PGA Tour: Back to Proper Golf after Donald Duck's Doral: Notes from the Ballwasher

1)."The longest 3 in the field are position 1,2 and if you hadn't guessed 3rd. HaHaHa(repeat about 50 times)": Ian Poulter.

2).Similar Twitterage from others has been deleted, but suffice to say the Tour's best were not happy with their second week at Doral. Even JB Holmes (hardly surprising after his second shot of Round 2 which looked perfect until it went down one side of a hog's back, past a windmill and down a waterslide) and Bubba were critical, while Commish Finchem was a little defensive, whether about the course or the set-up was not clear.

3).Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard did a straw poll of the pro's favourite courses and Doral received no mentions, even in 15-course itineraries. Fortunately, this week's venue, Innisbrook's Copperhead Course, appeared on every pro's dream itinerary, a welcome respite before we return next week to Bay Hill, recipient of only one vote.

4).Suffice it to speculate it is most unlikely that the three longest drivers in the field will finish 1, 2, 3 this week, on the late Larry Packard's Par-71 design, with 5 x Par 3's and 4 x Par 5's. A good golf course will seek to identify the best golfers, not eliminate 75% of the field. Gary Woodland is a recent winner at Innisbrook, but so are Luke Donald and Furyk, while Vijay's won once and the Goose twice, long hitters but with a complete game.

5).The US Presidents Cup qualifying rankings have undergone plenty of changes recently, especially with DJ's last month of earnings.
Jimmy Walker and Bubba Watson are far ahead of the rest, followed by Dustin Johnson.
#4 thru #10: Reed, Kuchar, Ryan Moore, Furyk, Haas, Chris Kirk, Spieth.
Ryder Cuppers from Gleneagles who languish outside the leaders are:
Zach Johnson (11th), Simpson (14th), Fowler (20th), Mahan (25th), Bradley (30th), Mickelson (47th).

6).Lest we forget, there was an "opposite field" event last week, the Puerto Rico Open, won by Alex Cejka. ALEX CEJKA? That's Harrington and Cejka in successive weeks, probably the longest-priced double in the history of Europeans dabbling on the PGA Tour. More significant results for the longer term were the T2 finish from Emiliano Grillo and the T10 for Rafa C-Bello. Both earn places in this week's Innisbrook field for the "Valspar Championship" and Grillo, especially, will now be in great position to play the web.com Final series late this summer. Grillo's going to be quite the player I would suggest.

7).While talking golfcourse design, or lack of it, the architects' fraternity lost one of its more eminent members last week, with the death of Jay Morrish. Morrish was a sometime collaborator with Tom Weiskopf (TPC Scottsdale & Loch Lomond for instance) but earlier had helped Jack Nicklaus establish his design business. Nicklaus, Bob Cupp and Pete Dye were among those to pay effusive tributes to Morrish, who worked mainly west of the Mississippi and whose best known solo design was probably "The Boulders" in Arizona's beautiful Sonoran Desert.

8).There's a splendid turn-out for the Valspar this week with five Top Ten players, Scott, Rose, Stenson, Spieth and Furyk.
European Tour regulars, as well as Grillo and Rafa, include Donaldson, Luiten, Poults, Donald, Westwood, Molinari and Harrington, while Marc Warren,. Wiesberger and Zanotti tried and failed the Monday Qualie.

9).Russell Knox and a rested Martin Laird have played well here, while Louis Oosthuizen makes a welcome appearance after his out-of-the-blue top 6th place result at Doral. Amazingly King Louis has only played six times since last year's Barclays: five top tens and a T14. You can't keep a good man down; hope he stays fit for Augusta.
I like to look at golfers who seem to be running in to form and doubling up each-way bets until they pay out: Snedeker a few weeks ago was such a player, Dustin Johnson too, and imagine Rose will be a candidate when his game comes round. But keep an eye on Brandon Todd whose form seems to be coming together and will be a decent price.

