PGA Tour: The "Honda": Driver's Seat or On Yer Bike?: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Seems early in the season but the best consecutive streak of courses played on Tour ends at three as the Tour waves goodbye to California for a couple of months and goes coast-to-coast, to Florida. This week also signifies the end of the first one third (give or take a decimal point or so) of the PGA Tour season.

2).There are 47 PGA Tour events, played during 43 weeks, but there are only 39 weeks of tournament play before the FedEx Play-Offs begin for the Tour's Top 125 Points getters.
So golfers who have scarcely played this season only have approx 26 weeks left to secure a Play-Off place, and earn a "card" for next year; deduct one week off that for each of three Majors, a TPC and WGC:MatchPlay event you miss; plus limited field "Invitationals" that might not invite you!

3).Got that? Hope some of the Tour's overseas players have figured it out as some will have to play an intensive schedule, or gamble on reaching that Top 125. Points threshold will likely be a dozen either side of 500 FedEx points.
(Strongly suspect that one or two (Scott? Stenson?) won't give a damn, but for most it's crucial.)

4).Overseas golfers who are behind the pace they need to squeeze in the mandated 15 PGA Tour events include, by number played thru last week:
3).Garcia, Westwood, Poulter, Donaldson, Schwartzel, Els.
2).Rose
1).McDowell, Kaymer, Scott, Oosthuizen, Stenson, Dubuisson.

5).Let's imagine how Westwood will reach, say, 14:
Honda, WGC:Cadillac, Bay Hill or Houston, Masters, Quail Hollow and/or Memorial, WGC: MatchPlay, TPC, US Open (he should qualify for Chambers Bay), Open Championship (if he qualifies, EDIT: He IS qualified, Tks SJ), Bridgestone, PGA Championship.
That gets him to 14 or 15 and, with a running start, he should achieve the Top 125.
Hopefully Donaldson knows his way around the PGA Tour to manage his schedule appropriately. Poults and Schwartzel will play where/what they have to, and there are enough tournaments that Sergio and Ernie usually play for them not to be too concerned.

6).Rose should also be OK, but what about the onesies?
Oosthuizen has a 5-year exemptions which will expire this year, so Top 125 is imperative for him, and he and Dubuisson are going to have to play some unfamiliar courses if they are to satisfy 15 tournaments AND Top 125. Early days of course, but they need to get their thinking caps on or they'll be on their bikes.

7).So: Who's in the "driver's seat"?
Top overseas golfers so far are Sang-Moon Bae and Jason Day, and Hideki Matsuyama.
Top Europeans, with FedEx Points-to-date are:
416: Martin Laird
358: Garcia
354: Knox
317: Casey
212: Lingmerth
192: Cejka
165: Westwood
Most of the rest will be OK, but there will be a surprise failure or two, there always is.
(Sterne won't be a surprise failure; he's played 6 events, missed every cut, and doesn't even have a profile page on pgatour.com. The ultimate dis?)

8).Lots of golfers "lost" last week's Northern Trust LA Open before James Hahn won it, Goosen and Garcia of course, but also Casey and Dustin Johnson with late bogeys, while Jordan Spieth can't be too pleased with bogeying his 72nd hole to fall out of a potential play-off. Two thoughts:
~Was Paul Casey's match-play expertise his play-off undoing? He sees DJ and Hahn in highly bogeyable positions on #10 and plays it relatively safe. So they produce worldies to make birdie, and Casey is left with a lonely walk back to the club-house.
~And: The PGA Tour made something of a mockery of the great "short par-4" 10th hole with its set-up for Rounds 1, 2 and 3 when conditions were pretty hard and fast and the green was beyond fiery. Conventional wisdom seems to be that the green will have to be re-done to prevent the carnage (not all of it self-inflicted) that messed up so many rounds.

9).One American golfer doing very nicely thank you on the European Tour is Paul Peterson. He's already played 3 tournaments as an affiliate member and risen to 38th on the R2D. Love to see the recent US contribution to the European Tour, and very interested to see how Koepka fares in his home State this coming month.

10).Back to "Bermuda" greens this week so the recent form book may be turned upside down. Terrific European contingent on hand and it could have been larger still if European Tour Cadillac contestants had succeeded in Monday qualifying, Marcel Siem, Alex Levy and Mikko Ilonen all coming up short; good for them for giving it a whirl though, hope they do well next week and show that they deserved a chance in the Honda field.
It's going to be warm this week, but characteristically breezy and, perhaps stormy.
Let's hope there's another European (Freddie Jac e.w.?) or two who puts himself in the Tour's driver's seat at an event that's favoured non-Americans in recent years. No European wins this season so far. Overdue!

Great up and down for par on the last Paddy!!!

Good luck to Poults and Padraig.
Both playing out of their skins. Would never have thunk it, but love it!

kouchi wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Round of the day (67) so far from Joost. Still hitting loads of greens and his putter DID warm up.
....

Especially the irons into the greens were much more close to the flags. Which certainly is a forte of Joost.
He plans to play more in the US this year. His proposed schedule (if possible/invited/qualified) will be something like: WGC-Cadillac, Innisbrook, Houston, Masters, Harbour town, WGC-Match play, Players. Then turning back to Europe to play Wentworth. Quite ambitious I would say.

No problem to get into Honda (obviously), Cadillac, Masters, and Match Play.

I think he is qualified to play invitationals as long as he is top 50.  Bay Hill, Hilton Head, Players, Colonial, and Memorial.

He is limited to 13 total starts though, unless he gets STM status.

How many holes do we think the last group will play??

John Cregan wrote:How many holes do we think the last group will play??

