PGA Tour: The Season So Far In Film Titles: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).This week's WGC-Mexico sees the continuation of American economic boosts to Mexico, the owners of the previous venue having been incapable of retaining the event. Good that the WGC is leaving the States, ridiculous that it's going to a pretty much non-golfing nation, shame it doesn't honour the Argentine greats and go to Buenos Aires.

As I know nothing about the golf course, except it's a 7,250-ish, Par 71, 1920's apparently tree-lined design, which will play even shorter due to 7,500 feet altitude; and as there are very few relevant clues about golf in the Mexico City area, I'll offer some tongue-in-cheek comments. And they're "inspired" by the titles of this year's Oscar Best Film nominations. (Nothing about Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty or even Emma Stone.)

2).Arrival: Jon Rahm.
Easy one to start with; it's been a season so far for the 20-somethings on Tour, highlighted by the fact that only four events have been won by golfers in their 30's or 40's. Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas have both taken their Tournament Wins total to 4, but the biggest new Arrival has surely been Jon Rahm with his incredible finish in San Diego. And now we have confirmation he's taking European Tour membership as well.

3).Fences: Luke List.
The early stats to see who's been swinging for the Fences show something of a change from the usual long-driving suspects, whether DJ, Bubba, JB, Rory, Finau, Woodland, Kokrak etc.
Luke List looked like a web.com lifer until clinging on to his Tour card last year. This autumn saw him play the best golf of his career and now he leads the Driving Distance stat. Top Five early doors are: List, DJ, Hagy, Loupe, Kaufman. This order will change but look for Luke to be Listing close to the top all year.

4).Hacksaw Ridge: Matt Every.
A bit of a reach this, Hackers Saw Ridge would be better, and Matt Every is the Tour's Hacker of the early season, ten tournaments played, nine missed cuts and a w/d; if he was a racehorse his trainer would have been stood down for persistent non-trying.
As it is, Every still has the best (or worst, take your pick) part of two years remaining on his Tour membership; he hasn't made a cut since last April, had a mysterious 3-month absence last summer, not his first 3-month Tour absence, and takes up a tournament place that others more deserving could better use.
Honourable Mention, and cheap shot, to Steven Bowditch who thought Hacksaw Ridge was a bar, and slept the effects of over-indulgence through two traffic light cycles whilst at (sort of) the wheel. Hope he gets himself sorted out soon.

5).Hell or High Water: Justin Thomas.
Or Sh1t or Bust: Three wins for Justin this season already, but two missed cuts and a T39 in his last three efforts.
Good that he lyfted up to PGA National to greet his mate Rickie following the Honda. Which begs the thought: What's become of the scantily dressed nymphet that Rickie paraded at The Players a couple of years ago? No sign of her at Hazeltine either. Perhaps buying pedro pizza in Scarborough?

6).Hidden Figures: Martin Kaymer, Thomas Pieters.  
I'm still not sold on the analysis that GPB posted here a fortnight ago, about the relative strengths of the European and PGA Tours. Still think right conclusion, faulty analysis.
But one Hidden Figure that came out of it was that Kaymer had a career total of 16 x Tour Top Ten finishes, all but two of them in WGC's & Majors. Well, now he has 3, following his best "regular" Tour event finish at last week's Honda: 4th!
And another Hidden Figure was highlighted by GPB teasing that perhaps Pieters "mailed it in" at the Honda, to explain his missed cut following his runner up result at Riviera. Maybe, but perhaps he was also undone by putting on Bermuda greens; not sure what they have in Antwerp, but he thrived at Riviera as he had done in winning the NCAA Championship at Riviera five years before. Course specialist!

7).La La Land: Dustin Johnson.
An apparently effortless win for DJ at Riviera; apart from the LA context, does anyone look more as if they're in La La Land when they're golfing? Hoping we get another Major duel this year a la Stenson/Mickelson, and really hope Dustin is one of the protagonists, see what he's like in the crucible of Major fire, head-to-head. Pity he and Spieth weren't playing together at Chambers Bay.
DJ also has a Tigerish record as a closer, but not in Majors until last year: 13 wins, 8 2nd places, 6 3rd's. But he lost his only Play-Off.

