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.

princedracula wrote:An eagle at a par 5 from Podge!!!!
When was the last time something like that happened??

Eagle has been downgraded to a Birdie!!!

At least Podge played the Par 5's in level par.............

Mac, there are 2 long uphill par 4s on SH but they're both on the front 9, 6 & 8. 6 doglegs right whilst 8 doglegs left. 8's Fairway is pretty narrow and it's green is probably about the trickiest on the course.

The strategy on the inland holes is simple.... Be straight!!!
The pro's probably see it as more straight forward but the average amateur can really struggle of the back tees. The par 5's are at a teasing length as far as going for it in 2 is concerned with water left on 7 and water right on 14. 14 you be fair will be a definite 3 shotter though.

Maybe I am thinking of 8. Thanks JAS. Will need to watch the coverage later.

Mac,
Don't really watch too much of this until Sunday, can't stand pro-ams, so enjoy PB, rather skip over SH and MP.
But Spyglass gets mixed reviews from the players - most lamenting that the course lacks flow and doesn't live up to the promise of its early holes in the dunes - they still rate it quite highly though, 13th of 63, Poppy Hills was 62nd.
I'm not a great Trent Jones fan; one course of his that I play from time to time is on a great piece of land, with a glimpse of the ocean, but the feeling playing the other holes is that you could be thirty miles from the sea - no sense of the character of the place whatsoever.
(Tho' Seven Oaks which is partly his is one of my favourite courses anywhere.)

I checked BBC red button this morning to see what the scores were and was flabbergasted to see Dustin Johnson was -76 for 18 holes. He'd give Kim Jong Il a good game.

Mac - Not a lot of love for Spyglass among the golf architecture geeks, but I've had more than one person who played both SH and PB the same week tell me they prefer SH.

Loved how Faldo name dropped that he just played Cypress earlier in the week.

On my bucket list!

Golfers are finishing their warm-ups around the Monterey Peninsula and should find cool but fair weather again.
A bit dodgy for Saturday though, cloudier and breezy with the chance of a shower. Would think any significant wind would, relatively speaking, penalise those playing MP and PB, rather than Spyglass.

Russell Knox and Greg Owen, both at four under, are the leading Europeans after Day 1, and all Team GB&I are at even par (Gary Christian) or better. Good starts!

Moore started with birdie, probably he read those ranking projections...
Good start also by the Hunter and by Greg Owen.

Withdrawl after five Spyglass holes today for Elkington.
Good Lord, did you see what he was wearing yesterday? Rust (to match his golf game?) coloured cords about two sizes too big for him (tho he is porking out) and a long-sleeved tee shirt - looked like he'd just got out of bed to put out the trash.

Ryan Moore -3 for the day!

See what's happening to Harrington?
Four birdies in a row, playing a par five now though.
Would be wonderful if he's finally figured out the optimum position of his tongue and success ensued.
Knox and Owen going nicely.

I wish they gave owgr points based on the pro/am results, Padraig and JP are flying at the top. But it's a great start indeed for Podge, he must be in a Harri...

Remembering what I don't like about this event... we get little enough golf on the TV broadcasts as it is what with all the cutaways and product promos; we can do without half of the golf shots they show being 10-handicap hackers with property empires and a through line to a friendly tour pro.

Greg Owen -4 for the day with three holes to play.
Owen has career finishes of 3rd, 4th, 19th among his visits here; no surprise to see him playing well again.
Another with "previous" albeit not quite so good, is Cejka, moving well, clothed in logoless all black yesterday.

Ned,
Property empires - and unsightly guts. Why oh why do the announcers have to be so sycophantic??

Anyone any idea why the coverage seems to be the fowler show despite the fact he would be missing the cut were there one.

PH & JP are leading by 6 shots now in the ProAm... surely, JP must've cheated when he handed in his handicap!
Great job by Ryan Moore today, we can say almost for certain that CHIII is out of MatchPlay now...

Golf Channel, this time day, celeb laden event ... I'm guessing they would put absolutely anything on that could help the ratings. Hence Fowler.

Nice run-up by Tiger. Let's hope he finishes strongly.

This is really very poor by Rickie Fowler - hailed as the next big thing, dresses up as a belisha beacon, and stinking the house out.
Beginning to think he needs to find some dreary clobber and dress up his golf game which is deteriorating fast.

All GB&I inside the cut-line just now.

Don't think Harri ready to win but a Top 10 would be major progress.............

Agree on Fowler.....ridiculous.......and what about that "moustache"...............

kwinigolfer wrote:All GB&I inside the cut-line just now.

Well, that didn't last very long. Poults having a bit of a nightmare round today and G Christian managed his third bogey in a row... and B. Davis just joined them too...

