Weekend Wrap

That was exciting for sure, though I'm guessing that Philly is ruins by now....

Playoff Fever - You might have noticed that we now seem to have weekly playoffs as a new normal:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Gary Woodland beat Chez Reavie with a par on the first hole of a playoff Sunday in the Waste Management Phoenix Open. 

Playing three groups ahead of Reavie, Woodland birdied three of the last four holes for a 7-under 64 — the best round of the day — to finish at 18-under 266 at TPC Scottsdale. 

"I'm kind of overwhelmed right now," Woodland said. "I've played well the last five years, I think I had six second-place finishes. I just haven't put four rounds together. That was the struggle last year."

It's was one of those days when a promising leaderboard went to hell.....  Leaving a coup;e of rabbits to pass the time until the football game.  I saw Reavie make his putt on the finishing hole, but then had to leave to go watch the game with a ski buddy.  I went to sleep not knowing who won the playoff, an unusual occurrence for sure.

 Did you see the golf on Saturday?  I had it taped and when I went to watch found that the college B-Ball gave had more than eleven minutes left....  In dog J.B. Holmes years, that's about fourty-five minutes.... well-played, CBS.  Shack had this header Sunday morning:

Wasted: Phoenix Open Set For Stellar Finish And You Can Bet CBS Will Be Late To The Party

I suppose the good news is that it wasn't all that stellar, but also that Golf Channel provided the coverage until the college game ended, which was only a few minutes after the commencement of the broadcast window.

 But before declaring victory, this was a week in which the other Tours weren't active.  Normally when Golf Channel hands it over to the networks (and don't get me started on that half-hour gap, allegedly needed to change graphics, whatever the hell that means), they're covering the round-bellies, Web.com or LPGA.

I'll let Shack do the honors on the strange run of playoffs, including an important point about limited field events.  The Tour Confidential panel takes on the larger issue:

1. The rowdiest event in golf was as rowdy as ever. The Waste Management Phoenix Open set attendance records, but not everyone acted accordingly. Jordan Spieth had someone yell during his swing at least twice, Rickie Fowler said he was "disappointed" in some of the things yelled at the par-3 16th and Phil Mickelson, the fan favorite, said that there were so many spectators surrounding him after one wayward drive on Saturday that it was "one of the most uncomfortable moments" he could remember. Have the massive crowds, vocal fans and party atmosphere at the WMPO become untenable?

Alan Shipnuck: As a great Tour philosopher likes to say, It is what it is. The tourney and 

Tour have encouraged the frat boy vibe so of course there is going to be bad behavior. It will take Phil and Jordan and a bunch of other top players skipping the event before any efforts are made to change things.

Michael Bamberger: Someone will get hurt I fear before the sheriff steps in.

Sean Zak: It's the most-attended event on Tour, so the Waste Management Phoenix Open calls the shots themselves. The players don't here. Sure, the players can speak loudly by not showing up, but the WMPO has wanted this type of setting — or something similar to it — for years. As long as the fans keep coming, paying tickets, buying beer and recycling, the players are going to be somewhat uncomfortable. Don't like it? Don't join the field.

Recycling?  You mean by tossing their empties at players that missed the green on No. 16?   But that last bit aside, those are the conventional answers, heck Mikey Bams wrote last week about the inherent evils of No.16.  But how about this from Josh Sens:

Josh Sens: It only becomes untenable if the pros all decide they're fed up playing it. Do you think that's going to happen? But on a broader note about behavior. Yeah, it's a bummer to see guys get heckled and a lot of the fan comportment at the Waste Management is Darwin Award-dumb. But let's not pretend that the Waste Management has a monopoly on bad behavior. I don't have a lot of patience for tut-tutting traditionalists saying the Waste Management is an affront to the blissful way things were. Bad behavior takes a lot of forms and golf has a long history of unseemly behavior happening under a genteel guise. Well-practiced exclusion. Outright discrimination. The PGA Tour used to have a caucasian-only clause. Just last week, at the Farmers Insurance Open, I stood next to a tournament marshal who encouraged the crowd to beat the pulp out of a guy who had yelled in Tiger's backswing. I don't condone a yahoo heckling Rickie Fowler or Jordan Spieth or anyone else. But all the self-proclaimed purist harrumphing about the Waste Management isn't just tedious. It belies a truth. Golf likes to pretend that people who play and love the game are somehow intrinsically more honorable because of it. I don't buy it. And I believe that people who hang out in glass clubhouses shouldn't throw stones.

As I understand his logic, because golf has sinned in the past they have no right to control drunks at the Phoenix Open.... Samantha Power, call your office.

Now his last bit is semi-interesting, though he buries the lede.  Phoenix is what happens when the stands are filled with non-golfers....  I get what he's saying about there being louts at other events, for sure, but this event goes out of its way to appeal to those that wouldn't be caught dead on a golf course.  You remember the old joke about the woman that asked Tom Weiskopf (I think it was Tom) what brought him to town.  When he answered, her response was to the effect of that she so enjoys the Phoenix Open that she goes every night.

A couple of things that tickled my fancy from the week....  The guys above spoke of the players having the option to attend or not, but some are guilty of a more tangible incitement:

There are three ways a PGA Tour pro can guarantee getting a huge ovation from the massive crowds at the Waste Management Phoenix Open's famed 16th hole: 

Hit a great shot.

Don the jersey of a local sports hero.

Give out beer money. 

Ryan Palmer is going the third route. Again. 

In what's become a tradition in recent years, Palmer will again toss golf balls wrapped in $10 bills to lucky fans in the crowd so they can buy a brewsky, or maybe one of those new Arnold Palmer Spiked Half & Half concoctions. Either way, no one will complain about catching one of these on Friday afternoon:

Yanno, if you're throwing golf balls into the stands I'd be more comfortable with a Chrome Soft....  Yanno, for the children.

Lastly, proof positive of an all-seeing and benevolent God:

If a tour pro is lucky, he may only hit one or two shanks his entire career, and the hope is that it doesn't happen when there's a camera around. Unfortunately for Ian Poulter, he's hit his fair share, and just about all of them have been captured on video, including his latest from Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which came at the worst place possible at TPC Scottsdale. 

Late in the afternoon Poulter stepped to the par-3 16th tee three under on the day, when he pulled out an iron and hit a cold-hard shank right into the stands.

Video at the link.  The only thing better would have been if this happened on Saturday, with the crowd over-served for hours....

Wither Rickie -  That TC panel turns its attention to the third-round leader:

2. Rickie Fowler held a one-stroke lead heading into the final day of the Phoenix Open, but he shot 73 and tied for 11th. He's now 1 for 6 in converting 54-hole leads or co-leads in his PGA Tour career. Why can't Rickie close on Sundays?

Sens: Maybe I'm being soft but I wouldn't make too much of that stat. It's hard to win. And it's not like he was running away with the event going into today. He had a razor-thin lead over a pack of gunners. That he was in the lead at all was impressive in itself, as he didn't have all facets of his game working in any single round this week. I thought he showed a lot of fight to be where he was.

Ritter: It was a one-shot lead against a bunched leaderboard, so it's not like he kicked away a sure victory. Nothing clicked on Sunday. But Rickie is becoming a frustrating guy to pull for. He has the four Tour titles and all that charisma, but somehow he leaves you wanting more. I still think that because he puts himself in contention so often, the law of averages will kick in and before long he'll quickly ring up a few more Ws, including that elusive major. But he still has to go out and do it.

Alan Shipnuck is the one to take issue with the man in orange:

Shipnuck: I have to disagree with much of the above. We can all agree Fowler is nothing but class and one of the game's great ambassadors, but he turns 30 this year and we're well past the point of giving him the benefit of the doubt between the ropes. Simply put, the kid is not a closer. He may learn that elusive skill, but all these missed opportunities only add to the scar tissue. I still go back to a different Phoenix Open: 2010, when Fowler was a flashy rookie. He had a chance to win coming down the stretch but on the par-5 15th hole, with only 210 yards to cover the water, he chose to layup. The ensuing par doomed his chances. Thinking of Fowler's contemporaries, would Jordan or Rory or JT or DJ or JDay or Koepka lay up in that situation? I sincerely doubt it. That moment said a lot about Fowler.

Players Championship aside, there's case to be made that our Rickie is not a closer.  But citing a shot from 2010 is deemed inadmissible by this court.

Competitor Golf Digest harshes our mellow with this:

Ranking Rickie Fowler’s five blown 54-hole leads, from ‘not his fault’ to ‘should’ve won’

There's not much there, but this week won the bronze, so he's got that going for him.  

