PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Hurrah! The PGA Tour is moving North, for the first time this year, to the Columbus, Ohio, area, home of Jack Nicklaus's masterpiece, Muirfield Village. We are here for the lyrically named "the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance", with a strong field including some refugees from Wentworth's Sunday play: Donald, McIlroy, Els, Aiken and EMolinari, plus Joost Luiten making a rare PGA Tour appearance.

2).Luke Donald will be playing his fourth tournament in four weeks, Florida, Spain, England, Ohio, not his usual schedule and it remains to be seen whether he'll be competitive or running on fumes. But CONGRATULATIONS! to Luke on becoming the latest Number One. Lots written elsewhere about his achievement but haven't seen this note: Luke now has 274 owgr points this year, 104 more than Charl Schwartzel in second place. That 100+ points is equivalent to a Major so you can judge for yourselves the magnitude of his achievement.

3).The European Tour, PGA Tour and Senior PGA Championship each was decided last week by a play-off, with the winner of each claiming victory on the 73rd hole. Don't see that often!

4).Many pros would consider Muirfield Village to be among the top three Tour stops all year, Majors included, and I can vouch for it being a spectacular lay-out, almost as good for spectators as it must be to play. Only criticism might be that, among the 4 par 3's, only the 12th hole (copied from Augusta National's 12th) could be described as truly memorable. But Happy Jack has redesigned the 16th hole, bringing water into play, and it will be fascinating to see how it plays this week.

5).Justin Rose defends his Memorial title, teeing off on the back of some pretty indifferent finishes. Just like 2010. Competition comes from Phil, Rory (this course should suit him, 10th last year), Kuchar, Stricker, Schwartzel, Dustin, Bubba, Mahan, Els, Furyk and, of course, St Luke.

6).Players not yet qualified for the US Open can still avoid the purgatory of 36-hole qualifying by being in the owgr top fifty as at June 13th.
Among those on the outside looking in are:
#52).Fisher: Playing at the Wales Open.
54).Woodland: Playing Memorial
55).Holmes: At Memorial
60).Marino: At Memorial
61).Ikeda: Not known if he's playing in Japan.
62).Vijay Singh: At Memorial
65).Dufner: Not playing.

7).Memorial is the second tournament in the R&A's contrived mini-money list whereby the top 2 not already exempt receive invites to Royal St.George's. The two leaders currently are 1st: Goydos and 2nd: Dufner and Holmes tied.

8).Once again, Casey, Goosen and Oosthuizen are mia on the PGA Tour. They have each only played 7 events this year and time is running out for them to squeeze in the 15 minimum. Tears almost certain for at least one of them. Hope they have this figured out. Poulter only a touch better off.

9).The Nationwiders are in Maryland with Russell Knox hoping to improve his Top 25 position from 14th. Danny Lee is curently 10th and could well have to chose next year between the Europoean Tour that's been pretty good in giving him opportunities and the PGA Tour.

10).And the Champions Tour is in Des Moines, Iowa. There was a 606 discussion recently about favourite caddies. Mine is Damon Green (Zach Johnson's eyes and ears), once apparently a mini-Tour lifer who narrowly missed qualifying for this year's Champions Tour. But he has a sponsor's invite for this week and let's hope he plays well; no word as to whether Zach and his god are on his bag.

And a triumph for Frenchman Edouard Dubois for overtaking a commanding 7 shot going into the weekend lead by another young Italian, Andrea Pavan, in the Austrian Challenge Tour event. Dubois shot 128 for the weekend which was 14 strokes better than Pavan. Andrew Johnston and Chris Paisley of England tied Swede Klas Eriksson for third. Noticed a number of European Tour veterans in the field. The CT is very well establishing itself as a road one must travel for most hoping to eventually succeed on the main stage.

kwini,
Cypress as a lad? Well that explains everything. A juvenile delinquent run amok in the Eastern Mediterranean. Did you live in the Greek or Turk sector? And your family was stationed there with your father while he served in the British military?

Big week as discussed earlier for Pavan in Italy in a few days; is Edouard French for Eldrick?

Cyprus? Yup, in Limassol in the Greek area. Beautiful - high time for a Cyprus Open, if not golf than maybe Baghdatis (he's from Limassol, don't remember him though) could start an ATP event?

As a result of this week's efforts, Tiger will slip behind Dustin Johnson in the rankings, to 14th; the top ten is in flux with Stricker and Kuchar making big moves up, Rory's progress very dependent on his form when he puts down those milkshakes and a possibility Paul Casey will lose his top ten status - not surprising as he hardly ever seems to play.

