Thursday Threads

Or, more likely, an abbreviated version thereof, as my heart isn't fully in it...

Read of the Day - Much of what we cover here falls derisively into the category of first-world problems, but not all.  While Meghan Khang might not be a household name, her story is well worth your time:

ROCKLAND, Mass. – Megan Khang’s journey is unlike any other in professional golf. 

She’s on a path no one has ever taken to the LPGA, a dreamy yellow brick road that extends beyond the bloody trail her Hmong family navigated on its way out of Laos while fleeing communist death squads during the Vietnam War. 

Khang, 20, knows she wouldn’t be playing the LPGA today if it weren’t for her family’s midnight escape across the Mekong River to Thailand in 1975, when they fled the retribution Hmong endured for helping the Americans fight communism in Southeast Asia. 

“I know I wouldn’t be here without the sacrifices my family has made,” Megan said. “It’s us against the world. That’s kind of how I look at it.”

Kind of makes Q-School look like a walk in the park... 

Euro Stuff - The stage has been left to the Euro's, though I don't remember this much coverage in prior years.  Adam Schupak seems to have landed a N.Y. Times gig, not sure if that mean my pinata Karen Crouse has moved on, but he makes the point that the Euro Tour doesn't spend all that much time in Europe:

Paul Dunne of Ireland always wanted to see the world, but he is not traveling through

Europe like most 24-year-olds. 

Dunne, a rookie on the European Tour, is scheduled to make his 29th start of the season this week at the World Tour Championship in Dubai. It’s his third trip this season to the United Arab Emirates, one of 20 countries he has visited and he is in the midst of playing five straight tournaments on three different continents. At this rate, he may replace Gary Player as golf’s global ambassador, but for Dunne, the financial benefits are too lucrative to pass up. 

“I’m not going to turn down $7-million events,” he said. “Why would I?” 

That is exactly the mind-set that Keith Pelley, the European Tour chief executive, was shooting for when he launched the Rolex Series, a collection of eight events with a minimum purse of $7 million that debuted in May at the European PGA Championship and culminates on Sunday in Dubai.

I'm just surprised they can spare the column inches from being home office for La Resistance.

Meanwhile, in The Guardian, Ewan Murray takes on the only-discussed-in-hushed-tones issue of appearance fees:

There is little or nothing by way of complaint from other players. Everyone benefits, for example, from the participation of the world’s leading players and the knock-on boost to

ranking points. Woods, albeit a different commercial animal to all others, collected appearance fees all over the world for years, with a tournament’s appeal enhanced by his presence or even just his picture on billboards. From players themselves, there would be the not unreasonable point that use of their status – and time – to promote a tournament should not be on voluntary terms. 

Nonetheless, the situation raises questions. It seems fair to ask what standard of field would participate in Turkey were enticement not given to stellar names. If the answer is that the competition would become the domain of only lower-grade golfers, does that not undermine its Rolex status? There is also an ethical argument regarding why golfers, or any sportspeople of a certain financial level, should be paid simply to appear. In many ways, this surely contradicts the ethos of sport, albeit that such a point could be applied to money’s tight grasp of football, tennis and so many other enterprises.

See, not everyone benefits.... It's also a little unseemly when those paid large appearance fees and do little more than, you know, appear...  See, for instance, Tiger in Abu Dhabi last year.

Murray also has quite the strange comment buried in the piece:

On the PGA Tour, appearance fees are virtually accepted as part of the week-on-week scene – in stark comparison to Europe. In the United States, incentive comes in various forms: paid for travel, accommodation or even meals with sponsors. Golfers are very quick to assert how money does not supply motivation, which should not be mistaken for those individuals not appreciating their own value.

Maybe it would be clearer in the original English?  I think his point is that the PGA Tour does not permit appearance fees, but that the sponsors use payment for other services as a work around....  

But in the search for those things that unite us, we can all agree that Ryan Herrington takes Jon Rahm's Euro Tour's Rookie of the Year award far too seriously:

Despite a victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in February, 11 top-10s in 23 PGA Tour

starts and $6.1 million earned in the 2016-’17 campaign, the 23-year-old Spaniard was ineligible for ROY in the U.S. when the award was handed out in early October (Xander Schauffele snatched it up). You see, technically Rahm’s rookie season came in 2016—even though he played just nine events that year and wasn’t a member of the PGA Tour until the last tournament of the regular season. (It’s complicated, but the long story short is Rahm, No. 5 in the World Ranking, has spent his entire first 17 months as a professional playing too well for his own good.) 

Yet while what happened on the PGA Tour felt like a raw deal, was the European Tour honor the equivalent of a college basketball make-up call? Yes, Rahm played in 12 officials European Tour events in 2017, claiming one win at the Irish Open and four top-10s while earning €2.8 million to put him fourth in the Race to Dubai entering this week’s season finale. However, of the 12 events, eight were either major championships or WGC tournaments that also counted toward his PGA Tour numbers. Is playing only four regular-season events native to the European Tour enough to be deserving of the honor?

