PGA Tour: PGA Championship: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy!
Has Five Hour Furyk forgotten how to win? He experienced quite a drought in the late 2000's, rediscovered winning ways at the 2010 Transition (despite shanking down the 72nd hole and singeing KJ Choi's eyebrows on the way), and won squeakily at Hilton Head followed by a round full of fortitude to win the Tour Championship (and FedEx Play Offs). Now he's been in the driver's seat three times this year and parked in the wrong place each time.

2).Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley finally wins without a play-off but still due to the haplessness of another. Still not convinced that Keegs is the real thing. And nor is his local newspaper - the biggest paper in Bradley's Vermont had not one word of the golf in Monday's edition, not even the result. But he's secured his Ryder Cup place and it looks increasingly as if Furyk (so brilliant in the Presidents Cup in Melbourne but very dodgy in Ryder Cup play) will be hoping for a Captain's pick.

3).A perennial gripe about these WGC's - what incentive is there for the pros once they slip out of, say, the top twenty? There aren't many bigger admirers of Lee Westwood than me, but his weekend demonstrates that the WGC people have got their prizemoney structure all wrong. +14 was Westwood's weekend "effort" in finishing 70th, but he still took home $42K, only $30K less than two level par rounds would have earned him.
And then there's Jaidee, Crane and the vanishing Taniguchi who handed in sick notes, banked $40K and limped off to South Carolina.
Time for a cut (like The Masters, say, top 44 and those within ten shots) and lower paydays for the bottom trawlers. Spend that money instead on the leaders and create differentials worth playing for.

4).Didn't see much of the Bridgestone but really enjoyed the coverage of the Reno-Tahoe Open. A leaderboard full of characters and a worthy winner in JJ Henry. The four rookies on the USA Ryder Cup Team at the K Club, Zach, Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor and JJ have had mixed fortunes since their drenching in Ireland. Zach Johnson, of course, has gone from strength to strength, injuries have derailed Wetterich's career almost before it really started, Taylor has hit the buffers, but JJ has been like a journeyman freight train, chugging his way through the Tour season, consistently keeping his card for 12 years while supporting minor events, but never returning to the winners' platform. Until now.
Great to see Brazil's Alex Rocha getting in to the mix, four years early?, and pleased to see Romero back in the shake-up. Then there were the Open Champions: Daly tied with Leonard for his first top five since 2005, Hamilton in 8th, Harrington 19th, and Cink (talk about a slump) and Duval squandering chances of a decent payday. Seemed the modified Stableford format was very popular among the pros.

5).Very disappointing performances at the Bridgestone for those hoping for a Ryder Cup qualification. Given that Rose, McIlroy, Westwood, McDowell and Donald have their places secure, the best Bridgestone finish by the next ten contenders was T29 for Cabrera-Bello, Sergio, Kaymer and Poulter. Expect Davis Love to be quaking in his boots.

6).And look at the Europeans' form this year. Of the current owgr top fifty, the following have all lost more points this year than they've gained, indicative of their games being off the boil:
Donald, Westwood, Kaymer, Garcia, Poulter, Bjorn, Jacobson, Dyson, F'dez and Quiros. (While others such as Casey, Karlsson, Hansen, Luiten and The Mechanic have disappeared completely.) Is it too late to have another look at Carl Pettersson's eligibility?

7).But the Americans only have the long-term absentee Dustin Johnson, Watney and Toms from the top 55 with more points lost than gained, the rest (Mickelson possibly excepted) in decent to sparkling form.
There may be a turnround on the Carolina Shore this week, but I doubt it.

8).And so to Kiawah Island, home of the War on the Shore. (For accounts by those who were there, read your August Golf Digest - the most telling part to me was American disbelief at the amount the Europeans were drinking!)
Very few of those in the 156-man field for this week's PGA Championship have competitive form at Pete Dye's "Ocean Course", although some such as Rafa C-Bello, have played Junior competitions there.
But the WGC World Cup was played there twice, in 1997 and 2003, and these guys played well!
1997: 1st: Harrington (won with McGinley)
2003: 1st: Sabbatini and Immelman, with Casey and Rose runners up.

