PGA Tour: Dear Father Christmas, Santa, Whoever's Listening: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Before I forget, Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy and Healthy New Year. There, remembered.

2).Well, I know what I want for Christmas; yes, even more than the bottles of whisky and cognac that may come my way a little earlier.

3).Yup, I want Europe to retain the Ryder Cup but, nope, I'm not optimistic about that, not in the slightest. We'll have our work cut out for us at Gleneagles with the leading European golfers not having improved that much since Medinah and every sign that the Americans have, if not at the very top, at least improved with their strength in depth.

4).Pointless looking at the qualification rankings yet, so much more golf to be played, but let's look instead at the top nine Americans in the World Rankings, and the top nine Europeans:

5).Americans first: Woods, Mickelson, Kuchar, Stricker, Z.Johnson, Snedeker, Dufner, D,Johnson, Furyk: All in the Top 19.
This lot were all on the losing team at Medinah (with Bradley, Simpson and Bubba, all still in the Top 28). Will they have learned from that or be scarred by it?

6).And the Europeans: Stenson, Rose, McIlroy, Garcia, Poulter, McDowell, Donald, Bjorn, Westwood: All in the Top 25.
(And all but Stenson and Bjorn were playing at Medinah - the others were Molinari, Kaymer, Hanson who are still competitive and Lawrie and Colsaerts who arguably are not.)

7).The US "second team" would surely include Spieth, Bill Haas, Mahan, Horschel and Harris English, all of whom one would expect to enjoy successful 2014 seasons.

8).But can the same be said about the Europeans' second string, the likes of Donaldson, Dubuisson, Gonzo and the rest? Stalwarts Molinari, Kaymer and Hanson (not to mention Donald and Westwood) have relapsed in 2013 and are the young European guns, Manassero, Olesen, Dubuisson, Colsaerts and Luiten ready to step up and take their places?

9).It's difficult to believe that Gleneagles offers any competitive advantage with most top Europeans not playing there regularly, but perhaps the Tom Watson/Andy North leadership tandem can give Europe an edge with most of the US Team two and three generations adrift of them.
Can they motivate Woods, and can they get the frat-boy element to show up for the singles? If they can, we're in trouble!

10).I'm not optimistic, Father Christmas. There's a generational change underway in Europe with Donald and Westwood among those who can no longer be counted on to carry the Team - can the likes of Stenson, Justin Rose and McDowell step up to take their place?
If they can, October will be something to look forward to.
If not, winter 2014 will come even earlier than usual.

Cheer up Kwini, there's a long way to go yet. I think there is life in some of the old dogs yet, and hopeful some of the new guns have more in the locker.
Anyway, looking forward to it, and biggest concern begins with w and ends in eather!
Enjoy the whisky, and cognac! Everything in moderation!!!

I wouldn't be too concerned about the Ryder Cup Kwini, Major Wins and Rankings have never ever meant anything.
In fact 9C and Mickelson have more majors than anyone, and have spent a huge amount of time in the top 10, but are two of America's worst ever Ryder Cup players.

Then you've got to take Gleneagles in late September into account too. It's not likely to be weather favoured by Americans'. It's a bleak, wet, windy, cold place at that time of year, although i'm sure the Yanks will bring their waterproofs this time.

Sure, I think Europe might take the foot off the gas a bit and thus America might have a bit more hunger, given that Europe win most of the time of late, but I don't think an American win would be because American's are ranked higher in strokeplay events rather that the European players may leave the door ajar like they did under Faldo.

Ryder Cup next year ... who knows, but I expect another close event between the best golfing Nation in the world versus the best golfing Continent in the world.

Hope it isn't a slog weather-wise.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Shot - you're not suggesting that USA is part of the third best continent for golf, after Europe and Africa. Or did you mean fourth after Australia?
Have a good Xmas

Oops, and there's Asia as well to fit in somewhere. Third or fourth?

Puligny - I have no idea where North America fits in as best golfing Continent ... but one thing is for sure: This Ryder Cup event was vastly improved when GBI got the rest of Europe to come to their golfing rescue!

Agreed. We definitely needed to even up the population imbalance!!
Anyway - makes for good viewing.

Rory is getting more and more Americanized everyday.

He is even wearing Butt-Ugly Christmas Sweaters.

https://twitter.com/McIlroyRory/status/415782438649204736/photo/1

He is headed back to Australia (following Caroline?) for three weeks with books about Andre Agassi, Alex Ferguson, and the Secret Footballer.

Christmas Jumpers are great. Charity christmas jumper day is always good.

Happy New Year Everyone,

A bit too much cognac in the Ballwasher over Christmas (I subscribe to the Pete Townshend view on Remy Martin), and more to be flushed through tonight.

But looking forward to being bright-eyed on Kapalua's first tee by Friday. That's right, this week's TOC runs Friday thru' Monday.

PS: See golf has been omitted from the New Year's Honours List - what do Justin Rose, Dame Laura and Sir Tone have to do?

A huge blow for fans of McIlroy. He is now engaged to Wozzy, seems his globe trotting practice schedule is set to stay.

McLaren wrote:A huge blow for fans of McIlroy.  He is now engaged to Wozzy, seems his globe trotting practice schedule is set to stay.  

Not following the logic...what do you mean??

Wrong thread!

JAS wrote:

McLaren wrote:A huge blow for fans of McIlroy.  He is now engaged to Wozzy, seems his globe trotting practice schedule is set to stay.  

Not following the logic...what do you mean??

Pretty obvious really. McIroy has being so poorly of late because he is a full time follower of the WTA. He seems to have a practice session at whatever driving range is local to that weeks WTA event.

Now he is marrying wozza it is clear he will continue to follow her around the globe for at least another few seasons without focusing on his game.