PGA Tour: The Cadillac Ranch and Puerto Rico: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Last week's Ballwasher Notes: "Rory? Tiger? Top Twenty? Maybe."

Yes, well, Rory would be knackered from the MatchPlay, just playing "Honda" as a fill-in to fit in his 15 events.
And Tiger only entered because PGA National was only a two bob return bus ride from his mansion in Jupiter.
Europeans resident in Europe have a tough time on Bermuda.
Woods is less favoured by par-70 courses than par-72's.

They showed in no uncertain fashion why they're there, and I'm here.
Can't imagine I've ever been happier to have been proved wrong.

2).Fabulous week by Rory - he and Tiger attracted bumper crowds and a TV audience 78% up on last year. What looked as if it could have become a walk in the park for Rory became more complicated Roar by Roar. He had told the media why he was a more consistent player, why he was better able to withstand pressure: he'd learned how to eliminate the horror shot and was more consistent on the greens. That was exactly the recipe on Sunday and he certainly put it to the test. And passed with flying colours.

3).And what about Tiger? With his career best final round of 62?? I'd often cited Tiger's 200+ yards iron from a bunker over water to a shallow Glen Abbey green in 2000 as the best shot I'd ever seen him hit under pressure. Interesting that he compared his 72nd hole iron at PGA National to that. Bitter pill perhaps that it didn't reward him with the "w" that he snatched from Grant Waite in Canada. Difficult to believe he won't be back for more though at Doral this week, a course one would imagine would suit him better than PGA National.

4).Lots of other items worth noting:
~Lee Westwood's final round 63. (Totally eclipsed twenty minutes later.)
~The performances of the stars in the field, the owgr cream of McIlroy, Westwood, Schwartzel, McDowell, Bradley, Woods and Rose rising to the top.
~Anthony Kim leading the field in birdies yet finishing 42nd.
~A number of fading stars making the weekend: Overton (18th), Appleby (21st), Els (21st), Stenson (21st), Love (21st), etc, etc. Would be good to see each of them return to their best.
~Coming out party for Harris English. Disappointing Sunday for him, but he'll be back.

5).Tiger had a poor week with the press, unwittingly giving Hank Haney publicity by behaving churlishly towards Miceli when asked innocuous questions at his press conference, and then being somewhat less than effusive about Rory's success, both in anticipation and in the aftermath.
In reflecting on this in the light of the expectations being heaped on McIlroy, that frosty barrier between Woods and his public could quite easily be the firewall that protects him and sustains his playing excellence. How will Rory deal with such the expectations, the voyeurism into his private life?
Maybe Tiger had the answer all along.
But it was refreshing to see him signing autographs while he waited for his bus on Sunday evening.

6).And so down the Florida Turnpike, to Miami and Dick Wilson's Doral Blue Monster design, though Mr.Wilson would likely not recognize his work now. It's gone through tweaks and redesigns every few years since the 80's, and now it's under new ownership as Donald Trump has snapped up the resort for a cool $150M. To quote GolfWorld: A "total, complete renovation" will commence in a year's time, following the 2013 "Cadillac", when highly regarded architect Gil Hanse is due to get his hands on it. The course will be lengthened to 7,600 yds, "remaking all the greens and building six or seven new holes," though the famous 18th is expected to be left unchanged.

7).If that doesn't Trump this week's entertainment, the "opposite field" Puerto Rico Open will be played at Trump International Golf Club. Poor field but $630K to the winner and we'll keep track of the European interest.

8).Sorry to see the news from Augusta National this afternoon that Ishikawa, not playing well enough to qualify so far, will receive his second invitation to April's Masters. "Ishikawa will help increase interest in Japan and throughout Asia," said Billy Payne.
Yes, quite, and such corporate expediency offers fodder for those critics who complain annually that The Masters does not deserve to be labelled a Major.
Don't necessarily agree with that, but there are many golfers from other countries who are far more deserving than Ryo, let alone those who have given far more to the game.

