PGA Tour: BMW & wTF: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).A short week on the PGA Tour with 69 of the 70 FedEx Play-Off survivors (all except the injured/resting Stenson) high-tailing it from TPC Boston to Crooked Stick GC in the Indianapolis area, 900+ miles to the WSW, for action starting Thursday. Not much time to acclimate to a course most of the field has only seen once before, in 2012, if at all. Rory McIlroy was the winner then, in red hot form having won the previous week at the Deutsche Bank. Sound familiar?

2).And, at the start of a four-tournament series to determine careers (in the short-term at least), the web.com Tour Finals commence at Canterbury Golf Club, home of 2 past US Opens and a PGA Championship, in the Cleveland area of Ohio.

3).What a great win for McIlroy on Monday. Welcome back Rory, Darren Clarke is pleased to see you.
And another disappointment for Paul Casey, his sixth Tour runner-up finish against one win, gift-wrapped seven years ago in Houston by JB Holmes.
Casey's career on the PGA Tour has been a mixed bag, with two terrific years  in 2009/2010, followed by four largely barren years dominated by injuries, bad form and divorce. Now last year's comeback followed by another decent, could yet be great, year.

4).We tend to think Casey's been around forever, but most of his career has been spent piling up European Tour wins and cash.
Despite playing the PGA Tour on and off for a decade, Casey "only" ranks 82nd in career earnings. He found out the hard way a few years ago that his only enduring exemption standing on Tour is his "Past Champion" status, significant but only yielding a place in about 1/3 of tournaments; and he has only chalked up 136 cuts. Without higher career earnings, or at least another win, he wouldn't have an exemption onto the Champions Tour, in 11 years' time. He may still be an angry young man at being left behind in Ryder Cup selection since 2008, but it's quite likely that a purely pragmatic streak also played a part in his decision to focus 100% on the PGA Tour this year.

5). It's difficult to imagine that LoveIII learned much from the Deutsche Bank play, at least as far as looking for Ryder Cup contenders in sparkling form is concerned. Perhaps he might have liked Chappell (8th), Ryan Moore (8th) or Kaufman (24th) to have enjoyed a strong Monday, but they faltered, as did Furyk and Stricker who thus failed to qualify for the BMW Championship. Other "prospects" include:
Watson, Thomas, Hoffman, Horschel all missed the cut.
Bill Haas: 67th
Piercy: 53rd
Fowler, Kuchar, Kisner: 46th
Berger: 41st
Dufner, Holmes: 33rd
Not a pretty sight.
I still think he'll go for the safe (i.e. uncontroversial) choice of proven RC losers Watson, Fowler and Kuchar (who comes with popular caddie John Wood), plus JB Holmes. But the Beemer could change/confuse things again.

6).16 golfers qualified for the (10-year-old) FedEx Play-Offs for the tenth time, another 10 qualified for Round 2 for the tenth time. But, of those, Donald, HowellIII, Kuchar, Moore, Rose and Snedeker had fallen short of qualifying for Round 3 at least once, and Furyk misses out this time.
QUIZ! Which three golfers qualify for the BMW Championship for the tenth time??

7).The narrative tends to be that Rory has had a rotten season but he still ranks high in owgr points for 2016. These nine have racked up 200 owgr points so far:
384: Day
356: DJohnson
292: McIlroy
285: Stenson
261: Spieth
255: Scott
241: Reed
220: Willett
200: Walker

8).The club of three-time FedEx Play-Off tournament winners grew to two with Rory joining Tiger at the top. Two-time winners include:
Vijay, Camilo, Phil, Stricker, DJ, Billy Ho, Stenson and Day.

9).Most interesting competitor to many Europeans in the first web.com Tour Final tournament will be Andrew Johnston, especially with Beef having taken a few weeks off then bellying straight back up to the bar with last week's 3rd place finish in the Swiss Alps. We'll keep an eye on this action over the next month.

