PGA Tour: Transitioning: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).What a win for Justin Rose last week and, from my point of view at any rate, who'd've thunk it so quickly after rather messing up an equally good opportunity at the "Honda". This win compelled me to review my pre-season projection about Rose and I see that he's already exceeded (my) expectations!
He's been big on stressing the upward mobility in the calibre of tournaments won, first "Memorial" and the "AT&T National", then a FedEx Play-Off event and now a WGC Championship. But the fact remains that it's been almost four years since his last Major top ten and one can only hope that Rose takes whatever it is he's found down Magnolia Lane with him.

2).Not much respect in the American media for Justin's win, all the headlines (and those of the BBC website) reserved for another of Sean Foley's pupils who completed his third Tour withdrawal in less than two years. Rose could be forgiven for echoing Caddyshack's Rodney Dangerfield, "I don't get no respect!", yahoo sports even calling Justin "Dustin" in their headline.

3).But the promise of another Tiger spectacular was enough to boost TV ratings 30% over last year, proving the extent to which the Tiger factor attracts viewers even when he slips from contention.

4).One more year of the "tired" old Blue Monster and The Donald will Trump it with Gil Hanse's rebuild of the course. He pledges to leave #18 well alone however and don't you love a finishing hole that is really, truly demanding? "To get a putt at par is sometimes all you're trying to do" on this hole says Stricker, and average score on this 467 yard par-4 was 4.539. (In contrast to the first hole, a par-5, which played to 4.16.)

5).Keegan Bradley seems to have been the flavour of the opening two months or so of the season, but his rather feeble challenge on Sunday seemed to suggest a man in need of a break. He butchered par-5's #8 and #10 from just off, and on, the green in two shots respectively, but he sits on top of the US Ryder Cup qualifying points list.
Mickelson is second and the two of them are some way ahead of positions 3 thru 8, which include would-be-rookies Haas, Stanley, Wilson and Snedeker as well as Stricker and Mahan.
Other among Celtic Manor's vanquished include Watson (10th), D.Johnson (11th), Woods (14th), Kuchar (19th), Fowler (22nd), Z.Johnson (31st), Furyk (48th), Overton (66th) and Cink (who has sunk to 71st).
Other struggling notables inlude Simpson (17th), Toms (24th) and Watney (33rd).

6).Before we leave South Florida, there have been a number of articles in the golfing press recently regarding the number of touring pros now resident there, 61 by one count, including Luke and Ernie, Rory and Jack, Greg and Karrie. That's possibly, depending on who's counting, one up on "Orlando", with an assist of course from Elin's ex.
SI amuse with a story of the Swedish contingent at the "Dye Preserve" where Richard Johnson, Jacobson and Parnevik play regular games, not for the traditional money game Nassaus but for press-ups, "the loser of each hole (having) to do a certain number, right there on the green". And compatriot Elin is apparently a sometime companion at these wags' barbecues! (Don't expect any of the three to be paired with the "ex" any time soon.)


7).And so to the pros' favourite Florida course, Innisbrook Resort's "Copperhead" course, home of the "Transitions Championship", in the Tampa area. The 1971 Larry Packard design is rated 9th in GolfWorld's survey, ahead of TPC Sawgrass (11th), for instance, and well ahead of Doral and Bay Hill, both in the thirties. The set-up for the "Transitions" will feature 5 par-3's and 4 par-5's, and Carnoustie native Ryan Stewart, the Superintendent, is expecting firm conditions helped by a forecast of unseasonably warm, dry weather.

8).Only two more weeks to qualify for a Masters invitation, and those not already in who are on the bubble of making it via the owgr top fifty include:
#45: Paul Lawrie (withdrawn - perhaps tactically? - from the Open de Andalucia)
48: Crane (not playing this week)
52: Goosen - playing Transitions
56: Rock - playing Andalucia
59: Chalmers - playing Transitions
60: Cabrero-Bello - playing Andalucia
62: HowellIII (w/d this week)
63: Manassero - playing Andalucia
64: Allenby - playing Transitions
67: Colsaerts (not playing this week)
68: Els - playing Transitions

9).Strong GB&I representation this week including Messrs Casey, (edit to include Gary Christian who was added to the field Tuesday p.m.), Davis, Donald, Harrington, Laird, Owen and Rose. And Tom Lewis making, as far as I can tell, his first ever appearance on the PGA Tour, in the company of fellow young 'uns Ishikawa and Bud Cauley. Other Europeans include Garcia and Peter Hanson.

