Friday Fragments

Today brings only 12" of fresh snow, so I'm undecided about an early start.  The body is pretty shot at this point, but it simply refuses to stop snowing.  If I disappear without notice, you'll understand why....

59 In The Forest - The PGA snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday, but players take note, if you shoot 59 in the forest, no one will hear.  First, an assist to Daniel Berger:

Thomas’ drive found the bunker at the par-5 ninth hole. “I wanted to punch something,” he said. He appeared destined for a 10-under round on the par-70 layout, but Berger, who

was in the same bunker off the tee, showed him the way. 

It’s what friends do. 

“It was sitting really good to where it felt like I could get a 6-iron or 7-iron on it and just get it short of the green. And then I hear [Berger’s] caddie say 4-iron for them,” Thomas said. “I was like, man, can I hit it on the green? I'm like, I guess I can hit it on the green, I don't know.” 

Thomas said he “flushed” a 5-iron that cleared the lip of the bunker, sailed through the warm air and settled 15 feet left of the pin. He made the putt - of course he did, what else would one expect from a player who has won twice and finished in the top 5 in four of his last five starts?

How do we feel about JT being paired with his besties?   Doug Ferguson with the perspective on the round:

He was five shots better than anyone in the morning, but his lead was only three shots by the end of the day. Hudson Swafford shot a 62 in the afternoon. Swafford made a birdie on his 12th hole, when his caddie told him, "We've got to make seven birdies on the last six holes to catch Justin." 

The average score was 68.26.

What's become of the trade winds?  Global warming, I'm guessing....

Now the argument for pairing him with his mates is this:

For a brief moment, he reacted as if it were little more than the perfect finish to a great opening round. He stretched out his putter that was still in his left hand, smiled and punched the air with his right fist. Only when he looked over at Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger, the two witnesses to a 59 that Thomas made look easy, did the sense of history start to hit him. 

Berger thrust his arm in the air. Spieth, his best friend in golf since they were 13, crouched as the ball neared the cup and delivered a left-handed fist pump as both raced over to congratulate him. 

"I think I got more excited from seeing them get excited than I did my putt going in," Thomas said. "I thought about it going up to the green. I'm like, 'If I make it, what am I going to do?' It's not like winning a tournament. You have three days left to try to play well. So I didn't really know how to react. I never had a putt on the last hole on a Thursday mean that much."

It was that very Spieth guy that suggested that his win on Maui could open the floodgates....  

Now, let's get the subject of my header, in this age of 24/7 coverage, there's seemingly more video of Geiberger's 59 than Thomas'.  I kid, but the fact is that there was no real coverage of this iconic round, as Shack details in a long post:

This has prompted the PGA Tour to create PGA Tour Live to show pre-Golf Channel

coverage and to establish another option for showing golf, with the long term goal of possibly becoming home to Thursday and Friday coverage once the current Golf Channel deal expires (2021). 

But when Justin Thomas teed off early and posted a Sony Open 59 Thursday, he exposed several weaknesses in the PGA Tour approach to digital, starting with PGA Tour Live sitting out the two Hawaii events, presumably due to cost. This isn't surprising given the expense of doing golf in Hawaii and the tour's propensity for saving a buck, as evidenced by PGA Tour-managed events ending spectator access to practice round days. 

Golf Channel, set to start Sony coverage at 6 pm ET, did pick up the last two holes of Thomas's 59 more than one hour before scheduled sign-on time. Yet the PGA Tour directed fans to Facebook Live where the 8th 59 in tour history was seen through the cell phone camera of PGATour.com's Ben Everill (who, btw, did an excellent job analyzing the scene).

Cellphone video?  In the 21st century....  Now, Jay, what were you saying last week about your linear product?

Now the interesting part, after the celebration can he back it up?

Rickie, Old School - I love this:

Alas, no word on what kind of ball he used.  I've always heard that you can't get the new balls airborne with hickories, but I don't know if that applies to persimmon as well.

