PGATour Running Commentary January 2022

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Happy New Year.  After a nearly a year and half, its time for a new thread.

39 ofthe 40 Players eligible to play Sentry ToC are playing.  Only one missing is Rory McIlroy.

Great to see what Saudi is doing this week to grow womens golf in the region, with all the local aspiring women getting a sponsors invite…

What a sensational final round from Hideki Matsuyama yesterday - best ever in a final round at Riviera to comfortably take home the title. His driving and iron play on the back nine was some of the best I've seen, great to see him back hitting it well having dropped a fair way down the OWGR in the last 18 months.

Shame for Zalatoris and List to be pipped, both battled really well. Cantlay/Schauffele about as dull as ditchwater and played like it too. Cantlay was horrible on Sunday, barely hit a fairway it seemed

Hideki made the game look quite easy on that last day. Wonder if his slight 'slump' was a post-Green Jacket effect in some way.

Good to see Zalatoris back as he's clearly a talent. Love his ball striking.

Surprised a bit at Cantlay. He'd looked pretty serene up until that point.

Boy, those LIV crowds are pathetic. Anthony Kim back in action? A real yawn-fest for me.

Shotrock wrote:Boy, those LIV crowds are pathetic. Anthony Kim back in action? A real yawn-fest for me.

I never got that excited about him when he was winning 10 years ago. Now I have zero interest in whether he plays or not!

LadyPutt wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Boy, those LIV crowds are pathetic. Anthony Kim back in action? A real yawn-fest for me.

I never got that excited about him when he was winning 10 years ago. Now I have zero interest in whether he plays or not!

He won 3 events on the PGAT over 3(?) years. No Majors or Players. That's it? Big deal. LIV are welcome to him.

I presume if there ever was a fat insurance payout re. injury it had a clause re. ever playing again on the PGAT (which he isn't) and/or LIV have chucked him sufficient silver to entice him into their cesspool.

Watched a bit of the golf last night. Shane doing well, Rory not so much. But I was interested in watching the swing of Chris Kirk. I am the last person to know the techniques of golf, but he seems to have the laziest - or smoothest if you like - swing, but he hits it the same distance as the rest. Helps that he is 6'3" of course, but one of the easiest swings I've seen.

What a phenomenal weekend of golf that was at The Players Championship. I still don’t know how Clark’s putt on the 72nd hole didn’t drop!
Unbelievable final round from Scheffler - his iron play is just ludicrous at the moment

Great play by Scheffler and what a near make by Clark on the last.

Rory was a birdie machine this weekend. He cleans that up and he'll be putting on that green jacket in next month.

Shotrock wrote:Great play by Scheffler and what a near make by Clark on the last.

Rory was a birdie machine this weekend. He cleans that up and he'll be putting on that green jacket in next month.

At least there's no rough at AGNC, and less water....

navyblueshorts wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Great play by Scheffler and what a near make by Clark on the last.

Rory was a birdie machine this weekend. He cleans that up and he'll be putting on that green jacket in next month.

At least there's no rough at AGNC, and less water....

Thing is if it becomes clearer and clearer that Scheffler has moderately improved his putting then most tournaments will be his to lose.
That being said one of the great truisms of golf...If part of your game is a weak spot and you work hard to fix it...no sooner will you have fixed it than something else unravels :-p

The other question posed by the result at the Players is…Is Phil Kenyon now the undisputed pre-eminent putting coach in the world today?

I.e. a 1st, 2nd & 5th at the Players for players using his services.

Augusta starting today - Scheffler the heavy favourite at 4/1 best price, with Rory/Rahm out around 12/1 behind him.

Looks like some rain will delay start today, but otherwise we're going to have good weather - and reports on the grounds are its firm, and with the wind/sun about you'd expect it to bake out more as we get to the weekend.

I like Zalatoris, Cantlay and Cam Smith this week. Obviously hoping Rory does it. Hope it's a good Masters, been a while since we've had a truly close finish at this event

I like the look of Aberg, Koepka and Niemann. Possibly Rose or Sungjae if I wanted to pick an outsider.

Scheffler's a deserved favourite, especially with his putting game showing improvement, but 4/1 is very short for a field of this quality! Given up on Rory. He'll likely have a shocker of a first round and be effectively out of it before the weekend. Missed two of the last three cuts here, but did get a second place in 2022. Discounting Rahm purely because he won it last year.

