PGA Tour: Hello Columbus: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Finally! The Tour caravan leaves the West and the South, for a week anyway, for Columbus, Ohio, and Jack Nicklaus's event, the Memorial Tournament, at his Muirfield Village - a top class event at a fantastic course.
Only Jon Rahm is missing from the world's Top 8 golfers and there won't be a stronger field outside the Majors, some WGC's and The Players all year. Anywhere.

2).Justin Rose is a course specialist, but will he have enough gas in the tank after his brilliant win at Colonial?
Long after his disingenuous nonsense about having to play Colonial as his "plus one" tournament is long forgotten, we'll remember Rosey taking the lead with a -10 start on Thursday and Friday, then repeating the trick over the weekend, spreadeagling the field with only Koepka putting up a realistic challenge.

3).Rose has obviously secured his spot in the Play-Offs, almost certainly has done enough to qualify for East Lake's Tour Championship. But what of other Europeans?
Some have clinched their Top 125 positions and competed frequently enough to be on track to fulfil criteria for playing next year, but others are struggling. Let's have a look:

4).Clinched!
*Rose, Rahm, Casey, Noren, Poulter, McIlroy, Rafa C-B, Fleetwood, Knox.
And, assuming 400 x FedEx points is the qualifying threshold (altho' stats suggest it'll be more like 375), Cejka and Laird are almost there.

5).But these two have work to do, quality of play and quantity of events played, despite their "Major" exemptions:
*Stenson has the points but only 7 tournaments played. He's playing the next three weeks and will presumably play Carnoustie, Bridgestone and the PGA. And he may "defend" his Greensboro title. Add in the Ryder Cup and Northern Trust and he'll be OK, tho' imagine he'll take a couple of "mental health" weekends during a busy schedule.
*Sergio has spent more time in Kiev and Crans recently than he has on Tour and perhaps he's checked out for the season, what with only 9 events under his belt (does Valspar count as his "extra"?), only a 70th place and four missed cuts since March, and just 316 points earned. He'll presumably play Shinnecock, Carnoustie, Bridgestone and the PGA, but could need another tournament (plus the Ryder Cup) to assure he's OK for 2018/19. Hopefully he'll play Hartford where he's played well in the past.

6).And some others have played often enough but not well enough!
*Molinari was terrific at Wentworth but only has 253 pts in the US. Given that he arguably rescued his Tour career at Memorial a few years ago, this week's action in Brescia comes at a bad time for him.
*Seamus Power (230 pts) will get into most fields after this week, and some of them will be pretty weak. He just needs to rediscover his form.
*McDowell is in trouble, just 216 pts and no finish better than 10th for almost two years. Not in Carnoustie, Bridgestone or the PGA.
*Lowry: 117 pts earned, not in Shinnecock, Bridgestone or the PGA and, barring a miracle, seemingly destined for Past Champion status next season as he loses his Bridgestone exemption. Hello Europe.

7).Whilst this lot seem to have thrown in the towel:
*Pieters, Fisher and Kaymer - none of them on pace to play often enough and certainly none playing well enough to turn their Tour season around, tho' with Pieters especially you never know.

8).Which, apart from one or two sundry Europeans (Lingmerth, Jaeger, Freddie etc), and Donald & Harrington who will take exemptions next year, leaves the enigma that is Tyrrell Hatton.
Hatton has 331 points but played just 9 events. He needs a return to form and to find at least one more event to assure himself of keeping his card. It could be a close run thing, and in the heart of the European season.
He's received a pretty bad press over here, possibly with justification. Iffy schedule; does he have his heart in it?

9).Muirfield Village has its course specialists, Woods obviously, and Justin Rose. Plus Kuchar who comes in to town in his worst form for yonks.
Can't think of a course that should suit Rory any better but his results haven't really reflected that. Time for that to change? 'Course, same could be said of Dustin and Justin (Thomas) too. And the course could be a little softer than they'd like, warm and stormy forecast for Thursday & Friday, clearing out and dry for the weekend.

