PGA Tour: WGC & Sanderson Farms: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The third leg of the PGA Tour's Far East "swing" gets underway in a few hours at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China.
With Oosthuizen's withdrawal, the owgr points to earned by this week's winner will be the lowest since the "Champions" became recognised by the PGA Tour in 2009, matching Poulter's haul of 64 points in 2012 and only Martin Kaymer's 62 pts in 2011 carrying less reward
Poults will be disappointed the withdrawals didn't extend to his "alternate" position as he needs another three no-shows to get him to the show. Ain't gonna happen.

2).And the Tour stages an "opposite field" tournament in Mississippi, the Sanderson Farms won last year by Cody Gribble. It's surprising the field for this stop is as poor as it is - I have a bit of an issue with the way "Past Champion" and "Veteran Player" status on Tour is rewarded with old lags whose competitive fires have long since burnt out, some even not making this week's Champions Tour field, gaining precedence over guys, Kyle Reifers for example, who barely missed conditional status last season. Arguments to and fro at the very least but it's one area where I'd say the Tour could help itself.

3).Paul Casey may come across as an entitled knob but he's not stupid and will have got his FedEx Cup season off to a decent start, along with quite a few others, by competing in all three Far East tournaments. He dodged the Safeway this year, just 12 months after finishing 3rd. hmmmm.

4).All Tour pros who finished 95th or better in 2016/17 FedEx points made the fields for both CIMB and CJ Cup, but it will be interesting to see how the busman's holidays with guaranteed earnings affected the fields for other autumn events. If the "Safeway" is anything to go by, possibly quite a bit.

5).Posted elsewhere, but worth repeating, that the USGA has announced that the 2027 US Open has been awarded to Pebble Beach. With repeat visits to Shinnecock (8-year span), Pebble (8 yr), Oakmont (9 yr), Pinehurst (10 yr), Torrey Pines (13 yr) and Winged Foot (14) all hosting the US Open again in the next decade, it almost looks as if the USGA rota is taking an Open Championship-type look with very few outliers on the horizon.

6).Last week saw the first tournament in the Champions Tour "Play Off" series - 72 players compete in the first event as qualified via the Schwab money list, 54 play this week at Sherwood CC north of LA and the leading 36 qualify for the Final, in 3 weeks time, in Phoenix. Bernhard Langer won "Round 1" by one stroke over Scott Verplank, courtesy of a final hole eagle. That's what he does. Phillip Price was the unlucky odd man out, 55th and on his way back to Q-School.

7).web.com Q-School commences Stage 2 at five venues over the next fortnight, starting next Tuesday. Fields should be confirmed shortly.

8).Grayson Murray seems not to have had much fun on his Far East freebie, throwing in a combined +30 over two tournaments - just months after bemoaning easy owgr points in Asian events. Didn't help Grayson much. Tosspot.

9).Pat Perez is probably the Tour's big winner in the early season going, in more ways than one: "I'm still not going to work out. I'll still have a bad diet, and I'm going to enjoy myself." And he's getting pretty large. Not Tim Herron, Beef large, but Perez is a big boy. Laughing all the way to the bank.

10).No idea who's going to contend this week in China, but Adam Scott usually takes this tournament seriously, and Aphibarnrat is in decent form. Winner? Who knows.
But I DO fancy Matt Jones in Mississippi - he's dozed through the last couple of years since winning the Aussie Open. Time for him to give his talent more respect, and this'd be a good place for it. And the same could be said for Will McGirt.
(Here's hoping Seamus Power shoots four rounds like his first three last year.)

PD pointed out in twitter that the three winners so far in 2017-18, won PGATour events last fall. Steele defended Safeway, Thomas won CIMB last year, Korea this year, and Perez won in Mexico last year, Malaysia this year.

Is that a sign of good news for Hideki, Gribble, Pampling and Hughes?

There were only handful of eligible players who do not have Tour status beyond the 2017-18 season that did not play any of the Asian events. Charley Hoffman, Sean O'Hair.

CIMB exempted players went to #106 Werenski and CJ CUP exempted players went to #96 Villegas.

