PGA Tour: PGA Championship; Fourth Among Equals? Or First??: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).It is fashionable to refer to the PGA Championship as the Fourth Major, but in terms of quality of the field, and sometimes course played, it could equally be described as the Best Major. This year's edition, at Oak Hill's East Course, designed by Donald Ross, lengthened by Robert Trent Jones and tweaked (disfigured?) by the Fazios, should be no exception.

2).Oak Hill, in the leafy suburbs of Rochester, NY, should play to a par of 70, and to a length of about 7,200 yards with just two Par-5's. Only Augusta National, Oakmont, Oakland Hills and Baltusrol have staged more Major Championships, and this is the only course to also host the US Amateur, Ryder Cup, US Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship. Can you say "history"?  

3).Several of the pundits, and even some of the golfers, referred to Firestone ("the monstrous repetition of Firestone, which might be the most boring championship golf course known to man" according to Sports Illustrated's Senior Writer), as an ideal warm-up for Oak Hill, but that is a lazy comparison.
Oak Hill offers far more elevation changes and requires the golfer to shape his shots off the tee - it yields birdies reluctantly and eagles will be few and far between. An exception might be the Par-3(!) sixth hole, where Jerry Pate, Doug Weaver, Nick Price and Mark Wiebe all famously holed in one within little more than an hour at the 1989 US Open - and where Costantino Rocca also made a hole-in-one at the '95 Ryder Cup.
I was close by all five of them, missed the lot. But DID see Jack Nicklaus make a hole-in-one at #15 during a practice round for the 1980 PGA, which he went on to win. First I'd ever seen. Thrilled!

4).Not many (excepting Shaun Micheel of course) of this week's field have enjoyed much success at Oak Hill.
~Tom Watson has been playing here since 1980 where he finished 10th behind Nicklaus. Since then he's finished 46th in the 1989 US Open, but missed the cut at the 2003 PGA and finished 16th at the 2008 Senior PGA.
~Davis Love finished 33rd at the 1989 US Open and enjoyed a decent (3-2) Ryder Cup in 1995, but missed the cut at the '03 PGA.
~Phil Mickelson enjoyed a fine Ryder Cup in 1995 as a rookie, winning all three of his matches and then finishing 23rd at the 2003 PGA.
Other action includes:
~1998 US Amateur: Sergio Garcia beat Matt Kuchar in the quarter final but then lost to Hank Kuehne. Adam Scott , CHowellIII and first alternate JJ Henry were among also-rans that year.
~2003 PGA: Those who made the cut included:
Tim Clark: 3rd
Els: 5th - the leading long-hitter.
Howell: 10th
Furyk: 18th
Donald, Phil, Scott: 23rd
Ogilvy: 27th
Harrington, Toms: 29th
Singh: 34th
Woods: 39th (with only 6 birdies, believed to be the career fewest in a 72-hole effort)
Cabrera: 45th
Gay: 51st
Poulter: 61st
Casey: 66th
Choi: 69th.
Those who missed the cut included Beem, Bjorn, Brooks, Cink, Clarke, Garcia, Jacobson, McGinley, Pettersson, Rose (hope he's driving better than during his accident yesterday) and Westwood.

5).Seldom has there been a weekend where it's been as easy to see the wood from the trees:
Woods wins by 7
Woodland wins by 9 (points in modded Stableford)
Wood earns his best ever US finish (7th): (Also 100% from the sand, 3rd in fairways hit, 7th in gir and 8th in putting. Impressive.)

6).Between Firestone and Reno some golfers made big moves towards securing the place in the FedEx Play-Offs, starting of course with Gary Woodland. Andres Romero clinched his place, while Martin Kaymer helped himself and should be OK with a made cut this week.
But some names still with it all to do include:
Appleby
Crane
Colsaerts
Harrington
Cauley
Hanson
Singh
Immelman
etc, etc.

7).And 2 golfers shot 9-hole 28's this past weekend:
Steele on the back-nine at Reno.
Sluman on the Champions Tour on Sunday, birdies on nine of his first ten holes.
Sluman of course grew up in Rochester, learning the game at Oak Hill with Craig Harmon, and it is somewhat surprising not to see him in this week's field.
Walter Hagen was also a Rochester man with PGA Championship victories (five) and who's to say Oak Hill's Gavin Hall won't be the next Rochester native to have his name engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy?

