PGA Tour: "Las Vegas": Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The 2013/2014 PGA Tour season travels from Northern California to Las Vegas this week, from one set of beautiful golfing conditions to another with weather expected to be fine all week. And the chat over the past few days has been dominated by three subjects (excluding R.McIlroy for these purposes):

2).Jimmy Walker's breakthrough to the winner's enclosure.
It's been coming: After making a brief splash with one of the rounds of the week at the Southern Hills US Open of 2001, he graduated from Nationwide action in 2004, struggled with injuries and form on the PGA Tour and returned to the Nationwide in 2007 to secure his "Card" once and hopefully for all. But it wasn't until 2009 that he started to enjoy significant success. Earnings then of $662K grew to $930K in 2010 and 2011 saw him reach tournament leaderboards with regularity.
The spring of 2013 was something of a breakthrough for him but he disappeared for the summer except for a T2 at Greenbrier. Now he has his first win despite hitting fewer fairways (22 out of 56, 39%) off the tee than all but two Tour winners since such records began in the eighties.
And he's in the owgr Top 50, on his way to The Masters and up to 4th in the early days of US Ryder Cup Team qualifying.

3)."Challenge Tour" player contends at PGA Tour event!
Great start for Brooks Koepka as he looks to carry momentum from his successful twelve months in Europe forward to a PGA Tour career. Carelessness over his final ten or so holes cost him a chance to win and secure Tour membership. But his top ten finish earns him a place in this week's Las Vegas field and the media splash he created will surely trigger a full quota of sponsor invitations. Which is all the more ironic because:

4).He flunked PGA Tour Q-School in 2012 as several dozen Tour wannabes proceeded to the web.com Tour, and the best of those players "graduated" (theoretically at least) to the PGA Tour for 2013/2014. Now Koepka is getting in to tournaments that those who beat him are not getting the chance to play.
I repost the link that I also posted on last week's thread where Doug Ferguson describes the Tour's dilemma more authoritatively than I could possibly do:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/golf/players-have-pga-tour-card-now-need-place-to-play/article_ffc9b9eb-3143-5e54-88b2-51e4ed7ce852.html

Ferguson's final paragraph also suggests a perfectly rational solution which I, for one, wrongly thought was the Tour's intent.

5)."robopz" mentioned during the last week that this issue was bubbling up - this was arithmetically inevitable as, just as golfers with "conditional" status struggled to reach the "Fall" fields in recent years, so those players have been replaced by a new wave of web.commers.
The Tour will surely address this inequity post haste but what a bunch of wallies to allow this to occur in the first place. Finchem no better at arithmetic than he is at geography.

6).The bigger question, to me at least, is when will we reach the tipping point of marginal "foreign" pro golfers taking the place of marginal American "Touring Pros"? When will the richly rewarded relative mediocrity of these journeymen who typically flip-flop a la Goggin, Owen and Chopra from Tour to Tour start to earn the resentment of the American rank and file, the guys that the likes of Azinger, Danny Edwards and Larry Rinker first started to advocate a decade or more ago (and earned them lifelong membership of the Tour HQ dog-house)?
These notes take the mickey out of the averageness (new word?) of some Europeans, but there must be almost 20 under-performing Aussies with only Jason Day and Adam Scott from Down Under currently thriving at the highest levels of the game, and just Matt Jones and Leishman joining them in last season's FedEx Top 100. Elkington's joined the pensioners, Baddeley, Appleby, Allenby, Senden, Pampling all seem in terminal decline and the next generation is either content in Europe or just not cutting the Tour mustard.

7).What of Geoff Ogilvy, who has left the owgr Top 100 for the first time in almost a decade, following Padraig Harrington who departs after 14 years? Ogilvy's had about one decent result (2nd at the "Honda") in recent memory, a sad fall from grace for one of the most talented golfers of his generation.
And Harrington's comments following a dismal first round at Bermuda's Grand Salami exhibition suggest it will be a long road back for him too:
"My short game is not as good as it used to be, and most of that is because of intensity." Or presumably the lack of it.
"I played stale golf, tired golf. There's not a shadow of a doubt that I'm completely overgolfed at the moment."
But he'll make $200K just for turning up this week.

