Golf In The Time of Corona

I started this post late yesterday, so there's a chance of continuity errors that I'll ask you to understand.  

By the way, I'm assuming everyone gets the Gabriel García Márquez reference in the recurring header....Does my repeated use of that bit require me to actually read the book... Nah, seems more a time for mysteries and thrillers.

So, the hits keep on coming:

PGA Championship postponed due to coronavirus outbreak

What, suddenly August sounds great?  Tough break, kid, we're required by law to pretend that the FedEx Cup is important that month.  No doubt they covert September in their heart of hearts but, you know, that's the Safeway....

The PGA Championship has come off the clock. With all eyes on golf’s second major in an uncertain climate created by a coronavirus outbreak, the PGA of America announced

on Tuesday that it would postpone the event originally scheduled for May 14-17 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. 

The organization said it hoped to reschedule the event at TPC Harding Park later in the summer, and that it would remain in contact with the PGA Tour and the City of San Francisco to find the right date. 

“Throughout our evaluation process, we have been committed to following the guidance of public health authorities and given the coronavirus shelter-in-place order in effect in San Francisco, postponement is the best decision for all involved,” said PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh.

Don't want to rain on Seth's parade, but San Francisco doesn't seem likely to be habitable until...well, why start now?

Perhaps as a result of arriving home, my thoughts turned to the U.S. Open in my back yard.  Hard to imagine, right, but maybe without spectators?  But then the long qualifying process seemed an impediment:

Local qualifying for the U.S. Open was set to begin on April 27 but the USGA announced Tuesday that it would cancel that stage of qualifying and look to redesign the qualifying process going forward as events unfold. 

The USGA will continue to hold open the U.S. Open competition dates, however.

I think the qualification process is just great, but of course that's unnecessarily putting folks at risk with little chance in the big event.  An easy sacrifice to make, at least from where I sit.

But would you try to hold a U.S. Open if no golf has been played since that Magical Thursday at Sawgrass (is Hideki still the leader in the clubhouse?)?

The PGA Tour announced that it is canceling all tournaments through the PGA Championship, which was expected to be played May 14-17, due to concerns with the coronavirus. 

The decision means that the following tournaments now have been called off: the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina; Zurich Classic of New Orleans; Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte; and AT&T Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas.

On an amusing note, so much for a last awkward week at Trinity Forest.  Thank God all will be back to normal for the triumphant return to Las Colinas....Egads, haven't we suffered enough?

Things are coming together nicely for the folks at Golf Magazine....  The world is just realizing the value of telecommuting, and it just so happens they've been doing that for years in their Sunday night Tour Confidential roundtable:

1. The PGA Tour and Augusta National Golf Club joined a host of other sports organizations last week in either canceling or postponing events due to the coronavirus. The Tour announced Thursday that it was canceling the remainder of the Players Championship and the next three tournaments, and on Friday, the Augusta National Golf Club said it was postponing the Masters. What will be the biggest impact of the Tour/Masters layoff? 

Sean Zak: Hmmm. Tough question to answer because so many industries are affected, but I’ll say the lesser-paid factions of professional golf could be greatly impacted. If this layoff extends beyond the initial announcement (and I think that is very reasonable to expect), people like LPGA Tour players, Korn Ferry players, Ladies European Tour players, etc., will potentially look for other means of income. It’d be like they’re all in a missed-cut drought, and it’s not up to them to play their way out of it. 

Josh Sens: Right. The impact will be felt most when you get beyond the Tour stars to the third and fourth degrees of separation. Not just the lesser lights and the other circuits. The charities that benefit from the events. The local businesses that see a boost every time the Tour comes through town. Hotels. Caterers. Event planners and on. As Clarence tells George Bailey in that Christmas classic — each life touches so many others.

I have to confess, I didn't see the George Bailey reference coming.  I only question is whether he might regret using it so...well, early.

Of course, there's one eejit in every crowd:

Dylan Dethier: Well put by all of the above. I’m feeling glum, so let’s think of the tiniest sliver of silver lining: On some future day when this starts to slow down, we’ll have golf to look forward to. We may even have Olympic golf, and a tiny hope of a fall Masters. Golf will matter again then, and dang will we be excited for its return.

