Weekend Wrap, A Day Late

Shall we dive in and catch up?  I thought so....

Maui Mauling -  At least it was close.... at least until they teed off on Sunday.  Far too late for a game story, but the Tour Confidentialistas go after the big picture:

1. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson won the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday as golf opened the new year on a rolling Kapulua layout that allowed the big guns in the field to show off their firepower. Johnson, for the first time in his career, is beginning a year as the world's top-ranked player, but will he still be at the top a year from now? 

Alan Shipnuck: DJ didn't just win the T o' C, he blew the other guys off the course. It was another statement from him. Look at the way he started and ended 2017 - the injury and aftermath messed up the middle — and it's clear DJ's week-in-and-week-out standard of play is insanely high. And this is key: he *loves* being No. 1. It means a lot to him and he's learned to grind out good finishes even with his B-game, because that's more World Ranking points. He ain't going anywhere.

OK, there's more of the same from the other writers, but a word of caution is called for.  Any time a player wins by a TD and 2-point conversion he'll look like he can't be beat, the more so when that player bombs it like DJ.

But this is an event that carries a significant Surgeon General's warning....  It's a very small field, it's at a time of the year when the guys are not sharp and it's played on a very eccentric golf course.  Now we've seen this dominance from this player before, I'm just suggesting that it's still early days....

Now, this from Jeff Ritter, remains unconfirmed:

Assuming DJ's 2018 Masters rental house is a sturdy, one-story ranch, it would take at least a three- or four-win season from a top-10 player to catch him.

This question veers into scary territory:

2. Johnson was asked last week if any player, himself included, is capable of winning nine-plus times in a season, a feat no one has achieved since Vijay Singh in 2004 and Tiger Woods in 2000. "I definitely think I can," Johnson said. "I'm going to have to play some really good golf, but definitely capable of it." Given the depth of talent on Tour today, is a nine-win season achievable — by DJ or anyone else?

Egads, I'm a guy that thinks we should wait until he wins his second event to ask him about the third...You can sort through their responses if you want, but Sean Zak notes how limited the schedules of top players are these days, which to me is the relevant point.

Well, a relevant point, because it's DJ's attitude that is mots notable, considering that he's long been the Tour's biggest under-achiever.

Dod you see DJ's near ace on the allegedly Par-4 12th hole?  Such a shame, he just needed one more club.....Brandel Chamblee does what Brandel does:

 To be fair (I know, why start now?), he doesn't call these the best ever, just his personal faves....though I'm guessing he didn't see Jones' shot in '23....  But Lew Worsham?  He's just showing off there...

I'll just note that Twitter begs to differ, and you can click through to read the back and forth.

What Is To Be Done? - Shack and John Feinstein are frequent Golf Channel sparring partners, and they each share their thoughts on how to fix this event.  The later under this header:

How the Tournament of Champions can become a marquee event again

The problem is, he never gets around to offering solutions.   This is about all he offers, and here he's no more than half-right:

The Tournament of Champions has been around since 1953. Before the Players Championship became the PGA Tour’s favored child, the TOC was the non-major event

on the calendar. Jack Nicklaus won it five times; Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Gene Littler three times; Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Kite and, now, Johnson, twice. All are either in the Hall of Fame or will be once they turn 50. 

But things haven’t gone all that well for the event since 1999, when the tour moved it to Maui after a 30-year run at LaCosta Resort outside of San Diego. The new venue was designed to do several things: One was to encourage players to turn an event that came right after the holidays into a trip to Maui with their families, enjoy the week and play four cut-free rounds on a relatively easy, albeit somewhat goofy golf course. 

Another was to strengthen the field at the PGA Tour stop in Honolulu the following week. Few top players were going to play LaCosta and then fly to Hawaii for just one week, then back to begin the West Coast swing. The thinking was that once on Maui, many players in the all-winners field would make the short hop to Oahu and stick around to play Waialae.

He ignores that having the Sony the week after the TOC has helped that event's field as well....  And let's also note that we recently saw a trial balloon to move the Sony to the Fall, to induce players to make the long trip to Asia.

