PGA Tour: Time to Take a Break: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Just a few more rounds beside the seaside on Georgia's Golden Isles this week and the pros can take a seven-week break, eight if they're not Tournament Champions, even longer for those who don't fancy various West Coast events. Most will rest, practice, review the year just gone by with their "team" and plan for the year ahead.
Some will be so exhausted from the exertions of the past season that they'll be globe-trotting for recuperative guaranteed appearance and/or prize money at exotic locations around the world.

2).I really enjoy watching the Mayakoba action, the course seems to improve every year and the field ain't bad either. Patton Kizzire has a southerner's good ole boy, laconic air about him, but no-one really put pressure on him last weekend and he was a deserving winner.
Like his in-form southern compadre, Chesson Hadley, Kizzire could use getting a move on though. No anti-American sentiment here, but both have bizarre names and tortoise-like pace of play, more Henrik or Bernhard, Ken or Nick, than Rickie Fowler, for instance, who looked beyond irritated as he was grouped in the final threesome and seemed to have to wait on every shot.

3).A landmark stat from last week as Alex Cejka followed up his play-off defeat in Las Vegas with a T9 in Mexico and so earned consecutive top ten finishes for the first time in 359 career Tour starts. And, so doing, launches himself to the top of the all-important reshuffle ranking.

4).Mildly promising performances at Mayakoba for Knox and McDowell, each playing a course where they've had success before. Knox earned just his second Top Ten finish all year, while McDowell looked much more confident to my untrained eye, despite a T34 result. Both play again this week, where each has played well in the past. Luke Donald also makes an appearance, just down the coast from his happy hunting ground of Hilton Head Island.

5).Congratulations to Shotrock and his fellow members @ Aronimink in Philadelphia on securing the 2020 LPGA Championship and 2027 PGA Championship. Justin Rose has won twice in Philly but imagine he'll be relaxing his way towards Grayson Murray's irrelevant age by 2027. Mixed thoughts about this Aronimink announcement though, good for them in securing more major championships, but you'd imagine it rather shuts out the Philadelphia market from further PGA Tour events.

6).Presumably the 2027 PGA will be contested in May; the story seemed to be that one reason the PGA was moving to May was to bring the Championship to more southern courses - not so far, although it WILL be at Kiawah in 2020.

7).The finale of the Champions Tour season was rather anticlimactic, with the tournament, and Charles Schwab Cup winner being Kevin Sutherland. Somewhat of a curiosity is that this is the first official stroke-play win of Sutherland's career, though he did lose three PGA Tour play-offs. His solitary Tour win was at the WGC-MatchPlay in 2002 - he shot the first 59 on the Champions Tour, in 2014, on course for a 58 but bogeyed his final hole at Enjoie.
Bernhard Langer will merely have to be content with his seven wins, and $3M in prizemoney, bringing his Champions Tour career earnings to $24.6M - somewhat better than my pension plan and he's still going strong at the age of 60.

8).princedrac noted that this week's RSM Classic only offers 30 owgr points to the winner. Sea Island, Georgia, looks one of the most beautiful areas the PGA Tour visits; there'll be birdies galore but no doubt even more stunning TV images of the area's wildlife.
Those who live in the area have a good record on the 2 x courses (Seaside & Plantation) on Sea Island, including Bill Haas, Webb Simpson, Horschel, Kirk and Kisner among the locals who have won or runnered up and imagine we'll see more of the same this week. Snedeker is back from a 4+ month absence, and Kuchar is also in a field that looks stronger than its official rating. Scott Brown and Charlie Howell are others in form and hopefully Brown can break my dreadful recent trot of form in the crucially important one-and-done game I have fun with.

We'll follow web.com and Champions Tour Q-Schools (Peter Baker, Jamie Kingston & M-A Martin competing in first stage), but this ballwasher has pretty much dried up for the year.
Happy Thanksgiving for next week for all those celebrating in Missouri, Houston, Philadelphia, Cape Cod, Pennsylvania, etc, etc. Stuff the turkey.

Cool video from the Bryan Bros:

http://www.golfchannel.com/article/grill-room/watch-bryan-bros-putting-practice-may-be-best-trick-yet

Guys just want to have FUN!

EDIT: Perhaps they should receive owgr points for this #tigerwalksnineholes

It's unlikely to be of much interest to most, but Champions Tour Q-School got going today in Arizona.

Only two GB&I players, Lane & McGinley apparently having called it a day.

Peter Baker shot 69, 8 shots back of leader Brian Henninger. Phil Price stumbled to a level par 71, so both need to get their skates on.

