PGA Tour: Barclay Scarred: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Farewell to "The Barclays" as the bankers assemble at Bethpage Black prior to departing the PGA Tour scene, twelve years after assuming sponsorship of the old Westchester Classic.
Round One of next year's FedEx Cup Play-Offs will be sponsored by Northern Trust and staged at a new venue: Glen Oaks in Old Westbury, NY. Followed by:
2018: Ridgewood CC in NJ
2019: Liberty National: NJ
2020: Plainfield CC: NJ
2021: Bethpage: NY
2022: Liberty National.

2).With The Barclays going the same way as the bank's largesse at the Scottish Open, the biggest void left to be filled may be the logo on Phil's chest if the left-handed one loses his sponsorship. Reports suggest that Five Guys Burgers And Fries will now be replacing Barclays' acreage.

3).Round 2 of the Play-Offs will be next week's Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, and that sponsorship too expires this year. Cue a week's worth of rumours about future sponsorship or the future of the tournament at all - it would be in line with the Tour's desertion of northern States if the Boston/Providence area is abandoned, but hopefully another event will replace it, though perhaps not enjoy Play-Off status.

4).Numbers 1 to 125 on the FedEx Points list qualify for this week's action. Garcia, Lowry, Cejka, Lahiri and Willett are absent so 120 pros, at last count, will take on the formidable Bethpage Black.
The 125 also retain their cards for next season, as do Messrs Duke, Marino, Cauley, Goosen, Chad Collins and Morgan Hoffmann who finished in the Top 125 in money earned - that loophole now expires permanently.

5).We described last week's Wyndham Championship in Greensboro as "career defining", and the outcome can be summarised:

In to the Top 125 and assured of full Tour Membership for 16/17: Kyle Stanley, Shawn Stefani.  
Out of the Top 125: Aussie Open winner Matt Jones (still has some status as a "Past Champion", Houston in 2014) and Whee Kim.

In to the Top 150 earning conditional status for 16/17: Stewart Cink, and Mansfield Man Greg Owen.
Out of the top 150: Will MacKenzie, Camilo Villegas - they both retain Past Champion status for their multiple Tour wins.

In to the Top 200, earning a place in next month's web.com Finals: Aussie Rhein Gibson.
Out of the Top 200: D.H.Lee who loses all Tour status.

6).Obviously the week's big winner was 21-y-o Si Woo Kim, who ran away with his first Tour win in his 30th tournament of the season. Kim is now up to #15 in FedEx Points and one more good result should earn him a place in the Tour Championship. He first "earned" his Tour card at the age of 17, but wasn't permitted by Tour rules to use it! But he's very definitely the real thing and, on early evidence, unlikely to go the way of his predecessor boy wonder namesake Kim.

7).13 golfers have now earned at least $5.3M in FedEx bonus money:
Cup winners: Woods (25M), Furyk ($15M), Stenson ($13M), Snedeker ($11.8M), Bill Haas ($11.2+M), Vijay Singh ($11.2-), Spieth ($10.9M), Horschel ($10.4M). All except Woods have already earned more cash by qualifying for this year's Play-Offs.
Others: Stricker ($8.5M), Mickelson ($8.0M), Kuchar ($5.9M), McIlroy ($5.5M), Donald ($5.3M) and all play this week.
That's a healthy retirement plan for these boys.

8).Doug Ferguson made a couple of interesting points about the future of Golf in the Olympics that I had missed.
~The course designated for Tokyo 2020, Kasumigaseki CC has 36 holes, so expanding the options for more play.
~In the clamour for some sort of Team event, tournaments run over 54 holes could represent an option that 72 holes might not. If not for the Individual Tournament, certainly for any Team Event, mostly likely mixed "doubles".

9).Bethpage Black prides itself on being a stern test for the Pros and no doubt its Par-71 (just 3 x Par-5's) will be fiercely protected. But the absent Nick Watney won with a ten-under-par total of 274 in 2012, by three strokes from Brandt Snedeker, with DJ and Sergio a shot further back.
Watney is still rehabbing injuries and Sergio's taking the week off, but you'd imagine the highly motivated Sneds and the always relaxed Dustin might play well again. Lucas Glover won the US Open here, while Johnson Wagner & Keegan Bradley played Bethpage frequently as amateurs.
Apart from that, it's difficult to have too many preconceived ideas as to how the weekend will pan out, but mostly fine (hot on Friday?) weather should ensure the course plays hard and fast.

