PGA Tour: Frys gets the Cream: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).No promises on the centre though, no chocolate, peppermint or orange, but the quality is increasing year on year, no soft centre any more. Since the PGA Tour devised its "wrap around" season two years ago, the Frys.com has been the inaugural event:
In 2013/2014, Jimmy Walker earned 28 owgr points for his first Tour win.
In 2014/2015, Sangmoon Bae earned 36 points for his second win, which ultimately gave Nick Price the excuse to pick the newly minted Private Moon a Presidents Cup Captains Choice.
For 2015/2016, the winner is projected by owgr to earn 46 points.
That's partly due to the negotiated appearance by Messrs McIlroy and Rose but it also reflects the urgency felt by all but the Tour's elite to get their season off to a fast start.

2).Brooks Koepka said it well when offered consolation about not being chosen for South Korea by Jay Haas: "Appreciate all the support for the Presidents Cup but I'm focused on earning my way onto every Team, starting with Frys Open Golf"!
Brooksy was talking about Teams USA of course, but could just as easily be twittering about the imperative so many Members feel about the urgency of getting out of the traps at top speed.
More of that in a minute, but first some reflections on last week's Presidents Cup.

3)."Sputtering start, fantastic finish", just about sums things up. Wonderful performances from Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen (his second shot to 10 ft when eagling 18 on Sunday was the shot of the week for moi), dismal from Jason Day and lots of in betweenies.
We'll never know:
~If US became complacent after the first day foursomes drubbing of the Internationals.
~Schwartzel was ever truly fit - a poor week for him regardless.
~Quite how on top of team selections Jay Haas and Nick Price were with the fluctuations of form and imperatives for players to play two Team sessions. Sitting Thongchai out for all of Saturday, especially, looked a dodgy decision.
~Why Team USA's once formidable Singles record has gone belly up. Before Sunday, the Americans only had 3 Presidents Cup Singles wins between them, something like 14 losses and plenty of halves. Even after last Sunday, only Chris Kirk has a winning Singles record of last week's Team.
~Why the post-Azinger generation of US Presidents/Ryder Cuppers have underperformed. Another lousy week for Kuchar, and none of Bradley/Fowler/Haas/Dustin/Simpson/Snedeker/Watson would fill Darren Clarke's boys with trepidation at Hazeltine; only time will tell if Kirk, Koepka, Reed and Spieth turn out any better.

4).Did we learn anything from the Americans that will be relevant at Hazeltine?
Not really, unless it's that Patrick Reed is turning in to a terrific "Team" player and Zach Johnson is as dependable as ever. Spieth blew hot and cold, now three straight singles losses in Team play, and clearly rattled as Marc Leishman wouldn't let him get away on Sunday.

5).Davis Love saw it all first-hand as a Vice Captain and he must be wondering where Ryder Cup leadership will come from when the 40-somethings finally leave the stage. Not from the thirty-somethings by the looks of it!
But surely Davis's prayers were answered when T.Woods called the Team Room and volunteered his services as next year's Vice Captain?
As the old Len Deighton caper observed: "Does it hurt?" "Only when I Larf!"

6).In the wake of the extraordinary play of Grace and Oosthuizen, and the fact that Els and Goosen both served the Internationals well with winning Presidents Cup records in losing teams, it only made sense that South Africa would be awarded the 2019 Presidents Cup. Perhaps Ernie might be Captain even? Or Retief??
But, according to GolfWorld, PGA Tour HQ basically auctioned the Cup's 2019 date, and the South African Golf people balked at the asking price of $25M. Wonder if the International Federations had a vote in this?
No matter apparently. The date will go to Melbourne instead, despite the pathetic performance of Aussie golfers in 2011 under Greg Norman, and the fact that Royal Melbourne has already staged it twice. Wonder who'll be Captain of that? Perhaps Steve Elkington! Or Robert Allenby!!
Hey, Australia even threw an extra $4M in and that scored next year's World Cup. Again. Melbourne hasn't had the World Cup (which admittedly has become pretty meaningless) since, oh, the last one, in 2013.

7).The Frys.com Open is played this year, as last, at Silverado CC (North Course), in Napa, the epicentre of California wine country, not to mention a recent earthquake.
Johnny Miller owns the Silverado Resort, 36 holes of golf and plenty more. He oversaw a "freshening up" of both courses and the "North" will play as a Par-72 with two Par-5's in the final three holes.

