PGA Tour: The "Wells Fargo" Returns to Quail Hollow: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).The Tour caravan travels east to Charlotte, North Carolina, this week for the "Wells Fargo Championship", sponsored by the bank of the same name who are seldom out of the business page headlines as they seem to be continuously forking out gazillion dollar fines as penalties for scumbag banking practices.
But they stage a fine golf tournament at Charlotte's Quail Hollow golf club which only nine months ago saw Justin Thomas win the PGA Championship. Once again, the winner's purse of almost $1.4M is one of the Tour's highest and the quality of the field reflects both that and the pros' respect for the Quail Hollow course and the tournament management.

2).The opening six holes were redesigned in advance of the PGA, not necessarily earning much acclaim from the players, and some rough edges (especially inappropriate length of #'s 1 and 4) will be smoothed over in time for Thursday's opening drives. I like the final five holes as much as any collection of finishing holes on Tour - especially the (sometimes) driveable Par-4 14th, the Par-5 15th and the Par-4 18th. Don't think there's a fairer short Par-4 on Tour than the 14th.

3).Last week's Zurich Classic team event didn't attract much interest on here, though there were some interesting tidbits to come out of it.
Starting on the first tee:
Haven't seen how others do "Walk Up" music but what's the point of just 10 seconds of it? Somehow, and don't have any idea why, the audio on TV was horrendous, plus there were meagre crowds to enjoy/suffer it all. They need to rethink it, meaningless as it was presented last week.

4).Interesting that 1st and 2nd were teams comprising a previous course winner, plus a Tour hustler, each sponsored by Las Vegas casinos. Horschel & Piercy plus Dufner & Perez. Should've seen that coming I suppose.

5).Some good news for a couple of "journeymen" whose Tour Membership bubble burst last year so that this season they're playing on "Conditional" status for those who completed the 16/17 campaign in the 126th - 150th position:
Daniel Summerhays first earned his Tour card for 2011 and has won almost $9M without winning. His brother coaches Tony Finau and they're apparently good friends, so much so that they played in New Orleans as a team for the second year running - they finished T6 and took home $170K+ each.
Summerhays threw his Tour status down the drain at Memorial last season when he got down in five from the middle of the final round's 18th fairway which meant that he slid from T6 (with a bogey) to T10, then repeated a similar trick in Washington a month later.

6).While: Just a few weeks ago David Hearn was twittering about trying to find a partner. He eventually teamed up with Seamus Power and the pair finished T10 with $73K apiece.
All of which goes to prove that the life of a non-winner journeyman on Tour is precarious. There's good golf in there, but it just has to come out at the right time or a potentially high-flying career can go down the tubes in a relative flash.

7).Anyway, the Zurich attracted a strong field and it seems the format, perhaps with a tweak (scramble anyone?) or two to make it more exciting in the final furlong. A sponsorship contract extension thru 2026 incents both sponsor and Tour to come up with the right formula.

8).Good news obviously for Seamus Power as he continues to flirt with the Top 125 (ten-place jump to #119 plus improved "reshuffle" status) and job security for another year.
And good news too for Chris Paisley as his pitch from 40+ yards on the 72nd hole found the bottom of the cup and earned him (and Fleetwood) a T4 result, which means an entree into this week's Quail Hollow field.
Fleetwood, Fisher and Hatton are also playing.

9).Rory (29th birthday this Friday) is the only repeat winner at Quail Hollow, champ in 2010 and 2015 plus a play-off loss (to Fowler in 2012) and three other Top Tens. While Mickelson has 7 x Top 5's! Tough to argue against either of them, but you won't get a decent price about either. But Lucas Glover is a local-ish boy and has a win and runner up and might offer better value. I kinda like the finger-snapping Chesson Hadley as a live each-way chance.
Not sure about this week, but Tom Hoge is someone to keep an eye out for, getting better results almost weekly.

10).Padraig Harrington was rabbitting on a few days ago about targetting 2020 for a run at Ryder Cup Captain - all a bit presumptuous with Lee Westwood pretty much the same age.
Not convinced that either would be a great Captain, but the European Tour will be in a Lyle/Jimenez-type pickle pretty soon with the Poulter, Stenson, Casey, Donald, McDowell, Rose generation all aging up fast!
And that's after thinking Karlsson, Lawrie, Hanson & Howell will miss out.

super_realist wrote:I couldn't care less if someone anchors. Can't really see why people get so upset about it.

