PGA Tour: 123 Barclays Cards: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Well done Sergio, a second emphatic European win on Tour in eight days after a season spent mostly in the doldrums. It's not often that the "horses for courses" and/or "home advantage" maxims manifest themselves so comprehensively as they did this week, with eight of the top 13 having very strong ties to the Carolinas and adjacent States. Throw in a couple of Texans, a Californian, and a Spaniard whose first effort on the Sedgefield course was a third place as an 18-year-old amateur!

2).All of which makes Nicolas Colsaerts' 7th place finish all the more noteworthy. A good finish this week in Scotland, and Europe's Ryder Cup chances will seem a lot brighter than they did just a fortnight ago.

3).Before we move on to the play-offs, let's add a couple of post-scripts from Kiawah.
Firstly, Lee Westwood (first in greens in regulation over 36 holes) firing Pete Cowen and engaging Tony Johnstone. If Johnstone can battle (if not cure) Westwood's short game woes half as well as he's battled MS these past eight years then Westwood will be back at the top of his game in short order. Johnstone told GolfWorld that Westwood has been driving him "a bit doolally not winning Majors because of his short game". We'll see.

4).And the Nearly Man Major Champion of 2012 is Adam Scott, with a final total of 1,130 strokes at the season's Four Grand Slammers. The full leaderboard of those who made all four cuts is:
1).Scott: 1,130
2).McDowell: 1,132
3).Poulter: 1,138
4).Harrington: 1,139
5).Woods: 1,143
6).Dufner and Furyk: 1,144
8).Stricker: 1,148
9).Jacobson: 1,149
10).Molinari and Bradley: 1,156
12).Z.Johnson: 1,162

5).The US Media have been making clear their dissatisfaction with Kiawah as a Major Championship venue.
One thing is for sure: Bellerive C.C. in St.Louis will take the next open US Major date having signed up for the 2018 PGA Championship. Player won the 1965 US Open here, Nick Price won the 1992 PGA and Bellerive was due to host the WGC American Express Championship during the week beginning Sept 10th 2001. We know how that went, but the Tour finally returned for the BMW Championship in 2008, won by Camilo Villegas.

6).Sergio Garcia was not the only golfer to enjoy an emotional win last weekend; the Champions Tour's Dick's Sporting Goods Open, in Endicott, NY, was won by once-can't-miss-prospect Willie Wood. For a variety of reasons, including the tragic illness and eventual death of his wife, the now-51-year-old Wood's career didn't materialise quite as expected and he had to "open qualify" last week as he had no exemptions. But, as they say, class is permanent, and great to see the 1983 Walker Cupper come out on top.
A comeback of sorts also for the En-Joie course which had been ravaged by floods during last autumn's hurricanes, just a few years after being devastated by floods which led to its removal as host of the Tour's BC Open.

7).And so to Bethpage Black and "The Barclays".
The Tillinghast classic, on New York City's Long Island, has only seen the Tour's best twice before, at the US Opens of 2002 and 2009. Unlike Upstate New York, which produces a steady supply of top golfers, the immediate New York area seldom yields a top player so the only homefield advantage will be enjoyed by adopted son Phil Mickelson. Bethpage is a BIG golfcourse with relatively small greens, likely to play firm and fast in ideal weather and the only horses for courses clues date back to those Opens. The seven golfers to make both cuts then who are in this week's field are: Woods, Mickelson, Garcia, Mayfair, Stricker, Choi and Singh.

8).This being the first leg of the FedEx play-offs, 125 golfers qualified (Dufner and Levin are absent) and the top 100 in FedEx points after this week will advance to the Boston area and the Deutsche Bank. Europeans in most danger of failing to move on include:
95th: Jacobson
111th: Christian
117th: Stenson
while among other "notables" in trouble are: Schwartzel, LoveIII, Allenby, Day and Immelman.
Likely winner? No idea, but difficult not to fancy Garcia (4th in 2002, 10th in 2009), Harrington (8th in 2002) and McIlroy (10th in 2009) among Europeans.

