Your Friday Frisson

Just a couple of notes from the golf world for you this morning.  Nothing that will impact your daily schedule to any great degree...

Dateline: San Francisco - Olympic's Lake Course didn't turn out to be quite the beast that was anticipated:

1. Scores are (relatively) low

After round one of the U.S. Women’s Open, three players sit tied atop a packed leaderboard at four under: 33-year-old Mel Reid, 17-year-old Megha Ganne and 23-year-old Brooke Henderson.

Reid took advantage of the relatively calm conditions on Thursday morning, carding five birdies and one bogey on the last to take the early clubhouse lead. Her four-under 67 was the score to beat until Ganne surged on the back nine.

Ganne got off to a hot start going out in 32 with birdies on Nos. 2, 4 and 8. Her back nine got off to a rough start with a bogey on 11, but she recovered with a birdie on the par-4 12th hole. Two more birdies on holes 15 and 16 gave Ganne a brief lead at five under, but a bogey on 18 brought her back down to earth (sort of).

Ganne’s round was just one shot off the course record for an amateur at Olympic Club. Not too shabby for a day’s work.

Henderson added her name to the list of players at the top of the leaderboard late in the day. She carded six birdies and two bogeys on the day. Her quiet ascent up the leaderboard isn’t surprising given she won her first major at just 18 years old.

Reid got some help from an unlikely source:

Mel Reid wouldn’t dish on what was said, but revealed she texted Brooks Koepka on Tuesday and wound up FaceTiming with him for an hour. Reid called Koepka’s advice “invaluable” and said that it gave her a different approach going into the 76th U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic.

“I’m just trying to be a bit more like Brooks, honestly,” Reid said after an opening 4-under 67 to take the early lead.

Koepka and Reid played a lot of money games at the Floridian National Golf Club when she lived in South Florida. On occasion, she took his money. Reid has since moved up to Jacksonville, Florida, after her partner Carly Grenfell got a job with the PGA Tour.

More like Brooks?  Is this wise?

Despite early week concerns about the ladies' ability to handle the course, scoring was normalish for an Open:

Yes, there were the ugly holes and scorecards inked with way too many doubles and triples—there were 18 scores posted of 80 or higher by the afternoon (Canadian Megan Osland withdrew after shooting 90)—but it ultimately didn’t look like much different than other national championships that the USGA has cooked up. The scoring average on the par-71 layout was 75.17 and 15 players broke par.

Most of the pre-tourney concern/bellyaching related to the rough, and apparently the USGA agreed:

There were fears that the rough would be far too penal for the women, who don’t have the clubhead speed of their male counterparts. But after practice rounds on Monday that brought

some concern for players, the USGA cut the rough on Tuesday, and it now seems at least manageable now at 2¾ inches.

There were plenty of times when players didn’t advance the ball far out of the deep stuff, and Jessica Korda briefly grabbed her left shoulder in pain when she blasted a shot out of the rough on 18. But there were other instances of heroics. Nasa Hataoka holed out a wedge shot from the rough for eagle on the seventh hole, and Angel Yin had an eagle-birdie finish to shoot 68.

Yin recalled making birdie from the rough at the par-4 ninth, but also arrived to a brutal lie on another hole. I was like, ‘Oh, my wrist hurts just by looking at it,’ ” she said with a laugh.

Of course, if you know the USGA has those rabbit ears, is it wise to say things like this?

One other significant factor in the scores was that the USGA moved up the tees on some holes, so the course played “only” 6,362 yards.

“Honestly, I thought it played way easier today,” said Jennifer Kupcho, who shot 70. “They moved a lot of tees up, and I don't think I had more than a 7-iron into a par 4.”

Easier? Maybe that’s just what the USGA wants to hear to make it harder in Round 2.

Megha Ganne is a New jersey girl and, unlike a certain woman tennis player, will seemingly have no issues with speaking to the press:

Co-leading the #USWomensOpen as an amateur!@LPGAGirlsGolf alumna Megha Ganne is atop the leaderboard at @TheOlympicClub. pic.twitter.com/XxbC2kAcjV

— U.S. Women's Open (USGA) (@uswomensopen) June 4, 2021

She's headed to Stanford, presumably regardless of what might happen the next three days.

