PGA Tour: Broken China: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Whichever side of the WGC debate one finds oneself on, it is undeniably a shame that there are so many no-shows this week in Shanghai. Who those absentees are of course colours that particular debate so let's concentrate here on those who are playing golf this week, whether in China or on the Champions Tour at Harding Park.
 
2).Paul Casey: Casey retains some PGA Tour status as a "Past Champion"; he is also 104th in the world rankings and, following his win in Ireland, must be hoping for strong weeks in China, Turkey and Dubai (31st in the R2D) to improve his chances for at least participating in some Majors, if not eventually retrieving his full PGA Tour card. Top 30 in the R2D will earn him a spot in next year's Open, top 20 will get him in to the WGC-Cadillac, so all to play for.
Always had Casey at the top of my list for most likely to win a Major of his generation, ahead of Donald and Westwood, Poulter and Rose. Perhaps these next few weeks represent one of his last best chances to re-establish himself among golf's elite?
 
3).Alfie Barnrat: Kiradech Aphibarnrat is treading the path laid out for him by Thongchai Jaidee and going one better: His T3 at last week's CIMB event gives him 163 "notional" FedEx points towards earning Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour, and he can add to those "notional" points this week as the HSBC is now an official PGA Tour event. He also earns a place, via that top ten finish, in next week's McGladrey event, but can't see him passing up his spot in the Turkey field. Kiradech is almost certain to finish in the top two on the Asian moneylist and that gets him in to the Cadillac.
 
4).Peter Uihlein: In a similar position to Barnrat, 60th in the owgr's and almost certain of a Top 20 R2D finish - you'd imagine his momentum will continue for another three weeks and that will get him very close to an end of year Masters invite. He hasn't publicly unveiled his 2014 plans, but you'd think normal progression will assure him of lucrative options on both sides of the Atlantic(Pacific?).
 
And: Is it a coincidence that Casey, Barnrat and Uihlein are grouped together for a 9.10 a.m. Shanghai-time tee-time?
 
5).What of the European players in the HSBC field who don't have a PGA Tour safety net if they fail to reach the top 125 in FedEx points this season?
David Lynn wasted a good opportunity to kick-start his season with a poor Sunday effort at the CIMB. Must do better here!
Peter Hanson, Gonzo (let's hope Mrs Gonzo moves to Miami with him), and even Poulter and Westwood could use a strong start.
The likes of Colsaerts and Olesen must be rueing their failure to crack this field and the bennies that come with a decent finish.
 
6).In light of Phil Mickelson declaring that he'll be cutting back on the number of tournaments he plays next year, a la Stricker and Woods, it's surely worth noting that another star with a scanty PGA Tour schedule (yes, he's mia this week as well) is Adam Scott.
But in Scott's case this is perhaps more understandable as he embarks next week on a grand tour of Australian golf giving back to the Aussie public anxious to see their first ever Masters Champion. The green jacket goes first to the PGA in Queensland, followed by Royal Melbourne's Talisker Masters where he defends his title (and hideous gold jacket). He stays in Melbourne for the World Cup and then is scheduled to play the Aussie Open - four tournaments in four weeks.
 
7).Nice article in GolfWorld this Monday from my least favourite American sports journo, the ever-unctuous Tim Rosaforte. And he's talking about legendary caddie Pete Bender, Open Championship winning bagman for Greg Norman and Ian B-F, and most recently working for Aaron Baddeley in between bouts with throat cancer.
Pete's 64 now but back in the caddying business after caring for his mother thru her final months.
He turned up on Michael Allen's bag two weeks ago, in North Carolina at the Champions Tour's "Greater Hickory Classic" on fellow caddyshack legend Andy Martinez's recommendation.
California wine connoisseur Allen was in a play-off with (Rickie Fowler's future father-in-law?) Olin Browne - Bender called Allen off the 4-iron he was planning to approach the 18th green with and handed him a 5. Allen "pured" it, straight as a die, and Allen birdied from ten feet for the win as Browne parred. It looked an inspired piece of caddie work at the time, especially as a wide-eyed Allen was high-fiving Bender. Nice quote though from Rosaforte's column:
Allen: "How did you know it was a 5-iron?"
Bender: "Forty years experience."
 
