PGA Tour: Greensboro: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Congratulations to the seventh straight non-American to win a Major Championship: Keegan Bradley.
His nationality may read USA in the record books, but close observers of the species are well aware that Vermont has so little in common with most of the other 49 States that it might just as well be a whole other country.
The only State without a McDonalds in its Capital City for instance, and not one in its biggest city either. The first State to declare for Obama in 2008 and the only State to elect a self-styled "Socialist" US Senator, a bombastic bastion of common sense. Where maple syrup is the State crop, same-sex marriage legalised, and well on track to the closest thing to universal health care you're likely to find in this country. Not surprisingly the only State not visited by a US President this century!

2).Vermonters by and large don't do golf and it is a sad irony that the last Vermont pro to make it to the PGA Tour, Jeff Julian, was diagnosed almost immediately with ALS and died way too early. But LPGA Hall Of Famer Patty Sheehan grew up here, a ski-racer just like Keegs.

3).I followed Bradley for most of 36 holes earlier this year and he seems a very grounded young man. Auntie Pat Bradley (LPGA Hall Of Famer) told him the Byron Nelson win would change his life, "but don't let it change you", and there's no reason to expect that it will. A lot like Martin Laird, Bradley hits it far and high, sometimes has a shaky short game, but is a much improved putter. And they both take their time, sometimes too slow!

4).Keegan Bradley will join Clan Chubby at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, in Bermuda this October. $600K will go to Charl, Rory, Darren or Keegan with every participant guaranteed at least $200K. 50% of the field wearing Oakley shirts.

5).Part 2 of this year's Bobby Jones trifecta (the Tour Championship will take place next month at East Lake, just down the road) offered up a thrilling finish despite all the opinions (many of them critical) about the course design. When bombers like Bradley and Scott can co-exist at the top of the same leaderboard as Verplank and Toms, you know the course has something which suits everyone.

6).Charl Schwartzel led the eleven pros who made the cut in all this year's Majors with a total of 1,118 strokes, ten ahead of Garcia and Stricker tied in second place. McIlroy, Yang, Ryan Palmer, Mickelson, Woodland, Bill Haas, Bubba Watson and Eddie Molinari were the others. That's indicative of the quality of Schwartzel's play this year and Sergio's resurgence among other things.

7).This week sees the Tour players drive a couple of hundred miles east to steamy Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Wyndham Championship, the last qualifying tournament for entry into the lucrative FedEx Play-Off season. Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington are two distinguished participants who certainly hadn't planned on spending this week in "Carolina", but they are outside the 125 qualifiers, Casey and Cabrera too. So is Louis Oosthuizen but he won't be here and his PGA Tour season will be on hiatus for six weeks, perhaps longer if he doesn't play the Fall Series. This has been a forgettable debut season for King Louis and he's two tournaments short of the required minimum of 15. That'll likely cost him PGA Tour membership unless he plays at least twice later this "fall". (Casey is in even worse shape as has been documented several times before.)

8).After Atlanta Athletic Club's hybrid course, redone as it was two or three times and looking like it, Greensboro's Sedgefield CC is a Donald Ross original, brought up to date four years ago, a par 70 playing now to 7,100 yards. Birdies will be flying however, and last year's tournament was won by Arjun Atwal at twenty under par. As well as Casey and Harrington, Europe is represented by Poulter, Carl Pettersson (a recent winner here and local resident), Richard Johnson and Stenson.

9).Yet another Senior "Major" awaits the Champions Tour players, the "Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship", held this year at the old PGA Tour site at Westchester CC in the greater New York area. Bernhard Langer is the only European in the field and, just as with the US Senior Open, the title of "Major" for this otherwise excellent Champions Tour event is a nonsense.

10).The Nationwide Tour is in Kansas with the usual quartet of Britons led by Russell Knox who has just about sewn up his Card for the 2012 PGA Tour. Make hay while you can, Nationwiders, as your fields (and hopefully one or two in Europe) will shortly be infiltrated by PGA Tour players not qualified for the FedEx package.

Snap pd,
Padraig's sadly going down the alphabet with his "game" right now though, and you'd think he'll rue missing out on that par five just now.
But Ernie's going well, Casey's got himself up to speed, and our favourite "Red Neck Swede" is doing what he does best, at Sedgefield CC anyway!

Skydriver wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Quick update on FedEx qualifying;
Els, Harrington and Justin Leonard among those who are doing what they have to do, Casey and Villegas among those currently falling short.