Dateline: Dublin, OH - Apparently you can take the Memorial out of May, but not the May out of the Memorial:

After play was suspended for two hours, another delay arrived from the skies at 4:17 p.m. ET and eventually halted played for the day. Half of the field did not complete play, including Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy was 1 over through two holes, Spieth 1 under through three and DeChambeau 2 under through three.

Play is scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The forecast for the next three days does not include rain.

Memorial Weather is a real thing, as this guy confirms:

Now, rain is so ingrained into the Memorial’s fabric that the tournament logo might as well be a group of players huddled under an on-course shelter waiting for a storm to pass.

But, perhaps more importantly:

However, Thursday’s storms did more than halt play on two occasions. They, ahem, watered down Murifield Village’s new defenses.

Thirteen players in the morning wave broke 70, highlighted by Collin Morikawa’s 66. When play was called for the day due to weather, more than half the field was even or better. The course did claim its share of victims; Jamie Lovemark and Camerson Champ failed to break 80 while Matt Kuchar was nine over through 14 before dropping out due to injury.

Still, this was not the grand reopening Jack had in mind.

“It was definitely the rain,” Morikawa said on the scorable conditions. “The greens were soft enough and they're receptive. Wedges are spinning back, and I actually didn't see any of that the past couple of days warming up or practicing.”

“The redesign’s made it at least one to two strokes harder,” Jon Rahm added, “but when the greens are receptive like now and you can fire at every single pin—you saw what Collin did. He probably left a couple putts out there, he was just firing on all cylinders. And when you're a good iron player you can take advantage of it.”

Maybe, but I think this lede wildly overstates the case:

The golf gods have a sense of humor. A cruel, twisted sense of humor.

Got to feel for Jack Nicklaus. His fear of increasing distance gains was so fierce that it prompted him to do an overhaul of his beloved Muirfield Village. Just in case you forgot, he made sure to let you know by having construction crews tear up the course as the 2020 tournament and its telecast was ongoing. Coupled with U.S. Open-like conditions at last year’s event—the final round was the highest scoring average (75.959) for any round on tour outside of a major in four years and the highest round at the Memorial in four decades—and a public blasting of the governing bodies for their lack of policing, Thursday’s opening round was supposed to be an unveiling of Jack’s reprimand to the game: If you won’t take care of this, I’ll do it myself.

It's true enough that Jack has long been a vocal critic of the USGA's laissez-faire attitude to regulating the golf ball.  But last year's event was a one-off, the second of two straight weeks at Muirfield Village, in which they made the first week easy and the second hard.  So hard that Jack has acknowledged that it was probably over the edge.  More importantly, if you've listened to Jack talk about the set-up over the many years of The Memorial, he well understands that nothing will hold these guys back in wet conditions, which is what they've mostly had.

From the morning wave, this guy led the pack:

DUBLIN, Ohio – It’s safe to say Collin Morikawa likes Jack’s place.

The 2020 PGA champion and four-time PGA Tour winner said Muirfield Village Golf Club was

love at first sight and his play on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course bears that out.

In his first start here in the Workday Charity Open last year, a tournament that replaced the canceled John Deere Classic, Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in a playoff. The following week, he tied for 48th in the Memorial Tournament.

And on Thursday in the first round of the Memorial, the world No. 6 took up residence at the top of the leaderboard with a sterling, 6-under-par 66 to get clear of the field by one shot.

Is he helped or hurt by being in the Thursday morning wave?  He'll get to lounge around for most of Friday.  But chances are he'll have to play early Saturday morning to finish his second round, then wait a few hours to start his third round.

 Most intriguing story of the day might be this bit from the floundering Rickie Fowler:

Fowler “sees” improvement

Rickie Fowler’s slump has been one of the sport’s chief wonders over the last year. Despite the struggle, Fowler has maintained a positive outlook, and entered Ohio off his best finish of the year with a T-8 at the PGA Championship. Fowler continued to see things moving in the right direction Thursday, thanks to … well, being able to see.

