PGA Tour: "Disney": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

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5).Lots of speculation in the US golfing press that Stricker would have withdrawn from the Presidents Cup Team if not for Tiger Woods' inclusion, with pressure on him to play even if not fully fit so that Tiger has a partner.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

Both make bogey - Pernice up to 121!

Well done Luuuuuuuuuuke Donald take a bow son take a bow....

World No1, US Money list No1, and 4 x winner this year,,,,,

Well done Luuuuuuuuuuuuke

Luke being interviewed as I type, ooooh the arrogance of the man!!

Just waiting for him to put it all down to his belief in God

So what does Tigers 128 get him into?

McLaren wrote:So what does Tigers 128 get him into?

i think he is a lock as they like to say in the states- he can play anywhere he wants whenever he wants, but he will surely only be concentrating on the biggies as he normally does- hopefully he may make a cut or two

McLaren wrote:So what does Tigers 128 get him into?

Tiger hs his major exemptions so his 128 doesn't really matter, as he gets the invites to where he wants to be, but more importantly the only WGC he qualifies for at the moment is the accenture as thats top 64 world unlike the others top 50

McLaren wrote:So what does Tigers 128 get him into?

Tiger will have exemptions coming out of his ears. A regular player would rely on invites and alternates, as well as inclusion in a few less prestigious events/

Ned,
Haven't seen the final confirmation of the "Top 25" of the Nationwide, but sure Lingmerth has played himself in to next week's Tour Championship.

Aussie midget Gavin Coles plays himself on to the PGA Tour for the fourth time!!

Not thrilled about Pernice, another year of double-dipping for him. And bitter / sweet for Bio Kim and Sunghoon Kang, one looked like making it and misses, off to Stage 2, one looked like missing and now makes it!

Not a big fan of Justin Leonard but he's too good a player not to be on the Tour (and he clearly would have been anyway) and great for Immelman.
Mister Maverick talks about him fizzing the ball off the clubface - no-one does it better! Chamblee said last week he had the fastest clubhead speed on Tour. Not sure about that but stand behind him on a long par three tee-shot and you can't fail to come away impressed. Hopefully he's baaaaaaack.

Fabulous work by Luke, $six figure pay cheques every week in the USA except his first week of the season, then a two-month blip in June/July when he missed out on the big pay cheques at Congressional (45th), R St G and Canada (17th).
Otherwise top tens all the way. NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!!!

kwini

Did you catch wind of this, apparently leonard was receiving conflicting advice as to whether he was exempt for 2012 should he not make the top 125.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/sports/golf/donald-wins-disney-leonard-regains-confidence.html

You would have thought it was a simple thing to find out.

I agree about immelman, he is a class above some of the current top 10.

kwini,

I was wondering who was the last European to top the US Money List. pga website only goes back to 1980 and no Europeans.

Do you know if he is the first?

Mac,
We were discussing this earlier in the thread, first we knew about it was on pgatour.com in their Tour Report and I speculated that the same flawed logic should have applied to Duval and must now apply to Ames. Seems the Tour has now done a 180!. Sounds like a Tour issue not a Leonard thing; for all the money Tour administration makes, they sure make a ton of mistakes.

Hi Redrage,
Certainly the first in modern times, since WWII anyway.

I loved Donald's attitude yesterday, almost as if he was playing Ryder Cup, very intense and drove superbly when it mattered most, and you can't often say that. Webb Simpson was trying to be gracious during his interview but I think he was shell-shocked!

The Tour's Reno alternate event is to switch to Stableford scoring for 2012... I didn't see that coming. Thought the major tours had given up on Stableford as a turnoff for the fans. Reno always looks a spectacular course on TV, shame they couldn't find a more bland place to start experimenting... but good to see some new ideas about anyway, will be an interesting tournament.

Today was the first I'd heard of it also.
A fair portion of the players (remember, it's played opposite the Bridgestone) competing at Reno won't have any experience of the old International (RIP), but should be a great spectacle.
I bet they tweak the elimination aspect of it though.

Mike Harwood and Miguel Angel Martin, ooh Jack Nicklaus too, among those contesting first round of Champions Tour Q-School this week.
Haven't seen full fields so there might be more familiar names.

Poor start by most of the familiar names among this week's First Stage Q-School contests, Garcia-Heredia the leading European and after Round 1 he's outside the cut line.
Will keep an eye as the week progresses, but already see that hend0's namesake Scott withdrew - think he actually finished 5th in Korea's KJ Invitational so probably decided the travel was hardly worth it.

Meanwhile, some results from Champo Tour Q-School have begun to emerge from the woodwork.
Barry Lane wasn't considered a "notable" by the idiots at pgatour.com but he's playing and is T2 at one of the sites after Round 1. Mike Harwood and M-A Martin just behind. Philip Walton a couple of shots adrift.
Old lags who old lags might remember include;
Dick Mast, Dave Rummels, John Morse, Ten Broeck and Mike Donald (beaten by Irwin in the 1990 US Open play-off).

Two more qualies begin Wednesday and among familiar names teeing it up are:
Fulton Allem
Forsbrand
Mark Mouland (glutton for punishment)
TC Chen
Clearwater
Patrick Burke
2 x Freeman brothers who Roderickslyme will be pleased to see
Eaks
Dodds
Hinkle
Nicklaus II
Mike Stanley

See that John Daly has been tweeting saying he's happy to be confirmed as an invitee to the shanghai Masters! So much for the high quality field with him and his lack of respect for any tour playing

good luck Philip Walton. was playing with his son last week and he was saying he has never seen him practice so much. hopefully it pays off hes had very little success since his ryder cup fame.

Hope he can be successful, hend0, O'Connor, Smyth and even Darcy for a year or two did quite well on the Champions Tour.
But it's relentless, a non-PGA Tour player pretty much has to play out of his skin every year to maintain "status", which makes Des Smyth's achievements so noteworthy.
Peter Senior has played terrific golf these past two years, but one bad year condemns him to Q-School all over again. Eddie Romero can attest to the pitfalls . . . . .