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.

Some times it seems the Tour publishes stats just for the sake of them. But sometimes they tell a story:
~Jimmy Walker led the tournament in greens hit in regulation AND putting. That'll get it done.
and:
~Kuchar endured his first birdie-less round for 255 rounds. That's probably two years plus. Incredible. Not surprising he chalks up so many top ten finishes.

Is Allenby's story beginning to unravel?

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/1/19/homeless-woman-adds-wrinkle-to-allenbys-mugging-account.html

The only time I was concussed I didn't know what decade it was, let alone how far from home.

Given that the police are involved, you'd imagine the full story will emerge sooner or later.

It was looking pretty shaky before this indiscretion, but I don't reckon Allenby will beat the 18 major mark after this.

The funniest thing about that story Mac is that he describes himself as a "Professional Athlete"

Apparently this bloke was mugged outside bar as well, or?
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/grill-room/photo-tiger-missing-front-tooth/

Elin?

Luckily he found a classy way of hiding it.
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/woods-watches-vonn-break-world-cup-skiing-record/

Maybe Schumacher could show him a route or two.

See they've added a picture of the gnasher that usually fills that particular gap looking a little yellow.
I like the parting shot: "It is unlikely Tiger's back will be the first topic of conversation" when he turns up at Phoenix.

Fortunately we have the master of intrigue, McLaren, to help sleuth this one out.

Maybe he's had a Juanita there for ages and chose not to wear it while watching Vonn? Or he simply lost a tooth naturally?

Newsflash! Tiger Woods farts! We'll be giving you an in-depth analysis in just a moment.
...and in other news, millions die of all sorts but hey!, they aren't Tiger Woods so who gives a XXXX?

HAve we finally worked out what Mac does for a living? Gossip columnist for Augusta National Enquirer?

WTF is a Juanita?

Could be cool if Tiger got a diamond insert looking like a golf ball.

With a little swoosh . . . . .

Maybe he'll get an implant instead which controls the part of the brain which deals with course management.

-Anyone else thinks Tiger lost some bite lately?

-Woods dropped so fast in the world rankings he knocked out a tooth!

"Steiny" says that a shoulder-mounted video camera knocked his gnasher out, the video guy turned suddenly "and hit Woods in the mouth".
All joking apart(!), I bet Tiger was well p1ssed off about that, probably wishes he'd stayed at home. Law suits on their way.

Sounds like he was looking round to see why the sun no longer shines out his arse and walked into the tree where he hit his drive

Tooth was probably knocked loose by a nine iron a little more than 5 years ago.

I bet he was hit by one of Phil Mickelsons drives.

Wonder when it will be revealed that Allenby was in fact on his way home with another man - who then mugged him.

McLaren wrote:WTF is a Juanita?

Juanita == One Eater == False tooth

Sorry. Wife's family are from London's east end...

Excuse at the ready for Phoenix then.

In his first interview since suspension/break from the game DJ claims he has issues but cocaine isn't one of them.

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/dustin-johnson-has-new-outlook-his-game-and-his-life#

This was basically a press release about how he has embraced a new daily schedule which involves breakfast, golf then dinner with some old hockey player and then home to watch some TV.  Apparently this is the path to major victories.

There was no in depth probing of his drug use and no mention of his affair with another players wife. Can anyone remember which wife it was meant to be?

His team mention being indignant about the persistent accusations of drug use but don't seem bothered enough to start any Defamation proceedings.  Could it just be they know a case doesn't exist?

Nonsense article, PR at its worst.
But you be careful what you say about the Great One . . . . !

Meanwhile, should we be surprised that the woman at the heart of the Robert Allenby pantomime is named Charade?
And, speaking of Allenby, good to see Jarrod Lyle in the Humana field.

McLaren wrote:There was no in depth probing of his drug use and no mention of his affair with another players wife. Can anyone remember which wife it was meant to be?

I seem to remember it was Jimmy Walker's wife.

I guess that's why so much was made of the Walker family after his win?

I thought the Walker rumour was quashed some time ago?

Will MacKenzie??

Quite possibly.

What about Poulters wife? Wasn't there rumors of issues in that relationship at one point last season?

Couldn't care less who is getting pumped by who.

Super

surely you care that no one is pumping you?

Well, yes, I would care about that Mac.

Has it not been about 5 years since you last had sex?

Who cares? You should be writing to the Sun or National Enquirer, Mac; your insight and scoops are wasted on this Board.

kwini

On slow days you have to try and introduce something. As great as the 4th decimal place analysis of the OWGR is, it hardly gets the conversation going. May as well resort to gossip.

Why don't you try a Doak Rating for Tour Wags (or boyfriends) then, Mac, or LPGA Tour players plus Habs and Wags?

Allenby reportedly out of this week's Humana action.

kwinigolfer wrote:Why don't you try a Doak Rating for Tour Wags (or boyfriends) then, Mac, or LPGA Tour players plus Habs and Wags?

I would rather keep my gossip away from the objectification of women.

Could be boyfriends as well . . . . . . . . no discrimination here.

Having a fleeting interest in who DJ shagged is one thing, going to the trouble to create a scoring system by which to rank people is another thing entirely. I will stick to simple gossip.

Unless of course some interesting golf news happens.

kwinigolfer wrote:Who cares? You should be writing to the Sun or National Enquirer, Mac; your insight and scoops are wasted on this Board.

Kwini,
In the years since you left the UK, the media in this country has degenerated into mass fawning and inane obsession with irrelevent "celebrities". Mac is just behaving like the millions of other gormless people who spend their day reading the news (aka gossip) section of the daily mail website. Bet he knows all about the love lives (or who's pumping who) of orange women in Essex.

Tiger Woods post round presser at WMPO is gonna be hilarious... "I need more repthssss..... "

Almost feel sorry for him; he's sooooo protective of his image - a true test of any sense of humour that he might have.

Wonder who he'll be grouped with? Pros playing in pairs this week, and Phil has Billy Horschel.

raycastleunited wrote:orange women in Essex.

Oi leave my wife out of it...

kwinigolfer wrote:Almost feel sorry for him; he's sooooo protective of his image - a true test of any sense of humour that he might have.

Wonder who he'll be grouped with?

Got no clue who TW will be paired with at Phoenix (cept I doubt it will be Phil)... but if they don't bring in Michael Strahan to play with him in the Pro-Am at least, they're missing a golden opportunity.... :-)

But in all seriousness... I'm thinking little chance TW shows up without the issue having been attended to.  I mean let's face it, standards on how long it takes to get an implant or bridge in place for us "normal folk" is certainly far longer than it is for him.

I hear Tiger's Dentist is contacting Steinway for a spare piano key as the raw material for the replacement tooth.

Maybe Schwartzel's Dentist knows a source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charl_Schwartzel#mediaviewer/File:Charl_Schwartzel.JPG

Good idea robo!!!!

Have also heard the Phoenix 16th hole gang have ordered 15,000 London Transport "Mind the Gap" signs.
Poor lad . . . . .

GPB wrote:I hear Tiger's Dentist is contacting Steinway for a spare piano key as the raw material for the replacement tooth.

Maybe Schwartzel's Dentist knows a source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charl_Schwartzel#mediaviewer/File:Charl_Schwartzel.JPG

Maybe Tiger can turn to his agent for help... I mean aren't Steinberg's distant relatives of the Steinway's anyhow?

The WGC-MatchPlay field will include the Top 65 less Luke Donald who will be attending his brother's wedding. Lukey will have to find a way to add some European tournaments or he'll come up short.

Interesting read on Jack Nicklaus, playing an exhibition at one his course openings 15 years ago in British Columbia.  The writer caddied for him during the exhibition.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/14/jack-nicklaus-on-losing-his-golf-game-tiger-woods-and-his-majors-record/

The part about the exhibition starts about half way down.