DVR Alert: First Round Chevron World Challenge

Really!

I know, the first round of the Chevron World Challenge may not normally be one of your top 5 "Must DVR" rounds of the year, but with weather forecasts calling for 50 m.p.h. Santa Ana winds this could be wild.

Jim Furyk explained in his pre-tournament press conference:

When you think about the weather that's coming in, what makes this golf course difficult is a lot of Jack Nicklaus's golf course designs are built to be played in the air.  If you think of Muirfield in Ohio, one of my favorite golf courses, it's a golf course that if you're not bouncing the ball into a lot of greens, you're putting the ball up in the air and stopping on the greens.  And it makes it very difficult in the wind.  And it's the same with this golf course.

If the conditions are nice and the greens are soft, we can put the ball in the air and stop it and kind of maneuver around or over trouble, and with the winds kicking up and being I'm hearing 25 to 35 with gusts over 50 ‑‑ that's what I read this morning, gusts over 50, this place isn't ‑‑ it won't be playable.  So I don't know if that's actually the weather report, but I read that on weather.com this morning.  And it was worse last night when I checked.  It was 25 to 40 and gusts over 60.

So supposed to start at midnight tonight and last till noon on Friday.  So if we get weather like that, gusts over 50, the ball will not stay still on a green here.  We have to put the ball in the air to play this golf course, so the wind, we're going to have to be very careful and hitting very solid shots to control the ball when you put it up in the air in a strong wind.  I would expect scoring to be high, and I would expect the greens to be quite soft and quite slow.

I mean if you're going to get winds that are actually 35 miles an hour, I don't think you can cut the greens, to be honest with you.  Or else it's not going to stay on the green.  So it'll be interesting to see what the weather does and how everything plays out.  It won't be any fun.  I promise you that.

While Royal Melbourne was designed for the wind, I can confirm that Sherwood most definitely is not playable in high winds.

Comments

[dbh]

Raymond Chandler wrote a great short story about the Santa Ana winds, 'Red Wind'.
The red didn't refer to golf scores, though!

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/books/hardboiled1207

[digsouth]

Maybe these guys can actually earn he OWGR from this joke event. NAAAAAA.

Undersatand , I really love this track, and always loved the Shark event there, and the TW is ok, bur pointss????? really???

And some wonder why I think the rankings are a joke.


/aside: major treatment tomorrow: alleged to bring my health back to normal. I am praying. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated!

(note: called IVIG)

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

We are all there with you, Digs. Hope the antibodies work and you are back out on the course come March. Keep us posted.

[Gabriel Garcia]

Interesting to juxtapose American courses and the aerial game when there are high winds vs. those you see in GBI and places like Royal Melbourne. The Sherwood track with the Jack Nicklaus design doesn't seem to leave much option for the low trajectory/bump and run type shots you could normally play in high winds. Gonna be brutal out there.

[Breezy!]

Note that when the winds are from the north or northwest, the dewpoints are low, indicating the air has relatively little moisture. Abrupt changes in dewpoint accompany wind shifts. Between 12 noon and 1 PM (20-21Z) on 4 November, we can see an upward spike in temperature coinciding with a steep drop in dewpoint. The least diluted core of the offshore winds was pushed past the buoy location by the sea-breeze at that time. Note that this was followed by an extended period of cooling and moistening, carried by the westerly sea-breeze winds.

Fascinating, dbh! May your wind ... blow!

[OWGR Fan]

@dig.... First off best of luck with your health and continued best wishes.

Secondly while The Chevron awards world ranking points it has only done so for 3 years. The Nedbank Challenge has a field of 12 players and awards world ranking points as did the old World Match Play that had a field smaller than the Chevron as well.

That said none of these small fields should be awarded world ranking points. The next golf World Cup in 2013 after it switches format to a dull 72 hole team stroke play format will for the first time also award ranking points. hinestly if they are going to give them for the Nedbank and Chevron they might as well give them for the Shark Shootout. Hell while we are at it lets also award points for the Wendys 3 Tour Challenge. :)