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.

The season so far;


Snedeker nicking it from Stanley at farmers

Stanley bounces back to win the next week in phoenix

Phil powers past tiger and the rest to win at pebble

Haas, phil and Keegan go to a play off after spectacular putts from keegs and phil on 72. Haas wins the play off on riviera's great 10th.

Mcilroy wins in style at honda


What happens next....

McIlroy unfortunately drops another on the last, his par putt just sneaking past, but an excellent final round, and another top 5 for him.

rose has looked good out there and very comfortable

just the 18th to go!

McLaren wrote:The season so far;


Snedeker nicking it from Stanley at farmers

Stanley bounces back to win the next week in phoenix

Phil powers past tiger and the rest to win at pebble

Haas, phil and Keegan go to a play off after spectacular putts from keegs and phil on 72. Haas wins the play off on riviera's great 10th.

Mcilroy wins in style at honda


What happens next....

Rose wins after the others crumble

Even if Rose gets a 5 here, Bubba really needs a birdie at 17 - you don't want to need a birdie at 18!

well he is making abit of a meal of it- but played on teh side of caution- its understandable

now Watson with a great birdie chance at 17, Rose in trouble at the last, and suddenly a play-off looks a distinct possibility.

So Rose down in two from the edge and now Bubba has to birdie 18 to force a playoff

oh dear, Watson somewhat unbelievably leaves his birdie attempt short, and with Rose looking likely to get a 5 at the last that means Watson needs a birdie at the last to force the play-off...

What's that 1 foot putt for the win

could rose get in the top 5 with that!!

4 brits in top 5 would be speacial

I was just trying to work that out mysti, think he might get to about 5.3x, at least in top 10.

omg what a shot by bubbs

what a shot by Watson! gives himself a real chance of making that birdie.

Holy Flip. What a shot! Hole the putt for a playoff, miss and it's game over. He's been tentative on the last one an on 18 last night.

Holly crap, that is unreal from bubba.

Before he hit it i was thinking "rose wins unless bubba plays shot of the season" looks like he has.

Would like to see Watson get this to a play off. Cracking shot on the last.

Another great performance by Rory.

After reading some posts about Keegan Bradley ...not playing shots... I now understand totally what you were talking about, my goodness how frustrating must it be to play alongside him?

he has missed

lol betfair told me b4 it happened- well played rose- unlucky bubbs!!

So a WGC for Rose and that win puts him tied 2nd for English wins on the PGA tour. Congrats Rosie

Congratulations Justin Rose

Sky go must be off the pace. I found out from mysti that bubba missed before bubba even took the putt on sky go.

shame that, but TBH it was a pretty lousy round from Bubba, whereas Rose was solid all the way through. Very poor too from Bradley today, just seemed to lose it after a poor eighth hole.

Congrats to Rose, that's a big win for him

Another top 3 for Rory, British golf in a very nice place right now

also great signs from luke- didnt get it going but again a top 10!!

Great shot by Bubba, but is not a thorn in Justin's side.

Congratz to Justin Rose. that should clinch a spot on Ollie's RC Team which must feel good after what happened in 2010.

Peter Hanson with a T4, also moves up in the Ryder Cup standings. 5 spots are essentially clinched, and Hanson moves into the lead for the one of the other 5 automatic spots.

Poulter, Casey, Jimenez, GMac better start playing better!

Trumps daughter aint bad...

Well done Rose... Next time, save your celebrations a bit...

Well done Justin, have to say I do like him and the way he plays very professional in a time where celebrity seems to be overtaking sport!

Great shot from Bubba at 18 though being 2 behind on the 17th green would have expected him to run his birdie putts at the final 2 holes at least past the hole to give them chance.

Remember all those missed cuts back in the day.Great effort.
Rock could have done without the double bogey.Crept up to 56 in the WR .
Couple more weeks to make top 50

Was impressed with McIlroy this week. Thu and Fri it seemed like he would just coast it in and then enjoy his 3 weeks off. Impressive charge at the weekend though.

Woods... his fitness has struggled since his doc ended up in court (and banned from the US?), which doesnt help the rumour mill. and that he's still so secretive.

