2017 Quicken Loans National: Kyle Stanley’s comeback, Rickie Fowler’s charge highlight week at TPC Potomac

For the second straight week on the PGA Tour, we needed an extra hole to decide the winner. Kyle Stanley rolling in a par putt is not exactly Jordan Spieth holing out from a bunker, chucking his club, and running into a flying chest bump with his caddie. But Stanley’s playoff win over Charles Howell III at the Quicken Loans National is, in whole, much more surprising than a Spieth hole-out for another win.

Stanley is one of the best ball-strikers in the world and has been since his decorated days at Clemson. But he’s been, at times, among the worst putters at the highest levels of the game and struggled to stay on the PGA Tour because of it. This year has featured a dramatic re-emergence after bouts clinging to play on the Web.com Tour. But even now, the grind is still there — Stanley is fifth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green and 150th in strokes gained putting.

There are a few ball-striking talents like that in the game — so pure from tee to green that they can overcome such a putting disadvantage. Hideki Matsuyama is the highest profile example, but watching Stanley work his way around the course is comparable experience. He made it to the Sunday final pairing at The Players, so his talent was popping back up again in 2017. But a win?

It’s not been an easy path for Stanley, who won the Phoenix Open back in 2012. The expectations were high based on early Tour movements and a strong college career. Getting his second win five years later — and all that came in the intervening time — made this worthwhile to watch on Sunday night. Stanley broke down talking about all the people who helped get him back to this point, speaking both on the 18th green with CBS and multiple times during his press conference later.

So this was not the headline-grabbing hole-out from a superstar, but the PGA Tour produces these kind of stories on a few occasions each year. In the post-Tiger era, it seems 95 percent of the coverage and content is focused on less than 10 players, or “stars.” The easy thing to do is hype up the “young guns” and the stud prospects and highly touted 20-somethings.

Stanley is still, somehow after his back-and-forth Tour career, not even 30 years old. But he’s the latest reminder of how razor-thin the margin is among those 10 superstars we always hear about and an incredible talent who has struggled just to stay in the big leagues. Over an entire season and multiple years, that margin can get wider but from week to week, there is none.

Some more notes from the week at the Quicken Loans National:

When the top-of-the-world rankings get going, however, there’s a discernible difference from the rest of the best on Tour. That was noticeable on Sunday with Rickie Fowler, who set a new personal record with nine birdies in a round. I caught up with Rickie on the back nine, and the best in the world took “dialed-in” to a new level. Time after time, Rickie was dropping darts on top of flagsticks on a course that wasn’t exactly yielding super low numbers all week.

It was hard to see a nine-birdie round out there and Fowler, after just making the cut, was suddenly one off the lead late on Sunday before a double bogey washed it all away. The crowd reactions to each approach shot as it came down on top of the pin made it the most juiced the property had been all week, and Fowler kept doing it hole after hole.

The prior incarnation of this venue was a bit of a whipping boy on the old PGA Tour schedule. But this incarnation can certainly hold a PGA Tour event going forward and should be added in the off-Congressional-year rotation, likely in 2019. There are several questions surrounding this event (Is Quicken done as title sponsor? The field? What’s Tiger’s involvement going forward? A date change?), but if DC is going to be the market, we seem to have found a venue rota to host it. TPC Potomac can certainly be a part of that.

It’s not going to host a U.S. Open, as Justin Thomas suggested it could at the start of the week. But it’s perfectly suited for this event. The last three holes set up well for a consolidated crowd and arena-esque setting. It’s a fun layout that, given conditioning, can yield a variety of winning numbers.

My only issue is it’s a big walk for a spectator. It’s not real easy to get from hole to hole unless you’re walking the entire course on a line or with just one group. You’d like to be able to jump around quickly from front to back, ahead four holes or back three holes etc., but that’s not possible here based on routing and the size of the walk. That’s not exactly a luxury each week on Tour — a property with back-and-forth routing on a contained piece of land — so this a minor complaint. Overall, it was in mint condition and a strong Tour venue.

There are no appearance fees on the PGA Tour, but title sponsors signing guys to endorsement deals is one way around that, no? We’ve seen this with Rickie a bit over the years. He’s in Crowne Plaza commercials and playing Colonial when it’s the title sponsor there. He’s in Quicken commercials now and has played its event in DC over the last three years.

