PGA Tour: The English Patients: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The PGA Tour changes gears this week as the circus moves 140 miles SSW from California's Palm Desert to San Diego by the Sea.
Time for more of our favourites to wipe off the cobwebs, wrap up the equipment testing and advertising shoots, and start to earn their riches. Woods and Mickelson make their seasonal debuts, so do Hunner and Bubba. And so do Poulter and Westwood, two of the leaders of a golden generation of English golfers who promised so much and have delivered excitement around the globe. Two of them have reached Number One in the World, a poisoned chalice in that they immediately attracted media criticism for never having won a Major.
 
2).These guys formed the nucleus of Europe's Ryder Cup demolition of Hal Sutton's US Team at Oakland Hills in 2004. Cowboy Sutton proved to be the proverbial "All Hat and No Horse" as his supposed thoroughbreds scarcely spoke to one another and went from the OK Corral to the Knacker's Yard, temporarily at least.
Westwood led the way, and inspired Paul Casey, Luke Donald, David Howell and Ian Poulter.
With Poults on the sidelines, the other four continued business as usual in 2006, all found their way in to the owgr Top Ten, and it seemed that it was only a matter of time before they were Major Champions.
 
3).Fast forward to 2014 and the Major Championship tally is precisely zero, some close calls from Westwood in particular and a smattering of WGC success, but time is beginning to pass them by. Injuries have hindered most of them, but to no greater degree than an athlete might expect, though David Howell's certainly affected him for a few seasons.
In the Ryder Cup year of 2014, you'd think that only Poulter (who will surely qualify on points anyway) can be sure of a Captain's Choice for Gleneagles should they fail to qualify outright.
Casey and Howell enjoyed their moments in the 2013 sun but quickly regressed again, and Lee and Lukey have fallen away as regular contenders, Westwood held in such high PGA Tour regard that he's teeing it up with non-winners Matt Jones and Josh Teater in San Diego. Whether Tour-typically disrespectful to "foreigners" or their rightful place in the Tour pecking order, it is nevertheless indicative of how far his star has fallen.
 
4).There have been consolation prizes:
Poulter and Donald with their WGC MatchPlay triumphs, Casey with two runner-ups.
Howell (beat young Eldrick by three strokes) and Poulter have HSBC Champions victories.
Casey, Howell and Donald (twice) have BMW Championships.
And Westwood and Donald have won Races to Dubai.
Their combined Ryder Cup record is impressive:
Won: 46
Lost: 23
Halved: 12
(Mickelson and Woods between them have 35 losses, against only 27 wins.)
 
5).But, Donald's magical 2011 season apart, none of them have really thrived on the PGA Tour.
Howell never tried it, perhaps because injury intervened, Casey has one win, Westwood and Poulter two apiece, and Donald five.
 
6).What lies ahead?
Casey? Past Champion status only on the PGA Tour - I thought he was the next British Major winner ten years ago, but he's 36 now, has endured a difficult three years with divorce and injury, and he needs to rededicate himself before that brilliant future slips too far behind him. Hopefully Peter Kostis's return to health will inspire him - Good luck to Peter and Paul.
Howell? Great win at the Dunhill but hasn't kicked on from that. Hope the competitive fires are still burning, we'll see.
Donald? New coach, swing changes, p1ss poor recent form as short-and-crooked seems to have re-entered his game. The world-class short game has regressed from top 3 to top 20 and so has his owgr position.
Westwood? Pivotal year for Lee after a largely wasted 2013 (in PGA Tour terms anyway). He's playing San Diego, Phoenix, Riviera, MatchPlay, Honda and Doral in the next seven weeks after which I reckon he'll either be re-established as a star, or slipping sadly in to the sunset.
Poulter? The brightest spark right now; if he could focus on stroke-play events he could thrive in the States but his ADD seems to get the better of him. He's played his 165 Tour events to date with only 30 top tens, a shockingly poor 18% clip.
 
7).The next generation should be in their prime but only Justin Rose has flourished. Fisher's back in Europe and slowly rebuilding his career after an incomprehensible US schedule last year, and Ollie Wilson is back at the Mansfield pitch and putt. Dyson's career is on probation and the rest of that age group are golfing non-entities, on the World stage at any rate. Time for Willett and Wood to step up, but fingers crossed that Tommy Fleetwood's career can continue last year's momentum.
 
8).Patrick Reed continued his rather portly way through the ranks of America's Young Guns, joining Harris English with two wins while still in their early twenties. Perhaps he can offer Shane Lowry some inspiration?
 
