PGA Tour: The Road To Kapalua: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Happy New Year, and welcome back to nine solid months of the PGA Tour. Thrills and spills of Tour action, but who'll be thrilling and who'll be spilling?

2).Despite four notable absentees (McIlroy, Rose, Scott and Kaymer), 34 of the 2013/2014 season's Champions tee it up on Friday (FRIDAY! The tournament wraps up on Monday) at Kapalua, on lovely Maui, a pretty good turnout considering that many erstwhile champions have seen fit to give the event a very cold shoulder. Only 30 played last year, and only ten of those will be back for more:
Hyundai Tournament Of Champions winner Zach Johnson, plus Streelman, Horschel, Kuchar, Moore, Kirk, Reed, Bae, Walker and Henley.

A year ago we'd've been expecting at least some of last season's qualifiers such as Mickelson and Woods, McDowell, Simpson, Snedeker and Spieth, Dufner and Dustin, Haas and Harris English, to be back for more, but a year's a long time in golf, as in everything else, and injuries and loss of form take their toll.

3).No Europeans will be playing, and only Geoff Ogilvy joins Zach Johnson as a past Champion. Ogilvy continues to be one of golf's great enigmas, US Open Champion, three-time WGC Champ and twice winner here . . . . but very little else. Bags of talent but seems to go walkabout way too often. Perhaps Billy Horschel is somewhat similar, blowing cold most of last season before getting red hot during the Play Offs. Wouldn't be surprised to see either win this week.

4).The news these past few weeks has been pretty second-rate. Scott hires Mike Kerr as his new caddie, Tiger has a new coach, Mrs Top Five has a seizure in her rubadubdub, Bae might have to enter the South Korean military, Bubba has a new baby, Phil's lost weight (however temporary), Dustin's playing lights out and Rory might have a new woman. Time to crank it up boys, and perhaps this lot will make headlines in 2015:

5).Early fancies for Majors:
Masters: Rory: Wish father to the thought?
US Open: Phil: Well, why not? Hardly anyone else will have seen Chambers Bay - Perhaps we'll see Steven Gerrard win the Cup on his 35th birthday, and Mickelson finally take the US Open during the week of his 45th.
The Open: Stenson exploded out of a rough stretch of form in 2010 to finish fourth. Maybe it's his turn? (But wouldn't be surprised to see Shane Lowry contend.)
PGA: Whistling Straits owes Dustin, and Dustin owes his ability a Major. Both will be overdue when August comes around.

6).First-time winners?
Brooks Koepka! Rookie of the Year if he's eligible.
Tringale and Chris Stroud have been close enough times to take a step forward, Kevin Chappell too if he can get his head sorted out. I'd put Russell Knox as the European most likely to.
Canadians have been more prominent recently and DeLaet and David Hearn have been close. But I like Adam Hadwin who's proven his resilience and kept bulldogging forward these past few years.
Of the college frat boys, Hudson Swafford had a disappointing first year on Tour but rebounded to retrieve his card and will enjoy a strong season, while Justin Thomas will be a popular choice to be this year's Jordan Spieth.
Kevin Kisner may not win, but he'll continue to edge closer, Morgan Hoffmann too.

7).What to make of Mister Woods? GolfWorld has a cover story this week of Tiger and his "Chipping Yips" with plenty of short-game gurus lamenting the set-up seen at his Hero worship Challenge. Difficult to believe for him, but most Major courses demand an expert chipping game and the last thing Tiger needs is problems with another Achilles Heel. If he really struggles, and he'd probably consider a major-less season with one win a struggle, how will he handle that? 39 years old, an old 39, and chipping like Allenby, Clark or Mahan.

8).As Messrs Colsaerts, Hanson, Lynn and Olesen depart the Tour stage, what to make of other European Tour invaders? I can see Donaldson, Dubuisson and Molinari doing well enough to keep their cards, but they'll depend on the WGC's and Majors to do it - if Molinari can't qualify for them, perhaps he'll be chasing the dream a year too late. While Saffer Sterne has got himself off to a horrible start, is bottom-surfing the web.com "reshuffle" category, and his year may be done before it's got started.

9).Keegan Bradley, Els, Webb Simpson and Brendan Steele have all experimented in tournament play with a regulation putting stroke. Mixed success so far, Ernie the most reconciled to conventional stroke. For better or worse.
While Clark, Pettersson, Scott, and even Langer among others have apparently not changed yet. They have just nine months remaining to fill their boots before it's anchors aweigh. It'll be strange to see the PGA Tour and Champions Tour go in to their 2015/2016 season with exempt members who are only exempt courtesy of outlawed play.

10).At least until they reach the Top 50 all-time money winners, as Sergio (9th), Donald (14th), Rose (18th), McIlroy (33rd), Harrington (37th) and Pettersson (42nd) have done, the Europeans' tenure on the PGA Tour is precarious.
One "rookie" European finished his first PGA Tour season a couple of years ago securing his card for the following year and looked forward, "There's nothing that I've seen on the tour this year that makes me think I can't compete on a long-term basis."
Yes, well, an injury took him out in 2013 and he failed to fulfil the demands of his Major Medical Extension. Expect to hear him on the radio this year. Commentating. Who remembers whose Tour epitaph that was??!!

Guys like Freddie Jac, Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Laird - none of whom have any exemption beyond this year - at least have the safety net of "Past Champion" status, plus marketability for sponsors invitations, but Colsaerts and the others never earned that.
And nor have Brian Davis or Gonzo, not to mention Padraig ("I'm Irish. I don't know where I sit. Or maybe I do.") Harrington who eschewed his one-time career earnings exemption for 2015 but will surely need a miracle to stay on Tour without using it for next season.  

