PGA Tour: Damn The Torpedoes: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Even The Losers . . . . .
from last Tour season, which ended just ten days ago, get to play this week's Safeway Open. Well, most of them anyway; certainly all the qualifiers from the web.com season are eligible, as well as some old lags from the "Past Champion" category of player eligibility. The winner is forecast to earn 24 or 26 owgr points, just about as weak a full field as we're likely to get. Too bad as they'll have fantastic late summer weather in California's Napa Valley and play on Johnny Miller's Silverado resort's North course. Recent Open winners Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson are there but precious few other "notables".

2).Runaway Train . . . . .
That's what the US Presidents Cup Team looked like last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. US media seems to think that's a splendid building block for future "Cup" success. Mebbe, mebbe not. Nothing wrong with fighting through a little adversity - though not as much as the Internationals inflicted upon themselves. Anyway, tough to argue with the successes of US Foursomes & Fourball teams and they certainly think they've found something. We'll see.

3).I Won't Back Down . . . . .
Take me up to the gates of hell, but this US Presidents Cup Team is suggesting that they won't back down.
This is Daniel Berger's take on the whole thing:
"Our goal from the minute we got here was to crush them (International Team, presumably) as bad as we can. I hope that we close them out today and we go out there tomorrow and beat them even worse."
Hope Thomas Bjorn is paying attention.
(Perhaps Berger is miffed that the US Davis Cup team that his old man worked on a couple of years ago got duffed up in Glasgow?)
Nice response from Tweeter Alliss: "Quite lively by young Berger, proving it's a gentleman's game and you can sympathise with your opponents."

4).Refugee . . . . .
Jhonathan Vegas needs to mind his p's and q's if he wants to continue to travel freely between his Venezuelan home and his US Tour career. He mostly came up short at the Presidents Cup but I didn't see any International embrace the occasion as heartily as Jhonny did. Good for him, but watch yourself coming and going now your country is on the White House's black list.

5).Don't Come Around Here No More . . . . .
Several golfers whose names we recognise during increasingly rare incursions to Tour leaderboards lost their full exempt status following last week's Tour Championship. Some have conditional membership or other avenues but they certainly won't be able to plan a full schedule: Crane, Ricky Barnes, Spencer Levin, Ishikawa, Zac Blair, Summerhays, Johnson Wagner, David Hearn, Ken Duke, Gonzo among them.

6).You Don't Know How It Feels . . . . .
Patrick Can'tLay finished 2017 with a succession of strong finishes and you'd think that he'll be a regular contender in 2018, if only he can stay fit. A bit of a callow youth, but one hell of a golf game and arithmetically sure to rocket up the owgr's. Smile Pat, it's not that bad.

7).It's Good To Be King . . . . .
Or at least his grandson, as Sam Saunders regained his Tour card - pretty much wrapping it up with an opening 59 at the WTF. He's had a lifetime of Tour chances, which he readily acknowledges, but also a lifetime of heavy expectations. It seems he's improved his consistency this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win.

8).Running Down A Dream . . . . .
Ireland's Seamus Power came to PGA Tour membership last year with few expectations, from others anyway, but quickly belied that with a couple of excellent 54-hole performances which he annihilated with dreadful fourth rounds. Fast forward to last week and he scraped through 50th of 50 qualifiers for this year's Tour. Unless he can turn those early season 54-hole efforts into 72-hole contention, he'll stayed towards the bottom of the "reshuffle" category and see his opportunities few and far between. A fast start this week would go a long way.

9).Free Fallin' . . . . .
The steepest descents by owgr Top 50 & 100 Tour golfers in 2017 have been by:
"A" Flight - from Top 50:
80 places: Furyk
56: Willett
49: Piercy
47: Bubba Watson
43: Knox

"B" Flight - from Top 100:
198 places: Patton Kizzire
177: Gamez (EDIT: s/b Fabian Gomez)
135: Ishikawa
96: Castro
88: Harris English (what on earth has become of him?)

10).Stop Draggin' My Heart Around . . . . .
Sadly, it looks as if two-time heart transplant patient Erik Compton's career could be at an end. He had suggested last year that he'd retire, but has competed unsuccessfully on the web.com circuit this year. One of golf's feelgood stories could be at an end.

The ballwasher is running dry so this thread will have to suffice for the Asian tournaments also. More of this rubbish in a fortnight.

GPB wrote:In cased you missed it, Golf Digest did a feature on Mickey Wright.

