PGA Tour: Fry's.com Open: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).What was the big talking point in the Las Vegas desert last weekend?
~Kevin Na's win, the first of his career, which bumped Brian Davis up to #3 on the list of players with highest career earnings but no Tour win?
0r:
~Na's apparent whiff on the 15th tee in Round 3? Whilst I'm quite prepared to believe that Na's airball was part of his normal routine when he's uncomfortable with his swing, and was apparently not a whiff, I was shocked to see him suggest that, should he touch the ball in error, he was entitled to re-tee with no penalty. He attributed this ruling to PGA Tour official John Brendle (you'll see him at tournaments with the light blue shirt, bleached blonde hair and John Boehner perma-tan). Now, that I can't believe and some clarification is surely now overdue from PGA Tour HQ?

2).No controversy about the way Na won, though. The worst (statistically) ball-striker on Tour, he's also owner of one of the very best short games and he certainly proved that last weekend. No surprise that Na should snaffle his first win in the desert, two of his 3 runner-up finishes have been in the Arizona desert (Tucson and Phoenix, where he's also enjoyed two other top 4's), and he has multiple career top tens at the Bob Hope as well as good finishes in Las Vegas without hitting the jackpot.

3).Nick Watney will probably be disappointed with finishing second; he's now $550K behind Luke Donald for the money title, but I'd be shocked if he played on Tour again this year. Still waiting to find out if Webb Simpson will try to make up his $70K deficit by playing either of the year's final two events, hoping to overtake Donald.

4).Tim Herron made sure of his 2012 Tour Card by manoeuvre-ing his 15-stone (that's what pgatour.com says, probably within 5 stone anyway) into fifth place at the "Timberlake", while Na, Tommy Gainey and Spencer Levin close in on the top 30 money and a Masters invitation.

5).When I was looking at the golfers outside the Top 125 in need of good results just to keep their card, I was shocked to see Vaughn Taylor's name; he often seems to be in the shake-up, at least in the early rounds of tournaments, so what's up?
"Final Round" scoring is what's up. Since starting Bay Hill's Round 3 close to the lead and carding a weekend 76,77, he's posted his poorest round in a tournament on Sundays 7 times of the 9 final rounds he's played. In 6 of those final rounds, he's scored at least 2 shots higher than the previous three. Had he just maintained his Round 3 position on Sunday, he'd have earned an extra $450K and he'd be playing Fall Series events with job security instead of being about $400K short of the likely threshold for keeping his card.
I was only interested in Taylor because of his 2006 Ryder Cup heritage and the fact that he has fantastic tempo in his swing, great to watch. But something's going awry between the ears.
Notables with terrible "Final Round" scoring stats include, in the bottom 15:
Nathan Green, Micheel, Goydos, Daly, JP Hayes, Taylor, Beem and Cejka, all arguably on the downside of their careers. Saturday may be Moving Day, but Sunday is Pay Day and this is a stat which highlights players who are not getting it done.

6).We mentioned course conditions at Medinah CC a few weeks ago. Golf World quotes Don Larson, Chairman of the 2012 Ryder Cup, as saying:
"Nobody's satisfied with the condition of the course. But things are getting much better. We're confident the course will be ready for next year." Phew!
After all the complaints about rain at Celtic Manor, and considering last weekend is 52 weeks removed from the 2012 Chicago shindig, it's worth noting that last week's Chicago weather saw temps in the 50's and 60's and almost two inches of rain.

7).Talking of Team matches, Steve Stricker underwent an MRI last week on his neck, but no word yet on any prognosis. And his expected partner at the Presidents Cup, Tiger Woods, will have his health, physical and mental, under the microscope this week as he makes his latest return to Tour action.

8).This week's Fry's.com Open is held at CordeValle G.C. in the San Jose area on a Robert Trent Jones Jr design. What a shame it cannot be held a few miles up the road at Pasatiempo, a classic Alister MacKenzie course. Let's hope some of the players take a busman's holiday trip to play it.

9).Tiger Woods will receive all the ink this week but Paul Casey will be the highest ranked player. Els, Immelman, Sabbatini and Cabrera are other big "International" names on hand.
Woods plays Rounds 1 and 2 with Oosthuizen and Walker Cupper Patrick Cantlay - while much has been made of the fortunes of Walker Cuppers turning pro and playing their trade on either side of the water hazard, Harris English probably has the best pro result so far, losing a Nationwide Play-Off last week to Danny Lee.