9).No Bernhard Langer or Hale Irwin this week, no Paul Broadhurst and no Steve Pate (come to think of it we didn't see much of him in the Ryder Cup either. Hmmmmm.), and hopefully no camo gear.

10).Weather will play a big part this week though; Pete Dye took a gorgeous ocean-side property, raised much of it above the dunes, and created a seaside target-golf monster, with almost all the course exposed to the elements but very few run-up areas in front of the greens. There has been significant rain these past few days and a steady diet of 10 - 15 mph breezes is forecast. Yorkshireman Kerry Haigh is responsible for setting up the course and he'll need all his skill to strike a fair balance, but he has an impeccable reputation and let's hope he lives up to it!

No idea who might win, but I fancy local-ish boy Dustin Johnson as best of the Americans. Otherwise I expect Ireland (North and South) and South Africa to contest the medals. For a rank outsider, how about Simon Dyson?

But of one thing you may be certain: If the sole survivor from the War of 1991, Jose Maria Olazabal, plays as he did 21 years ago, there'll only be one winner!

oh i thought it was cabrera bello, well done Mehico

Harrington's been telling the press all week he's been playing "lovely".
Certainly a lovely start, -3 thru 6 holes.
Is Olly watching, I wonder?

Luck of the Irish?
Nothing lucky about that. Another bird, fantastic start. Keep it up!

kwini-do you think Romney has any chance of getting his mitts on the presidency?

I read that Romney said that England(cant work out the difference between england and britain) was an island that would have been swallowed by hitler if it didnt have water between itself and europe.

He later found out his ancestors hailed from England(shock horror a yank that comes from Britain) and his wife from wales and he then said he was as british as any brit and it was like his home.

How can someone like this even be in the running?

incontinentia,
I hope not, I certainly hope not.

Romney is a nowhere man, Cameron had it right. But Ryan is a really nasty piece of work, very divisive and will be as negative as he thinks he needs to be in this campaign.
He's anti-union, anti-women's rights, anti same-sex marriage and pro wealthy white men.

Unfortunately I don't feel Obama has done a good job in communicating his achievements so far; he really needs to do that and convey just how bad things were four years ago, how much better (and they are) they are now.

Biggest enemy Obama has is complacency. I went to see him speak four months ago - a very thrilling experience I must say. I wish him four more years of success, America and the World will be better off as a result.

I heard Katryn Bigelow is making a film on the Bin Laden killing and has been allowed access to one of the seals involved. Obama is unsurprisingly fully supportive coming up to election time.

On a golfing note, go Padraig!!

Rose misses a 2 footer on the last!!

What is wrong with that last hole for short putts!!

I wouldnt want a 6 footer to win on that green!!

Come on!!! Keep it going Padraig!!!

Part of the reason for slow play yesterday was a dangerous situation. Alligators decided to have a sojourn on holes 2 and 6.

This morning an alligator ate a CBS microphone on the 17th tee.

How funny!!

Wheres Happy Gilmore when you need him

Errr Rory hits a ball into a dead tree. And it plugs itself into it!!

Poults has dropped a virtual shot on the 2nd- oinly a par.

Lynn going well- could be on for low round of the day, currently -5

Is poulter the new English number one in waiting?

All sorts of weather (no snow though) just inland from Kiawah. Hope it stays there or conditions could go to hell in a hurry.

Americans the only ones to break 70 so far today, trust Dvid Lynn can bring his round to the house and change all that.

Re Poulter: Doubt it, he has a good head for competing but his long game isn't good enough imo

Super

Even a win will note take Poulter above Donald.

Mac, I'm well aware of that, I'm speaking theorhetically, not rankings wise.
Poulter has certainly been more consistent than Donald or Westwood for last six months.

You can make poulter number one on your own list if you want.

You will be pleased to see tiger is having another poor third round in a major.

Mac, we all know about the temporal anomalies of the current rankings.

I don't think poulter is a better player than Donald or Westwood, just that he's in better form lately.

Poults needs to dig deep here- things arnt quite going for him.

Tigers brain has turned to jelly- again!!

Roryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

class above so far today is Rors

Thrilling stuff from Rory

Ridiculous birdie from VJ and same attribute goes to Paddy's bird at the 17th...

