So, they awoke yesterday to 12" of fresh powder in Park City...Am I bitter? Hell, yeah!
R.I.P., Mickey Wright - Sad news of the loss of a legend. From the AP obituary, a brief precis of the lady's career:
• 82 LPGA titles, second only to Kathy Whitworth (88).• 13 major championship titles, second only to Patty Berg (15). Four of those were U.S. Women’s Open titles, equaling Betsy Rawls for most ever.• 13 victories in a single LPGA season (1963). It remains the tour record. She won 11 times in 1964, which equals Annika Sorenstam for second most LPGA victories in a season.• Four consecutive major championship victories, a mark no other woman has ever achieved. She won the last two majors in 1961 and the first two in ’62.• Five consecutive Vare Trophy titles for low scoring average (1960-64), the most won in a row in tour history.• Four consecutive LPGA money titles (1961-64).• 14 consecutive years with an LPGA victory (1956-69).
And from Beth Ann Nichols:
Kathy Whitworth, the winningest player in LPGA history, said she was always sorry thatWright quit the tour as early as she did. But she understood if Wright felt worn down by her responsibilities.
“She was our Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Nancy Lopez all rolled into one,” said Whitworth. “She was it.”
Born on Valentine’s Day in San Diego in 1935, Wright won the 1952 U.S. Girls’ Junior. She went to Stanford briefly before turning professional in 1954. By the age of 27, she had won all four majors. By age 28 she had won all four majors twice. She became the only player to hold all four majors at the same time, winning the last two in 1961 and the first two in 1962.
Snark seems inappropriate at such a time, but the concept of Mickey as the LPGA's Nancy Lopez has me awfully confused... She was big,
But it was much about the swing... Excuse me,. THE SWING. Take a look (h/t Shack):
And when it wasn't about THE SWING, it was about what others thought of THE SWING:
The story of Mickey Wright’s life begins with her golf swing.
Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson called Wright’s swing the greatest they’d ever seen – man or woman. Wright won 82 tournaments on the LPGA, including 13 majors, and rare footage of her swing serves as the epicenter of the USGA Museum’s Mickey Wright Room, home to more than 200 artifacts that Wright helped to box up from her Florida villa and ship to Far Hills, New Jersey.
Very specific others... When the LPGA did their "Swing Like a Girl" commercial a few years back, I thought they could have worked in video of The Mick. Of course, none of the kids would have a clue who she was, but that's half the fun...
I recommend this Guy Yocum My Shot feature with Mickey, thoughtfully reposted by Golf Digest. I'll just grab a couple of excerpts in the "My, How Things Have Changed" category:
YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF LUCY LI, the girl who at age 11 played so well at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open. We struck up a friendship via email, which is pretty neat considering I could be her great-great-grandmother.
It goes to show, the language of golf never changes. Lucy is 14 now and still a tiny thing, not much over 100 pounds. Obviously she wants to hit the ball farther. I've told Lucy to hang in there, that she hasn't stopped growing and that more distance will come with time. I've suggested she turn her shoulders as far as they'll go and to turn her hips, too, and for heaven's sake, let that left heel come off the ground. But the main thing I've told her is to avoid lifting weights and to simply hit a lot of balls. There is no substitute for being "golf strong," developing the muscles you actually use in the swing. And she'll develop muscle memory, which is vital to a young player.
I guess we better keep Lucy away from Bryson....
I'VE BEEN TRYING the new swing ideas I keep hearing about, things I see players doing on TV. They leave me cold, to be honest. I watch the way players keep their feet planted, their backs perfectly straight and rigid with their lower bodies hardly moving at all, and just know they're going to get hurt. They look overly "leveraged," not the perfect word perhaps, but one all those angles bring to mind. It's just the opposite of how I learned, which is the swing happening from the ground up. I guess I just don't understand the modern way. One thing's for sure, I see an awful lot of players wearing medical tape. Hands, arms, legs, back, everywhere. That can't be a good sign.
And they certainly seem to be hurt more than the old guys were.
R.I.P.
