PGA Tour: No Longer the "Fifth Major"?: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).What a week! We learned the importance of being Ernst, the legacy of Linda Watson's driver, and saw a weekend when the Island 17th green at TPC was truly an island.

2).Ernst first, and a salutary reminder that a golfer making his PGA Tour debut, as Derek Ernst did, with a 6-under-par round of 65 at last year's Fry's.com event, is well worth watching. He came straight through the final old-style Q-School which is yet another example that not all golfers who earn their PGA Tour cards via Q-School are ill-equipped to handle the rigours of the Tour.

3).And Fred Couples of course is another who turned pro on a whim, borrowed enough money to enter a mini-Tour event, cashed a cheque for $1,800.00 and hot-footed it to Q-School where he earned his card. The rest is history and a deserved place in the World Golf Hall Of Fame where he told the story of lifting Tom Watson's wife's driver from Watson's garage and using it during his early Tour career.
A characteristic "aw shucks" speech from Freddie on Monday night as he was inducted into the WGHOF; interesting the stories told about how much Lee Trevino meant to his career and very emotional as he left the stage sobbing uncontrollably.

4).Apart from Derek Ernst, Quail Hollow also saw a return to form for Robert Karlsson and Ross Fisher, both of whom earned "higher spots" in the "rookie" money list as the second reshuffle was announced.
Life on Tour is fickle though and both Fish and Karlsson get this week off and will probably be on the shelf for all but a couple of the next six weeks as we enter the season of invitationals, Players and US Open. The top ten free pass for the next full-field event will get them in to the Byron Nelson which they'd get into anyway. Then, unless they receive an invitation, they'll miss Colonial and the Memorial, play Memphis (scene of Karlsson play-off losses in 2010 and 2011) hopefully and only get a trip to Merion if they qualify. No-one said this would be easy.
And kudos to David Lynn, not just for his terrific performance last week but a great "rookie" season. He says he won't be back in the States until the PGA Championship but hopefully common sense will persuade him to take his place at Merion and play the Bridgestone (assuming he stays in the Top 50).

5).After noting last week that Justin Rose led the field in greens in regulation at New Orleans, Rory McIlroy led the stat at Quail Hollow, only to finish close to the bottom of the all-important "strokes gained putting" stat.
But Rory now leads the "All Around" ranking of PGA Tour players and the leaders are quite reflective of the season so far - in order:
McIlroy, Woods, Rose, Sneds, Horschel, Henley, Stads, Hoffman, Walker, Jason Day, Kirk.

6).Ernie Els continued his globe-trotting with a successful-ish trip to Indonesia, hardly the ideal preparation for a Players tournament where he has seldom contended. But perhaps he nails the status of The Players in the minds of most international players when he blogs the Championship "is about as big as it gets (on the PGA Tour) outside of a major or WGC event".

7).The magic sponge has apparently worked wonders on almost a dozen players who opted out of last week's Wells Fargo event, and Dustin Johnson (hope security is up to snuff for him), Crane, Goosen, Jacobson and Poulter, to name a few, will return to action at Pete Dye's most famous course, if not his best. And Vijay returns after bolting from Charlotte at the last minute to consult his lawyers.

8).I like 17/18th's of the course, but consider the 17th to be among the very worst holes in Championship golf. But, of course, it's the one everyone writes about so I will too, with a few stat's from pgatour.com:
~11% of tee shots on #17 find the drink.
~Robert Allenby has played #17 36 times since last taking a bath. Rollins (30) and Singh (29) also have impressive runs since splashdown.
~Of those playing this week, Bob Estes and Baddeley have hit eight balls in to the water over the past ten years, Mickelson has drowned 7. (Boring Bob Tway has nine but thankfully he's on the Champions Tour now.)
~Paul Azinger is the only player in the history of the Players to birdie #17 in all four rounds (in 1987).
~The Most Interesting Man in the World has the last hole-in-one here, in 2002

9).Americans dominate the list of winners at "TPC" but, since Sandy Lyle broke through 26 years ago, "Internationals" have more than held their own with victories from Elkington (2), Price, Norman, Perks, Scott, Ames, Garcia, Stenson, Clark and KJ Choi. Europeans have contended regularly, with runners up finishes from Faldo, Langer (2), newly minted WGHOF'er Montgomerie, Harrington (2), Donald, Poulter and Martin Laird. Brian Davis has played well here, Westwood should arguably have beaten Clark in 2010, and McDowell led until going completely haywire in 2012, while Jacobson, Kaymer and Pettersson have finished well without really contending. Sergio is leading money-winner here and I'd expect he, Stenson, Donald (3 top 6's these past 8 years), Poulter, McDowell and Westwood all to enjoy good weeks.

