PGA Tour: Memorial Week: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Calling the Monday of the Memorial Tournament week "Memorial Day", and making it a Bank Holiday to boot, is pretty considerate of Washington. Thanks very much, makes things quite straightforward. Who knew Golf had such clout? And the tournament is fittingly played in Columbus with a fair few European explorers in the field. Too bad the Scots are not better represented at Muirfield Village, but Sandy Lyle did his bit in 1987.

2).Seriously folks, a great tournament at Jack's Place, one of the highlights of the "regular season" on a wonderful course that is typically presented in mint condition, ample fairways, enough hazards to get your attention, penal rough and lightening fast greens, weather permitting. Three super Par-5's, an Augusta-replica Par-3 12th, and the Par-4 14th hole which, when the tee is up, is among my favourite "short" Par-4's anywhere. The Pros play for more than $1.5M, one of the largest purses of the year, and the winner earns a 3-year exemption.

3).Tiger Woods is a 5-time winner here, most victories of anyone, must've thought he could play the course in his sleep.
Nicklaus himself won here twice, as did Irwin, Watson, Norman and Kenny Perry but the last three champions have all been first-time Tour winners, Matsuyama, Lingmerth and Willie McGirt.
Only Rory is missing from the owgr top five, but one man who hasn't won anywhere in the past three years has outstandingly the most consistent recent record, smiling Matt Kuchar. Kooch won in 2013 and had previously finished second in the middle of a ten-year run where he is 77 strokes under par, 41 better than anyone else.

4).Nelson, Hogan, Nicklaus, a trio of all-time golfing greats, and last week we saw Kevin Kisner emerge from the Dean & Deluca Colonial field with Hogan-like ball-striking and scrambling good enough to win by one from Spieth, a resurgent Sean O'Hair and the inevitable Jon Rahm. If Kisner wasn't already on your list of players most likely to play well at Colonial, he certainly should be now.

5).Kis is strongly placed to earn automatic qualification for the US Presidents Cup Team - the latest "qualifying" positions are:
Dustin, Spieth, Thomas, and Kisner (who have opened quite a gap over) Fowler, Chappell (kinda like him e.w. again this week), Reed, Koepka, Berger, Harman. Positions 7th (Reed) through 18th are tightly grouped so the next three weeks will see plenty of change.

6).It was a disappointing Sunday for the European contenders, despite Rahm's 66. Casey and Garcia slipped back while McDowell stumbled over the weekend, not good for a man who still needs some good finishes to earn a spot in the FedEx play-offs.

7).And it has certainly not been a good few weeks for the 12 x US Ryder Cuppers of 2010.
Whilst DJ is contending or winning every time he plays, and Rickie's being Rickie, Mickelson and Matt Kuchar have been stuck in neutral for a while now, Zach and Bubba are having lousy years, Stricker is moving into Senior Living and Furyk has pretty much disappeared. But not as badly as Mahan and Woods and Overton.
Aah, Jeff Overton, Boom Baby and one-time money maker who's had his share of runner up finishes, daft moments on the course and even dafter moments off it.
But it seems he's been going through a torrid time with back problems compounded by an infection - as pgatour.com describes it:
"A minimally invasive procedure to alleviate a herniated disc" somehow left an infection in his spine which resulted in a month of hospital and rehabilitation including two months with antibiotics being fed thru an IV. Sounds as if there's light at the end of his tunnel and hopefully he'll be back healthier. And wiser.

8).That's 11, who's the 12th man? Stewart Cink!
And Stewie is having quite the resurgent year; he's not the yearly winner that he once was, hasn't won since Turnberry in 2009, but he's enjoying his best year for some time with Colonial providing the highlight so far, though possibly the lowlight as well as he was right in the shake-up after 54 holes and finished with a 72 when most contenders shot under par. Nevertheless, that's his 7th Top 25 this year, he'll easily qualify for the play-offs and is still 19th on the "career earnings" charts.
On top of all that, he even seems a good bloke, very interesting interviews when given the chance.

9).OK, Back to Muirfield Village, a perennial Top 20 entry in lists of America's Best Courses and, I imagine, a delight to play. Jack Nicklaus usually tweaks something here or there on the course but apparently nothing significant this year. It's known as a "second shot" course, with plenty of room off the tee. There's a good contingent of European Tourists in action including Harrington's first US event following his recent absence. Lowry is here, Rafa, Fisher, Fleetwood, Donald, Kjeldsen and Jon Rahm. Hampshire is represented by Scott Gregory, but sadly not by course specialist Justin Rose who is a non-runner, still haven't seen exactly why.