Eye on CBS - This story has some legs, so buckle in. Many points of entry, but let's start with Ryan Balangee's attempt to detail the train wreck that is CBS:
The final round of The Genesis Invitational was borderline unwatchable on Sunday.
CBS put together a disjointed broadcast that struggled in telling the story of Adam Scott's path to victory at Riviera. They didn't show a guy who was tied for second place for much of the late afternoon until his 13th hole of the day. They outright failed to air some shots -- or when they did, it was far too late. They showed far too many shots from golfers who didn't have a chance to win. They didn't explain whatsoever what it takes to win at Riviera.
It was a signal that, for all the new and interesting voices on CBS, the production doesn't seem to have improved.
Too many shots from golfers without a chance to win? Hmmm...there was that guy in a red shirt on the wrong nine....
But, of greater importance, what are these "new and interesting voices" of which he speaks? Certainly not that guy with the three sticks in his name.
Ryan mentions the dreaded CEO interview, and I really wish he hadn't. Sunday's was unintentionally hilarious, which we'll get to in a sec, but this part of the package and a requirement of the Tour/Sponsors. It sucks, and it would be nice if the assorted parties could understand how painful it is, but I'd prefer a laser-like focus on CBS' failures.
Then there's Varnergate:
Credit to Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobilo for explaining the situation to the viewer, but it's not like CBS didn't have a camera on the 10th tee. I can understand the desire to not show an embarrassing shot, particularly during an early-round telecast. The Tour has sometimes pulled down digital highlights of players hitting poor shots, and they've been summarily roasted for it. However, this was the leader of the tournament in the final round, as he was looking for his first win. There's every expectation that shot makes air immediately.
Ya think? But the reason that Trevor and Frank had to explain, is because CBS picked up Varner in a spot not previously inhabited by a PGA Tour player.
But I want to revisit this sentence from the excerpt above:
CBS put together a disjointed broadcast that struggled in telling the story of Adam Scott's path to victory at Riviera.
That, to me, is the crux of the problem. It's a problem shared by NBC and Fox, but CBS is far and away the worst of the bunch... I want them to show me the golf tournament, but they want to tell me a story. Jim Nancy-Boy wants to be my friend, and I just want to see golf... Pretty simple, no?
Ryan has other thoughts, of varying interest, such as this:
Meanwhile, Max Homa had played his way into contention. He was T-2 for several holes before CBS finally decided to show a shot of his: from the woods on No. 13. CBS has a penchant for avoiding players they don't think are going to win for extended periods of time. It often feels like they finally check in with the nail-in-the-coffin shot that derails their chances. Homa didn't win, yes, but that doesn't justify cherry-picking when he should make air. If a player is in the top two with nine to play, they should be showed extensively.
Instead, Tiger Woods, who was 11 over this weekend, and Brooks Koepka, who was never a factor this week, got some extra air time for meaningless shots.
This is both true and a logic box canyon. It's a live golf tournament and they're making snap decisions of where to cut, so they'll never make us all happy and there's no real way to hold them accountable. But again, if you're in the business of showing the tourney, you really can't avoid the guy in second place. If you're telling stories and sculpting narratives, the facts on the ground will make you look silly.
And then you find out that these people aren't very good at the basics of their job:
During a break to go through the action on the other tours playing this week, CBS showed a patently wrong leaderboard for the final results of the LPGA's ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open. The tournament had been done for some 10-12 hours at that point, and CBS showed a graphic with the leaderboard through three rounds.
So Mr. Nobilo, that's one where you had the luxury of a print-type deadline....
I have a bad feeling about this category:
What went right
Deep breath:
CBS occasionally uses the blimp to great effect, like when they aired Adam Scott's tee shot on No. 15 as it rolled into the group in front of him. That kind of thing is unpredictable, particularly on the PGA Tour, and CBS fortunately had an angle that could put the shot and the intruded group's reaction in context.
That's your lead in this category? Yeah, I liked it a lot as well, it's just not at all meaningful. It's the 21st century, so we expect that they can grab some interesting video out in nature. What else you got?
Dottie Pepper and Trevor Immelman are solid inside the ropes. They call it for what it is, and they don't sugar coat it.
