PGA Tour: Viva Las Vegas: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Wonderful performance last week in China from Hideki Matsuyama - proof if any is needed that, when his putter is behaving, he's up there among the very best in the world.
Surprising (is it?) that Americans only placed Daniel Berger (T2), Bill Haas (T4), Fowler (T6) and Kokrak (T16) in the Top 20.

2).Hideki will be one of the leaders, presumably, on next year's Presidents Cup Team. Current leaders in automatic qualification are:
Day, Matsuyama, Scott, Grace, Grillo, Louis, Charl, Ben An, Leishman, Thongchai. (10)

3).US Team points leaders are currently:
DJ, Justin Thomas (true dat, but I'm still not convinced about him), Spieth, Reed, Berger, Chappell, Moore, Na, Snedeker, Steele, Phil, Kuchar. (12, just to show Phil!)

4).Cody Gribble is 61st but he putted his way to a four-stroke win in Mississippi last week. Greg Owen was among three golfers tied for second, a terrific result from the prototypical Tour journeyman, and playing out of the bowels of the Players Exemption Categories, 150th on last season's ranking which means that he'll be lucky to scrape a dozen starts in 16/17.

5).But being a Tour "journeyman" is not all that bad, provided you're good enough to bounce back from every relegation to the web.com dungeon.
This is Owen's 3rd Tour runner-up finish, in his 250th career start. He's banked at least $1M in four separate seasons, almost $8M in all, plus another $630+K in web.com cameos.
At various times he's exhibited incomprehensible putting and course management aberrations, but actually seems to be mentally improving in his mid-40's and hopefully can keep this level of play going in the few opportunities he earns. Starting this week in Las Vegas.
Always a great ball-striker, but now showing signs of better putter behaviour. Imagine he'll play every tournament he gets into, whether web.com or PGA Tour, but it will be extraordinarily difficult to retrieve his Tour status out of his conditional status.

6).A few weeks ago the Tour named Dustin Johnson its Player of the Year and Grillo its ROTY. Steve Stricker won the Comeback Player award so many times the Tour retired it, but they might have considered Jason Dufner last season, perhaps even Jhonny Vegas. Though Jim Herman and Brian Stuard appeared from journeyman oblivion to win Tour events.

7).The Tour could also nominate candidates for a freefall award, top-ish players who have fallen apparently unaccountably. What about this crew, without even going to those who might be injured (Tim Clark, Van Pelt, Overton, Poulter, Ryo, Sabbatini, Watney)?

Brendon Todd: 50th on the money list in 2014/2015 to 211th. Won 2014 Byron Nelson, but now short and crooked, despite brilliant short game. Past Champion status and sponsor invites might get him 15 starts.

Matt Jones: From 44th to 127th - Coming off his Aussie Open win, you'd think he'd really kick on. But looks like he kicked back instead and now playing out of conditional status.

Mahan: From 61st to 188th - Ryder Cupper in 2014, now has one more year of exemption from his Barclays win. Hate to see Hunner's career go down the drain like this, seems like a good bloke.

de Jonge: From 62nd to 165th - Presidents Cup in 2013. May squeak ten "veteran member" starts.

Matt Every: From 68th to 199th - Looks like he's checked out, though still has full exemption for his Bay Hill wins, may actually have two more years. But his form has gone to pieces.

Carl Pettersson: From 82nd to 214th. $19K winnings last week was his best for more than a year. Don't blame the loss of his long putter, he's short off the tee and only hits 47% of fairways. Taking a one-time career money exemption. And then what?

8).Another player from the physio's table has announced his comeback at the Hero money-grab in his Bahamas back garden. Justin Rose of course. He wasn't close to his best for most of last year, whether because of injuries, putting woes or what. But here's wishing a return to good health in 2017.

9).We'll know who the new POTUS is this time next week, but three Senate Democrats have made a preemptive strike to urge the USGA to remove their 2017 Women's Open from Drumpf's course in New Jersey. Hope that won't be all he loses next week.

10).On to Las Vegas and this week's lyrically named "Shriners Hospitals for Children Open"; Martin Laird scored his first win here, plus lost in a play-off to a hole-in-one (Jonathan Byrd) and must be a good shout. Kevin Na and Ryan Moore usually play well here and Scott Piercy is a local who is probably due another win.

