My "5 to Watch" at the Senior Open

It's the final major of the year for the old guys, the Senior Open, and of course I can't let it go by without making an effort to pick the winner. I had Molinari in my "5 to Watch" last week, so perhaps I can do at least that well this week.



The Senior Open will be played at St. Andrews this year, which should get the blood of all the seniors pumping! We should expect another hard and fast course, with around a 15mph wind (if current conditions hold). So let's get to it and make some picks.

• Everybody has Bernhard Langer, the defending champion, as the favorite this week... and with good reason. Langer's 3-under finish at Carnoustie against the youngsters shows that he's in good form and ready for tough conditions. But did last week's challenge tire him too much to compete this week? I wouldn't bet on it, but it's possible.
• Although he missed the cut at Carnoustie by a shot, I like the fact that Tom Lehman has already played some competitive links golf going into this week, plus he has a win this season. Add the wider fairways at St. Andrews to the mix and you could be looking at a good chance for Lehman to pick up this major.
• Paul Broadhurst won this event back in 2016 -- at Carnoustie, ironically -- and has picked up another major this season (along with a 'regular' win), so he certainly knows how to get it done on the links. Like Langer, he's another player in good form entering this event.
• Miguel Angel Jimenez has been playing pretty well all season, and he did win the Regions Tradition earlier this year. Worldwide, he's got a lot of Top10s this season. You know he'd like to add an Open to those figures.
• And for my flier, I'm taking Brandel Chamblee. I know Brandel hasn't played competitively in a decade, but he did go through qualifying to play this event which means his game is in pretty good shape. The video footage I saw of his play in the qualifier looked solid as well, and -- as with Lehman -- I think the wider fairways at St. Andrews might give him some confidence.

I have to go with Langer, of course, simply because he has the scoring this season -- and especially last week -- to back him up. But I think Chamblee might place pretty well also. Since he doesn't have any competitive rounds under his belt, I think he may play more conservatively than the others... and that could help him play better than most expect.

The Champions Tour website says the coverage starts Thursday morning at 7am ET on GC.

Some Thoughts on the Shot Clock Masters

Everyone agrees that the game takes too long, but few agree on how to fix the problem. The ET took a shot this past weekend with the Shot Clock Masters. And by most measures, their idea was a rousing success.

The question is, will it catch on?



The concept itself was simple enough. The Rules of Golf already regulate how long players can take over a shot -- 50 seconds if you're first to play, 40 seconds for the other players, and there's a one-stroke penalty is you take too long. So why is there a problem?

Just one word: enforcement. How do you keep track of every player's time>

The ET's solution was to send a ref and a time clock out with each group. Sounds simple enough until you do the logistics. Assuming there are 150 players in the field -- that's a few too many, but it's close enough for this discussion -- and they all go out in threesomes, that means you need 50 refs with 50 shot clocks. Each shot clock requires (in the ET's version, anyway) a golf cart, a large timer display visible to each player that shows the player's name and their countdown, plus some sort of tablet for the ref to monitor his (or her) threesome.That's a fairly elaborate setup to maintain -- certainly not overly complicated, but it definitely involves more equipment than a current threesome does.

And then there's the manpower requirement. I think it was underestimated by most viewers. Bear in mind that the tours rarely have that many refs at an event; some of the time savings came from having a ref on the scene for rapid rulings -- most events eat up a lot of time getting a limited number of refs around the course to make rulings. Given the complexity of the Rules of Golf, fielding that many qualified refs for each event might be a problem, at least for a while. That's another problem to be dealt with.

Although the data gathered from last week's event indicates that playing "ready golf" actually results in lower scores, data isn't necessarily going to convince players that playing more quickly is worth the initial discomfort. Overcoming personal inertia is a very real impediment to timely play, and we're fooling ourselves if we think everyone is simply going to say, "Yeah, this is great! Let's all speed up our play!" Long-held beliefs die hard, even in the face of evidence that those beliefs are incorrect.

And while I don't know how to quantify it, that resistance will almost certainly manifest itself in ways that create new tensions among players... which means it would eventually affect the event as a whole in unexpected ways. We all hope changes would happen smoothly, but it would be unrealistic to believe everyone will just embrace faster play without any resistance.

Look, I don't intend this to be a pessimist's post. I think what we saw last week is a good first step toward creating some positive, permanent change in the speed of play at pro tournaments. But I agree with the GC analysts who suggested that the way to get the most good from this data is to start enforcing pace of play rules in the amateur ranks. Those players are still developing their playing habits, and are the best chance we have to permanently improve pace of play.

The big question, of course, is whether we'll see other pro events adopt the methodology of the Shot Clock Masters. That remains to be seen... but I suspect we'll see it more often on the ET or the LPGA before we see it on the PGA Tour. We already know that many of the top players resist the idea that they should play "before they're ready"... and there's just too much sponsor money involved to believe the PGA Tour will force them to change. After all, they haven't done it so far, have they?

