Friday Follies

As we head into the weekend, let's take our usual spin through the golf firmament...

Playing To Type - Antone here remember the Robert Allenby story from January?  I know, wasn't that a time?  As you may recall, one of my priceless quips when the story broke was that if true, the perpetrator would most likely be a Tour caddie, because...well...just because. 

So let's all get our schadenfreude on with this news from yesterday:

Playing in the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday, Allenby and his caddie, Mick

Middlemo, appeared to have a chat before his fourth shot on Glen Abbey Golf Club's par-5 13th hole (Allenby's fourth hole of the day). Allenby's shot went into a creek short of the green, leading to a triple-bogey. 

Both parties agree it was at this juncture that things went south. How it happened and what was said is in dispute.

Do tell, but let's break with tradition and start with the She Said:

"I said to him, 'You know this happens every week. This has happened for like the last three or four or five months,'" Allenby told ScoreGolf.com. "We keep making bad mistakes, and you're not helping me in these circumstances. And he just lost the plot at me. He just told me I could go eff myself." 

"And I said, 'Look, you need to slow down. I mean just calm down.' And then he just got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up. I said, 'Stop being a such and such and calm down and get back into the game.' And he just got even closer and closer, and I just said, 'That's it, you're sacked.' I said, 'I will never have you caddie ever again.'

 Middlemo, however, sin't prepared to stipulate to that narrative:

"I just wished it had never gone this far. But he is again using the media to make himself look like the victim," Middlemo told ESPN, alluding to an incident in Hawaii earlier this year involving Allenby and an alleged kidnapping. 

According to Middlemo, it was Allenby who messed up on the 13th.

"The discussion was only about waiting for the wind to die down and hit the 8-iron; the 7-iron was never discussed. Not once. He came up 10 meters short of the front of the green. He hit a bad shot. 

"He said, 'I can't believe this fat c***,' loud enough for everyone to hear. There's a lot as a caddie I can take but a personal attack like that. ... If this was an office in any country in the world, that would be considered bullying. ... I can take it if you call me the worst caddie in the world, tell me I'm horrible at picking clubs, but there's a line you just can't cross." 

According to FOX Sports Australia - Allenby's native land - Middlemo is the fourth caddie to walk off during a round with Allenby. A person following the group on Thursday confirmed Middlemo's rendition of the story to ESPN.

You get that?  Four caddies have walked on the guy mid-round!   I think that gest you into the Hall of Fame these days...I'm not all bitter about not getting paid to bog because they make it so damn easy and fun.

Venues, Confirmed - We've known this for a while, but we now have confirmation of the USGA's plans:

LACC's North Course

The USGA announced three sites for the U.S. Open on Wednesday, including a return to Pinehurst No. 2. It effectively alternates the U.S. Open between the East Coast and prime-time TV of California for at least a seven-year stretch. 

The U.S. Open will go to The Country Club in 2022, the course outside Boston that was the scene of perhaps the most important golf championship in American history. It's where Francis Ouimet won a playoff over British titans Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. The upset put golf on the front pages of newspapers.

Shack had these comments a few days ago:

As I noted in Golf World, the USGA will solidify it's schedule going forward this week by confirming the already reported news in local papers around Boston, Los Angeles and Pinehurst: the U.S. Open is going to some dynamite places over the next decade. They will take The Open to The Country Club in 2022, Los Angeles Country Club in 2023 and Pinehurst No. 2 in 2024. Thats on top of five-start venues in Oakmont (2016), Shinnecock Hills (2018), Pebble Beach (2019) and a revitalized Winged Foot (2020). We'll just have to grin and bear Erin Hills in 2017 and soak up the San Diego vibes in 2021 when Torrey Pines hosts.

He seems more excited by a retrurn to The Country Club than I, but I remain surprised that, if they intended to return there, they didn't celebrate the Ouimet centenary by going there in 2013.  The most interesting name there is LACC, whose North Course has been restored by Gil Hanse working with some guy named Shackelford.  More on that here.