PD points out that 8 of the Top 12 all time OWGR Point leaders from HSBC are not in the field this week (Poulter, Kaymer, Rory, Ernie, Bubba, Westy, GMac, Knox). Phil, Frankie, Dustin, and Hideki round out the Top 12.

Posted in the other thread, here are the PGATournaments that gone belly-up since 2000, and the ones that started. No tournaments have bit the dust since 2012.

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

How low can he go??!!
Andrew Landry off to a dream start:
Birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle: -6 after 5 holes in Mississippi.

Already 13 strokes ahead of Brian Davis who's two strokes in arrears of a dismal field.

Good start at the "Sanderson" for Seamus: 68. Three more of them to go please.
But job #1 is to make the cut; crucial to get himself as far up the "reshuffle" category as he can.

Kwini... got some updates on some Tournament things that were being mentioned in the past thread this morning.

I getting more insider opinion the WGC Bridgestone is probably done after next year even though the Tour wants to keep it since they own it. But 2018-19 scheduling is a problem. And that has an effect on the alternate events too. If a WGC goes away, then and alternate event either has to step up to full status or it likely goes away as well.

Also hearing the sponsor challenges for Houston and Colonial are tough ones, as they're both 3rd, 4th or 5th in priority behind other events as far as the PGAT is concerned. Apparently the Players has lost one of it's "proud partners", and one of the Senior majors owned by the Tour is sponsorless and I've already mentioned WGC Bridgestone. So the Tour would be looking to work to figure those first. So finding sponsors for HOU/FW might be up to local interests. Events finding their own sponsors used to be the norm, but the trend of late has been more and more the Tour finding most the event sponsors.

I ran some of the rumors I had been hearing on Houston sponsors by my contact, and got no, no, no... to each of them. Yikes.

My contact is suggesting the long term situation will be the Tour will in effect be owining most if not all the events, like they own the Players, ToC, WGC's, Northern Trust, Tour Championship, CJ Cup, CIMB, etc etc now. So on one hand they want to save Colonial and Houston, but won't lose the same amount of sleep over it as they would one of their own events.

I also got that something was up with the "National" possibly continuing but being "different", I didn't feel like I could press so I can't tell you what that means. I could guess, but I've been mostly wrong guessing of late, so I'll just leave that one at: "I dunno".

I did not have a chance to talk about Boston... so nothing new there.

Not directy related to what I learned today, but the signs from all directions is the Tour expanision in Asia has to be limited field to attract the players they need, but I did get today that there's been more blowback from the PGAT members RE limited fields. The new alternate event placates some of that, but I'm getting the sense that the Tour would probably be happier replacing Colonial and the National with full fields of 144-156 as opposed to their "invitational" sized fields of 120.

The big objectives are basically 3 fold... sponsor value, broadcast value and playing opportunities for the members. But often whats good for 1 or 2 isn't good for the other objectives... so it's always a bit of a struggle.

Good stuff robo; do you reckon there's a sense the Tour is (temporarily?) at saturation point?

Has Dell stepping up for the MatchPlay affected local sponsors in Houston and Fort Worth?

Still think it's amazing that Philly, DC, Chicago, Detroit, St.Louis, MSP and Denver (and Bawston?) can't find a dedicated sponsor between them, let alone the two in TX.

And, if WGC scheduling in August is a problem, then there's a sense of "hoist by your own petard" - still don't feel the WGC's have been fully embraced - perhaps something in Europe preceding The Open?

PS: The Seniors could afford to lose a "Major" . . . . . . .

Kwini..

Saturation?  - Maybe temporarily as you said. But Monahan seem clear, contraction (voluntary at least) is not in the cards.

I don't get a sense Dell and the Austin MP is a factor RE Houston or FW either way... EXCEPT, he would have been a logical candidate as a sponsor for either if he wasn't already attached to the Match Play. And speaking of Boston, I think Dell might have been interested in sticking with it as a 2nd event under his umbrella, but a 4 event playoff is in question, could be going to 3... and Northern Trust and BMW have the longer term inside track (and in place longer term contracts) to remain the 2 before the Tour Championship.

