PGA Tour: The Florida / Mexico / Florida, Florida Swing: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The traditional Florida / Texas countdown to Augusta will take a detour for a few years as the Tour was unable to find the sponsor necessary to share double-billing with Doral's owner and keep it on the Florida Swing schedule. It seems the WGC was, essentially, bought by Mexico. Unintended consequences, and now ironic in the extreme. (Better not go there.)

2).There was some speculation when "WGC-Mexico" was announced that the field for "Honda" would be affected, but it's still pretty strong; certainly the Mexican diversion is not the reason for Rory's absence, but the other five members of the owgr Top Six who have separated themselves from the rest are absentees, and the strength of field is the least strong it's been since Rors won in 2012.
Without Doral, the road to The Masters looks like this:
Honda, Mexico, Valspar/Innisbrook, Bay Hill, WGC-Matchplay, Houston, The Masters.

3).Good news coming from the sponsor this week is the renewal of their contract to play "The Honda Classic" at PGA National thru' 2021, which will be the 40th "renewal" of one of the Tour's longest running sponsorships.
This tournament is far better known as "the Honda" than by any other name, something the sponsor has earned, you'd think, by sticking with its South Florida commitment through thick and a lot of thin.
For me, as a European just starting to double-dip, one of its predecessors, the "Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic" is the first non-Major US event I can remember sitting down to watch, glued to the screen as Jack Nicklaus rattled off birdies on the five closing holes to squeak by a shell-shocked Grier Jones. The only Tour events Jones won after that were as a caddie for Gibby Gilbert on the Senior Tour.

4).The Honda has been as generous to non-Americans as any event on Tour, with only 3 x US wins (Mark Wilson, Michael Thompson & Russell Henley) in the past twelve runnings. Not surprising Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson are not playing this week.

5).Cunning segue to Dustin who looked a good bet going in to Riviera and certainly proved it by dominating pretty much throughout. And now he's Number One in the world and, seemingly anyway, couldn't care less; probably the best recipe for staying there for a while. He's got to be on any short list for Augusta, will probably disappear for a few weeks, then defends his title at the US Open at Wisconsin's Erin Hills, where no-one in the tournament will have competed as a Pro.
DJ deposed Jason Day who seems to feel much more competitive about earning a quick return to #1: "If I could stay there for ten years I would." Whereas DJ just wants to win and have fun, and not necessarily in that order.

6).I love watching golf at Riviera, definitely on my bucket list to watch a tournament at; and the pros seem to feel the same way despite the drenching the course took and disruption to the schedule.
Royal St.George's got more than it's share of lousy weather for the 2011 Open Championship; I love the Pete Cowen quote from a recent Golf Digest about joining Darren Clarke on the range two days before the start:
PC: "Are you all right, Darren?"
DC: "No, I'm f*cking not. I can't hit the ball. I'm wasting my time. I might as well go home."
PC: "Look, the weather is going to be terrible, and you're the best bad-weather player in the world. Why would you think you've got no chance? Let's have a look at you."
After watching Clarke hit balls briefly, Cowen gave him one thing to think about. Within two hours his demeanour had changed completely.
DC: "Watch me hit this stinger . . . . . . watch me hit this high draw."
Cowen: It was an incredible display of shot-making.
PC: "Are you OK now?"
DC: "Yeah, but I still can't f*cking putt."

7).Darren will be hoping for galeforce winds and teeming rain in 2020 then as RSG gets The Open again.
2017: Birkdale
2018: Carnoustie
2019: Portrush
2020: RSG
2021: St.Andrews presumably.

8).Happy 50th Birthday on Thursday to Steve Stricker, about the most unassuming top golfer we're likely to have watched for the past 25 years.
Stricker will go down among the very few (Verplank, Westwood, one or two others) to have suffered a Duval-like slump in form and return better than ever to tell the tale.
After struggling to earn $1M in 2003 thru 2005 combined, and having lost his Tour card, Stricker was rewarded for his loyalty to the Houston Open with a sponsor's invitation in 2006, finished 3rd, qualified for Winged Foot and followed his 6th place result there with a runner-up at TPC Avenel and went on to bank $30M the next seven seasons. Two seasons as "Comeback Player of the Year" were enough to see the award retired.

