European Tour 2017 DP World Tour Championship

Selected Tee Times

I just had a look at the entry list for the SA Open. When I looked it was including the player ranked 27 in Category 17 -- Players finishing within positions 1-30 from the 2016 European Tour Qualifying School.
That's fine and I now (thanks to Kwini) understand qualification criteria for events.
But on a practical level for a player, how far down the "reserve list" are players expected to travel in the off chance that someone drops out?
The event is a week away. Should the next dozen or half dozen players make their way?

Abu Dhabi field:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2017/tournamentid=2017004/teetimes/index.html


London buses. Here's Qatar as well:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2017/tournamentid=2017006/teetimes/index.html

RIP Wayne Westner, very sad to hear about his passing. I got lessons from him when he had his gold academy in Celbridge back in the day. I always remember him as a Hogan nut, and the big picture of himself and Ernie holding the World Cup of golf trophy over his desk in his office.

Btb,
It sounds as if Westner was "nut"s in other ways as well, some very curious behaviour at times.
"So sad about an old troubled friend" wrote Sam Torrance on the Golf Digest report.
Vive la difference however, and a sad end. As I wrote on my thread, he poked around on some very mini-US tours also, even in CNY.

Abu Dhabi field is updated. Field is really strong

Rickie and Dustin from USA RC Team

Rory, Henrik, Danny, Pieters, Kaymer, Sully, Fitz, RCB, Wood, Westy from Euro RC Team. Rosey and Sergio are the only ones not playing

Noren, Luiten, Matteo, Hatton, Oleson, Jaidee, Barnrat.

Aussie Amateur Curtis Luck is also in the field. DeChambeau played in last year's event (also Qatar and Dubai)

kwinigolfer wrote: he poked around on some very mini-US tours also, even in CNY.

That can't be right, why would he get paid in Chinese Yuan?

raycastleunited wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote: he poked around on some very mini-US tours also, even in CNY.

That can't be right, why would he get paid in Chinese Yuan?

Exactly - that would have been on the European Tour.

As expected, I'm seeing the French Open will be the 8th Rolex Series event.

Some thoughts on the Rolex Series...

The pluses are obvious. With the Rolex series... Pelley and the ET have been successful in putting together two stretches of very solid purses to attract it's dual tour members home, and gives pause to it's up and coming ET players who are considering dual-touring on the PGAT. While very few ET members played much in the states between the U.S. Open and Open anyway, the Rolex French, Irish and Scottish Open's in succession gives the rest of them even less reason to do so.

But every action has an effect... and in this case IMO it makes the ET's desire to attract full time PGA Tour players to begin dual touring "the other way" just that much more difficult. The issue for the non European PGAT player is due to "home circuit" rules, he needs to obtain Conflicting Event Releases (CER's) to compete in events opposite official PGA Tour events. And now the 8 biggest ET events all play opposite a PGAT event. A PGAT player is eligible for 3 CER's by playing 15 PGAT events, and then one extra one for each 5 events played thereafter. The result is a PGAT player needs to play in 20 PGAT events to play half the Rolex Series events and he needs 25 PGAT events to play 5 Rolex Series events. Meanwhile... the dual PGAT/ET players and full time ET players can play in all the Rolex Series events. That's a big disadvantage to the PGAT player to consider before taking up ET status.

On balance, IMO the Rolex Series concept remains a major positive step forward in moving the ET into a more competitive status against the PGA Tour, but likely it's not entirely without cost to other ET objectives.

GPB wrote:Abu Dhabi field is updated.  Field is really strong

Rickie and Dustin from USA RC Team

Rory, Henrik, Danny, Pieters, Kaymer, Sully, Fitz, RCB, Wood, Westy from Euro RC Team.  Rosey and Sergio are the only ones not playing

Noren, Luiten, Matteo, Hatton, Oleson, Jaidee, Barnrat.

Aussie Amateur Curtis Luck is also in the field.  DeChambeau played in last year's event (also Qatar and Dubai)

PD had the prelim at a 54 level as of last week... 52 last year... 50 in 2015, 48 in 2014, 54 in 2013, 58 in 2012.... going back in the right direction SOF wise.

PD tweeted that the SA Open is 32 this week.

He might be thinking that the SA Open is still the flagship event because I don't see how it is that high.

Rory, Sully and Brandon Stone are the only top 100 players and about 16 more ranked from 100 to 200.  Total World EVR is 63, maybe about 45-47 more in Home EVR.