Europeans playing include McDowell, Molinari and Jon Rahm.
Is Rahm eligible for Rookie of the year? If so, you'd think he must be an even money favourite, even with Gribble's fast start. Player of the Year? Who do you fancy??

GPB wrote:Again, no response about about how you would think Tiger would react if the Tour took away 5 of Sneads wins.

Interesting.

asked and answered... but again...Since my comments about Snead, his record and team wins aren't Tiger centric on my part like they are to you... I couldn't give a damn what he would think. What part of that are you having trouble comprehending?.

kwinigolfer wrote:Snead's longevity was remarkable, but tough to say he was better than one or two others of his era(s).
Which is something that Woods achieved - outstandingly the best of his era, which was much shorter.

don't know if you have it, but the 1989 History of the PGA Tour has an all-time ranking in it done by three different methods. And it covered all events played through 1986 which would include Jack's last win at the Masters. Snead came out on top via all three systems. . Back in those days it wasn't all about majors. But to be fair, at that time Jack hadn't been credited with his 3 Opens as official PGAT wins, nor had Snead is 1 Open.

GPB wrote:Again, no response about about how you would think Tiger would react if the Tour took away 5 of Sneads wins.

Do you mean what he would say in public or how he would feel?

In public you would get a bland statement about not comparing generations anyway, and that Snead is an all time great, but being top of the pile felt nice all the same.

How would he feel in private? Who knows, but I suspect he wouldn't care all that much and would still only have a burning desire to topple jacks 18.

Does Tiger strike you as the type of guy that wants to get given records or break them by winning?

It's irrelevant Mac. He has as much chance as Snead does as passing Jack's record.

robopz wrote:

super_realist wrote:Would agree that politics should keep out of Sport, just as sportspeople should keep out of politics.

Except that's not the case, nor should it be. There were many black South Africans (I seem to recall) who said they were glad that sports boycotted apartheid SA and that it sped up the drive to get rid of that abhorrence. At an international level, at least, there should be reasonable scope for the two to interact.

navyblueshorts wrote:

robopz wrote:

super_realist wrote:Would agree that politics should keep out of Sport, just as sportspeople should keep out of politics.

Except that's not the case, nor should it be. There were many black South Africans (I seem to recall) who said they were glad that sports boycotted apartheid SA and that it sped up the drive to get rid of that abhorrence. At an international level, at least, there should be reasonable scope for the two to interact.

You're nitpicking now to be fair, I think you know I was referring to the nonsense about the likes of Emma Thompson lecturing us about climate change whilst simultaneously jet setting all over the world, or sports people or pop stars expressing their opinion on political matters not connected to sport/music in the slightest as if their sporting/music profile gives them more clout.

I have no issue when politics is raised because I hold no shame in my voting record. I tend to find it is those people who vote on the right that would rather not have their selfishness exposed by political chat.

Mac, please stop being so sanctimonious. You infer that people shouldn't vote unless they vote like you or that only you understand why you vote like you do and that they can't possibly understand or are somehow lesser human beings than you are.

People can vote for whoever they like, that's democracy, whether they appreciate WHY they vote for a certain party is another thing, bit like yourself on that note.

Nothing might change their mind on voting, but it appears nothing would change your mind either, regardless of policies, you'll always vote to the left because you couldn't face the stigma of voting anything other than what you perceive as your socialist agenda. As a staunch left voter who can't be swayed, you're every bit as guilty as a right sided voter who will vote right regardless of policy.

Democracy is a fantasy while anusholes like murdoch exist.

Anyways, back to the Golf. Don't know if you have mentioned this already but did anyone see Rory was using the TaylorMade M2 driver in China, reckoned he was driving it 330yds in the air (gulp). Out driving Bubba and up with DJ.... Pretty good endorsement of TM...

Maybe he's using the Kirkland Signature ball from Costco too.

super_realist wrote:Maybe he's using the Kirkland Signature ball from Costco too.

 perhaps. He's talking about using clubs that suit him all through the bag, so I wonder will he go for different Irons, wedges, woods, driver and putter?!?! He could sign with a number of manufacturers now instead of a single one.

For the first time this week that includes the Taylor Made M2 driver, also utilised by the world’s two top-ranked players Jason Day and Dustin Johnson, no slouches off the tee themselves.
“I felt like I drove the ball really well,” world number three McIlroy said after his round on a cool, damp day at Sheshan International Golf Club not conducive to big hitting.

