PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

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.

I believe Lahiri's solo 5th in Switzerland was just enough to get inside the top 50 and invite to Akron Ohio.  (If he didn't already have an invite)

Lahiri is already in.
Fleetwood out and his season is starting to go south with two big cuts missed on the number.

Bradley & Simpson starting to hear that great sucking sound as they slip towards the Top 50 exit whirlpool.

Yep, Lahiri already was in, But Senden is not qualified and he was just nudged out by Anirban.

He is playing QL this week though.  He is about the 6th highest ranked player at QL, wonder if he will get one of the featured Tee times.

Apparently neither of Andy Sullivan's wins earlier this year were enough to get him qualified, so he has to have a good week in Washington DC to play in Akron.

GPB wrote:Apparently neither of Andy Sullivan's wins earlier this year were enough to get him qualified, so he has to have a good week in Washington DC to play in Akron.

GPB, this is what it says on the WGC website regards the Bridgestone.
Tournament winners, whose victories are considered official, of tournaments from the Federation Tours since the prior year’s Bridgestone Invitational (with an Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating of 115 points or more).
Are you saying that Andy's wins didn't meet the threshold?

I'm never wrong wrote:

GPB wrote:Apparently neither of Andy Sullivan's wins earlier this year were enough to get him qualified, so he has to have a good week in Washington DC to play in Akron.

GPB, this is what it says on the WGC website regards the Bridgestone.
Tournament winners, whose victories are considered official, of tournaments from the Federation Tours since the prior year’s Bridgestone Invitational (with an Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating of 115 points or more).
Are you saying that Andy's wins didn't meet the threshold?

Neither of Sullivan's wins qualified him for the WGC Bridgestone... Joburg had a field strength of 40 (or the minimum 19 co-sanction points to the winner)... and the S.A. Open... while a flagship event and worth 32 points to the winner, it was still only a SOF of 49.

Okey Dokey. Thanks.

But the good thing is that a Top 10 next week should be enough to get Sullivan in.

Hope he does.

Jack Nicklaus had seven, SEVEN!, runner up finishes here without ever winning. Choker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going birdie, birdie, birdie to finish is going to do wonders for your scorecard.

Wonderful win for Jason Day; didn't think he had it in him, not yet anyway, to win in that kind of style.
Five Bubba birds in his final six holes too.

Fantastic finish from Jason Day!

Brilliant end to the tournament with Bubba fighting his way back in!

Great putt to finish - 13% make probability and he rolled it in dead centre. Well deserved win from a gutsy player.

But you can see the catch 22 that exists in golf - I wonder if he'd had that putt, or needed a second place to secure his playing privileges would he have hit it so firmly and confidently? In some ways it's easier for the big names because they're financially and playing rights secure...but then I guess they got to be like that by being very good.

Agreed Bob. He was fortunate that he had almost exactly the same putt to win The Open last week and left it in the jaws.
Thing in my mind with Day is that this was the first stroke-play tournament he'd closed out in style. Perhaps it'll be a sign that he's ready to take the Major that he's been threatening to do for a few years.
Brilliant finish also by Bubba; incredible shot into #18, just too long as it turned out.

Was the course at altitude? Day apparently hit a couple of drives nearly 390 yards, that seems ridiculous if not in thin air.

Not really. Right by Lake Ontario. Those drives were downwind and downhill on a pretty firm fairway. But still very looooong.

2015-16 PGA Tour Schedule....  Confirmed but not official (except where indicated or noted with ???)...
Sheesh... the Olympics really throws things into disarray...  

1 - Oct 15-18 - Frys.com Open
2 - Oct 22-25 - Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
3 - Oct 29-Nov 1 - CIMB Classic
4a - Nov 5-8 - WGC-HSBC CHAMPIONS
4b - Nov 5-8 - Alt - Sanderson Farms Championship
5 - Nov 12-15 - OHL Classic at Mayakoba
6 - Nov 19-22 - McGladrey Classic
??? - December - Possible new official event TBA ???
- - - -
7 - Jan 7-10 - Hyundai Tournament of Champions
8 - Jan 14-17 - Sony Open in Hawaii
9 - Jan 21-24 - CareerBuilder Challenge (Bob Hope)
10 - Jan 28-31 - Farmers Insurance Open
11 - Feb 4-7 - Waste Management Phoenix Open
12 - Feb 11-14 - AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
13 - Feb 18-21 - Northern Trust Open
14 - Feb 25-28 - The Honda Classic
15a - Mar 2-6 - WGC-CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIP
15b - Mar 2-6 - Alternate event TBA ???
16 - Mar 10-13 - Valspar Championship
17 - Mar 17-20 - Arnold Palmer Invitational
18a - Mar 23-27 - WGC DELL MATCH PLAY
18b - Mar 23-27 - Alt - Puerto Rico Open
19 - Mar 31-Apr 3 - Shell Houston Open
20 - Apr 7-10 - MASTERS TOURNAMENT
21 - Apr 14-17 - RBC Heritage
22 - Apr 21-24 - Valero Texas Open
23 - Apr 28-May1 - Zurich Classic of New Orleans
24 - May 5-8 - Wells Fargo Championship
25 - May 12-15 - THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
26 - May 19-22 - AT&T Byron Nelson
27 - May 26-29 - Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
28 - Jun 2-5 - The Memorial Tournament
29 - Jun 9-12 - FedEx St. Jude Classic
30 - Jun 16-19 - U.S. OPEN
31 - Jun 23-25 - Quicken Loans National
32a - Jun 30-Jul 3 - WGC BRIDGESTONE
32b - Jun 30-Jul 3 - Alt - Barracuda Championship
33 - Jul 7-10 - Greenbrier Classic
34a - Jul 14-17 - THE OPEN (British Open)
34b - Jul 14-17 - Alt - Barbasol Championship
35 - Jul 21-24 - RBC Canadian Open
36 - Jul 28-31 - PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
37 - Aug 4-7 - Travelers Championship
38a - Aug 11-14 - MEN'S OLYMPICS
38b - Aug 11-14 - John Deere Classic
39 - Aug 18-21 - Wyndham Championship
40 - Aug 25-28 - The Barclays
41 - Sept 2-5 - Deutsche Bank Championship
42a - Sept 8-11 - BMW Championship or Open Week
42b - Sept 15-18 - BMW Championship or Open Week
43 - Sept 22-25 - Tour Championship
44 - Sep 30-Oct 2 - Ryder Cup

