PGA Tour: The "Byron Nelson": Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Jason Day's dominance of last week's Players Championship has been described as Tiger-like. It certainly looked that way as he signed for a clear lead on Saturday morning and never really looked like getting overtaken the rest of the way. Seven wins in the past ten months, though, and that's a helluva pace. Woods had 9 wins in a year once, as did Vijay Singh, and 8 wins twice, so Day has a long way to go, but his play since last year's vertigo at Chambers Bay has been different class from his closest pursuers.

2).Jason Day may not think so, but for the Tour's rank-and-file, we are coming up to the 2/3 point of the "regular" season, less than three months to qualify for FedEx Play-Off competition and earn cards for 2016/17.
All the more important, then, that double-dipping pros take advantage of every opportunity to pile up the appropriate currency, whether FedEx points, owgr points or real "cash money".
Good job by Francesco Molinari last week at Sawgrass as 7th place brought with it a jump from 133rd to 106th in FedEx Cup points.
But not good for Ian Poulter who slumped to a ten-over-par weekend and remains marooned outside the all important Top 125, in 137th position. He's played well in the Dallas area in the past and needs to do so again, otherwise he'll be going to cities he never imagined in a desperate effort to secure his card for another year.

3).Kevins win occasionally on Tour, Streelman and Stadler among them, but Kevin Chappell's starting to look like this season's Kevin Kisner as he piles up his 3rd runner up finish of the year.
Chappell's always looked like a potential winner if he could just play as well mentally as he usually does physically. He started the year in 105th place and is up to #33 so he's certain to play the big tournaments of the summer, but will he do a Kisner and finally break through?

4).The US Ryder Cup qualifying table has kept a status quo since we left California and the best Americans stopped winning tournaments. But Chappell has now reached 10th place, just ahead of Charley Hoffman. Matt Kuchar enjoyed his best finish for 15 months at Sawgrass and is up to 14th; not sure whether that is better news for DLIII or DC?.

5).Brian Davis has earned good finishes at the Byron Nelson in the past but he's not playing this week, presumably injured. Haven't heard any news so perhaps he'll apply for a medical exemption of some sort, perhaps on the PGA Tour but maybe the web.com Tour. Either way, he's on the edge of losing his Tour status, the only tenuous fingerhold on Tour likely to be "veteran status" courtesy of his 211 career cuts made.

6).The Byron Nelson field has steadily improved in quality since the Tour dissed it following Lord Byron's death ten-ish years ago. Another decent, if not deep, field and if Grumpy's fantasy game visited Dallas instead of Dublin I'd go with this lot:
A).Dustin, Kuchar, Sergio
B).Wilcox, Bradley, Palmer (but hope Poulter and Dufner start to pull their fingers out)
C).Curran, Henry, Appleby

7).Haven't seen anything on this Board about the death of Christy O'Connor.
O'Connor was, so far as I am aware, the last survivor of European golf in the 50's when I started to become aware of it as a sport - the names of O'Connor and Harry Bradshaw were as much a part of my sports awareness as Matthews and Mortenson, Statham and Trueman, along with Bernard Hunt, Weetman, Eric Brown, Dai Rees and a clown named Alliss (sorry Peter).
I'm sure there will be heartfelt tributes this week at the K Club. Rightly so.

Not interested in the "Byron Nelson"?

Then let's have a trivia question:
Who has most birdies in his career on the 17th hole in competition at TPC Sawgrass?


PS: Forecast for Thursday is dismal; 100% chance of rain, cool and up to two inches of rain likely.

Mickelson?

DL III would be my guess for most birdies on #17.

I have mentioned him before, but a great Euro player in post WWII is Flory Van Donck.

His wiki profile lists about 60 wins and won the National Opens of most golfing countries in Continental Europe.  Germany, Belgium, Dutch, French, Italian and Swiss open.

He also won tournaments in Venezuela and Uruguay.  And won the individual crown in the Canada Cup held in Ireland.

If players like Joe Carr can get into the WGHoF, then Flory Van Donck belongs there too.

=========

Both the Euro and US RC standing have been pretty static for the last 2 months or so.  Guess that is because non US and non Europeans have been winning many of tournaments.

Americans and Euros that have won have been so far down the standings that they really haven't impacted the standings much.  Hahn, Herman, Stuard, Johnstone.

Not DLIII.

And not Phil.


Agree about no Europeans winning, but imagine that will change now we're actually in Europe.

Kiwini
Is it Bernhardt Langer?

On another blog, I heard about an interesting playoff in the NCAA regionals in New Mexico.

5 teams advance from each regional to the NCAA finals.  Two teams tied for 5th, San Diego St. and Texas A&M.   There are 5 players per team, with the top 4 scores counting.

San Diego players went Eagle-Par-Par-Par and ... DOUBLE EAGLE

Texas A&M players went Birdie-Birdie-Par-Par-Bogey.

