PGA Tour: The International Swing, Part 2, "Canada": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

With Kwini apparently MIA... here's a starter for RBC Canadian Open

It's time for those on the outside looking in to start making a move to get into the FedEx playoffs.

Noteworthy players outside the top 125 in the RBC Canadian Open field

*Brad Fritsch 125 Alberta native will be making his sixth RBC Canadian Open start]
*Stuart Appleby 129 Last player to shoot 59 on the PGA TOUR (2010 Greenbrier Classic)
*Woody Austin 130 Winner of last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship
*Tommy Gainey 135 2012 McGladrey Classic winner has one top-10 finish in 24 starts
*Vijay Singh 143 2008 FedExCup champion
*Casey Wittenberg 161 2012 Web.com Tour Player of the Year
*Stephen Ames 164 4-time PGA TOUR winner
*Mike Weir 170 2003 Masters champion

A look at the field

Nine of the top 30 in current FedExCup standings: Matt Kuchar (3), Brandt Snedeker (4), Billy Horschel (5), Hunter Mahan (14), Dustin Johnson (23), Graham DeLaet (25), Graeme McDowell (26), Chris Kirk (27), Scott Stallings (29).

Eleven major championship winners, representing all four majors:

Ernie Els (1994, 1997 U.S. Open, 2002, 2012 Open Championship),
Jim Furyk (2003 U.S.Open),
Trevor Immelman (2008 Masters),
Justin Leonard (1997 Open Championship),
Graeme McDowell (2010 U.S. Open),
Geoff Ogilvy (2006 U.S. Open),
Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters),
Vijay Singh (1998, 2004 PGA Championship, 2000 Masters),
Bubba Watson (2012 Masters),
Weir (2003 Masters)
Y.E. Yang (2009 PGA Championship).

Seven former RBC Canadian Open champions in the field:
Scott Piercy (2012), Nathan Green (2009), Chez Reavie (2008), Jim Furyk (2006, 2007), Vijay Singh (2004), John Rollins (2002) and Scott Verplank (2001).

Notable Canadians in the field: Stephen Ames, Graham DeLaet, Brad Fritsch, David Hearn, Jason Kokrak and Mike Weir.

OTHER NOTES

*2012 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker is poised to make his fifth RBC Canadian Open start. Of his previous four starts, he has collected top 10s in 2007 (T7) and 2009 (T5). At No. 4 in the FedExCup standings thanks to seven top-10 finishes including a victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Snedeker is on track to become the only defending FedExCup champion to make it to the TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, the Playoff Finale, the following year. Snedeker captured the RBC Canadian Open’s sister tournament, the RBC Heritage, in 2010.

*Scheduled to make his seventh start at the RBC Canadian Open, Matt Kuchar comes to Canada this week in search of win No. 3 on the year. Kuchar has wins at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance. Kuchar, No. 3 in the FedExCup standings, comes to Canada this week with six top 10s in 16 starts.

*Four-time major champion Ernie Els is scheduled to make his fifth start at the RBC Canadian Open. Els sits 90th in the FedExCup standings, his one top-10 finish being a T4 at the U.S. Open.

*Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open winner, captured the RBC Heritage earlier this year and sits 26th in the FedExCup standings.

*Billy Horschel, winner of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans earlier this year, is tied for second on TOUR with seven top-10 finishes.

*Two-time RBC Canadian Open champion Jim Furyk will make his 11th start north of the border. Furyk returns to Canada with 15 starts this season, in which he has made 13 cuts. His best finishes of the season are T3 at the Valero Texas Open and T7 at the Tampa Bay Championship.

*Dustin Johnson comes to Canada this week having made 15 starts, where he has collected one win and an additional two top-10 finishes. In the season’s first event, Johnson claimed his seventh PGA TOUR title at the rain-shortened Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He also finished T4 at the Shell Houston Open and T10 in defense of his FedEx St. Jude Classic title.

