PGA Tour: Viking Classic: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Exciting climax to last week's John Deere Classic with Steve Stricker producing a flash of brilliance with his six-iron from a bunkered lie precariously below his feet, flushed over water to a spot in the fringe about 22 feet from the 18th hole. Putt holed and Stricker wins by one from Kyle Stanley. So Stricker becomes the first PGA Tour three-peater not named Woods since Stuart Appleby dominated Kapalua from 2004 to 2006.

2).Stricker's shot into 18 from a bunker over water followed by a holed putt was as memorable to me as Woods's six-iron from a fairway bunker across Glen Abbey's water resulting in eagle and a one-shot 2000 Canadian Open win over Grant Waite.

3).Kyle Stanley's challenge reminds one of the quality of players competing in the 2007 Walker Cup. McIlroy was first of the group to win a Major, but Dustin Johnson has four wins, Rhys Davies, Horsey and Parry have already won in Europe, and Fowler, Lovemark, Webb Simpson and Stanley have already finished runner-up on the PGA Tour. I'm betting Chris Kirk (still a ROTY outsider) will be the next to contend.

4).Utterly ridiculous scheduling by the PGA Tour this week, sending touring pros wishing to play the "opposite field" event, to the Viking Classic in Mississippi. Heat indexes will reach at least 100 degrees throught the event, and this small traditional "community" tournament, has an almost unbelievably poor field at a time when fringe touring pros would normally be chafing at the bit to play in late season quest of FedEx Play-off places or to earn valuable dollars in the race to reach the top 125th/150th places on the moneylist and job security for next year.
God (OK, Tim Finchem) only knows why this event was shifted from the Fall Series, but just reward is the appearance of Jesper Parnevik's caddie now up to 5th alternate. "Viking" manufacture superb grills but suffice to say their excellent product will be redundant this week, the pros grilling bacon for their butties on golf carts. The only European competing, Richard S.Johnson, tweeted that he used a dozen water bottles during his practice round, perhaps seven too few!

5).The same PGA Tour maroons have next week's tournament in British Columbia so Luke Donald and the rest will be crossing eight time zones (their choice/sponsor's demand, I know) to compete in the Candian Open. Lukey, incidentally, will likely be playing seven weeks out of nine through early September; I wonder if he'll roll the dice and skip a FedEx Play-Off tournament?

6).Others are in even more of a pickle and this broken record suggests Paul Casey is likely to fall two or three events short of the PGA Tour minimum, with Goosen and Oosthuizen, possibly even Garcia and Poulter also likely to struggle to get enough tournaments in unless they achieve some very high finishes before the Play-Offs.
Not difficult to understand the ambivalence of Kaymer, McIlroy and Westwood towards the PGA Tour given these circumstances.

7).Career planners advising on opportunities in golf might cast an eye over PGA Tour salaries. No silly, not the players who we all enjoy watching, but the ivory tower crew led by Timmy Commish. Flinchem "earned" $5.1M in 2009 according to Golf Digest, with their next five highest earners also taking more than a million in pay. Plus of course a mega pension plan.

8).Top nine finishers in the 2003 Open Championship: Curtis, Bjorn, Singh, Love, Woods, Brian Davis, Freddie Jacobson, Faldo, Kenny Perry. Garcia and Goosen leading a crowd tied for 10th.

9).No idea if there'll be anyone left standing in Mississippi on Sunday afternoon, but one interesting participant in the Viking Classic is local-ish lad Michael Thompson. This "rookie" struggled through his first five months but has finished 4th, 38th and 12th these past three weeks.

10).You wouldn't think there'd be a Nationwide event this week but strange things happen at Tour HQ and the geniuses have scheduled a tournament in Cincinnati featuring plenty of guys who would elevate the quaity of the Viking Classic field. GB&I's representation includes Christian, Knox, Owen and Richardson. Time for each of these boys to start climbing up the moneylist if they're to harbour realistic hopes of making the 2012 PGA Tour.

Kaymer Pulling some shots back now,

Phil has hung in as well,

Don't think I've ever seen so many short, really short, putts missed in Championship Golf. Incredible really.

