PGA Tour: Fall Series Chapter 2: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Overdue win for Ryan Moore in his hometown of Las Vegas. Now second, having leapfrogged McIlroy, in career moneywinnings for those under 30 years old, some way behind Dustin Johnson.
And a runner-up finish for Brendon de Jonge, a consensus choice among the best Tour members still without a win. Brian Davis also on that list of course.
de Jonge is apparently freshly inspired as his compadre and mentor Nick Price is captaining the RotW Presidents Cup Team and has brought on board fellow Zimbabweans McNulty and Tony Johnstone (and Smiling Shigeki Maruyama) as vice captains.

2).Summary of last weekend's fun for the Europeans:
~Fine 3rd place effort from Jonas Blixt: In contention throughout and now is almost certain of a top 70 finish on the moneylist which means he's assured of exemption into next year's "Invitational" tournaments, Bay Hill, Memorial, Colonial, etc.. Pretty good considering he missed ten weeks of his rookie year.

~Good, career-best, tournament but disappointing finish for Russell Knox; terrific ball-striking week, but squandered four shots to par on his final 8 holes (and that'll be about $100K he could ill afford as he strives for his card - $500K short of keeping his card, probably about $250K from the almost equally crucial top 150).

~What to make of Robert Karlsson - like Knox he's well outside the top 125 mponey-winners, still needing about $400K to keep his card? Four under par for his opening eight holes on Sunday, five over the rest of the way. Cost against par: about $30K and, like Knox, is still outside the top 150 and can't be throwing hard-earned cash away.

~Gary Christian began the week well but folded at the weekend. At #122 now and desperately needs to bank another $100K+.

~Daniel Chopra: Just about to lose his card - Stage 2 Q-School for Danny Boy.

3).And congratulations to Sweden's David Lingmerth who won last week's web.com event and has secured his card for the 2013 PGA Tour.

4).Good week here for Europeans as Bernhard Langer was sufficiently inspired by Martin Kaymer's Ryder Cup winning putt to take the Champions Tour event and he now has the lead in the year-long Charles Schwab Cup, which comes with a $1M to the winner. Langer is now almost at the $10M Champions Tour career money mark.

5).Talking of the Ryder Cup, there seems little agreement here about why Team USA capitulated except, reluctantly, that Europe played better on the crucial 17th and 18th holes, not just on Sunday but starting with Luke Donald's tee shot on #17 on Saturday. Luuuuuke!
Presidents Cup action starts next October and, interestingly, the Top 15 in Team USA qualifying includes all the Medinah combatants, plus Mahan, Watney and Bill Haas.
The Rest Of The World leaders are:
Scott, Oosthuizen, Els, Day, Schwartzel, Grace, Senden, Choi, Ogilvy, Bae, Baddeley, Chalmers.

Who seriously thinks the RotW has any realistic chance?

6).European golfers already confirmed for Qualifying School Stage 1 include Gary Boyd, Dinwiddie, Oliver Fisher, Dougherty, McGowan and Romain Wattel (who I'd consider a real loss to Europe if he qualified for the PGA Tour).
There are two weeks of Stage 1 qualies and we'll update with notables signed up for Week 2 when fields are confirmed.
Sons of famous fathers are also in the field: Cabrera, Sindelar, Tway, Wadkins and Wiebe among them.

7).The Fall Series travels 550 miles north-ish to the Bay Area (just outside San Jose, California), and the Robert Trent Jones' Jr design: CordeValle Golf Club. The course, with its two Redan-like par 3's, seems well liked by the players and once again has attracted a fair field by Fall Series standards, led by Ernie Els and the first US reappearance by a Ryder Cupper in Nicolas Colsaerts.
At stake for those in the field, along with the $900K first prize, continues to be:
~Top thirty money placing and a trip to the 2013 Masters: Bud Cauley.
~Top 125 moneywinners and job security for 2013: Brian Gay, Weekley, Appleby, Jerry Kelly, Herron and Justin Leonard (each of whom have career money exemptions available), John 63-86 Daly, DiMarco, O'Hern, Villegas and, of course, Christian, Karlsson and Knox.

8).A couple of other European PGA Tour members are on the threshhold of slipping out of the owgr Top 50 and 2013 Majors exemption. Martin Laird is not playing this week but Freddie Jacobson is on a swift descent and needs a top finish fast. As they used to say about South of England trainers sending a racehorse to, say, Catterick or Redcar, neither Brian Davis nor Freddie Jac are going to see their relations in California and I fancy both to have a good week.
Edit: Update on Jacobson: Seems he's withdrawn. maybe he has gone to see his relations.

