Thursday Thoughts

It's Tour Championship week, so I'm sure you've been poring over the algorithms and points reset....

If You Held The Tour Championship In The Woods....  - From Alan Shipnuck's weekly Heroes and Zeros feature:

1. The Tour Championship. Other than the pseudo-drama over the final Ryder Cup captain’s pick is there any reason to tune in? Flipping the nines at East Lake is a concession that the most boring finish on Tour wasn’t working, but the new routing can’t save an otherwise somnolent event.

 I'll let the reader decide whether that's an "H" or a "zed", but I beg to differ on that use of "pseudo".  That in fact is the only reason to tune in, as it's provided the only drama throughout these pseudo-playoffs.

You say somnolent, I say soporific, please let's call the whole thing off.  But yes, when the pre-tournament buzz is limited to the flipping of the nines, a period of introspection is called for.  From the local paper:

Heresy. It's a strong word. 

However, when you are about to intrude on the legend of Bobby Jones, you had better tread carefully. 

The East Lake Golf Club, the home course of Jones since the Atlanta layout opened in 1908, will again host the Tour Championship this week. The finale of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs will be competed on the famed course with a dramatic alteration from the days when Jones roamed the grounds. The front and back nine holes will be reversed. The tournament will no longer end on a 207-yard par-3, but on a 551-yard par-5.

Here's Shack's take on the "H" word:

Why, I'm not entirely sure, given that Jones did not route the course or declare its design sacred in any writings. And as Viviamore points out, Jones and MacKenzie flipped the nines at Augusta National early on because sometimes it just makes sense.

In the case of East Lake, the switch means the island green 6th becomes the 15th and the reachable par-5 9th is the finishing hole. So while the previous configuration did produce it share of moments, it's hard to say that the old sequencing was particularly sacred.

I'm sorry, what are these "moments of which you speak?  Is Geoff still pining for the Horschel era?

But let me park my cynicism for a moment and applaud the Tour for reevaluating its flagship product and adjusting to maximize the competitive elements of the event.  What?  Errr.....not so much:

"It came down to two things," Johnston said. "One, we wanted more hospitality venues and more friendly patron viewing experiences. We think it does this by reversing the nines.

Yeah, there is actually a second thing, but it's relevance is highly debatable.

Ryder Cup Run-Up -  Has Lee Westwood been named The Euro's Captain's Pick as designated provocateur. or is he running a rogue psyops?  A few days back we had him speculating about Bubba's role in the team room, and he's now back with more bulletin board material.  First, about Captain DLIII:

With son Sam...

The 43-year-old is generally one of the more affable, soft-spoken and respectedvoices in golf, which is what makes the following comments especially incendiary. Speaking with ESPN UK, Westwood -- who will be making his 10th appearance in the team event thanks to a captain's pick -- wondered if Davis Love III was the best choice to lead the U.S. team. 

"His captaincy at Chicago was great for a couple of days," said Westwood, alluding to the Americans' meltdown at Medinah in 2012. "I don't know if something went wrong on Sunday, or the team didn't play very well for some reason, but that will be in the back of their minds."

More likely in the front of their minds, but we take his point.  So, who else might he pick on?  Oh no, not our chief strategist.....

"I don't know what impact there will be from having Tiger around," Westwood said. "They have always struggled to find a partner for Tiger that's been successful.

"He could have an adverse effect in the team room. People have always seemed to try to do too much when they have partnered him. It might be different if he's one of the vice-captains -- you don't know."

I guess he didn't hear about Tiger's list.... You know, not just who will play with whom, but where on the list!  Take that, Westy!  This time, we have a real strategy.

Stay tuned to see who he calls out next, perhaps Tom Lehman?  Today in Ryder Cup Overkill brings us this story that demonstrates that these guys aren't just cart-drivers:

Lehman, one of the U.S. assistants to captain Davis Love III at Hazeltine National Golf

Club, has been integral to the team's preparations. The 57-year-old is a Minnesota native, and he and his wife are using their local knowledge to make lodging, dining and other logistical reservations for the American club. But Lehman's services are more than just itinerary coordination. The 1996 Open champ has been doing reconnaissance work at Hazeltine, trying to took for any morsel that could give the U.S. an advantage. That includes a dive into meteorology. 

“I looked up the Farmer’s Almanac, the history of that week,” Lehman told the Star Tribune. "Historically, it will be cool in the mornings, decent in the afternoons. The wind was all over the map. The years I looked up — over 30 years, it was — it’s going to have some breeze. You may get lucky and have one of those beautiful 80-degree, five-mile-per-hour weeks, but those are pretty rare. Blowing 10 to 15, 16, 17 [mph] was pretty normal, about 65 to 70 degrees was pretty normal. It will be cold in the morning, though."

Geez, he does a deep dive and discovers that it might be cold in the morning in Minnesota in October, and then he shares it with the enemy.  Did Ike tell Hitler to keep an eye on Normandy?

 Remember how Jordan Spieth jumped at the chance to partner with DJ at the Presidents Cup?  Yeah, it seems that it's not just the chicks that dig the long ball....  That didn't pan out so well, and by Saturday Jordan was back in the loving embrace of Patrick Reed.  But DJ tells his Captain to pair him with anybody.... well, almost anybody:

“I think I can partner well with pretty much anyone,” Johnson said. “Except for Phil.”

Huh?  DJ explains:

“I love Phil and we’re great friends, but we have a lot more fun when we’re playing against each other, not as partners,” Johnson said Wednesday on the eve of the $8.5 million Tour Championship.

Yet there was a time when Johnson lobbied for the chance to play alongside Mickelson. “We wanted it (at the 2010 Ryder Cup). We thought it would be great,” Johnson said. But after getting trounced, 3 and 2, by Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer in four-ball, then losing, 3 and 2, to Padraig Harrington and Ross Fisher in foursomes, the experiment was over. 

“Didn’t play worth a damn,” Johnson said. “Played like crap.”

 No word on whether they can be in the same pod.

When you hear the words "Trust me", do you instinctively clutch your wallet?  OK, maybe it's just me with the trust issues so let's try to work through what this could mean:

How NBC is following NASCAR's lead for its Ryder Cup TV coverage (Trust us, it's good news for golf fans)

Color me skeptical, but let's see what they have in mind:

Good news, golf fans. You're going to be able to see more Ryder Cup TV coverage than ever. Just think NASCAR. 

Confused? Let's explain. 

NBC Sports announced its coverage of next week's biennial matches between the U.S. and Europe will feature an advertising campaign called "Playing Through." The gist of it is that when it's time to cut away to commercials, fans will see a split-screen instead with the right side playing an ad (with sound) and the left side allowing you to see continuous live action from Hazeltine. Here's what it will look like:

As a serial time-shifter, I take this quite personally....  but doesn't this mean that important moments could be relegated to half the screen with no audio?  I should be excited by that why?

There's more but I'm, alas, out of time.  Can we agree to meet here same time tomorrow?