PGA Tour: Halfway Point of the 2016/17 Season: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The PGA Tour season has pretty much developed three schedules:
~One for the top players, galacticos of the sport, the DJ's, Days and Stensons. They'll play the Majors, WGC's, assume they'll play four Play-Off events, and add half a dozen, let's call them "personal choice", tournaments.

~The second is for the Tour's rank and file, Top 200 golfers, but not consistently Top 50. Charlie Howell and Charley Hoffman can regularly be seen at the head of this list. They'll play the prestigious events they can somehow qualify for, but otherwise compete in most of the upper echelon tournaments, probably take a month off when the Tour goes above the Mason Dixon line.

~Lastly, there's the Tour's journeymen/rookies/veterans-who-have-fallen-upon-hard-times. Say Cejka, Beef, Sabbatini who will likely play every week they can, knowing that at certain times of the year (like now) they'll be on the shelf for weeks at a time.

2).Depending upon which tournaments these lower-ranked players can squeeze into, this is about the halfway point of the 16/17 Tour season, so let's have a quickie glance at who's done what so far:
For the year, not the season because that takes too much time, these are the top performers worldwide as measured in owgr points:
270 pts: DJ
141: Rahm
121: Justin Thomas
110: Spieth
109: Fleetwood
98: Matsuyama
97: Hadwin
84: Fowler
81: Leishman
68: Kisner (yup, I was surprised too).

3).Player of the Half Year: Dustin Johnson who just became the first to complete the WGC career grand slam. Three top class wins and two top class quotes:
Are you dominating, Dustin, does it feel easy? "Yes, sometimes it does. But about 95% of the days it does not. But some days, when you're rolling in the putts, that's when the game gets pretty easy."
Well Dustin, how do you feel about being favourite for The Masters: "I don't care."
He might not win at Augusta, but tough to believe he won't be in the conversation late on Masters Sunday.

4).Rookie of the Half Year: Jon Rahm
No contest, a meteoric rise.
Not sure whether he's eligible for Rookie of the Year, but in reality Rahm IS the winner already.
So far he's made all nine cuts, had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and 5th! Following a 2nd and 3rd last season.
Still interested to see which European Tour events Thomas Bjorn can sweet-talk him into playing.

5).Breakthrough Player: Adam Hadwin
Not many pros make such a relentlessly steady rise towards the top of the game as Hadwin has done. He's been on the radar now for 7 years; a couple of hiccups early but otherwise getting better year-by-year. He's a superior putter, as he showed in his "Desert" 59, is as long as he needs to be, and would imagine he'll be round for a long, long time. Possibly overtaken Graham DeLaet as the best golfer from Saskatchewan.

6).Comeback Player: Pat Perez
This legend in his own mind left the Tour early last year to undergo shoulder surgery, returned after six months of rehab at the CIMB, and won his third event back, at Mayakoba, for his second win in his 16th season. Can be as entertaining to follow as he is sometimes combustible, but the Tour needs its characters.
Honourable mentions to Boring Rod Pampling, and Lucas Glover who has somehow rediscovered his putting stroke.

7).Where do you go to my lovely? Not what Peter Sarstedt had in mind, but some big names are way off the pace so far this year. For instance, with FedEx ranking:
~201st: Danny Willett - Golf Digest reckons "he seems to have been on a celebration tour since he won at Augusta". Maybe, but Danny's only played 4 tournaments so far, pretty much stunk up the joint every time, and needs to figure out what he wants of his Tour career. Martin Kaymer took a year's walkabout and has come back strong, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Does Danny?

~189th: Boo Weekley - (No, Boo's not exactly "lovely" is he?) Has played 13 tournaments so far and his 33 FedEx pts averages out at something less than an average finish of 70th. Ball-striking can only take you so far if you're a terrible putter; turns 44 later this year so is time to start drafting his Tour obit?

~170th: John Senden - Another Tour staple for yonks whose game is going south. Still hits more than his fair share of GIR but otherwise lousy stats and headed with Boo to the Tour's twilight zone.

~162nd: Kevin Chappell - Lost in the play-off at the Tour Championship just a few months ago, but no top 30's since and putting like a drain. Like Newcastle, not too good to go down. Dunno if there's something else going on.

Other "faces" outside the Top 125: Luke Donald, Danny Lee, Streb, Lingmerth. And Poulter of course.

