PGA Tour: WGC Bridgestone / Reno-Tahoe: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Scott Stallings, Who'd've thunk it? Nine months ago he was a struggling Nationwide Tour pro, 53rd on their moneylist and with nothing more than an exemption to the 2011 Nationwide Tour to look forward to. But an 11th place Q-School finish earned him a 2011 PGA Tour card where he promptly missed his first five cuts and was destined for a bottom placing in the Tour "reshuffle". But his Tour "mentor", Kenny Perry, secured him an invite into the Transitions Championship where he finished third, and the rest is history.

2).And what about Bob Estes, RoboPro of the 1990's, one of the slowest players on Tour and, even in the eyes of an otherwise complimentary pgatour.com article, a Tour "plodder"? A four-time Tour winner but with ZERO FedEx Cup points earned so far this season, Estes was in danger of losing his card. His 2012 remains uncertain, but at least he now has a lifeline.

3).While Bill Haas can look at another opportunity lost as he misses out in his second play-off this year. (Liked the fact that Estes's caddie come up to Haas at the play-off and told Billy he had caddied for his Dad!) Consolation for Haas is that he leap-frogged over Furyk, Toms and Van Pelt into 8th place in the Presidents Cup qualifying rankings, the top ten qualifying and Messrs Fowler and Woods well adrift.

4).Two events this week on the PGA Tour headlined by the "WGC Bridgestone Invitational", not that it's an invitational at all. Ross Fisher has sadly withdrawn due to an untimely family sickness but he'll hopefully be back for the PGA Championship. And Charlie Hoffman has a stomach problem (it's size?) and has yet to travel to Akron and Firestone Country Club.

5).The Firestone South Course has been stretched to 7,400 yards with Bert Way and Robert Trent Jones responsible for one of the Tour's most boring looking venues. Tiger Woods famously has won here seven times and he'll be trying (presumably) for number eight with childhood chum Bryon Bell on his bag. Bell is widely assumed to be one of the Tiger insiders facilitating the supply of waitresses to his mate's door, so suffice it to say he would not be caddying if Elin was still around. Rumours abound that Woods's new full-time caddie may be Brett Waldman, Camilo's caddie of years gone by and now most of his way through a disappointing Nationwide season; he's played 13 events so far, but with only $1,600+ in earnings you know he needs a proper job.

6).On the subject of golfing caddies, kudos here to Damon Green, Zach Johnson's bagman. After qualifying for the British Senior Open and making the 36-hole cut, Green outdid himself by finishing 13th and pocketing $52K at last week's US Senior Open; god knows he'll be working for Zach this week and next however.

7).And on the subject of the US Senior Open, winner Olin Browne became the fifth golfer to win on all three PGA Tour-sponsored Tours: Nationwide, PGA and Champions Tours, following Fergus, Hallberg, Lehman and Streck.

8).Dear George O'Grady,
If you want some good ideas for filling out your European Tour fields during late August and early September during FedEx Play-Off season, here are 15 ideas:
Messrs: Curtis, Cejka, Harrington, Clark, Els, Ames, Woods, Leonard, Cabrera, Oosthuizen, Casey, Weekley, Duval, Stenson and Daly.
Unless these guys have great results the next three tournaments, they'll be unemployed for five weeks as all are in positions lower than 125th in FedEx points, the threshhold necessary to qualify for event number one, The Barclays.

9).While the golfing galacticos are at Firestone, there's a perfectly good "opposite field" event in Nevada, at Jack Nicklaus's Montreux G&CC, as visually gorgeous as Firestone is unappealing. Brian Davis is the only Briton on hand but this has been a happy hunting ground for him, two top tens and $350K in three appearances, as he prepares for PGA Championship. (He's officially been added to the field, Jamie Donaldson too, but no Robert Rock, which is unfortunate.)

10).Lastly, the Nationwide Tour will be in Nebraska and Team GB's gang of four, Christian, Knox, Owen and Richardson will be hoping for a good result with one of the richer purses up for grabs. Especially as they were shut out last week in Utah (Knox and Owen didn't play) where Swedes Blixt and Lingmerth both enjoyed good results and paydays.

Here's hoping Kwini, I don't think he'll win it but a top 5 isn't beyond him. He seems to like playing in the US, perhaps he might go for a PGA card soon?

