PGA Tour: No Longer the "Fifth Major"?: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).What a week! We learned the importance of being Ernst, the legacy of Linda Watson's driver, and saw a weekend when the Island 17th green at TPC was truly an island.

2).Ernst first, and a salutary reminder that a golfer making his PGA Tour debut, as Derek Ernst did, with a 6-under-par round of 65 at last year's Fry's.com event, is well worth watching. He came straight through the final old-style Q-School which is yet another example that not all golfers who earn their PGA Tour cards via Q-School are ill-equipped to handle the rigours of the Tour.

3).And Fred Couples of course is another who turned pro on a whim, borrowed enough money to enter a mini-Tour event, cashed a cheque for $1,800.00 and hot-footed it to Q-School where he earned his card. The rest is history and a deserved place in the World Golf Hall Of Fame where he told the story of lifting Tom Watson's wife's driver from Watson's garage and using it during his early Tour career.
A characteristic "aw shucks" speech from Freddie on Monday night as he was inducted into the WGHOF; interesting the stories told about how much Lee Trevino meant to his career and very emotional as he left the stage sobbing uncontrollably.

4).Apart from Derek Ernst, Quail Hollow also saw a return to form for Robert Karlsson and Ross Fisher, both of whom earned "higher spots" in the "rookie" money list as the second reshuffle was announced.
Life on Tour is fickle though and both Fish and Karlsson get this week off and will probably be on the shelf for all but a couple of the next six weeks as we enter the season of invitationals, Players and US Open. The top ten free pass for the next full-field event will get them in to the Byron Nelson which they'd get into anyway. Then, unless they receive an invitation, they'll miss Colonial and the Memorial, play Memphis (scene of Karlsson play-off losses in 2010 and 2011) hopefully and only get a trip to Merion if they qualify. No-one said this would be easy.
And kudos to David Lynn, not just for his terrific performance last week but a great "rookie" season. He says he won't be back in the States until the PGA Championship but hopefully common sense will persuade him to take his place at Merion and play the Bridgestone (assuming he stays in the Top 50).

5).After noting last week that Justin Rose led the field in greens in regulation at New Orleans, Rory McIlroy led the stat at Quail Hollow, only to finish close to the bottom of the all-important "strokes gained putting" stat.
But Rory now leads the "All Around" ranking of PGA Tour players and the leaders are quite reflective of the season so far - in order:
McIlroy, Woods, Rose, Sneds, Horschel, Henley, Stads, Hoffman, Walker, Jason Day, Kirk.

6).Ernie Els continued his globe-trotting with a successful-ish trip to Indonesia, hardly the ideal preparation for a Players tournament where he has seldom contended. But perhaps he nails the status of The Players in the minds of most international players when he blogs the Championship "is about as big as it gets (on the PGA Tour) outside of a major or WGC event".

7).The magic sponge has apparently worked wonders on almost a dozen players who opted out of last week's Wells Fargo event, and Dustin Johnson (hope security is up to snuff for him), Crane, Goosen, Jacobson and Poulter, to name a few, will return to action at Pete Dye's most famous course, if not his best. And Vijay returns after bolting from Charlotte at the last minute to consult his lawyers.

8).I like 17/18th's of the course, but consider the 17th to be among the very worst holes in Championship golf. But, of course, it's the one everyone writes about so I will too, with a few stat's from pgatour.com:
~11% of tee shots on #17 find the drink.
~Robert Allenby has played #17 36 times since last taking a bath. Rollins (30) and Singh (29) also have impressive runs since splashdown.
~Of those playing this week, Bob Estes and Baddeley have hit eight balls in to the water over the past ten years, Mickelson has drowned 7. (Boring Bob Tway has nine but thankfully he's on the Champions Tour now.)
~Paul Azinger is the only player in the history of the Players to birdie #17 in all four rounds (in 1987).
~The Most Interesting Man in the World has the last hole-in-one here, in 2002

9).Americans dominate the list of winners at "TPC" but, since Sandy Lyle broke through 26 years ago, "Internationals" have more than held their own with victories from Elkington (2), Price, Norman, Perks, Scott, Ames, Garcia, Stenson, Clark and KJ Choi. Europeans have contended regularly, with runners up finishes from Faldo, Langer (2), newly minted WGHOF'er Montgomerie, Harrington (2), Donald, Poulter and Martin Laird. Brian Davis has played well here, Westwood should arguably have beaten Clark in 2010, and McDowell led until going completely haywire in 2012, while Jacobson, Kaymer and Pettersson have finished well without really contending. Sergio is leading money-winner here and I'd expect he, Stenson, Donald (3 top 6's these past 8 years), Poulter, McDowell and Westwood all to enjoy good weeks.

