PGA Tour: The Humana League: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).So much for the Hawaiian Swing on the PGA Tour. An orthodox-enough win for Steve Stricker (not my pick but certainly no big surprise), but I was as taken aback by Johnson Wagner's win as I was by his Freddie Mercury moustache. I followed Wagner eighteen months ago for a forgettable round which culminated in him missing the cut. He appeared a bit overweight and a lot out of love with the game.
Fast forward via a fine end to his 2010 season, a win in Mexico last year, plenty of time in the gym and some Movember bristle which he vows will last through The Masters. Good for Montford Johnson Wagner. (Where do they get these names? Wish they'd pronounce him "Vahgner".)

2).And now he has three Tour wins, the same number as Kuchar and Kim, Bubba Watson and Mahan, one more than runner-up (for the 13th time) Charles Howell, and three more than Rickie Fowler. Lots of chat here about Howell - is he destined to be one of life's nearly men or does he have the desire, and putting stroke, to finally move on from his 20 career 2nd's and 3rd's and into the winner's enclosure? I'd say emphatically YES!, but he's 33 years old this year and that brilliant future is dimming.

3).Carl Pettersson shared second place in his first event as an American citizen but I don't see him in the USA Ryder Cup points list. Difficult to believe his first win was so long ago he beat David Gilford in a play-off. He'll never be a prolific winner on Tour - let's face it, who is? List of two. Or three? - but there'll be a Harbour Town success or a Transitions, a Greenbrier, something like that in his near future.

4).Another month, another dose of speculation on Q-School / Nationwide graduation etc, etc. But the chat is getting louder as some building blocks are apparently now in place. First, PGA Tour Commissioner Finchem has earned himself an extra $60M by signing up for another four years, and the Players Advisory Council has been elected for 2012. Comparitively rare to have many overseas players among its 16-player membership, but this year Justin Rose and Jason Day are on board.

5).The next Players Meeting is due for next week, in San Diego, and the destiny of qualification for the PGA Tour is sure to be up for discussion, if not determination. Some possibilities being bandied about include:

~An end of season 3-tournament series to determine PGA Tour cards for the following year. This could include the top 75 players who didn't make it to the FedEx Play-Offs and the top 75 from the Nationwide.

~A separate Q-School to determine composition of membership for the following year's Nationwide Tour.

~Whether to start the 2014 Tour season in 2013, similar to what the European Tour has done in the past. So some Fall Series events could morph into 2014 tournaments, perhaps some into qualifying super-series events.

~Got that? And apparently Hyundai has expressed an interest in becoming title sponsor of the Nationwide Tour!

6).As we said, it's all speculation. Meanwhile, Luke Donald was among those exercised in Twitterland about slow play during the Hyundai tournament at Kapalua. Don't expect any change this year as Ben Crane will be a Players representative on the Tour's Policy Board.

7).Matt Every made news last week for all the wrong reasons including an early candidate for the year's most bizarre putter. But that shouldn't obscure the fact that he's a fine young player, or the fact the Tour's policy in not disclosing disciplinary sanctions is open to abuse, as the Press showed in questioning Every.
Yes, they've every right to ask what the hell they like within reason.
No, it's a double standard asking a player about something they've been sworn to "omerta" on by the Tour.

8).This week marks the first event of the Champions Tour year with their "Mitsubishi Electric Championship" for Tour winners plus handpicked invitees like Crenshaw and Wadkins, Strange and Zoeller etc. Suffice it to say (sometime Tour member) Steve Thomas is not in the field, apparently destined for some time in the slammer if convicted of charges related to his arrest by Florida police in "Operation Red Cheeks", an Internet child sex sting. (No, I didn't make this up!)

9).The Tour's first week in California has recently been reserved for a trip to Palm Springs and the five-round Bob Hope pro-am marathon. Player support has steadily declined and Humana (Official Health Benefits Company of the PGA Tour) have stepped in to the breach and are now title sponsor for the four-round Humana Challenge, in conjunction with the (Bill) Clinton Foundation. President Bill will play with Greg Norman in Round 3 apparently, with the first three rounds being played on 3 courses with an amateur partner, Round 4 pro's only at the Palmer Course at PGA West.