9).Let's get back in to the Honda: There's a strong European entry: Pieters, Molinari, Hatton, McDowell, Casey, Fitzpatrick, Willett, Rafa, Kjeldsen, Sergio, Knox, Kaymer . . . . and the returns of Poulter, (and Freddie Jac following his detention for suspicion of terroristic behaviour in Sweden).
Past winner Luke Donald is here, as is Padraig Harrington, twice the Honda Champion - and he's apparently satisfied with the tinkering of his swing, now debating whether or not to tinker with his body and have neck surgery. (Tip: Don't use Woods's surgeon if he applies for the job.)

10).After the classic challenge of Riviera, puligny contrasted the course with the water park golf to follow.
(And the Gil Hanse owner-inspired re-do of Doral, ripping up the Dick Wilson original which was playable whatever the weather, made it almost unplayable in strong winds, and may have been a contributory factor in taking the WGC across the border.) PGA National is the most unforgiving course for a hacker (viz me) that I've played, and I spent the last few holes wishing I was at Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach instead.
Who knows who'll win, following Adam Scott's battle with Sergio last year. Either could be a good bet, but Russell Knox has the best recent course form of any British golfer and might be worth an each way investment.

Just saw this slow mo of Ricky hitting driver. Wow, didn't realise he had such a powerful swing.

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/835708597501739008


"pound for pound" the second longest player on tour. Butch has really transformed his swing over the last few seasons.

Jason Day withdraws from the WGC-Mexico with ear infection and flu

SHOCKER!!!

Good start for Soren Kjeldsen, keep it going. He's in "Mexico" next week, and The Masters of course, so the next couple of months are crucial for him.

Poulter teeing off about now with Adam Scott. Don't know whether or not they're good mates, but this is an important round for Poults and hopefully Adam can inspire him.
This is the 5th event out of 10 (EDIT: Not well worded and I don't want to be assailed by the grammar gestapo: Poults has a total of 10 x events on his Medical freebie, of which this is the 5th. Five more to go, but time is running out.) that Poulter has left on his Medical Extension and he has $220K (or 154 FedEx pts) to earn to fulfil the requirements and a good round today will go a long way. Currently T39 after Round 3 and that's only about $25K or 30-ish FedEx pts; a 20th place result would earn him about $65K and about 45 FedEx pts, a substantial difference, but that's what he's up against.
And Poults is not in any Majors or WGC's.

Good scoop on "Sick-Note Day", GPB, is he skipping news conferences as well? He has title defences coming up in Orlando and Austin, wonder whether he'll get well for them?

Jason day wants to get his CD4 count checked.

Matt Fitzpatrick's group is two holes behind the group in front.

The Group in front includes Ben Crane.

Looks like Crane's group is going to finish in 3.5 hours.

Crane must be in a rush to get to Church, extra tithes for him playing on a Sunday.

Same old jokes never fails being! Its just like my little 7 yr old nephew telling me the same knock-knock joke over and over again. I can't get enough of it.

Even bad comedians get new material.

Fitzpatrick is usually a fast player; don't know about Kizzire. All done now, so about 3 hrs 35 minutes. There'll be plenty longer than that.
Perhaps Mark Russell sent a rocket up Crane's arse, told him not to hold up the action.

Poulter needs some birdies . . . . . .

Ok Poults, just don't hit it in the water

He did well to limit it to one dropped shot, great up and down from the DZ.

64 for Vegas, 65 for Watney - the scores are out there.
But Poults is not cashing in, and nor, so far, is Luke.

Chances missed for Poulter; hopefully he'll take more from the first round 66 than the average stuff that followed.
Can't see anyone beating Rickie, no-one getting close enough to make it interesting.

Did anyone here the guy in the crowd shout "a Lanister always pays his debts" at Hatton?

Sad start from Hatton though, clearly not in the right frame of mind to cope with being in the final group.

Fowler may just have made this a bit more interesting - wonder if he's "in the right frame of mind to cope with being in the final group?"
Plenty of time for Hatton to get his sh1t together, seems the scores are creeping up.

One of the 8 or 9 under-pars needs to come out and make this more interesting; no complaints with Rickie, but would like some real competition.

