Weekly Recap: Captain Kirk

There was no Jon Rahm, no Rory McIlroy, no Scottie Scheffler, and certainly no Tiger Woods.

But there was water-laden PGA National, the diabolical Bear Trap and a riveting playoff finish at the decidedly non-designated Honda Classic.

Chris Kirk overcame an inexplicable bonehead shot on the 72nd hole to survive and defeat a gallant upstart by the name of Eric Cole with a birdie on the first extra hole on Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

In the week leading up to the final Honda Classic -- the automaker has said it is ending a 40-year relationship as title sponsor -- a very weak field was the overriding theme. After two loaded designated events in a row and two more coming up the next two weeks, this tournament never had a chance to attract good players.

But that's been the case for years and PGA National usually steps in as the headliner, featuring water on 15 of the 18 holes, including all three on Nos. 15-17, aka the Bear Trap. There were 16 double bogeys or worse in that three-hole stretch on Sunday alone, and more than 60 for the week.

That water almost cost Kirk his fifth career victory and first in eight years, since the 2015 Colonial.
 
Carrying a one-stroke lead into the par-5 18th and with so much room on the left, the ever-steady Kirk somehow went directly at the flag on his approach, missed right and went in the water. He escaped with a bogey when Cole got a little jittery himself and couldn't get up and down for birdie.

"I was just trying to stick with my game plan of what I was doing and stay aggressive and hit that right in the middle of the green, and pushed it a little bit, but if I had really flushed that one, it still would have covered and probably been right next to the hole," Kirk told reporters at the course.

"You know, it was a miscue for sure and one that I almost got away with and didn't."

Kirk redeemed himself in the playoff. After a bad drive on the first playoff hole, again No. 18, he was forced to lay up. He hit a spectacular wedge from 109 yards to 16 inches for a kick-in birdie. When Cole's birdie try from 11 feet agonizingly lipped out, the latest chapter in Kirk's incredible career turnaround was complete.

The 37-year-old father of three boys took a sabbatical from the Tour four years ago to get treatment for alcohol dependency. He returned with a renewed focus, has been playing well for quite some time and now has the trophy to prove it. He's up to No. 32 in the world -- his highest position in eight years -- and pretty soon he'll have an invitation to the Masters.
 
Kirk and Cole both set the Honda Classic scoring record for PGA National at 14-under, one better than Camilo Villegas way back in 2010. Normally, the winning score at this track is in single digits. The playing conditions – specifically, the wind – were quite benign all week. And still they got only to 14.

Even though Honda is not coming back, many golf fans hope PGA National will. There are so many birdie-fests on Tour but not enough tough tests like this one. Jack Nicklaus, appearing on the NBC broadcast, said he thinks PGA National will return next year, but where on the schedule and when, nobody knows.

PGA National showed on Sunday it deserves to be a part of the PGA Tour.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Eric Cole
Cole has probably replayed his playoff lip-out a thousand times by now. But once he gets past that, the 34-year-old mini-tour legend will realize how his life and career have been permanently altered for the better. The son of 1977 Buick Open winner Bobby Cole and former LPGA star Laura Baugh, Cole almost surely will secure his card for next season, and the $915,600 check will help pay some bills. He was already playing pretty well in his rookie season on the PGA Tour. He entered the week 107th in the FedExCup standings after a T15 at Pebble Beach, and now he's made seven of his past eight cuts. He's up to 33rd in the standings and a career-best-by-far 179th in the world rankings. Cole was ranked top-50 in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting coming in. His issue has been off the tee – he's both short and inaccurate (not a good combination!). But he looked pretty long and straight at the Honda. With more than 50 mini-tour wins, Cole conducted himself like he'd been in contention before. It will be interesting to see what he follows this up with, beginning this week against all the big boys at a long Bay Hill track.

Tyler Duncan
We've talked a bunch in the past about Duncan, how he's a different golfer on shorter tracks (and weaker fields). He snared a solo third this week, his best finish since his lone PGA Tour win at the 2019 RSM Classic. It had been an absolutely horrendous season-to-date. Duncan had missed nine of 13 cuts. Maybe there was a glimmer last week, when he tied for 33rd at the loaded Genesis on a long Riviera course. We should see Duncan next in two weeks at THE PLAYERS, a loaded field but not at an overly long track.