8).Last year's finish had a distinctly "International" finish to it, Sangmoon Bae won, Aussie Bowditch was runner-up, and Goosen & Matsuyama tied for third, along with Martin Laird, just ahead of Allenby and Westwood. How times change!
Laird was last year's poster child for making a fast start and sitting on FedEx laurels for the rest of the year. He had 3 x Top 7 finishes thru early February and put it on cruise control the rest of the year, just one Top 30 (T15) in the past eight months, and only three made cuts since May.  

9).Presidents Cuppers Chris Kirk, Bowditch, Matsuyama and Schwartzel are due to play, plus Justin Rose and most of the best Americans who missed the Presidents Cup.
Other Europeans committed include Knox, Blixt, Pettersson, Jacobson, Laird, Owen and Henrik Norlander.

10).And Rory McIlroy, if he can tear himself away from Windsor Park celebrations and his visit to the Ireland Rugby work out.
He won't be Number One next Monday even if he wins this, but Jordan Spieth won't be either. Jason Day will take over, ironically so following his shambolic effort for Captain Price last week.

Great to see Rory's Foundation will continue to host the Irish Open for the next three years; the K Club will do the honours next May (a bit early, don't you think?) with a Euro 4M purse.
You may not win bring home the Frys, Rory, but you're the Cream of the field and it'll be a great recruitment opportunity to boost next year's K Club field. Good luck!

Thanks Kwini.

Eric Hallberg (son of 3 time PGAT winner Gary Hallberg) Monday Qualified for the Frys.  

I would have never guessed that Gary Hallberg won pro tournaments on 4 different continents.  Won tournaments in Argentina, France, and Japan (as well as USA).

He won the 1981 Lille Open in France.  I don't see that listed as a EuroTour event in 1981.


Edit: Bhavik Patel one year suspension for violating the Tour's anti-doping rules is over.  He tried Monday qualifying at the Frys and shot 75.

I imagine you could build an entire Trivial Pursuit category around Gary Hallberg, and play announcer's bingo every time Lanny Wadkins commentates on his swing or how Hallberg never reached the heights for which he was destined!
Thanks for the news about his son; the mini-tours are full of sons of Miller/Nicklaus/Wadkins/Wiebe/Tway/Sindelar/you name it; hope he does better than that lot.
(You'll be pleased to know St.J's best is also thru First Stage; been there, done that, unfortunately. Better luck this time.)

I can't remember the guy from St Johnsbury, but I see another guy from Menden VT is leading the first stage qualifier in the West Palm Beach after Round 1

https://pgatq.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/pgatq15/event/pgatq1519/contest/1/leaderboard.htm

Trevor Murphy. Shot 56 in a web.com Pro-Am at Ohio State a few years ago. And made the cut at Lucas Glover's Open but just has trouble stitching four good rounds together.

I've followed Jesse Larsen! This is a good start for him, and his best chance yet of moving on.

I see Steve LeBrun is a few strokes behind, there's Olin Browne Jr, Paolini, Matt Hill and Big Break winner Mark Murphy. You never know who you're going to find in these qualies.

Ah, Trevor's hometown is now listed as Scottsdale AZ.  Probably a little more competition there than at St Jay.  Much Longer season too.

kwini

May is certainly not too early for the European tour to insert an event worth watching. Over the last few years they have developed a calendar that leaves some of February all of March and April and some of May with no decent events. If anything they need to insert some better events in even earlier than May.

Love a Fry's Cream. WW2 Chocolate.

Kwini do you know where the fantasy PGA Tour is gone, they seem to only have the Avis one this year?

Agreed sirb, the pgatour.com Fantasy game is toast.
Avis has too much detail for me, much of it pointless, so it's the Grumpy game for me, plus there might be a yahoo game starting in January.

super_,
I was dismayed to learn Fry's Creams are now made in Warsaw . . . . . .

Should be four days of super weather in Napa, sunny with temps in the 70's and 80's, just enough breeze around to make things interesting.

Thomas Aiken is listed as an alternate; but he's also bagged a tee-time in Portugal - multi-tasking!

Secret Pro who disses mostly good on Phil Mickelson in this months Golf Digest is "almost" certainly Heath Slocum based. Secret Pro gave some details in the article about his 1st and 2nd times playing with Phil... and from that I could pretty easily see "who fit".

I can get Phil's pairings only back to 2000... so there could be others who "fit" before then... but from 2000 forward, Heath Slocum is the only one that fits ALL the criteria as laid out in the article.

1) 1st time playing with Phil
2) paired with him "fairly late" Sunday in contention
3) cut Phil by 1 shot
4) next paired with Phil again 2 years later with Phil beating him
5) at least 10 years a pro

Here's how Slocum matches...

First played with Phil in 2002 in the WorldCom Heritage Classic. Both were T3 after the 3rd round and played in the next to last pairing ahead of Justin Leonard and Cameron Beckman. Slocum shot 70 to Phil's 71. Slocum finishing 2nd, Phil finishing 3rd. They next played 2 years later in the 1st round of the 2004 BellSouth... with Phil shooting 69 to Slocum's 73. The article talks about the 1st and 2nd time they played together, but did not say that was the ONLY times they played together. They have been paired together a total of 10 times since 2002...

- - - -

Now if we assume maybe one or two of the facts were altered slightly to protect Secret Pro's identity... then there's one other possibility. (everybody else who it could be have been have something varying way too far away from the key facts)

Nathan Green - fits except the next time they played was one year later, not two. - Green first played with Phil in the 2006 Buick Inv. 2nd to last pairing with Green 1 shot behind Tiger with Phil 2 shots behind. Green shoots 72 to Phil's 73 and the two finish 2nd and 8th respectively. Next time they played was ONE year later in the Players 3rd round with Phil in the lead. Phil shot 69 to Green's 74. Phil won that Players that year.


EDIT:  WAIT... most of my post above is a MAJOR FAIL   It's still probably Slocum... that is if one key fact was altered to cover his identity... and I had some confusion checking back and forth with NATHAN Green and RICHARD Green...   So....

Slocum fits all the above except re-reading the article... Secret Pro says they only played together twice total... ever.  ALL the other items on Slocum above fit and are accurate through their 1st two times playing together.  But Slocum has played 8 rounds with Phil since.   The 2nd round in the example above... plus another 7 rounds in years since.

Nathan Green has played with Phil ONLY twice (which fits).... beat him the first time by 1 "fairly late" on a Sunday... But... they played together ONE year later instead of two (the only other time he was paired with Phil)... but Nathan beat Phil handily the 2nd time too... so it's NOT likely him...

Really curious to see how Rory plays this weekend. I have a hunch he'll take the prize.

The victorious US team played fine the very first session then sputtered home to victory ... not a lot to build on for the RC.

To what do you attribute the consistent failure of Team USA to punch its weight in Team events, Sr?

I've long felt that what I call the Frat Boy nature of some of the bigger College programmes/alumni let themselves down under MatchPlay pressure, but that could just be coincidence. Regardless, there's definitely something missing.


robo,
Did you see my John Wood comment??!!
I also read that GD article; Heath Slocum might be a good call, perhaps I was misled by the reference to proximity of lockers, had been looking for L's, M's and N's!
I wasted an hour following Nathan Green for a few holes once; no sign of trying to communicate with the other two in his group, always went to the other side of the tee box from his partners, seemed a miserable sod! Plus, always resented his one win at Glen Abbey, not playing golf at all, just hitting into the bleachers and getting drops when playing #18 the last two times (72nd hole, play-off hole). Has scarcely been seen since so "undercover" somewhat elevates his profile!

No idea Kwin. They will have to play a fair bit better if they want to be within shouting distance for the upcoming RC. We'll see.

I was inside the ropes (working as a tee marshal) and I distinctly recall Nathan Green making a juvenile comment about a well endowed female in the crowd. Yeah, Nathan, she was probably in the market for short, bald-headed, immature golfers.

I always put it down to America just not getting that there can be a team element to golf, bit like England in International Football tournaments, they just don't get it.

kwinigolfer wrote:
robo,
Did you see my John Wood comment??!!
I also read that GD article; Heath Slocum might be a good call, perhaps I was misled by the reference to proximity of lockers, had been looking for L's, M's and N's!
I wasted an hour following Nathan Green for a few holes once; no sign of trying to communicate with the other two in his group, always went to the other side of the tee box from his partners, seemed a miserable sod! Plus, always resented his one win at Glen Abbey, not playing golf at all, just hitting into the bleachers and getting drops when playing #18 the last two times (72nd hole, play-off hole). Has scarcely been seen since so "undercover" somewhat elevates his profile!