Well, how about because it's cheating and defeats the basic fundamental that it's all about 'swinging' a club. Presumably you wouldn't see a problem with CoR values of 1.0 for drivers then? Or ever increasing ball speeds off the clubface? It can't be a free-for-all.

Its cheating now, but it wasn't cheating then. It was all handled so badly.

It would always have been cheating had the governing bodies bothered to apply the rules properly from the introduction of anchored putters.

navyblueshorts wrote:

super_realist wrote:I couldn't care less if someone anchors. Can't really see why people get so upset about it.

Well, how about because it's cheating and defeats the basic fundamental that it's all about 'swinging' a club. Presumably you wouldn't see a problem with CoR values of 1.0 for drivers then? Or ever increasing ball speeds off the clubface? It can't be a free-for-all.

Not really the same is it? An illegal COR gives you an advantage of increased ball speed.
There's no evidence whatsoever that anchoring improves a players putting statistics.

super_realist wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

super_realist wrote:I couldn't care less if someone anchors. Can't really see why people get so upset about it.

Well, how about because it's cheating and defeats the basic fundamental that it's all about 'swinging' a club. Presumably you wouldn't see a problem with CoR values of 1.0 for drivers then? Or ever increasing ball speeds off the clubface? It can't be a free-for-all.

Not really the same is it? An illegal COR gives you an advantage of increased ball speed.
There's no evidence whatsoever that anchoring improves a players putting statistics.

I suspect you'll find that's not the case, but go ahead with that line anyway...

Well if your so certain then please bring up the evidence that proves that anchoring gives the player fewer putts than not anchoring.

Anecdotal but wasn't Bible basher Simpson (sitting joint 1st at Sawgrass) an anchorer when he won the USOpen? Having said that, other ones I remember were Scott & Bradley, where are they in the world rankings compared to where they were in the broomehandle days?

He might have been, but that isn't evidence that anchor putting makes you a better putter. If that was actually true, then  everyone would have been an anchorer back in the days when it was a legal method.

Cardinal Simpson wouldn't be sitting joint first if his putting was that bad with a legal method would he? Kuchar was an anchorer when he won the Players. Hard to argue he's any worse now.


Form can dip for many reasons, not just putting.

super_realist wrote:Well if your so certain then please bring up the evidence that proves that anchoring gives the player fewer putts than not anchoring.

Firstly, to be a pedant, as I know you'll appreciate it, it's "you're", not "your". Thanks aren't necessary .

More relevant to your question though, how about the following, which would suggest an advantage:

https://www.paulhurrion.com/media/the-long-goodbye/

Or, which although not statistically supporting a mechanical advantage, shows a significant effect re. putting in a 'high pressure' situation:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167945716301014

I suggest to you that the evidence so far available supports that anchored putting does indeed provide some advantage. I quite like the Hale Irwin quote at the top of the second source I cited:

Hale Irwin wrote:If you‘ve got something that eliminates those nerves and anxieties, then I think we’re missing out on a part of the game that has made it what it is.

I'm sure you'll disagree.

Stupid thing now is the faux anchoring from the likes of Kuchar, Langer, McCarron and many others with basically the same effect.
Storm in a teacup that the USGA and R&A turned into the mother of all hurricanes.

Fair enough Navy, that's all I was asking for as I've never seen a single person provide any evidence.
However I question how much improvement it gives anyone given the tiny number of players who did anchor.

Don't put much stall in Hale Irwin's anecdotal quote though. There's no evidence it eliminates nerves and anxiety.

super_realist wrote:Fair enough Navy, that's all I was asking for as I've never seen a single person provide any evidence.
However I question how much improvement it gives anyone given the tiny number of players who did anchor.

Don't put much stall in Hale Irwin's anecdotal quote though. There's no evidence it eliminates nerves and anxiety.

That's just Hale Irwin's snarky dig at Langer, in case St.Bernhard breaks all Irwin's senior records.