10).I really can't find good value among the Americans and would think a half-crown each way investment on long shots would give far better value than the media favourites. My ten bob will go on Chris Stroud and David Toms.
This is a compelling tournament to watch on a course that rewards precision and penalises mistakes more than most. The weather should mostly be fine (chance of Sunday showers, and moderate breezes the only flies in the ointment) after last weekend's deluge which saw much of the course submerged.
Power is a virtue only if you hit the ball straight, but decent ball-striking and a magical short game will be rewarded. Think an in-form Snedeker. But Snedeker is not in great form and perhaps another International streak will begin!

Shame about the suspension but an even bigger shame is that the course will be softer.

C'mon weather ... AND c'mon Tiger!!!!!!

Sergio complaining about Tiger making the gallery go nuts while he was taking a shot.

Cmon Sergio

Clearly he didnt mean it Tiger but crowd did go nuts whilst Sergio was playing.

well Tiger should have been paying attention to what Sergio was doing, but at the same time Tiger had to be ready to play when it was his turn. I think Sergio can't hack the hoopla involved in playing with Tiger and is acting like a child as usual.

You were right with the first part. Common courtesy to be quiet when your playing partners playing.

was Tiger to know the crowd would react when he pulled the club? there seems to be a lot of idiot spectators following that group, they are stepping off a lot of tee shots because of phones etc.

ha ha! they have a cell phone task force in operation!

NBC TV should be renamed ETW TV.

incontinentia wrote:was Tiger to know the crowd would react when he pulled the club? there seems to be a lot of idiot spectators following that group, they are stepping off a lot of tee shots because of phones etc.

IMO, yes, especially taking a wood out of the bag from the trees.

You often wonder why Sergio dislikes Tiger and Padraig.......oh yeah maybe it is cause he got beaten in majors by both and he can't handle losing. Such a petulant sporting star. The reason Sergio may never win a major is cause of his attitude.

sirbenson wrote:You often wonder why Sergio dislikes Tiger and Padraig.......oh yeah maybe it is cause he got beaten in majors by both and he can't handle losing. Such a petulant sporting star. The reason Sergio may never win a major is cause of his attitude.

Maybe that is a reason who knows but theres clearly no love lost on either side.. As shown by the pictures on the second hole, Tiger should have known him selecting that club was going to send the crowd crazy. Poor form from him and Sergio had every right to mention it.

Tough break Sergio, but time to focus not moan. Massive physical talent, yet zilch in the majors surely due, in part, to his lack of mental control.

Two back to a tour rookie who's missed his past 5 cuts ... I would be VERY surprised if Sergio wins this thing.

Brandel Chamblee: "That incident on #2 actually helped Sergio play better the rest of the round."

Can Chamblee read a scorecard? What a clown.

" ... It's not really surprising he was complaining about something."

"I don't care," Garcia said. "At least I'm true to myself. I know what I'm doing." -

Haha good to see some needle in the sport.

Kwini

We cured super of making irrational tiger comments, so what can we do to help you in that department?

Tiger was 49 yards away from sergio, as well as having tree's in the way. So e was perfectly entitled to take a club out the bag. If it was on purpose at least give him the credit he deserves for a fine piece of gamesmanship.

Where did the animosity between Woods and Garcia stem from? We always hear that they are not best buddies. What happened in the past that created this situation?

lorus59 wrote:Where did the animosity between Woods and Garcia stem from? We always hear that they are not best buddies. What happened in the past that created this situation?

I think Earl was asked about that a few years back and he said Tiger walked into a locker room once and Sergio was watching golf on TV and willing a players ball out of the hole. After that Tiger had no respect for Sergio. Also, according to the Haney book, Tiger would deliberately give the cold shoulder to certain players he didnt like or who had the kind of talent to pose a genuine threat. In the early days Sergio tried to be friendly to Tiger but was met with the silent treatment, and apparently it really bothered him and is part of the reason he doesn't play well when they're paired together.

Mac,
Haven't seen the synched up replays so no comment.

But to pretend that many of the top players don't indulge in some form of gamesmanship is to be very naive. I would say Sergio and Tiger are both exponents of that on a regular basis.

And havin g just seen the replay, who knows - something bothered Sergio, and we'll never know whether it was deliberate or not.

One thing's for sure, NBC are such Tiger supporters they'll make Sergio the villain of every piece of action.

Go Sergio . . . . . . ! And Henrik and Lee of course. And David Lynn.

Garcia moans at everything and throws tantrums worse than almost any other player on the tour. Why would Tiger resort to "gamesmanship" when it's only the beginning of the third round and he really has Garcia in his pocket anyway.

Sergio hits the pin at 17th!

birdie-birdie

Go Sergiooooooo!!!!

monty,
There's method in everything that Tiger does . . . .

