PGA Tour: One Hundred Years of Ben Hogan: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).More on Hogan later, but if this week's homage to him at Colonial exceeds the excitement and intrigue at the Byron Nelson we'll be in for a treat.
Another week, another red letter day for Jason Dufner. With the Aussies falling away, and Jonas Blixt coming up short, it was left to golf's middle aged warriors to fight it out at TPC at Las Colinas.
Dufner is enjoying his Tour breakthrough at the age of 35, which reminds one of other mid-thirties overnight successes, Steve Stricker (although his was more of a welcome rebound), Boo Weekley, even Kenny Perry. I'd say that Dufner reminds me of Perry more than anyone, an idiosyncratic, repeating swing that seems designed to withstand pressure, and a good enough short game to contend when the putter's working.
Regardless, he's an almost cert for Medinah now.

2).And right behind Dufner were three more whose brilliant future had been slipping well behind them.
~JJ Henry could, perhaps unkindly?, be described as a Tour journeyman - a successful rookie year in 2001, then in moneylist places 80 - 120 every year since, except 2006 when he won (hometown) Hartford and made the Ryder Cup team. He went to college in Fort Worth, still lives there, and would dearly love to win Colonial but last week's 17th hole nightmare will surely takes its toll.

~Dicky Pride won Memphis (in a play-off with Gene Sauers and Hal Sutton) in his first year on Tour in 1994 and has suffered ill-health on a regular basis ever since. But the self-styled "great putter" banked his largest pay cheque and will be exempt for another year!

~But neither are as much as enigma as Joe Durant, whose T3 should propel him to Tour security for another year or two. Then he'll be on the Champions Tour. Four Tour wins and a regular near the top of the Tour's "ball-striking" stat. And a regular near the bottom of the putting stats. He played his first Tour event in 1987 and won the prestigious Western Open eleven years later. Since then he's enjoyed two purple patches and otherwise relentlessly consistent mediocrity:
*Three months in 2001 when he won the "Hope" and Doral and $2.2M.
*Three months in 2006 when he won Disney, was seldom out of the top six, and coined $2.4M.
When you consider that his career earnings are "just" $13.7M, you'll see that, in his 25-year career, 1/3 of his winnings occurred in just 2 x three-month periods.

3).Sweden's Jonas Blixt assured himself of a spot in this year's Barclays play-off event, and is just about guaranteed a top 125 position in the money list. Closing in on Huh and Bae for Rookie Of The Year?

4).A bad week for Adam Scott playing just his sixth 2012 Tour event and missing the cut. He, and regular absentee Charl Schwartzel, will now be struggling to fit in their minimum of fifteen tournaments this year unless they enjoy an inspired run of form and qualify for all four Play-Off events.

5).With qualifying for the Open Championship moving in to high gear, commiserations to Russell Knox whose valiant effort to qualify among a strong field of 72 Tour pros fell tragically short as he was the odd man out in a four-way play-off for the final three places. And congrats to Greg Owen (and his 2nd round 61 - also achieved by the ever-toothy Stephen Ames) who qualified in 2nd place and will be looking to improve on his 23rd place finish in Lytham's 2001 Open. Harris English (fittingly?) was the "medallist" and broke the course record with a Round 1 score of 60.

6).Thirty miles east of Byron Nelson's statue is Ben Hogan's statue in Fort Worth. Born in Stephenville (90 minutes west of Fort Worth) 100 years ago, he started caddying in his early teens. In the Glen Garden CC Caddy Tournament in 1927 his play-off competitor was the even younger Byron Nelson!

7).Hogan is known for his association with Colonial where he won the inaugural "Colonial National Invitational" in 1946 and four more times for good measure. No Hogans in this year's field but a strong turn-out nonetheless headlined by Mahan, Kuchar, Fowler, Dufner, Haas, Watney and course specialists Zach Johnson, Furyk and Toms. And Garcia, who won here in 2001, leads the lightweight European cast of Davis, Owen, Pettersson, Blixt and Stenson.

8).It's going to be a test of patience this week, very HOT with temps likely to be approaching 100F, and it's not a week where an obvious favourite leaps off the pairing sheet. Zach Johnson a good each way investment though?

9).There will be Senior moments a-plenty in Michigan this week, at the first Major (and there are many more to come) of the Champions Tour: The "Senior PGA Championship" at the highly controversial venue of Harbour Shores in Benton Harbour. There is insufficient room to explain why the controversy; suffice it to say that Michigan has turned in to a despotic State, democracy as we know it in the rear-view mirror. "Occupy the PGA" will be protesting, whether in their hundreds, or the hundreds of thousands that could well be warranted, but doubtless the actual tournament will proceed in wilfully blind ignorance and without significant interruption.