10).Luke Donald finished T10 at the 2012 Barclays and perhaps course conditions might favour him if he can find the fairway off the tee.
After talking about Luke looking disconsolate following The Travelers, last week's 2nd place at Greensboro was a very welcome surprise. One interesting facet of his success is that he achieved it with very average, literally, stats for most criteria, but a -0.3 in strokes gained putting.
So much for stereotypes, but I imagine he'll need his putter to behave this week if Bethpage is to live up to its self-trumpeted reputation:
Bethpage "Warning: The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers."

Thanks robo,
Pretty much the same as 2015 then.

Whichever way you cut it, the best players get richer, those with less successful years, not quite so much.

But: Does that mean Willie Mac, for instance, gets no retirement benefit derived from his cuts made this year? Doesn't seem right somehow.

kwinigolfer wrote:...It's going to be hotHOT today; after comments from experts as diverse as Jason Day and Mrs Plunky about Bethpage Black being a hard walk, stamina will be at a premium as the day heats up.

Jeesuss! He doesn't even have to carry a bag...

kwinigolfer wrote:Thanks robo,
Pretty much the same as 2015 then.

Whichever way you cut it, the best players get richer, those with less successful years, not quite so much.

But: Does that mean Willie Mac, for instance, gets no retirement benefit derived from his cuts made this year? Doesn't seem right somehow.

Kwini... the cuts part of the plan still exists, it's just that it now represents a little more than 1/3 of the total retirement contribution for these guys with the FECup bonus portion being the rest. So the answer is yes, at #151 Willie Mac still gets some retirement contribution. The big thing for a guy like Willie Mac is he needs to get to 150 career made cuts for the "cuts plan" portion of his retirement benefit to become fully vested... as of now he's at 132. The FECup contribution portion is fully vested from day one for all players.

robo,
Thanks

Much better from Rory, even putting OK.
But a terrible week from Francesco - an early flight back home likely for him. Can't imagine distraction of the earthquake can have helped, but nothing to persuade DC to choose him (tho' I might still be tempted to).

Very impressed with pace of play from Russell Henley, Scott Brown and Harold Varner. They'll finish about half an hour ahead of the group behind them and the threesome going off the back nine first.

Enjoyed watching Henley the other week, gets a move on and hit one or two terrific shots from difficult positions. Hopefully that'll turn into better results for him.

Wake up!

It looks as if 79 golfers will make the Barclays cut, but no mdf in the Play-Offs.

Shane Lowry still on the bubble for Bawston.

Wouldn't mind following the Finau/D.Johnson pairing Saturday. Or the Rose/Mickelson action.

Barclays turning out just fine for Davis Love - no-one outside the Top Twelve making acompelling case for inclusion.

Funny thing though - the way these geniuses have set things up, Love makes three picks and then waits a while before making his final choice. Who does he put on ice??!! Or does he just announce twelve and shut the door? Which he may be tempted to do.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Funny thing though - the way these geniuses have set things up, Love makes three picks and then waits a while before making his final choice. Who does he put on ice??!! Or does he just announce twelve and shut the door? Which he may be tempted to do.

Last time they were criticised for having had the deadline too early. This time the taskforce has moved the deadline back. So I think you can be pretty sure DL3 will wait till the last minute to announce his 4th pick.

I know, but it sends a funny (peculiar) kind of message to his troops, or at least Troop #12.
I would think he's already decided the current Top Twelve are the guys he'd want to take to Hazeltine, they have a $500K margin on the posse, and Fowler's showing some form at last. If Fowler keeps it going this wk, he'll likely leave Bubba or Kuchar hanging.
It'll be fun to watch!

kwinigolfer wrote:Na does NOT deserve a pick.

Don't you think the Americans could do with a Stenson type player that will wind up the opposition with snails pace play? The Americans need to start playing the game a little more.