9).Lots of eyes on Nicolas Colsaerts this week - needless to say, if (big IF) he can keep it in the fairway and putt anything like he did when propping up Westwood a couple of Friday afternoons ago, he'll more than make the $100K+ he requires to qualify for PGA Tour membership in 2013 (along with Hanson and Ishikawa).

(One Ryder Cup star of the past, Henrik Stenson, has only played 13 tournaments and, unless he shows up at the final two stops of the year will visit the Tour's doghouse - potentially a senseless end to his lack-lustre flirtation with the PGA Tour.)

10).Last, but by no means least, congrat's to Ken Venturi for finally making it to the World Golf Hall Of Fame after last week's popularity contest electing (barely) Fred Couples once again passed Venturi over. Any International inductee still to be announced, but would expect Colin Montgomerie to go close.

If Lyle is a halfwit what doest hat make Wooise, retarded ? That didnt stop him getting the pick and everyone thought it would be a disaster. But he got it anyway for being a former world number 1 and a Masters winner.
The facts are undeniable, its 10 years since anyone apart from a name was picked so there really in nothing to prove that times do change Im afraid.
Next captain will be Clarke showing again that times really do not change.

You don't know that though Diggers, could easily just be that Europe has had an embarassment of riches in the last 10 years who aswell as being good Ryder Cup players also had distinguished playing careers.
What happens if such careers dry up in the net twenty? Then we go down the John Jacobs, Bernhard Gallacher route again.

So times changed from those guys to Seve et al, nothing to suggest it won't go back again to less well known guys with less distinguished careers is there?

And as long as we carry on having big names like Clarke and Harrington they will get picked. So nothings changed.
I honestly cant see any justification in your argument whatsoever. There is not a jot of evidence to suggest that they wont pick big name players over lesser ones.

I can actually see Harrington being overlooked. Majors don't appear to be a pre-requisite of success for players or Captains.

What is obvious is that anyone up for consideration has had a decent career and therefore a so-called big name, so conceivably it could be loads of people. Harrington isn't a shoe in at all, and if he comes up against Donald/Clarke/Westwood/Poulter/Garcia/Jiminez etc I'm pretty sure he'll be overlooked.

I think you are wrong, they will do it for southern Ireland golf to honour their hero. Cant see jiminez getting it, and they wont have 3 Englishmen in a row and Garcia is still young.

Maybe/Maybe not.

Not sure Southern Ireland has much sway in the matter or why they would feel the need to placate them. They didn't do so with Lyle, nothing to suggest they'd do so with Cyclops Harrington.

Scotland had Monty to placate the Jocks. Nobody has a crystal ball, Im merely pointing out that in the past 5 cups they have picked obvious big names and there is no evidence to suggest any change as yet.

Great stuff, kwini

Hope Nicolas will do well this week and follow his dreams. PGAT badly needs someone like him, if anything only for that sort of fresh, tell it as it is and as it feels, sort of interviews. Agree, his English is brilliant, and a very smart guy compared to most of the other golfers...

Came up wih this jewel of a quote in an interview after that great match he won with Westy in the RC: "You just have to go with what you have in your pants..."

Couple of Latinos doing well early on in California...

Harrington will never be RC captain. Nowadays they'll pick one who supports the European Tour big time - or at least have a fabolous RC record. So the next two captains will be between Clarke, Bjorn and McGinley.

Superb start from Nico, hopefully he does enough over the next three days to secure his PGA Tour card for next year.

pedro wrote:Harrington will never be RC captain. Nowadays they'll pick one who supports the European Tour big time - or at least have a fabolous RC record. So the next two captains will be between Clarke, Bjorn and McGinley.

Pedro, you are completely wrong on this IMO..............the first criteria (not written down, i know) for getting the European RC Captaincy is "achievement in the game" and that's why McGinley will never get it...............Clarke will be the 2014 Captain and it will be Harrington or Bjorn or Jiminez in 2016......................Westwood then comes into picture............

The obvious contradiction on the above is Lyle never getting it when 2 players with much less achievements in the game ie Torrance & James

Extraordinary resurrection of O'Hern's game - how long will it last? One third place finish this year so far, but nothing else in the top 25. Hope for the best for him the rest of the Fry's - if the worst comes to the worst and he loses his card, there'll be a tough decision for him to make about his future, web.com or where? One or two other Aussies in similar position, Goggin, Matt Jones, even Nathan Green and Pampling, tho' they at least have "veteran" status with their wins.