Oh dear, given that Casey looks like he's doing pretty well from the leaderboard - I presume he needs to do something akin to walking on water (and not just avoiding it)...

Skydriver, if you can access the leaderboard on pgatour.com there is a projected fedex cup rank column, which updates with the live scores. Pretty smart function to have

Good move by Casey. Goodness knows, he's good enough. Cant believe I forgot about AK when there was a birdie fest on the horizon! Perhaps his return to the leaderboard at this time of the year is linked with how far away he is from Vegas?

Speaking of Villegas did anyone see this story about Columbia turning to golf to promote a better international image? Makes you wonder what level of impact golf at the Brazil Olympics will have on South America.

First battle for Harrington and Villegas will be to make the cut - doesn't look as if they'll be giving themselves much of a cushion going in to Round 2, but Sacey, Ernie and Leonard are in good shape.

Lairdy,
Read that piece, looked a bit tongue in cheek (tho' it obviously wasn't meant to be!), but there's already a Nationwide event in Columbia. I wish the PGA Tour would stage a Fall Series tournament in South America; it looked as if the World Cup was a success when Argentina staged it a few years ago and the European Tour had a brief flirtation (two events back-to-back?) about the same time.
With good players from Chile, Paraguay, Columbia, Jhonny Vegas, Stephen Ames etc, South America is becoming fertile golfing ground.

Just checked out Camilo's putting stat's for the season and for today's round following his 3-putt on his final hole today.
Puttus Horribilis is presumably what Her Majesty might have called them. Looks like he had two or possibly three 3-putts today and his stat's for year-to-date, especially on short putts, are godawful.

Have always felt Camilo's swing looked a bit suspect but never realised hit was his putting that's also letting him down. Shame, as he's a charismatic guy and no doubt very good for the game - obviously a great source of encouragement to Keegan Bradley these past two weeks also.

Excellent start for Casey and Ernie... I almost gave up on them.
But even the young lad from Iceland looks to finish better than Harrington!
Loftsson says that he never ever attended a pro tournament, let alone to play in one! Then he starts with a double bogey, which is understandable, but from there he keeps a perfectly clean card, with 4 birdies as a bonus! Nice work Olafur! I also read that he playd once 64 holes in 24 hours (!!) back in Iceland, as they can play 24h a day during the summer... Another thing that surprised me, he says that they have between 60-70 golf courses in Iceland at a population of only ~300,000!

Only Sneds and Chris Kirk of the better players contending Greensboro struggling over par at the moment.

Stark realisation for Padraig and Camilo that they have a lot of work to do, to play the weekend let alone next week.

Poulter with an apparently consistent first nine, this would be a good stage for him to recover some form.

Hi Kwini, first time I've posted on one of your very informative threads.One matter I would like to discuss is you and others have often raved about Webb Simpson and sometimes I have seen him and he looks like like a world beater with all the attributes to win or at least contend on a consistent basis.
In the last two majors he got off to a terrible start,probably as I had a wager each time on him. In the Open he improved his later scoring but it was far too late. I see, now I have not had a wager on him, he has started with a flyer today at -4.
Does he flatter to deceive or do you genuinely think he will use all of his attributes to become a regular contender including the majors? The answer could simply my poor luck placing a massive burden upon him!

Looks like Friday's cut will be at least -2, possibly -3, meaning harrington will have to improve on today's effort or his postponed Caribbean holiday can be rescheduled and extended for five weeks.
Poulter will also need to improve or his goal of improving his position will have been thwarted. It's back to the drawing board don't you feel for Poults come September?

Hi Noel,
Welcome to the Ballwasher!
Webb Simpson? I think you're "flatter to deceive" suggestion whacks the nail on the head, though he was desperately unlucky to miss out in New Orleans earlier this year. My take on his play is that he plays really well out of the spotlight, and would score even better if not for some inconsistent putting. But under pressure he's rather seemed to lose his swing, his pace of play seems to vary and probably lacks 100% confidence he could get over the line.
He had a great amateur record which is why I've been really high on him, so hopefully he can score a win soon and do it in style. Each way or place betting until then though!

PS: I've followed him for a few holes here and there and he's great to watch, if a bit slow. Hits it far, has a gorgeous swing and seems to really enjoy himself - hope he does well. He's a local lad so this could be his week.

kwini, in total agreement. I think it is down to the pressure as at the Open he started poorly and improved greatly to finish tied 14th and I think this was simply due to fact at that stage no pressure so could play freely. Unfortunately , I don't think that will ever change but I will occasionally have another each way punt on him.
I am much more impressed with Jonathan Byrd. I also had each way bet on him at USPGA and at one stage was +1 but then lost his way. He has been on other showings much more competitive and consistent than Simpson. I saw a short film about him at home with his family etc on Sky and he was so relaxed it was unreal and this is what he seems to be like when playing. I think he will only improve as long as he keeps his desire.

