PGA Tour: Roll Over Jim Furyk . . . . : Notes from the Ballwasher

1). . . . . . and tell Zach Johnson the news.
The King of Rock and Roll died last weekend, so here's some fun inspired by some of his best known songs.
Furyk departed the owgr Top 50 this week, slipping from 50th to 57th. Perhaps not that surprising following Furyk's injuries which kept him out of action for eight months, plus his customary extended Christmas Holidays.
But Zach Johnson, who started the year in 38th place has slid to 50th.
Are these two notable careers grinding to a halt, or is it just a case, to paraphrase Chuck Berry:
Of golfing's version of "rockin' pneumonia", "rollin' arthritis", catching up with them?
At least Zach is in the Majors and WGC's but Furyk's not in The Open or even the Bridgestone. Perhaps they'll be motivated this week.

2).No Particular Place to Go:
Ian Poulter's plight if he doesn't cash in on his final Medical Extension starts.
He had an excellent chance with the 54-hole lead, to win in Puerto Rico last year, so this is a yuuuge opportunity for him to cash in and secure his place on Tour for the rest of the season. If not . . . . . .
And I'm not as optimistic as some who think he'll cash in on a trove of sponsor invitations. He still has "Past Champion" status though, so all wouldn't be lost.

3).Johnny (Jordan?) B. Goode:
A lot is made of a generation of golfers who left school in 2011 and are now enjoying success on Tour, led by Jordan Spieth; Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman are part of this group and they seem to have claimed Emiliano Grillo as well; apparently he played a number of Junior tournaments with this lot when at school in Florida. Pathetic to hear Johnny Miller to say "no-one had even heard of him" two years ago. That's what ignoring the European Tour will do for you Johnny.
"Some day (Jordan) you'll be a man, and you will be the leader of a big old band."
No doubt some leading Europeans or other "Internationals" are also of the 2011 vintage? Different band though.

4).My Ding-A-Ling:
Possibly the absolute worst song ever recorded by a credible artist, but a chance to remember Jonathan Kaye. You do, don't you?
Around the turn of the century, Jonathan Kaye was one of the most promising young golfers on Tour, a couple of good wins (Westchester & Phoenix), and had a very good chance of winning Darren Clarke's NEC Invitational (Bridgestone) Championship.
But his fame turned to notoriety when, in the words of golfchannel.com:

"A tournament official wouldn't allow him access without his identification badge, so he returned with it clipped to the zip of his (trousers)."

A lengthy suspension ensued and he also fell foul of injuries. But he won $10M in the days before FedEx swag. He hasn't made a Tour start since 2011, last cashed a web.com cheque in 2014, but played a couple of webbie's earlier this year. Still only 46, he could still make up for lost time (and money) by cashing in on the Champions Tour but good health and a positive attitude will be the least he needs to get himself up to speed. Hope he makes it, the Tour needs its characters, and he'll have a partial two-year Champions Tour exemption.

5).Sweet Little Sixteen ("Deep in the heart of Texas"):
Presumably Chuck was talking about a high school hottie, so let's leave him there - of course, he could have been dreaming about this week's MatchPlay, so let's chuck Chuck, Berry him and move on.

6).Success in the "Match Play" seems to go in cycles, the only constant for a while anyway, being T.Woods. Among those others with at least two Finals under their belts are: Toms, Love, Mahan, Ogilvy, Casey, Day and McIlroy, but none has really dominated.
So, the best has been Woods, whilst the golfer in this week's field with the worst record is Wood, Chris Wood - time to double up betting on him, he can't lose eight in a row, surely? (And even if Woody comes up empty again, he'll still earn a fraction of a world ranking point for his "efforts".)

7).The Tour has "opposite field" action this week, starting Thursday, at the Puerto Rico Open. A big chance for Poulter as mentioned before; he'll be competing against some others in the owgr Top 100, Bryan, Zanotti, Olesen, McDowell, Kirk, Danny Lee and Andrew Johnston.
Puerto Rico could well be seen as an afterthought, and the list of Champions is not Hall Of Fame material. But runners up have included very Young Guns including Jason Day, Ryo, Spieth and Grillo. And Sam Saunders.
I'll be choosing Fabian Gomez as my one-and-done this week.