10).After this week we only have Memphis before the US Open. Once upon a time it seemed that a win at "Memorial" was a stepping stone to US Open contention, but not so much recently. Lingmerth in 2015 and McGirt last year certainly came out of the blue. Not sure why Dustin Johnson hasn't done better here, but he was 3rd last year. Jason Day has a poor record, how long can that last?, but Spieth has a 3rd place finish and Hideki's surely got to return to form sometime soon.
At the other end of the spectrum will be golfers who are looking to complete 72 holes at Memorial and then another 36 in next Monday's US Open qualifying. Among them will be past Memorial winner Steve Stricker was 8 under par for 15 holes last Sunday, before a late bogey and settled for 7th place.

Thanks kwini,

Not sure why anyone would want to play Erin Hills

https://twitter.com/wesleybryangolf/status/869628743903477764

Reading Ron Whitten's selk-aggrandizing piece in Golf Digest, I was hoping they'd've learned the lessons of Chambers Bay.
Seems not to be the case, but we'll have to see what others have to say.

I see Jack Nicklaus, ever the altruistic opportunist, is putting Muirfield Village forward as a prospective May venue for the PGA Championship.

Excellent read Kwini

Cink will always be treated with at least some disdain because of that play-off but like you I enjoy his interviews and he comes across very pleasant.

Also was his wife not very unwell recently?

I also saw the Wesley Bryan Erin Hills video and although it looks horrendous someone did point out that on average the course does have wider fairways than other US Open venues. Can anyone confirm this?

Despite that I don't doubt it will still be a lot of irons off the tee

Apart from his Open win, all Cink's wins have been in the tournament immediately following a Major! And, yes, breast cancer.

Dozens of Tour veterans and Tour journeymen at this week's web.com Tour event in North Carolina, including a forgotten Englishman, Brian Davis. He's been injured and badly out of form and will be playing a Tour-related tournament for the first time in almost a year, seeking his first payday for more than 18 months.
Davis is still ranked in the top half dozen players' career earnings among those who haven't won. Time is running out, Brian.

Cink always came across as very pleasant. No disdain from me, other than a bit towards Westwood for his approach in to the 72nd - but that's probably hindsight!

As a professional, you're there to beat whatever is in front of you and however much I'd have liked Watson to do it, holes 73 - 76 were simply too much for him. Cink would have had more disdain if he'd managed to let that one slip tbh.

Cheers Kwini, great charge from Spieth last Sunday but good stuff from Kisner in the end. Didn't know too much about Kisner prior to last week, solid ball striker so good to see that type of player prevail at Colonial. Spieth looks to have picked up a bit of form, just in time for next week perhaps? Hopefully Shane kicks on from a decent showing last week, last time he played well at Wentworth he went on to win the Bridgestone.

Great write up Kwin. Good to see O'Hair firing on all cylinders. Look forward to the golf action this weekend but it's my Member-Member so hoping to make a playoff on Saturday. (Usually, when I hand in my card the response is "thanks for playing".)

Typical USGA intervention at Erin Hills.

O'Hair looked to be on the right path when he way contending at Bay Hill & everyone was copying his swing, I wonder are most of his issues between the ears. Hopefully he's figured it out now.

Robert Karlsson has been named Bjorn's first vice-captain

Shotrock wrote:Great write up Kwin. Good to see O'Hair firing on all cylinders. Look forward to the golf action this weekend but it's my Member-Member so hoping to make a playoff on Saturday. (Usually, when I hand in my card the response is "thanks for playing".)

Typical USGA intervention at Erin Hills.

You been giving Sean tips again, Shotrock?? Surprised you didn't partner with him this weekend.

O'Hair was a pretty "natural" golfer ten years ago, wasn't he; he seemed to get way too methodical, so slow he was unwatchable the only time I tried to follow him, didn't look as if he was having any fun at all - but since he came under Shotrock's influence he's been a revelation. Good to see and would expect him to be playing well again this week.

Just looking at the field for grumpy's fantasy league. Is Harold Varner ill?

raycastleunited wrote:Just looking at the field for grumpy's fantasy league. Is Harold Varner ill?

...and Bill Hurley.....

raycastleunited wrote:Is Harold Varner ill?

