The Draw: Hannah Green's Hot Streak and Matt Fitzpatrick's Players Redemption

The Draw hosts Nathan and Brian recap the major pro golf storylines. Hannah Green dominated with three wins this month, including back-to-back victories in Australia on the Ladies European Tour.

At the Fortinent Founders Cup on the LPGA Tour, the hosts cover Hyo Joo Kim's wire-to-wire win and her eighth title as well as Nelly Korda's rally and eventual bogey on hole 17. Nathan and Brian go on to praise the LPGA Tour for its improved NBC/Golf Channel television coverage.

On the PGA Tour, Matt Fitzpatrick won the Valspar Championship after last week’s Players near-miss, with discussion of Sungjae Im’s rust and Fitzpatrick raising pace-of-play concerns. In China, Jordan Gumberg won the Hainan Classic for his second DP World Tour title

The hosts then preview this week's events and share their picks, from the Ford Championship to the Hero Indian Open to the Texas Children's Houston Open, noting Scheffler’s withdrawal and Masters-qualification implications.

The Draw is a Fairway to Green podcast. See all episodes at www.fairwaytogreen.com.

Transcript

Hannah Green On Fire

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, welcome back to the Draw A Fairy to Green podcast. We have a run on the Ladies European Tour that we've not seen before. I mean, you can also count on the LPJ tour. Hannah Green of Australia has won back-to-back tournaments over on the Ladies European Tour, and she won earlier this year on the LPG tour. She has three wins this month alone.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yeah, it's been unbelievable. Hannah Green is the hottest golfer in the entire world. I know we talked about, you know, Chris got Chris got up with a couple wins at the beginning of the season, you know, the Scotty's runs. Uh uh, but you know, Hannah Green is the hottest golfer. She won on the LPGA tour, I think Singapore or one of the Asian Asian events on the LPGA tour. And then she's won in back-to-back weeks in Australia. She won to the Australia Open and then another tournament this week in Australia. So Hannah Green is on fire right now. Definitely a name to watch out for coming up from you know the LPGA majors. And she isn't on the European tour, so she doesn't get any points for their order of merit, like season-long thing. But you know, she could play in the Australians, but she won't be there. She'll be on the LPGA tour with the rest of the big names, Gino, Nelly, all of them. But unbelievable golf being played by Hannah Green.

Fortinent Founders Cup: Hyo Joo Kim vs. Nelly Korda

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yeah, I mean, to again, she's an LPGA tour player, so she could just she could have played in California this week with everyone else on LPGA tour is a great event. But she decided to stay home for the second week, win back-to-back events in her home country. That's pretty cool. Again, we talk about, like you said, Chris Goddard, Scotty Scheffler. I don't know if Scotty Scheffler's ever won three times in a month. I don't even, I know he's gone back to back at some point, but usually when he goes back to back, he takes a week off in between. Like he plays a week, rests, and then plays. She went back to back weeks, literally back to back weeks to win in her home country. And like you said, this strong play is gonna definitely, she's gonna be a factor in the majors now. Like you can't play this well and not expect to compete in the majors. Over on the W or the W, the LPGA tour, we have Yojo Kim. She goes and wins her eighth career LPJ tour title in Canada out duels, world number two, Nellie Corda, who got really hot over the weekend and made it a tournament. I thought it was gonna be a runaway for Kim, and Korda came back and gave her some fight.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, yeah. Joju Kim, she was winning the every single round. She was a leader. She went wire to wire. And then that final round, you know, she started a few strokes up over Nelly, and it's like, okay, she had a four, a three or four shot lead over Nelly. You know, if you play like you've been playing the rest of the week, you should be totally fine. But no, that wasn't the case. She actually, I think, shot even her one over. So she left the door open for Nelly to come in. And Nelly did come in. She tied, she tied her at the leaderboard of the back nine. Unfortunately, Nelly did three-put the 17th hole, bogey, you know, and then then from there it was, I think it was two shots swing, and she was behind by two going 18, and that didn't didn't happen. So tough one for Nelly there. But Nelly Corda, very also a very, very on a very hot streak right now. She has played in two events. I know this is over the span of two months, but she was first in the tournament in J in January in Florida, and then she was second this week in her first tournament back on the LPGA tour. So she's been playing very well. She's definitely come out with something to prove after you know, didn't she didn't win on tour last season? So she's definitely like, you know, I'm I'm in this. Don't forget about me. I'm still Nelly Corda.