8).Last year's Puerto Rico Champ was Tony Finau, but he's sitting in a comfy chair beside the first tee in Austin waiting as "first alternate" at the "WGC-Dell Match Play for Jason Day to call in sick.

9).Of those outside the Top 50 and not yet qualified for The Masters, Ross Fisher is the best placed. Eight years removed from leading, at one time or another, in every 2009 Major, Fish needs to win his group (tho' could possibly qualify with a group runner-up result). Competition in his "Group 4" be warned: Oosthuizen, Matsuyama and Furyk, who probably won't "roll over" after all.  

10).Zach Johnson may still have some life left in him yet but, if he setting his sights set on a sporting career beyond golf, it had better not be snooker. As you can see from this effort:


http://www.golfdigest.com/story/watch-zach-johnson-bank-his-bunker-shot-off-opponents-ball

Excellent as usual Kwini and thanks for the great nod to CB. No Particular Place To Go a brilliant song.

Interesting Tweet from Prince Dracula, adding up the "New Players" from European Countries that have crashed the OWGR Top 200 for the first time.

Not one player from Ireland or Northern Ireland has crashed the Top 200 since Shane Lowry, when he won the Irish Open in 2009

https://twitter.com/VC606/status/844211324217446400

He needs to look out for a Power surge . . . . . . .

Some of the other countries' totals were arguably more surprising, Espana Especially.

Looking forward to tomorrow's golf, but still feel they're missing a trick, the format seems contrived. It's certainly not one of the year's best days of golfing viewing as it used to be. Time for Plan C.

Great article Kwini.


1) Not Rock and Roll be a tribute to Furyk's 58.  



2) It is kind of annoying that Poulter has past champions status given that he has never really won a PGAT tournament.  

7) I know it is hard to judge based on social media presence but is Beef really giving the PGAT is all?  I hope he has a good week.

How has Poulter not won a PGA tournament Mac? He's won TWO.

Beef seems to be playing as much as he can, he is just so lowly that he cant get in all the events. I cannot fault the guy though. He is not a world great, and probably will never be one. But he is trying to embrace something that has come his way. Will it work out for the long term? probably not but better to have tried and failed then not tried at all.

Super

They weren't your regular mom and pop PGAT events.

Doesn't matter if they were "regular" (whatever that means, more Americanisms from you Mac?

They were by definition PGA events, so stick it in your pipe and smoke it.

Beef has his work cut out for him and the longer he goes without a decent result the more difficult it will become.
Almost halfway through the season now and he's squeezed himself into a deep hole.

Unless he gets a top ten finish in PR or a sponsor exemption into Houston, it'll probably be late April before he plays on Tour again.

Assuming Poulter does not meet the requirements of his Major Medical, he will have better status than Past Champions (Category-33).

He has earned enough for Conditional Status (Category-30)

Right now, he has earned 337 pts (between last season and this season) which would have been 147th in last years FEX season.

kwinigolfer wrote:
5).Sweet Little Sixteen ("Deep in the heart of Texas"):
Presumably Chuck was talking about a high school hottie, so let's leave him there

Or more likely sweet little 14 as I understand it. Rather unsavoury exploitation of vulnerable teenagers... If he was in the UK the police would have paid him a visit by now.

raycastleunited wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:
5).Sweet Little Sixteen ("Deep in the heart of Texas"):
Presumably Chuck was talking about a high school hottie, so let's leave him there

Or more likely sweet little 14 as I understand it. Rather unsavoury exploitation of vulnerable teenagers... If he was in the UK the police would have paid him a visit by now.

The US Police had already sentenced him to five years; after appeals and retrials that was reduced to three years and he served 18 months.


In other news, Shane vs Sergio late in the day today; hope mini-Shane has turned up, family healthy and he's ready to get down to work.

