PGA Tour: Tour Championship (by a fizzy drink): Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).What's better than this for the PGA Tour's "Haves"? A limited field (30), no-cut event that guarantees participants at least $303K - $128K for coming last, plus $175K for being 30th in the FedEx bonus pool - for all thirty players, probably about $11M for the FedEx Cup winner.

2).Congrat's to Zach Johnson and Jim Furyk for their exploits at last week's BMW Championship at Conway Farms, outside Chicago. I followed Zach for 18 holes at the PGA and, while no-one that day could doubt his superb golf, I hope he played a bit more quickly at the Beemer.
Conway Farms looked to be set up for the bombers, but it was largely the navigators who prospered with Donald and Stricker also playing so well.

3).Zach Johnson also holds the course record (60) at East Lake so don't write him off completing an end-of-season double and walking off with the lion's share of FedEx's swag.

4).Sunday's rain in Chicago offered the opportunity to follow the final 18 holes of the third event of the web.com Tour Finals in Columbus, Ohio. S-Y Noh won the tournament, just one year after contesting the BMW Championship himself. He'll return to the 2013/2014 PGA Tour and other notables who are mathematically assured of qualifying for their Tour card are:
Immelman, Will MacKenzie, John Peterson, Cantlay, Ishikawa, Matteson and Bud Cauley; while Slocum and O'Hair are all but certainties.

5).The status of the Europeans involved is not that promising with Greg Owen the best positioned - and he would be even better placed but for a characteristic meltdown over his final few holes. Mansfield Man will need a Top Twenty result at least in next week's Finals finale in Florida.
Russell Knox missed the cut by one stroke and now probably needs a Top Ten result to advance, while Siem, Karlsson, Cejka and Johnson likely need a Top Five finish.

6).Lots of rhetoric surrounding Woods's latest penalty and refusal to admit his eyes need testing.
We see Tour Pros meticulously removing debris around their golfball all the time - but why even risk the possibility of at best an "oscillation", at worst a perceptible movement, as in Tiger's case?
But I saw TWO examples, by Justin Rose and Hudson Swafford (in the web.commer) of a penalty incurred for something I had never seen before:
Each took practice swings behind their golfball and saw the resultant divot strike their ball and roll it down the fairway!  

7).Some Europeans, and not necessarily the ones you'd most expect, have found great wealth in the FedEx bonus pool; that's the money dished out to the lucky ones AFTER normal tournament prize-money has been awarded. Their status going in to Atlanta after six years of having money thrown at them is:
1).Luke Donald: $4.96M, plus at least $175K this year.
2).Rory McIlroy: $3.14M plus $125K in 2013.
3).Garcia: $3.128M plus at least $175K
4).Rose: $2.435M plus at least $175K
5).Harrington: $1.292K plus $32K in 2013.
6).Casey: $1.027M
7).Pettersson: $824K plus $70K in 2013.
8).Poulter: $692K plus $114K
9).Laird: $717K plus $80K.
10).Jacobson: $676K plus $80K.
11).Davis: $625K plus $128K
12).Westwood: $570k plus $134K.

Hopefully Stenson will join the $700K+ club this week.

8).Qualifiers for the "Tour Championship by Coca Cola" (dunno, never drink the stuff) also fizz an exemption in to the four 2014 Majors, among other things. Those who might not otherwise be exempt include: DeLaet, Watney, Spieth, Woodland, Streelman, Horschel, Castro, Weekley, de Jonge, Points, D.Johnson.

9).Hotlanta has apparently had a cooler, and wetter, than normal summer, but it's been dry for a while now and hopefully the Bendelow/Ross design, with facelift by Rees Jones, will play firm, at least for Thursday and Friday when the weather forecast is splendid. But the threat of rain moves in on Saturday with storms likely on Sunday.

Would like to see Luke Donald improve on his record of top three finishes the past three years; and, apart from the obvious Zach and Furyk choices, Hunter Mahan is also playing extremely well and was unlucky not to win in 2011.

10).Last and arguably least, Vijay Singh takes his deer antler spray on the Champions Tour this week as he makes his debut in Hawaii. He might think he's in for some pretty easy pickings, but that's what Montgomerie thought too, and the fuller-than-ever Monty has been evacuated to Europe with only two (7th & 9th) Top Twenty results in six tournaments so far.

navyblueshorts wrote:Hmmm. Shock! Horror! Could it possibly, just possibly, be that when his game is off it might be because he's injured???? The reasons for the injuries could be many-fold. Wouldn't be surprised if he over-trained in the gym pre-marriage break-up as he was beginning to look ridiculously muscle-bound at that time.