*Woody Austin, who played for the U.S. Team in the 2007 Presidents Cup in Montreal, returned to the PGA TOUR winner’s circle last week with a playoff victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

+++++++

And on a personal note... I sure am glad there's no pay for play on the PGA Tour

But that got me to thinking...  I wonder if that big RBC logo on the sleeves of McDowell, Snedeker, Donald, Mahan, Els, Furyk and Kuchar had anything to do with them shuffling all the way over from the UK to make the RBC Canadian Open... Naaaaah... probably not... {wink, wink, cough, cough}

But granted... I would expect Canadian RBC guys like Weir, DeLaet, Hearn and Ames to play the Canadian Open even if not sponsored by RBC.

But just checking... what are the odds of all 11 of those players would have participated in the RBC Heritage Classic as well?  WOW what a coincidence...  they all did.... Imagine that... {wink, wink}

Pay for play? Noooooooooooooooo... not on the PGA Tour... that would be against the rules... {wink, wink, cough, cough}

And from Kwini:

1).Phive Majors for Phil, and always good to see great tournaments won in style. Disappointment for Lee Westwood, however brave a face he might put on things, but Mickelson now finds himself in increasingly rarified air as he only has Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, Player, Watson, Palmer, Snead, Trevino and Faldo with more Majors in the (largely) post-WWII era. Now he's tied with Peter Thomson and Seve on five and, whilst he may not have had Seve's impact, I'd place him first among equals for overall playing career accomplishment. Congratulations to him.

2).And so to Glen Abbey and the "RBC Canadian Open", just outside a chilly Toronto. This is the final qualifying week for next week's WGC Bridgestone (just the Glen Abbey winner and anyone climbing in to the owgr Top Fifty will make it) and almost the last gasp for Oak Hill's PGA Championship field; just next week's Tour winners and any invites from outside the owgr Top Fifty (usually all within the Top 100) will be added to those currently exempt, plus the top 70 PGA Championship points-getters. Increasingly loud rumours that the E.T's Uihlein and Koepka might receive invitations.

3).Whichever way you look at it, this is a busy time of year for golfers, especially PGA Tour members. Ernie Els, for instance, will be planning to be teeing it up for the third week running at Glen Abbey; he'll play Bridgestone next week and the PGA the week after. A week off and he'll play The Barclays and hope to have qualified also for the DeutscheBank. Another seven days beside the pool and he'll hope to have got himself in to the BMW and, if all goes well, the Tour Championship. That would be 9 (mostly) big tournaments in 11 weeks.

4).The Els example is extreme and, perhaps academic as he might not qualify for the final two weeks, but others who will have a better chance of playing 8 events in 10 weeks include Mahan, Kuchar, Schwartzel, Snedeker, Watson, Horschel, DJohnson, and McDowell, while Luke Donald and Furyk will be hoping to play well enough to join them following their weekend's rest. Expect some of these to be going through the motions this Thursday and Friday and possibly skip The Barclays but golfers in the heat of Sundays' battles (including Mahan last week for instance) will become fried.

5).Meanwhile, the position of some top golfers who don't have an exemption for the 2013/2014 PGA Tour season grows ever more precarious.
Peter Hanson seems to be busy throwing his status away, Colsaerts is still not assured of finishing in the Top 125 (he'll be about 125th after taking this week off), Ben Slowcoach Crane looks done for, while Messrs Baddeley, Appleby, Immelman, Karlsson, Fisher (why on earth isn't he in Canada - has he given up?), Ishikawa and O'Hair (another who appears to have thrown in the towel) are all in danger of having to participate in the "web.com Finals" or losing their status completely. Does opportunity knock for George O'Grady?

6).For a select few, end of season fixture congestion is compounded by participating in this year's Presidents Cup, at Muirfield Village in early October.
Following two good weeks Zach Johnson has reached the top ten of the US qualifying list, which currently reads:
Woods, Mickelson, Kuchar, Snedeker, Haas, Mahan, Bradley, Simpson, Stricker, Zacher.
Bubba and Dustin the next two, currently in 11th and 12th places respectively. I'd say the top 6 (thru Hunner) are secure.

7).And Nick Price's International Team currently looks like this:
Scott, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel, Els, Day, Grace, Sterne, Matsuyama, Cabrera, Clark. Jaidee just adrift (as he often seems to be at this time of every other year. A distinctly South African accent to that lot.
For Captain's choices, Thongchai must have some chance, DeLaet also while I can't see them not picking KJ Choi given the 2015 edition will be in South Korea.