10).I really can't find good value among the Americans and would think a half-crown each way investment on long shots would give far better value than the media favourites. My ten bob will go on Chris Stroud and David Toms.
This is a compelling tournament to watch on a course that rewards precision and penalises mistakes more than most. The weather should mostly be fine (chance of Sunday showers, and moderate breezes the only flies in the ointment) after last weekend's deluge which saw much of the course submerged.
Power is a virtue only if you hit the ball straight, but decent ball-striking and a magical short game will be rewarded. Think an in-form Snedeker. But Snedeker is not in great form and perhaps another International streak will begin!

Probably why so many grow up to be football managers . . . . .

Lots of disparaging stuff on here about David Lynn in the past month despite nabbing his second runner-up finish in nine months.
And he's at it again, moving up the leaderboard with another fine round in progress.

Rose drooping.

Harrington will doubtless be looking at his precipitous plight positively.

Tiger just putting a beat down on these par 5s.

Obviously, not a course he's had immense success on (like Rory), but I look for both of them to be in the mix come Sunday.

Has Sawgrass ever played easier? 69 is basically par for the course if you don't want to lose ground.

My 4-man yahoo team in with a -22 today. About time!

Last week I had Webb bloody Simpson: He tweeted after his dismal showing, "Had some great fellowship this week". Unfortunately I needed him to concentrate more on the birdies than his fellows.

I could never ever support such a simpleton as Simpson Kwini, kudos to you for being able to put his illness out of your mind.

Still think Webb and Dowd should have called their child Clattenberg . . . . .

Boy, oh boy, what have I missed today...!? Can I get Sergio's round on replay somewhere?

-22 sounds like a killer week, kwini... I have Sergio and Kooch, but the other picks are nowhere near the same league...

Paddy should perhaps stick with the phylosophy at this stage of his life/career... I could listen to him for a long time, but can't watch him playing golf for too long anymore, I need to preserve my sanity...

pd,
We have watched Padraig at Hartford a couple of times. Very popular there and great with the crowd.
Philosophy A OK there at any rate.

Would think Sergio and Luke holed 300 foot of putts between them . . . . .

Poulter made 20 something cuts in a row before missing the cut at Augusta. And now he has missed two cuts in a row.

Based on what he has done the last couple years, I guess he won't play on the PGAT until Merion.

GPB,
If Poults is not careful he's going to have to plan his schedule based on just two Play-Off events. The only PGA Tour-qualifying tournaments he's got scheduled for the next couple of months are Memphis, Merion and Muirfield. No Travelers this year, at least until he reviews his tournament quota.

Poulter'll be fine, he's one of the top journeymen on tour.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
If Poults is not careful he's going to have to plan his schedule based on just two Play-Off events. The only PGA Tour-qualifying tournaments he's got scheduled for the next couple of months are Memphis, Merion and Muirfield. No Travelers this year, at least until he reviews his tournament quota.

Do to the shortened schedule this year, didn't the PGAT reduce the #tournaments requirement to 12?

Want to be excited about Westwood's position, but can't help thinking tomorrow will be another typical Saturday!

The afternoon tee-times could run in to some iffy weather on Saturday, p.m. thunderstorms entering the forecast.
Should be fairly benign conditions early on, a slightly firmer version of this morning.

Time to think very positive for Sergio & Lee

Does it pîss down every weekend everywhere in the USA, or is the weather just following the PGA tour around?

Most of these (not desert) places they play have much higher annual rainfall than, say, London, Cardiff or Edinburgh.
Have to say they mostly have more sun.

