From KPMG to Quicken Loans: Keeping Players Interest(ed)

Golf in DC is important, and not just because it’s Tiger’s tournament; The LPGA continues to deliver on Sundays, and a salute to Chucky Three Sticks.

This week’s Quicken Loans National concluded at TPC Potomac when Kyle Stanley parred the first extra hole to defeat Charles Howell III after both finished 72 holes at 7-under. With the cut this week at 4-over, TPC Potomac offered one of the toughest tests that players will see all season. This week definitely confirmed that Washington has high quality golf courses to offer for the highest professional tour, even if the field doesn’t reflect it.

Quicken Loans National suffers because of its difficult position on the schedule. It comes off the back of a gruelling major in the US Open, and precedes the busy summer schedule involving the final two majors, the FedEx Cup, and Race to Dubai. Furthermore, many players take time off around the fourth of July weekend. While the worst spot on the schedule still belongs to the Canadian Open — the week after the Open Championship — this one is not too much better. It definitely didn't help this year that the event’s host wasn’t there to help salvage the tournament’s crowd attendance. Whether or not players should go out of their way to play Tiger’s tournament because of his effect on their livelihood is a separate issue, but as it stands the tournament itself is in a questionable state moving forward.

This is a shame for fans in the DC area. They have loved and supported PGA Tour golf for decades through this event and the old Kemper Open. The rotation of courses that QL National has played on the past few years, including Aronimink and Congressional, are among the best tests that players see. I always think of the difficulty players faced in 2012 at Congressional the year after the course was torched in 2011 at the US Open. For a region that is so well known in its love for golf, it is tough to see the tournament be put in a difficult position by the tour and sponsorship uncertainty.

Danielle Kang birdied the 72nd hole to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship by one shot over Brooke Henderson. It was Kang’s first LPGA Tour win as she had been knocking at the door for her first win in a professional career that has shown remarkable consistency, with over 20 made cuts in each of her last 3 seasons. She had shown great promise, winning back to back US Amateurs, and now that promise has finally been fulfilled in one of the game’s biggest tournaments. Even though, as a Canadian, I was cheering for Brooke to win, I couldn’t help but be happy for Danielle. I have been a fan of hers for a while, especially after hearing her fun and down-to-earth personality in a podcast with Alan Shipnuck. Even though she’s not Canadian, we Canucks can take solace in the fact that she’s friends with the Gretzky family.

Good enough for me.

This was another great week for Brooke Henderson, tallying her first runner-up at a major championship. She didn’t have her best stuff today, yet she still managed to shoot a final round 66 under the most pressure-filled circumstance. She did everything she could have done to win and came up just short.

Charles Howell III lost in a playoff today at the Quicken Loans National. This was after a 10 week break due to a rib injury. He’s now been on tour for 17 years, and at 38 years old he has only two PGA Tour wins. Many call him a career under achiever given how talented a ball-striker he is, but Howell is an amazingly consistent player who just happened to play in the hardest era to win on the PGA Tour. He has earned at least 1.2 million dollars in every full season he’s had on tour. He has 16 runner up finishes and has finished inside the top 125 on either the money list or FedEx Cup every year since 2001. Given his ability to be consistent in a sport where consistency is the unachievable ideal, CH3 continues to prove that he is underrated.

Austin is TheOcho.ca’s golf contributor. He also writes about basketball and hosts The Ocho Top Ten podcast with TheOcho.ca EIC Riley Evans. Follow Austin on Twitter at @austevans24.