PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Say what you like about St.Andrews, but it certainly offered up an absorbing Open Championship. Lots about the course etc elsewhere, but when will The Open return to St.Andrews?
Current plans:
2016: Troon
2017: Birkdale
2018: Carnoustie
2019?
2020?
2021: Is there an increasing buzz that TOC will get the 150th Open in 2021, after a 6 year gap?
Presumably Portrush will get 2019 or 2020, but what about the other opening? Not Trump Turnberry surely? Hopefully RSG, which would seem to be next in line otherwise.

2).And congratulations to Zach Johnson. He may have lost his "Fifth Major" to Spieth last week but sure he's happy with the way things turned out.

3).This win should pretty much assure Zach of a seat on the plane to South Korea for this autumn's Presidents Cup. As well as a healthy leg up on Ryder Cup qualification for 2016.

4).Up to date Top Ten in Team qualification lists for Presidents Cup duty:
~US Team: Spieth, Walker, Watson, ZJohnson, DJohnson, Reed, Furyk, Kirk (still out with a broken hand, not clear when he'll return), Kuchar, Fowler. Then Holmes, Hoffman, Horschel, Snedeker.

~International Team: Day, Scott, Oosthuizen, Matsuyama, Grace, Leishman, Jaidee, Schwartzel, Senden, Ben An. Then Lahiri, Bowditch, Coetzee, Danny Lee.  
It looks more like a US walkover the more you look at it. Plus they'll be playing, yawn, on a Nicklaus design.

5).And, talking of Nicklaus designed courses, that's exactly what we have in Oh Canada, at Glen Abbey, about 40 miles West of Toronto. Thanks to the RBC "Ambassadors", there's a decent field, with a charter bringing yesterday's Open participants across the Atlantic.
But sadly no Mike Weir who has surely lost any chance to be the first Canadian-born winner for almost forever. His back-nine meltdown and subsequent play-off loss in 2004, to Vijay, was about the saddest thing I've seen in Golf, in many ways the end of Mike Weir's career as a top-level competitor. The British Press can bang on about no English winner of The Open since Faldo, but Canada is soooo proud of its sportsmen and women that their lack of a National Champion is felt far more keenly.
And, despite the promise of guys like DeLaet, Hearn and Hadwin, there's no obvious successor to Weir waiting in the wings. Perhaps DeLaet can be suitably inspired this week. He was 7th in Montreal last year, but Glen Abbey is a different type of course entirely. Wouldn't want to put you off though, he was playing really well a month ago in Hartford.

6).Scott Piercy won the 2012 Canadian Open and warmed up for this week's event by winning the Barbasol Championship last week in Alabama. He was the class of the field on the course but what an ass to gush, "I played great but the greens were lousy" in his brief 18th green interview. Never liked Piercy, like him even less now. Hopefully there'll be a stronger field to reward sponsors and fans alike next year.

7).Snedeker won the last time we were at Glen Abbey, after 36-hole leader Hunter Mahan was summoned from the practice range while warming up for Round 3 to rush to Dallas for the birth of his first child. Sneds called in sick with a hip problem this week, but the 2015 Hunner is not quite playing the quality of golf that the 2013 model was churning out. But making The Open cut showed signs of life, so there's chance for redemption.

8).For much of the season I've been suggesting 500 FedEx points would be the minimum to earn a spot in the Play-Offs. Perhaps that is setting the bar too high, let's go for 475, but a dozen top names will still find that a challenge: "Notables", with points to date:
453: Westwood
435: Goosen
432: Overton
427: Donaldson
414: Donald
410: Compton
368: Schwartzel
350: Ogilvy
346: Ishikawa
337: Villegas
320: Vegas
313: Badds
292: Blixt
269: McDowell
268: Freddie Jac (believed to be injured, not confirmed, but hasn't played for 2 months)
261: Kaymer
Etc, etc. Cabrera, Els, Gonzo, Davis, Stricker, Allenby, Woods, Leonard.
In some cases this is career-threatening, potentially leaving players with no status for 2015/16 unless they go through the web.com Finals minefield. Overton would be one of those, Donaldson, Compton, Ishikawa too.

9).The owgr Top 50 after "Canada" qualify for the WGC-Bridgestone, as do the Top 50 on August 3rd.

