PGA Tour: FedEx Intermission: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Oh Rory, Rory, Rory (to paraphrase Rory speaking about St.Padraig)!

2).And so the final 30 survivors (of 125 starters) proceed to East Lake, in Atlanta, for the Tour Championship. But not this week, next week. Presumably all those who felt a two-day gap between the Deutsche Bank tournament and the BMW was perfectly desirable will similarly be able to rationalise the logic behind having the Tour's week off this week instead of last.

3).Only Garcia, Senden and Ryan Moore among those outside the Top 30 money-winners advance to East Lake, so no Chez Reavie-, Heath Slocum-, Martin Laird-style longshot surprises in this year's Play-Offs. In addition to Sergio, Europeans McIlroy, Westwood, Pettersson, Donald and Rose move on but four fall by the wayside:

~Harrington - After bemoaning his absence from WGC's as a factor in Ryder Cup exclusion, Padraig faces the same fate for 2013 unless he can reach the owgr Top 50 (64 for the MatchPlay).

~Laird - Will be absent from early exemption into the 2013 Majors and possibly WGC's unless he can finish the year in style - returning to Las Vegas, scene of a past win and runner-up, should help him.

~McDowell - Didn't really seem to be in tune with the Play-off series. Complained of fatigue and hopefully will turn up at Medinah refreshed.

~Poulter - Perennial FedEx bridesmaid not helped by triple-bogeying the first hole of Sunday's Round 4. Nice bounce-back to finish 12th, but has never reached the Tour Championship. No Tweets that could be construed as negative about Crooked Stick and suspect his Tour-related twitterage has temporarily been muzzled!

4).The bennies for qualifying for the Tour Championship are huge, guaranteed prizemoney ($128K for finishing 30th and last), entry in to 2013 Majors and WGC Cadillac, AND a minimum $175K (for 30th place and rising incrementally to $10M) bounty from the FedEx bonus distribution. Ah, the bonus distribution! Top ten beneficiaries as follows:
$20,275,000: Woods (plus minimum $175K for 2012)
$12,940,000: Furyk (plus minimum $175K)
$10,870,000: Vijay Singh (plus $150K)
$10,411,000: Bill Haas (plus $155K)
$6,230,000: Mickelson (plus minimum $175K)
$6,205,000: Stricker (plus minimum $175K)
$4,410,000: Donald (plus minimum $175K)
$4,080,000: Kuchar (plus minimum $175K)
$3,713,000: Villegas (plus $32K)
$3,185,000: Simpson (plus minimum $175K)
nb: Mahan, Mickelson and Stricker are the only three to reach the Tour Championship each FedEx year.

5).Crooked Stick seemed to be a popular host course for everyone who could get by the occasional refrain from Poults and others that this year's FedEx tracks were paradise for the Tour's bombers'. Lift, clean and place was dictated by soaking rains and a saturated course, and led to lower scores than perhaps desirable, but don't expect it to be another 21 years before the Tour's best return.
Earliest likely dates are 2016 for the BMW, 2020 for the PGA Championship - highly speculative at the moment.

6).With the preliminary rounds of the PGA Tour Q-School getting underway at courses across the (southern part of) the country, it's worth noting that this will be the last year of Q-School as we know it, certainly as a direct avenue to the PGA Tour. Precise details still have to be published but this week's web.commer in Boise, Idaho, is likely to be replaced next year by the final week of the 2013 web.com series.
Edit dated Spt 11th: Details continue to filter out of PGA Tour HQ and there are unconfirmed reports being published today that next year's criteria for retaining "playing privileges" will include the Top 125 on the Money List AND FedEx Points. Good!

7).Last year saw Blixt, Christian, Chopra and Knox graduate from the Nationwide Tour, but Sweden's David Lingmerth is almost certain to be the only European web.com player challenging for a 2013 PGA Tour card, currently holding the final qualifying place, 25th with just six events left after this week.