Just had a butcher's at the radar and would think they'll be lucky to get back out there before 6.00 p.m.

And when we do resume, Gary Woodland just needs to par the 18th to assure himself of a place in the US Open field - and that'll save him a 36-hole day's work tomorrow.

Fourteen players drinking milkshakes - Brian Barnes, where are you? - but they'll be back out there at 7.00 EDT, moidnight in Whyteleafe.

Gob Bilder won the Champions event from Mark Books. Guess who made birdie and who bogey on the 18th hole?

Unnecessarily tense there, both hands on the steering wheel of Steve Stricker's golf cart. But a deserved winner and this is where princedracula is supposed to step in and reveal exclusively the new owgr top 100.
I'll have a stab at the top ten:
Donald
Westwood
Kaymer
Stricker
Mickelson
Kuchar and McIlroy very close for 6th
McDowell
Schwartzel
Johnson
Casey likely out to #11.

Gary Woodland squeezing into the top 50, squeezing out Harrington. Dunno what Ishikawa got up to today, but the 50th place is very close between about four golfers.

Correct, published owgr points show:
Donald
Westwood
Kaymer
Stricker
Mickelson
Kuchar
McIlroy
McDowell
Johnson
Casey
Schwartzel
Johnson, Casey and Schwartzel essentially tied.

Woods down to 15th, Harrington to 51st, Ishikawa to 53rd, Kim to 60th.

http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/storylines_for_the_us_open_sectional_qualifying_june_6th

I found this site with INFO regarding US Open Qualifiers.

Great link benson, THANKS!
It's like a compilation of all our yesterdays and some of our tomorrows. Most will have teed off by now, hope the USGA makes it straightforward to follow. Ludicrous having the US Open qualifier on the same day as Walton Heath's Open Championship qualie, though don't suppose many guys would want to do both.
Cheers,

After just having qualified for the US Open, Lafeber is en route to qualify for the Open as well. But he missed the cut in Wales.

That is a good link! Not least cos past experience suggests that the USGA will make an mess of collating the results handily, so the best way to keep up to date with goings on may well be via the local association links on that cybergolf page. Anyway, it's allowed me to attempt a roundup of European interest, for anyone who's interested...:

Glendale, California

Max Greil, 23-year-old amateur from Rome, in his final year at UC Irvine.
Gyles Robin, 22-year-old from Jersey, in his first year as a pro after graduating from Florida Gulf Coast. The next Harry Vardon or Ted Ray?

Vero Beach, Florida

Kevin Phelan, 20-year-old from Waterford in his second year at the University of North Florida. Eagled his final hole to qualify for the US Open last year, and reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur Public Links, all in his first season as a college golfer, so must be one of the biggest European prospects on the college circuit.
Pierre-Henri Soëro, 27-year-old from the French overseas département of New Caledonia, who plays under the French flag like his fellow Nouveau Calédonien Christian Cévaër. Qualified for the 2005 US Open during his final year at the University of Hawaii, and has since made several attempts at PGA Tour Q-School without ever reaching the final stage, though he did Monday qualify for an event apiece on the PGA and Nationwide Tours last year. Playing the Asian Tour this year after finishing T5 at their Q-School, but has only cashed one cheque in three starts so far.

Ball Ground, Georgia

Paul Cormack, 27-year-old mini-tour lifer from Inchmarlo Golf Club in Banchory. Showing slow signs of improvement this year with a few cashed cheques on the Hooters Tour, but certainly no Russell Knox as yet. -2 through 18 holes.
Jeff Karlsson, 21-year-old Swedish amateur in his third year at Kennesaw State. Finished T6 on his Challenge Tour debut last summer. -1 through 18 holes.
Marcello Santi, 41-year-old Milanese. 6 times a winner of the Italian Amateur Championship, the first at the age of 15, and a regular on the European circuit as a professional. Won twice on the Challenge Tour in the mid-90s, and played two years on the European tour, after coming through Q-school in '98 and '00. Not been heard of for the past six or seven seasons, until now. -2 through 18 holes.

St. Charles, Illinois

Rockville, Maryland

Gary Christian, 39-year-old from Carshalton. Graduate of Auburn University and Nationwide Tour regular since '06. Won his first Nationwide event in '09, in a nine-hole sudden death playoff over Mathias Grönberg, and is coming off the back of a T7 at yesterday's event.
Robert Karlsson, not the former OoM winner, who's already qualified, but a fellow Swede - hard to find much info though, given that every search just turns up his namesake instead. This Robert Karlsson is currently 58th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, and in his third year at Liberty University, Virginia.
James Parker, impressively obscure Englishman, appears to be a club pro at the TopGolf franchise in Alexandria, Virginia.


