PGA Tour: "Disney": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).Post McGladrey press conference with the winner:
"My rough season of golf has brought me closer to God . . . . if you have God, you have enough."
The late great Dave Allen used to get god right: "May your god be with you." Wish he'd've added something like: "Ben Crane, shut the f--- up about your god - if you think god is assisting you, that's outside the spirit of the game and may be penalised."

2).Of course, the PGA Tour has enough trouble with Ben Crane with his pace of play and if he deleberates with apparent impunity, one imagines a god or two isn't going to ruffle Finchem's feathers.

3).Anyway, a compelling tournament last week with a decent field at a lovely location. Nothing not to like about that, and runner-up Webb Simpson certainly made a statement about the PGA Tour money title. Simple maths for Luke this week at Disney:
*Finish first and keep Webbo out of solo 2nd, and the title is yours.
*Finish solo second and hope that Simpson trails in at T8 or worse, and you're good.
*Finish in a 2-way tie for 2nd, and Simpson needs approximately twentieth place finish. Otherwise Lukey would win.
No other finish for Donald would be good enough.
Hopefully the PGA Tour will send them out together for Rounds 1 and 2 - should be great head-to-head theatre!

4).Paul Casey withdrew after two McGladrey rounds, allegedly due to a stomach bug. I wonder if Casey will show up for Q-School? Otherwise he can presumably play as a veteran member and get in all the WGC's and Majors for which he's qualified. But he wouldn't have full PGA Tour member status, and maybe that's OK with him. The only thing he'd be sure to miss would be the FedEx Play-Offs. Time will tell, but perhaps a re-jig of his schedule during a Ryder Cup year was always in his mind, especially after being excluded last year by Captain Montgomerie?

5).Lots of speculation in the US golfing press that Stricker would have withdrawn from the Presidents Cup Team if not for Tiger Woods' inclusion, with pressure on him to play even if not fully fit so that Tiger has a partner.

6).And, while we're at it, Greg Norman has been offering his opinion on the Captain's choice that Couples awarded to Woods and suggesting it's not a good pick. Message to Greg Norman: Shut up Greg.
Captain Couples can pick who he likes (just like Shark chose Scott two years ago) and it's not worth winding the opposition up needlessly.
Norman rabbits on about current form but the fact is that his Team qualifies based upon results over the past 24 months and certainly not on current form; otherwise, if one qualified on owgr points earned in 2011, the International Team would be, in order:
Schwartzel, Day, Scott, Choi, Badds, Yang, Sabbatini, KTKim, Vijay, Senden. Ishikawa would be 11th, Ogilvy 12th and Coetzee 13th.
As it is, Sabbatini stays home, as do Vijay and Senden, and Ernie, Goosen and Allenby are there, rightly or wrongly, on past glories.

7).After spending last week at a course and in a resort (Sea Island) where I could happily stay and play golf everyday for a year, we're off to Orlando for the final event of the PGA Tour season, to Disney World which I'll very happily avoid for the rest of my days, golf courses included. But there's a lot at stake.
*The leading money-winner for the year (and the five year Tour exemption and Arnold Palmer Trophy - and Player Of The Year? - that go with it).
*Final placings which determine the destiny of a Masters invite (top 30), PGA Tour cards for 2012 (top 125), and conditional cards for 2012 (top 150).
Apart from Casey, who will earn a conditional status for 2012, other notables need the following approximate finishes at Disney:
Pampling: 28th
Trahan: 24th
Mayfair: 18th
Horschel: 6th
Curtis, Vaughn Taylor, Duval: 4th
Weekley: 2nd
Stephen Ames and Justin Leonard are among those who likely have career earnings exemptions to use and will be OK for 2012.

8).Not happy that three golfers who withdrew last week after taking a Tour wannabe's place in the field, Davis, Gillis and Goydos, are teeing it up again at Disney. Michael Allen, Calc and Lehman will be there too. Doesn't seem quite right to me although each is entitled to take their place. Hope none of them bale this week also. Interestingly, Kyung-tae Kim is 10th "alternate", not bad for the World's #21 ranked player!