Meanwhile, let's sit back and enjoy Kapalua's spectacular setting (maybe JAS has taken a detour?), full of promise for the brand new year of golf.
Boo ya.

Chris Kirk -10 after 16 holes - makes you wonder how he could possibly have shot 76 a couple of days ago.
Brian Harman also going well but other early starters treading water so far.

raycastleunited wrote:Even though they're as wide as a football pitch, some of those Kapalua fairways are really hard to hit... the ball catches the slopes and just rolls for miles from one side to the other. The rough is pretty forgivng though, and the greens are massive.

Not that hard of FW's to hold... I've been there maybe 8 or 9 times and we usually got to play it the day after the tournament.  And I sure learned how the wind affects that place.  On #1 I've had occasions to hit it straight away through the FW... and others when it was like Driver, 3-wood, wedge... :-)  But being a "grain player" in my neck of the woods anyway, never had that much trouble with the greens... except they're so freeking large, you just don't get much practice on 120' putts...

Wasn't able to watch the final nine holes; went out thinking Jimmy walker could go out and buy some more astrophotographical gear, and come in to see he's been Top Fived.

Coincidentally Walker was complimentary of Patrick Reed in his recent GD Q&A. Not so charitable next time Jimmy.

Fell asleep during the back 9 last night...doh!! Good win for "top 5" I suppose:-(

I think a certain amount of self-assuredness, even arrogance is a good thing but in some people it just grates and Reed falls into that category.

robopz wrote:
I've been there maybe 8 or 9 times and we usually got to play it the day after the tournament.  And I sure learned how the wind affects that place.  On #1 I've had occasions to hit it straight away through the FW... and others when it was like Driver, 3-wood, wedge... :-)  But being a "grain player" in my neck of the woods anyway, never had that much trouble with the greens... except they're so freeking large, you just don't get much practice on 120' putts...

I'm incredibly jealous that you've played Kapalua 9 or 9 times, actually really I'm incredibly jealous that you've been to Maui 8 or 9 times. Such a beautiful place...

What happens when you play a course with no grain? In Europe, golf courses don't have a discernible grain, so I struggled massively at Kapalua, the first time I'd ever had to deal with grain. Was left scratching my head a few times after putts seemingly broke uphill.

Almost all courses on the islands have Bermuda & therefore grainy greens and yes I've been victim of...initially head scratching then developing into a hesitant/jumpy stroke as the head couldn't work out the read and tell the hands what to do!!

Even worse though I remember one trip to Hawaii where I played nearly every day and was getting used to the grain. I concluded the trip in Lanai and played both courses there. Manale Bay was fine but Koele in the Lanai mountains had bent grass and extremely fast bent grass...que one of worst putting days ever!!

JAS - you sound like an expert on grass. Is this you?

http://cdn.hark.com/images/000/106/537/106537/original.jpg

!!!!
ray,
Well worth listening to the NBC commentary crew regarding "grain". Johnny Miller goes on the ,ost about it, but Gary Koch is superb in describing its effect and likely breaks on the green. And, yet, as he showed yesterday, even he gets it wrong sometimes!

There are definite "Bermuda" specialists on Tour - don't think John Huston (7 wins), for instance, won on anything else. At least until he turned 50 and promptly won on very bent grass in New York!

Anyway, Phil has had some success in Florida but, relatively speaking, not much. And Watson never won in Florida until well into his 50's, whereas Trevino never won in California until right at the end of his Tour career.

British golfers playing Bermuda usually struggle for their first few experiences, Ross Fisher being a good example, but by no means the only one.

raycastleunited wrote:I'm incredibly jealous that you've played Kapalua 9 or 9 times, actually really I'm incredibly jealous that you've been to Maui 8 or 9 times. Such a beautiful place...

What happens when you play a course with no grain? In Europe, golf courses don't have a discernible grain, so I struggled massively at Kapalua, the first time I'd ever had to deal with grain. Was left scratching my head a few times after putts seemingly broke uphill.

Just part of the job through last year Ray... but no longer... I've got a serious case of "withdrawal" working right now... and it ain't feeling too good.

But as for grain... grew up with it and bermuda greens still common in SE Texas where I live... even though most around here are upgraded strains of bermuda these days... still some grain, but nothing like the old days or still at Kapalua. Don't know what it is about the climate there, but when Benchmark had the property, they tested some of the ultradwarf type "less grain" strains of bermuda out there... but had trouble getting them to take so they never made the conversion.

But as for going to courses with say bent... IMO that's a lot easier than going the other way around. On bermuda you read for break and speed first than adjust the speed or break for grain.... surprisingly not that hard when you get used to it. But when I get to bent somewhere, I do OK because I still read the same... just don't have to factor the additional step into it. Only thing on bent for me is speed. They can get these dwarf bermuda varieties very fast rolling, but they don't that often due to the potential for heat stress. So when I go to bent it's usually a lot faster than I was used to on a regular basis and have to adjust for that (but I like fast greens, so not much an issue for me).

The one I've never really figured out is poa... sheesh... putting on that stuff can be a bear... especially in the PM on warm days when the grass buds... I used to get to play Torrey, Monterrey and a lot of the courses up and down the Cali coast a lot... and never ever got real comfortable on that stuff. Caught Torrey North one time when they were letting the greens grow out a bit... and it was virtually un-readable speed wise, and the ball would bounce kinda like a pinball on downhillers... crazy.