PGA Tour: Hot Air in Washington D.C.: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).And that's just the forecast for a hot and sultry week outside "The Nation's Capital" (as "DC" is more frequently referred to) for this week's "Quicken Loans National" at "TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm". Temps in the 90's, possibly just warm enough to melt orange hairpieces.

2).But last week I was lucky enough to be in the Hartford area for "The Travelers Championship", for Round 1 at least, following Rory (with Harman & Furyk) in the morning, Finau, Goosen, Lovemark & Hoffmann in various afternoon groups.
Inexpert impressions from eleven hours in the Connecticut sun include:

3).Rory may be putting like a drain, but his "ball striking" was something to behold. Perhaps not getting his wedges as close to the hole as he'd've liked, he still shot the easiest 67 you'll ever see, missing three tiddlers. Must be worth following the rest of the summer if he finds a putter he likes and gets rid of some short-game cobwebs.
Harman shot 66, Furyk 67, and all three seemed to be having a great time, could all have gone really low. Crowds loved the show.

4).I'd seen cameos from Finau and Lovemark before but those two hit the ball as far as Rory, though possibly with less apparent effort. All were taking lines off the tee that ShotLink couldn't keep up with, but short games let them down badly. Lovemark has a huge arc for his languid swing and hits it high and long. Unfortunately, everything about him seemed languid, not engaging in any way, a pallid yute who seemed to determine it wasn't going to be his week early in his round.

5).Finau was playing with Goosen who I must've followed as much as anyone of the under-50's - same swing, same caddie, never said anything apart from "beauty", and I've never seen him speak to his caddie in at least three full rounds. Amazing.
A couple of mental lapses in every round by the Goose, otherwise hitting it well enough to have contended. Not really sure what keeps those guys in their late 40's going when they're just churning out middle-of-the-road performances.

6)Epic tantrum of the round was by Emiliano Grillo, surprised the head stayed on the various clubs he was pounding into the turf and throwing as he hacked and swore his way round #6. Runner up in the tantrum stakes was Cody Gribble who gribbled his way around with brattish ineptitude.

7).Even Jordan Spieth considered this his luckiest ever win, and no-one who saw his final 12 holes could disagree. Only four tournaments have been won this Tour season by golfers having a negative "shots gained tee-to-green" rating, two being Spieth at Pebble Beach and Spieth at Hartford. Berger came up just short for the second year running; Casey the best of the Europeans, flattering only to deceive, as Paul so often seems to do.

8).Luke Donald tweeted support for shorter, well-designed courses by noting Spieth's winning score of -12, compared to Koepka's -16 over 1,000 yards more at the US Open.
TPC River Highlands was in impeccable condition, looked great, seemed to play extremely fair. There's hardly any room to lengthen the course but I'd like to see them squeeze an extra 20 yards on a couple of holes that are already among the better "driving" holes.
The AP ran a Doug Ferguson piece this week that the USGA should look at courses like Hartford's for lessons in generating fan atmosphere and engagement - as Spieth himself said, "The ground was shaking, it was so loud".
Was hoping to be in Salem, MA, this week for the US Senior Open but life intervened. Looking forward to seeing what the old farts make of it - they struggled on crowned Donald Ross greens in 2001 and I'd love to see how the pros, armed with the latest equipment, deal with it this time. Apropos of which, Colin Montgomerie is in puzzlingly poor form. Age, weight or ankle problems catching up with him?
Well worth an hour or two's viewing if you get the chance, though weather could be a bit iffy.

9).The Tour's Kemper Open played the old "TPC at Avenel" for 15 or so years from 1989 through the mid-2000's - fair to say it was never loved by the pros, but apparently the latest edition (re-done and re-named "TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms") is more user friendly.
The Quicken Loans succeeded the AT&T National Invitational run by T.Woods' Foundation (who still run it apparently and are a major charitable beneficiary) and alternates each year between Congressional (Billy Hurley won last year) and another local course, Robert Trent Jones GC staged it in 2015 (Troy Merritt). Tiger Woods is the host but, not for the first time, he's awol.
Welcome back to Charles Howell this week; he's been out for two months, presumably injured but not entirely sure, and has the course record.
If I was playing Grumpy's game this week, I'd go for:
A).Fowler, Reed (who's not far from his best), Bill Haas
B).James Hahn, Lingmerth, Danny Lee
C).Hoffmann, Rodgers, Merritt

