Thursday, January 9, 2020

Thursday Threads

Not only is the coffee slow to take effect, but there isn't much to gnaw on this morning.  Not the worst thing in the world, given that we're in the early stages of a storm cycle.

Want an example of the paucity of content?  This is one of the lead stories at Golf.com:
Wow, I didn't see that one coming...  Of course, it does trigger the existential question of whether it's Mr. Tway or Wilson Golf that's the less relevant.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Consumer Reports For Golf - I've not previously heard of the man, but ESPN's Tom VanHaaren files an interesting and well-deserved paean to MyGolfSpy.com, the little website that could:
While that isn't to say any company has intentionally deceived its consumers, the uniqueness of the industry has allowed for claims that can't be refuted, products that may
be of dubious quality, and skyrocketing prices with profit margins going through the roof. 
Adam Beach, the founder of MyGolfSpy.com, recognized these faults within the industry and its products and knew consumers were unaware of what they were buying compared to what they thought they were buying. 
That inspired Beach to launch MyGolfSpy, an independent and unbiased website that has become like a Consumer Reports for golf equipment. Beach started the site to put the golfer first, refusing ad dollars from large retailers and unapologetically publishing test results rewarding good performance and uncovering poor quality.
And here you thought I wa sjust having fun with that Kevin Tway story above.  But I was playing a long con on you, because the allocation of a major golf publication's real estate to a story infomercial such as that vividly demonstrates the need Adam Beach saw.

To his credit, he attacked it in an entirely serious manner:
Beach and his 12-employee staff have a dedicated test facility in Virginia, where they conduct thousands of hours of tests on balls, clubs, shoes and even golf bags.

The testing is vastly different from what has been done in the past, where a blogger or reviewer testing a new club set to hit the market typically would hit a few shots and review the results for an audience. Beach and his staff, whether they're testing a ball or club, run through 10,000 shots with humans and a robot, a process that can take up to three months.
The other guys?  Not so much, as they're pretty much on the take from the major equipment manufacturers.  Gold medals in Golf Digest's hot list are the new participation ribbons.

There are two big stories demonstrating their reach that we've covered extensively here, Callaway and Costco.  The former is far and away the more substantive of these:
Callaway happened to be three-and-a-half years into a $50 million golf ball plant
renovation that the company believes will ultimately end up with Callaway making the best-performing golf ball in the world. But Toulon admits that because of MyGolfSpy's tests and reviews, Callaway has altered certain aspects of the renovation and even pushed the update along. 
Ensuring core concentricity -- that the cores are in the center of the ball -- is one focus. Another is improving the testing and quality-control process. 
"We had initially planned on one or two extra X-ray machines, not testing every single golf ball but testing definitely enough that you could come up with a metric that you could look at and judge quality against that," Toulon said. "Now, every single golf ball, I think we'll be at at least five X-ray machines, which will allow us in the United States, coming out of our Chicopee, Oklahoma, plants, which is all of our Chrome Soft business, we will now X-ray every single golf ball. That definitely has, we've been impacted by MyGolfSpy in a really good way and we're thankful for that."
Callaway took quite the hit to their reputation, and their initial reaction was unbecoming as well.  But all credit to them, they got past their hissy fit and took the findings to heart.  More importantly, given the cost of golf equipment and balls, how is it that no one else could be bothered to do such extensive testing?  That question was for you Golf Magazine and Golf Digest?

As for the Kirkland Signature, I loved that story both at the time and in hindsight, as all parties acted so strangely, not least Costco which actually initiated an intellectual property lawsuit against Acushnet.  You don't need to be Clarence Darrow to understand how crazy that was....  But ultimately it was a one-off, in that the original worked because they got a stash of unused cores cheap when Nike exited the business.  But MGS made that story, as well as the sequel when the later K-Sig's weren't as good.

