PGA Tour: Aloha! Sony Open in Hawaii: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The Ballwasher here in the north country tundra is thawing out, frostquakes are so yesterday (last week anyway), and we can look West to the US's 50th State, the driving range of Waialae Country Club and this week's Sony Open.
 
2).Last week Zach Johnson scored his 11th Tour win at Kapalua, a course where success, even a decent finish, had been elusive until: "I just picked it (Kapalua) apart. I didn't deviate from anything I typically do on a golf course." True that, and he moves ahead of Adam Scott with the most wins of an under 40 golfer (edit as per GPB) not called Tont:
Johnson: 11
Scott: 10
Garcia: 8
Dustin Johnson: 8 (leading 20-something)
Ogilvy: 7
Kuchar, McIlroy, Sabbatini, Snedeker: All with 6.
 
3).And Zach moves on to Waialae in a 2-fer tournament run with the likes of Kuchar and Scott, and maybe one or two others, before taking a breather while the Tour travels around California.
Webb Simpson put a certain trend in perspective when he won in Las Vegas. "Good", or words to that effect, "That will enable me to take a break instead of chasing Ryder Cup and FedEx points, drop a couple of intended starts on the West Coast and go back to Charlotte to catch up on my bible study."
 
4).In a page out of Woods's book, maybe even out-Tigerring him, Johnson, and Stenson for that matter, are emulating the Number One independent golfing contractor by striving for the most reward whilst overcoming the smallest fields. Zach beat just 115 competitors for his most recent three wins whilst Henrik beat 183.
 
5).There are deja-vu-all-over-again concerns being expressed in the US golfing media about the health of the California/Phoenix swing, not unlike ten or twelve years ago when some West Coast events seemed to be on life support.
With Scott not reappearing after this week until the "Honda", other leading US players taking a break, and the top class "Internationals" otherwise engaged, at least until Riviera, who exactly will be playing during the upcoming weeks?
Well, Tiger will be in San Diego, Phil will maintain most of his heavy Jan/Feb schedule, Snedeker will be around, plus Dustin Johnson, Mahan, Dustin, Fowler, Haas, Bradley and Bubba, and the strength in depth that the PGA Tour enjoys, especially in a Ryder Cup year.
Don't panic . . . . !
 
6).Every year we see one-time top golfers in peril of losing their much-coveted Tour exemptions. Recently the likes of Karlsson, Appleby, DiMarco, Duval etc, etc, have been down to their last remaining exemption, Appleby being the only one of those to bounce back, the others in Dalyland, depending on sponsors invites or, less likely, Monday qualifying to get to play.
Last year Immelman and Chad Campbell were on the edge; Immelman resurrected his career by winning the first WTF tournament and is back in business, for this year only unless he pulls his socks up.
Campbell missed out and is just an alternate in Hawaii, a tournament where he's had good finishes in the past, but blotted his copybook a few years ago by rocking up dead keen at the start of a new season only to be told at the registration desk that he hadn't entered. Goodbye, back to Texas, 3,800 miles away.
 
7).Big names in precarious situations this year who had a lack-lustre 2013 include:
YE Yang.
Glover.
Harrington (who has a career money exemption still to cash in).
Curtis.
Gainey.
Weir.
Allenby (who also still retains a second career money safety net).
Colsaerts.
Hanson.
Mark Wilson.
 
8).The Sony Open has a rich list of past Champions, but the past four winners (Ryan Palmer, Wilson, Wagner, Henley) suggest they could use a big-name winner. Like 2009 winner Zach.
Europe has a weak challenge led by Carl Pettersson, plus Chopra, Knox and Lingmerth.
Edit: Just realised that Robbie Karlsson was exempt for the Sony Open but opted to play in South Africa instead. Wonder if that means he's turning his back on PGA Tour opportunities and will play the European Tour - given his fine play last October and November, that seems a slightly surprising prospect.
Scott leads the higher ranking players with Kuchar and Dufner, plus the two young gun/Ryder Cup wannabes Spieth and English.
 
9).But for course specialists look no further than perennial challenger CH3 and Tim Clark.
Clark has visited Waialae just four times but finished 12th, 25th, 2nd and 2nd.
Howell has been here 12 times, has 12 made cuts and SEVEN! top 5's. Why can't he win here? Really, why can't he win anywhere. Perhaps this will be the year.
 
10).Let's leave the last word to an NBC Sports website, on the subject of one of the sporting world's underachievers of the past fifteen years, the inevitable John Daly.
Daly has a one-tournament "Medical Extension" which he's cashing in this week; he has one chance therefore to win a defined sum to be promoted to the "Major Medical" category, $551K, and that demands a solo second-place finish.
Daly "played 20 times worldwide in 2013 and failed to log a top 40 (finish)".
Quite.

incont,
More and more fashionable for these American Young Guns to have surnames as Christian names isn't it?!?!
Harris, Brandt, Webb, Eldrick, Chesson, the list goes on . . . . .
And then there's Boo, Bubba and Bud.

