Tuesday
Sep072010
Hoffman, on high, unperturbed at missing Ryder Cup
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 11:28AM
Writing from Lemont, Illinois
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
There was a school of thought late Monday afternoon that believed Charley Hoffman deserved the last spot on the U.S PGA’s Ryder Cup team, so overwhelming was the 62 he posted to win the PGA Tour playoff tournament at TPC Boston.
American captain Corey Pavin, selecting the last four spots on the team, thought not. He went with winless Rickie Fowler, along with Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson.
Hoffman also thought not.
“No disappointment,” Hoffman said Tuesday. “Really, the Ryder Cup I had all year to play my way onto the team, and when you leave it up to the captain’s pick, you can’t be disappointed, because you have your chance to earn your spot.
“If I was maybe No. 9 or 10 like Anthony Kim, something like that, I might be disappointed, but I wasn’t really even on the radar.”
Woods’ selection was because of his career, plus reasonably good showings in the first two playoff tournaments. Major championship winners Cink and Johnson have Ryder Cup experience – Cink on the last five teams, Johnson the last two. While Johnson is the only one of the four to have won this year – at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Tex. – Fowler was the surprise, at least to those thinking Kim or Lucas Glover had a shot.
“It just came down to feelings,” Pavin said at the announcement at the sandbagger’s haven, the New York Stock Exchange. “I had a gut feeling about Rickie.”
Ben Crenshaw had a feeling about the final day of play at The Country Club when he was captain, and the U.S. team came from well back to triumph. If Fowler does better than break even in his matches, Pavin will be vindicated.
Fowler is the second Tour career winless player, joining Jeff Overton, and fifth Ryder Cup rookie on the PGA of America squad. The European Tour team has six rookies. That leads to the thought that there will be plenty of players throwing up, to use an indelicate golf term, on the first tee of Celtic Manor in Wales come October 1.
One thing Fowler has in his favor is confidence in match play. He was 7-1 across two Walker Cups, the U.S. vs. Great Britain and Ireland amateur match.
“I do think I could bring some energy,” Fowler said at Cog Hill, taking a break from preparations for the 107th Western Open, a.k.a. the BMW Championship. “That’s one thing I would like to do ... keeping the guys fired up and keeping that main goal (of winning) in mind.
“Coming off two Walker Cups, I feel I can help the team. Early on (this season), I wasn’t even thinking about the Ryder Cup. I came in this year trying to get my card for next year. I played well enough early on to work my way up a little bit the points list, and played well enough to start to think about it.”
The selection of Woods, Pavin said, wasn’t locked in until the weekend, when the 17-time major winner, winless since the accident that triggered scandalous revelations of his off-course behavior and a divorce from wife Elin, closed at TPC Boston with three rounds in the 60s.
“I didn’t want to burden myself overthinking this, so I waited and waited and waited,” Pavin said. “Obviously, I was pleased to see him playing better.”
Hoffman on a high
Charley Hoffman’s big finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship moved him to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings, and guarantees him a place in the Tour Championship in two weeks (there’s an off week between BMW’s $7.5 million frolic at Cog Hill and the grand finale – which itself precedes not only the Ryder Cup, but five more weeks of the season).
“For me there’s much more excitement (with the playoffs) this year,” Hoffman said with a grin. “I think last year was pretty cool. Heath (Slocum) came out of nowhere last year and won (the Barclays). I think my win was a little unexpected to vault up, and I think that’s sort of what the Tour wanted with this playoff system.”
This is the first year that the points system hasn’t been tweaked. The top five in the standings, which will be reset after Sunday’s final round, will be able to win the big title, and the $10 million bonus that goes with it, if they win at East Lake. For everyone else in the field of 30, more complicated math will be involved.
Hoffman, who entered last week 59th in the standings, made his math a lot easier.
“At the beginning of the year, it was a bad year,” Hoffman said. “I battled a wrist injury early in the year, tried to play through it, then had to take five weeks off during Florida, didn’t touch a club. It’s been pretty good since then.”
Hoffman contended at Quail Hollow and the Players Championship until Sunday afternoon. Memories of his stumbles then have been replaced in his mind by Monday’s 62, and a trophy to go with the $1.35 million he made.
Kuchar on the march
Thirteen years ago, almost to the day, Matt Kuchar captured the 97th U.S. Amateur on Dubsdread. This course is longer now, stiffened by Rees Jones’ renovation two years ago. And Kuchar, after a long incubation as a professional, has blossomed into a consistent player. His win in the first Tour’s playoff tournament, the Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey a fortnight ago, showed his improvement in closing the deal over the last 12 months.
“Last year I was hoping to make the top 30,” Kuchar said of his tie for 10th in last year’s Western. “I had an outside chance.”
He didn’t make it last year, but stands first in the FedEx Cup standings thanks to the win at Ridgewood, and thus is a lock for East Lake.
“There seems to be a lot more interest in my personal space than I remember,” Kuchar said.
He sees Dubsdread as “meaner” since Jones’ renovation, which cost the Jemsek family $5.2 million but still hasn’t brought a U.S. Open nod from the United States Golf Association.
