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

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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.

mystiroakey wrote:Nah its not wishfull thinking at all- maybe for the pga. The guy isnt given enough credit- he never fails last two rounds, he is one of the only players i have ever known that has this trait- its as if every time he plays a course on the spin he just getrs better at it and more honed in how to play it. If i was his coach or confident i would tell him to play half the events and practise harder on the ones he does play before the start of the tourny.. Faldo said he was gonna call him on monday- Faldo if your reading............

Hope you are right Mysti..................still though, surely he played 2 practice rounds at Lytham to have it sussed.
Slow start is a trait with him though.........................

Has he Faldo's "steel" though?? Not sure many have.......................

no one has faldos steel today-but that is kind off my point really. the only players i can think of that had that steel in my time is nicklaus, watson, woods and i suppose poddy must be stuck in there. els had that old school mentality today tho thats for sure- he isnt even a good putter but i am sure we all knew he would hole that putt

els belongs to that class era.. Someone needs to step up today

AlciG wrote:Damn... I've never seen Stevie Williams choke this bad

Shame for Scott but couldn't have wished for anyone else to win it more than Ernie.

Nothing against Els, nice guy and all that, but it can't be doing much for the game when these oldies keep winning all the time.

JPX wrote:Nothing against Els, nice guy and all that, but it can't be doing much for the game when these oldies keep winning all the time.

Skydriver wrote:

Presumably this means Mr Els will be automatically eligible for quite a few majors to come? I suspect that missing the Masters this year has really motivated him.

Els was already in all Opens until at least 2029. This win gives him a 5 year exemption to the rest of the majors. So the next major he isn't yet eligible for is the 2017 PGA.

Useful exemptions also picked up for next year's Open by Olesen, Colsaerts, Noren, Jimenez, Vijay, Ogilvy, Aiken and Sneds.

I think what makes Ernie a great player in my view is the roll on effect he had in SA.

When he won his first major in 1994, he paved the way for a new breed of golfer and heralded a new era of golf in SA.

Since then he has now won 4
Goosen has won 2
Immelman, Oosthuizen and Schwartzel 1 each.

I think he not only inspired the youth of SA but instilled a belief in the new generation.

If it had been tiger who benefited from a scott collapse I wonder what the reaction would have been?

PS - Did even Greg norman ever choke that badly?

Clark 1/2


Congrats biltong

Thanks kwini.

McLaren wrote:If it had been tiger who benefited from a scott collapse I wonder what the reaction would have been?

PS - Did even Greg norman ever choke that badly?

Point is, it wasn't because Els shot 68 to Woods's 73

McLaren wrote:If it had been tiger who benefited from a scott collapse I wonder what the reaction would have been?

PS - Did even Greg norman ever choke that badly?

There would probably have been a tidal wave of man fluid in Edinburgh and you'd phone in ill tomorrow with a sore wrist and dehydration.

Win in Mississippi for Scott Stallings which follows his win at Greenbrier last year.
Jason Bohn second and gives him a decent chance ro rescue his card for another year.

Nice finishes for Gary Christian (13th) and Russell Knox (21st) but they both really need to continue this good form in Canada next week, Reno the week after, then Greensboro. Christian still in with a good chance of making the Barclays, Knox needs some top tens at the very least.

McLaren wrote:If it had been tiger who benefited from a scott collapse I wonder what the reaction would have been?

PS - Did even Greg norman ever choke that badly?

Don't be ridiculous. Scott made 4 consecutive bogeys in testing conditions on a beast of a course. The only hole that was unforgivable really was the 3-putt on 16(?) IMO. You might argue the tee shot up 18 was daft but he'd been striping most of his woods accurately all week. Norman was far worse.

Still, it shows what a wonderful caddy Williams must be - I wonder if he'll have anything to say which'll match the guff he came out with after Scott's win at last year's WGC-Bridgestone... .

OK, an early shout for Kiawah Island................DUSTIN JOHNSON to win Major No.1. I had each way money on him this week and he came 9th without ever featuring in the coverage................

