PGA Tour: "Wells Fargo Championship" etc: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Well, Billy Horschel finally got what's been coming to him, and good for him. Parts of his final 27 holes (played in 13 under par) were Tigeresque, and perhaps it was Saturday's back nine 31 that really did the job for him as he'd started Round 3 slowly. DA Points gave him quite the run for his money, and you've gotta pull for a guy who always thanks the fans for coming and applauds the galleries as he leaves the 72nd hole, but this was Horschel's week.

2).We've talked several times about Horschel's incendiary temperament but there's never been any doubting his ability to hit golf shots and the big question now is, "Will he move on to new heights?" or "Will he turn in to Anthony Kim?". Even money, I'd say.

3).Regardless, Horschel was reflective of past exhibitions, especially the 2011 McGladrey, in his victory interview: "I didn't play very well (understatement, particularly when he started shanking and effectively lost his playing card, ed!). But what hurt most was the way I handled myself on the golfcourse. It was pretty pathetic in my mind. I got called out on it by family and friends (and) that was a big turning point."
No word on the 2007 Walker Cup . . . .

4).Horschel has seemed like he's holing every putt he's looked at (including 49 out of 49 inside five feet at the Zurich) this past month, but one person who's not is Justin Rose. Horschel only missed one green on Sunday yet Justin led the field in greens hit in regulation AND proximity to the hole for the week but struggled in 15th place. Incredibly, Rose's short game stats for the season are:
Sand saves: 1st.
Scrambling: 5th.
Strokes gained putting: 142nd . . . .
. . . . which almost beggars belief.

5).Finally, before leaving New Orleans, a word about Lucas Glover. Since injuring himself at Kapalua last year he's been deep in the doldrums. Came back too early, played poorly and ended up shutting it down for the year late last summer.
Lucas can look a miserable ba5tard on the course, tall but always walks with his head in his chest. But he's a fabulous driver of the golfball, has something of an old-fashioned swing and is a very interesting interview with deep voice and dry humour.
Clearly he was a celebrity for a week in 2009 following his US Open win but, as far as one understands, he kept every single one of his playing commitments - we followed him a few days later in the Travelers tournament he was widely expected to miss. He was applauded virtually the whole way round the course, actually looked fans in the eye to acknowledge the new-found fame, and one hoped it would be the start of a special career. Alas, he has just the one win, at Quail Hollow in 2011, since then and mislaid his wife along the way. But he's happily (presumably) remarried and expects a pair of Baby Glovers in the coming fortnight.
A good ol' boy, still young enough to re-make his mark.

6).And speaking of Quail Hollow (we have to remind ourselves this is a golfcourse, not the intellectual assessment of a former US VP): is this week's "Wells Fargo Championship" in Charlotte slipping into the B list of non-majors after being close to the top of the tree for a decade?
It seems to have joined the long list of events dissed by Tiger Woods. In the ten previous years of the event, he's been a non-starter four times and missed the cut the last twice he showed up. That'll do it, despite his 2007 win; wonder if he'll be back?
And we're missing other leading players, Bradley, DJohnson (allegedly injured - we'll see, but he's a local boy and contended here in Rory's year), Snedeker, Rose, Scott, almost all the leading Saffers, McDowell, Stricker, Donald, Kuchar, Day and Dufner.

7).Charlotte's Quail Hollow is a George Cobb design updated 15 years ago by Tom Fazio. They're scheduled to host the 2017 PGA Championship and plan to replace their bent grass greens with Bermuda (allegedly for late summer heat resistance qualities). But unrelated problems with the 8th and 10th greens have brought forward that plan so all the greens will be dug up for Bermuda later this spring. By all accounts the two dodgy greens had no grass on them nine days ago and have been completely returfed!
Hope they've consulted Phil Mickelson who said in 2010:
"For as beautifully designed as this golfcourse is tee to green, the greens are by far the worst designed greens we play on Tour. Even though they're in immaculate shape."

