PGA Tour: "I'm Alright Jack": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That's probably Tiger Woods's message to the Memorial Tournament host as Tiger prepares to win his sixth Memorial, second in a row. (As well, clearly, as inserting a Peter Sellers reference in these notes.) Curious that Jack said a few weeks ago that he's never had a proper conversation with Tiger, especially given his propensity for reaching out to young players. To which Tiger could well say, "I'm alright, Jack".

2).Looking back briefly at last week's action in Fort Worth, Colonial once again provided an opportunity to ball-strikers rather than bombers as Boo Weekley earned a richly deserved victory. Boo's worked hard at his "drivers and irons, can't putt" image but last week saw him hole 400+ feet worth of putts and, golly gosh, he wins the tartan jacket (except he didn't seem to know what "tartan" meant when Feherty asked him about it!).

3).Weekley's stat's these past seven years rank from sublime to ridiculous:
Total driving: Best: 1st, Worst: 34th,
Greens hit in reg: Best: 1st Worst: 54th,
Putting: Best: 161st, Worst: 189th.

He'll be taking this week off and returning for Memphis, where you'd think he will also play well on a course that seems to suit him.

4).PGA Tour observers have been raising eyebrows recently at Kevin Na's continued absence from Tour events - his only start since early March being The Masters.
When players take an extended time out, it's usually because of a suspension (which are almost never disclosed unless by the player concerned), unreported health problems or personal issues. Na has recently had to deal with family illness in South Korea but nothing official has been reported so one can only speculate - if he's in Finchem's dog-house, he'll have his work cut out when he finally returns as his playing exemption expires this year and he currently ranks 169th and falling in FedEx points.

5).Just to revert to last week's "Senior" theme, perhaps it is interesting to report leaders of non-American Champions Tour earnings, especially relevant if anyone questions why there's not a Seniors Ryder Cup.
Top five career earnings:
Europeans:
Langer: $11.1M (15th overall)
Canizares: $7.2M (44th)
Smyth: $4.5M (78th)
James: $4.4M (80th)
Barnes: $1.9M (148th)
Christy O'Connor Jr next, followed by Roger Chapman.

Other Internationals:
Aoki: $9.4M (20th)
Marsh: $9.2M (21st)
Charles: $9.0M (24th)
Fernandez: $8.9M (26th)
McNulty: $8.3M (31st)
John Bland next, still ahead of Canizares, with $7.2M, though David Frost is stacking the cash at an impressive rate.

More of the same last week as only Langer (78-67-67-67) finished in the top 40 amongst a "strong" European entry.

6).And so to Muirfield Village, rightly named Jack's masterpiece, and the site of Europe's first Ryder Cup win in the United States: Arise, Sir Tony . . . . . .

The course has changed little from the 80's to now, a tweak to the 17th a few years ago, and most recently a redesign to the par-3 16th. Not sure that the 16th is much improved - although a water hazard has been (unimaginatively?) introduced in front of the left-hand side of the green, the right-side pin positions are benign and the left-side positions too severe for the length of shot.
Nicklaus talks about the old 16th being an uninteresting hole that merely gets you from #15 to #17, but I would argue that the 13th hole is one of the most bland in tournament golf, especially as it comes between one of the better par-3's and a great short par-4.
Regardless, the pros welcome the wide open fairways, course conditioning and clubhouse milkshakes, not necessarily in that order. It rates 6th in the 2011 ranking of Tour courses, just behind Colonial!

7).And great fields are invariably attracted, this year being no exception.
The Presidents Cup will be staged here in early October and Nick Price has presumably been trying to get invites for those likely to play. Unfortunately Oosthuizen is still out, and Clark, Jaidee and Sterne of the current Top Ten qualifying places are not playing (wonder Jaidee and Sterne were invited?), while Cabrera is also absent. Too bad.

8).Europe has a strong presence and there's surely no course on Tour that you'd expect to suit McIlroy more than this. Westwood and Donald, Gonzo and Laird (should be right up his street also), former winners Pettersson (2006) and Rose (2010), plus Karlsson and Stenson are all in town. Another important week for Karlsson who has let decent early positions slip these past two weeks.

9).In normal circumstances you'd think that this is one event Tiger Woods can win without his proverbial "A" game, but weather could play a part with the tournament starting out hot and windy and morphing into potentially wet and windy on Friday and Saturday. Wouldn't recommend betting against Woods though, but a "bet without the favourite" might turn up some good value. Joint runners-up last year, Sabbatini and Romero, rather curiously neither qualified or warranted an invite. Shame.

10).The web.com Tour is trucking along, in Maryland this week with its usual quota of up-and-comers, Tour rejects and old lags prepping for the Champions Tour. At least 25 Tour Past Champions or "Veteran" members are in the field, plus young'uns like Cantlay, Peterson, Lovemark and Danny Lee.
Russell Knox, Chopra, Cejka and Richard Johnson are all well-placed to contest the four tournament Tour qualifying finale but all outside the automatic graduate placings.

PS: Nicklaus and his "Captains Club" Committee welcome an Honoree (or two or three) into their "Memorial Park", and this year's inductee is Ray Floyd. No doubt an extremely worthy choice, long time rival of Jack and Hall Of Famer.
But why wasn't he named a few years ago? No-one (except perhaps Nicklaus himself) credited his wife with influencing his golf achievements more than Floyd credited ( his missus) Maria, and sad that he saw her call it a day before receiving the "Captains'" call.

. . . . alternates only . . . . but I don't know exactly when they're applied from. In the case of Goosen and Lynn I think more slots were allocated in qualifiers, Sterne just w/d'd today.
Remember, there will be more owgr to 60 qualifiers after this weekend's action.

Does the winner of the ST Jude qualify for the US Open? Or is the only way now to be top 60 by the end of this week?

sirbenson wrote:Does the winner of the ST Jude qualify for the US Open? Or is the only way now to be top 60 by the end of this week?

Only way in now is top-60 after this week... Technically the USGA reserves the right to add "Special exemptions selected by the USGA Executive Committee", but near as I can tell they've never done so this late in the game.