PGA Tour: Times They Are A'Changing at Colonial: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Last week's final Byron Nelson tournament at Las Colinas, before the move to Dallas's "Trinity Forest GC", is followed by a short taxi ride to Colonial CC in Fort Worth where there seems to be a changing of the guard at one of the most highly regarded (ranked 5th of 50 in a 2011 poll of Tour Pros) courses on Tour. Ben Hogan is celebrated here annually, and not just by robopz, and the list of former winners and contenders reflects the legacy of the golfing great, and also the Colonial course itself:
Among reasonably contemporary players these all have at least 2 x Top Two placings:
Mickelson
Kenny Perry
Furyk
Tim Clark
Zach Johnson
Dufner
Spieth
Toms
Of which only Phil can reasonably be said to favour length over fairway.

2).Phil, Zach, Dufner and Spieth return while a largely new generation of ball-strikers is filling this year's field. Including Billy Horschel, so let's look back first at last week's action.

3).Very pleased to see Billy Ho back in the winner's enclosure, first "W" since winning the FedEx Cup in 2014. As posted earlier, the young Horschel was a horschel's arse but he's great to follow and seems to have mellowed with age, not to mention "life" stuff. He missed an absolute tiddler in last autumn's McGladrey play-off, has largely disappeared for 2017, but is clearly back with a bang. Notoriously streaky early in his career, watch out for Billy over the next coupla months, even the next few days.

4).Talk about disappearing . . . . . that's exactly what Jason Day has done, no Tour top 20's since Pebble Beach three months ago. Is he back? Certainly missed a few chances on the greens, but also holed some outrageous ("he'll be happy to get down in two from here") challenges, just the sort that usually separates winners from the rest. I still can't see that his nuke swing is ideal for a long career, and he seems not to care less about finesse when all out turbo charge is an option, but looks ready to break his one-year-plus absence from first place.

5).Dustin Johnson made a month's worth of bogeys over the weekend, otherwise he'd've been right there, and some others with decidedly iffy starts to the year are playing better, especially Danny Lee who finished T5, his first Top 8 result since Phoenix last year. Another streaky player, and a reminder of the old saying that the average Tour golfer makes 80% of his season's loot in 20% of his events. In Lee's case, a purple 3-month patch two years ago pretty much constitutes his career, otherwise a case of promise, as yet anyway, unfulfilled. Don't expect that to last.

6).With most of this week's attention for Europeans being focussed on Wentworth (not to mention Manchester   ), it's interesting to see Keith Pelley has been speculating on the golf world schedule in two years' time, with his anticipation that the 2019 Players will be returned to March and the PGA bumped up to May. That's a solution to a problem that I can't see meself, can only hope that the PGA's geniuses condescend to check out this year's May weather in the US North-East and Mid-West - think an average March in Manchester.
So order extra wellies and woollies if Bethpage's PGA Championship in 2019 is held in May. You'd've thought they'd've learned from 2009's waterlogged US Open. Oak Hill in 2023 doesn't bear thinking about, can't imagine how they can get the course championship-ready by mid-May, they certainly didn't in 2008 for the Senior PGA.

7).Steve Stricker is one of the few Tour players still to make his home in the northern tier of US States, in Wisconsin, venue for this year's US Open at Erin Hills. Given Stricker's contribution to US Golf over the past decade or so, you might think the USGA would look kindly at his request for a special invitation to Erin Hills. But not a bit of it, so Strick is trying to qualify the old-fashioned way, by earning it - starting at Colonial this week where he beat Tim Clark and Steve Marino in a 2009 play-off.

8).Unless they record fantastic results in Majors, I reckon the PGA Tour has seen the last of Andrew Johnston and Soren Kjeldsen as members unless they contest the web.com Finals later this summer. Beef doesn't seem to have got his brain around Tour scheduling, a la Lowry of years past, and Soren's solid streak of form missed out on the really high placings that would earn the bounty of FedEx points he needs. Too bad for him, but predictable when his ranking started to slide.

