PGA Tour: Tiring of Firestone and Mile High Club in Reno: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Congratulations to Scott Piercy, last year's winner in the rarified Reno air and now off to Firestone CC and Akron, Ohio's "WGC Bridgestone Invitational" as RBC Canadian Open Champion. Travel plans changed at a stroke, or at least those strokes of the stumbling Dirt McGirt and Garrigus as they bogeyed their way to a podium finish rather than the Canadian club's gold they'd been in the driving seat to achieve.

2).Neither Piercy nor Garrigus have ever been close to my top 200 favourite golfers, but they both hit it a mile and have steadily improved their all-round game to become regular Top 25 finishers on Tour. Garrigus has apparently matured following his pot-headed mini-Tour career and this was his third runner-up effort of the year, while Piercy has moved on from being voted 6th cockiest player on Tour in Sports Illustrated.

3).Surrey's Gary Christian made the cut on the number but enjoyed a terrific weekend to claim a share of 10th place, with Brian Davis continuing his consistent season one shot further back. But disappointment for Greg Owen and Russell Knox whose success on Thursday and Friday was not matched at the weekend. What does it all mean?
~Davis: All but certain to qualify for the first three Play-Off tournaments.
~Owen: Certain to play Barclays and Deutsche Bank, but needs at least one top finish to have a chance to reach the BMW.
~Christian: Currently inside the Top 125 (118) and playing this week in Reno where another good finish would probably cement his Barclays place and go a long way to secure his "playing privileges" for 2013.
~Knox: Disappointing weekend and needs a miracle in Reno and/or Greensboro to be eligible for the Barclays. Q-School more likely unless he can start stringing four rounds together.

4).The calendar going forward looks like this:
Aug 2nd - 5th: Bridgestone and Reno.
Aug 9th - 12th: PGA Championship, no "opposite field' event.
Aug 16th - 19th: Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, NC.
Aug 23rd thru Sept 23rd: Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BMW, Tour Championship.

5).pgatour.com lists "Bert Wray" as the original architect of Firestone CC's South Course, venue for this week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational. A little research shows that Bert Way emigrated from Westward Ho! in Devon at Musselburgh's Willie Dunn's instigation shortly after Dunn began work on Shinnecock Hills. Way later finished 2nd in the 1899 US Open before he turned his hand full-time to course architecture. Firestone is just one of a number of well-regarded courses Way designed, primarily in Michigan and Ohio. Not sure how the course stood the test of time from the 1920's thru the 50's, but Robert Trent Jones stiffened it considerably in his late-fifties restoration and now plays at a stout par-70 7,400 yards for the pros.

6).Firestone is either a terrific test or a boring parkland course on steroids depending on which "expert" one listens to. It can appear one dimensional on TV with it's seemingly non-stop diet of look-alike 400+ yard par 4's, mostly dead straight. Although the Tour pros are almost unanimous in calling it "solid and classic" it's also slagged off for being "boring" and criticised for the PGA Tour's set-up, with special criticism reserved for the tee shots and canting fairways.
Whether one is tired of Firestone CC and its Bridgestone set-up or not, WGC status surely cries out for taking its show on the road.

7).Meanwhile, there's nothing boring about Jack Nicklaus's Montreux G&CC that hosts this week's "Reno-Tahoe Open". At 5,000 feet, the Touring Pros hit it further here than anywhere - last year's tee shots were reportedly the longest on Shot Link record. Not sure if some of the geriatric crew on hand this year will keep that distance up; over twenty golfers who originally "committed" to this week have bagged it and the alternate list is overstocked with Seniors who can't qualify for the 78-man field for this week's Champions Tour event. Wish they'd fill the field from the qualifying list rather than the retreads foisted on Reno.