LPGA Broadcast Upgrade

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, I I think for Nelly, it's kind of like I don't want to even say a return to two years ago because she wasn't bad last year. Like we talk about Nelly, like she was bad, but she has such a high standard, like Gino, that not winning for we could arguably say the best women's golfer on the planet right now, outside of maybe Hannah Green, who's on fire, like we talked about. But yeah, so again, I think it's a good, good stretch run. She won, play second this week. She's going to a tournament where she's won here in the past. Yeah, I think it's setting up, and obviously it's a Solheim Cup. Like all those looking into those rankings, like those teams and those points and who's listed where. Yeah, but I mean it was a great field. Again, the broadcast was so much better. Props to NBC and Golf Channel that you know, finally getting the coverage out there. I thought the production was good. I thought the kind of packaged interviews and all that stuff was really well. And it's really the first week. I mean, we can count the Orlando event a couple months ago, but once they get in the swing of thing, I think you're gonna see little things get fixed and it will make it that much better. So through a couple weeks, or we'll say two events of the new broadcast deal, I'm liking the way so far.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, this is how it should have been. You know, for last season, last season, they you saw all these different golfers win. The tour is absolutely loaded with talent and they didn't really have you know the cut the coverage they deserve. So this year with the new NVC deal, I know I saw some screenshots of some drone shots on the broadcast, which is which is new for the LPGA tour. So that's I'm really excited. And as you said, they'll certainly be working out some things to make it better in the upcoming weeks. And and we're expecting a good run of golf coming up because the LPGA tour is back in the United States and they're ready to go.

Matt Fitzpatrick Wins Valspar Championship

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, I I think again it was it was a good kickoff kind of to the North America swing, obviously. As they play more tournaments like they are this week, I think it will get better. I think the viewership will go up. And we're gonna talk about golfers playing really well right now. We have to go over to the PJ tour and we start with the winner this week, Matt Fitzpatrick. He wins the Vales Bar Championship a week after losing to Cameron Young at the players' championship by one after making bogey on the 18th hole. He has another top 10 finish earlier this year at the WM Phoenix Open. He's been great since kind of the end of last year, like August time, where he kind of turned it up and got onto the Rider Cup team, won the DP World Tour Championship this past fall. Again, he lost to, I think it was Rory or someone else in a playoff at another event over there. And again, a T or second place finished last week of the players, wins the Vales Bar, gets his third career PGA tour win. These Ryder Cup players are playing well to start the year.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, you know, the big name players that you see in all these tournaments, the Ryder Cup, and even TGL, like they there's a stat to there's a certain percentage of TG uh winners on tour are in TGL. So that's the big names. And I'm not really surprised by Matthew Pittspatrick, you know, winning last week. As you mentioned, he started playing well at the end of last year, took that and took the momentum into Beth Page, and then started off the season you know playing very well. And unfortunately, it was you know, unfortunately for Sung J M. You know, his kind of his first few tournaments back. I know he had surgery, and you know, obviously putting four four very solid rounds together could be tough coming back from injury. You know, you're not maybe not used to the tournament feel. So, you know, it sucks to see Sung J M lose it like that. But Matthew Fitzpatrick is they're playing fantastic, and he he deserves that victory.

