PGA Tour: The Top 30. OK, 29: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That's right, 29 golfers assembling in Atlanta for their Tour Championship. Number 30 would be Dustin Johnson and wonder what would have happened if he had registered for the event instead of just sitting at home with Paulina on his lap and $175K being transferred to his bank account?

2).Of course, that's not going to happen and the remaining 29 will get their balls in the air at East Lake on Thursday, knowing that the very worst they can do is to finish the season 29th in the tournament, 29th in FedEx bonus money and $309,600.00 in the financial vehicles of their choice. Plus they'll have earned tickets to Augusta National, Chambers Bay and St.Andrews in 2015.

3).Not bad, but there is still bleating among Tour players about the FedEx format and, especially, the genius of requiring the most of the Tour's best to play four events in four weeks, six tournaments in seven and, for some who also played Royal Montreal in July, eight in nine. Can't imagine Jim Furyk, for instance, looking too refreshed by the time he rocks up on Gleneagles' first tee.
Hunter Mahan is one who's been on the road for the better part of the past two months as he extends his streak of 32 FedEx Play-Off events and counting.
There will be change next year as the 2015 Tour takes a one week break between the Boston area's Deutsche Bank and Chicago's BMW. Phew.
No word yet on what the Tour's calendar for 2016 will look like, what with the Olympics thrown in to the mix as well, golf course completion permitting.

4).Fifteen months ago Billy Horschel was in the final round shake-up at Merion - he looked the part with his octopus-design strides and a swashbuckling approach befitting the form player of the previous three months. Unfortunately he closed with a 74, slipped to 4th place and failed to earn another full-field top ten result for a year.
Fast-forward to Boston and last Monday's Deutsche Bank denouement and he mis-hit the approach to his 72nd hole knowing that a birdie would have secured him a first-place tie with Chris Kirk.
Instead his reward was a bucketful of media criticism and Horschel flew to Denver determined to "stick it" to his critics. Job done, and how Tom Watson must be wishing he could have a "raincheck" on one of his Captain's Choices for Ryder Cup action, if only to have a player who could go toe-to-toe with Ian Poulter in the "in your face" stakes.
Horschel may be a brash and sometimes brattish golfer, but he's a helluva player.

5).Five Europeans departed the FedEx Play-Offs, flying home from Cherry Hills instead of heading to East Lake, but Russell Knox at least took with him a share of the Cherry Hills course record, 62, not that anyone following the action on NBC would have known about that. Great season for the independent Scot.
Stenson, McDowell, Pettersson and Jacobson also dropped out.
And that leaves McIlroy, Garcia, Kaymer and Rose to contest the Tour Championship with 25 of their best friends.

6).The Tour is quite Georgia-centric these days with three tournaments (New York State for instance has none) and many of this week's competitors have strong connections with the State.
~Either they went to University there: Kirk, Watson, Kuchar, Reed, Tringale, Henley and Todd.
~Or won or runnered up at East Lake: Furyk, Haas, Scott, Johnson, Garcia, Mahan, Rose and Spieth.  

7).Elsewhere in FedEx news, Pete Dye's Crooked Stick in the Indianapolis area, has been announced as the venue for the 2016 BMW Championship; they return to Chicago's Conway Farms next year. I like the fact they move this tournament around, hate the fact the Tour won't make an annual stop in Chicago.

8).We're halfway through the web.com Tour Final (WTF) Series with Bud Cauley and Canada's Adam Hadwin winning the first two tournaments.
Fifty golfers will receive PGA Tour cards for 2014/2015, including 25 who are already assured a card based upon their web.com earnings this season.
Fluctuating fortunes for some well known golfers of years gone by:
~web.com qualifiers: Hadwin, Cejka, and Tour winners Jason Gore & Bill Lunde.
~Already earned enough to be assured of cards: Cauley, Greg Owen, John Peterson, Lingmerth.
~Good start but more good finishes required: Greg Chalmers, Robbie Castro (played in last year's East Lake Tour Championship), Spencer Levin.
~Struggling: Chad Campbell, boy wonder Lovemark, YE Yang, Immelman, Johnson Wagner, Kyle Stanley, O'Hair, JJ Henry, Two Gloves Gainey, Byrd, Richard Sterne, Branden Grace, Steve Marino, among others.

