PGA Tour: Byron Nelson: "Where Have All The Golfers Gone?": Notes from the Ballwasher

1).The Byron Nelson tournament was historically one of the Tour's stronger events, a decent field every year . . . . . until Lord Byron left the scene and those who'd come to pay homage to his lordship stayed away.
But never to the extent that they have this year.
The previous Lord Nelson lost an arm and an eye before finally being shot to death - Lord Byron has lost most of the pros, a huge slap in the face to one of the Tour's strongest sponsors, AT&T.
Wonder if CBS TV will also send its "C" Team?
More on all that later.

2).Webb Simpson! Where did that come from? A wonderful win at The Players, but should it have been that big a surprise?
Simpson's form has steadily been improving for a couple of years, and since finishing T16 at last year's Players has made 24 cuts in 26 events, and this was his 10th Top Ten finish in that time, but the first time he'd really threatened to earn the "W".
And a crummy record at TPC - a T15, a T16 last year, nothing else in the Top 60.
A big surprise to me anyway and another prestigious win after the DeutscheBank and US Open triumphs of years gone by.
Any more success this year and he won't have to text Furyk for a Ryder Cup place. Mixed blessing for the US I should think, but that's a whole other story!

3).We talk on here about a succession of one-Major wonders among US golfers of a certain age, and the TPC leaderboard was full of 'em:
Simpson wins.
Walker T2
Dufner T5
Bradley T7
Thomas T11
Koepka T11
Dustin T17
Kuchar T17 - not that he has a Major but does have a Players.

On any given day . . . . . . .

4).And then there's T.Woods; he pretty much played himself out of the tournament on Friday before exciting media everywhere with brilliant front nines for Rounds 3 & 4 before stumbling through the back nine each day.
The word is that he's anxious to return to his happy hunting ground of Firestone CC for one last time for the WGC Bridgestone, so is willing to adjust his schedule (woo hoo) in an effort to boost his owgr placing, which would need to be in the Top 50. Only Memorial, Shinnecock, TPC Potomac (for "The National" - which I thought was a band from Cinncinati?) and Carnoustie on his agenda so far, so imagine Tournament Directors thru'out the land are wetting themselves in anticipation.

5).What did you make of the plethora of birdies and eagles, not to mention Koepka's albatross?
It seems the players had a sense the course was going to be set up to be receptive and vulnerable to low scoring - summed up by Stenson who said, "It's the easiest I've seen it play. Hopefully, in March it gets back to feeling major-like. Because this was more like any other tour event".
So, March it will be for 2019 and beyond - check out last week's Players thread for robopz's best guess at next year's schedule. Thanks robo    

6).As for the Europeans, the Continentals started out like the proverbial house on fire and GB&I struggled. But Friday was largely the other way around and Fleetwood (T7) and Poulter (T11) had good results without threatening anything much better. Rafa & Noren were T17, Rose & Stenson @ T23 have never really got going this year and one wonders at what stage their indifferent form becomes a concern for Bjorn. Good Sergio for 36 holes followed by bad Sergio for the other 36, while Hatton hasn't had a respectable week since leaving Mexico.

7).OK, Back to the "AT&T Byron Nelson.
There's a new venue, "Trinity Forest", an inland "links" according to designers Coore & Crenshaw close to Downtown Dallas, which sounds pretty improbable. And if the course is not baked out, the players most likely will be, with little or no rain in the forecast and temps in the mid-90's (with no trees and no shade). Great. Here's pgatour.com's preview of the lay-out:
https://www.pgatour.com/long-form/2018/05/15/trinity-forest-att-byron-nelson-unique-course.html

A lukewarm prognosis if ever I heard one.

8).This is the weakest full-field event of the year so far.
Top 5 in owgr spoils to the victor:
Riviera (62), Quail Hollow and Phoenix (60), Bay Hill (58) and Torrey Pines & Pebble Beach (both 54).
Bottom 5:
Byron Nelson (34), Valero Texas and Career Builder (40), Hawaii& Houston (48).

The Tour makes a lot, a LOT, out of the charitable contributions generated from its tournaments, but two of the largest contributions are made annually by the AT&T Byron Nelson and Valero Texas Open - and the players don't give a toss.

