PGA Tour: Goodbye Columbus, All the Way To (From) Memphis: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).From the vision of the delightful Ali McGraw's assets (hardly surprising she won a pair of Golden Globes) to the melifluous sounds of Mott The Hoople, the Tour also goes from the sublime to the (sometimes) ridiculous as we travel 600 miles south-west from Columbus, Ohio, to Memphis, Tennessee. From one of the very best fields a Tour event has to offer, to one of the poorest.

2).Blame the respective dates, blame the inevitable steaminess of Memphis in June, blame the respective courses, but FedEx must be very disappointed with this week's turnout, especially given the largesse that FedEx bestows on the top Tour pros.

3).But back to Columbus and last week's Memorial Tournament. The US Media has been hailing Matt Kuchar as a favourite for Merion, the latest "best player without a Major", etc, etc.
Say what you like about smiling (inanely grinning?) Kooch but he's certainly consistent and scored not just his 6th Tour win, but his 35th Top Ten since 2010, four more than Luke Donald and ten more than 3rd place Snedeker and Watney. Consistent and rich, with over $17M banked in that time, just from Official prize winnings!

4).Just about to turn 35, Kuchar has been playing Majors since 1998, yet only racked up 5 Top Ten finishes and I'm struggling to see him win at Merion. In fact, who DOES look good for Merion?
Woods? With his Muirfield Village fiasco fresh in his mind (certainly in our minds).
McIlroy? Who similarly floundered at Jack's Place.
Snedeker? Who I thought looked nailed on to go well when he was enjoying his purple patch early in the season, but now alternates between one decent tournament and one horror show.
Westwood? Who's gone from being a Top Ten machine to that collapse at Wentworth and a miserable missed cut in Columbus.
Stricker? Should be well suited, and hopefully won't be giving Tiger any putting tips.
Donald? Conventional wisdom says Merion will suit him, but "conventional wisdom" doesn't have him ranked 159th on Tour in greens in regulation.
Rose? Every time he got close enough to challenge Kuchar last week, St.Justin missed a short putt. #1 in the "Total Driving" stat this year but an abysmal 156th in the "Strokes gained putting" stat.

I just dunno.

5).Only eleven tournaments remain for most of the Tour players, and they will only get to enjoy the FedEx Play-Offs (and retain their Top 125 exemption) if they reach about 350 points. Among big names well adrift of that mark - and their 2013/2014 "Card" - are:
Camilo Villegas: 252 points
Peter Hanson: 251
Woodland: 243
Harrington: 220
Colsaerts: 218
Immelman: 200
Ross Fisher: 200
Karlsson: 182
Ishikawa: 179
O'Hair: 179
Appleby: 145
Romero: 96

You know that some of these won't make it.

6).And when will PGA Tournaments start to shower sponsor invites on Peter Uilein and Brooks Koepka who have wrapped up their 2014 European Tour cards? Some double-dipping in their future perhaps?? Which would be O'Grady's gain, for once.

7).There are one or two stars in Memphis this week, at the "FedEx St.Jude Classic": last year's champ Dustin Johnson, local boy Snedeker, Mickelson, and some "International" players including Tim Clark, Coetzee, Brian Davis (2nd here a few years ago, T8 at the Memorial), Fisher, Hanson, Harrington, Freddie Jac (good record here), Immelman, and Poulter who surely needs a pay cheque just to fuel his Ferraris.

8).But this tournament seems to favour southern boys or Texans, Dustin last year, Toms with two wins and two runners up, Leonard with two wins, etc, etc. Boo Weekley plays his first event since his win at Colonial and he'd fit the profile.
And perhaps the USGA, with its quirky sense of humour in allocating groups for Rounds 1 and 2, can group Luke Donald, Kuchar and Weekley for Thursday week?

9).The Champions Tour stages its second "Major" in three weeks, in Birmingham, at Shoal Creek. Roger Chapman is announced as being among the starters, which is curious as his withdrawal due to injury from the US Open has been reported, with his place at Merion being taken by alternate Scott Stallings.

10).And the best news of the week - of the year?
From Jarrod Lyle, who has reported: "Got results from my 12-month tests and there is NO sign of leukemia. Been a tough road but things are looking up. Couldn't be happier!!"
Good luck, Jarrod, to the Tour's funniest fellow. Hope to see you back at work soon.

