Thursday Threads

We've had 4" of actual snow.... of course that only came after several bouts of heavy rains.  Dust on crust is the best guess....

Tiger Scat - Mike Bamberger on Tiger volunteering to be be Prez Cup captain:

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods has walked into a hundred late-afternoon press conferences wearing black pants and a red shirt, his Sunday get-up all through his nearly

22-year career. On Tuesday afternoon, at half past four, he slipped into the Latrobe Room, on the second floor of the clubhouse here at Bay Hill, in his Sunday best. Black pants, red shirt, matching hat. He was swoosh-free, instead sporting the logos of his new team: the 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup team, which he will captain.

He was in a good spot, and golf is in a good spot. Woods seems happy and healthy and he’s talking about trying to be a playing captain, but he made the statement in a singularly winning way. “It won’t be just my decision,” Woods said, describing a scenario where he might be in the mix for a spot on the roster. “It will be a collaborative effort.” 

This is a remarkable statement from Woods, because through most of his amateur career — excluding his two years on the Stanford golf team — he was the ultimate lone-wolf golfer. Through the first 15 or more years as a professional, that was even more the case. In recent years, as an assistant captain on the last Ryder Cup team and the last Presidents Cup team, he has embraced his emerging elder-statesman role in a significant way.

In the first case, he was playing an individual sport.... and in the second, he was never a lone wolf, he always had that team surrounding him.  Just yesterday we had a pic of his team, form way back at the '95 Amateur.

It's not that I disagree with Mike, it's more a matter of emphasis.  It was inevitable that he become more accessible, especially as his playing career was in doubt.  It's not like he ever had a day job....  Golf is his only home.

But the low point in this PR campaign is surely this photo op:

You expect insightful analysis when you spend your precious blog dollars on Unplayable Lies, so I'll call your attention to the placement of their respective left hands.  Old pro Ernie finds a safe position, whereas Tiger will be headed to the washroom.... we hope.

The ExtraSpin guys dive into the archives for pics of Tiger with animals.... Don't worry, Sammy the Squirrel puts in an appearance, along with several blondes.

Tiger is on the course as we speak, paired with Jason Day (who has presumably had a Roo or two placed in his hands) and Hideki Matsuyama.  The former had this to say:

I don’t know how many shots (Rory) said that (Tiger) gave up playing, (but) I think it’s the opposite. I think he actually feeds off that. You know what I mean. I think he feeds off that crowd and I think it actually helps him more so than hurts him. But everyone has a different opinion, but that’s, I think that’s mine, because you look at Tiger through the years in his successes of winning a tournament and he’s fist pumping and he’s high-fiving and he’s going hard at it and he hears that, and I mean, who doesn’t want to hear, ‘Let’s go, Jason,’ from both side of the fairway or, ‘Let’s go, Tiger.’ You know what I mean? Everyone loves hearing that. Sometimes you’re new to it and you kind of are a little bit shocked by it, but after awhile you get used to it, you start feeding off that, that vibe of what the crowd’s doing. So I think it definitely helps.

A raucous crowd cheering his every move?  After five years virtually confined to bed?  Of course he feeds off it....  Whether it will get old as the golf gets more serious, that's perhaps a different question.

And while I knew he had a lot of time to kill, who knew he was an LPGA fan:

LPGA sisters Jessica and Nelly Korda held a joint press conference at the Bank of Hope

Founders Cup on Tuesday, and they ended their session by talking about Tiger Woods's return — and how stoked they were when they found out he knew of them. 

Jessica, 25, told the media about the time she ran into Woods and Rory McIlroy at Medalist last year. Woods was apparently aware of the sisters' bet on who would finish higher on the money list. 

"I geeked out so hard when I saw him after the season ended," Jessica said. "We were playing on Thanksgiving and I walked into the halfway house and he was like, 'So, who won the bet between you two?' I was like, 'You talking to me?'"

I was previously unaware that one can "geek out hard".  Clearly I've been doing it wrong....

USGA Stuff - A couple of unrelated stories related to our benevolent governing organization.  First, and most significant, as relates to the Fox broadcasts of their championships:

Get ready for non-stop action during the U.S. Golf Association’s 2018 championships.

There will be no commercial interruptions during seven of the eight USGA

championships that will air on Fox Sports or FS1, thanks to an expanded commitment from Rolex, a USGA corporate partner. Those tournaments include the U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open and the U.S. Amateur. 

The season will be branded the USGA Championship Season on Fox Presented by Rolex, according to Sarah Hirshland, the USGA’s senior managing director, business affairs. 

“You will see Rolex’s brand and ideally you’ll see sponsored features from other corporate partners and things of that nature,” Hirshland said. “What you will not see is any traditional 30-second-style commercial advertising inventory.”