10).Monday saw Zach Johnson win for the 12th time on Tour, the most of anyone not called Woods under the age of 40. As an epitaph to Monday's win, I'll repeat Steve Williams' words from his recent Golf Digest interview:
"Some players can't be intimidated. Zach Johnson is at the top of that list. He knows his game, its strengths and limitations, and he trusts it. There isn't a person or situation that is going to make him play beyond his capabilities or take risks he shouldn't take. In fact, he'll embrace who he is even more and relish the challenge of beating someone with a bigger game. It doesn't mean Zach will win every time, it just means he won't lose because of the guy standing across from him."
And now that list includes Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen.
Well done Zach.

#58 GMac already in B-Stone

Depending on results in Switzerland, Luke probably needs at least a solo 5th to get inside the top 50.

Surprised Lahiri is already outside the Top 10 in PC standings. I thought he was nearly a lock to get in after winning two events earlier this year.

I have feeling that Jay Haas really wants to see Bill move up in the standings.  if he is picked as a Wildcard (and not #11 or #12 on the list) it will reek of nepotism.

Got to think Players Champ Fowler will be a pick if he falls out of the top 10.  I have no desire to JB Holmes in Korea.

I hope both Woods and Mickelson are completely OFF THE RADAR!

And #66 Stephen Gallacher also qualified for Bridgestone!

Bill Haas's form recently has been dreadful, hasn't made a cut since Memorial.

and Wilcox has W/D.  along with Sneds and Carl Pettersson.

Cheers Kwini

The RBC Ambassadors team could probably have a good go at beating most RC or PC teams.

The comment about ZJ is something all us amateurs should take to heart - I cost myself about 4 shots a round taking on things I really shouldn't because if I was honest with myself, I don't really have the ability. But you know, I occasionally fluke pull them off, so I go back for more.

Thanks once again Kwini. Interesting comment from Williams re. Zach and certainly appears to be borne out by events.

Bob_the_Job wrote:...I cost myself about 4 shots a round taking on things I really shouldn't because if I was honest with myself, I don't really have the ability.  But you know, I occasionally fluke pull them off, so I go back for more.

Isn't that the truth? I can see it now:

"Ah ha. I can pull off this 3-iron from heavy rough with a big fade around the huge stand of oak trees to the water-protected green from 200 yards out. I did it once before, you know, before the wheel was invented so it's definitely the right play. What do you mean 'Every other time you've run up a snowman on this hole'????"

You know the old adage, "Don't try and follow a poor shot with a perfect one".

Zach Johnson probably has one of the better Ryder Cup records (6 - 6 - 2) also of the recent crop of American golfers. Ironic that he didn't play in Azinger's Valhalla team.

GolfWorld is reporting that the USGA is close to announcing the venues for the US Opens of 2022, 2023, 2024. The future sites include:
2016: Oakmont
2017: Erin Hills, a new course in Wisconsin, (anther Chambers Bay?).
2018: Shinnecock
2019: Pebble Beach
2020: Winged Foot
2021: Torrey Pines
And speculated:
2022: The Country Club, Brookline Massachusetts, site of Curtis Strange victory #1 (in an 18-hole play-off with sirnick), over-exuberance by Tom Lehman and the rest of the 1999 US Ryder Cup Team.
2023: LA Country Club (North Course)
2024: Pinehurst #2.

Very much East Coast and West Coast venues, not much for the "Heartland", just like the PGA Tour.

Quite a decent field considering it's the week after the Open! I suppose who it is sponsored by helps get players!

Interesting news from golfchannel.com that Sang Moon Bae has lost his appeal against a two-year South Korean military call-up and will be lost to the Tour for, presumably, two years some time in the next few years.
I imagine the Tour will treat his absence the same as a Major Medical Exemption, but that is apparently yet to be determined.

No doubt other South Korean youngsters on Tour will be watching developments with concern/trepidation.

kwinigolfer wrote:Interesting news from golfchannel.com that Sang Moon Bae has lost his appeal against a two-year South Korean military call-up and will be lost to the Tour for, presumably, two years some time in the next few years.
I imagine the Tour will treat his absence the same as a Major Medical Exemption, but that is apparently yet to be determined.

No doubt other South Korean youngsters on Tour will be watching developments with concern/trepidation.

Here's a link:
http://www.bunkered.co.uk/…/sang-moon-bae-loses-legal-battle

Thanks LP,
Here's one for you - perhaps you have a putter in this collection? Very cool:

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2015/07/21/ping-gold-putter-vault.html

I guess my old faithful Tommy Armour won't make it in.

Some cool stats on the pgatour.com web page.

~ Daniel Summerhays has made 715 out of 715 putts within 3 feet on Tour this year. Bet he could sell one of those to Adam Scott.

