PGA Tour: Colonial Times & Driving/Irons/Putts: The Best: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The US Open at Oakmont is just three weeks away and the pros are fine-tuning their schedules and games in preparation for the big week - those who are qualified at any rate. Local Qualifying has been in progress thru'out the United States (except Northern New England for some reason) and Sectional Qualifying, already complete in Japan, begins in earnest at Walton Heath on Monday followed by ten US sites (excluding the entire North-East) on June 6th.

2).Oakmont sees the US Open more often than any other course but it will be almost unrecognizable in June as most(all?) of the trees remaining from 2007 have been cleared and the course will look more like it did when it first hosted the US Open in 1927. In complete contrast to Ernie Els's walk through a forest in a sweltering 1994. (The year I listened to Monday's BBC radio commentary of every stroke from Montgomerie, Roberts & Els on an open phone line in my San Jose, CA, office. Work did have its compensations after all.)

3).By the way, how much do you remember about Cabrera's win in 2007, when he was the only golfer to shoot two rounds in the 60's?
Do you remember who the 18-hole leader was, with an opening 69?
Or who the 54-hole leader was only to triple bogey his 55th hole?
Or even which one-time European Ryder Cupper finished 4th?
'Course you don't. Answers in note 10A). below!

4).But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Tour is in Texas, again, this week for the fifth time in two months, this time at Colonial CC in Fort Worth, just the other side of DFW Airport from last week's shenanigans outside Dallas.
Colonial was the home of Ben Hogan so TV coverage will be dripping with reverential homage, all while name-dropping the new Colonial sponsor, Dean & Deluca. Not sure myself, but worked with a Kwini DeLuca in Hertfordshire once - related? Didn't think so.  

5).Anyway, Colonial is a course-specialist's course, rather like Harbour Town. Whereas last week's winner, Sergio Garcia, was the first repeat winner of the "Byron Nelson" since the tournament moved to its TPC Four Seasons digs about 30 years ago, seven of the Colonial champs have been repeat winners in the same time: Crenshaw, Lietzke, Pavin, Price, Perry, Mickelson & Zach Johnson. Not to mention serial contenders such as multiple runners up like Furyk, Dufner, Tim Clark. All I'm saying is: Think horses for courses. I'm thinking Matt Kuchar.

6).Talking of which, three other Colonial habituees, Jerry Kelly, David Toms (one win, one 2nd), and Steve Stricker (won 2009) will be making their final trips here as full-time PGA Tour members as each turns 50 this coming winter.

7).Golf Digest had an interesting feature in its June edition: "Best on Tour". They did a forensic examination of stats from 2014 to "determine" the best in seven categories and added an opinion on "best swing on Tour". And the added condiment was the Tour players' (50 of 'em) opinions:
Driver: Dustin Johnson: (players picked McIlroy from DJ, Scott & Bubba)
Irons: Stenson: (players  chose Scott, Stenson, Sergio)
Wedge: Rose: (Zach, Stricker, Donald)
Trouble: Day: (Bubba, Phil, Spieth)
Bunker: Na: (KJ Choi, Donald, Spieth)
Putter: Spieth (Spieth, Snedeker, Kisner)
Finisher: Bubba Watson: (Spieth, McIlroy, Woods)
Swing: Adam Scott: (Scott, Oosthuizen, Rose).
I thought it was interesting anyway.

8).Iain Carter's piece on the BBC website this week talks about the BMW PGA being eclipsed by a "middle of the road event", Colonial, boasting "an unremarkable field". Trouble is that "unremarkable field", which contains Spieth, Scott, Reed, Oosthuizen, Snedeker, ZJohnson, Kuchar etc, has a strength of field, as measured by the world golf rankings, 25% higher than will be lining up at Wentworth.
Factors mitigating against the Wentworth turn-out presumably include the date, especially this year, but it's also increasingly clear that the players don't enjoy the changes to the course, let alone conditioning problems. More work in store after the tournament is over apparently.
In contrast, PGA Tour players ranked Colonial 5th, of 50-odd courses ranked, five years ago, placed neatly in the rankings between Pebble Beach and Muirfield Village. Sometimes the two Dallas / Fort Worth venues look more like browned-out dog tracks but even TPC Four Seasons looked good last week after recent rains and expect Colonial to look the same. Between the thundershowers anyway.

