PGA Tour: Here we go again, The 2019/20 Season is Underway, Vegas Baby: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

Random thoughts and notes:
1).The 2019/2020 PGA Tour season is on the move in "Almost heaven, West Virginia" but not before Rory wins the Player Of The Year trophy, somehow beating Brooks Koepka. I'd love to know the voting but that's a closely guarded secret (until someone leaks it).

So we can only imagine what this really means:
*The media narrative so far is that it rewards consistency thru'out the season (and lack lustre Majors) over extraordinary excellence in the four most important events of the year - the four, coincidentally or not - which are not run by the PGA Tour.
Rory himself said: "I wanted to try and bring my best every single week I played", so perhaps he endorses the consistency thought (when it suits him).

*Or does it mean that the Tour Membership now value the (very) limited field Tour Championship, plus $15M and the FedEx trophy, and The Players over say, the PGA Championship, top five finishes at Augusta, Pebble and Portrush, and a WGC? Is that now the Members' opinion?? Don't expect Tiger Woods, for instance, would agree, and deep down I can hardly believe that Rory does.

Bizarre.

2).No surprises here, but I see the ghost of Tim Finchem all over such shenanigans. I didn't like the compressed season when it was announced and like it even less now that such artificial contrivances are regarded as the new norm, rather like those who feel the history of the world began on January 1st 2017.

3).The 19/20 season opens its batting with "A Military Tribute At The Greenbrier" which, believe it or not, offers its winner the longest exemption of a "regular season" event (given that Bay Hill and Memorial seem to have been elevated). The winner effectively receives a three year exemption unlike its near-ish Green neighbour, The Wyndham, in Greensboro. And there are a few new tournaments filling up the autumnal calendar which now looks like this:

4).In order:
Greenbrier - is this event still on life support or is the odious Jim Justice re-upping? Not sure, but John Daly is "playing" this week, a sure sign of an event in decline.
Sanderson Farms in Mississippi- now a "full-field" event with 500 x FedEx Points and a Masters invitation to the winner.
Safeway in Napa
Vegas baby
Houston - wonder if Ian James will defend his title?
CJ Cup in Korea
The Zozo(!) Championship - in Japan, apparently T.Woods's focus for the autumn.
WGC-HSBC Champions (and opposite field event in Bermuda for the Plunky Cup)
Week off
Mayakoba - No word yet on Kuchar's caddie arrangement
RSM in lovely Sea Island, Georgia
The end. Until the TOC @ Kapalua in early January.

5).Meanwhile, the Korn Ferry circuit's Q-School saga has begun, with pre-qualifying being completed this week, and Stage 1 to follow shortly. No "notables" spotted in the pre-qualies, but there usually are some surprise appearances in Stage 1 and the first fields should be published next week.

6).The new season seems to have caught the Tour on the hop with pgatour.com deferring publication of its "Player Exemptions" until after the AMTATG. Apart from Kaymer's curious membership extension I have yet to see lists of players taking, for instance, career earnings exemptions.

7).But there is a long list of Medical Extensions including some well known pros such as:
Berger (5 events remaining)
Chappell (23)
Cink (8)
DeLaet (24)
Donald (3) - Would think he'd surely take a career earnings free pass. Or retire.
Harrington(11)
Kirk (11)
Lovemark (23)
O'Hair (16)
Schwartzel (12)
Stadler (23)
Villegas (13)
And about two dozen other past champions and Tour journeymen.
(and super_realist pooh poos the mere notion that golf is such a physical sport . . . . . . )

8).Talking about past champions and Tour journeymen, these old lags are among those returning to the Tour courtesy of the Korn Ferry channel:
Brendan Todd
Grayson Murray
Beau Hossler
Lahiri
David Hearn
Streb
Trahan

9).And welcome to Europeans Tom Lewis (he's playing this week and could use some good early results), Viktor Hovland, Ben Taylor, Sebastian Cappelen, HenriK Norlander and Ace Ventura.

