PGA Tour: The Greenbrier: Notes from the Ballwasher

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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 . . . . . . .

Excellent round today by Brian Davis, six under par 64 and vaulted into the top ten.

Sergio finished with a 69 and sits on the cut-line precipice in 68th position, tied with 22 of his best friends.

Chris Baryla's name was flashing on the lead board earlier. The Canadian is on a medical exemption and hasn't made a cut all year. 4th in driving distance, nothing else better than 100th in the major stats. But he's said to be an intellectual genius so you'd hope he might get things figured out?

Southern Africa, De Jonge and Immelman, striking out at the head of affairs, -7.

My bad ... OK, 70/30 he makes 4 rounds!

Seriously, I hope he let this fully heal.

Simon Dyson is someone I would like to see in the PGA. Plays some inspired golf at times.

Sr,
Dyson already qualified for the PGA by virtue of his high finish (6th?) last year. But he's not in the Bridgestone. Yet.

I think TW is gambling on finishing high enough next week and the week after to qualify for The Barclays, etc. Hoping he'll be fully fit and rarin' to go by then with a chance (longshot) at the FedEx jackpot. Good luck!

I seem to remember Lowry getting into the Bridgestone on back of winning Irish Open. Can't remember if it was '09 or '10 however.

Yup lairdy, It depends upon the total number of pts available each tournament - has to be at least 115. For instance, Rock sadly misses out because the Italian Job didn't warrant that number of points, even with a Molinari and Matteo in the field.

princedrac will let us know when he's back from Killarney - they sem to be enjoying pretty decent crowds there.

I'm guessing that the condition of Tiger's leg will be inversely proportional to his position on the leaderboard, and not the other way around.

Smither - He can go low with a bad leg (see 2008 US open), or high with a bad leg as he did earlier this year. I'm guessing he'll be plenty rusty, but hopefully he's on a healed wheel.

Unlike when he reversed into the fire hydrant when he was a wheeled heel.
Sorry about that.

Kwin -

Two tournaments on the PGA Tour next week, the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and the Reno-Tahoe Open.
The field for the Bridgestone will be finalised on Monday (really Sunday), but the 76 commitments don't appear to reveal any notable absentees.

Reno is a popular venue and the field looks much better than the dismal turn-out at the Viking event in Mississippi opposite The Open. Brian Davis (unless he wins The Greenbrier), Richard Johnson and Jose Maria Olazabal will be there, and Davis has played well there in the past.

NO GB&I interest remaining in the Nationwide event this week, Richardson in particular carding everything from eagle to triple bogey. The talent is obviously there, but consistency will be his undoing.
Christian, Knox, Owen and Richardson try again next week, in Nebraska. A relatively big bucks purse so an important week for all of them.

I see T Woods has entered the PGA Championship.

Another fine morning as The Greenbrier boys are on their way. Temps rising into the high eighties with a good chance of afternoon thunderjobs. Not much breeze so it should be humid and conducive to low scores.

Sergio off in half an hour in need of a good round, while Brian Davis sets off in one of the leading groups with the aptly named Derek Lamely.

The US Senior Closed second round has finally wrapped up at Inverness with Olin Browne leading the way, Bernhard Langer 16th, and Sweden's Hogberg 43rd. The British seniors? Ah, that's right, not invited. Thank you USGA.

No-one ripping it up in the early Greenbrier going; Sergio already with a 3-putt on his card, 73rd out of 75 in putting so far.

Interesting to see Andre Stolz having a good couple of days; won Las Vegas seven years ago and this is only his fifth cut since. Where do these guys disappear to?

C'mon Sergio! 2 more birdies would be a big jump up the leaderboard right now.

You spoke too soon Lairdy.

All of a sudden some fine scores have sprung up from the most unlikely sources, Jimmy Walker especially. Been struggling the past four months after a super start to his season. And fellow Texan Bob Estes makes only his second cut all year and rattles in with a 65. You just never know.

Blimey, Anthony Kim puts his head above the parapets.
He looks a touch out of place in these genteel Greenbrier surroundings but he's hit form today. An unexpected guest to say the least.
Brian Davis stuck in neutral early in his round.

