PGA Tour: Quickie Loans: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Congrats to Dustin Johnson. Do we agree with Adam Scott's sentiment earlier this year to the effect of, "When Dustin gets his act together, the rest of us are playing for second"?
A very promising start from many Europeans but the weekend unravelled for most of them? Unlike the fortitude shown at Augusta for instance.

2).Was very impressed by Shane Lowry; it seemed everything that went so right for him in the first three rounds, his one-shot penalty notwithstanding, went wrong on Sunday afternoon. Imagine the funereal pace of play might have played its part. But now he's right in the Ryder Cup shake-up, so all the more disappointing he'll be wasting good "points" opportunities at Firestone. Stupid and unfair over-reaction by the European Tour to the dumbfxck WGC rescheduling.

3).Interesting stat: Fowler & Mickelson are the only two golfers in the owgr Top Fifty to miss the cut in each of The Masters, The Players, US Open.
Phil not getting any closer to completing his career Grand Slam.
Rickie not getting any closer to justify media dream of a "Top Four".

4).Lots of comment elsewhere about the USGA, including Charley Hoffman's lament earlier in the week about Amateurs running/ruining a Professional event.
But, in the light of the USGA's self-confessed "bogey" (a golfing euphemism for total effing horlicks?), what do we think of Chris Kirk's tweet about plenty of PGA Tour pros wanting to separate from USGA/R&A rules and apply their own?

5).Some qualifiers for upcoming tournaments confirmed after Oakmont:
Top Four US Open finishers qualify for the 2017 Masters. DJ obviously, but also Furyk, Piercy and Shane.

Top Ten finishers earn a ticket to Erin Hills in 2017, including Sergio, Branden Grace, Na, Summerhays.

And: Qualifiers for to next week's Bridgestone via owgr Top 50 include: Ben An, Rafa C-B, Casey, Chappell, English, Furyk, KT Kim, Kjeldsen, Koepka, Lingmerth, Na, Piercy, Stenson, Sullivan, Westwood, Wiesberger (many of this lot will join Rory and the rest en France, or en elsewhere). Jason Dufner missed out by a fraction of a fraction of a %age point.

Lastly, Open Championship Qualifying includes:
Top four finishers in the "Quickie" not otherwise exempt, provided they're in the top 12.
Anyone after this week not already qualified but currently in the top 20 FedEx points: That could include McGirt, Kaufman and anyone infiltrating following Congressional play.
Top five after this week not already qualified but currently in the top 20 R2D rankings: Currently held by Luiten, Karlberg, Soomin Lee and Beef. Big shame that Bourdy misses out on that criteria, but he's not in this week's Germany field.

6).Low Amateur last week (apart from the USGA's Mike Davis) was Jon Rahm, and he plays this week's Quicken Loans event at Congressional in his first event as a Pro. He already has two Top Tens (Phoenix, Mayakoba) as an amateur and is widely projected as a Top Five player in the making. Hope he's joined the European Tour - get the invites mailed Pelley.

7).Justin Rose missed the Oakmont cut and looked increasingly uncomfortable as his week went on. How bad is his back injury? Does this compromise his schedule for the rest of the season, including Olympic competition? Suffice it to say that he's the defending champion of the alternate-year visit to Congressional for the "Quickie", but is not in the field. I'd be surprised to see him in Brazil regardless of the possible Ziki exit card.

8).The PGA web-site reckons " . . . .  at the conclusion of the US Open, it's a fairly safe bet that the top five players in the standings will have a spot on the roster". Spieth and Dustin are far, far ahead of all others in the qualifying list, but the following six are within a few $hundred K of each other and technically could all be out of the Top Ten depending upon results at Troon. Has Davis Love promised Koepka (3rd), Mickelson (4th) and Zach (5th) spots on his Team, or does the PGA need to return to primary school for second form arithmetic?

9).Patrick Reed slipped out of the automatic qualifiers last week but he's back in action at Congressional this week and one would think he'll play every tournament he needs to in search of automatic qualification.