I think you're missing the point. Of course if he's injured then his game may suffer. But in the Barclays for example - and i watched it all - he'd hit a bad shot and feel the back, then go 5 good shots with no sign of pain whatsoever, then one in the drink, cue dramatic Rambo style fall to the ground, then gets up and plays some more with no signs of pain.
Give me a break..........

Andy Murray used to project terrible body language like that too. He's much improved in that department now.

TW's body shape these days is grotesque.  Too pumped up looking.  Just seems to me that a change in body shape is bound to impact on swing mechanics.

Yeah he did, he was almost worse than Woods. As you say thankfully he has changed it but it seemed everytime the match was beyond reach he developed an injury. Basically he quit, and i do woner if that's the deal with Woods these days. Whilst still clearly an excellent golfer, he doesn't look like he has the fight anymore, which would explain his poor performances at the weekends

MustPuttBetter wrote:Yeah he did, he was almost worse than Woods. As you say thankfully he has changed it but it seemed everytime the match was beyond reach he developed an injury. Basically he quit, and i do woner if that's the deal with Woods these days. Whilst still clearly an excellent golfer, he doesn't look like he has the fight anymore, which would explain his poor performances at the weekends

Interesting MPB, It does seem that unless Nine Chins gets off to a flier or has a really good second round then he doesn't seem to have the fight. Ditto McIlroy., Westwood and a few others of late.

hend085 wrote:my best guess

stenson
garcia
donald
westwood
mcilroy
mcDowell
jiminez
rose
mannasero
luiten
lowry
poulter


kaymer/Hansen/Lawrie/Blizt to all miss out

Kaymer the forgotten man, winning putt in the last RC to not qualifying for the next? I fear Westwood will need a pick if his form continues.

Super, agreed
Plus the whole thing of not turning up for a practice round at East Lake. It sort of seems like he can't really be bothered anymore

To be fair to the gimp, If I was a gazillionaire, with a hundred tour wins under my belt I could probably find more interesting things to do than practice too.

This is true. I think we all know he has found more interesting things to 'do' in the past........
But if that's the case why not just call it a day?

super_realist wrote:I do Navy, however virtually every coach and coaching manual will tell you that  90% of practice should be dedicated to shots within 150 yards, chipping, putting, bunkers etc. i.e, those that require, touch, tempo, finesse, accuracy, timing and poise and not repetitions of hundreds of "explosive" 110mph swings per day. So you shouldn't be hitting more than about 45 minutes a day of full swings. Surely even a glass body like Nine Chins could stand up to that?
Far too much of a gym bufty too, there is NO reason to have his physique for golf.

Furthermore, if Woods is spending so much more time on his long game than is recommended perhaps as you suggest contributing to his many "stress related"  injuries due to his "explosive" swing , does it not follow that he might be better than he is at this aspect of the game?

Good points all. Unfortunately, plenty of people probably spend loads of time hitting full shots at 100% and don't loosen up before trying it. I know all too often that I should spend more time warming up before lashing at balls.

Gotta do something! If i won the lottery I would be dead in a fortnight, choked on my own vomit rooting a room full of fat hookers, while snorting substances that would fell an elephant... sigh...

navyblueshorts wrote:

super_realist wrote:I do Navy, however virtually every coach and coaching manual will tell you that  90% of practice should be dedicated to shots within 150 yards, chipping, putting, bunkers etc. i.e, those that require, touch, tempo, finesse, accuracy, timing and poise and not repetitions of hundreds of "explosive" 110mph swings per day. So you shouldn't be hitting more than about 45 minutes a day of full swings. Surely even a glass body like Nine Chins could stand up to that?
Far too much of a gym bufty too, there is NO reason to have his physique for golf.

Furthermore, if Woods is spending so much more time on his long game than is recommended perhaps as you suggest contributing to his many "stress related"  injuries due to his "explosive" swing , does it not follow that he might be better than he is at this aspect of the game?

Good points all. Unfortunately, plenty of people probably spend loads of time hitting full shots at 100% and don't loosen up before trying it. I know all too often that I should spend more time warming up before lashing at balls.

Probably true Navy, although 90% of your time should be on shots 150 yards and in, I reckon 90% of people who practice stick to the driver, hence why the average handicap is always that of a chopper and they don't get any better.

Driving ranges are full of people just raking ball after ball with the driver with no purpose at all.

MontysMerkin wrote:Gotta do something! If i won the lottery I would be dead in a fortnight, choked on my own vomit rooting a room full of fat hookers, while snorting substances that would fell an elephant... sigh...

 
 
      Probably about a week longer than I would last!

kwinigolfer wrote:Imagine celebs would queue up to play with Rich Beem . . . . .

Michael Flatley is your lucky "man". Thank god they invited Rich Beem. (Not sure he'll come back though.)