8).Perhaps some of that is what Baddeley has been missing these past couple of years, and it was good to see Badds register a 5th place finish at CIMB. Badds and Adam Scott are both great guys to follow on course, whether they're playing well or not, always amusing, always very respectful of the galleries.  
 
9).Not sure who's carrying Michael Allen's bag this week at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship this week at Harding Park, but there's a strong field of Seniors, including Peter Senior of course. It looks like Kenny Perry will take home the $1M bonus for the season-long Cup, probably with Langer runnering up as he did to Lehman last year.
There won't be any other Europeans in the field, Forsbrand and Montgomerie (he looks bigger than ever) ultimately coming up short in last week's San Antonio stop. Good news for Forsbrand, and Roger Chapman, is that they earn conditional exemption for the 2014 season which means they'll make a fair number of tournament fields, tho' certainly not all.
And: Contestants at next week's Champions Tour Q-School Stage 1 include Europeans Golding, Farry, Luna, M-A Martin and Tinning plus sometime Tour players and current caddies Damon Green (ZJohnson), Pete Jordan (JJHenry) and Lance Ten Broeck (Parnevik).
 
10).Back to China and let's give a shout out to one American who truly seems to embrace the travel, savour the experiences of "abroad": None other than Jason Dufner.
Last January, when he played Abu Dhabi and Qatar, he said he'd "discussed membership on the European Tour".
Now he's at it again, on the back of his first Major, telling the AP that he's "contemplating membership this coming year":
"I've been kicking around the idea. It's just figuring out what events might fit and might not."
Maybe there will be a fit, maybe not, but let's hope the paths taken by Peter Uihlein and Brooks Koepka, and that considered now by the Duff, is the start of something more of a two-way street.
Good for Dufner, never going to be the most charismatic of America's great golfers but, if his lovely Amanda doesn't care, why should we?!

Allen: "How did you know it was a 5-iron?"
Bender: "Forty years experience."

Brilliant.

Two Geezer majors  (the biggest of the majors IMO) for Chapman in 2012 and he only has conditional status for 2014?

Lee Major-less is making his 44th start in a WGC.  Most by any player.  And still looking for his first win that has an International World Class field.

Rory is 62nd in the RtD, but he nearly guaranteed to crack to the top 60 this week as he is behind #53 Canizares by about 38,000 Euro.  

RtD players #53, #54, #55, #56, #58, #60 are not playing HSBC.

GPB:
Champan: Not entirely sure I'm correct on that, this was a bit of a trial ballon; perhaps he gets another year, but certainly no more than that, just ask Denis Watson or Eddie Romero, Stewart Ginn or Bruce Vaughan.

Edit: I know Joe Daley's only exemption for next year is conditional following his 49th place on the money-list, at least according to last week's GC coverage. Haven't seen anything to suggest Chapman receives a bonus year, but you'd surely think he should.

GPB wrote:Two Geezer majors  (the biggest of the majors IMO) for Chapman in 2012 and he only has conditional status for 2014?

Lee Major-less is making his 44th start in a WGC.  Most by any player.  And still looking for his first win that has an International World Class field.

Rory is 62nd in the RtD, but he nearly guaranteed to crack to the top 60 this week as he is behind #53 Canizares by about 38,000 Euro.  

RtD players #53, #54, #55, #56, #58, #60 are not playing HSBC.

He'll get close to € 38,000 even if he comes last??

Last years minimum was approximately $20000 and it was $5.4 Million dollar purse.

This year, the purse is $8.5 Million so it looks a $35K payday for last place or $25K Euro. 

38K Euro ≈ $52K and a Top 50 finish should be around $52K

So any kind of decent finish will pass #53, #54, #55, #56, #58, and #60 on the RtD.

============

A 25K Euro Guarantee is a lock to pass #58 Craig Lee

As far as I can tell, there is no one behind Rory in the RtD playing this week.

=============

I would be very surprised if Rory doesn't pass 6 players this week (Canizares, Horsey, Kjeldson, Willett, Lee, and Mulroy)  Blixt is listed #52 but I think he drops out of the standings once he doesn't get his events played.

