It is Friday, no? I'm not sure how we're supposed to tell the difference at this point.
Scenes From Waialei - Amusingly, you'd be hard-pressed to find a game story at any of the major golf sites, which is something you'd think they'd want to cover. This, focused on one of the three co-leaders, as as close as I found.
More interesting to your humble blogger, was this last-second adjustment:
There have been a lot of changes to the PGA Tour because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably no fans. And with no fans, there’s no need for grandstands.That’s led to an interesting local rule at this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii.With no grandstand surrounding the 18th green at Waialae Country Club, internal out of bounds stakes have been placed to the left of the dogleg par-5 finishing hole to prevent players from hitting their tee shots into the adjacent 10th fairway. Doing so would leave a nearly unobstructed shot with a short iron into the green.
There are few things more guaranteed to outrage an insufferable purist than internal OB, though I think the grandstands around the 18th green have little to do with it. Let me try to show it visually:
It’s not the Lon Hinkle tree, but the PGA Tour did the next best thing to prevent players at the Sony Open in Hawaii from taking a shortcut to the 18th green.
PGA Tour rules officials didn’t bother to plant a tree overnight the way the USGA once did at the 1979 U.S. Open at Inverness Country Club. Instead, they instituted in-course out-of-bounds stakes that run adjacent from the 10th green up to approximately 25 yards from the 18th green. Any shot coming to rest left of the white stakes on 18 will be determined to be out of bounds. The decision was made to prevent players from taking a short cut that could cut 60-70 yards off the par-5 18th hole at Waialae Country Club and cause delays and potentially dangerous situations.
The possibility of blasting tee shots into the adjacent 10th fairway to set up a short iron to the green with an unobstructed view existed this year due to the lack of a grandstand surrounding the 18th green.
Again with the 18th hole grandstands... I assume it's the absence of a grandstand around the 10th green that's the issue. Obviously we're being guided to accept that this is only because of the absence of spectators, though Geoff seems reluctant to accept the approved narrative:
Internal OB is always a last resort. It’s particularly unusual when it has to be installed the Wednesday prior to a tournament starting Thursday and on a course the Tour has visited annually since 1965.
But this is life in the world of launch angle golf.
Nothing to see here, Geoff. But it has to be asked, since when are tour pros reluctant to hit into grandstands?
On a related note, Derek Duncan had filed this ode to Waialei's 17th hole:
Background:
The par 3 17th at Waialae Country Club (members play it as the eighth) runs along Waialae Beach and, like all oceanside holes, is subject to the whims and fluctuations of the wind. This is Raynor’s original Redan, meaning the narrow green, flanked by bunkers short and behind, is angled from the tee with the back half of the putting surface running away from the player.
Why it mattersWhen the normal trade winds are at the players back the green is increasingly difficult to hit. Even with the tees occasionally moved up to 172 yards from the normal 192-yard markers, balls tend to land and run toward the back left of the green, often finishing in the rough. It’s critical for players to somehow find the green and make par since the following hole, the par 5 18th, is annually one of the easiest holes on tour and viewed as an invaluable chance to gain, rather than have to make up, strokes.
A closer look at the green complex
This is good fun, though Derek's definition isn't the best, mostly because he focuses on the angle to the exclusion of the contours. As a counterpoint, I'll grab this from the geeks at The Fried Egg:
A Redan typically ranges from 180-215 yards and features a 45 degree right-to-left oriented green protected by a deep bunker along the left side. Redan and Reverse Redan greens (same concept with the opposite angle) carry a great deal of slope that typically runs toward the bunker and from the front of the green to the back. An easy way to spot a Redan is by the defining shoulder on the right side of the green. This mound funnels balls towards the middle and back of the green. Traditional Redans also typically feature a bunker short of the green with another behind the sloping shoulder that penalize wayward shots. Up-and-downs from the back bunker are highly unlikely.On first look, it would appear that the bailout position is short and right of the green. That miss will actually leave a challenging pitch over the shoulder in the green and down the slope. The best place to bail out is long and left of the green as it will leave an uphill chip back to the pin.
