PGA Tour: Career Defining Week in Greensboro: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).January saw the "CareerBuilder Challenge", the old Bob Hope event in California's desert - this week's "Wyndham Championship" in Greensboro, North Carolina, could be described as the Career Definer, as there is so much to play for in the final event of the PGA Tour's "regular season".

2).Let's tick 'em off:
Ryder Cup points (qualifying actually runs thru next week, for both teams).
Top 125 in FedEx points earn a Barclays tee-time for next week, plus fully exempt status for 2016/17 for those who aren't already exempt.
Top 126 - 150 - FedEx pts will take conditional status, usually 15 - 20 starts, into next year.
Top 126 - 200 will be eligible to compete in the four-tournament web.com Finals which start at the end of August.

3).GPB is explained the various wrinkles and possibilities for Ryder Cup qualification on last week's thread, so let's look at the Top 125.
Last week, Ben Martin, second at the John Deere Classic and already exempt for next year, led those assuring themselves of a trip to the Barclays and FedEx Play-Off action with Johnson Wagner securing his full card for another year.
Among those who need a strong finish this week are: Aussie Open winner Matt Jones, S-Y Noh, Stallings, Kyle Stanley, Hoffmann, Stroud, Appleby, Michael Thompson.
For an extrapolation of FedEx possibilities, reference this chart:
http://www.pgatour.com/fedexcup/2016/08/16/wyndham-scenarios-bubble.html

4).Conditional status for the 126 - 150 crew is still important, and this lot are among those who are in contention:
Sam Saunders, Willie Mac, Camilo, de Jonge, Greg Owen, Thomas Aiken and Cabrera.
I'll add the pgatour.com's real-time "Projected Standings" when the page is restored to their site Thursday morning.

5).126 - 200 qualify for web.com Finals and the chance to retrieve their card. But some "faces" are still to reach that Top 200:
John Rollins, Brendon Todd (just two years removed from being 12th on the 2014 US RC Team qualifying list), Carl Pettersson, Brian Davis (presumably injured, Tim Clark and Van Pelt too), Immelman, Two-Gloves Gainey and The Prisoner, Robert Allenby (what is it with golfers getting in to trouble at the JDC? Matt Every a few years ago and now Ryan Lochte is rumoured to have accepted an invitation to their Pro-Am next year.)

6).I watched very little of last week's Olympic Golf, but Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson were a formidable (played 3 together, won 3) Team at the 2014 Ryder Cup and great to see them battle for gold/silver. Hope Henrik's back recovers over the next month. Lots on other threads about golf-in-the-Olympics so I'll pass that by, except to hope:
~The organizers devise some sort of Team format to go with individual play for 2020.
~The Tours plan their schedules better - the way the JDC was made the sacrificial lamb for 2016, and gerry-mandering of the ET schedules were both unseemly. You've got three years chaps, get it sorted.

7).Miguel-Angel Jimenez has experienced uncharacteristic twitches in trying to close out important Senior Championships recently, and so it was that he bogeyed his final two holes to lose by one to Gene Sauers in the US Senior Open at a lovely looking Scioto CC, in the Columbus, Ohio suburbs.
Scioto was designed originally by Donald Ross and his Salem CC, in the Boston area, will host next year's Senior Open. Fleisher won the last time it was held there with an even par score and I'd say it's the hardest course for the average mid-handicap amateur I've seen, largely due to incredibly difficult green complexes. Brutal, but I'll go and have another look next June.

8).Three of this year's Senior Majors were won by Europeans (2 x Langer, plus Broadhurst) and Montgomerie and Jimenez runnered up in the other two. Woosnam played well again last week and the top tier of European Seniors is now looking pretty strong: Langer, Jimenez, Broadhurst, Montgomerie, Parnevik, Woosie and hopefully one day Olazabal.
I see Steven Richardson is in this year's Scottish Seniors field (representing Hayling - are the Lee On Solent members happy with that, Turnip?) joining David Gilford, among other ex-Ryder Cuppers.

9).This year's US Amateur is underway this week at another Donald Ross design, Oakland Hills, and GB is represented in Match Play by Messrs Gregory, Horsfield, Syme, Boote and Moore, plus Irishman Jack Hume. Boy Wonder Maverick McNeely failed to make it through a huge play-off for the final placings and last year's runner-up Derek Bard missed out altogether. Sorry to see that and he must be wondering whether to turn pro or return to College.  

10).There's a good, not great, field for Greensboro's Wyndham Championship at yet another Donald Ross course, Sedgefield CC. Rafa C-B, Hatton and Lowry are among the European tourists; haven't seen anything but perhaps Rafa and Hatton are eyeing the PGA Tour for next season?
Davis Love won here last year but he's nursing a surgically repaired hip this week and he'll be left to cast his year over his Ryder Cuppers and RC wannabes - big weeks for past winners Patrick Reed and Snedeker, among others. And maybe for another past winner, Wyndham Simpson's Dad, Webb. He's been playing well recently; what do you think he'd call his next child if he won again?