10).The "Quicken Loans National" at Congressional, outside Washington DC, has taken The Travelers (now in August) slot on the schedule and has a modest field. Fran Molinari is the only European "double-dipper" and let's hope he can take advantage of the absence of so many top players and "limited field".
Greg Owen and Martin Laird are the only British contestants and both need to turn their respective seasons around in a hurry; after this week they only have seven possible tournaments to earn a tee-time in the FedEx Play Offs and a guaranteed card for next year.

As Congressional only sees the pros every other year, and in the absence of most top players, course specialists are hard to find. Kevin Chappell fits the bill as having a good past result and someone who's sure to win eventually, and Stefani's running into form and only lost in a play-off to Rose two years ago.
Thunderstorms are probable on Thursday, but hopefully ALL the attention thereafter will be on the Golf and not the Officials.

kwinigolfer wrote:

4).Lots of comment elsewhere about the USGA, including Charley Hoffman's lament earlier in the week about Amateurs running/ruining a Professional event.
But, in the light of the USGA's self-confessed "bogey" (a golfing euphemism for total effing horlicks?), what do we think of Chris Kirk's tweet about plenty of PGA Tour pros wanting to separate from USGA/R&A rules and apply their own?

2 shot penalty for every lap under 5 hours?

Start of Round 1 delayed indefinitely; radar map around Congressional looks like a painting from a nursery school art class, every colour on the palatte in use.

Scott
Singh
Schwartzel
Oosthuizen
Wilkinson
Jimenez
Leishman
McIlroy
McDowell

Who's next?

Day by the sound of it. Consulting with his family over the Zika virus

Yup, Bound to be a few others.

Signs that the worst of the Congressional weather might be passing, but no knowing how much water the course has shipped. Provisional start to the tournament planned for 9.15 a.m., but that could be optimistic.

EDIT! Action at 9.15 a.m. so Round 1 should finish tonight and the tournament be back on schedule for Friday and thru the weekend.

Sad commentary on this week's Quickie Loans field that there weren't enough alternates on site when Will Wilcox (yesterday), Ricky Barnes and Bud Cauley called it quits before play started this morning. Where's Steve Flesch when you need him.

Sure Thomas Aiken would have wanted to play - think he was next alternate in line. Wonder if the Tour should "pay" alternates to be on site?

No-one going crazy low on the course, four under being the best score as the early starters close out their rounds.

Scoring improving at Congressional and course specialists Els and Bill Haas making familiarity pay with opening 66's.
Jon Rahm already looking the real thing, tied for the lead with three holes still to play.

Well done Jon Rahm!
Leader in the clubhouse as he signs for a -7 score of 64.
Darren Clarke, Keith Pelley, Get your arms around this guy before he turns his back on you. Invitations, offer of a trip to Ryder Cup, you name it. Get him in the house!

If he's interested in playing at Troon, how about this?
He gave up a slot in The Open when he turned pro.
But if he finishes top four of those not otherwise exempt, he'll qualify regardless.

Sounds like Bryson DeChambeau in that respect, Kwini. Turned pro and lost exemption to the US Open and then made it through a qualifier.

What a miserable last 12 hours that was.

These pictures of Greenbrier fairways aren't as bad, but you'd have to think it's optimistic to expect PGA Tour golf to be played here in ten days' time:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/watson-captures-video-greenbrier-floods/

Faldo also has a place there, as well as Bubba . . . . . . . .

Quite possible there'll be two tournaments next week (Bridgestone and Reno) and none the following week.

Golf Channel reporting that Branden Grace has withdrawn from Olympic consideration

Thanks Grumps, hadn't see that.
Ten down, who's next?


Last time I looked at Congressional, Vijay had two early bogeys - that was 8 birdies ago, leading!

A cut made by Martin Laird, horror show for Greg Owen, and Frankie Molinari flirting with the cut-line. Pretty important he makes it.