This invitational certainly needed it, and he served as the unofficial host with Tiger Woods indisposed. The crowds swelled all around him throughout the week. The difference between a green or tee box right before Rickie rolled through and right after was staggering. It would clear out and become crickets once Rick’s group had passed.

The Wednesday pro-am seemed like one big PR handshake line with a few golf shots mixed in between. There were photos with veterans, autographs for kids, quick interviews with PGA Tour social media, spots with TV, a touching Quicken-aided reunion of a soldier with his family, and more. Every tee, every green, it seemed was some obligation for Fowler and the last three holes took forever as crowds gathered around him and J.R. Smith.

The golf shots were interrupting all the other PR, PGA Tour, and sponsor commitments. The counter is, of course, that it’s a pro-am and the sponsors keep the Tour operating at the high level we expect. But actually getting any practice and a realistic look at the course just seemed so secondary.

Maybe the most interesting piece of golf #content I consumed this week was the Fried Egg Podcast with Scott Fawcett. He’s a consultant and coach who has developed a system for helping pros, and high-ranked ams, and college players target better results through strategy, relying heavily on data and advanced statistics. It’s a worthwhile listen throughout but a big takeaway is showing restraint, playing to your strengths during green-light situations, and letting your competitors crumble around you as they get overly aggressive.

On the PGA Tour, almost every par-5 is a feasting opportunity. The best in the world see those holes come up, especially on a par-70 setup, and they are going to want to stack some birdies (and maybe even eagles depending on the hole). As you’d expect, the par-5 10th at TPC Potomac played on the easier side, ranking as the 15th hole for the week with an under-par average. There were five eagles and 131 birdies.

So this was a chance to make a move, but on Thursday, it also featured some of the biggest explosions of the week. Despite it playing on the easier side, there was still trouble with a native area hazard all down the left side. Justin Thomas, who started the week saying TPC Potomac could host a U.S. Open, ejected with a 9 and multiple balls put in the hazard. Patton Kizzire made a snowman with multiple visits to the same trouble. Byeong Hun An yanked one left into the same stuff but managed to scrape out a par.

With the players wanting to put the pedal down and make birdie, as soon as it went sideways off the tee, there were fireworks. An smashed the tee marker, forcing rules officials to make a call to the bullpen for a replacement.

An’s reaction, however, was not the most entertaining bit of destruction at this spot. According to one witness at the 10th, Kizzire promptly launched his driver into the trees on the adjacent sidehill after his poor drive. He then reacquainted himself with the club on his way down a hill to the rest of the hole and promptly slammed it on the cart path. Thomas took a chunk of turf in frustration too, according to the same person.

These are perfectly fine and acceptable reactions. An, Thomas, and Kizzire are, from all accounts, some of the more sensible pros out here. They can be low-key guys, open to chatting, and forthcoming. But everyone gets hot at a bad shot, and given the par-5 opportunity that can force the best in the world to salivate, this tee box was a temperamental spot on the course.

Spencer Levin should have a lifetime exemption into every tournament. Levin is one of the most entertaining players to watch. He’s a maniac, and while it appears he’s given up his smoking habit, a nice change of pace from the buttoned-up staid pros that populate the Tour.

Levin is a well-known hothead, or “passionate” as the more measured TV broadcast might put it. He spent his weekend in contention, so he got plenty of airtime and the cult following on Twitter was all-in on his run toward a first PGA Tour win. We won’t give you the shot-by-shot, although we could. Some highlights from the weekend:

Levin is legitimately fun to watch and root for, so having him in the coverage was a needed treat in a PGA Tour event not boasting the deepest field. We only need one Spencer Levin, but we need more of him.

TPC Potomac was also the latest venue to get an Arnold Palmer statue. Palmer made consecutive aces here in 1986 during back-to-back practice rounds of what was then the Chrysler Cup. To give you another reminder of how much distance has changed the game, Palmer hit a 5-iron from 182 yards on both days. He called the second one “easily the most exciting ace of my career” in his book. The statue arrived on Monday.

On Wednesday, I overheard a prominent golf media member shout in the media center that every golf course should have an Arnold Palmer statue. That might be overkill and we risk getting too hagiographic, but it’s a fine commemoration here and a nice addition.