PGA Tour: Greensboro: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Congratulations to the seventh straight non-American to win a Major Championship: Keegan Bradley.
His nationality may read USA in the record books, but close observers of the species are well aware that Vermont has so little in common with most of the other 49 States that it might just as well be a whole other country.
The only State without a McDonalds in its Capital City for instance, and not one in its biggest city either. The first State to declare for Obama in 2008 and the only State to elect a self-styled "Socialist" US Senator, a bombastic bastion of common sense. Where maple syrup is the State crop, same-sex marriage legalised, and well on track to the closest thing to universal health care you're likely to find in this country. Not surprisingly the only State not visited by a US President this century!

2).Vermonters by and large don't do golf and it is a sad irony that the last Vermont pro to make it to the PGA Tour, Jeff Julian, was diagnosed almost immediately with ALS and died way too early. But LPGA Hall Of Famer Patty Sheehan grew up here, a ski-racer just like Keegs.

3).I followed Bradley for most of 36 holes earlier this year and he seems a very grounded young man. Auntie Pat Bradley (LPGA Hall Of Famer) told him the Byron Nelson win would change his life, "but don't let it change you", and there's no reason to expect that it will. A lot like Martin Laird, Bradley hits it far and high, sometimes has a shaky short game, but is a much improved putter. And they both take their time, sometimes too slow!

4).Keegan Bradley will join Clan Chubby at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, in Bermuda this October. $600K will go to Charl, Rory, Darren or Keegan with every participant guaranteed at least $200K. 50% of the field wearing Oakley shirts.

5).Part 2 of this year's Bobby Jones trifecta (the Tour Championship will take place next month at East Lake, just down the road) offered up a thrilling finish despite all the opinions (many of them critical) about the course design. When bombers like Bradley and Scott can co-exist at the top of the same leaderboard as Verplank and Toms, you know the course has something which suits everyone.

6).Charl Schwartzel led the eleven pros who made the cut in all this year's Majors with a total of 1,118 strokes, ten ahead of Garcia and Stricker tied in second place. McIlroy, Yang, Ryan Palmer, Mickelson, Woodland, Bill Haas, Bubba Watson and Eddie Molinari were the others. That's indicative of the quality of Schwartzel's play this year and Sergio's resurgence among other things.

7).This week sees the Tour players drive a couple of hundred miles east to steamy Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Wyndham Championship, the last qualifying tournament for entry into the lucrative FedEx Play-Off season. Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington are two distinguished participants who certainly hadn't planned on spending this week in "Carolina", but they are outside the 125 qualifiers, Casey and Cabrera too. So is Louis Oosthuizen but he won't be here and his PGA Tour season will be on hiatus for six weeks, perhaps longer if he doesn't play the Fall Series. This has been a forgettable debut season for King Louis and he's two tournaments short of the required minimum of 15. That'll likely cost him PGA Tour membership unless he plays at least twice later this "fall". (Casey is in even worse shape as has been documented several times before.)

8).After Atlanta Athletic Club's hybrid course, redone as it was two or three times and looking like it, Greensboro's Sedgefield CC is a Donald Ross original, brought up to date four years ago, a par 70 playing now to 7,100 yards. Birdies will be flying however, and last year's tournament was won by Arjun Atwal at twenty under par. As well as Casey and Harrington, Europe is represented by Poulter, Carl Pettersson (a recent winner here and local resident), Richard Johnson and Stenson.

9).Yet another Senior "Major" awaits the Champions Tour players, the "Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship", held this year at the old PGA Tour site at Westchester CC in the greater New York area. Bernhard Langer is the only European in the field and, just as with the US Senior Open, the title of "Major" for this otherwise excellent Champions Tour event is a nonsense.

10).The Nationwide Tour is in Kansas with the usual quartet of Britons led by Russell Knox who has just about sewn up his Card for the 2012 PGA Tour. Make hay while you can, Nationwiders, as your fields (and hopefully one or two in Europe) will shortly be infiltrated by PGA Tour players not qualified for the FedEx package.

venice,
To follow on from your economy theme, last time I saw PFC they were advertising "jobcentre" across the front of their shirts. We'll beat the best, lose to the worst this season, should have the veteran presence to end up mid-table.

