PGA Tour: Open Championship / True South Classic: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Well done Zach Johnson, winning the John Deere Classic after you tried hard to throw it away on the first play-off hole. Second win of the season for Zach who is on the Board of the tournament and has done so much to ensure its place on the PGA Tour schedule - reminiscent of Carl Pettersson's win at Greensboro a few years ago in that respect.

2).This win doesn't arithmetically ensure Zach Johnson of a place on Davis Love's Ryder Cup Team, but he and DLIII are near neighbours on the Georgia coast, have worked together to help create "The McGladrey Classic", and it would be a huge surprise if his John Deere success doesn't clinch a spot at Medinah.

3).Troy Matteson came way too close to winning last week's John Deere Classic, leading as he did every day, to throw it all away on his first play-off hole. He would have been the first player to win a Tour event in which he finished last in driving accuracy for 24 years! But he putted for his dough, leading the field in "strokes gained - putting". Sometime College Teammate of Kuchar and Molder, among others.

4).Open Championship week, then, and let's hope Royal Lytham gets the Champion it deserves. Rather like Carnoustie did in 1999, or so Davis Love thought:
"When you have a screwy setup, you're going to get a screwy finish," Love was quoted as saying. "And if Paul Lawrie is the champion that Scotland wanted, I think they got exactly what they wanted."
The R&A get exactly what they want on Thursday, 8.31 a.m. BST, when Lawrie and Love tee it up together with Tim Clark!

5).Let's see who's done well in the past at Lytham:
1996 result:
1st: Lehman
2nd: Els
11th: Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh
14th: Duval
18th: Harrington
22nd: Woods, Stricker
27th: Broadhurst (also 58th and Leading Amateur in 1988 - hope he plays well this week, will never get the credit he deserves for his 1991 Ryder Cup play.)
41st: Calc, Mickelson
Also made the cut: Hamilton, Furyk, Allenby, Ames, Lyle, Daly, Goosen

6).2001 result:
1st: Duval
3rd: Els, Clarke, Jimenez
9th: Garcia
13th: Vijay, Goosen, Jacquelin
21st: DLIII
23rd: Michael Campbell, Greg Owen
25th: Woods
29th: Barry Lane
30th: Cink, Mickelson, Rose
37th: Harrington
42nd: Stricker, Paul Lawrie
Also made the cut: Allenby, Scott, Westwood, Calc, Lyle.

7).The last two Major winners won Majors their namesakes had won, Watson and Simpson. Sadly Jarrod Lyle won't be maintaining the tradition as he battles leukemia in Australia. But Aussie Luke Elvy tweets a promising update on Jarrod's condition:
"Has had his ups and downs over the past 6 weeks but Bone Marrow tests overnight showed no leukemia cells. Great news."
Get well, Jarrod, hope to see you on Tour soon.

8).No idea who'll win this week, fingers crossed though for Westwood and Harrington. Obviously Els, Clarke and Vijay have played well here in the past, but, Woods apart, it's difficult to see where any American challenge might come from. (Interesting take in USA Today on David Toms' non-participation: "He's pulled out of the British on several occasions due to injury and general disinterest."!)
Apart from the golden oldies, Woods, Stricker, Furyk and Phil, the leading Americans in the owgr have little to show for their trips to The Open, Dustin Johnson, Fowler, Mahan and Watney scoring the only 5 top 15's.

9).Hate disclaimers but this week's "opposite field event", the True South Classic in Mississippi, has been abandoned by PGA Tour players in their droves, very few of the owgr top 200 bothering to show up for a $540K first prize. Players are withdrawing by the dozen and it seems futile to speculate too much about the event. If they don't care, why should we?

Except to say that it's a BIG tournament for Gary Christian and Russell Knox, not to mention the ailing Richard S.Johnson and a golfer with an excellent record in Lytham Opens, Alex Cejka - a cut for Cejka this week will earn him PGA Tour "Veteran" status as he reaches 150 career cuts. Good luck Alex, but a poor reward for a first-time sponsor and a Jack Nicklaus course that the players rate more highly than Torrey Pines, Doral, Bay Hill and the Greenbrier.

10).Finally, Majors may be two-a-penny on the Champions Tour, two-in-Michigan even, but Sundridge Park's Roger Chapman won't be complaining as he added the US Senior Open title to the Senior PGA he won a few weeks ago. Two fingers, then, to the USGA who only saw fit to invite five Europeans (Hogberg went through qualifying) to their Senior Open which is even more of a closed shop than the Champions Tour. Pathetic.

Roger Chapman won't mind though as he will be at Kiawah Island for next month's PGA Championship, and joins Lee Westwood in being the first two Englishmen to punch their tickets to next year's US Open at Merion.

robo,
Fascinating. And I'm sure the conclusions you draw are accurate.
Would also guess that the afternoon golfers were acclimated to the idea that the course could be had. Relatively speaking of course!

mystiroakey wrote:Some people know they their stuff on here mate..

...but not English language?