You keep complaining about having to watch Fowler too much... another one they showed more than I could care for was Sam Saunders (I wonder why)... Have to say, I don't think I recognised any of those 'celebrities' that they keep interviewing every 5 minutes...

Ah, and I just got to see finally Podge and JP McManus who's carrying a K-club umbrella and wearing his green glove!

Is JPMc handicap a bit dodgy? They are always right up at the top irrespective of how Padraig plays. JP does have the knack of hitting totally crap shots and getting good scores = bandit? Only asking for views of course, but at least Dick Turpin wore a mask!
Tee hee

Let's have a look at the Riviera field;
Europeans:
Blixt, Jacobson, Pettersson
Davis, Donald, Rose
Sergio
Harrington
Laird


Others:
Choi
Day
TIM CLARK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Els
Goosen
Bill Haas
Dustin Johnson
KT Kim
Mahan
Mickelson
Ogilvy
Scott
Snedeker
Stricker
Watney
Watson
Yang

Probably missed some but you get the picture . . . .

Nice rebound birdie by Pods. Is he on the track to compete in the majors again? Just a hunch, but wouldn't surprise me if he was in contention for at least one this year.

kwinigolfer wrote:Let's have a look at the Riviera field;
Probably missed some but you get the picture . . . .

Early evenin' kwini,

What about Freddy Couples and Ryan Moore? They both managed to finish in top 10 despite the fact that I followed both of them for a spell last year.

Incroyable! Les Habs ont remporté trois matchs consécutifs. Qui le savait?

Obviously, it is the season for players to come off the disabled list.

DJ at the Humana
JB Holmes at Farmers
Arron Oberholser at WMO
Mike Weir at ATT PB
Tim Clark, Freddy Jacobson at NTO
Paul Casey at Match Play

Good entertainment pour vous next week, venice.

Harrington's looking very strong so far at Pebble.

Freddie blew it in Dubai - trying to pull a Hunter and take his money and get outathere, and he's got to stick around for the weekend. What's the betting on a bad back this week?

Only neuf points behind maintenant, mais Toronto Samedi; we'll get etouffee.

How's Magic? I remember exactly where I was when I found out about his problem. O'Bloody'Hare, all over the evening papiers in the newstands. Good luck to him, what a story!

GPB,
You forgot the most successful, Snedeker! Fresh off hip surgery.

Padraig Harrington right in this, birdie on the last hole and only one shot out of 2nd place. Charlie Wi with the lead and he's constitutionally destined never to win.

Remember there are two cuts tomorrow:

Top 60 and ties get to play Sunday.

Top 70 and ties get credit for a "made cut" and earn official money, but if they're not in the top 60 they are excluded from Sunday's fun.

Certainly good to see Padraig finish off with a birdie. Is this the beginning of his second wind. Should be good for a few years as he's only 40. And what about Vijay?

Freddie did mess up in Dubai but he was one of my fantasy picks so I'll take it. He's by far the most popular player when at Riviera and probably gets some comfort from the crowds in spite of his back problems. Always finishes the tourney.

Wonder how many hockey fans realize what a truly classic and intense rivalry it was between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs in days of yore. Love looking at old black and white photos of the fans in both arenas during the heyday.

Magic looks pretty incredible health wise. He must have the best doctors and supplements in the world to maintain his physical well-being. Always a smile on his face even at 5 or 6 in the morning and never shuns anyone approaching him. He always looks them directly in the eye and listens to whatever they may be telling or asking him. He's exactly the person we see in his interviews or when he does the NBA broadcasts periodically. The antithesis of you-know-who.

Phil jumped one ahead of Tiger with a 65 today. Does he have a tinge of extra motivation this week?

Great to hear that about Magic, Would kind of like to hear that Larry Bird's the same sort of guy.
But the closest I came to knowing a basketball star was a girl from Utica who became NCAA Player of the Year at Villanova and capped that off by running off to be a nun. Still in the convent as far as I know. Probably got a basket there.

Talking of the Original Six rivalries, one of the owners of Les Canadiens gave me a tour of Le Centre Bell a few years ago - their museum-like display of photos from pre-war battles is extraordinary. Plus the recognition of Les Habs of decades gone by.

Would think Phil would cherish a win this week; lots of the Pebble Beach usuals coming to the fore - Dustin, Vijay, Phil, Tiger, even Davis Love and Oberholser are well inside the cut-line. If that motivation lasts for two more rounds we'll have a four-time winner on our hands.

Some stats I am keeping.

Cumulative scores (to par)

Wave 1: PB and then SH are +12 cumulative
Wave 2: SH and then MP are -43 cumulative
Wave 3: MP and then PB are -33 cumulative

I think the guys that played Monterrey yesterday got the short stick. the great weather mitigated the advantage of playing MP.

