PGA Tour: WGC:MatchPlay (sort of): Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).First, let's talk about Justin Rose's latest win, and a fine win it was, not to mention a sponsor's dream for "Zurich" as they sponsor the New Orleans tournament and employ Rose as an "ambassador", among others. After a patchy, to say the least, start to his year, Rose has now won on Tour for the 6th consecutive year; no-one has a longer current streak. Time for another Major.

2).Rose also nudges into 3rd place in terms of most post-war wins by Europeans in the United States. Current list:
8 wins: Garcia, McIlroy
7: Rose
6: Ballesteros, Faldo, Olazabal
5: Donald, Lyle, Parnevik, Pettersson

3).Imagine it was a late-night arrival at SFO for those MatchPlay competitors who played all four rounds in New Orleans, especially for Rose who presumably had winner's obligations following his win. Others included Bradley, Day, Horschel, DJohnson, Leishman and Wiesberger. Wonder if Westwood and others commuting from the Far East beat them in?

4).Streaks ending:
~Stricker finally missed a cut after a run of 36 consecutive cuts made. Kuchar now leads with 22.
~Freddie Jacobson's run of consecutive holes on Tour without a 3-putt was finally snapped at 542, by some way the best in the ShotLink era.

5).There are reports that the PGA Of America have chosen Kiawah Island as the venue for the 2021 PGA Championship. The logistics of getting spectators in and out of Kiawah in 2012 was apparently horrendous (not so bad at the War on the Shore though), so that has to be sorted. Perhaps they'll be using drones by then?

6).Difficult to think of a drone and golf without automatically imagining the ghastly, ghostly apparition of Donald Trump, host of the 2022 PGA Championship in New Jersey. Trump is busy tweeting racially combustible headlines about the situation this week in Baltimore. Isn't it just about time the USGA, PGA Of America and PGA Tour, all of whom are in bed at various of Trump's venues, stood up to the egotistical blowhard and told him racist twitterage is unacceptable and take their tournaments away from him?

7).Hopefully they'll also kick Steve Elkington off the Champions Tour again for his twittering commentary on the Bruce Jenner revelations.

8).And so to the MatchPlay, sponsored for one year only by Cadillac. They'll be playing at Harding Park, San Francisco, the venue of many pro events including the:
*2005 WGC:American Express Championship where Woods beat birthday (49 today!) boy Daly in a play-off - arguably the beginning of the end of Daly as a competitive force.
Those in the field who qualified for this week's MatchPlay include:
T3: Garcia, Stenson
T6: McDowell
T11: Donald
T15: Furyk
T18: Schwartzel, Clark, Poulter
T29: Mickelson, Scott
Plus: Jimenez, Zach Johnson, Westwood, Jaidee

*2009 Presidents Cup where Zach Johnson, Mickelson, Furyk and Mahan played for the USA, Scott and Clark for The Internationals.

9).No doubt the International Golfing Federations (known by the acronym Finchem) had little choice on this week's date, but let's just say it's a shame that it will undoubtedly reduce the buzz for The Players, and have the collateral damage of reducing the quality of the New Orleans and Charlotte fields. No opposite field event this year either, so the better among the Tour's rank and file will have the week off, those journeymen qualifying for neither the MatchPlay nor Players will sit down for a fortnight.
Dell sponsors next year's action, in Austin, Texas, with a late March date.  

10).Monday's "random draw" for the MatchPlay was a made for TV affair, no-one other than Golf Channel personnel in evidence, and it looked almost as if it was pre-recorded then edited to make it look live. Whatever.
It's ironic that the capitalist PGA Tour felt the need to change from a straight knock-out competition to the more socialist round-robin foreplay that we'll be enduring Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Whatever.
The Golf Channel certainly nailed their colours to the self-interest mast in their "Monday Scramble":
"Our only hope is that we don't get Joost Luiten vs Tommy Fleetwood in the finals and have to go back to the drawing board."
Whatever. Sure they meant Gary Woodland & Harris English. Berks.

kwinigolfer wrote:Wow, What is it with the retired members of the Tour's Black Caucus. Charlie Sifford took a header a couple of months ago, Calvin Peete followed him earlier this week and now Pete Brown's left us.
Brown was the first black golfer to win a PGA Tour event, beating Sir Tony Jacklin in a San Diego play-off.


