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?

So what has changed for Tiger between his debacle in the desert and now?

Mac,
You'd like to think it's the difference between $3M and a little self-respect and pride.

Haven't seen the field yet for Phoenix but early commitments suggest a good turn-out.
Snedeker, Dufner, Mahan, Bubba, Keegs, Pettersson, Watney, Van Pelt, Kaymer, Fowler, Colsaerts, Haas, David Lynn, Garrigus, Piercy, Moore, Toms, Padraig Harrington, Stanley, Veej, etc.

Wish pgatour.com would publish the full field.

Good Lord, pgatour.com has finally published the field for Phoenix - good job by the janitors presumably.

Highlights in addition to the above include:
Tim Clark
Blixt
Cabrera
KJ Choi
Brian Davis
Jason Day
Freddie Jac
Martin Laird
Ogilvy
Greg Owen
Parnevik

Ross Fisher is an alternate but would get in with a top ten finish this week - just a taste for how important good finishes are early in the season.

Would imagine this will be declared a 50+ owgr quality field when princedracula has his sliderule in gear.

14 Aussies in the Farmers field:
4 make the cut, 3 of them on the number.
10 out with the pigs.
Pathetic - almost as if Team Aussie is content just to be on the circuit, no sign of ambition, and rude awakenings for some big names.
Allenby, Appleby, Ogilvy: Are you listening?

Imagine if Adam Scott was the only Aussie to qualify for the Presidents Cup? Quite likely if these guys don't pull their downunders up.

http://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/merione/aerial.htm

This is the current state of merion in preparation for the US open. I would not want to be a member.

As you zoom in you will notice the course change as up to a certain point the zoom is older images and then as you get closer it changes to the most recent.


Does anyone know why the membership of merion wanted the Open?

You wouldn't think they were in need of new members from increased exposure or anything like that.

I would presume it is all about prestige and money Mac.
I know my other course got 30k for holding Open Qualifying so I imagine the uspga probably pay millions to the course that gets to hold it. Plus they pay for course changes.

Why would you want the course changes that have been forced upon merion? There is no way merion needs the money either, guys who are members of clubs like that in the states have bottomless pockets.

Just another reason why the USGA and R&A are going after the wrong target and should be looking at restricting the distance the ball flies.

Presumably no-one oohs and aahs at anchored putters the way they do at 350 yard drives.

Most of the rain seems to have moved on overnight, almost an inch of precipitation having taken the sting out of Torrey Pines if yesterday is anything to go by.
Imagine the later starters will have the best of the conditions with the middle-of-the-pack guys leaving the stalls just after 7.00 a.m. when the rough will still be soaking.
Play will be slow today, but the 87 starters will be whittled down to top 70 and ties by the end of the day. Laird, Lynn and Owen need solid rounds to survive and avoid being "MDF"ers.

Mac - Great aerial. Last year I hosted a couple guys from the UK and we played Merion. One turned to me mid round and said this is more English than just about any golf course I've played in England. It's a course full of nuance, shot value, and requires some significant decision making. I was once 6 over going to the 14th tee and all you-know-what broke loose. The final 5 holes are brutal.

Even from the friendly "forward" tees, those ribbon fairways make that a beast for any golfer. What's hard to tell from that shot is just how penal the rough can be. I once hit a ball about 3 yards off the fairway on #18 and 4 golfers and 2 caddies could not find it. Essentially what Merion did was make the long holes longer and pinched the landing areas in many places. The greens have always been world class difficult.

Why did they do it? Money to some degree I guess, but this is one course in the US with unlimited resources, so it's not the prime driver. Prestige? To be sure. Also, there are members who feel it's important to give back and let more experience the "magic of Merion". Now, I can see the eyes rolling at that last comment, but I assure you it's how more than a few feel.

If you scroll over a bit further west, you will see the "West Course", which is much more member friendly and accounts for about 70% of all member play. That's another reason you can put your course on sterioids for a US Open and still play golf at your place.

If we have a wet Spring, I think the professionals will pick it apart, but don't look for many drivers off the tee. If it's fast and firm, it will play a lot harder. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the USGA's preoccupation with protecting par is silly. If you want to play "Merion" and want winning scores over par simply call any par 4 under 375 yards a par 3 and you'll get what you want.

We rarely have this kinda wet weather. This sucks. We left at 2pm yesterday.