10).Europeans on hand to join Bernhard Langer include Messrs: Brand, Chapman, Farry, James, Lane, Lyle, Martin, Mouland, Oldcorn, Quiros, Russell, Sherborne, Walton, Wesselingh and Wolstenholme. There'll be some notable absentees with defending Champion Tom Watson not actually defending and Corey Pavin at Colonial. But this is invariably a well run event with a Championship feel - Langer hasn't returned to the consistent excellence of his pre-injury Champions Tour career but hopefully this will be the week.

Kwini: Agreed, but also the same situation last week. They were completed 18 holes on Thu-Fri in less than 5 hours, with 156 player field.

This week was 123 players.

Have no clue why the difference. From their past practice, I wouldn't have expected twosomes this week. Maybe they saw something last week or Thur-Fri this week that convinced them they could go twosomes with 79 players.. I did notice that the Harris English threesome (last one off #1 yesterday) got around in under 4:40... not bad all things considered. (Course it sure helps with a shorter field they can schedule almost 3 hours for the morning groups to make the turn before starting the afternoon wave)

Miguel Angel Carballo is going to finish as one-some in about three hours.

Mallinger/Hearn, the first twosome, are trending towards a three hour 40 minute round. 15 holes in just under three hours. that looks to be about the pace of the field right now.

US Amateur Champ Kelly Kraft is going deep this morning. -6 after nine holes. 1 hr 50 minutes.


Edit: Apparently Live Scoring was a little behind and it caught up. Hearn/Mallinger finished in about three hours and twenty minutes

Can't see either Dufner or Johnson coming back to the field - only one mounting a challenge so far is Huh?
Perhaps Vijay and Oosty can finish their promising rounds well and show the International challenge is not dead??

(Only just spotted that Kuchar played with Na today. Wonder how that went!)

Meanwhile, Roger Chapman just goes on his Senior PGA way, untimely bogey just now but two shots clear.

Roger Chapman going crazy in Michigan - -7 with a couple of holes to go.
Any more of this and we'll be witnessing a life-changing experience.

The final group completed play in less than 4 hours today. FTR, that is with Kevin Na and Ben Crane in the field.

Dufner keeps rolling along. I don't know if I would be taking any time off if I were him but the NCAA Championship is next week at Riviera and Dufner is going to be a volunteer assistant coach for his alma mater, Auburn. WAR EAGLE!!

Imagine most readers on here would be more familiar with "Wor Jackie", especially those from Tyneside!

Don't see Dufner winning tomorrow - it's Zach's tournament.

Good race for third.

Weatherwise, it's more of the same today at Colonial - hot, breezy, dry, sunny. The best score of the week so far has been the smattering of 64's and, barring some cardiac problems by Zachster and the Dufmeister, that makes today a two-horse race.

Not that there's not some intrigue further down the field:
Can Oosthuizen build on his good first three rounds?
Will Van Pelt shoot in the 60's after his first 70-something in Fort Worth for four years?
Will old mates Timmy Clark and Sergio inspire one another as they are paired together? (OK, that's a bit of a long shot.)
Furyk, Fowler, Kuchar and Mahan have been hiding in the weeds all week. Will one of them go really low early and get the leaders wobbling?

kwinigolfer wrote:Furyk, Fowler, Kuchar and Mahan have been hiding in the weeds all week. Will one of them go really low early and get the leaders wobbling?

IMO your first instincts are correct...

I'm not the type to bet the house... but I'd lay some mega-serious coin this is a two man race or one of the top-2 will leave the other behind. I wouldn't be shocked if either or both Dufner and Zach stall today... even one of them might take a plunge, but I can't see BOTH of them cratering. If either shoot around even today... that means Gillis needs 62-63 to gain a playoff, Van Pelt a 61-62... you get the idea. Never say never, but I just can't see anybody being able to post a number low enough to even be noticed by the top-2.

The two-horse race will be on the move soon. Tough conditions out there with no-one breaking par until Kevin Na just now.

Another very disappointing tournament for Butch Harmon with Woodland carding an MDF and Watney trailing in last of the Sunday finishers. No Medinah for either unless Butchie pulls some rabbits out of his rat. pretty average again from Bill Haas also.

Roger Chapman on the march in Michigan; if there's a Sunday miracle, and Chapman wins, he'll be eligible for Kiawah and the PGA Championship!

GO SANDY!!!

Amazing EmmDee, the Hall Of Fame seems to have given him a new lease on life. And a Mulligan.

Six shot lead for Chapman with 13 to play.

Still only two rounds under par at Colonial, still a two-horse race.

Chapman strolling to victory now. If Lyle can get solo 2nd then it'll be a great week for him.

Sky coverage opting to show Senior PGA as main show seeing as an Englishman looks like winning.

I'll believe Chapman is in a stroll when he picks up the trophy. Seven shots ahead of the closest American - who'd've thunk it?

Wobble from the Dufmeister?

With a Zach Johnson win and Rickie Fowler T5 finish, the top 8 of the US Ryder Cup Standings have well over 3000 Points.

Steve Stricker at number 9 is trailing 8th place Fowler by almost 800 points.