This recognition is well deserved, as per this:
The genesis of the site was a desire to give power back to the consumer, to give an unbiased review of golf equipment and help educate golfers to where they can make smarter decisions for their game. Beach believes he and his staff have met their standards and upheld that original vision by disrupting a billion-dollar business and pulling back the curtain to level the playing field.
 You had me at hello....  Alas, VanHaaren should have turned off the mic right there:
"I can offer you multiple examples of companies that have offered lots of money to us and we've turned it down, because once you sell your soul, it's only for sale once," Beach said. "If you buy a product tomorrow and you find out the same thing to be true of what we told you, you're going to trust me more tomorrow than you did yesterday. We are trying to make the cream of the crop rise to the top and all the s--- go away."
Some folks just don't know when to shut up...  They've created a great organization and do good work, but perhaps they shouldn't be reading their own press clippings?

What Would We Do Without Experts? -  See if you think this sounds promising?
Is that something for which you craved an explanation?  I would have gone with blindingly obvious but, hey, I'm not an expert (though I do play one on a certain blog).
“In a sport like golf where the rules are sacrosanct, that’s a tough label to shake,” says Dr. Sam Sommers, author of This is Your Brain on Sports and a professor of psychology at Tufts University. 
The “label” Sommers is referring to is the yell directed at Reed in sudden death at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, a label that threatens to menacingly hover over the 29-year-old this season, if not longer. 
In a game comfortable with the status quo, Reed has long been a disruptor. But that was a station built on behavior that was coarse and brash yet not necessarily malicious, and while his past is cloaked in smoke, a smoking gun has been absent. 
Then came the Hero World Challenge, where Reed very visibly broke a rule. He said a bad camera angle was to blame, but that answer was not satisfying to some who watched the replay, as well as other videos surfacing on social media suggesting similar movements from past tournaments. In the face of mounting criticism, Reed remained unrepentant, doubling-down on his defense by pantomiming the use of a shovel at the Presidents Cup. It was behavior that to many confirmed their thinking on Reed. His reputation had a new, permanent mark. 
“We operate in the context of our previous actions and the narrative created regarding our tendencies,” Dr. Sommers says. “Once that reputation is in place, it colors everything that comes after.”
Amusingly, Dr. Sam is from your humble correspondent's alma mater, though I do think he misdiagnoses the malady.  Reed is perceived mostly as an a*******e, not as a cheater, though we can all agree the two are not mutually exclusive.

Shall we let the good doctor continue to... well, I'm not actually sure what he's doing:
That’s because, according to Dr. Sommers, Reed has tapped into a societal outrage that, for better or worse, has captured the zeitgeist. Some of it is extremely serious, such as the Me Too Movement or the impeachment hearings. But others—think of the college admissions scandal—can get a disproportionate amount of attention. 
“They [Reed, the Houston Astros stealing signs, parents of the admissions scandal] all are fraught with morally problematic actions, but we can agree they are not the biggest crimes in our society today,” Dr. Sommers says. But the outrage, however misguided, is still there.
Is there anything he didn't throw at the wall?  But as a Yankee fan, I completely disagree about the relative importance of the Houston Astros cheating....

Reed's mistake was obviously in his reaction to the penalty at The Hero World.  All he really had to say was, "I wasn't aware that I caught sand with those practice swings, but I understand the importance of avoiding any appearance of improving my lie, and will take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again".  End of discussion, right?

But, it's Patrick, so he has to blame others, such as the infamous camera angle....  And remember, this is a man who, when he wasn't given a drop, responded "I guess your name needs to be Jordan Spieth?".  By the way, I'd like to get Slugger White's reaction to that incident?  Does he think Patrick was being a gentleman there, accusing a rules official of favoritism?  And by the way, why would Jordan want to play with the dick after that? 

No, it's not the C-word that will follow Patrick, it's more the A-word.

