PGA Tour: Phoenix Open: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).A recent post on here asked for "Players to watch" for 2012 and Number One on my list was Kyle Stanley. Was feeling pretty smug about that for, what?, 71 1/2 holes, only to see it all unravel. Why oh why didn't Stanley, the second longest driver of the week, go for it with his second shot, just 236 yards to go? He couldn't have made anything much worse than 6 even if he'd've blown his shot into the grandstands. Next time he'd be daft not to do exactly that.
But don't overlook the excellence of his week:
Driving distance: 2nd (39th of 73 in accuracy)
Greens in reg.: 3rd
Putts per gir: 1st
With performances like that, it's just a matter of time for Stanley Kyle, just turned 24.

2).And then Brandt Snedeker compounded Stanley's misery by airmailing the second play-off green and hitting a TV tower instead of the Pacific. When it's your day, it's your day. I like Snedeker, though, very fun to watch and certainly the type of player one would expect to win a Major.

3).Sneds is just back from hip surgery and slowly the golfing wounded are returning to action: JB Holmes last week, Arron Oberholser Thursday, and Mike Weir due to play at Pebble Beach.
Still waiting to hear updated medical bulletins on Casey and Jacobson (will they be back for the MatchPlay?) and Tim Clark, and waiting for the steadily improving (in form and fitness) Trevor Immelman to reach contention again on a regular basis.

4).Before leaving the Emergency Room, it was disclosed after Mickelson's missed cut that his daughter had been taken ill, suffering "a seizure" before his Thursday 77. Not surprising he was "unable to focus".
Meanwhile Justin Rose spent last Wednesday with two IV's and three nurses. Nice work if you can get it, but credit to him for making the cut, 33rd overall and a promising start to the season.

5).Ernie Els's putter should also be in the E.R.; Big Ernie eased himself towards the top of the week's total driving stat's, was 12th in greens hit, but last in both putting categories, averaging 1.9 putts per gir and 32 putts per round. None of which will help him in his race to reach the top fifty to qualify him for the WGC Cadillac and then The Masters and US Open, none of which he's qualified for.

6).Els, currently 59th in the world rankings, would be unlucky to miss out on the WGC MatchPlay but his blog hints at the arithmetic torture he must be going through trying to determine his schedule to ensure the optimum route back to the Top 50. He's not in this week's Phoenix field but has yet to determine whether he'll enter the Pebble Beach lottery - he might possibly be better off not playing rather than risk a bad finish. One would think he'll then play Riviera regardless. Others just either side of the owgr top 65 necessary to qualify for the MatchPlay include Ryan Moore (61st), Allenby (62nd), Howell III (63rd), Luiten (64th), Sabbatini (65th), Noren (67th), O'Hair (68th), Vijay Singh (69th) and Phoenix specialist Kevin Na, 72nd.

7).This week's tournament, the lyrically named "Waste Management Phoenix Open" (supposed to be the "green" tournament but sounds like anything but) is the second of four desert tournaments on the PGA Tour. Reading the GolfWorld list of courses the Tour plays, I was struck by the low esteem with which desert golf is held by touring pros; none of the 11 desert courses rated were in the top 25; the TPC Scottsdale, this week's venue was rated 28th - almost high praise: " . . . players don't go crazy for the place because it's 'desert golf'" a common theme. Never played desert golf myself so found these commentaries interesting.

8).The dictionary definition of "disingenuous" has been revised to include a picture of Hunter Mahan. His IQ deficiency shows up again as he tries to explain his failure to return to Phoenix, site of the second of his three Tour wins (2010), by declaring he's playing Qatar instead this week because "there's a lot of world ranking points right now".
Unfortunately he didn't consult 606v2 expert "princedracula" first as he would have been informed that this week's Phoenix event is offering more ranking points than his destination of Qatar. I love the fact that his sponsors (Ping, based in Phoenix) and the Phoenix Open itself found out about Mahan's 17,000 mile slash and moneygrab odyssey from the press, not the man himself.