20 birdies so far by Christian, Knox and Owen in the Nationwider, 12 x Round 3 holes still to play.

Another birdie for DC. Please.

Par-par finish from Darren would do me fine!

Is Chad Campbell's caddie his brother or something? They look near enough identical.

Is Chad's caddy his brother or something? They look very much alike...

princedracula


You seem to be a Darren Clarke fan and his twitter name is theprincedc, is there a link?

Snap pd!

ha Ha

His caddie was Judd Burkett, think it is same

Yes Mac, that's me! Just hang on a second have to tee it off at the 18th now....

Snap Ned!
Cheers Ney!

Just done a google on Judd, that's the guy, childhood friend it seems! And lifelong doppelganger....

Alliss et al keep mentioning how much waiting around Clarke and Glover have been doing, but suspect it's more them being quick than Kaymer and Campbell plodding. A few noticeable slowcoaches yesterday though: Mahan and Hansen were being chased up the 18th despite having gone round as a twoball. And O'Hair/Olesen/Noh were nowhere in sight when the group in front walked off the 18th green, gave them two minutes to see if they showed up on the tee then gave up and went home.

princedracula wrote:Yes Mac, that's me! Just hang on a second have to tee it off at the 18th now.... :laughing:

Not quit what I meant, just wondered if your name was a nod to Darren and your liking of him.

ESPN may have a lot of dufuses working for them but Andy North really has his head screwed on and followed the last group; said it was as good a ball-striking round from DC as he's seen in bad conditions. Asked for a score out of ten, he said, ten plus.

How many d'y'all think are still in it? Even pars? +1's?? Guess we'll see soon enough.

Come on Darren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Mac, it's pure coincidence...

But as kwini just said... C'mon Darreeeen!!!!

Depends what the weather does Kwini. If it does the same as today, the winner won't come from anyone below the Es. But if the wind stays up tomorrow afternoon, it throws it open probably down as far as the +3s, if not further.

Do you think if Darren Clarke wins, it might be the kick up the backside his good friend Lee needs to actually win one

I kinda like the fact that the horrible midday weather created some Round 3 separation. Guys like Immelman and Watson survived it and gained ground appropriately.
Not so many players in with a shout now; I like the little bit of separation that DC now has from 3rd place.
Anyone +2 or +3 that you have an eye on?

Knox now leading the Nationwider with three holes to play, Owen eagled the last and he'll be in the top six or seven going into Sunday. Both need to keep making birdies, pars would see them lapped.

PS: Nay Bother, At least it would tell him he's got four more years and to relax a little. He seemed a bit uptight this week, as if he didn't have any self-belief. Not good for such a good player.

Russell Knox takes a one shot lead into Sunday's final round of the Nationwide event. If he wins, he'll have gone a long way to securing his card for next season's PGA Tour.

Greg Owen and Gary Christian still with a chance of substantial cheques also. And Danny Lee is in good position to further complicate his decision-making at the end of 2011: PGA Tour, or Europe?

I still believe adam .

I still believe Adam has a good chance of finishing in the top ten.
Not Jason's best Day . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:I still believe Adam has a good chance of finishing in the top ten.
Not Jason's best Day . . . . .

just hasnt played enough links golf needs better prep for futures brit opens

8 Players tied for the lead, and endless players within a couple at vikings

Logjam time! But team Europe, i.e. Johnson, in reverse.

Would be pleased to see Kang win... or Lonard, Triplett or Pernice... or Cauley, or Lunde...

I was hoping Willie MacK would prosper on his return to the scene of past glories but he's three over his last dozen or so holes - not good considering his perilous status.
I just hope the winner is a worthy young player, certainly not Pernice or even Triplett - we know he has his fortune lying ahead of him, starting next March 29th!

Not many attractive pairings early Sunday at The Open. Think I'll have some of Casey et Havret, then switch to Overton and KJ. If no joy with Choi follow Watson and Immelman for a few holes - Trev is a very impressive ball-striker, watched him crush some long irons, really lets the amateur understand a little about compression.

