Back To Work

I'm happy to report that the afterglow from Fife 2019 remains intact...  Especially as yesterday brought news that Crail....er, excuse me, The Crail Golfing Society has accepted our application for overseas membership.  Planning for our 2020 trip back to The Kingdom of Fife begins in 3,2,1...

We'll work ourselves back into regular blogging gradually, as the schedule and content dictates.  September promises to be a busy month, most notably with a return trip to The National three weeks from today....  I do have golf planned for the next two days, so we'll sort through a few things and see what comes as the week progresses.

Schedule Stuff - Encased in my Fifeness bubble, I missed the last two events of the riveting FedEx Cup Faux Playoffs, but from a distance it seems the Tour dodged a bullet.  Coming back from down five strokes in the staggered start, Rory was a deserving winner of the event.  I think it's arguable as to whether that validates the format, or merely defers that inevitable moment when the best player of the week doesn't win, and the golf world collectively loses its mind.

Joel Beall makes a case for the format, but one that leavse me thinking it merely deferred the cognitive dissonance:

Unequivocally, the latest iteration of the FedEx Cup, with its new-fangled, stroke-adjusted start, was no lemon. The two best players in golf—Brooks Koepka and Rory

McIlroy—were in the final pairing at the Tour Championship, with Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas keeping things honest. The fusion of performance and popularity was a dream scenario for any Sunday, let alone the PGA Tour's season finale. 

Just as important, players ranked 10th to 20th heading into Thursday at East Lake, often left as spectators in previous FedEx Cup formats, were given a viable chance to compete under the new system.

I'm sure "Not a lemon" was exactly what the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach were going for.

But this is quite the howler:

Only when compared to last year's Tour Championship would you say this year's version lacked buzz. Hell, even the Super Bowl lacked excitement measured against what we saw in those four magical September days. Otherwise, though, it felt consistent with the past.

Egads, there are category errors, and then there's this.... Last years buzz of course had everything to do with the return of Tiger, and nothing to do with the event itself.  

It's a hot mess, and it's only getting hotter.

The winner became the second top-ten player to criticize the new schedule, specifically the compressed four majors in three months aspect thereof.  This comes from his pre-tourney presser at The Omega Masters, and its really quite damning:

The PGA Championship's move from August to May produced a golf calendar that

included a major each month from the Masters in April to The Open in July, but McIlroy – one green jacket short of the career grand slam – would like to put a bit more distance between the game's biggest events. 

“If they are spaced so closely together will fans only care from the second week of April to the third week in July?” he added to the BBC. “I’d like to see them spaced out like tennis does. With the Australian Open in January and the US Open going on now, they’ve a nice nine-month window of relevancy.”

Mr. Monahan, perhaps I can help you understand what Rory just said.  He'll gladly cash your $15 million check, but even that gaudy sum isn't sufficient to make him pretend it means anything.... Relevancy is the key word here.

Shack had an interesting take on it all, though one that seems internally inconsistent.  In noting Winners and Losers, he had these winners:

Staggered scoring 

The numbers crunchers at PGA Tour headquarters ran through many years of past Tour Championships and said the strokes-based FedEx Cup points reset would make for a compelling finish. While it may take more getting used to and some tweaks to strengthen season-long rewards, the final round could not have been easier to follow

First round 

The opening day proved to be the most compelling of the season thanks to the new scoring system. Justin Thomas quickly gave back some of his lead. Just as Thomas predicted the day before, there was a genuine sense that leading the FedEx Cup came with big-time pressure. A few short putts and a water ball later, we had a tournament and a sense more drama was coming.

 But under perhaps the most favorable of circumstances, I would argue.

And this from that other category:

Season long points and playoff early rounds 

Given how many times during the year fans have to hear about the importance of every FedEx Cup point, the sudden meaninglessness of positioning was felt by Friday night at East Lake. Points will always matter to get inside the top 15 or the tour’s top 125, but bloated allotments for the first two playoff events negated the importance of regular-season consistency. The new staggered scoring at East Lake even defused advantages gained at the Northern Trust and BMW, putting players who enjoyed nice, but non-championship seasons within plausible reach of $15 million.

