Trevor Immelman has named J.J. Spaun and Hideki Matsuyama among the players he can see challenging Eric Cole on Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge, provided that one part of their games is on form.
Cole has taken charge of the tournament at Colonial after producing a stunning round of 63 on Saturday in Fort Worth. His efforts saw him move 24 places up the leaderboard.
The 37-year-old is still awaiting his first PGA Tour victory. Meanwhile, he also has a number of notable names within a handful of shots going into the final round.
So it is not going to be an easy Sunday for Cole.
Trevor Immelman backs J.J. Spaun and Hideki Matsuyama to contend at the Charles Schwab Challenge
Ryan Gerard is one shot back, while US Open champion J.J. Spaun is two adrift. In fact, every player inside the top 18 is within five shots of Cole.
Speaking on CBS Sports, Trevor Immelman was asked which players he was expecting to see make a charge over the last round. And clearly, the 2008 Masters champion is not expecting Cole to have everything go his own way.
“The three guys that I’m really keeping my eye on is Spaun, Matsuyama, and Henley. And they all have one thing in common that they’re going to need tomorrow. One of those three, or maybe all three of them, if we’re looking for a playoff or a really tight finish, all of those guys, they’ve got to find a way to get the putter going,” he said.
“You know, particularly when you think of Spaun and Matsuyama, I mean that’s their bugaboo. These guys are some of the greatest ball strikers on the planet. But it’s all down to their putter. So if they can go out there and really get things rolling and create some momentum and get some leaderboard pressure on Cole who’s never won on the PGA Tour before, that’s when things start to get really interesting. And we’ll have a fun second nine and close to this tournament.
“It’s such a great grouping of finishing holes. You look at 16 and 17, how tough they were playing today. Shucks, I’ll throw 15 in there as well. 15 and 17 were really showing their teeth today as the two toughest holes on the golf course.
“So, you’re really going to have to earn this win to be able to pick up that beautiful trophy and put on that plaid jacket after getting the win. So I think we’re in store for a great Sunday.”
Immelman issues his honest verdict on Eric Cole’s round of 63 at Colonial
It is hard to imagine that anyone was giving Cole a chance of victory heading into the weekend. He was closer to the cut line than the top of the leaderboard before the third round.
His only previous top 10s this season came at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Myrtle Beach Classic. So many will probably still be looking at him as an underdog heading into Sunday.
Having said that, he can take so much confidence from his performance during the third round. In fact, Immelman suggested that he cannot think of many better displays across the entire year.
“Yeah, so impressive. Like we just touched on, as the wind kicked up and it got a little firmer, the guys really just struggled to make birdies,” he said.
“There were a number of players out there, Jordan Smith in the final pairing didn’t make a birdie today, and he started the day with the lead. And so it was tough to get close to the hole and then convert. But Cole did just such a marvellous job. He’s four under after his first eight, then he birdies 10 and 11 right after that, and got things going so beautifully, and then chips in on 16.
“It’s pretty much a flawless round of golf. You consider the 63 as the lowest round of the tournament. We had a 63 earlier in the week, but when you just isolate today, the next best score was 65 and then after that, 67. So he separated himself for sure with a brilliant round of 63. I mean, that, in my book, and I said it during our show, it was one of the rounds of the year.”
Cole is making his 120th PGA Tour start this week. So he will be desperate to get across the line and end that wait for a first victory.
But he will not need anyone to tell him that he will have to be prepared for someone from the chasing pack to produce the kind of round on Sunday that brought him into contention.