9).Next year's Wyndham Championship at Greensboro will be the final tournament of the "regular" 2013 season. The Top 125 in FedEx points will move on to the Play Offs, 126-200 will go the yet-to-be-fully-defined three event series with the web.com's best, and anyone languishing below 200th will have to wait until Q-School to play again.
Crucial point of all this is that dollars won no longer will be the official currency of the PGA Tour, FedEx points will be.
As a general guide, the players who earn the most money will be the same as those who garner the highest FedEx points total, but there will be differences.
This year for instance, Jhonny Vegas has won $744K (105th on Tour) but, because he is 126th on the FedEx points list, he sits at home this week while Heath Slocum plays at Bethpage having won just $424K (142nd on Tour), but harvested more FedEx points. There are plenty more such discrepancies, but that's what the Tour wants. owgr points will still be important of course for the Majors and one assumes the PGA of America will continue to use dollars for their qualifying lists, both for its Championship and Ryder Cup selection. Not sure about the Pres.Cup which, after all, is run by the PGA Tour.

10).Big news in golf this week has been the admission of Condoleeza Rice and Darla Moore as Members at Augusta National. Always thought Condi Rice had the makings of a good person despite the sordid work colleagues she had for a while.
But I DO know that Darla Moore has been a powerful force for good at the University of South Carolina where she has for many years made generous endowments to its Business School which now bears her name, the International Programs being especially highly regarded (#1 in the nation according to US News and World Report). She's most certainly not just a figurehead and hopefully her character will prove a strong influence among the good ol' boys up the road in Augusta. About time.

What happened to Tiger? Birdies is what happened.

This much I'll almost guarantee: Lukey will now go lower than Tiger over the next two days. Don't look for either to be holding a trophy on Sunday however.

1).Martin Kaymer, unless he has told J-M O that he's not interested.
2).Carl Pettersson, unless he's absolutely, positively not eligible.
In which case, Martin Laird or Thomas Bjorn.

thanks guys, he seemed injured and i thought they said it was his hip. amazed how well he and Rory get on, they're like best buds out there!

Dufner this week, Garcia next week - top players who are giving a Play-Off event a miss.
Sergio basically saying that now he's sure to be Ryder Cupping he'll need a week off.

No word yet as to whether anyone will follow suit, but many US players are taking time off by avoiding weekend play at The Barclays. Simpson for one, Bradley for another, plus several on the Captain's Pick bubble: Mahan, Furyk, Haas for whom, of course, this might backfire.
Watney, Fowler, Stricker, Dustin, BVP and Snedeker all playing well and looking to take advantage.

kwinigolfer wrote:Fat lot of good home course advantage did for Keegan Bradley.

Off to Woodstock, Keegs.

Defending Champion Haas going home also.

DJ is the defending champ (or Hurricane Irene depending on how you look at it).

Billy Haas won the Tour Champ

Defending FedEx Champ - does that work?

Yes, Haas won the 2012 FE Cup. And still can win the 2013 Edition even though he missed the cut this week

DJ won weather shortened Barclays. Shortened because of Hurricane Irene was crashing the party.

BTW, saw this tweet pict of Ollie and Paddy at the end of their match at the
2003 Seve Cup. Looks contentious to me

http://www.inpho.ie/media/RJ3q7CGZF31EhRCqTUebng..a

And if Colsearts does knockout Kaymer from the RC top 10, I would do my best to get Carl Petterssen on my team.

If that cannot be done, I would be making the pick as investment into future RC picks. Who has the best chance of representing Europe in the coming years.

Someone like RCB, or Matteo, or Thorbjorn.

I would have thought Quiros would have been that guy earlier in the year. But it is out of form and apparently taking a sabbatical.

The Euro team is rich with veterans and relatively old. Rory is by far the youngest on the team and the next youngest team member and potential team members is practically 30 (Francesco and Nicholas will be 30 in a couple of months)

I really think it would be good for the Team and Ryder Cup to have a young passionate guy.

I do not think the Euro Team needs Paddy because of his experience. The team has plenty of it with Westy, Luke, Sergio, Poulter, GMac.

