PGA Tour: "Traveling" to Washington DC: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The Tour caught lightning in the proverbial bottle in Hartford last week, four sunny, dry days in the monsoon-ridden North-Eastern US, and the TPC River Highlands proved a mostly benign respite from the tortures of Merion.
But many of those who survived four US Open rounds hit the wall by last weekend, Rose and Mahan for two.
While Bubba Watson lasted 69 contending holes before suffering his meltdown as he came up short and wet on the tricky (but not THAT tricky) Par-3 16th hole. Caddie Ted Scott received a very public earful from Bubba and later owned up that it was his call for the boss to hit 9-iron instead of an 8.
Time for Bubba to take responsibility for his own actions methinks; he would have been a worthy winner but behaviour such as his doesn't elicit much sympathy.

2).But if Justin Rose and Hunner hit the wall, what on earth did Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood hit?
Bars or clubs on Saturday night most likely, or how else to explain away their pathetic "efforts" on Sunday.
Westwood four-putted the 3rd green for the second time in four rounds on his way to last place and an incredible "Strokes Gained Putting" figure of -8.4. That's 8.4 strokes lost to the field in 18 holes. Not surprising he's slumped to 151st in the Tour's putting stats.
And Harrington relentlessly played himself towards last place after opening 66, 66, good for T2 as he began play on Saturday. He lost 5 strokes to the field on the greens during his Sunday 80.

3).On the plus side Messrs Harrington and Westwood received fabulous receptions from the fans in Hartford (as did Justin Rose); hopefully they'll return next year and reward them for their support.

4).What a piece of work Nicolas Colsaerts is - a fabulous swing as he effortless pumps out drives in defiance of the ShotLink monitors, taking different lines to parts of the course they appeared not to have surveyed, Dustin Johnson-like in that respect. We saw him hit a drive on the 403 yard ninth hole that almost reached the green, only to be followed by a poor chip from a player that looked pretty disengaged. Hartford's not the course for him and hopefully he got a mental break as Congressional this week could be right up his street.  

5).I don't know much about Ken Duke, never found him that appealing a figure on course and seemed pretty anonymous off it. But his was a popular victory, lots of tributes to his "ball-striking" from twittering pros.
His hitherto journeyman career started on the old Nike Tour in 1995 and he never earned a "Tour card" until the 2004 season. He enjoyed a couple of super years then lost his card after 2009. He scraped together earnings of just $36K on the 2010 Nationwide and was going nowhere fast when, apparently out of the blue, he won the 2011 Nationwide Championship. The rest is history but instructive of the fine margin between failure and success among the Tour's rank and file.

6).So, back down Interstate 95 to Washington D.C. where hot and humid (and probably stormy) Congressional awaits.
But as we pass Merion on the way down, two final notes from US Open TV watching:
Paul Azinger: "I never played with anyone on Tour who fired at more pins than David Toms." Quite an accolade given that Toms was doing it with longer clubs that most of the pros.
Johnny Miller: "Jason Day swings at his irons harder than anyone I've seen." Not sure about Jason, all the talent in the world but I've a feeling he'd be better equipped to close the deal at Majors if he contended more often in "regular" events. As it is, a squeaky win over a very weak 2010 Byron Nelson field is all he has to show for his talent.

7).No Tiger (or Justin for that matter) at this week's "AT&T National", a tournament that started amidst great Fourth of July fanfare and symbolism just six years ago with Tiger Woods "hosting". Now the tournament's future seems in doubt and, whatever happens, may not be held at Congressional much longer. KJ Choi, Anthony Kim, and Tiger twice are the only winners so far at Congressional, and with "AK" and his bud "TDub" in the treatment room there's likely to be a new winner this week. Adam Scott leads a field of uneven quality; Bo Van Pelt arguably should have won last year and you'd think Scotty and, yup, Jason Day should have the game to succeed here. I kinda like the chances of Billy Horschel, and perhaps Martin Laird might be a decent each-way shot.

8).Louis Oosthuizen won't be playing following a Merion withdrawal but the good news is that he played the Brad Faxon/Billy Andrade Charity tournament earlier this week and will hopefully be teeing it up again for real sometime soon.

9).Much hoo-hah this week about Colin Montgomerie's debut on the Champions Tour, in the "Constellation Senior Players Championship" in Pittsburgh, much of it of course from motor-mouth Monty himself. The American media poured scorn on Monty for twenty years but now seem to sniff a senior story, something to generate interest in the over-50's.
To put it mildly, Monty seems uber confident of doing well over here but many with such self assurance find that, unless they've brought a hot putter with them, the competition is fiercer than they expect - Steve Elkington just another who has recently "aged up" only to be found scratching around (nothing better than 8th so far) away from the lead rather than the pot-hunting he might have anticipated.
The fact that this week's event is a four-rounder may help Monty. Good luck to him.