Hope you get back at it today, Leff, should be a touch drier, maybe even some sun tomorrow! Sunny here, you'll be glad to know - up to 5F, heatwave.

Just read a lovely appreciation of Frank Keating by Matthew Engel - can't think of too many people over the yesrs that I would like to have watched a sporting event with than Frank Keating . . . . sad to see he's filed his final dispatch.

McLaren wrote:http://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/merione/aerial.htm

This is the current state of merion in preparation for the US open. I would not want to be a member.

As you zoom in you will notice the course change as up to a certain point the zoom is older images and then as you get closer it changes to the most recent.

Maybe I'm missing something... what changes are you seeing... I'm not seeing all that much from the base image to the enlargements...

We are heading there in a few minutes, Kwini. Probably leave early again.

kwinigolfer wrote:Good Lord, pgatour.com has finally published the field for Phoenix - good job by the janitors presumably.

Just glancing... this one looks a few points better than last year's field.... maybe a 52-54? Will wait for the new OWGR before I do the math...

So wood won and woods is in the lead!!!

A precursor for a wonderful season for Westwood perhaps?

I see the early morning start is too much for pgatour.com - alarm clocks failed thoughout La Jolla presumably. Very poor advertisement for the PGA Tour.

aye well lets hope it is..

Seems there's a 2 1/2 fog delay, so it's not just pgatour.com that is in a fog, it's the players and the course also.

Went, returned home, going back in a little while. Would have been hard for players to see beyond 100 yards this morning.

kwinigolfer wrote:Seems there's a 2 1/2 fog delay, so it's not just pgatour.com that is in a fog, it's the players and the course also.

Hope CHIII is enjoying the weather there...

Yeah, CHIII should come play the ET. No Monday finishes there. And this week, the weather was so good they even managed to finish already Saturday.

Good job the fog dispersed, now it's the "marine layer" (euphemism of golf on the California Coast).

The Tour could be in a right pickle now as it's increasingly unlikely they'll get these guys round today.
And if they wait to regroup after Round 3 on Sunday, which you'd think they'd have to given the MDF rule, things will be tight again tomorrow!

Over to you Chuck . . . . .

Re: Merion ... check out the tee box they put behind the road on #18 ... I'm guessing that's a 260+ uphill to reach the fairway. I would have to pitch forward to to another tee box and try my luck that way! Another interesting feature of Merion East is that the 15th tee box is in the 16th fairway (albeit the "ladies aid" portion).

Robo - Zoom in on #2 and you can see what they did to move that fairway right and make the landing area smaller. Also, moved the fairway a bit on #11, too.

Robo

check out the changes mentioned by Shotrock, and also remember these aerials do not show all the changes. The story I have heard is that the rough has been made thicker over the last year or two and a lot of the fairways narrowed.

Also have a look at the bunker changes up the right on 15.

The bunker on the left of 16 has been moved up by what looks like 50+ yards.

11th fairway has been moved left and blended with 12. I dont really object with double fairways but play is slow enough on tour without having to share fairways. (I think merion rounds could be the longest on record, just look at situations like the 18th tee, you will have to wait for 17 to clear) Having never played the course I have no idea how this affects the strategy of the hole. It looks like you wont be able to open up the angle to a back left pin bu going up the right of the fairway.


what i don't get is if the members already found the east a little tough for day to day play then why make it almost impossible by yielding to tricked up USGA architecture?

All I can tell about those aerials of Merion is how little room there for the crowds and corporate tents.

I know that they had the Walker Cup as a test run a few years ago, but they should have hosted a US AM or a Womens Open or Senior Open before they tackled the US Open.

And split tees? 10th tee is nowhere near the clubhouse. It actually looks like it is in someone's back yard. About 20 ft from the pool!

I think that this US Open is going to be a mess.

This has been a bad experience so far, going, returning, going, waiting, returning, although we live minutes away. Waiting game again tomorrow.

Who cares about the fog? Most players can't see past their own nose anyway...

Jim Furyk is not playing . . . . . .

Leff wrote:This has been a bad experience so far, going, returning, going, waiting, returning, although we live minutes away. Waiting game again tomorrow.

You mean you can't just pay for decent weather?

Hard times.

GPB - Fair points all. As far as the crowd size, they limited ticket sales and it's been sold out for months (2,000 strong waiting list just for volunteers).

Scroll to the West Course and see just how far the driving range is from the first tee. (Driving range on the West course from first fairway to the 12th green area.) I'm also not sure they will allow players on the primary practice green during the event, since it's so close to the 14th tee.