Nice bouncebackability shown from Tiger there

EmmDee,
He has a home here so, if he played well enough to earn an automatic exemption I'm sure he'd make the switch - more good play this week and next would help him a lot! I think he needs about another $200K.


Have thumped this tub several times before, but I wish these limited field events had a 36-hole cut, say top 60 and ties; send the rest home with $10K, boost the prizemoney for the higher finishers and discourage guys just going through the motions for a guaranteed $35K minimum. Huge sympathy for DC, but there are others . . . . . .

A bit of a waste of birdies for Kaymer and Tiger, only to cancel the earlier bogeys, but hopefuly they can build something from here on.... And even Padraig was on a mini charge, reaching the dizzy hights of level par... Sorry to see Pablo's slump today, would've been a nice story for him if he stayed in the top 10.

Agreed with the 36-hole cut for this. I am a bit disappointed with DC's performance, looks a bit bad to come here as the latest major winner and ending up last...

Who does Rickie Fowler think he is? Darren Clarke?? Nice eagle from the fairway send him to the lead.

Rickie on top!!! Goodness me, didn't see that one coming this morning...

Good to see Gary Woodland charge up the leaderboard today. They were saying last night that once he learns this course he could go really low on it. He could be one to keep an eye on at the weekend.

As Mr. Bum has settled somewhere closer to the bottom of the table, perhaps the trophey for 'coming out of nowhere' should go to Hennie Otto!
Spotted him (not really intentionally) in Killarney last week around the 16th green. It's a par 5 and his second shot ended up, as many others did, between the branches of a large tree that is guarding the elevated green on the right. Ball ended under the tree and he had a very tricky shot from there as he didn't have a lot of green to work with and he needed to lobe the ball high between a few branches of that tree to make it stop to only about 4-5 feet behind the flag. He executed that superbly and got lots of applause for it. Unfortunately he missed the put ending up with a par...
There he is on the green Iin red) after that shot, with David Lynn (Zanotti was the third one in the group)...

Spoiler:

Super finish by Martin Laird, right in the thick of things for the weekend.

pd,
Disappointed you don't have a pic of Mr.Bum.

There's a guy called Harrington doing nicely today, anyone know anything about him? Poulter also playing much better.

I always like Day 2 of a tournament, as the golfing gods separate the wheat from the chaff. Usually not much chance for someone to come back from eight or noine strokes back going into Round 3.

Russell Knox clinging to his one shot Nationwide lead in Nebraska.

Phil's trousers might be a tribute to his wife and her illness but they're offending me. He looks ridiculous. Pink top and white trousers might have been better.

And over at Reno, Notah Begay III

kwini,

How about a fine showing so far for your homegrown Vermont lad, Keegan Bradley? Didn't even realize he was in the competition. Does he still visit the folks at home as I've read that he makes Jupiter, Florida his residence?

Tourney looking competitively good for the weekend with Adam cooling off a bit. Jason Day, however, with a chance today to put some distance between he and the field. Don't think we'll see the gap grow ala Rory's U.S. Open feat.

Nice recovery also by Dyson. Pulled himself out of the gutter with today's -4. Perhaps a top 15 would be a goal for him now. Hard to believe but LW playing under the radar. Would like to see him in the last 2 groups come Sunday.

C'mon Leeeeee!!! A couple more birdies today would be nice...

Hi guys,
Everyone's rather hit the -8 buffers haven't they? And that should suit Numbers One and Two.

We followed Keegan Bradley at Hartford. His Auntie Pat may have been a Hall Of Fame golfer, but she still looks fit as a fiddle, in a nose-tackle sort of way. False fronts on the greens at The Greenbrier, but not on her.

Pink trousers doing Phil no good at all, but EmmDee's been inspired this week, first Hanson and now Notah! I see Michael Thompson has reached the lead - I fancied him in the last opposite-field event, a month late and several dollars short.

My small stake on GMac looks to have hit the buffers but also have a small punt on Rickeeee this weekend - and he's certainly cheered me up today!

3rd choice is Luuuke - hoping he can make a move too (not seen his score yet)

Luuuke is one under for today's round, eight pars, two birds and a blemish.

TV viewers in GB&I might have the advantage on us Saturday as thunderstorms in the forecast have persuaded the PGA Tour to make an early start, in threesomes off two tees, starting at 7.00 a.m. EDT, noon in Stevenage. Tape delay for us, but perhaps Sky will show it live.

