Tuesday Trifles

I have to be on the road in an hour, so just a tasting menu today...

Sectional Stuff - Shack plays Aggregator in Chief covering all of the sites here.  I'll just steal his headlines and links:

My roundup from the Newport Beach qualifier hosted by the SCGA, where five of the six were amateurs and all are going to be first-time U.S. Open contestants. J.D. Cuban’s images from the qualifier. 

Brentley Romine’s notes from the Tequesta, Florida qualifier where Jack Maguire medaled. Lisa Mickey filed this story from on site as well. Scott Miller’s photos from there. 

Kevin Casey’s Memphis wrap, where Steve Stricker qualified for his 20th U.S. Open and the first in his home state. John Gress's images from Memphis. 

Jeff Babineau on the Columbus qualifier where Stewart Cink was the qualifying headliner. Also making it were J.T. Poston, Jason Kokrak; Bud Cauley; Martin Laird; Keegan Bradley; Jamie Lovemark; Bryson DeChambeau; C.T. Pan; David Lingmerth; and Ted Potter Jr. The delay added some fun to Fred Vuich’s image gallery from Columbus. 

Tuesday morning at Lakes Golf & Country Club, four players will face off for three available spots: The group consists of Peter Uihlein, Talor Gooch, Michael Putnam, and amateur Scottie Scheffler. 

Mark Button’s roundup from Dallas, where Roman Robledo, Nick Flanagan and Walker Lee qualified. Here’s a link to Darren Carroll’s image gallery from Dallas. 

Kevin Casey with the Springfield roundup where Corey Connors was medalist, with Brian Stuard, Brice Garnett and Ryan Brehm made it to Erin Hills. And here is a gallery of Matt Sullivan’s images. 

Tom Cade reports from Lakewood, Washington where Derek Barron medaled and was joined by Jordan Niebrugge, Max Greyserman and Daniel Miernicki. Here are Steve Diapola’s images from Tacoma Country Club. 

David Dusek says Canoe Brook qualifier Daniel Chopra is no longer playing as a blonde but he is headed to Erin Hills. Michael Cohen’s images from Canoe Brook. 

Garrett Johnston reports from Woodmont in Maryland where Sam Ryder was medalist. Joel Kowsky's images from there. 

Stephan Jaeger and Alex Smalley were the qualifiers in Georgia, but no stories have been posted as of post time.

Lots of familiar names, and good to see them putting in the effort.  And Mr. Stricker no doubt has emerged with an enhanced sense of self-esteem, not requiring the special exemption for which he threatened to hold his breath until he turned blue.  Hey, I've been to Wisconsin at least twice, aren't I equally deserving?  Now Hillary, not so much, because she's never been to Wisconsin..... 

Now this story has me scratching my head:

U.S. Open hopeful Michael Buttacavoli saw his chances of qualifying on Monday dashed – but it had nothing to do with his play. 

Buttacavoli was headed to play at the Jupiter Hills Golf Club in Tequesta, Fla. early Monday. He arrived at the airport just fine, however his bags did not, thanks to American Airlines.

There's some back and forth in Twitterverse, though the airline's tweets seem undoubtedly to be auto-generated.

But a question for you all....  You show up for U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying and your golf bag doesn't make it....  Do you withdraw, or do you find the club's professional staff and borrow whatever you can and give it a go?  What am I missing?

Math Is Hard - Does it amuse you when folks with one job manage to screw it up?  Yanno, like the Ian Poulter/Brain Gay  mess....

Well, then this will be right up your alley:

Last week, the Women's World Golf Rankings projected that either Ariya Jutanugarn or

So Yeon Ryu would soon dethrone Lydia Ko as the No. 1 golfer in the world. Turns out they made a mistake--and Ko gets to keep her crown a little bit longer. Despite headlines around the world trumpeting Ko's inevitable topple, it emerged on Monday that Ko wouldn't be relinquishing her perch after all. The LPGA published a statement from the provider that WWGR Inc., uses to manage the calculations behind the rankings, saying that there was an error in their projections, and Ko remained ahead of Jutanugarn by .01 points. 

