PGA Tour: Stroke Play Resumed at the "Honda": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Congratulations to Jason Day for his Match Play win, a squeaker in the end against the unsung Victor Dubuisson who had TV commentators busily researching wikipedia and pronunciation notes - the 2014 version of Louis Ooshtuizen in that respect.
No surprise here that Day broke through in a Match Play tournament, especially after his excellent Presidents Cup performance last autumn, an altogether brand new Day compared to his floundering debut in Melbourne.

2).But what does it mean? Will he kick on from here and become a force in the biggest events, or just a pretender to Major crowns? We'll get a glimpse of the new Day dawning at Augusta, but I'm still not convinced he's at, say, the Adam Scott level, not yet anyway.

3).And congrats to Victor Dubuisson as well. Whether his miracle shots on the 19th and 20th holes were sublime or flukey, there was no doubt he richly deserved to be in the Final and has probably sealed his Ryder Cup debut.
The European qualifying table looks a little stronger now:
Dubuisson, Bjorn, Poulter, Stenson, Garcia, McIlroy, Donaldson, Rose and Luiten. I'd say McDowell will also be there but Donald, Kaymer and Westwood, to name but three, once again departed meekly from Dove Mountain and McGinley may have to discard one or more of these stalwarts unless their form does an abrupt u-turn soon.

4).There were no significant changes to the US Ryder Cup Team qualifying positions and Watson must be hoping to see some form in Florida from the likes of Bradley, Kuchar, Mahan, Snedeker and Woods among others. Only Bradley and Woods will add to their points this week and you'd expect Bradley at least to play well on a course where he's had good results in the past.
As for Woods, who knows? "A tiger's waiting to be tamed": By the Bear Trap at PGA National??!!

5).This is the time of year when Americans typically start to lose their dominance on Tour.
The season-opening Tournament of Champions has been won by Americans only four times in the past ten years, but the other six of the old traditional "West Coast Swing" has been monopolized by Tiger, Phil and the rest, with the six tournaments having been won by American golfers 54 (out of a possible 60) times. (58 out of a possible 70 altogether.)

***Of those seven events including the TOC, Europeans have won precisely once in the past ten years - by whom??***
Whilst "Team USA" has won all ten San Diego and Pebble Beach events.

6).The balance of power changes significantly starting with the Match Play, with Americans only winning 37 of a possible 70 for the seven tournaments Match Play thru Houston, and British golfers have won at least once at each in the past five years, with Harrington, Donald and McIlroy all having tasted victory at the "Honda".

7).Just to continue the theme, I believe I'm correct in saying that Europeans have won all the tournaments that have been in place for ten years or more except Hawaii, Pebble Beach (tho' McDowell of course won the US Open there), John Deere and Reno/Tahoe, all but LA (Faldo, 1997) and New Orleans (Westwood, 1998) in the past fifteen years.

8).PGA National is one tough grind, even for the World's best, and many of the best will be in action this week with only Day and Rose missing from the owgr Top 9 at "The Honda Classic". (Kudos to Honda, the longest running title sponsor of a PGA Tour event.)
Many Europeans will be enjoying a busman's holiday with unexpected guests including Bjorn, Casey, Donaldson, Gallacher, Gonzo, Hanson, Kaymer, Manassero and Olesen, plus European Tour stars Koepka and Uihlein(!!).
PGA National is traditionally one of the toughest Par-70's on Tour and, if the wind blows, it'll be a real Bear (pun intended, given Nicklaus's re-do a few years ago). The TV cameras will focus on holes #15 (par-3), #16 (par-4) and #17 (par-3) with all approach shots played over water. Certainly not the sort of golf I like to play and, on my only visit, I didn't enjoy the torture one little bit.

9).Being a PGA Champion is not necessarily easy on the old ticker as news comes that Shaun Micheel (remember him?) has undergone a procedure to clear a blockage - right "coronary artery blocked 99%". Micheel has had a host of medical issues and good health to him. All of which follows Hal Sutton's "mild" heart attack whilst playing on the Champo Tour.

10).When Tony Hateley (one of the better headers of a football in the past 50-odd years) died recently, the old Tommy Docherty quip resurfaced about Hateley being such an awful passer of the ball that:
"He's so bad with the ball at his feet that his passes should be addressed 'To whom it may concern'".