McLaren wrote:
PS - Did even Greg norman ever choke that badly?

Norman choked so very often. As an example, the final day of 1996 Masters began with Norman at -13 and Faldo at -7. It ended with Faldo at -12 and Norman at -7. Many more examples like this.

Let's not be so hard on Scott. He did not have a prior history of collapsing like this on the final day. He handled himself quite well until the last 4 holes.

Mac, Scott took you down too. Neither of your prophecies (-9 for winner, and playoff) came true.

Haven't heard anything more about Woods.
No post-Open interviews, no medical bulletins, no explanation for why his "game plan" failed.
Imagine TWA has him most of the way to Miami by now.

Donald to win the PGA? Based on what? Missed cut at the US Open, never in contention on Sunday today, hardly dominating in 2012. I can think of at least 5 golfers I would pick before him. Any game plan he's ever had for a major has failed, so why now?

I think Faldo summed it up nicely last night "until he (tiger) has a proper go to shot with a driver he won't win another major"

Imo the fact Woods couldn't or wouldn't deviate from his preconceived game plan of irons from the tee on Saturday and Sunday left him to much of a hill to climb. Also someone of his caliber should be able to hit a driver that holds in the wind, hitting a fade when he has a 20mph left to to right wind and hoping it doesn't ride the wind into the fodder is something I expect to see in a club medal not something someone contending the Open should be playing.

I feel for Scott but I also don't understand his play at 18 from the tee. Iron leaves him short of the bunker with something like a 7iron to the heart of the green, Driver flys said bunker and leaves what he had for his 3rd shot! So to take the one club (3wood) that brought them into play was an odd choice for me, and one I think Williams should have spoken to his boss about as that's what he's there for making sure the yardages don't bring the scheisse into play!

Shotrock wrote:Donald to win the PGA? Based on what? Missed cut at the US Open, never in contention on Sunday today, hardly dominating in 2012. I can think of at least 5 golfers I would pick before him. Any game plan he's ever had for a major has failed, so why now?

why now- because he is my pick, i am picking one player. who you gonna pick?

you gonna pick a bubba or a simpson or an els!!!

I could list 5 players , but then id have more chance at fullfilling my pick. Donald is all about confidence though. I think this is gonna be the first time for a few months when he truely believes again with that decent finish. The guy wasnt even close in this major yet only 4 players beat him. I reakon many will feel like you(that he is out of the picture) and that will aid him and keep him under the radar. Not many players really have specific game plans for majors, well certainly not donald anyway- he just plays the game. Tiger had a clear game plan this week but that didnt help him..Majors are just another event when you break them down.

John has gone for dustbin.. Thats his pick. I am not gonna argue it. Donald is the no.1 in the world and yet you wanna argue that pick- strange times..

Fader wrote:I think Faldo summed it up nicely last night "until he (tiger) has a proper go to shot with a driver he won't win another major"

Maybe so. Maybe not (see below).

Fader wrote:Imo the fact Woods couldn't or wouldn't deviate from his preconceived game plan of irons from the tee on Saturday and Sunday left him to much of a hill to climb.

And I suppose you said the same about TW's win at Hoylake a few years back eh?

Fader wrote:Also someone of his caliber should be able to hit a driver that holds in the wind, hitting a fade when he has a 20mph left to to right wind and hoping it doesn't ride the wind into the fodder is something I expect to see in a club medal not something someone contending the Open should be playing.

Up to him what he plays. There's nothing wrong with a shot on the wind as opposed to holding against it as long as it's played correctly. Woods over-cooked it but it's hardly the choice of someone only capable of playing club medals.

Fader wrote:I feel for Scott but I also don't understand his play at 18 from the tee. Iron leaves him short of the bunker with something like a 7iron to the heart of the green, Driver flys said bunker and leaves what he had for his 3rd shot! So to take the one club (3wood) that brought them into play was an odd choice for me, and one I think Williams should have spoken to his boss about as that's what he's there for making sure the yardages don't bring the scheisse into play!

