2019 Military Tribute at the Greenbrier

[Darth Putter]

The PGA Tour starts on Thursday in West Virginia.

 

Before we dive into this tournament here are some updates for the new season.

 

The schedule for 2019-20... https://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/schedule.html

 

The ZOZO Championship in Japan replaces the CIMB from Malaysia.

The Bermuda Championship makes its debut as an opposite field event.

The Sanderson Farms is now a full status event, so winning it gets you into The Masters.

The WGC Memphis moves to two weeks before the British Open.

The Greenbrier and Houston Open were skipped in the 2018-19 season and return this fall.

 

 

Cuts are now low 65 and ties instead of low 70 and ties. There is no longer a 54 hole cut.

Opposite field events will now have 120 players instead of 132.

The Genesis Open is now the Genesis Invitational. Its field also drops to 120 players and will now have the same three year exemption status for winning as Bay Hill and The Memorial.

 

 

Military Tribute at the Greenbrier

Purse: $7,500,000

FedEX Cup Points: 500

Course: The Old White TPC a par 70 of 7286 yards designed by by the great C.B. Macdonald and opened in 1914.

Defending Champion: Kevin Na

 

OWGR ranking points look to be in the 30/32 range, so this is the worst full field of 2019 other than the John Deere Classic.

 

field

https://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/a-military-tribute-at-the-greenbrier/field.html

 

Notables

Bryson DeChambeau

Bubba Watson

Viktor Hovland

John Daly

Zach Johnson

Jason Dufner

Keegan Bradley

Jimmy Walker

Tom Lewis, winner of the Korn Ferry Championship, opted to play here instead of the KLM Open in Holland

Scottie Scheffler, the top player in the Korn Ferry playoffs

In fact, I think all the Korn Ferry Tour graduates are in this event.

Naturally, Sungjae Im is here as well, two weeks off must have been terrible for him.

 

an article on Captain Kyle Westmoreland playing this week on a sponsor's exemption

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/meet-air-force-captain-kyle-westmoreland-who-has-the-pga-tour-in-his-sights

 

Tickets are free and you could win prizes thanks to the Governor of West Virginia and Resort Owner Jim Justice.

https://wchstv.com/news/local/pga-tour-stop-at-greenbrier-to-offer-free-admission-more-than-500000-in-prizes

 

 

[OldTomMorris]

John Daly, really??

 

Interested to see how Jason Dufner goes this season. I believe he's in the last year of his 3-year exemption for winning the Memorial. Only 2 top 10s last year and he was basically missing the cut 50% of the time.

[JK Ward]

I guess the change in date is keeping Phil Mickelson away. Too bad. He signed as the Greenbrier's Tour Ambassador in 2016 and committed, at the time, to playing in the tournament in future years.

[flyingmeese]

I love seeing a CB MacDonald course

[bscinstnct]

> @flyingmeese said:

> I love seeing a CB MacDonald course

 

Oof, you just "triggered" my auto Micky Ds meal sleeper alert. I'm telling ya, I could go a year or even 2 not eating Micky Ds and then, Bam! gotta have it.

 

 

[smashdn]

More classic architecture, less TPC-Stuffy Pines please.

[snizzle]

> @"JK Ward" said:

> I guess the change in date is keeping Phil Mickelson away. Too bad. He signed as the Greenbrier's Tour Ambassador in 2016 and committed, at the time, to playing in the tournament in future years.

 

Apparently Phil missing out on falconry this year.

[Darth Putter]

Tee times

 

https://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/a-military-tribute-at-the-greenbrier/tee-times.html

 

 

more on Greenbrier falconry

 

https://www.worldsbestgolfdestinations.com/phil-mickelson-greenbriar-commercial

[caniac6]

So glad the Tour is back! That two week layoff just about wiped me out!

[tiderider]

nothing wrong with more golf ...

[Darth Putter]

> @smashdn said:

> More classic architecture, less TPC-Stuffy Pines please.

 

It's both classic architecture and a stuffy TPC.

 

The two oldest American courses hosting events this year are the first tournament and the last.