8).The US media is agog with the prospect of a Woods / Mickelson showdown at Oak Hill, but each will have to use his driver more often than they seemingly prefer.
Hank Haney made interesting comments earlier this summer about Tiger's preparation for Majors, suggesting that he doesn't spend as much time practicing and charting the greens and green complexes as he would expect, especially those on courses he knows less well. One thing is for sure: with only 2 x Par-5's (one, the 13th which may be unreachable), he will have to be on Firestone form to contend. (Ominous sign though, that Woods and Stricker played a practice round together Monday afternoon - more putting tips from "Stricks"?)
With Phil, it's more to do with What will Phil do next? As of Monday he still wasn't sure what his 14th club (driver or 64-degree wedge) was to be.  

9).With Phil breaking the run (by Els, Rory, Scott and Rose) of international Major winners, who are the likely lads among Americans this week? I'd say Snedeker must have a great chance, Zach Johnson also - and wouldn't be surprised to see Dufner on the leaderboard if he can hole some of the tiddler putts he missed at Firestone.

Conventional wisdom suggests a great driver will do well this week, an Adam Scott perhaps, Justin Rose or even a Sergio. All will have to putt better than we've seen recently, but Stenson has been doing everything well and great to see Martin Kaymer finding some form.

10).Woods described Oak Hill as "the hardest, fairest golf course the players have ever played" and Els considered it "the best, fairest and toughest championship golf course I've ever played". That was in 2003 when Shaun Micheel outlasted Chad Campbell with his tap-in birdie at the 72nd hole.
It's been a miserably wet summer in the U.S. North-East but the last three weeks have been perfect for golf course preparation and the players will enjoy mild, mostly dry, conditions this week. There has been criticism of the greens and the 8th green was damaged by a tree falling earlier this year, but hopefully all will be well come Thursday.
I still expect the "navigator" to prevail over the "bomber" this week, not Shaun Micheel of course, but possibly Snedeker (30/1, really?) or Zach Johnson (50/1) both of whom look excellent each way value.

PS: I'll be at the action on Thursday and Friday, off the air from Wednesday p.m. through Saturday. Some fantastic groupings to follow and hope you all enjoy a great tournament.

Awesome. I will get on it. I must have been thinking about earlier in the day!!

Woods at +1 has no chance. If he were to shoot 2*64's, it would prob only be good enough for a Top 5.................

Id rule everyone from -1 and back out completely................realistically, the winner will almost definitely come from the -9 to -5 bunch......................

yep 55 pts on betfair you are right

the thing is with woods is that if he did have one 64 he could potentially go really low in the betting stakes and you can cash out or get a free bet John.

even when he is 2 or 3 behind he can be fav

Never rule Tiger out with 2 rounds to go. He needs a really low one today tbf! And the course to become way more difficult than it has been

I can't see him winning. BUt the amount of times he just creeps up the leaderboard and gets the top 5 is astonishing!

An each way bet(if you are not a fan of laying) is a brilliant bet imo. Woods doesn't give up

People always say Woods doesn't give up but you could see by his body language yesterday that he is done for. Are we forgetting that he can only win a Major when holding or sharing the lead after 54 holes? And he is usually within a few of the lead after 36. He can't hack it in the Majors anymore.

have a look at his major finishes incont

just checked 38 top tens!!!

and 9 since he won one..

Mysti, can you explain how he played so impeccably last week and how this week he can be so mediocre on what has been described as a ball strikers golf course? ps- congrats on the 20,000 posts!

No congrats needed!!

Its not something to be proud off dude!!

Tiger has got bottle issues . He must have..

But for some reason(and luke donald has this as well btw)

When he is out of contention like this he smokes up the final two rounds.. If he is in contention(but a few behind rather than ahead) he loses the plot!!

I have a few bets on but I hope Dufner wins if they don't!!!! He is a legend!!!!!!

Hoping it plays more difficult over the weekend!

Yes it is a bit to easy at present

This piece sums up it up perfectly. Only 1 of 9 chins' 14 rounds in the Majors this year has been in the 60's??  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tiger-woods-keeps-plodding-along-in-a-state-of-denial/2013/08/09/ca303d8c-0137-11e3-9a3e-916de805f65d_story.html

mystiroakey wrote:No congrats needed!!

Its not something to be proud off dude!!

Tiger has got bottle issues . He must have..

But for some reason(and luke donald has this as well btw)

When he is out of contention like this he smokes up the final two rounds.. If he is in contention(but a few behind rather than ahead) he loses the plot!!

Lots of players like this. Poulters exactly the same, only 2 decent finishes have come from being way back in the pack. Another bottle job.

I thought the course was going to be tougher though the last two majors have been quite tough so maybe it's time for an easier shoot out?