I think I once confessed on the old 606 that I wasnt a great fan of Rose. Never really struck me as an exciting or interesting character and had, in my opinion, an average to good golf game at best. Got to say my opinion on his golf game has changed. Tremendous ball striker, gritty competitor and he has a really impressive CV now - a lot better than some of his RC counterparts.

Quick question following Tiger's withdrawal. They were playing in two balls so when he walked (limped) off the course, who marked his playing partner's scorecard for the remainder of the round?

'Morning All,
Exciting stuff last night, Bradley and Bubba must be kicking themselves, Tiger must wish he could kick himself, and Rose must wonder why his petals went all a-flutter last week at the Honda, yet he was in full bloom yesterday, no question a deserving winner.

Interesting to see Lairdy's observation on Justin Rose - I feel exactly the same. He must be a dead cert for Medinah now and a repeat of his playing performance at Valhalla would be a BIG plus for Olazabal.

Always been a great admirer of Peter Hanson from tee to green, always thought he struggled with knee-trembling putts under pressure, even more than everyone else. Two super finishes for him then in the first two WGC's, hope he keeps it up.

No more word on Woods yet - he must really feel he damaged something to walk off the course; wonder if he'd've taken a hike if he was closer to the lead?

Well done Justin Rose - But this tournament had Rory written all over it and I thought he would be the last man standing.

Sergio must hear voices in his head. He seems to have "Daly-like" concentration issues. Sad to see with so much physical talent.

One of the most annoying habits of any professional golfer, IMO, has to be Bubba's never ending replay of why his putt broke more or less than he imagined.

Kwin, I bet if Tiger smalled victory he would have gutted it out. Not sure it would have been a wise thing, but I suspect he wants his "W" so bad he would have done it.

Daly-esque of Sergio perhaps, but also Day-esque of Woods who now has three withdrawals since his last win.
We talk about players with wins in consecutive years, and Tiger used to be on top of that list.
Now he must be close to the top of the consecutive-years-with-a-withdrawal list!

Somewhere Arnold Palmer is waiting by the phone with bated breath!

PS: Bubba clearly not helped by Keegan Bradley's glacial pace of play . . . . .

Kwin - I have no doubt Woods' problems are physical ... Sergio, on the other hand, appears physically healthy, but mentally ... a 12! -2 to +6 on one hole!

I could not imagine Tiger playing at Bay Hill at this point.

And talking of Justin Rose, he'll be defending his BMW Championship later this year at Crooked Stick Golf Club (of, yes, John Daly's 1991 PGA Championship fame) outside Indianapolis.

But the following year the BMW will return to Chicago, not to its long-time home at Cog Hill, but at Conway Farms Golf Club, where Luke Donald has been a member for many years.

In 2014 the BMW is scheduled to drive West young man, to Denver's Cherry Hills CC.

kwinigolfer wrote:'Morning All,
Exciting stuff last night, Bradley and Bubba must be kicking themselves, Tiger must wish he could kick himself, and Rose must wonder why his petals went all a-flutter last week at the Honda, yet he was in full bloom yesterday, no question a deserving winner....

Brilliant Kwini. You know, you're wasted (well, not entirely!) here; you should be writing for some serious golfing publication/outlet.

Lairdy wrote:...I think I once confessed on the old 606 that I wasnt a great fan of Rose. Never really struck me as an exciting or interesting character and had, in my opinion, an average to good golf game at best. Got to say my opinion on his golf game has changed. Tremendous ball striker, gritty competitor and he has a really impressive CV now - a lot better than some of his RC counterparts.

With you there Lairdy. Still not too big a fan of the way his swing appears (looks too manufactured for me but I guess it's mainly the way he's always swung it) but he's a looking very good at the moment.

Sr,
Sergio won in fine style when under pressure at Valderrama last autumn. I for one expect him to enjoy another good year, perhaps even a great one!

Agree that Bay Hill looks very iffy for #18 now.


Thanks nbs,
Very happy for you to take the Fantasy "sticky" down now; I'll post a league table later and the Masters edition of the Fantasy in two weeks.

Kwin - I hope he does. One of the finest swing "lags" this side of Ben Hogan.

He's clearly one of the streakiest golfers in the game today. This tournament, however, has me wondering. Scored well the front 9 in round 1, fell off the truck on the back and then a tin-cup hole in the last round. He'll need to learn better damage control before he lets a hole like that happen again.

