Thursday Thoughts

The placement of any tree, so close to the finish of a shot to the green that it may catch the ball and deflect it to a fortunate or unfortunate finish, cannot be condoned.
A.W. TILLINGHAST

That was Shackelford's quote of the day, entirely appropriate as I am shortly off for New Rochelle to play at Wykagyl Country Club, a perfectly delightful version of A.W.'s best work.  Let's hope the stray showers pass us by, or at least don't linger.  I've got a new driver in the bag and weight added to the grip of my putter, so expectations are quite low.  But we never know in this crazy game, do we?

I'll try to throw a couple of items at you, just to get you through the day...

Sorry Seems To Be The Most Frequent Word - The Bubba Watson Apology Tour has landed in Paramus, NJ, and I suppose the good news is that he's really sorry about.....well, everything.

Two weeks ago at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville at the last major championship of the season, Watson, who has struggled with his behavior in the past on numerous occasions, was

an easy target for critics. 

He refused to participate in the Long Drive Contest before the tournament started despite being one of the longest hitters in golf. 

Then he treated his caddie, Ted Scott, like a broken tee, especially during a boorish second round when he dropped an obscenity after a poor shot, complained about water on his club face and actually made Scott tee up a ball for him so he wouldn't get wet in the rain.

It's good that e recognizes the shortcomings in his behavior, though it might be slightly preferable if such realization came to him in the moment.  But if I'm Tom Watson I'm more concerned with the fact that Bubba seems to hate every golf course that's not Augusta National.  And what Bubba hates, he plays poorly on...and the Gleneagles Centennial Course will not remind anyone of ANGC.

I Guess They Don't Watch the LPGA -   Adam Schupak with some previously unnoticed details from the U.S. Amateur:

What Yang failed to mention were the circumstances leading up to his clutch par save. After

Yang went through his normal pre-putt routine and settled into his crouch, USGA president Tom O’Toole Jr., serving as referee for the match, rushed on to the green and interrupted Yang. Before he could putt, O’Toole instructed, Richard Grice, a 55-year-old lawyer and member at Atlanta Athletic Club who had volunteered to caddie for Yang in the championship, that he couldn’t stand behind his player while he was in the act of putting. 

O’Toole recognized a clear violation of Rule 14-2b: A player must not make a stroke with his caddie, his partner or his partner’s caddie positioned on or close to an extension of the line of play or line of put behind the ball.

That's a great part of our game, though given those circumstances, Gunn, couldn't you at least accept a handshake from the man?

Who knew I'd get a second bit of the apple with that gif?

These Guys Are Long - Evening golf buddy and A No.1 caddie client Kent St. Charles had a great Tuesday, invited to an outing at Bayonne Golf Club in which he played with Matt Every and met the great Ernie Els.  He told me yesterday that when he and Every finally hit driver on same hole, that Kunta blew it 20 yards past the Tour professional.  

So, let's go to the videotape statistics.  Matt Every is not long by the standards of his peer group, ranking 123rd in average driving distance.  However, that below average performance equates to an average drive of 285.5 yards, so if he drove it to his norm and Kent put it 20 yards by him that would be 305 yards.  Sounds about right...