10).For those of us growing up interested in sport in the 50's and 60's Bernard Hunt was a name synonymous with British golf (at least 20 wins and four Open top 5's) in general, the Ryder Cup in particular. He played in eight Ryder Cups (horrid foursomes and fourballs record, but a winning (4-3-3) singles record) and Captained GB&I another twice. Sombre thought that he's taken his clubs to the fairway in the sky where he will join one-time adversaries Ken Venturi and Miller Barber who took that route just a few weeks ago.

Nice to remember Bernard Hunt. Before my own golf playing days, but read lots and heard much from well informed parties, and all of it positive.
Jason Day has the game to challenge regularly. Difficult to explain why he doesn't.
Colsaerts similar to Jason Day - plenty of game but seems to lack a little focus right now?

Kwini, The golf world lost another personality this past week.

Frank Stranahan winner of Two Amateur Championships and runnerup in two Open Championships as an Amateur

He was Arnold Palmer before Arnold Palmer. He was the original post WWII trail blazer to play 'across the pond' in the Open Championship and Amateur (played in the Amateur 9 times total).

He was also Gary Player before Gary Player. A noted gym rat and fitness buff.

I know you like stories of Brits doing well in the states kwini, so I'd like to congratulate my mate Lee Rhind who's just qualified for the USPGA at Oak Hill.    He's finished at T13 in the PGA Professional National Championship with the top 20 qualifying for the tournament.  Although listed as American (think the whole field is!) he's very much Scottish, from Livingston and played all his golf out of my club, Uphall, before turning pro.  Now lives in Texas and is a pro at Midland Country Club.  Once the top junior in Scotland but never really made the breakthrough as a pro, now at the relatively late age of 34 he might make his mark.  

ralph,
Thanks for that, terrific achievement for him. Watched clips from the early rounds, but lightning zapped my cable transmission for today's finale!
Must temper appreciation of anything from Midland, TX, however given it's role in the life of G.W.Bush and Iraqi invasion leader Tommy Franks.

Will be at Oak Hill and looking out for him; hope he has something Scottish on his bag!


GPB,
Frank Stranahan was KJ Choi before KJ Choi! Would have mentioned him except I felt I'd've had to explain who he was, despite his two Amateur Championships, predecessor to the likes of Matteo and Jose Maria . . . . . . and Philip Parkin.

puligny,
It seemed when I was growing up that every Ryder Cup Team included Bernard Hunt, Neil Coles, Himself, Harry Weetman, Peter Alliss, Harry Bradshaw, Brian Huggett etc. Apart from The Open, the Ryder Cup seemed to be the sole focus of golf in the media, at least until Tony Jacklin's televised hole-in-one!
Good chance for Jason Day to strut his stuff this week. Whether the Right Stuff, only time will tell.

Kwini wrote:what on earth did Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood hit?
Bars or clubs on Saturday night most likely

I don't know if you follow lee on twitter, but in the lead up to the travellers he boasted about drinking on the way to and then in New York. As well as saying he has managed 12 pints of Guinness in a session. I have nothing against golfers being "normal guys" but if you are drinking heavily in the lead up to an event you can be assured 100 equally talented guys wont be. The margins are fine and when you are 151st in putting there isn't much left to save poor preparation.

Probably agree with you Mac. They get paid like professionals, but don't necessarily behave like professionals.
If you want to perform your best, you can't be doing that sort of thing.

Mac,
They both played respectably in the early rounds - I had understood that twitteration to reflect an all-time high, but maybe not. Off the tee LW was one of the leaders!
Regardless, disgraceful from the both of them, and performances like that will catch up on them - no divine right to be in the Top 50 and, in fact, Harrington will be touch-and-go for the Play-Offs unless he has a decent showing in one of the Majors. Good riddance.

Whatever else Padraig Harrington might be doing, I'm fairly sure he wasn't drinking 12 pints of Guinness! He barely drinks alcohol at all, as far as I know.

Early (6.30 a.m.) kick-off at Congressional, presumably because the afternoon forecast is for storms; already in the 70's and will approach 90F later.
Similar for Friday, may cool down a touch for the weekend.