10).This is a busy week in golfdom, what with Open de France (can't believe no Americans are in the field), US Senior Open and the LPGA's Women's PGA Championship, played at Chicagoland's Olympia Fields. The PGA Tour's course at Avenel could be the weakest of this week's venues.
But the biggest question mark may be the future of the Quicken Loans and Tour golf in the Washington, D.C. area. Both seem uncertain right now with the Minneapolis St.Paul area clamouring for a PGA Tournament.
Perhaps, like so many things in Washington these days, we'll know more after the Fourth of July recess?

I was watching on the 16th green at Troon in 04 when Goose was lining up a putt and someone's mobile phone went off. Proper Trigger Happy style as well.

The crowd let out a gasp as the person whose phone it was tried desperately to switch it off. It turned out to be a rather large fellow in a tweed jacket and tweed plus fours (no kidding) and to get it to stop he answered it and started chatting.

Goose gave a stare I can only call "death"

It's the only time in my life I have seen Goose change his facial expression.

I think the caddy might be his brother in law? Seem to recall that a while ago? His appointment followed the Irish p/t journalist (Byrne?) who seemed very good. Wonder if there was familial pressure?

puligny wrote:I think the caddy might be his brother in law? Seem to recall that a while ago? His appointment followed the Irish p/t journalist (Byrne?) who seemed very good. Wonder if there was familial pressure?

Is Mrs Goose somewhat ruddy-faced, strongly built with powerful calves? Possibly with a bit of a Home Counties accent??

I see Mr.Goose is playing at Woburn, as well as Ian James & Tommy Bjorn. Vijay playing somewhere also . . . . .

Perhaps Grayson Murray and Steve Wheatcroft might observe that the site with most qualifiers this coming week will be bl00dy Washington . . . . . . 4 against 3 at each GB venue.

kwinigolfer wrote:

puligny wrote:I think the caddy might be his brother in law? Seem to recall that a while ago? His appointment followed the Irish p/t journalist (Byrne?) who seemed very good. Wonder if there was familial pressure?

Is Mrs Goose somewhat ruddy-faced, strongly built with powerful calves? Possibly with a bit of a Home Counties accent??

I see Mr.Goose is playing at Woburn, as well as Ian James & Tommy Bjorn. Vijay playing somewhere also . . . . .

Perhaps Grayson Murray and Steve Wheatcroft might observe that the site with most qualifiers this coming week will be bl00dy Washington . . . . . . 4 against 3 at each GB venue.

Puts qualifying in perspective when you get through regional to come up against names like that for 3-4 spots per venue. More chance of taking a dump in the queens handbag.

Goose qualified at Woburn last year!

Several Americans in the French Open, albeit none of them play the PGATour fulltime.

Nick Faldo playing the US Senior Open for the first time. 4th off week in a row for him.

Many people are forgetting the par at EH was 288 and Par at Hartford was 280. They are focusing at -16 at EH and -12 at Hartford.

Wonder if the homeowner (at TPC Potomac) has ever found his house on google maps and was surprised to see this in his backyard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9921792,-77.1919121,266m/data=!3m1!1e3

The new Kafelnikov?

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/curry-play-webcom-tour-event-august

Now we both have Beef and Curry..

Rick Lamb played last week in Hartford and Fox TV used Shane Bacon its interviews.
Coincidentally, Jerry Rice used to play the same web.com event that Curry is being served at.

GPB wrote:
Wonder if the homeowner (at TPC Potomac) has ever found his house on google maps and was surprised to see this in his backyard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9921792,-77.1919121,266m/data=!3m1!1e3

I'm never wrong wrote:

GPB wrote:
Wonder if the homeowner (at TPC Potomac) has ever found his house on google maps and was surprised to see this in his backyard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9921792,-77.1919121,266m/data=!3m1!1e3

Is it John Travolta's house

Be_the_ball wrote:Is it John Travolta's house

More like Harrison Ford.

