PGA Tour: The NorthwestMutual Nedbank Challenge Challenge: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).What's not to like this week with most of the World's best golfers in action?
Numbers 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 are in California. (And #9 called in sick.)
Numbers 3, 5, 15, 18, 20, 25, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38 etc, etc are in South Africa.
So that's almost all the Top 40 accounted for.

2).There will be millions of Dollars and gazillions of Rand at stake but also a bucketload of Golf's universal currency de jour, World Ranking Points. And, due to the small size of the field at the California free-for-all, everyone will "earn" owgr points, even if they finish last by ten shots.
I would say that's fundamentally unfair.
Some will say that those playing have earned the right to be there. But have they really?

3).Only 9 of the 18 teeing it up at the Tiger Woods benefit won a PGA Tour event in the 2013 season, Watson and Westwood probably being the feeblest under-achievers.
Watson threw away his only winning chance in a year, at Hartford in what was his best finish, fourth, of the season.
Westwood's best finish was his Muirfield 3rd place and hasn't been seen inside the Top 25 since.
So: Yes, these tournaments reward the best golfers of the year. But they also reward others who are resting on the laurels of a year ago. Not sure that's right.

4).It was announced a week or so ago that the "Tiger" Challenge will be leaving Sherwood Country Club and is off to Florida and Mr and Mrs Woods's one-time home of Isleworth. Rumours now that the eventual destination is The Bahamas. Is this all for tax reasons I wonder?

5).Fred Couples used to be the King of golf's silly season but Tiger runs him close. In this event alone, he's "competed" eleven times and only avoided the top two twice, accumulating almost $9M in the process.

6).The Aussie Open was interesting wasn't it, lots of short Par-4's at Royal Sydney which made for fascinating viewing? Good that Scott and McIlroy played so well but what a shame these traditional national "opens" don't attract better fields. The South African Open turn-out was even worse and even the Canadian Open would have a poor field if not for RBC's extensive patronage.
Argentine Open this week and at least Angel Cabrera is supporting the tournament - pity that other Latin American stars couldn't see the value in joining him.

7).And then there's Steve Elkington and his tweets.
We'll never know what he knew when about the tragedy in Glasgow last weekend, and it's not certain how disingenuous he was being with his ill-advised twitterage about Pakistanis at the Senior Open.
What is certain is that he's no stranger to tweeting controversy and has mixed it up with Poulter and Bubba Watson, to name but two, in the past year, not to mention his comments on the Tiger drop at The Players.
Given that the Tour embraces tweets by its members that it must feel fits the squeaky-clean Tour image (god, college football, god, jesus, "the military", god, college football and the military, to name a few), surely it must begin to take some responsibility for racial stereotyping and other such marginal (over the marginal?) messages from its players?

8).They could start in my book by stopping the endless promotion of god, jesus, my saviour from the likes of Simpson, Watson etc, etc. Whether the Tour itself, or its Golf Channel close (incestuously so?) cousin, surely we've had enough of this garbage?
Or should someone start tweeting inflamatory anti-god messages and see where that gets them?

9).Web.com Q-School Finals next week and hardly a European to be seen. And no marquee names from other Tours either. No surprise there but I'm not sure that the open access pendulum will not swing too far the other way as "International" players currently holding Tour cards will surely start to fall by the wayside with only the tenuous Special Temporary Membership offering a route back.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I wonder if this is all turning out as Finchem and his troops imagined?

10).Doubt if Finchem much cares, but one cloud that won't magically drift over his horizon is the neverending can of worms the Tour opened when it suspended Vijay Singh for his deer-antler spray habit.
Vijay's lawyer is now trying to blow that can of worms up:
"The PGA Tour has made exception after exception after exception, both with regard to whom it was administering this drug policy and against whom it was disciplining."
"For some reason the Tour singled out Mr.Singh and treated him in a way that it has not historically or uniformly treated other Tour members."
"Whether it's because Mr.Singh isn't from the United States, or Mr.Singh didn't go to the right PGA Tour party, or Mr.Singh did something that Tim Finchem didn't like."
The Tour is trying to have Veej's suit dismissed, but I'd be surprised if this nonsense didn't rumble on well into the New Year.
After all, I'm not sure we've heard Steve Elkington's take on it yet.

Roller_Coaster wrote:No, indeed, it's not a constant smile fest here either. Good things do happen at work and when they do, I smile. But I'm not saying it should be constant for Tiger or anyone (that would be freakish) my opinion is that it should just happen more. If my job was a game, I'd smile more. When I was crap, less so admittedly but a stroll around in the sunshine doing what you want to do and raking in a fortune would be more condusive to outward displays of happiness even on a bad day than appears to be the case with Tiger.