Players: Cancelled.  Masters: Postponed.  PGA Championship: Postponed.  U.S. Open and Open Championship: Highly Unlikely.  But look, there's Olympic Golf....  Cheer up, it's a remarkable facsimile of the real thing except, you know, for the actual golfers....

But about that Fall Masters?

2. It’s important to note that Augusta National has only postponed the Masters, not canceled it. How likely is it that we’ll see a Masters in 2020, and if it is played this year, what would be the most likely dates for the event? 

To make an obvious point, we can't know yet whether that distinction comes with a real world difference... 

Zak: I’ll lead off with the most obvious and optimistic answer. Yes, it will be played this year, and mid-October. Two weeks after the Ryder Cup. As many people know, the course is typically not open during the summer due to the hot southern climate. So give the overlords at Augusta the month of September to prep the course and give us that fall Masters. It’d be a memorable one. 

Sens: Autumn in Augusta. Talk about an off-brand Masters, like baseball holding the fall classic in spring. I’ve been wrong a million times before, but I predict the next Masters we watch will be spring of 2021. I hope the show can find a way to go on, especially for a local economy that depends so much on the tournament. But I think the uncertainty of the current climate — combined with the flat-out weirdness of a Masters late in the calendar year — will conspire to push things back to the traditional spring date. I’m surprised no one has been pushing the conspiracy that this is all a hoax to give Tiger more time to rest his back. 

Shipnuck: I hope Zak is right. October feels like best-case. But if you look at all those charts of infection rates, we could still be dealing with this in the late summer, which is when ANGC would have to be mobilizing, so that might be too soon to make a call. Would the green jackets want a Masters in November and then another in April? That would feel a little weird. 

Dethier: Like Shipnuck, I’m stuck in between Zak’s optimism and Sens’ realism. It feels like a 40 percent chance we have some sort of Masters this calendar year. But damn, I’d sign up for fall foliage at Amen Corner. 

Bamberger: I fully believe we will have an autumn Masters, and it will be different and wonderful.

My answer to Alan's fine speculation is that this shouldn't be about them... But I wonder how this feels to them.  It's always been an odd feature of our game's governance that a little club in Northern Georgia has such outsized influence.  Why I'm old enough to remember when folks thought this one club was going to defy the USGA on equipment...

But being serious for a moment, I wonder how this all feels to the green jackets.  I would certainly hope that they see the opportunity to enhance their image and help their fellow citizens as well as the game, a short turnaround Masters be damned.... Of course, folks there still look over their shoulders for the ghost of Clifford Roberts.

And, I'm not saying it's aliens, but...

However, reporting says Augusta National has their Masters contingency dates in the month of October. When specifically the Masters could be played October isn't certain, but some Augusta-area hotels are now dramatically hiking their rates from October 4-12 with the assumption that the 2020 Masters would be played from Oct. 8-11. 

A search of Priceline notes several hotels in the area hiking rates dramatically, going up from the $70-$110 per night range into the $300s, $400s, $500s and even $600s per night. There's even a Fairfield Inn charging nearly $1,000 per night. In the northern portion of Augusta, in particular, hotels are taking a guess that the Masters will be played this week.

If only there were some way to short those hotel rooms... Hey, I'm staring at some pretty nasty paper losses.

NOTE: Since the above was drafted, the poobahs seem to have confirmed their interest in an October date.  Apparently ESPN's Bob Harig had it first, though I've also heard that the rumor goes back to LPGA player Marina Alix, who for some reason had a hotel reservation in Augusta for the October time frame....  

3. In a span of about 24 hours, the PGA Tour decided to play the Players, decided to play without fans and decided to cancel it altogether. How do you think the Tour and commissioner Jay Monahan handled things?

Well, my feelings are a matter of public record...

