PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament, At Jack's Place: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Jason Dufner's march through April and May hit the buffers after 62 holes at Colonial, but all credit to Zach Johnson for being willing to wear that faux-tartan jacket for the second time in three years. Dufner will be taking the next two weeks off and has suggested his "regular tournament schedule" is finished for the year, with plans to play just the Majors, WGC's and FedEx Play-Off events. Who does he think he is? Tiger Woods??

2).Meanwhile, Zach Johnson has won twice now at Colonial, twice at the old La Cantera site of the Texas Open, and twice at Greg Norman's Sugarloaf design, site of Atlanta's now defunct AT&T Classic. The only other Tour venues he's triumphed at are Waialae CC, site of the Sony Open, and Augusta National, site of youknowwhat. Where are you placing your bets for his next win?

3).Good to see Tim Clark enjoying his first top twenty finish since his extensive absence due to elbow injury. But how fit is he really, and will he return to the world-class player he proved himself to be just two years ago at The Players?

4).And what of Timmy's runner-up that Sawgrass Sunday, Robert Allenby? Time was when Allenby was all ball-striking and no putt - now he's no neither, 94th in the Tour's "ball striking" stat, and a ghastly 185th in putting. I'm sure the illness of his protege Jarrod Lyle must weigh heavily on Robert's mind, but finishing 120th of 123 starters at Colonial, and only one top twenty finish all season, is the sort of stuff retirement is made of.

5).Golfchannel.com has a Jarrod Lyle update that I'll poach:
With his cancer in "remission", "he is currently preparing for a bone marrow transplant". "He is hoping to go into treatment soon and hopefully after 18 months to 2 years he will be able to begin the rehabilitation process and return to normal life."
I've mentioned before that Lyle is about the funniest guy on Tour, nothing cerebral, he just flat-out makes you laugh; always tried to follow him at events I attended. We'll miss you at Hartford in a few weeks, Jarrod, get well soon mate.

6).With today's announcement that Couples and Nick Price will lead their respective Teams at next year's Presidents Cup, and KJ Choi presumably in the driving seat for a Captaincy role in South Korea in three years' time, one wonders who will captain that American Team. Fred doesn't do overseas unless he's on a mission or a big fat appearance fee, so maybe the door will swing open for one of the forty-somethings who'll miss out on the Ryder Cup job. Duval perhaps? Or Justin Leonard??

7).Next year's Presidents Cup will be held at Muirfield Village, the course that Jack built, outside his boyhood home of Columbus, Ohio. And that's where the Tour is this week, for "The Memorial Tournament". Fabulous tournament, outstanding course, possibly the most enjoyable to walk at any event I've attended. Wonderful par-5's, superb conditioning and invariably a top class winner. We've made a fuss about "International" golfers being awol from Victory Lane this year, but that may change this week and I've got a sneaking hunch that golfers born in South Africa might challenge. So that includes Justin Rose of course, Branden Grace, Els, Oosthuizen, Sabbatini and Schwartzel. And how long before Immelman turns middle-of-the-road finishes into contention?

8).Eyes will be on Woods, of course, this week, Rory McIlroy and his playing partner Luke Donald. In normal circumstances I'd suggest McIlroy and Woods as the two to beat, but their recent form has hardly been inspiring. If the current American winning streak is to be stretched, I'd fancy Fowler or Furyk. Or Carl Pettersson.

9).What do you make of Roger Chapman's stunning (hate that word but it seems to fit) upset at last week's Senior PGA? Just out of curiosity, I checked out the alumni from his 1981 Waker Cup Matches at Cypress Point.
*GB&I included Peter McEvoy, Philip Walton, Ronan Rafferty and Paul Way (what a shame both of those two Ryder Cup heroes never really developed their pro careers).
*And the US featured Jodie Mudd (ditto), Pavin, Jay Sigel and Halimony Sutton. And two who have dropped off the radar. And with names like these it's easy to see why: Frank Fuhrer and Dick von Tacky. I'm serious, you think I'd make them up?

10).And let's leave the last word to Gary Van Sickle of Sports Illustrated, on the much-talked about subject of slow play and ideas to get serious about penalising it:
"The Ryder Cup would be the best place to get serious about slow play. It seems as if slow-playing the Americans has long been a European tactic, although several Americans are also guilty of turtle-like paces."