10).Back to The Greenbrier with a field so disappointing that 30,000 free tickets are being distributed to pad the attendance. Prof DeChambeau is here, plus Bubba and Marc Leishman, plus defending champ Kevin Na.
The Europeans are led by Russell Knox, Tom Lewis, Hovland, Laird, Lingmerth, Cejka, Power, Freddie Jac, Ventura, Straka, Norlander, Cappelen and Taylor.
(Not sure you'd bet on more than half of them being in the field for the first tournament of 2020/2021.)

Almost finally, in an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" move the PGA Tour is adjusting its cut-line to Top 65 and ties and abandoning the 54-hole cut (when more than 78 pros are T70 and ties). So no more MDF's.  

And lastly, really, 2-time Major winner (back in the days when golf thought Majors were the most important events) Angel Cabrera, the 2014 AMTATG Champ, has turned 50 and makes his Champions Tour debut. Happy 50th to Angel and Rob Karlsson.

So I'm seeing a lot of people calling out Spieth's PC omission as a bad move. Some seem to be saying that it was Reed who was in the wrong in Paris. Is Spieth's omission a sign that The PC/RC committee see it a Spieth's?

Be_the_ball wrote:So I'm seeing a lot of people calling out Spieth's PC omission as a bad move. Some seem to be saying that it was Reed who was in the wrong in Paris. Is Spieth's omission a sign that The PC/RC committee see it a Spieth's?

Is it an "omission" or is it a "I can't be arsed playing in that tinpot competition, count me out"?

McLaren wrote:

Roller_Coaster wrote:

Shotrock wrote:Mac - A bit harsh! Since when is choosing to play/not play golf at a specific temperature a sign of masculinity?

I presume you are aware of the phrase McJobs. The Scottish equivalent is MacHumour.

Mcjobs probably has better prospects than MacHumour.

super_realist wrote:

Be_the_ball wrote:So I'm seeing a lot of people calling out Spieth's PC omission as a bad move. Some seem to be saying that it was Reed who was in the wrong in Paris. Is Spieth's omission a sign that The PC/RC committee see it a Spieth's?

Is it an "omission" or is it a "I can't be arsed playing in that tinpot competition, count me out"?

Can't imagine that Spieth was ever in the running for a PC ticket. The way he's going, he'll slip out of the OWGR Top 50 soon; currently #42 and dropping like a stone.
Would think Woods got it right, doubt there'll be any complaint from anyone.

I thought Na had a shot?

McLaren wrote:I thought Na had a shot?

Mac,
I'm not sure Na is fully fit; he withdrew before the WGC last week . . . . . . . .

I see, I just though with him and Tiger being buddies there was a chance. But if he's injured then he had no chance.

I heard the argument that tiger should have picked spieth because he will be a part of US team matches for the next decade, and picking him keeps the bonds and harmony going. I don't buy that and tiger will want to win this and won't be up for having dead weight on the team.

And for the reason of wanting to win tiger had to pick himself. So to add to navy's pressure comment on the d4s thread, he is on form and had to picked. Would have been weird not to pick himself.

I don't think Tiger should have picked himself, but that's just me. Not surprised, however. (I played golf last week and in the group ahead of me was a former US President's Cup player ... he told me in the bar after play that the probability of Tiger picking himself was extremely high.)

Maybe the Internationals win this one? Probably be good for the event interest.

Shotrock

But would it have been odd for Tiger to pick Ricky or Spieth over himself given he just won with one of the best iron play of 2019? His putting was also pretty good.

Although with Tiger you always have to assume the next injury is just around the corner.

I’d also imagine there’d be some pressure on Tiger to pick himself. Everybody wants to see him play and not only drive around in a buggy.

What a massive narcissist Woods must be to pick himself.

It's a joke of a competition that people don't really care about, so why didn't Woods (and his facelift) actually do the decent thing and simply act as Captain?

USA as always are going to walk this half hearted competition, so why didn't Woods engage his microscopic brain and pick a player who might be likely to be involved in the Ryder Cup, a competition which is actually competitive and which the players genuinely do care about. At least then USA might be a bit better prepared.

For someone that doesn't care about the Prez Cup, you sure seem to incline to opine that no one  cares about the Prez.  

IME, people that truly are ambivalent about a subject matter tend not to discuss it.

There is whole big golfing world outside of Europe

There is a bunch of golfers in Africa, North America (Canada, Mexico) , Australia, South America and Asia that don't gives a rats behind about the Ryder Cup.