“Look, I’ve been driving the ball well anyway, but yeah, it was nice to see the ball flying where it was going.”
McIlroy tweeted a picture last week from practice in Dubai that showed he was regularly carrying his drives over 330 yards with the new club.
“I would say I would have been level (with playing partner Adam Scott) without it and maybe a little bit behind (Watson) before, and I was hitting it by both of them so it can only be a positive,” said McIlroy.
“Especially when conditions are like this and it’s so soft, it (still) goes a long way in the air. Hopefully that can be to my benefit over the next few days.”
On the eve of the tournament McIlroy remarked that the Nike decision to end their equipment manufacturing had left him in two minds.
“I felt bad for a lot of the employees that put so much time and effort into building really good golf clubs. But in another way, it’s given me a little bit of freedom to see what else is out there.

“Now I can be in the position where I can use whatever in my golf bag that fits me 100 percent the best.
“So that could be a certain driver, a different brand of three-wood, a different branded set of irons, different wedges and a different putter.
“That’s a process that I’m still working through.”

http://www.the42.ie/rory-mcilroy-hsbc-champions-3049492-Oct2016/

Maybe win him a few more majors - not like he needs the sponsorship cash...

No-one's mentioned TW for 3 or 4 minutes. He'd obviously have won 30 majors by now with freedom of choice of clubs!

(you're welcome )

super_realist wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

robopz wrote:

super_realist wrote:Would agree that politics should keep out of Sport, just as sportspeople should keep out of politics.

Except that's not the case, nor should it be. There were many black South Africans (I seem to recall) who said they were glad that sports boycotted apartheid SA and that it sped up the drive to get rid of that abhorrence. At an international level, at least, there should be reasonable scope for the two to interact.

You're nitpicking now to be fair, I think you know I was referring to the nonsense about the likes of Emma Thompson lecturing us about climate change whilst simultaneously jet setting all over the world, or sports people or pop stars expressing their opinion on political matters not connected to sport/music in the slightest  as if their sporting/music profile gives them more clout.

exactly...

Right, morphing to Mayakoba with the morning wave in the house:
Dismal start to McDowell's title defence; only three of 66 behind him and he'll need something very special on Friday just to play the weekend.
Not much better from Poults or Gonzo, both of whom could really use a big payday, but a "clubhouse" Top Ten for Knox, Laird & Power.
Jon Rahm off to a good start this afternoon, but Luke Donald is struggling early.

Rev Simpson benefitting from the grace of Trump, hope he can get back to 'Murca before Trump builds the wall.

My, my, my.... what a surprise. Pete Bevaqua of the PGA of America nearly craps himself as he awkwardly backtracks his organization's stance on playing golf Championships on Trump golf courses.... In a sudden and mysterious epiphany... Bevaqua has decided the PGA of A is not a "political organization" and such things won't be influencing their decisions going forward... OOPSIE....

They're nothing if not predictable eh Robo?

super_realist wrote:They're nothing if not predictable eh Robo?

No kidding. I had people telling me about the ridiculous amount of politics, political correctness, cliques and infighting in the top levels of the PGA of A for years and years. I never fully bought it until the last 2 or 3 years pretty much confirms everything and more I'd ever heard. Maybe someday Dottie Pepper will spill the beans.... publicly.

I think Freddie Couples hinted at it when he was in the mix for RC captaincy. That he was not 'a PGA of A kind of guy'. I think you could read between the lines that he was referring to the amount of BS stacked up in that organization.

A palindrome and an anagram in the early Mayakoba Top Ten.
But that's never happened before.

Luke Donald will be spending the weekend on the beach.

Crane Huh and Ancer. Easy one this time Kwini

Gimme really, but last time I put the anagram out there with no clues, no-one got it!

Scores better this afternoon and cut-line will probably go to -2 - which means Poults needs another birdie, McDool needs two.

Ollie Schniederjans is a bit of a surprise to me so far this year, but not in a good way. He had a very decent 12th priority in the Webbie category coming into the new season, but will miss the cut this week for the 3rd time in his 3 starts this year. Before figuring in finishers this week, Ollie is on pace to lose at least 25 spots down to 37th priority. Generally the rule of thumb for Webbies is to make every start you can get in the early season because that 1st reshuffle is so important. Not sure why, but Ollie skipped the Sanderson Farms, and may end up regretting it.

