PGA Tour: Halfway Through the Season: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Sixteen down and, after this week in New Orleans, sixteen tournaments to go, at least until the FedEx Play-Offs and/or the quasi Q-School series which will gather Tour players outside the top 125 and the web.com leaders.

2).Not much to say following the RBC Heritage except the obvious: fabulous Harbour Town course, outstanding Hilton Head Island location, unseasonally dodgy weather and a compelling Sunday. The "International" streak of winners was extended to three and Graeme McDowell finally won his first "regular" PGA Tour event after so many close shaves. The wind certainly didn't hurt his chances, but getting up and down almost 80% of the time sealed the deal for him and re-established him as a Major-calibre competitor, in every sense of the word. A ray of light for Luke Donald as well as his form finally showed signs of returning.

3).So, one week removed from my favourite place on Tour, it's time to drive 650 miles in a westerly direction, to New Orleans and the "Zurich Classic of New Orleans", the one tournament above all others I'd like to attend. It's as much a culinary experience as a golf tournament and New Orleans is on hand to occupy one's evenings. What could be better??!!
But before we talk about this week's action (on the course, at least), let's have a gaze at the first half of the year.

4).Measured by the official currency of the PGA Tour, FedEx points, 363 points were sufficient last year to qualify for "The Barclays"; we'll start to look more closely at who's struggling to make it nearer the time, but those guys currently outside the top 125 clearly need to get their act together, especially as some won't be eligible for more than 14 or 15 of the remaining 17 tournaments. #126 - 150 include:

#126: Colsaerts: Playing this week but he needs some big weeks to help him manage what will become a very tricky scheduling dilemma for him. 174th in strokes gained - putting.
#128: Kaymer: Exempt for another two years, but having difficulty putting four decent rounds together.
#131: Fisher: Missed four of his past five cuts and will only make about 13 more events, fewer if he plays in Europe. 179th (of 185) in strokes gained - putting.
#133: O'Hair: 2011 Canadian Open champion, but his card is now in jeopardy - like Kaymer, just can't find any consistency.
#138: Blixt: Last year he seemed surrounded by Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". Jonas too by the looks of his results. Exempt thru 2014 courtesy of his Fry's win.
#149: Ricky Barnes: Emerged from obscurity to a decent Tour career at Bethpage in the 2009 US Open. Back to obscurity if he doesn't get going.
#151: Kyle Stanley: Like Blixt, exempt thru next year, but what has become of him? Ahead of only John Daly in 184th position in strokes gained - putting.
#159: Ishikawa: Will Billy Payne offer him a Masters invite if he's on the web.com Tour?

5).Others sinking fast include #151 - 200 (and worse!):
#161: Appleby
#165: Andres Romero
#166: Steve Marino
#171: Chad Campbell
#196: Karlsson: Robert will be lucky to get more than half a dozen more starts (playing this week) - not sure where he goes from here.
#219: Allenby

6).Presidents Cup qualifying positions:
US: 1 - 10: Woods, Snedeker, Kuchar, Mahan, Mickelson, Stricker, Simpson, DJohnson, KBradley, Haas.
There will be two Captain Couples "picks" and those who would currently need them include:
Watson (11), Dufner (12), Furyk (13), Watney (14), ZJohnson (15).
Interesting in that the top 15 include all the 2012 Ryder Cup Team, plus all the 2011 Presidents Cup Team except David Toms.

7).International qualifying points leaders:
1 - 10: Scott, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel, Els, Day, Grace, Coetzee, Clark, Sterne, Senden: All Australian or South African!
Close behind are: #'s 11 - 15: Fujita, Ogilvy, Cabrera, Leishman, Jaidee.
Missing from the 2011 Team (as they mostly were in Melbourne to be fair):
KJ Choi (20), Baddeley (26), Ishikawa (32), KT Kim (35), Goosen (41), Yang (49), Allenby (110).

Two words for Nick Price; Good Luck!

8).The TPC Louisiana is hardly one of the Tour's favourites but looks a little better via the TV screen than its ranking by PGA Tour pros from their 2011 experience: #45 out of 52 courses ranked. Regardless, hardly one of Pete Dye's masterpieces and, to quote Geoff Ogilvy:
"If you go to courses that take away advantages enjoyed by the truly great players - superior shot-making, imagination, strategy, flair - and bring them back to the pack, you get dodgy winners, odd results and strange leaderboards."
So don't say we didn't warn you!
There's a decent enough field on hand but most of the top players here are either "Zurich ambassadors" or overseas players grabbing a sponsors' invitation or enjoying some Top Ten largesse. Difficult to choose course specialists, too, as this course has only been used half a dozen times, but Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler have played well here, and might be motivated to kick-start the second half of their year. No idea really - Dufner and Els were in a play-off last year but both have had a terrible start to their season.