8).It sounds as if the course that the PGA Tour used for Monday Qualifying for "Las Vegas" was little more than a dog-track with bare patches on the greens and golfers tweeting up a storm:
Jamie Lovemark and Kyle Thompson with pungent remarks and photos and Joe Ogilvie, as respected a Tour pro as they get and a sure candidate for Commissioner in the future:
"Golf course exemplified everyting wrong w/golf in 18 holes. Tough to do."
Insult to injury for all the web.com grads among the 98 battling for 4 slots in the Las Vegas field.

9).But there's a good field with Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson leading the way. Nick Watney plays well here and Russell Knox messed up a promising position last year and will hopefully do better than his 26th place finish at the Frys.
Martin Laird is back at the scene of his first Tour win (and a play-off loss) and could use a top finish to return to the all-important Top 50. I mentioned Spencer Levin last week and he'll probably be disappointed at flaming out to a T12. But he has form here too and would carry my each way half crown.

10).And it only makes sense that, just as the PGA Tour embarks on its 2013/2014 season, their elder statesmen approach the "climax" of their 2013 season at the "Greater Hickory Kia Classic" in furniture country in North Carolina and a strong field looking to win the Rocking Chair that goes to the winner! Just this week and next to reach the Top 30 money winners and 2014 exemption for players, and also qualification for the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship at San Francisco's Harding Park. Very unlikely that any Europeans, except Bernhard Langer, will qualify for the "Schwab".

Bob Gilder becomes the 16th Pro to reach 1,000 appearances on the PGA Tour plus the Champions Tour. A distinguished career to be sure, tho' always a notch below the Tour's elite. Dave Stockton could be the next 1,000 Clubber as he sits on 999, but Jay Haas, who has 984 appearances will likely get there next.
And Gilder is just one of a number of "Champions" who sit precariously towards the bottom of exempt status as there will be a relative tsunami of exempt players usurping old farts like Gilder, Purtzer and Levi as "youngsters" turn 50 over the coming 12 months.

"...Finchem no better at arithmetic than he is at geography...."

another potshot snark at Finchem? I really find it funny that anything that the PGATour gets wrong is always a Finchem problem and not a player problem. And Finchem never gets credit for leading the PGAT into the one of the six or seven biggest Sports organizations. (IMO)

Finchem does not govern policy. The Players do.

This is not a Finchem issue, it is a players issue. The players are making the rules and the players are not going to go a top 100 when they are the one making the rules.

It must be a Euro thing, with that Bob Huggan article criticizing the Prez Cup from last week.

European thing?
Probably is!
Just find it extraordinary that such a successful commish, which of course he is, makes such elementary blunders.
Stevie Wonder could see this one coming and there will surely be further ramifications if anyone really cares about the only path (not really as we've seen!) to the PGA Tour being via the web.com.

As for the Pres Cup, it really is a farce.

The US points fingers at the Seve Trophy, correctly in my ipinion, but at least it's an honest, if misguided, attempt at a mini-Ryder Cup. Rules don't favour one side over the other, all pretty equitable if ultimately of luke-warm interest.
Unlike the Pres Cup which is almost as much of a set-up as Pro Wrestling.

(Must admit, my comments are somewhat influenced by the inability of most Americans, in local government and in business especially, I meet to grasp simple arithmetic. Less said about geography acumen by 90% of the country the better.)

Lots to look forward to this week, however, but the web.com situation won't go away anytime soon.

PS: Didn't understand your "players are not going to a top 100" etc. Top 100 what?

The quickest solution is to reduce the Exempt top 125 into a Exempt top 100.

But there is no way that the status quo is ever going to let that happen.

OK!
Not completely sure that's necessary - there seems to be a perfect storm right now of golfers:
~Being attracted via Special Temporary Membership who are not really committed to the PGA Tour.
~Seniors (last week it was Funk, Mediate, Singh) who still have eligibility.
~"Career earnings" beneficiaries.

So we're regurgitating tourists and forty-somethings who are either not committed to the Tour or who are some years removed from their best days.
More players than normal will move on to the Champions Tour next year, and the threshhold for Special Temp Members will be higher, not to mention the bar for Top 125 moving quite a bit higher.

With simple adjustment to the priority status via the WTF's I think the landscape for 2014/2015 will be a little more fair.
The question still may be: Will the American rank-and-file find an evangelist to insist that their tee-times are not eroded further in favour of the galacticos - robo's rumblings about the Tiger tournament suggest there is still momentum to allow the rich to get richer without compensation lower down the ranks.
This carries the possibility of problems resurfacing down the road.

A nice little earner for Adam Scott has he overtook Justin Rose for the Bermuda exhibition - Dufner 3rd and Harrington more than one Bermuda short.