9).Jim Furyk always says Colonial is one of his favourite two or three tournaments so it's surprising to note his absence this week - family obligations presumably. And surprised that David Toms is also absent, playing the Champions Tour PGA instead.
One golfer who comes in to Colonial in a funk (no, not Fred) is Zach Johnson, twice a winner here where the course seems to be made for him. Only nine Top Ten finishes since his St.Andrews win, and seems to be in a Luke Donald-like decline. Still competitive on a small handful of courses, such as Colonial, but fighting losing battles elsewhere. No Presidents Cup for him this year unless he turns things round in a hurry, but don't see that starting this week.

10).Sergio Garcia won Colonial in 2001 for his first PGA Tour win and, if his putter is back to Augusta form, he'd be a strong favourite this week. Big IF though.
Similarly for last year's winner Spieth, who rode ungodly putting and chipping to last year's win. Trouble is, his driver is as temperamental as Sergio's putter, but if he can keep it on the straight and narrow, this place is made for him.
Ryan Palmer is this week's local lad and must have a great each-way chance. Kinda like McGirt also.
My picks for Grumpy's game if he was not playing in England would be:

A).Garcia, Spieth, Kuchar
B).Dufner, McGirt, Palmer
C).Lee, Chad Campbell, Pampling

And, completely irrelevant: Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan  

Cracking read Kwini, even by your high standards. I have no interest in this tournament but really enjoyed these notes

The reason behind Jason Day's dip in form is well documented, videos of him crying during his press conference available for all to see. But the "nuke" swing is an interesting one. I agree it's not suited to longetivity... a bit like another former number 1 who has 14 majors, but if it enables Day to win even half that I'm sure he'd take it. Another thing these two have in common is superb short games - they've consistently demonstrated a very deft touch and the ability to play shots without the need to smash the ball. Yet always choose to smash the ball. I'm sure it's a deliberate strategy based on lots of analysis.

Careful there, ray, But give Colonial a chance, usually an interesting tournament, under-rated away from the US, perhaps because of its date.

And: Apropos JDay, I see Mr Woods has declared "instant relief" following his recent lumbar fusion. Golf Channel says it'll be another 2 months or so before he can "twist" his body (imagine Tiger and Chubby Checker) and his "long term prognosis is positive". Good news, whichever side of the Tiger fence anyone might be on.


It'll be mid-90's HOT in Fort Worth this week and windy, at least thru' Saturday, Sunday looking potentially stormy.

Senior PGA Championship being contested this week in Virginia.

Apart from Stricker, almost all the usual suspects are there, including Jose Maria Olazabal who played well last week in Alabama - slowly finding form and fitness.
One man foresaking a tee-time at Colonial where he's a past champion is Steve Flesch, the left-hander, who won $17M+ with little fanfare in his PGA Tour career and turned 5-0 Tuesday.

kwinigolfer wrote:Careful there, ray, But give Colonial a chance, usually an interesting tournament, under-rated away from the US, perhaps because of its date.

And: Apropos JDay, I see Mr Woods has declared "instant relief" following his recent lumbar fusion. Golf Channel says it'll be another 2 months or so before he can "twist" his body (imagine Tiger and Chubby Checker) and his "long term prognosis is positive". Good news, whichever side of the Tiger fence anyone might be on.


It'll be mid-90's HOT in Fort Worth this week and windy, at least thru' Saturday, Sunday looking potentially stormy.

The plank has said exactly that every time there has been an injury to recover from. It's like the little boy crying wolf. No one believes it any more.

If you've ruined your body and have a terrible injurious swing, there's not much you can do. Hard luck 9C, but you brought it on yourself. Just retire, do something you actually enjoy for a change and leave it to the next generation.

That may be true super. Or it may be that his previous surgeon did a lousy job. It's certainly a hallmark of the US healthcare system that patients pay up to twice the going price (in the rest of the "developed" countries) for, on average, inferior outcomes. Perhaps Tiger was duped!

Perhaps he should have seen Andy Murray's surgeon.

