POULTER, HORSFIELD TOUGH IT OUT FOR MAJESTICKS IN VEGAS

On Sunday, Majesticks, with a tally of 4-under par, were only one of two teams to finish in red numbers. That moved them to 12-under for the tournament. Champions Smash GC aggregated 10-under in the final round to win the team title by seven shots.

Majesticks were tied on top as a team in fairways hit (92 total) alongside Smash, and the best when it came to hitting greens in regulation (136 total). Those were always going to be two key stats at the tree-lined LVCC, but they were unable to convert it to their advantage after another week of putting woes. As a team, Majesticks were 11th in the putts made stats with 299.

Co-Captain Henrik Stenson, who was one of the many players afflicted by food poisoning in Mayakoba, was the best-placed among his team at tied 15th with a score of 5-under, while Poulter’s 69-67 in the final two rounds helped him finish tied 21st at 4-under.

Horsfield matched Poulter’s score on both Saturday and Sunday and was tied 26th at 3-under. Westwood made a double bogey on his last hole – the 466-yard, par-4 ninth which was the second most difficult hole the whole week – in the final round to wound up with a 72.

Henrik Stenson – T15th – 68-67-70-205 (5-under)
The Swede was back doing what he does best – finding fairways and hitting greens in regulation (42 and 6th in the field) – but it was another disappointing week with the putter (90 putts over three rounds). With a total of 16 birdies, he tied for the most birdies in the field.

In Thursday’s opening round, he battled back from being 2-over after eight holes with four birdies in his last 10. It was almost a similar story in Saturday’s final round when he made three birdies in his last six holes to bounce back from a double bogey on the ninth hole.

Stenson moved to tied 24th place in the individual standings with 2.66 points.

Ian Poulter – T21st – 70-69-67-206 (4-under)
The ninth-hole bogey was the only disappointment for Poulter during the final round when he battled the conditions superbly to hit 17 out of 18 greens in regulation and shoot a 3-under. Starting on the 12th hole, he was 4-under through 15 holes when that bogey crept in.

In all, the Englishman made only three bogeys the whole week after finding 44 greens in regulation, which was the third-best in the field after Richard Bland’s 46 and Bryson DeChambeau’s 45. The hitting was not complemented by the famous Poulter putting displays (92 putts total).

The tied 21st place earned him 0.8 points in individual standings.

Sam Horsfield – T26th – 71-69-67-207 (3-under)
Horsfield once again showed he has completely recovered from his hip injury with a tied 26th place finish. He started with a birdie on the 11th hole on Thursday, but could not find another and closed with a 71. He then shot rounds of 69 and an impressive 67 – with just one bogey – for his 3-under par total. The finish could not fetch him any points in the individual standings, but it was a continuation of his solid T17th start in Mayakoba.

Lee Westwood – T39th – 69-69-72-210 (Even-par)
Westwood’s was almost a similar story as his other two co-Captains. He was 14th in fairways found and 14th again in greens in regulation, but 92 putts for the three rounds put him tied 48th in the stat category. And unlike Mayakoba, where he finished with four birdies in his last five holes, Westwood made two bogeys and a closing double in his last eight holes in Vegas to deny himself three consecutive sub-par rounds.

STAT REVIEW
Field ranking in parentheses

Fairways Hit
Stenson – 26 (T19)
Poulter – 33 (1)
Horsfield – 23 (T29)
Westwood – 27 (T14)

Greens in Regulation
Stenson – 42 (6)
Poulter – 44 (T3)
Horsfield – 40 (T10)
Westwood – 39 (T14)

Total Putts
Stenson – 90 (T38)
Poulter – 92 (T48)
Horsfield – 89 (T31)
Westwood – 92 (T48)

Total Birdies
Stenson – 16 (T1)
Poulter – 9 (T42)
Horsfield – 8 (49)
Westwood – 7 (T50)

Driving Distance Avg.
Stenson – 290.7 (32)
Poulter – 290.2 (34)
Horsfield – 302.0 (18)
Westwood – 284.6 (46)