I sense the WGC's HAVE been fully embraced (at least by the players)... at least the 3 in the states. I got a definite sense today that further WGC expansion is way less a priority for the Tour than I thought.  I got a bit of a "re-education" on Tour economics today... and sounds like they think they've hit on something pretty big with the CIMB - CJ Cup model, that is as long as they don't push it too far.   The WGC or international events on the PGAT's schedule has way less to do with numbers of those types of events, and way MORE to do with the value of the PGA Tour's international TV rights... not just for those events themselves, but the overall PGA Tour year-long schedule.

It's complicated and maybe a topic for another day, but I'm way further away from believing a Euro based WGC is in the cards anytime soon.  Unless the PGAT were to in effect "acquire" the European Tour which changes everything... sounds to me like the PGAT and it's members can benefit more from a CIMB or  CJ Cup type event than a WGC in Europe.

Kwini... One other thing... Look at the PGAT events in and out schedule GPB posted earlier, especially 2006/07. Those are not all economic casualties, most have to do with the upheaval of the FedEx Cup coming on.

Similarly, a bunch of things have to give for the 2018-19 schedule, and I think a lot of (but not all) of this individual event upheaval is related to that. Like 2006, every event isn't necessary gonna make the trip to new dates or whatever.

First things first - I hope they get Houston & FW sorted (and, yep, that was my thought re Dell).

And I'm being reminded how lousy Justin Leonard and Jim Gallagher are as commentators - Gallagher's awful, Leonard keeps repeating himself.
Shocking to realise that Spencer Levin has no Tour standing - fun to follow and good to have the occasional pro who marches to a different drummer.

Levin will be back IMO... He made an equipment change, realized he screwed up, and gave the money back so he could go back to his old stuff.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/levin-equipment-woes-i-took-money/

robopz wrote:Levin will be back IMO... He made an equipment change, realized he screwed up, and gave the money back so he could go back to his old stuff.  

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/levin-equipment-woes-i-took-money/

That's telling it like it is! Hadn't seen that. He needs to find a few more yards off the tee though, whose ever clubs he uses.

Derek Bard and Carvallo's getting some nice namechecks . . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:That's telling it like it is! Hadn't seen that. He needs to find a few more yards off the tee though, whose ever clubs he uses.

I wouldn't wish smoking on anyone, but that guy has been one quivering mass of nervous humanity ever since he gave up the heaters...

robopz wrote:Levin will be back IMO... He made an equipment change, realized he screwed up, and gave the money back so he could go back to his old stuff.  

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/levin-equipment-woes-i-took-money/

Rory, Gmac, are you listening...

Hane Hanky seems pretty convinced that former pupil Woods will be back at it at the Hero WC.
"They're going to toy with everybody, because it's just what they do. But he's playing at the Hero WC. He's not going to wait until February to play again."
That's what he told a US radio outfit. Whether he's winding people up or he knows something, who knows. A cynic might just suggest it's his only chance of "earning" owgr points. But Mac has reportedly already booked his travel to The Bahamas.
It would certainly be good for everyone, and especially the golf world, if he made headlines playing golf rather than the tawdry extracurricular stuff he gets up to.

I would argue that the Hero WC is "tawdry extracurricular stuff", but there we are. Even if he wins it the OWGR points are nowhere near being any use on their own. He's got exemptions everywhere for this season at least, if he's that confident rest up and come back in the spring.

NedB-H wrote:I would argue that the Hero WC is "tawdry extracurricular stuff", but there we are. Even if he wins it the OWGR points are nowhere near being any use on their own. He's got exemptions everywhere for this season at least, if he's that confident rest up and come back in the spring.

Agree about the "tawdry"; only point about the owgr's was that he could very well struggle to earn any anywhere else. Hopefully that's not the case and this will mean he's dead set on being competitive and it's not just another publicity stunt.

Further to Note 6). above, it's also an important week on the Champions Tour - 54 (actually 52 as Couples & Stricker are no-shows) seniors playing at Sherwood CC with two thoughts in mind:
~Win the event, or at least finish second behind Langer.
~Reach the Top 36 in season-long points, thereby earning qualification for the Charles Schwab Championship in Phoenix in a fortnight's time.
Europeans hoping to challenge St.Bernhard include:
Montgomerie
Jimenez
Broadhurst
Parnevik

No idea what it's like to play, but Jack Nicklaus's Sherwood design is one of the most fun courses to watch from my armchair - Par 72, with 5 Par-3's, 5 Par 5's, and a terrific risk/reward design.

Play suspended in Mississippi, with Seamus Power stranded in 3rd place after 16 Round 2 holes, four under par for the day. Good stuff. He'll resume early Saturday; keep it going, just another 38 holes.
Thought under-performing Aussie Matt Jones would play well this week, but he bogeyed 3 of his last 5 holes to miss the cut.
Should've chosen his under-performing compadre, Aaron Baddeley going well.

Par on #17, par on #18 for Power in Mississippi. Job done for the morning.
He'll be back out there for Round 3 in a tie for 3rd. Crucial 36 holes for him.

Meanwhile, nice to see DJ strutting his stuff in China; Justin, Jordan who??

What the hell happened to dustin. Looking like a great win for justin. Is the wind gustin?

beninho wrote:What the hell happened to dustin. Looking like a great win for justin. Is the wind gustin?

He must’ve been bustin’.

pedro wrote:

beninho wrote:What the hell happened to dustin. Looking like a great win for justin. Is the wind gustin?

He must’ve been bustin’.

Bet his clubs are in the dustbin...

That didn't go according to plan for Dustin but to Justin.

Amazing story unfolding at the Sanderson Farms, with Ryan Armour (time he americanised his name, surely?) on a terrific three-month run.
41 years old.
First PGA Tournament 2007 when he had 3 x Top Tens
Next top ten: 2017, with a T4 at Greensboro.
Straight on to the web.com Finals and a 2nd place finish which secured his Tour card.
Now leading by 4. Should he win today, the prize money will increase his career Tour earnings by 50%. Good luck to him.

Seamus Power's putter losing the plot for his front nine today, nine holes to give his "reshuffle" ranking the boost it sorely needs.

Deja vu all over again for Seamus Power, losing more than two strokes on the greens today and turning a decent finish into a disappointment.
But great performance by Ryan Armour - I'm sure there have been lifelong journeymen coming out of the woodwork and winning for the first time on Tour, but I'm struggling to recall someone more unheralded that won for the first time so late/old in his career.

Ken Duke?

That fits, but at least he'd been an occasional Tour regular. Good call.

Greg Chalmers I suppose . . . . . . . . .

How about Jim Barnum?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barnum

PT's brother?
But he wasn't even a journeyman, more like a temp . . . . . . !

Ah ha!
Hadn't seen the announcement earlier, but happy to see Paul Casey is rejoining the European Tour. Good timing having already "banked" three PGA Tour events, and at least halfway towards his Top 125 FedEx Cup points necessary to keep his card.
Not entirely clear whether he rejoined before or after the WGC-Champions . . . . . . ? Anyone know for sure?
Pressure now for Casey (& Bjorn?) to qualify properly for Paris and not need Thomas's "pick". Good news regardless.

kwinigolfer wrote:Not entirely clear whether he rejoined before or after the WGC-Champions . . . . . . ? Anyone know for sure?

This is not for sure, Kwini, but THIS BLOG states he is joining at the start of the 2018 season. Presumably that is the start of the 2018 Euro Tour, which begins after the end of the R2D..........

Cheers Inw; Pity he didn't squeeze last week and this in. Casey's comments still sound disingenuous, but good for Bjorn to reel him back in.

Maybe PC can win a tournament in Europe!

Pieters sure didn't take advantage of the three PGAT freebies in Asia.  42 total pts with T44, T28, and T71 finishes.

Hadley is playing some good golf.  at the end of June he was 456th in the OWGR, he is now 86th.  Still needs about 50 more OWGR points to get inside the Top 50 by year end.

Scott Strohmeyer played in his first OWGR rated tournament in Mississippi this past weekend.  His T4th gets him into Vegas this week.  His OWGR ID is #24187.

Speaking of OWGR IDs, Poulter's ID number is #1439 which gives him a lower number than Mickelson  (#1547).  Mickelson made his OWGR debut in 1988.  Poulter's number says he played in a tournament prior to 1988 and checking his OWGR page it indicates he played a 1986 OWGR tournament, when he was 10 yrs old. I have made some inquiries.