8).But some top pros are here nevertheless, led by Padraig Harrington looking to sharpen his game for Kiawah's PGA Championship. Other "faces" who are looking to secure Play-Off berths include Appleby, Villegas, Weekley, Gay, Romero, DiMarco, Leonard, Cink and even a resurgent John Daly. Europeans Cejka, Chopra, Christian, Johnson and Knox are there, all with various objectives, but I fancy the chances of old-lag-type pros with course form, Rollins, say, Henry, Matteson, Perez or Vaughn Taylor. Tune in, even if just for the spectacle of the gorgeous Sierra Nevada.
And: Remember, this week signals a return to the "modified Stableford" scoring system.

9).Its a long way from Reno to Akron, as John Denver might have sung, and as Scott Piercy can tell you. Tiger Woods has a fantastic record here, seven wins and counting, and all eyes will presumably be on his driver. Whatever the constraints of his "gameplan" at Lytham, he has to unleash the driver at Firestone and, if he can only keep it in the short grass, he'll once again be the man to beat. It is well documented that the American Mid-West has endured a long, hot summer, but Akron has at least had some recent rain to keep the place from burning out completely.

10).Europe hasn't celebrated a winner here since Darren Clarke beat Jonathan Kaye and Tiger in 2003, though runners up since this stop became a WGC include Phillip Price, Rose, Westwood, Harrington and Donald. No doubt if Steve Williams were to win again it would equal his greatest ever triumph, but if Woods can hit some fairways it would be a brave punter to bet against his hstory here.

Thanks kwini, that was entertaining and informative. Don't know if the stats back it up but I think Tigers driving has been pretty good this year, so he probably wont be too far away on sunday.
Hopefully the winner of the Reno stableford will not be branded a bandit, however one fears Paddy may be at risk of getting 0.1 back.

PS: Will a Tiger win return him to #1?

Cheers incont,
Yup, Superficially Tiger's tee shots look good this year, 30th in fairways hit; but no knowing what the %age is with his driver. He clearly had no confidence in it at Lytham.

Tiger to #1 with a win provided Donald doesn't finish solo second, according to princedrac's owgr thread (I think). He's paired with Brandon Grace on Thursday and Friday.

Shocking to count only about 25 American golfers in this week's Bridgestone field. PGA Tour on top form only placing 2 Americans in the top 32 out on Thursday and Friday, 23 in the last 46. Finchem makes it so easy to smell an anti-"foreigner" bias in his tee-times.

Oh well, our fault for not having our own WGC I suppose.

The most interesting thing (to me) is the Ryder Cup teams will be nearly finalized.

The 8 qualifying spots for the US team is all but finalized. Most of the pretenders will either have to win or finish 2nd in the next two And given their recent form, that doesn't look likely. Anyone down through #30 or #32 can crash the top 8, but I don't see it happening.

PMick and Mahan are vulnerable, but the other six are pretty safe.

Euro team? I though Hanson, Kaymer and Sergio were near locks about the Masters. With only two picks, and Match Play specialist Poulter on the outside looking in, I think the pressure is on these three players to automatically qualify, because their form is not worthy of a wildcard.

With a team loaded with Veterans, I think Colsearts might be at the top of the Ollie's short list, higher than Poulter, Sergio and Kaymer.

Rory, Lee, Luke, GMac and Justin have clinched. No one else on the Euro Team is really safe with the big purse of Bridgestone and PGA ahead.

Its time for these contenders to step up and show Ollie that they should be on the team.

Early in the year I thought it would take 200 OWGR points to make the team. Now it could be as low as 175 pts.

Wonderful write up Kwin - only surpassed by the weather here in Old Forge. Played Inlet today. Exceptional views, ok golf course.

Certainly not an inspiring layout, but Firestone is one fine test of golf. Never met anyone who played there that didn't rave about the experience.

While I don't see the tee time bias (and admit to not having a keen eye for that) you are right about not having "your own" WGC. Once again, time to get off the wallets and take some risks. Just ask Donald Trump.

Tiger back to #1 in the world? He's been the best player this year, so why not?

Sr,
When my lottery number comes up, my first priority will be the purchase of the GCofN, European Tour promotion can follow!
Enjoy OF NY, very envious. Piseco on the calendar for Labor Day.

Kwin - Invited to play 27 at Newport yesterday but could not make it ... another week yet! (My brother hit his drive on 10 almost to the tee box on 9 and still made par.)