So you have heard of Joost Luiten and Hennie Otto but not heard of Dustin Johnson and Stuart Appleby (who were in the top 10 to start the day)? OK. whatever.

Anyways, Memphis is not in a desirable spot on the calendar. The week before the US Open and following a month of tournaments that include the flagship PGAT event, and tournaments affiliated with Nelson, Hogan, and Nicklaus.

BTW, the charity that the Memphis Tournament supports is the St Jude Children's Hospital. A friend's little girl was diagnosed with leukemia and the people at St Judes could not treated my friends and his little girl any better. It takes a special kind of person to work in a children's hospital.

I make a large donation to St Judes at the end of each year, it is my charity of choice

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BTW, some severe weather might be moving in tomorrow, I suspect that the tour will go early tomorrow in split tees, so they don't spill over to Monday.

Reading some tweets from Jesper Parnevik. Apparently he is at the Royal Wedding of Princess Madeleine.

https://twitter.com/JesperParnevik/status/343028792274591744

C'moon Paddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

If he finishes in a 2-way tie for 3rd or better, he will 'flatten' Stanley's hopes of US Open...

GPB easy. DJ was not in the top 10 when I wrote my post, neither was Appleby. And yes I have heard of of both of them. Appleby shot 59 at the Greenbrier a year or two back, as for DJ has a Nasty habit of losing balls in the last round of majors.

Not a big deal, just a bit of banter and debate.

Go on Padraig!!!

I guess they judged the weather as little risk.

John Daly off first all by himself. Over/under is 2 hr 30 minutes. Only thing that might slow him down is penalty shots and the grounds setup crew.

GPB wrote:I guess they judged the weather as little risk.

John Daly off first all by himself. Over/under is 2 hr 30 minutes. Only thing that might slow him down is penalty shots and the grounds setup crew.

Just logged in to mention same thing. I'm going under!

Lairdy wrote:

GPB wrote:I guess they judged the weather as little risk.

John Daly off first all by himself. Over/under is 2 hr 30 minutes. Only thing that might slow him down is penalty shots and the grounds setup crew.

Just logged in to mention same thing. I'm going under!

Yep, 1 hrs and 8 minutes into his round he is on hole 12. If he is not slowed down (by the grounds crew) he will be done in less than two hours.


Edit: Finished his round in about 1 hr 45 minutes, 10 over on last 36 holes.

Harrington and Poulter going south right now, they'll need something spectacular to rescue a top finish; poor showing from Team Europe after Thursday's promising start.

Stallings playing well early on, but English looks the man to beat.

Has Nicholas Thompson got a godawful golf swing or what?

CBS has put out their "C" Team for commentary and production - Bill McAtee is as boring now as he used to be on local TV 30+ years ago and Baker Finch gets worse the more he yacks, Feherty too of course.
Golf Channel's coverage much better this week.

Great shot Phil Mick, spices things up a little!

Kwini, totally right about the CBS, IBF in particular the lack of insight from a former pro golfer is painful.

Good finish in the end, not sure I'm a great fan of English Harris, but he's certainly played well enough to win; had some very very good breaks, but made the most of them.

What's their excuse for not having anyone walking with the groups? Good Lord, even Jay Townsend is terrible, but at least he can see if the ball hits a tree or not. No excuse CBS, bl00dy pathetic. And can't think FedEx could be very well pleased either.

The execs at Fed Ex CANNOT be happy with this turnout --- both crowds and professionals.

But a nice win none-the-less for the English man, and Phil finding some form heading into Merion.

Ernie Els and a few others hunting around the course this weekend looking for some magic weekend next!

The first English win on the PGA Tour this year! Nice last few holes from him. Other Englishmen had blown it.

Agree. Feherty is a clown, although his post round interviews with Phil and English were OK today.

" . . . both crowds and professionals" . . . . . and broadcasters.

I sensed a "scripture" coming out when they interviewed English Harris, but pleased he bit his tongue!

