2020 KPMG PGA Championship

[Seamus_McDuff]

7 hours ago, Golf Dino said:

 

I dug up a bit more info on the Tee Time scheduling.  I'm still not sure if the change only applies to the leaders or if it is extended to the traditional last few groups.  Here is what the PGA had to say about it earlier today: 

 

“The fall schedule, as we all know on television, is full of many sports that have either normally finished or just started, so our weekend time slot has been moved to now a 3:00 and a 2:00 p.m. finish time on Saturday and Sunday,” said Kerry Haigh, the Chief Championships Officer of the PGA of America. “In some ways we could be making history this week because we will have the leaders not teeing off at the end of the wave on Sunday. And if we don't finish on Friday, they will not be teeing off last on Saturday, either. We feel it's important that everyone watching the telecast will see the leaders, see the leaders play all 18 holes, and we think that is important. And although it's a little different and out of the box, we as partners with the LPGA (Tour) and KPMG are prepared to make those changes for what we think will be a greater and a better championship for everyone to observe.”

[my emphasis added]

 

 

 

I’m assuming the four groups that tee off after the leaders on Sunday will be made up of the players at the bottom of the leaderboard. 

[Sean2]

I will keep rooting for Megan Khang. 🙂

[Stooch]

A very, very early observation, looks like this course has teeth.

[MagicClassic407]

Mel Reid triples her first hole out, #10. Ouch.

[North Texas]

10 hours ago, Golf Dino said:

 

I dug up a bit more info on the Tee Time scheduling.  I'm still not sure if the change only applies to the leaders or if it is extended to the traditional last few groups.  Here is what the PGA had to say about it earlier today: 

 

“The fall schedule, as we all know on television, is full of many sports that have either normally finished or just started, so our weekend time slot has been moved to now a 3:00 and a 2:00 p.m. finish time on Saturday and Sunday,” said Kerry Haigh, the Chief Championships Officer of the PGA of America. “In some ways we could be making history this week because we will have the leaders not teeing off at the end of the wave on Sunday. And if we don't finish on Friday, they will not be teeing off last on Saturday, either. We feel it's important that everyone watching the telecast will see the leaders, see the leaders play all 18 holes, and we think that is important. And although it's a little different and out of the box, we as partners with the LPGA (Tour) and KPMG are prepared to make those changes for what we think will be a greater and a better championship for everyone to observe.”

[my emphasis added]

 

 

 

 

I'll go ahead and be the one to say it. They are completely avoiding the major issue that happens to plague both the men's and women's pro tours, i.e slow play. If I did my math right, they are allowing for 2:30 to 2:45 for them to complete nine holes 

Edited October 8, 2020 by North Texas

[Golf Dino]

3 hours ago, Seamus_McDuff said:

I’m assuming the four groups that tee off after the leaders on Sunday will be made up of the players at the bottom of the leaderboard. 

 

I think that would be a reasonable assumption and in keeping with what was said by the PGA.

[Golf Dino]

32 minutes ago, North Texas said:

 

I'll go ahead and be the one to say it. They are completely avoiding the major issue that happens to plague both the men's and women's pro tours, i.e slow play. If I did my math right, they are allowing for 2:30 to 2:45 for them to complete nine holes 

 

In the presser, the PGA mentioned that despite the less daylight at this time of the year, they still wanted as big a field as possible to permit the most players possible - especially given the lack of playing opportunities for them this season.  They also have kept their mandate of inviting LPGA and PGA club pros to compete and a handful are in the field.   So, yes, a bigger field means more congestion on the course and that seems to be the trade off that the PGA wanted to make. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Golf Dino

[Newinup]

12 hours ago, Golf Dino said:

 

 

Unfortunately, in Canada, the major sports channels are licensed to existing networks (in Canada it is both Bell and Rogers ... which is why Montreal Canadiens hockey team play in the Bell Centre and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club play in the Rogers Centre).  So these two networks carry the rights to the Golf Channel and to channels like ESPN, SN, etc. and they cannot be rebroadcast in Canada by anyone else.  They used to package their cable services in such a manner that you had to buy the basic and then add on the specialty channel!   

 

It would be great if we can finally get on demand streaming sports channels for the Golf Channel similar to the specialty Soccer Channel (DAZN).  Anyway @18majors  I suspect this is kind of like "Greek" to an American that is used to a totally different broadcasting landscape!  Needless to say, the networks say that because of the smaller market size, they need exclusivity.

 

@Newinup ... which "channels" are you able to get through your ISP?  