If I hit lotto, I'll be staying right here.

Sr,
Not the blues on #9 I'd almost guarantee. I'll be down to Newport within the month, can't wait!
I need a Bridgestone pick - PGA next week and SO'H squeezed in to the field.

Yes, NOT the blues, just in front of the whites. A silly bad shot followed by a lucky shot!

Westy has played only 9 PGAT tournaments this year. at 46th in the FE standings he is not guaranteed a trip to the BMW, let alone a trip to Atlanta.

Kwini, I don't think the Ryder Cup counts as an event towards the 15 min.

Westy needs to play 6 more events. I wonder if he will play Wyndham just to make sure.

Poulter is practically in the same boat. He is 79th in points, but has only played 10 events.

Hi GPB,
Not sure about the Ryder Cup either. I know the Presidents Cup has counted in the past, Goosen being a specific beneficiary.

Let's hope Poulter and Westwood both get their acts together and make all this a moot point! Plus we badly need to get Poults an automatic place in the RC Team, so some good finishes would kill "two birds".

Westwood has nine top 25's in 11 completed Bridgestones, so that's good form and a repeat would help his FedEx quest.
Poultie not so much, no Top 12's in nine visits.

Nice writeup, kwini

Still not a big fan of Firestone... Calling it 'solid and classic' may well have some justification, but adding 'boring' to that is not far off the mark either... Hoping to see some sort of getting back to form from Rory this week (and next). Woods must be quite a big favorite here, despite his poor showing last year, although would love to see a European win for a change...

Haven't seen too much of the Reno course in the past, but it'll be interesting to see not only how the modified stableford will work, but also what will that sort of altitude do to the player's heads, let alone the flight of the golfballs... Talking of that, surprised a little to see JB Holmes playing, after all his head surgeries, at such a high altitude, but maybe that's not an issue... As for Padraig, it's good to see him playing, but how good a preparation for next week's USPGA this could be, remains to be seen... From 0ft altitude at Royal Lytham to over 5000ft in Reno/Nevada and back to 0ft in South Carolina...

So brian Davies (43) currently ahead of; westwood(46), poulter(79), harrington(67) and paul casey (228) in the fedex rankings.

princedracula wrote:Nice writeup, kwini

From 0ft altitude at Royal Lytham to over 5000ft in Reno/Nevada and back to 0ft in South Carolina...

With all the water in many of the Lytham Bunkers, is it fair to say that parts of Lytham was below Sea level?

Makes you wonder about Padraig sometimes - resolutely played the Irish PGA because it was at a links rather than the Scottish Open on parky Loch Lomond, then plays in the thin air of the Sierras in preparation for links-like Kiawah.

Mac, Davis has of course played more than twice as many events as Poulter and Westwood, plus eight more than Harrington. Not to diminish the quality of his year though - he's a money-making machine.

