PGA Tour: Pebble Beach etc: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Redemption came swiftly for Kyle Stanley in Phoenix, no real surprise and indicative of the talent the boy has.
Everyone (including many of the TV commentators who seemed to be willing Spencer Levin to fold) who doubted Spencer Levin's ability to overcome his dodgy temperament - myself not included, I thought he'd win comfortably! - was proven correct. Don't expect Levin to rebound as quickly as Stanley, despite his 14th, 46th, 4th place finishes in three previous trips to the Monterey Peninsula. Stanley just made mistakes on one hole in San Diego - Levin was never at ease throught his Phoenix finale, but he's a good player and is still worth watching.

2).A couple of nice stories passed on by the Golf Channel crew about Stanley:
~Chamblee mentioned that, last spring, he went up and down the practice range at a Tour event asking the caddies who was the real deal among the young up-and-comers. To a man they answered: "Kyle Stanley".
Don't expect Stanley to be an occasional winner like so many of the young American golfers; expect him to be a multiple winner every year for the foreseeable future.

~A friend of Phil Mickelson mentioned by phone in Phoenix that he was chatting with Kyle Stanley: "Why don't you come over?" Phil chatted with Stanley for 45 minutes and invited him for a game at his (local) club Thursday afternoon. Phil turned up with the others from his morning tournament group, Fowler and Dustin Johnson, and Phil and Rickie won an 18-hole match vs Dustin and Stanley! Mickelson is a highly sought after mentor to young golfers, Keegan Bradley and Johnson among them.

3).Another note about Phil, who has been known to be more than scathing about some course architects, especially Rees Jones. Troubled by Jones' efforts on the South Course of Torrey Pines, and determined that a similar fate should not befall the North Course, Phil has offered to upgrade the North Course pro bono, not accepting a penny in architects' fees.
I like Phil, always puts his money where his mouth is.
Unlike another golfing superstar who invariably puts his mouth where his money is.

4).450 miles up the coast from San Diego is the Monterey Peninsula, which Robert Louis Stevenson called "the greatest meeting of land and sea in the world". Even allowing for the fact there's no evidence Stevenson ever went to the Isle Of Wight, you get the picture - gorgeous!
The "AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am" is played over three courses, Pebble Beach (rated 4th best on Tour by the pros), Spyglass Hill (13th) and Monterey Peninsula (19th) with the final round contested by the top 60 and ties at Pebble; (top 70 and ties are credited with a made cut and get paid). Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula are the two shortest courses on Tour, and Pebble has some the smallest greens. Weather is often an issue here, but conditions this week should be cool (everything's relative) and fair.

5).Some notable players return for their PGA Tour seasonal debuts this week, Woods, Furyk and Harrington among them. Woods' appearance is notable as he has given the "AT&T" his middle finger "digitus impudicus" salute for the past decade, and attributable in equal parts to AT&T's generosity to the Tiger Woods foundation, and compensation for not playing San Diego. Anything other than a strong performance by Furyk will put him on the edge of not qualifying for the WGC MatchPlay, the field for which is finalised Feb 13th. Harrington will probably need a win.

6).Other bubble boys playing this week in danger of missing the owgr top 64(+) qualifying threshhold include:
60th: Manasssero (Dubai)
63: Na (Pebble Beach)
65: Ryan Moore (PB)
67: Luiten (Dubai)
68: Sabbatini (PB)
69: Colsaerts (Dubai)
71: Noren (Dubai)
72: Levin (PB)
74: O'Hair (PB)
75: Vijay Singh (PB)
Those sitting on the sidelines, rolling the dice, are: Chalmers (61st), Els (62nd), Allenby (64th) HowellIII (66th).

7).Two more Tour veterans reappear this week following the welcome recent returns of JB Holmes (nice to see him make the cut in Phoenix) and Oberholser (still experiencing problems with his damaged hand) and Neil Lancaster (playing again this week). Dudley Hart plays for the first time on Tour since May, 2009, and European Tour member Mike Weir competes in his first event since having to withdraw from last July's Canadian Open. No word still on Casey and Jacobson.

8).It seems Tiger Woods gets to play with his good mate Arjun Atwal this week - not sure how that gets fixed? - and is just one of a number of course specialists in the field. Among those to have at least two 1st or 2nd place finishes are: Singh with 4 (incl 1 win), Mickelson 3 (all wins), Woods 3 (2 wins incl US Open), Love 2 wins, Dustin Johnson 2 wins, Duval 3, all 2nd places, Weir 2 x 2nd places. As well as Levin, Bryce Molder, Oberholser and JB Holmes have good records here.

9).Kyle Stanley leapfrogs to the top of the list of US Ryder Cup qualifiers very early in the process. Among those way off the Ryder Cup qualifying pace are: Kuchar (34th), Woods (38th), Watney (42nd), Mahan (45th) and Furyk (67th). I expect Mahan and Watney to start climbing that qualifying list with good showings this week, Bryce Molder too.