8).OK, What did we think about the "Match Play"?
No accident about the result, of course. Worthy winner, worthy runner up, so no argument there. Like it or not, you could say the format worked.
But the schedule's got to change, no value in having two WGC's and Augusta so close together, back to the Tour's drawing board.
And: It seemed the course was popular but isn't the closing hole a bit of an anti-climax? Perhaps the very short 17th as well, but it certainly caused more than its share of problems.

9).At least the players in the "Shell Houston Open" don't have to travel far, 150 miles ESE to roboville. San Antonio is even closer to Austin; can't imagine why they wouldn't find a way to play the MatchPlay & Texas Open back-to-back.
The GC of Houston has hosted the "SHO" since 2006 and has been kind to course specialists. Players with at least two 1st or 2nd place finishes since then include Appleby, Holmes, Wagner & Stenson. Russell Henley has a strong record here and Phil has a win and string of Top 20's to his credit.

Last year's leaderboard was one of the year's strongest: Stenson, Dustin, Rafa, Henley, Berger all in the Top Six; Rickie, Reed, Charl and Phil not far behind. But Journeyman Jim Herman won, which just goes to show that "on any given day" etc; who'd've thunk it?
Casey scored his one and only PGA Tour "W" here, but he's taken the week off.
European Tour members playing include: Donald, Johnston, Lingmerth, Rahm, Rose, Stenson, Sullivan, Uihlein(!), Westwood, Wiesberger, Wood.

10).Soren Kjeldsen has quietly been getting his game in shape and last week's quarter-final result means he's now on pace to keep his card. He could certainly use one more top result before he's drawn to the European swing of the European Tour.

Two of the season's most consistent golfers have been Cabrera-Bello and Kaymer, the past season and a half in fact:
~Rafa: Since the 2015 Turkish Airlines action, Rafa has played 38 tournaments around the World. He's made 37 cuts, scored owgr points in 36.
~Martin: Since last year's MatchPlay, he's played 27 tournaments, made every single cut, missed out on owgr points just once (48th in Qatar).

Their records are Spieth-like over this time, except for scoring wins, but when PGA Tour no-names complain (as they did this week) about non-Americans prospering in the World Rankings, that level of top-notch performance goes under the radar. Time to hole a few more putts lads in the second half of the season, and the resultant wins will soon have you noticed again. Even to the most myopic.

http://www.golf.com/extra-spin/2017/03/29/thomas-pieters-ridicules-fellow-pros-tweeting-nonsense

Here is an article of some of the tweets regarding the rankings, also lots of other players and caddies (like Craig Connelly) weighing in.

Kraft and Murray come across so arrogantly in this.

Rahm is technically not a PGATour rookie this season having played in 7+ PGATournaments in 2015-16.

Somehow Patrick Cantlay is technically still a rookie though joining the PGATour a few years ago.

Mahan continues to flounder, his FEX ranking is in the 200's. Fortunately he has a Top 50 career money exemption in back pocket, but at 27th, he recently lost his Top 25 Career Money exemption.

Harrington is #40 in Career Money list so he has that failsafe should he not take a Medical. But if he waits until the 2018-19 season, he might fall out of the Top 50. There are few active player very close behind him. Watney, Na, Simpson, Walker, Hoffman could all easily pass him before this year ends.

At #76 in Career Money, Poulter has no fail safe, other than his 'ahem' "good relationships" with PGAT Sponsors that put him in line for exemptions.

At #107 in FEX, GMAC is in no immediate trouble, but he better start playing better as he has no PGATour failsafe either. He is nowhere close to the Top 50 Career Money.

SB

Did you read the last paragraph of that article

Mark Broadie and Richard J. Rendleman, business professors at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina, respectively, published a paper on the topic in 2013 in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. According to their findings, the OWGR displays bias against players who play most of their yearly events on the PGA Tour. You can find the synopsis of their report there.

http://econpapers.repec.org/article/bpjjqsprt/v_3a9_3ay_3a2013_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a127-140_3an_3a2.htm

Thanks sirb, Craig needs to get the Hibbees a goal! Phil Kenyon popping up with opinions also.

