As things now stand, you'll have to do without me tomorrow.... Though Jose and Maria are doing their best to screw up the plans.
One Final Loop - The PGA Tour has released its 2017-18 schedule, with a couple of surprises:
1. THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN 47 FEDEX CUP EVENTS IS… 49 FEDEX CUP EVENTS!
More golf is always better, but wow—two newbies means that there are a heck of a lot of events. December is empty, so the Tour is really packing 'em in during the rest of the season. July has six! In only four-and-a-half weeks! Buckle up, sports fans.
We just have to get through one more cycle folks.... But really, there are some nice surprises, such as this:
4. THE PLAYOFFS ARE STILL ON THE MOVETwo FedEx Cup Playoffs events change courses: The Northern Trust Open (Aug. 23-26) returns to The Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey, while the BMW Championship (Sept. 6-9) leaves Illinois to head to Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia.
Huh? The event that I've ridiculed for claiming the Western Open as its ancestor is being played in Philly? OK, don't complain, as it's at least an interesting venue...
But the author of that missed what's hiding in plain sight, as Shack explains:
No real shockers on the 2017-18 schedule, though it was encouraging to see the Houston Open and D.C. stops kept on the list without sponsors. Amazingly, what's left of the Floridaswing is still interrupted by the WGC event in Mexico, the strangest travel sequence on the 2016-17 schedule.
Yeah, though at least the Houston stop has a venue.... If you partake of Geoff's Point-Counterpoint with John Feinstein, the latter drops some interesting hints about 2019, most notably that three events go bye-bye.
Back to the first piece for this rousing coda:
7. THIS IS GLORY'S LAST SHOT'S LAST SHOT.The PGA is in August—one last time. Cherish it while you can, PGA traditionalists, because golf's fourth major is headed to May in 2019.
What he doesn't tell you is that it's Bellerive in August. One last steamer for the lads.... Although I'm planning to be washing my hair a lot that week.
These Crazy Kids - Brian Wacker helpfully fills in the details on yesterday's item on the Tour's new Integrity policy:
On Monday, the PGA Tour announced what it’s calling an integrity program, an initiativethat takes its long-standing policy prohibiting players from gambling to another level. The policy, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, now extends to a player’s support team, tournament staff and volunteers, as well as tour employees. To track gambling on golf in real time, the tour has also hired London-based Genius Sports.
On Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the move was a proactive one, and not reactive to a specific incident or larger concern.
“Our brand is sacred, and our brand has been established by the legends of the game and it goes back for decades,” he said. “We established this program not because we think there's a problem. It's just the world is dynamic, gaming is a reality in every sport. We think it's the right thing to do when your brand is as strong as ours is to really understand what the activities are and to be proactive.”
Has Jay been told that the 2018 season begins in October 2017? More likely, he's not concerned because, you know, when that tree falls in the forest....
According to a handful of players and caddies, wagers are made regularly by those on the “inside” (caddies, for example) and often done so in real time with up-to-the-second information being used in markets where live betting is permitted.
One real-life example provided by a caddie is knowing that an injured player is poised to withdraw and therefore loading up on his opponent in a match bet. In short, it’s the equivalent of insider trading on the stock market.
Such live betting is enormously popular in the United Kingdom, among other places. It’s also gaining traction in Nevada, where some sports books already offer mobile apps to customers who are inside state lines.
Yeah, that's the ticket.... It's so much easier to dump on the caddies.... I'm not a gambler, nor do I play one on TV, but do the DraftKings of the world make book on head-to-head match-ups of players?
But could issues of “match fixing” take place the way they have in sports such as tennis? It’s certainly plausible, particularly on lower-level tours—the policy applies to all the tours that the PGA Tour oversees, including ones in Canada, Latin American and Asia—where the payouts aren’t as rich, says Geoff Ogilvy. And integrity aside, the tools make it at least possible, which is why the tour is eager to get out in front of any potential pitfalls.
“No one in golf thinks that has happened to this point, and I don’t think it has, but as these options become available there is more and more potential,” Ogilvy, also a member of the tour’s PAC, said. “At the back of the field in a Web.com Tour event, they’re not making that much money anyway. It could be quite tempting.”
On the Mackenzie Tour? At the back of the field.... Color me skeptical, though I don't want to be labeled Anti-Integrity.... It just seems a stretch that you could place enough money down to matter.