And that's where Harrington is after an early birdie, more of them needed but a promising start.

splash!
It still feels like a struggle for Padraig out there... there's no consistency at all in his game, only small little patches of good play here and there... Not sure if he wasn't better off holidaying in the Caribbeans for a while instead...

Hi pd,

I think Pad read your post and motored in 2 birdies. His wife probably encouraged him to play this week as she didn't want to potentially ruin their Caribbean vacation with him moping around the deck, seaboards and beaches because he didn't try to get some FedEx dollars. Let's not even discuss his current game and form. That's enough to mope about until early spring next year. Brendon de Jonge is apparently sailing smoothly in open waters through nine.

Hopefully he'll pick another one at this par 5, venice... drove it well, thank God! I'll try to stay patient, but there are times when it's getting really hard to take all that rollercoster... As it looks now, he needs to pick at least two more shots to get around no.125... Will be cheering for 2gloves and Casey later on...

If Harrington can come in with nothing worse than a 69, it won't be the worst day's work for him, at least he won't have lost ground, gained just a little.

Seems strange seeing two local residents doing so well early on, from Zimbabwe and Sweden . . . . !

Elsewhere, Sweden's other favourite son, Jonas Blixt, has Blixted the Nationwide front nine in seven under par. More of that and he could be a PGA Tour player next year. Owen and Knox off to a good start also.

One bright spot on Harrington's card is that he has yet to record a double or worse for the first 3 rounds. Don't know if that means he's getting closer to finding his game or the course isn't set up to relinquish that many doubles.

DLIII sneaking back to the top of the leaderboard once again this summer. Quite a rebound in his game this year.

kwini, can KtK get into Playoffs if he wins this? The way he's playing could suggest what may have been in his mind when he decided to stay in US and play Greensboro... He may well be a better player than people think of him in the West, and if he's that good, then it would be a pitty not to play in US or Europe on a more regular basis...

pd,
K-tK isn't a Tour member as far as I know so no chance of FedEx, even if he's somehow acquired Special Temporary Membership. But a win would certainly make him eligible for Tour Membership in 2012 should he choose to take it.

This could be a terrific afternoon's entertainment, course has proved it can yield 65's and 66's, can Tommy Gainey's short game hold up under pressure?

Uncalled for "weather" delay there, but they'll be back in a moment.

Paul Casey has failed to make the forward move necessary to prolong his season and now has 24 1/2 holes to recover his position in the top 125 FedEx points, starting in an unpromising position in the rough, having to get up and down to save par.

Most big names in danger of missing out on FedEx participation will just lose money, but Casey is in serious risk of losing his card and will have to play Fall Series events to leap into the top 125 on the money list.

He's suffered from Tiger Woods syndrome, paring back his schedule and then trying to play when not 100%. But Casey will pay a higher price for failure.

What the $%@&$ is going on here?!! Went downstairs to repair the passenger's side window which was stuck in the down position. (Old fashioned roll-up windows - 1: electrical windows - Zero!)

Turned on the radio, took some mighty swigs of the pale ale, Unscrewed the bolts, tore the door panel off, then an old damned Phil Collins song came on the radio, cussed again, another swig, ripped out the window motor, beat the hell out of it, yelled and thrashed the bushings, another swig, threw the thing back together while threatening the window's existence, a Heart song came on the radio, turned on the engine and thankfully for the car the window rolled up, another swig, packed away the tools, went back upstairs, put away the tools, washed my hands.)

And Ernie has only played one more hole since I last watched the broadcast?!! What was the weather delay for: lightening bolts far away in South Carolina?

Discretion the better part of valour I think venice, 'specially after those stage tragedies in Indy and Belgique. Plus they knew you had your hands full perhaps with two Barracudas?

