It wasn't my intention to blog this morning, what with the Wednesday game and all. But as long as I'm up at zero dark thirty, what would you like to discuss?
The Ladies At Carnoustie - The ladies are headed back to Carnasty, where they have visited once previously to poor reviews, offering a final fix for those with a links Jones. The ladies place a high value on contesting their events on the same courses played by the men, and one can readily understand their desire for such respect. However, it's not without issues:
Five years before that, Carnoustie made its debut on the Women’s Open rota and once again the tee boxes were in the wrong place. The final hole, as we all know, is a brute, with the Barry Burnthreatening both the drive and the approach. Those too fearful of the water risk dragging the ball into rough on the left (or, worse, out of bounds), taking the green out of the equation for the second shot.
It’s unquestionably one of the toughest examinations in world golf and yet the field didn’t face it. The tee was moved up, the drive became straightforward, and the burn was more or less irrelevant for both the first and second bunt.
It was a little like plotting a route for the Tour de France that ignored both the Alps and the Pyrenees, instead just faffing about on the flat. To no-one’s surprise, professional golfers, being masochists at heart, didn’t think much of a neutered Carnoustie. The eventual winner Yani Tseng bemoaned that "all the bunkers and the burns are out of play". Even the head greenkeeper admitted it was a "watered-down version" of Carnoustie. The good news is that the R&A, who’ve since assumed control of the championship, won’t want a repeat so we can expect the real deal this week. It should be a fine test of linksland savvy and golfing resilience.
It's a tricky business, because you want to challenge them but you also don't want to expose the product as inferior to the men's game. That tricky business is even trickier on a links, because the range of possible weather conditions is so wide.
By the way, who is this Yani Tseng of whom you speak?
Mention of Tseng is rather melancholic. The Taiwanese player was dominant in the game back then, winning four majors in just eight starts in 2010 and 2011. Yet she’s won nothing since 2012, has made only one cut since this event three years ago, and has a stroke average of 78.44 from eight appearances this season. A cold reminder of just what a callous business golf can be.
I might have gone with cruel in lieu of callous, but yeah! Yani was dominant, then heading out for the final round of the 2011 Dinah Shore on the lead, she tempted fate by lifting the trophy on display on the first tee, squandered her lead to Stacey Lewis, and hasn't been heard from since.
But Carnasty is in play this week:
Many of the players in this week’s AIG Women’s Open are getting their first taste of the Anguscourse in the heat of the battle. Former world No 1 Lydia Ko is among them and she’s already formed her opinion about the finish.
“Seventeen is a beast. Eighteen is also a beast,” declared the two-time major winner, expressing a view, of course, shared by most people, even though Paul Lawrie birdied both of them in the play-off in his 1999 Open win.
They've even toughened the scorecard:
Unlike the event’s last visit here in 2011, the 17th will play as a par 4 as opposed to a par 5, but that doesn’t change anything, really, as far as it presents something of a puzzle for players on the tee.
“There’s two creeks, and then it’s a long hole itself,” added Ko of that hole. “Unless it's pumping downwind, I would always be going in that middle section.” As was the case in a practice round on Monday.
“I hit a hybrid off the tee and hit a 5-wood for the second shot,” she said. “It's pretty rare that you would hit a longer club for your second shot into a par 4 compared to the club off the tee.
“The good thing about links, and especially on 17, is that you can roll it up. So, even if you have a longer club in, it's not like you have to fly something and get it to land softly. “I think the majority of the field will play it that way. It's not like it's just playing long for a certain type of player. It's definitely a unique hole.”
I only played Carnoustie once, but all I can remember is crossing the Barry Burn some 114 times on those final two holes. OK, perhaps I exaggerate slightly...
This will be the final bit of links golf for the season, with the possible exception of the Dunhill, which will be played the week after the Ryder Cup.
The State of Our Game - An interesting subject for a long blog post and/or a book might be the N.Y. Times and its evolving attitudes towards golf. Given their frequent pieces foretelling the death of the game, it's a surprise to see this rather upbeat take from Bill Pennington:
There is a new movement afoot in recreational golf: walking.
