PGA Tour: Boston TPC Party: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).After Sunday's thriller on Long Island, the boys move up the Interstate towards Boston and the TPC Boston for the Dell Technologies Championship, Round 2 of the FedeX Cup Play-Offs. The crowds will be larger and louder than last weekend, but anyone's guess as to whether they will see a better finish than the Jordan/Dustin Duel. Best of the year? Ahead of Garcia and Rose??
Last year Mickelson's duels with Stenson and Garcia spoiled us, but the Northern Trust was certainly pretty good.

2).With so many ructions, actual and speculated, to the Tour schedules, it's becoming increasingly tricky to discern fact and fiction but there is enough chat to suggest this could be the end of the four-tournament Play Off structure, with the Boston date being the likeliest to miss out. If this tournament, the former DeutscheBank Championship, is not replaced, it seems likely that the Tour Championship will be brought forward a week, or possibly two, for 2018. Bound to be scuttlebutt on this as tournament coverage starts in earnest this week. And: Remember, the Dell action begins on Friday and runs through Monday, Labor Day in these here parts.

3).As compelling as last week's Northern Trust finale was, there was muttering among the twittering pros about the value of #18 at Glen Oaks as a play-off hole.
Wes Bryan tweeted:
"If you fly it 315 yards then you have a 100-yard wide fairway on 18 . . . . . . It's a shame that it ended because of a long drive contest in the play-off."
Whilst Poults echoed that:
"Shame play-off hole had to be the worst hole of the golf course . . . . 18th hole suited five guys in the field. Congrats DJ, unlucky Jordan."
All of which makes DJ's play in regulation down the right-hand side of the fairway, well into the rough and blocked out, even more bizarre.

4).In all the chatter about the role of caddies, it's difficult not to like DJ's partnership with his brother - in their case, the caddie's role seems to be not much more than carry the bag and listen to Dustin talk his options through. No sense of anything other than self-recrimination, no regrets, from DJ; just go find it and hit it again. Seems to suit him well, perhaps a refreshing contrast to the interminable debates between Spieth and Greller?
Watching the contrast between Furyk/Fluff and Rory/JP earlier this year was instructive.
Furyk double-checked every yardage personally, engaged Fluff in virtually every single shot however long or short. But never any sense that 100% responsibility laid w/Furyk.
Whilst Rory seemed to leave all the yardages to JP, left him out almost 100% around and on the greens.

5).pga.com listed the most difficult courses on Tour this season (prior to the Play-Offs):
9).TPC San Antonio (Valero Texas Open)
8).Bay Hill
7).Colonial
6).Erin Hills (US Open)
5).TPC Sawgrass (Players)
4).TPC Avenel (Quicken Loans)
3).Birkdale
2).Augusta National
1).Quail Hollow (PGA)
No explanation as to whether there's some calibration for quality of fields, say for San Antonio, Colonial & Avenel, but interesting nevertheless.

6).Dustin Johnson and Rory will both be going for their league-leading fifth Play-Off win this week.
Others with multiple wins are:
3: Woods
2: Vijay Singh, Villegas, Mickelson, Stenson, Horschel, Day. Which means that 56% of Play Off events have been won by just 8 golfers.

7).This week sees the first of four web.com Tour Finals (WTF's) tournaments with the top 25 aggregate money-winners not otherwise exempt earning Tour cards for 2017/2018.
We'll keep track of these events, especially the Europeans led by Seamus Power.
But other notables include:  
Ben Crane, Mahan, Scott Hend, Ishikawa, Summerhays, Tringale, Johnson Wagner, Uihlein, and Robbie Castro who finished 22nd in last year's FedEx ranking, with all the exemption bennies that bestowed. That's the second time he's pulled that trick, tough to do!

8).It looks as if the venue for the Houston Open, the GC of Houston, has been comprehensively inundated by Hurricane Harvey. Quite how extensive the damage might be can only be guessed at, but now Houston has a schedule spot without a sponsor and, quite possibly, a home course. New Orleans was similarly afflicted after Katrina, but they relocated to English Turn for one year, keeping an event which was thought at the time to be therapeutic to the community. Hoping Houston, the City and the tournament, can bounce back following the devastation - best wishes to robopz and anyone reading in SE Texas, SW Louisiana. Shovelling three feet of snow somehow doesn't feel quite so bad.

9).The top 70 in FedEx Points following the Dell Technologies Championship move on to Chicago in two weeks' time. Snedeker, Holmes and Piercy have already hung up their clubs for the season - others at risk of bowing out this week include:
Ryan Moore, Bubba, Adam Scott, Rafa C-B, and Branden Grace.