Good results from unexpected places:
7th: Sabbatini: Best finish since Memorial 2012
7th: Justin Hicks: First ever Tour Top Ten - at the age of 38!
7th: Stefani: Tied his best ever finish (and only other Tour Top Ten.
10th: Allenby: Best finish since Memphis a year ago.
10th: O'Hern: Ditto that.
10th: Glen Day: First Top Ten for five years!
10th: Byrd: First Top Ten since Memorial last year. (Been out injured, might be worth keeping an eye on now.)

Land of Opportunity, and all that.

There should be a few alternates gaining entry to the US Open today, slots left available for June 10th qualifiers of which it seems there are approximately none. Edit: Except Kyle Stanley, of course.
Additional five "alternates" added are:
Mike Weir, Rikard Karlberg, Ryan Palmer, plus R.Yip and H Varner (no, me neither).
Not sure who next in line is but doubtless we'll find out soon enough.

It was supposed to be sunny and dry leading up to Round 1 this week but, you guessed it, rain in Philadelphia.

One of my pet peeves about American sports coverage is the way they complain about the British weather, Open Championship, Wimbledon etc. Just saying . . . . . . .

We complain about our weather too, but we can't do anything about it.

Finally, a good week for Padraig, now on to the US OPEN!!!

I'm pretty sure we get more rain here in the summer months than St. Andrews does!

But it's generally a tropical like dump this time of year (such as this morning).

Long term weather forecast pretty good for the US Open. Thursday a bit iffy, but looks to be clear after that (at this point).

You probably get more in the summer months than St.Andrews gets in a year. East of Scotland is pretty dry in comparison to West of Scotland. Hasn't been any real rain here for about 3 weeks.

According to weather channel, annual precip for Philadelphia is almost double that of St.Andrews, which has a couple more inches than London (which kinda surprised me).
Pity US sports and news people can't figure that out.

But this is unlucky for Philly, trust it'll "be alright on the night"!
Hope you enjoy your USGA logoed wellies tho' Shotrock . . . .

Kwin - I suspect there is some sort of "overcast" determination somewhere ... and my experience is that it's generally less sunny in London v Philly overall in the summer months. And it's certainly more humid here!

All this wet weather will make the course "getable", so look for some ridiculous pin positions and massively difficult rough.

Weather's been great here in Edinburgh - sunshine - it's been a month since our last day of rain.

Aaaah...! It must be love...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-2339098/Tiger-Woods-Sergio-Garcia-shake-hands-US-Open-fried-chicken-jibe.html

Not if the expression on Tiger's face is anything to go by. That is most definitely not a forgiving face. And, look how far apart they're standing.

Right Garcia, man up. No more grovelling. Enough!

princedracula wrote:Aaaah...! It must be love...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-2339098/Tiger-Woods-Sergio-Garcia-shake-hands-US-Open-fried-chicken-jibe.html

Here's what they said:
Sergio: Sorry dude. Let's talk it over over dinner. I'll buy. KFC?
Tiger: F U, b!tch.

PS: "the noisy Philadelphia fans.." is that you Shotrock??

Pedro - You going to believe the British Press on matter concerning Philadelphia? I'll keep you in the know.

I can think of about 50 other golfers I would rather engage with than pea-brained Sergio! When he went toe-to-toe with Tiger so many years ago who didn't think he would be battling TW for years to come? He sure has the physical skill, but those 6 inches between his ears are not exactly hall of fame material.

Phorecast for Filadelfia gets worse by the day.
%age chance of rain has slumped to:
Monday night: 100% after an inch and a halph has phallen already. Given that the course is already phlooded and aphter over 5 inches of rain last week, this doesn't look too clever:
Tuesday: 40%
Wednesday: 50%
Thursday: 70%
Phriday: 20%
Saturday: 0%
Sunday: 10%

Iph they manipulate the tee-times to suit TV as they did at Bethpage, this US Open might never phinish.

The guys who are nuking 300yd 5-woods close to 300 yards must be loving this.

Love the weather update. Regards TV coverage, what happened at Bethpage ? I remember it all got delayed but not much else! Assuming there is daylight to about 9pm this time of year in Filliy??

I'm sure they'll do whatever they can to have Tiger in prime time.

Actually the kind of weather I would expect, save for the massively saturated ground due to Andrea. As Ernie Els said, they could fly helicopters over these fairways and they will still play soft.

