PGA Tour: Unpopular Points System Tour Championship: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).This week's Tour Championship at Atlanta's East Lake, seems to be dominated by the UPS which will change how the FedEx Cup looks, at least for next year or until they figure out the plan, for the Tour Championship at any rate, is unworkable.
I suspect the narrative of confusion over the points system and projections is more to do with the players and broadcasters being preoccupied with minute-by-minute changes rather than any focus on the longer-term objective, whatever that may be for each player. Not clear to me how that desire for immediate gratification will be assuaged by the new points/handicap system and wouldn't be surprised if the system is massaged further before being considered for prime time next year.
At the very least: When is a win not a win?! And when will the owgr gurus have their say? Not sure that they haven't dispensed with a perceived problem and replaced it with a real problem.

2).So, we're left with the lame duck UPS for this year with DeChambeau, Rose, Finau, Dustin and Thomas being in the driving seat, "just" needing a win at East Lake to be assured of the FedEx Cup jackpot.
I expected Casey to play much better than he did at Aronimink; it's not clear how damaging his back injury is, but if he's good to go it's worth bearing in mind that he's played four Tour Championships @ East Lake and finished Top Five every time.
Justin Thomas is complaining of a wrist injury, so two Ryder Cup Captains will be anxious observers this week.

3).This week also see the web.com Tour Championship, in Florida. And that means the climax of the web.com Finals, the vehicle by which Tour players strive to retrieve the playing "privileges" they lost after the 17/18 season (and web.com Tour members have a second chance for an 18/19 "card").
So far, these "notables" have done enough to clinch a return to PGA Tour action in October:
Sang Moon Bae
Streb
Malnati
Matt Jones
Mahan
Stefani
Stephan Jaeger

And this lot are among those who have also qualified
Cameron Davies - Aussie Open Champ
Dylan Frittelli
and Curtis Luck - perennial Aussie hot-shot should just about be OK.

Badds, Lucas Glover, Julian Suri and Lingmerth (there's a failed double-dipper if ever there was one) still with plenty of work to do, and Chris Paisley has somehow missed every cut.

4).Ryder Cup next week and then the circus resumes, in Napa Valley, at the Safeway Open, before going on its Asian "swing", where the only people who care are the Pros who can pocket easy pickings and capitalise on limited field opportunities to harvest cheap FedEx points.

5).I'll let the Ryder Cup thread ride so no notes from moi next week. Hope no confusion between UPS and FedEx in the meantime.

I hadn’t realised that Finau’s top fives had propelled him quite so high in the standings. It’s not beyond imagination that another runner up finish here could win him the whole thing, when his only actual wi on tour was in Puerto Rico two and a half years ago. Maybe they should be more concerned about how that can be a genuine possibility.

Was going to note about the UPS FedEx thing, then I saw your point 5.

NedB-H wrote:I hadn’t realised that Finau’s top fives had propelled him quite so high in the standings. It’s not beyond imagination that another runner up finish here could win him the whole thing, when his only actual wi on tour was in Puerto Rico two and a half years ago. Maybe they should be more concerned about how that can be a genuine possibility.

Couldn't agree more.

Hadn't realised that the web.com Finals are moving from four tournaments to three.

Nice start from Rory.

And: Did you see that BDeC brings a water bottle to the range so that he can spray H2O on his ball to replicate wet conditions? Why didn't I think of that?

BdC is a bit ott imo.
Hope he doesn’t spray his genitals to replicate Sunday back 9s.

Meanwhile US media are all over themselves after Tigers 1st round.

Headline news pedro.
The PGA web-site has even posted a video of Woods's Ryder Cup highlights - as you might imagine, it's quite brief.

Did Chris Paisley read your notes Kwini?! Shouldn’t be missing the cut this week now.

NedB-H wrote:Did Chris Paisley read your notes Kwini?! Shouldn’t be missing the cut this week now.

