Seems like the world moves too fast these days, and it's difficult to keep up with just the golf portion thereof...
So let's recap our news and notes from the last few days, I mean if you've nothing more pressing at the moment:
These Guys Are Honest - Here's one for the golfers are different files:
Cameron Tringale has been disqualified from last week's PGA Championship after telling the rules committee that he might have whiffed on a tap-in putt in the final round and thus signed for an incorrect score.
Even though the competition is over, Tringale was disqualified under Rule 34-1-iii.
I like this about our game as much as anybody, I just wonder whether there should be a statute of limitations when the competition is over. I respect his honesty and all, but he's not even actually sure whether he whiffed on the putt. Talk it over amongst yourselves...
Just Rewards - Gunn Yang is our hero of the moment, and it's hard not to like him all the more as further details come out. First, he's obviously not on TaylorMade's Christmas card list, as this Adam Schupak piece on his bag makes clear:
DRIVER: TaylorMade R11 (9 degrees), with Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Kai’li 70 Flex X shaft3-WOOD: Titleist 910F (15 degrees), with Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana ’ahina 72 low-mid flex X shaftIRONS: TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC (2-iron); Titleist 714 AP2 Forged (3-PW), with KBS Tour C-Taper 130 X shaftsWEDGES: Titleist Vokey SM4 (54 and 60 degrees), with KBS Hi-Rev shaftsPUTTER: TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs putterBALL: Titleist Pro V1x
Isn't the R11 like 7-8 years old?
Then there was this nugget from Steve Hummer's AJC game story, in which we find out that Gunn was as surprised by anyone by his deep run in the Amateur:
Yang was the guy who packed only three pairs of shorts and four shirts for this trip, which would seem to indicate even he didn’t think he’d be make it very far past two practice rounds and two days of stroke play. Either that or he really likes to do laundry.
“I didn’t want to make my luggage too heavy. Yeah, that was it,” Yang said.
And a local boy makes good angle from the Farmer's Insurance Open:
“When you look at the field assembled at the U.S. Amateur Championship including the top collegiate players and now the world’s top amateurs through the USGA’s format, to win is an incredible accomplishment. To have a Torrey Pines High School alum and now a San Diego State Aztec makes it even more special to our community. The Century Club’s goal is to identify the world’s top players to compete in the Farmers Insurance Open. U.S. Amateur champion fits that criteria, as does Gunn Yang in his victory. We are pleased to host Gunn next February for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines,” added Peter Ripa, Farmers Insurance Open/Century Club Chief Executive Officer.
All well deserved. It will be fun to see if he's the real deal or more of a one-off.
The Soft Side of Commissioner Ratched - Admit it, those are words you never though you'd see me type... But the Commish showed actual humanity, and we here at Unplayable Lies are happy to give credit
when due.
Now I must have been in a coma for a few days, but somewhere/somehow the Ice Bucket Challenge morphed from an annoying LPGA bit to an attempt to benefit ALS research. Since I'm difinitively not in the pro-ALS camp, here's the Commish doing his thing:
Shackelford awards bonus points for both the background and putting the sports jacket back on.
And in an Update Shack notes that he was challenged (though he doesn't tell us by whom, though John Feinstein might be a good guess), but declined and instead contributed $100 to ALS research.
Lastly, do go here and see Tom Watson accept the challenge in his own inimical style. Of course Watson is closer than most to this terrible disease, having lostl Caddie for Life Bruce Edwards to ALS.
Muscle Bound - John Paul Newport devotes his weekly Wall Street Journal column to, as it's header puts it, Are Pro Golfers Too Bulked up? That's always been my concern, but JPN packs a lot of discussion into a relatively short column:
Tom Watson, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, characterized the golf swing as a "violent" move. "They're falling like flies," he lamented, after watching Matt Kuchar and Jason Dufner, two potential members of his squad, drop out of the PGA Championship last week. Four other players also withdrew because of injuries. "The question you have to ask," he told me Monday, "is whether the workout ethic of players today is causing these injuries."
He of course gets to Exhibit A, one Eldrick Woods, later in the piece. he also touches on the wraparound schedule, which might limit the rest period for pros, and the increasingly violent modern swing:
Then there's the issue of the so-called modern golf swing, characterized by keeping the lower body planted and comparatively stable while generating power for the swing through the torque created against that platform by the rotating upper body. It can be murder on the vulnerable lower back.
Rose at TPI has worked extensively with professional long drivers like Jason Zuback. Their swings, designed for maximum distance, more closely resemble old-fashioned swings. They lift their left heels off the ground, rotate their hips more, and "jump" at the ball, relying far less on the lower back for power.
"The modern swing, with fewer moving parts, is designed primarily for accuracy," Rose said. "When you take that technique, and add power to it, as the modern pros have to do, you put extremely high stress on the body."
That concern is new to me, though of course there's nothing particularly natural about a golf swing. But swings like Phil's and Rory's seem much smoother than Tiger's, yet seem to sacrifice nothing in distance.
No Openings At The Inn - Brad Fritsch shot a disappointing final round 70 on Sunday at the Wyndham, which dropped him from second to eighth place. I'll understand if you're having trouble working up sympathy for a player you've never heard of, but here's why I think it matters:
Despite graduating from Web.com Tour Finals last fall, the Canadian’s card for next year hangsin the balance after he failed to gain entry into several events this season.
“Felt like I played one on, off three, played one, off four,” Fritsch said. “I think if the field sizes were the same as they were last year I would have gotten in four, five more events. That’s just frustrating.”
Fritsch was 14th out of 50 in priority status, yet only managed to tee it up 18 times this year. This was his biggest disappointment:
The lowlight for Fritsch came back in February, when a T-10 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open failed to gain him entry into the following week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. A top-10 finish typically earns a player an automatic spot in the subsequent PGA Tour event, but a limited field and an influx of players using major medical extensions meant Fritsch never got to tee it up at TPC Scottsdale.His second top-10 finish of the year came at the RBC Canadian Open, where he tied for ninth, but that got him into the Barracuda Championship – an event for which he was already qualified and one that only offered a fraction of the FedEx Cup points of a typical Tour stop.
So, let's review the videotape. We've eliminated Tour Q-School, so the only path to the Tour is through the Web.com Tour. But those that survive that gauntlet find that they don't get enough opportunities to make the FedEx playoffs or, more importantly, retain playing privilegesBut don't worry, His Highness is on it:
The one shortcoming Finchem identified is one that has been brought up by players throughout the year: a lack of playing opportunities for players coming out of the Web.com Tour Finals.“The only weakness, if you could call it that, is that with all the fall events strengthening, it’s put a little pressure on access for the Web.com Tour graduates,” Finchem said. “That’s kind of a good problem to have, actually, but we’ll watch that because we want to make sure we’re providing enough access to players coming off the Web.com Tour.”.
At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, Commish Ratched has created an increasingly closed shop, making players serve a minimum of a year of indentured servitude. To then not deliver actual playing opportunities to those who qualify, is more than a shortcoming, it's actually a bit of an outrage.
But I'm sure a blue-ribbon panel will be appointed any week now.
Golfers in Plaid - Did you catch that Ian Poulter has quit Twitter? Good, because whoever had one week for their over-under bet is our winner, and the details of that snit aren't terribly important. But now that he's back on Twitter, he's calling out the World No. 1:
For those unfamiliar with the circumstances, that's Rory with the Claret Jug at a Manchester United game. he later tweeted this pic indicating that he was wearing ManU colors:
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