PGA Tour: Don't Panic! Don't Panic!!: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Almost as if in tribute to Clive Dunn who died last week, Charlie Beljan wobbled his way to victory on the PGA Tour's final event of the year. Caddie Rick "Handlebar" Adcox did his very best Corporal Jones trying to calm Beljan down as he was stumbling, bumbling his way down Disney's fairways last Friday. Beljan would kneel down, sit on his bag, lie down and, almost took a header in to a water hazard. Miraculously he played in this condition for the final seven holes of his second round in level par, telling Adcox between shots he thought he was going to die.

2).Certainly he looked like death warmed up as he was carried from the scorer's table to a waiting ambulance following his round. Yet, after just an hour's sleep in hospital - still with his golf shoes on - and ignoring medical advice to withdraw, Beljan recovered sufficiently to make his Saturday tee-time and finally go on to win the last "Children's Miracle Hospital Network Classic" on Sunday. Amazing.
Happy ending for Caddie Handlebar though, who went from thinking his player was going to peg it to taking his share of the spoils - 15% would be $126,900.

3).A great story but two questions of the PGA Tour:
~Why didn't they have a doctor walking with Beljan?
~Why wouldn't they supply him a cart to travel the 200 yds from the 18th green to the scorer's tent?
And one observation:
Does this prove what people say about Golf being more of a pastime than a sport?

4).But Charlie Beljan might not be the nice young guy he comes across as in interviews. His recent Tweets about the Penn State scandal, and his observation after last week's election that President Obama is "the biggest D Bag this country has ever seen," are somewhat typical of most young Tour players, Brian Harman and Billy Horschel among others to tweet acrimoniously about the election result. In Beljan's case, his agent has apparently persuaded him to close his Twitter account. Good thing.

5).It's that time of the post-season for voting for awards. And Beljan is nominated for Rookie Of The Year, along with Jonas Blixt, Bud Cauley, Ted Potter and John Huh. Huh will likely win it, but I'd vote for Blixt.

There is no Comeback Player Of The Year award this year, but you'd think JB Holmes (following last year's brain surgery) and Tiger Woods (following all his travails) should have been considered.

For some reason there are five nominees for Player Of The Year (incl Dufner, Watson, Snedeker and Woods) but you'd think Rory would win it unanimously. Won't he?

6).Inverness's Russell Knox had a terrific day on Sunday lifting himself inside the Top 150 and earning him exemption from Stage 2 Q-School, which starts this week at six sites. We'll see him again in the Q-School Finals in a few weeks. Good luck to him!
While Camilo Villegas proved why he's 144th on the money-list: Opened with a seven under par 65, but only one under the rest of the way. Bags of talent, but bereft of confidence, especially on the greens.

7).Talking of Stage 2, there are:
Four Major Championship winners: Janzen, Beem, Hamilton, Micheel.
Six Ryder Cup veterans: Janzen, Fisher, Karlsson, Parnevik, Riley and Wetterich.
Five Presidents Cuppers: Janzen, Austin, Begay, Franco and Lonard. Edit: Better add KT Kim.
Europeans: Several, including Donaldson, Oli Fisher, Noren and Wattel.
One-time bright young things: Cantlay, Danny Lee, Lovemark and Michael Sim.
US Open fourth-place finisher: John Peterson (arrogant young man but immensely talented).
Etc, etc.

8).Champions Tour Q-School Final is underway in Florida, with Barry Lane and Anders Forsbrand the leading Europeans, joined this week by Mark Mouland, Spaniards Luna and Martin, Andrew Sherborne and Marc Farry of France. Trevor Doods, Eddie Romero and Aussie Peter Fowler are the leading "Internationals".

9).Forgot to mention that New Jersey's Liberty National Golf Club, site of the 2013 Barclays received an unusual visitor during "Sandy" as the storm washed a passenger ferry up beside the 10th fairway. Given the idiosyncratic nature of the course, especially the greens (on being told that Tom Kite had designed the putting surfaces, Tiger Woods asked "Before or after he had his eyes fixed?"), perhaps they'll leave that ferry there.

10).Haven't had a trivia question for a while, so here's a topical one:
"Which PGA Tour player has two Tour wins only, achieved in consecutive Tour starts?"
Edit: This should read across "three consecutive starts."

SO back to Q-School for Gary kwini, no disaster if he doesn't make as he will still get into most of the lesser events, still a big disappointment this season has been though. I still think his goals were way to high a couple of years ago, may it will do him good to have a dose of reality......learn to walk before you run and all that!

'Evening gw,
Bad weekend for our boys, Mick's too.
Hope Boyd gets thru Q-School, he's proved over the past three years he has the talent, now it's harnessing it consistently. Perhaps not quite ready for the PGA Tour though . . . . .

PGA Tour Confidential this week has a debate on the proverbial "best player yet to win a major" in the light of Adam Scott's win.
Apart from Scott, the next four choices were Donald, Westwood, Poults and your mate Justin Rose.

kwinigolfer wrote:Quite the turn-out for Final Stage Q-School:
No sign of Donaldson or Ramsay, but Cabrera-Bello and Gonzo will be on parade as well as the survivors from Stage 2.

Imagine the European contingent is stronger than for some regular ET events:
Gonzo
Cabrara-Bello
Noren
Ross Fisher
Karlsson
Oliver Fisher
Wattel
Cejka (not sure how he made it)
Stephan Jaeger and Wiedergruen (German according to the Gospel of St.NedB-H)
Mikkelson
Norlander
Lemke
Chopra
Johnson
Christian
Knox


not to mention Villegas, Danny Lee, Pinckney, Hamilton and Micheel, and some Aussies who would have elevated the status of their "Masters".

Surprised at Ross Fisher not playing in Dubai this week, guess it shows him how determined he is to get his PGA tour card.

So it looks as if it's Bjorn, Goose and Fish missing.

Gonzo, Cabrera-Bello, Wattel and Noren had better have a chartered jet available!