Weekend Wrap

A few quick items for you, then I'll let you get on with your day.  Tomorrow is a travel day for Employee No. 2 and I, so expect to next see me Wednesday morning.

The Wrappage - The big tour was in Mexico playing a small event:

The once-volatile Pat Perez returns with a new attitude, wins the OHL Classic at Mayakoba

I'm guessing he's still volatile, but he's always been talented. There's no reason to care about the results, but we do love our golf oddities:

Pulling a "Reverse Wise" sounds like a skateboard trick or euphemism that could get you sent to the principal's office. For Marc Leishman, however, we use this term in the best of contexts. 

Leishman, playing in this week's OHL Classic at Mayakoba, made an eagle 3 at El Camaleon Golf Club's par-5 seventh hole on Friday morning. The 33-year-old Australian followed up with another eagle, albeit of a slightly rarer variety: an ace.

Here's the colorful scorecard:

And an explanation of that first bit:

This comes a day after reigning NCAA champion Aaron Wise accomplished the same feat, only with Wise making his hole-in-one before his par-5 eagle. We doubt Leishman minds following in the rookie's footsteps.

Oh, and I saw a header that Bernhard Langer won the Charles Schwab Cup, but that story is at least three years old....

Mea Culpa -  Mike Davis went into the lion's den and kinda, sorta apologized:

In the spring of 2013 the battle lines were clearly drawn in the impending debate over the USGA and R&A’s push to ban anchored putting. 

The PGA Tour and PGA of America opposed the new rule, but the USGA and R&A went on to ban the anchored stroke, creating a rift, albeit temporary, between the USGA and PGA. On Friday at the PGA’s annual meeting, USGA executive director Mike Davis offered the PGA’s membership a mea culpa. 

“I will say going back three, four years ago it was a moment in time where our two organizations got sideways with one another. When I looked back, I think both sides have learned a lot of things,” Davis said.

I remember Ted Bishop making an ill-supported plea for a stay of execution, but not much more than that.  Of course no one was any too happy, mostly because they waited far too long to come to a decision.

But this is the key bit:

Davis added that the USGA has a draft of that new code that is “simpler” than the current rules, and that his association will release the draft sometime next year. 

Specifically, Davis addressed the ruling from this year’s U.S. Open that led to eventual champion Dustin Johnson being penalized when his ball moved on the fifth green during the final round. 

“As for the Dustin Johnson ruling, Rule 18-2, that God-forsaken rule, that is going to be getting attention in the near future. We listen and we learn,” he said.

As the reader knows, I like Mike Davis and think he's contributed much to the game, starting with greatly improving U.S. Open set-ups.  But I'm not exactly sure what he's saying here.... Rule 18-2 needs immediate attention because of the increasingly penal green speeds, and prior comments have led me to conclude that it would be addressed in the context of a comprehensive change in the rules.

I can interpret the above excerpt either way, which means he's provided no further clarity.  Not his best effort...

Wither The PGA -  The Championship in this case, not the organization.... First we got word that the event might be moved to May in 2020:

To accommodate golf's return to the Olympics, the PGA of America moved the 2016 

Harding Park, site of the 2020 PGA

PGA Championship from its customary August date to July. The shift created a bit of a scheduling crunch, as the British Open and PGA Championship were conducted within a three-week span. Many players cited this hectic itinerary as reason for withdrawal from the Rio Summer Games. Yet, after a successful competition in Brazil, the sport's figureheads are dedicated to keeping golf in the Olympics. And to promote that well-being, the PGA of America might be willing to make a major change to the PGA Championship. 

Pete Bevacqua, CEO of the PGA of America, told the Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard that a May date for the Wanamaker Trophy is "very much on the table." 

“To truly make it work, to make it succeed and to make sure golf is in the Olympics for the next century, the whole schedule needs to be adjusted,” Bevacqua said.

The problem of course is that in recent years the fifth of four majors has been played in May.  The reader will sense a "But" coming, and it's a bigee:

“We are huge proponents of the Olympics. We are all about the Olympics, but we also have to protect the PGA Championship and we can’t just bounce the PGA Championship around every four years,” Bevacqua said.

Hmmm...sounds like someone's not happy with their August date...  Over to Shack with some informed speculation on how this might happen:

Bevacqua may be testing the waters to see how television and fans feels about the change, but I'd guess he and new PGA Tour Commish Jay Monahan have sketched out a new schedule post-2019 that moves the Players to March, the PGA to May and the "playoffs" to a conclusion before or on Labor Day. 

This would be an enormous boost to the PGA Tour's moribund playoff product where ratings stink, the format does not resonate and players seem uninspired following the PGA Championship. But put the playoffs back a few weeks after The Open, inject just a little life in the format (play-off), and suddenly a few of those issues go away.

That would imply a serious reassessment of the Tour schedule, and would also have to accommodate sponsorship contracts and the renegotiation of the all-important FedEx deal.

But Shack also has some cold water for us:

Furthermore, as difficult as August can be agronomically, May might be even more of a headache for northern venues that experience a long winter. Places like Rochester, Long Island, Whistling Straits and Minneapolis are all very tricky to get peak conditions in May, impossible in a freak year.

But it's nice in Bedminster, NJ!

 I'll catch up with you from New York.