PGA Tour: Amateur Hour at Pebble Beach: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Peter Jacobsen waxes lyrical about what this week's AT&T National Pro-Am means to the PGA Tour.
As quoted by Doug Ferguson this week, but oft-repeated by Jacobsen:
"This combines all the elements we're looking for when it comes to the PGA Tour - corporate involvement, amateur involvement, celebrity and fan interaction, it's a combination of good fun and good golf."
 
2).The annual Bing Crosby "clambake" has morphed in to a TV extravaganza, publicity gushing on to a handful of household names among the "celebrities" and more than a hundred titans of corporate America (plus some Irish gamblers).
Not so good for golf fans watching the coverage on CBS TV though. Brandel Chamblee tweeted last Sunday that the worst thing about the Super Bowl coverage was the Super Bowl. Those watching CBS's broadcasts last weekend of the Phoenix Open must have felt pretty much the same, the only thing wrong with the golf coverage was the golf coverage; plenty about "Our Military", Waste Management (understandable), the circus surrounding the 16th hole, and Weiskopf's plans to blow up his golf course creation and design a new version for next year, all in Jim Nantz's nauseatingly smarmy tones.
But very little focus on a fascinating golf tournament with half a dozen possible winners until it was almost too late.
They'll be at it again, "Friends", at the "Most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation." (Robert Louis Stevenson must have been homesick when he said that.)
 
3).As we said following Jimmy Walker's recent win in Hawaii, another journeyman-turned-mid-thirties-breakout-star has revealed himself, with long-time Tour player Kevin Stadler, known apparently as the Smalrus, winning "Phoenix" by one shot over Bubba Watson. Three interesting things about that:
~Stads won his first web.com event, in 2004, beating Bubba Watson in a play-off.
~The Walrus and the Smalrus will become the first father/son duo to play in the same Masters - added benny of that is that Father Craig promises it will be his last one.
~Don't believe everything you read on pgatour.com - which lists Kevin Stadler at 250 lbs - about 18 stone. That must be a serious understatement, plus his caddie is even bigger! Golfers as athletes? Hmmmm.
 
4).Poor efforts by Harrington (3-putted his 36th hole to miss the cut) and Westwood (his ineptitude on the greens included a 4-putt from inside 9 feet).
Westwood only missed 6 greens (two fewer than Stadler, for instance) out of the 36 he aimed at, and was rated to have lost 3.6 "strokes putting" per round. I love what Westwood has achieved over the past twenty years, but this is utterly pathetic, his PGA Tour career at risk if this continues.
 
5).Nicolas Colsaerts disintegrated as the weekend wore on and he's even worse off than Westwood as Nicky misses out on the WGC's, The Masters, Open Championship, Players, and possibly even the PGA unless he pulls his socks up.
 
6).They say to "beware the injured golfer" and Golf Digest included an allegation from an anonymous "Undercover Tour Pro" that some Tour pros exaggerate injuries when going through a poor run of form to the extent that they manipulate the "medical extension" consideration to give themselves a better chance of cherry-picking events they play in so giving themselves a better chance of resurrecting their career.
 
Clearly wounded Tour warriors pick and choose which events they contest whilst in the Major Medical Extension category, but I've never heard of anyone being accused of feigning injury to secure a medical extension.
Perhaps sour grapes (if this undercover pro is who I think it is, one wouldn't be surprised!), or he just doesn't understand how the Medical Extensions work.
 
7).Regardless, golfers who have recently played their way back to the top of the injured category to the extent that they can be reconsidered as exempt players again include Kevin Na and Briny Baird. Others who should get there soon include Goosen, Spencer Levin, and hopefully John Mallinger (good record at Pebble Beach), JB Holmes and Jonathan Byrd (tho' Byrd is really struggling).
Those reasonably active Pros who are probably goners include Kris (why can't I bring my gun thru airport security?) Blanks whilst among others just returning are Blake Adams, Harrison Frazar, Jhonny Vegas and Lumpy Herron.
Dudley Hart got injured whilst in the form of his life seemingly a lifetime ago and is struggling back, and Fatty Marino seems to have disappeared again after cameos last autumn.
And then there's the Anthony Kim category.
 
8).I wonder how the three courses on the magnificent Monterey Peninsula will be playing this week?
Torrey Pines was playing harder and firmer than usual as California struggles with its drought so perhaps there'll be more of a mid-summer feel to the set-ups for the "AT&T".
Most of the single Tour Europeans are playing and there's even a sponsor's invite for Alex Cjeka. Harrington and McDowell are there, plus Dubuisson, Cabrera Bello and McGinley.
I fancy course specialists this week, a fit Phil for instance, or a distraction-free (unlikely as he's playing with father-in-law to be, the Great Gretzky) Dustin Johnson.
As last week Hunter Mahan will be motivated to continue his belated but promising start to the season and form guys like Jommy Walker and Jason Day have good records here. And one day Aussie Matt Jones will break through.
 
