Ben Crane (remember Ben?) and Aaron Baddeley (remember Aaron?) have resurrected their games at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship
If you didn’t know any better, PGA Tour veteran Ben Crane could have been one of the passengers on the TV show Manifest, where the passengers and crew of a commercial airliner suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for five and a half years.
After all, the 46-year-old Oregon Duck grad won five times on the PGA Tour, but hasn’t finished inside the top 125 to make the FedEx Cup since 2016. His last top-10 finish? The 2019 Puerto Rico Open. Has the five-time Tour winner with over $21 million in earnings been lost in the Bermuda Triangle? This week, his game has been found there. On Friday, Crane tied a career-low with a bogey-free 9-under 62 at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, to take the 36-hole lead at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
“I mean, couldn’t be more encouraged,” Crane said after shooting a two-day total of 14-under 128, a stroke better than five golfers. “Obviously played the best golf I’ve played in a long time and to be in this tournament is super encouraging, get to play four rounds.”
Crane wasn’t even in the field on Sunday, still stuck on the alternate list but called a friend involved in the tournament and said he was going to fly to Bermuda and take his chances.
“He said, ‘Hey, we got you, we took you as a sponsor exempt into the field,’ ” Crane recalled. “I don’t get in a lot and then to get in and the weather starts getting bad right when I finished. So really cool to shoot 62. That 29 on the back, I didn’t see it coming, but it adds up to 29, super fun day.”
Crane also bagged the shot of the day according to Golf Channel, holing a 51-degree wedge from 115 yards for eagle from the sixth fairway.
“Sometimes you kind of picture them, you look up and it’s, man, that’s just like I pictured it, lined up with the pin, landed a few paces passed the hole, spun back and went in,” said Crane, who punched the sky and kicked up his right foot. “I was having an incredible day and then that happened. I was like, wow, this is all going my way.”
Crane, who last won in 2014 and played in just 10 events last year as a past champion, discussed how easily it is to lose one’s game.
“It’s just one little slipped shot here or there and you lose your confidence,” he explained. “I said it to my son who’s 14 and learning to play the game, it’s a really hard game, golf’s hard. Today was one of those special days, one of a hundred whatever it is where it just kind of all comes together.”
For Crane, it added up to his first lead at a Tour event since 2017.
Butterfield Bermuda: Leaderboard
Badds is good through two rounds
Aaron Baddeley of Australia hands his ball to his caddie Pete Persolja on the ninth green during the second round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course on October 28, 2022 in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo by Courtney Culbreath/Getty Images)
Baddeley’s name could’ve been right next to Crane’s to continue the Manifest theme of this leaderboard (and they did play together the first two days). Baddeley has finished 203rd in 2020-21 and 204th in 2021-22 in the FedEx Cup. He hasn’t won since 2016. Baddeley, 41, also was an alternate for this week but rather than rely on a sponsor’s invite, he qualified via the Monday Qualifier.
“Wanted to make sure I could be here this week,” he said.
So far, he’s making the most of it, shooting 7-under 64 on Friday to improve to 13 under and a stroke behind Crane.
Baddeley always has been one of the Tour’s best putters, but too often he’s been putting for par. He started working with swing coach Mike Adams last October and he’s simplified Baddeley’s swing.
“I’d say this summer I hit the ball consistently, probably the most consistent I’ve ever done in my career and just didn’t make enough putts,” he said. “Got the putting figured out again now and just sort of feel like everything’s sort of turning the corner. Feel like the confidence is back, just a matter of just getting some starts and go out and play.”
Smotherman backs up career-best round with another good day
Austin Smotherman walks on the 18th hole during the second round of the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Smotherman, the overnight leader, followed up his career-best round of 9-under 62 with a solid 4-under 67 to trail Crane by a stroke at the midway point. Smotherman went 31 holes without a bogey before he took 3 putts at the fifth hole and played through the worst of an afternoon squall that temporarily slowed the birdie brigade.
“More difficult than yesterday, but I mean, I’m very pleased with where we finished up,” he said. “When conditions are like this, you cannot think technical thoughts at all. Wind’s blowing your putter around, you’ve just got to figure out how to find the center of the face, start it on line and hopefully got the right speed.”
Smotherman said he’ll have plenty of positive experiences to draw on as he chases his first Tour title.
“I’ve had wins in the past,” he said. “If it comes down to having to draw on those, I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to fall back on yet, but you know, we keep our head down and play the golf we know we can and hopefully everything else is in the rear view.”
Conditions worsen
Brian Stuard summed up the benign conditions in Bermuda on Thursday perfectly. “I can only think of maybe one other day we’ve had no wind around here, so it was a great morning to play golf,” he said. “You kind of felt like you had to take advantage of a day like this.”
On Friday, the wind whipped and the rain fell, at least for a stretch. The morning wave got the better of the weather before a squall passed through before bright skies resumed. The forecast is calling for gusty winds and thunderstorms over the weekend.
“As the wind picks up it’s going to be definitely a test, it’s going to feel like almost Scottish golf,” said Ben Griffin. “I feel ready for it and I’m ready to take it on for this weekend.”
