Match Play Day 3

From what he said when it started, I'm not certain he really planned to play the week-end, are you? Didn't play like his heart was in it.

I wonder if that was Phil's game plan all along...did not really want to play through the weekend? Even the announcers on Sirius PGATour radio were saying should Phil advance to sunday, he's got a lot of golf ahead of him, perhaps tiring himself out by the Masters and perhaps if he did go to sunday, even suggested he might pull out of Houston?....works out so he doesn't. Do players ever do that on purpose (not supposed to, against the ideology of golf) ?

Subconsciously gets him off the hook!

Hate to see him lose that badly. I hope it doesn't affect his chances if he's trying to get on the Ryder Cup team and falls outside the automatic points system for the top-8. Surely if he keeps playing the way he's been playing (not this week, ugh), and he's in the 9-12 range of Ryder Cup, surely they'd pick him as a logical Captain's Pick? Unless they decide to go with 'young/new blood', but heck, 3 youngins & 1 Phil would still be a good selection because you get so much more with Phil in the player's clubhouse.

gophil36 wrote:Subconsciously gets him off the hook!  

I think with 4 captains picks Phil is guaranteed one. I do think he will make it on points though. If you go back and look at his interviews before and during the tournament he said reserving energy and avoiding mental fatigue was important for the weekend if you make it and in his opinion be a challenge if he got knocked out Saturday morning he would have earned decent points for Ryder cup. Let's be real a major is more important for his career and he has plenty of time for ryder cup points.