PGA Tour: The Play-Offs - Expect the Rich to get Richer: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).We said last week that careers were on the line at Greensboro but, in fact, not much changed.

~Those in the FedEx Top 125 points list stayed there, made certain of their place in the Play-Offs and their "playing privileges" for the 2013/2014 season. That includes close shaves from Crane and Appleby.

~And only David Toms secured his full exemption for 2013/2014 on the back of his final round 62 - it appeared his circuit was dead but Major Toms woke up in the nick of time. Having said that, he has a spare capsule, two actually, in the shape of Career Money Exemptions, the good Major being 7th on the all-time money list.

2).No doubt George O'Grady was hot on the heels of Europeans who have cards secured for next year but failed to qualify for the Play-Offs, such as Colsaerts, Hanson and Harrington, to "persuade" them to play this week in Gleneagles and add lustre to a disappointing field, right? Wrong, but at least Padraig is signed up for Celtic Manor the following week as is Ross Fisher plus several PGA Tour "non-members" who might have the option of competing in next week's first "web.com Tour Finals".
What?!?!? Up to 150 golfers will compete in this four tournament series with the Top 25 money winners earning a PGA Tour card for 2013/2014.

3).So, before we look ahead to the Play-Offs and this week's Barclays event in New Jersey, let's look a week further forward to those web.com Tour Finals and who will be contesting them. In simple terms it will be:

a).Players ranked 126 - 200 in FedEx points for the 2013 season. This will include Europeans Owen, Karlsson, Norlander, Fisher (who is eligible but appears not to be playing), Russell Knox and Paul Casey (Paul has been outspoken on behalf of the European Tour this past week so why isn't he playing in Scotland or Wales?).
And may include familiar names who also possess an alternative "career money" exemption avenue: Chad Campbell and Allenby. And many more who don't, including Bud Cauley, Ricky Barnes, Immelman, Ishikawa, Jonathan Byrd (he has some Medical Exemption starts remaining), O'Hair and DiMarco.

b).Those ranked 1 - 75 on the web.com money list following this week's "Cox Classic" tournament in Omaha. Familiar names qualifying here include Cejka, Richard S.Johnson, Will MacKenzie and possibly - depending on this week's results - Matthew Goggin and Patrick Cantlay. The Top 25 after this weekend will already have earned their cards but the exact status of all but #1 will be determined by the Tour Finals money-list.

c).Tour non-members achieving specific money or notional FedEx points levels this season. Too much detail to go thru every one, but most Europeans who competed in the WGC's and Majors this year would come in to this category tho' it remains to be seen who'll take advantage. Marcel Siem perhaps, but most of them such as Gonzo, Molinari, Lowry etc are signed up for Celtic Manor and they can't be in two places at once.  

4).I'm thinking that, when the web.com Tour Finals get underway, they might be even more compelling than the FedEx Play-Offs, but these Play-Off tournaments have produced some great golf over the past six years and doubtless we'll enjoy more of the same.
Whether there'll be any sort of "crescendo" building up to the Tour Championship I somewhat doubt, partly because the Play-Off points scoring system which is simple enough seems to defeat the efforts of the berks at the Networks to explain them. You know the drill by now;
Top 125 play this week at The Barclays.
Remaining Top 100 qualify next week for the DeutscheBank.
Then the Top 70 earn a tee-time two weeks' later at the BMW.
And the Top 30 sitting when the music stops go to East Lake for a bottle of Coke and the Tour Championship.

5).pgatour.com, who have been wrong before, project that it will be necessary for this week's field to have amassed FedEx 550 points including their Barclays result so this places the following luminaries on the "bubble":
Van Pelt, Ogilvy, Twit Overton, Kaymer, Villegas, Romero, Pettersson, Badds, Apples and Ben Crane.

6).When we talk about the rich getting richer, let's review the Top Ten leading beneficiaries of the FedEx bonus pool (excluding actual tournament prize-money) so far:
$22.275M: Woods
$13.190M: Furyk
$11.258M: Snedeker
$11.020M: Vijay Singh (not qualified this year)
$10.566M: Bill Haas
$7.230M: Mickelson
$6.430M: Stricker (qualified but resting his dodgy hamstring this week)
$4.960M: Luke Donald
$4.315M: Kuchar
$3.745M: Villegas
Rory has hoovered up $3.14M, Sergio $3.13M and Justin Rose $2.4M with other Euros filling their boots in lesser quantities.