With all due respect to Annika, Kathy Whitworth, and Babe Zaharias, I believe Mickey was the best female golfer of all time.  She has rarely done interviews since she retired from golf in 1969 with 81 LPGA wins at age 34.  She added another win in 1973.

Ben Hogan said that Mickey had the best swing he ever saw, man or woman.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/we-finally-got-mickey-wright

Joyce Wethered received a similar compliment from Bobby jones.   I'd never heard of her until I was visiting a NT property years ago, somewhere in Devon I think.  It had been her home and they had a fascinating display in one room devoted to her golf accomplishments.

Web.com'er and occasional PGAT player Kyle Thompson has come out with one of the most overt endorsements of Trump from a golfer I have seen.

Kyle Thompson wrote:@KyleThompsonPGA  
Enjoy your dinner tonight here in Greenville @realDonaldTrump & I look forward to discussing term limits over our morning round of golf!

https://twitter.com/KyleThompsonPGA/status/920027066023768064

Don’t think it’s particularly overt.

Golf channel just tweeted that Tiger's agent says Tiger has not experienced any pain in his comeback

Ok, didn't Tiger claim to be pain free before his Sleep Driving incident?

https://twitter.com/GolfChannel/status/920258268232077312

Roller_Coaster wrote:Tiny wee spindly legs. More mayfly than tiger.

A shanker?

GPB wrote:Golf channel just tweeted that Tiger's agent says Tiger has not experienced any pain in his comeback

Ok, didn't Tiger claim to be pain free before his Sleep Driving incident?

https://twitter.com/GolfChannel/status/920258268232077312

Anyone fancy a sweep as to what day/month Woods states he requires "more reps"?

GPB

The amount of pain meds he takes it would be surprising if he could feel anything.

More importantly can he break 75?

His swing doesn't look all that balanced, and it doesn't look all that powerful, so I would think that he's got no chance of a decent return (at present).
I'm sure the bandwagon will get on to an Augusta return, but I'd expect he'll be probably finish marginally ahead of Woosnam, Lyle and Willett.

super_realist wrote:His swing doesn't look all that balanced, and it doesn't look all that powerful, so I would think that he's got no chance of a decent return (at present).
I'm sure the bandwagon will get on to an Augusta return, but I'd expect he'll be probably finish marginally ahead of Woosnam, Lyle and Willett.

Chuckled at that.

Roller_Coaster wrote:

super_realist wrote:His swing doesn't look all that balanced, and it doesn't look all that powerful, so I would think that he's got no chance of a decent return (at present).
I'm sure the bandwagon will get on to an Augusta return, but I'd expect he'll be probably finish marginally ahead of Woosnam, Lyle and Willett.

Chuckled at that.

+1

Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

Isn’t Noren solely a ET player?

Took PGA Tour membership this season, with Hatton, Fitzpatrick, Pieters and Fisher

NedB-H wrote:Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

It might have been that he was too late with the request, and all the S.E.'s had been given out.

Ernie Els was a S.E. and he was a late WD. Seung Yul Noh got the exemption.

BTW, it was noted in the US Broadcast that SYN will be entering the Korean Military in a few weeks. Same situation as Sang Moon Bae.

NedB-H wrote:Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

Ryan Ruffels shares the same agent as Jason Day. Coincidentally, Jason Day is probably the biggest name in the field in Korea this week (with Justin Thomas).

A win or solo 2nd from Justin Thomas will move him into the #3 slot in the OWGR. It will be the first time since May 2010 that three Americans were #1, #2, and #3.

Woods Mickelson Furyk?

NedB-H wrote:Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

It was a long time ago, and carries no "standing", but think McDowell was a previous course winner. Hasn't done him much good so far. And a reminder to Noren that, quite rightly, the PGA Tour does you no favours unless it thinks you have fan/sponsor appeal.
Can't understand why Ruffels has had such a charmed life so far with sponsor invitations.

NedB-H wrote:Woods Mickelson Furyk?

Woods Mickelson Stricker

kwinigolfer wrote:

NedB-H wrote:Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

It was a long time ago, and carries no "standing", but think McDowell was a previous course winner. Hasn't done him much good so far. And a reminder to Noren that, quite rightly, the PGA Tour does you no favours unless it thinks you have fan/sponsor appeal.
Can't understand why Ruffels has had such a charmed life so far with sponsor invitations.

Robo tells me that Ruffels' (and Day's) agent is Bud Martin of the Wasserman group (a Powerful agency). Noren's agents is an obscure agency with not much pull. and Robo also said that Noren had registered on Aug 30, Ruffels not until Sep 21.