8).And so to Glen Abbey, an early Jack Nicklaus design with a 35 / 37 par of 72. There are three par-5's (13, 16, 18) in the final six holes so there should be much leaderboard turbulence on Sunday. Glen Abbey used to be used for this Championship much more often than in recent years and has been the site of some memorable finishes:
Peter Oosterhuis with a very dodgy up and down on the 18th to beat Lietzke, Nicklaus and North in 1981 for his only PGA Tour win.
Wayne Levi winning his fourth Tour event of 1990 while regularly consulting the early-tech mini-TV in his bag to check on the NY Giants game.
Tiger Woods with arguably the shot of his career out of sand, across water, a 200+ yard carry, to make birdie and beat Grant Waite (an increasingly successful swing guru by the way) in 2000.
Vijay Singh breaking Mike Weir's heart in 2004 (although to be accurate Weirsy broke his own heart by squandering strokes over his final holes and play-off). Have seldom seem an apparently more relectant winner. Weir only won once subsequently, the "Fry's" in 2007.
And Nathan Green blatantly choosing to overclub at the 18th greenside grandstand (twice, complete with ridiculously beneficial free drop - as close to "cheating" the spirit of the game as you're likely to see) to beat Goosen in 2009.

9).For reasons detailed above, investing this week should carry a health warning - don't go for the guys at short prices unless this is a crucial week for them - Donald and Furyk have some incentive, for instance, other big names not so much, though they might get interested if they're within reach on Sunday afternoon. A time for small-scale each-way speculation at long prices most likely!

10).One of my first 606 articles had a headline, the gist of which is worth repeating:
Woody Austin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just as his 2007 win in Memphis came completely out of the blue, last Sunday's miracle in Mississippi was his first Tour cut made since, well, 2012 in Mississippi.
Since then he's been arguably more famous as "Aquaman" following his trip to Royal Montreal's lake later in 2007 (I watched in disbelief from the side of that lake) after which his game disintegrated. Now he's headed to the Champions Tour in six months' time with an unexpected $half mil to pad his exemption status - and perhaps pgatour.com will retrieve his "player profile" from their cyber-archives as they have seemingly deleted it and chosen so far not to restore it following his win! No respect.

Drug Policy and Finchem...

IMO GPB is basically correct that Finchem is a player's guy through and through. The players basically trust the Tour management on the business side of the Tour... but are very involved on all player issues. The Drug Policy is/was no exception.... Really nobody wanted it, not the Headquarters or the Players (they generally believed the sport was clean and didn't need testing, and HQ knew it would be a costly hassle). But in the mid-2000's due to a confluence of events, much outside the tours control, it was obvious it was coming sooner or later. But IMO it still wasn't being pushed by either side... and might have been delayed even years longer if not for the Olympic effort.

Despite what people on the outside thought (or may still think) about the Olympics, the vast majority of the players were very much in favor of golf in the Olympics. Thus most any resistance to a drug policy they had pretty much melted away when it was realized it would be necessary sport wide (not only on the PGAT) to get the Olympic bid.

Agreed. Pretty much as said before.
It'll be interesting to see if the IOC's drug policy's grim reaper harvests a golfer. Wouldn't bet against it.

kwinigolfer wrote:Don't think McNeill affected anything, but only four succumb to the grim reaper: Noh, Nona Blue, Stuard and Ryo.
Imagine McDowell will be happy to take the day off.

Correct... none of the WD's or DQ's affected anything. Once the MDF is set by rule after the cut... THAT'S it. My only question would be (and I'll get the answer later) would be the timing of Fritsch's WD. If he would have WD'd right after he finished his round.. that would leave the field at 78 before the next day's pairings were made. NOT sure if that would have removed the MDF or not.

Hope Greg Owen is suitably p1ssed off with himself for crowning a quite superb round with such a blunder at the 18th: 170 yards to the Par-5 green after a terrific drive: Bogey - what a Wally.

robo, Fritsch must have been desperate: 125th on FedEx points and almost certain to improve on that. Seems a good guy, as do most of the Canucks on Tour.

Has there been any mention of Cory Monteith on the coverage?

