Bonus Weekend Content

It's finally stopped snowing in Utah, so no need to rush up to the mountain this morning.  Tomorrow is a travel day, so we shan't speak again until Monday at the earliest.

59's Gone Wild - On Thursday we were treated to Justin Thomas' 59 which, because it happened outside the TV window, few people were aware of.  yesterday we had were treated to Woody Austin matching the feat, of which he himself was unaware.

Woody Austin shot a 59 at the Diamond Resorts Invitational. And he didn't even know it.

Austin went on a birdie tear in the opening round of the tournament, carding 10 birdies 

and an eagle with no bogeys. When he walked off the 18th green, Austin believed he had a great round, but not a 59. 

"I didn't know it was a par-71 so when I walked off the last green I thought I shot 60," Austin said. "Everybody goes, 'No, it's a par-71.' So, ah, cool. I really didn't know.

Don't you think this one should come with an asterisk?  Anyone can get it to the clubhouse when they're blissfully unaware of their score and accordingly no prone to throwing up all over their shoes....

But this alarmingly candid comment will have special forces mobilized in Far Hills, NJ:

"I've said all along the game has gotten a lot easier because of the technology and the golf ball,"Austin continued. "It really is a putting contest. And I proved that today. If you get hot in one round, it's so easy to keep the ball in front of you. When you're on, you're really on."

Woody, you are hereby sentenced to detention where you will write on the chalkboard one hundred times, "Driving distances have stabilized."

Next thing you know, someone on the big tour will be signing for a 58...  What?  See, it's a gift....

Backing It Up - We all know how hard it is to follow up a good round with another, so there's no surprise that Justin Thomas ballooned by a full five strokes in yesterday's second round:

Justin Thomas finished with another eagle and put himself in the PGA Tour record book

again Friday in the Sony Open. 

One day after his 59 made him only the seventh player in PGA Tour history to break 60, Thomas made an 8-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole at Waialae for a 6-under 64 to set the 36-hole scoring record on the PGA Tour.

Thomas was at 17-under 123 and had a five-shot lead over Gary Woodland.

I watched a little of the broadcast and heard one talking heads ask if he's this good or just hot.  The answer, of course, is that 59-64 is what happens when a really good player gets really hot.

But this made me chuckle:

From there, no one got closer than four shots on another ideal day for scoring off the shore just up the road from Waikiki Beach. Woodland made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for his second straight 64.

Egads!  64-64 and you're down five.....

I know there's been virtually no wind, so the guys are gonna score.  But it looks like they're playing a pitch-and-putt golf course, even though Woody assures me that driving distances have stabilized.

You're Kidding, Right? -  OK, so the Olympics and the International Golf Federation (Peter Dawson, call your office) are all right-thinking progressives, who are committed to being on the right side of history, no?  Then, I submit, how in Hades is this frickin' possible?

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has asked the Kasumigaseki Country Club, venue of golf competition of the 2020 Olympic Games, to admit women as full members.

"I feel very uncomfortable about women not being able to become a regular member in this era," Koike told reporters on Friday.

The club situated in Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, also bars women from playing there on Sundays, according to a Kyodo news agency report.

 I'm guessing that there's free drinks all around in a certain Gullane clubhouse.

As you'll recall, I thought that golf should have pulled a Bellichick and deferred until 2020, when the games are in a country with an actual golf tradition and existing venues....  Now stay with me as I present a couple of those butter-cut segues for which I'm renown.

In short order comes word that the Latin America Amateur Championship will return to South America In 2018... Of course, you say, we have that wonderful Gil Hanse track in Rio.... Not.

Not to worry, they're committed to the golf course:

Speaking on Thursday at the Latin America Amateur Championship, USGA executive director Mike Davis insisted that the International Golf Federation remains committed to the Rio Olympic Golf Course, as he also acknowledged questions about the facility's operations. 

The R&A's Martin Slumbers had announced earlier in the news conference that the 2018 LAAC would head back to South America and be staged at Prince of Wales Golf Club in Santiago, Chile.

Can we get some further details, Mike?

“I think there’s been a lot in the news lately about, ‘What are the next steps for that golf

course?’" Davis said. "I think for us, and Martin Slumbers said it earlier, we want to move this championship around the different countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. So certainly that is a golf course we would look at in the future. 

"You know, that golf course is transitioning right now, going from the Rio 2016 organizing committee to the Brazilian Golf Confederation, and so there’s some questions about what is going on right now. But I will tell you that the IGF stands committed to help the legacy of that golf course continue. And I think that one day we would love to see this championship held at a famed venue like that."