Not to mention that what really undermined the season-long aspect was JT bolting into the lead from his one, late-season win.  Really bush league, if we're permitted to be honest.

And at his blog Geoff asks another very good question:

Remind Me Again: Why Did The PGA Tour Give Up On Labor Day?

To avoid the NFL.....preseason?   

The Year That Was - We've got to be quick about our sepia-toned nostalgia for the season that just concluded, because the 2019-20 PGA Tour season begins in exactly nine days.  I know, that bit about not competing with the NFL was quite the head fake...

Folks have been trying to make the Player of the Year into a thing, for instance this from Alan Shipnuck's most recent mailbag:

Is there a case to be made for Brooks and Rory as Co-POY? Brooks was amazing in the majors and meh elsewhere while Rory was meh in the majors and amazing elsewhere. -@FisherM24 

Sure, that case can be made, but the modern sports-industrial complex won’t allow it. We demand that such things be zero-sum. But I disagree with your assessment of Brooks’ year: he won an f’ing WGC (dusting Rory along the way), beat a pretty good field in Korea, and had top-4s at the Honda, Nelson and Tour Championship. I’m enjoying watching all the Rory honks straining so hard to make their case, but Brooks is POY and it’s an easy call.

I love that "Sure, the case can be made, if you're an ignorant slut".  But he had other good stuff on Rory's really great though highly disappointing season:

I understand the outpouring of approval because he is so immensely likable, but we already knew Rory was good at making money. The question remains, is he still good at making history? -@Lou_Tireworld 

I can’t stop thinking about the vexing paradox built into McIlroy’s season. Statistically it was one of the best in recent memory but among his worst rounds was a 73 to open the Masters; a two-over 72 to open the PGA Championship; a 72 to close the U.S. Open, when he had begun the final round in 6th place; and the woeful 79 that put a dark cloud over the Open Championship. This is more than a coincidence.

We revere the major championships because the setups are the most exacting. Inconsistencies in a putting stroke will be revealed; holes in a wedge game shall be exposed. More than that, the teeming crowds, crushing hype and weight of history push players to the breaking point metaphysically. Clearly Rory has been getting in his own way over the last five years when it matters most. Will all the New Agey stuff he embraced this year help him figure it out, or is it a sign of how far gone he really is? Time will tell. But even though it feels like he’s been around forever, McIlroy is still only 30. I refuse to believe he doesn’t have one more big run in him. Maybe more than that. Of course, we’re been saying that for years now.

Perhaps you're looking at the wrong statistics?  Why should we be surprised that Rory plays better in events that don't matter to him, as he just explained above.  When he does care, the weaknesses in his game come to the fore....

This is fun as well:

Five-to-ten years from now, where will the “Rory’s greatest season is 2019, when he won the Players and the FedEx Cup” gaslighting rank in the Gaslighting Hall of Fame? -@ANTIFAldo 

It will be the case study that is on the syllabus of every post-graduate course on gaslighting.

God has a nasty sense of humor, and Rory's strong play in events of lesser importance will undoubtedly make his play at Augusta and Portrush that much more unpalatable.  Whether it will make him address the weaknesses in his game, that's a far different matter.

You'll not be surprised that this review of the year is of greater interest to me:

A definitive ranking of golf’s wildest controversies this PGA Tour season

I'm just glad it's definitive, so we won't need to argue about it.

The categories are a bit strange, but we'll trust Dylan Dethier here....  This din't win, but tickled my funny bone:

DALY VS. WALMART — It was a shame to see two foundational Arkansas institutions at war, but that’s exactly what happened after John Daly swore off the retail giant in early May. “I will never step foot into #Walmart again!” he wrote on Twitter. Heavy accusations followed: just one open checkout line and “lazy staff.” Time will tell if this one gets resolved. After all, Daly has never really seemed like the Blue Apron type.

