Midweek Musings

I shan't demand too much of your precious time this morning, as there's but a few things we need to sort through before we begin the day...

Confehrmed - We had this for you yesterday via Shack, but it's now official:

Longtime on-course analyst and reporter David Feherty has agreed to an exclusive deal

with the NBC Sports Group, which owns Golf Channel, where he will continue covering golf but dip into entertainment as well. 

GolfChannel.com announced Tuesday that the 57-year-old will continue as an on-course analyst for the network’s golf coverage. Besides being used in regular season PGA Tour events, the move to NBC means Feherty will be on the scene at next year's Ryder Cup and Olympics.

Nothing else made sense to this observer, though I remain surprised that CBS let him go.   The Ulsterman added this to the Hollywood Reporter, surprising in that I didn't know he had an MBA:

“It's nice to be under one umbrella,” he said. “The promotional aspect of it too, I'm hoping, is going to work in my favor. It's building a brand and having a giant promotional machine behind you. I just hope I can live up to it. That I don't f--- anything up actually. That would be my main ambition.”

OK, but these words in that same piece sound rather more authentically feherty:

“I've got so many friends [at CBS], and Sean was one of the best,” said Feherty, 56. “I'm kind of damaged goods. I don't come without problems. Everyone on both sides has been very supportive of me, both at Golf Channel and CBS.”

That's Sean McManus, the majordomo of CBS Sports.  It's good to see them have kind words for each other, but wait, there's more:

For Feherty, the Olympics and the Ryder Cup were clinchers. He said he'd love to expand beyond Olympic golf and even call some winter sports.

"The Winter Olympics really fascinates me. I'd love to do curling because it's very similar to golf in that everyone gets hammered and yells at a rock. That appeals to me," he said, before adding, "In all seriousness, I'd love to stretch myself a little bit and try to bring my attitude or twisted look at things to some other sports."

The Ryder Cup is especially meaningful. Feherty played on the European Ryder Cup team in 1991. Next year, he'll be rooting for the American team: He became an American citizen in 2010. On Sept. 29, Golf Channel's edition of Feherty Live will feature competing Ryder Cup captainsDavis Love and Darren Clarke.

Coupla things need to be said here...he didn't just play in A Ryder Cup, he played in THE Ryder Cup, the Epic War By The Shore.  And don't let him demean his own game, as he beat Payne Stewart 2&1 in singles.

And I'd love to see what he'd make of curling, because I don't think that even he can breathe any life into Olympic Golf.

Shack takes a shot at CBS' options in this post, with a couple of astute suggestions that clearly undermine the validity of his readers' poll.  I'm not quite as sold on Zinger in isolation as he is, but anything that limits the dead air that Sir Nick has to fill is an unmitigated good for society as a whole.

There's many other merits in that Shack post, including his favorable comments about the ESPN troika of Pepper-North-Kratzert.  They're all competent, though I do think Pepper is the most astute of the three and has the benefit of a vagina to placate the SJW's...

But I loved this quote on his site today as well:

At Augusta National in 1972, I was having breakfast with Dan Jenkins when Bill MacPhail came up and asked: "Does anybody know a *&^^%$ limey who speaks halfway decent?" Jenkins said, "Here's your man." BEN WRIGHT on how he got a job with CBS

And, best of all, he links to this old Bill Fields piece about Bob Drum, a/k/a The Drummer, for those too young to remember him (and to be fair, that's pretty much all of us).

War Without Face Paint - What's with these kids today?

U.S. captain Juli Inkster wants the Americans to have some fun this week at the Solheim Cup, but don’t expect any over-the-top celebrations, temporary red-white-and-blue

tattoos or extreme makeovers 

“Juli said ‘No more of this rah-rah stuff,’” said American Lizette Salas, who is making her second Solheim Cup appearance. “I was like, ‘OK, we're not cheerleaders.’ So, none of that face paint or none of those tattoos. It's definitely toned down quite a bit since the first Solheim I was at. 

“I think it's a lot of excess energy that's used on, ‘Where do I put this tattoo?’ or ‘Does this ribbon match this outfit?’ None of that. We go out and handle our business and play the best golf that we can. I think it's working.”