9).This week's "Farmers Insurance Open" at Torrey Pines brings Westwood back to the scene of one of the Majors that he might feel got away, one missed putt from joining "pool-cleaner" Mediate and Tiger Woods in a US Open play-off. It's a horses-for-courses event with Woods (7 wins) and Mickelson (3) having rather dominated since 1993. Snedeker, Haas, Mahan and Watney all have fine records here and in-form Jimmy Walker finished 29th, 8th and 4th in his most recent visits.
Other GB&I participants include Knox and Laird, Greg Owen and David Lynn.
 
10).And Victor Dubuisson is here, joined by Colsaerts (missed cut last week and a long season in prospect unless he can scrape in to WGC's and more Majors - exempt for Pinehurst) and Gonzo, plus most of Team Sweden.
But this is Tiger's house and, with his early season schedule somewhat up in the air, it'll be interesting to see how competitive he is after a break. Usually the answer is "very".

Great write up Kwini, love the "all hat, no horse" analogy.

Fine write up Kwin ... Hard to take the Ryder Cup team match play success and apply that same level of dominance on the extremely competitive US tour medal play events. Would not be too hard on the lads - it's brutal out there (as Colsaerts can tell you first hand).

A rested and confident Tiger is a wise call for this event, but my money would be on FIGJAM Phil, given his recent form and close call overseas.

Just booked a family trip to San Diego ... and hope to make a side jaunt to Torrey Pines (if only for drinks and dinner).

Kwini- great article but please amend paragraph 1, the thought of Poulter as world no. 1 makes me physically sick!

Edit: sorry I misunderstood! Thought you were saying Poulter and Westwood had reached #1.

incontinentia wrote:Kwini- great article but please amend paragraph 1, the thought of Poulter as world no. 1 makes me physically sick!

Think he was alluding to Donald Inco.

Definitely Donald - for 12 months or so. I was wondering who the other one was though!

Davie wrote:Definitely Donald - for 12 months or so. I was wondering who the other one was though!

Westwood obviously.

Thanks chaps . . . . .
. . . . but, Shotrock, Colsaerts hasn't proved yet that he's any better compared to these guys than JJ Henry is to Tiger Woods. Ridiculous comparison; one out-of-his-skin putting round and America thinks he's world-beater.
These five were tried and tested for a number of years, not a number of Medinah greens.

incont,
Has your stomach settled down yet?

Who, in America, thinks Colsaerts is a world beater? Silly to make that sweeping "America thinks" statement. Any facts to back that up?

Still ... he was dominant on the European tour, but middle of the pack (at best) here on the big tour.

Perhaps still getting his sea legs.

He wasn't that great on the European Tour to be fair. He had a purple patch for about 3/4 of a season.

Just couldn't see the relevance of Colsaerts, never "dominant on the European Tour", not many years removed from a decade as a boy wonder who was more interested in being a playboy - not that there's anything wrong with that.
Then, when he had things going for him he fell off his bike. Literally.
Beautiful golf swing, but will never be dominant on any Tour unless he goes back to the Challenge circuit.
You pulled the wrong arrow out of your anti-non-Irish-European-golfer quiver!

Having said all of which, Torrey Pines South is a BIG golf course and might suit Colsaerts, certainly more than last week's affair in the desert.
Would also hope that Westwood might draw inspiration from his 2008 experience.

Format is one round each on Torrey Pines North and South, cut at 70 and ties for 36 holes on the South Course for Rounds 3 & 4.

Kwin - Hold it there Kwin ... When the long-bombing Colsaerts essentially left the European Tour I thought he was the top ranked full time European on that tour. 35th in the World. How many full time players ET players were above him (and not competing on the US tour) if he wasn't the top guy?

Now, since joining the US Tour full time he's of course plummeted.

Show me the "America thinks" substantiation! Right up there with the anti-Sergio US media conspiracy.

I knew once I saw Westwood with Teater and Jones, Kwini would snark on it.

Westwood has not won on the PGAT for four years.  How long do you think players should get "A" Times.

FTR, Charley Hoffman gets a dew sweeping tee time with Cameron Tringale and Troy Matteson. Hoffman has not won since 2010 and Matteson since 2009.  Tour winners Slocum, Calcavecchia, Rollins and Baddeley are getting similar tee times.

Ranking isn't an indication of whether someone is dominating or not, and Colsaerts has certainly never dominated any tour.
I remember Nobend Fowler and Fatty Overton enjoying very high rankings but without a tournament win between them.

Colsaert isn't really any better than the likes of Dyson or Gallacher.

GPB,
Just a pet peeve of mine; the Tour says they love having International players yet dis them with crappy tee-times and groups. Haven't seen too many US Top 30 (or Top 100 for that matter) greeted in such a way, in the US and certainly not in Europe. Westwood's fault, he knows the score.
(Calcavecchia should be in his rocking chair . . . . . )

Nice piece about Phil and Seve:
http://www.pgatour.com/tourreport/2014/01/22/lefty-learns-from-seve-at-torrey.html

Its a baseless Pet Peeve.

