PGA Tour: Phil, L.A., Riviera: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).That breath of fresh air blowing off the Pacific last Sunday was Phil Mickelson brushing away the cobwebs of three weeks' golfing futility and reminding us that he's still on a very short list of the World's most exciting golfers. My short list would be Mickelson, McIlroy, Garcia and Woods, not necessarily in that order. What would your's be?

2).13 wins is a pretty good total for a PGA Tour career. Phil has 13 in California (matching Tiger) alone, plus another 5 in Tucson and Phoenix, and has now reached the milestone of 40 Tour wins, 9th all time as he moves ahead of Middlecoff and Watson. Among the under-36 generation, who would you expect to reach just half of that many wins? I'd guess no-one.

3).Tiger predictably blamed his putter, "I missed a ton of short putts today. I could not get comfortable where I could see my lines. I could not get the putter to swing." Yada, yada, yada.
But even if you give Tiger the four putts inside 6ft that he missed, that's still a 71 and good for fourth, five shots behind Phil. Fact is he only hit nine greens and, coming off his 2-fairway effort in Abu Dhabi, he must surely realise that such "ball striking" is not going to get it done.

4).Yesterday we were told that Tiger will be playing the "Honda", at PGA National. Logical choice as it's just down the road from his mansion. Surprising choice given the winds so prevalent during the tournament's early March date, plus it's a course he hasn't played competitively as a pro. Where's he going to finally get his game together and his name on a trophy then? I reckon his next best chance will be Doral in three weeks. Don't fancy him at Honda or Bay Hill but then he's surely got a great chance at The Masters if he can just putt on Sunday as he does the rest of the week. If he's still winless leaving Augusta, Quail Hollow and The Players would seem long shots, but Memorial always suits him and I can see a shoot-out with Rory and Tiger in Ohio.

5).Meanwhile, Mickelson is smiling all the way to Los Angeles and the "Northern Trust Open", as the Tour leaves its fourth favourite course (Pebble Beach) and drives 325 miles south to its third favourite, the George Thomas design, Riviera CC.
But the Northern Trust can't be trusted to offer any respect to one of its most successful participants this past decade. Only Phil has a better recent record at Riviera than Mike Weir but, in a classic case of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?, (I've been injured for two years, guv, eh) the tournament twits spurned Weir's request for a tournament slot in favour of such luminaries as Jason Gore (who campaigned for his invitation on Twitter), not to mention some promising amateurs. Canadian (does that have something to do with it?) Weir is due a two year's worth of full exemption on the PGA Tour via the career moneylist. Wonder if he'll play the Northern Trust?

6).On a happier note, the return to the PGA Tour of leading players continues this week with Luke Donald, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Garcia, Goosen and Freddie Jacobson (back from injury) all making their seasonal debut. And welcome back, too, to Tim Clark who's been out for most of the last 13 months.

7).Promising effort last week by Padraig Harrington who also scored a pair of top ten finishes at Riviera before he won three Majors and started to tinker with his swing. Luke Donald enjoyed 5 top 13 results in six years before his eccentric missed cut last year when Justin Rose finished 9th. If they're tournament-ready, you'd have to like the chances of all three.

8).Hopefully not totally lost amid last week's hoopla was a 9th place $153K cheque for Greg Owen, and that earns him a spot in this week's field, alongside other Europeans not previously noted: Davis, Laird, Blixt and Pettersson.
All six PGA Tour events this year have been won by Americans. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Chances of an International win this week though must be 50/50, with KJ Choi another with a fine record here in his 11 visits so far. Eleven made cuts, four top tens and only out of the top 33 twice. Each way investment?

9).Champions Tour in Florida again this week and once again Europe is represented only by Bernhard Langer.
Hope you saw Corey Pavin's miracle left-handed chip last week on his way to his first Champo Tour win. Here's another look:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/video-corey-pavin-pulls-off-one-craziest-shots-135107799.html

10).Last, and probably least, the final year of the Nationwide Tour as we know it gets underway this week in Columbia. Boo Weekley (now withdrawn) and Aberdeen-Aussie Michael Sim will be trying to resurrect their careers while promising Swede David Lingmerth is travelling in the opposite direction on the career ladder as Swedish playing partner Mathias Gronberg. And I am indebted to 606v2 "NedB-H" for pointing out that Old Colwyn's Ben Briscoe is embarking on his Nationwide career - I wonder if he's the best golfer from North Wales since Errie Ball?
Good Luck Ben Briscoe!

