PGA Tour: Pebble Beach etc: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Redemption came swiftly for Kyle Stanley in Phoenix, no real surprise and indicative of the talent the boy has.
Everyone (including many of the TV commentators who seemed to be willing Spencer Levin to fold) who doubted Spencer Levin's ability to overcome his dodgy temperament - myself not included, I thought he'd win comfortably! - was proven correct. Don't expect Levin to rebound as quickly as Stanley, despite his 14th, 46th, 4th place finishes in three previous trips to the Monterey Peninsula. Stanley just made mistakes on one hole in San Diego - Levin was never at ease throught his Phoenix finale, but he's a good player and is still worth watching.

2).A couple of nice stories passed on by the Golf Channel crew about Stanley:
~Chamblee mentioned that, last spring, he went up and down the practice range at a Tour event asking the caddies who was the real deal among the young up-and-comers. To a man they answered: "Kyle Stanley".
Don't expect Stanley to be an occasional winner like so many of the young American golfers; expect him to be a multiple winner every year for the foreseeable future.

~A friend of Phil Mickelson mentioned by phone in Phoenix that he was chatting with Kyle Stanley: "Why don't you come over?" Phil chatted with Stanley for 45 minutes and invited him for a game at his (local) club Thursday afternoon. Phil turned up with the others from his morning tournament group, Fowler and Dustin Johnson, and Phil and Rickie won an 18-hole match vs Dustin and Stanley! Mickelson is a highly sought after mentor to young golfers, Keegan Bradley and Johnson among them.

3).Another note about Phil, who has been known to be more than scathing about some course architects, especially Rees Jones. Troubled by Jones' efforts on the South Course of Torrey Pines, and determined that a similar fate should not befall the North Course, Phil has offered to upgrade the North Course pro bono, not accepting a penny in architects' fees.
I like Phil, always puts his money where his mouth is.
Unlike another golfing superstar who invariably puts his mouth where his money is.

4).450 miles up the coast from San Diego is the Monterey Peninsula, which Robert Louis Stevenson called "the greatest meeting of land and sea in the world". Even allowing for the fact there's no evidence Stevenson ever went to the Isle Of Wight, you get the picture - gorgeous!
The "AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am" is played over three courses, Pebble Beach (rated 4th best on Tour by the pros), Spyglass Hill (13th) and Monterey Peninsula (19th) with the final round contested by the top 60 and ties at Pebble; (top 70 and ties are credited with a made cut and get paid). Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula are the two shortest courses on Tour, and Pebble has some the smallest greens. Weather is often an issue here, but conditions this week should be cool (everything's relative) and fair.

5).Some notable players return for their PGA Tour seasonal debuts this week, Woods, Furyk and Harrington among them. Woods' appearance is notable as he has given the "AT&T" his middle finger "digitus impudicus" salute for the past decade, and attributable in equal parts to AT&T's generosity to the Tiger Woods foundation, and compensation for not playing San Diego. Anything other than a strong performance by Furyk will put him on the edge of not qualifying for the WGC MatchPlay, the field for which is finalised Feb 13th. Harrington will probably need a win.

6).Other bubble boys playing this week in danger of missing the owgr top 64(+) qualifying threshhold include:
60th: Manasssero (Dubai)
63: Na (Pebble Beach)
65: Ryan Moore (PB)
67: Luiten (Dubai)
68: Sabbatini (PB)
69: Colsaerts (Dubai)
71: Noren (Dubai)
72: Levin (PB)
74: O'Hair (PB)
75: Vijay Singh (PB)
Those sitting on the sidelines, rolling the dice, are: Chalmers (61st), Els (62nd), Allenby (64th) HowellIII (66th).

7).Two more Tour veterans reappear this week following the welcome recent returns of JB Holmes (nice to see him make the cut in Phoenix) and Oberholser (still experiencing problems with his damaged hand) and Neil Lancaster (playing again this week). Dudley Hart plays for the first time on Tour since May, 2009, and European Tour member Mike Weir competes in his first event since having to withdraw from last July's Canadian Open. No word still on Casey and Jacobson.

8).It seems Tiger Woods gets to play with his good mate Arjun Atwal this week - not sure how that gets fixed? - and is just one of a number of course specialists in the field. Among those to have at least two 1st or 2nd place finishes are: Singh with 4 (incl 1 win), Mickelson 3 (all wins), Woods 3 (2 wins incl US Open), Love 2 wins, Dustin Johnson 2 wins, Duval 3, all 2nd places, Weir 2 x 2nd places. As well as Levin, Bryce Molder, Oberholser and JB Holmes have good records here.

