Friday Frisson

It's a late start to blogging this morning, caused by a case of Brexit Euphoria..... a previously unknown and unanticipated condition.  But anything toying with a trip to Scotland should jump on it now, before they secede.

I was hoping to be finished with Oakmont, but that is not yet the case....but we will, at the very least, start elsewhere.

Rors, The Fallout - You've all heard the news that Rory will give Rio a miss.... This qualifies as a mild surprise.  he was clearly not excited and somewhat worried, but it seemed that he would suck it up if only to avoid the heat.

Here's Shack's speculation on what changed:

With Rory citing Zika so soon after suggesting it was not a huge issue is, for someone

who was so passionate about the Olympic opportunity, likely to create the possibility of several more players on the fence to withdraw. Brian Keogh at the Irish Golf Desk talked toIreland's team captain Paul McGinley, who spoke to McIlroy last night but was not expecting the announcement today, explains that he was not aware of what changed in the last ten days. 

The most likely scenario: locker room chatter at Oakmont and a lack of reassurance that the golfers will be safe. And continued disdain for the schedule. And no peer pressure to play had their been a team format. 

Still, it is hard not to conclude that the expansive world schedule in golf and the lack of any need for golfers to view golf as the ultimate in their sport, is making the decision easier. I explained some of the dynamics that went into not rearranging the schedule when Adam Scott withdrew.

Charl had recently warned us that the locker room chatter had turned decidedly negative... And while Rory might have been excited originally, but his words were far more equivocal recently...To complete the news cycle, the McDowells are expecting a child shortly after the Olympics so your Irish Olympic Golf Team will seemingly be Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington.... 

More silliness ensues from other Irish athletes:

Irish Olympic sailor Annalise Murphy said making it to the games to represent her country was her dream and she was unconcerned about the Zika virus.

Murphy, who will represent Ireland in the laser radial event, pointed out the Olympics are taking place in the middle of winter in Rio - when there will be fewer mosquitoes. 

"I've been in Rio four times in the last seven months. There are not that many mosquitoes in the city.

"The Olympics are in August, which is the middle of winter for Rio. The Zika virus is not really a concern for me," she said. 

"The Olympics are my dream, I've been working the last few years of my life for this. Most athletes would be the same," she said.

I completely get that the Olympics are her dream, but can she not see that it might not be everyone's?  Would it be too much to ask some enterprising journalist to stick a microphone in the lady's face and ask her how she feels after she experiences the raw sewage through which she will be sailing?

 Alan Bastable provides a helpful scorecard on where folks sit, but to me this is the guy to watch:

Jason Day:

"It's difficult to say right now. We're just really trying to monitor what's going on because we're not done having kids. I don't want to have to bring anything back and have the possibility of that happening to us. Obviously, it can happen here. But if you put yourself down there, there's a chance of you getting it. … You don't know how long [the virus] is going to last in your body. So I'm a little wary about it.”

A Jason Day withdrawal, Dexit anyone, would at this point be a crippling blow, depriving the event of much of its legitimacy.

If I were Golf Digest,  I'd have Jaime Diaz working on a backgrounder as to how this all was botched so spectacularly....  Peter Dawson, Commissioner Ratched, Ted Bishop, George O'Grady and the rest have some serious explain' to do....

Justice Swamped - Not one of my better puns, but while Congressional was spared yesterday, another Tour venue wasn't:

Major flooding in and around The Greenbrier in West Virginia has raised the possibility

that the resort may not be able to host the PGA Tour's The Greenbrier Classic in two weeks.

Thursday rains in Greenbrier County, in the southeastern portion of the state, led to the declaration of a state of emergency. A number of residents in White Sulphur Springs, the town in which Greenbrier is located, were stranded in the highest rooms of their homes, awaiting rescue and hoping to avoid the flood waters. 

In addition to the flood damage, landslides have been reported in the mountainous area, with more anticipated by the National Weather Service, which maintains a Flash Flood Emergency for the area. Officials said anywhere from 1-4 inches of rain fell in a three-hour period on Thursday evening. 

“It’s like nothing I’ve seen,” said Greenbrier owner Jim Justice in a Thursday statement. “But our focus right now isn’t on the property, the golf course or anything else. We’re praying for the people and doing everything we can to get them the help they need.”

There's a Bubba video (he has a home there) at that link.  It's not pretty, but there are far greater concerns than a Tour event at this point....

Rahmbo Rocks - ASU grad Jon "Rahmbo" Rahm was the low amateur in the Open last week, after which he turned pro and teed it up at Congressional.  It went reasonably well, as these things go:

Jon Rahm’s got it going on. 