 

East Lake is only twenty years younger than Royal St. George's.

[Darth Putter]

> @tiderider said:

> nothing wrong with more golf ...

 

Unless you have to re-tee

[smashdn]

> @"Darth Putter" said:

> > @smashdn said:

> > More classic architecture, less TPC-Stuffy Pines please.

>

> It's both classic architecture and a stuffy TPC.

>

> The two oldest American courses hosting events this year are the first tournament and the last.

>

> East Lake is only twenty years younger than Royal St. George's.

 

Nah nah. The stuffy reference wasn't the important part of my post. It was the TPC part. Maybe I should have went with TPC-Sterile Links, as in boring, insipid architecture on the made for tv/pga tour courses.

[KRAMER1997]

No Phil this week, interesting.

[OldTomMorris]

OWGR SOF 154, I imagine outside of opposite field events this makes it one of the weakest fields on the PGA Tour in terms of the OWGR.

Edit: Ah yes, this is confirmed above by Darth Putter.

[Hellstorm]

The Old White isn't a TPC course in the traitional sense as mentioned above. It is what I would consider older and more traditional. I too am surprised that Phil isn't playing there. Bubba is though....he has to represent the neighborhood.

[Darth Putter]

> @OldTomMorris said:

> OWGR SOF 154, I imagine outside of opposite field events this makes it one of the weakest fields on the PGA Tour in terms of the OWGR.

> Edit: Ah yes, this is confirmed above by Darth Putter.

 

It's a really big gap between tournaments above and below it.

 

Texas Open SoF 213

European Masters 206

Greenbrier 154

European Open 119

BMW Int'l Open 112

[flushem]

ODDS to Win:

Bryson DeChambeau 12/1

Viktor Hovland 14/1

Jason Kokrak 20/1

Marc Leishman 25/1

Sungjae Im 25/1

Joaquin Niemann 25/1

Byeong Hun An 30/1

Bubba Watson 30/1

Russell Henley 30/1

Scottie Scheffler 40/1

Kevin Na 40/1

Scott Piercy 40/1

Keegan Bradley 40/1

Cameron Smith 40/1

Brian Harman 50/1

Tom Lewis 60/1

Bud Cauley 60/1

Zach Johnson 60/1

Branden Grace 60/1

Russell Knox 60/1

Kevin Streelman 60/1

Joel Dahmen 60/1

Robert Streb 60/1

Harold Varner III 60/1

[thevaporz]

Sungjae Im FTW.

[manku]

My bookie had Hovland at 9-1 (odds adjust on action)...which seems like one of the worst bets I've seen in over a decade of wagering on professional golf.

Any golfer less than 10-1 is a bad bet, IMHO. The only exception was Tiger during his prime (he was 3-1 on many occasions, as crazy as that sounds!). I've found the sweet spot to be between 20-40...though again, like all longshot bets, you end up with nothing the vast majority of the time...sometimes for years :)

[flushem]

Going with Henley. It is time for him to get out of closet and go home with a win.

[Titleist99]

Two to three group backup at the Greenbrier, I'm pretty sure that Dechambeau had nothing to do with that. Just wish that they had call somebody out like they did him ,,,,, Instead I heard about pin placement, wind, etc...

[Golfjack]

Joaquinn Nieman! it's time he joined the young winners on tour!

[jdl]

Scheffler off to a strong start for his PGA Tour career.

[SilvioDante]

Kevin Chappell and 59! Almost birdied the last hole. Nice!

[DrivingChamp]

59!

[TMoakley1547]

9 consecutive birdies today for Chappell. Unbelievable round today

[lowheel]

good for him. lost a year to back surgery glad hes healthy again

[Darth Putter]

New cut rule already having an effect.

68 make the cut at -4.

Last year, 84 would have made the cut at -3.

[grm24]

> @"Darth Putter" said:

> New cut rule already having an effect.

> 68 make the cut at -4.

> Last year, 84 would have made the cut at -3.

 

The ET has had the 65 and ties cut rule for years. The PGA Tour players have no choice but to get used to it as they as a group approved that rule change.