9).This is the final week to qualify for the Players Championship via the owgr Top Fifty and Europeans not in this year's field who could squeeze in with a top New Orleans finish include Siem, Lowry and Lynn. Clearly Fisher and Karlsson need a special week or three, but this would seem a great opportunity for each of them.

10).Finally, here's a story about the 2006 winner, the always overweight (to be kind) and dishevelled (to be really kind) Chris Couch, that I hadn't heard before and is totally bizarre. Link to Jason Sobel's golfchannel.com column:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/jason-sobel/the-curious-case-of-chris-couch/

PS: Happy 40th to Lee Westwood . . . . .

You can tell the PGA Tour has come to town: New Orleans is getting hammered with severe storms right now, and the TPC Louisiana has been under a tornado warning.
Not sure of any damage to the course, but they don't need any more rain. New Orleans, has received a bucket load over the past three weeks.
Forecast for the tournament is fine though, pleasant temps, sun and only a small chance of rain.

Kwini,

Great article. Not sure who's advising Shane Lowry, but all this switching between Eupope & the US will nly end in disappointment and a place outside the Top 100...............Good luck to him though.

dont scoff but i saw Shane recently and hes lost fair bit of weight from what i could tell.
he was playing Metro golf with a bunch of friends and they were having a long drive compeition. he came about 5th out of 16!

dont scoff but i saw Shane recently and hes lost fair bit of weight from what i could tell.
he was playing Metro golf with a bunch of friends and they were having a long drive competition. he came about 5th out of 16!

Where would he come in an eating competition?

Hi Kwini, thanks for the notes as always!
GMac crediting some of his form to straight driving. Last time round at Pebble it was his short game work. Certainly when he's feeling comfortable that unorthodox swing is more than good enough.

This weeks tournament must be forgettable if the first thing everyone talks about are the chargrilled oysters! I thought it was Bubba who won it last year as I'd forgotten about Dufs playoff win.

So does Fisher start thinking about packing his bags and heading back to europe? Perhaps not yet but Karlsson certainly should.

Geibergers 59 (apparently previously thought to have been lost)

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2013/4/25/turns-out-al-geibergers-59-was-caught-on-tape.html

Interesting thoughts about the Euros struggling. Also there was a load written about it in last week's Notes too. There is talk there of packing your bags and heading home to Europe but it got me thinking that, yes, the riches on offer on the PGAT are seriously good but when they are playing on the Euro tour how much of home do they really see? The tour rarely touches Europe and while in the US there is still a fair bit of travelling there is rarely more than a 3-4 hour flight. The time difference is minimal so the quality of life is arguably much better too.

I cannot think who was telling me about the pro who is affiliated to their club (I think it was about Ollie Fisher) who said that it was better for him financially on the web.com tour than the Euro Tour. So maybe not making the top 125 is not as bad as we think.

Web.com financially better than european tour - that's an eye opener as a headline statement

Do you know if he perhaps qualified it (ie does he live in the states and is he counting the cost of travelling from there to Europe (and far corners) to compete combined with the assumption that he'd be a top performer at web events versus not doing so well in Europe) or is the web.com more lucrative?

Certainly got to agree it looks easier to have a base in the US for the US tour than... well, anywhere in the world really for the ET.

289 - exactly. Unless the purses are massive, the ET (IMO) has been going down the wrong path with all this globetrotting. Crowds looks pathetic week in and week out and the top European players (almost without exception) all aspire to play on the US tour. Numbers don't lie.

guys i think the poking fun at Lowry's weight has grown pretty thin at this point. maybe we could try to be more mature and judge the man not by the size of his midriff but by the content of his character.

Roller - I think he was referring to the whole package. When you look at both the ET and Challenge Tour the travelling must be pretty expensive. I think I remember a 5Live programme about Q School saying that the Challenge Tour cost a player about £65k to compete on. I would guess that in the US you could more easily find cheaper accommodation, food and travel than in some of the far flung places the ET and challenge go to.

I think we also have to look at what the players who compete on the ET regularly are earning, not the top players who's earnings in majors and World events gets added in there.

