PGA Tour: Back to Proper Golf after Donald Duck's Doral: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1)."The longest 3 in the field are position 1,2 and if you hadn't guessed 3rd. HaHaHa(repeat about 50 times)": Ian Poulter.

2).Similar Twitterage from others has been deleted, but suffice to say the Tour's best were not happy with their second week at Doral. Even JB Holmes (hardly surprising after his second shot of Round 2 which looked perfect until it went down one side of a hog's back, past a windmill and down a waterslide) and Bubba were critical, while Commish Finchem was a little defensive, whether about the course or the set-up was not clear.

3).Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard did a straw poll of the pro's favourite courses and Doral received no mentions, even in 15-course itineraries. Fortunately, this week's venue, Innisbrook's Copperhead Course, appeared on every pro's dream itinerary, a welcome respite before we return next week to Bay Hill, recipient of only one vote.

4).Suffice it to speculate it is most unlikely that the three longest drivers in the field will finish 1, 2, 3 this week, on the late Larry Packard's Par-71 design, with 5 x Par 3's and 4 x Par 5's. A good golf course will seek to identify the best golfers, not eliminate 75% of the field. Gary Woodland is a recent winner at Innisbrook, but so are Luke Donald and Furyk, while Vijay's won once and the Goose twice, long hitters but with a complete game.

5).The US Presidents Cup qualifying rankings have undergone plenty of changes recently, especially with DJ's last month of earnings.
Jimmy Walker and Bubba Watson are far ahead of the rest, followed by Dustin Johnson.
#4 thru #10: Reed, Kuchar, Ryan Moore, Furyk, Haas, Chris Kirk, Spieth.
Ryder Cuppers from Gleneagles who languish outside the leaders are:
Zach Johnson (11th), Simpson (14th), Fowler (20th), Mahan (25th), Bradley (30th), Mickelson (47th).

6).Lest we forget, there was an "opposite field" event last week, the Puerto Rico Open, won by Alex Cejka. ALEX CEJKA? That's Harrington and Cejka in successive weeks, probably the longest-priced double in the history of Europeans dabbling on the PGA Tour. More significant results for the longer term were the T2 finish from Emiliano Grillo and the T10 for Rafa C-Bello. Both earn places in this week's Innisbrook field for the "Valspar Championship" and Grillo, especially, will now be in great position to play the web.com Final series late this summer. Grillo's going to be quite the player I would suggest.

7).While talking golfcourse design, or lack of it, the architects' fraternity lost one of its more eminent members last week, with the death of Jay Morrish. Morrish was a sometime collaborator with Tom Weiskopf (TPC Scottsdale & Loch Lomond for instance) but earlier had helped Jack Nicklaus establish his design business. Nicklaus, Bob Cupp and Pete Dye were among those to pay effusive tributes to Morrish, who worked mainly west of the Mississippi and whose best known solo design was probably "The Boulders" in Arizona's beautiful Sonoran Desert.

8).There's a splendid turn-out for the Valspar this week with five Top Ten players, Scott, Rose, Stenson, Spieth and Furyk.
European Tour regulars, as well as Grillo and Rafa, include Donaldson, Luiten, Poults, Donald, Westwood, Molinari and Harrington, while Marc Warren,. Wiesberger and Zanotti tried and failed the Monday Qualie.

9).Russell Knox and a rested Martin Laird have played well here, while Louis Oosthuizen makes a welcome appearance after his out-of-the-blue top 6th place result at Doral. Amazingly King Louis has only played six times since last year's Barclays: five top tens and a T14. You can't keep a good man down; hope he stays fit for Augusta.
I like to look at golfers who seem to be running in to form and doubling up each-way bets until they pay out: Snedeker a few weeks ago was such a player, Dustin Johnson too, and imagine Rose will be a candidate when his game comes round. But keep an eye on Brandon Todd whose form seems to be coming together and will be a decent price.