Here is the top 20 in the fedex in terms of points won per event played;
(player - events - points - points/events)
Tiger Woods ……………….. 13 ……………….. ……………….. 2,132 ……………….. ……………….. 164.0
Rory McIlroy ……………….. 10 ……………….. ……………….. 1,382 ……………….. ……………….. 138.2
Bubba Watson ……………….. 13 ……………….. ……………….. 1,662 ……………….. ……………….. 127.8
Jason Dufner ……………….. 16 ……………….. ……………….. 1,888 ……………….. ……………….. 118.0
Zach Johnson ……………….. 18 ……………….. ……………….. 1,988 ……………….. ……………….. 110.4
Luke Donald ………………...........11 ……………….. ……………….. 1,185 ……………….. ……………….. 107.7
Hunter Mahan ……………….. 17 ……………….. ……………….. 1,725 ……………….. ……………….. 101.5
Matt Kuchar ……………….. 16 ……………….. ……………….. 1,527 ……………….. ……………….. 95.4
Ernie Els ………………...........15 ……………….. ……………….. 1,402 ……………….. ……………….. 93.5
Justin Rose ………………...........13 ……………….. ……………….. 1,169 ……………….. ……………….. 89.9
Adam Scott ……………….. ........10 ……………….. ……………….. 876 ……………….. ……………….. 87.6
Webb Simpson ……………….. 16 ……………….. ……………….. 1,378 ……………….. ……………….. 86.1
Steve Stricker ……………….. 13 ……………….. ……………….. 1,107 ……………….. ……………….. 85.2
Graeme McDowell ……………….. 11 ……………….. ……………….. 927 ……………….. ……………….. 84.3
Phil Mickelson ……………….. 16 ……………….. ……………….. 1,313 ……………….. ……………….. 82.1
Lee Westwood ……………….. 9 ……………….. ……………….. 712 ……………….. ……………….. 79.1
Dustin Johnson ……………….. 13 ……………….. ……………….. 1,027 ……………….. ……………….. 79.0
Ben Curtis ………………......... 12 ……………….. ……………….. 932 ……………….. ……………….. 77.7
Brandt Snedeker ……………….. 15 ……………….. ……………….. 1,133 ……………….. ……………….. 75.5
Carl Pettersson ……………….. 19 ……………….. ……………….. 1,385 ……………….. ……………….. 72.9



Davis is sitting on 34 points/event.

Notable players that are vulnerable of not qualifying for the FE Playoffs. (FEx Ranking, Name, # tournaments)

FE...Player... ...#tourneys
--------------------------
108 … Sergio Garcia … 10
110 … Henrik Stenson … 11
114 … Jason Day … 11
123 … Tim Clark … 14
134 … Gary Woodland … 17
135 … Stewart Cink … 17
139 … Retief Goosen … 10
143 … Camilo Villegas … 19
146 … Y.E. Yang … 17
151 … Robert Karlsson … 11
169 … Justin Leonard … 20
181 … Angel Cabrera … 15
216 … Lucas Glover … 14
228 … Paul Casey … 7


Garcia, Stenson, and Day have probably accumulated enough points to get through Barclays.

Garcia, Stenson, Clark have no issues with the top 125 via their Players Championship.

Ditto Yang with the PGA and Cabrera with the Masters and Cink with the OC and Glover with the USOpen.

But I think Leonard, Goosen, Villegas, Karlsson, are in serious jeopardy of losing their PGATour Card.

Of course the tour exemptions are still money list-based rather than points based, though there's obviously a strong correlation between the two. I would imagine that Leonard and Goosen, and probably Villegas, have money list exemptions to fall back on, though I wouldn't be betting against Goosen finshing in the top 125 earners anyway.

The big surprises on that list for me are Day, Yang and Glover. Clark, Casey and Villegas are obviously struggling long-term with form and fitness (add A Kim), Woodland and Karlsson have a bout of second-season syndrome, Cink, Leonard and Retief seem to be in a long, slow cycle of decline, and Cabrera is just totally unpredictable. But those three showed no signs of having a season quite as poor as this: Yang and Glover can blow a bit hot and cold but usually find their game on "their" courses for at least a few weeks a year. And Day just looks completely disinterested, a shadow of the runner-up at Augusta and Congressional last year.

I don't think Lucas Glover has ever returned to full fitness since his pre-Tournament Of Champions injury in Hawaii; his get out of jail and into the Play-Offs card will be Greensboro where he has played very well in the past. And he certainly needs to again. Kiawah might suit him also.

Day's had paternity leave on top of his lousy play - got to question his motivation, still only a very lucky one-time winner despite his high finishes in big events. Perhaps he should get himself a break from Colin Swatton as his caddie (as well as being his coach) - time for a fresh set of eyes perhaps?

Goosen and Leonard have two years of Top 25 Career Money list exemptions coming to them, Mike Weir also. Speaking of Weirsy, I see he has his swing coach in the Reno field with him, pity they're not playing together!


Lots of stuff in the Real Estate pages this last week of Justin Leonard having to sell his $6M mansion in Dallas. And David Duval coming to an agreement with the bank to mitigate his losses in the Cherry Hills housing market.