Heck there were a lot of American golfers that didn't care about the Ryder Cup until we lost in 1985

Jazz Janewattananond wrote:“The short-term goal is to get in the upper world rankings so I can confirm my spot in the Olympics and maybe have a chance at the Presidents Cup. That’s a realistic goal for me.”

Obviously Jazz didn't do it but that expressed his thoughts on the Prez Cup

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2019/05/18/meet-jazz-janewattananond-pga-championship-bethpage-black.html

I’m sure 3rd drawer intl players like Jazz would like to play with the big boys. So would I. But I’m also sure the top dogs on either side don’t care much about the Prez Cup, other than it’s a nice get-together.

Good news for Europes RC hopes that Tiger is picking himself for the PC. Will probably mean he’ll get a WC for the RC if he shouldn’t qualify on merit.

pedro wrote:

Good news for Europes RC hopes that Tiger is picking himself for the PC. Will probably mean he’ll get a WC for the RC if he shouldn’t qualify on merit.

Just like en Paris . . . . . . . . . .

GPB wrote:For someone that doesn't care about the Prez Cup, you sure seem to incline to opine that no one  cares about the Prez.  

IME, people that truly are ambivalent about a subject matter tend not to discuss it.

There is whole big golfing world outside of Europe

There is a bunch of golfers in Africa, North America (Canada, Mexico) , Australia, South America and Asia that don't gives a rats behind about the Ryder Cup.

Heck there were a lot of American golfers that didn't care about the Ryder Cup until we lost in 1985

Jazz Janewattananond wrote:“The short-term goal is to get in the upper world rankings so I can confirm my spot in the Olympics and maybe have a chance at the Presidents Cup. That’s a realistic goal for me.”

Obviously Jazz didn't do it but that expressed his thoughts on the Prez Cup

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2019/05/18/meet-jazz-janewattananond-pga-championship-bethpage-black.html

I don't care about the tournament. It's as much a non event as the Seve Trophy. However the story about Woods is particularly telling and an interesting insight into the hilarious ego and hubris of the man and his complete absence of what a team is.
Picking yourself for a team is hilarious.
Funny how the Ryder Cup only involves Europe and America, yet it's still a bigger global spectacle than the laughable President's Cup isn't it? Not even the players really care about it, maybe that's why Facelift Woods had to pick himself, perhaps he wasn't being such a narcissist after all.

Woods, probably should be on the pres cup team, he has won a major this year and a recent decent sized event. It's a good call. He probably should have binned off the captaincy though.

Having it in Australia means I won't see it though! Which is annoying. I hope the other team put up a fight!

Agree ben, under normal circumstances and given Woods current form, he’d be a ‘lock’ for the team. Any other captain would have picked a player in Woods current form.

super_realist wrote:

I don't care about the tournament. It's as much a non event as the Seve Trophy. However the story about Woods is particularly telling and an interesting insight into the hilarious ego and hubris of the man and his complete absence of what a team is.
Picking yourself for a team is hilarious.
Funny how the Ryder Cup only involves Europe and America, yet it's still a bigger global spectacle than the laughable President's Cup isn't it? Not even the players really care about it, maybe that's why Facelift Woods had to pick himself, perhaps he wasn't being such a narcissist after all.

You claim to not talk about the tournament, yet you keep talking about it! Do you not see the irony?

Do you see me posting (or thread$h!tt!ng) in the "Golf Music Room" or "Another Drive4Show" thread? And the answer is No, and it because I truly am ambivalent to the topic.

The more you try to convince us that no one cares is telling me that you are trying to convince yourself, rather than us.

You think the Ryder Cup is global? Do you think the golfer fans in Australia gives a rats bum about it? Don't be so jingoistic.

Wonderful Champions Tour Championship win in Phoenix for Jeff Maggert - sure robo is thrilled . . . . . . . !!
As well he might be.

Really fun tournament.

GPB wrote:

super_realist wrote:

I don't care about the tournament. It's as much a non event as the Seve Trophy. However the story about Woods is particularly telling and an interesting insight into the hilarious ego and hubris of the man and his complete absence of what a team is.
Picking yourself for a team is hilarious.
Funny how the Ryder Cup only involves Europe and America, yet it's still a bigger global spectacle than the laughable President's Cup isn't it? Not even the players really care about it, maybe that's why Facelift Woods had to pick himself, perhaps he wasn't being such a narcissist after all.