Situation at the Greenbrier seems to be deteriorating with reports of three feet of mud covering some of the fairways and presumably greens. With fourteen (EDIT: Now 20 and probably going to rise further) fatalities due to flooding in the State already, the golf course won't be getting much emergency attention for a while.
Ten years ago the old BC Open was transferred from Enjoie to Turning Stone due to floods ravaging the Enjoie course. Now a Champions Tour venue.

I'd be surprised if there's time for a switch this time and expect the Greenbrier tournament to be cancelled. But you never know.

Meanwhile, golden oldies Els & Singh following Jon Rahm at Congressional. Who'd've thunk it?

Ol' VJ getting his feet wet on 18 spoiling his comeback charge. Rahm just moving along seemingly without any troubles.

Lowry, Rose, Beef, Kjeldson are playing B-Stone rather than the Open de France.

Kwini, saw your post about Sabbatini not playing for a couple of months.

He had some sort of surgery on his neck back before Quail Hollow

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/playerbreakingnews.asp?sport=GOL&id=291&line=42171&spln=1

Must have been relatively minor surgery. He is back this week.  Missed Cut.

GPB wrote:Lowry, Rose, Beef, Kjeldson are playing B-Stone rather than the Open de France.

I understand Rose and Shane as they're shoe in for the RC. But Kjeldsen??

PGA Tour have cancelled the Greenbrier Classic due to the aftermath of the flooding. The course looked wrecked in the pictures just shown on Golf Channel.

pedro wrote: But Kjeldsen??

Just had a look at his stats for the French Open, Pedro. Recent tournaments showed he finished in the top 20. So yes, it is weird.

Jon Rahm looks like the real deal. The ET would be wise to try and enlist him as best they can (as would the US tour).

With 8 holes to go, the top 4 players on the leaderboard are ranked #607 (Hurley), #551 (Rahm), #296 (Els), and #210 (Singh)

GPB wrote:With 8 holes to go, the top 4 players on the leaderboard are ranked #607 (Hurley), #551 (Rahm), #296 (Els), and #210 (Singh)

Sounds like a ET tournament..

pedro wrote:

GPB wrote:With 8 holes to go, the top 4 players on the leaderboard are ranked #607 (Hurley), #551 (Rahm), #296 (Els), and #210 (Singh)

Sounds like a ET tournament..

The BMW at Wentworth?

According to those that heard him speak in the box yesterday it seems Tiger will not tee it up in 2016.

McLaren wrote:According to those that heard him speak in the box yesterday it seems Tiger will not tee it up in 2016.

Good, he's no longer news Mac and it appears he's finished as a competitive player both by his weak body and the distance he's fallen behind the competition, so can you spare us the regular updates please?

No, I will continue to post information and discussion about Tiger.

Also, Muirfield must have decided that the vote to ban female members was damaging in some way to themselves as they are now claiming they will have a second vote by the end of the year. A lot of voting in the coming year; brexit vote mark II, Indyref2, general election, conservative leader vote, lab leader vote and Muirfield entering 20th centuary mark II.

McLaren wrote:Also, Muirfield must have decided that the vote to ban female members was damaging in some way to themselves as they are now claiming they will have a second vote by the end of the year.  A lot of voting in the coming year; brexit vote mark II, Indyref2, general election, conservative leader vote, lab leader vote and Muirfield entering 20th centuary mark II.

That probably explains their position Mac; just leaving the end of the Victorian Era...

Glad you didn't mention the US prez election, as it's more a deselection.

Navy

I used 20th on purpose. Although if only they could aim for the 1950's they would probably be in tune with the majority of the nation in terms of social attitudes.

McLaren wrote:Also, Muirfield must have decided that the vote to ban female members was damaging in some way to themselves as they are now claiming they will have a second vote by the end of the year.  A lot of voting in the coming year; brexit vote mark II, Indyref2, general election, conservative leader vote, lab leader vote and Muirfield entering 20th centuary mark II.

Why would there be a "Brexit Vote 2" Mac?

We might not like the result here on this forum, and it seems most of us don't, but do you really want to usurp Democracy and behave the bitter morons who lost the Scottish Independence referendum?