I'm never wrong wrote:

Be_the_ball wrote:Is it John Travolta's house

More like Harrison Ford.

Or Andreas Lubitz.

Play underway in Washington at the Quicken Loans.
Pleasant enough morning, but high temps expected in the 90's thru Saturday, breezy every day.

I was impressed with Morgan Hoffmann last week so, especially as he's a relatively local boy, chose him as my one-and-done. Not going so well as he's out of the traps with 2 x 7's, five over par after two holes. Terrific.

Nice write up per usual Kwin. I play this course every year in a corporate outing. Always well maintained, but not a whole lot of fun (chock full of sidehill lies for me for some reason). Crazy pricey real estate around the place.

FWIW... Word I'm getting is scuttlebutt around the tournament is "National is done" after this year... 3M will get the spot. If true, not sure if that means there's anything to the QL moving to Houston rumor or not. This is NOT from an official source

robo,
Certainly seems likely, and one would imagine the dates will flip with Greenbrier. Can't imagine Houston will be without a suitor for much longer, but National leaving means that both the Philly & DC market are left unserved; time for Shotrock to pony up some sponsorship cash . . . . . .


Watching the US Senior Open on a very soft Salem course, NOT what the USGA would have wanted. 90F, dry and dusty last time it was held there, but conditions today are benign and scores reflect that.

Nice round from Martin Laird at Avenel, and fine recovery from Hoffmann; take away his first two holes (5 over par!) and he'd be tied for the lead.

Kwini... Greenbrier want July 4th week no matter what.

I am holding out for a major!

I know Golf Digest have regressed to soft porn and click bait but they sent out a tweet saying

"With Tiger not fully engaged his tournament's future is up in the air."

No s**t he isn't "engaged", what having an opioid addiction.

That sounds a terrible "management" type of expression, a bit like "flux" and "let's take this offline".

Rubbish.

Not sure what Mac's point is there . . . . .


More hot air in Washington today, but no blood on the Avenel tracks despite it's regular facelifts.

Round 1 rubbish yesterday from two of the highest ranked golfers in the field, Justin Thomas carrying on where he left off in Hartford with a 74, and Si (w/d) Woo Kim propping up the leaderboard at 79 - must've wished he'd withdrawn this week too, but there's plenty of time for that Si Woo.

Lingmerth leads and, as previously noted, he's been playing well recently, and Martin Laird close behind. Important rounds today for Greg Owen and Seamus Power who both need some strong finishes as they strive to retain their cards, or at least buttress their status.

Barry Lane the leading overseas golfer at the US Senior Open, but he's off to a difficult start in Round 2. Terrific scoring at Salem CC yesterday, that course and those greens are not that easy!

I'm never wrong wrote:

GPB wrote:
Wonder if the homeowner (at TPC Potomac) has ever found his house on google maps and was surprised to see this in his backyard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9921792,-77.1919121,266m/data=!3m1!1e3

That's funny GPB.

I also noticed that Brian one ill lives in the house opposite - not sure if that's a good name for a doctor.

Not just Americans who spend two much time at McDonald's; first time I've watched Montgomerie this year, and he's getting huge. Awful sight.

Must be even money Faldo making the cut.


Multi-national leads at this stage, though an American in Paris is a bit more familiar than a Swede in Washington.

Monty is slowly but surely morphing from Mrs Doubtfire into Jabba the Hutt.

In other notes, and possibly in homage to the POTUS's hair, MAJ is wearing bright orange, which matches his hair also.

Impressive stuff from Lingmerth. And Arjun Atwal ... now, that would be something!

The only PGA Tour event Atwal ever won was as an indirect result of an invite from Tiger - this would be Number Two for the boy racer.

Loving the Salem action.

Tough day for the leaders at the Quicken Loans event - and a TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm course that didn't look much fun to play.
I'm all for watching the pros have to struggle, but a set-up that almost seems gratuitously penal is not much fun.

Still, when the music stopped Martin Laird and Seamus Power had both shot 69's, and repeat performances, or better, will be huge for each as the "regular" season winds down; Laird can almost assure himself of qualifying for Round 2 of the Play-Offs whilst Power needs a top result to creep further back towards the Top 125 in FedEx pts.

