PGA Tour: WGC Accenture MatchPlay: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).All set for Tim Finchem's annual international get-together in the desert as we travel east from one of the most revered courses on the PGA Tour to one rated by PGA Tour pros as amongst the very worst on Tour. But the action should be compelling, Tiger plays with Chuckie, Rory plays with Shane, truly "Jeux Sans Frontieres".

2).But before we say, "Hello, Dove Mountain," we should offer a very fond au revoir to Riviera which looked at its absolute Major-worthy very best last week for the "Northern Trust Open", won eventually by John Merrick - and who'd've thunk it? Such a fantastic leaderboard and the two to come out on top were the two least heralded of the lot.
Until now, Merrick seemed to be the archetypal Tour journeyman, making the FedEx play-offs in each of the past six years, with an annual trip to the top of a leaderboard (two runner-ups), but never a winner. Now he's off to Augusta (where he finished 6th on his first visit), has a ticket to the stroke-play WGC's and may even reach the US Open (where he's also finished 6th).

We pointed out the inherent advantage that California boys had for the three coastal California events and John Merrick, from nearby Long Beach, joins Tiger as winners this year. Sure Snedeker won at Pebble Beach, but two lesser-known Californians, Hahn and Stadler crowded on to the podium.

3).And then there's Charlie Beljan. Most Tour pros play further right than Theo Walcott but Beljan is something else:
"Praying that Paul Ryan and Romney can beat the biggest D Bag this country has ever seen," he elegantly tweeted last August.
He then likened President Obama to the bad person issues at Penn State University and his uncomplimentary observations following last November's election preceded the deletion of his Twitter account.
Ironically, he was then carted away from the Disney tournament by health care workers and stuffed in to an ambulance destined for hospital where he overnighted - presumably partly Government services that his ideal world would abolish.
He was at it again in the press room on Sunday with his description of the highly regarded 10th hole:
"I really don't have anything good to say about the 10th hole." "It's a tough hole to have a play-off on. We might as well go and put a windmill out there," before going on to say they should blow it up.
Pity he's not in the Match Play, "Adolf plays with Beljan . . . ."

4).In fairness, the green on Riviera's 10th might be getting a little severe but there were still eagles to be had and birdies a-plenty. Azinger mentioned that, when he played the 10th as his first hole, before he felt properly warmed up, he'd lay up; when he played it as his 10th hole, he'd go for the green.
Great tournament regardless, a loss that Bill Haas will have nightmares about, and an opportunity for all the Europeans except Freddie Jac to flatter only to disappointingly deceive. Ironic that the Swedish Seve should miss a 4-footer for a play-off berth.

5).Let's keep an eye on Ross Fisher this season. He secured his "playing privileges" via an excellent Q-School result and has four tournaments under his belt: 56th, 21st, cut, and now 38th at Riviera.
He led the Northern Trust in greens in regulation so 38th was a disappointing result. He gets this week off, will presumably then play Honda, Puerto Rico, Tampa, week off for Bay Hill, and perhaps Houston and San Antonio before The Masters. If the pgatour.com web-site ever returns to normal, we'll know for sure where he stands on the "reshuffle" as the Tour heads east, but he's probably lost about six or eight places, to perhaps 12th. Just guessing.

6).Dustin Johnson dominated the field at Kapalua but since he embarked on his synchronised gymnastics with Paulina Gretzky his sequence of finshes is: withdrawn (you couldn't make it up, could you), 51st, cut, cut. T33 is the worst he can do this week unless he withdraws again or gets dq'd for unsportsmanlike conduct.

7).The weather forecast for Round One of the Match Play is dismal, cold (forties), strong winds and the likelihood of rain. Or perhaps snow. Wind gusts today could reach 40 mph.
Conditions Wednesday are likely to be worst early so Rory and Tiger might benefit from later tee-times (12.05 p.m. & 12.25 p.m. local) as they get to renew friendly rivalries with Lowry and CHIII - Woods and Howell first met in the 1996 US Amateur when Chuckie was a mere yute of 17, but subsequently became near-ish neighbours at Isleworth.

8).No idea of who might fare well this week beyond the obvious - Luuuuke, South Africa - but some of the guys have previous, for better or for worse:
Most wins:
Woods: 33
Toms: 24
Poults: 18
Lukey: 16
Scott: 14
Those with more losses than wins include:
Westwood: 14
Els: 12
Furyk: 12
while Harrington has 11 wins to go with 11 losses.

9).Bernhard Langer continues to add to his Champions Tour fortune although his march to victory in Florida last Sunday wasn't without the occasional self-inflicted mishap. Since turning 50 in 2007, Bernhard has now won 17 times, more than any player reaching the Champo Tour since 1998. He's 14th on the list of all-time wins behind Irwin, Trevino, Gil Morgan, Barber, Charles and January, Rodriguez, Colbert and Crampton, Larry Nelson and Player, Fleisher and Mike Hill. Pretty good company considering the greatly reduced number of events now compared to the heyday of the Tour in the 80's and 90's.

10).Weather permitting, the first round of the "WGC Accenture Match Play" is as exciting/fascinating as any day of the golfing year, at least outside the Majors and Ryder Cup. TV coverage should be comprehensive starting at 5.00 p.m. GMT on Wednesday. Games without frontiers, war without tears.

Eleven Americans left plus Fowler. Furyk/Watson and Stricker/Watney will knock a couple off but there is still a strong contingent tho' lots are supposedly underdogs today.

Think I'd still match Clark+Oosthuizen+Sterne as a powerful force, but who knows?

Not sure if British/Irish TV coverage caught the Jason Day interview yesterday, but he was five under par during the crap Wednesday weather. Prety sporty.
Mahan, in contrast, won easily despite being +3.
You just never know.

Rory also talked about a preference for a 36 hole match rather than 18 to make it less of a lottery. Not a direct quote but pretty close to what he said I am sure. Just say well done and move on. No need to hint sour grapes.

Tough draw for Sergio against Matt 'Aw shucks' Kuchar. Scraped past Jaidee then exuded little confidence in his post match interview.

Kwini
Do players who reach round 3 get an exemption for next weeks Honda Classic if not otherwise exempt.

well off course the better player will win over 36..

but match play doesnt need the best player stroke player.

some one who could crush a stableford and has bottle one on one is the better bet..

I would like to see a stableford tourny you know.. that would be interesting!!

mystiroakey wrote:well off course the better player will win over 36..

but match play doesnt need the best player stroke player.

some one who could crush a stableford and has bottle one on one is the better bet..

I would like to see a stableford tourny you know.. that would be interesting!!

Wasn't the International a stableford event? But I agree Golf needs to vary it events up now and then

Hi benson:
~Good question, don't know for sure but I'd think they would if they wanted it - they certainly would after a Major top ten.

~Reno last year was a "modified stableford" and YES!, the International used to be also.

Rory will have to face up to the fact that Caroline has had far more success than he has so far this year, still going strong this week too. He needs to get his putting sorted out, missed some relative tiddlers yesterday.

Rose and Colsaerts are first out followed by el sulk and the smile

When is "Deliverance" out?

PS: Here's the provisional "Honda" field pending the "final commitment" deadline later this evening.
Paul Casey a notable entry, with Davis, Erns, Fish, Hanson, Freddie, Grace, Kaymer, Laird, Lynn, Matteo, McD, Rory, Charl & Louis, Rose, Westwood, etc.

http://www.thehondaclassic.com/tournament-info/player-field/

Still plenty of time for Harrington to put his dibs in.

Oh yes I remember the Reno event was on the same week as the Bridgestone wasn't it.

I like the name deliverance SR.. but who ya talking about- the red neck swede?

Oakey,

Hunter Mahan, he looks like a wooden toothed, banjo playing, pig pumping, ginger bearded inbred red neck.

yeah lol..

Hunter does look a bit strange. but he doesn't seem that bad when interviewed.

think colsearts or whatever it's spelt. has a chance smacks it miles. though has to beat rose. rose does seem really annoying.

annoyingly good?

he does seem like a bit boring!! sometimes.. but a good english lad really!

and certainly worthy of his top 10 ranking at the mo!!

colsaerts is skillz atm only..

Rose has a headgame edge!

It's warming up in the desert, should be reasonably pleasant when action resumes in an hour.
But: There's a good chance of early a.m. frost on Saturday which could delay the WGC's plans to kick Round 3 off early with Round 4 to follow.

One things for sure: The finalists had better be fit. Not saying anything about Lowry or Pettersson you understand, but even guys who've been away for a while or are nursing injuries (Stricker likely falls into both categories) will also be at a disadvantage.

Now that Ernie's been knocked out (and incredibly Langer not even there), I'll be supporting ABP.

ABP is BVP today . . . . . . .

Big week this for the Europeans double-dipping on both Tours, especially guys like Colsaerts, Hanson, Kaymer, IJP among others.

A chance to bank some all-important FedEx points early in their season.

And big too for Tim Clark, just outside the top 50 in the owgr and just outside the top ten in FedEx points, either one of which criteria he needs to satisfy to play the Cadillac.

He'll do though I'd forgotten Kaymer's still in it so I'll cheer him as well.

kwinigolfer wrote:Still plenty of time for Harrington to put his dibs in.

Well, never say never with Paddy, but I've heard that he has pretty much made his mind up on that and he won't play Honda...
He has already committed to playing in Thailand and Malaysia in March before returning back to S. Antonio before the Masters, and playing Honda and eventually Doral, would mean 8 weeks in a row for him, incl. that trip round the world...

Pettersson wins, Gonzo one up playing the 18th.

Gonzo wins it 2-up. Have to love the way these two (Franny and Gonzo) are getting on and spent all the time together these days despite their serious confrontation on the course. Last night after their match was called off at the 15th hole, Franny gave Gonzo a lift and had dinner together as usual... Life's for living...

Are you trying to suggest that neither enjoyed the same sort of camaraderie with Tiger when they both played him last year?

15 Europeans in the final 32 by my count, though not necessarily the ones we might have expected!

Count so far is:
Europe 15
USA 12
South Africa 3
Australia 2
Asia 0
South America dnp

Rose down early to the Muscles from Brussels . . . . .

come on rosey dig in...

IJP all over Van pelt

amazing shot by colsaerts,,

i think thats rose done for the week!!

If you're going to get down in match play, do it early.

Lukey doing just that!

percy just holed out from 228 yards and goes 4 up on Loooke.

wtf!!

Some exceptional golf going on here, some of it from unlikely sources.

On the whole, the guys who've taken a ton of time off are not faring too well.

coelsarts

rose go and start practising the masters is coming up

I just love watching Poulter play matchplay.......it's a masterclass.
Have a feeling for Kuchar this week...just hope he squeezes past Garcia...........

He's dressed like a Quality Street though.

colsearts won the euro Matchplay didnt he?

Hasta la vista, Sergio...

Tim Clark getting closer to riding the Cadillac . . . . .

There's a bloke called Matias O'Curry playing in the web.com tournament in Panama; reckon he's got German/Scandinavian / Irish and Indian stereotypes taken care of there.
Guess where he comes from - no cheating!

kwinigolfer wrote:There's a bloke called Matias O'Curry playing in the web.com tournament in Panama; reckon he's got German/Scandinavian / Irish and Indian stereotypes taken care of there.
Guess where he comes from - no cheating!

I'll go with Swedish?

Panama?

Lukey getting a beat down.

Another #1 seed about to be out.

We could lose all four #1 seeds, plus Rose, plus no Sneds.

Edit: In fact, Bubba could be the only man in the top 12 to survive today.

Tim Clarke seems like a nice guy. Hopefully he'll pick out the milk chocolate hazelnut tomorrow though by then it could well be a vanilla fudge he's up against.

O'Curry sounds familiar, think I came across that name when I was writing about the winners on the LatinoAmerica Tour, but I may be wrong... I'll go with Argentinian, there's plenty of Irish down there...

Don't Cry For Me pd, Argentina is right!

Clark against the liquorice all-sorts tomorrow, Hibbz, should be one helluva match.

If only he were chocolate because then I've no doubt he'd eat himself. That faux serious expression and tone make me want to smash the screen.

Not sure about Kaymer and his gazelles either to be honest.

Anyone think Bubba worries about planes (so long as they're not to France), sliding hips and the like? Definitely one from the Tw@t it school of golf.

Shane is on fire!!! Could be the only one left who could knock down Harrington from the top 50 (if he gets to the semifinals), which would be a bit ironic...

EDIT: ...unless Henley has other ideas...

Kuchar v Poulter final?

The Shane Lowry train is rolling now!

Compelling day's worth of golf - but these guys still playing will surely have a disadvantage tomorrow compared to the early finishers.
Looks like we'll catch the second half of the morning matches tomorrow on Golf Channel, the Round Four card on NBC, presumably devastated that they don't have a Rory/Tiger show.
No new surprises in the Honda field but still a chance that one or more of today's losers will look to get in over the weekend.

And bad news for anyone looking for diversity in the WGC's is that Trump has secured the WGC Cadillac for Doral thru 2023. Is boring, bland Doral really the best course available? If it has to be in Florida I'd prefer Innisbrook for a start, far more interesting course.

Ooh, FDez against Webbo; I know who's got the best looking wife.

And the Battle Of Ireland.

Can't wait for Saturday.

Simpson showing his major winning pedigree.

Still, I think Europe's best chance lies with Mr. Poulter. Looks bulletproof at the moment.