PGA Tour: All the Presidents (Cup) Men: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Only exhibitions on this week's schedule so let's look back at an event that has also been charitably described as an exhibition - with the odds heavily weighted towards the organizer.
Ah yes, the Presidents Cup!
The USA comfortably beat the International Team at Muirfield Village in 2013, but the members of each Team have "enjoyed" contrasting fortunes since then.

2).Team USA only have 3 x 2014 PGA Tour wins between them, one (Zach Johnson) in a limited field Tournament of Champions, another (Kuchar) by holing a 72nd hole bunker shot and Hunter Mahan's back-from-oblivion Barclays win. What have you done for me lately Messrs Bradley, Dufner, Haas, Mickelson, Simpson (altho' he did have a nice 2013 win in Las Vegas), Snedeker, Spieth (but what a final round master class he produced last Sunday in Sydney), Stricker, Woods?
Wonder how the Gleneagles US Ryder Cuppers will fare? Good starts by Bubba and Spieth, that's for sure.

3).The Internationals haven't done much better but Day and Scott had good wins on two Tours, Kings Charl & Louis did the business in South Africa, while Matsuyama proved that a second trip to Muirfield Village, for the Memorial, was the charm. For him at least. Whilst the biggest surprise might have been Angel Cabrera's win at The Greenbrier. Steady regression though from the De's Jonge & Laet, Els, Grace and Sterne, while Leishman flattered only to deceive.
Sterne, incidentally, is tied bottom of the PGA Tour's web.com Tour graduate reshuffle and will struggle to get in to many Tour fields, plus has lost his Top 50 status. The early favourite among tourists to lose his PGA Tour card.

4).The leaders for each Team for 2015, in South Korea, are:
*USA:
Watson, Walker, Kirk, Furyk, Moore, Kuchar, ZJohnson, Spieth, Horschel, Simpson + 2 x Capatain's Choices. (Still not quite sure how these points are accumulated . . . . )

*International:
Scott, Day, Matsuyama, Schwartzel, Jaidee, Leishman, Senden, DeLaet, Oda, Oosthuizen + 2.

5).web.com Q-School Finals kick off next week and European Tour members are voting with their passports, American David Lipsky being the most notable exception. Rikard Karlberg will be there, mini-Tour veteran Seamus Power from Ireland and Stefan Jaeger too, but no other Europeans that I can spot. Lots of Aussies but the days of European Tour golfers coming over for Q-School seem to be over for now. Not surprisingly.


PS: Let's hope we never lose a Tour Golfer in the freakish circumstances that Cricket lost Phillip Hughes. But, if we do, I wonder if a colleague will provide quite the quality of eulogy delivered today by Michael Clarke? What a moving tribute. Wish we had a Cricket Bat emoticon.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Not really a particularly good stud record considering the number of mares he serviced and the small reported number of foals resulting.

Maybe that's why he needed a new "swing" coach.

Dan Jenkins gigs Tiger again.

Dan Jenkins Tweet wrote:Derek Jeter is reporting that Tiger is getting extra reps today: 41 of 'em on his opening nine.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/tiger-woods-jenkins-twitter-beef

"I hit terrible chips - that's something I need to work on when I get home. It certainly is surprising that I could hit chips that poorly. I just flubbed them"

Now that Tiger quote (taken from BBC) could very much have been me apart from the suggestion that I work on my game. I also note use of flubbed, probably my favourite word in golf (hate the shot, love the word)

Never heard flubbed before, is it a Tiger original? Definitely going to start using it now myself. Hope Flubber can play a bit better in round 2.

Jamie Donaldson has w/d'd with "severe migraines". If he's got severe migraines I wonder what Keegan Bradley has got?

Lukey in recently uncharted territory - hope it continues.

Not sure if Lowry hasn't been shot by poachers given how poorly he's playing so far

Interesting article about Charley Hull:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/randall-mell/hull-18-no-hurry-get-lpga-card/


Meanwhile, in the latest edition of "All in the Family", Cheyenne (another unusual name, must have been a toss-up between Cheyenne and Laramie) Woods shot a 79 in LPGA Q-School yesterday after a good opening round.

If he hadn't flubbed those 3 chips presumably he'd only be 8 behind, and only joint dead last?

kwinigolfer wrote:Interesting article about Charley Hull:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/randall-mell/hull-18-no-hurry-get-lpga-card/


Meanwhile, in the latest edition of "All in the Family", Cheyenne (another unusual name, must have been a toss-up between Cheyenne and Laramie) Woods shot a 79 in LPGA Q-School yesterday after a good opening round.

Seems like a pretty good way of thinking about her career. Although knowing you will get sponsors invites regardless of how you play makes that perspective a little easier to take compared to those who need to perform in Q-school just to have a career.

