Friday, October 15, 2021

Late-Week Lamentations

Today will be a bit of an experiment, as I'm blogging with my recording of last night's Giants-Dodgers game playing in the background.  We'll see if you notice any lapses in concentration...

Desert Doings - Caught a coupe of minutes of the Golf Channel broadcast yesterday, just enough to see the sea of red:

Tour pros carve up Summit Club, Rickie gets right, and Spieth magic returns on Day 1 of the CJ Cup

 Early reports from the CJ Cup at this first-time PGA Tour venue said to expect plenty of birdies, especially at the start of rounds. Boots on the ground, both reporters and players, have been hinting that this strong field would post plenty of low numbers at The Summit Club, a tony still-in-development model of American golf excess outside of Las Vegas. The first hole was reputed to be an extremely gentle handshake, with the challenge not dramatically increasing over the next five.

That’s not to say the Summit Club can’t pop you in the face if you get too far afield with driver and wind up in some junk or the natural landscape portion of the property, the desert waste. But you have to work for it, and the top players in the world carved it up in the first round ... just maybe not the top players you expected.

Robert Streb, playing in the fourth group out on the day, demonstrated the birdie bonanzas that we heard would come early in the day. In truth, his kind of run is unlikely to be replicated this week, or anytime soon. This was more than a bonanza—this was an unconscious seven-under-through-six-holes start. It was an outrageous run that made the unlikeliest of players in the field the main show in the morning draw.

Best start evah, as long as you carefully define that term:

Amusingly, the last twelve holes , which he played in four under, constitutes a bit of a disappointment...

But much was promised in that header, so shall we see if he pays it off?  I mean, Rickie getting right would be quite the scoop, but you'll quickly note that the sub-header qualifies that quite substantially:

Rickie Gets Right For a Day

You’ve heard of the “get right” game in the NFL, where a talented team with expectations draws a soft opponent to figure some things out on a Sunday to get a season back on track. Perhaps the
CJ Cup at The Summit Club will be that for Rickie Fowler, who shot a smooth 66 on Thursday to start the event inside the top 10.

Fowler missed the cut last week at the Shriners, then went to Butch Harmon’s facilities in the area for some extra practice while waiting to get it going at Summit. There is no cut this week to miss, but Fowler, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, did say that the close call last Friday at the Shriners gave him confidence and he could see a round like Thursday’s coming.

It’s just one round but maybe this is the week to get right for Fowler. This wasn’t a smoke-and-mirrors number, either, as he was second in strokes gained/tee-to-green when he walked off the course. That’s more than just some hot putter that could quickly cool off the next day and is an encouraging and fundamental sign of game. Last year became known as the year of the comeback for so many players with lengthy droughts that ended in both the men’s and women’s game. Perhaps Rickie will get on that train this year.

At the very least it's a week that he won't have to worry about making the cut...  But one good round in mid-October as a proxy for the state of his game?  The biggest surprise might be that he's even in the field...

 As for that Jordan reference, he does seem to do this more than most:

Small field, no cut and a golf course that they'll pummel... One can only guess how low the winning score will be.

The Angry Inch -  In which Phil plays Hedwig, no?  Some follow up on the USGA-R&A initiative to limit the length of golf clubs, specifically drivers, to no more than 46 inches.  

A number of threads to follow here, first this from Golf Digest gearhead Mike Strachura, indicating that this doesn't affect many players:

After understanding the feedback received from the golf manufacturing community, we also undertook a survey of usage of clubs in use across the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour and found that a very small number of players either have used or are currently using clubs greater than 46 inches. The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council recently reviewed the subject and we have concluded that the PGA Tour will implement the Local Rule on Jan. 1, 2022.

Geoff has a second deep dive on this subject up at the Quadrilateral, and summarizes the reactions of golf's five families:

  • The European Tour had no comment.
  • The PGA of America is mulling the news and will find a way to get some attention out of this. 
  • Rugged individualists and big USGA haters Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas turned predictably first world whiny, peddling the usual “grow the game” nonsense while expressing general ignorance that a version of the game is played beyond their insular PGA Tour world. Future Bobby Jones Award winners, they are not. (More on the curious case of Phil in a moment.)

That bit on Phil turns a bit dark, but first let's segue to this amusing complication:

1 potential headache that could come from the 46-inch driver rule

Only one? But I'll bet it's one you didn't see coming, because I certainly didn't:

Unlike the PGA Tour’s current driver testing protocols — overseen by the USGA — measuring
the length of a driver build at a tour stop is far more cut and dry. Or so you’d assume. According to True Spec Golf’s VP of Tour and Education, Kris McCormack, “unless you’re using the exact same measuring device at every single event, there’s going to be discrepancies.”

