Morning Mishegoss

An abbreviated smorgasbord for you all this morning, as there's 7" of new white stuff on the ground.  Standards have been degraded to such an extent that this now qualifies as a powder day.  Let's see how much I can shovel before I need to scurry to meet Mitch:

• The Domino Theory - As noted in the R&A post yesterday, the move to open R&A membership to those burdened by the absence of a Y chromosome inevitably means that those single gender clubs on the Open Rota (Muirfield, Royal St. Georges and Royal Troon) will soon follow suit.  That sound you hear is dominoes falling throughout the U.K.  First, Alistair Tait at Golfweek informs us:

Twenty-four hours after the Royal & Ancient Golf Club decided to hold a vote on allowing female members, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield looks set to do the same. 

The Muirfield club is one of three all-male golf clubs on the Open Championship rota, with Royal St. George’s and Royal Troon. The club responsible for drafting golf’s original 13 rules has been in existence since 1774. For its entire history it has been a male-only enclave. That may be about to change. 

The club is to review its membership.

Hmmm..twenty-four hours, that was quick.  You'd almost think they knew it was coming... One of the points I made yesterday was that these are all the same individuals, so it was never going to devolve into an R&A vs. clubs food fight.  

Next, James Corrigan in The Telegraph:

It is the same story in Kent. Tim Checketts, the secretary of Royal St George’s, said: “For a while now, the Royal St George’s Golf Club has been considering its position as a single sex private members golf club and when deliberations are concluded, the committee will make a recommendation to the membership in the normal way.” 

Even Royal Troon, the other male-only club on the nine-strong Open roster, was prepared to state its case for gender fairness. David Brown, the Troon secretary, told The Telegraph “we have no plans to change the membership structure at this time”, but pointed out that “although we are a single gender club, some 370 members of the Ladies Golf Club Troon do, in fact, share our on-course facilities”.

And then there were none... Mind you, the powers that be are doing this in a way that it remains controllable.  A few very connected women will be admitted, then the world will move on to other grave injustices.

Lastly on this thread, good friend and R&A member Mark W., who assured me this would never happen in our lifetimes, has e-mailed me to remind him of the Scottish courses from a David Own post.  Strangely enough, he neglected to tell me how he plans to vote on this membership initiative at the Fall Meeting of the R&A.  I'd hate to have to dub him Misogynist Mark, an delightfully alluringly alliterative moniker you'll no doubt agree.  

• Skink, Skank, Skunk -  I've made many mistakes in my short blogging career, but the biggest one might be failing to use tags in my posts.  This time-consuming step enables a reader or me to readily find old posts by keywords.  Thus I couldn't readily put my hands on my post for Mark, and took the easy way out and sent him a link to the original David Own post.  

In that post, we discussed the expression "hitting into the skink," and I solicited the Scottish Housewife's help with a definition.  A few days ago, good friend and proofreader to the stars Al Z. emailed with this:

From the Dictionary of the Scots Language:

Skink, Skynk, n. A soup made from boiled shin of beef.

As I told Elsie in an e-mail, I think she got it right with her reference to Cullen skink.  I assume they were playing in some fog, such as the notorious Haar that plagues the East coast of Scotland. Glad we cleared that up...

•  Tricksters - Everyone on the East Coast has cabin fever by now, but at least these guys are being productive (h/t Shackelford):

Though it doesn't look particularly cold where they are.

• Clothes Make the Man -  John Daly is far from the only guy that needs to revisit some regrettable wardrobe choices.  

Murray is a son of the Midwest, hence the Pabst Blue Ribbon pants.

• The Spore Repore - Ashley Mayo posts the Hulu video of Stephen Colbert's Sports Report from a couple of nights ago (alas another that I can't embed)  Give it a look, as it's Colbert and therefore quite amusing.  

One of his targets is the absurd Hack Golf initiative, which he skewers quite unmercifully and appropriately.  I know few things with absolute certainty, but one of them is that playing soccer will not create new golfers.

• Mid-What? - Alan Shipnuck gives out mid-season awards in a golf.com piece, causing whiplash amongst those of us with a more traditional view of a season.  Best one was this, but give it a read:

MOST NOTABLE BODY PART

Tie: Tiger Woods’s back, Patrick Reed’s mouth

• Masters Drama - Still a couple of weeks away, but Doug Ferguson asks a good question in this AP piece.  The Masters invite the top fifty in the OWGR after this week's Tour event, but also the top fifty at year-end.  Doug asks why the latter, and I think he's onto something.    

But imagine what would happen if there was only one cutoff for the top 50 in the world, and it followed the Florida swing.

Matteo Manassero (51), Branden Grace (57), David Lynn (65) and Peter Hanson (70) all were in the top 50 in December. They would have spent the Florida swing trying to stay in the top 50 or move back in. That change might be something for Augusta National to consider if it feels the field is getting too close to 100 players.

As it is, the Masters virtually is assured of having fewer than 100 players for the 48th straight year. But just barely.

I like the cut of that man's jib, as it could create a reason to actually care about the Texas Valero Open.  Nah, we can't have that kind of drama in our sport, can we?

• Last Writes - Shackelford links to this depressing Derek Lawrenson item from Golf Today (note, the piece is from last August).  Here's the gist of it:

Now? The tournaments are down to two which, funnily enough, mirrors exactly the number of full-time golf correspondents presently employed by newspapers in these isles. 

There’s me, now working for the Daily Mail; and James Corrigan, who works for the Daily Telegraph. Perhaps the last of us standing – probably him, since he’s ten years younger – will come up with a book and call it Last Writes.

Two golf writers in all of Fleet Street?  That's just staggering...