No, he's lll

Hank Haney is questioning the "non-anchoring" of Langer's putting stroke.

Sure looks like Langer's wrist is anchored against his chest in this video

https://twitter.com/HankHaney/status/869954531248840704

There goes Bernies senior major titles... too bad having man boobs.

pedro wrote:There goes Bernies senior major titles... too bad having man boobs.

Just what we need, another brouhaha between Germany and the US.

Interestingly Mike Davis, CEO (or whatever his title is) of the USGA extolled the imagination of Langer's technique in this month's GD.

kwinigolfer wrote:

Just what we need, another brouhaha between Germany and the US.
.

See my post re. Tigers car. It must be a conspiracy..

Indeed. No sauerkraut or budweiser emojis to be found . . . . . . . . . .

I think we discussed Langers technique on here a while back. I can't remember what everyone's conclusions were but I believe he does anchor with his left forearm/wrist.

If it were VJ up to those tricks and not Langer the method would have been prohibited.

Why do you say that Mac? VJ got off with his deer antler, why would they punish him for the anchoring?

Langer is a good christian - so he gets away with cheating by giving a few dollars 'back to the community'.

I think Langer's taking the p1ss, laughing all the way to the bank/church.

Should be good day for weather/scoring; a little bit iffy for the rest of the week.

super_realist wrote:Why do you say that Mac? VJ got off with his deer antler, why would they punish him for the anchoring?

Super, I could have picked any unpopular player. As others have mentioned Langers clean living, good christian, conservative attitude probably makes him one of the really good guys in the eyes of golfs chiefs.



Kwini

Totally agree, I bet he can't believe he gets away with it. I know we have joked about less popular players possibly not getting away with it but shouldn't any player struggling post the anchoring ban be trying Langers method? I am particularly thinking about Keegs.

Mac, no one ever gets any bad treatment in golf. The governing body is too scared to take any proper action.

super_realist wrote:Mac, no one ever gets any bad treatment in golf. The governing body is too scared to take any proper action.

Even more reason to flaunt the anchoring rules if you are struggling.

Europeans "bookend" the field after Memorial's morning play.
David Lingmerth, who won in 2015, leads, Rafa is last.

Terrible round (78) from Dustin Johnson, possibly still looking at the situation unfolding in Florida and thanking his lucky stars he avoided the cameras in his worst moments.

Couldn't see in the clip if that was Langer actually hitting the ball? If so he really is taking the p..s! Get him off ref!

Aah yes, DJ, Billy H and Rafa, nice one lads. I blame INW

Be_the_ball wrote:Aah yes, DJ, Billy H and Rafa, nice one lads. I blame INW

As things stand, I am only one better off than you in number of players making the cut. You have higher placed players I think.
Long way to go yet.

Cheers INW, not the 3 I thought would be struggling to be fair.

Nice tweet from Gary Player earlier,

Now more than ever @TigerWoods needs our love, support & understanding. This is how I wish to see him. GP https://t.co/bnRwutT9SY

I do think Tiger needs genuine help, hopefully he gets it. In a selfish way I don't want to see someone who's been such an icon for our sport become a train wreck. But on a human level I certainly want to see him getting the help he needs.

Roberto de Vicenzo, "What a Stupid I Am", dead at Age 94.

First time I saw him play was in the inaugural Legends of Golf.

Won over 100 tournaments around the world, including the 1967 Open. He won the first ever US Senior Open in 1980, at age 57, which I think is the record for being the oldest winner. He finished 2nd in 1985 when he was 62

Hadn't seen that, GPB, what a legacy he bequeathed to golf. Thanks for the update.
Think it was John Jacobs who described RdV as the "most correct swinger in golf", tied with Ian Woosnam.

"Roberto was an amazing specimen who had the most beautiful turn that produced the perfect draw, though he got better when he learned to marshal his power with a fade."


Also: Glad to see Martin Kaymer sticking up for Woods:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/kaymer-comes-woods-defense/

Good for him. I doubt if the full story of Woods's arrest has been told yet. I agree with the innocent until proved guilty camp; no way can we know what the circumstances really were, pointless speculating.

GPB wrote:Roberto de Vicenzo, "What a Stupid I Am", dead at Age 94.

First time I saw him play was in the inaugural  Legends of Golf.

Won over 100 tournaments around the world, including the 1967 Open.  He won the first ever US Senior Open in 1980, at age 57, which I think is the record for being the oldest winner.  He finished 2nd in 1985 when he was 62

GPB,
I'm guessing he was the oldest surviving Major Champion? Perhaps second to Jackie Burke??