Thanks robo,
Looks good.
Some inside-page headliners for me, mostly concerning Zach Johnson!
~McGladrey's date seems to get later and dangerously later.
~Zach may also be conflicted in his ambitions Aug 11th - 14th, JDC and USA Olympics.
~Greenbrier getting squeezed, Quicken Loans too - two highly marginal tournaments in my book, can't see why Quicken wouldn't shift their tournament to Detroit.
~Possible new event in December? In Mexico do you think? Or would that be a candidate for the opposite field event in March? Possibly one or the other anyway.

Busy busy, and especially busy busy for double-dippers.

kwinigolfer wrote:Thanks robo,
Looks good.
Some inside-page headliners for me, mostly concerning Zach Johnson!
~McGladrey's date seems to get later and dangerously later.
~Zach may also be conflicted in his ambitions Aug 11th - 14th, JDC and USA Olympics.
~Greenbrier getting squeezed, Quicken Loans too - two highly marginal tournaments in my book, can't see why Quicken wouldn't shift their tournament to Detroit.
~Possible new event in December? In Mexico do you think? Or would that be a candidate for the opposite field event in March? Possibly one or the other anyway.

Busy busy, and especially busy busy for double-dippers.

Couple of things...  

Part of the approval process of getting the WGC's through the PAC and initiated back in the late 90's was the Tour's commitment to do their best to provide "alternate" events for the rank and file to play those weeks.  The Tour has been able to "mostly" do that, even though a few WGC's have gone alternate-less from time to time.   I very much doubt the PAC would give up on that, so it stands to reason something will be added against the WGC Cadillac. Puerto Rico which moved off Cadillac to be against the WGC Dell Match Play might have issues as well... the Trump managed host resort recently declared bankruptcy... with the event sponsor (P.R. Tourist interests) being one of the biggest, if not the biggest creditor. Then there's the "Trump factor" in play these days... so who knows how that all shakes out.

And I doubt if Mexico is in play,  it would be Mayakoba again.   Not impossible, but it's already set on the fall schedule as a free standing event.  Maybe something in Cabo though?   Lots of venues down there could put up a quality course and have the hospitality infrastructure..   Another good possibility is Tucson...  they have the organizational infrastructure in the Conquistadors... so wouldn't rule that out.

And on December... I've mentioned it before, but there's been scuttlebutt for years that the World Challenge would eventually go "official" ala the way the NedBank did... possibly upping it's field to 30-48-60.  (that talk was around even before NedBank's move).   I'm not really in a position to hear anything on it these days... but I did notice that the event page on the TW website scrubbed the language about the select field of 18... and now just says, "Sign up for updates and information on the Hero World Challenge. ". That could be just a result of the site re-design... or maybe it's signalling something is in the works for real this time.  The fact it's VERY unlikely TW can get in the OWGR top-50 to qualify to play in his own event the way the criteria for the field of 18 was set in the past, adds fuel to the fire....

Hadn't realised that PR was added to the extensive list of Trump-related bankruptcies.
Chalk another up to his mantra: "If you owe a bank $1M that's your problem. If you owe a bank $100M that's the bank's problem."!

Nothing further on the rumour mill about an event in Cabo?
And: Don't the Conquistadors host the Champions Tour Tucson stop? Doubtful they'd run two tournaments, but I'd love it if they did.