8).Lion: Anirban Lahiri.
Good to see the Indian Lion having another good tournament, very close now to wrapping up his card for next year. Playing more US events should sharpen his game still further - some horrid short-game stats, but happy to hear Feherty trumpet Lahiri's game to an audience still unfamiliar with him. Unfortunately he's not yet in any WGC's or Majors.
And no truth to the rumour that he cancelled plans to live in Kansas. Never was.

9).Manchester By The Sea: Rory McIlroy.
Well, Manchester United All At Sea (at the beginning of the season anyway) will have to do. United fan Rory's season so far has equally been somewhat adrift, but coming out of the sick room to play in Mexico, then Bay Hill in a fortnight all being well. I've never followed Rory so delighted he's added "Hartford" to his 2017 schedule.

10).Moonlight: Jason Day.
Don't know where he's been Moonlighting, but he hasn't been working too hard on the PGA Tour recently, and now down with more sniffles. More like Daniel Sturridge than the uber-fit athlete projected in some ads. It'll be interesting to see if he defends his Bay Hill title in a fortnight's time, then the MatchPlay the following week; he can be as good as he wants to be, but not if he doesn't play.

Enjoy the WGC-Mexico - hope some of the players make it back across the wall for next week's Valspar at the very excellent Innisbrook Copperhead Course.

No, WGC's top 10ers are not exempted into the next week's tournament.

I think it is because there are many non-PGATour players in the short field WGCs.

One way that they protect the Webbies, who as of this weekend only had about 17-18 players out of 50 qualify on merit.

Fleetwood, Fisher, Pieters and Hatton would have displaced four of those Webbies.

25% of the field is guaranteed to be in the Top 10 in the Match Play

OK, Thanks. Makes sense.
I read the Doug Ferguson AP piece; sums up what I had felt.

What I admire in Westwood is his willingness to keep putting himself into a position of winning. He's no doubt got scar tissue from the near misses. But instead of hiding he keeps trying. That takes guts and if he can get out of his own way, he will win one.

And Jon Rahm? Clearly the real deal. I expect he'll be ranked inside the owgr top 10 before The Open and around top 5 at the end of the season.

I see a lot of DJ in Rahm actually Pedro, although he's already where DJ was 5 years ago.

Shotrock wrote:You nailed it ... not great or exceptional IMO.

Casey gets more than his share of criticism on this site for underperforming, but LW not so much. He gets close in lots of very competitive events, but simply doesn't win them. Draw your own conclusions. Cashes plenty of checks however.

Yep, but Casey comes across as a complete arse.

I don't remember one time Casey looked like he would or could win a major. He's a bit too fond of himself also for my liking. Vast difference.

Forgiven....

Casey seems content being second drawer these days. Seems to be lacking that extra gear.

Wasn't Casey a couple clear going into the final round of the Open a few years ago? I thought he'd win that but capitulated in the final round. He's definitely got most of the tools, biggest weakness is probably same as Westy, average (relatively speaking) short game.

It's incredible that every pro doesn't have an absolutely A1 short game. There is no excuse, it's the part which requires least skill and is the easiest to practice.

If it's obvious your short game is letting you down, why on earth wouldn't they sort it out?

Trouble is, super, that it's also the twitchiest part of the game.

Always thought, ten years ago at least, that Casey had all the Major-winning tools, was the man most likely to. And maybe he still will.
Strange that he seems to get more respect over here than Donald or Westwood who have each accomplished so much more - and actually come across as good guys, not a bit of a self-obsessed pr1ck.

Depends how you look at it Kwini.

It's the quickest route for a player to become better in my opinion and was central to improving my game almost overnight.

As for Casey, I always liked his swing, but never took to him personally. Seems like a spoilt brat.

Being in the mix on the back 9 is what I mean Diggers, Westwood multiple times Casey not so much.

super_realist wrote:It's incredible that every pro doesn't have an absolutely A1 short game. There is no excuse, it's the part which requires least skill and is the easiest to practice.