I think appears would be the right word. Unless you had a camera on him 24/7 (quiet there super) how could you possibly know. The only time you really see him is answering inane questions (whats your favorite pop star) or playing a shot (or scratching arse). Good shot = beaming smile, bad shot = bloody miserable get. Understandable in my eyes. At least he doesn't go round grinning like the insufferable and original swivel eyed loon Mickelson.

kwinigolfer wrote:Bob,
Don't you think there's a boot on the other foot also?
The Press here was suggesting that Woods played more conservatively on Sunday than he normally would have done - he certainly missed at least half the fairways so perhaps he had no option, but this has become a characteristic of so many weekends; 'course, he got five spot on!

He certainly fancies his chances at the 2014 Majors - a crucial year for him after presumably being disappointed with his results this year.

Kwini, now that I think about it you're probably right.  There probably is a bit of a tightening in Tiger when it's a close finish, where as in the past he didn't contemplate losing.  A bit of cause and effect at play - hard to say which came first, but it makes for more exciting finishes for the viewer these days knowing he's fallible.

You'd imagine if he went another year without a major, that would be it for him.

super_realist wrote:You'd imagine if he went another year without a major, that would be it for him.

A bit of a sweeping statement. That would be it for him in what way - he'd compete and not win or he'd hang up his clubs? Either one is a big call.

Woods must be looking at the upcoming seven Majors to put a dent in the Nicklaus record:
2 x Augusta National (where he's won four times)
Pinehurst (where he's finished 3rd, then 2nd his two trips so far)
Hoylake (where he's played one, won one.)
Valhalla (where he won in 2000)
Chambers Bay (where he's never competed, and nor has anyone else, as a pro at least)
St.Andrews (where he's won twice)

Imagine that if he didn't win any one of these he'd take up downhill skiing.

kwinigolfer wrote:Woods must be looking at the upcoming seven Majors to put a dent in the Nicklaus record:
2 x Augusta National (where he's won four times)
Pinehurst (where he's finished 3rd, then 2nd his two trips so far)
Hoylake (where he's played one, won one.)
Valhalla (where he won in 2000)
Chambers Bay (where he's never competed, and nor has anyone else, as a pro at least)
St.Andrews (where he's won twice)

Imagine that if he didn't win any one of these he'd take up downhill skiing.

Yeah... I looked the other day at the announced venues through 2019 and if ANY year sets up well for Tiger, one would think 2014 is by far the best.   IMO he can never be discounted at Augusta, and to even get two, much less three other "favorable" venues in one year again is unlikely before he exits his "competitive" years.  IMO it's not critical to win a major next year if the goal is just to win more majors (or major singular)... but if he hasn't got another in his pocket by next year... or 2015 St Andrews by the absolute latest... I don't see how he's catching Jack.

Bob_the_Job wrote:

super_realist wrote:You'd imagine if he went another year without a major, that would be it for him.

A bit of a sweeping statement.  That would be it for him in what way - he'd compete and not win or he'd hang up his clubs?  Either one is a big call.

Given how well he's done on 3/4 of next years Major venues, you'd question if he can't win any of them, what chance has he in future.

As for St.Andrews, he's only done well there when the weather is good. He's not a good wind player at all.

super_realist wrote:
Given how well he's done on 3/4 of next years Major venues, you'd question if he can't win any of them, what chance has he in future.

As for St.Andrews, he's only done well there when the weather is good. He's not a good wind player at all.

Fair point - but Nicklaus went 11 years between wins at Augusta and when he did win it, it had been 6 years since he'd won any major, so a surprise late career win is always a possibility.

super_realist wrote:

As for St.Andrews, he's only done well there when the weather is good. He's not a good wind player at all.

I know Woods has won the Open when the weather is good. But to say he's not a good wind player is disengenous. I can think of 3 Opens which were dominated by the weather where he did pretty well:

Birkdale 98 - 1 shot behind the winner
Carnoustie 99 - T7th
RSG 03 - 2 shots behind the winner (despite famously starting with a triple bogey 7)

He handled the weather pretty well at Muirfield this year as well. I think his drop off in the final round was more mental rather than inability to play the conditions.

Bob_the_Job wrote:Fair point - but Nicklaus went 11 years between wins at Augusta and when he did win it, it had been 6 years since he'd won any major, so a surprise late career win is always a possibility.

I can't see Tiger playing on for 5 or 10 year in the hope of winning 1 more major. I would imagine for him it's eaither catch Jack or don't catch Jack. Where's the value in 1 more?