Some of these t0ssp0ts can't help themselves:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2017/05/24/president-trump-senior-pga-championship-trump-national-golf-club/102116430/

Know the course by reputation Kwini, but can't say I can recall anything about it! Memory problems perhaps, but looking forward to watching. Texas getting a biggger share than normal this year, and hasn't disappointed despite some misgivings about last weeks venue. I thought it looked fine, but didn't watch too much.
Hope Tiger is improved - can give him the name of a good back man if not! I did read something to the effect that he can't turn yet - not as in a golf swing - which I have to say doesn't sound good. If it's a fusion, that implies pinned with a piece of metal and some screws, probably with a bone graft growing on top. The pinning should produce as much stability as he's going to get.
Great few days of golf.

kwinigolfer wrote:Some of these t0ssp0ts can't help themselves:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2017/05/24/president-trump-senior-pga-championship-trump-national-golf-club/102116430/

I guess you mean the journalists?

Both!

Excellent Kwini

I do like this week, shot maker central!

Off and running in ideal conditions this morning in Fort Worth.
But: It's going to get HOT (90's) and windy (up to 30 mph).
And could reach 100F for Round 2. Probably quite unpleasant for golf, or anything else except swimming.

McDowell among the early starters who might benefit from benign weather - he needs a decent result to get the rest of his season in gear. Otherwise he's going to slip into the danger zone for missing the Play-Offs.

Glad I mentioned McDowell; he's obviously been taking our advice. In with a 66, four under par and T2 among the morning wave.
Rahm tied with McDool on a course that should suit him.

kwinigolfer wrote:Careful there, ray, But give Colonial a chance, usually an interesting tournament, under-rated away from the US, perhaps because of its date.

Wentworth is more appealing viewing on this of the pond!

raycastleunited wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Careful there, ray, But give Colonial a chance, usually an interesting tournament, under-rated away from the US, perhaps because of its date.

Wentworth is more appealing viewing on this of the pond!

More appealing viewing this side too, always looks a fabulous contrast to most US courses. Hope it's playing as good as it looks.

Wentworth seems to have a lot roads crossing in the middle of the holes.

and not all cartpaths.

https://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/wentworthclubwest/aerial.htm?next=tour.htm#

It's in the middle of a housing estate. Awful smell of over cooked cabbage and black pudding around tea time.

Warm at Wentworth and downright hot in Fort Worth, afternoon temps approaching 40C.
Perhaps not quite as windy as yesterday but, despite the generally higher scores late in the day, two of the three leaders played in the p.m. - twitter Kraft and Poston. Great rounds by them.
Great start from McDowell, hopefully he can keep it going this afternoon.

If accurate, it isn't a major shock that the senior end of the golf world had a few Trump apologists.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2017/05/24/president-trump-senior-pga-championship-trump-national-golf-club/102116430/

Been there, done that.

Two Masters Champs leading the Senior PGA towards the end of a delayed Round 1: Langer & Mize. Mark James's mate Jarmo Sandelin in the field - this could be his first senior event.

Wentworth: amazing course, fine field ... always surprised the crowds aren't even larger given the proximity to London. Lots of US courses (in contrast) seem to be on an anti-tree kick.

puligny wrote:It's in the middle of a housing estate. Awful smell of over cooked cabbage and black pudding around tea time.

Kwini said it has a more appealing view. It seems like it is his anti-American bias showing up once again. I don't see how a golf course with so many holes with Roads in the middle of the fairway is "appealing". The cross roads are not even between holes, they are in the middle of the holes.

GPB - It's a stunning place and roads in the middle of a fairway are not entirely uncommon. I have been to Wentworth, but have not played it. (Played a number of other nearby heathland greats.)

One of the most highly regarded course in the US is the National Golf Links; and it has a hole with that same feature.

It's also not an either/or in my opinion ... liking or not liking the way a course looks or plays in any country/state/region are not mutually exclusive.

GPB,
Not anti-American at all. Just anti-American being the be all and end all of everything. Think I was extolling the merits of Colonial earlier - probably shouldn't have bothered.

