PGA Tour: Las Vegas: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Thrilling end to the golf this past Sunday. And the Tour Championship was exciting too.
Seriously, loved the Solheim Cup; compelling viewing and just a hint that some Americans were a touch overawed, intimidated by the occasion. Lots written about some of the better known European heroines but Sophie Gustafson won all her four matches, and I'd never heard of Christel Boeljon before she started to turn up on qualifying lists. What a terrific win for her after losing both her Saturday matches to come out and whack Brittany Lincicome, the longest of the US Team. Alison Nicholas might be the only Solheim Cup Captain to have been born in Gibraltar!

2).As for Bill Haas's win, the tournament couldn't have been much more nail-biting (for his father at least) but not sure it was a validation of the FedEx Cup Play-Off structure - the possibility for the lottery winner coming from 25th position and not having won all year hadn't even occurred to Billy; he had to be told by Flinchem at the presentation that the reason no-one else was there was because he'd won the FedEx jackpot as well. Had to look to his wife for her confirmation! Sad to say, Number One matched the stereotypical view of him and, even after all his successes this year, one feels he needs to back up his consistency with more wins.

3).On the subject of Lukey, he's $70K+ ahead of Webb Simpson now on the money list. Luke will play Dunhill this week, Madrid next and then take paternity leave for six or seven weeks. Webbo is thought likely to enter McGladrey's and/or Disney to try and overtake Donald for the money title.

4).Can't leave Lukey without commenting on his extraordinary "3-putt avoidance" stat:
Currently at 434 holes played without a 3-putt and now a full tournament ahead of the previous longest streak since this stat began to be tracked in 2003. According to my arithmetic, never a strong point, he hasn't recorded a 3-putt, therefore, since the Bridgestone in early August!
(Perhaps an even bigger surprise is that the golfer with the second longest current streak is Sergio. Don't tell NBC TV.)

5).Presidents Cup Captain's Choices are made this evening by Couples and Norman. Would think Bill Haas cooked Keegan Bradley's goose and expect Fred to select Mr.Bill.
Baddeley has surely played his way on to the International Team and, in the absence of a compelling case from Senden or Vijay, I'd be shocked if Allenby doesn't fill the 12th position.
Meanwhile, chances of Woods and DJ playing together? Perhaps against Adam Scott??

6).Apropos the Presidents Cup and the possibility that Stricker's injury might prevent him taking part, the always witty Geoff Ogilvy had this comment about the Stricker/Woods partnership:
"One guy hits every fairway and makes every putt. And the other guy is Tiger Woods."
Ogilvy also had this to say about Louis Oosthuizen, who looks likely to miss out on Melbourne (among other things), quoted on pgatour.com:
"All things being equal, I think Louis is the best golfer in the world, but he just doesn't shoot the scores. The way he swings and the way he chips, I just love watching his game. You guys probably think that's a ridiculous statement, but he just makes golf look too easy to me . . . . . I don't understand how he doesn't win all the time, or at least contend all the time."
Strange that. Exactly what I think about Ogilvy's game! Maybe next year for Geoff, finally fully fit again.

7).And so to Las Vegas, site of Play-Offs the past two years for Martin Laird. Won one. Lost one. The "Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open" is the first event of the ever-shrinking Fall Series, but is also the entrance to the finishing straight of the race to retain full PGA Tour "playing privileges" for 2012. $787K was enough for Troy Merritt to retain his card last year; this season will be about the same, say $800K, as marginally higher prizemoney is offset by one less tournament. So who's at risk? These are notables with their earnings so far:
DiMarco: $740K
O'Hern: $629K
Pampling: $606K
Matt Jones: $591K
Trahan: $567K
Mayfair: $538K
Casey: $460K
Leonard: $434K
Curtis: $403K
Petrovic: $394K
Riley: $377K
Vaughn Taylor: $375K
Duval: $362K

One or two of the above, notably Justin Leonard, have Career-earnings exemptions to utilise, but no-one wants to use them unless they absolutely have to.

8).Quick quiz: If I told you a player had enjoyed a tournament run starting in Greensboro five weeks ago: 12th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 9th, you'd've assumed he won a Play-Off packet.
But these are the results of John Mallinger, a Tour veteran of five years who has been playing the 2011 PGA Tour on "conditional status", and took his good Greensboro finish to the Nationwide Tour. And these results have secured his PGA Tour membership for 2012. Don't overlook his fine form as he plays in Las Vegas.
Apart from Laird, and Brian Davis (now withdrawn, not sure why), Europeans Pettersson, Johnson and the recently injured Cejka will play in the desert heat - mid-90'sF every day, so the ball will fly!
FedEx refugees playing in Vegas include Byrd, Reavie and Watney. I like the chances of Chad Campbell, Hoffman and Lunde, while the otherwise anonymous George McNeill is a regular contender here..

9).We had fun celebrating Tom Kite's 1,000th PGA Tour PLUS Champions Tour event this week at the Seniors SAS event in North Carolina. Did you also know Tom Kite is also just two career cuts off the all-time PGA Tour record? 590 cuts in 713 PGA Tour starts.
Who has the record of 592 career PGA Tour cuts??

10).The Nationwide season is winding down and Europeans Gary Christian (5th), Jonas Blixt (6th) and Russell Knox (9th) are nailed on to qualify for next year's PGA Tour. Chopra is 24th and Greg Owen 47th both needing some top finishes, starting this week in West Texas.

Finally, who's the biggest diva in sport? Serena Williams? Michelle Wie?? or Tiger Woods???