It's happened, I suggest you accept it and not try and keep having referendums until you get the result YOU want. That's not democratic.

It is not democratic.

But it would be right!

<NB - that was a joke>

Wonder when we'll have the "Brentry" vote?

Super

I don't know why there would be a second vote but the possibility is still floating about until someone has the guts to push the article 50 button.

The will of the majority of people that voted has been demonstrated. I suspect the apathy of voters has at last had some tangible effect on the course of the democracy.

The odd quirk is that the petition to have another referendum has (way) passed the required 100,000 level meaning it has to be discussed in parliament. A parliament that is made up of 2 thirds of MPs that wanted to remain (and so a parliament that demonstrably out of touch with the populace). I can see no way that the EU exit could be reversed in the commons, but a debate that has to come to a conclusion that no further referendum is required being argued by people that don't want to leave will be interesting.

(I say interesting, I mean dull - but potentially intriguing)

Mac, there is no possibility of a second vote as that would be contrary to the concept of democracy.

You can't just keep holding things until we get the result we want.

I hate the idea we are out of Europe, but we can't do anything about it. We have to accept the idea of the result, to seek another vote just makes you look like the Fat, disgusting Alex Salmond or the Jimmy Krankie Sturgeon.

Yes, it's awful, but that's the risk we took when accepting a referendum.

Super

See off topic thread for my response.

It's not often I catch the end of an event on TV on a beautiful Sunday afternoon (but I golfed with my son earlier in the day) ... and was ready for a beer and a chair. That was some inspired golf by Billy Hurley over the last few holes. I had the feeling that if it got much closer, he may have folded under pressure. Well done!

Roller_Coaster wrote:passed the required 100,000 level meaning it has to be discussed in parliament.

I thought the exact wording was that it had to be considered for debate in Parliament...but I accept that it probably would.

There's been tons of those things go through parliament that have had 100k+. It's pretty meaningless and about as useless as someone asking you for a petition when you were at school. Changes nothing.

I'm pretty sure a petition to have Jeremy Clarkson reinstated got about 750k signatories, so that goes to show that these are likely to be "considered" a.k.a thrown in the bin, rather than actually "discussed" in Parliament.

Didn't Denmark and/or Ireland have repeat referendums not so long ago?

Also, how come Muirfield requires a 2/3 majority to decide to admit half the population but a simple majority is sufficient to take us out of Europe?

They didn't vote to leave but whether to ratify one of the many treaties

Day and Shane latest to withdraw from Olympic golf. Where does this leave the event now?

McLaren wrote:Day and Shane latest to withdraw from Olympic golf.  Where does this leave the event now?

As far as I know, still in Rio de Janeiro.

You know what I mean. It looks really bad that the top players will fail to turn up and the olympic committee can't be best pleased. I can't remember if golf had a place in the 2020 games but the withdrawals can't be making it all that likely.

Anyone know why female golfers are not WD'ing given that they are the ones that actually get pregnant?

30 years ago the IOC would not let the best athletes into the Olympics.

They have don't have much of a right to be upset.

What goes around, comes around.

GPB

I imagine a lot of the casual fans watching the olympic golf on TV might be thinking "what goes around, comes around".

McLaren wrote:GPB

I imagine a lot of the casual fans watching the olympic golf on TV might be thinking "what goes around, comes around".

Mac...were you asking about how the Olympic Committee feels or the casual fans might think?

I really don't like playing whack-a-mole.

Stephanie Wei tweet wrote:Re: men pulling out of Rio and women not. Zika more dangerous for men, stays in semen, unknown how long. Women ok as long as not pregnant.

https://twitter.com/StephanieWei/status/745635522249297920

Was really just looking for any general thoughts on the situation. I guess it would be good to hear peoples thoughts around the level of withdrawals and how that effects the event itself (eg quality of field, worth of the win, watchability etc) and whether a depleted event can really "grow" the game?

If the golf event even makes it onto to TV I can imagine it will have generic commentators and not golf specific ones, and that the fact the top players didn't bother to turn up in a lot cases will be mentioned in a rather negative manner.