PGA Tour: Oh Canada! Royal Montreal: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).There's a top-heavy (RBC Ambassador-laden) field assembling in Montreal for Leg 2 of the PGA Tour's International soiree, plenty of star names, but outnumbered by scores of Pros for whom "Journeyman" would be a compliment. Anyone not dusting off their passports for the "RBC Canadian Open" but who then bemoans not retaining their Tour card will only have themselves to blame.
 
2).But Hoylake saw all the star names for The Open Championship, not just on Thursday and Friday, but on the weekend too as 24 (all but Bubba who probably spent the weekend en France?, and no-show Stricker) of the owgr Top 26 made the cut. Of course, no star shone brighter than Rory McIlroy, but great weeks too for some others. In no particular order:
Hoylake: Looked fab, played fair.
Rickie: Can his second win be far away? Very impressive.
Sergio: Must be heartily sick of those runner-up silver salvers.
Shane Lowry: Runner up to Adam Scott in the "Wrong side of the draw Open". Followed as far as I can see by Coetzee (18th), Bradley and Kirk (T19th).
Italy: Shades of Costantino Rocca as Eddie, Frannie and Matteo all had their moments in the leaderboard sun.
(Lowry, Leishman and EMolinari are each now exempt for next year's Open.)
 
3).What about a word for an also-ran who might never have been expected to be on course at all? Tiger Woods.
I wonder if Woods is closer to tournament contention than might be thought from his soixante neuf finish?
Clearly he had no viable "game plan", certainly not one to match that of 2006.
"Well Tiger, why did you keep on hitting driver?" asked the press.
"Because I didn't want to challenge the bunkers and leaving it short of them gave me too long a shot in to the greens." Or words to that effect.
So he tried to blast his drives over the sand and put himself in some unusual parts of the course, and beyond.
But: The breakdown of his scorecard might suggest he's closer than 69th:
Par-3 scoring: -3: Not sure how that compares to the rest of the field, but that looks pretty good.
Par-4's: +15: 2 triples and 3 doubles derailed him. Suggesting he had a problem with tournament-ready focus.
Par-5's: -6: Not what one would expect from a golfer who has feasted on Par-5's all his career. Focus: See Par-4's!
EDIT! Tiger's scores were incorrect, thanks to editor GPB for pointing this out.

Seems to me that just one Par-3 bogey means he can stand on a tee box, select an iron, and strike it with the best of 'em. When "focus" seems to be an issue, who's to blame? The player obviously, but does LaCava let him swing away in a fashion that Williams never would have done?
Let's not count Woods out, especially as he travels to Firestone and Valhalla.
 
4).But his appeals to Watson about choosing him for Ryder Cup duty even if he missed the play-offs are untimely, if not unseemly.
 
5).ESPN covered The Open for US TV and it was a reminder that no-one matches Paul Azinger for lead analyst duties. I wonder if the NBC, CBS and FOX big-wigs have blackballed him on instruction from PGA Tour HQ?
Great work too by Dottie Pepper and Andy North. (But efforts to exhume Tom Weiskopf should never again be repeated.)
 
6).This is the last week for golfers to qualify for the WGC-Bridgestone and PGA Championship (excepting the Bridgestone and Reno winners).
~Bridgestone: Anyone not currently in the owgr Top 50 but entering it this coming week joins the Bridgestone field, plus the Canadian Open winner if not otherwise exempt.
(The European Tour stop in Russia this week - Hello, O'Grady, is this a good idea? - has a strength of field below that of this week's web.com event, should not receive an owgr subsidy, and the winner will not advance to the WGC.)
~PGA: There is a 12-month money list kept for the PGA Championship and the Top 70 next Monday will qualify. Notable Internationals and significant others currently outside the leading 70, playing in Canada and needing a good result include:
Knox (73rd), Jerry Kelly (79th), Pettersson (94th), Davis (96th), Overton (98th), Badds (102nd), Clark (103rd).
They will almost certainly also invite the owgr Top 100, so Russell Knox, for instance, is on two precipices!
 
