PGA Tour: A Breath Of Fresh Air On Hilton Head: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Well done, Sergio!!

2).Never thought I'd see the day, and certainly not at Augusta, not because the course wouldn't suit him, more because he'd seemed to make a career of talking himself out of a green jacket. We'll see Sergio next at The Players Championship next month, a tournament he likes on a course he loves. He'd love Harbour Town too - which brings me to:
TRIVIA:
Who's the last player to drive from a Masters win to a Harbour Town win the following week?

3).In their essay about Sergio's win, pgatour.com describes Augusta National as an "inland links" which I suppose is half right.
And this week the Tour heads to the coast, to Hilton Head Island's Harbour Town Links, which is not really a links, more an outstanding and very playable course, weaving between the remnants of a waterfront plantation and expensive homes until #17 and #18 take you out to the water and Calibogue Sound.
Harbour Town has undergone some changes over the last couple of years, intentional and inadvertent:
There was a course-wide reseeding two years ago and then Hurricane Matthew took out hundreds of trees last autumn. One imagines that the canopy of trees could have used some surgical thinning out, but nature doesn't work that way so not quite sure how the course's playability will have been affected.

4).It's one of Pete Dye's very first efforts but requires the accuracy and precision you've come to expect at TPC Sawgrass. Course specialists thrive here, but although Furyk and Donald have eight first and second place finishes between them, long hitters have fared well also with Davis Love a 5-time winner and Branden Grace getting to wear the faux tartan jacket last April.

5).Away from The Masters, the reorganisation of the Golf calendar has been increasingly in the news recently, as robopz has been updating us.
It now seems almost certain that the Florida/Mexico swing will be redesigned after the intense clustering of WGC's this spring. No idea yet what will become of the WGC-Mexico, perhaps it will retain this year's date - though why can't it switch with the "Honda"? But it looks as if The Players will shift back to climax the "Florida Swing" in two or three years' time. That would suggest a move of the WGC-MatchPlay, though where to I'm not sure. There are still conversations about the PGA Championship moving from August to May, but why would they want to move? There'll be more to come on this no doubt, and robopz will know what's going on before we read it in the press.
One of the more disingenuous complaints from Tour Pros is that they never have an off-season. But you can bet your life that if they took, say, a ten week hiatus in the autumn, unofficial "Silly Season" tournaments would creep in, with limited fields and guaranteed money. Just what the 21st Century versions of Fred Couples would hope for. Or they'd head east for appearance money in Europe or Asia. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just don't complain about a long season, you don't have to play.

6).No doubt The Masters' date is sacrosanct, and some golfers not otherwise exempt can adjust their schedules accordingly, including Sergio who can plan for the next 20+ years.
And this lot from the Top 12 last week will be "invited" back next year:
Already exempt: Rose, Schwartzel, Scott, McIlroy, Fowler, Spieth.
Now exempt: Kuchar, Pieters, Casey, Chappell, Moore, Matsuyama, Henley, Koepka.

7).It happens every year in just about every event but some players who were an integral part of the script for 63 holes come a cropper over the last nine and lose their qualification for next year.
For Westwood, McGirt and Hoffman, all of whom drifted at least three over par during their final holes, they could have used the ranking points as well as a Top 12 result.
Failure to hang on jeopardises their chances also of future Majors exemptions; McGirt is OK for 2017, and Westwood is in The Open but not the US Open. Hoffman's not in any, though; but this is historically a good time of year for him, so hopefully he'll be OK. Westwood needs at least one strong result and not being qualified for The Players won't help him at all.

8).The cast of characters has shifted hasn't it? Garcia, Rory and Rose may be constants, and Casey's in a good run of Nearly Man results, but Donald, Poulter, McDowell, Harrington, and even Westwood have largely been replaced by Hatton, Fitzpatrick, Willett, Wood, Rahm, Rafa and Pieters.
We read a lot about European Tour event world ranking points being subsidised, and they often are, and most likely to the long-term detriment of the Tour. But this week the boot is on the other foot, as this week's Harbour Town "RBC Heritage" field includes these entrants among the highest ranked in the field:
1st: Hatton, 16th in owgr rank
3rd: Willett, 19th
4th: Grace, 22nd
6th: Knox, 27th
7th: Rafa, 28th
8th: Molinari, 29th
10th: Fitzpatrick, 32nd
Kaymer, Lowry, McDool, Poulter and Donald are also in the field. Ooh, and Beef Johnston.