Colsaerts off to another good start, second place early.


(PS: Still think McGinley is in with a very good shout for the 2014 RC. I know, I know!)

Id be very surprised if O'Hern shot better than 70 today. Hope im wrong, he's really been at the wrong end of a few sickening defeats........Craig Parry beating him in OZ about 7 years ago and Goosen holing a 50 foot putt on 18 to edge him out in Qatar...............................

Hi kwini, did you enjoy the Ryder cup? Silly question really! What a comeback, I was hoping they would make it a respectable scoreline for olly, but that was just unreal. Great stuff from all the guys but thought poults & rose were superb! What impressed me most though was just how much of a good sport Mickelson is, pure class guy.

Ho gw,
Of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And: Agree with all the above.
Another big payday for Rosie today.

I see Gary Boyd is playing in Mississippi next week, PGA Tour Q-School Stage 1 - are you coming across to caddie?
(PS: Not too sure about Jermaine Pennant . . . . )

I wish I was! Will be interesting to see how he gets on, he was fairly successful as an amateur in the states. Might have to go to euro q school too yet though, fully expected him to secure his card in the dunhill.
I haven't seen much about the win rose had other than the headlines, many world ranking pts for that?
I hope Pennant dropped his wage expectations!

Well, Good Luck to Mr.Boyd

No owgr points for Justin Rose, just a highly compensated exhibition apparently, but his bank manager won't care.

Wonder if McCarthy will be in the Bolton or Burnley running? Or Blackburn if that has still not been filled.

I reckon Bolton

Not golf, but Kiwni - thoughts on Game 5 and that A-Rod is benched?

Dave,
Very happy. ARod's been shockingly bad since he returned from injury - Chavez is at least as good a 3rd baseman and carries some threat at the plate.
ARod's been striking out so much, never moves the base-runners over and one wonders whether his eye-sight is still at the level of a premier hitter.

Which is not to say he won't offer a useful threat coming in as a p-hitter.

Banking on CC to twirl a masterpiece!

Which is what Billy Horschel looks to have done at the Fry's - top player if he can grow up a bit.

I want the Orioles to win - not down to the Yankees (I actually like them, its people who like the Red Sox because they think liking them because they're not the Yankees is cool that bugs me!), but I like their story and want them to win the World Series. I admired Giardi's guts in Game 3, and glad it paid off!

But the side I pick to win it all - Giants. The pitching, and Posey. I can see Lincecum becoming a closer in the future.

Dave,
We're right on the northern fringes of "Red Sox Nation" which is sometimes a pretty nauseating place to be for a Yankee fan. Not now though!

Great respect for Showalter who essentially built the Yankee dynasty in the mid-nineties, only for Joe Torre to reap all the rewards.

But here we go! Yankee Stadium with lots of empty seats until work gets out!!

Nice to see some of those guys at the top of the LB. Backed Colsaerts and Mallinger quite a bit lately in my fantasy teams, but as it often happens, not this week... But I did still back Horschel and I'm happy to see him up there. Superb round by Mallinger yesterday and very solid play still by Nicolas, good to see...

Mike Weir MC again, but two not so bad rounds by his very poor standard of late... Badds still looking lost in space out there, perhaps he should join Chalmers back to his homeland for a break, who just confirmed his participation in the Perth International next week...

Snow up here in the North Country yesterday, thankfully gone but replaced by a hard freeze. Brrrrr, windscreen scraper out of mothballs.

I like Mallinger, seems a gent out there among a sea of self-obsessed competitors. The opposite of Horschel perhaps.
Wonder if Horschel's golfing ability was aligned with Mallinger's demeanour we might have a superstar on our hands!

Too early to get in to all the moneylist ramifications, but suffice to say that the RK's, Russell Knox and Robbie Karlsson need to keep their foot on the gas. Not bad so far but they're really marking time, each need a super weekend.


Some Ryder Cuppers coming out of the woodwork next week at the McGladrey's, DLIII, Zach and Furyk, but strange that local residents Kuchar and Snedeker aren't supporting their hometown event.

Europe will have:
Christian, Davis, Knox, Owen
Blixt, Chopra, Karlsson, Stenson (has to play these last two events).

Another good Fall Series field with Jason Day also in the line-up.

kwini, it may well be a good Fall Series field, but I'd expect to see a very significant drop in the owgr points on offer from the 42 they got last year... they'll be very lucky if they get to 30pts this time, we'll see next week...