Others in the field include Tour winners Jim Carter, Neal Lancaster, Greg Kraft, Clear Keithwater, Saffer James Kingston, Fat Guy Boros, Russ Cochran (what's he doing there?), Tom Byrum, Day Jon Blake, Tim Petrovic, Aussie Peter Lonard, Ted Tryba, Gary Hallberg (must have the best swing out of this lot), Espana's Miguel Angel Martin, Argie's Jose Coceres, Len Mattiace and, the only US Ryder Cupper, Steve Volcano Pate.
Too many other lifetime journeymen to mention.

kwinigolfer wrote:It's unlikely to be of much interest to most, but Champions Tour Q-School got going today in Arizona.

Only two GB&I players, Lane & McGinley apparently having called it a day.

Peter Baker shot 69, 8 shots back of leader Brian Henninger. Phil Price stumbled to a level par 71, so both need to get their skates on.

Others in the field include Tour winners Jim Carter, Neal Lancaster, Greg Kraft, Clear Keithwater, Saffer James Kingston, Fat Guy Boros, Russ Cochran (what's he doing there?), Tom Byrum, Day Jon Blake, Tim Petrovic, Aussie Peter Lonard, Ted Tryba, Gary Hallberg (must have the best swing out of this lot), Espana's Miguel Angel Martin, Argie's Jose Coceres, Len Mattiace and, the only US Ryder Cupper, Steve Volcano Pate.
Too many other lifetime journeymen to mention.

Isn't watching the terribly named "Champions" Tour akin to watching club golf? I know some of these guys are still good (Langer, Monty) etc, but there must be some real crud in there which are no better than decent club golfers?

Obviously the depth on the tour is not yuuge. It seems to be the same dozen or so players running the show. But I watch it occasionally and find it OK. Players seem quite relaxed and there's a nice atmosphere about it.

But I also have an issue with the name "Champions". Really derogatory, does being old make you a champion? I'd call it work place harassment.

Super 

No, you would get totally pumped on the champions tour. What an arse wipe you are being at the moment.

Pretty high standard on the Champions Tour - which is no longer its name, but the new one is even dafter - and, once you get past the ceremonial exemptions (HOF member being the most egregious), it's pretty demanding to stay there.
Club golfers welcome to apply - how long until you qualify super?

I think his new shelf stacking job will deprive him of the practice hours needed to make it.

A member of my club made it to the Champion's Tour and he did not play on the "regular" tour. His name is Jay Sigel and it's a well known story in these parts. He was a great amateur and won the club championship so many times he stopped competing in it after a while. He's a rare exception (as is Super perhaps?) because if you didn't have the game to beat these guys on the regular tour why would you be able to beat them on the Champion's Tour?

"If it works for the crud on the Champo Tour, perhaps it can work for me."

So Adam Scott is returning to the long putter and use the phantom anchoring technique employed so successfully by Langer & McCarron. He'll be teeing off tomorrow, in just a few hours so we'll see how that goes.


Shotrock,
You forgot to mention the $9.5M in Senior Tour winnings . . . . . . .

They're all likely to be the equivalent of + handicaps still I presume, a standard I'd be very happy to watch. Granted I don't, but that's the absence of pay TV in the house.

I imagine there's some belting shot craft on display in the absence of a host of 350 yard bombers.

I find that a bit odd Kwin. Scott had some success with the shorter putter.

Yes, $9.5 ain't bad. One story about Jay was that he played a round with Lee Trevino before he made the jump ... and Lee told him that he probably needed to work on his bunker game. Funny because they used to call him the "Sandman" because he was so good at that part of his game (or so we thought).

McLaren wrote:Super 

No, you would get totally pumped on the champions tour. What an arse wipe you are being at the moment.

Of course I would Mac, when did I ever say I would be able to compete? Yet another example of your atrocious comprehension.

Don't you have people at your club who are +3, +4 etc? Surely these types of guys could compete well enough with the coffin dodgers.

super_realist wrote:

McLaren wrote:Super 

No, you would get totally pumped on the champions tour. What an arse wipe you are being at the moment.

Of course I would Mac, when did I ever say I would be able to compete? Yet another example of your atrocious comprehension.

Don't you have people at your club who are +3, +4 etc? Surely these types of guys could compete well enough with the coffin dodgers.

Of course they couldn't. The likes of vijay, langer, monty, fred funk etc were competitive on the PGAT while able to play the champo tour, are your +4 handicappers even able to qualify for the tartan tour?

