PGA Tour: The Real Start to the Golfing Year?: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The first three US tournaments are behind us;
The "Golfing Porn" of gorgeous Kapalua.
The fairways and greens of the excellent Waialae CC.
And the bugger's muddle now known as the CareerBuilder.
All appetisers for a string of three weeks out of four on great golf courses, plus the golfing mosh pit sometimes known as TPC Scottsdale.

2).Starting this week in San Diego, at the two Torrey Pines courses.
Tranquil (hopefully not risk-of-fog tranquil) weather should prevail until Sunday when the forecast resembles that of the Bay of Biscay on a bad day rather than Sunny California. Hopefully the forecast of high winds and horizontal rain will be an exaggeration, but don't say you weren't warned. Monday looks good though.

3).The US Open was played on Torrey Pines (South) in 2008 and will return in 2021. The South course can be stretched to 7,700 yards and has recently favoured (duh) the longest hitters, but the field will also play 18 holes on the shorter (7,000 yds) North Course where scores should be lower and the Par-5's are among the easiest on Tour. West Coast guys usually have an advantage, and good form here is often followed by success at Pebble and Riviera.

4).Local-ish boy Rickie Fowler will be here, fresh off his latest win, in Abu Dhabi. But CareerBuilder Jason Dufner will presumably be cooling his jets until his rise continues, appropriately enough, in Phoenix.
What a contrast in media reaction to their respective excellent wins?
Rickie Fowler follows a 30-yard front nine bunker shot hole-out with another holed chip on the 17th and is immediately elevated to Spieth/Day/McIlroy status.
While Dufner's win, also aided by a slice of good 17th hole fortune, is characterised as "lucky".

5).I mentioned last week that Dufner should be followed, and he seems to have put Amanda's behind behind him and will be worth following again on suitable courses - he lost a play-off a few years ago in Phoenix, for instance, and he has won or runnered up at New Orleans, Dallas and Ft Worth.

6).We don't talk about Stewart Cink that much nowadays, but he's still plodding along, flattering with occasional good rounds only to deceive on most weekends.
Last week he played his 500th tournament as a Pro.
And he joins ten other under-50's who still have some Tour status remaining at 500 tournaments or more:
Mayfair (755), Estes (633) and eight more who have played 500 or more events, in descending order:
Toms (594), Kelly, Leonard, Furyk, Mickelson, Herron, DiMarco and (surprised me) Appleby.

7).Amidst the musical chairs being played by Tour sponsors, it's being speculated that the termination of the DeutscheBank contract for Round 2 of the FedEx Play Offs may lead to the number of Play Off events being reduced from 4 to 3.
Meanwhile, Hyundai are succeeding Northern Trust as title sponsor of the LA Open from 2017.
And Northern Trust are taking over the New York tournament from Barclays.

8).The 2015 "Farmers Insurance Open" could be seen as the start of Jason Day making the transition from G'Day to Great Day. He missed this week's Pro-Am with "flu-like symptoms", a euphemism if ever there was one, and may not be at his strongest, but there's a strong field including Day, Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Casey, etc, etc.. Following his two steps to the podium in Hawaii, Snedeker will be playing at another happy hunting ground, with a 1st and two other 2nd place finishes here. While Phil will be hoping to add to his three San Diego wins, and his Ryder Cup qualifying status.

9).Despite all the chest thumping about winning back the Ryder Cup, I wonder if half the motivation of top US players is just to get on the Team, rather than actually winning the damn thing? Webb Simpson, for instance, already rumoured to be wearing DLIII's patience thin with incessant volleys of text messages.
Who knows, but what we do know is the current standings for the eight automatic qualifying places:
Spieth, Dustin, Zach, Fowler, Sneds, Kisner, Phil and Dufner.

10).The European points element of the European qualifying will be clearer following next week's Dubai action, but World points are also crucial and Justin Rose will be looking this week to improve his 3rd place position. And Shane Lowry (26th in World points) will be hoping to repeat last year's success in San Diego where he finished 7th. At 209th in FedEx points Lowry needs a good result or three.
Paul Dunne scored a sponsor's invitation and it'll be interesting to see how his early-career form translates in California.
But I reckon this would be a good week to start doubling up on making a small e.w. investment in Graham DeLaet. Oh Canada?

PGAtour.com has them sceduled to restart at 11am

Ironic that Spieth was beaten by a Young Song.

And here's a name or two for the books:
Jazz Janewattananond
Piya Swangarunporn

hend0,

The official restart is 8.00 a.m. Pacific Time. Have you seen that pushed back, or is 11.00 a.m. just Eastern Time?

11.00 a.m. Pacific would make much more sense.

sorry Kwini- 11am ET. you think it will be pushed back more?

Not sure, but a few posts back I posted the hourly forecast for wind speeds; there were reports yesterday of structural damage at the course, don't know if there's any course damage. But they certainly wouldn't have much daylight to effect any clean up.

I'll post as soon as I see anything.

the in-running betting is very interesting at the moment!


the bookies currently think snedeker is a 38% chance and walker a 32% chance to win.

i guess there is a chance they will play without letting crowds in? negating the need for a delay for cleanup

Resumption of play pushed back to 9.00 a.m. Pacific, Noon Eastern, 5.00 p.m. at Fratton Park as we conclude negotiations to bring in Berahaino in our effort to clinch promotion.

Would you want a scumbag like him at your club Kwini? Just another Adebayor.

Don't know what to make of him super_; immensely talented, poorly advised, as so many are, but no, not in League 2.
Pardew should know better than be paying Adebayor - he seems to be panicing.