9).A nice story doing the rounds following Pete Seeger's death a few days ago:
He toured a lot with Arlo (son of Woody) Guthrie, but one year Seeger said, "Look, my voice is not so good as it used to be, I don't think I should be doing this any more."
Arlo told him, "Pete, Look at our audiences, they don't hear as well as they used to, yet they enjoy our show."
And they carried on touring and continued to prosper.
 
Kind of reminded me of the Champions Tour and we've said before that a number of well known pros turn 50 this year. Woody (no word if he has a son called Arlo) Austin, Ames, Goydos, Verplank and Lee Janzen among them. Perhaps we'll see The Mechanic too?
This week's tournament sees the coming of age of Billy Andrade; Chapman and Montgomerie also competing.
 
10).Among the best rounds played this year has to be Bernhard Langer's final round to win the Champions Tour event in Hawaii - absolutely brilliant, in a surgical, OK Germanic, sort of way.
And that's his 19th win on the Champo Tour, tied with Larry Nelson, Gary Player and the Gilroy Cowboy (OK, George Archer) at 10th on the all-time list.
But remember, there are far fewer events these days, than in the 90's for instance.
Those ahead of Bernhard are:
45: Hale Irwin
29: Trevino
25: Gil Morgan
24: Miller Barber
23: Bob Charles
22: Don January and Chi Chi
20: Colbert and Crampton.
But none of them enjoyed a year like Peter Thomson's 1985:
Played: 22
Top 25: 22
Top 10: 20
Won: 9

The GB&I boys played well yesterday, almost all of them in a good position for Round 2.
Not so much today though, as only Harrington (-3) is really moving up as almost all of the rest are treading water or slipping back, especially Brian Davis who is two over after 8 holes.
 
Remember, the cut is top 60 and ties following Round 3. The top 70 and ties get credit for cut made and take home about 15 grand, but single-digit FedEx points and no chance to improve on Sunday.

Do you feel lucky, punk?
http://www.pgatour.com/tourreport/2014/02/07/eastwood-comes-to-the-rescue.html

TV Broadcast here is unwatchable, Feherty fawning over war criminal Condoleeza Rice as if he's expecting an after-round bj.

Champions Tour is playing the Boca Raton pich-and-putt - good for Michael Allen who's in with a 60.

Meanwhile, I lamented the form of Team GB&I, but they're actually doing OK compared to some favourites, like Davie's mate, Jason Day, outward half of 41 at Pebble Beach - and Chopra going helter-skelter in reverse, as eagerly anticipated by Ned!

kwini, it's the big mouth....  

But awful gnashers . . . . .

Does anyone know if the best amateur score of the day has ever beaten a round by one of the pro's?

Mac - I know at the Dunhill Henman out scored Monty, couple of years ago they were paired.
I've seen Henman play - good golfer. Makes you wonder if he had been steered towards golf rather than tennis how good he could have been. Notwithstanding a very good tennis player.

Chopra - there was a bit of a pro revenge act on Chopra during Sky coverage last night. "Oh when he played in Europe (big headed d.ck - implied but not spoken) said his C game would be good enough to win in Europe. His C game didn't turn up!"

Alex Cjeka the leading European so far at Pebble Beach. As he would be.

Wonder if Monty enters any pro-ams at other sports, tennis for instance?

Thanks puligny, I am glad it happened to monty.  I wonder how often he mentions it on sky sports?

So:
You'd think that Davis, Harrington, Knox and Owen will just need to shoot level par in Round 3 to reach Sunday play. McDowell and McGinley too, with a bit of luck.

As well as Jason Day, Snedeker's also in a poor trot of "form"; he needs a 60-something to play Sunday in defence of his title.

Three likely lads in 1,2 and 3, Walker, Spieth and Mahan, and you'd think they're sitting snugly in the drivers seat as they enter the weekend.

Strong field for Riviera, despite the absence of SoCal's very best.
 
Europeans include Justin Rose, which suggests he may possibly play the MatchPlay after all. No idea.
 
Also:
Clarke, Harrington (but, strangely) no McDowell.
Colsaerts, Dubuisson, Gonzo, Jacobson, Luiten, Molinari, Olesen, Pettersson. No Sergio, a shame after his blistering run in Round 4 a year ago.
Davis, Knox, Laird, Lynn, Poulter, Westwood, plus Rose.
 
And, from South Africa, Kings Charl, Louis and Ernie.

Just saw a tweet saying DA points was DQ'ed.  I assume it is for using the practice aid while waiting on the 18th tee.  Seemed pretty obvious at the time.