Kwini... I had to edit the above... as I made two big mistakes... shoulda triple checked my facts first. IMO it's still LIKELY Slocum... but he doesn't fit all the criteria either.

I was able to determine ALL the players who had played with Phil in a 4th (or 5th) round and beat him by only one shot since 2000... Slocum is still the "closest fit"... but he's not an exact fit either. All the others have big issues too... Most in that they had played with Phil before the first time they were in contention with him in a 4th round and beat him by 1 shot in that round. Most the rest eliminated because they either never played Phil again after that one time... or they beat him again the next time they met.

Kwini... I also missed your John Wood comment... what was that?

People are acting like the Euros have blown out the Yanks the last three Ryder Cups.  

The fact is that only one was a blow out.  The other two were 1 pt wins (2010 and 2012). And the Stars had to align with the Perfect Storm when Europe won in 2012.

Unlikely that Phil & Heathcliff (or is he a pitcher?) would be bosom pals, but not dissimilar ages. Slightly surprising they wouldn't have had a Round 1 grouping earlier in their careers, but still. Circumstantially a good shout.

I had mentioned once before that I read an account of the 2007 PC when Nicklaus picked Hunner as a Captain's Choice, together with the comment that collateral benefit was having John Wood in the caddie room. And I see that he caddied for Bill Haas in South Korea. Hunner might have his work cut out getting him back! Should get a perspective on that at the Frys!

Your mate Maggert in with a good shout at the Charlie Schwab swag . . . . great year for him.

True, they haven't blown them out of the water in all the recent matches, but they've won 8 of the last 10, a significant statistic.
Two of them by an embarrassing 9 points, One by 5.5 and another by 3. The other 4 have all been 1 point victories.
America only have TWO victories where the margin has been greater than 1 since 1981 and one of them was only a 2 point margin.

super_,
I agree with you about the "Team" aspect, but you know our US correspondents won't be having that!
(Also agree about analogy w/England footie, maybe they'll concur on that?)

super_realist wrote:True, they haven't blown them out of the water in all the recent matches, but they've won 8 of the last 10, a significant statistic.
Two of them by an embarrassing 9 points, One by 5.5 and another by 3. The other 4 have all been 1 point victories.
America only have TWO victories where the margin has been greater than 1 since 1981 and one of them was only a 2 point margin.

Not trying to mitigate the horrid performance of the USA in Ryder Cups... there's NO excuse for us getting our heads handed to us as often as we have of late. IMO our biggest issue is our guys have no problems getting up in matches... it's holding leads down the stretch. Seems like when the pressure is at the most late in matches, USA guys are more apt to "seize up" and stop making key putts/shots. Meanwhile the pressure seems to more often bring out the best in the Euro's. I don't buy the BS that the US doesn't care enough, or try hard enough... I think it's exactly the opposite. Trying too hard.

HOWEVER... I agree with GPB that the matches have been mostly close. It only takes a turnaround in 3 matches to erase a 6 point defect... And even last year. There was a time a couple hours into Sunday that had the matches ended right then... USA would have won... but as per my prior paragraph... USA team just have NOT been near as good the closers as the Euro's have been... so like usual... any momentum we get we choke away.

And we did the same thing in this year's PC as well.. USA was up in 9 matches, AS in 2, and down in 1 in the early going... yet we booted almost all of that away, and hung on only by the skin of our teeth due to some fine work by our unlikely hero's... along with a couple of gifts from some rookie INT players

Just read the undercover pro piece on FIGJAM Phil. Two observations:

There is 0% chance our friends at Golf Digest would have printed that if Phil still rubbed this particular professional the wrong way (a camp he said he used to be in). And I'll certainly give Phil his due that he's a tireless performer for the fans: stayed 3 hours at the Turning Stone casino signing autographs one year (yeah, I'm sure he was paid, but did it all with that ceramic smile).

Is ANYONE surprised that Phil talked only about himself that entire round ... and the next?

Some injured soldiers returning to action at the Frys: Will MacKenzie, Stuart Appleby among them. EDIT: Should have added Jarrod Lyle after his latest sabbatical.
Plus Freddie Jac is back: following a leave of absence caring for his young son before and following heart surgery.
And Scott Stallings returns from suspension.

Europeans get grief for pot-hunting at lesser events around the globe.
Matt Kuchar is in on the act this week. In Fiji, along with native son, Vijay!
Whilst Adam Scott plays the Japan Open. And Els is in Macao.

I have had a look at some of the articles by "The Undercover Pro". Seems there are some contradictions or deliberate errors to confuse.
One article says he has never won on tour, in another he says he has two trophies, yet another he says he has won $25 million in his career. Not saying impossible, just seems a bit strange. There again, might be a different player each time........or as time goes on, he has won a tournament or two.

I think there are a number of Undercover Pros, perhaps each article is a different one.

Rory playing with Justin Rose tomorrow and Friday - hopefully gaining mutual commitments to play in Irish Open/British Masters.

Els has always been a pot hunter. What the heck is he doing in Macao when there's a nice casino back home in Sun City, or he could sample wines in Napa.

pedro wrote:Els has always been a pot hunter. What the heck is he doing in Macao when there's a nice casino back home in Sun City, or he could sample wines in Napa.

Appearance Money I presume

I'm never wrong wrote:I have had a look at some of the articles by "The Undercover Pro". Seems there are some contradictions or deliberate errors to confuse.
One article says he has never won on tour, in another he says he has two trophies, yet another he says he has won $25 million in his career. Not saying impossible, just seems a bit strange. There again, might be a different player each time........or as time goes on, he has won a tournament or two.

It's a different pro each time. This is not a secret.

kwinigolfer wrote:Rory playing with Justin Rose tomorrow and Friday - hopefully gaining mutual commitments to play in Irish Open/British Masters.

I was surprised Rose didn't play last week, bearing in mind he's committed to hosting a British Masters and is apparently good friends with Poulter

super_realist wrote:I always put it down to America just not getting that there can be a team element to golf, bit like England in International Football tournaments, they just don't get it.

At the risk of going off topic, I think that the England football players do hugely value international tournaments. The problem is that the weight of expectation drummed up by the media affects their confidence and they freeze.

I would have always backed Gerrard or Lampard to score in a penalty shoot out in a Champions League final. But playing for England I never expected them to score in a shoot out. Is it because they didn't care, or didn't get it? No - they just looked suffocated by the pressure every time they pulled on the England shirt.

I think the same could be true of the US team in the Ryder Cup, especially at home. Maybe it was the weight of expectation at Medinah which prevented them from playing freely. There, I brought it back on topic again.

I don't think they feel any more pressure in an International Tournament than the CL Final.

The media has pretty much accepted and project that England are a lower second tier nation, and expectation is justifiably minimal so I'm not sure that they are under extra pressure playing for their country, perhaps they subconsciously know England's standing in the international game and somehow their performances reflect that.
The last time they punched above their weight was the 5-1 v Germany. Donkeys ago.

Here's a Golf Digest take on Woods and/or Mickelson as Ryder Cup Captain, from Jaime Diaz:

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/both-tiger-woods-and-phil-mickelson-deserve-a-cup-captaincy-if-not-several?mbid=nl_101415_daily_hitlist&CNDID=25665405&spMailingID=8156741&spUserID=OTA2NDc1MDkyNzUS1&spJobID=781974908&spReportId=NzgxOTc0OTA4S0

I would say Jaime Diaz has got it all wrong (not to mention underestimated McGinley) - Phil might do OK but can't imagine Woods being any better than Watson (2014 version) or Faldo. Reckon Furyk, of that generation, would be the best Captain America for them.

It's amusing that they would consider either of America's biggest Ryder Cup losers.
No one in US History has lost as many games as those two in the competition so why would anyone think they would.

Will America never learn that constantly appointing big name charlies isn't the route to success?

Can't believe they haven't appointed Donald Trump . . . . . .

Sparkling few days in store at the Frys, the 2015/16 season is underway!

I like Steven Bowditch's description of his "off-season": "A 10-hour flight from South Korea".

Another decent field in prospect for Las Vegas next week.

Impressive to see Thomas Aiken celebrate his PGA Tour card with a 65.
In Portugal as he didn't have a high enough "priority ranking" to get into the Frys field.

Rosy and Rory moving nicely through the gears in Round 1 in Napa. Pile up those Ryder Cup points boys.

kwinigolfer wrote:Here's a Golf Digest take on Woods and/or Mickelson as Ryder Cup Captain, from Jaime Diaz:

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/both-tiger-woods-and-phil-mickelson-deserve-a-cup-captaincy-if-not-several?mbid=nl_101415_daily_hitlist&CNDID=25665405&spMailingID=8156741&spUserID=OTA2NDc1MDkyNzUS1&spJobID=781974908&spReportId=NzgxOTc0OTA4S0

I would say Jaime Diaz has got it all wrong (not to mention underestimated McGinley) - Phil might do OK but can't imagine Woods being any better than Watson (2014 version) or Faldo. Reckon Furyk, of that generation, would be the best Captain America for them.