You claim to not talk about the tournament, yet you keep talking about it!  Do you not see the irony?

Do you see me posting (or thread$h!tt!ng) in the "Golf Music Room" or "Another Drive4Show" thread?  And the answer is No, and it because I truly am ambivalent to the topic.

The more you try to convince us that no one cares is telling me that you are trying to convince yourself, rather than us.

You think the Ryder Cup is global?  Do you think the golfer fans in Australia gives a rats bum about it?  Don't be so jingoistic.  

I didn't say I never talk about the President's Cup. I said I didn't and that the majority of the planet do not care about it. That doesn't mean I can't pass comment about Facelift Woods picking himself in a hilarious demonstration of his own hubris.

I also didn't say the Ryder Cup was global, but it is CERTAINLY bigger than the PC is or ever will be. The PC, despite containing the ROW is NOT a hit with viewers.

Why don't you do what you claim you do and if you see something (like my comments) why don't you heed your own advise and remain AMBIVALENT to it? No one forces you to reply to anything I write, so why don't you just ignore it?

kwinigolfer wrote:Wonderful Champions Tour Championship win in Phoenix for Jeff Maggert - sure robo is thrilled . . . . . . . !!
As well he might be.

Really fun tournament.

Indeed congrats to Jeff, seems like last time I saw him he was hitting himself in a bunker at Augusta 

How many hole outs were there? Holy moly some iron play from Langer, Monty and Maggert! 

Yup, And Woody Austin's tap-in eagle on the 18th too.
It was pretty interesting!
Looking forward to hearing robo's take on it all.
Shame Miguel didn't have the Rioja flowing through his veins. Or maybe he did?

kwinigolfer wrote:

GPB wrote:

and then there is this guy:

https://twitter.com/acaseofthegolf1/status/1181280589082554369

BTW, Kwini, if you don't follow this account, you should.  One of the most informative golf twitter accounts.

GPB, robo,
Is this Jimmy Jones Dawn Coe's son?
Her widower is Jimmie Jones from Tampa who a friend of mine used to play with regularly.
Imagine it probably is (especially with Jimmy Jones being such an unusual name).

GPB,
Did you see Jimmie Jones won his Stage 2 qualie in Spain? But just missed out in TX in KF qualifying. Would be a great legacy for Dawn Coe if he turned into a Tour player.

(I see there's a Dolphin swimming with the sharks - whatever next?)

The Tour has returned from its Asian Swing and will be in Mexico this week, at Mayakoba.
One or two interesting entries, including Calum Hill and Luke Donald, plus several returns from long-term absences, such as Kevin Stadler, Chris Kirk and Kevin Chappell.

Rickie Fowler was planning to be in the field but the newly-elected Tour's Mr Nice Guy is pulling a sickie, reporting some malady whilst on honeymoon; brewer's droop? Or just p1ssed off that Woods overlooked him for Woods as a Presidents Cup choice??

I saw Rickies wife to be close up at the Scottish Open, no wonder he is crocked.

Who’ll be caddying for Kuchar?

McLaren wrote:I saw Rickies wife to be close up at the Scottish Open, no wonder he is crocked.

Objectifying women Mac. Tut tut.

More objectifying women:

A nice piece from Golf Channel's website about Meghan MacLaren:

https://www.golfchannel.com/news/word-processor-maclaren-making-sense-golf-life-through-power-writing

kwinigolfer wrote:

GPB,
Did you see Jimmie Jones won his Stage 2 qualie in Spain? But just missed out in TX in KF qualifying. Would be a great legacy for Dawn Coe if he turned into a Tour player.

(I see there's a Dolphin swimming with the sharks - whatever next?)

No, I didn't see that, Good for him. I don't think an LPGA winner has ever a son/daughter make it big as a Tour golfer.

There are lot of sons of successful PGATour pros who tried to make it big in golf. Gary Nicklaus, Brent Geiberger, Kevin Stadler, Bill Haas, etc. among others making it to the PGATour.