Last week, he earned the low-amateur honor at the U.S. Open as the only non-professional to make the cut and finished T-23. He then turned pro, to much fanfare, earlier this week, and on Wednesday was named Golweek‘s College Player of the Year for his 2015-16 senior season at Arizona State. 

But then he one-upped himself on Thursday. 

In his first round as a professional, Rahm, 21, of Barrika, Spain, fired a 7-under 64 in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National, taking a one-shot lead. 

Rahm never made a mistake all day at Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course in Bethesda, Md., with seven birdies and 11 pars.

He's a really strong player, though of course this is just 18 holes....

Trumped Again -  That Trump guys is in the news again, and I can't figure out why he gets the 24-7 coverage.  He's just an egotistical real estate developer..... What?  You're kidding.... at least I hope you are....

Donald is heading to Scotland for 36 hours, principally for the re-opening of Turnebrry's iconic Ailsa Course.  Time Magazine puts its cluelessness front and center with this lede:

There are no voters to woo here on Scotland’s wind-beaten coast, no donors to court or

party officials to lobby. The schedule contains no huddles with foreign dignitaries, nor a visit to a sacred Scottish site—unless you count the golf courses that Donald Trump came to promote. 

The man does things differently, and his first foreign trip as the presumptive Republican nominee is no exception. Trump’s 36-hour journey to his mother’s ancestral homeland is about publicity, not politics. Like so much of Trump’s approach, the brief visit, bookended by visits to a pair of trophy properties on opposite sides of Scotland, is a sharp break from the norms of presidential politics.

Yes, there's no reason for him to go there, and yet you're giving him free media.... Well, at least the six ninety-year-olds that still wait for Time Magazine to be delivered to find out what happened last week...

Reuters takes an interesting look at the economics of these properties, and here's a flavor for their reporting:

How great his golf course investments have been is debatable. A Reuters examination of them shows that Trump has likely lost millions of dollars on his golf projects. The analysis shows high costs and modest current valuations. Using conservative estimates of the amount Trump has spent, he may be breaking even or making modest gains; on higher estimates – based on whatTrump has said he is spending – he’s losing money.

Trump disputes the analysis. He said Reuters’ calculations overestimated what he had spent and underestimated the value of his investments. He declined to provide figures for his expenditure on courses or their current or future market values. 

“The golf courses are doing very well. Every one of them makes a lot of money,” said the author of the “Art of the Deal.” “They are not really golf investments, they’re development deals.” 

He added: “I have the right to build thousands of homes on the various properties I own, and I haven’t wanted to build them (yet) because frankly I’ve been busy doing other things, like running for president.”

There's a wealth of data, the gist of which is that Trump is overstating the income and valuation of  his three properties in Great Britain & Ireland.... and once you get over the shock that there's gambling in Casablanca, it's the man's M.O....

But the Turnberry Resort has been problematic for years, frustrating a series of owners and consistently losing money, which is why he was able to buy it for a song.  It's inevitably the course visiting golfers like the most because of its spectacular beauty, but it's a pretty remote location by Scottish standards.  

But it's fairly silly to attempt to evaluate the investment at such an early date, as he only bought the place in 2014.  

If Trump isn't your cup of tea, you'll also enjoy this WaPo feature that revisits all of his skirmishes with his Aberdeen neighbors....I, for one, am far more interested in his changes to The Ailsa, and we'll have to wait a few weeks to hear more on that.

The Onion On Oakmont - To paraphrase Nixon, when you've lost the Onion.... 

Two days before the U.S. Open began last week, The Onion, America’s Finest News Source, as the satirical news website bills itself, posted a brief story with this headline:

Nation Demands More Golf Highlights Where Ball Lands On Green, But Then Rolls All The Way Back Down Hill

“Stressing the urgent need for an increase in such clips both on television and the internet,” the story said, “Americans across the nation fiercely and unanimously demanded to see more golf highlights where the ball lands on the green, but then rolls all the way back down a big hill, sources confirmed Tuesday.

“‘I love it when the ball lands on the edge of a hill pretty close to the hole, stops for just a second, and then starts rolling backwards faster and faster until it’s all the way in the rough,’ said 33-year-old Trevor Burkin of Frederick, MD.”

What does it say that our simple game is mocked this way, and before that which actually deserved mocking?

Gary Van Sickle is back, and has chosen to not accept Mike Davis' apology:

Sorry, USGA, apology not accepted. 

The USGA crew got it right by admitting they got it wrong -- yay! But they still got the most important thing wrong. Johnson should not have been penalized. 

According to an amendment announced in January to Rule 18-2b (Ball Moving after Address), a one-stroke penalty should be applied only when the facts show that the player has caused the ball to move. 