On the bright side, weather in San Francisco this morning is definitely on the bright side, sunny with temps reaching the 70's.

I'm waiting for Mac to pop up and claim some sort of racist conspiracy.

I will say the Tournament Committee made a major mistake with Tee times today.

They should have put all the meaningless matches (like Dufner vs Snedeker) first off.  

As it stands, there are going to be several players advancing to the knock out round before the TV coverage starts (an hour later than Wed-Thu here in the USA).  Groups 6, 11, and possibly 14 will be all done before 5 pm ET.

Agree GPB, and hardly fair on Levy and Luiten to be stuck behind Hideki and Na - they might never finish.

They should have built Friday up to a climax but unfortunately there'll be some real clunkers in prime time. Strong suspicion, partly born of some silly golfchannel.com articles, that the Golf Channel didn't quite appreciate how this format was going to go down.

Plus: I wonder how they're going to filter any play-offs into the tee-time schedule?

On the plus side, and somewhat against the odds, there's no sign yet of any withdrawals.

super_realist wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Wow, What is it with the retired members of the Tour's Black Caucus. Charlie Sifford took a header a couple of months ago, Calvin Peete followed him earlier this week and now Pete Brown's left us.
Brown was the first black golfer to win a PGA Tour event, beating Sir Tony Jacklin in a San Diego play-off.


On the bright side, weather in San Francisco this morning is definitely on the bright side, sunny with temps reaching the 70's.

I'm waiting for Mac to pop up and claim some sort of racist conspiracy.

They were just unlucky to pop into local police.

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree GPB, and hardly fair on Levy and Luiten to be stuck behind Hideki and Na - they might never finish.

They should have built Friday up to a climax but unfortunately there'll be some real clunkers in prime time. Strong suspicion, partly born of some silly golfchannel.com articles, that the Golf Channel didn't quite appreciate how this format was going to go down.

Plus: I wonder how they're going to filter any play-offs into the tee-time schedule?

On the plus side, and somewhat against the odds, there's no sign yet of any withdrawals.

 
The Leadoff group yesterday were Furyk and Jaidee.  Jaidee closed Furyk out on the 17th hole in 3 hours and 15 minutes

Kaymer and Coetzee were group #2.  They finished 18 holes in 3 hr 50 min.  They should have been on the clock.  JB Holmes (no speedster) and Henley were tailgating them.

Kaymer/Coetzee Holmes/Henley Koepka/Warren were 2nd, 3rd and 4th off the tee and they all had to go extra holes which pushed the tee times starting with Zach/Hoffman back 30 minutes.

They should have the later tee times with 12 or 15 minutes so they can squeeze the possible playoffs in between the tee times.

kwinigolfer wrote:Koepka and Reed in the field for Wentworth in 3 weeks, plus 15 other Top 50 golfers and about 20 more from the Top 100.

Hopefully Brooks will play the Irish Open

kwinigolfer wrote:On the plus side, and somewhat against the odds, there's no sign yet of any withdrawals.

It might be that they have something in the rules which penalises points and money if they withdraw before the last match as we've seen guys hit the tee shot and then concede in the old format to make sure it counted. We could still get some "ooh, ooh, I just tweaked something and have to concede" episodes and that might make it easier for extra holes and playoffs to be squeezed in.

Am I right in thinking that if Rose beats Palmer and Lahiri beats Leishman it will be a three way playoff between Rose, Lahiri, and Leishman as the head to head won't separate them?

I think so Grumps,

No runaways yet . . . . . .

And Mahan still to lose a hole.

I missed this earlier

@StephanieWei wrote:The @PGATOUR is revoking my credentials for rest of season because I used @periscopeco on Monday. Feels personal. #crimedoesntfitpunishment

Seems a bit harsh. I guess half naked on the front of golf digest is the only way women are allowed near mens gold these days?

What was Steph's "malfeasance"? Filming from the course??
Seems more than a wei bit harsh.
Considering you've got PGA Tour guys tweeting from the course all the time and it's the same company, it seems ridiculous. Can't imagine that the Tour's gestapo are wise to tangle with her. Certainly not on something so apparently trivial.
They'd be better off spending their time trying to fix their on-line leaderboard.

