PGA Tour: Arnold Palmer invites-who-the-hell-he-likes Invitational: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Great to see the 2011 model Luke Donald prove he's lost none of his competitive edge with an exciting Transitions win last week, in circumstances that Ernie Els could only smoulder about. Have to feel sorry for the Big Easy; he gave himself the chance to resurrect his career and came up short. Actually short and right, then pulled left.

2).But that shouldn't detract from Luke's performance, clearly the best under playoff pressure, and now he's off for two weeks' practice before heading down Magnolia Lane with a confidence booster under his belt.

3).The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort is considered by the pros to be the best of the "Florida Swing", but Transitions conclude their sponsorship this year and this Tampa-area stop remains the only PGA Tournament without a sponsor for 2013. The broadcasters last weekend seemed to consider a new sponsorship agreement was imminent, but no such optimism from Timmy Finchem in his news conference yesterday. Fingers crossed that a great event can be saved.

4).Finchem also has to find a sponsor for his secondary circuit, known currently as the Nationwide Tour. To try and build pizzaz and make his minor league effort more attractive to sponsors, he announced anticipated changes yesterday to the FedEx season, the PGA Tour season and the qualifying process.

Some details are posted here by pgatour.com:

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/company/03/20/schedule-nationwide-changes/index.html#

We'll all have different reactions, and some details have still to be worked out, the most ticklish being:
~How to dovetail the top 75 Nationwide players and PGA Tour moneylist #126 to #200 to assure the most deserving are given the best advantage to graduate from the brand new 3 event qualifying series.
and:
~~How to treat existing Fall Series events which now become the first tournaments of the 2013/2014 season. Do they receive full FedEx points? Do the winners receive a Masters invitation?? etc etc. The "Fry's.com" currently at the forefront of that debate.

The party line from the PGA Tour pros is: "In Tim we trust". Snedeker goes somewhat further and reminds us that it took the Tour four years to get the FedEx formula correct. We can't afford to have four goes at this, says Sneds, we have to get this right first time.

But there are sceptics: JB Holmes, who along with such luminaries as Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler, John Huh, etc reached the Tour first time via Q-School, had this to say:
"So we're going to end the season in September, then basically start it again a week later. We make all these (FedEx Cup six years ago) changes so that the season ends before (American) football starts, now we're back competing against football again.
Dumbest thing I've ever heard, and you can quote me on that." Thanks JB!

5).My feeling is that Finchem is missing a host of great storylines with his Q-School changes but, when the dust has settled, there will be only marginal impacts, primarily to the following:
a).Top international players outside the world's top 50, viz the Brian Davises, Alex Cjekas of this world who won't attract sponsors' invites and will be subjected to a two-year qualifying process. They might as well stay at home. And that's most probably Finchem's thinking, as he closes his shop to all but the most marketable "overseas" players.

b).US Collegiate players who would normally have a direct route to the "show" via Q-School. Unless they attract sponsors' exemptions and reach the top 200 money winners, they have a best case two-year road to get to the Tour.

c).The two-Tour double-dippers, think Oosthuizen, Westwood, Casey, Stenson etc who only play the minimum of 15 events. Currently they would bank on four FedEx tournaments contributing to those 15 with the knowledge that they could add a Fall Series event if necessary. But now, if they don't qualify for East Lake, they're stuck on 13 or 14, in Finchem's handcuffs, so they'll have to add an event or even two.

d).Lastly, Medical Exemptions are going to have to be thought through - no incentive to play through injury, go on the injured list asap.

6).Enough of that fluff, there are more important things in life:
Jarrod Lyle update: "I've finished my first round of chemotherapy, so I'm pretty much lying here in bed waiting to get an infection."
Lyle's sense of humour is irrepressible: "My immune system was pretty bad before I came in to hospital, now I'm a lot worse. It's one of those situations where you've got to get a lot worse before you get better. I'm just taking it day by day now."

