PGA Tour: Viva Las Vegas: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Anything any good on the telly last weekend, then?
Wasn't that fantastic??!! Friday and Saturday as well as Sunday, of course. Loved it.

2).The Ryder Cup is surely an event all of its own, 40,000 fans yelling and screaming (most of the time, but they sure went quiet on Sunday), players performing at a level, good or bad, that they seldom reach the rest of the year.
(Every other) Year in, year out, some players perform at a level in the Ryder Cup that they don't approach through the rest of their career. Poulter doubtless just about to be elevated to the Peerage: Baron Poulter of Milton Keynes has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
Defeat every two years doesn't diminish Bubba's Major, or Bradley's or Simpson's, but equally victory doesn't seem to propel the Ryder Cup's stars to a new level - until the next Ryder Cup.
Strange phenomenon in my opinion, but compelling stuff.

3).Monday Morning quarterbacks are out in force pointing out the error of Davis Love's captaincy ways, very few of which I'd subscribe to. Only major question I'd ask is whether some of the younger (frat boy element?) Americans got a bit carried away with Saturday's overnight lead and I would certainly question matching Bubba, Simpson and Keegan against what DLIII must have know would be the strength of the European order. But that's nit-picking really.

4).As for Ollie, he'll escape hindsight because his Team won, but Hanson (an A player in my mind who had been in good form) rightly felt aggrieved about spending Saturday in the cooler, and selecting the superb Paul Lawrie in fourballs rather than foursomes raised eyebrows. But in Ollie's case all's well that ends well, and that ended superbly.
Biggest wobble that could have been crucial? Surely Colsaerts four-putting the par 5 10th (three putts from inside 3 feet) to go one down instead of one up against Dustin Johnson. But after Friday's heroics that deserves to be forgotten!
And plenty of redemption to go round, starting with the wins of Garcia, Kaymer and Westwood.

5).Lots about the inspiration of Seve, but the inspiration of Tony Jacklin should never be under-estimated. He didn't hit the shots that got Europe into a winning culture, but he certainly provided the structure. Sir Tony is overdue a little recognition.
Now, who will fill the Captains' shoes?
There's clamour in the US press for Fred Couples, despite him not really ticking all the PGA Of America's traditional boxes, or Phil as Playing Captain. But I'd consider them long-shots and expect David Toms to get the call.
Paul McGinley seems to be the European heir apparent, followed by Clarke, Bjorn and, presumably, Harrington. Sure to be heated discussion about that!

6).And so from the crucible of fire that was Medinah to the desert heat of Las Vegas (blazing forecast for the first day or so, sunny and warm all week) and the first Fall Series tournament. Lots of sunscreen to be applied by a decent field with a surprising amount to play for:

7).The top thirty money-winners still get invites to Augusta National and one or two just outside and not yet exempt are in the field: Kyle Stanley, Johnson Wagner and defending champ Kevin Na.

8).The race is still on to keep "playing privileges" for 2013, prize-money for the year of $750K probably will clinch a card, but "Notables" not yet secure and playing in Las Vegas include:
Brian Gay
Weekley
Gary Christian
Jerry Kelly and Justin Leonard (who may both use a career money exemption)
Vaughn Taylor
Daly
Villegas
Karlsson (poor finish in last week's web.com stop)
Russell Knox
Danny Lee (apparently fired by his caddie)
Imada

9).Who else is there? Captain America, Davis Love, sure he'll have an interesting media meeting; plus Garrigus, Moore, Watney, Charlie Howell, Sabbatini, Vijay, Tim Clark continuing his comeback, Allenby and Immelman. Unfortunately not Martin Laird and Jonathan Byrd, winners in 2009 and 2010, both of whom are on the cusp of qualifying for The Masters via the owgr Top 50.
Europeans include Blixt, Chopra, Jacobson and Karlsson, but surprisingly not Stenson. Brian Davis is there with Greg Owen, while this week and the remaining Fall Series events are critical for Gary Christian and Russell Knox.

10).Finally, Golf Digest reminded me of the story of "Billy's Bar" in the Bingley St.Ives Golf Club which is dedicated to Billy Foster. To quote John Huggan's article:
"On one wall hangs a large photograph. In it, Olazabal and Ballesteros are lining up a putt. Under the photo, in Foster's handwriting, there is a short caption:
"Ryder Cup: Ballesteros and Olazabal versus God and Jesus. Seve and Ollie, 2 up."

