Whether by design or accident, it's often struck me that post-major tournaments offer a stark contrast from what has happened a week before. Some of that is inherent, and the fact that breathing out is the best way to relieve stress. But the specific nature of the courses involved is no less significant, and while in April that means Augusta to Harbour Town, here in June, this year at least, it means Torrey Pines to TPC River Highlands.
Though it was less bomb-and-gouge than some of us had expected, the US Open was played on an extremely long course, over by the sea in California. River Highlands, at 6,841 yards, is almost a kilometre shorter, inland, and lined by a far greater density of trees. If Torrey Pines is brutal, this is classical; a Pete Dye design which encourages players to pull out just about every club in the bag. As TPC layouts go, it's one of my favourites.
The players like it, too. Last year's field was world-class because golf had only just come out of its Covid bunker, but all of the sport's best have been here at one time or another in recent years. Among them, Jordan Spieth won dramatically as a stepping stone towards the Open Championship, Dustin Johnson defied a big price and form concerns as he rode a hot putter to victory, and Bubba Watson is a three-time champion.
Ancer was 11th here last year, hindered perhaps by a slightly slow start under particularly easy conditions. That came just days after he'd been mugged by Webb Simpson at Harbour Town, one of those other Dye courses, and underlined the impression he'd made with rounds of 64 and 63 in 2019.
Throughout these latest two visits, the Mexican has gained strokes through the bag and perhaps the small, poa annua greens are more to his liking than those at Torrey Pines, where he's struggled before in the Farmers and did so again in last week's US Open.
Back in January, Kim had dropped a decent hint with a strong tee-to-green performance at the Sony Open (+5.9 strokes gained) and that's exactly what he's done over his last two starts, gaining 5.9 and 5.7 strokes from tee-to-green across the Memorial Tournament and the US Open.
In the former, Kim bagged his best finish at a course he's now played six times, whereas at the US Open he'll have been frustrated to putt poorly and languish in mid-division, given that his driving and approach work were both very solid.
However, a high US Open finish has often been a good pointer towards slightly surprising winners of this, such as Freddie Jacobson (T14), Russell Knox (T22) and Chez Reavie (T3), so if Henley is able to draw positives from a weekend in the mix, he can be a big factor.
Encouragingly, his putting has shown better signs lately and was enough to rank 26th in that department last week, and his iron play remains excellent. He's led the field three times over the last 18 months, two of those at courses he loves, and ranked third at Torrey Pines on the back of a quiet month or so.
I had been a little concerned that we'd hardly seen him since the spring, but Molinari confirmed that he's just had a couple of fitness issues which kept him off the course and that he was enjoying feeling healthy again. To return in a tournament like the US Open and finish 13th was an excellent effort (a comment which also applies to Matt Wolff in 15th) and he had further reason to be cheerful, as he explained after a good start.
"Pretty much every part of the body that you can name, from February onwards it seemed to be a bit of a struggle to get going really," he told reporters on Thursday. "But the last one was my back at the PGA. Obviously I was there, played two practice rounds but then wasn't able to play on Thursday. It's nice to be back and feeling good."
Asked what it was like to have Edoardo Molinari sharing a hotel room with him, having not seen his big brother since 2019, Molinari junior added: "We text and we talk pretty often, but obviously it's not the same, especially after such a long time. It's definitely the first time that we've been apart for so long, so nice to see him."
As far back as the Texas Open, where he climbed from 110th after round one to a top-20 finish, Fowler has shown positive signs and as well as being in a good place having announced that his wife is pregnant, I'm certain watching a US Open at Torrey Pines will have motivated him. It was there in 2008 that Fowler first appeared as a fresh-faced Californian kid and missing that major, at that course, will have been difficult.
Before that, Na ranked fourth in strokes-gained approach at Colonial and while he's hardly been setting the world alight, there's been enough to like about his game for all he's without a top-10 finish since winning the Sony Open in January.
Crucially, he's back on another short course which he likes, and he has those Valspar and Riviera connections having been second and 10th at the former, and gone close on three occasions at the latter. The fact he played quite well in both earlier this year, as well as at Colonial and in the Sony Open, underlines that it's often all about the course with Na, and he has two top-10 finishes including fifth place last summer at this one.
A changed man over the last few years, Na is now a five-time PGA Tour champion, but what's particularly interesting about his trophy collection is that not one of them came when he had played well the week before. At the Sony, he'd just finished 38th of 42 in the Tournament of Champions, while he won at Colonial following a missed cut in the US PGA. His second Shriners win also came after a missed cut, just as his first had, and he'd been 64th in the Quicken Loans National before capturing the Greenbrier.
All of these wins are on courses Na really likes, and if he hadn't missed the cut the week before, he'd finished just about last of those who made it. Given how well he struck his irons in the last regular PGA Tour event, and how low my expectations would've been at Torrey Pines anyway (course form now MC-72-45-MC-MC-MC-MC), this looks like it could be exactly the sort of tournament he wins.
Posted at 1200 BST on 22/06/21
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