Page 18 - ARUBA TODAY

A18 SPORTS
Thursday 16 February 2017

Continued from page 17 taking over as the host or- quality of the event, and
ganization under. it’s as simple as that,” Gar-
“I’m determined to get an Even before that, Riviera cia said.
official win here, and hope- typically had the strongest “For the top players, at the
fully, it’s this week,” he said. field of an increasingly end of the day your try to
It won’t be easy. strong West Coast because look for tournaments that
Jordan Spieth is coming of the fabled golf course. fit your schedule, but at the
off a four-shot victory at But the entire West Coast same time, tournaments
Pebble Beach in which he has shown more signs of that you think the course is
found the right recipe for a youth movement. The a good, solid test.
putting on poa greens. Spi- last seven PGA Tour events Riviera is definitely one of
eth is concerned only with have been won by players those.”
the speed of the putt, not in their 20s. Jason Day, the No. 1 player
whether it goes in. He took And unlike a few genera- in the world, is at Riviera for
only 23 putts in the third tions ago, when the likes of the first time since 2012. He
round when he built a big Greg Norman, Nick Price could lose the No. 1 rank-
lead, and played the final Jordan Spieth follows his drive from the 11th tee of the Spyglass and even Curtis Strange ing this week if Matsuyama
28 holes without a bogey. Hill Golf Course during the second round of the AT&T Pebble never really got going until or Dustin Johnson were to
So when he was practicing Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament Friday, Feb. 10, 2017, Florida, there have been win.
at Riviera on Tuesday and in Pebble Beach, Calif. pockets of great play- Spieth can only go as high
was on the putting green, Associated Press ers competing the last six as No. 2 without another
he couldn’t help but no- see more putter changes For all the stars at Riviera weeks. victory, and he’s as confi-
tice the number of play- in the West Coast Swing, — British Open champion Justin Thomas swept Ha- dent as anyone in the field.
ers watching him. Spieth is probably double than you Henrik Stenson is the only waii. Hideki Matsuyama Spieth has only won back-
regarded among the best see the rest of the year. So other player from the top won again in Phoenix. to-back weeks once in his
putters on tour, anyway, just experience of recog- 10 not at the Genesis Open Sergio Garcia, who also career.
but there was special at- nizing that you’re going to — the tournament lost a makes his American debut That was at the end of
tention paid because of hit good putts that don’t little buzz from Tiger Woods this week, won two weeks 2014, when he won the
the poa greens. necessarily go in because withdrawing with recurring ago in Dubai. Australian Open and then
“Putting on poa annua the type of grass is a little back problems. And now they have con- flew halfway around the
greens, you see guys get stickier and the footprints Woods was supposed to gregated off Sunset Boule- world to Florida and won
so frustrated and they start are more significant and it play his hometown event vard. the Hero World Challenge.
second-guessing them- can kind of shoot balls of- for the first time since 2006, “It speaks about the qual- This was only a short flight
selves,” Spieth said. “You fline easier.” a product of his foundation ity of the golf course, the down the coast.q