10).Apart from Stenson, there are some countrymen of his playing this week, Tour regulars Blixt and Jacobson, plus the hold-out anchorer Carl Pettersson - frankly, his form has been poor, whatever he putts with and however he does it. But he has a decent record here and won in 2005. Not sure if he has a plan B when they pull his anchor, but he's been a good Tour ambassador, and influential in sustaining the Tour stop in Greensboro.
Lastly, Happy 50th birthday to Jesper Parnevik. He's reportedly fit and ready to embark on his Champions Tour benefit run. He'll be exempt for a few years and hopefully he'll bring the entertainment to his Senior career that he graced the PGA Tour with until injuries sapped his competitiveness.

kwinigolfer wrote:The Valspar cut has slipped to +1; it could stay there unless scores improve, as they did yesterday, in the afternoon. Justin Rose still with it all to do.

Rose should be thanking the WGCs.  Only two tournaments where he made the cut are HSBC and Cadillac where he finished T48 and 55th respectively.

If it weren't for WGC's Justin could very well be tied for last in FE Standings (with Tiger)

Mac,
I would think the double-dippers have whatever status on the European Tour they want, including Casey.

You must know who they are:
Kaymer (perhaps Cejka too if he wants ET status)
Stenson, Blixt
Donaldson, Donald, Rose, Poults, Westwood
Gonzo, Sergio
Dubuisson, Molinari
McDool, Rory, Padraig
I think Laird and Knox have some sort of affiliate ET Membership

Probably forgotten one or two, but the only ones who seem to have no ties to Europe are Pettersson, Davis, Owen, Jacobson.

Chopra and Johnson are in a twilight zone all of their own.

Luke playing like Luke Donald.
Status Quo restored with Brian Davis going Down The Dustpipe.

And there are few non Euros who play both tours.  Els, Oosty, Charl, Sterne and Koepka.

And I think Top Five has EuroT membership now.

Justin Rose has enjoyed a fine career, and has also been superb at coming through beaten horses when otherwise out of contention to elevate his owgr points haul, not to mention his bank account.
But you can't do that unless you make the cut, Justin. Projected position of approx #205 on the FedEx points list with 40% of the season gone doesn't do his ability any justice at all.

kwinigolfer wrote:Justin Rose has enjoyed a fine career, and has also been superb at coming through beaten horses when otherwise out of contention to elevate his owgr points haul, not to mention his bank account.
But you can't do that unless you make the cut, Justin. Projected position of approx #205 on the FedEx points list with 40% of the season gone doesn't do his ability any justice at all.

He has 3 years left on his US Open 5 year exemption!

Strange thing about Justin Rose. TaylorMade have been making ads about Rose's fitness regime etc.
I never thought of him as a physical player, fit enough but more dependent upon a fine swing and short game, essentially more of a "feel" player.
Be a shame if he's got away from that.

Looks like there's a -6 glass ceiling . . . . .

According to Golfweek, there are 109 men and women from England playing Division I College golf.

http://golfweek.com/news/2015/mar/12/ncaa-college-golf-players-geography-statistics/

So no Tiger next week, looking less likely he will play the Masters imo!

I find that GB collegiate stat extraordinary!

Blimey - the +2's could make the cut at this rate, Cabrera Bello looking good at +1; all the better for reaching the web.com Finals should he so desire.


sirb,
Just read that - it's all becoming a bit of a soap opera . . . . . . .

Here is a summary of Non Americans playing Div I College Golf

Spoiler:

There are 10 players each from ICELAND and South Korea.

9 players from Japan.

sirbenson wrote:So no Tiger next week, looking less likely he will play the Masters imo!

Surely he will attempt the Masters even if his body game isn't up to snuff?

Nice to see the accounting firm of Ernst de Jonge atop the leaderboard

Very good, GPB.

Lee Westwood going for his 6th PGA Tour Top 25 in a row, 24th right now. Looks like he's been holing some putts.

Kwini,
I think it's been exaggerated the last year or two regarding Westwood's putting holding him back....he just doesn't hit it as well as he once did imo

For some reason, when a square-on putter like Harrington or Westwood are making putts, it looks like they'll never miss.

When they start missing, it looks like they'll never make anything.

Perhaps the legend of Westwood's "ball striking" is overblown; he's playing courses that are new to him a lot of the time now, maybe he (or Billy) just aren't getting their lines right?


Terrific "ball striking" stats from Lucas Glover this week - hitting it longer than most, as he does, and hitting more than 80% of fairways and greens. He'll always be held back by his putter but those numbers are golfing your ball!

