The Ranking: Jordan Spieth's Early Exit, Steady Si Woo Kim and Ian Poulter Can't Be Serious
Let’s celebrate Janitor Month.
Really. Janus was the god of doorways, beginnings and the sun rising and setting in ancient Roman culture, something you American readers surely know inside and out. It led to the naming of the year’s first month as January, for obvious reason.
Janua is a similar word in Latin that meant doorway or entrance and gave birth to the word janitor—a door attendant who eventually was downgraded to custodian.
You’re welcome for this educational moment. Now make sure to work this into a conversation at work or, if you prefer, the Unemployment Office, to add Ranking bonus points to your account …
Jordan Spieth, Si Woo Kim and Ian Poulter are on Gary Van Sickle's radar, some for newsworthy reasons and some for ... c'mon, Ian.
AP, USA TODAY Sports
10. Children of the Korn
The golf season doesn’t get real until LIV GOLF and the Korn Ferry Tour tees it up and that won’t happen until—wait a minute! The KFT’ers are already in action. As crazy as it sounds, the 33rd KFT season started in the Bahamas on Sunday, the day you were too busy watching meaningless NFL playoff games. It’s the first of 26 events in 18 states and five countries, including Colombia and Chile. This week’s official tournament name is the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. You probably won’t pay any attention to who wins until that player makes the PGA Tour next year. Remember, this tournament doesn’t really start until the back nine on … Wednesday.
9. Sometimes It Pays to Be an Amateur
The Masters Tournament field added another player. It is Argentina’s Mateo Fernández de Oliveira, who won last weekend’s Latin America Amateur Championship in Puerto Rico. The event, created by the Masters, earned Fernandez de Oliveira a coveted spot in Augusta but also came with exemptions to the U.S. and British Opens. It was a happy ending for the 23-year-old University of Arkansas star, who missed a putt that would have gotten him into a playoff in last year’s LAAC. Apparently, the champ was more than ready on the event’s last day when he woke up. He said, “I thought it was ‘go time’ and it was 4:40 a.m.” Don’t expect any different during a certain week in April.
8. You Can’t Buy This for a Song … Unless It’s a $160 Million Tune
Kemper Sports has managed Florida’s Streamsong Resort and its courses since 2012. Now, the managers are the owners, too. Kemper bought Streamsong from its founder, Mosaic Company, a global phosphate producer. Streamsong should be on your bucket list because it has three incredible courses—the Red, Blue and Black—and it's adding a short course, The Chain, to be built by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The sale includes 5,000 acres of as-yet-unused land. What color would you name a fourth full-length course after? The Ranking nominates either Phlox, a neon violet as in, “What the phlox were you thinking?” Or Fulvous, an orange-butterscotch usually reserved for several duck species as in, “What the phlox were you thinking, duck-head?” Contact The Ranking for all of your marketing needs …
7. About Those Overdue Library Books …
J.J. Spaun stepped to the first tee at the Sony Open in Hawaii and did a double take. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, is that Mrs. Kear?” Spaun said. His principal at California’s San Dimas High School? Sure enough, it was. What was she doing in Hawaii? Being retired, on vacation and watching a famous pro golfer she used to know. “Small world,” Spaun said. And no, he still doesn’t know how whiny Jimmy Ecklesburger got himself locked inside that storage room. It’s a mystery.
6. Hawaii Six-0.
Who plays his first PGA Tour event at age 60? Michael Castillo, the head pro at Kapalua Resort. He won the Hawaii PGA of America section event in September and earned a spot in the Sony Open. He was an even bigger Cinderella story because he has been battling cancer discovered during a colonoscopy and had his final radiation treatment in November. The big tour was too tough a league, though, as Castillo shot 79-74 and finished last. The only scorecard that matters, though, is the one coming in February that hopefully says his cancer is in remission.
5. Teardrops in the Frosting: An English Tragedy
Luckily, The Ranking staff can still type while laughing. The hilarious golf moment of the year was Ian Poulter bitching that Ryder Cup Europe failed to wish him a happy birthday. Until he tweeted that, LIV Golf hadn’t, either. Wait, why is this item on The Ranking? Poulter complaining about something doesn’t qualify as news.
4. First to Worst
Nobody expected Jordan Spieth to do a Reverse Atlanta Braves Move at the Sony Open. The 1991 Braves were the first National League team to go from last place to first place in back-to-back seasons, a milestone feat. Spieth shared the first-round Sony Open lead with a 64, then sputtered to a second-round 75 and missed the cut. That’s unusual but not unheard of in golf. But Spieth, a Ryder Cup legend and three-time major champ? “Yeah, this sucks,” Spieth said. The Ranking’s insightful analysis: Yup, agreed.
3. Somewhere, Johnny Miller Did a High-Five
Adam Scott has a new role as a member of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council. NBC golf host Dan Hicks pointed that out during the Sony Open telecast. Analyst Paul Azinger jumped right in on a topic with which he was familiar. “I was on that PAC for 13 years,” Azinger said. “I thought it was a colossal waste of time. You think you’re achieving things, but …”
Hicks jumped in, possibly trying to throw a lifeline. “Really?” he asked. Azinger took the hint. “Ahh, you know,” he said. “It might be different nowadays.” Call for Mr. Azinger from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., on Line 2…
2. Cup Check
This just in: Europe won the Cup back! No, not that Cup. The Hero Cup. It’s a Ryder Cup undercard/rehearsal dinner. After getting humiliated at Whistling Straits in the 2021 Ryder Cup, the Europeans smartly tweaked the artist formerly known as the Seve Trophy to practice team match-play. Clearly, they needed the practice. The Hero Cup pitted Continental Europe versus Great Britain & Ireland and it was played, naturally, in the United Arab Emirates. No home-field advantage there. Italy’s Francesco Molinari captained Europe to a 14.5-10.5 victory over GB&I as Europe prepares for this year’s Ryder Cup matches in Italy.
Who were the heroes of the Hero Cup? Guido Migliozzi, another Italian, plus Victor Perez and Nicolai Hojgaard all won 3.5 points. Poland’s Adrian Meronk won only one point but it was the point the clinched Europe’s win. “I would say European golf is in very good hands,” Molinari said. If the Europeans avenge their Ryder Cup debacle in Italy this fall, they may point to the Hero Cup as reason.
1. Big Woo …
Does anyone else feel like Si Woo Kim must be 37 years old by now? He won the 2016 Wyndham Championship, not that even your average golf writer would remember that trivia, and the 2017 Players Championship back when he was largely unknown to the American public. That seems like ancient times, the same as anything pre-pandemic. Kim is 27 now. If you missed his 2021 American Express Championship win, you probably caught him playing a key role in last year’s Presidents Cup. He’s a pretty good ballstriker and when he gets the long putter working, as he did at the Sony Hawaiian Open, he’s world class. The Ranking made him No. 1 in part because he won and in part because of how he won.
He chipped in for birdie from a gunchy lie just off the 17th green moments after hearing a roar at 16, which he knew was Hayden Buckley tying him for the lead. At 18, he played a run-up shot onto the par-5 green in two and two-putted for the birdie that made the difference. File Kim’s name away for future fantasy-draft use.