9).Most of the Pros won't have seen the place before but local lads will have made quite a few trips. Spieth for one - will surely be disappointed if he doesn't win - and Hosssler for another. Good each way chance I should think as he looks for his first win.

10).A few nuggets to close with:
*US Open "Local" Qualifying is well underway - seniors Austin, Bart Bryant & Williamson among those to qualify for "Sectional" so far, sons of pros Lehman, Geiberger and Sindelar too, plus Tour winners Gainey & Trahan.
*First US Open owgr Top 60 exemptions awarded following this week's tournament - there's another cut-off on June 11th.
*Goodbye to two-time Major Champ, Doug Ford.
*What's this all about? Mike Weir playing this week's web.commer - he'd've likely strengthened the field at the Nelson . . . . . .
*First Champions Tour "Major" of the season in Alabama. Don't worry if you blink, they have another "Major" coming up next week!

I recall you and Ned using the term "after the Lord Mayor's Show" for the Valero, this week reeks of it even more.

Don't you mean double eagle? 

The resurrection of Webb Simpson has been surprising. By the 17th on Sunday, I was half expecting Simpson to hit his tee shot and just stroll across the water on to the green. His game was just devine - in a different league to the rest of the field. He looked like a very popular character too, his followers flocked around him like disciples. I switched off as soon as he holed the winning putt, apart from it being late I didn't fancy listening to his winning preach... er speech.

ray,
You just didn't want the announcement that his next son would be called Sawgrass . . . . . . . .

A couple of streaky guys on a bit of a roll and playing this week are Billy Ho and Jimmy Walker. Not sure anything remotely resembling normal form or course guides is especially meaningful this week but worth keeping an eye on them. And Players form might also be a good guide for Colonial - Jason Dufner for instance.

Kwini...  Jason Logan of Score Golf wrote a good piece on the Canadian Open's potential Schedule upgrade... Worth a read for those who care about the Canadian Open or the potential new PGAT schedule.  http://scoregolf.com/feature/banking-on-a-better-date/

Now the word is it'll be June or even early July before the full schedule announcement comes out.  Although I would expect them to re-confirm THIS FALL portion earlier...  As for January portion of the schedule forward... I have updated the current schedule I have based on new reports I'm seeing... I'll update "MY BEST GUESS" in this new thread from time to time...  https://www.606v2.com/t67551-potential-2018-2019-pga-tour-schedule#3705622

robo, Thanks.


Wish the Canadian Open would migrate to Quebec more than once in a while . . . . . .

Lucas Glover's Mrs takes golf very seriously - https://amp.independent.ie/sport/golf/us-golfer-lucas-glovers-wife-arrested-for-domestic-violence-for-allegedly-attacking-husband-and-his-mother-after-poor-round-36911970.html

So is "Double Eagle" the new "British Open"? Some thing for the Brits to get their knickers in a knot over the terminology?

What you call a "Boot" of a car, we call a "Trunk".
What you call a "biscuit", we call a "cookie"
What you call a "Ladybird", we call a "Ladybug"
What you call "Petrol", we call gas or "gasoline"

Effectively, they are synonyms, different words meaning the same thing.

Shut the Front Door
Close the Front Door.

It Means the same thing! Why get pedantic if we call it a double eagle. ditto British Open. You Brits know what we are talking about and We Americans know what you are talking about.

And BTW, according to wiki, albatrosses are not even native to Europe. They are bird of the Southern Hemisphere and the Pacific ocean. I can't imagine Old Tom and Young Tom even knowing what an albatross was.

Not sure what that was all about.


But interesting to see that Steve Williams is taking a fortnight in Texas working this week and next for Aaron Baddeley, apparently an old friend. All very amicable with Badds's regular caddie apparently - but Badds needs a good result or two and it's a "team" decision that Williams comes in to offer a fresh perspective. Unusual nevertheless.

