PGA Tour: The "Honda": Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Wonderful theatre at the Match Play last week, and a most deserving winner. Waste of time debating any improvements to the format - we'd all have differing ideas on that. But Hunter Mahan was outstandingly the best golfer once Zach Johnson had made a mess of his 19th Round One hole and good luck to Mahan as he moves forward. He'll turn 30 in May with 2 x WGC's in his back pocket, but only two run-of-the-mill events and "should do better" is written large on his career report card.

2).Rory went on about his semi final vs Westwood being his "final", but surely that's just the nature of match play?
From a point of view of English pride, not to say prejudice, I thought Lee was a touch unlucky Sunday morning. Off to a better start than even Chubby could have dreamed of and then a decent-looking iron into the 5th rolled up against the "collar" at the back of the green. Three strokes later and he was firing a lovely iron into the par 3 6th. But Rory holed his longer putt and Lee missed his. Lee's head down, two holes lost, Rory perking up, game over. Shouldn't be that way though and Westwood must know that he will only win the big ones by overcoming adversity along the way.

3).Mahan enjoyed his first outing with his Ping Nome putter having used a Ping Anser all his career. Now Nome sounds to me like the Alaskan town the sled dogs run to in the Iditarod, but Mahan was HOT on the greens from Thursday onwards.

4).OK, just to break the promise not to debate the format. Is it in the interests of the integrity of the game to hold a consolation match? Set aside the loot, just measure Wilson's achievement in winning a meaningless match-up in golf's new currency, official world ranking points. And he collects 7.6 pts for beating Westwood vs Paul Lawrie, for instance, who only won 8.88 points for winning two very meaningful matches. Just saying.

5).And on the subject of Aberdeen's favourite golfing son, it was timely to read that Aberdeen Asset Management are now sponsoring Martin Laird (impressive week, Martin). Which just goes to show how prescient Johnny Miller is as he spent all Saturday talking about Martin Laird, the man from Aberdeen. That Johnny!!!

6).That's the West Coast done with and the American golfing press is tickled to death about US golfers winning all nine tournaments. Partly courtesy of Robert Allenby's 18th hole Mayakoba meltdown of course. The last time Americans won nine in a row to start the season, the streak ran to 11 before Ian Woosnam scraped home in New Orleans. I'd put a lot of money on this year's streak not reaching 11.

7).So it's off to the "Sunshine State", and "The Honda Classic". "International" Tour players are queueing up to play in this intra-WGC week as they strive to register their mandatory 15 events for the year. Europe-based players seem to struggle mightily to get to grips with grainy Bermuda greens and don't expect anything less this week. PGA National is a Tom Fazio design which staged the 1983 Ryder Cup (where Europe finally came of age as a viable competitor) and the 1987 PGA Championship.
Personal note: I played PGA National in 1985, was walking down a front nine fairway when we heard a crack behind us and a Titleist fizzing over our heads. We looked back to see wtf was going on only to see a rather large golfer speeding by us, crouched over the front of his golfcart like Cav winning a TDF sprint. "Thanks guys," yelled Craig Stadler as he whizzed by.

8).Since those days Jack Nicklaus has "re-done" the course and redefined the signature "Bear Trap", holes 15 (par-3), 16 (par-4) and 17 (par-3), the most difficult hat-trick of consecutive holes on Tour last year. pgatour.com notes that only 12 golfers have completed the tournament in the five years the "Honda" has been played here without registering a bogey on 15, 16 or 17. Luke Donald (feet up this week) enjoyed the best score, a miraculous -5 here, in 2008, and Camilo is the only other to do better than -2 on these holes.

9).The golfers will have warm weather this week, mostly dry and sunny but with that ever present March wind. All of which makes it an improbable course to see Tiger playing at, his first visit to the tournament in 18 years (perhaps he'll be playing Quad Cities this year after all?), especially with the penal nature of so many of the holes. And Rory's high ballflight is similarly unlikely to be best suited to the course. Expect a strong tee-to-green player to prevail, along the lines of the five Honda Champions here so far: Mark Wilson, Els, Yang, Villegas and Sabbatini.

10).This week is the last opportunity to qualify for Doral's WGC Cadillac event next week. The field has pretty much been finalised with just new entrants to the owgr top fifty, and FedEx points top ten, able to graduate to Doral. Europeans on parade over and above the usual suspects include Bjorn, Canizares (nice job qualifying courtesy of his T5 finish last week) and Clarke. YE Yang was runner up last year and I could see him playing well again, along with Justin Rose who has form here also. Rory? Tiger? Top Twenty? Maybe?