Monahan, unlike his sainted predecessor, has expressed an openness to gambling gaming, because it of course can bring eyeballs. I've always though that golf, ironically, was the perfect game for gambling among participants but was ill-suited for the gaming industry... But Shack goes even further, tying it to his (and my) pet issue of backstopping:
On a serious note, this is a wise area for the Tour to address should sports betting be legalized. Given what we've seen in tennis, coupled with the bizarre trend of players blatantly assisting their peers by leaving balls down as a backstop or sideboard, getting out in front of these matters will be important in protecting the Tour's image.
No harm in being prepared, for sure..... The cynic in me just has to note that a Tour that seems blissfully unconcerned about a player's unpaid seven-figure gambling debt being repaid with a insider stock tip, is now living in fear of caddies getting a sawbuck down?
Golfers Say The Darndest Things - This is the second Dylan Dethier piece today, so I might have to figure out who he is. But he captures Rory's top soundbites from his decade in public, and it's a bit more interesting than I expected. First this deft juxtaposition of words and images:
2009: "[The Ryder Cup] is not a huge goal of mine. It's an exhibition at the end of the day…in the big scheme of things it's not that important an event for me. Obviously I'll try my best for the team - but I'm not going to go running around fist-pumping."
In '09 Rory notably had little interest in making the Ryder Cup team – but by 2016, he'd gotten over the "no fist-pumping" rule.
Well played....
This one is nothing special, I just can't not include the priceless photo:
2007: "I've been getting interviewed since I was about seven or eight years old. I'm
pretty good at this talking thing, I think."
So said 18-year-old Rory, mop-topped and bushy-tailed, in a press conference at his first major (the 2007 Open Championship, where he would earn the Silver Medal for low amateur) just months before turning pro. Now 10 years into his pro career, his play—and that talking thing—have kept viewers entertained ever since.
Mop-topped for sure, but also man-breasted....
But Dylan omitted my favorite Rory quote, when after incurring a silly two shot penalty that cost him the event in Abu Dhabi in 2014, he told us that he has better things to do than to read the rule book. What better things, oh working on the wedding invitations with Caroline..... Too soon?
Also there with nonsense this morning is Brandel Chamblee, who seems at times to enjoy a rich fantasy life. The subject is Tiger and his role in fetching sandwiches for the Prez Cup team:
When Tiger Woods was dominating on the PGA Tour, he was unquestionably the game's most intimidating player.
Now, four years removed from his latest victory and struggling to come back frominjuries, Woods's aura can still mesmerize those around him—and, according to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, motivate players on the U.S. Presidents Cup squad next week at Liberty National in Jersey City, N.J.
Woods is one of Steve Stricker's assistant captains, a role he earned after his successful assistant captainship at the 2016 Ryder Cup.
"He used to psychologically destroy people, and now he is there to psychologically boost people," Chamblee said during a conference call on Tuesday. "And it's possible that he's going to be just as good at boosting the moral of people as he was at destroying it. … With Tiger Woods, he can talk obviously about the game, but he can talk about the mental side of the game, which he appeared to know things that nobody else has ever known. So I think it's wonderful, the role that he has moved into in the game of golf."
Let me see if I have this straight.... the same generation that no longer intimidated by the man on the golf course will immediately swoon from his presence in a golf cart? Y.E. Yang wa sunavailable for comment....
Burying The Lede - Brantley Romine files under this header:
Rico Hoey's decision to turn pro right after NCAAs pays off
Here's the good news for the young man in question:
But Hoey never lost confidence, and it all clicked when it counted most. Hoey fired a
Hoey with Texas' Doug Ghim at the 2015 NCAA's. third-round, 8-under 62 to take a comfortable lead into the final round at Highland Country Club. He ended up closing in 67 to edge former Oklahoma State player Jordan Niebrugge, another one of Hoey’s college contemporaries, by a shot.
Hoey will still go to Web.com Tour Q-School’s final stage later this year to improve his status, but he already has his card locked up.
“Getting my Web.com Tour card, I’m one step closer to achieving my dream,” Hoey said.
What's lost in the presentation is how the PGA Tour and USGA have incentivized the lids to declare earlier and skip to two most prestigious amateur events. This is as close as he got to the issue:
Some questioned the decision, but Hoey didn’t want to end up in a situation like the ones LSU’s Sam Burns, UNLV’s John Oda and Hoey’s college teammate Sean Crocker experienced this summer. All three waited to turn pro for a shot at playing in the Walker Cup, but all were left off the team.
Of course not everyone can make the team, but the lack of transparency from the USGA makes it a tougher decision for the kids. It's almost like we don't care if we field the strongest possible team or something...
See you Friday.
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