PGA Tour: Very Poor Year For GB&I PGA Tour Golfers: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).After the trophies and cash had been handed out at East Lake last Sunday, one stark fact illustrated a year of frustration (or worse, possibly much worse) for British & Irish PGA Tour members.
For the first year since 2004, no British or Irish golfer has won a PGA Tour event, multiple wins since 2008.
That could change with the half dozen or so "Fall" tournaments but you'd probably bet against it.
Some would argue, "What do you expect when Rory doesn't win?", but the truth is, take Rory out of the equation and there's still been at least one GB&I winner every year. Until 2017.
How has this happened??!!
Let's see: Grades rated A, B, C, D, E, F (and my A'Level results remind me what that means):

2).McIlroy: Never seemed fit or focused: 6 x Top Ten finishes in 14 events disguises the fact that he never seemed in contention, let alone a likely winner. Grade C.

3).Rose: So close to a Green Jacket, then went in a funk for four months with no Top 50's before coming to life in the Play-Offs. Hasn't won for almost 2 1/2 years except for Rio gold. Grade B.

4).Casey: A huge shame that he didn't play his best on Sunday; had a terrific year, didn't miss a cut after January and contended on a regular basis (except the Majors). 1st on Tour in first round scoring, 80th in Round 4. Superb irons but 184th in sand saves. Grade: B++ (Can't give a A to a non-winner, surely?)

5).Knox: Largely disappeared after a career season (2 wins in 15/16). Started in fine form and steadily deteriorated except an aberrational T5 at Firestone. Shut out at the Majors, four missed cuts. Even worse than Casey from the sand. Grade C.

6).Poulter: I thought Poults had a fabulous year, buckling down, playing a sensible schedule even before his membership reprieve. Only time will tell if he's truly back as a Top 50 golfer. Grade B+.

7).Laird: Probably Laird's most consistent year on Tour with 5 x Top Tens. Maybe considered a journeyman by some, but a pretty bl00dy good journeyman; always worth keeping an eye on during the early part of the season. Grade B-.

8).Donald, Lowry, McDowell, Owen and Power:
Luke: Terrible year. 2nd at Harbour Town was his only Top 15, short and crooked off the tee and lousy iron play only rescued by the usual short game brilliance. Grade E.
Shane: Too good to sleep-walk his way through the year. Says he's rededicating himself to the PGA Tour - he needs to. Wake up Shane or there'll be no roses left to smell. Grade E-.  
McDool: 9 X Top 30's, but no cuts made since early June. Hits it straight, super putter, everything in between below Tour level. Needs to figure out if he wants to play Tour golf or be a restaurateur. Grade F.
Greg Owen: Two runner-up finishes, yet lost his card. Strange but true. Excellent ball-striker, horrendous putter and probably destined to return to the web.com. Grade E.
Seamus: Narrowly missed retaining his card, very close to having retrieved it in the WTF Finals. Only aberrational final rounds when in contention at Sanderson Farms and Mayakoba kept him from reaching the Play-Offs comfortably. Otherwise, consistent and good stat's except driving (in)accuracy. Grade D+.

9).Harrington, Johnston, Willett:
St.Padraig: On the injured list for most of the season; assume he'll take some sort of "extension" for the new season. Grade: Incomplete.
Johnston: Where's the Beef? Not on Tour next year, that's for sure. Waste of time, no sign of effort. Grade F.
Willett: Still celebrating? Never fit? Who knows, haven't got time to figure it out. Assume he'll be in Sheffield for most of next season. Grade F.

10).Sad to say, I reckon the brilliant futures of most of this lot are slipping inexorably behind them.
Confident that Rory will roar back, and Rose won't go away. Imagine Casey might have a come-from-behind win in him and hopefully Poulter can win again. Would categorise Knox and Laird as solid pros who may win occasionally and perhaps Lowry & Willett will show their great wins were no fluke.
Power could be the surprise package moving forward, and we still have to learn which Europeans will take Tour Membership.
But perhaps the promise of the Casey/Donald/Howell/McDowell/Poulter/Rose generation spoiled us?

Kwini... All the Web-com graduates will get in Napa... So if they earn the card, they're in.

robopz wrote:Kwini... All the Web-com graduates will get in Napa... So if they earn the card, they're in.

Seems it's a much weaker field than the last year or so . . . . . . .

Rearguard action 24 hours too late at the Drumpf Cup - assume this is it for Nick Price as Captain for the Internationals; Melbourne next, perhaps they'll choose Allenby as next skipper? Would be a bit of an insult to Els if they asked him.

