PGA Tour: We (or at least the PGA Tour does) Go Again: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).No Steven Gerrard around to inspire our Golfing friends, but the 2014/2015 PGA Tour season starts this week in California's Napa Valley, at Johnny Miller's Silverado resort. None of the current players were around when Silverado was a regular Tour stop, so the slate is wiped completely clean for the Frys.com Open.

2).Two topics have dominated the US Golfing headlines this past week:
~Tiger Woods, because he always does, whether it's his new restaurant, poor taste in jeans or the extraordinary spectre of his participating in a Ryder Cup task-force. Gawd knows why - what on earth does he have to offer?

~The continuing US Ryder Cup post-mortem. It seems most of the low-hanging blunders from Watson are now picked over by the journos, with the most sensible conclusion being that their ignominious visit to Scotland was a total Team effort, from top (PGA President Bishop) to bottom (Webb Simpson's unseemly stream of texts to his Captain pleading his case to be on the Team - instead of his fellow Wake Forest alum, Bill Haas, as it turns out).  

3).I see David Howell has been added to the European brains trust selecting Darren Clarke for Hazeltine. Good.

But what does Colin Montgomerie think he's doing, allowing himself to be quoted that the top five candidates are Messrs Clarke, Bjorn, Harrington, Westwood and the Mechanic? Would have thought he should be doing the impossible and stfu. Perhaps he's hoping for the riposte: "What about you Monty?"? Berk.

4).Meanwhile, the PGA tour are exacting their own petty revenge by grouping Kuchar, Mahan and Walker together for Thursday and Friday at the Frys, and sticking Westwood with Ben Crane. That'll learn ya Lee!

5).Interesting to cast one's eye over the Tour's 2013/2014 year-end stats. Among lowlights are:
~Drive for show, putt for dough?
The top four in driving distance (Bubba, Dustin, Rory and Holmes(T4)) all won tournaments, with 3 x Majors and 2 x WGC's amongst them) while Matt Every is the only Top 5 putter to have won (and he promptly disappeared).
~Fairways and Greens? Only Jim Furyk of the top 5 straightest drivers finished in the FedEx Top 50, whilst two (Toms and Slocum) missed the Play-Offs altogether. And Chad Campbell led those hitting the highest %age of greens only to miss the Play-Offs.
~The leading putters were McDowell, Baddeley, Chalmers, Every and Jacobson - only Every won and Chalmers putting genius returns to the web.com Tour.

6).One stat that doesn't lie, not too much anyway, is the "all around" ranking where Scott leads the way, followed by Dustin & Rory, Sergio, Ryan Palmer, Justin Rose and Bubba. The first real outlier is Kevin Chappell and this is a timely reminder that Chappell will win one day, and don't be surprised if the California boy plays well this week.

7).We're only a month away from the first WGC tournament of the new season, the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. There will be no defending champion as Dustin is still in exile, but entries into the field via the owgr Top 50 closes after next week's tournaments - and it won't be long before we're looking at the owgr Top 50 year-end channel into the 2015 Masters.

8).Amazingly (to me anyway) Frannie Molinari is not exempt into any of the next 12 months' Majors or WGC's. Given his slide in the world ranking to #49, I'd say he's taking a huge risk dividing his time between Europe and the US. At least last year's flops, Colsaerts, Hanson, Lynn, Olesen etc, had some double-dipping to help them but Molinari doesn't have anything unless he can secure a year-end Top 50 Ranking. A strong finish on the Algarve this week will help a lot!

9).The Tour follows Napa Valley with a trip to Las Vegas next week (Padraig Harrington among the early declarations) and then the Georgia Coast for the McGladrey before heading overseas to Malaysia and Shanghai.
The fields will be respectably strong at each tournament as most players who got off to a good start last "fall" enjoyed decent seasons - winners like Walker, Simpson, Moore, Kirk, Dustin, English.
Those who play well in the autumn will likely take most of the West Coast Swing off and there are growing concerns that these Hawaiian and California events will be weaker than usual.