AJ Burnett at it tonight, think we'd be better off with T Bone Burnett.

venice1 wrote:then an old damned Phil Collins song came on the radio, cussed again

Phil Collins has that effect on me too

Very good, Davie. Strange but I can no longer listen to your radio show online while at work. Could it be a filter they've added to the service or should your internet streaming be available everywhere?

kwini,
Yep. Am a sucker for the Wilson sisters. Always liked Lee Trevino's take on the lightning probably because it was one of the few times when we were sure he wasn't pulling the wool... Anyway, 29 guys within 4 shots of the lead so tomorrow bodes well for us viewers. 42 within 5 shots.

Couples, Cook, Senior and Pavin leading in Westchester, NY. The ladies are tightening up in North Plains, Oregon but it's not so obvious on their website. Obviously and sadly par for the course for the LPGA.

I think AJ just might rise to the occasion tonight as read reports they may pull him from the starting rotation due to unexpectedly leading the Sox. Crazy but one month ago they were playing for the wild card spot.

Must see: Murray vs. Djoko tomorrow in Cincinnati.

You need to be an actuary to figure out the probabilities to qualify for FedEx action, but here's a best guess of what leading players need to produce on Sunday just to get a Plainfield tee time:

Harrington: 67
Casey: 67!
Leonard: 67!!
Bohn: 67!!!
Petrovic: 67!!!!
Camilo: turn up
Els: ditto

Big wildcards are Summerhays, Mallinger, Horschel, McGirt. Great rounds by them would put the pigeon amongst the cats, really shake things up. Best news for the top guys would be a Webb Simpson, Tommy Gainey or Carl Pettersson win.

It was suggested that some refugees from the PGA Tour might appear in future Nationwide tournaments. Among those entered in Tennessee next week are:
Boo Weekley
John Daly
John Mallinger
Willie MacK
Nathan Green
Summerhays
Quinney
and about a dozen even lesser known PGA Tour card-carrying members.

Matt Richardson and Nick Flanagan are among the alternates.

Missed all the golf last night. I see that Webb Simpson had a really hot finish in Greensboro with 6-under over the last 5 holes! Question is, as kwini mentioned previously, will he be able to go on to get his first win today when he'll be much more in the spotlight...? As for Harri and Casey, all's left now for us is hope and pray...

pd,
You wouldn't have seen Simpson effort as there was an hour's weather delay and his run wasn't shown!
Great opportunity for him today, he's really sretched the field, almost assured a top three even if he just shoots even par for the round. And if he does come in level for the day, who can beat him - I'd say Pettersson is the big threat, but Ernie in 6th place, for instance, would have to shoot 64 to overtake.

Scoring conditions should be excellent this morning but a good chance of afternoon thunderstorms could disrupt the leaders, again.

All to play for in the Czech Open, but again looks to be between the top five. Bad news for venice and Lorenzo!

Meanwhile, on the Nationwide Tour JJ Killeen could win his third event in four weeks and enter the owgr top 200, at about 180th. Who??!! Knox and Owen in line for a modestly good pay day, Christian somewhat less so.

Morning kwini,

Lorenzo is giving it a good go at the moment, to be honest I'm more concerned about the Irish contingent which more or less disintegrated after the first couple of rounds. For both Peter Lawrie and Damien McGrane is not the first time when they have really strong starts and then just cannot keep up the same level of performance to the end... But it's great to see McGinley still up there on Sunday, it's been a while...
Gary Boyd is also in a good position for a strong finish today after that early birdie... just missed this one in a play-off last year.

Webb Simpson has played so well this year, he deserves to have a win to his name. I hope he will have after today!

Indeed Redrage, if only as compensation for New Orleans. Great putting stats this week and an eagle in all three rounds. Keep up that trend and he'll win going away!

High time goldwolf came on here extolling the virtues of Gary Boyd . . . . . . . . . .

Could be a great finish between the two young Englishmen Gary Boyd and Oliver Fisher in Moravia. If I'm not mistaken I think it'll be a 1st (win) for either of them on the main tour if it happens... Quite different owgr projected impacts though... A win would mean moving up in the top ~240 in the world for Fisher, but a jump within touching distance from the elite top100 for Boyd...

