PGA Tour: Seeking The Grand Slam: Notes from the Ballwasher

A busy time of year for moi, and a change of sport for a couple of days, so just a few thoughts to get the PGA Championship thread going:

1).Jordan Spieth goes for the Grand Slam this week, as Rory will do at the Masters, and Phil will also at the US Open - think I'd place my money on Rory to be the first, probably Phil will never do it, but it's a reminder as to how difficult it is to achieve. Palmer and Watson missed out on the PGA, Trevino had two of each, US Open, Open Championship and PGA but no Masters. Wonderful achievement to bag three nevertheless!

2).I'm not a fan of the changes to the Tour schedule and there are bound to be consequences, a ripple effect throughout the golf world (which, after all, is not 100% USA). It seems there's a hidden agenda in play, what with golf making an unnecessary intrusion into the Olympics, and the resultant dominos that are now falling and will continue to do so. I also fear what Pelley will do; the date of the BMW PGA is now in jeopardy, but where will it go? Perhaps the R&A will shift The Open back a fortnight, thus accommodating a summer's date for Wentworth? One possible benefit that Pelley could insist upon is keeping the Ryder Cup where it currently is - at a time when the Tour is starting downtime, but Europeans can play competitively in Europe.

3).One suspects that an "Asia" agenda is in play somewhere, just can't quite figure out how!
Regardless the Tour now has to cram in the:
WGC-Mexico
Arnold Palmer Inv
Players
Masters
WGC-MatchPlay
PGA Championship
Memorial
US Open
. . . . . . all in a 3-month span. Not to mention well-supported events such as "Honda", "Houston", "Quail Hollow", etc, that have loyal player followings. Something's got to give. If Pelley plays his cards right, Europe could be a big winner, if he overplays his hand, he could damage his Tour for years to come.

4).Quail Hollow has undergone changes since we last saw it, at last May's Wells Fargo - the first six holes have been almost totally redesigned, and the other twelve tweaked to bring them up to date. Nevertheless, Rory has a fantastic record there with his two wins and a play-off loss to Rickie Fowler. Would still expect course specialists to do well, including Lucas Glover who has a win, a runner up and other strong finishes. Hopefully the course will be allowed to stand on its merits without PGA set-up guys tricking it up - there are some super Par-5's and my favourite "short Par-4" on Tour, the 14th.

5).The owgr rankings this week saw Bubba wave bye-bye to the Top 50 for the first time in 7 years. While Charley Hoffman, after what seems like forever hanging around the rankings' second 50, all of a sudden is propelled to #20 on a string of fine play and nearly man finishes. Meanwhile, as suggested last week, Patrick Reed continues his slide down the rankings proving that playing every week wears even the young guns out.

6).Seamus Power squeaked into the FedEx Top 125 and could conceivably stay there this week even though he's not in the field. Will still need a good result at Greensboro and it may not be entirely certain that he'll make the field. Fingers crossed for him there.
And Henrik Stenson may have to play Greensboro too; he's only played 11 events so far this year, so still has to find four more. At 84th on the FedEx points list, he's not sure to go deep into the Play Offs so he probably has to play:
PGA, Greensboro and Northern Trust to reach Round 2 at TPC Boston.
Henrik being Henrik may choose not to do that, but hopefully a strong week at Quail Hollow will make that a moot point.

That's my lot, more on the Play-Offs and ramifications of FedEx points next week. Looking forward to seeing the changes at Quail Hollow - think they rebuilt all the greens and new greens are never as good as they're cracked up to be, could be on the firm side which is not necessarily a bad thing - and hoping Rory wins his 3rd PGA Championship.

BMW PGA moved to September http://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/news/tour-news/bmw-pga-championship-moves-to-september-139943

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere

I think Schofield said that Wentworth will be moving to September

I would like the Ryder Cup to move up a couple weeks.

Often in the first two days, the last groups are finishing in twilight, and two more weeks will add 15 minutes. Not much, but every bit helps.

And there is a better chance for good weather. Not guaranteed like more daylight, but a better chance.

I think Wentworth and Ryder Cup in back to back weeks would be a good thing for the BMW-PGA in Euro Ryder Cup years. Maybe play Wentworth two weeks before RC's held in the USA.

And I do think the new schedule will help the double dippers.

And BTW, last years Ryder Cup counts as an 2016-17 event for Stenson, and Rory.

