Your Friday Frisson

A secret disbelief in the enemy’s play is very useful for match play. WALTER SIMPSON

Are we having fun yet?  Not you, DJ.....

Planets Aligned -  That match we've all been waiting for, with Group 4 at stake, is upon us:

Spieth initially seemed unsure why their “common pairing” at the team events would make for a great match-play duel. But then he explained the odd tension between the two compatriots. 

“Normally you’re working together, but we want to beat each other every time,” Spieth said after defeating Haotong Li, 4 and 2, Thursday at Austin Country Club. “So even when we’ve been on the same team, it’s been a match against each other. In alternate shot, if we don’t win a hole, I want it to be his fault and he wants it to be my fault. So we’ve almost played every single match we’ve been involved in together against each other.” 

Some good old-fashioned passive-aggressive Type A tension. Now we’re getting somewhere. 

For Reed, who birdied the 18th hole to hold off Charl Schwartzel, 1 up, it’s all about giving the fans a show. 

“Hopefully both of us go out and play really good golf and give all these fans something really fun to watch,” Reed said.

OK, here's my dream scenario.... They're tied on No. 18 and Jordan has to call a rules official over to adjudicate a drop, which is denied....  Jordan says:

1. Thank you for performing your duties with discretion;
2.  I have a right to a third opinion, from an unbiased official, or;
3. I guess your name needs to be.....

This guy should be reading my blog:

One interested observer will be Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman faces Brian Harman at 10:52 a.m. Friday.

“Hopefully I get done early, I can watch it.” McIlroy said. “Penalty drops everywhere.”

 This jab gives Patrick the lead in the trash talk:

When asked to identify Spieth's greatest match-play strength, Reed was quick to throw a jab. "I don't know, my back still hurts from the last Ryder Cup," he said.

he doesn't seem to have considered that the back pain could be the result of carrying that beer belly around....

Jordan, on the other hand, wins for his general approach to the game:

Spieth made clear he both loves wind and chooses to play where it will blow. 

“I have and will continue to schedule tournaments away from a dome because it’s just

unusual for me,” Spieth said. “I like having the feel aspect. Places with no wind, where it’s just driving range shots, it’s just never been something I’ve been used to. So I don’t really know what to do on them.” 

Spieth said that “feel-based” golf of holding shots in the wind and letting the ball move is “advantageous” to both his game and Reed’s. 

“Tomorrow with heavy winds forecast in the afternoon, that plays to both of our strengths,” Spieth said. “And we’re not going to score, it’s to beat each other. So we’re probably going to have to shoot under par, which will be well done tomorrow.” 

As for “domes” he has played in so far, Spieth rattled off Phoenix, Mexico City and Palm Springs as tough destinations for his game.

And Quad Cities?  Because there was that time you went there instead of to Scotland to prepare for The Open....  OK, bygones.

Shane Ryan goes down a dangerous path, focused on whether certain Friday matches are truly "meaningless"?  Heck, I'd argue that certain Wednesday matches are as well, but let's start with two comments from the ever-voluble Jason Dufner:

In the 2017 event, Jason Dufner was out of contention after two days—he halved with Patrick Reed and lost to Brooks Koepka—but he immediately disagreed with the word "meaningless" to describe his Friday match. 

"There's definitely something at stake," he said. "More money."

Thud!  Jase, Mr. Monahan is on Line 2 for you....

And this:

"It always means something," Dufner said. "I made the FedEx by one point last year, the top 30, so it meant something." 

The other point Dufner made is that a Friday match with no chance to advance at the Match Play is no different than being out of contention on the final round of a stroke-play event.

OK, those are better arguments for sure....

Rory comes across far better, and rebuts the best of The Duf's arguments:

"I definitely agree," he said. "Knowing that you are playing a match that you might get two more FedEx points and $20,000 or whatever it is. It's tough. It's hard. You try to go out with the mindset that … it's a good round to take advantage of trying different things, bits and pieces. That's the tough part about it. There's going to be guys going out there tomorrow that would really just want to be on a plane tonight going home."

I brought up Dufner's point, and asked how if it was any different from being way out of contention on Sunday in a stroke play event. 

"Yeah, because at least in a stroke-play event you can go out and shoot 62, 63. And you move up 50 spots and all of a sudden it's a top-20 and you feel good about yourself. Here it's not quite the same."