A 10th place finish should put Rory well inside the top 50 in the RTD

Mu Hu got €20k last year for finishing 19 over par in last place. A mid table finish will earn Rory enough cash to leap frog Canizares.

Who's sitting above Rory at 61 in the RTD and will partner Rory in Shanghai? Luke Donald, whatever happened to him?

Phil's interview in China seems to amplify his comments about reducing his schedule in 2014.
By declaring that Memorial/Memphis/Pinehurst will be his only 3-week stretch on Tour, it's clear that some tournaments that have been regulars for him will have to go.
I'm guessing he'll miss Humana at the start of his year and then have to choose which one to miss from his usual 5-week start to the year. Perhaps he'll also give San Diego a miss, though that's his home town tournament, otherwise it'll be either Phoenix (where he lipped out a 59 on his way to victory this year) or Pebble where he outplayed Woods in 2012.

It looks like Greenbrier will go so that he can defend in Scotland and Hoylake.

And then he'll miss one of the FedEx Play-Off events, most likely Deutsche Bank I'd assume.

Phil's wheels are always turning (round and round in circles some posters aka Shotrock would say).

Kwini, PMick is redesigning Torrey North, so I do not think he will be skipping Farmers Insurance

Humana, Northern Trust...Probably skipping 
ATT Pebble Beach...Possibly Playing, most likely of the three to be played, IMO.

That's a good point, GPB, but San Diego, Phoenix and Pebble would be three in a row and he says he won't be doing that. But he's changed his mind before.

Seems to be lots of anticipation that Rors will finally get it going this week. We'll see about that!

Luiten withdraws from the HSBC - China's Huang replaces him.

kwinigolfer wrote:

Seems to be lots of anticipation that Rors will finally get it going this week. We'll see about that!

 I pick Rory in the PGAT fantasy game.

So who is actually missing other than tiger, stricker and Scott?

Kiradech is beginning to look like he belongs in this company. I hope that isn't the kiss of death for him.

lorus59 wrote:Kiradech is beginning to look like he belongs in this company. I hope that isn't the kiss of death for him.

Is he the massive fat guy at -4?

Super is going to loose his mind if he see's him. The guy can barely walk.




New form of slow play just witnessed. Dufner cleaning his shoes when it was his turn to putt delayed things by a couple of minutes.

Just googled him, what an absolute disgrace.

Mac,
Missing? Woods, Schwartzel, Day, Zach, Kuchar, Scott, Mahan, Furyk, Simpson, Stricker.
 
Good to see Rory back to form. Can it last for four rounds? Hope so.
 
Looks like most of the guys that needed a good start got it.
Very happy to see Fleetwood doing so well, especially after hearing Mac has been taken ill. Good health to him. Peter Green's birthday this week too.

McLaren wrote:
Is he the massive fat guy at -4? .

his cholestorol just finished at +10.

they were saying on the malaysian coverage that he often plays 10 weeks in a row.

What happened to Phil at the end today? Quadruple then a bogey to go from -6 to -1. I saw his last (9th) where he stuck his 2nd into the drink then nailed his drop to get a 5 but what happened on the 8th?

Never let it be said that he gives you a dull round! I was on the 16th at Muirfield on Friday when he 4 putted that green and walked away saying that he was now out of it.... (This is why I don't bet on golf!)

anyone see Rory? on his stats it says he only hit 35% of fairways for a 65!

hend0,
According to Golf Channel:
"Mickelson hit his 3rd shot, with a wedge, into the water guarding the green at the par-5 8th. After a drop, he hit his 5th shot, another wedge, on to the green, but it spun back, past the flag and in to the water." 9.

Had a feeling about Rory last week, and he looks awesome at the moment. He may not be the #1 ranked golfer in the world, but I think he's most likely to win a major in 2014 -- and to regain the #1 spot.

I watched the coverage and thought rory was pretty good with his new driver. He has changed from a 420cc to 460cc. He mentioned to tiger at their mission hills exhibition that he felt he needed the extra forgiveness.

