Thursday Threads

A few items for you today, which will likely have to suffice through the weekend....  I've an early game tomorrow, and you know the rules of this public utility.  The blogging of the golf shall never impinge upon the playing of the golf.

Captain Obvious - For three out of four, in any event:

​Phil Mickelson and Charley Hoffman, come on down!

You’re the next contestants in the Presidents Cup. U.S. team captain Steve Stricker made it official Wednesday evening, revealing the two players he has handpicked to round out his 12-man roster at Liberty National Golf Club later this month. 

"It was unanimous," Stricker said of his two picks from Cherokee Golf Club, near his home in Madison, Wis. "It was truly a team choice."

I'm sure that Brian Harman will be comforted by the fact that exactly no one wanted him on the team.  While I would have taken Harman over Charlie because he's such a dead-eye on the greens, this is entirely by the book.

Team USA looks loaded for sure:

U.S. TEAM 

Dustin Johnson

Jordan Spieth

Justin Thomas

Rickie Fowler

Daniel Berger

Brooks Koepka

Kevin Kisner

Patrick Reed

Matt Kuchar

Kevin Chappell

Charley Hoffman

Phil Mickelson

Captain: Steve Stricker

Captain Price, on the other hand, threw us an off-speed pitch:

Nick Price, the International skipper, also named his two wildcard picks and likewise said his selections were unanimous: Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Anirban Lahiri of India.   

My morning ritual includes perusal of all the major golf websites, and that's the most extensive discussion to be found of the International captain's picks.  Lahiri was an out-of-the-box choice, as he's in the 70's in the OWGR.  He played in Korea in 2015, though for anyone watching it's difficult to consider that a positive....Not only was he 0-3-0, but he gagged on a short one on the last green to lose a match that should have been halved at worst.....

But the other choices, Hideto Tanihara (No. 11on the points list), Yuta Ikeda (No. 13) and Li Haotang (No. 14) are unknown, inexperienced in international play and have a string of missed cuts in recent weeks.  So, this is their roster:

INTERNATIONAL TEAM

Hideki Matsuyama

Jason Day

Adam Scott

Louis Oosthuizen

Marc Leishman

Charl Schwartzel

Branden Grace

Si Woo Kim

Jhonattan Vegas

Adam Hadwin

Emiliano Grillo*

Anirban Lahiri*

Captain: Nick Price

It's a reasonably strong team, at least at the name recognition level.  But far too many of their top players have been far off-form, and that even includes Hideki at this point.

It's a perfectly fine event, unless you expect it to have the intensity of a Ryder Cup.  But unless it becomes more competitive, it's hard to work up too much enthusiasm for it...

Top o' the Pops -  Golf Magazine with the breathless reveal on their new World Top 100 list, and it's almost as predictable as those picks above:

Our 18th biennial celebration of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. and the World is a global blast—even if it's not exactly a surprise party. Ever-brilliant Pine Valley maintains its unshakable hold on the No. 1 spot, with dreamy Cypress Point and dramatic St. Andrews a solid 2 and 3. But as always, there are gate crashers: Tom Doak's Tara Iti, in New Zealand, makes one of our highest debuts ever, and Wisconsin's Sand Valley, a Coore/Crenshaw stunner, takes the rookie prize here in the states. A mix of the old, the new and the newly rediscovered infuses this Top 100 with diversity. 

Well, diversity is our strength, or so it's been beaten into me....  It's utterly meaningless though somewhat interesting, though more so in the second fifty.  The top of the list has been pretty locked down for ages.

They also provide a breakdown by country, that allows for some geopolitical analysis.  For instance, some folks might have combined these two:

IRELAND (5)

Ballybunion (Old) didn't move from its previous ranking (17th) and still leads the

plentiful list of Irish honorees. Lahinch (Old) and Portmarnock (Old) were 35th and 49th, respectively, and Waterville (82nd) and the European Club (97th) also found spots on the list.

NORTHERN IRELAND (2)

Only two courses from Northern Ireland are in the Top 100, but there's no need to scroll down to find them. Royal County Down in Newcastle jumped up one spot and is now ranked fourth (swapping places with Augusta National). Royal Portrush (Dunluce) also made the list at No. 14.

Well, if you've only got two on the list, those are two pretty strong entries....  But pleased to see Waterville (pictured) and Pat Ruddy's Euro Club make the list....

Let the bitter recriminations begin...

Too Soon - The #Ask Alan weekly grab bag continues to amuse and inform, though this coupla queries suffer from the dreaded #Too Soon:

"Can Thomas-Spieth be the great golf rivalry holy grail we've all been waiting for since Arnie-Jack after we tried to force with Tiger-Phil?" -Tej (@boatical) 

"Wild Monday finish between Thomas and Spieth in Boston. If you had to predict, who ends up with more Tour wins? And more majors? Thanks. #AskAlan" -Ben (@bendignan)

Sigh.  Can we not get over the fact that these guys look unbeatable when they win because, you know, nobody beat them?  Here's Alan's take on the first:

It has potential, because they're the same age, have a unique origin story and, especially, because they play the game very differently; that contrast makes for fascinating viewing.

But a great rivalry needs a little edge—think of the galleries at Oakmont in 1962 heckling Fat Jack, and the lingering animosity that came with a cold, calculating upstart displacing the earthy, passionate King. If the Tiger and Phil rivalry worked at all it's because both are so polarizing—fans love and hate 'em, and there is very little overlap. 

Spieth and Thomas are both warm, cuddly, likeable figures who don’t arouse much passion. In a real rivalry you have a strong rooting interest against one side, and it's hard to pull against either of these characters. So it's going to be a blast to watch them compete but I'm not sure how juicy the quote-unquote rivalry will get.

That's a fine point to make, and we know that the Arnie-Jack friendship really developed a bit later....  But of greater import, is whether either of both can maintain their golf at the highest level.  After all, does the question imply that we're done with Rory, DJ and JD as Spieth's main foil?

Majors is an easy call—go with the guy who already leads 3-1. Tour wins is a more interesting question because Thomas's game is much more explosive so it's easy to imagine him overpowering a bunch of garden variety Tour setups. And the Golden Child is already thinking of his career in historical terms; perhaps grinding through the Hartfords of the world will lose some appeal. Meanwhile, Thomas plays with a chip on his shoulder and, at least for now, every win is precious and he seems desperate to keep going.

What is this chip he speaks of?  But Spieth has Thomas 11-6 on Tour wins as well, so hard to pick against the guy with the lead....

There's a couple of other good questions...  First, I may have neglect to blog this story, a predicate to this question:

"In honor of this story, if you could have sex on a golf hole which hole would it be?" -@Sean_Zak 

Well, it's the 10th at Pebble Beach and it's already happened…a couple of times! (Woot, woot.) [Ed. note: attempts to fact check this claim came up empty.] So for my second coming I’ll go with the greatest hole in the world, the 16th at Cypress Point. Around the turn of the century, two buddies and I sneaked on under a full moon and played this iconic hole with glow-in-the-dark balls. There's really only one way to top that experience.

Second coming?  Talk about requiring a fact check.... Though Alan was a cart-boy at Pebble in his youth, so the story is not facially specious.

The problem with Cypress No. 16 is the absence of dry land on which to perform said act.... 

But this question is just plain mean-spirited:

"Is Paul Casey the heir to the Westwood throne?" -Eric @SmithR13z 

I love the thought of Westy unbolting his toilet and delivering it to Casey. But I think you mean a very talented English bloke who doesn’t get it done in the majors. I’m not ready to give up on Casey yet—he's resurrected his career after injury and divorce and is playing at a very high level, with six top-six finishes this season. On the other hand, for all his manifold talent Casey has exactly one win on the PGA Tour in 218 starts. (Westy has two victories in 230 events.) So it's a pretty big leap to make a major championship career win number two.

There's been a run lately of Casey picks in big-time events, and my reaction is similar to Alan's.  A man whose career is defined by the absence of wins is not my pick to win the biggest events.  Of course, there's always Andy North.....

Then there's this all-consuming issue:

"What’s the maximum for course logos on an outfit? I was paired with a guy sporting Masters logos on his hat, wind breaker, head covers (3x), ball mark, belt..we get it, you went." -B.G. (@showtime583)

Honestly, even two is pushing it. If it's from the same course/club, you look like an employee. If it's from two different ones you look like a douche. I have a million logo'd hats but seek out stylish shirts and outerware that are blessedly unadorned. If you ever see me wearing two logos I must’ve gotten dressed in the dark.

 Pretty much.

And this was interesting as well:

"Why not make the Tour Championship 36 holes of stroke play, award points, take the top 16, then do match play with the top 8 seeds choosing their opponent?" -Mike (@mcaverhill) 

Because that makes far too much sense and would be way too entertaining.

I especially like the bit about picking your opponent, but that's way too confrontational for today's coddle Tour pros.  You know, the guys that leave their balls on the green to help their playing partners....

Today in Karma - That very same Alan Shipnuck had this much-linked tale of woe recently:

Master of None: Reflecting on a lifetime without an ace

I've pretended to be thrilled for my friends. Through gritted teeth, I've added jovial

comments to social media posts, and I have faked enthusiasm for all the latest in mahogany plaques. But dang it, I just can't pretend any longer: No, I'm not happy you made a hole-in-one. No, I don't want to hear the details. No, I don't even want a free drink…unless I can splash it in your face. I hate every one of you who has made a hole-in-one. I'm not jealous; it's much deeper than that—I'm bitter. 

In case you can't tell by now, I've never made an ace. I've never even seen one. On two separate occasions friends in the group in front of me have dunked one, but I had no view of either. One time at the old Kemper Open I followed Phil Mickelson for most of his round, then took a quick detour into the gents, during which he promptly made a hole-in-one. The roar of the crowd made my Porta-Potty vibrate.

But my question to Alan is whether he agrees that this guy deserved to come first:

Man makes ace on same hole where he suffered heart attack a year before

Really, it doesn't get much better than this....  

The Sun Continues to Rise in the East - Think of USA Today as Democratic operatives with bylines and it all makes sense:

Dozens of lobbyists, contractors and others who make their living influencing the government pay President Trump’s companies for membership in his private golf clubs,

a status that can put them in close contact with the president, a USA TODAY investigation found. 

Members of the clubs Trump has visited most often as president — in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia — include at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials. Two-thirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online. 

Because membership lists at Trump’s clubs are secret, the public has until now been unable to assess the conflicts they could create. USA TODAY found the names of 4,500 members by reviewing social media and a public website golfers use to track their handicaps, then researched and contacted hundreds to determine whether they had business with the government.

OMG, it's a SECRET!  Wanna know how the geniuses came up with their names?  Nope, not leakers...through the GHIN handicap system.  

Trump visiting his own club just has to be illegal, right?  Can you say emoluments?  I thought you could.

Cheap Shots -  Sober reflections on items of note:

Wow, that's gotta be a really competitive category: Rickie Fowler swallows pride, cops to being worst dancer on Tour

That's not even close to how you spell "suck": - Adam Scott's putting continues to evolve