10).Apart from Stenson, there are some countrymen of his playing this week, Tour regulars Blixt and Jacobson, plus the hold-out anchorer Carl Pettersson - frankly, his form has been poor, whatever he putts with and however he does it. But he has a decent record here and won in 2005. Not sure if he has a plan B when they pull his anchor, but he's been a good Tour ambassador, and influential in sustaining the Tour stop in Greensboro.
Lastly, Happy 50th birthday to Jesper Parnevik. He's reportedly fit and ready to embark on his Champions Tour benefit run. He'll be exempt for a few years and hopefully he'll bring the entertainment to his Senior career that he graced the PGA Tour with until injuries sapped his competitiveness.

Two other topics certain to grab headlines:
~Woods has 48 hours to determine whether he's playing Bay Hill. So far they haven't heard from him, sure Arnie's thrilled.
~Daly's rant about drug testing, it's selectivity and amateurish conduct.

I suppose the Patrick Reed saga will also continue?

Sounds like he's sustaining it, telling half-truths which beg for the real story to be told.
No-one would really care if he just shut up and played golf.

Still no word from Woods . . . . . .

Justin Leonard will give you the keys to his Dallas drum for $16M.

http://www.daveperrymiller.com/property/37624219/3700-Euclid-Avenue-Highland-Park-TX-75205

Weird that he doesn't include a photo of the snooker table . . . . . . .

Not clear what discount (50%?) he'll offer for having to live in Dallas . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:~Day's rant about drug testing, it's selectivity and amateurish conduct.

Jason Day?  Glen Day?

or John Daly?


Good write-up as per usual.

Thinking there is going to be a lot of turnover in the US Prez Cup team.  I am glad to see it.  I am just wondering if Phil and Tiger show any kind of form will they be picked.  It nearly impossible for Tiger to make the team on merit at this point.  He has to have the equivalent of Five Wins, and Phil probably needs the equivalent of three wins.

Its an odd looking Prez Cup team too.  With Lahiri and Jaidee and Senden.  Grillo has a good chance to be highest ranked Argentinian after this week. 

I am surprised Woods has not said YES or NO to Arnold yet.  I think there is a reasonable chance if he doesn't playing Bay Hill that he plays Houston, with him redesigning a course in the region.

Nice article kwini

Woods seems to have committed to the British Open Champion Golfer's challenge (a 4-hole exhibition event the day before the Open kicks off) if not much else.

Here's the latest from Shane Lowry
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/so-many-positives-to-take-away-from-doral-1.2135801

incontinentia wrote:Nice article kwini

The only thing Woods has committed to so far is the British Open Champion Golfer's challenge, a 4-hole exhibition event the day before the Open kicks off.

Here's the latest from Shane Lowry
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/so-many-positives-to-take-away-from-doral-1.2135801

Always got his mind on food, I would have thought the editor might do a better job of making it a better read.
It reads like a child's "What I did in my holidays" essay. " I did this" and "I did that". Awful

Tks for the link inco.
Agree with super that it's pretty simplistic (naive?) stuff - but good for Lowry, though he comes across as blase about the challenges of playing well in the top tournaments.

They're on their way at the "Valspar", a quiet morning weatherwise if they can escape some showers in the area and nothing in the forecast to interfere with four days of golf on a proper golf course.
Molinari out early and he could use a strong tournament; he's a long way off qualifying for Augusta and he needs some good results to take pressure off his schedule.

Alex Levy definitely among commitments for the Sam Saunders Invitational at Bay Hill, Wiesberger as well. EDIT: Willett also committed.
(No word yet about Woods.)

Clickety click for Harrington, as he kicks off his Valspar week with a pair of 6's, the first one including a nifty 3-putt from inside 15ft, then misses a 4 ft par putt on the par-5 11th.

A few points worth discussing from Lowry article

- He values just playing well when he does play over a carefully sculpted schedule. This is contrary to the philosophy that kwini proposes a player should follow. Should Lowry be more selective about where he plays?

- Is he correct to think he is on schedule to secure non-member status through fedex points?

- Does anyone understand why he does not value checking out major venues before the event? If it were me I would want to know the major venues inside out regardless of what condition and set up they had outside the week of the major.