Accusations of laziness might be the most John Daly thing ever....  Remind me, who was the guy that was fined 21 times by the PGA Tour for failure to give effort?  But I've been reliably informed that he's the people's champion, apparently just not people in blue aprons.

The winner in the Epic Feud Division are these guys:

BROOKS VS. BRYSON — This is really Brooks vs. slow play, but J.B. Holmes didn’t respond to Koepka’s criticisms, whereas DeChambeau confronted him on the putting green at the Northern Trust. Reasonable move, given Koepka had called DeChambeau’s slow play “embarrassing” and suggested it be addressed. Regardless of what they say about that meet-and-greet publicly, this seems like a clash of philosophical differences that isn’t going away.

A couple of tangents here....First, an anecdote from our trip.  At one point in our final round when the pace of play was annoyingly slow, I asked Theresa and our caddies if they had ever seen my JB Holmes impression, and proceeded to plumb-bob an 18 inch putt.  I was pleased that all seemed to get the reference.

 Secondly, remember Gary Hart and the Monkey Business?  Yeah, kids, be careful what you ask for:

He explained that, if critics would take the time to clock him, they'd see his pace is fine. 

"On average, my shots into the green and off the tee was around 30 seconds. That's 10 seconds under [the required time], you know," DeChambeau said at Liberty National. "And if you go to the putting green, let's say it takes 50 seconds. That equals out and you're approximately on time." 

So we accepted Bryson's challenge, which is why we timed him at the Tour Championship Thursday morning.

And they do just that...  he comes off not too badly in the tee-to-green timing, but there the good news ends:

Unfortunately, the same could not be said once reaching the green ... 

Putting 

In case you're reading this, Brooks, avert your eyes. DeChambeau averaged one minute

and 21 seconds per first putt. Most of the time, DeChambeau was the first to stroke, but even when he was closer to the hole than Reavie (49.41 seconds), he wasn't playing like he had dinner plans. 

The longest time came on the ninth green. Facing a 36-foot uphill birdie putt, DeChambeau took two minutes and 41 seconds from marking his ball to contact. His putt went six feet by, and even though he watched Reavie for 50 seconds, it didn't appear like he started to look at his comeback line until after Reavie's birdie attempt was struck. Another minute ensued before DeChambeau was off the green.

Bryson has said that he can live with a shot clock, and I'd love to see that hypothesis tested:

If that theoretical shot clock existed, DeChambeau would have racked up 10 over-50-second violations through his first nine holes, 14 if the bar was 40 seconds.

Busted.  

I do think Sergio somehow gets off easy in the lumping of his cumulative offenses into the various categories, and he's clearly worth of a lifetime achievement award.

Wither Tiger and Jordan - Props to the Tour Confidential Panel for the discipline demonstrated in deferring the inevitable Tiger discussion until their second question:

2. Tiger Woods announced on Tuesday that he recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair minor cartilage damage in his left knee. The doctor who performed the surgery said he expects Woods to make a full recovery, while Woods said he hopes to resume practicing in the next few weeks and added he looks forward to playing in Japan in October. Should fans be more concerned than the press release seems to be? 

Dethier: The reminder, as always, is just how little we ever really know about Woods’ health. He might not really understand it all, either, but he has never been forthcoming about what’s actually wrong. Injury descriptions shift pretty regularly, as recently as the Northern Trust (back to oblique to, now, knee). Mostly what we know is that it’s not perfect.

Bamberger: Tiger has always been extremely secretive about all health issues. The only meaningful thing left for him, as a player, is the majors. I don’t know who he turns to for these questions, but I can’t see why he would want to play between now and Honda, except to make money, and it would be odd if that’s a high priority at this point in his career. He looked mentally and physically tired from April 15th on.