8).The only Europeans to log significant time on the Champions Tour this year have been Bernhard Langer (2nd on the money list), Roger Chapman (8th) and Sandy Lyle (55th). All are guaranteed exemption through 2013, and all are giving this week's "Pacific Links Hawaii Championship" a miss. Next notables turning 50 include Rocco Mediate and Steve Elkington later this year . . . . . . and Vijay Singh next February.

9).European ladies continue to ply the LPGA Tour with varying degrees of success. Leaders on the money-list include Azahara Munoz (6th), Suzann Pettersen (15th), Nordqvist (17th), Gal (22nd), Icher (25th) and the leading British player, Catriona Matthew, 41st. Other British Tour members include Jodi Ewart (50th), Stupples (69th), Becky Morgan (72nd), Dame Laura Davies (100th), and Janice Moodie struggling at 127th. The "Ricoh Women's British Open" starts Thursday at Royal Liverpool.

10).And last, but never least, this week saw the birthdays of Arnold Palmer (83) and Tom Watson (63). Continued good health to both of them.

I don't know if this has been noted anywhere, but last weekend, Maria Floyd, wife of 4 time Major winner Ray Floyd lost her battle with cancer.

Edit: Quiros has hired Butch Harmon as a swing coach.

Harmon stable includes Woodland, D Johnson, and Quiros.

Thanks GPB,
Met Maria Floyd once, at a Senior Open - Ray Floyd gives her a ton of credit for helping Playboy Ray realise his potential (hate that word, usually describes something you've failed so far to achieve!).

. . . . and Mickelson? Hopefully Screaming Lord Butch can help Alvaro (coincidentally the name of Pat Eddery's first winner - anyone remember that?). Gary Woodland certainly not enjoying much success.

Golf Channel is rebroadcasting the singles day at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

Jarmo is quite an @$$. What is he doing now? And Coltart and Van de Velde?

Hi Kwini, thanks for filling in this weeks void with your notes.

Being very busy recently and with a week out the country, with no wifi, I was very confused with the playoff schedule....

Looking at your bonus bounty beneficiaries its still surprising, for me, to see Villegas fall so far in recent years. Ok he isnt pennyless but I thought he had the game to hang around the top a little longer than he did. Maybe focus is the problem. There was the caddy changes too.

Still sad to see the Q-School format change. As a stand alone event the whole feeling of the thing will be changed next year, for the worst.

Ray Floyd does indeed credit his wife for kicking him up the erchie in his instructional book - The Art of Scoring. Very good book.

GPB, Think Jarmo turns up on the ET every now and then... yup, played in Sweden in June. With the short driver I'd think. Coltart and VdV both do coverage. Coltart as a not so bad studio pundit and VdV as an occasionally dodgy co-commentator.

PS So very disappointed in Woodland's season. Very impressive game under Randy Smith. Stupid agents!

I'm not entirely sure this will make us feel better about Martin Laird, but at least there's nothing about "faith":

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/r/09/11/pga-tour-wives-18-things-about-martin-laird/index.html#

kwinigolfer wrote:I'm not entirely sure this will make us feel better about Martin Laird, but at least there's nothing about "faith":

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/r/09/11/pga-tour-wives-18-things-about-martin-laird/index.html#

Does being a Newcastle Utd fan not count?

Lairdy,
I haven't spent enough time in Scotland to know whether supporting Newcastle might be a form of heresy . . . . and we certainly can't get Belhaven here - but at least he's not raving about iced tea, the apparent preferred beverage of the PGA Tour and its god squad.

Warmed up a bit to the FedEx cup this year compared to previous years, there's been some great, exciting golf played these last few weeks... Still find it hard to take the Tour Champ format though, with this tiny field flooded with ranking points (and $$$) but having such a big impact on the winner of the big prize... With all his wins and dominant performances in the last few events, if Rory just loses for example in a playoff to Snedd, Lefty, etc. he still loses the prize...

Anyway, moving to the Q-school... are there any hints or rumours about notables from around Europe who are going to take that route this year? From around here I heard rumours that Shane Lowry might give it a go...

GPB wrote:Golf Channel is rebroadcasting the singles day at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

Jarmo is quite an @$$. What is he doing now? And Coltart and Van de Velde?