But I have never seen a daughter of a PGATour pro (let alone a successful one) make it to the LPGA tour.

Kevin Stadler made it big in more ways than one.

GPB wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:

GPB,
Did you see Jimmie Jones won his Stage 2 qualie in Spain? But just missed out in TX in KF qualifying. Would be a great legacy for Dawn Coe if he turned into a Tour player.

(I see there's a Dolphin swimming with the sharks - whatever next?)

No, I didn't see that, Good for him.  I don't think an LPGA winner has ever a son/daughter make it big as a Tour golfer.

There are lot of sons of successful PGATour pros who tried to make it big in golf.  Gary Nicklaus, Brent Geiberger, Kevin Stadler, Bill Haas, etc.  among others making it to the PGATour.

But I have never seen a daughter of a PGATour pro  (let alone a successful one) make it to the LPGA tour.

Agreed. Though Keegan Bradley at least has the bloodlines. EDIT: I think Robbie Castro does too.
I see Taylor Funk and Dru Love have flunked Q-School. Again. Hopefully that'll discourage PGA Tour tournament directors from giving them more free passes.

Mayakoba play washed out for the day. Round 1 now scheduled to begin Friday morning.

The angst over Tiger Woods picking himself for the PC cracks me up.  The four day format and lower key type event makes it possible and very realistic IMO.

And to take that a step further... If I had a magic wand I would make it a requirement that all future captains and all but one of the assistant captains of both Ryder and Presidents Cup were required to be part of the 12 man team and play in a minimum of two matches.  It would make both of them exponentially more interesting IMO.  The extra non playing assistant captain could be the one assigned to all the BS duties like picking out colors for rain suits... The playing Captains and assistants can get back to focusing on the actual play/pairings/etc.

And one other thing... I like both teams Captains picks. Best thing for the USA was by not picking Fowler or Spieth or Phil, team USA showed it's not just the "good old boys task force club". I think Tiger picked the players he thought gave his team the best chance to win, including himself.  The thought of picking a Kisner or a Na or anybody else over himself is laughable to the extreme. IMO you can make a legitimate case for those guys instead of maybe Reed or Finau... But not Tiger.

PS... I think a Reed/Cantlay teaming for as many matches as possible would give team USA 4-6 points.

Kwini... As for Maggs.... HELLYES!!!! I find the Champions Tour mostly unwatchable... But I was glued to that tournament for a couple of days...

robopz wrote:

PS... I think a Reed/Cantlay teaming for as many matches as possible would give team USA 4-6 points.

4-6 points?

When there are only 4 team sessions, how do you reckon they might get more than 4 points?

GPB wrote:

robopz wrote:

PS... I think a Reed/Cantlay teaming for as many matches as possible would give team USA 4-6 points.

4-6 points?

When there are only 4 team sessions, how do you reckon they might get more than 4 points?

including the potential 1 point each from their singles

Off and swimming at Mayakoba, a day and half an hour behind schedule but considering the flooding rain, it's a miracle they're out there at all.
Hope it keeps drying out, otherwise it'll be a long, wet slog through 18 holes, let alone the extras they might be expected to play at the weekend.

Danny Lee -9 after 12 holes.
59 watch?

Boatloads of birdies and eagles. Appropriately.

Hovland's streak of 14 straight OWGR 'cashes' looks like it is coming to an end. Well outside the cutline.

So is Jason Day.

Dunlop Phoenix in Japan next week, Morikawa, Trainer, Woodland, Cam Champ joining Hideki in the field.

Poor field in Sea Island. No Tom Lewis. He will drop over 40 spots in the reshuffle. He will probably get in three events on the West Coast (Palm Springs, Torrey, and Pebble) but if he doesn't play well in those events, he probably won't get to play any of the regular events before Augusta after Genesis.

I guess Lewis is playing Dubai next week.

It looked for a moment as if Viktor was going to get out of trouble, but he's certtainly on his way now.

2 x Ortiz brothers in the Top Ten.

Difficult to tell what Tom Lewis's plan is - a really good round tomorrow and a top result in Dubai could see him squeak into the owgr Top 50 and that'll increase his options. Otherwise, he's got some decisions to make.

