Midweek Musings

Did I not mention that I was taking Tuesday off?  My bad.

It was our rescheduled outing to Westchester Country Club's famed West Course, and it was spectacular.... I had not actually played it in several decades, though I spent a few days walking it when the ladies held their PGA there last summer.  To make up for my absence I'll refer you back to this post about the oh-so-interesting Walter Travis, who designed the track.

But back to business....

A Tribute Fit For A King - I've been officially Palmered out since last Wednesday, so I didn't have it in me to take in yesterday's memorial service.  I mean no disrespect, but we've had our recent share of loss outside of golf as well...

Jaime Diaz was there and captured its wonderful spirit ably:

The scene before his memorial service at the bucolic campus, only two miles from where Palmer learned to play golf at Latrobe C.C., also contained contrasts. The nearly 1,000

who would enter the lovely basilica were somber as they shuffled in, but also carried a palpable energy. It was the power of memory.

It was a day to reflect and relive and grieve and celebrate and feel a deep wistfulness for the passing of time. Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino and Tom Watson all arrived a couple of hours early, compelled to honor all they received and shared in their close relationships with The King. Several dozen current and former players attended, the oldest Bob Goalby and Dow Finsterwald, both born the same year (1929) as Palmer, with Doug Sanders, 83, still possessing a dashing flair. The youngest was 27-year-old Rickie Fowler, who arrived carrying the Ryder Cup, who was accompanied by fellow members of the U.S. team Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and captain Davis Love III.

Nice touch bring the Cup, and of course Dow Finsterwald was Palmer's most notable Ryder Cup pairing.   

Read the full Diaz piece and Shack has a great aggregation of reactions as well.... they did a great job of keeping the tone upbeat and inspirational, though your tear ducts might get a workout all the same.

I'll go out with Ryan Ballangee's heart-warming suggestion that, as his final act, Tim Finchem change the PGA Tour's logo to this:

He's got my vote.

Ryder Cup Detritus - This summary will be noticeably light on task Force triumphalism, so let's start with Joel Beall's Thirteen Reasons the Home Team Won..... Only a minor quibble with this:

Patrick Reed played like a man possessed by the spirits of Arnold Palmer, George Washington and Davy Crockett

I don't know about that Crockett fellow, but wasn't the spirit he channeled more Ian Poulter c. 2012?

Beall's got other good stuff, most substantively the dogs that didn't bark for the Euros (think Casey and Knox), as well as this amusing little bit:

The European players own just one Masters win, while the U.S. had two guys with six green jackets delivering them sandwiches

 More on the Bubbamester in a bit, but first Tony Jacklin with a point to ponder:

Tony Jacklin is known in Europe as the man who helped turn the competitive tide in

the Ryder Cup. After watching the United States dominate the proceedings at Hazeltine, the two-time major winner says its time for the Euros to revamp its selection process. 

According to Jacklin, who's been a part of 11 Ryder Cups as a player or captain, the European qualification structure for the biennial event is outdated, and was a major factor in the Euro loss. Specifically, that the system omitted Russell Knox and Paul Casey. 

"I don't think Darren had the best team," the 72 year old told Reuters. "The likes of Casey and Knox should have been in the team. Future captains need to have the 12 best players at their disposal -- we need to look at the system."

We've lost to those sub-optimal teams as well, though there's a slight difference that should be of some concern in Wentworth.  Typically the use of the European points list allows for that sub-optimization...  In the current instance, the two examples cited chose not to maintain European Tour membership (Knox is even a more arcane instance, whereby he elected his Euro Tour membership after winning a big event in the shoulder season).

You can sweep this under the rug as either Paul Casey settling scores or merely dues to the crazy Olympic-related schedule....  I don't sense a trend, but they're in a spot where they need to field their strongest roster possible.....

 Shack through some thoughts against the wall here... should we give him a good old-time Fisking?

--Match play is more interesting than stroke play. Particularly when we have so few

matches and can focus on the dynamics of a match. Couple that with a team component and the Ryder Cup continues to be golf's most engaging, thrilling and fascinating event. Which is why most folks running the game wants to give us more stroke play.

--This was another reminder that team match play must be contested in Tokyo 2020. As nice as the Olympic golf turned out, Rio's individual stroke play's dramatic ending paled in comparison to the Ryder Cup.

Yes, it must, at least if you're hoping to see golf in the 2024 Games....  But, there's no chance that we'll have team match play in Tokyo, the only possibility is that they'll add a team component to the stroke play event.  Ultimately the limiting factor on the Olympics is field size....

--Experience does not necessarily matter. Darren Clarke's two experience picks were 1-6. Thomas Pieters, selected only because he forced the Captain's hand, was 4-1. Rookies on a squad that won 11 points were 7-9-1. American rookies Ryan Moore and Brooks Koepka earned five points for USA.

There's nothing new under the sun....  Anyone remember Lanny taking his buddy Curtis Strange because he had won a U.S. Open on the golf course two decades earlier?  But let's be fair to Darren Clarke, he had a weak roster with an inordinate lack of experience..... Yes, I was skeptical of going back to the well on Lee Westwood, but I also don't think it made any real difference....

