A Somber Friday

As I went through my morning reading protocol, Shack had this quote as his header:

They were the most astonishing four hours in golf since Mary, Queen of Scots found out what dormie meant and invented the back nine. And now, given 18 years of reflection, they still seem as significant to the game as, for instance, the day Arnold Palmer began hitching up his trousers, or the moment Jack Nicklaus decided to thin down and let his hair fluff, or that interlude in the pro shop when Ben Hogan selected his first white cap. Small wonder that no sportswriter was capable of outlining it against a bright blue summer sky and letting the four adjectives ride again: it was too big, too wildly exciting, too crazily suspenseful, too suffocatingly dramatic. What exactly happened? Oh, not much. Just a routine collision of three decades at one historical intersection.

DAN JENKINS on the 1960 U.S. Open

OK. Obviously they're at Arnie's place this week, but you'd think he'd go with something more related to the man himself....  Then a darker thought intruded.  Crap! 

His Ownself: Dan Jenkins, 1929-2019 

Raise a glass to the legendary writer, whose voice and laughs will live forever

That's from Golf Digest, where he plied his trade for many decades....  Here's Shack's moving encomium:

His Ownself has packed up his typewriter, closed out the Ancient Twitterer’s account and moved his brilliance to the Big 18 In The Sky.

The sports world will never be the same without the incomparable Dan Jenkins. His alma mater TCU confirmed the news to the Star-Telegram, just as Jim Tom Pinch of the Fort Worth Light And Shopper would have demanded. He turned 90 last December and last Tweeted February 4th about—who else?—his beloved foil Sergio Garcia.

In the coming weeks I’ll compile the tributes and highlights from Dan’s incredible career that began with typewriters banging out game stories and books, then finished his

illustrious life with Tweets and yet more books. As most sportswriters will concur—and Dan would hate the cliche—but he was the gold standard who inspired so many to cover these silly games and sillier athletes. Jenkins artfully combined storytelling, a sense of history and his wicked wit.

Dan was magnificently succinct and seemingly ornery from afar. But it was mostly to keep “lacerating bores” from interrupting his newspaper reading or his country ham on the veranda or, in later years, because it was just too damn loud to hear in the bar. Sure, he played favorites and didn’t apologize for loving stars who’d dine now and then, and he definitely never rooted against a cinematic victory. That’s why we loved him and while I’ll miss walking over and asking him to tell me who “low nightmare” was on the current leaderboard. 

When he turned up at the 1995 PGA at Riviera, I stalked him in media dining with a stack of his books to sign. He was having lunch with Dave Marr and Jerry Tarde and a couple of others. They were intrigued to hear I’d written a book on Riviera and told me to sit down, as they had a question they wanted me to settle for them.

“Have the earthquakes over the years changed the greens here?” Marr asked. I looked at Jenkins and got an inquisitive stare back. They were serious. I mumbled something about not being sure, got my books signed and still argued with Dan up to last year over why “Riviera before the flood” was in Hogan’s top 5. Dan just didn’t buy that Hogan had played it before 1938 and he was undoubtedly right, but Hogan knew how certain holes had once been designed. I couldn’t win that match. Dan knew his Hogan.

I have the first letter Dan ever sent me on display in my office and still remember the email from “Term Themes” that almost went to the delete bin. Somehow, Dan corresponded with me even after I asked what a term theme was. He probably tolerated me because I’d written an LA Times piece comparing old golf and new golf that included his name with Wind, Darwin, etc as part of the old great guard.

I mailed the piece—no Times hyperlinks to email 2000—because an editor had inserted someone named Billy Sixty amidst those great golf writers simply because it was an old friend. I almost cried when I saw it in print, as I’d worked so hard to decide who was on the Mount Rushmore of golf writers. 

As much as Dan loathed bad editors and celebrated their mediocrity in the masterful You Gotta Play Hurt, he reveled in studying copy butchering by some drone. He genuinely enjoyed reminding me as late as last year that Billy Sixty, while indeed a real human-American, was primarily a bowling writer in his day. 

As Dan said in his World Golf Hall of Fame address, “I knew this would happen”. Still, his passing royally sucks. Press rooms and media hotel bars will never be the same without the greatest ink-stained scribbler who ever wanted to be a sportswriter, and then went out did it better than anyone before or since.

Darwin was a little before my time, but when it comes to golf writing he and Herbert Warren Wind are my gods... And now they're both gone.

As Geoff says, the man knew his Hogan... and his Palmer as well, having told Arnie at lunch before his final round that that 1960 Open was out of his reach.  I'll look forward to Geoff sharing his favorite pieces, and might have to revisit some on my own.

But shame on Golf Digest for choosing to revisit this fake Tiger interview of Dan's as a remembrance.  This caused quite the kerfuffle when published in 2014, but it's a pale imitation of Dan's best work.  Admittedly, it also showed Tiger at his worst, in his over-reaction to the hit job, but also in his stubborn refusal to see Dan's links to a bygone era as a national treasure.