US Women's Open starts today also, at Sebonack Golf Club on Long Island; supposed to be a beauty. Felicity Johnson, Carly Booth, Jodi Ewart, Karen Stupples, Becky Morgan, Lindsey Wright, Catriona Matthew, Janice Moodie and Sally Watson seem to be the British contingent.
I would have expected Stephanie Meadow to get a place also; has she turned pro? Certainly doesn't look like it.

Greg Owen, from Nottinghamshire lest we forget, carrying on where Westwood and Harrington left off: bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey start.

Thanks kwini

Boy, you certainly got a pretty good share of storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, you name it, over there this season... Can't remember to many PGAT events this year without hearing some sort of weather warnings...

Is this the time and place for a second Horschel win?
I put my imaginary dollars on Hunter though to win...

pd,
We've had 16 inches of rain in the past six weeks with another 3-inch dump expected in the next 24 hours - that would make consecutive months exceeding the monthly record. As we live beside (sort of) the fifth largest lake in the country which only has one drainage outlet, we're fearing the worst.
Kwini is saturated, kwini is sozzled.

Yup, I had Billy Horschel as my one-and-done this week - would definitely echo GPB's comment elsewhere that he should be an automatic Pres Cup selection, regardless of whether he's among the ten qualifiers. No-one playing with more confidence right now.

Some terrible rounds in progress, Van Pelt and Overton among those struggling who have enjoyed success at Congreesional. Meanwhile, a young Japanese called Ishikawa is playing well early; anyone know anything about him?

I know the Guinness boast was not of a recent incident but he did mention drinking several beers and seemed to be more concerned about the basketball (what right minded person cares about that?) than golf.

I am just not convinced a lw pre tournament prep resembles that of tiger or even recent major winner rose.

Mac - Hard to argue with that. Up close and person LW looked to be in excellent shape, but winning or losing at the lofty level is such a knife edge that one would think nothing but total commitment will get him his major.

Kwin - Steamy hot in Philly, and pop-up tropical like thunderstorms are the norm. Kinda like it actually!

7,600 hundred yards for congressional in wet conditions. Ouch.

Not sure why anyone would expect Stephanie Meadow to be in the US Womens Open.

She is ranked 474 in the Rolex Rankings and played a total of 3 rated events.

Selected Scott, Day, Mahan, and Billy Horschel for my PGAT Fantasy team this week. My pick to win among the favorites is Jason Day but it will probably be another unexpected player like a Ben Kohles.

GPB,
Doesn't she rate an invite as reigning Ladies British Amateur Champ?

Looks a solid team for you - I had Bo Van Pelt and he's in Harrington territory.

Mac, Shotrock,
I reckon Lee is sucked in to the Florida bling; not doing himself any favours if he's not dedicated to improve. And so far he doesn't have the results to show for his move.

(Interesting comments from Hank Haney being somewhat dismissive of Tiger's Major preparations - he might have something there.)

USWO Exemptions:

USGA wrote:S-3. Winner of the 2013 Ladies British Open Amateur Championship (must be
an amateur). (Note: The USGA will file blank entries for those players who
become exempt after the close of entries.)

Stephanie Meadow is the 2012 Champ, not the 2013 Champ which was a played earlier this month.

Georgia Hall won the Championship and she is exempt. Not sure why she didn't cross the pond. Perhaps a conflicting event or a question of finances.

Ah,
I see she played last year - had thought the date was later. Oops. Thanks.

Carnage at Congressional, nice to see Cabrera and Romero overcome conditions - never seen El Pato appear so engaged in run-of-the-mill Tour events.
All too much for DLIII and for Roary.
I missed that Kevin Chappell is in the field - good outsider I'd think.

Nice finish from Nicolas. Unsurprisingly he holds the longest drive record at 3 holes (1, 9, 14). I see that without doing anything very special this season, he still managed to amass  over $600k on the PGA Tour and with a top 4 here he could probably make the million mark... Not bad, but would like to see a player of his quality winning every now and then....

pd, We were most impressed with Nicci's swing last week, but saw some examples of his short game and he didn't seem to have any focus.
Certainly seems to be a man for what the American media like to call "broad shouldered" golf courses! Now three Pumas in the top dozen - nice comment (I think) by Dick Harmon, recalled a few weeks ago by Charlie Epps:
"There isn't one swing thought in the whole of Argentina;" "That's Angel to a tee." quoted in GolfWorld the week before The Masters!

kwinigolfer wrote:ralph,
Thanks for that, terrific achievement for him. Watched clips from the early rounds, but lightning zapped my cable transmission for today's finale!
Must temper appreciation of anything from Midland, TX, however given it's role in the life of G.W.Bush and Iraqi invasion leader Tommy Franks.