Another windy day forecast for Riviera, perhaps calming down later in the afternoon.

Of those still to complete Round 1 Harrington (6 footer) and Laird (8 feet) have tricky putts to hole before going on to their final hole.

First round to recommence at 7.00 a.m.
Second round kicks off on schedule at 6.45 a.m.
All times Pacific.

As for Phil, even if (big IF!) he were to win this week AND The Masters, he'd still struggle to reach the owgr top three unless McIlroy and Westwood had complete meltdowns.

Very strong leaderboard - one player to watch might be Ricky Barnes - 3rd last week and suffered an in-bounds lost ball double bogey yesterday, yet still at even par.

Time he broke through.

Morning kwini,

Once again, the wind is dead as a doorknob for the moment. Will the sun bring the wind and how much? Laird with a chance to cut a stroke off of round one. Wouldn't count anyone out yet (except for my terrible fantasy pick of Patrick Cantlay.)

'Morning venice,
If Laird can get in with a 74 or 75 that won't be too bad, he'll've rescued a bad round.

Should be lots of entertainment for you, and hopefully the golf will be good also.

(More Linsanity tonight . . . . )

Thanks. Should have been on the course by now but my buddy wants to go around 8:00 a.m. because of the delayed start for Round 2. (Translation: he's simply lazy and wants an extra hour of sleep) Still trying to think of a good excuse to skip work this afternoon. Nothing yet.

Jeremy Lin... who knew? The Lakers have tried twice to pick him off the waiver wires but lost out to teams with a worse record who get first shot at those who become restricted free agents. Still haven't figured out the NBA's new transfer rules ironed out in December.

kwinigolfer wrote:(More Linsanity tonight . . . . )

There's been some press coverage of Jeremy Lin in Blighty over the past day or so, believe it or don't. I think I read something in the FT in particular(!). More focusing on the difficulties his breakout have presented for China (given his superstardom v heritage and religion), but interesting nevertheless. I take it he really is good though?

For US Professional Basketball -- the highest level of that sport on the planet -- there are VERY few surprises. If there are surprises, they typically come from the "international set", where US scouts don't have access to film, are uncertain of competition, etc. Many were suspect of Rickey Rubio, the Spanish sensation now playing in the hinterlands of Minnesota. Rickey's tearing it up.

What makes Jeremy Lin so confusing? Well, for starters he went to Harvard, which has produced more US Presidents than NBA basketball players, and not an NBA professional since 1954. He didn't totally dominate the Ivy League either.

Then, he was cut by Golden State (silly Golden State), and picked up by the Knicks for a short term stint because they had some injuries.

The Knick's management gave him a chance, but so did the Knick's players (good thing Anthony and Stoudemire were out, Jeremy would have never seen the ball). A point guard should handle the ball on virtually every offensive possession, and for a majority of the time. It's exceedingly rare that a top-notch point guard comes out of nowhere. It's really, really (probably can't emphasize this enough) difficult to become an effective point guard in the NBA.

He's not just chucking up shots that somehow go in. He's taking high percentage shots and also putting up great assist numbers. (His assist to turnover ratio needs work however.)

Just really confusing ... but good to see!

Agree with Shotrock.
I usually find the NBA the most unappealing sport on TV (tho I go to College games almost every week) but now I try and catch the Knicks on TV. (Interestingly they're using up their agreed maximum number of appearances so the NBA are trying to negotiate more so that they can capitalise!)

How long will it last? Who knows??
But for now at least it's a breath of fresh air.

kwinigolfer wrote:

As for Phil, even if (big IF!) he were to win this week AND The Masters, he'd still struggle to reach the owgr top three unless McIlroy and Westwood had complete meltdowns.

