2012 Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide Insurance Discussion Thread

[pumaAttack]

Rory sucks.  What the hell is going on with that kid.

[Old1964]

Was looking forward to tuning in to watch some tournament play today. Not what I was expecting.

Looks cold and damp like Michigan.

Mickelson withdrew?
Luke is -1 and not looking good.

Seeing a lot of bad shots...Rory's in the creek (almost), then in the creek for sure, then in the bunker....for a quad-bogie.

Fred Couples chunked it out of the sand about 5 feet instead of leaving himself three feet from the hole as expected.

Then just saw Rory Sabbatini in his green pants, yellow shoes and white cowboy hat hit a great shot on a par 3.

The announcer just said that if you saw this guy walking out on the course, would you let him join your threesome?

S uddenly, Furyk's horrible 5hour energy hat doesn't look so bad.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!

Well, I guess this is just a little warm-up for the U.S. Open afterall

[Zwick]

It's strange how McIlroy changed from the top-5 machine earlier in the year to (probably) 3 missed cuts in a row. Golf really is a funny game... I hope he can somehow get it together for the US Open.

[Zeph]

Man, Tiger is nailing his irons out there. Not his best putting performance, but he makes one here and there.

[brocks]

If Tiger plays his cards right, he can have an enjoyable round tomorrow with his old pal Sabbatini.

[Zwick]

Originally Posted by Old1964

Then just saw Rory Sabbatini in his green pants, yellow shoes and white cowboy hat hit a great shot on a par 3.

The announcer just said that if you saw this guy walking out on the course, would you let him join your threesome?

That is quite possibly the worst dressed golfer I've ever seen (excluding Daly and Poulter). Horrible choice of colors and style.

[brocks]

The cut is up to +4. Has there been a higher cut line this year?

[MEfree]

Originally Posted by brocks

The cut is up to +4. Has there been a higher cut line this year?

The Masters was +5

[Zwick]

Who's Kyle Reifers? Never heard about him until today.

Just saw Dustin Johnson at -2 after two rounds, quite impressive after such a long break.

McIlroy and Watson both missing the cut is dissapointing. I've got a feeling about Donald, he usually plays good 3rd rounds.

And Woods with the 3 putt that stops 1 inch from the hole.

[colin007]

For the most part, Tiger effing striped it today...

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Old1964

Luke is -1 and not looking good.

-1 is pretty darn good position for the weekend, though.  It was hard watching Rory out there today.  He was like a train wreck.  Tiger seems poised to go -2 or -3 each round and win by 3-5 strokes.  I imagine Levin is in the final pairing tomorrow with Sabbatini?

Brandon

[k-troop]

Anyone else notice that Tiger doesn't have a bogey this week?  Two double bogeys; one each day.  Rest of the card is clean.  And he was 11/14 fairways yesterday and 14/18 greens.  Not bad.

[kwb5064]

Originally Posted by k-troop

Anyone else notice that Tiger doesn't have a bogey this week?  Two double bogeys; one each day.  Rest of the card is clean.  And he was 11/14 fairways yesterday and 14/18 greens.  Not bad.

Tiger is looking great this week. His drives and approach shots have been on point. I think his putting is the only thing that can hold him back. He's gotta start making those 10-15 footers and stop leaving those 1ft putts for 2/3 putts a hole.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by k-troop

Anyone else notice that Tiger doesn't have a bogey this week?  Two double bogeys; one each day.  Rest of the card is clean.  And he was 11/14 fairways yesterday and 14/18 greens.  Not bad.

His distance control for most of the first two rounds has been close to perfect.  I can only think of 2-3 approaches that were a full club long or short from the coverage I've seen.  The putter hasn't been bad, but it hasn't been great either.  He missed two birdies inside of 5.5 feet yesterday.  But his irons are so hot that it hasn't really held him back like it could have in the past couple years.

Brandon

[Zeph]

Nice elbow patches Adam. :-P Warmer today, not as wet.Greens might be harder to hold. The ball stopped pretty quickly yesterday. Not to mention the hard breeze at parts of the course.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by gloomis29

Good debate - but I do think that when teams "rest" their starters......it is a strategic thing that is pre-planned (starters NOT playing the whole game, only playing 1/2 of it), it usually is NOT dictated by a game going poorly to start with.

Unfortunately, none of us can know whether he'd have stuck around if he shot 72. I tend to give people benefit of doubt, and that would suggest his 79 or whatever was a result of the fatigue, not the other way around. He's missed cuts before and not withdrawn.

Originally Posted by Wansteadimp

It may not be up to his usual standards but he can still play the game.

That's not the same thing at all.

Originally Posted by bplewis24

It's inevitable that personal life will at times overwhelm professional obligations.  I think "professionalism" comes in knowing that once you've made the commitment to your profession for that event/day/whatever, just because the day starts going bad doesn't mean you all of a sudden cite those personal issues as reasons to quit.

So you've never taken a day off work? You attended every day of classes? You've never gone to bed early, gotten a headache, etc.?

The situation changed. He committed, showed up, gave an effort, but decided in the end that it wasn't the best plan for him, and since he's an independent contractor, he decided to pull out.

Phil is media savvy. He knows what it'll cost him (a teeny bit of fan appreciation). He also knows a WD in the Memorial is easily trumped by a win in the U.S. Open.

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Maybe that will be the new thing.  Who needs to be hurting to quit?  Just cite post-round personal issues or mental fatigue.

Unnecessary extrapolation. You're blaming Phil for something which hasn't happened and which is highly unlikely to happen (masses WDing after bad rounds). And, heck, so what if two people per event do it going forward? They're only hurting themselves.

Originally Posted by bplewis24

I hope somebody in the media has the backbone to take Phil to task for this so that Phil will at least regret it someday.  Phil has been a great ambassador for the sport and one indiscretion will not ruin it, if he shows remorse for it.  But if everybody acts as an enabler for it, he'll never cop to it.  Somewhere Angel Cabrera is laughing, because he probably gets away with it with ease.

Yeah, he should show remorse for doing what he thinks is best for him.

Originally Posted by brocks

Correct. By playing a round before he withdrew, he kept somebody else from playing.

I'm pretty certain that as an invitational that's not true. 71 players made the cut. 44 were cut. 5 withdrew. That's only 110 players.

Originally Posted by MEfree

However, if the tour wants to reduce the number of W/Ds, then they should just require anyone W/Ding (or D/Qing) to play 1 Nationwide Tour event to show that they are physically and mentally fit before returning to the regular tour- kinda like a rehab assignment in the minor leagues that some Major league players do after (usually an extended) stay on the DL list.  I think that some players have voluntarily done this already, but requiring it will certainly give a player pause before W/Ding.

Won't ever happen. If you bail with a legitimate medical excuse you're punished by having to play the Nationwide Tour?

[SamCreamer]

Tiger has this tournament! His iron play was too good yesterday

[Zwick]

If the putt on 1 is an indication, this could be a great round for Woods. A hot putter combined with his ballstriking of the first two days is hard to beat.

Take a look at Villegas' 18th hole "massacre": http://www.pgatour.com/shottracker/?navid=nav:live_scoring_shot_tracker#/current/r023/3/player/27770/