Weekend Wrap

The Silly Season seems to have gotten a bit sillier overnight....

While You Were Sleeping - This guy seems to be on Tiger's payroll:

If you were expecting the excitement of Sunday at the Masters, that would have been silly of you, because that's not what MGM Resorts The Challenge: Japan Skins was

going for. Instead, the made-for-TV event's goal was to entertain, and it did just that, even if it took its time in doing so. 

Eventually, Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama settled in, and those who settled in to watch on their couches well past midnight on the East Coast were treated to a fun, laid-back affair.

The boys were slow in getting started over the opening few holes as they felt out the course and the format. Jason Day struck first with a birdie at the par-3 third hole, winning three skins and $30,000.

Laid back, huh?  Let me check the promotional materials and see if that's what they were going for...

This ESPN account seems less burdened by the need for access:

While you were sleeping, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama played in a made-for-TV skins game. If we're being honest, you didn't miss much while you got some rest before the work week began. 

The golf wasn't great at The Challenge: Japan Skins. The banter was, occasionally, entertaining. Still, there were no can-you-believe-he-just-said-that moments -- unless we count the four-letter words that snuck into the broadcast. By the way, they weren't all from Tiger.

At least there couldn't have been any kids watching... at least no American kids.  I got through this account of play on the first hole feeling the need for a nap:

No. 1 

So it wasn't the prettiest start. None of the four players hit the fairway off the tee. OK, it'll get better from there, right? Well, three of them missed the green, with only Jason Day giving himself a birdie chance. But Day lipped out his 5-footer. 

Result: No skins. 

Totals

Woods $0

McIlroy $0

Day $0

Matsuyama $0

Good times.  Back to that first account for this bit of excitement on tap:

Rugby players spice things up 

After six quiet holes, four rugby players in Japan for the Rugby World Cup added their own brand of excitement. Mike Tindall of England, George Gregan of Australia, Bryan Habana of South Africa and Brian O'Driscoll of Ireland were part of the second "charity challenge," which paired them each with one of the pros. The hole ended in a tie, but it was an electric tie at that. Matsuyama made the first birdie from way downtown, causing his partner, Habana, to jump into his arms/scare the hell out of him. Moments later, O'Driscoll buried his birdie putt for the halve.

What is this halve of which he speaks?  Oh, a tie?  Please consult your Newspeak Dictionary and limit yourself to the authorized vernacular:

They also did a one-club challenge for one hole, which was kinda cool....  But it otherwise strikes me as a desultory affair.  No word as to whether that "occasionally entertaining" banter including comparisons of their appearance fees, but the $350,000 officially being contested is shockingly paltry, less than that played for in the original 1993 version.

Mike Bamberger tells us that the event is all about GolfTV for Tiger:

Tonight’s event, for Woods, really is about GOLFTV. His contract with GOLFTV looms

large in his life. Woods has done only one interview about winning his fifth green coat win since leaving Augusta National on Masters Sunday, and that interview was a GOLFTV production. The interview was conducted by Henni Zuel and it lasted 28 minutes, but Woods likely got credit for an even half-hour. It’s an excellent interview, by the way, but too short. 

Woods will surely have more to say about that Masters win in his memoir, Back. No publication date has been announced. In the interest of synergy, GOLFTV could film Woods while he is writing his book. That could be interesting.

It's always a bit disconcerting when Mike, often the conscience of our game, plays PR hack for Tiger ans the Tour, but he seems to find this far more interesting than he ought to.

But it's not just Mike, as Alex Myers had this on offer as a preview of the event:

Ranking all 23 previous times Tiger Woods has played in a made-for-TV golf event

Those that don't know history, are doomed to watch a lot of really boring golf....  Wasn't that Santayana's point?  These things died and went away because the golf could never live up to the hype.   Let's start at the bottom of Alex's list:

23. 2001 Skins Game: Incredibly, Woods played in six Skins Games (1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005) and never won. But 2001 was the only time he got shut out in the

former Thanksgiving weekend special. Not that he was alone that year as Greg Norman swept the entire $1 million purse against Tiger, Colin Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik. You might remember this was the year you had to “validate” your skin. Don’t worry, that will NOT be the case in Japan this week. 

22. 1996 Skins Game: Woods’ first Skins Game appearance yielded a slightly better return (two skins for $40,000), but won’t exactly be remembered in the same way as his “Hello, world” announcement a few months prior.