10).Let's close with congratulations for Paul Broadhurst. 100% Ryder Cup record (in a losing Team effort) but his only Major distinction was the 63 he shot at St.Andrews in 1990.
Until he joined the Senior Tour, that is, and now he's added last week's Senior PGA Championship to the Senior Open he won at Carnoustie in 2016.
With Miguel Angel Jimenez winning the previous week's Tradition, and earlier "W"'s for Broadhurst & Langer, that's a good start for Europeans on the Champions Tour this year - already almost $2.4M of Champions Tour earnings in Broadhurst's bank account plus European Seniors' earnings. Oh to be 50 - if you've already passed that milestone by and can remember Ali MacGraw in Goodbye Columbus, anyway!

IMO, the Tour would have gone with normal one tee (twosomes) teetimes if not for US Open Sectional qualifying tomorrow.

Not at home at the moment but Sky usually do a red button thingy enabling you to watch either Euro or US golf.

Seems like the breakaway group will keep ahead of the posse, with Thomas, Rory, DJ, Fowler, Woods, Phil, Hideki, King Louis, Rose, Stenson, Kuchar all destined for Top 20's, none really threatening the lead.
Strange stuff, but perhaps in a couple of years' time, we'll see Cantlay, Niemann and the mad professor in a completely different light.

It'll be interesting to see how long the final threesome take - will they beat the thunderstorms??!!

5 1/2 hours for the final group. And now for more!

GPB wrote:No, I didn't see that.  Good for him.  (somewhat) validates his Web-com exemptions.

John Elway is also trying to qualify for the US Senior Open.  not sure when.

Elway shot 80, tied for 18th.

Not exactly the result I was looking forward to at Memorial, DeC is not my idea of a fun guy to follow; saw him play half a dozen holes two years ago and he was miserable. Hopefully he'll lighten up in his old age.
Impressive run by Ben An, the only one of the chasers to sustain a challenge.
All of the leaders were in the early/late tee "waves" for Rounds 1 & 2, a 3-stroke advantage on the first tee. Not sure, but think DJ & Rory were the best of the late/early guys.

European Ryder Cup Team looks like this:
Molinari
Rose
Rahm
McIlroy
Hatton
Rafa
Noren
Fleetwood
Then, outside the automatic qualifiers:
Sergio
Poulter
Fitz
Casey

Which means Stenson is the 13th man.
I'd choose Stenson over Fitzpatrick if that were the choice, but Hatton has been in terrible form. Otherwise, and assuming good health and fitness, I like the team.

Glad to see Frankie inch past Patrick Reed in the RtD standings.  After a win and a 2nd in the last two Rolex Series event, you would think he has a big lead over someone who has not played a Euro Event outside of the continent of North America.

Edit: Jimenez is the Euro Leader in Stroke average.

I ended up watching a fair bit yesterday, dog walking aside, the early start / finish certainly helped as Sky went straight from Italy to Ohio with their live coverage.

But I did find my attention drifting often to my book or phone as DeChambeau and Cantlay are so slow. I heard they had been put on the clock but nothing more after that. Did they speed up? It certainly did not seem like it.

Also, and apologies if this has been discussed but they mentioned in commentary that Patton Kizzire despite two wins this season hadn't yet qualified for the US Open and was making his way to the final qualifying today. What's that all about?

GPB wrote:Glad to see Frankie inch past Patrick Reed in the RtD standings.  After a win and a 2nd in the last two Rolex Series event, you would think he has a big lead over someone who has not played a Euro Event of the continent of North America.

Well, he has.

wiretapper wrote:I ended up watching a fair bit yesterday, dog walking aside, the early start / finish certainly helped as Sky went straight from Italy to Ohio with their live coverage.

But I did find my attention drifting often to my book or phone as DeChambeau and Cantlay are so slow. I heard they had been put on the clock but nothing more after that. Did they speed up? It certainly did not seem like it.

Also, and apologies if this has been discussed but they mentioned in commentary that Patton Kizzire despite two wins this season hadn't yet qualified for the US Open and was making his way to the final qualifying today. What's that all about?

Two wins PGATour between US Opens used to be an exemption into the USOpen, but that exemption went away several years ago. (I think it was after they exempted the OWGR top 60, rather than the Top 50). Kizzire got into the Top 60 after his Sony win, but he has earned ZERO OWGR pts since WGC Match play to fall from #51 to #65.

