The PGA Tour Thread

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233186#Comment_120233186

Jason Day also. I’d love to see Ricky and Jason Day contend again and get back to showing somewhere close to the level of ability they undoubtedly have. The problem with Ricky is he’s given a few false dawns over the last couple of years where he’ll show signs of a return and then fall away again. Between them - they’ve won over $95m in prize money, you wonder how much hunger they have to push themselves. I think Day has it, he’s a fascinating character who works his arse off but I hope Ricky has it.

A funny event this WM, conditions were tough but a lot of players looked like they threw in the towel early. McIlroy says it’s not a course that suits his eye, I wonder how many other players are the same?

Trampas

Rickie back with butch now

I think he came across well in Rick shiels

https://youtu.be/KjpYpOGsUmI

https://youtu.be/g3MHOx5rIGU

youcancallmeal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234735#Comment_120234735

"McIlroy says it’s not a course that suits his eye" I never really understand what golfers mean when they say that. Like a golf course is a golf course, it seems like a cop out way of saying you've never played well there before so it must be the golf courses fault.

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234888#Comment_120234888

For some it can be a copout and an excuse, but there is some relevance to it. The same way certain tracks don’t suit certain racehorses a certain course just doesn’t suit certain golfers.

A course 10 minutes drive from me is one of the easiest and most wide open courses you’ll get anywhere. It’s where golfers low on confidence go and play so they can score and get themselves back on track but I just can’t play the course well at all, I’m a mid single digit golfer and I’ve never broke 85 at the course where guys that are double my handicap dan regularly go out and break 80. I just can’t play it at all and itl don’t know if it’s a mental block I have with the course or what but it just has never suited me.

Horses for courses as they say.

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233583#Comment_120233583

A dreadful addition to the coverage. Removes any sort of suspense. The reaction online hasn't been kind so I'm assuming it'll be retired.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234758#Comment_120234758

His Good Good collaboration was excellent too, sounds like a real down to earth laid back guy

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234888#Comment_120234888

Part of me would like to think that it's an easy / diplomatic reason for him to give when the real reason might be that he doesn't like the type of tournament it is. I couldn't bring myself to watch much of it at all, the carry on of the fans etc just doesn't....suit my eye or ear.

But I would guess the main reason for Rory is that it just doesn't suit his schedule more so than anything else.

Mushy

Interesting back 9 in store now. Homa doing well to get back into the lead,

FixdePitchmark

The recovery shot from Rahm was unreal - and even the 2nd effort from Homa was amazing.

hold my beer

Outrageous putt from Rahm

Mantis Toboggan

Clutch from Rahmbo

FixdePitchmark

Looks the best finish of the year so far here.

eagle eye

Rahm is on fire. Nearly unstoppable at the moment.

Trampas

final group on clock. No harm but I wonder if it was a top pro would they do it? You can be sure if it was eldrick they wouldn’t dream of it

slave1

Was a great finish and playoff but the PGA shot themselves in the foot with mandatory big name events like this weekend AP Invitational.

No golfer will play the week before so the Honda had all the big names missing, as a result it was the last Honda as Honda said they are pulling out due to lack of big names at the tournament and lack of prioritisation on behalf of the PGA Tour.

They were the longest running continuous PGA sponsor

The Big Easy

Yip, was a complete own goal by the PGA Tour, but anyone under pressure makes mistakes.

They're very close to pissing off someone like Rahm, a European but collegiate player, who sees himself as an international player who wants to play all over the world on his own terms.

The increasing mandatory events added to the hollowing out of OWGR points for anything other than PGA Tour events will only increase his agitation and a few others like him.

He was bristling at not being number 1 despite his phenomenal form, but il sure he's relaxed a bit again now that's he's back on top.

Seve OB

There was a moment in the documentary when the players hadn’t realised the events were mandatory……. And weren’t happy when they found out. But seems they went with it all the same

FixdePitchmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304619#Comment_120304619

I think it is a great idea...and in fairness Rory is strong on this .

