PGA Tour: Blowing In The Wind: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).If the answers, my friends, are blowing in the wind, what are the questions?

2).Clearly Dustin Johnson is the answer to "who is the only golfer to win a Tour event over 54 holes in the past six years?" - and remarkably, not only has he won three of them, but also has a debut win at a cold and wet Turning Stone, plus a second win at traditionally inclement Pebble Beach, on his CV. Of the other three 54-hole events this century, Phil has won two, Luke Donald the other. (Adam Scott has the last 36-hole win.)

3).What is the future of the Tour's Two Tickets To Paradise"?
Pretty tenuous right now, with Hyundai still not signed up for a return to Kapalua, and Sony only signed through 2014. One would think the Tour might want to bundle negotiations on these two, clearly one significantly weaker without the other. Talks with Hyundai are complicated of course by the absence of seven top players this week. Appearance fees for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions have been rumoured, but many players would consider the $60K last place prize-money more than loose change.

4).Who else was absent without leave in the opening week of the season?
pgatour.com, whose site is but a shadow of it former self. For all its stilted, jingoistic style, pgatour.com is the premier resource for information about the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and web.com Tour, and its apparent no-show in Hawaii seems not to have been explained anywhere. No idea why not. Hopefully the smart-meters in Ponte Vedra Beach are flagging that their site is flagging.

5).What about players with new club deals, the ones who can't stand prosperity?
Kyle Stanley was one who swooshed to Nike. Assume that includes his putter so imagine he was deliriously happy with his 14 x 3-putts in 54 holes.

6).Who is planning to light up the web.com Tour this year?
Plenty of answers there of course, but David Duval is one of them. The eternal optimist now sees only one, web.com, way back to the "show", especially as the Humana event next week, where he was famously champ with a final round 59 a few years ago, is reported by Doug Ferguson not to have offered him a sponsor's invite. That presents a pretty grim future on the PGA Tour so Duval is checking the flight schedules for everywhere from South America to Idaho.

7).What about comebacks?
Casey continues his in South Africa - it'll be interesting to see his tournament schedule this year - as is Goosen, while Steve Marino plans to tee it up tomorrow at the "Sony Open in Hawaii". Probably the best long-time Tour member yet to register a win, although Brian Davis wouldn't agree.

8).Are there any Europeans switching on to the Sony?
Not many, Davis, Greg Owen (course could suit his fairways and greens game) and Russell Knox (wishing him the very best) are the only GB OK on hand. Pettersson was 2nd here last year and should be best of the rest with his countryman Norlander making his Tour debut.

9).Isn't it about time Mark Wilson won again?
Well, not necessarily, but all five of his Tour wins have been during the first ten weeks of the year and he was successful here two years back. Chuckie Howell invariably contends on the flattest course they play all year, including runnering up twice and I like the Chuckster and Tim Clark as good each way investments.

10).Who will replace Dottie Pepper on NBC/Golf Channel golf?
It has been reported that Notah Begay will be patrolling the fairways - let's hope he's done his homework on non-American golfers better than the rest of the NBC crew.
Another week saw another Poulter / Miller spat. "Poults has over-achieved." "B0ll0cks, I've under-achieved." Or words to that effect. Then the "drama" queen stuff. Shut up Miller, and your sidekicks Jacobsen and Rolfing are no better.
And Paul Azinger is not that much better, but I really miss him not being in the booth. His podcast with Jaime Diaz is always full of perceptive observations and insight. His politics are somewhere to the right of D1ckhead Cheney and probably racist, but he knows his golf, is very articulate and is a sad miss from the broadcast booth.

Hall Of Fame election just announced. For the Baseball Hall Of Fame in gorgeous Cooperstown, New York.

And, guess what, with 75% of the 560-odd votes required to be elected, no-one came especially close, the most being 68%.

Wish that was applicable for the less discriminating World Golf Hall Of Fame which is now honouring the very, very goods instead of just the greats, Couples and Montgomerie each only garnering 51% of their respective ballots late last year.