Much of the defense of Merion is in the rough. I'll be curious to see just how far back they keep the crowds and how many holes are grandstands only.

I understand players are being driven to the 10th tee, which should make for some interesting logistical challenges.

Check out the real estate around the 14th and 15th holes. Those home reportedly going for near 7 digits for the two weeks.

Not sure what variety of weather will greet the early starters this morning, but I see pgatour.com have described yesterday's gloom as "fog that would have made London proud".

To which all I can say is: "Charlie Howell, don't believe everything the PGA Tour tells you."

Under starter's orders in ten minutes, at 7.00 a.m. local time, all being well.

And we have action!

About time an all..

Come on fish

scoring seems toigh from what i have seen!!

Not for Oldham though.
Is Sebastien Coates the worst ever Prem defender?


Hunter Mahan with the best round going so far - Mahan, now there's a name we haven't seen on a leaderboard for a long time.

Lots of time to go ... yet Tiger has the opportunity to distance himself from plenty. Just some excellent golf by TW. Keep it up!

I didn't realise they were dispensing with MDF-ing today.
Makes perfect sense when you're way delayed to send out an extra 15-odd players.

Horses for courses: Pat Perez now with the best round going, and he grew up here!

Shotrock wrote:Lots of time to go ... yet Tiger has the opportunity to distance himself from plenty. Just some excellent golf by TW. Keep it up!

His driving is surprisingly excellent, hope it stays like that!

incontinentia wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Lots of time to go ... yet Tiger has the opportunity to distance himself from plenty. Just some excellent golf by TW. Keep it up!

His driving is surprisingly excellent, hope it stays like that!

Solid play - no other way to describe it, IMO. Certainly not jumping on the field, but also giving nothing back. Go over par today and you're certain to lose significant ground.

Has to be said he is looking good but...is there another course anywhere in the world on which he feels more comfortable??. I can see him winning by a distance here but that doesn't mean he's back in his prime, not by a long stretch.

He won 3 times last year, I can see him doing similar this year (and I suspect this will be the first one), He's also maybe a bit closer to winning one of the Majors too but no more than that.

Fully agree Jas, this course gives him a lot of confidence and that is probably the main reason for his great play. Wouldnt be surprised if he MC'd his next tournament. I think people will have to accept that Tiger will be playing with his B-game for the rest of his career. Even so that should be good enough to surpass Sam Snead's record and maybe bag another major or two.

Not sure what his next tournament will be; assume he'll give Pebble Beach a miss, and he seems determined to avoid Riviera because he realises he can't win there, so it's probably the MatchPlay, where he'll cask beaucoup dollars and a couple of owgr points even if he gets skunked the first round.

Then Honda, Doral and Bay Hill before Augusta?

Colsaerts on that bogey train. Welcome to the tour.

Tiger really swinging well - and short game nice and sharp.

Haven't they missed an obvious solution to the weather delay - bring the North course back into play?

Kwin - Disagree that Tiger can't win at Riveria, simply because he's never done it. Following that logic, it's like saying Lukey can't win a major because he's never done it! I don't believe either.

Ah, But Luke tries (I think!), Tiger chooses to bite the hand that gave him his first start . . . . . .

Smithers, That would have been a brilliant solution, send them off in twosomes on both courses. Though perhaps the North Course is lacking the infrastructure to deal with the possibility of the winner finishing there - dunno.

You say bite the hand, I say move on!

kwinigolfer wrote:Not sure what his next tournament will be; assume he'll give Pebble Beach a miss, and he seems determined to avoid Riviera because he realises he can't win there, so it's probably the MatchPlay, where he'll cask beaucoup dollars and a couple of owgr points even if he gets skunked the first round.

Then Honda, Doral and Bay Hill before Augusta?

That to me would be a much bigger sign that he was getting back to where he was...i.e. winning on a course he hasn't won on before/apparently doesn't like. Also be interesting to see how he does in the matchplay if he carries on this form, been a long time since he performed in that particular WGC. American RC Captains seem to have a blind spot re his matchplay prowess which I just don't get.

Kwini
I have the answer to your quiz re worst defender in Prem. Igor Stepanovs, one of Wenger's magic buys for Arsenal. Saw him at OT when Utd won 6-1. Day after the match they had to mow round him. Hadn't moved for 24 hours, and didn't even get in the way!
Tiger impressive.

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!!