PGA Tour: Runners and Ryders: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).From the ridiculous to the sublime this week, or from the contrived to the (fiercely) competitive if you prefer.
Thumbs down here for the FedEx Cup but thumbs up for the individual tournaments, most of which, as usual, provided for compelling viewing, though perhaps less so as the Play-offs went on - certainly at least half of last weekend's "competitors" seemed to be going through the motions once their chances at the wheelbarrow-full of $10M were gone.

2).The best player of the Play-Offs was clearly identified, Rory McIlroy, while the bloke with the best timing, Brandt Snedeker and his red hot putter, received all the plaudits, not to mention much of the loot.
Rory will be Player Of The Year, no question about that, while Brandt's marathon of nine tournaments in ten weeks was richly rewarded - can only hope that Medinah will be one week too far (as it almost certainly will be for Furyk).

3).And before we look at this week's events in Chicago, a word about the first inductee to the World Golf Hall Of Fame for 2013, Freddie Couples.
Given that no-one received the 65% of the vote in the PGA Tour ballot for automatic induction, Fred was the lucky loser with 51%. No doubt the most popular man on the ballot (the equally well-qualified but terminally curmudgeonly, Weiskopf doesn't even merit a vote any more), Couples led Love and Venturi (38%), O'Meara (36%), Tony Lema (28%), Macdonald Smith (24%) and double-Major winners Zoeller and Stockton. My vote would have been for Venturi but his retirement away from the public eye seems to diminish his legacy rather than enhance it.
"International" votes expected soon. Perhaps a phone call that Padraig Harrington will be happy to receive?

4).While most of America looks the other way, all golfing eyes will be fixed on Chicago this week and Medinah's cauldron. The golfing stereotypes seem to have been in play in setting up Medinah's 7,600 yards:
~Team USA have the best/longest drivers, so widen the fairways for the grip-it-and-rippers and minimize the rough.
~Europe make all the crucial putts, so speed the greens up to Augusta National standards.
~USA prefer flop-shots around the green, Europe the chip-and-run,
etc, etc.
In addition it seems to be fashionable to feel that FedEx action has sharpened Team USA's competitive form.
So let's have a look.

5).Form first, and most of the combatants played Bridgestone, the PGA and at least some Play-Off or ET golf. The players with most owgr points these past eight weeks then are:
McIlroy: 271
Snedeker: 127
Bradley: 115 (but only 10 in the past five weeks)
Rose: 89
Garcia and Woods: 80
Those with fewer than 25 points include: Kuchar, Simpson, Zach, Colsaerts, McDowell, Kaymer and Molinari (with only 9.66 in four events).
Edge to Team USA, though additional tournaments for most of them introduce the fatigue factor.

6).Driving:
With apologies to non-PGA Tour members, the driving distance stats on this year's PGA Tour show:
1st: Bubba Watson
4th: Dustin
5th: McIlroy
14th: Bradley
28th: Westwood
Given Colsaerts' length and Garcia's extra gear this is closer than DLIII probably realises, though clearly Mickelson and Woods can swing for the fences when they can do so with impunity.
Edge to Team USA.

7).Putting:
The "Strokes gained Putting" Tour stats show the following:
1st: Snedeker
2nd: Donald
7th: Mickelson (difficult to believe)
10th: Zach
23rd: Kuchar
24th: Furyk (difficulter to believe)
26th: Garcia (difficultest to believe)
Definite Edge to Team USA.

8).So why fear the Europeans?
Ryder Cup records of golfers with winning RC records:
Westwood: 16-11-6: (2-5 in singles)
Garcia: 14-6-4: (even with a 1 win, 4 losses singles record)
Donald: 8-2-1: (6-0 in foursomes)
Poulter: 8-3-0: (winning record in each format, 3-0 in singles)
McDowell: 4-2-2
Rose: 3-1-0
Lawrie: 3-1-1
Kaymer: 2-1-1

Team USA:
-

Big Edge to Europe, but history may not be worth a damn.

9).I can't see Europe winning unless Garcia and Westwood come up trumps and banish the memory of the forlorn figures they cut at Valhalla.
Head: USA
Heart: Europe
Result: Chicken: 14-14 so Europe keep Cup.

10).And one more compelling reason to hope Europe win:
1991 Ryder Cup protagonist David Feherty has publicly stated he hopes Team USA win.
What a pr1ck.

If we say the europea/usa teams were single players in this ryder cup fighting out for a major over a a day event.