Europeans struggling are Richard S.Johnson, Norlander, Cappelen . . . . and Gary Christian making his last whimpering hurrah before heading for the broadcast booth.

9).Just to underscore the time of year - yes, our North Country leaves are turning and the Canadian geese are flocking south in their perfect formations - the "pre-qualifying" rounds of Q-School have begun, with First Qualifying Stage action to commence on Tuesday, October 7th. No idea yet how many, if any, European Tour members will enter.  

10).Back to the "Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola".
Of course, this is about two things, the tournament and accompanying winnings, AND the FedEx bonus, $10M to the winner of the FedEx Cup, but incremental sums earned by all 29 competitors with $180K going to the final FedEx placing, $500K for instance to 10th place.  
Despite all the media (and player?) misgivings about the structure of this FedEx sponsorship and structure, there's no doubt it provides excellent year-end tournaments, although the best ones are perversely often the first couple.
East Lake is a reclaimed Donald Ross classic, but without exciting risk/reward holes to climax the event which can make this finale seem a war of attrition. Broadcasters turn inept somersaults as they try to figure out the ramifications of every shot, so deflecting from the tournament itself.
If one of the top five FedEx points getters win, the $10Mill is theirs so Messrs Kirk, Horschel, Watson, McIlroy and Mahan know exactly what they have to do, they control their own destiny. The other 24 golfers will hope they win and the top five all stumble.

No, I'd say it's to acknowledge the best player of the season, hence it being called the Tour Championship and not the FedEx Championship

MustPuttBetter wrote:No, I'd say it's to acknowledge the best player of the season, hence it being called the Tour Championship and not the FedEx Championship

Well then they may as well just go back to the money list.....but for me that's not what it is about tbh.

Maybe but they want some way of making a finale so have this thing. But the idea is to crown the season's champion player I'd say. It's just some events are given more points than others (such as the majors and WGCs) and they consider these final 4 to be worth a bit. Probably for no other reason than to make it exciting and make sure you don't have half the field with nothing to play for.
But i can see Pedro's point re a guy who hasn't won all season, and now has 2 wins this season, taking the lot. It was a decent watch though

Lots of credit to Billy Horschel, I'd say.
But there's something wrong with the four-weeks-in-a-row grind, although Finchem DID suggest that stamina is a component of the FedEx Cup.
But anything to diminish Rory's achievements is just wrong, Tim.

Exactly right Sir ... the full year positions yourself for the 4 week run.

Remember, this was put in to keep viewers after the PGA Championship; and it's doing just that.

Tell all your mates you refuse to call it the "Tour Championship" ... but don't forget to call all the participants wealthy!

Maybe sirb. Then, in reality, all they play for throughout the season is the invitation to a party. Nothing else. And fair enough.

But then they should tone down the continouous FEC propaganda that we see already in January. It brands the FEC* as something it isn't.

*Edit: AND Tour Championship.

SR, I don't think there's any debate that it keeps people interested. Job done there.
Just could do with a little tweaking in my view

GPB wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:Jimmy, Zach, Hunter and Jordan pretty much stinking the place out while Ryan, Chris and Billy are all enjoying themselves. Wonder what Tom thinks? Maybe the former four are just biding time until Gleneagles? Hope not.

Wonder what Paul thinks about Westy not reaching D-Bank?

And IJP not reaching BMW?

And GMAC not reaching the TC?

And Bjorn missing the cut in Holland?

And Kaymer also stinking up the joint in Atlanta.


I think both Captains have their issues with players not playing well.

Touché! Good point.

Wasn't poulter picked for supernatural reasons anyway?