Mickelson is about ~166 points behind Rory and Westy so yes he probably would not crack the top 3 if he wins NTO and the Masters. And he is another ~100 pts behind Donald.

It just shows how badly he has played in the last year to be lapped that much by the top 3 players.

In Round One plus Round 2, Martin Laird has played the 300+ yard short par-4 10th hole at Riviera in 12 strokes, four over par, six over what he must have been hoping.
Not a good tournament for him so far.

Poor day so far for the day,couples and sergio group.

2 over, 4 over and 3 over today through 5 !

Sergio's taken 14 putts for his first seven holes and that's not going to get it done.

Scoring looks tricky out there, cut just about to drift from +2 to +3 and could possibly fall to +4.

Sergio's catching Padraig... was hoping it'll be the other way around..
Ernie looks determined not to play Luke 1st round in Tucson..

Coming to the end of Round 2 for this morning's wave - still looks like the cut will be +3 and Sergio, Vijay, Sneds and Padraig are hanging on by their fingernails.

Martin Laird and Ogilvy need a miracle.

But thrilled to see Ernie Els playing well. Long may it continue.

Now that's just ridiculous! Everything goes in for Lefty these days...

Squeaky bum time for Harri......................

Squeaky bum indeed...
Didn't follow this very closely today, anybody knows why was Gillis DQ-ed?
Garrigus retired and looks it was a bit of a struggle for Tim Clark in the end...

C'mon Luuuuke!

Birdie for harrington.. Should be fine. I think the cut will be +3.

Dreadful round from Sergio... I thought he looked excellent yesterday too. Shows what I know.

Sergio took 36 putts today - almost unheard of for a touring pro.

Interesting stat from Chamblee: There were more 3-putts at Riviera than at any other Tour venue last year.

kwinigolfer wrote:Sergio took 36 putts today - almost unheard of for a touring pro.

Interesting stat from Chamblee: There were more 3-putts at Riviera than at any other Tour venue last year.

Sergio helped those stats today... Think he had at least 2... Just watching shot tracker dont think he actually missed any real short ones, think he just kept either going miles away or/and or leaving himself ten footers for par.

Hopefully one of those days as his putting stroke has looked a lot better.

looks like the +3's will have an anxious wait......................

According to D.Ferguson, Gillis missed his tee time, or he w/d but noone got the word...

He also says that apparently Kuchar got stung by a bee on the par 3 6th tee box... he hit the tee shot to 5 fet and missed the putt...
That makes sense, I remember when got stung by one last time, you don't feel too much immediately after, but a few minutes later it gets really painful....

What was going on in the Harrington group today:

Sabbatini +8 on his last 7 holes
Clark +10 on his last 9 holes
Padraig Even: Very tidy.

I'm sure there's a story there; hopefully it will be published.


John C,
Don't you think the scores are distorted for the time being with the afternoon guys playing #1 and #10, birdie holes (except obviously not 10 for Laird)? I reckon Sergio will be OK.

kwinigolfer wrote:What was going on in the Harrington group today:

Sabbatini +8 on his last 7 holes
Clark +10 on his last 9 holes
Padraig Even: Very tidy.

I'm sure there's a story there; hopefully it will be published..

Interesting....

Are ye inferring Harrington had something to do with it??

I'm wondering how Roary's sense of humour was when signing his card!

Ref: Clark, Harrington, Sabbatini: Of course, perhaps venice1 was following them and disrupting business . . . .

Sparse coverage of Number One today.
Not a bad day from BG&I with Rose, Donald, Harrington all comfortably inside the cut line with Pettersson, Jacobson ( ) and Garcia, Davis on the edge as I peck away.

Nice glimpse of form from Ernie and Retief, but still no explanation of their countrymen's meltdown, Clark and Sabbatini.

Decent field, all things considered, at Mayakoba next week, Allenby, Howell, Levin and Johnson Wagner leading the players who just missed out on the Match Play. Greg Owen, Russell Knox and Gary Christian on parade as well.

Ceremonial appearances by Norman and Price, but cameos scheduled also by A.Canizares, Chopra, Olazabal, Richard Johnson and Lara.

