2014-2015 PGA Tour Fall Swing Recap

By Danny Norris | Nov 24, 2014

The 2014-2015 PGA Tour Fall swing ended a couple of weeks ago and the PGA Tour is officially in an legitimate offseason. As you may remember we had a little fun before the season started and predicted the winners of the tournaments weeks before the events were played.

After each segment we would recap and see how we did. So, now we are checking in and seeing how we did. Also, as a note, look for the rest of the predictions throughout the next couple of weeks. The west coast swing article will come out this week, the follow up to that next week, and so on and so forth.

Now, without further ado let’s recap the fall swing portion of the PGA Tour season and see how we did prediction wise.

More from Golf News

Frys.com Open:

Predicted Winner: Jason Kokrak (T-46)

Winner: Sang-Moon Bae

It was a new course for these players, a lot of uncertainty and so I was happy that Jason Kokrak made the cut and had a decent enough finish. Sang-Moon Bae though played the Silverado Resort like he had been playing it for 20 years.

Bae was in complete control after three rounds shooting a 16-under, but a shaky fourth round made things interesting as Steven Bowditch made a charge shooting a final round 67. However, that wasn’t enough even though Bae shot a final round 73 that was still two shots better than Bowditch and the field to give him his second career PGA Tour victory.

Shriners Open:

Predicted Winner: Brenden Steele (T-33)

Winner: Ben Martin

This could have been worse considering I came pretty close to picking some of the hometown favorites. Such as Kevin Na (who withdrew after 12 holes), Charley Hoffman (missed the cut), and Ryan Moore (who missed the cut). So, Steele finishing T-33 was good enough for me.

It was another high scoring shootout in the desert with Ben Martin coming out on top. Martin was able to hold off the hard charging Kevin Streelman – who shot a 6-under final round of 65, Brooks Koepka who shot a 10-under on the weekend, and Russell Knox who was just a couple of shots back of Martin heading into the final round.

McGladrey Classic:

Predicted Winner: Harris English (MC)

Winner: Robert Streb

It was another classic McGladrey Classic that went down to the wire. It was a tight, bunched leaderboard that featured young guns Chris Kirk and Russell Henley, along with veterans such as Brendon de Jonge and Will MacKenzie. But, it was Robert Streb who came on top thanks to a 7-under 63 final round that propelled him to the top of the leaderboard.

As the day came winding down that score would be good enough to get him in a playoff with de Jonge and MacKenzie. MacKenzie was eliminated with a bogey five on the first playoff hole (played on the 18th hole) and Streb would win it on the second playoff hole (played on the 13th hole) with a birdie two.

There were a number of Georgia players to roll with and most of them made the cuts and had quality finishes. Unfortunately, I picked the one that didn’t make the cut. A year ago, English was about as hot as you can get, but over the last eight months, English has just lost ‘it’.

Eventually, English will get out of this funk he’s in; English is just too good of a player not to.

Jun 21, 2014; Cromwell, CT, USA; Ryan Moore reacts to the crowd on the seventeenth hole during the third round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

CIMB Classic:

Predicted Winner: Lee Westwood (T-13)

Winner: Ryan Moore

Ryan Moore did something that is extremely hard to do on Tour and that is defend your title. It’s only been done five times by four players since 2010(stats courtesy of Golf Channel’s Stat Attack) Tiger Woods (2012-2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational), Steve Stricker (2010-2011 John Deere Classic), Geoff Ogilvy (2009-2010 Tournament of Champions), Dustin Johnson (2009-2010 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am), and Stricker (2009-2010 John Deere Classic).

So, as a general rule I don’t normally take players that have won at the same tournament. There are, of course, some exceptions, but generally speaking it’s safe not to take the same player at a tournament. So, I didn’t consider Ryan Moore, but low and behold he won it again.

It was a three horse race with Moore, Sergio Garcia, and Kevin Na battling it out, but the difference was the weekend. Moore beat Garcia and Na by three shots and that was his margin of victory in the end.

Lee Westwood, meanwhile. was up and down for the tournament. He shot a first round 72, but then bounced back with a sizzling 65, but fell back down with a third round 74, but finished with a solid 68 to finish in a tie for 13th.

WGC-HSBC Champions:

Predicted Winner: Sergio Garcia (T-28)

Winner: Bubba Watson

What a fantastic finish this was. One of the best finishes of the PGA Tour season. There’s just something special about watching some night time golf. It was around midnight and watching the thrilling conclusion to the WGC-HSBC Champions was just fantastic.

Graeme McDowell was in charge for the majority of the tournament, he was sticking shots and he just couldn’t miss on the green. But, the fourth round came around and G-Mac just couldn’t hold off the pack. It was Watson’s turn to take charge as he birdied three in a row on 6, 7, and 8.

It looked like Watson had it until he bogeyed 16 and double bogeyed 17 after hitting two shots from the bunker. Then 18 happened, Watson found the bunker again, but this time he knocked it right in and forced a playoff with Tim Clark. Clark missed his putt in the playoff and Watson made.

In terms of predicting, I should of stuck to my gut. I hedged Bubba Watson back in September and as the tournament got closer I eventually did tip him to win and had him on my fantasy teams, but nevertheless, I had Sergio Garcia and he never was in the tournament and was pretty lucky to finish T-28.

Too bad I didn’t officially take Bubba though. It would be nice to have already collected a win this early in the PGA Tour season.

OHL Classic:

Predicted Winner: Scott Brown (T-62)

Winner: Charley Hoffman

I was just glad to see Scott Brown make the cut. He hadn’t played well up to this point and it could have been another Harris English scenario where his game fits the course, but he’s not playing well leading up to it and thusly misses the cut. But, luckily, he made the cut.

However, the biggest story was that Charley Hoffman won his third PGA Tour event in his career. Hoffman was just steady as she goes for all four rounds and a final round 66 was good enough to give him a one shot victory over Shawn Stefani.