Golfing J's on PGA Tour: The Open & Barbasol Championship (July 14-17)

[GTJT622]

Two events this week. There is of course The Open at Troon, Scotland. 2 Golfing J's will be participating...

• David Duval, Open Champion 2001
• Matt Kuchar

Unfortunately, 2009 Open Champion, Stewart Cink, has withdrawn this year... http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports...tewart-cink-will-not-play-years-british-open#

Tee times and pairing are as follows:

Duval paired with Sandy Lyle (Scotland, 1985 Open Champion) and amateur Scott Gregory (England)
Thu: 2:08amET
Fri: 7:09amET

Kuchar paired with Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) and Andrew Johnston (England)
Thu: 8:15amET
Fri: 3:14amET

NBC Sports and its subsidiary, The Golf Channel, are in the first year of televising The Open. ABC Sports (and ESPN) have held the rights for over 50 years until now. TV schedule is as follows:

Thu & Fri: 1:30am-4:00pmET Golf Channel
Sat: 7am-2:30pmET NBC
Sun: 7am-2pmET NBC

Highs in the low 60's, wind in the 14-20 mph range, and of course rain will be around all 4 days. Fun stuff.

While all that fun is going on in Scotland, there is another PGA Tour event in Opelika, Alabama, where 3 GJ's are scheduled to participate:

• Roberto Castro
• Chesson Hadley
• Cameron Tringale

Troy Matteson is listed as a potential alternate in case anyone withdraws.

Good luck to all of our GJ's this week.

Upcoming in July:
July 19-20 US Amateur Qualifying at Roswell, GA - any of our GJ's participating? We'll see...
July 21-24 Canadian Open at Oakville, Ontario (suburbs of Toronto)
July 25-26 US Amateur Qualifying at Newnan, GA
July 28-31 PGA Championship at Baltusrol GC in Springfield, NJ

 

[GTJT622]

Additional news today...

...Jordan Spieth has dropped out of the Olympics and will be replaced by our very own, Matt Kuchar.

Woohoo!

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/m...ympics-replaced-matt-kuchar-article-1.2707131

With both Johnson and Spieth deciding to skip the Olympics, Bubba Watson (No. 5), Rickie Fowler (No. 7), Patrick Reed (No. 13) and Kuchar (No. 15) will represent the United States in Rio.

 

[GTJT622]

pgatour.com's power rankings for The Open this week... http://www.pgatour.com/power-rankings/2016/07/11/the-open.html

18 Matt Kuchar
Extended his torrid stretch since mid-May with a T3 at Firestone. Five top-six finishes in his last six starts. Open record includes a pair of top 15s (2012, 2013).

 

[GTJT622]

Champions and final scores at Royal Troon, site of this year's Open Championship...

2004: Todd Hamilton, USA, -10 (won playoff over Ernie Els)
1997: Justin Leonard, USA, -12
1989: Mark Calcavecchia, USA, -13 (won playoff over Aussies Greg Norman and Wayne Grady)
1982: Tom Watson, USA, -4
1973: Tom Weiskopf, USA, -12
1962: Arnold Palmer, USA, -12
1950: Bobby Locke, South Africa, -9
1923: Arthur Havers, England, +7

Americans have won the last 6. Final winning score hovering around -12 most frequently.

Would love to see Kooch post a -12 and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[GTJT622]

A good example of laziness that is rampant in the GTAA's Communications group. This from dead wood that has been at the GTAA for way way waaaaaaaaaay too long. Just lazy...

http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/071216aab.html

1. David Duval is still a Tech alum, still an Open champ, and still playing this week
2. David Duval is not listed among the Golfing J's
3. Larry Mize's high school is not "Unknown" and hasn't been "Unknown" all along...just a lazy Communications guy that will never change at the GTAA

Looks like this new Communications Director, Mike Flynn, will just keep on keeping on with the same old dead wood and laziness. But, it is still good that we can scroll to the bottom of Tech's official athletics page and see the "latest" tweets that the Softbees game against NC State back in April is coming out of a rain delay.

And, Bobinski wonders why Tech fans are bitter.

 

[GTJT622]

Roberto Castro, who has had a solid 2016, is #4 in this week's pgatour.com power rankings for the Barbasol Championship in Alabama starting Thursday... http://www.pgatour.com/power-rankings/2016/07/12/barbasol-championship.html

Also note, Troy Matteson, originally listed as an alternate, has been added to this week's field in Alabama. Even better, he is paired up with Castro for the first 2 rounds.

Good luck to Troy, Roberto, Cameron and Chesson.

Tee times (Eastern time) for first 2 rounds...

Hadley: Thu 9:15am, 2:15pm*
Tringale: Thu 1:20pm*, 8:20am
Castro & Matteson: Thu 2:37pm*, 9:37am

 

[GTJT622]

No huge surprise, but David Duval posts a +11 first round. Ouch.

Kuchar teeing off shortly.

 

[GTJT622]

Kooch bogeys the last 2 holes to finish Even (or should I say "Level" this week).

 

[GTJT622]

Hadley cards a solid -4 today and is currently just 2 strokes back off the leader. Tringale off to a good start as well at -2 thru 4. Matteson and Castro about to tee it off in Bama.

 

[GTJT622]

More good scores today from our 4 Golfing J's at the Barbasol Championship. Castro birdied his final hole to join Hadley at -4 and tied for 10th, 2 strokes back of the leaders.

Matteson and Tringale both finished at -3 and head into Friday tied for 20th.

Nice! Would be great if we can get one or two in contention over the weekend.

 

[GTJT622]

Duval withdrew. Kooch shoots a -3 2nd round and is -3 for the Open, though way back at the moment.

 

[GTJT622]

My goodness. What a front nine for Barbasol Championship leader, Jhonattan Vegas. He is -8 thru his first 8 holes.

Starting on the back nine this morning, he has gone... PAR, PAR, BIRDIE, EAGLE, BIRDIE, BIRDIE, BIRDIE, and ACE.

Side note, kind of strange watching highlights of a PGA Tour event and virtually no gallery around most all of the greens.

 

[GTJT622]

Castro fires a solid -5 today to go along with his -4 yesterday. That "only" puts him 8 strokes back from Vegas who is -17 (shot an 11-under 60 today...OMG!).

Hadley just getting started. Matteson (-4) and Tringale (-3) are complete and looks like they each will definitely make the cut (projected at -2 in, -1 out at the moment).

 

[GTJT622]

Hadley with a strong 2nd round today going 5-under to join Castro at -9 and tied for 4th place. All 4 GJ's make the cut.

 

[GTJT622]

Kooch will tee off at 9:30amET Saturday. He is paired with America's Kevin Na.

At -3, Kooch is tied for 11th and 7 strokes off the lead.

 

[GTJT622]

Kooch posts a +4 3rd round to move him to +1 overall, outside the top 20, and more than 10 shots back. Hopefully, he plays well Sunday and somehow gets back into another top 10 finish. This Open Championship has turned into a 2-horse race between Lefty and Stenson.

 

[GTJT622]

Castro is -3 for the day thru 10 holes and is now tied for 2nd at -12 overall. The leader, Vegas, is +1 today so Castro has made up 4 strokes and is now only 4 back. Hadley is also in contention tied for 8th at -10 overall.

Leaderboard link: http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/barbasol-championship/leaderboard.html

 

[BornAJacket]

Stenson had an amazing final round. for sure.