With that said, I do believe the Shot Clock Masters was a great first step toward solving the problem of slow play. But I believe that, having been responsible for taking the first step, the ET will have to be the standard bearer going forward if this first step is to lead to any lasting change.

Whether they're ready to take on the challenge or not remains to be seen.

What I Like About GolfSixes

Commentators have mixed opinions about the ET's GolfSixes tournament, but I like it. So before we move on to THE PLAYERS, I thought I'd take a post to share my feelings about the format.



I think almost everybody likes the team match play aspect of the event, which is something we don't get to see very often in pro golf. And there's something to be said for the overall shortness of the event itself, just two days. It's an event with a hidden benefit. It's a good way for busy pros to squeeze in a bit of off-time during a crowded schedule, since you have two more free days leading into the event.

This also works well for fans. The shortness of the event means fans can see more of the event in less time -- more like a football or baseball game -- while the shortness of the individual matches means the action is fast and furious, more like a basketball game. The less formal atmosphere certainly seems to attract families with young kids, Need I expound the virtues of that?

And ironically, the fact that players are eliminated from competition more frequently actually plays into this as well. Once players are eliminated, they have more time to mingle with the fans -- and because they play fewer holes overall, they aren't as tired, making this part of the job less draining for them. Having this sort of event every so often could be a great way to build the fanbase.

The biggest argument against GolfSixes has been the extreme shortness of the matches -- a mere six holes, from which the tournament gets its name. With each match taking only six holes, the entire pool play portion of the event can be finished in one day, and even the players who advance to Day 2 have only played 18 holes. The argument? That the matches are too short to give everyone a fair chance. After all, if you fall two down, it's going to be mighty hard to come back!

But the event has made two changes to pool play as you would see it in the WGC Match Play.

• First, two teams advance from the four-team pool play.
• Second, even when a team has won their match, all six holes are played and each team is credited with the number of holes they won.

As a result of these two changes, some of the randomness is minimized. Since two teams from each four advance, everybody has a better chance. And since ties are broken by the total number of holes each team won, even a lost match can help you qualify for Day 2 -- if you played well enough to have a close match, that works in your favor even if you lost.

This second playing of GolfSixes also demonstrated its flexibility. As the tours search for a way to integrate the male and female tours in a single event, GolfSixes showed itself to be an ideal venue for that. And the less formal nature of it all makes it easier for the players to mingle and perhaps find mutual ways to work together. After all, many of these players run individual charity events and help each other with them; this would be a great chance to broaden those networks!

Finally, although no one has said anything about it yet, I can see how GolfSixes could be expanded into a larger event. The current two-day event handles 16 teams, with eight eliminated after Day 1 and the other eight playing for the trophy on Day 2. Using the same format as Day 1, you could expand this to a three-day event with 32 teams cutting to 16 on Day 1, 16 to eight on Day 2, and the finals on Day 3. That's 64 total players, just as in the WGC Match Play, and everyone could make a payday as they do in that event. (This page at thegolfnewsnet.com gives the WGC percentages.)

For a small event like this, the money wouldn't be nearly as much, but for a three-day event during a crowded schedule -- or perhaps an off-season event held at some place like Disneyworld -- I suspect it would be attractive enough.

I don't know that GolfSixes will ever become a popular format, but I see possibilities that I like. And as golf searches for new ways to attract fans, I think it has a place.

How the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth Works

If you were watching the European Tour coverage on GC Wednesday night (well, it was night here in the US) you might not have realized that this week's tournament is one of the ET's new experimental formats. It was pretty successful last year, so I thought I'd make sure everyone is up-to-speed on how it works.



The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth looks like a normal stroke play tournament for the first three rounds because it IS a normal stroke play tournament for the first three rounds. There's a "65-man and ties" cut after the second round, not unlike a normal tourney. But after the third round there's a 24-man cut.

That's when the Super 6 really starts to shine.

There are multiple 6-hole matches on the final day, which is known as the Knockout Round. The Top8 players receive "byes" into the second round of these matches, and the other 16 players play matches to reduce their number to 8. If there is no winner after a 6-hole match, they go to a specially-built 90-meter playoff hole called the Shootout Hole. (This special hole is a new wrinkle in this year's event.) The match continues on this hole until a winner is determined.

The 8 players from this first round of knockouts are matched against the Top8, then the 8 winners of those matches playoff down to 4, those 4 down to 2, and the final pair plays off for the title. All-in-all, there are five playoff rounds on the last day.

The new format turned out to be much more popular last year than many of the critics expected. The last day is fast-paced and high-pressure because 6 holes simply doesn't leave time for long-term strategy -- if you fall behind, that's just too bad.

Brett Rumford won the inaugural event last year and, as I'm preparing for bed, he's got the lead after his first round, Lee Westwood is alone in second and there's a small T3 group.

Although the final round is when the real fun begins, these first rounds are important because they not only put players into position to make the final day, those first-round byes to the Top8 in the tourney are valuable. So if you didn't check out any of the first round Wednesday night, you might want to check it out tonight. I know I will.

