Udder Stuff

We've got loads for you.... Hope you have some time on your hands.

Can We Call It The DJ Rule? - I just think it would be awkward to call it the Johnson Rule, because, well, we all know that DJ was ruled by said Johnson for far too long....  

But it's rare that I can say that sanity rules:

In a joint action Thursday, the USGA and the R&A announced the introduction of a local rule that eliminates the penalty when a golfer accidentally moves a ball on the green. 

The local rule will be available for any tournament committee to implement starting Jan. 1, 2017. The USGA and R&A will adopt the local rule starting on that date as well, applying it to all of their championships, qualifying competitions and international matches. 

The move provides a stopgap solution to an issue that golf's governing bodies have been pondering as part of their broader efforts to update the official rules of the game.

"For the past several years, as part of the R&A and USGA's Rules Modernization initiative, we have considered the penalty for a ball that is accidentally moved on the putting green," David Rickman, executive director of governance at the R&A, said in a prepared statement. "Both rules committees agreed that it needed to be changed and decided that in this particular case it was important to act now, through a Local Rule, rather than wait for the next overall set of revisions to the Rules of Golf."

Read the piece for yourself to see whether they have it right, as I believe this rule absolves the player even if he touches the ball, as long as it's accidental.  As for how a player would cause his ball to move without it being an accident, Alan Schrager was unavailable for comment....

The important thing is that they didn't, as I had feared, let this important issue get delayed by a larger review of the rules.  

The Professor Channels His Inner Snead - I think he's sufficiently talented to stick on Tour for a while, which will be quite a bit of fun for us all.  If there's an Achilles heel it would be the putter, but the lad is an inveterate tinkerer, so don't be shocked the next time you see him:

As if Bryson DeChambeau, he of the 37-inch-long set of irons, wasn't an equipment trendsetter already, he intends to shake up the conventional thinking of putting, too. As

he approached the first green at Tiburon Golf Club for his Tuesday pro-am round at the Franklin Templeton Shootout, he warned playing partner Bret Baier, the Fox News anchor, "This is going to look a little funky. Don't be shocked." DeChambeau addressed his 15-foot birdie putt facing the target, the ball positioned parallel to his right foot, his right foot slightly ahead of his left, his left hand locked just below his right elbow. "I can hear them mumbling in the background, 'What is he doing?' Then, I hit the putt, right on line, boom, back of the cup, and they exploded in cheers," DeChambeau recalled. "That was a great introduction to my first time in a public atmosphere." 

DeChambeau has been toying with the unconventional putting technique -- don't call it side-saddle, he says -- for more than three years. "It's going to freak people out," he said with a wide smile. DeChambeau admits he's never been a very good putter, and his limited Strokes Gained: Putting stats on the PGA TOUR seem to back that up. (He ranks No. 166 in seven recorded rounds in 2016-2017.)

Amusingly he doesn't seem to know what to call it either.... The grip, though, seems to be Koochesque.  This has me shaking my head:

DeChambeau practiced with it for at least 7 hours a day for the past two weeks. When he describes the benefits of looking at the hole with both eyes and swinging his right arm in a pendulum motion, he makes it sound simple."It's more bio-mechanically efficient," he said. "I take it back with a certain amount of energy with a certain acceleration profile that lets it go a certain distance."

No, not the bio-mechanical efficiency part, that's how the guy rolls.  I just don't know how you practice putting for an a hour a day, much less seven.... There's video at the link and it's even stranger than it seems from the still photo.

A Bjorn Leader - As expected, Thomas Bjorn will lead the Euros at the 2018 Ryder Cup.  No biggie, as we've known for quite a bit that he was the odds-on favorite.  He's a popular guy out there and seems to fit the mold of their best captains, and by that I mean that the actually playing resume is on the short side....

The action on that side of the ditch is over the inclination to overreact to the loss (hey, everyone loses one every decade or so) and Task Force Envy and muck with their selection process.  To which Thomas had this response:

“There’s a lot of nuances into this and they all need to be looked at,” Bjorn said. “Selection will be reviewed, and it should be, because the world and the game of golf is a 

moving thing. But we’re in no immediate rush and no panic to do it. We’ll look at it carefully. We might stay where we are but we might also come up with a few tweaks. Almost the biggest task at hand is not to get too panicked about not having the trophy on this side of the Atlantic at the moment. There’s so many aspects but I’m just trying to gather all the information to set out a plan.”

Thanks for clearing that up for us....

But there will be no relaxation of the Euro Tour membership requirement, as that Tour wouldn't survive in its current form without it.

