Thursday Threads - Updated

I love you guys so much that I started compiling this yesterday afternoon.  Of course, I had time on my hands, as high winds shut the two lifts that get everyone up the mountain.  We're off to Snowbird, assuming the road into Little Cottonwood Canyon is open.  Which, of course, should never be assumed.....

UPDATE:  As of 6:30 a.m. the road into Little Cottonwood Canyon is closed.  Why?

There's still time before we have to decide whether to get on the road, though it may not be worth the gamble.

Alan In Full - The title still sucks, but he's made his weekly mailbag feature must reading in the golf world.  I'll lede with this Rory query:

Is Rory the worst great player ever? Never seen an all-timer look so bad so often. Even when he shoots 68 he’s flying wedges 20 yards over the flag. Maddening. -@homer_nods 

Ah, Lord McIlroy. He has become one of the most polarizing and maddening figures in the sport. To maintain our collective sanity the best way to think of McIlroy is that he has 

already played his best golf. He will never be able to recapture the carefree swagger and effortless domination of the Congo-Kiawah period. Pining for those days is folly. He’s about to turn 30 but McIlroy has been going so hard for so long we probably need to measure his age in dog years. He is now a massively talented but flawed golfer, capable of providing us occasional thrills and frequent heartache. I sincerely hope something clicks for Rory at the right time and he can run off another string of major championship victories. The game is certainly more fun when he is winning. But the only way for us to survive emotionally is to care a little less.

Seems sensible, but where was that sloppy wedge play and dreadful putting in the Congo-Kiawa period?  Or was J.P. doing a far better job than we realized?

But this one is just cruel:

Burning question: How many shots behind, going into the final round on Sunday at the Masters, does Rory need to be to win? I say 5! No pressure, no expectations… -@Capdantibes 

That feels about right – shoot a 62 and win it whilst relaxing in the clubhouse. When folks claim it’s hard to win a major I always think about David Duval’s breakthrough: barely make the cut, go out early on Saturday and shoot a low round, play steady golf on Sunday and let everyone else beat themselves. It can be that easy! It does seem like Rory is going to need to find a sidedoor because of his ongoing mental block playing in the final group. But the Masters is the hardest of all the majors to back in to a win because the Sunday pins yield low scores.

I could easily see that working for Rory, but only if Greg Norman has the lead.

His homage to the Players gets off to a rocky start:

How cool was it that NBC honored Arnie’s life and legacy by repeatedly cutting away during the weekend to show players arriving on the range at Sawgrass? -Vaidya (@vs2k2) 

That was bizarre and tacky. In other words, beautifully on-brand!

I like the cut of Vaidya's jib.

Having never attended the Players Championship, beyond the island green what makes this event so great for spectators? #AskAlan -Mark (@cottonmc)

Well, it is the height of sundress season, but many other factors make it a great week. As the Tour’s flagship event, the czars of PVB pull out all the stops to enhance the spectator experience, whether it’s strong food offerings, interactive fun zones, live music at day’s end or leaning on the players to spend more time than usual signing autographs. And the name of the venue is a clue – the Stadium Course was literally designed with big crowds in mind, so there are fantastic sightlines on every hole and some very fun gathering spots.

Hmmm, the height of sundress season combined with a wind out of the North....Promising.

This one is fun as well:

Now that golfers can fix spike marks on the green, when they miss a putt why do they point to something and look at their caddy? Can it ever be you just hit a crappy putt? -@RichWojo 

No, because that would be admitting fallibility, and Tour pros do that about as often as the Pope. The players always find an outside agency to explain why a shot goes awry – the wind shifted, mudball, spike marks, you name it. It seems silly but is in fact necessary to be able to soldier through the endless hardships wrought by tournament golf. I remember ages ago listening to Jack Nicklaus say that he usually went the entire West Coast swing without a 3-putt. On those grainy, soft, winter greens? Riiiiight. But he was dead-serious and got grouchy when challenged about it. This highly selective memory is no doubt part of the secret to Nicklaus’s success. So, while I agree the pros’ pantomiming on the greens can look ridiculous, just know that it is a serious mental health issue.

He is so right and, let's just keep this among ourselves, but it's not only the pros.

Not sure I agree with him on this, though it's of course interesting:

Who is the best golfer of all time that failed to capitalize on his/her talent and who got the most with the least? -@KellerGreg 

It’s tempting to say Greg Norman but he did nab two Opens, win all over the world and spend years at number one, so that outweighs the serial heartache in the majors. Fred Couples would be an easy choice but blowing out his back in his early-30s is a mitigating factor. I’m going with Johnny Miller. He’s candid that even before he reached his peak he had simply lost interest in tournament golf and the grind of the Tour. He still had a good career but, oh, what might’ve been.

