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.

I realise most American sports are full of breaks. But one should think there was a market for subscription based, ad free, TV.
Or maybe Netflix etc finally fills that gap?

Sounds like a thrilling PC. But in the media it’s all about Tiger, what a player he is, what a captain he is, the players playing for Tiger etc. etc.


...Which is good news for Europes chances in the upcoming Ryder Cup.

pedro wrote:I realise most American sports are full of breaks. But one should think there was a market for subscription based, ad free, TV.
Or maybe Netflix etc finally fills that gap?

Most of us pay so much for "cable" packages that the assumption that Joe Blow would pay a further premium for sport content that was hitherto included seems flawed to me. But that's probably what it's coming to with Amazon and others being talked about as suitors for any new TV package.
In which case, I'll be watching less, not more.

Does anyone on here go all out and subscribe to Netflix, prime, Sky (sports and entertainment) and BT?

McLaren wrote:Does anyone on here go all out and subscribe to Netflix, prime, Sky (sports and entertainment) and BT?

Have Netflix and Prime. I don't get much out of Netflix really. Despite all the hype it's really second rate. It's like the Channel 5 of the TV world. Full of dross that no one else wanted.

McLaren wrote:Does anyone on here go all out and subscribe to Netflix, prime, Sky (sports and entertainment) and BT?

Wouldn’t do without Sky which I’ve subscribed to since 1990 when the Solheim Cup was first played. I enjoy the cricket, rugby and motorsport coverage as well as the golf and there are some great dramas from the US on Sky Atlantic and good music on Sky Arts. Don’t bother with the movie channels but I use Film4 which is free. I can use my step-daughter’s log in for Netflix but don’t bother as there’s enough on Sky and terrestrial. We now have SkyQ which gives lots of flexibility for recording (rarely watch anything live and it means you can fast-forward through all the adverts and annoying chat) and also WiFi all over the house with miniboxes which means I can watch TV in bed  or in the dining room, too It’s well worth the money with the phone and broadband added on.

pedro wrote:Sounds like a thrilling PC. But in the media it’s all about Tiger, what a player he is, what a captain he is, the players playing for Tiger etc. etc.

The TV coverage, which was American, was tedious in the extreme. Why were there no “international” commentators to provide some sort of balance? The fawning over Woods got so that I stopped watching after a short way through the singles.

Just saw some of the PC last evening (NFL games have little interest for me at the moment). Have to hand it to Tiger ... he did play well. I think he has another tournament or two in him next year, not sure about any major however. Still sticking with Rory on that bet.

McLaren wrote:Does anyone on here go all out and subscribe to Netflix, prime, Sky (sports and entertainment) and BT?

Similar to LadyPutt. I don't have films/Amazon/Netflix. I also have BT Sport for the Rugby and the CL and Europa League. Considering looking at my subscription and might drop a channel or two.

Yes, There was a lot of commercials, A LOT of COMMERCIALS.

but I tend to watch mostly on the DVR so I Fast forward through the commercials.

When I catch up, I try to do something for 20-30 minutes (walk the dog, watch another TV show)

Kapalua next week, and the Tournament of Champions.
Except all these "Champions" are staying home: Koepka, Rory, Phil, Molinari, Woods, Lowry, Rose. (EDIT: No Pan either. Still in pantomime?)
Which is a shame.

kwinigolfer wrote:Kapalua next week, and the Tournament of Champions.
Except all these "Champions" are staying home: Koepka, Rory, Phil, Molinari, Woods, Lowry, Rose. (EDIT: No Pan either. Still in pantomime?)
Which is a shame.

CT Pan is a bit of a surprise... currently at #69, He's not qualified for either of the first two WGC's...

Here's a quick chart of the nearly 120 men's golf tournaments worldwide with purses $1,000,000+.  (These are various regular tours, no age restricted senior tour events etc included)

Trivia Question:

What two time Ryder Cupper for the US won a tournament in 2019, but did not finish in the Top 20 of any other stroke play tournament.

Hint #1:

Hint #2:

Hint #3:

Answer:

JB

Without looking I was going to say Bubba Watson. Now I will check.

Oh dear. Not lived up to my name as usual.

In the calendar year of 2019, I knew that Rory played better than any other player on the PGATour, but I didn't realize just how dominant he was.

Whenever he teed it up in a stroke play round, he averaged 2.54 strokes better than the field average for that round

Next best was Patrick Cantlay, he averaged 1.80 strokes better than the field average.

Here is the short list of players that averaged 1 stroke or better than the field average
(Must have played 30+ rounds)

2.54 Rory McIlroy
1.80 Patrick Cantlay
1.79 Justin Thomas
1.72 Jon Rahm
1.63 Webb Simpson
1.60 Xander Schauffele
1.56 Hideki Matsuyama
1.47 Lanto Griffin
1.46 Tiger Woods
1.45 Adam Scott
1.37 Brooks Koepka
1.34 Scottie Scheffler
1.34 Dustin Johnson
1.20 Justin Rose
1.18 Rickie Fowler
1.17 Paul Casey
1.16 Collin Morikawa
1.14 Tommy Fleetwood
1.12 Viktor Hovland
1.11 Matt Kuchar
1.04 Sungjae Im

GPB,
Interesting. And presumably that includes the pig's ear he made of Portrush.

And more confirmation of the under-the-radar year that Lanto Griffin enjoyed.

Robo - Confirms that the big money is, for the most part, on the big tour.

GPB - When Rory is on (which is a lot) he's the Tiger (or Jack, etc.) of this era.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
Interesting. And presumably that includes the pig's ear he made of Portrush.

And more confirmation of the under-the-radar year that Lanto Griffin enjoyed.

Yes, it includes every stroke play round on the PGATour in the 2019. Match Play, Zurich, Reno-Tahoe were not included.

FWIW, it DOES account for the separated fields for the multi-course tournaments (Palm Springs, Farmers, Pebble and RSM). That was a pain to filter out but I got it done

Lanto Griffin only had 30 rounds in 2019, so he barely qualified for the list. Brendon Todd had 53 rounds and his average just missed at 0.987. Other players just shy of of averaging 1+ Strokes Gained are Furyk (0.97) and, Reed (0.99).

Incidentally, Rory's 79 shot at Wentworth was his worst round of the year in terms of stroke gained. The field average 72.99 that day for a negative 6.01.

Rory only had two other rounds where he was -2.00 (or worse), A 75 in Rd 1 of the Memorial, and a 72 in Rd4 of the Tournament of Champions.

He had three rounds of +8.0 or greater. Of the 18,575 stroke play rounds, there were only 27 rounds with a +8.0 or greater. Justin Thomas also had 3 8+ SG rounds or better.

The best round in terms of SG was Brooks Koepka in Round 1 of the PGA with a 10.06 PGA.

Kevin Chappell's 59 at Greenbrier was the 2nd best round in terms of SG. It was +9.92, and Sung Kang's Round 2 at the Nelson was third at +9.9. There was only 3 other rounds better than +9. Sned's 60 at the Canadian, Mickelson's 60 at Palm Springs, and Danny Lee's 64 at the PGA.

PGATour is starting the year "ON FIRE"



Kisner and Patrick (The Shovel) Reed are paired in Round 1 at Kapalua

Shotrock wrote:Robo - Confirms that the big money is, for the most part, on the big tour.

True, but that wasn't the purpose behind the list. It was more to show there's plenty of money in professional golf all around the world now... A winner in a $1mil tournament makes around 1/5th of a million...

Happy New Year,

And a Very Happy New Year's message from Thomas Pieters:
"To all slow players, I wish you nothing but bad lies, missed cuts and delayed flights."

Exactly!