The americans were the pack doing really well in the first 3 rounds. They were holing clutch put after clutch put- But then when it mattered to convert- the europeans dug in.. Roses putt on 17- poults winning the final 2. Westy crushing kuch. Woods killing himself, Mcilroy showing his mettle, Kaymer, LAWRIE AND WETSY taking there players apart..

As a betting man i am- Rose has to be top of the list to convert in a major(out of the english).. He hasnt been quite as mentaly damaged as westy and donald, and he seems to quietly go about his business. And due to his all round game he is possibly slighlty better than poults(ability wise)

But who would we back if the top 4 english were in the final groups in a major- id probally go with poults- just..

Id agree with picking Rose, also has the most time on his side as well. Still have high hopes for Donald as well though.

I think it's unfair to say he won't win a major Mac, he has 2 very important assets i.e. great putting and (in my opinion) is not a bottler.

In fact out of himself, Westwood, Donald and Rose I'd say he's the most likely to win one.

Open 2013 for poults. But then he does do quite well in the US open and pga, - plays well on tough courses! and add to that got back in to the fold final day in the masters as well..

If westwood could just have another storming long game major he could win one by 12..(if the putts drop offcourse)

The thing is that as we've said before anyone can have a good week. Id like to see (have seen) Donald and Westwood winning WGC's (I know Donald has a matchplay win) on a regular basis. There are plenty of these played every year to bag one.
Thats what will always come back to me about Westwood, its all well and good saying he could win by 12 but he hasnt managed to win a single elite tournament with a truly stacked field by one stroke let alone 12 in maybe a 100 or so attempts.

yeah well I wouldnt put it past him.. But I think those two(donald and westy) need to revolve there calenders around the majors- rather than the normal schedule and the WDC's.. Westy has just gone to USA- so he will be competiting week in week out in the USA- that could spark a change for him...

Personally I hate this time in the golf year...

That long wait till the masters!!!

Poulter seems to perform better in the bigger tournaments. Problem is, he needs to get himself in contention. A bit of mental coaching would probably do him well.

Rose used to be a choker, but seems to have turned it around lately.

Anyway, either of the top 4 English (Westy, Rose, Donald, Poulter) could "easily" win a major in 2013.

Westwood, Rose, Poulter or Donald to win a major? I would go with Donald, then Rose. Westwood certainly could do it, but 40ish and first time doesn't happen very often.

Met none other than Gary Player yesterday. Alarmingly fit and boundless enthusiasm. There's a man that hasn't lived life on the sidelines!

Brilliant bloke GP is isnt he.. He has given me a lecture before- Quality man and golfer though

Mysti - At our club for a fundraiser - Very approachable and I could pretty much listen to his stories from "back in the day" for hours.

yeah he told me to quit smoking at a junior open at wentworth, chatted to me for 15 minutes!! nice bloke.. he cares

yea he seems quite preachy alright

Think Rose certainly has a better chance to win a major in my opinion after last week. Produced some of the best golf ive every seen him play to beat Mickelson, have to admit didnt think he had the bottle or quality to do that.

I like Rose and hope he wins a major...however question..and this really is more general and just using him on Sunday at the 17th as an example.
Doesnt it take more bottle to hole from inside say 12 feet...where you are maybe not expected but certainly have a good chance.....than hole a vicious downhill 40 footer with a stack of break ? To a degree isnt that more luck than bottle ?

I think to a degree there's always a fair bit of luck involved in holing anything more than 25 feet away or so. Rose in a way had very little to lose on that hole (being 1 down) so had to be committed to sinking it. I think the pressure was greater on the last hole personally...

Shot

Did he bring up his own accomplishments much in conversation?

He did not -- those were pretty much expounded upon by another in the lengthy introduction! (We were at the site of his 1962 PGA Championship, so that was the connection.)

Ah. So he hasn't as big an ego as others make out. I bet he's pretty interesting with a wealth of golfing knowledge and annecdotes to go with it.

Diggers,
Remember that Justin Rose holed a 10-footer par putt on the 16th against Mickelson even before the heroics of 17 &18.


Sr,
Hope SO'H was taking notes - see he's in Las Vegas this week.

Had Woods holed the putts Rose did against Mickelson, everybody would have said that Woods was a f-king unbeleivable genious and only he could pull it out. Now, since Rose did it, Rose was just a bit lucky.

Pedro if you read my post you will clearly see I said it was a general point about which kind of putts are about bottle. Nobody expects anyone to home 40 footers so they aren't in that sense pressure putts.
Nobody is taking anything away from his comeback which was fantastic.