Yup.  But wait, it gets better....

"At least on a Sunday you go out there and blitz," he said. "I've had Sundays where I have been first out. I remember one year in Switzerland, I went out first twosome, one guy in front of us, I shot 64. The wind picked up, I finished top ten. I won a watch for low round of the week and I got a kiss from Cindy Crawford because she presented it. It was a great Sunday." 

A moment later, he clarified that because the tournament was in Switzerland, he actually got three kisses from Crawford.

In that case, three is most certainly better than one....

My only disappointment is that he didn't pose the question to Keegan Bradley, likely because he failed to pack his kevlar.

You wouldn't know it from the coverage, but Spieth - Reed is not the only battle of the unbeatens:

Group 7

11:20 a.m. -- Sergio Garcia (2-0) vs. Xander Schauffele (2-0)

Group 2

12:04 p.m. -- Justin Thomas (2-0) vs. Francesco Molinari (2-0)

Group 13

1:10 p.m. -- Alex Noren (2-0) vs. Tony Finau (2-0)

Those are local times, CDT specifically.  The big one goes at 1:32, so plan your day accordingly.

Rory v. Commissioner Monahan - The Commish seems a good guy, and a meaningful step up from his predecessor.  But his response to Rory's concern about fan behavior seemed tone-deaf:

PGA Tour commissioner says fan behavior discussion a good problem

His detailed comments don't improve matters:

“We are monitoring it and taking it seriously and we’ll continue to get that right,”

Monahan said. “I think a lot of that behavior is going to be self policed. I’d much rather be in a situation we’re in where we’ve got a problem to solve with young people coming into our sport. It’s a small number of people, a handful of people.”

Do we have a demographic breakdown of the buffoons?  Or are you just winging it?

“When you have people who aren’t behaving properly and they’ve had too much alcohol, then I agree [with McIlroy],” Monahan said. “In those incidences, those people who are making it uncomfortable for a player, alcohol sales should be cut off.”

Can someone translate that into English for me?  After a fan proves he's been overserved, you're going to cut off alcohol sales to him?  How proactive, sir.

Rory had this in rebuttal:

I think what happened to Justin Thomas at the Honda, that went over the line. I think that was too much. Because that's not -- it's golf at the end of the day. It's not football. There's decorum, there's etiquette, there's a lot of that that goes on in golf. Not that it doesn't go on in football, when you are on the field you can't hear all that stuff. We're a little thin rope that divides the fans from us, you can still hear what they are saying.

It's a tough problem, otherwise they would have resolved it already.  But the comparison to away football games isn't a good look for our Commish.

Making Florida Great Again - The Forecaddie breaks the news that the Florida Swing has been made intact again:

By The Man Out Front’s math, a planned move of The Players Championship to March combined with the WGC-Mexico Championship moving up a week means the Florida Swing will become a swing again. 

The expected schedule change goes like this: Honda Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players and Valspar Championship played in succession. Also expect the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to stay in its current slot two weeks before the Masters. That leaves one question unresolved: what happens to the Houston Open, currently in the last spot prior to Augusta?

I'm not in love with this slot for the Match Play, but otherwise happy to have Florida intact.  here's his take on that last slot:

TMOF hears the Valero Texas Open and its long-term sponsorship deal has the event penciled in for that prime date. While The Forecaddie is having a hard time seeing players enjoying TPC San Antonio as a Masters tune-up test, the inability of Houston to land a sponsor has bequeathed TBD status on one of the Tour’s oldest tournaments.

That's the week we all watch the Dinah Shore, so who cares?  Well, Phil for one....

Regression To The Mean -  For a while, he look like he wanted me to eat my words...  But like water, he ultimately found his proper level:

But then the wheels fell off. Romo bogeyed the par-4 13th before making double bogey

at the par-5 14th. He followed with two more bogeys, at Nos. 15 and 16. He also didn’t hit a green on the back side until the par-3 17th hole, where he missed a 7-footer for birdie. 

“I hit two poor tee balls, I just didn’t commit to them,” Romo said. “… But we hit the ball good today. I hit a lot of good shots and they ended up a couple of times in some poor spots. But you learn the golf course as you play it throughout the week, and then you just gotta putt. Three-putts add up. … I think that’s something I’ll go back and work on a little bit and I think that’ll be better tomorrow.