That said, IMO, Stenson goes out of his way to play the minimum # of events on the PGATour and the EuroTour. One day it might bite him in the b*tt. But he does have a history of hitting one shot in a tournament and then Withdrawing.

September is certainly a better time of year to play a course like Wentworth. Better greens, better weather (usually).

But is it a better time of year for the tournament? Won't it be going up against the FEx play offs? And if they wait til after the play offs surely the top players will skip it anyway after playing 3 or 4 weeks in a row to get to the play off finals. Especially if the Ryder Cup is coming up a week later.

GPB wrote:
I think Schofield said that Wentworth will be moving to September

I would like the Ryder Cup to move up a couple weeks.

Often in the first two days, the last groups are finishing in twilight, and two more weeks will add 15 minutes.  Not much, but every bit helps.

In Britain at that time of year, two weeks earlier adds almost half an hour extra daylight in the evening. That's quite a big difference. Plus another 30 mins in the morning so they're not warming up on the range in darkness.

Hadn't seen that good news about Wentworth.
Don't think it would affect too many refugees from the FedEx action, not too many that may reach East Lake would be playing Wentworth anyway. If the course is in primo condition, that may attract fence-sitters.


Should be a decent day for golf at Quail Hollow tomorrow, but strengthening chances of thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

I was thinking the same Ray re clashing with the FedEx playoffs although they will be moving forward.

Maybe the plan is to have it the week after the Ryder Cup

Great article as per usual Kwini....Just a question for you all, with sub air how quick can they truly maintain the greens considering the amount of rain!?

sirb,
Really haven't been following the changes and recent weather; earlier in the month they were speculating they could get really(!) fast, not sure if that still applies. Fast greens doesn't necessarily mean good greens of course!
They had had terrible trouble with the greens there a few years ago - the re-do was possibly even overdue. Still not sure about the redesign of holes 1 - 6, but they weren't especially memorable.

Sad news about Doug Insole, Kwini. A great friend of my dad's when they were both respective chairmen of their counties (Hampshire and Essex) and they served on many an MCC and TCCB committee together. Not too sure what they're making of the way cricket is going during their discussions over a pint or two in the great pavilion in the sky!

Just seen the live schedule for the PGA on bbc....

Red button and online only....from 6pm till 11.15..then on bbc 2 from i think it was 11.15/11.20 till 12.15...

On saturday and sunday that changes to 7pm till 12.15...

So essentially...they have cut their viewing audience massively....not to mention that any big names teeing off early will have wrapped up their rounds by time it comes on air ...they have not put any kind of highlights package on during the entire 4 days which given the inability to record it as its on red button is perplexing to say the least.

If thats what making it available on free to view platform entails they can stick it up their you know what!

I think someone mentioned this already, in that the "access" would be limited as it clashes with their coverage of the athletics. I think they could have made a bit more effort though.

For those in Ireland, it will be on eirSport!

If its going to clash then why bother getting it only to stick it away on the red button and online. Lets be honest...how many people watch sports online via the bbc app.. I wouldnt imagine numbers are that high.

And if you are doing it this way...then why not just full coverage? Nothing else needs to be accessed via it so use it as a platform for an entire days golf Instead of just under half the days action.

By time it appears online and on red button...Day, Spieth, Johnson, Matsuyama, Garcia, Koepka, Thomas Stenson, Fleetwood and Noren will either be finished or almost at end of their rounds. Thats 10 of the top 15 golfers in the world...done and dusted..I thought they wanted viewers! Scandalous

Cheers Kwini really looking forward to this week some great stories going on and lots to look out for.

Cheers Sirb re EirSport.

Don't know if you lot have this this yet? The range at QH is too short for Rory... Absolutely launching it off the tee

Take a look at @GolfChannel's Tweet: https://twitter.com/GolfChannel/status/895282740399964161?s=09

owen10ozzy wrote:If its going to clash then why bother getting it only to stick it away on the red button and online. Lets be honest...how many people watch sports online via the bbc app.. I wouldnt imagine numbers are that high.

Not disagreeing with you here, as I like wall to wall coverage, but wasn't it the fact that the BBC only got it after they had programmed in the athletics? If so, they had to make the best of a bad job for now, but in future years it might be better. Hope so, anyway.