Mac,
What does your first bullet mean? In contrast to the last 18 months it seems Lowry is keeping a more considered schedule than before which seemed too opportunistic to be successful. And, in terms of securing Special Temporary Membership, wasn't!

This year he's clearly right on track for non-member status, as you call it.

Think he's daft not to go to Augusta before the Monday - no chance of doing anything on the Sunday if he makes the cut in San Antonio.

Tasty eagle (par-3), eagle (par-5), finish to Madsen's round in Pretoria . . . . he's having quite the couple of weeks. Strange that he can't reproduce his Sunshine form, as Meryl Streep would say, "Out of Africa".

Actually Lowry called it non member status. I think we all know what it means.

My point is that you often criticise players for their schedule, and here we have a player who does not seem to value a well thought out schedule, rather he admits he is happy to play anywhere and focus on playing well wherever that may be.

McLaren wrote:
- Does anyone understand why he does not value checking out major venues before the event?  If it were me I would want to know the major venues inside out regardless of what condition and set up they had outside the week of the major.

Hi mac. My read is that he doesn't want to deviate from his normal tournament/Major routine that has worked for him in the past.

This article makes it a bit clearer. He has gotten criticism for that decision, and tbh seems quite cocky in that Irish golf desk piece. Hope he knows what he's doing.

Mac,
Disagree regarding Lowry's schedule as it currently stands.

He made a conscious decision not to play in the Gulf - if he doesn't get good results there, avoiding it makes perfect sense, better to take a break, get fit - and he got tee-times in San Diego and Pebble Beach on courses that you'd think would suit him well. Surprising that he didn't contrive an invite to Riviera.
Not sure why he's playing San Antonio but otherwise he's looking good (not literally of course). In contrast to the hit-and-miss schedules that some Europeans, incl Shane, have played in the past, competing on courses that would clearly not suit them, missing out on others that would.

Without a proper practice round he makes the following prediction.

“I think I will be coming back from the Masters with my US tour card in my pocket”


His reason for not having more practice at augusta? Because everyone else does it.

“The only reason everyone does it is because everyone else does, so I’ll get there on Sunday and I’ll play nine holes Monday, 18 Tuesday and nine Wednesday. That’s what I do for every other major so there is no point in changing.”


He is certainly a very cocky fellow.


PS not to go down the super irish bashing route, but has anyone else noticed a large proportion of irish people you work with are the cockiest people in the group?

Mac,
He's misguided about his "Tour card"; what he hopefully will have is the ability to accept more sponsor invites.
But why would they invite him? Rhetorical question, but he's not the only fish in the sea, not even the biggest!

McLaren wrote:Without a proper practice round he makes the following prediction.

“I think I will be coming back from the Masters with my US tour card in my pocket”


His reason for not having more practice at augusta?  Because everyone else does it.

“The only reason everyone does it is because everyone else does, so I’ll get there on Sunday and I’ll play nine holes Monday, 18 Tuesday and nine Wednesday.  That’s what I do for every other major so there is no point in changing.”


He is certainly a very cocky fellow.  


PS not to go down the super irish bashing route, but has anyone else noticed a large proportion of irish people you work with are the cockiest people in the group?

Mac, I suspect he's too much of a lard ass to do much practice on course. Given his average Major results, I'm surprised he doesn't put a bit more effort in practice and preparation.
I think if I was him I'd certainly play the course half a dozen times before, and probably walk it backwards and forwards a few times. Sportsmen just don't seem very bright do they?

As I type this, Sean O'Hair is in the #1 spot.

Thank you for allowing me this homerism and bit of joy.

Shane has 218 faux FedEx Pts.  

He needs 323 pts to get STM and 438 pts to earn a full card for the 2015-16 season.

The equivalent of 5th place will get him STM and the equivalent of 3rd place + 50th place  place will clinch a 2015-16 card.

I can understand it from his point of view. He believes if he treats a major very differently from every other tournament in the year he wont play well. He hadnt played tory pines before and was 2 shots off the playoff. Why should augusta be that different? Jordan Spieth nearly won first time last year.

