Fortunately, blogging is an indoor sport, since I'm not sure that venturing out today is such a good idea...
Titanic Thompson - When in doubt, your humble blogger roots for either the old guy or the guy that needs it most. One doesn't need a Venn diagram to know those circles overlap perfectly, at least this week:
Michael Thompson, who hadn’t won in seven-plus years and 166 starts, sprinkled in a spectacular bunker shot with a superbly mundane round of golf to calmly win his second PGA Tour title, beating a surging Adam Long by two strokes in the 3M Open.Thompson, who had a share of the lead after 18 and 54 holes, birdied two of his last three holes at TPC Twin Cities to come home in four-under 67 and 19-under 265 to keep Long and a long list of other challengers at bay.Thompson, 35, looked like a seasoned pro and not one who was enduring a season on the brink. He came into the week ranked 151st in the FedEx Cup standings. He was ranked 218th in the world. In 227 career starts he had registered just 17 top-10s and four top-three finishes, including his victory at the 2013 Honda Classic. All of his primary strokes gained stats were negative except putting. He ranked 180th in driving distance and 131st in greens in regulation, the latter despite being one of the tour’s most accurate off the tee.If you’re wondering where we’re going with this, well, we’re not quite sure. It’s all rather confounding. But, hey, at least we’re not alone.Sir Nick Faldo was knitting together a thought on the CBS telecast as Thompson was sauntering up to his perfectly placed drive on the 18th hole that was more inquiry than elucidation.“When a guy wins like this and he looks like a champion all week you wonder, Where has it been?” Faldo mused. “What’s the tipping point, what’s the fine line in this game where you go from struggle, struggle, struggle to then look this good and this controlled?”
I think we can all agree that a flummoxed Nick Faldo is a dog-bites-man story...
This is exactly why field size matters, because when you limit WGCs and Invitationals to 75 players (78 are listed for this coming week's WGC in Memphis), this is who's excluded. Dare I mention the Masters?
It's not great for ratings, but there is a deep satisfaction in seeing the quintessential Tour rabbit seize an opportunity, especially one that will never draw a comparison to, say, Bryson...
Did you catch his post-round interview? Am I the only one that finds Amanda Balionis awkward at best? I completely understand her qualifications for the gig, both of them, but that pun on Adam Long's name should at the very least require a multi-week time out. Can't she have a jet-ski accident or something?
Thompson himself drew raves for sharing his emotions:
You could hear Michael Thompson’s voice crack with his first word as his responded toCBS Sports’ Amanda Balionis when she asked him about how it felt to win the 3M Open on Sunday. The broadcast team had set things up well for those watching at home, noting how Thompson hadn’t won a PGA Tour event since 2013, a stretch spanning 166 tour starts. Then there was the fact that Thompson and his family had been living through the COVID-19 pandemic in a most unique way, having adopted a baby daughter in April.It was only natural then for Thompson’s emotions to come through loud and clear as he tried to answer Balionis.
Seven years, man! That's a long time in the golf desert...
Alex Myers does a deeper dive on the adoption and related adjustments, as if we needed another reason to root for the guy. Here's one more:
This gets him into Memphis, the PGA and Winged Foot, where he played in a U.S. Amateur. Not sure about the Masters, but perhaps if he can keep the strong play going...
As is far from unusual, the more interesting bits are usually related to those that came up short. This guy for sure:
What a weekend from Adam LongGreat stat, as always, from Justin Ray here:
If not for Thompson’s red-hot putter, Long more than likely would have become the fourth player to accomplish this ridiculous feat in the last decade. His seven-under 64 saw him climb 11 spots up the leader board, and he eventually settled for solo second. He now has two runner-ups since his breakthrough victory at the American Express in 2019, plus an eighth-place finish at the Waste Management in 2019. He may be a 31-year-old journeyman, but he’s proving to be far more than a random one-hit wonder.He’s also now going to get to play in the U.S. Open. Long’s solo second place finished was good enough to earn him an automatic exemption to play at Winged Foot in September.
Good stuff for sure...
