PGA Tour: Texas Two-Step: Houston and San Antonio: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Because of the vagaries of the calendar, the Tour loses Houston as the stop immediately before Augusta this year and the boys will be playing Houston this week, and San Antonio next. Then The Masters of course.
But this is the week golf returned to the front pages of a breathless national media and headlined most of the national radio and TV news programmes. No, not because Sergio hit a ball out of a tree.
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!!!

2).The relentless march of inevitability lasted five days but Tiger finished fourteen under par on the Par-5's alone.
So: Was the week's biggest story Tiger and his brilliant putting plus the ability to ride a big slice of luck at a crucial time?
Or was it Justin Rose who outplayed Tiger for 40 holes, went into so much of a funk that he played sixteen holes in six over par, and then regrouped to outscore Tiger by one shot on Monday as he finished a comfortable runner up?

Not sure myself - perhaps Rose would have been better off playing 72 holes alongside Woods instead of listening to the roars in front of him and ogling Tiger's rise up the numerous on-course leaderboards?
I thought at the time that Justin's careless 3-putt on Friday evening's 18th might come back to haunt him, and he certainly lost form with his putter on Saturday, pushing at least four short left-to-righters below the hole.

3).What is in no doubt is that sport sees strokes of fortune, good and bad, that can make or break a round, a match, even a career.
Matt Prior played the ball on to his stumps early in his innings today, but the bails stayed intact and the headlines were of a brilliant 110 n.o., and not about throwing his wicket away when England needed him most.
Bill Haas was still in contention on Saturday when he hit a ball out of bounds - by three inches. He was toast from then on.
But minutes before, Tiger had hit a tee shot on the 9th hole which (according to NBC TV) struck a tree out of bounds and rebounded back in play. A brilliant par followed and he was off to the races on a course he knows better than anyone.
No-one knows how to take advantage of a good break like Tiger, but equally no-one follows a poor shot with another poor shot so infrequently. He sure looks good for Muirfield Village . . . . .

4).Great play also from Gonzo (he does have a first name, NBC), Olesen and Stenson. A glimpse of form from Martin Laird, Sergio running on fumes, and rubbish from Westwood. Difficult to fancy Europe's chances at Augusta unless Rory returns to his best - my fancy will be the same as last year, left handers and Saffers.

5).NBC TV did a piece during their weekend coverage lamenting slow play with Bubba Watson, Lee Westwood and the Network providing evidence for the prosecution. But they won't name names, despite the clips of Webb Simpson, Kevin Na etc.. The info on time taken by each player to play each shot is recorded so why doesn't the media get the data and start to name names. I would back Bradley, Crane, Harrington, Na and Simpson as being at least as glacial as the slowcoaches of yesteryear, Faldo and Langer, Chip Beck, Bob Estes and Ken Brown. Even Nicklaus and Couples could be pretty bloody slow.
Still puzzled why this is not an issue with the PGA Tour, but when the media's investigative reporting doesn't investigate why should the Tour be bothered?

6).Perhaps slow play has something to do with the fact that, for the seventh year running, the National Golf Foundation reported a net closure of 141 golfcourses in the United States last year - 13 openings, 154 closures. One thing's for sure, it wasn't anchored putters that causes reduction in play (tho not last year) and closure of courses.

7).And so to Texas and the "Shell Houston Open" at Redstone GC. Rees Jones designed the course with an assist from "Player Consultant" David Toms, who thinks so much of the finished product that he's not showing up to play. One of the "hooks" of the design is to create an Augusta National aura, a strong driving course with sloping greens and shaved chipping areas.
It's the last chance for players to qualify for The Masters via the owgr Top 50 and there's a strong field on hand to compete for Hunter Mahan's title. McIlroy (nice to seeing him on the range with Wozza and Djokovich at Miami Muni), Mickelson and Mahan, Bradley, Dustin Johnson and Snedeker, etc, etc..
Steve Stricker will be there - Houston offered him a sponsor's invite when Steve was down on his uppers a few years ago. He played well there and never looked back. And "Strick" doesn't forget those who do him a good turn. (Unlike some others of course.)

Who's there to win, who's there to fine-tune their game? That's the trick! Ogilvy and Charlie Howell, among others, will surely be trying as they look to secure a Billy Payne invite and this course certainly favours their length. I'll recommend a very modest e.w. interest in Chris Kirk, Jimmy Walker and Graham DeLaet, all at good prices, all in good recent form, and DeLaet and Kirk have good track records here.
Along similar lines, I'd imagine Stenson and Westwood might do well among a strong European entry.
Robert Karlsson up to 3rd alternate so hope some golfers' bad luck is his good fortune after he missed out in Monday qualifying. Conditions fine, at least until the weekend.

8).Champions Tour update:
No action for three weeks, but Roger Chapman earned a nice finish last week and is up to 25th in the money-list, while Mouland spoiled a good start but is still 30th for the season. Top thirty crucial for both to retain their cards for 2014 (tho Chapman might have an additional year's exemption).

