PGA Tour: The Olympic Game: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Notes this week from the Land That WiFi Forgot; but the beach cricket pitches are spectacular - if anyone only knew how to play. So: Notes very short, if not sweet.

2).Last week's entertainment in Memphis was predictably unpredictable. Good to have Dustin Johnson back in Victory Lane, but a short stint in front of the telly would have suggested that, if Rory had made just half the putts he missed under five feet, he'd have probably won.

3).Glimmer of form from two unlikely Aussie sources with Nick O'Hern registering his first top 25 finish of the season. Expect him also to play well in Hartford in a fortnight. And Robert Allenby was back on the leaderboard after a couple of months in the weeds. Allenby, who could always be depended upon for his ball-striking - and his unpredictable short game. Now the whole lot has been unpredictable. Maybe that will change with some confidence from a good result..

4).More good results from Greg Owen, now almost certain to qualify, not just for The Barclays, but for the Deutsche Bank also.

5).Dustin Johnson now has six wins since 2007 - only Woods (16), Mickelson (10), Stricker (9) and Zach (7) have more. About 3/1 against one of those five increasing his total this week?

6).Robert Karlsson has sunk to #50 in the World Rankings, perhaps just a continuation of his rotten form away from leaving for the Top 50 for the first time in over 4 years. The leaders in consecutive weeks in the top 50 might surprise:
Mickelson - 968
Donald - 406
Poulter - 299
Stricker - 275
Zach Johnson - 270
Westwood - 249
Kaymer - 229

7).No-one has won the US Open after winning on the PGA Tour the previous week, in recent history at least. Dustin Johnson has a lot to prove and his successes (and an ultimate disappointment) at Pebble Beach suggest that he's a strong candidate to upset that line in the record book. But the past two US Opens at Olympic have been won by Scott Simpson and Lee Janzen, top-class golfers to be sure but known better for steady play and sometimes excellent short games. Furyk-like, Donald, Stricker? Not sure I've got the faintest idea, but Olympic will certainly test the patience.

8).More as an item of interest than an indicator for this week, the 1998 leaders from this week's field include:
5th: Stricker
7th: Westwood
10th: Cink, Mickelson
14th: Furyk, Kuchar
18th: Woods
23rd: Casey Martin
25th: Bjorn, Singh,
32nd: Durant, Harrington
43th: Olin Browne
49th: Els

9).The forecast for Thursday and Friday at least suggests cool, breezy weather with temps not reaching 70F until the weekend. Combined with the traditional "heavy" ocean air, the course yardage of approx 7,100 yards will play much longer, especially given the very narrow actual landing areas on some fairways caused by the sloped landing areas. I'd guess that will favour a Westwood over a Donald, a Mahan over a Stricker, but really can't think of any "favourite".

10).So who are we going to be staying up late to see crowned "US Open Champion"? Not McIlroy or Donald for me, and not Bubba or even Tiger, despite his return to winning form at Memorial. In 2009 he won each of his last pre-Major start but came up empty; it would be a brave punter who bet on a repeat, but this may not be the opportunity for him. Best bet might be e.w. on someone like Peter Hanson. Or even a real stretch, Spencer Levin. And by that time I’ll have returned to the land of wi-fi.



From incontinentia (merged from another thread):


Site: The Olympic Club (Lake Course)

The course: The Lake Course was designed in 1924 by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting, and then Whiting redesigned it three years later because of significant storm damage. Its main characteristics are sloping, tree-lined fairways as the property works its way down toward Lake Merced. There is only one fairway bunker on the entire course, at the par-4 sixth. There have been minimal renovations over the years, except for a new hole created for the par-3 eighth that now plays 200 yards and was moved to the right. Hundreds of trees have been removed, opening views down toward Lake Merced.

Length: 7,170 yards
Par: 34-36—70

Last time at Olympic Club: Lee Janzen overcame a five-shot deficit against Payne Stewart and closed with a 2-under 68 for a two-shot victory. Janzen got a huge break in the final round when his ball, stuck in a tree on the fifth hole, was dislodged as Janzen was headed back to the tee to play his third shot. It was his second U.S. Open title.

U.S. Open champions at Olympic Club: Jack Fleck (1955), Billy Casper (1966), Scott Simpson (1987), Lee Janzen (1998).

Noteworthy: The four players who finished second in the U.S. Opens at The Olympic Club won a combined 27 majors. The four winners won a combined seven majors.

Quoteworthy: "Now we are going to get back to where it's not going to be so much fun and games out there. It's going to be hard work."—Johnny Miller on Olympic Club.