Someone should have warned Webb Simpson.

Kwini, great read as usual.

It looks likely that Ireland will have our first ever Ryder Cup Captain in the near future. Just a hunch but I've always thought Paul McGinley is potentially the best captain of the three 40+ Irish players. I would say it is 2014 or never for him. He has obviously had the least distinguished playing career of the three so Gleneagles has to be his best chance. There is a possibility of Ireland having the next three captains though that might be a step too far! By 2018, Padraig could be up against Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter might even be in with a shout. I think he'll be 42 by then.

Jim Furyk & Phil Mickelson will also surely be captains in the next few stagings. They were the two players I was most sorry for on Sunday. Furyk because it's starting to become a pattern and Phil because he hit so many great shots that he was incredibly unfortunate to lose.

By the way, is Paul Casey not playing in Vegas? If he's in Scotland, does that mean he's given up on the US? It must have been tough for him watching his four compatriots over the weekend given the current state of his own career.

Nice summary Kwini. I was thinking about Billy Foster earlier - I saw an interview with him prior to the RC and he was finding it tough knowing he wasn't going to be there. Imagine how the poor guy must feel now knowing what he's missed out on, both as Lee's caddie and as Seve's old sidekick. Hope he makes a full recovery and helps LW to a major next year.

Thanks chaps!

Tinmar,
Casey is at the Dunhill - he probably wouldn't have got in to the Vegas field.


Smithers,
Agree.
I wonder how much Westwood has missed Foster - it's never talked about, and sometimes we wonder about Billy, but I'm sure he knows how to get after Lee, and there's always the chat that he needs to be pushed. Very pleased to see lw1 win his singles match, especially with some decent putts holed. Great player.

"Casey is at the Dunhill - he probably wouldn't have got in to the Vegas field."

how can he have so little standing that he can't even get into a fall series event? If this is the case then his PGA tour career is over for the time being, surely?

Mac,
Remember these are smaller fields (132 vs mid-summer's 156) and most of the guys with more status than him will be in the field every week striving to secure their cards, or at least Q-Schools exemptions.

Back to Q-School Paul, and probably Stage 2. Not sure he'll fancy that.

So it is over. A bit unfortuante for a guy who got to around number 3 in the world not so long ago.

Great read kwini

It was indeed a trully memorable RC! One drawback is that it will leave behind a 'vaccuum' in terms of excitement and interest for a couple of weeks. How can you possibly follow something like that...?

Regarding the two captains, I agree, there are probably some criticisms to be found for both of them, but nothing really that major as far as I can see. To me, the players' overall performances have played probably a more important role in the final outcome than the captains' strategies. On top of what you said, I thought at the time that Love's two picks were a bit questionable, with Mahan (and maybe even Watney) being more worthy of a pick than the two veterans that he went for...

On the next Euro captain, I'm not so sure, probably leaning a bit towards the Dubliner McGinley, but that's far from being clear yet by any stretch. Speaking of future captains, I see they already went on to announce the VCs for the President's Cup (maybe trying also to divert some of the present attention/tension on Davis Love). Interestingly enough, there's some Irish presence (of sorts ) there as well, with Mark McNulty being named VC of the Internationals' team by Nick Price...

Lombard Deputy Police Chief Patrick Rollins:
I am getting a lot of ribbing for not driving to the wrong golf course or getting a flat tire...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/15504079-452/mystery-cop-who-got-tardy-rory-mcilroy-to-medinah-lombards-pat-rollins.html

Cheers pd,
Jay Haas seems to be to Fred Couples what Jeff Sluman was to Jack Nicklaus. (And Mike Hulbert would be to Davis Love if DLIII ever got a second chance.)
Funny peculiar the McNulty thing, ironic to say the very least. And wonder if lw1 will be giving Johnstone any tips? Very worthy choice of Maruyama-san, what a breath of fresh air he was during his PGA Tour days. Sad his career somewhat evaporated.

I think Medinah sees the end of the Furyk, Stricker and, just possibly, Woods era in Ryder Cup play.

I had a go at Justin Rose for spending too much time fraternising with the enemy when he was teamed with Kaymer but what a performance to beat Phil. Think Phil will be back, probably mentoring another rookie.

PS: Perhaps Team USA needs to find a different second sport, table-tennis not seeming to get it done.

Fine write up ... back to non RC golf. What a great event! If they had it every year, I'm sure it would lose some of the magic. Although I'm not thrilled with the result, if you are a fan of golf, you certainly enjoyed all the drama the event provided. Well played on both sides.