7).And so to the Arnold Palmer invites-who-the-hell-he-likes Invitational at his Bay Hill Club outside Orlando. The winner this week, and next week in Houston, (but not on the European or any other Tours, oh no, no, no, no) will receive a Masters invitation, and so will the owgr top fifty not otherwise qualified as at Monday, March 26th. I'm assuming Paul Lawrie, at #45, is secure, so those who are on the bubble, with an approximation of what they need to do this week, are:
#48: Ben Crane: Playing Bay Hill and likely needs at least a top 18 finish to be sure.
#53: Goosen took the Tavistock money and rushed off for treatment on his ailing back rather than play Bay Hill and try to gain Masters entry. Bizarre and you'd rather think that, given that attitude, his career goose is cooked.
#57: Rock: Playing in Morocco and almost certainly needs to win, second place probably not quite enough.
#60: Chalmers: Playing Bay Hill, likely would qualify with a solo 3rd.
#61: Manassero: Playing Morocco and needs to win! Paying the price exacted by Billy Payne for not being Japanese.
#62: Els: Oh that missed par putt on Copperhead's 18th! Now needs at least a Bay Hill 2nd place - but he won here two years ago!
#64 and #65 Allenby and HowellIII might have a very mathematical chance with a 2nd place finish at Bay Hill, but their final destiny is out of their control given possible fluidity in and out of the top fifty.

8).If it's the Arnie Invitational it must be Sam Saunders on the tee, oh yes, and Robert Damron too. A bunch of others with similarly tenuous qualifications also. Come on Arnie, this is called abuse of power; these guys are not competitive and you've given them more than enough breaks. (Though there are rumours that Sam Saunders will be mailed a Masters invitation should he make this week's cut.)

9).One of the toughest tournaments to pick a winner at this week, Woods obviously with the most "previous" but who knows how fit he is (except possibly Hank Haney)? I like Webb Simpson's chances on lots of levels, but can't recommend anything more than a small e.w. investment on anyone, O'Hair and Jacobson rank outsiders with a touch of form here.

10).Martin Laird "defends" his title, McDowell has played well here and Poulter makes an appearance after his pneumonia and uncompetitive appearance at Doral. I'd imagine Justin Rose is running on fumes and Thomas Bjorn has withdrawn. Greg Owen is back, and can he make up for his mega-collapse a few years ago?
Stranger things have happened, just ask Tim Finchem.

Navy

You have missed the point. Re-read my posts and go away and think about what you might be missing. If you dont understand, PM me and I will try and make it more basic for you.

As for a tournament ball - not a chance. How would you choose a ball that's a fair fit for everyone's swing characteristics and preferred ball behaviour? Probably be the sort of ball that a certain TW wanted in all likelihood .

Navy - Arnie and Jack are members at Augusta. There's not a whole lot of love lost for TW among that crowd. I think about the last player they would like to have a special ball for would be him.

Well, why don't they just move the bunker for heavens sake.

Golf like every sport evolves, 40 years ago people would rarely score a goal from 35 yards, or be able to bend a ball around a wall. It's progress. I wish people would stop trying to reign the game in and just accept it.

Shotrock

Maybe so...I was being a little argumentative. The point re. a 'standard' ball is still an issue though as far as I can see.

Personally I think the closed shop nature of The Masters, the 2 open Opens and the largely world ranking entry based US PGA provides a nice balance to the majors, each with their own character.

Agree with Super on the balls. I'm not sure todays ball is that much longer than say the equivalent 2008 ball. However, I'm pretty sure the average player is fitter and stronger. Limit gym time?

Mac, 'correct' would be the best player over the 4 days winning. 'Correct' should not be soley the top players winning all the majors. If that was the case you can strike the 2 Opens from the list of majors. Or rename them.

kwinigolfer wrote:Byron Nelson always used to say that the most important technological advance over his lifetime in Golf has been (refinements in ) the lawnmower.

Terrific quote! and so true.

Super - Good luck trying to sell that logic to the uber-conservative powers-that-be in the golf world! Conservatives = Conserve what is or was.

BTW, I fundamentally agree with your POV.

I think that's what is wrong with golf SR, stuck in the past and run by too many old farts, also I think many courses were also designed not with course management in mind, but how long on average a person hits the ball. With a bit of thought you can plot your way round any course, than if you simply bash it.

I'd be one happy guy if time froze right now - Tiger Woods and Sean O'Hair T1.

Hope Sean keeps it going and plays through the weekend at least.

Amazing scorecard for AK:

par
bird
bird
bogey
bogey
bird
bird
eagle/hole in one

Good read Kwini.

Some rebellious voices flying around Twitter in response to Finchem's latest plans...

Parker McLachlin: Sad to hear that Q-School has died. IMO was one of the greatest pressure cookers I have ever been in... And I loved it! True golf fans did 2

Peter Jacobsen: I can see the Tour wanting to add credibility to its property (NWT) but to take away the Q-school path to the Tour? No

And Richard Johnson approving tweeting Golf Channel's critical piece:
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/randall-mell/a-sad-day-for-golf/?cid=twitter_A_gc_QSCHOOLDEMISE_032112

Not surprised that it's those journeymen guys who are less supportive, Q-school would be bread and butter to them more than most.