PS: The "Cadillac" field as it currently stands is listed on the Fantasy thread.

what a chip out the cabbage- rory take a bow

Brilliant up and down for Rory.
Now to trap the Bear.

great bogey by

I love the way NBC have turned "Rory" to McIlroy since Tiger's in contention.

Bad miss left there though.

Oosthuizen withdrew; hope there's nothing wrong other than being eight over par for nine holes.

Kwini, Oosthuizen withdrew ill..

Good up and downs last few holes for Rory.

Cheers Sand, Hope he didn't catch anything from Poulter.

I'm thinking that no-one extra will advance on this week's play into the "Cadillac" field.

Hope Gillis gets a tie for 2nd. Nice to see a guy who could use the dollars get some.

McIlroy makes par from the bunker at 17th, and that, surely, is that...

Cool man, Rory! C'moooooooooooon!

Rory's game has reached a new maturity level. Nothing foolish for this round.

Through the Bear trap unscathed!!!

Only 18th to go, 'mon Rory!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Very very very impressive.

Fair play Rory. Thoroughly deserved with a fantastic start to the season. Odds on the masters must be pretty short right about now.

Yessss baby!!!! Numero UNO!!!

well done Rory, well deserved

They mentioned Rory's physique earlier , I always thought he looked a bit out of shape in the past (for an athlete that is.) Not anymore and I'm sure his new lady has plenty to do with that as she will have to be all about the diet and the preparation. Fair play though , he looks in great nick now.

Awesome performances from Rory, Tiger and Westwood.....................could things be going any better for Tim Finchem? Spectacular start to the PGA Tour season......................

Remember the stick "Midgetmac" got on the old 606 for his putting?? He sorted that i think!!

Git some!!!!!!!

Good win for the Midget.

mystiroakey wrote:tigers back peops!!!

Not quite....but he is at least competing again though which is good.

tiger is slight favourite for the masters on betfair!

yep 6.6 to mcilroys 6.8, westy has also gone down a point or two, donald up a couple!

Big congrats to Simon Dyson who became a father today (little girl named Isabella Rose)!

He must be another question mark for Doral in these circumstances...

Good job he didn't call her Justine Rose . . . . .

So, assuming Casey's definitely playing, we've still got question marks against Poulter, Dyson and, presumably Oosthuizen.

I magine Dyson will play and return home immediately afterwards for a break before The Masters. Not much he can do in the first week.
Hope he calls any son Terry . . . .

Would you name your son after an Uncle? Can I suggest Dai as an alternative?

At least Terry's fellow wingers were both Welsh . . . .

Kwini said ..."I love the way NBC have turned Rory to McIlroy since Tiger's in contention".
In truth I doubt anyone at NBC gave it a moments thought but I guess you can find something negative anywhere if you really want to?

Anyone think Westwood was a bit ungracious after Rory's win? "He has most of the shots", "he has a fairly bright future", "i'm not going to talk about another player when I've just shot 63".

Also Tiger had a sneaky dig, praising Rory's consistency but saying that he had only won "here and there".

Shame on them!

Well, Tiger's right, but I have a strong suspicion that's about to change. Unless there's an injury, I would put Rory as the favorite to win 3 of the next 4 majors. I only give Tiger a slight edge at Augusta. Why? Because even with his very spotty play last year he was able to get a 4th place finish. It's the one major where course experience can really shave off a few strokes.

Westwood's 63 would have been more meaningful if he shot it on Saturday and was a lot closer to the last group on Sunday.

its quite obvious how competitive them 3 are, in a way i am pleased with there slight annoyance at the questions about rory- it means we are set up for the top golfers in the world to fight it out.

westy and tiger have a point - they shot sick scores in bad weather- they are on massive highs - they dont really want to start sucking up to the new no.1!

Mystir - Good point. It really is all about the "W's" - especially for Tiger, who only has two things left to accomplish in this game: Beat Jack's Major record, and beat Jack's PGA victory record. One he'll do, the other I'm not so sure.

Former World #1 Westy clearly has winning a major as his primary professional golf goal at this point. Seeing a 22 phenom, who will only get better at closing the deal for those tournaments, can't be comforting for Westy, but should be motivating.

westy is buzzing of his recent form- he knows he can whitewash a field the way rory and woods have before- he has shot 4 of his best rounds ever in the last 4 months! he has the game and i think he has the confidence, its all about him in his mind and i hope he can produce a couple of them rounds in a major soon!

its undersatandable that both players might have been abit short with the commentators in regards to rory- them two rounds were amazing..

no disrespect to rory at all- deserved world no.1

but its not all about him!