7).We remember Tiger's witticism of the last decade (still waiting for this decade's) wondering in 2009 when The Barclays was last played at Liberty National Golf Course whether player consultant Tom Kite had designed the greens before or after he had his eyes fixed.
Well, 15 of the 18 holes have reportedly been changed in some way, 12 greens redone, 12 tees altered and some fairways and bunkering tweaked. If not a brand new course, it should certainly feel it, pretty much the only constant being the stunning views of Lady Liberty, New York Harbour and the Manhattan skyline. The morons at CBS seemed to spend rather too long focussing on cruise ships steaming by the course, so hopefully viewers will enjoy a revamped TV production as well as a playable course.

8).Because the lay-out is essential new, and there are very few Tour Pros with local knowledge, picking a winner this week will be something of a lottery. The Europeans tend to say how much they want to be part of the FedEx bonanza but the tournaments were pretty much an all American affair (except for 2008 when Vijay and Camilo won all four between them) until Justin Rose won the BMW two years ago and then Rory dominated last year.
I'd expect the same this year and imagine T.Woods will be motivated to add tournament wins and another $10mil to any pre-nup plan he might be conjuring up (nah!) with Miss Vonn.

9).Far, far away, in the great Pacific North-West, the "Boeing Classic" will be offering Colin Montgomerie to break his duck on the Champions Tour. Much to his surprise, no doubt, he's only mustered up two Top Tens (a 7th and a 9th place) in five starts so far, not cracking the Top 20 otherwise.
Last week was the 1,000th event on the Champions Tour - the very first winner was the most appropriately named Don January, "Bones" before Phil had even heard of Jim Mackay. Nothing quite so fitting last Sunday as Bart Bryant, brother of the Tour's Doctor Dirt, held on for a win.

10).Trivia: I mentioned last week that a highly influential force in American football (OK, soccer) died recently, a cousin of a Major Championship winner.
Who? Choose either the footballer/administrator or the golfer.
For better or for worse I saw both play!

MontysMerkin wrote:

super_realist wrote:Back injury???

What a poof. He's only 37 for goodness sake. Man up.

Having had a bulging disc in my back for the last 7 years I can confirm that it is pain like nothing else (after broken legs, arms etc). I'm sure this was made in (sort of) jest but don't knock it till you've had it.

...and like I said yesterday Monty (I've had back issues myself) when it goes into spasm (proper spasm) there should only be one course of action and that is to get off the course and straight to an Osteo or Chiro or whatever he uses. If he was able to play on, it either couldn't have been that bad as the drama made out or he is a complete and utter fool for taking such a risk putting such an unstable spine through such abuse.

Robo - That's some interesting insight into POY. I suppose only Phil, Adam and Tiger are frontrunners, but if Duff or Rose win again they too likely in the mix (given the "major" focus).

Rory walks off because of a sore tooth and Tiger plays through knee-dropping pain. I question both!

Hope the decision to move on was yours Robo ... and good luck in any and all future ventures.

Shotrock wrote:Hope the decision to move on was yours Robo ... and good luck in any and all future ventures.

I will second that.

Look on the bright side, with less time spent on the road you will be able to spend more time hanging out in internet forums. :yahoo: 

Talking about "yahoo", has anyone seen the revamped yahoo sports web-site? Almost unviewable, don't know I'll ever get used to it. Just awful.

kwinigolfer wrote:
As for his fitness, I can confirm he's withdrawn from Wednesday's NB3 (Notah Begay) Challenge at Turning Stone. Gary Woodland subbing.

I'd seen that... also see this from yesterday...

Jeff Rude ‏@GolfweekRude
Spokesman says Tiger Woods Foundation expects Woods
to play Deutsche Bank Championship this week. Says his
back is feeling better today

Shotrock wrote:Robo - That's some interesting insight into POY. I suppose only Phil, Adam and Tiger are frontrunners, but if Duff or Rose win again they too likely in the mix (given the "major" focus).

Rory walks off because of a sore tooth and Tiger plays through knee-dropping pain. I question both!

Hope the decision to move on was yours Robo ... and good luck in any and all future ventures.

