PGA Tour: The Run Up to US Open Begins: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).With the The Players Championship out of the way, the focus of the PGA Tour switches from the Masters/Players part of the schedule to the traditional four tournaments which precede the US Open:
HP Byron Nelson Championship this week (Dallas)
Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (Fort Worth)
The Memorial Tournament (Columbus)
FedEx St.Jude Classic (Memphis)

2).Most of the top Europeans will have headed home, to Spain or towards Wentworth, some of them returning to play Memorial, the rest waiting until Memphis or going straight to North Carolina and the US Open at Pinehurst.
But the happiest man golfing in Dallas this week will be Martin Kaymer who has chosen to stay on after his majestic 68-hole performance (and four holes of glitches and guts after the obligatory weather delay) last week - judging by tweeted responses from his Tour colleagues, Kaymer's win was a most popular victory. Will he be knackered after a fine performance at Quail Hollow and finer effort at the TPC, or will he improve on last year's 5th place finish at the "Nelson"?

3).There were tournament records set last week, for the lowest cumulative scores respectively on the front nine and back nine:
-13 on the front: Not surprisingly by Kaymer.
-17 on the back, more surprisingly, by McIlroy.

4).And Jim Furyk recorded his 27th runner-up finish on Tour. According to pgatour.com, Furyk is T4 on the list of second-place finishes among active Tour Pros:
30: LoveIII
29: Woods
29: Mickelson
27: Singh
'Course, some of these have more wins than Furyk's 16. It also goes to show that not all runner-up finishes are created equal as he pretty much came thru' on the rails, both at Quail Hollow (the previous week behind JB Holmes) and at The Players. And he was superb in defeat to Dufner at Oak Hill last August.
Unlike his miserable 72nd hole capitulation at Bridgestone a couple of years ago when his hapless, careless double-bogey presented victory to Keegan Bradley.
It may be easy to poke fun at Furyk but he's the sort of stand-up guy that is the heart and soul of the PGA Tour. He'll be back for more at two of his favourite stops, Colonial and Memorial. Wouldn't bet against him at either.

5).And Furyk was the only member of the Medinah US Ryder Cup Team in the Top dozen (Stricker was 13th!).
In contrast, all Europeans qualified made the cut, and SIX finished in the Top Ten.
Furyk is now 5th in Tom Watson's qualifying list and is just a few decent finishes away from a ticket to Gleneagles. With Woods still on injured reserve, and Phil trying to find a cylinder to fire on, perhaps Watson will welcome Furyk's experience, albeit much of it of the losing variety.

6).Talking of Ryder Cup, how's about a shout for those Europeans on the PGA Tour who have either graduated to the PGA Tour direct from University or the US mini-tours, or transferred their allegiances before ascending to Ryder Cup status?
Some of these guys, as Brian Davis reminded us last week, have made themselves a handsome living; career earnings to date:
$20.4M: Pettersson
$15.1M: Jacobson
$12.4M: Davis (now 2nd most money won by a non-winner, behind only Briny Baird)
$11.2M: Laird
$  7.9M: Cejka
$  7.9M: Chopra
$  6.2M: Johnson
$  5.8M: Owen
$  5.5M: Blixt
A mighty fine living I would have thought, but how many of these would have fared better in Europe?

7).The field for this week's Byron Nelson is stronger than we've seen since Lord Byron died, partly perhaps because of one or two "Internationals" teeing it up (e.g. Hanson, Ishikawa, Kaymer, Schwartzel), but perhaps also partly stimulated by high-ranking Americans ambitious to play at Gleneagles but struggling so far this year: Dufner, for instance, Snedeker, Bradley, English etc?

8).It's just about time Dufner woke up for the season, and I'd expect him to play well this week and next. Texas residents Ryan Palmer and JJ Henry are others who punch above their weight in the Dallas Metroplex, Martin Flores is another local guy and I've a hunch that Morgan Hoffmann might be ready to break through.
And we know Brian Davis can go on a streak of spring form; now that he got the taste last week, perhaps he can carry some momentum for a few weeks.

