Midweek Wrap...

...or Weekend Musings, whichever you prefer.  It's a Wednesday that feels like a Monday, so we're all a tad disoriented.

That Long-Ago Weekend - Golf Digest has us covered:

What you missed this weekend

What, besides all those 3-footers?  In their order of importance:

Stanley returns to winner's circle 

Starting Sunday four shots back, Kyle Stanley was hoping for a top-four finish at the

Quicken Loans National, one that would grant an invite to the Open Championship. He ultimately earned a spot in the Royal Birkdale field, but grabbed something sweeter: a win at TPC Potomac. 

The 29-year-old shot a final-round 66, good enough for a playoff against Charles Howell III, and on the first hole of sudden death, Stanley's 4 to Howell's 5 prevailed. It was Stanley's first victory in five years. And the things he had to endure between Ws. 

A former All-American and Ben Hogan Award winner at Clemson, Stanley was once a rising star in the sport. Yet though few on tour were better ball-strikers, Stanley found wayward driving and putting issues curbed his potential throughout his 20s, and -- failing to crack the FedEx Cup's top 100 the past three seasons, even spending some time at the Web.com Tour -- he was quickly becoming a tale of unfulfilled promise.

Stanley hit our radar screens when he bounced back from a heartbreaking loss at Torrey to win the following week in Phoenix.  Since then, crickets.

Though I'm having trouble reconciling that last 'graph....  wayward driving perhaps means you're not one of the best ball-strikers....or not.  But the irony is the similar career and games of the two guys that fought it out in the playoff....  At least one of them had to win.

Next up:

Fleetwood's 2017 tour continues 

Speaking of former prodigies, Tommy Fleetwood -- long heralded as Europe's "next big

thing" -- is quickly becoming the story of the summer overseas. The 26-year-old, who won at Abu Dhabi in January and posted top-five finishes at the WGC-Mexico and U.S. Open, turned in a closing 66 to best Peter Uihlein at the HNA Open de France at Le Golf National. 

The win vaults Fleetwood to No. 15 in the world, quite the accomplishment given he was ranked No. 188 as of last July. 

"Life has been a lot better," Fleetwood said. "When you enjoy doing your job, no matter what part of it it is. That's a massive, massive positive. Just to be enjoying golf again, it took a lot of hard work." 

Despite a touch-and-go short game, Fleetwood's power off the tee and second-shot finesse puts him on the short list of claret jug contenders. Oh, and if his renaissance wasn't a narrative in itself, Fleetwood grew up minutes away from Royal Birkdale. Going on a limb and saying he may have a few backers at his side in Southport.

Well, as long as he doesn't stop thinking about tomorrow.... Two can play at that game.

The home game at Birkdale assures he'll show up on quite a few fantasy rosters, though I personally can't get past that touch-and-go short game....

I'm skipping their synopsis of the round-bellies, to which we'll circle back below. 

Kang earns breakthrough on major stage 

Brooke Henderson was this close to defending her major title at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, birdieing her final two holes to tie for the lead with her eagle putt

on the 18th hole just coming up short. But the fledging superstar was bested by 24-year-old Danielle Kang, whose birdie at Olympia Fields' home hole gave her a first LPGA victory in 144 career starts. 

Kang's back nine was far from a model of consistency. She bogeyed the 10th to fall a shot behind Henderson and Chella Choi, only to answer with four straight birdies to put herself back in the mix. However, she needed a 21-footer to save par on the 16th, and made a mess of things on the 17th for a bogey. Yet Kang, a former two-time U.S. Women's Amateur champions who hadn't had a top-10 in 30 previous major attempts, reached the par-5 18th in two, with the ensuing two-putt giving her the crown. 

“I think that it's been a really difficult road for me for the past four or five years,” Kang said. “It’s life, though. You have to pick yourself up, and you have to keep working hard at it, and then believe in what you're doing, and not letting yourself down.”

If any of this weekend's action has long-term consequences, it would be this young woman's breakthrough win.  It took longer than expected, but there's also been heartache involved:

Kang lost her father, K.S., to cancer in 2013, but her mother, Grace Lee, was one of the

first people to congratulate her on the victory. She also face-timed with brother Alex, an instrumental figure in her performance at Olympia Fields, after the trophy presentation.