Nice one Sr,
He has previous here, won a few years ago.

Interesting leaderboard, Stenson enjoying himself by the looks of it, St.Padraig not so much.


skiddy,
Most people will say that Augusta is all about the greens; there's a good reason why no first-timer has won there for 35 years. Also why Rory's hoping to play a practice round with his marker from last year, who beat him, to learn more about course management there.

Anyone know anything about the young Englishman in the field, Michael Kinkopf?

SmithersJones wrote:Anyone know anything about the young Englishman in the field, Michael Kinkopf?

He played College golf at Ohio State and he Monday qualified to get into Valspar.

His tOSU profile does not say he is from England.  Might be a PGATour Mistake.

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/kinkopf_michael00.html

Horrendous round of golf from Harrington.
How d'you manage to 3-putt from 5 feet Padraig?
I holed a 5-footer for double-bogey.

kwinigolfer wrote:How d'you manage to 3-putt from 5 feet?

I did exactly that yesterday It's easy!

Good to see Trevor Immelman playing again. Anyone know how he is healthwise these days?

I think Immelman's health is good, just his golf game is under the weather.

O'Hair doing Aronomink proud.

Daly's round is a work in progress - and a pretty awful one at that. Pathetic exhibition, they ought to test him for drugs . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Horrendous round of golf from Harrington.
How d'you manage to 3-putt from 5 feet Padraig?
I holed a 5-footer for double-bogey.

Dire putting round, I counted 6 putts inside 5 feet missed...

Justin Rose season in the States hasn't really started!

True dat about Rose. But he was also out of sync at the start of last year, due to injury niggles. Wonder if he's fully fit?

Super start for Brian Davis; there's a win in his bag somewhere, hope it doesn't have to be a web.com event.

Wonder whether Cejka last week will give Davis a bit of belief.

Though he might have to beat Cejka himself to do it this week.

A former teammate reveals a little more of the patrick reed saga

http://www.weiunderpar.com/post/a-former-teammate-speaks-out-on-patrick-reeds-suspension-at-augusta-state

Anyone else have the same problem? Go to PGA Tour leaderboard on internet and it takes me to the WGC leaderboard.

Well done Brian Davis . . . . . .

Not sure which is greater, Mac:
Your obsession with Reed's arithmetic/integrity?
Your obsession with Stephanie's delights??

One thing for sure, he'll be on a very short rope on Tour.

My leaderboard's OK . . . . . . .
Some good scoring going on.

Kwini

How many other golf stories are there this week?  Might as well mention the Reed story,

I find most golf blogs are a little sycophantic, but find wei provides I more realistic take on many of the news stories in golf.  Don't worry though, I do like Wei a lot but you are still my #1.  

Tell her that!


I see Henrik Stenson is advocating that the Tour, not even the Champions Tour, conducts drug tests for Viagra . . . . .

No word from Woods, on whether Vonn demands he takes his daily Viagra or whether he's playng with Arnie, who's given up his Viagra on advice from his heart surgeon.

GPB wrote:Shane has 218 faux FedEx Pts.  

He needs 323 pts to get STM and 438 pts to earn a full card for the 2015-16 season.

The equivalent of 5th place will get him STM and the equivalent of 3rd place + 50th place  place will clinch a 2015-16 card.

Slight clarification... STM is based on a nonmember earning equiv to #150 FE points from the PRIOR season...  Full card status for the following year is  based on earning equiv to #125 money or FE Points for the CURRENT season (through the Wyndham).    So Shane's benchmark for STM is known at 323 FE Points...  but his benchmark for earning membership for next year can only be estimated at this point as we don't now exactly what it will be.  (but that said, the 2014 totals of 438 FE points or just over $713K is a pretty good guess)

McLaren wrote:I find most golf blogs are a little sycophantic, but find wei provides I more realistic take on many of the news stories in golf.  

IMO Wei's blog is "just alright" most the time, but every now and again she gets onto something more meaningful, digs in and does a good job with it. One thing she's got going for her... she's of the same generation of the players she's covering, and gets a lot of access via befriending their wives and such.