This one reached its sell-by date long ago, though it's most interesting for what comes next:
The human ATM went full human ATMBefore we praise Charles Howell III for his 96th—96th !!!— career top-10 finish on the PGA Tour, we first have a bone to pick: How do you leave that eagle putt short on 18that would have gotten you a share of the clubhouse lead? Chucky Three Sticks, of all people, could have afforded a three-putt had he juiced the eagle putt past the hole like he should have. That thing simply must get to or past the hole, especially when you are closing in on $40 million career on-course earnings. C’mon Chuck, live a little!Turns out, it wouldn’t have been enough to win the tournament, anyway, so we’ll let it slide. Short eagle effort or not, 96 career top 10s is flat-out incredible. And yet, he’s still nowhere near Tiger Woods’ all-time record of … wait for it … 199. Yeah, that dude is pretty good.
More importantly, if we're casting the biopic of Chucky Three Sticks' career, isn't this guy the logical choice to play the lead?
Tony, Tony, TonySpeaking of top-10 machines, that pretty much sums up Tony Finau’s existence right now. It sounds disrespectful, sure, but it’s also true. Big Tone now has 30 top-10 finisheswithout a victory since the beginning of the 2016-’17 season. That’s 14 clear of the next closest competitor, Tommy Fleetwood, who has 16. What’s most frustrating about Finau is that these are no ordinary top 10s, as he’s often in serious contention. His T-3 on Sunday marks his 15th top-five finish since the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open. That is a LOT of opportunities to not cash in a win on.For Finau fans, bettors or anyone interesting in rooting for a genuine good guy, Sunday had to be the most unacceptable miss so far. Outside of Matthew Wolff or a hobbled Brooks Koepka, Finau was easily the most-talented player to tee it up at TPC Twin Cities this week. At 16 under through 64 holes, this was Finau’s tournament for the taking, and he played the final eight holes in even par. With his length, Finau should be playing those final three holes in two under at minimum. If he couldn’t get it done this week, when can we ever expect him too?This all may sound harsh, but for the Finau faithful, it’s all out of love. Happy to be proven wrong, sooner rather than later. I fully expect this paragraph to end up on the Freezing Cold Takes Twitter account when he wins the PGA at Harding Park.
Yeah, this one seemed perfectly attuned for his redemption, except that Michael Thompson didn't get the memo...
I notices something strange in this week's Tour Confidential confab, see if you can suss it out from this on our Tony:
Tony Finau, who split with his longtime caddie and now has his swing coach, Boyd Summerhays, on the bag, had an excellent week at the 3M, finishing T3, three shots behind winner Michael Thompson. But the week also represented another missed opportunity for Finau, who now has 30 top-10 finishes since his first and only Tour win, in 2016. Do you suspect his Sunday struggles are more physical or mental?
Zak: There is nothing — NOTHING! — wrong with the physical version of Tony Finau. So I’d guess there’s something mentally he needs to check off before getting it done. I think he tipped that off by changing up his caddie situation. He knows he’s damn good and now he’s going to make moves on it. I suspect he gets it done very soon.Bamberger: It must be really hard for Tony to make a caddie change. They ate so many meals together, reviewed so many shots together, came up on Tour together. That he could make the move shows a mentality we have not seen on Sundays. I’d have to think the struggles are more mental than physical. Tiger would say the same. I think his next five years will be better than his last five. That’s asking a lot.
Sens: The caddie change tells you everything you need to know about where Finau himself thinks he needs a boost. That’s a psychological change, not a physical one. He’s looking to sharpen the edges around the great physical arsenal he already has.Shipnuck: You have to remember that Finau came from nothing, and that he has an entire Brady Bunch of kids. It’s easy to imagine that his first few years on Tour he was happy to finish in the top 10, collect a big check, secure his job and take care of his family. Now he needs to find an entirely different approach. That’s not easy for such a gentle giant.Wood: It’s timing. Once he crosses the line in a big one, he’ll tell himself, “That wasn’t that hard.” I think he may be trying to do too much to answer all the doubters on Sunday, rather than just being Tony Finau. I know he lacks nothing to win more. I saw him up close at the Ryder Cup in France, as well as really up close at the President’s Cup in Melbourne. There aren’t many tougher places to play than a team event on the road, and he had the goods there. Once he realizes he just has to be who he is and not something more, he’ll start winning. A lot.
We basically hear this about every player... Once he gets the first, the floodgates will open and yada, yada yada. My own suspicion is that games are more likely to go into remission after a breakthrough win, though I'd love for someone to run the numbers.
