Your Friday Frisson

We didn't make it to Snowbird, and our local hill was a mixed bag....  Took a weird fall eraly in the day, which has me blogging hurt.  Hope you appreciate it....

Scenes From Sawgrass - I saw some of the coverage, but missed most of Tiger's back nine.  Jess Marksbury with what I/we missed:

Tommy Fleetwood and Keegan Bradley share the lead 

Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood and Keegan Bradley both posted the low round of the day: seven-under-par 65. 

Fleetwood did it in flawless fashion, with seven birdies and no bogeys, while Bradley carded six birdies, a bogey and an eagle. 

Bradley is seeking his fifth Tour victory, while Fleetwood has yet to win on U.S. soil, though he does have five international titles to his name. 

There are plenty of big names in the mix 

Chasing Fleetwood and Bradley are a slew of big names: Rory McIlroy is only two shots back after firing a first-round 67, while Dustin Johnson, John Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed are all four shots back at three under par. 

A disappointing day for Rickie, Phil, Justin Rose and Jordan 

Friday’s round will need to be markedly better for Tour stars Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth if they want to stick around for the weekend.

Fowler, Mickelson and Rose are currently T104 at two over par while Spieth made two double bogeys and four bogeys en route to a score of four-over-par 76. He’s currently T130.

Rickie was sick as a dog, and Rose has never played well here.  As for Jordan, I simply can't watch any longer.

I was hoping to remain awake enough to see Tiger's tee ball on No. 14, a hole that has long had his number and was the site of the most curious drops in golf history back in 2013:

Tiger Woods’ neck appears to be just fine. At least judging by his approach to his TPC Sawgrass bugaboo, the par-4 14th, where, after blowing his drive so far right that it

nearly landed on the 12th hole, he ripped one out the rough with the speed of an Acela train. He made bogey but left with his body fully intact. 

“I’m all good with that,” he said of the strained neck that forced him to withdraw from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and had the golf world momentarily holding its collective breath as he tore into the rye overseed in the opening round of the Players Championship. 

His putting was pretty good, too. Mostly, anyway, en route to an opening-round 70 that left him in shouting distance of the lead.

Is this a great game, or what?  Apparently he got it going on the back side, though not without drama:

After a ho-hum front nine in which he made just one bogey but also only one birdie, Woods strapped in for the roller coaster coming in. His final nine holes featured one measly par (on 15, for those who care), compared to five birdies and four bogeys. 

Among the red numbers were a 17-footer on 10, an easy one from inside three feet on 12, a 28-footer on 13, a smooth five-footer on 16 and a 13-footer on the par-3 17th, where his tee shot barely cleared the water before leaving him an uphill roll to the front pin.

“I felt like I rolled it today,” Woods said. “I felt like I was able to get up there, and I felt comfortable. I was able to rip it, and I felt pretty good. 

“It wasn’t like I had to do a lot. I just got back into something that I do naturally. I putt with the toe moving and toe releasing. My face moves a lot more than most players do, and we just went back to that. I feel like I can go ahead and hit it with my right hand again. That’s how I’ve always putted. I always had a lot of hit in my stroke, and that felt good again.” 

The last hole, not so much, after he missed a seven-footer and made bogey to fall back to 70.

I saw way too many loose shots but he'll go early today and we'll have to see if he can post a number in the morning calm.  If, you know, the morning is calm....

I previously saw little need to blog this item about Harold Varner III:

That’s why Varner continued to seek Woods’ advice over the past year, and it’s why the two of them were laughing and joking around so much Wednesday afternoon during another practice round at TPC Sawgrass with Bryson DeChambeau. 

“He’s still the same,” Varner said. “He’s still just a genuine guy and obviously I like being around him, cause I can learn a lot. He’s just good to be around. We have a good time and I hope he does too.” 

Woods was loose in demeanor and tempo, clearly feeling good physically after skipping last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational due to a neck strain. He played the back nine with Justin Thomas and Trey Mullinax early Tuesday morning and went around the front with Varner and DeChambeau late Wednesday afternoon. 

