Tag: 2021 Genesis Invitational

Ho-hum: Patrick Cantlay continues low-key roll at Riviera Country Club in Genesis Invitational

Nothing to see here, just Patrick Cantlay once again near the top of the leaderboard on the PGA Tour, this week at the Genesis Invitational.

Even for the understated Patrick Cantlay, his account of his recent play on the PGA Tour was quite the understatement.

“I’m really confident in my game right now,” Cantlay said Thursday after posting a 4-under-par 67 in the first round of the Genesis Invitational at revered Rivera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.

Who wouldn’t be?

Cantlay has finished second in the American Express and in a tie for third in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in his last two starts and won his third Tour title last fall at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.

In his last nine rounds, he’s 41 strokes to the better of par.

And he’s ranked No. 8 in the world.

Cantlay’s confidence certainly won’t crack this week, especially at Riviera, which he calls the best course on Tour. So even when he started with a bogey in frigid temperatures, he wound up on the first page of the leaderboard. Among the early leaders, Cantlay trails Matthew Fitzpatrick by one shot. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson came home with a 68, defending champion Adam Scott a 69.

Genesis Invitational: Leaderboard | Photos

“There’s no tricks or anything,” Cantlay said of Riviera. “There’s a lot of holes out here that are just how far and how straight can you hit your driver and then hit your golf ball in the right spot, but you can hit any shape you want.

“I don’t think you necessarily have to shape the golf ball, but you definitely have to be cognizant of where you’re leaving the golf ball even off the tee. I thought the golf course is incredible, I think it’s the best on Tour.”

He didn’t change his mind even after starting his round on the drivable par-4 10th at a quarter past 7 a.m. local. He drove over the green, chipped to 50 feet (on purpose) and then three-putted.

“I made a great swing and, opposed to landing it short of the green, I landed it two yards on the green and I was dead,” he said. “I had to play to 50 feet. Hit a good shot to 50 feet, like an actual good shot, and then three‑putted. And didn’t feel like I did anything wrong except the hole is really, really hard when it’s blowing 15 miles an hour downwind.

“I could have tried to flop it and I just thought I’m still going to have 20 feet for birdie even if I hit a great shot, so I didn’t think it was worth it, especially first hole of the day, 7:00 in the morning and cold and windy.”

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Cantlay followed his opening bogey with two birdies. He had another bout of frustration on the par-5 first hole, the easiest hole on the course. He walked off a par but then birdied four of his last eight holes.

“I hit the ball really well all day and was able to score on one side of the golf course,” he said.

Cantlay is more encouraged than disheartened by his close calls the past two weeks. Like he does on the golf course, he just methodically moves forward.

“I think you want to learn from it and then discard it after you’ve learned whatever you need to learn from it,” Cantlay said about his last two starts. “Definitely by the time the next week rolls around, the last week is gone because you’re so focused on the task at hand that that’s all that matters.

“Definitely take the things I’m working on in my swing and the things that are going well in my game and carry them over to this week. I’m really confident in my game right now. Even though I bogeyed the 10th hole, which you feel you shouldn’t bogey because it’s so short, I felt like my game’s in such a good spot that it was only a matter of time before I turned around and made some birdies.

“Definitely taking that confidence with me.”

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Happy ending: How Joaquin Niemann raised more than $2 million to save his infant relative’s life

The 22-year-old Chilean helped raise money so his infant cousin to afford medical treatment.

Joaquin Niemann notched the biggest victory of his young career, and it had nothing to do with his golf clubs.

On Wednesday, Niemann, 22, shared the good news that enough money — more than $2.1 million — was raised through his various efforts so that his cousin, Rafita Calderon, could receive treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a rare genetic disease that affects about one in every 10,000 babies born every year.

“It’s been amazing the last couple days,” Niemann said on Wednesday ahead of the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles. “It was amazing to see like the whole Tour, like all the people that supported me, all the companies, it was amazing. We raised so much money in such a short period, it gives us a lot of faith for Rafita.”

Calderon’s father, Felipe, flew to the U.S. to purchase the medicine and brought it back to Chile. Niemann’s cousin is at a medical center in Santiago, five hours from where the family lives, but Niemann said his condition has improved since receiving a one-time injection of Zolgensma, a gene therapy drug,  a few days ago.

“Right now he’s doing great,” he said. “They sent me some pictures a couple days ago and he looks stronger, he looks happy.”

