Retief

Goosen

Victory in the Senior Players Championship last year at Firestone earned the South African yet another crack at the Stadium Course – and it was quite a win. He pegged 62 on Friday and 75 on Saturday; a three-shot lead became a one-shot deficit; a final round 68 earned him a two-shot win however. Worse news is that his form in 2020 is going in the wrong direction: 4-17-15-34-36. His last experience of this week’s venue was good; he was T12 four years ago (and T6 heading into the final lap). It was, however, a first top 20 since he was T2 in 2006 which was a third top 20. It is three years since he landed a PGA Tour top five.

Tiger and Goosen weren’t the only big names to check out early at Winged Foot, as Scott Verplank, Zach Johnson, Stuart Appleby, defending champ Michael Campbell, Chris DiMarco, Tim Clark, Carl Pettersson, Davis Love III and Sergio Garcia all failed to qualify for the weekend. David Toms withdrew after the first round.

Hoggard added that Goosen will see more than one doctor. The South African seemed to have turned a corner along with the calendar in recent months, but he’s finished outside the top 30 in his last four starts worldwide, including a first-round exit at the WGC-Match Play. The two-time winner of the Transitions Championship remains in the field at Copperhead.

The top 10 through the WGC-Match Play earned exemptions into the no-cut event at TPC Blue Monster. Goosen is ninth in the ranking. He hasn’t missed the annual stop at Doral. The other four that booked tee times are Branden Grace (third in the R2D), Robert Rock (fifth), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (seventh) and Jbe’ Kruger (eighth).

As we relayed earlier, he climbed into the field of next week’s WGC-Cadillac, so he may be simply reorganizing his schedule as a result. Even so, he’s played in just one Honda (T60, 2008) since PGA National took over as host in 2007.

Goosen was able to birdie 14, 15 and 16 down the stretch and record a sandie on the par-3 17th en route to his lowest PGA TOUR round of 2012. For the day, he split 10 of 13 fairways, hit 13 GIR and needed only 25 putts for a putting average of 1.462. His putting average for the week is an impressive 1.571, as is his 71.8 percent driving accuracy. Goosen is in excellent position to become the first three-time winner of this event, as he won on the Copperhead course in 2003 and again in 2009.

This was the South African’s first start since receiving platelet-rich plasma injections in his back in late March. He hit 24 greens in regulation at TPC Louisiana but needed 60 putts, fulfilling expectations of a rusty 14th club. Goosen circled four of his six birdies on par 5s.

Goosen’s balky back came up several times on the telecast and it was reported that he will have a treatment on his back later this week, as opposed to trying to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In the final round, he only found six fairways and eight greens and looked to struggle to find any sort of comfort level. He did finish the week fifth in putting at 1.628 putts per GIR en route to a 7-under 69-68-65-75=277 tournament.

Schwartzel’s 10-foot birdie conversion at the first hole secured a lead the South Africans wouldn’t relinquish in the deteriorating weather conditions. They’d climb to an uncontested margin of 4-up at the 11th hole. The run included a Goosen birdie from 23 feet at the sixth hole and another Schwartzel birdie from 15 feet at the 11th. Simpson and Watson would win holes 14 and 16 with pars but it was too little too late. This is the first of the five matches to conclude this afternoon. The U.S. retains an overall lead of 11-7.