Kang's father caddied for her when she won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 2010 and 2011. She keeps a journal where she writes messages to her father. 

"If I could wish anything, I would wish that my dad saw me won," said Kang, wiping tears from her eyes. "I think that it's been a really difficult road for me the past four or five years. It's life, though, you pick yourself up and you have to keep working hard at it, and then believe in what you're doing, and not letting yourself down. 

"I just know that he's here for it. What are the odds that my first win is a major? Pretty sure he had something to do with it. It's just incredible. But I know that he was there, because I felt - I felt him with me every day, and I still do."

We always think that when the first takes so long that the floodgates will open.....  She's an awfully good player and an engaging young lady, so let's hope so.

The Alter Kocker Open -  Not exactly Tom and Jack at Turnberry, but two guys pretty much lapped the field:

PEABODY, Mass. (AP) -- Kenny Perry claimed his second U.S. Senior Open on Sunday, pulling away from Kirk Triplett at Salem Country Club to finish at 16 under and win by

two strokes. 

The 56-year-old Perry closed with a 2-under 68 for a record score of 264. Perry also won the event in 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska. It is his fourth major victory on the senior tour. 

Perry started the day a stroke behind Triplett but five ahead of the next-closest contender, Brandt Jobe. Triplett, who tied the tournament record with a 62 in the opening round, had five bogeys Sunday and shot 71.

 I just thought we should salute the winner before we get down and dirty with Brandel:

Brandel Chamblee is not happy about the way the anchoring ban is being upheld on the PGA Tour. 

In a series of tweets on Saturday night, the Golf Channel analyst criticized the enforcement of the rule, calling it “appalling” and stating that it exhibits “gross disregard for the spirit of the game.”

While Twitter commenters speculated that Chamblee was referring to Bernhard Langer, Chamblee did not specifically mention any player by name.

He might not have specified them by name this time, but this isn't the first time the subject has arisen.  Oh, and do you notice a word missing above?  Let me help you by providing Brandel's tweet:

That missing "Champions" makes it pretty damn clear about whom we're speaking.... Interestingly, this rule and the enforcement thereof was the first question posed to the Tour Confidential panel:

John Wood: In a word, yes. I’ve spoken with more than a couple friends, players and caddies alike, who now work on the Champions Tour, and they are not happy. While no one has stepped up to name anyone, they tell me that in the locker rooms, many players are vocal and angry, but still trying to work the problem inside the tour with rules officials, rather than making things very public. I’ve been told that the mantra on the PGA Tour amongst rules officials is, “We need to see daylight,” so no one is pushing it out here.

Michael Bamberger: It seemed like a neat solution at the time, to alter the method and not the putter itself, but it is almost impossible to police. Which means it’s not working. The USGA’s real goal was to prevent hot-shot kids coming up in the game going to anchoring early, as so many now go to cross-handed early. The truth is, the USGA never really spoke with candor about the organization’s objection: it doesn’t look golfy. Well, the enforcement looks less golfy. Yes, it needs a facelift. The facelift may be elimination of the change or an elimination of long-shafted putters. In other words, a pretty radical facelift. It was a shame so much energy was wasted on it in the first place. The game has other things to worry about.

As the kids like to say, stay tuned....  I don't agree with Mike, as I think the only thing wrong with the anchoring ban is that it came twenty years too late....  And while they could have banned long putters instead, if you're going to ban anchoring you have to, you know, ban it. 

Play Better, Redux - yeah, yeah, yeah, but I feel strongly on this subject, so please either bear with me as I slit some hairs or skip ahead to the next item.  Back to the TC panel:

4. Two-time NBA MVP and multi-millionaire Steph Curry received a sponsor’s exemption into the Web.com tour’s Ellie Mae Classic in August. But the question of whether Curry, a 2.2 handicap, deserved a spot over grinding pros ignited a debate on social media. Do you have a problem with Curry playing in the event? 

Wood: Not really. The Ellie Mae Classic is trying to sell tickets and get eyes onto their event. This will sell tickets and get eyes onto their event. I hate to sound cruel and it is not my intention, but since I started caddying out on Tour 21 years ago, there is a mantra that goes around no matter what problem a player has with regard to fairness: Play better. It fixes everything.