Why You Should Care about the Eurasia Cup

The second day of the Eurasia Cup -- Europe VS Asia, played in Kuala Lumpur -- is still undeway as I write this, but it looks as if the Euros could even things up or even lead when today is over. In fact, the team of Stenson and Fleetwood has just posted the first win of the session, tying the score at 3.5 points each.



The Eurasia Cup plays 6 fourball matches, 6 foursome matches (that's the current session) and 12 singles, for a total of 24 available points. As I write this, Europe leads three matches and Asia leads two.

So why should you care about these matches? Here in America, we're more interested in the Ryder Cup matches later this year, aren't we?

There are two reasons this event should be at the forefront of everybody's attention. First of all, the Euros are the players we're likely to see in the Ryder Cup later this year. It's a good chance to assess the competition (if you're American) or assess potential pairings (if you're European).

And second, the Asian team is a strong competitor for the Euros. While players will most likely be at a different place in their prep later this year, the Asians tied the first playing of this event (10-10) while the Euros devastated the Asian last time (18.5-5.5). It's worth noting that the last event was played in an Olympic year and the Asian competitors were probably more focused on that, given the extreme competition for an Olympic spot among Asian athletes.

I know I'm extremely interested to see how the Euros fare this week. This shows no sign of being a blowout, and I want a good look at what the US will be facing in France. This could be the best indicator we'll get.

The European Tour Resumes This Week

Both the PGA Tour and the European Tour start their regular schedules this week. The European Tour kicks off 2018 with the BMW SA Open.



You may not realize it, but the South African Open is the second oldest national Open in the world (1893). It's hosted by the City Ekurhuleni (don't ask me to pronounce that) at Glendower Golf Club, a nearly 7600-yard course at Johannesburg. And the defending champion is Graeme Storm, whose win last year locked up his Tour card.

Rather than repeat a lot of information, let me just link you to a page at europeantour.com called Five Things to Know, which will give you all this info and more.

To be honest, the thing I find most interesting about the tournament (at least, so far) is that Rory McIlroy isn't included in the entry list. Graeme beat Rory in a three-hole playoff last year, and I thought he'd want to see if he couldn't finish one spot better this time.

GC's schedule shows their coverage of this event begins at 2:30am ET on Wednesday morning. It's listed until 9:30am ET then continuing at 11:30am ET after Morning Drive. I don't know if that's all live coverage or not... but it's definitely a bonus for us ET fans.

You Thought Golf Was Over? O-o-o-o-oh No!

It's true that the LPGA and PGA Tours are finished for the year -- other than special events, that is -- but the ET is beginning their new season and it's Major Season Down Under! Let me get you up-to-speed on today's (Wednesday) events.



At 7:30pm ET tonight GC starts with their Pre Game show. There should be some early coverage from Australia as they lead into...

The Emirates Australian Open at 8pm ET. Jason Day and Jordan Spieth are headlining the event and Jordan is the guy to beat, having gone 1st, 2nd, 1st over the last three years. You've no doubt heard that Cameron McCormick, Jordan's coach and an Aussie to boot, will be on Jordan's bag this week while Michael Greller is at home "caddying" for his wife and new baby.

In addition, this is Jason's first time teeing up Down Under in four years. I'm hoping for a battle between him and Jordan by the end of the week.

This is one of the few times we Americans get to see some of the Aussie players like Craig Perry and James Nitties (personal faves of mine). Of course, some of the Aussies who regularly play the PGA Tour like Geoff Ogilvy and Rod Pampling will tee it up as well. And I love getting to see the event during prime time rather than in the middle of our night!

Which brings me to the UBS Hong Kong Open at 1am ET. Technically that's Thursday morning here in the US, but it's still the middle of the night and there's only a couple of hours of coverage. (Then the Aussie Open coverage repeats.)

But this event has a strong line-up. Sergio is playing in Hong Kong for his first time ever! And Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, and Chase Koepka (Brooks's brother) are just a few of the names we ET fans will recognize. (Okay, PGA Tour fans should recognize them too, but you know what I mean.)

So the 2017 golf season is over... and we still get 7.5 hours of live golf in prime time! Is this a great week or what?

The Molinari 12-Hour Ace Challenge (Video)

I'm sure a number of you have seen this, but I'm still fascinated by it. Edoardo Molinari -- the brother of Francesco Molinari, the defending champ at the Italian Open -- made 500 attempts from 145 yards in 12 hours to make a hole-in-one. He failed...



But I can't get over how many times he came close to doing it! In fact, he nearly holed his very first shot, missing by only FOUR INCHES.

Sometimes it's good to just sit back and appreciate how good ALL of these players are, not just the biggest names.

A Good Move for the European Tour as Well

In the midst of the buzz about the PGA Championship moving to May and THE PLAYERS to March in 2019, you may have missed the ET's announcement. These moves stand to benefit the ET in a big way, and their response demonstrates that they recognize it.



