PGA Tour: "Disney": Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Post McGladrey press conference with the winner:
"My rough season of golf has brought me closer to God . . . . if you have God, you have enough."
The late great Dave Allen used to get god right: "May your god be with you." Wish he'd've added something like: "Ben Crane, shut the f--- up about your god - if you think god is assisting you, that's outside the spirit of the game and may be penalised."

2).Of course, the PGA Tour has enough trouble with Ben Crane with his pace of play and if he deleberates with apparent impunity, one imagines a god or two isn't going to ruffle Finchem's feathers.

3).Anyway, a compelling tournament last week with a decent field at a lovely location. Nothing not to like about that, and runner-up Webb Simpson certainly made a statement about the PGA Tour money title. Simple maths for Luke this week at Disney:
*Finish first and keep Webbo out of solo 2nd, and the title is yours.
*Finish solo second and hope that Simpson trails in at T8 or worse, and you're good.
*Finish in a 2-way tie for 2nd, and Simpson needs approximately twentieth place finish. Otherwise Lukey would win.
No other finish for Donald would be good enough.
Hopefully the PGA Tour will send them out together for Rounds 1 and 2 - should be great head-to-head theatre!

4).Paul Casey withdrew after two McGladrey rounds, allegedly due to a stomach bug. I wonder if Casey will show up for Q-School? Otherwise he can presumably play as a veteran member and get in all the WGC's and Majors for which he's qualified. But he wouldn't have full PGA Tour member status, and maybe that's OK with him. The only thing he'd be sure to miss would be the FedEx Play-Offs. Time will tell, but perhaps a re-jig of his schedule during a Ryder Cup year was always in his mind, especially after being excluded last year by Captain Montgomerie?

5).Lots of speculation in the US golfing press that Stricker would have withdrawn from the Presidents Cup Team if not for Tiger Woods' inclusion, with pressure on him to play even if not fully fit so that Tiger has a partner.

6).And, while we're at it, Greg Norman has been offering his opinion on the Captain's choice that Couples awarded to Woods and suggesting it's not a good pick. Message to Greg Norman: Shut up Greg.
Captain Couples can pick who he likes (just like Shark chose Scott two years ago) and it's not worth winding the opposition up needlessly.
Norman rabbits on about current form but the fact is that his Team qualifies based upon results over the past 24 months and certainly not on current form; otherwise, if one qualified on owgr points earned in 2011, the International Team would be, in order:
Schwartzel, Day, Scott, Choi, Badds, Yang, Sabbatini, KTKim, Vijay, Senden. Ishikawa would be 11th, Ogilvy 12th and Coetzee 13th.
As it is, Sabbatini stays home, as do Vijay and Senden, and Ernie, Goosen and Allenby are there, rightly or wrongly, on past glories.

7).After spending last week at a course and in a resort (Sea Island) where I could happily stay and play golf everyday for a year, we're off to Orlando for the final event of the PGA Tour season, to Disney World which I'll very happily avoid for the rest of my days, golf courses included. But there's a lot at stake.
*The leading money-winner for the year (and the five year Tour exemption and Arnold Palmer Trophy - and Player Of The Year? - that go with it).
*Final placings which determine the destiny of a Masters invite (top 30), PGA Tour cards for 2012 (top 125), and conditional cards for 2012 (top 150).
Apart from Casey, who will earn a conditional status for 2012, other notables need the following approximate finishes at Disney:
Pampling: 28th
Trahan: 24th
Mayfair: 18th
Horschel: 6th
Curtis, Vaughn Taylor, Duval: 4th
Weekley: 2nd
Stephen Ames and Justin Leonard are among those who likely have career earnings exemptions to use and will be OK for 2012.

8).Not happy that three golfers who withdrew last week after taking a Tour wannabe's place in the field, Davis, Gillis and Goydos, are teeing it up again at Disney. Michael Allen, Calc and Lehman will be there too. Doesn't seem quite right to me although each is entitled to take their place. Hope none of them bale this week also. Interestingly, Kyung-tae Kim is 10th "alternate", not bad for the World's #21 ranked player!

