PGA Tour: The Arnie Invitational: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The "Arnold Palmer Invitational" is the final stop of this year's "Florida Swing", following challenging stops at the "Honda", WGC-Cadillac and last week's Valspar tournament at Innisbrook.
Thankfully we've seen glimpses of form from the GB&I contingent, Knox and McIlroy being beaten in the Honda play-off, Donaldson one stroke adrift of Reed at Doral, and the Donald and Justin Rose contending last week. Both would have been closer but for uncharacteristic three putts by Luke and tiddlers missed by Rose.
Good week for Matteo also; perhaps he's playing his way back in to the form that would remind us that he's golf's most successful under-21-y-o? (Sorry Spieth!)
 
2).John Senden's birdies on #16 and #17 would most likely have been one stroke too good regardless.
A popular win for Sendo, though can't imagine most spectators find him a particularly compelling player to follow; boring as (appropriately) watching paint dry in my experience. He'd certainly paid his dues at this tournament having finished runner-up a couple of times already. Which got me to thinking that this Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is a real "horses for courses" track, not dissimilar to Harbour Town, Colonial and a few others.
 
3).Apart from the event's first winner, Bermuda specialist John Huston, all previous winners (since 2002) were in the field and Vijay Singh was the only one to miss the cut. Of the rest, Sean O'Hair continued his dismal trot of form by missing the 54-hole cut and Calcavecchia departed the scene looking decidedly wobbly after 63 holes.
Two-time winners Goosen and KJ Choi (also a 2010 runner up) tied for 44th, but not before the Goose had shot the best round of the tournament until it was equalled by Senden.
Last year's winner Streelman faded to 38th.
Furyk (another one-time runner up) and Pettersson tied for 20th, while Woodland finished 8th and Luke Donald 4th.
Among those to have finished 2nd here, Senden of course won.
Garrigus finished 4th, George McNeill 7th and HowellIII and Bae 14th.
Most of those would have been good prices and given you a decent run for your investment.
 
4).Another talking point was slow play and the warnings dished out to Garrigus and Na. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the particular incident on Saturday when these two were in the final group and fell almost two holes behind, it certainly highlighted the slow-play issue on the PGA Tour. Ironically, it was Garrigus, usually a fast player, who caused the pair to fall behind, while Na's normal speed (glacial) was exposed.
 
Coincidentally, the recorded first feature of a new series of "Feherty" aired last night with Brandt Snedeker condemning slow play, illustrated by examples of Kevin Na (and Ben Crane). Poor timing by the Golf Channel(!), but indicative of reputations that take a long time to get rid of!
And not helped by Garrigus's caddie saying, BEFORE they all teed off together again on Sunday:
"It ain't fair playing with Kevin Na. It ain't right."!!
 
5).Broken record time: Another poor tournament from other Europeans, especially Casey, Colsaerts, Hanson, Lynn and Olesen who need far better results, and Clarke and Harrington who squeaked in to Sunday's play but failed to take advantage. DC and Padraig have exemption safety nets, but the rest will all lose their cards at this rate.
 
6).Some news notes:
~Juli Inkster appointed US Solheim Cup Captain, with the unflattering figure of Pat Hurst as VC.
~Tim Finchem now has a Deputy Commissioner, a bloke called Jay Monahan, who is assumed to be his heir apparent. Sounds like Joe Ogilvie will have to wait.
~Edit: Should have added that it's becoming increasingly certain that Torrey Pines will be annointed the US Open venue for 2021.
~Alex Cejka enjoyed another podium finish on the web.com Tour, has a $70K lead on the money-list, and is a dead cert to regain his PGA Tour card for 2014/2015. Henrik Norlander is also inside the all-important Top 25.
~Colin Montgomerie is getting closer to the winners circle on the Champions Tour, with a T2 last week in California. He has Nick Faldo for company this week in Mississippi.
~And: For the second week running Steve Elkington is absent from the Champions Tour field. I reckon he's been suspended. Anyone hear anything along those lines? Still don't feel the Tour does itself any favours by not announcing suspensions.
 
7).And so to Bay Hill and a week reserved for the revered Arnold Palmer. The "Arnie" is no longer a must-play tournament and as many prominent names (led by Els, McIlroy and Mickelson) have taken this week off as are paying homage to "The King". Tiger Woods is here, undoubtedly the horse for this course, plus Scott and Stenson and a strong European contingent, including the usual suspects plus Casey, Donaldson, Gonzo (3rd last year), Matthew Fitzpatrick, Molinari and former winner Martin Laird.
 
8).Apart from Woods, this tournament does NOT! have a strong horses for courses record, but two exceptions are McDowell (twice runner-up) and Justin Rose who has made 8 cuts in 9 appearance with an 8th, 3rd and last year's runner-up finish. If Rose has figured out that ghastly putting stroke from last week, this should be another strong tournament for him.
 
9).Most eyes not on Arnold Palmer (and the painfully obligatory report on Sam Sauders' progress - in a word, negligible) will be on Tiger Woods, his health and his form.
If I add him to my Fantasy Team you can rest assured he'll pull out injured, but one wonders whether he'd be playing at all if he didn't have The Masters in three weeks' time.
Other Masters prospects who are injured, or just missing from action, include Jason Day and his thumb, Louis Oosthuizen and his back, and Charl Schwartzel who's withdrawn and absconded on paternity leave.
 
10).Finally, from the "who'd've thunk it" department, and in the wake of Luke Donald 3-putting twice in three holes last Sunday, pgatour.com reports that the two players with the longest streak of holes without a 3-putt are . . . . . . did you guess Bubba Watson (237) and Dustin Johnson (217)?
Both are having fine seasons so far, playing with chips on their shoulders after being left off the 2013 Presidents Cup Team and hell-bent on being at Gleneagles in 6 months' time.

The abuse my great personal friend and inspiration Mr Colon Montgomerie got by the uneducated, unwashed masses from the colonies was uncalled for and below the belt. Mind you if he didn't have his trousers pulled right up to his enormous teats, some of the abuse would have been above the belt.

Every's caddie caught using a device?



Legal or not?

Looks like one of those clicky shot counter thing. My mate uses one but it only goes up to 99....

If it only goes up to 99, then I need 2 of them.

Yeah hes got another one for the back 9!

Almost half-way thru' the season and all these Europeans are outside the crucial Top 125 in FedEx points and have no other status on Tour:
126th: Westwood
130th: Hanson
151st: Casey
159th: Lynn
165th: Colsaerts
185th: Harrington (has option of a one-time-only career money exemption)
203rd: Olesen
plus Owen, Chopra, Parnevik.

(In addition, Gonzo is precariously perched at 120th, while Cejka is way down the list but will regain his card via web.com success.)

In some cases, these guys are not eligible to compete in some events (e.g. Bridgestone, Majors, Players, perhaps one or more of three "invitationals"), and their season could be over before they realise it.
Time for O'Grady to make some calls as he - presumably - seeks to make up for the assumed absence from some events of Donaldson, Dubuisson.

McLaren wrote:Every's caddie caught using a device?



Legal or not?

He's counting his money.

navyblueshorts wrote:
Not really - they certainly aren't heckling. They might at the U.S. Open...maybe there's a common theme here?

To be fair, the worst "heckling" in tennis isn't in the US, it's at Roland Garros

Sounds like Every's caddie was using a compass . . . . . . Legal!

kwinigolfer wrote:Sounds like Every's caddie was using a compass . . . . . . Legal!

Seriously??

Hey you! Yes you, the caddie! The flag's that-a-way!

Seriously!!

He's quite clearly texting his online bookie, backing his man & laying Scott - so Legal