Russell Knox four under par thru 11; that's the pace he needs to maintain for his final five+ rounds of the year.
Karlsson not much better than treading water but Colsaerts off to another good start.

Sounds like Rickie Fowler is taking a break as he tries to rehab his back problems - don't suppose his jaunt at Cypress Point last Tuesday with Bubba helped much.

Oh, Nicolas...!

Oh, Billy...!

Fine round of -6 (65) from Russell Knox - sounds like a broken record but he's got himself into some very nice positions in tournaments but failed to finish them off.
Another -6 on Sunday would help a lot - can he do it??!!

Karlsson losing interest, what's to become of him?

Russell Knox

Russell Knox

But more work to do in this school of hard knox. He's 7th but needs to build on that to significantly improve his money/status position.

So: What's at stake for the Europeans today?

Jonas Blixt, 2nd overnight, has a terrific chance to put last Sunday's disappointment behind him and claim his first Tour win.

Knox and Greg Owen are T7: Knox is projected to climb to 157th on the moneylist with that finish, but he really needs to get to 150th at least with just two tournaments remaining.

Owen can aspire to the Top 70 in money and a free pass into the "Invitationals" next year - needs a solo 3rd to be sure of that.

Colsaerts, in 12th place, is right on the threshold of sufficient money to qualify for 1 2013 Card - probably needs a top ten to be sure, plus a top ten would qualify him for next week's field at the McGladrey's.

Karlsson, in 53rd overnight, is well adrift of the Top 150 now - needs a terrific round Sunday to materially improve his position. More from him next week.

And Brian Davis conjured a triple bogey in his Round 3 and has little today to play for - petty cash only.

Plenty to look forward to this evening - can Vijay win, just four months before he turns 50?

Tough outing for the Bronx Bombers, Kwin. Life without Jeter this post season will be very difficult going forward.

The Bosox implosion was mythic. A gutless squad IMO.

Too early for snow!

'Morning Shotrock,
I crashed minutes before the breakage - you never know, it might need some adversity like that to light the bats up. Pitching has been superb.

Keegan Bradley was tweeting about the empty seats at the Stadium - not as many as at Fenway, that's for sure.

Looking forward to the afternoon action, quite a sporty back nine.

PS: Highly recommend you get yr friend in Richmond to take you to the Prohibition Pig . . . . . . !

[quote="kwinigolfer"
Mac,
I'm not 100% sure of the "release" rule, there seem to be varying understandings of it in the media, but Tour members are restricted in the number of releases (3, I think) they can secure for overseas events played opposite Tour events. Think this is #2 for Mahan and Woods.
For members of other Tours (e.g. Westwood, Schwartzel), that rule does not apply if they are playing in their "other Tour" event of the week, e.g. Portugal). [/quote]

Actually that's not quite the way it works for foreign players on the PGAT.... Yes there are 3 releases, (more for players over 20 events) BUT for instance... Rory McIlroy does NOT automatically get blanket releases to play on the Euro Tour anytime he wants... Here's selected portions from the PGA Tour Regs book:

A. CONFLICTING EVENTS

2. Obligations of PGA TOUR Members
To contribute to the success of a PGA TOUR tournament or event and to permit PGA TOUR to fulfill its contractual obligations concerning
representative fields, no PGA TOUR member shall participate in any other golf tournament or event on a date when a PGA TOUR (Regular TOUR)
cosponsored tournament or event for which such member is exempt is scheduled, except for the following tournaments or events:

a. A tournament or event for which a member obtains an advance written release for his participation from the Commissioner (See Guidelines for Conflicting Event Release set forth below); Note: No conflicting event releases will be approved for tournaments held in North America.

b. A tournament or event cosponsored or approved by and held in the territory of the PGA section with which the PGA TOUR member is affiliated or where he is then employed, provided that he is eligible for such sectional tournament under the constitution of the PGA;

d. Golf tournaments on the home circuit of a foreign player who is a PGA TOUR member.

For purposes of the Tournament Regulations, the following professional golf tournament circuits, and the geographical area covered by each, are recognized as home circuits:

Home Circuit Geographical Region

PGA European Tour - Countries within the continent of
Europe plus Morocco and Tunisia

PGA Tour of Southern Africa - Countries within the
continent of Africa

Japan Golf Tour - Japan

PGA Tour of Australasia - Australia New Zealand, Singapore,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanma, Vietnam,
Guam, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, India and Pakistan

Any events sanctioned or cosanctioned by any of the above
professional golf tours which are not within the geographical area listed
for such professional golf tour shall not be considered events within the home
circuit of a foreign player claiming such professional golf tour
as his home circuit.

