Weekend Wafting

There wasn't much golf played yesterday, but I've a couple of odds and ends that will hopefully amuse...

Monty, Unplugged - Michael Bamberger scores an interview with His Montiness, and here's how he explains his rigid process:

You don’t really interview Colin Montgomerie. You simply let him talk, which is what he does here. Ladies and gentlemen, in all his sui generis glory, here is Colin Montgomerie:

Sounds about right, although despite the semi-colon, that's not actually his lede.  We'll get to that in a sec, but here's his header that is guaranteed click-bait:

Colin Montgomerie: I wouldn't trade my career for Tiger's

I know, I had the same reaction, but you might feel better when we circle back to that in context.  Meanwhile, here was Bambi's lede:

Monty—the one and only Colin Montgomerie, the Hall of Fame golfer from Scotland—

is the greatest active talker in the game today. A plus-five. Possibly better than Lee Trevino in his prime. Monty is 53 and playing the Champions tour fulltime and doing some work as an analyst for Sky Sports. In that capacity, he’ll return to Augusta in April. If he ever wanted to make golf-on-TV his main gig, he would immediately become the most insightful and incisive broadcaster in the game. But in the meantime, he enjoys playing too much. 

I've been saying that exact thing for years....  He is shockingly good on the business end of a microphone, and one of our networks needs to free up a chair for him in the 18th hole tower.  Monty has a side to him that invites scorn constructive criticism, but I'm glad to hear Mike react similarly....  

Most will have forgotten long ago, but Monty had a front-row seat at the coming out party for Tiger, specifically the third round of that '97 Masters.  Monty got dusted for sure, but his detailed recollections will take you back to a seminal week in the game.  And our Monty has opinions that he doesn't hesitate to share.  For instance, SPOILER ALERT, he's not a fan of golfers bulking up.....  If he were, that might break the irony meter...

Let's get to the stuff that I find really interesting, such as this:

“What might Woods have done had the game never moved off the balata ball and the wooden wood? Many golf fans would say he would have won less. I believe he would have won far more. He has the 14 majors. Without the equipment changes, I believe he’d have well into his 20s now. Because now everybody has clubs where they can do what he could do.

I don't think throwing numbers out there is productive, but I couldn't agree more with the premise.  Tiger was the premiere ball-striker in the game in an era when the equipment minimized the disparity in ball-striking.....  

“Two others lost out hugely to technology. Greg Norman was one. He was the best driver of the ball with the wooden club ever. He lost out when drivers went to metal and suddenly we could do what he did. He lost his asset. And the other was Seve. When Ping developed its L-wedge, with box grooves, we could suddenly do what Seve could do with a 52° club. He lost his asset too. Tiger had all that, in spades. And then we were given equipment that allowed us to do what he could do.

I'm not sure the Norman thesis is quite accurate...  It seems to me that the bulk of the Shark Era was still in the persimmon era, and he benefited greatly from being the best driver of the golf ball.  As for Seve, he would have been a magician with a stick and a rock....

Now, for that money quote, here's the full 'graph:

“I never won a major. Tiger won 14. But would I trade my career for Tiger’s? No. I started out this game a pretty good golfer and finished in the Hall of Fame. I feel I have overachieved. So how could I say I wish it were better? People will say, `Well, he didn’t win a major.’ And, yes, I would have liked to shut them up by winning one. But that’s my only regret, really. Great that I have won senior majors, which has quieted the odd person.

Did he just call me odd?  But he seems at peace with his place in the game and he's mostly correct, he was an overachiever....  Given that I don't know how much more of Sir Nick I can stand, let's get our Monty into a tower soon.

Shipnuck, Unplugged - The name of the column still bites, but Alan has been everywhere in recent days, and had some interesting thoughts in his Ask Alan item.  For instance:

“We know the OWGR isn't sufficiently reactive. What's the real top 10 right now?” –Brian (@brianros1) 

1. Dustin Johnson

2. Henrik Stenson

3. Rory McIlroy

4. Jordan Spieth

5. Jason Day

6. Hideki Matsuyama

7. Justin Thomas

8. Justin Rose

9. Alex Noren

10. Jon Rahm

I'm not even sure what this list is supposed to be, as he somehow makes it more reactive by including a guy that can't even peg his own ball right now at No. 3....  And does anyone think Alex Noren belongs in a Top Ten list for anything?

This to me is an astute answer:

“If you could change your role in golf what would you be? Architect? PGA Tour pro? USGA Rules official? Jay Monahan?” -@the_fried_egg 

If I say Tour pro, do I get to be a top player? If so, that has to be the answer. But if I’m just a fringe player fighting for my job every year, I would have zero interest in that life. The other day I had my best ballstriking round in ages but couldn’t buy a putt: two 3-jacks, four missed birdie putts inside eight feet. I wanted to hurl myself into the sea, and it was just a meaningless game with friends. Can you imagine if days like that determined your family’s future? I enjoy my job so much I’d want to keep it, but on the side I’d like to be the No. 1 amateur in the world, competing in Walker Cups, the U.S. Am, occasional Masters and a few cocktail circuit events like the Crump Cup. That would be a blast.

I like it, because it would allow the game to remain fun....  and look at those future Walker Cup venues...