DeChambeau and Varner both look to Woods as a mentor and have spent plenty of time playing and hanging with him since the comeback started. Varner said the most valuable advice Woods gave him came while they were hanging out on a Sunday ahead of the Tour Championship, where Woods picked up career victory No. 80.

Varner is a really likable guy, but in all that mentoring I guess this never came up:

According to reports on site, Varner’s driver had a crack in it, which he realized during his warm up. Instead of using the driver during his round, he began his round with 13

clubs, intending to have the driver fixed and brought out to him. Varner held on to the shaft and sent for a new driver head. Sadly, that was his issue. 

If Varner had handed the shaft away, a driver head could have been added to it and subsequently brought out to him on the course. However, since he already had the shaft with him, adding a driver head on the course means he was assembling a club on the course, which violates Rule 4 .1b(4). 

Mid-way through his round, after he had screwed a driver head onto the shaft, he was then docked two strokes for the penalty. This is not one of the new rules of golf instituted in 2019.

Sigh!  While I get what they're trying to prohibit, when the penalty is contingent on where the head is attached to the shaft, perhaps we should revisit this? 

And if, like me, you thought we were finished with players being DQ'd for signing incorrect scorecards, think again:

This was supposed to be a special week for PGA Tour rookie Wyndham Clark, who was making his first start in the Players Championship. Unfortunately, it ended in both ugly and premature fashion on Thursday at TPC Sawgrass.

Clark, 25, began his round on the back nine, carding a three-over 39 that included a pair of birdies (one at the 17th), three bogeys and one double bogey at the par-5 16th (where he three-putted from four feet). Things didn't go much better on the front side, as Clark bogeyed the par-5 second and made four more bogeys on the day to shoot a first-round 80.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Clark was disqualified afterwards for signing an incorrect scorecard. The former Oregon standout wrote down that he made a 4 at the par-4 fourth, but Clark had actually made a bogey. Here's what it looked like on PGATour.com, which suggests he hit his drive just 105 yards and still was able to make a 5.

Well, they say there's no cure for stupidity....

There was both an albatross, Harris English on the 11th, and an ace, Ryan Moore on the 17th.  That Moore ace is worth watching because of how high up on the flagstick it seemingly hit. 

Type Casting - You guys paying attention to Operation Varsity Blues?  There is a golf connection, first this:

Forecaddie: Mossimo Giannulli tied to the college bribery scandal

Because you'll ask: 

The Forecaddie was pleased to see no collegiate golf programs have been caught up in

the federal indictments related to the college admissions bribery scheme as of yet. But golf is not without direct ties to the scandal. 

The founder and guiding spirit of the GFore brand, Mossimo Giannulli, and wife Lori Loughlin of “Full House” fame are among the high-profile defendants on an indictment list that so far has ensnared 33 parents along with multiple coaches and administrators.

Oh sure, let your wife take the fall....  No wonder people think chivalry is dead.

But isn't this tie inevitable?

After spending nearly an hour post-round inside the building used for scoring at TPC Sawgrass, Phil Mickelson emerged to a group of reporters Thursday afternoon at the Players Championship. “Go ahead, I know what you’re gonna ask,” he told the

assemblage. One reporter got halfway through a question about Mickelson being named in this week’s college admissions scandal before Phil himself took over to explain his family’s connection to one of the parties involved, ringleader Rick Singer, and deny any wrongdoing. 

“We, along with thousands of other families, hired he and his company to help us guide through the college application process,” Mickelson said. We’re probably more shocked than anyone and we’ve been dealing with it the last few days, but that’s about it.”

Singer, he said, came “highly recommended by numerous friends,” and was enlisted to help each of Mickelson’s three children navigate the college process.

Did any of those professional scribes, and Alan Shipnuck you might want to jump in here, think to ask whether Billy Walters might have been one of those friends?   As the kids are wont to say, developing....

I'm going to leave you nice folks there, and we'll catch up further down the road.