Midweek Musings

It's an abbreviated version thereof, as it's a getaway day.  I'm absconding with Employee No. 2 for a few days to celebrate our 15th anniversary, so you'll have to absorb The Prez Cup without my guiding insights.  Win-win, Baby!.

Prez Cup Permutations - Shack, writing in Golfweek, tells us to fear not the rerouting, even if it's hospitality-driven:

For starters, the course will open with quite possibly the meanest, craziest start in team golf history. With a tee engulfed by grandstands clad in white dressings, the specter of a loud start is superseded only by what awaits on the 423-yard first: a lake-guarded

fairway. While normally not the way you want to kick off any golf course, in foursomes we may see some very quick second-tee arrivals. 

The finishing stretch, however, is what normally matters at a championship venue and the PGA Tour has crunched the numbers to find most matches end by the 15th or 16th hole. In the Presidents Cup played, only 38 percent of matches have made it to the last. 

Instead of finishing before the glass-and-steel clubhouse overlooking New York Harbor, the 490-yard, 14th figures to be a key test in matches that nearly all will play. This also means all but blowout matches will pass through the driveable par-4 12th, normally the 16th hole for Liberty National members.

I know you've heard this ad nauseum, but the importance of blowout matches reaching the best holes continues to elude your humble blogger.... Here's Geoff on the finish:

What does this leave for the final four holes? 

Not much, which is the point. The best golf holes have been played. Not that the finishing four are bad, they just aren’t as match-play friendly as the previous 14. 

A forced layup at the 398-yard, 15th will be all about the layup. 

A stern par 3 at the 16th features a boldly contoured green that will be very hole location dependent in producing drama. 

The 395-yard, 17th does not exactly stand out as a great match-play hole and was probably best played less.

So, imagine a tightly-contested event such as occurred two years back in Inchon...   Anirban Lahiri will now be vomiting on his shoes (we kid because we love) on a Par-3 finisher....and this is all Geoff can say about that:

Given the short and tortured history of one-shotters to finish off rounds — Congressional and East Lake’s par 3s were both demoted after unsuccessful runs — this one does not have a high bar to overcome to be the scene of fun match-play moments. Playing slightly uphill to a long, well-bunkered green set at an angle, the hole is nice at 193 but appears more fun at the 163-yard tee roped off by the PGA Tour setup team. There is a bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew element that could make for intriguing scenarios in both four-ball and singles play.

Is he saying this is a Cape hole?  Because there's no such thing as a bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew 163-yards shot for these guys, given that it's probably a pitching wedge.  Actually, I though his best comment about the golf course was back at his blog:

This is Liberty National, the slightly schizophrenic Bob Cupp/Tom Kite design full of interesting moments but a bit unsure what it wants to be (Augusta North? Whistling East?).

And how many of those moments are architecturally-driven, as opposed to close-ups of Lady Liberty?

Lest there be any doubt, Knees will not be taken this week, despite the best efforts of our media.  Shack had this from Stricker's presser:

Q. And Steve, not that it's likely to happen, but what would your thoughts be if one

of your players wanted to stage a silent protest during the National Anthem? 

STEVE STRICKER: Say that again? 

Q. What would your thoughts be if one of your players wanted to follow the NFL players and stage a silent protest during the National Anthem? 

STEVE STRICKER: We've had a discussion already and none of my players want to do that.

But Steve, what about social justice?  Puerto Rico hasn't been rebuilt yet and TRUMP!

I have trouble finding even trace elements of ambiguity in that statement, yet he gets asked again later:

Q. You said your team has discussed what to do with the National Anthem this week, and in other sports over the weekend, we've seen it become very contentious. Golfers, by the nature of what you're doing, don't have a National Anthem played at every event but this will be different. Can you elaborate on what the discussion was you had with your players? 

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, I just wanted to know what they wanted to do and how we wanted to proceed as a team. So we were going to do what we always do and that's take off our hat and put our hands across our chest and over our heart and respect the flag. So that's what we're planning on doing.

But Steve, it's working so well for the NFL, and what about the NARRATIVE?  Perhaps the press was unaware that Peter Malnati failed to qualify for the team.

Cart-driver Davis Love had these comments elsewhere:

“I think you’ll see in golf that there’s a little bit more restraint,” he said Tuesday on “Morning Drive”. “We adhere to our rulebook and to our core values and to our traditions, and I think that’s why our sport is so successful." 

“There’s a time for us to protest, and it really isn’t during the national anthem. We ought to take a break during the prayer or during the national anthem to thank our country, to thank our forefathers who went before us. And then we can protest with our votes, with our letters to our congressmen or however we want.

“But I think President Trump is right. There is a time for protest, and it probably isn’t during the national anthem. Our country has fought hard for that right.”

Good call guys.  Or maybe it's just that Golf Channel doesn't want to have to do this.... 

Golf in the City is the meme of the day....Alan Bastable creates his Fantasy Nine:

NO. 2: "XXX" — PAR 4, 453 YARDS

What you see is what you get on this long straightaway par 4. And by "what you see" we

mean hundreds of blinking, blinding billboards, thousands of selfie-stick-toting tourists mindlessly walking through your line, and one life-sized Elmo tending the flagstick (yes, he/she expects a tip). Times Square has been sanitized since its grimy heyday but the name of this hole pays homage to the neighborhood’s glorious past.