9).Good to see Paul Casey back for this week's WGC "Cadillac Championship" and, at the time of writing, all 74 qualifiers are expected to play, sniffles, pneumonia and new baby permitting. No comment on the chances of McIlroy or Woods.

10).Personal note to end with as the designer of my favourite golf course died last month. Geoffrey Cornish was born in Winnipeg 97 years ago and learnt architecture from Canada's great Stanley Thompson. Cornish not only designed dozens of courses, primarily in Eastern Canada and the North-Eastern States of the US, but co-wrote with Ron Whitten "The Golf Course", one of the seminal works on gca.
As Whitten's remembrance puts it, Cornish "was a great golf course architect because he was more interested in spreading the game than in making a name for himself". Not good for the Doak Scale perhaps, but millions of golfers within 500 miles of this keyboard have reason to be grateful to Geoffrey Cornish.

Diggers

Given what humans have achieved in our pursuit of discovery, what sort of backwards logic would you have to follow to arrive at the conclusion that the remaining things to be discovered in physics are in fact intervention from a god?

Is darren clarke the worst major champion ever, in terms of form after winning?

possibly yep- however he was bad running upto it as well!

I thought he won something in the couple of months before the open last year?

I expect McIlroy, Woods, and Donald to be in the mix come Sunday. But I also witnessed first hand what Rose can do when he won the AT&T a couple years ago. His ball hardly ever left the fairway.

This Sergio thing is almost difficult to watch. Right in the mix 14 holes ago and now walking around with Monty-like slumped shoulders.

McLaren wrote:I thought he won something in the couple of months before the open last year?

Arr did he- he timed his form very well then

Have to say I really don't warm to Garcia so Im happy to see him having a car crash. Bet he wishes there was a cut.

princedracula wrote:Solid start by tiger, but a brilliant one for rory: eagle, birdie!!!!!!

c'moooon roooors!

jinxed

rose going to 10 under very shortly- stiffed a wedge

McLaren wrote:Is darren clarke the worst major champion ever, in terms of form after winning?

I think Michael Campbell wins that award...............

Ian Baker Finch ?

Not so prince

A year after Campbells us open win he had only lost 0.1305 from his OWGR points average, Darren is already 0.8961 down on his average after the open.

Finally, Kaymer putting together a pretty decent round today (so far)... two eagles!

ok then lets be cruel- worst major winner.

clarke wouldnt be close but sadly most are open winners!

my pick

todd hamilton

only ever won one other major tour event!

even ian balker finch won 3 others!

anyone know a player with a worse record than the above two major winners

I think to answer that mysti, as I said, you have to look at the form just before and after the win. Clarke may have had a good career but right now he is no better than the players hanging around 500 in the rankings.

naughty boy tiger tut tut.

RE: clarke
I wouldnt back him to win anything else again, top lad though just my honest feeling.

Bubba throwing up a heck of a number!

yeah he samshed that course up- kaymer and rose played nice rounds of golf an all!

Nice to see Poultry where he should be. The decline continues though no doubt he will blame his man flu.

Diggs tut tut. Poults is a dude, plays better when scoring is tough and obviously abit out of sorts at present

Not for me , Id substitute dude for several other four letter words. I think all the myths about Poulters game come from his matchplay record which is great. Strokeplay is a different story for several years now.
Majors are played on tough courses, look at Poulters record in those. It's pretty awful for a guy who has been around as long as he has.

I could never consider myself a Poulter fan really or a fan of any player as I'm a grown man, but what I like about the guy is that he's not afraid to say what he thinks. The majority of golfers are wooden robots with virtually no charisma or personality. Lile Poulter or not, at least he has these.

Yes his major record is pretty poor, but 99% of pros would love to have had his career, he has actually won rather a lot of strokeplay events just not in America. I think he'd be better off in Europe than in America but he's motivated by money and the lifestyle clearly so fair enough, if that is what suits him.