Don't know. Haven't heard any. Why would there be?

kwinigolfer wrote:Don't know. Haven't heard any. Why would there be?

He was canadian.

You're profiling again.

Doubt if they'll mention J.J.Cale next week and his body of work and contribution to the arts far outweighs that of Monteith.

Don't worry I was only joking, do you not remember the stick I got on here for saying a liked glee.

I quite like JJ cale, I have really, naturally and the one he did with eric clapton. Until not that long ago I had assumed Cale was black, having only heard his collaboration with claption at that point.

Hunter tweets picture... cute kid...

golfcentraldaily.com/2013/07/hunter-mahan-tweets-pic-of-baby.html

Wunner if Hunner will play Firestone?

kwinigolfer wrote:
It'll be interesting to see if the IOC's drug policy's grim reaper harvests a golfer. Wouldn't bet against it.

I doubt it would happen, but I'd not bet against it on just a doubt. But if it does... IMO it's more than likely going to be something along the lines of guys taking things that are allowed without TUE's by golf that aren't allowed by the stricter IOC and full WADA standards (for instance the PGAT has a whole list of certain antihistamines and other agents that are legal to use without a TUE)... or some obscure over the counter supplement that doesn't indicate a pattern of intentional "doping" as we've come to understand it in other sports. But I HOPE not...

Agreed robo, I wasn't intending to suggest anything untoward, just ignorant.
Still feel application of the drug policy by the Tour is capricious and the quicker they adopt WADA guidelines the better.

Ho-hum scoring this morning in cool and breezy conditions. Nothing like the dartboard we saw yesterday.
Hoping for career-saving rounds from Appleby, Badds, Immelman and Romero.

Nice early tap-in bird for Greg Owen.
The FedEx Cup points necessary to reach #125 look like being higher than previously projected - with a strong Reno field next week, one would imagine something very close to 400 pts will be required but a solo fourth this week or a T3 should ensure Owen retains his card for 2013/2014 and avoids the lottery of the web.com Tour Finals.

Meanwhile, a win for Russell Knox in Idaho will assure him of his PGA Tour "playing privileges" for next season. Let's hope he does it.

Appleby and Romero treading water so imagine their "survival" will come down to the final week. Immelman similarly off to a slow start but Badds has a nice round going. Too good a golfer not to be playing Tour golf.

Interesting situation potentially developing on the Web.com Tour.  Michael Putnam is currently leading... if he hold on he moves into the OWGR top-100 (tentatively 91st depending on the results of the RBC Canadian Open) and gets an invite to the PGA Championship assuming they invite all the top-100 as they have been doing for the last several years.   

PLUS... this would be his 3rd win which automatically gets him his PGA card immediately and for all next year... And unlike Jordan Spieth who was a Special Temporary Member until he won...  Putnam would be a FULL member and be eligible to earn FedEx points immediately... and he'd have 2 events (the PGA and the Wyndham) to try to get enough points for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.  Long shot, but as good as this guy is playing, who knows?

EDIT:  But I should note... Putnam is now in a 3 way tie for the lead and 8 holes ahead of the 3rd round leaders.. and a lot of guys going low behind him with a lot more holes to play... so holding on to win is gonna be tough...

Hopefully Russell Knox (or Willy Mac) will make that perceptive point moot!

Watched Putnam once, seemed a bit of a pr1ck when I saw him; hopefully he's learned a little humility but he didn't seem to have much a few years ago. Temper tantrums have got in his way also, so maybe a little maturity is creeping in.

kwinigolfer wrote:Hopefully Russell Knox (or Willy Mac) will make that perceptive point moot!

Watched Putnam once, seemed a bit of a pr1ck when I saw him; hopefully he's learned a little humility but he didn't seem to have much a few years ago. Temper tantrums have got in his way also, so maybe a little maturity is creeping in.

I've seen him some... but can't say as I've ever met him.  But can confirm the temper deal... One of the guys who's tied with him  at -20 now... Hunter Hass.. just went 5-under on his last 3 holes... Birdie on par-4 15th... Eagle on a par-5 16th... Ace on a par-3 17th.  3-3-1... NOT bad...

