Oosthuizen and Potter Miss Cuts in Scotland, California

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Golfer Magazine

Both of Ocala's prides made early exits from their respective engagements this weekend, Louiis Oosthuizen from The Open at St. Andrews and Ted Potter from the Barracuda Championship in California.

Louis and his brethren from the controversial LIV tour, as expected, took a lot of heat over in Scotland, as everybody - other contestants, the media, and the fans - wanted to put the Saudi-backed enterprise front and center. Louis bowed out after Friday's round, missing the cut by one stroke after he took a triple bogey seven on the par-4 16th hole. That put him two away from the cut of even par, and he whittled it to one with an 18th-hole birdie.

But other LIVers had greater success: Dustin Johnson heads into today's finale tied for seventh at 10 under par, six behind co-leaders Viktor Hovland and hometown favorite RoryMcIlroy, both 16 under. Shane Lowry is 7 under, Ian Poulter 5 under, Lee Westwood and Talor Gooch 4 under and Sergio Garcia 3 under. Seminole Brooks Koepka missed the cut at 4 over, as did John Daly and his beard at 3 over.

Lowry added to the day's festivities with a pair of long pitch-in eagles, while Hovland sparked his round of 66 by birdieing four holes in a row, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and didn't have a bogey on his card. McIlroy thrilled his thousands of followers and the TV audience with a hole-out from a bunker for an eagle on No. 10.

Hovland has tucked away rounds of 68-66-66-200, while McIlroy's cards read 68-66-66-200, and they'll go to the first tee with a four-stroke edge over the two Cams, Young (64-69-71-204) and Smith (67-64-73-204), the early leaders whose Saturday rounds may have knocked them out since the top pair show no signs of faltering. Si Woo Kim and red-hot Scottie Scheffler are both hanging around at 11 under. Gator Billy Horschel can make some hay - he's at 4 under 212, tied for 35th.

The most intriguing non-LIV tale is that of Alex Noren, who had moved up to first alternate as post time was approaching in Scotland. But Alex didn't want to be excluded from all play this week so he decided not to take a chance that there would be one more defection, and he hopped aboard a jet for California and the Barracuda Championship. As luck would have it, there were not one but two late defections, Justin Rose and Erik Van Rooyen, and Rikuya Hoshino and Aaron Rai took the spots Noren left behind. The former shot 75-73 and missed the cut, while the latter did likewise with 75-72. After 54 holes in California, where they're utilizing the modified Stableford scoring system, Noren is tied for third with 28 points.

Chez Reavie is the Stableford leader with 37 points. He's six ahead of Martin Laird and nine better than Noren and the last Cam - Davis. Kevin Tway, one of the 36-hole leaders, dropped from plus 21 (4th) to plus 19 (24th) with a -2 round.

Seminole Chase Sieffert is tied for 40th at plus 16 but teammate Hank Lebioda missed the cut by a stroke. Gators Camilo Villegas (+6) and Matt Every (+1) also headed home.

Ted shot rounds of 37-40-77 (two birdies, six bogeys, one double) and 39-35-74 (three birdies, four bogeys, one double) and at -6 missed the cut by 13 points.