Hasn't Weir has used up all his top 25 and top 50 lifetime exemptions?

I don't think Weir has used up any of his career money exemptions; that's why he took up his ET card, basically so that he could play there and here competitively(?) rehabbing.
Expect him to take an exemption for 2013.

Gorgeous weather expected for the Bridgestone Thursday and Friday, warm and not too much wind.
Breezy on Saturday, stormy (could be "severe") on Sunday - hold on to your hats!

Really disappointed with Jason Day this season. Like others have said it just seems like the desire has gone. I thought he would have pushed on this year after looking so promising last season but he's gone rapidly backwards.

Will Casey be exempt for next year as he's clearly not making the top 125?

kwinigolfer wrote:I don't think Lucas Glover has ever returned to full fitness since his pre-Tournament Of Champions injury in Hawaii; his get out of jail and into the Play-Offs card will be Greensboro where he has played very well in the past. And he certainly needs to again. Kiawah might suit him also.

You've just reminded me that we caught Mr Glover at Lytham. My friend asked me "Who is that miserable git?" after seeing him finish the hole in question (and observing his general demeanour). I let him know, managing to recognise him despite no longer sporting the Captain Caveman/Grisly Adams look.

Sky,
I agree. Glover's on-course demeanour is very miserable, always seems to walk (mope around?) with his head down.
But he can be very funny as well, his interviews are usually delivered in a very, very deep voice, dry humour, and believe he's a bit like Duval in that golf is not the be all and end all of his existence. Sounds like he reads a book a day . . . . .
But he'll be gutted if he misses out on The Barclays as it will be contested at Bethpage, where he won his US Open.

Hi Kwini, nice summary of things as usual.

Some good pairings (actual pairings!) today. Short game wizardry with Mickelson and Donald followed by ball striking mastery from BVP and Sergio. Hopefully they can all take inspiration from each other!

Laird to go ok this week? Should do.

Cheers Lairdy,
The Laird has finished 16th, then 11th in his two visits to Firestone. Hope he maintains the improvement. Playing with Lee Slattery in the non-American part of the Bridgestone draw.

Should be a good pairing for him. Pair of big British lads. Should be plenty motivated by yesterday's events in these Isles.

Played TOC with a couple of old spunkers from Firestone the other week. Lovely guys. Looks a great place to be a member of, hopefully too tight for the errant Woods.

So what has happened to "Young Tom"? After being on the winning Walker Cup Team and winning soon after turning pro, I thought he was going to be a contender for the Euro RC team.

He hasn't had a top 10 since the win in Portugal in a stroke play event. T11th is the best stroke play finish and that was in the very weak field Sicilian Open.

And off to a very bad start in this morning, bogey-double bogey.

Jeez...! Am I the only one who still got a shock when I looked first time at the Reno LB!
+4 leading and -3 the last place... This is gonna take a while to get used to...

Good starts from Luke and Lee in Ohio...

kwinigolfer wrote:Shocking to count only about 25 American golfers in this week's Bridgestone field. PGA Tour on top form only placing 2 Americans in the top 32 out on Thursday and Friday, 23 in the last 46. Finchem makes it so easy to smell an anti-"foreigner" bias in his tee-times. Oh well, our fault for not having our own WGC I suppose.

Huh? Tee time bias? I'm confused:
Early wave off #1 - 6 Americans
Early wave off #10 - 7 Americans

Later wave off #1 - 7 Americans
Later wave off #10 - 5 Americans

I see Michael Hoey has been put in under the Republic of Ireland Flag instead of the Northern Ireland Flag on Pgatour.com.............

No North Korean type hissy fit from Hoey i hope when he finds out!!

robo,
I was looking at the two days' early tee-times in aggregate.

If you look at the tee-times for both days you'll see:
8.40 a.m.: 8 players, 7 Internationals and the apparently unrated Piercy.

8.50 a.m.: 8 players, 8 internationals.

9.00 a.m.: 8 players, 8 internationals.

9.10 a.m.: 8 players, 7 internationals plus one American named after a particularly bad brand of beer (Watney).