In swelling numbers nationwide, golfers are spurning the motorized golf cart — a standard-bearer of American golf rounds for more than 50 years — and instead choosing to stride or stroll from shot to shot.
It has contributed to a substantial rise in rounds played and spawned another novel phenomenon: The verifiable notion that golf, when a round is walked, is exercise that can supplement a fitness regimen since golfers routinely burn 700 calories or more in an outing that can traverse up to six miles.
Moreover, the walking boom, propelled by the advent of lightweight, trendy carry bags and technologically sophisticated pushcarts for golf bags, is being advanced by a legion of young and older players — with an increasing percentage of them women — who hark back to golf’s roots as a walk-only activity.
But where do we think folks got this misguided impression:
For decades, the stereotypical perception of the sport has been of sedentary golfers zooming around the course in carts with cup holders full of mixed drinks. But many golfers today are purposefully adopting a more wholesome, even Zen-like, vibe.
But how painful must it be for them to report these kinds of numbers:
The walking golfers flocking to the game in the last two years are part of a cohort of new players that are more likely to be female and younger than 35. A survey of nearly 25,000 golfers released last month by KemperSports, which manages 120 golf facilities nationwide, discovered that players new to the game since last year’s pandemic were almost 33 percent girls or women, which is nearly 10 percent higher than the industry average. More than 26 percent of the new golfers were 18 to 34 years old, roughly four percent above the national average.
“We had been missing the Millennials and Gen Z demographic in golf,” Steven Skinner, the Kemper Sports chief executive officer, said. “But they’re into fitness and more willing to throw a bag on their back and walk. That’s been part of why they’ve really jumped into the game.”
More than a quarter of junior golfers are also nonwhite, whereas just 6 percent of young golfers were 21 years ago.
To paraphrase an old bit, N.Y. Times reporters hardest hit.
There's a similar item in The Guardian, in which the R&A seems less satisfied with their demographics:
Prior to Anderton’s appointment a year ago the governing body under Martin Slumbers hadalready embarked on a serious participation and modernisation drive to which women’s and girls’ golf is integral.
Figures reported an increase in women playing golf in any form leapt from 16% to 28% between 2019 and 2020 before the sport was boosted by the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic but there are other battles to fight.
“We want more people playing more frequently but we want the participants to reflect society,” Anderton says. “Was I aware that this was a male-dominated sport? Absolutely.” It should be noted that the historic membership model to assess golf has been skewed by the millions – mainly youngsters – who now participate minus that attachment.
Though this strikes me as an admission against interest:
It is quite fair that the R&A, which has ploughed close to £100m into golf development in the last two decades, receives credit for this element of its work. The R&A’s women in golf charter has been backed up by this summer’s ‘FOREeveryone’ campaign.
To me it sounds like their programs haven't been especially effective, and some support for that can be found here:
‘I think golf in general fell previously into the trap of talking to itself,” Anderton says. “Golf talked to golf. If you didn’t play it, you didn’t know anything about it. I think it also fell into the trap of just putting on programmes; come here and learn about golf. If you have a perception barrier and people don’t think it is a sport or a brand for them, you can put on every course and build every structure you want but it will be incredibly difficult. Women and girls have to see this as a sport for them, promoted to them.
If you had once asked people in the UK for their perceptions of tennis, I think most would have said ‘Wimbledon, whites, strawberries and cream.’ Look at what we did with the ATP Finals in London, selling out at 250,000 tickets, and I think that answer would change.”
While I wish him success here, he loses me with this bit:
Female involvement remains considerably higher in tennis than golf. The enthusiasm of Anderton, about as removed from old school perceptions of the R&A as one could find, is infectious. He does not shirk at all when asked whether the Women’s Open should strive for the same prize fund as its male equivalent. Collin Morikawa collected $2m alongside the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s last month. Sophia Popov’s Women’s Open triumph at Troon a year ago was worth $675,000. Can the R&A envisage parity? “I absolutely see that as an ambition,” Anderton insists.
I tend to view the world through a conservative lens, but this seems misguided to me. It's the difference between being given or earning something. There's obviously a massive difference between the economic value of the Open Championship and the AIG Women's Open (note, as an example, that one of those does not have a title sponsor) , so on what basis should the women play for the same purse? I very much want the women to play for larger purses, but I want that to happen because they've drawn the audience that supports it.
