PGA Tour: The California Coast Swing: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Albert Hammond, the Pride of Gibraltar, used to warble that "It Never Rains in Southern California", "but girl, don't they warn ya, It pours man, it pours", and seldom does the California coastal swing suggest that Albert might be wrong. This week's "Farmers Insurance Open" at Torrey Pines just north of San Diego may have to deal with some rainy weather before the skies clear, and the temperature drops, for the weekend.
So: This week's entertainment is in San Diego, we trek to the desert for next week's action in Phoenix, then back to the coast for Pebble Beach followed by L.A.'s Riviera before returning to the desert and Tucson's WGC MatchPlay event.

2).This week's event, in particular, has favoured California boys, and not just Woods (7 wins) and Mickelson (3). O'Meara has won here in the past 25 years as have Scott Simpson, Greg Twiggs, Steve Pate (2), Stadler and Watney. Two others, Jacobsen and Crane are from Oregon, just to the north of California. I picked Watney when he won a few years ago and this is just the sort of course he plays well on - and the same types of player will be worth watching over three of the next four weeks.

3).But what about last week, and the "Humana Challenge" in the Palm Springs area? Personally, I find this the least satisfying event to watch during the PGA Tour season and didn't bother until Sunday, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to be learned. In particular, we saw three European "rookies", Sweden's David Lingmerth, Ross Fisher and David Lynn in action and Lingmerth, who must have gained confidence from the previous week's 31st place finish in Hawaii, reached the 3-man play-off. He's now 80% of the way towards retaining his card for the 2013/2014 season.
Fisher birdied three of his final four Saturday holes to barely make the cut, and Lynn missed badly. The next four weeks are crucial for Fish as the first "rookie reshuffle" will be on us as the Tour moves to Florida in a month's time.
He has the game, but does he have the temperament, not to mention the putter?
And does Lynn have the birdies in his bag that will be so essential to success here?
Not confident yet of either.

4).Brian Gay won, of course; he says he's added length to his game, but is still 123rd in driving distance for the year and benefitted from accuracy and his magical short game. Don't bother to look for him to churn out wins; he'll compete on shortish tracks, especially with Bermuda greens, and probably won't even bother to enter the remaining California tournaments. Could contend in Phoenix though.

5).More predictable was Charlie Howell ball-striking his way to the 14th career runner-up of his career, against only two wins. But he doesn't have nine consecutive years with at least one second-place finish, which Phil Mickelson does!
TRIVIA: Who is the other player with a current string of nine years with at least one second-place finish???
(Nicklaus has seventeen years with at least one runner-up finish - one record that Tiger will never break.)
ANSWER: Tim Clark - sussed out by barragan

6).One thing is for sure this week: The golfer entering next Sunday in second place (as Robbie Castro did at "Humana") and shooting even par will certainly not drop 35 places. Castro is an entertaining lad; GolfWorld ran a page-worth of his tweets last autumn - if they'd've been rip-roaringly funny I'd've posted the link. Everything's relative.
Which in this case is an unintended pun to pass on a fact I learned from Karen Crouse's NY Times notes about Castro, namely that, like Keegan Bradley, his aunt is an LPGA Champion and long-time LPGA member, Jenny Lidback, a Peru-born Swede who makes her home in Texas! I didn't know that!

7).Only two+ months to go until cut-off for owgr top 50 qualification for The Masters. The 15 golfers immediately outside the top 50 (and without a Masters exemption) are:
#52: Stenson
53: Ramsay
54: Cabrera-Bello (already in the WGC Cadillac)
56: Jaidee
58: Fraser (in the Cadillac)
59: Lowry
60: Siem (in the Cadillac)
61: Noren
62: Ogilvy
63: Jimenez (sadly injured)
64: Wiesberger
65: A.Hansen
66: C.Howell
68: Cauley
69: Jacobson

8).In this bleak midwinter (here as well as there: -2F at noon as I write) it was only appropriate that David Frost led (almost all the way) in Hawaii in the Champions Tour before being overhauled on the 56th hole by John Cook's birdie.
Say what you like about the Champions Tour but these guys can still play! Frost at least has a hot putter and is currently at 254 holes and counting since his last 3-putt.
And another trivia question, inspired by Lanny Wadkins' appearance in the broadcast booth (where he is as boring as his game was entertaining). Wadkins was losing Ryder Cup Captain in 1995.
TRIVIA: Who is the only member of his Team who wasn't playing last Friday and Saturday?
ANSWER: Peter Jacobsen, deduced by princedracula