10).Pete Dye is now about 145 but Crooked Stick endures as one of his landmark designs, made famous in 1991 when John Daly gripped it and ripped his way to become PGA Champion. It took the PGA Tour until 2012 to come to the course for the first time and McIlroy made off with the Championship by two strokes from Mickelson and some guy called Westwood. Other Top 25 finishers then who return for more include:
T6: Dustin and (my idea of closest pursuer to Rory this week) Adam Scott.
T10: Ryan Moore
T12: Zach, Kirk, Bubba
T16: Rose (what happened to him yesterday?   ), Oosthuizen
T24: Sergio

PS: Three more US Ryder Cuppers due to be selected following the Beemer (which should be Sunday but not a great forecast in prospect).
Also: Nice to see Darren Clarke grouped with Stewart Cink in Switzerland - good health to the Cinks.
And: Don't forget Trivia in Note 6). above.

Point 3 seems a little harsh. Paul Casey has had access to the magnificent Pollyanna during this period. I think his putting has been off due to too much action with the short stick.

Nice work again Kwini.

Sorry mt first post on this thread is a little off topic but does anyone know what exemptions winning or medaling in the Olympics gets you? I am sure we must have discussed this but it occurred to me that it would be a nice touch if the players on podium got into all the majors until the next Olympics.


Anyway back to this week. Surprised to see Gmac(45) ahead of Rose(50) in the Fedex standings. Both need an ok week to progress.

Rose needs a win in the last two events to keep up his run of winning every year on the PGAT since 2010. More evidence that he is clearly the best English player of his generation.

Cheers Mac,
Doesn't the Gold Medal winner get an exemption into 2017 Majors? Not that he needs it, and I don't think there's any freebies for the podium.

McDowell has won and has three other Top 6 finishes - crappy recently though. Rose has just one Top 5, a 3rd @ Q.Hollow, and now he needs something like a 3rd place finish to be sure of moving on. (McDool needs a 5th or 6th.)

Rose's US Open win trumps all but imagine arguments would be made about Donald & Westwood. I always thought Casey was the most physically gifted but not borne out in results.

I know G-mac won but I would just have expected Rose to slowly rack up more points than he has this year. His putting woes possibly holding him back this year.


CH3 always intrigues me. Always seems to be in the top 50 or better in the money list but never seems to contend or do anything out of the ordinary. I wonder what has stopped him from having even a limited run at the higher echelons of the game?

Mac,
It's one of the mysteries of the modern game - all I would say is that he certainly has never had an elite short game and some years his putting stats are downright horrible.
However, he seems a god guy, have always enjoyed following him and the no laying up podcast I linked a few weeks ago is extremely interesting.

One of my all-time favourite pieces of TV commentary came at New Orleans a few years ago when Chuckie was in contention and was playing a shortish par-four. Charlie laid up, to which Peter Kostis observed:
"I don't understand that at all. You should play to your strengths, which in Howell's case is long, straight driving. He's laid up to his weakness."
Sure enough, poor wedge, lousy chip, two putt bogey.

They were saying on the commentary at the weekend that CHIII has had 2 career wins, 1 career top 10 in a major and yet has amassed winnings of $30m. Amazing really

All true!
2 wins, 14 runners up, 9 3rd's. Has made at least $1.25M for each of the past 16 seasons. And, until this past month, has remained healthy and fit pretty much thru'out.

Lefty, Bubba and Hoffman have qualified for the BEEMER all 10 years of the FEX Playoffs

FWIW: Garcia and Mahan have also qualified for the BEEMER nine times, but they have not qualified for the D-Bank 10 times, Garcia missing out in 2010 and Mahan this year.

Here are the golfers that have qualified for the BEEMER at least 7 times

10 Phil Mickelson Bubba Watson Charley Hoffman

9 Brandt Snedeker Ryan Moore Sergio Garcia Zach Johnson Hunter Mahan Jim Furyk

8 Dustin Johnson Adam Scott Matt Kuchar Bill Haas Justin Rose Ernie Els

7 Jason Day Rickie Fowler J.B. Holmes Luke Donald Marc Leishman Nick Watney John Senden Steve Stricker Geoff Ogilvy Rory Sabbatini

Very good GPB, Amazing consistency from Charley Hoffman, all pretty much under the radar.
Those guys can certainly see which way their pensions are going. Up!

