PGA Tour: Play-Offs Act 2: Deutsche Bank: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Congratulations to Nick Watney for winning Play-Off Act 1 at The Barclays. Seventeen greens hit in regulation on Sunday, plus a half mile in putts made during the week, did the trick in a compelling weekend's entertainment. I've enjoyed following Watney from his early days (actually even before that) on Tour, he's got a gorgeous swing and seems to have matured a little from his deer-in-the-headlights public persona. This has been a wasted year for him up until now, but a putting lesson or two from long-time New York area Club Pro (and occasional PGA Tour player) Darrell Kestner seems to have done the trick. For one week at least.

2).Watney has now added Bethpage Black to Torrey Pines, Doral, Aronomink and Pete Dye's TPC Louisiana, a handful of the Tour's stronger tests to have prevailed on, most of them emphatic wins just like this one.

3).The final round didn't go quite as Sergio would have wished, but what a week for him! Winner on Monday, 54-hole lead this weekend, Ryder Cup qualification and it seems as if even the US Press is happy to see him back.

4).Sergio extended his lead of modern era (Jacklin onwards) PGA Tour wins in North America for Europeans with Monday's triumph. Top ten:
1).Garcia - 8
2).Ballesteros - 6
2).Faldo - 6
2).Olazabal - 6
5).Lyle - 5
5).Parnevik - 5
5).Donald - 5
5).Pettersson - 5
9).McIlroy - 4
9).Rose - 4

5).Horses for courses note: Of the seven participants at The Barclays who had made the US Open cuts in 2002 and 2009, all seven made the Barclays cut, though only Garcia was in weekend contention.

6).What difference does this result, Watney's win, Sneds in second, Dustin third, make to Davis Love's Captain's conundrum? The Golf Channel have tabulated what the latest US Ryder Cup qualification results would look like if they had been extended by a fortnight:
9th: Mahan
10th: Snedeker
11th: Stricker
12th: Dustin
13th: Fowler
14th: Furyk
15th: Van Pelt
16th: Watney
Love's selection looked straightforward a week ago; not so much now.

7).And so to Act 2 of the FedEx quartet, or the meat in the Libor sandwich, following Barclays and preceding HSBC. We return to TPC Boston, not exactly in Boston, just barely in Massachusetts, to a once unpopular Arnold Palmer course which has been overhauled by Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon among others and is now well thought of by the Pros. The 18th hole is the latest to be tweaked and the course is close to being the finished product. Rain today should facilitate perfect conditions through Sunday. But see Note 10).

8).Last year Dustin Johnson made the record books by leading the tournament in driving distance AND driving accuracy. But he putted like a drain and finished 42nd, tough to do!
My three against the field this week though would be Dufner (his first top two finish was here, in 2009), Ogilvy and Luke Donald both of whom also have previous here. Dufner, of course, took last week off and Sergio is similarly giving "Boston" a miss.
So is David Toms who will thus be eliminated from the Play-Offs - no injury, off to batten down his Louisiana hatches in anticipation of the tropical storm, or to see his beloved LSU Tigers open their College Football season. Or both.

9).Most of the Europeans in action at the Deutsche Bank have safely secured their passage in the top 70 points list to next week's BMW action, but the following are on the bubble:
Jonas Blixt: 97th (needs very approximately at least a top 20 finish).
Greg Owen: 76th (needs a top 30 finish).
Brian Davis: 70th (needs a top 40 finish).
But others are well off the pace for the Tour Championship and could use a top result: Westwood, McDowell, Laird, Harrington and Poulter.

10).If any reminder is needed as to how insignificant top tournament golf is in the U.S. compared to "football", the overnight TV ratings for an exhibition pre-season NFL game (with most top players participating sparingly if at all) were exactly double those for The Barclays.
Perhaps that is why the "Deutsche Bank Championship" starts on this Friday and concludes on Monday, "Labor Day" in the States, so avoiding most of Sunday's NFL exhibition efforts. Then just two days before they tee off in the BMW, almost 1,000 miles to the west, on a Crooked Stick course in Indiana that hardly anyone will have played.
How ironic it would be if Tropical Storm "Isaac" which is making Hay(es) right now in the Gulf of Mexico, but could be in New England by week's end, gave the Tour's best Monday finish intentions the Shaft!

PS: Best wishes to Retief Goosen following his recent back operation . . . . .

Kwin - Great recap.

Boggles my mind that Sergio has not won a major yet. Them's the breaks as they say.

Is it just me or does it look like Watney loses almost every tee shot to the right after he swings? Vj like in that respect. No denying his accomplishments, however.

O'Hair will need to go low this weekend.

