Friday, February 9, 2018

Flotsam and Jetsom

Put on another pot of coffee, at last count I have 18 open browser tabs....  This could take a while.

It Happened in Monterrey - You kids are too young to remember that song, and it's of course not that Monterrey...

Yesterday we had this header, courtesy of Mr. Jordan Spieth:
Despite recent woes, Jordan Spieth says fellow pros would still want him standing over big putt at the Ryder Cup
Well sure, there's no money on the line....

Jordan drew Spyglass yesterday (little doubt which track he'll play on Saturday), and Brentley Romine has this:
Then there was Jordan Spieth, a week removed from missing the cut at the Phoenix Open, who opened in even-par 72 on Spyglass as his putting struggles continued.
Spieth, who said Wednesday that he was in a “minor slump” on the greens, needed 32 putts to get through his first round. He did miss just three fairways and four greens while only carding one bogey, but he also holed just one birdie putt. He is tied for 98th going into Friday’s second round at Monterey Peninsula.

It's officially a thing.... Not only is he missing an inordinate number of short putts, but he's missing them badly and throwing in that early walk for good measure.

Jordan's playing partner is back in beast mode:
Spieth’s playing competitor, Johnson, playing on Tour for the first time since his
dominating performance at Kapalua, shot 5-under 67. Johnson, playing alongside his father-in-law, Wayne Gretzky, was a tad rusty; he left a bunker shot in the rough on the par-3 fifth hole and made bogey, and then nearly drove it out of bounds at the par-4 18th. But otherwise, he was his usual self, birdieing all four par 5s. 
“Definitely need to drive it a little bit better,” Johnson said. “I hit a few bad drives, but got away with them. But, yeah, I’ve been driving it well for awhile now, so for my game, if I drive it well I’m going to play well most of the time.”
 Father-in-law?  Excuse me, not until DJ makes an honest woman of Paula...

But see if you enjoy this from the AP game story as much as I did:
The real advantage might be the other pro in his group. His partner for the fourth straight year, Dustin Johnson, rarely thinks at all.
Who could argue with that?

Jim Nantz's backyard golf hole is the stuff of legend. The mini par 3 is a replica of Pebble Beach's No. 7, has a rock where people who make an ace get their names engraved (Tony Romo is one of the lucky few), and is surrounded by a sound system that blasts the Masters theme music 24/7.
That may not all be true, but who do you need to know to get a tee time?  Jim, probably....

Phil Being Phil - he's back and always delivers the goods:
But it’s a change you can’t see. No, he is still swashbuckling Phil. But perhaps the new iteration won’t have to be so gosh-darn entertaining. Which would make him eminently more competitive. 
An offseason leg-strengthening program might soon pay dividends. Always enamored with the long ball, Mickelson is averaging 305 yards off the tee, 13 yards longer than his driving average in 2017. He ranks 39th on tour in that category. His clubhead speed, he said, has increased four miles per hour, and his ball speed is up significantly, too. 
“My legs were always very passive in my swing, and now I’m able to get more of a whip effect and push off the ground,” he explained. “It’s increased the speed right away. From a biomechanical standpoint, I’ve always had plenty of upper body speed, including the hands, but I was weak using my legs for power.”
And this:
“The two areas that I’ve been weak in over the last five years and have held me back are driving and short putts, and I believe they are both becoming strengths,” he said. “If that’s the case, then I’m going to have a good year. I believe what I’m doing is going to make a huge difference.”
I don't have an opinion on his legs, but his short-putting has been a problem for far longer than five years.... But he gives great presser for sure.

Shane Ryan, Unplugged -  He's off his meds for sure, but it's an enjoyable trip.  The header captures his premise:
Enough with 72-hole stroke-play events. Here are 10 new formats for professional golf to ponder
If only....He's riffing off an event held in Australia, and a certain comely female pro thinks she might be picked as a teammate by her Uncle.  Which of course reminds me of an old joke about my people, in which the punchline is "But business is business."