Diggers, I hear you. This is not really a go at you, rather than at all the Woods worshippers. Thing is that I'll bet Rose's putt will never become as famous as Woods' chip on 16 during the Masters, or his double break putt at Sawgrass' 17th, even as it was the pivotal moment of the RC.

Justin Rose used a different putter (according to GolfWorld a Taylor Made Ghost Tour DA-12) for the previous week's Tour Champo - does anyone know if he retained it at Medinah?
He also had used a new RocketBallz driver and 3-wood.

pedro wrote:Diggers, I hear you. This is not really a go at you, rather than at all the Woods worshippers. Thing is that I'll bet Rose's putt will never become as famous as Woods' chip on 16 during the Masters, or his double break putt at Sawgrass' 17th, even as it was the pivotal moment of the RC.

True enough. But if Rose ever holes as many 10 footers as Woods used to then people would remember his glory shots as well like they do Woods.The substance makes the style memorable.

There is allways an element of luck when holing a long putt- But you still have to hit a good putt! its just that good putt may lip out or go in!

The truth is the americans were holing these left right and centre, - but when it truely mattered the Europeans did!

Diggers wrote:Pedro if you read my post you will clearly see I said it was a general point about which kind of putts are about bottle. Nobody expects anyone to home 40 footers so they aren't in that sense pressure putts.
Nobody is taking anything away from his comeback which was fantastic.

The person taking the putt is expecting to hole it even if the armchair fan isn't

I thought Mickelson's reaction to Rose holing the putts and losing the match though was outstanding. A true gent, nice guy and the complete opposite to Woods. Surely it should be Mickelson who is popular and Woods who is disliked as he's in the John Terry, Ashley Cole envelope.

Allways really liked Pmick.. Such a great guy. Cant believe he has been wasted in the ryder cup paired with woods before...

Mickleson is popular Super. He's probably more loved whilst Woods is respected.
I thought there were rumours that he wasn't that popular with other players at one stage, a bit full of himself and the big smile was a bit of a crowd pleaser. Seems genuine enough to me though.

I think Pmick has been around long enough to know that anything can happen in golf. And of all golfers Pmick himself is one who has pulled out magic many a time when mattered. Therefore there was nothing else to do than simply recognize and applaud the opponent (Rose). Well done Pmick.

Maybe that reaction from pmick is why he struggled to win a first major and is 10 behind tiger?

Seriously doubt Phil feels as if he's struggling in any other sphere of his life though, Mac, except having to live with being merely second best to Tiger at golf.

Thought Phil's reaction was great for golf, and outstanding for the competition, most especially because of the circumstances.

kwinigolfer wrote:Thought Phil's reaction was great for golf, and outstanding for the competition, most especially because of the circumstances.

Agree, and would like to think that's how I tend to react with playing partners too... but perhaps not textbook tactics for competitive matchplay situation?

Fair enough if phil gave the thumbs up by the time he got to the next tee. But how on earth was "flukey little S h1t" not his first response?

That was pretty much Tiger's facial expression as Colsaerts rained monster putts down on him last Friday . . . . !

Well, perhaps without the "little" reference, but otherwise probably accurate...

I suspected that Mr Woods might have been thinking that he was being beaten by Westwood in RC matches yet again... and Lee wasn't even playing (at least, not that I saw anyway).

McLaren wrote:Maybe that reaction from pmick is why he struggled to win a first major and is 10 behind tiger?

I know which one I'd rather be, and it wouldn't be the balding nine chinned, misery guts, 14 majors or not.
Mickelson has the capacity to make me cheer him for being a good bloke, Woods certainly doesn't and I wish him the worst as a result.

Yep spot on.. I would ather be Pmick... I dont like the fact he stole that major of Westy mind...

Skydriver wrote:I suspected that Mr Woods might have been thinking that he was being beaten by Westwood in RC matches yet again... and Lee wasn't even playing (at least, not that I saw anyway).

maybe you didn't watch closely enough or you've just been dragged along by the media bandwagon

lee didn't play badly in that match - just steadied the ship and plodded along which allowed colsaerts to go for (and make) his higher risk shots

sure colsaert's 62 or whatever it was, was stunning but would he have done it without a solid partner next to him?

that's what 4BBB is all about

I agree slowy -If your part of a winning team you have done your part- Even if you dont win any holes..

Westy 2/4 is ok, donald 2/4 is ok.

mcilroy and rose 3/5 is good.

poulter 4/4- legend!!