Excellent ! We're taping it so I look forward to watching tonight. I read that Adam eagled the 17th today -- I couldn't believe his drive on that hole yesterday. I love to watch the pros play courses that I've actually played -- doesn't happen very often

So I ruined your suspense Plunky.
Thank goodness it was Adam that won!

I actually like to know golf results as soon as they're out, but Mr. P hates it when that happens so I'll be forced to conceal the fact from him !

Potshots at team Finchem? Always. Big difference between Prez cup and Seve trophy: top players actually show up for Prez cup, real crowds, and obviously significantly more Telly viewers.

Sr,
But the sort of telly viewers who can't wait to see Oklahoma clobber Henderson State.
The fix is in, whereas the Seve Trophy carries integrity, albeit in a misguided concept - we all agree the format should be changed, or the event scrapped.
When Nick Price chooses Ernie Els, his on-course leader, to open the batting against Stricker, and is told, tough t1ttie he's going number four(I think) instead, all pretence about a level playing field is gone for ever.

Of course Finchem is a great Commissioner. So is Selig, for the owners. But Selig has presided, in that benevolent despot way of his, over a shameful decade or two of drug use by its players, blind eyes and deaf ears everywhere.

Finchem will go down as a great Commish because of his commercial successes, which outpoint strange bedfellows like Stanford and Ginn, huge TV contracts and unprecedented, Tiger-driven wealth to the top 25% of his players.

It is doubtful if any world golf follower will regard his reign quite so favourably. Am actually looking forward to what the Olympic drug people make of his policies in that area, especially in light of Snedeker's naive comments this week.

Ironic after my drivel above that the latest two alternates to get in the Las Vegas field are Danny Lee and Van Aswegen!

They change starting times for afternoon matches at the Ryder Cup too. Match 15 is not necessarily going to be the third match out on Saturday afternoon.

That's correct, but not at the start of a completely new series of matches - I certainly can't recall any RC singles batting order upended like this and am sure it hasn't happened, in the past fifty years at least.
What ever was the point of these contrived, made for TV, "draws" if one side is permitted to change the other team's plans, seemingly unilaterally?

I am pretty sure that if Saturday afternoon matches carried over to Sunday morning, the RC Committee would do whatever they could do to to get the matches completed. Especially in light of a poor Sunday and Monday forecast.

kwinigolfer wrote:Sr,
But the sort of telly viewers who can't wait to see Oklahoma clobber Henderson State.
The fix is in, whereas the Seve Trophy carries integrity, albeit in a misguided concept - we all agree the format should be changed, or the event scrapped.
When Nick Price chooses Ernie Els, his on-course leader, to open the batting against Stricker, and is told, tough t1ttie he's going number four(I think) instead, all pretence about a level playing field is gone for ever.

Of course Finchem is a great Commissioner. So is Selig, for the owners. But Selig has presided, in that benevolent despot way of his, over a shameful decade or two of drug use by its players, blind eyes and deaf ears everywhere.

Finchem will go down as a great Commish because of his commercial successes, which outpoint strange bedfellows like Stanford and Ginn, huge TV contracts and unprecedented, Tiger-driven wealth to the top 25% of his players.

It is doubtful if any world golf follower will regard his reign quite so favourably. Am actually looking forward to what the Olympic drug people make of his policies in that area, especially in light of Snedeker's naive comments this week.

What has the American Cyclops said?

 "I played stale golf, tired golf. There's not a shadow of a doubt that I'm completely overgolfed at the moment."
But he'll make $200K just for turning up this week.

Telling?

"I'm absolutely knackered, too much of this sh*t is affecting my ability and desire, I need a break"

"Paddy, it's Vegas this week. Not a biggy and I know you weren't good in Bermuda"

"I'm goosed. Wouldn't do myself justice, I need a break"

"$200k for turning up"

"Fire up the Lear jet. Vegas baby yeah!"

 
Nice one Roller, Spot on.


Brandt Snedeker:
"I would do away with drug testing in a heartbeat. It's a complete waste of time and money. I don't think it's ever been a problem in golf. I don't think it ever will be a problem in golf. The PGA Tour is different from football and every other sport in that we call penalties on ourselves."
Ah, That's alright then!
Except of course that we've seen how selective players (no names) are in calling penalties on themselves on the PGA Tour - and other Tours. (And at least one top player has described how Nationwide players would pop in to on-course portaloos for a quick joint.)