Here is some Tour Championship numbers

Players that have qualified for the Tour Championship at least 5 times in the FEX era


8 Hunter Mahan, Jim Furyk

7 Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose

6 Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar

5 Bubba Watson, Brandt Snedeker, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Luke Donald, Nick Watney, Tiger Woods, Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Day

4 Bill Haas, John Senden, Jason Dufner, Kevin Na, K.J. Choi

Mickelson, Dustin are guaranteed to tie Mahan and Furyk with 8 appearances.
Adam, Sneds are also guaranteed to add to their total
Na, Dufner, Kuch, Sergio, Bubba are in position to add to their total

Dustin has qualified for the Tour Championship each of the last 7 years (but did not play two years ago) and guaranteed to make it 8 in a row.

Kuchar's streak of 6 in a row is vulnerable (#28 going into this week).

Rose's streak of 5 in a row is in serious jeopardy.  (FEX #50 ) as is Zach's (FEX #56) 4 yrs in a row streak.

Day and Spieth streaks of 3 years in a row are not in jeopardy.

Great to see Tiger announce his return for next month! Barring setbacks

Maybe DL-III will pick Tiger as a wildcard!

Fry's, Turkey, his tournament. Fry's get Phil & Tiger, hitting the jackpot! EDIT: Fry's now the Safeway, groceries for the Woods household.

And imagine "Turkey" will help his cashflow.

When the alert popped up on my phone and all I could see was "Breaking News: Tiger woods announces" I thought he had decided to retire. Actually a little surprised that he is back.

Anyone want to wager at which of these upcoming 3 events Tiger gets injured in?

Shotrock wrote:Anyone want to wager at which of these upcoming 3 events Tiger gets injured in?

I'll go for Turkey, because I will have friends out there helping with the TV presentation. Just their luck.
Because I like to see records broken, I would like to see him come back to full form and win a few more tournaments and majors. At the moment Jack is still No 1.

By the original rules of the World Challenge, the HWC should not get OWGR points. It was suppose to have all its players from the OWGR Top 50.

Got an exemption last year, must be permanent this time.

GPB wrote:By the original rules of the World Challenge, the HWC should not get OWGR points.  It was suppose to have all its players from the OWGR Top 50.

Got an exemption last year, must be permanent this time.

Last year HWC asked the OWGR and was granted a waiver to the "All invitees must be top-50 if available" rule. The criteria that gets Tiger in reads: "Two sponsor exemptions, restricted to players ranked among the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking as of September 28, 2015, or the tournament host if not otherwise eligible.". And not all unusual. NedBank kept a sponsor exemption in when it got OWGR rating... and even the Arnold Palmer has special criteria for the "tournament host". (although Palmer in the API was an addition to the field while the Tiger exemption for the HWC is not)

So long as Jim Justice doesn't get one at Greenbrier . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:So long as Jim Justice doesn't get one at Greenbrier . . . . . .

LOL... but you can bet if things go according to plan with Phil becoming permanent host of the old "Hope"... he'll have the Arnold Palmer like exemption forever as well...

Re: Arnold Palmer

I thought Unrestricted Sponsors Invites were "Unrestricted"

He is Tiger woods, who cares about the rules.  If he wants to play, he plays.

You know which event sponsor really wants Tiger to play?

Everyone of them.

GPB wrote:Re: Arnold Palmer

I thought Unrestricted Sponsors Invites were "Unrestricted"

They are... but in Palmer's case they wanted him to be able to play Bay Hill whenever he wanted, but knowing he'd not be competitive they didn't want to use up a spot in an already limited field.  So they added Palmer as the 121st player when he used that exemption in the later years.

Shotrock wrote:You know which event sponsor really wants Tiger to play?

Everyone of them.

Absolutely NO DOUBT on that one...

Kwini.... just gotta say tour weekly "preambles" are about as good or better as anything out there. Always something new with some solid different takes on things.... Well done... as usual...

robo,
Sorry mate, I'm not with you. Which "preambles"? Does the GC actually have something worth watching??

I mean your weekly write-up thread starters...

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Sorry mate, I'm not with you. Which "preambles"? Does the GC actually have something worth watching??

