Weekend Wrap

The weekend featured a lot of sniffling, sneezing and that dry, hacking cough.  But on the positive side, we have discovered the best Kleenex in the world.  Amusingly, it's not even, actually, Kleenex....

Christmas In Carlsbad - By now you've seen it, no doubt.  And, no, I have no tips on how to unsee it:

Apparently this was 18-months in the making, and no CGI was involved.  You can read all about it, and may be surprised to find out that getting the guys into the onesies wasn't the hardest part.

Luckiest men on the planet?  That would be Justin Rose and Sergio....After all, sight unseen I assume the Honma and Cally X-mas cards to be the less embarrassing...

I myself am reminded of Alan Shipnuck's item Friday on the disconnect between hard-hitting journalism and fanboyism...  I'm just wondering, Alan, which is this?

Happy Trails, Tim - Golf Insider Tim Rosaforte is retiring at the end of the year, and deserves a nice send-off I think.  Here's Golfweek's traditional encomium:

“Tim Rosaforte has been a stalwart of golf journalism for more than 40 years, first as a newspaper reporter in South Florida, then as a magazine writer for Sports Illustrated,

Golf Digest and Golf World, and finally as a television insider for NBC and Golf Channel,” said Geoff Russell, executive editor of Golf Channel. “As our industry evolved, Tim evolved with it. No matter the platform, he excelled and established the standard for the rest of us to try and match. Golf Channel will miss him, and so will the entire golf community. But our loss is his family’s gain. No one I know deserves a happier retirement more than Tim Rosaforte.”

The list of Rosaforte’s accomplishments in telling the stories of golf’s biggest names and events is staggering. He reported from more than 125 majors and 17 Ryder Cups throughout his career and racked up writing awards from the Golf Writers Association of America. 

He is a recipient of both the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, as well as the Lincoln Werden Journalism Award, and is the author of three books. 

“It’s been a great run, but now it’s time to reset my focus from golf to family,” Rosaforte told the Golf Channel. “I’ll always have fond memories of Golf Channel and all the great people that work there.”

But perhaps you would prefer a more personal reflection?  It so happens that Geoff has you covered, and amusingly so in that he and Tim apparently didn't get off on the best foot:

Rosie and I didn’t get off to the best of starts. I can’t imagine what it was? Could have been the Yul Brynner blog references. Which, he mentioned a time or two. Or could have 

been when we had a minor manspat over his references to The Riv, The Foot and The Beach, for which he later signed a hat that I still keep here on the estate.

As I got to work with Tim Rosaforte at Golf World, I became a great admirer of his reporting skills. I’ll never forget sitting next to him at St. Andrews in 2010 as he worked two phones making long distance calls to South Africa. All in an effort to find out any little nugget on Louis Oosthuizen as he closed in on a surprising Open Championship win.

Those little insights would shape the impressions viewers and readers had of players. No one else in golf media was doing what Tim did by introducing us to players thrust into the limelight, or filling out the backstory of those we thought we knew. That kind of reporter is still valued in other sports but may be a dying breed in golf. Whether the world’s finest golfers genuinely appreciated how much Rosie’s reporting rounded out fan perception of them, I don’t know. I suspect most appreciated his efforts judging by how many returned his calls or texts.

I love that photo above, in which Tim appears to be invading Nurse Ratched's personal space...  And this one as well:

That is from the 2008 U.S. Open, when Geoff was seemingly approaching his teens.

My one encounter with Tim came at the Hertz counter at Manchester Airport in 2010.  I was heading home after two weeks in the Southport area and Tim was en route to Celtic Manor to cover the The Ryder Cup.  After exchanging a few cryptic comments about that event, Tim asked me that question that one golfer asks another in such circumstances:

"Whered'ja play?"

Tim himself is (or at least was) a member of Hillside, so of course I gave him grief for never having invited me....  A lovely man... So lovely, I won't even mention that Suzann Pettersen interview.

Happy Trails, Tim.

Ready For Its Close-Up - Meet Phil Friedman, an unlikely golf hero:

For that, you’ll have to turn back to 1963. Classes are in session at Amherst College, in western Massachusetts, and Friedmann, an enterprising freshman, is earning cash under the table with a hamburger stand he runs from his dorm room. One of his loyal customers is Mike Keiser, a fellow freshman from down the hall. 

“I remember that I liked him,” Friedmann says, “and that he liked the burgers.” 

The two form a friendship. Some years after college, they cofound a business. It’s based in Chicago, where they both grew up, and it specializes in recyclable greeting cards. In those early days, it’s just Friedmann and Keiser sharing an office, if not always the duties. Some afternoons, Keiser, who’d played on the Amherst golf team, signs off early and slips out with his clubs for a twilight round. 

“I’d say, ‘Wait a minute. So you want me to finish up alone here?’” Friedmann says. 

“And he’d say, ‘Yes, that would be great.'”