“It seems more punishing and more penalizing,” Kuchar said. “It was my first year with the changes. In ’97, at the Amateur, it was tough. It was certainly no pushover. It was a hard golf course. I think it’s much harder now.”
A full day of golf
In a change from the past three years, the field will be spilt in half in the first two rounds, with the morning flight beginning at 8 a.m., and the afternoon flight at high noon. Play will also be in twosomes. That answers critics who said that packing the field of 70 players into an approximately seven-hour window left fans who couldn’t make the morning or afternoon-only play without an option. Now, there’s an option.
Thursday, for instance, Matt Kuchar and Charley Hoffman start on No. 10 at 8:50 a.m., while Tiger Woods is paired with K.J. Choi on No. 1 at 1:10 p.m. The two flights play at opposite hours on Friday.
Saturday, however, NBC’s demands mean an early finish, preferably before the Michigan-Notre Dame football game commences just after 2:30 p.m. So all hands will go off in the morning, with threesomes off No. 1 and No. 10.
Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, the lone native Illinoisan in the field of 70, plays with Rickie Fowler, starting on No. 1 at 8:20 a.m. Thursday, while adopted Illinoisan Luke Donald is paired with Martin Laird and opens on No. 10 at 8:40 a.m. Thursday.
Previous Western Open champions Stephen Ames and Scott Verplank go off No. 1 at 9:20 a.m. Other previous winners in the field include Woods, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Robert Allenby.
Around Dubsdread
Departing only slightly from form, Tiger Woods has a 7:20 a.m. date with his pro-am partners on Wednesday morning. The 48th Chick Evans Memorial Pro-Am starts at 7 a.m., with Matt Kuchar on No. 1 and Charlie Hoffman on No. 10. Woods follows Jason Day on No. 1. Conspicuous by his absence is Phil Mickelson, who for the second straight week will be entertaining a sponsor at dinner, which the PGA Tour allows in lieu of a pro-am round. Mickelson has been a harsh critic of the Tour’s disqualification of Jim Furyk from the first playoff tournament because he missed his tee time by about five minutes. Mickelson also dined with sponsors rather than play a pro-am round last week, days after the Tour revised the penalty, since the entire field doesn’t play in the pro-am. For the younger set, Rory McIlroy starts on No. 10 at 8:20 a.m., followed by Rickie Fowler 10 minutes later. ... High winds limited practice rounds on Tuesday. Matt Kuchar only played five holes, stopping since he was hitting far different clubs into holes than he normally would. “You hit a lot more specialty shots than normal shots,” Kuchar said. The winds also required a four-man crew to reinforce the windward side of the main press tent.
– Tim Cronin
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
There was a school of thought late Monday afternoon that believed Charley Hoffman deserved the last spot on the U.S PGA’s Ryder Cup team, so overwhelming was the 62 he posted to win the PGA Tour playoff tournament at TPC Boston.
American captain Corey Pavin, selecting the last four spots on the team, thought not. He went with winless Rickie Fowler, along with Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson.
Hoffman also thought not.
“No disappointment,” Hoffman said Tuesday. “Really, the Ryder Cup I had all year to play my way onto the team, and when you leave it up to the captain’s pick, you can’t be disappointed, because you have your chance to earn your spot.
“If I was maybe No. 9 or 10 like Anthony Kim, something like that, I might be disappointed, but I wasn’t really even on the radar.”
Woods’ selection was because of his career, plus reasonably good showings in the first two playoff tournaments. Major championship winners Cink and Johnson have Ryder Cup experience – Cink on the last five teams, Johnson the last two. While Johnson is the only one of the four to have won this year – at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Tex. – Fowler was the surprise, at least to those thinking Kim or Lucas Glover had a shot.
“It just came down to feelings,” Pavin said at the announcement at the sandbagger’s haven, the New York Stock Exchange. “I had a gut feeling about Rickie.”
Ben Crenshaw had a feeling about the final day of play at The Country Club when he was captain, and the U.S. team came from well back to triumph. If Fowler does better than break even in his matches, Pavin will be vindicated.
Fowler is the second Tour career winless player, joining Jeff Overton, and fifth Ryder Cup rookie on the PGA of America squad. The European Tour team has six rookies. That leads to the thought that there will be plenty of players throwing up, to use an indelicate golf term, on the first tee of Celtic Manor in Wales come October 1.
One thing Fowler has in his favor is confidence in match play. He was 7-1 across two Walker Cups, the U.S. vs. Great Britain and Ireland amateur match.
“I do think I could bring some energy,” Fowler said at Cog Hill, taking a break from preparations for the 107th Western Open, a.k.a. the BMW Championship. “That’s one thing I would like to do ... keeping the guys fired up and keeping that main goal (of winning) in mind.
“Coming off two Walker Cups, I feel I can help the team. Early on (this season), I wasn’t even thinking about the Ryder Cup. I came in this year trying to get my card for next year. I played well enough early on to work my way up a little bit the points list, and played well enough to start to think about it.”
The selection of Woods, Pavin said, wasn’t locked in until the weekend, when the 17-time major winner, winless since the accident that triggered scandalous revelations of his off-course behavior and a divorce from wife Elin, closed at TPC Boston with three rounds in the 60s.