Seems strange that Allenby, Howell would skip ATT PB and play Mayakorba. If they wanted to play next week, why not try to get into the big event?

Wagner? I can somewhat understand as he is the defending champ and there probably is a sense of gratitude.

Cut looks like +3, and Japan PGA players continue to not perform well on the PGAT.

Yuta Ikeda +12
KT Kim +9
Ryo Ishikawa + 2 (with a couple holes to play).

IMO, OWGR overvalues the Japan Tour tremondously.

Interesting point about Allenby and Howell; perhaps adding fuel to the fire that players are fed up with the course at Dove Mountain? Who knows??

Kind of agree about the owgr overvaluing the Japan Tour, but strongly believe that K-t Kim is the real deal and is just as much entitled to a bad first tournament as Luke Donald was here last year.
Not so sure about Ishikawa though and this is a cut he badly needs to make in his quest for a Tour card and possible entry via top 50 into Cadillac and Augusta.

My post was mainly ranting against Japanese Players on the Japan PGATour.

I think KT Kim could turn out to be a world class player and Sang Moon Bae is off to a steady start on the PGAT.

I remember being ticked that Jumbo was always ranked in the top 10 of the OWGR back in the 90's with little world class results to justify that kind of ranking.

Like the look of KT Kim and think he will have a good year, one bad tournament doesn't mean he'll have a poor season. Ryo on the other hand seriously flattering to deceive seems to me his course management is awful.

GPB, Agree about Jumbo . . . . but other Japanese golfers have travelled well, including his brother Joe who is struggling to gain permanent exemption on the Champions Tour, trying to batter down the doors to that closed shop.

36 rehab holes in the bank for Tim Clark. Seems there have been no immediate ill-effects from his first tournament for eight months, his first injury-free for 13 months.
We'll see him next at The Transitions (tho' a bit surprising he's not going to Makakoba - looks the sort of track which would suit him).


Looks dry with fair skies this morning at Riviera and Round 2 will resume for 18 golfers at 6.45 a.m. (2.45 p.m. GMT). Could be a bit parky though, temps a little lower than yesterday.

Cut certain to be at +3 so safety for Sergio and Sneds.

Round 2 complete, Round 3 going off both tees with a start time of 7.54 a.m. Pacific Time, 3.54 p.m. at Oakwell.

We all agree that KtKim is good despite his rusty start, but what about AKim, what happened to him again...?

Harri propping up the LB! Huraaay!

Anyone know if there is an MDF Cut after today?
And if so, why do PGAtour.com never indicate it on the Leader board??

Very compressed leaderboard, leaders going nowhere, Justin Rose just -2 for the round but right in the thick of things.

No-one can win it on Saturday, but some big names sure can lose it. Harrington and Adam Scott seem to have hit the buffers, but Ryo, Jason Day, Na all struggling too.


John, 76 players made the cut so no MDF (which they only implement at 79 or more).

Great to see Rose up there, getting a bit concerned lately with so little European presence at the top over there... Luke not out of it by any means, but 1-2 more birdies today could do wonders for his confidence tomorrow...

Podge and Na together at the bottom, should we expect a Monday finish if they go out 1st group tomorrow...?

How things change:
Eagle for Padraig.
Bogey for Justin. After all that hard work losing a shot on the short par 4 10th.

Are we sure that eagle is for real? Last time when we thought that happened it got downgraded to birdie..

Im seeing some improvements in that Harri Par 5 scoring average.
Im setting him a target of Top 75 in it for 2012 !!

Hi lads, hi kwini, are there any GB&I players in this at all??? Havent seen one hit a shot yet.. (although iggle piggle has been on full blast on the lappy here for the past couple of hours.. ) Phil playin well again tho I see.. Good stuff.

Very un-Luke-like round from Mr.Donald, only hit 5/12 fairways so far and has four bogeys - he even had a(t least one) 3-putt.
Getting the rust off for next week?
Or a return to the short and crooked of years past??
Come on Luuuuuke!