My enduring image of that 2013 edition was of the U.S. team huddled in their misery with their tats and faces painted.... it has a way of looking silly when you stink up the joint, so probably a good call.

You Make The Call -  Which of these two treatments of FedEx Cup fever more accurately captures the moment?  First is Cam Morfitt with nine things we need to know about the BMW, including:

1. All Eyes Are Still on Jason Day

Jason Day is still the man to watch, and now he’s even shaved his scruffy beard for the occasion. Although he was admittedly tired at the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago, Day still finished a respectable 12th. Having had a week of rest, he will be the favorite to come out ahead in the marquee (12:53 ET) threesome of Day, Rickie Fowler and a suddenly slumping Jordan Spieth.

I had assumed that the Jason Day era was over, what with Rory resuming his No. 1 ranking...but I could be wrong.  

Or Jason Sobel with this take:

Instead, like a Labor Day party guest who lingers a few weeks too long, the playoffs are still here. They're no longer the life of the party, either; they're just curled up in the fetal position in a corner of the room, hoping someone will notice them.

Coulda been worse, he could have gone with three-day old fish...but Jason is in constructive criticism mode with this:

It all dates back to a rare miscalculation from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who theorized nearly a decade ago that the playoffs would coexist in football's domain without any real issues. 

"This is not just an event that's scheduled out there as an island into football," he said at the time. "This is a series of events that starts before football, runs two weeks pre-NFL, runs two weeks into NFL, is all tied together. ... I think it's like a growing tide during the course of the year; it will carry us in and have really solid ratings. We'll get nicked if it's a huge football game, but ... I feel very bullish about it." 

The real head-scratcher is there is a fairly simple solution to this problem.

Think about it: With minimal tweaking, the playoffs could finish on Labor Day, perhaps on the West Coast, offering so many fans a primetime finale not just to the season, but the summer. If the hushed hum of golf telecasts resonates as one of the season's traditional sounds, then the last one should signify a conclusion to this time period, a gentle whisper that it's time to go back to school, back to work and, yes, back to the fantasy football draft room.

Jason, I'm not sure that you really understand the meaning of "rare"... but maybe more importantly, have you looked at next year's schedule?  Good luck with that...

If you think I harshed Jason's narrative, then give this 'graph a read:

Don't get me wrong. This isn't one of those "Death to the FedEx Cup" columns. Do an Internet search and you'll find plenty of scorching-hot takes on how this system isn't as important as any major (that was never its intention), is too volatile (that's the nature of any playoffs) and its competitors don't care (simply untrue). That's not the takeaway here.

Gonna beg to differ with the whole lot, Jason....That was the very intention, it's not a playoff in any recognizable definition of the word and while I'll grant you that the player's care, but that care is in direct proportion to the font of the dollar sign attached.

Really? - I'm as excited as any about the looming battle of the titans in our sport, whether it be a Triumvirate (Rory-Spieth-Day) or a Fourball that includes Rickie.  And there's many that could crash that party as well...  And while Spieth is undoubtedly a very nice young man, I'm still not letting him off the hook for one major flaw.

The October issue of Golf Digest has a Q&A with Seinfeld-creator Larry David that includes this:

"He's going to be a bald man. He's going to be wildly bald. This makes him way more appealing to me. It's one thing to handle the pressure of the back nine at Augusta; let's see how he does when he sees all that hair in the tub. That's pressure. I'll be watching him very carefully. He's 22. He's got three years, maybe four. He's done."

Alex Myers had this retort from the young man:

On Wednesday, ESPN's Jason Sobel asked Spieth if he had seen David's comments. He had. And he was NOT happy. OK, not so much: 

"Yeah, that was pretty funny," Spieth told Sobel. "Hey, nothing I can do about it."

Yeah, then why do you fidget with your hair every time you remove your cap?  STOP IT!

That's Cruel -  They hosted a fundraiser and Chambers Bay and...wait, that's not the cruel part.  

Last week, the University of Washington Tacoma held its annual scholarship golf tournament at Chambers Bay and the 18th hole featured a Dustin Johnson Putt Contest, while asking this question: Can you conquer the 18th green?

Also Cruel - The Loop has a slideshow of funny and inappropriate golf memes, and some are actually funny if you ignore the typos:

We can all see the humor in this:

But this one hits way too close to home: