PGA Tour: Malaysia / S.Korea: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Well done Kevin Tway; as they say, it's been coming.
And the Tways join duos Heafner, Boros, Geiberger, Haas & Stadler as winning father/son PGA Tour champs in the past 50 years.
And there are at least half a dozen young guns playing in First Stage Q-School hoping to emulate Dad as a Tour winner - but they have to get there first.

2).Tway Junior is in Kuala Lumpur for the CIMB Classic this week with plenty of other middle-of-the-road Tour players who have qualified for limited field, money-for-nothing events in Asia. But Justin Thomas is here, and so is Paul Casey.
You can't blame Paul who is also among the early commitments for next week's CJ Cup and is qualified for the WGC-HSBC Champions. He may not be the only one, but what a way to fulfil his 15-event obligation?
He can add the Tournament of Champions, WGC-Mexico, WGC-MatchPlay and probably WGC-FedEx to his schedule, all limited field events with guaranteed money and FedEx Points.
A successful season would see him add two more  such who-said-the-PGA-Tour-doesn't-pay-appearance-fees? tournaments at the BMW and Tour Championship.
Nice work if you can earn it.

3).So, the schedule this autumn looks like this:
Last week: Safeway
This week: CIMB
Next week: CJ Cup
Oct 25th: WGC-HSBC Champions and Sanderson Farms
Nov 1st: Las Vegas
Nov 8th: Mayakoba
Nov 15th: RSM

4).Hurricane Michael permitting, this week also sees the final "regular season" tournament on the Champions Tour, in soggy North Carolina. Following Sunday's play, the season's Top 72 will play a 3-tournament championship series, with next week's field of 72 being whittled down to 54 in week 2 and 36 in week 3. These are good tournaments, much easier to follow for US-based viewers than "Big Tour" events halfway across the world.
Langer has finished 1st or 2nd the past six years; Montgomerie runnered up three of those years whilst Jimenez, Broadhurst and Parnevik will be among Europeans joining Bernie & Col this year.
Darren Clarke hasn't done anything in his young Senior career to suggest he'll be anything other than a ceremonial entry every week; as far as I can tell he has a two-year exemption but he'll need to sharpen up if he's to continue his exemption after that.

5).And First Stage of web.com Q-School wraps up this week, Stage 2 goes at the end of the month and Final Stage in early December. Haven't seen any notable European Tour golfers among those competing, which is hardly surprising.

6).Hoping Cameron Smith wins this week but hope even more that I'll be fast asleep if/when he does.

I hadn’t read anything suggesting his 3 months out was suspicious. Wasn’t he very open in saying it was a wrist injury? It also put him out of Masters, which I don’t think a secretive PGAT ban would do.

Haven't heard anything suspicious about his absence either, but the PGA Tour's ludicrous rule of confidentiality on any and all penalties (except very specific PEDS's) will always lead to rumours that can never be dispelled.

PS: Good finish from Rafa, but disappointing bogey at the last from Poults when a birdie would have been worth $hundreds. Ho-hum from Casey, missed opportunity from McDowell, decent finish by Hatton, promising by Danny Willett.

beninho wrote:Koepka is probably a deserved number 1, what with winning 2/3rds of his entered majors this year. I did read sonething about his suspiciously 3 month absence earlier this year, and whether it was doping ban based but kept quiet. I'm not saying I believe it, but I also wouldn't be surprised.

IMO: Fake News,

It was pretty well documented that Koepka was having issues with his left wrist at the end of last year

He finished DFL at both the Hero World Challenge (by 3 shots) and the Sentry Tournament of Champions (6 shots). He wasn't in poor form going into those events, finishing 2nd (HSBC) and 1st (Dunlop Phoenix in Japan) in previous two tournaments

Here is an article from Mid January documenting the injury and that he was hoping to play Phoenix and Pebble Beach.

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2018/01/07/wrist-injury-baffles-brooks-koepka.html

super_realist wrote:
You were the one that first raised populations or did you forget that? That's why I mentioned it because you were talking as if the inferred huge population of Europe was an advantage to Europe.

Excuse me?  Exactly where did I mention huge European population?  Maybe on a previous thead because I can't find any mention here.

Hello? Any one home?

GPB wrote:

America will keep on losing with this short sighted non strategy.

I haven't checked lately, but the last time I checked, USA won in 2016, won in 2008, and lost by one point in 2010 and 2012.  