Having said that it was Fisher, that would probably the source, it doesn't look as though he is doing it from the PGA website so I would guess he was hypothesising.

Lift, clean and place for Round 1 in New Orleans following their recent deluge(s).

John,
Shane Lowry seems to be caught between two stools right now (when perhaps some might say that two stools ain't enough for him). He hasn't achieved enough during his occasional outings on the PGA Tour and has performed poorly in "Europe". Until a golfer is well entrenched in the owgr Top Fifty I'd say splitting time between two Tours is the proverbial fool's errand.

I reckon Fisher and Karlsson have to stick it out on the PGA Tour, at least until the Q-School series - still time after that to get some European events in, but if either starts to hopscotch between the two Tours they'll dig themselves a hole they can't get out of, over here at least.


Not sure about lesser lights on the European Tour looking longingly at the web.com and thinking it's an easy living.
Their first three events this year were in Panama, Columbia and Chile and after that it becomes a relentless grind around the States. Very rewarding for the top dozen or so, confidence-sapping for the rest, especially those who expect success to be a piece of cake.

Ollie Fisher, for example, could presumably have taken a web.com card for this year; assume he'd've had to forego some endorsement income but if the young guys think they can be successful, give it a try.

Meanwhile, most of the Europeans below the very top level who come over here are just not good enough putters to be successful here. They're great ball-strikers perhaps, but Fisher is a poster child for hitting fairways and greens but not the bottom of the cup.

Interesting brain-teaser for us as I'm struggling to think of a single European golfer who obtained his PGA Tour card via the Nationwide/web.com Tour rather than thru Q-School - except for those like Richard Johnson, Laird, Knox, Blixt, Lingmerth, Christian etc who attended college in the States.

Guys like Chopra, Greg Owen and Gronberg qualified via Q-School, lost their cards and rebounded back to the Tour via web.com success, but I reckon the next European-based player to graduate via web.com will be the first.

Kwini. For someone to come through the web.com side is a pretty ballsy call without having some knowledge of the US and presumably somewhere to call home so I would guess that it will continue to be the preserve of guys who have been to US college.

Or do you think that the changes to the way to get into Q School (have they actually been actioned yet) will mean that in the future that will be the main way into the PGAT for any European who is not in the Ryder Cup or top 5 in majors.

Could this actually give the European Tour back some players who otherwise may have been lost like Greg Owen, Brian Davis, Chopra were in the past? I suppose the worst case is that the ET becomes a feeder for the PGAT which is not far off what it is now.

There's a bloke I've never heard of playing this week called Jake Narro. Pity he's not grouped with Shane Lowry.


twoeightnine,
I think you're hitting the nail on the head there.
The Q-School changes materialise late this summer as there is a qualifying four-event series featuring FedEx points earners 126 - 150 from the PGA Tour plus 75-ish from the web.com moneylist. Top fifty to earn Tour cards. (Some details might be off a touch.)
And then: There's a further Q-School in the autumn for players seeking to earn web.com cards.

Would guys like Fisher or Karlsson (and I'd bet one or two other wannabes) want to go to the web.com circuit for a year, or would they be better off in Europe? The likes of Richard S.Johnson, Chopra, Gronberg are essentially spinning their wheels right now; what will become of them when the sponsorship deals expire?

And, remember, guys like Jimenez, Hansen and one or two others have tried the PGA Tour, not fancied it, and returned to Europe. Certainly not the end of the world.

kwinigolfer wrote:There's a bloke I've never heard of playing this week called Jake Narro. Pity he's not grouped with Shane Lowry.


twoeightnine,
I think you're hitting the nail on the head there.
The Q-School changes materialise late this summer as there is a qualifying four-event series featuring FedEx points earners 126 - 150 from the PGA Tour plus 75-ish from the web.com moneylist. Top fifty to earn Tour cards. (Some details might be off a touch.)
And then: There's a further Q-School in the autumn for players seeking to earn web.com cards.

Jake Narro is a club pro in Cajun Country at Oak Knoll CC. He is probably the Section Representative from Louisiana playing in the tournament.

And it is #126-#200 from the PGAT in the Web-com qualifying series not the #126-#150 players. A non tour player "only" to earn about $120K to make into the series. An international player who can somehow qualify for WGC's is guaranteed to make that much by just showing up.

The #126-#150 will have conditional cards in 2013. Villegas and Daly (among others) are playing the tour from this status in 2013.

