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.

I feel nothing but sympathy for him. Got to say tho that compared to the fighting spirit that rory seemed to show just highlighted his dejection.

Not giving him a hard time Mysti, just saying all the 'look how much money i have' stuff doesn't come across well and if anything will probably lose him fans. Shame

Everyone has their limit so you've got to feel for him.

We all the know the feeling of playing poorly, but to then have these pathetic little keyboard warriors firing abuse at you on top of your own dejection must be so hard to take. I'm surprised more professionals haven't blown up at the little twerps.

MustPuttBetter wrote:Not giving him a hard time Mysti, just saying all the 'look how much money i have' stuff doesn't come across well and if anything will probably lose him fans. Shame

I agree with that, He did take it over the top a certain few times. The mentioning of his wealth especially was excessive and disappointing to see as an avid fan of his.

He is only human lads..

I'm surprised he'd bother with social media. Why would he give a flying feck what anyone else thinks?

mystiroakey wrote:He is only human lads..

Doesn't make it any more endearing
Plenty of pro golfer humans have the sense not to have a flip out and boast about their wealth. Not a loveable trait, (drunk) human or not

MontysMerkin wrote:I'm surprised he'd bother with social media. Why would he give a flying feck what anyone else thinks?

Agreed
I don''t know why anyone 'famous' would bother with it to be honest

We know that he always has done Monty. He posted on a forum .

Just because you are that successful doesn't mean you have to be the chilled out none caring type dude..

Loads of celebs start giving it back on twitter.. They are no different to us..

If i was famous . I think I would have to somehow ban myself from using social media or forums though. I think it could lead to my own downfall !!!!!

At one time I thought "MustPuttBetter" was Westwood. (Sorry MPB.)

Poulter harps on about his material wealth also when having a go at Twitter tweeters that he takes exception to - not an endearing trait and sad to see Lee fall in to the same behaviour.

Super - you dined at the wrong places.

Hey, unless you have the gear Rory and Tiger possess (more Rory these days) ... A lot has to go right to win a major. Can certainly understand Westwood's frustration with the armchair idiots.

I wish Kwini!

I can understand his frustration and no he doesn't have to be chilled out or any sort of person. But by the same token, as a human myself, I don't have to find resorting to boasting about material wealth particularly endearing. And I don't

As I say I don't know why they bother with twitter. It's not like any of these troll idiots are going to turn around and say 'oh thanks lee for explaining, you're absolutely right'...

MustPuttBetter wrote:I wish Kwini!

I can understand his frustration and no he doesn't have to be chilled out or any sort of person. But by the same token, as a human myself, I don't have to find resorting to boasting about material wealth particularly endearing. And I don't

As I say I don't know why they bother with twitter. It's not like any of these troll idiots are going to turn around and say 'oh thanks lee for explaining, you're absolutely right'...

Any sort of reaction seems to feed these evil little pr!cks. As can be seen by the threats that the female MPs have been getting recently. Apologies to any twitter users but it seems to me to attract a certain type. The type you don't need to engage with.

I can see why sportsmen use Twitter, it can widen the fan base by making you appeal to a wider audience. Just look at Dufner, he would just look like a grumpy potentially simple american, but he has embraced twitter and got a fan base from it, which changes the whole perception of how he comes across on the course.

For others its just a marketing toy not run by themselves. But in all its a good thing. What with sport being business more then ever.

did you guys see Jeff Overtons latest rant? hilliarious!

No, what did he say? I know he narrowly missed out as an alternate at the PGA

An account of the Jeff Overton rant:

http://www.golf.com/ap-news/overton-tweets-his-bitterness-about-missing-pga

Simple response from Colbert. "Play Better"

Overton must be an absolute moron, never won on tour, yet thinks he deserves invites and wild cards. On what basis?

Precious, arrogant, deluded, stupid, embarrassing and naive.

Overton's rant is ridiculous but beneath the frat boy image that he (and plenty of others) carefully cultivates is an articulate, talented and entertaining pro.

I reckon he had some justification to have been peeved at his Colonial DQ, and anyone objecting to the number of free passes Ishikawa receives is fine in my book.

But, apart from all that, he's as "precious, arrogant, deluded, stupid, embarrassing and naive" as super_ describes!

I forgot "petulant" Kwini, and you can add ungrateful, mindless and conceited too.

This week's Greensboro tournament is the last event of the "regular" season with Play-Off spots and 2013/2014 Tour Cards on the line.

A strong-ish field assembles, then, and we'll go through some of the ramifications in this week's notes, but Europeans playing with their Tour career on the line include:
Casey
Fisher
Hanson
Karlsson
Norlander
. . . . and hopefully Russell Knox who is "first alternate".
Owen

Edit: Have removed the names of Colsaerts and Harrington as they have earned enough money to be assured of retaining their card for 2013/2014; Colsaerts has now withdrawn from Greensboro and Ernie Els and Matsuyama have been added to the field. Mr.Knox still first alternate.