C'mon Rory!

I have backed Zalatoris, Theegala, Aberg and Clark. I predict Woods will withdraw with an injury, especially if he racks up a big score.

One thing I've noticed these past few years is a lady dressed in pink behind the 16th tee. She gets very animated with good shots/holes in one.

Great first rounds from DeChambeau and Scheffler - a bunch of dudes under par including Rory.

Going to be a tough day today with the wind up - case of holding on and being within striking distance for the weekend

Was indeed a very tough day. I think Aberg's round of -3 was the best. No movement at the top, with the overall lead going from -7 to -6.

Three way tie at the top - Bryson, Homa and Scheffler. Hojgaard two shots back. Davis and Morikawa a further shot back. And Aberg at -2. Those are the ones in realistic contention, but the ones at -1 and evens won't rule themselves out, and that includes Fleetwood, Fitzpatrick and Schauffele.

Woods has made the cut with a very respectable +1. But Rory's out of the fight after a terrible second round, and so is Rahm.

Set up for a very good weekend.

Agree that it's the -1's or better to win this tournament.

Too bad Rory didn't get it going, and also surprised to see Hovland missed the cut.

Scheffler's driving and iron game have been pretty flawless of late. May not be exciting to watch, but the precision is mighty impressive to me.

Looked like it was going to be a close finish with a four way tie at -6, but Scheffler showed his class and underlined why he's the best in the world with a phenomenal final 11 holes. The shot he played at 9, which nearly rolled in for an eagle, was almost reminiscent of Tiger's shot at the 16th in 2005.

Aberg finished up 2nd, he has a very promising future. No one else better than -4, Fleetwood managing a tied 3rd which is by far his best at Augusta.

Good Masters. Scheffler just too good and too consistent - 3 wins out of last 4, now, and two of them some of the biggest events in the game. Will be interesting to see if this level of dominance continues, but at the moment, he's way out in front.

Course was a good challenge, and even on day 4, once the wind had eased somewhat, no-one was tearing it up.

Åberg is surely here to stay. Such a simple action - hope no-one gets in his ear re. needing to make changes.

Not sure what's happened to Hovland - too much celebrating following last year? Too many opinions re. LIV?

Speaking of which, no-one from LIV really got close, and a fair few of them didn't make the weekend. Excellent.

Surgical in the way Scheffler built and protected his lead on the back nine.

Really top-notch run he is on ... he was one 5-foot putt away from a playoff in the one tournament he didn't win in the last four.

Aberg mighty impressive too.

Yes was an excellent Masters I thought - a bit of a shame we didn't get the back nine fireworks that was promised, but the man who survived Amen Corner (Scheffler) rightly pulled away. Nice bounce back from his shot on 11 by Aberg, and a much earned 2nd place finish in his first ever major.

Good to see Fleetwood with another good major finish - that's a top 5 finish in every major now. Surely, surely Tommy wins stateside soon?

Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Shotrock wrote:Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Ridiculous yesterday that the PGA Tour didn't move up tee times - their own forecast they put out said 85% chance of lightning/storms before end of play, and it happened! Bizarre. A microcosm example of how the tour is being run at the moment, one may suggest...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Ridiculous yesterday that the PGA Tour didn't move up tee times - their own forecast they put out said 85% chance of lightning/storms before end of play, and it happened! Bizarre. A microcosm example of how the tour is being run at the moment, one may suggest...

Ah yes, but think about who's pulling the strings. Pretty sure those TV Execs and advertisers would have something to say about disruption to their planned schedules, maybe?

Shotrock wrote:Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Have to admit, don't know enough about Korda, except she was good before and she's got a twin who's also a very good player. Has she made any changes recently, or is this just a brief hot spell? Whatever it is, 5 in a row is pretty impressive.

