Tuesday Tidbits

Was yesterday's post long enough for you?  Don't expect that every day, but with dry conditions in Utah, there's no need to hurry out there....

Rahmadan Extended By Popular Demand - Lots of continuing coverage of the young Spaniard, and we'll let Geoff play tour guide.  First, some of his comments on the results of this win:

Maybe it's that we've been hearing what a supreme talent he is, or perhaps it's just how impressive Jon Rahm was in his post-round press conference. Either way, his back nine

30 over a host of players who vied for the 2017 Farmers title moves him to the seemingly endless list of emerging talents.

Now at world No. 46 after joining 91 spots (according to GolfChannel.com's Will Gray) and, reports CBSSports.com's Kyle Porter, Rahm is the fastest to make $2 million in PGA Tour history (passing Spieth who passed Woods).

The money is a non-issue, but moving into the top 50 gets him into the WGC's and other self-sustaining events.

This PGATour.com video is mostly fluff, though there's film of Rahm going Yani Tseng with the tourney trophy early in the week, but living to tell the tale.

Doug Ferguson has the lad's background, including his arrival at ASU:

Rahm grew up in Barrika, a town of about 1,500 in the Basque country of northern

Spain. He was recruited to play at Arizona State, which has more than 50,000 students at its main campus in Tempe. Rahm spoke barely enough English to process and sentence and answer either "yes" or "no." 

"When I showed up to my first class, there were 375 people," he said. "And I came from a high school where the biggest class was 30 people. It was pretty different. I thought I walked into a movie theater, to be honest. I thought it was just a movie theater and I was in the wrong place. I'll never forget that." 

Sure, it was intimidating, but not enough to scare him away.

More on his English proficiency in a bit...  As for his aggressive play, he had this in his post-win presser:

Rahm, 22, is an interesting kid, and one heck of a competitor. He has played 17 PGA Tour events, and finished in the top 10 in five (including three top 3s). He plays boldly, aggressively, as if laying up is not a viable option. Rahm jokes that you should have seen him play before he started learning better course management at Arizona State. (“I believe it’s a Spanish mindset. I feel like we are all pretty aggressive, right?” he says).

This quote from caddie Adam Hayes is worth noting:

This is where you mention that Rahm is 22. Justin Thomas, three-time winner this year, already finds himself looking back. He’s 23. 

“The college game is so good now,” Hayes said. “If you win there, you can win here, as long as you don’t change anything.’ 

Rahm won 11 times at Arizona State. At one point he was the top-ranked amateur in the world. 

So was Patrick Rodgers, 24, who shared the 54-hole lead and finished ninth. So was Ollie Schneiderjans, 23, who was in the next-to-last group. So was Cheng-tsung Pan, the 25-year-old from Taiwan who finished tied for second.

Perhaps, but the difference might be that Rahm stayed for the full four years.  But I'll remind all that Commissioner Ratched sought to bury a talent like this on the Web.com Tour for a year...

Shack has been very complimentary of Rahm's performance in his post-win presser, to which you can listen here.  No argument from me on that, though one bit jumped out me as I had it playing in the background.  If I heard correctly, he made that first eagle on the Par-5 thirteenth from a fairway bunker....  That's one hell of a great shot, though it might have been nice if CBS shared it with us....that sound you hear is Frank Chirkinian spinning in his grave....

OK, so you're a Spanish teenager matriculating at ASU, with limited English proficiency.  How do you catch up quickly so yu can manage your class work?  Rosetta Stone?  ESL classes?  Our Rahmbo chose a different path, consulting noted linguistic expert......Eminem.  No, really:

The cadence of rap appealed to the latest winner on the PGA Tour as he memorized tracks, especially two of his favorite songs — Eminem’s Love the Way You Lie, and Lamar’s Swimming Pools. 

“Memorizing rap songs in English … helped me out a lot to pronounce and actually understand what was going on and keeping up with people in conversation,” Rahm said following his breakthrough win Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. “You can look (those songs) up. They're good.”

I'll beg to differ there, young man, but you know these crazy kids....

One last note that I haven't seen any other source cite.  You no doubt have realized that this young man is likely to torture us at Ryder Cups doe the next twenty years, though as recently as November he was singing from a different hymnal (yes, and not a rap song):

But as of now the young Spaniard is not a member of the European Tour and therefore -- like Casey -- ineligible for the Old World Ryder Cup side. And it is a situation that is not likely to alter any time soon. Speaking at the end of the opening round in the World Cup at Kingston Heath -- where he and partner Rafa Cabrera-Bello hold the first-round lead -- Rahm expressed enthusiasm for the Ryder Cup but sees membership of his “home” tour as something that will have to wait at least a year. 

