PGA Tour: "The Greenbrier Classic": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Dear Luke, Rory, Lee,
Are you going to let the Golfer of the first half of 2012 become the Golfer Of The Year?
Or are you going to re-focus on The Open and PGA Championships, win one/two, and reassert yourselves as the World's Best Golfers?
Because Tiger flicked the "intimidator" switch in his gearbox on Sunday and caused Bo Van Pelt to bogey his last three Congressional holes. Don't know how he does it, but that's three tournament wins this year and it must be odds on he'll win at least one more.
Clearly Number One at the moment.

2).What to make of Van Pelt, he of the huge bank balance but (almost) empty trophy cabinet?
More than $8M pocketed since his only win, three years ago in Milwaukee, and twenty top tens achieved, but he seldom looks like winning and, well as he played paired with Woods, it seemed inevitable that when Tiger flinched first on the par-5 16th, Bo would flinch twice before Tiger had to play again. I suspect that everyone knew Bo was toast by the time they reached the 17th tee.
(Fair do's to Van Pelt, he beat everyone else, including Mahan who folded his tent with two weekend 73's to fall out of contention, still not quite a consistent enough contender to take his place as the best Post-Tiger US golfer.)

3).The US Ryder Cup qualifying positions are starting to sort themselves out:
Top 8 (automatic qualifiers): Watson, Dufner, Woods, Simpson, Mickelson, Kuchar, Mahan, Zach Johnson.
9-12: Bradley, Fowler, Van Pelt, Dustin Johnson.

Other recent US "Team" members still in the running:
13: Furyk
14: Stricker
15: Haas
25: Toms
32: Watney

4).Adam Scott had to scoot to make his Round 1 tee-time; got to his first hole (the Par-3 over-water 10th) without hitting a practice shot, scrambled par, performed remaining ablutions in a nearby port-a-loo, was three over par after three holes, five over after twelve. Then he played better than anyone all week to finish third.

Easy to say "Poor Adam", but slow starts, even if not that slow, are characteristic of his season.
In eight stroke play events his worst round of the week has been his first FIVE times, including by six strokes at the US Open (finished 15th) and by two shots at The Masters (finished 8th). Needless to say, he lost his first round at the WGC Match Play.
Fine player though Adam is, and seemingly all-round nice guy, this just won't hack it, a very promising career perhaps falling victim to a too-casual approach?

5).Open Championship mini-money list update:
Marc Leishman is all but certain to qualify first or second, his closest pursuer Michael Thompson taking the final qualifying week off.
But he still hasn't resolved his green card situation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and without a necessary "parole" he won't be able to re-enter the USA, so almost certainly wouldn't travel.

6).Should "Golf" be concerned about the forced resignation of Bob Diamond from Barclays?
I would certainly think so, Diamond very much the face of Barclays sponsorship largesse, not just making the token cameo appearance on TV, but actually joining the commentary team at Loch Lomond for a while.
Imagine Tim Finchem and others are trying to read the tea-leaves, but would suggest that everything that Diamond was associated with will be up for scrutiny.

7).It's not too early to look at well-known players who are currently outside the Top 125 necessary for FedEx Play Off eligibility. There's quite the roster:
Woodland
Tim Clark
Villegas
Karlsson
Yang
Goosen
Leonard
Appleby
Cabrera
Glover
Anthony Kim
Casey
etc.

8).Tiger helped put last Friday's violent storm at Congressional somewhat into the background, but the Greenbrier also suffered from the same line of meteorological mayhem, almost 100 trees have been lost, and only an extraordinary effort has ensured the third playing of "The Greenbrier Classic" will start on time.
No idea why this tournament has attracted such quality to West Virginia; lovely location, luxurious accomodations, masses of entertainment, but that's pretty much par for any course.
The leading owgr-ranked player on duty of course is Tiger Woods. I wonder if he sees the Old White course as being an ideal dress-rehearsal for Royal Lytham? Precision off the tee will be crucial at both venues so don't be surprised to see Tiger's driver join the unemployment line until July is over.

9).Europe's best are mostly elsewhere, though Brian Davis plays and Greg Owen too (could be another good week for greens-in-regulation Greg), while Carl Pettersson is among the almost-locals. No-one in golf not called Snead comes from this neck of the woods, but Johnson Wagner and de Jonge attended college locally and Glover, Haas, Byrd and Simpson not too far away.
Investing this week is a dangerous business; Wagner might re-ignite his year, Haas has good past finishes, and Overton was only beaten by Appleby's 59 in 2010. (Appleby's played like he's 59 ever since that miracle.)
My pin will result in half a crown each way on Pettersson and Overton, but will more likely see ten bob (OK, 50p) go down the drain.

10)."The Greenbrier" Organization Chart:
Position: Golf Professional Emeritus
Office-holder: Tom Watson.

So, Watson's playing, grouped with Keegan Bradley (who must be running on fumes) and Furyk.
But that persuaded me to have a butcher's at Watson's record book.
Some remarkable facts, just gleaned from the always authoritative Wikipedia page:
*In four of his 8 Major wins, J.Nicklaus was runner-up.
*Watson is the only man to shoot 67 or better in each Major in four different decades. And the only man to shoot 67 in at least one of the four Majors in five different decades.
*And he's the only man to shoot 65 in at least one of the four Majors in four different decades.

Would think he'd be thrilled to make the cut this week but, with a career like his, don't be surprised at anything he does.

kwinigolfer wrote:But next year will be interesting if the normal 3-tournament routine between "Opens" is restored - whither AT&T?

Next year there will again be 4 weeks between the U.S. and British Opens.