I don't get that either. Maybe Williams spoke to him and Scott over-rode him as he'd been hitting 3-wood well all week? Given the way Williams usually seems to behave I would have thought he'd have been forceful enough to point out the risks of a 3-wood cf. a long iron.

Navy, I think the difference this time is that Woods demonstrably struggles in bad weather and his game plan wasn't robust enough to cope with that. He's never done very well at the Open when the weather is anything less than excellent (Hoylake, St.Andrews x2)
6 years since he's won it here, and you simply can't win in tough conditions when the wind blows and the fairways have little run if you are taking iron on a par four over 450 yards.

I'm so glad he's so thick he doesn't realise that he could probably still be the worlds best golfer if he hit 3 wood most of the time instead of the driver. PLus you have to ask why he feels it so necessary to try and knock the cover off the ball.

Plus, he's going bald too, he must be gutted.

Nice to see Ernie win another major though not the greatest circumstances, had to feel a bit for Scott though. Seems like a nice guy but has a bit of a charisma bypass, might just be the slightly nasally voice.
A predicted top 10 for Poulter though like Donald never in the game really. Woods gettiong closer but still wont be happy.
My abiding memory will be that it was another Open that was a good advert for not just playing it on links courses.

I agree Diggers, looked a pretty rubbish course where it wasn't the course that influenced the outcome, but Scott's mental fragility.

I simply can't see any reason why you couldn't add a couple of quality heathland courses to the rota.

Feel really sorry for Scott, but hope this doesn't become a burden. I think he'l come good and win at least one major. He showed excellent consistency up until the back 9, and his all round game was very good.

Real shame for Westwood too. I guess the main positive is that he knew he wasn't playing well and at his best. I only hope that he finds his form again soon, because he's such a quality player when firing on all cylinders. He showed some real class this week, but it was dashed by some rubbish scores. His last round especially, he got some great birdies and gave himself chances, only to throw them away by bogeying the next hole.

Between work and playing golf I'd seen very little of the first 3 days, so was determined to watch every minute of it yesterday. Now, was it just me or was the final day pretty mediocre (at best) ... saved only by the drama of Scott's meltdown? It was a little windy, but most of the golf was pretty dire ... from the boredom of watching iron after iron from the tees, to then watching 8 out of every 10 putts continually come up SHORT! Couldn't quite believe what I was seeing at times.

Delighted for Ernie though. Played a back 9 to be proud of. Scott may take a long time to recover from this one. Everyone will say he blew it on the last 4 holes. I think he could have wrapped it up long before that if he'd been going for the numerous makeable birdie putts he had, rather than dollying them up just short hole after hole.

PS ... Good shout from Shotrock, who posted on Wed that he had a feeling it was high time S Africa or Australia came back to the party!

Dreadful journalism from the BBC yesterday, according to them only two rounds broke par yesterday. Yet according to the official Open leaderboard there were four times that many.

Why don't they get actual specialists to report on it?

Mixed feelings after watching Friday-sunday.Thought the coverage was good in particular faldo who gave much more insight into the decison making on course.The lass doing the interview is lucky she still has a job-dire.But didnt enjoy watching hours of conservative play due to the severity of the course in particlur the steepness of the traps.Over the top IMO.Imagine what the score would have been like with a bit of heavy weather.wanted Scott to win because he at least took on the par fives and won.Top man though Enrnie by all accounts

Thought Faldo was a lot better than expected, would actually go so far as to say I enjoyed it, not nearly as cringy as he is on American TV.

dyna,
Ernie also took on the par fives, and the par fours for the most part, Scott must have been one of the very few who laid up on #16 yesterday, for instance, and that led to a horrible wedge and that ghastly 3-putt.
Either would have been worthy winners in my book, because they DID attack the course.

I think Lytham is a magnificent course. The only pity is that we didn't have four days of weather and course conditions like yesterday. I don't think I'd ever get tired of watching that type of play. It's great to see real bunkers. It's so hard to win on such a difficult course that it just magnifies the achievement even more for me. You know that a player can't win just by having a really hot putter. He has to have played really well and have hit a serious number of great shots.