And: One piece of good news for Marc Warren fans is that his 12th place result at the PGA qualifies (top 15 finishers at Oak Hill will be exempt) him for the field for next year's Championship at Valhalla.

super_realist wrote:I forgot "petulant" Kwini, and you can add ungrateful, mindless and conceited too.

If it was Poultry saying it Super you'd call it being an individual and having personality and not just being another golf clone.

No I wouldn't, In any case, Poulter's game is at a point where he doesn't need to rely on invites, I'm well aware that being outspoken comes with consequences though, but Overton hasn't got a leg to stand on here.

Overton seems to think he's owed a living by being a second rate journeyman.

If he'd had Poulter's career, he might have a point, but even Shane Lowry has had a better career than Overton.

Overton is a fat loudmouth nobody and he'd do well to either remember that, or do something about it.

I know very little about Marc Warren, but how did he get into the PGA?

super_realist wrote:No I wouldn't, In any case, Poulter's game is at a point where he doesn't need to rely on invites, I'm well aware that being outspoken comes with consequences though, but Overton hasn't got a leg to stand on here.

Overton seems to think he's owed a living by being a second rate journeyman.

If he'd had Poulter's career, he might have a point, but even Shane Lowry has had a better career than Overton.

Overton is a fat loudmouth nobody and he'd do well to either remember that, or do something about it.

At least Overton has never uttered the immortal phrase "Then it will be just Tiger and me".
I suspect he had just as good an understanding of his place in the game as Poultry does.

More poultry bashing i see..

Come on!!

Talking of Poultry, he had an interesting little spat with Elkington yesterday on Twitter too. Told him to 'crawl back under that rock of his'. Quite amusing

MustPuttBetter wrote:Talking of Poultry, he had an interesting little spat with Elkington yesterday on Twitter too. Told him to 'crawl back under that rock of his'. Quite amusing

wow 2 utter Muppet going at it! Who is the Muppet?

kwinigolfer wrote:This week's Greensboro tournament is the last event of the "regular" season with Play-Off spots and 2013/2014 Tour Cards on the line.

And a lot of guys fighting pretty hard to get in...

Interesting "miss" from the Greensboro field is #135 FedEx ranked Woody Austin.

Except Jobe, every other player ranked FedEx 100-175 is in the field or are either injured (#153 Oosty, #167 Herron, #169 Goosen) or tryin to get in.

#143 Brandt Jobe is way down the aternate list right now (#11 I think... but not playin 4-spotter)

Current 9th alt. Brendon Todd, 8th alt Vaughn Taylor and 10th alt D.J. Trahan are playing the 4-spotter...

Current #1 alternate Russell Knox is not paying the 4-spotter.

And one of the better Monday qualifying fields you're ever see... http://carpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/carpga13/event/carpga1332/pairings.htm?r=8b35c6b0-5a77-4d7e-828a-36b596a405d1

robo,
Woody (15 clubs) Austin is now in the Greensboro field.

Any idea what's wrong with Herron? Seems a bit of a mystery.

Great time at Oak Hill, robo, sorry you couldn't join the entertainment.

I see Ross Fisher is entered in the Johnnie Walker at Gleneagles. Is it too much of a jump to conclude this means he won't be contesting the web.com Tour Finals, so almost certainly signalling his return to the European Tour for 2014?

Am somewhat disappointed to see no sign of Paul Casey in the Gleneagles field. Perhaps that signifies he's planning to go the opposite route to Fish?

PS: Quite a good field for Gleneagles, btw.

Brandt Jobe in at Greensboro now also.
P1sses me off when sponsors' invites leapfrog guys who are pole position alternates - I think it's the second time this has happened to Russell Knox and it happened earlier to Karlsson also.
But there's still time so there's still hope . . . . . . .

Some anti-Scots bias in US Golf just recently? Or just chance??

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Woody (15 clubs) Austin is now in the Greensboro field.

Any idea what's wrong with Herron? Seems a bit of a mystery.

Great time at Oak Hill, robo, sorry you couldn't join the entertainment.

 Yeah missed all the fun yesterday... when I got into Greensboro I had some family stuff on the other side of Winston Salem... so no golf for me other than following the cell phone ap.  But GREAT day never the less.

And as for Woody...  Don't know what the deal was with that or why he wasn't showing earlier.  Herron... no clue on that one either.

And by the way PGAT media is showing a different alternate list than we see online (and what I used for my prior post this AM)...  I should have checked this before posting earlier...  but these jive with the priority list...

ALTS currently in this order: Pampling, Mayfair, Trahan, Lunde, Petrovic, Taylor, Slocum, Knox, Tod, Sutherland, McCarron, Day, Bettencourt, Green, Flesch. (which jives with the priority list assuming.  So probably little hope for Knox getting in this week  

NOTE: Gary Christian and A. Rocha would be alts ahead of Trahan... but Christian out with Injury and Rocha is playing the Web.com this week instead.   Probably smart move for Rocha... 29th on Web.com list... I would think much better shot to gain status for next year on WEB.com than playing Greensboro.

