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

First topic message reminder :

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.

pedro wrote:He must be gutted

Don't mind him being gutted, I've gone on a binge of king sized snickers in solidarity...

Great golf from Hideki, joint leader. A man on a mission. Arigatou!

sirbenson wrote:Is Stroud not anchoring the putter?

His stroke does not look as close as Langers.

Stroud is using a counter-balance putter.

GPB wrote:Kwini:  Stenson is in the Wyndham field.  That will be event #13, Northern Trust will be #14 and the 2016 Ryder Cup counts as event #15.

Just seen that. Power is in also.

Thought there would be a much stronger/deeper field. Got to catch up on the PGA now.

This has been fun, watching everyone rush to finish there round...well except for Jason Day of course

sirbenson wrote:This has been fun, watching everyone rush to finish there round...well except for Jason Day of course

Day and Stenson (w/DJohnson) were way behind Spieth-Sergio-Koepka today.

DJ is one of the faster players, so no telling how much Day and Stenson were slowing DJ down.

Yes Spieth's group was keeping up. Spieth is not fast by any means, but he is getting a bad rep of being slow.

double post

Yep! Agreed, Spieth is nowhere near as slow as Day and Stenson is quite snail like...weirdly enough Henrik is hardly ever mentioned when it comes to the slow play problem

Hideki doing Hideki in his presser.

Q. You shot 64.
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: Because somehow, my worst shots were finding the fairway.


That's a Tour sauce answer!

Tiger has been hitting the buffet pretty frequently

Tiger Tiger Tiger:

GPB wrote:Tiger has been hitting the buffet pretty frequently

Tiger Tiger Tiger:

He can now, well and truely be considered a....

Fat Cat!

I'll get me coat

Has anyone seen comparison of scoring before the suspension of play, and following resumption?
Seems the guys who resumed their rounds enjoyed much more favourable conditions.


sirb,
I think the issue of course selection in May vs August is going to be very much whether courses in the northern states can be adequately prepared for Championship golf in time. Most would have had much more severe winters/springs than Wentworth for instance, yet the PGA would probably have to be held a week earlier than that.

Given that the PGA goes regularly to the south anyway (Atlanta, Kiawah, QH) I don't see many additional suitable venues, say in FL or TX (don't we already have too many events in each, often on below-par courses?) being opened up, whilst the "Northern Tier" almost becomes disqualified.
Plus: Golf seems scared of the NFL sacred cow, but how long will "Football" be with us, given all the brain injuries and increasing cost of insurance/compensation?

Three putt from Wiesberger on the last to miss the cut

PM-AM Wave (includes Kisner, Fowler, Rory)

Round1 ... 74.92
Round2 ... 73.94
Total ...  148.86

AM-PM Wave (includes Hideki, Day, Spieth)

Round1 ... 74.55
Round2 ... 73.26
Total ...  147.81

Approx. One shot Advantage for the wave that finished late yesterday and this morning

11 players under par for the AM-PM Wave

134 Hideki Matsuyama
136 Chris Stroud
136 Jason Day
137 Francesco Molinari
137 Louis Oosthuizen
139 Justin Thomas
139 Paul Casey
141 Brooks Koepka
141 Grayson Murray
141 Scott Brown
141 Sung Kang

5 players under par for the PM-AM Wave

134 Kevin Kisner
139 Rickie Fowler
140 Byeong Hun An
141 D.A. Points
141 Ryan Fox

Cheers GPB, It certainly looked that way, especially after the break in play.

JB Holmes won, almost a comeback win, here a few years ago - reminding us of that form this morning.
"Scattered showers" in the area but hopefully they'll get Round 3 in this afternoon.

Not liking my Rory pick this week. He and young Jordan both going in the wrong direction.

Kwin, made it to the institute. Pulled up right in front and in a matter of moments was looking at Jackson Pollock, Thomas Cole, Mark Rothko works. Really makes me appreciate the convenience of that museum. Was supposed to sub a Newport on Tuesday, but not needed at the last minute (my loss, but will back in a few weeks and hope to get a round in).

Sr

The other young Jordan is having a nice tournament, possibly his first Major . . . . . . .

What's this involuntary arm spasm players seem to have developed? It's like someone has pricked their arm with a needle as they're setting up for their shots.

The 6th pin position is a bit dicey isn't it?

kwinigolfer wrote:Has anyone seen comparison of scoring before the suspension of play, and following resumption?
Seems the guys who resumed their rounds enjoyed much more favourable conditions.


sirb,
I think the issue of course selection in May vs August is going to be very much whether courses in the northern states can be adequately prepared for Championship golf in time. Most would have had much more severe winters/springs than Wentworth for instance, yet the PGA would probably have to be held a week earlier than that.

Given that the PGA goes regularly to the south anyway (Atlanta, Kiawah, QH) I don't see many additional suitable venues, say in FL or TX (don't we already have too many events in each, often on below-par courses?) being opened up, whilst the "Northern Tier" almost becomes disqualified.
Plus: Golf seems scared of the NFL sacred cow, but how long will "Football" be with us, given all the brain injuries and increasing cost of insurance/compensation?

Would you not be in favour of the move that the PGA has made to May?

Doubles for Spieth, Fleetwood and Singh on the last, all in the same group!