Agree GPB, Not sure where I got 126 - 150 from.

Right, Here goes Guan Tianlang with the unfortunate Bolli and Norlander. All eyes on his speed of play.

PS: See Ricky Barnes has been reading . . . . .

One of these weeks Fowler is gonna win by 5/6 shots.....He makes plenty of birdies just needs to stop making stupid bogeys,doubles and the odd triple.....

Completely agree benson,
Could be this week. Not sure he's ready to win a major yet, but winning this would more than validate his play-off win a year ago at QH. I think he has at least a double bogey in something like his last eleven starts. Can't be doing that.

Poor starts by many of the Europeans, Siem, Fisher, Christian etc. They'll each need sixty-somethings tomorrow.

Scoring low this morning. Scoring even lower this afternoon.
Which begs the question why Karlsson, Owen, Lowry etc are not taking advantage. Putting stats provide a clue.
Justin Rose making up for them I suppose.

it's not a very pretty course. just looms a bit bland. I like the 3 legged croc though.

kwinigolfer wrote: Until a golfer is well entrenched in the owgr Top Fifty I'd say splitting time between two Tours is the proverbial fool's errand.

Couldn't agree more with the above. Not saying it's impossible, but if a non-member isn't in the top 50 there are TWO major issues... THREE maybe...

1) getting in enough events. Without WGC's and majors... there's that little matter of 7 max exemptions.

2) If a player's not top-50... what makes him think he's good enough to earn a card in the non-member 12 max events compared to the rest of the PGA Tour members who are playing nearly twice that.

3) And for the guys making their first loop around the states... man it's HARD competing against all these grinders who already know these courses inside and out. Not to mention turf grasses and greens they just haven't seen a lot of in Europe. Exhibit A: Just ask Colsaerts how hard the transition is... and he IS in the top-50.

GPB wrote:And it is #126-#200 from the PGAT in the Web-com qualifying series not the #126-#150 players. A non tour player "only" to earn about $120K to make into the series. An international player who can somehow qualify for WGC's is guaranteed to make that much by just showing up.

The #126-#150 will have conditional cards in 2013. Villegas and Daly (among others) are playing the tour from this status in 2013.

Correct on the #126-200 getting to the Web.com Tour Finals, but for the guys qualifying out of the PGA Tour... it's all based on FedEx Points... not money. A separate standing of FedEx points a non-member "would have earned" will be used.

The playoff series is set-up to accept around 156 players... but it probably won't be that many. The field will be made up like this.

• 75 Web.com players - This WILL be based on the web.com Tour money list.
  
• 75 PGA Tour players - Based on #126-200 on the FedEx points list. But it's expected somewhere around 8-12 that 75 will already have other exempt status or would not otherwise participate.
  
• ??? Non-members - A separate standing of FedEx points a non-member "would have earned" will be used. Any non-member with the equal to or better to #200 from the member PGA Tour FedEx Points list will qualify.
  

That puts the web.com playoffs field at about 138-142 prior to the eligible non-members who choose to play

My guess is 3, 4 or 5 non-members will gain PGAT membership via Special Temporary route and another 15-18 non-members will qualify for the Web.com playoffs (mostly Euros), with maybe 10-12 at the very most actually participating. (again that's a wild guess... I haven't seen any workup of "informed" speculation or scenarios or which qualified non-members might participate if eligible)

Loads of low scores in Round 1, but who's going to kick on and set the pace for Round 2 going in to the weekend?
Very pleased to see signs of form from Lucas Glover, two good ol' boys tied for second there with Boo Weekley and Glover.

Cut likely to be -2 or -3, which means hard work in store for almost all the Europeans, Rose and Davis being the prime exceptions.

Only Chopra among the Europeans in decent shape to make the web.com weekend.

A gorgeous day in prospect for Round 2 in New Orleans, another day of "how low can they go"?
It's not clear whether lift, clean and place is in order again today, but that was a clear advantage for the straight hitters in Round 1:
Ricky Barnes was 14/14 in fairways hit during his 64, Boo Weekley and Points were each 13/14 during rounds of 65 and 66 respectively.

Brian Davis, Justin Rose and Robbie Karlsson among those out early.

Brian Davis eight under for his last 17 holes, up to 4th.
Does he have a PGA Tour win in him?

Watching Tianlang Guan on Shot-Tracker.

Best I can tell, his group is waiting on the group in front of them. No slow play issues. They played 9 holes in 2.5 hours which is about typical for the PGAT with a full field of 156 players on Thu-Fri.