McDowell trying hard to miss the cut, Brian Davis trying even harder to make the cut after Thursday's 78.

Pretty good hour and a half for Sweden - Hanson, Lingmerth, Stenson.

Have Hanson and Stenson ever gone head to head for a title? Seems like they must have done, but I can't recall such an occasion.

No idea, almost seems Stenson's best years were before Hanson's best.

Davis needs a birdie at 17 or 18 - hope he doesn't do a Horschel.

Like Brian Davis or loathe him (as some 606'ers have been wont to do, but what a finish today after missing shorter putts on 15 and 16 he birdies 18 to make the cut for tomorrow!

Well, isn't this going to be an interesting day? Can Sergio quell his inner demons sufficient to put the Tiger down? Often wondered had Sergio beaten Tiger in their PGA duel all those years ago then perhaps Tiger wouldn't quite have got it all his own way in the coming years. Just hope he gets off to a good start.

I don't want to even think about Westy's chances.

Anyone have any idea what happened to Lee on the 11th yesterday? I was looking at his card which shows an eagle 3 then when I looked at his play-by-play they showed him getting a penalty stroke for a 4. This isn't showing on the card or totals.

Any ideas? Using the play by play he's -8, not -9.

This is all on the PGA Tour app.

Lee on #11 in Round 2?
Chipped in for eagle.
Don't know anything about any penalty, but clearly shown he eagled it for a 3 and finished with a 66.

About half the Top 50 golfers who turned up missed the cut - something you'd be unlikely to see in a Major.
Adam Scott hitting it beautifully last night, without really making anything.

GPB wrote:Do to the shortened schedule this year, didn't the PGAT reduce the #tournaments requirement to 12?

Yes the minimum this year has been lowered to 12. As of this week Poulter will have 7 events. If he were to play Memphis, Merion and Muirfield as Kwini suggests that would get him to 10. Then adding the Bridgestone and PGA, (he's already qualified for both) gets him to his 12.

Oops,
Hadn't realised that - no wonder so many "International" players are playing a quasi-Tour schedule. Can see reducing it by one, perhaps, but three makes no sense in fairness to the American rank-and-file - imagine there'll be a lot of overseas players in the Barclays who won't make it much further.

If Poults doesn't play any better that'll be it for him too.
At least until the WGC Champions, his first event of the 2013/2014 season.


Should be a tricky day today if course conditions continue as they were last night. Breezy and firmer. If the wins swirl, watch out.

-14 will be a very good score come Sunday night I would imagine.

kwinigolfer wrote:Lee on #11 in Round 2?
Chipped in for eagle.
Don't know anything about any penalty, but clearly shown he eagled it for a 3 and finished with a 66.

About half the Top 50 golfers who turned up missed the cut - something you'd be unlikely to see in a Major.
Adam Scott hitting it beautifully last night, without really making anything.

Shot tracker is showing the following for Lee Westwood on Hole #11 - Round 2
Shot 1 - 290 yds to fairway - 255 yds to hole
Shot 2 - 253 yds to left rough - 33 yds to hole
Shot 3 - In the hole.

And as for top-50.... yep... tough week with only 27 of the 46 OWGR top-50 players in the field advancing. The only two that really surprised me was Rose and G-Mac... I realize neither have had much success here, but still... it just seems they "should". The other mild surprise was Horschel. Not that I would normally have great expectations for a first-timer in this event, but as a Jacksonville resident, and having played this track so often... and as good as Billy's been playing for a long time now, I thought he'd at least be around for the weekend.

robo,
Horschel pumped two balls in to the drink on #18 after he'd got to the cut line. Contrast to Brian Davis who'd got to the cut-line, faltered, then birdied 18 - off by himself this morning and bogeys the first!

Big surprise for me was Lingmerth, playing late last night as if he'd been playing the TPC half his life.

"...And as for top-50.... yep... tough week with only 27 of the 46 OWGR top-50 players in the field advancing...."

Robo: And, IMO, more evidence that the Players is the best deepest field in golf.

There were 16 out of top 50 players that missed the Cut at the 2012 PGA.

