PGA Tour: Stroke Play Resumed at the "Honda": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Congratulations to Jason Day for his Match Play win, a squeaker in the end against the unsung Victor Dubuisson who had TV commentators busily researching wikipedia and pronunciation notes - the 2014 version of Louis Ooshtuizen in that respect.
No surprise here that Day broke through in a Match Play tournament, especially after his excellent Presidents Cup performance last autumn, an altogether brand new Day compared to his floundering debut in Melbourne.

2).But what does it mean? Will he kick on from here and become a force in the biggest events, or just a pretender to Major crowns? We'll get a glimpse of the new Day dawning at Augusta, but I'm still not convinced he's at, say, the Adam Scott level, not yet anyway.

3).And congrats to Victor Dubuisson as well. Whether his miracle shots on the 19th and 20th holes were sublime or flukey, there was no doubt he richly deserved to be in the Final and has probably sealed his Ryder Cup debut.
The European qualifying table looks a little stronger now:
Dubuisson, Bjorn, Poulter, Stenson, Garcia, McIlroy, Donaldson, Rose and Luiten. I'd say McDowell will also be there but Donald, Kaymer and Westwood, to name but three, once again departed meekly from Dove Mountain and McGinley may have to discard one or more of these stalwarts unless their form does an abrupt u-turn soon.

4).There were no significant changes to the US Ryder Cup Team qualifying positions and Watson must be hoping to see some form in Florida from the likes of Bradley, Kuchar, Mahan, Snedeker and Woods among others. Only Bradley and Woods will add to their points this week and you'd expect Bradley at least to play well on a course where he's had good results in the past.
As for Woods, who knows? "A tiger's waiting to be tamed": By the Bear Trap at PGA National??!!

5).This is the time of year when Americans typically start to lose their dominance on Tour.
The season-opening Tournament of Champions has been won by Americans only four times in the past ten years, but the other six of the old traditional "West Coast Swing" has been monopolized by Tiger, Phil and the rest, with the six tournaments having been won by American golfers 54 (out of a possible 60) times. (58 out of a possible 70 altogether.)

***Of those seven events including the TOC, Europeans have won precisely once in the past ten years - by whom??***
Whilst "Team USA" has won all ten San Diego and Pebble Beach events.

6).The balance of power changes significantly starting with the Match Play, with Americans only winning 37 of a possible 70 for the seven tournaments Match Play thru Houston, and British golfers have won at least once at each in the past five years, with Harrington, Donald and McIlroy all having tasted victory at the "Honda".

7).Just to continue the theme, I believe I'm correct in saying that Europeans have won all the tournaments that have been in place for ten years or more except Hawaii, Pebble Beach (tho' McDowell of course won the US Open there), John Deere and Reno/Tahoe, all but LA (Faldo, 1997) and New Orleans (Westwood, 1998) in the past fifteen years.

8).PGA National is one tough grind, even for the World's best, and many of the best will be in action this week with only Day and Rose missing from the owgr Top 9 at "The Honda Classic". (Kudos to Honda, the longest running title sponsor of a PGA Tour event.)
Many Europeans will be enjoying a busman's holiday with unexpected guests including Bjorn, Casey, Donaldson, Gallacher, Gonzo, Hanson, Kaymer, Manassero and Olesen, plus European Tour stars Koepka and Uihlein(!!).
PGA National is traditionally one of the toughest Par-70's on Tour and, if the wind blows, it'll be a real Bear (pun intended, given Nicklaus's re-do a few years ago). The TV cameras will focus on holes #15 (par-3), #16 (par-4) and #17 (par-3) with all approach shots played over water. Certainly not the sort of golf I like to play and, on my only visit, I didn't enjoy the torture one little bit.

9).Being a PGA Champion is not necessarily easy on the old ticker as news comes that Shaun Micheel (remember him?) has undergone a procedure to clear a blockage - right "coronary artery blocked 99%". Micheel has had a host of medical issues and good health to him. All of which follows Hal Sutton's "mild" heart attack whilst playing on the Champo Tour.

10).When Tony Hateley (one of the better headers of a football in the past 50-odd years) died recently, the old Tommy Docherty quip resurfaced about Hateley being such an awful passer of the ball that:
"He's so bad with the ball at his feet that his passes should be addressed 'To whom it may concern'".

With just three San Diego rounds under his belt, no doubt Tiger feels that way about his driver as he would rank 175th of 175 on Tour in driving accuracy; if he plays like that at PGA National he won't make the cut, but who would bet against him coming out in mid-season form?
After some abysmal CBS TV broadcasts, NBC TV takes over for the next few weeks, Johnny Miller and the rest, and doubtless we'll get a close-up view to see if Tiger's got his act together in time for this week to serve as a useful warm-up for upcoming dates at Doral and Bay Hill.
Let's hope last week's action was reminder enough that other guys play great golf too.

What's McIlroy's favourite ice cream? a choke-ice

If you're going to carry on like sr then the least you can do is call him pube head for goodness sake! And keep a sharp lookout for any extra chinnage.

I see the WGC-Cadillac is expecting Tiger to recover from his tooth-ache/back-spasms, whatever, in time to play Doral this week. They have him teeing off with Scott and Stenson.

I thought they were going off in twos with Jamie Donaldson being the billy no mates out first

I see adidas is to be the official clothing supplier to the USA Olympic Golf Team.
 
Wonder if Team Tiger saw that one coming? Imagine he'll do a Michael Jordan.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see adidas is to be the official clothing supplier to the USA Olympic Golf Team.
 
Wonder if Team Tiger saw that one coming? Imagine he'll do a Michael Jordan.

Probably be academic by then, a plethora of Septics with a good chance of being in pole position by then. Uihlein, Speith etc.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see adidas is to be the official clothing supplier to the USA Olympic Golf Team.
 
Wonder if Team Tiger saw that one coming? Imagine he'll do a Michael Jordan.

What did Michael Jordan do?

Think he played basketball.

Okay, I have to rephrase the question to a level that pond life will understand. "What did Michael Jordan do from an Olympic team sponsorship deal perspective?"

Using my 'pond life' skills (which you can only dream of attaining) I can tell you the US basketball team was sponsored by reebok at the 1992 Olympics but Jordan was the face of Nike at the time. At the awards ceremony he covered his reebok logo with the merkin flag (as did a couple of his contemporaries). Think the intertoobs are marvelous don't you?

super_realist wrote:

Golf injuries

Interesting from a tour physio http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/mar/04/tiger-woods-back-trouble-justin-rose
Don't suppose puttering round your local muni is quite the same....

kwinigolfer wrote:It's a shame someone can't lose a tournament without being labelled a choker. Rory just didn't have his best stuff, not just on Sunday but he didn't play that well on Saturday either. And PGA National is a most unforgiving course.
Doubt if anyone would bet against him next time.


Two PGA Tour events this week, the WGC-Cadillac, and the Puerto Rico Open, where Cabrera-Bello, Colsaerts, Cejka, Chopra, Karlsson, Owen, Pettersson, Quiros, Siem and David Skinns are all entered.

Can't imagine why Casey didn't join the field - in decent form and a great chance to improve his Tour standing (which is tenuous right now).

I agree with you regarding the word choker it is overused far too much in sport but on this occasion I think it is warranted tbh!