10).And we can't let this week go by without speculating about Joe LaCava. Former boss Fred Couples defends his title on the Champions Tour this week in Houston. Will Joe's new man fare as well this week at the Fry's.com?

Kwini nope Mrs Mav is not having C Section, were playing the waiting game for our young lady to arrive.

Yankees game does look to be set for a dramatic close, here's hoping they pull through.

Back to the golf. What is this shot I see Tiger make with the 3 metal, seems very steep his angle of attack especially taking a divot like that. Even the approach shot divot seemed very across the line, but then that could be the camera angle

Thanks. Lorenzo certainly is moving these past few months. Hard to believe that Matteo is only 4th best Italian in the field at -1. Think the Molinari brothers decided to put their "foot" down. I wonder if they'll be allowed to defend for Italy in the World Team coming up in a couple of months.

That was a 'brilliant' catch by Granderson in the 6th. What a breath of fresh air he's been for the team and quite articulate for a bum who just plays baseball. Hope we keep him for the rest of his career.

venice1 wrote:Afternoon kwini,

Taking this small window of opportunity to say hello and can only follow the NoCal event scores from my phone. Hope to be fully online at work in about 2 weeks time. Would love to follow the Oosty, Cantlay and Tiger group. Consecutive bogeys after an opening birdie is a tough pill to swallow but that should be expected with limited competitive play.

Getting psyched up for the Skanks in about 4 hours. Excellent playoffs so far for all matchups. Hopefully Tex and ARod have figured out how to hit for tonight's deciding game.

Good start by Casey, good to see!
At least sky seems to show him a bit, not sure how's in the US...
As for Tiger, looks very tentative to me so far, nothing really to get excited about...

venice,kwini, great to see all these Italians doing well today. Keep in mind that three others, Pavan, Colombo and Tadini are currently inside the all important top 20 on the CT, so the azzurri presence should grow further next year on the main tour...

Lots of attention on #51, but #45 had as good a start as he's enjoyed this year, and #20 looks a different player than the seemingly disinterested Casey we've seen for the past six months. Korea looks to have done him the power of good.

Yup, pd, we're probably getting exactly the same feed. Focus on Tiger and Cantlay, Casey and Bernard Levin's boy.

C'mon you Pinstripes! It's your time.

(I hate 5 game series!)

Agreed Sr, An injustice to the 162 games that got us here.

Tiger on the par five 9th. I reckon par fives are the secret to Tiger returning to any semblance of his best. He used to murder them, a screw-up would still result in a birdie. Now he's 66th on Tour and would think he's got to climb at least into the top ten in par 5 scoring to give him the 18-hole scores he's hoping for.

Oops, he's in the rough - lay up.

send . . . . and retire

Par.

Change of subject, sort of:

Kelly Tilghman is facially appealing, has a very boring monotone, and sounds, well, thick.
But: She seems awfully cosy with Tiger and is constantly an apologist for him.

Do we reckon there's something even cosier than cosy going on there?
A snuggle perhaps??
Is she another notch on his Nike belt???
Or is he another loosener of her knicker elastic????

Talking of Tllghman how inappropriate it sounds when she does the spomsors announcement the best was when she just announced dicks sporting goods she said and I quote "no season should begin with a trip to sse dicks" and she left it at that!

Mav,
All I can say is that she's not smart enough to know what she's saying.

Oops, double on the par five for Le Tigre. Hate to say/repeat it, but he's turning his strength into his weakness. Until he knows where the ball might go when he really tries to unleash a big drive, he'll always be susceptible to par or worse on the longest holes.

So whats it gonna be for Tiger?? more excuses about being rusty? Then he'll take 3 or 4 weeks off and guess what, "rusty" again and so it goes on and on.............

No-one should write him off, John, sooner or later Jupiter is going to align with Mars and Tiger will be The Man again.
For a round?
For a Tournament??
For a season???
Who knows, but he's already shown today that he's capable of brilliance, he just can't sustain it yet. Maybe he never will again. Another par five to go!

But you're dead right. No excuses!!

Don't think Casey will be too disappointed with a one under par 70. But he really needs a very good week and will be looking to build on this in Round 2 and the weekend.

And T.Woods shouldn't be distressed with his +2 score of 73. One bad hole, some good par saves, and salvaged a middle-of-the-road round. But the afternoon wave seemed to have the better of the weather and it will be a bit brass monkeys for Tiger early Friday.
He'll probably need an even par Round 2 just to contest the weekend. Sure he'll consider an early flight home something worse than a disappointment.