A 61 if anyone missed it, and a 2-shot lead. His wife is American I think and he went to the Uni of Tennessee - #motivated.

Unpopular Points System?

Consider it done.

NedB-H wrote:Did Chris Paisley read your notes Kwini?! Shouldn’t be missing the cut this week now.

Not quite sure how Paisley gained entry to the wtf's; one T37 at the WGC Mexico and he must have earned $140K-ish elsewhere, but not in his owgr or pgatour.com record. He's missed 10 of his last 11 cuts, so obvious that he'd go out and shoot 61.

The PGATour bio of Chris Paisley is incomplete. It says he only played the WGC Mexico. T37. But he also played Quail Hollow, and San Antonio.

And T4 in the Zurich (teaming with Fleetwood)

The T4 and T37 got Paisley 100 Faux FEX points which would have been enough for 191st FEDEX point list.

GPB wrote:The PGATour bio of Chris Paisley is incomplete.  It says he only played the WGC Mexico.  T37.  But he also played Quail Hollow, and San Antonio.

And T4 in the Zurich (teaming with Fleetwood)

The T4 and T37 got Paisley 100 Faux FEX points which would have been enough for 191st FEDEX point list.

Ah, I had a feeling something was awry, but forgot the wrinkle that the Zurich isn't included in the owgr's.
Thanks, I think NOLA is where CP holed out for eagle on their 72nd hole! that helped a lot . . . . .

On another blog, Robo was convinced that Sergio didn't play enough events. He was looking at his OWGR resume which didn't include the Zurich where he played with RCB.

Wouldn't this event if it was a winner takes all shootout. Who wants bdc stinking it up and walking off with all the cash. The changes will make it even More daft. Straight knock out events with the final having the overall winner.

beninho wrote:Straight knock out events with the final having the overall winner.

I was thinking along the same lines ben. Thought about a matchplay knockout, but I don't think that would go down well with TV companies and spectators when one of the favourites goes out early.

web.com Finals update:

Chris Paisley followed the old adage that it's tough to follow a great round with a good round, shooting 74 in Round 2 at the wtf's, after his 61 on Thursday.

A handful of one-time prominent players missed the cut and will reluctantly say Hello to the web.com Tour in 2019, Aaron Baddeley among them. Hope he gets his card back quickly as he's one of the more fun guys to follow.
Lucas Glover needed a strong performance to retrieve his card and takes a one-stroke lead into Round 3.

Watched a bit of it last night and Thursday. Have to say Woods looks on top of his game, swing looking great, he looks really fit, putting coming together. When he’s on it he hits irons so well. Reminders of just how good he was, think we forget how dominant he was.
If he stays fit hard to see how he doesn’t win again soon, whether it will be majors who knows, but he’s clearly playing to top 10 (at worst) standard. Probably means he’ll shoot 75 tonight!!

Drew Nesbitt (from Canada) shot 59 in a Latinos Americas event in Brazil on Friday.

Shot 79 in round 1 for a 20 shot improvement, and will be about T30th going into Round 3

He made one bogey, four eagles, which included an ace and a deuce on a par 4.

61 - 74 - 63 from Paisley, but he'll need something much closer to 64 than 74 on Sunday if he's to earn his Tour card.


Casey in his comfort zone at East Lake, lucratively poised just out of immediate touch with the leaders.

Come on Justin Rose, Rory.

4 x 3’s from the off is going some even for Tiger

Sorry, 5 x 3.

My name's Tiger Woods.
But I wish it was Oliver Fisher.

Very impressive so far . . . . . . . .

Woods -12
Rose -8
McIlroy -6
Rahm -5

Rose leading the FedEx as it stands.

Tiger tearing it up. Great to see.

Tiger-Rory in the final group. TV execs must be fellating themselves.

pedro wrote:Tiger-Rory in the final group. TV execs must be fellating themselves.

Think I'd've definitely preferred Justin Rose in the final group - Rory always seems to be trying to outdo Woods, or whichever "marquee" American he's grouped with.