Yeah, that validating skins didn't work out too well, but the disaster I remember best was this one:

9. “Battle at Bighorn” (2001): Monday Night Golf went with a mixed doubles foursomes format as Tiger and Sorenstam defeated David Duval and Karrie Webb on the first playoff hole. We’d put this higher, but it was Sorenstam and not Tiger who made a 10-foot birdie putt on final hole of regulation to keep the match going.

A Top Ten for this Turkey?  My, you do have some really low standards...

Anyone remember the last Skins Game?  The franchise died in 2008 when the field included Phil, Rocco Mediate, Stephen Ames and K.J. Choi.  In other words, a mercy killing....

Meanwhile, Back At Nine Bridges... -  A funny week... Not only is there no Tour Confidential panel, but the Skins has pushed this result into oblivion:

Justin Thomas won the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Sunday, continuing a streak of quality golf resembling how he played in rising to No. 1 in the World Ranking for four weeks in 2018. 

Thomas, 26, shot a five-under-par 67 in the final round at the Nine Bridges course on

Jeju Island, South Korea, to win by two over Danny Lee of New Zealand. He completed 72 holes in 20-under-par 268, two ahead of runner-up Danny Lee of New Zealand. Lee, who was chasing his second PGA Tour victory, shot a three-under-par 69. 

The two entered the final round tied for the lead and were still tied until Thomas holed a 10-foot birdie putt at the 14th hole and Lee bogeyed the 15th and 16th holes. 

"I felt like this course provides a lot of opportunities for two-shot swings, so I kept trying to hit fairways and greens and give myself a lot of birdie chances," Thomas said. "And he just kept getting up and down from everywhere. It was hard to kind of keep my composure and stay patient, but I knew that I was playing great golf and it felt like if I kept doing that, then at least I was going to have a great chance on the last couple holes." 

The victory was Thomas’ 11th in this his sixth season on the PGA Tour. It also was his second win in his last four starts, his first coming in the BMW Championship in August.

He seems back on form after a year lost to nagging injuries.  There were a few items of marginal interest from the week, most notably this of Phil nearly jarring his tee ball on a Par-4, though the best bit is Vaughn Taylor's reaction shot.  Phil's near-miss led to this remembrance of the first albatross ever on a Par-4:

If you're going to recount the history, you'd think you'd recount the interesting bits, no?  Magee's ace was most notable for the lucky bounce it took off Tom Byrum's putter....

Also, this guy didn't make it through the week:

World No. 1 Brooks Koepka has withdrawn from the CJ Cup. 

Koepka released a statement in which he says that he slipped and aggravated an injury on his left knee. 

The full statement, released on the PGA Tour’s twitter account, reads: 

“During the course of Friday’s round, I slipped on wet concrete aggravating a previous injury to my left knee. After consulting with my doctor, I have been advised to withdraw from the CJ Cup and head home for further tests. I appreciate everyone’s concerns and support. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.”

Notably only because that's the knee into which he had stem cells injected a few weeks back.

Brooks was in the news a bit last week about those Rory comments, as Brandel accused him of high crimes and misdemeanors:

For one thing, Koepka-McIlroy is undeniably a rivalry, Chamblee pointed out. 

“I mean, this is adding fuel to a rivalry that definitely exists,” he said. “Look, they’re the

No. 1 and 2 player in the world, they each have four major championships, the last two times that they’ve gone head-to-head, each has gotten the better of the other.” 

Those last two times came at the WGC-Memphis, when Koepka dusted McIlroy in the final round, and at the Tour Championship, where McIlroy returned the favor en route to claiming the $15 million season finale prize. 

“In general, I just thought it was disrespectful,” Chamblee added. “When you start to look at great players who have rivalries — take Tom Brady talking about a rivalry with Peyton Manning — you can go back and find the quotes, many of them, and they’re fabulous quotes about how Peyton Manning would bring the best out of him and if he didn’t play well he would lose to a Peyton Manning-led team.”

But Brooks is noting an inconvenient truth, to wit, that when he won his four majors that Rory guy wasn't in evidence.  And support for Brooks' position comes from an unlikely source:

“I felt like … I think it’s hard,” McIlroy said. “We’ve all had it where we get asked in press conferences about other players. I’ve had it where it’s like, why are these guys

asking me about someone else, are we not supposed to be here to be talking about me? And like, what Brooks said wasn’t wrong. He’s been the best player in the world the last couple of years, four majors.” 