Ollie S kinda comes and goes doesn't he. Had some real up and down tournaments in college, as if he goes walkabout sometimes.
But think it's characteristic of ex-College hotshots, very inconsistent even when you think they might have found their feet.
I see Cameron Wilson is back in Q-School business.
And 2 x VT'ers off to Final Stage. Probably first time ever.

Another good start from Shaymuss Power. Knox, Laird, Rahm, McDool among other Euros making the Mayakoba cut.
Poults, Gonzo and Luke Donald among others taking the weekend off.

RSM field includes Donald, Gonzo, Owen, Poulter and Power.

Low scoring in Round 3 at Mayakoba, Scots (Knox & Laird) playing well, Irish too (Power & McDowell), but English (Donald, Harris & Poults) have gone home.

DJ and Paulina make their own music video

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMscXp5jq3k/

At least DJ enjoys himself.

Hard to see past Gary W for me Kwini, some good stuff from Shay, without being under too much pressure. It's a compulsory requirement that you are a fully qualified accountant before you can be a decent professional golfer in Ireland, you know that dont you?!?!

Yup, We've talked about that before . . . . . and I hope certain Scottish correspondents don't get too much of an earful of his accent!

But this is his second visit to the Round 4 shake-up. Not such a strong response last time, but hopefully he'll learn from that - he's in good shape anyway to enhance his "reshuffle" placing which positions him well to earn tournament opportunities on the "West Coast swing". Lots of promise; his Olympic experience looks to have served him well.

Have only seen a little bit of the Mayakoba coverage. Gary Woodland hasn't missed too many meals lately

In Japan, Hideki Matsuyama is on his way to his third win in the last 5 starts. 6 shot lead going into final round. Looks like he will pass Adam Scott and get number 6 in the rankings this week. He already won the Japan Open and HSBC last month. In addition, 2nd place in Malaysia and 5th place in the Tour Championship.

Poulter misses two cuts in full field events after a decent finish in Malaysia. He is now officially behind pace to retain his card. If Poulter loses his PGATour card, what are his EuroT options?

I do think Poulter will get Sponsor's invites to US-PGATour if he fails to get his card back, giving him a "mulligan" for the 2016-17 season, if his major medical does not work out.

Not sure about Poulter, it's about time he started to make his own luck. He's only had 1 x Top Ten finish (PR) anywhere in the world for almost a year and a half. Must do better. Much better.

Mayakoba is maturing into a nice course, almost a touch of the Kapalua (sans elevation changes) about it.

And it looks like robo's buddy has a provisional w.com card.
Exemptions to the web.com Tour seem fickle to me; priorities changing so quickly thru'out the season unless you get off to a great start. Would think a bit more stability in the priority system would better reward players who earn cards thru Q-School - otherwise, what's the point?

B_t_b: Notable exception of Lowry, presumably?

Sad news that Dawn Coe-Jones died. 56.
An old friend of mine used to golf w/her and Jimmy Jones in Tampa, always used that experience to reflect just how good LPGA golfers were.
Oh Canada . . . . . .

Hideki wins in Japan.  Three wins since the Tour Championship. Two in Japan and one in China (HSBC).

Number 6 in the rankings, 1.25 points behind Spieth's average.  That is about 65 Net Ranking points

Adam wins on the Australian Tour.  Adam Blyth that is.  One of their bigger tournament in terms of ranking points.  He will go from about 600th into well inside the Top 300.

Noren edges ahead of Bubba into 9th in the rankings.

EuroTour Masters Top 50 watch:

Sullivan's T3 should be  enough to clinch a spot in the Top 50.  Weisberger, Fitzpatrick, Jaidee are vulnerable of falling out.

PGATour Top 50 watch

A win by 54th rank will get Woodland into the Masters no matter what.  Solo third will get him on the bubble, solo 2nd should be enough.

kwinigolfer wrote:
And it looks like robo's buddy has a provisional w.com card.
Exemptions to the web.com Tour seem fickle to me; priorities changing so quickly thru'out the season unless you get off to a great start. Would think a bit more stability in the priority system would better reward players who earn cards thru Q-School - otherwise, what's the point?

Thanks for pointing out the 2nd stage... Good job for Wedel... Toledo and Dawie too.  