9).Kyle Stanley leapfrogs to the top of the list of US Ryder Cup qualifiers very early in the process. Among those way off the Ryder Cup qualifying pace are: Kuchar (34th), Woods (38th), Watney (42nd), Mahan (45th) and Furyk (67th). I expect Mahan and Watney to start climbing that qualifying list with good showings this week, Bryce Molder too.

10).European interest at Pebble includes Davis, Harrington, Laird, Poulter, Christian, Knox, Greg Owen (playing in Bill Murray's foursome), Blixt and two-holes-in-one Chopra.
Cejka and Owen have enjoyed success here in the past.
And the Champions Tour opens up in Florida this week with only one European, Bernhard Langer, in the field which once again illustrates the closed shop nature of the Champions Tour.

Good to see big Phil back in the winners circle, running into form with the Masters not too far away, he will almost certainly be in the mix at Augusta.
Probably Tigers biggest disapointment since the start of his "recovery". Just cant seem to get going in the 4th round right now.

'Morning Shotrock,
As Faldo so presciently said, if Tiger blames his putting he's in denial. Clue to Faldo and Chamblee (who, like him or not, has been pretty much spot on regarding Tiger's comeback) is the constant practice swings when his muscle memory fails him - very telling yesterday.

But "broken bottle" or not, he'll get his act together soon enough, just not quite as regularly as we'd become used to.

Phil moves past Middlecoff and Watson into 9th place on the all-time PGA Tour wins list with his 40th victory. He'll play this week at Riviera then two weeks off before Doral.

Would think an early loss next week would persuade Tiger to play Honda before he goes to Doral.

S_R - His 4th round putting was uglier than Poulter's wardrobe.

OK, maybe not that bad.

Kwin - Agree with that. TW's going to need to hit his approach shots closer under pressure. No way a flat stick will cure that.

I understand the economics of match play events and why a touring professional would not want it every month or so, but it is one event I really look forward to.

In my book the Wednesday of the MatchPlay is as good as any day in golf, the last day of the Majors plus the three days of the Ryder Cup, excepted.

I watched last night's golf and have to hand it to Mickleson, that was a great round. I bet that he was even happier seeing his old nemesis playing awfully beside him.

But is it just me that finds Jim Nantz incredibly nauseous? I'm pretty sure that its him. The one who name checks everyone down to their dog, etc. It just get so tiresome hearing about his lovely wife, Jane and how its a heart warming story that here on cat remembrance day that he will be able to dedicate this to Banjo his faithful cat who was by his side the day he told superintendent Smith that he would one day win this tournament. Well you get the point (hopefully).

I appreciate that its for an American audience but I would rather hear about the golf. I'm pretty sure that he is the one who does the green jacket hand over that makes me feel uncomfortable. He sort of reminds me of the brown noser at school. Certainly no danger of him calling a flagstick a pin or visa versa when required. As for saying the greens have been bikini waxed!

Sorry for the rant. But while I'm on it I also hate the bit where they stick a camera and microphone up the nose of players. Phil tried to get a quiet moment with his wife behind the stands and we were party to every word. I am sure that he knows this so is unlikely to be caught telling her what she's getting later but give them a second or two alone.

That is rant over. Back to the golf. Great round, great course. There are some great holes to finish. I know it wasn't the toughest shot he played but I loved watching the 4 iron Phil played for his second shot on 18 from behind him. I really like seeing a long iron being played low with draw from behind the player so you can see that low, boring flight.

agreed with you on the chat with his wife but it made for great tv hearing the chat with Bones on the 18th tee.

There's karma, I missed that! What did they say?

kwinigolfer wrote:In my book the Wednesday of the MatchPlay is as good as any day in golf, the last day of the Majors plus the three days of the Ryder Cup, excepted.

The last few days of the matchplay are as boring as golf gets. You get to see a shot about every 5 minutes, as if golf coverage isnt rubbish enough with all the ad breaks etc it becomes shocking when they dont actually have any golf to show you as so few people are on the course.

Nick Faldo mentioned how he heard Phil say before how he hated the 18th drive as for a lefty when he tilts his head up when standing over the ball all he can see is the ocean!

then we heard Phil ask Bones to double check that his lead was still 3 and not 2. (i think at this point though Bones told him 3 but "Charlie" had a short one on 17 for Birdie or something to that effect).