9).So, Mahan's wisps of facial hair might be awol but there's a decent field at Phoenix regardless. Not many Europeans though. Martin Laird (3rd in 2011 and close to home) will be there and Ian Poulter escapes nappy changing duty as he appears for his seasonal debut. Brian Davis completes the GB&I contingent, and only Blixt and Pettersson of the continentals tee it up.

10).There will be a heavy dose of centennial remembrances this year of three American golfing greats, Hogan, Nelson and Snead, all born within 6 months of each other in 1912. What's most amazing to me is that Hogan and Nelson grew up caddying together as teenagers in Fort Worth.
I hope there will be a footnote to such articles about a Spaniard, an Englishman and a German, all born within less than five months of each other in 1957. The Europeans are some way behind the Americans in Majors won (21 / 13) but have surely had just as big an impact on the world of golf?

Well done Stanley. No better way of getting over, if never forgetting last week. Haven't seen as much of Levin, but put the rags away mate - they aren't helping!!

Btw was Madonna good?

puligny wrote:Btw was Madonna good?

Not really. I thought the whole spectacle wasn't so good this year. Normally the advertisers pull out all the stops and get really creative. This time around only Doritos, Volkswagen, Samsung and M & Ms had any good ones. Budweiser was poor in my opinion certainly not going to be remembered long after the fact like the frogs.

We didn't watch the lip syncing extravaganza but I think two other ads deserve a mention. There was a funny one featuring a guy who works with chimps, but my personal favorite was the one where a cute couple was sharing a Greek yogurt. He kept pulling the spoon away, ignored all the warning signs, and ultimately got what he deserved!

I can't get my head around the fact people look forward to the half time adverts. How bad must a sport be that excitment builds the closer the game gets to half time. Surely it then makes the 2nd half an anti-climax??

The ads go through the whole game, not just halftime. Usually the ads here are so bad that we channel surf through them every time. This is the one occasion where some of them are entertaining. But agree they were not as good as some previous years.

What little I watched, was with the mute button so as not to hear Cris Collinsworth's monotonal drone and drivel.

And on the subject of broadcast drivel, Ian Baker Finch is getting more hyperbolically incontinent as the years go by. Going on again yesterday about how well the course is "presented", even though his fellows hacks were clearly not so keen. No word yet as to how wwell presented he felt Madonna was.

As for pre-game entertainment and half-time shows, the old Salvation Army Band that used to play in front of the Chicken Run at Upton Park takes some beating . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:As for pre-game entertainment and half-time shows, the old Salvation Army Band that used to play in front of the Chicken Run at Upton Park takes some beating . . . . . .

Jim Nantz is duff as well. Hate it when commentators pretty much give up on trying to provide any sort of insight. He's just full of thoughtless guff.

I forgot the Greek yoghurt one. Thing is the Chimps one wasn't really anything new.

The Superbowl is watched by over 100m people and they're not all watching for the game. A 30 second ad goes for $3m for a single airing so the ads have become a huge part of the Superbowl experience.

Been seeing ads for the Masters recently, Jim Nantz: a tradition like no other. What does that even mean?

Jim Nantz hasn't quite got over the fact that he shared a flat in University with Fred Couples, and now Fred's a Major winner, Mister Cool. And Nantz isn't.

Plus he styles himself as a personal friend of the President Bushes; for which it's a shame he didn't spend time in Fallujah as penance.

Grumps, Get used to it, plus you'll have a weekend of the most sublime meeting of land and sea - or whatever they call it. I suspect the Masters Committee came up with the tradition nonsense. Some/most would say it's tradition (membership rules at any rate) we could well do without.

Much prefer Dan Hicks and Rich Lerner.

Also prefer Dan Hicks over Nantz.