On the US Senior Closed, I see that the USGA official leaderboard has placed an American flag next to Nick Price's name. They should be so lucky, Good Lord!

Guess AK is serious about playing the PGA in a couple of weeks. Are Brian Davis and Brendon de Jonge playing a different course than everyone else today? Chris DiMarco??? still manages to stay on the tour with his swing? Only 9 guys better currently in West Virginee.

Also saw that flag next to Nick Price's name. Is he declaring U.S. citizenship soon??!

Very strange business in West Virginia. Some unlikely guys playing well, everyone I like obviously on the moonshine last night.

But just to put a punctuation mark on it, venice : won today!

Talking about coming back from the dead...
Will the Sean O'Hair win last week gonna be followed this week by Anthony Kim and David Howell wins!? If so, that pattern will be hard to dismiss for next week... Tiger to win Bridgestone!!??

pd,
If AK wins tomorrow, he'll not only earn a Firestone spot, but he'll make it just that little bit trickier for Webb Simpson to get in.

I would love to see Kim win he seems like my everyman. He fully admits that he spends a little too much time watching rudey poo tv and seems to have an aversion to going to the hairdressers. Both of which I identify with, oh and the occasional course management issue.

kwini, at the moment webb's doing well enough to see himself through, but you're right, a Kim win combined with a Fish or Dyson win in Killarney, etc., would mean that Simpson has to keep it around this sort of level (top 5) until the finish tomorrow. His case has been eased somewhat by Ishi and Byrd missing the cuts, plus Sergio's presumably 'point-less' result so far...

pd,
Simpson rolled in birds in his last two holes; improves his chances since I tried to condemn him!

Mac,
Not sure whether AK is everyman or spoiled brat. Certainly got talent to spare, but time is running out for him unless he can get the job done tomorrow.

Kwini

I am guessing you mean time is running out for him to get into this seasons bigger events, anything else is a bit overly doom laden.

I notice bill haas up there, is it me or has he not gone a little quiet this season? Last year he was a player that I would not have been surprised to see win something big.

Mac,
Kim has slid precipitously with his only saving grace being The Open. If he stumbles on Sunday, he'll lose the chance to make up any significant ground, miss easy Firestone pickings, and risk missing out on some lucrative FedEx events, all the while losing points which he'll be unlikely to recover until January.

Bill Haas is a good player, said today he's using a different putter after putting poorly for a while. Agree, could be as good as most of the Young 'uns. He lives close to Atlanta and could be suited by the PGA.

Weather outlook not so good at The Greenbrier as the players get through their breakfast grits; no bacon butties in West Virginia.

Expected to be partly cloudy all day with a good chance of afternoon thunderstorms, not much wind, temps reaching the mid eighties. Looks like great scoring conditions again so you'd think Anthony Kim and the other leaders will have to continue to play aggressively.

Perhaps Sergio can set 'em alight early on; still almost last in the field in putts per gir. Meanwhile Brian Davis rescued his round late Saturday and leaves the stalls still in 11th place.

Morning kwini,

Bio(hazard) Kim is running away from the field but by only 3 holes through 10. Definitely wouldn't hire him as a rabbit for the mile or 1500 event. Jason Day was on the 16th tee at the relative same time when he was the lone wolf last month.

Davis is certainly in the mix with the low scoring in 'dem hills.' I'd even give a shot for someone starting -4 today. Also like the way Woodland and Simpson have kept their form. Kim, Couch, Merrick and Baird the only ones with all 3 rounds in the 60's. Too bad Briny's 7 shots off the pace, though.

How 'bout dem Bombers! Scored enough runs yesterday to last a week. Hopefully that's not the case.

Catriona currently in the hunt through 10 today but 3 shots behind Yani Tseng. Would be great for The Ladies Open if she could somehow pull it off.

Hi venice,
Bats en fuego yesterday. But all for nought if they don't win today. Somewhat reassured no daft trades so far.

Not watching the Ladies but sad to see Don Masson's granddaughter throwing away three days' fine work. Yani Tseng seems as far ahead of the rest of the Ladies as Catriona Matthew is of the British Ladies, Karen Stupples sometimes excepted.

Once again the Greenbrier backmarkers are rather dragging their feet, no big moves yet awhile.