Early scoring in Texas looks a little better than Thursday; Zach Johnson coming to life with an early bird to follow his fine finish yesterday.

Shotrock,IMO, Wentworth gets good reviews because its in England. If it were a US course, it would get heavily criticized because of the many roads and within a housing development.

I think all the roads are an eyesore. and I don't care if its the National Golf Links. In truth, Wentworth looks like many of the USA suburbia golf courses.

Played Wentworth a number of times, including West Course. The roads are a "feature" of the course. When you play, you look out for traffic and they look out for you.

GPB - Quirky I agree and the roads are certainly not ideal. And, IMO, I hold nearby Sunningdale, St George's Hill and Swinley Forest in higher regard. Still, it's a great test of heathland golf.

I played Pine Valley last month and that's another course with a couple roads to contend with (both from the tee #1, #7) and from an approach (#18). Cool fly by here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITeNGYlxXB8

Haven't been to Wentworth since they started re-doing it, but always loved the majestic trees, almost as if following the golf on certain holes was like walking in a cathedral. Imagine Banff and Sehalee must be similar if not even more so.


Tony Finau with the round of the day in progress in Texas, up to 5th, tied with Casey who's also having a good day. Zach Johnson in reverse, and I wonder if the fire has gone out there?

Rory WDed from Memorial.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-withdraws-from-memorial-tournament-1.3098020

I think Day played off a road in US recently, and made an amazing birdie. Must admit I was surprised in that instance that the road wasn't OB. Most similar positions at Wentworth - wide right on a road - would have been.
Agree with Shotrock re trees, but I suspect the difference is this one built within the trees, rather than lots of trees being planted after the fact to shape fairways etc. Only seen it on to this time, but seems to be a lot of heather regeneration going on, which is a feature of many courses in the area. I mean the regeneration of course, as introduction of trees at some locations has killed it off.
Also - never played Wentworth, but it is not the best to watch golf. Dog legs round trees etc, but atmosphere is terrific. It certainly wasn't built as a stadium course. At any time you will not see the extent of spectators as they move along behind the tree line - traffic will indicate it's pretty busy.

puligny wrote: but it is not the best to watch golf.

Agree with this. Most of the time you are restricted to one side of the hole. because of the layout of the course, not much opportunity to go back and forth. You are "led" around the course. Can see a few bits together at the 7th green/8th tee/10th green/11th tee though.

GPB wrote:Rory WDed from Memorial.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-withdraws-from-memorial-tournament-1.3098020

Can we just skip to the fusion surgery and be done with the endless sick notes?

It's a rib injury Mac, hopefully no fusion needed just yet! Depending on severity it was always going to be at least a 4 week layoff. This season's probably a write off now, I did think it would be with so much going on in his life off the course. DJ's no 1 status won't be overtaken this side of Christmas me thinks!

GPB wrote:Rory WDed from Memorial.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-withdraws-from-memorial-tournament-1.3098020

That's a great shame; wonder if he'll play the US Open?

Regardless, I can't imagine a course much better suited to Rory than Muirfield Village in spring - could quite easily see him tearing the place apart one day. But got to get fit first.


There's a six-under-par glass ceiling at Colonial. Casey, Sergio, Rahm & McDowell right there, anyone making the cut will have a chance.

Lads in the US, you won't have just seen it but Claude Harmon has just done a Hogan - Dufner swing analysis. Briliant, I could watch Mr Hogans swing all day long every day, and the comparisons with Dufner were spot on. Great.

Don't know if any of you have ever heard of a guy called Mike Maves? He's a bloke from Canada who is a complete Hogan (and Norman) nut, he did some great instructional vids on youtube before founding "secretinthedirt.com" with Steve Elkington. He had some great thoughts on The Hogan swing, if you have some free time and are into swing analysis, he's worth a look.

B_t_b,

Never heard of Maves - Moe Norman presumably?

Very surprised Dufner missed the cut but he's played a lot of golf recently and he's run out of gas at Colonial before.
It's interesting what inspires certain golfers. Hogan is a huge influence on a small number of top American pros, Chris Kirk another who comes to mind, albeit with a quite different swing.