GPB,
Tks for the Rahm clarification; yup, there were plenty of others having poor years but for the most part we'd discussed them before, they hadn't played much or have been injured.
Past Champion status will also get some of the veterans a few starts.
The Broadie stuff is old news. As is the fact that many US Tour players never bother to figure out the way the rankings work. Most of the Europeans (can't be bothered to check the Internationals as well) turbo-charge their standing by playing well on their PGA Tour opportunities or in Majors/WGC's; very few exceptions to that.

GPB wrote:SB

Did you read the last paragraph of that article

Mark Broadie and Richard J. Rendleman, business professors at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina, respectively, published a paper on the topic in 2013 in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. According to their findings, the OWGR displays bias against players who play most of their yearly events on the PGA Tour. You can find the synopsis of their report there.

http://econpapers.repec.org/article/bpjjqsprt/v_3a9_3ay_3a2013_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a127-140_3an_3a2.htm

Doesn't really alter the fact that Kraft and Murray are, apparently, boorish cretins. Pieters is right, and so was whomever said something along the lines of "Better to have everyone assume you're stupid than to open your mouth and confirm it beyond all doubt".

Kwini... near as I can tell... Starting the week after the Masters, those lower rung players get a lot of opportunities in regular events.  

Powers didn't make the field this week and as of now is set to drop from 21 to 24th priority in the reshuffle after this week... Only good news is there are only 4 players behind him in Webbie priority making the start in Houston. But the drop might not hurt him compared to where he was before, except to "maybe" cost him one start in the Wells Fargo.  Based on prior years entry lists... he's the estimates for each event and how far they will go into the "Webbie" category...

ALL - Valero Texas Open
ALL - Zurich Classic
25 - Wells Fargo
ALL - Bryon Nelson
ALL - Memphis
ALL - Travelers
ALL - Greenbrier
ALL - John Deere
ALL - Barbisol
40 - RBC Canadian
ALL - Baracuda
ALL - Wyndham

The four remaining invitationals are done a little differently priority... only the RBC Heritage uses the priority list to include Webbies... the rest are more based on current FE Point standing prior to each event...  Seamus Power is currently #123 on the FE list... maybe good to get into Colonial.... but doubtful on the other 4 at this point.

15 - RBC Heritage (uses webbie priority list)
Colonial - Approx Top 120-130 FE List (no webbie priority list)
Memorial - Approx Top 70-80 FE List (no webbie priority list)
Quicken - Approx 100-110 FE List (no webbie priority list)

Well Dustin, how do you feel about being favourite for The Masters: "I don't care."

I like this quote - great work Kwini as always.

Murray and Kraft are a couple of "tools". I appreciate players being willing to speak their minds... but stupid to do so when you're... well... STUPID.

Yes it's true there's a ET bias in the OWGR (probably elevates and extra 4-6 players at any given time into the top-50 or 60), but that DAMN sure don't affect Murray or Kraft... 6 MC's in 8 events this year for Murray and crappy play for Kraft since his one good finish at the AT&T are their problems. They need to get their heads outta their own butts and PLAY BETTER instead of whining like a bunch of {{ little girls }}

robo,
Thanks for your rundown/assessment of access to tournaments - I agree with all, and it accentuates the point I made about the Tour season passing the halfway mark. Time is running out!
A bit of a nonsense the Quicken Loans retaining "invitational" status and can't understand why Heritage wouldn't open up to at least 144 golfers; 156 might be too many for that course.

I'm surprised that Mike Hicks wouldn't tell Murray to "put a sock in it"; perhaps he's found someone smarter to caddie for?

Lots of early birdies in Houston - why aren't you there robo?

Cheers Kwini, quality play from DJ last week. He's really out on his own at the minute and it will take some amount of great golf to overtake him. What with Rory getting married in a few weeks and JDay's family issues, I can't see DJ being overtaken in 2017.

Cheers for the Seamus Power info Robo, he's looking more and more comfortable out there and is definitely moving in the right direction.

kwinigolfer wrote:".... can't understand why Heritage wouldn't open up to at least 144 golfers; 156 might be too many for that course.

The lockerroom at Harbour is the smallest on PGATour and IIRC if they had more players, players would have to share lockers. We can't have the players balls intermingling!

But googling, it looks like the Clubhouse was getting a renovation and there were plans to expand the lockerroom and proshop. Not sure if it has happened yet.