Looking forward to the Innisbrook action today - should be great weather for golf, warm, sunny, just enough breeze to keep the boys interested, and the chance of a very brief shower to p1ss them off (or quiet the greens down). Cloudier for Sunday, but still a good day in store.

This week's winner obviously gets a Masters invite, but only Harris English of the Top 40 or so can earn enough owgr points to reach Augusta without winning.

Lots of good stories among the European contingent, but disapponting to see Donaldson fizzle yesterday and another wasted week for Gonzo.
Gonzo's stats are uniformly horrific and something needs to change, and fast, for him to survive on Tour. Just not good enough but he goes again at Bay Hill where he his 3rd place finish two years ago helped to get him in this mess in the first place.

kwinigolfer wrote:This week's winner obviously gets a Masters invite, but only Harris English of the Top 40 or so can earn enough owgr points to reach Augusta without winning.

English needs a solo 6th (10 pts) or better to have a chance of cracking the top 50.

Frankie needs at about 18 points between this week next week and to crack the Top 50

Russell Knox needs about 35 points between Valspar and API.

Justin Thomas can also get pretty close with a solo 2nd (31.2).  He probably needs about 38 points to crack the top 50 between Valspar and API.  About 40-42 points if he plays Valero.  Thomas has divisor issues, every tournament he plays increases his divisor.

Nothing better in the early going than half a dozen players at two under par, Franny and Westwood among them.
A bit breezy but surprising no-one's really going low. Apart from Sunderland.

Vijay Singh and Kenny Perry ahead of Donald, Westwood and, of course, Rose.
Not good enough boys.

This tournament is begging someone to take charge of it; still the glas ceiling at -6 (or seven).

Thrilled to see Lucas Glover overcoming his demons, hopefully he can keep this up.

13 players covered by one stroke.
No-one seems to want to win, only 3 rounds completed in the 60's so far.

A few birdies for the leaders and all of a sudden the field is strung out a bit, the quiet guys up front but explosive Ryder Cup rivals Reed and Stenson following close behind.
Henrik due another win. Please.

Not a favorite for tomorrow, but a top 10 (or better) would be just what the Doc ordered for Sean O'Hair. Steady as she goes.

Hopefully S O'H will do much better than that.
Meanwhile: Does any US golfer with of the past 20 years have more wins than Ryan Moore without a Ryder or Presidents Cup qualification or "choice"?
I can only think of one. Clue: Educated in Greece.
Any ideas?

kwinigolfer wrote:Hopefully S O'H will do much better than that.
Meanwhile: Does any US golfer with of the past 20 years have more wins than Ryan Moore without a Ryder or Presidents Cup qualification or "choice"?
I can only think of one. Clue: Educated in Greece.
Any ideas?

John Daly was educated in Greece?

Don't think John Daly was educated.
He certainly doesn't have four or more Tour wins in "the past 20 years".

kwinigolfer wrote:Don't think John Daly was educated.
He certainly doesn't have four or more Tour wins in "the past 20 years".

Which Tours?  (and you didn't specify what Tour)

And he did go to the Univ of Arkansas.

PGA Tour only.

And Jordan Spieth's school mate went to Oklahoma - for a while!

kwinigolfer wrote:PGA Tour only.

And Jordan Spieth's school mate went to Oklahoma - for a while!

What has Spieth;s school mate got to with anything?  Jeez talk about guilt by association.

Did you know that Phil Mickelson went to high school with muderer Scott Peterson?

And yours truly lived right next door (for three years) to a guy that ended on death row in Florida.  He was my age and we played together all the time on the same little league and basketball teams.  Yes this was in Franklin County.

Sorry, was just trying to suggest that Daly and education are not necessarily synonymous.

There may be more than one person in the same boat as Moore but I can only think of one.

kwinigolfer wrote:Sorry, was just trying to suggest that Daly and education are not necessarily synonymous.

There may be more than one person in the same boat as Moore but I can only think of one.

Does he do videos wearing a red One-sie?

or how about a guy that made a hole in one this week (but missed the cut).

Or left handed guy from Kentucky

All three are follically (sp?) challenged!!

Johnathan Byrd might fill the bill!

Steve Flesch too?

Ooh, and Ken Brain?

Good ideas all - not who I was thinking of but you're dead right.

Billy Mayfair?