Well, Noel, Good luck with JByrd, he's a fine player but I'd suggest he's very inconsistent, especially now - no cuts made since mid-June in Memphis.
He's had two wins and a play-off loss in the past ten months and can't get in to the owgr top fifty. Sums him up in my view; five wins but all in relatively minor tournaments, an enigma for sure.

Having said that, he'll likely win any time soon!

Kwini, what you say very much taken on board. Hadn't quite appreciated his recent run although we are only mid August but agree that is not good. I recall when placing my bets for USPGA one was I think 51st and other 52nd in owgr. This did surprise me for both of them. I know owgr don't lie as such but I think Byrd is better than that. Should be interesting to watch how both develop over say next twelve months.

Only four tournaments remaining for President's Cup qualification so hardly surprising that US players on the selection bubble are playing this week in Greensboro.
For the US, the top six, Stricker, Kuchar, Mickelson, Watney, Dustin Johnson and Bubba look certain to retain their top ten positions. But Toms is 7th, followed by Mahan, Haas and Furyk, with Fowler currently the odd man out in 11th position.

Toms, Haas and Furyk all off to good starts in Round 1. Fred Couples only gets two Captain's choices and he has consistently said Tiger would be one of them. But that was before collapses at Bridgestone and PGA meant Tiger will be idle until after the "picks" are made (Sept 26th).
With Keegan Bradley joining Rickie Fowler (among others) as candidates for the Wild Cards, Freddie's now in a pickle, especially if someone (Webb Simpson? Dufner??, Van Pelt???) comes out of the blue these next four weeks and leapfrogs, say, Furyk or Haas (son of VC Jay Haas!).


As for Greg Norman, he only has four guys in top form, Jason Day and Adam Scott, Schwartzel and K-t Kim, and his top ten is cluttered with guys struggling with their game. Els, Goosen, Choi, Oosthuizen, Yang, Ishikawa.
They are followed by three Aussies that you know Shark would want on his Team: Ogilvy, Allenby and Baddeley, none of them playing this week. Unless he plays in Europe, Oosthuizen will drop out of the automatic qualifying positions, but the rest is a lottery. No Cabrera, no Appleby, no Singh, no Camilo, etc!

Would Tiger really care if he got a snub as it seems common knowledge he is hardly a team golf fan?

You get the feeling he would rather not play golf unless it is a major, as you have noted many times he needs to loose this mind set.

'Morning Mac,
Not sure about that; Australia is very forgiving territory, starved of competitive golf, and together with China could be fertile ground for Tiger as he seeks to replenish his coffers.
He already has a contract to play the Aussie Open in Sydney the week before the Pres Cup and doubt he'd much want the embarassment of showing up there but missing out on Royal Melbourne.
And now Freddie's said Tiger must play more in advance of the Pres Cup or he won't pick him, so the pair of them are on the horns of a dilemma.

Not sure how this is going to play out, especially if, say, Fowler, Furyk, Bradley etc needs "picks".

Compared to the Ryder Cup, you'd have to assume Cink is a goner while Overton has pretty much had a wasted year. But Zach Johnson should not be underrated and could well jump into the fray.

Strange going ons on the Czech Open Leaderboard. Most of the players out now are below the cut mark!? Tough conditions yesterday in the pm? or today's am wave?

Paul Casey's current T4 at the Wyndham only good enough for 122th on the FedEx! Tells us what he has to do this week. No dodgy toe please Paul! Leonard right on the bubble at 125th with a current T14 place. Seems like a good week for the 'Vets' might be in offer.

Mentioned before that I was confident Dufner would do well again this week. Just hope it lasts.

Lord knows how Gainey gets it round the course, however my opinion of his game is changing. I used to be shocked that a swing like that was on the pro tour but Gainey is gaineying my interest!

Lairdy wrote:Strange going ons on the Czech Open Leaderboard. Most of the players out now are below the cut mark!? Tough conditions yesterday in the pm? or today's am wave?

... and in even more shocking news, Nick Dougherty in "danger" of making the cut for the first time(?) this season...

Hope I haven't jinxed him.

Kwini,

Intersting to get an update on the Pres Cup as most of us in the UK don't pay much attention.