Point 10 Kwini, wouldn't that depend upon which hotel chain Webb happened to be staying in?

Doubletree Simpson?

I've suggested Hampton Inn before, quite appropriate I thought. But maybe they're all adopted?

Hatton needs at a top 25 to get a PGA tour card via the Unofficial Money list, and a Top 15 should guarantee it.

His unofficial earnings is the equivalent of #128th on the money list.

Although not yet officially announced, this route to a Tour Card is going away next year. Next year, it will only be the Faux FEX route.

Hatton would need a solo third place if the Faux FEX pts were the only avenue for a non PGATour member to a PGATour card.

Soren Kjeldson has clinched a Tour Card through the Money list and not the Faux FEX pts.

Jon Rahm and RCB has enough money and FEX points.

Kwini, The projected FEX Points is always active page...every week.

http://www.pgatour.com/fedexcup/projected-standings.html

Alex Cejka & David Toms (@#121 in the FEX) has WDed from Wyndham

Has anyone found a reason why Rory is playing the Czech Open this week. European Vacation.

Rory Sabbatini, that is, who presumably will use a career exemption next year. He is #190 in FEX and potentially could lose a spot in the WTF series.

GPB wrote:Has anyone found a reason why Rory is playing the Czech Open this week.  European Vacation.

There is a programme on Sky called European Tour Weekly which is the ET equivalent of Inside the PGA Tour. They did a feature on the tournament and Sabbatini said he was coming back from injury/surgery and Prague was a good place. I might be wrong, but I think he and Daly have been "invited" to play. Can't help you more.

GPB,
Thanks. I didn't realise they kept that updated live thru'out the year.

Cejka must be knackered - he plays fast but really grinds on every shot, doesn't he. Toms probably has bigger fish to fry with Baton Rouge underwater. I know he lives in Shreveport but he's very close to that BR/LSU community.

I'm surprised Sabbatini got a free pass from Finchem; doesn't seem right seeing as he pretty much took the summer off.

IIRC, Players are allowed three free passes a year.

No Laying Up did some alternate scenarios for point accumulation for the US Ryder Cup team.

http://nolayingup.com/2016/08/17/hypothetical-ryder-cup-teams/

Main Points (most of them obvious)

Zach would not be in the discussion if it weren't for his win at St Andrews.
Rickie should not be considered for a Captain's Pick if current form is a criteria

I think Zach's place is assured, he's seen as one of the very few to emerge from the last ten years with any credit - although he didn't play in the one win. Plus the Sea Island connection.
Agree that Rickie is the biggest ?

I'm never wrong wrote:

GPB wrote:Has anyone found a reason why Rory is playing the Czech Open this week.  European Vacation.

There is a programme on Sky called European Tour Weekly which is the ET equivalent of Inside the PGA Tour. They did a feature on the tournament and Sabbatini said he was coming back from injury/surgery and Prague was a good place. I might be wrong, but I think he and Daly have been "invited" to play. Can't help you more.

Acc. to the ET website Sabbattini and Daly are among 20-odd (!) tournament invitations.

Is one of them for Yevgeny Kafelnikov?

There's a Chase Koepka in there. Any relations?

Brother

Chase Koepka played in the Lawrie Match Play a couple weeks ago.

Wonder if growing up they argued over who's name was more silly

Pubehead doesn't seem to be in the list of starters, are you sure he's playing?

I think they are talking about Sabatinni

Ah. I see

Some Europeans outside the top 125

215 C. Petterson

169 I. poulter (is he exempt in some way or has a medical expemtion?)
163 H. Norlander
156 G. Owen

147 J. Donaldson (I assume he has effectively given up on the PGAT?)
137 Harrington (Career earnings? something from his honda win?)



What is also interesting is that despite his masters win Willett is only at 70 in the fedex rankings.

His PGAT finishes this years are

Cadillac - T3
Valspar - T22
WGC matchaplay - T28
Masters - 1
The Players - MC
US Open - T37
Open - T53
PGA champs - T79

Not great outside the masters but ok, shows how hard it is to get high up the rankings when the regulars are playing 20 odd events a year.

super_realist wrote:Wonder if growing up they argued over who's name was more silly

"Chase and Brooks"... Hmm... Close call. No Hunter or Chesson?

Mac,
Donaldson not playing so assume he's given up, as noted in earlier threads. EDIT: See he just racked up a 78, no Czech for him this week, most likely.

Harrington staying for Closing Ceremonies I think - said it's more important to him that The Barclays and he still has that Honda exemption.