I would not read too much into the golf ratings vs. football. Not an either/or situation ... I don't suspect those big circles overlap too much. Top tournament golf basically every weekend starting in January, football a more limited season, and not a 4 day run like most every golf tournament.

Hi Sr,
S O'H has played well there before - you never know!

Only mentioned the TV ratings because the level of Football popularity still amazes me after three or four decades of it - can just about comprehend the NFL season and certainly the Play-Offs, but so much fanaticism for pre-season, and meaningless games where there's no penalty (relegation) for failure just boggles the mind! But I'll change my mind if the Bills start well!

Watney seems a very nice guy, off last Sunday to celebrate in Manhattan with Adam Scott (and Ana?), Tim Clark and Charlie Hoffman apparently!

Nice one as usual Kwini. Am I being thick or is Westwood already in the top 30? Or is it that volatile?

Thanks Smithers,
Westwood is 27th right now but a missed cut this week would mean he'll fall out of the top 30 and need a good result in the Beemer to retrieve his place in the Tour Championship.

The top 13 in the current FedEx points standings are all but certain to stay in the Top 30 - Donald and Rose are 14th and 15th but I hardly expect them to have two consecutive (three for Justin) bad weeks and they can pretty much book their flights.

SmithersJones wrote:Nice one as usual Kwini. Am I being thick or is Westwood already in the top 30? Or is it that volatile?

Westwood is currently #27.... but he's by no means safe to stay there through the next two weeks. 5 players fell out of the top-30 just this past week... one of those was last week's #27 Graham McDowell who missed the cut and fell to #33.

kwinigolfer wrote:The top 13 in the current FedEx points standings are all but certain to stay in the Top 30 - Donald and Rose are 14th and 15th but I hardly expect them to have two consecutive (three for Justin) bad weeks and they can pretty much book their flights.

Actually no player ranked #13 or above STARTING the playoffs has failed to make it to the final in the history of the FedEx Cup. It could have happened, but hasn't happened yet. Another source (that I have misplaced) has current #10 as the last position mathematically safe into the final after week 1... #11 could get knocked out if every star aligned in just the wrong direction... impractical, but possible A good guess is that likely #16 or #17 are probably safe into the final. Since they changed to this version of the reset... supposedly #18 is the highest ranked player after week 1 to not make the top-30.

EDIT: And as always Kwini.... thanks for your efforts... always an interesting read and "table setter" for the week.

Thanks Gents. Fingers crossed that those guys all have a good week then.

Cheers robo,
pgatour.com suggest that anyone ranked 54th or better entering the Deutsche Bank is sure to qualify for BMW.

All should remember that among the significances of qualifying for the Tour Championship is that it brings with it:
1).A last place prize of about $130K.
2).A FedEx bonus of $175K.
3).A passport into next year's first three Majors (and the Cadillac? Not 100% sure, the entry criteria is a bit ambiguous).

Well worth playing for then!

kwinigolfer wrote:...7).And so to Act 2 of the FedEx quartet, or the meat in the Libor sandwich, following Barclays and preceding HSBC...

Great read as usual Kwini. Cheers.

Doesn't Harrington have five PGA TOUR wins or do the two opens not count or something?

Hi benson,
Well, yes, but I stipulated:
"PGA Tour wins in North America".
Harrington, like Jacklin and Langer and perhaps some others, has three.

Actually thought it was quite an interesting list when I compiled it. Makes one each for Poulter, Jacobson, Casey, McDowell etc look paltry.

Oh my apologies for not reading....

Garcia has 8. Stick that in your potato Harrington.

Thought Sandy Lyle's achievements in the States are probably the most under-appreciated . . . . . .

super_realist wrote:Garcia has 8. Stick that in your potato Harrington.

Lyle definitely under-rated IMO.

kwinigolfer wrote:Cheers robo,
pgatour.com suggest that anyone ranked 54th or better entering the Deutsche Bank is sure to qualify for BMW.

All should remember that among the significances of qualifying for the Tour Championship is that it brings with it:
1).A last place prize of about $130K.
2).A FedEx bonus of $175K.
3).A passport into next year's first three Majors (and the Cadillac? Not 100% sure, the entry criteria is a bit ambiguous).

Well worth playing for then!

And no place in the Masters for the winner of the Race to Dubai, never mind the Top 30.........................now that they've ended their discrimination against women, maybe it's time Billy payne and his mates ended their discrimination against the European Tour................

Just the way Billy Payne would want it, John, remember Condoleeza's old mate Rumsfeld slagging off "Old Europe", while "Europe" is Republican code for anti-Obama-speak, universal health care etc etc.

It's not just the R2D which is dissed, it's the Open Championship as well:
Masters exemptions:
US Open: Top eight finishers.
Open Championship: Top four.