Hi B_t_b,
Very little of Number One yesterday, but perhaps there'll be some Justin Rose before the end.
Maybe Harrington will give us something to shout about - in a good way - by Sunday night?

Badds and Rose the only non-Americans challenging the top. Luke, Ernie, Pod, Goosen, etc. not doing much for 'moving day.'

I try as much as possible not to mention mr H. I seem to put the mockers on him everytime hes doin well. JC has totally hexed him now with that statement !?!?

World #1 on Twitter:

"No disrespect to Mr. Hogan, but wouldn't put the 4th hole at Riviera in my top 1000 par 3's in America!!

Don't get me wrong, Riviera is a great course, just don't see what is so special with that hole.

Only about 1 out of 3 will hit that green in regulation this week. Grass is too sticky to bounce it on, goes over the green if you fly it on."



Pretty much assured another Yank winner this week ... but maybe not a California guy.

How long a hole was it when Mr.Hogan played it?

Remember, Tom Fazio gave the course a workover four years ago; not sure whether he messed with #4, but you can be pretty sure Hogan's Alley didn't have it at 236 yards. He'd've had to use driver.

" . . . maybe not a California guy." Perhaps a Vermonner then?

I'm not sure any more if Ryan Moore has the winning DNA but wouldn't it be ironic, Alanis, if #67 were to come out on top?

Apart from the obvious, more than $1M in prize-winning moolah, golfers this week (and the next two weeks) have places in the WGC Cadillac Championship to play for.
Qualifying criteria still remaining are:
1).Top 50 World Ranking on Feb 27th (following WGC MatchPlay) AND Mar 5th (following Honda).
2).Top ten in Race To Dubai at Feb 27th.
3).Top ten in FedEx Cup at March 5th.

1).Those on the owgr top 50 bubble or just outside not yet qualified include:
#40: F.Molinari
#47: Crane
#48: Zach Johnson
#50: Goosen
#52: Stanley (will qualify via FedEx route regardless)
#53: Ishikawa
#58: Rock
#59: Furyk
#60: Cabrera-Bello
#61: Manassero
#62: Na
#65: Els
#66: Coetzee
#67: Ryan Moore

2).Following the Avantha Masters, it's looking as if the otherwise ineligible Messrs Grace and Rock, will make the field (Paul Lawrie is already qualified), while Kruger and Cabrera-Bello have a good chance. Marcel Siem is currently 7th in R2D and will probably be overtaken.
Notables not yet qualified who are playing next week and are currently outside the owgr top 50 include Els, Coetzee and Manassero.

3).The current top ten (not qualified) in the FedEx Points race are:
#1: Stanley
#2: Wagner
#7: Crane
#8: Laird (should qualify via World Rankings)
#9: Rollins
#10: Levin
This is probably the most volatile category with the amount of FedEx Cup Points to be earned these next three weeks - a win would almost guarantee a seat in the Cadillac, (except for at Mayakoba).

I'd say it'll be a tall order for these 3, Matteo, Els and Coetzee, I reckon they would need to make the last 8 next week to make it, although for Matteo even that may not be enough... Els the only one who has Honda as well as a last hope...

As for Siem, well Goose will pass him just by turning up in Tucson while Lee and Oosty will pass him if they get through to 2nd round... So it's almost a certain no for Marcel... He'll be kicking himself as he had a good chance today to finish solo 2nd and that would have put him through almost certainly...

Agree with that, pd. Too bad for Siem, he had a sporty 66 in Round 2 of Rory's US Open! Couldn't keep it up unfortunately.

Play in Round four of the year's first Nationwider is underway and two of the leading threesome in this proving ground for young up-and-comers are 47-y-o Skip Kendall and 49-y-o Kirk Triplett, who is a month away from his first Champions Tour start.

Colwyn Bay's Ben Briscoe is playing, according to pgatour.com, under an American flag, hailing from Old Colwyn, Waled; perhaps that's the 51st State? 53rd so far from Mr.Briscoe despite three double bogeys.

Kwin - Why not a Green Mountain stater? But I hope they get rid of those belly putters (at least at this level). Phil riding high on the confidence train so he maybe tough to beat.