PGA Tour: Zurich Classic of New Orleans: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Lousy field in San Antonio last week for the "Valero Texas Open", but that shouldn't diminish from Ben Curtis's superb win. That is Curtis's 4th Tour title, superior to most US golfers of his (under-performing?) age group. He'll now be playing the PGA Tour mostly, Europe's loss if he can maintain last week's form.

2).The TPC San Antonio certainly showed up better on TV than the spectacle of the past two years, and generally received high marks from the players. Biggest exception tended to be the continued penal nature of the course, and unforgiving "green complexes". Next year will be the proverbial acid test as the date of the Texas Open is moved up to the week before The Masters, and one hopes that the tournament will take a long-term view that they have one last chance to sell the world's best that this is a viable venue.

3).The highest-ranked contestant last week was Matt Kuchar but, for the second week running, he flattered only to deceive. How much longer will he grin (and I DO mean grin) and bear it, a small fortune in the bank but no outright 72-hole leads on Tour for over ten years? Can you say "under performer"?

4).Last week also saw some spectacular meltdowns. One of my favourite players to follow is Will MacKenzie, a professional kayaker, someone who gave up college golf in North Carolina for more extreme sports, snowboarding, rock-climbing, rafting, heliboarding, kayaking, you name it, he did it, all the while living in a van in the wilds of Montana. Inspired by Payne Stewart's Pinehurst win, he resumed golf via the Golden Bear, Hooters and, eventually, PGA Tours and collected a couple of wins.
His ball-striking is usually exquisite, his course management and putting eccentric. And so it proved last weekend. Seven under par for Saturday's round after 14 holes, he proceeded to drop five shots coming in, with a shank, three 3-putts (two from within 15 feet), and a career-saving tournament was headed down the drain. He played well again on Sunday, two under par for his round, a decent cheque waiting to be banked, but went four over par for his final four holes.
Back to the Nationwide this week. Too bad.

5).A recent survey of PGA Tour pros in Sports Illustrated had some interesting questions including:
"Who is the cockiest player on the PGA Tour?"
Top six: Sabbatini, Anthony Kim, Bubba, Every, Poulter, Scott Piercy.
One feels that, if more pros knew Piercy, he might be somewhat higher. He won in Reno last year only because Pat Perez self-destructed before he did. Last Sunday, a par on #18 would assure him of a top four finish. Nine strokes later he signed for a NINE and 18th place. Whereupon he left the green snapping his putter over his knee. Imagine Finchem will be further depleting Piercy's bank account.

6).And another Sports Illustrated observation. They frequently include a "My Bag" feature, showing the equipment of leading pros. Hunter Mahan's bag was mostly PING, with the accompanying sound-bite: "When I'm going to a major or a tough course, I want to have all the bite on my wedges (for all the) advantage I can get."
Trouble is, his bag clearly showed at least one Callaway wedge, rather than the Anser Forged jobs described!

7).Moving on: Given that the Masters thru Players month is something of a dead zone on Tour, what is the difference between the Texas Open and New Orleans event in terms of attracting the pros?
And part of the answer at least is Bradley, Crane, Donald, Fowler, McDowell, Rose, Villegas (not that he affects things much). What do they have in common? They are all sponsored by Zurich.
This is part of a growing trend, followed also by RBC whose "ambassadors" including Donald, Els, Furyk, Kuchar, etc, etc, were at Harbour Town and almost certainly will be in Hamilton for the RBC Canadian Open.
The PGA Tour looks down its rather long nose at appearance fees but there are appearance fees hiding in clear sight, just an extension of what Woods used to do with Buick and AT&T (still does to some extent, with HSBC too). Likewise Phil etc with Barclays. And there are plenty more.

8).With Harbour Town two weeks ago, and TPC in a fortnight, this is Pete Dye month on Tour with his TPC Louisiana the host course for this week's "Zurich Classic of New Orleans". The course opened about ten years ago, hosted its first New Orleans Open in 2005 to mixed reviews, got battered by Hurricane Katrina and reopened two years later to a more positive reception. This week should see it playing firm and fast and will be popular, not least for all the gastronomic delights available on the course. Course specialists include Messrs Dufner, Howell, Stricker and Toms.

9).Europe is represented by Team Zurich (Donald, McDowell, Rose), Peter Hanson, Karlsson and the regulars. Including Alex Cejka who has two tournaments remaining on his Major Medical Exemption in which to earn $323K. Otherwise it's trip to the Tour's knackers yard for Cejka; he's in his forties now and is five "cuts" short of qualifying for "veteran" status on the PGA Tour. Without that, his only route back is via Q-School, Nationwide and sponsors invitations.