I think he is talking about your opening posts in these weekly topics.

and I agree, they are well done.

pre·am·ble
ˈprēˌambəl/
noun
a preliminary or preparatory statement; an introduction.
"what she said was by way of a preamble"

Kwini knows how to take a compliment.

Look out Bahamas. Beef wants Fowler, Spieth and company to invite him to #SB2K17.

#TSUNAMI-WARNING

https://twitter.com/WebDotComTour/status/773577933860528128

If the Spieth and co tried to keep up with Beef they would come a cropper.

Sorry robo,
I was out of it, deep in Andy Murray's funk. I know how to take a compliment

kwinigolfer wrote:Sorry robo,
I was out of it, deep in Andy Murray's funk.

karma for swatting that yellow butterfly.

Not a great forecast for the Beemer in Indianapolis, 80% chance of thunderstorms Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all cleared out for a lovely day on Sunday.
We'll see about that, but a little bit surprised they haven't rescheduled Thursday tee-times for an hour or so earlier.

Luke Donald sent out a tweet trying to persuade Tiger to play the British Masters. Reminding Tiger that he played quite well in his last time out at the Grove. Although not sure if they could afford the appearance fee.

Mac,
That's all pretty academic now as both tournaments are the same weekend and Woods has already declared for Safeway's groceries.

Balls in the air this morning just after 10.00 a.m. CDT, 4.00 p.m.-ish in Edinburgh.

EDIT: They're underway in the wTF tournament outside Cleveland - these have made for good viewing over the past few years, looking forward to more of the same.

Kwini, I think Donald was just kidding.

Are we going to have to endure tedious Daly anecdotes all week?

"Beef" is the co-favorite with Wesley Bryan in the WTF tournament at 18-1.

Hope he does better than Marcel Siem did last year. Three Missed Cuts and an early WD in the fourth tournament.

Is Beef going to play all 4 events?

Besides Canterbury Golf Club, has any other former Major Championship venue ever hosted a Web-com (or equivalent) tournament?

I think Beef is scheduled to play the first three WTF events.

That is quite a big commitment. GPB, what do you think the reasoning is behind Beef playing the WTF's instead of trying the usual route of earning the equivalent to top 125?

"...what do you think the reasoning is behind Beef playing the WTF's instead of trying the usual route of earning the equivalent to top 125?..."

1. Beef is not in the Top 50, and therefore a long way from getting exempt into the WGC and Majors.

2. And there is nothing that would prevent him from going the Top 125 route (through sponsors invites) if he fails to get his PGATour Card.

3. And success through the WTF would give him immediate access to the PGATour for the 2016-17 season (and the 2017 FEX playoffs).

Great answer GPB. IMO if Beef can somehow get his card AND he commits to the PGAT as his primary Tour he has a chance if being at least moderately successful here. But unless that success also equates to top-50 so he's qualified for all, or at least most of the co-sanctions, then it's the next season and new Ryder Cup qualification cycle that'll be a problem for him.

But if he can get any level Webbie status here, even 50th on the Webbie priority.... He's gonna get a ton of extra starts via sponsor exemptions.

If Beef has a top result in week 1, he could skip the rest of the events if he chose and still have earned his card.
But he may wish to play as much as he can to cement his "reshuffle" ranking of webbies.
'Course, he may miss all four cuts too.

He'd taken quite a break before Crans so he should be fresh and ready to go.

GPB,
I'm racking my brains regarding Major Champ courses, nothing so far.

As nice as it would be for Beef to play the co-sanctioned events, its really no longer a problem if he is not qualified for the WGCs and Majors.

All Beef has to do is play 5 non-co-sanctioned Euro Events in 2017 to retain his card through the 2018 season. The Open de Espana had a 2 Million Euro purse so IIRC, that gets him a two year exemption.

And who knows what tournament Keith Pelley will designate as a "special" event and give it the equivalent of two tournaments entered.

Thanks GPB, and kwini. All that seems to make sense. He just has to avoid screwing up double dipping.

The radar around Indianapolis is very busy, still puzzled as to why they didn't go with earlier tee-times.
Not a promising forecast for the next couple of days either. But Sunday and Monday look sweet!