These Guys Are Good, Yet Still Human - Has that Web.com event in the Bahamas finished yet?  It's fun watching the guys play in difficult conditions, but this event turned into the Bataan death march.

Alex Myers with the Carthaginian carnage:

The opening event of the 2017 Web.com Tour season has been confusing to follow. The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic started on Sunday, its second round didn't finish until Tuesday, and now, its planned Wednesday finish might not happen until Thursday. But if you think that's tough to keep track of, it's nothing compared to how tough the playing conditions have been. 

With winds reaching 40 miles per hour, the first round produced a scoring average north of 80. And by the end of the second round, a new record for highest cut line on the developmental tour had been set. If you could manage to shoot 11 over par for two rounds, you got to stick around. Yep, ELEVEN over.

For those unfamiliar with the Third Punic War, go here.  

More data:

That broke the record of +10, which came at the 1991 South Texas Open. But that's not the only crazy stat from the first two rounds. Here are a few others:

-- In the first round, the par-4 12th played to a 5.366.

-- The first two rounds produced just three rounds in the 60s.

But how about this unverified claim:

 I'm assuming that the match doesn't actually work, but there are stories to good to fact check.

But what's with @WebDotCom Tour?  Are we now spelling out the dot?  I really can't keep up with these crazy kids...

Decisions, Decisions? - Should I be throwing my hat into the ring?

Dean Knuth, known as the Pope of Slope for his decades of work on the USGA's handicapping system and the chief statistician for Golf Digest's course rankings, advises us that we need to raise our minimum qualifying number of evaluations from 45 to at least 70 to make the 100 Greatest statistically above reproach. To reach that goal, we're dedicating our efforts to double the size of the panel by 2020.

I'm thinking that "Beyond reproach" is a bridge too far, but still....

It's not cheap:

We'll tell you upfront: It's a thankless though ultimately rewarding activity. 

It's not cheap. Panelists pay a membership fee and are expected to cover their travel and lodging and arrange their tee times with the assistance of a great many clubs who are eager to have Golf Digest review their courses. We allow clubs to offer panelists complimentary green fees, but only that. Panelists are continually lectured by Senior Editor Ron Whitten on the seven criteria of judgment and reminded by Associate Editor Steve Hennessey to get their ballots in on time. Every score is scrutinized by Knuth for outliers, and every two years panelists get a letter grade on how they are doing.

There's also a code of conduct. 

"Panelists are welcomed into a lot of great private courses," Whitten says, "but if they accept so much as a lunch or a logoed shirt, they'll get booted off the panel."

Geoff has the numbers:

Whitten revealed on the Golf Digest podcast that the fee to become a panelist is $1000, with a $250 annual dues payment also required.

But this surprises me:

If you'd like to be part of this exclusive club, hold a Handicap Index of 5.0 or less, and have enough time to play and evaluate at least two dozen courses a year, or know of a player who fits this description, contact us at 100GreatestPanel@golfdigest.com, and we'll start the process for membership. (The same panel also votes on our World's 100 Greatest, but a less-rigorous ballot is used because of the geography covered.)

They don't seem to care about the experience of a mid-tier handicapper?

I'm a 5.something right now, so I perhaps don't quite meet their needs, but still...Geoff also has a quick precis of the purist's position on their process:

The expansion news hits as the latest ranking received its bienniel dose of criticism for focusing on experience, conditioning and course difficulty over design. GolfClubAtlas.com's Ran Morrissett wrote:

A great playing experience, a great clubhouse and great architecture sometimes go hand in hand - but frequently don't. It is a disservice to the game when a prominent magazine masquerades a list of large, expensive clubhouses under the banner of great courses. 

Andy Johnson at The Fried Egg pointed out that 37.5% of the Golf Digest criteria has little to do with architectural character. Unless you think resistance to scoring is something to be celebrated.

Whatya think, readers?