10).But who else is there? Pretty much a Rag, Tag, Bobtail of the PGA Tour with some Champo guys double-dipping. Phil Mickelson returns from hibernation and some notables are back from long-ish term injury: Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Sutherland among them. GB&I are represented by Christian, Davis, Knox and Laird with Greg Owen an "alternate". Bill Haas won here two years ago and should have repeated, losing in a play-off. He played poorly at Kapalua but must have a decent shout this week.
Regardless, birdies and eagles will fly, scores will be low at three of the Tour's more user-friendly tracks.

Hi kwini,

Quite a read with the slew of information matching the level of excellent writing. Very telling about the leveled playing field on the PGA Tour is Wagner's win total matching those with much more ink to their names. I don't think we're going to see a change in the near future.

Arguably, riding on top of the heap setting the bar is Dustin Johnson, who will be 28 this year, who has 5 career victories, 2 2nd's and 2 3rd's. If he reaches 15 career wins at his current pace, he will be in the company of Tommy Bolt, Fred Couples, Ed Dudley, Bobby Locke, Corey Pavin, Denny Shute and Mike Souchak. Not a bad crowd to hang out with but also not game breaking.

Some of the changes being considered by the Tour and players seem strange at first glance. It'll take a bit of time to speculate on those especially the season ending events and the idea of ringing in the new year by dragging in the previous year's end. Similar to wiping one's dirty shoes after tracking mud across the entrance way and into the parlor.

Unfortunately, will miss the Humana event in the desert due to work. A shame as the weather should be mild and in the F-7O's and just skirting some rain action. Still think 3 courses are one too many for this event. The galleries are very thin to sense any excitement except for the last day. One good thing is that one ticket buys all 3 courses for the first 3 days. Another is that the area offers plenty of excellent golf and tennis facilities for those staying the week. The parties and food aren't bad either.

Cheers venice,
Shame you can't go this week - any chance next week, or Riviera?

Nice analogy on the Q-School nonsense; seems they're almost making change for the sake of change.
The Tour points to the success rate of Nationwide grads versus Q-School grads, but fails to point out that many of the biggest recent successes, Fowler, Kim, Johnson to name but three, are from Q-School, and the further back in time you go the more you see that.

And still not sure how this change would affect "International" players - at first glance it appears they would be sentenced to a year on the Nationwide/Hyundai as penance for their Tour ambitions.

Now, about those parties . . . .

Certainly is a shame, kwini. But my boss knows if I hit the desert for golf action I may not find my way back. And editing videos for the corporate IT world allows for very little breathing room. @%#! These guys never rest as you well know more than most.

Won't make it to Torrey Pines either much to my parents dismay as they're just down the road but Riviera will always be on the calendar being only 3 miles due north. BTW, do you know what's Luke's 2012 schedule and if he'll be back in L.A. next month?

Now, about those parties . . . . plenty of trouble to be had but nothing compared to when the ladies tour makes their stops in the desert. However, that's an entirely different kind of party and a few notches above the rest... mostly for the ladies, that is.

Important update on the Thanks!

I believe Luke Donald will reappear at Riviera, then the MatchPlay, possibly Honda but definitely Doral. That's four in a row and he may take time off then until Augusta.

Nice piece, kwini.
Shocking how much money TimF is paying himself... that means his yearly salary is approx. 6% of the cumulated purse of all last year's PGA Tour tornaments. Quite wrong in my opinion...

Interesting and maybe a bit ironic to see Hyundai slowly becoming one of the main sponsors of US professional golf, considering its North Korean roots and connections. Probably not too many people realised that a couple of weeks ago when the Hyundai Tournament was on in Hawaii, the current Hyundai chairwoman and descendant of Hyundai's North Korean founder, was in Pyongyang paying her respects to the late dictator Kim Jong Il, the greatest golfer the world has ever seen...