9).One other nitpick, and it's with the qualification process for The Open Championship:
Why does qualifying for Open Championship play, via the World Rankings, close so early seven weeks ahead of Troon action? Meanwhile, the top 4 not otherwise exempt finishing inside the top 12 at this week's Mizuno event in Japan qualify. But NOT high finishers at Wentworth (except the winner). Moronic.

10).With Grumpy's Fantasy game being played in Europe for two weeks I'll again pick my choices for Colonial (last week's efforts in Dallas would have yielded seven made cuts, some low rounds and 1st & 3rd; must do better this week):
A).Zach, Kuchar, Scott
B).Kirk, Dufner, Palmer
C).Hoge, Stricker, Toms
Winner: Kuchar

10A).2007 US Open answers:
~18-hole leader: Nick Dougherty (ultimately finished 7th, ahead of Casey and Rose who tied for 10th).
~54-hole leader: Aaron Baddeley
~Fourth-place finisher: Niclas Fasth!

Europeans largely taking this week off, from the PGA Tour at least, but this lot are in the Colonial field with their FedEx position showing their situation as the season moves into its final third:
Blixt (69th) and Jacobson (42nd) . . . . . .
are in good shape, but the position of the rest of them is becoming increasingly precarious:

Laird: 125th
Owen: 133rd
Pettersson: 199th
Poulter: 140th. Poults finished 5th here last year and a repeat performance would be just the job.

Shot at questions without checking out answers

18-hole leader was, with an opening 69? Ross Fisher (seen as we were already talking about him)

54-hole leader was only to triple bogey his 55th hole? Phil Mickelson? The nearly man of us opens.

one-time European Ryder Cupper finished 4th? Nicolas Fasth.



Nice to hear the tree removal has been very comprehensive, we have talked about it a few times so will be good to see how it has turned out. Hopefully it now has a bit of a Shinnecock look to it. Just don't copy the green speeds.


Kwini, who were you rooting for to win the 94 Open?


Surprised not to see the players pick McIlroy for irons. His long irons might no match the strokes gained that Tiger managed but they are a thing of beauty. McIlroy looks like he is hitting nine irons at times with the long irons. Not sure anyone (maybe ernie?) has ever made hitting long irons look so easy.


As for the BMW PGA, it is hard to know what to make of it. As I pointed out on the other thread it attracts one of the best fields all year on the European tour but should it be aiming higher. Not sure how Els having another shot at the greens is going to help?


On the open qualifying, I think they like to use the Scottish open as a final way to qualify to help boost its field. Although not sure how that is connected to your complaint, just all I could think of for a reason to do it the way they do.

Return trivia question.

Who shot a high profile 71, 74 at the 2003 colonial?

Future Solheim Cup Captain?
I watched every minute of the coverage of her rounds. Who did she play with? I think she's still good friends with one of them who she met for the first time at their opening tee-shot! I think they must have been very carefully selected.

'94 US Open? Els, Always liked him, though I followed him for 18 holes for the first time a few years ago and he was miserable. Very disappointing!
As for Open qualifying, they give spots in all sorts of tournaments, excluding, it seems, the theoretically most prestigious:
Nordea: 1
Memphis: 4
Quicken Loans: 4 (plus a potential 5 FedEx points' ranking freebies)
France:4
Scotland: 4
Greenbrier: 1

Daft, I tell you, just plain daft. Nothing for a high US Open result though, except for the winner. Hopefully Slumbers will wake up from Dawson's silly billy.

As far as I remember, Sorenstam hit 17 of 18 greens in R1, yet made only one birdie - from the fringe!

Great read, as usual, Kwini. Ta.
Re 9) Open qualification and Wentworth; another reason not so many can be bothered to turn up at the PGA?