9).Kuchar came from nowhere at Augusta to finish 4th and he holed out from an 18th hole Harbour Town bunker to beat Luke Donald to the RBC Heritage title a couple of years ago.
Snedeker's won here, Furyk twice and McDowell too. Two years ago Harbour Town saw Kevin Kisner's coming out party. After Furyk pipped him in a play-off, Kiz runnered up behind Fowler in The Players' play-off and then at The Greenbrier. He won eventually in a runaway just down the coast at Sea Island and seems to be running into form. I like Kooch & Kiz this week!

10).Matt Fitzpatrick reckons Harbour Town is his favourite among the courses he's played in the US and places Hilton Head top of his favourite places to come. Me too, and the place should look fabulous this week, with good weather forecast, just enough breeze to make things interesting, and a good field although clearly not the strongest. I'll enjoy it, hope you do too!

GPB,
I imagine Palmer might have some Tour leeway on "compassionate" grounds - I think his wife has been ill. He's a guy I can't really warm to, but he's a super golfer when going well, and the upcoming TX tournaments will boost his standing in a hurry.

I wonder what the demands are on Spieth, given that he hasn't been a full Tour member for that long; less than four years as it stands?

We take the p1ss out of Shane but I loved following him last year, love how he smacks the ball - wasn't completely sure he had his head in the game when we followed him, but hopefully he can grow into his Tour career. This'd be a good week to start.

Good start for Shane; keep it up, the bars won't be open yet.
Not many bogeys out there so the early starters need to keep their foot down.

Mental error destroyed Shane's round, hitting it into the pond at Par-3 14th, and a blunder by Poults whacking his drive into the drink on #10.
Hope Poults wears different strides if he plans to win tomorrow. The winner's Faux tartan jacket on top of those trews would be like serving haggis in an Italian restaurant.
Luke needs to hit some greens.

I hope the tour has no mercy on players like Spieth.

Playing a tournament that they have not play is not much to ask.

It will be interesting to see how Poulter plays today. Needs to stay 12th or better to retain his card. It's been a while since he's been in this position and he must be concerned about having to leave his gauche lifestyle behind.

Big day for Donald & Johnston too super, though perhaps Tyrrell Hatton would be favourite to beat all three?
Hope Lowry bounces (poor choice of word, I know; resurrects himself?) back from his watery grave yesterday.
Another stonking day weatherwise at Harbour Town and scoring should be good.


Don't know about your coverage, but CBS has been focussing on Poulter knocking off his "medical" extension, but he's outside the Top 125 pace too, so even if he satisfies the immediate demands he's still got his work cut out for him to retrieve his card for next season. Donald too of course, but Luke's got some freebies up his sleeve.

Kaymer & Kuchar making up for having the moving day van in reverse - both -5 with respective eagles on the front nine, Kaymer's apparently from 175 yards.
Time for Lowry to take the hint and make some money.

Can't wait to watch it later Kwini, im stuck in the Mother in laws at the minute with no live golf!! Dunner is in a playoff in Morocco..

You can tell the m-in-law that Shane has just made a miracle bogey on the Par-5 15th after carving his tee shot into North Carolina, and birdie-ing his provisional. It should keep him on track to a very middling finish, but certainly not the Top 20 he needs.

Sorry to see Dunners come up short, good experience nevertheless; but happy for Eddie, would love to see him back to the form and fitness of seven years ago.

Now for Lukey & Poults; Beef has come rather underdone, the waste of the chance for a decent finish for him.

Come on Jason Dufner!

sirbenson wrote:Come on Jason Dufner!

Are you being ironic?

Couldn't begrudge Eddie, he's been out for ages through injury. Great for Dunners too, Will go a long way towards securing his card for next year. They've been bigging up Dufner on Sky, he's been pretty solid so far interesting week this, plenty of additional stories goin on.

A bunch of good guys up there this week; and Duf is one of them. He's been in good form, and worth following for a few weeks even if he doesn't pull this one off.
Luke no longer "up there" after shooting himself in both feet on the easy Par-5 second hole. Getting one back on the 5th helps but he needs plenty more where that came from.