7).Royal Montreal GC is the oldest "official" golf club in North America although the current course is a relatively new design, by the only Golf Architect that I know of who attended University on a Football Scholarship, Dick Wilson (Doral, Bay Hill etc), with a ten-year-old re-do by Rees Jones.
It hosted the Canadian Open in 1997, when Tiger Woods missed his first cut as a touring pro and Steve Jones beat Greg Norman, and in 2001 when Scott Verplank justified his week-earlier Ryder Cup Captain's Choice by beating Sindelar and Estes. So this will be a new venue for 90% of the field.
 
8).Golfers in the field with decent form from those long-ago exploits include;
~Justin Leonard (6th in 1997, 55th in 2001)
~Stewart Cink (13th in 1997)
~John Daly (4th in 2001, just ahead of a young Sergio!)
~KJ Choi (8th in 2001)
~Allenby (8th in 2001)
~Brian Gay (18th in 2001)
~Luke Donald (18th in 2001; a top finish sorely needed by Lukey this week.)
Plus some also rans in 2001 who played Presidents Cup in Montreal in 2007:
~Appleby (23rd)
~Weir (34th)
~Ogilvy (74th)
~Vijay (cut)
 
9).And survivors from that Presidents Cup playing this week include:
~Appleby: 2 wins, 3 losses
~Choi: 1 win, 3 losses
~Els: 3 wins, 2 losses
~Goosen: 2 wins, 2 losses, 1 half
~Immelman: 0 wins, 3 losses, one half
~Ogilvy: 3 wins, 2 losses
~Singh: 2 wins, 2 losses, 1 half
~Weir: 3 wins, 1 loss, 1 half - included beating Woods on the 18th hole in singles, Tiger driving in to the drink.
 
~Austin: 1 win, one loss, 3 halves - Aquaman fell in to the water trying to play a shot, funniest thing I've seen live at a pro event.
~Cink: 3 wins, 1 loss
~Furyk: 3 wins, 2 losses
~Glover: 2 wins, 3 losses
~Mahan: 2 wins, 3 losses
 
Of that lot, I quite fancy Cink and Goosen to continue their mini career revival of 2014. No Canadian-born golfer has won for about 100 years so good luck this week to David Hearn, DeLaet and Mike Weir (whose self-inflicted defeat to Vijay in a Glen Abbey play-off was about the most heart-breaking loss I've seen in Golf - even Singh was sheepish about it, but Weir was broken).
 
10).But let's wrap it up where we began, with Rory. Not surprisingly he's favourite for the PGA: Ladbrokes has the betting leaders as follows:
6/1: McIlroy
10/1: Woods
14/1: Scott
16/1: Mickelson
20/1: Kaymer
25/1: Fowler, Garcia, Kuchar, Rose, Stenson, Watson
33/1: Day, Dufner, DJohnson, Spieth, Westwood

kwinigolfer wrote:Ladbrokes has the betting leaders as follows:
6/1: McIlroy
10/1: Woods
14/1: Scott
16/1: Mickelson
20/1: Kaymer
25/1: Fowler, Garcia, Kuchar, Rose, Stenson, Watson
33/1: Day, Dufner, DJohnson, Spieth, Westwood

Excellent! Love it when the bookies have the likes of Coco, 9C and FIGJAM so low (Scott somewhat too).... leads to much better prices for other contenders!

Of the rest, Rickie perhaps a good e/w bet though still can't quite see him winning one despite his excellent form so far. Decent prices for Rose, Kuch and Spieth - Kaymer too if he just eases a point or two. 33 for Westwood is a joke - wouldn't take him at 100/1

I like Dufner (33) and Stenson (25) of this lot, a bit deja vu after Oak Hill but just a hunch.
Had thought Rory was well suited to Valhalla but after his win and (presumably) all those Jagermeisters I'm not so sure. Yuk.

Cheers kwini, great piece as always.

For those considering starting an ET thread I'm sure you can re-use this sentence:
"...outnumbered by scores of Pros for whom "Journeyman" would be a compliment." Btw, where's Yevgeny should-have-taken-a-commentary-gig-at-Eurosport-in-stead Kafelnikov?

Good write up Kwini....I certainly would not want to go Russia these days.