What's the situation regarding the number of tournaments McIlroy has done/got to do? I thought he might struggle to complete the requirement?

Yeah Kwini Moe Norman, Wayne Defrancesco is another youtube instructor who's a complete Hogan nut. He does some great swing analysis and is a bit of a laugh as well. He won the PGA Professional national championship in 2001 but back issues put a halt to his playing career. He does some great Hogan - Tiger (Haney swing) analysis.



Sky clearly put the mockers on Dufner , Chad Campbell is another who's swing is modelled on Hogan the only difference being Ben Hogan didn't play "The Ben Hogan golf swing" he played golf! And never missed cuts and got paid!

Wayne D was coaching Kevin Streelman for a time...

I'm never wrong wrote:What's the situation regarding the number of tournaments McIlroy has done/got to do?  I thought he might struggle to complete the requirement?

Rory will almost certainly have to receive Tour dispensation; as GPB pointed out a week or so ago, he was already struggling to squeeze his events in. Almost impossible now.

No Rory next week but plenty of European Tourists in the Memorial field:
Rafa, Donald, Fisher, Fleetwood, Harrington, Kjeldsen, Lowry, Rahm, Rose, Uihlein.

And puligny's newest best friend, Scott Gregory - quite a treat for him.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Rory will almost certainly have to receive Tour dispensation; as GPB pointed out a week or so ago, he was already struggling to squeeze his events in. Almost impossible now.

Is it?

What is stop him working like a real person and playing every week from now until the end of the year?

(PS - I think there are 12 events from the US Open not including the play offs (16 including) that could count to his season total)

McLaren wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:
Rory will almost certainly have to receive Tour dispensation; as GPB pointed out a week or so ago, he was already struggling to squeeze his events in. Almost impossible now.

Is it?

What is stop him working like a real person and playing every week from now until the end of the year?

(PS - I think there are 12 events from the US Open not including the play offs (16 including) that could count to his season total)

Ten, including Erin Hills. And doubt he'll play the week of the Irish Open. So, ten straight weeks nursing a rib injury; just the schedule I'd expect you to keep, Mac, but hardly the recipe for a recuperating professional sportsman.

Another hot, blustrous day in prospect in Fort Worth . . . . . . . .

If he can't cope with completing the required schedule shouldn't he be applying for a proper medical exemption?

Mac,
I can't imagine he needs one, just needs to have an adequate explanation as to why he wouldn't have completed the requisite number of tournaments.

Why would he need a medical extension when he's already exempt? Looking for a problem to fit your solution?? Though how is eligibility for the Play-Offs might be affected I'm not quite sure.

If Rory doesn't fulfill his PGATour requirement, yet plays the three remaining majors & Bridgestone plus the Irish Open, he would have to be very ballsy to ask the new commissioner for a waiver saying he couldn't play his 15 tournament minimum.

He has 5 more un-co-sanctioned tournaments to play and at this point there is no guarantee that he will play 3 playoff events, let alone 4 playoff events.

That's the problem with trying to play a minimum schedule on both tours. Sh** happens. Especially when you are a fragile snowflake like Rory.

Keep lifting those weights Rory! Keep bulking up!

Kwini/GPB

I think GPB pretty much makes my point.  If Rory is injured he should miss the events he needs to miss, and if needed pick up some sort of medical exemption.

But I don't understand how he can justify the position of being fit (eg from US open) and then while apparently fit miss counting events over the summer and then try to get some sort of ad hoc dispensation. He surely has to make some effort to catch up on missed events.

To summarize, is it fair to allow a fit McIlroy who needs to grind out his required events to miss events and play the minimal schedule he hoped he could play?

Aah, The fragile snowflake defence.

Considering he missed two months earlier this year and will have missed another month here, I think he should absolutely be eligible for whatever waivers he requests.

Can't see any reason whatsoever that he would be denied. And rightly so provided he makes reasonable efforts to play a couple of events, Hartford and probably one other.