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

First topic message reminder :

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'd be interested to know how much someone like Levin takes home after expenses.
1.3million a year sounds like quite a lot, but after tax, caddie, management, travel, physio, coach etc I wonder how much he's actually left with? 400k perhaps?

Great if you're doing it every year, but most of these guys aren't.

Lowry is in danger of becoming this type of player.

That's right super, A few endorsements and some pro-am and outings bennies, but some years he'd be lucky to break even.

Big few weeks coming up for Lowry you'd think - he's just slipped out of the Top 125 FedEx points list and could well be on the outside looking in for the second straight year. If you don't make the Play-offs, what's the point in playing both Tours.

Would like to listen in to the scheduling discussions these people must have, seems to make little sense from afar. Must be missing some incoming $$$ that would mitigate the seeming lack of on course winnings

Happy 4th of July to my fellow Colonists.

#brexit1776

FTR....After the Revolutionary War, my ancestors had to flee to Canada

===========

Back in the Winter and early Spring, Monday qualifiers had a lot of former PGATour pros as entries.

The Greenbrier Monday Qualifier had few players I recognized.

https://tristatepga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/tristatepga17/event/tristatepga1724/contest/1/leaderboard.htm

A couple (at least two!) of guys, have opted for web.com play rather than compete at Greenbrier - truly the Tour's dog days.

FTR . . . . . . What's wrong with fleeing to Canada? Happy Canada Day, three days late.

They fled to Canada because they were loyalists!

Yikes!

But they came back!

Both sides of my family tree jumped back and forth over the US/Canadian border. Mom was born in a Canadian Custom's house, her father was a customs officer.

Happy independence day for all Stateside!

Be_the_ball wrote:Happy independence day for all Stateside!

Horrendous European Tour web-site again, showing an interesting foursome among the tee-times for Thursday. Almost impossible to navigate the site, let alone think that, when one clicks on something, the expected page will actually materialise. #frombadtoworse


Interestingly, Andres Romero has an Irish tee-time whilst also appearing as first alternate at The Greenbrier. It's a tough job, Andres, but someone's got to do it.

Thanks BTB ... off to the club Derby event.

Chris Wood just WDed from the TDDFIOHbtRF.  Looks like that they added his replacement without taking Chris Wood out