Promising start from Ryan Palmer - he's another whose play/schedule has been affected by family health issues; good luck to him (and his), hope he's back in form soon.

Shocked at Watney's dismal first few holes; way too good a golfer to start going down the slippery slope.

kwinigolfer wrote:Promising start from Ryan Palmer - he's another whose play/schedule has been affected by family health issues; good luck to him (and his), hope he's back in form soon.

Shocked at Watney's dismal first few holes; way too good a golfer to start going down the slippery slope.

Aw don't start

Not the ideal start for Westwood; penalties on two holes in his first three including a water ball, a 3-putt and it all adds up to +5 after 3 holes.
And he hasn't reached the Par-5's yet.
Bring on Augusta!

Kraft krashing (which I find amusing), O'Hair with a solid start, and nice to see young(ish) Fowler in good first-day form. I was just informed by my better half that we will be boarding a cruise ship next Sunday afternoon. They better have lots of TV's on the lido deck!

Perhaps the PGA is just a step too far for Kraft, maybe he should try the European Tour instead.

Sr,
Hope it's just a twilight cruise on the Barge Canal; I see WL w/d this week, not sure why.

What a shame about Kraft . . . . .

Patrick Reed having a bit of a shocker, worse even than Westwood. And Reed has had a lousy year so far, down in the 80's in the FedEx pts.
And I missed it for my notes, but Smylie Kaufman having a terrible year, down in the 200's and another dismal round in progress.

Very good article this week kwini.

Cheers Mac,
What are your views of the season so far? Would actually be interested to know.


Meanwhile, lots of angst about a muddy track at Houston; interesting back and forth regarding playing on a muddy course:
Spieth: Would have made sense to play Round 1 with lift, clean and place.
Rose: You can only play lift, clean and place if the issue is casual water, not mud.
Wasn't aware of that myself, but suppose a local rule could be implemented. But, with 85 golfers breaking par and Spieth himself shooting a 69, it doesn't seem to have been a hardship to all.

Was watching some of the play yesterday Kwini, and one commentator noticed once, that a player looked at his ball prior to playing it, from every angle, to check if it was muddy. Can't have helped the pace of play.

Didn't watch yesterday's action, but a rotten forecast with storms in the offing for Saturday night and Sunday. Not ideal with The Masters approaching.

lw1 on his way and you'd think he needs at least a 65 today to earn weekend action. Good start as he birdies the 1st!
Beef will need a 68 or possibly 69, and Luke a 70 to be safe. Everyone else is warming up for Augusta, Luke is tuning his game for Hilton Head.

As I indicated earlier, I live about 600 WNW of Augusta GA. Generally Augusta weather is 18-24 hours behind us and our latest extended weather forecast is nearly as good as gets for next week.

High Temps around 70 deg F and little chance for rain. Thats good news for us as our ground is nearly saturated and hopefully ANGC and the 'toonament'.

Yup, looking good. for The Masters, hope it stays that way.
Sorry your ground is saturated, GPB, terrible thing.

Mudballs just up King Kang's street apparently; don't know much about him, but this has the makings of a second remarkable round.

Very few (none?) good rounds among the highly ranked players.

Bikes ready for some big names: Scott, Spieth, Reed, Stenson, Kuchar, Holmes, Westwood, and it looks like Phil and Sully have seen Sunday's forecast also.
Think that would wipe out my A Team in the Grumpy Game.

Meanwhile, Russell Henley throws in a second 67 to continue his terrific record in Houston. Like Hadwin, a wonderful putter.

I joked about Stenson playing badly earlier, but seriously whats up with him. He hadn't been right for a couple of months now (it seems). It's all gone south since Mexico. He's normally up there with Rose in the dependable stakes.

The Golf Channel noted that the three current leaders in "consecutive cuts made" are Scott, Reed, Spieth. Not any more!

In fact, lots of cuts made streaks on the line, or already down the drain:
25: Scott
20: Reed
18: Spieth
11: Holmes - also a goner.
10: Rafa, Phil (Both still on the course)

A big, bad, beefy 3-putt on his 36th hole condemns Andrew Johnston to a v.disappointing missed cut, and a ton of pressure upon his ample shoulders when his season resumes. Whenever that may be. Not sure he has it within him to grind out the cuts he so badly needs.

Shouldn't have mentioned Rafa's amazing run in Note 10). above, a surefire, backfire, missed cut for him.