Before we leave John, he does have this tasty anecdote:

It isn’t as if the tournament’s troubles haven’t been discussed. Several years ago, when Paul Goydos was a member of the Players Advisory Council, most of an evening was spent discussing the TOC. A number of possibilities were raised: Make the exemption for a victory two years (as is the case for the TOC event on the PGA Tour Champions) instead of one. Give major champions a five-year exemption (again, like the seniors). Change the date, the location or both. 

Finally, Goydos, exasperated, looked at then-commissioner Tim Finchem and, paraphrasing since this is a family website, said: “Here’s the problem: You’re playing halfway to Japan right after New Year’s on a golf course that’s in a rainforest on the side of a mountain. If you’re a big star WHY would you go?”

I do actually think there are reasons for players to go, as demonstrated by this year's reasonably strong field.   But moving it back to the Mainland is the only idea thrown around, and he throws out Florida ignoring the time constraints of daylight this time of year.  The Tour doesn't want to compete with the NFL in September, apparently John thinks they're do better against the friggin' playoffs.... 

Of greater interest is Geoff's post, in which he goes medieval on the event:

Because this is the sensitive world of golf where the slightest critique brings an outpouring of defensive responses, hate mail and Twitter trolls, let me get the apologies out of the way. I apologize in advance to, among others, Kapalua resort, Maui, the Governor, the people of Hawaii, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, new sponsor Sentry, longtime ambassador Mark Rolfing, the Golf Channel, the 2018 field, Rickie's Hawaiian shirt, anyone who has ever played a tournament of champions, and most of all, the humpback whales. 

No offense, but the 2018 Sentry TOC was drool-on-the-pillow, dull. The kind of power-nap material you wake up from and feel like you've been sleeping for days. I can attest from actual 2018 experience the first three rounds. And this is coming from someone who enjoys the course, the setting and the concept of starting the season with an all-winners field.

Outside of it's place as a calendar year starter with the previous year's tournament winners, the Tournament of Champions needs more than an infusion of tweaks. The event needs an entire re-imagining. A Keith Pelley-like intervention, minus the pyrotechnics.

Are we in a position to rule out pyrotechnics?  I actually don't think it's quite as bad as all that, but this to me is the ultimate issue:

—Course. Kapalua’s Plantation course has gradually lost its bite. Whether a change in wind patterns, the softer turf, negative effects of various renovations, modern distances or our excess familiarity, the course no longer seems to induce the shotmaking and as many crazy ball-rolls that made it so much fun to see shot-shaping. I don't know the answer here.

While I thought this year a little better, the balls don't react on the turf the way they used to, which made this event a hoot.  DJ's 421 1/2 yard drive captured some of that old-time magic, but it's been sorely missing, especially on the finishing hole.

But what to make of this?

—Format. As match play is normalized and more revered by fans and network execs, the longtime calls to move this to a match play format look more prescient than ever. The small field size is crying out for some sort of match format leading to a championship matches by finalists. Smart executives can figure out how to deal with a different field size each year, but an obvious remedy would be to exempt players from round one who win multiple events from a round or two. Or maybe pool play where those with more wins than one receive benefits. Hey, how about pool play divided by West Coast, Fall, Playoff, and other seasonal winners? Anything but 72-holes of stroke play where limited fields are more likely to give us runaway winners!

This seems a bit infeasible to me.....  Dealing with the varying field sizes and you'll never get them on the plane if they risk a one and done....  Plus, and I love match play, but how would Golf Channel have reacted to this year's final match, you know where DJ closed out Brian Harman on the 12th green?

I could see the merits of a modified Stableford on this crazy golf course, but it would still be a runaway.  Geoff throws some other things at the wall, and it's all worth considering.  But here's his call-to-arms coda:

Ultimately the event may forever lack energy and excitement because of the relaxed Hawaii vibe or the never-ending season or the wealth of strong events. But given the field quality in 2018 and the current opportunity for schedule re-imagination, the PGA Tour's “opening day” event desperately needs a bold intervention.