But It's Don Cheadle... - Really, who doesn't like Don Cheadle?  This broke a day or so ago, but it didn't strike me as anything that demanded the attention of my rapier-like wit:
Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle is taking on a new role on behalf of golf.
Cheadle, of Iron Man, Avengers and the Ocean’s Trilogy fame, is the USGA’s newest spokesman. 
As part of the collaboration between golf’s governing body and Cheadle, he will serve as lead spokesman for the USGA’s movement toward environmentally sustainable public golf and as brand ambassador for the U.S. Open. 
You might’ve seen Cheadle in his new role already, as the face and voice behind FOX’s U.S. Open preview advertisement that ran during Sunday’s NFL playoffs.
This is obviously a nothing burger of a story, that is until Geoff goes on an epic rant:
In a dated and dreadfully timed rollout, the USGA announced the hiring of actor Don Cheadle to serve as U.S. Open “brand ambassador” and as its spokesman on environmentally sustainable public golf.

Golf.com’s James Colgan reports the big news here. 
A few readers wondered why I had not acknowledged this circa 2005 news of an ambassador signing on to front PSA’s. Wonder no more. 
—$trategic alliances would be the only reason some golf news organizations reported Cheadle’s hiring. Even clickbait-desperados would have no other reason to report his hiring as news, just as they would not post a Q&A with the new USGA President unless someone ordered them to do so while holding a pen and checkbook in hand.

—The USGA took voluntary staff buyouts last fall laced with an incentive that would make anyone over 50 a fool to stick around. What better way to show new fiscal responsibility—brought on by the apparent need to trim costs—than to hire an actor to front PSA’s whose greatest purpose is to let FOX announcers can have a bathroom break. 
—The ball still goes too far. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that. 
—Legions of great old muni’s needing restoration could use some of the USGA’s money or remaining non-buyout expertise. Don Cheadle PSA’s won’t help those courses.

—The announcement came after the new World Handicap system debuted to five days of non-function and online griping. Here’s guessing not too many golfers feel the handicap system will improve with Cheadle’s hiring. 
—Don Cheadle is a smart, accomplished actor and activist. He will soon learn he’s wasting his time. One Annual Meeting should do the trick. 
—Golf rounds take too long. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that.
Ummm...Geoff, feel better now?  You do have little spittle running down your chin....

That's twenty years or more of Geoff's frustrations with the USGA, helpfully collected in one spot, but otherwise might be a slight over-reaction to a non-story.  Not that he's wrong about most of it...

Outlandish, You Say? - Shane Ryan promises outlandish predictions for 2020, and damned if he doesn't deliver.  But his lede is pretty good as well:
It actually happened (well, except the Apocalypse part), and that man became an Internet legend for all the right reasons. At the same time, it wouldn’t have mattered at all if he was wrong, since it was so specific and no reasonable person would expect it to be right. He created the perfect system of no accountability for himself—it was all upside. Still, you can’t just blindly throw darts, or you have no chance of being right. Every wild prediction has to be grounded in some truth.
Don't think I ever saw that tweet, but awfully good.  As an aside, I'm getting better at embedding tweets, though I've yet to figure out how to center them.  Anyone got a teenager to lend me?

Anyway, let's see what Shane has:
1. Justin Thomas will take all four majors. 
In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway writes an exchange in which one character asks another how he went bankrupt. “Gradually,” he said, “then suddenly.” That’s also how Justin Thomas is becoming the best player in the world. We always knew he was great: He got the major monkey off his back early, and he was even No. 1 for a couple weeks back in 2018. But he’s also been second fiddle to Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy for most of that time. Now, things are changing. At the Presidents Cup, he became the fastest American to 10 points in Cup competitions (tied with Snead and Wadkins), and with his win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, he now has more victories than anyone younger than 30 on the PGA Tour, and became just the fourth player (after Tiger, Snead and Nicklaus) to have 12 wins before 30. Things have been gradual until now, but they’re starting to accelerate, and we’re entering the “suddenly” phase of his ascent. Thomas will take home all four majors this year.
I just love that Hemingway quote and I use it often.  JT's a stud, but one sniffs a little recency bias popping up....
2. The year’s most unforeseeable comeback will belong to Victor Dubuisson. 
It seems like golf gets crazier and crazier with every passing day, with no end to the unpredictable drama, which means that we’re due for a stunning comeback. Who is the likeliest candidate, considering the chaotic state of things? That’s right, it’s Victor Dubuisson—desert match-play magician, undefeated European Ryder Cup hero and current No. 468 in the world. He’s doing no more than treading water on the European Tour at the moment, but I’ve got a feeling about this guy … we’ll be seeing him at Whistling Straits.
That would be fun, and is more of what I expected from Shane.

