Horschel, Scheffler, Hovland Poised to Battle for Finale at API

The wind, the wind, the wind. It was enough to make flags stand at attention and men grab their golf hats to keep them on their heads. To no one’s surprise, golfers from windy states, like Texan, Scottie Scheffler, Oklahoman, Talor Gooch, and Floridian, Billy Horschel, rose to the top to challenge Norway’s Viktor Hovland who moved the wrong direction. Rory McIlroy just plain struggled.

McIlroy, who hits a high ball, had a fairly devastating back nine for someone of his skill.  He posted a 38.

“With the crosswinds today, it was a bit harder to hit fairways. From there, if you don’t hit the fairway, it’s almost impossible to hit a green,” he explained. “It’s so tough out there. It’s so tricky. It’s just on a knife edge, like you’re literally talking like feet. Two feet here, two feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.”

McIlroy said he had never had as many six-footers for bogey in his life.

Viktor Hovland tried to put up a fight, but he struggled in the conditions that blew most of the field off the course.

He had an eagle at the long par 5, 6th that Bryson DeChambeau drove last year. That’s the hole that goes around a big lake and has alligators in it. Hovland didn’t drive the green because, so far as we know, DeChambeau is the only one who can hit that far. But after a solid front nine, he lost his lead on the back with four bogeys, including at the 17th and 18th.

“I was really in a good rhythm until some bad shots on the back nine,” he said. “At least I managed to kind of stay in it. I missed on the right sides, and the bad shots only cost a bogey and not double or worse to really take me out of the tournament.”

Hovland was concerned that it would become a scrambling competition, which he said was not one of his strengths.

Sneaking up on the field, Scheffler had the low round of the day, a 68, as did Chris Kirk.  It’s tough sledding when that’s the low score. Scheffler posted that score with bogeys on the 7th, 8th, and 9th holes. Of course, an eagle at the 16th helped him a lot. His drive there was in the fairway, 337 yards out, and his second shot landed just 21 feet from the hole.  Making the putt was probably as much luck as skill because of the difficulty of the greens in general.

“With the wind the way it is, if you’re putting even uphill putts, the wind is affecting them so much that it’s so difficult to putt the greens,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler also said that there were spots where there was barely any grass left on the putting surfaces.

“Last time I can remember playing like this is probably two years ago here. I can’t recall Bermuda greens being like this because usually in the summertime when it gets really hot, we’re usually in the north, where they only have bent greens or poa annua,” he added.

Horschel is the kind of guy who can find the pony in the pile of manure, and he just accepted conditions and went for it.

“This is awesome golf. It’s testing and it wears you down,” he said. “I can’t even say we all enjoy all the time, but we do enjoy because it does reward fairly good golf shots on a regular basis.”

He was looking forward to having home-state, Florida fans cheer for him on Sunday.

“I want them to enjoy themselves out there on the golf course. I want them to get loud and have fun out there. I just want them to do it in a respectful way,” he said. “We played a year without fans, and it absolutely sucked, to tell you the truth.”

In the midst of all this wind, Max Homa somehow had a hole-in-one at the 14th. He didn’t see the ball go in the hole because he’s too nearsighted.

“It was funny because the hole prior I hit a good lag putt, I thought, and the wind picked up, and it blew my ball like 12 feet past the hole,” Homa joked.

He was playing with Scheffler.

“I think he owes all of us a drink. Isn’t that how it works?” Scheffler joked after their round was complete.

If Scheffler wins on Sunday maybe it will be the other way around.