He is in possession of a criminally underated short game though. He's definitely a top ten player in that respect but only a top 100 in the rest.

Diggers wrote:Not for me , Id substitute dude for several other four letter words. I think all the myths about Poulters game come from his matchplay record which is great. Strokeplay is a different story for several years now.
Majors are played on tough courses, look at Poulters record in those. It's pretty awful for a guy who has been around as long as he has.

poults doesnt shoot amazingly low- however on many occasions on very hard days he has played well- had a couple of decent major performances- notably the open where poddy won.

I really like poults because of what he has acheived from being just a standard pga pro. I think he is a brilliant role model and has almost peaked with his abilities he was given.

I dont understand the hate for him in fairness just because he has a laugh out there,has an opinion ,dresses differently(but very well when you compare folwer or daley) and isnt just like a typical yanky droid!

I think he is a self publicist attention seeking tool who is pretty average at strokeply so we will have to agree to differ there I'm afraid.

Diggers, did you know that Poulter has more European and PGA tournament wins to his name than Luke Donald?

You might not like the guy, but give him his due, he's far better than you make out.

How many PGA strokeplay wins does he have, ? He has one matchplay win on the big boys league and thats it and his overall strokeplay record on the PGA tour is very average indeed. Donald has 3 strokeplay wins and the Marchplay.
Agree he has success on the European Tour, not sure why he doesn't play there more as would suit his ego to be a big fish in a smaller pond.
He is in decline big time for me, he won't be a top 50 player by the end of 2012 IMO.

diggs some of the euro tour events are as good as the pga events, quite a few are of a level in quality. i dont see much difference between winning a standard euro event over a standard uspga event(although i agree on the whole its harder to win a uspga event)

poults is certainly not in decline- he has way to much mental strength and has the type of golf game (simplistic- but not in a bad way)that will carry on for years to come. i am sure he has plenty more wins to come.

However with all the wgc events, the players, the european flag ship event,the fed ex, race to dubai ,the money lists and the 4 majors- its really about winning them over the normal events. Someone will win a pga tourny this week wont they- yet its not a strong fiedl is it- because the wgc is on- and lower in qouality than many euro events

I think the PGA has the better quality week in and week out. Take away his two matchplay wins in recent years and he would be around the top 30-40 at best.
He won late last year in strokeplay but just take a look at his strokeplay stats on any tour bar they performance and they were shocking in 2011 and utterly dreadful this year so I've no idea why you can say he certainly isn't in decline.
Too much time on off course interests though he gets tetchy when anyone passes comment on his game as the other week showed. He didn't mind passing his own comments on Woods game though a year or so ago.
Can't stand him and his outfits are laughable for a guy in his mid 30's.

it certainly has better quality week in week out- thats a given. however stats are scewered when you take in to consideration many uspaga events have weaker fields than some european events

RE: poulter

he has won almost half his events in the last 3 years .

his best ever year was 2010 were he won 4/5 events

in 2011 he won 2 events, so yes from that perspective you could say he declined abit- but its not really fair when you consider he only really averaged 1 win a year before 2010.

He's always been a pretty streaky player Diggers, there's no shame in that, not every player can be like Messi or Djokovic all the time. Poulter usually plays better in the tail end of the season.
However he's been a top 40 player for a very very long time, and that is rather admirable.

I don't think his outfits are that bad either these days, at the very least they are well tailored. Let's be honest though all golf clothes are horrible and no one really looks good in them, but as I always say Fowler doesn't really have the excuse of youth anymore and makes Poulter look like John Steed. At least Poulter doesn't have the ludicrous superstition of wearing particular colours on certain days.

I think you will be suprised if you look at his strokeplay record on the PGA just how poor it is as I think Kwini can testify. He needs a dramatic change in form.
I agree he was a great matchplay golfer, maybe still is, but he gets overrated because of his RC record.
Anyway time will tell but he is on the slide in the OWGR already and there are a lot of good young players coming through.