I think garcia just won at valderma- i remeber ramsey getting very unlucky(lost ball on par 3 - but the ball was found seconds after his 5 minute clock!). Problem with that event is that the field is realitively weak(for what should be a flagship type event really) because of that big money purse game that tempts the big boys at the same time!(shanghai masters)

If i remeber correctly garcia won in massive style the week before by about 10 shots or something!

Speaking of streaky players back to Rose. When he is hot he is very hot, and he likes Augusta a lot and has had some good form there. Lets hope the hot streak can last a bit longer.

id love to see him win a major- the wgc win holds him in good sted.

And your right he is very good around augusta- should have won if i remeber correctly but lost the plot final few holes!

Another player to watch is casey- he looks very fit and i reakon could hit some form around augusta

kwinigolfer wrote:And talking of Justin Rose, he'll be defending his BMW Championship later this year at Crooked Stick Golf Club (of, yes, John Daly's 1991 PGA Championship fame) outside Indianapolis.

But the following year the BMW will return to Chicago, not to its long-time home at Cog Hill, but at Conway Farms Golf Club, where Luke Donald has been a member for many years.

In 2014 the BMW is scheduled to drive West young man, to Denver's Cherry Hills CC.

I know very little about either of those... any further info/reviews Kwini? Cog Hill has always looked like a top course, are they holding it back for a major or have the members got overprotective and shooed the tour away? Will be a shame not to see it for a few years.

Agree with those saying Rose will have more than one eye on the Masters now, terrific record there, never outside the top 40 in 6 efforts, with 4 top 25s and a T11 last year. But also agree with those who have him down as massively streaky, he seems to get it together for no more than a month or two of most seasons. Timed his form perfectly so far, improving his results every week to date in 2012, but I'm not sure if he'll keep it going for another month...


Re Garcia and damage limitation - I rather suspect the 12 would've been half that if he'd been in contention... easy to get stubborn with a shot that's not coming off when you haven't got much to play for. Especially in no-cut events....

also, for anyone who hasn't seen the highs and lows of being Paul Casey's caddie yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VEpL0mCiw

Fantastic!

i think people judging rose as streaky need to look at his carrer and how he has developed and what he is doing at present!

Rose has in reality had a good 6 months- he won one of the fed ex events and know has won a wgc- his game has changed alot through the years and is really shaping up with maturity, his swing is looking beautifull and he has a top draw coach- he is also playing a 'donaldesque' type game these days rather than playing looser- i can see him being much more consitant from this point on

mysti,
He relapsed into pulling his short irons during Rounds 3 and 4 at the Honda. Still an enigma to me, sometimes looks so good yet one is also inclined to recall such horror stories as his back nine brain cramps when well clear at Hartford a couple of years ago. Poetic justice prevailed though because Bubba beat him then!


Ned,
Crooked Stick is one of Pete Dye's earlier efforts, host of USGA Women's and Senior Opens as well as Solheim Cup and Daly's PGA. I really can't remember the architectural aspects of it, except that it was allegedly designed to have no two consecutive holes played in the same direction; meaningless of course if there's no wind!

And Conway Farms is an unknown quantity, a Tom Fazio design of the early 90's intended to reflect "the traditions of Scottish links golf"! But Lukey loves it and has been a fierce proponent of using CF as a sub for Cog Hill where the Rees Jones re-do took the course from a Tour favourite to one of the least-liked on Tour.

i think the point is not every golfer is like striker and donald- most have patchy form!

rose gets a top 5 last week then wins the 'biggie' this week!

thats all that matters- sergio has a game that will not hold up all the time- rose had a swing and a brain that wouldnt hold up all the time! - rose is still working very hard on replecating swing after swing, i see him becoming very consistant very soon, and wgc wins will only help him

Rose looks like he is in a good place so lets hope you are right Mysti. He's only 31 but has been around a long time with some big highs and lows but I'm not sure he has ever really felt like he was one of the very top guys. Hopefully now he will and his best years are still ahead of him.

rose is a grinder - the guy missed 21 cuts after his open amatuer performance- i think he has immense mental strengths to keep believing.

look at tom leiws on the other hand- he won his 4th event as a pro!!

i have no idea which one will become the better player!

at present both seem to have a good future, well fingers crossed anyway