PGA Tour: Valero Texas Open: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).This year's last stop before The Masters is in the San Antonio area for the Valero Texas Open. The winner at TPC San Antonio takes the final Masters invitation, if not otherwise exempt, adding potentially to the field of, apparently, 86 golfers heading to Augusta.
The last time "Texas" was in this position was in 2013, when Martin Laird conjured up a final round 63 to win by one stroke from McIlroy, with Furyk, Horschel and Hoffman T3, and Harrington & David Lynn close behind.
Hopefully the European run of four consecutive PGA Tour strokeplay winners will be extended, though seriously doubt that Martin Laird will be the man to do it.

2).Kevin Kisner won last week's MatchPlay survival-of-the-fittest at Pete Dye's Austin CC and, as noted a few days ago, Kisner is a Pete Dye course specialist, having runnered up at The Players, Harbour Town, New Orleans (with Scott Brown) and last year at the MatchPlay. Worth keeping an eye on Kis at the Heritage and Zurich Team tournaments then, (whether you find him charismatic or not!).
Kisner is one of those players who, like Luke Donald and Jim Furyk, will almost always lose to the big hitter who keeps it straight off the tee and putts reasonably well, but drives the ball well enough and has a great short game. Attributes to help him win at Sea Island & Colonial.

3).And then there's the welcome return to the Winners Enclosure for Graeme McDowell, also a Harbour Town winner - and if Kisner is a Pete Dye-course specialist, McDool likes to be beside the seaside, all four of his wins coming oceanside, at Pebble, Harbour Town, Mayakoba and now Punta Cana.

4).Plus he helped GB&I win the Walker Cup at Sea Island, Georgia, on a pretty decent team which included Donald, Michael Hoey, Marc Warren & Nick Dougherty. Playing against Lucas Glover, DJ Trahan and Bryce Molder (beat McDowell twice in singles).
McDowell's avowed objective this year is to qualify for The Open at Portrush, just a few days before he turns 40. This is a decent stepping stone, but wouldn't it be appropriate to offer him a special invitation? He's regained the competitiveness which has been awol for years and hopefully can train on from here.

5).TPC San Antonio has rewarded its share of course specialists over the years, but most of the veterans in that category are either in abysmal form (Spieth, Hoffman, Walker, Steele) or injured (Kevin Chappell). But Badds and Billy Horschel have fine course records without winning, and you'd think the course would fit Lucas like a Glover.

6).Laird is back, and so are Luke Donald and McDowell. Freddie Jac played well here in the tournament's early days and now appears healthy, if not exactly match-fit.
Joost Luiten was rewarded for travelling to Austin last week as first alternate for the MatchPlay with the consolation prize of a place at the Valero.
And Lucas Bjerregard and Martin Kaymer are also here.

7).Despite the presence of highly ranked pros like Finau, Fowler, Kuchar and Spieth, I'm hoping the winner comes from this group of three: Horschel, Kokrak & Badds. Sentimental fingers crossed for Furyk, so close to getting into The Masters.

8).That's about it; still waiting for The Masters field to thin out even more (O'Meara reportedly standing aside is a good start) - there seem to be 86 runners, which is just the sort of size of field the Hooties love, and has Masters-field critics shaking their heads.

Thanks for that GPB. I'm guessing the lone American voted for the US Open. Bitch all we want about the Master's invitational and their forever changing rules, but the professionals flock to it like bees to honey.

I can well believe that some European, and even some British, pros voted for the Masters. For those of the right age BBC Masters coverage would be the only US golf coverage they could easily get, and there’s something about evening/late night sport on TV when you’re a kid that is particularly appealing. Same with European football nights, and Ashes cricket tours. Surprised it wasn’t a complete 100% split between Augusta and the Open though. Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson the only people in golf who want to win the US Open more than any other, surely.

Just put the Sky golf channel on to get a bit of a Masters mood and they’re showing the “drive chip putt” stuff... what a load of rubbish, even worse than I expected. All for encouraging kids’ golf but they are capable of playing actual golf rather than engaging in a glorified lesson. Why not send them round the par 3 course?

Watson did win the US Open, 1982 at Pebble Beach with the famous chip-in ont he 71st hole to beat Nicklaus.

Watson never won the PGA.

Sam Snead never won the US Open.

Aah yes The Masters, I watched a documentary about it's members recently, called "Get Out". Very interesting.

GPB wrote:Watson did win the US Open, 1982 at Pebble Beach with the famous chip-in ont he 71st hole to beat Nicklaus.

Watson never won the PGA.

Sam Snead never won the US Open.

My bad. I knew it was one or the other! Can I claim that validates my point about people not caring about those two quite so much?

My guess is that the majority of US born professionals would rather win the US Open than the Open Championship. Perhaps by a close margin. I would also guess that European born professionals would rather win the Open Championship than the US Open. And not by a close margin.

NedB-H wrote:

GPB wrote:Watson did win the US Open, 1982 at Pebble Beach with the famous chip-in ont he 71st hole to beat Nicklaus.

Watson never won the PGA.

Sam Snead never won the US Open.

My bad. I knew it was one or the other! Can I claim that validates my point about people not caring about those two quite so much?

One of the worst expressions of all time alongside "bested", "medalled", "winningest" and "burglarised"

Bested I don’t mind. The other three irritate me too.

Masters Tee-Times:

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2019/04/09/masters-tournament-augusta-national-tee-times-round-1-round-2-thursday-friday-tiger-woods-phil-mickelson-dustin-johnson-rickie-fowler-jordan-spieth-rory-mcilroy.html


One group that stands out to me is Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and DeChambeau; DJ about the fastest golfer around, the other two about the slowest. I would have thought the Hooties would try to strike a balance, but it's their playing field and they probably don't like Dustin!

NedB-H wrote:Bested I don’t mind. The other three irritate me too.

Now there is a term that will trigger Super.

McLaren wrote:

NedB-H wrote:Bested I don’t mind. The other three irritate me too.

Now there is a term that will trigger Super.