Will be at Oak Hill and looking out for him; hope he has something Scottish on his bag!

Yeah it's a great achievement for him, he previously made it to final qualifying for the Open in 2005 (I caddied for him at Scotscraig) and also to final qualifying for the US Open 2 years ago I think.

I'm sure he will have something Scottish, in spite of his increasingly strong American accent he hasn't forgotten his roots and he usually manages to get back home about once a year.

He did once give Dubya a lesson at Midland, while he was still president, not that I'm trying to put you off him or anything!  

ralph,
I can only hope that he treated Dubya in the same way that Peter Alliss described his father Percy as dealing with a particularly nauseating swing student - "I gave him a slice that he'll take to his grave"! or words to that effect. Having said which he's quite far enough to the right as it is.

I'll be looking out for Lee Rhind, hope he gets a couple of good guys to play with in Rounds 1 & 2; on Saturday of course he'll get whoever he deserves, could even be Rory or Tiger . . . . .

His alleged compadre shot -1 in his Senior debut in Pittsburgh today, four shots behind John Huston in 21st position. Sandy Lyle is a shot further back.
Barry Lane is tied for last. Sure he'll rebound tomorrow but his continued string of bad play over here astonishes - would have thought he of all people could slam his way into the closed shop.

I’d like to see Tiger refer to his next win as a ‘dubya’.

Early start in Washington with another warm, muggy day in prospect.

Would think the cut-line, currently at +2, will slide to +3, which means all the European contingent will be OK if they manage an even-par round or better, all except Greg Owen who started out Thursday with seven bogeys in his first eight holes and will need a 67 or better to get paid this week.

Based on the start... I'm thinking the cut is 50/50 to be either +3 or +4.  Maybe just  slightly trending a little more heavily to +4  (Using the 5.3 - 2.3 - .7  rule)

A good rule of thumb on cuts... when all the players of the morning wave have started, that equates to 3/16ths of the play being complete and a good spot to make an estimation.

+4's started at T101... as of now they've gained 6 spots to T95....  multiply 6 x 5.3 = 32 (rounded).  Subtract 32 from 101 = 69.    So you have the +4's projected to be T69 at the end of the day.  

Double check when the last finishers of the morning wave makes the turn and the first of afternoon wave start... and multiply by 2.3

Check again when the first of the afternoon wave turns (or last players start)... and multiply by .7

I got this years and years ago from Duke Butler when he was still running the Houston event... seems to work real well 90%+ of the time, barring  MAJOR difference in course set up or weather conditions from one day to the next.

robo,
I need your help!

Why are Ranking Categories 10b (Mike Weir in this case) and 21 (Steve Marino for instance) not applicable in the exemptions for invitationals (apparently as they are both alternates this week)?


PS: Wonder if the Duke Butler rule applies when the field is 132 instead of 156 - although fully understand that cut would be higher the smaller the field, though it is pretty weak below the top 75-ish?

Nothing better than a couple of -2's on course so far, after 2 1/2 hours.

kwinigolfer wrote:Wonder if the Duke Butler rule applies when the field is 132 instead of 156 - although fully understand that cut would be higher the smaller the field, though it is pretty weak below the top 75-ish?

Nothing better than a couple of -2's on course so far, after 2 1/2 hours.

That little cut trick seems to work pretty well regardless as long as conditions and course setup are similar from Thurs to Fri because it's based on rate of real movement of the actual field, regardless of the size. Of course the "larger numbers" makes it more predictable... but watch over time... it'll be close. Close enough that if a guy finishes this morning at +4... I'd be telling him to stick around because +4's are in play.

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
I need your help!

Why are Ranking Categories 10b (Mike Weir in this case) and 21 (Steve Marino for instance) not applicable in the exemptions for invitationals (apparently as they are both alternates this week)?

I can't tell you the whys of Career money and medical exemptions not being used in all the invites... but I can tell you invites have been far different criteria from the regular priority list ever since I've been aware of the full list of exemptions into the invites.   But that said... actually the Heritage and AT&T are the closest to the regular priority list as they use top-125 from prior year's money... where the others do not.

But note:  The Heritage does use career top-25 and top-50 money (the only one of the invites to do so).   I can give you the 2012 Invite criteria if you want it Tournament by tournament...  I have 2012 in digital, but 2013 in paper... so 2012 would be easy to cut and paste in... I haven't gone step by step looking for changes... but I "think" the only change this year was in expanded fields for this year only... Let me know and I'll past them in one by one...