++++++++++

Notice the 2 portions in RED above... The Euro Tour "home circuit" is defined as events within "Countries within the continent of
Europe plus Morocco and Tunisia". That means co-sanctioned events in ASIA, and even FULL EURO events in the Middle East are NOT considered home circuit. So a Rory can play all he wants in Europe proper without a Competing Event Release... but if he wants to play more than 3 outside of Europe proper (even if they are official Euro Tour events)... he has to get special dispensation from the Commissioner.

Now take a Charl Schwartzel... Oosthuizen... They could in theory designate the Sunshine instead of the Euro Tour as their "home circuit"

Surprisingly... this hasn't been TOO much of a burden to Euro Tour players... because of the PGAT's limited schedule in the Fall... and when the Euro Tour had most of their events in Europe proper. But it's getting a HECK of alot more restrictive now with more events outside of Europe and Europe itself losing events. That's why when you see Euro guys come to the PGAT... they seem to make so much more of a commitment to the PGAT... they almost have to. And it's going to get even tougher on the Euros. With the expectation of at least one more Fall event being added to the PGAT in 2013 (Mayakoba to the fall schedule) PLUS another Pacific Rim area co-sanctioned PGAT event to be added in 2013 or 2014... it could become more of an issue.

robo,
Thanks, you should be instructing the AP!

If you're still there, will Shane Lowry get credit for his Top 100 to now exempt him into Stage 2 of Q-School - should he not be altering his plans completely?

It will be interesting to see who's signed up for the second week of Stage 1 - probably the best quality of overseas player they'll ever have had for Stages 1 and 2.

Not Nicolas Colsaerts obviously and he can wrap up his 2013 card in the next three hours.

kwinigolfer wrote:...If you're still there, will Shane Lowry get credit for his Top 100 to now exempt him into Stage 2 of Q-School - should he not be altering his plans completely?

Someone around here believe that the deadline for that top 100 exemption was last week. Don't know...

pd,
He might be better off taking his act round Asia; if he plays well he's got a decent chance of reaching the Top 50 and getting exemption in to MatchPlay, Masters, Cadillac and probably US Open - some sponsors invites and, if he's good enough, he can apply for special temp membership.

Russell Knox

kwinigolfer wrote:
If you're still there, will Shane Lowry get credit for his Top 100 to now exempt him into Stage 2 of Q-School - should he not be altering his plans completely?

No... Lowry had to have been in the top-100 in the OWGR as of the Q-School final ENTRY date... which was September 26th. (that would have been the week 38 rankings of September 23rd)

EDIT: And by the way... I don't see where Lowry has entered... but all the entries for all 1st stage qualifiers aren't up yet. Have you heard? Has he entered?

Shane Lowry was quoted on here - from the Irish Times? - as saying he'd enter. Richie Ramsay and Gonzo as well among the more established players.
Imagine we'll see the second wave of Stage 1 fields on Monday or Tuesday.

kwinigolfer wrote:Shane Lowry was quoted on here - from the Irish Times? - as saying he'd enter. Richie Ramsay and Gonzo as well among the more established players.
Imagine we'll see the second wave of Stage 1 fields on Monday or Tuesday.

Good to hear... At least Gonzo would be exempt into 2nd stage via his made cut in the British Open.

I think Ramsay is exempt in to Stage 2, Gonzo in to Final Stage, via their owgr's.

kwinigolfer wrote:I think Ramsay is exempt in to Stage 2, Gonzo in to Final Stage, via their owgr's.

good catch... yes they are...

Russell Knox

If he can somehow reach -15, he could well squeak in to the Top 150 - crucial!

-17 to win?

Looks like Closaerts will come up short - what now?

-15 to win it looks like. Knox not firing in much needed birdies unfortunately.

Not what you'd want to leave yourself for a maiden PGA victory. Can he hole it??

Well done Jonas, and well done Russell Knox!

Love the celebration with Jonas's family - memo from Tim Finchem: "What's all this then, can't have fun on my Tour."

Blixt gets to play Kapalua and you'd think he'd do well there if he can keep sober.

Two more big weeks for Russell Knox, but he's making progress towards the Top 150 anyway. Off to Sea Island.

Petrovic almost earned his card for next year but for Blixt blitz.

He's got pretty good status, Leff, if he's good enough - in next week's field, exempt to Final Stage Q-School and still has veteran status on Tour.