Cheers Kwini, great read as ever.
Steve Richardson has been hard at work the last couple of years readying himself for the Seniors given his auto entry through (long) past performance. Would have been lovely to see him representing our little Club but he's been honorary at both for a long time and you'd find him an awful lot more at Hayling than Lee. Will be keeping an eye out for his progress none the less and hoping it's a better one than Pompey's.

Harrington is exempt through the 2016-17 season for his 2015 Honda win.

Willett's Faux FEX points earned at the Cadillac (and his T3 at HSBC, and T28 at the Matchplay) are not grandfathered into his total after he claimed PGAT Membership.

WGC faux FEX points are itemized differently than other tournaments (presumably since they are guaranteed) and do not count in the event that a non PGAT member wins a tournament later that year.

It the same circumstance that Lowry didn't earned enough points to enter the playoffs last year after winning Bridgestone.

I suspect is to protect the PGAT membership.

Thanks GBP, it forgetting about all the WGC faux fex points stuff.

Hi Turnip,
Good to hear from you. Paid a flying visit to Albert Rd in March, actually found my way around pretty well 60 years on!
And good luck to Steve. For those of us with short memories, he went 2 wins, 2 losses at the War on the Shore. From Kiawah Island to Hayling Island - that has a definite ring to it.

Which is more than PFC does this early season. Despite which: PUP

GPB wrote:Hatton needs at a top 25 to get a PGA tour card via the Unofficial Money list, and a Top 15 should guarantee it.

His unofficial earnings  is the equivalent of #128th on the money list.

Although not yet officially announced, this route to a Tour Card is going away next year.  Next year, it will only be the Faux FEX route.

Actually the change away from money has been officially announced... and that's what created the confusion, as some (like myself) thought it applied to this year. But as you correctly pointed out... it starts next year. The thought behind it was to reduce the exempt list by 3-5 players.... thus more playing opportunities for the Webbies...

Another change the Tour is looking at (but hasn't been announced yet that I'm aware) is a revamping of the FE points breakdown for events. The direction they're looking is to keep the top finishers high in points, but significantly reduce the ratio to the winner for points for the lower finishers... maybe not exactly, but similar to the way the money breakdown does now. Currently most the "middling" finishes earn a lot higher ratio of FE points to the winner than they do in money.

GPB... you are pretty close on the reasoning behind the WGC points not accruing for non-members for purposes of getting into the playoffs.

The key here is the Tour DOES want to attract the best "proven" players in the world to the PGAT and thus they want points earned from WGC events to accrue to earn players membership for next year.

But the FE Cup Playoffs is entirely different. Remember the lions share of the FE Bonus money is mostly the players in effect playing for their own retirement funds.  And to that end, for the most part they want those funds going to YEAR LONG members who have played a full compliment of events.  They don't want a "new" member coming in via good finishes in only one or two (and maybe late season) WGC events and taking money out of the members retirement funds for the current year. Now the next year once that new member has fulfilled a playing requirement... fine... let him get his share of the retirement funds as well.

Willett played in exactly one non-co-sanctioned PGATour regular event after accepting PGATour Membership.

And that was the Players Championship, an event he was probably going to play anyways.

He's played:

3 WGC's
4 Majors
Valspar
Players


IMO, he should have been forced to play at least one other regular event before the Playoffs.

Membership has it perks, and obligations.

GPB wrote:Willett played in exactly one non-co-sanctioned PGATour regular event after accepting PGATour Membership.

And that was the Players Championship, an event he was probably going to play anyways.

He's played:

3 WGC's
4 Majors
Valspar
Players


IMO, he should have been forced to play at least one other regular event before the Playoffs.

Membership has it perks, and obligations.

PGAT has always seemed more concerned that "home tour" new mid season members meet their future obligations as opposed to making them significantly adjust their schedules in mid season. It would have been nice if he played one or two more here... but no biggie IMO. Next year it is.

NOT sure who this should be reported to... but when viewing this site on a smart phone... and switching to classic mode.... a pop-up malware " virus fix" pops up and forces one to either install the app or close down the browser (chrome). It's happened 3 or 4 times to me over the last week now. Pretty annoying.... it hasn't happened when I stat in "mobile" mode. Can someone please alert the appropriate person here to this message.... thanks

PS... I don't recall if it happens every time... but it happened just now when I hit send on my response to GPB and the page refreshed

Not that we should expect any better from #GCW but this has to be a new low.

http://thegcw.co.uk/latest-stuff/2016/8/19/why-justin-rose-isnt-a-complete-melt

Bashing Justin Rose's character because he thankfully doesn't fit the "lad" characteristics.


I think I might even have started a thread on this but I reckon Rose's olympic gold should cement his position as the best British golfer since faldo.

He definitely should be more exciting - maybe more like an american swimmer?