Right now, the potential tee times might suggest Kaymer, Watson and Woods - quite a threesome.

Sky are saying we'll get coverage from 3pm UK time.

I'm quite puzzled by the Sky coverage so far this week. Seems like it may be a mix of host broadcaster and a secondary feed.

Most puzzling is why we aren't getting wall to wall Tiger. Yes, I know he finished 3 hours ago but that's never stopped them before!

Davie,
I think the Networks found that golf fans enjoyed the sans-Tiger coverage while he was awol. Not anywhere near the same level of sycophancy as we were used to.

As for Tiger next week, he has the company of Davis Love and Padraig Harrington in Atlanta.

Other tee-times inlude:

Mickelson, Toms, Singh
Quiros, Watney, Donald
Poulter, Bubba, Boom Baby
Stricker, Casey, Mechanic
Kaymer, Yang, Micheel
Dustin, Rickie, Sergio
Oosthuizen, Mahan, Rose
Charl, Rors, DC
Kuchar, Westwood, Day
McDowell, Zach, Ogilvy
Dyson, Immelman, Molder
Matteo, Ryo, Adam Scott

WOODS PAIRED WITH LOVE AND HARRINGTON NEXT WEEK WOHOOOO HARRINGTON SHALL BE SHOWN!!

http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2011/upload/2011-PGA-Championship-Groupings-Starting-Times-Rds1-2.PDF

I'm really getting to hate these contrived tee times. All this year's major winners, three (at least) groups of all former winners, etc etc. Handpick the groups if you want, but don't make them so obvious...

Slightly underwhelming one for Stricker though, at least from a US perspective. Not sure what's up with that.

I doubt it, the director will focus on Woods anxious expression, bum scratching, spitting, swearing, and everything else he does at the expense of the coverage of everyone else as usual. Whether they are playing with him or not.

Ned,
These are all pretty much traditional PGA Championship groupings, Current Major Champs, PGA Champions, Ryder Cup / Pres Cup groupings.
I feel as if these ones at least are consistent with their previous m.o.


Hi s_r,
Was just lamenting your recent absence. Not any Tiger overload today, though Thursday was way too much. Still not much crowd rapport, pretty much the same old Tiger.

Traditional doesn't have to mean good Kwini! I can cope with having one trad grouping, a la the reigning champ/US amateur at the US Open, but when you start having seven or eight it's just exhibitionising (is that a word) the tournament, and marginalising the other guys.

Was just about to say the Tiger focus has been ok today, not much at all since they led the coverage with highlights of him. Then I looked up and his card and interview were on screen. Oh well.

Well, Ned, at least this one is the same every year, unlike the Tour and USGA.

Molinaris -9 today so far, Rob Karlsson -4 for the day, Sergio +4.

Numbers One, Two and Five treading water.

Possible that Keegan Bradley and Martin Laird will be playing together Saturday - kind of similar games, long, good irons, sometimes shaky short games, decent putters and both way too slow.

Guess who's opening the batting at seven bells Saturday morning?
That's right, Ryder Cup deja vu:
Poulter, Bubba, Woods
and ten minutes later it's:
Phil, Mahan and Harrington

Not sure when Phil and Tiger last teed off in the first three groups but, hey, there's a first time for evrerything. Hopefully GB&I will catch this LIVE! at 3.00 p.m., Bracknell time whilst we poor saps have to wait for tape delay.
No gloating.

They're off!!! Round 3 underway at Firestone CC. Tiger on the move!!

Warm and humid this morning in Akron which means the ball will fly and the course will stay soft.

It should stay mostly dry until the strong chance of storms in the afternoon. Forecast for Sunday is warm, muggy, sunny and mostly dry.


Nice round for Brian Davis in Reno, Groanberg and Olazabal also making the cut.

And Russell Knox leads Nebraska'a Nationwider by one; Gary Christian fired the (nine under) round of the (Fri)day, but a poor day at the office for Owen and Richardson.

Rough start for the one-time numbers One and Two:
Bogey for Woods, triple for Poulter.
Birdie though for Harrington.

Here comes Luuuuuke . . . . .

The games of some of our heroes are disintegrating:
Woods: First six drives all missed the fairway - first one hit (#9): Birdie!
Phil: Bogey, bogey just when he seemed to be getting something going.
Els: Lovely tee shot to the par 3 15th, 18 feet for birdie, 2 feet for par, 2 feet for bogey, nice 2-footer for double bogey.