You seem a bit obsessed with this person Mac

I wonder if the Ryder Cup instinct in Justin Rose will persuade him to go out and cheer on Lahiri against Leishman? A Lahiri win is Rose's only chance and it's looking remote right now.

Horrible starts for Sergio & Westwood.

WTF is going on with TV coverage this week? OK I know it's West Coast so 8 hours time difference to us in the UK - but I think Wed/Thu coverage started at 9pm UK - I turned on Sky Sports at about 8:30 and thought it was live coverage a bit earlier - then realized it was highlights from the end of yesterday's coverage. Fair enough - until at 9pm the say they'd be back with live coverage at 10pm and now it's an hour of feckin fishing!

Looking at the (poor) online leaderboard, the first groups out are at hole 16 - Why no live coverage for another hour??

I'm sure our American friends would say that if other countries wanted proper TV coverage they'd better sponsor these things themselves.
As it is, golf fans are f*cked.

PS: English fans might want to know that Poults and Justin Rose are already in the bar.

I see Michael Campbell has retired officially, what a career! Amazing player on his day.

Am I correct in assuming it'll be 36 holes Saturday and Sunday for the winner?  Fitness could play a part if so.

Westwood down in 3.

Plummy Critchley has absolutely no idea what's going on. Painful commentary.

Hibbz wrote:Plummy Critchley has absolutely no idea what's going on. Painful commentary.

It is mistake after mistake with him, he has no excuses!

5 of the 8 through so far have come from pot 4 including Tommy Fleetwood and not one of them was a number 1 seed. So, what do we reckon that means for the format next year?

Easy to see why Horschel has struggled for results this year despite being so good from tee to green....His short game was poor failing to get it up and down on 18&19&20....


Who would have thought one of the dead rubbers will steal the headlines tomorrow after the Keegan and MAJ incident! Keegan kicked his bag yesterday so I'd say today's outburst is more of result of his poor form imo!

Not bad for England getting four thru to the last 16.
3 for the Saffers.
2 Aussies
5 Americans - not very good for them . . . . .
Rory & Hideki.
Continental Europe shut out.

Great win for Westwood vs Spieth, but imagine South Africa has the best batting average of countries with multiple entries.

Not sure that Saturday morning's matches will be on the box, not sure why anyone would think that's a good idea.

Lots being made of The Mechanic and Keegan Bradley getting into it, Miguel seemingly being cast as the villain of the peace. Not sure I agree when Keegan's caddie interjects, why shouldn't the opponent tell him to shut up? They'd likely prefer the situation where Daly and Dickliter told Faxon to F-off.

Bradley's caddie, Steve ("Pepsi") Hale has a Pepsi addiction and hides cans around the course so he doesn't have to carry them in the bag. Perhaps he was running short of caffeine, or perhaps overcaffeinated? Bottom line, just another MatchPlay loss for Bradley, he must be getting sick of them.

Tim Clark missing from The Players field, not sure yet if anyone else is absent. Martin Laird appears to be second alternate.

Willet is certainly having a year to be proud of so far. Wouldn't rule out an English win this week and no Yanks in the final, which will no doubt mean a media blockout.

super_realist wrote:Willet is certainly having a year to be proud of so far.

Agreed Super. This tournament he gets a minimum of $150,000 and 68.25 ranking points....however that computes....
I think if he just goes further than McIlroy he will be leading the R2D.

Don't know exactly what happened with Bradley, but MAJ will always be da man...

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/conversation-miguel-angel-jimenez?simple=1

The incident

MAJ vs Keegs:

For starters, a caddie should really know his place.  The self importance of caddies these days is becoming pretty tiresome.

Secondly, if a caddie talks to a Spanish person in a bad fake Spanish accent you would think "shut up" is one of the nicer possible responses.

I have never liked Bradley and suspect this is his spoiled brat coming through again, why would he react so badly to a playing partner trying to ensure you don't incur an unnecessary penalty for a bad drop.

Very strange indeed. I'm not a fan of Bradley and his affected autism either.

I suspect he's just another of the flash in the pan major winners like Dufner, Simpson, Hamilton and Curtis, but who'll do precious little else in their career.

super_realist wrote:You seem a bit obsessed with this person Mac

Super

What other golf journo's are worth reading these days? Most of them are just mouth pieces for the PGAT, at least Wei tries to do some proper journalism. Timmy is probably just a little scared that there is now someone out there who might actually hold him to account.


