PGA Tour: The "Honda": Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Wonderful theatre at the Match Play last week, and a most deserving winner. Waste of time debating any improvements to the format - we'd all have differing ideas on that. But Hunter Mahan was outstandingly the best golfer once Zach Johnson had made a mess of his 19th Round One hole and good luck to Mahan as he moves forward. He'll turn 30 in May with 2 x WGC's in his back pocket, but only two run-of-the-mill events and "should do better" is written large on his career report card.

2).Rory went on about his semi final vs Westwood being his "final", but surely that's just the nature of match play?
From a point of view of English pride, not to say prejudice, I thought Lee was a touch unlucky Sunday morning. Off to a better start than even Chubby could have dreamed of and then a decent-looking iron into the 5th rolled up against the "collar" at the back of the green. Three strokes later and he was firing a lovely iron into the par 3 6th. But Rory holed his longer putt and Lee missed his. Lee's head down, two holes lost, Rory perking up, game over. Shouldn't be that way though and Westwood must know that he will only win the big ones by overcoming adversity along the way.

3).Mahan enjoyed his first outing with his Ping Nome putter having used a Ping Anser all his career. Now Nome sounds to me like the Alaskan town the sled dogs run to in the Iditarod, but Mahan was HOT on the greens from Thursday onwards.

4).OK, just to break the promise not to debate the format. Is it in the interests of the integrity of the game to hold a consolation match? Set aside the loot, just measure Wilson's achievement in winning a meaningless match-up in golf's new currency, official world ranking points. And he collects 7.6 pts for beating Westwood vs Paul Lawrie, for instance, who only won 8.88 points for winning two very meaningful matches. Just saying.

5).And on the subject of Aberdeen's favourite golfing son, it was timely to read that Aberdeen Asset Management are now sponsoring Martin Laird (impressive week, Martin). Which just goes to show how prescient Johnny Miller is as he spent all Saturday talking about Martin Laird, the man from Aberdeen. That Johnny!!!

6).That's the West Coast done with and the American golfing press is tickled to death about US golfers winning all nine tournaments. Partly courtesy of Robert Allenby's 18th hole Mayakoba meltdown of course. The last time Americans won nine in a row to start the season, the streak ran to 11 before Ian Woosnam scraped home in New Orleans. I'd put a lot of money on this year's streak not reaching 11.

7).So it's off to the "Sunshine State", and "The Honda Classic". "International" Tour players are queueing up to play in this intra-WGC week as they strive to register their mandatory 15 events for the year. Europe-based players seem to struggle mightily to get to grips with grainy Bermuda greens and don't expect anything less this week. PGA National is a Tom Fazio design which staged the 1983 Ryder Cup (where Europe finally came of age as a viable competitor) and the 1987 PGA Championship.
Personal note: I played PGA National in 1985, was walking down a front nine fairway when we heard a crack behind us and a Titleist fizzing over our heads. We looked back to see wtf was going on only to see a rather large golfer speeding by us, crouched over the front of his golfcart like Cav winning a TDF sprint. "Thanks guys," yelled Craig Stadler as he whizzed by.

8).Since those days Jack Nicklaus has "re-done" the course and redefined the signature "Bear Trap", holes 15 (par-3), 16 (par-4) and 17 (par-3), the most difficult hat-trick of consecutive holes on Tour last year. pgatour.com notes that only 12 golfers have completed the tournament in the five years the "Honda" has been played here without registering a bogey on 15, 16 or 17. Luke Donald (feet up this week) enjoyed the best score, a miraculous -5 here, in 2008, and Camilo is the only other to do better than -2 on these holes.

9).The golfers will have warm weather this week, mostly dry and sunny but with that ever present March wind. All of which makes it an improbable course to see Tiger playing at, his first visit to the tournament in 18 years (perhaps he'll be playing Quad Cities this year after all?), especially with the penal nature of so many of the holes. And Rory's high ballflight is similarly unlikely to be best suited to the course. Expect a strong tee-to-green player to prevail, along the lines of the five Honda Champions here so far: Mark Wilson, Els, Yang, Villegas and Sabbatini.

10).This week is the last opportunity to qualify for Doral's WGC Cadillac event next week. The field has pretty much been finalised with just new entrants to the owgr top fifty, and FedEx points top ten, able to graduate to Doral. Europeans on parade over and above the usual suspects include Bjorn, Canizares (nice job qualifying courtesy of his T5 finish last week) and Clarke. YE Yang was runner up last year and I could see him playing well again, along with Justin Rose who has form here also. Rory? Tiger? Top Twenty? Maybe?

