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.

Faldo,
Apologies, I always get the two mixed up, you're absolutely correct. Toledo had some excitement last night year, pulled occupants out of a burning car on an LA freeway.

Who invited Pampling to Rory's party? Six birdies should have had Rors out of sight, Pampling's anyway.
Pampling was playing with Laird once when I wanted to watch Martin: What a dour Aussie he is, so much unlike the fun you get from Badds and Adam Scott, even Allenby. Pampling is certainly high on my list of ten most miserable sods to follow.

Early Round 2 update on the Nationwide:
Greg Owen in 2nd place, Christian and Knox just inside and just outside the cut-line respectively, no payday for Matt Richardson.

And another shockingly bad finish by a European at the Memorial - this time Karlsson is four over on 16, 17 and 18, so ruining four hours of hard work. He'll play the weekend but it could have been so much better. Lukey on the move . . . . .

Good to see Eddie M. in the hunt for the weekend. Seems like he's been taking a drubbing for some time now. Rory finding it difficult to play a clean slate lately. Too many big numbers mixed in with his too many one-overs.

Luke's pair of 70's impressive due his jet-setting schedule and big victory last week. No hangover yet? How about that, kwini? Brian Davis, Rose and Lairdy (maybe) will all make the cut.

Upset o' the day: Fed over Djoko.

Not really upset o' the day: Immelman, Furyk and Weir dining with the bottom feeders.

Ed. Molinari has done this all season, 2 steps forward then 1 or 2 back, then on the final day hits a good score when he can't win anyway. I think he could go well at the US open, he seems to go well on tough courses and his scrambling is very good, but he is giving himself a bit much too do most rounds.

Easy to say, but Lukey looks knackered to me, short game nowhere near as sharp as usual; missing lots of opportunities and making improbable mistakes.

Hope Eddie gets going this summer; think he's as good for golf in his own way as any of the Europeans. Laird and Rose looking a bit rocky right now; the course suits both so disappointing if their week ends early.

Two tiddlers missed by Riles, similar back-to-back jobs to McDowell's on 14 and 15 earlier today. Riley's fun to watch, brilliant shortr game and really gets on with it.

Didn't see the tennis, venice, (sorry about that), but sounds a thriller.

Cut line to +2. Would save Stenson who salvaged his score with 4 straight birdies starting his last 6 holes of the day. Hope he gets his game back.

kwini,
Fed kept Djoko at bay by winning 2 tie-breakers. Fairly even 4 set match. Rafa still too much for Andy on clay.

Can't wait for Stanley Cup game 2 tonight. What has it been, since '92-93 when your Les Habs took the cup that a Canadian team has taken the Cup home? Go Canucks!

venice,
Cool your jets (and not those from Winnipeg). Stanley Cup on tomorrow on NBC, at 5.00 p.m. your time.
I don't think that the cut-line will slip to +2, Stenson likely to have to work on his game with Fanny, which of course has its own rewards.

Charlie Wi fanciers will have bitten their nails to see him finish bogey, bogey, bogey to sign his card at +1.

Donald looks knackered to me, 4 tournaments in 3 countries in 4 weeks and all with high finishes will do that to you.

Great ace by my man stricker( very howard clarke yder cup style hit it, didn't really like it, holed it), my money looks good so far now just need charlie wi to have a good one to and i'll be extra happy

Stricker on my fantasy team.
But Davis Love isn't. He had eagle, birdies, pars, bogeys, a double and a triple today. = +1!!

Laird, Rose and Stenson all goners.

Stricker rolls in another bird on 9 (his 18t) to finish up -9 and 3 ahead, great putter and wedge play could watch him do that all day, amateurs can learn so much from the likes of him and donald from 120yards in.

Stricker in my fantasy team to so is Fowler. Looks like my Charlie Wi choice was a bum steer still he's smiling. Also isn't it time big phil learned to cntrol his yardages, I know there's wind out there but his yardages seem most bizare, 1 minute its a 9irn 190yards, the next a 7iron down wind 160yards!

This seems like a tournament with relatively few par's. Many score cards are very mixed: a lot of birdies, but also a lot of bogeys - even among the contenders. Didn't really look into why this could be - suggestions anyone?

don't really know but I'd suggest good course design/setup

Nicklaus was saying there are birdies and eagles to be had if you hit good shots, bogeys and worse if you get out of position; Smithers is right, good design.
Think Nicklaus is particularly surprised that the newly redesigned par-3 16th is proving the most difficult hole so far. Would think it's just down to familiarity, or lack of it.

Recent British Amateur Champ Drew Weaver has kept his nose clean so far, lies 14th. He has had an unproductive pro career so far, no standing on the PGA Tour, or the Nationwide as far as I know.

Lee Westwood will have a motley crew aiming to wrestle his Memphis title away from him next week.
Team GB&I consists of the threesome: Davis, Harrington, Westwood.
Europeans include Garcia, Olazabal, Cejka and Swedes Jacobson, Johnson, Karlsson and Pettersson.
Only other top 40-ish players are Ogilvy (happily back from injury), Goosen (who needs the starts), Allenby, Zach Johnson and Toms, while fading stars Kim, Vijay and Villegas are among those trying to recapture past glories.