MAc, what have you been smoking this morning?

The playoffs are just like the playoffs in all other sports. Does not matter how well you perform getting their if you do not perform on the day(s) then you will not win. The thing is golf is different to other sports, and you have winners each week and 4 BIG winners throughout the year. It does not need a big finale. It can be good entertainment though, but the winner should not be crowned as some superior golfer of the year.

Back to the WTF Q-School action, and a tale of two South Africans:

~Richard Sterne should have won yesterday's tournament, but fumbled his way in to a play-off with Justin Thomas (who could well be a star in the making) and lost. Nevertheless, he won $100K+, more than enough to earn his PGA Tour card for 14/15.

~And Branden Grace fumbled his way thru 3 events and is way adrift of the pace to earn a card.

Both have decided not to play this week, surprised to see neither in the Wales Open field.
Regardless, Sterne could be lost to the European Tour, Grace looks like he'll grace it with his presence for another year.

Bud Cauley also sitting the finale out, presumably to nurse his shoulder.

IIRC, Top earner of the WTF is not subject to the Shuffle so I think it is a mistake for Cauley (and Sterne) not to play.  

Cauley might think he has networked enough to get sponsors exemptions that are reserved for WEB-Commers when fields are full in case he gets reshuffled to a low priority.

I've read since that Cauley is resting a tiorn labrum, not sure whether that's related to his injury in the summer.

Perhaps Sterne sees himself playing too much in Europe & South Africa to be too bothered about getting in to early-season events. Rolling the dice a bit though, he needs to return to the Top 50 and preferably win something.

Had a quick butcher's at the pre-qualifying results and fields that have been published so far.
Don't see any familiar names or obvious Europeans etc, BUT: There is a "Mardy Fish, Los Angeles" in the California qualie.
Is that THE Mardy Fish, late of ATP fame and some fortune? I've heard he's a good golfer, but this is a step up, to say the least!

Where's Fowler?????

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/09/15/five-nominees-for-player-of-the-year.html

pedro wrote:Where's Fowler?????

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/09/15/five-nominees-for-player-of-the-year.html

I don't know if they are limited to 5 nominations, but if they are I suspect having no wins in the season took him out of the running. Even if they aren't limited to 5, no wins would be a strike against him - a lot of people have the mentality that 2nd place is just first of the losers.

This race was between Martin and Rory. Sorry Martin, I suspect it would have been good enough most years - Rory had one for the ages this year.

Bob,
I think pedro's comment was a dig at the PGA Tour orchestrated vote which declared Fowler August Golfer Of The Month . . . . . . .


Sr,
You must be happy that Aronomink's adopted son has resurrected his Tour career for the second straight year?
Pity he goes mia during the "regular season", it would be good to see him return as a force on Tour.

Kwin - Not sure Mr. O'Hair has the drive or the game at the moment to compete with the big boys. Hopefully a better 2015 season.

kwinigolfer wrote:Bob,
I think pedro's comment was a dig at the PGA Tour orchestrated vote which declared Fowler August Golfer Of The Month . . . . . . ..

Ah. 747 (over my head and still rising)

Excactly! Irony at its finest....

Shotrock wrote:This race was between Martin and Rory.

Did you talk to Finchem about this?

Pedro - Won't take my calls.

Whats with golf digest going down the lad mag sexist route these days?

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/09/lexi-thompson-turns-heads-in-l.html

I'm afraid to say Lexi Thompson in no way attractive

Golf Digest has gone down market and downhill these past few months, and compounded it all by shutting down the print version of the wonderful GolfWorld.
Lexi Thompson ought to stick to golf.

She's not a birdie. Rather a bogey.

Double bogey on October's cover: Michelle Wie.

kwinigolfer wrote:Double bogey on October's cover: Michelle Wie.

Good to see a nice message being sent to young girls deciding which sport to take up.

