PGA Tour: Wells Fargo Championship: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The Wells Fargo Championship has been played at Quail Hollow, in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2003; before that the George Cobb design / Tom Fazio redesign hosted the Tour's Kemper Open in the 70's and a Seniors event in the 80's.
But it steps up in prestige next year as the host for the 2017 PGA Championship. It's a true championship lay-out with an attractive mix of holes, including some excellent risk/reward Par-5's and my favourite (Tour) reachable Par-4 (the 14th) east of Riviera.

2).Quail Hollow saw Rory McIlroy's PGA Tour coming out party in 2010 when he started Round 3 seven shots off the lead and closed Round 4 with a four-shot winning margin. He returns to start defence of his victory here last year the day after his 27th birthday.
But first let's go over some news/speculation:

3).Last week we talked about winners on Tour. Suffice it to say that Brian Stuard's win on Monday at the "Zurich Classic of New Orleans" defined "out of the blue".
Kudos to Stuard, but just look at his stats:
~No bogeys in 54 holes - coincidentally the first bogey-free winner on Tour since Lee Trevino, also in New Orleans but for 72 holes, 40-odd years ago. (Others have completed 72 bogey-free holes since the, Charlie Howell at Greenbrier a few years ago for one, but failed to win!)
~2.9 strokes gained putting led the field.
~40 putts attempted from ten foot and in, 40 holed.
etc.

4).Stuard is now exempt for the Bridgestone, but he won't see Rory there. And: I wonder who else might choose to miss the Bridgestone in this crowded summer?
Jordan Spieth is saying that he won't now have a break of more than one week until after the Ryder Cup unless he chooses to miss the Bridgestone. Pure speculation at the moment.

5).More speculation surrounding the return of owgr #508, T.Woods: He has booked "accommodation" at The Players and Memorial with the increasing likelihood that he might return at Memorial. "The Players'" commitments have to be confirmed by Friday, then three wks until commitments are due for "Jack's place". Both Sawgrass and Muirfield Village, especially, are courses where he's enjoyed success, but both could make a fool of the under-prepared as well.

6).Jim Furyk definitely tees it up this week; then 3 more in 4 weeks as he prepares for the US Open. While Stewart Cink takes indefinite leave as he offers support for his wife's health concerns. Good health and best wishes to the Cinks.

7).Another week, another lost opportunity for one of Davis Love's Ryder Cup wannabes to make a statement, with Charley Hoffman the only golfer in last week's Top 25 to advance his position (from 12th to 10th).

8).Meanwhile, many Gleneagles veterans are continuing that week's dismal form:
Simpson is 38th in RC pts, Mahan 46th, Bradley 60th.

9).Back to the "Wells Fargo" and an important stretch of golf coming up for Donaldson (missed out on The Players, and not clear when he'll reappear in the States), Molinari and Poulter. Poults may very well be playing at least four in a row now; he's not in either "Open", or Bridgestone, and his Tour career will start to ebb away unless he can string together some good results soon, very soon.

10).1st, cut, T2, T10, T8, 1st.
That's Rory's career so far at Quail Hollow, clearly the horse for this course. Only lukewarm confidence in him this week though, but now's the time for him to get his game back into gear for the summer. It's been almost six months since his last win and that's way too long for his undoubted talent. He too could be teeing it up at least the next four weeks; it's going to be a summer of increasing scrutiny if he can't win one soon.

If Langer beats Poulter (paired together), should Poulter withdraw his name from Ryder Cup consideration?

kwinigolfer wrote:These Players qualifiers seem to be missing, for a variety of reasons:
Bae
Cink
Clark
Clarke
Ishikawa
Jaidee
Perez
Peterson
Sabbatini
Schwartzel
Watney
Westwood
Woods

No doubt have missed one or two.
But doesn't that seem an unusual number of qualifiers to spend their week elsewhere?

EDIT: Plus GPB's reminder about KT Kim. So, 14 in all and confirmed by Rob Bolton.

In another Power Play, Chubby told Westy and Clarke to boycott the Players.  

One thing I need to get out of my system after Sunday. Can someone please arrange for Mark Roe to be lined up in front of a firing squad and shot for cowardice the next time he uses the word brave. Rory McIlroy played a good round of golf on Sunday, it was not a brave round. Nor was Phil's round brave either you moron.