News of 2 x South Africans:
Schwartzel will defintely not play next week's Barclays.
Tim Clark underwent elbow surgery ten days ago and hopes to be fit to resume PGA Tour action early in 2012. After joining Frank Nobilo and performing Vice Captain duties for Greg Norman in the Presidents Cup.

Eighteen more of them please Padraig . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Eighteen more of them please Padraig . . . . .

Good chance at the 2nd as well... According to their real time fedex cup point updates, he's only one point away from #125. Looooong way though... Better keep my mouth shut, don't want to spook him again like I did with McGinley and Boyd

(...oooops!)

Was surprised to learn, unless europeantour.com is mistaken, that Oliver has never won a tournament. Had a fine 5 tourney run in early 2010 but then slipped on the deck.

Nice recovery round for Lorenzo. Ultimately, his 3 doubles in the previous rounds were his undoing. Another top 10 finish should be reassuring that his practice routine between rounds is giving him positive results. Will be interesting to see how he competes the next time his higher ranked compatriots are in the same field.

Lundberg is looking to spoil the English party in Moravia (the Irish party well over at this point). Seems he is an Eastern European expert, with his only two wins on the ET recorded at the Russian Open.
venice, unfortunately Lorenzo's effort not just enough to bring him over the top200 line, but another great result nevertheless and I would expect his upwards move in the rankings to continue in future... Funnily enough, he's not actually the best Italian (name) on that LB

Padraig back over the #125 fedex line after a little wobble at the 4th (3 bogeys at that hole this week!).

Harrington might be safe with a 68 but really needs a 67 to be sure; too many other players could leapfrog him otherwise, McGirt being one on the course that just needs a birdie or two, Kent Jones who perhaps needs three more. Casey and Lustin Justin Leonard will be in the same boat later on.

Ollie can putt!

Well done Fisher Mk 2! Can't believe he's only 22, seems like he's been the next big thing for years now. Hope he kicks on from this, been several steps back for every one forward in his career so far.

Fantastic comeback by Oliver Fisher and a sweet first win... not even 23 years of age, that's pretty good!
Not great but not that bad either the finishes from Gonzo, Howler and McGinley, hopefully their respective return to form is not too far away...

I have the feeling that Padraig decided to play it a bit on the safe side, excellent driving accuracy today (only looked at the shottracker and based on those figures I think he ditched the driver a few times for a wood or a long iron). And he's probably banking on a very good back 9 record over the first 3 rounds and hopes to pick at least another birdie there somewhere...

BAAAAANG!!!

Harrington scrambling well today, some clutch putting by the looks of things.

Ned,
How good is Ollie Fisher? Is he going to be another Dougherty or can he buckle down and be a top pro? Great result for him anyway.

Gary Koch showing what force he could be on the Champers Tour if it weren't for TV duties. The Hopkins twins showing what a farce their inclusion is in Senior events, there or here. Rubbish.
Barry Lane having a good summer!

Kwini... to be honest I have no idea, he's bounced so wildly between good results and absolute horror runs that it's impossible to tell. Didn't see much of the action this week, but what I did, he looked to have a lovely swing which inexplicably ended up 30 yards wide all too often. Jury's still out I think.


Harrington in as things stand... but I'd want two more birdies if I were him.

Well, if Padraig doesn't make it, that'll be one he regrets letting get away.

Can't afford to give anything away his last 3 holes.

Two shots effectively dropped by Padraig in his last four holes and now it will be brown trouser time for a few hours.
Billy McDirt just let him off one hook, but Casey, Petrovic, Bohn and Leonard are other bullets to dodge.

Whatever happens, Harrington will need a top result at Plainfield CC next week to make it to TPC Boston and recent form suggests his Bahamian holiday will just be postponed a fortnight.

Dismal start for Casey and, barring a miracle, he's destined for the Fall Series. Or Q-School. Or Europe.