Key statistic: The U.S. Open is the only major Tiger Woods has not won in consecutive years.

Key coincidence: The U.S. Open champion played with Phil Mickelson in the opening two rounds twice in the last four years.

Tiger tales: Tiger Woods has gone four years without winning a major. The longest Jack Nicklaus went without a major was five years, a drought that began at age 41.

Leff wrote:Here is what Webb Simpson said (not while receiving trophy though):

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/06/webb_simpson_go.html

Gibberish, although fair enough on that forum. Seems a nice enough guy at the end of the day I guess and can't really argue with his 68-68 finish.

Did anyone else see the interview with Westwood where he tried to claim that the shot he hit where the ball got stuck up the tree was on the perfect line?

Bit like McDowell claiming the putt on the 18th was on the perfect line but the hole was too far to the right.

navyblueshorts wrote:

Leff wrote:Here is what Webb Simpson said (not while receiving trophy though):

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/06/webb_simpson_go.html

Gibberish, although fair enough on that forum. Seems a nice enough guy at the end of the day I guess and can't really argue with his 68-68 finish.

Check out his tweets:
http://twitter.com/#!/webbsimpson1

Simpson is now the poster child of the Jesus media:
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38077

The BBC is reporting Lee Westwood is moving his family to the US to increase his chances for winning Majors.

Not sure that's the answer to be honest, but one must surely sympathize with an ambitious initiative to be the best that he can be before the years catch up with him.

What an irony it will be if July finds him lifting the Claret Jug!

Am a big fan of Westwood and wish him every possible success and happiness.

Wow. An example of how important winning a major is to a top professional golfer who has yet to win one.

(Still think he should rent an apartment in Northern Ireland to cover all bases.)

Good luck Lee.

He can afford it. I don't suppose he's selling his U.K. base(s). If it makes the difference w/ 3 of 4 Majors being in the U.S. then good luck to him. I don't buy it really given his recent finishes in all Majors but good luck to him.

He reportedly cited the weather as one of the reasons for the move too! [in terms of impact on practice]

One can only presume that he's spoken with Poults at some length about this in terms of professional development and uprooting family, and who knows, perhaps Ian raised it in the first place.

Agree with kwini that winning The Open in a few weeks would be a fantastically ironic parting gift before he leaves home - they don't just give away Claret Jugs though, so go forth and win the damn thing Lee!

So will he play more events other there ? As I remember he put down part of the reasons for his slump down to being based in the States.
Be interesting to see how it works out, his PGA form has alwaybe been pretty average in comparison to his European Tour career. But he is 39 and if he really wants to win a major he needs to find something else from somewhere to make that little bit of a difference.

Before the european and charl/oostie purple patch I used to bang on about how you had to live in the US to win a major. I do wonder if this still has any validity or whether it just “helps” to be American.

Could it be that practicing on the types of grass you find in majors on a daily basis is important to holing the crucial putts under pressure. I am no turf expert so does anyone know what the most common grass type is for Florida greens and what most of the major venues use. As the US open in particular tends to be on golden age designs I wonder if most of them have the grass of the day.

Is it also possible that not having to juggle international schedules are helping the US players?

While I do believe that move to the U.S. would aid Westwood's chances in the U.S. based majors, I think there's a LOT more to Westwoods move than meets the eye... and a lot of it has to do with ISM.

Remember that ISM is attempting an all out expansion into the U.S. as evidenced by it's investment in Old Palm and setting up an American base there. They brought in Andrea LaBlanc and more recently there was the ISM acquisition of Rule 1.02 Marketing. It's no secret the objective at Old Palm is to build an enclave, not dissimilar to the Bear's Club or Medalist, but more aimed as an American Base for international players, specifically those that are clients of ISM.

When Oosthuizen announced his move to Flordia (also Old Palm) there were a few raised eyebrows wondering if that was a signal of his potential impending departure from ISM (ala Ernie Els). But with the move by Westwood, maybe that's not the case at all.

Robo

Do you work in the golf industry?

Mac,
Most Florida courses have grainy Bermuda, most Major courses have Bent, though imagine Kiawah Island will be Bermuda.

I would have thought that living over here might help with the run-of-the-mill Tour schedule, but am very sceptical that it would positively assist "Majors" build up.

Irony is that he's complaining about practicing in iffy British weather, but when he was playing well at the MatchPlay he was going on about the lovely weather (during your mild Feb/March period) in England!

But if he thinks it will help, it will help.