Jarmo is battling the cutline (and local storms) on the Asian Tour, in Taiwan at the moment. Struggling really to make too much of an impression even there these days...

pd,
Haven't heard of any ET regulars who are planning to try Tour Q-School, though Lara and Lefeber seem to have a go most years.
But some guys only have very tenuous status so presumably they'll participate:
Karlsson
Cejka
Johnson
Chopra
Edit: Suppose Paul Casey should be added to this list.
as well as guys like Gronberg and Knox.

It'll be interesting to see who gives it a whirl, but most Europeans would have to endure all 3 stages which is a BIG deterrent.

If any of the better players gave it a whirl I'd expect Canizares to be among them - he's been a member before and went the US College route, tho' he now seems content in Europe.

Boise, Idaho, hosts one of the web.com Tour's biggest events this week, but Wales's Ben Briscoe is not enjoying himself - four birdies, but went to bed at +3, good for 149th and another weekend without pay unless he conjures something spectacular today. Only one pay-day for him since April after a respectable start to his year.

Danny Lee among PGA Tour members in with a good Round 1, Gary Christian on the cut-line.

Whats with this?

from bbc sport website;

The second-round scores of 36 players were scrapped after the Women's British Open was suspended due to 50mph winds.

Play got under way at 07:00 BST on Friday, but those on the course at Hoylake were a cumulative 52 over par when it was halted an hour later.

A Ladies' Golf Union statement read: "It would have been unfair to those competitors not to cancel all scores for the round in question."

Since when were scores wiped in golf tournaments?

I had the dangest time trying to find links from the PGATour website to Q-school.

If anyone is interested here is a direct link. Prequalification is this week. and Stage 1 is next month in 13 locations.tp://www.pgatour.com/qschool/

I had to google it to find it. Why it is not front and center in the homepage, I have no clue.

GPB,
Navigate to it via the "Tournaments" page. The Q-School section is hardly up-to-date journalism but it does have links to all the courses, and runners and riders. But I had to go to wiki to confirm the exemption rules!

McLaren wrote:Whats with this?

from bbc sport website;

The second-round scores of 36 players were scrapped after the Women's British Open was suspended due to 50mph winds.

Play got under way at 07:00 BST on Friday, but those on the course at Hoylake were a cumulative 52 over par when it was halted an hour later.

A Ladies' Golf Union statement read: "It would have been unfair to those competitors not to cancel all scores for the round in question."

Since when were scores wiped in golf tournaments?

Yes, I'm baffled as well. Is it a childrens tournament? Do they also have Mulligans?

Does the Web.com Tour have the same 3-win rule like on the Challenge Tour?
Wittenberg looks close to that 3rd win, which would mean dirrect (and immediate?) access to the main PGA Tour?

In form Guthrie lurking as well, with Horschel not out of it either...

Yes it does, "Battlefield promotion" they call it, but the "exemption category" is pretty low so, with restricted Fall Series field sizes he might not gain entry and would probably be better off web.comming it.
Decent field here, this week and next.
The perils of projecting a fine amateur career into instant Tour success (as in the casey of Wittenburg of course) shown again in Boise:
Patrick Cantlay missed the cut, Jamie Lovemark failed to get into the field (as did earlier battlefield promotion whizz-kid Aberdeen's Michael Sim).

Billy Horschel should arguably have won last year's McGladreys - hope he's in the field again this year. There have been signs during the season that he's growing up a bit and would still think he's got a good career ahead of him (like Guthrie!).

Not sure what the argument for a Billy Horschel win McGladrey would be. He finished T20 and 8 shots behind. And wasn't even the third round leader.

So Guthrie confirms once again that he'll be one to watch next year... but with every result the pressure on him will grow. A la Lovemark perhaps.

A few things to add on some of the other talking points in this event-less week:

Re Jarmo: He always had a reputation for being a little eccentric, and a little abrasive; a bit of a love-him-or-hate-him character for the rest of the tour pros I think. I read a good article on that aspect of his personality a year or two ago, might see if I can find it in a bit. He seems to be yet another who's just drifted off the tour, regained his card a couple of times at Q-school, with ever-diminishing results; even that was beyond him the past year or two.