Edit: PD just tweeted that he had forgotten about the SA Open losing Flagship status.

I've heard a lot of negative things about Danny Willett as a person, anyone know anything concrete?

super_realist wrote:I've heard a lot of negative things about Danny Willett as a person, anyone know anything concrete?

Yes. He's from Rotherham.

robopz wrote:

GPB wrote:Abu Dhabi field is updated.  Field is really strong

Rickie and Dustin from USA RC Team

Rory, Henrik, Danny, Pieters, Kaymer, Sully, Fitz, RCB, Wood, Westy from Euro RC Team.  Rosey and Sergio are the only ones not playing

Noren, Luiten, Matteo, Hatton, Oleson, Jaidee, Barnrat.

Aussie Amateur Curtis Luck is also in the field.  DeChambeau played in last year's event (also Qatar and Dubai)

PD had the prelim at a 54 level as of last week... 52 last year... 50 in 2015, 48 in 2014, 54 in 2013, 58 in 2012.... going back in the right direction SOF wise.  

Yes but I also wonder how much the appearance money has gone up.

From Geoff Shackelford...

Tribunal Rules European Tour Unfairly Dismissed Scott Kelly

The Daily Mail's James Dunn reports on the ruling against the European Tour and new chief Keith Pelley on the issue of unfair dismissal, but sided with the defendant on the issue of age discrimination.

A monetary reward will be decided in a February 6 hearing....

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2017/1/6/tribunal-rules-european-tour-unfairly-dismissed-scott-kelly.html

- - -

And this kind of stuff in a nutshell represents the kinds of concerns I have about Keith Pelley. He get's things done, but he's got very much of a "shoot from the hip, worry about the details/consequences later" management style. Guys like that can do great things, but they can get you in a helluva lot of hot water too...

GPB wrote:PD tweeted that the SA Open is 32 this week.

He might be thinking that the SA Open is still the flagship event because I don't see how it is that high.

Rory, Sully and Brandon Stone are the only top 100 players and about 16 more ranked from 100 to 200.  Total World EVR is 63, maybe about 45-47 more in Home EVR.

Edit:  PD just tweeted that he had forgotten about the SA Open losing Flagship status.

I noticed PD had missed that, rare for him, he's normally spot on.  If the EVR is 63, then 48 (75% of 63 = 47.5) is the most the Home ERV could be.

Nice start by Rory, up there with Trevor Fisher & Aiken, both of whom have failed to keep/get their PGA Tour cards.
Terrible (78) from Andy Sullivan.

Clarke and Faldo both in with 2 under par 70's - take that Mr Sullivan, Ernie etc.

kwinigolfer wrote:Clarke and Faldo both in with 2 under par 70's.....

Nice. VERY respectable.

Wow go Wiltshire, 2 Wiltshire boys 2nd equal...and Howeller's not even in the field.

Not quite so good from Sir Nick today, but still a great effort from someone who is an occasional golfer nowadays. I enjoyed watching him on tv yesterday as I am off work currently due to a bad car accident in November. Fractured Pelvis, hip. arm and a couple of fingers. Damn annoying as I had just got down to my lowest ever handicap at the age of 50. After floating around 7,8,9 or 10 most of my golfing life I managed to get down to 6. CAT 1 was within my reach! Heyho. Hopefully will be able to get out on the fairways when the better weather comes

Sky Sports saying McIlroy has confirmed he is playing BMW PGA Championship

Crikey that doesn't sound good Fn1F, hope you're in line for a full recovery.

Great comment by Richard Boxall regarding the outfit worn by Andy Sullivan (Light check trousers). "I got 3 Down but I struggled with 4 Across"

I wish you a speedy recovery Fn1F.

Sorry to hear that Nick - good health and

Wonder if he ever regrets taking broadcasting millions instead of playing a little more Senior Golf?

Dubai field:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2017/tournamentid=2017008/teetimes/index.html

Looks a strong turn-out to moi . . . . . .

I hear that John Jacobs has died, aged 91. Don't know a pro over the age of 30 who hasn't at some point been coached/advised by JJ. Won't be a dry eye in the Spanish golf world, where they regard him as a maestro, and I know was very involved with Seve, Oli etc.
So many anecdotes I've heard over the years, and while I met him only a couple of times there is no doubting his contribution to golf. Sad, if not unexpected loss.

Further to puligny's remembrance of John Jacobs, I loved this Golf Digest piece from a few years ago:

www.golfdigest.com/story/jacobs-diaz-lessons

Lots of good stuff in there.