Look for some VERY low scores.

Should suit Rory and Dustin will be comfortable if the weather stays uncomfortable. Something tells me Phil will like it soft too. Well, his 2nd at Boggy Bethpage Black does.

Snap Hook,
A load of things got screwed up by the USGA at Bethpage, including a series of stupidities about not playing "lift, clean and place", and manipulating tee-times in an effort to calibrate "marquee groups" with TV Times.
All backfired.

As the Daily Telegraph report at the time said following rants from you-know-who (oh, Ian Poulter), "it's easy to knock sporting officials, but the USGA does sometimes defy common sense".

Among other daft decisions, "if there were puddles on the greens then the players might be able to move the balls around them. So it is alright to move your ball to a different spot on the green, but not to clean and place it on the fairway."

Not sure whether some of Poultie's comments were texts or what, but he was clearly aggravated by manipulation of playing times, one afternoon saying, "Guys, you will laugh your head off. We have just been told by the USGA that when it stops raining they can get this course playable within one hour."
A few minutes later, at 2.00 p.m., play was called off for the day. Presumably after a word with NBC TV.

At Bethpage Poults was also mouthing of about the bunkers. After being told that Mike Davis "wanted to hear the players moaning about the bunkers", he offered, "Well, he's done a great job then, hasn't he?" after there were three balls plugged in bunkers after being struck by "woods".

Can't find the exact quotes from Poults about recalibration of tee-times; probably been deleted.

Sure the "lift, clean and place" issue will come in to play again this week if there's much more rain. Good news is that it seems to be dry at the moment, thunderstorms possible this p.m. with reports the USGA might have to re-route part of the course to replace two holes with holes from the adjacent course. and Poulter claiming he needs a tractor just to reach the 'players lounge".

I hope you have your GPS in case of such diversions, Shotrock . . . .

Kwin - I know Ardmore and Haverford well, so I should be able to find my way from swimming pool to swimming pool as Burt Lancaster did in John Cheever's "The Swimmer". I lived in Ardmore for 4 years before moving further west.

As Ian points out, the sporty (and much more player friendly) West Course is where the players will stage in from. It's a mile away from the East Course.

I'm not sure the 300 yard bombers are smiling yet Kwin. It will be more about straight than long this week. I fully expect to see some 6 and 5 irons off of par 4 tee shots (7, 8, 10, 11). IF Lukey can stay in the short stuff, he could do some real damage here.

It's all a great shame; sure the golfing world was as interested in seeing Merion just as much as the players.
Spectating will surely be a nightmare; reminds one of the 1995 Ryder Cup with officials' golfcarts sliding down the bank in to the ropes as players teed off on #1. (Very funny to watch though.)

T-Rex on the radio at the moment, "Ride a White Swan"; might be just the job.

Regardless of how the course plays for these professional freaks, I think most interested viewers will find this to be a wonderful course.

For us mortals, it tests absolutely every shot in our bag, is extremely challenging and yet doesn't beat us to a pulp. A good friend and member who plays off a 6 has gone around the East Course exactly 1 time without a double bogey. Last time we played he double bogeyed #1 and was almost relieved to get it out of the way!

Who cares if the winner is 20 under? Not me!

Sr,
One thing no-one's talked about is the wind - it looks as if that could be a factor in early rounds - that'll put the pigeon among the cats won't it?

Seriously doubt it will drop to -20; I was following Dr.Gil at Pebble twenty-odd years ago and once he got to -10 it was as if the clock struck midnight and he capitulated in about four holes. I know Tiger and Rory have defied history without a tremble, but not many have. It's still the US Open after all and rain and wind will just make the rough more formidable.

Let's just hope for a break in the weather and no stupidity by the USGA.

Yeah, I have seen there is a reasonable win forecast for Thursday and Friday that maybe the defence the course needs.

Thanks Kwini for the update regards Bethpage, very informative and jogged a few brain cells. I recall the USGA @ Shinnecock making the 7th green (i think) unplayable. Sun had baked the green rock hard and USGA didn't water it, ended up using hosepipe between groups. Critchley was going mad on Sky!

I guess the US open is never boring and they have form, so anything will happen this week. Tiger mud ball and a drop anyone!