Scroll Down to bottom:

and ICYMI: Nolayingup dot com is doing a great job with podcasts, IMO.  He talked with Uihlein in Malaysia and Monahan in Korea and both of them are a good listen.

Weird, is Poulter some sort of time traveler?

Wonder if it is just a typo that has been carried over from his playing record. He turned pro in 1996 and could have entered a tournament, I suppose, and somebody has got the date muddled up along the line somewhere.

Would think he must have earned pts in 1999 as he had a Challenge Tour win in the Ivory Coast - the Drogba Open apparently. Not sure before that.


GPB,
We watched Hadley hit a few shots last year - he had no idea where the ball was going to go next at that time. Conducted a pretty nauseating conversation with himself on the course and we moved on, but he's certainly a form horse right now. Albeit a slow horse.


Stats: I see Ryan Armour is 181st of 188 in Tour driving distance. Incredibly Appleby is 187th; in his heyday he could hit it as far as just about anyone.

Willett be his back that stops Danny's season?
No, it's his shoulder, resting a damaged rotator cuff, out of action until further notice. Sean Foley to blame? Or just a convenient excuse for spending more time at home?

Just over 2 months ago, Bubba Watson declared he would be "taking at least four and a half months off. I won't play until next year."
That would seem to mean he'll be back at San Diego, Phoenix or Riviera.

Or at least this week's Shriners tournament in Las Vegas.

Kwini, I would not be reading too much in any of the performance stats at this time. Safeway and Sanderson Farms are the only two events that count towards the "performance stats".

GPB wrote:Kwini, I would not be reading too much in any of the performance stats at this time.  Safeway and Sanderson Farms are the only two events that count towards the "performance stats".

Agreed, But just making the point that, to me anyway, it's refreshing to see a shorter hitter, which Armour clearly is, dominate a Tour event.

Tiger to return at the Hero. Anyone think it will go better than a disaster?

Got yer ticket, Mac?

I like a bit of gore but not sure I could handle seeing that.

McLaren wrote:I like a bit of gore but not sure I could handle seeing that.

Bet you've still put polythene all over your walls though.

At what point do you think he'll say he "needs more reps" Mac?

He actually did ok at this last year in terms of birdies, just he had more bogeys. I can see him being back, but don't think he's top 100 material. You can't have that many operations on crucial parts of your body and get back to the very top.

I did like his tweet that he'd "like to thank the tournament committee of 1 for letting myself play" or words to that effect

Roller_Coaster wrote:I did like his tweet that he'd "like to thank the tournament committee of 1 for letting myself play" or words to that effect

Shouldn't that be, the tweet that one of his minions sent out on his behalf, although given how pathetic an attempt it is at humour, could well be his.

Stage 2 Webbie Q-school leaderboards

Dothan Alabama

https://pgatq.bluegolf.com/...

Murrieta California

https://pgatq.bluegolf.com/...

Only partial scores posted in Dothan, but #1 Amateur Joaquin Niemann (from Chile) is a co-leader in the clubhouse

Former USA Ryder Cupper Brett Wetterich is the Dothan field. He shot 77, 10 shots from the leader.

Walker Cupper Cam Champ is in the Murietta field. He is in with a 69.

Don't see any Europeans in either field.

Ben Briscoe is in, tho he may wish he'd've stayed in Colwyn Bay. OK start for Derek Bard, not so good for Gavin Hall.

Quite a few pros from the fringes of the PGA Tour.

Nice start from Trevor Murphy, "Mr 56". But his promising future slipping sadly behind him. A la England youth soccer teams of the past? Not sure that he'd've been in the U17's though, still ski racing at that age.

I have no direct interest in anyone, but it would be a nice story to see Kevin Hall make it to the Web-com tour.

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2017/02/16/kevin-hall-11-years-genesis-open-riviera-country-club.html

Kwini:  I got my first (of five) Holes-in-One in Dothan Alabama.  Not at this course, but Olympia Spa.

This guy was on the golf trip with us, and he was in the 4-some ahead of us

http://www.proputters.com/NewFebPlayers/pros/vance_randall.htm