PS: The "Cadillac" field as it currently stands is listed on the Fantasy thread.

Don't see Kaymer doing much Damage at Augusta (given his form there last year), but absolutely in the mix for the rest of the majors.

Got a bit of time, interesting discussion... I don't think we should look at this issue from that angle, i.e. how many wins is or is not appropriate to have in order to be #1. Again, the system is and should be relative and should deal with the current situation. So, the guy who gets to #1 should be simply the one with the best results and highest level of consistency over a set period of time. And if anyone feels that Rory is not there yet, than just try to ask yourself the question, if not him than who else is better suited than him at the moment? Personally, I quite like the fact that this ranking system, with all its shortcomings, hasn't allowed Rory to become #1 earlier (e.g. after US Open when the hype was so high, etc.) and almost 'required' him to work harder and prove himself further, if you wish, by going through this quite outstanding period of 5-6 months when he had such a consistent string of results (only one event outside the top 5 in almost half a year!) and to get 'crowned' with a win against Lee and Woods among others. I think this also helped him a lot, in a way, to become a more complete and mature player during this period.

On the other side, I think an even bigger test is following now for him, which is to prove that he can stay there and sustain this position for some time in future. Kaymer is a good/bad example in this respect... I remember how excited he was, understandably so, when he got to #1 and he kept repeating in interviews that this is something that no one can ever take away from him. It's true in a way, but I believe that being able to show that you can hold on to that position for a while is at least as important, and I'm pretty sure Kaymer himself is feeling the same way now...

Regarding comments made by Lee and Tiger, I can understand it, and especially in Tiger's case, as super said, he should be reminded of that old saying with throwing stones when living in glass houses... My slight concern is with Lee... He made some similar coments in the past but they were all clearly banter/sarchastic and in his normal style, but I would agree that the comments seem to get edgier and edgier over the last days and that's not good for him first of all, as I would love to see Lee winning a major as soon as possible and getting in this frame of mind would never help him. Hopefully he can relax about it, accept things as they are and just concentrate on this great goal of his of winning a major. He is in such brilliant form and would be a pitty to waste it all for some silly stuff like that...

Wow - doesn't everyone go over the top..

Rory played basically crap in the last round but putted brilliantly.. if he had putted the way he normally does he would have finished about 5th... good on him but lets get a sense of perspective:

Rory has always been a streaky putter

Sergio was the best thing since sliced bread at the same / or similar age - and his putting went

Also Donald has not played much this year yet - wait until he gets going... if someone had got level with Rory he would probably have cracked !!!!

I reserve judgement on Rory until he has been around for 10 years. Lets see how good his putting stroke stands up.

I hate to say it but the best putter in the last 10 years (apart from the last 2) has been Tiger ...... Rory is a far better ball striker than Tiger BUT does he have the putting stroke .... hmmmmm

princedracula wrote:Got a bit of time, interesting discussion... ...stuff like that...

Well put and completely agree with your thoughts on the current OWGR system.

i do not see rory as being another sergio- i never expected him to be a top top draw golfer- i fully expect rory to be one!

i agree about tiger being the best putter- he was for sure- that was the diffrence between him and the field- however a better ball striker than tiger- ermmm, maybe in terms of distance control, put if we are just gonna measure ball striking on that then westy is far better than rory. Rory has all the shots, but does he have as many as tiger in his prime!- id have to say No.

I would have to concede Westy - if he could put he would be very very dangerous

But i still maintain that Rory is a streaky putter & Tiger was not that good a ball striker ....

However ..Tiger was good at pulling out the "must make" shot when required ... witness how iron at the last on the par 5 & big, could he putt

when tiger started out- he hit the ball to hot- the ball would take a massive leap forward and sometimes shoot of the green before it could grab.

i remember him doing that in that masters all them years ago- when he shot a 40 or 42 first 9 first round- yet ended up winning by 8 or something!

i measure ball striking on three things.

1. doesnt really mean anything- but its how it looks- the visual ball strike.(rory and tiger up there)
2. distance control- perfect measure of how consitantly a golfer strikes a ball.(monty in his prime, westy today)
3. shots in the arsernal(punches,stingers,fades,draws,etc- tiger in his prime could play any shot- he has even got his stinger back- however rory doesnt even like shaping shots, its almost full shot or nothing!)

I would be careful about dissecting parts of a game for the very top golfers. What Rory's doing now, and what Tiger's done plenty is pretty simple: get it in the hole when they needed to. Rory didn't sniff sniff every green in regulation coming down the stretch Sunday, but he got up and down when he had to.