Nothing really big until Augusta, but I'm always hankering for action come January. (As if I need a good reason to go to Hawaii.)

Reports from Merion are: 1) Fairways narrowed to evil width, flattened greens #12 and #15 so they can keep the green speed equally evil throughout, and you heard it here first ... wait until you see the carnage at the 5th green on that main line gem.

Thanks kwini. This RC is a tough act to follow.

Re 4), thought the same about Colsaerts' 4-putt. Definitely the biggest choke on the back 9 all day Sunday, and probably cost Europe 1/2 point. And o be honest, Molinari also had a few chances to go further up on Woods on the closing holes.

Re the pairings. With good reason you can also question why Donald and Westwood weren't paired before Saturdays foursomes, despite shooting a fourball 59 during the practise rounds. In stead Westy was paired with Molinari for the Friday foursomes, something a lot of us questioned immidiately. That must have cost on the confidence.

Doug Ferguson is reporting that Nicolas Colsaerts is taking "Special Temporary Membership" on the PGA Tour in 2012 which means he can accept unlimited sponsors' invitations - he will be playing in next week's Fry's.com event in California and needs to win about $100K to secure the option of Full Membership for 2013.
Peter Hanson has already secured that option.

Dustin Johnson sounded a bit bitter in an interview at St Andrews when he said he felt Molinari should have conceded on the 18th Fairway and left the overall scores as a tie at 14-14. From what I heard, Olly wanted him to try get the half point to gain overall victory.

Strange one not to see Laird out this week as he has a good record in Vegas and is beginning to slide down the rankings. Perhaps there is some OWGR reason for it, maybe he'd stand to lose more than he could gain with the divisors.

Shotrock

According to Buddy Marucci (walker cup captain 2009) in a GCA interview the fifth green would cease to be playable for many of its pin positions at around 13.5 to 14 on the stimp. Do you think it actually becomes carnage well before that?

I have only seen photos of course, but merion looks amazing. For some reason I have always fancied playing Merion over Pine Valley if given the choice. I think it may be because merion is a little more unknown among the average golfer in the UK, so holds a little more mystique.

EmmDee57 wrote:Dustin Johnson sounded a bit bitter in an interview at St Andrews when he said he felt Molinari should have conceded on the 18th Fairway and left the overall scores as a tie at 14-14...

That's a pretty dumb thing to say for DJ... He obviously didn't pay too much attention in school, otherwise he would've remembered one of Abraham Lincoln's famous quotes:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

But otherwise, you're very welcome back to Europe Dustin, and it's good to see some new faces like Pat Perez, Tom Gillis and G. DeLaet making the trip across the pond...

EmmDee,
Re: Martin Laird,
I think he's playing the Dunhill, so I'm a little gratuitous to criticise not playing Vegas which was the event which facilitated his breakthrough.

DJ doesn't quite seem to get it, why should anyone concede when it's not a half - imagine Franny was thrilled to earn some payback for Celtic Manor, quite apart from anything else.

Ahhh, is he Kwini, I've not checked the field for the Dunhill. Sounds like there are a few big names coming from over the pond. The weather here is pretty grey and cold, a bit of getting used to what it'll be like for Gleneagles 2014. Temperatures won't get about 12C(53F) but looks like it might not rain much.

Mac - I have a few thoughts regarding Merion East and the goofy US Open set ups:

1 - The are not flattening out the 5th green and, if it runs at 11 or 12, I suspect it will be near unplayable. No way that "golden age" course (or most any other) was ever built with those sort of green speeds in mind. Perhaps they will simply keep it running slower than the rest of the greens.

2 - Merion members have allowed all this to happen: they seem committed to making this short course stand up to "par" at almost any cost. Not sure I would vote for all the changes ... but it's their course and they certainly can do what they want with it. They also have a much more member friendly (read "sporty") West Course, which I'm told accounts for about 70% of the member play. I don't think they would allow the East Course to be reworked if they didn't have a West Course.

3 - Merion over Pine Valley? You can't go wrong with either, but not a bad call. I NEVER tire of playing Merion. I'll also suggest Merion offer more variety and at least lets you up for air, whereas Pine Valley is relentless.

Sr, What's your top five list of Philly / S.Jersey courses? Asume Aronomink is #1 of course!


