No cons to letting the club pros play
Vientos' arrival may bring platoon situation with reeling Baty at 3rd
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Matt Dobyns had just finished playing the front nine last Friday at Valhalla, in preparation for this week’s PGA Championship, and he walked to the 10th tee to take in the course’s back nine for the first time.
As he got there, Dobyns, who was playing solo, encountered Will Zalatoris on the 10th tee.
“I just turned,’’ Dobyns said to Zalatoris. “Do you mind if I join you?’’
“Yeah, we just hopped up here, so you can tell us to buzz off,’’ Zalatoris said with a smile.
And off they went — Dobyns a 46-year-old club pro from the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho on Long Island playing in his sixth PGA Championship, and Zalatoris, a 27-year-old rising star on the PGA Tour who lost the PGA Championship in a playoff to Justin Thomas two years ago.
They both teed off, hit their respective drives onto the left side of the fairway, and Zalatoris’ caddie walked purposely to the longer of the two shots and realized that was Dobyns’ ball some 15 yards longer than his man’s.
Dobyns, of course, had a little fun with Zalatoris about it.
“It never gets old,’’ Dobyns said. Having 20 club pros in the field at every PGA Championship (21 this year because Michael Block, last year’s sensation, automatically got in based on his finish last year) is one of the charms that sets this major apart from the other three. It’s a tradition that, while criticized in some circles, should never be changed.
The PGA Championship field is 156 players, which allows for 136 of the supposed best players in the world to qualify. That’s plenty enough of a chance.
Sure, no club pro has ever won the PGA Championship, and club pros merely making the cut happen about as frequently as Tiger Woods gives public tours of his yacht named “Privacy.’’
Still, it’s moments like Block produced at last year’s PGA — becoming a rock star at Oak Hill with his 15th-place finish, a result that earned him an automatic exemption into this week’s field — that set the PGA apart from the other majors.
Each of the majors has its unique features, with the Masters played on the same iconic venue every year and inviting all past champions to play if they’re able.
The U.S. Open has the most open qualifying process of them all. And the British Open is a combination of the U.S. Open and Masters, with the open qualifying and inviting its past champions to play until they’re 65.
The critics of the PGA’s process want the club pros either eliminated completely or reduced to far fewer than 20.
I say keep it as it is, because of stories like Block and whatever story a guy like Dobyns might have to write with his golf clubs.
Dobyns, who plays right-handed but putts lefty, said his favorite part of these weeks is “giving away stuff to little kids and hitting good shots in front of big crowds.’’
“If I could ever make a cut in one of these things, it would be making the cut, so that’s still on the list [of things to do],’’ he said. “I’m playing fine, but I’m not getting any younger, I’m not getting any longer and the courses are getting longer.
“I don’t know how many more of these I’m going to be able to play in. For me at my age, I don’t know when the last one’s going to happen, so I’ve got to try to take advantage of the time and enjoy it while I’m here.’’
Dobyns’ wife, Laurie, and their two children, 12-year-old Kaitlyn and 9-year-old Michael, arrived Tuesday night for the week.
“This will be the first one they’ll be able to remember, which is why we brought them,’’ Dobyns said. “They’ve come to see me do this before, but they were too little to remember. I’ve been at Meadowbrook for six years, and I haven’t qualified since they moved the [club pro] qualifier to April.
“I did wonder if I’d get back. For a lot of years, I was here every year. Guys started to recognize me. Kevin Kisner would see me and was like, ‘You’re always at this tournament.’
“But as the kids got older, it became more difficult to sneak away in the winter to put time into my own game. At this point for me it’s like a bonus. It’s almost like a hobby for me now. I don’t have a ton left as a club pro to accomplish apart from performing well in one of these things.’’
Dobyns said having played in five of these before, he’s become more comfortable and familiar with the surroundings.
“This is No. 6 for me, so you know the pace of the week, you understand the cadence of everything that happens and what the buzz is going to be like and how it’s going to increase as the week goes on,’’ he said. “There are less surprises … except for something like this when you suddenly get paired with Will Zalatoris.’’
PHILADELPHIA — When last summoned, Mark Vientos knew he should not get too comfortable. Brought up at the end of April because Starling Marte was moved to the bereavement list, Vientos was told it would be a short stay, with Marte due back a few days later. In those few days, Vientos went 3-for-7 with a walk-off home run in a win over the Cardinals, a moment that did not persuade the Mets to alter their plans.
This time is different. Vientos was officially added to the roster and made his presence felt Wednesday — in mostly good ways and partly bad — against opposing lefty starter Ranger Suarez. Manager Carlos Mendoza declined to call his third-base spot a straight platoon between the righty-hitting Vientos and the lefty-hitting Brett Baty, but that appears to be how the club is trending.
The Mets will play the “matchups,” Mendoza said at Citizens Bank Park before the Mets lost, 10-5, to the Phillies. “Putting guys in a position to have success.”
The Mets’ offense has struggled at plenty of spots but particularly at third, a position from which they entered play with a collective .614 OPS that was the seventh worst among third-base groups in the majors.
Vientos bumped that OPS by smacking an RBI double in the first inning and stroking a single in the eighth, part of a 2-for-4 day that also included a defensive miscue.
Baty, whose defense has markedly improved this season, is seen as the better defender. That bore out in the sixth, when Vientos tried to turn a double play on a chopper from Cristian Pache that went in and out of his glove. Vientos picked up the ball and still recorded the out at first.
“I thought he was good,” Mendoza said of Vientos’ game overall. “His atbats were good. The ball that he dropped, he was able to recover and get an out.”
Vientos is getting a shot because Baty did not run with his after starting the season hot and showing some of the potential that made him one of the game’s top prospects a year ago. He has cooled since, holding just a .609 OPS and going 1-for-22 with 11 strikeouts in his past seven games.
Mendoza called the 24-year-old into his office after Tuesday’s loss and told him that Vientos would be coming to play some third base in what amounts to a timeshare.
Vientos hopped in an Uber with Wednesday starter Joey Lucchesi and arrived hoping to bring power to the lineup and perhaps have staying power, even if he has learned to not look ahead. He had one opportunity Wednesday, so that’s what he focused on.
“I don’t look into the future,” the 24-year-old Vientos said. “I’m just staying with the daily things that I got to do.”
For now at least, those daily things mean killing lefties. At Triple-A this season, Vientos has demolished opposing southpaws to the tune of a .393 average and 1.380 OPS.
Baty has not hit well against major league pitchers dealing from either side but has particularly struggled against lefties, against whom he has a .172 average and .476 OPS.
His offense has reminded of his struggles from last season, though Baty’s glove has improved — and now will have to be more versatile.
The slew of roster moves that included bringing up Vientos also involved designating utilityman Joey Wendle for assignment. The Mets do not have a backup shortstop or backup second baseman on the roster, and Baty has been thrust into that role.
Baty took reps at both spots before Wednesday’s loss — ground balls that were hit to him by Mendoza — and now will be an emergency option if something happens to Francisco Lindor or Jeff McNeil.
With a longer-term injury to either middle infielder, the Mets would find another infielder to plug in, but Baty is now on-call for in-game substitutions. Asked how long the Mets could operate with such a strange roster makeup, Mendoza said they are taking it “week-to-week.”