And what's with all the brown splodges on the greens - can't be winterkill, surely?

Dull....

Not quite sure of the final stats, but Rickie reportedly had holed 120ft of putts after 14 holes, more than anyone else made after 18, plus 57 (maybe 58) out of 57 (maybe 58) putts made from 7 feet and in.
No doubt the richly deserving winner, but he'll hit the ball better and be lucky to make the top ten.

Shame no-one made a run, could have had some fireworks, but "dull" is right, just a damp squib.

EDIT: Strange that, apart from Vegas's 64, Watney's 65, no-one shot better than -2, Kjeldsen and some others.

As of right now, looks like 77 players next week

We started today at 75 players, lost J-Day and gained 3 via the Top 10 FEX.

Steele, Perez, and Hughes.

Last year, there was only 66 players.

Probably the impact of NAFTA . . . . . . . .

Of all the putting "anchorers" Steele has rebounded so well that it makes one wonder why he ever stuck his putter in his chest in the first place. Must feel strange that he's the one going to prestigious events and his best mate Keegs stays behind.

Disappointed that CHIII was the one to miss out.

Interesting that Billy Horschel had stated that he wouldn't play in Mexico even if he had qualified - which he was within a badly misplayed shot on #18 of having a strong chance to do.

Complaining about security in Mexico, he added "a lot of guys don't want to go to China; I didn't want to go to Mexico."

He has something of a point with Champions Tour players having been robbed at a restaurant in Mexico during a Senior event a few years ago. No such thing, so far, in China.

Course, he could have been safer in Mexico City than in Miami . . . . . . . . .

I thought Allenby was robbed in the USA? Shouldn't the players be avoiding it based on that logic?

Something proportionate there, Mac, can't quite put my finger on it.
Let's see: Number of tournaments x number of players x number of years the Tour's been going.
Compared to a couple of limited-field events.

Allenby was seriously injured in a car crash in Espana but, again, think of the odds.

Allenby was being drunk and stupid in a t*tty bar in a bad part of Honolulu.

That's a recipe for dynamite.

kwinigolfer wrote:Disappointed that CHIII was the one to miss out.

CH-III spends a lot of time near the OWGR-Top 50 bubble, or WGC bubbles. Mostly on the wrong side of the bubble.

Yup, But no-one wants to play The Masters more.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
And he's on the bubble for Austin, too.

kwinigolfer wrote:Allenby was seriously injured in a car crash in Espana but, again, think of the odds.

With Allenby, who knows?

Good stuff from Fowler - no panic when he played a poor shot, just held his nerve and deserved the comfortable win. He's playing like a top 10 golfer not a wannabe top 10 golfer.

And good stuff from Hatton too - failed to mount a serious challenge on day 4 but surely this is the start of a good career after his breakthrough 2016. I expect his progress to bloom for longer than the rose of House Tyrell. He has a nice high ball flight and he's named after a bag of crisps - so he's ideally suited to compete in the US.

Anyone know anything about next week's course in Mexico? Struggling to find any info at all on it... So far all I have is a suspiciously short scorecard; some photos of tight holes with a lot of trees; and Jay Haas winning the Mexican Open there years ago.

Agree with you Ray. Johnny Miller was critical of him at the end in that he did not "win like a champion". Nonsense. He did exactly what he needed: Win. The. Event.

Plenty of strong winners in 2017 as the storm clouds gather for the first Major of the year. I look forward to Rory's return this week.

Johnny Miller is becoming increasingly obsessed with his perceived notion that no one is as good as he was. I saw Rory hit back at him on twitter after he laid into Rickie.

NedB-H wrote:Anyone know anything about next week's course in Mexico? Struggling to find any info at all on it... So far all I have is a suspiciously short scorecard; some photos of tight holes with a lot of trees; and Jay Haas winning the Mexican Open there years ago.

Let's hope players won't hit the wall.

WGC-Mexico course: Can't find anything worthwhile, Ned, just a hole-by-hole account that, as you say, makes it to be a pretty short track, especially as it appears to be a Par-71 at an altitude of 7,500 feet.