I had heard him talk about Woosnam's golf swing before and took my teenaged son to follow Woosie a few years ago in Rochester. Best lesson he ever received.

Kwini
Brilliant stuff - many thanks.

You have to fancy McIlroy will win the play off but credit to Storm from coming back off a bad season to play so well this week. Should almost have his card sewn up already

Good effort from Smith too for the first time he's been in contention on the main tour. This kid won the Europro then the challenge tour in successive seasons. To get a top 3 early on should set him up well for the season. Is he high enough that a good desert swing will trigger a letter from Georgia??

Freeking GOLF channel with delayed coverage? From the ET blog sounded like a helluva playoff... Which hopefully GC shows us.... In like a fricken hour or two... Sheesh.... Delayed coverage in this day and age? Baffling.

Ballsy win by Storm.... Good on him.

Happy to be wrong. McIlroy struggled on that 18 all week. Good win for Storm.

Amazing for Smith to win the Europro and Challenge in consecutive seasons. At least Europro is proving useful for some.

Smith has an ET win?  I still like the looks of him though...

Oh... Nevermind... Mis-read on my part....

Graeme Storm lost his Euro Tour last season, and then got it back when Patrick Reed failed to play in the requisite tournaments.

Guess his card his EuroT card is secure through the 2019 season now. (or is this tournament too low on the pecking order for a 2 year exemption?).

robo,
Even when the GC says it's live, it never is. #Fake News.

Good for Graeme Storm.

5-6 years ago he was part of the Wiltshire team that won the English County Championship (which would be comparable to Swindon Town winning the premiership). There were a few good 'uns in that squad. Indeed, Canter who he played with on Friday couldn't get in it!! Jordan certainly hasn't wasted any time kicking on from that, be interesting to see if any others emerge from what was a golden generation.

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Even when the GC says it's live, it never is. #Fake News.

Good for Graeme Storm.

that's not been my experience... Or at least not very often. A few minutes delay maybe I understand, but hours?

Rory will have the opportunity to reclaim the #1 spot in the OWGR next week in Abu Dhabi.

GPB wrote:Rory will have the opportunity to reclaim the #1 spot in the OWGR next week in Abu Dhabi.

does he need a win?

There are some people who DVR the programming.

If they showed the final round live (instead of during the scheduled window), the DVR would not have caught the early round coverage.

And don't advertisers pay for their commercial time at a certain part of the tournament at a certain time. 72 holes ended at 8:15 am ET and 5:15 PT. I would imagine 10 am ET, 7 am PT is a more lucrative time slot.

Finally getting to watch the playoff now. Tremendous discipline shown by Storm sticking with his game plan in hitting 5-wood off #18 tee again and again. That's a veteran play right there. Good on him.

Wish someone would swat that bug off the back of Rory's hot pink shirt. Looks like it might be a bee.

I was surprised how meagre the first prize was. I know it's only a competition in South Africa, but after expenses, taxes etc, it isn't that much.

GPB... GC and the Networks sell golf advertising on a "campaign" basis, whereas a program like the SuperBowl is on a "spot" basis. In campaign schemes, an advertiser pays X for X many spots at a standard distribution throughout the entire window(s), but they are not specific as to exactly when in that window it might be. Whereas a spot advertiser "might" have more flexibility in negotiating a specific placement within the window.

But the point here is, because it's played outside, golf is a sport the REQUIRES adjustment. And GC and the networks do it all the time when events are running late or events start early to avoid weather (like was the case today). Of course I can't know all the contractual obligations in place in this case... but for the VIEWER, IMO it would have been far better to show the tournament live, then fill in the remaining time with Replay... My bet is the value to the advertiser would likely have been greater.

Bottom line... in this day and age, viewers are too impatient to wait for replay... they have too many other avenues to get the result... and once they know it, they're far less likely to stick around and view it.

super_realist wrote:I was surprised how meagre the first prize was. I know it's only a competition in South Africa, but after expenses, taxes etc, it isn't that much.

Yeah... just over €1 million. Not much.

What surprised me was months ago finding out that Sunshine Tour "flagship status" had been taken away from their National Open (played continuously since 1903 except for war time) and given to the Alfred Dunhill Championship. I still haven't figured that one out, and Ernie Els probably hasn't either. That would be like the PGAT taking Flagship Status away from the Player's Championship and giving it to Bay Hill or something. Anyone have a clue what happened there?

No Robo, it was 164,000 Euro, not even quarter of a million.