Yeah... Hard to know what POY voters are going to do...   but from the player comments I heard last week... it sounds like its Tiger's POY unless Scott, Phil or Rose can finish with three wins.  If it were Scott or Rose... I still think it would be close... but if Phil gets the 3rd win, IMO he picks up some "lifetime achievement" votes and wins it. (and that would be fine with me by the way)

And even that would likely break from the PGA of A version of POY.   The players vote has mirrored the PGA of A's points POY award since 1992...  Which shows me... majors are important... but they're not the ONLY thing.   Tiger is all but a lock to win the PGA of A version, that is barring a 3 event run by either Scott or Mickelson.  Currently the PGA of A points race looks like this:

100 - Tiger Woods
70 - Adam Scott
66 - Phil Mickelson
56 - Justin Rose
46 - Matt Kuchar
36 - Brandt Snedeker

And as weight of majors... consider...  2003 Tiger wins 5 times including money list and Vardon... Mike Weir wins 3 times including the Masters and players vote TW POY....  Then in 2011:  Luke Donald wins twice, plus money list and Vardon but no major... Keegan Bradley also wins twice including a major... Luke gets POY vote.   What's this mean?  Maybe something maybe nothing... except maybe sometimes "majors are everything" and sometimes they aren't.   My guess is if either Scott, Rose, Phil or Dufner were to finish the season with THREE wins... and none of the other 3 major winners did the same... there's your POY, even though it breaks with what happened in 2003.   And if it's Phil and one other of the major winners with 3 wins total... then Phil eeks it out (lifetime achievement extra votes and all)

And thanks for the thoughts... yeah it was my decision... kinda.  Changes in operations meant I could relocate, or go back to running the ropes again on a FULL schedule...  or stay home and go back to shooting full time on other things, but still for the same company.  I chose the latter... for lots of reasons... health, home & money...

Best wishes robo . . . . but hope you'll be round these v2 parts for years to come.

Is there a sense that Tiger wants to win POTY as much to make sure neither Phil nor Stevie do as he does to win it himself?

Sympathy here for anyone who has back problems and can manage them successfully.
No sympathy whatsoever with anyone who exacerbates any such problems by willfully risking further damage when a short break (and it would be 2 1/2 wks if he missed "Boston") might benefit the condition.

kwinigolfer wrote:Best wishes robo . . . . but hope you'll be round these v2 parts for years to come.

Is there a sense that Tiger wants to win POTY as much to make sure neither Phil nor Stevie do as he does to win it himself?

Sympathy here for anyone who has back problems and can manage them successfully.
No sympathy whatsoever with anyone who exacerbates any such problems by willfully risking further damage when a short break (and it would be 2 1/2 wks if he missed "Boston") might benefit the condition.

 Thanks for the best wishes... should be around as often... but maybe less regularly... if that's possible.

I've never heard any sense expressed that TW has any reason for coveting POY's other than the fact he's as goal driven competitor and wants to set every obtainable record in the books, regardless of who might stand in the way.  So since majors didn't happen...  focus on the next best thing he can.. wins... FE Cup... honors.... until majors come around again. Would he take extra satisfaction winning POY over Phil? My guess... DUH... ya think? But IMO not enough to motivate him beyond what he already is.

As for his back... IMO IF he's going to miss any event... he doesn't want it to be this one or the Tour Championship.  If he still has problems with this one.. then he can skip the BMW... and that's still 2 weeks off before the final.

And from recent comments and the way he's approached recent injuries... I really don't think he'd play this week if he was advised to do so would risk significant further injury.  And having been a 20+ year off and on back sufferer myself (until surgery some 14-15 years ago now)... I understand how it works... at least with me.  If his situation is anything similar... its just a matter of hopefully limiting certain motions in hopes to keep muscles out of spasm... kind of like a guy who is prone to leg cramps instinctively learns how to positioning the leg when he feels one coming on.   But one, week, two weeks... or three months of a layoff... might or might not make a spit of difference one way or the other.  (and again... I say this with ZERO knowledge of the underlying issue that's causing his back issues... but I SURE recognize the symptoms he's experiencing.)