I'm afraid we'll have our butt kicked next year in Paris.

7.5 to 4.5 today for the Int'l team. That tells me the Int'l team was not out-manned or even out-matched. They were just flat out-played this weekend.

Yes, you might claim that the US Team didn't have as much intensity today. IMO there had to be some sort of let down for the Int'l team as well, so it was a wash, more-or-less.

kwinigolfer wrote: Seems it's a much weaker field than the last year or so . . . . . . .

Yeah... I guess "relatively" speaking it will be down. PD had it down from 38 to maybe 26, but I'm not sure he had all of it when he did that calculation. I can't access the internals right now as it's down for maintenance, but when I checked earlier the field at first glance looked a bit better than 26 (without doing any calculations)... and it was going about 5 players past the Webbie category, compared to 2 webbies NOT making the field last year. So at the bottom end anyway... it appears only about 7 players weaker this year.

Three tournaments in a row in Asia might explain some of the bigger players absence.

I think the mid-tier PGATour golfers are more likely to play the CIMB-Korea double (even if they are not qualified for the HSBC). Guaranteed money, Guaranteed FEX pts.

For a player ranked around #75-#100, its a significant competitive advantage to play CIMB and Korea. Even if they T45 in both events, they have earned about 10% of the necessary FEX pts for the year.

pedro wrote:I'm afraid we'll have our butt kicked next year in Paris.

Sacre bleu.

I see the South Africans and one or two Europeans, Casey, Harrington, Knox, Pieters, Rafa among them, have got their dibs in for CIMB. Absurd as it seems, that's what you have to do. Memo to Shane . . . . . .

pedro wrote:I'm afraid we'll have our butt kicked next year in Paris.

Why? America don't play well away from home, form now is irrelevant, teams on paper don't win tournaments and the President's Cup isn't a good barometer because it's about as significant as the Seve Trophy.

Europe are virtually always underdogs, and nearly always win (in the last 20 years anyway)

Yeah but the Europeans seem shallower than ever. The backbone will be Rory, Rose, Garcia, Stenson. Kaymer is doubtful IMO, Westy is ott, Casey a question mark. Fleetwood and Hatton are unknown territory. Of promising rookies are only Rahm and Noren IMO.

The Americans on the other hand have a new generation with a new mindset. Old deadbeats like Tiger, Furyk, Stricker are out. They seem changed.

Europe's best will have to play their best, simple as that. That never happened at Hazeltine so a lot will depend upon Messrs Garcia, Rahm, Rory, Rose & Stenson. Would be nice if Casey returned to the fold, always a terrific RC player.


Almost 20 golfers have been allowed to w/d from the WTF Round 4 today which means Southgate is almost certainly a goner as closest rivals will earn more money in absence of the departed.

Anything under par should be good for Power to return to the Big Tour.

Kind of with super on this. If 2 of DJ, JT or golden child have an off week this is hardly an unbeatable team. Plus simba can't  win a singles match in these things even when he is playing well.

kwinigolfer wrote:Europe's best will have to play their best, simple as that. That never happened at Hazeltine so a lot will depend upon Messrs Garcia, Rahm, Rory, Rose & Stenson. Would be nice if Casey returned to the fold, always a terrific RC player.


Almost 20 golfers have been allowed to w/d from the WTF Round 4 today which means Southgate is almost certainly a goner as closest rivals will earn more money in absence of the departed.

Anything under par should be good for Power to return to the Big Tour.

Not necessarily, USA haven't won away in 25 years.

Yes, they have a potentially strong team, but there's a lot of time for them to go off the boil. Form also goes out of the window in these things, just like it does in a lot of one off events.

Every single time we hear how America are going to wipe the floor with Europe (who's our biennial American poster with terrible predictions again?) , because they've got  XX majors, or so and so is in the team, yet time and time again America just can't rise to the challenge and are either out-played, or outscored. Either way, the result is the same, despite the hype.

People don't seem to realise that many of the reasons people state for an American win, are irrelevant in a different form of the game. Look at 9C and Fat Phil as being prime examples. They couldn't perform in it, whereas many unfancied and unfashionable players certainly have (Walton, DeBuisson, Torrance, O'Conner Jnr, Donald, Westwood, Poulter, Garcia etc)

I wouldn't be surprised if half the bible thumping, gun lobbyist, republican players swallow the Fox News editorial and are bricking themselves because it's in Paris (France) and they fear a Carpet Sniffing Jihad against them.

Saying all that, it was good for the competition that America won last time. It was getting a bit like the Presidents' Cup, and this should reset interest again.