Question about Dufner's round. One more shot and he would have broken the lowest round score in a major but isn't a par 70 going to produce lower scores that a par 72 anyway?

yes sporty, they should focus more on the lowest score to par in a Major.

I would disagree actually as with a PAR 70 there is less PAR5'S and with a PAR 72 there is going to be 4 PAR 5'S. I would say it would be more difficult on a PAR 70 to shoot that imo!

Diggers wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:No congrats needed!!

Its not something to be proud off dude!!

Tiger has got bottle issues . He must have..

But for some reason(and luke donald has this as well btw)

When he is out of contention like this he smokes up the final two rounds.. If he is in contention(but a few behind rather than ahead) he loses the plot!!

Lots of players like this. Poulters exactly the same, only 2 decent finishes have come from being way back in the pack. Another bottle job.

I would agree with that Poulter is kind of turning into Donald now tbh!

Poulter is not good enough to be compared to Donald. Not until he has a season as good as Donald did the other year.

The comparison I was making was the way they made their major charges.....Poulter is a player who flatter to deceive!

To be fair you can compare any decent player to Luke in the majors. His career in that respect has been a huge disappointment thus far really.

Tiger stinking the place out early doors.

Only a couple of players under par today so far.. Its tough out there!!

tell a lie there is actually about 6!(Dustbin is 5 under!)

still it seems tougher scoring!

Anyone else here really dislike Kaymer??

Bad sportsmanship in the RC in failing to shake hands with Stricker after winning the singles match..........turning away running towards team mates instead. Ignoring Anders Hansen after beating him in a play-off for 2008 BMW in Germany and heading straight to his family and on Thursday, after holing his 2nd shot for Eagle, he proceeded to repair his pitchmark with his golf shoe instead of his putter.....................

Is it just me?...............

Germans generally have bad manners

Good to see the course fighting back!!

"where did that cat come from", said the pigeons!! The leaders are coming back to the field, this is anybody's!!

Hold the phone... mcilroy couldnt, could he?

incontinentia wrote:Hold the phone... mcilroy couldnt, could he?

4 off the lead and safely in the clubhouse? with the leaders leaking shots like sieves and not yet at the turn. Not a bad position to be in at all!!

It's shaping up nicely for tomorrow

I think this may be down to a handful of players by the end of the third round. I can't see them all dropping back two or three shots. One from the current top seven to win?

While people shouting out after tee shot is a bit annoying and likely because they have had a few beers. But why do the commentators make such a fuss. It's a bit daft nothing more. Do they expect people to just clap and nod quietly. These people pay enough money to go the events let them enjoy themselves as long as they don't effect to players.

Anyway I hope furyk doesn't win. Seems like a miserable barsteward. Though so does dufner and he isn't according to his Twitter feed anyway

sirbenson wrote:I would disagree actually as with a PAR 70 there is less PAR5'S and with a PAR 72 there is going to be 4 PAR 5'S. I would say it would be more difficult on a PAR 70 to shoot that imo!

Neither. It's just what you call the hole. There seem to be a tendancy the PGA (Tour) turns short par 5's into long par 4's.

But, despite the above, it should (generally) be easier to shoot 63 on a par 70 than a par 72. If a par5 hole will post an average score of ~4.5, you'll statistically only birdie one of the two extra par5's on a par72 course. (all other things equal). Therefore a 63 on a par 70 statistically equals a 64 on a par 72. (And yes, I know that players on a roll normally birdies all 4 par5's, but the two extra birdies are not shoe-in, only one.)

Will post some notes separately but had a great two days, 72 holes walked, at Oak Hill.
Absolutely crap weather Friday morning, cool and heavy rain; got drenched - none of the guys that had to play 18-ish holes through the worst of the weather scored better than -1, apart from Webbgod Simpson's brilliant 64, (though Rose caught fire once the worst of the weather had passed). Westwood played his second round through the absolute worst of it, then fell asleep and squandered shots on #8 and #9 when the skies were starting to clear - fuming as he walked off the course having missed tiddlers on each hole.

Followed 18 holes each of (Thursday) McDowell and Poulter, and (Friday) Westwood and Casey. Most impressed with a couple of guys I'd never followed before:
Bill Haas shot a fine 68 playing with McDowell (who's unbelievably slow) and Els (who played his last three holes as if he was at a funeral).
Billy Horschel: Who blew himself out of the tournament with several double bogeys, but who played brilliantly in between.

Watched a few holes of Dufner and Stricker, and quite a bit of Chris Wood - who was having a rotten time of it. Loved Luiten's swing (and never seen Willett before but watched him hit some lovely tee-shots) and saw Lee Rhind hit a couple of shots - bad day for Uphall though, "ralph john".