A handful of British golfers with plenty to play for these next three (hopefully) days - Donald, Calum Hill, Knox, Laird & McDowell.

Did some data mining, of the Top 100 OWGR golfers these golfers have the longest active OWGR cashes streak going into this week.

( Viktor's streak is coming to an end as of this week.)

16 Louis Oosthuizen
14 Patrick Cantlay
14 Webb Simpson
14 Viktor Hovland (ending this week)
13 Collin Morikawa
12 Justin Rose
11 Sungjae Im
10 Justin Thomas
10 Andrea Pavan
9 Rory McIlroy
9 Adam Scott
8 Joost Luiten
7 Paul Waring
6 Adam Hadwin
6 Alex Noren
6 Robert MacIntyre
6 Mike Lorenzo-Vera
5 Dustin Johnson
5 Patrick Reed
5 Tyrrell Hatton

A good week so far for young Scots:
Another Top Ten for McIntyre.
And a wonderful round yesterday for Calum (Cayl'em to the Golf Channel crew, dear oh dear!) Hill. 12th as he tees off this morning and he could well go backwards, of course. But a Mayakoba Top Ten would get him into the McGladrey next week.

Poor for their older compatriots, Knox and Laird, and Luke Donald has just shot himself in both feet in his efforts to emulate Tommy Fleet.

It may not last, but three Mexican golfers in the Mayakoba Top Ten right now - don't suppose that's ever happened before.

Calum Hill still grinding away, putting fellow GB'ers to shame.

On yer Todd!
Who'd've thunk it? Not me, thought he was dead and buried in the graveyard of one-win-and-done touring pros.
And now, presumably(?), we have him back on Tour for almost four years.

Lots of nice little cameos from European golfers but none could sustain them for long enough to earn a top finish.
Cayl'em Hill will probably take the most away from his week - would love to know what Mac, JAS & supes and other Scottish observers reckon on his game, but this was an impressive week for him.

I don't know much about him actually Kwini. Seems to have romped the Challenge Tour only being nudged off 1st place in the last tournament.
Fat Bob is the one impressing me most at the moment from the crop of Scottish players. He's coined in a great debut year and must be attracting some big sponsorship. Hopefully he can keep a level head and not disappear up his own rear like so many who have gone before him.
I wonder if he will get a Masters invite as I think that suits a lefty like him.

I've added the KFT and Champions Tour to the master "2019-20 Schedules" post below... along with a few corrections and other additions as known at this time... https://www.606v2.com/t68983-2019-20-tour-schedules

And Brendon Todd..... Huh?...... What?.... Bout all I can say about that guy is GOLF CLAP...

robopz wrote:And Brendon Todd..... Huh?...... What?....   Bout all I can say about that guy is GOLF CLAP...

What do you make of that robo?
Based partly upon personal observation I thought he might have a touch of the Chris Kirks, but seems to attribute his demise to full-swing yips (just like me).

Are you going to the Champions Tour First Stage? Pity you don't have the quality there that they have in Florida (or Cal); a bit unfair (daft, but typical) that guys like Rob Karlsson don't get at least a bye into Final Stage.
BUT: Nice piece about Tommy Tolles on pgatour.com.

kwinigolfer wrote:

robopz wrote:And Brendon Todd..... Huh?...... What?....   Bout all I can say about that guy is GOLF CLAP...

What do you make of that robo?
Based partly upon personal observation I thought he might have a touch of the Chris Kirks, but seems to attribute his demise to full-swing yips (just like me).

Are you going to the Champions Tour First Stage? Pity you don't have the quality there that they have in Florida (or Cal); a bit unfair (daft, but typical) that guys like Rob Karlsson don't get at least a bye into Final Stage.
BUT: Nice piece about Tommy Tolles on pgatour.com.

Got no clue what to make of Todd, we just don't see guys come from those kind of depths and turn around this quickly. I've seen him around, but never met or talked to the guy, so I can't add anything personally. Cocky son of a gun though. His attitude on Morning Drive today was "Hell yes I should be Brooks replacement for the Presidents Cup"... With plenty of reasons why.

Won't be going out to the Champions qualifier. Woodforest is a decent little course though, played it maybe a half dozen times. Good for that level of event.