PGA Tour: Patrick Reed's Top Five: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Superb golf from Patrick Reed last week, sadly not pushed enough on Sunday to test his true competitive fortitude but he seldom made a mistake either.
And that cements his place alongside Woods, Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and McDowell in the Patrick Reed pantheon of the World's top five golfers.
Lots is also being made of Reed's excellent MatchPlay record but George Coetzee squeaked by him a couple of weeks ago and he's not even in Portly Patrick's World top five!

2).Reed attended unfashionable Augusta State University, so never received the accolades dished out annually by the US Golfing Press as the next great young thing, but he helped steer them to two Championships (alongside Henrik Norlander) and immediately made an impact of sorts as a pro by "Monday qualifying" for six out of eight tournaments in 2012. That's pretty hot stuff for a 21-year-old and his good play enabled him to bank $300K and then get through Q-School without a web.com apprenticeship - Tim Finchem please note.
The rest is recent history. Who knows how his career will progress? But what a start!

3).So: What did you make of the Drumpf Doral? My take is that I hated it for Rounds 1 & 2, but liked it more when the winds died down. The yellow-haired blowhard himself loved the windblown nature of Thursday and Friday play but that sort of penal set-up is not my cup of tea - whether the pin-placements were his idea or the Tour's one doesn't know, but he wants more water, especially on #17, so one can only speculate . . . . . .

Anyway, it made for a better spectacle on the weekend and there can't be too many complaints about the result.

4).Great credit then to Jamie Donaldson who led the parade of 8 x Europeans in the Top 24 - though not necessarily the ones we might have expected. A key to Donaldson's fine result was being just one of a handful of golfers to keep double bogeys or worse off his card - a shame, then, that his only Sunday bogey was on #18.
Jamie joins Dubuisson in the Special Temporary Membership club on the PGA Tour, but it remains to be seen whether he'll take advantage (if that's the right word).

5).Among golfers who might sneer at the nonsense from some PGA Tourists who are glad that, for instance, the Tiger Tournament has moved from California to Florida because it's more convenient, was George Coetzee who played the WGC-MatchPlay (where he beat the aforesaid Mr. Top Five), returned to play the next week in South Africa, jetted back to a T16 at Doral and is playing this week in Morocco.
And George finished alongside one-time Tour member Scott Hend who'd played in the previous week's New Zealand Open and, according to NBC, spent 38 hours reaching Miami. No TWA for him.
Two things about Scott Hend:
~He was respectively second (behind Kuenhe, just ahead of Daly) and first (ahead of Woods) in driving distance on the PGA Tour before we'd ever heard of Dustin Johnson or Bubba Watson.
~His caddie is apparently Tony Carolan, which made me wonder who the best golfing caddie is on Tour: Carolan perhaps? Jimmy Johnson (Stricker)? Damon Green (Zach)? Pete Jordan (sometimes on JJ Henry's bag)? Dunno, but there are some good'uns out there.

6).I mentioned last weekend that Chesson Hadley sounded like a Hertforshire village. He won the Puerto Rico Open and promptly thanked some guy called Jesus. He's very tall for a pro golfer, George Archer-like but without the facial gargoyles that the Gilroy Cowboy acquired later in life. Can't see Hadley winning a Masters as Archer did, but if he putts like George used to, maybe he has a chance.

7).Doral was the 5th of the 6 limited-field-no-cut events on the PGA Tour this year, so playing poorly means  no FedEx points and no pay-day from hereon in - Bridgestone excepted - at least until the Play-Offs.

With so many top-ranked Europeans having looked WGC gift-horses in the mouth, the real business of the PGA Tour season could be said to start this week, at the highly-regarded (9th by the Tour players - in a poll that ranked the old Doral 32nd, perhaps now 30th?) Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, in the Tampa area.
Course architect Larry Packard died recently at the age of 101, but the "Copperhead" is a worthy legacy.

8).For reasons not entirely clear this stop has a tough time holding on to a sponsor - this year Finchem has the painters in, for the "Valspar Championship". Good luck to them, hope you keep supporting a great event on a most attractive, fair!, golfcourse.

9).There's a decent field including three golfers who haven't played much recently but who looked like coming in to some form last week: Dufner, Kuchar and Rose. Probably worth doubling up on each way bets on them until they pay off, as each looks like a win-in-waiting.
Recent winners have had games as diverse as Woodland and Donald, while the resurgent KJ Choi has two wins and a close shave (in more ways than one as Furyk almost beaned him in closing out HIS win!).
There's a strong European contingent, and a chance for Messrs Donald and Pettersson to contend again at a track where they've won in the past.

10).Miguel-Angel Jimenez looked as distraught as I've ever seen him as he drowned his approach to #18 on Sunday and lapsed to a double-bogey finish and a T13 pay-day. But he'll be teeing it up in his first Champions Tour event in April.
The old pharts are in California this week, at the "Toshiba Classic", with Chapman, Langer, Lyle and Montgomerie the only Europeans in the field.
They'll be in Newport Beach, a couple of hours north of San Diego, and it was confirmed this week that San Diego/Torrey Pines has been invited to bid for the 2021 US Open. After his 2008 exploits, Tiger can have no health excuses not to win again.

You might not like this tournament, but I LOVE it!

Final group on the clock, and both Garrigus and Na have a bad time - one more bad time for either results in a one stroke penalty to the culprit.

Justin Rose playing beautifully - could be up with Garrigus with a little luck on the greens.

Setting aside my bias that Pro golfers play too Fricking Slow, I am not sure that that NA and Garrigus should have been put on the clock.

