Flotsam and Jetsam™ - Polar Vortex Edition

After a blogging-free day, I'm back and anxious to make my unique contribution to world harmony.  Or not...

• Honda Highlights - Rory's pre-tournament presser was a predictably hot ticket, as the state of his infamous wisdom tooth was a continuing concern of the scribes.  Rory's last two Honda appearances perfectly encapsulate his rise and fall, the dramatic win in 2012 in which he withstood Tiger's final round 62 followed by the sudden withdrawal as he espied the parking lot while struggling to break 90.

He appears genuinely contrite over his actions of last year, and this was the takeaway from his comments: 

"I'm glad that everything has sort of just been cleared up. I'm happy with where I am now."

I should say so as he posted one of the most effortless 63's on a difficult track that you'll ever see.  Now let's see if he can keep it going through the weekend.

As for that other guy, he was last heard from telling ESPN's Bob Harig:

"Then I went to India and it was just a continuation of that. I finally have my golf feels back. It just took a little longer than I would like."

 One over on a calm morning in South Florida resulting in a T81.  Glad we found those elusive "feels."

• Timing is Everything - Cameron Morfitt has a video piece in this week's SIG+D about the strength of the field at the Honda.  At the time he filmed the top eight players in the world were planning to tee it up, though Justin Rose later withdrew because of an injury.  Morfitt attributes the strong field to Honda's position on the schedule between the two WGC's (the match play and Doral) and to the move of many Tour pros, most notable Tiger, to South Florida.  One related point that he omits, in the opinion of your humble blogger, is the wraparound schedule.  It necessarily weakens the West Coast swing, but that means the lads will be looking for more places to peg it leading up to the Masters.  

• David Delivers - After teasing us for days, David Owen follows through on his Road to Augusta promise with a long, photo-filled post on how different ANGC might have been. It should be noted that David literally wrote the book on the Masters.  Here's his grab:

The original plans for Augusta National Golf Club called for two eighteen-hole golf courses—a Championship Course and a Ladies Course—plus tennis courts, outdoor squash courts, an eighteen-hole pitch-and-putt course, a bridle path, a couple of dozen houses for members, and, possibly, an on-site hotel. In addition, $100,000 was to be spent on a clubhouse—which was needed because the existing manor house, which had been built in 1854 by an indigo planter named Dennis Redmond, was going to be torn down.

Egads, a Ladies Course?  That sound you hear is Martha Burke spinning in her grave, despite the fact that she's not, you know, dead.  

David's caption: Redmond’s house, post-Redmond, in the 1800s. Redmond was, in addition to a planter, an architectural historian and an editor of an agricultural publication called The Southern Cultivator. His house had eighteen-inch-thick walls made of concrete, a material that before that time had not been used in residential construction in the south; Redmond called it “artificial rock.”

 Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts hired a local architect to design their new clubhouses, which appeared in the Augusta Chronicle in 1931:

David's caption: This is the Augusta National clubhouse that was never built. It was designed by Willis Irvin, who died in 1950. I apologize for the appalling quality of the image, which is a scan of a photocopy of a microfilm print of a newspaper reproduction of an architectural drawing.

 Per David:

According to the Chronicle, Jones had been involved in the planning, and the locker room was going to incorporate “the best features of the clubs he has visited.” There were to be nooks and corners in which golfers could gather before, after, and between rounds to play cards, drink gin, eat lunch, watch the action on the course through large bay windows, and converse. A separate wing was to contain similar facilities for women.

Again with the women.... Funny how things evolved, no?

I encourage you to click through and read David's entire post, as I've already grabbed more than is seemly.   So, what saved us?  Here's David's close:

The demolition plan would have proceeded if the club had had the money to carry it out. But Roberts and Jones were unable to sign up more than a handful of members, and therefore had to make do with their crumbling old manor house (and no tennis). Thank goodness.

It's strange for us to realize that Augusta National ever had money problems, but the club weas not an immediate success and almost went under during the Great Depression.

One more photo from David: 

David's caption one more time: Masters competitors did more between-rounds drinking and smoking in the early years than they do nowadays. This photo is from the second tournament, in 1935, when the clubhouse was still a dank mess. Clockwise from lower left: Lawson Little, Charlie Bartlett (the golf editor of the Chicago Tribune, after whom the press lounge in Augusta National’s media building was later named), Billy Burke, Tommy Armour, Ben Hogan, and Olin Dutra.

• At the Movies:  The USGA has found a good use for its Fox money, producing a wonderful short video about William J. Powell, a black soldier who took up golf while stationed in Scotland during World War II and built the first integrated golf course in the U.S. when he got home.  I thought I had solved my embedded video issues, but this one is resisting, so go watch it at Shackelford's site.  

Speaking of movies, Golfblogger has a post on curing the winter blues by watching a golf movie, an idea better in theory than practices given the quality of most golf movies.  But No. 2 on his list is Dead Solid Perfect, an underrated little film that combines Randy Quaid with Dan Jenkins to good effect.  Keep your expectations low, but it's worth a look.

• Golf and the Blues:   Driving to the office this morning, I caught the end of a previously unknown to me Little Milton song called Still Some Meat Left on this Bone.  Now I see where that expression comes from...