Re wind at the Ladies Open: One of the papers over the weekend said the precedent was set at an open back in the 1980s. A little research shows it was '88 at Lytham, when the 3rd round was started, abandoned, and re-started from scratch on Sunday, due to flooded greens. Seems a little odd in that instance, but I can understand it for a wind delay: if there's no prospect of restarting until the following day, when things are much calmer, it'd be fairer all round to let everyone play their whole rounds in the "normal" conditions, rather than disadvantage half the field.

Re US q-school: I'm not much more clued up on recognisable Euro entrants than Kwini; but I do believe Pelle Edberg is lining it up for a shot. Meanwhile, a few less glamorous Euros were at "pre-qualifying" last week: in Florida, ex-Challenge Tour winner Adrien Mork cruised through, having lead through two rounds, as did fellow Frenchman by-way-of-Tahiti Vaita Guillaume, who played a main tour event last month, and also Jersey's Gyles Robin (the next Vardon/Ray?). England's Tom Murtagh missed out though, and Ireland's Garrett Leahy propped up the entire field. In Texas, Dornoch's Jimmy Gunn was a comfortable qualifier, and in California, Sean Whiffin, late of Enfield, and the Challenge Tour ten years ago, didn't even make the 1st tee.
At least 15 more Euros appearing at various venues this week, including Walker Cupper Wallace Booth, and former college successes Scotto and Bouniol (FRA), Norlander, Stark and Zetterwall (SWE), Jaeger (GER) and Loftsson (Iceland).

I've attached a link from the Irish Indpendent last week. Shane Lowry is going to try for the PGA Tour as apparently are Richie Ramsay & Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

The report seems to indicate that there could be several more Europeans giving it a go this year before the qualification criteria changes next year.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/lowry-hits-school-in-bid-to-live-american-dream-3228183.html

Excellent link Tinmar! A few of us on here suggested a few weeks ago that European interest might be increased with the "now-or-never" situation, but that's the first I've seen of any firm announcements from anyone.

Thanks Tinmar,
Had heard rumours of Lowry but not Ramsay and Gonzo.
Lowry's road especially will be arduous, three Stages with the first two demanding top twenty-ish finishes and "Final" Stage when only the Top 25 earn cards. And, even then, no expectation of getting in to more than two or three of the first eight or ten tournaments unless the Q-School result is a very high finish.

Odds stacked against these guys and conversations with Brian Davis and Anders Hansen would probably be instructive as to the risks and rewards of PGA Tour membership.

But good luck to them; will Colsaerts and Donaldson join them?

Great link Tinmar

Not sure about others apart from these three, but from similar sources I heard recently that others like Hoey and RRock have decided NOT to go that route... Is there a deadline before you have to let the PGA Tour know if you want to join Q-school ?

Kwini - Colsaerts is currently world ranked 35 while Castano is 37. If they were to have a strong finish to the season, they could both conceivably get up much higher. What sort of entitlements might they have in the US next season if they chose not to go to the Tour School?

If they do enter the school, would they both have to go through two stages? It seems ridiculous a current Ryder Cup player exempt into all of the Majors & WGCs not being exempt straight into the final stage.

pd,
Q-School entries for Stages 1, 2 and 3 have to be submitted by Wednesday week, Sept 26th.


Tinmar,
Not definitively positive but the info that I have as it applies to European players is:
Exempt into Stage 1: Anyone who has played in a Major the past two years, anyone who has made the cut in a PGA Tour event, anyone ranked 101 - 200 in the owgr. That's where Lowry is destined.

Exempt into Stage 2: Anyone who made the cut in a Major this year, 51 - 100 in the owgr. Ramsay.

Stage 3: Top 50 in owgr. Gonzo.

Players not going the Q-School route will be eligible for all Majors, WGC's and The Players for which they are qualified, plus up to 7 "sponsor exemptions" per year, though there is a ceiling (twelve tournaments in total?) in total appearances.