“I didn’t want to burden myself overthinking this, so I waited and waited and waited,” Pavin said. “Obviously, I was pleased to see him playing better.”
Hoffman on a high
Charley Hoffman’s big finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship moved him to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings, and guarantees him a place in the Tour Championship in two weeks (there’s an off week between BMW’s $7.5 million frolic at Cog Hill and the grand finale – which itself precedes not only the Ryder Cup, but five more weeks of the season).
“For me there’s much more excitement (with the playoffs) this year,” Hoffman said with a grin. “I think last year was pretty cool. Heath (Slocum) came out of nowhere last year and won (the Barclays). I think my win was a little unexpected to vault up, and I think that’s sort of what the Tour wanted with this playoff system.”
This is the first year that the points system hasn’t been tweaked. The top five in the standings, which will be reset after Sunday’s final round, will be able to win the big title, and the $10 million bonus that goes with it, if they win at East Lake. For everyone else in the field of 30, more complicated math will be involved.
Hoffman, who entered last week 59th in the standings, made his math a lot easier.
“At the beginning of the year, it was a bad year,” Hoffman said. “I battled a wrist injury early in the year, tried to play through it, then had to take five weeks off during Florida, didn’t touch a club. It’s been pretty good since then.”
Hoffman contended at Quail Hollow and the Players Championship until Sunday afternoon. Memories of his stumbles then have been replaced in his mind by Monday’s 62, and a trophy to go with the $1.35 million he made.
Kuchar on the march
Thirteen years ago, almost to the day, Matt Kuchar captured the 97th U.S. Amateur on Dubsdread. This course is longer now, stiffened by Rees Jones’ renovation two years ago. And Kuchar, after a long incubation as a professional, has blossomed into a consistent player. His win in the first Tour’s playoff tournament, the Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey a fortnight ago, showed his improvement in closing the deal over the last 12 months.
“Last year I was hoping to make the top 30,” Kuchar said of his tie for 10th in last year’s Western. “I had an outside chance.”
He didn’t make it last year, but stands first in the FedEx Cup standings thanks to the win at Ridgewood, and thus is a lock for East Lake.
“There seems to be a lot more interest in my personal space than I remember,” Kuchar said.
He sees Dubsdread as “meaner” since Jones’ renovation, which cost the Jemsek family $5.2 million but still hasn’t brought a U.S. Open nod from the United States Golf Association.
“It seems more punishing and more penalizing,” Kuchar said. “It was my first year with the changes. In ’97, at the Amateur, it was tough. It was certainly no pushover. It was a hard golf course. I think it’s much harder now.”
A full day of golf
In a change from the past three years, the field will be spilt in half in the first two rounds, with the morning flight beginning at 8 a.m., and the afternoon flight at high noon. Play will also be in twosomes. That answers critics who said that packing the field of 70 players into an approximately seven-hour window left fans who couldn’t make the morning or afternoon-only play without an option. Now, there’s an option.
Thursday, for instance, Matt Kuchar and Charley Hoffman start on No. 10 at 8:50 a.m., while Tiger Woods is paired with K.J. Choi on No. 1 at 1:10 p.m. The two flights play at opposite hours on Friday.
Saturday, however, NBC’s demands mean an early finish, preferably before the Michigan-Notre Dame football game commences just after 2:30 p.m. So all hands will go off in the morning, with threesomes off No. 1 and No. 10.
Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, the lone native Illinoisan in the field of 70, plays with Rickie Fowler, starting on No. 1 at 8:20 a.m. Thursday, while adopted Illinoisan Luke Donald is paired with Martin Laird and opens on No. 10 at 8:40 a.m. Thursday.
Previous Western Open champions Stephen Ames and Scott Verplank go off No. 1 at 9:20 a.m. Other previous winners in the field include Woods, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Robert Allenby.
Around Dubsdread
Departing only slightly from form, Tiger Woods has a 7:20 a.m. date with his pro-am partners on Wednesday morning. The 48th Chick Evans Memorial Pro-Am starts at 7 a.m., with Matt Kuchar on No. 1 and Charlie Hoffman on No. 10. Woods follows Jason Day on No. 1. Conspicuous by his absence is Phil Mickelson, who for the second straight week will be entertaining a sponsor at dinner, which the PGA Tour allows in lieu of a pro-am round. Mickelson has been a harsh critic of the Tour’s disqualification of Jim Furyk from the first playoff tournament because he missed his tee time by about five minutes. Mickelson also dined with sponsors rather than play a pro-am round last week, days after the Tour revised the penalty, since the entire field doesn’t play in the pro-am. For the younger set, Rory McIlroy starts on No. 10 at 8:20 a.m., followed by Rickie Fowler 10 minutes later. ... High winds limited practice rounds on Tuesday. Matt Kuchar only played five holes, stopping since he was hitting far different clubs into holes than he normally would. “You hit a lot more specialty shots than normal shots,” Kuchar said. The winds also required a four-man crew to reinforce the windward side of the main press tent.
– Tim Cronin
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