PGA Tour: Who wants to be a (Multi)Millionaire?: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That's it! To use US sporting vernacular, the "regular season" is over, let the "post season" begin.
Lots of arithmetic kerfuffle at Greensboro last week but, after the dust had settled and Camilo had wheeled off into the sunset, only one player, Sang-Moon Bae, had leapfrogged (over Nicholas Thompson) into the all-important Top 125 in FedEx points.
And David Duval had lost the right to enter the web.com Tour Finals.

Five old lags who had qualified for the FedEx Play-Offs for each of the seven years failed to make it this time, Brian Gay, JJ Henry, Merrick, Rollins and Charlie Wi.

And Martin Laird found to his cost that a spring and early summer swoon cost him a spot in The Barclays at Ridgewood CC where he finished T7 and 2nd (lost in a play-off to Kuchar) the only other times the tournament was played there. The price of fatherhood as he missed much of his usually profitable spring programme.

2).A bit of an anti-climax then in Greensboro, with Camilo's closest pursuers self-destructing during the closing holes.
That won't bother him at all - he was last seen walking off the Royal Montreal course during Round 2 of the Canadian Open to avoid further futility and frustration. He went back to Colombia for some home cooking and returned to the Tour a new man! Although he's endured an extended drought since his last win, at Honda in 2010, he has been a big winner of FedEx largesse, currently 11th in the all-time FedEx bonus pool money list, with #3.8M.

3).Ahead of him are:
1st: Woods:     $25.3M
2nd: Furyk:      $13.5M* - will increase his bonus in 2014
3rd: Snedeker: $11.5M*
4th: Singh:      $11.1M*
5th: Haas:       $10.8M*
6th: Stenson:  $10.3M*
7th: Stricker:    $8.5M (includes his 2014 share)
8th: Mickelson:  $7.8M*
9th: Donald:     $5.2M*
10th: Kuchar:   $5.1M*
Followed by Villegas*, Simpson*, D.Johnson, Garcia*, McIlroy*, Z.Johnson*, Watney*, all with $3M+.

4).Europeans in The Barclays field are (with their current FedEx placing):
1-30: McIlroy, Garcia, Kaymer, Rose.
31-70: Jacobson, McDowell, Knox, Donald, Stenson.
71-100: Poulter, Pettersson, Blixt, Davis.
101-125: Westwood, Casey, Gonzo.
George O'Grady should be keeping an eye on the stragglers here as all (plus Laird) would enhance European Tour fields over the coming month.

5).The web.com Tour Final Series of four tournaments to determine 50 Tour cards for 2014/2015 begins next week - we'll see then which European Tour members will take their chance, with a dozen or more eligible.

6).At last count 122 entries planned to line up for The Barclays - the Top 125 in Points, less Dustin Johnson, Dufner and Stricker.
When fully fit all would have been candidates for Watson's RC Team - not to mention T.Woods. Johnson clearly has other things to deal with, Stricker and Woods say they're out until December, while Dufner hasn't offered a comeback plan after problems with bulging disc issues in his neck.
On top of that Matt Kuchar withdrew from the PGA because of back problems and Arnold Palmer has just had a pacemaker implanted. Field of candidates for Ryder Cup duty shrinking by the day.

7).This is the final chance for European Ryder Cup wannabes to strut their stuff, in the USA at least, whether to qualify automatically (Donald, McDowell etc) or attract McGinley's attention for a Captain's Choice.

8).The Barclays heads to the New York City area, to Paramus, NJ, and Ridgewood C.C., a Tillinghast design highly rated by pros and pundits alike. Both previous visits, in 2008 and 2010, resulted in play-offs, duels eventually between Vijay Singh and Garcia (2008), and Kuchar and Laird. It's a Par-71 that has yielded winning scores of 8 under par and 12 under par. Plenty of scoring opportunities then, but one of the more demanding sets of (3) Par-5's the Tour Pros will see.