First tee shot yesterday was 1:41 pm....last putt was holed at 6:53. 5 hours 12 minutes. Pretty typical of the PGAT.

I suspect that Guan is not all that slow, but just not seasoned to know how to circumvent the Stop Watch Gestapo.

And on the 216 yd par 3 17th hole which was reduced to about 167 yds today, Tianlang shot only went about 144 yds, pitched up to 6' and made the putt.

Tianlang Guan is going to make the cut with two rounds of 72-69. And finished round 2 in less than 5 hours.

It's going to be another huge field for Saturday tee-times. MDF's applying Saturday evening no doubt.

Looks like the Thursday p.m./Friday a.m. wave enjoyed the better of the conditions, but still good opportunity for David Lynn to make Round 3 - Ross Fisher will require a career round however.

Yes, well, that forecast turned out poorly. Looks like Lowry's 68 today will leave him one shot short of the cut as it creeps towards -3.
Lots of disappointment in store methinks. Marcel Siem and Olesen also destined for the weekend off.

Boy, would like to see Weekly win this thing. Just a really good guy from my experience with him.

But birdies galore to be had and more rounds in the 60's a must for the winner.

Thanks kwini

Didn't follow this at all, a couple of surprises there on the leaderboard. Glover started to play better the last few weeks, but wasn't expecting to see him in the lead so soon. Nice to see Colsaerts in the upper side of the table for a change. Maybe the French influences around New Orleans are making him feel more at home there? He badly needs a result, more for his confidence than for anything else...

Overall, still another rather luckluster week for the Europeans on the PGA Tour. Just shooting hot and cold it's no way to go too far on the PGA Tour, so Shane will have to change a bit and try to become more consistent, otherwise I can't see it happening for him with hs current attitude...

Hope Fraser and Noren will provide the other Euros a reminder that the European Tour, with all its current problems and struggles, can still be a better avenue to reach the top 50 rankings and qualify for some of the big events...

Finally, delighted to see Guan making another cut and proving that he's not just a one week wonder... Although technically it may have been the correct thing to do, I still think punishing him for slow play at the Masters has been a silly and pretty useless decision in the greater scheme of things when it comes to slow play... The 14-year old has learned quickly the lesson, while the vast amount of old culprits that are still out there playing like slugs week after week have once again escaped unscaved. In other words, looking at the bigger picture, that decision has achieved NOTHING...!

Perhaps those dinosaurs currently in charge of golf timing on the main tours should take note of what I read that AJGA are doing...

http://www.ajga.org/tourninfo/pace.asp

4 hour 19 minute rounds; that'll test Guan today but he should be OK; sure the PGA Tour doesn't want a PR disaster.

Encouraging for Colsaerts, you'd think this is a good course for his length. Lowry a bit unlucky; as my hapless posts showed, there were bushels of birdies and bundles of bogeys yesterday afternoon and nervous energy must have sweated off a few pounds. Now back to basics for him and let's hope he's learned a lesson or two.
Assume Siem will stay here to play The Players. (Edit: Oops, Hadn't realised Siem had slipped out of the Top 50; better not hang around then.)

Good, not great, field for Quail Hollow next week and hopefully as far up Westwood's street as it is Rory's. Surprised Peter Hanson is giving QH a miss; something's not quite right there so wishing him good health.

Other highlights of the QH field:
Cabrera (played well here when we went three yrs ago)
Colsaerts, Fisher (good course for him), Fowler, Garcia, Harrington, 2 x Johnsons under the illusion Charlotte is safer than South Lorea, Kaymer, Mickelson, Poulter, Simpson, Bubba.

No Robert Karlsson, and that must be a huge disappointment to him. He's based himself in Charlotte and has played well here in the past, but now is not even among the alternates - assume he'll try to Monday qualify.

A Noren win in Korea would suggest he might have found the right (Euro) recipe? Good luck to him.

PS: Pleased to see Glover do well; a serious talent, don't think anyone in golf can appear so miserable on the course, but I love his deeper-than-deep voice and dry sense of humour (I think that's what it is ) in interviews!

A nightmare for Guan as he visited the water, a "walk path" and "landscaping", all on the sixth hole.
A full par-5 behind the group in front now, after those adventures, and the official stopwatches will be at the ready.

Norlander in to the Top Ten.

Once a slow player....always a slow player.

