PGA Tour: Open Championship / True South Classic: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Well done Zach Johnson, winning the John Deere Classic after you tried hard to throw it away on the first play-off hole. Second win of the season for Zach who is on the Board of the tournament and has done so much to ensure its place on the PGA Tour schedule - reminiscent of Carl Pettersson's win at Greensboro a few years ago in that respect.

2).This win doesn't arithmetically ensure Zach Johnson of a place on Davis Love's Ryder Cup Team, but he and DLIII are near neighbours on the Georgia coast, have worked together to help create "The McGladrey Classic", and it would be a huge surprise if his John Deere success doesn't clinch a spot at Medinah.

3).Troy Matteson came way too close to winning last week's John Deere Classic, leading as he did every day, to throw it all away on his first play-off hole. He would have been the first player to win a Tour event in which he finished last in driving accuracy for 24 years! But he putted for his dough, leading the field in "strokes gained - putting". Sometime College Teammate of Kuchar and Molder, among others.

4).Open Championship week, then, and let's hope Royal Lytham gets the Champion it deserves. Rather like Carnoustie did in 1999, or so Davis Love thought:
"When you have a screwy setup, you're going to get a screwy finish," Love was quoted as saying. "And if Paul Lawrie is the champion that Scotland wanted, I think they got exactly what they wanted."
The R&A get exactly what they want on Thursday, 8.31 a.m. BST, when Lawrie and Love tee it up together with Tim Clark!

5).Let's see who's done well in the past at Lytham:
1996 result:
1st: Lehman
2nd: Els
11th: Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh
14th: Duval
18th: Harrington
22nd: Woods, Stricker
27th: Broadhurst (also 58th and Leading Amateur in 1988 - hope he plays well this week, will never get the credit he deserves for his 1991 Ryder Cup play.)
41st: Calc, Mickelson
Also made the cut: Hamilton, Furyk, Allenby, Ames, Lyle, Daly, Goosen

6).2001 result:
1st: Duval
3rd: Els, Clarke, Jimenez
9th: Garcia
13th: Vijay, Goosen, Jacquelin
21st: DLIII
23rd: Michael Campbell, Greg Owen
25th: Woods
29th: Barry Lane
30th: Cink, Mickelson, Rose
37th: Harrington
42nd: Stricker, Paul Lawrie
Also made the cut: Allenby, Scott, Westwood, Calc, Lyle.

7).The last two Major winners won Majors their namesakes had won, Watson and Simpson. Sadly Jarrod Lyle won't be maintaining the tradition as he battles leukemia in Australia. But Aussie Luke Elvy tweets a promising update on Jarrod's condition:
"Has had his ups and downs over the past 6 weeks but Bone Marrow tests overnight showed no leukemia cells. Great news."
Get well, Jarrod, hope to see you on Tour soon.

8).No idea who'll win this week, fingers crossed though for Westwood and Harrington. Obviously Els, Clarke and Vijay have played well here in the past, but, Woods apart, it's difficult to see where any American challenge might come from. (Interesting take in USA Today on David Toms' non-participation: "He's pulled out of the British on several occasions due to injury and general disinterest."!)
Apart from the golden oldies, Woods, Stricker, Furyk and Phil, the leading Americans in the owgr have little to show for their trips to The Open, Dustin Johnson, Fowler, Mahan and Watney scoring the only 5 top 15's.

9).Hate disclaimers but this week's "opposite field event", the True South Classic in Mississippi, has been abandoned by PGA Tour players in their droves, very few of the owgr top 200 bothering to show up for a $540K first prize. Players are withdrawing by the dozen and it seems futile to speculate too much about the event. If they don't care, why should we?

Except to say that it's a BIG tournament for Gary Christian and Russell Knox, not to mention the ailing Richard S.Johnson and a golfer with an excellent record in Lytham Opens, Alex Cejka - a cut for Cejka this week will earn him PGA Tour "Veteran" status as he reaches 150 career cuts. Good luck Alex, but a poor reward for a first-time sponsor and a Jack Nicklaus course that the players rate more highly than Torrey Pines, Doral, Bay Hill and the Greenbrier.

10).Finally, Majors may be two-a-penny on the Champions Tour, two-in-Michigan even, but Sundridge Park's Roger Chapman won't be complaining as he added the US Senior Open title to the Senior PGA he won a few weeks ago. Two fingers, then, to the USGA who only saw fit to invite five Europeans (Hogberg went through qualifying) to their Senior Open which is even more of a closed shop than the Champions Tour. Pathetic.