Agreed Mac, but Charley's already "performed", pretty bl00dy well as it happens.
Nonsensical that Q-School is still mandated for someone who finished that high (about 65th) in their money list.
PGA Tour rules/exemptions far more sensible.

Do the LPGA not have the equivelent special tempory membership and then racking up more points than the player 125 on the fedex route that the PGAT has?

Not sure what the precise rules are, Mac. Creaming Paula Creamer in the Solheim Cup when she was just 17 obviously not good enough though.

Nothing Lukewarm about Donald today, Lukehot! 63!! Perhaps he can rediscover the form that made him a top ten golfer in the first place?

The idea that he's going to tee it up at some early Tour events suggests that he's rededicating himself - if he can find a way to drive the ball a little straighter in order to place less pressure on his short game, which has seemed to suffer, I'd say he'll be back among the top players by mid-summer. ('Course, he could shoot 77 Saturday, but good to see he's got some low rounds in him.)

Even the local residents think he's hot.... But when shooting a 63 there's no time for monkey business..
http://www.europeantour.com/videoaudio/video/videoid=244234.html#

The babboon didn't seem to want to get too close to Shane . . . . . .

The LPGA does have more draconian rules.  The only money non members earn that go towards a "STM" type membership is money won in full field, LPGA Events.

That means money won in the US Womens Open does NOT count.

That means money won in the Womens British Open does NOT count.

Nor the money won in the limited field Asian Events.

Or the Kraft Nabisco  or Evian.

This has been problematic for other players prior to Charley Hull.  Stacy Lewis for one, Michelle Wie, Asian Players, 

It makes sense if you think about it.  They want to see if a player can be competitive against a full field of LPGAers, not a tournament that is populated by a bunch of qualifiers (USWO) and LET players (WBO and Evian).

Cheyenne was a tribe of Native Americans and Cheyenne's Grandfather (Tiger's father) is said to have Native American Blood.

Cheyenne is a common name among Native Americans.  I know some.

Kwini, I see your interest in the nedbank has been piqued by the good form of one of your favorites. Will you be questioning Luke's status come next summer if the basis for the rise in the rankings you predict for him is based on free points from an 'exhibition' event?

I would hope for less bitchy response than you have been handing out of late. I feel some more probing discussion of peoples opinions on here should be encouraged.

Christ Mac, what is it with you? Always so keen to be contrary and to alienate everyone on the board.

Sometimes you make some good points, but a lot of the time you behave like a petulant child.

Super

I think it is fair to probe to what extend people find these limed field events to be offensive. I don't see the world of pro golf as an area to worry about fairness, it is a form of entertainment and as long as the best show is provided for me - the golf watching fan - then that is ok. For example Tigers limited field event is vastly more interesting to watch than the most meritocratically chosen and 400 strong field in some crappy small time European tour event.

Nobody finds them offensive, that would be ridiculous. What people find absurd is that an event which is invitation only carries OWGR ranking.

The way I read it was that Kwini was referring to the dismal 2014 of Donald and was seeing this as a springboard to a return to form for 2015, rather than benefiting from the points on award in this tinpot event.

"bitchy"?

If you want "bitchy", I can do "bitchy".

But I don't think anyone wants that.

No, as I said I would like to hear your thoughts on Luke donald having renewed OWGR success based on free points from the nedbank?

Mac,
For gawd's sake. When did you ever have anything positive to say about anything other than the mopedwallah or Man Utd?

Any owgr points anyone garners from the "exhibitions" are points unearned, in my view.
But a good result in these jollies has been known to turbo-charge golfers' form. Just as true for Luke as for Zach last year, ETW the year before, Furyk in 2009, McDowell. That's all I'm suggesting - certainly not that there's one rule for one golfer, another rule for someone else.

That's what I posted earlier - 606v2 unfortunately lacks the braille application that would enable you to see that.

I will be honest, after the opening "Only exhibitions on this week's schedule" I stopped reading. I apologize if the point I raised was already covered in your original post.


I don't see that disagreeing with you about limited fields is negative, if anything you being unwilling to embrace tournaments with interesting fields is the negative stance. The tiger event has had the odd good finish, especially when gmac beat tiger in a play off.

In some more negative news it seems Tiger is suffering from a virus and spiked a temp of over 100f overnight. Not that it gets him off the hook if he shoots another shocker today.

Why would the 9C camp release information like that if they didn't want to garner some sympathy or make an excuse.

Sometimes I wish people would just say "i played sh!t." We'd have more respect for them.

Great finishes are nothing to do with it.

I don't agree with such limited fields enjoying the largesse of golf's currency. "Interesting" fields is a matter of opinion, but seeing the golfing galacticos add millions to their millions is something I don't care about. But awarding benefits that, as GPB produced a thesis on elsewhere can be greater than for Majors, is just flat out wrong.