Interesting question,...  Oh, who am I kidding, even the question isn't terribly interesting, though the answer can be summed up in two words: Dylan Frittelli.

No sooner does Herrington try to work up a head of steam making the case for Fritelli, seemingly on the basis of his more frequent starts on the Tour, than he shows us their comparable performance in the four actual Euro events played by the Spaniard:

Rahm met the Tour's membership requirements and is light year's better than the other guy, so what's the pint again?  Oh yeah, it's November and we need content....

Have the Movie Rights Been Sold - I'm actually amused by this item, in which Dylan Dethier mines the top item on Golf.com's site from a 4-word Rickie Fowler quote.  To be fair, your mileage will likely vary, but the art involved is something.

On Tuesday I attended a Cobra/Puma media event at which Cobra introduced its new line of clubs. Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau were there, too, hitting a series of shots and taking questions in an open-forum Q&A.

I was eager to fire off one more question. As a recovering mini-tour player and one-time resident of the greater West Palm Beach area, I hear my share of Tiger-related rumors, most of them unsubstantiated. But the word from Medalist, where Woods and Fowler both play, is that the 14-time major champ is oozing confidence and pounding his tee shots — outdriving Fowler in their games by 20-30 yards.

As I thanked Fowler for his time, I asked him about it. 

"So, is it true that Tiger’s been hitting it by you in practice at Medalist?" 

He didn’t hesitate. 

"Oh, yeah," he said with a grin as he walked off. "Way by."

It was meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, a juicy bit of innuendo. I mean, I got a four-word quote — it wasn’t exactly indisputable video evidence. But the tweet took off. (As of this writing, it had nearly 300 retweets.) I was flooded with excited quote-tweets, and within a few hours the exchange had quickly transformed into "Tiger’s-back" internet blog fodder on both sides of the Atlantic.

OK, this is a nothingburger, but Dethier turns it into something with what follows:

 So what’s actually true? Here’s what I believe:

1. It’s fairly likely that Tiger is, in fact, hitting the ball as long or longer than Fowler. This would be consistent with their driving distances of the past, and it appears Tiger hasn’t exactly been dogging it in the gym. 

2. I also think that Fowler got a kick out of the question and dropping a walk-off answer. These guys are all used to getting asked incessantly about Tiger — there’s no question that they like to have fun with it, when they can. 

3. If Tiger is knocking it past Fowler in practice, that doesn’t mean "he’s back!", as the UK’s Daily Express screamed in a headline Wednesday morning. Remember the "worst-ball 66" before the 2015 Masters? Yeah. That didn’t exactly pan out in the long-term.

As a fan of the art form, dropping that worst-ball 66 into the mix is just priceless....  It reminds the reader that his tongue has familiarity  the outline of his cheek....Read the rest if you're so inclined, but this reader enjoyed it.

Dethier on Fire - He parlayed that Cobra fitting into a second feature on single-length irons, an interesting and topical subject:

It was my first crack at Cobra's new signature single-length F8 One irons, which will hit stores Feb. 2 but were available at a media preview day at The Floridian on Tuesday. The single-length irons have become increasingly popular — accounting for around 60 percent of Cobra's iron sales in the latter part of 2017 — and I was intrigued to give them a whirl myself.

 This was one of his six takeaways:

4. DeChambeau could convince me of just about anything 

Most professional athletes possess quite a bit of self-assuredness, but DeChambeau says

everything with a next-level feeling of certainty. He was a positive, excitable presence on the range; he was readily engaging and eager to explain when he thought something might be interesting — or even to make sure we were properly impressed by one of his or Fowler's shots. 

"That was really good, guys," he told us multiple times after a favorable range swing. 

He certainly seems to know more about the finer points of physics and body mechanics than your average pro athlete, too, which contributed to my overall feeling that I'd have a hard time disagreeing with him on anything.

Well, he's called The Professor for a reason.... 

I tested a set of custom irons with single-length shafts at one of the Met. Golf Writers outings, but just on the range.  What I've never understood is how they manage distance and gaps throughout the bag.  It seems you'll naturally sacrifice length in the longer clubs (though do read Dethier's account of 220-yard 7-irons) due to the shorter shaft,  which most players will not like.  Am I missing something?

I Beg To Differ -  With this:

’Tis the season: 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for golfers

'Tisn't the season, and won't be for a month or so..... That said, they start off in daring fashion:

Titleist My Pro V1 golf balls

$56/dozen

Titleist makes it easy to put a holiday message on the game’s most-played balls with the My Pro V1 program. Select any one- or two-digit number on a model of ball and add as many as three lines of block text (17 characters per line) on two sides. A variety of logos and symbols also can be displayed.

It's all the usual stuff, except for those items seemingly having no relevance to golf....

A similar list from Golf Digest has an even more tenuous relationship with golf...  Olives?

I'm off... there's even a chance that some golf might be played this afternoon.