That line of storms to the west is creeping ever closer to the shore.
If Tiger has the kind of influence he enjoyed in his heyday, there'll be a flash of lightening and suspension of play any time now. He needs it.

Careful on that glass Mr Woods. Bottle crashed.

Glorious to see him failing again.

super_realist wrote:Careful on that glass Mr Woods. Bottle crashed.

Glorious to see him failing again.

Can someone please translate that for me?

It means what it says Mac.

Woods chokes.

mark 2 woods is a like kyrten out of red dwarf with spare head no 3

Good round Paddy, should have been better will be nice if the leaders come back out to strong(er) winds and he is no more than 5/6 shots adrift.

Ermm really interesting that VJ has been at this course for 2 weeks practising!

LUKE DONALD LISTEN UP! go to these majors early- practise the course over and over..

Very much doubt they can get this in tonight; the line of storms hugging the coastline from north-east to south-west is almost uncanny. They could linger there and lay down a speedy inch or two of rain, or just continue to drift east. Wouldn't be optimistic the way things look right now.

Those yet to finish could very well be back on a soft course with little wind.

One thing's for sure, Tiger needs to regroup and a fresh warm-up would help him - plus a session on the putting green.

Do they have until 8:30 or so your time?

About 8.15 p.m. they called it a day last night.

But, remember, they have to warm up again whenever they get go-time!

Kiwni

Whats your feeling as to whether this will resume today, or is it over until tomorrow?

Mac,
They're probably at least an hour away from even thinking about restarting, so I'd say it's essentially over until Sunday.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac,
They're probably at least an hour away from even thinking about restarting, so I'd say it's essentially over until Sunday.

Well that's annoying. Just when I was thinking how kind it was of them to take the leaders off until I got home from work, half an hour ago. But getting home to find there's no live golf for the rest of the night would be even worse than only seeing the back 9! Hopefully (selfishly) there'll be so much delay the final round won't tee off til I get in at this time tomorrow.... I somehow doubt that though.

If no more play happens today will it be possible to finish the whole thing on sunday, or are we looking at a monday finish?

Mystic Kwini, back at 7:45 tomorrow morning ET. No live golf for me today then.

Mclaren

They should get it in two tee start for Round 4 between 11:45-1:45...apparently is the aim

Difficult to see why they can't go earlier than 7.45 a.m., but they should nevertheless be able to begin Round 4 by around 10.30 a.m., earlier if they choose to kick Round 4 off before Round 3 is complete. And that's really what they should do.

Common sense would suggest a first Round 4 tee time of 8.30 a.m., earlier than today as they have to leave time for a play-off.

Still waiting to see how they are playing it.


benson, That is just daft, but there's been dafter things this week . . . . . Edit: But I see it's correct!!!!!

Is it being negative to suggest that in hindsight, maybe holding the leaders back until 3:00pm today wasn't the greatest idea?

Ned,
When they schedule play to suit TV it's almost inevitably not "the greatest idea".
The Golf organizations sell themselves to the highest bidders, but if you suggest they prostitute themselves I'm sure there'd be disagreement.

Hoping for a 40 mph wind in the morning, not looking for too much lol!

If they play as slowly Sunday afternoon as they did in Rounds 1 and 2, they don't have a cat in hell's chance of completing any play-off.

Can't for the life of me figure out why they don't kick off in twosomes at about 8.30 a.m.
If they have to go in threesomes, surely they don't have to wait until 11.44 a.m.?

They'll be hoist by their own selfish petard, and no problem with that.

How could they start that early!

Like at 8:30?

The bottom half of the leaderboard will all be done by 9.00 a.m., and would be earlier if they resumed play, say, at 7.15 instead of 7.45.

Plenty of time to set tee-times, cut new holes etc.
Woods and Singh would be on the #10 or #11 by the time 8.30 came around, they'd never be caught.


On the other hand, and what we're not being told, perhaps the course sustained significant damage . . . . . . .

Anyway, TV coverage starts here at 8.00 a.m., 1.00 p.m. in Wexford.

And at 1 in Dublin!!!

Ah, but my next door neighbours are from Co.Wexford and I have to give them a shout! Be_The_Ball country I think!