10).The "Transitions" tends to favour course specialists and Choi and Goosen have two wins apiece, while Senden and Pettersson have a good record here. After a string of American wins to open the season, GB&I have two wins on the trot now, and I'd expect another "International" win this week. Donald plays his first two rounds with Justin Rose, and maybe he'll find inspiration/incentive to break their tie with Tony Jacklin for most post-war Tour wins by an Englishman not named Faldo.

The arrival of St Patricks day tomorrow has obviously inspired the Irish. POD going well and his good friend JP McManus winning the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Think I'll have some Guinness before my round of golf tomorrow!

I have a lot of time for Faxon, one of my favourite US players. Seems like a genuinely good guy, huge amounts of charitable work, and a more interesting character than the average identikit US tour pro. It's been a long time since he was competitive though... don't think you'll see any more of him on the regular tour Mac.

I think faxon missed the cut in every event he played last year. He used to tweet a bit, but have not seen anything from him in a while. Does seem a nice guy.

super_realist wrote: Really complimentary about Scotland after some great qualification attempts for the Open, particularly Lundin Links which he loves.

Why would you care about that, you are forever slagging the place off. Im suprised you arent calling him a moron for liking Scotland.

Faxon used to come over frequently to attempt to Open qualify before the R&A instituted the US qualifier, haven't ever heard a negative word about him; about his golf swing, yes, but not about him.

Faxon played a lot of the regular tour early last season in prep for the Champions Tour.

IIRC, all of them on Sponsors Invites and he was getting more starts than QS/NW grads in 2011.

I have heard that when Faxon was in his prime, he did all the Politically Correct and Right things that a PGAT pro should do. He was engaging in the Pro-Ams, went to the Sponsors Cocktail parties, he did the clinics, he signed autographs.

He was charming, and that behavior paid dividends later in his career has Tour status got lower and lower.

He is the right type of player for the Champions Tour. The tours would be a lot better off if there was more Brad Faxons.

gonna have to state that although he was a legendary putter- not in my my top 5 best not to win a major, thats for the likes of westy,lee,garcia,monty and strcker- in fact relleng them off i could possibly say not in my top 20- did he even win more than a handfull of events, and cant remeber him troubling the major winners!!

And to top it off, I overhead a golf pro telling whomever he was teaching at the time that Faxon was a demon table tennis player...

[There was a point to this - I think the rest of the story was that the best short game players seem to be v good at table tennis (inc Woods and Mickelson), probably because of touch/feel and understanding of spin, and that one or more of the college golf programmes included some regular ping pong-ing to this end]

i am a good table tennis player, no wonder i am the nuts at golf

Right, Padraig's first test of the day: It's a Par 5!

Good round by Luke Donald, not bad from Rose, but Lewis will be on the outside looking in this weekend, and Gary Christian likely to be in the same boat.

tom will miss the cut

2 fairways, 2 greens and one birdie, nice start Padraig!

Goooo Padraig!!!

Good start for Europe here, Padraig leading, Lukey in T2, Rose and Sergio tied for 10th.
What price a Padraig / Sergio shoot-out on Sunday? Nah, just being mischievous . . . .

very good 2 rounds from sergio considering

edit he hasnt finished!! a good one round and 6 holes

Ishikawa didn't come close to equally his performance from last week. +3 and a trunk slammer.

Good thing he has the Masters Invite because if he plays badly next week, he is almost guaranteed to drop back out of the top 50. He will be losing his win in the 36th week of 2009 which is currently worth 5.09 points towards his 2.80 average.

Speed bump for Padraig, let that be the last one of them.

ok so poddy has sorted his swing yet doesnt win, yet when his swing was abit suspect he won 3 majors

the commenters feel as if he has done the right thing, not sure if they are right, he could have been a better player understanding his faults and knowing his bail out with a worse swing, concentrating on whats in front of him rather than tecnique.. sometimes its all about the mental side.

offcourse he may just go out and prove me wrong! we shall see shall we but i would bet my house he wont win another 3 majors!

paul casey needs to get going 1 over at present- cut line 1 under.

peterson and lard look out as well

Pod has been off the boil today... Swing is off and his putting stroke... Wow

Wow Pod missed putt from just over a foot

Looking more like Donalds week than harringtons at the moment. Not too bad from the 2009 champ either.

mystiroakey wrote:ok so poddy has sorted his swing yet doesnt win, yet when his swing was abit suspect he won 3 majors

the commenters feel as if he has done the right thing, not sure if they are right, he could have been a better player understanding his faults and knowing his bail out with a worse swing, concentrating on whats in front of him rather than tecnique.. sometimes its all about the mental side.

offcourse he may just go out and prove me wrong! we shall see shall we but i would bet my house he wont win another 3 majors!