Some of our players were complaining about the CordeValle weather Thursday, but no such excuses expected today, unless it's just morning tee-time coolness, probably about 45F when the early birds get moving.

Casey (7.30 a.m.) and Woods (7.40 a.m.) are among those due off first thing and both will be anxious to make the cut, Casey to continue his chances of keeping his card, TW to get more "reps" as he calls them. Tip for Tiger: Play more often, McGladreys next week and Disney the week after would be a good start.

As for Casey, it seems likely that my original guestimate for minimum amount of money won to secure a top 125 position and 2012 Tour Card may be too high. Likely not as much as $800K as suggested, more like $750K (perhaps even $700K will be sufficient), but that still leaves Casey with about $290K's worth of catching up to do and there's no word yet as to whether he'll play in the coming weeks.

Although the golfers at the foot of the PGA Tour totem pole are making less, those towards the top are coining it like never before, 21 players already over the $3M mark, five more than the previous high with three more events to be counted.

Back to today and the cutline, currently +1 and very unlikely to go much higher than +2, maybe even stay at +1 with 85 golfers currently at that mark or better.

Kwini, firstly to say, I stayed up to watch the Yankees get put to the sword and confirmed my dislike for these 5 game series matches, after such a long season can't say i'm a fan of these extra games. C'est la vie, will still look forward to next season, and switch my attention to the Jets winning (hopefully) the conference title and maybe another superbowl appearance.

Back to the golf, Woods calling it Reps is seriously annoying and it seems as if he is now accepting this is his lot and just using it as an excuse that he is not playing more when the schedule is there to be had at some decent venues with McGladrey and Disney, not to mention some stops on the ET he could get invites to

Tiger shaky but no shortcuts to getting your sea-legs after such a long layoff and swing changes.

A-Rod ... QUIT striking out!

Black armbands out.

Hi Mav,
Sack cloth and ashes here in the North Country. As for ARod, I've been debating the last wek on the baseball board about him, such a bloody prima donna. Can't stand the way he squints, as if there's something wrong with his eyes. And the way he "hits" suggests that also.
Can't stand him, never could, never will!

Not sure about Fog On The Tyne, but certainly morning fog on the CordeValle and morning activities are delayed an hour.

We noted last week John Mallinger's spectacular form; he eschewed a spot in this week's Fry's to fish in the Nationwide waters and so far he has a 2-shot lead over ex-Ryder Cupper Wetterich, halfway through the morning wave. Mallinger has just about sewn up his 2012 Tour card; a top five here will make him one of the top "graduates".

Nicholas Thompson was the overnight leader, much older brother of LPGA wondergirl Lexi, and a promising Tour pro in his own right four or five years ago.
Nicklaus close to the bottom of the leaderboard.

What was with the rain and fog in California? Shame it seemed to put Casey off late in his first round.

I was amazed to hear that Casey doesn't have his card for next year yet?

Tiger might be a little rusty but I really do believe it's not there anymore? He looks so ordinary.

Great fact about Brian Davis at the start of the thread Kwini! Who is number 1 earner not to win a title?

Hi Blistering, Great to hear from you.
Fog in the San Francisco Bay Area? Surely not!
Start now delayed to 9.30 a.m. Pacific Time at least.
Weather should be lovely now when the fog finally burns off, but would think it'll be a risk both weekend mornings also.

PGA Tour members: Most money without a win;
1).Briny Baird: $11.9M
2).Brett Quigley: $11.0M
3).Brian Davis: $9.2M
4).Fatty Steve Marino: $8.9M
5).Brandt Jobe: $8.3M
6).Jeff Overton: $8.2M
7).Skip Kendall: $8.0M

All very unofficial, I might have missed someone but don't think so. Baird off to a good start this week!

Early starters now underway. Late. Balls in the air at 9.30 a.m., 5.30 p.m. in Stevenage.

Wow, Great first nine by Paul Casey, 5 under with six birdies and that propels him into a tie for the early Round 2 lead. A top three result would resolve a multitude of problems for our Paul, but he still would need to play one more event, even with a win.

Woods playing well in the following group, only missed one green so far and putting nicely. His -3 for 8 holes lifts him into the top 40. Oops, there's a ball in the drink, but he rescues bogey. Even par for the tournament, and that would be enough for him to pay the babysitter.
More low scoring than yesterday, but they also avoided the chill of the post-dawn hours.

Paul Casey... Paul Casey... where have we read that name before? Sounds very familiar.

kwini, our big boys never came through last night. Considering the way the Bombers were playing for the last 3 weeks Texas vs. Detroit will be the better series anyway. Also looking forward to both games tonight.