Whilst at the close of play on Monday, the first ten players for each Presidents Cup Team will have been identified:
For the US, DJ, Spieth, Thomas, Berger, Fowler, Koepka, Kisner are assured of a place. They're followed by Kuchar (#8), Reed, Hoffman, Chappell, Harman, Dufner, Woodland.
International: Matsuyama, Day, Scott, Louis, Charl, Leishman, Grace, Vegas, Si Woo Kim (all look certs), with Hadwin vulnerable in 10th place.
Two Captain's choices each to be named later.

10).And, in Europe, the first points-scoring event for the Ryder Cup gets underway in the Czech Republic on Thursday. If the RC Team was to be picked today, I'd go with the current Top 12 eligible on the R2D:
Fleetwood, Sergio, Rahm, Rafa, Noren, Molinari, Rose, Fish, Rory, Wiesberger, Pieters, Stenson. They're followed by Jordan Smith and Alex Levy (would love to see him take the "next step").

The US have been accumulating points already and the leading 12 hoping to continue to MAGA are:  
Koepka, Thomas, Spieth, Kooch, DJ, Fowler, Harman, Reed, Haas, Hoffman, ZJ, Chappell.

The last four FedEx Play-Off tournaments have been won by Rory, DJ, Rory, DJ . . . . . .. Rory's already won twice at TPC Boston and   he keeps this sequence going.

Nice preview Kwini, as per usual, one nitpick:

6).Dustin Johnson and Rory will both be going for their league-leading fifth Play-Off win this week.
Others with multiple wins are:
3: Woods
2: Vijay Singh, Villegas, Mickelson, Stenson, Horschel, Day. Which means that 56% of Play Off events have been won by just 8 golfers.

I believe that is 9 golfers.

Not done the math, but I think Grillo will need a solid Top 10 finish to have a chance at overtaking Hadwin in the Int'l PC Standings and Ben An needs a solo 3rd.    Lahiri and Delaet probably needs a solo 2nd and Sunghoon Kang needs to win.



Tanihara & HaoTong Li are not playing anywhere this week.  Kind of surprise neither are playing the WTF this week.

Fritelli is playing in the Czech Masters, but no chance to pass Hadwin.  I am sure he would love to play against his old college teammate (Spieth).

No idea what direction Nick Price is going to go with his Captains picks.  He has two "sick-notes" on his team with J-Day and SiWoo Kim, he certainly would not want another with Graham Delaet.

Grillo and An need to show some form this week in order to get chosen.

Nine! Recount - which I already did and came up with eight every time. Oh dear. That's 9 golfers winning 61% of the tournaments between them.
You'd have to say that Heath Slocum is the only real outlier amongst all the Play-Off winners. High quality events.

Play underway at TPC Boston, should be mild today and Saturday, but the course could take a soaking on Saturday night into Sunday from the remnants of "Harvey". Fine and warmer for Monday.

Kelly Kraft with the first 12 of the week. TWELVE!
Twelves are no good on the European or Asian Tours either, Kelly. Must do better, wherever you're playing.

Surely that's a hole in one on a par five during the modified stableford event??

Perhaps it should be Grumps,
Whatever, he's torn up his card and that's most likely the end of his season.
Contrasting fortunes so far for last Sunday's Play Off protagonists:
DJ: -4
Spieth: +3

Think DJ must be pretty determined to take home the FEC after it slipped away last year.

Oh Rory,
That's pathetic.

Jason Day off to a grisly start.

Whatever Phil's doctor's remedy is, it seems to be working:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/phil-dealing-unspecified-medical-issue

And he's off to a good start this morning with an early bird.
EDIT: Now tied for the lead - five way tie just at the moment, but I for one am pleased to see Phil playing well.

Meanwhile, not sure if "Harvey" will interfere with play in the WTF tournament in Ohio. Regardless:
First job done for Seamus Power and Gonzo, comfortably making the cut. Cejka and Jaeger flying the German flag towards the top of the leaderboard.

Matthew Southgate missed the cut in the Webbie tournament.

By Four shots.

He is #20 in the 2017 Race to Dubai Standings.

GPB wrote:Matthew Southgate missed the cut in the Webbie tournament.

By Four shots.

He is #20 in the 2017 Race to Dubai Standings.

Oh well that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that US golf is far superior to European golf. I mean, with a sample size that big and over such a long period how could anyone argue?

This analysis (with a much larger sample size) was dismissed by many o this board.

http://datagolf.ca/2017/02/

USA USA USA
or as we say here USA 1 Golf 0

GPB wrote:Matthew Southgate missed the cut in the Webbie tournament.

By Four shots.

