PGA Tour: "The Travelers Championship": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The golfers' charter flight from SeaTac to Hartford has landed, but the reverberations from last week's US Open at Chambers Bay continue. Most of us weren't at Chambers Bay, but some of us watched plenty of the action on TV. One armchair critic's thoughts about what was apparently something of a Marmite experience:

2).Whatever we think about the greens, the course, the spectating options, the whole damn thing, we saw a fantastic finish; unfortunately won in the end by the last man standing after his closest pursuers threw away their claims to the title, but Jordan Spieth is soooo consistent that, even after he looked to have thrown the tournament away on #17, he bounced back immediately.
Unfortunately Branden Grace couldn't do that and Dustin Johnson arguably putted for the win and wound up snatching defeat from the jaws of a play-off. A thriller though, energised by Rory's mid-round run and King Louis's birdie barrage.

3).Unfortunately from a GB point of view, with the exception of Rory our guys hardly showed up; no-one better than Fleetwood, Warren, Justin Rose and Jimmy Gunn, all tied for 27th.
Especially disappointing from Rose, who seemed to have attracted hecklers for his second tournament running, but even more so for the likes of McDowell and Donaldson who missed the cut completely, and Casey, Donald, Poulter and Westwood who were collectively 14 over par on a Sunday when there were "low rounds out there".

4).Congratulations to Shane Lowry who waddled on the fringe of contention all week long. He's increasingly becoming a presence in big tournaments on a certain type of course.
And congrat's to the Aussies and South Africans who each placed four golfers higher on the leaderboard than the leading Englishman, Scot or Welshman. Cameron Smith is a star in the making and what a coming out party, in America anyway, for Branden Grace.

5).I don't think anyone was helped by the strange confluence of a new venue that pretty much no-one had seen, and a rookie TV Network in Fox (for Golf anyway) who failed on just about every objective assessment of coverage. Just dreadful.
Now to look forward, in anticipation for Oakmont next year, and in dread to Erin Hills for 2017.

6).From a PGA Tour season standpoint, welcome FedEx points for Molinari and Westwood as they struggle to secure a Play-Off place.
Not so good from Donaldson, who badly needs a good result, and Donald and McDowell who are really struggling. Just a maximum of nine "Tour" events remaining and most Europeans will only be playing three or four of them. Donald and Molinari make their "Travelers" debut this week on a course that should definitely suit Frannie and will suit Luke if he can keep his tee ball straight.

7).Hartford's TPC River Highlands will be softened by a month of above average rainfall but weather for the tournament's first few days should be fine, if progressively cooler. The greens WILL be green, smooth and receptive so scores will be low on a course that doesn't really favour any particular type of golfer, despite being short; only Pebble Beach among courses the Tour plays is shorter.
Bubba has won here and should have won twice, Mahan too. Phil's won twice and Leishman once.
But shorter hitters like Streelman, Freddie Jac (hasn't played for a month; injured?) and Streelman have won here too, while Ryan Moore, Toms and Tim Clark probably should have. Very few local-ish boys, though JJ Henry (and Faxon) won here, and Keegan Bradley and his buddy Jon Curran are New Englanders.

8).Sergio finished second last year and is back for more, joined by Chambers Bay "contenders" Grace, Oosthuizen, Smith, Snedeker.
GPB has alerted us that sometime Travelers visitors Hoffman, Dufner and Poulter are joining Senden and Schwartzel on something more lucrative than a busman's holiday in Japan.
And GPB also reminds us that the Open Championship "alternate" list is compiled from the owgr placings of those not otherwise exempt. By my reckoning, and not being sure of the cut-off date for that, Hoffman and Kisner (who are both certain to qualify via the FedEx points list as at June 28th), and Molinari are the first three in that list, followed by Matt Jones, Luke Donald and Tim Clark.

9).There is a tract of land, mainly south-east of Hartford, which bears resemblance to the heathland area of Surrey (etc) that features so many outstanding courses; some hints of that on the front nine (terrain not quality) at The Travelers, but kinda surprising that there isn't a great heathland course in the area. Don't know if friend "Hogie" reads these notes but interested if he has any thoughts on that?

10).Finally the USGA and Fox TV are at it again this week, in Sacramento for the US Senior Open. Montgomerie defends his title.
I saw an interesting quote from one of the political advocates of Chambers Bay:
"Robert Trent Jones Jr (he of one leg longer than the other according to Gary Player!) made this for golf, not for the fans. He cared more about the course than the fan. But that's cool. All the rest of this makes it fan-friendly. So I say, just deal with it."
What a moron.
Well, I'm off to Hartford for Friday's play and everything about it will be fan- and player-friendly. Mike Davis keep away.

The only real player of note (or at least that I'm noting)  to make it in the OPEN via the 4 final qualifiers played today was Retief Goosen. Notable's who failed were Tom Lewis, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul Broadhurst, Daniel Chopra, Robert Rock, Colin Montgomerie, Nick O'Hern, Nick Dougherty & Thorbjorn Olesen. Vijay Singh who was entered at Gailes Links apparently did not try to qualify.

goldwolf will be pleased that Gary Boyd has qualified - what a month he's had!

A couple of likely lads from a few years ago have made it too, Dunwiddie and Pelle Edberg.

Great stuff from Retief!

robopz wrote:The only real player of note (or at least that I'm noting)  to make it in the OPEN via the 4 final qualifiers played today was Retief Goosen. Notable's who failed were Tom Lewis, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul Broadhurst, Daniel Chopra, Robert Rock, Colin Montgomerie, Nick O'Hern, Nick Dougherty & Thorbjorn Olesen. Vijay Singh who was entered at Gailes Links apparently did not try to qualify.

Vijay did that last year too, was supposed to be playing in front of a pal of mine, but never showed.

Thorbjorn Olesen, what's the deal with him? Came on the scene and was quietly muted as a potential big thing. Has had a couple of wins and really does look like an excellent player, I followed him a bit at the PGA at Wentworth this year and the 2012 Open at Lytham. But seems to be drifting into obscurity at the mo

There's been plenty Olesen's about though.

Is Tiger back?

He just hit every fairway and green on the front nine of the pro am. I don't want to read to much into this but we might well see his name atop the leaderboard come open sunday.

No

You know I was kidding right?

Considering your his lickspittle, I wouldn't be surprised if you are waiting with baited breath for a Nine Chins resurrection.