2017 SBS Tournament of Champions Discussion

[Club Rat]

The 32 player strong field has been paired into 16 two-ball groups for the first two rounds of the SBS Tournament of Champions.

2017 SBS Tournament of Champions Thursday Tee Times

The SBS Tournament of Champions round 1 tee times and player pairings. All tee times are local time.

1st Tee	1st Tee	1st Tee
10:20 AM	Cody Gribble	Mackenzie Hughes
10:30 AM	Rod Pampling	Pat Perez
10:40 AM	Aaron Baddeley	Greg Chalmers
10:50 AM	Vaughn Taylor	Brendan Steele
11:00 AM	Billy Hurley III	Brian Stuard
11:10 AM	Charley Hoffman	Tony Finau
11:20 AM	Branden Grace	Jim Herman
11:30 AM	James Hahn	Fabian Gomez
11:40 AM	Daniel Berger	Jhonattan Vegas
11:50 AM	Bubba Watson	William McGirt
12:00 PM	Si Woo Kim	Jason Dufner
12:10 PM	Jimmy Walker	Brandt Snedeker
12:20 PM	Justin Thomas	Hideki Matsuyama
12:30 PM	Ryan Moore	Russell Knox
12:40 PM	Patrick Reed	Jason Day
12:50 PM	Jordan Spieth	Dustin Johnson

[bkuehn1952]

I have to pull for Brian Stuard as he hails from Michigan.

[Club Rat]

The first shot of the 2017 year on the PGA Tour won’t be struck until Thursday morning on Maui, but one of the PGA Tour’s top pranksters is already in mid-season form.

 

[Golfingdad]

They said yesterday that the course is going to be softer than normal so it will play longer, and thus favor the longer hitters.  So, presumably, DJ is the favorite.

I would like to see Spieth and Reed playing well though (incidentally the last two champions of this event)

[Wally Fairway]

7 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

I have to pull for Brian Stuard as he hails from Michigan.

Yeah - I have a sister-in law who is a teacher at his HS. He picked the game up fairly late, at least competitively.
Sadly he is my pick for last place this week, Brian has never been a birdie machine & he lacks the distance that is an advantage to others on this course.

Early stat (love small field events where you can figure this out) - Cody Gribble is currently leading the field in birdies (3) and is tied for the lead in bogeys (2)
Love having golf to follow

[iacas]

I watched the first round, but can't really even recall seeing any shots. I mostly worked on the computer.

Yawn.

[Yukari]

Seems like there is hardly any wind.  When I played about a month and a half ago, it was blowing 20-40 MPH.  Had a tough time trying to judge the right club.

At least some of the shots I saw yesterday, the wind was very mild, relatively speaking.

[natureboy]

Matsuyama still seems in form. Took the lead with 9 to play.

Spieth seems to have put to together a good round and is not far off the lead with 2 to play. Reed is tied with him with 5 to play. Day only a shot back.

[Gunther]

Spieth enjoys cutting my heart out with triples. Jesus.

[65ross]

Day 4 just around the corner, thinking consistence is key and one player over the last few months a stand out, Hideki Matsuyama, leaning towards him to hold up the trophy.

[natureboy]

Grain at work on Kapalua greens. Sort of looked like Phil's putt for 62 at the Open Championship.

 

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Grain at work on Kapalua greens. Sort of looked like Phil's putt for 62 at the Open Championship.

That's what the announcers will tell you.

They're wrong. As usual?

Mark Sweeney conducted tests. The grainiest greens they play happen to be these (or the Sony Open ones… though I think they're these) don't affect a 20' putt very much at all. Less than two inches.

[natureboy]

41 minutes ago, iacas said:

Mark Sweeney conducted tests. The grainiest greens they play happen to be these (or the Sony Open ones… though I think they're these) don't affect a 20' putt very much at all. Less than two inches.

While they might overstate the influence of grain in general, it didn't look like the announcers were wrong about this particular putt to me.

Well the ball starts high and moves L to R looking like it's going to hit the center of the cup. Then when it crosses the change in color shading it jogs slightly back to the left. The color difference does not look to me like a difference in slope. The amount the ball moves (or stops falling) seems in line with under two inches.

This is also a much shorter putt than 20' and the ball will be travelling more slowly. Doesn't that make it more susceptible to influence from the grass blades?

Edited January 8, 2017 by natureboy

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, natureboy said:

While they might overstate the influence of grain in general, it didn't look like the announcers were wrong about this particular putt to me.

That's not how physics works.

2 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Well the ball starts high and moves L to R looking like it's going to hit the center of the cup. Then when it crosses the change in color shading it jogs slightly back to the left. The color difference does not look to me like a difference in slope. The amount the ball moves (or stops falling) seems in line with under two inches.

I don't really care what it looks like to you.

And seriously, we're talking about a diversion of… what… half an inch?

2 minutes ago, natureboy said:

This is also a much shorter putt than 20' and the ball will be travelling more slowly. Doesn't that make it more susceptible to influence from the grass blades?

The ball is traveling just as slowly at the end of a 20' putt - and has the rest of the putt to influence its motion as well - as it is on a five-foot putt, or whatever length. So no, it doesn't.

Again, that's not how physics works.

[natureboy]

17 minutes ago, iacas said:

That's not how physics works.

Can't grain create a bias as the ball approaches or is in the wobble phase?

17 minutes ago, iacas said:

And seriously, we're talking about a diversion of… what… half an inch?

Small and within the parameter indicated by Sweeney.

Seemed to me to be an unusual amount of swing for apparently constant slope. The trajectory change on this putt was more than I've regularly seen on other putts where a change was noted and there was no stone or spike mark to blame (or at least visible).

Edited January 9, 2017 by natureboy

[Missouri Swede]

9 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Can't grain create a bias as the ball approaches or is in the wobble phase?

That's the 19th hole 

So what's the wobble phase?

[iacas]

11 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Can't grain create a bias as the ball approaches or is in the wobble phase?

That ball was not in the wobble phase.

11 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Small and within the parameter indicated by Sweeney.

Maybe, but you don't know that. And… the slope could easily have changed. I'd wager it did.

11 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Seemed to me to be an unusual amount of swing for apparently constant slope.

But ultimately, you don't know.

[natureboy]

Justin Thomas and Matsuyama both seem to be in good form these past few months.

Spieth really made up a lot of ground on the final day.