PGA Tour: Goodbye 2013, Hello 2013/2014: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).After the shortest exhibition season in living memory, the PGA Tour is on the move again this week as it starts play in the "Fall" section of its season. Just to recap, these six tournaments, all of which earn a full quota of FedEx points AND a Masters invitation, are:
Frys.com Open (in California)
Shriners Hospital for Children Open (Las Vegas)
CIMB Classic (Kuala Lumpur)
WGC-HSBC Champions (Shanghai)
The McGladrey Classic (gorgeous Sea Island, Georgia)
OHL Classic at Mayakoba (Mexico)
 
2).This week's Frys.com Open will be staged at CordeValle GC, a 1999 Robert Trent Jones Jr design in San Martin, just south of the San Francisco Bay Area, between San Jose and Gilroy (garlic Capital of the World and home of George Archer, the Gilroy Cowboy!).
CordeValle is so well thought of that the USGA will hold the 2016 US Women's Open here, which will cause the "Frys" to head north next year to Silverado, in Napa Valley's wine country, Johnny Miller's place which hosted PGA Tour and Champions Tour events regularly until the past few years.
 
3).We've endured/enjoyed almost two months of Play-Offs / WTF Championships and the music has stopped sufficiently for us to recap some status changes among long-time Tour members:
~Players among Top 50 in career Tour earnings taking a one-time exemption for 2013/2014: Ames, Calc, Funk, Weir.
But surprisingly NOT Chad Campbell who presumably will depend on sponsors' invites (like this week) and his conditional status to resurrect his career - Good luck with that.
~Players among Top 25 in career earnings taking a one-time exemption: Allenby, Verplank.
~And non-members who earned more FedEx points than #125 who have opted to take Tour membership are: Gonzo, Matsuyama, Olesen.
 
4).Expect long-time casualty Anthony Kim to rejoin the PGA Tour early in the new season - others returning from injury include a few this week: Blake Adams, Briny Baird (Lost in a 2011 play-off at the "Frys"), Jose Coceres, Spencer Levin, who "rehabbed" on the web.com Tour and can be expected to make a strong showing this week and next, Glover, Goosen, Goydos, Kevin Na and Jhonathan Vegas.
 
5).Are there any take-aways from last week's Presidents Cup?
By many accounts Jason Dufner ("hey Fred, I was lasering it!") was hitting it as well as anyone on either team.
Kuchar seemed to make a good partner for Woods and perhaps that's a partnership we can expect to see at Gleneagles?
And, especially in team matches, the Americans holed a bucketful of putts.
Don't look now but only Jordan Spieth was a Cup novice, and Team USA is gradually building a formidable squad.
 
6).For the Internationals, Jason Day seemed to relish a leadership role and the deBallstrikers, DeLaet and de Jonge played beautifully.
Els was brilliant from tee to about four feet, but did you see him over those knee-tremblers? A hideous putting stroke even with the long putter which cost him at least one match with B de J they should have won.
But Grace and Sterne weren't at the races and Matsuyama showed he's not quite the real deal - yet.
Meanwhile: Nick Price selected his on-course leader, Ernie Els, to open the singles batting, only to be told other matches had to go out first. Thanks Timmy. Expect Price (and Els) to speak out about this and other changes the Internationals want to see.
 
7).Angel Cabrera and Matsuyama (Edit: Add Leishman, courtesy of GPB. Thanks!) tee it up again at the "Frys", but the other 21 are taking a welcome break.
The field this week is pretty competitive though, led by Billy Horschel - and who wouldn't have expected Billy to make the Pres Cup action when he was contending every week in the spring?
I'm looking forward to seeing how some web.com "graduates" fare, including, of course, John Peterson.
Also: Chesson (and I christen you "Chesson". Whaaaaat?) Hadley, built like a pipe-cleaner but an impressive winner in the WTF Championship, and Ben Martin, who played poorly last time round the Tour circuit but who has looked the part in web.com action.
 
8).Jonas Blixt and his entourage were the stars at last year's "Frys", and there are some non-winners in this week's field who have been on Tour a year or two now and will surely win soon:
We've mentioned Levin, but also Kevin Chappell (almost a local boy this week, and won up the road on the Nationwide) and Tringale are overdue.
 
9).These six tournaments of 2013 are going to play a crucial part in many players' seasons, especially those who will only be playing a limited schedule.
Any Europeans, for instance, who don't make hay during the CIMB and HSBC stops in Asia will find themselves a long way behind when they clear out the New Year cobwebs.
Doesn't matter how good they think they are, there just won't be room for all the Europeans when Tour cards are secured for 2014/20215; Colsaerts and Hanson made it by the skin of their teeth last season, but Fisher and Karlsson obviously came up short and there'll be more casualties this year.
So it's good to see Brian Davis (29th last year) and Russell Knox (9th in 2012) playing while Freddie Jac and Carl Pettersson will be hoping to emulate compadre Blixt.
 