9).Not many touring pros grow up in the North-Eastern US these days but Kevin Streelman spent part of his youth playing Ridgewood - that experience paid off in 2008 (T4) and 2010 (T3). He's been largely awol since rattling off seven closing birdies to win The Travelers at Hartford two months ago so a big fat caveat emptor to anyone brave enough to wager half a crown each way. Just saying, that's all.

10).Lost from Note 8). above is the fact that there was a third man in that Barclays play-off six years ago, eliminated before Vijay rolled in putts to defeat Sergio.
And that was Kevin Sutherland, newly famous as the first Mr.59 on the Champions Tour, with a closing bogey no less. (That 59 wasn't enough to beat Bernhard Langer's bogey-less three rounds as he won his fifth event of the year, now tied with Sir Bob Charles at fifth in the all-time Senior wins table behind Irwin, Trevino, Morgan and Barber.)

There are most unlikely to be any 59's at Ridgewood this week, but there are millions on the line for the winner ($1.44M in prize-money plus certain entree to the other three Play-Off events and bonus pool booty).
It would help Mr.McGinley if Donald or McDowell, Poulter or Rose would step forward and continue the fine summer of golf for Europeans. Six championships in the past 16 tournaments - didn't think we'd be saying that four months ago.

So, no coach is better than Foley.

9C to coaches is what Balotelli is to managers. Someone will always think they can solve the problem.

I've heard Woods is contacting you s_r . . . . . .

Could probably teach the moron about course management and swing speed, but then anyone could do that.

Whilst I'm in coaching mode, I'm happy to sort out Lowry too. Turn him from a gargantuan gutlord into an athlete.

No price yet for super_realist but golfchannel.com is reporting some Paddy Power prices for Woods' next coach. A sample:

Evens: Screaming Lord Butch
4/1: Chuck Cook
7/1: Leadbetter
8/1: Kostis
9/1: Pete Cowen
14/1: Hank Haney
20/1: Brandel Chamblee
66's: Faldo, Miller
200/1: Mark Steinberg
300/1: Kutilda Woods
500/1: Elin Nordegren

No price for Lindsey Vonn or any Perkins waitress du jour.

Seeing as he's an American, perhaps he can contact Bob Torrance through the grave.

News from another Sean Foley protege as Justin Rose is taking the week off.
Jason Dufner also defecting which, you'd think, signals the end of any hopes he might have harboured of proving his Ryder Cup fitness to Capt Watson.

Field now down to 94 and counting . . . .

I can't imagine anyone helping Tiger at this point. He seems to be in a doomsday spiral ... swing hard and when that does not work, swing harder. The dude needs a shrink.

Maybe Dr. Ruth?

I remember saying on a thread a couple of weeks ago, he should swallow his pride and go back to Butch

I doubt Tiger's ego would let that happen JAS.

But, it would be a no-lose for Butch: He improves, it's Butch, and if he does not, it's all Tiger.

I said this on another thread so apologies for repeating but  do we think Woods would go back to Butch all the time he's doing tv work? I don't. You'll often hear Butch saying 'Phil has been working on....'  No way can I see Tiger up for that.

Would Butch bin the tv work to take back Tiger?

This is what Butchy told Golf Channel when asked if he would coach Woods again:
"No I would not and he's not going to call and ask."

Fairly definitive there. Surprising he's the bookies fav then?

Wonder what the odds are on him hanging up the clubs altogether?

Long odds against I think, inco.
Would also probably lose most of his sponsorship fortune.

Interesting that Mahan and Rose leapt to Foley's defence in light of media criticism of him - good for them, both carry a certain amount of street cred right now!