When the PGA moves to May, that will make the Open Championship the final major of the year. Think about it -- the last major of the year will now be the oldest championship in golf, and the final act of the major season will be crowning the Champion Golfer of the Year. Somehow, that just feels right to me.

The promotional benefits of this new position also make perfect sense, as it will increase the perceived importance of the Open. (Let's face it, it seems like a bit of a letdown to have one more major after the Open is over. The Open is... foundational to the game. That's no insult to the PGA, it's just that the Open is about 50 years older. Foundational.) And now, there will be a nine-month gap until the Masters, not just eight. There will definitely be an increased feeling of necessity to get that last major.

But there's more. The ET will be moving the BMW-PGA to September in 2019, and I think that's going to help them as well. As it stands, the BMW-PGA -- the ET's equivalent of THE PLAYERS -- has been played the week after THE PLAYERS, and it put some stress on players wanting to play both events. Some would skip one or the other. That will no longer be a problem.

Ken Schofield even suggested that the ET might seek a co-sanction with the PGA Tour, thus improving the strength of the field. It's already played at Wentworth, a course with a long history. It's the headquarters of the PGA ET and has hosted the flagship event since 1984. In addition, it was the host of the 1953 Ryder Cup and the home of the HSBC World Match Play Championship from 1964 through 2007 A lot of big names won trophies there, and the event deserves more attention.

Even better, the BMW-PGA will probably be played after the FedExCup and will certainly be much closer to the final stretch of the Race to Dubai, lending even more importance to it. With the big events of the PGA Tour finished for the season, many more players will likely take some time to play the ET, which will help balance the world points rankings.

While it remains to be seen how all the necessary event shuffling will be handled by the three organizations, this new era of cooperation looks to be very promising for all parties. And that's good for all of us fans.

My "5 to Watch" at The Open

It's time to get all links-y and make my picks for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.



A quick recap of the stuff you already know: Henrik Stenson is the defending champion, Padraig Harrington won the Open when it was last held at this venue, and (as usual) bad weather is expected.

With the question of who are really the top golfers in the world still up for grabs -- the group changes every week, it seems -- it can be difficult to narrow the potential winners down to a manageable number. In a futile effort to lend some logic to my choices, I've put the following restrictions on them:

• We've seen a string of first-time major winners over the last couple of years. I think that will continue, so I'm excluding previous major winners.
• Although The Open tends to skew older, I'm limiting my choices to players under 40.
• And I'm not worried about whether my choices have much experience at links golf. Rather, I'm taking players I think play well in bad weather.

Those three decisions actually limit my choices quite a bit. For example, Brooks Koepka would be a favorite but he's won a major, is well under 40 and played quite a bit of links golf during his time on the ET. And I'll end up leaving Ian Poulter off, even though I think he's got a good chance this year.

So, given these limitations, let's see what kind of mischief I can brew up.

• Let's begin with hometown favorite Tommy Fleetwood. This is a home game for him and I think that will work to his benefit. More importantly, his game is on an upswing and he's played well in bad weather.
• Hideki Matsuyama hasn't played particularly well at The Open, but his major finishes since last year -- as well as his win record around the world -- have been extremely good. In addition, I think the slower greens could help his putting tremendously. Remember, he's won a lot on the ET, and many of those courses play slower greens.
• Some of you may be surprised that I'm picking JB Holmes. It's true that JB hasn't had that great a record in The Open, but he was T3 in that unbelievably low scoring Open last year. JB is streaky, but he often streaks in bad weather.
• Rickie Fowler continues to make this list because it feels as if he is oh so close. I actually think he'll have his best chance to win if the weather is bad all four days.
• And my flier is... Brian Harman. Harman doesn't have much of a record in this event. He's only played in two -- T26 in 2014, MC in 2015. But he's played really well on tough courses lately and is coming off a T2 in wet weather at Erin Hills.

I'm going way out on a limb with this one and pick Harman to win -- although I'm not so sure this is a flimsy limb. He has played well on long courses in bad weather, and  -- with the exception of that last round at Erin Hills -- he has been remarkably accurate both off the tee and into the green. I think he could pull a major upset this week.

Bear in mind that, at least here in the US, this will be an all-nighter if you want to watch The Open live. GC's coverage begins with a late-night Morning Drive on Wednesday at midnight ET, with the coverage proper beginning at 1:30am ET.

Rahm in Position

Jon Rahm and Daniel Im are tied for the lead at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, both having tied the record 54-hole score of -17.



While Im is an American and I am therefore quite interested in how he does, the fact remains that Rahm is the big story at this point. Im is 32 years old and 542 in the world rankings, while Rahm is still fresh out of college and ranked 11th. This would be Rahm's second worldwide win this year.

Don't think for a moment that these two have dominated the tournament -- far from it. While Rory missed the cut because everybody who made the cut was under par, the leaderboard is bunched going into the final round. There are 11 players (including Justin Rose) within five shots of the lead, and seven more just another shot back, with Tommy Fleetwood in that group. Rahm and Im are a mere one shot clear of third place.