It does leave a potential interesting conflict of interest. If RCB (or Oleson) is under serious consideration for pick, but behind Colsaerts, he could be in their best interest to finish behind Colsaerts so Colsaerts can knock out Kaymer from the top 10.

GPB,

I like your thinking!! RCB on 18 with a putt to finish solo 2nd and push Colsaerts into 3rd & out of the team.............cue Ollie racing onto the green to have a quiet word and hey presto, RCB gets picked Monday morning!!!!

Another fine day in prospect on Lon Gisland, temps in the low 80's, but perhaps just a touch more wind.

Just a note about Harrington's round on Friday: +5 over his first 8 holes, -1 thereafter. Not Ryder Cup selection form perhaps, but a good recovery nevertheless.

(Don't you feel these individual play-off events have somewhat lost their identity with being switched from course to course, The Barclays and BMW anyway? Difficult to care much about individual winners when all the focus is on the $10mil.)

kwinigolfer wrote:1).Martin Kaymer, unless he has told J-M O that he's not interested.
2).Carl Pettersson, unless he's absolutely, positively not eligible.
In which case, Martin Laird or Thomas Bjorn.

TB a playing vice captain? And if he wins this week. Why not.

I actually like the Barclays rotates courses. I wish other PGA tournaments would do it well.

I fail to see the hype about Bethpage Black though. Just a big-a$$ golf course whose rough is too deep

After watching the first two days, the only holes that I can remember from 2009 US Open are the 15th and 18th holes.

I remember Ricky Barnes hitting an approach shot on 18 (3rd round I think) about 20 feet from the hole. He couldn't find it! Fortunately Ricky had 5000 forecaddies in the grandstand or it could have been the 5 minute rule. And he hit is shot 20 feet from the hole, in ridiculously long grass.

The BMW comes to Bellerive and St Louis and my neck of the woods next year. The State of Missouri is largely ignored in big time golf. No US Opens in almost 50 years ago , PGA 20 years ago. The BMW a few years ago. and a cancelled (9/11) WGC event back in 2001. All at Bellerive

I have played Bellerive a couple of times. I was not really impressed and not much of a WOW factor.

A few good rounds this morning at BP Black. Canadian David Hearn is -5 for the day after 14 holes and Rory and PMick played the front nine in Minus 3.

I hope the winds pick up a little more this afternoon

Did Westwood just miss an 18-inch putt? Good job he made the 3-footer coming back. Calamitous.

Hadn't twigged that Christian was playing with Mr Woods today. And certainly didn't know that he plays with a yellow ball, got to love that! Not going well for him so far though.

Not going well for any of the Northern Europeans this afternoon - decent by Donald, McIlroy and Westwood this morning, but a dreadful afternoon, including;
Rose +5
Freddie: +5
Christian: +4
Poults: +3
Stenson: +3
Blixt: +2
Harrington: +1
Laird: +1
Owen: +1
Pettersson: +1

Come on Sergio!

Interesting headline on BBC web-site:

"Tiger kills keeper at German zoo."

Now what's he done?

Make that +3 for Harri...

Stenson's form recovery is begining to look similar to Paddy's, a frustrating mixture of brilliant and mediocre rounds... must be something to do with the aging process (probably Tiger's case as well, in relative terms of course...)

OK if you drain 50 footers.

Meanwhile, tennis has pre-empted our golf coverage.

Which makes me reflect that John Isner bears more than a passing resemblance to Nick Watney.

Tiger already 3 3putts today

kwinigolfer wrote:OK if you drain 50 footers.

Meanwhile, tennis has pre-empted our golf coverage.

Which makes me reflect that John Isner bears more than a passing resemblance to Nick Watney.

I always thought Watney was the spit of Andy Roddick.

Watney's picture on the pga website is about the only one that looks normal. The rest look like they've been taken by stevie wonder.

AlciG wrote:Tiger already 3 3putts today

Make that 4 now. When has that happened in 1 round? Let alone in a span of 12 holes?

AlciG wrote:

AlciG wrote:Tiger already 3 3putts today

Make that 4 now. When has that happened in 1 round? Let alone in a span of 12 holes?

