Weekend Wrap

Perhaps not so much.... Unless you dug the Patton Kizzire-Brian Harman win in the QBE Shootout....

School To Work - When last we mt, we caught the first wave of reaction to the PGA Tour's embryonic program to award playing privileges on its tours to college students.  For anyone that needs a little primer, this Brently Romine piece will get you up to speed.

Before we move on, let me just excerpt this one bit that I kinda missed initially, that should feed our natural skepticism:

“We hope that this will elevate our product and our tours,” the Tour official told Golfweek on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly. “But this is not just a one-sided thing. It’s well-rounded.”

Yanno, fellows, it's not always about you.... But I love the assurance of well-roundedness, because that's what we've learned to expect from Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach.

Next came some pushback from a somewhat unlikely source:

Browne thinks the Tour should go back to its old Q-School format, in which players competed in a six-round final stage and the top finishers were rewarded with PGA Tour

cards. In 2014, the Tour changed its Q-School, offering Web.com Tour cards instead. 

"The PGA Tour used to have a pipeline from college to the Tour-it was called Q School," Browne tweeted. "Kids used to be able qualify directly to the PGA Tour but someone changed it so college kids could only qualify for @WebDotComTour. Now they’re trying to reverse that? Brilliant?? Hardly."

Olin has a vested interest in this debate for sure:

Browne, whose son Olin Browne Jr. is currently competing in the final stage of Web.com Tour Q-School in Arizona, wasn't alone in his opinion. Two other senior tour players, Bob Estes and John Cook, also offered their thoughts.

I think folks are talking past each other here, partially as a result of the lack of details in the announcement.  Olin, did you not get the import of their use of the very plural word "tours"?

The big change made by the Tour, and fellow old-timers Bob Estes and John Cook join in, was to requite a year of what I call indentured servitude on the Web.com Tour.  We won't know for sure until program details are announced, but I assume that this will largely guarantee cards on their development tours, namely China, Latin America and Web.com.  I'll be very surprised if any big tour cards are on offer....

To the extent that the Tour can offer certainty to these kids, that may allow them to stay in school longer, which I think we can all agree is a good result.  It would also help if the USGA could lend some transparency to the Walker Cup selection process, just ask Sam Burns the next time you see him.

But as Shack noted in his post on the subject, direct access to the big tour is, I assume, a ship that has very much sailed.  

This week's Tour Confidential panel took on this issue, though with a curiously-framed question:

3. The PGA Tour is working to develop a new program to prepare and transition the best college players for the pro game, offering varying levels of playing access to the Tour. (Not all pros found this idea particularly revolutionary, including Olin Browne, who tweeted: “The PGA Tour used to have a pipeline from college to the Tour — it was called Q-School.”) Could you see a system like this leading fans to take more of an interest in college golf? 

Zak: I see only a slightly greater interest in college golf, particularly focused on the juniors and seniors who might normally have jumped into the professional ranks early on, but waited, stayed at school, earned a degree, and competed for national titles knowing that if they compete well, there will likely be a full-season exemption waiting for them afterward. It does nothing to damper the allure of professional golf and, more importantly, some expendable income, so I still see the greatest players leaving school early. 

Ritter: The new rule could generate a little buzz, but college golf needs more TV time to really see a breakthrough.

 While it's not the job of the Tour to promote interest in college golf, their prior actions hurt it significantly.  But to the extent that this change allows kids to remain in school longer, that continuity has to fuel some increased interest.  Though the irony might be that, because of the calendar, that the larger impact is on the Amateur and Walker Cup.

When My Interests Collide - As you might have discerned, I have a fairly strong interest in the game of golf....  I know, I'm sure you're shocked.  But you know what else I love?  Employee No. 2 and I share this other interest over dinner most nights:

Golf didn’t take long to make its Jeopardy! debut. There it was, in the first pilot episode,

on Sept. 18, 1983. 

“The answer is,” began the mustachioed rookie host, Alex Trebek, reading the $50 clue from the Sports category, “in golf it’s two under par for a hole.” 

First to the buzzer was Jack Campion, a sandy haired sales executive from Los Angeles.

“What is an eagle?” 

“Right, you’re on a roll!”