Dinner but no golf for Eldrick.

And, if he doesn't play Augusta, where will he play next?

Can't see him playing now before Memorial and not sure that he gets on well enough with Nicklaus for him to bother to play there.
And can't see him playing US Open on a course he doesn't know, unless he's got some form going in.
Perhaps the Quicken Loans?

Woosnam is still in the field next week, which is surprising since he strongly suggested last year that he'd had enough.

An MDF coming up in Houston with uncertainty about Sunday's weather. Can see some of those playing The Masters giving it a sh1t or bust "effort" in Round 3 with the expectation that they'll hoist themselves into contention, or leave the premises and get an early drive down Magnolia Lane.

kwinigolfer wrote:And, if he doesn't play Augusta, where will he play next?

Can't see him playing now before Memorial and not sure that he gets on well enough with Nicklaus for him to bother to play there.
And can't see him playing US Open on a course he doesn't know, unless he's got some form going in.
Perhaps the Quicken Loans?

Woosnam is still in the field next week, which is surprising since he strongly suggested last year that he'd had enough.

An MDF coming up in Houston with uncertainty about Sunday's weather. Can see some of those playing The Masters giving it a sh1t or bust "effort" in Round 3 with the expectation that they'll hoist themselves into contention, or leave the premises and get an early drive down Magnolia Lane.

I love The Masters, but it loses credibility for having complete hackers dining out as "Past Champions" in the field.
They would be better limiting this to 10 years and increasing the number of players to 100 or so.

I know it's their tournaments and "their rules" but when only 30 or so players have a realistic chance of winning then it's a bit ridiculous to be called a Major alongside the others.

Good to see over 10% of the field being British this year though. Also a lot of "rookies" (what an awful term) in the field this year too.

It's a bit of a metaphor for America though, isn't it super; the good bits are fantastic, scratch the surface a little and it's easy to question things.
With the possible exception of a thunderstorm or two, the weather should be good and Augusta National should look terrific. Looking forward to it. With or without Mr.Woods.

Good to see Cabrera finding some form in his home away from home, Houston. Would love to see him play well next week.

Tiger out of the Masters? Yawn. Will likely resurface soon, play 9 holes, tweak his back and walk off the course. Rinse and repeat. Just read a story about Fred Couples who still claims chronic golf-related back pain. Really wonder why he doesn't just stop playing altogether.

Got to hand it to the boys at Augusta. Popularity among the fans and players remains incredibly high. Complain all you want about the format ... but those boys are laughing at the armchair critics all the way to the bank. The moment people stop participating, talking and watching the toon-a-mint there will be trouble. Until then, enjoy the "event like no other" or whatever their catchy tagline is these days.

They would be better limiting this to 10 years and increasing the number of players to 100 or so.

I know it's their tournaments and "their rules" but when only 30 or so players have a realistic chance of winning then it's a bit ridiculous to be called a Major alongside the others.

There are 90+ players in the Masters.  Do you think the other 60+ players are past champions with no chance to win?

Or is your solution is to add approximately 10 players that also don't have a chance to win.

If you think the Masters could add 10 players that have a chance to win, which 10 golfers would you add that have a better chance than the #31 - #70 highest ranked golfers in the field?

Seriously Super, if you think that only 30 players in the field have a chance to win, what 10 players that are not playing the Masters, do you think have a legitimate chance of winning the Masters.

According to his Twitter feed, Ian Poulter has got an invite for the Masters. Hope it's not an April Fools joke. The picture of the invitation doesn't actually show the year......

Who does Poulter think he is? Ryo Ishikawa?

GPB wrote:

They would be better limiting this to 10 years and increasing the number of players to 100 or so.

I know it's their tournaments and "their rules" but when only 30 or so players have a realistic chance of winning then it's a bit ridiculous to be called a Major alongside the others.

There are 90+ players in the Masters.  Do you think the other 60+ players are past champions with no chance to win?

Or is your solution is to add approximately 10 players that also don't have a chance to win.

If you think the Masters could add 10 players that have a chance to win, which 10 golfers would you add that have a better chance than the #31 - #70 highest ranked golfers in the field?

Seriously Super, if you think that only 30 players in the field have a chance to win, what 10 players that are not playing the Masters, do you think have a legitimate chance of winning the Masters.