Just to be totally anal . . . . probably slightly more, closer to 500, as there are more tournaments this year.
I'm using 500 pts as my threshold, expect it to be just a shade fewer.

Arnie getting a bit tetchy that his Tiger hasn't called.
But he can't be unhappy about the amount of TV time his grandson received today. Somewhat uncharitable to suggest one hopes a pro misses the cut but, Sam, enough is enough. And we know there's going to be Samoverload next week.

It sounds as if John Daly has been fined by the Tour for his outspoken criticism of the Tour's drug-testing programme. "I already got my letter," he said on Wednesday.

Brian Davis with the "Valspar" lead. What price a European 40-something triple: Harrington, Cejka, Davis? Millions to one I would imagine.

robopz wrote:

McLaren wrote:I find most golf blogs are a little sycophantic, but find wei provides I more realistic take on many of the news stories in golf.  

IMO Wei's blog is "just alright" most the time, but every now and again she gets onto something more meaningful, digs in and does a good job with it.   One thing she's got going for her... she's of the same generation of the players she's covering, and gets a lot of access via befriending their wives and such.

I am probably about the same age as Wei so maybe you are onto something. She just seems to provide a fresh look at golf which the more established sources can't match. When was the last time one of the major golf publication - or anyone - actually dug a little deeper into a story? She provides a lot more than the usual cliches and recycled quotes from news conferences.

Another blogger I follow is Geoff Shackelford, someone I found through his writings on golf architecture.


As we are on the topic of golf bloggers, who do you read that others may not be aware of?

Brian Davis is currently second on the career moneylist of those who have never won a PGA Tour event.
Unofficially:
$13.25M: Briny Baird
$12.87M: Brian Davis
$12.20M: Jeff Overton
$11.06M: Brett Quigley
$10.27M: Fatty de Jonge
$ 9.97M: Charlie Wi

So Davis probably needs to contrive a 2nd or solo 3rd place finish at Innisbrook to overtake Baird. I'd prefer he won, but very early days yet.

Darren Clarke playing well in Pretoria. Three Fishers in the Top 30!

Justin Rose now +5 at Innisbrook. Another missed cut for Justin unless he can string together some birds on his second nine.

Poults and St.Luke going strong . . . . for the time being.

What is Jamie Donaldsons PGAT status?

Is he in the Lowry boat of needing 323 fedex Points for STM and just under 500 to secure a card for next season?

Or is he already a full member? Anyway he currently has 224 fedex points.

McLaren wrote:What is Jamie Donaldsons PGAT status?

Is he in the Lowry boat of needing 323 fedex Points for STM and just under 500 to secure a card for next season?

Or is he already a full member?  Anyway he currently has 224 fedex points.

Donaldson is full member of the PGATour.  He got his STM status last season and earned more than 438 FE points to get his 2014-15 Card.

His priority status is better than the Web-commers so he is not subject to the reshuffle.  As a Top 50 player, he gets to play nearly any tournament he wants until the playoffs including the invitationals and the Players.

If you notice, Donaldson is listed in the FEDEX standings  (76th), while Lowry is not.

Mac,
Donaldson, and Dubuisson & Molinari, are technically in Exempt Membership Category 21. So they ARE Members and just need to reach the Top 125 in Points (or, possibly, the Top 125 in Official Money) to maintain their Membership into next season where they will be elevated to Category 19 (or 20) at least which is reserved for the Top 125 in FedEx Points not otherwise exempt.

Lowry has no status until he earns STM.

Donaldson actually has 244 FedEx Points so he's well on his way, hopefully more this week.
Molinari currently has 146, and Dubuisson just 8. (Not sure Vic is up with the programme on his Membership Status; he's certainly off the pace, both in terms of tournaments played and Points earned.)


The Valspar cut has slipped to +1; it could stay there unless scores improve, as they did yesterday, in the afternoon. Justin Rose still with it all to do.

Thanks guys, just couldn't remember what Donaldson was up to lase season.

Does anyone on here have a list of the double dippers and what sort of status they have on the PGAT and european tours?