9).Despite rain in the forecast, Torrey Pines, North and South Courses, is expected to play hard and fast this week. Colsaerts makes his first appearance as a PGA Tour member; I see pgatour.com lists him as resident in Mauritius which surely makes for a tricky commute? Could be a good event for him though as the Torrey Pines set-up is often felt to favour bombers. Brian Davis is awol which, to be fair, he has been in his two events so far this season anyway, but Fisher, Laird, Lynn and Owen will be on hand.
I'd fancy Dustin Johnson to follow up his fine performance at Kapalua but am not optimistic he has come up for air since being swallowed up by his "baby". Snedeker almost always plays well here, Phil looked good last weekend but may be preoccupied with his taxes, and I have a very luke-warm each-way fancy for Watney and Aussie Marc Leishman, two decent finishes already this year and second here a few years back.

10).Finally there was a mandatory "Players Meeting" in San Diego yesterday where Mike Davis of the USGA was hauled in to explain the "anchoring ban". Early reports suggest that Tim Clark was the first and strongest speaker in opposition to the proposed new rules. golfchannel.com quotes a traditionally anonymous source as expressing surprise "that most players who use anchored putters didn't say anything".
There are clearly strong feelings about this but will anyone voice them and bring things to a head, or will the anchorers surrender meekly?

About half a dozen groups should get their work done before dark - important round for Ross Fisher as a top ten would assure him a place in Phoenix but a bogey on the first hole ain't good.


I know what you mean Lairdy - it's as if he's paid by the politically correct (in extreme right-wing terms) word. Baker Finch even worse in that regard though.

Thanks puligny, fortunately a name I did not know! But sounds as if Pompey are playing 11 players of that ilk right now.

Haven't seen a single shot hit by a non-North American golfer!

Woods not wearing red as he is about to start Round 4. Wonder when was the last that happened?

Lairdy wrote:The CBS team are truly god awful. Jim Nantz is... is... well I'm not sure but I hate him.
Faldo the only saving grace and Kostis is ok but the rest make me want to switch off. Can't wait to have golf channel coverage back!!

Nantz is the "voice of the Masters" chap who always says "if you will", isn't he? I'd be tempted to respond "Actually Jim, I won't" just to see how he reacts.

Kwini
Pompey are doomed right enough! My hometown team Macclesfield knocked out of the cup by Wigan! Not unexpected but the last time they played were both in Northern Prem league!! Now Wigan are up where Pompey should be and Macc are back not far from where they started!! Hey ho! Still Oldham brought a smile to many faces today!
Oh and the golf looks good. Will be watching it on fast fwd tomorrow to avoid the ads and as much commentary as poss!

In case of a TW victory, please no "Is Tiger back?" posts!!
Thanks.

Been a good few weeks for Macclesfield with Donaldson winning Abu Dhabi . . . . . .

Nice turn round for Ross Fisher, and David Lynn going nicely - a pity he won't be able to maintain this momentum and finish today.

Sorry Pedro. Cliches on standby.

Close of play - no-one close to finishing, but sure Smithers' plan would have got at least half the field done.

Woods can't lose this now unless they move Monday's play to the Olympic Club.

Very happy to see Doug Ferguson's report that the US Open will return to Winged Foot (just outside New York City) in 2020.

There will have been a bit of a dearth of Opens in the North-East since Bethpage in 2009 (for some reason Pennsylvania gets two in that time!!), but now London buses: Shinnecock in 2018 and Winged Foot two yeras later.
Geoff Ogilvy very pleased, but will it be too late for redemption for P.Mickelson? It certainly will be for C.Montgomerie!

They could move this to any club Kwin and TW drives this home.
Thanks for playing, everyone else.

When I double cross a fade off the tee, it goes over the first line of trees only to find more trouble. When Tiger (or any other pro for that matter) does it, they seem to find the next fairway, or a nice wide open spot with an easy line over or very occasionally through the trees. I like nothing more than seeing a well played, imaginative recovery shot that forces the player to innovate, but most of the time the biggest difficulty is missing the crowd.