Poulter Tracker, with Poulter falling down to a 7 way T9th as of 3:05 Tournament Time

This is what he needs to retain his card

Solo 12th
Three way T11th
5 way T10th
7 way T9th

DoDo Provisionally up to around #240 in the OWGR after his win.

No Super, I'm a fan of Dufner! Makes the game look so easy from tee to green.

Good thing for Poulter is that he'll have lots of leftover IJP clothing to push with the Snickers bars at the Woburn pro shop.

Bad thing for Poulter today is his putting, down almost two strokes to the field on the front nine.

Thats one of the most amazing bunker shots I've ever seen holed, magical from Luuuuuke.

Who wants to win this?

Still chance for Luke but he's got to do everything right from now on; Poults just needs to stop the bleeding.

Hoping for a Wesley Bryan win as have him at 66/1 although also have cash on Luke too.

Poults putting really letting him down today, test of the game looks in decent shape.

Looking promising for you BIG.

And Poulter's made a putt - still not all over for him, but he needs to go one under par over his last three holes.

Good effort there on 17 by Poulter. Get the lead out on 18, c'mon Poulter..

Happy days BIG.

One more week for Poulter..

Another 2nd here for Luuuke, considering how he sprayed it all over the shop but played great recovery, a good result.

A couple of bogeys on #18 will make life a little easier for Poulter next week, up to T11. First things first though, make the cut!
Pity he couldn't have got his mate Justin Rose to team with him in NOLA; and screw Henrik . . . . . . and screw Texas.

Well done Wes Bryan, and Lukey cashes in with his 5th runner up at HHI. Tough to do.

11 way T11th for Poulter gives him about $114,000. That means he needs about $31000 next week which is the equivalent of Solo 35th in my math is correct.

The birdie on 15 was big, else it would have been a 5 way T21 and 67600, this week. Which would have required solo 20th place finish in Texas. Fortunately for IJP, its really weak field in Texas, however it is a 156 player field

Bruce Lietzke, 13 time winner on the PGATour, is undergoing Brain Surgery on Monday to remove a tumor.

He is 65 yrs old.

robo and I saw Lietzke win the Byron Nelson in its last year at Preston Trail, play-off win over Watson - hope he makes it for another "W". robo too.

Pretty amazing that he and Levi won 25 PGA Tournaments between them and only played one Ryder Cup apiece.

Top 50 on May 1 make the PLAYERS field. Texas Open is the last OWGR rated PGATournament before the deadline. Zurich has no OWGR rating.

Eurotour is playing in China for two weeks .

Some notable players just outside the Top 50 bubble who are not exempt for the Players

Lee Westwood (not sure of his schedule, but NOT entered in China Tournaments)
Jeunghun Wang (Playing the China Open, next week)
Ben An (Playing Texas Open this week)
Soren Kjeldson (Playing Texas Open this week)

I noticed an owgr curiosity this week - Ryan Moore rose five places, 33 - 28 I think, without playing. Not something you see every day.

Surprised Kraft & Murray are not playing in China - they could've killed two birds (Tours) with one stone there.

I think Westwood might be trying the Ryan Moore route, not playing and hoping his diminishing divisor keeps him in the Top 60 for Erin Hills.

Oi Mush - PUP PPU!!!!!!
Congratulations

You're right puligny,
Thrilled. The phone hasn't stopped ringing.
I hope that pushes the price up for Mickey Mouse.
PUP indeed!

All about the south coast today with Pompey, Plymouth and Brighton promoted, funny how a clubs fortunes can change. Brighton is my local club now so pleased to see them go up after a few near misses, I like Hughton, no ego about him, am sadly old enough to remember what a good player he was as well.

Don't worry Digs, I'm old enough to remember his predecessor, and the one before that, and the . . . . . never mind.

Well done for yr Seagulls - likely to miss the trip to Roker (or whatever it's called) though. Too bad.

I'm quite happy to have a season in the championship, a great league and we tend to win a lot more games. Mrs Digs is a Forest fan, am just hoping they stay up so we can have that domestic battle.

FWIW, Poulter tweeted that he is playing with Geoff Ogilvy in the Zurich.

Even if he doesn't get his card, with a 160 player field at Zurich, he might get in the field with his conditional status.