The Webbie tour gets two Home Tour points...so not sure if that really counts as a better SoF.  Basically equal IMO...except for the subsidies.

Not sure how Woods scores of -3 on Par 3's, +5 on the Par 4's and -3 on the Par 5's add up to a total score of +6 for the tournament.

Cheers chaps,
Good point GPB, can't read my own writing.
I shall edit, with appropriate attribution!

Good write up Kwini.

Struck by two things.

Trevor Immelman - I'd almost forgotten about him. How did that happen? A few years ago I was sure he'd be a regular contender.

Woods at 10/1 having finished 4th last the previous week. Either the bookies like you think he's less under cooked than it would appear, or they still subscribe to the "never rule Tiger out" theory.

Yeah Immelman reminds a bit of what happended to Michael Campbell. Top drawer ET player who crashed into oblivity after their major win. Strange.

Immelman had a succession of injuries pretty much right after his Masters win, including an internal tumour and a wrist injury that required extensive surgery.
Since regaining apparently full fitness he just hasn't been the golfer of eight or ten years ago, but is great to follow, compresses the ball with long irons which fly (mostly) straight and true like few others.

Bob_the_Job wrote:Good write up Kwini.

Struck by two things.

Trevor Immelman - I'd almost forgotten about him.  How did that happen?   A few years ago I was sure he'd be a regular contender.

Woods at 10/1 having finished 4th last the previous week. Either the bookies like you think he's less under cooked than it would appear, or they still subscribe to the "never rule Tiger out" theory.

Well to be fair more like about 54th last, cant really forget everyone who missed the cut. But I take your point.

There are Tiger Fanboys who will always want to wager money on Tiger, no matter what the odds.

A week from Monday, when there is little money wagered on Tiger the odds will go to 20/1 or higher where they should be.

Why would a bookie give 20/1 odds to the fanboys when they will take 10/1?

Bit like deluded people who bet on England in football tournaments.
Odds aren't a reflection of chances to win all the time, but rather the popularity of the team/individual.

Just a shout-out to Jarrod Lyle who's teeing it up for the first time under PGA Tour auspices in this week's web.commer since his second remission from leukaemia.

Ironically, going through the last Canadian Open field who played at Royal Montreal in 2001 I see at least two names who left us way too soon:

Jace Bugg, a winner on the Canadian and web.com Tours, a PGA Tour member of the future who died of leukaemia in 2003, and:
Jeff Julian, PGA Tour member who died of ALS in 2004.

Seniors struggling a bit at Porthcawl . . . . .

Should be great weather in Montreal for the Canadian Open. Only chance of showers is on Sunday, pristine before that.

Big week for Donald & McDowell - hope they make the most of it.

Are there any spectators in the M2M Russian Open?

Sean O'Hair at 200s this week.....but here is the question what happened to him?

Sir - Very good question! Wish I had the answer, but confidence is always the intangible professionals need to have lots of and Sean is no different. (Full disclosure - our kids swim together and he's a top notch father, and all around good guy, so I will admit to laking objectivity.)

But a cut made today! (it appears)

Watched O'Hair play a few holes in Oh Canada, but he's oh so slow, fidgets with everything as if he has OCD. Hit the ball nicely, but had to leave him to it. Hope he regains some joy from playing because it looks like he's lost that essential ingredient.
In contrast, followed Clark & Watney (and Goosen) for 18 holes and they were having a blast, playing well, having fun.

Apropos O'Hair, I wonder: Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Because it doesn't much look as if he's having fun. Too bad.

It'll be interesting to see how Royal Montreal plays today.
Thursday was a bit wet underfoot after Wednesday rain, but greens were soft and not much wind.
Friday the course had dried out but there was a constant 15-25 mph wind and quite a few tees were up leading to more birdie opportunities and a pair of 63's.
Saturday should be dry, hopefully not to breezy.

Lots to play for with lots of golfers in danger of missing the Play-Offs/losing their cards having good starts to the tournament.

Hopefully Gonzo, for one and especially with the prospect of a Bridgestone bonus next week, will take advantage of his opening 67's and have a strong finish.

