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.

Jordan Spieth lobbying for three rounds of stroke-play to determine the final 16 for straight match-play. Poor Jordan, there's so much that he doesn't understand about "World" "Match Play".

Meanwhile, the quarter-final between Casey and McIlroy should be on TV, starting at 6.45 a.m. PDT, 2.45 p.m. BST.

https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xta1/v/t42.1790-2/11118221_10152842498536398_882224852_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjM0NywicmxhIjo1MTJ9&rl=347&vabr=193&oh=5ec3796d3f1f69f13fbe1ab1ffa254f8&oe=5547CA13


A new video of MAJ vs Keegs.

The undercover pro's take on a caddies worth.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2015-05/undercover-tour-pro


There is an admission that any fool could do the yardage stuff but also acknowledgement that a caddie provides some sort of emotional crutch. Sound like Love sacks to me, but hey, cheap at 250K a year.

Also mention of caddies not being allowed in the clubhouse at PGAT events. Seems fair to me, as space will be limited and I would rather friends and family be allowed in, instead of caddies clogging up the space.

I also think their role is very much over-played. They don't seem to do much more than A) Carry a bag, B)Give yardage and club selection and C) A bit of encouragement/emotional support i.e. getting the player back on track following a bad hole.

I would actually like to see a tournament where there were no caddies permitted, players carry their own bag and do their own yardages. It's how we all do it.

Instead of groups of 4 they should have groups of 3 and play both matches the first day, with the group winner going through. That would eliminate the meaningless matches. Alternatively 2 of 4 should go through.

Couldn't hear pepsi's fake accent - but he should still shut up.

Super

I see the caddie as a sort of shaman character, peddling a pseudoscience of sorts. They have built an aura of their own worth and many have accepted this without asking for evidence.

Most Players are not super-humans. Nor are most caddies shamans. But when the going gets tough it's all about just havning somebody next to that you trust. That's an intangible you can't put a price tag on.

Mac,
Don't think anyone has ever tried to mandate that caddies should automatically have access to tournament site clubhouses. What they HAVE said is that they should have access to safe accommodation and not be stuck in the sort of tin-shack during electrical storms that we saw in Florida.

Cool but dry for Casey & McIlroy this morning. Come on Casey!

Casey looked like death warmed up. Unfortunate end to his tournament; wouldn't have happened if they'd started at a sensible time yesterday, but would've been interesting if he'd won and then had to play sick on Sunday.

Danny Willett off in a moment, Good Luck to him.

So when is the final kicking off? 6 pm local time?

Looks like the 3rd place match goes about 11.40 a.m., final at 11.55 a.m..
Hate the third place "consolation match", especially as it means so much in the various golf currencies. Two unmotivated golfers out there, but for Willett especially, a lot to gain, nothing to lose.

Imagine if we'd had a Woodland-Willett or Fleetwood-Senden final....
Lil Timmy would've had to pull a priceless poker face afterwards. At least they now got Rory.

Willett gets STM status if he beats Furyk.  About 60 FE pts from STM if he loses.

4th place this week plus a Top 15 finish this week in Jacksonville will be enough.

Rory needs to stop making bogeys, not making enough birds to compensate. Not until the final three holes anyway.

No emotion in this whatsoever, no pizzazz, almost no competition, very disappointing.

More interesting, and certainly more surprising, is Woosie contending in Houston. One back with 8 to play.

Kwini

Did you prefer the limited filed format of the Wentworth matchplay event?

Harding Park certainly a far superior course to Dove mountain and wentworth.

I preferred Wentworth, was always my favourite tournament for TV viewing. A course I'd pay the full green fee for.

I really do think the RR format was a miss. I found it to be a dull dull event.

The limited field of Wentworth was always a much better tournament imo, one of the best tournaments the European Tour had.

Mac,
I loved the Wentworth event and the 36-hole format. But that wouldn't work in the States. After this week, have to say I'm not sure what the answer is, no energy from the semi-final or final. Not good TV and crowds didn't seem that big either.
But think Harding Park looks a picture, would love to play it.

Not sure I mind the RR format in itself, I thought it made for some interesting permutations on Friday. Problem is, 64 players is simply far too many for a matchplay event. I mean four matches in two days? Slightly crazy stuff surely... Like Kwini, not sure what the solution is. Cut the field by half with the same format to play QF and SF on Saturday, final(s) only on Sunday? Agree that the final in particular felt like a damb squib, with both players too tired to produce their best golf.