And by the way... I think that little cut rule is out the window this week... +4's have stalled an actually going the other way now... I'll look at it as the first of the morning wave finishes and see where it's at then...

No, don't worry; I've seen them somewhere, but just hadn't spotted the impact of such anomalies.
Knew Tiger would get revenge on Weirsy dusting him at Royal Montreal . . . .
Don't know how Steve Marino feels about it; he spent much of his childhood in the DC area didn't he? He must've peed Tiger off too.

Duke Butler sounds like a NCAA Basketball game!

Surprised that BVP had a very poor round yesterday. I thought both he had Dufner were starting to turn their year around.

At this point, it looking like another first time winner on the PGATour as only 4 of the top 13 have won a PGATournament before. And 3 of those 4 have only won once.

I haven't put a pencil to the numbers, but glancing over the field, it just doesn't look like an OWGR rating of 48.

Has anyone heard if Mahan is going to Muirfield? His wife is about 8 months pregnant, about the same situation as Webb Simpson last year.

GPB wrote:Duke Butler sounds like a NCAA Basketball game!

Surprised that BVP had a very poor round yesterday.  I thought both he had Dufner were starting to turn their year around.

At this point, it looking like another first time winner on the PGATour as only 4 of the top 13 have won a PGATournament before.  And 3 of those 4 have only won once.

I haven't put a pencil to the numbers, but glancing over the field, it just doesn't look like an OWGR rating of 48.

Has anyone heard if Mahan  is going to Muirfield?  His wife is about 8 months pregnant, about the same situation as Webb Simpson last year.

AT&T is a 46 after the Rose WD... it would have been 52 w/Tiger Woods & Rose... 48 w/o Tiger but w/Justin Rose... but with the Rose WD now a fairly top-end 46.

Van Pelt - I'm not surprised at Van Pelt... I had him on my Fantasy yesterday... so I guess his round was expected.  

Robo: If Speith happens to win this week, what is his PGAT status as far as the FE Playoffs go?

And would it be any different if he did not have Special Temporary Membership?

GPB wrote:Robo:  If Speith happens to win this week, what is his PGAT status as far as the FE Playoffs go?

And would it be any different if he did not have Special Temporary Membership?

If Spieth wins and assuming he accepts full membership (which he most certainly will) then he gets not only the 500 points for this week, but all points he would have earned this year are retroactively added to his total.       And his current STM status is not a factor in this portion of the regs. in any way.  Even amateur Steven Fox would be treated the same if he chose to turn pro and accept membership.  And just to be clear... Spieth's ONLY path to the playoffs this year is a win.

And by the way, that has changed over the years. The first year (maybe two?)  Until this year no points would have been earned until he was a full member .  So since he wasn't a member, it would have been no points for the win or retroactively... only points earned from his next event forward would have counted.   Then it was changed to award points for just the win, but no retro... and I'm not sure if it was this year or last that the retroactive award of points was added...  In the past no FedEx Points would have been earned until AFTER the player became a member. But as per the first paragraph above, that is changed now.  (as per J.Bush PGA Tour)

EDIT: A few more things... with the new rookie rules... since Spieth has played in 10 events or more as a professional in the year in which he gained STM, this is considered Spieth's rookie year regardless if he gains full membership status or not.  But either way... he IS eligible for Rookie of the Year assuming he is nominated.   (Even though he is not listed on the member rookie chart at http://www.pgatour.com/news/2013/01/01/2013-rookie-rankings.html) But in practical terms... Spieth will almost certainly need a win (which makes him a member) to get R.O.Y. as member rookies Henley and Ernst have official wins.

I am sure GMac would have accepted full membership (and FE Points) after he won the 2010 US Open.

GPB wrote:I am sure GMac would have accepted full membership (and FE Points) after he won the 2010 US Open.

Actually, I'm not sure if he would have or not.    but I'll double check on the time the FE rule change(s) went into effect.

EDIT:  I edited the post above.  Checked with PGAT and found it was one single rule change resulting in the rule as stated in my prior post, but did not yet find out the date of that change...

Action suspended in Washington and Pittsburgh in mid-afternoon, Rounds 2 to be resumed Saturday morning, weather permitting.
Then, hopefully, both sites will be able to complete Round 3 by Saturday evening.

The weather in America, I tell ya', Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein have the right idea.


PS: I wonder if it was the Jordan Spieth-type of situation the PGA Tour changed the rules for? Possibly not, but good luck to him, hit all 18 greens today, impressive.

Field is finally released in Greenbrier.

Philly Mick is back again for an undisclosed amount. Lets hope the third time is the charm after two MC's.

Bubba, Louis, Webb, Bill Haas lead a very short list of notables.

Si Woo Kim finally makes his Tour debut as the youngest 'official' PGAT Card member, just a couple weeks after his 18th birthday.

He will probably get paired with a couple of Greenbrier Geezer Ambassadors, Kenny Perry and Pro Emeritus Tom Watson.

Weather very spotty in US ... But if Euro Tour to capitalize they will need to pony up the cash to attract the top professionals. I will bet on the weather!

Sr,
Not the weather, but the path to "status" that Koepka and Uihlein have taken is an interesting one which I imagine/hope will be followed by other prospects who, for whatever reason, miss out on the web.com Finals.
They will be a very positive addition if they take their E.T. cards next year, very welcome. I'm convinced there's an upside for Europe to the changing structure of the PGA Tour.

Better field than I would have expected for Greenbrier; looks a lovely course and a beautiful location, just an unusual location for a PGA Tour stop.

Oosthuizen has a very heavy schedule on his plate these next few weeks - what are the chances of his body holding up? Next to nil I'd think.

Round 2 is finally complete at Congressional - Round 3 to kick off in threesomes apparently, off both tees in about one hour.

Two European Tour refugees, Andres Romero (3rd) and Nicolas Colsaerts (T4) are in the top 6; Brian Davis and Martin Laird are in the middle of the pack but unsung Swede David Lingmerth had the round of yesterday with a 65 (young gun Patrick Reed in with a 64 this morning). Norlander also makes the cut.


Meanwhile, the Seniors have also completed Round 2 this morning and rookie Montgomerie finds that triple bogeys are just as devastating on the scorecard as they are on the young guys' Tours. Fred Couples with a four-shot lead.

And Jodi Ewart right in contention in the US Women's Open, starting Round 3 in third place.

A lot of players WD'ing after high R1 scores.. Tooth ache?

Incomprehensibly bad play this week by my Fantasy Team.

But great to see Romero and Colsaerts battling for the lead.
CBS will be furious . . . . . .

JES is now 2nd, but still 4 shots behind Inbee Park. Is the calendar grand slam on? With THAT swing???

kwinigolfer wrote:Incomprehensibly bad play this week by my Fantasy Team.

Tell me about it.

In PGAT I picked Day, Scott, Mahan, and Horschel.

The guy in 2nd place picked Day, Scott, Mahan, and Snedeker.

So it is Horschel T59? grrrr  vs Sneds (T14)

Our common picks are not doing that well, so the guys behind us can close the gap. But fortunately I doubt if many of the guys near the top of the standings picked many of the players in close contention. Except for possibly Billy Haas

I think the guy in 2nd is projected to go back ahead of me as of right now by small amount. Come Billy, turn it around!

Who wants to win this thing?

Dumb-ass mistakes by Haas and Romero (and Colsaerts among those further bacK) means the field is bunched up entering Sunday's play - 19 golfers within five shots of the lead.

The Tour has seen gremlins in the weather outlook so tee-times have been moved forward, off both tees with the first groups out of the traps at 8.30 p.m., the leaders at 10.30 p.m.

A top eight finish should secure Colsaerts' card for 2014, while Romero probably needs a podium for that - never sure of Andres's interest level, but he manages to rescue his card year after year, often by playing well on a difficult course when least expected. Would be great to see him fulfil just a smidgeon of his promise of five years ago.

Not sure who's going "to win this thing", but another fine finish for Brian Davis, should be good for another six figure payday, a place not just in The Barclays but the Deutsche Bank too, and he now has 11 cuts in his last 12 events. More next week please.

Not so clever from Martin Laird, but now he'll be off to Castle Stewart.

Bill Haas it is. There's something about him that tells you he can become a great player, and there's something that tells he can't...

pedro,
That brings him up in to the 5th on the qualifying list for Presidents Cup, and pretty much one foot in the team.
Currently Woods, Kuchar, Snedeker, Mickelson, BH, Mahan, Bradley, Simpson, Stricker, Watson (ZJohnson, Horschel).
If qualifying finished today I'd think that's the twelve Freddie would take.

Pleased for Bill, he seems like a nice guy. Not seen much of Castro before and would rather not see too much in the future, very 'agricultural' action