A pair of 66's yesterday from Ecosse with Knox and Laird playing well, plus a 65 from Irlande du Nord's McDowell. Poor from Angleterre's Davis and Donald though and, for Donald at least, I don't see things getting any better until he takes a break.

It looks like Oleson is going to get his 15 events played. He is in the Reno field and the PGA Championship. It would make sense for him to play Greensboro.

Karlsson is not playing Reno.

I don't know how Oleson is in the PGA Championship field. He would have probably got in via the OWGR Top 100 but those invites are not official yet.

The Field listed on pga.com was published on Tuesday so it looks as if overseas Top 100 invites have been mailed; TO certainly wasn't shown in pgatour.com's major qualifiers as at Monday, July 21st so that must be it.
Presumably Karlsson didn't earn a sponsor's invitation at Reno - bet he gets one at Greensboro, and he'll need it.
The always mercurial Andres Romero off to a good start this morning; another who needs a strong finish.

Andres Romero and Greg Chalmers seem to play just good enough to get into the playoffs. Always in the 101-125 region.

There has been talk about reducing the Top 125 to Top 100 among the players. I think that is a good move. I wonder if they up their game to keep their Tour card.

Westy is projected at #122 in the FE points and just 7 points ahead of #126 spot.

Westy has the safety net of the Dire Straits WGC (Money for Nothing, and Points are Free)* but I imagine most all the bubble players will be playing RENO so his spot is very tenuous.

But he has no other safety nets, unless he considers playing under conditional status.


*TM Kwini   

GPB,
I don't think "conditional status" for Westwood is quite right, just a relegation in priority from Ranking #18, Top 125, to #19. He's 84th in earnings for the season so is sure to retain his card, as Rob Bolton explained.

Some stumbling and bumbling, but not much rumbling on Montreal leaderboard, only Tim Clark making a big move behind Furyk - will he continue his amazing runner-up record?
We watched all 18 of Timmy's holes yesterday and he could easily have gained another two or three strokes. Think Golf Channel just mentioned he hasn't made a putt yet beyond 15 feet for the week, plus a 53-yard wedge of course.

Kwini: I didn't think to look at the Money list.   The advantages of playing the Dire Straits WGCs!!! and a good finish in the Masters. 

Will Furyk win for the first time in almost four years?
Will Timmy Clark get a runner-up finish for the umpteenth year in succession??
Will Graham DeLaet be the first Canadian-born golfer to win his National Championship in a century???
And Will McDowell come thru with a round low enough to knock Luke Donald out of the Ryder Cup qualifying places????

Forecast is for early morning rain, mostly fine during the middle of the day, and a swath of rain Sunday night and most of Monday. Look for tee times out of the Peter Dawson play-book, but they should get Round 4 in on time-ish.

The haze that has drifted in and out is smoke from forest fires in Northern Quebec - I know that because we're getting it too!

"..First Canadian born to win his National Championship in a century?.."

Thats a little pedantic, don't you think?

Kind of like saying its been 44 years since a English born player won a US Open?

Don't be Dissing my Canadian Heritage! I got more ancestors on the North side of the border than the South Side.

Off in threesomes on both Royal Montreal nines this morning, scheduled starts at 8.05 a.m.
BUT: Showers in the area, possibly some lightning. It's rained overnight and the course will have softened up just a little.
When the morning band of showers passes thru I would expect there should be fair weather for plenty long enough to wrap up this Canadian Open.
The course looks really good on TV doesn't it? Which it is, just a slightly different perspective.

Delay in Montreal, but imagine it won't be for that long, possibly about 90 minutes and they should be up and running.

EDIT: Wheels up now 8.25 a.m., so that's just a 20-minute delay (but might be a tad optimistic). Anyway, a softer course might lead to low numbers for those in form. Can't see much beyond the final group for the winner though, Furyk, Clark or Stanley. But hopefully Gonzo can capitalise on his good first three rounds - a solo fifth place finish would assure hom of a card for next season.

I see that Sam Hutsby is having a good tournament in Russia this week.

Were there great expectations for him when he turned pro?  Seems like he had a pretty good Junior and Amateur career so I suspect many were optimistic about his chances at World Class success.