Meanwhile, it annoys me no end that Golf Channel don't advertise their coverage from Ireland as tape-delayed. But really enjoying the low key coverage nonetheless. Anyone's tournament as Dyson throws one away . . .

How's your knee?

Same here waiting for some fireworks at the Greenbrier but Driscoll and Hayes showing almost blazing a trail. Just realized that the Kim's may be bookending the leaderboard by the end of the day. Wonder if that's ever happened.

kwini,
Thanks for asking about the knee as at this moment I have it elevated and iced to the gills. It is responding remarkably well and I have a good chance of rehabbing the thing without surgery. Going to use that as an excuse for the next sixth months or so as I'll put tons of exercise and sport activity on my calendar and discard anything that has to do with work (besides my paying job).

Will also feel less guilty about watching the tube and strumming the guitar. BTW, recently bought a ukulele as if I don't have enough instruments already. Been listening to the required Cliff Edwards and Roy Smeck tunes on youtube. Quite remarkable.

kwini, regarding your querry on Brian Davis, things are pretty 'fluid' in relation to the owgr around #100. After adding in the results from JP and Killarney and the weekly amortization, here is how it looks at the moment (without Greenbrier results):
...
90 Scot Verplank
91 Thomas Aiken
92 David Horsey
93 Tommy Gainey
94 Pablo Larazabal
95 Rickie Barnes
96 John Senden
97 Davis Love III
98 Johan Edfors
99 Noh Seung-Yul
100 Jamie Donaldson
-----------------------------
101 Brian Davis
102 Bae Sang-Moon
103 Jhonattan Vegas
104 Heath Slocum
105 Robert Rock
106 Kevin Streelman
107 Carl Petersson
....

Brian certainly needs to move a bit higher than he is now to have a chance.
Petersson, De Jonge, Romero, Couch, D.A., among the potential threats remaining for him in that sense...

Sorry, had to re-edit that table in the previous post as I had some wishfull points 'forgoten' in there for Rock from a couple of days ago. He's actually out of it...

Sorry but I had to delete a post with a link to a streaming site (probably too late now anyway)

We're not allowed to post links to streaming sites here unless the are legal - It is possible that there are legal sites around for various sports but I've yet to find one.

If anyone does find a legal site, then please flag it as such when you post it - otherwise they will always be removed before our forum hosts jump all over out collective asses

Sounds like I've missed something here; apparently The Greenbrier spot will be on the Fourth Of July weekend next year replacing the AT&T Invitational so so much for all the patriotic symbolism - obviously patriotism doesn't trump dollars.
Still waiting to discover further scheduling changes and will pass them on when things become clearer.

Bob Estes -10 is starting to look awfully good. Has won 4 times, last in 2002. Would like to see a playoff, though.

I'd be amazed if no one else gets up to -10 by the end venice! Question is more whether anyone can get to -11. Set up for a great finish anyway.


Much prefer the idea of this tournament tying in with 4th July than the AT&T. And I'll stick my neck out and say this stop'll last a good deal longer than Tiger's tourney too.

I think if I had had to choose a likely winner form the morning's top fifty, Bob Estes would have been my last choice. Ten looks like being the number though.

Ned,
Have you seen anything official yet on that date change?

Meanwhile, Zach Johnson's caddie (Damon Green) had a terrific finish in the US Senior Closed, probably about 13th. Pretty good after also making the Walton Heath cut.
And USGA's favourite American, Nick Price, will finish about 9th. Olin Browne currently in the driver's seat.

Great comeback teeshot from Stallings on the last, and clutch putt, hope he can win the playoff. Kim winds up at T18th, two steps forward and one step back for him.

Kwini, all I've heard about it is your post above! A quick google search throws up this:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/sports/2011/07/going-home-place-it-belongs

Thanks Ned, strange there's been nothing on pgatour.com.

Right, I'm busy for a few minutes . . . . !

Mac, Others, did you happen to see the Tiger/WGC promo video that sky showed on Sat night? Pretty sure it was on saturday night when they were waiting on the US network coverage change. Like I've said I'm no great Tiger fan but that video tape made my hairs stand on end. The soundtrack, flash bulbs at dusk, the happiness exuding that he clearly misses now - it reminded me that as much has happened to guy over the past few years (a lot of it his own doing) he did bring this great energy to golf. An energy almost entirely of his own doing. Off course I cant really take to him but when I see it just boiled down to the golf like that I totally get the Tiger Woods fanaticism (not that I am directly accusing you of this Mac, I really mean the fan base and media attention).