Great to see David Duval, hopefully he can keep it going this week!

'Morning benson,
Good day for Golden Oldies: Duval AND Harrington!!

Would be good to see both have a good weekend - remember, Duval nearly won here 3 or 4 yrs ago.

All GB&I are on the Sunday cut-line or inside it - level par for all of them should secure tee times for Round 4. Rain again in the forecast for today.

DA Points had an outside shot to qualify for the Match Play.  Not anymore.

Another case of the penalty not fitting the crime IMO.

Sunday cut is low 60 and ties this week.  players 70th and better get paid with $$$ and FE points.

But it takes 60th or better to play Sunday.

If it's not one thing it's the other.
Bad luck for AT&T, but not really bad luck for DA Points. A stupid mistake and he knows the rules, he has to pay the penalty.
Now, is the rule a good one? I'd say so because if you allow practice aids where does it stop?

All the leading trains seem to hit the buffers this week.
All playing in to Phil's hands? Or David Duval's??

European challenge tres feeble with none in the top 25 as they break. But bon to see Vic Dubuisson leading it, while Skipper McGinley gets to check the flight schedules.

Underway beside the seaside again.
Imagine most players will finish Round 3 today, but certainly not all; and that will pose logistical dilemmas for Sunday with two competitions in progress and cuts for both. And some of the combatants will be playing miles away from Pebble Beach.

One player who needs to step on the gas a little is Snedeker, currently at least two shots adrift of the likely cut.
Not a good start to 2013/2014 for him; almost as if he's fallen off his Segway and can't get up.

Cut-line now at +1 and that's most likely where it will stay.

Harrington seems to be gaining inspiration from somewhere, perhaps previous success here. Early days but this could offer some motivation for his season which, so far at least, has seemed to drift aimlessly.

Perhaps he has finally got used to the new grooves.

GPB wrote:DA Points had an outside shot to qualify for the Match Play.  Not anymore.

Another case of the penalty not fitting the crime IMO.

Not at all. The stupidity of the penalty is far exceeded by the stupidity of the perpetrator

Agree Davie,
Not dissimilar to the nonsense last year with Jeff Overton, and with even less mitigating circumstance.


Creeping up the leaderboard, and quietly putting together a year-long run of excellent golf, is Brandon Todd; this will be his 15th cut in his last 16 tournaments and destined for a successful career on Tour.

The coverage of this tournament annoys me so much over the first three days and the fact they don't televise the other two courses annoys me further.

Infuriating benson; but at least we had the option of the Champions Tour play for a couple of hours.
Will watch tomorrow, but no point in watching broadcasters demean themselves.
Harrington still in business.

Oh No!!!!
We know Harrington can't help himself on the par-5's, but he's taken an abominable snowman and slid 18 places down the lift shaft.
Par-5's should be a strength of Harrington (and Westwood) but it never seems to be that way.

That's the way to follow a bogey and a triple bogey . . . . with a double bogey 6.
From three under par for the round to three over par for the round in three "easy" holes.
Harrington self-destructed his way outside the cut last year and last week. One more bogey and he'll do it again. Incredible.

Duval making a cut..that's a rarity.

Nice win for cheyenne woods in aus.  Wonder if tiger gets much pleasure from her doing well?

Why does Harrington collapsing like that not surprise me, it is more surprising when it doesn't happen. Plenty of positives to take from those first 10 in those crazy conditions!

Some effort from that no-name Yank Walker ... blistering start to the season.

Blimey Shotrock,
You just got power back?

"No-name Walker" no longer - he'll have an unassailable position in US Ryder Cup qualifying if he brings home the bacon here, as we've been saying, another mid-thirties breakout player a la Dufner & Stads.
Good for him - derailed by injuries after an excellent web.com career and improving every year.

Round 3 restarts at 7.30 a.m. local, weather permitting.

No power! This is getting mighty old, not to mention cold!

Yes, Walker will lose his no-name rank status soon ... but let's see how consistent he can become.

Did Snedeker and the caddy of Brian Gay have a row or something?

Davie wrote:

GPB wrote:DA Points had an outside shot to qualify for the Match Play.  Not anymore.

Another case of the penalty not fitting the crime IMO.

Not at all. The stupidity of the penalty is far exceeded by the stupidity of the perpetrator

I am not going to argue the stupidity of the perpetrator.  Its irrelevant to my argument.

IMO, the penalty is too strict for the crime.  Its not a stroke penalty or a two stroke penalty.  It is an Automatic Disqualification.  Death Penalty.  

And if he used a part of a normal golf bag to tuck under his arm, it would have been OK.  A towel or a headcover.  So it goes from no penalty with a towel, to a DQ with a spongy ball.  I believe if he used the spongy ball to clean his clubs, it would have been OK.