On the plus side, there was some pretty good golf, the closing stages of the Furyk-McIlroy match particularly exciting. McIlroy a deserved winner, found the big shots when he needed them most (Furyk and Horschel matches in particular). Also, I will join in the general praise for the course: too many courses these days feel "samey", this one has a nice variety to it, and while it's not long there're enough difficulties to punish the mistakes. A great layout.

The crowds were terrible. Don't San Franciscan's like golf?

The TV was bad here in the UK due to the way sky covered the event. No on course commentator, too much Bruce Critchley, only 1 studio analyst (Beem, who was ok but he can't do it on his own) and just a general aura that they couldn't be bothered.

There were some good matches over the week that the media people could have spun into something more exciting. It is that sort of biased reporting that makes an event exciting for the fans. Just look at how excited people got over a couple of blokes punishing each other because the media intentionally built up the hype.

The final was poor, but only because Woodland lost the plot, and even then could have come back but didn't.

McLaren wrote:The crowds were terrible.  Don't San Franciscan's like golf?

The TV was bad here in the UK due to the way sky covered the event. No on course commentator, too much Bruce Critchley, only 1 studio analyst (Beem, who was ok but he can't do it on his own) and just a general aura that they couldn't be bothered.

There were some good matches over the week that the media people could have spun into something more exciting.  It is that sort of biased reporting that makes an event exciting for the fans.  Just look at how excited people got over a couple of blokes punishing each other because the media intentionally built up the hype.

The final was poor, but only because Woodland lost the plot, and even then could have come back but didn't.

Totally agree SKY's coverage was poor and they are usually brilliant! Critchley needs to go and McGinley is a better analyst than commentator.....Monty is missed!!

Beemer is a good analyst.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac,
I loved the Wentworth event and the 36-hole format. But that wouldn't work in the States. After this week, have to say I'm not sure what the answer is, no energy from the semi-final or final. Not good TV and crowds didn't seem that big either.
But think Harding Park looks a picture, would love to play it.

The Semis and Finals of this event always disappoint imo! and that's why I am glad there are few matchplay tournaments throughout the year.

Well done Rory.

And: Well done Woosie.
Bloody Hell! At least $.5M in his pocket the last couple of weeks.

As for the Match Play, can't imagine how they're going to refine it. Possibly just 32 golfers is the answer, but tough to take all that money out of 32 guys' pockets.

kwinigolfer wrote:Well done Rory.

And: Well done Woosie.
Bloody Hell! At least $.5M in his pocket the last couple of weeks.

As for the Match Play, can't imagine how they're going to refine it. Possibly just 32 golfers is the answer, but tough to take all that money out of 32 guys' pockets.

32 golfers is a good call, it feels as though it is too long.

Well at least the Players is next week, an incredible event!

Good and vital win for Pube Head. He needed it to keep daylight between him and Speef.

Americans simply aren't interested in Golf unless one of their poster boys is involved. There was a similar situation a few years back when two Brits were in the final (can't remember if it was Poulter, Donald or Casey)

They could/should do 64 but seed 16 and have those jump directly to the second stage. The bottom 48 would do round robin and 16 of those qualify for a new round robin with the 16 seeds. Each group should consist of 4 players and 2 advance, or alternatively of 3 players with one advancing.
Hereafter it's knock out.

This system would also please the top players who'd have to play less matches. (Yes, they need to be kissed up to.) But all players would be guaranteed at least two matches (or three depending on the group sizes.)

Money and owgr should of course reflect this system to avoid a bias in free money/owgr.

Having groups of 4 with just one advancing is daft.

Is there really all that much difference between the player ranked 10 and the player ranked 64 these days?


Only Rory, Spieth and maybe a couple of others should be considered a class above the rest of the top 50. So why bother creating privilege where it clearly isn't deserved.

Number 10 is Sergio (29 wins, 8 PGA), and number 64 is some guy called Matt Jones who has won ONE tournament in his entire 14 year pro life. So, yes, there's a massive difference between the top 10 and a 64th ranked player.

Maybe over the long term but within the top 64 clearly OWGR isn't a very good predictor of who will win a one off match. Other than the fact #1 won the event.

Confirmation that Dubuisson is definitely out of The Players, replaced in this week's field by Justin Thomas.
Here's hoping for one more withdrawal as Martin Laird is now first alternate and he's played very well there in recent years.

Mac, out of the last 8, only 2 were inside the top 30 (Furyk, Rory). Rory had some pretty close matches and could just as well have been eliminated.