Not sure how Darren and Dustin will fare together; you'd assume DC'll still have the lead when they tee off, early putts crucial for Northern Ireland.

Kwini, I enjoy seeing the Senior guys do well, especially when they're in by merit, and given the state of this field I guess they all are! It's only when they're given invites to draw crowds, and plod round with uncompetitive rounds, that I get annoyed.

Giving up on Johnson, just took 5 to get down from 160yds in the fairway. Cmon Kangy!

Richard S defends next week . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Richard S defends next week . . . .

Interesting one that Kwini, clearly needs all the US cash he can get if he wants to keep his card. Will be interesting to see what he does if he can't get a PGA card next year - Europe or Nationwide?

Ned,
He had to go to Q-School last year, and fortunately escaped. Crucial first objective is to reach the top 150 money winners and gain exemption to "Final Stage", plus gain some "status" as a minimum for next year.
But this week's is a pretty poor effort.

This scotland on sunday article contains some thoughts from hank haney.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sport/The-Open-2011-39The-US.6798840.jp

He mentions that he thinks the college system in the states is why there is now a decline in the general quality of US players. In the past I have claimed that the college system was exactly why the USA produced so many good players. Is this changing or is hank correct and it is just that relative to the US the Europeans are just in a particularly strong spell?

Of course the leaderboard currently tells a different story.

I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the subject Mac.

But i remember a few months ago Paul Mcginley was saying the the golf coaches in the College system are more administrators than coaches these days.

kwini, an interesting group will be teeing off soon: Sergio and Rory.

A few under par scores out there early on suggesting the conditions are not too bad at the moment, but I understand these are expected to worsen later on in the day...

Thing is, Mac, if one accepts that, then one also needs to acknowledge the successes of "International" players who have attended US Colleges.
Clark
Casey
Donald
McDowell
Rhys Davies
Scott
Noren
Pablo Martin
Jhonny Vegas
Pettersson
Camilo
etc, etc.

The only thing I would say is that attending College rather than turning pro at 18 delays the competitive maturity necessary to turn a good game into success. And clearly the rise to prominence of a McIlroy, Jason Day or Matteo would have been delayed by college.

Interesting debate though.

Scoring seems a little better today, n'est ce pas?

Is there a 65 out there?
Or will DC and Dusty have to come back to the field if the over par crowd are to challenge??

16 greens in regulation for DC yest with the 2 missed he long putted..............
If that figure goes down to 12, will Darren be able to get it up and down enough??

I dont think there will be as much chat with DJ as there was with Glover!!

Nice little putt there for Sergio; hope you've told him how important today is for him princed?!

Agreed John, Darren's GOT to hole soime putts!

Nice putt by Sergio and great recovery shot and birdie from Rors at the 2nd...

kwini - told Sergio that he should probably aim to score about 3-under the average par score of the day to get a chance to squeeze into top 50.

There's one right there at the 2nd!

WOOOOOOO Sergio

Great Putt

And there's an almost embarrasingly long putt at the 4th!!! C'mon Sergio!!!

That's my boy, Sergio! Glad you're listening... Needs a good recovery from that bunker at the 6th though...

not to shabby a recovery there, and another good looking putt.

This is the early part of the day going according to plan! Sergio!!
Now for the second part. You know the script: Come on Darren!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sergio so close another god putt, good birdie.

Mcilroy unfortunate with the moving ball

If that eagle putt was going in, he could think of the unthinkable... Still, mighty impressive start by Sergio.

C'mon Darren!!!!

6 for sergio

Chat box open for anyone who wants for final day of open

Nice start from Clarke

Beauty for Darren.

2 x 69's in the clubhouse, nothing else under par.

There's the stats for par:

Rd#1: 72.1
Rd#2: 73.0
Rd#3: 74.7
Rd#4: 74.0 (@ 12:00)
Rd#4: 74.1 (@ 13:00)
Rd#4: 74.2 (@ 14:45)
...

What's Lefty doing so close to the lead? Stay away, please, Phil!
You've got plenty majors, leave this one to Darren!!!

Pars on 17 and 18 please Sergio.

Right now I really want mickelson to win.