10).No action on the Champions Tour this week but Mark James and Des Smyth went some way to alleviating financial problems in Britain and Ireland by earning $110K between them as they won the Liberty Mutual Legends "Raphael Division" last week in Savannah, repeating last year's success. Sandy Lyle (partnering Peter Senior) finished down the field in his division and his Champions Tour options are steadily expiring.
Strange thing about Lyle: He'll be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in a couple of weeks. It's twenty minutes down the road from his US home, but he'll visit it for the first time when they unveil his plaque!

Hi Kwini! Thanks for the notes, particularly on MacKenzie

Totally missed last weeks golf. I was trying to kill my liver in Berlin instead... Doesnt look like I missed much other than savouring that great rhythm in Curtis' swing. And another AK WD. Kuchar needs to sort his short game out.

Looking forward to this week but this event always makes me hungry!

I'll just miss Sandy Lyle's induction. Arrive in St Augustine just a few days after the ceremony! Absolutley no sign of an invite either. Tut.

You going to miss The Players Lairdy?
St.A is supposed to be luvely, have a great time.

Lots of withdrawals for some reason this week; Harrison Frazar and Boo Weekley the latest.

Nationwide update.
This week's field in Georgia includes Ben Briscoe, David Skinns and Matt Evans.
Don't know anything about Evans' recent career - is he from Rotherham?

Great read as ever Kwini

How does this place rank amongst the Dye catalogue? I'm only going by TV shots, but I rate Harbour Town massively (who doesn't?), like Whistling Straits a lot, but not so sure about Sawgrass (though that's mostly down to the 17th, seems a decent course otherwise). Last week's China venue looked decent, but in need of a bit more bedding in.


I saw Skinns had come through the qualifier on Monday, good luck to him, been in good form on the Hooters Tour recently. A few years back, when I first checked which Brits were making waves on that tour, Knox, Briscoe, Skinns and Chris Devlin (heart outpatient, ex college teammate of McDowell) were the four standouts near the top of most leaderboards. Since then Knox has gone up two rungs, Briscoe one, and I think Devlin has a minor status on the Challenge Tour this year; just waiting for Skinns to progress now. Maybe he can have a Knox-esque breakout week here.

As for Matt Evans - the name rang the vaguest of bells from this time last year, and a bit of checking out shows the guy from Rotherham finished in the lowest rungs of the CT OoM last year; and also featured in a single NW event, which I think was where I remembered him cropping up.
But then I did a bit (OK a lot) more digging, and it seems that a 36-year-old Georgian club pro named "Matthew Evans" came through some sort of club pro-qualifier for this event the other week... pgatour.com may have over-thought itself and subbed in the wrong guy to their leaderboard.

Cheers Kwini. Should arrive in St Augustine on the Wednesday. Will go up to Sawgrass for the practice day and then back again on Friday. Tickets booked! Obviously excited about the golf but yes St Aug looks fantastic. Looking forward to chilling out at the beach there.

I remember St Augustine being lovely. We decided to hole up there as a hurricane blew threw using the reasoning that its the oldest town in the USA so obviously stood up well so should be safe! To that end stayed in the oldest hotel in town (name escapes me) which also had the best restaurant we visited in FL. We also met the guy who ran the HoF in there and was a mate of Mark O'Meara. Lovely people, shame it was the end of a very boozy day so the stories are a little foggy. The micro brewery looking over the water was a good place to watch a storm go by, y'all.

I was there about 12 years ago so all recommendations should be checked! Now I think of it, it was the year that MO'M had won the Masters and the Open so 13/14. I remember putting him right about the "British Open."

Should be excellent weather in NOLA for the golf this week, 80's, sunny and dry, if a little breezy - first tee-times at 7.00 a.m. local time, 1.00 p.m. in Edinburgh.
Lots to play for apart from the obvious, and pretty soon we'll be on Ernie-for-Olympic-Club-watch! (Though difficult to imagine he wouldn't receive a USGA invitation.)

Goosen returns after apparently getting the Vijay/Freddie treatment on his back, and is this the tournament for Luke Donald's 2010/2011 short game to reappear?

Interesting to hear David Toms bleating that this course is too long for him to contend - think he's blowing smoke personally with Pete Dye usually rewarding those with a precise iron game.

The New Orleans freak show, Chopra and Cejka residing in the top three, early on at least.
It can't last . . . .

Good start from Ben Curtis, all of a sudden he has remembered how to play!

Great stuff, kwini
How did Chopra get in that field anyway...?
Some scorecard for Gmac so far (birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie) and he seems to contiue in the same note...

princedracula wrote:Great stuff, kwini
How did Chopra get in that field anyway...?
Some scorecard for Gmac so far (birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie) and he seems to contiue in the same note...

Followed by another bogey... 8 holes and no pars! Par 5 coming up, so good chance he'll go 9 without a par.

