Midweek Musings

My aged body is demanding a day of respite, and it inevitably wins these arguments.  So, please go put on a fresh pot of coffee as we'll be here for some time....

Say It Ain't So, Bro - Regular readers of this site know of my love of golf history, and this morning comes a profoundly sad story about the potential loss of a significant piece thereof.  In the formative years of the development of our game, three Scottish cities competed for dominance.  St. Andrews and Prestwick are known to most golf fans, but Musselburgh is the forgotten name.  A small town in East Lothian it is the oldest course in continual operation, was the original home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and in Willie Park it produced the first Champion Golfer of the Year.

It also produced the first cart girl in Marion Foreman....OK, carts hadn't yet been invented but she served golfer food and beverage through a window of what became known as Mrs. Foreman's.  Now comes this inconceivable word from Golf Business News:

You would not think it possible to demolish a historic building in 2015 in Scotland

without even the possibility of saving it being explored by the Council. But this is exactly what is happening in Musselburgh. ‘Mrs Forman’s’ is the oldest golf pub in the world, but plans are afoot to demolish it and turn it into a garage. 

Forman’s was built in 1822, but achieved world-wide fame as Mrs Forman’s when Marion Forman began running it on her husband’s death in 1843. The quality of her fare was legendary and she figures in the first golf history book Reminiscences of the Old Bruntsfield Links Golf Club.

Here's a wee history lesson about the most notorious of the challenge matches played between Willie Park and Old Tom Morris in 1870 in which this venerable pub played a role.  Think the crowds at Bethpage were tough on Sergio?  Get a load of this:

Willie Park, Sr., c1860.

Of these the most notorious match was in 1870. Tom and Willie had agreed to play four rounds of four courses for £100 of which the last four were at Musselburgh, where they were accompanied by a partisan crowd of several thousand who had come to see their local man win. This resulted in serious interference with Old Tom's play, which the referee, Mr Robert Chambers, an eminent golfer himself, was unable to control. When the players retired for refreshments at Mrs Forman’s, with 6 holes left to play and Willie Park two holes ahead in the match, Mr Chambers decided that play should be abandoned and resumed the following day in the hope of better comportment by the spectators. 

Willie Park believed this exceeded the referee’s powers and, with due notice, returned to play the remaining holes in 22 strokes. The following day, Park refused to play and Tom Morris, under direction the referee, walked the course (in 28 strokes) and was declared the winner. Nowadays few remember the result of the match, only the controversy of the circumstances.

Now a small confession.... many years ago Employee No. 2 and I were driving through the area and I pulled off to see the old links.  It's never a problem finding the links in a small Scottish village, as one heads towards the water and you'll see a Golf or Links Road soon enough.  But this time I couldn't dind it and left baffled....only to learn later that the links is entirely contained within the oval of the racetrack.  That sound you hear is my palm meeting my forehead...

Shack, a great lover of East Lothian, reposted his videos of Musselburgh and Mrs. Foreman's:

It had been reconstituted into a modern pub, which has now closed.  There is some pushback to at least save the building, but it seems that it's served it's last meal and adult beverage.  It's very sad when we lose the vestiges of such a rich history...

More Legacy Lost - While also a story of golf unnecessarily torching its past, in this case the legacy is already irretrievably lost so I've no hesitation in claiming a front row seat at an amusing food fight.

The subject here is famed Wentworth, that tony estate in the London suburbs that once boasted a fine Harry S. Colt classic (but I repeat myself).  Unfortunately, the famed West Course has gone under the knife more than Tammy Baker.  The latest culprit is the beloved Ernie Els, who will face some tough questions at the pearly gates....  I still hope he gains access, but he'll have some 'splainin' to do....But I digress.

We've previously covered the current contretemps, in which Reignwood, a Chines conglomerate, bought the club and is, to put it mildly, tweaking the club's membership policies:

After acquisition of the club from fashion industry entrepreneur and restaurateur Richard 

Chanchai Ruayrungruang

Caring, the new owners mooted a number of changes. They proposed to reduce the number of members from 4,000 to 800 and those invited to rejoin the club would be charged a one-off payment of £100,000 while annual fees would rise from £8,000 to £16,000.

Given what I pay to play Willow Ridge, which has never reminded a soul of H.S. Colt, I'm having trouble working up any indignation.  The members have previously tried to involve the British Foreign Secretary, but they've now gone to Defcon-5 with a strongly-worded 15-page letter from their Solicitors plus this bluster:

Nigel Moss, who is leading the campaign against the changes, said: “Reignwood hasn’t listened and is simply trying to ride roughshod over the Wentworth community.”

What is it about the concept of ownership that eludes you, Nigel?  On a more serious note, here's the gist of their threatened legal action:

The letter claims the planned changes to the club’s membership would breach a legal trust agreement in place for 50 years, contravene consumer and equality laws, and possibly even break Chinese laws on joining golf clubs.

Full disclosure, I am not an attorney nor do I play one on television.  I have no specific knowledge of this trust agreement, and cannot opine as to whether it is binding on the new owners.  Though it's been my experience that folks that fork over £135 million typically have adequate representation in that process and know their rights as relates to the acquired assets.  