10).Finally, the last word this week goes to Nick Faldo, just the way he would like it, as he makes his debut on the Champions Tour. Not clear exactly what persuaded him to enter this week and no word yet on whether he'll play more often, but his appearance at the "SAS Championship" in North Carolina will be interesting, if nothing else. Old Ryder Cup teammates Langer, Lyle and Montgomerie will join him, but the focus will be on Faldo, or, as he prefers to be known, Sir Nick.

And I still don't think anyone should earn FE points for finishing in the bottom half of any field.

Promising start to the season for Russell Knox, currently 23rd and will likely finish about there.
Better putting today, but top 20 in fairways and greens hit, about 60th in putting. Think we know what he needs to work on before teeing it off in Las Vegas on Thursday where he played well last year.

Davis wasting a good first three rounds.

Jimmy Walker wins - a popular choice among the punditry for this week and certainly a worthy winner.
Veej finishes second and his dream of receiving a trophy from the bloke he's suing lives on.

Koepka earns a pass to Las Vegas without using a sponsor's invitation and he certainly played well enough to be confident that he belongs on Tour. Good for him, and bon chance going forward.

And nice returns from sick bay for Kevin Na and Briny Baird.

kwinigolfer wrote:Jimmy Walker wins - a popular choice among the punditry for this week and certainly a worthy winner.
Veej finishes second and his dream of receiving a trophy from the bloke he's suing lives on.

Koepka earns a pass to Las Vegas without using a sponsor's invitation and he certainly played well enough to be confident that he belongs on Tour. Good for him, and bon chance going forward.

And nice returns from sick bay for Kevin Na and Briny Baird.

Yep... good win for Walker. Hard work pays off for a solid PGA Tour citizen, that's always a worthy story IMO.

Wish Keopka could have held on for at least solo 2nd... even with the change to FedEx points as the measure... 300 "fantom" FE points for 2nd place would have earned Brooks Special Temporary Membership (STM).  Last year's #150 FedEx Point benchmark for this year's STM is 278.

Terrible news.  Wozilroy is over.  Bloody shame.

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2013/10/13/did-a-tweeted-photo-of-rorys-nap-lead-to-a-wozilroy-break-up.html


Dump her?

He should have tasered her.

Good, I like Caroline, hopefully she'll return to her best if Rory's down the road.

Pretty uninteresting opener, with most of the top players missing. Had to take plenty of Koeka with my Jimmy Walker to follow it.

Rose leading the Grand Salami of Golf in Bermuda; Dufner and Scott come next and Harrington's in the house with a 74, saying he's completely over-golfed and planning to take a long break.
'Course, he couldn't pass up a guaranteed six-figure pay-day in the sun, and who can blame him, but if he felt he couldn't do himself justice why not extend that break even more and give someone else a chance?
Doesn't exactly add lustre to an exhibition event when the defending champion makes such an exhibition of himself.

Bet he wishes McIlroy was playing.

If anyone wonders what robopz and I have been rabbitting on about with web.com graduates not finding a place in Tour fields, Doug Ferguson's article, linked here, describes the situation succinctly, as well in his final paragraph making a very positive suggestion for resolution.
So positive in fact that, until a couple of weeks ago, his solution was what I thought the process was, and not the shambles which has ensued.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/golf/players-have-pga-tour-card-now-need-place-to-play/article_ffc9b9eb-3143-5e54-88b2-51e4ed7ce852.html

He could also have done some simple arithmetic comparing fields this year and last which would largely show that golfers with "conditional status" striving for places in "Fall Series" tournaments have been replaced by WTF Championships grads.

Unintended consequences of the new "graduation" policy that could surely have been foreseen a mile away.

kwinigolfer wrote:Rose leading the Grand Salami of Golf in Bermuda; Dufner and Scott come next and Harrington's in the house with a 74, saying he's completely over-golfed and planning to take a long break.
'Course, he couldn't pass up a guaranteed six-figure pay-day in the sun, and who can blame him, but if he felt he couldn't do himself justice why not extend that break even more and give someone else a chance?
Doesn't exactly add lustre to an exhibition event when the defending champion makes such an exhibition of himself.

Harrington is really annoying me. Complains about the ET minimum events going up, yet still jets around the world playing in obscure money grabbing events. How did he get invited anyway? Not that his 2013 major performances have been stellar: two MC's a T21 and a T51.

pedro,
I believe Harrington came in to the 2012 exhibition as a substitute for others who dropped out and he won! Then he came in again this year as sub as defending champ when Mickelson no-showed.

If he's so out of it, it will be interesting to see where he plays next - presumably he won't play a competitive event but may turn up to a no-cut tournament.

The gravy train is hitting the buffers though, unless he can resurrect his game these next ten months.
Last year concluded his Masters and US Open exemptions, he's not in any of next year's WGC's, and a season like 2013 will lose him his Tour card (tho' he'll have a one-year career earnings exemption).