Poults 4th alternate for the HSBC-Champions. Now there's a tournament he'd LOVE to play, for a whole variety of reasons.

Surprising, sort of, that Spieth, Thomas, Fowler and Garcia are among a host of no-shows.

12 no shows in the Top 50.

2 Jordan Spieth
4 Justin Thomas
6 Rory McIlroy
7 Rickie Fowler
11 Sergio Garcia
24 Charley Hoffman
26 Kevin Kisner
28 Kevin Chappell
36 Jason Dufner
37 Yuta Ikeda
43 Brandt Snedeker
49 Gary Woodland

Unfortunately, that fits a stereotype.
Some puzzlers though, given the fields for Malaysia & Korea.

I got HSBC at a solid OWGR-66 right now. Thomas winning this week (or finishing solo 2nd) will make it a vulnerable OWGR-66. Just one key WD, and it will go down to OWGR-64.

Most likely this will be the highest SoF tournament until Los Angeles in late February.

Thanks for the rundown of no-shows GPB. Would speculate only Rors & Sneds due to health reasons.

Eagle on the final hole earns Bernhard Langer another Champions Tour win.
His Champers career earnings of approx $24.2M would place him about 46th on the PGA Tour career earnings list.
His granite-like visage is beginning to look as if he should be on Mount Rushmore, but his performance against guys 10 years younger than him is extraordinary.
Phillip Price will have to return to Q-School if he wishes to continue his American adventure.

Langer a poster child for mental toughness and taking care of himself. Incredibly impressive stuff. At the Senior PGA Championship at Philly Cricket (couple years ago) I can recall how he needed a par to win ... dumps his approach in greenside bunker ... and then proceeds to execute a very difficult up and down.

Sr,
Did you see Derek Bard gets a start at this week's Sanderson Farms stop in Mississippi?
He's comfortably into Stage 2 of web.com Q-School also, Gavin Hall too.

Thanks for the heads up ... Go Bard!

kwinigolfer wrote:

NedB-H wrote:Rumours flying around that Noren wanted to play this week in Korea and couldn't get in. Exemption category not good enough and when he asked for a sponsor invite he didn't get one. Went instead to Pieters, Choi, Bae (all fair enough), McDowell (?) and Ryan Ruffels (???)

Can't understand why Ruffels has had such a charmed life so far with sponsor invitations.

Not really a surprise when you see who his agent is. I think tournaments get a buy one get one free deal as part of the Jason Day package.

Makes sense ray.

And it also makes some sense that the USGA has announced that Pebble Beach will host the 2027 US Open - hang on, they haven't staged the 2019 edition yet!
Upcoming US Open venues:
2018: Shinnecock
2019: Pebble
2020: Winged Foot
2021: Torrey Pines
2022: Country Club, Brookline
2023: LA CC North
2024: Pinehurst
2025: Oakmont
2026: Shinnecock
2027: Pebble

What does this mean? No return to Merion, Chicago area, Oakland Hills or Baltusrol (or anywhere south of Pinehurst) until 2028 at the earliest, no Olympic until at least 2029.

They also announced the US Women's Open will make its first visit to Pebble Beach in 2023.

Still awaiting the R&A to confirm St.Andrews for 2021, whilst they presumably hope for a change of US President before sending The Open to Turnberry.

Kind of surprised Merion is not in the rotation ... given what I thought was an overall positive experience there.

Merion East, BTW, closing for 18 months so they can sub-air every green (and I assume practice greens, too).

Not surprised Merion is not the US Open "rota". I think Merion 2013 was a failure for the USGA.

The USGA had to trick it up.

They moved the 2nd fairway 50 yards to the right.
They had a 270 yd hole where there were you either hit the green or were in long rough.
Players had to walk down the fairways single file.

Merion is just too small for the game's best golfers

GPB - Let's also not forget that they had to remove 4 acres of fairway!
Still, I did not hear the it was too tricked up for the players or the USGA (not that the USGA would ever admit to a failure!). I can only assume Merion is doing what they are to continue to host a US Open (and not just the Walker Cups, etc.). Hmmm ...

I trust there will be no GREAT DANES at the Ryder Cup next year.  or else it could be a massive flood.

Who Let the Dogs Out!:

The doggo is maybe auditioning for a role in Trumps entourage?

Doggo is over-qualified Mac.

Should be interesting ...

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2018/tournamentid=2018048/news/newsid=335092.html#Q48JccfsovhzTOKV.99

Shotrock wrote:Should be interesting ...