I wonder if 4000 points will be enough to make the US Team. If Americans win the rest of the majors, 4000 points might not be enough

GPB,
The top eight are really separating themselves, aren't they? Ben Curtis drops out of the top 12, while Presidents Cuppers from last year fall further behind:
Simpson down to 23rd
DJohnson to 24th
Toms to 28th
Watney still at 37th.
I fancy Furyk, still 17th, to be the next veteran to make a strong run for a place. Can't imagine he wouldn't be a "pick" regardless.

Is the real benefit of caddying for Zach Johnson the caddie's percentage of the Colonial winnings?
Or is it the strings Zach pulls in his home State of Iowa for Damon Green to get an invite into next week's Champions Tour event there??
Fair do's to Damon Green; he's a Nationwide Tour veteran who also qualified for, and made the cut at, last year's Senior Open Championship at Walton Heath. Good for him!

anyone have some info on exactly what happened on 18th last night? i went to bed when Dufner had his treble!

Great win by Chapman considering he won only once in his long career on the european tour. He'll be pinching himself when he wakes up this morning!

So Dufner lost?

For some reason I thought he won, how did he manage a treble?

Complete joke if that win gets him in a full major. Why not let whoever wins the ladies PGA in as well, and the under 11's event.
The senior events must have weaker fields than any other event on any world tour.....yet winning one gets you into a major ? Bizarre.
What gets me about the senior tour is its often full of guys who have aged well in comparison to their peers but were never that great when they were actually on a real tour. Chapman would be a prime example of that.

Although Jason Dufner lost, it's still an amazing run that he's on. He might break through into celebrity status at this rate.

Can imagine his instructional DVD "Waggle it with J-Duff"...

Pleased for Roger Chapman. Presumably he's pretty much won the European Senior Tour order of merit for the year (given relative prize money) unless another Euro Senior wins a major - unlikely based on past form? But then again, a few of them seemed to have done surprisingly well at the Senior PGA.

hend0,
Johnson moved his ball marker from the exact spot because his marker was in Dufner's putting line. When he replaced it, he didn't adjust the mark. He putted out but Damon Green checked with Zach and they adjusted his score before he signed his card.

Good for Roger Chapman, he's earned every plaudit that comes his way.

McLaren wrote:So Dufner lost?

For some reason I thought he won, how did he manage a treble?

there was a back left pin on 15th with water just beyond the pin. he hit a 7iron (ish) out of a fairway bunker right at it but it was just off line and went into the water. im not sure if it was a poor shot selection or if he just pulled it a bit (it seemsed to draw in the air).
he thined a relatively easy chip (it was a red hazard) that went thru the green. hit another chip to about 2.5 feet and missed the put.

on 18th Zach incurred a 2 shot penalty for not replacing his ball correctly after moving it when on dufners putting line. in the end he made a 5 footer to win by one. it seems as though he thought he had 3 putts for the win from 5 feet. it would have been very unfortunate if he decided to just lag it up and tap it in for what he thought was a 2 shot win only to be told he also has a 2 shot penalty!

Is there any link to the scoring at Walton Heath??

I saw the following headline

"Clarke out of US Open at Olympic"

Can someone explain how that can be posted as if it were a recent development?

They may as well have gone with

"super_realist fails to pull once again "

European Tour website has an article. Looks like there is a playoff?


Alex Noren and Marc Warren finished top of the pile at the US Open Qualifier at Walton Heath, where five players will contest a play-off for the final four places.

Noren and Warren will definitely be joined at the Olympic Club from June 14-17 by Lee Slattery, Søren Kjeldsen, George Coetzee, Grégory Bourdy and Mikko Ilonen, who all finished on seven under par, two shots behind the leading duo.

Sihwan Kim, Matthew Baldwin, Raphaël Jacquelin, Matteo Manassero and Peter Lawrie will now fight it out for the final four berths.

Colin Montgomerie and José María Olazábal will not be making the trip to San Francisco after carding respective afternoon rounds of 72 and 74.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012040/news/newsid=162112.html#noren+warren+lead+successful+qualifiers

McLaren wrote:I saw the following headline

"Clarke out of US Open at Olympic"

Can someone explain how that can be posted as if it were a recent development?

They may as well have gone with

"super_realist fails to pull once again "

Any reason why you're so obsessed with Clarke at the moment Mac? Sure he's in a dreadful run of form but you seem to slag him off on every thread whether it's relevant or not. There's nothing wrong with that headline at all, he was expected to tee off in the tournament up until today when he withdrew with injury. How competitive he would be is nothing to do with whether he's in the tournament or not....

Sounds like Couples and Nick Price are just about to be officially named duelling Captains of next year's Presidents Cup Teams, the event to be played at Muirfield Village in the autumn of 2013.

Imagine it will be all change in 2015 when KJ Choi is a favourite to lead the International Team in Korea.
The US Captain will be an interesting choice - Couples won't do it and imagine someone destined to miss out on the Ryder Cup might get it. Justin Leonard possibly?