Kwin, interesting that the whole US "Greek Yogurt" thing started in upstate NY, and now employs many in CNY. Great success story ...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/29/smallbusiness/chobani_yogurt_hamdi_ulukaya.fortune/index.htm

Shotrock,
Yup, Not a user myself but Mrs kwin is and we've been following this growth AND the Fage plants up by Johnstown. Quite a boon for the extended "Valley".

How is the commentary around hole 16 received by sponsors, Kaiser Tim etc when McCord (I think) was ripping it out of the corporate box holders. A classic on Thursday was a comment about Paradigm Technology when he said "I wonder what they do?" but his tone indicated he might have been thinking "what the f... Is that?"
It seemed the producer might have been expressing some concern, but McCord simply accused him of stealing towels while a house guest at chez McCord!
While I am not a fan of the stadium hole, it does seem that the corporate boxes need a good old fashioned Roy Keaneing about their responsibility to at least watch if not support what is going on!

Puligny - I've attended this event and in a corporate box with one of the big sponsors. Gary McCord spends a lot of time in Phoenix (member of Whisper Rock) and is beloved by the sponsors (from where I stand). Any publicity (TV call outs) for "Paradigm Technology" is better than none. I can't imagine any sponsor having a problem with that comment, but who knows.

It is an extremely casual atmosphere, invited guests only in any of those boxes, all you can eat/drink.

Someone living in London just told me that the one-day total attendance EXCEEDED the 4 day total attendance at the most recent Open Championship. Finchem getting the numbers -- great job there.

kwinigolfer wrote:Shotrock,
Yup, Not a user myself but Mrs kwin is and we've been following this growth AND the Fage plants up by Johnstown. Quite a boon for the extended "Valley".

I've just eaten my lunchtime yoghurt and it was a Dannon -- never heard of chobani before. But hey, if Mrs Kwin likes it, that's good enough for me -- it's going on my shopping list !

Shot rock - good to hear they are relaxed about that because from here it was very good and very funny. Most difficult not to be relaxed in Phoenix. I am a regular visitor and will back there in April, including several rounds at We Ko Pa. Where did you play last week? We Ko Pa became a firm favourite last year and I have always rated the Faldo at Wildfire - plus so many others!!!!!

Puligny - Last week I played two rounds at the Arizona Grand Golf Course. How was it? Weather was great, we moved around quickly, decent shape, but I'd put even money down betting the course was designed on a napkin, at a bar, after a full night of drinking. A VERY odd collection of mostly forgettable holes. Good friend of mine plays out of Whisper Rock, and I've been invited to play with him in March. Not sure I can do it with family and work commitments, however. Would go back to We Ko Pa in a minute.

Daniel Chopra recorded two holes in one (7 & 17) during his Monday practice round at Pebble Beach.
Pity that didn't happen during the tournament!

Hole in one on 17, that is a very good effort. The green looks impossible from the tee as from front edge to back edge (on diagonal) it is barely a club difference.

I think I mentioned it at the time, Angelo Que from Philippines did that as well last summer on the Asian Tour (also during a pre-tournament round in Malaysia). They talk about odds of 64mil. to 1... now that we had two occurrences in less than a year, expect the next one in about...20 years?

I read that Miyazato from Japan did it during a proper tournament round on the PGA Tour at the Reno-Tahoe Open in 2006...

That's amazing stuff! I've never had a hole in one, nor have I ever seen one.

The closest came on a 130 yard par 3 I played with my father many years ago. He hit his tee shot about 3 feet. Clearly peed off, he never even lifted his head and whacked the ball again.

Nice birdie.

(Kwin - 6th hole at the Skenandoa Club if you recall the course.)

What are the odds Chopra repeats the feat during round 1?

My opinion would be that he has used all his luck up in the practice rounds so he has no hope of repeating the feat or even getting one.

Kwini, fortunately or unfortunately I don't watch a lot of live golf so I don't get subjected to the waffling of the talking twits