9).The Champions Tour is back in action this week, at the "Regions Tradition" at Shoal Creek in Alabama for the first of two weeks' worth of so-called Majors. Montgomerie's been playing much better this year and one would think the four-round format would suit him. Langer is there, of course, plus Messrs Chapman, Forsbrand, Lyle and Woosie.

10).One hometown boy at the "Byron Nelson" is Jordan Spieth.
How well he played last week. Nothing not to like about Spieth, apart from the relentless hype surrounding him. There's plenty of nit-picking in the US Golf Media about him not closing out a tournament, perhaps not being long enough, yada yada yada. They're probably just p1ssed off he was beaten by a European.
HE'S A GREAT PLAYER! GET OVER IT!!
Clearly his putter went cold on Sunday but he did pretty much everything right until the end and he'll go on to win more than his fair share of big events. Great prospect and, so far anyway, doing it his way.
Long may that last.

Some are going deep, just not the leaders!
Garrigus in with a 64.
Even Casey has got it to -4 for his first 15 holes after struggling early.
Hanson beating an untimely retreat.

Sad to see Duval (presumably) miss the cut, but fellow Major winners Kaymer, Weir, Harrington and the Goose all in the Top Ten.
Bad week for Moore and Snedeker too.


Just noticed that, in Espana, Alex Noren is playing his first tournament after being out (wrist surgery?) for six months - playing well!

GPB,
I see Gonzo & Wiesberger get themselves a reprieve from the Round 2 guillotine - second chance and trust they'll take it.

Second eagle of the day for Paul Casey.
There are only 2 x Par-5's on the course - way to take advantage!!!!

Hey, My Peter, Paul and Padraig aren't doing badly!
Peter: Currently 23rd
Paul: Tied for the lead after a 63!!!!!!!!!! Back nine 27!!!!!!!!!!!!
Padraig: Another 68, currently T8.

Keep it up boys,

I'm also liking the web.com leaderboard . . . . . . .

73 players within 6 shots of the lead.

Going to be an old fashion Texas Shootout this weekend. Anyone making the cut can win this with a couple of good rounds.

There'll be a ton of MDF's Saturday, which highlights a problem I have with the FedEx Points allocation.
Guys making the cut but blowing up in Round 3 will get no credit for making the cut (except $12K or so). For all the fraction of point that they'll earn is concerned, they might just as well have bagged Friday and gone home.

Anyway, a Texas shoot-out is what we'll have tomorrow.

Don't know how the threesome of Casey, Connelly and Kaymer get on, but I was hoping they'd be together. Don't think that's quite going to happen!

Just the hardcore Europeans next week at Colonial:
Davis
Jacobson
Knox
Laird
Lingmerth
Pettersson

After lamenting Paul Casey's absence from Wentworth, I see that he's second alternate for Colonial and I'd imagine he'll get in to the field. The following week he's at Nordea - still can't imagine why he's not going to Wentworth but perhaps he has a plan. Which would be something new.

I don't think finishing T75 deserves a lot of FE Points. As opposed to finishing T85.

FedEx Points, Purse structure, and OWGR allocation have a pretty high correlation to each other.

I don't think a player should get credit for mailing it on the weekend. They should be fighting hard all weekend to get more points.

Does anyone know why Mr Bjerregaard has no R3 tee time in Spain? He made the cut on the number and no WD or RTD...

Now he has a W/D. Was he asked to leave the tourny because there were too many players making the cut or just a poor update of the ET website?

Speaking of Brian Davis: funnily enough he had one of his only 2 pro wins at this weeks Open de Espana - this week played at the same course as when he won back in 2000 (PGA of Catalunya).

It looks like two more days of fine weather in Dallas, tho' as usual the breeze could be a factor.

They'll be going off in threesomes, off the 1st and 10th tees, starting 9.50 a.m. CDT, or about the time the players will be enjoying their half-time oranges, or quick glug of Scotch, at the Scottish Cup Final.

Lots to play for obviously, not least for the aforementioned Brian Davis - this (these next five weeks ending in Hartford) is his time of year and he needs to take advantage.

Casey and Kaymer in the same threesome after all - are Casey and Craig Connelly friends these days? Could be an iteresting dynamic!

