It's that time again, when we face the weekend with far too many browser tabs open. So let's dispatch a few of them, shall we?
Ixnay on LPGA - In what seems a good move, the LPGA has joined forces with the PGA of America to jointly stage the event previously known as the LPGA Championship. From Ron Sirak:
The LPGA Tour's flagship event, the LPGA Championship, will undergo a bold transformation
when it is renamed the KPMG Women's PGA Championship next year, the LPGA Tour, KPMG and the PGA of America will announce Thursday.
The revamped tournament brings not only new money to the table for the tour -- the purse, which is $2.25 million for the Wegmans LPGA Championship this year, will climb to $3.5 million in 2015 -- but also greater coverage for women's golf. In addition to Golf Channel televising Thursday and Friday play, weekend rounds will be aired on NBC.
The five-year deal calls for next year's event to be played at Westchester Country Club 35 minutes north of New York City. The tournament will travel, with no permanent home, but the preference for KPMG is to play it in the New York area as often as possible.
Seems like an obvious move, though shouldn't the PGA be held to account for not having a women's championship? Just askin'? I'm also quite happy to have it at next door Westchester, and I'm sure Theresa and I will spend some time there.
Though some of the former LPGA players are critical of the exclusion of the LPGA name from the event title. Most critical is Patty Sheehan, with this tweet:
Patty Sheehan @gr8parr
At the risk of sounding mercenary, I can think of approximately 3.5 million reasons why the LPGA made this move, all of them valid.
Low Degree of Difficulty - I could happily spend my days blogging nothing but John Daly stories, but it's
impossible to post a respectable score with such a low degree of difficulty. Today's trailer-park trash story comes courtesy of Yahoo Sports, in which our hero estimates his gambling losses at a staggering $55 million.
I'm not at all sure of what's more disturbing in the screen grab at left, the American flag sports jacket or the thought of going in depth with Long John?
I should note that I've not myself listened to this interview, as the explosion of my brain would leave far too big a mess for Theresa to clean up. But John we salute you for your extensive contributions to humanity this blog.
Hero Worship - I have a long-established man-crush on Mike Keiser, though he unfortunately seems to want to remain just friends. And of course there's always the chance that he'll seek a new restraining order should the bride stalk him further.
Golfweeks' digital magazine has a short article that's ostensibly about the opening of the Punchbowl, which
we've covered previously, but breaks two new items of actual news. First, work on the first course at Sand Valley (which was previously referred to as Wisconsin Rapids) is goin so well that he's going to move forward with the second course. He's reportedly deciding between Tom Doak (who was Miss Congeniality when it was awarded to Coore-Crenshaw) and the Cabot Links team of Rod Whitman and David Axland. Doak would seem the front-runner, but Keiser does as Keiser pleases, and he's of course involved with Cabot Links.
The second piece of news is that he's dispatched his son, also named Mike , to Ireland to inspect a property on the Inch Strand of the Dingle Peninsula in Southwest Ireland. Apparently there's land enough for only one course, which would not conform to the Keiser Kredo that it takes two courses to create a destination. The Great One seems to think this might work because of its proximity to Killarney, with storied venues such as Waterville, Tralee and Old Head within an hour to 90 minutes. Except that anyone who's driven Irish roads knows that nothing is within and hour, no matter where you are.
He's Got That Going For Him - For a while, Rickie Fowler's move to Butch Harmon seemed to be paying dividends. More recently, however, he's reverted to his prior uninspiring form, witness his opening round 75 at the Memorial yesterday, leaving him a mere twelve shots off the lead. He's doing far better with his Red Bull sponsorship, as we previously saw him doing aerials and now can confirm that he looks as good as ever in a Speedo.
It's long past time for Rickie to become better known for his golf than his wardrobe.