Here's more:

And so began the long, rich history of golf-related clues — more than 800 of them in all — that would appear on 35 seasons of America’s most iconic quiz show. If that sounds like a lot of questions about pitching wedges and putting presidents and Gary Player, it is. According to a thorough-if-not-wholly-scientific analysis of every Jeopardy! clue (all 361,983 of them are cataloged on the excellent website, J! Archive), there has been, on average, one golf-related clue every eight or nine shows.

“That’s a pretty high representation,” Jeopardy!‘s head writer, Billy Wisse, said in a phone interview the other day. “Probably not as a high as baseball, basketball or football, but I would guess it’s higher than pretty much any other sport.”

That seems like a lot for what remains a niche sport....  That reference to football is interesting, because it reminds of one particularly funny moment from earlier this year.  In a show airing right before the Super Bowl, they had a football category that all three players left untouched for good reason.  When finally it was the last clues on the board, it became quickly obvious that these three folks had never so much as watched a game and comedy ensued....

Riffing on this subject, Alan Bastable has eleven stumpers from among those more than 800 golf answers:

MILITARY NICKNAMES & SLANG / $1200 

This term for an unidentified aircraft or missile is also used on the golf course

CONTRONYMS / $1200 

An advantage in golf or a disadvantage through lack 

ENDS IN DOUBLE LETTERS / $2000 

Tiny, sharp teeth give this plant its name, also an elite Florida golf course 

SPORTS / $400 

This last name of golfer David is applied to what he called a “correction shot”

Please remember to phrase your answers in the form of a question.... Anyone missing any of those will be subjected to a surcharge for reading this blog.

That TC panel linked above was asked to create their own Jeopardy answers.... Shall we see what they came up with?

Zak: This motto was made famous in the 1990s by not only the style of play of golf’s Long John, but also a book he co-authored with the same title.

Pretty good, though I think you'd have to use Daly's name.

Dethier: This fictional instructor nuggets of advice included: “Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with.” And, more succinctly: “Just bash the living s— out of it.” (Clue: Bagger Vance)

I don't see too many folks buzzing in on that one....

Ritter: This golf tip is overused but it could save a player who swung and missed, or a grade-schooler whose eyes wandered to their neighbor during an algebra exam.

Pretty feeble.

Bamberger: 

Alex: Category, please. 

Contestant: Bad Golf Advice for $100, please, Alex. 

Alex: And the answer is: This golf star was told repeatedly that he would never make it on Tour, since he was playing with a bent left arm. 

Contestant: Who is Calvin Peete?

Alex: You still control the board!

That's good, Mike, but the odds of three random civilians knowing of Calvin Peete are up there with the odds of Brooks Koepka winning two majors in a season....

My Newest Hero - Last year we had a run of golf clubs lost by airlines stories, wherein the player used that as an excuse to withdraw from qualifying events.  You'll not be surprised that this is my new golf hero:

Cody Blick had a bad start to his Sunday morning. But boy was the ending sweet. 

The 25-year-old pro was preparing for the final round of the Web.com Tour Qualifying

Tournament — with a chance to secure precious Web.com Tour status on the line — when every golfer’s worst nightmare became a reality. His clubs were stolen. 

Blick took to Instagram asking for the public’s help and offering $5,000 to track them down. 

Blick started the day 10 under and tied for 74th after three rounds, and there was a large group of 14 under tied for 40th (with the leaders at 23 under). 

But no clubs, no problem. Scrambling to find a set to use, Blick, who has played mostly on the Mackenzie Tour the past three years, fired a bogey-free, nine-under 63 to vault up the leaderboard. He finished 19 under for the week and T25, guaranteeing him the first eight events of next season.

You rock, Cody.  Hope to see you on the big tour soon.

 Alas, our David Pastore was not able to qualify, though in surviving the first two stages he earned status on the Mackenzie and Latin America tours.

Old Time Movies - Shack has this stunning item of a discovery in old footage:

Maybe you’ve heard: acclaimed director Peter Jackson and his team of digital wizards have created a stunning new form of digitization that takes old films and brings them to life in ways we’ve never imagined: colorization, optimization and incredible sound.