He is #20 in the 2017 Race to Dubai Standings.

A single round on the ET and forced to rest for what could easy become the reminder of this year

He has 79 wins on the PGA Tour

kouchi wrote:

GPB wrote:Matthew Southgate missed the cut in the Webbie tournament.

By Four shots.

He is #20 in the 2017 Race to Dubai Standings.

A single round on the ET and forced to rest for what could easy become the reminder of this year

He has 79 wins on the PGA Tour

Qué?

GPB,
I'm not going top go there with that datagolf analysis; you know what I think about it.
But: Southgate is a pretty good story, probably thought his career was done for good just two and a bit years ago. Had a handful of good results in the past 15 months and now trying his luck at the BIG Tour. Remember, the only reason he's in the WTF is because of his 6th place in The Open . . . . . . and it's hardly necessary to catalog the names of BIG Tourists he beat there, 12th last year too.


Meanwhile, in the "There's life in the Old Dog yet" division, 60-y-o Sirnick shot 64 at the Champo Tour stop in Alberta.

Impressive stuff from Rahm ... but, IMO, more so from Casey. It's just a matter of time until he starts winning again on the Big Tour.

Kwini, somehow I think you would give more credibility to that analysis if it yielded different results. Just my opinion.

Yes, Faldo's 64 was a shocker.

SR: Hard to believe that Justin Thomas has won as many PGATournaments as Casey, Poulter, and Westwood combined.

Spieth has won more than Casey, Poulter, Westwood, and Donald combined.

Pieters doing his best to balance the datagolf nonsense - makes you wonder why those hapless Englishmen fare so well against the Big Tour in Ryder Cup . . . . . . .
Regardless, and this is where we came in, hope Southgate has his name down for the next WTF event, in Boise in a fortnight. (Not clear why both Tours have next week off, suppose it's superior business acumen.)

It will be a cool (mid sixties if they're lucky), breezy day in Providence, with a threat of showers but looks like they should be OK to get Round 3 in.
Hopefully Shotrock is right and Casey can put all those bridesmaid finishes behind him, stay in contention today and take the tournament by the scruff of its neck on Monday. Wouldn't bet on it though.

I am not shocked at Sir Nick's 64. Looks like the crowds are big for a Champions tour event so probably well motivated. Played with Monty and Ollie in Round 1 and Fred in round 2 so probably having a great time. It would be funny if he won considering he has turned 60 and not even playing that much.

More "Major" company for Sirnick today, Todd Hamilton, who's won more Majors than Casey, Donald, Poults, Westwood, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke and Tom Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Kwini: Do you not comprehend that studies like DataGolf (and from Broadie/Rendelman) is analysis of the entire PGATour vs the entire European Tour conducted over 72 hole stroke play.

It doesn't measure team match play exhibitions from 24 of the better players that happens every other year. (talk about a small sample size)

Going to be a wet slog in Boston today. Remnants of Harvey impacting Boston which is 1800 miles from Houston. My yard got about a 0.5" of rain from Harvey on Thursday. Just enough to make me mow my grass today. Its been about a month since I mowed.

Rahm has already passed Rory in the rankings to get to #4, after Rory missed the cut. Rahm can get well within striking distance of Jordan and Hideki should he go on to win tomorrow. His average would be 8.78 and he still 8 tournament from fully populating his two year resume. He has a very good chance of being ranked #2 in the OWGR before year end even if he doesn't win this week. If he does win this week, #1 is in play by the end of year with a couple of more wins.

Rory is down to #5. Stenson, Day and Rory have the three longest tenures in the OWGR top 10 (211 weeks, 183 weeks, 172 weeks respectively). IMO, each of them will be out of the top 10 by year end.

Another dubious OWGR notes. As of this week, Kaymer out of the OWGR Top 70 for the first time since he won Abu Dhabi in Jan-08.

GPB,
I know you think I'm stupid, but I explained months ago why I thought the datagolf stuff is seriously flawed. And I brought up Pieters' round today just to show how daft it is.
Not sure how much rain the Providence area will get today, think most of the heavy stuff is coming further north - i.e. through here.

Kaymer has been fighting injury all summer - hope he's not just the latest to come back too early.

Hope Texas starts to put in place some infrastructure to help mitigate the more extreme weather events, which are getting more extreme and more frequent by the year - whatever idiots like Rick Perry might think (if he ever does think). A State income tax to help pay for some of it would be a good start.
In Florida too; amazing that Florida is so dumb and happy that they haven't been shellacked for a while they're relaxing their state building regulations. Morons.

Very happy to see Hunter Mahan off to a strong start this morning - he's got to start his comeback somewhere and Columbus would be a great place to do it.