Having said which, isn't it about time that Gary Player started to name names regarding his inflammatory statements about drug use in golf?


GPB,
They did the PC singles draw on Sunday morning . . . . .

Hadn't realised that Woods is not planning to play the WGC:HSBC Champions.
Wonder which other no-shows we can expect?

for the harrington lovers/haters

http://www.independent.ie/sport/kimmage/thats-who-i-am-the-only-thing-i-know-is-that-it-never-came-easy-to-me-its-always-been-a-search-29655953.html

hend0,
That's great, Thanks!
Wasn't it you who forwarded the Harrington lecture to a group of students too? Loved it!

I fall in to the group who admire what Harrington has done but roll my eyes at some of the stuff he does now, some of the things he does.
Early this year he was in the final group at Phoenix, had played great all tournament, hitting it a mile, missed the green wide right on his 72nd hole from the middle of the fairway then took three to get up and down as he hurried to get out of Mickelson's way.
Then he went up the road to Pebble, played well until his third round, missed the cut, missed out in LA and was well on the road to a lousy season.
Have often wondered whether the carelessness in Phoenix, then the missed cut (thrown away really) at Pebble gnawed at him and he lost confidence.


PS: Matsuyama has w/d'd from Las Vegas due to "illness".

Now he has a mountain to climb.

Kwini, they also had foursomes matches to complete on Sunday morning and they moved up the tee times because of more rain in the forecast.

Of course, I am sure Finchem was responsible for the Monsoons that hit Columbus, Ohio. He seems to be responsible for everything else.

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

and I have not seen Adam on the list of HSBC commitments.

What's wrong with a bit of rain? They knew it was coming before they made the "draw".


As for the HSBC, Thanks for the heads-up about Adam - I know he's scheduled for four tournaments in Australia this November so perhaps that's the reason. I can't find a published list of commitments but I don't see Zach, Simpson or Kuchar on the unofficial list and I'm not sure about the South Africans apart from Els.

Unofficial field for next week's CIMB Classic:

http://www.cimbclassic.com/Field/2013-Field/

11-under par round of 60 for JJ Henry in Las Vegas; he wrapped it up with an eagle on #9!
And Andres Romero is 10-under with two holes to play: 59 watch?
Edit: Romero in with a 61. Scores are very low, anyone over par will need mid-60's at least tomorrow just to make the cut.
Nice rounds from Scotland's Laird (68) and Knox (67).

Cheers Hend - good article on PH that. Two of the guys I play with are interesting one's like an early Paddy and one a later. (Bear in mind we're not in the upper echelons of golf here, 4/5 h/caps).

The later one had an ugly grip and swing but knocked big and straight and could chip and hole putts like nothing I've ever seen. Great touch player. Hit his best round (-3) effortlessly which was the culmination of a year of very good, consistent scoring. Down to 3, decides to rebuild swing from the ground up. Now swing is lovely, but prone to the odd one or 2 OOB carves every so often but his chipping suffered and his putting can border on the very poor. Now off 6. Very PH to me.

The other has an ugly swing, that works mostly but puts him in cabbage quite often. Gets himself somewhere near the green and chips and putts pretty much every time. Great short game. Shoots a double then back to back to back birdies. Frequently hits it like a lemon for 3 hours and when we ask him how he's going about 16 "+1" and flabbergasts us every week. But he accepts it gets on with it and is the lowest of us had a couple of months where his worst score was 71 (+1) and knocked in a bogey free -4 too. Sounds classic early PH.

Is very much down to the makeup of the person and does explain why some seem to us to throw it away in search of perfection but to them the perfection is the goal, while others just simply score.

yep that was me Kwini! i think his current character "flaw" is the same attribute that brought him to his #3 in the world and 3 majors.
I love how open he is and find his personality fascinating.

Re: Harrington

That lecture he gave was all about focus and confidence - seems that's what he's lacking these past few months. Also enjoy his openness, but wonder sometimes whether he's too open? I would say that I've been lucky to follow him a couple of times at Hartford where the punters love him, and he reciprocates generously.

Round 2 well underway in Las Vegas, Brian Davis just improving on his overnight 3-under par with a birdie at the first.
Sounds as if it's a bit brass monkeys (relatively speaking) in the early morning desert air, but the sun will warm the temps and the golfers.
Still expect -3 to be the cut-line.

Best round of the morning "wave" in the books now for Webb Simpson, praise the lord, and a four shot lead.

