The final day of the Houston Open ended up being a feist affair as a number of top players got involved in the chasing down of overnight leader, Min Woo Lee.
Lee was four shots ahead after the third round but threatened to throw things away as a number of players hunted him down.
The likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy came to play, while a resurgent Gary Woodland and impressive youngster Sami Valimaki all played well.
Another player who initially threatened but fell away as the round went on was Min Woo’s playing partner, Alejandro Tosti.
However, while many were looking forward to the battle between Tosti and Lee, things got a bit spicy due to some slow play issues and out on course, Tosti was slammed by the on-course analysts for his behaviour.
Alejandro Tosti annoys golf analysts with behaviour towards Min Woo Lee
With Min Woo Lee playing well and Tosti struggling to find his best form, tempers started to flare when Min Woo took half an hour on the eighth hole.
Tosti was visibly annoyed at the time and he seemed to never let it go as the round continued.
However, in what was a bizarre moment and a bit of an unprofessional move, Tosti then began purposely walking slowly on certain holes as he tried to get into Min Woo’s head.
But rather than be impressed by the behaviour, both Kevin Kisner and Jim ‘Bones’ McKay slammed the Argentinian.
“He is just not a very happy camper right now. You never know how this is going to affect the guy you are playing with, because if you are picking up on it Min Woo Lee certainly has,” Kisner said.
Bones then chipped in, adding: “He certainly could have. Obviously he is really in this ball game right now, given that he is trying to post his first win. But the bottom line is this is incredibly unfair on a 26 year old trying to get over the line for the first time.”
Commenting further on the matter, Kisner then suggested the situation needed dealing with by the guys out playing together, including the caddies.
“Don’t you think it depends on the player Bones? If it was me I would just tell his team what are you doing. But some guys you rely on their caddy in this situation,” Kisner added.
Needless to say, Min Woo didn’t let it affect him as he seemed inspired by the antics and soon raced into getting his big lead back before holding his nerve to win out.
Why Kevin Kisner suggested confronting Alejandro Tosti
Given Kevin Kisner is very much still active on the PGA Tour and has plenty of experience behind him, his comments made perfect sense.
However, there is good reason for Kisner to mention it too.
Kisner was involved in a confrontation at the Presidents Cup, where he went directly over to Camillo Villegas to air some grievances about walking off certain holes.
“The eighth hole, I thought it was bush league when Camilo told his guys to leave the green,” he said.
“And afterwards, once cooler heads prevailed two days later, Camilo and I talked and he was like, ‘dude, I’m just going to be honest with you, when I saw Scottie do that [on seven], I feared a little bit for my guys, that was the scariest looking Scottie Scheffler I’ve ever seen, so I just didn’t want him to make another putt and something go array’.
“And I’m like, ‘I’ll take your word for it, I still thought it was b——t’. And I was like, ‘you think Scottie’s going to punch one of your guys?’ I’m pretty sure we’re not going to do that.”
With Min Woo Lee winning his first PGA Tour event and Tosti dropping down the field, it will be interesting to see just how relations are afterwards.
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