Hi venice,
Bitterly disappointed with this whole series. Despite Robbie Cano's success, I don't know that the switch with Texeira gives the batting order the variety 5 thru 8 that should be there. Plus why were the Yanks running station-to-station instead of trying to make something happen on the bases - AFraud and Jeter both guilty of stopping at second when aggressive running would have placed them on 3rd, and both cost runs.

Unlike many pundits though, I can see this team improving - Posada is surely gone and Calon and Garcia may be replaced. But otherwise, apart from the 3rd baeman who we're apparently stuck with for six more years, we'll be pretty strong. Montero looks like the real thing and Phil Hughes should be back to his best.

Hoping for Detroit vs Milwaukee or St.Louis (I know, Philly'll be tough to beat); be good for the MidWest to have a WS to themselves!

Hey, isn't this the baseball board?

Your four Italian musketeers are looking good at the tapas tournament; hope one of the Molinaris wins.

Looks like you should be skiing up towards Tahoe?

PS: Wish Finchem would feed the meter, pgatour.com's leaderboards seem to be on an Occupy Wall Street work-to-rule.

Super Casey, another birdie! C'mon Paullllllllllllllllllllllllll!
Super Tiger? Not yet.....

As for all that baseball stuff, I'm a complete ignorant in that field and couldn't possibly comment...

Great to see Casey firing on some form an englishman doing it abroad, unlike the 11 over paid prima dona's that just played woefully against montenegro and Shrek gets a sending off...

Now I know why I follow golf and then follow american sports instead of the england football team.

Nearly a bomb from Casey, that would have been sweet!
Wonder why the Woods group are so far (at least a complete par 4 hole) behind Casey?

Kelly Tighman is an idiot - never known a professional broadcaster talk so much nonsense; except of course on the political scene. Just an idiot.

Mav,
Couldn't get the Montenegro fiasco, just read the live text. What a mess!

Great shot by Casey. Eagle?

What happened to Casey, can't get any live feed going, so waiting for the debacle that is England to finish for skys coverage.

Tilghman indeed belongs up there with commentators such as Wayne Riley both spout garbage and believe it themselves.

Indeed Kwini a mess, Rooney again higlighting that he is not the player he thinks he is and many want him to be on the world stage, for his club yes but for his country well what can I say but yet another poor display of character from him. The irony is Hoddle on the aftermath of the game stating with Rooney you need take rough with the smooth such is his genius! That'll be why he left Gascoigne home in 98then will it, the one midfielder we had who could turn a game but didn't take rough with the smooth then did he...

Mav,
I watched Hoddle's first ever League game. If memory serves he scored!

I DO think Rooney is a fabulous player but he's got that red mist that can't be excused.

Bird for Paul Casey and what a couple of weeks he's having.

Very harsh there Mav, Riley is massively opinionated, but at least he's consistent with his opinions and entertaining with them, even if you don't agree with them. Tilghman is just a sponsors' advert in human form...

OK, The McGladrey field is in, and princedrac will be interested!

As I go through them, the highlights are:
Allenby
Byrd
Cabrera
Casey
Cink
Davis
Fowler
Furyk
Glover
Howell
Z.Johnson
Kuchar
McDowell
O'Hair
Oosthuizen
Overton
Pettersson
WEBB SIMPSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vijay
Sneds
Stenson
Toms
Mark Wilson

Luke Donald for the Disney then??!!

Hoddle was a fabulous player, so natural on the ball it's like he should have been dutch or brazilian and not english and seemed many an england manager didn't get his style of play meaning he never won the amount of caps he really deserved.

Ned IMO it's not harsh, cannot stand Riley on the commentary just something about the guy I cannot stand, I liken him to skys version of Feherty alwaysfeels like he has to ligthen the mood even when not needed.

Tilghman though i'd say your description spot on.

Saw something earlier about Simpson playing next week, seems this is the best fall series for a while with the big guns fighting it out for the money list.

Is Kelly Tilghman really any worse than any of the mupptets on sky? Dont think so. Is Andrew Coltard totally brain dead?

That's a very good field kwini. Casey for 3 in a row? Getting a bit overexcited with Paul's return to form...

And finally just heard him a few minutes ago talking about the now (in)famous turf toe... He said it's about 70% recovered. Good to hear it's getting better anyway...

A better day for Tiger as well...