I don't begrudge him a lay-up every now and then:

“Is 2017 the year that Sergio finally wins a major?” –Andrew (@a_h_davies) 

No.

My only quibble is punctuation, as that answer seems to be crying out for an exclamation point.

This is the one catching folks attention, but....

“If you could ask Tiger just one question that he has to answer fully and truthfully to you only in confidence, what would it be?” -Mark (@mocycling) 

Was it worth it?

And by "it" you mean?  But Tiger answering truthfully....that's a good one, Mark.

He finishes with this one:

“If you can have unlimited access to write one golfer’s biography, who are you writing about?” –David (@Dkateeb) 

Phil. What a life that guy has had, filled with triumph, failure, scandal, medical crises, controversy and so much more. And Mickelson does a ton of stuff – philanthropy, world travel, high finance – that the public doesn’t really know about. It would be fascinating to go deep on all of it. And can you imagine how good the coffee would be?

Are you wondering about the coffee reference?   Me too:

Mickelson brews his magic elixir in a Presse, made by Bobble. Here is the tick-tock from Phillips: "Fill to the top with coarse ground Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, then add water heated to 200 degrees. Stir five or six times, wait three minutes and then plunge it. (If you wait too long the beans get bitter.) Phil then pours it into a Bodum pot and adds Califa Farms almond milk, a dash of cinnamon, a few Yiragacheffe Cacao nibs (80%) and a little medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, which is extracted from coconuts. With a hand electric blender he mixes it until slightly frothy and that's it."

OK, way too much information....

The Professor, Stumped -  From "Can't Miss" to "Has Been" in the wink of an eye, what's up with the kid?

Bryson DeChambeau still has a long way to go in his first full season on the PGA Tour, but it would be hard to describe his early results as anything other than disappointing. There was a putter controversy involving the USGA in January, three consecutive missed cuts entering this week's Genesis Open, and now, a first career WD. 

On Friday, DeChambeau pulled out of the field at Riviera with a hand injury after playing 28 holes in the tournament. DeChambeau shot an opening two-over-par 73 and was two over through 10 holes (four over overall) when he withdrew. Play was suspended for the day shortly after, and other details were provided by the tour.

How are those Cobra irons with the single shaft length selling?  Although, that doesn't seem to be his biggest issue:

It's been his putting, however, that's held him back the most. Late last year DeChambeau switched to an unconventional side-saddle method. The 2015 U.S. Amateur champ has said that once he gets enough practice with the technique, it will "be like cheating," but so far, that hasn't been the case. After posting a -.302 strokes gained putting last season, DeChambeau has dropped to -.617 so far this season, which ranks him 192nd on tour.

You want to root for him, because he makes things more interesting.  But at a certain point you have to stop worrying about revolutionizing the game and just play....

Hidecki, Unplugged -  If you've been watching early season golf, one of the best recurring stories is Hidecki Matsuyama.  Not so much his hot streak, but his reactions after hitting shots.

This description has become the norm:

On Riviera's par-3 16th hole, Matsuyama hit an 8-iron and then dropped his head in disgust. Was his ball heading to one of the bunkers guarding the green? Had he bladed it over the green? Had he hit a shank? Nope. Matsuyama's ball took one hop, rattled off the flagstick, and settled two feet from the hole.

Video at the link, but what's the deal?

"He hated it and he hit the flagstick," a commentator remarks. "I don't get it, I really don't. He does it so often." 

Either Matsuyama is a world-class perfectionist, he has worse feel or vision than we think, or he's just playing everybody. Either way, it made for one of the more unusual near-aces you'll ever see on the PGA Tour.

If he were really playing us, he'd immediately become my favorite golfer.  Evah!

Distance, Unplugged -  Mike Stachura is the Equipment Editor at Golf Digest and he takes in the recent USGA/R&A report on driving distance here.  I'll confess that I don't know how to blog this item because I don't know it's purpose....

John Spitzer, the USGA's official responsible for equipment conformity is given a platform and has many reasonable-sounding thoughts to share, but at the end of the days seems to be assuring us that the sun will come out tomorrow.  But the item closes with this rather off-putting threat:

“I have a great deal of respect for the talent and inventiveness of equipment manufacturers,” he said. “As such we’re not about to remove this important paragraph from the Rule book: 

“Any design in a club, ball, device or other equipment that is not covered by the Rules, which is contrary to the purpose and intent of the Rules or that might significantly change the nature of the game, will be ruled on by the USGA.”

Wow, you guys play rough!  This seems especially impotent since the most recent technological breakthroughs are less the specific golf equipment than monitoring devices such as TrackMan.

Read it for yourself and see if it tells you anything useful, I'll just share one additional 'graph with you that had me spitting out my coffee:

Other sports have seen the same challenges. Baseball has moved fences out and back in to deal with the twin masters of improved performance and increased entertainment. Speed skating saw all its records shattered virtually overnight because of an equipment change. Even a sport as simple as the javelin has been regulated again and again to combat purely athletic improvements and to keep the actual javelin from impaling the fans in the grandstands.

Javelin?  Really, that's what you're going with, Mike?  Have advances in javelin technology made classic stadia obsolete?