PGA Tour: No Tournaments for Six Weeks: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Not much to write about so I won't write it. Fine win for Brooks Koepka though, and difficult not to agree with "sirbenson" that he's a good shout for The Masters, especially if he can putt like he did last Sunday.
He'd wobbled on two or three Sundays previously when in serious back-nine contention. Not this time though. Impressive display.
Good to see Poulter snap out of his year-long funk - and now he has Greg Norman's offer of a tip: "Mate noticed something in your putting when I watched you this week. Easy fix." That's good.  

2).The broadcasters have been reminding us that four of last autumn's six PGA Tournament winners qualified for the Tour Championship: Walker, Kirk, Simpson and Johnson, whilst English and Moore were close as well.
Not sure that all of Bae, Ben Martin, Streb, Ryan Moore (again), Bubba, Taylor and Charley Hoffman will have the same success, but these are good tournaments with far-reaching rewards. All winners will be exempt thru the 2016/2017 season, at least, have dates at the TOC, Players and PGA, while Billy Payne will be dropping a line to all except Nick Taylor (because his win was "opposite field").
Amazing iron shots from Hoffman on his final nine holes last Sunday - always regarded as a marvellous iron player and certainly showed it in Mexico.  

3).It's repetitive to scribble on about the futility of the autumnal efforts by Brian Davis and Harrington, nine more months for that, but several British golfers got themselves off to a good start; Knox, Laird and Westwood already have at least a third of the points needed for the Top 125, and McDowell's not far behind. We can only hope that Poulter's recent form is not a flash in the pan, but imagine Casey and Donald should be revising their Tour schedules - both likely to be way behind come late February if they keep to their normal schedules.
South African Richard Sterne qualified for the Tour via the web.com Finals, made no cuts and no money and is dead last in the "reshuffle", meaning starts for Richie will be few and very far between.  

4).Lots of silly season notes: Dustin Johnson is threatening to return for San Diego, Phil's spending time in the gym, Tiger's p1ssed off with an octogenarian columnist, Phil's lost weight, Dustin won't return until Paulina has their(?) baby or until Wayne says he can, Phil's taken a job as assistant golf coach at Arizona State (terrible photos of him in ghastly calf-length white shorts), Tiger's hitting balls, etc, etc.
Who cares?!?! Still interested in Vijay's litigation against the Tour though; it's only been going on for 18 months and no sign of a court date.

5).And it's Q-School week.
Final Stage for Champions Tour Q-School in aptly named Winter Gardens in Florida. Suffice to say the only British competitors, Golding & Barry Lane, finished Round 1 outside the Top 50.

And Stage 2 of web.com Q-School concludes this week - no significant European Tour entrants involved. In a couple of weeks we'll know if any sail over for Final Stage.
They certainly didn't last year and can't see why this year should be any different. Where's the incentive unless they want to waste a year of their career on something that's purely speculative - worst case is they'd get injured and enter 2016 with no status anywhere?
Best case is that they stay home, play well in Majors and WGC's when they earn the chance, and try to follow in the footsteps of Jamie Donaldson and Victor Dubuisson. Hopefully the Ryder Cup hangovers for both will wash away in the New Year. Mine too.

A big break isn't such a bad thing. We've too much of most sports these days and eventually it will lead to lower interest, so a 6 week lay off is a good thing.

Absence makes the heart go fonder, although it does mean we'll probably be going off topic rather a lot.

Anyone know any Irish jokes?

Cheers Kwini.

I thought Koepka did wobble a little but not so much that it mattered. Would have been interesting to see a play-off man against man with Poulter.

Koepka really looks the real deal. could really push on from this if he manages to settle the Sunday nerves.

Few big names from the recent past missed cutline in european Q school...
Johan Edfors Rhys Davies and Ross McGowan to name 3

Bob,
But he certainly putted well - lights out really.

James Hahn having a shocker after his 58, plus 4 after 9 holes.
Glad to see Ricky Gonzalez playing well, hope he retrieves his card - he deserves it even if just in sympathy with him w/d'ing from "Holland" to help Felipe look after their mate Zanotti.

James Hahn 58 thru 18 holes Tuesday.
James Hahn 58 thru 13 holes Wednesday. 78 thru 18.
What a difference a day makes. He'll need another 50-something for Thursday.
Matt Fitz right on the cut-line.

kwinigolfer wrote:James Hahn 58 thru 18 holes Tuesday.
James Hahn 58 thru 13 holes Wednesday. 78 thru 18..

Blimey, don't think even I have ever had a 20 shot swing on consecutive rounds and I'm not exactly Mr Consistent.

Brooks Koepka claimed he got food poisoning after his win in Turkey.

