JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Pace of play on the PGA Tour gets plenty of publicity each week, and every golf fan seems to have a different idea on how to fix it. Pace of play wasn’t an issue for Doug Ghim Sunday, as he played as a single and finished his third round in two hours and 50 minutes.
Players usually spend a significant amount of time waiting on tee boxes and in fairways, Ghim said it was out of the ordinary but nice to not have to wait on anybody. He could simply step up, go through his pre-shot routine, hit his shot, and walk to the next one.
The waiting gives players plenty of time to talk to each other. Sometimes they talk about golf, sometimes they don’t. When walking down the fairway, players often walk with each other or with caddies, but not always their own caddie. Ghim had none of that, with his caddie as his only companion Sunday.
“I've been very lucky to actually enjoy being around my caddy, Micah. And I think he enjoys being around me. So it was actually a lot of fun,” Ghim said.
It certainly helped that Ghim played well Saturday. He recovered from a double bogey on four with three birdies in four holes to go out in 34. Ghim’s hot hand carried over to the back nine, as he added six more birdies—including a chip in birdie on 18—to shoot 63. In just under three hours, he went from making the cut on the number to inside the top 10.
Ghim’s play has improved significantly following a difficult season last year, when he had just two top-25 finishes in 16 events, including 11 missed cuts and finished 184th in the FedEx Cup standings. Following Saturday’s round, he is projected to move on to next week’s BMW Championship as he is projected 55th in in the standings.
“I mean, I knew I needed to do something good this week to make it into next week,” Ghim said. “Coming from where I was last year, making it to this tournament was already a pretty big accomplishment for me. And whatever happens this week is gravy. Once I made the cut, there's nothing to lose. And I guess it showed up today.”