The word itself is of French origins, as apparently it wasn't only that falcon that came from Malta:
Redans were a common feature in the coastal batteries built in Malta between 1715 and the end of the 18th century. Surviving batteries with redans include Mistra Battery and Saint Anthony's Battery.[2]
The Russians used redans on their left at the Battle of Borodino against Napoleon. A small redan whose faces make an obtuse angle with a vertex toward the enemy is called a flèche (arrow in French). The Bagration flèches were three redans backwards in echelon. The Shevardino Redoubt (another redan) was erected as an early warning post a mile in front of the Bagration flèches.
Of course, the French aren't my usual go-to guys for defensive formations. This is interesting in its own right, at least to the geek community, but there's also a link to this year's absence of grandstands:
That’s not the only difference this week, though. Without grandstands, some holes are also playing differently.“I think 17 and 18 are the biggest ones,” Smith said. “With how firm [17] green gets, sometimes you can use that grandstand as a bit of a backboard to a back pin. So I think it makes the hole tougher definitely for sure.”
As Shack hints at in his post, apparently this hole was intentionally softened as part of the Tom Doak restoration prior to last year's event. Something to watch for if you take in the tourney, otherwise time to move on...
Tour Doings - Lots happening with the events on the calendar, this being the biggest announcement in the last couple of days:
The PGA Tour’s traditional early-spring stopover in the Monterey Peninsula for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am remains on the calendar but with one major change: No celebrity amateurs.
The Tour announced on Thursday that the traditional multi-day pro-am format will go by the wayside this year. It’s another measure forced by COVID-19. Last month, the tournament announced it would be played without spectators, like so many other Tour events since mid-summer.
As the tournament celebrates its 75th anniversary, a field of 156 professionals will compete on only two of the courses traditionally used – Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course – as scheduled Feb. 11-14. Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course was dropped from the event for this year along with the amateurs. Nick Taylor is the defending champion.
This makes sense, and could even prove interesting. Not only will be see Pebble without infrastructure, but it should logically affect the set-up. Traditionally, not only do they need to set up the course with amateurs in mind, but they only need two hole locations on each Pebble green (they play to the same hole locations on all three course the first three days), whereas now they'll need a third. Hopefully we'll also see more of Spyglass on Thusrday and Friday.
Not that your humble blogger will miss the guy pictured above. The act has gotten more than a little tiresome, no?
In other Tour news, when last we visited the Wasted, they were planning for 8,000 spectators per day. Upon further review, that number has been reduced:
Fewer than 5,000 fans will be allowed per day inside the gates of TPC Scottsdale to attend the2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open, the tournament's chairman said Wednesday, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"We remain hopeful we can host an extremely limited number of socially distanced fans at “The People’s Open”, and in light of the current COVID climate, we have decided to further reduce our attendance to fewer than 5,000 fans each day," Tournament Chairman Scott Jenkins said in a statement.
Of course, this is the event that typically draws the Yangtze Division:
In previous years, some 600,000 to 700,000 people typically attend the week-long tournament.
Although those numbers are famously estimated based upon aerial photos of the parking lots, so who really knows? As for that famous hole, as covered previously:
Around the famous 16th Hole, there will be a one-story open-air venue. Separate tickets are available for that experience, which includes premium views, food, and drink.
Additionally, we have a home for that orphaned Mexico City event:
The World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship won’t be played in Mexico City in late February due to COVID-19 concerns, Golfweek has learned.
Instead, the tournament will kick off the Florida Swing of the PGA Tour season a week earlier than anticipated at its temporary home, The Concession Golf Club, in Bradenton, Florida, according to multiple sources. A source also confirmed that the tournament will have a different name this year. An official announcement is expected soon, perhaps as early as Friday.
if the venue rings a bell, this might be the reason:
The Concession opened in 2006 and was co-designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin and named in honor of the 1969 Ryder Cup, where Nicklaus conceded a short putt to Jacklin. Concession ranks No. 9 in Golfweek’s Best state-by-state private list. The course previously hosted the men’s and women’s NCAA Championship in 2015.
It Was Thirty Years Ago Today - Happy Anniversary, Phil, for this breakthrough win:
In a career chock-full of major milestones, there is one Phil Mickelson accomplishment that has stood the test of time for three decades.On Jan. 13, 1991, Mickelson won the Northern Telecom Open in Tucson, Arizona, as an amateur. He remains the last amateur to win a PGA Tour event.Lefty, then 20, was a junior at Arizona State and made the 90-minute drive south to TPC at Starpass, where he won by a shot over Tom Purtzer and Bob Tway.Mickelson saw his one-shot lead in the final round turn into a three-shot deficit after a triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 14th hole.“I never thought I’d see anyone come back from something like that,” said Corey Pavin, who played with Lefty in the final group that day.