And correction to my prior post... Putnam would get into Reno as well as a cat 27.... so that would give him 3 events (not just 2) to get enough FedEx points... TOUGH task.. but not impossible.

Owen needs to birdie #18 - and certainly not run up a bonehead bogey as yesterday.

Dustin throwing this away . . . . . . . .

Looks like Putnam will be setting a target.

Looks like Greg Owen shanked it in to the drink on #18 from about 100 yards.
Can you say "Bay Hill"?
Feet must be full of bullet holes.

Knox needs a Haas-like finish, and that probably still won't be enough.

Happy to see Spencer levin win though, almost a local boy so wonder if he'll earn a ride to Reno this week.

What price Sneds for Oak Hill? Just up his street I should think.

Merion mark II

http://www.mobypicture.com/user/Graeme_McDowell/view/15709288

Mac,
There might be challenging rough, but Oak Hill doesn't need tricking up to defend itself. And it's not as if the 12th hole (shown by McDo) is a brute of a hole - most likely an iron or hybrid off the te and short iron.
I'll be there to see for myself soon enough. McDowell might be an interesting player to follow!

In 2003 Tiger Woods said of Oak Hill,  “It's the hardest, fairest golf course we've ever played.”  He finished T39.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of TW... those are the kind of words I like to hear from a top player about a major venue.  Oak Hill is a track with no need to "contrive" difficulty with setups that force players to play the course far differently than it was designed to play. And THAT was the problem with Merion. As much as I LOVE the layout, it's just not a course that can host the best players in the world in major championships any longer. But it can host ME anytime it wants. (Are you reading this Sparky? My number hasn't changed.... :-)

kwinigolfer wrote:... McDowell might be an interesting player to follow!

On current form he's likely to either miss the cut or win it.

robo,
Completely agree with Tiger - and you of course.
There are birdie holes but on every hole a golfer getting out of position will find par a very good score. Only 2 x Par-5's, so that will stifle the bombers' arsenal.
Telling that guys like Tim Clark and Cejka finished well there ten years ago.
I'd say a Snedeker-type game is tailor-made for Oak Hill, given that he seems to have rediscovered his form.

And agree with Bob_ about McDo.

Oak Hill balances some brute length with very fair but demanding approach shots and, unlike Merion, is not as "all or nothing" off the tee. A true Donald Ross classic.

Here's the Runners and Riders for next week's PGA Championship.

http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/players/2013-pga-championship-field-list

The rumours (see Note 2 above) of Koepka and Uihlein being invited turned out to be true; and David Hearn will presumably be added to the field now that Hunner Mahan has withdrawn.
(As sirbenson has pointed out, this is nonsense - Mahan will not withdraw.)

As usual, this will doubtless be the strongest field of the year's four Majors, though the polite inclusion of McGinley and Watson doesn't exactly enhance that status. Regardless, anyone not in the field has only themselves to blame.

My comparison was more to do with the foot long rough just off the fairway, which really starts to get a little boring.

If the opinion is that oak hill does not need tricked up, then why has it been?

Let's see how it plays next week, Mac, before we start jumping to conclusions based on tweetage.

Doncaster's Kerry Haigh has a reputation for setting golf courses up very fairly - doubtless this will be no exception.

kwinigolfer wrote:Here's the Runners and Riders for next week's PGA Championship.

http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/players/2013-pga-championship-field-list

The rumours (see Note 2 above) of Koepka and Uihlein being invited turned out to be true; and David Hearn will presumably be added to the field now that Hunner Mahan has withdrawn.

As usual, this will doubtless be the strongest field of the year's four Majors, though the polite inclusion of McGinley and Watson doesn't exactly enhance that status. Regardless, anyone not in the field has only themselves to blame.

I think Mahan has only withdrawn from the WGC and will play next week....

benson,
You're right and I'm a pillock.

Mac,
This pic of Shotrock's all-time favourite golfer offers some perspective of the Oak Hill set-up, better than McDowell's clump of grass from whoknowswhere anyway.

https://twitter.com/PGAChampionship/status/361871609717456896/photo/1

Looks like some graduated rough and nothing unreasonably deep. But rough around Oak Hill will definitely be a factor, as for most parkland courses. Hopefully we will all agree that it's fair for next week.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac,
This pic of Shotrock's all-time favourite golfer offers some perspective of the Oak Hill set-up, better than McDowell's clump of grass from whoknowswhere anyway.