Good start from Team England at Bay Hill anyway, tee times strangely weighted towards the afternoon for most Europeans though.

kwinigolfer wrote:Byron Nelson always used to say that the most important technological advance over his lifetime in Golf has been (refinements in ) the lawnmower.

As for the ball, I would say the clubs are just as much to blame, perhaps more so, than the ball for the perception of golfcourses becoming outdated.

Absolutely
To take that a little further:

Agronomy! Including:

Irrigation
Fertilizer
Herbicide
Pesticide

the qualify of turf grass is so much better than it was 30, 50 years ago. Tee to green.

And wow, can't believe some of the negative comments about Arnold Palmer in this thread.

Cheers Ned,
Richard S's tweets are as entertaining as they often are insightful.

Seems the overwhelming sentiment from the Tour's bigger guns (including Ogilvy which surprised me) is that Tim's always been right before, he'll be right again.

I always feel as if Finchem is just about as disingenuous a character as there is anywhere in public life - he was asked whether the changes make the PGA Tour more of "a closed shop", by an American which surprised me. The usual consultation of notes and obfuscation ensued.

At the end of the day it will be the "rump" of the PGA Tour who rationalise the details still to be resolved; the old Pros who've seen both ends of the Tour spectrum, the vets (lets call them JJ Henry, Tim Petrovic or Vaughn Taylor) who habitually fall between 40th and 175th on the money-list, and the young guys who got their shot via Q-School and continue to be grateful for it. DJ and JB among them.

More water to flow under this bridge.

Meanwhile, Ernie Els is showing signs of life and Bay Hill's 18th is giving 'em fits.

Great read this week Kwini,

Any journo ever query Arnie on Sam Saunders' "invite" to this event??

John Cregan wrote:Any journo ever query Arnie on Sam Saunders' "invite" to this event??

Why should they?

Some sponsors exemptions are unrestricted. They should be able to invite anyone reasonable they wish to promote their event.

Cheers John,
Don't think they'd dare.
Even more egregious in my eyes is the continued open invite to Robert Damron. Apparently grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth off one of Bay Hill's fairways. Won the Byron Nelson in 2001 but has done nothing worthwhile since, no top 20's on Tour for six years, no cuts made at Bay Hill this century apart from one 60thsomething a year or so ago.

Must make guys like DiMarco and Slocum feel good that they, as fully exempt players, can't get in the field while Damn Damron and grandson Sam are perennial performers.

GPB: Only if they want to devalue it, Billy Payne in the same boat.

GPB,

Hold on a minute. Is it not valid for a serious golf journo to ask Arnie the question seeing as Saunders' invitation is given purely based on who his grandfather is?

Arnie is opionated enough to have an opinion on this surely??

I see Tim Clark was DQ? Was expecting more like a WD, wonder what happened there... Great to see some high level consistency from Rose lately, sure sign of a worthy top 10-er...

several of the sponsors invites are unrestricted. they are entitled to invite anyone they want.

In the 2009 ATT Pebble Beach a sponsors invite missed the cut by 31 shots. 80-80-87. Finished DFL and the next worst player was 10 shots better than the last player.

Any idea who that player might have been? And yes the invite was pure nepotism, and the relative is someone that most every golf fan would recognize. and the relative had a business relationship for years and years with ATT.

Sam Saunders is one of 120 golfers in the field. The field does not suffer because he is in it and Chris Dimarco and Slocum is not. Players that have full playing privileges have their choice of ~35 PGAT tournaments to play. They have plenty of opportunity.

Yes GPB, also an alcoholic and probably should have been in rehab rather than tee boxes.

It's all down to credibility really, isn't it?
Palmer can either lend his name to an elite tournament or allow it to become diminished by invites to his mates - which he's quite entitled to do. Just don't expect the golf world to embrace it.

Perhaps the worst case of a golfer gaining access to tournaments he's no right to be in, is sponsors' invites to Greg Hopkins on the Champions Tour. You don't know him, even from his frequent appearances bringing up the Champo's rear, perhaps in more ways than one? He's the head honcho of Cleveland Golf.


pd,
Timmy signed an incorrect scorecard - arithmetic awry as well as his elbow. Not good, but thank goodness it didn't happen at the tavistock . . . . .

i read that palmer feels hurt that rory and doanld arnt playing in his invitational!!

I think that shows he is well out of touch in fairness!