If it's obvious your short game is letting you down, why on earth wouldn't they sort it out?

I'm sure Westwood practises loads on his short game. It may be the easiest to practise but it's also the least reliant on technique and the most reliant on feel, visualisation and confidence.

Let's go back to your specialist subject: all players in the England football team have great technique and practise penalties loads, but consistently lose penalty shoot outs due to mental fragility.

Fair point. Although it's been a while since England were even good enough to get to the stage where they have to play a penalty shootout.

Not many people playing worse these days than Matt Every and Steven Bow(inthe)ditch, but Bendon Todd has at least been in the discussion with 22 missed cuts in his last 23 starts.
But in a rare glimpse of what used to be, he shot a Monday Qualifier 66 to reach the field for this week's Valspar.

kwinigolfer wrote:Not many people playing worse these days than Matt Every and Steven Bow(inthe)ditch, but Bendon Todd has at least been in the discussion with 22 missed cuts in his last 23 starts.
But in a rare glimpse of what used to be, he shot a Monday Qualifier 66 to reach the field for this week's Valspar.

He'll get a huge cut in his handicap for that round.

raycastleunited wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Not many people playing worse these days than Matt Every and Steven Bow(inthe)ditch, but Bendon Todd has at least been in the discussion with 22 missed cuts in his last 23 starts.
But in a rare glimpse of what used to be, he shot a Monday Qualifier 66 to reach the field for this week's Valspar.

He'll get a huge cut in his handicap for that round.

He'll be one of those handicap cheats England Golf are after. Plenty of 0.1s in usual play and then wins something spectacular at an away venue.

Boy I disagree with that Kwin. Donald and Westwood get plenty of respect in relation to Casey. Trouble (ok, trouble is not the right word) is that both Donald and Westwood have been #1 in the world rankings, so expectations for anyone in that position are very high (as, I suppose, they should be). And since those rankings have been kept (1986) only two golfers who have achieved that lofty status have yet to win a major.  Those two, of course, are Donald and Westwood.

I still think Donald and Westwood's #1 ranking was better than Tom Lehman's #1 ranking.

Lehman was only at #1 for a week but Kaymer's spell wasn't much better. Both pretty poor #1's and show that Westie and Donald weren't as bad as we sometimes remember.

McLaren wrote:Lehman was only at #1 for a week but Kaymer's spell wasn't much better.  Both pretty poor #1's and show that Westie and Donald weren't as bad as we sometimes remember.

Wish I was so Poopie relative to the rest of professional golf over a sustained period of time that I could make it to world #1 for a week or 2.

I don't think Donald was a bad #1 at all. He was by far and away the most consistent golfer in the world at the time and the amount of consecutive weeks at number one only consolidates that.

Winning the PGA Tour money list not that bad either.

Super

That is my point, Donald is criticised for not winning a major on the way to being or while at #1, but actually he was so good for about a year or so. He won both money lists for example.

Westie on the other hand......

Just caught a clip of Paul Casey on the Golf Digest TV programme. He said the only reason he left the ET was that he couldn't do both tours at the same time, for family reasons. (One for you, Mac). He also hopes to play in the Ryder Cup in the future, but doesn't say when. Felt he had a fairly good season in 2016 - top 10's in 2 of the Majors and second places in the play-offs.

Both of them would take your arm off if you offered them a Major rather than no. 1. The top pro golfers are judged on winning majors. Westwood has finished top 5 in at least 1 major per annum (except 2014 where he placed 7th & 2015) since 2008. No comparison.

Pretty sure that Todd Hamilton or Rev Webb Simpson would bite your arm off for Westwood's or Donald's career too though rather than just 15 minutes of fame.

I know we have discussed this many times but I really like the 1 major vs monty/westie/donald etc career.