No doubt the Baseball Hall Of Fame will find a way to induct an old-timer or worthy official, but the message for the players is that greatness will be honoured, good enough will not be good enough (apologies to Peter Osgood's uncle Charles for that).

Great read as always Kwini.

In fairness to Azinger he's no different to the rest of the Tour, still not a single US golfer "outed" as a liberal lefty, to my knowledge. Lawrence Donegan's row on Twitter with Bob Estes a few months back over Republican-critical comments entirely typical... doubt Estes is any more right-wing than any of his colleagues. All entitled to their opinions, but it seems a bit odd to have a sample of 200+ people with so little political variety.

Waialae must be up there with the most horses-for-courses tracks we see all year. Howell will no doubt be joined near the top by Zach, and quite probably Pettersson and Gay too. Hit it straight down the fairways, and straight on to the greens, and you won't go far long. As well as Owen, could suit the short-and straight Knox and the other debutant Swede, Lingmerth.

Wonder what Casey will consider a good result in his guaranteed-cheque showing in Sith Efrica. And when he steps onto the range at Abu Dhabi next Tuesday, wonder if he'll be thinking of the tournament that will just have teed off back in SA... Sunshine Tour Qualifying school, with hundreds of obscure home players, a few ex-Walker Cuppers (Byrne, Stewart), and Ross McGowan, 3 and a bit years on from finishing 12th to Casey's 5th in the 2009 R2D. Casey might be wondering what's happened to his career, but at least he still has status on one of the two main tours, while McGowan is only clinging on to the Challenge Tour by virtue of scraping through the Q-school cut on his way to 71st.

Cheers Ned,
Further research on CHIII shows that he's played Waialae 11 times, made all 11 cuts and has six top 5's!

A shame that the Challenge/web.com Tours don't add more of a safety net for guys who fall swiftly from grace, a la McGowan - he was injured for a good while wasn't he?
The Tours are very unsympathetic to players who win in Year 1 gaining a two-year exemption, then suffer health problems within their exemptio.
It even appears to affect guys turning fifty with exemption to the Champions Tour but being injured when they do. Steve Jones looking like he's a victim this last year or so.

Knowing when to take what exemption when is definitely an art form.

McGowan has certainly had lots of issues with his health... though I wonder whether super would have opinions on what caused them! Not entirely sure on the details or chronology, but I think he committed the cardinal sin of trying to play on whilst less than 100%. Result being, his form suffered, he lost his status, and the tour didn't give him any extensions on the - reasonable - argument that he'd maintained full schedules since the "injuries" struck. But it seems he only played 7 CT events last season (plus 4 ET ones), even though his 2011 showing lost him his full tour card but was at least enough to get him in to most Challenge tournaments. Perhaps he was spending 2012 finally getting himself fit and sees SA as a good opportunity to get a few "reps" under his belt early-season. I believe he may be entering Asian Tour q-school too. Still only 30, plenty of time for him to come again...

"In fairness to Azinger he's no different to the rest of the Tour, still not a single US golfer "outed" as a liberal lefty, to my knowledge... "

Tiger Woods' past demeanor not entirely Zach Johnson-esque...?

If anyone's interested, PGA Tour are running a live video of a group webchat for "Meet the Rookies" - cameras on two of their website staff, two random fans, and one in some media room at Waialae with a rolling roster of rookies, currently Lee of Korea via a translator:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scuerj-cMLQ&feature=youtu.be

Oh well, that was the kiss of death, it finished as soon as I posted that

DJ must be eyeing an Open victory soon.

Following Kyle Stanley on Twitter and seems like he had his old putter then switched to a Nike one eventually. Not sure when but his putting seemed to improved slightly in Round 3.

Here's hoping Knox's ball striking makes things easy for him this week. Fast start vital before guys like him start getting dropped from the fields.

I don't know whether this has been mentioned but I haven't seen much on here apart from about Rory and you mention Stanley's kit change. There seems to have been an unusually large amount of manufacturer changing during the off season. In particular players heading away from Titliest. Have I missed something about them struggling financially so having to get rid of players. Maybe its just that Rory has grabbed the headlines and I'm more aware.