@Golf Dino Can get a la carte of Golf Channel or some other individual sports ones if you want (after some $20 basic pkg, add in $7 for golf etc - not great but still better than the other ripoffs)-- check out either Carrytel, Teksavvy, Start, etc... I'm in Ontario though and I'm swearing off the incumbents :)...

 

On a separate note, since there's so many things that have happened since my last post -- Yes, the course is showing quite a bit of teeth... Hopefully my bets take note of this as they're all teeing off in the afternoon.

 

Finally, I still am confused with this TV coverage "logistics" -- suffice to say, the leaders will be shown as is necessary on the weekend - otherwise, well, we'll all be back here commenting how it was a disaster LOL... 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Newinup

[Newinup]

the back 9 is definitely showing a lot of teeth -- tons of bogeys, double bogeys, and even triple bogeys... 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Newinup

[Stooch]

If the scoring is right, Sei Young kim just made a double eagle and erased some early mistakes, could it be her week?

[pmcuk]

It's pretty futile to guess a winner at the start and hard enough on the final 9, so here goes! 

 

I'm flying the flag for my country and saying Georgia Hall or Mel Reid. At least I'll go down with honour.....

[Stooch]

13 minutes ago, Stooch said:

If the scoring is right, Sei Young kim just made a double eagle and erased some early mistakes, could it be her week?

 

No double Eagle just a scoring error, should have figured, 2 on a par 5 isn't something seen very often lol

[pmcuk]

What on earth did Mel Reid do on hole one? Nerves or what? 

[Golf Dino]

30 minutes ago, Newinup said:

the back 9 is definitely showing a lot of teeth -- tons of bogeys, double bogeys, and even triple bogeys... 

 

 

Danielle Kang's comments on the course and back 9 in particular:

 

Q. What's the toughest hole or toughest stretch out here do you think?

DANIELLE KANG: The back nine is unbelievable. I have to go play it again today.

Q. Is that the one you're playing again?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I have to because I haven't quite got a grasp on it yet.

Q. So when you say "unbelievable," what do you mean?

DANIELLE KANG: The length of it, the protection around the greens, around the fairways. Even if you want to hit the fairway you might not be able to. You might have to play a mis-shot, and then from there you have to be able to hit a good 4-iron shot on to the greens. Just because you hit a good shot does not mean you have a good putt left, and there's a lot of three-putt opportunities on the back nine. It's just there's never a moment of kind of -- what is that word you're looking for, certainty? And that gives me a little bit of a -- yeah, the uncertainty. I get there and I go, I don't know what to do here right now.

[WestTex]

I don't think Kelly Tan got the memo about the back nine yet...?  Nice start.  I know, it's early!

Edited October 8, 2020 by WestTex

[tbowles411]

Danielle Kang is apparently pretty talented.  And there is a Gerina Piller sighting.  Let's see if she can have a good showing.

Edited October 8, 2020 by tbowles411

[Argonne69]

Loving it. The course looks great. As they mentioned, being long is a plus, but precision is key. Oh, and a good short game sure helps. 

 

Ugh, Brooke. She's had some bad days putting, but that was brutal. Speed control was way off. Danielle hit it through the break several times. The two should compare notes and find the happy median. Lol. 

 

Is Kelly the sleeper this week? She's had some excellent rounds lately, but seems to stumble at some point. 

 

Any idea why the coverage stopped 10 minutes short of 4 hours? FFS. Gotta get to the Bryson show I guess. 

 

Anyway, tough to call it at this point. It's playing like a US Open. Patience will be key. I'm guessing that a ton of players are going to be practicing their lag putting into the late evening. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

One big nit, however. The coverage should be delayed 5 minutes so that the director can (speed) edit the shots shown. As much as I like many of the players, I'd much rather see more shots by more players than watch over a minute of a player struggling to pull the trigger. The second a player backs off they should cut to another player, and then come back with a replay. 

[Golf Dino]

7 minutes ago, Argonne69 said:

Loving it. The course looks great. As they mentioned, being long is a plus, but precision is key. Oh, and a good short game sure helps. 

 

Ugh, Brooke. She's had some bad days putting, but that was brutal. Speed control was way off. Danielle hit it through the break several times. The two should compare notes and find the happy medium. Lol. 

 

Is Kelly the sleeper this week? She's had some excellent rounds lately, but seems to stumble at some point. 

 

Any idea why the coverage stopped 10 minutes short of 4 hours? FFS. Gotta get to the Bryson show I guess. 

 

Anyway, tough to call it at this point. It's playing like a US Open. Patience will be key. I'm guessing that a ton of players are going to be practicing their lag putting into the late evening. 