There's I think two points missing from the discussion....

First, the players complaining are not asking that the exemption be for themselves....  Spots in the field are scarce resources and they're concerned that they be available for players trying to make their way in the game.  How could this possibly be otherwise?

Secondly, this is the same event that allowed Jerry Rice to beclown himself for three friggin' years....  Can you not understand how maddening that is to a kid scrambling to find enough places to play?

And this in a world when the big tour sponsors were still giving John Daly exemptions decades after his sell-by date?

I take this all as an argument to raise the standards for sponsors exemptions....   This may well be one of those instances where Steph Curry can really generate enough buzz to raise all boats (I know, a mixed analogy at best), but let's at least pretend to maintain some standards.  If nothing else, do it for the children....

Five Families Fail - Shack reprises his "Five Families" recurring bit to argue about the over-crowded TV schedule:

While the 2017 editions of the KPMG Women’s PGA, U.S. Senior Open and Quicken

Loans National probably won’t be talked about a century from now, each featured enough intrigue for a sports fan to savor. Yet each started and finished at almost the same time on a summer Sunday in the United States.

Put me down for seriously flawed programming. 

Even with the July 4th holiday falling on a Tuesday, therefore opening up Monday July 3rd as a de facto holiday, three golf tournaments went head to head for no good reason. With each played at compelling venues that alone would attract viewers (Salem CC, Olympia Fields, TPC Potomac), they competed for viewers on a Sunday that not only failed fans, but will fuel the ratings decline narrative. 

Next time the five families meet, perhaps they can bring calendars along to their meetings and kick around a way to spread the viewing love. A Monday finish most likely would not have hurt any one of the three, particularly the Quicken Loans, where galleries were thin.

I've certainly made this argument myself, especially for the LPGA.  They've experimented with some Saturday finishes and the like, but it's easier said than done.  It's difficult to get fans and volunteers to a golf course on non-weekend days, but how about three cheers for a our dying game?  It's imminent demise notwithstanding, we grabbed three out of four networks on a Sunday afternoon.   Not to shabby.....

The Good, The Bad and the Curious - We only have two items, and the subject is course restorations, and the first is the very essence of good:

I Heard… 

That 69 percent of the membership at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., voted to restore its East Course to the vintage 1925 Donald Ross design. With the club contracted with the PGA of America to host two major championships in the the next six years,

Andrew Green will be handling the changes to holes that had previously been redesigned by Tom Fazio and Robert Trent Jones III. Green will have tour player input from Rochester native Jeff Sluman, the 1988 PGA champion. Ground breaking will take place just after the club hosts the Senior PGA Championship in 2019. “The history of the place is incredible and the documentation spectacular,” said Green, who is also handling a Ross restoration at Inverness. “We’ve got a nice set of documents to work off of.” The timetable for restoration is expected to have the course open for members by Memorial Day 2020, and completely grown in by 2023, when the club hosts its fourth PGA Championship, the last won by Jason Dufner in 2013. If there’s concern about Oak Hill’s readiness for the 2023 PGA, particularly if the PGA of America goes ahead with a proposal to move the dates of the major from August to May, it’s not over course conditions but whether the weather in upstate New York could create problems during the 100-day build out of the infrastructure required to host a major.

In his post on this subject, here's how Shack amusing describes the process:

Which is why a copule of items got my attention, starting with the exciting, long, long, long overdue news that Oak Hill's membership has voted to go back to their Ross design while joining the long list of courses to de-Fazio.

Geoff, any chance you'd share that long list with us?  

When I was at Bethpage with the Met. Golf Writers, I asked the PGA representatives whether they had concerns  about Bethpage as a venue for a May 2019 event, to which they all just shrugged their shoulders.  But they all agreed that May in Rochester was sub-optimal.....though I didn't consider the build-out of grandstands and other infrastructure.

Geoff also informs that The Olympic Club has gone a strange direction:

Meanwhile I'm utterly flummoxed by what has happened at the historic and enchanting Olympic Club, where the already-deep, ancient bunkers have gotten deeper and decidedly less attractive. (Unless you're into 1970s architecture with little of the historic vibe that always has been the Olympic Club look.)

