Thursday Things

Sorry for my absence yesterday....  I had a fun game at the new joint and the weather was such that it would have been foolhardy to decline....  Don't worry, though, we'll cover everything you need to know....

Bestriding The Globe - Like your humble correspondent, I'm sure you've been thinking that what the PGA Tour is missing is another Far East event to televise at zero dark thirty....  Well, our Nurse Ratched is there for you:

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem was comfortable with two Asia tournaments in the fall when the HSBC Champions in China became a World Golf Championship in

2009 and the CIMB Classic in Malaysia began a year later. 

Now that is set to expand. 

The PGA Tour plans a new tournament in South Korea that will start next year, giving the tour three straight weeks of golf in Asia that offer at least $7 million in prize money. Yonhap News Agency said South Korean conglomerate CJ Group will be the title sponsor. Details, such as the field and the size of the purse, are expected to be announced Monday in Seoul.

Of course it's set to expand... though the "why" eludes me.  Then again, I'm so old that I can remember when the PGA was an American tour....  I have no problem with an event in South Korea, but las I heard they have a tour in that part of the world.

I actually thought the old Fall Finish framework made more sense...  give the kids an opportunity to play for money and status, but without the pretense that it's a top tier event.  Of course sponsors will only pay so much for that level of field strength, but the season is way too long and nobody is watching....

Defining Fame Down - Halls of Fame are by definition lame, or at least they ultimately become lame....  Much of my opinion on this subject comes via Bill James, who wrote and analyzed the baseball version quite extensively.

Inevitably, whether because of a weak class of candidates are the marketing needs of the organization, players with marginal records are voted in.  Subsequently, every future potential candidate is judged against the record of the weakest member....  That moment occurred in golf with the election of Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie a few years back.

Today's news won't surprise:

It's been a good month for Davis Love III. After leading the U.S. Ryder Cup team to its first victory since 2008, more good news broke for Love today. He'll be honored along with Ian Woosnam, Meg Mallon, Henry Longhurst and Lorena Ochoa as a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame class of 2017. 

Over the course of his professional career, Love won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including once in 2015 at age 51. He won the PGA Championship in 1997 and has 21 top-10 finishes in major championships.

Before I offer my own thoughts, we can agree that this guy is way over-invested in the wee Welshman:

One of golf’s great miscarriages of justice has been finally rectified with Wales’ former US Masters champion Ian Woosnam among the latest inductees into the 2017 World Golf 

Hall of Fame. 

His continued absence from the World Golf Hall of Fame was a constant source of anger for the 2006 Ryder Cup-winning captain and the star, who splits his time between homes in Jersey and Barbados, appeared to finally give up hope of joining the greats of the global game when again overlooked two years ago. 

Woosie wrote on Twitter at the time: “After seeing the results of the World Golf Hall of Fame, I think it’s time to say goodbye to golf and retire.”

Thank God he limited that to golf, but if you click through you'll see that he at least comes to his biases honestly....I'm ecstatic with the selection of the great Henry Longhurst, who back in the day graced Masters telecasts:

From the late 1950s to the end of his life, he was BBC Television's senior golf

commentator. Longhurst featured on US Golf telecasts working for both CBS and ABC. CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian hired Longhurst to work selected broadcasts starting with the Carling Tournament in 1965. He is best remembered by American audiences for his calls at the 16th hole of the Masters Tournament including Jack Nicklaus' 40-foot birdie putt that led to victory in 1975. Longhurst's call of the putt ("My my.... in all my life I have never seen a putt quite like that.") is a regular feature in Masters broadcasts. He had many lifelong friends including the cricket writer and commentator E.W. Swanton, and Alistair Cooke. Cooke referred to his writing as "the prose style, which was as effortless as falling out of bed."

Ochoa is an interesting case because of the brevity of her career, but of course that's not uncommon in the ladies' game.  But both Davis and Woosie, whose careers were quite similar, don't strike me as particularly worthy of election.  They were both nice players for sure, but only the one major seems lacking, no?  Although Woosie was actually ranked No. 1 for an hour-and-a-half, neither man had a credible claim to being the best player in the game, and I don't even remember them much in contention at other majors....

The Tiger Beat -  The Striped One continues his tone-deaf roll-out of TGR, The Brand, with talk show appearances:

Tiger Woods' sabbatical from golf has no end in sight. But for a man whose last competitive round was over a year ago, the 14-time major winner is not shying from the

spotlight. After launching a new corporate brand this week, the 40 year old will continue

his media blitz with appearances on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "Charlie Rose," as well as a talk at the New York Public Library. These spots coincide with the 20th anniversary celebration of the Tiger Woods Foundation. 

"Tiger will first visit with Charlie Rose on set at PBS to discuss education, impact and plans for the future, among other topics," read a statement from his website. "The candid conversation with Rose will offer an in-depth look into Tiger's professional life inside and outside of golf." 

Though similar topics will be discussed on the Late Show, Colbert is likely to bring a more fun and light-hearted approach to the conversation. 

Woods will be appearing on both platforms on October 20.

They're TV shows, not platforms......  No word on portfolio activation, but we could have some fun drinking games in connection with this.