Amazing. Seamus Power had much more luck in dodging bullets than those outside Mandalay Bay; any number of golfers could have scuppered his chances, one of them crucially 3-putting his 72nd hole to let Power in.
Off to Napa for Seamus now, but he'll play the autumn events with the lowest "reshuffle" priority ranking so needs to get on his horse for the 3 or 4 events he can squeak into. Hope he's been nice to sponsors . . . . . . . .

Happy to see Jonathan Byrd, Matt Jones and Tom Hoge qualify, but would like to have seen Robbie Castro squeeze in but he probably fell one shot short (of knocking Power out!).

Gonzo and Greg Owen return to the web.com circus.

Seamus made it by $287 Kwini, a real close call. He did ok his first season, he really needs to build on that next season.

I think he deserves his second chance, but now he has to make the most of it!

He threw away a lot of really good finishes with a bad round here and there. Needs to cut out the silly mistakes.

Journeyman Bryce Molder retires

http://thecabin.net/news/local/sports/2017-09-29/molder-says-it-was-time-begin-new-journey#.WdGhO70ps74.twitter

One less YJ.
Molder had a huge caddie, also a brilliant short game. But suppose not that surprised, his start on Tour was all a little uncertain, then a couple of good tournaments jump-started him.
Still has Past Champion status if he wants to make cameo appearances.

Good decision by Molder. He saw the writing on the wall: continue as journeyman or watch your kids grow up. With $12m in the bank I'd have done the same.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Molder had a huge caddie,

Big Eddie. A guy I blog with about golf (no not Robo) knows Big Eddie very well.

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:
Molder had a huge caddie,

Big Eddie.  A guy I blog with about golf (no not Robo) knows Big Eddie very well.

It's "Big E" Eric Bajas... I made the same "Eddie" mistake once until our blog friend corrected me... :-)

Be_the_ball wrote:He threw away a lot of really good finishes with a bad round here and there. Needs to cut out the silly mistakes.

Sheesh... no kidding.  Can't believe how many times I saw Seamus' name way up on the leaderboard in some tournament but by the end of the week he'd crash and burn. He did have a late season run of the Deere,  Barbasol and Canadian Open where he held in pretty good all week though. That's what he's gonna need to a lot more often, especially right away.   Starting 50th in Webbie priority, he's not gonna get in a lot of the fall events (most likely only 3 out of 7 weeks and 8 events), so he needs to make the best of each early start to get that priority ranking up after the first reshuffle because it gets even more difficult for the low priority Webbies early in 2018.   Looking ahead at the Fall Schedule... here's what I see as potential starts for Power

YES - Safeway Open - all webbies got in
NO. - CIMB Cllassic - Limited Field
NO. - CJ Cup Korea - Limited Field
YES - Sanderson Farms - Alternate to WGC-HSBC - all Webbies get in
NO. - Shriners Las Vegas - 16 Webbies didn't get in last year, only hope is Monday 4-spot, a sponsor exemption, or T10 prior
NO. - OHL Mayakoba - 15 Webbies didn't get in last year, only hope is Monday 4-spot, a sponsor exemption, or T10 prior
YES - RSM Classic - 2 courses, All Webbies get in.

Speaking of Sponsor Exemption possibilities...  Seamus didn't get any last year that I can see... so I wouldn't expect him high on a Sponsor exemption consideration list this year.

robopz wrote:

Be_the_ball wrote:He threw away a lot of really good finishes with a bad round here and there. Needs to cut out the silly mistakes.

Sheesh... no kidding.  Can't believe how many times I saw Seamus' name way up on the leaderboard in some tournament but by the end of the week he'd crash and burn. He did have a late season run of the Deere,  Barbasol and Canadian Open where he held in pretty good all week though. That's what he's gonna need to a lot more often, especially right away.   Starting 50th in Webbie priority, he's not gonna get in a lot of the fall events (most likely only 3 out of 7 weeks and 8 events), so he needs to make the best of each early start to get that priority ranking up after the first reshuffle because it gets even more difficult for the low priority Webbies early in 2018.   Looking ahead at the Fall Schedule... here's what I see as potential starts for Power

YES - Safeway Open - all webbies got in
NO. - CIMB Cllassic - Limited Field
NO. - CJ Cup Korea - Limited Field
YES - Sanderson Farms - Alternate to WGC-HSBC - all Webbies get in
NO. - Shriners Las Vegas - 16 Webbies didn't get in last year, only hope is Monday 4-spot, a sponsor exemption, or T10 prior
NO. - OHL Mayakoba - 15 Webbies didn't get in last year, only hope is Monday 4-spot, a sponsor exemption, or T10 prior
YES - RSM Classic - 2 courses, All Webbies get in.