What makes Rory and Tiger very different, IMO, from the likes of Lee and Luke (and plenty others) is that they both have totally dominated a major tournament. And now, when they both get into position to win those tournament, if they don't it's pretty much a failure. If Rory thought he got a lot of attention last year, wait until this April at Augusta.

As they were saying on Sunday the course and conditions were set up for ball strikers and look at the guys who hit 62 and 63.
LW's problem is his short game but I think a bigger problem for him if he is contention in a major is the pressure, he is right up there with the best guys to never win a major and you can tell how badly he wants one and the sands of time are ticking for him. If I had to bet my house either way on LW winning a major now I'd go no whereas If have gone yes two years ago. I hope I'm wrong but have to say again not as much as two years ago. If far rather Donald was the English guy to end the long wait.

i want them both to do it.. they deserve it-

i think donalds back 9 to win the us money list(v simpson) was the closet thing to the pressure he will personally feel to a major to come- he said he would do it and he was 6 back final 9!! and won- by bidieing 7 holes or something.

he applied pressure on himself and came out on top- amazing golf!

therefore if he gets into position he could do it!

I think westy can dominate a major - because he is starting to shoot low scores, and i honestly think he could dominate with his A plus game even if some of the others are playing well

I don't think either deserve it until they do it I'm afraid. I do agree with you re Donald's back 9 though, I wasn't sure he had that in him.
Lee could run away with one but that doesn't happen too often that a player has a huge comfort blanket though I guess the last two Opens have played out that way and Rory's US Open.

i think the sad truth is that any player in the field has the ability to win a open championship!

lot of it is to do with your tee time.

Yeah i agree you deserve what you win, if they dont do it they havent deserved it. However they are good enough to win a few in the future.

Let's hope so, a green jacket for one of them would be a good start.

Very well put on the owgr, princedrac.

Agree with Mac that some of Lee's comments were just his sarcastic sense of humour but agree also with Diggers that Rory's success, or at least others' view of it, is beginning to get under Westwood's skin.

Think McDowell put it best when he said the golf season just got pretty "spicy". Understatement of the year, but nicely put.

Anyone who gets to Number One gets there on merit; even a top player can fluke a Major (Ogilvy, Cink for instance), but no-one can fluke Number One.

"Anyone who gets to Number One gets there on merit; even a top player can
fluke a Major (Ogilvy, Cink for instance), but no-one can fluke Number
One"

i think its abit harsh- ogilvy was a half decent golfer- compare him to todd hamilton)oddly enough his other win was the honda) or sorry for this one paul lawie !

mysti,
Ogilvy (and Cink) being a top player was my point. But they were very lucky to be in the clubhouse when others behind made unforced errors to lose it.

Whereas Hamilton beat Els fair and square, as Lawrie won his play-off fair and square after Parry and VdV collapsed.

yep i see what you are saying.

wasnt cinks win in the play off v watson- where westy rushed the putt to go for birdie and 3 putted!! but watson bogeyed the last anyway. yep i would certainly put that one down to abit of luck

Nobody is denying getting to number one is achieved on merit, however you only have to ask Rory's girlfriend how much respect that can earn you if you don't use the talent that got you to number one to win majors.

In more important news, the Masters committee have given Ishikawa a special invite, for the second time. Lucky much?

Wow, You'd think Els would be first in line.
(But the Japan commercial opportunities must exceed those in South Africa.)

Diggers wrote:Nobody is denying getting to number one is achieved on merit, however you only have to ask Rory's girlfriend how much respect that can earn you if you don't use the talent that got you to number one to win majors.

Diggers much as I agree with your comment, I don't think it particularly matters, at the end of the day any pro will really only care of the opinion of their friends/peers, if anyone really thinks that Lee/Luke give a toss whether the public/media bemoan the fact they are #1 without winning the "benchmark" major then they are soarly mistaken, I'm fairly confident it wouldnt particularly bother them. It goes without saying that they would endeavour to win the major but they would certainly still attain the respect from their fellow professionals regardless.

Cannot wait to see what the next 6-18 months will bring, its a lottery in terms of the top 10 but I certainly hope Rory can keep this streak going, his performance on Sunday was so confident and assured, never went for anything special/spectacular and did what was required in the end imo never went out of 2nd gear. Theres absolutely no denying that he is the hottest across all tours at present as his last 11 results prove. His putting in the last two tournaments essecially has been phenomenal, at the Accenture he holed out in two or less up until circa Hole #10 in the final, at the Honda he stats within 10-15 ft were up there with everyone (dont think he missed within 10 ft in final round) add in his scrambling which was reminiscint of Tiger in his pomp. Augusta however will be a huge test for him, theres the added expectancy on him now and the fact he will still feel he has something to prove after last years collapse, theres also the fact that a certain Tiger Woods has been extremely good in the past two Masters lets face it as a hacker by his high standards. If last year is anything to go by it makes for an extremely exciting major.