Summit, New Jersey

Daniel Chopra, 37-year-old Swede, twice a winner on the PGA Tour. Lost card last season and is back on the Nationwide - one win this season and currently 4th in standings. Played in two US Opens: T24, 2004, and T36, 2008. +3 through 27 holes.
Mathias Grönberg, 41-year-old Swede. 4 wins on the European Tour before leaving in 2003, and has bounced between PGA and Nationwide Tours since. Playing the latter this year, but only two cuts made so far. Missed the cut at last year's US Open, and best finish in 3 attempts is T74 in 2001. -5 through 18 holes.
Sean Quinlivan, 36-year-old Irishman. Played on the Nationwide Tour in 2000 without making a cut. Now a club pro in NYC.+2 through 18 holes.
Matthew Richardson, 27-year-old from Worcester. Won both his singles matches 5&4 in the 2005 Walker Cup, the second against J.B. Holmes. Earned European card at 2006 Q-school, but made just 4 cuts in '07 and headed Stateside. T77 at last year's US Open got him a Nationwide card for this year, but has made only two cuts as yet. -5 through 27 holes.

Columbus, Ohio

Joost Luiten, 25-year-old Dutchman, finished a career-best 28th in the R2D last season. DQed from the Memorial on Thursday in what was presumably his warm-up, so maybe had a chance for an extra look at this course. DNS
Despite what the cybergolf page says, there's no sign of Olazabal in the tee-times here. Possibly WD with the same problem he was struggling with at Wentworth.

Springfield, Ohio

Brian Davis, 36-year-old Londoner. Twice a European Tour winner, five times a PGA Tour runner-up since going stateside in 2005. Missed the cut last year; best finish in three US Opens T61 in '03. DNS
Chris Devlin, 36-year-old Northern Irishman from Ballymena, mini-tour lifer. Underwent open heart surgery five years ago; qualified for the US Open 3 years ago, but carded 84-83. -2 through 18 holes.

Memphis, Tennessee

Sergio García, 31-year-old Spaniard. 8 European wins, 7 PGA wins. 3 times a Major runner-up, best US Open finish T3 in '05. Doesn't really need the introduction. -4 through 18 holes.
Fredrik Jacobson,, 36-year-old Swede, 4th in the 2003 OoM. 3 runners-up, but no wins, since joining PGA Tour in '04. Best US Open finish T5, '03. -5 through 18 holes.
Richard S. Johnson, 34-year-old Swede. One PGA Tour win, but struggling this season. MC in '03 was only US Open.DNS

Dallas, Texas

James Byrne, 22-year-old Scot from Banchory just finishing his 4 years at Arizona State. Currently 26th in WAGR. -4 through 18 holes.
Fergal Rafferty, Ulsterman who turned pro after leaving Sam Houston State last summer. +3 through 18 holes.

Bremerton, Washington

Tobias Rosendahl, Swede who turns 25 a week tomorrow. Turned pro after leaving Georgia State last year and won the Q-School for the Canadian Tour. Has finished T45 and T36 in his two events there so far. -1 through 18 holes.

That's a lot of info you've dug up there, Ned. I especially like the "impressively obscure" James Parker piece!

As expected, Vijay is among the overnight withdrawals from this week's Memphis stop, Olazabal still in the field but not sure how long that will last.

Cheers Kwini. Saves me ploughing through the qualifiers later searching for these guys!

Seems Davis is a no-show in Ohio. Strange that, after a decent result at Muirfield and having already come through one qualifier this year.

Davis has played a LOT recently, seven weeks running, plus the Open qualie. And he's in the Memphis field, site of one of his early PGA Tour near misses.
Probably knackered, and you'd think Congressional would be a bit long for him - I really see next week's US Open as having at least 3/4 of the field with little or no chance even before the first shot is fired.

Nice story about Betsy King qualifying for the Women's US Open, Becky Morgan too, while Jody Ewart must be very close to the top of the list of alternates.

Second round results coming in from Sunningdale. Looking good for goldwolf's mate Boyd, -8 and three clear of anyone else in the clubhouse. God knows he needs to find some form soon, too. Big wave of WDs includes Cabrera-Bello, Drysdale, Howell, Maybin and Jeev. Others certain to be AWOL include McGowan, still searching for any sort of form, and Edfors and Lafeber, seemingly both running out of steam after their Walton Heath efforts last week.

goldwolf says Boyd has been striping the ball at home, but of course you see more of the ball-striking than you do the short game and course managemrent. Anyway, Good Luck to him.

The end of a bad week for Ramsay . . . . .