Celebrity Apprentice Is Shopping For a New Host... - The former host, as you might have heard, has gotten himself a new gig.  But I've got a candidate that seems equally skilled at the firing thing:

Lydia Ko’s “to-do” list for 2017 just got a little longer. Already searching for a new 

The couple in happier days.

caddie after splitting with Brian Hamilton in October, the world’s top-ranked female golfer now will also be on the look out for a new swing coach after deciding to part ways with David Leadbetter after three years working with the noted instructor. 

Since Ko began working with Leadbetter, shortly after she turned pro in the fall of 2013, the 19-year-old the New Zealand prodigy won 12 LPGA titles and an Olympic silver medal, was the tour’s youngest rookie of the year in 2014 and its youngest player of the year in 2015. In the first half of 2016, she won three times, including her second major championship at the ANA Inspiration in April, and appeared on her way to a second straight POY season.

Ryan Herrington reminds us of these deteriorating numbers:

While a four-win season is hardly anything to complain about, statistically there were some concerns as Jaime Diaz pointed out in a recent Golf World story. Ko lost distance and accuracy in 2016. She dropped to 126th on the tour with an average of 246.73 yards, after averaging 250.39 to rank 60th in 2015. She also went from second on tour in greens in regulation in 2015 to 32nd in 2016.

There is of course the concept of operator error in our game, but Lydia is hardly the first millennial to eschew personal responsibility.

Leadbetter took the high road in his press release, including this:

Lydia is not only an exceptional player, but also an exceptional person. She is a perfect role model for any young golfer to follow on how to conduct oneself on the golf course, interact with the public, and give back to the game. Lydia has been an absolute pleasure to coach and she felt the staff at the Leadbetter Golf Academy Headquarters at Champions Gate has been like an extended family to her.

Though over a beer he might have, you know, darker thoughts:

Don't look at me, I have no idea what's going on with Team Ko.  But can we blame Pap/Mama Ko for ditching the glasses as well?  Because it all seems to have gone to heck with those glorious specs....

Newport News - This probably should have been in the prior post, but no time like the present.  We don't spend much time on gear, but this is pretty interesting to me....  I'm also amused at the arguments for bifurcation of the equipment rules, mostly because the equipment itself is alread bifurcated, as this Dave Dusek piece on Tiger's Scotty Cameron putter makes clear:

The 34-inch putter is made from German stainless steel (GSS), an ultra-soft material Cameron uses for some putters made for Tour players. The heel-toe weighted blade does not have an alignment line, but Woods requested a single dot on the topline so he can

confidently put the ideal hitting area of the face directly behind the ball at address. 

Cameron said Woods always liked the feel of the grips on some Ping putters he played as a junior, so he had Ping PP58 grips installed on the Newport 2 GSS over the years. Cameron said his team would submerge the grips in acetone to dissolve the grip’s white paint. Woods has also, in some instances, used a “blackout” version of the Ping putter grip. 

Woods also was a stickler when it came to the stiffness of his putter’s shaft. 

“We would do different cycles on the shafts to hit the (frequency) numbers, which we decided years ago matched the flex that he likes, with a certain length, flex and head weight,” Cameron said. “I wouldn’t say that Tiger is tough or a pain like some players are – he just knows what he likes. When he asks for something, he just asks that we hit the specs so he doesn’t have to second-guess or think that something’s up.”

And how much time do you spend on the frequency numbers of your putter shaft?  And you call yourself a golfer....

Cheap Shots - Quick takes on topical items:

You're Not The Boss Of Me - Watch John Daly spontaneously jam out during a pro-am

You Don't Have to Ask Me Twice - Watch an emotional Paige Spiranac speak out about the cyber bullying she's faced

Who Knew Robert Allenby Was In The Field? - Caddie dies during play at Omega Dubai Ladies Masters

You Mean The Ones That Woods Guy Is Hacking With?  TaylorMade's new M1 and M2 metalwoods designed "to make last year's product look old"

What Did He Get In The Trade For Mike Trout? - Bubba Watson, baseball executive, does the Baseball Winter Meetings

Who Gave Him The Keys? - Watch a hippo crash the Alfred Dunhill Championship

Right Now? 'Cause He Hasn't Been Here Since Sunday.... - What is Tiger Woods doing with his swing now, and should you copy it?

Sounds Like a Personal Issue - Billy Andrade couldn’t stop butt-dialing Arnold Palmer

Are They Registered Anywhere? - Lexi Thompson to partner with Bryson DeChambeau in Greg Norman's event