So there was a barefoot Keith Mitchell with his baby blue slacks rolled up all the way over his knees standing in the lake left of the 18th fairway at TPC Southwind on Sunday trying to save par and unknowingly serving as an embodiment of the pressure over the closing holes of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Sink or swim time.
Very little changed in the FedEx Cup points standings in the opening playoff event on the PGA Tour—unless you were Mitchell. He sank. His bogey on the par-4 home hole sealed his fate as the only player who began the week inside the top 50 in the standings and ended up outside the magic number and going home.
The top 50 advance to this week’s second playoff leg, the BMW Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis, and Mitchell, after a closing 72, ended up 51st in the standings after beginning the tournament in 49th place. He finished at one-under 279, tied for 34th. His only solace is that had he somehow saved par at the last, he still would have failed to advance, finishing one point behind Matt McCarty.
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Mitchell, 34, pulled his tee shot left into the penalty area, but the ball stayed out of the water. He opted to hit his second shot while standing in the water rather than taking a drop and his second shot landed short of the green and this time trundled into the lake. He got up and down but the result was a downer.
“I didn’t look at the leaderboard all day. I had really no idea where I stood until walking off 17 green,” Mitchell said. “Eighteen tee shot is tough. You’ve got to decide if you’re … if I’m way in [on the points list], I can just lay up out to the right and make 5 and be good, but I knew I was one back.
“We thought it was helping a little bit off the tee, so I absolutely strike my 3-wood. I thought it was perfect when I hit it. Caught a little bit of a gust, and it came up that short. The second shot was obviously interesting, and I just didn’t play it far enough right and ended up making 5.”
The beneficiary was McCarty, who survived a poor week but had just enough help to advance. The left-hander finished T-63 in the 70-man field at seven-over 287 but only dropped two spots from 48th to 50th. Maverick McNealy started the week on the bubble as Mr. 50 but with two birdies coming home, he shot 69 and jumped up to joint 19th place at 276 to end up 49th in the standings.
Also T-19 was Jordan Spieth, who began the week 54th but lingered inside the top 50 for most of the tournament after an opening 65 on Thursday. He was still looking good until consecutive bogeys on 11 and 12 led to a 70. He ended up 52nd to miss the BMW Championship—and the exemptions into all the signature events the following season—for the third straight year.
“I had a goal to be three under at 18 fairway and the rest will take care of itself. I was well on my way. I just didn’t execute enough shots and didn’t kind of … a couple bounces could have gone one way or the other,” Spieth, the 2015 FedEx Cup champion, said. “I needed to be almost flawless today. Felt like I stayed pretty calm, got off to the start I wanted. Then around that 11, 12, 13, 14 stretch, if you can get through there unscathed, you know you’re looking at some opportunities on the other holes. I did pretty well around those holes this week, but today kind of caught a couple that could have gone one way or the other and ended up mis-executing the shots just barely and didn’t get away of it.”
While Mitchell was the odd man out, Sungjae Im played his way in. Though he struggled in the final round with a 74 after beginning the day just two shots behind 54-hole leader Scottie Scheffler, the South Korean native earned a share of fifth place at seven-under 273 and climbed 13 spots from 53 to 40.
Instead of rolling up his pants, he rolled up his sleeves this week.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