I'm sure the R&A are a conservative bunch and in this instance I'm glad they are. There is little enough links golf as things stand and to move the Open away from links courses would be a terrible decision in my opinion. Thankfully, it's almost certainly never going to happen.

As for the golf itself, I really felt sorry for Adam Scott. It's going to take him a while to recover from this one. It was good to see Ernie win, he clearly hit the driver magnificently all week. I think he tried to drive the 16th green all four days. Despite Tiger's troubles on the 6th, he was tied with Ernie standing on the 13th tee. The difference then was that Ernie had no more than about an 8 or 9-iron for his second shot on each of the last 6 holes. Tiger tried to play safe off the tee with mid irons and still struggled to hit the fairways.

Nbs:

Don't believe I said anything about Woods win at Hoylake! I never saw his win at Hoylake so wouldn't have had a clue as to his game plan for that week, but if it was the same I would question still his use of said game plan on a course that wasn't playing hard and fast like this week.

Maybe my analogy of club medal play to his driver was wrong but I still expect a player of his quality to be able to at least be able to drive the ball in some way whether holding it against to wind or using the wind to his advantage. I think all he did was show how poor he is with a driver at the moment and how he fears using it. I don't think he is just overcooking it I think he has genuine fear of it which imo makes Faldo right if he has no go to shot with it he won't win a big one but that is just my opinion.

I agree I would've thought Williams for all his bravado would have been more forceful on the final tee

I am not sure about lythm as a course I would want to play every day but as a test of modern golfers with modern technology it did pretty well. Four days of Sundays weather however and the course may even have been too tough.

A million bunkers may be a rather one dimensional way to negate the 330 yard drive, but on many of the holes it worked.

As for complaining that it is in the middle of a built up area, did anyone complain last month when a vast amount of trees disguised the fact that Olympic is in a san fran suburb?

The green complexes did not have the interest we see at the TOC or RStG’s but I thought they had a little of Pinehurst about them. (In no way do I mean to imply pinehurst does not have interesting green complexes) It was hard to tell as it was so soft but in firmer conditions I suspect balls would be repelled from the greens like they are at pinhurst, with its upturned saucer greens.

The list of winners is also pretty good and for the first time in a while it feels like one of the games best players won a major.

2012 Els
2001 Duval
1996 Lehman
1988 seve
1979 seve
1974 player
1969 Jacklin
1963 Charles
1958 Thompson
1952 locke
1926 Jones

The only “anomaly” being Lehman, who was actually quite a decent player if not really a great player.

Faldo was very good- not crigey at all- just highly knowledgable.

Btw i would play lytham in a heartbeat. I like it alot

yep i agree mclarean lythan is a true test as shown by that winners list(i mentioned that pre open)

Tinmar wrote:I think Lytham is a magnificent course. The only pity is that we didn't have four days of weather and course conditions like yesterday. I don't think I'd ever get tired of watching that type of play. It's great to see real bunkers. It's so hard to win on such a difficult course that it just magnifies the achievement even more for me. You know that a player can't win just by having a really hot putter. He has to have played really well and have hit a serious number of great shots.

I'm sure the R&A are a conservative bunch and in this instance I'm glad they are. There is little enough links golf as things stand and to move the Open away from links courses would be a terrible decision in my opinion. Thankfully, it's almost certainly never going to happen.

As for the golf itself, I really felt sorry for Adam Scott. It's going to take him a while to recover from this one. It was good to see Ernie win, he clearly hit the driver magnificently all week. I think he tried to drive the 16th green all four days. Despite Tiger's troubles on the 6th, he was tied with Ernie standing on the 13th tee. The difference then was that Ernie had no more than about an 8 or 9-iron for his second shot on each of the last 6 holes. Tiger tried to play safe off the tee with mid irons and still struggled to hit the fairways.

Tinmar, there are quite a few links competitions in Europe. The Open, Irish Open, Scottish Open and Dunhill Links Championship, aren't the dutch and Scandinavian Masters also sometimes played on links like courses too?
And of those links courses used, there are some courses that routinely throw up rubbish championships.