Web.com update: Top 15's in Louisiana for Gary Christian and Russell Knox, but they're way back (56th and 54th respectively) on the moneylist and need to get some big finishes under their belts.

LPGA update: Spain's Beatriz Recari won last week in California and is up to 2nd in the money-list. Catriona Matthew is 21st and Jodi Ewart 33rd. No other GB&I golfers in the top 50.

9).Back to Mr.Woods: His stat's for the year are looking increasingly Tigeresque, including the all-important "strokes gained putting" where he leads.
Still wayward off the tee though, so he'll need something special to win anywhere that driving straight is a core competency.

10).And: Lots of snarky comments about Tiger's photo album with Lindsey Vonn, one wag suggesting the only thing missing was the Easter bunny.
But they seem to have their wires crossed somewhat.
Tiger: "We want to continue our relationship privately, as an ordinary couple."
Lindsey's Tweet, on the front page of USAToday among other places: "Number 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Way to keep a low profile.

Kokrack

Clutch par there..

Must putt for westy coming up on the short 4

Howell and deJonge will have to wait another year before getting a letter from B.Payne.

Chance missed at #12 for lw, no conviction in that putting stroke.

Well thats it. Cant see him winning now. Played well. Putted well occasionally this week. But when the heat is on - its going to falter.

Shame

kwinigolfer wrote:Howell and deJonge will have to wait another year before getting a letter from B.Payne.

Chance missed at #12 for lw, no conviction in that putting stroke.

Stenson making a mess of the par 5, Marcel might want to look away now.

Looks like only one man could stop the American streak completing a full three months. And he's never won before.

It might be a no-name Englishman rather than Shotrock's no-name American?

Eagle putt for Stenson at #15 . . . .

lw1 needs to make a putt, it's the same old song.

Don't think Lee's made an eagle yet this year - a first one here would certainly help his cause, but still think he'd need at least two more birdies.

-16 wins?
-15 gets play-off??
-14 gets the big pay cheque . . . .

So now he is birdiing the 5's we get on to eagles hey kwini

That's right mysti, second hole at Augusta in 11 days' time would be a terrific start.

Not looking good for resumption of play any time soon - would think they'll draw the lid over today's play unless they know that they can finish it.
Otherwise, more Monday play on the PGA Tour.

Bloody stupid really; not for the first time recently the forecast indicated (as intimated here) that there could be severe storms. Why not kick off an hour earlier or play in 3-somes off both tees?

Is this looking like an April Fool's Day finish? As Ben Crane and other would say... that's God's punishment for bringing us to work on Easter Sunday...

Since there's nothing happening, a thought just went through my mind...

Let's assume for the sake of argument that this heavy rain is not going to stop at all for the next 4-5 days... I doubt that they would be prepared to wait forever, so what's the normal procedure regarding 'closing' a tournament in such extreme situation? Is the leader in the clubhouse (Stenson!) declared a winner? But then what about the rest of positions (prize money, owgr points, etc.)... specially in a circumstance like this when the results are so important for finalising the Masters' invitations, etc... Or do they go back to the situation after 3rd round? But then there were a few guys tied for the lead... so who's the winner!?

Forecast for Monday 80's, sunny and dry.

But play to resume at 6.30 p.m. Central Time Sunday.

Would love to see Stenson win but, regardless, wouldn't you think he's the form European going into Augusta?

DA Points!
Not much sentiment about DA, except that I've always loved the way he takes his cap off and applauds the fans after holing out on his 72nd hole.
Maybe too much Dr.Feelgood for some, but I LIKE IT!

DA, Ahead on Points!

Not bad for Westwood when all is said and done.
And good to see Brian Davis back in the real world again. His T4 here last year was worth $236K, hopefully he'll kick on from a good T6 and about $180K, maybe more, this year.

Word is that Siem is getting one last chance with a last minute sponsors' invite to the Valero next week... Clarke and Lowry (again) among the recipients already announced.

kwinigolfer wrote:DA, Ahead on Points!

kwinigolfer wrote:Not bad for Westwood when all is said and done.

It was good but every day he lacked something.. On the plus side he did show he could do everything well at certain times during the tourny.. The putting let him done at the end for me highlighting the difference between Westy and Woods.. the 10 footers.. Also watching the shot tracker religiously this time around showed that his pitching and chipping was also below his partners. Final round His partner seemed to chip or pitch to half the distance away from the hole than westy did. Another plus was (in the last 2 rounds anyway) He did take advantage of the par 5's

kwinigolfer wrote:And good to see Brian Davis back in the real world again. His T4 here last year was worth $236K, hopefully he'll kick on from a good T6 and about $180K, maybe more, this year.

Very good from Davis..

Don't you love it when the pros copy our stuff:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/texas-two-step-moved-different-210502348--golf.html

Different content of course, but the sub-editor has the same headline, a week late.