Your Friday Frisson

With the Irish Open as my background music, here's what's new in our little fishbowl.

Bones' Jones for.....Microphones - It's just a gift folks, don't be bitter.....Here's the gist of it:

Jim “Bones” Mackay will start carrying a microphone. 

The longtime wingman for Phil Mickelson will join NBC and Golf Channel as an on-course reporter, the network announced Thursday. He’ll cover the British Open at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, later this month, the FedExCup playoffs at the end of the season and the Presidents Cup. 

“This is a great day for me,” Mackay said in a conference call. “I’m absolutely overjoyed to join the NBC golf team. I have so much to learn. I can’t wait to get the whole process going.”

This is a mild surprise, though not even close to a shock....  Here's the man with his C.V.:

TV feels like a natural move for Mackay, who said he loves the game and was a golf rat as a kid.“I would watch everything from start to finish. I would read golf magazines from beginning to end,” Mackay said. “I’ve always been fascinated by the game at this level. 

Certainly when I was lucky enough to get to caddie on the PGA Tour you take in everything around you. 

“I loved watching what the TV guys do. It’s intriguing. I think it’s yet another fascinating aspect of the golf world.”

Golf rat?  I've heard of range rats and golf nerds, mostly because I qualify as both.....

Those of you that, like your humble correspondent, need to get out more, might remember Bones' audition:

This won’t be Mackay’s first announcing gig. He and fellow caddie John Wood worked

alongside each other during Golf Channel’s coverage of the 2015 RSM Classic. NBC said Mackay, 51, is the first full-time caddie to be signed to a broadcasting role. 

Tommy Roy, lead producer for golf for NBC and a longtime friend of Mackay’s, said, “Bones thinks like a producer.” That when the two would have dinners, the conversation never centered on Mackay and Mickelson. Roy said Mackay always thought bigger picture and storylines. 

“Those things usually take time to get ingrained in you, to think like a producer, and he already has that,” Roy said. “He’s a great communicator. He’s already prepared with other ideas of what he can bring to the telecast.”

I only watched a little that week, though I thought that Wood was the more natural of the two, not that Bones was bad....  But glad to hear that he's got the important stuff down:

There was one thing he learned from his week at the RSM Classic that he can’t ever do on a broadcast going forward. 

“The only thing I had to get on Bones the entire time (during the 2015 RSM Classic) was he was chewing on gum during on-cameras,” Roy said. “So from now on, we ixnay the gum during on-cameras.” 

What are Mackay’s thoughts here? 

“Yeah, don’t ever chew gum on the air,” Mackay said.

Is he a quick learner, or what?

Though I do question whether this is actually true:

Have you seen that backpack that Feherty lugs around?  And unlike a staff bag, it can't be thrown on the ground.

Two thoughts about the news....  First, given that Golf Channel has a full crew doing the Irish this week and the Scottish next, I'm surprised that they didn't get him over there sooner.  As a wise man would put it, give him some reps so he can get his announcing feelz.....

Secondly, NBC has a bit of an on-course glut right now.  They've had some noticeable awkwardness in their use of Maltbie and Feherty, which will be interesting with Bones in the mix.  That said, I'm sure that Tommy Roy is playing the long game, Maltbie can't have too many years left and the rumors of Johnny retiring seem to have picked up pace, so perhaps the plan is to break Bones in (get it) gradually....

Scenes From Portstewart - I did very much like this item on Portstewart's day in the sun, including an "How times have changed " anecdote:

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland – Michael Moss was doing promotional work for the local government in the mid-1970s in an effort to bring more visitors to this part of

Northern Ireland. At one point in 1976, he was called into the mayor’s office in Coleraine and feted for his work driving tourists to Portstewart Golf Club. 

“I was congratulated for bringing 13 people from outside of Northern Ireland to this tournament,” Moss recalled one recent morning over coffee in the second-floor restaurant at Portstewart’s clubhouse. 

Moss laughed at the memory. During The Troubles, 13 visitors was a big deal. On a typical morning these days, several times that many international visitors file through the Portstewart pro shop and happily pay £150 ($194) to play the Strand, host course for this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

Those were dark years, which thankfully seem behind us.

This guy came to play:

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland (AP) -- Rising Spanish star Jon Rahm upstaged

tournament host Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open by shooting a 7-under 65 to move one stroke off the first-round lead on Thursday. 