With the BBC predicting light rain, light winds and cool temperatures around 13°C (about 56°F), I'm not sure anybody can just run away and hide today. For example, neither Rose nor Hideto Tanihara have made more than two bogeys this week and both are close to the lead (Rose is four back, Tanihara two). And Rose has two eagles as well.

This could be a very interesting final round. Remember, GC has coverage starting at 7:30am ET.

Some Thoughts on the Muirfield Vote

Rory McIlroy made headlines this week (again) when he expressed his frustration with the Muirfield vote to allow women members, thus regaining their status on the Open rota. While he was glad the membership finally "saw sense" (as he put it), he wasn't impressed by how long it took them to finally get it right. The word he used was "obscene."

I think most of us agree with Rory that the concession was way overdue. But I feel that the whole debate has ignored something very basic about human beings, and that's what this post is about.

Let me be blunt about this: Although we'd all like things to be done for the "right" reasons, change is a messy operation because we humans don't like change and we are far from perfect when we deal with it. And in our frustration with the messiness of it all, we have a tendency to miss the positive aspects of the process.

Let's go back a year to the original Muirfield vote, where the required 2/3 majority was narrowly missed. I want to emphasize that phrase "narrowly missed," since I've heard it used several times by the media.

It's very easy to assume that organizations are little more than a single monolithic group of people who all believe EXACTLY the same way. But we all know that's not true, don't we? When a group we identify with is characterized as all having the same beliefs -- and we don't -- we get really upset for being "stereotyped." We complain that a "vocal minority" doesn't represent what we think, and we resent being grouped in with them.

But isn't that exactly what has been done to the membership of Muirfield?

Not every member at Muirfield voted at the original proposal. For the sake of this article, I'm going to assume that none of the nonvoters wanted women to join but didn't want to be publicly associated with that stance. I doubt that was true -- there could be any number of reasons that some members chose not to vote -- but since they didn't vote, it had the same effect as if they voted against the motion. Namely, there were fewer voters to be part of the 2/3 majority that was needed.

But in our condemnation of the result, we focused on the slightly-more-than-1/3 who voted against the motion, didn't we? In fact, A SUBSTANTIAL MAJORITY OF THE MEMBERSHIP VOTED TO ALLOW FEMALE MEMBERSHIP. I imagine the largest part of them were in favor of female membership all along... but overturning tradition is a hard thing in many institutions.

And clearly a large number voted to allow women simply to keep Muirfield's spot in the rota. These voters are being vilified for that. They should have been progressive, we argue, and allowed women to join simply because it's the right thing to do! But I think that's being a bit harsh. Just think about it for a moment...

A spot on the rota means you get the Open roughly once a decade. A decade is roughly 520 weeks, while the Open lasts for one week. If you're truly against having female members, how can you possibly believe that one week of the Open is worth 510 weeks of dealing with these hated female members ON A DAILY BASIS? I'd argue that these members said, in effect, that although they felt no compulsion to allow women members, THEY HAD NO PROBLEM WITH ALLOWING THEM EITHER. It was simply tradition and they'd had no reason to change. But now they had a reason, so they voted to change.

Given the normally messy process of change, I'd say that's actually a fairly progressive mindset! It may not satisfy those who want everything to happen as it would in a perfect world, but it still shows a willingness to move forward and accept change.

That's what probably happened a year ago. What happened in the meantime that led up to this week's vote?

I'd say that the "narrowly" outvoted majority -- both those who were vocal about accepting women and those who simply had no problem with accepting them -- became much more vocal at the club. How do I think that played out?

We heard that originally there were some members who resented being told what to do by the R&A. The vocal minority probably convinced them that the R&A wouldn't dare enforce the vote against the membership's will. THEY WERE PROVEN WRONG. Do you think that the members who voted to allow women hesitated to let them know that their stubbornness had cost Muirfield the Open? I don't, and I don't think it took much shaming to get a "yes" vote from them this time.

As for the true hardliners who resented letting women in, I suspect the rest of the membership made sure they felt the burden of tainting Muirfield's reputation. And I wouldn't be surprised if a few of their wives didn't let them know that, if they were too good to share a locker with a woman, they were too good to share a bed with one, as well! How many meals do you think those husbands missed? How many days did they have only dirty shirts to wear?

Yes, I suspect that happened to at least of few of them. Men who are that stubborn probably aren't the easiest to live with, and their wives had probably decided to let them know in no uncertain terms.

So Muirfield will now accept women members. Before you judge the club too harshly, simply because some of those hardliners will likely be less than friendly to the new women members, remember this:

Let me be blunt one more time: Eventually, those relics of antiquity will die from old age and no longer be members of the club. And when new members come in, they will do with the knowledge that women will also be members and there's not one damn thing they can do about it. If they don't like that, they'll go elsewhere.