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2018/tournamentid=2018048/news/newsid=335092.html#Q48JccfsovhzTOKV.99

May be interesting but have no doubt slowcoaches will find a way around it - I'd still rather judge pros on the time it takes to play a round as that embraces all the time-wasting shenanigans, not just those involved in hitting a shot. And then give the worst dawdlers the worst tee times.

Doug Ferguson's AP column suggests a sponsorship problem at Colonial, with Dean & DeLuca trying to negotiate escaping their six-year contract after just two years.
That's Houston and Fort Worth with issues in Texas, with little or no speculation about new sponsors.

Kwini, Three tournaments losing their title sponsorships (Houston, Ft Worth, and D.C.) is definitely raising a red flag, but looking at th big picture, it could be just a tempest in a teapot

Robo and I were talking about the Colonial last week. We came up with a list of PGATour events lost, and added to the schedule since 2000. IMO, one of the metrics of "Tour Health" can be the stability of tournaments, and in that regard, the PGATour has not lost a tournament since Disney, last played 2012. I don't think there has ever been a five year period where a tournament did not go belly-up, and the tour is into its six year without losing a tournament.

Tournaments ended since 2000

2002 - Air Canada Championship last played
2002 - Michelop Championship last played
2002 - Buick Challenge last played
2006 - Booz Allen (Kemper) last played
2006 - Chrysler Classic (Tucson) last played
2006 - BC Open last played
2006 - US Bank Milwaukee last played
2006 - 84 Lumber last played
2006 - Ford Doral last played (became WGC Cadillac)
2006 - International last played
2008 - Gin sur Mer last played
2008 - AT&T Classic (Atlanta) last played
2009 - Buick Open last played
2010 - Turning Stone last played
2012 - Walt Disney last played

Events BEGINNING since 2000

2003 - Wells Fargo Championship began
2003 - Deutsche Bank began
2006 - Safeway Open began
2007 - OHL Mayakoba began
2007 - Quicken Loans National started
2007 - BMW Started (former Western Open)
2007 - Gin sur Mer began
2007 - Turning Stone began
2008 - Puerto Rico began
2009 - WGC HSBC began
2010 - CIMB Started
2010 - Greenbrier Classic started
2010 - RSM Classic started
2015 - Barbasol started
2018 - CJ Cup started
2018 - Corales Puntacana started

kwinigolfer wrote:Doggo is over-qualified Mac.

For the pishing or in general?

GPB wrote:Kwini, Three tournaments losing their title sponsorships (Houston, Ft Worth, and D.C.) is definitely raising a red flag, but looking at th big picture, it could be just a tempest in a teapot

Robo and I were talking about the Colonial last week.  We came up with a list of PGATour events lost, and added to the schedule since 2000.  IMO, one of the metrics of "Tour Health" can be the stability of tournaments, and in that regard, the PGATour has not lost a tournament since Disney, last played 2012.  I don't think there has ever been a five year period where a tournament did not go belly-up, and the tour is into its six year without losing a tournament.

Tournaments ended since 2000

2002 - Air Canada Championship last played
2002 - Michelop Championship last played
2002 - Buick Challenge last played
2006 - Booz Allen (Kemper) last played
2006 - Chrysler Classic (Tucson) last played
2006 - BC Open last played
2006 - US Bank Milwaukee last played
2006 - 84 Lumber last played
2006 - Ford Doral last played (became WGC Cadillac)
2006 - International last played
2008 - Gin sur Mer last played
2008 - AT&T Classic (Atlanta) last played
2009 - Buick Open last played
2010 - Turning Stone last played
2012 - Walt Disney last played

Events BEGINNING since 2000

2003 - Wells Fargo Championship began
2003 - Deutsche Bank began
2006 - Safeway Open began
2007 - OHL Mayakoba began
2007 - Quicken Loans National started
2007 - BMW Started (former Western Open)
2007 - Gin sur Mer began
2007 - Turning Stone began
2008 - Puerto Rico began
2009 - WGC HSBC began
2010 - CIMB Started
2010 - Greenbrier Classic started
2010 - RSM Classic started
2015 - Barbasol started
2018 - CJ Cup started
2018 - Corales Puntacana started

Good list. I'd add Doral given that it's left these shores.
I'm just hoping they replace Shell and D&D; I like the traditional calendar, and two Texas gaps would leave big holes.
I would put a bit of an asterisk against some of the fly-by-night events, Ginn, Turning Stone for two, and still think Greenbrier may be another; Finchem getting into bed with characters he might have done better to avoid. Couldn't care less about Washington, who've never really supported the Tour, tho' not having a regular event in either Philly or DC is not good.