McIlroy was (unsurprisingly) less excited about the no-major shade thrown his way. 

“I don’t think he had to remind me that I hadn’t won one in a while,” he added with a smile. “But I love Brooks, he’s a great guy and obviously super competitive like we all are. I guess I can see where he’s coming from; we’re out here, we can’t control anyone else, we just have to play our own golf. And look, I said a couple things after the Tour Championship that I approached that final round like a rivalry because he got one over on me in Memphis and I sorta wanted to get him back.”

Rory's a big boy... I think he'll be OK.

Before we move on from the Brooks v. Rory cage match, Eamon Lynch has an interesting though ultimately skewed reaction:

It can‘t often be said that a sport enjoyed a good week when it included offhand arrogance from its top-ranked star and a drug suspension, but this was a solid seven days for the PGA Tour. The joint efforts of Brooks Koepka and Matt Every helped sweep cobwebs from the dated image of its pros as wholesome clones who are unfailingly deferential to their peers. 

Boastfulness isn’t much embraced in professional golf. A sport that prides itself on being a gentleman’s game is predisposed to treat bombast as vulgarity. Through that muted lens, Walter Hagen was viewed as more carnival barker than confident champion. Greg Norman held his ego largely in check until he moved wholly into business, at which point it was a brand asset. Even at his peak, Tiger Woods lets his clubs speak for him, though that didn’t stop the sniping about his aloofness and fist-pumping being unbecoming. 

Golf has long lionized stars who conduct themselves as though inhabited by the ghost of Byron Nelson: courteous throwbacks to a time when sportsmen were free of profanity, scandal and indictments. Blandness over bluster. Against that colorless standard, Braggadocious Brooks stands out for reasons that are obvious. 

We'll get to Matt Every below, but I think Eamon misses how that nature of our game affects behavior.  The best players win so infrequently that it discourages excessive braggadocio.  But I view Brooks' comments as a mild gibe, and Rory 

This one last bit on some inconclusive evidence:

Weekends owned Jordan Spieth in the 2018-’19 season, the least productive of his career, 

and whether he can again effectively navigate them is the key to his bid for returning to prominence. 

Spieth ranked 170th in third-round scoring and 187th in fourth-round scoring on the PGA Tour last season, offsetting his finishing ninth and first in first and second-round scoring. 

It is too early to tell whether he has found a remedy, but in his first start of the new season, he hinted at better weekend days ahead. Spieth bettered par in both weekend rounds, shooting 70 and 71, to tie for eighth in the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges.

Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations...  When the winning score is -20, merely beating par isn't much to speak of.

 Is that enough to garner a Tiger pick for the Prez Cup?  I wouldn't think so, but we'll know more when we see how Tiger himself plays at the ZoZo.

Lastly, I'm just not sure how serious to take this streak:

It had to end sometime. Viktor Hovland couldn’t keep posting scores in the 60s on the PGA Tour, treating his nascent professional golf career like he was on an extended run playing Golden Tee. 

And so on Saturday at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, the 22-year-old from Norway did the inevitable. Hovland shot a two-over 74, including a double-bogey 7 on the 18th hole, that ended his streak of consecutive rounds in the 60s on tour at 19, two longer than Bob Estes’ previous record set in 2001. 

Hovland had an up-and-down front nine in the third round at the Club at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island in South Korea, making three birdies and two bogeys over a six-hole stretch. Still, he turned in one under par to give himself a good chance at another sub-70 score. But bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes changed things for the worse. A birdie on the 14th hole gave him a chance if he could birdie three more of the final four holes, yet it was too tall a task.

He's obviously a strong, young player, though it also seems to be a run of really easy golf courses this time of year.  

Pot, Kettle -  Did you guys catch the Matt Every suspension?  It seems we're in a legal quagmire on the subject of cannabis, though first this from Shack:

First question:  Has the Tour changed its policy and is now announcing suspensions?  I know they avoid mentioning pot, but this is big if true.  Or, if not big, at least a step in the right direction.  At least we seem to be no longer making up fiction jet-ski accidents, so we've got that going for us.