Cheers navy,
Who knows, but it certainly can't help. But it's the stars they need to (re-)attract.
(Think I'll re-write the Dawson piece - "silly billy"ness doesn't quite the contempt I have for the man!)

Re Bullet Point #9

This post is entirely speculation

I think the R&A has an early OWGR deadline to determine just how many exemptions that they have left.

They don't want to hand out all these exemptions to high finishers in Memphis, Nordea, Quicken etc. and then have more than expected players in the Top 50 exempt.

GPB,
Not speculation at all; why give exemptions to a Japan event but not to the theoretical "flagship" tournament of the E.T. which is held the same week? Don't think the USGA/PGA/Masters Committee would extend such consideration, why should the R&A??


Blustrous in Fort Worth this afternoon and only one of the afternoon "wave", Webb Simpson, finished in the top 8. Poulter & Kuchar among those who fell foul of the conditions, or their bad play, to stumble coming in.

It may be a lovely morning at Wentworth but the Fort Worth area looks like it's been walloped by some kind of meteorological apocalypse. Can't see play starting on time, but there's only a 121-player field so delays in play shouldn't have too much effect.

Well at least your new president knows that it's not down to climate change

Not MY president Monty - interesting that he's building a wall at his course in Ireland to protect a green against rising tide levels.

The major redeeming feature about the most severe weather in the US is that it usually affects those States who vote for the climate-change-deniers. But then the rest of us have to bail them out with Federal aid and resources, our tax dollars.

Tee times delayed two hours.

Kwini

But remember, climate change isn't caused by humans it is a version of Yahweh enacting the end times. And I know I would like the end time to come pretty quick if I had to live on one of those states.

I don't why BMW is not one of the Open Qualifying tournaments, you would have to ask them.  

But IMO, they do have to choose one of the Japan tournament so why not make it this week?  After all, the R&A hates the term "British Open", and presumptuously bill themselves as "The Open" so it kind of mean that they got to give exemptions to other tours.

IMO...The R/A gives plenty of exemptions to EuroTour players.  Besides all the ET players inside the Top 50, all these EuroTour members, are ranked from #50-#80, are exempt for the Open Championship.

Wood
V-Dub
Donaldson
Pieters
Oleson
Soomin Lee
Jeunghun Wang

(as well as Kaymer)

They're all earned though, GPB, it's not as if they are special exemptions.
Just as the FedEx top 30 from last year earned their tickets.

Tee times at Colonial now delayed a further hour, three hours in total.

Of course they are earned.  I don't think I implied that they weren't.  I am saying that there are plenty of exemptions for the ET members and if the R&A wants to bill it as the "Open" then it needs to give exemptions to other tour.

Are you implying that the four exemptions for the Mizuno Open are "special" and not Earned?

Not saying they are "special" or not, but I can't for the life of me comprehend why this tournament is, in the R&A's eyes, more special than the PGA, or even Colonial.

GPB

It is called the "Open Championship" because that is what it has always been called.  I don't think it is anything to do with how British or not it or the field is but that there weren't any other national opens at its inception to require being identified by nationality.


Kwini

I agree the week 21 cut off for top 50 OWGR is rather early as someone could play themselves into the top 50 in the coming months, although they would also have to avoid getting into the fedex top 20 by the Quicken lones.

And if I have read the criteria properly which I probably haven't, by the end of play at the BMW PGA champs the most obvious routes of entry to the open for EuroT and PGAT players not already qualified are.

Win the US open
Be one of top 5 not already qualified in fedex top 20 (by quicken lones)
Finish top 5 Swedish open (highest not qualified gets in)
Top 12 of French open (4 not already qualified get in)
Top 12 of Scottish Open (4 places to those not already qualified)
Top 12 St Jude (4 places)
Top 12 Qucken lones (4 places)
Top 5 greenbrier (1 place)

Or play in an open final qualifying event.


