PGA Tour: "I Know It's Time, But I Never Wanted It To End": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That may be Arnold Palmer's requiem to Masters participation, quoted by Jim Nantz yesterday as an epitaph for "Mr Palmer", but it's also pretty much how I felt about Sunday's Ryder Cup denouement.
It seemed an uphill task for Europe ever since Rory and Sully capitulated, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in their Friday morning foursomes match, losing 15, 16 & 17 with water balls and other ugliness to fall 1 Down.

2).The post-mortems have been written and it's not worth going over them again. Except to say how sad it was to see Westwood's extraordinary Ryder Cup career fizzle out, lw1 looking as utterly dejected as he was defeated on Sunday evening, hardly a fitting end that he should stroke/jab the losing putt. Hopefully he'll be back and winning tournaments again but that was not a pretty sight.

3).And a word about Hazeltine - despite Rose's protestions about course set-up, presumably by a Yorkshireman though clearly to LoveIII's instructions, I thought the course looked pretty good, well worthy of another Major Championship. Justin Rose will look back on a season where not much went right except for one Golden moment, and his putting last weekend was as poor as his "ball striking" was good. Course set-up is a two-way street and I would have thought that Le Golf National offered plenty of chances for Europe to exact revenge. If they're good enough and don't over-read putts like they did all last weekend long.

4).And Sergio & Phil: Magnifique.
Patrick Reed may have enjoyed two devastating 5-under-par in four holes streaks, but Sergio's match with Phil was as good as Round 4 of The Open at Troon. Congrats to both.

5).The thinking golfing press in the US is clearly concerned that the rush to sell tickets has caused crowds to be too big; perhaps things went over the edge this time round, but Bethpage in 2024 could take things to a new level if authorities can't/don't/won't figure this out. Not my original thoughts, but those expressed by the Golf Channel.

6).This week sees the web.com Tour Championship, the fourth tournament of the wTF series which constitutes a quasi-Q-School where 25 PGA Tour cards will be earned.
But Hurricane Matthew is likely to ruin the best laid plans and we haven't yet seen how the Tours will resolve the dilemma of much-delayed play if the forecast of heavy rain and strong winds prevails. After all, the newly minted Tour members are expected to be in the Napa Valley of California for Tour action on Thursday, Oct 13th. Watch this space.  

7).There will be some Europeans earning their cards, led by Andrew Johnston (a mildly amusing Beef ad for Arby's already interrupting golf broadcasts) and Gonzo. There's still the chance that Mansfield's Greg Owen, Sweden's Norlander and Mr.58, Stephan Jaeger, among others, might join them.

8).And certainly joining them will be Ben An, Danny Willett, Jon Rahm, Rafa C-B and Soren Kjeldsen.
Hopefully the European Tour and Ryder Cup gurus will ensure they get their arms around all those who could conceivably be eligible for Europe Ryder Cup play. Fingers crossed on that.

9).The third tournament in the wTF series was won "handsomely", though apparently somewhat toothlessly, by Grayson Murray, about whom I knew nothing. But here's a nice piece about him and his famous caddie, Mike Hicks:
http://www.pgatour.com/webcom/news/2016/09/25/grayson-murray-mike-hicks-nationwide-childrens-hospital-championship.html

Hopefully Murray's dental deficiences will be rectified by the time he tees it up on Tour as he'll likely be on TV a lot, even if just to show someone who pounds it out there as far as anyone.

10).Talking of which (driving distance not missing teeth), Congrats to Thomas Pieters. He's sure to be on the PGA Tour's radar in the hope that he'll bring his act to the US while his name and performance last week are still on viewers' minds. Even in defeat, good things come and it's time to embark on another 6-year stretch of Ryder Cup possession, hopefully with Rory & Pieters, an accidental partnership, leading the way.
Well done USA, Allez Europe.

GPB wrote:Robo:  Its like I said last week when we discussed the Mickelson vs Watson Throwing Under the Bus.

With all due respect... I see ZERO parallels...  Mickelson's words were straight from the horses mouth, we heard them for ourselves and we didn't need the media to tell us what was said or what to make of it.  This is a case of Colsaerts talking to the media out of school about somebody else's comments.  Now if the Telegraph UK took comments from Colsaerts and "massaged them" into something they weren't, or took them out of context... then shame on them

The parallel is making mountains out of molehills.