Mac, Once again you fail to read. I already conceded that people like Langer and Monty are still very good. I'm talking about the no marks who make up the rest of the tour. Isn't there a very good reason why it's dominated by a few players?

Those off +3 or +4 could probably play on The Tartan Tour, but probably couldn't take the wage cut. Who could?

super_realist wrote:

Those off +3 or +4 could probably play on The Tartan Tour, but probably couldn't take the wage cut. Who could?

Mac. And it wouldn’t be a wage cut.

Can someone please check if I have this correct please? Sky Sports Golf Channel starts its coverage of the Hero Challenge at 17.30 UK time. That equates to 12.30 local time. Tiger Woods is due to tee off at 12.05. Does that mean to say that Sky isn't going to show EVERY shot of the second ever best golfer LIVE? How will they cope?

Inw 

JT is good but has he really surpassed Big Cat as the GOAT already?

I'm never wrong wrote:Can someone please check if I have this correct please? Sky Sports Golf Channel starts its coverage of the Hero Challenge at 17.30 UK time. That equates to 12.30 local time. Tiger Woods is due to tee off at 12.05. Does that mean to say that Sky isn't going to show EVERY shot of the second ever best golfer LIVE?  How will they cope?

Don't they have some kind of foreplay before the wall-to-wall Tiger coverage? Can't imagine they'll let you miss a thing until/unless he starts stinking the joint up, they usually don't like to show such things.

Who says it's not tape delay?

kwinigolfer wrote:Don't they have some kind of foreplay before the wall-to-wall Tiger coverage?

They do Kwini. I suspect that will take up the first 30 mins and then we'll be on Tiger TV. I appreciate he was a decent player, and maybe again, but they are just too sycophantic for my liking....and they want the ratings back.

Watching sky coverage of Tiger is like reading the sergio fanboydom on here.

Would think they'll start coverage with Woods and Thomas on the first tee for 12.05 p.m. (local) kick-off. I'm sure they will here.


Double dipping: Q-School version: Gonzo competing in next week's web.com Q-School having already retrieved his ET card via Q-School a week or so ago. David Lipsky also giving it a whirl, plus young Aussies Cameron Davis & Curtis Luck and South Africa's Merrick Bremner

Gonzo tweeted earlier this week to confirm he’d be at Q-School to “improve his status”. Seems strange to me, if he couldn’t keep pace double dipping as a top 50 player, what hope does he have combining a low exemption in Europe with chasing a Web.com top 25. Maybe he’s just got a taste for six-round marathons.

NedB-H wrote:Gonzo tweeted earlier this week to confirm he’d be at Q-School to “improve his status”. Seems strange to me, if he couldn’t keep pace double dipping as a top 50 player, what hope does he have combining a low exemption in Europe with chasing a Web.com top 25. Maybe he’s just got a taste for six-round marathons.

Shane Lowry has a taste for six rounds of Marathons.

Sorry, Snickers.

TIGER WATCH

Very strange re Gonzo; but he made a special request to the PGA Tour to reduce web.com qualifying from 6 to 4 rounds to give him a break. Wussies!

None of the "international" pros making much progress at Champions Tour Q-School - big day today for James Kingston, David McKenzie, Peter Baker and the Pride of Pontypridd, Phillip Price. Etc.

Roller_Coaster wrote:TIGER WATCH

A wind up?

kwinigolfer wrote:Very strange re Gonzo; but he made a special request to the PGA Tour to reduce web.com qualifying from 6 to 4 rounds to give him a break. Wussies!

None of the "international" pros making much progress at Champions Tour Q-School - big day today for James Kingston, David McKenzie, Peter Baker and the Pride of Pontypridd, Phillip Price. Etc.

Just like last year, my former golf buddy, Gibby Gilbert III is on the PGATour Champions Q-school bubble.

Gibster the 17th falls just short at Champions Tour Q-School, and all the "international" pros fall even shorter. But a Japanese amateur qualifies for 2018. Wonder if he'll turn pro?

Disappointing for Kingston, McKenzie, Baker, Price, Atlevi and Martin. Europe's gain I suppose but the Senior European Tour seems to be stuck in neutral which is disappointing.

T7th falls short?

The door to the Senior Tour didn't get much wider with the name change.

T7th should be enough for a conditional card, if there is still such a thing.

GPB wrote:T7th falls short?

The door to the Senior Tour didn't get much wider with the name change.

T7th should be enough for a conditional card, if there is still such a thing.

Nothing on pgatour.com about conditional status still applying . . . . . . .