How does the Pres Cup compare to the Ryder Cup for the average US golf fan?

I understand the US players take it seriously and enjoy getting picked and playing but if they had to pick one they would pick the Ryder Cup for the competative element and the emossions. Is this about right?

My thoughts exactly on Tommy Gainey, Lairdy. A bit like Boo Weekley it was tough to take him seriously at first but he must be one of the very best iron players out there. Greensboro should suit him perfectly!

Jason Dufner's had a seriously good year until the month or so prior to the PGA; 2 x play-off losses now, a 3rd, a 6th and an 8th. If normal service is resumed he is likely to be a factor as the Play-Offs progress, especially if this week goes well.

Haven't read much about players skipping next week's Barclays yet, except Chubby's suggestion that Schwartzel will sit it out. We'll know soon enough!


Skydriver,
You DID jinx Dougherty! He posted a SEVEN !! Bounced back with a birdie though so damage not terminal, yet.


Hi Scottie,
The Presidents Cup doesn't normally receive anywhere near as much hype in the US as the Ryder Cup, and that will be further complicated this year by the time difference between here and Melbourne.
But I think it's a big deal for the players, perhaps especially this year as it's overseas (Royal Montreal was the 2007 venue, and meant that more "International" players needed a passport than US players) and is at the only venue the USA has lost at.

But, you're right, most US players and ALL the media will be firmly focussed on Medinah next year. Davis Love will prove a very popular Captain and competition for places is sure to be fierce.
Way premature to look at the qualifying list but let's do it anyway:
Bradley
Dufner
Mickelson
Dustin Johnson
Stricker
Ryan Palmer
Toms
Van Pelt
followed by Garrigus, Chappell, Fowler, LoveIII!, Verplank, Woods.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Skydriver,
You DID jinx Dougherty! He posted a SEVEN !! Bounced back with a birdie though so damage not terminal, yet.

Jeez - I think he's picked up 4 shots in the time it's taken for me to have some fish & chips for lunch...

Sorry Nick! [and Diana]

Right, the cut-line at the Wyndham has gone to -2 and will possibly reach
-3 before Round 2 is done.

Poulter off to a good start but more work still to do; you'd think his target would be a top ten finish and that'll give him some leeway next week at the Barclays.

In the Czech Open venice's protege Lorenzo's oiled himself to the top of the leaderboard with McGrane. What a year Gagli is having!
And I see Tiger has said "Thanks, but no thanks" to Monty's kind invite to next week's affair in Scotland.

Looks like a gathering storm in Europe, suspension for a "dangerous situation" in the Czech Republic and a complete washout for the Challenge Tour guys in Denmark. Speaking of which, I saw Pavan got his first win last week, more success for 606v2 hot picks...

No storms affecting play yet in the US, with Owen and Knox tied for 29th after the Nationwide Round 1 and hoping to consolidate their decent starts; Christian (122nd) and Richardson (102nd) needing a fistful of birdies to make the weekend.

And Vaughn Taylor's the first to make a morning move at the Wyndham; and Snedeker sliding in the opposite direction towards weekend oblivion, which surprises me.

Seems like Gagli and Boyd are trying to pass themselves off as Irish in the Czech Republic. Simon Thornton is falling behind the green party train.

I guess the Tricolore looks pretty similar in the right light venice! Good to see the young guys at the top of the leaderboard again, good weekends hopefully for Gagli, Boyd, Lowry and Garcia-Heredia among others

Still enjoying the Irish party in Moravia... Apart from that it's actually a very friendly leaderboard for my ET fantasy team! Have both Boyd and Gagli as picks this week (plus a couple of the Irish of course). Just hoping it'll stay this way...

kwinigolfer wrote:... But Zach Johnson should not be underrated and could well jump into the fray.

And perhaps Zach should not be underrated at the Czech Open either!! If you scroll through the Czech LB, you'll find a little known Zach from the Czech Republic currently tied in 21st place! I was saying a few days ago talking about the Czech Open that the East Europeans are still to make their presence felt in the world of professional golf. I don't want to jinx the boy, and not 100% sure if I'm correct here, but if Zach Simon manages to make the cut today he may well make history, as being the first golfer from the former Eastern European block (born and bred there) who manages to make a cut in one of the main professional golf tours! And if what I read about him is true, this particular boy (he is apparently only 15!) can be quite a prospect for future in that sense. I understand that he has already qualified for the 15th Faldo Series Europe Grand Final at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in September (I think among the former winners of this are McIlroy and Yani Tseng). But let's wait and see... hope they'll manage to finish the 2nd round today.

princed,
That's an interesting nugget; you've presumably concluded that Cejka spent too much time in Germany? Rightly as I don't think he played golf before he escaped.