--The PGA of America badly oversold the event, just as it did at Medinah. Throw in no cut-off for alcohol sales, leading to angry fans who couldn't see the already limited action. This led to terrible treatment of our guests and an embarrassing international narrative that required a (way too late) admonishment which helped matters Sunday.

 Credit to Geoff for making this point, which I suspect is a big part of the crowd-control issue.  One of the reasons it likely got better on Sunday is that the golf course is filled with, you know, golf....  On the first two days you've got only four matches on the course, and way more people than can see that little action....

Some other writings of interest include this rather harsh assessment of the Euro team in the Telegraph:

Besides, was the crowd abuse that the European team received really all that bad?

Compared to the vitriol dished out by football crowds, it looks pretty tame stuff. They are, after all, only golf fans: grown men dressed up in head-to-toe Stars and Stripes merchandise, pudgy Full Kit Winkers shouting “get in the woods” at you as you are surrounded by as many security guards at the average US Presidential detail. As nasty sports fans go, it’s hardly like being ambushed by 150 knife-wielding Millwall hooligans in a deserted Bermondsey railway underpass, is it?

It feels to me like the shocked reaction of spoilt young men who temporarily had a short break from everyone respectfully telling them how wonderful they are. An experience that they do not wish to repeat.

Fair?  Yeah, Danny Willett didn't come off too well given how poorly he played, but comparing golf crowds to soccer thugs seems a bit of a category error...

A local reporter tells us the event will never be the same:

Pull in that pinky finger and remove the linen napkin from your lap. It’s a different event now. The staid, starchy Ryder Cup has become the infield at Talladega, a seat with the Baseline Bums in San Antonio, an 18-hole international version of the madcap 16th at the Phoenix Open. 

Strawberries and cream? Oh, no — hot dogs and cheap beer all around.

Now?  Are you not old enough to remember Kiawah?  And, pace P.J. Willett, shouldn't that be pissy beer?

And Bob Harig on the Bubbameister:

For a guy who was somewhat controversially left off the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Bubba

Watson took the high road and came off looking like a good guy for still being part of the team as a vice captain. 

The two-time Masters champion just missed out on qualifying, then was passed over by captain Davis Love III despite being ranked No. 7 in the world. 

Instead of pouting, he pleaded to come to Hazeltine as an assistant, Love obliged, and all were glad he came following a 17-11 victory over Europe. 

"Finally, I found my place on the team is to help," said Watson, who sobbed openly when Team USA's victory was confirmed.

Looking like a good guy?  Have you completely ruled out the possibility that he is, you know, a good guy?

The Bjorn Identity -  It's that time again, where speculation runs rampant on the potential 2018 Ryder Cup Captains.

Alistair Tait reads the Euro tea leaves and comes up with the logical name:

A separate committee consisting of the three immediate past captains, a player from the

tournament committee and the European Tour chief executive now decides who leads Europe’s Ryder Cup charge. That committee will lean heavily toward Bjorn. 

Clarke, Paul McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal are the committee’s three immediate past captains. Bjorn, 45, served as a vice captain under all three. He’s also played on three winning teams (1997, 2002 and 2014), compiling a 3-4-2 record.

Seve and Ollie gor the job done, but the Euro model seems to inevitably lead to their more marginal players....  But Bjorn is a good guy, just a little lacking in Q-rating.

Shack tells us (though seems to have messed up his link) that the case is being made for.....Poults:

Andrew Coltart makes a case for Ian Poulter, who will be 42 in 2018, to bring his unique blend of Ryder Cup passion and success to the proceedings. Poulter became a 2016 driver vice captain after a season-ending injury and successfully got through the week at Hazeltine without running over a spectator.

Please save Poults for Bethpage....It's a marriage made in heaven.

On the U.S. side, well it's of course up to you-know-who.....

In the post-match celebration, Love said while the win obviously meant a great deal to him, one of the things he was most proud of this year was developing (with Woods and Mickelson and other titans of American golf) an approach the U.S. can use going forward, for years to come.

"We started this process well over a year and a half ago," Love said. "And we're sitting there on the 18th green watching the last few matches come in, and Phil is already explaining what's going to happen in Paris."

 No spoilers, but the name rhymes with Yorick.....  think I might run that gag into the ground?

Key Word Being Might - Anyone remember how Tiger met Elin?  Well, that guy is back and he's thinking this could be YUUUUGE:

"I see Tiger at the Medalist. We talk and have played nine holes together," Parnevik tells

Golf Digest senior writer Guy Yocom. "By the way, he's been hitting a lot of balls, and he's hitting it great. He's pounding it a mile and flushing everything. On the range, at least, his trajectory and ball flight are like the Tiger we knew 15 years ago. Comebacks are never a sure thing, but something tells me his might be spectacular." 

In the interview, Parnevik also discusses how he and Woods have patched up a rift caused by his extramarital affairs in 2009. It was Parnevik who was responsible for introducing Woods to ex-wife Elin Nordegren when Nordegren was a nanny for the Parneviks.

Nice to hear that he's actually been out on the golf course, but Tiger comebacks have always been proceeded by reports of great range work.  There was even one account of some low score on a worst-ball scramble, but there's a reason I call the range Vegas....

But since the golf means nothing this time of year, it will at least be fun to have some kind os reason to tune in.