I understand that players have the right to follow the money but I am always surprised when they move after a great season such as Kyle Stanley's break through.

I have been wondering if the exodus from Titleist is at all connected to the company's change of ownership in the last few years (probably since most of the sponsorship deals had been signed) - whether this be because of concerns over future or product range (e.g. separation from FootJoy).

Anything of interest going on in Durban? Looks from the leaderboard that Jaidee had a good first day.

I have to say that gear changes in sport never really grab my attention... as well as golfers changing clubs, most of my cricket-watching friends are mildly obsessed with what bats and pads players use, but I don't really follow either one at all. Maybe I should pay a bit more attention on the off-chance that it makes a difference, but I can't escape the suspicion that all the gear is more or less identical and the only reason to change is money....

Quite a few guys in the 40-60 ranking bracket with an opportunity to make moves towards Augusta/Matchplay in Durban... good starts for Donaldson, Bjorn, Ramsay, Lowry and Padraig, less so for Wiesberger, Matteo, Olesen, Siem, Stenson (how has he got back as high as 53???) and RCB.

What time is Hawai'i kick-off?

First tee-time in Hawaii: 7.10 local - 5.10 p.m. GMT, I think.

First TV coverage here: 2.00 p.m. local - Midnight GMT


Regarding clubs, I wonder if there comes a time in a player's career when he has to decide to ditch his starter equipment contract or to continue smooching with the partner he brought to the dance? Although perfectly understand that some players change equipment as often as they change their shoes.
Interesting that these days more players seem to find more difference with the various ball options than with clubs. (I branched out on a new set of shoes, ditched Reebok and got some comfy Ecco's - made all the difference!)

Does Titleist, for instance, concentrate on junior tours with the knowledge that they'll only choose to hang on to a select few players as their career matures? Dunno, but it certainly seems a risky proposition however superficially generic the sticks may be.

NedB-H, I am not really too swung by what they use but I am always surprised that given the level of feel that these guys have I'm always a little surprised. In cricket I would guess changing the sticker is a little less obvious than on a golf club.

I read a very interesting article a while back where it was talking about the tiny differences that the top guys can feel. Nike tested Tiger with a few different clubs, all the same and he swore that they were different. They took them back to the lab and while they were within manufacturing tolerance they were actually different by a tiny amount. Ping did a similar thing with Bubba giving a load of 6 irons to test. Eventually he was really taken with one particular club and said he thought he may put it in his bag. They then told him that it was already his back up club and he'd obviously made the same decision again.
http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/sixth-sense-bubba-watson-golfs-ultimate-feel-player

Obviously I am sure they can change and get a set they like but I wonder how much time they can lose? Could GMac's slight slump be down to his change of clubs?

Re Titleist. Did they sell off the Cobra brand to Puma? I think Cobra were previsouly under the Titleist parent company Acushnet.

What I have read regarding their player sponsorships is they prefer to have quantity over quality, meaning they've never bothered about forking out extra money to keep their stars.

Ah - that's right, isn't it. Acushnet sold off Cobra, and then Acushnet itself was sold to the Koreans - so Titleist, Scotty Cameron and FootJoy are still owned by the same people. [For some reason, I was thinking that Titleist was sold as a standalone business, but that's definitely not the case.]

Slightly dents my theory, but could still be possible if for instance the new corporate strategy is to focus on the ball and not other equipment. FILA might be wary of taking their eye off the ball, see.

Ah ha!

Jeff Overton switched sticks from Mizuno to Adams during his off-season and now leads in Hawaii.
More likely his success is because he switched from Jack Daniels to Bud Lite.

Cheers kwini

So are we going to have two PGAT tourneys completed from start to finish in one week? Maybe it's all hapening for a reason, and somebody up there is trying to suggest that the two may become one...

Have to admit that I backed both, Wilson and Marino this week in my fantasy team and I can tell you that I ain't hapy at all with the former right now... Thank god for Billy Horschel who's saving my pride so far...