So that's why Europe has such a terrific recent record in the Ryder Cup - we've been slow-playing the Americans all these years!
Good Lord, if you played slower than Chip Beck, for instance, you'd be walking backwards.

Kwini

I was responding to this;

“When Larry Mize, Robert Gamez, Bob Tway, David Frost did that to Greg Norman, everyone called Shark a choker.

When Tiger does it, it's something no-one else is capable of it.

I never understand the difference!”


Especially where you say that you do not understand the difference. I thought you were implying players crumble (choke) to give tiger the win, as opposed to him playing better or breaking others mentally. Quite a difference to continually do that and someone like Mize fluking it once against Norman.

No one else seems to have been capable of winning as often as tiger since jack, that may be the simple difference you are looking for. Quite literally no one else can do it.


Super

I enjoy the art of recovery and I think the US open has a habit of negating that with the set ups used.

Tiger was pretty high up both the GIR and driving stats by the way.

Not that I think he will win the US open, it is a little to early for that.

Tiger a favorite at Olympic, but given his accuracy off the tee certainly not the favorite. I would not bet on him. His challenge will absolutely be to keep it in the short stuff.

Navy - yes, Tiger generally does not come from behind. But, I was referring to the fact that he didn't walk away with a top ten, but a victory against one of the best fields on tour this year.

So, Tiger will need to keep it straight, Lee and Luke will need to climb that big hill called a major "win". Can the Americans make it 3 majors in a row, to add to a dominating year on the US tour?

Why not?

I hope not SR. Certainly not if it is a win from any of the god squad, or Woods. Anybody else, but not them please.

Super

Why do you watch or care about pro golf given your dislike for everything about it and everyone in it?

Meanwhile, the 36-hole US Open qualifiers are underway across the country. Among those competing are:
Tim Herron
Michael Thompson (still waiting for him to break through)
Allenby
Appleby
Barnes
Cauley
Curtis
Brian Davis
Love
RMoore (not sure about his anagram though)
Villegas
Weir
Ames
Duval
Janzen (winner last time at Olympic but apparently not worthy of an invite back)
Danny Lee (still waiting for him to breakthrough too)
Justin Leonard
Mayfair


and Champions Tour players:
Michael Allen (currently leading the Champions Tour moneylist)
Fred Funk
Tom Pernice
Tom Kite

Mac, there's as much to like as there is to dislike. How is the diet going anyway fatty?

Not well, had a massive roast beef dinner yesterday.

Could you not burn off a few calories pumping that 'bird' of yours?

I think you mean "Burd" and not "bird", given that you are a fife man you should know that.

McLaren wrote:Super

Why do you watch or care about pro golf given your dislike for everything about it and everyone in it?

Agree, too much hatred going on, very sad. Enjoy the golf being served up.

Enjoy the golf scores being served up (in nine hole increments apparently) from US Open Qualies:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/us-open-sectional-qualifying-sites-2012/

kwinigolfer wrote:Meanwhile, the 36-hole US Open qualifiers are underway across the country. Among those competing are:
Tim Herron
Michael Thompson (still waiting for him to break through)
Allenby
Appleby
Barnes
Cauley
Curtis
Brian Davis
Love
RMoore (not sure about his anagram though)
Villegas
Weir
Ames
Duval
Janzen (winner last time at Olympic but apparently not worthy of an invite back)
Danny Lee (still waiting for him to breakthrough too)
Justin Leonard
Mayfair

Cauley, Appleby, Villegas among those who are virtually out of it already, as they are 6 shots or more off the lead after 9 holes (Ohio)...

Bobby Gates, Vaughn Taylor and Martin Flores the early leaders....

[quote="neutral07"]

McLaren wrote:
Agree, too much hatred going on, very sad. Enjoy the golf being served up.

Why?, sport is as much about wanting someone to lose as it is to win. It would be a boring sport if you wanted everyone to do well

There are plenty of pantomime villains in the world of golf who it is nice to see lose.

Back to the qualifiers...

Good day for team Ireland, McDowell's mate Chris Devlin sitting solo 3rd at his venue with 12 holes to go, and club pro Sean Quinlivan is in the mix at his with 8 left. Fergal Rafferty let a good position slip in his first round though.

Devlin still OK with 9 holes remaining.
I'm thinking Brian Davis must have skipped this - he was signed up for the Springfield site but no trace of him there.
All the Tour pros at the Tennessee location will have spent the day twiddling their thumbs only to discover play for the day is cancelled and they're off and (perhaps?) running at 6.45 a.m. Tuesday - that lot includes Russell Knox.