For those unaware of the background, here's how the famed I-O-U bunkers have always looked:

We're living in the Heinlen crazy years.....

Are Your Ready For Some Links Golf? - I always am, and what a stretch we have before us, beginning tomorrow with The Irish Open, an event that as recently as 2011 was on its death bed, with no sponsor and few prospects.  But all is good now:

But the move to Royal Portrush in 2012, effectively creating a new rota moving the 

The crowds at Portrush in 2012.  My buddy Lowell is somewhere in there.

tournament North one year and South the next, provided a new lease of life. That staging of the tournament on the Causeway Coast, again without a title sponsor but with the purse increased to €2 million, started a chain of events that would invigorate Irish golf. 

The crowds at Royal Portrush reached 112,000 over the four tournament days - the first ever event on the European Tour to completely sell out - and, as we know, that tournament was the catalyst for the R&A’s decision to return to the famed Dunluce links for the 2019 British Open championship. 

The 2013 and 2014 Irish Opens - at Carton House and Fota Island respectively - were again staged without any title sponsor. But, by 2015, when the tournament was staged at Royal County Down, all had changed and changed utterly. Two things, not unrelated, happened: Dubai Duty Free, which has a long association with the Irish Derby, had come on board as title sponsor; and Rory McIlroy had taken on the responsibility as the tournament host.

This year they're back in the North, at Portstewart Golf Club, a spectacular links with an outgoing nine through some of the most dramatic dunes you'll ever see.

I do think the author is commingling a series of causes and effects, though it's all for the greater good.  Portrush 2012 was the critical element for Portrush 2019, the return of the Open Championship to Northern Ireland.

The restoration of the Irish Open was twofold, first the correction of the same error made by The Scottish Open.  Remember when that for years was played at Loch Lomond?  Scotland and Ireland are renown for a very specific type of golf, played on their linksland, so why were their national opens played inland?  And for the Irish, a date change to the week before the Scottish Open was the coup de grace....

Beginning at zero dark thirty tomorrow, enjoy the coverage of the greatest golf known to man.... Before moving on, this is waht those early holes at Portstewart look like:

But this header blew me away:

Ballyliffin pulls out all stops in hopes of landing Irish Open at Glashedy Links

Beloved Ballyliffin?  For anyone unfamiliar with my relationship with Ballyliffin, I'll suggest you read this first post from my maiden blog, when Employee No. 2 and I spent two weeks hanging with the wonderful folks there.  So, is this remotely possible, given how remote a place it is?

BALLYLIFFIN, Ireland – The Glashedy Links at Ballyliffin Golf Club opens with three stiff par 4s before players arrive at the par-5 fourth. At 477 yards, it’s a reasonable birdie opportunity. 

Ballyliffin, however, has been adding some starch to the Glashedy Links. If you walk past the back tee on No. 4 and wander down a path for 115 yards, you’ll arrive at a new back tee that stretches the hole to 585 yards. That would challenge even the best players.

And that’s just what Ballyliffin hopes to do. The club has made some changes in a bid to land the 2018 Irish Open. A decision by the European Tour could be announced as early as this week, when the Irish Open is played at Portstewart Golf Club.

The Glashedy is a terribly challenging links, so unless the wind is down I could see it providing a stern test.  Though this is troubling:

Pat Ruddy, who designed Glashedy, has helped the club tweak the layout for tournament play. All told, some 200 yards has been added to the front nine on Glashedy. 

A new back tee was added on No. 2, offset to the right to create more of a dogleg and bring an out-of-bounds fence into play. A bunker was added on the left side of the landing area on No. 3. And 75 yards were added to No. 9 for a back tee that brings fairway bunkers into play. Farren reasons those changes strike a good balance between tournament and member play.

I've put more than a few over that fence.....  including the day I played with the then club Captain, Paddy Logue.  As for Pat Ruddy, we met him when we visited his European Club a few years back:

Hey, who doesn't like a pretty Irish girl?

This is exciting, though I just can't see how it could be possible....  According to Wikipedia, the population of the town of Ballyliffin in 2011 was 461.....  That's not a typo.  It's a spectacularly unspoiled place, a major part of its appeal to us, but where would anyone stay?

How's that for a catch-up post?