Some heavy looking snow falling outside my office window, I will need to watch some golf in california later to warm me up.

Is there any reason to pay anyone for the job Finchem does?

pd, Mac, etc.
I should say I'm guessing at Finchem's remuneration based upon his income in previous years and taking into account of benefits, pensions etc.
In comparison, the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, just signed a two-year contract renewal for $50M. And he's the idiot who slept through the steroid era of baseball - he'll be 80 when his contract expires. More sleeping methinks.

Sorry about your snow, Mac. We've had less than two feet all year, far below normal, and we're at winter's nadir this week. Bitterly cold and very icy right now though!

Kwini

Thankfully it seemed to stop pretty quick.

However bad Timmy is it really pales into insignificance when compared to the incompetence of Blatter. Although I would imagine if there were any decent investigative golf journalists out there Timmy would look just as bad, for example did Finchem handle the racism of Williams any better than Blatters response to racism in football?

There is no pressure on finchem from national golf bodies, like there is with fifa, so basically he has a monopoly on how the very top of golf is run. I know the USGA and r and a do the rules but they have little say in the week to week running of the game.

Finchem does a great job for his almost all-white constituency, can only speculate how he'd handle a race problem that was clearly in his domain - we don't, and may never, know how he dealt with Steve Williams.

Finchem has a monopoly over all golf; there's never been any sign of the R&A or USGA butting up against Finchem and the International Tours have obviously bowed to the notion of all WGC's in America.


But we digress. They'll be off for Round 1 of the Humana Challenge in an hour's time; cool with clear skies, light breezes and temps rising to 70 or perhaps a tad higher. Weather should be fine through the weekend, just a chance of Saturday showers.

Looking at the scoring for the Volvo Champions event the course looks a decent challenge. Fair few cards littered with mistakes. Great round from Colsaerts. Padraig was onto one as well until his double at the last. Not as bas as Mannasero who had a double and a triple on two par 5s. Wonder if thats him trying to push it too much distance wise? Would be best served adopting the Zach Johnson approach to par 5s and let the distance come with age.

Looking forward to the US golf being back on at a reasonable time this week. Dinner, maybe half a bucket of balls and then watch the golf from the exercise bike seat. Hearing good things about Phil's revived approach on the course (again) and his putting. We'll see...

kwinigolfer wrote:Finchem does a great job for his almost all-white constituency, can only speculate how he'd handle a race problem that was clearly in his domain - we don't, and may never, know how he dealt with Steve Williams.

Finchem has a monopoly over all golf; there's never been any sign of the R&A or USGA butting up against Finchem and the International Tours have obviously bowed to the notion of all WGC's in America.

Now I like him even less...

Are there any W/Ds from the Humana field that you've heard of so far?

The old shot tracker peeps must be getting ultra baffled with having 3 courses and ams because the site is going ape. even more ape than usual that is!

I see Arnies grandson in in the field again...invite??

'Fraid dso, John, started with a triple, poetic justice.

pd,
I answered your question about w/d's on the wrong (well, yours!) thread. Don't think so!!


Phil in mid-season form with an eagle, birdies, pars, bogey and double.

Phil's really in mid-season form. Just threw in a triple.
Now for an albatross . . . . .

The best placed of my picks at the moment is T95! I give up...

Sky coverage quite interesting with Francesco Molinari and Denis Pugh giving some insight into their player/coach relationship.

On the course, Villegas showing signs of a Lazarus-like comeback, haven't seen him near a leaderboard in ages, he must be around 100th in world rankings??

The little I've seen of Dustin Johnson would suggest he is a little rusty, which is understandable.

Kwini- any interest in the NFL? Patriots going well...

Yours and mine pd . . . . .

Villegas was playing much better towards the end of 2011, incontinentia, good to see him picking up where he left off, even better perhaps.

And I'm a Bills fan so Patriots are not our favourites. However, we live on the northern fringes of Patriot Nation and they certainly look pretty good. Tough game in prospect this week though, should be a touch warmer than last week's!
Brady is brilliant . . .

