PGA Tour: SONY Hackers Detained in Hawaii: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That's right, but no Interview and, in Hawaii this week, no North Koreans either - half a dozen-ish South Korean golfers and a few Japanese, including the up and coming Hiroshi enough to make your Iwata. We'll have a sprinkling of Europeans about which more later.

2).It sounds gratuitous to mention Tiger Woods so early in the season, but Patrick Reed's Kapalua win yesterday, at the Hyundai TOC, was eerily reminiscent of Tiger's win at Pebble Beach when he had to make a bunch of birdies in the final four holes, and simplified matters by holing a second shot for eagle. Matt Gogel was the unwitting victim fifteen or so years ago and he's now a commentator.
Don't expect the same fate to befall Jimmy Walker yet awhile, but finding himself stuck in neutral when all about were making birdies, or eagle, must have been a disheartening experience. Reed is now the only non-Holywood golfer under 30 with four Tour wins.

3).Last week we had a bit of a teaser about Touring Pros with the most "made cuts". (Of those under 50, the leaders were Mayfair, Estes, Furyk, Mickelson and Leonard.)
Alright for journeymen you might say, but who makes the most of those cuts? You know who the prolific winners are, but who is consistently in the Top Ten? And, although he's barely in the Top 20 in cuts made, Tiger leads in Top Ten performance with 185 in 294 cuts made. No-one else with at least 100 "cuts made" approaches that hit rate, with Phil the next best:
Woods: 185 Top Tens in 294 "cuts: 63%
Mickelson: 173 Top Tens in 424 "cuts": 41%
This just in: Woods's record before his recent decline was pretty bl00dy good.

4).Tour players (under 50) with 90+ Top Tens are:
185: Woods
173: Mickelson
172: Furyk
125: Els
109: Toms
103: Stricker
99:  Leonard
91:  Cink
91:  Estes
Top European is Sergio with 86 Top Tens, same as Jerry Kelly.

5).Europeans making the most of their paydays include:
86: Garcia
73: Donald
59: Rose
55: Parnevik - he'll be turning the big 5 0 in a few weeks.
52: Harrington
49: Pettersson
I thought it was interesting anyway.

6).Going back to Woods for a moment, the US media is wetting itself over his return to action in Phoenix, and the PGA Tour seems to be responding by adding restrictions to the behaviour of competitors in the 16th hole ampitheatre. Caddie races have already been banned and it now seems as if the practice of throwing goodies in to the grandstands is also about to be prohibited. No golfballs, no gloves, no footballs, no shirts; you name it, don't throw it.
Presumably no boulder rolling, gun toting or tangerine tossing either.

7).A few "Internationals" played well at Kapalua, and an early snapshot of the Top Ten Presidents Cup qualifying points leaders looks like this:
Scott, Day, Matsuyama, Schwartzel (despite last week's collapse), Jaidee, Oosthuizen, Leishman, Senden, Oda, Clark. (DeLaet is 11th and Els is 12th man.)
You know US Captain Jay Haas is quaking in his boots at having to face that lot.

8).This season sees the introduction of Donaldson, Dubuisson and Molinari F to the PGA Tour and Franny makes his debut at this week's Sony Open. His first target is to reach the Top 125 in FedEx points (or official money), but he starts tied for last, with 211 golfers ahead of him. He doesn't have a power game and will be at a serious disadvantage at certain courses, so let's hope he takes more care with his playing schedule than some of his continent-mates. Tee-to-green he is a strong version of Luke Donald, on and around the green he's a pale imitation of Lukey who, coincidentally, makes an early reappearance this week alongside Molinari.
You'd think Waialae Country Club would suit Molinari down to the ground and it's no exaggeration to say that he needs good results straight out of the traps. Partly to get ahead of the required FedEx pace and better plan his tournaments, and partly to return to the owgr Top 50 and earn entry to the Majors and WGC's that he's no longer exempt for. Hope he's successful, even money in my book.

9).There's a decent field at the Sony, with Day, Kuchar, Matsuyama and Zach Johnson (fancy him this week), and these early season events are deeper than in past years.
Luke Donald has played here 7 times, made 5 cuts with 5 Top 25's, including one runner up finish; right up the street of the stereotypical Luke Donald, but who knows what type of St.Luke we'll see in 2015?
Casey, Brian Davis and Russell Knox are here, plus Cejka, Pettersson and Lingmerth.
Tim Clark, Chuckie Howell and Ryan Palmer are among the old lags with super records here, while young 'uns Henley and Kirk did well at Kapalua and have "previous" at Waialae.