After turning in a three-under 69, Fowler was asked about the sunglasses he wore in Round 1, which Fowler explained were more than a fashion statement.

“I always struggled with seeing more than say 150 yards and little things far away,” Fowler said. “It's not enough to where like I really wanted to try going to like Lasik or anything like that. I've always been able to see up close fine, I don't have any problem with that. The only time I start to struggle with some depth perception is in low light situations, so like early morning or as the sun's going down. And so I just wanted to try another option before going to Lasik down the road.”

It’s incredible, really, that Fowler has achieved the heights that he has while battling vision problems. Fowler said he’s avoided wearing glasses in the past because they moved too much during his swing, causing him to lose sight of the ball.

However, now that Fowler swings “a little bit more just within myself,” that problem is no more.

“So I said, shoot, why don't we try prescription [sunglasses],” Fowler said. “So now, yeah, I can actually see the ball land.”

Makes sense. This is the “Year of the Comeback.” For Fowler, that revival is sight.

I've never found life to be this simple, though you'd think they might tell us whether he wore the specs at Kiawah as well.

Actually, this story might be weirder still:

Despite the fact he ranks ninth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained/putting, and against the advice of everyone on his team, including his putting coach, Xander Schauffele decided to use an armlock putting grip during Thursday’s first round of the Memorial Tournament. Sometimes, a

guy just has to find out if the grass is greener elsewhere, even on … well, greens.

“I had to see what the craze was about,” said Schauffele, who said he’s been tinkering with the armlock or wristlock grip for only a few days. “I do feel funny, obviously being a top-10 putter on tour, switching putters or the style of putting.”

Schauffele, 27, is using the same putter as before, but he put a longer shaft on it and a different grip. During an opening four-under-par 68 at Muirfield Village Golf Club, he converted five birdies against a lone bogey, which he suffered on his penultimate hole, the par-3 eighth, after a two-hour weather delay.

The one-day trial yielded mixed results:

He needed 28 putts on the day, 23 of which came after hitting 14 greens in regulation. His .718 strokes gained/putting in the early going wasn’t far off his season average of .737 as he sat just two shots behind early leader Collin Morikawa.

The experiment was a revelation to the native Californian, ranked fifth in the world, who said the method, “is a distinct advantage.”

And because of that, he added, “I am for banning the armlock putters, but if everyone else is going to use it, and I feel like they have a bigger advantage, I may as well do the same.

“It’s better. It’s easier. It’s more consistent. You can flinch your hand, but you can’t flinch your whole left arm. … It takes the stress of putting out of the game,” Schauffele said, explaining why he thinks it should be disallowed. “Putting is so stressful in golf. Obviously, hitting shots and chipping and all kinds of stuff are difficult, but your putts are what give you the score on the card.

“[Putting] has ruined people’s careers and it’s helped people’s careers,” he added. “I think putting is an art in our game, and when you can lock it into your arm or anchor it to your body, it kind of gets rid of that.”

I agree with the X-Man that it's an advantage and that the USGA erred in not including anchoring against the arm with the ban on anchoring against the body.  That said, a player would be crazy to not try it to see if it would help them.  Unless, of course, you're already one of the best putters on Tour....

Dateline: Des Moine, IA - There's a reunion afoot:

That bucket hat should have been the tell, specifically the logo:

With full-time boss Tiger Woods sidelined for the foreseeable future, Joe LaCava has picked up a pretty solid side gig: loopin' for Boom Boom.

LaCava will guest caddie for Fred Couples in the Principal Charity Classic, this week's PGA Tour Champions event at Wakonda Golf Club in Des Moines, Iowa. It's not a new arrangement—LaCava was on the bag for 12 of Couples' 15 PGA Tour victories, including his lone major championship at the 1992 Masters.

“Yeah, loopin for Fred in Des Moines," LaCava told Golfweek. "Actually eating pasta watching hockey with him right now. Like nothing has changed 10 years later! Would kill to be working for TW in Columbus [Ohio at the Memorial]."

Why?  What's Tiger ever done at The memorial?  It's good to see those two back together, however briefly.

I promised this would be quick, so I'll just wish you a great weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.