Anyway, your comments on something you haven't read are much appreciated.

As for your "more negative news" I've said before that Woods needs a medical doctor more than a swing doctor. Seems I was right. There's always something wrong with him - perhaps another withdrawal (nothing personal Lindsey) is on the way?

Oh dear, Mac's disappeared. There's a surprise.

Didn't want to miss his bus Kwini

super_realist wrote:Nobody finds them offensive, that would be ridiculous. What people find absurd is that an event which is invitation only carries OWGR ranking.

What event would that be? Chubby got a new one working in Someplaceistan or sumpin?

Meanwhile, in Indonesia on the Asian Tour, Padraig "Eh Whats Up Doc" Harrington is tied for the lead.

Paddy has only played 12 holes in his second round.

Thought Woods would fare much better this week, on his home course. Wonder if he's getting concerned?
Perhaps he's worried about being qualified for his own tournament next year - no, not just Doral, but this one too.

Sure he'll pull himself together though, just surprised he's off to such a slow start.

kwini

I don't think I really needed to read the latest bashing of limited field events to appreciate your stance on them.

I am unsure why there is such animosity in questioning your opinion on these events but if you would care to explain it would be good?



Woods clearly has some sort of hypochondria.

I didn't bash "limited field events" in my original post, I merely ignored them.
But if you'd've bothered to read it before making snarky comments about what you assumed was in it you'd've known that.

Here's something for you Mac:
Our Golf Digest Undercover Tour Pro has been at it again:
"Obviously, there's one golfer who dominated the sport while simultaneously living wild. There's no better case study that proves golf is played between our ears. If you've been out partying (hate that word, why use euphemisms?!) with a woman or women you've just met, that's going to put more bounce in the step of some guys than if they ate vegetables and slept nine hours."

Who's eating kale and who's out with the girls?

His swing looks much better, no more of that horrible short steep crap Foley was "teaching him".

Got a pal who works with the press on the ET and apparently it's pretty common knowledge that McIlroy,McDowell and Poulter off the top of my head are particularly "bad" for sleeping around, hasn't affected their performance much.

No harm in Mcilroy I suppose, carefree and single.

Kwini

Not to escalate this falling out but I understood that you choosing to ignore a PGAT event as a sort of boycott based on your distaste over the its limited field nature and free OWGR points. Which is fair enough if you want to make that point, I just don't get why you dislike being challenged about your opinions on these 'exhibition' events?

Kwin - Tiger getting concerned? Perhaps, but I would not read too much into a round or two. And as I type this he's now just tied for DFL, and actually had a respectable round (thus far at least)! Waaay to much talent there to go totally AWOL.

And even Lukey had a lucky round, so anything can happen . Speaking of Luke, I had dinner with a fellow Utican (New Hartford actually) who has a house very close to Merion. She told me that Luke Donald rented their house for the US Open. The lads left a few momentos which she got a kick out of.

Mac,
It's not a PGAT event. If it was, which hopefully it never will be, I would respect it as such.

I'm not falling out with anyone except morons who accuse me of being bitchy in commenting while something they never read and I didn't say.

Sr,
You'll see I actually suggested I thought he'd do much better than he has, that I'm "sure he'll pull himself together".
Of course, he's too good not to.

Good for Luke . . . .

Kwini

I really doubt you took the bitchy comment seriously. I read your column every week, as you well know. If me dismissing just one weeks column has really upset you then I apologize.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac, It's not a PGAT event. If it was, which hopefully it never will be, I would respect it as such .

If you go to the PGAT website, and didn't know better, you would think it's a PGAT event.

pedro wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac, It's not a PGAT event. If it was, which hopefully it never will be, I would respect it as such .

If you go to the PGAT website, and didn't know better, you would think it's a PGAT event.

I know. who knew?

"Only exhibitions this week" . . . . . .

The two golfers who haven't played since the PGA Championship struggle in the lower half of the field, one worse than the other.

Kwini, what other player hasn't played since the PGA?



This guy has a bit of the Lee Westwood bent left arm at impact

Spoiler:

I wonder if that is him disposing of his iphone after the new lee westwood app failed to help him with his putting?

Stricker.

27 holes remaining for Lowry to make an impact, on this tournament and the rankings - 18th just might be god enough for Augusta, but it won't be enough to keep him amongst the elite unless he enjoys significant early success in the New Year.

Donald, Fisher and Willett are separating themselves from the also-rans; isn't it just about time the South Africans imposed their home-ground advantage? If not here, where?

Aussie PGA Championship field

http://www.pga.org.au/tourns/pga-tour/event/entries?season=2014&tour=pga&id=1077

Strange that Boo Weekley will play all three events on the Aussie Triple Crown.  Maybe he likes the taste of Vegemite!