9).Whatever Couples thinks about Greg Norman's picks (and he had a go at Allenby - "hasn't won for ten years", not strictly true of course), it's likely that no-one played better golf last weekend than Fred Couples on the Champions Tour. Twelve birdies and a double bogey in his Saturday 62, and a seven shot win. Perhaps Couples should have picked himself?

10).The final regular season event on the Nationwide Tour tees off on Thursday in Jacksonville. We'll track the progress of Europeans during the tournament, plus keep an eye on Stage One Qualifying School where Messrs Dinwiddie, Lara, Keith Nolan and others are trying their luck. Bon chance to them.

Great stuff, kwini

#8: I was wondering why KtK wasn't in the field this week in JP?!
Now I'm wondering what on earth is he doing there in FL? Going for the Mickey Mouse experience?
Very strange, he played last week in JP and he's in the field in JP again next week... Bizarre!
#10: Apart from Keith Nolan, there are 5 others from Ireland having a go at the Qschool over there this week and next. Good luck to them!
#11: ( don't know how you could miss this one ) Bradley leading the 'major' field of 4 in Bermuda after 14 holes, thanks mainly to a couple of eagles. Rory, Charl and Darren follow him in that order...

Good News: Scratch Gillis from note 8). He's done the right thing and withdrawn.

Bad News: Tom Pernice makes the field, double-dipping while the Champos have the week off.


Thanks pd,
Yup, Ned and I went through a few of the Europeans signed up for Q-School on last week's notes, Karlberg and Lafeber also, perhaps Garcia-Heredia, can't remember. Some others from GB that I can't recall, but whose names I was not familiar with.
And Bill Haas's caddie also playing today - his brother! Jay Junior - there's an American habit I'll never get used to. My son very pleased we didn't name him kwini Jr.

Kt is wasting his time; perhaps he just forgot to withdraw. Regardless he should stay in Asia.
Still don't know who's caddying for Lukey . . . .

Note 11).Trying to ignore exhibitions!

pd, who are the other 5 Irishmen you have? I have 6 (and 11 Englishmen, 4 Scots and 2 Welshmen), but then I have too much time on my hands to go trawling through the fields and drawing up spreadsheets of Europeans...

Other notables(ish) starting their Q-school run today:

- Bryan Bigley, he of the brief fame when he Monday qualified for a PGA event earlier this year whilst working as a greenkeeper and living out of his car.

- Tadd Fujikawa, no longer a teenage wunderkind but still no nearer to being a tour full-timer

- Andrew McLardy, who for reasons known only to him prefers to hack round US minitours than be a steady Euro Tour journeyman

- Alan Wagner, Argentine formerly of Challenge Tour potential, who then fell off the face of the earth

- Brett Waldman, aka Camilo's bag man

- Drew Kittleson, US am runner-up back in 2008

- Federico Cabrera, Angel's son

- Ty Tryon: remember him?

- Jin Jeong, amateur champion and silver medallist of 2010

- Dodge Kemmer, who's been popping up recently in Europe for some reason

- John Peterson, the American David Law in terms of being unlucky to miss out on the Walker Cup. Already has a Nationwide runner-up finish.

- Pablo Acuna. The best Guatemalan golfer around? Probably.

And no doubt many more....

Ned,
Widely specualted that Peterson was excluded from the Walker Cup selection because he offered the opinion that there are plenty of guys in College with ability to beat the PGA Tour members. Or words to that effect, just after he and Harris English had finished 1 - 2 in a Nationwider.

Stupid thing to say and it backfired on him as he remained an amateur longer than he otherwise would have and lost his chance at PGA Tour invites a la Bud Cauley.

Baby Wadkins and Baby Wiebe as well as Baby Haas at Q-School also!

Apropos of nothing, it looks like Cejka is going for a medical exemption, skipping Disney and playing the Nationwide. He needs to get his future figured out, Groanberg, Owin' and 2 x Richard Johnsons.