Even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain

Further to the rights and wrongs of the “Asian Swing”, and the difficulties that some Euros have trying to play both tours. Any player looking to do the same should hire Rafa’s manager.
The FedEx points from his fast finish this week should see him right until the spring now, even if he struggles next week on a course he has a good record on. This is his third season as a PGAT member, and in that time he’s had 6 top 25s (of 18) and 4 top 10s (of 10) in Asian events. That steals him a march for the rest of the PGAT wraparound season where so many others haven’t got going yet. And also allows him to stock up on Euro events later while others are playing catch-up: this year he played six regular events in Europe (Spain, Wentworth, Italy, LGN, Ireland and Scotland). Last year it was only four in Europe but more ET-focused in spring, playing Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Malaysia and India by early March (plus tagging Hong Kong on to the autumn Asian swing).
All in all seems a much more balanced schedule than a lot of Euros who struggle to maintain both tours; good to see Hatton and Noren (and Willett) following the lead this week.

I think Rafa has some digs in Bali, probably a nice place to base yourself in while in Asia.

He didn't want the break in many ways, but he also got an otherwise welcome few weeks off between the Beemer and KL. As you say Ned, Rafa has got it right, securing cards etc being so crucial early in the season; now he's well placed in the R2D and has one foot in the 2019/20 PGA Tour season as well.

And, not entirely sure of the details, but Corey Pavin was assessed a one-stroke penalty for slow play on the Seniors' back nine today.
Never thought he was the slowest player around but he looked aghast when told the news.

NedB-H wrote:Further to the rights and wrongs of the “Asian Swing”, and the difficulties that some Euros have trying to play both tours. Any player looking to do the same should hire Rafa’s manager.
The FedEx points from his fast finish this week should see him right until the spring now, even if he struggles next week on a course he has a good record on. This is his third season as a PGAT member, and in that time he’s had 6 top 25s (of 18) and 4 top 10s (of 10) in Asian events. That steals him a march for the rest of the PGAT wraparound season where so many others haven’t got going yet. And also allows him to stock up on Euro events later while others are playing catch-up: this year he played six regular events in Europe (Spain, Wentworth, Italy, LGN, Ireland and Scotland). Last year it was only four in Europe but more ET-focused in spring, playing Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Malaysia and India by early March (plus tagging Hong Kong on to the autumn Asian swing).
All in all seems a much more balanced schedule than a lot of Euros who struggle to maintain both tours; good to see Hatton and Noren (and Willett) following the lead this week.

Kwini: NedB-H

Thomas Pieters tried that recipe last year.

T44 CiMB
T28 CJ CUP
T71 HSBC

He basically quit the PGATour after that pathetic performance.

#1, Pieters was in desperately poor form.
#2, His base was Antwerp, not Bali.

The other thing with Pieters is that he's never declared any interest in living in the US. To some it's the Holy Grail, but not to everyone.

FWIW, Pieters finished 11th in Turkey the week following HSBC in Turkey.

NedB-H wants other European pros to follow RCB's recipe. I don't think many Euro pros will be that interested in a Bali gazebo.

If you play horrendously you risk losing your card however well you schedule. Pieters took 42 essentially free FedEx points from those three events despite playing hopelessly. If he’d played ET those weeks instead he’d have gained a few places in the R2D rankings for 2017 and been starting both tours from scratch in January 2018.

Also: if the travel is the problem any Euro Tour player with a few years experience will have racked up their air miles already. Even the Challenge Tour just finished up a two leg China swing before heading to Oman, they also have events in Kazakhstan, India and Kenya. You don’t get far playing professional golf in Europe unless you travel widely (or you’re Florian Fritsch).

NedB-H wrote:If you play horrendously you risk losing your card however well you schedule. Pieters took 42 essentially free FedEx points from those three events despite playing hopelessly. If he’d played ET those weeks instead he’d have gained a few places in the R2D rankings for 2017 and been starting both tours from scratch in January 2018.

Exactly. No amount of creative scheduling is going to help you if you play badly.

I'd be interested in a Bali gazebo . . . . . . . .


It's all very well to say nothing can help you if you play badly, but at least you can register some guaranteed points, plus clock up some of the 15-minimum events, if that was ever likely to become an issue; i.e. Don't follow the Lowry example.
Casey also does that very wisely. Plus they've both still got the WGC's (and TOC for PC) for more faux appearance fees.

What's all this about Sabbatini seeking Slovakian citizenship?
(Wish Drumpf would seek Slovenian citizenship . . . . . )

kwinigolfer wrote:What's all this about Sabbatini seeking Slovakian citizenship?
(Wish Drumpf would seek Slovenian citizenship . . . . . )

Gabriella Sabbatini?

kwinigolfer wrote:What's all this about Sabbatini seeking Slovakian citizenship?
(Wish Drumpf would seek Slovenian citizenship . . . . . )

Maybe he wants to play Ryder Cup, like Frittelli...