And you'll still have to put up with Peter Bloody Alliss

Apparently Willett has hired Sean Foley as his swing coach. I thought Danny already had a bad back.

I didn't think there would be many worse Major winners than Cink, McDool, Bradley, Simpson etc, but Willet has been deplorable.

19 players have made the cut in the first three majors

835 Brooks Koepka
837 Matt Kuchar
841 Hideki Matsuyama
844 Jordan Spieth
845 Sergio Garcia
845 Rickie Fowler
847 Paul Casey
848 Charley Hoffman
853 Steve Stricker
856 Russell Henley
859 Martin Kaymer
859 Branden Grace
859 Marc Leishman
864 Matthew Fitzpatrick
864 J.B. Holmes
865 Lee Westwood
867 Bernd Wiesberger
876 Kevin Kisner
888 Ernie Els

GPB wrote:19 players have made the cut in the first three majors

835 Brooks Koepka
837 Matt Kuchar
841 Hideki Matsuyama
844 Jordan Spieth
845 Sergio Garcia
845 Rickie Fowler
847 Paul Casey
848 Charley Hoffman
853 Steve Stricker
856 Russell Henley
859 Martin Kaymer
859 Branden Grace
859 Marc Leishman
864 Matthew Fitzpatrick
864 J.B. Holmes
865 Lee Westwood
867 Bernd Wiesberger
876 Kevin Kisner
888 Ernie Els

Yet only 5 of that 19 have won a Major.

The athletics have been on the BBC's schedule for months now and what with them being in London, were never going to be moved for the golf.

Also since the viewing figures for golf tournaments are much higher at weekends I don't think they will be too concerned about it being on the red button for most of Thursday and Friday.

I checked and could not find an HD red button channel so I may have to watch it tonight and tomorrow in standard which isn't my preference but I am delighted that major golf is back on free to air telly.

It benefits our sport so if it means being inconvenienced for the first year only then it's a small price to pay.

I know its easy to bash the BBC and people like to do it. But can anyone confirm the sky coverage times for last year? I cannot find it, but from memory they usually also start at around 6pm, and then have plenty of chatter before showing anything. Though I could be wrong. My guess is that you will get similar coverage then sky showed, without the adverts. Yep, found something they started at 6pm first two days.

A website called "theundefeated" ran a public (I think just the USA) poll to determine a list of "50 greatest black athletes", and Tiger didn't make it onto the list. http://theundefeated.com/features/50-greatest-black-athletes/


Here is a response to Tiger failing to make the list.

"Not including Tiger Woods on a list of the 50 Greatest Black Athletes is beyond an oversight — it’s an injustice"

https://theundefeated.com/features/50-greatest-black-athletes-not-including-tiger-woods-oversight-injustice/


Really, is it just that most people don't give a sh1t about golf?

Plus there are some other shockers, such as simone biles at number 8 and omissions like Lewis Hamilton or great footballers like Henry.

After just a quick scan I can see only a couple of non Americans so that possibly explains the lack of Hamilton and Henry - F1 and Football (soccer) are hardly likely to feature on the radar of most Americans even though Pele makes it in there

Davie wrote:After just a quick scan I can see only a couple of non Americans so that possibly explains the lack of Hamilton and Henry - F1 and Football (soccer) are hardly likely to feature on the radar of most Americans even though Pele makes it in there

True, but Simone Biles at #8!

No surprise that footballers (other than Pele) don't feature if it was mainly Americans that voted. Also no surprise that NFL and Basketball feauture so much given the popularity of those sports in the US.

It is surprising that Tiger doesn't feature although I wonder if his off-course reputation influenced those voting. Those of a certain age probably know him better for that, than winning majors.

The list however is interesting and I don't think anyone can argue with the top three. Beyond that, definitely scope for debate

Willett has split with Cowen. Now that his caddie and coach have been sacked who can he blame?

His brother.

If he doesn't sort it out soon he is going down with micheel, Hamilton and Yang as one of the worst major winners this century.

Who do you all think is going to win and what score?

https://twitter.com/PGAChampionship/status/895462082543362050

https://twitter.com/PGAChampionship/status/895601798324662272 Revised pin positions!

Winner: Rory

Score: -13

Winner: Matsuyama

Score: -16

Winner: Fowler
-10

How do you operate the play by play on the PGA Championship site and app itself!? The PGA Tour one is well behind

Is the featured group coverage working for anyone outside of America?