All four major winners should be ahead of Woods in the POY race IMO

He'd need to do something more spectacular than a hollywood dive off a tee box to put himself in contention

Meanwhile, good back or bad back, Tiger's unlikely to be interested in the fact that 129 golfers will be contesting the first of four web.com Tour Final events, the "Hotel Fitness Championship" in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Europeans competing include:
Cejka, Chopra, Johnson, Karlsson, Knox, Norlander, Owen and Marcel Siem.
Some of the more famous others include:
Ricky Barnes, Chad Campbell, Patrick Cantlay, Bud Cauley, DiMarco, Immelman, Ishikawa, Lovemark, Steve Marino, Na, Oberholser, O'Hair and Jhonny Vegas (remember him?!).

Davie wrote:All four major winners should be ahead of Woods in the POY race IMO

Wow, that's a pretty bold statement. Woods would probably agree with you though. Personally I think Woods should get it. 5 wins so far including a Players and 2 WGCs trumps any major imo.

Davie wrote:All four major winners should be ahead of Woods in the POY race IMO

He'd need to do something more spectacular than a hollywood dive off a tee box to put himself in contention

I don't subscribe to the "Majors are Everything" mantra... and apparently neither do the player's when they vote... see 2003 Tiger Woods POY and 2011 Luke Donald POY.

Hard to think of a player who has been better than 9 Chins this year . Knocking on the door most times he plays and only seems to really bottle it in majors.

Phil's back to back Scottish and Open is pretty impressive though and probably edges 9 Chins wins given the US Open situation and at least if he won it over 9 Chins it would go to a decent, if simple bloke and not a complete lady front bottom like 9 Chins.

incontinentia wrote:

Davie wrote:All four major winners should be ahead of Woods in the POY race IMO

Wow, that's a pretty bold statement. Woods would probably agree with you though. Personally I think Woods should get it. 5 wins so far including a Players and WGC trumps any major imo.

Hmmm...this one could be debated until the cows come home. No denying 5 wins including the Players & a WGC is impressive but.....

I bet if you asked him off the record he'll see another year without a Major and the way he fell out of contention in each Major as a failure (he'd never admit that publicly though).

On the other hand ask Phil, Adam, the Duff or Justin if they feel they've had a successful year and a big smile (well 4 big smiles) will come beaming back at you.

JAS wrote:Hmmm...this one could be debated until the cows come home. No denying 5 wins including the Players & a WGC is impressive but.....

I bet if you asked him off the record he'll see another year without a Major and the way he fell out of contention in each Major as a failure (he'd never admit that publicly though).

On the other hand ask Phil, Adam, the Duff or Justin if they feel they've had a successful year and a big smile (well 4 big smiles) will come beaming back at you.

I get where you're coming from... but I don't think the players themselves look at as simplistic as we do as fans.  I think they realize just how good a guy has to play to win as consistently as TW does.

While there is NO denying the value of majors to players and I have no doubt Tiger would trade a boat load for one right now... I think players understand just how difficult winning 5 times in a season is too. Several of them expressed it last week.  I mean lets face it... there WILL be 4 majors won every year by somebody and most years it will be 4 different somebody's (79 different guys since 1980 in 136 majors).... but how often does somebody other than Tiger Woods win 5 times in a season?  It's a much more rare accomplishment (what only 3 other times since 1980?).  

As fans... I think we've generally become way too jaded and spoiled by Tiger's domination... but those guys who are out there and live it and see it, inside the ropes right beside the guy.... THEY get it.   And that's why I think it's good THEY get to vote... not us.. and not the media.  But hey... that don't mean we don't get to talk about it...   :-)

Hear hear robo. A major winner should not neccessarily be in the run for poty. TW's 5 wins far more impressing - and against stronger fields than in some majors.

Tiger's major drought is much publicised but he has not won in the fedex play offs since the 2009 BMW championship.

Trivia

I picked this up from one of the main golf sites so maybe people have already read it, but if not.

Who are the only players to have won a major, a World Golf Championship, The Players Championship and a FedEx Cup playoff event?

Woods, Mickelson & Scott?

Don't forget Sam Snead's tour wins record which, although less talked about than Nicklaus's majors, is i would imagine second on Tiger's list of priorities for records to break. It would be mine. To be honest, it's just an impressive one as the major wins.
So if you asked Tiger privately, whilst disappointed re the majors, i bet he wouldn't see it as a year wasted at all

Did you google it?

MontysMerkin wrote:

super_realist wrote:Back injury???

What a poof. He's only 37 for goodness sake. Man up.