I read the Mickelson transcript and IMO, it was taken way out of context.

The fact that none of Mickelson's teammates criticized him (or even the vice Captains) speaks volumes

It was a media driven controversy. Media is going to create "CLICK-BAIT".

GPB... No sense us continuing on the Phil thing again. All I can say about it was I ( or anyone else watching) didn't need any media or transcripts to explain  what we were seeing live on TV as it was happening.   You obviously took something away from it that is far different than the consensus of media and fans who actually saw it... so we'll just have to disagree on what that was.

And you obviously took something different than Rickie, and Jim, and Jimmy, and Jordan, and Bubba, and Webb, and Ray Floyd, etc because they never came to Watson's defense.

What you saw with fans was media driven.

Or are you saying that media doesn't drive public opinion?

robo,

This is Corrigan's article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2016/10/05/thomas-pieters-wants-pga-tour-card-but-does-not-like-americans-m/



Golf Digest can take out of it what they will, but the way I read it it's entirely Colsaerts' spin. It may be 100% accurate, may be utterly speculative . . . . . which is the way I would take it.

GPB... What we rarely know is the entirety of any private interview.... but based on what we do have...I'll stick with my original opinion. IMO Colsaerts is doing his fellow countryman no favors by making comments like this. If he actually said “[Pieters] doesn’t like Americans that much” you can't blame the media or its reader's for taking it the way they did... regardless if it was Colsaerts speculating on what Pieters thinks or not. Not everyone is going to take the time to parse every word to the nth degree... they're gonna take it on its face.

Golf Channel seems to be going overboard on assertions that Captain Phil & VC Woods will be in the same threesome on Thursday/Friday.
Who would you like to see as the third wheel?
Too bad Poulter, Sabbatini and Vijay, even Tom Watson, are otherwise engaged. Surely they can't stick Kuchar with the short straw again? Maybe Love, but that's no fun.

Sure we can come up with better ideas.

kwinigolfer wrote:Golf Channel seems to be going overboard on assertions that Captain Phil & VC Woods will be in the same threesome on Thursday/Friday.
Who would you like to see as the third wheel?
Too bad Poulter, Sabbatini and Vijay, even Tom Watson, are otherwise engaged. Surely they can't stick Kuchar with the short straw again? Maybe Love, but that's no fun.

Sure we can come up with better ideas.

Probably Emiliano, defending Champ.

Grillo would be the conventional choice I suppose, but what about someone to create a little tension . . . . . ?!

Reports from Golf Digest that Erik Compton, he of the two heart transplants, is thinking of retiring, unable to sustain the stamina necessary to play four rounds of golf competitively. It seems drugs to counteract the adverse effects of anti-rejection medication is sapping his strength and feel.
This just a month or so after Jarrod Lyle left PGA Tour golf to return to Australia following his two bouts with leukaemia. (But good to see him with a respectable finish in Snedeker's distant wake in Fiji.)
Sad news for both, but maintaining health is the priority. Good luck to them.

No one wants to play with Kevin Na.

Good point!
That would slow things down even more.

Looking forward to the Champers Tour the next few weeks, see how the Schwab schindig turns out. And really like Mahaffey as a commentator - just right for the Champs and compensates for the way BR's syntax grates.

kwinigolfer wrote:Golf Channel seems to be going overboard on assertions that Captain Phil & VC Woods will be in the same threesome on Thursday/Friday.
Who would you like to see as the third wheel?
Too bad Poulter, Sabbatini and Vijay, even Tom Watson, are otherwise engaged. Surely they can't stick Kuchar with the short straw again? Maybe Love, but that's no fun.

Sure we can come up with better ideas.

Ben Crane?

Good choice wire, arguably the most unfunny golfer on the planet; but not in the field.

Tiger props:

-150 hits opening fairway,
1st rd O/U 72 (par 72),
-130 make cut,
+225 top 20,
+450 top 10,
+900 top 5,
40-1 to win.

It looks as if DLIII has w/d'd.
Not 100% sure he was in the Friday commitments but he was certainly among the early entries. Mopping up duties I imagine. Not in the TW / Phil threesome then.

Lots of chat about Woods, but much happier to see Nick Watney is finally fit to return to action. Not many pros who look more appreciative of wot they got, and hope he resumes the upward trajectory of a career that seemed so promising just a couple of years ago.