Scenes From Far Hills - I'm terribly saddened by this announcement:

We all must thank Golf World's Ryan Herrington for attending and reporting on theUSGA Annual Meeting so that the rest of us can only dream of mingling in a sea of navy, grey, officials from wannabe U.S. Open courses, and many others working to not say anything construable as interesting. Because you know how rumors get started!

New President Mark Newell replaces Diana Murphy.

USGA awards ceremonies will be substantially less interesting without the incomparable Diana "Open Bar" Murphy.  I do hope they'll release a highlight package....

The buzz of discussion on the subject of distance continues with these comments from the new Prez:

“When you combine [distance] with the effect of the size of golf courses on the economics of the facilities, on the environmental issues that come from that and, in some cases, on the effect on just the enjoyment on golfers, it’s something we need to look hard at,” Newell told Golf Digest. “That’s what we’re planning to do. We have been, and we’re going to be focused on what that situation is and how we can deal with it.”

I'm going with "Continue to ignore it", Final Answer.

Adding fuel to the fire is Mike Davis:

"We do not think increased distance is good for the game," Davis said, citing the relentless pressures courses face to increase total yardage and expand their properties, leading to increased costs to battle the threat of irrelevance. "We've watched these footprints grow. What good has it done?"

And this:

“This issue is a very complex issue, and an issue that’s been talked about, debated and

researched,” Davis said. “This just isn’t about the male elite game. That’s not how we're viewing it. For us, it’s understanding the past … and being very forward thinking. We know there are some severe pressures on the game. … Long term we really do believe that reducing the size of footprints is a way to help the game in so many ways. We’ve been very forthright in saying we do not think increased distance is good for the game.” 

To reiterate his point, Davis reminded people that this year’s U.S. Open will be played at Shinnecock Hills at slightly over 7,400 yards compared to 6,900 the previous editions. But what about the first time Shinnecock hosted the Open, back in 1896? The distance was just 4,423 yards.

Didn't Rickie Fowler lay-up in that 1896 Open?  I've got a pretty well-developed BS-meter, and bring in amateurs and 1896 has it in the red zone.

But let's keep our eyes peeled for this:

The next turning point could come later this month, when the USGA and R&A are expected to release their third-annual joint Distance Report, which breaks down statistics on seven professional tours around the world. A year ago, the report showed only a slight increase in distance.

 It seemed a year ago that they went out of their way to cherry pick data to obscure the impact of distance gains.  

Before leaving the navy blazers, the TC panel was given this interesting exit question:

6. The USGA announced that a U.S. Senior Women's Open is beginning in 2019 and with $1 million in prize money. What other national championship would you like to see the USGA introduce?

Click through for their thoughts.

Calling All Armchair Architects -  Interesting on its own merits. Ron Whitten introduces the Lido Competition in a most interesting way:

One of my favorite photos in my collection of old photographs of golf architects is that of Dr. Alister MacKenzie playing a shot out of a bunker short of the first green at

Alwoodley Golf Club in Leeds, England. Alwoodley was the starting point of MacKenzie's design career; he laid out the course with the assistance of famed British golf architect H.S. Colt. 

My copy of the photo is weathered and scratched, yet I cherish it because of what it portrays. It shows MacKenzie bunkered a good 20 yards short of the front edge of the green, the hole another 20 yards beyond that. He has someone tending the flag! From all appearances, he was certain he was going to hole the shot. MacKenzie was a self-confessed hacker at best, and yet he clearly possessed an indomitable confidence, the sort of spirit we all should have as golfers. 

It's that spirit I hope you'll bring to the 2018 Lido Design Competition, the annual golf design contest co-sponsored by Golf Digest and the Alister MacKenzie Society.

There's no truth to the rumor that Bones was the Good Doctor's caddie that day...  But what a great photo.

And, before we go, Shack had this great photo of the old 17th green at Pebble:

Chandler Egan was the unsung hero of Pebble.  And it was that 1929 Amateur, when Bobby Jones lost unexpectedly in the first round, when he took the time to go play Cypress Point.  Tying it all together, you might possibly have heard that Jones and Dr. Mackenzie collaborated on a golf course....

Also, some day I need to do a post on the original Lido....  Just laying down a marker.