Ryder Cup fall-out continues. Tour HQ have punished Davis Love by grouping him in Las Vegas with Kevin Na and Jason Day - imagine they'll be put on the clock after about 1 1/2 holes, though DL is a pretty quick player. It'll be misery for him!

Kwin - A golf rich area to be sure (Not London Golf rich mind you, but not bad ...)

Throw a towel over Merion (Wilson, with help from a host of others) and Pine Valley (Crump with some fine help from Harry Colt).

Aronimink (Donald Ross)

Philadelphia Country Club (William Flynn)

Gulph Mills (Ross) or Rolling Green (Flynn)


Kwin - I think you should schedule a visit!

Sr,
I'm sure there's a "strength of player" calcualation, rather like the Strength of Schedule in College sports' Sagarin Ratings, which would cause me to be banned from all six courses. Very intriguing selections.

Not true! Come as you are and anytime. (Suggest, however, you ditch the knee socks if you plan on wearing shorts - necessary in summer months IMO.)

kwinigolfer wrote:...Very worthy choice of Maruyama-san, what a breath of fresh air he was during his PGA Tour days. Sad his career somewhat evaporated.

Agree, always happy to see that man's smile... Looks like the news of his nomination woke him up from the dead this morning. He's only two shots behind the lead at the Canon Open in Japan (same as Ryo and Jeev Milkha). Meanwhile, good starts for Charlie Wi and Ben Curtis at KJ's tourney in Korea and same applies for Bae and the host himself...

There's a web.com-mer in Maryland this week - not much of interest to Europeans except for Sweden's David Lingmerth who is 27th in the money list; the top 25 qualify for next year's PGA Tour.
Lingmerth off to a very good start today.
GB's sole interest is with North Wales's Ben Briscoe whose promising start to the season has evaporated. 128th on the money list and needs some top finishes just to gain web.com exemption for 2013.

Champions Tour action underway in North Carolina on Friday, but only Chapman, Langer and Lyle in the field from Europe. Chapman and Langer on target for high finishes in the season-long Charles Schwab bonanza. Lyle making rather more ceremonial appearances.

What those guys couldn't quite do in Scotland earlier on, Ryan Moore could still do it in Las Vegas if he gets the last 6 holes in 4-under (-8 after 12 holes)... Poor start for Brian Davis and Freddy Jac...

Luke Guthrie down to earth in five-over-par fashion, but a nice note on pgatour.com about Guthrie and Rory:
Apparently they matched up against each other in the 2004 Junior Ryder Cup - fair to say Guthrie has some catching up to do.

Good round for Lingmerth today (66, currently 4th), but he needs it. Three more of them should help a lot.

Promising start in Vegas for Russell Knox who's carded a 67 - that projects him to about 170th in the moneylist but his immediate goal should be 150th which brings him some (not much) conditional status for next year but also exempts him until the Final Stage of Q-School.

Great effort from Blixt today, leading at the moment...
Feels it's just a matter of time until VJ will win again, could it be this week...?

This may not last but, right now, Sweden has the leading golfer in the web.com AND Las Vegas:
David Lingmerth 4 under after ten holes.
Jonas Blixt in with his second straight 64 (incl a double bogey) and a four-shot lead as the afternoon wave get underway.

Continuing on the Swedish theme, another eccentric round from Karlsson but his 68 will be well inside the cut-line. Currently he's 2nd in birdies, 8th in bogeys and 11th in doubles. Not many pars of course!

Good round for Gary Christian with his second 68, abject stuff from Greg Owen, currently bringing up the rear.

This may be a little random but can anyone remember if Ryan Moore was the guy in the US amateur quite some time ago that the commentators thought had one of the best leg/lower body actions they had ever seen?


And John Daly only needs a few more positions to make the top 125 after this week.

how?

Mac,

Ryan Moore achieved the best amateur record for ages, imagine the pundits were glowing about him.

Meanwhile, this is John Daly's PGA Tour season:

http://www.pgatour.com/golfers/001249/john-daly/season/#uber

Really needs to sustain his good form though, it can disappear in a hurry.

He's playing the "Fry's" next week though, along with Els, Colsaerts, DLIII and Vijay. Plus Davis and Owen, Christian and Knox (who's going very nicely in Las Vegas thank you, halfway through Round 2).

Only 3 missed cuts in 12 events. Not what you image a Daly season to look like.

JD pairing with VS tomorrow? Strange friends, aren't they?