Links to US Open qualifiers

Walton Heath

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2018/tournamentid=2018047/leaderboard/index.html#/leaderboard

Domestic

https://www.mondayq.com/us-open-qualifying

Pretty generous to the Walton Heath qualifier. 14 spots from 108 players (13.0%) vs 54 spots from 744 players in US (7.3 %) and 3/33 from Japan (9.1%)

Spots available per qualifer:

PGATour keeps getting bigger and bigger. Not sure how this impacts Sky Sports telecasts of the PGATour.

https://www.pgatour.com/company/2018/06/04/discovery-pga-tour-create-international-golf-service.html

GPB wrote:Pretty generous to the Walton Heath qualifier.  14 spots from 108 players (13.0%) vs 54 spots from 744 players in US (7.3 %) and 3/33 from Japan (9.1%)

Spots available per qualifer:

I think this is based upon strength of field as per owgr isn't it?
Good to see Scott Gregory looks to have qualified.

I am sure that USGA has some formulas, which probably does not account for the subsidies that the EuroTour gets compared to the PGATour.

as of right now, 25 of the 108 players in the Walton Heath sectional have WD or Retired (not sure of the distinction).

IMO, a players that WDs should not be able to go through sectionals the following year. Not a draconian penalty but a penalty nonetheless.

" . . . . . . . . does not account for the subsidies that the Euro Tour gets" or the way the European Tour players' presence subsidises so many PGA Tour events.

Pretty bad all the w/d's but imagine the USGA doesn't much care, either there or here, as it gets those remaining round a bit more quickly.

In an unrelated note, Faldo reckoned the final threesome took 5hrs 36 minutes to complete Round 4 yesterday at MV.

6 withdrawals already from Memphis, but they get the bonus of Kiradech joining the field.

How long did it take the three-some (Rose, An, Niemann) in front of the final threesome.

I didn't watch the entire telecast, but I heard the final threesome was on the clock on the back nine but back in position on the 15th hole and off the clock.

Faldo seemed to have a burr up his backside early in the round. When the final group finished hole #3, he made a comment that the group behind them (first group off the 10th tee) was waiting in the fairway with their arms crossed. Implication that DeChampeau, Cantlay, Stanley was holding them up. Well the fact is that Rose, An, Niemann were putting out on the 4th green (a par 3) well after Final group reached the 4th tee.

BTW, it was a two some in the third fairway waiting on DeChambeau, Stanley, and Cantlay.

I don’t see why anyone should care about WDs from the qualifying tournaments. What would be the value in sending out players to complete a second 18 when they need to shoot 57 to have a chance to progress? There’s similar bucketloads of WDs every week in the PGAT and Web.com Monday qualifiers. It’s in everyone’s best interests.

Sad to see Sam Horsfield’s implosion at the other end of the leaderboard, sharing the lead to missing out altogether in five holes. Hopefully and Padraig can finish the job.

Saw this on Twitter re Cantlay’s pace. I guess he could make it up elsewhere but this isn’t great.

https://twitter.com/wiley77/status/1003275275923312647?s=21

GPB wrote:BTW, it was a two some in the third fairway waiting on DeChambeau, Stanley, and Cantlay.

GPB,
My complaint is with the Tour, not the golfers, tho' DeC and Can'tlay are pretty brutal.
You can't have it both ways!
When I mentioned that Sabbatini, Danny Lee etc zipped around in 4 1/4 hrs on Thursday, your riposte was that the field was just 120 golfers. Only 73 on Sunday (tho' I know slightly more on the course, but that was the Tour's choice).

WDs could mean the pairing gets unbalanced. A player that is playing well and his two "mates" WD, will leave him as a single when everyone around him might be playing as a threesome.

Most of these guys are professional. They should act like professionals.

GPB it doesn't happen like that. I've been to Walton Heath for a US Qualifier. After round 1 there is a big queue to tee off on the 1st hole. People get shuffled about to make up the pairings. One player was carrying his own bag. Joe Public stepped up and asked if he could caddie for him. The player accepted. Unless they have changed it, you can actally walk alongside the players as they go down a hole. Just give them room when they play, especially on the tee and green. Some players will actually chat to you.

Looks like a 9 man playoff for one place.

Thunderbear and Beef through.

Paul Waring and Ryan Evans the last two left standing in the playoff. Evans came through the massive playoff for the knockout stages in Belgium the other week, must be getting a taste for this sort of thing.