Do we not think westy was just indulging in some sarcasm when he said rory had a "fairly bright future"?


Tiger has anout 4/5 years to win 4/5 majors. Can anyone really see that happening?

McLaren wrote:Do we not think westy was just indulging in some sarcasm when he said rory had a "fairly bright future"?


Tiger has anout 4/5 years to win 4/5 majors. Can anyone really see that happening?

No

Re Tigers comments Is hazard a guess that nobody else has got to world number one on the back of what, 4 or 4 career wins?
Of course that will change rapidly but as it stands it's a fair point.

McLaren wrote:Do we not think westy was just indulging in some sarcasm when he said rory had a "fairly bright future"?


Tiger has anout 4/5 years to win 4/5 majors. Can anyone really see that happening?

i didnt hear it- but maybe your right- however if he did say that he doesnt want to talk about anyone else's game after shooting a 63 then it may not have been sarchastic.

and yeah woods could win em- remember also that nicklaus won one at 45 or 46 i think. if i was to put money on how many woods will win id go with another 3 , but anythings possible, if he gets an injury again then i fear for him big time

Diggers wrote:Re Tigers comments Is hazard a guess that nobody else has got to world number one on the back of what, 4 or 4 career wins?
Of course that will change rapidly but as it stands it's a fair point.

How many had Cockend won before he got to number 1?
Probably not many more, plus I doubt Woods would be complaining if he won 4 tournaments that would undoubtedly put him back at number 1. What's good for the goose!

To leave Woods out of it for once, the big comment about Rory is he hasn't won that often for his talent. I'm sure he will win a lot more this year but it's still to be proven. For instance can he win an Open, his comments after last year might suggest otherwise. The fact is until he does we will never know.
I find Westwoods comments a bit more off key personally, I'd say Rory is well and truly under his skin and I don't think that's going to be good for Lee.

Diggers

In the period from last June to now rory has won 3 times. Given the rate young players can develop that is a better way to view his winning rate than looking at it from when he was 18 to now.

In total he has won;

1 major
2 regular European tour titles
2 regular pga tour titles.

Not bad for 22.

barring injury or a massive slump in form rory will win 50 plus with at least a handfull of majors. he is that good!

even westy has won 40 odd and he had a slump for about 8 years!! he will also pass the 50 mark with ease- its all about will he win a major.

he reminds me of the Pmick type rather than a monty lets be honest- once he gets one he will get a few!

fingers crossed anyway..

i have a feeling the next 4 years worth of majors will be won and contested by the big guns- westy,donald,woods and rory!

well heres me hoping anyway

No it's very good for a 22 year old and I have said several times he will win a lot more. I'm simply saying its not a lot of wins for a world number one and if you even choose to look at his recent form he has been in contention virtually every time he had played for months and hasn't been closing the deal.
Last week was a good example of how he is learning to do that I guess, I'm just saying he is a work on progress.

I guess it is not about the players total careet wins but the number they have in the 18 month qualifying period. I would imagine 3/4 wins in that period is normal for the number one player.

By Woods rationale, he should be questioning how he is at number 16. One win in 3 years, and a tinpot one at that.

odd isnt it- people were complaing about donald being number one and that by making top tens week in week out and winning consitantly wasnt good enough!! now we have the flip side argued

Id would say in 18 months you'd expect the best guy on the world to win 5-6 times and I'm sure Rory will have that kind of ratio if he stays there.
After all it will be tough to win a lot of majors if you are only wining 3 times a year in total.

yeah 4 a year is quite normal for the top guy- but then there was tiger woods winning stupid amounts in his prime!!

As far as top guys battling it out in the majors this year, I would add Phil to the mix (given his early season form) and Keegan Bradley proves he can get it done and Dustin Johnson must really be itching to get his name engraved somewhere. Shaping up to be some great competition.

I still think Kaymer will be in the mix at some point as well, he is too good not to be. Also hope Stricker is as well, he is probably the forgotten man really.

cant see kaymer turning the form on in the masters!

but yep he is good enough to get back in the mix for sure.

out of the yanks(bar tiger) -my picks for a goodish year would be hass, johnston, bradely,snedeker,mahan,kucher and simpson- over fowler, stricker, pmick or watney.