Don't I Know Him From Somewhere - Shades of Eddie Lowery, but football legend John Elway is in contention at the Colorado Senior Open is attributed to an astute personnel move:
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| I'm sure orange was just a coincidence. |
John Elway’s acumen for soliciting the help necessary to succeed was solidified with his having lured Peyton Manning to the Broncos two years ago.
The latest shrewd move by the Broncos’ general manager and executive vice president was finding a 14-year-old caddie with an intimate knowledge of the greens at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, site of the Colorado Senior Open.
Davis Bryant, 14, is the son of Green Valley Ranch’s director of golf, Matt Bryant, and plays to a 4.1 handicap index at Green Valley. Elway, with Bryant carrying his bag, shot a one-under par 71 in the first round of the Colorado Senior Open on Wednesday and was one off the lead.
Grabbing Manning was a shrewd move, no doubt, but won't really be a success until they win a Super Bowl, no?
Woods A Go For U.S. Open - Oh, you thought I meant that Woods. Never mind:
On the same day that her uncle, Tiger Woods, officially withdrew from the U.S. Open, Cheyenne Woods qualified for the U.S. Women's Open that will be played the following week. Woods shot a 36-hole total of 141 at a sectional qualifying at The Country Club at DC Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz.Woods' second round was highlighted by a back-nine 32 to grab one of three available spots. She will play in her second U.S. Women's Open, having missed the cut in 2012 at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisc.
Deserved Honor - Shack informs us that Jaime Diaz was awarded the Memorial Golf Journalism Award at a ceremony on Wednesday, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a worthier recipient. As a further service, Geoff links to Diaz's most recent piece, a typically wonderful profile of Web.com player Byron Smith's unusual golf journey. Here's the lede:
Byron Smith looks like a conventional modern tour pro -- southern Californian, a youthful 33, trim, good-looking and well-tailored. The kind of un-famous player casual watchers of tournament golf used to call a "clone."
After he closed with 63-66 to win the Web.com Tour's Rex Hospital Open by four strokes on Sunday, Smith stood before three packed grandstands that served as respectable facsimiles of PGA Tour skyboxes and gave an earnest but conventionally uninspired victor's speech and collected the biggest check of his life, $112,500.
But a few minutes later, the intimacy that makes the Web.com Tour an underrated place to mine the real stuff of playing golf for a living was on display. Smith popped open a beer, leaned back in a chair, and in a scene that would have given Dan Jenkins a vivid flashback to the 1950's, revealed to the three reporters sitting close by his journey in golf.
Notwithstanding that Shack is understandably over-invested in a Pepperdine alum (Shack's alma mater) that know Sartre, you'll want to read this. 'Nuff said?
Anchors Away - A retread title to be sure, but literally true in this case. Per E. Michael Johnson:
Although Keegan Bradley's change to a non-anchored putter at the Memorial may have seemed somewhat abrupt, fact is Bradley has spoken about practicing with alternatives to anchoring for more than a year.
Still, to see Bradley with a shorter putter Thursday at Muirfield Village was a bit startling. According to tour sources, instead of the 46.75-inch, 762-gram Odyssey XG Sabertooth with the double-bend ski-pole shaft that Bradley used to win the 2011 PGA Championship (making him the first winner of one of the men's majors using an anchored stroke), he had a putter with the same head style (XG Sabertooth) but a 41-inch shaft. It also had a 21-inch Winn Flat Top Mid grip with a 40-gram counterbalance weight. The putter has 2.5 degrees loft and a total weight of 675 grams.
Such is the state of golf journalism, that John gives us the loft of the putter but fails to answer everyone's first question, namely how did he do? Well, working down from the top line, he shot a 5-under 67, which doesn't suck.
More on point, the available putting stats are a mixed bag. He gained 2.7 strokes putting, good for 5th place, though had 1.7 putts per GIR, putting him in 48th place. The former is the better measure, though like any statistic it only has value with a meaningful sample size. But no doubt he's happy with his maiden voyage after pulling up his anchor.
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