And the Lucas Glover domestic dispute just gets bizarrer and bizarrer. Where will it end? Oh, divorce court.

raycastleunited wrote:The resurrection of Webb Simpson has been surprising. By the 17th on Sunday, I was half expecting Simpson to hit his tee shot and just stroll across the water on to the green. His game was just devine - in a different league to the rest of the field. He looked like a very popular character too, his followers flocked around him like disciples. I switched off as soon as he holed the winning putt, apart from it being late I didn't fancy listening to his winning preach... er speech.

GPB wrote:So is "Double Eagle" the new "British Open"?  Some thing for the Brits to get their knickers in a knot over the terminology?

What you call a "Boot" of a car, we call a "Trunk".
What you call a "biscuit", we call a "cookie"
What you call a "Ladybird", we call a "Ladybug"
What you call "Petrol", we call gas or "gasoline"

Effectively, they are synonyms, different words meaning the same thing.  

Shut the Front Door
Close the Front Door.

It Means the same thing!  Why get pedantic if we call it a double eagle.  ditto British Open.  You Brits know what we are talking about and We Americans know what you are talking about.

And BTW, according to wiki, albatrosses are not even native to Europe.  They are bird of the Southern Hemisphere and the Pacific ocean.  I can't imagine Old Tom and Young Tom even knowing what an albatross was.

A double eagle doesn't even make mathematical sense.
An Eagle is -2, therefore a double eagle ought to be -4, yet it's not, it's -3, so calling an albatross a double eagle is as stupid as being called Chesson, Boo or Tiger.

Do you seriously think that no one had heard of an albatross in Old Tom Morris time? Americans might rarely leave their shores, but British explorers travelled the world.
Old Tom Morris only died in 1908 for goodness sake. We've known about Albatrosses for centuries.

Do you think he wouldn't have heard of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner? People weren't completely ignorant back then you know.
People were rather cultured back then you know.

Tomato

Good notes as always Kwin, thank you again.

kwinigolfer wrote:
But interesting to see that Steve Williams is taking a fortnight in Texas working this week and next for Aaron Baddeley, apparently an old friend. All very amicable with Badds's regular caddie apparently - but Badds needs a good result or two and it's a "team" decision that Williams comes in to offer a fresh perspective. Unusual nevertheless.

I know a caddie's influence is a pet peeve of some on here so I wonder what they think of this?

It will be interesting to see how Baddeley goes. And if successful will Williams start hiring himself out on a short term basis to other struggling players? Like a modern day Jon Stark, football mercenary and matchwinner for hire

Hmm, Williams is somehow a superior caddie because he was bagman for the best player of a generation and followed that by carrying for another of the most talented?
If Baddeley suddenly becomes a consistent threat at the top events, happy to reassess Williams but until then, he's just a nasty Rottweiler who happens to carry someone else's clubs around.

Nothing predatory about the two-week Williams gig w/Badds; just a friend asking for a fresh set of eyes.
Suspect Williams will retain the Rottweiler image regardless of any success Badds enjoys! Remember, he had some good jobs before he went to Woods.

If Badds gets some good results I'm in no doubt who will take credit tho.

It must have been tough for Steve Williams, after all those major wins having to tell Tiger that he no longer required his services.

super_realist wrote:
A double eagle doesn't even make mathematical sense.
An Eagle is -2, therefore a double eagle ought to be -4, yet it's not, it's -3,

You can't argue with this logic.

If the Americans called an eagle a double birdie that would make sense.

How about -- An eagle is one shot better than a birdie. A double eagle is therefore two shots better than a birdie. It's not completely illogical.

I've noticed the American media have been calling it an albatross recently. Maybe not all the time, but certainly a lot more than they used to.

Trump simply calls it an American Eagle.

Here's my favourite Albatross:

https://www.google.com/search?q=albatross+fleetwood+mac&oq=albatross+fleetwood+mac&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.8375j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


Meanwhile, Drumpf thinks he's a "Man of the World". "Oh Well".

Five hours the order of the day for early starters at the "Nelson" - first afternoon groups seeming to start play before the first early birds have finished their morning rounds. Doesn't augur well for pace of play this afternoon.

Early scoring pretty good though; Martin Laird in with even par after "strokes gained putting" of -4.5. What might have been.

Double Eagle? Albatross? Shocker anyone gives s**t what they call either way... The stupid things people will argue about... Sheesh....