Question: leaving aside his hyper-self-confidence, how good Scott Piercy really is...?

Hi pd, Still on the road?

I can't stand Scott Piercy, uber ego as well as confidence. But he sure can play!

I don't like Seniors playing PGA Tour events unless they've earned it, but refreshing to see Russ Cochran doing well - he led the Monday qualifier; wonder if his son still caddies for him/ Another son was on Big Break this year.

This is a tournament I enjoy, a straightforward golf course that you can't relax on for a second. Usually a high quality ball-striking winner.

Hi kwini

Just wondering if you have read the Jerry Tarde in a recent golf digest about why the governing bodies have not yet tackled the ball and club issue but have picked on smaller fish.

I have not read it, I cant find it, but I hear his theory is that the r&a and PGA have used the groove rules and banning of the long putter as a test to see if they could ever reign in the ball. I take it he thinks if in time these rules go through without too much hassle they might start to battle the real technology issues.

Would you buy this line of reasoning or is it more likely they tackle these issues because they lack the will to battle all the parties who wish to keep the ball and technology as it is?

McLaren wrote:Hi kwini

Just wondering if you have read the Jerry Tarde in a recent golf digest about why the governing bodies have not yet tackled the ball and club issue but have picked on smaller fish.

I have not read it, I cant find it, but I hear his theory is that the r&a and PGA have used the groove rules and banning of the long putter as a test to see if they could ever reign in the ball. I take it he thinks if in time these rules go through without too much hassle they might start to battle the real technology issues.

Would you buy this line of reasoning or is it more likely they tackle these issues because they lack the will to battle all the parties who wish to keep the ball and technology as it is?

Bit like the gun issue in America I presume Mac, there are too many already out there, plus people don't want to go back to old technology.
Would you for instance like to start taking a horse and cart to the golf course instead of the bus?

Is Jerry Tarde's middle name "Re" by any chance?

No, but the second syllable of his forename is

barragan wrote:No, but the second syllable of his forename is

Can't believe I missed that, what a 'tard I am.

What were his parents thinking. It's like the chav couple in England somewhere who named their son, Drew, his surname was Peacock.

So what's your name super?

I would be almost certain that it is something really terrible like Barry or Keith.

Nothing like that. You strike me as a Kevin, Darren, Keir or Wayne.

kwinigolfer wrote:Ah ha!

Jeff Overton switched sticks from Mizuno to Adams during his off-season and now leads in Hawaii.
More likely his success is because he switched from Jack Daniels to Bud Lite.

Jackie Burke quote:

"Jimmy Demaret and I had the best golf psychiatrist in the world. His name was Jack Daniels, and he was waiting for us after every round."

Perhaps Dr Bud Lite is indeed poaching clients.

Lairdy wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Ah ha!

Jeff Overton switched sticks from Mizuno to Adams during his off-season and now leads in Hawaii.
More likely his success is because he switched from Jack Daniels to Bud Lite.

He's never won a pro event in his life. Doubt that will change now. Seems a total berk too.

This article seems contrary to the discussion on players leaving Titleist:

http://www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/Golf/News/searchresults/January-2013/Titleist-Start-2013-On-Top-In-Hawaii/

Titleist Start 2013 On Top In Hawaii
By Jake O'Reilly

Gear News

10 January 2013 13:34

As the PGA Tour’s reigning tournament champions took to the fairways in Hawaii to open their 2013 campaigns, Titleist emerged as the top choice across every major equipment category, including golf balls, woods, irons, wedges and putters.

A number of Titleist Brand Ambassadors were also putting their trust in new Titleist equipment for the first time. Current U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson was playing his first competitive rounds with new equipment after Titleist Tour Representatives travelled to his home in early December to dial in his specifications.

Alongside the Titleist Pro V1x prototype golf ball, Simpson’s new equipment now also includes the Titleist 913D3 driver, 913Fd Low Spin fairways, 913Hd hybrid, AP2 irons and Vokey Design SM4 sand and lob wedges.