So I point out Matthew Southgate's performance in Columbus and I get called out on a small sample size.

Yet, Thomas Pieters week in Prague counts as a valid contrarian data point.

BTW, Pieters missed his last two cuts against mostly PGATour competition at Honda and Bay Hill.

None of the 36 players in Data golf's analysis performed better against mostly PGATour competition than EuroTour Competition.

Not exactly GPB; I mentioned that Southgate represented a pretty good story, in an effort to put his efforts into some sort of perspective.
Plus the fact that he's only in the WTF's because he beat most of the best in the world on one occasion, following on from an almost as excellent effort the year before. Sure that was more important to him than the web.com performance.
That apparently invited completely irrelevant parc about Spieth & Thomas. And they hadn't had their careers disrupted 2+ years ago by cancer.

You'll never convince me about the datagolf stuff, so the end on that from moi.

Target practice early doors at the TPC party.

WOW!
Birdie, birdie, birdie finish for Seamus Power. That should get him more than half of the way back to the PGA Tour

And Hunner in the same boat - there's just room for Gonzo as well if he can just hold his round together.

Unbelievable putting exhibition from Justin Thomas. Out-Spiething Spieth.

Nice to see European Tour member Peter Uihlien win the first tournament of the 2017 WTF.

Way to represent the EuroTour!

Re: Mahan and Power

I don't think a T13th is "more than halfway there" to a PGAtour card. Certainly it is on track, but there is no way 2 T13th places is going to be enough to finish in the Top 25.

Great leaderboard in Boston.

Thomas needs a Solo 13th or better to pass Rory in the OWGR. Looks like Rory is falling to 6th.

Well done Peter Uihlein; his win in Columbus assures his PGA Tour card for 2017/18. EDIT: Snap.
The ET's loss (perhaps) will be the PGA Tour's gain.

Jon Rahm stuck in neutral at the Dell.

Guess that means the rest of the field would be somewhere between 13th and 19th on the RTD. ;-)

GPB,
Hunner & Seamus both earn $18,750.
Last year, the 25th player won $27,425.
Pigs might fly but I'd say they're more than halfway there, $37,500 would have been 18th last year.

I would set the over/under much higher than 27K. I haven't looked at the data, but I suspect that the high finishers must have done very well in multiple tournaments.

Maybe if I get a chance, I will look at the data while watching the early coverage.

Weather looks good in BAAHSTon tomorrow. High of 81 deg F and Sunny.

Southgate's MC doesn't surprise me. Coupling a good major result with a half decent season doesn't turn a ET also ran into a global player, Johnston being exhibit A. Experienced ET journeymen would have a better chance I suspect, if they managed to get in. The likes of Owen, Chopra, Cejka, Davis did well enough coming through the old system despite never really setting Europe alight.

Good to see Uihlein coming through, but no doubt his his "home tour obligations" mean we'll see him giveup his ET membership like Koepka. Not their fault but surely the ET needs to make the case for keeping access to US golfers they develop, Peterson and Suri the next. If they're not allowed back once they crack the PGA, even if they want to play both, the EU is writing its own feeder Tour obituary.

kwinigolfer wrote:
You'll never convince me about the datagolf stuff, so the end on that from moi.

Science or religion, Jordan kwini?

NedB-H wrote:Southgate's MC doesn't surprise me. Coupling a good major result with a half decent season doesn't turn a ET also ran into a global player, Johnston being exhibit A. Experienced ET journeymen would have a better chance I suspect, if they managed to get in. The likes of Owen, Chopra, Cejka, Davis did well enough coming through the old system despite never really setting Europe alight.

Good to see Uihlein coming through, but no doubt his his "home tour obligations" mean we'll see him giveup his ET membership like  Koepka. Not their fault but surely the ET needs to make the case for keeping access to US golfers they develop, Peterson and Suri the next. If they're not allowed back once they crack the PGA, even if they want to play both, the EU is writing its own feeder Tour obituary.

Ned,
Agree 100%; but suspect there was more to the op than just, "Oh what a shame, Southgate had a poor first tournament". Johnston never got his arms around the PGA Tour schedule, never gave himself a chance, kinda believed his faux celebrity.
Great point about Uihlein, Koepka etc. It'll be interesting though to see where Suri's ambitions take him next - another year in Europe or to Q-School? Perhaps he'll get some sponsor invitations in the US this autumn as Koepka did a few years ago? His owgr position will be key.

Should be a much warmer day in Bawston, could be blustrous though.

Play underway, DeLaet first out of the traps and looks as if he has an early flight outathere, three holes complete after 20 minutes.
He's among the thirty who'll be eliminated, along with Adam Scott and, quite possibly, Bubba Watson & Russell Knox. Rafa among those who need a good final round to survive.