I have used the euphemism of Food Poisoning for Brown Bottle Flu too!

Sounds like he took a little too much of Grandpa's old cough medicine GPB

Champions Tour Q-School update:
No Europeans in the Top 30 after Round 2, Forsbrand about 33rd, tied with Bossert and Peter Fowler, Golding about 56th, and Barry Lane and Linhart off to the airport.

With 3 holes to play in Round 2 Cesar Monasterio is on course for a two-shot halfway lead.
Abject performances from Golding and Lane.

Kwini, What kind of snowfall did Vermont get? and predicted to get?

Snow in VT?
Some flurries on Monday, then a very "wintry mix", but nothing significant and nothing serious forecast. We're too far East for proper lake effect, not even as bitterly cold as most places are getting. Thank goodness!

I guess Lake Champlain is not big enough for Lake Effect Blizzards.

Only when from a north/northwest wind. More water in Lake Champlain than Lake Erie . . . . . . but not wide enough for west/east lake effect.

GPB, I've heard some suggest it's too narrow for the prevailing Lake Effect wind. Plus, it's somewhat hemmed in by the picturesque Adirondack Mountains. Just checked out some pictures of Western, NY the the Tug Hill Plateau.

Looks like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man exploded.

kwinigolfer wrote: More water in Lake Champlain than Lake Erie .

Say what? 114 cu miles of water in Erie, 6.2 cu miles in Champlain (but plenty big enough for CHAMP

Shotrock, for sure. Just to the East of the Adirondacks would cut down on the winds whipping across Champlain plus it is only about 14 miles at its widest. My Dad used to live right on Lake Champlain (near Canada) and I used to live about 20 miles East of the Lake.

Not sure how it's calculated but when there was a submission about Federally creating a sixth Great Lake, that was one of the stats that Leahy and Jeffords were throwing about. I see that wikipaedia disagrees with them.
GPB, My daughter teaches up by the border now, in Swan'on.

My Mom used to work in the John Deere dealership in Swanton and I would have gone to High School there had I not moved to NY just before High School. (We lived in Sheldon).

Dad used to have summer trailer in Alburg before he bought his current cabin in the mountains around (don't call it Colin) Montgomery.

GPB - You and Kwin are certainly more familiar with the area than I! Grew up in Utica, then moved to Minneapolis for a number of years before I settled here in Southeastern PA. (Our worst winter weather comes from the South these days.)

I feel for those affected by this storm. No matter how "good" you are at removing snow ... when you get that much, that quickly, it's paralyzing.

Similar snow totals in BTV and UCA, but they deal with it a darn sight better in CNY than they ever do up here.

Never seen more than 3ft in one storm - 6-7 ft must test everyone and everything. Can't imagine. And it'll start to melt by the weekend; where's it going to go?


More to the point - indifferent start for Adam Scott, but Geoff Ogilvy in with a decent round and happy to see Zac Blair playing well. Great experience for him.

Shotrock wrote:GPB - You and Kwin are certainly more familiar with the area than I! Grew up in Utica, then moved to Minneapolis for a number of years before I settled here in Southeastern PA. (Our worst winter weather comes from the South these days.)

I feel for those affected by this storm. No matter how "good" you are at removing snow ... when you get that much, that quickly, it's paralyzing.

I went to High School not far from Utica, in Oneonta. (small world). I went to High School with Mark May of ESPN College Football (couple of years difference). My Mom used to go shopping in a reclaimed factory plant in Utica.

I spent most of summer weekends in Cooperstown. I had a couple good friends who had cabins on Otsego Lake (BRRRR cold lake). Waterskiing and sailing and fishing. One summer I worked at a restaurant in Cooperstown. (Bussing tables and Dishwashing).

It was called Charlestown! Didn't really last long. I had a business incubator in there later - used to call it the Think Tank!!

Incredible though, all that time and had no idea that Mark May was from Oneonta - perhaps you were there when John Elway played for the Oneonta Yankees?!

Kyle Stanley opening with a bunch of birds. It'll never last. Will it?

Nope, I was in Oneonta only for my HS years, John Elway came a few years afterwards. And thank goodness Pee Wee Herman predated my years in Oneonta!!

Mark's car was Yellow VW Beetle. It was kind of strange to see all 6'5" 320 lbs of Mark May get out of that car.

Amazing that he has trimmed down to a normal size since he left the NFL. Seems to be in pretty good health too.

And, Yes, Charlestown. I googled and apparently it is now abandoned. There is a long youtube video on it. I vaguely remember it, going there one time to get some clothes for college. (I went South to Ga Tech) as my Mom was moving South.