8).Wells Fargo's contract is up next year and no word yet as to whether they will renew. Surely someone will pick it up, it's a fabulous tournament, great crowds in a golf-crazy area with no competing major sports in April to deflect attention.
And Phil is here, Rory too, with a decent international contingent including Cabrera (who has form here), Kaymer, Westwood, Poulter, Colsaerts, Stenson, Matteo and Sergio (who has just the game to win here and should have done in 2005). They are joined by the usual contingent of Carolina boys led by Bill Haas and Webb Simpson and the 2011 play-off combatants Byrd and Glover, plus defending champ Rickie Fowler. No Billy Horschel though.

9).This week's winner will qualify, if not already exempt, for next week's "The Players Championship". I'm not quite sure how they "seal" the field, as in past years the Tour has shown its moronic side and sent a couple of pairs off as twosomes amidst a field of consenting threesomes. Luke Guthrie, Brian Stuard and James Hahn are reportedly the first three alternates.
I expect Haas and Simpson to contend this week, but would really like to see Ross Fisher find his game on a course perfectly suited to his customarily excellent tee-to-green game; Westwood too of course, but does this come too close to his 40th birthday celebrations?

10).And then there's Vijay. He beat a slumping Sergio and Furyk in a play-off here eight years ago and he'll be walking the fairways with Harrington and Immelman, perhaps offering a deer antler spray dissertation. If so, he's not saying anything to anyone else and it seems as if no self-respecting golf scribe has lost the opportunity to condemn the PGA Tour for not taking action against Vijay so far. Even Greg Norman got into the act but probably to give Finchem a dig more than Singh.
As they say, Watch this space.
(Finchem offering an interview in a few minutes so hopefully he'll be put on the spot.)

robo

Agree about Maggert, got a new lease on life when he won in Memphis and has kept plugging along. Saw him play in the first Ben Hogan Tour event I watched in 1990! Seemed like his form took a bit of a dip after the shock of his brother getting killed but that could just as easily have been coincident with injuries.

A pretty healthy crop of good players going Championing next year - probably at the expense of CNY's Wayne Levi's exemption. But Wayno's had a good run.

Any comment on my reflections on Lucas Glover?


Rors and Colsaerts moving nicely through the field.

incontinentia wrote:i have suspected for some time that Paddy's affable/bonkers exterior may be a front, and that he is in fact evil. Slow player, numerous rules infractions and now rank hypocrisy in relation to belly putters.

The belly putter is legal so i don't think we can question him ethically to be fair....................

One of the Golf Channel writers described him as a "walking contradiction". Don't think there'd be arguing about that!

Rors -3 after 9, Colsaerts -4 after 11. Gogo Europe! It's about time...

it's vice versa now, c'mon rooors!

And another birdie for Rory. 6 birdies in 7 holes. The guy is trashing the course

"trashing the course" . . . . . and not for the first time.

Total stud, Rory.

Colsaerts again finding this ain't the European Tour. Blink and the field will trounce you.

He'll get there, Sr.
Not everything about European golf is parc.

Talking of which, Fisher playing well . . . . and Paramor nowhere in sight.

Padraig dead last. Nice one, Paddy!

Rory's throwing shots away here - just careless by the looks of it.

Hope Summerhays falls out of contention; takes "deliberate" to a new extreme.

Am I blinking at the wrong time or are they just not showing Westwood? Nice birdie there for Lee even if he has to do it in anonymity.

GPB... Izzy Beisiegel... thought you might want to know.... she's playing in the Men's U.S. Open local qualifier at Carolina C.C. on May 6

Good fr Dizzy Izzy. In the words of Journey and Steve Perry Don't Stop Believing! Wonder if she is a Small Town Girl!

Poor Daniel Summerhays: The latest player anointed with the 606v2 Deliberate Tag. His threesome finished right behind the group ahead of them and in less than 5 hours.

I wonder if Westwood has cured his par five ills. From the little coverage I watched last night it seemed to show he had birdies the first three par fives; maybe he's finally worked out a strategy.