They've already got Spieth and Zach Johnson.

Missed Barclays cut for Na.

Kwini

Who do you think the Americans could pick who would play ok, but more importantly wind up the more thin skinned Europeans like Rory and pea brain?

Not sure who you mean by "pea brain".
Reed is the only one who I can think of who's guaranteed to get under anyone's skin, he and Spieth as a team could p1ss you off . . . . .

Yes, I assume Spieth can go as slow as he wants and not go on the clock.


Pretty surprised you don't know who pea brain is, it has been used for some time now on here.

Yeah, Mac, No idea.
I know one player who gets grief on here who has an RC record of 18 wins, 9 losses. One of my favourite players as it happens.

McLaren wrote:Yes, I assume Spieth can go as slow as he wants and not go on the clock.

Not sure that's the case. Spieth's groups were getting put on the clock more than perhaps any other up until a month or so ago. Jordan's finally making a much needed conscious effort to change his routine and speed up... at least on the full shots. It even appears he's sped up on the greens somewhat. IMO he's improved from "agonizingly slow" to just "slow".

I will give you a clue, if the Americans want to needle pea brain they should time when they take clubs out the bag.

Robo

I meant that I don't think they bother putting players on the clock during the RC. Certainly don't remember it happening.

Robo: Regarding Spieth's slow play and any improvement he might make to speed up.

It won't matter. Once a player gets a reputation of being slow, no matter how much he speeds up, he will always be a slow player in the eyes of most golf bloggers.

Like you with Stenson, GPB!

Two who infuriate me when I've followed them are Zach Johnson and McDowell.

Spieth has certainly said he's been trying to speed things up; would think he's pretty genuine about that.

#6-#8 of the US Ryder Cup Standings after Round 2 of Barclays is Reed-Rickie-Sneds, respectively

Zach-Holmes-Bubba-Kuch are #9-#12 respectively.

Good point, on who DL-III is going to ICE until after the TC. I guess Ryan Moore could be the Fly in the ointment. Should he win, he could get as high as #10 in the standings. Two wins in the last 4 weeks would be hard for DL-III to ignore.

kwinigolfer wrote:Like you with Stenson, GPB!

Two who infuriate me when I've followed them are Zach Johnson and McDowell.

Spieth has certainly said he's been trying to speed things up; would think he's pretty genuine about that.

Stenson trying to speed things up? Well I guess WDing helps his group speed up.

Kwini

I think we have all noticed that Stenson is slow, not just GPB.

I know who pea brain is ... he's the racist Ryder cup standout with as many professional majors as I have.

I fear for Jimmy Walker in this upcoming RC. Hope he proves my hunch incorrect.

Shotrock wrote:I know who pea brain is ... he's the racist Ryder cup standout with as many professional majors as I have.

I fear for Jimmy Walker in this upcoming RC. Hope he proves my hunch incorrect.

Sergio just doesn't know the cultural references here in the USA. That is why he specifically said Fried Chicken instead of Burgers and Hot Dogs.

I would rather have Jimmy Walker on my team than Westwood!

Talking of burgers, you've got Phil, and he's off to a terrific start at Bethpage; imagine he and Justin are drawing quite the crowds.

Reed and Rickie starting off OK again in Round 3, no-one making a compelling case to take a spot from the Top Twelve.
Poor today from Kuchar & Zach, but no way is Davis going to leave one of them at home.

Meanwhile, Martin Laird having another strong Barclays - regardless of where they play it, he seems to have a good tournament.

Sergio and fried chicken; Mac and hoodies .. it's all getting a little boring now

Zach is one of few Americans with a positive RC record so he'llbe difficult to overlook.

Plus,
I think he's a neighbour of Love (and Kuchar) in the Sea Island area.

Rory still losing more than a stroke per round on the greens; maybe the Boston/Crooked Stick combo will do the trick as it did a few years ago.

Ryo Ishikawa continues to lead the Japanese Tournament this week. 2 shot lead going into final round.

Det. Holmes & Dr. Watson not doing anything to help their US Ryder Cup Chances.

If Rickie finishes solo third, Zach needs the equivalent of a Top 30 finish to stay ahead of him and claim the 8th spot.