Greens are lightening. Cut twice and rolled 3 times. Everyone is struggling with them.

Cmon Serg!!

Watney is putting pretty well... considering the lightning speed

Sponsor's dream having Estes up there, and then there's super_'s favourite fitness freak Stadler.

Curious to see Vijay with no sponsor's logo decorating his shirt. Presumably Allan Stanford's cheques from jail started bouncing.

Does anyone know why sky coverage only started at 9pm? I tuned in about 10 mins ago thinking there would be plenty of golf left and the leaders are well into the back nine.

Kwini

Tiger joke was well funny.

McLaren wrote:Does anyone know why sky coverage only started at 9pm? I tuned in about 10 mins ago thinking there would be plenty of golf left and the leaders are well into the back nine.

Kwini

Tiger joke was well funny.

Was on the red button from 6pm Mc...

Dont think I get the red button on skygo.

Bloody speedway was on for some reason....

Tough not to like Nick Watney, looks like he and Sergio had a good time out there, nice to see. At it again on the morrow.

Hey Tiger -- wow me on a weekend. Lukey - wow me before.

I will be very impressed if Sergio can finish the job. Fun to watch when he gets it going.

Hopefully won't jinx him if I point out that Sergio wins are like buses?

Just back from 3rd round at Bethpage -- we had a great time ! Spent a lot of time behind the 7th green which is about as far from the clubhouse as you can get and therefore pretty quiet. It's a short par 5 (was a par 4 in the us open) so we saw a lot of second shots to the green, layups, bunker shots and putts. Saw some great shots but also some pretty poor efforts!
Lee Westwood hit a terrific bunker shot for a tap-in birdie. We followed him to the 8 th (par 3 over the pond) where he hit a great tee shot to birdie range. He's very personable and a popular guy over here. As he was walking away towards the 8 th green someone shouted "is paddy gonna be on your Ryder cup team?". He laughed and said "haven't a clue".
What's really incredible is the crowds that follow tiger (or maybe they were following Gary?). It was all peaceful behind the 7 th and all of a sudden we saw a cloud of dust in the distance kicked up by the tiger followers. And then they came. They were the only ones who yelled "in the hole" and similar. They whooped and hollered over his second shot which landed just in front of the green as if it was a miracle shot of some kind. it was a good shot but a long way from being the best we saw there. He putted, woefully short, and got the birdie. And then they were gone and we were back to about 20 people again. Noh ( who did not have a good day) almost holed his second shot and we saw one or two eagles. One guy ( can't remember who, but def not euro) was maybe 20 yds out and hit a terrible shot into the bunker. We were all commiserating with him and then he went and holed his bunker shot for an unlikely birdie.
Great stuff.

.....and i just saw myself on tv. Very briefly. But definitely me. Can't wait to get back out tomorrow.

Plunks,
Certainly compelling viewing from my side of the TV.
Consensus seemed to be that these guys hadn't seen faster greens since 2004 at Shinnecock.

Some very attractive pairings out there in the first couple of hours, then Vijay/Ogilvy; McIlroy/Donald; Westwood/Oosthuizen.

Looks like if you can avoid Tiger and either side of him, galleries are fairly thin on the ground, most of the action in the hospitality suites. Nothing wrong with that, but surprised so many people feel they have to go to a golf tournament just for some social libations.

Have a great time Sunday.

Terrific opportunity for Sergio to file away another win today. He's won the predecessor Westchester tournament twice, has a second in the Barclays four years ago, played well in the Bethpage US Opens, and seems to have a great rapport with the New York crowds.
He knows he has next week off come what may, and one would think that the tougher today's conditions, the more it will separate the elite golfers.

But the "four unders", six shots behind Sergio, will tee off well before him and they have the chance of "posting a number". And there are eight of them, including:
Woods, Schwartzel, Oosthuizen, Tim Clark, Westwood and Mickelson.
All just one shot ahead of Bubba and Dustin..