My sense is, to quote a noted deep thinker, it is what it is.  I think that D.A. Point's anecdote, combined with the general arc of the event, tell us that this is a difficult fix.  One of my biggest gripes with Nurse Ratched was his seeming obliviousness to how changes to one event or series of events would diminish others....  You simply can't build up the Players', the FedEx Cup and the Fall Finish without diminishing the early season events.

I find it pleasant to have golf broadcast in the evening from such a dramatic course with ocean vistas and humpbacks on offer.  But it's not important golf, it's just a tease of what's coming....  I think ultimately Tiger and Ernie may have raise our expectations for what this event can be.... Though it would help if we could restore the golf course to how it played in the early aughts.

Tiger, The Road Forward - The TC panel was asked about Tiger's announced schedule, and most of it is happy talk about his record at Torrey.  Alan Shipnuck touches on the darker side:

Shipnuck: Torrey South is a very tough place to start a season: the rough is

usually deep and wet and the course plays really long in the cold, foggy air. If Tiger can cobble together a good performance there it will be very, very impressive.

I've been worried about that first early morning tee time in the cold..... Alex Micelli agrees:

So, why shouldn’t he return to Torrey Pines? Simply, it’s too difficult of a place to start the season after a year on the bench.

The North and South courses, which are used for the first two rounds, are brutal. Add the quality of the field, and it’s like leading a lamb to the slaughter.

But, as Alan notes, if he can play well there, save me a seat on the bus.

An Awkward Firing -  Did you see who looper for JT this week?  

Thomas employed his father, Mike, as caddie Saturday at the Plantation Course at

Kapalua after having regular looper Jimmy Johnson on the bag the previous two days. The change came about because of Johnson’s need to rest due to injury. 

Per Golf Channel, the veteran looper, who has also caddied for Nick Price, Steve Stricker and Charles Howell III, injured his right foot in October at the CIMB Classic and has spent weeks in a walking boot.

Kapalua is such a difficult course to walk, that this is elder abuse.

 No doubt you've heard who's looping for him on Oahu:

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Caddie Jim (Bones) Mackay is set to come out of retirement, for one week anyway. 

With Justin Thomas’ regular caddie, Jimmy Johnson, sidelined due to plantar fasciitis, Mackay will take over the bag for next week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, where Thomas is the defending champion.

But the TC panel way over-interprets this with this query:

5. Bones is back, at least for one week. He'll caddie for Justin Thomas at next week's Sony Open with Thomas's usual caddie, Jimmy Johnson, sidelined with plantar fasciitis. This is just a cameo for Bones, who's now an NBC on-course reporter, but is this an indication that we could see him coming out of retirement to loop full-time again?

This is a fun one-off, and nothing more....Golf Channel has a lot of air time to fill in a mostly boring week, so this is win-win.  As most of the guys say, I have no insight into what he's thinking, but this alone tells us nothing.

Rancor? -  I didn't think the old guys did rancor:

19th hole: Plenty of rancor over anchored putting among PGA Tour Champions crew

That would be over this:

Scott McCarron as well.....  As I understand things, they are not anchoring because the didn't intend to anchor.... MMMmmmm strike that, they did not anchor because they said they did not intend to anchor....  Is that any way to write a rule book?

Dog Bites Man - It's not that I don't like this story, it's just that the counter-factual would be so much better:

“I went to Topgolf a couple weeks ago,” Leishman said. 

Leishman is a lifetime member at the arcade-style golf venue and didn’t exactly keep a low profile during his first visit. 

“I didn’t realize there was, like, a leaderboard at the front desk,” said Leishman, who uses his real name when playing there. “I scored really high and then all of a sudden people turn around and I’m having a couple beers, just having fun.”

Yanno, the version in which he sucks, and is beaten by the 16-year old girl that's never played golf.  He might want to create a nom de Topgolf....

Gonna leave you all here.  I'll be back with more, including Style Week.