As for Scheffler, I think the rest are hoping he dotes on his new baby a little more, to the possible detriment of his game. Possibly going to depend on how much he enjoys competing as he certainly doesn't need the money anymore. His isn't a swing you'd immediately pick out as brilliant, but his fundamentals are so good and from tee to green he's ridiculously good. Even his putting, that some think is a weak point, isn't anything of the sort really. It's just not as good as the best putters on the PGAT. Certainly a lot better than, say, Westwood's was when he was having his purple patch from tee to green.

navyblueshorts wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Have to admit, don't know enough about Korda, except she was good before and she's got a twin who's also a very good player. Has she made any changes recently, or is this just a brief hot spell? Whatever it is, 5 in a row is pretty impressive.

As for Scheffler, I think the rest are hoping he dotes on his new baby a little more, to the possible detriment of his game. Possibly going to depend on how much he enjoys competing as he certainly doesn't need the money anymore. His isn't a swing you'd immediately pick out as brilliant, but his fundamentals are so good and from tee to green he's ridiculously good. Even his putting, that some think is a weak point, isn't anything of the sort really. It's just not as good as the best putters on the PGAT. Certainly a lot better than, say, Westwood's was when he was having his purple patch from tee to green.

The Kordas are sisters, but not twins. Jessica is 31, Nellie is 25. As for Scheffler, he may be an awesome golfer but he’s got no personality (like many of the collegiate golfers in America) so he’s boring to watch for me.

LadyPutt wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Scheffler on an absolute tear; about to bag another. And, in the LPGA, Korda doing the same.

Have to admit, don't know enough about Korda, except she was good before and she's got a twin who's also a very good player. Has she made any changes recently, or is this just a brief hot spell? Whatever it is, 5 in a row is pretty impressive.

As for Scheffler, I think the rest are hoping he dotes on his new baby a little more, to the possible detriment of his game. Possibly going to depend on how much he enjoys competing as he certainly doesn't need the money anymore. His isn't a swing you'd immediately pick out as brilliant, but his fundamentals are so good and from tee to green he's ridiculously good. Even his putting, that some think is a weak point, isn't anything of the sort really. It's just not as good as the best putters on the PGAT. Certainly a lot better than, say, Westwood's was when he was having his purple patch from tee to green.

The Kordas are sisters, but not twins. Jessica is 31, Nellie is 25. As for Scheffler, he may be an awesome golfer but he’s got no personality (like many of the collegiate golfers in America) so he’s boring to watch for me.

I'm not quite sure what we want/expect from pros - spitting? Swearing? Is that 'personality'? I'd rather Scheffler over, say, Hatton any day of the week. There aren't too many in the Trevino/Ballesteros mould, I'm afraid.

Must admit I used to watch either ET or Pgat on telly week-in week out. Now I just don’t bother beyond the Majors and maybe events on courses I’ve played. Dunno whether it just me losing interest in the TV coverage or if the offering has just become duller all round. Certainly if I go watch a tournament in person I prefer the practice days and I’d also say it’s not about who I’m watching it’s more about what they do and how. Being there in person is obviously much better than TV in that aspect. TV seems fixated on a select few most of the time.

JAS wrote:Must admit I used to watch either ET or Pgat on telly week-in week out. Now I just don’t bother beyond the Majors and maybe events on courses I’ve played. Dunno whether it just me losing interest in the TV coverage or if the offering has just become duller all round. Certainly if I go watch a tournament in person I prefer the practice days and I’d also say it’s not about who I’m watching it’s more about what they do and how. Being there in person is obviously much better than TV in that aspect. TV seems fixated on a select few most of the time.

I agree - I will check the leaderboard and if it looks entertaining will tune in on a Sunday evening, but beyond the betting group I am part of, I wouldn't be following the the Thursday-Saturday stuff.
The TV numbers seem to indicate your lack of interest, is being replicated across the board JAS.

I see the latest reports were that the DPWT/PGA/Saudis hadn't even met to discuss the follow up to that framework agreement announcement last summer. No rush guys, only the week to week professional game slowly dying before your eyes as you split the game between two mainly poor products.

So true.

I find LIV unwatchable and all other tours not too far behind these days.

For those not convinced it's in decline (at least for now), nothing devastates an opinion like a number:

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/masters-2024-final-round-cbs-tv-ratings-down-20-percent-what-does-that-actually-mean

I don't get the metrics in the pro game. At all. The pros are earning stupidly large amounts, when many others are struggling, and for what? The money going in isn't worth the product - someone soon is going to point out that the Emperor has few, if any, clothes on.