Missed most of the golf coverage this weekend, damn actually having to do something on a weekend night. People should know that is PGA tour time.

Yes I remember the images from 200 well, that is the sort of global big time sporting image golf lacks at the moment. The sort of pictures like Alonso and Hamilton side by side into casino square, messi lighting up the champions league final, yankee stadium during the world series etc. People forget tiger elevated the sport to the same level as these events and now he has faded golf my never reach such heights again. He produced the spectacular and the greatest example was the 2000 us open at pebble. The greatest ever performance compared to the rest of the field in major history. His relative performance compared to both the other players and in overcoming the course and its difficulty was in a different league to McIlroy at congressional.

You missed a good finish Mac, three in a Play-Off, five one shot back, almost all unlikely lads.
Your buddy Bill Haas probably woulda, coulda, shoulda but perhaps they all had hard luck stories. In the end, Stallings made the crucial putts.

As for Tiger, although I deplore the Tigercentricity of media coverage when he's playing, there's no doubt his very presence, for better or for worse, adds electricity to every tournament he plays. Given the confusing nature of communiques from the Tiger camp, I don't think anyone has any real idea what to expect this week - hopefully his presence will shunt Rorygate into the background.
It'll be interesting to see who gets grouped with Woods the first two days; so many of the early round tee-time groups have been contrived recently one can only hope that the PGA Tour have enough sense to keep Rory and Adam Scott away from TW.

Hi Kwini, was hoping for a Woodland victory but Faldo was right - Gary needs to learn how to hit one club varying distances. Terrific attempt at an eagle on 17 though and the sky studio team were fawning over his swing all weekend. Simon Holmes (who I find ever increasingly hilarious), swing coach and sky pundit, was particularly impressed.

IMO Stallings had a great advantage of having just played the play off hole. The other two trying to reherse the tee shot on the practice ground whilst Stallings literally jogged back to the tee after finishing it the 1st time round.

The advantage of playing better golf for the preceding 3 days and being in the final group Lairdy?

Sounds like Mr.Woods is putting a playing schedule together and has confirmed his entry into the Australian Open (held at The Lakes in Sydney)the week prior to November's Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

Don't understand why he can't afford US tournaments the same courtesy of an early commitment announcement, but I suppose that's his prerogative.

MustPuttBetter wrote:The advantage of playing better golf for the preceding 3 days and being in the final group Lairdy?

Exactly. He earned it!

kwinigolfer wrote:Sounds like Mr.Woods is putting a playing schedule together and has confirmed his entry into the Australian Open (held at The Lakes in Sydney)the week prior to November's Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

Don't understand why he can't afford US tournaments the same courtesy of an early commitment announcement, but I suppose that's his prerogative.

Does the PGA tour pay him $2 million dollars just for turning up on the 1st tee? If not I guess that is why the are not offered the same courtesy.

Mac,
I'm sure his pension fund is now of such a size that it's worth more than $2M an appearance; in these days of cuts to entitlement programmes, here and there, I'm sure the PGA Tour could slash his pension pay-out.

Some would say (actually a Golf Channel guy did last week) that he's just an ungrateful git whose agenda continues to be "Me me me", and is loth to give anything back to the PGA Tour tournaments and their directors.

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?

It sounds like they are going to rotate the Volvo Champions event between regions...(?) Wonder if there's any chance we might see the event in England. Unlikely, but one can hope...

Is the Aus Open the same event that TW has entered the last couple of years, or was that the Aus Masters? Whichever one it was, I thought that Luke Donald was going to be the "guest of honour" this year.

Hi Skydriver,
Woods has previously played the "JBWere Masters".

Not too sure about Luke Donald's plans now his wife is expecting in the autumn. (And that might also disrupt his FedEx Play-Off programme.)
Regardless, there'll be a strong field as Fred Couples is pressuring his Pres Cup team to play and the Dustin Bubba show has already committed.