...and he duly obliged with another birdie! Now 9 boring pars on the front nine would be just fine...

ok, now let's concentrate for a moment on Karlsson's card...
Or maybe not...

First boring par in the bank.
Horrible start for Karlsson and getting worse, and not much better from Ogilvy - brilliant career going rapidly down the drain.

Wonderful write up Kwin - thanks as always.

I played Wayzata CC last week, home to Tim Herron. Very nice course, and now complete with the "Herron Tees" so named for the long-hitting, cherubic journeyman.

Don't expect to see him on the first page of the leaderboard for long, but good to see him there for part of today at least.

Thought I would have a look at GMac's shot tracker as I had a theory that maybe if you start strong (two birdies) you could start feeling cocky and get bitten if you attack a pin and get it wrong.

Not knowing the course makes this tough as you don't know which pins are sucker pins but I think that there could be an element of that. Looking how close he stuck his approaches I can see why you would start to feel over confident.

Cheers Shotrock,
How come you were golfing and not ice-fishing?
Wayzata looks a nice place; Lumpy is just one of a distinguished family of MN golfers isn't he? Sister top-class amateur I think, father and g/father both played the US Open.
Enjoyed following him at QHollow a year or so ago, lots of "Good Lord Herron" from nether regions of the course.


pd,
Chopra must have scraped in via his Nationwide partial membership . . . . still going well!

Lee Janzen is playing the NW event this week in Valdosta.

Predictable start from Bubba. One under through 15 holes, but was 2 over early in his round.

McDowell's final card a picture: Five pars then golfing mayhem.
(Yes, I know he began on the back . . . . )

GPB,
It'll be interesting to see if Lee Janzen receives a US Open invite . . . . .

Little to no chance that Janzen gets an special invitation. If he were to a get a special invite, he would have got one in 2009 when his 1998 exemption ran out.

Besides there is one other 2 time USOpen champ who will probably be on the outside looking in that have a better resume and higher ranked.

Disagree about Janzen, the USGA often invite a former Champ back to the sight of past glory - and they're not going to Baltusrol anytime soon.
Yup, Ernie definitely first in line, agree with that!

Great start from Tringale - is this the week??!!

Yeah, I didn't think about the Olympic Connection, but I still do not think he gets an invite.

Stricker had another good round. It is incredible how well he plays in regular events but is essentially AWOL during majors.

GPB - Good point about Stricker. I think the "cauldron" that is a major is just something different. Many week-in, week-out exceptional golfers haven't tamed that beast just yet. Just one of those things.

Stricker returns to Olympic Club in June, T5 there fourteen years ago; perhaps familiar surroundings will inspire him.
Feller called Westwood was T8!
A young amateur named Kuchar was 14th!!

I just checked if Aaron Stewart (Payne's Stewart's boy) had made an application to qualify. (but he didn't). Entries closed yesterday.

That would have been a nice story if he made to Olympic.

And if Els made not need a special invite! Minus 4 and lowest round going in the afternoon wave.

Just read a report that Chopra's 66 was his first Tour round in the 60's for 18 months!

Els now with a 3-shot lead among the afternoon "wave".

Big Carl did well to come back from 2 x doubles. +4 he was playing the 7th.

Duuufner going well again. In the south again.

Plenty of low scores on Thursday and, with similar conditions forecast for Round 2, expect more of the same.
Current cut-line is level par with 101 players at T69 or better - a Tour nightmare if that should continue. It won't, but the spectre of a huge Saturday field remains unless the cut drops to -1 (very likely).

Looks like Luke Donald visited New Orleans watering places three times in Round 1 - he may have flown his coach, Pat Goss, in for a refresher practice session, but no teacher can help with shots from the drink.

Continued good form from Russell Knox, looks like he's beginning to get more comfortable on the big tour. Big rounds needed on Friday from Karlsson (64 would do the trick!), Christian, Hanson and, of course, Donald.

Very pleased to see Ernie Els expunge a demon or two, but needs to use Thursday as a launching pad if he's really going to start climbing the rankings.

Good call on Dufner, Lairdy; 9th, 7th, 3rd his last three trips here. Pity he always looks like he's just stepped out of the local boozer (not that there's anything wrong with that), and needs a bucket of water in his face.
And keep an eye on Tringale - he's going to win soon . . . . . .

Tringale's turned a lot of heads, but just hasn't won yet (can you say Fowler?). This week would be nice.

Uninspired stuff from former World #1 ... hope he sorts it out and I certainly expect he'll be playing the weekend.

C'Mon Ernie!!

Big difference Sr, Tringale keeps getting better, Rickie just keeps getting worse. Think they were housemates when they started out on Tour!

Since free advice is usually worth just that, here I go ... I really don't like Rickie's very handsy move. It's just prone to inconsistent shot making. I'm not suggesting he isn't an exceptional player (otherwise he wouldn't be on tour), but it seems to lead to streaky play. Others that seem have that similar move are McDowell and Garcia. Beautiful when they are on, not so much when they aren't.

