PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Where did that come from? Great win by Justin Rose at Cog Hill, and what a transformation in his fortunes in the last 18 months! From missing out on the 2009 Masters and US Open and being ineligible for St.Andrews, to three prestigious Tour victories, all at highly rated courses, whatever the players think. Recipe for success? It's all spelt out in the statistics:

2).Top 25 in all the main stat's for the BMW week, including:
Driving accuracy: 4th
Greens in regulation (gir): 3rd
Putts per gir: 5th
And, most impressive of all: Putts inside ten feet: 62 of 64.

3).Mea culpa: I'd really like Rose to be one of my favourite golfers but I just can't warm to him; whether it's the strut, the funny old accent which geographically must come from the Azores, his (phony?) anxious to please demeanour with the US media - all of whom love him - I don't know. But I posted a link on last week's notes about a Sean Foley / Justin Rose story and have to say that both have risen in my estimation, especially Inspector Rose.

4).Just Justin's luck for his win, and headlines, to be usurped in the American press by 16-y-o Lexi Thompson's runaway triumph on the LPGA Tour. It's only taken nine months, but now the LPGA has a real home-grown success story to publicise. And it looks like the LPGA will relent and not demand she goes thru' Q-School to play next year!

5).Back to stat's, and inspired (if that's the word) by a detailed analysis in last week's GolfWorld about the Tour's new "strokes gained - putting" stat. I won't go through every facet of the analysis but the bottom line is this:
The Tour tracks every putt attempted on every green, by every golfer, in every one of its tournaments. The results of any single golfer are then calculated against the field average. By that reckoning, Justin Rose was fifth last week in "strokes gained - putting". GolfWorld headlines its article: "The Stat That Doesn't Lie", and, if one accepts that, the findings are interesting. Although they only started publishing this stat during this season, apparently the PGA Tour has been accumulating data for eight years.

The annual leaders are, from 2004:
Adam Scott (shock, horror), Crane, Crane, Parnevik, Pavin, Donald, Donald, Stricker.
Among others featuring regularly in the top ten are Faxon, Chalmers, Woods, Zach Johnson, Jacobson, Snedeker and Baddeley.

GolfWorld compiled the cumulative stat's for 2008-2011 combined and show Luke Donald to be the best, gaining .869 shots per round - that's about seven strokes gained in eight rounds - against Mr.Average (call him Bill Haas for this year).
Top 4: Donald, Chalmers, Gay, Baddeley.
Worst 4: Joe Durant, Will MacKenzie, Daly and SCOTT (despite once being the best!)
Thought you'd like to know. And with Will MacKenzie being a favourite player to follow, I've seen first-hand how he's earned such ignominy.

6).The Presidents Cup automatic qualifiers were established this week, Toms, Mahan and Furyk squeaking in for the US, both Snedeker and Bill Haas close behind. US Media money is on Couples choosing Keegan Bradley as his final pick (after Woods). I'd choose Sneds, great putter.

7).Geoff Ogilvy clinched the final International spot, with Oosthuizen, Badds, Allenby and Singh missing out. Greg Norman wants to win this match at Royal Melbourne and any sentiment will go out the window as he makes his two choices. I'll be stunned if he doesn't select Melbourne-area guys Badds and Allenby.

8).And so to East Lake, a turn of the (19th/20th) century Bendelow design, much re-done, the last twice both by Rees Jones. Not sure how many re-dos of a Rees Jones re-do that Jones has done, but maybe he gets things right second time around. Regardless, Mickelson has won before and after so no complaints this week please Phil. And Stricker is expected to take his place having had a cortisone shot in the neck he sprained sticking it out last week about Cog Hill.

9).I listed a few weeks back the top ten beneficiaries of the FedEx Bonus Pool money that's been earned since its 2007 FedEx exception. These are the top ten European earners though last Sunday. Any surprises?
1).Garcia: $2.757M
2).Donald: $2.410 plus at least $175K this year.
3).Harrington: $1.160M
4).Casey: $1.027M
5).Rose: $637.5K plus at least $175K this year.
6).Pettersson: $619K
7).Laird: $607K
8).Poulter: $556K
9).Davis: $550K
10).Jacobson: $426K plus at least $175K this year.

10).No Champions Tour this week, but the Solheim Cup gets going in Ireland (complete with much media muttering about heated rivalries, especially involving Kim and Wie) and the Nationwiders are in California where Gary Christian and Russell Knox will be looking to enhance their 2012 PGA Tour eligibility and Greg Owen will be trying hard to join them. Sweden's Jonas Blixt is also in prime position to qualify.
Simultaneous with Messrs Cutler and Lewis embarking on their pro career, Harris English will be debuting on the Nationwide circuit.