And while Kooch's bagman John Wood has been a valuable addition to the gang, this is just dead wrong:

Wood: No I don’t think so. We used to never know what was going on with Tiger’s body. He held that close to his vest. Now, he’s letting us know. I wouldn’t be concerned with either. If he could win on a broken leg, I think he can win on one that’s not broken but has had its share of time under the knife.

Not even close... This is Tiger sharing the absolute bare minimum, and we're still left wondering about everything after April 15th.

 This is an interesting take on things as well:

3. Jordan Spieth completed his second straight winless season on Tour after winning 10 times from 2015 to 2017. Who is more likely to snatch their next win first — Tiger or Spieth? And will that come next season? 

Dethier: I think the demises of both Woods and Spieth have been somewhat exaggerated. Spieth finished in the top eight in four of his last 10 starts of 2019. And before the playoffs, Woods had beaten the field average more consistently than any other player on Tour. I’d put the chances of each somewhere around 50/50 to win next season — I’ll take Spieth, just because he’s healthier and will play more. 

Wood: I think it’ll be Jordan if for no other reason than he’s gonna have a hell of a lot more chances than Tiger with their respective schedules. I think Jordan will knock one off by the end of the West Coast (the old start to the season), and with Tiger I think it all depends on how much he plays. I’m not trying to say other tournaments don’t matter to him, but everything Tiger does right now is centered around four tournaments. The “regular” events he plays are more preparation for Harding Park and Augusta than all-out assaults like the Tiger of the 2000s.

But before Dylan goes long on Jordan, he might want to consider this Dave Dusek column on driving performance:

The largest drop in strokes gained off the tee was made by Jordan Spieth. His average went down by 0.723 shots. A year ago he finished tied for 50th in this statistical category, but his 2018-19 average of -0.452 ranked 176th.

Everyone seems to think that Jordan's poor play is caused by his putting, so you might be surprised to learn that he was second in Strokes Gained: Putting for the year.   But in SG: Tee-to-Green he was 157th...  hard for me to see how he regains his place in the game without fixing that PDQ.

More Alan - A few more bits from his mailbag, low cardio blogging for sure, then I'll let you go:

Re: Brooks’s body issue shot: His intentional weight loss hurt his game so it’s hard to say the photo represents a champion golfer’s body (instead, it shows a champion golfer’s crash diet body?). So what do the pics represent? Golfer ego? Is the publicity good for the game? -@zuzanryan 

Let me just start by saying that if I never see Brooks’ a– again it will be too soon. Koepka looks great in his tight polo shirts but with his shaved chest and golfer’s tan the pics were a little…awkward? We’ve been down this road before with Tiger: a dominant golfer with an inferiority complex desperate to been seen as a real jock, ergo the packing on of extraneous muscle for reasons having more to do with vanity than performance. I guess all the attention was good for golf; it was certainly good for Brooks, who got the spotlight he craves.

Alan, you mean like this one?

I know, but he's almost Normanesque in his need to show off his bod....  If he wants to continue to show off Jenna's bod, that's a different matter entirely.  

And this on his buddy:

What was the deal with DJ this year? He seemed fairly pedestrian after the PGA in May for the rest of the season. -@BigAlFishes 

Well, he let the Masters get away and then had his manhood taken by Brooks at the PGA Championship. Imagine the emotional rollercoaster Dustin has been on. Koepka was his

harmless little workout buddy, and seemingly overnight he became the player DJ was always supposed to be. Their lives were so intertwined it was inevitable there would be strain as the dynamic changed so radically. 

Coming out of the PGA their shared swing coach Claude Harmon had to pick sides, and it’s telling that he threw in with Koepka. That had to cut Dustin to the quick, and that they sorta got back together doesn’t take away the sting of getting dumped. Statistically, Johnson’s iron play and putting was not as good this season as in the past, but the most telling stat was his give-a-shizz meter: it was clearly on empty after the PGA Championship. Hopefully Dustin can pull himself out of this funk because the game is a lot more interesting when he’s playing his best.