Stricker and Donald just look like they could hit a 10 foot green from 125 yards in their sleep.

Agree with that. Don't know if you watched the golf from San Antonio, but I felt Matt Every had a similar kind of move in transition, altho feel he has some temperamental issues going on also. Good player despite all that!

Someone needs to sit Rickie down, strip some of the bling away, and get him back to basics. Perhaps Olin Browne could do that, but right now Bubba doesn't need to hang around too many 18th greens to welcome Rickie's first win.

When Rickie's hot he's good. Has to learn not to shoot at ALL the pins when in contention though.

Going to keep my eye on Duval today. Looks promising for another cut. Would be nice to see him play well in time for The Open.

The New Orleans cut-line has already moved to -1 which places Luke Donald, for instance, still outside despite an early birdie.
If the wind stays down the scoring will also, and the cut could easily reach -2. Ideal conditions right now.

Greg Chalmers going crazy at the head of affairs - he may look boring as Hell but he seems to have unearthed a rich vein of form these past six months.

I should be bemoaning the fact that I have Chalmers on my Yahoo bench, but I can't really complain given that it's Dufner I have keeping him out. And CHIII is trying to make it a full house for my first team at the head of affairs, apart from Dufner I have Stroud striding out, and Rollins rollin' along... ahem.

Scoring looking very very easy so far. Perfect conditions I assume?

Hi Ned,
Looks like Luke has followed Chalmers with a hole out from the first fairway!

Very calm early on, breeze expected to pick up to yesterday's strength later in the day.

As suggested above, some familiar horses doing well on a familiar course . . . . .

And a hole out from off the green at the 2nd too, after seeming to have made a mess of the par 5! Definitely seems to be flying round now, could be the catalyst he needs to get back to usual form. Nice start from Russell Knox too.

Shots flying in from everywhere on the course in fact; looks like Stroud just found water on the par 3 9th, and still made a par? Good effort!

!!!!
Russell Knox's round so far is eerily reminiscent of McDowell's curiosity yesterday . . . . .

Don't cry from me Argentina, sings Cabrera as he departs the premises. Wonder how fit he is?

Looks like Stroud's save has been demoted to a routine bogey, alas.

El Pato seems to be an enigma inside a mystery, does he even care that much? Also what's up with Verplank? Only his 5th start of the year, Augusta his only cut made, and headed for another free weekend here. Injured?


LUUUKE!!!

Verplank was out with his wrist injury at the beginning of the year - that had troubled him all 2011, very seldom completed two events in a row. Still seems as if it's not quite right.

My son and I play a game where we pick one guy per event thru-out the year, no-one to be used twice.
We have Chalmers and Dufner this week. So far so good! Still hope Ernie and Luke beat them!!

3 of my four "horses for courses" in the top ten. Early yet though.

A lot of very good rounds this morning. Nine rounds at -4 or better midway through the morning wave. Donald with nice comeback, and Els continues his good play from yesterday.

I wonder if the wind will pick this afternoon like it did yesterday

Looks Duval is going to make his 2nd consecutive cut (and 2nd for the season).

This weekend appears to have a really good mix of top ranked players, (Donald, Stricker), past prime vets (Els, Appleby), perennial journeyman (Howell, Chalmers, Chopra), some player desperate for their first win (Dufner, Tringale, Fowler), and some rookies (Compton, Knox).

"Fowler keeps getting worse."
Brilliant kwini, just about to go -6 after 16 holes. What foresight!

kwinigolfer wrote:"Fowler keeps getting worse."
Brilliant kwini, just about to go -6 after 16 holes. What foresight!

Kind of like when you were dissing the Koreans last week?

Eagle for Knox! Looks like that NW breather he took may have got his game into shape.

Keegan Bradley's first finish outside the top 30 all season is gonna be a spectacular one. Wonder if he's worn himself out.

GPB,
I only dissed three Koreans - two withdrew and Huh went crazy!

Lovely eagle for Russell Knox; Greg Owen joins Duval with a decent cut made for the elders.

Snap Ned,
Bradley and Watney both likely to miss their first cuts of the year.

I see that Daly is making the most of limited opportunities on the PGAT. Opening 73 will be followed by a score in the high 70s or low 80s.

Just the standard 3-8 start from Chopra.

Wow, been out for a couple of hours and this is becoming more and more intriguing... Was unexpected enough to have Els and Chalmers charging for the top with Dufner earlier, but now I see even more pretty unexpected names up there, like Knox, Fowler and even Compton !? C'est merveilleux, mesdames et messieurs! (do they actually speak any French in Nouveau Orleans?)... Brilliant day for Luuuke!