Roger Chapman won't mind though as he will be at Kiawah Island for next month's PGA Championship, and joins Lee Westwood in being the first two Englishmen to punch their tickets to next year's US Open at Merion.

Snedeker putting a beat down on this course today. Great to see.

Rory going just the other way. He looked promising early.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac,
Snedeker playing flawless golf, hit all 13 greens in reg his last TWENTY FOUR in total), and made six birds.

But amazing.. Sneds has missed at least 3 fairways horribly... 20+ yards.... BUT... they've been so far offline... he's had perfect lies in gallery trampled areas. Not taking ANYTHING away from Brandt, but you gotta have some luck too... just those three drives ending up perfect could have saved him 3-4 strokes or more.

I don't think Snedeker will run away with this even though he's 4 shots clear atm.

Remember earlier this year when sneds benifited from a Stanley collapse, I wonder how many are hoping he will return the favour?

Escape!
Sneds gets out of jail free again!

If Brandt Snedeker wins the Open I will officially stop giving a toss about the majors being anything special at the moment.

Its all about the WGC's Diggs

Diggers - Loooong way to go. Those around the cut are giving themselves litter room for error.

Majors are majors whoever wins ... Snedeker has game, but one of many.

well SR- bubba simpson and senedker!! stock yanks...




just kidding But

the stocks good

Plus threes inside the top 70 now, can't see it slipping to plus four unless the weather turns really grisly.

Yeah its gonna have to get very bad for that to happen. I dont like this 70 and ties rule. Kwini your a man full of knowledge- has the open allways been top 70 and ties- i thought it used to be 10 shots or half the field and ties!

mysti,
Can't remember exactly, but I DO remember they used to have a third round cut also - something like the top 60.

Nothing bad here to say about Snedeker, very fun to follow, his caddie's a total nutter, can be "deliberate" in planning his shot but gets up and whacks it when he's ready; not anywhere near as slow as Bradley.

Still no bogeys for Snedeker after round 2. If he keeps that up and wins he would be a worthy winner. Even if he had a bit of luck here and there.

Most people need a touch here and there to win majors.

kwinigolfer wrote:Geographical gem from ESPN.
Paul Lawrie, "the 43 year old Scot from Scotland".

Their commentators are absolutely awful, Andy North and Azinger excepted.

Calcavecchia on fire, just like St.Andrews.

That's a bit of a clanger.

Diggers wrote:If Brandt Snedeker wins the Open I will officially stop giving a toss about the majors being anything special at the moment.

Seems a pretty short-sighted remark. If he plays the best golf he'll have earned it. I hate that super slow-mo camera they have which is being massively over-used at the moment but they showed some of Snedeker hitting several shots and one thing about him, his head is absolutely stock still through impact - he's swinging it very well and I wouldn't be surprised if he's there at the end. Gave a decent interview as well.

You would have been accused of predicting some strange days had you said James “Jim” Morrison would be the leading Englishman after two rounds.

3rd rd cut hey..seems abit random that one

I believe that from 1968 thru 1985 there was a 36 hole cut (perhaps top 80) and a 54 hole cut (I think top 60).

Sure oldpar, George or Doon know the exact facts of the matter.

Definitely a 3rd round cut though, however random it might seem.

Westwood's started consistently. Par on every hole up to the 7th so far. Needs to start converting some of these long putts and getting some birdies! Come on Lee!!!

I thought I remembered a 3rd round cut but can't recall when they stopped doing it. Wonder why they dropped it? Pros probably thought it was too tough...

I don't really care if he deserves it or not, it just doesn't interest me. I didn't say it shouldn't interest other people but I find the while serial one off winner thing tedious.

Diggers I'm with you. Not that I think players don't deserve their major wins, and I understand that potential 'great' every player has to win thier first major at some point, but I just find that when these 'lesser' know players take the big wins, there's such a sense of overwhelming disappointment. I love it when there are big names fighting for the top position.

Don't get me wrong, hats off to the lower ranked players that come away with major wins. I just prefer it the other way around- maybe that's the sort of sport viewing I like.

Diggers wrote:I don't really care if he deserves it or not, it just doesn't interest me. I didn't say it shouldn't interest other people but I find the while serial one off winner thing tedious.

In so many of your comments, you come across as someone who is not really interested in golf at all. Which is no big deal, we all have different likes and dislikes. I just wonder what you get out of making these comments.

I think Lytham looks wonderful. It's utterly different to Augusta so why would anyone compare the two? The US Open is being played at Pinehurst in 2014 and the course is being remodelled. Have a look at the before and after photos sometime. I'll bet you think they're the wrong way around.

whether you think he should be g-prat or not there is something about mcdoo in majors that means it is no surprise when he gets into a contending position. Whereas with donald it all seems a but forced.