Ryan Yip must be one the most unfortunately named floggers.

Pretty insane shot from Schwartzel on the ET, stiff from a roadway! Looked like a blind shot too.

Remember when people were questioning ZJ's form (and rightfully so) but amazing how much a difference a few months make, right? Since the John Deere he has an incredible run of form!

Imagine there'll be a pretty good day's play on Sunday, the Bermuda Greens experts having their way.

Zach Johnson's an interesting case, putts well on Bermuda, not so well on Bent, and plays poorly in California - all adds up to a typically slow start to the season unless he strikes gold in Hawaii or the WGC-MatchPlay. All of which adds up to him scoring less than 20% of his career top tens in the first third of the season.

Surely god will be angry that Zach Johnson is working on the sabbath so often? That's a capital offence according to his bible. Better watch yourself ZJ, you should be stoned to death for that.

Who's this Harrington fellow, leader in the clubhouse?
Has Ronan been back on the bag or is he doing better without him?

haha Kwini, he missed two putts under 5/6 feet one of them was very yips like, positive stuff though! Ronan was caddying yes.

Hopefully a fillip for the rest of the season, benson.
Good news about Flood. Wonder if the turmoil surrounding his departure stage right was the reason for Harrington's 7 in Round 1? - the difference between a good finish and contention for the lead as things stand.

A shame to see Tommy Fleetwood fade, but great to see him in good nick - he reminds me facially of a junior version of Billy Horschel!

Hopefully, however he had a similar finish last year! His short putting is so bad! But yes hopefully it is a sign of a revival.

Good to see Louis is about to win one hell of a player tbh!

Classy from Grace to congratulate him tbh!

Would love to see Oosthuizen really get fully fit, motivated and show the world how good he really is.

Should be well inside the Top Thirty now and poised to pass guys on the down escalator, Westwood, Els, Bubba etc. Have to check his price for Augusta.

The Hula Boys are on their way at Waialae and it's anyone's guess who'll take home the Sony goodies.
Contrast in the contenders:
~Grizzled vets: Allenby, Goosen, Kelly, Perez.
~Established stars: Zach, Dufner (did you see those three putts from inside 3 ft on yesterday's 18th?) with Adam Scott not far behind.
~Three winners already this season: Kirk, English and Walker. Another win from any of these will have them being chatted about in Ryder Cup Team speculation.
~And then there are the party boys, Will Wilcox who's back from a Tour time-out for "personal problems" and the always entitled, yet entertaining, Jeff Overton. Boom Baby.
 
I've enjoyed following Allenby over the years and would love to see him back as a competitive force. A win here would go a long way . . . . .

Adam Scott looking to make up the ground he squandered yesterday, almost a hole-in-one and now up to 4th.

Charles Howell looking to get near the top ... but would love to see that Jerry Kelly from Badgerland win this thing.

Wide open, that's for sure.

Agree Sr, Don't know if Jerry Kelly is as good a guy as he seems to be, but great to see someone playing with his proverbial heart on his sleeve.
But: How good is Jimmy Walker? Two very fine wins and the West Coast swing, at which he's done so well in the past, to come. Looking very good right now, Chris Kirk too.

Hawaii is too far away to watch to the end but must have been one hell of a finish from Jimmy Walker.

I saw a few minutes on TV before I left and they were saying it was not John Daly's day as he was at +2 which went up to +3.  I see that he then was -2 on the back nine for a 70.  Obviously this is not what he would have wanted but to turn a bad round around as he was up to +3 at one point it was not very JD.  Normally +3 after ten holes results in at least +8 by the end.

he seems to have put on about 4 stone since i saw him last (couple of months ago)
that is very JD!

Kwin - Walker in some very impressive form ... as competition and expectations rise, we'll see how he manages that.

Kelly sure a likable guy, but seems to lack that end game concentration.

289:
Yup, helluva finish from Jimmy Walker saw him birdie six of his final ten holes, despite missing a 9-footer on #18. Impressive, as Shotrock says.

And Walker now leads the US Ryder Cup Qualifying. Updated top nine:
Walker
Mickelson
Dufner
DJohnson
English
ZJohnson
Kirk
Moore
Simpson
Other "notables":
Kuchar: 10th
Furyk: 12th
Spieth: 16th
Sneds: 18th
Woods: 20th
Bradley: 25th
Mahan: 28th
Stricker: 32nd
Haas: 36th