Interestingly, I read a snippet in yesterday's paper about a player who holds an unwanted record at Lytham. He wasn't named but he is an 11 handicap member of the club. He once took 34 shots to play the 145 yard 9th hole. This consisted of his tee shot and two putts. The other 31 shots were taken scrambling in and out of the various bunkers!

super_realist - links courses give the Open its identity, just like Augusta for the Masters and extreme course set-ups for the US Open. I would like more links golf, not less.

The only thing I would change about the Open rota would be to not hold the event at St Andrews every 5 years. The three most disappointing Opens of the last 15 years have all been at the Old Course. Six hour rounds over the first two days caused by the double greens and almost no final day drama have led me to look forward to St Andrews less than any other course on the rota. I think Lytham is one of the best of the lot.

Double greens aren't the issue at TOC, it's just got nothing to it, boring, no trouble easy course, flat greens etc, It's my home course and the double greens have never slowed play, they are so big you hardly even notice it.

I'm with you on restricting the amount of tournaments there, ut I wouldn't mind having a Walton Heath or some other heathland course every five years or so, as I actually think that it's fast becoming the poor major.

Wouldn't you think the only reason the R&A return to St.Andrews so often is for commercial reasons?
Even a change to every six years would make a huge difference and allow the introduction of a Portrush, for instance. (Although Peter Dawson, tool that he seems to be, clearly has no intention of taking the Championship to N.I.)

Would definitely oppose leaving the links, however. Inland courses are for another great Championship - which must still be on the drawing board unless the PGA is moved from Wentworth, as it probably should be.

I think it's on record that Hoylake is the most profitable in terms of benefit to the local economy and also tickets sold, besides should the quality of the tournament be dictated by the worst course of all the majors?

super_realist wrote:Navy, I think the difference this time is that Woods demonstrably struggles in bad weather and his game plan wasn't robust enough to cope with that. He's never done very well at the Open when the weather is anything less than excellent (Hoylake, St.Andrews x2)
6 years since he's won it here, and you simply can't win in tough conditions when the wind blows and the fairways have little run if you are taking iron on a par four over 450 yards.

I'm so glad he's so thick he doesn't realise that he could probably still be the worlds best golfer if he hit 3 wood most of the time instead of the driver. PLus you have to ask why he feels it so necessary to try and knock the cover off the ball.

Plus, he's going bald too, he must be gutted.

Not true though is it? He hit any number of low 2-irons off the tee that went at least as far if not further than his playing partner's 3-wood/driver on a number of occasions over the 4 rounds. Fact of the matter he was T3 (with a triple on 6) hitting irons off the tee. What does that say about the rest I wonder?

super_realist wrote:Thought Faldo was a lot better than expected, would actually go so far as to say I enjoyed it, not nearly as cringy as he is on American TV.

My thoughts exactly. Was surprised to find I was enjoying a lot of his input. Now, need to wash my metaphorical mouth out with soap.....

Doubt if Dawson gives a monkey's about anyone's local economy, but I bet TV revenues are significantly higher when TOC is assaulted every five years - and that's straight to Dawson's back pocket, not to Merseyside which he likely only goes to under suffrance and holding his ample schnozz.

Did he win Navy?
His plan failed. It might have worked on a dry course in good conditions, but you can't leave that many long shots into greens and expect to make birdies.

Would he have been in that bunker if he was a better driver and could have had an easier shot in? Conjecture of course.

He might think it was a clever gameplan, but as soon as the weather turned, he had no plan B.

kwinigolfer wrote:Doubt if Dawson gives a monkey's about anyone's local economy, but I bet TV revenues are significantly higher when TOC is assaulted every five years - and that's straight to Dawson's back pocket, not to Merseyside which he likely only goes to under suffrance and holding his ample schnozz.

Lytham, Birkdale and Hoylake are all in that neck of the woods.

Be nice to see half a dozen new or so courses put on the rota.