There's lots of amusing thoughts to be found:
2. A team event featuring captain's picks 
We’re starting to see this in All-Star games—the NBA does it now, and the Pro Bowl tried it for a while—and it would be pretty spectacular in golf. The format could be pretty simple, where teams of eight compete in stroke play, or it could have match-play elements at tournament’s end, akin to the Belgian Knockout. But the big novelty would be the captain's picks. This isn't like the Ryder Cup, where someone like Tom Watson picks a guy because he sent flattering text messages and then pretends it was because of his grit, or something. No, this would be public—a group of the top players in the world would be designated as captains, and they’d pick their teams at the start of the tournament on TV. 
The problem with this format for the players is that it would entail great public humiliation, especially for really strong players who get picked last because nobody likes them. But what great motivation! Wouldn’t you want to see Patrick Reed in unquenchable anger mode, beating Rickie Fowler, 10 and 8, because he’s upset at being picked 150th?
Ummm Shane, have you seen any of Patrick's recent play?  I'm not sure he could beat me 10&8....

Lord knows we could use the change of pace, but the resistance to anything out of the box is profound.  Even the Zuric team event cause all sorts of agita as relates to FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup points....

Done Deal -  The paper of record reports that a certain previously-reported transaction has closed:
Fore! 
Banker Howard Milstein is the new owner of Golf Magazine and its website, golf.com.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price tag was estimated to be around $15 million. 
“We look forward to continuing Golf Magazine’s long history of editorial excellence, both in its print edition and through its Web site and other offerings,” said Milstein, who is the chairman and chief executive of New York Private Bank and Trust, which operates Emigrant Bank and its private equity arm, Emigrant Capital.
It includes this good news:
Editor-in-Chief David DeNunzio and the entire staff are expected to be retained by the new owners
I don't know what that means in terms of those writers that were jointly employed by Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine, guys like Alan Shipnuck and Mike Bamberger.  

Milstein has invested with Jack Nicklaus, and most folks have focused on this side of the story:
Golf great Jack Nicklaus, one of the icons of golf who built a successful business while also burnishing the greatest record in major championship history, announced on
Thursday that he is stepping away from the day-to-day operations of Nicklaus Companies. The decision, he said, will allow him to spend more time on charity endeavors and other interests. 
Nicklaus, who turned 78 last month, remains co-chairman of Nicklaus Companies, based in North Palm Beach, Fla., but is turning over management of the firm to Howard Millstein, Chairman of New York Private Bank &Trust, whom Nicklaus brought in as a partner in 2007.
Who is more deserving of some time off than Jack, especially from his design duties.

We're All Gonna Die - You've no doubt discerned my political leanings over the years, but today comes an interesting test case.  On the one hand, global warming climate change is an all-purpose scam, accounting for anything that goes wrong in the world....  But now they're asserting that it directly threatens that which I hold most dear:
Open Championship venues such as St Andrews and Royal Troon could be under water
by the end of the century if sea levels rise even slightly as a result of climate change, according to a new report. 
The Climate Coalition says golf, football and cricket face an "unexpected threat", with cricket to be the "hardest hit". 
The report predicts "cancelled football matches, flooded cricket grounds and golf courses crumbling into the sea". 
It adds that rising winter temperatures mean the Scottish skiing industry could collapse within 50 years.
I'm so confused, I thought it was always women and minorities that are hardest hit... But we can all agree that cricket is an acceptable loss.

The baisi of this report seems to be that the UK is on a run of wettest years ever, though isn't that no more than a dog-bites-man story?

This Golf Digest report digs deeper, and finds a suitable victim:
The Climate Coalition used Montrose Links as a case study. The first reference to golf being played at there was in 1562. In the last 30 years, however, the North Sea has crept 70 meters closer to the course, according to research published by Dundee University. 
“As the sea rises and the coast falls away, we’re left with nowhere to go,” Chris Curnin, director of golf at Montrose, is quoted in the report. “Climate change is often seen as tomorrow’s problem, but it’s already eating away at our course.” 
Cumin notes that in 2017 a rock armour protecting the first green and second tee would no longer suffice in a severe storm. The course, with the help of the local council, was forced to take rocks from near the third tee and move them to the armour to help fortify the area and prevent a major storm from doing significant damage to the course.
What, beaches never experienced erosion until the last thirty years?  It's all quite silly and needlessly alarmist, but they simply keep identifying alleged targets until they hit one close to home.