Hey, at least he doesn't feel the need to show us his ass.

Here’s something to chew on: What (if anything) should the USGA have to say about Brooks Koepka using smokeless tobacco products and continuing to dribble nasty gobs of tobacco spit on national TV? -@DonVeach 

It’s more in the purview of the PGA Tour. Right now there is no policy banning smoking or chewing tobacco, which is quite surprising given the Tour’s obsession with cultivating a squeaky clean image. Both habits are gross and leave behind a mess — I’d love see these vices banned during tournaments. What kind of athletic competition is it if players can puff away in the middle of it? There is a long history of chaw in baseball, but those guys aren’t wearing saddle shoes and preppy polos. It’s just a weird look on Tour.

It's all quite disgusting, for sure.  I don't even like the look of them chewing gum, which has become all the rage....

Are you looking forward to the Rory/Hovland vs Brooks/Wolff match at the 2020 Ryder Cup? -@Golfingbrock 

Deeply. It’s going to be fascinating to see how much turnover there is on both teams. Poulter, Stenson, Casey and Garcia are all warriors, but their average age will be over 43 by the time the ’20 Cup rolls around, and right now only Casey is in good form. Who knows what will become of ThunderBear or a volatile player like Tyrrell Hatton, both of whom were part of the team in ‘18. Meanwhile, it’s easy to imagine the U.S. will be without aging one-name champions Tiger, Phil and Bubba. So, there will be plenty of room for young talent like the Neo-Big Three of Wolff, Hovland and Morikawa, to say nothing of Xander, Matt Wallace and sundry others.

Gee, Alan, any interest in forecasting an era of U.S. dominance?  But by the way, that "definitive ranking" of controversies didn't even mention ThunderBear....  Though we have to wait to see how that one turns out.

These two I'll present in reverse order:

Why not use carryover scoring through all three legs of the FedEx Cup, making it 12-round tourney over three weeks at three different courses? Whoever leads at the end of each leg wins that leg. FEC points used only to determine initial 125-man playoff field – and are then forgotten! -@HenriDaMarsay 

Bamberger has been floating this idea for years. I love it. Strokes is easier to follow than points, and the Tour Championship this year proved that fans are open to a non-traditional way to keep score. But FedEx has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make its points the coin of the realm. The Tour wants to protect that investment at all costs so it will never support a plan that makes FedEx Cup points wholly irrelevant.

At the risk of repeating myself, the problems with the FedEx Cup format are attributable to trying to serve two masters...They want the patina of a season long competition, but they also need the outcome to be in doubt until Sunday at East Lake.  Golf doesn't fit the playoff format, because the best players win so infrequently, so I would chuck the season long component, other than the qualify, and focus on making it a dramatic, high-stakes shootout.

But this is shear brilliance:

Changing the starting scores has really opened my eyes. Why doesn’t the USGA start everyone at +10 (+18 on par 72s) to #protectpar? -@danmacleay 

I wish I had thought of this.

Me too, as there aren't many other ways, are there?

I'm frequently reminded of these trenchant comments on this subject:

Major champion and winning Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said other iconic golf courses could be in trouble but not Augusta National. 

“The Old Course at St Andrews, the home of golf, is different, because the course isn’t as long and the greens are pretty easy to putt and don’t have nearly as much slope,” Azinger said. “Augusta’s greens are frightfully fast, and they can stick the pins two paces from the edge. 

“Augusta can always be defended. St Andrews is in trouble.”

This is serious, future of our game stuff, and The Old Course has already once served as a canary in the coal mine, when balls were moving on the greens in 2015.  I'd have suggested that the inability to play St. Andrews in the wind should have sent tremors through the game, but rather has been swept under the rug.

The Open will return to St. Andrews in 2021, for the 150th installment of golf's oldest championship.  I'm scared to death of what these guys can do the the place in the absence of strong winds, but they may have to suspend play if they do get strong winds.  Heaven help us.....

Have a great week, and I'll see you when I see you.