Then I see Pampling already in for Steve Marino.

Listed SE's = Paul Casey, Donald Constable, Brandt Jobe, Hideki Matsuyama, Nick O'Hern, Camillo Villegas, Chris Williams.   Only new name as an SE would be Chesson Hadley... a guy from [relatively] nearby Raleigh, N.C.  who recently won a Web.com Tour event and a lock to get his PGAT card next year via the Web.com Tour...

Just saw some tweets about bethpage black for 2024 Ryder cup. Anything to make it more interesting has to be good.

As the current run is dire in terms of interesting courses

The crappy Nicklaus Gleneagles
Hazeltine
Le golf national

And then whistling straits which is not my cup of tee but at least offers something different to a normal week on tour.

Seems Golf digest have pretty much confirmed bethpage will get the ryder cup in 2024 and the PGA championship in 2019.

Mac,
Apparently a done deal.
They're invariably package deals these days, but it might mean that neither the US Open nor The Barclays will be played there during that time.

But Plunky will be there . . . . .

They're playing the US Amateur at a face-lifted Brookline this week - dress rehearsal for another major USGA event? And Matt Fitzpatrick and Neil Raymond are tied for 3rd after one round of strokeplay.

Good point about the barclays, on second thoughts would it have been better to have a better course on the barclays rota?

Mac - what's wrong with Le Golf National?

puligny wrote:Mac - what's wrong with Le Golf National?

Probably only a Doak 9.5.

No strategy, boring greens, too much water, little respect for natural landforms, no ground game options, soft.

Need I go on?

If you want to place it on the doak scale then somewhere between

2. A mediocre golf course with little or no architectural interest

and

3. About the level of the average golf course in the world


would seem about right.

McLaren wrote:No strategy, boring greens, too much water, little respect for natural landforms, no ground game options, soft.

Need I go on?

If you want to place it on the doak scale then somewhere between

2. A mediocre golf course with little or no architectural interest

and

3. About the level of the average golf course in the world


would seem about right.

No strategy, boring greens, a mediocre course with little or no architectural interest, an average golf course.

Sounds like TOC Mac

Mac - look again!!

Super

only if you are the sort of moron who thinks exxon mobile are undervalued contributors to the continued health of polar bears and that BP should be commended for donating to the shrimp farmers of luisiana.

puligny wrote:Mac - look again!!

Why?

have they blown it up and started again.

McLaren wrote:

puligny wrote:Mac - look again!!

Why?

have they blown it up and started again.

Maybe it's changed since you played it.

I recall from watching bits of the French Open that it looks kind of linksy but with water. Ok it might not be a Carnoustie or a Sunningdale...but 2 - 3 on the Doak scale?? Have you been there to see it for yourself to formulate such a negative opinion? If you haven't, what's your motivation other than another typical piece of bored Mac wummery?

JAS wrote:I recall from watching bits of the French Open that it looks kind of linksy but with water. Ok it might not be a Carnoustie or a Sunningdale...but 2 - 3 on the Doak scale?? Have you been there to see it for yourself to formulate such a negative opinion? If you haven't, what's your motivation other than another typical piece of bored Mac wummery?

i suggest you look up the Doak scale. It is designed to separate the best courses, so 3 for an average course makes perfect sense.

McLaren wrote:Super

only if you are the sort of moron who thinks exxon mobile are undervalued contributors to the continued health of polar bears and that BP should be commended for donating to the shrimp farmers of luisiana.

Mac, who gives a toss about Polar Bears and why do you think Exxon ought to be held responsible for anything to do with them, whilst the Gulf of Mexico is actually a very good place to have a well failure.

McLaren wrote:

JAS wrote:I recall from watching bits of the French Open that it looks kind of linksy but with water. Ok it might not be a Carnoustie or a Sunningdale...but 2 - 3 on the Doak scale?? Have you been there to see it for yourself to formulate such a negative opinion? If you haven't, what's your motivation other than another typical piece of bored Mac wummery?

i suggest you look up the Doak scale.  It is designed to separate the best courses, so 3 for an average course makes perfect sense.

Yet, if I recall correctly TOC is a 10 on the Doak scale, despite the fact it only has about 6 holes worthy of recollection. Stick it in Scunthorpe and it would be a 3 on the Doak scale. Hence why the scale is so useless as a measure.

McLaren wrote:

JAS wrote:I recall from watching bits of the French Open that it looks kind of linksy but with water. Ok it might not be a Carnoustie or a Sunningdale...but 2 - 3 on the Doak scale?? Have you been there to see it for yourself to formulate such a negative opinion? If you haven't, what's your motivation other than another typical piece of bored Mac wummery?

i suggest you look up the Doak scale.  It is designed to separate the best courses, so 3 for an average course makes perfect sense.

Have you played or walked the course....Yes or No?