Doug Ford is still the oldest. He will be 95 in two months. Born Aug 1922. Burke was born Jan 1923, strangely one day after my Mom's birthday and Roberto was born in April 1923.

I believe the next oldest is Peter Thomson (Aug 1929) and Don January (Nov 1929)

A couple of hours into Round 2 at Memorial and no-one making a big move forward. But Teams Scotland (Knox & Laird) & Ireland (Shane & Padraig) are all one-under for the day.


GPB,
Thanks.

Bernhard Lanchorer's putting stroke is blatantly illegal, and he was doing it all last year as well. And we've discussed it on here previously.

I can only assume the authorites are turning a blind eye because it is on the Senior's tour. Would be interesting to see what would happen if Adam Scott started using the same stroke and won a major. He is a well liked player too...

raycastleunited wrote:Bernhard Lanchorer's putting stroke is blatantly illegal, and he was doing it all last year as well. And we've discussed it on here previously.

I can only assume the authorites are turning a blind eye because it is on the Senior's tour. Would be interesting to see what would happen if Adam Scott started using the same stroke and won a major. He is a well liked player too...

I don't think there is a conspiracy because its the Senior Tour. There is plenty of money at stake and not all of them have lifestyles of the rich of famous.

I really fancied Dufner (65 - 65) . . . . . . . . . . last week.
He's been playing well without grinding out results to reflect it. Hopefully this week will be different. When his putter is working he's a much better player than given credit for on this board!
Nice rounds for Knox (started Round 1 with a triple bogey) & Laird, Lowry & Harrington. But something fishy about Fleetwood's effort.

For me Dufner is sneaky good, I was waxing lyrical about his swing last week, then he posts a MC

But when I don't curse him he's capable of some really good stuff.

Just catchin up now and good numbers there for the lads, Shane loves Wentworth and that decent result there seems to have given him some confidence. Luuuke on the bubble , good to see Horschel fight back.

Adam Hadwin & Matsuyama, what's happened to them? It's all about peeking at the right time and they look to have done so already.

Scott G missed by one, and that a product of poor front 9 on day one! Hey ho, only the US Open to look forward to! I think planning to turn pro after Walker Cup.

Not sure if any or all of this has been discussed... but here's a quick status update on PGAT non-members...

I noticed that Beau Hossler has used up all 7 of the Sponsor Exemptions for which he's eligible. He only earned 27 non-member FedEx Points, which won't be enough to gain equiv. top-200 to get into the Web-com Finals Series (WTF). But Hossler may not be finished on the PGAT just yet though. Not sure of his U.S. Open or British Open qualifying status, and he can also gain additional PGAT starts by Monday qualifying.

Hossler's other path is to get to equivalent top-75 on the Web-com Tour this year to get into the WTF that way. He's allowed 7 SE's there as well, and has 6 of them left. And of course he can gain additional starts via top finishes or Monday Qualify if he runs out of SE's.

Aaron Wise has used 6 of his 7 Sponsor Exemptions on the PGAT, earning 93 points which will most likely get him into the WTF playoffs.  Not sure what the level of non-member FE points will be needed with the reduced points this year, but last year it was 112 points. Only guessing points needed for this year will be anywhere from 70-90. Wise is also playing the Web-com Tour this year and is close to qualifying for the WTF that way if his PGAT FE points don't get him in. But it might not matter as Wise may not need the WTF as he's currently #27 on the Web-com money list, and top-25 guarantees his card.

Robbie Shelton has received 6 SE's and with 60 points has a somewhat decent chance to gain the top-200 and WTF in his last start (hasn't played a PGAT event since Farmers though and he's currently equivalent to #192). Shelton still has all 7 of his SE's available on the Web-com Tour

Looking ahead at other non-members....

Thomas Pieters, Tyrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood have earned and accepted Special Temporary Membership (STM) and enough points to accept a PGA Tour cards for next year if they so choose.

Ross Fisher (384 pts) is eligible for STM as of now, but I don't believe he's taken it yet. That 384 will probably be enough to get Fisher a PGAT card for next year if he wants it. Alex Noren is close to gaining STM at 288 (he needs 319)

Here are other non members that are eligible for the Web-Com playoffs (100 should be safe) or nearing STM status (319) as of now (listed by current non-member points). I don't know which among them would or would not play th WTF.

243 - Henrik Norlander
242 - Matthew Fitzpatrick
217 - Hideto Tanihara
189 - Bernd Wiesberger
166 - Lee Westwood
145 - Rafael Campos
116 - Andy Sullivan
107 - Joost Luiten

The following are "maybe to probably" eligible for the WTF

99 - Scott Hend
94 - Chris Wood
93 - Aaron Wise
91 - Peter Uihlein
84 - Rob Oppenheim
75 - Jeunghun Wang

Others reasonably close

65 - Keith Mitchell
65 - Fabrizio Zanotti
62 - Yuta Ikeda
60 - Robby Shelton
59 - Chase Koepka
59 - Oscar Fraustro
57 - K.T. Kim
52 - Rikard Karlberg

Poulter tweeting that he isn't going in for US Open qualifying. He will try and get in via Memphis.

I'm never wrong wrote:Poulter tweeting that he isn't going in for US Open qualifying. He will try and get in via Memphis.

Poulter has to win Memphis to have a chance to get inside top 60. He has never won a stroke play event in the USA. Never won a full field event on the PGATour.

I would be dollars to donuts that the USGA and Mike Davis screw the set up of Erin Hills. It looks breathtaking from the videos, but if they start have 4 and 5 inch fescue rough, the setup is going to be a joke. And someone could possibly get hurt.

Memphis field is pretty sparse at the top. Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka.

GPB wrote:Poulter has to win Memphis to have a chance to get inside top 60.

Thanks GPB. I was wondering what it would take. That's a big ask for Poults. I would have thought there would be a number of places at the qualifier, which might be a better opportunity. But it's his schedule I suppose.... He also talked about his summer UK schedule; he hasn't decided on Irish, French or Scottish Opens yet. Depending on how he does he might have to qualify for the Open on the Tuesday of the Irish Open. Tough when you are on the outskirts of automatic qualification for the big tournaments.

GPB wrote:

I'm never wrong wrote:Poulter tweeting that he isn't going in for US Open qualifying. He will try and get in via Memphis.

Poulter has to win Memphis to have a chance to get inside top 60.  He has never won a stroke play event in the USA.  Never won a full field event on the PGATour.

I would be dollars to donuts that the USGA and Mike Davis screw the set up of Erin Hills.  It looks breathtaking from the videos, but if they start have 4 and 5 inch fescue rough, the setup is going to be a joke.  And someone could possibly get hurt.

Memphis field is pretty sparse at the top.  Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka.

Steady on.

Phil out of U.S. Open to attend daughters graduation (Thursday morning of R1)... hasn't formerly withdrawn just yet, because if he gets PM time and Open start gets delayed, he could still possibly make it after the Graduation.

I'm guessing Mike Davis will put him in a "qualifier's" grouping very late starting on Thursday... just in case they get 2-3 hours of weather delay... if they don't, they fill with an alternate but wouldn't have to insert that alternate in to a "feature" tee time.

robopz wrote:Phil out of U.S. Open to attend daughters graduation (Thursday morning of R1)... hasn't formerly withdrawn just yet, because if he gets PM time and Open start gets delayed, he could still possibly make it after the Graduation.    

I'm guessing Mike Davis will put him in a "qualifier's" grouping very late starting on Thursday... just in case they get 2-3 hours of weather delay... if they don't, they fill with an alternate but wouldn't have to insert that alternate in to a "feature" tee time.  

Saw that earlier Robo, good for him. I think everyone knows how important the US Open is to Phil but fair play to him putting family first. Great to see.

Be_the_ball wrote:

robopz wrote:Phil out of U.S. Open to attend daughters graduation (Thursday morning of R1)... hasn't formerly withdrawn just yet, because if he gets PM time and Open start gets delayed, he could still possibly make it after the Graduation.    

I'm guessing Mike Davis will put him in a "qualifier's" grouping very late starting on Thursday... just in case they get 2-3 hours of weather delay... if they don't, they fill with an alternate but wouldn't have to insert that alternate in to a "feature" tee time.  

Saw that earlier Robo, good for him. I think everyone knows how important the US Open is to Phil but fair play to him putting family first. Great to see.

Whatever Phil would have decided to do would have been fine with me... play or no play. Neither deserving of either derision or medals.

If he can be accommodated and do both then nice one. Some may grumble about special treatment etc, but so what it's The US Open and Phil is a marquee player. I wouldn't have a problem with it.