Saw cameos of Rory (what a comeback!), Tiger (does he have a Plan B when Plan A isn't working?) and Phil (looks like he needs a break).

Fabulous course though and CBS (if Round 3 coverage is anything to go by) have done a rotten job of conveying what a wonderful event this is.

Hope Blixt can give himself a chance today, saw him interviewed yesterday and he came across as a very genuine guy. Great swing as well.

Lots of early birds at Oak Hill, but will that stop once they reach #7?

Good to see Poulter off to a good start - he seemed a bit defensive during Thursday's round, as if he wasn't too sure what to expect so just be conservative. Not his game, I'd've thought, so hope he attacks all day today (well, at least this morning).

Sublime to Ridiculous: Mickelson looks to be trying hard for last place.

[quote="kwinigolfer"]

Watched a few holes of Dufner and Stricker, and quite a bit of Chris Wood - who was having a rotten time of it. Loved Luiten's swing (and never seen Willett before but watched him hit some lovely tee-shots) and saw Lee Rhind hit a couple of shots - bad day for Uphall though, "ralph john".

quote]

Yeah not a great couple of days for my buddy kwini, ended up propping up the field in spite of finishing his 2nd round with 4 straight pars 15-18.  From what I can gather he enjoyed the experience and think his family (mum & dad and his younger brother & sister) loved their trip over to watch him too.

Re the tournament, course looks tremendous and I'd like Dufner to win, not just because I have a few quid on him at 35-1; wouldn't mind if either of the Swedes won either (Stenson looks more likely to me) but don't particularly want dour faced Furyk to win.  What I would say though is that I've been impressed with Furyk & Stricker's play this week, I thought that the way they effectively lost the US the Ryder Cup last year might finish them at this level but looks like they're both proving me wrong.

Hi ralph,
Hope LR had a good time watching Marc Warren playing out of his skin on Friday - one of the more impressive rounds of the day and gets him in line for a top finish.

Poulter crumbling after a torrid start. Wasted week after a decent first couple of rounds. Wouldn't be surprised if he wakes up on the morning after Deutsche Bank and finds his Tour season is over.

I was watching with friends yesterday and one of them pointed out that Jonas Blixt has as many PGATour wins as Lee Westwood.

Gallacher and Mickelson finished in 3 hours this morning!

GPB: And twice as many as Rickie Fowler who always gets prestigious groupings.

How did Rickie Fowler become part of the conversation?

Its Like I am seeing on another blog in the Tiger civil war.

Tiger Critic: Tiger Woods is playing badly.

Team Tiger: "oh yeah, Look at Phil Mickelson, he shot 78 yesterday."

============

Incidentally, Rickie Fowler has won in the last 18 months, so he would be in the Group A category.

It has been 38 months since Westwood last won on the PGATour.

Group A Category nothing to do with PGA Championship groupings, surely?

Very happy to see the tee box for #13 moved up to give the guys a chance to go for it in two - eagle there for Danny Willett. Good stuff.

How is playing with two guys that never won a major better than playing with a guy that won a major?

They both had essentially the same tee time.  5th off the 1st tee in the afternoon wave (Westy on Thu and Rickie on Fri).

edit: Of all things to get your nose out of joint and indignant about.

GPB,
I wasn't comparing Fowler's tee time to Westwood's, far from it - you got the wrong end of your stick there.

Lots of great birdie streaks today, by Miguel, Danny Willett and McDowell, but Keegan Bradley en fuego! Bit late though.

Startus horribilis for Lee Westwood.

Is it gonna be Jason's day.....?
And if so, which one?

kwinigolfer wrote:Hi ralph,
Hope LR had a good time watching Marc Warren playing out of his skin on Friday - one of the more impressive rounds of the day and gets him in line for a top finish.

Poulter crumbling after a torrid start. Wasted week after a decent first couple of rounds. Wouldn't be surprised if he wakes up on the morning after Deutsche Bank and finds his Tour season is over.

Yeah think he would have kwini, and looks like Warren's continuing his good play today. It was actually a good draw for him, Lee & Marc were in the same Scottish youth team a year or 13 back and know each other quite well, see the below article; some interesting names in there, the Molinari's for Italy, Richard McEvoy & Zane Scotland for England, Gmac & Michael Hoey for Ireland, Miko Ilonen for Finland and some guy called Dickmeiss for Denmark!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/4756764/European-Youth-Championship-Rhind-rises-to-the-occasion.html