Not sure I understand what you mean by the Web.com QT guys having priorities changing quickly. They get a helluva lot more security and opportunity to prove themselves than Webbies get on the PGA Tour.  Web.com QT 11-45 finishers aren't reshuffled until the 1st of June, and the 2-10's get another month exempt from the reshuffle beyond that.  That gives  the 11-45 guys a good 9-10 events and the 2-10's a good 13-14 events to get something done. And the good thing is, unlike the Webbies on the PGAT... every single one of those top-45 QT guys actually get into EVERYTHING until they're subject to the reshuffle.  So #45 gets as may starts as #2 through the end of May. Can't be much fairer than that.

Now granted... after June 1 for the 11-45's, and after July 1 for the 2-10's,  it's a free for all for those who've done poorly to that point.  But the safety net for these guys is top-25 from prior event + 12 Open qualifiers are getting into every event until the event before the playoffs. So even anyone who get's reshuffled out 1st of June or 1st of July has a chance to still get into events.  IMO it's actually a pretty stable system... MUCH fairer than the PGAT is to the Webbies.

GPB,
Fitz is already in Augusta, Kjeldsen too.

PS: I wrote about golfers mired in disappearing acts. Should arguably have included Danny Lee. No Top Tens for 6 months, slumping badly out the the owgr Top 60, and now w/d from Mayakoba complaining of migraine. Yeah, right.

GPB... Thanks for the update on the rankings.

Great run by Hideki, but looks like no chance for him to pass Spieth until Kapalua. He's not entered anywhere next week, then plays with Ryo in the World Cup the next (no individual or OWGR this time)..... then World Challenge the next week and that won't be enough points. About the only other place Hideki could play would be Hong Kong in mid December, but he doesn't appear to be entered in that one.

Still though... Time for Spieth to get his butt back up on the horse and start playing like a top-5 player again in Australia this week and the WC two weeks after that. He's had his time off and rest, but unless he's found a driver he can keep on the planet, not sure it's gonna matter.

robo,
The thing I find confusing with the web.com is that a card doesn't mean a card for the full season - it's very much a month-by-month thing by the time spring comes around, and especially difficult for mini-tour veterans who aren't papered up like college players might be, and the travel/cost of the first few tournaments must represent a huge undertaking.
Then, if you don't get good results (or can't afford to play) in the early season events, you're halfway to being stuffed.
I'll be following our local lads, both now 30-something; one of them has been this route before and it's a very uncertain course.

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
The thing I find confusing with the web.com is that a card doesn't mean a card for the full season

But it's more of a card than a webbie card is on the PGA Tour.

I guess the thing to me is... the Web.com Tour is designed as a developmental tour to identify and promote the talent that belongs to the PGA Tour. So all I ask myself is, Does it do that? I believe it does. AND IMO, it affords those who have earned an initially exempt place on the Tour (down through the top-45 Q-School guys) a VERY fair opportunity to prove their worth. That is with the exception of the 2-5 finishers from the Mackenzie, Latino and China Tours. #1's from those smaller tours are in great shape and exempt into everything all year long... but the 2-5 guys are something like 5 categories below #45 Q-school guy and aren't getting into crap unless they're Monday Qualifying and/or finishing top-25 the few opportunities they have to get into something. Those 3 tours just AREN'T the gateway to the Web.com Tour they're advertised to be.

At least those webbies at the show know they'll get into 15 tournaments, minimum, regardless of how they play; and they can plan for that, when, where and what are their alternatives. Don't think we see that at the w.c unless they have real priority to the priority.


Meanwhile, the sea air is suiting Charlie Howell and he's coming up fast on the outside - four under par thru 6 holes and only three behind Perez. CHIII has 25 Tour top 3's, but only 2 wins to go with his 14 runner-ups. Playing three holes ahead of the leaders, can he post a score and give them something to worry about? (Shotlink not much use the other side of the wall; which sounds like it's morphing into a fence already.)

Power failure for Seamus: Plus 4 after 4 holes. Grinding out a finish is the best he can hope for now, but very important.

Kwini... I think the problem is both you and me are too much SAPS for our local guys that we might know who are trying to make it as Touring professionals. We WANT them to do well and succeed... We WANT them to advance. But when they don't we have a tendency to blame the system of being unfair or too hard on those guys.

But the truth of the matter is... hell YES it's hard, but there's NOTHING unfair about it... especially at the Web.com level.

