The entire staff is in place at Unplayable Lies World HQ, and there's no shortage of news to cover, so why are we wasting time with this?
We Get Results, Cont'd. - When last we spoke, our cry in the wilderness had been heard, by Zurich Insurance no less, and we had our first chink in the armor of week-to-week conformity. It didn't take long for the boys to start pairing up, as per Shack:
The Zurich Classic's move to a 2-man team event in 2017 was announced on Morning Drive by the PGA Tour's Andy Pazder, who confirmed all of the exciting details. Here is Pazder's longer interview on Fairways of Life with Matt Adams.
The long overdue arrival of a radically different format kicked off in grand style with Rickie Fowler announcing that he will be partnering with Jason Day, while another Zurich "ambassador" Justin Rose, will team with Ryder Cup partner Henrik Stenson to create a powerful Gold-Silver medal duo.
Eighty two-man teams will play foursomes Thursday and Saturday and fourballs Friday and Sunday with a Friday night cut to 35 teams. Pazder confirmed that the "conversation" started on Tuesday of this year's Zurich Classic, but was definitely initiated by the tour.
Obviously Rickie ("depends what she's cooking") and Rose had a heads-up, but it's easy to see how this generates ongoing interest right up until the morning of the event. Even the Tour Confidential gang got into the act:
5. The Zurich Classic of New Orleans will reportedly become a two-man team event in 2017. (According to Golf Channel, the top 80 qualifiers will be permitted to pick their own teammates, and both members of the winning team will receive most of the ranking points and other perks that come with a Tour win, with the notable exception of a Masters invite. The format will include one round of foursomes and one round of four-balls before the field is cut to the low 35 teams.) The consensus in this forum over the years has been that the Tour would benefit from more variety in tournament formats. Does this event check all the boxes? Also, which two players would you most like to see play together in New Orleans?
I don't think any one event should be expected to check all the boxes, but still...
Bamberger: I think two-man events, which have had a great past, would be fantastic. Tiger and Daly? Spieth and Reed? Johnson and Johnson? It's all good.
He can't possibly mean that Daly on the Senior Tour could he? That would require a sponsor's exemption, and we've had that discussion....
I don't even know who this guy is, but his answer is so wrong in so many ways that it's priceless:
Solomon: It's a solid start. The Euro Tour has been green lighting half baked ideas at anastounding rate, to the point where I'm ready to offer consultancy services to them for what seems to be my dream job. It's nice to see the tour at least partially following suit. As much as I want to get excited about this team idea, I'm immediately reminded that I don't think I've ever tuned into a shot of the Shark Shootout, or other somewhat similar team events. I'm more excited about the friendships that are gonna get tested as the players buddy up. What if Bubba can't find a partner? Do they pair him with Allenby? I'd give PGA Tour Live my paypal password and tell them to just do whatever they want with it if they live stream that.
OK, our Bubba got left off the Ryder Cup team....I think we can agree that the man has suffered enough. He's worried about there being too much drama associated with a Tour event? Ummm, who's gonna remind him that sporting events are, you know, supposed to be dramatic.... As for the Allenby jibe, I can only hope that was intentional...
And of course Bubba will have no problem finding his soul mate, as they'll be lining up for the opportunity to play Bubba's tee ball for two days.
What's The Buggy-Whip Store Gonna Cost? - Apparently the vinyl record business pays well, because these guys sure cashed out big-time:
Augusta National Golf Club's area land grab continued recently with the purchase of a local music store. And it came with a hefty price tag.
According to the Augusta Chronicle, Jay's Music Center will be relocating to another part of Washington Road in early 2017. The business had been in its current location at the intersection of Washington and Berckmans -- neighboring Augusta National -- for 25 years.
"We have to move fairly quickly," Jay's Music owner Doug Frohman told The Chronicle. "It's not the most ideal situation, but thank goodness we’ll have a roof over our heads."
They got $5.35 million large, so that'll get you the aforesaid roof.... There's details on the long-term process by which Augusta National has spent a king's ransom to secure their perimeter... And there's plenty more cash where that came from.
Trump, The Morning After - I trust you've enjoyed your Happy Fun Victory Week.... No doubt what comes later will be...err, I'm gonna go with messy, but it's equally true that the last week has been schadenfreudelicious. All the right heads exploding and all...
I didn't blog this post from Shack in the immediate aftermath of the election, because his ultimate conclusion was that there's nothing to see here... He had some interesting links, most notably to this Jaime Diaz offering, which kind of stumbles out of the gate:
First, a caveat. Right now, according to Larry Glick, who manages the development of Trump’s 18 (and counting) golf properties, golf is not on the radar. The operation of the courses will go into a blind trust run by his three children, with Eric Trump most involved. “If he’s played two rounds in the last six months, I’d be surprised,” said Glick of the president-elect. “And he’s been so busy, we haven’t talked anything about golf for months. He’s rolling up his sleeves to take on the challenge of this job.”
Get that? If I ever go blind, I hope it's only in the Larry Glick definition of blind...
But this obviously the nut 'graph:
On the negative side, Trump is polarizing. He has deeply offended many with his comments (even in golf, in land use conflicts while building Trump Aberdeen), and probably will again. Also, he sees the game as “aspirational” (to some a dog whistle word that means keep the riff-raff out), reflected in an average green fee of about $250 on his public courses. Some who have played with Trump have claimed he cheats. In short, he can be seen as an easy caricature of the entitled, vulgar American golfer, a version of Judge Smails from “Caddyshack.”