They're both fine at their jobs, though I'm having trouble understanding which Immelman to expect.
Frank Nobilo is one of my favorite voices in golf. His addition makes CBS a better team.
One of your favorite voices or accents? Frank has always been an inoffensive voice in the game, though calling the live action is a new gig. I'd like to shove Sunday's tweet back down his throat, because he doesn't have to sit through their dreadful product. The commentators had CBS dead to rights on the Varner shot, to the extent that CBS capitulated. You can engage the criticism directly, you can keep your pie hole shut and take it like a big boy, but you don't get to hide behind the skirt of print deadlines...
Amanda Balionis does a really good job when she's actually allocated more than a minute to do anything, whether that's looking at stats or interviewing players. If you're going to have someone like Balionis in the role she has, embrace it.
Here's where we're forced to part ways, Ryan. I think she's really quite dreadful, and the next thing she tells me that I didn't already know will be the first. I totally get that she's a good dancer and makes all her own clothes, though most of us can guess how she got the gig. That's why I prefer to note that every second she's on camera is another in which CBS is not showing actual golf.
Ready for the rousing coda?
What needs to happen
Aside from the obvious -- less commercials, more cohesion, less unnecessary diversions -- there are some things CBS can do to dramatically improve the telecast and make the golf fan smarter.
OK, I'm listening:
No network really does a good job of explaining how golf is played at this level. Not just CBS. NBC and Fox struggle with it, too. But the PGA Tour has ShotLink data that can help a golfer understand strategy and compare players.
And whose job is this? That would be Sir Nick Faldo, and he's too busy mumbling about Fanny and God knows what else.
When showing a hole, showcase the five or 10 drives of the day that have gained the most strokes off-the-tee. Explain why those gained so many strokes, and put it into perspective for the particular golfer they're showing.
That's an interesting suggestion, and one's mind immediately races to that tenth hole at Riviera.... But really, this amounts to deck chairs on the Titanic....
On approach shots on the weekends, show the hole locations for the prior days and a heat map of strokes gained on the approach to each hole location. Show the strokes gained for a hole location that day and compare it to a particular player's usual SG:OTT or what they're doing this week.
That's even better, given that proximity might be the most important stat of all. Still, it's a nip-and-a-tuck when we require full-body liposuction.
Embrace data! The PGA Tour has tried to do that with PGA Tour Live, and it's helpful. There still seems a lack of context that would make fans smarter, but that kind of education can be subtle and done over time.
OK, but in limited doses... Ryan, did you consider simply suggesting that they show more actual golf shots.
But this?
Of course, the telecasts should embrace betting. While a minority of Americans can place a legal wager on golf right now, it's coming. Betting odds also help explain expected outcomes and probabilities. They show which guys are outperforming public expectations. Show how a player's odds have evolved from pre-tournament through to the current shot.
Again, with the story-telling.... Really, Ryan, you're not helping with this patient. We need these folks to show us actual golf and give us basic data like yardages and clubs.... When they can that competently, maybe then we'll be interested in that which they have to say.
Oh, and with all the focus on story-telling, nobody in control seems to care if the plot resolves itself off-air:
Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and a few others were trading punches early during the final round of the Genesis Invitational on Sunday… and then the broadcast went off air.
That’s when the leaderboard flipped.
Per usual, Golf Channel had the early afternoon broadcast rights, which ended at 2:45 p.m. ET. CBS took over at 3 p.m., although it was more like 3:05 p.m. since the college basketball game ran a couple of minutes late. And that “coverage gap,” as it’s often called, came at a crucial time of the round.
When the broadcast returned to the air, we saw co-leaders McIlroy and Scott cleaning up disastrous holes on the 5th green. McIlroy made triple bogey and Scott made a double bogey, which plummeted both down the leaderboard at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
They don't like to show us the bad shots anyway, so worked out well.
Your only job was to show us the golf tournament.... Why can't they go immediately to CBS? Something about changing graphics, which we all care so much about. Gee, Jay, might you do something about this in those new contracts? Fat chance....