Brian Davis going along nicely at 4-under for 15 holes, Laird just teed off, Knox in a few minutes.

Scoring perhaps a shot higher than yesterday's blitzkrieg.

A very cool week's work for Andres Romero: 61 on Thursday, 81 today.
TGIF.

More good stuff from Russell Knox as his 67 - 65 for -10 eases him into the top ten. Obviously a good start for his season but most important he'll be in good shape for the all-important "reshuffle" (due after Mayakoba) if he keeps up this pace. Early days yet, of course.

Good for Brian Davis, but bad for Martin Laird whose one-over-par 72 today will earn him an early flight to Kuala Lumpur.

A few things...

Kwini... The whole debacle regarding the Category 25 guys (web.com playoff guys) is a bit astonishing. And I would agree with you MORE SO in that Finchem didn't foresee this. IMO the Ponte Vedre boys have shown in the past to be as good a bunch of i-dotters, and t-crossers, as perhaps any other organization in the world of sport. But sheesh... did they miss the boat this time. Watch this issue grow, it's probably gonna be the 2nd hottest overriding topic over the next month behind the Chamblee/Tiger cheating deal...

Tiger and the HSBC... A lot of eyes were on Tiger wondering if he'd add the HSBC at the last minute. (Deadline was Thursday 17th). While I've not seen a final committment list to the HSBC, I'm pretty sure had TW been on it, we would have heard at least that much by now. I still thought there was a good chance, as he usually plays TWO 72-hole events when he makes these swings. I'm still wondering if the back issue isn't more than's being let on.

But long term... I'm guessing the top tier PGAT guys are looking to see how these 6 events pan out. I do expect more of the PGAT guys in the HSBC than in the past, but still wouldn't be surprised to see half a dozen or more no-shows. But from the early look at things this year, sans Tiger, I'm seeing slightly more play out of the biggest PGAT names than I expected. Phil for example had stated early in the season that with he Singapore event in doubt he might play only the HSBC.... but now we see him in the CIMB as well.

But IMO the guys who are likely to be under the BIGGEST pressure are the PGAT dual Tour Euros. They'll be playing for a lot of OWGR points, but almost no FedEx points. A lot of them might have only one FE Cup counting event in their ledger (HSBC) going into next year... . So if they show up in the U.S. in late February as usual, they could be WAY behind the 8-ball in the FE Cup.

Bottom line... this new web.com setup up is having a LOT of ramifications beyond what I believe most expected.

1) I think a lot of us knew that there would be less true rookies making it out to the Tour this year... but I don't think many thought the number would be halved...

2) The lack of access for Category 25 - Way worse than expected.

3) The pressure the new system is going to put on dual tour guys... (could include some issues for non Euro Tour South Africans and Aussies too)

kwinigolfer wrote:More good stuff from Russell Knox as his 67 - 65 for -10 eases him into the top ten.

 Hate to tell you... but Knox will go down in flames this week.... but at least this time it won't be his fault... it will be mine.  

You see... I've been paying attention to you guys build Knox up in here... so I finally put him on one of my Fantasy Teams... and this year the "Robo Kiss of Fantasy Death" is back at work in full force.  Anybody I pick is destined to inglorious failure in the week I take them...

Good news is I don't have Davis...  

Knox,
Yup, me too. My "one and done" too! Think gael and I are the only ones bigging Knox up; most ignoring him, though "Ned" introduced him to me about five years ago!

Tiger definitely doesn't show HSBC on his web-site schedule - HSBC used to make healthy donations to Woods's foundation, which was why he dumped Dubai for the HSBC event, so perhaps they dropped that.

Agree with all you say in the post above - think the situation could be even more dire for many of the Euros & ROTW crew than you suggest. Smart of David Lynn and one or two others to play CIMB, but most aren't getting the (our anyway) message!

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree with all you say in the post above - think the situation could be even more dire for many of the Euros & ROTW crew than you suggest. Smart of David Lynn and one or two others to play CIMB, but most aren't getting the (our anyway) message!