EDIT: he birdied all four par fives, shame he dropped shots on two of the following holes.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:I wonder if Westwood has cured his par five ills. From the little coverage I watched last night it seemed to show he had birdies the first three par fives; maybe he's finally worked out a strategy.

EDIT: he birdied all four par fives, shame he dropped shots on two of the following holes.

It almost seems like he's focused solely on that now, to the detriment of the rest of the round. His GIR isn't what it used to be, so he's making fewer birdies and more bogeys on the 3s & 4s. If he ever gets it all together.... deja vu, just different weaknesses!

Two under par from Westwood is not at all bad around there - he, Rory, Colsaerts and Fish are all out early today - continued cool and a bit breezy.

Not an easy golfcourse by any measure, so amazing that the sartorially challenged, increasingly portly, Ryan Moore should hit all 18 greens in reg.

GPB,
Summerhays is terrible! If you saw the back-up on the 17th tee you'd know that the time of rounds yesterday was irrelevant - Easier to judge at the weekend, especially if they play in pairs.

Looks like Brian Davis kicked off his round by 3-putting from inside four feet.
Way to start a challenge. Still playing well in his annual springtime flurry of form.

First 12 holes for McIlroy and Westwood combined:
Fairways missed: 2
Greens missed:0
Putts: 25

Now for the hard part of the course.
No better from Colsaerts.

Come on Leeeeeeee!

Sshhhhhh! Don't put the mockers on it.

Stupid thing is, I had a free bet to use up last night so decided to put it on Glover. Completely forgot and looked at their group on shottracker, saw that Glover had got it to -6 and Lee was still -2. Didn't remember my bet at first, then as soon as I did they proceeded to swap positions!

And just when you think it's safe to think he's playing well, Lee goes back in the water twice on a hole. Another miracle bogey on 7 by the looks of ShotTracker. Lucas back to -6!

Oh well, 68's not too shabby. Good to see Rory and Lee both up there where they belomng.

Shotrock would say Colsaerts is where he belongs and, after getting off to such a storming start on Thursday, he might have a point.

Fish still angling his way up the leaderboard, Davis and Laird have the weekend off. Very poor from Stenson.

Another withdrawal by John Daly, halfway through his second round on the web.commer.
Bl00dy idiot, can't help himself.

Haven't seen anything today, but looks like a nice job from Lee and Rory!!

Nicolas as I said, could've been contending in China this week...
Hope Matteo at least gets back inside the cut.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Any comment on my reflections on Lucas Glover?

On the face of it... seems like you got him pegged pretty well IMO. But a lot of times "something" other than the face of it explains some things as well. Hmmmm... how do I put this. Let's just say that to understand Lucas Glover, including some of the "issues" in both his life and career... one might also need to understand more about the inner workings of his relationship with his prior club company.

One other piece of Maggert trivia - He was the first player to hit a shot in the inaugural President's Cup.

Certainly wouldn't have guessed that about Maggert in the PC; has as many Ryder Cup appearances as Tour wins - not many with more than one RC outing can say that.

Wouldn't also have known about Glover and his club company, but he certainly seems to march to a different beat, and also seems very well respected among most TV commentators.

PS: I liked the "loose lips" answer from the SI Golf+ "survey" to the question:
"Do you really think Tiger likes Rory?"
To which something like 75% said yes, 25% said no and "loose lips" offered something to the effect of: I don't think Tiger really likes anyone!

Look for Rory to finish the job this weekend. A different breed.

Colsaerts yet again finding the big tour not all that welcoming. Where he belongs? Absolutely - you get what you earn on all tours!

He had a top ten last week SR, must've been more welcoming then. Not been the greatest of early-seasons for him, but still doing better than Oosthuizen, O'Hair, Goosen, Every, Harrington, Yang, Noh, etc etc

And doing better than lots of others Ned.