Westwood is not treated as special because he is nothing special on the PGATour.

And generally, the players prefer EARLY tee times, because the greens are smoother and the winds are usually lighter.

You may think they are crappym, but the players don't.

The Westwood/Jones/Teater grouping did jump out at me too, but then I stopped and looked closer... in terms of time of day it seems fair enough, out at the same time as de Jonge, 1 tee time before Howell, Snedeker, Bradley, Mahan, so other big names are around there. And Jones was 37th in last year's FedEx, 89th in the world, arguably at the very top of the next-level-down Tour regular players. If anything Teater is the one batting slightly above his average there.

Teater and jones are probably wondering why they have to play with someone in such bad form. If they were going to be grouped with a top 30 player they would probably have taken almost anyone else, based on form.

GPB, Ned,
All true!
I just don't like the way they big up some groups to the exclusion of overseas players with often equal credentials.
But that's Lee's axe to grind. And his sponsors'.
 
PS: Among European Tour members that played mostly in Europe during 2012, Colsaerts was sixth in owgr placement at #35 at the end of that year.
Others, none of whom could be said to have "dominated", include:
Hanson: 18
Kaymer: 28
Lawrie: 29
Molinari: 31
Gonzo: 33

As ever, great write up Kwini.

It would be interesting to compare the success of Sutton's donkeys with Europe's thoroughbreds over the last decade. I bet the count of majors and WGCs is heavily skewed.

The tee times are drawn to appeal to the audience. If American viewers want to watch American golfers, then it's perfectly sensible that Westwood gets rubbish tee times until he does something that makes people sit up and want to follow him. I don't think there's a conspiracy here... McIlroy would be in a prime time group if he were playing.

Heavily skewed to the US.

Everything's a conspiracy, ray, reds under every bed!

PS: America loves all Irish golfers . . . . . !!

"Dominating" a poor word choice on my part. Nicolas was, however, trending in the right direction in 2012 as compared to now, but I'm sure that has a lot to do with the stronger competition on the US tour and perhaps his lack of familiarity with the courses. As I said, may still be getting his sea legs.

Anti-European, save for the island of Ireland? Not me! I simply point out how Ireland has produced not only the most dominant European golfers in this era, but I suspect the most dominant professional golfers on a per capita basis worldwide.

raycastleunited wrote:

It would be interesting to compare the success of Sutton's donkeys with Europe's thoroughbreds over the last decade. I bet the count of majors and WGCs is heavily skewed.

In terms of Majors, members of the 2004 European team have won 4 (Clarke and Harrington x3). Excluding Woods and Phil, the USA team has 1.



Including Woods and Phil the US team has   11

I think.. it was just a quick tally in my head

and in Ryder Cups, having more majors means absolutely bugger all.

Jason Day, non-American and non winner since May 2010 is in a featured grouping with two lefties Bubba and Philbert.

I wonder if Jim Furyk will get demoted to Class B status as he has not won since the Tour Championship in 2010.  Furyk's exemption status is a Fedex Champ (Exemption Class 7) so that is much higher in the totem poll than Exemption Class 18.

Apart from Major winners, Jason Day probably had the best major record in 2013

Not sure what the chances are of an on-time start this morning at Torrey Pines. Local reports are talking about a "marine layer", the English translation of which is "fog".

Potentially our first weather delay of the year in Sunny California.

That'll cool Colsaerts' jets even more than his play, the Muscles from Brussels playing more like the Mussels from Brussels, not just on the PGA Tour but pretty much everywhere.

True that Super ... and all the RC prowess means zippo when those same golfers face the lonely, long climb of a 4-day medal play event.

Save for, ahem, Ireland ... that highly talented European 2004 squad has equalled my record in those same majors.

I was at the RC in Oakland Hills in 2004. And saw Monty pull off one of the most amazing shots. He was in a VERY closely shaved greenside bowl, with a slight downhill lie. Opened a lob wedge and hit the ball just about straight up and 2 feet from the hole. Made the putt. The US squad never in contention.

super_realist wrote:Apart from Major winners, Jason Day probably had the best major record in 2013

And he's a really exciting talent and entertaining to watch.

And he's sponsored by one of the "big 2" (Adidas / Nike)

raycastleunited wrote:

super_realist wrote:Apart from Major winners, Jason Day probably had the best major record in 2013

And he's a really exciting talent and entertaining to watch.

And he's sponsored by one of the "big 2" (Adidas / Nike)

TM/Adidas are a big player, NIke aren't, not in golf anyway.