Super round (-6) by Gary Christian; hopefully that will give him some confidence that he belongs out on Tour.

Sad continuation of last autumn's form from Duval.

Laird continuing his early early season form. Thankfully as all my other yahoo fantasy picks are DOA. Sadly, I was dumb enough to pick Phil also.

Now, how did Scott McCarron manage to shoot 6-over when 108 players went under-par?

Leff wrote:Now, how did Scott McCarron manage to shoot 6-over when 108 players went under-par?

Definitely waiting to go graze with the old bulls but he still has 3 1/2 years remaining to take a beating. Made only 10 of 25 cuts last year with 1 top 10. Last year at the Hope he finished off with the same score of 78 on the 5th and final round. He did manage to birdie the last hole to his credit. Different year, different course, same number says it all.

Anyone joining Scottie over par has got themselves into a bit of a pickle if they want to get paid this week.
Top 70 and ties (79 of them) are at -3 already, so expect Saturday's cut to be anywhere from -7 to -9. Are you reading this Phil, Trevor?

Fine first rounds for Gary Christian and Martin Laird, but Brian Davis and Russell Knox have work to do.

Conditions should be perfect again Friday but perhaps more breezy and showery on Saturday, nice again for Sunday's final round.

Second hole EAGLE for Martin Laird; now only one shot off the Villegas/Toms lead.
More please!

Pity he hasn't followed it up with anything good... bogeying a par 5 when you hit it as far as he does must be really frustrating, especially on these tracks.

Yup, bloggers curse for the second time today. But Russell Knox doing a nice job for Scotland; very important for him to make some early cuts.

More rubbish from Mickelson - I see he's definitely playing the next three weeks also; if he plays Riviera the MatchPlay would be his sixth in a row, but he's avoided that before so a bit early to know for sure.

Back under par now, though!

Cut will already have moved from -3 to -5 within the hour.

Birdies by the bucketload and Laird has yet another one and even Phil is now making an effort to turn things around.

Meanwhile, the Steve Thomas affair gets more bizarre by the moment. Now it's alleged that he turned up at an address intending to indulge the favours of a 13-year-old girl. And her mother! Armed with three condoms and a chocolate pudding!!

No trace any more of his Bio on the pgatour.com website.

kwinigolfer wrote:Armed with three condoms and a chocolate pudding!!

Sad, but I just couldn't resist.

From Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall":

"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding
if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!

Back to the golf action: Immelman, Duval and Brooks scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

Now it's alleged that he turned up at an address intending to indulge the favours of a 13-year-old girl. And her mother! Armed with three condoms and a chocolate pudding!!

To be fair who doesn't admire that in an odd sort of a way!!!

[quote="kwinigolfer"]
Meanwhile, the Steve Thomas affair gets more bizarre by the moment. Now it's alleged that he turned up at an address intending to indulge the favours of a 13-year-old girl. And her mother! Armed with three condoms and a chocolate pudding!!
quote]

Sounds like something off that show "To catch a predator", wonder was he greeted at the door by Chris Hansen..

Mac,
Not the sort of thing Tim Finchem would approve of though!

Nice one venice, and chocolate puddings look to be as good as it's going to get for those boys.

Dear oh dear, I wonder how he was actually apprehended? Perhaps he offered the pud to an undercover policewoman??

kwini


i love it when posts on here have me laughing out loud, and your last one did.

Good to see former UCLA Bruin Kevin Chappell near the top of the leaderboard. I believe kwini gave him some good karma in an earlier post. If I ever bump into him at the Rancho Park Golf Course driving range, which he used to frequent often while at school though hasn't been there in recent times, I'll give him the good word.

kwini,
Hope your Les Habs are up for tonight's game at Pittsburgh and tomorrow's at Toronto if not it's going to only get worse as the gap to the front running Bruins has grown to 19. My Kings played another fine game on defense last night but the offense is still non-existant and we took another loss at home, but still only 1 point out of first.

venice,
Your Rois are playing well under Sutter, whereas Les Habs are imploding; wouldn't be optimistic we'll get any points, owgr or otherwise this week.
Yup, Chappell is a winner; don't much care for his cockiness in some interviews I've seen but not much doubt he'll have success.