Diggers wrote:...Take away his two matchplay wins in recent years and he would be around the top 30-40 at best.

His WGC Match Play win in 2010 is already outside the 2-year range, and if you take away his Volvo Match Play win from last year, he would drop outside top 50...

There is a difference between streaky and rank awful form Super. He is 128 in the FedEx rankings and 92 in the RTD. The guy is really struggling this season.
Sure he has been decent in the past but two major top 10's, one a 9th, hardly suggest a guy who brings his very game when it really matters.

kwini may testify, however i watch alot of golf myself and i rate poulter and i rate his approach to the game. his stroke play record is still decent - 10 euro wins is really not to be sniffed at at all

I dont buy into suggestions that he isnt commited to the game- he seems to eat,sleep and dream golf, he seems to be working on his game alot, he isnt the most gifted player but has worked very hard to get in the mix with the big boys. he has a game that will weather well, good short game and swing that can hold up to age. As well as being one of the top match play golfers out there and a great morale booster to the european ryder cup team!

btw i love the way he dresses on the course- he looks good, not like many others out there

Diggers, the season has barely even begun, so its a little harsh to come out with rankings based on just a few weeks. There will be a lot of high ranked players who aren't faring much better. I get you don't like the guy, and there is some truth in what you say, but you could say the same for Luke right now. He's also had time off for a new baby.

Saying things life 'if you took his matfhplay win away' are all ifs and buts, take Woods tinpot chevron away and he'd be about number 40 so it goes both ways.

His Arsenal outfit was the single worst thing I've ever seen on a course, truly pikey. Add in the perms streaked hair and over the top styling and he looks like a chav trying far too hard to look good and failing badly.

well he doesnt do that any more lol(thank god!)

OK SR , PGA tour 2011. One top 10 and 740k won. Consistently poor form for a good while now. Long may it carry on.

you mean poorish form on one tour

Yes, his main tour.

Yet, the two years preceding were pretty decent, so stats prove that he had a poor 2011 in America, yet for three years he's been consistently ensconced in the top 25, often in the top 10. You don't need to provide us with stats to justify your dislike of him, its easy to say why people don't like the guy, but most pros would gladly swap their careers for his.

Woods stunk the place out for two years, did that mean he was on the decline? Poulter could quite easily do what Donald, Westwood, Garcia and Woods are currently doing. He might never be in their league, but its not like his career is on a terminal slide necessarily.

look - he is no different from mainy of the players in the top 50, he isnt the worlds best golfer, he isnt the european best golfer and he is only just ranked amongst top 5 of english golfers!!

but he is still a good one, i dont like people cheering for failure if you get my drift.

I dont hate on any golfer- even the nut job god loving yanks!!

It's funny but when you spoke about Woods poor form you saw it from a completely different angle. Lets look at his recent form to judge him you kept saying. That's what I'm doing for Poultry.
I'm saying he is in decline, he may or he may not be time will tell.

Nothing wrong with hating a golfer oakey, plenty reasons to dislike a lot of them including poulter, I just think diggers is a bit unfair in castigating the guy as a chopper when he's been world number five and won more tournaments than Luke Donald

Where have I said he's a chopper ? I said he is a bit overrated and past his best.

If anything I don't think he's rated at all, his short game really is excellent, i'll concede the rest of his game is average but I don't really see any justification other than your hope that he's in decline. If I'm honest I feel the same about cockend Woods, and I'd love to see him pushed into a mincer. So I can see where you are coming from.

I am trying to think of a golfer i dont like- but bar that little yank justin leonard i cant think of one!!

He's rated in Poulter world Super, he's a legend there. Just him and Tiger.......

brendan grace going for course record 8 under through 11 .

poults better today 2 under par

It's Branden in Miami (-8 after 12) and Brendon in Puerto Rico (-7 after 10)!!
Lovemark and Sergio waking up as well...