So is els currently not in the masters field?

Correct.

Gareth_NI wrote:

Diggers wrote:Nobody is denying getting to number one is achieved on merit, however you only have to ask Rory's girlfriend how much respect that can earn you if you don't use the talent that got you to number one to win majors.

Diggers much as I agree with your comment, I don't think it particularly matters, at the end of the day any pro will really only care of the opinion of their friends/peers, if anyone really thinks that Lee/Luke give a toss whether the public/media bemoan the fact they are #1 without winning the "benchmark" major then they are soarly mistaken, I'm fairly confident it wouldnt particularly bother them. It goes without saying that they would endeavour to win the major but they would certainly still attain the respect from their fellow professionals regardless.

Cannot wait to see what the next 6-18 months will bring, its a lottery in terms of the top 10 but I certainly hope Rory can keep this streak going, his performance on Sunday was so confident and assured, never went for anything special/spectacular and did what was required in the end imo never went out of 2nd gear. Theres absolutely no denying that he is the hottest across all tours at present as his last 11 results prove. His putting in the last two tournaments essecially has been phenomenal, at the Accenture he holed out in two or less up until circa Hole #10 in the final, at the Honda he stats within 10-15 ft were up there with everyone (dont think he missed within 10 ft in final round) add in his scrambling which was reminiscint of Tiger in his pomp. Augusta however will be a huge test for him, theres the added expectancy on him now and the fact he will still feel he has something to prove after last years collapse, theres also the fact that a certain Tiger Woods has been extremely good in the past two Masters lets face it as a hacker by his high standards. If last year is anything to go by it makes for an extremely exciting major.

I'm not so sure, especially for Westwood. Donald I think rises above it but Westwood is lot chippier and doesn't seem to like the subject even bring raised but basically it will always be the elephant in the room.
Anyway hopefully it won't be an issue for them for much longer.

i think it grates on both- just like it grated on monty and pmick before he got one!

its only natural!

Diggers - One thing is for sure: If you are #1 and you don't win a major, expect endless questions about how you feel about that, how you're preparing for that, etc.

So here's where the inevitable comparisons will start with Rory and Tiger:

Rory is currently 22 years 10 months. He has 1 major, 4 other wins and 4 other top 10s in majors, including three 3rd place finishes.
Tiger, at age 22 years and 10 months, had 1 major, 6 other wins, and no other top 10s in majors.

Fast forward 4 years: At age 26 Tiger had 8 majors and 34 Tour wins.

Can Rory challenge those numbers?

I'd imagine the only person who cares is Tiger . . . . . . .

Hopefully Rory will be held to realistic expectations. Screw the media, do your own thing mate!

I'm pretty sure Rory's cares as well, he clearly wants to be the best and I doubt what he achieves at a given age in relation to Woods passes him by, much like Woods and Nicklaus.
That said it won't change anything, he'll be trying to win as much as he can as soon as he can and Woods will be trying to add a few more on to get closer to Jack and further from Rory if he is a real multiple winner.
The stats look very similar but needs to be mentioned Woods was a bit older when he turned pro, maybe 2 years ?

But Digs,
Ambivalent as I am about Woods as a person, no-one should try and set their sights on his records, they are quite extraordinary, and at least until there's a body of work that warrants it, aspiring record-setters should take it one Major at a time.
Faldo, Seve and Phil have had wonderful careers and if Rory could emulate them he'll be doing very, very well. If he could reach Watson, that would be even better.

I, too, am sure Rory cares. Set exceptional goals, get exceptional results.

Kwin, you can bet the media -- US and otherwise -- will start the comparison game this April.

And Diggers, you're absolutely correct. Tiger would have been a HOF golfer with his amateur career alone (IMO).

I'm sure Woods always aimed for Nicklaus Kwini, why shouldn't Rory do the same and set the bar high.
I'm pretty sure all the guys who have gone on to be great on any sport started out believing they could be the best. It's part of why they achieve what they do.

I would just say that Rory will face challenges, on and off the course, that Tiger never had to face and let's just cool our jets as to our expectations.
Please!

Digs, But the media didn't focus on Nicklaus's achievements when Tiger was starting out, that didn't really start at least until 2000, maybe later.

