TPC Summerlin but there must be a reason he keeps returning.

This was the 30-year-old’s fourth appearance and second cash (T56/2018), and his sixth top 10 of the season in 21 events, second straight after a T7 two weeks ago at the RBC Canadian Open. For the festivities, he recorded laps of 66-68, T20 at halftime, and 67-67, totaled 19 birdies against seven bogeys, five versus two on Sunday, and currently ranks 30th SG: Tee-to-Green (3.618), 2.394 of that in R4, and 10th SG: Putting (5.672), including a 0.183 SGP in the finale. The Georgia alum is not in the published field at this coming week’s John Deere Classic, and is qualified for the 150th Open in two weeks at St. Andrews via the aforementioned T7 in Canada. UPDATE: With play completed, Mitchell finished T6.

The power hitter piped 12-of-14 fairways today so it’s not surprising to see him leading the field in strokes gained off-the-tee (+2.2). From there, he peppered 14 greens and then caught fire with the flat stick. Most notable were birdie conversions from 28'6" and 22'5" at the fifth and ninth, respectively. Putting has not been his strongest asset over the course of his career but he currently ranks 44th in strokes gained putting, gaining strokes with the flat stick in 10 of his last 12 rounds. Mitchell arrived with a 1-for-3 record at TPC River Highlands (T56 in 2018) but his freshly-found putting stroke certainly makes him a better fit for the Pete Dye design.

The 30-year-old’s T7, his first top 10 in two appearances (T65/2018), qualifies him for The Open Championship (St. Andrews) in five weeks via their qualifying series, and spoke to it afterwards (link below): “I’m really thankful that the R&A is continuing to do everything they can for the sport, and the USGA, the PGA TOUR, everybody’s really doing a great job trying to make golf and professional golf the best platform we can make it.” This is his fifth top 10 of the season in 20 events, first since T9 at The Honda Classic nine starts ago as a former winner, and got there after posting laps of 67-67-70-66. For the week, the Georgia alum tallied one eagle and 16 birdies versus six bogeys and a double, the eagle a 3 today at 11 from 9'10", and ranked 16th SG: Tee-to-Green (7.201), 1.617 of that in R4, and 16th SG: Putting (3.932), 0.983 SGP on Sunday.