9).Whatever Couples thinks about Greg Norman's picks (and he had a go at Allenby - "hasn't won for ten years", not strictly true of course), it's likely that no-one played better golf last weekend than Fred Couples on the Champions Tour. Twelve birdies and a double bogey in his Saturday 62, and a seven shot win. Perhaps Couples should have picked himself?

10).The final regular season event on the Nationwide Tour tees off on Thursday in Jacksonville. We'll track the progress of Europeans during the tournament, plus keep an eye on Stage One Qualifying School where Messrs Dinwiddie, Lara, Keith Nolan and others are trying their luck. Bon chance to them.

Coincidentally or not, GMac flew into Dublin this morning for 'some meetings'...

Luke Donald watch;
Having tied the lowest score yesterday on the Palm Course, it's worth noting what Luke has to do today to match the lowest score on themore difficult Magnolia Course. Bio Kim has the best round so far, -5 after 14 holes.
Justin Leonard (who?) just took the lead outright by going to -11 with two Round 2 holes to play.

This won't be easy!

David Duval will be the biggest name to have to attend Stage 2 Q-School if he wishes to regain full Tour Membership.
Wetterich will be among those to join him, possibly K-Club teammate Vaughn Taylor, and very likely Valhalla hotshot Boo Weekley - hope he's made to "ride his club" down the first fairway of Q-School. That'd wipe the smile off his face!!

C'mon, Luke! Get the finger out.

Damn and blast. Possible 2 shot swing on 7.

I don't expect Luke to fade away -- that's not what he does this year. But he better put on the afterburners if he wants to grab the $ title. Webb's not going to roll over, he's shown me a lot these past few months.

It's not Webb that he should be watching though, there are joint leaders at -12 and he can't afford to give a round away when the scoring is this low.

Two very tentative putts from Lukey.

Kelly Tilghman is going to drive me to put my foot through the TV screen. Unutterably stupid, borderline illiterate, arithmetically challenged, and all with a boring, monotonous delivery.


Agreed Redrage, Simpson irrelevant, at least until Sunday or unless he takes a big lead.

Even the putts Luke makes look tentative, the ones he misses (like at 11) look horrid!

That's better! Luuuuke!!

Great recovery!!

Whether Luke does it or not this week he is doing something very impressive and something that can help him win majors and thst is he is finding a way to score even though he is not playing well. Where did Justin Leonard find that score from, always though despite his career earnings and Open win he underachieved a little.

Scratch that, lay up into a hazard from Luke,

Stenson's god doing well today.

Chris Riley and Boo Weekley destined for Stage 2 Q-School.

Oh no! Can't believe Golf Channel are terminating their coverage. God help us.

Stenson really is an enigma of late isn't he just depends what mood he's in when he tees it up as he really can be one of the best in the world and then when he's not in the mood he's simply average at best

The "Good" Henrik is very good for golf, the "Bad" Henrik just makes one shake the head. I for one would love to see him return to his best; perhaps that might also wake Karlsson up as well, he's been taking something of a sabattical or so it seems.

Meanwhile, Simpson is outplaying Donald.

Billy Horschel had a great chance to win last week, even a respectable finish would have secured his card. Missed cut at Disney so imagine his clubs were flying. All the way to Q-School.

Kwini, I know we've discussed it before but what's the all-time record for Tour appearances? I see Billy Mayfair is on course to sneak inside the top 125 and give himself another full year: played his 700th tournament the other week and he won't be joining the Seniors for another 5 years yet.

Also - this time last year there was a lot of talk of Alex Prugh as a Next Big Thing. So much for that, MC here and off to stage 2, down in the 170s on the money list and overtaken by a good dozen newer Big Things this year.

Maverick wrote:Stenson really is an enigma of late isn't he just depends what mood he's in when he tees it up as he really can be one of the best in the world and then when he's not in the mood he's simply average at best

He had 18 birdies and an eagle in Madrid, but only finished -1. His long game is nearly there, but when it isn't it's a catastrophe and his scrambling hasn't been as good as it once was either. However, 18 birdies and an eagle suggests he is doing a lot right and I hope he has 4 good rounds in him this week. It is long overdue!

Ned,
I tried a search engine which indicated that Jay Haas had the most, at 798, but somehow feel there must be some players over the 800 mark. Can't think who though, and Haas certainly made plenty of Tour starts following his 50th birthday.