Mark Brooks ... who knew?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/sports/golf/former-pga-champion-mark-brooks-caddies-for-j-j-henry.html?ref=sports

He HAS done it before!

A few old pros out there, Pete Jordan for one, LTB another. But not many major winners.

Thing I find more surprising is that Brooks came on Tour as a can't miss prospect and turned in to a Tour lifer. Bit like Mayfair I suppose.

Jason Day (playing with Justin Leonard) two holes behind the group in front with the field stacked up behind them. Nothing new there then.

5 birdies in a row from King Louis; about the fifth time that's happened this week - streaky!

Brian Davis, playing in a one-some finished 18 holes in 3 hr 10 minutes.

Oosty and El Pato set the pace for 2 somes, playing in 3 hrs 25 minutes.


Edit: Jason Day and Justin Leonard playing behind Oosty and El Pato, are going to finish in about 3 hrs 46 minutes

Yeah, Davis was cruising until he ran up a 7 on a par 5, a 7 on a par 4 and another water ball.
Looks like someone gave Day and Leonard a warning.

Hadn't realised that there were other slow-play warnings at Augusta; apart from Matteo, Senden and Immelman among (probably) others.

PS; What's wrong with Van Pelt this year . . . . . ?

Wouldn't you say Van Pelt has underachieved......someone who should win way more for his talent.

GPB wrote:"...And as for top-50.... yep... tough week with only 27 of the 46 OWGR top-50 players in the field advancing...."

Robo: And, IMO, more evidence that the Players is the best deepest field in golf.

There were 16 out of top 50 players that missed the Cut at the 2012 PGA.

Not so fast... you can't tell from just one year...

2013 - 19 top-50 players missed the cut in the PLAYERS
2012 - 17 top-50 players missed the cut in the PLAYERS
2012 - 17 top-50 players missed the cut in the PGA
2011 - 13 top-50 players missed the cut in the PLAYERS (plus 2 wd)
2011 - 17 top-50 players missed the cut in the PGA

robopz wrote:

GPB wrote:"...And as for top-50.... yep... tough week with only 27 of the 46 OWGR top-50 players in the field advancing...."

Robo: And, IMO, more evidence that the Players is the best deepest field in golf.

There were 16 out of top 50 players that missed the Cut at the 2012 PGA.

Not so fast... you can't tell from just one year. Last year for example 17 out of the top 50 missed the cut in the Players....

How many of the top 50 played?

GPB wrote:

robopz wrote:

GPB wrote:"...And as for top-50.... yep... tough week with only 27 of the 46 OWGR top-50 players in the field advancing...."

Robo: And, IMO, more evidence that the Players is the best deepest field in golf.

There were 16 out of top 50 players that missed the Cut at the 2012 PGA.

Not so fast... you can't tell from just one year. Last year for example 17 out of the top 50 missed the cut in the Players....

How many of the top 50 played?

See my edited post above

Robo: You still haven't indicated how many of the top 50 players played in the Players and PGA.

No-one from North of the equator has broken 70 yet.

Looks like there'll be another half an hour before they do. Kyle Stanley?

Excellent performance by the Swedish contingent this week... 2nd strongest nation represented at the weekend with 6 out of 6 making the cut. Also, impressive come back for D III after that long injury break...

Off topic, but we're all Latics now!!

will Sergio sh!t himself playing with Tiger?

Had to watch it with the sound off as the commentary was so bad, but compelling stuff, great story.
Trouble is I remember where I was when Dave Whelan broke his leg . . . .

Jeff Maggert ahead of DLIII as leading 49-y-o.

Let's hope he doesn't get incontinent, incontinentia . . .

Not a fan of Wigan as its just a town with no real football pedigree or fan base , but I do like Martinez so good on em today. Hope they get relegated though because that would make Sundrland safe.

superb birdie from Woods after visiting the ..eh... woods, and a bunker. 2 shot swing after Garcia bogies. Unfortunate fresh air shot for Westwood, do you think such a thing needs to be counted as a stroke?

Superb birdie?? Tiger in getting lucky again... Shocker

Westwood still bogey-free after 4...

Rain, rain go away.