With just three San Diego rounds under his belt, no doubt Tiger feels that way about his driver as he would rank 175th of 175 on Tour in driving accuracy; if he plays like that at PGA National he won't make the cut, but who would bet against him coming out in mid-season form?
After some abysmal CBS TV broadcasts, NBC TV takes over for the next few weeks, Johnny Miller and the rest, and doubtless we'll get a close-up view to see if Tiger's got his act together in time for this week to serve as a useful warm-up for upcoming dates at Doral and Bay Hill.
Let's hope last week's action was reminder enough that other guys play great golf too.

Aw, I've just totally put the mockers on the guy.

Oh Rory   

This is brilliant viewing....great finish

Carnage

Let's just all hope that Woods' injury isn't too serious   

If he can just hole this from the fairway. ....

Midget Mac on the attack! Beauty Rory!

Serious playoff here haha!!! Who would have thought -8 would get you into a play off an hour or two again!!

True Sirb, but thats the bear trap for you, evil stretch of holes. Thought Rory rushed that eagle putt a bit.

Rory plays utter toss for 10 holes and then pulls out one of the greatest shots in history, quite the head-scratcher.

Serious stretch of holes, but all of them except Knox were +2 for the final 4......A bit of choking going on!

People overhyping that shot on twitter and on SKY. ZZZZZZ

B_T_B,
Great to hear from you, how's sunny Wexford?
Exciting stuff, and a breathtaking shot.
Fingers crossed for an Ulsterman and a Scot!

With 4 guys in this playoff will three be joint second or if one or two are eliminated before the conclusion will they get placed third or fourth?

Great thanks Kwini, starting to see a stretch in the evenings now so might even get some golf in. I hope you were in with the NDN for the 6 nations... thats you with the bragging rights for another year

At this rate they will all be joint second after Henley

That was a serious choke from Rory let's be fair....Congrats to Henley!

Rory just ran out of steam in the end.. car crash finish. Cheers folks, g'night.

Rory just ran out of steam in the end.. car crash finish. Cheers folks, g'night.

Looks like Rory's 0 for 2 this year when he opens with a 63.

Plenty of guys had a really good shout today - even if many of them didn't realise it at the time.
Good win for Henley though, Snedeker lite.

Jeeze ... I go away for a day of US Nationals curling and ...

Tiger bails (quits, claiming back injury)
deJonge goes into spiral
Rory ignores my fine advice and decides NOT to shoot in the 60s

And at the end of the day another no-name Yank (losing his anonymity quickly), wins on the big tour.

Rory, please do as I suggest!

I'm pretty sure that no-name Yank has now won twice on the big tour.

sirbenson wrote:That was a serious choke from Rory let's be fair....Congrats to Henley!

Not sure if it was a choke or just a gradual decline in form over the 4 days - his scoring got progressively worse as the tournament went on.

That said, it's a bit of an academic point - he came up short.. or actually about half an inch to the right, end of.

Henley looked like he was reveling in it and handled the ups and downs very well, so should indeed be congratulated.

Anyone else think this is a very bad omen for Woods? He has barely played any golf over the last few months and still has back issues. If this continues there may be no other option but for him to call time on his career.

Ended up being pretty exciting; anyone who didn't see it should do all they can to check out Rory's second shot into #18 his first time round. Here it is!

http://www.pgatour.com/tourreport/2014/03/02/rory-stumbles-down-stretch-to-lose-honda-classic.html

Hope it loads for you - shot of the year so far.
Just missing the theatre we're accustomed to from Tiger when, no doubt, he'd've willed the eagle putt in to the hole for the
"W". Rory's got to learn that!

I think Russell Henley and Kevin Stadler are the only additions to this coming week's "Cadillac" field.

I, too, think it is a very difficult time for Tiger. Father time and his high-tension swing not getting along.

But, he's been known to rebound before and his iron will will be called upon yet again.

Let's hope he brings his "iron will" to Gleneagles . . . .
he says with a touch of "iron"y.
Strange that he couldn't have found a way to play the final few holes yesterday.
Fatty deJonge also complaining of injury, his ribs in this case, but he made it to the end.

Think Woods has got to somehow reconcile his physical condition with his golf swing if he wants to keep his competitive health. Seven career w/d's is the stuff that John Daly is made of . . . .

Shotrock wrote:I, too, think it is a very difficult time for Tiger. Father time and his high-tension swing not getting along.

But, he's been known to rebound before and his iron will will be called upon yet again.

Do you think there might be a chance 9C is playing purposely poor in order to be ranked low down in the Ryder Cup table not to have to publicly withdraw his participation, which would no doubt cause uproar?

I assume you're being entertaining Super ... Tiger could simply claim a bad knee or back spasms the month before the RC if he wanted to bail.