Johnny was a monster talent for sure, except for the putter....  I'd be tempted to throw out DJ, though I'd expect Alan to give him a Normanesque waiver.

Care to see a little spittle come out of Alan's mouth?

With Tiger now giving most of his interviews via Golf TV and Discovery Inc., will we see more top players owning or profiting from their comments like Tiger, and how much damage will this do to an already declining presence of the media covering professional golf? -Ron (@MintzGolf) 

I’ve been stewing about this for weeks. It’s certainly an ominous trend. But Tiger is a unique case and he hasn’t really given writers meaningful access this century, so we’re not missing out on much. There will always be a place for good journalism because golf has discerning fans and they crave authenticity. Cutesy social media posts, splashy ad campaigns and canned interviews with corporate partners offers nothing at all. So, in a roundabout way, maybe Tiger’s deal (and Rory’s) is helpful, because it throws into sharp relief the value of an independent press.

Alan, you're supposed to be a laid back Californian... why the hate?  OK, we know, we all get a little testy when our feedlot is threatened.  

But of course most of us have long viewed the sporting press as thoroughly in the bag, which Alan likely doesn't see.  But they never share the compromises they make for access, and we pass it off because it is, after all, only sports.  But I'm amused by the rant, and hope you are as well.

One last bit on the Commish:

With each sulfurous deposit that coils itself in my timeline courtesy of the Tour’s online re-education camp, I’m increasingly curious about Jay Monahan’s competence. Is it actually possible he’s oblivious to the fact that alienating core customers is bad for business? -@Lou_TireWorld 

Ahhh, must be Players week, when the Monahan’s Minions (trademark pending) lay it on particularly thick! It’s incredible how much of the Tour budget is now going toward social media offerings. In fact, at most tournaments there are now more Tour media staffers than actual reporters. Based on your feedback – and the rest of the world’s – it appears they have some work to do to connect with more discerning fans.

Sulfurous deposits?   Can anyone provide the English translation here?  I was optimistic when Jay took over, as his early initiatives on the drug testing program and elsewhere seemed a welcome breat of fresh air after you-know-who.  But Live Under Par™ continues to erode my will to live.

Mike on Tiger - Mikey Bams with some fun nuggets on the man (and a little more above and below):

1. Tiger’s prodigious, but imperfect, memory

One of the odd pleasures of a Tiger Woods press conference is the chance to see his memory in action. 

On Tuesday, he was remembering a Jack Nicklaus poster he had on the wall of his

childhood bedroom in Cypress, Calif., in the mid-1980s. That poster is actually a significant part of Tiger’s lore. The legend of that poster is that it showed the age at which Nicklaus won each of his 20 major titles, if you include his two U.S. Amateurs. Woods addressed a common misconception on Tuesday (as he has at least once before, in a 2017 Time interview with golf writer Lorne Rubenstein). 

“The timeline that I had showed the first time [Jack] broke 40, the first time he won a state amateur, the first time he broke 80 and the first time he won the U.S. Amateur. And that was it. It had nothing to do with his professional career. 

“I was about 11 or 12, when I really started to play a little bit more golf, and I looked at those things. And I said, ‘If he’s the greatest of all-time, then it would be nice if I was a little bit ahead of his schedule, according to those little tidbits.’ And I was able to beat all of them at the relative ages.” 

He also remembered the “better-than-most” bomb he made on 17 in 2001, but discounted its importance because it was on Saturday, and also because “I think I was still behind Jerry Kelly at the time.” He was. He didn’t scratch his head to come up with Jerry Kelly’s name. It was right there. 

Woods also remembered the difficult conditions of the 1999 Players, when David Duval won with a score of three under par. “I believe I shot 75-75 on the weekend and moved up,” Woods said. He did shoot 75-75, for a T-10 finish. He opened 70-71, which had him tied for seventh, so he didn’t in fact move up. But it wasn’t like his 150 weekend sent him into oblivion, as it typically would.

 He's loosened up considerably though, as Shippy notes above, he doesn't let us inside at all.

I'm So Close.... Or Not - John Feinstein polls some likely suspects for a piece on how players recover from slumps.  Though his focus on this guy seems designed to be hurtful:

“It’s all relative of course,” said Stewart Cink. “Everyone knows that Jordan Spieth isn’t playing well right now—for Jordan Spieth. He’s dropped to what, 20th in the world [actually 25th]. Most guys would kill to be ranked that high. But he’s been No. 1, he’s won three majors, so when he goes this long [since the 2017 British Open] without a win, everyone agrees he’s not playing anywhere close to his best golf.” 

Spieth won two majors and five tournaments in 2015—the year he turned 22—and was ranked No. 1 in the world. A year later, he won twice more and finished second in the Masters, losing what had been a five-shot lead on the back nine. In 2017, he won his third major—the Open Championship at Birkdale. At that moment, he was ranked No. 2 in the world. 

