PGA Championship Friday leaderboard https://www.pgachampionship.com/leaderboard
When I was asked who I liked at this weeks PGA Championship, I had no hesitation picking a guy I'd never even included in a gazillion pool sheets, until this year, especially since the COVID return.
I've never played Harding Park, but when I watched all the previews, it is clear that keeping the ball on the short grass off the tee is the key to success on these narrow fairways, with lush 4" rough for the first cut.
Not many on Tour right now, do that better than Brendon Todd. He is 3rd in Driving accuracy with 72.28%, and is 4th in distance from the edge of the fairway at 18'9", and while he only averages 280 yards he is very straight.
To go with that he is full of confidence with his putter, 12th on tour averaging 28.1 putts per round and that would be lower but if you've been watching recently, his achilles heel has been the 4th round, where he is ranked 138th.
Since the Travelers in late June he has been leading or in contention there, as well as at the Rocket Mortgage, the Memorial, and the WGC St. Jude's until Sunday's where he shot 75 76 73 75 respectively, He has had the 54 hole lead 10 times this season T1 on tour and has 10 rounds of 65 or lower, again tied for the lead on tour.
Watching the excruciating early ESPN coverage on Thursday where they only cover one "feature" group, with 3/4 commentators left to over analyze every shot, speculate on every thought, keeping it in the fairway was a big problem for Jordan Spieth (73) and Justin Rose (66) who did a remarkable job of scrambling, making putt after par saving putt on 5 of his first 6 holes after chopping out of the rough.
Todd's best PGA Championship finish is 73rd, years ago,but the way he is playing these days, I'm not going out on a limb to say this week will be better, possibly much better come Sunday evening.
Bryan Angus
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