There are other nuances, including the Special Temporary Membership via which Hanson (and Ishikawa) are included this year, and anyone finishing in the Top Ten in a PGA Tour event (or US-based Major, not sure about The Open) is eligible for entry in to the next full-field tournament - which excludes "invitationals".

Clear as mud, I know!

Thanks, Kwini.

I suspect that the American food culture has something to do with Lowry's move?

pedro wrote:I suspect that the American food culture has something to do with Lowry's move?

With Lumpy approaching the end of his Tour career, because of debilitating health problems with his hands quite apart from his declining golfing prowess, perhaps the Tour solicited Lowry's interest in a vain effort for diversity from the bible-thumping college frat boys that populate their ranks of up-and-comers. Can Joel Sjoholm be far behind?

In all (well, some) seriousness, I would have thought Lowry would be exactly the type of golfer who would NOT thrive on the PGA Tour. He's also struck me as a worker of the ball rather than a grip-it-and-rip-it banger - shouldn't have thought he'd be any shorter than 10/1 against even getting thru Q-School. And then, the more suitable courses for him early in the season, especially in California, would be at events he'd have trouble getting in to - plus he'd miss the Dubai-Qatar-Abu Dhabi swing.

kwinigolfer wrote:With Lumpy approaching the end of his Tour career, because of debilitating health problems with his hands quite apart from his declining golfing prowess, perhaps the Tour solicited Lowry's interest in a vain effort for diversity from the bible-thumping college frat boys that populate their ranks of up-and-comers. Can Joel Sjoholm be far behind?

In all (well, some) seriousness, I would have thought Lowry would be exactly the type of golfer who would NOT thrive on the PGA Tour. He's also struck me as a worker of the ball rather than a grip-it-and-rip-it banger - shouldn't have thought he'd be any shorter than 10/1 against even getting thru Q-School. And then, the more suitable courses for him early in the season, especially in California, would be at events he'd have trouble getting in to - plus he'd miss the Dubai-Qatar-Abu Dhabi swing.

agreed Kwini. hes very unsuited to the American game IMO

He looks like an American though with that belly.

I heard that Carl Petterson already invited him for dinner.

Petterson might EAT Lowry.

It's ALL about the lure of $$$$$$..................i've seen Lowry in the flesh a few times, he not that fat............

100th on Euro Tour gets you about € 300,000 100th on PGA Tour gets you about $900,000 . plus the lure of making 2 OR 3 Play off events and the riches that would bring...........

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=shane+lowry&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=918&bih=618&tbm=isch&tbnid=eOxsgkevFXJHsM:&imgrefurl=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/irish-open/irish-open-player-profiles-shane-lowry-16178013.html&docid=bDcfmdYuNmOS4M&imgurl=http://cdn.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00694/shanelowry_694013g2.jpg&w=456&h=320&ei=eYFYUKbaHafk4QTQwIDQCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=256&vpy=160&dur=1199&hovh=188&hovw=268&tx=157&ty=112&sig=117611473321078114351&page=2&tbnh=130&tbnw=157&start=15&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:15,i:205

Not exactly Lena Zavaroni is he?

John,
100th on the PGA Tour moneylist would represent a seriously good year for Lowry, I would think.
I'd see him much more likely to go down Kenneth Ferrie Road than Brian Davis Avenue.
Regardless, if he gets through Q-School he'll have done well.
But: Suppose he misses out on the PGA Tour, but earns a web.com card; what would he do then?

kwinigolfer wrote:John,
100th on the PGA Tour moneylist would represent a seriously good year for Lowry, I would think.
I'd see him much more likely to go down Kenneth Ferrie Road than Brian Davis Avenue.
Regardless, if he gets through Q-School he'll have done well.
But: Suppose he misses out on the PGA Tour, but earns a web.com card; what would he do then?

Surely he'd stay in Europe if he didn't get a reasonable PGA Tour Card.............personally, i think he should stay in Europe and try and get to the Top 80 in the World Rankings that way. Can't see him doing it in the US right now............

John, Agreed!