10).Which brings us to last year's champ Jimmy Walker. He ratified his Frys win here and went on to squeak home at Pebble Beach and contended on an almost weekly basis. Not least at the Ryder Cup. Interesting Q&A with him in Feb's Golf Digest where he praised Zach Johnson as being the ideal teammate and spoke well of Reed, Spieth and one-trickie Rickie.
I've never seen Walker play but he seems a multifaceted personality, relatively late to success, with his feet on the ground and, one would think, destined for another good year, or five.
He's gaining professional respect as an astrophotograher; sure he doesn't aspire to be an astrophysicist, a la Brian May, but an interesting choice of (very serious and expensive) hobby nevertheless.

super_realist wrote:Hasn't he switched to the short crook already?

Simpson yes, the shepherd no! (Maybe in 2016...)

kwinigolfer wrote:It's OK robo, Would think people on here despise Piers Morgan more than they ever would feel praising a god is a bit silly.

Sounds like Simpson snapped his anchored putter over his knee so: no going to "thy rod and thy staff they comfort" thee for Mr.Webb.

See... now I can appreciate that !!!!

Given recent world events, I think it's hugely important that people who claim divine intervention or motivation for their actions are brought to book irrespective of what those actions are. The defensiveness of 'believers' from the pope down and across all faiths is shameful and extremely telling. If there was any hint of a justification for any of the world's religions they'd be able to take any amount of criticism or ridicule, instead they conveniently ignore the peaceful message that they pretend is the cornerstone of their belief system and actively promote violence against those who have the courage to challenge their made-up (by near primitives) nonsense.

There is no god, this is the only life we have, and I'm wasting mine trying to point this out on a golf forum. Excuse me, I'm off to do something better.

Cheers smithers, if god is almighty and their religion untouchable, it'd need no defense and should not fear criticism.

And let's not forget the bible was edited in the middle ages by a church with contemporary agendas.

SmithersJones wrote:
"......and I'm wasting mine trying to point this out on a golf forum. Excuse me, I'm off to do something better."

Emphasis above is MINE.... and AMEN BROTHER.......

Now like I said in the first place... Can we talk GOLF here... because if its a religion/politics board... no thanks...

robopz wrote:

Now like I said in the first place...  Can we talk GOLF here...  because if its a religion/politics board...  no thanks...

It's exactly what we're trying to tell Webb et al.!!

Bingo Robo!

For the posters here that eschew religion, they sure do want to talk about it a lot.

I don't want to talk about religion.
I don't want to talk about idiots that name their daughter after a hotel chain.
And I sure as hell don't want to talk about an entitled tosspot who texts his Ryder Cup Captain to try to get on the team, eventually at the expense of a bloke who went to the same uni as me.

But Webb Simpson is still tied for the lead. Too bad.

Kwini: How do you stand on the Howard Johnsons of the world?

You must mean the one-time Tigers/Mets 3rd baseman?

Webb Simpson stuck in reverse.

kwinigolfer wrote:You must mean the one-time Tigers/Mets 3rd baseman?

 
I was thinking about one of residents of Rock Ridge in Blazing Saddles.

kwinigolfer wrote:I don't want to talk about religion.

I couldn't agree with you more.  Let's not.

kwinigolfer wrote:I don't want to talk about idiots that name their daughter after a hotel chain.

Hasn't seemed to stop you so far, but there's a cure for that... DON'T TALK ABOUT IT ANYMORE

kwinigolfer wrote:And I sure as hell don't want to talk about an entitled tosspot who texts his Ryder Cup Captain to try to get on the team, eventually at the expense of a bloke who went to the same uni as me.

Then which other Ryder Cuppers on both sides of the pond that bent captains ears in an attempt to get on their respective teams would you prefer to talk about instead?

kwinigolfer wrote:But Webb Simpson is still tied for the lead. Too bad.

Yeah while I'd find anybody who wins a deserving champion, Webb wasn't really my favorite this week either... I'd prefer to see Jimmy Walker win.

Ah! Never saw it, sorry.

Not Rocky Ridge, a small course between BTV and Hinesburg?

Extraordinary story developing about Robert Allenby being kidnapped, beaten up and then dumped in Honolulu.
Police rumoured to be searching for a desperado resembling Anthony Kim.

kwinigolfer wrote:Extraordinary story developing about Robert Allenby being kidnapped, beaten up and then dumped in Honolulu.
Police rumoured to be searching for a desperado resembling Anthony Kim.