Rahm, ranked No. 11, showed impressive form on the links two weeks out from the British Open, rolling in six birdies and an eagle on a low-scoring day at Portstewart. He was tied for third place with Englishmen Matthew Southgate and Oliver Fisher. 

Daniel Im of the United States, ranked No. 542, and Benjamin Hebert of France, ranked No. 254, held the lead after shooting bogey-free 64s.

As opposed to this guy:

The three stages of Rory....Shock, Anger and...well, not Acceptance.

Rory has finished his round, and will have the weekend free to take his bride shopping in Coleraine.

Lord knows I don't want to be on the same side of any spat with Elk, but what is going on with Rory?  

Scenes From The Old White - Just good to see them back there, after last year's catastrophe.  It's no doubt the kind of course this guy can still compete on:

Don't try telling Davis Love III that the PGA Tour is a young man's game. 

Love surprised many of his peers when he won the 2015 Wyndham Championship at age 

51, and he is again near the top of the leaderboard after a bogey-free 63 to open The Greenbrier Classic. He's two strokes behind Sebastian Munoz, and Love's 63 was five shots lower than his previous best round this season. 

Love got out of the gates quickly on the newly-renovated Old White TPC, with birdies on four of his first five holes after a flurry of accurate approach shots. He grabbed a share of the lead with a 30-foot make on No. 14, then chipped in for birdie from in front of the green on the par-5 17th to become the first player to reach 7 under par.

Oh, he knows it's a young man's game, but there are courses for horses....

Oh, and I just found this Bubba tweet from last June:

Oh, stop whining!  It's just a little casual water....

Speaking of the Bubbameister, he played the 17th hole in perhaps the most Bubbaesque manner possible:

Watson hit his tee shot at the 17th way right, and he was honestly lucky to find it. The

ball ended up on some rocks, from which Watson decided to take a chance and hit from rather than take an unplayable lie and a one-shot penalty.

It worked out, as Watson knocked his ball back into the fairway. Now facing 304 yards to the hole, Watson decided to go driver off the deck with his third shot. 

That strike did not finish up quite as well.

Video at the link.

Scenes From Birkdale - The first of many on the upcoming Open Championship is this unbylined Nine Things You Need to Know about the venue, including these bones for Martha Burke:

3. Birkdale was opened in 1889 and became an early pioneer in women's golf when club members voted to allow women to play the course for three days each week. 

4. In 1890, the first women were elected as members. One of the first tournaments hosted at Birkdale was a ladies' championship.

Good for them.  It's a really good golf course, easily the best of the English venues.  Though surprisingly far from the Iris Sea....

But add this to the long list of "What's in the water at Golf.com" items we've had recently:

5. In the 1969 Ryder Cup, Birkdale was the site of the famous "Concession." Jack Nicklaus conceded the 18th hole to Tony Jacklin in what the club's history calls "a gesture of supreme sportsmanship which has never been forgotten." The match ended in a 16-16 tie. He finished T4 and two off the lead.

Say what?  They don't even proofread things anymore, do they?

The other Open story is the rather dramatic increase in the purse, and the rather humiliating change in denomination:

The total prize money for the 146th Open Championship will be $10.25 million, with the winner receiving $1.845 million to go along with the Claret Jug. 

Golf’s third major of the season is set for July 20-23 at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. 

The prize money will be based on dollars. The value of the British pound has been negatively affected by last year’s Brexit vote. 

“We are operating in an increasingly global marketplace and have made the decision to award the prize fund in U.S. dollars in recognition of the fact that it is the most widely adopted currency for prize money in golf,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement Wednesday.

That makes it comparable to The Masters and Players....  A far cry from the days when the winner could cover his travel costs.   But this may be our first trip in which we have a soft Pound to enjoy, though it's still not a cheap undertaking....

Cheap Shots -  In which your humble bloggers ceases to control the snark....

When dis she join CNN? - Brittany Lincicome hopes Trump won't attend the U.S. Women's Open

I'll Wait For The Man Chases Moose Story - This video of a moose chasing a golfer is alternately hilarious and terrifying

Only 29? - 29 reasons why you didn't play well today

Jordan, You Ignorant Slut.  If Only You'd Listened in 2015 - Jordan Spieth skipping John Deere Classic to prepare for British Open

A Very Important Comma - Caddie Kip Henley on Vijay Singh, cheating on Tour