Maybe he will.

A little bit SR, I do think he won't play this year though, whether he feigns an injury, doesn't qualify or rejects a captains pick.

Golf injuries

Also, very surprised that Rory chocked his way down the final few holes. It wasn't like anyone really came after him. Not a good sign.

Can't believe he didn't play for the middle of the fairway from the bunker on 16. Take yer medicine - try and pitch it close and have a chance at par. Poor course management really.

Sr,
Rory was out of sync pretty much all weekend, just the misses were more penal in yesterday's tougher conditions - nothing "chocked" about his second into his 72nd though. Brilliant shot when the chips were down.
I think Rors will take more positives than negatives from his week.

Kwin - Don't agree with that ... he chocked away the tournament. It wasn't on the 72nd hole he chocked, it was on #16. Plain and simple.

But I agree he will take more positives away, and he'll soon be the #1 ranked golfer in the world.

Gary Koch was saying pretty much all day Rory's misses were almost all to the left, he was pulling most of his shots, whether from the tee or with his irons. It wasn't the fluffed bunker shot that did him in, it was missing the fairway in the first place and then, as Monty says, not taking his medicine.
And then he missed left again on #17 which was almost as penal - he'd been fortunate to get out of jail on #15, but not so lucky on the second par 3. Wasn't just those holes though, he'd been doing it ever since airmailing the green on #4.

Vas iz dis "chocked"?

Or is it koched?

Davie wrote:Vas iz dis "chocked"?

It when you choke, but you have a wedge under your wheels to stop you rolling away.

Having a 3 stroke lead for much of the day and then throwing up a 74 for your final round is not good.
These things happen and I suspect it's already behind him mentally.

kwinigolfer wrote:Ended up being pretty exciting; anyone who didn't see it should do all they can to check out Rory's second shot into #18 his first time round. Here it is!

http://www.pgatour.com/tourreport/2014/03/02/rory-stumbles-down-stretch-to-lose-honda-classic.html

Hope it loads for you - shot of the year so far.
Just missing the theatre we're accustomed to from Tiger when, no doubt, he'd've willed the eagle putt in to the hole for the
"W". Rory's got to learn that!

Hell of a shot that!

super_realist wrote:A little bit SR, I  do think he won't play this year though, whether he feigns an injury, doesn't qualify or rejects a captains pick.

Golf injuries

Why do you insist on being a plank S_R? Of course there are golf injuries. To name but one scenario, how about your ball in deep rough which you take a cut at and damage wrist ligaments? Plenty of golfers have historically had back injuries - coincidence? Nope. 9C's knee injury? The list goes on but you carry on flogging that horse eh?

Bob_the_Job wrote:

Davie wrote:Vas iz dis "chocked"?

It when you choke, but you have a wedge under your wheels to stop you rolling away.

I was on an afternoon session yesterday..and was fast asleep before the golf got interesting. But it seems that the majority of the field struggled yesterday, with only a few making decent moves. I would say rather then actually choking it was just a hard day on a tricky course. Im sure i read that it very rarely goes into double digit figures for the winner, so for 3 rounds Rory was way ahead of the course...and then it caught up with him, as it did with most people over the week. And of course he will take the positives out of the 2nd place finish...better then the other big names anyway.

Is Rory the new Greg Norman?

Not tall enough.

I mean in terms of choking. J.P. had to perform the Heimlich maneuver several times during the round on Sunday.

I reckon it was more of a chocke than a choke. And bad course management.

It's a shame someone can't lose a tournament without being labelled a choker. Rory just didn't have his best stuff, not just on Sunday but he didn't play that well on Saturday either. And PGA National is a most unforgiving course.
Doubt if anyone would bet against him next time.


Two PGA Tour events this week, the WGC-Cadillac, and the Puerto Rico Open, where Cabrera-Bello, Colsaerts, Cejka, Chopra, Karlsson, Owen, Pettersson, Quiros, Siem and David Skinns are all entered.

Can't imagine why Casey didn't join the field - in decent form and a great chance to improve his Tour standing (which is tenuous right now).

I think there's a difference (pretty big) between a chronic choker or the occasional choke. Rory suffered the latter, (and admitted he did not deserve to win post round) but his resume speaks for itself. He's one of my favorites for Augusta.

incontinentia:
The GolfWorld Magazine headline was:
"Hiccups and Heimlichs"! Did you write it?

I misread that, that you said "Hiccups and Heinrichs"
Mac would have spat into his lentils.