Zak: Let me start by saying I do envy not the position Monahan was put in, but he and the Tour definitely bungled the decision-making process. It was a quick one, and with dominos falling every 30 minutes, but where Monahan lost me quickest was his incessant use of certain excuses to keep the Players Championship moving forward while all other sporting events stopped: 

“My children went to school this morning.” 

“Disney World is still open.” 

“Our playing fields are more than 400 acres.” 

I’m paraphrasing all those, but that’s what Monahan said, repeatedly. By comparison, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan — who took four hours longer to take action — came out and said, “Yeah, we can probably play … but can I live with it if I’m wrong?” 

He had hindsight of many reactions prior to that statement, but damn, did it feel like the right one.

Sean, you left out the Task Force that he turned into a business unit....  that seemed to be the default mantra.  I can't see where he could have looked less decisive, and he exposed the Tour to some pretty serious recriminations if any cases come out.

But the exit question would be, does this hurt him in any way.  I get that he's great with the glad-handing of sponsors and networks, but in the glare of the lights he revealed himself as Chance the Gardner....Was anyone paying attention?

By the way, it's not like that was the only harsh review:

Sens: It came off as another case of golf getting lost in its often exaggerated sense of its own exceptionalism. We’re not like other sports. Non-contact. Wide-open spaces. Underlying some of the delay was the conviction that golf was just different. Which in the case of preventing a virus from spreading, it wasn’t. 

Shipnuck: That Chainsmokers concert is going to be Monahan’s Katrina. He had a chance to lead but seemed happier to follow.

It shocks me that, sitting on the coast of windy Florida, the man had no clue which way the wind was blowing.

Dethier: I still can’t believe a few of the things I saw on the ground last week. Wednesday, players were signing hundreds of autographs. Thursday, even as the Tour decided it was unsafe for fans to be on site the next month, fans were still streaming through the gates and congregating around No. 17. It was impossible to handle it perfectly — I certainly didn’t have a grip on it — but taking no steps to limit fan and player exposure was a big miss. 

Bamberger: I’m sympathetic to the struggles of the decision-making. A golf tournament is not a concert or an NBA game — or a commercial airline flight.

Excuse me, Mike, but I eagerly await your dissertation on the differences between a fan's ride from the parking lot on a shuttle bus and an airline flight...  Mike is a guy I like and respect, but the point of Jay's malfeasance is that he was indifferent to the risks to Joe Lunchbucket.

 Even Mike does well with this softball:

Golf fans are looking at a minimum of four more PGA Tour-less weekends. In lieu of watching golf, how would you suggest they spend their time? 

Zak: This is a layup for me! Season Two of A Pod Unlike Any Other begins Monday with Tom Watson’s riveting 1981 victory over Big Jack and Johnny Miller. We rewatch the final round of Masters broadcasts for you and break down the historical relevance, the kooky outfits, the underrated moments of failure, etc. It’s all in the purpose of loving the Masters, and right now it’s about all we’ve got.

Sens: Play more golf. Responsibly. Follow public health guidelines but get out there when you can do it safely. It’s good for the courses. And for your state of mind.

Shipnuck: Yeah, just leave the pin in and avoid handshakes and I think golf is a great option. Hopefully many/most courses will be able to stay open. Golf also has a long literary tradition so there are tons of good books out there to read. And a Pod Unlike Any Other is definitely a must. 

Dethier: For starters, order Michael Bamberger’s book “The Second Life of Tiger Woods.” But that’s not out until the end of the month — until then, I’d recommend catching up on more than a month’s worth of Muni Mondays! From a Phil Mickelson junior haunt to a product of the Great Depression to the best public par-3 course in the world, they are some of golf’s best goodness. Public golf: it’s where it’s at! 

Bamberger: Can’t tell you how much I agree with Dylan. So true, but did you not learn at Williams College or on your path there not to end sentences in prepositions? Play, read, watch. Walk, be outside. Turn off your screen. Work on your grip. Leave the pin in.

A grammar lesson is just so reliably on brand for Mike... as is the grip bit.... We took Mike's advice and went for a long walk on Willow Ridge today.  The walk was great, but seeing them cutting fairways and rolling greens was truly chicken soup for the soul... at least for mine.