Agreed, kwini on #11 (BTW, Rory caught Keegan and share lead after 1st round).
But if you call that an exhibition, how would you call this one next week in Shanghai...?

http://www.shanghaimasters.com.cn/en/index.asp

No owgr points to the winner (yet!?) but a $2 million cheque should keep them interested...

Ned, there are 6 in total from here that I heard of: Seamus Power, Keith Nolan, Stephen Grant, Chris Devlin, Mark Murphy and Fergal Rafferty...

Wow, Helluva field.
Wonder why Goosen is playing his first event for a month at Disney then jetting to China?
Incomprehensible Na playing in that; he's jeopardising his place in next year's Masters - in 30th spot on the moneylist right now, but could esasily be overtaken, by someone like Senden or Levin or, more likely, Tommy Gainey.
Still, probably grabbing a huge guarantee and leaving it to us to question his priorities.

Good stuff pd, the one extra guy I have down is Barry O'Neill, know nothing about him beyond seeing him on various mini-tour leaderboards this summer with the RoI flag next to his name! Love the Stephen Grant story: pro footballer at national U21 level, and with the dizzy heights of Stockport County, then jack it in at 27 to have a go at golf instead. He only just scraped through the pre-qualifying with a low score on the final day, good luck to him!

Have to admit I'd completely forgotten about Bermuda too. Looks like two of the guys there are interested, at least. Guess they'll be pleased all four turned up.

NedB-H wrote:Good stuff pd, the one extra guy I have down is Barry O'Neill, know nothing about him beyond seeing him on various mini-tour leaderboards this summer with the RoI flag next to his name!

Don't know anything either, just found this, he seems to be based in IL/USA and playing on the Canadian Tour?

http://www.cantour.com/leagues/cantour_player.cfm?clientid=3776&leagueid=11753&playerid=1965

Excellent read as always but after scouring it twice I can't see any obligatory musical reference this week!

Shame on you, Kwini

princedracula wrote:

NedB-H wrote:Good stuff pd, the one extra guy I have down is Barry O'Neill, know nothing about him beyond seeing him on various mini-tour leaderboards this summer with the RoI flag next to his name!

Don't know anything either, just found this, he seems to be based in IL/USA and playing on the Canadian Tour?

http://www.cantour.com/leagues/cantour_player.cfm?clientid=3776&leagueid=11753&playerid=1965

It would appear so, seems a roundabout route for him to take but each to their own... it's working anyway, he's leading at his venue early on! Poor round from Ross Bain after a good finish in Asia last week, though.

Davie,
Thought Dave Allen would suffice, though never heard him sing. Glad about that.
Obviously should have added a few lines of Dylan:
"And that land that I live in
Has God on its side."


Ben Crane would be pleased.

Confirmation that Luke Donald and Webb Simpson are paired together for Rounds 1 and 2. (With amateur partners.)
Justin Rose plays with Gary Woodland (which I suppose is sort of appropriate).

Dinwiddie going for another crack at stateside don't know why he bothers, he does well on the lesser tours, has talent but always man sausage ups his playing schedule when he gets promotion to the full tours.

Dodge Kemmer he's the fella i rasied recently having seen him win on the Euro Pro tour, first american to ever do so and he looked pretty good but will he be good enough not sure, Jin Jong looks a good talent and be good to see him do it thise year.

Ty Tryon trying again I see, I wonder if the one time boy Wonder will finally live up to his early hype, fingers are not crossed!

Interesting piece in GM this month about Gary Christian, being a former barman and competitor on the weakest link, seems he's been knocked down a few times and got back up in search of the dream and good on him will look out for him in 2012

any word on whos caddying for Luke Donald?
is he brother free or is he on caseys bag?

Quick bit of Google searching suggests he's borrowed Gareth Lord from Thomas Bjorn for the week, Hend.

hend0,
What's the story with your namesake, Scott? Or are you him??
Saw you play once; does anyone hit it further?
Occasional good result when it's least expected but Stage 1 Q-School again must be a disappointment.