After that it levels off, the Internationals presumably meeting the Tour's seal of approval: Kaymer, Donald, Ogilvy, Els etc.

Reds under the bed, I know, but kinda disrespectful and one reason why these contrived tee-times are a mixed blessing. Perhaps in my opinion only!

Oh man Kwini... that seems a little like "grassy knoll" like to me. I could understand if we were talking 7am start or something... but right around 9 is considered prime time most weeks.

IMO the tee times look like the standard trying to ensure "name" players are on through the end of the broadcast windows for both thur-fri.. nothing more... nothing less.

Robo

How could you not know that finchem was driving a white fiat uno in a paris tunnel at the end of august 1997??




Does anyone else feel like they should watch the olympics instead of the WGC?

McLaren wrote:Robo

How could you not know that finchem was driving a white fiat uno in a paris tunnel at the end of august 1997??




Does anyone else feel like they should watch the olympics instead of the WGC?

Absolutely. I can't get enough of Fencing who uniforms appear to have more electric wiring than the laptop I am typing on.

Also Equestrian. The horses are dancing like a Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.

And Beach Volleyball where the girls are playing in flannel PJ's rather Victoria Secret's Lingerie

And Badminton where teams are losing intentionally

I always thought the only thing more boring than Track, was Field, until I watched the rowing events.

Give me the Winter Olympics and Womens Curling where the Gals are yelling HARD, HARD , HARD

Mac, I know what you mean. Other sports seem a bit hum drum and low rent at the moment.

I saw them trying to advertise Scottish football on BBC this week as it starts at the weekend.
I can't think of anything less impressive thsn Scottish football. Turd polishing.

Super

You will no doubt take issue with this but I really enjoy the olympic sports for some the reasons I find F1 so fascinating. The main one being that you know the athletes and their teams have covered off every minute detail, and more often than not in a scientific manner.

The combination of prime athletes and technology means I really like the cycling event, both road and track.

Great to see all the International players as leaders in the clubhouse in the turd polishing Bridgestone . . . . . . . perhaps Mitt Romney is setting the tee-times?

Regardless, some decent scores out there with K-t Kim wiping off the season-long cobwebs. Nothing to make or break Ryder Cup selection yet awhile, but Sergio's putting in a decent shift.

Two holes, two bogeys for Rory. Bad day so far for Rors and Woz.

I think many of the US network comentators are going to need a quick overnight retraining if RC Bello, Simon Dyson and Lee Slattery will lead after round 1. Great to see these guys doing so well, lets hope it'll last...

turd polishing? whats that all about?

princedracula wrote:I think many of the US network comentators are going to need a quick overnight retraining if RC Bello, Simon Dyson and Lee Slattery will lead after round 1. Great to see these guys doing so well, lets hope it'll last...

I know some Euro Ryder Cup veterans (Kaymer, Sergio) will be sweating some big bullets if RCB or Hoover wins this tournament.

Who gets picked if Sergio, Kaymer gets knocked out? with Match Play Ninja Poulter also looking for a pick.

Sergio (and Poulter of course), no question.

GPB, it's "Hurry Hard!" -- even better

Simon Dyson? A fine start for the Euro stalwart. Be VERY surprised to see him in the final group Sunday, however.

Much as I would like to throw Romney under the bus on this, don't see the tee time bias either, Kwin.

Furyk on a mission, to reach the Ryder Cup automatic qualifiers.
Tiger too, looks as if he's playing almost perfect golf, an occasional missed putt excepted.

Of course the tee-times are biased. No big deal, just what you'd expect for a "World" GC. If the golfers don't accept the insult they can lump it. Which of course none do.

Martin Laird 3rd in birdies. Pity about all those bogeys.

Well... as you say, almost perfect...
Good to see that comeback from Rory... loooong par 5 coming up....

Over on the other side of the Continent, Mike Weir was on 59 watch. He shot -12

Psssst:

Spoiler:

Colsearts bombs one 420 yds off the 16th tee.

4:20 yds, 420 really?

Garrigus and Every wants to HIT one that far.