10).European interest at Pebble includes Davis, Harrington, Laird, Poulter, Christian, Knox, Greg Owen (playing in Bill Murray's foursome), Blixt and two-holes-in-one Chopra.
Cejka and Owen have enjoyed success here in the past.
And the Champions Tour opens up in Florida this week with only one European, Bernhard Langer, in the field which once again illustrates the closed shop nature of the Champions Tour.

Former star's comeback?
You could add Vijay and Phil to that list, all in the top 10. Course specialists!

Of things to come?: Tiger's showing signs of recovery when he starts nailing 10 footers to save par as he just did on Pebble's Hole #4.

Pads 'happening' for the 3rd day in a row! Phil not doing much at Pebble. He can't be happy with that.

Feeling a bit guilty when I see all the media and all of us forgeting almost completely the man at the top. Charlie Wi may have picked the wrong time and place to go for his first PGA Tour win as almost everybody is concentrating on and talking about other people...

princedracula wrote:Feeling a bit guilty when I see all the media and all of us forgeting almost completely the man at the top. Charlie Wi may have picked the wrong time and place to go for his first PGA Tour win as almost everybody is concentrating on and talking about other people...

Good point, pd. But maybe we're waiting to see if he succombes to the pressure of having some major champions breathing down his neck with 20 something holes to play.

venice,
To change the subject for a second: I watched your Lakers vs the Knicks last night, just to see the Jeremy Lin show. Who knows if it will last, but he's something else right now.

19 putts in 14 holes for Tiger so far - hope he doesn't complain about his putting today . . . .

Not bad... 4 guys in the top 11 during the 3rd round of an early season tournament with a total of 24 major wins to their names. All four just happen to be in the top 5 for major winners of those currently active with Ernie being the lone missing entry.

Hi kwini,

I've yet to see 2 minutes of action on the broadcast today due to the late basketball coverage preceding the golf, and commercials and... and the talking... and the nothingness... and it's been on air for 36 minutes.

My Lakers need to be blown up and reconstructed. The Jeremy Lin show is quite something... except he's playing the 'Jesus' on interviews at most given opportunities. They'll turn him into another "Tebow" and make him a poster boy just like those promoting the PGA Tour's Christian Reaffirmation Project.

PB's 14th is tough hole. I would not call it a great hole until they do something with that green

Essentially half the green is unusable for a hole location. HALF of the green.

The right half of the green (fairway perspective) needs to tore up and rebuilt so it can accommodate some hole locations (and most likely easier). I would soften the slope on the

when they played the USOpen there two years ago, the top half of the green had to be suffering from excess wear and tear.

Not that PB has to worry about $$$, but the mowing, aeration, chemicals, labor etc. that is spent on the lower half of the green is basically wasted.

Make that 4 in the top 6 for our major winners.

venice,
You need to watch George Carlin on Religion to fully appreciate the nonsensity of that jesus stuff.

GPB,
Part of the problem is that the 14th green scarcely gets any light. You're right, they need to raid the petty cash and get that "complex" redesigned.

Not sure what to make of this. More news of the plan to hold an event in South Africa. Looks like Finchem's half pregnant again to me.

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/company/02/10/tournamentofhope/

Link not working, but it's on the pgatour.com site

Just the back end of the url missing:
http://www.pgatour.com/2012/company/02/10/tournamnet-of-hope/index.html

Some premeditative corporate maneuvering.

Agreed, the 14th is (it seems from TV) the one poor hole on my favourite US course to watch.

Dunno about Charlie Wi picking the wrong place for a first win, if he beats a leaderboard with this lot at the top of it it'll mean even more. Cream really rising to the top this weekend, with the major-winners stat here and the efforts of Nos. 2, 3, and 4 in Dubai.

kwinigolfer wrote:Not sure what to make of this. More news of the plan to hold an event in South Africa. Looks like Finchem's half pregnant again to me.

Link not working, but it's on the pgatour.com site

(link deleted because I am new member)

I would guess this will impact (what used to be?) the Chevron World Challenge Tournament. I wonder if the vultures are starting to hover over Sherwood Country Club yet.

Cheers venice.
But typical Finchem; how many American pros are going to go to South Africa during Thanksgiving week?

kwinigolfer wrote:Cheers venice.
But typical Finchem; how many American pros are going to go to South Africa during Thanksgiving week?

It depends on with what and how much of are those Saffer 'Turkeys' stuffed. Maybe the PGA Tour thinks it time to send the pilgrams elsewhere to start a new tradition.

Does anyone here find Bill Murray funny? (on the golf course)

incontinentia wrote:Does anyone here find Bill Murray funny? (on the golf course)

No..............

Harringtons run not funny either!! Bye Bye Matchplay............

A good day's work wasted in four holes.

Not good by Russell Knox either - putting letting him down by the looks of things.

Looks like a Golden State winner. Harrington stinking the joint up.

If I were king of Pebble, I would blow up that 14th green.

Make no mistake, this Lin thing very confusing to those of us who have followed the NBA for decades. I would blood test the guy. It's rare that anyone can surprisingly "show up" at that level.

Stupid thing about the 14th is that it's a decent hole, just a shocking green. But it looks way better than it has done and there seems to be a bit more light getting in, perhaps they have lumberjacked a tree or two.
No reason at all why they shouldn't create a pin position on the right-hand half, just a little realignment of the contour and they could make it accessible, even if a short shot came all the way back off. Think they used to put the hole over there . . . . .

