Brendan

Steele

Steele was arriving off a missed cut at the WM Phoenix Open but won’t have a chance to rebound this week. He gained 2.9 strokes on approach at TPC Scottsdale but gave back 3 shots on the greens. The California native has been a regular at Riviera over the year with 11 previous starts but just two top 35s to show for it. There was no reason cited for this WD. With the field already overfilled, there will be no replacement for him, as the field drops to 129, still nine more than the intended target of 120 golfers.

Steele has played alongside good buddy Sam Ryder (leading) and Zac Blair over the first two days. Steele spoke about his comfort in the pairing alongside Ryder, “Sam and I are good buddies. It was actually the first time that we played together in like a full stroke play like tournament round, so that was kind of cool so we were kind of looking forward to that.” Today, he split 11-of-14 fairways and landed 10 GIR while taking on the South Course at Torrey Pines in tough, windy conditions. His 2-under 70 was 5.8 shots better than the field average today at Torrey Pines South. This will be his 10th time posting at T2 or better at the midpoint of a PGA TOUR event. He’s gone on to win two of those events (2011 Valero Texas Open, 2017-18 Safeway Open) but also finished outside of the top 10 in four of them.

Steele shook off the holiday rust with a T48 at the Sony Open and a T32 last week at the AmEx. “My tendency is to be a little cautious out there, which is not the way that anybody plays anymore, it’s kind of more of an old-school way of playing. And my iron play in general’s very good. So I’m trying to kind of take advantage of that and be a little bit more aggressive getting the ball closer to the hole. I started doing that over the weekend in the desert and it seemed to work so I wanted to carry that out here, even though it’s a much more difficult place.” Playing the North Course at Torrey Pines today, Steele split 13-of-14 fairways on his way toward 15 GIR. He arrived with a 7-for-10 record at the event with all seven landed between 17th and 49th place. He’ll try to stay on page one tomorrow as he turns his attention toward the South Course.

Steele was a runner-up at this event last year, and he appeared poised for similar success this week after posting an opening 64 that included a wedge hole-out for birdie on No. 17. But Friday’s second round was a different story, as the veteran was nine shots worse en route to carding a 3-over 73 that dropped him from the lead into a tie for 24th, seven shots off the pace. Steele’s start was nothing short of disastrous, as he made a double bogey on his first hole of the day, No. 10, and was 5 over after just five holes. The score could have been worse were it not for a pair of late birdies, but the 73 still beat only three players among the 78-man field.

Steele wasn’t exactly close a year ago, finishing five shots behind winner Hideki Matsuyama, but his result speaks to an affinity for the tree-lined Narashino CC which shares some characteristics with Silverado CC in Napa, where he went back-to-back in 2016-17. The veteran closed with a flourish, carding birdies on each of his final four holes to reach 6 under and finish the day one shot clear of Adam Schenk. He totaled six back-nine birdies to grab his seventh career 18-hole lead on Tour. The round came as a bit of a surprise given Steele, now down to No. 119 in the world, missed the cut in both Napa and Mississippi to start the new season with four rounds of 72 or higher.

This was the 39-year-old’s 11th Memorial and ninth made cut, seventh straight, and first top 10, surpassing a prior-best T13 two tries ago in 2020. He improves to 12-for-18 on the season with six top 25s and four top 10s, second straight and three in his last four, and posted rounds of 69-76-68-71, T48 at the midpoint. For the week, the Californian totaled 17 birdies against 13 bogeys, four versus three on Sunday, and at last check, ranked 5th SG: Off-the-Tee (3.457), 11th SG: Approach (5.039), 51st SG: Around (-0.893), 37th SG: Putting (0.794) and 10th SG: Tee-to-Green (7.603), including a 3.906 TTG on Saturday and a 2.917 TTG today.

The 39-year-old, contesting his ninth PGA and 22nd major overall dating back to 2011, final bags his first top 10, brushing aside a prior-best T12 at the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits. It’s also his third top 10 of the season in 17 events, first since T4 at the Zurich two starts ago teamed with Keegan Bradley, and his first individually since T2 at the ZOZO in Japan 13 starts ago, where he was in the top 10 after every round. This week, the Californian opened with 70-72, T41 at the midpoint, rallied back with weekend laps of 69-68, including today’s showing, where he was 3-over through his first four (3 bogeys) but righted the ship with five circles at 5, 11, 13, 16 (from 49'7") and 17. For the festivities, he totaled one eagle and 13 birdies versus 12 bogeys and a double, and ranked 3rd SG: Tee-to-Green (10.556), including 4.233 on Sunday, and 57th SG: Putting, losing strokes with the flat stick in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 (-0.874).

This same duo teamed last year for a T4, T6 after 54 holes, and return for another T4 with rounds of 64-71-63-67. Today, they began T14, five shy of the overnight top 5, and rang up nine birdies, six in a seven-hole stretch (7-13), taking some luster off with back-to-back bogeys at 3 and 4, and a double bogey-6 at 6 (Steele watered tee ball). For Bradley, this is his fourth top 10 of the season in 15 events, second straight after a T8 three weeks ago at the Valero Texas Open, and for Steele, this is his second top 10 of the season in 15 events, joining a T2 at the ZOZO in Japan back in October.

Making his 11th appearance in the Honda Classic, Steele has garnered a tournament scoring average of 70.68. With finishes of T-4 and T-3 in 2020 and 2021, the 38-year-old has contended in back-to-back years despite how he has arrived to Palm Beach Gardens. Coming into this year’s Honda Classic missing four consecutive cuts, Steele has been in this position before. Falling short in all aspects of the game outside of Off-the-Tee, the world No. 138 has only gained strokes on approach twice this season in eight measured starts. Priced at $7,200 on DraftKings, Steele is an intriguing option as he has made his way into the weekend in 9-of-10 tries.

Steele played plenty during the fall swing, racking up six starts, making 80% of his cuts, and finishing runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Unable to carry the momentum into the new year, the 38-year-old failed to make the weekend at Waialae Country Club, a course where he had previously had much success. Now turning his attention to PGA West and The American Express, Steele is set for his 12th appearance in the California desert. Connecting on seven cuts in a row, Steele has put together numerous quality outings in Palm Springs, namely his runner-up finish to Bill Haas in 2015 and a top-10 showing in 2017.