Loose Ends

Sorry about that absence yesterday, but we'll make good this morning....

Weekend Wrap, Abridged Version - Justin Thomas is one of those guys with obvious talent that's taken longer than expected to make his mark....  perhaps he should play the Malaysian Tour exclusively:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Justin Thomas completed a fairytale return to the CIMB Classic with a successful title defense after eight birdies in the final round Sunday

earned him a three-shot victory over closest rival Hideki Matsuyama. 

The American did not match his record tournament score of 26-under 262 in 2015, but still finished with an impressive 23 under for only his second PGA Tour title. 

"It's great to win again here. It's a place I'm comfortable with ... Hopefully I will be able to come back next year," said Thomas, who shot a 64 to match his first-day score.

 What was interesting, admittedly in the loosest possible meaning of the word, was the manner in which he salvaged a potentially disastrous third round, finishing with five straight birdies.  Of course, the immutable laws about trees falling in the forest remain applicable.....

Then there was the ill-fated Anirban Lahiri:

For a second consecutive week, Anirban Lahiri found himself in an unusual situation. And for a second consecutive week, Anirban Lahiri walked away with a painful loss. 

Seven days after birdieing the final seven holes of regulation only to lose an Asian Tour event on the first playoff hole with a layup into a water hazard, Lahiri seemed poised to win his first PGA Tour title. The Indian star took a four-shot lead into the final round of the CIMB Classic, but disaster struck on the third hole on Sunday. Lahiri hit a wild tee shot on the par 5, and to make matters worse, it never came down:

 Yeah, I thought gravity was another of those immutable laws...my bad.

And on the Euro Tour, everything old is new again....  Brian Keough, who mans the Irish Golf Desk, had this game story in The Independent, capturing Paddy's signature move:

"I am delighted," Harrington said after getting up and down for par at the 16th and for birdie at the 17th to go to the 18th with a one-shot lead over defending champion Sullivan, who parred the last to shoot 65 and set a target of 22 under par. 

With his trademark 'crazy eyes' popping, Harrington got a flyer from the right rough at the tough finishing hole, hit the advertising hoardings with his approach before playing a superb chip to five feet past the flag and confidently stroking home the winning putt to the delight of a large Irish crowd.

That's a large Irish crowd for the Portugal Masters?   But this might be the most significant aspect of the win:

What pleased him most about his win was his mental attitude and he credited coach Dave 

Alred with the turnaround having read his book, The Pressure Principle: Handle Stress, Harness Energy, and Perform When It Counts, earlier in the week. 

"I feel really good," Harrington said. "I was very relaxed all week. I was in a nice place mentally. 

"I've been reading Dave Alred's The Pressure Principle and it gave me a few pointers that maybe I'd been missing out on and I stuck to those all week. It was a big plus for me. 

"I just realised how poor my own language is about myself and my game. So I was very focused on my self-talk this week and what I was saying to myself and very focused on my posture walking around on the golf course and it was a tremendous help."

Yeah, but it's that posture and poor language that makes Paddy so damn entertaining....  Can't he just take one for the team?

Tiger, The Reviews -  The Tour Confidential gang took on Tiger this week, first a srelates to the media tour:

SHIPNUCK: The notion that Tiger will win five more majors is fanciful at best, wildly delusional at worst. That's the *career* total boasted by Seve Ballesteros, Byron Nelson

and Phil Mickelson. Is Woods gonna fit their entire careers into his 40s, with a broken body, diminishing skills and a mountain of scar tissue? I wonder if he believes this stuff or just feels compelled to keep spouting the party line.

VAN SICKLE: Tiger isn't delusional, he's utterly competitive. What's delusional is that he regrets leaving Stanford, where he was mugged at knifepoint on campus by someone who knew his name, and that he could've possibly remained eligible for NCAA or amateur golf after his first two years and all that went on. Other than that, it was close to the vest and, to be honest, kind of a snooze despite Rose's best efforts.

Yeah, none of that stuff looks good in the light of day....  On the former, he'd have avoided looking delusional if he simply stated that his focus was on his 15th major...  No one would begrudge him his competitiveness.

As for his regrets, he's had a few, but then again, too few to mention....  What?  Oh, I guess Frank got there first.  I just don't get why they allowed the interview to go there....  Just stay the heck away from anything that leads there....  I'm also amused at the praise for Rose....as I noted, it was his annoying tic of repeating back the answer that allowed Tiger to play with his answer on the majors... Like Nixon/Frost, the interviewer was chose less for his acuteness than his compliance....

But this first question for the panel was a little more interesting:

1. Tiger Woods last week unveiled his new brand, TGR, which unites all his businesses--philanthropy, design, events, etc.--under one umbrella. From what you've seen thus far in Woods's commercial pursuits, how would you assess his business acumen?

I don't see where Tiger has done much that even attempts at displaying business acumen....  Let's see, he opened his course design business, but pretty much anyone that won a major has done that....  Then there's the restaurant, but that was only because he was tired of other restaurateurs making money when he showed up.  So he opened his own and reportedly never shows up.... Yanno, Call of Duty and all...

Shall we see what the paid staff thinks?