 

 

Yeah ... no kidding about the course playing tough.  And to imagine, this is expected to be the shortest set up for the week!  Today was set up at 6,539 yards vs. the Official 6,577 yards.   Kelly has been playing super well ... she was a topic of conversation on the podcast with Karen Stupples.  

 

As f or lag putting, several of the players said that they would get a little work in on the greens afterwards ... but Inbee was not one of them.  She indicated that you cannot really get a feel for the greens from the practice green as its too different than the actual greens.  She said that she made a few 12 - 15 foot putts on 10 and 11 today ... and she's in at EVEN Par ... which is a pretty good score.  

[Stooch]

Kelly Tan is starting show up on leaderboard more often, Nice play by Lydia and Britany L.  Danielle was very solid and shot a nice round.  Nelly and Brooke are still lurking but their putter seem to be missing, Brooke will have to stew on  3 putting for par on the Par 5 9th. lol

 

Still way to early to tell, what's gonna happen, so many good players so close to the lead.  See what the separation  looks like after tomorrow.

[Golf Dino]

The thing about Brooke's round today is that even though it was not the score that she wanted, she did not take herself out of the tournament.  As is often said, you cannot win an event on Thursday, but you can take yourself out of it.  So Brooke, at +1 did not do that.  She is "only" 4 - shots back of the leaders.  She is capable of going lower, especially as the course dries out a little more, but she will have to get through tomorrow's round first.

 

Going out at 8:27 am, they will be battling the morning dew and general dampness/coolness that is not there by midday.  So it will play longer for her than it did today and that is not even considering the course set up.  

 

I like what is happening at the course overall -- it's playing tough, but fair.  That is especially true when players like Kelly Tan (T1) and Inbee Park (T13) can be in the mix and not discounted for the lack of distance off of the tee.  

 

Also of some interest is that the bottom of the leaderboard is populated by many of the LPGA/PGA club pros.  It's got to be tough to come out and play a competitive event such as this with a high quality field and still work at their respective clubs.  

Edited October 8, 2020 by Golf Dino

[MagicClassic407]

Brutal winds today out there. I saw Gerina's name on the leaderboards and had my hopes up but she was out late in the day when Mother Nature really kicked in. Had J Korda for her final 4 holes. Great shot to get on in 2 on par 5 ninth. Warmer tomorrow.........

[Golf Dino]

On 10/6/2020 at 2:42 PM, 18majors said:

Will this week be the rebirth of the original Ko Dynasty?

 

Lydia Ko looks to turn corner at 2020 KPMG Women's PGA Championship

 

 

It's only Day One in the books, but she was flirting with the lead all day today.  She would have finished T1 if she hadn't uncharacteristically three-putted No.18.  Her game is getting stronger ... she's getting more distance off of the tee and she is swinging a little less encumbered than previously -- so yes, you may very well be on to something @18majors  

 

[Stooch]

8 hours ago, Golf Dino said:

 

It's only Day One in the books, but she was flirting with the lead all day today.  She would have finished T1 if she hadn't uncharacteristically three-putted No.18.  Her game is getting stronger ... she's getting more distance off of the tee and she is swinging a little less encumbered than previously -- so yes, you may very well be on to something @18majors  

 

 

I'm normally a harsh critic of the 3-putt by pros, but this week I think I'm gonna let it go lol.  Just loosely following various player in round stats yesterday, I saw about 7 (3-putts), I think by the end of the week every player will have 1 or 2 (3-putts) lol.

[Stooch]

Nelly has WD, what happened, does anyone know why?

[Argonne69]

Curious why Sung Hyun wasn't in the grouping with Hannah and Danielle. It would have made sense to put the last three winners together. 'No offense to Brooke.

 

[Newinup]

6 minutes ago, Stooch said:

Nelly has WD, what happened, does anyone know why?

Back pain... Does anyone remember what she scored yesterday?

[Stooch]

Just now, Argonne69 said:

Curious why Sung Hyun wasn't in the grouping with Hannah and Danielle. It would have made sense to put the last three winners together. 'No offense to Brooke.

 

 

lol I thought the same thing, the only thing I could think of was current form, also TV probably wanted that.  Although after yesterdays round I'm thinking they wished it was Danielle, Brooke and SHP lol

[Stooch]

Just now, Newinup said:

Back pain... Does anyone remember what she scored yesterday?

+1. so she was right there, it must pretty bad, then.

[Newinup]

1 minute ago, Stooch said:

+1. so she was right there, it must pretty bad, then.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NellyKorda/status/1314525284935389186/photo/1