I agree the European Tour needs to be doing more to get US players who want to play here, eh playing here.

Reed and Koepka being the two most recent but I recall Brendan Steele and Bubba Watson both saying they would play more in Europe if they could. Although that was some time ago, Bubba has probably changed his mind since.

The PGA tour rule which restricts US born players from the number of non-PGA topur events they can play in seems to me to be discriminatory.

Anyway looking forward to the golf this evening with occasional flicks to see how many Scotland are beating Malta by....

Hopefully

Talk is cheap for Bubba and Brendan. Want to keep more US players on the ET? Make the events more financially rewarding.

I have a feeling a out Casey today.

Sr,
I'm sure Bubba found his Open de France excursion "financially rewarding" a few years ago, pity about his moronic observations after he'd missed le cut. (Having said which, early Bubba did quite a bit of overseas travelling.)
The handcuffs from PGA Tour HQ are the real impediment discouraging American golfers to play other Tours.

DeLaet slipping behind the two-hour-round pace at the Dell. Disappointing.

Disagree with that Kwin! The "real impediment" is the lack of money.

The US tour can put all the handcuffs they want on players, but if the ET offered significantly larger purses the mercenaries would come in droves, and leave the US tour stumbling. Competing for the same players at the same time? Bring cash.

The biggest point about Southgate's MC is that it is not a field of "PGATour pros".  It's a field of rejected pros that could not make it on the PGATour pro and a developmental tour for the PGATour.

Its akin to a player like Russell Henley playing the Portugal Open (co-sanctioned event between Challenge and Euro Tours) and missing the cut by 4 shots.

Beautiful day in Boston.  Scoring conditions are ideal.  Varner is -4 through 5 holes.  Would be surprised to see a couple scores in the low 60's today.

Shotrock wrote:Disagree with that Kwin! The "real impediment" is the lack of money.

The US tour can put all the handcuffs they want on players, but if the ET offered significantly larger purses the mercenaries would come in droves, and leave the US tour stumbling. Competing for the same players at the same time? Bring cash.

Not so true any more for the Rolex events.
And never true for appearance money.

"If the ET offered significantly larger purses the" PGA Tour would just up the ante, almost as if they've kept a glass ceiling on purses for ever, not allowing tournaments to outbid each other on a regular basis, cartel-like and completely understandable. But you know darn well that at least a dozen, probably more like 20, could easily offer $2M or more to their winners. Sure, there might be slightly more interest, but no chance it would "leave the US tour stumbling".

Just read pea brain smashed his putter.  :thumbsup:

The best players follow the money. The PGAT is therefore comprised of better fields because on average the purses are significantly bigger.

Not sure a European fan would need to feel touchy about that fact give the European tour is still pretty good.

McLaren wrote:The best players follow the money. The PGAT is therefore comprised of better fields because on average the purses are significantly bigger.

Not sure a European fan would need to feel touchy about that fact give the European tour is still pretty good.

Christ, Mac. Spot on, not that it can't be better because it can, and should be. Vive la difference!

Fine finish for DeLaet, birdied his final three holes, round in about 2 hrs 20 minutes.


PS: Russell Henley is a 3-time Tour winner. Southgate has yet to win.

Yep, was about to make the same point that Henley is a lot more established than Southgate on their respective tour. Would think Southgate is more of a John Peterson or Scott Langley. And Southgate might have MC but he's only 8 R2D places behind the tournament winner after all. And for all we know he might win next week.

All that said, I can't help feeling the ET is as weak as it's been for a while in a comparison between the two. Kind of think Pelley has been caught between two stools: steering the tour away from Asia (which for all its flaws established the ET as undisputed world No 2), but European events not quite taking up the slack. The Challenge Tour seems to be going backwards too. Hopefully a good PR week next week, downtime in the US and a popular event at Crans.

I'm not talking about players making a permanent switch from the PGA to the European Tour. I appreciate that the PGA tour is the biggest and richest and the one that the best players will flock to.

However in the case of Koepka (and maybe Uihlein) we have American golfers who came to Europe to start their career, did well and have now moved onto the PGA tour but cannot retain their European Tour membership and play in a few tournaments here because of restrictive PGA tour 'handcuffs' which do not apply to non-American PGA tour members.

Just seems off to me

Southgate is 20th in the RtD and Henley is 23rd in the FEX.  Sheesh, talk about nitpicking the example and missing the point.

I believe Uihlein's handcuffs are little looser than Koepka's because Uihlein has been playing the EuroTour for a longer period of time.