Zach Johnson was also recently fitted into new Titleist equipment following a visit to the state-of-the art Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, California. There he was precision fit for a new Titleist 913D2 (9.5°) driver and new 913Fd Low Spin(15.0°) fairway wood as well as the new Pro V1x prototype golf ball that he trusted in the Hawaii winds.

Another player making an equipment change was the RBC Canadian Open champion Scott Piercy, who joins a growing list of players to have transitioned into the new Titleist 913 fairway woods. Piercy’s model of choice is the 913Fd Low Spin (13.5°).

See below the Titleist versus other brands statistics:

Golf balls: Titleist: 20 (67%) Nearest Competitor: 3
Drivers: Titleist: 9 (30%) Nearest Competitor: 6
Fairway woods: Titleist:13 (35%) Nearest Competitor: 10
Hybrids: Titleist: 10 (39%) Nearest Competitor: 5
Irons: Titleist: 9 (30%) Nearest Competitor: 4
Wedges: Titleist: 30 (43%) Nearest Competitor: 9
Putters: Titleist: 11 (37%) Nearest Competitor: 7

I'll bet the web.com tour is full of titleist players, perhaps helping the above statistics considering all the web.com and q-school grads are there this week.

Anytime I have watched the european challenge tour or indeed the EuroPro I have noticed an abundance of titleist players.

I've always wondered how Americans hold their drink? Obviously a very broad spectrum whenever you talk of this type of thing but the likes of the Chinese cant hold their drink at all compared to us Brits. Not that it is anything to be proud of. Once read it was down to how we used to preserve our food - in alcohol apposed to salt or something non-alcoholic.

I find it hard to believe that Titleist has an edge over the omnipresent Taylor Made in terms of pro's using the equipment. Balls perhaps, but nothing else.

Mind you, those stats are based on only one tournament.

Hi Mac,
Late to this discussion! No, I hadn't read the piece, but this might be it:

http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2013-02/jerry-tarde-letter

I see "anchoring" as being about fifth or sixth in a list of things I might want to change, an irrelevance compared to significantly more important issues.


Regarding my flippant/facetious snipe at Jeff Overton, he's a golfer I actually like, very much a home-made swing, looks like he has a Webb Simpson shank in his quiver, and has shown physical fortitude early in his career. Fun to follow.

To me, he will probably always be that "BOOM BABY!" guy, who also credited himself with multiple theoretical wins on the European Tour.

Jeff Overweight as I call him

Sky,
So what if he's a lovable loser??!! Ignorance doesn't make him a bad bloke, surely?

To me he'll always be the guy who had his appendix out one week, played the next defying doctor's orders, and secured his card in the process - the other side I suppose of super-'s long standing contention that golfers are not athletes!

Looks like today's "Sony" cut will be -1 unless the wind really gets up.

That would put Owen and Knox in some jeopardy, both slept on one-over-par 71's. Nice round by Brian Davis and he's played well here in the past.

Not sure that the Tour's grouping of three rookies (Guthrie, Hanley and Langley) who have known each other since before High School and are good friends, is altogether impartial - they were apparently talking about how "comfortable" they felt playing together. You'd think their "marquee" groupings should be earned . . . . . . .

Anyway, pgatour.com reports that Langley made 198ft of putts, when average is 90ft.

I reckon I'm an average putter, my regular playing partners would likely say below average, but I once had a round in a scramble (I was going first in every case) where I holed everything - just incredible. Never seen anything like it except perhaps Colsaerts in the Ryder Cup.
I'd never enjoyed a putting round anything close to that in the past, never since. Wonder if anyone else has had miracle putting days?

pgatour.com has just published the "Player Exemption" priority rankings.