Smithers - you are absolutely correct. They also bounce off spectators and get free drops for line of sight around course furniture when otherwise would be dead!
Kwini - Jamie D proving to be a fine golfer having overcome serious back problems. Always good to see determination coupled with talent.

pedro wrote:In case of a TW victory, please no "Is Tiger back?" posts!!
Thanks.

It's funny how if a European, especially a Poulter, wins an event like this then plenty of excuses like the weakness of the field are emphasised, however if Nine Chins wins, which he looks like he will, it's as if he's beaten the devil himself, Robert Johnson style.

Worth noting that if he wins, this will be just his 10th tournament win (including a tinpot Chevron one) since 2009, "setting the heather on fire"? Not really. A definite underachiever in the last few years, especially as 6 were in one year.

SR,

"Underachiever" in terms of TW's overall career??

John Cregan wrote:SR,

"Underachiever" in terms of TW's overall career??

Absolutely.
Most people would be happy with 10 titles in 4 and a bit seasons, but it's way less than you'd expect from Nine Chins, especially as one was the equivalent of a midweek sweep.

Kwini what time does the play on monday kick off london time?

Isn't the definition of 10 wins in 4-5 years, a good career!

Course it is, but it's only 4 wins in the last 3 and a bit seasons if he wins today. Way less than you'd expect from a world number 2.

He's only played one full season, had a swing change and been out injured. This is Woods best and most dominant performance since the 2009 BMW, playing much better all round despite a couple of crooked drives.

My point Monty is that people will treat this as if it's the second coming, whereas if it was Poulter, Donald, Westwood etc it be be excused as relatively meaningless due to the lack of depth in the field.

Golf injury

Super - he may never be what he was, but 3 wins last year, probably another this year already? Despite everything, including not being able to find the golf course with his driver he does manage to get the most out of his game. Very impressive, by any analysis.

I agree with most that Woods' likeability is sub zero. However, we should give the guy some credit as this win (if he hangs on) sure is a 'real' win. No limited field, normal field (50 pts?) and not a specifically TW tailored course. He willbe threatening Rory's no 1 if he manages to win a couple more in the next weeks

Not a TW tailored course? He's won about 5 times there. It's one of his favourites.

I'm giving the guy credit, as he's going to win by a mile, but lets not forget it isn't a deep field and anyone but Nine Chins would have that held against them.

Hehe , The only comfort i am getting out of Chinys win is your response SR..

But i agree the field isnt great.. However i doubt anyone would have taken him this week...

He is kinda taking the mic out of them

When is doanld and westy gonna start playing though....

Nice to see them on a break though..

The slightly concerning thing for the rest is that he HAS found quite a lot of fairways (for him) this week. A bit more concerning for the rest is he just looked from his demeanour that he's a lot more in control of his mind and his game.
It's been a while since he's dominated a tournament like that but as I said earlier, Torrey is more or less a home game for him. The strength of the field was reasonable although not exactly rammed full of top 30 players (Snedeker, Watney, Johnson, Mickleson, Watson - ok the latter withdrew but he was in the field). Lets see if/how much he can consolidate on this performance on his next 2-3 outings. It shouldn't be forgotten that he missed a cut last week though!!

is it 7 wins!!! so this will be 8 at this venue

That is kinda unbelivable and i wish i knew before i put my bets on.

However one little niggle in woods swing and he wont hit them fairways!

One thing I will credit Woods with is he knows where to miss. When in form he knows the tendencies of his swing and where a bad shot will end up. Plus he was number one in fairways hit at one point during round 3.

I just hope the coverage is better tonight. Besides the annoying CBS crew there was no flow to the coverage last night. Couple of golf shots wedged in between ads, slow mos of Tiger not playing golf, shots of hand gliders, tributes to Andy Williams?? it was unwatchable. Apart from Tiger and maybe Watney and Sneds I had no feel for where or what anyone else was doing!!

super_realist wrote:Not a TW tailored course? He's won about 5 times there. It's one of his favourites.

I'm giving the guy credit, as he's going to win by a mile, but lets not forget it isn't a deep field and anyone but Nine Chins would have that held against them.