Of course it's mental, there's a reason his Sunday scoring average is so much higher than the other three days. That said, he's not a great putter, and that was painfully in evidence yesterday. There is that recurring reason that he comes up short....
Anyone unfamiliar with the header reference should look here.
Golf In The Time of Corona - I've been reliably informed that Orange Man Bad, though this seems a good thing:
The White House has eased travel restrictions for players, caddies and other essential personnel entering the United States to compete on the PGA Tour.
Players were informed late Friday via email that the move is based on groups who are “subject to COVID-19 testing and screening through the Tour’s rigorous health and safety protocols throughout a tournament week” and that they won’t be subject to the current 14-day quarantine period.
The timing of the move is crucial for players with two of the season’s biggest events scheduled for the next two weeks – the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and the PGA Championship.
And logical, given the rigorous testing done on-site. But can anyone unravel this for me:
Westwood is committed to play next week’s World Golf Championship in Memphis, but he told reporters Saturday at the British Masters that he doesn’t intend to travel to the U.S. despite the policy change.
When you say committed, you mean what exactly?
I haven't seen anything from Eddie Pepperill, but Mr. Westwood sounds like he just doesn't need the aggravation, so he'd be better served to not blame it on the pandemic:
"It's just not the life I'm used to. I got out on the golf course and I am struggling for motivation a little bit. There is a lot more to consider. The two American tournaments,next week and the following week, I'm still concerned that America doesn't take it (the virus) as seriously as the rest of the world. It still seems to be one of the hotspots for outbreaks. I can control me not getting the virus and take all the measures I can, but somebody might pass it on. I don't really want to get ill with it and I'm slightly asthmatic. If I tested in Memphis I would have to stay there for two weeks... right now there are too many ifs."
We'll be OK without you, Lee.
With Lee scratched, who ya got in the PGA? That TC panel offers their thoughts:
Things begin to get interesting in pro golf over the next few weeks. A World Golf Championship comes first, this week in Memphis. Then follows the PGA Championship in two weeks, and the Tour playoffs and the U.S. Open after that. After a month and a half of play since golf’s return, who is best positioned to make a run?
Sean Zak: It feels like we’ve seen brilliance and B.S. from each of the game’s best players. Justin Thomas blew a big lead late. Jon Rahm didn’t get it going until the Memorial. Rory seems stuck in neutral. Bryson was cruising along until making a 10. Koepka is hampered by a bum knee and his buddy DJ is working through a dinged up back. So … I look elsewhere! And Xander Schauffele is the man. He has played tough golf courses as well as anyone not named Koepka the last few years, and he’s been very solid since he returned. Get your betting slips in, folks!Michael Bamberger: I’d say Rory. He likes summer golf. He’s due. He’s playing well, at times. He’s won PGA Championships twice before. Tanned, rested, ready — Rory.Alan Shipnuck: And don’t forget that Rory won the Match Play at Harding Park! He’s been a forgotten man lately — I, too, think that changes as we get to the meat of the season.
Josh Sens: If anything, these past few weeks have reminded us how futile it is to predict in this game. But I’ll bite … Tony Finau! So close these last two starts, and now with his Tour-leading 30th Top 10 in last few years. New caddie on his bag, and a swing tweak to add even more distance. If this guy isn’t due, I don’t know who is.
John Wood: Collin Morikawa. He’s just ALWAYS there. He’s as brilliant a ballstriker as there is in the game today, seems unflappable, and played his collegiate golf across the bay from Harding Park. I know someone this good can’t fly under the radar, but outside of those big names mentioned above, he’s as good a bet as any.
Ya gotta love Josh, picking the guy that can't close in Dublin or Minneapolis to close in a major... Or, at least a quasi-major.
I, for one, need more information on conditions and weather before choosing my stiff who will miss the cut be ten strokes. The X-man strikes me as a logical choice, though I could us saying that for the next decade as well. At least if he gets in the hunt, you don't worry about the moment being too big for him...
As for those Rory dead-enders? perhaps they should read this from Shane Ryan at their biggest competitor:
Do we have enough time?