MontysMerkin wrote:He definitely should be more exciting - maybe more like an american swimmer?

or an Irish Boxer (who calls out the Boxing officials) or an Egyptian Judo contestant who refused to shake the hand of his opponent (an Israeli).

Eligible players who didn't commit to the Barclays... Garcia, Willett, Lowry...

PS... Lowry has until 30 minutes after the last player finished at Greensboro to get his entry in.... well after the 5:00 list that is published now... so he could possibly be in.

Lowry is playing Denmark next week. Hail Mary to get Ryder Cup points.

Hatton MCed so he doesn't get a 2016-17 PGATour Card. Wonder if he will play the WTF next month.

Camilo and BdJonge looks like they are going to fall out of the Top 150.

Is Allenby's PGATour career over?, not eligible to play WTF.

GPB wrote:Is Allenby's PGATour career over?, not eligible to play WTF.  

Maybe, but maybe not. For all his negatives, he was always one of those guys tournaments could count on to do all the extra things. Clinics, hob-nob with sponsors, etc. So he might be able to get a decent number of SE's for a year or two. I guess it just depends on how much his "issues" have damaged him. But with where his game is right now... not sure SE's would do him much good.

But even if he is done... He still earned $27 million in direct purse and a good amount more in endorsements and other income. I wouldn't have a clue what kind of money manager he is... but as far as these guys go, he lives in reasonably modest digs by Jupiter standards (but still a sweet place within a gated inland waterway community). So he's probably well set.

I thought Allenby and Tiger were Buddies at Isleworth.

GPB wrote:I thought Allenby and Tiger were Buddies at Isleworth.

From what I could ever tell... Tiger was buddies, or at least had a good relationship with all the Isleworth gang back then. But I never really saw much interaction between Allenby and Tiger myself, except for during the old Tavistock thing. But Tiger and Stuart Appleby used to play practice rounds together.

The CHIII NLU podcast I posted a few weeks ago was great with Charlie talking about practice rounds w/TW at Isleworth.

Should be good for on-time departure for early Wyndham starters.

Robo: I was trying to say that Allenby was in Orlando, not Jupiter.

With Russell Knox winning in Hartford a couple of weeks ago, and Pieters doing well last week in Rio and again this week in the Czech Republic, are Kaymer and Westwood getting a little nervous?

robopz wrote:always one of those guys tournaments could count on to do all the extra things. Clinics, hob-nob with sponsors, etc.

I bet it was the etc that marketing execs loved about an allenby Pro am night out.

kwinigolfer wrote:The CHIII NLU podcast I posted a few weeks ago was great with Charlie talking about practice rounds w/TW at Isleworth.

Yeah... I think Tiger's closest friends at Isleworth were Atwal, CH3, Cook and O'Meara. I brought up Appleby's name because between Allenby and Appleby, TW was seen around Appleby a lot more... and they played traditional practice rounds together at Bay Hill.

GPB... yes I know you were saying Allenby was in Isleworth... and he was... but he moved to Jupiter 5-6 years ago...

And sure, I think with Knox and Pieters in the mix... any of the supposed "sure fire" picks are a little nervous. But I'd still have to think Westy is probably less worried than any of the others. Seems to me the big thing the veterans have going for them is the number of rookies already on the Euro squad... Clarke may go with experience. Just wild ass guessing on my part though

McLaren wrote:

robopz wrote:always one of those guys tournaments could count on to do all the extra things. Clinics, hob-nob with sponsors, etc.

I bet it was the etc that marketing execs loved about an allenby Pro am night out.

LOL... could be. Interesting though. Around tournament functions or even outside... I never saw Allenby get anywhere near "out of shape"... nor ever heard any stories of him doing so. It wasn't until that Presidents Cup where he called out AK for coming during the wee hours that I ever had a clue. And to be clear here, I'm not defending Allenby. He was not a well liked guy but I wasn't around him near enough to have a strong first hand opinion either way. But from what I ever did see first hand, he knew where his bread was buttered and did all the right things for tournament sponsors and hosts and such.

Plus Allenby, even when he was a top player, used to play a number of events the guys on a galactico schedule wouldn't touch. Imagine that goes a long way w/tournament directors.
Often followed Allenby and he was always good value.

Kelly Kraft off to a flyer this morning - is he ever going to break through as a Tour-level player? This weekend could be the acid test of that.

Guess Kraft's back-nine 40 kinda answered that... sheesh

That's a few chances that Kraft has had recently to really improve his status - just not finishing off his good starts.

Meanwhile, All Our Yesterdays, GB version, as Donald and McDool are looking for a good finish for the first time in months.

Perhaps the "paralysis by analysis" at the Travelers on the Thursday worked for Donald eh Kwini?

Let's hope he has a decent final round. Would give him a great confidence boost.