The form guys playing well early. Day, Donald, Zach etc.

How could Woods not be rusty? Newish swing, no competitive golf for months ... pretty amazing to me he's middle of the pack. If he finishes top 3rd, that will be a fine first tournament.

I suspect this course may prove just too long for Donald over the next two rounds. Great start to the day, but he'll need to throw darts with those irons to stay in touch with the long hitting Australians. Time will tell.

Don't count Rory out just yet!

Agreed Shotrock, but Tiger's chosen his own schedule and now he badly needs to make things happen or it's another lost season for him, no chance of FedEx bountiful booty which I suspect is big enough to interest even him.

Would think Luke needs to shoot at least a 66 today and then let Sunday's chips fall where they may.

Quote from Pete on Thendara:
"Lovely, flowing first nine Donald Ross holes at Thendara, then just a nice walk in the woods."!

Ishikawa is playing really well this week, something relatively new on the PGA Tour, maybe the lack of hair has something to do with it...
I like Jason Day more and more for this tournament and in general, very impressive kid...

Poulter plus EIGHT for the day. Tiger must love seeing that!

I'm not saying Jason Day can't close out a tournament; I'm just saying he's never properly done it; big question mark against him until he does. But he's certainly looking good so far.

Westwood giving himself a ton of good looks but not making much; he'll regret that, you just know it.


Up in the Reno altitude, I love the fact that Kevin Na is playing solo on Saturday!

Yup... Poults was 'jumping' up and down on twitter last night with excitement for playing with Tiger and Bubba today... Now he looks like he may very well score the worst round of the week. Can't see him playing very well too soon unless he stops focusing on anything else other than his golf...

It's OK Ian, I'd struggle to break 80 at Firestone too. But, If Poults misses the PGA cut, he could be in trouble qualifying for the FedEx; you'd think he'll have to play Greensboro which surely wasn't in his plans.

Lots of guys going though the motions now, the golf lovers' bane of WGC strokeplay events. Turn up, swan around a couplre over par, pick up your cheque for fifty grand, catch a flight to Atlanta. Rubbish really.

Ishikawa playing really well; I didn't think he had it in him.

And Italy are doing OK after a lousy first day.

Kwini,

Do you see Harrington and Casey adding some European events to their schedule seeing as they are likely to be out of the top 125 for the Fed Ex???

Meanwhile, in the land where guys are really trying, uh hem, Nebraska, Gary Christian, late of Surrey, is on a run of FOURTEEN under par over his last 28 holes; he's now tied for lead. At least he's motivated.

Hi John,
It seems Casey needs to get fit physically, we don't really know how bad his foot is but he's been bleating about it for a while now, so I don't know about him.
As for Harrington, not sure what to think, and I doubt he is either. Does he need some time off, perhaps relax a bit away from the course? Whatever, he's certainly scoring so poorly one would wonder whether banging his head against a European wall would be the best thing for him.
Not sure where either of them are with their tournament quota (presumably Padraig's a Life Member!), but physical and mental health should probably be at the top of their priority list, Poulter too.

50/50 chance of Woods and Mickelson being paired together Sunday.

Speaking of "life members", tell me this, all the recent Euro tour major winners have received this "life membership"..........what does this actually mean???
Or is it just a cheap publicity stunt from O'Grady where he can get the media in and tell them what a great fella he is??

Poults quickly back to what he does best these days... tweeting:

"Ha ha ha I can't even be mad with that score. It was absolutely disgusting, drove it horrifically, thinned chips, flubbed chips, 3 putts wow"

Indeed,
ha ha ha, wow, ha ha ha, wow, ha ha ha, wow...

John,
As I understand it, they have free access to all full-field European Tour events regardless of whether they have fulfilled the normal 13 tournament prerequisite. (Am willing to be corrected on this.)
As has been written at length on other threads, this makes no sense for golfers still early in their career - for Clarke, Montgomerie, Harrington it might be OK, but for the rest of 'em it'll cause more trouble than it will ever be worth, especially come Ryder Cup selection time.

