Sunday Catch-Up

Sorry if I disappointed anyone with a post-free Saturday, but with Spring having finally sprung I gave the entire Unplayable Lies staff the full weekend off.  I just stopped by the office as I watch the Memorial and Shop-Rite final rounds, and wanted to allay any concerns about my health.

NCAA Post-Mortem - I thought the NCAA tournament was one of the best events of the golf season, and

Trey Mullinax rolls the Tide to victory.

I'm hoping that many of you had a chance to tune in.  The schedule got quite messed up by the thunderstorms over last weekend, and I didn't catch much of the individual and team qualifying portion of the event.  But I loved everything about the event, the guys in shorts carrying their bags (or, if you play for Stanford, using pull-carts), the tending of pins for each other and the genuine respect the players had for each other.

And, memo to the International Olympic Committee, team match play is simply the most exciting format known to mankind.  So good that it begs an obvious question, what took so long to get this on Golf Channel?  It seems such an obvious fit, an event with minimal rights fees that can be held on Monday through Wednesday.  Such programming will cost us three nights of reruns of Big Break South Bronx, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.

Since You Brought It Up - Anyone wonder how the construction of the Olympic Golf Course is proceeding?  Alex Miceli with the update:

The Rio 2016 Olympic golf course may be put on hold again according to reports out of Brazil.

Rio organizers confirmed that a state prosecutor could halt work on the course unless the developer shows it is following environment regulations and other requirements under Brazilian law. 

Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada confirmed the inquiry on Saturday and said developers had been asked to provide documentation that would allow the work to continue. 

"The state prosecutor is asking for the papers to show the work is proceeding according to the law," Andrada told The Associated Press. "We believe all the rules are being followed." 

Gil Hanse, the 2016 Olympics golf course designer, says work is moving ahead, with the entire layout now shaped and getting ready for grassing. All 18 greens are cored out into the shells that will receive the sand-based growing medium used for the Sea dwarf Paspalum grass that is planned.

Admittedly this is a tertiary-level problem, after the endemic corruption, dreadful format and weak field.

Phil, Phil, Phil -  The players hate it when there's a Tour rules official waiting for them as the walk off the 18th green.  Thanks to our Phil, we now know of something even worse, two FBI agents waiting for you, presumably with the requisite earpieces.

Phil Mickelson, professional gambler William "Billy" Walters and legendary billionaire investor Carl Icahn are being investigated by the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a "major insider-trading probe involving finance, gambling and sports," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. 

The WSJ reports that Mickelson was approached by FBI agents after finishing his opening round yesterday at The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Mickelson referred the agents to his attorney. Glenn Cohen, identified as a lawyer for Phil Mickelson, told the WSJ that "Phil is not the target of any investigation. Period." 

Mickelson, Walters and Icahn have not been charged with any wrongdoing. 

he FBI is also investigating Dean Foods trades made by Walters and Mickelson in 2012 prior to a quarterly earnings report, according to the New York Times. The trades are not connected to Icahn.

You don't need me to tell you how serious this can be, and the timing couldn't be worse for Phil with perhaps the most important tournament of his career in two weeks.  But, on the other hand, at times like this we can always count on the headline writers at the N.Y. Post:

Not quite up there with "Headless Man in a Topless Bar," but not bad.

This exposes the problems with Phil's renown gambling Jones, as it necessarily puts him in contact with unsavory elements, in this case Billy Walters.  For those not familiar with Walters, here's the 60 Minutes piece on him:

Memorial Musings - Finally we see the Memorial Tournament without horrible weather, and it's not half-bad.  Though the leaders threw up up all over their shoes, and Kevin Na, who finished around lunch time, started the playoff some two hours after finishing.  Hard to make that first swing a good one, and he didn't... and that was basically all she wrote.  Matsuyama is a huge talent, and that was a timely birdie on No. 18 in regulation and a world-class up-and-down on in the playoff.

Bubba and Adam Scott look like I did yesterday in President's Cup qualifying, and other weird stuff is happening as well.  Scott Langley waited about 25 seconds for a putt hanging on the lip to fall, after Bubba and he agreed that it was still moving.  And Hideki Matsuyama just broke his driver by slamming it into the ground, on a drive that ended up in the fairway.  It wasn't a vicious slam, and he had gone double bogey-bogey the two previous holes.  

I'll pat myself on the back about Rory, though even I didn't imagine he'd be 15 shots higher on Friday.  Luke Kerr-Dineen attributes it to a seemingly unrelated Twitter avatar change by a certain woman tennis player.  Her new avatar is below, which of course couldn't possibly have affected the lad, could it (I'm at a loss as to the protocol, but if you ditch your fiancee are you required to un-follow her on Twitter)?

The Ladies - Stacey Lewis is now The Man....errr, you know what I mean, on the LPGA Tour, with a resounding 6-shot victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic today:

Stacy Lewis won the ShopRite LPGA Classic on Sunday to take the top spot in the world ranking from Inbee Park, finishing with a 4-under 67 for a six-stroke victory. 

No. 1 for four weeks early last year, Lewis ended Park's 59-week run in the top spot.

It was a Saturday 63 that made the difference for Lewis, and another in a series of appealing champions in LPGA events this year.  Christina Kim finished solo second, and it's good to see her back on her game, assuming, of course, that we can keep her away from the face paint.

Emily Littella Time - Rex Hoggard provides this update on the Web.com Tour:

The PGA Tour has approved more sweeping changes to the Web.com Tour Finals just one year after the most significant overhaul of the qualifying system. 

Beginning this season, the top 25 players from the regular season Web.com Tour money list will carry their money earned into the circuit’s four-event Finals, according to a memo sent to players on Thursday. 

During the inaugural qualifying last year, the top 25 players were assured Tour cards but their money from the regular season didn't carry over and their status the following season on the PGA Tour depended on how well they played in the Finals.

And there's this as well:

Under the new system, which was approved by the PGA Tour policy board in April, the 50 players who earn Tour cards at this year’s Finals will be ordered using a “zippered” method, with priority based on an alternating order between the top 25 regular-season money earners and the leading players form the Finals. 

For example, after the leading money winner off the combined regular season and Finals money list, the second card will go to the player with the most combined earnings from the regular season and Finals, followed by the player who earned the most only in the Finals, and so on.

I'll leave the reader to think through the ramifications of the "zippered method" in the privacy of their homes, and it's good to see the Tour responding to well-argued concerns on the part of the players.  But they're changing the format of competition in the middle of said competition, which seems a tad inappropriate to this blogger.