There are a few things we can glean here, and a few that remain a little confusing. First off, even in this time of relative struggle, he’s fantastic off the tee—top five in three of the four events. Second, the idea that he’s weak on his approach shots is backed up by the numbers. On that topic, it’s worth noting that low finishes, from 40 and above, would probably be worse when compared to the entire field, while high finishes would suffer less. In other words, the gap between his great driving and his sub-par approach shots is actually bigger than it looks here. The same is true with putting, although he’s improved measurably in the last two events. He’s been inconsistent around the green, a stat which compiles shots from 30 yards and closer, but compared to the other stats, this isn’t quite as important.
His distance control on his wedges remains dreadful, a problem considering how many wedges he hits. His putting isn't much better. I wouldn't recommend him for any money bets, unless you hear that it will be soft and calm that week.
On Ernie and Distance - Mike Clayton, who we featured on Friday, frames Ernie's recent comments through the lens of the Good Doctor:
"Narrow fairways bordered by long grass make bad golfers. They do so by destroying the harmony and continuity of the game and in causing a stilted and cramped style, destroying all freedom of play.”
“Our game is in a good place. Equipment improvements and distance are here to stay. Full stop. We need a ‘serious’ premium on accuracy. Golf courses don’t need to be longer. Make the Tour rough knee high, fairways fast and firm which is fair for all players.”
Is the former, Dr Alister MacKenzie’s view, one from an era long past, irrelevant to the realities of the modern game? Or, as Ernie Els’ tweet from 18 July suggests, are narrow fairways lined on both sides with smothering long grass the way forward?
The good news is that we've won this debate as relates to the larger amateur and club game, as virtually all new courses constructed adhere to the Golden Age precepts. Of course, they're not building many new courses, but it applies to restorations as well.
That said, Ernie's vision for the elite professional game sounds quite dreary, as the Tour Confidentilistas note:
Ernie Els jumped into the distance debate this week, saying that neither equipment nor the length of courses need amending. “We need a serious premium on accuracy,” Els said. “Make the Tour rough knee high, fairways fast and firm, which is fair for all players.” Agree?
Zak: I can sense a slight exaggeration from Ernie, but his point remains. Knee-high rough is not the answer, nor is calf-high rough. At least not week-in and week-out. I had multiple Tour caddies explain the differences between 3M and Memorial setups this week. While they all tended to believe it was a bit extreme, the firmness of the fairways and greens coupled with longer rough and some wind were the exact recipe for testing the world’s best. Those are all more reasonable solutions than just letting the grass grow and grow and grow.Bamberger: Only with the F&F part. The game lacks balance now. There’s too much emphasis on the tee shot. It’s certainly not the players fault. But foot-high rough doesn’t make golf more interesting, it makes it less interesting. We want to see all manner of shots, including the recovery shot. Tiger became Tiger on the basis of his recovery game, his iron play, his driving game, his chipping game. His everything.Sens: I agree to a point. Problem is, there comes a point where defending through course conditions alone leads to flat-out goofy setups, and then you’re not making it more fair for anyone. At that point is where I start to think: rolling back the ball is the better long-term solution.
Wood: Of course, he’s correct. I would love to see firm fairways, hard greens, deep rough every single week. But It’s not going to happen. There’s no way for tournaments to collude to make course setups more difficult, with more emphasis on hitting fairways. And here’s why: the tournaments are in competition with each other to attract players. When a player is choosing a schedule, they’re just like anyone who plays golf: a major factor in deciding where they play is choosing someplace they enjoy. They know a handful of times a year, namely U.S. Opens, the Masters, they’re going to have to play courses with less room for error. But week-in, week-out, they won’t do it. And to be honest with you, I don’t think the networks would enjoy it either. Long drives sell. The ratings just simply wouldn’t be as good if the guys who can hit it 350 are hitting 4-irons off every tee.Shipnuck: John’s point is well-taken, and amplify’s Michael’s: the setup Ernie is advocating sounds dreadfully boring. Who wants to watch the best players chipping out sideways? It’s fun at a few select majors, but every week would be a snooze. And the problem with resting everything on firm/fast setups is that it’s an outdoor game, and rain showers are common in the spring and summer. To test players with the current benign Tour setups we need courses that are 9,000-10,000 yards, but that requires an obscene amount of land, water and maintenance hours. The only real solution is obvious: throttle back the equipment. But Ernie and many others are paid to subvert that point.
Tom Meeks, call your office... For those that are old enough to remember his dreadful U.S. Open set-ups....
But I want to make a different point this time. If you have your golf course #firmandfast, you don't need foot-deep rough, do you? Anyone remember the Prez Cup at Royal Melbourne? Was there any deep rough there?
But the reality is that F&F rarely presents, so what else you got? If foot deep rough is your answer, I'd suggest that you're asking the wrong questions...
Back to Mike Clayton who offers this explanation for those struggling to understand the arguments:
St Andrews is the model for all others to follow. It isn’t just a place of extraordinary historical importance. It doesn’t find itself at the centre of the golf world by accident, historical luck or quirk. It is the model because it has great holes and no course is as enduringly fascinating to play.
That fascination comes from a simple concept, namely, that the golfer must work out where best to play and how best to play every single shot. This concept doesn’t work unless the course is wide enough to make you think and provides lies of a nature which give players a variety of shots from which to choose. There is rough grass on the Old course as well as gorse and any number of places where you might find an unplayable lie, but it isn’t a persistent hazard that envelops you the moment you stray off course.Royal Melbourne and Augusta National, two of MacKenzie’s greatest layouts, look much different from St Andrews. The fairways of both are lined with trees. Royal Melbourne sits on a deep bed of perfect sand while Augusta is on heavy red clay. None of the three relies on long grass to determine the best players under tournament conditions.
This simple feature was perhaps the most important lesson Alister MacKenzie took from the Old course.
For sure, but an Open at the Old Course these days is even more dependent upon weather than ever. If it presents with soft conditions and little wind, it's a bit scary to think how low they might go.
Still Not Dead - I thought we had put this nonsense to bed:
The Premier Golf League remains confident of delivering a breakaway tour, with formal offer letters recently submitted to a batch of top level players. The guaranteed money onoffer to those approached is understood to total hundreds of millions of dollars, underlining the strength of the PGL despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.The PGA Tour and European Tour has been strong in their resistance to the PGL concept, which is backed by the New York-based Raine Group. The PGL model has been compared to Formula One, where the best play the best every week and a team element is included. Rory McIlroy vehemently dismissed the plan in February, with the Northern Irishman stating: “I value that I have autonomy of freedom over everything that I do. But if you go and play this other golf league you’re not going to have that choice.”It is understood McIlroy is not one of the players approached in this PGL move. Those who have been linked with the breakaway include Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler and Paul Casey. The PGL declined to comment on recent events when approached. Yet whether the PGL can convince elite golfers to offer a commitment against the PGA Tour in particular remains to be seen. As part of a recently agreed broadcasting deal, the PGA Tour agreed to offer commercial incentives to players who provide the greatest value.
Obviously I misunderstood their business plan. I didn't realize that their objective was to create the world's foremost senior tour. Good luck, guys.
Are we to understand that they'll build their tour around a bunch of guys whose best days are long behind them? Koepka is the only guy on that list remotely still in the prime of his career, not that he's exactly hitting it out of the park recently.
The buried lede is in that last 'graoh of the excerpt, as I've heard of but seen no details on how the PGA Tour plans to entice it's show ponies to stay at home. As is common knowledge, the Euro Tour finds itself in a world of hurt, and this will surprise no one:
Intriguingly, Raine is also understood to have held talks with the European Tour. This at least infers an increased willingness to involve golf’s existing stakeholders in the PGL plan. When asked about such discussions, a European Tour spokesperson said: “For the past couple of years we have been proactively sought out by a number of private equity companies, all of whom recognise the strength and influence of the European Tour across golf’s global ecosystem.”
Except that the mission statement is to attract the top players in the world, and we don't find those guys on the Euro Tour.... Some, for a portion of the year, but not close to enough to deliver on their premise.
Morning in Dornoch - We'd have been there on Thursday if not for that pesky pandemic, so enjoy this beautiful video from Royal Dornoch:
Just need to figure out how to center the embedded tweets....Summer mornings on the links at Royal Dornoch 🏴 #linksgolf #friendsofroyaldornoch #summer #Scotland pic.twitter.com/ncAEXoe7tC— Matthew Harris GOLF (@MattHarrisPIXs) July 26, 2020
Stay cool and I'll see you soon.
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