PGA Tour: JustIn Time: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Justin Thomas won convincingly at Kapalua and is in the form of his life; just like Hideki Matsuyama, the man he beat. Each player won on the "Asian" swing and go again this week, at Waialae Country Club and the Sony Open. Thomas has already shot a round of 61 at Waialae, though Hideki has yet to score a top 75 in four trips.

2).So: How good is Justin Thomas? His PGA Tour career was launched amid hyperbolic hoo ha (played his first PGA Tour event at age 16) but stalled when he struggled to "graduate" from the web.com Tour.
Since then, though, it's been a steady trajectory up the leaderboards and rankings. But the fact is that he's yet to win a full field event and has sometimes looked more likely to bottle winning opportunities rather than grasp them with both hands.
His Sunday experiences have shown both sides of his game:
~Shooting up leaderboards to earn "backdoor" top tens . . . . . .
~ . . . . but just as often relinquishing contending positions.
Not dissimilar to a young Duval and look what happened when he finally won one!

3).Thomas hits it as far as he wants, wildly sometimes but that increasingly won't matter on most courses he plays. His iron game is better than Tour average, but his short game about average, all a bit Dustin-esque.
Davis Love made no secret of the fact he wanted Justin to earn his way on to last year's Ryder Cup Team, but he came up short.
He has a good Walker Cup under his belt and is in prime position to play on Stricker's Presidents Cup Team. He'll be in all this year's Majors and WGC's so learning to compete and contend there may be his next step. Nothing better than a PGA Championship 18th and yet to contend in any WGC so far. But he's already tied Rickie Fowler in Tour wins and you'd think he should add to them this year, and be an owgr Top Ten fixture for at least the coming season. Only 23 and the golfing world at his feet.

4).Stricker's Presidents Cup Team will doubtless be a strong one and Dustin & Justin have already created some distance between them and the field in the qualifying table. Next eight automatic places currently filled by:
Spieth, Reed, Berger, Moore, Steele, Piercy, Chappell, Snedeker, with Koepka #11 and Jimmy Walker & Phil close behind.

5).Golf Digest has had a bad editorial year, but there have been a couple of interesting issues so far in 2017. "January" featured the blow-by-blow account of the Stenson/Mickelson duel at Troon and "February" has a short but compelling interview with Pete Cowen. It also has some intriguing lists:

6).Their selection of the Top 100 US Golf Courses is always fascinating reading. The Top 10 is largely unchanged from two years ago, but Pine Valley leapfrogs Augusta National as it reaches #1. The other Top ten:
Pine Valley, Augusta Nat, Cypress Point, Shinnecock, Oakmont, Merion, Pebble Beach, National GL, Sand Hills, Winged Foot. Other notables include:
Seminole (13), Muirfield Village (15), Oak Hill (20), Riviera (24), Erin Hills (44), TPC Sawgrass (51), (Shotrock's) Aronomink (78), Kapalua (112), Harbour Town (127).

7).And Golf Digest's "Money" list is also published, with Rory at the head of the field with $49+M.
On course earnings Top 5:
McIlroy: $17.5M
DJohnson: $12.7M
Day: $8.8M
Reed: $8.3M
Scott: $8.2M

8).Off-course earnings:
Palmer: $40M
Woods: $34.6M
Mickelson: $33.5M
McIlroy: $32M
Spieth: $24M

9).Waialae CC should see fine weather throughout this week's Sony Open, mostly very light winds and scoring will be low, possibly very low, showers possible but golden showers probably not.
It's a horses-for-courses, fairways and greens, Par-70, so it's predictable the sort of player who will finish well, not so easy to pick which ones will ride a hot putter, a la Russell Henley a few years ago, to victory.
I like Jason Dufner to have a good each-way kind of week, but the field is strong led by Spieth and Matsuyama, plus of course Justin Thomas. Russell Knox, Justin Rose and Paul Casey lead Team GB.

10).Much is made of golfers who finished "High" school in 2011, Spieth, Grillo, Berger, Patrick Rodgers, not to mention other hot-shots who have so far not broken through. (No idea about corresponding golfers from other parts of the world who may or may not have even stayed in school until the age of 18.)
And Justin Thomas is another one, linked as mates and golfers inextricably with Jordan Spieth and time will tell if he proves to be sufficiently successful to create his own superstar identity. Jury still out in my opinion, but these guys are only 23 so, to paraphrase Counting Crows: "It's all a lot of oysters", but how many pearls?