Another fine day in prospect, dry, mostly sunny and breezy so, unless the greens are copiously watered, there'll be some trouble with many of them by day's end.

The Barclays cards are rarin' to go, so let's see what's in today's round for the Europeans - looking at the BIG picture here, Deutsche Bank/BMW/Tour Champ + money-list (top 125), and Stenson getting 15 tournaments in!

Rose: Pride
Jacobson: Needs, very approximately, a Top 60 finish to move on to Boston.
Stenson: Needs a Top 40 - and he needs a couple more tournaments played, only 13 in the books so far. Big day - wonder if anyone's told him?

Laird: Safe for Boston and the BMW, but needs all the help he can get for the Tour Championship.
Poulter: Safe for Boston, but needs points to have some breathing space for BMW.
Christian: Currently 43rd: Needs Top 40 to move on, but also needs as much loot as possible to keep his card. Big day.

Harrington: Similar to Poulter, above. Ryder Cup chances dead and buried in the Bethpage rough.
Blixt: OK for Boston, has it all to do for the BMW.
Owen: Similar to Poulter and Harrington above.

Pettersson: Pride.
Donald: Ditto
McIlroy: Ditto

Westwood: Safe for Boston and BMW - but we know he aims higher than that.
Sergio: A win would carry him off to his week's holidays on top of the FedEx ranking. Come on Sergio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kwinigolfer wrote:Tough not to like Nick Watney

Thought I heard someone shouting "Nick the pr*ck" after his tee shot on 17, disgraceful.

In other news, are the Republicans in the states really as dumb as they seem? First Romney on the Olympics and now one of his cohorts Todd Akin makes a ridiculous comment on r***.

incontinentia,
Republicans dumb?
Not at all, these guys are just pandering to their base, every single word most likely carefully calculated.
And they are also incredibly well funded by billionaires for whom this sort of rhetoric is proverbial "red meat".
Underestimate these people at your peril.


Loved Watney's expression as he walked over to Sergio after putting out on #18. Good guy.

24 holes played so far this Bethpage morning; still waiting for the day's first birdie.
War of attrition.

I found yesterday's action superb to watch...some players seemed to moan on twitter about it...

Agree sirb,
Only caveat in sympathy with the players is that every green be consistent in speed and firmness; not sure the players thought that was always the case on Saturday, but I love watching them be challenged.

See a mention of US Politics in these threads, but no one mentioned Neil Armstrong.

How is Neil Armstrong regarded on the other side of the pond?

I have a feeling he will be better appreciated in the next week or so, than he has in the last 40 years or so. He was a true American Hero.

My heart sunk when I learned about his death.

GPB,
So he should be.
But remember, not many public figures sought to keep their public AND private lives as private as he did. Took unassuming to a whole new depth, and good for him.
But nothing ever mentioned of Aldrin and Collins.

I remember being in the bar of the Cricket Club when the "Eagles" landed. Thrilling moment, never to be forgotten.

LeeeLuuuke!!!

GPB wrote:See a mention of US Politics in these threads, but no one mentioned Neil Armstrong.

How is Neil Armstrong regarded on the other side of the pond?

I have a feeling he will be better appreciated in the next week or so, than he has in the last 40 years or so. He was a true American Hero.

My heart sunk when I learned about his death.

you have maybe answered your own question there. armstrong was considered a hero the world over and he happened to be american from what ive seen on social media etc it is the american part of "american hero" that grates with the rest of the world or at least with me

what armstrong did belonged to the world and while he may have been an american citizen so many of the press reports from people left of the pond make more of his american-ness than what he actually was and did

he was a world icon and where he was born is largely irrelevant

Yes, American ambition, American technology, American astronaut.
I think it's fair to call Armstrong an American hero.

Spanish hero looking a little less committed on his putts so far today, come on Sergio!

That's better!

Come on Sergio!!!!!!!!

Europe's hope lie with Sergio -- Yankee parade behind him, and now one Yank several ahead. Go Nick!

Does anyone remember the chat about using a hole from the red course after Glover chipped a 6 iron up 18 to leave himself a wedge into the green? This does not seem to have been raised this week.