Poor round from Tryon yesterday; nice story when he made the US Open field but, after all those sponsorship millions, not what the doctor ordered.

Agree McLardy is another of those, bit like Scott Hend really, who can't seem to stick on any tour.

unfortunatley i cant hit it quite as far as him Kwini although not for the lack off effort!

PGA Tour schedule for 2012 has just been released. Although they suggest many changes, there's very little we didn't already know, four exceptions to me being:
1).Kapalua Tournament of Champions finishing on a Monday.
2).Switch of dates for Byron Nelson and Colonial.
3).Replacement of Viking, Inc, as sponsor of the Mississippi tournament opposite The Open by True South. Not sure who they are but glad the tournament has been saved.
4).The Play-Off off-week has been pushed back to follow the BMW rather than precede it. Which means the short week between Deutsche Bank and BMW has been restored.

Here's the full release from pgatour.com:

http://www.pgatour.com/2011/r/10/19/2012-schedule-release/

Would you have expected any further changes to accommodate those playing in the ryder cup? Tour championship straight into the ryder may not be everyone's idea of fun.

Mac,
That seems to be the way they want it; another sign of the cold war which seems to exist between the PGA Tour and the PGA Of America. Last year, remember, the US Team chartered a direct flight from Atlanta (Tour Championship venue) to Wales.

With a couple of exceptions, this schedule seems to benefit the Europoeans.

As for the schedule, I'm disappointed the much heralded idea of a return to Detroit seems to be taking a while to come to fruition.

A curiosity is that there will be four full weeks between the US Open and The Open Championship, but only two full weeks between Lytham and the PGA Championship, which presumably screws the Irish Open, Canadian Open and/or Firestone.

kwinigolfer wrote:A curiosity is that there will be four full weeks between the US Open and The Open Championship, but only two full weeks between Lytham and the PGA Championship, which presumably screws the Irish Open, Canadian Open and/or Firestone.

RE: Irish Open, I was mentioning some weeks ago about rumors of discussions going on between ET and Zurich Ins. about the rescheduling of the Irish Open in the last week of June, between US Open and Lytham... As you can see, the ET 2012 schedule is currently finalised and published only until the US Open week in June. I'm hoping those rumors will be confirmed soon...

The PGA Tour's first priority is to marginalise other Tours, then other countries. Unfortunately the Canadian Open suffer in just about every possible way.
Very improbable that a golfer will play Lytham, Canada, Firestone, PGA Champo.
And given that Lytham, Firestone and PGA are must-plays, Canada will just get crumbs and RBC players. Very poor as they always stage their Open at a fine course and its very well attended. I was expecting them to return to the July 4th weekend, but Greenbrier now have that.

Before we get too carried away with the Donald / Simpson duel, one thing is 99% certain and that is that the big money winner this week will be Bill Lunde, the two-shot leader of the winner-take-all Million Dollar KODAK Challenge!

This week's KODAK Challenge hole is the par 4 17th on the Magnolia Course and that has only been eagled twice in the past decade. Cameron Tringale is the only golfer that can catch Lunde; but Lunde wins the $1M if he birdies it regardless of Tringale's fortunes.

So that would be the unlikely trifecta of Streelman, Merritt (beat Badds in a play-off last year) and Lunde who will have been KODAK millionaires. And that may be it; Kodak are fighting for their corporate lives, bankruptcy has been speculated and sponsorship of a $1M golf gimmick in 2012 would have to be a longshot.

I see the Chubsters finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Grand Slam. Expect he'll be satisfied with that.
Another event whose time has passed.

We should have four full days of what the US Broadcasters call "Chamber Of Commerce Weather" for this week's two crucial tournaments, in Orlando and Jacksonville.

The "Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic" at Disney's Palm and Magnolia courses in the Orlando area will determine the final moneylist positions for the year.

The Nationwide's Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open is their final event before the season-closing Tour Championship, and there's much at stake.
Most immediately:
*Top 60 money winners advance to the Tour Championship following which the top 25 money-winners "graduate" to the 2012 PGA Tour.
*Top 70 money winners receive full Nationwide exemption for 2012 and exemption to Stage 2 Q-School.
The rest, subject to exemptions earned elsewhere, are destined to Stage 1 Q-School which is already underway and will be contested at various locations for three weeks.

European interests will see Matthew Richardson entered already in to Stage 1 Q-School, while Owen (51st) and Gronberg (117th) should be exempt to Stage 2 on account of their PGA Tour seniority. Sweden's David Lingmerth, at #75 on the moneylist, is a bubble-boy, needs a very good week this week or it's Stage 1 Q-School for him.
Messrs Blixt, Christian and Knox are just fighting for graduation "seniority" while Daniel Chopra (#22) is fighting for a Top 25 graduating position.

Good field, with recent Ryder and Presidents Cuppers, Tour veterans, Walker Cuppers, you name it.

Anyway, glorious weather will prevail these next four days at each location, a bit breezy at times, while the Disney courses in particular may play a touch soft today following very heavy rainfall these past two weeks.

Both tournaments get underway within the hour.

Good start from Luke, -3 through 5 holes. Simpson just behind him on -2.

Luuuuuuuuuuke!

Looks like some of that Thomas Bjorn magic is rubbing off on Luuuuuuuke!
Good choice of caddie!!

Poor starts from Davis and Rose, and Richard S who needs a big payday as much as anyone. Rare glimpse of form from Fanny and Henrik though.

Come on Luuuuke, I'm looking forward to the time his projected money position rises to Number One!

kwinigolfer wrote:Come on Luuuuke, I'm looking forward to the time his projected money position rises to Number One!

How about now?

Didn't have to wait long. Keep going Lukey, your chance to make an indelible statement on the season.

Ned,
SNAP!
See Federico Cabrera started off his Q-school quest nicely . . . .

Well, well... missed the start of this, but I like what I see!
C'mon Luuuuke!!! Another bird!!

It would be so fitting if Luke could finish this season with a victory and top both money lists.

Great start for him. Wonder if he will hold his nerve on Sunday evening if he's still in this position?

It's just occurred to me that the PGA Tour might have played into Luke's hands - pairing him with nearest rival (Homer Simpson) might encourage Mr Donald to put on his game face and matchplay assassin head...?

Good point Sky, don't you love it!!!!!!!!
Got to keep it up though, can't afford to let Webbo back in the game.

pgatour.com's leaderboard seems to be having trouble dealing with all the attention, very slow today and ShotLink on strike.

Kwini, guessing the shot tracker thingy is only at one of the courses... though that doesn't reflect well on the tour when you can't follow 1 and 2 in the money list for their first round! And it's been decidedly slow for Stenson even on the right course...


What's going on in Jacksonville? Seriously high scoring by Nationwide standards, Knox all over the place at his home event

Ned,
The Jacksonville scoring is beyond odd.
Some guys I'm keeping an eye on are local-ish lad Trevor Murphy who started out (-4 after 7) like a house on fire before the fire-engines arrived; he really needs a very good week or it's back to Stage 1 for him, and two years of hard work will have been flushed away.
And a just-turned 17-y-o schoolboy from Rochester, left-handed Gavin Hall, who won the "Junior Players" event to secure an invite - he's really struggling but is a name to watch. Fabulous record at the top Amateur level last year, injured much of this. Hoping he'll be good enough to warrant 2013 Walker Cup consideration.

Also, for a variety of reasons, hoping for good luck to front-runners Wittenberg and Wilkinson (very unfortunate to have been caught up in Medical Exemption red-tape after looking to have established himself on Tour a few years ago - smallest pro around?!!


Back to Luke: Hope he'll be disappointed at finishing with six pars; he really needs to separate himself. Good start though, but trust he remembers that beating the field is essential, dusting Webbo secondary.

Great from Luke today, but I agree, just a pitty he allowed Webbo towards the end to finish with a better momentum going into tomorrow...

On the funny side, I saw this tweet from GMac:

"True story @LukeDonald played international foursomes as an amateur with Robert Duck. Tough matchup against Donald Duck #Disney"

He didn't make that up, did he...?

Donald and Duck? I think we'll find out when Lukey responds to McDo's tweet!

Rikard Karlberg and Peter Gustafson both need good rounds Friday to advance in Q-School, Fujikawa a tadd adrift of the pace, but Tryon is at least trying after his first round 78: 66 today.
Ross Bain looks like he'll have to go back to Malaysia or wherever he plays, Federico Cabrera lost ground today and Jay Haas also has strokes to make up; otherwise it's back to caddying for his brother.

And in Orlando, the scores were almosat two shots better on the "Palm" course than "Magnolia". Justin Rose in with the worst Palm score, Lamely, Bowditch and Blanks best on the Magnolia.

Nedbank field:
Donald
Westwood
Kaymer
Schwartzel
McDowell
K-t Kim
Karlsson
Bjorn
Dyson
A Hansen
Dufner (phew)
Clarke

That is one heck of an interesting field!

How many OWGR points are on offer (or is that more a question for our friend, the vampire oracle)?

It's certainly a stronger bunch than last year. South Africans may be just a bit dissappointed with only one of theirs in the field...
The vampire committee decided it's worth about 38-40 points (compared to 34 last year), but that will ultimately be based on the owgr positions the week before the tournament, so things may change slightly...

I know it would be great for Luke to win both Money lists but should he win the pga tour money list what would change for him other than the feeling of great achievement?

Just wondering if in any way it might help him in his quest for a major by somehow changing the schedule he can pick. That seems unlikely given his success this season, he must have mastered the calendar better than most.

I am guessing he will gain some exemptions, but he may already have them.

Can anyone think of anything else?

Rory Mac leaving Club-chubby to join Horizon Sports Management Group? Joining up with GMac there I believe. Hopefully they will manage him a little better...

Davie,
Is that a done deal?
Wouldn't have thought McDowell was exhibiting that many signs of being managed well but who knows? Perhaps there's a package deal with a young tennis player also involved??

Mac,
Number One on the PGA Tour money list secures a 5-year Tour exemption, plus it will enhance his POTY candidacy. Think it's mainly the "historic" aspect that appeals to him. Agree, he certainly does manage his calendar well.

pd,
Sadly, I'd think Charl is the only South African eligible, Els, Goosen and Louis all now in the "40's".

kwinigolfer wrote:Davie,
Is that a done deal?
Wouldn't have thought McDowell was exhibiting that many signs of being managed well but who knows? Perhaps there's a package deal with a young tennis player also involved??

Seems to be a done deal Kwini. First saw reference on the twittersphere and seems to be confirmed now by BBC Sport

'Onward & upwards,' says Chandler. 'He has grown into an international figure & leaves us as a major champion. We wish Rory every success.'

I must confess I wondered the same thing about the "young tennis player"

Looks confirmed all right... I'm still trying to figure out if he left or if he was pushed...

Yup, I see it now.



Big day on several fronts in Orlando as the early starters move out to the practice range. The Donald / Simpson duel is the biggie but plenty more to look for:
Masters invite
top 125
top 150 - very important
and some lesser threshholds.
etc.
Miss today's cut and no chance of improving your position!

Should be a sunny, dry day, temps reaching the 70's, light wind, though players complained yesterday the breeze was "swirling". Too bad. Come on Luuuuke!

princedracula wrote:Looks confirmed all right... I'm still trying to figure out if he left or if he was pushed...

I am a bit surprised, in that I thought it would be more likely that McDowell would return to Chubby's family. May be connected with focus on PGA Tour? There was speculation (if not something stronger than that) that Chubby not having much presence in US contributed to Ernie deciding to move on.