In the end, Muirfield will be a place where female members are welcome for all the right reasons. It's how the rather messy process of change works in a world of imperfect human beings. Let's just be thankful that the vast majority of Muirfield members decided to embrace that process and let it take its normal course.

The Fangs Were Sent to the Wrong Course

I'm in shock. I've been trying to follow the play at the DLF Golf and Country Club (the course for the ET's Hero Indian Open in New Delhi) and the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook (where the PGA Tour is playing the Valspar Championship).

And it's clear that the DLF is the course with the bite!



For example, I believe this is the 550-yard par-four 14th at DLF. This hole played to 4.91 strokes during the first round! According to the ET's site, this is the hardest hole on the tour so far this season.

So far, there are only 18 players under par. ONLY 18! And there are 15 players who are double-digits OVER par! The worst score is +17... AFTER ONLY ONE ROUND.

Compare that to the Copperhead course. There are 55 players under par, with only a handful (six) yet to finish the first round. And the worst score is a mere +6.

I just don't know what to think. Granted, this doesn't compare to the legendary "Massacre at Winged Foot," aka the 1974 US Open. Hale Irwin won that one with a +7 score. But when I heard that the DLF is a new course this year and that it would be difficult, I NEVER expected it to be this hard. Especially not when compared to the Copperhead.

The Hero Indian Open bears watching this weekend. A new legend may be in the works!

A Primer on Greensomes

Since the European Tour has announced the GolfSixes tournament, there's been a lot of talk -- at least, here in America -- about the new format. While those of you in Europe and elsewhere around the world may be familiar with it, we aren't. So I did a little research to try and come to a simple explanation for those of us who aren't used to it.



The format is called greensomes, and it's not something we see over here in the USA very often. I say 'very often' because we do see it at least once every year. It's used in the Shark Shootout but there it's called modified alternate shot. You might think of it as a cross between foursomes and scramble -- both players tee off, choose the best shot, then the other player hits the second shot and they alternate until the ball is holed.

If you saw any of the Vivendi Cup / Seve Cup events, you've also seen this format. It was called greensomes in that event.

Golf Monthly UK's page about greensomes says that this format is more forgiving because not every shot counts. A team struggling off the tee might still score well if just one player is driving well, while in foursomes, every shot counts. It's a good choice for an event that is meant to be more fun for spectators to watch, since they're more likely to see good golf.

And just as an interesting sidenote, the About.com page about greensomes says there's an alternative version called gruesomes (I also found the name bloodsomes used elsewhere), in which each team uses their WORST drive instead of their best. And to make sure that it really is the worst drive, their opponents get to pick which drive they use.

Now that sounds like an interesting alternative format for a tournament! Perhaps the European Tour might consider adding a round of that...

The European Ryder Cup Finalizes Its Rules

The ET finally announced the changes to its team selection process for the next Ryder Cup.

To be honest, there weren't any surprises. And I didn't expect any.



Most of the changes simply brought their process into line with the current US selection process, which is pretty much standard. It happens frequently -- either the US changes to match Europe, or vice versa -- sometimes because the other side wins, but often because a new problem in the process is exposed. Nothing stays the same forever, after all.

At the last Cup, Europe ended up with a large number of rookies, who didn't perform as well as I expected. The recent explosion of young players caused this unexpected turn of events, so the increase in Captain's picks from three to four (matching the current US process) just makes good sense. We needed to give the Captain a bit more flexibility in configuring the team, and now Thomas will have the same.

Just as a side note, this number has gone up and down repeatedly for both sides over the years. As I said earlier, little adjustments have been common as the teams have searched for the best compromise -- in this case, to balance "earned" spots with "felt need" spots.

Last time, the big change for the US team came with the establishment of the Ryder Cup Committee, to increase the players' voice in the choice of Captains and such. This "leveled the field" somewhat, as the Europeans had handled things that way for years. The big change for the Euro team this time is the change in requirements for European Tour membership, which have been lessened by one tournament and should help the Euros better match the US selection process.

While the reasons are probably clear to my Euro readers, they may be lost on my US readers. Simply put, the US team has full access to all our potential players because we don't have the Tour membership restriction. For example, if Jim Furyk decides he wants Peter Uihlein on our team next time, even though he's a European Tour member, he just makes him a Captain's pick.

Personally, I'd like to see the Euro team given the same freedom but I understand why they don't. They're concerned with keeping players on the Euro Tour -- there are good financial reasons for that -- but it does limit them. Because of that restriction, players such as Paul Casey and Carl Petterson aren't currently eligible for the Cup because they play the PGA Tour. Reducing the number of ET events they would have to play in order to be eligible makes dual membership less burdensome for those willing to try. (Remember, it's not just the number of events; it's the increased air travel for US-based ET players.)

You can read the full text of the changes at this link to rydercup.com and in this summary of the changes at cbssports.com.

My "5 to Watch" at the DP WORLD

It's not only the LPGA that finishes up the 2016 season this week. The European Tour does likewise as the Race to Dubai settles the score at the DP WORLD Tour Championship in -- where else? -- Dubai.