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 - Missed Cut
845 Rickie Fowler
847 Paul Casey
848 Charley Hoffman
853 Steve Stricker
856 Russell Henley
859 Martin Kaymer - Did Not Play
859 Branden Grace - Missed Cut
859 Marc Leishman
864 Matthew Fitzpatrick - Missed Cut
864 J.B. Holmes
865 Lee Westwood
867 Bernd Wiesberger - Missed Cut
876 Kevin Kisner
888 Ernie Els - Missed Cut

Now we have 13 players that made all four cuts in the majors. Hideki is the current leader by two shots over Koepka

GPB wrote:

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 - Missed Cut
845 Rickie Fowler
847 Paul Casey
848 Charley Hoffman
853 Steve Stricker
856 Russell Henley
859 Martin Kaymer - Did Not Play
859 Branden Grace - Missed Cut
859 Marc Leishman
864 Matthew Fitzpatrick - Missed Cut
864 J.B. Holmes
865 Lee Westwood
867 Bernd Wiesberger - Missed Cut
876 Kevin Kisner
888 Ernie Els - Missed Cut

Now we have 13 players that made all four cuts in the majors.  Hideki is the current leader by two shots over Koepka

Great work, always fascinating to see this!

For a brief moment, the top 7 players scores were -9,-8,-7,-6,-5,-4,-3.

sirbenson wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Has anyone seen comparison of scoring before the suspension of play, and following resumption?
Seems the guys who resumed their rounds enjoyed much more favourable conditions.


sirb,
I think the issue of course selection in May vs August is going to be very much whether courses in the northern states can be adequately prepared for Championship golf in time. Most would have had much more severe winters/springs than Wentworth for instance, yet the PGA would probably have to be held a week earlier than that.

Given that the PGA goes regularly to the south anyway (Atlanta, Kiawah, QH) I don't see many additional suitable venues, say in FL or TX (don't we already have too many events in each, often on below-par courses?) being opened up, whilst the "Northern Tier" almost becomes disqualified.
Plus: Golf seems scared of the NFL sacred cow, but how long will "Football" be with us, given all the brain injuries and increasing cost of insurance/compensation?

Would you not be in favour of the move that the PGA has made to May?

sirb,
Dead against it! Don't see the "opportunity" just foresee unintended consequences. Tail wagging the dog.

kwinigolfer wrote:

sirbenson wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Has anyone seen comparison of scoring before the suspension of play, and following resumption?
Seems the guys who resumed their rounds enjoyed much more favourable conditions.


sirb,
I think the issue of course selection in May vs August is going to be very much whether courses in the northern states can be adequately prepared for Championship golf in time. Most would have had much more severe winters/springs than Wentworth for instance, yet the PGA would probably have to be held a week earlier than that.

Given that the PGA goes regularly to the south anyway (Atlanta, Kiawah, QH) I don't see many additional suitable venues, say in FL or TX (don't we already have too many events in each, often on below-par courses?) being opened up, whilst the "Northern Tier" almost becomes disqualified.
Plus: Golf seems scared of the NFL sacred cow, but how long will "Football" be with us, given all the brain injuries and increasing cost of insurance/compensation?

Would you not be in favour of the move that the PGA has made to May?

sirb,
Dead against it! Don't see the "opportunity" just foresee unintended consequences. Tail wagging the dog.

Is it because you just don't see where it could be hosted?

Players should start marking beside the hole if they are not going to finish out! Surely it's there duty to protect the field!?

sirb,
I don't see why it can't be held in any part of the US during early/mid August, but mid May jeopardises the entire northern tier.
Plus, it unnecessarily truncates the US golfing calendar and will cause casualties of tournaments earlier in the season.

But completely concur with your ball-marking point. Absolutely!

Kisner's accuracy from the tee is impressive, barely missing a fairway!

Probably to help with the playoffs don't you think Kwini?

What's Bellerive like?

Wow! What a run from Delaet! Birdie-Eagle-Eagle

Very impressed with Hideki, having won a WGC just last week and contending in a brutal Major the following week. He must be mentally exhausted.

Birdie-Eagle-Eagle-Birdie!
Almost two holes in one on consecutive holes.
Can't really remember much about Bellerive.

Be the ball, I do think Hideki has been a bit shaky today

But he's still at the business end of the tournament, I really didn't expect much from him this week. Its playing so tough, for him to hang in there is really impressive. A lot of +4,+5's and more from quality players.

Oh, don't get me wrong! I still think he's going to pull it off and win! But Kisner is looking awfully solid

Is that what they mean by wet foot, dry foot? Can Jason Day claim asylum now?

Hell of a shot from where he was

I know what you mean, Kisners a great ball striker as we saw at Colonial, and this is playing very "US Open like". So it's suiting him so far. He knows where to miss it too.

I hope I haven't put the mockers on Hideki

Agreed about Kisner and he seems to have a huge fire about him!

Kwini: Bellerive is just a typical RTJ course. Long, boring and it will be an oven next August. I have played it a couple times.

I don't how RTJ got to design so many courses back in the 1950's and 1960's. None are very imaginative, IMO.

Another chance for Kisner now, great hitting 15 in two.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Is that what they mean by wet foot, dry foot?  Can Jason Day claim asylum now?

Hell of a shot from where he was

Fowler's chances going fast here! Shame

Kisner in the agua too, not Hogan after all

Huge mistake from Kisner! Bogeys are acceptable but anything else is unforgivable

Sneaky Justin Thomas

Yeah Green Mile showing it's teeth, Stroud dropping one too.

That 18th green is so quick!

Hell of a par from Oosthuizen