Mac... I'm a semi retired photographer. I came out as an broadcast intern (grunt) with CBS in the early 70's but gravitated to photography. Over a span of 40 years I had several full time multi year stints (11 years total) running the ropes at PGA Tour events... and a few NWT and even less Champions Tour. The last full time gig ending in 2006. I rarely shoot any more, except to keep my hand in shooting the Texas stops for an independent news organization then working occasional contract (an inside role) for other events with a visual media company that works with the PGAT.

Robo, I asked as some of the information you report seems a lot deeper than what is available on most golf or sports pages. I guess I just wondered if you had some sort of connection to the business.

I love taking photos of golf courses but sadly I never capture them in the way I want to. There is something about the way sunlight hits a links late on summers evening that is just so magical, but so difficult to capture as a photo.

This is the time of year when the NCAA College Golf Season is over and the best players starting earning invites to Tour events.
Perhaps the most noteworthy this week is Dylan Frittelli's appearance in Cologne at the BMW International Open.
Frittelli is a South African and has been part of the powerful University of Texas team - but you can seldom tell which of these graduates of the College system will prosper. Will Frittelli be another Fowler? Or will he be another Peter Uihlein??

McLaren wrote:I love taking photos of golf courses but sadly I never capture them in the way I want to. There is something about the way sunlight hits a links late on summers evening that is just so magical, but so difficult to capture as a photo.

Well... there is more "art and skill" to it than a lot of people realize. But it's really NOT that hard for anyone to learn if they take a little time with it. You may not know it, but you hit on one of the biggest keys in any type of photography... LIGHT... and knowing how to use it. Here's a little tip for ya... when trying to capture "golden hour" course shots (the time right after sunrise or nearing sunset when color seems to explode). There's two ways to get really good ones.

INTO the sun... shoot with the sun at about a 15 degree angle but INTO the camera. Just make sure the sun itself is NOT in the frame and make sure to shade the front of the lens to avoid flare (unless you want flare for effect). If you have a tripod, use it, and if you have manual settings... shoot as high an f/stop as you can. And if you have manual settings, bracket exposures (usually slightly under exposed to auto settings works better for golden hour INTO sun landscapes)

Sun behind... actually it almost never works to have the sun directly behind you when shooting late afternoon shots... not enough shadows to bring out detail.... better to shoot with sun at about 30 to 45 degrees left or right behind. Again, bracket exposures if you can... because sun behind shots often work better slightly over exposed from auto exposure standards.

Last... try early morning instead of afternoon. Dew on the course and vapors off lakes and such make for dramatic photographs (especially INTO the sun as above) But then again... your profile says Scotland. MAN! in the several trips I've had over there... I didn't know you guys even have a sun... :-)

kwinigolfer wrote:This is the time of year when the NCAA College Golf Season is over and the best players starting earning invites to Tour events.
Perhaps the most noteworthy this week is Dylan Frittelli's appearance in Cologne at the BMW International Open.
Frittelli is a South African and has been part of the powerful University of Texas team - but you can seldom tell which of these graduates of the College system will prosper. Will Frittelli be another Fowler? Or will he be another Peter Uihlein??

I assume you heard Frittelli signed with ISM, but as big a news will be Cantlay's presser today announcing he's going pro this week at the Travelers and has signed with Steinberg and Excel Sports.

Robo

Thanks for the tips, I do try and use the manual settings on my camera but never have too much success. I will employ your tactics next time and hopefully see better results.

In face a copy of you post has just been saved for later use. Thanks.


“I didn't know you guys even have a sun... :-)”

We don’t, not for the last couple of months anyway. There are currently a couple of new water features on my course. Streams running down the middle of the fairways.

I would imagine Westwood has looked at what others have done to get to winning majors and has decided that they have a place in Florida to be able to practice year round and just be completely comfortable with America, etc.

I think it also has something to do with his kids not quite being at secondary school age so now is a good time to give it a go but in a couple of years it will be a bigger wrench.

Perhaps also influenced by Forest's continued inability to punch their weight in the Championship?

kwinigolfer wrote:Perhaps also influenced by Forest's continued inability to punch their weight in the Championship?

Added to the fact they won't even have the easy points off Pompey next season I'm sure it contributed to his decision.

I reckon lee got sick of being chubby. No matter how much gym work he does he still looks a little podgy.

In the USA however he will be thought of as well under weight.

Shane Lowry would look like Lena Zavaroni in America

Is Shane Lowry in the Chubby Chandler stable(sorry cafe)