Stats Nerds (like Robo and me) might be interested in this blog

http://mattcourchene.com/

Sounds as if Woods may shortly be announcing he's withdrawn from the Safeway Open. Watch this space.

https://twitter.com/RobertLusetich/status/785550588293488640

Robert Lusetich tweet wrote:Reports out of Jupiter are that he's struggling with chipping.

He wouldn't want to re-live Phoenix/Torrey last year #Tiger

Definitely gone.

Sure Safeway, the Tournament Director & Johnny Miller must be thrilled . . . . . . . . how many tickets did they sell upon his commitment?

Tiger Who?

Paper Tiger. He says his game is "vulnerable", so just like mine then. Yours too Davie?
If it's vulnerable today, why the hell did he commit less than three days ago - was his game iron-clad then but vulnerable today, or has something happened physically in the meantime?

PS: He'll still be vulnerable in November so no Turkish Delight for him. Next action scheduled for the richly rewarded Bahamas exhibition, guaranteed owgr points there. 'Course, we still don't know if the Albany course is playable.

I am sure kwini and co will see this as the delusions of a Tiger fan boy, but how often do players miss an expected return from long term injury?

We only know about his sign up and withdrawal because it is Tiger, but if it were some also ran we wouldn't have heard about either the announcement of a return or subsequent withdrawal.

Although why he used the term "vulnerable game" when he could just have said he tweaked his back slightly is a little odd.

Mac,
There's surely more to this than has met the press's eye. I would say it's very unusual for a leading figure in the game to commit for a tournament, knowing that they'd be a mega attraction, and then withdrawing less than 72 hrs later. Let alone the fact that whatever it is that has befallen him it's bad enough for him to call off another event in a month's time.

Good news: Nick Watney is still in.

PS: Your favourite bit: The weather for Friday is forecast to be wet and windy in sunny California . . . . . . . .

Kwini

Are you saying you think it is actually injury that has kept him from returning? A bit sad if injury is the real reason as it makes any return to competing on the PGAT very unlikely at this stage.

I'm just saying we don't know, but there must surely have been "something". Something more than stage fright anyway.

True, he would have known last week if his game was embarrassingly bad and I doubt his performance can have changed that much in a week.

If we are being ultra conspiratorial could I suggest he worried the PED's might not have left his system in time?

It's amazing how precipitous was the fall of Tiger Wood's career from a certainty to breaking Jack Nicholson's record to zero. Maybe it has coincided with a new breed of power hitters, but one would think with the "old Tiger" he would still be winning one or two majors here and there.

With regards "peds" surely there is the whereabouts system where players are tested between competitions, while he would no doubt have Therapeutic Use Exemptions while he was being treated for injuries / ailments.

Nore Staat wrote:It's amazing how precipitous was the fall of Tiger Wood's career from a certainty to breaking Jack Nicholson's record to zero.  Maybe it has coincided with a new breed of power hitters, but one would think with the "old Tiger" he would still be winning one or two majors here and there.

With regards "peds" surely there is the whereabouts system where players are tested between competitions, while he would no doubt have Therapeutic Use Exemptions while he was being treated for injuries / ailments.

Jack Nicholson?

There's some journalists suggesting the reason Tiger isn't going to play Turkey is out of "respect" for the PGA Tour. I don't know if they got that from Steiny or where... but I call BS on that.

Tiger played in Turkey in 2012, but to do so, he needed to get a competing event release (CER) from the PGA Tour to do so. Because the event wasn't an official event on a world tour at the time, the PGA required Tiger (and the other PGAT players who participated) to agree to play the Fry's.com at least once in the next 3 years. (Fry's is now the Safeway Open)

With Tiger's injury problems, and now this WD because "he's not ready", it's now 4 years later and he's not yet fulfilled that obligation. Bottom line is there was NO WAY IN HELL the PGAT was gonna give Tiger a CER to play in Turkey yet again this year, after pulling out of Fry's once again.

GPB wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:It's amazing how precipitous was the fall of Tiger Wood's career from a certainty to breaking Jack Nicholson's record to zero.  Maybe it has coincided with a new breed of power hitters, but one would think with the "old Tiger" he would still be winning one or two majors here and there.

With regards "peds" surely there is the whereabouts system where players are tested between competitions, while he would no doubt have Therapeutic Use Exemptions while he was being treated for injuries / ailments.

