PGA Tour: Riviera and Ryder Cup: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).This week sees the third of the three excellent California "Coast" tournaments, in Los Angeles at George Thomas's gem, Riviera. This week also sees the end of a stretch where the six courses used were designed by architects who preferred to enhance what nature had provided, if a hole was hard then perhaps nature made it that way. After this we'll be on to two venues where courses were designed to be hard or penal, or both, redesigned by blokes who felt they could trump (pun unintended of course) nature. I know which I prefer.

2).And I should have noted last week how good Torrey Pines' South Course looked two weeks ago, what Americans might call a broad-shouldered course, demanding but with stunning views and green settings. Only thing they got wrong was the cut of the rough, where lies a foot off the fairway were likely to be more difficult than those ten yards (or, as some found, out 50 yards) wide of the short stuff. Always a gripe, that.
Otherwise, is it blasphemous to suggest that it makes for a better US Open test than Pebble Beach which had to be tricked up in 2010 to keep the scores up?

3).Last week's AT&T National Pro-Am enjoyed spectacular weather and expect more of the same this week in LA.
Brandt Snedeker and Nick Watney are two of the better players to follow on Tour, both had fallen on leaner times than they were used to, and very happy to see them return to contention. Sneds is back to the Top 50 and in all the WGC's and Majors, Watney is still on the outside looking in, hopefully not for much longer.

4).'Course, they'd both like to make Jay Haas's Presidents Cup Team and probably love to play the 2016 Ryder Cup.
The speculation is rife that Davis Love will be announced as the 2016 US Ryder Cup captain next week, at PGA HQ close by PGA National, site of the Honda Classic. Not quite sure why he didn't go into hibernation for a week to escape the media throng. But NO! He opted to take a very late pass into this week's Riviera field and how he gets to say "No Comment" is presumably something he'll be consulting fellow "Task Force" member Tiger Woods on.

5).One thing I don't understand is this:
Following the Miracle (or in their case Misery) at Medinah, the PGA Of America decided enough was enough, dispensed with the order of normal ascent to the Captaincy and chose Tom Watson to bring the Cup back to the "good old US of A".
After Watson's fiasco (who said Captains don't matter?) at Gleneagles, they announced a Task Force and, in their ultimate wisdom apparently chose to go back to Love whose Captaincy was felt to be lacking in the first place.
Any bets on Tom Watson for 2018? I've heard he's already taking French lessons.
Would think some heads are spinning, those of Couples and David Toms especially. (Apparently Azinger said he didn't want it.)

6).Fortunately there's a sense of natural progression in what the United States (or Donald Rumsfeld at least) call "Old Europe", and Welcome! to the hot seat to Darren Clarke. Thomas Bjorn next?

7).The strongest field of the PGA Tour's year so far has assembled at Riviera CC in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. Plenty of "International" golfers too, and three with decent track records here are Luke Donald (who needs a good tournament at least as much as Watney and Sneeedeker), Garcia and Schwartzel, but their recent form has been spotty/rusty, and you'd almost think they will be warming up (gaining reps?) for Florida.

8).I'm more interested in Casey, Molinari and Wiesberger; Casey because he needs to show his decision to abandon the E.T. was wise, Franny because his Tour season so far has been so promising and Riviera should suit him, and Bernd as his E.T. form has been so good.
Sadly no Shane Lowry, another who might be suited to Riviera; but Harrington is here as the tragedy of his decline has slumped from comedy to farce. Exhibit A being his play of his 18th hole at Spyglass last Saturday where a par would ensure he played Sunday, a bogey would get him paid, but St.Padraig conjured up a triple. Just the sort of thing to be expected from Greg Owen but not from a Major Champion.

9).Riviera is another horses-for-courses venue. Bubba won handsomely last year from Dustin Johnson, and DJ's form seems to be improving week by week, and Walker usually contends.
This year's Tour winners have been from the top drawer of PGA Tour Golf, Reed, Walker, Haas, Koepka, Day, Snedeker. Will we see another Top Fifty player or is it time for an outsider? Shilling each way fancies include last week's 3rd place finisher Charlie Beljan and his college teammate Spencer Levin, Chappell and Brendan Steele.

10).One final thought about Davis Love, and I'm a DLIII fan.
But: They say in rumoured testimony for Love that he's close to the players, he'll be a players' Captain, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
But he'll be 52; he's no longer competitive on the PGA Tour - he certainly won't be playing many weekends, more likely playing Champions Tour, where one trusts that he'll be going to Montgomerie or Sutton for tips and not to Langer.
The players he leant on at Medinah, Woods, Stricker, Furyk, Mickelson, Zach, Dufner, Kuchar, Watson, will all be in their 38th year at least, out of contention or already past it. Not all perhaps, but most.
That leaves Bradley, Dustin, Snedeker and Simpson.
More likely the bulk of his Team will be the newish generation of Young Americans, the Georgia Frat Boys like English and Henley who Love probably knows well from the cozy confines of the Golden Isles, or the free spirits such as Fowler and Spieth, Reed and Koepka.  
Not quite sure the 2014 Task Force has got this quite right. What price a Task Force for October 2016? That's all I'm saying.

incontinentia wrote:When you lose 8 of the last 10, it's not because of who the Captain is or the selection process or a mistake in a captain's pick. You may lose one Ryder Cup on a factor like that but 8 of 10? Europe has embraced it more, wanted it more and played better

Sure thing Larknation.

The changes to the US selection process smacks of "leave it as open and late as possible..just in case.. because you know.. we've messed it up before" which may not be a bad thing.

But I'm with Inco/Lark..the captain and process can only account for so much.

Make plans now!
pgatour.com is reporting that Charlotte's Quail Hollow will host the 2021 Presidents Cup.

That's the same Quail Hollow that stages the Wells Fargo PGA Tour stop and will host the 2017 PGA Championship.

Good course.

PS: It had already been announced that San Francisco's Harding Park will host the 2025 Presidents Cup.

kwinigolfer wrote:MPB, All those groupings were non-PGA Tour sets.

I know, was making the point that Mac's comment that Lee wouldn't be of interest to anyone picking a 'premier group' isn't quite true.
That said, to be fair, maybe with regards to how the PGA sees things he is right

mustputt

Good to see it only took several posts for you to get the point.

MPB,


Lee may well get the better of the conditions as others have said, not to mention the better of a pretty iffy forecast.

Kwini, where did you find Honda Qualifying scores?

GPB,
RotoWorld has selected qualifying scores:
Look under the Robbie Castro and Greg Chalmers entries.

See the Castro entry..but not Chalmers entry.

McLaren wrote:mustputt

Good to see it only took several posts for you to get the point.

As most of them are pointless I was surprised to stumble across one

GPB,
Snakey Chalmers:

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/gol/256/greg-chalmers

McLaren wrote:

MustPuttBetter wrote:

McLaren wrote:mustputt

Good to see it only took several posts for you to get the point.

As most of them are pointless I was surprised to stumble across one

Roller speaks about himself in the third person and indicates he likes this exchange and finds it amusing.