T0sspots.

I do not like the Tour Championship/Top 30 exemption into the Majors.

A player can parlay a podium finish into a top 30 and still finish well back in the Money list. Chez Reavie did it last year, Kevin Streelman the preceding year and Marc Leishman the year before that.

I expect that the Masters will be shedding the Top 30 FE Pt exemption very soon.

GPB,
Quite a few decisions for The Masters committee to make for exemptions going forward. Two will be:
~What happens to the current top 30 money exemption? Will that go away altogether, or perhaps it might turn into the top 30 FedEx Points prior to the Play-Offs?

~Will the Fall Series winners receive Masters invites as well as full FedEx Points? Currently they don't.

Given their reluctance/policy not to increase field size, one would think adding "Fall" winners to the field will come at a price!

Heres my "alternative" Masters invite Criteria, allowing for their normal field of say 98 players:

Past champions for past 15 years
Top 60 in OWGR at end March
Winners of OWGR events with 40 + ranking points anywhere in world in past year
5 year exemption for winners of other 3 Majors
2 amateurs
Top 20 PGA Tour Money List
Top 20 European Tour Money list

Do you think Billy will go for it??

Do you think Billy will go for it??

Not on this planet,

The Past Champions will not go away. Fred Couples would not have played the last few years without that exemption.

Amateurs are always going to be invited to the Masters.

Do you not think 2nd place from the previous year should not get an invite back?

FWIW top 60 in OWGR and Top 20 PGAT and Euro Money list are going to overlap, almost completely.

I do think that the OWGR 40+ criteria is a better criteria.

GPB,

I know of course Augusta would NOT be interested!!
I did put it together quite quickly am probably well below the 98 figure considering the overlaps (which i accounted for)...............

Forgot the "last years Masters" invites............lets say Top 12 & ties
Probable edge toward Top 30 on PGA TourMoney, and say Top 25 on Euro Money......................

Must do a calculation of this for the 2012 Masters to see how many are in (when i have a lot of spare time!!).............

is it not rediculous that the major events in golf become so political? Why isnt there similar criteria for every one of the majors ie one that gets the best players there. For example its a complete joke when you see 20 pga pros at the bottom of the leaderboard in one of the biggest competitions. What would people think if there was 20 coaches competing in the tennis us open this week. There has got to be 20 pros more deserving of a spot. Personally think the british and us open have the fairest qualifying systems in place.

Skiddy, The PGA invited 20 pros (out of 156) to their own championship. They also invited the top 100 pro of the OWGR. It has, without question, the best field in majors. Only the British Open comes close.

The Players Championship is the least diluted tournament in golf. Very few players outside the top 500.

Update on Jarrod Lyle's condition from his agent, reported in USAToday:

"Jarrod is going really well but obviously he is not out of the woods yet."
"He's ticked every box so far in the treatment results but there is no timetable to get back to golf."

Good luck and good health to Jarrod Lyle.

You can't keep a good Twitter down.
IanJamesPoulter on his Friday morning assignment:
"Just seen my teetime for Friday," followed by 34 x "Ha"'s.

His partners are Ben Crane and Kevin Na - sympathies to Poults.

Boston is the largest City in New England, but few PGA Tour players come from here, Vermonter Keegan Bradley being the best of the bunch.
With Brad Faxon having emigrated to the Champions Tour and Billy Andrade now seen more often with an on-course microphone than a golf club in hand, Boston resident James Driscoll is the top player still living in New England.

But Scott Stallings grew up in Worcester, about 40 miles from TPC Boston. He's been in good form ever since his win last month in Mississippi and could be worth keeping an eye on.


Meanwhile, four Europeans graduated last year from the Nationwide (as was) Tour, Blixt and Chopra, Christian and Knox. The only probable European "graduate" from this year's web.com Tour is Sweden's David Lingmerth, the only European in the Top 25 (25th!). But he kicked off this week's web.commer with a 66 and a podium finish come Sunday will make him odds on to be playing in the "show" next year.

The Open Championship is sometimes cited as an event which favours one side of the draw or the other.

We may see a hint of that in Friday's Round 1 of the Deutsche Bank as conditions will heat up under a hot sun and a pleasant morning breeze will turn into a brisk and potentially blustrous 20 mph wind in the afternoon.

Fortunately for the Europeans, most of them (Poulter, McDowell, Westwood, Harrington, Donald, Rose, Owen, Blixt and Pettersson) are in the morning wave, but McIlroy, Laird and Davis are batting in the afternoon and could be at a serious disadvantage.