Here's the schedule of venues looking forward:

2016 - Oakmont-Troon-Baltusrol

2017 - Erin Hills-Birkdale-Quail Hollow

2018 - Shinnecock-Carnoustie-Bellerive

2019 - Pebble Beach-Portrush(?)-Bethpage

2020 - Winged Foot-(?)-Harding Park

2021 - Torrey Pines-St. Andrews-Kiawah

2022 - The Country Club-(?)-Trump Bedminster

The weakest link is obviously the PGA, which ranges from the repetitive (we see Quail Hollow every year) to the mundane (Bellerive? Why?) to the logistically challenging (Kiawah) to the problematic (Trump).  But if you enjoy seeing Tour pros perspire, the PGA of America has you covered...

 Bae-Bae - This is unfortunate for the young man, though really could have been avoided:

Bae Sang-Moon said Wednesday he plans to play the rest of the PGA Tour season before

submitting to his mandatory military service in South Korea. 

Bae was denied an extension of his visa at the start of the year and challenged it in court. Yonhap news service said Bae lost his legal battle to have his mandatory service deferred. The debate was whether Bae had spent enough time out of South Korea last year. 

"I completely respect the court's decision, and I humbly accept the judgment by the law," he told Yonhap. "I am sorry to those who have supported me, including all my fans and South Koreans, for causing anxiety."

It appears that mistakes in his scheduling will cost him dearly, though the short-term issue is wehther he'll be able to play in the Presidents Cup in the Fall, which is being held on a Nicklaus course on which Bae has won two KPGA Tour events.

Shack, Reviled - Many of you have commented on my frequent Shack citations, an inevitability given the position in the golf world he's created for himself.  He's the only guy out there consistently writing on the subjects that interest me most, but he also has a sense of humor and isn't afraid of taking on the Grand Poobahs of our game.

And I of course can't help but be envious of his sources, his support from Golf Digest and his site access at the biggest events in our game.  But today that understandable jealousy has morphed into a raging saliva-spewing inferno, as our Geoff played The Old Course Tuesday with the final round pins unchanged...Salt, meet open wound:

Of course I’m rubbing it in by mentioning the great privilege of playing St Andrews the day after The Open. But move past the envy stage! Because there is still plenty to consider from the 2015 Open Championship. 

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play after such a fascinating Open also meant getting to play the final round hole locations in far more pleasant conditions than the leaders faced. (Though we did get an opposite wind direction: into the breeze going out, downwind coming in.) The greens were not cut, but there was no shortage of speed.

As if that's not enough to goad me, he played with Jaime Diaz....But he had much to say of interest about the golf course:

The hole locations. I can only recall two pin placements that seemed genuinely accessible. The 9th was so center cut that it was almost deceptive due to the lack of definition. The 5th hole was cut 85 yards deep. I faced a third shot yardage of 73 yards to the front. Now there’s something you don’t experience everyday. The rest of the holes were tucked, hidden or stuck in places the caddies had rarely seen. I heard the same observation from locals who were pleased to see some new locations used, but who also groused about the inability to come up with a few more creative uses of these amazing greens.

That's certainly how it seemed at home...

Jason Day’s 18th hole birdie putt could very easily be left short. On our list of key putts to try was Jason Day’s final effort that would have gotten him into a playoff. Day left it short and many were shocked how well he took it or that a player could leave that putt short. We tried it and sure enough the cup was on a spot where the ball slowed dramatically near the hole. Whether this was an intentional choice or mere coincidence, we won’t know. But we all agreed to appreciate Day’s point of view.

And his rousing coda:

The course remains a marvel in so many ways. From the way it handles all of the traffic to the magical contours, to way the greens are mere extensions of the fairway, the endearing qualities written about for so many years remain as ever-present today as they did 150 years ago. And while some don’t care for the commercial quality to the place with so much tourist play, the Old Course at St. Andrews is the world’s most important course and the Links Trust ably balances the needs of the local clubs, the town and the university player with the desire of golfers worldwide to experience this historic place.

It's always a challenge to explain The Old Course to folks that haven't played it, because it's unlike any other golf course on the planet.  Shack also had this photo, which captures well the unique turf it enjoys:

It's the flattest golf course in the world, just don't expect too many level lies....