PGA Tour: A Year of British Futility on Tour: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).With the exception of Rory's brilliant late-season run, the Ryder Cup and Ian Poulter's HSBC win, it's been a year since a British golfer won on Tour. Luke Donald won the final playing of the "Transitions" last March and since then nothing, nuffink.
And, with the possible exception of the golfer formerly known as Martin Laird at The Players, no-one has really come close. Europeans Pettersson, Garcia and Blixt have wins, but Donald, Westwood, Rose, Poulter, McDowell, Laird, Davis (withdrawn more often than he's been in contention), you name it, they've flattered occasionally, deceived always. Harsh? Let's have a look:

2).Exhibit A).Luke Donald. Lots of good finishes in the past 12 months without ever looking like the winner.
And this year, he's reverted to the Lukey of 2009: Driving short and crooked, short game not sharp enough to turn bogeys in to pars, pars in to birdies.
Driving accuracy: 180th out of 183
Greens in regulation: 167th
Strokes gained putting: 107th
Scrambling: 133rd.
Par 5 performance: 173rd.

3).Exhibit B).Lee Westwood. Second behind Rory at the BMW, otherwise no Top 4 finishes since last year's Masters.
17th in Total Driving, but 100th in greens hit.
125th in putting and 146th in Par 5 performance.
So much for foresaking Worksop for Florida. Big mansion, throaty Bentley and not much else to show for it.

4).Exhibit C).Ian Poulter. What an enigma! Brilliant short game but 149th in scoring average. How does that happen?
Short game: Scrambling: 5th, Sand saves: 19th, Putting: 9th.
Long game: Total Driving: 144th, Greens hit: 131st. etc. (Don't tell Johnny Miller.)

5).Exhibit D).Justin Rose. No wins since 2012 at Doral. A propensity for "back-door" high finishes, a la Donald of years gone by. Last year his game was all about hitting greens in regulation and an excellent short game.
So far this year, that iron game has gone awol (128th in gir) and the short game hasn't compensated (126th in putting).

6).Exhibit E).Graeme McDowell. No wins since Pebble in 2010 and, to be fair, no close shaves either. Last year his short game was abysmal (160th or worse in putting, sand saves and scrambling), while this year he's tightened things up around the greens which is a good thing given he's missing more of them (147th in gir) than his competitors.
Nice to see him yukking it up with Tiger at Doral on Sunday, but I ask you: Do you think Tiger would be all smiles if he was five shots behind rather than five ahead? No, Thought not.

7).Etc, Etc. One of the reasons is the fact that playing two Tours allows these guys very little flexibility in scheduling. Donald and Rose seem to have figured out that they should build their year around courses that tend to suit them, stay away from those which don't, but I'd suggest that others have yet to figure that out and get carried away with teeing it up at places where they've next to no chance of excelling. Tough when Majors and WGC's count as events played on both Tours.

8).My favourite courses on the Tour schedule in Florida are Innisbrook's Copperhead Course and 17 holes at the TPC. Perhaps Luke Donald can steer his tee ball a little straighter this week and start to arrest his recent decline at the lyrically named "Tampa Bay Championship presented by EverBank", played at Innisbrook. Horses for courses apply here as often as not and, if guys like Furyk, Goosen and Choi are ever going to resurrect their careers it will be at places like this. Five par-3's, four par-5's for a Par 71 that may play progressively easier as the week goes on. Cool, breezy Thursday, warmer and calmer later.

9).None of the Europeans who played Puerto Rico last week did much to help themselves, a crucial missed opportunity for guys like Karlsson and Knox who will enjoy very few such opportunities (neither eligible for this week's field for instance). But I fancy one or two of Europe's best might fare well this week, Donald of course, Sergio, Pettersson, Kaymer, perhaps even Laird, Fisher and Owen.

10).The Champions Tour travels to California this week for the "Toshiba Classic" in Newport Beach.
Barry Lane has scored a place in the field along with Langer, Chapman, Mouland and Lyle.

One person who won't be there is Eddie Pearce but I strongly, STRONGLY! recommend this article about Fast Eddie for anyone remotely interested in the vagaries of Professional Golf:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/jason-sobel/eddie-pearce-fast-times-of-next-nicklaus/?hj=xfs


THE LAST WORD: If you think this series of notes is just blowing smoke, think again:
There's a new Pope in town!!
Andy Pope Monday Qualified for this week's Tampa Bay Championship - never 'eard of 'im? No, me neither.