Ko has been No. 1 for 84 consecutive weeks and 103 weeks overall. In 2015, Ko became the youngest ever world No. 1 in golf. She was just 17 years old at the time.

I deeply regret selling my foam finger on E-Bay....

Asked and Answered -  Alan Shipnuck is back to salvage a Tuesday post going nowhere fast:

"Who is the one player playing full-time minus Phil who is universally respected and liked?" -JeremyBenson75 

Well, there is certainly a cult of Phil, but I wouldn't say he's universally liked. The easy answer in the past to this question was Steve Stricker but he's not playing full-time anymore, so I'm going with Fowler. The young guys on Tour love his swag and respect his hustle, the old guys appreciate that he always does the right thing, the WAGs adore his aw-shucks charm and tournament directors and Tour bureaucrats are deeply grateful that he always gives extra time to sponsors and fans.

Sheesh, I thought Vijay was a mortal lock....

Two queries about The Duf:

"Jason Dufner at Erin Hills -- will he be able to carry the success or it won't fit his eye? #askalan" -Paul (@prutkowki)

The Duf is such a fairways-and-greens maestro the Open is perfect for him, so it's no surprise he's been top-eight in three of the last six. But Erin Hills is a different kettle of fish because it's the rare Open venue to have four par-5s. Dufner is relatively short off the tee, so this isn't the ideal setup for him. I expect a strong finish but it'll be tough to win giving up so much on the 3-shotters to the DJs of the world. 

"Who is Duf's new gal? Is she as hot as his ex? #ImportantStuff" –Daniel (@68shooter)

Yes, golf fans all over the globe still pine for the lovely former Mrs. Dufner, but I had a long chat at Augusta with his new girlfriend and she's quite funny and saucy and much more down-to-earth than her predecessor. No doubt she's played an important part in his renaissance.

OK, technically that second question wasn't actually about The Duf...

And translating into the original English, fairways-and-greens maestro = horrible putter. 

These two answer themselves:

"Can you compare nine senior majors (Langer) to eighteen regular majors (Jack)?" -@linksplayers

No. 

"If heat index is forecasted over 100, should pros be allowed to wear shorts?" -Kevin (@CaddieKev)

No. Why? Three words: Colt Knost's legs.

Oh, I do so hope that the USGA goes back to having some fun with their pairings, the fat-boy grouping of a few years ago was such good fun.

These get a bit more interesting:

"We are in the midst of a changing of the guard. Project to 2020: Who are your Big Four?" -David (@DStan58)

Spieth, Rahm, Pieters, Dustin. 

"How does Rahm hit it so far with driver when he only takes it back as far as I take my 60-degree?" -@IronForty

Never, ever underestimate the power of paella. Not to mention thighs that are thick as redwood trunks and perfect technique at impact. 

"Who wins a major first, Rickie or Rahm?"-Ryan (@therealsnee)

Rickie. You gotta lose a few before you can win one. (Don't @ me.)

To me, Spieth is the most questionable of that first four, no?  And Rory would seem to be the missing name, given that he'll only be in his early thirties by then.

As for Rickie, the pressure is building for a guy that still hasn't won all that much....  Just sayin'....

Isn't She Lovely -  Apologies folks, as in yesterday's wrappage I forgot to do the deep dive expected of me....  Yes, I.K. Kim won the LPGA event in Atlantic City, but here's the bottom of the leaderboard:

I draw your attention to Sharmila Nicoliet, for whom they can't even spare an Indian flag...  when you click on he rname, this is the expanded window:

Is she that unattractive?  Hardly, here's this week's beefcake:

She won the Twitter poll for the  last sponsor's exemption, beating out three other babes.  But if you want your tour to be taken seriously, you need to act like it's a serious athletic competition.

Now, I still don't see how she takes the club back.....