Harrington still doing his best Molly Hatchett, flirting with disaster.

Oh dear... I went away for a couple of hours and now I wish I stayed there until tomorrow! Harrington fans must be some of the most tortured souls around...

I need to concentrate on someone who's winning for a change. That won't be Casey... or Ernie. But either Webb or 2gloves would be nice...

Camilo doing what he needs to do, Leonard doing what he has to do, so far, Els and Harrington hanging on, Casey well adrift; could probably birdie in and still miss out. OK, there's the first!

Time for Gainey and Simpson to make a move; Pettersson's one guy who's not afraid to win, especially here, driving it well and hit all 14 fairways Saturday.

Harrington is in now that Justin Leonard has finished......barring some sort of freakish events from here.............

So, does Harrington live to play another day?

It seems this is a course the old vets can sink their teeth into. Must be a disappointing round for Ernie. Even more so for Carl Petterson who had to be one of the favorites going into today's action. Vijay... must have rejuvenated vampire blood. KT Kim to get the special invite? Finally, why can't Camilo play this way all the time?

kwini

While looking at Webb Simpson's wiki page I see he went to Wake Forrest Uni, which as some impressive golf alumni with quite a few majors between them.

Arnold Palmer 7
Lanny Wadkins 1
Darren Clarke 1
Curtis Strange 2


That is of course 4 major winners and 11 majors in total, do you know if any other uni can beat that?

Harrington definitely in but for what? More misery next week?? A double dose of Donald Ross and he'll need to be in top form to survive next week's cut.

And difficult not to feel the same about Els.

K-t quieting anyone who doubted the validity of his owgr top twenty presence.

Mac,
What was DC doing at Wake? Did he spend any longer there than Faldo did at Houston (about six weeks, give or take)?

Jay Haas, Billy Haas and Billy Andrade among other golfers who played at Wake, possibly an Inman or two also.

Not sure what DC was up to, I was just going by wiki.

Anyone else a little shocked that Howell III could be ranked 25th in the fedex? I thought he was a goner long ago.

Is the short stick dead?

I hope our friend "Noel" was on Webb Simpson, this could be the first of many wins I'd think.

Mac,
CHIII just clocks up the top 25's, not much for the owgr's but great for FedEx points and his bank manager. This will be his 8th $100K or better cheque this year.

Good to see CHIII back on the leaderboards, big difference this year are his putting stats..

Nice to see Webb hopefully bagging his 1st title barring 18th blow out. He was my tip atstart of year for most improved and impressive player.

And a congrats to Olly Fisher today finally living up to his promise.

P.s... Didn't know DC went to college in the states did they serve the black stuffin the Uni Bar

kwinigolfer wrote:Harrington definitely in but for what? More misery next week??

Yup!

Talking aabout KtK, I was marveling a while ago on 606 after people were asking how this guy can be in top 30s in the world, going through his records and I think it is worth having another look now, as it is quite astonishing... I don't care if he played mainly on the Korean and Japanese tours until now, the reality is that this guy has NEVER missed a cut in the past two years on those tours in Asia (out of 56 tournaments)!!!!!!!!!! The ONLY TWO cuts he missed in the last two years have been at the Northern Trust in US this February and at RStG in July! Now after those last three weeks in US, it appears that travelling is not an issue anymore... Wonderful!

Looks like Webb is gonna be the man!

So the long putter wins the last 3 US events, and I think you would have had poor odds on guessing Webbs first words upon post round interview would've been thanking god!

So that means the farcical season begins with the cash cow that is Fed-Ex cup commencing at the barclays next week, with the likes of Els, Harrington and Villegas squeezing in and Paul Casey needing to think about his schedule as right now he's not going to be retaining that PGA tour card unless my maths are way off....

FFS not another North American Bible Basher? I have been cheering him on all night too. Oh well, thanks for getting one over the bookies for me, Mr. Simpson or should I thank your lord and saviour J.C?

Pass me the sick bag!!!

Just listened to Webb Simpson thanking his Lord and saviour, he could feel his presence all the way round.