I'm guessing that you didn't even notice that I wasn't here on Friday....
Shanghai Surprise - We've discussed recently how strange Golf in the Middle Kingdom can be, but this is really too much:
Dustin Johnson struggled from the 1st tee on Sunday in Shanghai, opening with a bogey, and several hours later his six-shot lead had disappeared.
Justin Rose started the day eight shots off the lead and with a slim chance to knock off the leader, but he closed with a five-under 67 to win the WGC-HSBC Champions after Johnson failed to make a birdie and shot 77. During the entire 2016-17 season, Johnson shot that score or worse just twice on Tour.
"I felt fine all day," Johnson said. "I just could never get anything going and didn't hole any putts. It was pretty simple."
It was a rough day for the World No. 1. The six-shot lead he squandered tied the PGA Tour record for the largest lead lost entering a final round. It's the first time it happened since Sergio Garcia lost the 2005 Wells Fargo Championship in a playoff to Vijay Singh, and it's the second time it's happened to a World No. 1.
Well, don't keep us in suspense....
The other? Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters.
The Tour Confidential panel was asked which was the more surprising, DJ's collapse vs. Rose's charge:
John Wood: I would definitely say DJ's stumble. Rose is a world-class player and his great back nine to win a tournament shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Although conditions were by far the most difficult of the week on Sunday, I don't think anyone could foresee DJ shooting 77.Jeff Ritter: I certainly didn't expect the World No. 1 to cough up a six-shot lead. It wasn't a shock to see Rose make a Sunday charge, but the surprise of the weekend was his new goatee.
Do I have this right, you're shocked by DJ doing something stupid?
As for the follow-up question, no need to copy-and-paste any of the responses:
2. Will this Sunday swoon scar DJ, or has he already forgotten about it?
Well, maybe just this one:
Sens: Without delving into too deep of a psychological study, let's just say that DJ does not seem like the type to dwell.
I'm so old that I remember when the conventional wisdom was that DJ is too stupid to feel pressure...
And lest you worry that this old dog dropping the bone, Shack has an epic backstopping tale from the event. It's epic because we mostly focus on the need to protect the field, whereas in this case Henrik Stenson can't be bothered to protect himself.... Wow, talk about your Stockholm Syndrome. Boy these guys really do care about pace of play.... Give Geoff's post a read to understand my little bon mot...
Oh, and one last note for anyone taking any of the above seriously... are you familiar with Shugo Imahara?
Shugo Imahira missed his tee time yet still cashed a nice check at this week's WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Imahira didn't show up for his 10:35 a.m. starting time for Saturday's third round, so he was disqualified for the event. According to Golf Channel's Will Gray, Imahira missed his tee time because he had mistakenly seen the wrong starting time.
So after rounds of 72 and 79, Imahira, the 98th-ranked player in the world, was done for the week. However, he still got a nice check, thanks to the lucrative — and no-cut — World Golf Championships events. He's walking away with last-place money, $43,000.
Heck, forget the proverbial alarm clock, that'll cover his new iPhone X. But his caddie has some 'splainin' to do as well....
There Is Such a Thing - As bad publicity, that is.... This unfortunately is the only kind of story that gets golf wide exposure:
A high school girl topped the field in the Central Massachusetts Division 3 boys’ golf tournament earlier this week but was denied the victory because she's a girl, according tothe Telegram.
Emily Nash, a Lunenburg High School junior carded a 3-over 75 at at Blissful Meadows Golf Club on Tuesday, four shots better than anyone else, but she didn't get the first-place trophy and wasn't invited to next week’s state tournament because according to official MIAA rules, “Girls playing on a fall boys’ team cannot be entered in the Boys Fall Individual Tournament. They can only play in the Boys Team Tournament. If qualified, they can play in the spring Girls Sectional and State Championships.”
Blissful Meadows? Not so much, as it turns out....Let's add this clarification from Emily's Dad posted on Facebook:
My first takeaway is to note how likable everyone involved seems....Especially that young man that offered Emily the trophy. It's not like he won't hear about it from his peeps, but you'd almost get the sense that our game attracts (creates?) good folks.
My inclination was to tread lightly, until I read this from the organization involved:
The MIAA and its member schools congratulate all golfers on their performance at the recent fall sectional team golf tournament. In particular, the skill of the female golfer from Lunenburg was on display as she represented her personal ability and effort on behalf of the Lunenburg High School Boys Golf Team. The MIAA is proud to have her and her teammates participate and represent the 230,000+ student-athletes in our schools.
The MIAA Golf Committee, with a membership of school representatives from each district in the state, has worked over the years to establish and manage both a boys and girls golf tournament. In the case of golf, these tournaments exist in two different seasons. The boys team and individual tournament has taken place in the fall and the girls team and individual tournament has taken place in the spring. During a sectional tournament round of golf, a golfer’s score is submitted for both an individual and team competition at each location.
To offer an opportunity for team play to all MIAA member school students, female golfers have been welcomed to participate on a boys team in the fall if their school did not sponsor a girls golf team in the spring. Approximately 26 female golfers participated in 2017 fall boys golf tournaments. This opportunity has been met positively by many student-athletes and school programs. Given this team opportunity during the fall tournament season, it has been clear to participants that female golfers playing in the fall boys team tournament are not participating in an individual capacity. The individual tournament opportunity for female golfers takes place during the spring season. As stated in the official MIAA 2017 Fall Golf format, “Girls playing on a fall boys team cannot be entered in the boys fall individual tournament. They can only play in the boys team tournament. If qualified, they can play in the spring Girls Sectional and State Championships.”
We congratulate Lunenburg’s female golfer on her performance and wish her continued success as she participates once again in the MIAA Girls Individual Golf Tournament in the spring of 2018.
Yowser, can you say tone deaf? Bill Speros with the tip-in:
Well, that clears it up.
Not so much.
For one, her name is “Emily Nash” and not “Lunenburg’s female golfer.”
But this sort of thing is typical for the MIAA, which carries a notorious reputation in the Bay State for an lacking common sense on multiple occasions.
Man, now I know where the term Masshole came from....
Tiger, The Plea - Am I sick of this story.... forgive me if I just mail it in:
Tiger Woods pleaded guilty Friday to reckless driving in a deal that will keep him out ofjail as long as he stays out of trouble, resolving charges from an arrest last spring in which he was found passed out in his Mercedes with prescription drugs and marijuana in his system.
Woods spoke only briefly during a hearing at a Palm Beach County courthouse, answering questions from a judge about his plea agreement. Prosecutors dropped a driving under the influence charge for the superstar golfer, and the judge warned him to behave.
"This particular plea agreement has no jail time on it. However, if you violate your probation in any significant way, I could revoke your probation and then I could sentence you to jail for 90 days with a fine of up to $500, is that understood?" Judge Sandra Bosso-Pardo said.
I'm sure that potential fine is weighing heavily on his mind, but am I the only one surprised to see him show up in court in a friggin' T-shirt? That alone should get him ninety days....
The TC panel was asked about any hangover (yeah, it was phrased more appropriately for them):
Ritter: I think Tiger is a prideful and private person. The DUI is another embarrassment, though not as devastating to his reputation as the sex scandal (but it's more dangerous to his health, and the health of other drivers). I think the DUI may distract slightly, but more than anything it could serve as fuel for this comeback attempt. That mugshot isn't how he wants the public to remember him.Passov: Tiger is prideful and private, yes, and also smart. He'll learn exactly what he should from this, and move on, with a minimum of fuss. This won't affect his golf game and that's his focus now. We're so distracted and ADD-addled as a society that I don't even know if this reckless driving issue will ever come up in casual conversation among fans or among sponsors or clients who hire him to design courses.
Joe, passive-aggressive much? I'm not quite as sure as you that Tiger will take away the right lessons from this, but I certainly hope that's the case. But that last bit seems to lay the blame on us for Tiger being found behind the wheel with a cocktail of sixteen drugs in his system.... on us? And "casual conversations" aside, would you offer Tiger much guaranteed money right now?
I don't know when he's coming back and neither does anyone else, or even if.... The only significance that I attach to the swing videos on social media is that he seems to be enjoying having a golf club in his hands again....Other than that, can we please give it a rest until ha actually enters a tournament?
My Kind of Story - This is why I invariably root for the old guy:
Ryan Armour isn’t the No. 1 ranked player in the world, nor does he have 16 PGA Tour titles to his name. So when the 41-year-old journeyman pro saw that Dustin Johnson, theman who does carry those accolades, couldn’t hold on to a six-stroke lead at the WGC-HSBC Championsearlier in the day, he knew he couldn’t take anything for granted as he carried a five-shot edge over the field entering the final round of the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday.
Eighteen nerve-wracking—but career-affirming—holes later, Armour closed with a four-under 68 at the Country Club of Jackson (Miss.) to claim his first career PGA Tour triumph in his 105th start. And finally he could breath easier.
“I’m tearing up. I’m not going to lie,” said Armour after posting a 19-under 269 to win by the same five-stroke margin. “There were some lean times. I thought about quitting, but my wife wouldn’t let me. Thank god. I love her. It goes back to have faith in what you do. You know if you believe in something, go do it, work hard at it and have fun doing it.”
After a solid college career at Ohio State, Armour turned pro in 1999. He finally earned a PGA Tour card in 2007, but ever since the Ohio native has bounced back and forth between the big tour and Web.com Tour, a victory at the 2016 Web.com Tour’s Panama Claro Championship his lone triumph.
Face-timing while his son opened birthday presents at home, you have to love it.... But the DJ story was a great caution for him as well. One moment in the sun for a gut that's been trying for ages.....
The Buck Stops Here - Joe Buck is an interesting guy and an avid golfer, though he does suffer from tone deafness occasionally. Most notably his opening comments at that 2015 Open (which I haven't been able to find via Google) when he piled on NBC and then found out how difficult golf is to cover.
This Q&A is mostly the engaging Joe:
You guys didn't necessarily dip your toes in the water. You had to dive right in with
Memories.... the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. What were the biggest challenges?
It was tough. But I'm not gonna sit here and make excuses. I'm really proud of what we did. I was working with a lot of people, not just Greg Norman, but a lot of people who were getting used to doing TV. And then this great [event] basically ended on a three-putt. And oh my God, Jordan Spieth just won the U.S. Open. So it was a lot to handle. I think if we were to do it now, as opposed to two years ago, we'd do it better.
Which everyone but you understood going in....
From a broadcast perspective, what's the toughest part about calling golf? Because there are golfers out there, and if you're not saying it right, you're not gonna fool them.
That's the big, scary monster in the closet: the really hardcore golf fan. So I find myself really taking my time and making sure that what comes out of my mouth is factually correct. Things happen way faster than you might think. I walk out of the tower at the end of the day ready to keel over. Compared to the other sports I cover, golf is way faster, way more intricate, and way more mentally taxing.
Remember, the Fox contract was supposed to bring football fans to golf.... Which would have been great, since they're not watching football any longer....
But this was the funniest bit to me, because Joe can't stop talking about all the great places that he gets to play..... or, in this case, places he's been told are great:
You were very close to your dad, legendary broadcaster Jack Buck. How much was golf a part of his life?
My dad was an awful golfer, but he loved it. And I saw from a very young age what a release golf was for him. So once I started covering baseball and was on that tour, well, if you're in Houston for three days, you play River Oaks. If you're in Chicago, you go play Medinah. In San Francisco, you play Olympic. We set up a golf tour that Tim Finchem himself couldn't have set up. It was awesome.
Medinah? Ever hear of Chicago Golf Club Joe? Probably not....
An Unwoke Golf Club - The patrimony rears its ugly head:
Many golf courses have plaques on their property, commemorating holes-in-one, donations, or the passing of a regular at the club. (And, in some cases, events that neverhappened.) Saddleback G.C. in Firestone, Colo. took this ritual to another level.
The course, about 30 miles outside of Denver, installed a marker to pay tribute to quite the rarity: a man winning a marital dispute. According to 9 News, Josh Clay, the facilities manages at Saddleback, said a wife recently joined her husband for his usual game during "Old Turd Tuesday." Despite his objections, she decided to hop in the driver's seat and tried to maneuver past some other golf carts. One issue, according to Clay: “When she went to hit the brake, she accidentally hit the gas and confirmed her husband’s suspicions that she was not a very good driver."
The woman proceeded to put the golf cart into a pond.
This outrageous display of male privilege will not stand... I just pray that the offender, in addition to his toxic masculinity, did not commit the additional offense of being, you know, white....
Can you please direct me to the safe space at this club?
The Foot, Restored - Via himself, a wondreful video on the restoration of Winged Foot's greens:
Great stuff. They certainly hired the right architect, as Gil Hanse has done some of the best restoration projects because his ego doesn't get in the way.
I especially loved the reference in the last segment to Clifford Wendehack and the concept of tying course architecture into the clubhouse. This is timely for me, because this summer I've been to Mountain Ridge, hackensack and North Jersey, all featuring clubhouses built by the guy that literally wrote the book.
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