Give Milly Bayfair a lot of credit - apart from sticking around for ever he's also been through a bout of testicular cancer and just kept on truckin'. Just think what he'd've achieved if he'd been just an average putter later in his career. Surprising his career earnings aren't greater, just a couple of hundred $K behind Estes as the highest career earner without a Presidents or Ryder Cup appearance (which is very difficult to comprehend given his career vis a vis Estes').

Prugh always seemed to me to be a stuck up, entitled pr1ck. Came strutting on Tour, made a bunch of top tens straight away, then nothing. Stage 2 fields will be quite tasty!

Another birdie for Henrik!

Donald and Simpson all square, all to play for. Good result given how poorly Luuuuke struck the ball today, and how iffy his putting was in the middle of his round.

Most of Saturday morning for him to figure things out.

Good round for Knox today, rubbish from Chopra and he has one last chance next week to stake his top 25 claim. Owen too. Lonard and Will MacKenzie among other Stage 2 contenders.

Oh no!!
I think their finishes today dictate that Donald and Simpson will be paired together for Round 3.
Not sure how I feel about that but if Luke's got the right stuff he'll pull through. If not, c'est la vie.

http://tourreport.pgatour.com/2011/10/21/leonard-exempt-through-2012/

That's a new one on me.

Good Lord, Me too!

Makes one wonder how that never applied, say, to Duval who had to take a Medical year, plus his two career exemptions. He needs to speak to his agent!
I had always assumed Leonard would just take his top 25 career earnings exemption and play next year as normal. If that was this year normal, then he'd have the top 50 career earnings exemption to fall back on for 2013.

But this is as brand new to me as it is convoluted for them to explain.

PS: Assume the same must apply to Stephen Ames as his Players exemption runs out but he won tournaments in 2007 and 2009! Then he's got a top 50 exemption, and then he's 50!!

No idea why they're playing in threesomes Saturday; Donald and Simpson playing with the grisly Tom Pernice Junior Jr.

Where the hell did they come up with that ruling on exemption status. Seems like a complete crock surely finchams doing. Makes you wonder how Duval did miss out on that one. Love to see how they'd explain that further

It'll be interesting to see how they explain that contrivance in the pgatour.com "eligibility" status rankings!
Certainly the first time I've heard of it.
And it must surely apply to Ames . . . .

First week of Stage 1 Q-School survivors include
F.Cabrera (son of Angel)
Tryon
Waldman
McLardy
Patrick Reed
Alan Wagner



Casualties:
Jay Haas Junior Jr
M.Murphy
Kittleson
Fujikawa
Jin Jeong
John Peterson!!
Ross Bain
Karlberg
Gustafsson

Didin't watch the end last night, but to find Stenson sharing the lead this morning is almost as big a shock as the split between Rory & Chubby...

Would actually like to see Tryon make it this time, makes for an interesting storey, as does Waldmans bag man to nationwide tour to who knows where next.

I guess the 2 surprising names to miss out there are Jay Haas JR and Jin Jeong

Terrible field for the once much-vaunted CIMB event in Malaysia next week.

http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r494/field.html

Fair to say it's very much the undercard to IMG's Shanghai Masters, very much an embarrassment to PGA Tour HQ, one would think. Though good to see the Barn Rat in the field, plus pd's favourite Bangladeshi.
Somewhere in Ponte Vedra Beach Tim Finchem is smiling! Expect he'll stay up all night to watch the action.

Is that it... only 2-3 Asian players in a tournament played in Malaysia?

Truth is that the Asian golf itself is not exactly an example of unity and harmony either when it comes to tour structures (Japan, Korean, Asian, OneAsia, etc...), many times I struggle to understand who belongs to what, who's running what, and so on... Apart from the Japanese Tour, all the others are part of a pretty much new and virgin ground with the main 'predators', ET and PGA tour, trying to gain influence and assert their positions... Certainly the ET seems to have the upper hand at the moment in Asia, but the PGA Tour should be reasonably happy with getting now a definite foothold in South America...

They're off!
First six players off the first and tenth tees beside the Magic Kingdom, and they should enjoy sunny skies, temps in the 70's but slightly more breeze than on Thursday and Friday.