The weekend looks fine and any action from "Isaac" will likely appear on Monday evening.

kwinigolfer wrote:All should remember that among the significances of qualifying for the Tour Championship is that it brings with it:
1).A last place prize of about $130K.
2).A FedEx bonus of $175K.
3).A passport into next year's first three Majors (and the Cadillac? Not 100% sure, the entry criteria is a bit ambiguous).

As per WGC-Cadillac... you are correct. For future reference here is the full Caddy criteria...

Eligible players are:
• The top 50 players, including any players tied for 50th place, from the Official
World Golf Ranking as of February 27, 2012.
• The top 50 players, including any players tied for 50th place, from the Official
World Golf Ranking as of March 5, 2012.
• The top 30 players from the final 2011 FedExCup Points List.
• The top 10 players from the FedExCup Points List as of March 5, 2012.
• The top 20 players from the final 2011 European Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 10 players from the European Tour Order of Merit as of February 27, 2012.
• The top 2 players from the final 2011 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2011 Australasian Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2011 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2011 Asian Tour Order of Merit.

Thanks robo,
The criteria that I read didn't unequivocally stipulate the FedEx prior year criteria.
There's the minimum of another $36K then, rich pickings for the chosen few.
Approximately a minimum of $350K!

All majors should have the following formula, where x is field size

Top (x-(silly invites of the governing bodies whims)) of the OWGR on a date about 2 weeks before the event.

Hopefully (x - "invites") is very close to x, so they could have the following "invites" on top of the above;

Last years champion

players entering the OWGR qualification positions between the field being announced and the event commencing.

If they really must pander to some sort of tradition in terms of amateur picks then have the current US, british and asian amateur champions.

Thanks kwini, great piece

I was particularly drawn by that table at #4, quite interesting how well the top Spanards have done over the years there. And correct me if I'm wrong , is it true that the top 5 in that list didn't really live in US at the time they won those, in the way guys like Luke, Poults, GMAC, etc. are these days?

Beam me up to the top of the LB, Scotty! He really seems to be very close to winning something this guy... will it be the big FedEx pot?

Promissing start by the Euros, with the exception (hopefully only temporary) of Paddy... I'm guessing there should be one or two guys cheering for him there in Boston....

EDIT: Oooops! There's another Scotty...

Cheers pd,

Not really sure where some of these guys would call home, Sergio for instance as he spends so much time in the States; and would think Faldo was resident here for at least his last two wins. Lyle has a place in the Jacksonville area but don't know where he was 25 years ago!
Certainly Parnevik was one of the first top players to take full-time residence here.

Am puzzled by Justin Rose's form last week and so far in Round 1 - Europe need him to be at his best at Medinah!

so then the majors are over and the english start performing again!!!!

Currently 8 players tied at -3..........pgatour.com in their live projected Fed Ex Cup projections give all 8 the 2500 points for 1st place making a complete mockery of the table..........happens every year(including Tour Ch'ship).....................ridiculous.................

Weekday Tiger doing what weekday Tiger does.

Nice start!!

One or two rounds, however, does not a tournament make.

I wouldn't get too excited about the English boys, Mysti - it's obviously playing easy. Otherwise how could Woods be leading?

Shotrock - which Woods will we see tomorrow? It's the weekend, but it'll only be round 2. Going to confuse everyone, I should think.

is he leading - how the heck did i not even see him on top of the leaderboard!!

hopefully the wind will blow this afternoon- my money is on pults this week!!

SmithersJones - Your guess is as good as mine!

If the forecast is to be believed, the "afternoon wave" could be in for a torrid time; windy, hot and the spectre of the greens really firing up.

Surprised morning scores are not lower - Woods so far hitting fairways, hitting greens and making putts.

Kwini nice to hear!! sweet!

6 birdies in a row for TW. Nice!

Wow ... evidently official tiger hater's voodoo dolls on the fritz.

He'll need a monster lead going into any final two days however.

According to Shotrock's usual thesis, this should be a piece of p1ss for Luke Donald this weekend . . . . . . . . Time he enjoyed a "backdoor" win.

well with a start like that Id put him as second fav at the moment behind mr woods

Much wider variance in scores this afters, from -6 to +5 just on the first nine holes. Wind should pick up just a bit more but Ryan Moore's and Noh's scores are shockingly good!

Not so fast Kwini, Lukey still needs to face another weekday.

Look for Tiger to have a rough weekend.

A virtual birdie fest out there today!

You talking about Monday??!!

I'm thinking S O'H needs at least a Top Thirty finish to make his guaranteed payday in Indianapolis . . . . .

Many more over-par scores creeping on to the "leaderboard" this afternoon now, wonder if Moore and/or Noh can maintain their pace? I'd bet probably not.

Noh, Yes!