Golf Channel report that almost 1/3rd of Luke Donald's Tour earnings in the past 4 1/2 seasons have been scored at Harbour Town.
He'd be struggling if they took the event to a different course.
He's playing three of the next four weeks and needs to rise ten-ish places in the owgr's to qualify for the US Open.

GPB,
If Chase Koepka can get in, surely Poulter can . . . . . . .

It looks as if the PGA Tour has an "opposite field" event up its sleeve for next year, in the Dominican Republic. It seems that it will be played the same week as the WGC-MatchPlay, but that's the Puerto Rico date!

So: What gives?

Hopefully "Puerto Rico" will be played opposite the Mexico WGC, but who knows?

This is what the Golf Channel knows, and it's not optimistic that there'll be a sensible date for next year's MatchPlay:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/webcom-event-added-2018-pga-tour-schedule/

Puerto Rico was originally an opposite field event for Doral. So it would make sense that PR would go to the WGC-Mexico date.

Coldplay is rumored to be playing at Rory's wedding reception this weekend.

The new Dominican Republic event is a promotion of a Web.xom event to the "big tour" albeit as an alternate event.

None of my contacts have anything firm but the consensus is Puerto Rico is probably gone.

A little history... The Coco Beach PR venue was a Trump managed (but not owned) resort that went bankrupt 2-3 years ago. Trump organization has been gone for at least the last two playings.  PR has been questionable going back even years before that  as the contract with PR tourist interests has been year to year for at least 5-6 years as opposed to the standard 4-6 year, or even longer term.

Obviously the proposed schedule changes are up in the air, but my sources are suggesting all three of the big proposed changes are all but a done deal. Players to March, PGA to May and FE Cup to conclude 1st week of September.  How and exactly what events will be shifted where, change status or even go away, nobody's saying anything to me if they know. Also the timing might not be all at once.

WGC Mexico is currently not slated to move next year, unless Pelley relents on his threats and fist pounding  on it not moving a week earlier. But my ex GW contact is suggesting he wouldn't be surprised if PGAT told Pelley to go pound sand and move it anyway. He said to me... And I quote: "If Pelley thinks his board is going to stand by and let him f**k his members out of another WGC, he's lost his marbles"

robo,
That's interesting, surprised the PR Open has lasted this long, but surely the Tour still owes the rank and file a tournament.

Would hate to see the PGA go to May - what will they get for kowtowing to the Tour? There's got to be a reciprocal somewhere. Plus, it becomes a threat to the European PGA.

I wonder if the R&A would take the opportunity to shift The Open back a week to avoid the compression in mid-summer. Don't think they could slide more than one week.

If "Mexico" or the Match Play won't move, you've got a logjam which will upset a number of long-time sponsors; it's bad enough now.

In my view, this helps the European (and possibly others) Tour more than it helps the PGA Tour - you know as well as I that the destination of Tour Members will be equally divided:
1/3 will put their feet up.
1/3 will go travelling for guaranteed money or silly season events.
1/3 will take advantage and play whatever becomes of the "Fall" season.

Meanwhile, a couple more late season Rolex-Series-type tournaments in Europe will help a crescendo for the R2D.

Cheers Kwini...

The original deal to get the WGC's approved through the Board way back when was that the Tour would make best efforts to provide "alternate" events for the rank and file to play those weeks. The PGAT has done "OK" in that regard, but far from perfect. I do know the PGAT has been trying to get that Alt event, but it's more concerned with getting full fledged events. But my guess is Mayakoba moving up to "full" status a few years ago, mitigates at least some of the pain of the rank and file.

PGAT move... I don't have any more detail or "inside" on the potential PGA move to May that anyone else wouldn't have. But from reports I've seen... there is financial "consideration" to the PGA of A to make this move... how much or how it would work... I dunno. It could be something as simple as maybe the PGA of A keeping the 20% of the TV revenues from the Ryder Cup it currently gives to the PGA Tour... but that's pure speculation on my part.