Looking very good for Devlin now, and even better for Sam Osborne who looks more or less certain to be teeing it up at Olympic Club. And Belgian college player Thomas Pieters has a decent chance of being the second Belgian in to the field.

Ned,
Thomas Pieters won the collegiate NCAA Championship last week - quite the seven days for the young lad!

Chris Devlin in with bells on, as did Cejka (big deal for him), S-Y Noh,

Bad news for Chopra, Dylan Fritelli, Rafferty, Gary Christian among others. And no good for Spencer Levin OR his caddie Jon Turcot who both missed out.

Edit: This is a load of rubbish, completely misread the qualifier results. Unfortunately.

Unfortunately Devlin didn't make it, 1st alternate only for the 2nd year running. Noh didn't make it either...
Also, a correction to what I said a few days ago on the owgr thread about Fujita... It turns out that he has qualified for Olympic (and will be there for his birthday) via the Japanese sectional qualifier (as did Brendan Jones and Toru Taniguchi)...

Devlin and Pieters both 1st alternates at their respective sites... anyone know how the order works?

Oh no! Completely misread the qualifying results last night - a bit ambiguous the way they were presented then.

Hopefully they'll include the alternate sequence when the USGA announce the provisional field later this week, after the "Germantown" qualifier.

Kwini

This may be wrong, and there is still one event to finish, but I think this is a list of those who have qualified so far;


Cameron Wilson (a)
Jim Herman
Brian Gaffney
Mark McCormick
Brice Garnett
John Peterson
James Hahn
Beau Hossler (a)
Alex Cejka
Scott Smith
Michael Allen
Matthew Bettencourt
Alberto Sanchez (a)
Charlie Wi
Blake Adams
Kevin Streelman
Brian Harman
D. A. Points
David Mathis
Steve Marino
Davis Love III
Steve Lebrun
Rod Pampling
Martin Flores
Jesse Mueller
Edward Loar
Dennis Miller
Morgan Hoffmann
Scott Piercy
Casey Martin
Daniel Miernicki (a)
Nick Sherwood (a)
Shane Bertsch
Michael Thompson
Paul Claxton
Cole Howard
Darron Stiles
Nicholas Thompson
Jeff Curl
Bob Estes
Alistair Presnell
Brian Rowell
Scott Langley
Samuel Osborne
Brooks Koepka (a)
Jason Bohn
Casey Wittenberg
Tim Weinhart
Anthony Summers
Tim Herron

Play due to resume some time soon I think at Germantown Country Club where some notables will try to get in;


chad campbell
stephen ames
Ryan palmer
jeff maggart
lee Janzen
arjun atwal
woody austin
justin leonard
danny lee
David duval
joe durant
Brian gay
Scott stallings
Russel Knox
nathan green
billy mayfair
shaun micheel
joe ogilvie
heath slocum

The field here might be better than some european tour events.

I know we are not Carter fans but this week he has made a better effort than normal. He is not breaching the level of insightfulness that kwini does but for once his points seem pretty valid.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/iaincarter/2012/06/memorial_got_champion_it_deser.html

I did not realise Levin was puffing his way around the course!!

Yes, well! Disagree with his censuring of Phil, especially with some of the back-stories that were in play during the week. There's not a player out there who hasn't withdrawn at some time or another, so where's the context?

And don't know why he has his knickers in a twist about smoking on the course.

As for slow play, I feel the press do a p1ss poor job of highlighting the slowcoaches, and the danger with the Fisher ruling, which sounds a pretty blatant trangression tho' I haven't read Fish's defence, is that there's the risk that he'll get stigmatised as a slow player. Not sure he's the worst, or anywhere close, but the press could be more objective on the entire subject.

Nothing in his piece about Morrison slagging off the Celtic Manor event which I thought was pretty bad.

Oh well, Carter's like a lawyer following an ambulance, always behind the story.

Kwini

Oh well, I guess he has made a mess of it again.

So what were the back stories to phils withdrawal? I think you sometimes forget that I (maybe a few others on here) am essentially as clueless as carter.


Although I do think smoking on the course should be banned both at pro level and club level.

Can't beat the BBC for the politically correct line on smoking...............

It looks like Spencer Levin needs to give up smoking though!!

