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

First topic message reminder :

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 . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:2.35 p.m. restart.

Burlington Time! BTW it looks like a perfect day in Burlington today! You should be golfing.

1:35 pm NOLA time.

I should be. We had a day like this last year if I remember. Or was it the year before?
Almost all courses open now.

kwinigolfer wrote:I should be. We had a day like this last year if I remember. Or was it the year before?
Almost all courses open now.

My Dad, a native Vermonter, always tells me that Vermont has 60 perfect days per year. Relatively speaking of course. Some of those days would be 32 deg in January.

But Weather Channel told me it was sunny and 71 deg on Lake Champlain. That probably means it is about 60 degrees at my Dad's cabin near Jay Peak.

Good day for skiing then, sure Jay still has some snow . . . . .

Weather delay again. So why not a Play-off as well?

Playing again pedro, Will this be Horschel's time?
Or will Colsaerts continue to burn up the back nine??

Still hope Glover does it but he needs a birdie - this two hands on the wheel stuff won't get it done.

This is becoming a bit Tiger-esque for Billy Horschel, almost as if today he's liberated.

The Internationals' streak of winners looks like being abruptly terminated at 3.

Time for Rory to resume normal service next week in Charlotte.

C'mon Billy!! 6 birds in a row ain't bad...

Still have him in my FT, but many other people would have him as well at this stage...

Horschel and Points are putting on a show.

Horschel has a lot Tiger intensity without it being obnoxious.

No longer ahead on Points - they're hanging level with three holes to play!

PS: Some well-known Irishmen would beg to differ on the "obnoxious". !!

Looks like Colsaerts finished by holing a 30-yard bunker shot for eagle!

Nice week's work for him.

So so for Rose.

kwinigolfer wrote: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!

Karlsson is there when I checked just now Kwini.

Two seriously good rounds from Horschel and Points, but hope Horschel gets the win he's deserved the past few weeks. Also, how good actually is John Peterson?

Horschel and Points again - like in Houston. Coincidence?

Hi Ned,
Thanks - only just caught your note about Karlsson. Not sure if his name was published late or I just missed him! Glad he's in though, he's made 3 out of 4 cuts, hopefully another one will get him into gear for the rest of the season. In the context of wondering about Europeans playing on the PGA Tour, I notice that Karlsson tried Q-School once - in 1995!

Very impressed with Horschel's win - it's been coming, ever since his unsightly McGladrey meltdown two years ago.
I reckon Peterson is a player too, imagine it's just his Horschel-like potential for over-confidence and arrogance that holds him back. Still trying to live down the reputation that excluded him for the 2011 Walker Cup Team.