WGC-Mexico... to be clear... PGAT WANTS to move WGC Mexico, then never wanted it the week it is, and they'd move it in a nano-second except for an agreement they made with Pelley. As a concession to Pelley over the WGC Bridgestone move French Open fiasco, Finchem made the deal to have Mexico a week later. So the ball is entirely in the ET's court on that one. I've said here before that I have a generally favorable impression of Pelley, but I can tell you my ex GW contact has exactly ZERO good to say about him. The basic dialog we've had is he thinks Pelley is WAY overplaying his hand like he thinks Jay Monahan is some kind of pushover. I don't need my contact to tell me, that's a huge mistake if that's what he's doing.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this helping the European Tour... if you're talking about the playoffs ending earlier, it might help the ET in the short term, but I doubt it will long term. Bottom line is the ET can expect a lot MORE direct competition from the PGAT in the Pacific Rim in the Fall... It wouldn't surprise me to see a solid 5-6 event PGAT schedule in that region within just a few short years. Already there will be 3... CIMB, Korea & WGC-HSBC... IMO at least 2 if not 3 of something in Japan, AUS & Thailand is almost sure to follow pretty soon.

The other thing is I wouldn't expect the PGAT to just stand idly by and concede the period between the Open's AND the early Fall to the ET... that's just not the way they roll in Ponte Vedra. One other factor to consider... is if the Playoffs move 4 weeks earlier... that means there's 4 less events for the Dual Tour guys to get their event minimums in before the playoffs. That's going to either force the to play more earlier in the season... fall, winter, or Spring.

Agree with all that; not much time for Pelley, but nowhere near as close to the nuances of the European Tour as others on here.

I guess I just have a somewhat different slant on the Dual Tour guys and their prospects than most; I would have thought the ET could dovetail compelling Asian events if it wanted to, but a FedEx move also extends the PGA downtime for European sponsors who don't want to clash with Shotrock's "big tour". In the end, sponsors will determine all, but I could see a couple more late season tournaments being attractive for European sponsors.

Very very few Dual Tour guys will prosper without being in the owgr Top 50 so think "event minimums" a moot point - if they're good enough, the demands aren't onerous; if they're not, they will have to make a choice.

robo,
Also meant to point out that this year's Open calendar could be the harbinger of things to come.
Usually there is a four week gap between the US and OC. Travelers, Quicken or Greenbrier, JDC in Tour parlance. Germany/France/Scotland in Europe.
But this year there are five weeks, with Germany/France/Ireland/Scotland. That should suit Europe and may well be the calendar of the future.

Kwini, not sure I'm following your last point. With the exception of last year and the Olympics messing things up... There's been 4 weeks between the US and British since at least 2012... And 4 weeks between them this year as well.  The difference is the ET should have more attractive events between the Open's with these Rolex series events.   If I'm a dual tour Euro, I'd think it would make me more likely to play more​ between the Open's than I would have before.  But the possible downside is, if I play more in that stretch, regardless if the Players stays put, or the PGA moves to May... I might be more tempted to stay in the states in May and skip Wentworth.

Half right robo; unfortunately the two years, 2011 & 2015, I chose are both three-tournament runs, exceptions presumably I mistook for being the rule.
Regardless, assurance that there'll be room for four, or possibly five, events in future years could help create a mini-series, much like this year's.

"Wentworth" is a problem; almost too early for optimum course conditions and many players don't like the modified course design. Another strike against it in the form of the PGA and they'd have to take action or its prestige will be lost.

Kwini... IMO grouping these Rolex events into mini series is a good thing, but it's not without a downside. When you elevate some events you in effect devalue others.

But the big picture here is the ET getting enough big money events on its schedule that it's future stars don't feel compelled to go join the PGAT the way most of them do now. It doesn't need $7 mil tournaments every week like the PGAT... maybe 15-20 of them properly placed on the schedule, along with the majors would probably mostly realize that objective. But again, now you have the other 20-25 that are relegated to entirely 2nd-3rd class status.

I'd rather see any rising tide float more boats than go overboard and possibly sink with "15 - 20" on the schedule. But Tour golf clearly doesn't work that way, certainly not in Europe, which is a crying shame.
But ALL members stand to benefit with mega-purses; any tournaments relegated to second or third tier status are pretty much already there. Not how I'd prefer it but Shotrock is right on that (for once!), sponsorship and money talks, the weakest will fade away.
Only way to arrest that situation is for an umbrella sponsor to come in with a "socialist" agenda in that purses for smaller events could be maintained/guaranteed at a given attractive level. Probably much to altruistic for today's world.