And don't get me started on those NCAA games bleeding into the golf coverage. Every friggin' week!
Lastly, the bride and I were all over this... To be fair, it was easily the most compelling CEO interview evah:
You let the CEO show off his chest hair? Can't anybody here play this game?
Geoff's take is worth your time as well. He asks a very good question, though I can only assume he means it to be rhetorical:
Presumably in the coming weeks we’ll finally learn the outcome of the PGA Tour’snegotiations with CBS, NBC, Golf Channel and ESPN+.Maybe at the Players Championship we’ll learn—just throwing out a number here—that they’re going to get paid $8 billion over ten years. Players will swoon, north Florida BMW dealers will take extra special orders and second homes will be purchased by bonus-receiving executives.
But a very simple question will need to be addressed by Commissioner Jay Monahan: how will taking more money from networks make golf on television better? What guarantees will there be to improve the “product”? Or, to put it B-speak parlance, how will this deal “grow the game” with better productions?
Seriously? I don't think that's in Jay Monahan's top ten objectives.
This Golf Digest account covers mostly the same ground, though with perhaps a tease of optimism:
CBS Sports recently overhauled its golf lineup, both in front of and behind the camera. The network did not renew the contracts of Gary McCord and Peter Kostis, added Davis Love III and Trevor Immelman and elevated Dottie Pepper and Frank Nobilo to new roles. Meanwhile, longtime producer Lance Barrow will step down following the 2020 season.
At this point, one can only conclude that Barrow is part of the problem. Apparently, he can hear Mumbles Faldo and Nancy-Boy in his headset and not understand that he's driving the audience away. Also, Lance, the next interesting thing to exit the mouth of Davis Love will also be the first, but I'm not holding my breath.
Another Innocent Strawman Sacrificed - John Feinstein writes a wonderful profile of the wonderful Harold Varner, which is ruined by this off-putting header:
Despite a bad miss, Harold Varner III is still good at golf—and good for golf
Exactly who would argue that one bad swing would tell us anything about the man that made it?
But this remains a long-festering frustration, mostly with the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach. I always laid that on Nurse Ratched, who was not an actual golfer. That might not have been fair but, it's Nurse Ratched, so why start now?
I actually feel this a reasonably important point about our game, which offers a ratio of about 90% failure to 10% success (at least for us). Golfers willing subject themselves to this ritual humiliation, and we feel kinship with others that do the same. As for the elite players, I would argue strongly that their infrequent eff-ups actually make them all the more amazing to us....
Go read John's profile about Varner, I'll just give you this tease:
I first met him in Houston in April 2016, his rookie year on the tour. I wanted to write a story on him for Golf Digest, at least in part because he was, at that moment, the only African-American on the PGA Tour. Woods was out injured. I was going back and forth that week between college basketball’s Final Four and the Shell Houston Open. I’d arranged to talk to Varner on Friday after he played in the morning during the second round.
This can be risky for a reporter because if a player misses the cut early on Friday, he will be in no mood to talk and will often catch the first flight out. The tour has a travel agent in the locker room to help players in those situations. On Thursday, after a day at the basketball arena, I returned to my hotel room and checked the scores: Varner had shot a four-over 76 and was well on his way to a fourth straight missed cut.
Uh-oh.
I sent him a text, asking if he missed the cut if he would still feel up to talking to me after his round. The answer came back right away: “John,” it said. “I play golf for a living. My life is great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
That’s Varner. Two years ago, he was in the first group off the first tee at Shinnecock Hills on Day 1 of the U.S. Open. He shot a nine-over 79 and was the first player who came to meet with the media.
Someone asked him if it had been a tough day. Varner laughed. “Tough day?” he said. “I was getting paid to play golf on one of the greatest golf courses in the world. You want to talk to someone who had a tough day, go talk to the volunteers out there who had to try to find my golf balls.”
Good for golf? Duh! But also very good at life, no?
