Thursday Things

I'm a bit worn down by yesterday's blogapalooza, so just a couple of quick items for you...

Golf in the Middle Kingdom - Another interesting piece on our game taking root in China, this time from Forbes with a focus on the PGA Tour's feeder circuit:

PGA Tour China is also benefiting from a key recent rule change that gave young U.S. and European talent an incentive to play in places like Chongqing and Nanjing. In 2012

the PGA Tour dropped its Qualifying School tournament; after that, the PGA’s lower-level tours became a necessary stop for many up-and-comers. Today the Chinese tour has middle-age Chinese with homemade swings who started playing golf late in life, Koreans with picture-perfect swings, and big Americans fresh from college. Often there are players from five continents in the field. 

Charlie Saxon traveled from Edmond, Okla., to China this year. Having put on 40 pounds since his freshman year in college so he could bomb his drives farther, the 23-year-old’s back is as wide as a mixed martial arts fighter’s. “For better or for worse—and for worse for me and other guys—you can’t qualify directly for the PGA Tour anymore,” says Saxon. Instead, players must first play on the second-highest level, the Web.com Tour, before they can reach the top level. Playing on affiliated junior tours like China’s allows high finishers to earn spots on the Web.com Tour in the U.S. without undergoing all of that tour’s rigorous qualifying tournaments.

Got that?  A guy from OK has to go to China to try to play his way onto the U.S. Tour....  I've never understood the logic of the American Tour running even individual events overseas, but controlling entire tours?

And let me just note this sentence from early in the piece:

Since 2014, the PGA, the world’s most prominent golf association, has run PGA Tour China Series, a professional league that gives promising young players a shot at graduating to higher competition in the U.S.

I've a huge smirk on my face thinking about how that sentence is playing in, say, Far Hills, NJ or The Kingdom of Fife.

The appeal is obvious:

In a country of 1.4 billion, the potential for the sport is certainly as vast as anyone’s imagination. Estimates of the number of Chinese golfers fall around 1 million, a small fraction of the 24 million who play in the U.S. If just 2% of China’s population played, up from less than 0.1% today, China could become a $2-billion-a-year market for golf products.

But China remains a very poor country, and the political terrain is treacherous.  The author recounts some of the history of course closures and the like, though the challenge is ultimately demographic.  As Mark Steyn famously noted, "China will get old before it gets rich".  

Only Five? - We haven't poked fun at John Daly in quite a bit, but you know this header is the moral equivalent of Catnip to your humble correspondent:

John Daly admits to drinking mid-round in a PGA Tour event

I'm shocked....shocked I tell you.  

In a teaser for the upcoming "Hit It Hard," which will debut Nov. 1 as part of the popular 

"30 for 30" series, Daly acknowledges there were plenty of occasions when he played tournaments hungover from the night before. But as far as drinking during the round, Daly says it was only one time, years ago in the L.A. Open. 

"It was so slow and I played the back nine first," Daly says. "I think I'm two or three over. I went in the locker room and downed like five beers, and I think I shot four under on the front nine. That is the only time I know I drank during a round, and I played great. I played great that week. I finished strong."

I'm sure it was only the once, and then it was because play was so darn slow.....  At least the sponsor's exemptions have finally dried up for the lout.

I think it's sad the extent to which he squandered his God-given talent, and I'll plead to being immune to his charms.  But in a world where playing privileges were gold, to give them to a man that tanks at the first sign of difficulty was simply maddening...

Now On The Tee... - That Van Cynical guy files a perfect feature for a bitterly raw Thursday, providing 15 new Tour players for which we should keep our eyes open.  As is typical, fifteen overstates the case in that it includes names like Bryson Dechambeau Wesley Bryan and Ollie Schiederjans that are already familiar to this knowledgeable readership.  Oh, and Beef as well...

But you might not know this lad:

Cody Gribble

Age: 26

College: Texas

Gribble is a steady and consistent performer, like his former NCAA champ teammate Jordan Spieth. A clutch fifth-place finish in the final qualifying event earned him a spot on the PGA Tour. He placed eighth at the recent Safeway Open.

Give Gary a click, as it must eat at him that he can't put spawn Mike on that list quite yet....

No, Next Question -  That's in response to this header that I hope is rhetorical:

Do Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson make for good superheroes?

Maybe DJ?  After all, Employee No. 2 calls him Wolverine...  Alas, not rhetorical:

Strangely, it's a fivesome:

Henrik “The Machine” Stenson

Dustin “The Heat” Johnson

Rickie “Eagle Eye” Fowler

Bubba “The Magician” Watson

Haotong “The Force” Li

Not sure how that last guy got in.... event to the tournament.

Deep Thoughts With Rory - At his HSBC presser, Rory was asked why he thought Tiger had won so many of these WGC events (18, in fact).  Here's his thoughtful answer:

Honestly I think because of the no-cut format. I think that's probably a big thing to do with it. You play with a little more freedom.

And I never want to criticize Tiger's game at all, but if there was one thing or one negative you would say about him was that he probably wasn't the fastest starter in the world in normal golf tournaments. 

So here, you don't really have that pressure of trying to play your way into a tournament. It's a four-round tournament. You know you're getting four rounds, so you've got plenty of time to make birdies and play well. And I think just from the get-go, you don't quite feel the pressure. Even though you shouldn't really be thinking about the cut or anything like that, but it is a little bit of a mental thing. But it takes the weight off you you, and you can go and play just that little bit freer.

Really?  Tiger did have a Thursday problem for a while there, though my recollection is that that was mostly at the majors.  But Ror's answer seems like a bit of weal tea...what?  Oh, Rory wants to add something:

Can I just add one more thing to why he won so many? Because he was the best (laughter). There's another reason.

I would have gone with best by far, but I think he nailed it at the end.  But on a serious note, don't forget the small fields...

Today In Trick Shots -  Maggot thoughtfully shares this Paige Spiranac trick shot.  It's an Instagram video, and until I find a teenager to teach me how to embed same, you'll have to click through.

Now I fully get that it's Paige Renee and her two big honkin' spiranacs, but the shot itself isn't that much....  

Shack, in contrast, had this rather exceptional example of the genre.  Again it's an Instagram video that I'm clueless about, but see if you can figure out what he's doing just from this screenshot:

That's all for today, kids.  Time for us all to go contribute to society...