Would also note that Sergio went way out of his way to shake Tiger's hand at the end of play yesterday, certainly not the other way around.

Regardless, they'll be separated when the red shirt gets an airing this afternoon.

Kwini

I apologise, it was actually GPB who made the comment I tried to respond to.

I agree, they clearly use gamesmanship, and the game would be better with a little more agro between the players.

Garcia is a prize prat IMO. Whinging little girl, always looking to blame anyone else. He really should grow a pair.

Sergio about Tiger: "I'm not gonna lie, he's not my favorite guy to play with. He's not the nicest guy on Tour."

After the round this morning!

Diggers wrote:Garcia is a prize prat IMO. Whinging little girl, always looking to blame anyone else. He really should grow a pair.

+1

sirbenson wrote:Sergio about Tiger: "I'm not gonna lie, he's not my favorite guy to play with. He's not the nicest guy on Tour."

After the round this morning!

Pointless bitching. Maybe that's why he has under achieved so much, to avoid playing with Woods in the final pairing.

Diggers wrote:Garcia is a prize prat IMO. Whinging little girl, always looking to blame anyone else. He really should grow a pair.

I refer you to that 'buzzwords' thread of Truss' on the News etc section Diggers...

Sergio seems to think he and Tiger have had some sort of major rivalry all these years.

Hey Sergio ... just like a hammer and nail ... and guess who's the nail?

sirbenson wrote:Sergio about Tiger: "I'm not gonna lie, he's not my favorite guy to play with. He's not the nicest guy on Tour."

After the round this morning!

that will only motivate Tiger to put a massive beatdown on Sergio in the final round. Has he learned nothing from Ames or Sabbatini?

Not sure who is the likeliest to win this.

Tiger obviously the favourite but Sergio has won more money round here for a reason (Shotrock!), he embraces the course, unlike Tiger, and is putting well.
But what about Henrik Stenson, especially if he gets off to a decent start?

Would think Westwood's bogey at the last has done him in; would need a 67 just to reach -12, and would think that might just fall short.

Other candidates? Personally, can't see Tiger, Sergio AND Henrik all falling apart so anyone coming from behind needs to go very very low!

Only 30% chance of rain according to the Weather Channel, but they've ben wrong before, almost every day in fact.

kwinigolfer wrote:Not sure who is the likeliest to win this.

Tiger obviously the favourite but Sergio has won more money round here for a reason (Shotrock!), he embraces the course, unlike Tiger, and is putting well.
But what about Henrik Stenson, especially if he gets off to a decent start?

Would think Westwood's bogey at the last has done him in; would need a 67 just to reach -12, and would think that might just fall short.

Other candidates? Personally, can't see Tiger, Sergio AND Henrik all falling apart so anyone coming from behind needs to go very very low!

Only 30% chance of rain according to the Weather Channel, but they've ben wrong before, almost every day in fact.

the co-leader Kwini?
Would think any of the top 9 should be giving themselves a genuine chance. Congested leaderboard, on a course where strange things happen in the final round.

Be good to see Stenson win big again. There's a bloke who has had his travails but doesn't seem to feel the need to moan to the press every time something has gone wrong.

Wide open, should be a great day of professional golf. Would be wonderful to see that Arkansas product David Lingmerth break through for another rookie win on the PGA tour.

Ned!
I'm doing a Padraig (see hend0)'s brilliant link) and discounting one or two of the contenders!

PS: No reason why David Lynn should not go for it - a good pairing (with Maggert), Wigan won yesterday and Stoke just scored. Omen?

kwini, yes the omen is called David...Lingmerth that is.

Anyone know why Garcia is in the final group and not Woods? i thought it was the player who had the better score on the day goes last.

No, it's whoever posts the score first. So if Garcia finished the 18th hole before Tiger this morning he will be in the final group.

It's neither; it's based on who had the honour for Round 3.

I see Cabrera is playing with Bubba Watson - fireworks there no doubt!

Just when all the American media were going overboard in making Vijay their villain du jour, Sergio comes and makes deer antler law suits yesterday's news.

kwinigolfer wrote:Just when all the American media were going overboard in making Vijay their villain du jour, Sergio comes and makes deer antler law suits yesterday's news.

what are they saying kwini?

Pretty much that Sergio is a pillock . . . . .
A bit like Vijay really, they never liked either of them so this is "red rag to a bull" time.

But they are a pair of pillocks.

Ah, but not the only ones.

Come on Sergio . . . . . . !

Indeed...
C'mon Sergio...!

Come on Sergios yips.

if a physical altercation kicked off between them Tiger would win easily

Sergio's more El Ninny than El Nino these days.