PGA Tour Pace of Play Debate

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, I Sun J M, like you said, it's got to be Rust. I mean, he's normally a guy, I think they said on the broadcast Sunday, that he plays 27, 28 times a year. So the fact that he had to take, I think it was almost two months off, he missed the whole West Coast swing and plays in a couple of these floors. So he's not used to it. I I didn't think he played that bad because it was rough early on, and he kind of steadied out like Sanjay M is one of the best ball strikers in the world, and it looked kind of like it evaded him there for the front nine. And Brant Seneca, again, great guy. He's the president's cup captain for the U.S. this year. I didn't think he really ever had a shot. I thought it was a good story. He's played well, kind of caught lightning in a bottle. And if he would have won, that would have been great. I never really thought he had a chance. My eyes were on, I thought Lipsky was playing really well. And Fitzpatrick was, again, he's just so good, and he's an elite ball striker. And his putter wasn't even that good Sunday. He missed a ton of putts that I think he probably could have won by three or four and you know, saved himself some gray hairs and not even to make a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th. But yeah, it's he's another one. Like, again, I hate talking about the Ryder Cup, but him and these younger European guys that have got experience now, and he finally picked up his first point at the Ryder Cup this past one at Beth Page. Like, it's just one of these guys, like you're not gonna see not on a team for a while. And I don't know how many you can say that for on the American side, but yeah, and then the other thing we have to put the pace of play that he was involved in. And again, I don't know the other player all too well. If he's normally a slow player, you could tell he was very frustrated on the broadcast. And they said at one point that he hit first, even while his playing partner was farther right. He hit first, made it up to the grain, and still waited three more minutes for his playing partner to play a shot in. So Fitz, again, who is not afraid of controversy, he called out Bryson a couple years ago about yeah, he's there in a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah. Like, again, I like it. And you know, this little English kid who is not the biggest or most scary looking, he's like, I'll stand up to him. So he goes to the rules official, he complains. They put him, not Fitzpatrick, they've his playing partner on the clock. I don't I don't really know what theirs do is like I you probably just have to penalize them. Like, obviously, they gave him a warning, but it didn't change because he was still playing. So, like, I think there's gotta be some type of harsher penalty on all tours. I don't know if it's just the PJ tour if this is a problem, but it seems like we see it more on the PJ tour. I just like forget the warning, give him the penalty stroke right away.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, pace of play has been a huge problem on the PGA tour for the last year, a couple years now. And I know Brooks Kepka when they asked about him about it a couple years ago at the PGA championship, he said, Yeah, you know, we should start giving guys stroke penalties because you know it's getting a little absurd, like the time it takes. And usually in a situation like with Matthew Fitzpatrick, you know, him kind of telling on his other his playing partner, like I usually probably wouldn't be a fan, but at a certain point it's ridiculous. I know when I'm playing and I'm golfing at home and I have to wait, you know, every few shots for the group in front of me, you know, and if I'm in a rhythm, it's like, yeah, you know, I have to wait and it's a little frustrating. Obviously, I'm not playing for millions of dollars with the skill that Matthew Fitzpatrick has, but I can see how that can certainly be frustrating. And I think it was the right thing to do to let him know. And I'm sure, and I saw the majority of comments I saw on the internet were on Matthew Fitzpatrick's side because you know, pace of play, we know the human traffic jam, like Patrick Cantley and you know Brian Harmon. We know the Tom Kim, like we know the guys, but at a tournament like this, like we just it just has to get it, just can't be a problem.

Jordan Gumberg's Win at Hainan Classic

Hero Indian Open Preview

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah, it just it it's hard to win. I mean, good for Fitz for kind of more I'm gonna say battling through it because it's a lack of better words right now, but it's gotta be tough to play slow when you're in contention, especially for someone like Fitz who plays fast. He likes playing fast, and you get him out of his rhythm, like that could cost him a tournament. I mean, he only won by one stroke, so it's it's being a little irritated on one shot, and that could be the difference of him winning and placing in second. Over on the DP World Tour this past week, we had Jordan Gumberg pick up the win at the Hainen Classic. Again, not the best field right now. This upcoming field for the DP World Tour is a little better if they have a PJ Tour player playing in the field, but again, it's still a good win. My pick, Jorge Campelio, was tied for him going to the final round. He shoots one under his playing partner, Gumberg, shoots two under. Again, pretty it was a fine final round. Both players didn't make a made one bogey each on the back on the front nine, didn't make any of the back nine, and it was all parsed in from hole, I think, 13 to 18. But Jordan Gumberg picks up the win over there of the DP World Tour. This week we'll start with the DP World Tour first. We have the Hero Indian Open. Again, the big headliner, and this is Akshay Bhatia, the newly minted Arnold Palmer invitational winner, is in the field. It is in India. He is of an Indian Indian descent. I met saw this over, or I think it was his postgame when he won at the Arnold Palmer, and maybe it was after the players. He goes, Yep, he's gonna go play in India, so he's gonna miss the TGL finals that are happening right now. We were recording this Tuesday night as the TGL finals are happening. Right now, it's not looking good for the Jupiter links. They are down six to two heading into hole ten. Tiger Woods is returned. He's looked okay, not bad, a little rusty. But on the DP World Tour, Akshay Batia leads a group that does include Francesco Molinari and his brother Eduardo. No Patrick Reed, which he feels like he hasn't played in a couple of these DP World Tour events, but with his two wins early in the year, he has such a lead on points that it doesn't really matter. But again, Gary Player designed this course. It was actually originally designed by Arnold Palmer as a nine-hole course, and then they added another nine, and then in 2015, they had Gary Player create his nine, take a nine from the Arnold Palmer design, and create a golf course. So they've played here since 2015. I'm gonna go with the easy, easy pick this week. Akshay Bhatia is my pick to win over in India. He's played really well to start the year. He has the winner to Arnold Palmer, finished well at the ATT Pebble Beach program. He's clearly the best player in this field. I think he's gonna win.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, I have the same pick as you. Akshay Bhatia is by far the best player in this field. You know, PGA tour signature event winner. Kind of seems like a no-brainer. I love the I love the Hero India challenge. It's a great tournament. I know last year there was a kind of a, I think there was something going on the there wasn't anything going on on the PGA tour. So I think like Rory, Shane Lowry, and Victor Hovlin were over there. So that was looked like a pretty fun time. So I like this event, and I think Akshay Batia will win.