Lowry hits the front in Dubai . . . .

And Koepka bringing up the rear...

It's the food poisoning Bob, or too much Turkish Delight.

Is that a euphemism?

Can anyone playing in the DP final change what they are qualified to play next year based on where they finish this week?

As rory has already wrapped up the big prize it would be good to know what else to look out for.

Mac,
As far as players becoming exempt in to Majors / WGC's, you can have a go at figuring those on the edge from this list of "Major Qualifiers":

http://www.pgatour.com/fantasy/major-qualifiers.html

You might not get it GPB precise, but it'll give you a clue what to look out for. Some significant benefits at stake.

Well, I was hoping someone would do it for me.

But top 30 from R2D getting into the open is the obvious one.

And Top 50 in the owgr's at the end of 2014 get an invite from Billy Payne to join his Augusta garden party.

EDIT: I think the only other WGC criteria at stake is Top 20 in R2D attain qualification for WGC-Cadillac at Doral. And that's perhaps a big deal in that many non-PGA Tour members in the "Cadillac" are candidates to receive invites also to Honda and, more likely, Bay Hill.

Thorbjørn currently in T3 and 33 (r2d ranking), could do to continue playing well. He is 82 in OWGR.

Scores at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan

Yuki Inamori leads at -7

Notables:

Koumei Oda -5
Chris Stroud -4
Jordan Spieth -2
Webb Simpson -1
Ryo Ishikawa E
Gonzo +3
Joe Ozaki +3
Jumbo Ozaki +8

Nothing of much note to report from Stage 2 Q-School, except a candidate for the silliest name in golf since Tiger Woods: Lion Kim.

Dornoch's Jimmy Gunn is struggling badly and will need a miracle to recoup his web.com card. But Waterford's(?) Seamus Power is in great position to qualify for Final Stage in 3 wks time.

Long-time Tour fixture and Past Champion DJ Trahan among those unlikely to move on.

Kwini: I see that two (of Four) of the Americans that qualified for the Euro Tour last year are in 2nd Stage for Web-com tour.

Brinson Paolini (177th on R2D) and Connor Arendell (219th).

Arendell is just outside the bubble, and Paolini is bottom feeding.

=========

The other two Yanks were Hahn and Knutzon, who are in final stage of ET Q-School. And both of them look like they will be playing the Challenge Tour as they are T40 something late in final round.

Yup, Just Daniel Woltman, of the Wisconsin Woltmans, clinging on to a EuroCard by his fingertips.

Just had a quick peruse of some of the leading player's stats- most of the traditional "big hitters" have a driving distance figure of 295-310 yards for today's round. Rory is 337

Little Matty fitzpatrick has won his 2015 european tour card. Will he cope with all that time away from home?

He's certainly got potential Mac.

I'm surprised how many of our "prospects" don't complete their American "college" courses.

PS - made me think about a fairport song and possible lyric change.

A holiday, a holiday
And the first one of the year
Luke Donald's wife came into the church
The Gospel for to hear

And when the meeting it was done
She cast her eyes about
And there she saw little Matty fitz
Walking in the crowd

Come home with me, little Matty fitz
Come home with me tonight
Come home with me, little Matty fitz
And sleep with me 'til light

Feeling alright Mac?

Bizarre from our Poet Laureate.

Hope Matty Fitz does well on the E.T..
As the parent of one who returned home, partly due to homesickness, from her "American college" (200! miles away) as soon as she could, I reckon sending an 18-y-o 3,000 (4,000 in Chicago's case) miles from home is quite a risk.
Especially if courses and curriculum are unfamiliar.
Northwestern University would have a very challenging academic element, quite apart from not being able to play golf for most of a six-month period.

Pretty sure that they play a LOT of golf Kwini. A few guys I knew were always away all over the country at comps and having to put the hours in practicing. Obviously weather is an issue in Chicago

McLaren wrote:Little Matty fitzpatrick has won his 2015 european tour card.  Will he cope with all that time away from home?

Is there a back story that explains why you seem to be fixated on his home life rather than the pretty impressive feat of getting a tour card? I'm only aware of this kid as briefly coming to the attention of the press at one of the majors.

No fairport fans?


Kwini, going to uni as a proper career path is obviously daunting for some people and it is easy to understand why someone might want to return home. But young Matty would have been pampered and could have turned up to a few history/sociology/whatever guff classes and been ok academically. Also, I assume the golf team find a way to practice in the winder?

He had a stellar amateur career Bob. Number 1 in the world, US Amateur Champ.

bob

Just don't like the cut of his jib.

McLaren wrote:bob

Just don't like the cut of his jib.

Ok. Good to know.