Morning Mishegoss

Let's catch up on some loose ends as we wait for the ladies to take the stage.

Closed-Shop Blues:  Ryan Lavner has a piece up today on debuts of the recent bumper crop of amateurs, including Patrick Rodgers, Cameron Wilson, Oliver Goss, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Cory Whitsett, just to name a few:

In case you think this is some sort of amazing coincidence, think again. It's all business, more specifically the consequence -- likely unintended but certainly not unforeseen -- of the PGA 

Patrick Rodgers laces them up as a pro at Hartford.

Tour's business decision in 2012 to do away with Q school and the accompanying ability to earn a PGA Tour card.

With the elimination of Q school (and the creation of the Web.com Tour Finals in its place), top amateurs and college players have just one direct way to get on to the PGA Tour without having to apprentice on the developmental tour: gather invites to PGA Tour events and hope for a few very good finishes that will earn them enough money/FedEx Cup points to skip directly to the majors. (Non-members can get tour cards for the next season if they earn the equivalent of the 125th golfer on tour in either year-end list). It was the route Jordan Spieth made look all too easy in 2013; less than a dozen players, however, have actually been able to pull this off in the last two decades. 

If you can't earn enough to get into the top 125 and get a PGA Tour card, you might still be able to bank enough to get into the top 200 and gain a spot into the Web.com Tour Finals, where you'll have another chance at getting a PGA Tour card with a strong enough showing in the four-tournament playoff.

This is a subject that I've touched on previously, and yet another instance of Commissioner Ratched taking care of his own interests to the detriment of the remainder of the golf world.

The problem is that all these youngsters are forced to turn pro earlier than used to be the case, and specifically before the U.S. Amateur in August.  Under the old system, they could wait until the Fall, take a crack at earning playing privileges through sponsors exemptions and, as a backstop, go to PGA Tour Q-school.  Now their only mechanism for avoiding a full year of indentured servitude on the Web.com tour is the Web.com finals, but to qualify they need to turn pro much earlier, after the U.S. Open being as late as they dare.

So the amateur golf world serves as a ritual sacrifice to salvage the Web.com tour.

Tiger Update:  Jeff Rude catches us up on The Striped One, or at least with the agent of TSO:

Woods reportedly is making full swings with all clubs again in practice. Steinberg said he didn't know that for sure, but he painted a positive picture of improvement. 

“He extends his swing each day and he’s taking more and more swings every day that goes by,” Steinberg said. “He’s had zero setbacks and progressing as we had anticipated. Doctors are allowing him to do more and more.” 

Steinberg said an exact return date is uncertain.

I'm still thinking that hot, steamy Valhalla makes a whole lot more sense than cold, windy Liverpool for a guy coming off back surgery.   

Getting His Irish Up - The Mail Online informs us that young Rory has resolved his existential crisis:

McIlroy has long faced a difficult and highly political decicion over his allegiance. He grew up

playing golf for Ireland but admitted to Sportsmail in September 2012 - shortly after the London Olympics - that he has 'always felt more British than Irish.' 

But the 25-year-old two-time major champion admitted he has already made his choice during a press conference ahead of this week's Irish Open at Fota Island.

This seems the sensible choice, as it will make fewer people unhappy.  Especially this week when he's playing in the Irish Open.

Northern Ireland is its own unique microclimate, and by climate I mean the political, religious and ethnic climate.  I once asked our friend Lowell how they viewed themselves, and he used this blog post to answer the question.  It's a good read if your interested in such things. 

There's A Sucker Born... Shackelford links to this LA Times story about a new wave of Asian purchases of golf courses:

"We're seeing a lot of tires getting kicked by the Chinese," said broker Jeffrey Woolson in 

Dove Canyon.

Carlsbad, managing director for golf and resorts at real estate services giant CBRE Group Inc. "They only recently came forward and started buying. They do love golf, so it makes sense." 

The influx is restoring the fortunes of some unprofitable clubs such as Dove Canyon, where Pacific Links has committed $6.2 million to refurbishments after buying the property last year. 

The investments also mark the third wave of golf course purchases by Asian investors. Unlike the Japanese and the South Koreans before them, the Chinese are buying at the bottom of the market. But they are entering an overbuilt industry that has suffered from declining American interest in golf since well before the Great Recession drove many courses into bankruptcy.

Are we so sure we're at a bottom?  Often this is simply a mechanism for the wealthy in unstable and/or totalitarian countries to park assets in favorable locales.  Amazingly enough, the U.S. is still something of a safe harbor, much as we try to ensure otherwise.

Shack also links the this review of Dan Washburn's The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream in The Economist.  

Dan Washburn, a journalist who lived in China for a decade, uses golf as a barometer of change. Under Mao Zedong the sport was banned, like so many things that were decadent and fun. When the country began to open up under Deng Xiaoping, a few golf courses were allowed, to entertain foreign investors. As China grew richer, more and more locals wanted to try the sport. Suddenly more golf courses were being built in China than anywhere else, despite the fact that their construction was technically illegal. 

For Mr Washburn golf is symbolic not only of China’s economic rise but also of “the less glamorous realities of a nation’s awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed: corruption, environmental neglect, disputes over rural land rights and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor”.

Interesting stuff.

The Trump Portfolio -  Peter Finch takes us on a tour of the Trump golf universe, complete with the Donald's own measured assessment of each property.  Some examples:

Trump National Golf Club Bedminster (N.J.): “World-class golf” from “the world’s best golf 

Some rate this the best in the world, I have on good authority.

course architect, Tom Fazio.”

Trump National Golf Club Charlotte: “The most desirable club in North Carolina.” 

Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck (N.J.): “The finest golf course and country club on the Jersey shore - by far! “

Gets old in a hurry, doesn't it?  This hist home because I was at Engineer's Country Club yesterday, where Trump made an offer a few years back.  Like many clubs, they've struggled to maintain an adequate membership, and had to at least consider such a possibility.  Of course, the Donald made enemies of the members by criticizing the greens, which are truly spectacular, and fortunately the deal died.