 Yep.. the Japan guys too.  I've seen a few comments about Ryo and Hideki critical of them not playing the Japan Open this year.  But with this new set-up who can blame them.  IMO if either of those guys (especially Ryo) is going to have a fighting chance to retain their PGAT cards, they're gonna need to play a lot on the PGAT.... and the 4 events here are probably their best chance. (but too bad about Matsuyama's illness this week).   But another thing they have Ryo has going for him them is both are is he's in the HSBC... EDIT: Oops... Hideki doesn't appear to be qualified for the HSBC

Japanese? Still not convinced about Matsuyama, but a more consistent start to his international career than Ryo.
Ryo seems to have a new lease of life with the WTF's - good start last week and so far, so good in Las Vegas. Always been sceptical about him but he may have matured a touch.

kwinigolfer wrote:Japanese? Still not convinced about Matsuyama, but a more consistent start to his international career than Ryo.
Ryo seems to have a new lease of life with the WTF's - good start last week and so far, so good in Las Vegas. Always been sceptical about him but he may have matured a touch.

 

I'm not necessarily convinced either... but remember these guys are only 21 and 22... about the same age a lot of the newbie PGAT guys are just when coming out of college.  I happen to think Hideki has more of the physical tools necessary to potentially compete on the PGA Tour  (he's not a little guy), but we'll see.  I think it'd be great if one or both could really break through and at least get into contention in majors and such down the road.

Seems to me one of the things that's hampered these guys is the tremendous pressure Japanese players are under to play FULL schedules on the Japan Tour in addition to playing here. I remember reading something about I think it was Shikegi Maruyama (?) and how the Japan Tour "gave" him his new schedule even after he qualified for the PGA Tour.  He wanted to play some in Japan, just not a full schedule... but in a stand off he resigned his Japan Tour membership. It wasn't until the sometime later after his PGA Tour career when he finally got it back.

Anyone having trouble with the PGAT live scoring not automatically updating?

Tried Chrome- No auto update
Tried Explorer - No auto update
Downloaded Firefox - No auto update

Mine's updating but also reverts sporadically to previous times' scores. Bizarre.
Bad advertisement for CDW.

Sean O'Hair finding some sea legs ... very nice to see.

Some good stories coming out of the past month's golf with O'Hair, Ishikawa, Barnes, Knox and others coming out of the WTF action seemingly with batteries fully charged.
But there are reasons why they had to go the WTF route, so will they resurface this week or are their careers truly on the mend?

O'Hair, Ishikawa and Knox T5 after three rounds; Ricky Barnes T21.

Jose Coceres also T21 and he makes his Champions Tour debut next week.

Brian Davis (T30 with 18 holes to play in Vegas), Martin Laird and David Lynn among the GB&I conestants in Kuala Lumpur starting Thursday.

Nice stat from Gary Koch yesterday:
Longest current streak of Rounds played in Par or better: Russell Knox: 17.

Looks like Zach Johnson is next with 13.

Zach Johnson is not listed on this page, and I am not sure why

http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.150.html


Geoff Ogilvy sprinting around the front nine in a onesome.  One hour 10 minutes.

I believe they only show golfers who played at the Frys . . . . . . i.e. the 2013/2014 season.

kwinigolfer wrote:I believe they only show golfers who played at the Frys . . . . . . i.e. the 2013/2014 season.

It looks like you are correct.

Use the drop down box to go to 2013 season.

Jonathan Randolph and Rory Sabbatini were the year end leaders.  I follow the PGAT pretty closely, even the opposite field events, but I have never heard of Jonathan Randolph.

GPB!
Randolph must only get in to the Mississippi event . . . . . .

Not quite sure why but the birdies and eagles of Rounds 1,2 and 3 have been endangered species so far today.

Can anyone catch Webb Simpson?
A four shot lead over Hadley in 2nd place, five ahead of Overton and six ahead of the closest pursuer who already knows how to win on Tour - Jason Bohn, seeking win #3.
The main posse lies seven strokes adrift so you'd have to think that, unless his god denies him communion, that it's Simpson's title to lose.

Russell Knox, currently tied at T5, has a low round of the week of 65; anything in the sixties should earn him a top ten finish, 65 or better should get him in the top 3.
Brian Davis riding with the peloton.

Guthrie and Chalmers are the only ones taking it deep today thus far.

I bet the greens are firming up and the proximity is not as close as it has been and that is why the scores are higher today.

Webb would have to play poorly for anyone to catch up.  68 or better and he wins easily.  

I don't think Hadley is ready for PrimeTime and Overton never has been.  

Although I would like to a Hadley win today.  Maybe he will drink a couple milkshakes tonight to celebrate!  6'4" 150 lbs.

Surely Simpson will be struck down for working on the sabbath?

Nine golfers -4 for the day so far, no-one better.
Davis on a nice little run - be good if he can finish this week off, pretend it's spring!