Rory McIlroy is the defending champion at this event and also the defending Race to Dubai title winner. However, at fourth in the standings, with Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett and Alex Noren all ahead of him, he'll need some help to get the money title this year.

It's interesting to note that, since 2012, only McIlroy and Stenson have won this event or the Race itself. Each man has two DP WORLD titles, and Rory has three Race titles to Henrik's one.

Personally, I think Stenson is almost a shoe-in for the Race title, given his lead. He's roughly 300k points ahead of Willett (who isn't playing well), 630k points ahead of Noren (who's on a hot streak) and nearly 1.2million points ahead of McIlroy. Unless Henrik has a REALLY bad week, I don't see anybody catching him.

But the DP WORLD title, that's another matter entirely. Here are my "5 to Watch" as they contend for the ET's Tour Championship.

• I can't possibly overlook Alex Noren here. Noren won his fourth event in less than five months just this past week, and he's a notoriously streaky player... and clearly, this is a very notorious streak!
• Thomas Pieters has had a wonderful year, although his hot stretch came in August. But Jumeirah Golf Estates lends itself to a long bomber like Pieters, and he knows he can get some rest after this week's over. I think he'll step it up this week.
• Andy Sullivan has been erratic this year, but he finished second here last season. I think he has something to prove, and this would be a great time to do it.
• Francesco Molinari has been bouncing back and forth across the pond this year, but he seems to have found his game at home. He won the Italian Open in September and is coming off a T6 in the WGC last month. And since he was T4 at Dubai last year, I see no reason his good overseas play shouldn't continue.
• And for my flier... I like Jeunghun Wang, a two-time ET winner this year. This is his first time at the DP WORLD so I have no history to go on. But after his two consecutive wins earlier this year, his game fell off until he finished T13 at the WGC and runner-up at the Nedbank. That bodes well for this week.

I didn't pick Henrik or Rory simply because this has been a long year for the both of them and I suspect they'll both be a bit "flat" this week -- Henrik for physical reasons and Rory because planning a wedding can be a distraction.

But even if I thought they would both be sharp, I'd still be going with Alex Noren. A streak like his could run for another two or three months. Or maybe not... but I like the odds that it continues this week!

The DP WORLD Tour Championship airs on GC at 3am ET Thursday morning for three hours. It's listed again at 6am ET for two hours, and again at 10am ET for three more hours. I don't know how many of these are live and how many (if any) are replays, because the GC schedule doesn't say. But clearly there will be ample opportunity to catch at least some of the action.

Some Thoughts on Sunday's Golf

Since I can't do the Limerick Summary until Tuesday this week, I thought I'd take a few moments to look at what happened on the ET, Champions Tour and LPGA this weekend.



ET: How can I not mention Andrew "Beef" Johnston shooting -4 in his last 5 holes to take solo 3rd at the Omega European Masters? Beef has not only become a celebrity, he's backing it up with solid play. That's important if he wants to be more than just a passing fad. And Lee Westwood's 63 went a long way toward validating Clarke's pick -- at least, it did to me.

Okay, let's get to the duel between Alex Noren and Scott Hend. Noren has run hot and cold this season while Hend has been mostly cold (other than that win in Thailand early this year), but those two played some awesome golf down the stretch. And while Noren made that big putt on the first playoff hole, I can't help but think both men walk off with some extra confidence to finish the year and the Race to Dubai.

CHAMPIONS: Let me quickly mention that Tom Watson finished T26 at -6. That in and of itself wasn't so impressive. What WAS impressive was that he shot 65 to beat his age (66) on Friday, then had a birthday Sunday which he celebrated by shooting 67 in the final round. That means he shot his age or better TWICE IN ONE WEEK! Now THAT'S impressive!

If you didn't see it, Carlos Franco shot back-to-back 63s to beat Bernhard Langer and Michael Allen at the Shaw Charity Classic, and both of those guys were charging hard down the back nine. Allen was -3 and Langer was -5 coming down the stretch, but Franco shot -4 playing beside Langer. It's not often you see someone stand up under the pressure of going toe-to-toe with Langer.

It gave Franco his first Champions Tour win. Bear in mind that Franco hadn't won since 2004, so you can see how impressive his performance really was. I bet they were partying in Paraquay last night!

LPGA: Finally, I have to mention Caroline Masson getting her first LPGA win at the Manulife LPGA Classic. Most everybody expected Ko and Jutanugarn to run away and hide from the field but it didn't happen. Jutanugarn had a chance to tie on the 18th but snapped one left and unplayable off the tee to kill her chances (I can't help but wonder if her taped-up knee was bothering her) and Ko simply went cold on the back nine.

Masson didn't get this win easily though. She made nine birdies against two bogeys and a double right out of the gate. And then it seemed like everybody in the field decided to make a run at her, but they all came up short -- Karine Icher, Minjee Lee and Mi Hyang Lee missed by a single stroke, while Suzann Pettersen, Lydia and Ariya missed by two. (Icher was most impressive, shooting -5 in her last 7 holes.)