Totally bizarre... Allenby's never given me any reason to "question" what he's said... but the way Sands described it... just too weird. But either way, the guy looks pretty beat up.

You'd have to think this story has legs; no word yet on what cc video shows or at least its context.
Reminds me of some Champions Tour guys losing their watches & cash to some infidels in Mexico.

On a slightly less astonishing note, apparently this is Jimmy Walker's 6th round of 62 or better since the beginning of 2011 - two better than anyone else. Pretty impressive considering his low profile until a year ago.

Wow, Kaymer is really "crucifying" the field, almost like he had help from a third party, is he friends with Webbo?

Sith Efrican's doing their usual and showing early season form. Scwartzel E/W for another Masters win?

I obviously don't mind the off topic debates such as religion but we should maybe make more effort to restrict them to the anything goes board.

GPB

reductio ad absurdum - as I pointed out to you once before - is a perfectly valid form of debate. You seem to be equating it to a fallacy when in fact it is a tool to expose fallacious arguments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

Kaymer trying hard to lose this.

kwinigolfer wrote:Kaymer trying hard to lose this.

Wow... that's and understatement... surrenders the lead on the 13th... sheesh... this tournament's not necessarily wide open, but at least 5 players still alive with a reasonable chance.

On Lowry

It is very odd for a European tour player who wishes to be a top 50 player to miss the desert swing as there are pretty few OWGR points available until may on the European tour once they leave the desert.

McLaren wrote:I obviously don't mind the off topic debates such as religion but we should maybe make more effort to restrict them to the anything goes board.

Usually Mac, I'd completelyagree with you. The question was posed in this very thread "how can someone have a god at someone for their beliefs?", which usually would belong on Anything Goes, however as we all read, Simpson brought out his beliefs in regards to the topic of this thread, so having a laugh at his gullibility/naivity/laughable/preposterous justification for his round was a good as place as any.

Simpson set himself up for ridicule for bringing up something that has no place in a golf tournament, and rightly, he looks like a mammary gland for bringing it up.

So the question is not, "how could you have a go at someone for their beliefs?" but "how could you not have a go at them for their beliefs" If Simpson had inserted any other fairy tale figure other than "god" then US TV would have laughed him out of town.

Anyway, end of topic. Bottom line, Simpson's a t1t, and he demonstrated just how much.

Back to Golf. What on earth is happening to Kaymer? 10 shots ahead this morning, now a shot back. Normanesque bottle crashing.

Just checked his schedule and it seems he won't play a regular euro tour event until Wentworth.

http://www.shanelowrygolf.com/schedule/

Sounds like Allenby is saying he might have been drugged, something put in his drink, before he was "kidnapped", stuffed in the boot of a car, robbed, beaten up and dumped.
Police enquiries switching from Anthony Kim to Bill Cosby . . . . . .

PS: Lowry in the provisional field for San Diego.

Is Lowry training for the London Marathon or something? golfers becoming more and more part time.

Lowrys playing tory pines and pebble. Says he wants a few weeks exrta practice because he has never played well in the middle east swing. Im sure he means practicing golf and not for the London marathon. That sounds a bit implausible. Not sure why he isnt going to a warmer place than Ireland for practice though.

Always thought the Middle East would be far too hot for a fat knacker like him.

This Stal guys swing is horrific

Has anyone seen any analysis of it?

Some head dip there, but other than that looks pretty good.

Tiger had a head dip, Stal's spine pretty much buckles at impact.

Plenty of ugly but effective swings out there, plenty of really lovely looking swings that don't work too well.

Kaymer repeated Schwartzel's act from last week.
Hope Jimmy Walker doesn't repeat Jimmy Walker's act from last week . . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Kaymer repeated Schwartzel's act from last week.
Hope Jimmy Walker doesn't repeat Jimmy Walker's act from last week . . . . . . .

Ditto... appears to be lots of post Christmas gift giving so far this year...

robopz wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Kaymer repeated Schwartzel's act from last week.
Hope Jimmy Walker doesn't repeat Jimmy Walker's act from last week . . . . . . .

Ditto... appears to be lots of post Christmas gift giving so far this year...

Stop talking religion please.

Harrington has been playing with J.P. McManus in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am the last few years.  I think McManus can pull a lot of strings on the Monterey Peninsula so maybe that is why Lowry is playing Pebble.

Paul McGinley and Alexandre Levy are joining Shane and Padraig at Pebble Beach.

McLaren wrote:GPB

reductio ad absurdum - as I pointed out to you once before - is a perfectly valid form of debate.  You seem to be equating it to a fallacy when in fact it is a tool to expose fallacious arguments.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

Not perfectly valid when Leprechauns and Pixies are used as the hyperbole.

pedro wrote:

robopz wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Kaymer repeated Schwartzel's act from last week.
Hope Jimmy Walker doesn't repeat Jimmy Walker's act from last week . . . . . . .

Ditto... appears to be lots of post Christmas gift giving so far this year...

Stop talking religion please.

Ummmm... being the conformist that I am... it's obviously the Pagan version of holiday to which I'm referring so as to not further inflame or offend the rather tender religious sensibilities of this board... :-)

Certainly surprised by Kaymer today. A golfer who clearly knows how to close things out. Shows how razor thin the margin can be in this game and especially at that level.

Awful news about Allenby.

Does anyone else think Allenby got a bit of a going over from a pimp? Robbery my arse.

Not sure which was the more surprising between Charl last week and Martin Kaymer this.
Or a Touring Pro getting abducted.

On the first and tenth tees at Waialae; looking forward to a terrific final round, but Team Europe playing for placings - all look too far back to get a "W". Except perhaps on #16.

I was surprised when I saw the early tee times in Honolulu.  NBC has warm-up coverage (against the NFL playoffs) and Golf Channel has the last two hours, ending at 3 pm Honolulu time.

I guess the Tour wanted to give the players a chance to catch Red-eyes back to the mainland, which makes sense to me.  Players/Caddies have to prepare for three courses in Palm Springs.  If they get back on Monday morning, that gives them three days of prep.

Looking for someone to take it deep today.  I think there will be a bonafide 59 watch.

Really surprised by Kaymer. Maybe he was also abducted last night...

Think there's more to the Allenby story though.

McLaren wrote:Does anyone else think Allenby got a bit of a going over from a pimp?  Robbery my arse.

As I said earlier... something just ain't right about the story, at least the way it's been reported so far. My wife thought exactly the same thing as you when she heard it this morning.   And considering the area where Amuse is... well lets just say it's kind of "adult entertainment central" and certainly would be a target rich environment those looking "por nub in all de wrong places"... or those looking to take advantage of those that are.  

But even assuming it's not that... I mean he's with his caddie and buds having some drinks at a "wine bar" a good way from the hotel where he's staying.... Allenby up and disappears, and nobody goes ape-$hit looking for him?

Hope I'm wrong about this, or at least some media can come up with some story that makes more sense than what we're hearing so far.

EDit:  Good interview with Allenby right now... sounding more plausible... hope it checks out. Sheesh... I thought I/we were skeptical, but social media and twitter are really laying into the guy.

4 birds in 6 holes for Russell Knox - could wrap up his card today, even if he doesn't win.
He's come a long way since we first started following him.

Casey in reverse.

Good work on Sunday by Brian Davis, not bad from Russell Knox, not good at all from Casey, Lukey or Franny.
Let's hope better days are coming chaps.

Jimmy Walker's to lose.
But we'd've said the same about Charl and Jimmy last week, and certainly Martin this week. Biut Jimmy Walker squandering this lead would be awful.

The first Chilean in 50 years secured an invite to Augusta down in Argentina.

Matias Dominguez won the Latin America Amateur.  Previously Enrique Orellana missed the cut in 1964 at Augusta National.


Felipe Aguilar is the highest ranked Chilean in the OWGR at #160 going into this week.


20 years ago, I spent a week down in Southern Chile looking a proposed site for a hydro plant.  It was further South of the Equator than I had ever been North of the Equator.  About 50 deg South. and close to the Southern Tip of South America.

GPB wrote:

McLaren wrote:GPB

reductio ad absurdum - as I pointed out to you once before - is a perfectly valid form of debate.  You seem to be equating it to a fallacy when in fact it is a tool to expose fallacious arguments.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

Not perfectly valid when Leprechauns and Pixies are used as the hyperbole.

A god is indistinguishable from Leprechauns and Pixies, so the comparison stands. They are all just as absurd as one another as belief systems and lacking in evidence.

Anyway, back to a fascinating weekend of golf. Spectacular bottle crashing from the usually teutonic German. Is this the biggest final round collapse since Greg Norman and Faldo?

Quite incredible. I bet Kaymer slept badly last night. Going to be a hard one to recover from. Even got overtaken by Pube Head to suffer the indignity of third.

As for Simpson. Thank "god" he didn't win. Justice served. Karma if you like.

A walker in the park for Jimmy.

9C down to 43