PGA Tour: Europeans Countdown to Play-Offs: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).No tournament this week, so let's have a look at the PGA Tour's Europeans as they close out the "regular season":

The Open / Barbasol
Canadian Open
PGA Championship
Travelers
John Deere
Wyndham

That's right, just six tournaments for players to reach the Play-Offs and keep their card for the 16/17 season, just five for those not qualified for the PGA.

2).First we'll knock off those who are certain to be at The Barclays, first tournament of the FedEx series:
Knox, Garcia, McDowell, McIlroy, Lingmerth, Rose, Stenson, Jacobson, Cejka, Lowry, Casey, Donald. Not sure about Danny Willett.

3).But these have work to do as they play towards a Barclays-qualifying FedEx points tally of, say, 475 pts:
Molinari: At 452 points, Franny may be OK, but another Top 30 finish should be enough to be absolutely sure. In The Open and PGA.
Laird: 378 pts, and rather missed the boat at last week's Reno action. He's committed for the Barbasol but will miss out on the PGA unless he wins one of the next two weeks. Not exempt for 16/17 so needs some good form in the coming month or it's the web.com Finals for him.
Donaldson: 296 pts. In The Open and PGA but badly needs some good results. Only played 10 tournaments so wonder if he will try to save his card or resign himself to Europe next year?
Harrington: 292 pts. Past Champion so will surely play Troon and PGA. Could miss the rest due to Olympic ambitions. Exempt for 16/17.
Owen: 287 pts. Perennial bubble boy. Committed for Barbasol but not qualified for the PGA. In trouble, and with no exemption for next year. Needs one more decent result to qualify for conditional status for next year and sure to qualify for the web.com Finals.
Poulter: Out for the season but will presumably play next year on a medical exemption. Which won't do him any good at all unless his play improves. A lot.

4).And the rest of 'em look destined to lose their cards barring a miracle:
Norlander: 166 pts and in a lousy run of form. Has made 8 of his last 9 cuts but no Top 30's all season. Not good enough - seems to have found his level, a web.com destiny. Should qualify for web.com Finals though.
Pettersson: 48 pts. Hopeless, adrift without his anchor. Should be eligible to play next year on a one-time career money exemption. Is it worth it Carl?
Davis: 23 pts. Finished 28th in his first event of the season but has only played sporadically since, with no cuts made. No idea what's in store for him next year, web.com perhaps but is he fit? Will hold "veteran player" status on the PGA Tour and Greg Chalmers' win last week in Reno shows that all is not lost, even with a (likely) ten-event calendar.

5).Well done to DJ last week, and well done to Snakey Chalmers too, a PGA Tour win at last at 42 and probably the only over 40 winner on Tour this season.

Just the Barbasol Championship over here next week, so I'll leave The Open thread to you GB&I experts.

GPB wrote:

Shotrock wrote:I, for one, am sick of this TV interference.

So, she did move some sand. Does anyone really think (a) it helped her execute the shot (b) she did it on purpose? My opinion is no on both counts.

I would get rid of all this TV replay stuff and totally rely on what 99% of golfers do in professional tournaments ... call infractions on themselves.

while I agree with you in theory, it is much harder to put "gray areas" in the rules.  Much easier to write rules that are black & white.

Junior golfers are taught from a young age that "Thou shall not ground club in a hazard".

Nordqvist did.  Her biggest problem that she gave her club an opportunity to touch the sand.  Her club should have been no closer than an inch to the sand.

I'm with GPB on this one - grey areas are bad. I'm surprised she didn't realize herself though - yes it was a miniscule contact, but as someone else said, why was her club that close to the sand? Shotrock asked if it helped her shot or do it on purpose and I agree it probably didn't - but why risk it? It's an elementary mistake for any pro to make and she should have known better - and probably should have called the penalty on herself

You know, for a group that holds "bravery" in such high regard week in and week out, it's amusing to see all these professional golfers scurry like mice when the lights are turned on for Rio ...