Martin Laird almost Harrington-like on today's par fives. Paradise lost.

Dustin Johnson withdraws?
After 4-putting from 20 feet yesterday it looked like his interest was waning.

Now we'll have to see if he damaged his leg again.

kwinigolfer wrote:venice,

Martin Laird almost Harrington-like on today's par fives. Paradise lost.

Yep a nice straight from the Laird tonight, eagle, birdie, par, bogey on the par 5s.

Which course do they play on the last day?

I seem to be amazing at picking golfers on the Yahoo game, and then sticking them on the bench for their best rounds.

Toms and Bae yesterday, and now it seems Ryan Moore today.

They play PP, the Palmer Course on Sunday.

News from three European Tour pros:
Bem struggling for the second straight week about 8,000 miles I should guess from his travails last week.

And Mike Weir back from injury, plus Poulter hopefully back from paternity leave, have committed to play Pebble Beach for their seasonal debuts.

kwinigolfer wrote:

Meanwhile, the Steve Thomas affair gets more bizarre by the moment. Now it's alleged that he turned up at an address intending to indulge the favours of a 13-year-old girl. And her mother! Armed with three condoms and a chocolate pudding!!

As if this story isn't bad enough, Gary Glitter has launched a Twitter account this week. He is taking all kinds of abuse from the likes of Joey Barton and Frankie Boyle!

4 bogies from the Laird today, can't help but think that will hurt him come Sunday. Still got to 3 under for today and not out of it at -9.

Yep, the Glitter vs Barton twitter row was quite surreal to say the least. I think Joey was just happy to have the moral high ground over someone at last.

djlovesyou wrote:Yep, the Glitter vs Barton twitter row was quite surreal to say the least. I think Joey was just happy to have the moral high ground over someone at last.

Yeah, he has waited a while.... but having the moral high ground over a convicted bad person is the faintest of faint praise haha

Can't believe the tweetage from Barton about Warnock. Seems to be proving exactly whay Warnock had to say.
Hopefully Mark Hughes will slap him, fine him and straighten him up. No place for that garbage - at someone who signed him also.

On a happier note, Russell Knox moving nicely through the field. Five birdies and an eagle from The Laird, so 69 is not what he would have expected.

As for this other guy. Have they ascertained who the condoms were intended for and same for the pudding?

Is is just me or does it seem like Ben Crane spends at least 30 minutes to complete each hole. Perhaps he needs to see a neurologist about his mannerisms and reluctance to pull the trigger unless he's absolutely secure.

Surprisingly, he's not giving interviews so his accessories will have to be left to the imagination.
Can only speculate he wasn't going to insert the chocolate pud in the balloon.

venice,
At least 30 minutes - difficult for me to warm to his act, including his videos.

kwinigolfer wrote:Can't believe the tweetage from Barton about Warnock. Seems to be proving exactly whay Warnock had to say.
Hopefully Mark Hughes will slap him, fine him and straighten him up. No place for that garbage - at someone who signed him also.

I was actually thinking much the same as Barton about Warnock, he has never cut it in the Premier League and always blames other people when his sides lose. He is forever moaning about something and it is never his fault. When I read his comments yesterday I thought they were typical of the sour grapes I have come to expect to hear from Warnock. I think Barton is just being honest about things, is he supposed to lie and pretend things were good enough? They were plummeting down the league and couldn't buy a win.

Agree about Warnock, not sure why that is but he always falls short.
Don't know why Barton should feel he has to say anything though; his sending off, whether justified or not, was certainly confrontational and not what Warnock needed of the guy he'd acquired to offer some leadership.

Great admirer of Barton's play, but he needs to learn when to shut up. Sure Mark Hughes was thrilled.