I wonder if golf digest will lose its credentials for posting a vine of the coverage. Surely that breaks some sort of highlights deal the broadcasts have with the PGAT?

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2015/05/keegan-bradley-jimenez-fight-matchplay.html

I've never been a fan of any golf journalism Mac, it's pretty turgid stuff, actually we probably share a greater insight here than we could possibly gleam from any so called journalist.

"Standing up for my man."? Is it a pub brawl?

MAJ is talking to the rules official and the caddie keeps on b!tching, eventually in a bad Spansh accent. Hopefully the caddie wakes up with a Cohiba up his behind.

Am I the only one just totally fed up with caddies? They shouldn't be seen and shouldn't be heard. I would prefer if we didn't even know their names.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Bradley's caddie, Steve ("Pepsi") Hale has a Pepsi addiction and hides cans around the course so he doesn't have to carry them in the bag. Perhaps he was running short of caffeine, or perhaps overcaffeinated?

He must've been on coke.

I hadn't heard the Spanish accent bit, what a moron? Pity Miguel didn't deck him.

Or, better still, just speak in Spanish throughout the whole affair.

As for The Players field, Kevin Stadler is also absent and there are reports that Victor Dubuisson will withdraw. Imagine that'll be the end of his Tour "membership".

kwinigolfer wrote:I'm sure our American friends would say that if other countries wanted proper TV coverage they'd better sponsor these things themselves.
As it is, golf fans are f*cked.

PS: English fans might want to know that Poults and Justin Rose are already in the bar.

Of course, you are right Kwin ... and you could buy your own station(s) ... make sure that you never show Tiger at any point in the broadcast, etc. Get off your wallets boys! Get that "proper" coverage everyone deserves.

Short of that, I suggest you invest in a DVR. Wonderful thing.

MAJ and Keegan would not be a fair fight.

Yes, Same as the Olympics Shotrock.
If you want to watch Live coverage make sure you've got Canadian TV on your cable, otherwise emigrate away from all the "tape delay" so beloved of NBC.
Unfortunately other sports, NHL apart, don't have the same cache north of the border!

Not sure how DVR helps enjoy live coverage, something else I've missed out on I suppose.


If Keegan's pre-punch routine is similar to his pre-golfshot behaviour, he'd be flat on his back before he landed a blow.

It's a cool day in San Francisco, still in the fifties.
All the matches close so far.
Waiting for someone to get hot, warm things up a bit.

Regardless of the weather, we don't need a pepsi...

Dyspepsia . . . . . . . . . never a match for a good cigar and a few

Not a well-played Par-4 for JB Holmes. Drive wide right, enormous shank, poleaxed a "patron" for his third and couldn't it the green with his fourth. Concession.

Elsewhere: Rory rolling.

I think we need to rejig this format. Who's all the no name, no marks in the quarter finals??? Three players from the number 4 pot and only one from the number 1 pot in the quarter finals so far.

How's about straight knock-out with a seed-free draw?

That would make for a great Wednesday . . . . . .

Bad round for the South Africans. Unfortunately.

Louis Oooh looking real good at the moment.

Yup, Wonderful shot on #18. He's sounding very confident - coming into top form at the best possible time.

Four British players, two sub-equatorial chaps and two Americans.


And, speaking of Match Play and guys who've found their form again: Woosnam is playing well again on the Champions Tour. Should have made The Masters cut, and now cashing decent cheques among the Seniors.

Sunset in San Francisco is 8.00 p.m., so the tournament must be assuming the matches won't go to extra holes.
Because starting so late is utterly moronic, I hope they all go overtime.

Tommy Fleetwood's the only quarter-finalist not in next week's Players Championship.
But he'll be OK when he wins the MatchPlay!

Whatever happens you'd have to think a win this afternoon will secure his place for the US Open (if he hasn't already done so) and St.Andrews.

Well, back at 6.45 a.m. PST. What ever did they expect. Morons. Come on Casey!

kwinigolfer wrote:How's about straight knock-out with a seed-free draw?

That would make for a great Wednesday . . . . . .

Na, it'll never work...