In Johnson’s case, there was nothing in the slow-motion replay of his actions to factually prove that he caused the ball to move. Fox Sports and Golf Channel had USGA rules gurus Jeff Hall and Thomas Pagel on the air to explain the ruling. While the USGA guys said they were “confident they got it right,” they had nothing to hang it on. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee clearly felt strongly that the USGA duo had erred. When Chamblee pressed them, all he got from Hall and Pagel was doubletalk. The two hid behind the phrase, “It’s more likely than not” that Johnson caused the ball to move.

That's certainly my take after seeing the video, though I'd express it differently.  If Dj's action was sufficient to cause his ball to move, then that could happen to any player in the act of putting and farce will ensue....Given that we had three such incidents this week, I perhaps erred in not using the past tense.

This was to me the gist of his argument:

The second, bigger issue is, Why is this even a penalty? No advantage is gained. No player is trying to improve his lie on the green for his next putt. The rules were rewritten on this recently to protect the players in this ball-moving situation (after Padraig Harrington had an awkward after-the-fact decision) but they weren’t rewritten well enough. 

If a ball on a green moves even slightly before a player’s stroke, why not allow him to adjust the ball to its previous position without penalty? The player wasn’t trying to make a stroke. It’s like accidentally nudging a ball off the tee with a driver at address. There was not intent, so that’s not a penalty. You re-tee and play on. The rule should be consistent on the putting green, too.

This is consistent with my previously-expressed thoughts, though Gary is heading down a dangerous path with his analogy.  The problem is that the ball on the tee is the exception, if you nudge your ball at address anywhere else it is a penalty, and realistically should be on the green as well.  But the act of walking, standing or putting while in proximity to golf ball should not cause it to move....unless it does.

 I'll leave you with questions posed by a couple of thoughtful items, first from Dottie Pepper:

If the new mantra is being "innovative," why not be trulyinnovative and stop messing with these courses? Move the tees back to the tips, let mother nature dictate the condition of play (we don't play golf in a dome after all) and let a four-day slugfest produce a winner. 

People aren't glued to the World Series, NBA Finals or Super Bowl to watch the referees or hear the messaging about changes to the field of play and its sustainability. What'snot sustainable is 150 plus superintendents keeping Oakmont in form for U.S. Open week.

What is the harm in checking our egos and messaging at the front door and simply letting the best players in the world showcase their talent to identify the champion? 

Absolutely nothing.

She well knows the answer, the guys are hitting it fifty yards further than they did twenty years ago....  and straighter as well, because the ball spins so much less.  

I think we all agree that if the U.S. Open morphs into the FedEx St. Jude Classic that that's a bad thing, as it won't be a proper test of skill for a national championship.   But once we get past the generalities it gets very difficult so see a clear path forward.  

Do read Dottie's descriptions of the last few Open venues, and the related set-up issues.  I have no problem with the criticism that Mike Davis garners, especially this week, but I do think he has been a positive force in this process.  People seem to have forgotten the dreadful Tom Meeks years, when six-inch rough left the players grabbing their sand wedges on the tee after missing as fairway.... And Meeks wasn't dealing with 4460cc driver heads and Pro-V1's....

Lastly, see what you think of this interesting argument:

On that other issue, one cannot avoid addressing the actions of the USGA, both in terms of their course set up as well as Johnson’s infamous fifth hole ruling. 

Right now the industry in the US is hemorrhaging golfing memberships, many of the younger generation deciding to spend their money elsewhere. 

Hence it is incumbent on the USGA to use whatever opportunity they have to showcase the US Open and everything good and attractive in the game of golf. 

Of course the US Open should be about finding the best player and I would even go along with it being a true test of all the golfers’ arsenal, but the Oakmont test has done little to attract new fans to the game. It was penal. It was tough and for most of the game’s best professionals playing last week, it was both demoralising and humiliating - so you can I can only imagine the turn-off it must have been for the half interested golfer! 

In my opinion, the golf authorities from top to bottom must now take a long hard look at their job descriptions and ask themselves are we doing everything we can to promote greater participation in the game of golf?

I don't think I agree with him on his broader point, but it's an interesting premise.  I think he does a disservice in linking the two issues, because there's little doubt that the rules issue alienated people.  The USGA seemed rigid and inflexible and, to my mind most important, placed the players generally and DJ specifically in an untenable position....

But on the broader issue of whether a penal U.S. Open inhibits participation rates I'll remain skeptical....  Did rounds played go into a tailspin after the 1974 Massacre at Winged Foot?  Golfers understand that a U.S. Open is intended to be a stern test, and many of us derive actual pleasure from seeing the world's best battle difficult conditions.  

But just to demonstrate that the other side of my pie hole functions just as well, we can all learn from The Masters, whose reputation for excitement draws viewers who don't play the game.  There is an irony that the USGA covets the Masters' rating without understanding from whence they derive....