Ryan Gerard
Gerard is quite a story. In just his second PGA Tour start, the 23-year-old North Carolina alum became the first Monday qualifier with a top-five since Doc Redman was runner-up at the 2019 Rocket Mortgage. Gerard finished solo fourth, and his top-10 earned him a spot in this week's opposite-field Puerto Rico Open. He had played on the Canadian Tour last year and is on the Korn Ferry now. He tied for third in his previous KF start two weeks ago. But let's not get too excited. Redman's career once held so much promise, and he came with a far better pedigree than Gerard. 

Shane Lowry
Lowry is the first of five guys who tied for fifth. He's now had two good tournaments in a row (T14 at the Genesis) with his new caddie after missing the Phoenix cut in their debut. Lowry had a very good first half of the year in 2022, and he may be repeating things. He didn't play Bay Hill last year, as he will this week, but he was T13 at THE PLAYERS.

Sepp Straka
Straka has been largely and curiously inactive so far in 2023. This was just his second PGA Tour start, following last week's T45 at Riviera. There was no word of injury, and this tie for fifth seems to prove it.

Justin Suh
Suh was part of the four-man Class of '19, the best college graduating class ever. The other three made their marks quickly on the PGA Tour – Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff. But Suh struggled with injuries and poor play, and just now is starting to show what made him a star at Southern Cal. He was the leading Korn Ferry player last year. At the Honda, he wound up T5, unable to sustain his opening 66-64. It was a disappointing Sunday, but Suh appears to be coming on. He's now at a career-high 110th OWGR and is in the field for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Ben Taylor
Don't look now, but the 30-year-old Englishman would be in the Tour Championship if it started today. He's 27th in the FedExCup standings after tying for fifth at the Honda. He also was T4 at the Sony and is now up to a personal-best 108th OWGR.

Ben Martin
Martin has had a pretty good start to 2023, making three of five cuts. This tie for fifth followed his tie for 13th at Pebble and was his best showing since a runner-up in the Dominican Republic almost a year ago. Martin will be playing in Puerto Rico this week.

Dylan Wu
Wu is ranked 408th in the world but he's not playing like it. He tied for 10th at the Honda, after 29th at Pebble and 32nd at the Amex. These are all the easier fields but there are lots of them on the PGA Tour schedule, and the need for a player such as Wu in your lineups is very real. He'll now play Puerto Rico.

Zach Johnson
It's not known how busy Johnson will be later in the season as the Ryder Cup draws nearer, but for now the U.S. captain is proving to be a viable fantasy option. He's made all four of his cuts in 2023, and this tie for 12th was his best showing.

Adrian Meronk
Ending the week in the top-50 would've landed Meronk in THE PLAYERS Championship in two weeks. But his tie for 14th at the Honda left him just short, at No. 52. Meronk, Poland's best player, will be at Bay Hill this week, and he proved last week he can hold his own with the game's best by tying for 45th at Riviera.

Kramer Hickok
Hickok had missed eight straight cuts before Riviera, then wound up in the same group as Tiger Woods on Sunday and tied for 29th. At the Honda, he tied for 14th. Hickok's stats did/do not look like someone who had missed eight straight, so he might be finally getting some decent results for his efforts.

Davis Riley
Riley burst upon the scene with a great stretch of top-10s last spring. But since June he has had only three top-25s and zero top-10s. He appeared to be heading toward one of his best finishes in some time till he collapsed late on Sunday at the Bear Trap with a bogey and a double to fall into a tie for 29th. It's far too soon to declare Riley "back," whatever that even means.

Missed Cuts

A whopping 80 players in the 144-man field made the cut. Still, Cam Davis, Denny McCarthy and Harris English didn't. Neither did Thomas Detry, but he withdrew after the first round because of illness and is in the Bay Hill field. Davis has missed four straight cuts in a very slow start to 2023 and is on the edge of falling out of the top-100 in the world, at No. 97. McCarthy continues a career of taking one step forward and one step back – he's gone T4, MC, T14, MC in his past four starts. He's very hard to rely on, unable to even make the cut in this very weak field. English was slow to get things going after hip surgery last year, and his tie for 12th last week at Riviera is, for now, an aberration.