Incredible round from Boo - an awful nice guy and the player I would like to see win this thing. But I don't think 8 under will get it done.

Weekley will always have a black mark against his name for behaving like a pig at Valhalla. Prepared to put that down to ignorance rather than anything malicious but, really, what a Wally.

His round today was spectacular considering the fumbling by his pursuers - nothing wrong with Streelman however, always seemed a good guy to moi.

Lukey needs to make those putts for birds or eagles, pars won't hack it.

Weekly another professional who I met and who could not have been nicer to me and my family. Silly behavior at Valhalla -- not malicious mind you, but silly none-the-less, IMO.

Lukey will need some magic to get it done, but a great par putt save and if anyone could do it ...

Meanwhile that heralded one time Major and Players champion from the last century NOT someone I would put any money on at this stage in the game.

Very well played Kevin Streelman, overdue win and couldn't have played much better today.
Hard lines for Boo, but he's come a long way since losing his card a couple of years ago. He's OK for 2014 now!
Lots of good stories this week but disappointment for Luke and Sergio, though good signs for the future. Fingers crossed.

Didn't need the spiel on reading the scriptures to give me an inner calm though.

Why doesn't someone come on and say,
"Well guv, read the Sporting Life, thought the going suited me, watched St.Arsene's boys do the business and come out, hit it luvly and gave 'em a real stuffing."?

Fourth then for Luke on his final Tour start before The Masters.

That made me cringe too. I wonder whether it was the homophobic bits, or the mysogeny, or the human sacrifice? Assuming he's as republican as most golfers, probably all 3.

Kwin - What you suggest requires a Brit win (see first post)!

Pretty impressive stuff from Streelman on the home stretch. Didn't shy away from anything.

So what does all this American domination on tour mean as we countdown to Augusta?

Nothing.

So Luke donald back doing what he does best..

Average first 36 then flys into the top 10 on the weekend!!

I hope he gets to augusta early and prepares well.

Got to question why Schwartzel, Donald, Mannassero and Harrington are playing in Malayasia, apart from money....Questionable decision, I know there is three weeks until the Masters but still.

Money! Plus it's a European Tour event under their belt and Matteo probably wouldn't get in to PGA Tour events anyway.
Didn't do Harrington any good last week in Thailand - hope all of them get their act together for this week.

Mannassero actually shouldn't be in the comment above as he isn't a member of the PGA Tour

kwinigolfer wrote:Money! Plus it's a European Tour event under their belt and Matteo probably wouldn't get in to PGA Tour events anyway.
Didn't do Harrington any good last week in Thailand - hope all of them get their act together for this week.

Yes, realised that about Matteo. Not wanting to degrade last week's event in Thailand but for a player of Harrington's stature it was a meaningless event tbh.

Maybe they want a win before to gain confidence. Truth is though its got to just be a bit of pressure from the sponsers and alot of wedge in the back burner

Good turnout for Team GB&I nevertheless:
Rose (3rd in 2011)
Poulter (3rd last year)
Westwood (5th in 2007)
McDowell (twice runner-up here)
Davis (4th last year)
Laird (winner two years ago)
Owen (tragic second place in 2006 - has he ever really got over it?)
Edit: Forgot David Lynn. Again.
Fisher an alternate, most unlikely to make the field. Horrendous putting week at Innisbrook for Fish, a four-putt and numerous 3-putts and other short misses, now 165th in "strokes gained putting", losing the equivalent of three strokes on the greens in a four day event. Sand saves and scrambling stat's even worse. His "ballstriking" and "total driving" stat's are all top ten on Tour but what a waste.

I just wish Harrington would stop b!tching about how tough the ET are on him.

What is that in reference to?

kwinigolfer wrote:Didn't need the spiel on reading the scriptures to give me an inner calm though..

It's also irritating when they use the interview to advertise their equipment.

sirbenson wrote:What is that in reference to?

He complained big time when the ET increased the min. no. of tourneys to retain ET membership, yet hardly plays any non-Asian ET tourneys.