OK, the triple-X is cute, But DJ would still play it Driver-8-iron....

While Alan has a passing nod to Central Park, Ron Whitten goes all-in, designing and routing two 18's:

The DeBlasio (South) Course

The Cuomo (North) Course

Cute, though obviously Ron is not a student of New York politics.  Cuomo and DeBlassio can barely tolerate the other being in the same state, much less the same park.

We've reached a new low in scripting:

Creepy mannequins, that's the ticket....  Or maybe they're taking the mannequin challenge, is that still a thing?

Earlier in the week, the Tour Confidential panel took this query:

3. The U.S. hasn't lost a Presidents Cup this century (it leads the all-time series 9-1-1) and is heavily favored to win again next weekend at Liberty National. Put on your marketing caps and give golf fans a reason to tune in.

I'm in such a generous mood, I'll give you the whole lot of their answers:

Ritter: It's a team event and guys on both sides will be all-in. Pair it with what should be a rollicking NYC-area crowd, and this should be a blast. 

Sens: Mickelson back once more as elder statesman; Tiger as sideline inspiration; Reed

and Spieth paired up again; a U.S. team loaded with young firepower. Strictly from a marketing standpoint, anyway, I think those all beat "Up Close and Personal with Anirban Lahiri." 

Zak: If all is fair in this marketing exercise, I'd just hype up the International squad as much as possible. I'd call them the greatest International team of all-time. I'd call them the greatest threat to the American team the Prez Cup has ever seen. I'd lie and lie and lie about how they're going to keep it close and I'd hope it would make enough people want to watch out of spite. 

Bamberger: I'd suggest this: "This 2017 American Presidents Cup team is so good it will make you forget about the 1927 Yankees." 

Berhow: Do you remember Rory vs. Reed on Sunday of the Ryder Cup!? Well, Rory won't be there, but Reed vs. Branden Grace can get your blood pumping! OK, so it's no Ryder Cup, but team events and match play competitions bring out the best in players. Most of these guys will take some time off after this, so they have a lot to leave out there. If nothing else, the Manhattan skyline can provide you with some A+ views.

The nod goes to Jeff Ritter...  it's team match-play, what more do you need?

The Prez Cup is a perfectly nice little event.  My sense is that the only folks who disparage it do so because it's not the Ryder Cup.  They forget, of course, that it took sixty years and Seve for the ryder cup to become the RYDER CUP.  

Da' Hall - It's Hall of Fame Induction week, which I've completely ignored up until now.  We'll lead with that TC panel:

4. Davis Love III, Meg Mallon, Lorena Ochoa, Ian Woosnam and the late golf writer Henry Longhurst will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Any beefs with this class? And were any deserving candidates snubbed?

You know the issue here....  While Woosie and Davis are just a smidgen below where this analyst would draw the line, once you've embraced Couples, Monty and O'Meara there's no logic to excluding these guys.  

What did the guys have to say?

Ritter: For the past couple of classes, Woosnam was one of the more glaring omissions, so nice to see that finally corrected. I wouldn't call this a snub, but I think John Daly's case is fascinating: two epic majors among eight PGA and Euro tour titles. Of course there are all the WDs and drama, but can you tell the story of the game without him? When Fred Couples got in with one major, his popularity was cited as a contributing factor. I'd argue the same holds true for Daly, and I'd put him in sometime down the road.

Just shoot me now!  Now can you see the issue with those relaxed standards?  You'll not be surprised that this was my favorite response:

Bamberger: It's a good class, to be sure. I only wish we could read what Longhurst would have written for the occasion. Jenkins, when he got it, counted up the Hall of Fame members with whom he had had drinks. Talk about setting the bar high.

Hard to conceive that Henry Longhurst was snubbed for this long, but I'm sure he'll be proud to have his bust next to John Daly's....

The induction ceremony was held last night in NYC, obviously scheduled to coincide with the gathering of the golf world for the Prez Cup.  I'll turn it over to Shack for his very appropriate call-out today's pampered players:

Even though the LPGA Tour is dark this week, their players turned out to support their former rival Ochoa. Besides another stellar turnout of past female HOF inductees,

current stars Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis were in attendance. 

Even though the ceremony was timed to coincide with the 2017 Presidents Cup to allow officials and players gathering in New York to attend, most under-55 male stars failed to take the hint: your attendance is requested at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony. 

As Doug Ferguson highlighted in his AP game story, Love said the night was the greatest honor of his life. Yet not one player or assistant from Love's 2016 Ryder Cup squad or the 2017 Presidents Cup team was able to tear themselves away to show support. 

Granted, there are team room table tennis games to play, room service appetizers to devour and naps to take. But given how much nonsense is uttered when today's young players hang around when a buddy wins, the no-show brigade suggests the admiration does not extend to their elders or golf's history, which allows them to play for massive money. 

Or maybe they only show if camera time is guaranteed?

Worse, however, than the younger players not attending was the noticeable absense of longtime Love competitors and Cup colleagues--Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Nick Price, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk--who are all in town and yet were not able to make the short trip from their downtown hotel to Wall Streets' beautiful Cipriani ballroom. The first four are current World Golf Hall of Fame members, the last two will be inducted some day.

It's hard to expect the fan to treat this as important when the players don't....  I'd love to know whether Davis was there for Freddie's induction...  

Enjoy the week.