No, I don't think that 60 or so are past Champions, but here are a hell of a lot of deadbeats with no chance of winning. Tons of debutants that never win either.
Why not just open it up to the same number as any major?

I'm with GPB in this one - who do you think has a chance to win that isn't playing?

Why limit the field to 30 or so less than a standard event?

Why include deadbeats that can't possibly challenge?

It's not WHO is not in that could win, it's why limit it to such a small field and give someone the chance to play and pad it out with has been dross.

Why are Lyle, Mize, O'Meara, Woosnam, Weir, Immelman, Olazabal, Vijay, Langer, Cabrera in it? So what if they won it years ago.

I'd much rather have someone like McDowell, Olesen, Aphibarnrat, Palmer, Lipsky or Laird in it, than see Lyle stink the place out yet again.

What a round of golf from Rickie, absolute class.

Still a crummy forecast for Sunday, so perhaps we'll see a Monday finish. Nice round from Andy Sullivan, good to see him find some form going into next week.

Some superb putting going on, Rickie looking good.

Yeah Kwini, tomorrow they're going out in threesomes off both tees to try dodge it. Andy Sullivan just did an interview at the Sky cart, he said Thu & Fri he played into all the right spots, but today he just went out and hit it  

Aah Rickie

Rickie just can't seem to shake the double bogey tendency that won't leave his DNA. One yesterday, and that 3-putt braincramp just now.

Kang made 300 feet of putts on Thursday plus Friday, six putts longer than 20ft in Round 2; not sure whether that's just a tournament record or a Tour record in the Shot Link era. Can he keep it up? There's so much separation that you'd think a level par round takes all but three competitors out of it.

Can't see anyone going low tomorrow with that weather coming in, hard to see it being more than a two horse race.

super_realist wrote:Why limit the field to 30 or so less than a standard event?

Why include deadbeats that can't possibly challenge?

It's not WHO is not in that could win, it's why limit it to such a small field and give someone the chance to play and pad it out with has been dross.

Why are Lyle, Mize, O'Meara, Woosnam, Weir, Immelman, Olazabal, Vijay, Langer, Cabrera in it? So what if they won it years ago.

I'd much rather have someone like McDowell, Olesen, Aphibarnrat, Palmer, Lipsky or Laird in it, than see Lyle stink the place out yet again.

I have no clue why you think that GMAC, Thorbjorn, Barnrat, Palmer, Lipsky, Laird deserve a Masters invite.

Part of the prize package you EARN for winning the Masters is a (nearly) lifetime exemption back into the tournament. Its probably as valuable as the Green Jacket, the five year exemption, and the nearly 2 million paycheck.

Mize, Lyle, etc, are NOT taking a spot away from anyone.

Everyone knows what they have to do to earn an invite. Win a regular PGATour event and you're in. Didn't you basically opine that Winning is the Only Thing that Matters a few weeks ago? Exactly what have McDowell, Olesen, Aphibarnrat, Palmer, Lipsky & Laird won recently?

Christ, How hard is this to understand?

Have players CAPABLE of winning in it, not hasbeens who are there because they won it 20 years ago.

Those players I mentioned are ranked reasonably highly, certainly more so than previous champions.

Under the current rules, Lyle etc are not taking a place, but get rid of old duffers like them and expand the players based on rankings who could get in.

What you are saying is that hereditary peers in the House of Lords aren't stopping anyone from gaining entry. Of course they are if you stick to ancient outdated rules.
This is why THe Masters falls down on credibility to me, smaller fields, lots of deadbeats = fewer top players to beat.

Can't honestly remember a Masters when there were so few likely winners.

It seems the Tiger Woods soap opera was exactly that, with reports suggesting he had no realistic expectation of ever playing.
Golf Channel reckons that, whatever else he was doing to rehab, (hitting 350 yard 3-woods in his back garden, Seals workouts and the rest?), he didn't actually hit the course until Tuesday, then again on Thursday which lasted for five minutes. And his spokesman Steiny seems to confirm that.

Even if his career isn't toast, I can't see him playing tournament golf until Summer, possibly not until autumn - it seems his only incentive these days is The Masters and World Golf Challenge, everything else just foreplay. Or no play.

Action in Houston begins around the time the Hearts / Celtic half-time whistle blows.