It always seems like there is so much pressure on the higher ranked players, especially the English ones.

I admire Adam Scott's approach to this tournament. Apparently he's treating every day as if it's the final Sunday. I think a lot of players would crumble if they forced that sort of pressure and mentality on themselves, but it seems to be working for Scott.

Tinmar, we all get different things from the game..or do we all have to think the same way ?

Sometimes wonder if my comments are even visible on the golf forum

bluestonevedder wrote:Sometimes wonder if my comments are even visible on the golf forum :roll:

ehh?

If this is a serious question I can assure you that I can see your comments.

No it wasn't a serious question.

bluestonevedder wrote:Sometimes wonder if my comments are even visible on the golf forum

Of course they're visible. If you say something sensible though, it often draws little reaction!

yep the pressure is on the english bluesdude- we have so much depth at the top and no majors- its getting to them collectively- At the moment i would wager that the next english major winner comes from a journyman like dyson,rock, davies or morrison

mysti

Do you really have that much depth?

When you consider how many US players are in the top 200 the english are a little light. The US have about 40 in the top 100.

Simon Dyson- now there's a player I rate very highly. He very understated, but so consistent. Would quite fancy him to do well this weekend, and he's performing at the moment.

Rock I thought would take off after his victory over Woods, but he hasn't. Not sure if he's destined for bigger things, or just a 'decent tournament player'.

Diggers wrote:Tinmar, we all get different things from the game..or do we all have to think the same way ?

Of course we don't all have to think the same way. It's just that you seem to actively dislike the game you spend so much time commenting on. Maybe that's not the case at all but it's certainly the way it appears.

Mac england has had the second most depth in world golf for the last 10 years. The US are on another planet. but we have had so many in the top 30 even top 10 over the last few plus years

Tinmar Ive posted on these boards and other for years, I could show you thousands of positive quotes. But you see what you want to see and make your own opinions. You dont have to read the posts do you unless you get your Holly's from having a go at other posters who don't think like you.

Lemons into lemonade from the "Most Interesting Man In The World" as The Mechanic goes from +4 early in his round to -1 and a soixante neuf (which is probably just up his street). 28th right now: Great play Miguel

Should be a made cut for Daly.

13 consecutive pars for Lee Westwood; just six more please.

has anyone noticed that snedeker talks faster than a chipmunk on fastforward?

I was listening to the golf on the radio on the way home just now and they told us what adam scott was given for his birthday from his family....................


He was given a golf bag..

My mind was racing.. That is the most random present ever- surely!

kwinigolfer wrote:Lemons into lemonade from the "Most Interesting Man In The World" as The Mechanic goes from +4 early in his round to -1 and a soixante neuf (which is probably just up his street). 28th right now: Great play Miguel

Should be a made cut for Daly.

13 consecutive pars for Lee Westwood; just six more please.

the 19th hole at my club is a bar!!

McLaren wrote:mysti

Do you really have that much depth?

When you consider how many US players are in the top 200 the english are a little light. The US have about 40 in the top 100.

Mac, there are six times as many Americans in the world as there are English, not to mention the system they have and weather is better for creating more professional golfers than England.

I would say the number of English in the top 50 is punching well above their weight.

Sorry Lee.

Why are you sorry Kwini?

has he dropped a shot? did you jinx him!

Is it me or is the attendance very low?

lw bogeyed 13, birdied 14. OK again now. Provided +3 makes the cut, which looks extremely dodgy right now.

Scott scoring as beautiful as his swing. Finally fulfill the major potential many have predicted? If they stumble a host of others waiting in the wings.

Sorry, Lee. Maybe next year.

arrrgg i know i sound humbug but i dont want this to be a two horse race!!

hope they get some bad weather tommorow

There definately was a third round cut, I think they stopped it around the mid 70's, but don't quote me.

Watching my first Open.
They played 36 holes Qualifing on the Monday and Tuesday.
18 holes on Wed and Thurs then qualifiers played 36 holes on the Friday.
I think it was still all to the same pin positions. [180 players per day for 108 holes]

Muirfield was the first venue to change the holes each day and the first venue to have Sunday final day. [The Wee Frees didnae like that!]

I think the 54 hole cut came in when they started playing for four days.

What about all the water in the bunkers? Surely they could have removed it in this day and age. This is a major championship after all, not the local municipal course.

Course looks a bit like a muni, wonder if the local scallies have pinched the rakes.

Just dont go in the bunkers lorus- its a hazard