Unplayable Lies: Midweek Musings - Independence Day Edition

I just read a piece in which it was noted that the country's birthday could just as easily been celebrated on July 2nd.... The framers were remarkably prescient, but didn't they realize it would have made for a more logical three-day weekend?

Dahmen v. Kang - Dylan Dethier goes into the deep grass, yanno, just like Sung Kang's golf ball. In fact, here's a delightfully vivid description of the final resting place of said ball:

After a short search, a spotter located Kang's ball some 5-8 yards into what another onlooker described as "halfway-up-your-thigh type s---." There was no way Kang could play the ball. Instead, he began pointing to the spot at which he thought it had entered the hazard — nearly pin-high.

Dylan finds additional eyewitnesses that serve to buffer the contention that Kang's drop was....well, let's go with erroneous:

Kang's playing partner Joel Dahmen had just hit his approach from the right side of the fairway, 260 yards from the flag. He hit the green and waited with caddie Geno Bonnalie

as they studied the flight of Kang's ball as it flew near the green. Onlooker Bob Yosai, a friend of Dahmen's who was following the group, stood a short ways behind them with what he described as a view directly down the hazard line. Behind the green, 26-year-old Michael Klock was working in the ShotLink tower.

Yosai turned to his wife as Kang's ball came down. "That guy's dead," he remarked. "He's going to have to drop all the way back here." But a dejected Kang began to walk down the fairway toward his ball. "I figured he was going to see if he could play it from the hazard," Yosai said. "That was the only thing I could think of."

To me, Kang himself is the least interesting part of this story, though there's a couple of reveals that will not help him in the court of public opinion. I'll summarize as opposed to excerpting:

Kang apparently described his shot shape as straight, and;
He initially wanted to take his drop almost pin-high, though ultimately took relief some 37 yards short of the hole.

Here's another graphic that shows why those two data points are damning:

That guy quoted above has some good advice for us all:

The C-Word

"It was a typical dispute about where or if it crossed the hazzard," Dahmen wrote afterwards on Twitter, allowing that these sorts of disputes happen often during the normal course of play. Where this was different was in Dahmen's deployment of a particularly choice two-word phrase: "Kang cheated," he wrote, setting off the firestorm. Some fans praised Dahmen for doing his part to protect the field, while others criticized him for levying such a charge when the call fell in a sort of gray area.

Yosai initially came out strong against Kang, but backed off from calling him a cheater a day later. "I'm hesitant to use the 'C' Word, because I don't know exactly what he was thinking," he said. "But in my mind he 100 percent took the wrong drop."

I'm much more interested in the actions of the rules official, since we don't know what was in Kang's mind. Obviously some wishful thinking at best, and whatever you want to call it at worst....

Alan Shipnuck also falls into this trap, IMHO, in his weekly mailbag feature:

In a gentleman's game, how badly is Sung Kang going to get blackballed by his peers after a playing competitor went as far as calling him a cheater & even let Ben Crane play through the group to continue to argue what he knew was right for the integrity of the game/field? #AskAlan -Chris (@ctimmerman)

Put it this way: Vijay Singh's own episode involving the c-word happened three decades ago and it still haunts him. And that was without social media and Zapruder-esque ShotLink illustrations to amplify the misdeed. Kang is going to get a lot of side-eye from his fellow competitors and a lot of media heat. His initial no comment stance probably can't last. How Kang explains himself, and if he shows any contrition, will influence if any of his colleagues forgive. But they certainly won't forget.

For anyone unfamiliar with the allegations that dog our Veej to this day, John Garrity has the definitive history. But Vijay's actions can only be described using that C-word, Kang's are obviously more subjective.

But back to that rules official, who was presented, it seems, with a magical tale of a ninety-degree turn in a golf ball, and yet referred to the player's judgement (in the face of strong objections from other parties that witnessed the shot). If this is how disputes will be adjudicated, word will go forth and players will react accordingly. That which gets rewarded gets repeated....