I think Peter Karmis was the first to do this, turning Greek after 14 years and 7 pro wins as a South African. No one who’s shown interest yet is a sufficiently big name for it to matter, but if it keeps going it might require action.

McNulty turned Irish but I think that was in search of a flag of convenience.

If he plans to seek Saudi citizenship I hope he'll send somebody else to pick up the papers.

pedro wrote:If he plans to seek Saudi citizenship I hope he'll send somebody else to pick up the papers.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Jamal together again . . . . . .

There's something more to that than meets the media, methinks.

kwinigolfer wrote:

pedro wrote:If he plans to seek Saudi citizenship I hope he'll send somebody else to pick up the papers.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Jamal together again . . . . . .

There's something more to that than meets the media, methinks.

In a way the cover up just sounds too amateurish. What did the saudis expect would happen if Jamal 'successfully' disappeared? That people just didn't notice? Maybe it just illustrates the arrogance and medieval thinking of some regimes.

It's also interesting that Turkey didn't bother to conceal that they bugged the place big time.

Erdogan trying to look like a liberal through all this. Imprisoning and torturing journalists is one thing, but butchery is a bridge too far for him...or at least as far as we know.
In relation to the Saudis, of course they can get away with it, they are getting away with it, because the West doesn’t really care enough. If they don’t care about schools being bombed in Yemen (other than caring about wanting to provide the bombs), why would they do anything about the death of a journalist?

kwinigolfer wrote:McNulty turned Irish but I think that was in search of a flag of convenience.

I remember there was some media chat in the late 80s / early 90s about McNulty taking Irish citizenship so he could play Ryder Cup but nothing came of it at the time. I think it may have been wishful thinking by journalists posing the question rather than McNulty actively seeking it.

The official reason for why he did change in 2003 was to make it easier to get a passport as he embarked on his Senior Tour career (at the time Zimbabwean passports could take up to two years to get renewed). However not too long ago (3-4 years, I cannot remember exactly) Tony Johnstone was commentating on a Senior tour comp when he said that McNulty had switched for political reasons as he held a strong dislike to Mugabe and his regime. McNulty had in the past been outspoken against Mugabe.

pedro wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:

pedro wrote:If he plans to seek Saudi citizenship I hope he'll send somebody else to pick up the papers.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Jamal together again . . . . . .

There's something more to that than meets the media, methinks.

In a way the cover up just sounds too amateurish. What did the saudis expect would happen if Jamal 'successfully' disappeared? That people just didn't notice? Maybe it just illustrates the arrogance and medieval thinking of some regimes.

It's also interesting that Turkey didn't bother to conceal that they bugged the place big time.

Thereby screwing over their diplomatic relationships with everyone. Erdoghan's a childish thug. Anyway, we're off topic somewhat here...

Interesting "statistical" piece on Franny Molinari:

https://www.pgatour.com/long-form/2018/10/22/francesco-molinari-distance-gain.html

Suggesting that length does matter.

kwinigolfer wrote:Interesting "statistical" piece on Franny Molinari:

https://www.pgatour.com/long-form/2018/10/22/francesco-molinari-distance-gain.html

Suggesting that length does matter.

Great article thanks for sharing

I've heard interesting things about the Superspeed Golf system which is designed to increase swing speed. I wonder if he's been doing that.

Increasing swing speed by 1mph allegedly adds 3 yards.

super_realist wrote:
You were the one that first raised populations or did you forget that? That's why I mentioned it because you were talking as if the inferred huge population of Europe was an advantage to Europe.

GPB wrote:Excuse me?  Exactly where did I mention huge European population?  

Hello? Any one home?

super_realist wrote:I've heard interesting things about the Superspeed Golf system which is designed to increase swing speed. I wonder if he's been doing that.

Increasing swing speed by 1mph allegedly adds 3 yards.

"superspeed golf system"? What a naff name.

Sounds about as bad as this: http://rotacaddy.co.uk/

raycastleunited wrote:

super_realist wrote:I've heard interesting things about the Superspeed Golf system which is designed to increase swing speed. I wonder if he's been doing that.

Increasing swing speed by 1mph allegedly adds 3 yards.

"superspeed golf system"? What a naff name.

Sounds about as bad as this:  http://rotacaddy.co.uk/

That will be going straight into Shane Lowry's bag.

super_realist wrote:

raycastleunited wrote:

super_realist wrote:I've heard interesting things about the Superspeed Golf system which is designed to increase swing speed. I wonder if he's been doing that.

Increasing swing speed by 1mph allegedly adds 3 yards.

"superspeed golf system"? What a naff name.

Sounds about as bad as this:  http://rotacaddy.co.uk/

That will be going straight into Shane Lowry's bag.

Fitted to hold pints..