It's not expectations, it's just speculation. But I still believe Rory's own expectations will be very high. Be interesting to see how it turns out.

One thing history confirms is that players like Nicklaus and Woods do not come along very often. An obvious statement, but the reality behind that is that many are hailed as potential greats, only to fail after brief periods of success.
In recent years there has been much hype about Harrington, McDowell, Kaymer, Westwood, Donald and others, but the truth is that their highs have all been relatively short. True, some are still work in progress but it doesn't alter the reality that winning multiple majors is very rare.
McIlroy is a heck of a player and seems to be developing a great attitude to learning and winning, which has put him above all the other current twenty somethings, but to put his number one in perspective, Woods achieved the same feat almost a year and a half quicker.
Only time will tell if McIlroy goes on to emulate Woods, or if he succumbs to the trappings of success and loses the drive and focus required to win hundeds of tournaments. How will he deal with health issues, a drop in form, a swing change, marriage, bereavement or any one of a number of potential career ending events?
I'm not sure why McIlroy should face any more testing challenges along the way than Woods has, but the odds are definitely stacked against him making up the difference between his 7 wins and Woods 129.

"I would just say that Rory will face challenges, on and off the course, that Tiger never had to face "

That is an interesting comment as I am not sure Tiger could have made things much harder for himself of the course. What with his fathers predictions of world domination to his quest to bed every woman in the west. If things are worse for Rory he is in deep trouble.

Yeah I didn't really get that comment. Maybe the fact that he needs to spend a lot of time straightening his hair rather than practising his short game?
I think the fact that he has a famous girlfriend at the age of 22 isn't a great sign bit you can't help you fall in love with I guess.

Kwini I don't understand that comment either, surely Woods faces more challenges- race barrier, pressure from his father etc??

GT350 wrote:One thing history confirms is that players like Nicklaus and Woods do not come along very often...//...I'm not sure why McIlroy should face any more testing challenges along the way than Woods has, but the odds are definitely stacked against him making up the difference between his 7 wins and Woods 129.

Excellent post GT .

kwinigolfer wrote:I would just say that Rory will face challenges, on and off the course, that Tiger never had to face...

You think? I would think TW has had about as much hype/scrutiny as it's possible to imagine. I doubt Rory's experience will be that much worse/intense.

Rory's challenges vis-a-vis Tiger's?

A bit ambiguous isn't it?

What I really meant was that Tiger's success came out of the blue, at a time when we had become used to players winning four of five Majors, but certainly not approaching Nicklaus's haul and that it wasn't really until his 2000 year that the media started to burden him with such record-breaking achievements.

Rory is facing this from the start, with Tiger still at centre-stage and, largely, 3,000 miles from home in a rental property. Rory may have captured everyone's imagination but this is "Tiger's house" until his quest for 19 Majors is fully extinguished.

Everything that Rory does is going to be scrutinised in a way that Tiger avoided until it was unavoidable.

Maybe Rory can be successful but Tiger's haul of tournament wins will be the benchmark and Tiger is still likely to continue winning, minors if not Majors.

I think the world of Rory, but just feel as if our expectations (speculations as Diggers corrects) need to be lowered.

I think the simple answer is the expectation/speculation (which is kind of what these boards are for is it not, not really any different from speculating who will be the worlds 49th ranked player this week) isn't doing Rory any harm.
As I said earlier some players thrive on being the man, Woods obviously did. I think we will actually see the best of Rory now he has proven he can be number one. So right now I wouldn't worry too much about him, I think he"ll be fine.

kwinigolfer wrote:...I think the world of Rory, but just feel as if our expectations (speculations as Diggers corrects) need to be lowered.

With you 100% on this.

Hope you're right, Diggers, fingers crossed.
All my expectation/speculation was in reference to the media, sporting and otherwise, certainly not us!

Tim Finchem one happy man these days. Tiger and Rory playing tournaments week after week.

I saw Rory take the court the other evening to help his girlfriend in her exhibition match. Cameras flashing all over the place. The media attention and scrutinty he'll get will only increase.

If he keeps winning at this clip, the demands on his time, I suspect, will also increase exponentially -- something that's impossible to prepare for, but I hope he deals with successfully. And I have no reason to believe he won't.

I really like the fact that Tiger seems to be committing himself to actually playing in more events. I think he has realised that playing in tournaments will sharpen his game a lot more than just practice.

lorus,
You've got that right!
Be intrigued to see if he adds any more tournaments this PGA Tour season, and whether he plays the fry's.com again.