Jack Nicholson?  

Heeeeerrrrrreeeee's Tiger!!!

I'm guessing it is actually stage-fright. In his own mind he still probably thinks he's the best and can't stomach the thought that he might miss the cut or not contend on the Sunday. He's had months and months to sharpen up his short game. I could understand his short game being yippy if his back was twingy on his last attempted comeback, if his back really is better this time then his short game should be fine, maybe not a la 2000 but decent enough to compete. The more he puts it off the bigger the mental barrier will become. On the other hand his back still could be twingy and if that's the case the permanent retirement announcement can't be far away.

robo,
Imagine your take on "Turkey" is spot on.
Any buzz as to whether the SAS event is good to go this week?

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Imagine your take on "Turkey" is spot on.
Any buzz as to whether the SAS event is good to go this week?

And to be clear on the Turkey deal with Tiger, I'm not saying he and/or Steiny wouldn't have realized on their own how bad it would look if they skipped Safeway and played Turkey... it's just that even if they didn't figure it out, they had to know the PGAT wouldn't be amenable to issuing a CER. I very much doubt they would have even asked...

And no... I have no insight on to SAS. I thought I had a good contact RE the status of Albany Club in the Bahamas, but guess not as I haven't heard anything back on that one either.

Very superficial video tour of Harbour Town appears to suggest that the golf course is pretty much unscathed after debris is cleared up.
Imagine Albany and Sea Island might be worse off and have heard nothing about flooding in Cary, NC, where the SAS Champions Tour event is scheduled to get underway on Friday.

More "reps" needed AGAIN for 9C.

Why doesn't he just pack it in?

Should Peter Willett "just pack it in", or is this more essential reading?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2016/10/11/peter-willett-exclusive-in-defence-of-my-ryder-cup-column-and-wh/

Dread to think what he'll write about Billy Payne. Or even Drumpf should the unthinkable happen in 28 days.

super_realist wrote:More "reps" needed AGAIN for 9C.

Why doesn't he just pack it in?

Better safe than safeway.

kwinigolfer wrote:Should Peter Willett "just pack it in", or is this more essential reading?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2016/10/11/peter-willett-exclusive-in-defence-of-my-ryder-cup-column-and-wh/

Dread to think what he'll write about Billy Payne. Or even Drumpf should the unthinkable happen in 28 days.

I think PJ is brilliant.

Trouble is you've got to have the timing to go with the wit. Not sure he gets that.

I'm guessing Danny will keep showing up at the invitational tournament in Augusta each year. Does he have the long term game to double dip beyond that? Hardly convinced yet.

Also hope he has the b**lls to appoint PJ his personal publicity agent!

I appreciate some of the "extras" some of the ET events are trying to be more fan friendly and/or engaging... I wasn't especially taken with what little I saw of the ending of the Hero Challenge thing they did at the Euro Masters at The Grove this evening, but regardless of what I might think, it does appear as though the crowd was substantial and into it. But either way, I give them HIGH MARKS for trying SOMETHING. Not everything is gonna work, but some things will if they keep an open mind and keep trying.

Kwini... as per a prior conversation RE Nassau Golf Courses... I finally heard something "fairly" definitive... "Ocean Club (Atlantis) is open as of today, but additional cleanup will continue for another week. Lyford Cay will be re-opening October 27th and Albany is October 20th. These are not firm and could go either way. Cleanup is well underway, flora and fauna damage is much worse at Lyford as it was more established, yet apparently none to minimal course damage from salt water encroachments affecting turf at either course. "

GPB... RE KAYMER... you mentioned elsewhere (and maybe here too), about Kaymer not on the 2016-17 priority list. Even with him not showing up in Bolton's rankings today, I still thought that might be a mistake... but NOPE... confirmed that Kaymer has in fact NOT taken up his PGAT membership option for this season. I'm double checking, but as I understand it he has no option to change his mind for the 2016-17 season, even if he should win again. So 2017-18 would be the earliest he could regain membership (Even without further wins, he's still got his winners exemption available for 2017-18 and/or 2018-19 should he choose to use them)

robo,
Better than could realistically have been expected from the Bahamas then. Thanks for the update.

robo,
Hadn't seen that those "extras" were going on and glad that it was a success. But you should know that the alternative "entertainment" was an absolutely dire England football game so imagine fans were desperate for an option.