Friedman turned down the opportunity to co-invest in Bandon Dunes, staying on the periphery:

In the 1980s, with greeting card sales going gangbusters, Keiser starts buying land in southern Oregon, patching together the seaside parcels that will one day give rise to Bandon Dunes. Friedmann looks on with interest but remains uninvolved, other than to float his friend a loan when the cost of building Bandon stretches Keiser thin.

An exception comes with a scenic swatch of real estate just north of the resort. When it goes up for sale in the late ’90s, Friedmann and Keiser go dutch on it, splitting the purchase 50-50. They call the property the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch, a moniker inspired by Ballybunion, a storied Irish links they both admire, but also by a misunderstanding: Friedmann thinks that bally means beautiful in Gaelic. It does not. But no matter — the Sheep Ranch is beautiful.

That being the iconic Sheep Farm, which at one point actually featured sheep.  Give it a read, a it's the odds-on favorite to be the most memorable new golf course of 2020.  

I Saw It On TV -  Shockingly, the Golf.com gang took time out from shilling for TaylorMade to provide a new Tour Confidential panel, one in which they attempt to fix golf broadcasts:

According to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, CBS and NBC have agreed to “broad terms of new deals” for long-term TV rights to continue to broadcast PGA Tour events. The Tour will reportedly receive $700 million per year, up from $400 million. In assessing how the networks currently cover the Tour, where do their telecasts have the most room for improvement?

I'm gonna need a bigger blog, no?

Luke Kerr-Dineen, instruction editor: Of course I’m going to say this, but I genuinely

think there’s room for more instruction in the current broadcasts. Golf right now is being covered like so many other sports, and it’s great at it. But the industry would do well to remind itself that golf is more participatory than every other mainstream sport. The people who watch the most golf are the same ones that play it the most. Viewers aren’t rooting for a team; they’re watching because they love golf, and want to see the same game they play on the weekends being performed at the highest level. So let’s take the opportunity to educate; to break down the action in innovative and explanatory ways. Help deepen golfers’ knowledge, and explain the underlying principles for newcomers who may be tuning in, and it’s better for everyone.

I'm OK with educating, think of Peter Kostis flipping video of Jack's swing around and comparing him to Bubba....  Good stuff.  But actual instruction?  Come to think of it, the only thing that could make CBS' broadcast worse might be adding Martin Hall's grating voice to the 18th hole tower.

Michael Bamberger: The tournament coverage does not do nearly enough to get the viewer interested in the lives of the players. We know their swings and where they stand in the FedEx rankings but we know very little about their lives. If we did, we’d be more connected to the tournaments in which they play.

The old ABC Up-Close-and-Personal playbook....  It seems to me this is all CBS does these days, to the exclusion of live action.

Sean Zak: The best content is ALWAYS player-caddie conversations. Each Saturday and Sunday round should have two players and their caddies mic’d up. Make it a Tour rule. We might learn a lot about Dustin and AJ Johnson. Or Harry Diamond, who says so little. That is a gigantic missed opportunity for context just staring us in the face.

Hysterical!  Oh, for sure, these conversations are great and improvements in audio capture are at the top of the list of areas in which the broadcasts have improved.  It's just that with all of the interesting and competent caddies out there, these are your two examples?  Two guys most in need of a strong hand on the rudder, and they both hire Harpo Marx.

And this follow up:

Are you surprised the Tour didn’t formulate a more radical plan, like start its own network? 

LKD: No. The PGA Tour is making a smarter, savvier choice. Rather than assuming all the overhead of spinning up a new network in an increasingly saturated market, they’re outsourcing their operation for a king’s ransom. After all, why leave all that money on

the table in pursuit of a high-stakes that might not work? Instead, between NBC, CBS, and whoever wins their streaming rights (either GOLFTV or ESPN, by all accounts), the tour can shape the perception of the product across three different platforms with minimal risk. 

Bamberger: Two words you seldom see in the same sentence are golf and radical. No, not surprised at all. The golf method is to tweak what is working.

Zak: Not very surprised, though PGA Tour Live is sort of always in place, and I see it taking up the same role as NBATV: occasionally great matchups take place there, but largely it’s for the diehards. Leave the remaining rounds for the common, visiting fan. 

Wall: Not really. It’s a massive undertaking and I’m not sure the Tour wants to dedicate the financial resources — yet. With a new Tour headquarters in the works, there had to be talks about having the space to expand if things were ever brought in house. I wouldn’t be if Monahan and crew go for it after the next television contract expires.

You know what the downside of cashing big checks is?  Yup, there isn't one...

 Wither Tiger - For those that can't get their fill, Alex Myers compiles 101 things that happened to Tiger in 2019.  There are some nuggets there, I for one enjoyed the 20-year celebration with Paul Tesori.  But, of course, this is really the only one that mattered:

101. Won the Masters.

That little thing?

A couple on the man from the TC gang:

Fred Couples, who was an assistant captain at the President Cup, said Tiger Woods benched himself on the third day of the matches because his body was spent. Tiger, who turns 44 next week, had nothing short of a remarkable 2019, but what’s your read on his physical state as we enter a new calendar year? 