Alan Shipnuck: Clearly he was a powerhouse endorser in his prime but I've been disappointed in Tiger's business choice, particularly through his course design work. Instead of chasing money with ill-fated projects in the desert of Dubai and an exclusive enclave on the Mexican coast, I wish Tiger would devote himself to redoing muni and military courses. The best way to grow the game is to have interesting, cheap places for the public to play. Donating his services in this way would be a wonderful way for Woods to give back to a game that has given him so much.

First reax is why couldn't he have done both?  But this seems to be what that South Side of Chicago project with Mike Keiser should be,, no?  or perhaps not.... as the citations of Harding Park indicate a level of grandiosity that will likely exclude the local golfer.  I'm guessing those $13 walking rates will prove unsustainable....

And I'm shocked, shocked to see this guy go all Van Cynical on us:

Gary Van Sickle: I'm still wondering how Tiger or Nike failed to bring Tiger Woods Junior Clubs to the marketplace, missing a huge sales spike in the '90s. Of course, neither Arnie nor Jack ever stood behind a signature line of equipment that succeeded, either. Tiger has top people building his empire for him, while Norman was more of a self-builder. Who's behind Tiger? As they say at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie -- "Top people!"

I thought all those top people were working for Trump?  At least until November 8th.

Shack, Disillusioned - Geoff shares his disappointment with us and I think we need to respond with some tough love.  Because given the context, it's truly the triumph of hope over experience:

I held out hope that the PGA Tour adding an event in Korea with "cup" in the title might

give us something to get excited about. Instead it's following the same old script beyond the massively unsustainable ($9.25 million) purse: limited 78-player field, 72-holes of stroke play. 

The CJ Cup "@" Nine Bridges does bring us closer to our first tournament title including an Emoji in the title, and as far away as possible from a format that will inspire interest. It also just adds more clutter to the fall wraparound that isn't working well for players or fans, as we discussed on Morning Drive.

 Geoff, did you forget who's our Commissioner?  This is the relevant excerpt from the press reales:

The 72-hole tournament will feature competition Thursday through Sunday, with a pro-am on the Wednesday of tournament week. The host site of the tournament will be announced at a later date.

Wow, a Wednesday Pro-am?  Forget my bon mot above, these must be those Top Guys....  But I'm not sure how to square that @ Nine Bridges with a venue to be named later....  Not that I care.

The TC panel took on this announcement as well, and these guys are welcome to guest-post at Unplayable Lies:

SHIPNUCK: I guess. But isn't there already an Asian tour? I guess I'm just biased toward golf that ends in the afternoon in California, not the middle of the night.

That just has to be xenophobic, no?

VAN SICKLE: On the surface, this looks like a smart scheduling convenience. But it may signal a troubling trend that the Tour has to go international--Korea for this, Mexico for the former Trump-hosted WGC event--to find a willing sponsor. How's that heavy overseas schedule working for the LPGA's profile in the U.S.? That tour is successful but losing the battle for headlines here.

You know heads are exploding in Ponte Vedra, as they so love to be compared to the LPGA....

Royal Dornoch Channels Golf In The Kingdom - You know what's wrong with Royal Dornoch?  That's right, absolutely nothing.... So see if you think this helps in any way:

GOLFERS at one of the world’s most prestigious courses are being given spiritual advice by a Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen. 

Rev Susan Brown, who also wed Madonna and Guy Ritchie, has written thought provoking reflections for each of the 18 Championship Course holes at Royal Dornoch Golf Club in the Highlands to help inspire players and “exercise the body, mind and spirit”.

Hmmmm....I forget, how did that marriage work out?  But wait, it gets better:

The 57-year-old walked the course at different times of the day to capture the unique feel of the stunning landscape to create the so-called “Holy Round” as part of celebrations to mark 400 years of golf in the area. 

Royal Dornoch Golf Club general manager Neil Hampton described the “inspiring and uplifting” reflections in the Champion Course guidebook as an “tremendous asset”.

It's a Holy Round, Batman.... But I'm glad to see that she starts off optimistically:

The glossy course guide entry for the first hole states “In the beginning… draw breath and enjoy the clean score sheet and all the possibilities that lie ahead. “Choose now to take one step at a time and enjoy what that step holds.”

It's called a scorecard.... But at least they popped for the glossy finish, which had to cost extra:

But this seems like a bit of a downer:

Hole 6 (Whinny Brae) Be warned! A bunker with a magnetic draw awaits you. Choose your club carefully and think of the choices you have made in life. You have to live with the consequences!!

OK, there's way more than the one bunker to mess with your head on this hole, but a reflection on the long volume of regrettable decisions we've all made doesn't seem likely to help.  But this does make me want to play the gem again, perhaps a Sunday morning tee time?

Cheap Shots - A couple of sillies to send you out of the theater laughing....

First, we haven't heard much of long-hitting Alvaro Quiros recently...  I'm going to go way out on a limb and guess it's because he's off-plane.  And by off-plane, I mean spit-out-your-coffee hilariously off-plane.... Just click through and you can thank me later....  Oh, and he's gonna need a new 3-wood.

I'm quite certain that this is how The King wanted to be remembered:

When Gary Met Yao:

Anyone know which is which?  'Cause I always assume that the guy in black is Gray Player....