Better news from the Muirfield Village weather forecast this morning with the apparent likelihood of thunderstorms receding towards evening.

Expect pristine conditions for the early starters, heating up and becoming breezy this afternoon. Conditions ripe for something quite low (64?, 65??) early on.

Karlsson the first European out of the traps, at about 9.00 a.m. local time, followed by Brian Davis an hour later.

Not much of a pattern to the early play at the Memorial, same as yesterday, some shockers and some with the makings of decent scores but no-one really making an emphatic move.
Ho-hum so far from Phil, worse than ho-hum if that's him in the drink, but Brian Davis is having a decent round so far. Lukey off in ten minutes, Rory twenty minutes later.

Birdie start by Luke, he just keeps on grinding out superb scores! I can't see him winning at Congressional though, not with the way his driving went over the weekend last week. Congressional will be too long and tough to allow for that kind of wildness, but then again perhaps he has gotten to the route of it since last week.

Never thought I'd see the day, but Donald is leading this week in driving accuracy so far, but I wouldn't bet he'll maintain that as the round moves on.
Some decent scores but no-one threatening Stricker's lead. Yet.

Yesterday Steve Wheatcroft was one putt away from a Nationwide 59. Today, Surrey's Gary Christian went two worse with a 62, currently tied for 2nd with Greg Owen.

Not quite Elliott Saltman, thank goodness, but two eagles in four holes for Stricker!
But double for Rory. Now it's going to be a test of character for him, just to get himself back in the tournament.

A third eagle for Stricker - this is borderline ridiculous, three in his last seven holes, plus a birdie of course.
Seven under in seven holes is pretty sporty.

15th hole:
Luke three putts for bogey.
Rory holes an eagle putt.
That's why they play the game; let's hope Rory can bring it home now, get in one of the final three groups for Sunday. Perhaps with Lukey?

badds you plank rubbish today

kwin


what is adam playing at no warm up events for us open ?????????????

Joined this place just for the Golf discussion as when 606 was ending it was the one thing I missed....Have had a new home for tennis discussion for ages now.....Excellent stuff as always Kwini!

Hi GJ, benson, Nice to see old friends, in GJ's case with a familiar script!

Cheers benson, How are you? Your man Padraig playing in Memphis I see.

GJ,
Adam has been in Paris watching the girls at Roland Garros. Is he still having his way with Ana?
Anyway, his blog says he's working hard now on preparing for Congressional; but you know Adam, it's never obvious whether he comes to play or, well, comes to play.

Expect softer conditions at Muirfield Village Sunday for Round 4 of the Memorial. A series of storms dumped almost 2 inches of rain on the Columbus area overnight; fairways will be softer and the rough will be more treacherous though the greens may be slower.

There's a chance of storms sweeping through later in Round 4 but, regardless, you'd think any advantage passes back to the longer hitter. Any hiccup from Stricker (-12) will bring the -6's (Hunter Mahan lurking) into play but Luke Donald wil be too far back at -4. Rory McIlroy at -7, however, must feel he has a great chance, though he'll need to get off to a solid start. Still, his late eagle yesterday made Saturday somewhat more palatable for Northern Ireland golf you'd've thought?

Two stats I never thought I'd see:
Tied 1st in driving accuracy: Luke Donald.
Last in sandsaves: Luke Donald - the only player in the 73-man field not to get up and down from the beach at least once.

Nationwide Update:
Steve Wheatcroft (Tour player of a few years ago) has an EIGHT shot lead, but Mansfield's Greg Owen is in 3rd, ten shots in arrears, and Surrey's Gary Christian lies 7th - both Englishmen could really use a good payday to launch themselves towards the Top 25 - and a PGA Tour card.

With a tip of the cap to "princedracula", a win today by either Stricker or Kuchar would elevate the Champion to leading American in the owgr rankings for the first time in their careers.
Jonathan Byrd would jump to just outside the top twenty, depending upon other results.

Wins by Hansen or Hanson would bring them to approximately 30th and 36th respectively, while Noren would leap from 127th to about 80th.

Perhaps one other golfer with the most to gain today is Gary Woodland who will know a top five result at Memorial should assure him of a top 50 ranking and a place in the Congressional field.

Hi Kwini. What price a win at the US open if Donald can repeat that driving accuracy stat at Congressional?

Faldo,
He'd be tough to beat but the trouble with those of his length is that, when they start to miss, the rough will be too deep and most of the holes too long to reach many of the greens. Just see a longer hitter prospering, a Mahan or a Westwood.
Let's see how Lukey does today; hopeful of a top ten but he seems mentally jaded and in need of a few days with his feet up.

The weather has cleared out of the Columbus area and the early scores reflect that, with the course apparently playing as easy as it's likely to get.

Vijay already in with a 65, Chris Riley with a 67, and some early moves being made by others.