Potential for a very good day for Scottish golf. Richie Ramsay comfortably through at Walton Heath; Russell Knox going well at the same venue as Ryan Lumsden, adopted Scot in his third year at Luke Donald’s old college; and Calum Hill from Kinross in with a shout at the New Jersey venue.

Whatever happened to that Taff Golfer Rhys Davies?

Rhys Davies popped up on Sky a few months back in the studio for their PGAT coverage, showing off his putting. He’s been grafting the Challenge Tour for a few years now, can only assume the rest of his game was in worse shape than the putting. Not much going on in Wales now, Donaldson and Dredge are ancient and Donaldson isn’t really Welsh anyway. They must be hoping that Boote lad who played Walker Cup comes good.

With all his spare time recently, Gareth Bale is probably the best Welsh golfer right now.

Looks like Waring won - strange that he came in to the play-off having the worst second round of the nine of 'em.

Strange that Donaldson & Phillip Price were both born in Pontypridd - my Mum too, but somehow the golfing genes haven't filtered down.

Long old day for Waring, got it to -9 through his first 17, kept it going through 27 then came home in 41, bogey at the last to fall into the playoff in the first place. Bet he’ll sleep well tonight

GPB wrote:WDs could mean the pairing gets unbalanced.  A player that is playing well and his two "mates" WD, will leave him as a single when everyone around him might be playing as a threesome.

Most of these guys are professional.  They should act like professionals.

GPB,
I see that the %age of wd's is really not that much different at the main Columbus qualie. Imagine it will ever be thus and quite understandably so.
Strange to see Russell Knox with a US flag against his name . . . . .

Seamus Power had a US Flag as well.

My WD comment was not aimed at Euros only but since you inquired

18 out of 120 WDed at Columbus (still pending)
31 out of 111 WDed at Walton Heath

What I find odd is that they got Knox wrong but correctly identified Lumsden as a Scot, despite him being an obscure college amateur born in London. Nailed Kristoffer Ventura as a Norwegian too. To be fair these leaderboards are run by the local associations, presumably on limited budgets. Surprising the USGA don’t centralise the online scoring themselves.

I think they were going my what address the golfer put on his registration.

GPB wrote:I think they were going my what address the golfer put on his registration.  

Hence: Lots of Clevelands @ Q-School etc:#IMG

Nice finish from Russell Knox: 2-3-3-3-3

Well done Shane.

It looks like Badds & Adam Scott have qualified also. Happy for Adam - let all that be a lesson for you lad.

Saw a mention that Shane had fallen out with Spencer Levin earlier on: Lowry annoyed at how long Levin was taking over putts, and Levin angry because he’s Spencer Levin and that’s what he does. Would’ve made for an interesting punchup.

Kwini... Remember my message a few weeks ago about Houston Astros owner Jim Crane and the Houston Open? See:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/golf/article/Jim-Crane-delivers-plan-to-keep-Houston-Open-alive-12965634.php#photo-15324633

Is Shane going to get paired with Barnrat? not sure of any other fatties in the field. Maybe Leishman?

GPB wrote:I think they were going my what address the golfer put on his registration.  

That is probably correct. Back when I used to be able to see all the USGA entries they were always listed by the city of current domicile...

robopz wrote:Kwini... Remember my message a few weeks ago about Houston Astros owner Jim Crane and the Houston Open?  See:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/golf/article/Jim-Crane-delivers-plan-to-keep-Houston-Open-alive-12965634.php#photo-15324633

That was top secret robo! There's a little gobbledigook in this article, but hopefully he can make it all come together.
How do you feel about an October date?
I don't like the name dropping, always feels as if there's a bit of a reach there. But good luck, hope there's substance behind the speculation. First things first: Secure the tournament, then be patient and try to secure a more favourable date . . . . . . if October is a bit weak. Post HHI, then twinning with NOLA looks good to moi!

Somewhat related, I wonder how the TV networks feel about the TPC / PGA changes? NBC would possibly be shut out from Valero to the play-offs, with just The Open to break the string.


Lastly, comments about Spencer Levin: I followed him for 18 holes once and that was an enjoyable experience, no noticeably slow play, but one or two things you don't normally see! Entertaining we thought, especially because he's a short hitter and literally uses all the clubs in the bag.

Kwini... I was aware of some of the back and forth of who was/is going to organize/conduct the Houston Open... But not to the extent it was laid out in the article. I was given the sense there was some bad blood in there over the Houston Golf Association becoming so bloated...

Bottom line is Steve Timms is a love him or hate him kind of a guy... Before Steve the HGA was basically an organization of few full-time employees relying primarily on volunteerism... Timms came in from a corporate background, moved the tournament to save $36,000 a year on site fees... But lost most of its 20 years of built-up volunteer support (and heart & soul) in and process... So the tournament went from being one of the tour's largest charity givers because it had to hire staff to do the job is volunteers used to do... to one of its largest spenders with less and less of the percentage going to charity.

Jim Crane is the guy who wants to put it back the way it was... With or without the HGA... But if it's with the HGA that probably means without Steve Timms.

PS... And as for the October date... Spectacular time of year to play golf in Houston weather and course condition wise. It's the best we get. But without some sort of ambassador program or something, it'll probably never get the support of the top players beyond maybe some of the Texas headliners. Crane is only going to be able to call in markers to get some of his big-name friends for so long

GPB wrote:WDs could mean the pairing gets unbalanced.  A player that is playing well and his two "mates" WD, will leave him as a single when everyone around him might be playing as a threesome.

Most of these guys are professional.  They should act like professionals.

Agree that it could be disrespectful for a threesome to leave a single player on his own in R2. But then if a bunch of them do it, I would say it's perfectly ok to reshuffle the groups for the afternoon.

This isn't a weekend medal. Most of these guys will be heading off to Austria, if they have no chance of qualifying it's fair to shoot off early if it means they can catch a plane to Vienna and play in the pro-am the following day or get in a practice round.*

* especially as this week the players won't be able to spend ages consulting course guides and debating shots with their caddies.

The Golf Channel's version of robo's "exclusive":

https://www.golfchannel.com/article/golf-central-blog/report-astros-owner-submits-proposal-save-houston-open/


robo:
Does Memorial Park have the attributes (and infrastructure) necessary to host a successful event?

Nine golfers have withdrawn so far from the Memphis tournament, including Russell Knox. More to come?
EDIT: Five names so far this morning, Keegs, Adam Scott, Schniederjans, Rodgers and RK. Imagine owgr earnings for the winner will now be down to 36, second-weakest field of the year (behind the Byron Nelson).
EDIT: Kizzire also out.

It'll be warm and mostly dry in Memphis, no threat yet of any significant winds.

Long-range forecast for Shinnecock next week is for seasonally normal weather - mild (70's to 80), chance of showers but nothing extreme, enough breeze to make it interesting but nothing more.
In other words, the USGA appear to have no excuse if the course set-up is anything other than perfect, unlike 2004.

Psssst, Holly, it is sectional qualifying, not "sexual" qualifying.

https://twitter.com/danvaline/status/1003835838185082880

kwinigolfer wrote:Long-range forecast for Shinnecock next week is for seasonally normal weather - mild (70's to 80), chance of showers but nothing extreme, enough breeze to make it interesting but nothing more.
In other words, the USGA appear to have no excuse if the course set-up is anything other than perfect, unlike 2004.

I have little faith in the USGA. I would be willing to lay odds that something controversial happens that could have been prevented by better USGA planning.

Sunday, Thai golfers won the US Women Open and the Low Amateur in the US Womens Open. Fortunately Diana Murphy wasn't doing the trophy presentations to butcher those names

GPB wrote:
Sunday, Thai golfers won the US Women Open and the Low Amateur in the US Womens Open.  Fortunately Diana Murphy wasn't doing the trophy presentations to butcher those names

God knows what she can make out of a name like Pornanong Phatlum.

kwinigolfer wrote:

robo:
Does Memorial Park have the attributes (and infrastructure) necessary to host a successful event?

Yes it does. The course was entirely refurbed a few years ago so it has the bones. But it still needs more work to get up to tour standards. They should be able to get that done in 2 years. And the location is fantastic. Immediately adjacent (3-5 minutes door to door) to Houston's uptown Galleria area... Great amenities for players, fans alike. It would be a truly urban venue... Think if a tournament were to be held in NY's Central Park...