Transitioning?  Now there's a timely euphemism for you, I'm guessing in this case it's to an unauthorized landfill...

And this is not just a golf issue, as you'll see here.   Remember, the Olympics were sold as a way to create a legacy of infrastructure for the host country.  I know I can seem a tad cynical at times, but you can't name a country that was better off after hosting an Olympics.  (H/T Shack for those links).

Keep your eye on the marble, because someone mentioned the subject of membership policies.  In that context, I heard from my source on all things royal and ancient (the latter of which is quite apt for the both of us).  Here's his (or hers, yeah just kidding) take on a certain membership vote:

I have been told by a reliable source that women being admitted to the HCEG is essentially a done deal. What moved this new stage at the Club was that, as opposed to the last ballot, mail voting will be allowed which was not the case for the last vote. There are a larger number of voters who would have put the last balloting over the top but were not able to attend the meeting in person. The fact the Open was so recent really did not impact the club as to its position in the rota.

As I understand things, the vote is expected to take place in February or March, a time when Muirfield's members will be scattered to the wind.  That said, the vote last time was sufficiently close that any change in procedures could change the outcome, though I'm guessing the vote will not be scheduled until the outcome is certain.

The last point is also important, as they were not getting another Open for a while, leaving plenty of time for some pushback.  But here's some interesting follow-up from the same source:

As you can imagine, the camps are well "defined." The old codgers did not want the lady vote and really did not care if the Open returned there or not. Actually, the Open pays peanuts to the hosting club. Yes it pays for a year's worth of maintenance; big deal. The HCEG greens staff is a total of 9 guys in season!

The more "modern" guys look at it from the prestige side of the coin. They know the course is perhaps one of the top 2 Open rota courses. They want to continue that tradition.

Interestingly, there I'll be no fast track entry for the ladies. The wait is long and by invitation only. Any woman who wants to join better be youthful, because it's going to take while for her to get in. Also, she better be a good golfer. The rough is just brutal.

Hmmmm...that last 'graph is interesting, as I'm guessing that they won't be released from purgatory until at least a couple of women are actually granted membership.  But the cynic in me wants to know which of the other rota courses they consider on a par with theirs....

The above information was provided under a grant of anonymity, as the source is not authorized to discuss the club's membership policies.  But the grant of anonymity is in fact for a much better reason, my source expects to be invited again to the coming season's member-guest, and that's an invite one doesn't put at risk....

Wither The PGA - PGA of America CEO Pete Bevaqua might just be a good poker player, as he discusses the issues surrounding the gold schedule and tells us absolutely nothing:

"We've been analyzing the best time of year to play the PGA Championship, really, since I got here four years ago -- what would make sense for the PGA Championship and, quite frankly, also for the game of golf," Bevacqua told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "We're in the process of that analysis. The good news for us is that we can stay where we are -- we love that August date -- or we can move it occasionally, or we can move it permanently. It's all part of a process we're going through."

Thanks for the clarification...

 Although this might be a bit of a tell:

Bevacqua said one reason that Harding Park was chosen as host venue for 2020 is because the San Francisco weather doesn't eliminate any possible movement around the calendar. 

"Part of the rationale for that year," he explained, "was to give us mobility."

I like the idea of mixing it up, especially if it spares us Quail Hollow and ACC in August....

Quick Takes -  I would say that Golf.com's 2017 edition of the most beautiful women in golf is more interesting than prior years, though not without its curiosities.

On the positive side, it features a Cheyene Woods look I've not seen before:

You see why I'm not worried about millennials learning to love our game?

As for the braniac who decided to have Jan Stephenson recreate this famous pose, I don't think that person understands the concept of click-bait.

They go a little heavier (ugh!) on mature women than I think the target audience might wish....

Lastly, who says there are jobs Americans won't do.  Alex Myers clearly has no standards with this item:

Sometimes viewed as safe havens, a portable toilet turned treacherous for an unlucky hacker in Chicago. Brian Berg claims that, while watching an iron shot from the fairway

this summer, he was hit by a moving porta-potty that was in the process of being hauled away. Allegedly, an employee had taken a forklift off the golf cart path, with the porta-potty blinding his view. Berg says he was trucked to the ground, where the porta-potty hit him again and knocked him unconscious. Berg is suing the course -- Fox Run Golf Links in Els Run, Ill. -- as well as the employee who hit him. 

We maintain there are worse fates with porta-potties, like being trapped inside one as it's tipped over. But this isn't to mitigate Berg's plight. Frankly, it stinks.

I think we're done here.....