And: Striking to me that Ollie Fisher and Dougherty seem to be playing better in competitive qualies than they do in tournaments. Both in danger of experiencing a lost season.

Bad news for the concession stands that Shane Lowry has missed out.

Garcia after shooting a 68 in Memphis one off the mark!! One round to go.....Jobe with a 62 in Ohio wow.....Campbell and Beemer looking good to qualify!

Good ten days work for Alex Noren. I
think he and Thomas Levet are the only golfers to advance to respective Opens from the Walton Heath and Sunningdale qualifiers.

Yep Noren fulfilling his talent too....Brilliant ten days for him a win plus qualifying for two majors doesn't get much better than that gives him a solid base to qualify for next years majors too!

The Sectional Qualifying sites are crashing my computer!

Noren now up to 80th in the world rankings. Now for some consistency and good finishes in top events. It's a shame that the R&A offer a spot to the leading player not qualified at the French Open and The Scottish Open, but NOT the Wales Open or the Italian Open. They continue to pander to the PGA Tour at the expense of the European Tour.
Peter Dawson seems a person that I'd instinctively dislike, way too much time spent in his stuffy office; high time for term limits!

kwinigolfer wrote:The Sectional Qualifying sites are crashing my computer!

Noren now up to 80th in the world rankings. Now for some consistency and good finishes in top events. It's a shame that the R&A offer a spot to the leading player not qualified at the French Open and The Scottish Open, but NOT the Wales Open or the Italian Open. They continue to pander to the PGA Tour at the expense of the European Tour.
Peter Dawson seems a person that I'd instinctively dislike, way too much time spent in his stuffy office; high time for term limits!

Oh are they shame they are working on my comp none of them have round 2 scores up yet!

Is there anyone you would like to know how anyone in particular is doing?

all right lads i had to register again as theres a problem with the id i registered with on saturday night

First results in from NJ. Qualifiers are Matt Richardson, for the second year running - well done him. Geoffrey Sisk, 46yo Nationwide careerist from Massachussetts. Alexandre Rocha, Brazilian journeyman's journeyman, late of the ET and current PGA Tour struggler. And Cheng-tsung pan, 19yo hotshot amateur from Taiwan, a freshman at the University of Washington.

Also in the field at Dallas, Texas, Lee Rhind from Uphall Golf Club, West Lothian, Scotland, now based at Midland Country Club, Texas.

Shot +1 in the 1st round with 8 birdies, 3 bogies and 3 doubles!! Was +5 after 3 and still +5 through 12 so +1 not a bad effort.

Unfortunately shot 74 (+4) in the 2nd round to miss by 9.

Played a lot of golf with Lee when he was younger and also caddied for him a bit hence the interest. At one time the best junior golfer in scotland, back in about 1997.

GJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ralph,
Good performance to get thru local qualifying; does Lee Rhind play any mini-tours, Gateway for instance?

Don't think so kwini, he played on the adams tight lies tour a few years ago and also europro tour when he was back over here. Think he also played in a nationwide tour event that was at midland last year, assume he got an invite as 1 of the pro's there.

Don't think he plays as much as he'd like now, does a lot of teaching. He gave george w bush a lesson a couple of years ago which he said was an interesting experience!!

ralph,
The Nationwide is back in Midland at the end of September - I'll keep an eye out for him.
As for Dubya . . . No comment.

Cheers Ralph, knew there'd be a few I'd overlook! Would be much easier if the USGA asked for nationalities as well as residences.

Garcia and Jacobson join Richardson as the only Europeans through, then, Sergio going via a playoff. Unlucky for Chris Devlin, one shot shy of a playoff for the final spot, and James Byrne, who finished two back after leading through 18. Other notables through - Noh Seung-yul, who should be a fixture in Majors soon enough, and Arnie's grandson, who will no doubt soak up a load of hype. Quite a few surprises going around, especially at the Colombus event, which had 16 places up for grabs and most of the tour reguluars rolling up: Charles Howell, Atwal, J.B. Holmes, Levin, Aiken, O'Hair, de Jonge, Vegas, Duval, Barnes, Perez, Kelly and Marino among the many big names missing out. Qualifiers included lesser lights like Hicks, Chappell, O'Hern, Reavie and Jones, as well as complete unknowns Adam Long and Chris Wilson, and amateur Patrick Cantlay.

Sounds like Richie Ramsay is just about the first alternate for Congressional - reports earlier today that he was actually in have now been refuted. But he must have a very good chance, which would be a welcome turn in his fortune.

A couple of interesting groups to follow at Memphis:
Garrigus, Karlsson and Westwood!
Kim, Goosen, Garcia - and Garcia is the form guy in that group!