Guan and Williams have completed 14 holes in 3 hours and trending to finish in less than 4 hours. which is the standard for twosomes on the PGATour.

Poor kid, if only Guan knew how to circumvent the Stop Watch Nazis like seasoned players, he wouldn't have this slow play reputation that we all know that he can never shake no matter how much he improves.

Guess we will get to see how fast he plays in a one-some tomorrow as he is probably off first.

Me? I am going to give him a benefit of a doubt.

Not too slow from Guan today, but I'm about as impressed with all the fuss made about him as I was ten years ago about Wie.

This leaderboard looks in for a reshuffle these next couple of hours, but the top-ranked Europeans are not helping themselves one little bit - Colsaerts treading water, Rose stumbling, and Brian Davis going south.
Fine effort from Norlander though and he could durvive in the Top Ten through the end of the day.

Who has the quality to separate themselves this afternoon? Could be awfully bunched up by close of play.

PGA Tour officials are taking no risks with the Sunday forecast - 50% chance of storms - and bringing tee-times forward and going off both nines in threesomes.

Of those in the shake-up I'd like to see Glover hang on, but there are plenty of players in form right behind. And Kyle Stanley and Ricky Barnes whose form, as suggested above, has been universally dismal.

Had to have a chuckle when I saw Barnes and then Stanley so high up on the leaderboard. Just goes to show how far reaching the Ballwasher really is!

It's going to be an interesting day in New Orleans with the potential of weather interruptions, possibly even starting with fog!

Contrasting fortunes this season for the guys chasing Lucas Glover:
Horschel (23) and Walker (20) are first and second in consecutive cuts made on Tour.
And they already have seven top tens between them this year: Horschel with 4 and Walker with 3.
Kyle Stanley hasn't had a Top 15 finish since winning in Phoenix 14 months ago.
Points' only Top 15 since losing a Quail Hollow Play-Off 51 weeks ago is his Houston win four weeks ago!
While Barnes hasn't finished Top 15 since Pebble Beach - in 2012!!
(All shades of a certain M.Laird of course.)

Glover has been through a Paul Casey-type run these past year and a half - am really hoping he finds a way to win today.

Brian Davis making his Sunday surge, -3 over his first four holes, deja vu all over again after last Sunday's start.
He fizzled at Harbour Town but can he kick on this time?

Lots of birdies early on in benign conditions; not much wind forecast unless one of those promised storms blows through so the leaders will have to attack from the start as someone's sure to "post a score".

Bobby Gates the first to jump into the Top Ten and he fits right in with this motley crew, not having made a cut since last October . . . . .

10 of the top 16 entering Round 4 have never won a PGATournament before.

I am rooting for Kevin Stadler today so he can qualify for the Masters for the first time. I don't believe any father/son have ever played in the same Masters and I think the Papa Walrus will bow out of the Masters if and when Kevin ever qualifies

Looks like the Quail Hollow Field is going to be significantly worse this year than past years.

I think Rory is the only top 10 player, and PMick, Westy, and Sergio join him from the top 15. Manassero is playing as well.

Vijay Singh is listed in the field. I guess there is no suspension as I believe he has exhausted all appeals.

Ryo Ishikawa is also in the field. As I don't think he is qualified for the Players, I figured he would be back in Japan this coming week for the Crowns event

Would have thought Quail Hollow is a course that might be a touch long for Matteo . . . . . .

Confirm Ishikawa is only likely to be in the Masters for the foreseeable future, not in The Players, any WGC's or remaining Majors.

Colsaerts with a couple of welcome birds.

That's it then, for a while anway. Maybe we'll see the final dozen holes "Live" after all.

Actually, can't see this front loitering too long.

Follow-up of the Miller Barber query I had last week.

Robo told me that Mr X has been diagnosed with cancer

Apparently he played as the "Phantom" partner of 81 yr Jim Ferree in the Legends Division of the Legends of Golf. I.E. Ferree played alone in the better ball competition.

Jim Ferree shot 71-69 on his own ball, and a very notable achievement, no matter what tees they played.

============

And it looks like they might be resuming play in NOLA this afternoon. There is suppose to an announcement at the top of the hour (1 pm local). Checking the radar, NOLA is right on the southwestern edge of the storms so possibly starting by 1:30 local time. According to twitter feeds, they had 1" rain so water in bunkers could be an issue.

2.35 p.m. restart.

Yup, robo provided the X update earlier. Plenty of anchoring from Jim Ferree no doubt!