PGA Tour: Elementary Bubba Watson: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Davis Love made the fairly predictable choices last Monday of Fowler, Holmes and Kuchar as his first three "picks" for Team USA and seemed pretty pleased with himself. But now comes the hard part. You don't have to study too hard to read what's between the lines of his pga.com interview, as he has his Holmes but not his, or anyone else's it seems, Watson:

2)."These are the three guys we want right now." Which translated means: We didn't want Bubba.

3).We're looking for "guys we think are going to handle this stage and fit in with the group, be ready to play under that pressure". Not have a career singles record of 0 - 3, eh Bubba? (The same as Spieth's Pres Cup / Ryder Cup singles record, as it happens, the answer to the age-old trivia question: What do Messrs DeLaet, McDowell and Leishman have in common?) And, with this somewhat cliquey group, perhaps Bubba doesn't "fit in"?

4)."Rickie had a big schedule, with a lot weighing on him and he missed the Tour Championship by half a point," said Davis.
Bubba, on the other hand, played the same number (8) events from July 1st thru last week, outplayed Rickie in the Olympics, has won on Tour this season and is ranked higher in the owgr's. Oh, and Bubba didn't miss the Tour Championship, he made it comfortably.

5).I don't think the Task Force did Love any favours breaking up the timing of his Captain's Picks. He's clearly dissed Bubba and made it very difficult for Love to go back and choose him now.
On the other hand, Bubba could win the Tour Championship - how would he then feel about playing on a Team that has made it obvious that they don't want him?

6).Big sympathies for Bubba here, but what will Capt Love do now?  
New blood? The punditry seems to think he'll choose a young gun, Berger or Thomas - and one would think Thomas's relationship with LoveIV and cliquey best buds with Fowler and Spieth will help him if he can only help himself in Atlanta.

Or an Old head? Possibly Furyk, but I'd go with Dufner, 6 wins against 2 losses in his Presidents/Ryder Cups career, including 2 - 0 in singles. And a proven partner for Zach Johnson. Not to mention that Dufner would take the situation in his stride,

7).The wTF four-tournament action resumes in Boise, Idaho, where it's just warming up again after some frigid temps.
You know the score: The Top 25 money winners in this series, who have not already earned their Tour card via the web.com regular season, earn Tour cards for the 2016/2017 season. And the more money they earn, the higher their status with the stragglers probably only getting to play two of the first eight events, and likely only 2 of the following 8 also.

8).This is the fourth year for wTF and the 25th man on the past three money-lists has earned no less than $42K and no more than $44.3K.
So let's say $45K should get you a card, which would mean DeChambeau, Gonzales, Lindheim and Etulain already have their cards assured.
European standings after one event:
T11: Norlander
T13: Gonzo
T24: Johnston
etc.

9).Gregory Bourdy is throwing his chapeau into the wTF ring this week, joining Andrew Johnston and Aphibarnrat as potential European Tour defectors. Easily forgotten that highlights of Bourdy's season included T18 finishes in the US Open and PGA Championship. Bon chance.

10).Congrat's to Dustin Johnson on his BMW win and he joins Rory and Tiger as three-time FedEx Cup Play Off winners.
Meanwhile, Bubba Watson must be thrilled he championed the US cause in Rio when the Jordans and Dustins stayed at home. It sounds as if Bubba embraced the whole experience, proud to represent USA on the world's second biggest international stage. But the good old USA is not embracing Bubba, despite his 8th-place finish, and that's a shame which might make potential candidates for the Tokyo golf action think twice about playing in four years' time.

navyblueshorts wrote:

super_realist wrote:...and Richard Boxall slipped on a tee because he was so poorly coordinated and broke an ankle.

Ah yes. Knew there was that case but couldn't think of whom it was. He bust his shin if I recall, walking/falling down the front slope of a tee while walking off it. Poorly coordinated? Who knows. Unlucky? Undoubtedly.

Well you seem to know as much (or little?) as super - as I said earlier in the thread, all I can find is reports that his leg broke while trying to keep up with monty and a 1-iron

I'm happy to be proved wrong but none of the reports I can find suggest he fell over walking off the tee box

I guess the families sued because all the pupils choked on the 18th green.

pedro wrote:I guess the families sued because all the pupils choked on the 18th green.

Westy can teach them how to win majors, and if he runs out of material, he can contract Monty.

GPB wrote:

pedro wrote:I guess the families sued because all the pupils choked on the 18th green.

Westy can teach them how to win majors, and if he runs out of material, he can contract Monty.

and sergio, poulter, donald, bjorn, Casey, Mcginley, Fisher, Colsaerts, Molinari......

Oops, did I just list a decade worth of RC heroes.

McLaren wrote:

GPB wrote:

pedro wrote:I guess the families sued because all the pupils choked on the 18th green.

Westy can teach them how to win majors, and if he runs out of material, he can contract Monty.

and sergio, poulter, donald, bjorn, Casey, Mcginley, Fisher, Colsaerts, Molinari......

Oops, did I just list a decade worth of RC heroes.    

Could be interesting to see LWs GIR stats in Ryder Cup. I'm sure they're pretty good, given his inability to chip.

Davie wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

super_realist wrote:...and Richard Boxall slipped on a tee because he was so poorly coordinated and broke an ankle.

Ah yes. Knew there was that case but couldn't think of whom it was. He bust his shin if I recall, walking/falling down the front slope of a tee while walking off it. Poorly coordinated? Who knows. Unlucky? Undoubtedly.

Well you seem to know as much (or little?) as super - as I said earlier in the thread, all I can find is reports that his leg broke while trying to keep up with monty and a 1-iron

I'm happy to be proved wrong but none of the reports I can find suggest he fell over walking off the tee box

Yes. Thanks for that Davie. I posted before I read the 1-iron thing. Have a gold star...

Hitting a 1-iron is worthy a punishment itself.

But had been using the TaylorMade new-fangled, whatcha-macallit with go faster stripes and channel set, baguette cut weight ports he could have hit a 5-iron to keep up with Monty.

Actually, quite surprised he struggled to keep up with Monty; wasn't aware Monty was considered that long.

navyblueshorts wrote:Actually, quite surprised he struggled to keep up with Monty; wasn't aware Monty was considered that long.

Just his anecdotes

He did a little piece on it during the Open coverage and it was actually quite interesting.
His leg had been sore all day, so I assume he may have had a fracture there from something else, and his leg broke actually mid swing during a tee shot. Ouchy

Super still insists it was clumsy lack of coordination

and probably also because he was fat and unfit.

And he'd been running wrong.

pedro wrote:and probably also because he was fat and unfit.

It wouldn't have helped. I heard a different story about how he did it. I'm happy to be wrong if his leg just suddenly became "sore"

super_realist wrote:

pedro wrote:and probably also because he was fat and unfit.

It wouldn't have helped. I heard a different story about how he did it. I'm happy to be wrong if his leg just suddenly became "sore"

Super - you have demanded many times that people (mostly Mac) does some searching themselves - try it. All the web pieces and the Sky fragment that someone mentioned earlier, have been consistent. His leg had been giving him trouble all week - probably a latent stress fracture. The tee shot was the final straw. If you kow something else then tell us. If you can't back it up then better to just be quiet and admit you were "probably" wrong (see I can use inverted commas to get a point across too)

That's what I remember hearing on TV Davie, perhaps they were embellishing the story or something to make it sound more interesting.
I already said i'm happy to be wrong.