Your Friday Frisson

Seems like just yesterday when we remarked upon the barren wasteland of golf content...  April can't get here soon enough...

In Which Tiger Gets Paid - I still find the Monster Energy Drink logo on his golf bag embarrassing, but this seems like good, clean-cut family fun.  And Tiger has long been associated with strong family relationships, right?

Tiger Woods is getting into the golf-entertainment business with a new business venture that will compete with the likes of Topgolf, Drive Shack and other venues that marry traditional golf with cutting-edge technology.

TGR, Tiger Woods Ventures and PopStroke Entertainment Group today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership. 

Founded in 2018, PopStroke is a technology-infused golf-entertainment concept featuring professionally designed putting courses and food and beverage. 

PopStroke currently has one facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Locations in Scottsdale, Arizona and Fort Myers, Florida currently are under development, and several additional sites are planned for 2020 and beyond. TGR Design and Tiger Woods will be responsible for designing the putting courses at all future PopStroke locations.

Oh, the synergy!  Of course they're required to throw in the requisite MBA-speak:

“This is a natural extension of my golf course design philosophy and my TGR Design business,” Woods said. “Our goal has always been to design courses that bring people together and are fun for golfers of all abilities and ages.”

And since it's the 21st century, we need to overuse the T-word:

Infusing the traditional putt-putt experience, which hasn’t changed in years, with a dose

of technology is expected to create a more social and entertaining experience. 

The PopStroke experience is enhanced with a technology platform consisting of the soon-to-be released electronic scorekeeping golf ball, the “iPutt” ball. The ball transmits scores electronically to the custom PopStroke app, which can be downloaded in the Apple and Android App stores. Players will be able to compete against each other in a tournament environment while earning “Pop Bucks” through the PopStroke loyalty rewards app program.

The surprise is that it's a wee start-up, one that likely doesn't have the cash to pay the man.  I assume that Tiger is taking equity, though that's not discussed in any of the coverage.  Oh, and Tiger's not the only one getting paid:

Pete Bevacqua, former CEO of the PGA of America and president of NBC Sports, has agreed to be a member of the board of directors.

I can only assume that Hunter Biden is in for a taste as well...

Ernie Goes To The Whip -  Do you find it hard to summon up enthusiasm for the Prez Cup?  Yeah, it's team match play at an epic venue, and yet....  Ernie seems like he might be tired of the losing:

“My last message to the guys who didn’t make the top eight was don’t stop; play like it matters,” Els said during the Bahamas Strong Pro-Am at Old Marsh Golf Club, a charity

Joaquin Niemann

outing to raise funds for relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. “We’ve had six or seven guys step up. We’ve got some veterans who are on the line, and the young guys have gone crazy of late. I told them I’m not afraid to pick rookies this year because we have such a new team regardless.” 

To Els’ point, half of the International’s eight automatic qualifiers—Abraham Ancer, Haotong Li, C.T. Pan and Cameron Smith—have never played in a Presidents Cup. Neither have six of the next seven players in the points standings.

There are some better known names, such as Scott, Leishman and King Louis, but not sure those guys will drive Americans to watch in the middle of the night.

No doubt Jason Day will be one of Els' selections, but it's pretty much a rugby scrum for the last three slots:

Jason Day, who finished ninth when the top eight spots were locked up in August. It’s expected, however, that the 31-year-old Aussie will be on the team—a point that Els furthered when mentioning that qualifier Adam Scott and Day are two players who can provide rookies plenty of insight on the host venue, Royal Melbourne, because they’ve played it often before. 

If Day takes one spot, that leaves a handful of players battling for three remaining picks, with the next few weeks becoming critical to Els’ decision-making. 

Among that group: Sungjae Im, Justin Harding, Corey Conners, Shugo Imahira and Byeong Hun An. Others in consideration should Els be looking for more experience: Si Woo Kim, Adam Hadwin, Emiliano Grillo and Branden Grace, all of whom have played in at least one Presidents Cup. Then there is Joaquin Niemann and Sebastian Munoz, both winners in recent weeks.

What about Ernie as a playing captain?  They can reprise their duel in the gloaming back in South Africa...

When In Rome -  September of 2022 is the date, and by all accounts it's on:

Rome was awarded the 2022 Ryder Cup in December 2015. But that fate wasn't finalized until this week. 

The biennial match's visit to Marco Simone, just 10 miles outside the center of the the Italian Senate slashed an amendment to a bill that would have provided ´97 million euros ($103 million) to the Ryder Cup, money that is vital to running one of golf's premier competitions.

"Eternal City," had come into jeopardy at the hands of the country's government. In 2017,

This waffling fueled years of rumors of a destination move. However—with the European Tour in Italy this week—event organizers reaffirmed their pledge to the 2022 event, releasing images of the renovation that is underway at Marco Simone. 