Whilst I'm sure each coach treats their charges as individuals, you'd imagine that there would be some core philosophy and swing keys that would be constant. Rose and Mahan have quite similar swings in terms of pace and acceleration, and both are very unlike Tiger's. So either Tiger was unable or unwilling to try what Foley wanted, or Foley tried something very different with Tiger. Regardless, the upshot was an outcome on the course that Tiger's body couldn't cope with over a sustained period.

incontinentia wrote:Wonder what the odds are on him hanging up the clubs altogether?

I asked Coral this question in April and they didn't have odds. Said they could contact head office and have some odds formulated but would take 2 weeks and i never went back to check. Sort of wish i had now!

His golf is pretty impressive but his choice in property is beyond tasteless.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/rory-just-bought-a-new-2-milli.html

Probably just an investment Mac, in which case always ignore personal taste and think purely about the cash.
I'm sure plenty of people like the way it's fitted out and the view must be priceless.

Agreed Digs, Probably just a "show house" for sales purposes.

But good to know that Mac is at the cutting edge of such things. Perhaps a dedicated follower of the Tom Doak of interior design?

Kwini

Are you saying you like that sort of thing?

Mac,
I'm saying that I'm sure that decor doesn't reflect anyone's taste other than a money-grabbing estate agent.
But, like Diggers said, it's doubtless a good investment; imagine he'd earn about $5K a week renting it out and will pay for itself in a few years.
Or perhaps it's a palimony present for Caroline?
And; Diggers is right, lovely view . . . .

McLaren wrote:His golf is pretty impressive but his choice in property is beyond tasteless.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/rory-just-bought-a-new-2-milli.html

When you watch these multi millon dollar real estate shows from the US, or even MTV cribs, the decor is usually dreadful. Think there are good money to be made by introducing some good taste to the American millionaire.

pedro wrote:

McLaren wrote:His golf is pretty impressive but his choice in property is beyond tasteless.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/rory-just-bought-a-new-2-milli.html

When you watch these multi millon dollar real estate shows from the US, or even MTV cribs, the decor is usually dreadful. Think there are good money to be made by introducing some good taste to the American millionaire.

Pedro, I think that would end up being about as successful as trying to introduce western values to your more extreme Islamist States. Sometimes people just don't want to change.

Right!
Time for a little quiz, trivia.
We all know by now that Hunter Mahan is the only golfer to have played in all 29 FedEx Play-Off tournaments so far, and he'll presumably extend that record.
And we know that Mickelson and Stricker (who's now done for the year) are the only other golfers to have reached the Tour Championship each year during the FedEx era.

FIVE more golfers have reached the BMW Championship each year and are still in the running to extend that streak this year.
Who are they?

Furyk as a starter?

Furyk a starter for ten.
Four to go.

Kuch?

Not Kuchar.

Bubba?

1. Furyk
2. Bubba
3.
4.
5. This will be the tricky one, very, very tricky!

Adam Scott maybe.

Chucky Howell as a long shot?

C Hoffman

Ernie

Appleby?

Some good ones there from I'm never wrong:
1. Furyk
2. Bubba
3. Hoffman - thought that would be a toughie
4. Ernie
5. ????

Scott, Apples and Chuckles missed out at least once.

Cabrera?

That's a dead Duck.

One more to go . . . .

Snedeker. That's my last guess.

1. Furyk
2. Bubba
3. Hoffman
4. Els
5. Sneeeedeker

Well done chaps!
Pretty sure that's it, but GPB will tell me if I've missed one.

Bo Van Pelt?

Edit: aah BMW, not Deutsche Bank. Sorry.

Good old Sneds, my wife's favourite golfer (she hates the game) purely because its fun to say his name!

You got them all Kwini, Good job.

These players have qualified for the BMW 6 different times going into this year

Adam Scott - Missed 2009
Tiger Woods - Missed 2011 (although he did not play in 2008)
Geoff Ogilvy - Missed 2013
John Senden - Missed 2013
Rory Sabbatini - Missed 2012
Ryan Moore - Missed 2008
Sergio Garcia - Missed 2010
Zach Johnson - Missed 2008