It has a strong field, i've no idea what your talking about. The guy's "competing" at the top may not be of the highest order bar Watney, but there were a huge number of the world's top 50 playing.

McLaren wrote:Kwini what time does the play on monday kick off london time?

Last night I heard on the tv coverage that tiger would be off at 11:10 local time so that'll be 7:10 for you guys

monty junior wrote:

super_realist wrote:Not a TW tailored course? He's won about 5 times there. It's one of his favourites.

I'm giving the guy credit, as he's going to win by a mile, but lets not forget it isn't a deep field and anyone but Nine Chins would have that held against them.

It has a strong field, i've no idea what your talking about. The guy's "competing" at the top may not be of the highest order bar Watney, but there were a huge number of the world's top 50 playing.

A huge number? Eh 17.

Watching some highlights the other day, I wondered just how much golf you could get into a 1 hour show if you edited out everything prior to address and avoided repeating shots? Just caption each shot, as is often already done, with player name hole number, shot number and show just the swing and its result. I reckon you'd get most of the leaders entire rounds in an hour, even with ad breaks.

super_realist wrote:

monty junior wrote:

super_realist wrote:Not a TW tailored course? He's won about 5 times there. It's one of his favourites.

I'm giving the guy credit, as he's going to win by a mile, but lets not forget it isn't a deep field and anyone but Nine Chins would have that held against them.

It has a strong field, i've no idea what your talking about. The guy's "competing" at the top may not be of the highest order bar Watney, but there were a huge number of the world's top 50 playing.

A huge number? Eh 17.

Ok a bit of an exaggeration but it's a pretty solid field, certainly no worse than most PGA tour fields.

very average pga field- but that cant be taken away from woods win- he won by 6 in 3 rounds..

Something completely different.
An interesting article by Rosaforte in this morning's GolfWorld following Tuesday's Players Meeting about anchoring putters:

http://www.golfworldmonday.com/golfworldmonday/20130128?sub_id=m6YFz2X7vbcH&folio=19#pg19

I can't stand Rosaforte (way worse than Jim Nantz even!) and I'm thinking this article might even have been planted by the PGA Tour, especially as he talks about: "Finchem saying he's not a big fan of the anchoring ban."


Confirm Grumpy's resumption of play comment: 11.10 a.m. local, 7.10 p.m. in Macclesfield.

Can't take anything away from Woods this week, he sprays it all over the place with impunity but he's holed a bunker shot, holed a chip, his wedge game looks the best it has for years (with receptive greens anyway), and he seems not to have missed his usual quota of gimme putts. Same course for everyone and he's lapping the field.

Big day coming up for Team England with Fish playing for the top ten which gives him a pass to Phoenix, Lynn in sight of a decent finish, and Owen hitting his irons just well enough to warm him up for a decent pay-day at his favourite Pebble Beach bank.

It's actually got me thinking that statistic. What other sports have so many events where there so few of the top of people in the game actually bother to turn up? Makes a bit of a mockery.

Can you imagine a tennis tournament with 17 of the top 50? It would be worse than a 250 point event on the ATP.

He can only beat what's up against him. No, it's not a great field (it's not a "bad" one either). If Woods is now as bad as he is made out to be these days, why isn't anyone else in the field stepping up and socking it to him?

By no stretch of the imagination is it a "he's back" moment and nor should any be unless or until he picks off more majors (and I'd have a plural in there before I would claim he's back at or near his best) but surely he deserves some (even begrudging) kudos for some decent golf? Or should we perhaps focus on berating the rest of the field for being appalling.

That said - cue Woods 11 hole collapse of Van de Velde proportions at approximately 7.12pm!

super_realist wrote:It's actually got me thinking that statistic. What other sports have so many events where there so few of the top of people in the game actually bother to turn up? Makes a bit of a mockery.

Can you imagine a tennis tournament with 17 of the top 50? It would be worse than a 250 point event on the ATP.

Well, the ATP tour has only one tour for the big guns whereas we have the PGA tour, the European Tour, the Japanese Tour and the Asian Tour. Of course, the latter two are relatively insignificant compared to big brother Euro Tour and biggest brother PGA Tour, but still. Furthermore: the ATP tour does have numerous 250 point tourneys where only 1/3 or less of the top 50 turn up.

