Friday Frisson

There's a sizable storm headed for the Wasatch range tonight, so say your prayers...

La Jolla Days - No marine layers to deal with so far, just guys shooting unseemly scores on the South:

Scott Brown and Phil Mickelson both had reason to believe it could be a long day on the

South Course at Torrey Pines. It turned out just fine Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, especially for Brown.

Brown hit into a hazard and made bogey on the first par 5 he faced and was 2 over through six holes. He finished with eight birdies over his last 11 holes for a 6-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Andrew Loupe.

Only it felt much better for Brown because it was on the South, which played 2 1/2 shots harder than the North Course where Loupe shot his 66.

That's a good loop for Loupe (heh, see what I did there?), but a far better one for Brown.  But get a load of these post-round comments from Brown:

''Extremely hard,'' Brown said of the South, which already hosted one U.S. Open and has another coming in five years. ''But it's fair. It's just tough. If you're out of position, you just have to play for par or bogey and you can't make any big numbers out there because as soon as you get behind the 8-ball, you can't press and try to make birdies.''

Yeah, good move to tell the South that you'll respect her in the morning, as he'll have to get around twice more this week.  here's a summary of some of the names about which you might care:

Defending champion Jason Day, who missed the pro-am because of the flu, made his tee time but not a lot of birdies. He shot 72 on the North Course. That was one shot better than Rickie Fowler, who won Sunday in Abu Dhabi and couldn't buy a putt on the North Course in his round of 73.

And this:

Mickelson, whose last win at Torrey Pines was 15 years ago, didn't have the ideal start, either. On the second-easiest par 4 on the South Course, he hit into a fairway bunker, caught the lip trying to get out, hit his third shot just over the green and failed to get up-and-down, making double bogey. 

''I thought anything in the 60s would have been a good score,'' Mickelson said. ''It's a very difficult golf course. But after doubling the second, I was able to kind of just keep things calm until I made a few birdies, and it was a good back nine.'' 

As significant as his birdies was a par on No. 11, where his tee shot found a bunker and he escaped with a 20-foot par putt. Mickelson hit enough good drives to set up three straight birdies. He reached the 614-yard 13th hole in two, hit wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 14th and an 8-iron to 4 feet on the next hole. 

He ended with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

OK, Day passed on the Pro-Am with flu-like symptoms and looked listless out there.  Phil held things together well, and kept himself relevant, at least for another day.  But he hates Rees' redesign of the South and hasn't fared well there in ages...

But of greater interest to me in the moment is Rickie....  If I were Farmers Insurance, I think I'd be a bit miffed.  Farmers is one of Rickie's principal sponsors and it's of course their week in the sun.  There's never a guarantee that your dog is gonna hunt the right week, but certainly Rickie arriving at zero dark thirty after traversing twelve time zones is at the very least a complicating factor...  It's not just me, it was all the announcers could talk about when he was on camera.  I mean, besides the high-tops...

Ryan Ruffels went directly from the woodshed to the North Course where he posted a two-under 70.  That's not a great score in terms of competing, but he has a sizable lead in his age group.

Ladies Days -  With Jordan in Singapore and the Tour at Torrey, the gals' opening event in The Bahamas is the proverbial tree in the forest.... plus, one can never take enough precautions to avoid that Lizette Salas Pure Silk commercial.  Cruel, I know, but what are they thinking?

But Bill Fields is focused on more pleasant thoughts, perhaps some epic Lydia Ko-Inbee Park battles to come:

The expectation of a great golf rivalry usually exceeds the reality. Even when a couple of players stand out in a given era, the nature of the sport throws a wrench into the anticipation of frequent weekend showdowns between familiar names. We want a panoramic view of the sea and end up craning our necks for an obstructed view of an inlet. Tom Watson versus Jack Nicklaus at The Open in 1977, their "Duel in the Sun" at Turnberry, isn't famous almost 40 years later only because it was riveting but because it was rare. 

Going into the 2016 LPGA Tour season, the prospects for a rivalry are about as good as they can get, thanks to Lydia Ko and Inbee Park. They each won five times in 2015, claiming between them almost a third of the 31 events on the schedule.

Fields does a good job in setting up this friendly rivalry in the larger context of the ladies' tour, and in citing historical analogies.  Who knew that Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias had an edge to their rivalry?  

But, as his lede implies, our sport is one in which such rivals rarely fight it out out mano a mano....and there's a wealth of talent that will be pressing these two.  

The Show - The PGA Merchandise Show is in full swing in Orlando, and there's lots of stuff.  I'm not going to dive too deep into it, as Shack provides a clipping service here and Golf Digest and Golfweek's full coverage can be found here and here, respectively.  

Some random items that caught my eye....or something:

How about a golf trolley that stalks its owner?

Stewart Golf has unleashed the aptly-named X9 Follow golf trolley. The idea here is to

put one’s golf bag on the trolley and for the player to walk down the hole while the bag follows at a consistent distance behind, almost as if it were a living object trailing faithfully behind its master. 

It’s a simple process, too. The trolley is remote controlled, and all one has to do is hit one button to get it activated. Then the player clips the remote control behind him and strolls forward with his bag moving in sync.

Warning, it's still a tad pricey.  If you're curious as to which ladies golf apparel Caitlyn Jenner prefers, watch here.  I know, wouldn't that be quite the get as an endorsement....

And I think we can all agree that the East Carolina golf team van is way over the top given that it's, you know, East Carolina:

There's much fun to be had, so browse to your heart's content.  Don't worry, I'll be here when you get back...

Olympic Fever - Oh the excitement is growing.... Adidas has unveiled uniforms for the U.S. Men's and Women's Teams:

Did no one consider the optics of a German company making the U.S. uni's?  I know, but the above is just a pretense for an excuse to post my favorite recent Olympic story, to wit:

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, according to new guidelines adopted by the IOC. 

International Olympic Committee medical officials said on Sunday they changed the policy to adapt to current scientific, social and legal attitudes on transgender issues.

They don't tell us whose attitudes those are, but what could go wrong?  Want more details?  Of course you do:

Under the previous IOC guidelines, approved in 2003, athletes who transitioned from male to female or vice versa were required to have reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy in order to be eligible to compete. 

Now, surgery will no longer be required, with female-to-male transgender athletes eligible to take part in men’s competitions “without restriction”. 

Meanwhile, male-to-female transgender athletes will need to demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a certain cutoff point for at least one year before their first competition.

Got that?  You can keep the penis and still be a female Olympic athlete...  I'm so happy that the leaders of our sport decided to get into bed (sorry about that one) with these social justice warriors.