Amazing thing about Jason Day's PGA Tour career:
One win: At a particularly weak-field Byron Nelson four years ago.
Five 2nd Place finishes, three of them in Majors, another in a FedEx Play-Off (DeutscheBank) - the other was in Puerto Rico which was crucially important to him at the time.
Three 3rd's: Two of them last year, Masters & MatchPlay, the other in the DeutscheBank!

Fantastic talent but he needs to bring his "A" game out to play a bit more often, don't you think? Perhaps Colin Swatton not the best influence?? Dunno, but too many walkabouts for a top-class golfer.

Ah ha!
A 30-minute delay at the start of Round 1 at Torrey Pines.

kwinigolfer wrote:Amazing thing about Jason Day's PGA Tour career:
One win: At a particularly weak-field Byron Nelson four years ago.
Five 2nd Place finishes, three of them in Majors, another in a FedEx Play-Off (DeutscheBank) - the other was in Puerto Rico which was crucially important to him at the time.
Three 3rd's: Two of them last year, Masters & MatchPlay, the other in the DeutscheBank!

Fantastic talent but he needs to bring his "A" game out to play a bit more often, don't you think? Perhaps Colin Swatton not the best influence?? Dunno, but too many walkabouts for a top-class golfer.

He reminds me of Andres Romero in that way. Supreme talent, very good in plenty majors, but never really did it.

Tough to find a more wasted talent than Romero. Though Pat Perez might run him pretty close.

I can't understand why anyone think Andres Romero has under-achieved.

I never saw much potential in him.  He certainly never has been hyped that much (unlike Fowler, Day, Ishikawa)

More natural talent than Fowler, Day and Ishikawa combined, just seems to have lost interest after his 2006-2008 purple patch. Does just about enough to keep his card every season.


Looks like they're playing in San Diego, Colsaerts off early on the (easier) North Course, Westwood on the US Open Championship South Course, the longest course on the PGA Tour I believe.

super_realist wrote:

raycastleunited wrote:

super_realist wrote:Apart from Major winners, Jason Day probably had the best major record in 2013

And he's a really exciting talent and entertaining to watch.

And he's sponsored by one of the "big 2" (Adidas / Nike)

TM/Adidas are a big player, NIke aren't, not in golf anyway.

Although Nike are not so big on this side of the pond in golf I imagine that they are bigger in the US. More importantly I would guess that in terms of player sponsorship dollars they are big 2. Probably big 1 given what they through at Tiger and Rory.

On that note, I wonder who gets the best return in money spent on their clubs per $ spent on player sponsorship? Without looking at figures, I see a huge amount of TM kit in amateurs bags but would think that one of the lower profile manus probably get better returns like Ping, Titleist and Mizuno. Nike has to be one of the worst (at least in European sales).

Very true, look in your mates golf bags and it's a very rare thing to see a Nike club.
I know one guy who has a Nike putter, and I'm pretty sure that is it. In the UK at least, they are to golf what Gola are to running shoes.
Not sure about America, but if UK/Europe is anything to go by then I imagine that golf makes something of a loss in their portfolio. It's not unlike them to fail in sports though, their winter sports range bombed like Shane Lowry falling off a diving board.

They really have fallen off the perch in recent years, but stagnation and uninspiring clubs and clothes will do that so they only have themselves to blame.

Sad to see that they've dropped the bladed short irons from their pro-combo set. I've got the previous model and the 8-PW are just lovely. Tried my regular pairs partner's new Speedblades today at the range, and the heads on those are twice as big as mine, even on the cavity mid-irons. The shafts are about an inch longer too, so not surprisingly I hit them a bit further than mine, but give me the Nikes any day.

Just been watching Bubba on TV. He must have amazing hand-eye coordination to even be able to make contact with the ball with that swing.

He would make a great skier

The much maligned Jason Day and Nicolas Colsaerts going along well in amongst a sea of Yanks with stupid forenames.

How much easier is the North Course playing at the moment? Like 4 shots or so?

Alci,
Usually about 2 1/2 shots I think.

AlciG wrote:How much easier is the North Course playing at the moment? Like 4 shots or so?

Before people start reacting I'm exagerating

kwinigolfer wrote:Alci,
Usually about 2 1/2 shots I think.

Thanks Kwin... Pat Perez playing a good round then

Alci,
I think it's been close to FIVE in exceptional circumstances in the past. No exaggeration at all!
Interesting that the two leaders on the South, Perez and Hoffman, grew up in San Diego, Perez certainly playing Torrey Pines all the time!

Westwood doing a decent job of retrieving his round. So far.

Do you Brits get Golf Channel commentators on Sky Sports for the Farmers?

kwinigolfer wrote:Alci,
I think it's been close to FIVE in exceptional circumstances in the past. No exaggeration at all!

Wow... that's amazing.

And Westwood is saving his round for sure

Not been watching but switched over. If Faldo is on their team then yes. Ad breaks go back to sky studio.