What hasn't happened in more than three years?
Yup, Mike Weir earning owgr points - but he will this week, with a likely Top 20 in the Aussie PGA. #comebackeh

kwinigolfer wrote:What hasn't happened in more than three years?
Yup, Mike Weir earning owgr points - but he will this week, with a likely Top 20 in the Aussie PGA. #comebackeh

All our Yesterdays Part 2.
Weir finishes T15 and Tiger's mate, Arjun Boy Racer Atwal is in a play-off in Mauritius. Kinda surprised Woods hasn't wangled Atwal into the Hero field, but maybe next year if he wins this?

EDIT! Hold that thought, Frittelli wins the 2-man play-ff vs Atwal. Like Cameron Smith earlier today, Frittelli's a definite star of the future; close to the owgr Top 50 now as well, and is committed to the Joburg event next week where he could sew up his Masters invitation.

princedrac has posted his projection of Top 50 (and Masters invite, etc) at year end:

https://twitter.com/vc606

I see Frittelli in next week's field, but can only assume there's some sort of end of year tournament scheduled in Asia for Sneds, Kiradech and the rest. Whichever way you project it, Poults misses out. Too bad but he's had an excellent year and hopefully can get the job done early next year.

Fritelli is playing Indonesian Masters in two weeks as well.

So is SNEEDeker. (and Barnrat and Kodiara)

And Justin Rose.

Good news for all of them. They might have a chance to win as Westwood is not playing the Indo Masters.

GPB wrote:Fritelli is playing Indonesian Masters in two weeks as well.

So is SNEEDeker.  (and Barnrat and Kodiara)

And Justin Rose.

Good news for all of them.  They might have a chance to win as Westwood is not playing the Indo Masters.

Isn't that what Scott Verplank described as the Jakarta Four Ball? ("Ver" being German for "what a".)
Woods may be playing in that, though he wouldn't add to the "strength of field" . . . . . . . .

When Gary Player started counting his Senior Majors (and before Nicklaus started racking up his share), Nicklaus said Player counts his Bangkok 4-ball as a major.

I never heard Verplank have any criticism towards an international tournament.

GPB wrote:When Gary Player started counting his Senior Majors (and before Nicklaus started racking up his share), Nicklaus said Player counts his Bangkok 4-ball as a major.

I never heard Verplank have any criticism towards an international tournament.

Definely a Verplankism, but can't find it myself any more.

PGATour journeyman Morgan Hoffmann has been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy.

He was college teammates with Fowler, and Uihlein.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/morgan-hoffmann-pga-tour/

self delete....double post

GPB wrote:PGATour journeyman Morgan Hoffmann has been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy.

He was college teammates with Fowler, and Uihlein.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/morgan-hoffmann-pga-tour/

That's not good news, GPB. Thanks for passing it on. Have followed Hoffmann a couple of times at Hartford, most recently last June, as he was playing w/Lovemark. You'd've had no idea. He and his girlfriend are fitness nuts - just goes to show, you never know. He flies his own plane too, I think. Hate to read of this.

kwinigolfer wrote:
That's not good news, GPB. Thanks for passing it on. Have followed Hoffmann a couple of times at Hartford, most recently last June, as he was playing w/Lovemark. You'd've had no idea. He and his girlfriend are fitness nuts - just goes to show, you never know. He flies his own plane too, I think. Hate to read of this.

Yep, Hoffman is a fitness buff and probably eats as healthy as any golfer. And a snappy dresser too, IMO.

It just goes to show that "Mother Nature" doesn't discriminate between the "Pleasingly Plump" and "Lean and Buff".

Bad news on Hoffman, sadly diseases like that have no respect for how hard you work.

With uncertainty surrounding the future of one or two historic staples of the Tour calendar, it's nice to see that Sony has extended their long-standing sponsorship of the Hawaiian Open, to 2022. Good.

web.com Q-School starts today in Arizona.

Not much GB&I participation, I think Ben Taylor is the only survivor from earlier qualifying stages.
There is a handful of Europeans, mostly old lags like Gonzo, Cappelen and Norlander, but also one or two new names.

And then there is Aussie Open Champ, Cameron Davis, plus Curtis Luck, Saffer Merrick Bremner and Zimbabwe's Sean Crocker.

Saw an interesting snippet the other day showing the number of PGA Tour events pros have played since 1980.

It's absolutely dominated by Americans but seven non-Americans made the Top 100

Who are they?

First clue: They come from five different countries.

Answers please . . . . .

Vijay.

1).Vijay leads the class with 602.
Who's next.

Els, Norman, Langer, Faldo.. just guessing, no idea really how much they divided their time btw the PGAT and ET.

Goose?