Casey playing with Donald on Sunday - I wonder how much they'll discuss caddies, especially with John McLaren eavesdropping.

Impressive from Rickie Fowler, and brilliant short game from Jason Day after hitting just one third of his fairways this week.

JB Holmes hit the skids Saturday, and perhaps he could be Love's fall guy, #12 if there has to be a sacrificial lamb - poor cliche in his case, but he's certainly outside the Sea Island and media cliques.

12th man decision for Europe still has muddled as ever.

GPB.... yep... once players get a reputation of being slow... it's almost impossible to shake. They may improve and be faster 95% of the time... but it's that 5% that will be noticed. Not that Spieth is down to the 5% category yet... but he's certainly better than before...

Not looking good for Lowry in Beantown

He is sitting at #102 and 12 points behind #100.  Not only does he have to hope that at least two players ahead have poor final rounds, he has to dodge a couple of players who are currently projected behind that could have good final rounds (Van Aswegen and Fathauer)

See that Stewart Cink and Bryson DeChambeau are heading to the Swiss Alps next week.  Warmup to the WTF I presume for "DeChapeau".  I hope it is good news for Lisa Cink that Stewart is headed across the pond.

Don't see any "US PGATour" visitors headed to party in Holland in two weeks.

Expected... but Danny Willett now an official NON-ENTRY for the Deutsche Bank...

Perhaps Lisa Cink might find the gorgeous setting of Crans therapeutic, especially compared to Hotlanta?

Stewie surely won't bother with the wtf's . . . . . . ?

Have loved watching Bethpage this week, great to see the guys playing what the writers call a "broad-shouldered" golf course.


GPB,
Your note on the MID is spot on. Heavy rain Sunday afternoon as reported early yesterday by the ET Live Blog. Surprised they don't go earlier . . . . . . . .

Cink is 18th on the Career Money list. I am pretty sure he has both career money list exemptions left since he was exempt through 2014 for his Open Championship win. I think Robo is keeping track of the players and their all time money list exemption.

He probably won't fall out of the Top 25 next year if chooses to take his chances with Sponsors invites. But it is big chance to take.

Still no idea what is going with Bo Van Pelt. He took a Top 50 money list exemption has not played since early this year. He is currently 57th on the Career Money list.

The Vardon Trophy award is a three way competition between Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, and (surprisingly) Phil Mickelson.

After three rounds of the Barclays, this is how (I think) it stands

Dustin 69.247
P-Mick 69.281
J-Day 69.285

Mickelson has never won the Vardon Trophy, even though I think he should have won it in 2008 when Sergio won the Vardon. Mickelson had the best Stroke Average Score Differential which I think is a better metric than the adjusted scoring average.

GPB wrote:Cink is 18th on the Career Money list.  I am pretty sure he has both career money list exemptions left since he was exempt through 2014 for his Open Championship win.  I think Robo is keeping track of the players and their all time money list exemption.

Correct... Cink has both career money list exemptions remaining. Not sure he would want to use them or need to though. Cink is the kind of guy that can probably pretty easily get 20-25 starts playing out of the 126-150 category plus Sponsor Exemptions.

Also, the way the MINOR medical/family emergency policy is written, he might get some starts under that and still have a chance to earn equiv FE Points to #125 (He's roughly 125 points short). Generally a Minor requires a 2 month continuous miss at some point which Cink did not have, but he did have 2 periods of 5 weeks out while Lisa was having certain treatments... and there is a procedure for a waiver around that 2 month requirement. I have no clue how Cink's case might be looked at in that regard.

Surprising to see Phil without a win, yet still consistent enough this year to be a Vardon contender. I agree it's looking like a 3 man race... but Spieth is only around 11-13 shots outta the mix with potentially 13 rounds to go for the players.

Rickie Fowler's record when holding the 3rd round lead or co-lead = 0 for 3

2010 Memorial - Started final round with 3-shot lead over Barnes & Petrovic and 4-shots over Justin Rose. Shot 73 to Rose's 66 to lose by 3. (Barnes and Petrovic also spit the bit with 73 and 74 between them)

2011 AT&T National - Started final round T1 with Nick Watney... Shot a Final round 74 to finish T13th, behind winner Nick Watney by 8-shots.