It will be interesting to see if these wins give Carlos Franco and Caroline Masson a career boost going forward. Unlike Alex Noren, these two didn't have recent wins to build on -- Masson's lone LET win came in 2012 and I mentioned Franco's earlier -- so it should be interesting to see if "getting over the hump" will help them, what with their seasons nearing the end. There's some big money ahead if they can keep this going!

Welcome Back to Abu Dhabi!

Yes, it's time to return to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates. And this time it looks like they've got the strongest field ever. As you can see from the photo below, Rory, Jordan, Rickie and Henrik give them four of the Top6 in the world rankings.

And in case you didn't hear, this photo is from the 'Rider Cup' race they had on Golfboards. But I haven't seen anything telling which side -- US or Europe -- won the race.



Defending champion Gary Stal, who came from ten shots back to beat Martin Kaymer last year, has become something of an afterthought because of the top players I mentioned. In fact, Rory, Jordan and Rickie will play together in tonight's coverage. Their tee-off time is 7:40am local Abu Dhabi time, which I think is 10:40pm ET here in the Southeastern USA, and Stenson tees off about 10 minutes later. That should send them all off just minutes after GC's live coverage starts.

As best as I can tell, the only other player in the world Top10 who's playing this week is Patrick Reed, and he's playing the PGA Tour. So although the CareerBuilder Challenge -- formerly known as the Bob Hope Classic -- in California is the PGA Tour event this week, it's pretty clear that the BIG event this week is in Abu Dhabi. Personally, I think it's nice to see some of the European Tour events starting to get some respect from the PGA Tour pros. We keep saying the game is international; it's only fair that the wealth get spread around between the various tours.

At any rate, Golf Central comes on at 10pm ET with the Abu Dhabi event beginning live coverage at 10:30pm ET tonight. It will be replayed Thursday morning but if you want to watch the top players live -- some for their first time in 2016 -- here's your chance.

Preparing for the ET Finale

Like the LPGA and the CME Race to the Globe, the European Tour holds its final event in the Race to Dubai this week -- the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.

And in case you didn't know, the two leaders -- separated by a mere 1613 points -- are Rory McIlroy and Danny Willett. You might say Rory's the fox and Danny's the hound, although the ET site says that there are 5 other players capable of winning should both McIlroy and Willett falter.



That's one difference between the Race to Dubai and "playoffs" on the other tours -- there is no redistribution of points. The final four events (changing to three next season) offer a lot more points but those points carry into this week's final event.

A total of 60 players made it to the finale. The Top7 players in the field -- the ones who still have a chance to win the whole thing -- are, in order:

1. Rory McIlroy
2. Danny Willett
3. Justin Rose
4. Shane Lowry
5. Louis Oosthuizen
6. Branden Grace
7. Byeong Hun An

It's interesting to note that, although the Race spans 47 events, the actual number of events played by these players varies wildly. Rory played the fewest with 11 while Byeong Hun played the most with 25. (A quick scan of the field showed that the most events played by anyone in the Top60 was 32. I think this is understandable, given that the ET plays in 26 countries on 4 continents. That's a lot of travel!)

You may not be aware of just how much is on the line this week. Most fans know the money title is at stake, as is a bonus pool of up to $6.355mil for the Top15 finishers -- $5mil for the official pool, plus $1.355mil additional is available to players who play 3 of the 4 final events. But there are more important things up for grabs:

• The Race to Dubai winner receives the Harry Vardon Trophy (that's the money title), and a seven year European Tour Card exemption. (That's a Category 1 card, like you get for winning a major.)
• Likewise, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai winner -- if he's a different player -- receives a five year European Tour Card exemption. That's a Category 2 card, which also goes to the winner of the BMW PGA Championship.

So you can see how a win this week could make a player's life much easier for the next few years.

The ET announced this week that they're reducing the membership requirements for the Tour to just 5 non-major and non-WGC events, down from 13 total events, starting in 2016. They also announced that reduction from 4 to 3 playoff events. Most of the talk has been how it will make it easier for world players to maintain some loyalty to the ET as well as make it easier to qualify for the Ryder Cup, but the timing also helps the winners of those ET cards this week. It will be much easier for those winners to retain their freshly-won cards, giving them the freedom to play more or less on the ET depending on how they fare on the PGA and other tours.

So this week could potentially kickstart some budding international careers -- like Danny Willett's and Shane Lowry's -- without the risk of burnout from so much travel. This week can truly be a life-changer.

GC's live coverage starts tonight -- at least, it's tonight here in the States -- but there are two different tournaments being broadcast so make sure you get the times straight. The DP World Tour Championship, Dubai starts at 3am ET Thursday morning. In addition, tonight at 8pm ET they'll be broadcasting the Australian Masters. If you plan to record the Race to Dubai event, make sure you get the correct time!