~Eight players of the 30 who have reached the Play-Offs every year of the FedEx extravaganza are currently on the outside (of the top 125) looking in:
Els, Ogilvy, KJ Choi, Brian Davis, Freddie Jac, Badds, Van Pelt and Stricker.

I'd say even money none of them make it this year.

kwinigolfer wrote:

Very much East Coast and West Coast venues, not much for the "Heartland", just like the PGA Tour.

One US Open in the Central and Mountain Time Zones from 2004-2024

GPB,
Hope you noticed that JB is still first alternate, not yet in the tournament.

Should've added Brad Fritsch to the golfers that will surely punch above his weight, not just this week, but most weeks. Very unlucky to have lost his Tour card a few years ago, still highly competitive when ball striking is at a premium.

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:

Very much East Coast and West Coast venues, not much for the "Heartland", just like the PGA Tour.

One US Open in the Central and Mountain Time Zones from 2004-2024

Isn't that just because that's where the best golf courses are? And also where everyone lives?

In the UK we have to put up with our biggest event being held in the middle of nowhere most years. Only Royal Liverpool and Muirfield close to population centres.

Kwini, what about a US open at Sand Hills, Dismal River or Ballyneal? They are both pretty central.

Only partly, ray.
Another part is that the PGA has snaffled some sites for PGA Championship/Ryder Cup, e.g. Hazeltine, Medinah, Oakland Hills (still can't for the life of me understand why this has slipped off US Open radar).

Mac,
Sand Hills and Dismal River are in the middle of nowhere, non-starters really, however good they are. Hadn't heard of Ballyneal so had to google it; but the USGA seemed to have abandoned Denver as a venue when it chose not to return to Cherry Hills.


Bubba the early leader at Glen Abbey - where does he think this is? Hartford?? His wife is a local girl so perhaps the Canadians can claim Bubba as one of theirs?

raycastleunited wrote:

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:

Very much East Coast and West Coast venues, not much for the "Heartland", just like the PGA Tour.

One US Open in the Central and Mountain Time Zones from 2004-2024

Isn't that just because that's where the best golf courses are? And also where everyone lives?

In the UK we have to put up with our biggest event being held in the middle of nowhere most years. Only Royal Liverpool and Muirfield close to population centres.

Eh? Birkdale, St. Andrews, Lytham and Carnoustie are hardly in the middle of nowhere.

I'd say Troon, Turnberry and Sandwich were a good bit more remote though

Kwini

I was just messing when suggesting those locations, as two of them are Doak courses. Being sensible what venues would you suggest for major use that are in the middle of the country?


Super

St Andrews and Carnoustie are in the middle of nowhere. As far as I can tell everything north of Edinburgh is a bit of a s**t hole.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
Hope you noticed that JB is still first alternate, not yet in the tournament.

Should've added Brad Fritsch to the golfers that will surely punch above his weight, not just this week, but most weeks. Very unlucky to have lost his Tour card a few years ago, still highly competitive when ball striking is at a premium.

Wish I had seen this post last night!  ARGGH.  There was no notation at DKings and I didn't confirm.  Only on one of my teams though in DK.

raycastleunited wrote:Isn't that just because that's where the best golf courses are? And also where everyone lives? you

Let me edit that for you.

"..Isn't that just because that's where the best lobbyists are? "


Plenty of good golf courses in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma.


But the money is concentrated on the Coasts.

Nice start from Emiliano Grillo.
He hit the ball nicely last week, but his putting semed to hold him back. Proving he can play on the PGA Tour though.

Ryan Ruffels playing well also, yet another child-of-tennis-pro doing well on the Golfing Tours.

Not so good for Luke Donald and McDowell though . . . . . . .

Robert Allenby and his caddie parted ways halfway through todays round.

http://scoregolf.com/blog/jason-logan/crazy-day-for-allenby-at-rbc-canadian-open/

Not sure if Allenby remembers the incident.

GPB wrote:Robert Allenby and his caddie parted ways halfway through todays round.

http://scoregolf.com/blog/jason-logan/crazy-day-for-allenby-at-rbc-canadian-open/

Not sure if Allenby remembers the incident.

I've always thought that you should never be rude to your caddy. I would love to see Gerald Watson's caddy throw his bag in the lake for all the abuse he gets.

Do the caddies have any sort of a union to protect their rights? Seems they get treated quite badly

Would love to see a caddy go postal, snap all the clubs, throw all the balls away etc

I remember getting some criticism for suggesting Allenby was a bit of tool after his strip club robbery episode, maybe now some others will join me in this sentiment.