San Diego wins!  Who makes a Double Eagle on a playoff. 

I apologize if I offended anyone with the Double Eagle lingo instead albatross.  Deal with it.

Bernhard Langer has 25 birdies on #17 at TPC Sawgrass according to pgatour.com, the most of any player in professional competition.


Nice going Eye!

GPB,
That's pretty amazing. The only time I can remember something like that was the teenager winning the First Tee event with Seniors (Lee Janzen the partner?) on the 18th at Pebble Beach a couple of years ago. Not sure whether that was a long-distance eagle or albatross though.


Sounds like the American pros are finally starting to say what they really think about last Saturday's greens: "We've played fast greens, but never seen anything like that", was a sampler from Colt Knost.

GPB wrote:I apologize if I offended anyone with the Double Eagle lingo instead albatross.  Deal with it.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was -4 but it's not. It's not so much the terminology as the basic failure of the maths

In a country where pairings sheets for Rounds 1 & 2 invariably describe threesomes, double eagle is not so bad.
Tough to get over tho' it is.

Has Muirfield just removed itself from the open rota?

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/report-muirfield-vote-fails-will-not-allow-female-members/?cid=twitter-gc-a-report-muirfield-vote-fails-will-not-allow-female-members-051916

Hope so.
Music to Drumpf's ears though.

I would still really like a lawyer to explain to me how Muirfield can offer a service to the public and get away with unequal treatment of those it is offering the service to? A women cannot receive the same service a man would if buying a round at Muirfield. For no good reason certain aspects of the service are provided in a different way depending on the customers sex. Surely this isn't allowed?

It doesn't offer a service to the public Mac. It's a private members club. You can't just rock up and get a game.
Women ARE allowed to play Muirfield, just so you know.

That was surprisingly decisive from the R&A. They have already confirmed that Muirfield is booted from the the rota.

Semantics I know, but the R&A has actually confirmed that they would not consider anywhere that does not permit women members to host the Open.

At the moment this does/would exclude Muirfield but there is a significant amount of time before they would be up for a slot on the rota, thus giving plenty of time for Muirfield to reconsider (or not!) ahead of any such time that it might be considered their "turn".

It's effectively a warning shot, no more at this stage.

Ironic that Slumbers takes such decisive action while decades of Dawson only triggered ever more brown-nosing and sycophancy.

Close vote though, wasn't it? A strategic death or ten could turn that vote on its head. I wonder what financial benefits accrue to Muirfield for staging an Open every decade?


Meanwhile, start of play delayed in Dallas as today's weather is kicking off as advertised yesterday.

kwinigolfer wrote:A strategic death or ten could turn that vote on its head.

You're not The Jackal trying to drum up business are you Kwin?

kwinigolfer wrote:
In a country where pairings sheets for Rounds 1 & 2 invariably describe threesomes, double eagle is not so bad.
Tough to get over tho' it is.

I think one your countrymen said it very well.

William Shakespeare wrote:What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Yes, He also said "Much Ado About Nothing".

Who's Love's Labour will be Lost at the Byron Nelson?
Tee-times were pushed back a couple (that's two) of hours but storms have moved East and we may actually be in business at the top of the hour - or at least this morning.

GPB -

I wonder how Phil's arithmetic will work out as he prepares to refund the money (plus interest) that he profited from insider trading on Dean Foods - hope the State of California is getting their share in taxes. Estimates on GC that Phil will be shelling out approx $931K, petty cash for him you'd assume.

Off and running in Dallas; pairings in threes abound, if not albatrosses.

Kwini

You have to think he is more than delighted to be paying only $913K if it means no court appearance or jail time.

I wonder if he owes nearly a million bucks to any other bookies?

Who knows about Phil's debts, but this bloke was no ordinary bookie, and his source was the chairman of a blue-chip company.

Contrived tee-times, Chapter 712:
What does the Tour have against James Hahn? His reward for winning two weeks ago in Charlotte is to play with Brendon Todd, who hasn't made a cut in 3 1/2 months, and Mike Weir who hasn't made a cut in a full field event for nearly two years.
This is Weir's last hurrah on his medical exemption - he'll only get in future tournaments via Past Champion status, though presumably he'll still air it out at The Masters.

Racism kwini, racism.

!!
Kevin Na is another who never appears in the "featured group". Though more understandable in his case, I suppose.

Much better scoring as the day wore on in Dallas and no-one did it better than Sergio who has an early 2-shot lead, largely on the back of a brilliant putting display. Early days yet but a good finish here will be a big help for his world points total in Ryder Cup qualification.

Some of the afternoon starters will squeeze in 18 holes and, more weather permitting, the tournament should be back on schedule Friday evening.

Impressive scoring in progress this Dallas evening.
And good work from Poulter; started with two bogeys in his first three holes and has bounced back with five birds to a 67 (-3). He could use three more of them, but good to see him show some resilience.