Well, golf architecture aficionado Martin Bonnar watched the film during its recent BBC premiere and spotted someone who looks very much like Dr. Alister MacKenzie. Given that the doctor wrote of his many encounters with battle matters as a military physician and the timing fitting with what we know if his life’s work, there is a very high likelihood that the architect of Cypress Point and Augusta National makes a cameo in this groundbreaking film.

Shack's got the trailer, but here's a screen grab of the frame in question:

Great stuff.  Charlie Rymer kicks in with some helpful analysis on the Morning Drive video as well.

You Don't Know Jack Johnny - Guy Yocum has a worthwhile paean to Johnny Miller that's well worth your time, from which I'll excerpt this quintessential Johnny story:

One of my early assignments was to cover a Spalding outing, in which the company was rolling out a two-piece golf ball it promised was light years better than its famous Top-Flite, which travelled for miles but didn’t spin much and felt like hard ceramic when you hit it. The Tour Edition was purported to have a soft feel that would spin nicely. It was ahead of its time in some ways, an early assault on the three-piece wound-construction ball that had dominated pro golf for decades.

To prove the Tour Edition’s bonafides, Spalding officials brought to the outing at Pelham Country Club outside New York City their three best staff players, Greg Norman, Craig

Stadler and Miller. After a nice lunch and a verbal roll-out, they moved the proceedings to the course so the players could demonstrate. They spilled big baskets of Tour Editions in front of a crowd of about 50. It was announced that each player would in turn hit 25 balls, aiming at a green 155 yards away. Stadler went first and played “call shot” in impressive fashion, predicting how each ball would behave after hitting the green. All of the shots hit the green and a several stopped within six feet of the flagstick, provoking cheers from the audience.

Next up was Norman, dead in the prime of his career. This was 1986, the year of his “Saturday Slam” in which he led each of the four majors after three rounds but won only the British Open, at Turnberry. Norman was much more impressive than Stadler. The Shark hit towering fades, draws and straight shots with astonishing accuracy, the ball spinning wildly to the left, right or straight backward after landing, each one dancing exactly as he predicted. A few shots stopped within three feet of the hole. The onlookers were wild with their applause. 

Last to hit was Miller. It took a while for the Spalding guys to find him, as he’d been chatting with someone in the crowd and blithely ignoring what Norman and Stadler were doing. The way he strode past Stadler and Norman, seated in their collapsible chairs, was memorable. He looked at them dismissively, if not downright arrogantly, walking that imperious walk of his, kicking his feet out in advance of each step, his legs straightening before they reached the ground. Miller always speculated that his walk—or strut—may have actually caused him knee problems.

Miller asked for the distance. The 155 yards had been announced but Johnny wasn’t paying attention because he didn’t really care—and with the 155-yard number known, proceeded to show Stadler, Norman and rest of us what serious ball-striking really was about. He hit low, crewcut-high screamers that made a divine noise you don’t hear in golf balls any more. He hit three low ones like that, each tearing out a deep chunk on the green and skidding to a halt inches from the hole. “I can hit it high with this Tour Edition, too,” he said, and hit a series of high floaters that didn’t spin at all but plopped dead next to the stick. Then he curved shots both ways, hit a couple of thin ones on purpose (they still braked to a halt) and hit some huge, looping, silly shots, ones he might play if he were bending them around a tree. He took almost no divot on any shot, shaving only the tops of the grass with unreal precision. He got sharper as he went along and the crowd, instead of cheering, fell mostly silent, mesmerized as he explained what he was doing. 

Two of Miller’s shots hit the flagstick. Another lipped out. After one of the flagstick-rattlers, he turned to Stadler and Norman and said in that super-confident tone we eventually got used to hearing on TV, “How would you guys like to do this for money? Say, $50 a shot?” Their reaction was amazing. Stadler and Norman slunk back in their chairs, laughing nervously, kind of shying away. Years later Miller would tell me how the dominant animal in the jungle holds its head higher than the lesser ones. When it came to hitting irons, Miller was the dominant animal. Neither Norman nor Stadler wanted any part of him.

 I know that was long, but well worth it....  Now go and read the rest.

I'll leave you there, as I'm surprisingly busy.  Not sure about tomorrow, so you've been forewarned.....