They teed off 1 hr and 50 minutes before sunset.  My guess they will call darkness on the 7th hole.

Scratch that, Harrington is in the group.  Make it 5 holes.  

GPB wrote:

John Cregan wrote:How many holes do we think the last group will play??

They teed off 1 hr and 50 minutes before sunset.  My guess they will call darkness on the 7th hole.

Scratch that, Harrington is in the group.  Make it 5 holes.  

Harsh, but fair!

the dreaded shank

Poulter, WTFWT?

I don't ever want to see that again!

Will his blunder be Casey's opportunity?

Poulter making this medal play event very interesting, feeding the fish two holes in a row! Reed, Casey, Paddy and even FIGJAM in the hunt. Great to see.

But a clutch bird shows Poults's mettle, but a bogey for Reed. Would think St.Padraig needs a miracle. Be nice if he gets one, but as strong a result as possible would also be important.

Hope Casey and Poultie have supper together tonight,

Can't wait 'til 8.00 a.m.!

If Paul Casey or Russell Knox takes home the Honda, they'll also get to play next week's Cadillac. So would Berger, Sabbatini and Steele. All would have to win, though.
Also qualifying, via FedEx points, will be Robert Streb (always sounds like a made-up name to me, or Berts backwards), Sang-Moon Bae, and Charlie Hoffman.

Casey could also qualify via the owgr Top 50 with a second or solo third place finish. Any 3rd place ties would make his chances extremely dodgy.

Andy Sullivan was a week late and a hundred thousand dollars short.

Hahn, James Hahn is #8 and is in position to qualify on FEX points.

Depending how Casey and Koepka finish.


Hahn is in Cadillac...if Casey doesn't win or Koepka finishes worse than ~55th.

(Ignoring very unlikely scenarios.)

I left Hahn out because he has said he won't play as his missus is expecting. 'Course, that could be a porkie . . . . .

Early morning upcoming for you mid-western types . . . . .

This is from Hahn's Presser:

Q. Are you not going to play Doral? 
JAMES HAHN: No. I'm not in Doral. I'm not even close. If you want to give me the invite, I will.

Q. I will‑‑ does he not‑‑
JAMES HAHN: Guess the baby's going to have to wait (laughter).

Q. Baby's due in three weeks? 
JAMES HAHN: The week after Doral.

=========

He also that Mama needs a new car.  $50K minimum at Doral will buy Mama a pretty good car.

Well, Good, Hope Hahn plays. But hope Casey plays more.

Casey can possibly crack the top 50 with a solo 4th, so there is a backup plan for him if he doesn't win.

Shame about Padraig's putting! He must try and finish off by playing under par for the final 11 holes!

Shotgun start at 8.00 a.m.; should be under sunnyish skies, 15 mph breeze.

Time for the last threesome to regroup - Reed not playing any better than Harrington and the suspension of play as timely for him as anyone. He just had a long hole-out and hasn't missed the tiddlers.

Johnny Miller cheer-leading against Poulter yesterday - hope Poults makes him eat his words. More darts like on #7 would be just the job.

Come on Paddy!!! A few early birdies and you never know, keep fighting, it's been a long wait to be in the top 10 of a tournament, now finish it off solidly!!

Mighty fine birdie for Poulter - that'll p1ss Johnny Miller off.
Good up and down for Casey too.

Beautiful morning . . . . . . let's hope it gets beautifuler.

Poulter in control and should cruise home. Like to see Paddy get his top 10 or better.

Unforced error in the water - important (crucial?) to save bogey.

Joost boasts the low Round 4 so far. Kinda fancy him to play well again at Augusta.

That was nearly a shank again!?

Interesting to see has a winner ever found the water three times on a final round!?

Come on Paddy!!

Poults is having too many bad holes to win this.

Reed FTW!

6 x GB&I in the Top Ten. Surely one of them has to bring the Honda home?

Harrington playing well this morning.

GET IN!!!!

Great chance on 13 for Paddy!

Now: That's a bad break.

Harrington with another birdie chance. Love it! They're talking about Padraig's stats as if he's all over the place, but they're a little better than Patrick Reed's. Hopefully a birdie putt will bring them level.

C'mon Paddington!!

Get in!!!!!

Poulter finds the water for a fourth time, surely that's it for him

That must be Poults gone. Desperately unlucky on #13, but no coming back now. He'll be pretty bl00dy furious with himself.

Can Harrington or Casey make up for it?

Poults is falling to pieces here, sad to see

Poults needs to tap into that clutch "mettle" you alluded to Kwin if he's going to win this medal play event. He's acting like Sergio at the moment!

Birdie for Harrington.
Would think this will be very bad for Poulter's psyche - essentially a Match-Play situation and his good shots haven't been rewarded, his shockers have been worse than shocking.

Harrington's to lose with that mis-Reed from Patrick.
Par in for at least a play-off.

Take it home Paddy!!!!!!!

WTF! Went to Paddy Power at lunch and Paddy was 5 behind Poulter!

9 shot swing and now he's leading!!

A Masters spot is on the line as well!!! Jesus!!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Double for Reed.

Paddy sure knows how to win medal play events and big tournaments. Clearly in the driver's seat.

Nervous as hell here!

This is some treat for a dreary Monday afternoon. I've said it many times before but Poulter really is the classic "style over substance" guy. Would be lovely to see Harrington hang on.

I really enjoy Radar Riley as the on course man hopefully we'll hear some more about what he thought of Reed's second shot there.

Round of the week being played by Brian Harman.

Crucial up and down due for Harrington. Come on . . . . .

Superb

Where did that come from? Good lord.

Aw Paddy................

FFS