Four Open Championship places up for grabs and Steve Wheatcroft and Grayson Murray are nowhere to be seen. So far, Lingmerth, Summerhays and Spencer Levin are the leading three, but a good round could propel Laird towards Birkdale.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/grill-room/former-tour-player-makes-ace-swims-get-ball/?cid=rr_trending_p7

So near and yet so far.
Morgan lost a play-off for the John Deere Classic (to Mark Hensby) 13 years ago. Had he won, he'd have Past Champion status for the PGA Tour; though a fat lot of good that did Hensby.

Morgans career derailed by epilepsy. He does some on course tv for Sky. Seems good fun but struggles to find the correct 'worms' on occasion!

Hadn't realised that about Morgan, he slipped from US view rather quickly.
Unlike his late namesake who did rather well in his few Champions Tour years . . . . . . .

Another heater in Washington today - it looks a wide open race, one dark horse who's been improving all week is Charlie Howell, playing his first tournament in two months. If it's a fairway-and-greens contest, you'd like his chances.

When the young man from the West Country decided to go further west, to America, he began to feel as if he was living the dream. John Morgan had won more money than he could count and was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Tiger Woods when the great adventure turned into a nightmare.
Kwini - found this from a newspaper article 2006!
Pretty dramatic?
Morgan was sitting on a plane at Dallas airport, bound for a tournament in Tahoe, when his world crashed. "All I remember is waking up in hospital with tubes sticking out all over the place. I had two damaged discs, three broken ribs and a ruptured sternum. I thought the plane had crashed. They told me I'd had the grand mal of seizures. I'd broken my seat belt and was in the splits position between two seats."

Appears things didn't improve for quite some time!

puligny wrote:
When the young man from the West Country decided to go further west, to America, he began to feel as if he was living the dream. John Morgan had won more money than he could count and was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Tiger Woods when the great adventure turned into a nightmare.
Kwini - found this from a newspaper article 2006!
Pretty dramatic?
Morgan was sitting on a plane at Dallas airport, bound for a tournament in Tahoe, when his world crashed. "All I remember is waking up in hospital with tubes sticking out all over the place. I had two damaged discs, three broken ribs and a ruptured sternum. I thought the plane had crashed. They told me I'd had the grand mal of seizures. I'd broken my seat belt and was in the splits position between two seats."

Appears things didn't improve for quite some time!

Good lord! Knew nothing whatsoever about that. Probably just about the least bad place for that to happen, with the medical resources on hand in airports . . . . . . Charlie Mason never had it that bad. But then he was just a baker. (A bit of hyperbole with the cash & Woods connotations though.)

Very happy to see Peter Uihlein back to his best again. The GC commentators were saying that Koepka wanted to continue on the ET but couldn't secure the necessary releases from Finchem; suppose Uihlein would have the same issue. Assume that double-dipping is a one-way street - a bit like GBI/US extradition.

kwinigolfer wrote:The only PGA Tour event Atwal ever won was as an indirect result of an invite from Tiger - this would be Number Two for the boy racer.

Loving the Salem action.

How did Tiger influence Atwal's Sponsor exemption into Wyndham?

Uihlein finished very strongly which was good to see. He's appeared to fade away on occasions, and is clearly too talented for that to be his MO.

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:The only PGA Tour event Atwal ever won was as an indirect result of an invite from Tiger - this would be Number Two for the boy racer.

Loving the Salem action.

How did Tiger influence Atwal's Sponsor exemption into Wyndham?

I know it isn't the font of all knowledge but Wikipedia is saying that Atwals' win was after him being a Monday qualifier. Do you need a sponsor exemption to get into one of those?

I'm never wrong wrote:

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:The only PGA Tour event Atwal ever won was as an indirect result of an invite from Tiger - this would be Number Two for the boy racer.

Loving the Salem action.

How did Tiger influence Atwal's Sponsor exemption into Wyndham?

I know it isn't the font of all knowledge but Wikipedia is saying that Atwals' win was after him being a Monday qualifier. Do you need a sponsor exemption to get into one of those?

I think I was offering fake news, it's all the rage you know.