Thanks robo,

Martin Flores?
He's from TX, what do you make of him?? He never really played that well on the Nationwide, OK on Tour in 2010, but nothing like the form he's shown this year.
I'm always intrigued by players who seem to keep on improving - he's 30 now so you'd think his time needs to come soon.

Billy Mayfair joining Vijay and Maggert as the golden oldies at the head of the peloton . . . .

Martin Flores - I can't tell you all that much about him. I've met him, but never spent enough time around him to say I know him. But I've run across him going all the way back to his AJGA days. He won a Texas state high-school championship, before being recruited to Oklahoma but I never saw much of his college career. He surfaced again on my radar when I was covering a couple of Texas State Open's... but unfortunately, I missed the one where he finished 2nd.

I never saw much of him on Tour though... until Las Vegas in 2010. That event was one of his few PGAT bright spots that year before going back down to the NW Tour. I'm not even sure I saw him again until Torrey Pines this year. I was shooting that week and was assigned to his next to last Saturday group (but more to follow Mahan). That was really my first chance to see him for an entire round as a pro. Unfortunately, Martin had a tough one that day... shooting 75, but he still managed a top-10 with a decent final round.

Bottom line... Until early this year I didn't even know he was a Randy Smith pupil. Up to that time I always thought his potential to be more of "just another good player" to me. Nothing I had seen indicated he would be anything more than a lower rung type guy on the PGA Tour... and quite frankly... even him making the Tour was somewhat of a mild surprise to me.

But I can tell you... Justin Leonard (another RS pupil) is really high of Flores, and I've seen a lot more interaction between Martin, Mahan, Ryan Palmer and the rest of the Dallas posse... that's gotta be a good thing. And he sure seems like nice enough a guy and as a Texan, of course I keep my eye on him and wish him well.

Now Kenny Perry and last year's play-off loser (with Haas) Bob Estes striking out for the old guys.

Cut has moved to -1 and should stay there unless the greens really firm up this afternoon.
Russell Knox -3 for Round 1 so far, Phil struggling.

robo,
Great insight oin Flores, Thanks! He's up there with Horschel and Tringale among my young ones worth watching. (Saw a little of Tringale at Hartford, very impressive.)

Scores much lower at Greenbrier and it appears Brian Davis (and Phil Mickelson for the second year on the trot) will miss the cut.
Charlie Beljan going ridiculously low, but I don't know anything much about him except for what's on pgatour.com. Hopefully he'll wake up because he's trashing my yahoo fantasy team as things stand.

59 watch, Charlie Beljan needs 2 birdies in his last 2 holes.

Really glad I made a point of stressing how much more difficult the course would be playing, in response to Skydriver's balloon yesterday!

If the current scores hold up, John Daly will have a long-lasting memory of this event - him making the cut and Tiger missing.

Daly has played well, clearly learned a thing or two during his European Tour sojourn.

Tiger and Phil apparently didn't get the message that their benefactor was hoping for four days' work each out of them rather than the two-day cameo each provided. Oh well, it's only money.

Disappointing day for Brian Davis, Gary Christian and Greg Owen, all going home early, but pleased that Russell Knox is hanging around for the weekend. Only his fourth pay-day of the season, first since New Orleans.
So far, his stat's would suggest he's all ball-striking, tour-average around the greens, but scoring is an art and a decent stretch of playing every week might help. Knox is in the field for next week's John Deere event, and hopefully will be playing in Reno and Canada.

Dismal effort by GB&I ladies in the US Women's Open in Wisconsin, only Mel Reid (79-69) making the cut, Matthew, Meadow, Morgan and Stupples on their respective bikes outathere.

As always it is not easy to work out where the latest version of tiger is with his game but I am pretty sure something is up with Mickelson. No performances of note since the masters (unless you count a t7 at the HP).

VJ who?

But O'Hair still in the hunt ... Simpson to back up his US Open victory?

Are troy and Jerry related?

JD is -7 (-2 after 9 today) with 11 birdies and only 4 bogeys, no double- or triple-bogeys. So unlike JD.

Middle-aged (40+) have slowly faded with the exception of Ken Duke.

JD -4 for the day, and in 7th place. When was the last time for him to be in the top ten of a PGA event?

Why couldn't that have happened to simpson at olympic? Hardly makes you like the guy any more does it?

It really is a disappointing time for major winners, i liked it in the olden days when there was a certain class about a major winners game that other players just could not match.

oh, and I hope super hasn't seen Ted Potter.

Haven't see official confirmation yet, but I imagine Harry Potter joins Leishman as qualifiers for The Open.
Not sure what will happen if Leishman fails to be granted "parole" by the INS - will they offer his place to an alternate (from the owgr I believe) or to the next highest in their mini-money list, (Michael Thompson)?

No significant movement in US Ryder Cup standings, big chances squandered by Bradley, Haas and Stricker, but Kevin Na creeping (pun intended) towards the qualifying places.

Did Tiger and Phil mail it in? Perhaps Phil's last minute request for a Scottish Open invitation suggests otherwise.

... and after all the talk of sponsors 'invites' and the top elite looking out for themselves I fair enjoyed watching the two boys around 400th odd and 200th odd in the world fight it our for card security. Good on 'em.

What is this new "mail it in" term the board seems to be using? For those of us who dont read the golf press some people posts on here require a glossary.

Think its like mailing something instead of delivering it in person. Kind of a token gesture.

kwinigolfer wrote:Haven't see official confirmation yet, but I imagine Harry Potter joins Leishman as qualifiers for The Open.

That is correct... Potter and Leishman are in the Open. Also the leading player not otherwise exempt, among the top five finishers and ties at both The Greenbrier Classic and John Deere Classic receive exemptions into British Open... so Greenbrier Classic runner-up Troy Kelly earns a spot into the Open Championship as well.