Mysti, what did you mean when you said; you think Keegans a bit dodge? Just wondered as I also find something very odd about him. His pre shot routine is almost tourettes tick like.

I saw none of the live coverage, had to red button it for highlights this morning, will have same issue today and likely tomorrow due to work loads.

Glad Lawrie played well, I like the guy and I like the fact it was alongside DL3 who happened to be the one who slated him as a poor major champ or something along those lines.

Re: McIlroy and not shouting fore, imo whether the young chap and his now bandaged bonce should've ducked is irrelevant nothing excuses a lack of fore shout so his ball finish oob is just rewards. Pro's think the sticking up of an arm to indicate direction is enough when they grow up with the etiquette of shouting fore a disgrace imo they do this. If we as club golfers just stuck an arm in in silent gesture imagine how many insurance cases there would be.

Cut line I think +1, the weather isn't causing to many issues, be good to see some wind saturday to get the cream rising to the top for Sunday.

Great read, kwini
As usual, this is a great place to browse quickly for Open action details when you're on the road (haven't even watched highlights so far)...
If I was to rely on the local papers here where I am to find anything on golf I'd be struggling big time. And you'd think it's not a bad place to be considering how well Colsaerts started yesterday, but in a couple of papers I looked through this morning, I only found a tiny piece hidden deep inside the sports section on Nicolas's great opening round, with about 99% of the sports columns dedicated to... cycling!?

Anyway, a bit surprised to find Scott at the top, but this guy has always been tough to read for me. Personally wasn't expecting Lawrie either to figure so highly based on his last couple of outings and was trying to find out from the stats what was so good about his game. And I think I may have found the reason... he's been #1 in total putts yesterday with only 23 putts, which was helped probably also by the fact that he's also #1 in 'no putts' with 3! Did he actually chip it in three times, or there were also some long putts from outside the green? And I see that te Scots are actually leading in all the putting stats with Sandy Lyle #1 in the 3-putts category...

Interesting also to see Tiger leading in fairways hit with a whooping 92.86%! Did he actually use the driver at all yesterday? And talking about stats, I liked also Olesen's virtuoso performance on the par 3s, with birdies at each and every one of them out there, with RRock at the other end leading the 'DBogey or worse' category...

From the Irish contingent, nice starts from Wee&G Macs and OK from Harri, but a pretty horribilis day for the defending champ. The Irish Times qotes Rory as saying jokingly after he hit that boy in the head: "If he could have headed it the other way, it would have been in the fairway"... apparently the young lad was staying in a tent with a mate for the week and it was a nice touch from Rory to put him in a hotel last night after all that...

Donald with new caddy Garth Lloyd on his bag today as his regular caddy gone off to welcome his new baby into the world

pd,
I wonder if the Flemish say "Chapeau" as well as the French.
You'd also have been surprised to see Paul Casey off to a great start: 31 on the front, but 41 coming home.

Scores up this morning after heavy rain; can't but feel that the Thursday morning, Friday afternoon types will be getting the better of the draw.

Watched a bit when i got in yesterday, one of the first things to jump out was that it is not a very pretty course. What with the roads so close and the surrounding houses. With Tee shots being taken near someones back garden, it just does not look nice. Well that's just my opinion.

Ben, I think yo uare doing it a kindness, its ugly as hell. Augusta it is not.

Cream rising to the top though, beninho . . . .

Nothing better than -1 out on the course this morning, Larrazabal (after 13) surviving the longest.
Good comeback by Ross Fisher also, after he started bogey, bogey on Thursday. Now +1 after 25 holes.

Cut will be +2 or +3 id say............for serious morning contenders like Harrington, Donald & Rory, they will would want to be -2 or better at end of today to feel that they are really challenging..................

Time for someone to straighten Freddie Jac out; three over on the first hole, two under the rest of the 19 holes so far.

Looks like Richard Finch cranked up a ten on the 8th. I could probably do that . . . . .

What's the Flemish for "snowman"?

I really like the look of lythm and think being surrounded by the urban environment gives us something a little different. I have always liked the contrast of nature and engineering when it comes to golf courses. It provides a link between all the elements of golf; man vs nature.


Rory has a pretty good point about the bloke that was hit, had it not bounced off his head there is no way it was going ob given how soft a landing the grass would have provided.


Don’t be surprised to see the cut creep towards +4.

Not getting a change to see any coverage - whats making it harder than yesterday as im hearing there is still barely any wind?

Scores settling down a bit now but imagine Westwood and the other afternoon +3's will have squeezed inside the cut-line by the time they tee off.

Donald and Dyson the only -2's on the course.

More rain now in the forecast for this afters?

Only just switched on, Jacklin describing conditions as target golf with no wind at all and receptive greens, so why's scoring so high?

Luuuuuuke!

Luke coming to a major party. About time

Good question about why scores are so much higher than yesterday. can anyone wathing answer that as the text feed on bbc is not that detailed?

