PGA Tour: The Greenbrier: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Another head-scratching win on the PGA Tour, this time by Sean O'Hair. He'd only made three cuts in his previous twelve events, hadn't made a top 15 all year, fired his coach (Sean Foley, still great friends), dumped a caddie or two and by his own admission was at an all-time low last Tuesday. Fortunately he read an inspiring passage in the bible Wednesday night and hasn't looked back. That Gideon fellow has a lot to answer for.

2).What did everybody make of Shaughnessy GC? A "terrific par 73" (which it is for the members) according to Sunshine Goydos, while Geoff Ogilvy lamented bunkers in the "wrong places" and non-indigenous trees being brought in to stiffen up the challenge. And Luke Donald liked the course well enough but decried the set-up.
Questioner: "Is this a (course set-up) you'd like to see more of on Tour?"
Lukey: "Not really. I think they're very close to having it set up well. I think the rough is just a little bit too penal. I think they need an intermediate cut."
But, in the wake of Royal St.George's and the chat about just playing the course, not worrying too much what the par is on any particular hole, it was fascinating watching rounds unravel at Shaughnessy as pros committed the cardinal sin of trying to follow up a poor shot with a perfect shot. Double bogeys everywhere.
I still expect the "Canadian" date to be switched when the new TV Network contract causes some dates to be shuffled.

3).Following the talk about amateurs playing well recently in pro events, it's worth noting that O'Hair turned pro at 17, most unusual in the U.S. Meanwhile amateur Patrick Cantlay has left almost $350K on the tournament table in his last four Tour events.

4).A couple more thoughts about Royal St.George's before we move on:
~The ob to the right of the 14th fairway looks incongruous with the rest of the course. Wonder if anyone has ever sought to borrow land (from Prince's?) just for The Open to make it less penal, especially in Dustin Johnson territory up towards the green where the path/road on Prince's seems to veer away from RStG?

~From the comfort of my armchair, RStG looked a very fair test, yet the press seem to insist on calling it quirky even though The Open evidence didn't really support that. I wonder if Jack Nicklaus's clever (glib?) bon mot that "Open venues get worse the further south you travel" needs to be revised? (He's advocating for Royal Dornoch.)

5).It's The Greenbrier Classic this week with a couple of distinguished multiple Major Champions on hand, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson. Last year's inaugural edition saw Stuart Appleby clinch the title with a final round 59. Since then there have been changes to the course (details on pgatour.com) including 200 added yards and redone greens. Consensus is that 59 will be nothing but a distant memory this week. Brian Davis the only Briton here.

6).This week will be the final chance to qualify for both the WGC Bridgestone and the PGA Championship. Golfers playing this week with an opportunity to reach the owgr top 50 and Bridgestone exemption are Ryan Palmer, Webb Simpson, Anthony Kim and JB Holmes (all at Greenbrier) and Simon Dyson (in Ireland).
The PGA Championship invites the top 70 moneywinners over the past twelve months and Brandt Jobe, Jerry Kelly and the resurgent Andres Romero lead those on the outside looking in.
In addition, the PGA's goal is to invite the top 100 from the owgr's and Brian Davis (99th) and Robert Rock (102nd) are among those in a precarious position.

7).This week will be the last for Brad Faxon as a regular on the PGA Tour as he plays his 706th PGA Tournament. With eight wins he turns 50 on Aug 1st and heads immediately to Minnesota and next week's Champions Tour stop.

8).Tom Watson, The Greenbrier's "pro emeritus" eschews the US Senior Open to compete in The Greenbrier Classic where he is also joined by fellow seniors Kenny Perry and Tom Pernice. Don't ask me why there are Senior Majors when those eligible choose to play elsewhere.
Interestingly, Watson will be grouped with Mickelson on Thursday and Friday and Watson is adamant the two have never before been paired in a PGA Tour event. Amazing!

9).The US Senior Open is being played at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Among winners of significant events at Inverness are Craig Stadler, 1973 US Amateur; Hale Irwin, 1979 US Open; Bob Tway (by one stroke from Norman), 1986 PGA; and Paul Azinger (in a play-off with Norman), 1993 PGA; Bruce Lietzke, 2003 Senior US Open. Stads, Irwin, Tway and Lietzke are hoping to add to past glories.