The product on TV is (mostly) awful - it's not a good sport to televise IMO. Yes, the courses sometimes look breathtaking, but the play is dull, slow and coverage is too often awful.
I guess the large prize funds require absurd sponsor packages and advertising, hence the increasingly saturated output. The advertising does chuff all except increase the unwatchability of much of it. Fans at an actual venue watching live are, except for some of the marquee events, nowhere near big enough in number to justify the purses.

Add in the LIV farce and all the squabbling over hundreds of millions of $s for individual, already wealthy, narcissists and it's not a good look. Some of the banal/idiotic/completely lacking in self-awareness comments from too many pros re. LIV have been a joke.

Playing golf is a frustrating joy; there's always a challenge, no-one ever masters it, and no matter how bad it is on a given day, there's always that one shot/putt that brings me back again. Watching it is something completely different. Wyndham Clark is correct re. participation etc, but that doesn't correlate with viewers and there's no real reason why it should.

The pro game is an unsustainable bubble, has been for some time, and it's about to go 'pop!'.

Another aspect related to the above that's always p!ssed me off, especially in recent years, is that far too many of the 'big names' can make far too much money by only playing a very few events each year. It's a joke. Hardly any of them are actually that 'big', either.

No-one comes close to Woods at his peak and McIlroy (for all he looked like he had the world at his feet early in his PGA career) seems to have lost the plot at the highest level (still makes gazillions though, and for what, actually?). Mickleson has gone to LIV, but he's always been a PoS, so good riddance there. Ditto Garcia, who never really supported the ET/DP because (aww, bless!) he might have had to pay a bit more tax by playing in Europe - he never fulfilled his potential either. Rahm? Seriously worth that moolah LIV paid? For 2 Majors? Seriously? They've lost the plot, but others think they can get proportionately large paycheques on even less. They've lost the plot...

Where are those that really justify the big bucks? I don't see them, but they're grabbing all the cash nonetheless as the Saudis over-inflate the market, all the while moaning about how hard they have it.

They do next to f-all for a living, really, and play for very few weeks of the year. Many tournaments are made up of journeymen types, for all that their golf can be superb as well, but they don't generate the interest from too many punters who only know the names of a few.

Thinking a bit on LP's recent post re. 'personality', if I think back to some of the top names in the past, I quickly end up with the likes of:

Trevino
Ballesteros
Wadkins
Couples
Stadler
Zoeller
Palmer
Nicklaus
Player
Miller
Weiskopf
Woosnam
Norman
Stewart
Lyle
Azinger
Watson
Montgomery
Olazabal

Can add in players like Jimenez and Darcy slightly lower down the success ladder.

Loads of others, I'm sure. I can't actually think of many now, and those I can think of are mostly w/ LIV and/or at the end of careers.

navyblueshorts wrote:I don't get the metrics in the pro game. At all. The pros are earning stupidly large amounts, when many others are struggling, and for what? The money going in isn't worth the product - someone soon is going to point out that the Emperor has few, if any, clothes on.

The product on TV is (mostly) awful - it's not a good sport to televise IMO. Yes, the courses sometimes look breathtaking, but the play is dull, slow and coverage is too often awful.
I guess the large prize funds require absurd sponsor packages and advertising, hence the increasingly saturated output. The advertising does chuff all except increase the unwatchability of much of it. Fans at an actual venue watching live are, except for some of the marquee events, nowhere near big enough in number to justify the purses.

Add in the LIV farce and all the squabbling over hundreds of millions of $s for individual, already wealthy, narcissists and it's not a good look. Some of the banal/idiotic/completely lacking in self-awareness comments from too many pros re. LIV have been a joke.

Playing golf is a frustrating joy; there's always a challenge, no-one ever masters it, and no matter how bad it is on a given day, there's always that one shot/putt that brings me back again. Watching it is something completely different. Wyndham Clark is correct re. participation etc, but that doesn't correlate with viewers and there's no real reason why it should.

The pro game is an unsustainable bubble, has been for some time, and it's about to go 'pop!'.