Via Shack, here are all of the events that have been cancelled:

The Euro Tour has cancelled seven events as well.

These guys are hanging tough for the time being:

First it was the Masters postponing to a later date. 

Then the PGA Championship. 

But don’t add the Ryder Cup just yet. 

A report in The Telegraph on Tuesday said the Ryder Cup would be postponed to 2021. But the PGA of America said reports of postponement were inaccurate in a tweet posted to the official Ryder Cup account. 

While the PGA of America postponed the PGA Championship earlier in the day, and the PGA Tour announced four additional tournaments would be canceled, the biennial contest between the U.S. and Europe is still on the schedule for Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. 

The last time time the Ryder Cup was moved was in 2001, when the matches were postponed to 2002 following the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11.

It's quite amazing how this has turned our world upside down.  Not just the cancellations, but the curious existential challenges.  We all love the Ryder Cup, but can you hold one if you don't have a golf season during which to qualify the players.  Do we just resort to twelve captain's picks?

Plus, it would seem to me that the PGA Championship would be the higher priority...  We've seen this event deferred for a year, which instinctively seems the right call here.  To the extent that professional events can be played in the Fall, it would seem that we'd want to focus on events that accomodate more players....  Just spitballin' here.

The Way Forward - This has possibly been over-taken by facts on the ground, but LKD had an idea. An awful idea. He had a wonderful, awful idea.  Quick kids, where's that from?

Rather than adopting a wait-and-see approach, leaving each of the four remaining majors 

in an independent state of limbo, let’s learn from the the Greatest Generation, which overcame even greater obstacles. Let’s have the PGA Tour, Augusta National, PGA of America, USGA and R&A join together in a show of strength and unity by jointly calling off all the majors for this year — playing one without the others doesn’t feel fair or right — with a plan to reboot them in 2021. 

Instead of rushing through, at best, two majors, let’s come together for a single, unifying event — a one-time championship that would be recognized as a major, as the Hale America Open was. The tournament could be conducted in the fall, giving the governing bodies as much time as possible to pull it together, and played at an iconic venue that’s rooted in the game’s history. Augusta National, perhaps, or St. Andrews.

So.... From Many, One?  It might be taken, it just seems likely to be unused in the near term.

You'll quicky grasp that my interest in LKD's idea is because of the opportunity for a history lesson....  Hey I taught my Golf History class online before online learning was cool...

But before we get to the actual history, you'll note that there's a couple of howlers above.  For instance, Luke graciously includes the PGA Tour at this table (Shack's Five Families fits), but perhaps I could trouble him to remind us of which major the Tour controls?  

Of course the other bit is his ending...  A unified major held at Augusta National will be a Masters.  Sorry, Luke, it's just the way things are.

Time for a digression... I was on the phone with Bobby D. yesterday, discussing the events at Sawgrass last weekend.  As you know, one of my beefs with the Jaywalker is that had he made an immediate decision to play without spectators, perhaps the event could have finished and maybe we would have televised golf as a distraction.  Bob's reaction is that it wouldn't have looked right, selfishly playing on like the Titanic's orchestra.

It's a serious point for sure, though my immediate reaction is that exposing spectators to the risks of contagion seems, you know, a worse look....  And, as occurred to me later, you'd have to turn it into a charitable endeavor, with proceeds donated to appropriate charities (you could let the players choose their own charities for a portion of it).  Of course, the parallels to 1942 only go so far, but the concept of using the game for a higher purpose doesn't seem to have occurred to any of the games leadership.

So, how did that event turn out?

The event was held at Ridgemoor Country Club in Norwood Park Township, Cook

County, Illinois from June 18–21, 1942. The proceeds raised by the event benefitted the Navy Relief Society and the USO.[1][3] 

The tournament was won by Ben Hogan with a total score of 17-under-par 271, three strokes better than runner-up Jimmy Demaret.[1] Hogan received a gold medal and $1,200 in War Bonds for his win.[3]

As always with golf history, career records are hard to interpret in light of unusual circumstances:

Supporters of Ben Hogan and some golf historians maintain that this tournament should count as one of Hogan's major championships, since it was run just like the U.S. Open with more than 1,500 entries, local qualifying at 69 sites and sectional qualifying at most major cities. Additionally, all of the big names in golf who were not fighting the war were in the field

Our game has retroactively called the 1934 Augusta Invitational, with all of 72 players, a major.  But not this, which obviously seems more deserving....  Of course, there are folks that want it to be counted specifically as a U.S. Open, which would be Ben's fifth... a significant total.

That photo above comes from Geoff, and is reportedly the winner showing Boby Jones his scorecard, though exactly why Bobby Jones is dressed like Bill Murray I can't imagine....

Oh, That Premier League - Could their timing have been worse?  Just the thought of taking Saudi money seriously brings a big smile to my face.  Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of guys...

The latest, as if anyone cares any more:

Rory McIlroy was the first to speak out, first stating his position at the Genesis Invitational and backing it up in the weeks that followed. He enjoys the autonomy of life

on the PGA Tour, he said, and he didn’t like where the money was coming from. Brandel Chamblee seized particularly on the latter point. “I applaud the man,” he said, praising McIlroy while excoriating the league’s controversial sources of funding. 

Just days after Chamblee’s comments drew plenty of attention on Golf Channel, golf’s World No. 1 has some backup. 

“I am out of the PGL. I’m going with the PGA Tour,” World No. 3 Brooks Koepka told the Associated Press. “I have a hard time believing golf should be about just 48 players.”

“I think what I’m going to do is focus on just the PGA Tour,” World No. 2 Rahm added in remarks to Golfweek. “At the end of the day I’m a competitor. I’m a PGA Tour member, and I’m going to stay that way.”

Interesting to me that the early support for the PGA Tour comes from European players....obviously, Brooks aside.

There was this bit a couple of weeks ago from a guy whose opinion I tend to ignore these days:

Asked whether he believes the Premier Golf League could possibly influence the PGA Tour to make some improvements, as Rory McIlroy has suggested, Mickelson said: "Well, I wouldn't come out and say I'm not going to do it right away. .. and lose all your leverage.''

I can only hope that Rory told Phil where to stick it...  Not everything is a negotiation, and somehow I suspect that the changes Phil wants will reflect a high quotient of self interest.

Randall Mell has a feature called Randall's Rant, though this one seems especially clueless:

Where was Tiger’s voice? 

Where was Lefty’s? 

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been the PGA Tour’s leading men for nearly a quarter of a century now, dynamic “influencers” who shaped the Tour’s direction more than any other players in that span. 

That’s all but over. 

They abdicated those leadership roles when they were needed most. 

They went silent, or maybe silently rogue, with the Premier Golf League making its hardest push to overthrow the PGA Tour as home to the world’s best players. 

Tiger and Lefty didn’t step up with the existential threat to their tour growing more serious. 

If anything, they stepped back.

Randall, please remind me of all those times that Tiger and Phil put the Tour above their own needs and desires?  I'm still waiting...

Amazingly, this item was published only yesterday, by which time the PGL was deader than Generalissimo Francisco Franco.... 

To me it's quite amazing the extent to which Mell misjudges everything from the character of these two individuals to the prospects of the league.... and that obviously includes actuarial tables.  Remember, these are the guys that chased $10 million in the desert because they could....

But they were always a problem for the PGL, such that at one point I called them a poisoned chalice because of their ages.  Hard to see it going forward without them, but they're at a point where they bring little value as actual players.

Note To Readers - I do hope these musings provide some distraction and entertainment for my dear friends.  It's my intention to keep blogging, though the frequency and scheduling thereof remain a work in progress.  As you no doubt know, I'm a morning blogger, though mornings now need to be kept free for foraging....  But check back early and often for updates...

The bride and I intend to head to Fairview later.  My intention is to take a six-iron and walk/play a bit...  the bride, who had a minor procedure ten days ago (all is fine), will probably only take a putter.  That'll be a nice break from the inevitable tedium, and I can only hope that you all have similar outlets.  

Be safe and we'll catch up soon.