Some of you find me a tad cynical, but this has to be from necessity, no?  If they could sell the spots, they surely would, no?  I get it for the amateur events such as the fourball, but they can't even sell the time for the ladies' and round-belly Opens?  Gotta be quite the loser contract....

Then there was this as well:

On Wednesday, Els learned he’ll get to play in a 26th at Shinnecock Hills, the USGA

having given the 48-year-old two-time winner a special exemption into this summer’s championship.

Els wasn’t the only former champion to receive good news from the USGA as Jim Furyk also received an exemption. The 2003 winner had played in 23 previous Opens, including the last 22 straight. 

“Getting to play in another U.S. Open at a historic course like Shinnecock Hills really gets my competitive spirit flowing,” said Furyk, who is trying to balance spending time recovering from a shoulder injury to play on the PGA Tour in 2018 with responsibilities his this year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team captain. “I’ve had great success in my many trips to the U.S. Open and winning one is a highlight of my career.”

I've never loved these, as the U.S. Open should be above sentimentality.   Although there may be one piece of buried good news, in that if this is Jim's one Get-out-Of-Jail-Free card, it probably means they're never returning to Olympia Fields.  Win-Win, Baby!

A Phil of Attainder? - If this from Tyrrell Hatton is true, the Tour has some 'splainin' to do:

Playing partner Hatton finished one shot outside the play-off but, speaking on this week’s Sky Sports Golf Podcast, the Englishman lifted the lid on an extraordinary incident

towards the end of the final round that disrupted his rhythm. 

A rules official approached Mickelson, Hatton and the third member of their three-ball, Shubhankar Sharma, after they had hit their tee shots at the 15th hole. Hatton and Sharma were informed by the official that they were on the clock – but Mickelson was not. 

Hatton explained: “Sharma wasn’t that slow, to be honest. He was fine. But I feel like Phil was taking quite a lot of time on certain things. We’d had a warning earlier on in the round to speed up and we kind of did but not massively. 

“I’d just birdied 14 to tie with Phil and, you know, you’ve got four holes to go and it’s kind of crunch time. We had all hit good tee shots up 15 when one of the officials charged over and said, ‘Phil, you’re exempt but Tyrrell and Sharma, I’m going to start timing you.’ 

“Phil goes, ‘Oh, he obviously likes me’. I was raging.

It's my understanding that the entire group gets put on the clock, not individual players.  Anyone know or know where to find the Tour's policy?  But Tyrrell calling out Phil for being the slowpoke, can't help but add a frisson of spice to the Ryder Cup....

Did anyone get the epic bon mot in the header?

Masters Thoughts -  Joel Beall jams his tongue deep into his cheek with this offering:

A highly unscientific, totally premature ranking of 16 storylines for the 2018 Masters

Hmmmm...what could take the top billing here?  We still have a few weeks to go, so no need to peak early, but who hasn't caught this bug going around?

15. Sharma Fever, catch it!

There's an appealing aura that Shubhankar Sharma exudes, with good reason: The kid went from outside the top 500 to earning a special exemption to golf's grandest stage in 11 weeks. His two European Tour wins stoked our curiosity; his mettle at the WGC-Mexico Championship grabbed our attention. With a marksman's precision and an endearing tranquility, Sharma's not a star in the making. He's merely waiting for his turn to shine.

And Joel does a nice job with the inevitable:

1. Tiger, BACK

It would be too big. Make the '86 Masters seem like your run-of-the-mill, mid-'90s Buick Classic. The most physically daunting comeback since Ben Hogan. Most culturally significant since Muhammad Ali. Most popular since Michael Jordan. 

Grown men would weep, orthopedics would see a disconcerting rise in fist-pump related injuries, Monster stock would go through the roof. And it may damn well happen. 

Which, of course, means Yuta Ideka will be your 2018 Masters champ.

Yuta Ikeda is just a fun name to say out loud.....

Baby Steps, Baby -  This is just silly....  I'm old enough to remember when Paula Creamer was the next big thing....  How'd that work out?  So, it's great that she's rededicated herself and all, but....

Creamer comes into the desert with a new coach, swing, physique and equipment. She’s

mapping out the immediate future in three-week intervals, mostly to see how her body reacts. She had wrist surgery last fall. 

While the short-term goal is to simply stick to what swing coach Kevin Craggs has been preaching, the big picture has never been more clear for the 10-time winner who’s currently ranked 146th. Creamer recently sat down with her team and told them what she wanted to accomplish: win more majors, the 2020 Olympics. 

Her biggest goal: Rise to No. 1.

Sure.  That three-week interval sounds about right,   Paula is currently the 146th ranked woman golfer in the world.  Wake me up when she gets herself back into the top 100.