Alex Myers has an amusing weekly feature called The Grind, and he sees synergy with Tiger's new branding....Though the elevator pitch might need a little work:

Tiger Woods’ “Chapter 2”: Tiger, we wish your new business ventures well, but please don’t use phrases like “Chapter 2.” We are NOT finished with Chapter 1 yet! (We hope.) While we're talking business, though, The Grind is still shopping around for an official sponsor and TGR would be perfect! As in, "TGRind."

Though the plea for matching hoodies seemed a little needy....

Golf.com provides a timeline of his entrepreneurial activities, which is noticeably light on entrepreneurial....  Mostly it involves Tiger cashing checks, not that there's anything wrong with that.  But in light of Tuesday's bon mot comparing Tiger's appeal to women with a certain presidential candidate, this entry was amusing:

December 2014: Trump World Golf Club Dubai -- Woods announced in late 2014 that he would designed a new 18-hole championship golf course for Trump World Golf Club Dubai, to be located within the community Akoya Oxygen. It is expected to be completed in late 2017.

Can we expect to see Martha Burke campaigning for women members?

Lastly, this Brian Wacker piece for the dead tree edition of Golf Digest is worth a moment of your time.  The premise of the piece is that he's a bit of a recluse:

Woods, by many accounts, seems to have become as private as ever. In the 20-mile strip

of the Sunshine State between Jupiter and West Palm Beach to the south, where you can't go to the local Chipotle without bumping into a tour player, Big Cat sightings have become increasingly scarce since he has been on the shelf. These days, he leads an existence closer to Bruce Wayne than Batman. 

"I never see him," says the coach of one major champion, among other big-name clients, who lives in the area and is well-connected. "You don't hear anyone saying they see him. He's a ghost. He might as well be Ben Hogan." 

Adds a trainer based in the area who works with a number of tour players: "He's more introverted than ever. He doesn't show up anywhere anymore."

Interesting, given the extent to which he's worked to seem one of the boys....  But the real interest for me relates to the abortive comeback:

Woods doesn't need to travel even that far to do some work. He has a simulator and short-game area to go with a sweet practice facility at home, but that tops out around 150 yards. And even when he was at Medalist, the reports weren't promising. 

One former player, who has multiple wins on tour and lives in the area, says, "I never hear good stuff." 

A former Wall Streeter who played college golf and still carries a low-single-digit handicap says he saw Woods earlier this summer and adds, "It was so bad it almost looked like he can't play golf anymore." 

Another source adds that the last few times Woods was practicing, the range sessions were brief and the shots scattered: "He used to hit 3-wood up into the back corner of the range, same spot every time. Last time, they were all over the place. It wasn't good. Not like the old days." (Woods declined comment for this story, as did his caddie, Joe LaCava, and swing coach Chris Como.)

So what exactly did Jesper see?   It's not making any more sense, is it?

Say It Ain't So, Ko - Girlfriend Lydia Ko hasn't been playing especially well, though since it's the LPGA only about six people have noticed.  But she's wise beyond her years, taking proactive steps you'd expect from a grizzled veteran:

Lydia Ko and her caddie, Justin Hamilton, are parting ways, according to a report from

Golfweek. 

Despite winning four times on the LPGA Tour this season (and 10 other times with Hamilton on the bag, including both of Ko's majors), a recent slump seemingly forced Ko's hand. The world No. 1's last three starts on Tour resulted in results of 51st, 20th and 43rd.

Before you go all judgmental on the girl, who should she have fired?  And we don't need to worry about Justin, as he's taking it well, perhaps because he's already picked up another good player:

While he may be taking the fall, Hamilton isn't letting the firing get to him; he's already queued up to caddie for world No. 8 and three-time winner this season, Ha Na Jang. 

"All Lydia told me was she wanted a different set of eyes out there," Hamilton told Golfweek. "These things happen, it’s part of the game."

Now who would you go to seeking comment on this story?  I'm sure Stevie Williams topped your list, because we simply haven't heard enough from him lately:

“It's very surprising news," he told the New Zealand website Stuff. "This is the first form slump of any kind she’s had as a professional - and it’s only a slight form dip - and it doesn’t seem like a reason to release her caddie. Maybe they’ve hit the panic button a bit early.” 

Williams went on to suggest that it might be that her parents, who are of Korean descent, influenced the decision. 

“It’s quite well documented that Korean players - and I know Lydia is a New Zealander - tend to have caddies for a short time. And the parents or caregivers of these young women have a lot more to do with the day-to-day decision-making compared to more experienced professionals.”

When it comes to Korean family dynamics, Stevie is my go-to guy....

Strange Indeed -  Josh Sens has a fun item on the strangest golf swings ever.....  Of course, Jim "Alas, Poor" Furyk makes an appearance, as well he should.

But submitted for your approval is this delightful video on the great Eamon Darcy:

Wow.... just love the Leadbetter analysis.  I haven't had time to watch them all, but if you've never seen Moe Norman discuss the golf swing you'll want to watch this one.

All the usual suspects are here, Jim Thorpe, Craig Parry, Alan Doyle, etc.  I might have also included Lexi Thompson or, even better, her brother Nicholas.  Seems more like how one chops wood than how one hits a golf ball...