Luuuuuuuuuuuuke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not hitting it too short today . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Guess who's opening the batting at seven bells Saturday morning?
That's right, Ryder Cup deja vu:
Bubba, Woods, Poulter

To use a description inspired from our friend KellyT GC, the result of that round today was:
Chest hair -2, Facial hair +2, Spiked hair +10

There are some golfers I like a lot, some I like just fine, Some I tolerate and some I just don't care for.

Scott Piercy falls in the last category but he's just conjured up a front nine 28, 8 under par, just nine putts and eight consecutive birdies. You don't see that every day.
And, yes, he has the leader. Overnight leader Vaughn Taylor doesn't te off for another hour and a half and suffice to say he wasn't expecting this!

58 on the way????

pd,
Unkinder commentary might have used the term hairball istead of spiked.

kwinigolfer wrote:There are some golfers I like a lot, some I like just fine, Some I tolerate and some I just don't care for.

Scott Piercy falls in the last category but he's just conjured up a front nine 28, 8 under par, just nine putts and eight consecutive birdies. You don't see that every day.

Key Kwini, what is it about Scott Piercy that you just don't care for? Isn't he the guy that won that $1m event in Vegas a couple of years ago. I remember he made a fairly bright start to the tour the year after, but has fallen into the inconsistent and/or mediocre tour player category.

Seems Piercy's birdiefest is rubbing off on Gronberg, playing alongside him and -5 himself, with a putt for an eagle.

Just had a butcher's at Gronberg's Nationwide record so far this year:
Tournaments played: 12
Cuts: 3
Finishes: 38th, 39th, 66th
Cash: $6,493

Makes perfect sense that he plays the PGA Tour and jumps into the top ten!

Just shy of $3.7M in his PGA Tour career including Nationwide. Who's to say whether he'd've been better off staying in Europe. I DO know one thing; when I've been at a tournament he's played in, even if he's stunk the joint up, he's always working hard trying to find the magic ingredient. Perhaps he's just found it. Altitude!


Redrage,
Wow, I'd forgotten about the Vegas million, or was it two?
He's certainly had his chances to win, had several good positions after three rounds which he's usually squandered. He just comes across as very arrogant whenever I've seen him interviewed, as if he's too good to be trawling the botom of the PGA Tour sea. I don't much care for that, or his on-course demeanour when things go awry, but he could be a perfectly nice bloke. Just doesn't look it!


Brian Davis off to a nice start . . . . and good to see Jose Maria post a good round.

Kwini, Gronberg did well here last year I think, 3rd or 4th in the midst of an otherwise dreadful season (though not quite as bad as this one!). Impossible to say if America's "worked" for him, no way of knowing whether he would've kicked on a la Karlsson in Europe, or sunk without trace a la Fulke and others. Nice to know that he seems a good guy though.

Worth checking out Olazabal's card yesterday, bearing in mind he started on the tenth and made the cut on the number. -4 in his last six to play the weekend, and bogey free today... is it coming together again?

Tee times out for Bridgestone Round 4. Highlight for me would be Darren Clarke and Jimenez paired. Is 8.10 a.m. to early for cigars and a pre-round glass of something?
Think I'll follow them and later catch Westwood and Karlsson - Lee spoke very respectfully of Karlsson when he'd occasionally post on 606, probably good friends.
Then Luke Donald and Martin Laird will duel for the title.
Tho' I would be perfectly happy for Adam Scott to win.


Ned,
Piercy, Gronberg better ball is -12 after 14 holes!

kwinigolfer wrote:Tee times out for Bridgestone Round 4. Highlight for me would be Darren Clarke and Jimenez paired. Is 8.10 a.m. to early for cigars and a pre-round glass of something?
Think I'll follow them and later catch Westwood and Karlsson - Lee spoke very respectfully of Karlsson when he'd occasionally post on 606, probably good friends.
Then Luke Donald and Martin Laird will duel for the title.
Tho' I would be perfectly happy for Adam Scott to win.


Ned,
Piercy, Gronberg better ball is -12 after 14 holes!

Make that -13 thru 15! Or to put it another way, -18 between them through 30, or another way again: the 15th is halved in birdie 3s, and Piercy remains one up 1st and 2nd on their own now, gives the leaderboard a very bizarre look.

Hoping for a good run from the Europeans at Firestone tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath, I think Clarke and Olazabal twice are the only Europeans to have ever won round there. No surprise perhaps that Laird, Jacobson and Donald are the main contenders, all of them US-based.