As often happens, the best part of this is the photo of goofy Phil in the Conquistador helmet. In all of recorded history, only seven PGA Tour events have been won by amateurs, and Phil is the last to do it:
- 1945 – Fred Haas, Memphis Invitational
- 1945 – Cary Middlecoff, North & South Open
- 1945 – Frank Stranahan, Durham War Bond Tournament
- 1948 – Frank Stranahan, Miami Open
- 1954 – Gene Littler, San Diego Open
- 1956 – Doug Sanders, Canadian Open
- 1985 – Scott Verplank, Western Open
- 1991 – Phil Mickelson, Northern Telecom Open
Can an amateur win again on the PGA Tour?
The answer, based upon Brain's lede, has to be yes:
Matthew Wolff’s first tournament as a professional was the 2019 Travelers Championship. Though he tied for 80th in the event, victory wasn’t far off. Just two weeks later, the then 20-year-old who’d grabbed the NCAA title just a month earlier, won the 3M Open.Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland, both of whom turned pro that same June as Wolff, weren’t far behind, either. A few weeks after Wolff’s triumph, Morikawa captured the Barracuda Championship and has since added two more titles, including last year’s PGA Championship. Hovland, Wolff’s Oklahoma State teammate in college, won in Puerto Rico in February 2020 and added another trophy from Mexico in December.
Just a matter of time though, given that thirty years has already passed, it might be another thirty.
Golf Porn, Hawaiian Edition - As I confessed most recently on Wednesday, my taste in golf porn runs to the linksy but, of course, your mileage may vary. With the Tour in its Aloha Season, Josh Sens shares some of the sights on offer:
Trance Encounters: These 10 stunning Hawaiian courses are on the best kind of island time
Care for a sample:
The Ocean Course at Hokuala, KauaiConsider this a case of making more with less. Formerly known as Kauai Lagoons, this daily-fee resort course, near Lihue Airport, began as a 36-hole extravaganza, only to shrink, under different ownerships, to 27 holes and, more recently, to 18. Jack Nicklaus, the original designer, seized upon the strengths of the coastal setting by taking the best of what was left. His routing, which winds around lagoons and through forests of palm and mango trees, builds toward a crescendo on the back side, highlighted by a half-mile stretch of uninterrupted oceanfront golf, the longest such expanse in the state.
Brazil’s federal police arrested Argentine golfer Ángel Cabrera on Thursday for extradition to hishomeland to face charges for several crimes allegedly committed from 2016 to last year, two officers said.Cabrera, who won both Masters and U.S. Open championships, was on Interpol’s red code list.Police said in a statement that the arrest was made in an upper class area of Rio de Janeiro, without announcing the suspect’s name. It described him only as a 51-year-old Argentine.
I've just hit the seventh anniversary of this blog, and I have to wonder whether Interpol has ever been cited previously.
Cabrera is a player I've always instinctively liked. He's wildly inconsistent, but grabbed two majors and almost a third in dramatic fashion. And I still vividly remember his show of sportsmanship during that Masters playoff with Adam Scott. That piece above doesn't give us much on the charges, but we find more here:
Two-time major champion Angel Cabrera was arrested in Brazil Thursday for extradition to Argentina on charges of assault, theft, illegal intimidation and repeated disrespect to authorities, according to a report by the Associated Press.Cabrera, 51, was on Interpol’s “red code” list, the AP reported, which is used to seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a legal jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his or her extradition. Earlier this month Argentine media reported that Cabrera was on the run from his homeland. His former wife reportedly filed two charges against Cabrera, and another former partner claimed Cabrera had punched her, threatened her and attempted to run her over with a car.
Clarín, the largest newspaper in Argentina, reports that two other women from past relationships are accusing Cabrera of “beatings and threats.”
This sounds pretty bad, not least because of the multiple accusers. But, is it me, or does that "repeated disrespect to authorities" have an Orwellian ring to it? Of course, I'd be happy if you could point me to any authorities actually deserving of respect...
On that depressing note I'll wish a good weekend and hope to see you on Monday.
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