Curious as to why aforesaid Cejka didn't play in Greensboro, but see he hasn't played since Congressional two months ago. Wonder what ails him?

But to emphasise your point, Jessica Korda, daughter of Pet(e?)r is now on the LPGA Tour and Ivan Lendl's daughters also had good amateur records. Imagine Eastern European golfers will make a similar impact to their tennis players in time.

You have that right, Ned. I do know for a fact that Italian lads love Irish lasses.

pd, Thanks for the tip on the new edition Zach. Only 15!? How does one make an early wager that'll pay off in 5 years time?

Wonder if Lucas Glover gave himself a stern talking to last night. Something certainly put a fire underneath him for today's round.

Indeed kwini. I know of Korda's daughter (there's also a Jiri Korda in the Czech field this week, but probably not related to Petr) and of Lendl and it looks like tennis has been a common route of introducing golf into Easern European countries... I believe Kafelnikov (if you remember him) was until a few years ago unofficially 'ranked' as the best golfer in Russia, and I've heard of some similar cases in Poland, Romania, etc...

I know of Cejka, of course, and I'm surprised that he's not playing in Greensboro but also in Moravia. I remember he actually honoured the Czech Open in the first years when it was held... I was thinking of course more of players, born and schooled (golfwise) in the Eastern block, which is good to see...

Lundberg is quietly trying to spoil the Irish party...
I'm terrible... I obviously DID jinx the poor young Zach, he just got a bogey and a double bogey since I mentioned him...

venice,
Some local boys doing well including Two Gloves, Webbo, Willie MacK and Glover. Apparently Glover's worst Greensboro finish in the past six years has been a T24th, so perhaps we are not surprised!

Meanwhile, Peter Senior appropriately leading the Senior (minor) Major in Westchester. He's making himself a small fortune but really needs to maintain this pace for six years at least to maintain his exemption.

Two short putts missed by Poulter on 15 and 16 and now he needs a birdie just to make the cut. He'll be steaming . . . . . .

Great birdie-birdie finish by 2gloves! It'll be a popular winner if he would go to win it, no doubt...

The Greensboro Grim Reaper is hoovering up some "notables". Most likely including the -2"s:
Poulter, Haas, Crane, Cabrera, Kirk, Weekley and certainly Curtis, Matteson, Dufner and Sneds.
That's bye, bye to Cabrera, Weekley and Curtis for five weeks. George O'Grady, are you following this?


pd,
Talking about Kafelnikov, the Russian event that has been held on the European Tour used also to include one or two notable ice-hockey players, though somewhat ceremonial presence methinks.

(A bit like the number of European Senior Tour events Greg Hopkins plays - and invariably finishes last - because he's a Cleveland Golf exec. I see that there's an even worse Hopkins playing this week, plus the very excellent Gary Koch.)

Confirmation that Mike Weir will be sidelined for the rest of the year due to elbow surgery on Thursday - rehab could take six months.
I'd think there's a very real possibility that Weir might take it easy in 2012, using past Champion status and sponsor's invites then, if necessary, invoke one of his two career-money exemptions in 2013.

What's up with Ernie and the veteran gang?! They've got their mojo back... even if only temporarily it's a good sign for the weekend between that and the Czech Open. Sadly haven't paid that much attention to the ladies and the seniors.

venice1 wrote:What's up with Ernie ...

...maybe something to do with the broomstick? Great to see Casey with two good rounds in a row. As for Padraig, he could do with Ernie's hot broomstick, some wider fairways, bigger holes and any other help he can get as he's still below the cut line with only a couple of holes left...

Ah, wait...!!!

Quite the leaderboard. And at the other end of it, Padraig lives to fight another day. And Daly; that chip on his last hole might have skidaddled off the green if it hadn't hit the pin dead centre. $10K chip!

Your Gal, Sandra, at even par, venice.

Glad to see Harri make the cut.
Anyone know what he will need to make the Barclays?? Top 25 Top 30??

Hi John,
Anyone's guess I reckon.
Looks to me as if 340 points will do it and that could mean top 35 or 40. Padraig said "top turty" and that would surely clinch it. But all these guys will want to give themselves something of a cushion moving to the Barclays because only the top 100 advance from there to Deutsche Bank.
He certainly played tidily on the TV holes.