They aren't paired for today. Nick Whatney will get to deal with JD drama.

princedracula wrote:... while Daly would stop just short of that if the unthinkable will happen in Vegas. But as some would say, anything is possible in Vegas...

...and when I say 'anything', that would also include 8-over par in the space of only 4 holes!!

What happened to JD? Mental breakdown again?

14 shots worse on the front nine for Daly compared to Friday - and that's with a birdie. What a berk, but really too bad as he's been playing well.

Lousy round too for Gary Christian who really needed a good finish, Russell Knox and Jonas Blixt treading water so far.

David Lingmerth having a disappointing web.com round after sleeping on the overnight lead, +3 after 14 holes but he HAS to hang on in there!

+15 through 14 holes, What happened to John Daly?? That is pure self destruct. What a shame.

Fair do's to Daly; he was out signing autographs and did a TV interview after his meltdown.
Something like, "I dunno man. I was trying out there. My misses are usually to the left and I got a case of the rights and didn't know what to do, and when I DID hit a good shot I kept on short-siding myself," etc, etc.

Meanwhile, we've got a Sweden / USA / Zimbabwe shoot-out, Blixt, Moore and DeJonge five ahead of the chasing pack.

Russell Knox still in sight of a top ten finish, which is the least that he needs, but Karlsson and Christian will need something spectacular to move up the field.

Still haven't seen confirmation of European players going to PGA Tour Q-School, but there's an early glimpse of Seniors planning to attend Champions Tour Q-School, including:
Barry Lane,
Santiago Luna
Andrew Sherborne
Peter Fowler
plus, presumably,
Mark Mouland, Mike Harwood and Anders Forsbrand.

No word on Colin Montgomerie though, if he should gain election to the World Golf Hall Of Fame, he'd secure exemption via the Sandy Lyle route.

Congratulations to Sweden's David Lingmerth, winner of the Maryland web.com event and assured of his place on the 2013 PGA Tour.

Wittenberg came very close again, wasted his chances on the front nine...

JD is dead, long live another JD!
Good to see Jason coming back to life...

Good for Ryan Moore, podium finish for Blixt, but big-time disappointment for Russell Knox. $72K is nice but four dropped shots over his final few holes took him from 5th to 13th and a huge opportunity squandered to close in on the Top 150. V.important!

And another win for Bernhard Langer. The Champions Tour - the gift that keeps on giving.

Very happy to see that Ken Venturi is to be inducted into the World Golf Hall Of Fame, though am still not quite sure how that happened.
Apparently Tim Finchem hosted a Pebble Beach ceremony announcing Venturi would be inducted but there is nothing so far to disclose under what criteria. Perhaps he's on his last legs?

Edit: "Lifetime Achievement" apparently, which is as appropriate as it is overdue.

Regardless, an iconic US Open winner, almost won the Masters as an amateur, Presidents Cup Captain and long-time CBS "analyst", he's more than done enough for induction.

One of the first American sports books I read was a profiles in courage among athletes. Venturi had a chapter to himself describing the debilitating carpal tunnel disease he battled with his hands, disabling them when his golf career should have been at its zenith.

Very anti-overseas players in his commentaries though, fore-runner to Johnny Miller in that regard.

kwinigolfer wrote:...Very anti-overseas players in his commentaries though, fore-runner to Johnny Miller in that regard.

If he merits it, he merits it. Shame about the above though. Wonder how he and Miller enjoyed the Ryder Cup?

David Feherty must be a bit sheepish.

Unsurprisingly haven't heard a peep out of him since the RC though admittedly I missed Vegas open

Feherty's got a lot to keep quiet about.


Some Europeans declared in Stage 1 Q-School fields:
Robert Dinwiddie
"Mark Laskey - Wales" (Never 'eard of 'im)
Ross McGowan
"Stephen Grant - Ireland"
Sam Walker
"Per Edberg - Sweden": Is that Pelle?
Peter Gustafsson
Chris Devlin
Oliver Fisher
Nick Dougherty
Gary Boyd - I wonder if goldwolf has a caddying gig for him?
Julien Clement
Birgir Hafthorsson
Niklas Lemke
"Pierre Relacom - Belgium"
Tim Sluiter
Romain Wattel (he'd be a loss to the ET)

Are Rafferty, Mark Murphy and Power Irish? - dunno.

No really big names yet except for Tricky Nicky, but one or two good young players who would be a loss.

Must have missed a few with US addresses . . . . . . more next week!

Shane Lowry not on that list kwini?