Mac,
You conveniently forget that most of Allenby's account of his Hawaiian adventure turned out to be more or less factual.
Big picture is that Allenby needs to get a handle on his career, almost certainly going to lose his card, again, and just one career earnings exemption remaining.


Scoring this morning at Glen Abbey is lights out - cut just about to go from -2 to -3, will possibly go to -4. Watch out Luke, Laird. McDowell likely to get the weekend off.

It looks like the only thing that might get Luke into the weekend is that three amateurs are inside the Cutline.

So the cut will be 73 and ties. (if Ruffles stays inside the cutline this afternoon)

I would think the Donald has gone.
Wish the other one would.

Can't see Luuuke playing again apart from the PGA Championship - unless he has a huuuge week there, he'll sit at home for the Play-Offs, or hopefully play some Ryder Cup point-earning events in Europe.

Amateur Loophole cut rule in effect.

91 players make the cut.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mac,
You conveniently forget that most of Allenby's account of his Hawaiian adventure turned out to be more or less factual.
Big picture is that Allenby needs to get a handle on his career, almost certainly going to lose his card, again, and just one career earnings exemption remaining.

Hawaii 5-0 put his own butt in the grease by starting the whole thing off with that fantastic story about getting kidnapped, thrown in a trunk of a car and carted some miles off, but I don't remember much. How in the heck can one expect the media to leave that dangling side of raw meat alone.  Of course they're gonna try to "fill in the blanks"... and likely to go with any story anybody tells them.... like the people who told them about Allenby being in the strip club... which was totally believable as the area it all went down is in the middle of the "carnal knowledge" district of Honolulu...

Bottom line:  Allenby has nobody to blame but himself for the way the story went down... because HE started it.  It wouldn't have been flattering, but if he'd just said been honest and said "I got $**t-faced, and got myself rolled, but being drunk and konked on the head, can't really fill in many of the other details."... it would have still been a story, but not near the extent it was.

Where is everyone today?

On the Allenby stuff, does anyone know about the other instances where a caddie has abandoned his bag mid way through a round? It has been mentioned in several sources that this is not the first time it has happened.


Robo

Did we ever learn the truth about Allenby's Hawaii adventure?

Either way, treating people that work for you like dog turd is pretty good indicator of your character.

McLaren wrote:Robo

Did we ever learn the truth about Allenby's Hawaii adventure?

Never learned for sure what happened that night. Other than we know Robert ended up with a helluva scrape on his face and someone eventually got busted (and later plead guilty) for a unlawful use of Allenby's credit card. But beyond that who knows. We probably have the truth... if we just knew which of the varied elements of the story to believe. About the only thing that's been entirely discredited, is he wasn't thrown into the trunk of a car and carted off somewhere... beyond that... maybe he did or didn't get rolled... maybe did or didn't go to strip clubs... maybe did or didn't fall drunk on his face and injure himself...

Mac,
Some guy got indicted for robbing Allenby; not sure whether he's been convicted or not.

There certainly have been plenty of tales of man bites dog, caddie fires Pro. Can't recall specifics but sure one or two will come to mind soon.

Pretty good leaderboard in Oh Canada; have missed most of the first three days action, but looking forward to tomorrow. Hoping Brooks Koepka wins.

And: Mac! Your "little kid who runs home to his mummy" is in good shape in Switzerland. Certainly done more on the sporting front than most of us will ever do in our lifetimes and not yet 21. Two Sheffield lads in the final twosome.

Not a very distinguished field for this coming week's Quicken Loans Championship; Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Jimmy Walker and not much else.

But there ARE some European Tourists, Stephen Gallacher and Andy Sullivan so, with the usual USA-based suspects, means a numerically strong European challenge: never mind the quality, feel the width.

kwinigolfer wrote:Not a very distinguished field for this coming week's Quicken Loans Championship; Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Jimmy Walker and not much else.

But there ARE some European Tourists, Stephen Gallacher and Andy Sullivan so, with the usual USA-based suspects, means a numerically strong European challenge: never mind the quality, feel the width.

Yeah... not too good a field. Preliminary looks to be around a 38... not as bad as I expected or this date... but nowhere near the mid to high 40's this event has gotten in prior years. Next year they might get a break though... with the wacky summer schedule due to the Olympics in 2016... Travelers is moving to August (week after the PGA)... so it appears either Greenbrier or Quicken Loan's will move into the first spot of the 3 events between the U.S. & British Open's. Of the three weeks between the two majors, I'd have to think the first one would have the best chance of drawing the most quality field.

