PGA Tour: Another 59, in San Diego? Nah!: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The 59-shooters are going for an unlikely hat-trick this week, at the "Farmers Insurance Open", at Torrey Pines 36-hole facility outside San Diego. 3 courses on the schedule last week in the Desert, but only two at the Farmers, with golfers playing one round each at the North and South courses, then reverting to Torrey Pines South for Rounds 3 and 4. (Wonder if one year they might play 3 rounds on the "North"?)

2).In the past, the North Course has yielded the lower scores but Tom Weiskopf has been at work in a re-do of the course, switched "nines", got rid of 60 "diseased" trees and in the process opened up more ocean views, filled in some bunkers, changed others, and re-worked the green complexes. Early reports from pros who took an early peek are largely complimentary. Of course, no design is fully acceptable until Phil Mickelson, who bid to do the redesign himself, offers his seal of approval.

3).Whatever . . . . but it's unlikely the achievements of Justin Thomas and Adam Hadwin will be replicated this week, despite the appearance of wounded warriors such as Jason Day, Phil, and Tiger Woods. Day and Woods play Rounds 1 & 2 with Dustin Johnson, a grouping (or, Tourspeak, a pairing #alternativeEnglish) that raycastle has dubbed TaylorMade - in Tour heaven? The crowds will be there in their millions #alternativefacts.

4).Whoever's playing with whom, the weather should be sunny, mild (60's) and sometimes quite breezy. The Desert dodged the Pineapple Express but San Diego received a year's worth of ran (over two inches) and greens may be softer than usual, if the moisture hasn't been SubAir'ed out of them. A modestly hilly course with soft fairways, however, could make it a tougher than usual walk for recuperating invalids. viz Woods.

5).One "competitor" who may not be at his best is Padraig Harrington: "9 weeks without playing a single hole of golf. Not sure if I'd be a good bet this week." But, ever the contrarian, that could well be when Padraig is at his best.
Shane Lowry is a course specialist, in a modest sort of way with Top 15 finishes in his only two trips so far.
And Seamus Power is at it again, following a T21 last week. That brings his season's earnings to $175K, which could easily have been so much better if it hadn't been for dreadful final rounds in two previous tournaments. Regardless, he's chalked up 98 all-important FedEx points, lies 84th in the season ranking and has further advanced his "reshuffle" status.

6).We're reaching the 25% mark of "regular" season events. The Top 125 in FedEx points retain their cards, but not all GB&I Tour Members are anywhere close to the pace necessary to reach that position, some examples including:
Lowry: 140th . . . . playing this week.
McDowell: 146th . . . . in Qatar.
Donald: 174th . . . . . on holiday. Why? He's played well here in the past, arguably should have won a few years ago.
Willett: 213th
Harrington: T223rd . . . . . See above.
(All above have exemptions or exemption-options)
Poulter: 111th . . . .  in Qatar (actually Dubai next week, thanks GPB, but the story's still the same), will probably be on his way out of the Top 125 when he next tees it up in the US. Playing with fire by the looks of things.
Johnston: 189th . . . . Back after calling in sick last week; his form this week may be an indicator for his year's prospects.

7).Regardless of their work this season, Donald and Harrington will have the option, if necessary, of taking a Career earnings exemption, one if you're in the Top 50 all-time career money winners, two if your earnings are in the Top 25 all-time. This is a benefit for those of the highest quality and longest "service", and is currently being utilized by Tour members Cink (Top 25), Ogilvy, Pettersson and Van Pelt.
Europeans in the Top 50 career earners are:
8th: Garcia: $44.0M
14th: Rose: $37.4M
17th: Donald: $34.9M
18th: McIlroy: $34.5M
37th: Stenson: $25.3M
39th: Harrington: $24.5M
47th: Pettersson: $22.5M

8).Other current Tour members who've been around awhile:
71st: Casey: $18.6M
77th: Poulter: $18.1M
80th: Jacobson: $18.0M
103rd: McDowell: $14.8M . . . . and he'll be surprised to learn who's hot on his tail:
112th: Martin Laird: $14.4M

9).Laird, like Lowry, has decent history at the "Farmers" with Top 10 finishes the past two years. Others in this week's field who have excellent course records, beyond the bleeding obvious, include English, HowellIII, Leishman, Walker and last year's winner Sneeedeker.

10).Hudson Swafford would have been on my short list of players to break through for a win, but certainly not last week.
And Mr 59, Adam Hadwin, similarly must be on the very short list of next Canadian to break through. Now that 58 has become the new 59, how low can these guys go?
Aussie Rhein Gibson shot a 55 a few years ago in Oklahoma, Trevor Murphy stroked a 56 in a web.com pro-am, so how close can we be to a 57 on Tour?
Not this week, and probably not this year, but you'd have to think it can't be far away; possibly on a course where a top "ball striker" can manhandle the Par-5's and gets red hot with the putter. Dustin?

A lot of top players struggling and some sinking this week. Phil dicing with death down 18 now

8 shot differential between the leader and the cutline.

Anyone can win this.

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Checking WMPO field

Cameron Smith is the first alternate in the preliminary list. He is #2 on the Reshuffle list

Notables

Phil, Jordan, Patrick, Justin T,Bubba, Hideki, Kuchar, Brooks, Zach.

Paddy, Luke, Blixt, Cejka, Beef, Laird, Lowry, Pettersen, Rahm are the notables representing Europe.