An article in the "Mexico News Daily" yesterday laments the air quality there: "Breathing the air in Mexico City was the equivalent of smoking 40 cigarettes a day on the 212 days last year when the air quality was bad." Maybe Jason Day didn't fancy all those Gauloises clogging up his lungs?

Johnny Miller's an idiot.

(Shotrock, Balls were flying at Hidden Valley last Saturday, and probably thru the weekend - decent air quality too.)

NedB-H wrote:Anyone know anything about next week's course in Mexico? Struggling to find any info at all on it... So far all I have is a suspiciously short scorecard; some photos of tight holes with a lot of trees; and Jay Haas winning the Mexican Open there years ago.

Is THIS the bit you have seen?

The PGA Tour site has a short hole by hole guide. The 1st looks interesting.... 316 yard downhill par 4.

The trusty top 100 golf courses website has a short history of the course but no reviews, unusual for a course that's been around since 1921. This indicates to me that either it doesn't welcome visitors or it isn't very good:
http://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/chapultepec

If you want to find the golf course on google earth here are the coordinates.

19°26'00.79" N 99°14'19.50" W

Course is heavily tree-lined

It's a shame but a former poster on here would have almost certainly played the course and been able to give us a detailed review of his heroic exploits.

But you guys decided to ban poor Maverick...

Chat from the Golf Channel about what to do at the Honda's 17th hole, increasingly a party hole trying, vainly, to match the Phoenix 16th.
Billy Horschel at the forefront of the complainers. Quite right too. I like BillyHo, invariably at the front of the queue when something needs saying . . . . . and sometimes when it doesn't.

I often hear that players scout out major venues in advance, especially if they've not played there before. A lot of pros made a trip to Chambers Bay before the US Open, even though it is a long way off the beaten track. Do you think anyone has done the same for Chapultepec?

Not a major, but a WGC is the next rung down and there is a lot of cash up for grabs. Course knowledge could give you a distinct advantage when nobody else in the field has ever played it. And the altitude is surely going to have a big impact on the distance the ball flies, and amount it spins.

I would imagine that even if they don't go before hand then they will at least have practice rounds and also walk the course before playing. The caddie will be out there doing a ton of work beforehand. Hardly anyone turns up blind to these things.

I'm sure they're all out there having practice rounds this week. I'm talking about visiting in advance, e.g in the off season. Due to the altitude club selection will be more challenging, I'm sure a lot of players are even tweaking their drivers, for example, to get optimum launch conditions.

Indeed, but this venue isn't unique in being at altitude, this might be one of the highest, but many weeks of the season this will be a consideration.

Ray

I bet none of the players came on a scouting mission to Chapultepec.

Why Mac? You think they're all Trumpites who are racist and wouldn't go there unless they're getting paid?

kwini

Were you not a little irked by Billy Ho peddling the tired stereotypes about mexico that go down well at Trump rallies?

super_realist wrote:Why Mac? You think they're all Trumpites who are racist and wouldn't go there unless they're getting paid?

Super, I doubt any pro plays a practice round in advance at any non major venue. Ever. They are apparently on a tight schedule as it is.

Mac,
Not at all. Mexico City has a poor record of security during the few Tour tournaments it's hosted.

The Seniors soon stopped going there after six of them were robbed at gunpoint (to Walter Hall's head) a few years ago, not surprising stories like that leave a lingering sense of insecurity among the next (but one) generation to visit. It's not exactly Mayakoba after all.

Nothing to do with presidential bombast, though you're going to see more of that trotted out tonight.

What makes you think that?
They don't play every week, and if there was a competition some player really wanted to win, why wouldn't they go there?
You think no one goes and plays Sawgrass or Wentworth before the competition?

I've seen Pro's at St.Andrews prior to the Dunhill. Doesn't that count?

super_realist wrote:
I've seen Pro's at St.Andrews prior to the Dunhill. Doesn't that count?

Not sure Super. I will wait until some of the more knowledgeable posters chip in on this before altering my opinion on whether or not pro's play practice rounds at non major venues well in advance of the event.

kwinigolfer wrote:six of them were robbed at gunpoint (to Walter Hall's head) a few years ago

Sounds like a bit of a one off. Where would we travel to if we avoided all locations where a robbery had taken place?

Not Chicago.