Wednesday Woes

On the bright side, at least the weather suits my mood...  After yesterday's results, I'm feeling the Bern.  It's no doubt heartburn or something more serious, but still...

Don't They Have Medal Detectors? - A heartwarming Olympic Golf story... I know, I'm as shocked as you:

Thanks to a remarkable discovery in a farmhouse in northeast Ohio, golf suddenly has

obtained a more tangible link to its Olympic past just in time for its return to the Summer Games after a 112-year hiatus. 

Until a year ago historians believed that none of the individual medals from the golf competition in the 1904 Olympics at Glen Echo Country Club in St. Louis still existed. That changed when the silver medal of H. Chandler Egan, former U.S. Amateur champion, was discovered (along with his team gold medal) in the bottom of a bookcase in the former home of Egan’s daughter in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, about 25 miles southeast of Cleveland. 

“The fact of the matter is that there just aren’t a lot of Olympic golf artifacts out there,” said Brodie Waters, Senior Director, Institutional Advancement, at the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine, Fla. “Uncovering these medals is incredibly special and important. These are showpiece items that far and away exceed anything we’ve seen before.”

Though this news of course comes with a smidgen of remorse for that which could have been.  I refer, of course, to that team golf medal.... A century of further enlightenment and our governing bodies saddle us with a dreary stroke play competition... 

And Shack also shares with us this brief bit about Chandler Egan, as in everything you think you know is wrong:

Longtime readers know about Egan, the actual architect of Pebble Beach as we know it who, for mysterious reasons, is ignored by historians who apparently aren't as enchanted with his story as they are with the Neville/Grant/amateurs-make-good story. But Egan's life in golf was pretty impressive: Harvard man,Olympic medalist, U.S. Amateur champion, NCAA individual champion (and three time team winner), golf architect, beloved friend of Bobby Jones, etc.

To the extent that the Olympics provides a day in the sun for Chandler Egan, it will have provided a small service.

In other Olympic threads, Shack links to this Doug Ferguson piece about NBC/Golf Channel's busy summer.... Johnny might actually have to sleep in a hotel bed, the inhumanity of it all.  But this is noteworthy:

The Olympic viewing schedule was released and if you were worried about missing anyone in the 60-player fields, do not worry: 8 1/2 hours of coverage each day with 9 hour broadcasts set for the final rounds of both men's and women's competitions.

While those viewing windows will lead to lower Nielsen numbers, they shoud accumulate nice total audiences and more importantly, give golf fans nothing to complain about in the witholding/tape delay department. At least, that's my working theory.

Egads, haven't we suffered enough?  Please tell me that the Rory Omega commercial is no longer in the rota....

Wither Jordan -  I might not have particularly enjoyed Jordan's bare-chested look in The Bahamas, but he certainly did.... and it turns out that he's getting lots of support from unexpected quarters:

"The 2016 Masters will always come back up," Spieth said in a press conference at FedEx Ground Headquarters in Memphis, where the company donated $1 million to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in his name. "It will keep coming back up, even if I were to go onto next week and win and to go onto Oakmont and produce clutch shots and win. It's still going to come up when I get back to Augusta. I understand that." 

"I'm not taking it very hard. I've got ladies at the grocery stores putting their hand on me and going, 'Really praying for you; how are you doing?' I'm like, my dog didn't die. I'll be OK. I'll survive. It happens. It was, again, unfortunate timing."

And this:

"I laugh about it now,” Spieth said. “I really do.”

I believe you, Jordan, because right now I'm laughing about Hillary v. Trump.  really, I am....

Survey Smiles -  SI is back with their anonymous survey of Tour Players (all three major Tours), and the questions might actually be more fun this go around.  A reminder that last year's version included Rickie as most overrated (technically tied with Poults), and we know how that one turned out...

So, let's dip our toe in and see what we find:

Will Tiger Woods win another PGA Tour event?

PGA TOUR

Yes 42%

No 27%

Don't know 31%

Loose Lips: "I'm optimistic, but running out of reasons."

Aren't we all, LL?

This one remind sme of the old "Now, we're just haggling over the price" joke:

Does the caddie deserve 10% of a winner's check? 

PGA TOUR

Yes 67%

No 33%

Loose Lips: "Maybe more like 8%."

This one is mean-spirited, so of course I love it:

Would you rather be paired with Bubba Watson or Kevin Na? 

Watson 62%

Na 16%

Neither 22%

Loose Lips: "At least Kevin will be quiet."

This one is far closer than I would have expected: 

Who would make a better Ryder Cup captain, Tiger or Phil? 

Phil 49%

Tiger 44%

Neither 7%

Loose Lips: "I want to play for Tiger. Phil, not so much."

Fun stuff for sure.... For this one, I'll go to Geoff's post:

The other shocking result that speaks to the vitality of the almighty dollar: players would rather win The Players than an Olympic medal.

The Players or a gold medal?

The Players 62%


Gold 38% 

The Texas Open or a gold medal?

Gold Medal 76%


Texas 24%

C'mon, Geoff, that's way too easy and not remotely fair... In fact, I'd argue that they mostly get it right.  They favor an established event with a ten-year exemption and the guarantee of playing privileges over the speculative value of an Olympic Gold.  I know you want the Olympics to be special, but that's extremely hypothetical at this juncture...

Lastly, this question is just good fun:

If you were to be in a bar fight, who would you want to have your back?

PGA TOUR

Ernie Els 15%

Keegan Bradley 9%

Ángel Cabrera 7%

Pat Perez 5%

Brooks Koepka 4%

No one out here 18%

Others 42%

Loose Lips: "I've heard some bar stories about Ernie."

That's just great, but the Big Easy?  I may need to have a beer with LL....No surprise, but there's smiles to be found in the comment thread:

Vikings?  Good thinking... Not surprisingly, John Daly gets lots of love, as does Ray Floyd, but only back in the day.

But this misogynist needs to undergo some sensitivity training:

Quick Hits -

Prayers Please - Stewart Cink steps away from PGA Tour after wife’s breast-cancer diagnosis

Just Because You Can Do Something Doesn't Mean You Should - Watch this stop-motion, LEGO-constructed video of Graham DeLaet playing golf