Midweek Mishegoss

My unplanned Summer of Tillie continues this morning, as Maggot, The Great Walloon and I will be headed to Fenway Golf Club to peg it.  But we'll get a few of those random musings you so crave up before departure...

You Say Burrata... - Forget the golf stuff for which he doesn't seem to show much aptitude, for August 10th is the first day of Tiger's career as a restaurateur.  It being 2015, the kids announce these sorts of things on Twitter:

It still being 2015, The Woods seems like an apt moniker, being the natural habitat for the proprietor's tee shots.  I'm reliably informed that the image is of a burrata with heirloom tomatoes, quite a change of flight from the burgers and dogs he's specified for the Masters Champions' Dinner.

In matters more golf-related, Tiger stays right on script in this Jim McCabe item:

Seemingly buoyant from his second-best finish of the season, a share of 18th at the

Quicken Loans National, Woods was in good spirits, even when he was asked to address the fact that he’s not currently in the picture to tee it up at the DBC. It will be for the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings and Woods is presently 185th. 

His plan to be eligible for the DBC, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation? “Winning my fifth PGA would be nice,” Woods said.

Tiger is way too modest....it wasn't just his second best finish of the year, it was actually his second finish.  Yanno, on a Sunday...

But he did get a vote of confidence from this noted expert on our game: 

Wondering if Tiger Woods will win again? His ex-girlfriend has a prediction.

In a Twitter Q&A on Monday, Lindsey Vonn was asked if Woods would ever win another tournament. Vonn responded with an enthusiastic, "He will!"

And since tee times are at a premium for the guy, this came as quite the relief:

Tiger Woods will receive a sponsor exemption to the Hero World Challenge, a tournament he hosts that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, after the PGA Tour approved his request. The exemption allows the Hero World Challenge to award world ranking points to its 18 competitors, even though small-field events typically require each player to be within the OWGR's top 50. 

Woods has won the events five times since its inception in 1999. The tournament will be held at Albany in the Bahamas Dec. 3-6.

Gee, I wonder how he was able to arrange that.... This is small beer in the cosmic arc of history, but awarding world ranking points for an 18-person event at the feverish peak of the Silly Season is just nuts.  Even more so is the fact that he was awarded world ranking points for last year's T-17 finish, which is the same thing as T-Last.  Well earned, no?

Lastly on this thread I'll link you to this curmudgeonly offering from the reliably-curmudgeon James Corrigan:

I was one of those who would roll my eyes and shake my head when anyone questioned

his commitment. But recently that faith has wavered. Watching him at St Andrews was disturbing, not so much for the hackerisms, the shots from a 10‑handicapper’s worst nightmare. But for the absence of grind, for the acceptance of mediocrity, for his inability to launch anything resembling a fightback, Instead he laughed and joked his way up the fairways with Jason Day’s caddie, a scenario which Day, himself, found resonant. 

“He used to have that killer instinct,” Day said, reflecting on the hero of his youth. Didn’t he just, Woods was never a robot who only worked when all the cogs were whirring. He could and would turn it around by the strength of his competitive psyche alone, overcoming the wildest driving, glaring technical deficiencies, broken legs even, to get himself into position. Not any more.

The times, they have changed...

Whan, Ban, Thank You Mike - Shack has a follow-up post on the issue of the women's career Grand Slam, including LPGA Commish Mike Whan trying to make sense if the senseless.  Good luck with that, Mike.

We'll divert to this Randall Mell item title, "Does Evian Deserve Major Status?  No, next question....

But if we’re really intent on debating the sacrosanct principles of major championship golf, we probably ought to back up and take a harder look at Evian. That’s where this Grand Slam question should begin again. 

Is winning Evian a measure of greatness worthy of keeping Inbee Park from being declared a Grand Slam champion?

The questions answer themselves, the shame being that the ladies, after joining forces with the PGA of America, would have had their majors in good order and, as a bonus, they'd have conformed pretty closely to the men's game.

I'm usually pretty forgiving of the accommodations the LPGA makes to sponsors in light of the difficulty in marketing their brand of the game.  But in this case it just makes a hash of things...

Here's the killer debating point from the Morning Drive discussion:

Which brings up the second question, addressed ably by the Morning Drive team and defended by Whan with not much to hang your hat on: you can win a career Slam without winning the U.S. Women's Open, arguably the most historic and certainly the oldest major?

 I'd challenge Shack's use of the word "arguably", as the U.S. Women's Open is THE event in their game.

On Meltdowns - Joel Beall dovotes a post at The Loop to on-course meltdowns, including this bit ripped from the script of Happy Gilmore:

My competitor proceeded to top his shot off the tee box and into the heather. Unfazed, he grabbed a provisional. His reload took a similar flight.

He managed to put his third try into the bunker. After executing a hell of a sand shot, he had 10 inches or so to make his 7. 

His tap-in went 270 degrees around the hole, but not in the cup. Snowman.

Following the miss, his putter went helicoptering towards his bag. Dramatic, yes, but I'd seen similar throws. What I hadn't seen, however, is what he did next. And I swear on my mother's life, the following is true. 

When the last man in our group finished out, our beleaguered compadre took the flag and, in a scene straight out of Happy Gilmore, chucked the stick in javelin fashion towards the high stuff.

You'll have to click through for the conclusion, but the purpose of the piece is to solicit readers' stories of epic meltdowns, and they promise to publish the best of the lot.  Tommy Bolt could not be reached for comment....

Punked Again -  Remember that note about Rory's scheduled practice round at Whistling Straits?  Not so fast, it seems:

On Tuesday, the Irish Golf Desk published a report debunking the rumor and citing McIlroy’s publicist Terry Prone. 

According to the golf site, Prone, when asked about the Reuters report on Sunday night, wrote: “Not booked for such a round. Still going through the ankle rehab process.”

See ya at The Masters, Rors.

On Posting - Is an interesting story on posting scores in GHIN an oxymoron?  I'm not sure, so you make the call:

It’s hard to know definitively, but Champions Tour player Paul Goydos might be unique in that he maintains a handicap index and actually posts his scores from tour events. 

For instance, Goydos had scores of 72, 65 and 68 at the 3M Championship over the weekend (he tied for seventh). A check of his handicap index at GHIN.comshows he posted scores of 71, 65 and 68 (we can’t explain the discrepancy between his first-round score and his posted score) on a course with a rating of 73.3 and a slope of 146. From the blue tees at the TPC Twin Cities at which the 3M Championship was played, the course has a 73.3 rating and a 146 slope.

And here's the visual:

We've run items previously about touring pros' handicaps, for instance the gaggle that belong to Scottsdale's Whisper Rock all maintain official handicaps used for money games with other club members.  But the issue to me seems to be whether the tournament set-up of a venue would change the course rating and/or slope?

But shouldn't those be designated as tournament scores?