And last but not least, tennis tournaments seem to have a little less competitors than golf tournaments (except for a couple of BS limited field golf tourneys, that is)

Pleasantly surprised to get up this morning and see that One Chin had extended his lead. Hopfully it will be the catalyst for a great year for the great one.

themightyone wrote:

super_realist wrote:It's actually got me thinking that statistic. What other sports have so many events where there so few of the top of people in the game actually bother to turn up? Makes a bit of a mockery.

Can you imagine a tennis tournament with 17 of the top 50? It would be worse than a 250 point event on the ATP.

Well, the ATP tour has only one tour for the big guns whereas we have the PGA tour, the European Tour, the Japanese Tour and the Asian Tour. Of course, the latter two are relatively insignificant compared to big brother Euro Tour and biggest brother PGA Tour, but still. Furthermore: the ATP tour does have numerous 250 point tourneys where only 1/3 or less of the top 50 turn up.

And last but not least, tennis tournaments seem to have a little less competitors than golf tournaments (except for a couple of BS limited field golf tourneys, that is)

Not really, how many of the top 50 are from the Japanese or Asian Tours? Not one.

BS tournaments? Like Chevron?

one chin-- hehe..

I am gonna call him 3 chins- because I have actually noticed a couple extra. But not 9!

SR golf has about 12 high quality events a year!!! thats one a month..

That is enough.. Your point doesnt stand tbh..

How many other sports has so many high quality events

mystiroakey wrote:SR golf has about 12 high quality events a year!!! thats one a month..

That is enough.. Your point doesnt stand tbh..

How many other sports has so many high quality events

Virtually every sport does, but I don't think many sports have so many pointless and insignificant ones.

really- go on then?

tennis comes close.

name another

super_realist wrote:It's actually got me thinking that statistic. What other sports have so many events where there so few of the top of people in the game actually bother to turn up? Makes a bit of a mockery.

Can you imagine a tennis tournament with 17 of the top 50? It would be worse than a 250 point event on the ATP.

Or the FA cup 5th round with only 7 premier league teams...

Sports which most of the competitors are of a higher standard in a competition?

Tennis.
Cycling,
Athletics,
Cricket (if you can call it a sport)
Football
Rugby.
Skiing,
Swimming.

I'm really losing interest in golf apart from playing it.

rugby, football and cricket!!

you what- most of the time one team is on another level..!!

super_realist wrote:

themightyone wrote:

super_realist wrote:It's actually got me thinking that statistic. What other sports have so many events where there so few of the top of people in the game actually bother to turn up? Makes a bit of a mockery.

Can you imagine a tennis tournament with 17 of the top 50? It would be worse than a 250 point event on the ATP.

Well, the ATP tour has only one tour for the big guns whereas we have the PGA tour, the European Tour, the Japanese Tour and the Asian Tour. Of course, the latter two are relatively insignificant compared to big brother Euro Tour and biggest brother PGA Tour, but still. Furthermore: the ATP tour does have numerous 250 point tourneys where only 1/3 or less of the top 50 turn up.

And last but not least, tennis tournaments seem to have a little less competitors than golf tournaments (except for a couple of BS limited field golf tourneys, that is)

Not really, how many of the top 50 are from the Japanese or Asian Tours? Not one.

BS tournaments? Like Chevron?

How about Hiroyuki Fujita @ 44? I think he is the only one though so not a whole lot there, although there's a couple more in the 51-100 range (Taniguchi, Jones, Wiratchant, Kim, Bhullar).
Furthermore, as I previously mentioned, I reckon you should not limit your view on the strength of a tournament to the top 50 OWGR contenders. '
And BS tourneys: Chevron indeed, and the Euro counterpart Nedbank. And all these 30ish no cut fields are no good either IMHO (at least not the amount of OWGR points allocated to low finishers).

SR, I am a bit disappointed by your lack of response, I was so sure you had your reply already typed and ready to go...

Well, I was wrong, there was one solitary Jap in there. Hardly tips the balance though

Tiger keeps this up and Rory could have some real competition this year.

The "W" all but etched.

Errant driving but short game dialed in and if TW can keep that up he'll be in the mix plenty in 2013.