We've lost a part of ourselves, folks, and a part of the great history of our game.  RIP, Dan.

Bay Hill Trifles - I know, but we do need to take our minds of the loss, how better than that which we missed in Orlando yesterday:

Rafa Cabrera Bello leads 

Rafa Cabrera Bello shot seven-under 65 in his opening round at Bay Hill. The Spaniard

started on the tenth hole, and made four birdies in his first six holes. “Getting off to a hot start was nice. It set the tone,” Cabrera Bello said after his round. 

The good momentum continued into his second nine, where he added four more birdies (including three in a row on Nos. 4-6) and a lone bogey.

Add it together and he holds a two-shot lead over Keegan Bradley with 54 holes to play. Though Cabrera Bello has five international wins to his name, he’s still seeking his first PGA Tour title.

And this guy:

Phil Mickelson is back in the mix 

Mercurial Phil had a good opening round at Bay Hill, carding seven birdies, a bogey and a double bogey en route to a round of four-under-par 68.

Not only does the Golf Magazine homepage have no references to the Jenkins death, but Jess Marksbury tells us of Phil's round without the slightest allusion to Phil doing incredibly Phil-like things.

Mickelson came off the No. 9 green having birdied four of his last six holes. But any

momentum he may have had went out the window with a monster slice off the tee at the par-4 10th. That tee shot ended up underneath the temporary fence demarcating the out of bounds line down the left side of the hole.

The good news for Mickelson is that his ball was determined to be in bounds (though he wasn’t allowed relief from the fence, as it was marking the O.B.). The good news for viewers at home is that Mickelson decided to attempt a full-throttle right-handed smash from there. The bad news for Mickelson is that his right-handed attempt popped up the ball into the fence itself, where it stayed for a moment before dropping back down — now fully out of bounds. 

“I didn’t even think of that,” Mickelson said sheepishly as he finally located the ball.

Or, we could just note that he made a double and consider our job done like Jess....Video at that link, and Phil's reaction is priceless.

Bay Hill Significance - Don't worry, Jess missed it all....We lost a show pony:

Jason Day withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday morning, citing back issues. 

Day was two over through six holes at Bay Hill and had just hit his second shot at the par-5 16th into the water when he decided to pull out of the tournament.

Day is a former API winner, capturing the event in 2016. When he won his next event, the WGC-Match Play, it propelled Day to the No. 1 world ranking.

With the Masters a mere four weeks from now, this becomes of some interest.  Jason, to my way of thinking, is in that next group of players after the top four, as Rose, Korpka, DJ and JT seem to comprise a separate tier of talent, among whom it's awfully difficult to choose.  I'm not sure Day has any less talent than this group, he's just had difficulty staying healthy and consistent.

But we're going a different direction here, and it's not going to be a short trip.  Our Tour guides will be Shack and Rex Hoggard, starting with this backgrounder from the later.  he uses the Phil-Billy Walters revelations to frame the piece, though you'll be surprise to see me pass on an opportunity to pile on Phil:

So much has changed since then. 

Last week, the circuit unveiled a new player endorsement policy that now allows members to sign deals with what the circuit defines as “gambling companies” like DraftKings and FanDuel (but not companies whose primary purpose is sports betting). 

It’s a fine distinction, but a necessary move, following last year’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a federal act prohibiting gambling in most states.

Huh?  Silly me, I had assumed that DraftKIngs and FanDuel were primarily in the business of sports betting, but we went through the looking glass so quickly that I barely noticed.

So why the trip to Bizzarro World:

During a mandatory player meeting last week at the Honda Classic, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan outlined the circuit’s altered outlook on gambling. 

“We are aggressively and also carefully pursuing commercial deals in the U.S. gambling and daily fantasy spaces and expect to make announcements in the coming months,” Monahan told the gathered players. “We see strong opportunities for commercial deals.” 

Beyond the obvious – gambling is bound to become a big part of the sporting landscape – the Tour’s interest here is really two-fold. To prepare for the onset of legalized gambling, the Tour initiated an integrity program in 2018 and is pushing, like most professional sports leagues, to have whatever gambling legislation that is passed to include “integrity fees” that would be paid to the leagues in exchange for the Tour’s real-time scoring data [ShotLink]. 

The Tour also sees a vast segment of new fans that legalized gambling can bring to the sport.

Rex provides this cautionary tale, but fails to draw the obvious lesson therefrom:

A cautionary tale can be found in the Tour’s performance-enhancing drug policy that was introduced in 2008. Although officials spent more than a year educating members about the consequences of seemingly inadvertent violations, the program has been defined by exactly that type of accidental issues. 

In 2009, Doug Barron was suspended for a year for violating the PED policy for taking two drugs [testosterone and beta blockers] that had been prescribed by his doctors. Six years later, Scott Stallings made a similar mistake after being prescribed medication by his doctor and self-reported the infraction. He was suspended for 90 days.

The Tour's drug testing protocol did exactly what Commissioner Ratched designed it for, to create the illusion of rigorous testing with the messy results of actual testing Barron and Stallings were collateral damage, but necessary to keep the gravy train intact.

