Leftovers

Just a few trifles so you'll know I've not forgotten you....

The Calendar - The ladies have announced their 2018 schedule, taking them hither and yon:

The LPGA has made official what Mike What laid out last month at the CME Group Tour Championship. The 2018 LPGA schedule features 34 events across 14 countries,

including the UL International Crown, and a record $68.75 million in prize money, up from $65.5 in 2017. 

Two events are gone from the ’17 – Lorena Ochoa’s event in Mexico City and the Manulife in Canada – but stops in Shanghai, Los Angeles and San Francisco have been added. 

“Perhaps the most important aspect of our schedule is the consistency – continuing to deliver strong playing opportunities both in North America and around the world, while growing overall purse levels every year,” said LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. 

Twenty-three new title sponsors have been added to the LPGA portfolio in the last six years, including South Korean skincare company L&P Cosmetic, which will sponsor the new event at Lake Merced outside San Francisco. Swinging Skirts hosted an event at Lake Merced from 2014 to ’16 but now sponsors the LPGA’s event in Taipei.

I'm glad to see them back at Lake Merced after a one-year absence.  It's a fine venue and allows for a prime-time broadcast.  The state of journalism being what it is, not only doesn't Beth Ann Nischols tell us how many events there were in 2017, but she notes there are two events with new formats, without, you know, informing us what those new formats might be.... Sigh.

Keely Levins at Golf Digest has a wistful look back at the most significant event of 2017, Stacy

Lewis' win in which she pledged her check to her hometown of Houston.  Fair play for sure, though my take-away from the accompanying photo was how meager their purses are.  And yes, I did take Stacy to the woodshed when she whined about it, but it's OK when I do it on her behalf.

As for the men, saviors are on hand for the Colonial event:

FORT WORTH Calling the Colonial Golf Tournament “a Fort Worth institution,” American Airlines confirmed Friday it will financially support efforts to keep the prestigious Colonial Golf Tournament as a stop on the PGA Tour in 2018.

“We are delighted to do so,” spokesman Matt Miller said. “Colonial is a Fort Worth institution and as a Fort Worth-based company, American is delighted to support the tournament in 2018.” He declined to disclose an amount. 

Landing American Airlines support for the May tournament is part of a behind-the-scenes effort by civic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Mayor Betsy Price. Price was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Additionally, XTO Energy and AT&T are also likely to financially support the event.   Nice to see local companies stepping into the breach to save the event at Hogan's Alley, though get a load of this reaction from longtime Dallas-based golf writer Bill Nichols:

That would be fantastic news for the event and North Texas. It’s also gratifying to see that officials were able to get it done when the PGA Tour essentially drop-kicked them to the curb.

Hey, once the check clears....The Tour had hooked them up with Dean & DeLuca, but hasn't been very helpful since D&L pulled out.

Today in Statistics - It's been a bad week for New Jersey....  First came word of the closure of the iconic Bada Bing, just down Route 17 from my old workplace.  Now comes this, a 75-year old 15-handicap claiming to have eighty holes-in-one.  It's an amusing piece, especially since he's also claiming three albatrosses..... albatrossi?, which to me seems even more unlikely....

It's a bit long, but if you're reading this blog you've obviously got time on your hands.

Tiger Scat - Just a couple of silly items, first this guy that likely didn't get his money's worth, though a good cause and all:

How much would you pay for a lesson with arguably the greatest golfer of all time? One person has now provided an answer to that question, and the figure is staggering.

A draw party was held at the Tiger Woods-designed Bluejack National Tuesday night, and one auction item jumped off the page: a private lesson with Tiger Woods himself. 

The winning bid? $210,000, according to ESPN's Bob Harig.

Scroll up and you'll be reminded that that's $15K more than Stacy contributed....

And Joe LaCava with this story of Tiger, the intense competitor a sore loser:

Woods' caddie, Joe LaCava, appeared on SXM PGA Tour Radio on Wednesday night

and he shared a hilarious story about their heated hoops battles. More specifically, Woods takes his games of H.O.R.S.E. very, very seriously.

"Then I get him on the baseline from 10-12 feet, and I beat him nine games in a row, this is a true story, nine games in a row. He did not talk to me the rest of the day," LaCava said. "I didn't even get the old text, 'Dinner is ready,' because I stay across at the beach house. I didn't even get that text that night so I had to get take-out."

Even I could take him from the baseline....

Rules Musings - Ryan Herrington with the downside, at the elite level, of rules simplification:

Yet if the aim of the Rules revision is, in part, to save golf from itself, it’s wise to appreciate the potential trade-off involved. In an attempt to act as kinder, gentler

governing bodies, the USGA and R&A risk that the new Rules lose some of their objectivity and, in turn, a fair bit of their teeth. 

Consider the situation that arose with Hideki Matsuyama earlier this month at the Hero World Challenge. During Friday’s second round, the young Japanese talent flubbed his third shot on the par-4 18th hole at Albany from just off the green, his chip landing just shy of the putting surface. As the ball started rolling back toward him, Matsuyama was shown on TV tapping his wedge on the ground near where he hit the ball. Many wondered if this act was a breach of the Rules as he potentially was improving the lie for his fourth shot (the ball did not actually come back to the same spot).

This is quite farcical, no?  Intent may be a factor, but in the instant case Hideki did something instinctively, without any conscious thought.  Intent has nothing to do with it....  He's improving the turf while his ball is still moving, how can that not be penalized?   

I don't find this as compelling as others have (such as Shackelford), but your mileage may vary:

With so many sections and subsections and sub-subsections, if you broke a Rule because you didn’t know it was a Rule to begin with, you often were forgiven for making an honest mistake. With a modernized Rules book, that defense becomes far more flimsy. 

Indeed, if the Rules are going to be easier to understand, then golfers are going to be expected to genuinely understand them. In particular, golfers who make a living playing the game. 

In that respect, the modernized Rules may well present a new set of challenges when they finally go online on New Year’s Day 2019.

There have always been players with reputations for skirting the rules, but those aren't the guys who have had penalties assessed.  Gary Player is probably the most famous of these, just ask Tom Watson...

The Landed Gentry -  The header of this Alex Myers item says it all:

My day (and night) at the backyard golf hole of a man who builds backyard golf holes

OK, maybe a little taste:

Lehrer only has two backyard greens (Yes, this is kind of like saying someone only has two private jets), but with nine sets of tees, technically, he can play 18 different holes. It's that type of variety -- one that's only possible by the impact turf he uses and a green design that can take shots from all different angles -- that is a staple in Lehrer's work.

 Unsurprisingly, he lives in Armonk.  Click through to see all 18 holes....

Don't Know Much About History - This might be as popular as his most famous win:

Nathaniel Crosby’s victory in the U.S. Amateur in 1981 was among the most memorable

in its long history, “a magical moment in golf,” Terry Jastrow, who produced the telecast for ABC, called it. It helped earn Crosby a berth on the U.S. team that won the Walker Cup at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, two years later. 

Two years from now, Crosby will complete the circle, returning to Hoylake, this time as the captain of the U.S. Walker Cup team. The USGA will make the announcement official on Wednesday. 

"I haven't had a great moment in 35 years, haven't won a tournament in 35 years," Crosby said. "So when Diana Murphy [the USGA president] called me, I was extremely surprised. For someone that has something to say about everything, I was taken aback. I had a serious loss of breath when she told me I would be the next Walker Cup captain."

I was with my trainer, a golf addict but a typical millennial, who made the mistake of asking me if there was anything new in the golf world.  I told him this story, and it quickly became clear that he had never heard of Bing Crosby.  These kids today....