What is the back story on Casey and Craig Connelly?

The Mechanic can tighten the already tight race for the last spots on the Euro RC team. A win will move him to #10 spot in the World Standings, ahead of IJP. and up 2 or 3 spots in the Euro Standings. A first prize of 250,000 Euro is kind of paltry compared to the ~800,000 Euro given out next week.

I wonder if Wentworth will make the standings more clear, or more fuzzy.

GPB,
Connelly used to work for Casey - but beyond that I've no idea whether there's any drama or falling out. Can't imagine Casey's the easiest guy to work for though.

As for the European Ryder Cup standings, things will remain ever "more fuzzy" until some essential team members, especially McDowell & Poulter, start to play a little better and earn their places on form rather than reputation. (Also hope that Luiten plays well enough to make himself part of the discussion.)

The US Team has that (form vs reputation conundrum) too, with Phil & Tiger.

Connelly and Kaymer have a bit of a history too... Kaymer had him on the bag for his major win, but dropped him a few months later. And as we all know... it wasn't much longer after that Kaymer's game tanked. A little more than a year later they ended up getting back together.

Now I'm not one of those guys that gives caddies TOO much credit for a players success (or failures), but I do believe that the comfortable and confident golfer is more likely to succeed than the one who's not. And to that extent the caddie that has the trust of his player and can help calm the player and give him that boost of confidence in moments of doubt can be invaluable.

Sure that's true robo; Kaymer was pretty complimentary of Connelly and their relationship after last Sunday's success.

Terrific international leaderboard in Spain, about 16 different countries represented in the Top 25.

Curious characterisation of "Europeans" in Sports Illustrated this week:
"Never before has a Sunday leaderboard at the Players been so crowded with Europeans in their skinny pants."
As opposed to: What exactly I wonder? Regardless, sure Westwood would be flattered!

I guess Kaymer dropped Connelly and then hired Luke Donald's brother Christian?

My GF has noticed that European players have their trousers tailored to show off their *ahem* "assets".

Casey looking like the Casey of yesterday on the front nine; let's hope he looks like the Casey of yesterday on the back.

First four are all non-winners, on the PGA Tour at least; time for the experienced guys in the posse to make a move. Perhaps Harrington??!!??

Are they playing Stableford this week? haha


Go on Padraig!!!

GPB wrote:

My GF has noticed that European players have their trousers tailored to show off their *ahem* "assets".

It's actually an optical illusion. The pattern on the pants is designed to be flattering in the crotchal region.

Very International leaderboard for a tournament you'd think was a very American event. Oosthuizen looking good too despite a missed a two-footer yesterday.

Go on Paddy!! Positive week, good to see. Putting a lot better and seems to be giving himself more chances.

Supposed to be windier on Sunday, hopefully not as blustrous as when Keegan Bradley won in 2011.
Leishman is supposed to be a very good wind player, and hopefully Harrington can conjure up memories of his glory days.
 
 
Ten International players in the Top 17, but only Harrington and Kaymer of the European "skinny pants" variety. Big day tomorrow for Padraig in so many ways.

Massive day Kwini, a decent result tomorrow and it could revitalise a career that seems to be in decline. Needs a top 10 at the very least. If he were to somehow win tomorrow it would be massive for his career and secure a Masters spot for next year haha!

Nice note on the European Tour web-site yesterday about Jimenez contesting the lead with Pieters: M-A J played his first Open de Espana nine years before Pieters was born.
(Pieters had a fine College career at the University of Illinois - won the 2012 NCAA Champioship. How long before he overhauls Colsaerts as Belgian's #1?)

Snail like play in the Open de Espana. Jimenez and Pieters teed off 4 hours 10 minutes ago and just now getting to 17th tee.

Go Jimenez

Painful pace of play, but it looks like the course is set up to make a par-72 a good score, looks like the average score is about 74 or 75. War of attrition, and it goes on!
Don't think the Golf Channel's presentation with so little continuity helps.

Very happy to see Pieters play well, European Tour needs that sort of young blood.

Bad Drives and Bad 2nd shots from Jimenez, Green and Pieters. Does anyone want the Open de Espana?

Only Miguel.
At last.

Any idea why Couples was dq'd today?

Awesome win by MAJ... wish it could have been a birdie in the playoff instead of a par on the backs of others making bogey's... but still... a win is a win and a most excellent one at that.  

And got to agree with the announcers... sheesh... what a month THAT guy has had... some great golf to go along with new, even more attractive trophy wife than his last trophy wife which replaced is first wife...  Guess it demonstrates: "playing relaxed" has it's benefits... :-)

MAJ  

Couples missed his tee time according to a Jason Sobel tweet.

Paul Casey getting motivated I see. Come on Paul. Do yourself some justice.

Come on Paddy!!! Take it home!

Who's this Mike Weir guy?
Harrington not reading sirbenson's script . . . . . . . .

And Casey and Hanson didn't read my script.
Europe not following the spirit of The Mechanic.

Oh Padraig,
Unlucky!
Not sure I've ever seen that before - he hit a wedge on #11 that went in to the cup, all the way down, and back out again, right beside the hole. Tap in bird, but that would have been a timely eagle.

Harri butchering his way around the course, turning a top 8 into a top 20 or worse.
Pretty sad...........

Surprised it took this long for Padraig to fall away tbh

sirbenson wrote:Surprised it took this long for Padraig to fall away tbh

I agree Sir B. Had been finishing rounds off well this week for a change but his poor decision making has returned. What was once a major strength (mental game) is now his biggest problem.

Top 25?

In contrast, Mike Weir has been away much longer and is holding up much better. Great to see.

Best finish of the year on the PGA Tour! Onwards and upwards, a good showing in Wentworth and hopefully he qualifies for the US OPEN at Walton Heath!

Mighty impressive from Todd, brilliant to see from Mike Weir as well.

With all these ex wives MAJ needs to keep raking in the money.

Casey up to first alternate to get in to "Colonial"; given that Patrick Reed is still listed in the field, you'd think Casey has a good chance of playing. Not sure yet who dropped out.

I see there are two Curls in the field, two too many I would think.

Adam Scott definitely going for the Texas Slam!

Kwini, I think the Colonial was holding a spot open for the Nelson winner in case he was not eligible to play the Colonial.

EDIT:

Per Rotoworld

James Hahn and Paul Casey have been added to Colonial Field when Patrick Reed and James Driscoll WDed.

Ah, Casey's in now, James Hahn too, as Reed and Driscoll will take the week off.
Another good opportunity for Paul; given that he's playing Colonial rather than Wentworth (where he won a few years ago), it seems he's committed to retrieve his PGA Tour card.
Another couple of good results will do the trick, say a Top Four or a couple of decent Top Tens.

He probably didn't get an invite to Jack's Place so he's signed up for Nordea. Not sure he'd get in to Memphis or what his US Open qualifying plans are, but you'd think he has a chance to play Greenbrier and John Deere. Then Oh Canada and hopefully the Play-Offs.

Kwini: I was editing just as you were posting.

Jinx, Buy Me a Coke. (but you probably don't know that expression)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(children's_game)

Snap!

Casey's been playing plenty of good rounds this year - he just needs to stitch more than one or two together. Five Top 20's is pretty good given chances to play have been at a premium.

Gonzo departed the FedEx Top 125 this week, and Hanson failed to take advantage of his good start. Unless they improve form rapidly they'll join Colsaerts and Olesen back in Europe by September.

Tiger presided over another no-news conference today, announcing to the breathless audience that he was still just "chipping and putting" and that he'd only start practicing full shots when the "docs" give him the green light.
No timeframe for his return, it's up to the "docs".

I can't see him returning in time to play Hoylake, perhaps even money he'll play Bridgestone and the PGA.
If he doesn't play either of them, he'll surely give himself another month with Lindsey, miss Gleneagles and do some pay-for-play gigs around the world, should the "docs" permit of course.

Whaddya think?

Unless he's telling porkies, which after all wouldn't be the first time, there's got to be a lead-time from starting to swing to feeling good-to-go.