Looking forward to the Golf though!

EDIT: Once they get this lot cleared:

https://twitter.com/ToddLewisGC/status/694175126334537730

super_realist wrote:Would you want a scumbag like him at your club Kwini? Just another Adebayor.

That's a tough one. He clearly has talent and ability and looks like he'd be a good player for at least half of the premier league. Flip side seems to be he comes across as another spoilt brat that may wreak havoc in a good dressing room. I think he'd be a good one for the current Stoke model which seems to be along the lines of: "Come to us, we promise not to tie you up but give us your best for 2-3 years and the big boys will come knocking and we won't stand in your way."

I'd have the player at Loftus Road but not the ego. (although, granted, there's precisely eff all chance of anyone that good coming)

Kudos for Jeremy Peace (WBA Chairman) though if he sticks by his guns and keeps him, it might, however, be self defeating...

Now a 10.00 a.m. start.
Paul Dunne among a number of players who were scheduled to compete in today's Monday Qualie for "Phoenix". Bad luck for them, but an incentive to make the most of their remaining holes today.

Just seen first pictures on Sky. Serious damage with lots of trees down, some across fairways, one across a very smart Aston Martin!
Doesn't look too windy right now, but likely to pick up.
Interesting point about so much debris to be removed is course comparable to yesterday? Not talking about wind, but physical obstacles like trees?
Snedekers round looking better and better.

https://weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/l/USCA0565:1:US

If the wind has dropped as this forecast suggests, the leaders today are going to play their back nine in far better conditions than when Snedeker filed his 69 yesterday.
Advantage Choi & Walker . . . . . . .

Golf Channel reporting that Jim Furyk, out since last September, will undergo wrist surgery and is expected to miss another three months. No Masters (or Heritage defence of his title) for Sunny Jim and the second (and counting) no-show at the WGC MatchPlay.

Wind in San Diego less than 15 mph at last report. Snedeker must be spitting bullets.

Underway in San Diego and Snedeker now tied for the lead after Walker drops a shot on 11.

Birdie at the last for Paul Dunne and that ties him with Shane Lowry, T15 for now.

3-man race? Or does Freddie Jac have a shout??

Even par round from Robert Streb, second best of the round.

Laird was even par for his back nine, so it can be done. But not by any of those still out there.

Jimmy needs to copy Jason Gore, K.J. needs eagle to win, birdie to tie. Sneds needs to keep doing his weather dance for a little bit longer...

Oh and Jonas Blixt can tie if he's Kim Jung Il

Edit - just a par; he's no dictator

2 x Swedes, 2 x Irishmen and a Scot in the Top 15.

Very happy to see KJ Choi playing so well. Must still have an outside chance of making the Olympics.

Seriously impressive round from Snedeker by the look of it. Just looked at the 4th round scores and his 69 is something else cf. the field.

Impressive indeed. Well done Sneeeedeker!

Putt for Dough:
Sneds' final round included 14 putts from inside ten feet: Made 'em all.
Imagine his "rap" style putting stroke must be especially effective on those sometimes bumpy poa annua greens.

I think you are right about that Kwin. He's never been a die-it-in-the-hole putter and the bumpy poa didn't bother him much on Sunday. I played TP last year and from the more forward tees, with rough that was probably 50% of what I saw this weekend, it was very playable for us mortal golfers.

Lovely lodge especially if you enjoy Greene and Greene craftsman-inspired architecture.

Good win for Snedeker and a case of justice somewhat being done weather wise (although on Monday on TV it didn't look as bad as they made it seem). Also noted that since there were no sponsors commitments or anchor duties etc., the coverage was much better and almost watchable in real time.

A nice finish too for Paul Dunne with a birdie on the last - one of the rare ones on Monday.

Bob_the_Job wrote:Good win for Snedeker and a case of justice somewhat being done weather wise (although on Monday on TV it didn't look as bad as they made it seem).  Also noted that since there were no sponsors commitments or anchor duties etc., the coverage was much better and almost watchable in real time.

Bob,
The difficulty the golfers had Monday was that the wind had done a 180 since the course was set up for Sunday play. Which meant that holes that were downwind, especially #17 and #18, on Sunday and played more easily, were playing normal physical distance and also into a fierce wind.
Swings and roundabouts I suppose, and some guys handled it better than others. Lots of good stuff from Baker Finch about golfers giving up and being mentally shot. Or, in some cases of course, very strong. KJ was terrific, Dunne and Laird too.
Compelling viewing I thought, though the pace of play would have worn out Paramor's stop-watch. Over 2 1/2 hrs for the final group (being held up on almost every shot) to play 8 holes.

As you say, swings and roundabouts - holes shortened for a wind into were then downwind.

Freddie Jac seemed to be one of the few players who changed shot shape more to account for the conditions - he hit some lovely knockdown shots (or maybe we just saw more of his shots from behind where it's more obvious).  Jimmy Walker was much vaunted as a great wind player being from Texas, but I didn't see a significant change in his ball flight - most of his shots still looked very high.  But I agree - they were tricky playing conditions (average proximity to the hole would have had to be changed to proximity to the green), and good viewing.

Perfect golfing weather in Phoenix for the Waste Management action.
Notable Europeans with tee-times include:
Dunne, Harrington, Lowry.
Martin Laird who led the Farmers field in greens in regulation and arguably should have won Phoenix last year.
Jonas Blixt & Carl Pettersson (is his career going down the same demise route as his putter?).
Greg Owen and Ian Poulter.
And possibly David Skinns who's playing a Monday Qualifying play-off this morning.