Hear hear sr,
"Giving back to the community" my @ss.

Just seen that bunker shot. I get you are not allowed to ground your club in a hazard. But what is the reasoning behind that rule? And in what way has the player gained any advantage by slightly touching a bit of sand? And people wonder why golf is decreasing in popularity. The rules are nonsense.

I believe it is so that you can't test the sand where the ball is. Eg in case there is very little sand in that place. That's why you see golfers wiggling their feet to sort of test it that way. I might be wrong.

Molinari another withdrawal from the Olympics!

Matteo missed out very narrowly - now he's in!
Camilo has pretty much said that he'll withdraw if he doesn't have a top result at this week's Barbasol event, not for Zika but to try and keep his job.

Wiggling your feet to feel the sand is clearly against the rules.

Re. grounding the club, I kinda agree with an earlier poster that rules need to be black or white. But I also think they need to make sense. Ie. no HD slow mo video should be needed to determine whether grains have actually moved. Similar to the Dustin Johnson incident. If HD slow mo is needed to determine then the rules infraction clearly hasn't been of advantage to the player.

Spieth on his olympic withdrawal:
Despite reports that he faced mounting pressure from Cola-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor, Spieth said the decision was “90 percent me, 9 percent the team, and 1 percent anything else that came our way.”
“Whenever I talked to our team,” he added, “the responses I got were, ‘We are 100 percent behind you either way, but you need to make this decision 100 percent yourself.’”

Ok, so let me summarise:
90% his own decision, 9% his team who are 100% behind him if he decides 100% himself. Then there's the magic 1% that came in his way - which then means his team does no support his decision.

You do the math. No wonder he prefers god over science.

I'm never wrong wrote: I might be wrong.

you better change your handle then!!

pedro wrote:Spieth on his olympic withdrawal:
Despite reports that he faced mounting pressure from Cola-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor, Spieth said the decision was “90 percent me, 9 percent the team, and 1 percent anything else that came our way.”
“Whenever I talked to our team,” he added, “the responses I got were, ‘We are 100 percent behind you either way, but you need to make this decision 100 percent yourself.’”

Ok, so let me summarise:
90% his own decision, 9% his team who are 100% behind him if he decides 100% himself. Then there's the magic 1% that came in his way - which then means his team does no support his decision.

You do the math. No wonder he prefers god over science.

I need 12 months of Yoga to make a stretch that far.

GPB wrote:
I need 12 months of Yoga to make a stretch that far.

Yes, that Spieth guy seems a bit contrived.

Yes talk about contrived. Spieth said he's withdrawing for health reasons, he's not specifying it's Zika, but he's not saying it's not because of Zika.

Just be honest and tell everyone you don't fancy it!

pedro wrote:Spieth on his olympic withdrawal:
Despite reports that he faced mounting pressure from Cola-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor, Spieth said the decision was “90 percent me, 9 percent the team, and 1 percent anything else that came our way.”
“Whenever I talked to our team,” he added, “the responses I got were, ‘We are 100 percent behind you either way, but you need to make this decision 100 percent yourself.’”

Ok, so let me summarise:
90% his own decision, 9% his team who are 100% behind him if he decides 100% himself. Then there's the magic 1% that came in his way - which then means his team does no support his decision.

You do the maths. No wonder he prefers god over science.

Sorted for you.

raycastleunited wrote:Yes talk about contrived. Spieth said he's withdrawing for health reasons, he's not specifying it's Zika, but he's not saying it's not because of Zika.

Just be honest and tell everyone you don't fancy it!

Yeah, but when your honest you face the flack that Rory is facing now. Now while I do admire Rory's honesty half of me is thinking why don't you just come out with the same canned crap the rest of the guys are spewing and then you can concentrate on your golf. Doesn’t he have enough on his plate in the middle of a major week without stirring some controversy.