To confirm those exemptions outside the norm:

10(a): Top 50 Career earnings - one-time, one-year exemption:
Appleby
Hoch

10(b): Top 25 Career earnings - one-time, one-year exemption:
Jerry Kelly
Justin Leonard
Mike Weir

17: Life Members:
Love
Norman
Watson

20: Players who finished in the Top 125 on 2012 money list as non-members:
Hanson
Ishikawa
Lynn
Colsaerts

There is a raft of medical exemptions, most notably Anthony Kim, Oberholser, Marino, Verplank, Goosen, Goydos, Parnevik, Briny Baird, K.Sutherland, Blanks and about a dozen others.

Plus two non-Member medical exemptions for Flesch and McCarron.

Cejka, Chopra, Richard Johnson, Casey and Olazabal all have "Veteran" or "Past Champion" status but are far down the pecking order. Casey has his work cut out for him, 40th just on that tenuous list.

Welcome sight in Hawaii as Tim Clark joins the leaders - Timmy has to make up for lost time.

Very pleased to see Ross Fisher signed up to open his Tour season in California at next week's Humana. Perhaps earlier reports that he'd play on the European Tour for the next month were premature.
Davis, Laird, Owen, plus Robbie Karlsson will be there plus Phil, Kuchar, Webb Simpson, Snedeker and Z.Johnson also on hand.

Looks like a stronger field than usual.

2 birdies in last 3 holes from Russell Knox might just be enough to get him through to tomorrow. Fantastic birdie on 18.

Suspect Knox will end up one short unless conditions toughen up... seemed to be hitting every fairway in both rounds, but not zoning in on enough pins, to judge by the shot-tracker.
Good round by Norlander alongside him though, +3 thru his first six holes in a tour event yesterday, now at -6 for the tournament and (briefly) top-ten.


10 Euros at first glance for next week's field, must be something close to a record for a tour stop in January. Will be following David Lynn's efforts particularly closely, would love to see him have success Stateside, but I fear the worst for his "adventure"

Fingers crossed for high winds and Russell Knox - he does have the worst record of narrowly missing so many cuts.

Had completely missed David Lynn, Ned. Good luck to him, but will be pleasantly surprised if he (and Colsaerts for that matter) prospers.

I see they've given a free pass to Patrick Cantlay (and Cantget thru QSchool); a bit like Billy Payne's gift to Ishikawa. But glad to see Camilo in.

Lynn has nothing to lose, he's been steady throughout his career and probably never imagined he'd get a crack at the PGA Tour so why not? If it's only 1 season then he comes back to the Euro Tour and plods along picking up cheques each week.

The one thing Lynn needs to be careful of is trying to do too much, and winding up playing poorly in the US and in Europe. He's in at least 3 of the majors, and should be safe for the Matchplay, but he's still going to need to make up a few events in Europe if he chooses to play mainly in the US (or vice versa). The history of guys who come through Q-school to play both tours isn't great (Canizares, Ferrie) and the risk is losing both cards at once and having to start from scratch the next year. I think Lynn will have a career money exemption next year in Europe if it comes to that, but if he wants to keep the ET up his sleeve as a plan B, he needs to play enough events there this year...

Interesting to see the all-time scoring average leaders round Waialae.

Els
Howell III
Donald

Makes you wonder even more why Ernie and Luke didn't have a two week busman's Hawai'ian holiday...

Ned, At least Lynn can plan his own schedule, unlike guys from web.com and Q-School.
If he gets off to a decent start he will give himself some options.
If he flounders and misses the Play-Offs he'll still have a third of a season in Europe, and on one or two tracks that he likes. Unless he opts to play the four-event shoot-out, of course, and then he'll be in a pickle!

Russell Knox officially needs some help. Come on wind!
Brian Davis needs to get his act together.

3 putt par from 35ft for Davis won't help; still better than Pettersson taking 3 for bogey from 17ft though. Maybe he should try a conventional putter.

But not so good as Dustin going off to play the back nine with Paulina - had enough of the other two Johnsons, off to give her the business.

GB: On yer bike.
Davis and Knox one stroke off the cut, Owen four shots worse.

Starting the new year like the old one ended for one-time hot shots Allenby, Choi and Cink.

So, two rookies in the lead with a host of seasoned pros snapping at their heels.
Forecast supposedly good for the weekend.