2016 Wells Fargo - Started final round in 1-shot ahead of Roberto Castro and 2-shots ahead of James Hahn. Shot 74 to lose by 2 to Hahn (who beat Castro in a playoff)

Also...

2016 Waste Management Phoenix Open - Fowler and Matsuyama started final round 3-shots behind Danny Lee. Lee quickly backed up and Fowler had forged a 1-shot lead over both Hideki and Danny by #10. Fowler was 2-shots up over Hideki with 2-holes to play but went bogey/birdie to Hideki's birdie/birdie to end up in a playoff. Matsuyama won the playoff.

robopz wrote:Surprising to see Phil without a win, yet still consistent enough this year to be a Vardon contender.   I agree it's looking like a 3 man race... but Spieth is only around 11-13 shots outta the mix with potentially 13 rounds to go for the players.  

Yep, Assuming all players make the cut next week, and Phil averages 280.00 each tournament.

Dustin has to average 279.75 to beat him (one shot)
J-Day has to average 278.5 to beat him (6 shots)
Spieth has to average 276.75 to beat him (13 shots)
Scotty has to average 275.00 to beat him (20 shots)

Koepka cannot win the Vardon, because of a mid-Round WD at B-Stone.

The example of Shane Lowry this week highlights how players will do dumb things to make the Ryder Cup. Skipping Barclays to effectively knock himself of the Fed Ex - heading to Denmark with zero chance of making the Top 9.

Why is he there ? Could he not have impressed Clarke at the Barclays?

John

Lowry's schedule has baffled me all season.  Another victim of double dipping who luckily has a WGC win exemption to mask the cock up.

There's never been rhyme or reason to Lowry's schedule - this just the latest chapter.


It should be a gorgeous morning at Bethpage, but the wins could dry/bake things out quickly this afternoon; I think Fowler and Laird were the only golfers in the final 8 groups to break 70, so don't be surprised if someone goes out, as Scott did yesterday, and fires lights out and hangs on to win.

GPB wrote:Koepka cannot win the Vardon, because of a mid-Round WD at B-Stone.

You mentioned differential being a better measure for the Vardon and I agree... it would be. Using the wholly irrelevant course par skews the numbers.

I'd also like to see the PGA of A modify the "Calvin Peete" rule which makes any player with a mid-round WD ineligible for the Vardon. IMO a better way is how the PGA of A does it in their POY formula where any mid-round WD results in a 1/10th of a stroke deduction from the final scoring average. That effectively is like entering a score somewhere around 7-8 over the field average for that given round. A significant enough penalty/deterrent to the scoring average, but not enough to knock a dominant player out of the running just because he had a mid-round injury or something.

And I use the term "deterrent" loosely. IMO players just aren't focused on the Vardon like they once were. Back in the day, the most important things were winning the most, money list and scoring. Today it's a lot more about majors, wins & FeCup... Vardon is more of an afterthought, so IMO no deterrent to prevent a "calculated" mid-round WD is needed IMO.

John Cregan wrote:The example of Shane Lowry this week highlights how players will do dumb things to make the Ryder Cup. Skipping Barclays to effectively knock himself of the Fed Ex - heading to Denmark with zero chance of making the Top 9.

Still amazes me how Ryder Cup has such a hold on Euro players they're willing to sacrifice pretty much any other goal and career opportunity just to make that team.  But it does seem to have that effect on 'em.... (except for on Paul Casey maybe... :-)

Not much of a hold on Russell Knox.  IMO, he had a better than 30% chance of making the team on merit had he played Wyndham and Denmark.  But he skipped both.

Don't know if Darren has given Knox a heads-up on his picks, but skipping both events was strange if he wants to be on the team.

FWIW, Knox may have not been able to get a waiver to play Denmark.

Surprised Jon Rahm was not in this week's field, or in Switzerland next week, or in Holland in two weeks.

If Russell Knox doesn't get a pick, joining the Euro Tour may not be in Jon Rahm's future.

Edit: Ryo Ishikawa won the Japan Tournament by 5 shots this week.