Be interesting to see how those stats shake out Saturday - if there's more "weather" I think Pebble could become more penal, Spyglass perhaps just neutral because of the trees. Not sure about MP, it looks pretty exposed.

Scoring average for round 2:

MP 69.90 (5 under par cumulative)
PB 72.33 (17 over par)
SH 73.22 (62 over par)

Scoring average for Round 1:

MP 68.94 (55 under par cumulative)
PB 71.04 (50 under par)
SH 71.27 (38 under par)

Assuming all other factors being equal, the bad weather today affected the scores at SH more than the other two course.

Weather looks like it should be a little better today than it once looked, almost as if this morning's weather turned up 18 hours early!
Cool, but should be fair today, a bit breezy perhaps.

Fascinating course stats there GPB.

Looks like the AT&T pros will need to reach -2 to feel comfortable about playing on Sunday, which demands under par rounds from Laird and Poulter, and at least -2 from Englishmen Christian and Davis.

Another nauseating day with CBS fawning over faux celebrities but hopefully some competitive golf to look forward to also.

Should be cool today, not much higher than mid-fifties, and the pros don't necessarily enjoy that. Could be interesting.

A real chance for Harrington to gret his season well and truly off and running; he's off at 9.06 a.m. Pacific time, 5.06 p.m. Goodison time.

I am kind of shocked that Woods did not get a CBS Pimp Tee-time today. He just finished #10 which means his round will nearly over by the time CBS gets to the coverage at 3 pm et (probably delayed by CBB game). and he will be finishing on #9. a fantastic hole, but not iconic like the 18th hole.

Mickelson also got an early tee time, but on #1. Actually earlier.

But I am sure both of them are pleased to go off early today, to get away from spectacle of late Saturday afternoon at PB.

GC is probably pleased to have both of them heavily featured in the early early coverage.

GPB wrote:I am kind of shocked that Woods did not get a CBS Pimp Tee-time today.

Perhaps they don't consider him the biggest 'celebrity' in this particular tourney, although as we said, you can hardly call most of those people you see in that field 'celebrities'...

Scintillating start from DJ...
Tiger throws away one as well...

C'mon Padraig!!!!

Terrible start for Phil also - he'd've expected to be at least -1 after Pebble's first four holes, probably -2. But just one bogey to interrupt the pars so far.

Harrington starting out like he played Friday. Great stuff!

I am little surprised by the Paddy love on this board.

I would like to see him win this weekend and get into the Match play field (I don't think solo 2nd will be enough).

Not qualified for the WGC's is a big competitive disadvantage for Paddy to qualify for the RC on merit.

DJ, TW, and PM all made a birdie after an early bogey(s).

Paddy in the zone! 2 out of 2!!
Tiger follows his bogey with 3 consecutive birdies!
Who's Joseph Bramlett? Albatross?!

This is a great start!

Joseph Bramlett is golfer of mixed heritage that went to Stanford. Black father White mother.

Sounds vaguely familiar?

He was a rookie last year and the first black golfer to get his tour card since Woods turned Pro.

He never got it going last year, a victim of being low on the totem poll status among QS/NW grads.

I am guess he got into tournament via Sponsor invite. I don't think he has any status on tour this year.

Aha, now I remember... Mind you, you wouldn't say he's got black background based on this photo on PGATour.com site...

http://www.pgatour.com/golfers/034255/joseph-bramlett/scorecards/#!/r005/2012

Looks like Woods and Mickelson are both playing very well, should be a great weekend of golf.

Time to see if the Tiger effect still exists on the PGA tour, it certainly doesn't for Robert Rock anymore. Could the Umericans be more susceptible?

Five goals for Spurs, just matched by five Tiger birdies.

Amazing.

I just read that Harrington has been working with Dave Alred -- the same motivational coach who's been working with Luke Donald for the past couple of years. I'd like to see him do well again (hope that doesn't jinx him).

kwinigolfer wrote:Looks like the AT&T pros will need to reach -2 to feel comfortable about playing on Sunday, which demands under par rounds from Laird and Poulter, and at least -2 from Englishmen Christian and Davis.

because there is going to be 25 amateurs, I think the "Playing On Sunday" cut is Top 60 and ties. Those players in the top 70 and not in the top 60 get a MDF.

It looks like the top 70 cut will move to even par with the conditions today. Right now 70 players are at -1 or better and there are 95 players at even par. If it goes to even par, what the heck are they going to do with a 110+ golfers on the course?

Excellent work by Woods. And, as a Charlie Wie fan, would be delighted to see him finish off this tournament. Lots and lots of golf however.

Five California boys in the top 6. Plus the Dubliner.

The Dubliner moves to 2nd on his own! It's exciting enough to witness a former star's big comeback to form, but to have two of them happening at the same time would be special...

Just thought I would mention it again, I have Harrington in my fantasy team.

Just Sayin.