I was really hoping to be wrong... But that new Trinity Forest course at the Nelson looks boring as balls to me... Pretty much the same impression I had the one time I saw it after shaping and they were just beginning to grass.

Watching PGA Tour live a while ago even Matt Kuchar said (only half joking after pulling a drive in the left gunch) "Didn't I tell you I hate this course"... Yikes... Not good.

IMO the problem is, without wind, it actually plays too much like the true Links Courses in The Open rota ... EXCEPT its longer and doesn't have near the interesting challenge or brutal hazards in or along the fairways. But the same kind of boring greens like most links courses. (Except too freaking large)

I'm sure some players will take to it, but I just don't see the PGA tour players as a whole really embracing this place. Again... HOPE I'm wrong about that too. Salesmanship Club is one of the best two or three tournament organizations in all of PGA Tour golf... They deserve better....

That's not good, Kuchar usually finds a silver lining to the darkest cloud. Plus he has the influential John Wood keeping him company. Wonder how his old buddy Hunner fares, he's a member at TF.

We occasionally play an "urban links" course in Montreal, designed by Irishman Pat Ruddy. Great fun for us hackers to play, but don't know what the pros would make of it. But then it doesn't look like a moonscape either, unlike TF.

Sorry for starting the double eagle thing. Not in mean way but I have just always found it a funny expression. I don't object to it really. 



Anyone have any idea the sort of results Tiger needs to make the Bridgestone?

Trouble-maker

Mac,
I think you could do the approximate arithmetic yourself bearing in mind that Woods won't come anywhere close to the minimum "divisor" of 40 events over two years. Just go on to owgr and look at comparable results for the four tournaments he'll definitely play and come up with your own permutations. Know you don't much care for doing that, but sure you can do it. A win would do it regardless. Or a runner up in a Major.

Well over 3 hours into their rounds and the first of the afternoon wave are playing the 12th hole. Just what you want when it's over 90F and there's no shade.
I thought they were clamping down on slow play?

Each to their own on the course, I’ve been watching the last couple of hours on featured groups and enjoyed it as a change from the usual look. Worth considering that today will probably be the easiest setup they get too, traditional links courses tend to be “boring” too when scoring is easy imo.

McLaren wrote:Anyone have any idea the sort of results Tiger needs to make the Bridgestone?

Tiger is going to need somewhere in the neighborhood of 5O more raw owgr points to qualify for Bridgestone.  He has a minimum of five events scheduled to get that done... For reference he's earned about 69 points in 9 events since his return at the Hero.

His 3-over on his last six holes at the Players cost him 20 + points

kwinigolfer wrote:That's not good, Kuchar usually finds a silver lining to the darkest cloud. Plus he has the influential John Wood keeping him company.

@AdamSchupak
Interesting take from Matt Kuchar on Trinity Forest: “I’m going to follow the lesson if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.” #Ouch

But Leishman must like it. -10 and two double eagles (does that equate to a quadruple eagle? Or maybe an emu?)

If nothing else the course is more fun than most just for the range of opinions it’s provoking on twitter. Clearly Kuch isn’t a fan but others are:

Ernie:
My take on Trinity Forest @attbyronnelson @PGATOUR. If you play the world's great courses, from St. Andrews to Royal Melbourne to any kind of links, there’s something here. It’s a wide open course, but the 2nd shot is where you miss shots…that’s the mark of great architecture.

Keith Mitchell:

Thursday Leaderboard's best friend Sam Saunders off to a good start again and when getting interviewed afterwards he was asked the question he has been asked a few times recently "how does this set you up for the rest of the week?" and you could see a flick of panic in his eyes.

I like Sam, he comes across very well and technically he seems a decent golfer, no worse than many others plying their trade on tour but mentally he just doesn't seem to have it. I don't doubt that his heritage weighs heavily on him, as it would on most of us plus deep down he knows that many within and out with the game don't think he should be there.

He also - rightly as it turned out - said his opening round would be bettered - it hadn't at that point - and you could see him relax as he realised himself he probably wouldn't be leading at the end of the day.

Maybe he just needs a good sports psychologist.