Speaking of Sponsor Exemption possibilities...  Seamus didn't get any last year that I can see... so I wouldn't expect him high on a Sponsor exemption consideration list this year.

Indeed Robo, he needs good results right out of the blocks. Hopefully though this being his second season will help him as everything won't be new. But look, it's tough on the PGATour, if he wants it he's going to have to toughen up a bit mentally and get on with it. His game is good enough to get him up the leaderboard, if he can cut out the Vertigo he should be well enough placed to keep his card.

We go again:
Q-School for the web.com Tour has been underway and "First Stage" gets going in earnest this week.
Haven't seen any unusual entries, though noticed the name of Andrea Pavan - who seems to have lost his way in Europe.
Ben Briscoe, Greg Eason and Kevin Phelan are playing this week - more next week!

I posted the 2017-18 ET schedule links here... but figured it was best in it's own thread, so I deleted here an started new thread... https://www.606v2.com/t66495-2017-2018-european-tour-schedule

So-so start for Greg Eason in the q-school but much better from London's Liam Ainsworth. One off the early lead of Fred Funk's lad, who Funk'd the Euro 1st stage but played well in the US pre-qualifier.

Other than those two, Briscoe and Phelan, only other GB&I representation I can see is Brandon Robinson-Thompson at the Texas venue, possibly the only Isle of Wight native playing the pro circuits? Good college record and some solid mini-tour scoring all summer, he might be one to watch.

Liam Ainsworth & Brandon R-T are new names to moi. I see R-T is at USC Aiken; one or two top class courses around there, he might even find Kisner and Scott Brown to play with.


Field announced for the TW money-for-nothing gig in the Bahamas this December; he's not in the field for some reason, but Fleetwood,
Rose, Molinari and Noren are, plus the usual US suspects.

Hey, I thought the pros were tired after a long season . . . . . .

Doug Ferguson's AP column this week throws up a couple of interesting Tour tid-bits:
1).The Washington DC tournament will be played, apparently in the DC area, in 2018 regardless of sponsorship - dismissing speculation that the tournament, altho' listed on the schedule, might not happen.

2).The Tour expresses concerns that Bridgestone might not renew their contract for the WGC event, usually held the week before the August PGA Championship.
So: Is that another sign of the US golfing calendar being reconfigured? Perhaps an isolated end July/early August date without the Major to enhance it reduces the cachet?
All the 3 NA WGC's, or at least their dates, seem now to be in play.

Also, circumstantial confirmation on pgatour.com that Senden and Jacobson have Major Medical Extensions; Harrington has a "Minor" medical (9 tournaments), as does Beef (just 3 tournaments).

Be_the_ball wrote:
Indeed Robo, he needs good results right out of the blocks. Hopefully though this being his second season will help him as everything won't be new. But look, it's tough on the PGATour, if he wants it he's going to have to toughen up a bit mentally and get on with it. His game is good enough to get him up the leaderboard, if he can cut out the Vertigo he should be well enough placed to keep his card.

pretty much the story for all of them. All 50 of these web.com guys can play. The difference between them will be those who have the head for it. Golf is hard.

Looked to me Seamus was starting to figure it out later in the season. Not every week, bit more as he went along. To advance to full exempt class, a guy doesn't have to be a world beater, he just can't afford to be the kind of guy that beats himself too often.

kwinigolfer wrote:Doug Ferguson's AP column this week throws up a couple of interesting Tour tid-bits:
1).The Washington DC tournament will be played, apparently in the DC area, in 2018 regardless of sponsorship - dismissing speculation that the tournament, altho' listed on the schedule, might not happen.

2).The Tour expresses concerns that Bridgestone might not renew their contract for the WGC event, usually held the week before the August PGA Championship.
So: Is that another sign of the US golfing calendar being reconfigured? Perhaps an isolated end July/early August date without the Major to enhance it reduces the cachet?
All the 3 NA WGC's, or at least their dates, seem now to be in play.

Probably good news for the DC area. Don't know to what extent it's TW or Tour interests propping up the event for a year, but that usually doesn't happen unless they see a future for the event. But with so much up in the air regarding the following year schedule, this might be just a case of Monahan keeping options open.