I do think it could be a good watching product - there is nothing quite like the tension of watching a putt curl on the green and seeing if it will go in, and I think they could do a lot more with camera angles to show shot shapes/courses better.
Unfortunately, the PGA Tour in particular, seemingly think the answer to "improving the product" is throwing bigger purses at things, and going to fans "look at the money they're playing for, this event means more!".
The event only means more if you actually differentiate it in some way beyond the amount of money. Fans couldn't give two hoots that there is a bigger purse, in fact I think most of the time it turns them off!

The LIV product is a joke. It's really quite impressive with the sheer amount of money behind it, just how bad it is. Even an event last week like Adelaide which was well attended...you had water bottles being thrown at caddies, it was more of a p1ss up for mid 20 year old blokes with music being played and golf just happened to be going on in the background. Is that what they envision pro golf being?! They actually have a fair amount of talent on the tour now, but half of them don't take things even remotely seriously (and have said as much).

I do wonder when it will go "pop" if it ever will - seems the fan at home has been the only loser in this process to date somehow...I have little to no faith in that changing anytime soon.

Watching the Wells Fargo Championship on Sky. Collin Morikawa in a long discussion over a shot to a green. Rich Beem said afterwards he didn't say as much to his caddie in the whole 14 years of their work together.

I'm never wrong wrote:Watching the Wells Fargo Championship on Sky. Collin Morikawa in a long discussion over a shot to a green. Rich Beem said afterwards he didn't say as much to his caddie in the whole 14 years of their work together.

It is really insufferable. Is a discussion really going to change too much? When you get to your ball you see the target, you assess the conditions, you picture the shot. What else is there to it? Overthinking anything and hesitancy rarely leads to a better outcome.
Being in two minds over a shot is a sure way to hit a bad shot.

Well, Schauffele might have folded like a cheap napkin this Sunday, but what a dominating performance by Rory. In top form as he enters the PGA Championship.

Shotrock wrote:Well, Schauffele might have folded like a cheap napkin this Sunday, but what a dominating performance by Rory. In top form as he enters the PGA Championship.

Correct, although Schauffele just doesn't have it when it counts Rory was very impressive today; oh for a shootout between him & Scheffler next week, can't remember the last genuinely close & exciting major, maybe Matty Fitz winning the US Open.

Sadly can't see anyone beating American Dad at the PGA

super_realist wrote:Sadly can't see anyone beating American Dad at the PGA

You might be right, but McIlroy's won there before and likes the track. If he can play anywhere near the standards he reached yesterday (his driving over rds 3 & 4 was stupidly good), Scheffler will have earned his win if he adds to his Major tally. Think McIlroy has a bit of scar tissue re. Majors, so will be interesting to see how he gets on if he's in real contention on the Sunday.

Too much of the time we see 3 Round Rory.
Quite fancy Åbergs chances though of the Europeans.

Koepka coming in off the back of a win (for what it's worth) at LIV too - hopefully we'll see him, McIlroy and Scheffler all there or thereabouts for the weekend.

Forecast is not great - lots of rain predicted

super_realist wrote:Quite fancy Åbergs chances though of the Europeans.

Hope the injury that caused him to miss Quail Hollow has cleared up, as I want him to play well also.

He may be 'a' favorite, but I would not bet on Scheffler to win the PGA. Just so hard to dominate at that level. Have a strong hunch about Rory this week.

Shotrock wrote:He may be 'a' favorite, but I would not bet on Scheffler to win the PGA. Just so hard to dominate at that level. Have a strong hunch about Rory this week.

I think American Dad is about as boring and predictable a player as you could get. If anyone can keep a streak up, it's someone who plays the game as drearily as him. Does everything well, and nothing really badly. Awful to watch but highly effective.

super_realist wrote:

Shotrock wrote:He may be 'a' favorite, but I would not bet on Scheffler to win the PGA. Just so hard to dominate at that level. Have a strong hunch about Rory this week.

I think American Dad is about as boring and predictable a player as you could get. If anyone can keep a streak up, it's someone who plays the game as drearily as him. Does everything well, and nothing really badly. Awful to watch but highly effective.

I know what you mean, but I can easily admire his game, and his shot making/shaping, which is some of the best out there I think.

There is no question (in my mind) that Scheffler's casual (boring) demeanor is certainly helpful in keeping a big number off his scorecard. But his less than consistent putting can certainly be an issue for him. If it's wet, the rough at Valhalla will be very difficult.