A few significant PGA Tour policy changes for 2016-17

• Elimination of the Top 125 Money List category beginning with the 2017-2018 season.

• Strength of Field Regulation implemented which requires Regular Members (except those Members in the Major Medical Extension and Web.com Tour categories) to play in an event they have not played over the previous four seasons (not including The Masters Tournament, U.S. Open Championship, Open Championship, PGA Championship, THE PLAYERS Championship, World Golf Championships, the FedExCup Playoff events, The Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup, and Olympic Games). Players would be exempt from this regulation if they played in 25 or more events the previous or current season or were Life Members, Veteran Members who are age 45 or older at any point during the current season, or Dual Members of both the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions.

• Modifications were made to the FedExCup Points breakdown. Basicially tournament finishes down to 14th place recieve the same FedEx Points as years past. But this year the points begin to diminsih quicker thereafter. Basically making lower finishes LESS vaulable. Here are a few examples... NEW season listed first

NEW points for 2016-17 (Regular Events)
15th - 55
25th - 35.5
40th - 16
50th - 8.5
60th - 5

OLD points for 2015-16 (Regular Events)
15th - 56
25th - 46
40th - 31
50th - 21
60th - 11

NOTE: For the NEW Season... Finishes below 60th diminish .2 points per place to 70th and then .1 point thereafter. So positions 68th and lower actually receive slightly more points than last year. All players making a cut receive at least 1.5 FE points.

• Olympic Gold Medal Winner Eligibility added to The Masters Tournament, U.S. Open Championship, Open Championship, PGA Championship, and THE PLAYERS Championship.

• Four additional “unrestricted” sponsor exemptions for Sanderson Farms Championship and Barracuda Championship

• U.S. Presidents Cup Team Points System adjusted to align with the season.

• Inclusion of Amateurs in the primary and secondary cut. Used to be the primary cut was based on top-70 PROFESSIONALS and ties, so sometimes players finished T72 or something could make the cut because of some low scoring amaterus. Now that distinction is removed and it's straight T70 and ties regardless if pro or amateur.

I like the Olympic eligibility and quite like the strength of field one (although any impact analysis on European Tour would be interesting along with possible impact for Mac's beloved double dippers - and I guess ultimately ryder cuppists).

Ambivalent on the other ones but not averse to tour trying them.

Roller_Coaster wrote:I like the Olympic eligibility and quite like the strength of field one (although any impact analysis on European Tour would be interesting along with possible impact for Mac's beloved double dippers - and I guess ultimately ryder cuppists).

Ambivalent on the other ones but not averse to tour trying them.

Agree with the Strength of Field changes...

And I know this is really wonkish.... but I really like the changes to the FedEx Point scale. This new system puts a lot more emphasis on winning and high finishes. For the guy's who win a lot and/or have a lot of top-15's, it won't affect their points much at all. But for the middle of the pack to lower end of the field the point reductions are pretty massive.

Overall the point change is about a 15% reduction of total points awareded to a field of 70 players making a cut. (from 3513 points to 2989)

Places 1-15 still get cumulative 99.9% of the points compared to the old system
Places 16-70 get about 66% of the points they used to get
Places 16-30 get about 83% of the points they used to get
Places 31-70 get about 51% of the points they used to get

Charlie Howell, who IS a golf wonk, and a surprisingly amusing one, reckoned that, if he played 80% of tournaments and finished 35th in each one, he'd keep his card comfortably. May be a slight distortion in the numbers but that's pretty close.

kwinigolfer wrote:Charlie Howell, who IS a golf wonk, and a surprisingly amusing one, reckoned that, if he played 80% of tournaments and finished 35th in each one, he'd keep his card comfortably. May be a slight distortion in the numbers but that's pretty close.

My quick take is that's waaaaay more than enough under either the old system or new.  PGA Tour plays 43 events in 39 weeks prior to the playoffs.  Even if a guy like CHIII with top-125 eligibility isn't qualified for the WGC's, ToC and half the majors... that makes him eligible to play in probably 33-35 weeks prior to the playoffs, 4 of them alternate events.  35th in just 25 events (75% of just 33 events he's eligible for) would put him somewhere around or north of 500 FE points in the new system (abt 700-750 in the old system). Last season it took just over 450 pts to hold a card... this season it will take far less. When CH3 is healthy... he usually plays around 26-28 events excluding the playoffs.