Regardless, good to see Casey, Rahm, Rory & Rosey all in top form, Fleetwood not far behind.

Mickelson’s doing well Great pick!

It doesn't get much better than this! Showtime!!!

People may not like TW, but he is still the biggest draw in the game.

I would say he’s a fade..

Everyone going backwards today. Rose should get over the line

McIlroy once again should’ve stayed in bed.

Sky have just shown a graphic which shows how Woods can win the FedEx Cup. He has to win and Rose finish in a three way tie for fifth (or worse). The other people in his way have fallen away. Improbable but not impossible.

Think if Rose drops one more shot and everything else stays the same that Tiger then leads the Fedex rankings? Have a strong feeling Rose isn’t going to hold on.

Radar - “Trying to work out when McIlroy last hit a fairway”
Beemer - “Tuesday”.

Justin looking very ropey, needs to get a grip if he wants the dosh. Woods looking positively Tigeresque.

Oh boy - Rose with an appalling drive on 16. Shocker.

Another choke from Rose, for the second week running? Not looking good for Paris.

So Rose needs to play the last two in -1 to win the FedEx and -2 to hold on to the number 1 ranking. Feels this will be absolutely crushing if he finishes level or worse.

Rose should birdie that for tied fourth and the FedEx win. Tiger looking good for the Tour championship victory

Well done Rose! Did well to hold himself together and make a birdie at the last. Very disappointing no-one managed to put any pressure on Tiger though - signs he might not have coped well if they had done so.

Is Tiger back?

pedro wrote:Is Tiger back?

Perhaps. On the other hand this onetime win could in some way also be seen as an final accolade to the old icon made by the lot of his younger opponents. However, in the meantime it should act as a final wake-up call for them. imho

Reports of his demise were premature. Really happy for Tiger to win again, the scenes were unbelievable and things you wouldn't see with any other player. Golf needs the biggest name in the sport.

kouchi wrote:

pedro wrote:Is Tiger back?

Perhaps. On the other hand this onetime win could in some way also be seen as an final accolade to the old icon made by the lot of his younger opponents. However, in the meantime it should act as a final wake-up call for them. imho

As GPB would say, everyone else just played crap.

Hats off. Following his arrest a year ago I didn’t see this coming so soon.

kwinigolfer wrote:My name's Tiger Woods.
But I wish it was Oliver Fisher.

Very impressive so far  . . . . . . . .

My name's Oliver Fisher.

No, Fisher.

Eff. I. Ess. Haytch. Ee. Arr.

First name Oliver. No, OLIVER!

Economy. Yes, I'm on stand by. Only on the next one? Eighty quid for a set of clubs? Fine. I suppose I'll have to. So that's the 02.45 Faro to Luton. Thanks. Bye

Christ, I wish I was Tiger Woods.

The legend is back! Media and TV execs a dribbling mess. The huge crowd steps aside while armed guards clear a path for him as he strolls down the 18th fairway. Meanwhile the world's best golfers all step aside to let him limp over the finish line.

Amazing how nobody was able to mount a charge on the final day, to the extent that Tiger very nearly clinched the FedEx Cup out of nowhere. Fair play to Rose for finding his bottle over to closing holes. As he said post round, it's not as if Tiger needs the money.

This is a worrying trend for Rory. Another final round collapse. Another big event where he has slipped out of contention when well placed. Another tournament where he has been able to look his competitor in the eye and crumbled.

The fws looked quite wide but neither Rory or Rosey could hit them. It must be the poorest driving since Tiger was stopped by the police.

Media going nuts. Was browsing through the golf.com website last night but I couldn’t find out who won the FedEx Cup.. Rose was also cut off in his winners speach last night because they had to go to commercials after too much Tiger drivel.

But the baying mob loves it. And I must say for the first time in 20 years Tiger looked sincerely happy.

People are surprised nobody could mount a challenge to Tiger? It’s not like that’s anything new really.