Having had a bulging disc in my back for the last 7 years I can confirm that it is pain like nothing else (after broken legs, arms etc). I'm sure this was made in (sort of) jest but don't knock it till you've had it.

Do you think Woods really has something like that? Would be a bit crazy the way he plays the game if there's a chance he has a genuine disk problem. Mind you, didn't he allegedly have something similar a few years back - although Winn McMurry accidentally suggested it was something else:

Spoiler:

McLaren wrote:Did you google it?

Na, knew the obvious 2 and figured that Scott's win at the weekend must have made the question current...

yeah, maybe it was a bit obvious. Well done anyway.  

navyblueshorts wrote:

MontysMerkin wrote:

super_realist wrote:Back injury???

What a poof. He's only 37 for goodness sake. Man up.

Having had a bulging disc in my back for the last 7 years I can confirm that it is pain like nothing else (after broken legs, arms etc). I'm sure this was made in (sort of) jest but don't knock it till you've had it.

Do you think Woods really has something like that? Would be a bit crazy the way he plays the game if there's a chance he has a genuine disk problem. Mind you, didn't he allegedly have something similar a few years back - although Winn McMurry accidentally suggested it was something else:

Spoiler:

Doubt he has a herniated disc, but would think the spasms would be similar (muscle inflammation round the sciatic nerve) causing weakness and pain. I lost a lot of feeling in my left leg and had a pronounced limp (limp what? haha) , honestly thought I was crippled for life but was back to normal circa 6 months. Thing is with it I can still get the occasional spasm and can bearly walk, but then be right as rain within minutes, so it makes it quite difficult to manage.

Action at this week's DeutscheBank begins Friday morning, concludes Monday ("Labor Day" in the U.S.), weather permitting.
The web.com Tour Finals tournament in Indiana retains the usual Thursday thru Sunday schedule.

John Feinstein clearly thinks that only those players who have won a major have any chance at POY. Not something I agree with. By that logic they should change the award to best Major winner of the year since only a maximum of 4 players a year would ever be in the running.

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/golf-central-tuesday-feature-1/

Shotrock wrote:John Feinstein clearly thinks that only those players who have won a major have any chance at POY. Not something I agree with. By that logic they should change the award to best Major winner of the year since only a maximum of 4 players a year would ever be in the running.

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/golf-central-tuesday-feature-1/

Gee ya think?   I wonder if it's just coincidence his publisher re released his 1999 book.. "The Majors/In Pursuit Of Golf's Holy Grail".  Remember all the book promotion this past April?....  Nah... couldn't be connected... Could it?  

But in all seriousness...  I will at least give JF points for consistency on his "It's ALL about the Majors" stance. While he's got a definite anti-Tiger bias, I'm not sure this one is an illustration of that (although I'm sure it hasn't escaped him).  Going back to 2011 he was campaigning strongly for Keegan Bradley with his PGA Championship + 1 other win... to be voted POY over Luke Donald with 2 regular wins (1 a WGC).   And in that case I agreed with him.  When its between two players with only 2 wins... and only one has a major... the major trumps. (that is if it's viewed as PGAT only results and not Luke's other "world" results)

But the ridiculousness of the "it's all about majors" mantra is illustrated in several ways...  consider:

1. According to Feinstein I guess in 2009 Tiger's 6 wins, money list, Vardon, PGA of A POY, FedEx Cup should have all been flushed down the toilet in deference to Cabrera, Glover, Cink or Yang (all who won exactly 1 event each in 2009).

2. Shawn Micheel and Ben Curtis have had better careers than Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Luke Donald or Colin Montgomerie...

3. Padraig Harrington has had a far superior career than Greg Norman.

4. Andy North had a better career than Davis Love, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin...

I don't think even Feinstein would agree with 2-4 above... IMO that would border on the absurd if he did.  But that's the problem.   Most of the "majors are everything" supporters want it one way when the argument suits them... but they want it the other way when it doesn't.

navyblueshorts wrote:
Do you think Woods really has something like that? Would be a bit crazy the way he plays the game if there's a chance he has a genuine disk problem. Mind you, didn't he allegedly have something similar a few years back - although Winn McMurry accidentally suggested it was something else:

Spoiler:

LOL... forgot all about that slip of the... um... whatever. But my guess is now that Miss Win has her hooks into Michael Phelps bulges... she's forgotten all about that one... :-)

robo,

Edit: for both the above posts.