10).But there are 47 tournaments, some of them "opposite field" stops, and most of the cream will rise to the top.
Just like the final Premier League table, the year-end rankings don't lie, and Lee Westwood, for one, could use a high finish this week to boost his motivation for the new season.
Message to Englishman Casey, Davis, Donald, Poulter and Westwood; This is how you rated last year:
Davis: 110th
Westwood: 107th
Casey: 95th
Donald: 89th
Poulter: 78th.
Any other sport and you'd've been relegated, the year-end rankings don't lie!

GPB... With Rory playing the week before in Australia, not too surprising he's not playing the Challenge. And as for as the Irish Open... with it's late May date (week before the Memorial), I wouldn't expect TW to play that one even if Rory had played the Challenge...

EDIT... looking at who is and who isn't playing the Hero WC... guess there are no surprises, and TW's plan to move to Florida is working with a pretty stout field. Rory not being there is understood, and no way Scott can be there, nor would anyone expect Sergio to be coming in for some Isleworth fried chicken... and wouldn't have expected Phil or Kaymer either (nor DJ under the circumstances).  But other than that... 16 of the top-22.  Not bad.    Only "passover" I see is #26 Reed...  I would have preferred to see him in there over wild-card picks #27 Keegan or #28 Stricker, but I understand both choices...

KWINI... Hadn't seen that about Lyle going back after this week... but trying to find more on that... is he just going back for precautionary medical tests or to start playing a lot in Australia? He's not in the Perth field... and not sure what else he would play until the Aus. Masters in late November.  I wish he would have stayed around for at least one more week after LV (hopefully to get high enough priority to free up some of his inevitable SE's for other players)... but I suppose 3 weeks in a row might still be a bit much to ask of him at this stage of the game...

Robo:  The Aussie event ends early early Sunday morning (Orlando time). If Rory is headed back to Jupiter, it really is not a bigger deal than coming from Europe to East Coast time.

Depending on when the FRYS tournament next year, 3 potential players in the Prez Cup will have to travel from Korea to NorCal to the Frys Open.

Of course if they make the team.  Only Schwartzel is close to being a lock.

Awesome news about the formation of this American Ryder Cup "can't we all just get along" summit, committee or process or whatever the heck they're calling it.  Hey, if nothing else, when the Euro's come over and hand us our heads at Hazeltine in 2 years, at least we outta have the words to Kum ba yah down pat.. so we can at least hold hands, sing and feel good about losing.

Here's a clue for the committee... who gives a rat who the captain is. Set up whatever points scheme you want for automatic picks...  but most importantly...  let the captain pick 4 or 5 as late as possible...  and don't waste a single pick on any of the proven serial chokers or guys that require their ego's massaged and butts kissed to be able to perform up to their maximum potential.    

There...  no more freeking committee meetings needed... issue solved... you're welcome... sheesh...

GPB wrote:Robo:  The Aussie event ends early early Sunday morning (Orlando time). If Rory is headed back to Jupiter, it really is not a bigger deal than coming from Europe to East Coast time.

Depending on when the FRYS tournament next year, 3 potential players in the Prez Cup will have to travel from Korea to NorCal to the Frys Open.

Of course if they make the team.  Only Schwartzel is close to being a lock.

 Why would Rory rush back from playing 3 successive weeks in Turkey, Dubai and Australia just to play an unofficial event in Florida?  Makes ZERO sense. First he can probably make equivalent the WC 1st prize 3 times over just by staying in Sydney and playing with some "giggle golf" with some big wigs Monday afternoon. And even if he is coming back to Florida after the Aus Open he's gonna be gassed.   Also seems to me comparing Rory's situation/schedule to next year's PC/Fry's situation is apples and oranges.  Yeah it's similar in that it's likely not gonna be the easiest travel situation either... but it's a matter of "CHOICE" (do I really want to fly half way around the world to play a 4th week in a row in some unofficial event) vs "NO CHOICE" (I MUST play the Frys).

Interesting article on golfchannel.com regarding obligation to play next year's FRYS:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/will-gray/woods-mcilroy-could-headline-fryscom-2015/

It sounds like "obligation" means something different, depending who defines it! Not planning to hold my breath over attendance at next year's tournament.

Have the Americans thought about paying an Ex European Captain to run the team?

super_realist wrote:Have the Americans thought about paying an Ex European Captain to run the team?

Give them Faldo.

Robo:  It stands to reason that if Mickelson is dissing the World Challenge (as one particular blogger has accused for years) then it stands to reason that Rory is dissing him too.

Its also incredible that you can let SNARK slide when it doesn't come from me, yet you are like a Duck on June Bug when I snark on previous comments that I know you have read.

Selective reading I guess.

GPB wrote:Robo:  It stands to reason that if Mickelson is dissing the World Challenge (as one particular blogger has accused for years) then it stands to reason that Rory is dissing him too.

Its also incredible that you can let SNARK slide when it doesn't come from me, yet you are like a Duck on June Bug when I snark on previous comments that I know you have read.

Selective reading I guess.

Maybe not selective reading on my part... perhaps an over active imagination on YOUR part because frankly I have no freeking CLUE what you are talking about. What other comments by what particular blogger?  

As for Phil supposedly dissing the W.C.?   I don't recall ever having heard or read that, so I wouldn't have a clue if it's true not. But little doubt there's not much love lost between Phil & Tiger so it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. But that said... Phil hasn't been one to be much for the "silly season" events  over his career and near as I can tell as he prefers to take the end of the year off.  And even including his appearance fee situations with Barclay's Singapore, doesn't play past mid November.   The last December OWGR rated event of any kind I can see on his ledger goes back to the Japan Tour Casio World Open in 1999.   So if somebody wants to turn that into some kind of "overly-imaginative construct" that Phil's dissing the World Challenge... OK... whatever...

And I see no indication Rory is dissing ANYTHING having to do with the World Challenge. If he were, why would he play in it in 2010 and again last year. (And by the way... that was also the week after the Australian Open... BUT... the schedule was different as Rory had the 2 weeks before the Australian Open off, so it wouldn't be the same 4 weeks straight as this year.)

EDIT:  OK... so now I see the comment you are talking about... and all I can say GPB is...  SERIOUSLY???  

kwinigolfer wrote:Careful. Mac will be adding the Russian population to his comparison Europe vs USA . . . . . . .

Don't add Serbia and Albania please.

What did they do pedro?
Use a drone with a flag on it??!!

Can just see doing that at December's Fifth Major - Woods with a one-shot lead and all of a sudden a drone bearing a European flag comes buzzing across the green then circling the Tiger every time he addresses the ball.


One of the Golf Channel columnists takes a leaf out of super_'s book and recommends an Englishman to sit on the Task Force, Kerry Haigh. A bit of Yorkshire would go down a treat in their team room.

A drone with the Albanian flag hovering over the pitch for quite some time. Eventually a Serbian player snatches the flag and then the Albanian players go nuts and a big fight erupts. Referees fleeing the pitch.

Roller_Coaster wrote:But (he starts in a devil's advocate type of way) is it that surprising that someone young and likely to be involved for many years on the inside as a player should be called upon? I'd suggest that is forward thinking (particularly for US golf!) and sufficiently different to the existing approach that it might be very useful. No, he has not yet been blessed with a multitude of tour wins, but the Ryder Cup isn't about tour wins is it? It's getting the best out of a team that aren't used to playing/thinking as a team. If you're going to have young(er) players in the teams, then pick one that is likely to be around the upper echelons of the game for some time and get him involved. Don't leave it solely to the "pringle jumper" generation (fee free to supplant "mom jeans" in there) or surely they risk repeating the recent result cycle ad infinitum.

Rather than there being something wrong in that picture, I would counter that assertion and suggest it may prove to be sound thinking. Whether it will pay dividends I don't know but I consider the selection to have foresight and it will bring additional balance into the set up.

Woods and to a lesser extent Micklewhinge seem, to me, to be the stranger inclusions in this particular team exercise given their apparent isolation in teams (TW) and recent backstabbing reactions (FIG). Yes they are arguably the most successful tour players of the prior generation but they come across as very much self centred and so not who I would target any team focussed activity round.