Meanwhile, Manhattan is supposed to be under water by now, according to the first alarms sent out, and that doesn't seem to have happened.  How about they explain all that they've gotten wrong up until now, before moving those goalposts wickets. 

Bunker Liner-Gate, Resolved - Did you know this was a thing?  Let's see, once is an anecdote, therefore twice must be a scandal..... Barndan Grace and Charlie Hoffman caused a stir by taking relief because of a bunker liner, when both had fried-egg lies....The Forecaddie is on the case:
The Man Out Front is still grumpy about Charley Hoffman and Branden Grace both asking for and receiving relief from bunker shots in 2017. Both players just happened to have awful lies and claimed, as was their right, that modern bunker liners were preventing them from gaining any footing.
Hey, we're all grumpy about something....For me, it's the lack of snow, though they'll tell me that's dues to climate change as well....
On the “hard card” rules sheet distributed to players at this week’s Farmers Insurance
Open and at all Tour stops, the committee has instituted local rules that now permit “ a drop only if a player’s swing path is impacted by a
rogue liner. 
“The Rules Committee may deem an exposed liner ground under repair. However, interference by a liner with a player’s stance is deemed not to be, of itself, interference under Rule 25-1.”
Good.  They're called hazards for a reason.... But have we studied the effect of climate change on bunker liners?

More Alan - We had the Pebble query yesterday, but his mailbag is the typical cornucopia of wittiness:
#AskAlan Who gets the bigger fine from the Tour, Rahmbo for his club abuse or Kuchar for his colorful language? -Dave (@CountDownDave) 
I'm guessing Rahm, because the Tour has to cringe at his on-course churlishness and will want to send a message to a youngster who is just learning how to be on the world stage. I've been around Kuchar a lot and have never heard him say anything even close to "d---head," which is what he piped into America's living rooms on Sunday. He's a favorite in Ponte Vedra Beach so I don't think they'll hit his wallet tooooo hard.
Did you see Rahm's explosion last week?  I'm having trouble finding it, mostly because there's so many hits when Googling "Jon Rahm temper".  He needs to fins a better way of releasing the frustration, as it's not a good look for him and folks will tire of it quickly....  Mind you, I run hot enough on the course that I'm sympathetic, but it's just not a good look.

But I didn't catch what Kooch said, I only heard the announcers apologizing for it....  the guy must have truly been a dickhead, because that's not Kooch's MO.
Do you think Tiger will ever be offered the Ryder Cup captaincy or will all the
baggage relegate him to an assistant forever? -Rick (@BTNRickPizzo) 
Oh, without a doubt. That will just turn up the volume even more on the Ryder Cup. Tiger still wants to play in another Ryder Cup, and if he can piece together any kind of form I'm sure Furyk will pick him, making Tiger a de facto palying assistant captain. But as soon as injury and/or poor results makes it clear to Tiger that playing in a Ryder Cup is no longer an option I expect he'll have his pick of which year he wants to be captain.
Why do we think he's pretending to like Phil?  It's a mortal lock...
Best place on the course to watch the Pebble Beach Pro-Am from? -@JoelPacker 
Cypress Point. I’ll tell you all about it next week.
Dickhead!

Cheap Shots -  You know the drill, we go full-frontal with our snark:


While I usually keeps these short, Paige is a special case.  In the recent Style Issue of Golf Magazine, she was noted as one of the most stylish women in golf.  I have nothing to say about her style, I'm just curious about the "In Golf" designation....

Ironic, in that he's about the freakiest thing I've ever seen - Graham DeLaet reports UFO sighting: 'Freakiest thing I've ever seen'

C'mon, this isn't of our world:



One needs to be very careful with those amateur-trained goats - New Oregon golf course will offer professionally trained goats as caddies (True story)

Be careful, I understand they kick up quite a fuss when under-tipped.
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