G-Mac, Airline Victim - It's always refreshing to hear about these guys flying commercial:

This is a pro golfer's worst nightmare: losing your clubs the day before an important

event, with no idea when you might see them again or where they are. Graeme McDowell tweeted Monday that Air France had lost his bag somewhere between Paris and Manchester on Sunday night.

On Tuesday he was scheduled to play in a 36-hole qualifier in hopes of earning a spot in the 2018 British Open at Carnoustie. He added a hashtag to his tweet: "#help." But McDowell had yet to get his clubs back as of Monday evening, and wrote that he had withdrawn from the tournament in order to concentrate on trying to qualify this weekend at the Irish Open instead.

"I cannot give 100% without my own equipment which has been mishandled by Air France," he said. McDowell also responded to critics who said he should have rented clubs: "Lots of you wanting to know why I don’t grab a set off the rack and give it my best shot to get in @TheOpen. Of course I could do this, but wouldn’t be firing on all cylinders."

Typically, I agree with the Twitter mob that these guys should just grab whatever clubs they can and give it a go. In this case, he's got a chance to qualify via The Irish Open and decided to head to Ballyliffin and take his best shot there. I can see his point, especially since I happen to know that he's familiar with the place.

Coore & Crenshaw² - Matt Ginella breaks some interesting news:

This will be the fifth full course at Bandon, and is quite the get for C&C, as Gil Hanse had previously seemed to have the pole position. As Matt notes, in a time with few new course being built, this is quite the twofer. Mike Keiser has previously spread the opportunities more widely.

It's a spectacular piece of land, featuring a more jagged cliff line that should provide for an interesting routing. If you're unfamiliar with the property, do read this backgrounder. As for gorse removal, you'll need to read this to understand why that's such an issue.

An Epic Bogey - You might think that you know all you need to about a certain bogey at Birkdale last year but, trust me, this detailed accounting from John Huggan and Dave Shedloski is well worth your time. No one excerpt can do justice to the mayhem involved, but it's well worth it to see how Spieth and Greller held it together. I'm especially a fan of Greller's little white lies. Also a fan of this:

David Feherty: I told Matt and John a joke. I can't repeat it. It just starts out, "Flanagan goes to a proctologist." It's a beauty. It might have cost Matt Kuchar the Open.

Nah, Jordan won the thing, Kooch didn't lose it.... Fun read.

In other Open Championship news:

It isn’t quite Golf’s Longest Day, where upwards of 70 people play their way into the U.S. Open via a dozen Sectional Qualifying sites. Still, 12 spots at this month’s Open Championship were on the line on Tuesday at four different sites in the U.K. in what’s dubbed by the R&A as Final Qualifying.

The most notable golfer to grab a tee time at Carnoustie: two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. The 49-year-old South African shot rounds of 71-72 in windy conditions at Prince’s in Kent, England. With a bogey on his last hole, after birdies on his 34th and 35th, Goosen was nervous he might have cost himself the chance to play in his first Open since 2015 and the 19th of his career. But it turned out he was safely in.

Ballyliffin's Moment - You are going to check into the Irish Open later this week, no? Really, it's quite a place...

I've started scrolling through my Ballyliffin blog and am already enjoying the memories. It's a beautiful spot that was just made for the purpose of links golf, with views of Glashedy Rock, after which their new links is named. From an authoritative source, here's how that second links came about:

Named for a small island approximately a mile off the coast reminiscent of Turnberry’s Ailsa Craig, the Glashedy was designed by Pat Ruddy, the noted Irish golf course architect best known for his European Club outside Dublin, and the late Tom Craddock. Originally contacted to potentially update the club’s Old Course, Ruddy notified the club that its 400 acres of undeveloped dunesland had been designated area of scientific interest by the European Community. The club had a short window to develop the property without a lengthy and arduous environmental review process, which it fortunately utilized despite the obvious financial strain of such a substantial investment on a small club.

When a club has two courses, most often they occupy separate portions of the property. Not so here, where Ruddy weaved the routing of the new course within the corridors of the Old Links, providing for any number of charming signs such as this: