PGA Tour: WGC Accenture MatchPlay: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

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.

Overriding sentiment to me is that all the parties should be working together and regulations introduced unilaterally (especially in this case where it selectively picks out certain golfers) should be avoided. Where is Peter Dawson on all this? Holding Mike Davis's coat?? Wonder if he's met the European Tour players yet???

I saw regret expressed elsewhere that golf has morphed from manufacturer supported, to manufacturer driven and completely agree with that, but anchoring in my view is the least malignant of that manifestation.


No comvicted anchorers in the "Final Four" this morning (not sure what you call Kuchar's stroke however) and only Day left who takes all Day to play his shot.
Should be frost-free and fog-free. 7.05 for the Off!

Jason Day hanging on, Poulter in a street fight.

Like watching Kuchar and Mahan in this, seems they enjoy Match Play more than many of their compadres; easy when you're playing well but perhaps embracing it as they both do comes first.
(Doesn't seem to work for Kuchar in the RC, maybe he's happier in this format, dunno.)

An ill wind blowing no good for Poults and/or Jason Day - and it's not likely to calm down anytime soon. Should warm up a touch though, but will still feel parky.

Mahan is on fire!!

not much poults can do at the moment

Hunner doing to Poultie what Poultie does unto others.

Mahan playing super golf and a huge slice of luck right there, not with the chip-in but with his shot being stopped.

C'mon you Yanks!

Jeeze Ian ... give him the tap in.

Who won the match between kuchar and day? That pga website is terrible it says kuchar won, 4&3, but day will contest the final. Apparently day v poulter is the championship match, and kuchar v mahon is the third place playoff.

Some amazing comebacks if that's true.

kucher won.

mahan kuch final

Bye bye poultry,

the pga site has poults v day for the final!!

they have it the wrong way round

incontinentia wrote:Bye bye poultry,

Nothing epic about those morning battles. Both players should be equally rested.

For once I fully agree with Chamblee ... on the anchored putting.

What does Chamblee say?

Worthy winners this morning, but Hunner looks much more solid that Koocher.

Hope Day plays as poorly this afternoon as he did this morning, Poults with a lot to gain by finishing 3rd. Not his objective for the week though.

cant see day having anything in the tank, or caring about this match(as most wouldnt tbh)..

poults the fighter he is will still give it his all

Chamblee is against anchored putting and points to professionals -- like Adam Scott -- who have greatly benefitted from this technique. I'll look for the transcript.

Sr,
Don't bother with the transcript, sure I'll see it soon enough.

But none of the long putter guys are actually good putters except, arguably, some of those on the Champo circuit.

Many more important things to deal with than have a bunch of amateurs influenced by special interests setting rules for pros without any attempt at consultation or discussion.

Slow play and the distance the clubs hit the ball have far greater need for attention. Not to mention deer antler spray.

Seems three of those four things affect Bradley, Langer and Simpson about equally. Perhaps Vijay wins the quad.

Great to see the PGATour.com website putting the cherry at the top after an exceptionall (bad) week of coverage:

Spoiler:

I think they're taking the p1ss, a bit like Mr.Miller just now saying the top two players won this morning's matches - don't let the world rankings interfere with your opinions Johnny.

Jason Day doesn't look much interested this afternoon, hopefully Poults'll put him out of his misery in short order.

Jason Day though looks like he might be back in the big time after sleepwalking (and eating) his way thru 2012, quite impressive on Thursday and Friday.

Agree with all that Kwin ... but none are mutually exclusive IMO.

Be nice if this thing tightened up a bit.

Hunner looks outagas.

Sr,
Thing is, the USGA has chosen to strike very selectively.
Slow play for instance has always had guidelines and a penalty structure which they go out of their way not to enforce.
Anchoring has never been against the law and they've had over thirty years of use. Not to mention that's is so widely used by (I'm guessing) millions of amateurs.

We'll see; I'm not for anchoring, but then I'm not for oversized headed, way long drivers, world golf championships predominantly being held in one country, slow play, etc., etc.

And on top of all this Granderson has been hbp and broken his arm. Trade market here we come.

Some high quality players featured in the tee-time list for this morning's Monday Qualifier for the Honda Classic:
Noren
Siem
Fisher (tho' he's announced as in the main field)
Lowry
2 x Robert Karlssons
Coetzee
Donaldson
and about a dozen Tour winners and veterans. Probably worth about 20 owgr points to the winner.

kwini, is there a way you can follow the progress of these qualifiers, or they'll just publish the results at the end...

Would like to see Siem qualify ... after the close first round loss to Lukey, I'm sure he's eager to show his wares some more in these United States. Also I'm sure the folks at Honda want Lowry to make the cut, too.

I'm also somewhat against professionals anchoring, but don't feel too strongly about it.

Like you more against slow play and would love to see them dial the ball back.

We need Granderson!

pd,

I haven't been able to find any leaderboards. Presumably you have this list of tee-times:

http://www.sfpgagolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Pairings-and-Alpha-Mayacoo.pdf

Hadn't spotted Marcus Fraser there also!

Pretty sporty field though, more "owgr points'" worth than this week's effort in Africa I should think!

Sr,
I think Lowry made a lot of friends this week, hopefully other sponsors will take notice.
It was interesting to read the explanation provided by robopz as to why Shane's MatchPlay top ten doesn't qualify for a Tour field. Perfectly understandable even if a touch inconsistent, but a crying shame it hasn't instead offered him a passport into the Cadillac, which is supposed to be a "World" championship after all. More inconsistency.

Think we're agreed on Granderson and the USGA/R&A - that's a first!

Yep, I saw that... Fraser is in there, with Billy Mayfair, etc...
Just wonder who are the two different Robert Karlsson's... one from VA and one from London?!

...and forgot to mention something about Shane. He actually has an invitation in his pocket, but for the Puerto Rico Open, which is the same week with Doral, in case he doesn't make it over there...

I hear the food is good over there.

Love the two Karlssons thing, would be even better if they both make it through! Shame the qualie organisers didn't have a sense of humour and pair them together....


pd - One of them (I assume) is the famous RK, I guess he's the London-listed one; the other I believe is a Swedish guy who led the Scandinavian Masters as an amateur the other year. Think he was at college somewhere Stateside, I guess he must have turned pro now. Looking further into it, it seems he came through a pre-pre-qualifier last Thursday just to get into this qualifier, as did a couple of other Swedes. Long road just to get to a single tour event!

Official confirmation, if any were needed, of tickets to ride in next week's Cadillac for:
Clark
Day
Gallacher
Harrington
Jacobson
Jamieson
Kaymer
Noren
Sterne
Wood

The FedEx points list yields its top ten not already qualified next week apparently.

Still haven't seen the results from the Honda qualie.

Tweets from Fraser and Lowry, both saying they failed to qualify for Honda(Shane missed by 1-shot)...

Noren, Darron Stiles, Donaldson and Vaughn Taylor go through.

Robert Karlsson from (the Jerry Falwell right-wing religious) Liberty College beats Robert Karlsson of Ryder Cup fame by 6 strokes.

Shame for Shane . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Noren, Darron Stiles, Donaldson and Vaughn Taylor go through.

Robert Karlsson from (the Jerry Falwell right-wing religious) Liberty College beats Robert Karlsson of Ryder Cup fame by 6 strokes.

Shame for Shane . . . .

I remember a fantastic Christopher Hitchens rant about that man. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

Super

Didn't have you down as a Hitch fan?

Mac, I've spent the last week listening to him destroy religous people on youtube. Tremendous.

super_realist wrote:Mac, I've spent the last week listening to him destroy religous people on youtube. Tremendous.

I spend most weeks watching the religious getting destroyed on youtube, sort of weird we both do that.

Some good Dawkins and Sam Harris (to a lesser degree) stuff too.

You should follow Dawkins on twitter, you will get links to loads of good articles.

Jeas I have been wasting some spare time this week trying to ruin Religious nuts on a religious board in some obscure place on the net!!

Its not getting me anywhere! they dont answer questions, they would make good politicians.. Time to give up me thinks!

post a link mysti and I will deal with them.

I destroyed a guy leafleting for Islam the other day.

McLaren wrote:You should follow Dawkins on twitter, you will get links to loads of good articles.

I don't do twitter or facebook Mac