My point stands regardless of what he shoots.  I completely get what a tough sell this event is, though the Tour doesn't want to hear to inevitable conclusion form that line of thought.  But turning it into a clown show is never helpful.

Alan, Round 2 -  Some loose ends from Alan's mailbag.  Not sure how I skipped this one:

Do rules officials treat players differently as Reed suggested last week? — @spencer_wideman 

Well, they're human, and as such they have emotions, prejudices and bad days, just like the rest of us. Imagine you're a rules a official and you are summoned to a sticky situation by Patrick Reed and, say, Zach Johnson. You might feel a little more anxiety having to deal with P. Reed, and that could color your language and general vibe. But above all else the officials are sticklers for the letter of the law; the rules are a religion to them, and I believe they interpret them the same regardless of the player involved. (I mean, look how many times Tiger was dinged in 2013.) Now, the good ol' boys that run the Masters, that's a different story…

Funny you should mention that Ridley guy...  What's he up to these days?

And, as long as we're in a green-hued mood:

If the Masters goes to a playoff and Day, Spieth and Dechambeau are involved, will they have to cancel the Tuesday pro am at the Heritage? — Vaidya (@vs2k2) 

You jest, but every Masters playoff is a stress-fest because the green coats only leave enough daylight for a few holes before the sun sets. If Adam Scott misses that putt in '13 we were definitely coming back the next morning, which would have been a massive anticlimax. The Angel Cabrera-Kenny Perry playoff also got very dark. Masters officials like to go as deep into the night as possible to boost TV ratings but one of these years they're going to get burned.

So true and so....inconsistent?  They leave boatloads of money on the table, yet in this regard they seem to care about those TV ratings.... Makes no sense.

What holes will Tiger be required to hit driver on at Augusta National? I say 1, 2, 8, 11, 15, 18....and maybe 7 or 9. #AskAlan — Benjamin (@Ben_Buj) 

It's a good list, but you forgot a few. Depending on where the flag is, 3 can call for a driver. Most guys wield the big dog on 17 — that hole has some bite. And the tee shot on 13 is the ultimate risk/reward shot and younger, more fearless players will certainly use driver and Tiger should, too. With its very playable, ahem, rough, Augusta National is more forgiving off the tee than any other major championship venue, but it also demands more drivers, and some of Tiger's misses this year have been so wild they will spell doom, even at ANGC. So that's why I think it's folly to make him the Masters favorite, when almost every other top player has an advantage over him off the tee.

I agree in general, though I don't think we'll see too many drivers on No. 13.  Except from Phil, Brian Harman and Bubba.... If you're looking for an early proxy, watch for how far Tiger misses the fairway on No. 1 on Thursday.  I don't think he's actually ever hit the fairway, but if he misses by less than five yards he might be in for a good week.

And We'll always have Paris:

I hope Tiger makes the Ryder Cup team, but hate the idea of any playing captain or vice captain. What do you think? — @JeffWeber11 

Because Tiger is Tiger — the most dominant golfer of all time, hero to the current groups of young stars, vice captain at the last few Cups — he was always destined to have an outsized role in Paris, especially given how mild-mannered Capt. Furyk is. Clearly Woods is going to be playing for the U.S. They can call him a vice captain or not, but either way I think his role is about the same.

Well, he's certainly in the mix as of now, though the questioner seems to think that there's something for the assistant captains to do.

How many Ryder Cups have you attended? And will you be going to France in September? — @MrRyderCup2012

Apparently we now have to revisit my infamous Ryder Cup column every week. It's my cross to bear. I typed it up for Golf Magazine back in the early summer. A lot has changed: Koepka got hurt, Casey reclaimed Euro tour membership and was reborn, Tiger and Phil began playing like it's the turn of the century, Hatton and Fleetwood became consistent winners, Rose went crazy in the fall, etc. Both teams look exceptionally strong and Europe has closed the gap…but not enough. The U.S. is still the pick. Bring the hate. 

I was going to link to the Koepka injury, though we've got lots more where he came from.  Brooks is out of The Masters, and wrist injuries are always troubling for golfers.... Yes, Europe has closed the gap, though I think said gap didn't mean much to begin with.  

Tomorrow is a travel day, so I'll see you when I see you....