Ford Championship Preview

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Over on the LPG Tour, we have the four championship presented by Wild Force Pass down in Phoenix, Arizona. Again, another really good field to kick off the year. We have 22 of the top 25 in the Rolex rankings are in the field. So again, if you're gonna come out here on top come Sunday, you are playing against the best of the best until the majors has been a fantastic start. The this event and last week to getting major players in the field. Again, last year's champion is Yojo Kim. So she's fresh off a win. Can she go back to back this week and back to back of this tournament? We'll see. 2024 champ, Nellie Corda in the field as well. The cool little tidbit of the week for here is Nellie and Jessica Corta are gonna be playing in the same LPG tour event since 2023. Jessica had a baby, she is kind of returning from that maternal leave and starting to play again on the LPJ tour. So I think that'll be cool. I'm sure Nellie is great, happy to have her sister back. Again, Phoenix golf. There's gonna be some desert, so you better drive it straight there.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, it's gonna be a great tournament once again for the LPGA tour this week. For my pick this week, I've gone with another boring pick. I've gone with Nellie Corda. I don't know, I would not, I'm not gonna go away from that. She was first and then second in her two events this season. So I feel like I've got a really good, I've got a great chance this week for for her to to win.

Texas Children's Houston Open Preview

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, so contrary to what the listeners believe, Brian and I do not share our picks with each other before this. So we go right off the cuff. And my pick is Nellie Corda. It's just again, like you said, she finished first, second. I think the thing that sealed it for me, because I was close to picking Gino, because she's Gino, was the little tidbit of her and her sister playing together. I think there's just something there, whether it's a like a comfort thing that her sister's there with her or like that she's back and playing, and they're I'm like, I don't know the pairings yet. I don't think they've come out with that. Like just an ease that she's playing with her sister again. I think there's something there that I think will propel her to win for the second time here at the Ford Championship down in Arizona. And the last event of the week is the Texas Children's Houston Open. A pretty fun golf course. Last year we had Scotty Scheffler lose to Minwu Lee by one. There's no Scotty Scheffler in the field this week. It was announced today that he is withdrawing due to his him and his wife having their second child any day soon, which I did not know. Maybe I was just oblivious. I didn't know she was pregnant. Usually Scotty's pretty open with that, so I didn't know that. Again, I'm not gonna lie, Scotty's got to pick a better time to have his kids. Last time he had Bennett, it was around the Masters. This time we're two weeks away. Like he knows happening. The storyline was is he gonna miss the masters for his kid being born? He would miss it. He is the type of person, and again, I don't know if I would, but he said if he was leading the tournament in the second or third round and Meredith won in labor, he would leave. Again, he must be a much better person than I am because I don't know if I could do that. Let's just start planning to have your kids different times in April because I want to see Scotty Scheffler at the Masters. It's great for him having a second kid. All right, I'm sure Houston is bummed that he's not here playing this week. He loves playing in Texas, so he obviously grew up in Dallas. This is an interesting golf course because it's also hosting the Chevron Championship later this year for the LPGA tour. So it's gonna host a PJ Tour event, then an LPGA major. So I'm excited to see how it plays now and then how it plays for the women here in a couple months. Who's your pick this week, Ryan?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Okay, so if we end up picking the same player for the third tournament, it's gonna be insane. But I've gone with Sam Burns. Okay, good. Don't have him, don't have him. Okay, okay, good. But this feels like a Sam Burns win. I know a couple weeks ago when he lost Pebble Beach, it was you know, Sam Burns wins a tournament every year, it seems like you know, always always up there. And I feel like this is one of those you know, Sam Burns wins because there's not two, there's not like a surplus of you know really top like really top big name players in the field. And it, you know, Sam Burns from Texas, I believe. So Sam Burns back in Texas. And once again, Sam Burns is doing Sam Burns things. He is 14th in strokes gained putting on tour the season. So, you know, just gotta figure out how to get to the surface. But once he gets there, he's 14th in strokes gained.