Monday morning shagbag.. Kisner survives Match Play, Hughes 2nd in Puntacana

WGC Dell Technologies Match Play final results https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html

The WGC Match Play, no matter who's sponsoring it, these day's it is Dell Technolgies, the computer giant, is like a marathon, and Kevin Kisner from South Carolina is built like a marathon runner. Small, slight and with a big heart.

At the Players he led the field in Fairways hit with 80% and he was right at the top of the field again this week as he rode his driver and a reliable putter to victory as he outlasted the 64 man select field through seven rounds, just barely edging a brilliant Francesco Molinari 1up in the semi final, then beating Matt Kuchar 3&2 in the final.

Molinari added to his sparkling resume by beating the surprise of the tournament, Lucas Bjerregaard 4&2 in the consolation match.

Kisner has given the USA the match player they so badly lack. Ranked 48th, having lost his card on a couple of occasions, he is the epitome of fairways and greens and remember he was the runner up here last year.

Kuchar who had a splendid week, was solid, at times spectacular but he barely beat Bjerregaard 1up in their semi final.

NOTES:

*In my opinion they should play this from Thursday with a Monday finish. That would give them Sunday with the round of 16 where there is much more action and more TV. That leaves Monday when everyone has gone back to work etc to play the anti climatic final and consolation match.

* Adding to the anti climax on the golf channel/NBC is having Steve Sands, Terry Gannon and Nick Faldo all calling the play off the TV. Leave one guy doing the ins and outs in the booth and get all the rest live, out on course or doing features. Having Bones and Notah Begay live on course is the only reason I didn't turn the sound down.

While most of us are still in the grips of a frigid winter, Faldo would not stop blabbing away about how everyone in Austin, playing, spectating and as importantly for Nick, in the booth were just freezing to death.



PGA Tour Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship final scoreboard https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html

MacKenzie Hughes rallied with his second straight -6 66 to finish -17 T2, his best PGA TOUR result since his 2016 win at the RSM Classic. He is in great form coming off a T13 result at the Valspar Championship just a week earlier.

Ben Silverman (69 -12 T12) and David Hearn (69 -11 T18) made the most of their week in the Dominican Republic.

Good guy Graeme McDowell returned to some of the form he had 4 years ago before he became a family man, won the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship for his first PGA Tour title since November 2015, closing with a -3 69 for a one-stroke victory at -18 270 over Chris Stroud and Hughes.

"It’s difficult to win on the PGA Tour,” McDowell said. “Don’t like calling this a second-tier event, but obviously the best players in the world are in Austin, Texas, this week. Still got a great field down here"

Next week is the Valero Texas Open then the Masters...

Bryan Angus