13th hole looks evil! EVIL I TELL YOU!!!

https://twitter.com/PlaneTruthGolf/status/895414647012151297

BBC timings and locations:-

Thursday 10 August
18:00-00:15 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer
23:15-00:15 - BBC Two
22:00-01:00 - Radio 5 live sports extra

Friday 11 August
18:00-00:15 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer
23:05-00:15 - BBC Two
22:00-01:00 - Radio 5 live sports extra

Saturday 12 August
19:00-00:15 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer
22:30-00:15 - BBC Two
22:00-01:00 - Radio 5 live sports extra

Sunday 13 August
19:00-00:15 - BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer
22:00-00:15 - BBC Two
22:00-01:00 - Radio 5 live

McLaren wrote:A website called "theundefeated" ran a public (I think just the USA) poll to determine a list of "50 greatest black athletes", and Tiger didn't make it onto the list.  http://theundefeated.com/features/50-greatest-black-athletes/


Here is a response to Tiger failing to make the list.

"Not including Tiger Woods on a list of the 50 Greatest Black Athletes is beyond an oversight — it’s an injustice"

https://theundefeated.com/features/50-greatest-black-athletes-not-including-tiger-woods-oversight-injustice/


Really, is it just that most people don't give a sh1t about golf?

Plus there are some other shockers, such as simone biles at number 8 and omissions like Lewis Hamilton or great footballers like Henry.

Poll: the 50 greatest black American athletes, with a couple of other randoms thrown in

Vijay with a four putt on his fourth....yikes

https://www.pga.com/events/pgachampionship/enhanced-mediaplayer/1 streaming working now fwiw!

Pieters off to a shocking start....

sirbenson wrote:Pieters off to a shocking start....

They're not showing his scores on 5 & 6 on his score card, was there a ruling involved or something?

I know the BBC have got this at short notice, and they are rightly prioritising the London World Championships, but the scheduled coverage looks inadequate. On Saturday they are only showing 45 mins on BBC2. No highlights package. I've been watching the athletics every evening this week and there have been no adverts for the golf, not any mention about the MAJOR sporting event they are showing live and exclusive this week.

This does absolutely nothing for the game of golf. They are not showcasing it to anyone. Nobody browses the red button, they aren't going to attract a single casual fan.

Be_the_ball wrote:

sirbenson wrote:Pieters off to a shocking start....

They're not showing his scores on 5 & 6 on his score card, was there a ruling involved or something?

If you're on the PGA Tour site, it sometimes lags behind....but now it seems up to date.

I'm using the PGA Championship leaderboard as well!

https://www.pga.com/events/pgachampionship/leaderboard

wiretapper wrote:The athletics have been on the BBC's schedule for months now and what with them being in London, were never going to be moved for the golf.

Also since the viewing figures for golf tournaments are much higher at weekends I don't think they will be too concerned about it being on the red button for most of Thursday and Friday.

I checked and could not find an HD red button channel so I may have to watch it tonight and tomorrow in standard which isn't my preference but I am delighted that major golf is back on free to air telly.

It benefits our sport so if it means being inconvenienced for the first year only then it's a small price to pay.

As has been said many times, both Sky and the BBC get the American coverage (with all its countless breaks which have to be filled with something) which doesn't start until 6pm our time so there's no point in bashing on about the BBC giving better coverage, because they won't. I think red button coverage is pretty p**s poor TBH although the BBC were committed to the athletics before the PGA of America decided they wanted to open up the TV coverage to a wider audience! At least it didn't go to BT Sport which would have disenfranchised even more viewers. Now there are rumours that The Masters could go there. WTF

I reckon red button and online coverage for the Beeb will get similar if not more viewers then Sky. Though unsure if it can be confirmed. Though I am surprised at the lack of advertising it has had on TV or radio. But I get the feeling that Sky will cut back even more golf when they get to renewal stages, it seems they are losing viewers and the ridiculous amounts they are spending for the footie has to be found somewhere. They have lost pretty much all tennis now.

I saw one advert for the PGA on telly, and I think it was in the Open highlights. Not going to bolster golf viewing - but then at least I know about it and can see it!

Good job I picked Pieters...

Should have stuck with Woods!

No adverts but Ken Brown was on the Chris Evans breakfast show on Tuesday plugging it

First look at the leaderboard, has a US Open broken out at the PGA?