Stricker has been known to play defensively when in the lead and someone five or six shots back (come on Rory!) must have every chance to apply pressure. Everything to play for.

Great round by VIjay reall feast of red numbers on his card, he just gave a good honest interview about he isn't playing the US Open and would now be taking a couple of weeks off, and his reason for not going for US Open qualification was the fact he is feeling real tired and hasn;t played anywhere near good enough to qualify via his tournament play so feels he doesn't deserve to be there so let a younger more deserving guy take his place

Only curious thing about that "feeling real tired", Mav, is that he's signed up for Memphis this week. Wouldn't be at all surprised then if he w/d'd and took a two week break before he re-emerges at Hartford.

Dustin off to a good start. And here goes Rory . . . . .

Agreed Kwini I wasn't aware he was due to play memphis but not really check next weeks player roster. He stated a 2 week break so highly likely he is going to WD. Making for a good finish here at memorial.

Stricker hasn't read the script, -2 though 2... he isn't for letting the pack get too close!

Let's not forget Brian Davis; he's not going to win today but is -5 for Round 4 thru 13 holes with the very birdie-able 15th still to come.

Luke Donald is -2 for 11 holes but has scarcely improved his position. Two more birdies please if you are to continue your top ten streak.

Is there a weather break at the moment? Or are Sky just on the changeover from golf channel to the main broadcaster. I've just got home and switched it on and it seems to be last year's US Open (complete with mottled greens)

That's correct Davie, in hiatus, Live Golf resumes 7.30 p.m., Bracknell time.
Rory with a good chance at three birds in a row, fingers crossed . . .

Cheers Kwini - thankfully Bracknell time only applies to me when I'm at work (wouldn't want to live there too!) but 4 miles down the road is in the same timezone so it all makes sense

Stricker making a mockery of things now. Does he jump into top 3 faves for U.S. Open? Showed slo-motion of hitting his driver on Hole #6. Almost flawless.

Have a combo going of pale ale, barbeque, Pistols on the stereo and golf at the Memorial. A good day so far.

kwini,
Did you catch another thriller in Vancouver last night. A few Bruin fans at the gym this morning were livid that Burrows was not suspended but had the game overtime game winner for the Canucks. Super!

Extraordinary exhibition from Stricker - easier said than done, but every par from now on in eliminates another group of players as their holes run out.

Testament to Rory that he's staying with the pace - he's not consistent yet but his top form is a match for anyone, anywhere.

Top twenty in prospect for Brian Davis, good result.

Is Stricker using laser guided clubs today? I am stuck at work and can only follow the shot tracker, he has been peppering flag after flag on this front 9!

And there's another birdie. Good Lord.

Brandt Jobe seems to be a better player since he lopped off the end of his finger . . . . . !

Hi venice,
If Bergeron stuck his fingers in my mouth I'm sure I'd give 'em a good nip also. But a psychological slap in the face and the Bruins need to get over it quickly or they'll be toast. Nice win by CC last night - did you go?

I have a nice Rioja going right now, lamb chops ready to stick on the grill - now, if the sun would come out life would be gooder.

Team UK minus 12 for Round 4 so far, let's hope they improve on that . . .

Kwin - I like your style. 2-Day member/member, so I'm in recovery mode and just catching up on the Memorial. Stricker sure does make it look easy right now. A top class player for sure, and for the Americans I like he and Kuchar. But it TW is healthy, put his name on the list of favorites. Like Rory, he's shown he can run in the lead pack with the big dogs, but needs to string it together, which he knows how to do.

Great scoring today. I think Jack and Co. made a good decision to allow for birdie and eagle opportunities to give the fans a chance to see what these pros can do. Watching this makes one want to go out there and play a few.

kwini,
Never got down to Anaheim to see the Yanks play. The bad: had to work until 10:30pm last night. The good: was editing a Svedka vodka commercial with some nice looking talent involved. The eyes never got tired.

Lamb chops? I didn't know you were part Greek. Did you bring out the feta and olives too?

Another triumph for the weather forecasters, 10% of rain and this is what you get.
But it just seems to be a small cell just north-west of the course so hopefully we'll be back in business soon.

Nice up and down by Rors just before the hooter sounded.

Steve Wheatcroft played four rounds: 66 - 60 - 65 - 64 to win the Nationwide event by TWELVE shots! Christian and Owen earned top tens but nothing life-changing.

Hi Sr,
You didn't mention how you made out in the member/member . . . .

venice,
Not half Greek but heavily influenced by Symeon's in New Hartford - we'll have feta cheese on some salad but I don't do olives. Except in catapults when I was a wee lad living in Cyprus and we had olive trees in the front yard - duelling olives (and sometimes unsuspecting caterpillars, but they weren't so effective) flying across the road, a handy weapon for street warfare when I was nine!

Kwin - Our team was very generous! Let's just say I made lots of donations to the cause. Wonderful time, great weather and post golf festivities helped ease things. This talk of Symeons has me mighty hungry and I have Saranac Pale Ale in the refrig that pairs well with the feta!