Great notes Kwin. Chuck was a pioneer that's for sure.

I'm actually looking forward to this new format. Given the vagaries of matchplay I can certainly understand why a touring pro would stay away from the one-and-done format.

Just to let you guys know, you can watch this on the PGA website. Currently Grace v Sullivan

Thanks super, will check it out.

Strong winds in Thursday's forecast, good chance of thunderstorms on Friday. Wonder what the WGC contingency plans are.

Rory heading to the first tee!

McLaren wrote:Thanks super, will check it out.  

I think it's only a short feed Mac, then you need to pay a fee.

Surprising that every match so far is so close - no-one is more than 1 up except Grace who won the 11th hole.

Rory hitting 410 yard drive, but still only AS through 15 with the diminutive, in both stature and length, Kjeldsen.

It's the old maxim Mac, drive for show.

Kjeldsen is small, but he's not that small in comparison to McIlroy. McIlroy is a short arse too in relation to the likes of Johnson, Wood, Rose etc.

For some reason Mac, I think of you as being quite short too.

Short days for the first two South Africans; can King Louis make it a hat-trick? (Which would be bad news for Fisher's Masters' ambitions.)


EDIT: You mean "diminutive" don't you, super?

Soren cam out on top anyway.

Looks as if Rory played quite well, 3 or 4 under par. Imagine Kjeldsen to always be a difficult opponent unless you got well on top early. Never gives up.

Great write up. Fury know and Zak J must feature as 2 who have got the most out of their games. Enjoy watching both, and would not bet against either in a scrap - unless of course it was Sergio v Furyk in matchplay!

Bones reckoned Zach Johnson was the most competitive American pro. Don't doubt it, but going through an uncharacteristically poor stretch.

I see a poll was just published that reckoned McGirt to be the Tour's biggest over-achiever, but as you say, just taking over the Kite, Furyk, Zach mantle.
Also voted Crane the slowest Pro and Day & Spieth both in the top four.

I see Soren has had a good start. Now there's a competent golfer. From what I've seen so far looks a nice course.

He does incredibly well in the modern power game. -7 today.
Always a good each way bet.

Finau's first tee vigil all for nought as the 64 have all taken their opening tee shots. No-one has done a Stenson yet, and Jason Day is playing - would think his match with the always unpredictable and sometimes combustible Perez would be an exciting one.

Favourites winning the first few matches 8 - 4.

Day off injured again... no idea yet what today's problem is.

You couldn't make it up, could you??!!

An anonymous pro quoted in Golf Digest about Day's Masters prognosis says:
"What he doesn't need is a windy Masters. Plus, he's always sick. He wants to win Augusta so bad it pretty much guarantees he'll be sick that week. He's like Tiger in that respect - there's always something wrong with him."
Not that there's anything wrong with Tiger's Major record, but Day had better get cracking.

EDIT: Wonder if Day will try to play Thursday? Hasn't someone done that before in this format, walked off one day, played the next??

No way Rory played well. He lost. Just another L. I would have done just the same thing but a lot faster.

(But I'm guessing he's happy with this new format!)

Ooh shyte, he's crying now. Aah his mum's not well by the sounds of it. Well done Sky for cutting away from the press room, the right thing to do there.

Sympathetic obviously, but now he's surely invited more scrutiny and speculation?
Wonder if the Tours were aware of his "situation".
Or Tony Finau.

Wonder how much pressure he's been put under from sponsors to play?

Terrible course management from Steele there, daft.

Sorry to hear about JDay and his Mom, wish them well.

But who is advising this guy, can't imagine any sponsor pushing him into playing in these circumstances. He seems to be in a permanent pickle to the point he will always be under the microscope from all quarters.

Snap,
Wouldn't you imagine that Colin Swatton is advising him; he's the father figure, coach and caddie?
If he was going to be with his mother during her surgery on Friday, what the hell was he doing in Austin?