The Fact is that they finished their round in 3 hours 55 minutes. When is the last time the Last group finished in less than 4 hours? Especially with 41 groups ahead of them?

Yes, Garrigus/Na only finished that quickly because they were NUDGED by the PGAT clock Gestapo.

Well maybe they were more than NUDGED, maybe they got a quick kick in @$$ when they each got a BAD TIME.

And BTW, Na and Garrigus WAITED on the 3rd tee when Pat Perez had to come back to the tee because of an unplayable lie. So that set them back a few minutes.

According to Shottracker Goosen (in the 2nd group) finish at 11:24 am, 3 hours 34 minutes.

I would expect, 40 groups later, that the final group should play in about 4+ hours, given that there are rulings, etc.

as much as I would like to see the PGAT pros play faster, looking at the big picture, I am not sure that Na and Garrigus should have been put on the clock.

Because:

1. I would expect the last group would finish in about 30-40 minutes longer than the early groups

2. They waited for Perez on the third tee (maybe up to five minutes)

3. Nudged, they played in 3 hrs 54 minutes....without being nudged, probably 4 hr 10 minutes which is a reasonable time for the last group in a PGATournament.

Checking out the Asian Tour event, I see that Angelo Que made a 12 on his second hole in Round 4.

He was the 3rd round leader and he birdied the 1st hole.

Easy, They were put on the clock because they were two holes behind - and once you're on the clock the time it takes to play each shot is measured.
Usually Garrigus would compensate for Na's dawdling, but he took an unconsionable time to play his second shot to the second par-5 and, after that, they just got further and further behind.

They're paired again today - encore!

The Donald and Inspector Rose are 10th and 11th on the Ryder Cup points list. Podium finishes today and they'll leapfrog Gallacher and Joost Luiten.
And a good chance for Matteo to kick-start his qualifying effort with a bang.

Forecast for winds to pick up again on Sunday - that'll slow play down, push scores up, though apparently they've adjusted pin positions to compensate. Pity they didn't do that for the first two rounds at Doral.

PS: Elkington missing this week, and not in next week's Champions Tour event.
Looks like a suspension to me . . . . . .

Is the third round cut all down to TV right?

benson,
Not really, or at least only partly!; I think they just want to make sure they have a manageable field for Sunday, especially early and late in the season when daylight is at a premium.
Hopefully DC and Harrington can make the most of their reprieve.

Kwini: Garrigus and Na were on pace to finish in 4 hrs 10 min (with a 5 minute wait on Hole #3).

For the PGATour, this is a reasonable time for the last group in the tournament.

They finished in 3 hr 54 minutes (I can't imagine being nudged made them finish more than 15 minutes ahead of what they did finish).

Given the Precedents of Slow Play of the PGATour, I think the stop watch gestapo was out of line.

Disclaimer: I think Pro golfers play far too slow, but that is another issue.

I would say the slow golfers like Na get unduly punished in my opinion.

GPB,
They were out of position, by almost two full holes!
Having said which, the only official who would call Tiger in a situation like that would be paramor.

PS: Sugaring Season Update: Apparently, it's just been too cold so far for the sap to flow, so they're worried that it might not be such a good year after all. This week will be crucial I imagine, but at the very best they're already behind!

Considering they played in under 4 hours......many a final group have played well over that! I think it was unfair!

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
They were out of position, by almost two full holes!
Having said which, the only official who would call Tiger in a situation like that would be paramor.

PS: Sugaring Season Update: Apparently, it's just been too cold so far for the sap to flow, so they're worried that it might not be such a good year after all. This week will be crucial I imagine, but at the very best they're already behind!

Are you saying that they were 3 holes behind? When?

Because 1 hole behind is basically "in position"

Garrigus finished hole #9 at 4:35 pm
Rose finished hole #9 at 4:17 pm.

So when Garrigus and Na finished Hole #9 they were 8 minutes behind pace. And taken 2 hours and 5 minutes to play the front Nine.

BTW, I am getting my data from the legacy PGATour site.

http://www.legacy.pgatour.com/shottracker.html#/

Calcavecchia WD's before his tee time.

That means Padraig is playing a one-some. He may be able to keep up with Clarke and Goydos now.

Black eye for Garrigus, and the Goose is cooked - wide open now.

Hardly anyone imune from making a pig's ear of the early holes. Justin Rose not imune and he's making a right horlicks of what looked to be a promising position.

Come on Luuuuke!

Hope Senden can close this out.

Yup, Senden in to the Masters.

Top tens for Luke, Matteo and Justin Rose but each will know it could have been much better.

Current top 9 qualifiers for European Ryder Cup action:
Dubuisson, Donaldson, Bjorn, Poulter
Stenson, Garcia, McIlroy, The Donald, Gallacher (Rose very close)

Who would you pick as Captain's Choices? Rose? McDowell?? and who?
Think I'd go with an up-and-comer in decent form, Luiten perhaps, or Tommy Fleetwood.
Molinari, Kaymer and Westwood a long way back.

Lowry for a captains pick depending on form in the weeks leading up to the RC.

Lowry is sadly sinking without trace, shame he never took advantage of his opportunities in the big events last year. He needs to step things up a little to prevent himself becoming just another European Tour journeyman, albeit with tons of ability.

Would think with all that blubber he'd float.

I would always lean towards experience when looking at RC picks. Its such a big event that to have been there before has to be a big benefit.

289,
Agree in theory, but if that experience is the losing kind which it has been to Westwood for instance over the past three RC's, I'd rather have the energy of hot young guns!
Best case is that those with past experience up their game and qualify thru the process. Still almost six months and four Majors to go, after all.

Memo to P Reed. Let your clubs do the talking.