Meanwhile, quite the exodus from the Quicken Loans "commitments" with Every, Cejka, Henley, Todd, Matt Jones among those thinking they might have something better to do that slog around 18 holes in heat-index temps soaring in to triple digits. Imagine they'll struggle to maintain 36 owgr points for the winner.

robopz wrote:And on December... I've mentioned it before, but there's been scuttlebutt for years that the World Challenge would eventually go "official" ala the way the NedBank did... possibly upping it's field to 30-48-60.  (that talk was around even before NedBank's move).   I'm not really in a position to hear anything on it these days... but I did notice that the event page on the TW website scrubbed the language about the select field of 18... and now just says, "Sign up for updates and information on the Hero World Challenge. ". That could be just a result of the site re-design... or maybe it's signalling something is in the works for real this time.  The fact it's VERY unlikely TW can get in the OWGR top-50 to qualify to play in his own event the way the criteria for the field of 18 was set in the past, adds fuel to the fire....

Can't imagine this would be confirmed if it went to a players vote as about 120 of the ~200 qualified voters won't be exempt for the FEX and Money Grab.

Further to the Robert Allenby episode, here's Golf Digest's Undercover Pro on caddie/player relationships.
One of the more measured articles in this series:

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2014-09/undercover-pro-fired-by-caddie?mbid=nl_072415_daily_hitlist&CNDID=25665405&spMailingID=7932374&spUserID=OTA2NDc1MDkyNzUS1&spJobID=723234508&spReportId=NzIzMjM0NTA4S0

I'm sure super_realist will enjoy the story about emptying the bag of balls etc.

GPB wrote:

robopz wrote:And on December... I've mentioned it before, but there's been scuttlebutt for years that the World Challenge would eventually go "official" ala the way the NedBank did... possibly upping it's field to 30-48-60.  (that talk was around even before NedBank's move).   I'm not really in a position to hear anything on it these days... but I did notice that the event page on the TW website scrubbed the language about the select field of 18... and now just says, "Sign up for updates and information on the Hero World Challenge. ". That could be just a result of the site re-design... or maybe it's signalling something is in the works for real this time.  The fact it's VERY unlikely TW can get in the OWGR top-50 to qualify to play in his own event the way the criteria for the field of 18 was set in the past, adds fuel to the fire....

Can't imagine this would be confirmed if it went to a players vote as about 120 of the ~200 qualified voters won't be exempt for the FEX and Money Grab.

Items like this wouldn't go to players vote... that's what they have a PAC and Policy Board for. Something like this would probably be brought to the Policy Board by the tournament or Tour, then if it looked like a go there it would be ran by the 16 member PAC, before being approved by the policy board. Highly unlikely it would ever be brought before either the board or PAC though unless it had already been "explored" and thought likely to be approved.

But that said, my guess is the issue you have with it, wouldn't be the one that would prevent it from happening. What I was hearing as the "negative" back then, was the Tour might not be comfortable with 3 official events under the the TWF event management umbrella. And I get that.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Meanwhile, quite the exodus from the Quicken Loans "commitments" with Every, Cejka, Henley, Todd, Matt Jones among those thinking they might have something better to do that slog around 18 holes in heat-index temps soaring in to triple digits. Imagine they'll struggle to maintain 36 owgr points for the winner.

Others bailing include Tom Gillis and DL III (who got a Sponsors Invite) and Will Wilcox (according to DKings)

If they opened the field to 144 all the Webbies would get in and some the conditionally exempt players.

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:
Meanwhile, quite the exodus from the Quicken Loans "commitments" with Every, Cejka, Henley, Todd, Matt Jones among those thinking they might have something better to do that slog around 18 holes in heat-index temps soaring in to triple digits. Imagine they'll struggle to maintain 36 owgr points for the winner.

Others bailing include Tom Gillis and DL III (who got a Sponsors Invite) and Will Wilcox (according to DKings)

If they opened the field to 144 all the Webbies would get in and some the conditionally exempt players.

Seems a couple of these players were entered incase they weren't top-50 for the WGC... then WD'd when they made it (Todd, Henley). Also I'm still showing Wilcox in the field... DLIII is still out due to the foot surgery (this was gonna be way optimistic for him anyway).

Also... this does not use the standard priority list... it goes off an FE points list (last weeks I think). But yes.. this would still come at least close to getting all the webbies in if it were a field of 144... Slocum currently #148 and Zack Suchar at #153 priority for this field are the only two webbies who wouldn't be in a field of 144 as of now.

The other entered webbies not in the field (yet) are: Hoge, Alker, Putnam, Axley, Armour, Byron Smith, Sloan, Aswegen, & Sainz

And I have the field at a 34 right now... with about 10 points to spare.

kwinigolfer wrote:Further to the Robert Allenby episode, here's Golf Digest's Undercover Pro on caddie/player relationships.
One of the more measured articles in this series:

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2014-09/undercover-pro-fired-by-caddie?mbid=nl_072415_daily_hitlist&CNDID=25665405&spMailingID=7932374&spUserID=OTA2NDc1MDkyNzUS1&spJobID=723234508&spReportId=NzIzMjM0NTA4S0

I'm sure super_realist will enjoy the story about emptying the bag of balls etc.

I wonder if Allenby can 'remember' what happened...?