What is remotely demeaning about the Michelle Wie cover Mac? She's adequately dressed

McLaren wrote:
Good to see a nice message being sent to young girls deciding which sport to take up.

sorry, didn't get that comment?

Pedro

Girls face enough pressure from an over sexualised media and the expectations that brings, it would be nice to think sport could offer a break from that sort of sexism.

McLaren wrote:Pedro

Girls face enough pressure from an over sexualised media and the expectations that brings, it would be nice to think sport could offer a break from that sort of sexism.

Nobody forces them to pose on a mag cover. They're grown-ups. If Lexi and Wie thinks it's right for them, who are we to judge?
It's not like golf is the only sport where this is happening.

Mac, Wie's one isn't even provocative, in fact it's tame
You're such a ninny, and it's obvious that you purposely look to these sort of things to try and show how right on and morally upright you are.

Either that s_r or he's just trolling again

So not being sexist counts as trolling when interacting with a bunch of middle age white golfers?

Mac, in what way is the Wie one sexist, and why the need to protest so much?

McLaren wrote:So not being sexist counts as trolling when interacting with a bunch of middle age white golfers?

Dear oh dear

What's sexist? It's the girls own decision.

How much clothes do you need to wear to not being "sexist"? How long a skirt? How tight a shirt? Are you also offended by Villegas tight pants and shirt?

Puritan or troll? Hard to say.

McLaren wrote:So not being sexist counts as trolling when interacting with a bunch of middle age white golfers?

Perfectly constructed straw man argument

Perhaps Wie should have had a burka on Mac? Lest we get too excited by seeing a square nanometer of flesh.

super_realist wrote:Perhaps Wie should have had a burka on Mac? Lest we get too excited by seeing a square nanometer of flesh.

HA! Beacuse a burka is of course not sexist!

Some of us may be "middle aged", but there's no doubt whom of us still lives in the middle ages.

Puritan or troll?

Neither, just making the point that the image of women in the media puts pressure on young girls to achieve a sexualized ideal that is harmful. Even if the Wie cover shot isn't the worst example of this (it is still on the scale) some of the previous GD covers have been.

It is a shame that some female golfers think they need to go down the raunchy photo shoot to generate interest in them or in ladies golf. How many male golfers have photo shoots in their speedos or shorts. To be honest i have little interest in female golf, but if some semi decent female gets sort of naked, i will probably check it out. Lexi Thompson, is not a homey, but she isnt as bad as some on here are making out id say she is a decent 5/6 out of 10.

Far too much of a sweeping statement

Generalizations NEVER work :P

For me, the disappointing aspect of this is that a man can get on the cover of a sports magazine simply by being good at what he does. For a woman, she has to be good at what she does and also be considered sexy.  I understand that's what sells magazines but it does send a message to young women.

McLaren wrote:Puritan or troll?

Neither, just making the point that the image of women in the media puts pressure on young girls to achieve a sexualized ideal that is harmful.  Even if the Wie cover shot isn't the worst example of this (it is still on the scale) some of the previous GD covers have been.

Or to look at it another way, perhaps making the worlds least photogenic sport - Golf, slightly more glamourous by taking the type of shots Wie featured in, might actually make it more appealing to younger females.

I don't think even Mary Whitehouse would say that the Wie shots are "sexualised".

It's not like Wie or Lexi need the money or attention is it? I'm not more interested in womens golf beacuse there are hot chicks playing. I may check them out, but that's that - nothing different from anything else.

Wozza and Serena plus a lot of other top tennis players have made similar shoots. It's not like they (or the sport) need the money or lack the interest. They do it beacuse they want to. (Of course Kournikova was in a category for herself as she never really acheived anything (on the court).)

Michelle Wie has been the most over-exposed (excuse the pun) athlete of the modern era.
But, wait, do I see Rickie Fowler flexing his abs on the cover of Cosmo . . . . ?

kwinigolfer wrote:But, wait, do I see Rickie Fowler flexing his abs on the cover of Cosmo . . . . ?

Justin Bieber was unavailable?