Suspect rule with a blurry line between whats OK and whats not OK.  And a penalty that is too draconian for the crime.

What happened benson? Gay's caddie has been around for ages. I see Snedeker completed his round but Gay's only finished 16. That's odd!
 
 
Sr,
Many of our City lines are buried, very seldom lose power even with the ice storms we've had this year. America needs to invest in infrastructure!


GPB,
How would you have ruled on the Overton situation last year then - in my mind he had more mitigating circumstances given that he was encouraged to practice by an official?

Shotrock wrote:No power! This is getting mighty old, not to mention cold!

Yes, Walker will lose his no-name rank status soon ... but let's see how consistent he can become.

Walker was a very consistent player before he went on this winning streak.  He finished 2013 very poorly, he was very consistent prior to that.  He had a streak of 24 straight Made cuts in official tournaments from the 2012 John Deere to the 2013 FedEx.  All in tournaments that actually had cuts (except the 2012 BMW).

Kwin - Agree with that, and all new developments bury their lines! I live in an area about as rural as Remsen. Loads of gentlemen farmers, 3 acre minimum lots (mine is about 4). Crazy weather event ... 4 hours of rain at 22F ... trees coming down that sounded like gunshots. Crews in from Illinois to Maine. They are "saying" power by 11pm. I'm from Missourri ... believe it when I see it!

IIRC, The official said Overton could practice.  Overton took it a step further by using a putting aid.  Overton complained because the official didn't tell him that he could not use practice aids.

The official didn't tell him that he could not do a line of Cocaine either, so that does not mean Overton could do it.

I don't think there was any mitigating circumstances with Overton with respect to the DA Points situation.

OK, Both used illegal aids. The end.

Still puzzled by Snedeker finishing two holes ahead of his partner. Wonder who Brian Gay got to mark his card?
And Snedeker himself is a puzzle; what's happened to his form?
Next week marks the 1/3 stage of the season and some big names are well adrift of the pace they would expect of themselves.

Sr,
Remsen's Olympian goes tomorrow . . . . . . .

I know what you mean about the branches snapping like gunshots - we had that about 15 years ago, extraordinary. But we were lucky then that a front came thru and melted the ice before we got snow on top of it. The spell earlier this year was relentless, a long weekend's worth of freezing rain and then the Arctic stuff came rushing in! Much of the ice is still there, probably doing a number on our greens.

Irish Gamblers and Philanthropists JP McManus and Dermot Desmond make the Amateur cups (with pro partners Harrington and RCB)

Desmond helped RCB 21 shots.

Action resumes at Pebble Beach at 9.00 a.m. Pacific Time, with Harrington and Furyk leading off the back nine in a foursome.
That could take six hours to complete. Dear oh dear!

GPB wrote:

Davie wrote:

GPB wrote:DA Points had an outside shot to qualify for the Match Play.  Not anymore.

Another case of the penalty not fitting the crime IMO.

Not at all. The stupidity of the penalty is far exceeded by the stupidity of the perpetrator

I am not going to argue the stupidity of the perpetrator.  Its irrelevant to my argument.

IMO, the penalty is too strict for the crime.  Its not a stroke penalty or a two stroke penalty.  It is an Automatic Disqualification.  Death Penalty.  

And if he used a part of a normal golf bag to tuck under his arm, it would have been OK.  A towel or a headcover.  So it goes from no penalty with a towel, to a DQ with a spongy ball.  I believe if he used the spongy ball to clean his clubs, it would have been OK.

Suspect rule with a blurry line between whats OK and whats not OK.  And a penalty that is too draconian for the crime.

Death penalty? Don't make me laugh. It's a game FFS. He broke the rules - rules that he should have known. DQ and move on

A hiccup at the first for Walker and good tournaments in progress from Davis and McDowell.
 
Meanwhile, there's a 59 watch, sort of, on the Champions Tour with Calc nine under par with four holes to play. Par 72, but there's already been a 60 this week.
EDIT! I see Calc was actually TEN under par after 13 holes. Now 9 after with 3 to play so probably no longer realistic to break 60.

Strong presence of leading Americans at the head of affairs: Walker, Hunner, Dustin, Spieth; hopefully McDowell can at least maintain his position.
Vic Dubie playing well also.

GPB wrote:Irish Gamblers and Philanthropists JP McManus and Dermot Desmond make the Amateur cups (with pro partners Harrington and RCB)

Desmond helped RCB 21 shots.

Were their handicaps adjusted to factor in Irish luck?

The pacific ocean is about to look bigger than it should have done!

Jimmy walker now has one of the seasons of the decade and we are only in February.

princedracs WGC MP draw prediction.