The guys work hard, are under pressuer and are gearing up for importanat events and also members of two tours..

Them not playing in this two bob event cannot and shouldnt be looked down upon, and has no reflection on how they feel about palmer as a legend of the game!

Well if I had my own tournament and the best players in the world didn't fancy it, I'd be annoyed.

They are under no obligation to play in any event if they don't wish to. I really can't see what palmer is uppity about. The tournament doesn't carry much credibility as it is. He should keep his coffin dodging denture ridden mouth closed.

GG,
I seriously doubt Arnold Palmer puts any of his own money up for the AP Invitational.
But Miguel-angel Jimenez ponies up a reported 100K Euros each year in support of the Andalucia event (held last week), and he was suitably grateful of those who supported the tournament. He certainly was never heard to wax dismay at those who didn't tee it up, least of all Donald and McIlroy. Or Woods and Mickelson for that matter.

Good to see Poulter having a decent start to his round; he needs it. 131st in the FedEx points race and an altogether uninspiring first two months so far.

Only a couple of years ago that he was among the strong fancies for the Masters, at least as an e.w. proposition. Hopefully he can return to that sort of form.

Meanwhile, Gary Christian ticking along at -2 and all GB&I at +1 (Laird and Owen) or better.

(Way too much coverage of S.Saunders.)

the koreans having a good first day- Wii in the lead at 6 under, kj also up there

Kwin - Great dig up on Greg Hopkins. As they say, if you couldn't beat them when you were younger what makes you think you can beat them when you're older? The list is very short for people who never played on the regular tour but had some success on the Senior Circuit. My friend Jay Sigel comes to mind; but he had an outstanding career as an amateur and most people knew he had game enough to play with the big boys.

Arnie quite the womanizer in his day according to many ... but evidently you get a free press pass if the circumstances are what they are!

woods at -3, rose at -3 and watney at -4 tells me one thing, rose is fav out of them

I also think sergio is gonna have a good event!

Sr,
'Course, Hopkins never did anything special at any level!

Some good names:
Alan Doyle: Driving range pro
Jim Albus, Tom Wargo, Club pros.

But fewer and further between as the closed shop gets ever more locked down.

It really is incredibly difficult for a non-PGA Tour player to succeed on the Champo circuit.

i donty wanna make fun of Arnies charity and all that but i think he might be abit out of touch.

He said we dont turn anyone away at my hospital- for instance a sick baby in europe could come here and get treatment because it hasnt got the facilities at home!!

is it really that bad in europe !

Dont get me wrong i think that america is a world leader when it comes to medicine- however there are places in alot more need than europe!!

Just worked out that its David Duvals fault as to why i pronounce the belgium beer 'duval' incorrectly!!

And am i tripping out or is Dufner sposered by green day!!

Just as a f'rinstance mysti,
Life expectancy:
USA: 78 yrs
Italy: 82 yrs

You never hear about stats like that when US people slag off the European and Canadian health care systems.

It's very good for the very wealthy.

What's Ricky Barnes doing on the 18th?! Thought we were going to have another "Tin Cup" moment for a second there.

kwinigolfer wrote:Just as a f'rinstance mysti,
Life expectancy:
USA: 78 yrs
Italy: 82 yrs

Afternoon kwini,

Pasta, wine and women are the ingredients for a long life.

Hi venice,
Did you go to Newport Beach last week? For the golf I mean??

Went to see the Impact de Montreal - 52,900 of my best mates there. Great atmosphere.
Better than at Le Centre Bell these days.

venice: And golf, 2 x Molinaris, 1 x Matteo and a Gagli all going well on The Road to Morocco.

Great tournament this love it. Good performance from AK....Will he make his second cut of the season!?!

kwinigolfer wrote:Hi venice,
Did you go to Newport Beach last week? For the golf I mean??
Went to see the Impact de Montreal - 52,900 of my best mates there. Great atmosphere.
Better than at Le Centre Bell these days.
venice: And golf, 2 x Molinaris, 1 x Matteo and a Gagli all going well on The Road to Morocco.

No Newport Beach last week but that double that Langer had on 17 was a killer. Wonder how many Champions Tour events he's just missed winning now. Seems like a good half dozen.

That's quite an attendance for an MLS game. Hope they keep it up as the league can use more than the Galaxy and a few others to carry the load. You guys almost pulled the game out but a draw for the home opener will do. See you host the Crew this Saturday.