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah, and he's again, he's he's too good to not have won. I think I did when I was looking at who to pick, I looked him up. He hasn't won since 2023. It's been a long time.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, his last win was the the Dell Technologies match play down in Austin, and that hasn't been an event in years. So, like, I was like, whoa, but really, I know he won a copperhead at like back-to-back years, yeah. But that was before that, even.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So he again, like he was in the playoff last year at the RBC Canadian Open with Ryan Fox and he lost, and the whole US open debacle with the water ruling and all that. We can again we talked about that when it happened, but yeah, it he's too good of a player, too good of a putter to not win. And at a course like this, where it's tough, it's a tough little course, like the greens are smaller than normal. You gotta hit it straight. He does that. My pick, and I think he is now gonna become the favorite with Scotty with drawing just because of how well he's played, and the fact that he helped design this golf course during the renovation in 2019. Brooks Kepka, he's gonna break through, get that first win since the PJ Championship at Oak Hill. Again, like I said, when they renovated this golf course in 2019, Tom Doak, who was the main renovator, asked for a player consultant. Who was it? Brooks Kepka. So he literally helped build this golf course. If that doesn't help or give him inside knowledge, I don't know what does. But Brooks Kepka, he's played well, especially down in the Florida stretch, kind of figured out his ball striking has been really good. Putting very well, you know, T9 at the Cognizant Classic, T13 at the players, T18 last week. It's gotta be the putter is the issue right now, but he's also first on the PJ tour and strokes gained approach to the green. So, like his his ball striking is there, his driving isn't far off. It's really the putter that's costing him right now. And again, at a course where he helped, I think it just gives him a little more advantage. Again, he's played well in getting ready for the masters, right? He he loves the majors, so what better way to go into Augusta than with the win on the PJ tour at a course you help build? Bruce Kepka, my pick to finally get that not even finally get that monkey off that back, but I think if he can pick up a win, there's just gonna be a sense of relief over him that he made the right decision and that he can still play on the PJ tour. Yeah, I was gonna say, did does Brooks do we know if Brooks Kepka uses a mallet putter? He did, he switched the spider, I think. I think really have the Scotty Cameron blade, and I think recently he's he's switched to the spider, or as he did. I don't know if he kept in the bag last week at Val's Par. I wasn't paying too much attention, but I know he was working with one.

Masters Watch

SPEAKER_00 21:37

I was gonna say everyone with putter struggles just switches to the a spider or mallet putter. But yeah, I like I like the Bruce Kepko pick for this week. He's been playing much better than when he first came on at the farmers. So he's been he's been getting better every week. And with Scotty out, you know, I and you know, even though it's not majors kept go where he's all about, I only care about majors. I feel like he he does care a little bit about these. These like normal events on the PJ tour. So I think we'll put it on a have a good performance this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

It should be a fun week. All three events you can see on the golf channel. When this podcast comes out, you can go read our previews on how to watch and who to watch at these events. Again, fair to green.com. And then once Monday hits Sunday night, go check out our recaps of the events. And again, check us out on wherever you get your podcast and YouTube. Give us a like and subscribe. We will talk to you next week. We'll review all of these events and we'll preview the upcoming ones. Masters Week is in two weeks away, so we're getting closer. This week at Houston is one of the last chances to earn your way into the Masters. So I'm pretty sure once Sunday ends, that final putt ends, the top 50 in the official world golf ranking is qualified if they already aren't. And the only other way to get in is winning next week down at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. But enjoy the golf. Again, go check us out our website and our YouTube and Waver Gear podcast. We'll talk to you next week.