It feels almost sacrilegious after our sad news, but life goes on...
I forced myself to watch the final round of the Tour Championship, and it's quite the hot mess that Commissioner Ratched leaves to successor Jay Monahan. Here's the best spin one can put on it, though I'd argue that more lipstick is required:
Two months ago, Rory McIlroy looked beaten. He failed to make the weekend at
Well, he certainly looks happy... Baltusrol, his second missed cut in the last three majors. His putting was such a mess that he altered styles mid-season, only to return to his original grip. He was inconsistent, with strings of birdies undone with a disconcerting amount of high numbers. Some questioned his fortitude, his lack of grinding. McIlroy, deemed golf's golden boy after winning back-to-back majors in 2014, was asked if he feared becoming the sport's "Ringo."
What a difference two months can make.
Weeks after capturing the Deutsche Bank Championship, McIlroy grabbed the 2016 Tour Championship -- as well as the FedEx Cup -- with an instant-classic performance on Sunday at East Lake.
OK, he won like $11.5 million, so I guess that makes a man happy, even a man that doesn't need it. And he's had his struggles, so two wins in the last three events will soothe that savage beast. But he beat all of 28 other guys, so I'm actually more impressed by the win in Boston.
As for the shot that won it for him the hole-out on No. sixteen, this is I believe the dictionary definition of damning with false praise:
It was one of the most dramatic moments in FedEx Cup history.
Ah, the soft bigotry of low expectations...
In theory, they got as exciting a finish as could be hoped for, and it still didn't really excite. I found myself perversely hoping that Dustin Johnson would end up with the big payday despite stinking up the joint for his final 27 holes. It just personified the muddled thinking behind the faux-playoffs....
We've been down this road before, but the Commish has tried to eat his cake and have it to.... maybe the worst thing that happened was in the second year when Vijay won just by showing up. Finchem has said that he wants a worthy champion reflecting the season's body of work and he simultaneously wants the drama to sustain itself deep into Sunday evening, and in the context of golf those are mutually exclusive. Thus we've had a series of champions (see, Haas, Snedeker, Horschel) that clearly fail on the first test, though the drama hasn't been quite what was intended.
To me, this is where the absence of a Commissioner deeply rooted in our game is problematic.... The Commish has unique problem in not controlling the events that matter, combined with a heaping of greed and envy, caused him to attempt to copy those other sports with their must see playoffs, though our game doesn't lend itself to that format.
As I've previously discussed, I'd much rather see the Tour jettison any pretense that the season-ending competition has larger significance, and instead opt for a high-stakes shootout. I don't have a specific format in mind, but one could see a series of elimination events (perhaps the season leaders could be given some initial advantage as a reward) culminating in a small field playing Sunday for the ten million large.... I'm guessing that would grab a few eyeballs.
So, we'll move on from bashing Finchie to the only golf that matters from now until April, that little event starting Friday in Chaska, MN. Thanks to the brilliance of the top men in golf, Davis Love's final pick was scheduled for halftime of an NFL game... Yeah, a bit of an inferiority complex there.
The pick was officially announced by NBC's Mike Tirico during halftime of the Sunday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears.Moore finished second at the Tour Championship on Sunday, losing to Rory McIlroy on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff, but put on an impressive display -- particularly with his putter -- in the process.
Playing alongside McIlroy in the season-finale, the two combined for 11 birdies, an eagle and just one bogey as each shot 64 in regulation before landing in a three-way playoff with Kevin Chappell.
The most obvious conclusion is that Davis Love really didn't want Bubba Watson anywhere near his Ryder Cup team, though I've not heard a response to Bubba's offer to be an assistant captain should he not be selected. As a matter of historical perspective, this might well be the most significant snub in Ryder Cup history, leaving the seventh ranked player in the world at home.
Here's the case as made by Captain Love:
All that mattered is his recent performance since the PGA Championship had outshined any of the remaining contenders – whether it be Bubba Watson, who was ninth in the point standing and ranked No. 7 in the world, or a pair of talented 23-year-olds in Daniel Berger and Justin Thomas, or a wily veteran like Jim Furyk. And what a run of good form it has been. It had to be Moore because he won the John Deere Classic, and finished in the top 10 in three of the four FedEx Cup playoff events.
“Ryan fits so well with what we have in place,” Love said. “He’s an easy-going, thoughtful guy, but don’t be fooled, Ryan’s a great match-play player with an incredible match-play record. He has guts and determination, and everyone saw that today. We are thrilled to have him with us.”
Easy-going? OK, before I start the inevitable rant, let's add this:
Moore said he thought he had to win to get picked, but the grit and fight he showed in battling McIlroy proved Moore has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with Europe’s best.
We all did, Ryan, we all did.... Or maybe not even, as here's the strangest part. Moore was asked to join the team in that Monday trip to Hazeltine, and politely declined because he didn't think he was being seriously considered. So Davis ends up taking him in the absence of a win, but couldn't offer enough encouragement to get him to make a side trip. We're in the best of hands...
Moore is a nice player, but there's lots of those.... He played well this week and showed some grit for sure, but he's not a guy that wins very often. The case for him often devolves to his match play record, most notably in which he had perhaps the greatest year ever in amateur golf in which he won the U.S. Amateur, the NCAA's and the Public Links. Notable for sure, but that wasn't exactly yesterday.
The irony: we're invoking the Horschel rule, designed to add the hot player to the U.S. squad, to pick guy that had a hot season of match play in 2004. Makes sense to me...
What would Monday be without golf folks beclowning themselves with silly statements... In inverse order, we have Johnny Miller:
"I do believe the Euros have got, at least on paper, the worst team they've had in manyyears," Miller said Saturday at the Tour Championship.
Europe is going after its fourth straight victory — and ninth out of the last 11 — in the Ryder Cup next week in Minnesota at Hazeltine National. Europe has six rookies on its 12-man team. It has never won a Ryder Cup with that many rookies when the matches were in America.
"I just think with all those rookies ... when you lose (Ian) Poulter, it's like tearing your heart out," Miller said. "I think this is the year not only could the U.S. win, they could win by like five points."
OK, I think the most important thing is that "at least on paper" bit, because it has the advantage of being true. It will end up on a bulletin board for sure, but so be it...
Though like many he overstates the Poulter efect, which had clearly reached its sell-by date at Gleneagles. I think Clarke caught a break in not having to deal with Poults as a potential captain's pick, since he's long since lost whatever game he had.
But our golf medal for foolishness goes to Captain Love, who on Matt Adams' Fairways of Life radio show offered this pearl of wisdom on which he might well choke Sunday evening:
“We don’t have to do anything superhuman, we’re a great golf team,” Love said. “This is the best golf team, maybe, ever assembled.”
I don't know, that was a pretty damn good team at Medinah.... I forget, how did that turn out?
Perhaps Davis needs to study a little golf history, specifically the 1989 Ryder Cup held at The Belfry. Captain Raymond Floyd introduced his team as the twelve best golfers in the world, and the Euro's reacted predictably.... They managed a tie that retained the cup with a roster that included immortals suxh as Ronan Rafferty, Grodan Brand, Jr. and Howard Clark.
I offer no predictions other than it will be a great week.
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