Bones said to aim at the big bunker with a 4 iron, to which Mickelson questioned if a 4 iron would get to the fatest part of the fairway given the cold air. Bones said it definitley would (and gave him a yardadge to the fatest bit)
then at this point it seemed like mentally Phil committed 100% to the shot he was going to hit.
I thought it was pretty fascinating watching the 2 way conversation between them and also how he committed completley to the shot despite being a bit unsure in the decision making process.
Kostis (i think) then made the very valid point that in such scenarios it is best to make an agressive swing at a conservative target... which seems to make alot of sense to me and something i will hopefully remember this summer if im going well in a competition!

Pretty difficult to screw up Sunday's action, even with Jim Nantz, Feherty and Baker Finch. Phil on fire, gorgeous Pebble Beach and that feline fellow.

And CBS were "rewarded" with overnight TV ratings DOUBLE last year's and their best since 1997, when Woods was 2nd! That's it for CBS until The Masters, NBC and Golf Channel for the WGC's and the "Florida Swing", and by then we might be grateful for CBS's return. (Kostis is terrific I think; hope he's spending the next few weeks honing Casey's game.)

Mickelson has implicit faith in Bones; doesn't mean he does what he recommends every time but they're a great partnership. Wonder what Joe LaCava was thinking as Tiger spent a few holes there putting like his old boss Freddie?
I would like to have seen lots more of Dustin Johnson, especially off the tee, big opportunity missed to show the power of the boys in their 20's rather than the middle age of Wi and Duke, Phil and Tiger.

Kwin - Double. That's big -- and speaks front and center to the Tiger impact on broadcasts. I guess it was on the old boards, but one poster was adamant that more and more people are sick of TW and tuning out because of the lopsided coverage. Think again.

Big year for Dustin Johnson? I hope so.

Having spent seemingly the past month staking him out on Twitter, Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian has finally written up his interview with Gary Christian. A good read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/14/gary-christian-pga-tour

Great spot NedB-H. Nice story and someone who really has a story worth following.

I'm 39....still time!!!!

Good stuff, Ned, Thanks. As I think I mentioned before, Golf Channel put Gavin Coles and Gary Christian in the commentary box (must have been a GC thing) last year and they were very entertaining!
Prescient photo as well, looking as if he's waiting for a Riviera withdrawal - 3rd alternate now but don't hear about anyone planning to withdraw. Quite a nice start to his Tour career though, will at least maintain position in the reshuffle; would hope he's got his ticket booked to Mayakoba.

Had forgotten to offer an update on the year's first Nationwider. Some familiar names but only Lingmerth and Groanberg representing Europe at first glance. Maybe others though. Boo Weekley playing, and Michael Sim, his particular wheel seeming to have turned full circle.

Colwyn Bay's Ben Briscoe is the only other Euro teeing it up in Colombia to my knowledge Kwini. Those three could be flying the flag for much of the Nationwide season too... the Euro success on it last year means most of the players are on the PGA Tour this year! But there's always the chance someone will force their way in a la Russell Knox (whose start to the season has been as poor as Christian's has been good, and who needs a big finish at Mayakoba to avoid plummeting down the reshuffle).

Ah! Knew I'd miss someone, and there might possibly be a Spanish player or two I've failed.
Knox seems to suffer a bad hole or two and move backwards when one would will him to move forwards, to safety! Learning process for all qualifiers, especially rookies.
Mayakoba's going to be more interesting than usual - though one invitee will no longer be attending: Rafa Cabrera-Bello!

Good luck to Mr.Briscoe - must be his first ever PGA Tour sanctioned event.

has Coetzee entered the Mayakoba guys? wonder is he just banking on a PC withdrawal!

Nothing about Coetzee among the early commitments; we'll find out on Friday!
Mike Weir will be in the field, but he was royally dissed by the Northern Trust Open people - 2-time winner of the tournament asked for an invite and was turned down. Come on . . . . . . !

wow thats shocking form by the organisers! its probably one of these events that gives an invite to the 8 handicap 65 year old CEO of the sponsor!

Ned,
In light of the very excellent article you forwarded about Gary Christian, it's ironic that he was pictured at Riviera as I see he's now withdrawn his name from the list of "alternates" - somewhat surprising as he's 3rd in line, but probably pragmatic!
Hope he's off to Cancun.