But HUGE difference in success so far v the European Tour. As Robo said, first time around many of these tracks, he should get stronger if he can commit to it for the foreseeable future.

This is the hardest, most competitive tour on the planet. It's not supposed to be easy!

Sr,
Colsaerts will get there; look at his career and you'll see that he frittered around on the ET for a decade before sussing it all out, lifestyle as well as courses etc.
Expect the same here.
Plenty of US studs flop annually in Britain, not to mention the Ryder Cup.

Two guys who have struggled this year are Karlsson and Fish, but both doing well so far on a course that suits them. And another promising start for David Lynn.

Kwin - Ryder Cup, IMO, no comparison. Different country every other year for one weekend. Not nearly the same as week-in, week-out solo medal play.

I will agree with plenty of US flops in Britain (primarily Open Championship), but not US players who commit to the European Tour. I can say this with TOTAL confidence, because US "studs" don't go full time on the ET.

Colsaerts may get there - again if he wants to make this his primary tour going forward.

On GC's pre-game show today:

The isthmus connecting Sawgrass's Island Green with the 'mainland' is underwater after Jacksonville's has got 5" of rain this week.

Apparently spectators will not be allowed on the course on Monday.

The only reason the Ryder Cup is significant is that it gets guys out of their comfort zone - away from the cozy confines.
That's what happens to many Europeans on the PGA Tour - once they get acclimated the best do very well, but it can take a while; some even win tournaments!

Any chance for +2's to get through...?

Here comes Sergio!!!

Oh dear, dodgy ball replacing by Sergio on the greens. Will he get away with it, 2 shot penalty or will he plead the tiger amendment and not be dq'd. This is the can of worms that this ruling has left open now!!

With these crap greens and it keep being called a ball strikers course it has to be Westwoods week I think!

Forget leader Mickelson, forget the two former world number ones, forget all those high potential players who can't shoot the cut line ... the story may be young Derek Ernst! Best finish this year T47. We'll see.

Kwini... RE: players... lets just say there are some players the TMZ's, Radar Online's and National Enquirers are interested in... and some they are not... but nothing new there. Sometimes double standards work in their favor... sometimes the opposite is true.

Matteo obviously happy to have made the weekend, birdie-birdie start!

Rors and Lee paired together again...

EDIT: Happy Birthday, Rory!!! Hoping for a memorable round today...

So it seems that tv evidence is now not only being viewed sceptically but positively being countered. Sergio's drop yesterday looked as obvious as could be that he marked to the side and replaced in front, but the tour have issued a statement saying that there was nothing wrong. Following on from Tiger's let off, not to mention the Vijay fiasco, it seems clear to me that the rules are no longer sacrosanct.

BTW, where is everyone?

Lee and Rory dragging each other down whilst all around them are under par. Maybe next week!

It appears I have the forum to myself. I assume there's some technical issue rather than the possibility that I'm the only saddo with no social life on a Saturday night

Pace of play appears to be an issue today. Lots of waiting on tees.

Amazing stat they've just shown about the 'Green Mile'. Total cumulative scores since the tournament started at QH for holes 1-15, -810. For the last 3, +4,268.

kwinigolfer wrote:...6).And speaking of Quail Hollow (we have to remind ourselves this is a golfcourse, not the intellectual assessment of a former US VP)...

That's a belter even for you Kwini! Great write-up as usual.

Did anyone clock this from Sergio in round 2:
http://www.pgatour.com/video.html/2013/05/03/garcia-pars-no--3-in-round-2-of-wells-fargo#ooid=lqOWdkYjrnJ29wMRxBhKLSuaB5obVm1Q

Putting with his wedge, and not the way you may imagine.

Pretty interesting. Holed it dead centre as well. Green looked pretty scuffed about in that clip.

I noticed they had brought the final round forward but only just seen how many holes played already. doubt sky will have anything live when starting at 8pm. also surprised with how David Lynn is playing this year. had never heard of him before the uspga. seems to have decent journeyman potential.

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