Ah,
I had expected Watney to perhaps overhaul Kuchar but perhaps I'm confounded by the dreaded divisor!
No chance for Jonathan Byrd to sneak by Le Tigre if he can reach the top 15 - 20?


Meanwhile, Gainey, Na and Levin are all sneaking up on the top thirty money-winners. They won't secure their place this week but just "close" will keep them playing for the next three weeks.

Reports that the aforesaid Tiger Woods blasted a back nine 29 to break the course record at Greg Norman's Medallist Club design with a 62.

Nope... Although he recovered some ground today, Byrdie needs a top 7 or so to do that, which still looks to me a bit beyond his capabilities this week...

Hanson may have the next best chance to pass Tiger after Oosty... he'll need a top 8-ish in Scotland and he's currently only 2-3 shots behind that target...

kwinigolfer wrote:Reports that the aforesaid Tiger Woods blasted a back nine 29 to break the course record at Greg Norman's Medallist Club design with a 62.

Yep, I saw that... one other detail there was that the rating of that course is 74.5 and the slope 142, which sounds like a pretty tough course...

Yeah, the one thing you can be sure of is that it's two better than Shark has ever shot.


What's the deal with Kevin Na? Is he completely unravelling?? Two swings now where he's swung away from the ball at the last split second, short putts missed, which he never does, and he has the modified JCB out on the 14th tee box.

Nick Watney's at the bar.

Watney's the best ranked there so would be good to see him wining...
Talking about course ratings, I wonder what's the rating for this course in Vegas? Currently no less than 40 players are 10-under or better there...!!!

The other thing is that if Watney wins this, he'll get within just ~265k$ from Luke and #1 on the money list...

Had hoped to see an official statement on Kevin Na's swing-that-wasn't-a-swing on #15 in Round 3, but all pgatour.com gives us is a blase bit from Na saying, basically, "I do this all the time".

Na has teed it up on Tour 211 times now and maybe this will be the moment for win number one. Still only just turned 28 he's already close to the top of the list when it comes to tournaments played without a win (Brian Davis #5 on the same list).

Fact is, for a player who's dead last on Tour in ball-striking, he's driving long and straight this week and if he can continue that you'd have to think his short game could pull him through.

Very big IF though and Nick Watney will be beside him, hoping to banish any demons from forgettable deliveries during the FedEx Play Offs.

Just read the obituary of Dave Hill in The Independent. Apropos Hill's criticism of Hazeltine, the obit states that "Nicklaus, Palmer, Watson agreed" with Hill's scathing criticism of the course.
Not sure why Watson would have done that. He was a 20-y-o amateur and didn't make his first start in the US Open until 1972.

This obit was written by someone called Phil Davison. Wonder if he moonlights for BBC On-Line? What a moron.

Hot morning in Las Vegas but a cold putter early on for Martin Laird.
As things stand, Nick Watney will be looking to earn his third win of the season against a handful of American also-rans, with Jhonny Vegas and RedNeck Pettersson trying to interfere.
Provided things stay reasonably close on the front nine, expect a back nine shoot-out.

Lots to play for with Watney hoping to elevate his POTY claims and get him close to St.Luke on the money list, while others will just be hoping to secure their "status" for 2012.

All eyes on Kevin Na - will he semi-whiff again, will he carve up some tee boxes, will he get done for slow play? All are possible.

Is Tim Herron proof golf can't be a sport. What a disgusting specimen.

Digs,
You'll be interested to know his sister is a fine amateur golfer - I'll try and find your very own pic of her.

Some terrible golf being proffered by the leaders, one train wreck after another. Not exactly compelling viewing.

Lots of big guys in the mix Kwini. Hope Watney or Na wins.

I am finding a Na victory quite hard to swallow after that fresh air shot yesterday. I watched it again on Youtube and he makes a near identical swing on the 2nd shot. I know the first shot missed the ball by about 6 inches, but he completed the swing.

Perhaps Na is hard to swallow. Certainly is to me.

But fair do's, he played well today and Watney didn't have the energy to compete. Up to about #55 - 60 in the owgr. Still can't stand him and, according to Brandel Chambel, most of the pros can't either.

On the Nationwide, European Tour interest was in Danny Lee and he beat Walker Cupper Harris English in a play-off to win the whole shebang.

Good (14th) finish from Christian, top 40 by Knox, and Lingmerth and Chopra had top 25's.

yeah that is true enough, Kwini... his golf was hard to argue with today.

Quite apart from Kevin Na and Nick Watney, one or two other golfers made significant moves in Las Vegas:
*Kevin Na and Tommy Gainey edged closer to the top 30 on the money list and the Masters invite that goes with it.

*Paul Goydos pretty much wrapped up a top 70 place and resultant entry in to the "Invitationals".

*Tim Herron will now comfortably retain his Tour Membership for 2012 (sorry Diggers) and it now seems likely that the requirement of $800K for a top 125 moneylist position was overstating things a touch. Perhaps $750K is closer to the mark and Kevin Stadler has now reached that number.

*The top 150 on the moneylist is still significant and David Duval climbed to 145 on the list - a final hole double bogey cost hom over $50K and top 150 security. Duval remains one of the more popular golfers on Tour, a "top man" as described by Lee Westwood during his 606-postings days. The rank and file appreciate that he has never abused his one-time iconic status as a Major Champion. Unlike, say, John Daly.

More movement to look forward to next week! (I'd imagine Tiger Woods - and Ernie Els? - will have to achieve at least a top ten finish just to hold their owgr position as they attack the Fry's.com.)