That in addition to the 15-page letter and the obvious stretch to cite Chinese Communist Part rules, leads this laymen to conclude that the members are in a world of hurt.  But while the acquiror is a Chines company (actually, the owner of said company is Thai billionaire Chanchai Ruayrungruang, which name had Shack blessing the copy-and-paste shortcut commands), the target market for the club is actually expatriate Russian oligarchs.  Sounds like a wonderful, family-friendly club environment....

The Error of His Ways - Our Jordan has seen the light, presumably after sleeping in Singapore on a five-footer:

"It's been a wild schedule," he said. "And what I've learned is that I won't bounce back and forth from the States over here as often as I did. It's just tough." 

Spieth won the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January and despite not always playing at his best as the effects of jet-lag took their toll, he finished no worse than seventh in any of the events he contested. 

"I'm very pleased with how we performed with all of this travel," he said. "But there's a lot of people on the European tour and the Asian Tour who do this every single year, so for me to sit here and complain is tough."

Ya think?  It's a tad frustrating to see the lad making such easily avoidable mistakes, chasing appearance fees that he doesn't need.  We've discussed ad nauseum the insanity of the 2016 golf calendar, and it seems an unforced error to be exhausted in February.  

I'll be watching to see if he finds a spot to get away from the game for a few weeks, though I don't see where a PGA member can do that.  Remember these words if he seems sluggish at the Olympics or Ryder Cup...

Though even we liked the selfie with Young Song, the winner.  Good form, Jordan.

Euzika! - The clustereff that will be Rio just keeps getting better and better....You knew this was coming:

Add the Zika virus to the growing list of challenges facing Olympic golf organizers. 

GOLF.com has learned that the Olympic golf officials are taking extra precautions to prevent golfers and spectators from contracting the disease in Brazil, because the golf competition will take place near standing water hazards, common breeding sites for mosquitoes, which transmit the virus. There are two manmade ponds on the Gil Hanse-designed Olympic course in Rio; the larger one comes into play on the second, third and fifth holes, while the smaller is in play only on the 10th.

According to infectious disease experts, as many as 1.5 million people are believed to have already been infected in Brazil, which will host about 500,000 visitors from around the world this August, stoking fears of a global outbreak. While not normally life threatening, the virus may cause birth defects.

Kindly move along, nothing to see here...  It's not just standing water that's at issue, as this is a place that dumps its raw sewage into the Atlantic Ocean.   And I just heard on the news last night of a case of Zika transmitted by "sexual contact".  Good thing that never happens in the Olympic Village...

This Week in Golf - Shack uses his Forward Press column to preview the existential crisis that is the Waste Management Phoenix Open, d/b/a The Wasted:

I was thinking this might be the one where golf stops debating whether the Waste Management Open is good for the PGA Tour. You know, the year where we, as a sport, accept the injection of energy and zaniness without feeling guilty for saving a different tournament. 

Probably not.

The alcohol infused bacchanalia is not my thing, but at least it's a welcome change of pace from the mind-numbing sameness of every event on Tour.  And I further love it because of its ability to make certain crania in Fortress Ponte Vedra explode... 

But this is interesting:

Either way, it’s NBC’s job this year to capture the proceedings while CBS handles the

Super Bowl in Santa Clara. For Arizona native Tommy Roy, producing the Waste Management every three years is a highlight on the calendar in large part thanks to the 16th hole offering similar dynamics to TPC Sawgrass’ island green 17th. 

“It’s very similar to doing The Players,” Roy tells GolfDigest.com, after a Sunday game at Marsh Landing in Ponte Vedra before he heads west. “When producing golf you’re always looking for ways to show action when the leaders are just walking or not doing anything. At The Players where we can always go to 17, Phoenix very similar because it doesn’t matter whose on that tee. It’s just fun.” 

Roy’s veteran team has installed a cable-mounted Sky Cam to capture the 16th hole’s fan setting along with the “speed cam” that he usually employs to make driveable par-4s more exciting. There is one of the best short par-4s in tournament golf at TPC Scottsdale, not that anyone noticed. If there is one mistake in playing up the “Wasted” Management Open theme, it’s that such a dynamic driveable short par-4 gets overlooked by the fan theatrics.

Fittingly, this means that David Feherty will make his NBC debut at the greatest spectacle in golf.  That seems like it should be worth tuning in for, no?

Did I mention heads exploding?   I'm guessing that Commissioner Ratched won't like this at all:

Safer?  I'd like to see the science behind that....

Alas Poor Furyk - We haven't seen Jim in a while, and we won't soon:

Jim Furyk will undergo surgery on his left wrist, a decision that may keep him out of action for three more months. 

"While I am disappointed that the wrist has not yet healed sufficiently for me to return to play, I am confident that the surgery at this point is the best course of action, and will get me back in the shortest possible time," Furyk said in a statement released through The Legacy Agency. "This has been frustrating for me to this point, but I am focusing on an aggressive rehabilitation program and having a strong year once I am sufficiently healed."

Pity that, as wrist injuries are about the worst imaginable for a golfer.  The press seems focused on the Ryder Cup implications, though if he can regain any kind of form he's a logical captain's pick.  But this pretty much takes him out of the running for an Olympic slot, so at least he's not at risk for the Zoka virus.