Diaz is just waffling a bit back and forth. A lot of Newspeak, Orwell style. Trying to fit his solution to the problem.

I am sure we must have discussed this before, but would there be any good reason to have a more extended break between the end of one PGAT season and the beginning of another?

This year the Fry's field is pretty interesting and is providing a stroke play event worth watching in a period where many events of a poor quality barring the odd appearance fee participant. After the Turky trotters deal is up this may no longer be the case but at the moment it works.

In more general terms, if you have enough tournaments (which work financially) to fill near on a 52 weeks worth of events then why not go for it?

There is a six week break for PGATour players, just not in the middle of the season.  7 weeks for players not qualified for the ToC.

No sponsor is going to want to sponsor Tournaments held over Christmas and New Years, nor America Thanksgiving.

Waffling is Diaz's calling card - doesn't like to alienate the stars. Or at least, who he sees as stars.

Mac,
Reality is that almost all golfers, top golfers anyway, take a decent break (or usually two) these days, kinda different for each depending upon personal taste.
No huge reason for PGA Tour galacticos to play between the beginning of October and Jan/Feb. And for Internationals slightly different breaks depending upon home circuit. No-one really has to peak for more than a six-month period.

Good write up Kwini

Irish Open in May is always going to be a bit of a risk weather wise. This year the issue was more the wind, but at least the K Club is in a much more sheltered valley location. I think the bigger risk is it being parkland and April/early May is usually pretty wet. I've played it a few times in May and it was soft, but then it wasn't hosting a major tournament so little had been done to manage it.

Cheers Bob,

Lots of interest in the Frys, I see.
Regardless, a poor couple of days for Knox & Laird (hope he can salvage something today) and Rory might have predicted his Rounds 2 & 3 with his comment about Napa's vineyards and Rory's "hangovers".
But Justin Rose has a great shout at an early season win and a bucketload of Ryder Cup points.
Whilst it sounds from the owgr gurus that Poulter is sitting in his gooner gear, in his Ferrari, willing Steele, Mahan, Charl and Justin Thomas all to have a lousy day so that Poults gets a ticket to China as contribution to his car payments.

Don't think the 10pm tv starts helps with the interest in this event. It does seem that rory is dialling it in and enjoying the area more than the golf course.

Emiliano Grillo grilled 'em!

Love Golf Channel (Peter Jacobsen anyway) prattling on about how well the web.com Tour prepares guys for the PGA Tour. Morons.
Argentina out winning England on Tour these past fifteen months - 3-1 I think. Grillo's going to be a s*t*a*r**!!

Not a good result for Justin Rose who got himself into a winning position only to let it slip.
And almost certainly not a good result for Poults. He might get into HSBC as an alternate but it's a long shot now.

A good day for Argentina.

This past weekend's tournament was the last Frys.com event, for the time being at least. The new sponsor is Safeway (a supermarket chain owned by Albertsons, a long-time web.com Tour sponsor).
Veiled hints from Frys that they will sponsor another golf tournament ("bigger and better" - 'course it is, gotta be hasn't it?!) at a development of theirs south of San Jose, Cal.

Feherty won't be missed at CBS TV with Dottie Pepper being reported as replacing the faux American as an on-course reporter.

Apart from her sometimes out-of-control jingoism, Dottie Pepper is almost in a class with Roger Maltbie and Peter Kostis when it comes to on-course insight and forthright opinions - glad to see her back on course. (Although she doesn't do much to lower the average age of CBS's crew.)

We know Poulter is a pillock, but this......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/rydercup/11942494/Ian-Poulter-dashes-from-Florida-home-to-Hong-Kong-Open-to-ensure-he-is-eligible-to-play-in-2016-Ryder-Cup.html


I guess the Rory McIlroy bye wasn't available to Poults?


PS How much did he have to pay Rich Beem and if money did change hands what are the tour rules on that sort of thing?

sirbenson beat you to it Mac.

But why is he a "pillock" for that; pretty resourceful if you ask me. Could have saved himself a lot of bother/money if he'd only played better at Woburn - not to mention the past five months.