McLaren wrote:What is the point in the changes?

Seems a pretty disastrous thing to try.

Although I think it is a decent looking course, they desperately need to reconfigure the finishing stretch if they want keep the green mile. 16 is 508 yards, 17 is 221 and 18 is 493: this adds up to 1,222 yards which is well short of the 1,760 yards in a mile. Unless there are significant walks between holes this is unacceptable.

The alternative would be to add 15 (577 yards) to the Green mile. This creates a much more accurate description, although they need to shorten the last 4 holes by c.10 yards each to get to a nice round mile.

Ahh f**k it.

Throw a windmill, a clown's head and a massive Budweiser bottle on some of the greens and have topless waiters and waitresses (equality, it's not Troon...) at bars by every tee and green. Make it a red white and blue neon mile to finish with all the greens painted with pictures of prominent presidents or past champions. Ticker tape parade on 18 for everyone within 10 of the lead each day accompanied by their respective national anthems.

Taylormade could release a new, longer, straighter, lighter, better, why oh why did you buy our last model it's crap compared to this one driver on each of the 4 days.

Just a thought...

Although I expect the Taylormade one is most likely to happen of the lot

Ray I don't care what the yardage is on the card. Most people seem to think the course usually provides a good tournament and on this basis it was awarded a major. Why bother mucking around with the layout of a course that works?

Roller

The days of a Taylormade driver getting released every 3 months might be over. Adidas have put them up for sale along with Ashworth and Adams. I doubt whoever buys them will want to pump the money in to release drivers on such a regular basis. Unless they go for frequency but with Donney quality.

How sad would it be to see Taylormade become a slazenger or Nickluas golf, getting sold in sports direct and the like?

Mac, just stuck something to that effect on the anything goes thread.

Personally, never liked TM much but they have been responsible for some pretty historic club developments within their (seemingly) 3 monthly release cycle.

I agree on the course though. If it's good enough to be awarded a major based on what it is like, keep it as it is, at least until that major is done so they could assess reaction/logistics etc.

If it then needs changing, it can be changed.

Maybe a "Green Mile" is like a "Nautical Mile" and not constrained by the 1760 yd definition.

Greg Owen may not win this week but this proves he's already got one birdie:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/watch-owen-strips-down-wades-lake-save-bird/?cid=golfchannel_majorshomepage_the_players_championship_latestnews_position_2_link_1

Perhaps Paula Cramer might make a similar gesture . . . . . .

Has Keegan Bradley fired Pepsi?
Perhaps Miguel Angel will offer him a job . . . . . .

EDIT:
Looks like the Keegan Bradley news was true:
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/bradley-splits-longtime-caddie-hale/?cid=golfchannel_majorshomepage_the_players_championship_latestnews_position_4_link_1

I see the "Big Four" has returned to the US media lexicon. Not clear though who the "four"th might be. Bubba?

Based on no more than 2 routine, administrative applications to play, it'll be Tiger!

I see the cringe worthy #SN2K16 crew are back at it.

GPB wrote:Maybe a "Green Mile" is like a "Nautical Mile" and not constrained by the 1760 yd definition.

Yes you could be right GPB!

Clearly Mac didn't understand this concept.

Do you think spectators could sue the PGA? They have been led to believe they will witness a finishing stretch of a mile of golf, but are severely short changed and only see 1,200 odd yards. Just think of the emottonal distress.

There's got to be a lawyer out there ready to take this on! Maybe they need to lengthen the finishing stretch to avoid the threat of litigation.

Not thought of that Ray. It would clearly be emotionally distressing and could have a severe quality of life impact. I wouldn't blame anyone for pursuing a case.

The emotional wellbeing wallet of thousands of fans is at stake.

Ray

What is with the green mile obsession? Who cares?

McLaren wrote:Someone should build a wall to stop the bulldozers getting at it.

I like that one...

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2016/5/11/vijay-vs-pga-tour-heating-up.html

VJ vs PGAT hots up.

Vj wants to name others who dabbled in deer urine.

It's all absurd really. Calc has said that he used the "spray", why wouldn't any other indulgers' names be in the public domain? Can't see how Veej can lose that argument.