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Fascinating. And I'm sure the conclusions you draw are accurate.
Would also guess that the afternoon golfers were acclimated to the idea that the course could be had. Relatively speaking of course!

I believe you are correct on that... Rory said as much in his interviews... he said watching the early coverage showed him he could be a little more aggressive...

Mac, Ned,
Don't you think it's just that the bad shots are being penalised more? Very wet rough, bunkers even more difficult by the looks of it?

Some birds now though, and a Mansfield eagle from Greg Owen at #18.

BBC feed just described a donald bogey as a card wrecker. What!! Like no one ever gets a boegy in a major championship?

Mac,
I've put away my stopwatch from yesterday and have replaced it with a sundial. Getting very very slow out there. Wonder if Paramor has the wek off?

McLaren wrote:Good question about why scores are so much higher than yesterday. can anyone wathing answer that as the text feed on bbc is not that detailed?

I guess it depends on what you consider "so much higher"... Of the 21 players who have finished their rounds at this point... they average .762 of a stroke more than yesterday. I can only guess... but I'm thinking just slightly more difficult pin positions today? Seems like it, but I can't really verify it.

McLaren wrote:BBC feed just described a donald bogey as a card wrecker. What!! Like no one ever gets a boegy in a major championship?

Aimee Lewis is the BBC reporter just now.

Dare I say that the only iron she should be discussing is the latest glide easy, non stick model from Tefal....

Upon further review... unless terrible weather comes in... cut should be +3. The +4's have been hovering right around 100-102 all morning... not moving. But the +3's have been continually moving up from the 80's... now T78.

EDIT: First under par (cumulative) threesome of the day is in. Petterson, nice 68, KT Kim and Woodland at 70

Kwini

You are going to drive yourself mental at this rate. Just make sure to look away when keegan is on the coverage.

Why does he only start planning the shot and talking to his caddie after the player before him has hit their shot?

I wish there was some decent live blogging, BBC sucks. Being stuck at work is no fun. And today of all days there are drinks after work

alciG

Just dont go, i never go to work events outside work.

Snedeker looks to be on fire... Still no bogeys... impressive.

Anyone predicted Snedekar to be on top?

He missed the cut in all three Opens he played previously.

Fine round in progress from Hoover - -3 after 17.

oh dear another example of the experts who run bbc golf section.

from the live feed;

"Paul Casey will surely be happy to head back to the warmth of the clubhouse after a torturous round. Perhaps his wife will cook him a banana cake"

Who doesn't know about his high profile divorce??

This after the ask the question " what has happened to Paul Casey?".

as if his form today was unexpected and he hadn't missed most of the season with a shoulder injury.

Please guys me updated on here as the bbc live feed does not provide for experts like myself.

AlciG wrote:Snedeker looks to be on fire... Still no bogeys... impressive.

impressive indeed, he must be playing awesome tee to green, and as a puttsman he has no equal.

Phil looks almost certain to miss the cut.

McLaren wrote:
Please guys me updated on here as the bbc live feed does not provide for experts like myself.

It doesn't even provide for nittwits like me

"Please guys me updated on here as the bbc live feed does not provide for experts like myself"

mines red bull- whats your excuse?

Mac,
Some names you won't have to concern yourself about this weekend:
Casey,
Immelman
Glover
Curtis
Cabrera
Quiros
Byrd


Is Tom Weiskopf the worst commentator in the history of sport on TV? Makes Paul Walsh sound articulate.

Horrendous shot by Donald - whatever next?

donald has just played a shot that makes me feel ill- was it a chilli pepper or just a blade!! ffs

Donald saves bogey, Mickelson officially gives up, Sneds snakes another one, three shot lead! Dyson vacuums up the round of the day: 67.

I know it's been an historically wet summer... but I'd be unimpressed with standing water like that in the bunkers of the local municipal, never mind an Open venue.

First quarter of the field is in... and scoring for those 39 players comes out to just under half a stroke higher for the 2nd round (Thurs 72.13 - Fri 72.59)

Agreed Ned, Peter Dawson probably just regards it as a merry jape.

Plus: Dawson was pretty pessimistic this week about the chances of an Open in Portrush, thought some of his comments were borderline prejudicial. Can't stand him, gives Britons everywhere a bad name.

Best English finish so far might be by Harris English, birdied five of his last six holes to make the cut.

good old H English -I havebeen following him sinced he turned pro..i actually backed him in this- cant see him challenging but i know he has the game

So sneds needs a poor finish today and a 75 tomorrow. Not that I dislike him or anything but we want to see an interesting event.

kwinigolfer wrote:Best English finish so far might be by Harris English, birdied five of his last six holes to make the cut.

I see what you did there

Mac,
Snedeker playing flawless golf, hit all 13 greens in reg his last TWENTY FOUR in total), and made six birds.

Van Pelt another on his way home.

Geographical gem from ESPN.
Paul Lawrie, "the 43 year old Scot from Scotland".

Their commentators are absolutely awful, Andy North and Azinger excepted.

Calcavecchia on fire, just like St.Andrews.