This isn't the time or place to sort through that, but I'll note that half the country sees that as a feature, not a bug.
But Jaime's conclusion is worth excerpting, as the lamestream media should be taking notes:
Before rendering an opinion, a bit of disclosure. I’m a lifelong Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton and feels a deep sadness at the outcome of the election. Secondly, I’ve played with the president-elect twice, before he had decided to run for office. I found him enjoyable and entertaining to be around as a fellow golfer. True or not, I got the sense that Trump is at his best on a golf course.
Considering all of the above, do I think Trump as POTUS will be good for golf? I offer a cautious yes.
Jaime, we knew.... but we appreciate the candor. If only those guys at the NY Times and WaPo would do the same.
The fun comes from Will Buckley in The Guardian, floating this unlikely premise:
Was golf Trump’s secret weapon?
It's a snarkeliciously fun piece, full of typically Trumpian bluster, so give it a read. And the piece is perfectly bloggable, as this one short 'graph captures both his premise and concludes by teeing up my witty bon mot:
There have been 18 contests since the second world war and the only exceptions to this rule are Harry S Truman (not a golfer) beating Thomas Dewey (Augusta member whogave his green jacket to Jack Nicklaus) and Jimmy Carter (not a golfer) defeating Gerald Ford (who, contrary to rumour, could play golf and chew gum at the same time). Aside from these two anomalies it is all golf. For some deep buried reason, the US electorate trust a man who can handle a four iron even more than one with whom they can have a beer.
The concept of having a beer with Hillary is inducing nausea in your humble correspondent... I'd sooner have said beer with Robert Allenby.
Obviously the premise is quite mad.... sample size and all, but he no doubt had a dealine to meet.
Under The Knife - Josh Sens posted this item on the changes at iconic TPC Saqwgrass:
For players and fans, though, the most significant changes are to the course itself. All 18 greens have been resurfaced with TifEagle Bermudagrass as a replacement for mini verde. The par-4 6th and par-4 7th have undergone a notable facelift to ramp up their drama and improve spectator viewing. Those changes include the removal of mounding between the holes and the addition of a new body of water.
Sawgrass needs another body of water like I need more snark.... They've shortened the 12th hole to make it driveable, as we've previously covered, but what they really need to do is take a page from the Pinehurst playbook and return to their original look:
I'd be OK if they also nuked that clubhouse.
Coming Soon To A Discount Bin At Dick's - Gearhead Mike Stachura has the skinny on this high-end line coming soon to a pro shop nearby:
XXIO, the brother brand of Srixon under Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. of Japan, has thereputation for designing popular clubs in Asia (nearly two decades as Japan's top-seller). Its XXIO Prime line also has the reputation for offering clubs at big ticket prices, like $800 drivers and $2,000 sets of irons.
But after watching the brand develop a foothold in the U.S. over the last few years, one thing is clear: XXIO designs clubs with extreme and unique technologies aimed at making average-golfer swings more efficient and more productive. The latest XXIO Prime collection of woods and irons is just so singularly focused, including the lightest driver head and shaft of any current brand in the U.S. market.
I'm sorry, how do you pronounce that? Mike has lots of technical details on the technology, which seems to be aimed at the Super Duper Game Improvement end of the market.... think thin faces for fat wallets:
The XXIO Prime clubs will launch Dec. 17 (driver: $850; fairway wood: $580; hybrid: $380; irons, 5-iron through AW: $1,820). The XXIO Forged irons will be in stores Dec. 10 (5-iron through AW, $1,190).
The Euro Beat - The European Tour has always been the scrappy underdog, and in recent times has seemed like the players have more fun. New honcho Keith Pelley has pulled no punches about his desire to compete against the PGA Tour, and this is his latest salvo:
The European Tour announced on Tuesday that it will group at least seven of its marquee events together as the Rolex Series and will be scrapping the Final Series formatbeginning with the 2017 season.
The BMW PGA Championship, the Irish Open, the Scottish Open and the Italian Open will join the three Final Series events - the Turkish Airlines Open, the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship - as part of the new schedule.
The Race to Dubai, formerly known as the Order of Merit, will be retained. Each of the seven events will have a prize purse of at least $7 million.
If it sounds as dreadful as the FedEx Cup, you might be understating it.... Not only are the tourneys spread throughout the calendar, but they've created something called The Access List:
The Access List will run concurrently with the Race to Dubai but will exclude money earned at the most lucrative tournaments of the European Tour season – the seven Rolex Series events, the Masters and US PGA Championship and the four World Golf Championships. Money earned at The Open and US Open Championships will be included as all members have an equal opportunity to pre-qualify for those tournaments.
You lost me at "concurrently." Prize money is good, and we understand that their financial support comes with the need for them to flog their garish watches, but still...
But back to the fun on their Tour, as per their take on the mannequin challenge.
Cheap Shots -
I'll Notify The Child Welfare Authorities - John Daly to play in PNC Father/Son Challenge for the first time
You're Gonna Need A Bigger List - The 8 Stupidest Rules in Golf
First, Learn to Putt - Billy Horschel Wants to Be Like Ben Crenshaw
Breaking News From 2009 - Tiger Woods is "getting after it"
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