The mush harder question is to assess Jay's intentions....  Is he truly interested in the integrity of the Tour, or in the appearance of integrity?  His hand has been forced by the Supreme Court ruling, but he seems excessively interested in the money to be had for sharing the Tour's data.

So, why the linkage to Jason's WD?  Well, it so happens that this didn't come from nowhere, as he had an MRI on the back last week.  Will Gray tackles this issue:

Then came his sudden withdrawal after completing just six holes, and with it an explanation that he had been nursing what could be a significant lower back ailment since Sunday. 

Within minutes of Day’s withdrawal being posted, cries came from all corners of the daily fantasy sports (DFS) and gambling world: Where was this information about Day’s not-so-minor injury early in the week? 

It’s a thin line these days between what goes on inside the ropes at PGA Tour events and what transpires outside betting windows in Las Vegas and elsewhere, one that will continue to become increasingly blurred as the Tour offers its overt support of larger gambling initiatives. In many other team sports, pertinent injury information like Day’s might have emerged in a team-issued report early in the week. 

But could formal injury status soon seep into the world of professional golf? Opinions among players remain divided.

 You'd be pretty pissed off, no?  It's hard to see this as a sustainable position:

“It’s nobody’s business,” said Kevin Kisner, co-chairman of the Tour’s Player Advisory

Council. “I mean, are we out here to gamble, or are we out here to play golf? I don’t really give a s*** about the DFS guys. You should have picked someone else. If he had shot 65 and he had a hurt back, those guys wouldn’t have said anything.” 

Kisner’s blunt assessment likely reflects a majority of opinions on Tour. There are plenty of variables players must account for on a weekly basis just to keep their cards, let alone worry about the ones that impact gamblers who may never step foot on the course. But as sports gambling becomes more prevalent, the scrutiny surrounding player injury status will only increase.

Good luck with that, Kev.  If your Tour cashes the check, you'll be singing from their hymn book.

I really hope that Jay Monahan has this thought through fully, because the slope is quite slippery.

Those Pesky Rules - Nothing too depressing today, at least not on this subject.  Rory has joined Jay Monahan with a reminder that we're all on the same team:

“I think that the governing bodies are a very easy target right now in the game of golf and it’s very easy for people to jump on the bandwagon and sort of criticize,” McIlroy

said at a pre-tournament press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Wednesday. “But all these entities in golf, they’re not trying to do anything bad for the game, they’re trying to help the game in some way. So I think we all have to give them a bit of leeway here and say, yes, they probably made some mistakes, but we all do. And I’m sure they will get it right eventually.”

I know, it's a splendidly adult reaction, yet I can't help bu fixate on that last word.  Setting the bar pretty low, aren't we Rors?

But it gets a bit more interesting:

McIlroy’s comments are in line with McIlroy’s initial take on the rules when they were implemented at the beginning of the year. He was hopeful the rules could speed up play (though that has not notably been the case thus far).

“I think that they’re trying to simplify the rules, which I think is a great thing for the game,” he said in early January. “I’ve always said that the rules of golf are way too complicated, especially after the debacles and farces we have had at U.S. Opens and all sorts of stuff over the last few years. So I’m happy that they made the decision to try and simplify them and just try to make everything a little bit easier to understand.”

Playing the role of a cynic, casting against type for sure, one might note that those governing bodies have allowed the technology to overwhelm and irrevocably change it.... You might pick up a few seconds by putting with the pin in, but that 100 yard walk to the new back tees will consume far more time than that.

I've also never bought the line that the rules of golf are too complicated, and Rory is quite the flawed messenger, given his refusal to learn even the basics thereof.  There are bad rules, for sure, and the USGA & R&A have made quite the hash in their drafting in the cases of balls moving on greens (see Oakmont 2016) and caddies aligning players (see 2019).

As for the Tour creating its own rule book, Dave Shedloski with the history lesson:

It was a little more than 50 years ago, in a compromise struck in December 1968, that the 

entity now known as the PGA Tour was formed, breaking away from the PGA of America in a move spearheaded by Gardner Dickinson and supported by the game’s two biggest names, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. 

Little known about that time is that the players contemplated instituting their own set of rules separate from the Rules of Golf established by the USGA and the R&A, the game’s two governing bodies. With Joseph C. Dey, the longtime executive director of the USGA, accepting the job as the PGA Tour’s first commissioner starting in 1969, such a move might have made some sense. 

It didn’t happen.

Reason prevailed, as one hopes it will today.

Travel Notes - As we await Spring's arrival, Tom Mackin has a fun travel piece on golf in New Zealand:

It's got the famous names, Tara Iti (pictured above), Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs, with Arrowtown as my vote for hidden gem.  Problem is that if I'm lucky enough to get back to New Zealand, I doubt it will be with golf clubs.

Elsewhere, I can hardly think of a more off-putting comparison than this:

'The Augusta of Ireland’: An inside look at Adare Manor

They say that like it's a good thing....  

Have a great weekend.