Notah Begay?

Greek finances?

I was thinking Jeff Sluman, Five wins 1995 onwards - Billy Mayfair has four.
Notah Begay played a Pres Cup.

Regardless - I was surprised that there are so many, and then you've got the Rickie Fowlers of this world who have played more Ryder Cups than scored Tour wins. No Ryder Cup wins and already on a task force to make it better.

Ned,
Do you know anything about Greg Eason and Kelvin Day? Both getting solid web.com results. And Patrick Reed's mate Norlander scored a T2 in Brasil.

Nice eagle on the Par-4 6th for Ryan Moore.
If Stenson can't get it done, hope Moore does.

Poor from Donald, but another Top 20 finish for Westwood - not bad at all for his first trip here.

Sluman has been a Ass't Captain in the Prez Cup at least one time.

IMO, The Task Force chose a Rickie Fowler because they wanted  representation and perspective from a 20-something.

At least twice as VC for Slu, but never as a player.

If they wanted a young guy, why not pick Dustin Johnson, or even Patrick Reed?

A hard week's work squandered by Molinari, two bogeys in his last few holes. Must do better.

Another exciting finish in the offing. 4 dramatic putts in the space of a couple of minutes and Sean O'Hair pitching close to almost certainly move to 9 under as well.

Hopefully no play off as I never stay awake for them!!

Dustin was on sabbatical, and they would want someone wouldn't preface anything with DUUUUUUUDE, ....

and I bet these stories and rumors about Patrick Reed were not as secret as we might be led to believe.  In fact, as a alumnus of a Georgia Tech, I was aware of some of these accusations 18 months ago after I spent a football weekend in Atlanta.

Great finish, but where were all these birdies earlier in the week?

Credit to O'Hair sticking in there - he has previous at Bay Hill also, hope he's in.
Memo to self: Check it out!

Is this going to come down to a Reed/Spieth play-off again. Greensboro 2013 all over again?

Hopefully Moore can grab a bird and O'Hair can get a 72nd hole miracle. For a four-man duel.

OHair is playing next week.

Spieth and Reed are not.

A wonderful 72 holes from Sean O'Hair. Where it goes from here, who knows. But playing late on Sunday and with a chance to win a good thing!

I have never liked Patrick Reed, it started with an irrational dislike for baw face and pig nose, then there was the Ryder Cup behaviour... Now there is this uni cheating and his estrangement from his parents. There is a lot of muck raking around this guy, does anyone (other than his wife) actually like him? He must be quite unlikeable for all this to rumble on.

I quite like him Red.

Feel a bit guilty about doing so because he comes across as brash and loud (I've deliberately avoided reading any of the college stuff as it seems like a whole lot of conjecture right now) but, as opposed to Poulter whose mouth writes cheques his performance can't cash, Reed does for a young man seem to be producing good golf when it matters. Speith likewise.

Really good stuff from Sky tonight. Rob Lee is a brilliant anchor man and Nick Doherty seems so pleasant and despite what he's been through not bitter at all. Dennis Pugh bores me but he loves his golf and that makes him pleasant enough.

Really not sure who I want to win. Probably O'Hair both for Shotrock and because as the Sky team says it means more to him.

He can certainly play a bit, Hibbz... He hasn't dropped a shot in 28 holes and was all over the place on that back 9, but somehow gutted it out and then sunk a putt on 18 that would have cost a fiver in a taxi.

I think Spieth is a classier and more talented player, so hopefully he wins if O'Hair doesn't complete the fairytale comeback. As long as it isn't Reed.

Ha ha. Agree with all you say. Either way it's really great to watch a couple of young players playing aggressive golf. Neither seem painfully slow either.

I'm going to go off Doherty fast if he doesn't stop banging Poulter's drum. He has holed a couple of clutch putts in match play situations which anyone who plays golf will tell you is significantly easier to do than stroke play.

Poulter generally disappears like Miss Popov from Rentaghost when there's a stroke play event to be won. Hell even Montgomerie used to hole plenty of putts in match play.

Sean sure had his chance on the second playoff hole, but losing to a birdie is not beating yourself. This will do wonders for his confidence.

And Speith is for real -- not Rory-like (who is?) by any stretch, but I do enjoy his swashbuckling demeanor.