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Back at the RSM Classic in November, Niemann broke into tears speaking about how his then one-month-old cousin was battling for his life, desperately needing Zolgensma, a drug which according to Niemann costs $2.1 million. When Niemann learned of the tough hand dealt to his young relative, he said, “I was in my mind going crazy, ‘What can I do to help out?’ ”

He set up a Go Fund Me page and pledged $5,000 for every birdie and $10,000 for every eagle in addition to his earnings from that week, which totaled $152,450. He also donated his winnings from the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December, good for another $65,262.85. Niemann nearly won the Sentry Tournament of Champions, losing in a playoff to Harris English, but netting another $782,000, and tied for second a week later at the Sony Open of Hawaii, cashing in for $587,400. (Niemann never stated publicly whether he donated those paychecks to his cousin’s cause.)

Niemann, who is scheduled to tee it up this week at the Genesis Invitational, went home to Chile to see his family and friends in January and has skipped the last four events. Of his initial conversation with his cousin Felipe, Rafita’s father, he said, “He was really negative, like why (does) this happen to me, you know, just being negative. And I was trying to push him to be more positive and I get to help him here in the states, because in Chile, it was really hard to get the $2 million and for me being here getting more connections, you know, social media, all this stuff helps. It was beautiful.”

Beautiful, indeed, and the best news we’ve heard all week.

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Francesco Molinari explains cold-topping his tee shot at Pebble and what he thinks of the Italian food in L.A.

Italy’s Francesco Molinari is a newly-minted member at Riviera CC since moving to L.A. in September.

Francesco Molinari had a hunch a question might be coming. It took eight from the members of the media on a Microsoft Teams call before Molinari was asked about cold-topping his tee shot at the first hole on Saturday of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“I’m surprised it took so long to hear the question,” he said with a half-hearted laugh and a resigned smile.

As for his explanation of swinging more like his amateur partner in the year the AT&T was played without ams – maybe it was an homage? – Molinari, said, “I don’t know. I think there’s many explanations and none, really. The weather. I was messing around with 3-woods last week so I played with a different 3-wood pretty much every day and probably, you know, went a bit too far with that. But yeah, just a bad swing, bad conditions, probably not my favorite club in the bag and that happened.”

Genesis Invitational: Tee times, TV info | Fantasy rankings | Odds

It sent Molinari reeling down the leaderboard, eventually finishing 59th. Despite gifting golf social media with an afternoon of chuckles, Molinari is trending in the right direction. He’s hardly been the same golfer who won the 2018 British Open, earned a 5-0 Ryder Cup record and nearly won the 2019 Masters before a series of back-nine blunders. But Molinari notched back-to-back top-10 finishes at the American Express and Farmers Insurance Open suggest the Italian may be turning the corner.

“My expectations, especially now early in the season are not that high,” he said. “It’s nice to be back, it’s nice to be feeling like I’m getting better and playing some better golf, but I know it’s going to be a long way back.”

That includes for his Ryder Cup chances. It was almost unfathomable to think that Molinari, one of the heroes of Team Europe’s 2018 victory in France, wouldn’t make the next team, but he’s well aware that he’s on the outside looking in and will need to make a serious run to grab the attention of European captain Padraig Harrington.

On the flip side, there’s still time and he’s motivated to climb the mountain again. Molinari isn’t kidding that there’s a long way to get back to his 2018-19 level of play. He’s plummeted from No. 6 in the world in July 2019 to No. 107 entering this week. After having one arm in a green jacket at the 2019 Masters, he failed to record a top-10 finish until Palm Springs, a span of 19 events, and noted that the cancellation of golf tournaments for three months due to the pandemic came at a good time for him.

Molinari was the last PGA Tour regular to return to competition, skipping the PGA Championship and U.S. Open and moving his his family from its London home base of more than 12 years to Los Angeles. Molinari said that wife Valentino and their two children – Tommaso, 9, and Emma, 5 – love their new home and are adjusting to their new surrounds. As for the manga?

“The Italian food is not too bad,” he said. “Yeah, there’s some pretty good spots.”

There are some pretty good golf courses, too, and when Molinari asked around for recommendations he noticed a common theme – the home of the Genesis Invitational kept popping up.

“Pretty much everyone I asked advised Riviera was going to be the best solution,” he said. “So, I got the ball rolling and the club has been kind enough to have me join. It’s been great. I’ve played a lot of rounds since then, obviously met a few members, played a few games with them. And we live literally five, six minutes away, so it’s a very easy commute for me.”

Molinari is set to make his seventh career start at the Genesis Invitational. All those rounds plotting the best route to play famed George C. Thomas layout and learning the intricacies of its Kikuyu rough, should mean something, right?

“We’ll find out soon enough,” he said. “Yeah, it’s a tournament I’ve always loved, but unfortunately I never really played that well in the past. …Hopefully the rounds that I’ve played this winter I can have more success around here.”

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