Aaron

Baddeley

The Aussie ranked top 30 in fairways hit and top 40 in GIR this week, then gained 4.4 strokes putting (14th) to seal his score. “My goal this week was just to get a little bit better every day, and I did that. Ball hitting was pretty spot on today. I can honestly say I think I hit one shot offline today. I haven’t done that in forever.” He went three straight seasons without a top 10 but now has two already for the 2022-23 campaign (T6 at the Bermuda Championship). Baddeley closed the week with 53 straight blemish-free holes (just 3 bogeys all week). Many gamers may have written Baddeley off but the four-time TOUR winner has other plans. He’s definitely one to watch as the season progresses.

Baddeley “got the wind wrong” early in the day and paid the price with a double bogey at the par-5 second hole. He responded with five birdies before reaching the 14th but stalled out with three pars and a pair of bogeys to end his week. Playing on past champions status, starts are not easy to come by but this top-10 finish will earn him a spot in next week’s Mayakoba field. “Have another good week next week. That’s what I told a friend last week, this is like a four-round qualifier for next week. I’ll treat next week the same way, another four-round qualifier for Houston. It will be nice to get a little stretch here, a couple tournaments I’m playing well so maybe sneak in a couple exemptions there, too.” This will go in the books as his first top-10 finish since at T7 at the 2019 Corales.

Baddeley needed one of the four spots available at last week’s Monday qualifier to gain entry into this week’s event, emerging from a 6-for-2 playoff, but he has made the most of his time on the island through 54 holes. His third-round 68 at Port Royal GC was his highest score of the week by three shots, but it was still good enough to get him into a tie for third at 16 under, two shots behind a pair of co-leaders. Baddeley has four PGA Tour wins but none since the 2016 Barbasol Championship, and this is the second time he has successfully Monday qualified (T-36 at the Fortinet Championship). A Monday qualifier has won five times on Tour before, most recently Corey Conners at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.

Baddeley was one of four players to successfully Monday qualify into this week’s event at Port Royal GC, but he has made the most of the opportunity. The Aussie opened with a 65 and added a second-round 64, and at 13 under he heads into the third round in a five-way tie for second, one shot behind Ben Crane. Baddeley has plummeted to No. 719 in the world rankings but has made the cut in each of his last four overall starts, including a T-36 result at the season-opening Fortinet Championship. Baddeley feels some level of comfort with windy island layouts, as his most recent top-10 finishes on Tour came at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open (T-2) and Punta Cana Championship (T-7). He has four Tour victories to his credit, but none since the 2016 Barbasol Championship.

The Aussie piled up seven birdies without dropping a shot to find himself tied for the third spot after regulation. He poured home an eagle during the playoff to get the job done. Baddeley is 6-for-8 at Silverado Resort and Spa, including a solo 4th during the 2018 edition. Other qualifiers include Club pro Taylor Lowe, Bay-area native Alex Lee, and Seung-yul Noh. Lee and Lowe will both be making their PGA TOUR debuts.

The 30-year-old Noh has missed the cut in his last two Tour starts, at the Zurich Classic and last week’s Mexico Open, and he’s 8-for-15 in cuts made on the season. His best finish to date this season was a T-30 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October. Noh, who had made two cuts in five appearances at the Wells Fargo, began the season playing with a medical/family crisis extension dating to 2019 and had 16 starts to get 291 FedExCup points. Baddeley, who’s made three cuts in six starts this season, missed the cut last week in Mexico, but he finished T-18 one start prior, at the Valero Texas Open. In nine previous event appearances at the WFO, the 41-year-old Baddeley has made the cut seven times.

The Aussie doesn’t have much success at TPC Louisiana with a T28 in 2010 going as his best result at the course. However, he is flashing a bit of form lately with scores better than the field average in each of his last three starts, with the best resulting in a 30th-place finish at the Corales. Joining him this week will be Roger Sloan who arrives with positive strokes gained on approach in each of his last five measured events, landing more greens than the field average in six of his last seven starts. If they could work out a system where Sloan hits all of the tee-to-green shots and Baddeley cleans up around the greens they would be a tough team to beat. Obviously that won’t be the case, but gamers should give them a look if they need a salary saver in DFS formats.

If the 39-year-old remains in the top 10 at the midpoint, it would be his first time there since T2 at the opposite-field Corales in 2019, where he ultimately finished T7 (68-67-68-71). That’s also his most recent top 10 (of 49 career), coming 30 starts ago. On eight (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, the Aussie lost 1.105 strokes around-the-green but gained 2.410 approaching and eked out a 0.078 off-the-tee. He ate a double bogey-6 at 14 (taking two to get out of a greenside bunker), squared two bogey-5s at 1 and 13 (failed scrambles), slightly outpaced by six birdies at 2, 3, 5, 15 (from 17'8"), 16 and 18. The Scottsdale resident posted 1.500 putts per GIR and -0.345 SG: Putting, down from a +3.344 SGP in R1. He’s a four-time winner on TOUR in 447 events, most recently the opposite-field Barbasol in 2016, where he came from three back (T2) with 5-under 66 before winning in extra time over Si Woo Kim.

The Aussie split 9-of-14 fairways and landed 14 greens in regulation today. Both figures were better than the field average but it was the putter that delivered the final payload. He splashed home four putts from outside of 12 feet, including a 24'1" birdie bomb at the 17th. Which occurred immediately after saving par with a 12'6" putt. Baddeley walked off the course gaining 3.356 strokes putting, living up to his reputation as one of the top putters on TOUR. “Yeah, been working hard on my putting, something that I’ve been focusing on these last few months and it was nice to make a few today. Funny how when you make one, you feel like you can make them all.” He arrived with a 4-for-4 record at the Sony Open that includes a runner-up finish (2003) and T15 (2004).