Balls in the Canadian air at 8.25 a.m. They're off!

Is Hutsby the guy who was a really short hitter? Not sure.

Who knows Kwin ... one of the players that always looks like he's having the least fun out there was Tiger Woods; and he's done pretty well getting "W's" over his career. Same for that dour Scot Monty on the Euro circuit in his heyday. Sean's a quiet, more introverted person. But - another cut made!

Sr,
Yup, but even with that sour demeanour Monty & Tiger at least seemed to take satisfaction from the good things they did - with SO'H I'm not so sure. But it's his OCD and pace of play that drives me crazy. Great ball-striker and you'd think that if he could relax on the greens he'd start climbing leaderboards. Perhaps then he might start to savour the Joy of Golf.
Good chance of a strong finish today on a course which should suit him. Lots of early birdies . . . . . .

Does Bernhard Langer REALLY have a 14-shot lead at Porthcawl?
Incredible!
Furyk, You've got a lot of work to do to match that pace!

I think Furyk can give Langer a run for his money in Pace of Play.

Both of them are agonizingly slow.

Timmy Clark has been on fire since I started following him on Friday, fire still blazing . . . . . .

I like Furyk, but have 5 quid e.w. on Timmy!

Timmy's got the young Jay Haas on the bag after Bill Haas and he went separate ways. Looked like they were having a great time together. And I bet they have a great time celebrating - now they're on their way to Firestone.

Very pleased to see Gonzo finishing strongly - that surely secures him a PGA Tour card for next season.

Several other guys did themselves a power of good:
All Black Tim Wilkinson wrapped up his card, while Allenby, Barnes, Romero, Hoffmann and Watney all crept inside the Top 125. Casey's situation ever more precarious.

Edit: Presume Casey will also benefit by being in the Top 125 on the moneylist. Won't get him into the Play-Offs but will retrieve his membership for next year.

Apart from Tim Clark parachuting in, no other material changes to the PGA Points list, so hopefully a middle-of-the-road result will be enough to get Russell Knox to Valhalla.

Interesting stat:
Jim Furyk now leads the PGA Championship points table despite not having enjoyed a win. Spieth 2nd, followed by Watson, Zach Johnson & Stenson.

The owgr list confirms Russell Knox at #99, hopefully good enough for a tee-time at Valhalla. Zanotti is #100 so trust he's in the same boat.

Meanwhile, no change in the US Ryder Cup placings, except Kuchar further cements his place on the "team"; looks like just Dufner (#8) and Zach (#9) are vulnerable as the past three weeks of qualification are upon us.

Kafelnikov DID in fact play the ET in Russia, crashing out after two rounds at +28 including a 2nd round 89. Don't think that secures an invite for Firestone.

I see McGinley is avoiding a Kafelnikov-like result by withdrawing from next week's PGA.
They should be publishing the final field later today, then the alternates will be filled directly from the PGA Championship points list.

Surprising to read reports that Dustin Johnson has withdrawn from the Bridgestone.
Personal reasons cited, which is sure to cause eyebrows to be raised until a full explanation is forthcoming.

So much for claims that the World's Top 55 golfers will be on parade.

And pgatour.com reports that Matteo has accepted Special Temporary Membership of the PGA Tour for the last 3 events of the season. Not sure that I understand quite why unless he has a hankering to play Greensboro in a bid to secure a "card" for next season.

Don't think accepting STM has any obligations and there is at least one minor perk (albeit a longshot).

If Matteo happens to win the PGA or the Wyndham, then points earned this week will count towards his official FE Total.

Points earned in previous WGC events would not count towards his FEDEX total.

It could be the difference of playing or not playing the BMW.

Mildly interesting that Molinari and Manassero both have the feel of having indifferent seasons, underperforming somewhat since the start of the year. And yet Molinari has taken STM and has a card wrapped up if he wants it, and Manassero isn't too far away (and guaranteed of WTF entry I guess). Don't know whether that indicates they've played better this year than is first apparent; or that it's easier to earn your tour membership than you might think; or what.

I thought Manassero was in the B-Stone field. But he is not.  Not sure if there is any advantage to STM.

Maybe getting conditional status for next year.