Bridgestone is more concerning. WGC sponsor tab is about 50% over a regular event. We know they deliver the quality field, but in general the WGC's aren't delivering a corresponding lift in audience/branding... at least not here in the US. So value becomes a real question. We've seen it with the other WGC's sponsor challenges over the last 5-8 years as well. Even years before the Trump fiasco, the Tour had to "entice" Cadillac to come in as a last minute white knight, and now that event is being sponsored by "some guy in Mexico". Dell on the other hand looks as solid as they get.

As for Houston.... No news is bad news. Every rumor regarding title sponsor here seems to go down in flames as quickly as they pop up. Tour isn't signalling anything is close either.

robo,
Would think the revised Tour schedule in 2019 will offer the opportunity for Monahan to have assessed his options for DC - something has to give to make it work and DC looks the most likely sacrificial lamb. Possibly Bridgestone too - would the Tour be invested in keeping Firestone as a Tour venue?

Strange that Houston is in question given the corporations who are HQ'd in the area, not to mention what I would imagine is an attractive (pre-Masters) date. Companies there have been manipulating the worldwide oil markets for so long you'd think they'd dip into their petty cash for some community benefit (tho' it'd probably draw unwanted attention . . . . . . . ).

Happy to hear that Dell is rock solid; seems a great natural fit.

kwinigolfer wrote:
2).The Tour expresses concerns that Bridgestone might not renew their contract for the WGC event, usually held the week before the August PGA Championship.
So: Is that another sign of the US golfing calendar being reconfigured? Perhaps an isolated end July/early August date without the Major to enhance it reduces the cachet?
All the 3 NA WGC's, or at least their dates, seem now to be in play.

Bridgestone probably spent all their budget on 'Tiger the Endorser'..
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/bridgestone-ceo-woods-more-valuable-endorser-player

Will not miss Firestone CC though...

Kwini... Anything is possible with the DC thing. When I mentioned options, it coul be the Tour doesn't want to stick 3M or Quicken (played in Michigan) in that spot if it's gonna go away after one year anyway.  Or it could be they still value the market, but maybe in early fall. I dunno, so many balls in the air.

But as for the WGC Bridgestone, I don't see any way that's going away. It may not be Bridgestone as the sponsor, or even at Firestone, but WGC's are too valuable properties to the tour to give up. They scuttle somebody else's event way before they scuttle one of their own.

IMO The PGAT is gonna focus on WGC scheduling as the next priority behind the PGA and playoff moves.  I wouldn't be surprised to see one coupled with the Players, another with the Masters, and maybe Bridgestone (or whatever it's called then) coupled with the PGA (or maybe US Open).  It makes sense for the top world players, and gets them all in before the schedule goes to europe.

Then after the playoffs, the focus will switch more international... Possibly even that long talked about WGC being added to South Africa, Australia, Japan or somewhere else over there. PGAT can still make a bundle selling rights internationally in the fall, just not necessarily here in the states against football.

robopz wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Doug Ferguson's AP column this week throws up a couple of interesting Tour tid-bits:
1).The Washington DC tournament will be played, apparently in the DC area, in 2018 regardless of sponsorship - dismissing speculation that the tournament, altho' listed on the schedule, might not happen.

2).The Tour expresses concerns that Bridgestone might not renew their contract for the WGC event, usually held the week before the August PGA Championship.
So: Is that another sign of the US golfing calendar being reconfigured? Perhaps an isolated end July/early August date without the Major to enhance it reduces the cachet?
All the 3 NA WGC's, or at least their dates, seem now to be in play.

Probably good news for the DC area. Don't know to what extent it's TW or Tour interests propping up the event for a year, but that usually doesn't happen unless they see a future for the event. But with so much up in the air regarding the following year schedule, this might be just a case of Monahan keeping options open.

Bridgestone is more concerning. WGC sponsor tab is about 50% over a regular event. We know they deliver the quality field, but in general the WGC's aren't delivering a corresponding lift in audience/branding... at least not here in the US. So value becomes a real question. We've seen it with the other WGC's sponsor challenges over the last 5-8 years as well.  Even years before the Trump fiasco, the Tour had to "entice" Cadillac to come in as a last minute white knight, and now that event is being sponsored by "some guy in Mexico".  Dell on the other hand looks as solid as they get.

As for Houston.... No news is bad news.  Every rumor regarding title sponsor here seems to go down in flames as quickly as they pop up. Tour isn't signalling anything is close either.  

Now we're getting news about Valero extending their commitment to San Antonio thru' 2018, and confirmation that the 2019 event, at least, will be staged the week before The Masters. Only time that's happened for 10 years or more is 2013 and that was due to an unusual series of calendar quirks. No news that all this affects Houston. Pure speculation will ensue.

Surely Alamo Car Hire should be sponsoring San Antonio?