Donald vs Simpson, then, several players looking to save their cards for 2012, make the top 150 etc, and Spencer Levin hoping to usurp Kevin Na's fingertip hold on position #30 and a Masters invite. No complaints here if he succeeds, and a top 20-ish finish will do the trick. Let's face it, if The Masters was important to Na na na, he'd be here.

Not sure why Michael Sim withdrew today; just two years ago some were suggesting him as a possible Captain's Pick for Greg Norman's Pres Cup. Not now, 228th in money and back to Q-School. Hope he's OK.

Decent start from Luuuuke but he has to capitalise on the Par 5's.

Good news for Luke, looks like he holed a 30-footer.
After eight holes he's three ahead of Simpson but four adrift of Stenson who leads. Only five ahead of him now.
Some good rounds on the course but dozens of bogeys also; would think a 68 would be a very useful day's work.

Come on LUKE!!!!

483 holes w/o a 3-putt terminated at just the wrong time.
All that good work and one of the easieer holes on the course is negotiated 1 13 strokes Friday / Saturday.

Donald and Simpson dead even again.

Come on LUKE! Time to regroup and retrieve those squandered shots.

i saw him miss the putt but also saw him drive in the water and didnt realise it was for a 2 putt !!!

omg 483 holes without a 3 putt- has anyone ever in the history of the game- tour pro or not ever done this!!

at the moment i cant go 20 holes without one lol

mysti,
That's the longest streak since the PGA Tour started keeping records - by a long way.
Right now though, his streak is two consecutive drives into trouble.

thats one hell ova streak- speaks volumes as to why he is no.1.

we had stimp 13 greens in teh summer and even the best players(scratch to +2) couldnt even go around without a 3 putt- these pros play on greens that may well be true they are also insanely sharp week in week out

great bogey save- yet still 3 over in 2

Luke's resilient, he's proven that with all his top 10 finishes -- but he'll need to bounce back like a superball dropped from the top of space mountain if he wants the history making money title he came for. Better get those drives in order.

Not a fan of Justin Leonard, but good to see a short hitter at the top of the leader board, if only for a while.

after that kiora islnad ryder cup i have never really liked him

mysti,
Cool your jets! Leonard was about 20 during Kiawah, you're possibly thinking of Brookline. And I agree!!

Sr,
Wouldn't it be nice if they showed Number One once in a while? Golf Channel coverage utterly abysmal this week.
You'd've thought the race for the money title was a story worth following, but apparently not.

I thought he relinquished his no-3-putt streak a couple of weeks ago?

kwinigolfer wrote:mysti,
Cool your jets! Leonard was about 20 during Kiawah, you're possibly thinking of Brookline. And I agree!!

Sr,
Wouldn't it be nice if they showed Number One once in a while? Golf Channel coverage utterly abysmal this week.
You'd've thought the race for the money title was a story worth following, but apparently not.

my memory sucks

He 3-putted at Dunhill but that doesn't count for PGA Tour stats.

Great rescue job on 18; he could sleep only five shots in arrears, compared to 8 shots behind an hour or so ago. Nothing a Sunday 63 can't overcome.

kwinigolfer wrote:He 3-putted at Dunhill but that doesn't count for PGA Tour stats.

That must be what I was thinking of. Amazing streak really - sometimes I'd like to go 4 or 5 holes without a 3-stab

It's all gone a bit ragged for Henrik today, a few shortish putts missed and really not in control of his long game. Hopefully a tweak on the range will sort him out in time for a big final round tomorrow as he is still in the thick of this.

did i get that wrong or did leonard get 4 chip ins today . OMG

mystiroakey wrote:did i get that wrong or did leonard get 4 chip ins today . OMG

I noticed at least two on the play by play, better to be lucky than good sometimes!

lol to the pga school style report card- leonard was all b pluses and a's- and then he ends up with a D.

how the heck does that work out!

That's American maths for you, mysti!

Smoke and mirrors from Leonard today, missed 7 greens, three-putted at least one of them, made a ton of long putts and chipped in at least three times.

As for Henrik, as Fanny jilted him?

I'd say Lukey was very fortunate today, rather threw a very good position away but then the leaders came back to him. Good!