Kwini agree, Swatton must have a lot of influence on him. Did he always plan to leave the event after two rounds - all very strange and JDay circus just grows.

Enjoy the Austin course, thought Rory would win comfortably this week but got to do it the hard way now.

Anyway it is only golf and worst things happened today.

Heard a report that Willett is skipping Houston.

Wonder how he plans to get his 15 PGATournaments played.  Doesn't look like he is going to improve on his FEX standing too much this week.

Including this week, he has played 4 PGATournaments, three of them WGCs.

Since becoming a PGATour member 11 months ago, the only two un-co-sanctioned events he has played is the Players and the Honda Classic.

He has to find a way to play 6 more un-co-sanctioned events this year.

GPB,
No he doesn't!
He can just pull a Kaymer.


Agree Snap,
Day is receiving conflicting advice. Or maybe he's just a bit thick. Too bad, obviously in a devastating personal situation, but not helping himself professionally.

You could be right about Day Kwini, like Mo Farah, seems like a nice chap, but I don't think there's much going on between the ears.

Kjeldsen won the Irish Open the first year Rory hosted it up in Royal Co. Down. I wonder was that going through his head yesterday? Just saw some of it this morning, looks like Rory played well but Kjeldsen doing what he does well really well. Rory not out of it yet.

I enjoyed the conclusion of Lowry v Garcia last night. He may not be popular on here but "pea brain" is a great match play fighter. Although Lowry bottled his putt to win on 18.

I like the round robin format followed by KO's. You would be pretty gutted if you had a ticket for today and all the big guns had been knocked out yesterday.

Seems like Day had a pretty tough upbringing from all accounts. His dad dies at 12 and his mum brought him up with very little money. He should no way have gone to play this event and probably should have skipped a few before and after. Some things more important than being a sportsmen.

It might seem obvious that Day shouldn't have tried to play but I am sure we have all made the wrong decision when faced with a tricky situation. It is reading too much into it to say he is dumb or was forced to play by sponsors. The simplest scenario is that he thought keeping a normal schedule was the way to go but the emotion of that choice only became apparent once he teed off. Lets give him some slack.


Om another note I was expecting them to play two rounds yesterday.

I hadn't gotten all the details last evening Mc as Sky cut away when he teared up, so I didn't know about his mothers surgery this week. People cope with things in different ways, perhaps he did try to play through it. Whatever the situation, hope they get the right result.

McLaren wrote:It might seem obvious that Day shouldn't have tried to play but I am sure we have all made the wrong decision when faced with a tricky situation.  It is reading too much into it to say he is dumb or was forced to play by sponsors.  The simplest scenario is that he thought keeping a normal schedule was the way to go but the emotion of that choice only became apparent once he teed off.  Lets give him some slack.


Om another note I was expecting them to play two rounds yesterday.  

Mac,
That's all very well, lots of sympathies etc, etc.
But, if he knew he was going to attend his Mum's surgery (hopefully from the safety of the waiting room) on Friday, why did he tee it up in the first place?

"Om another note": Why? Only one round each on Thursday & Friday also, so very compressed action at the weekend. Last 16 and Q'Finals on Saturday, Semi's and Final on Sunday.


The boys are underway in Puerto Rico; Johnston, Poulter and McDool all play this afternoon. A bit of a dodgy forecast thru'out the tournament.

Far, far away for comparison, but when my mother died suddenly, I found that the golf course was the best place to be. Some mates, normal banter, mind off it - I was utterly terrible mind.

Like I said, miles away for comparison purposes, the course is my recreation space but his office/factory. I certainly couldn't have worked effectively, even though I may have thought I might have been able to at the time, so maybe there's a similarity there.

Although it sounds as if he's known about it for a while, wonder if it's the real reason for all the "injuries" that we slag him off for?

Hunter Mahan near the top of the leaderboard!!


As far as Day didn't he not play the first WGC as well, probably to do with his Mom's illness. Distressing to see yesterday, hopefully he takes the necessary time out to recover. Wishing his Mother all the best in her recovery