The State Of Our Game, TV Edition - So yesterday we were discussing the value of Golf Channel, and today we have ratings numbers for the weekend from Show Buzz Daily:
OK, I know that's way too many numbers for my shrinking attentions span, but here's geoff's take:
Anyway, nice to see Mitch Metcalf and Showbuzzdaily back so we can see Americans would much rather watch Little League World Series regional games than the PGA Tour or U.S. Amateur. Not that it’ll humble the golfers. Ball goes too far.
It should be noted: Metcalf reports no numbers for Sunday’s U.S. Amateur mutiple-channel switch/infomercials-matter-more fiasco, except for Sunday’s Golf Channel window that managed to sneak out a win over Weather Channel’s Weekend Recharge, the 11 a.m. edition. However, the Am was no match for some NBA summer league games, reruns of awful movies, anything on the Hallmark Channel and a repeat of HLN’s Forensic Files II.
Certainly the audience numbers are driven down by spreading the golf audience over multiple events, but even if you combine the totals there's not much there there.
A Trash Talk Master Class - I don't think I blogged this, but there was a practice round match at Liberty National yesterday of note:
A practice-round tee time with Phil Mickelson has long been one of the more sought-after invites on tour. There are the tall tales of eye-popping wagers and his classic one-liners. And in his lateryears, the game’s ultimate short-game wizard has been an open book of advice for the youngins. If Phil wants to play with you, you’re officially a somebody.
Which made Tuesday’s stroll around Liberty National an unforgettable experience for 29-year-old Harry Higgs. It all began a few weeks ago on Twitter, as most things do these days. Higgs was “on a long flight and bored,” so he sought submissions for a Q&A session.
“Who would you want to partner with to take on @PhilMickelson and @TomBrady in the next ‘The Match’? Would be a huge step up in production to have your commentary!”
“I’ll play with anyone,” Higgs replied. “And I don’t think @PhilMickelson is ready for my trash talk.”
That caught the attention of Mr. Mickelson, who’s spending quite a bit of time online these days.
“I might not be ready for your trash talk,” the six-time major winner wrote, “but I AM READY for you.”
Harry, you don't tug on Superman's cape....
The trash talk began on the very first tee, where Higgs and Mitchell arrived a good five minutes before Mickelson and the bucket-hatted Dahmen. That, of course, was some tried-and-true gamesmanship. Mitchell made it clear that he had a hard stop at 2:30 p.m., four-and-a-half hours after their tee time, as he was set to attend the closing of the New York Stock Exchange just across the river at 4:30. Mickelson assured everyone they’d be done by 16 so it wouldn’t be an issue. He then announced that he’d be playing a Callaway with a logo of himself on it.
Harry Higgs AND Joel Dahmen? Two of my faves, but you'll have to click through to see how it all turned out.
Watching The Store - It seems that Mike Davis left a little present for Mike Whan:
A former USGA employee has been charged with embezzling more than $3 million in U.S. Open tickets over a seven-year span.
On Tuesday, acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced Robert Fryer, aformer assistant director in the USGA’s ticket office, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and 10 counts of wire fraud related to a scheme involving the USGA’s flagship event. The United States Attorney's Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleges Fryer “abused his position in the USGA Admissions Office in order to steal more than 23,000 U.S. Open admission tickets, all without the knowledge and consent of the USGA.”
Fryer is to alleged to have then sold those tickets to third-party brokers in return for payments totaling more than $1 million, which Fryer allegedly received in cash and PayPal transfers. The face value of the property was more than $3 million. The Eastern District of Pennsylvania said Fryer began his operation prior to the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion and continued through the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Geoff had a little fun with this from that U.S. Attorney:
Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Robert Fryer, 39, of Perkasie, PA, was charged by Information with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and 10 counts of wire fraud related to a scheme to embezzle and pocket fraudulent proceeds from the unauthorized sale of United States Open Championship (“U.S. Open”) tickets, one of four major championships for golf.
To which he snarked this:
Even prosecutors know The Players is not a major.
Bada Bing! He'll be here all week, folks...
That's a wrap for today, and I'll probably see you next on Friday.
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