He also has a new ball which seems to be going about 1/2 a club further. Maybe he has finally found some nike gear that he likes.

hend085 wrote:anyone see Rory? on his stats it says he only hit 35% of fairways for a 65!

From the little I saw the rough wasn't too bad and the studio were saying that he was hitting it long and pretty straight so guess that he wasn't far off the fairway and with small clubs in his hand so not such a big deal.

Simon Dyson facing Euro Tour Expulsion?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/31/golf-european-dyson-idUKL3N0IL4KE20131031

Just ridiculous, he's already been DQ'd. Why would further punishment be required.

I don't think its too bad that they review it as it sends out an important message but the DQ should be enough as a punishment.

Unless there have been other things that are not in the press as intimated in another thread about this. In the same way that there was with Saltman. Not saying that I have heard or know a thing though.

Jay Townsend on Golf Channel's Morning Drive listed some other Dyson (near) infractions the other day.

I was not in a position to listen carefully so I don't remember the details of what was said.  But he was making a case that Dyson does have a history and what happened last week was not an isolated incident.

Well that does seem a bit OTT to me (unless as you say he has previous).
Was quite interested in one of the links from that page http://www.rantsports.com/clubhouse/2013/08/21/hot-pictures-of-female-golfer-blair-oneal/?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=UK

Is that the new Nike Driver in the second picture?

Who cares about Townsend? I want to hear what Brandel has to say.

MontysMerkin wrote:
Was quite interested in one of the links from that page http://www.rantsports.com/clubhouse/2013/08/21/hot-pictures-of-female-golfer-blair-oneal/?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=UK

Is that the new Nike Driver in the second picture?

Cobra I think. Checked them all....

Anyone know why Matsuyama w/d'd? This is getting repetitive.

Bad back apparently

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/t/story/matsuyama-withdraws-hsbc-injury-20749356?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Pretty poor back nine for McIlroy. After getting to -10 at the turn (-3 for the day) he dropped 3 shots on the back nine.

Surely his "comeback" will last more than 27 holes?

What the hell has happened to Els's set up?

It looks like he puts 65+ % of his weight on the left side. With straight right knee and bent left. Looks pretty horrible. Although he is scoring pretty well!

One of the commentators just described GMac as having "the luck of the Irish". I see trouble ahead....

Diggers favourite in with a good round today.

WHere is Diggers these days?

Not wishing to be an armchair rules official but was watching the Shots of the Day (round 1) on the European Tour website and it showed Dufner putting from what looked like on the green but he left the flag in with no-one attending it. He holed the putt but I would have thought he should have been penalised.

Hope you called it in Humpy?

DJ tweeted before today's round,
"Yesterday could have been better but today should set up well for me."
I should have placed my bet as soon as I read that . . . . . !

Still think DJ has more in the tank than any of the rest of America's Young Guns - wonder if Paulina was there?

Quite like DJ, plus he's really good on Mythbusters too.

At least the tours are doing their part to ensure fan interest in the WGC. Here's the message I get when trying to access the leaderboard:
The browser you are using incompatible with this page at this time.  Please upgrade your browser to IE 9, Chrome, or Firefox.  We will be restoring support for IE 8 on this page before the start of the season.  Thank you

(Use the one on golf.com in stead though.)

pgatour.com "live scoring" has been on the blink for a year now - think their "experts" have been working on the US Health Care web-site.

Obama-don't-care

Yeah, you're right, the fool wanting to bring universal healthcare, breaking the monopolistic stranglehold the 'non-profit' hospitals in the US have, must really not care. The arsehat.

You can't keep a good Boo down.
Love the pgatour.com quote from Boo Weekley dating back to his World Cup appearance in China.
When asked what he knew about China, he offered: "I like rice."

kwinigolfer wrote:You can't keep a good Boo down.
Love the pgatour.com quote from Boo Weekley dating back to his World Cup appearance in China.
When asked what he knew about China, he offered: "I like rice."

Why on earth would they use that quote? Trying to make him look like a Muppet, or in their eyes cosmopolitan?

He's from the deep south, they don't have to look too hard to make him look a muppet

Can you hunt rice?

Is Boo a Chinese name? Boo-Wik Li? Or Korean?