In principle I agree that the top players shouldn't have privileges. On the other hand TV ratings and sponsors (and fans) decide if this tournament will survive or not. Everybody (bar super_realist) wants to see the big names. And I guess we wouldn't want a European Tour regime where you'd have to pay a hefty appearance fee just to have top players show up? Already now we see some top players not bothering.

They also tweaked the Champions League and the CL qualification by seeding some teams. Same same for the Euros.

But having groups of 4 with only one player advancing is a definite no go.

In the ideal world I agree things should look different. But unfortunately we live in the real world. My proposal of having seeds jump directly in the second stage is not a bad one. And in fact, if I remember correctly, they tried it for the old Volvo event once?

Agree re Fowler! But not neccessarily re Bubba.
And wouldn't say Poulter is rated at all.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/survey-fowler-poulter-most-overrated-tour-players/?cid=golfchannel_majorshomepage_the_players_championship_latestnews_position_6_link_1

Overrated by who and in what context?

Although whatever the scenario Fowler gets my vote.

Kwini

What do you make of the random Players groupings?

No comment.

And those surveys are just an unattributed way for players to slag off those they don't much care for. A bit like the anti-Patrick Reed/Bubba Watson/Roary Sabbatini nonsense.

The media works in curious ways.

Why the snark about PGATour featured pairings are random?

They're not, and no one at PGATour HQ claims that they are.

But I can tell you that Davis Love III is not making the pairings.

Is Sepp Blatter making the Players pairings?

Agree that the "overrated vote" to some extent is a popularity vote. Apart from Fowler that is.
I can't understand how a world no.4 and twice Masters champ can be overrated (Bubba). Jerk? Yes. But overrated? Hardly.

Michelle Wie is very over-rated.

super_realist wrote:Michelle Wie is very over-rated.

She has more majors than Casey, Donald, Westwood, Poulter, Stenson, Garcia and Monty MAJ combined.

So what, so do Dufner, Simpson, Johnson, Hamilton and Curtis, but it doesn't make them great players or better than the players you mentioned.

Wie, alongside Fowler are clearly two of the most over-rated players ever to pick up a club.

McLaren wrote:

super_realist wrote:Michelle Wie is very over-rated.

She has more majors than Casey, Donald, Westwood, Poulter, Stenson, Garcia and Monty combined.

Ummm.. If you're saying a major is a major regardless of the tour it's on, then Monty has a major

True that bob. edit coming.

I'd tend to agree. Wie is massively over-rated. She certainly was when she started out and that negative aura hasn't gone away. There's no way she's as good, or has won as much, as she was being hyped up to have done. Ergo, she's over-rated.

navyblueshorts wrote:I'd tend to agree. Wie is massively over-rated. She certainly was when she started out and that negative aura hasn't gone away. There's no way she's as good, or has won as much, as she was being hyped up to have done. Ergo, she's over-rated.

Although we should be mindful of who does the over-rating. A player can't control the press and so can't be blamed for being built up bigger than their talent level. If they do it themselves through word or deed, then they are fair game. Certainly in the early days, Wie and/or her team seemed to think she was going to be extraordinary, evidenced by her entering PGA events and the like, which clearly back fired.

We should also differentiate between being very marketable (Wie, Fowler, etc.) and being over-rated. A golfer being in the public eye a lot is not necessarily the same thing as saying they are going to be a world beater.

super_realist wrote:So what, so do Dufner, Simpson, Johnson, Hamilton and Curtis, but it doesn't make them great players or better than the players you mentioned.

Wie, alongside Fowler are clearly two of the most over-rated players ever to pick up a club.

Dufner, Simpson, Johnson and Curtis are class players....3 of those 4 were in the top 10 at some point in their careers, if memory serves me. Three of them have been on more than more than one American team.

Dufner, Simpson, Johnson are all great golfers and Curtis on his day was one of the best putters you'll see.

And they have the balls to win a major, something Garcia, Poulter, Casey, Donald will never have.

Curtis has been on two RC teams and have several PGATour wins. If anything, Curtis is/was underrated.
Hamilton may have faded into oblivity but before hsi Open win he had multiple wins on the Asian Tour and won their OOM IIRC.
The only true one hit wonder was Micheel, although he carded a few Major top 10s later on.

pedro wrote:Curtis has been on two RC teams and have several PGATour wins. If anything, Curtis is/was underrated.
Hamilton may have faded into oblivity but before hsi Open win he had multiple wins on the Asian Tour and won their OOM IIRC.
The only true one hit wonder was Micheel, although he carded a few Major top 10s later on.

I would agree with that Curtis has also finished second in the PGA! I am a Curtis fan