Which career would you pick in the following examples? (I have used westwood as Donald's PGAT success might make some of the picks a little obvious)


Keegan Bradley vs Westwood
Dufner vs Westwood
Hamilton vs Westwood
Michael Campbell vs Westwood
Curtis vs Westwood
Cabrerra vs Westwood
Gmac vs Westwood
Geoff Ogilvy vs Westwood
Immelman vs Westwood

Definitely have Westwood over Bradley, Dufner, Hamilton, Campbell, GMac, Ogilvy and Immelman.

Cabrera has two majors which is impressive and Curtis's career has been good, if not widely reported.

Also, if you're only major is the PGA, I think that takes away from it too. Just not an interesting event, major in name only really.

McLaren wrote:Super

That is my point, Donald is criticised for not winning a major on the way to being or while at #1, but actually he was so good for about a year or so.  He won both money lists for example.

Westie on the other hand......

Mac,
I know it's "only" European, but not sure why you dismiss Westwood's 3 x Player of the Year awards, not to mention his Order Of Merit & R2D titles.
Plus both have terrific Ryder Cup records (which I know you couldn't give a monkey's about).

Can't understand why you refuse to acknowledge that both have had fabulous careers; imagine both would like Major icing on their cakes but seriously doubt either lose sleep over it.
Also: I couldn't care less about "Number One"; golfers worth their salt set out to win tournaments, neither Luke nor Lee asked to be #1, it's just a statistical confirmation of their consistent excellence over a given period of time. Nothing more, nothing less, but certainly nothing that either should be branded with. Phil has 5 Majors and is widely (even by you??) acknowledged as the second best in the world in the past 25 years - never been #1 and can't think that bothers him at all.

kwini

see the whistle smiley.

super_realist wrote:Pretty sure that Todd Hamilton or Rev Webb Simpson would bite your arm off for Westwood's or Donald's career too though rather than just 15 minutes of fame.

This from the guy that gave a lecture on Winning is the only thing that matters.

Of course, winning the Indonesian Masters is technically...."winning".

IJP Design has gone belly-up.

https://twitter.com/NoLayingUp/status/839446761835999232

GPB

Just saw that, not exactly surprising. Does anyone know someone who actually bought an IJP item?

And

Mac,
As was once said about The Most Interesting Man In The World, "his only regret is not knowing what regret is"!
Sometimes feel that way about your smileys.


Oops, Here comes Scott Verplank and his Jakarta Four-Ball narrative . . . . . . . .

GPB wrote:

super_realist wrote:Pretty sure that Todd Hamilton or Rev Webb Simpson would bite your arm off for Westwood's or Donald's career too though rather than just 15 minutes of fame.

This from the guy that gave a lecture on Winning is the only thing that matters.

Of course, winning the Indonesian Masters is technically...."winning".

Winning is all that matters, but if all you've ever won is one major, then that's always going to be lesser than scores of events.

McLaren wrote:Lehman was only at #1 for a week but Kaymer's spell wasn't much better.  Both pretty poor #1's and show that Westie and Donald weren't as bad as we sometimes remember.

That is a classic dumb-ar$e statement, even by your standards.

It's possible an average player can come from nowhere to win a major, then dissappear again. You can look at some of the random names on the claret jug and justifiably say they were a "poor" champion, especially if conditions made the event a lottery. But to get to world number 1 you have to perform to a high standard for a sustained period of time. It's no fluke - they were statistically the best player in the world.

Ray

I get that, but to flake out once you get to the top is a little disappointing from a spectators perspective. My personal preference is to see a player get to the top and stamp some authority on the position. For example DJ winning in Mexico.

Westwood has had a fantastic career, no doubt about it. But he has played in a lot of huge events and contended in stacks of them, so I feel he was OK walk away for his career feeling very wealthy, very admired but also a little unfulfilled.
Or he could do a Monty and win a few senior majors and count them as real ones.

Hamilton had a decent career on the Asian Tour, even think he won their oom - which brought him into the Open. Ogilvy had a couple of WGCs as well. Immelmann, Campbell and Cabrera had several wins on the ET.
Where is Shaun Micheel on the list? Probably worst of the lot in the past 20 years.

Micheel's win was a shocker, but he played fantastic golf on a demanding course to win it. Strange. Not Curtis. Or Curtis Strange.