‘Dawgs on Tour: New Season Edition!!!

Tournament: CIMB Classic, October 20-23, 2016

Course: TPC Kuala Lumpur, West Course, Par 72, 6,985 yards.

Purse: $7,000,000. $1,260,000 to the winner.

Defending Champion: Justin Thomas (Alabama).

Fun Fact: Here’s an actual club rule from the TPC Kuala Lumpur by-laws. Don’t ask why I have this info. “3.6 The Management will not be responsible for any missing child or death or injury caused to or suffered by any child in the Club premises.” If you put that in your by-laws, I’m guessing this kinda thing has popped up before???

Television: Golf Channel: Wednesday 10:30pm-2:30 am; Thursday 10:30pm-2:30 am, Friday 11pm – 3am; Saturday 11pm – 3am. It’s in Malaysia, people.

Former 'Dawgs in the Field (3): Brian Harman, Kevin Kisner, Hudson Swafford

First, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the season-opening event held last weekend near Napa Valley, California. The Safeway Open officially cracked the seal on the 2016-17 wrap-around PGA Tour season. There are 50 new Tour members (no Dawgs) due to promotion from mini-Tours, and others lost their PGA Tour status (including UGA’s own Erik Compton). I didn’t bring the normal installment of Dawgs on Tour last week since we had Vanderbilt football, but in hindsight this might have been better watching. Even with several rain delays in Northern California it would beat the last 7 minutes of the UGA football game. No matter, onward and upward….

We had 5 former Dawgs in the field: Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Hudson Swafford, Harris English, and Chris Kirk. Harman did not play well, finishing 6 back of the cut line, and Henley shot a +1 second round to fall 1 shot short of the cut line. Swafford started off hot, and played just good enough the rest of the way to cash a check (T62). English was consistent, and finished T35. And Kirk had a strong weekend in the rain to get our first top 10 of the season (T8).

The biggest news is that Tiger Woods was supposed to play, and to start his comeback after 14 months away from the Tour. However he dropped out on Monday, not due to injury but just due to the state of his game. Whatevs. We should see Tiger in early December if you’re interested.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. As you see in the opening bullet points, the Tour heads west, and then west some more, and I think it’s west all the way into tomorrow. The CIMB Classic is held in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, and I honestly know nothing of the course. It’s less than 7,000 yards but a par 72, so that means it’s short by pro standards. And last year’s winning score was 26 under par, so that is consistent with my logic. So bomb away, boys!

We do have some Red & Black in the field. Harman is coming off a bad start last week so hopefully the jet lag removed the mojo. Swafford was in the top 10 after round 1 last week but came down to earth in a hurry. He just needs to keep making cuts and moving up in the world rankings. And Kevin Kisner will get his first start of the 2016-17 season, coming off last year’s top 25 season finish.

It's a new season, and just like the football team, it’s all about what you do going forward. So stay up late and tune in to watch golf on the other side of the world. And as always….

GO ‘DAWGS!!!