GPB wrote:8 shot differential between the leader and the cutline.

Anyone can win this.

On the European Tour there's a 9 way tie for the lead and six shots separate those playing the weekend

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:

GPB wrote:8 shot differential between the leader and the cutline.

Anyone can win this.

On the European Tour there's a 9 way tie for the lead and six shots separate those playing the weekend

Anyone can win that . . . . . . .

Strange facts, perhaps #alternative, perhaps not:

Jason Day had FOUR 3-putts yesterday, a career worst for him in a single round.

Graeme McDowell reckoned he only hit TWO fairways in Qatar on Friday. That's not a lot.

kwinigolfer wrote:Strange facts, perhaps #alternative, perhaps not:

Jason Day had FOUR 3-putts yesterday, a career worst for him in a single round.

Graeme McDowell reckoned he only hit TWO fairways in Qatar on Friday. That's not a lot.

Think I've managed both of these in the same round!

I've had a few rounds where I've only reached two fairways . . . . . .


Meanwhile, the Muslims have all been deported from San Diego and just Christians remaining. (Not sure how you tell the two apart to be fair.)
It'll be a two-tee, three-man-group day at Torrey Pines South and it's a bit brass monkeys for the poor things first thing, temps mid/high 40's.
79 golfers made the cut so that means a second cut for the top 70 and ties this evening, the rest will be MDF's.

Early scoring looks a little better on the "South" today.

Calmer conditions; still cool but sunny and temps could reach 70, but winds also expected to blow a bit later.
Local boy, very local what with his Dad being a long-time starter at TP, Pat Perez is the first to take advantage with three early birds.

Martin Laird may be something of a course specialist but he's made it hard for himself today. Back nine of +4, plus a rescued par at the 18th after putting his approach in the drink, puts him right on the bubble at T70. Even money he makes Round 4.

Rose struggling, Casey playing nicely, probably a very bunched leaderboard going in to Round 4.

"very bunched leaderboard" is right, an intriguing mix of young'uns, grizzled vets and Olympic Gold.

Lowry survived to play Round 4 but Laird is on his way to Phoenix a day early.

I'll be interested to see how Rodgers copes with the lead; his putting yesterday was off the charts good, so doubtful he can repeat that. Would think anyone signing for -12 would win the day.

Whatever the result, great to see a true Championship Golf Course, a nice appetiser for Pebble and Riviera to come. Perfect scoring conditions likely today. Love it.

Ran across this article on Barclay Howard that was published 2 yrs ago. Thought people on this board might be interested.


https://golfbible.co.uk/2015/01/27/barclay-howard/

Thanks GPB,
For every Tiger, Phil or Ernie, there's a Howard, Westner or Christie. Or even Jim Simons.

Rahm bam thank you ma'am.

A star is born.
And talking about bjorn, hope Thomas is on the Percy Thrower to him making sure he's properly signed up.

I am sure Pelley will be getting pressured to offer Rahm a membership. And I suspect he will do it.

Great tournament for Rahm, glad I had him in my Yahoo league as I finished first this week and got me a cool $40. Climbs into the Top 50 of the OWGR.

Poor Hunner. Shoots 80 to go from inside the Top 20 to T67th.

Hunner put two balls in the water on #18.

I have a custom-built one-and-done with my prodigal son. His pick and mine were tied for 1st at 3.00 p.m., finished T9 & T20. Rahm was going to be my man next week, now I'm not so sure.

JJ Spaun, despite a top 10, is not in the WMPO next week, because the tournament is full from players in higher priority. CT Pan got the last spot (as of Sunday night) with his T2nd. JJ Spaun is first alternate

No webbies from from Cat 26 are in the tournament. There are a couple that got Sponsors invites.

JJ Spaun must be angry with himself for many reasons. His 18th hole 'spawning' cost him dear.

I wonder if he's known as "Frog" in the dressing room?

JJ Spaun seems to have the portly gene, super, sure it won't be long before you choose a more physically apropos handle for him. Difficult to believe that his partly Mexican heritage won't earn him a spot, somehow, into "Phoenix".

EDIT: Spaun has leap-frogged into the Phoenix phield.

Meanwhile, IMG has announced that Aussie hot-shot amateur Curtis Luck is turning pro after The Masters.

Nice article from golfchannel.com on Jon Rahm - the two years ago version:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/ryan-lavner/rahm-has-come-long-way-build-something-special-asu/


Interesting insight into US College Golf as much as about Rahm.

From my somewhat limited view, English as a 2nd language is not a priority in Spain as it is in other Western European Countries.

Admittedly, Seve's and Ollie's and Miguel Angel's English is MUCHO better than my Spanish.

English is a first language in some parts of Spain . . . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:English is a first language in some parts of Spain England. . . . . . . .

Fixed it.

GPB wrote:From my somewhat limited view, English as a 2nd language is not a priority in Spain as it is in other Western European Countries.

Admittedly, Seve's and Ollie's and Miguel Angel's English is MUCHO better than my Spanish.  

Didn't think English was needed in Arizona?

Pedro - It's not!

Plenty impressive stuff from Rahm. Hope his game and confidence continue to grow.

Weather should be perfect for low scoring in Phoenix this week.
Phil was unlucky not to break 60 a few years ago; imagine we get some 59 watches this time round.

Phil is in decent form it seems, so why not. And Hideki won last year and is in great form, Rahm is from ASU and Justin Thomas is back in action. Could be fun.