Danny Lee is my one-and-done this week and he's one of a number who are cruising to a low round.

Expected to be a dry day in Dallas, not much wind and conditions should be perfect for low scoring.
The Round 1 afternoon "wave" certainly had the best of yesterday's conditions so hopefully things will even up today.
Poulter opening the batting in a few minutes . . . . . .

Hope he makes a better fist of batting than his cricketing counterparts. 6 of 8 failing pretty miserably and "Extras" in 4th place at lunch, with 12.

Agreed Roller, pretty dreadful. But if Poults can avoid the hooks and pulls, he shouldn't have to worry too much about the cut.
EDIT: Not many straight drives though, only hit 5 of his first 17 fairways this week. Luke-like.

Solid par, par start for him.

kwinigolfer wrote:Agreed Roller, pretty dreadful. But if Poults can avoid the hooks and pulls, he shouldn't have to worry too much about the cut.
EDIT: Not many straight drives though, only hit 5 of his first 17 fairways this week. Luke-like.

Solid par, par start for him.

IJP has hit several shanks in the last few months.

Quite so, GPB, but "shank" is not a cricket term.

Regardless, birdie, bogey, bogey for Poulter and now he's on the back foot. He edged his way back up the leaderboard after two bogeys yesterday, now he really needs to avoid any more slips, get his front foot forward and start holing out.

Not sure if agree that T29th is "back up the leaderboard".

Yes, well, compared to missing the cut, which he's looking squarely in the face of now, T29 would be a good step in the right direction.

Now he needs to birdie his 35th and 36th holes or Terry Mundy will be on bread and dripping sarnies until Fort Worth.

Not want the doctor ordered for Ian Poulter; another missed cut and now only halfway to keeping his card with only a third of the season remaining.
And the prospect of no Ryder Cup action at this rate.

kwinigolfer wrote:
And the prospect of no Ryder Cup action at this rate.

There's a good talking point .. would Poults still be in line for a captain's pick?

Wasn't he a pick in 2014? Lost one and halved two. I'd pick on form at the time.

Davie,
Much more of this sort of form and I'd think he disqualifies himself from consideration, wouldn't you? It's almost four years since his Medinah glory days.

Plenty of good birdie opportunities missed by Sergio today; hole not "getting in the way" like it did Thursday. Playing well otherwise though.

Bit of kick in the teeth for monty.  Monty posted a fawning tweet about turnberry and got this in reply from drumpf.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump wrote:@montgomeriefdn  Colin, great to have you at Trump Turnberry. So proud of you and your GREAT playing! You made winning MAJORS look easy!

Hopefully drumpf will make winning elections look as "easy" as Montgomerie "winning MAJORS".

Looks a super day in Dallas and 83 golfers will be playing Round 3, just the Top 70 and ties after 54 holes play Sunday - the rest just a bunch of mdf'ers.

Nice field at Colonial next week - Poulter goes at it again. He drew the curtain on his "regular" PGA Tour schedule at this time last year but I'd bet he'll be getting in as many tournaments as necessary until he assures himself of a 2016/17 Tour card.

He has also got to find enough tournaments on the ET as well. Although I don't think he is qualified for any of the other majors yet, I think he can find enough tournaments to play to keep his minimum. (Whether he does well enough is another matter) Macs' comments about double dippers is being realised with Poulter.

Poults will have plenty of time for E.T. events in the autumn, don't you think . . . . . ? His trouble is not double-dipping(!), he's just not good enough! Hopefully he'll turn his season around sooner rather than later.

No-one better than three under on the day yet as the leaders are on the first tee.

End of British interest in Dallas as Greg Owen stumbled to a Round 3 75 and an mdf exit.

Three of the usual Swedish suspects are still going and Sergio will look to repeat his 17 greens hit on Saturday but with improved putting. If he can manage both, he could contend for his first PGA Tour title for four years.


Meanwhile, in Alabama Bernhard Langer has a four stroke lead going in to the final round of the Seniors' first "Major" of the year. He'll be paired with Scott McCarron and both will be using a long putter almost anchored - you'd think it was until you look really closely. As it is, they're the USGA's/R&A's worst nightmare, apparently thumbing their nose at the anti-anchoring establishment but (probably) taking away a healthy share of the prize-money.

There was a guy playing well in the Web tournament this week that was using a very long putter, unanchored of course.

Early bogeys for Garcia, Koepka, Kuchar & Spieth, but lots of low numbers elsewhere. Anyone's tournament, 22 golfers within 4 strokes of the lead.

Oh Sergio not the yips now. Jordaaaan off the tee, he does know that just because TW & Seve had success never playing from the fairway, it is not the recommended way. Intriguing to watch his mental battle though.

Christ just googled Bill Mactee, turns out he is 60 - his plastic surgeon is good!