Harrington looks like he's hitting the ball pretty straight and 28th in greens hit. 78th-ish in putts taken though. Seems he lost that scrambling magic.

PGATour dot com live scoring has the scoreboard setup where Mickelson and Woods will be paired together tomorrow.

Pairings get a little off kilter with the Amateurs playing, but since the top 4 pros all made the amateur cut, I think Woods and Mickelson will be paired together.

If it happens, Get ready.

They are paired together!
9.29 a.m. Local time, 5.29 p.m. in Pontypridd.

3-putt on his final hole costs Laird the chance to play Sunday, good for Poulter birdieing the last, Davis and Christian working tomorrow also while Greg Owen has a chance to make some real money!

the players that played Pebble Beach today got the best draw.

Today scores:

MP - 42 over
PB - 21 over
SH - 64 over

here is the total score for each rotation:

Wave 1: SH-MP-PB - - - 21 under par
Wave 2: MP-PB-SH - - - 26 over par
Wave 3: PB-SH-MP - - - 54 over par

Average OWGR ranking (Players unranked or higher than 1000 assumed to be ranked 1000.)

Wave 1 314
Wave 2 338
Wave 3 398

Scores tracked the rankings, but I would not think there would be that much of a difference based on OWGR rankings.

Terrific stats GPB, you should be working for CBS.
It's often considered that the guys playing PB on Saturday also have an advantage on Sunday as they're playing the same course on consecutive days.

Time will tell if either/both are borne out.

Neither Duke nor Wi have won, so you'd think anyone posting a score around -15 will have a great chance.

Set up nicely for Tiger, I expect him to make a good charge and maybe get some help from Duke and Wi.

Cloudy today, and cool with the possibility of some showers sweeping in late afternoon.

We'll be playing in threesomes AND some foursomes, with 25 amateurs infesting Pebble Beach (don't include yerself in that characterisation, JP), so play will be slow to say the least.

First tee-time: 7.28 a.m. Pacific, 3.32 p.m. GMT.

Really looking forward to tonight. Still getting over (and getting used to) Harri's finish yesterday.
The 64 or 65 required by him to get to the accenture surely beyond him

Double bogey at the 2nd for Harrington. Would have been a triple bogey if this was a US Open where #2 is a par four. Is that six over for his last six holes?
Poulter's effort going over the cliff. Literally.

4 putt start for Charlie Wi..........not good.......................

Kwini - "Unlike another golfing superstar who invariably puts his mouth where his money is."

Not sure what that means..if anything. Please expand?

Also, have you ever criticised belly putters on any forum?

Just curious.

GT,
I don't like belly putters personally, but I don't like long drivers either.
I won't criticise one without the other.
There have been plenty of belly putter threads.

I don't feel as if the comment you quoted needs any explanation . . . .

Kwini - Well evidently it does because I didn't understand it and so I asked. It just didn't make any sense to me, but there again a lot of things don't.
I guess it's just me.

Meanwhile, the Man from Mansfield's going like train. Could he enjoy the best result from a Nottinghamshire golfer today?

Better be careful what we say about Harrington.

Great comeback from Paddy, 4 birdies in 5 since the 7... not out of it yet?

Can't believe Paddy is only 2 shots away from the lead!!! Crazy stuff...

OK, make that 4 shots back...

Huge final dozen holes for Phil; would think having nosed in front a loss now, especially to Tiger, would be tough to take.

(Spencer Levin, remember him?, making a run . . . . )

princedracula wrote:OK, make that 4 shots back...

Despite only being Level par for the week on the Par 5's............................

PD, what does Harri need for the Matchplay?? 2nd? Joint 2nd??

Kevin Na has putted in twice from off the green and just rolled in a 30-footer. How come he misses so many short ones?
Great par save from Harrington.

A win and nothing but a win, I'm afraid... :-(
But to be honest, even if this doesn't happen, surely he should take away some big positives from this week... and some negatives, of course... like, he needs to bl@@dy learn from scratch how to play the par 5s !!

oh well another week and doesnt look like Tiger is back again...

Mickelson looks in good nick. Why on earth is he not playing at the Matchplay?

Wow holed bunker shot from Woods and Phil with about a 30ft putt for a par..

Great reply from Phil!

Wonderful performance by Phil.

And a clutch putt on the last for Padraig. Good work by Greg Owen and out of hibernation from Brian Davis (watch for him next wk and at the Honda).

And Charlie Wie unaccountably missed three putts inside three feet.

Last, but certainly not least, how did I manage to leave Phil on my yahoo bench? What an idjut.

Quite a lot of glass from broken "bottle" to be cleared up this morning.

Wow. Didn't see that Tiger train wreck coming.

Hats off to Phil, though ... played the final round like a surgeon.

Look forward to that gem at Riviera and always love the match play coming up.

Can still not find any confirmation regarding Casey's status for the MatchPlay . . . .

Shotrock wrote:Wow. Didn't see that Tiger train wreck coming.

No "W" this week