“I’ve thought about the Ryder Cup a lot,” he said, after the Spanish pair combined for an opening foursomes round of 69, three under par and one shot ahead of the United States, France and China. “I so want to play in the matches; who doesn’t? But right now I need to establish myself on the PGA Tour. Hopefully, I will do that and make it into the top 50 in the world. Once I do that, I will be able to play in the eight tournaments that count towards the PGA Tour and the European Tour -- the majors and the WGCs. That is the ideal scenario."

One assumes that Thomas Bjorn has been in contact and that, playing privileges in America assured, that he will be taking Euro Tour membership and slotting in the four non-WGC and major events as required.

Oversight Remedied - I went way long yesterday and neglected the ladies, who provided a stirring finish in their season-opening event:

In four of the past five years, Britanny Lincicome hasn't won an LPGA event. But the

talented 31-year-old made sure early on that she won't suffer the same fate in 2017. 

With a birdie on the first playoff hole, Lincicome beat Lexi Thompson to win the LPGA's season opener at the Pure Silk-Bahamas Classic.

“I worked hard this off-season," Lincicome told reporters in the Bahamas after picking up her seventh career LPGA title. My putting hasn't been as well as it has this week, but hopefully that continues and it's awesome.”

Of note is the fact that top five finishers were all Americans, including Nelly Korda, Jessica's little sister.  Stacey Lewis finished one shot out of the playoff, derailed by a triple-bogey on the 14th hole, something that's become a bit habitual for her.  She needs a win, and she needs it soon....

His Shot - Don't miss this Guy Yocum feature with instructor-to-the-stars Pete Cowen.  His stable includes a fair proportion of the great international players, two of whom (Henrik and Willett) won 2016 majors.

This is perhaps the most consequential bit about his unusual fee structure:

WHEN I BEGAN TEACHING OTHER PROFESSIONALS, I immediately formed a fee structure that is quite different from that of many teachers in America. My company, Top Ten Golf Limited, is a service that is strictly performance-based. I get 4 percent of the

players' tournament winnings, but only for finishes in the top 10. If they don't finish in the top 10, I don't get paid.  I cover all my expenses and am available on short notice. I'm very proud of this. What other coach in the world of sports has the confidence to structure their fee schedule this way? There have been times when the results of my coaching have produced revenue for me that the players' agents felt was excessive. This led me to add a corollary to my offer: If the player leaves my camp, for any reason whatsoever, and doesn't leave a token bit of compensation in place, said player cannot come back. This happened several years ago with a very good player I was helping. A Ryder Cupper who became top 50 in the world. The player's agent rang me one day to say his player was going to "do his own thing," was leaving and choosing not to keep a bit for me intact. I warned that said player couldn't come back. Some time later, the player's performance declined. The agent phoned me, asking if I would begin working with his player again. To that I said, "You obviously weren't listening." I couldn't take the player back. But good luck to him. He's a nice lad, and still a good player.

Back in the day that was known as a success fee, but you also have to love the human nature involved in trying to renegotiate it after the fact.... Well, perhaps love isn't what I was after there...

Read the whole thing, as he has a wealth of great stories and insights from a life lived at the highest levels of our game.  As well as one tragic story that will stay with you...

Parsons, Unplugged - Bob Parsons is another interesting golf personage, though obviously not everyone's cup of tee.  You know the back story, after spending $350,000 oe year on sticks, he started PXG Golf, and began throwing huge sums of money at Tour pros to play his gear.

This item in the local press brings us up to date on the company's progress:

Parsons, the billionaire founder of GoDaddy, decided that rather than invest in a new set

of clubs or shafts he’d start his own golf manufacturing company. PXG – Parsons Extreme Golf – was founded in north Scottsdale, and at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week, several top PGA Tour pros will swing PXG clubs, including James Hahn, Ryan Moore, Zach Johnson and Billy Horschel. 

Last year, PXG clubs accounted for 59 top-10 finishes on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tours, including Hahn’s victory in the Wells Fargo Championship. Fifteen tour players will use the clubs in 2017, including Lydia Ko, the No. 1 ranked player on the LPGA Tour, and while PXG officials wouldn't divulge their sales, the company has gone from 33 employees in December of 2015 to 102 today.

No word on how many millions he's lost thus far, but it has to be a big number....  As you know, they don't give them away:

Parsons said PXG spends so much money on materials and technology that the cost of building a set of clubs is equivalent to what companies like PING, Calloway and TaylorMade sell their clubs for. As a result, a set of PXG clubs costs approximately $5,000. By comparison, a complete set of Titleist clubs will go for about $1,700.

But it's this bit at the end that has folks buzzing:

If that $5,000 price tag seems exorbitant, well, that may soon seem like a good deal at PXG. 

"We’re working on a process that has never been done before and is incredibly expensive," Parsons said. "Our next set of clubs are going to cost a lot more."

Incredibly expensive?  Color me curious....