I do wonder if anyone could move into the top 50 by the open and avoid qualifying through one of the above routes? It might have to be quite an odd scenario.  And remember there are plenty of criteria based on good play last season.

Do you know if anyone in the top 50 come monday of open week has ever missed out?

Messrs, Bjorn, Harrington and Lawrie earn a trip to Minnesota I see. Why not Robbie Karlsson I wonder?

Mac,
The USGA showed a rare piece of initiative a few years ago by adding a second owgr qualifying date after Justin Rose, not otherwise qualified, won the 2010 Memorial and jumped from 66th to 33rd in the owgr's but had to sit out the Pebble Beach Open. Shortly thereafter the USGA added a second qualifying date.
If the R&A had crept out of Dawson's 19th century cocoon, they'd've made a similar adjustment, but noooo . . . . . !

Kwini

Does the US open have as many chances to qualify via finishes in regular tour events as the Open have? I am not asking to counter you point, but just curious.


Maybe instead of a data change to the cut off the number of the worlds top 100 qualifying could be increased? Would it alter the field all that much to invite top 75 or something?

Mac:  The R&A is not billing itself as "THE OPEN"  and the not "THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP"

IMO, it is presumptuous.

IMO, the US Open is more open is the "The Open".  About 140 of the exemptions are given out in Professional Tournaments were 97% of the participants are Professionals.

It does make for a better quality field but it does not make it Open for amateurs.  Yep, the US am champ and Amateur Champion is invited along with the highest ranked amateur are offered exemptions....but I would not call it very Open.

======

Kwini:  I am still trying to figure out your outrage.

Are you outraged that Mizuno Open got exemptions?  Or are you outraged that BMW and Colonial did not.

Would you have rather the R/A designate another Japanese Tournament like "the JGT Championship Mori Building Cup Shishido Hills" being conducted next week?  Or would you rather not have the R/A give exemptions to any Japanese Tournament?

The EuroT and PGAT will get their exemptions.  It just doesn't happen this week.

No chances to qualify for the US Open via "regular tour events"; only exemption criteria from now on are this week's BMW PGA winner, owgr Top 60 June 13th or via sectional qualifying (Walton Heat has a qualie on Monday for instance), plus any "Special Exemptions" (Goosen received one a week or so ago).

Some R&A tweaking surely overdue.

(PS: Sad about Nadal having to w/d from Rolland Garros.)


GPB,
Mac is correct - nothing presumptuous about it at all. And the US Open can call itself what the hell it likes; who cares? You have bagged the World Series after all - no-one elsewhere calls it just the Series.

All I'm saying about these contrived exemptions via run of the mill events is, if you're going to offer them (and I'm against ALL of them, would much prefer more open qualifying around the British Isles), apply them predominantly to the most important tournaments - and, to Europe, the PGA is more important than any of the rest.

"PS: Sad about Nadal having to w/d from Rolland Garros" Did he see someone approach with a cup to pi55 into?


GPB

I think I didn't manage to make my point. Whether or not you think it is really all that "open" these days is one thing, but "Open Championship" is the name of the event and has been from pretty much day one, before other national opens existed.

It is not called the "British Open" because it was never called that and that event has never existed to my knowledge.

McLaren wrote:Kwini

Does the US open have as many chances to qualify via finishes in regular tour events as the Open have?  I am not asking to counter you point, but just curious.

No. About half of the US Open field is set through the OWGR Top 60 and other exemptions.  US Open champs for the last ten years (includes Woods, Kaymer, GMAC) and Majors Champs for the last 5 years (Includes Els, Clarke, Dufner, Bradley)

The remaining qualifier go through open Qualifiers.  There are two stages, local and sectional.  Most of the pros that everyone knows that are not already exempt go straight to sectional qualifying.  There is a sectional qualifier this Monday at Walton Heath where many of the ET members that were not exempt for the US Open are playing.

There were about 75 local qualifying sites.  That is for scratch amateurs, club pros, mini tour pros etc.  About 5-8 players from each local qualifying site go to the sectionals where they will play against players like Robert Streb, Fabian Gomez, Ryan Palmer, Bryson DeChambeau, Tim Herron etc.