We will see...

Well said Roller

kwinigolfer wrote:But, Roller, there are plenty of young American golfers with better credentials than Rickie. You may pour scorn on a "Pringle jumper" generation, but why not pick your young leader from among those with a proven record rather than a catalogue of near misses?
Like Dustin Johnson??!!

Many a true word spoken in jest and all that, but Daly and Dustin got wherever they are by winning.
Rickie got where he is by wearing orange and a silly cap.

Kwini, I often sense your dislike of Rickie, especially following his player of the month award in August. I think this is a bit harsh: it's not Rickie's fault he was chosen ahead of the guy who won a WGC and a major, and he always comes across as polite and well-grounded in interviews. Fowler's clothes may be bright, but his personality doesn't appear brash.

His dress sense may not be to your (or my) taste, but his oversize orange cap appeals to a whole demographic and generation of people which golf does not effectively target. It's just sad that 20 year olds are expected to dress as 60 year olds on a golf course.

I also think he has generally played well in the Ryder Cup. He didn't get the points on the board at Gleneagles, but he looked pretty good over the first 2 days, until he got steam-rollered by Rory in the singles, and looked to me like a team player instead of a spolit individual. He's only got 1 tour win, but his performance in the majors this year showed he was a serious contender. Good luck to the lad, I hope he steps up in the next couple of years.

Hi ray,
Don't dislike Rickie at all, he's great to follow on the course, very engaging with galleries and plays at a good pace. And the young'uns love his clothes, so that's all good even if geriatrics like me think it's all a bit bizarre.

Just don't like the fact he gets bigged up at every marketing opportunity. Once in a while, perception turns in to reality and, lo and behold, here he is on a RC Task Force whereas Patrick Reed, clearly not many people's favourite but the best player in a losing cause at Gleneagles, is ignored. Dustin too of course but a reason for that.

I understand what you're saying kwini, but from the young crop of Amercians, Speith and Fowler are probably the 2 most established players.

Anyway, given the age range, seniority and egos that make up the rest of the "task force" I can't see Rickie doing much more than photo copying and making tea.

Spieth and Fowler may be established, but Top Five has three Tour wins (one more than those two combined) and three Ryder Cup match wins, similarly one more than the others have combined.

But news here that Donald Rumsfeld has just been added to the Task Force!

And Kaymer won the Play-Off - Jerry Watson must be sick of the site of him; beaten in the PGA Championship play-off, duffed up in the RC and now this.

kwinigolfer wrote:
And Kaymer won the Play-Off - Jerry Watson must be sick of the site of him; beaten in the PGA Championship play-off, duffed up in the RC and now this.

To judge from his score card, my guess is Rory brought some bird to Bermuda to entertain him at night.

I don't think it was Caroline.
She seems to have been otherwise "engaged":

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/grill-room/wozniacki-nike-golfer-tossle-ring/

Well Thunderbear should dump her and get his career back on track. It worked for Roarybear.

Good win for 9 Bellies over Luggy at the Matchplay yesterday.

kwinigolfer wrote:...But news here that Donald Rumsfeld has just been added to the Task Force!...

You're joking....right?

Rummy could be useful in helping Team America overcome the unknown unknowns of Ryder Cup captaincy

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Just getting us warmed up for 2 years time.

Shock and awe

Why not add Condoleeza Rice and Dubya to the task force?  They're probably less detached from the golfing world than the PGA officials. Plus they would most likely try to get the upper hand by invading us beforehand.

If I was going to try to win the Ryder Cup, the first person I'd get on board would be Tony Jacklin.
He's largely responsible for melding the Europeans into the GB&I group and his Captaincy was so far advanced from the Nicklauses of this world that I don't think they ever caught up.

If there is such a thing as a European "template", it was set up by Tone and built on by others, Faldo really the only exception to do it his way.

Fat Shane getting his lardy arse handed to him right now.

Hardly ever hear Sam Torrance as a commentator but we've got him this week. Bloody awful, doesn't seem to know who's playing who, doesn't recognise some of the players, a load of drivel from someone who should know better.