GPB wrote:Casey must have registered late Friday after missing the Sony Cut.

Correct. Casey would have had through 30 minutes after completion of Friday's play to enter the next week. The date stamp on his entry is today, which means it would have been made Friday, but not booked until today. That kind of thing happens a lot actually.

One important point on that rule, its completion of play on Friday, not necessarily the completion of the round. If weather delays the completion of play until Saturday, it's too late to use the rule for a late entry.

Saw Casey has signed up to play TaylorMade.

Given how well he (was) playing Nike, wonder what his transition time will be like to get to similar level.

Roller_Coaster wrote:Saw Casey has signed up to play TaylorMade.

Given how well he (was) playing Nike, wonder what his transition time will be like to get to similar level.

Based on the conversation already on this thread, no time at all.

Plus: We don't really know how long he's been using them or, at least, trying them out.

Anyhow, he's getting another chance this week, in the California desert where the temps are likely to be cool and the precipitation will be a threat, if not an unwelcome visitor.

Scores always tend to be low and soft fairways and greens will only encourage birdies and eagles. More 59 watches likely.

Where's the Beef?
Casey in, Johnston presumably out.

Haven't been able to find a reason for Beef's WD.  He is still in the San Diego field

Brandon Stone is doing a Gary Player move, making the trip from the SA Open to Palm Springs.  Not very far from being antipodal locations.  I wonder if he is even in Palm Springs yet.

Edit:  Brandon Stone is playing San Diego as well.

Edit #2: Andrew Johnstone pulled out of Palm Springs for an Illness

http://www.head2head.com/golf/playernews/

GPB... what is the OWGR scenario if neither Hideki or Spieth play Farmers. I half expect Hideki to play Torrey, but only half expect it as he's missed the cut the last two times...

Hideki has already committed to the Farmers.

http://www.farmersinsuranceopen.com/tournament-info/plan-your-day/player-field/

Jordan and Hideki have both committed to WMPO.

Jordan has about 900 gross point subject to attrition
Hideki has about 260 gross pts subject to attrition.

Both 2 yr resumes are fully populated so Jordan is losing about 0.19 pts per week off his average and Hideki is losing 0.05 pts per week.

Thus Hideki is currently "gaining" about 0.14 pts per week.

Hideki probably takes over the #5 spot after Farmers, even he MC's at Farmers

GPB... thanks...

I see Rory and Chamblee are at it again on twitter. Brandel was taking crarp about needing to hit down on the ball with the driver, and not catching it on the up like most top players.

Rory responded with his flightscope numbers.



https://twitter.com/McIlroyRory/status/821606274102099968


When will Brandel learn?

McLaren wrote:I see Rory and Chamblee are at it again on twitter.  Brandel was taking crarp about needing to hit down on the ball with the driver, and not catching it on the up like most top players.

Rory responded with his flightscope numbers.



https://twitter.com/McIlroyRory/status/821606274102099968


When will Brandel learn?

Surprised Brandel has not blocked Rory on Twitter. Chamblee has quick trigger finger on the block function. He blocked me after I defended him to some critic.

McLaren wrote:I see Rory and Chamblee are at it again on twitter.  Brandel was taking crarp about needing to hit down on the ball with the driver, and not catching it on the up like most top players.

Rory responded with his flightscope numbers.



https://twitter.com/McIlroyRory/status/821606274102099968


When will Brandel learn?

Good for McIlroy. As for Chamblee, he won't learn - foot in mouth as usual. Not sure he really knows what he's on about. Ever.

The second part of the Irish Independent's Rory interview is available on independent.ie somewhere, I came across it through the twitter chatter on the prior post(s).

Another good read

Hey all.

I literally know nothing about golf at present. but anyway . Hi, hope all are well (if you remember me!)

Hey mysti,
Nothing's changed then . . . . . . . ?

Keep in touch, good to hear from you.

haha

nice one,

it's great stuff that you are still doing these.