But this is more mortal lock than outlandish projection:
3. Sergio Garcia will do or say something controversial. 
Another hot prediction tip: Say something vague enough that it almost has to come true, and refuse to elaborate. (Long pause) I refuse to elaborate.

The bigger question will be whether he can control himself in Saudi Arabia, where he'll be under great scrutiny.
6. Golf media will grow by billions of dollars because of Patrick Reed. 
I don’t know about you, but in the past month I have clicked with an eagerness that borders on pathetic anytime I see a new link to a Patrick Reed story or video or Twitter thread or whatever. I have, in fact, produced plenty of my own content. There’s not enough time in the day to consume it all. A big question looming over golf media has been how we’ll all react when the Tiger bubble bursts, and his comeback granted us a temporary reprieve. But now I think we have an answer: Reed is our Donald Trump. He’s the content gift that keeps on giving. Golf Channel 2 is coming, and we have Reed to thank.
And how is that Trump thing working out for the media?  It should actually be an object lesson, but will of course be ignored.  Fatigue will set in, just not with me.
7. There will be a fistfight, between golfers, at the WGC-Dell Match Play. 
We’re in the age of the golf feud, and tensions between players have only escalated with the cauldron of social media. It’s only a matter of time before things boil over, and I’ve got Austin marked in my calendar as the place where it all goes down.
Perhaps, but it's not likely to top the Keegan Bradley- Miguel Angel Jimenez cage match back at Dove Mountain.  Come to think of it, that was probably my favorite moment from all the years in Tucson.
8. The Ryder Cup will be canceled due to “fan behavior.” 
Speaking of violence … you’re holding a major sporting event with nationalistic undertones a month before the most tense election of our lifetimes in one of the closest swing states? With alcohol? With history of boorish fandom? That, my friends, is a powder keg. This Ryder Cup ain’t happening … or at least it ain’t finishing.
Shane, this is a good one but I'd save it for Bethpage.
10. Brooks Koepka was secretly rattled by his PGA Championship win and will never be the same. 
Brooks Koepka is a known killer and has the best mentality of any pro golfer at the majors. His “half the people aren’t good enough, half of the rest will have an off week, and half of the rest will choke, so it’s basically me against 10 guys” schtick is brilliant. OR IS IT? At the end of the PGA Championship, Koepka faltered mightily, nearly giving it away to DJ, and my contention is that he’s secretly been rattled and will never be the same. Am I saying this mostly because I know he loves bulletin-board material and I have a hidden agenda to motivate him? Yes. Does this prediction go against my own rules, in the sense that it could blow up on me? Also yes. Is the entire thing undermined by the fact that he finished top five in his two majors after the PGA, and played fine on Sunday? Yup. But what would a list of outlandish predictions be if it didn’t violate its own rules? I’m sticking to it.
A couple of reactions here.  First, I caught some of that rebroadcast on Golf Channel over the holidays, and that was one of the stranger rounds of golf I've seen.   He really did lose it for a while there, and it was a bizarre vibe in the crowd.  That said, Shane himself makes the case against.

But Francisco Molinari has pretty much admitted that he was rattled by Sunday at Augusta, so this is a real thing.  

I'll see you tomorrow, unless we get a dumping.... 
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