"Our commitment for the Ryder Cup 2022 is not only to host an iconic sport event, but also to leave a legacy for Italy and the Italian people," said Gian Paolo Montali, general director of the Ryder Cup project. "With the work being carried out at Marco Simone, the 2022 Ryder Cup course will become a sporting pilgrimage site that will continue to attract golfers for many years and will help develop to economic income through golf tourism." 

All 18 holes will be reconstructed as part of the endeavor, which is being headed by European Golf Design working in conjunction with Tom Fazio II.

Based on yesterday's blogging, you'll readily guess that I'm terribly excited that there's a Tom Fazio II....  God forbid that legacy die....

The back nine has been been grassed and looks reasonable based upon this video:

Maybe I'm still emotionally scarred from Le Golf National, but those fairways seem awfully narrow.  It's never too early to find players that can actually hit them.  Or, you know, we could just send the sixty-year old Phil out in foursomes again...

Item Of The Day - Compare this to the japan Skins Game... Which would you rather watch?

Or how about Tiger and Phil do this for The Match II?  Nah, wouldn't want to do anything that's that much fun...

Good Luck With This - Josh Berhow pens an open letter to..... well, you'll just have to read along:

To: Google 

Attn: Maps Department 

Dear Google Maps, how are you? 

My name is Josh, a golf writer, golf fan and player of, well, golf. I’m writing today not to complain, but to suggest one dynamite idea that myself and hundreds of thousands of golf-lovers would gush over. And it’s a relatively simple one: Can you please assign the corresponding hole numbers to golf courses on Google Maps? 

That’s it! It’s not that hard, right? I mean, it’s not like I asked you to fix golf’s slow-play problem. I’m guessing it’s just some sort of code you gotta enter, although I don’t really know how code works, but I assume you guys or gals could take care of this after a lunch break. (Lunches are free there, right? That’s awesome.) 

Here’s the deal, Google. You seem to know where I am at all times and your Google Home assistant thingy can order me a pizza, so why can’t we see 18 tiny numerals overlaid on your maps of our favorite courses? You know that old fort I made in my parents’ backyard 25 years ago? That’s still clear as day when I zoom in close. Remarkable! If you can do that, surely you can do this.

Yanno, Josh, it's really not a good time.  They're a bit preoccupied by bending the knee to their Chinese masters.... 

Super-Size Me - Admittedly this is just sponsored content, but it's interesting sponsored content:

TaylorMade went big this year. Its new, double-decker Tour truck cuts quite a figure.

Previously, the PGA Tour limited gear trucks to 32 feet in length. About a decade ago, TaylorMade was the first to receive permission to wheel out a 42-footer, and soon the other major OEMS followed. Then TaylorMade plotted its next move. 

“This time I wanted to make a statement,” says Keith Sbarbaro, TaylorMade’s VP of Tour Operations. “We were still stuck at 42 feet, so the only thing we could do was go higher. We actually first saw this kind of thing in Will Smith’s movie-set trailer—that one even had a recording studio. It inspired us.” 

Smith won’t be able to lay down tracks in TaylorMade’s rig, but he could score just about anything he needed for his golf game. The main floor holds the workshop, where pros like DJ and J-Day pop in to get their clubs sanded and regripped, and the top floor is a swank meeting space. The truck weighs 22 tons and features 12 lockers for player use, four flatscreen TVs and one seriously thumping sound system.

Yowser!  Don't want to share a highway with that beast.

Memories -  I've had this tab open for a while, and this is the perfect day for a walk down memory lane.  Specifically, some epic equipment fails.  And equipment fails don't get much failier than this one:

Square drivers 

In theory, a solid play. But Callaway and Nike were in such a rush to beat each other to market in 2007 that they brought out an inferior product that killed the appetite for the non-traditional look. Both the Callaway FTi and Nike Sumo2 (pronounced Sumo Squared) looked like a mailbox on a stick and, in the case of the Nike driver, sounded like a car crash.

Let's see if I have this correct.  Golf is about generating speed, and square is about as aerodynamically poor as you could design, so what could go wrong?

I had forgotten this one:

Callaway ERC II 

When Callaway introduced its nonconforming ERC II drivers at a media event at California's La Costa Resort in 2000, none other than Edwin Watts, owner of Edwin Watts Golf Shops franchise, got up and proclaimed to company CEO Ely Callaway: “I think we’re going to sell a lot of drivers, Ely.” In truth, nonconforming drivers proved to be a tough sell, and even using Arnold Palmer as a pitch man couldn’t make enough golfers think otherwise. Ely Callaway was absolutely correct that every golfer wanted to hit the tee ball farther. What he forgot was that no one likes a cheater.

Endorsing non-conforming equipment was a regrettable choice by the King. How about we all just agree to memory hole this one?

Have a great weekend.