Didn't see yesterday's coverage, so looking forward to watching today's action. Imagine a characteristic of any new course would be that appreciation for it grows as it matures (tho it hasn't helped TPC San Antonio that much), just hope the pros give this one a chance.

I think you're right about Sam Saunders, wire; of his 8 cuts made this season, he's suffered his worst (or equal worst) round of the week on Sunday.

kwinigolfer wrote:Didn't see yesterday's coverage, so looking forward to watching today's action. Imagine a characteristic of any new course would be that appreciation for it grows as it matures (tho it hasn't helped TPC San Antonio that much)....

What are you talking about... TPC San Antonio used to be ranked a lowly 52nd on the players favorite list... now it's zoomed all the way up to 50th...

Marketing people would call that: “up and coming” and “trending”.

kwinigolfer wrote:
I think you could do the approximate arithmetic yourself

I used to be into keeping track of OWGR stuff like that and I had a few spreadsheets but these days unless princedrac posts it on twitter I don't know about it. It's not like I will do a better job than him.






What does Geoff Ogilvy think about the course?


But crucially does it have goat caddies? https://vimeo.com/268031625

Holy Trinity . . . . Forest.

Golfers having their way with the course, whether they are fans or not, today - cut-line probably going to -4.
EDIT: But Steve Williams hasn't helped Baddeley - missed cut for Aaron.


Meanwhile, a five-some and a six-some on the European Tour - love it!

Blimey, Brian Davis has made the cut! Knox too.
But Harrington and McDowell are right on the brink.

Laird & Power just starting their Round 2.

robopz wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:That's not good, Kuchar usually finds a silver lining to the darkest cloud. Plus he has the influential John Wood keeping him company.

@AdamSchupak
Interesting take from Matt Kuchar on Trinity Forest: “I’m going to follow the lesson if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.” #Ouch

Kooch has the Tour's longest consecutive cut streak going, 30 cuts made since Houston almost 14 months ago. Next most is three guys at 17 - Kuchar's pretty much defines the notion of a top class professional, trying to get everything out of his game, and doubt he'll want to leave the premises early. In peril at the moment, right on the cut-line with seven holes to go - imagine he'll go into what McCord calls "full grind" mode.

Harrington and McDool just about to slip out of weekend contention.

@WillGrayGC
Candid stuff from Kuchar after rare MC: "I'm mostly disappointed w/ myself in that I let my dislike of the course affect my performance. As a pro, if they put 18 holes in a field & tell you this is where the tournament is, you go figure out how to play. I did a poor job of that."

-----

Pretty much exemplifies why I've always liked Matt Kuchar. He's a heck of a fine player, not iconic by any means, but he usually finds a way to hang in there... And if things do go wrong, he takes responsibility and the only person he blames is himself. That's a "Pro's pro" right there.

Robo: ICYMI, there is a little more transparency over at the Rolex Rankings website.

Still not as transparent as the OWGR....but getting closer.

GPB wrote:Robo:  ICYMI, there is a little more transparency over at the Rolex Rankings website.

Still not as transparent as the OWGR....but getting closer.

thanks... I hadn't been there in a while. I'll take a look. Maybe that fiasco with Aria a while back made them decide to open up a little bit

Kooch and Sergio, and Snedeker, plus McDowell & Harrington are outathere - kinda difficult to believe that the cream drifts to the bottom.
Poor results for all of them, tho' there seems to be some thought that Garcia is crocked. Bad time of year for that.

Probably putting the Kiss of Death on Rory, but he is bogey free through 46 holes of the Nelson.

Rory Sabbatini, that is.

I believe bogey free for 72 holes has only been done twice, Trevino in New Orleans (he won) and Charles Howell III in a tournament he did

EDIT:

And good to know that the GPB Kiss of Death still works as Sabbs bogeyed his 47th hole.

Now if I can put my super power to good work. Maybe the in Paris in a few months.

CHIII went 72 Greenbrier holes without a bogey a few years ago.

Roary's been playing well, to a certain level anyway - 8 x Top 35's since Hawaii, only one missed cut.

I know we've been down this path before, but can't see for the life of me why they're not playing twosomes.