But Every's reaction was more defiant than contrite:

Every, however, said in a statement to Golf Channel, “I tested positive for cannabis, a drug I do not abuse and a drug I have a legal prescription for in the state of Florida. I

have been prescribed cannabis for a mental health condition by my physician whom has managed my medical care for 30 years. It has been determined that I am neither an acceptable candidate to use prescription “Z” class drugs nor benzodiazepines. Additionally, these classes of drugs can be highly addictive and harmful to the human body. For me, cannabis has proven to be, by far, the safest and most effective treatment.

“With that being said, I have no choice but to accept this suspension and move on. I knew what WADA’s [World Anti-Doping Agency] policy was and I violated it. I don’t agree with it for many reasons, mainly for my overall well-being, but I’m excited for what lies ahead in my life and career. Over the last few years I have made massive strides and I know my best is still in front of me. I can’t wait to come back better than ever in January.” 

Every, 35, has been suspended before by the tour following his 2010 arrest in Bettendorf, Iowa, for possession of marijuana.

There's a lot going on here, including a few important aspects about which I'm unclear.   It's my belief that there is no reason for the Tour to be testing for cannabis, as I can't think of a drug less likely to enhance performance.  This argument is supported by the legalization efforts, as apparently Every's use was legal (though, of course, that prior use in Germany was not).  Weer the product still illegal, the Tour would have a logical reason to discipline players for that illegal activity and the risk of the association with the criminal element.

At this point the Tour is locked into the WADA testing protocols, though Shack has an interesting reveal:

While he says the doctor who has treated him since age five could not provide any other alternative remedy for his issues, Every has never suggested he filed for, and was denied, a Therapeutic Use Exemption. Nor has the PGA Tour deviated from WADA with regard to marijuana, as they have in a few other areas.

I wasn't aware that the Tor had the ability to deviate from the WADA requirements?   This, if true, might afford a way forward...

But then Shack tackles that tougher issue of whether the substance is, in fact, performance enhancing:

Which brings us back to the core issue: is marijuana potentially performance enhancing? 

I have no idea but given that Matt Every stuck with it after one suspension and never suggested he ever applied for its use medicinally, it was not performance unenhancing.

Whether pot usage is enough to alter outcomes is another story. But in the grander scheme, as its usage is legalized in more places and a younger generation sees it as harmless, golf and WADA may need to study its impact on performance. I don’t need a case made but there may be a surprising number of fans who struggle to understand what the big deal is all about.

So…simple question based on your views of the game and what you know about cannibas…

That seems to me quite the bizarre argument, so let's unpack it.  If Matt suffered from a purely physical ailment, high blood pressure or the like, the medicine that treated said condition wouldn't be considered performance enhancing, would it?  

I get that Every is treating an unspecified mental health issue, and that this is therefore more ambiguous.  I'll also add that we've long heard talk of the use of beta blockers in our game, and that I could see as performance enhancing for a golfer, especially one that's highly strung.  I think one can see the difficulty in where to draw the line, though I also think the burden of proof should be on those looking to ban a substance.

I suspect that pot was historically easy to include on the banned substance list, merely because of its illegality.  But now that society has evolved to make the substance legal, its incumbent on everyone from WADA to Ponte Vedra Beach to make the substantive case for why it should be proscribed.

Eamon Lynch had his won take on this matter as well:

Every also helped distance modern Tour pros from the unsustainable squeaky clean image that has been tenderly cultivated for decades. He received a 12-week suspension for using cannabis, for which he has a legal prescription in the state of Florida to treat a mental health condition. In accepting his suspension, Every was far from apologetic. He admitted violating the rules but not wrongdoing. 

Count me among those who believe recreational drug use that doesn’t improve performance is no one else’s business. But all players know the Tour policy is in line with stringent World Anti-Doping Agency protocols. That’s what Every signed up to.

Eamon is showing that he's just a wee bit out of touch with these crazy youngsters, if he thinks squeaky clean kids don't smoke weed.

This bit was also a bit weird:

This week was a gentle reminder of the pitfalls inherent in the PGA Tour’s old marketing line, “These Guys Are Good,” which implies there isn’t a jerk, blowhard, cheat or abuser among them. Most guys are good, to be fair, but the Tour’s reputation need not be symbiotic with those who play it. Hitching its image to the conduct of individual players risks the Tour being embarrassed with every minor transgression, and crucified when a major one invariably comes. In this light, the widely ridiculed “Live Under Par” slogan has been an improvement.

No, Eamon, not good like that.  Good at golf is what they meant...