Bottom line is there's ONLY about 20 events before the Winco which takes only the top money leaders and then there's the WTF Finals. But because it's a FEEDER Tour... you only have about 70-75 players who are guaranteed fully exempt from start to finish for the entire year.

Then you have the 2-10 QT guys who are fully exempt for about the first 70% of the year... then the 11-45 QT guys who are exempt for the first 45-50% of the year. But THAT'S IT. If you're one of those guys you have NOTHING to complain about. Now except for about the next 20 after the #45 QT guy (most of whom also get into everything through May).. for everyone else... it's a scramble all year long.

So the REAL truth is... if you start out as the #45th QT guy, you are guaranteed to get into EVERYTHING through the end of May (about 1/2 the regular season's events) and you are playing on a 100% equal footing with every other player above you in priority. NOBODY above them get even one more start than #45 QT does. And quite frankly, with that kind of advantage over all the other guys BELOW you, you have to suck really, really bad not to maintain priority and keep playing after those first 9-10 guaranteed starts.

So sure... I feel bad for the guy's I know or for some reason care about who can't make it.... even though I know the reason they can't is because they're just not good enough and didn't deserve to. And if they can't make it on the WEB after a few years... then maybe it's time for them to consider the Challenge Tour, Asia, or maybe giving it up.... Golf is HARD man.

It's truth in advertising really, though, isn't it.
When is a "card" not a card? Because most of them should be called conditional. But I suppose that would upset the romance of it all.
I know golf is hard, and it's meant to be hard. Though I DO feel as if hotshots coming out of certain colleges get unfair preferential treatment. Another subject I suppose.

The ever combustible Perez looks like he's having his way at the moment; CHIII treading water after his fast start and eliminated from contention unless Postman Pat goes haywire. And you wouldn't count that out.

Kwini... guess I'm missing the point here, cuz I'm not aware of any Tour that doesn't have more "card holders" than spots available if all the exempt players want to play.   so sure from that aspect  I get that for all intents and purposes... a lot of cards any ANY Tour are "conditional" if that's what you want to call them.  It just seems to me that compared to the PGAT, where the first webbie's priority is about #150... and the WEB.com where the first QT guy is about #75, and they're guaranteed into about half the events..... those Web QT guys don't have it near so bad as some other tours.

And as for some college hot shot getting opportunities? OK... so an NCAA champion like Aaron Wise gets some SE's while some John Doe who finished 34th in his conference championship doesn't.... duh ya think? I just don't know how that's unfair to that John Doe when he has so many other ways to get and keep his card if he'll just figure out how to play good enough golf to do it.

Nice week for Knox...

Glad to see Perez win, great way to fulfil the medical exemption demands. Hopefully Poults can follow Perez's example.
And no tears in seeing Scott Piercy stub his toe on the last.

Yup, 2 x 3-putts for Knox, but he's playing well. World Cup up next. Turning in to quite the player. Think Ned-BH first noticed him Monday qualifying for a Nationwide event in Tennessee, and it's been a steady rise up since then.
And another decent week for Martin Laird, making life a little easier on himself for the rest of the year.
Learning experience for Seamus Power, but he needs to start converting these chances.

Hoping St.Bernhard gets the job done in the Desert.


robo,
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know as well as I that talented guys from Coastal Carolina & Augusta State won't get anywhere near the invites and second chances that golfers from Alabama, USC or Texas (among others). That's my perception anyway.

Pat Perez... Rocking the "kewl dude" look all the way to the winners circle. When he can control his emotions/temper, that dude can play.

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know as well as I that talented guys from Coastal Carolina & Augusta State won't get anywhere near the invites and second chances that golfers from Alabama, USC or Texas (among others). That's my perception anyway.

I thought this was a conversation about Webbie Q-schoolers... But sure.... "Some" big name players from big name programs get SE's that other's don't. But those opportunities don't do 'em a damn bit of good, nor keep coming unless they're worthy/talented enough to take advantage of them.

And they shouldn't make a hill of beans difference to anyone else anyway. Every year 45 guys get thru Webbie QT and 50 guys get through the WTF. I have never seen a single case of some college hot shot being "given" one of those spots... Success is there for the taking for any player talented enough to earn it, rather he be from a big college or he's a big name or none of the above.

At least two teams have been announced for the Zurich Classic

Rickie Fowler and Jason Day

Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson

I think this will fulfill Stenson's new tournament obligation.