LKD: I have no real read on his physical state, apart from being perpetually skeptical, which I think is pretty normal at this point. Tiger seems to wear down remarkably quickly. He was exhausted towards the latter-part of 2018, which his Tour Championship win masked-over somewhat (remember all those stories of his swing speed slowing down?). This year there were constant stories of him feeling exhausted following his Masters win that persisted throughout the final three majors of the year. This doesn’t mean he’s going to get injured again soon — nothing of the sort — but it’s a constant reminder of Tiger’s new reality. 

Bamberger: I’m sure what Fred said was accurate, but it likely goes deeper than that: it takes Tiger at least three hours to get ready for a round of golf, and a week to recover from a tournament. How often do you want to do that? I think Tiger’s fine in 2020–for about eight events, tops. He’ll be at eight others in body but not in spirit. 

Zak: At this point, I don’t expect Tiger to play a lot of high intensity golf three straight weeks. Considering all his duties in Australia, it’s not shocking he didn’t feel up to it. He’ll pace out his schedule per usual this year, which really just means my answer for his physcial state is “check-check-check.” All seems normal. 

Wall: I don’t think he’ll play just the majors, but my expectation is to see Tiger at fewer events in 2020. I figure he’ll play at least one event in the weeks leading up to each major, and then add a few WGC’s and some of his usual stops to keep it under 15 starts. Given his injury history and the time it takes to get his body ready before each round, playing 15 is a full load.

He's bad at this sharing thing, so how would any of us know?  

Since we’re on the topic, will Tiger win a major next year? 

LKD: I don’t think so, but I hope I’m wrong. I mean, would it really surprise you if he picked up another Masters win? 

Bamberger: No. Which means he will. I suppose the Open. You know which one. 

Zak: The odds are he will not, and I’ll take those odds. Augusta, he’ll have a solid shot, sure. Harding Park should be chilly and tight, so no. Winged Foot is intriguing, but a toss-up for the entire field. Like Bamberger, I like his chances best at Royal St. George’s, where he’ll be one of the smartest players in the field. There’s four degrees of latitude difference between Kent and Portrush, and about 8-10 degrees temperature difference in July. It could be as tame as Carnoustie was in 2018.

Wall: Yep, he’ll pick up No. 16 at the Open Championship. Still believe he has two majors left in the tank.

Except for Augusta, he'd have to get very lucky as to the weather.  Amusing that guys are all in on The Open Championship, because it would be hard to pick a venue for which Tiger would be less excited.  From losing his opening tee shot in 2004 to missing the event due to injury in 2011, perhaps Goldfinger is the only player less excited about the return to Sandwich.

 One last Tiger item:

Pebble Beach's nine-hole par-3 course, Peter Hay, has always been a bit pedestrian in

nature. But that's about to change. 

The resort announced on Tuesday that Tiger Woods' design firm, TGR Design, will start reconstruction of the rather mundane layout in 2020, rethinking the previous routing to include a second hole that will replicate Pebble Beach's famous seventh hole—by the exact elevation change, exact dimension of the green and even wind direction, as the proposed second hole at Peter Hay will play due south just like the famous par-3 seventh. 

Conversations about the vision of Peter Hay were actually sparked by Tiger Woods during his preparations for the U.S. Open this year, Pebble Beach vice president and Director of Golf John Sawin told Golf Digest on Tuesday. Tiger noticed that some construction was ongoing at Peter Hay, which served as the grand entrance to the U.S. Open last year, and he expressed an interest in being involved in the future of a reimagined short course at Pebble Beach.

I didn't even know they had a Par-3...  Tiger has actually proven to be more of a student of architecture than I'd have expected, so this is a good fit.  Now, about that South Side Chicago nonsense.....

Cheap Shots - Some potential clicks if you've time to kill:

This one might be every bit as funny as Two-Gloves' prostitution arrest:  Gio Valiante, sports psychologist who has appeared on Golf Channel, arrested on battery charge

Having ruined everything else... - Transgender golfer shares her dream of competing in World Long Drive events

I'll even give you an excerpt of this one:

O’Neill, who is a 43-year-old transgender woman, shared her story of chasing her dream to compete in World Long Drive Association events.

I'll stipulate to the fact that she's 43 and transgender...  As for the rest...  Amusingly, they just can't help providing too much information, can they?

The World Long Drive Association and Golf Channel have a policy in place for transgender athletes and O’Neill has met the conditions of the rules. “A competitor who has had gender reassignment must have had a gonadectomy no less than two years prior to the registration deadline for the specific WLDA event.”

Stick a fork in it, women's sports has just died.  Think they'll ever convict the murderer?

I don't think you're using the word "interesting" correctly - The 9 most interesting golf equipment stories of 2019

Quite a few of these, such as Eddie Pepperell's Tin Cup moment and Russell Henley's penalty, aren't even really equipment stories.

Kids, I can't imagine when next the need to blog will present.  But, who knows, there are lots of hours to fill in the next ten days, so check back early and often.