John Cregan wrote:Glad to see Harri make the cut.
Anyone know what he will need to make the Barclays?? Top 25 Top 30??

As I was just saying... he'll need Ernie's hot broomstick, some wider fairways, bigger holes,... Just kidding!
John, I'm really no expert in FedEx cup point system, but I'd guess top 30 would do the job. In certain 'friendly' circumstances it's possible that even a top 40 could do it, hard to say...

kwinigolfer wrote:Hi John,
Anyone's guess I reckon.
Padraig said "top turty" and that would surely clinch it.

Nice irish accent Begorra i'd say top Turty Suerley !!!

kwinigolfer wrote:princed,
That's an interesting nugget; you've presumably concluded that Cejka spent too much time in Germany? Rightly as I don't think he played golf before he escaped.

Curious as to why aforesaid Cejka didn't play in Greensboro, but see he hasn't played since Congressional two months ago. Wonder what ails him?

But to emphasise your point, Jessica Korda, daughter of Pet(e?)r is now on the LPGA Tour and Ivan Lendl's daughters also had good amateur records. Imagine Eastern European golfers will make a similar impact to their tennis players in time.

I'm sure there's a Nowfourova joke in there somewhere.

Thanks PD.

Just doing my own calcs there and those currently tied 32nd have enough "projected" points to get Harri over the line (if you know what i mean!).

No fairytales for the Czechs or the Icelanders this weekend, but they came very close, and hopefully next time around it will happen for them...

Hoping for the Irish legion to regain some of the ground they let slip away yesterday...

Luvverly morning in Greensboro for Round 3 of the Wyndham Championship. Heating up to 90F later on with just a chance of afternoon showers, no significant wind otherwise.

So much today and Sunday depends on what other players do that too much speculation is on exact result for specific players to advance to the Barclays and beyond is bad for the brain; not to mention that Barclays qualifying is little more than service station on the route to the ultimate destination in Atlanta.

Suffice it to say that a win would almost assure Two Gloves a fast track to the Tour Championship, while a second would likely get Els just to Boston.

But Harrington finished in fine style Friday, as did Casey and continuation of their momentum should mean Plainfield CC will be their next stop. Leonard with a little more to do.

At the butt end of the spectrum, spare a thought for Matt Jones, if GJ will allow it. Currently projected to finish 129th, following 126th and 127th finishes in the past three years!

Meanwhile, and as David Howell climbs the Czech leaderboard, Messrs Christian, Knox and Owen make the Nationwide cut, but need good weekends for a decent payday, Richardson missing out by one shot, again.

European Tour followers: How good is Romain Wattel? I see he's nudging the leaders once again; seems to be lots of promise from him this year.

Morning kwini,

Noticed the highest ranked players besides The Mechanic in the Czech Open are George Coetzee (112), Thongchai Jaidee (113) and Thorbjørn Olesen (121). Hopefully they can encourage others to join in the fray next year. The current leaders are McGrane (176), Lundberg (760), Bhullar (306) and O'Hara (588). Counted 16 in the 1000's and 18 not ranked.

What is the standard in the European Tour for securing sponsorship for the respective tournaments? Are each left on their own with the full responsibility for securing financial and promotive support? Can't see an increase in revenue for either major Tour for the next few years given the state of the world economy.

Good point, venice, but lots of companies are stockpiling cash instead of hiring or investing. The economy might be bad but corporate health is another thing entirely - all PGA Tour events fully sponsored for 2012, most with long-term deals.

Sedgefield CC looks really good, "well-presented" as Faker Binch might say. Pity they have to keep the greens slow-ish due to the time of year, but scoring not as low as 2010. Should be a great afternoon in store.

kwini,
Just reiterating those with a "free" weekend but presumably not hanging around downtown Greensboro:
Poulter, B. Haas, Angel, GJ's Matt Jones, AK, Steve Marion, Trevor Immelman, Sneds, Stenson and the amateur flash from Iceland, Olafur Loftsson, who shot a respectable 68, 70. Who are not the surprises on this list? Can't think of many given their recent form.

Speaking of finances (ahem- and a fragile segue with a quick sprint to the sidelines hopefully unnoticed by Davie and crew):

Noticed Bristol Rovers have engaged with McCarthy Waste Management for the season. Very smart move despite the snickering and should more ET golf events look to such sponsorship? i.e. Waste Management and the Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour. After all, with the world population increasing with each year, this is an industry which shows great promise for many years to come.
What's your hopes versus Bristol City today? Are your men playing it close to the vest in the season so far or is the strategy to shut the pitch down each game and pray for rain?