PGA Tour: Up the (Tobacco) Road to Greensboro: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).PGA Championship.
Rory McIlroy.
Simply Magnificent.

2).PGA Championship.
David Lynn.
Second?
In your first ever event in the United States?
You've got to be sh1tting me.
Invite to the 2013 Masters.
Invite to the 2013 PGA Championship.
Very good chances of earning automatic exemption to the "Opens".

3).PGA Championship.
Seven of the Top Ten are Europeans, and they'll all be back, exempt, next year.
The Top 4 and ties will be invited to the 2013 Masters. Carl Pettersson (edit: already exempt!) joins David Lynn of those not otherwise exempt who'll be receiving that envelope from Billy Payne.

4).PGA Championship.
And the Top 15 and ties will be invited to the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill. Those not already exempt include Lynn, Poulter, Pettersson, Adams, Donaldson, Hanson, Stricker, Curtis, Clark, Ogilvy and Scott.

5).Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.
The course received mixed receptions from players (mostly positive) and media (a lot of it negative). Most of the negatives focussed on transportation logistics and the supposed absurdity of playing a windswept oceanside course with raised greens and fairways, but few run-up options. Exhibit A; Friday.
Was it significant that only seven of the leading 17 golfers were American?
Does it speak to a lack of creativity that many have long criticised the PGA Tour players for??
However well the course stood up to a variety of conditions and wind directions, I'd be surprised to see the PGA return their Championship here anytime soon.

6).And who's this Blake Adams fellow who finished 7th?
Adams has played The Players, US Open and PGA Championship this year and contended to some extent in all three. Almost 37 and only on Tour for three years, Adams is another of the multi-sport athletes, basketball and baseball in his case, who's focussed on golf and graduated through the mini-tours to PGA Tour success. He's another of the Tour's walking wounded but has become a Tour "iron man"; no wins but a runner up to Jason Day (remember him?) at the 2010 Byron Nelson, when he screwed up the final hole worse than Day did.
Well worth bearing in mind next time the Tour stops at a course that rewards strategic play and pars.

7).Carl Pettersson has returned to his self-described "ten beers and a pint of ice cream" diet after losing a ton of weight and his golf swing a few years ago. Most significantly this week is his work as a Board Member of the Tour's Greensboro tournament, helping to ensure that one of the oldest stops on Tour has not only maintained its place on the calendar, arguably strengthened its position.
A new sponsor, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, and a new (old) course, Sedgefield Country Club, a Donald Ross original, have combined to elevate the event which now holds an interesting position with many of the field striving for FedEx participation or position.

8).Sam Snead won "Greensboro" EIGHT times, but last year's winner was a young American who'd been showing tons of promise, had been desperately unlucky not to win in New Orleans, and was a local lad to boot. Guy called Webb Simpson. He's back with an interesting field and some "interesting" tee times:
Simpson, Love, Pettersson. Local heroes.
Haas, Dufner, Snedeker. Ryder Cup player and two wannabe Captain's picks.
Appleby, Villegas, Glover. All outside the Fed Ex Play-Off places.
Schwartzel, Garcia, Watney. Disappointing seasons all.

9).European representation includes Christian, Davis, Jamie Donaldson, Knox and Greg Owen (good e.w. chance again this week?); Blixt, Chopra, Karlsson, Pettersson and Stenson; Colsaerts and Garcia (unlucky loser in a 2009 play-off here to Ryan Moore). Significant week for many of them:
Knox, Chopra, Karlsson all need big finishes to assist them in quest to retain Tour cards.
Blixt (back from a long injury absence), Christian, Garcia and Stenson will all qualify for The Barclays, but need good finishes this next fortnight to progress to the Deutsche Bank.
Colsaerts and Garcia are vying for Ryder Cup qualification.

10).In a sign of the times, Bud Cauley has just overtaken Arnold Palmer in the career earnings list;
Marc Leishman has recently passed Jack Nicklaus;
And Rory McIlroy's next top three finish will push him past Tom Watson!

Diggers, please stop deliberately missing the point which is that American's are not really involved in actively supporting their nation on a global sporting scale in any sport. They simply don't compete at a sport in which the country cares enough about playing against other countries, or they aren't good enough at global sports for enough to care.

Do American's even know about the basketball world cup? I doubt it.

They know about the Olympics Super, more people will know who are Olympic basketball champions than know who is the cricket works cup champions.
You are right about the fact Americans are insular in their sport but the only reason for that is they choose not to be interested in soccer, the only true global game.
Other than that they play as much international team sport as anyone and are way more successful than most countries.

That's precisely it though Diggers, there aren't many international games of Country v Country for American's to cheer about, and American's consciousness fails to recognise when they are taking part in any such sport, the most obvious being Davis Cup, but they don't care about it, thus proving my point they don't really understand how to support an international team other than the way in which they are so over the top patriotic in the Ryder Cup, because it's their only opportunity to do support their nation at that scale.


Talk about a long way for a shortcut.

A long way to make a poor moot point. I honestly think you overplay the whole thing. I saw thousands of yanks at the Olympics supporting in the same way as all other nationalities.
How many people in England do you actually think attend international matches regularly, it's a tiny proportion of the population and doesn't have any effect on a national psyche.

The majority of the olympics wasn't nation v nation though, bar a few sports that really shouldn't have been there (Basketball for starters)
The Olympics is about individual performances. Countries don't "win" the Olympics.

No but countries competitors win events and that's who the fans give most of their support to. It's all supporting, what's the big difference ?
The whole premise of your argument seems to be based around the fact you don't like the way a few people chant USA. Every country does something similar.