He hasn’t won since and missed the Tour Championship last year for the first time in his pro career. As he prepares to play in this week’s Players Championship, this season, so far, has been worse: his BEST finish in seven starts is a T-35 in San Diego. In Los Angeles, he started with a seven-under-par 64 on Thursday and finished with a 10-over-par 81 on Sunday. 

There isn’t anyone on tour who doesn’t think Spieth will figure it out again, sooner or later. “His problem is he played so well coming out that the expectations for him are completely over the top,” said Adam Scott—also a former No. 1. “It’s his fault because he played so well coming out. It was like watching a junior who hasn’t learned to get nervous yet.” He smiled. “Of course, he pretty much WAS a junior.”

I guess that's true, since technically I'm not on tour.  And actually I have no idea whether Jordan will find the magic again, I just know what a hot mess he is in the moment.

 Webb Simpson, whose slump was caused by an obvious outside agency, has these words of wisdom:

“We all go through it, and I think what you find out is you’re never as far away as you think.”

Jordan annoyingly keeps telling us how close he is, though the results seem to be going in the opposite direction.  So is he close to his old game, or further from reality than he realizes?

Careful What You Wish For -  Bob Harig has a lighthearted piece on the youngsters that get paired with their golfing God.  Phenom Sam Burns took this approach:

Burns had the presence of mind to try to break the ice, so he walked off the first tee with

Woods during the final round at the Honda Classic and quipped, "Can you believe all these people are here to see me?" 

"It was a very cool day, something I'll always look back on and be thankful it happened," said Burns, 22, who was 1 year old when Woods won his first Masters in 1997.

Of course, God has mellowed quite a bit:

Back then, Woods was not much for small talk on the golf course, especially among his so-called rivals. But these encounters have shown a softer side, as Woods is more willing to engage with his peers, recognizing that many of these younger players are truly ecstatic about the opportunity.

And, as Tiger points out, ours is simply the coolest game ever:

"It just means I'm old," Woods said. "I've been around the tour for the better part of 22 years now, so I've been out here a while. That's one of the neat things about our sport -- it can cross so many different generations.

"I remember playing with Jack [Nicklaus] in his final PGA [Championship], and he said he played with Gene Sarazen in his final PGA. You don't get to hear that in any other sport. We cross so many different generations, and this is one of them."

Nice to see Tiger embracing things such as this....

The Pin, Current State of Play -  I thought that Frankie's putt on Sunday would have gone in under either scenario, so it's passing strange that it seems to have provoked another round of thumb-sucking:

Mike Shannon, the PGA professional and putting instructor at the PGA Tour’s Performance Center at the TPC Sawgrass, will be watching intently what the those in the 

field do this week at the Players Championship. But Shannon, who’s worked with more than 150 tour pros, already has been conducting research with local players that shows a trend in how the flagstick is seen both as a benefit and a detriment. 

He’s seen three distinct takeaways from leaving the flagstick in: 

“Almost 70 percent of the players thought that keeping the pin in from outside of 10 feet gave that player better depth perception, which resulted in better speed and distance control,” Shannon said. “But then inside of 10 feet, a majority of players felt that it actually made the cup look smaller, and they found they had a harder time with the shorter putts.

 And just to make sure that point is absolutely clear:

“The thing that really was impressive about this though was that almost 90 percent of the players thought that having the pin in acted as a plumb line, and so it gave better perception on the slope of the greens. They all felt like they were better readers of the break of the putt when the pin was in.”

That's interesting for sure, because I'd have said that the benefit was more related to distance and speed.

But how do these players react when they're reminded that they could have enjoyed this benefit all along?  One merely needs to ask that pin be tended, not an issue unless you're playing alone.

Thirty Days in The Hole -  How is it possible that this is my first Humble Pie reference when I've been blogging here for over five years?  But it turns out to be quite apt, as the sentence was just that:

A well-known golf architect will go to prison for 30 days for importing products made

from endangered animals to sell at his antique shop in Northern Virginia. 

Keith Foster, 60, made his career for over three decades designing and restoring golf greens, including several famous championship courses. Foster is, in the words of his attorney, a “world-renowned golf architecture” designer. He also ran the Outpost antique shop in Middleburg, Va., as a charity operation, donating the profits. 

But he turned his feel-good hobby into a criminal operation by smuggling blades, bags and decorative mounts made from endangered species.

The sentence might seem light, but the real penalty will affect his professional career:

He has also paid a $275,000 fine. After pleading guilty, Foster lost contracts with Congressional Country Club in Bethesda and Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago.

Just a sad story of human weakness.

 See you tomorrow.