Looks like some graduated rough and nothing unreasonably deep. But rough around Oak Hill will definitely be a factor, as for most parkland courses. Hopefully we will all agree that it's fair for next week.

Do you have a link to the pic?

Duh, Sorry. Posted above.

I just don't know why the US major set up's have to ignore the art of recovery. Phil of course being one of the great recovery experts.

Thanks for the pic. It looks almost tropical.

Woods paired with Matsuyama - good for Japan TV ratings, but things like that p1ss me off about the way tee-time groupings are choreographed these days. If the media following this pair behave as they did following Matsuyama last week, they'll be on the clock within four holes.

McLaren wrote:Merion mark II

http://www.mobypicture.com/user/Graeme_McDowell/view/15709288

Have you checked your own facial hair lately?

kwinigolfer wrote:Woods paired with Matsuyama - good for Japan TV ratings, but things like that p1ss me off about the way tee-time groupings are choreographed these days. If the media following this pair behave as they did following Matsuyama last week, they'll be on the clock within four holes.

In some ways the choreographed tee times are an irritation but whatever the groupings are we are going to see a lot of Tiger, and to some degree r-mac, no matter how they are playing. So would you prefer to see more interesting players with tiger or players you don't care for seeing?

Coverage of PGA is wretched, not only can American commentators not pronounce European names, they barely show anyone unless you carry an American passport (a rare document) or are in the top three, or are 9 Chins and they show you scratching your behind in slow motion.

Mac,
Surely, if you're going to feature "marquee" groups, it would be preferable if the players were chosen on merit, rather than the commercial value of their ethnicity.
Good Lord, What would Elkington say?

Agree with super_ that US TV coverage has been plumbing new depths recently, giving the appearance, especially in CBS's case, that they only offer full coverage to selected events, otherwise send their "C" Team.

What is worse are the simpering "dolly birds" with 1980's haircuts who only seem to exist on American TV, complete with no golf knowledge at all.

In fairness you could make a more than respectable case for Matsuyama being there on merit, in his first year as a pro, two wins already, top tens in the last two majors and up into the top 35 in the world already.

Agree with super on the brainless golf bimbos.

Agreed Ned,
But Manassero has arguably achieved just as much, more really, and he's forever getting dissed, whether by Billy Payne or the Tour - I see his reward is a dewsweeping walk with the combustible Scott Piercy. (Usually of course he's bracketed with Rickie Fowler.)

Somehow Italy doesn't seem to enjoy the commercial cachet of our Asian friends. (Not quite sure how Ishikawa gains entry in to the PGA Championship from his lofty perch at #158 in the owgr's, but sure there's a perfectly good reason.)

super_realist wrote:What is worse are the simpering "dolly birds" with 1980's haircuts who only seem to exist on American TV, complete with no golf knowledge at all.

They certainly don't go for the Kate Humble types on US TV.


Kwini

Not sure what you thought I meant, but I just meant it might be better to choose who plays with tiger rather than leave it to chance. It would of course be preferable if the choice was made on merit.

super_realist wrote:What is worse are the simpering "dolly birds" with 1980's haircuts who only seem to exist on American TV, complete with no golf knowledge at all.

Funny how a lot of things associated with golf got stuck in the 80's: hairstyle, clothes, rules, interesting players.

Not just golf, US TV Networks routinely seem to insist on dreadful haircuts for female newscaster types.

Super

What did you think of the USA? would you go back?

McLaren wrote:Super

What did you think of the USA? would you go back?

They won't have him. Too extreme.

Mac, had a great time in general, loved the locals, almost all very friendly and helpful. Would certainly go back, but perhaps not doing that sort of road trip, ended up in a few pretty pointless towns not worth visiting, but San Diego, Portland, Seattle were excellent, but San Fran was a massive let down, really over-rated and a bit of a dump.
The west seems a popular place to be a tramp though, suppose they have the climate for it.

Super

Whats wrong with San Fran? I love it.

What parts of town did you go to?