Ooh, DJ will be a bit disappointed with that. Slap in the face.

But Sean Foley double still on, pity about Number Forty Nine.

Harmon definitely gave the impression that DJ wasn't impressed. Apparently he called Harmon to tell him, presumably so he could break the news before TW might have been ready I guess

What a shot from Haas in the lake. Well played!

Congratulations to Bill Haas.

Less hair on his head that his father, but 11 million richer.

kwinigolfer wrote: I'm not sure it speaks well to the FedEx points system that the winner will be a golfer with no wins previously this season.

Neither does it speak well for the rankings system that #1 and #2 ranked players are yet to win a major!

kwinigolfer wrote:I'm not sure it speaks well to the FedEx points system that the winner will be a golfer with no wins previously this season.

Agreed Kwini, a point I was trying to make earlier in the week. Fair play to Bill Haas though, he didn't make the rules.

Regarding Woods's caddie, I'd imagine there'll be some friction at events the two play, especially the Presidents Cup where there'd have to be an undercurrent that Freddie Couples set LaCava up with Woods.

Leff,
Them's the rule, get over it. Doesn't help their resume, it's just a snapshot and certainly nothing they can expect to live in posterity. As you say, great work by Bill Haas and Luke only has himself to blame he didn't win the jackpot.

The biggest loser is Webb Simpson. He just needed a +2 final round and +2 for the tournament to win 10 million and he blew it!

Those were some serious shots in the playoffs. Way to go Haas!!

Luke's charge too little, too late.

Donald has only failed to bank at least a $100K cheque four times in 17 tournaments this season. High standard of consistent excellence which is likely unprecedented.

Career year for Luke, that's for sure.

His no 3 putt streak is amazing.

Fast forward 12 months ... who do you think will be World #1? I'll say Rory.

Luke!!!!
But it will mean little unless he picks up some wins in BIG events, not necessarily Majors but BIG BIG events! Feel as if the Play-Offs fitted his stereotype. Too bad. Bet against him next week and the week after.

Did anybody see this Bill Haas win coming?

Me neither. Well played that man, but not sure it's the right outcome for me.

Good win for Bill, but don't think the fed ex guys will be too impressed with someone that did just enough to make the TC winning the big pot of money. But thems the breaks.

Luke will be disappointed but in all honesty i'm sure he's going to make more over the course of his career than fed ex are offring in one lump sum.

Given the scheduling of the top players (i.e. tending to go on "holiday" around the world... or having children etc), how is Mr Donald looking for the unprecedented feat of topping both PGA and European Tour money lists?

Presumably, the Fedex and RtD bonus money isn't counted for these purposes otherwise he's sunk?

Maverick wrote:Good win for Bill, but don't think the fed ex guys will be too impressed with someone that did just enough to make the TC winning the big pot of money. But thems the breaks.

On purpose they changed the format giving anybody at the TC a shot at the jackpot. And with 30 players there will always be somebody without a win that year. Like it or dislike it, but I think they got what they wanted.

Skydriver,
As I understand it, Luke Donald's schedule will have him at this week's Dunhill, next week's defence of his Madrid title, then changing nappies for seven or eight weeks until he plays up to three events at the end of November/December, incl an Aussie trip and Dubai. Then probably taking ten weeks off until LA.

He's just ahead of Webb Simpson in PGA Tour money right now without anyone else within $1M. Don't be surprised to see Simpson play the McGladrey's event at Sea Island in three weeks' time, just to try and take the "money title".

Strong sentiment here that Bill Haas's win yesterday trumps Keegan Bradley's Pres Cup claims and that Haas will be the choice of Fred Couples tomorrow.
Similarly Aaron Baddeley looks to have the inside track on Greg Norman's list, joining presumably Allenby. Or possibly Vijay Singh.

All will be revealed Tuesday.

kwinigolfer wrote:Strong sentiment here that Bill Haas's win yesterday trumps Keegan Bradley's Pres Cup claims and that Haas will be the choice of Fred Couples tomorrow.
Similarly Aaron Baddeley looks to have the inside track on Greg Norman's list, joining presumably Allenby. Or possibly Vijay Singh.

All will be revealed Tuesday.

I guess we agree Sneds is a sure pick, or?

Sneds will be left out in the cold. Two picks each Captain: Woods and, probably, Haas for Fred.
Mike Cowan, Steve Williams and Joe LaCava will have lots to talk about in Melbourne!

Right, just forgot about Woods... How often did that happen in the past?