Weekend Wrap

I'm sure you had trouble finding time for golf this weekend, as the Wild Card weekend was quite compelling....unless, of course, you have the misfortune to be a Bengals fan.  Do they do IQ testing at the scouting combines?  Evidence would suggest not...

Kapalua Nail-biter - It was close....at least for most of Thursday morning....http://www.tampabay.com/sports/golf/spieth-wins-tournament-of-champions-at-30-under/2260770Doug Ferguson with the game story:

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Jordan Spieth brought his old form to the new year and had no

trouble winning the Tournament of Champions on Sunday.

Staked to a five-shot lead, Spieth made two straight birdies around the turn at Kapalua to restore his margin, and he spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the views of surf and sun on Maui. 

Spieth made an 8-foot birdie putt to reach his target, even though he didn't need it. He closed with 6-under 67 for an eight-shot victory over Patrick Reed at 30-under 262. He joins Ernie Els as the only players in PGA Tour history to finish a 72-hole event at 30 under or lower.

Now, none of the press seems to have covered the important issue, isn't that the same shirt he wore on Sunday at Chambers Bay?  Didn't think the sponsors went for that... Of course folks can't help themselves with the Tiger comparisons:

Spieth won his seventh title in his 77th start as a pro. Woods won his seventh PGA Tour event in his 38th start, and he had 18 wins in his first 77 tournaments. 

"Nowhere near," Spieth said on how his record stacks up with Woods. "I don't think there's any reason to compare. It's awfully early. We're excited about where we're at to start our career. What Tiger has done, I can't imagine ever being done."

John Strege also bristles at the inevitable comparisons:

Woods, at the same stage, was on the cusp of a dominant decade that seemingly rendered 

his eclipsing Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors a formality. A tough act to follow. 

A more appropriate question: Wouldn’t it be better simply to enjoy Spieth for what he is, fresh air in an often fetid sporting world (to wit, the Bengals-Steelers game Saturday night) and a reason to look forward to watching how the story unfolds in a sport too frequently capable of curing insomnia?

They're very different players, but the comparisons are not without interest.  Tiger was physically dominant and, coming off that historic amateur career, took about an hour and a half to learn to win in the professional game.  Jordan went through some public growing pains, but is an obvious quick-learner.... But without the ability to physically intimidate the opposition.

To me Jordan is the hare in this comparison, and one has to assume that he can't keep up with Tiger's early career accomplishments.  But slow-and-steady can work well in our game, so it will be fun to watch.

The Tour Confidential panel took a shot at this issue, and Josh Sens caught my eye with his historical analogies:

2. GOLF.com's Cameron Morfit hypothesized that players are pressing too hard when paired with Spieth, in the same way that players did when paired with Tiger Woods. Have you seen much evidence of that? 

SENS: I don't disagree, but Spieth dominates in such an affable way, and without overwhelming power, so any effect he has comes off far more subtly. In Tiger's heyday, guys playing with him largely had the doomed look of Paris going up against Achilles. Glaze-eyed, stricken. Defeat seemed certain. With Spieth, the trouncing doesn't look inevitable. And then, suddenly, it does.

Go for the heel, Paris!  You mean like the way Jason Day pressed at Whistling Straits?  

See, I beg to differ, as I think one of the big differences is the level of competition.  When Tiger burst on the scene he was battling players 10-15 years older, and physically dominating those confrontations.

Jordan is awfully good, but look at the names behind him in the World Rankings.  Who was the Rory when Tiger broke in, Monty?  Davis Love?  Man, it's gonna be a fun year, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if Spieth doesn't win a major this year...

The Other Donald -  Our  house curmudgeon spent some time with Luke Donald, and Spieth would be wise to consider this a cautionary tale.  First the depths of the depression:

This was May last year. The previous month had seen him fall out of the all-important

world top 50 for the first time in more than a decade. For all but the first few years of his career, the Englishman had been a member of the elite, but now he was on the outside looking in.

Without a win on a major golf tour since he ruled the rankings in 2012, and having been overlooked for the 2014 Ryder Cup team by Paul McGinley, it was a foreboding sight; particularly as he was struggling to rediscover his golf swing after an ill-fated switch of coaches.

“My confidence had taken a big knock and I asked myself if I wanted to continue doing this,” Donald said.

That "rule the rankings" way overstates the case, but he was ranked No. 1 for a brief moment in time.  The entire piece is well worth your time, especially the discussion of Luke turning to a sports psychologist.

Here's his rousing conclusion:

It was not too long ago that Donald was Spieth, bringing his rivals to their knees with that wand he waved on the greens. “Yeah, it’s a good feeling, thinking that you’re going to hole everything you look at. And you don’t think it’s ever going to end,” Donald said. “But for a good year there, as I focused on getting my swing back to what it was before I started working with Chuck Cook, my short game was not very good at all. 

“I need to be one of the best in the world with my short game if I’m going to be successful out here with the way I play golf. But it’s improving and coming back. I’ll get there.”

Conventional wisdom is that Luke screwed up his short game in an attempt to get longer....like all CV, that's probably only about half-true.  While I think this has some aplicability for current World No. 1, there are also some very significant differences.

Donald suffered from what I cleverly dubbed "Luke Donald Disease" (I stay up nights thinking of this stuff for your amusement), the most obvious symptom of which is hitting the ball short and crooked.  That's an ectremely precarious way to play our game, and one can see the difficulty over time and the stress it puts on one's short game.

Jordan, on the other hand, fits into that large category of long enough.... and also straight enough.  And from his public comments he seems to be using some gym work to add just a little length, but not changing anything in his actual swing.  Good call, at least until that game proves insufficient to the task...

PXG, The Morning After - Obviously we'll draw no major conclusions from Zach Johnson's T21, but those Confidentialistas had some amusing takes on the newcomer:

5. Parsons Xtreme Golf, or PXG, raised eyebrows when it signed eight new players for 2016, including Billy Horschel and Zach Johnson. Johnson had won 12 times including two majors ― most recently the 2015 British Open ― with Titleist. Were you surprised to see so many top pros jump ship from established brands to join an untested upstart?

VAN SICKLE: Pros are pretty confident that as long as they've got their shafts, they can hit just about anything that's on the end of them. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't. In golf, money talks. Check back in two years to see who's playing PXG. It could be a bust or it could be the next Callaway or TaylorMade.

I've seen no discussion of shafts, which I agree is the more important component.  But obviously Parsons will never be Cally or TM at his current price points.  The real question is whether folks will gravitate towards him and pay those prices if they perceive improved performance.  But given the combined R&D budgets of the industry, can these clubs really be any better?

MORFIT: Horschel's switch might be the most surprising, since he was such a rah-rah Ping guy, but there's been a lot of movement from Ping to PXG, not just him. There's also been a lot of misinformation about how much PXG is paying guys to come over. PXG's Bob Parsons told me, "In every case, they've come to us, and they're making less than their prior spouse wanted to pay them.”

That's hard to believe for quite a few reasons...first and foremost, they're professional golfers.  They don't have breakfast for less....

Secondly, the poaching is from Titleist and Ping, who are widely reputed to be the tightest with a dollar in the industry.  The former is noted for letting it's top talent walk, see Woods, Tiger and McIlroy, Rory, and the latter pays only for results.