Had incorrectly recalled that Atwal had parlayed a top ten after his annual invite to Tiger's event into G'boro, but can't now figure out where I got that from.

TPC more forgiving today, for some reason. Terrific performance from Curtis Luck . . . . . . .

Didn't realise Scotland already left the union.. and that Denmark wasn't liberated in 1945. I must have been watching fake news.
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/qualifying/the-open/

pedro wrote:Didn't realise Scotland already left the union.. and that Denmark wasn't liberated in 1945. I must have been watching fake news.
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/qualifying/the-open/

Ha ha, More moronic information from the colonials. They've never quite grasped Geography.

Also, Can someone tell me why Sandy Lyle still qualifies? He won in 85 for goodness sake. Surely his "meal ticket" has long since expired. This isn't the Masters is it?

This Quicken Loans action was like watching F1 behind the safety car (recent events excepted) but seems to have exploded.

Seamus Power missed out (again, v.disapointing after all the hard work) but The Laird is playing as well as anyone, good to see.

Im not getting much golf viewing in this week, down the West in Kenmare Co. Kerry. The town was awash with gossip that Pippa Middleton was staying locally for a friends wedding. She's ended up staying in West Cork instead, I overheard a local quip "what an ass". Not sure if it was a criticism or a compliment  

Seamus needs to knuckle down alright Kwini, too many times he'll throw a bad round in and wreck his chances of a good finish. Still time for him to figure it out hopefully.

"Colonials" on the rise at the Quicken Loans. Good to see -- but this course does nothing for me.

Andrew Loupe's scorecard is pretty amazing, the final six holes anyway:
Par
Eagle
Bogey
Double
Birdie
Triple . . . .
. . . . one each of all six. Sounds like me, except the eagle and bird.

I think Golf Channel is getting Open Championship info directly from the R&A.

CH-III with two wins in his career, is #21 on the all time PGATour money list. $33+ Million.

prince drac is tweeting that Chuck hasn't been in the owgr Top 50 since May 2008. I find that incredible!

This is the 17th consecutive season he's earned at least $1.2M.

Scheduled to play Greenbrier next week . . . . . where a few years ago he played all 72 holes without a bogey, and barely made the Top Ten.

Hard to believe CHIII hasn't been in the top ten for nearly 10 years given how consistently he has kept his tour card and that he is #21 on the career money list. Bit of an odd career but many people would take it.

super_realist wrote:

pedro wrote:Didn't realise Scotland already left the union.. and that Denmark wasn't liberated in 1945. I must have been watching fake news.
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/qualifying/the-open/

Ha ha, More moronic information from the colonials. They've never quite grasped Geography.

Also, Can someone tell me why Sandy Lyle still qualifies? He won in 85 for goodness sake. Surely his "meal ticket" has long since expired. This isn't the Masters is it?

Don't worry Super, this is Lyle's final year of his exemption.

That golf channel web page is ridiculous. Looks like they've taken the data automatically from the Open website and then manually added a few errors to make it more authentically American.

kwinigolfer wrote:prince drac is tweeting that Chuck hasn't been in the owgr Top 50 since May 2008. I find that incredible!

This is the 17th consecutive season he's earned at least $1.2M.

Scheduled to play Greenbrier next week . . . . . where a few years ago he played all 72 holes without a bogey, and barely made the Top Ten.

Never been out of the Top 164 either. He is the epitome of journeyman pro.

Incidentally, a note about another "journeyman" (and not quite at Charlie's level of affluence): Spencer Levin.

Just a couple of years younger, been sniffing around the PGA Tour since making a hole-in-one aa a 20-y-o at Goosen's Shinnecock Open, only once made more than $1.3M in a year, still snatches a few drags during his round and has played every tournament for which he's eligible this year - plus a web.commer the week of the US Open.

He's one of the shorter hitters on Tour and covers most of the 606v2 bases: silly name, smokes, swears (frequently), can be a brat, though neither overweight nor Irish.

Well worth following, as we did for 18 holes last year - the soundtrack to his round is a riot as careful scrutiny of you tube would reveal, especially yesterday. "Please, please, please, please, please, please . . . . . etc", and probably leads the Tour in Finchem fines - audible swearing the past two days would add to that, no doubt.