While we're at it, the US Senior Open, I have a gripe. The US / UK special relationship obviously doesn't apply to the USGA. At least 50 US pros played at Walton Heath last week, about 33 made the cut. How do you think the USGA reciprocates to that hospitality? By excluding all GB&I golfers from the final field. As far as I can see Langer and the faux Irishman, McNulty, are the only "Europeans" at Inverness. Nice. Let's hope Langer wins. Again.

10).And the Nationwide Tour heads West, to Utah, where Russell Knox (6th), Greg Owen (31st), Gary Christian (38th) and Matthew Richardson resume their quest for a PGA Tour card. We'll be tracking their progress all season.

PS: No official word yet on Tiger Woods and his possible participation at the Bridgestone. But: yahoo sports are quoting Sean Foley as telling CBS that, as at Tuesday:
Tiger "hasn't even started working out on the driving range. We have not hit any balls. And I have no idea what his plans are as far as when he plays again." That would appear to rule out the PGA Championship as well and, thus, the FedEx Play-Off season. But who knows, Tiger and his team have been known to tell porkies before . . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:I see "Bahrain" has been cancelled for 2012.

Wouldn't it be great if the European Tour and PGA Tour could find a way to ratchet up the prizemoney for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and invite the European Tour Champions also?

Yes. Its a great event and I know the field is supposed to be exclusive but it can feel too small, particularly when the likes of Phil or Tiger don't turn up. Surely inviting the euro winners would suit Finchem and the euros considering pgatour membership but struggling for the required number of tour stops, which is what your getting at it here eh?

Sort of Lairdy, As I mentioned somewhere else on here there's a lot of press concern that each of the Major Tours are failing to synchronize their schedules to the extent that they sometimes are all in conflict, Women's, Seniors, Euro, Sunshine, Aussie, PGA etc.
Combining these two events was one of the ideas put forward and with Bahrain out of the picture this would be a great opportunity to start the European and PGA Tours with a bang instead of a whimper.
'Course, the rank and files, especially here, might complain others are getting a sniff of the bigger prize, but there'd be more owgr points and perhaps a ticket for some different faces into the SONY Hawaii Open the following week.
And, yes, it would suit the Caseys / Oosthuizens of this world as well!

I see Ross Fisher is no longer in the Bridgestone field. Hope that doesn't mean that there's a serious health issue with his child, as princedrac reported Sunday.

snap kwini (just posted on the other thread)...

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011055/news/newsid=141878.html

Tiger practicing today at AAC, presumably with the USPGA in mind...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7664549&l=244f358426&id=49600122321

He must be employing a full-time barber these days, can't remember how many variations of 'goatee' styles I've seen him displaying over the past months...

Tiger finally moving into his dream home, I think we have discussed this mega house on here before. He has also chosen a new club to join, I wonder if they waived the joining fee?

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/golf/tiger-woods-sightings-in-south-florida-increase-as-1642188.html

Actually an interesting read which reveals some everyday activities of the top pros's.

Another interesting read, although not golf related.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all

Mac,
Have you seen photographs of the practice facility Geronimo has built in Florida? Amazing really.

Thanks for the New Yorker piece. Extraordinary story; pity Dubya didn't have the balls to get the job done eight years earlier - too many lives have been lost so senselessly since then.

I am not usually into these war type stories but there really was something a little special about this one.

The US does not realise just how lucky they are to have Obama, I man who seems able to look beyond whether he is guaranteed a second term. No doubt he knows the weakness of the Republican hopefuls but still he could have taken an easier route on occasions. If one of those helicopters had hit a powerline somewhere in the Pakistani wilderness he may as well have shot the victims himself, for all the difference it would have made to his ratings.

Mac,
Preaching to the converted, the US people will never know how lucky they are.
Biggest terrorism threat now comes from within, Eric Cantor, Bachmann, etc, etc.

On a more controversial note, the Golf Channel reports that T.Woods and D.Clarke will be paired together at Firestone, described by golfchannel.com as "pandering" to Tiger. Don't suppose it helps DC, but perhaps that goes with the territory.

I thought DC and Tiger were mates?

Cant see either of them doing very well so they may as well have a laugh while they are at it.

Mac, They are. Think the reasoning was that, if you contrive the tee-times, is it healthy to pair friends in something allegedly prestigious like a WGC.

Following the withdrawal of Ross Fisher, Charlie Hoffman is also a doubt, suffering stomach pains and has delayed his travel to Akron at least until today.