Absolutely spot on. He's 40 now as well so he hasn't got that much time to make changes of that magnitude, bed them in and then get back to the top.

dreadful putting Padraig, time to keep composed.

Holed bunker shot from Donald for Eagle to go one behind Dufner. Come on luuke and Serg please.

For all the international interest on the leaderboard I still kind of would like maybe (ha!) to see Dufner win. Makes tee to green looks so stress free!

It would, however, be terrific for Luke to take back #1 straight away. Luuuuke!

Nice to see Goose at the top.

Harrington is an embarrassing man.

Would be great to see Ernie win this thing. More likely Furyk or Donald, however.

How come PAddy is embarassing? What'd he do? He has certainly been in reverse for the last two rounds.

Another "Chamber of Commerce" forecast for the final round of the "Transitions", the early Byrd off just after midday GMT followed by the Swedish pairing.

Given there have been no scores better than 66 since Thursday, it's probably not realistic for someone to come barrelling to the front with a very low score but, with 28 golfers within five strokes of the lead, this is still anyone's race.

Lots of players I'd like to see win but will this be the week that "Moon" or Dufner break through?

Of those clamouring for an owgr top fifty position to earn a Masters invite, one would have to say Goosen has the most to lose with a poor round. His back has caused him to withdraw from Bay Hill next week and he'll be off for some treatment of a similar kind to that undergone by Couples, Kuenhe and Vijay.
Goosen loves this place though and muscle memory alone could see him add to his two Copperhead wins!

Quick belated glance at the Bay Hill field - good but certainly not a great turn out. Looks as if the two WGC's is having some effect with guys wanting to play Arnie's event but prefer to play a good course at the Transitions and then have a week off.

European turn out includes Bjorn, Davis, Garcia, Jacobsen, Laird, McDowell, Pettersson, Poulter, Rose (wonder if he'd prefer a week home with the children?) and Stenson.

Following up on all the possibilities for the owgr top fifty route into Augusta, Cabrera-Bello is sealing his fate with a lousy final round in Andalucia and Luiten has also eliminating himself.

Ernie Els says he knows what he has to do to qualify, yet even he would still need a high finish at Bay Hill whatever he does today. Except win of course. And Allenby is in the same boat, plus HowellIII will need a Bay Hill win having chosen to sit this week out.

A nifty little 13 (THIRTEEN) posted on the 5th hole by Charlie Wi(Why?).

I like wee cHARLIE . he must of had a proper mare

If Harrington doesn't win I would like Goose or Els to seal there augusta invites, both could do it right, Goose with a high finish and Els if he were to win?

Charlie Wi with a thirteen but, to be fair, Man Utd could end up with 13 also.

benson,
Given that Goosen is definitely not playing next week (unless he changes his mind in the next few hours), he'll need something like a top four finish to be reasonably assured of a Masters spot . . . . .

Harri's 61 course record may soon become history if Piercy continues at this pace! 7 birdies on the front 9!

Yeah! So much for no-one coming through the field to challenge for the lead. Piercy: Who was recently voted by fellow pros as one of the cockiest guys on Tour!

Nice comeback from Justin Rose.

Awful start from The Goose who could very well be cooked.

Come on Luuuuke!

Baaaaaaaeeeeeeeee!
If Europeans can't win this then I'm cheering for him!

Personally, id love Overton to get his first win........................

Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon , drops a shot. Furyk on his own in the lead.

can see a play off today!

I think Harri needs to get to -10 which should be a Top 10 and at least that a climb(small) up the rankings. No underestimating how disappointing he has been though since the 61......................

luke holes a 10 foot par then stiffs it on the next hole- 11 under par, well in the hunt!

Very happy to se the Luke and Ernie show climbing the leaderboard.

John,
I like Overton as well, comes across as a very good guy - lost his way a little recently though.

Goosen must be one or two more bogeys away from a withdrawal . . . . . Would think treatment and rest would be his immediate prescription.

Hi kwini, hows it going?

A very depressed Wolves fan here, as much as I'd like them to stay up, I kind of hope they don't after the way they treated McCarthy, pointless kneejerk raction sacking when they weren't in too bad a position.

Took to the range today for the first time since October, I think my kids hit it better than me now!

wow luke another birdie!! holeing putts for fun out there

Overton is not over-a-tonne anymore these days, looks to me like a slimmer version of what it was and it shows in his game as well... This is getting serious now for Ernie, striking the ball beautifuly and the putts keep dropping.

Luuuuke!