I have no problem with a player withdrawing, and especially Phil who hardly has a history of ducking when things are getting tough. Worth remembering these guys are Independent Contractors, and Phil certainly didn't break any contract.

But Carter's point is well taken -- the anti-Tiger crowd would have been howling with protest if TW did the same.

I also don't have a problem with smoking on a course, but frequently with some smokers on a course, who somehow think the entire course is their ashtray. Supers complain about how some of the more precise cutting blades are screwed up by the filters from filtered cigarettes.

Mac,
Mickelson's threesome were constantly being badgered by cameras, Buba Watson was quite outspoken with how bad it was in his interview.
Phil had added the Byron Nelson which he hasn't played in a while to his schedule (I somewhat assume at the Tour's request, tho' not 100% on that), and then bolted off to Europe for a week's family holiday.
I think the better option might have been to w/d before the Memorial started, but Phil certainly isn't the first to call it a day prematurely.

Trouble with smoking is it's perfectly legal, and guys like DC, M-A J and Parnevik have been celebrated for lighting up jumbo cigars - if the Tour bans smoking, that's one thing. That would also have to cover caddies as well!

Sr,
Of course, Tiger has a recent history of withdrawing and I hardly remember any crowd making a huge fuss about it, always giving him the benefit of the doubt about alleged injuries. And rightly so.
Completely agree about using the course as an ashtray - why are bunkers used so much in that way??!!

I wonder if that putt would've dropped in Ohio if Dennis Miller would've been a bit lighter on his feet as he started to walk towards the hole...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFelbF0rb9g

Carter's nonsensical comments on smoking on a golf course re. it supposedly being a 'workplace' are pretty dumb.

Report by Doug Ferguson that the camera phones at Memorial were so disruptive to Mickelson's group that Phil texted Timmy Finchem on the 6th hole "suggesting that a lack of policing fans with cell-phones was getting out of hand"! "One official said it got the Tour's attention." No doubt!

Phil has a bit of history making 'political' points. Remember the ping wedges?

and I wonder how Mac and Super will react to the sight of a golf cart at the US Open?

A couple of observations:

* Phil texted PGA Tour HQ whilst on the 6th hole... to complain that other people were around with their cell-phones on...?!?
* We know that Bubba is bothered by spectators with mobile phones - given what he said in Paris last year, I presume the Stateside problem is becoming worse.
* Will be interesting to see what happens at The Open this year, with mobiles allowed for the first time [I should be there on the Friday to see for myself, recalling with a chuckle that one of my party last year attempted but failed to sneak in an iPhone - flagrant disregard and disrespect of rules from a lawyer, of all people!].
* Iain Carter does indeed receive a lot of stick from this community, but I think he usually makes an honest attempt to discuss issues around the game and I enjoy reading his articles (not so much the comments thereon though). Was however pleasantly surprised that this week's offering wasn't solely around Tiger's victory, but I think he's been burned before and quite recently for jumping on the "Tiger's back!" bandwagon.

Lairdy
Just what Finchem wants is a text message from Phil during the course of tournament play . . . . . !!!!

Final qualifiers to join Carty Casey include Ogilvie, Lunde, Ames, Durant, with Chad Campbell (where's his career gone?), Rollins, Lee Janzen (sadly), Russell Knox, Ryan Palmer, JJ Henry, Justin Leonard and Duval all getting next week off.


Good points Sky, Actually feel as if Carter has improved as his commenters have deteriorated! But he should be a Republican politician, always seeming to veer between the populist and the politically correct while never digging deeper than the sycophantic superficial!

I remember reading somewhere about Stephen Ames and how he teamed up with Sean Foley. Apparently, Sean had never seen someone hit the ball so pure but they had to change his swing as it was doing his body too much damage. Don't know if Sean and Stephen have quite managed to turn it around yet.

Interesting to see some great ball strikers in your list their kwini. Rollins, Knox (from the little I've seen), Campbell, Palmer and Duval (well, in previous years). Always wonder how similar these qualifiers are set up to the big event?

Haven't read it yet, but there's a piece in latest Golf World (and therefore probably also Golf Digest in US) along the lines of "what happened to David Duval?" [according to David Duval] as part of their build-up to The Open returning to Lytham. As well as the obligatory mention of Seve's "car park" shot in a separate article.

Duval is a really weird case, I look forward to reading that.