PGA Tour: Dear Lee, Sergio, Martin; Love Darren: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Well lads, wrote Darren probably, you've been so important to Europe's success in the Ryder Cup over the years, but you've had a terrible 2015 and I'm not going to choose you for my Team unless you pull your English, Spanish, German fingers out. Look, even Vic and McDool have taken home trophies in the past few weeks; if they can do it, I'm bl00dy sure you can. etc, etc.

2).At a time when the likes of Knox, Lowry, Broberg, Fitzpatrick, Kjeldsen, Pieters, Sullivan, Wiesberger and Willett, etc, are winning tournaments, DC's qualifiers for Hazeltine show every sign of leaving plenty of European stalwarts behind, waiting for the Captain's phone call. Some of the veterans, at least, will miss out with Poulter and Westwood looking especially at risk.

3).Look at the Gleneagles heroes and how many can you possibly award an "A" to for their 2015 efforts? Let's have a go:
A: Justin Rose, McIlroy
B+: Stenson
C: Garcia and a pair of "E"'s until the past month: Dubuisson and McDowell
D: Westwood, Kaymer, Poulter
E: Donaldson, Gallacher
F: Bjorn.
Add in stalwarts of the past Donald (D) and Molinari (C) and it's pretty obvious we're in a mess.

4).And that makes Casey's abandonment of the European Tour all the more regrettable, not to mention the protracted launching of Russell Knox as a European Tour member, 12 points gained in Mexico still not credited to his Ryder Cup account.

5).But Dubuisson's Turkey win was encouraging, and McDowell played Mayakoba's first hole in five-over-par yet still squeaked home with a glorious 5-iron in the play-off. OK, the field was pretty weak, but a win is a win and will hopefully spark some ambition for the year ahead.

6).The past two weeks of PGA Tour action have seen Monday finishes, but the weather is a bit more promising for Sea Island, Georgia, site of this week's "RSM Classic", RSM being the new brand name for established sponsor McGladrey. 156 hopefuls will be teeing it up, 78 on each of two courses to start with, then cut survivors playing Rounds 3 & 4 at "Seaside", so there should be daylight to finish Round 2 by Friday evening, even if threatened storms on Thursday disrupt Round 1 action.

7).web.com Q-School continues this week, and First Stage of Champions Tour is being contested also, Paul Broadhurst among those trying his luck.

8).I'm looking forward to seeing the newly added "Plantation Course" at the RSM Classic; the "Seaside Course" is visually beautiful and hoping the "Plantation" matches it.
Local (Carolinas, Georgia, N.Florida) golfers have been strongly favoured here in the past, with 7 of the 12 winners/runners up of its 5-year history falling in this category. McDowell won just up the coast at Hilton Head a couple of years ago and good luck again to him this week, but I'm putting my five cents each way on left-handed Brian Harman.

Ben, have a look at THIS PAGE that Kwini flagged up for me. Tells you all the exemptions.
Category 10 is:-

10. Winners of PGA TOUR co-sponsored or approved events (except team events) within the last two seasons, or during the current season; winners receive an additional season of exemption for each additional win, up to five seasons:

Balls in the air for Round 4 of the RSM Classic - the unusual suspects of McDowell, Cejka and Jacobson are Europe's representatives in the Top Ten.
McDowell was one of a number of golfers who gave up a stroke yesterday by lift, clean, placing when the rule was "ball down". Can't do that today, Graeme.

Also pleased to see the much-maligned Jason Dufner on the leaderboard - he looked as if he was getting back to his best a few months ago, but fizzled later on, including at The Barclays when he played so well through 54 holes.

Flawless final round (64,64 for the weekend) from Kevin Kisner - too good for McDowell or anyone else.
But a 3rd place for McDool, 5th from Freddie and 6th from Alex Cejka is a pretty good showing from the old farts.
And Freddie should have earned enough to have his full exemption restored for 2015/2016, not to mention well on his way for 16/17 also.

Freddie Jac did meet the terms of his medical exemption.