Yep... your icemen have about 8 games left remaining on the schedule than it's early golf season for most of them. My Kings suddenly got some sense knocked into them and have regained a probable playoff spot due to a 5 game winning streak. They drive me crazy though with the inconsistent line shifts.

I think the pasta gang are getting ready for next week's Sicilian Open. Hopefully one day the island will be known for producing golfers and grapes and not gangs. Doubtful.

venice,
Having lived for almost 20 years in the land of ex-pat Sicilians, and their bosom buddies ex-pat Calabrians, I'm not optimistic.


But let's have a butcher's at our friends on the Masters bubble:
#48: Crane - 3 shots shy of likely cut-line. Deep trouble!
#57: Rock - Taking ELEVEN on a hole will never help - needs a Good Friday just to make the cut. Then a pair of 59's should do the trick.
#60: Chalmers - Living dangerously, right on the cut-line, needs an even par Friday just to survive, then a super weekend.
#61: Manassero - In good shape, but probably needs three more 69's to win.
#62: Els - -1 and 16th place. Keep it up Ernie!
#64, #65: - Allenby and HowellIII - Both in good shape to make the cut but need three good rounds.

All in all, don't expect much movement in the top 50 - Billy Payne can probably save some postage.

Kwini,

Any idea what the number of "invites" there currently is for Augusta??

I hate to drag this OT but where on earth would anyone get the idea the US had a good healthcare system? It is the most inefficient system in the world in terms of cost and who actually benefits from it.

I feel like a dying breed but I hold great pride in the NHS and know it is much, much better than anything you will get in the US. Given the miserly amount our government spends on health (as a % of GDP) compared to the likes of the Germans the NHS must produce the best results per pound of investment of any health system in the world.

I can’t be arsed to read the tales of people knocking the NHS because they or a relative did not get a 5 star hotel experience. No you fuc king didn’t dip sh 1ts. You actually got free treatment (might as well be for the small percentage of your tax bill that went to it) from some of the most highly trained and hard working people in the country.

In most countries you will pray very hard that your kid doesn’t get sick as you will be working three jobs 24 hours a day to pay for the bills.

Arnie must be living in a dream world to think anyone from Europe, especially the UK, would want to enter the world of corporate health care that the US inflicts on its people.

Mac, I agree with what you say, but I think the NHS needs a serious revision to bring it up to date.

For example, I have no idea why Scotland get free prescriptions. I can afford to pay for mine. Salmond still hasn't explained how he intends to pay for it.
Also think if you miss a doctors appointment you should pay a fee.

At least we can agree that American health care is the most expensive, and I imagine thier insurance companies, drug companies and health conglomerates are the most profitable.

They have a funny old view of Europe. There is (always) a national blood shortage, I used to be a regular donor and was right up there with Tony Hancock in the desirability of my armful every two months.

But I haven't been allowed to donate for fifteen years now because I lived in Britain during a mad cow disease scare. Makes me furious!

Should be a great morning for low scores at Arnie's Invitational; warm and not much wind.
The only defence for Bay Hill today would be if the course and greens really firmed up; Woods said yesterday that the "Ball is flying forever", 310 yards for a normal drive. Saw a Bubba effort measured at 360, so bombs away!

Not good for golf, but bombs away!!

Slight chance of thundershowers this afternoon, more chance at the weekend.

Play away please, in half an hour.

Duffy starts with a birdie... I wonder what would be the odds of him jumping up in the air with joy if he wins this on Sunday? I'd say about 0.01%...

US health system in need of significant changes. Obama's on the right track with his administration's proposed changes. Will there be mistakes, compromises and general discomfort for the citizens? Absolutely.

But I just seeth when the Republicans use scare tactics that taxpayers are going to get slammed unless they vote in a Romney or Santorum.

Off soapbox.

New strand bamboo flooring installed in two levels of the house. Construction over. Playing 9 this afternoon and look forward to the golf and College BBall this weekend. I think I'll light up a cigar!

I was watched Dufner last night. Is it just me, or does he look like Rory's less fit older brother.

ScottieD18 wrote:I was watched Dufner last night. Is it just me, or does he look like Rory's less fit older brother.

You're not far off, someone around here yesterday was going with... the love child of Rory McIlroy and Damien McGrane, which I thought was pretty good...

Another good start this morning for the Duffmeister, and someone woke Ryan Moore up, his game has been in hibernation for way too long.

Cut-line now at +3 and it may well stay there given the small size of this week's field. All Team GB&I well inside the cut as things stand.

Anyone got the PGA app for their phone? Jason Duffner looks a right sweaty bloater on his picture.