Nice interview with Casey, much more relaxed that I've seen him recently.
Missed another top 50 player for next wk: Van Pelt.

Apart from her sycophantic delivery, I reckon she's one short plank shy of the obligatory two short ones.

Apparently she gets paid for her snivelling drivel. Went to one of America's best universities.Clearly didn't learn anything.

Wow indeed a Paul Casey interview I didn't want to cringe at. Good playing today. Does look a bit warm out there now.

Don't fancy Cantalay's chances of the weekend now but he's a real talent for the future.

Second Round play suspended last night with only two or three groups from the afternoon tee times completing their work.

Paul Casey currently enjoys a one-shot lead over a promising South African called Ernie Els, and a budding young pro called Bud (Cauley) who's hoping to become the first player since Ryan Moore to earn enough in limited events straight from Uni to qualify for the PGA Tour.

This is the deal for today:
7.30 a.m. local time (3.30 p.m. BST) Round 2 resumes. The golfers have up to eight holes to complete, so their rounds should be complete by 9.30 a.m.

Approx 10.30 a.m. Round 3 commences.

The cutline currently hovers around +1, +2, with 81 golfers at +1 or better, 69 at even or better.
Those needing the money to qualify for 2012 Cards, but who will certainly go home unpaid, include:
Duval, O'Hern, Weekley, Micheel and Jarrod Lyle.

Hope Ernie and the rest can maintain their momentum into Saturday, easier said than done, I'd imagine.

Doubt if there'll be any fog to delay things; sunny and warm is the forecast, so scoring will continue to be easier.

Off on time at all three US tournaments, Champers, Nationwide, Fry's.

Quite a surprise when I woke up this morning to see Ernie right behind Casey. Didn't really see that comming... But it's reassuring seeing now many of those who spent almost all year going backwards showing some signs of recovery. Hopefully it'll last...

You could add Cabrera (Round 2 65) and Oosthuizen to that list, pd.

And, scraping in on the cut to give himself another lifeline is Richard S. Johnson - just a day after I cast the opinion that he is too short now to be competitive on the PGA Tour.

Pleased to see Willie MacK, DiMarco and Vaughn Taylor also living to fight another day.

That's Round 2 all wrapped up, 80 players advancing to Round 3 which will start at 10.15 a.m. Pacific time with Bettancourt, Oosthuizen and Woods off the 10th tee.
Paul Casey, Cauley and Ernie Els will be in the final group off the first tee at 12.25 p.m.

Because of the number of golfers who made the cut, there will be a secondary cut to the top 70 and ties following Round 3.

Hell that Tiger fella is doing ok, I wonder where he came from?

To those watching it what does his swing look like and how is his short game?

His swing does not look to bad, its his recovery shots that are awesome.

Relatively (to the rest of the field) speaking, Woods had a ho-hum day, 68 when that was about the norm, and exactly the same starting situation for Round 4 as for Round 3.
He opens the batting on the 10th tee with two of his best mates, Atwal and boring Rod Pampling, should be enjoying benign conditions and perfect greens, for nine holes at least, so should have good vibes for Sunday.
He was happy with what he calls his "feels" (there's a surprise), and with his "lines", but will need something pretty special to achieve anything other than a middling finish in a below par field.

At the business end of the leaderboard, a scrambling par on the last, after driving into a hazard, earns Paul Casey a spot in the final group with Ernie Els and Briny Baird (he of the most career earnings without a win).

Frankly, I'm hoping for a one - two Els - Casey finish, don't much care which order!

They're teeing off in threes, off both tees. Not clear why but at least they should avoid any risk of any fog delay. Or, more likely, they just seek to avoid any competition with the climax of the E.T. event in Madrid.

I'm sure if he could hit a 66 or 67 to finish he'd be very happy with his weeks work. Scruffy first round which is totally forgiveable to anyone remotely reasonable followed by 3 decent one. Clearly he could go out and shoot a 75 but hopefully not.

Another round in the 60's would be very good for TW. Has not been able to put 4 decent rounds together for some time. Just no substitute for tournament golf.

Young Fowler and McIlroy had a nice shootout in Asia. Good for Fowler to win ... regardless of the stage.

You gotta love Ernie's swing.

Digs, Sr,
Only quibble there is: If there's no substitute for tournament golf, why doesn't he play tournaments. These quasi-appearance money cameos don't begin to do him justice.

Agreed great win for Fowler - that could be the spark he needs; gets the chance to validate his win quickly as he's signed up for next week's McGladreys. McIlroy's last four results have been 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd. How will this trend continue?