I hope The Travelers has a promise of a return to its late June date. It looks like a move of convenience for the Tour, but probably also for The Travelers as they will be doing a ton of work on the course and could probably use the extra six weeks. (Although they may well lose some Olympics-bound players.)

kwinigolfer wrote:There certainly have been plenty of tales of man bites dog, caddie fires Pro. Can't recall specifics but sure one or two will come to mind soon.

Sure Kwini... caddie changes happen probably every week... but for 4 caddies to quit mid round on a guy? That's beyond ridiculous. Vijay used to go through caddies like popcorn, but even with him I don't recall any walking off mid round.

As far as Allenby... Here are two of the other three time's Allenby has been left "holding the bag"...

1995 Michael Waite quit on him during the 1995 Open Championship at St Andrews. Waite literally threw Allenby's bag in disgust at being berated. Walked away, then thought again and met Allenby at the green and said he was a professional, so he'd finish out the round. And he did, but that was it between them.

At the 2007 BMW Championship Matthew Tritton walked off around the 7th or 8th hole...

One of the recent ones I can think of involving another player was with Brian Stuard. His caddie walked off with about 6 holes to play in Reno last year. Don't remember the details of the disagreement, if I ever did hear it.

Yeah, Don't doubt the stories about Allenby, but have enjoyed following him on course on a few occasions and never seen a peep. In this most recent case another caddie in the threesome has also spoken out against Allenby.
All a different part of the picture from that painted by his history of support/inspiration to Jarrod Lyle. Hope that relationship at least survives.

kwinigolfer wrote:I hope The Travelers has a promise of a return to its late June date. It looks like a move of convenience for the Tour, but probably also for The Travelers as they will be doing a ton of work on the course and could probably use the extra six weeks. (Although they may well lose some Olympics-bound players.)

Not sure what the Travelers deal is, but I'd bet they get their date back after next year, especially on the heals of their mega-long sponsorship renewal with Travelers (through 2024). And yeah, they need the extra time to grown in some of their course work, so moving back 6 weeks should help them.

But as for next year's field... probably gonna be tough for the Travelers. Schedule will PGA Championship, Travelers, Olympics, WGC Bridgestone. The good thing for the Travelers though is only 4 American's can get in the Olympics, and beyond that they probably only lose at max maybe a dozen other international PGAT players who would be likely to play Travelers anyway.... but they might pick up some of the American based dual tour players who will be back in the states to play the PGA...

kwinigolfer wrote:Yeah, Don't doubt the stories about Allenby, but have enjoyed following him on course on a few occasions and never seen a peep. In this most recent case another caddie in the threesome has also spoken out against Allenby.
All a different part of the picture from that painted by his history of support/inspiration to Jarrod Lyle. Hope that relationship at least survives.

Allenby's an enigma. Totally dedicated to charity and other good works... said to be loyal to a fault to his friends... shirt off his back kind of guy. But then on the other side of the coin, super competitive, self centered while out on tour... easy to set off and totally loses his $**t... and pisses everybody off sooner or later.

Allenby is scheduled to play next week's Quicken Loans event, so hopefully he'll be on his best behaviour and show form that does his talent justice. Wonder who'll be caddying??!!

Meanwhile, Luke Donald escaped the MDF indignity by the skin of his teeth last night and goes again in Round 4 shortly. Time to take advantage of his reprieve as every single FedEx point is a step towards the Play-Offs. Not looking good for Luke in that regard and considering he may only be playing the PGA Championship after this, he needs a miracle.

Brian Davis too, but encouraging form from him yesterday and more of the same today please. Staying in the Top 150 would be a giant step at this stage as that would grant him "conditional status" at least.

Should be a fine day at Glen Abbey with a Canadian leading the way. So far.

On the gold ping putters - heard a story a few years ago about Mark James. Well ahead after 3 rounds allegedly changed his putter for a ping one about the size of a brick for round 4. You can take a man out of Yorkshire .....................!!

!!!!

Do I see a TEN on Westwood's Crans card? Rather sums up his year.

Have a heart Kwini, it was a par 5!! Only 5 over on that hole for the week, which given his par 5 performance recently ain't that bad! Hey ho!

And, talking of Par-5 scoring, another poor day at the office so far from Luke Donald as he bogeys the Par-5 13th leaving him one under par on the 4 x Par-5's this week.
In his heyday, Luke was among the very best in Par-5 scoring. After this week's wasted weekend he'll be close to middle of the pack.
The times they are a-changing.