Over To You, Geoff - The man has been en fuego, and it's worth hanging with him for a bit. First up, his thoughts on Sunday night about Riviera and related subjects:
—Green reading books are less of a thing. Adam Scott said he’s trying desperately not to look at the pages of arrows, and when he does it’s to recall contours as he approaches from the fairway. Rory McIlroy still regularly consulted his and Dustin Johnson appears more devoted than ever to his. Tiger Woods did not consult his at all (then again, after finishing last, maybe he should have). Either way, compared to a few years ago, the cheat sheets appear to be on the decline. Whether that’s because of changes in the rules, or grown men realizing that a page full of minuscule arrows is no way to read a putt, I do not know.
If only.
Tiger spent the whole week showing that he didn't care, so I wouldn't draw any significant conclusions from that.
—Rough is only necessary to defend a dreary design. With only light afternoon breezes all week, sunny skies and very light rough, Riviera was able to give an incrediblefield a stern test. Maybe the final round hole locations were a tad relentless in difficulty, but green speed and firmness were more likely responsible for only one player finishing double-digits under par. Sunday’s 72.000 scoring average included 23 doubles and 9 others. Saturday’s third round yielded a 70.397 scoring average with 211 bogies and just nine doubles. All of it without the artificial intrusion of rough.
—Rough is not the answer to distance. With the recent distance study still fresh on minds, the most common golf pro answer involved advocacy for harvesting taller grass along sides of fairways. Riviera demonstrated again that architecture coupled with firmness is the answer. Of course, this was still after years of lengthening and other elements to keep the place relevant.
Errr....not so simple. I agree that firmandfast is the preference, but when was the last time we saw this venue firmandfast? I don't like long rough any more than Geoff, but we simply can't dial up such conditions routinely. Heck, to be honest, our last few trips to the UK have featured soft conditions as well.
—A wedge approach to 18 just doesn’t seem right. Watching Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott hit wedges into the iconic 18th hole Saturday and Sunday—even after the hole had been lengthened years ago to 491 yards—reminds us they are essentially superhuman talents. Particularly given the 50-foot rise over the hill. But we’d still feel that way about them hitting 7 or 8-irons as approach clubs following a long drive.
It doesn't seem right mostly because it isn't... But I've been reliably informed that chicks dig the long ball....
But finally he gets to the important conclusions:
—Never let your caddie place a Trackman on the roof of a car. Those soft cases just don’t stick like you’d hope.
Anyone know the story here?
And this:
—Tradition still matters. Even with another new name and no open status, the L.A. Open and Genesis Invitational of the present succeeded this week on the back of ideal weather, an incredible field, a beautifully prepared golf course, and a tournament exuding a sense of permanence. A whopping 94 years of history and a design players love always helps. The week showed how dependent professional golf is on venues whether to lure a top field or put on a good show. The sport at its best returns to the places that matter. And it’s a shrinking list with every jump in distance gains.
Very troubling, Geoff. The way you bitterly cling to golf courses built by dead white men....Now, can you try to save The Western Open? How about the Tom Morris Golf Shop (just to be clear, Geoff was all over that last item during the 2015 Open).
More recently, he's back with another take on the week:
How You Know The Ball Goes Too Far After Another Week At Riviera
You know how I know the ball goes too far and just makes a total mess of things?
—This driving range fence was just a normal chainlink fence in the mid-80s. Now they bring in a special extension tournament week and Bryson DeChambeau was still able to clear it last week…
So the "getting huge" thing is already paying dividends for Bryson? Good to know.
—Monday’s Celebrity Cup participants could drive the 10th green. They had to wait for the surface to clear to tee off. Oliver Hudson drove over the 10th green…
Anyone know who Oliver Hudson might be?
—They put a concession stand where players used to hit bad drives off the 434-yard third hole. Now they miss 40 yards farther down the hole. And in Phil Mickelson’s case (this is the long ball search for him), 40 yards right of the fairway edge…
And lastly:
The 10th at Riviera is not a drivable par-4, it’s a 3-woodable long par-3 where the layup is at a disadvantage based on the birdies made. The 2020 ShotLink scatter chart:
I assume that lonely black dot is Harold.... How sad.
OK, I'll see you nice folks tomorrow.
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