But expecting them to play say 14 out of 15.....is very harsh

Mantis Toboggan

Can't say I'm a fan of the non cut events.

Seve OB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304688#Comment_120304688

Another reason they weren’t jumping ship to LIV though was that they could pick and choose what they wanted to play in. Now they have no cuts and have to play when they are told 🤣😂

anyway I don’t think it’s good. Grand for the armchair fan maybe, but won’t be good for the game IMO. There will be less opportunity for the nearly guys to get a game in bigger events and we always love to see the fresh faces turn up out of nowhere and compete. Now those lads could be 40th alternate because the top guys are taking up the spots that they don’t really want to be at. There will now surely be less ranking points for events such as Honda (mentioned above) with weaker fields, making it harder for the nearly boys to climb the rankings ladder. In get that the idea is for the top guys to put their wits against each other, but that happens an awful lot anyway, WGC’s, Players, Majors, Play offs… and a heap of others such as BayHill, Memorial, Pebble, Scotch…. Etc always pulled big fields.. I mean the worlds best were always playing about 15 events a year together anyway. And then you had a good spread in the other events. Now the big hitters won’t be going to the other events and that’s not good for the audience. And the other events will suffer. So all the top Irish guys won’t be able to play the Irish (French/Italian/Spanish/ German etc) Open because it clashes with an elevated event. Same for states guys who would support their local events. That’s not gonna be good for the gate.

the PGA/DP tour is not a formula 1 or football season with a limited number of events to gain points. Strategy comes into it.

if you ask me, the PGA tour is heading down the exact same road LIV is on, after telling the world they were doing it all wrong 🤪

IAmTitleist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304786#Comment_120304786

On the contrary i think these elevated events are great.

When you have a schedule that has tournaments 40+ times in a year it's just not possible to be excited about them all. This makes it clear which are the big tournaments and which aren't. I knew to by all accounts ignore last weeks Honda Classic because none of the big guys who i want to watch were playing. Now i know for the next two weeks all the big guns are on show and i can focus in some exciting weekends of golf to watch.

slave1

maybe I'm wrong but wasn't Rory missing for the first "elevated" event earlier in the year

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305010#Comment_120305010

Ya he played LIV lite that week 😬

IAmTitleist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120305010#Comment_120305010

He did and meaning you can only miss one of them that's his quota used up so he'll be at all of the rest of them in 2023.

Trampas

Don’t like the non cut events personally. Especially if some marquee players are doing poor. Coverage will still follow them.

fullstop

Power has gone from a really strong position in this tournament to looking like missing the cut in the space of 7 holes

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304786#Comment_120304786

I'm the same, I got fed up of those WGC events very quickly. I didn't watch any of them after the first year. It's tough for the players too. If you have a bad Thursday/Friday it's nice to go home and spend time with the family and work on the things that caused you to miss the cut. In these events you have to stay and suffer through it.

I actually enjoyed watching the alternate events instead of those WGCs and getting to see players who you never get to see in regular events. I'll be back doing that again.

Like the alternate event this week has Scott Piercy, Harry Higgs, Geoff Ogilvy, Matty Schmid, Eric Van Rooyen, Rafael Campos, Ryan Armour and Nick Watney who are all golfers I like but rarely get to see. There's others in it that I like too, just mentioned a few there.

eagle eye

Keep an eye on Ludvig Aberg over the weekend, he's -4.

This kid is I think is the most exciting US college golfer since Patrick Cantlay.

I expect him to explode onto the professional scene as soon as he turns pro. Rumours that he'll do that in May.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311340#Comment_120311340

Agreed, it's amazing the impact that LIV has had on the PGA.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311882#Comment_120311882

All for the worse too. Good thought by Pepperall on what he thinks may happen now after the latest PGA move. Rory did say he'd love to see some European heritage events included in these, so maybe that'll happen which would be the only positive of it all

https://twitter.com/PepperellEddie/status/1631934777623298048?t=IIwz-T4DRurbk8n1m6Q1JA&s=19