Kwini

I can see from the rest of your post above that we agree on the cut off date being too soon for the OWGR top 50 but differ in what else we would like to see.

As discussed with GPB it is called an "open" but for historic reasons as it is now really just one of the four majors for those at the very top of professional golf. The idea of having more open qualifying events is not terrible and could provide an interesting field on paper but really I would rather just ensure we see most of the worlds top 100.

If you want to see the top pro's mix it with the lowest echelons of the OWGR...... watch the BMW PGA. ;)

The romanticism of a amateur battling for the claret jug on sunday will only ever be a fiction if you ask me. Wimbledon for example is full of the sort of history and tradition you like but it does just invite the best 128 players in the world.

Not true at all about Wimbledon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Qualifying, plus wild-cards which are allocated politically . . . . . . . !!!!!!!!!

Ok, but isn't it mostly just top 100 + some dodgy invites to crappy UK players?


I just meant that the bulk of the field is determined by the world rankings.

But as I said above how many of the top 50 from the OWGR are missing and if we extend this to the top 100 of the OWGR how many are usually missing.

Has anyone done this analysis for the majors and if so where can it be found? We know the PGA champs try get the top 100 and the masters doesn't even invite 100 players.

McLaren wrote:
GPB

I think I didn't manage to make my point.  Whether or not you think it is really all that "open" these days is one thing, but "Open Championship" is the name of the event and has been from pretty much day one, before other national opens existed.  

It is not called the "British Open" because it was never called that and that event has never existed to my knowledge.

That's just it Mac....It is not the "Open Championship" anymore.  It is just called "The Open"

Non Brits (and not just Americans) have mostly called it the British Open.  Here are a couple of example of prominent non American Golfers who call it the "British Open".

Look at Greg Norman's Biography

http://www.shark.com/the-shark/tournament-victories/

Look at Gary Player's biography

http://garyplayer.com/legend/the_majors

Both these players refer to it as British Open in their resume.

=======

Most of the British bloggers get their knickers in a knot when it is called the British Open.  I just don't understand getting that upset about it.

Would Paige Spiranac be any less stunning if her name was Gertrude Lipschitz?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChkG216U4AAyVit.jpg

"A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Would Paige Spiranac be any less stunning if her name was Gertrude Lipschitz? No, unless I am missing a reference. She certainly induces ripping your cock off.


"I just don't understand getting that upset about it". No me neither, but the fact remains its official title has never been the British open. Isn't calling it "The Open" just so they can fit the name on the merchandise more easily? Presumably in official documents etc it is still called the the open championship?

McLaren wrote:"PS: Sad about Nadal having to w/d from Rolland Garros" Did he see someone approach with a cup to pi55 into?

Never sad to see that timewasting cheat exit a tournament Mac.

Action at last in Fort Worth. No chance that we'll see 36 holes completed by the afternoon wave, but shouldn't be any trouble in catching up Saturday with drier weather in prospect. Could be a bit breezy though.
Colonial looks good too!

On my way back home from Paris. Watched Karlovic vs Murray. You think Murray is ok tall but that Karlovic is a f-king beast!!

PS. My French colleague just bought tickets for R4 of Open de France. 30 Euros! What a bargain.

Magnifique!

Memorial Field posted.

Top 5 OWGR are all playing plus Justin and Dustin in the Top 10.

No Tiger.

RCB, Thorbjorn, Coetzee, Ben An are playing Memorial.

I wish RCB would take a week off!

Poulter also in the field, and he must be wondering how he's going to spend his forties, make his Ferrari payments. Imploding in Fort Worth after a dream start.
As for Rose, he's a South African in my book now; at least until he wins something and we need him for the RC . . . . . . .

Poulter appears to be on a terminal decline. He's barely journeyman status at present. Can't see him even being considered for a pick for RC. Hasbeen.

Super,

Agree DC certainly can't pick him on current form., too many better players in front of him. GMac and Westy for starters.

Furthermore pretty much got to play every week for the next three months to retain his card. Of course all changes if he can win, very unlikely at present but stranger things have happened!

Think he's made the best of his talents though, but never quite rediscovered his excellent short game of five years ago. That's what made him such a tough matchplay player, but he's miles off that now. Very much playing like someone of around 150 ranking.

Poulter must be about 40, no surprise that he is on the decline but as super said he certainly maximised his talent. If Rory or Tiger had (do) maximise their talent to the extend poulter has then Jack Drumpflaus's record wouldn't be standing.

He was lucky to play in the last ryder cup last time and didn't win any mathes, so not sure he would have been considered for selection unless he managed to qualify automatically.

I don't think his age is a reason for his decline, might contribute, but there has been plenty of players who have won majors well over that age (Cabrera, Mickelson, Singh, Fat Jack), and continue to maintain far better consistency.
Poulter has no excuses, he's not fat, he's not injury prone, he just doesn't appear to try hard enough. Fair enough he's probably richer than avarice, and doesn't need to work hard.

He should look at the likes of Westwood, who wasn't far away from winning The Masters this year if he needs confirmation that age isn't a barrier.

Apart from his flirtation with victory (finished 3rd) in Puerto Rico, he hasn't finished inside the Top 30 in any PGA Tour event this season; pretty sad I think, he can be fun to follow and is an asset to any Tour.
But his stats are pretty awful and he seems to have completely lost focus.
His fall down the rankings now will be free fall stuff and, if he loses his card his only status will be "veteran player", way down the pecking order.
The web.com finals could provide a safety net though, and they've rescued some careers. Fingers crossed for that.

Round 2 resumes at 7.30 a.m. Central time without him. And they should be able to complete Round 3 today.

Round 2 complete at Colonial and:
~Good News: For the Tour as 70 players make the cut, on the number as it were. So they should easily finish Round 3 this evening.

~Bad News: Laird and Owen finish T71st, home for the weekend. They are both securely in Poulter territory and need to get their skates on if they're to retain their cards.

PS: Looks like Colonial was playing relatively easy this morning; something really low in store this afternoon?

kwinigolfer wrote:
As for Rose, he's a South African in my book now; at least until he wins something and we need him for the RC . . . . . . .

Justin is on his way to Wentworth to attend the 4th round of the BMW and do some commentary for the Sky Sports

https://twitter.com/JustinRose99/status/736551033598541824

Yup, He said earlier in the week that he'd do that, glad he's keeping that commitment.
Where's Concorde when you need it?

Compelling Round 3 at Colonial and a brilliant short-game exhibition from Jordan Spieth.
Plenty of low scoring, 3 x 65's, 3 x 64's and Kuchar's 63.
Hopefully the course will firm up a tad Sunday but, if Spieth continues his chipping and putting clinic it's going to be tough for anyone to overtake him.
He would be the first American young gun to win since, guess who won at Kapalua in January.

Lahiri (T9) the only non-American in the top twelve.

I believe there have been sightings of Justin at North Hants this week. Suggests this week was always scheduled and back problem is genuine - don't think I am being naive?

Kwini - while on the subject of Hampshire great am win this week for Harry Ellis (Meon Valley) at the Lagonda Trophy up at Gog Magog (Cambridge). 4 rounds under par, won by 6! He won the English Am a few years ago I think aged 16, and might be fulfilling that early promise. Previous Lagonda winners include Westwood and Donald. Currently at college in US.

http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32900&ATCLID=209584802

Following in the footsteps of Sluman, Blixt & Koepka? Will have to keep an eye. Thanks for the tip!

Short game miracles from Spieth yesterday, but hoping someone makes a fight of it today.

It looks like rain and lightening in the DFW area this morning so possible delay at Colonial and, possible softer course as well.

Two local lads in the final group; Ryan Palmer is a member at Colonial and his caddie a multiple times club champ. But no-one putts/chips like Spieth when he's in the mood.