“There is no machine out there that measures exactly the same every single time across the board,” McCormack said on GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast. “Depending on how you measure, there’s companies out there that will measure a golf club differently than another company. So you may take a TaylorMade golf club, measured at TaylorMade, and it comes out at 45.75 inches. Now you take that club up the road to Callaway and it measures out at 46.125 inches on their device.

“It’s just interesting that, as of right now, there’s not a standardized way to measure anything. Just like there’s no industry standard for flex, loft, grind or bounce — or how you measure any of that. It begs the question of if you’re going to do these restrictions, what’s the accepted, uniform way to measure.”

Oh, yeah, those Tour driver testing protocols are a paragon of clarity... still, you'll be excused for thinking that length is easier to measure than the more nebulous Characteristic Time.... But how typical of our regulatory bodies to propose a limitation without knowing how to measure it.

So, what's up with Phil, who's been a tad cranky lately?  He is one of the few to use a driver longer than 46", so one can understand a certain pique.  I wonder, however, if he was similarly concerned about his buddy Keegan when they banned anchored putting.... But what really fries my beans about Phil is his transactional relationship with the truth,  an aspect of his personality long on display.

For instance, that original tweet that came out of the blue back in August:

The implication being that the USGA will make the game less "fun" for amateurs, which is simply not the case, as this a local rule for professionals and elite amateurs.

 Now comes this, eerily reminiscent of the whoppers he told from that dais in 2014:

So, when Phil says players weren't consulted, he means they didn't consult me:

Rory McIlroy, however, contradicted Mickelson’s account. Speaking to the press at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas on Wednesday, McIlroy said, “I was in all those meetings when we discussed it for quite a while, and I think the majority of players are on board with it.”

McIlroy added of the new local rule: “I think it’s more of a preventative measure. I think if this is as far as they want the ball to go, I think we’re too far past like trying to roll it back, but if this is sort of setting the limit, I think it’s just a preventative measure for the future.”

At that 2014 Ryder Cup presser, Phil told the world that none of the players had been involved in Tom Watson's decisions.  The reality was just the opposite, that Watson had caved to Phil and Keegan and played them in the Friday afternoon session, and watched them get crushed.  

So, what do we think Phil's game is?  Over to Geoff:

There are multiple layers to Mickelson’s Tweets on this matter and we can’t possibly understand what he’s up to. But that won’t stop me from speculating.

As No Laying Up pointed out, the above social media missive is merely the latest in a series of hostile-by-golf-standards jabs at the Global Home. (A few also came up in this podcast with Gary Williams.)

So why is Mickelson so irritable? I’d say he’s acting as rudely to the game’s governors as any all-time great player ever has (though please make other nominations in the comments section). Making it all the more bizarre, Mickelson should be pleased that the Players Championship’s purse is rising to $20 million next year, apparently. Plus, the Tour’s secret PIP fund will feed him a few million more. Fourth by this estimate.

Mickelson’s feeble claim of looking out for the everyday man—while also a victim of Jay Monahan’s supposed authoritarianism—feels like he’s laying the groundwork to break from the PGA Tour. After his historic PGA win and the major championship exemptions going with it, Mickelson’s exempt to the four most important tournaments at this point in his life.

I do remember an item from years ago arguing that Tiger had no need to be a PGA Tour member, that he could play the majors and Tour events on sponsors exemptions, but I think it a more complicated subject than Geoff considers.  But here's the dark place that Geoff goes:

This also frees him up to take a massive disruptor golf league check if he so chooses. Mickelson can say the PGA Tour made him take his 47-inch (driver) shaft to the Middle East where Super Golf League Co-Commissioners Greg Norman and Mohammed bin Salman will not invoke the Model Local Rule. You know, because they want to grow the game.

I have no doubt that he craves that check, and there are always the rumors that he actually needs the money.  But I don't think this can happen, and I actually don't really think that Phil can burn this bridge, however emotionally satisfying it might be.

As we've discussed previously, the fatal flaw in the Premiere Golf league concept is that you need all of the biggest names to sign on, not just a handful.  Mention of the PIP program above reminds us that Jay will always get a chance to outbid the usurpers, so the Empire will always Strike Back.  But how funny is it to think of Phil, at age 51, would be an important cog in an alternative to the PGA Tour?  He's yesterday's news, and even he has to know it at some level...

But the other issue is that he still needs the folks in Ponte Vedra Beach, if only for the opportunity to parachute in and beat up on the round bellies.  There's also his seeming desire for a career in the booth, where I suspect he'd rather not be in an 18th hole tower in Saudi Arabia.  Our Phil has a deep need for respect, but I suspect even he isn't ready to break with his peeps.  At least I think he's smart enough to do that....

Today In Prospective Ryder Cup Venues - In that same Quadrilateral post, Geoff link to this amusing piece on a bidder for the 2031 Ryder Cup .  If you were inclined to think that it can't get any worse than The Belfry, hold that thought:

Peel L&P, the Manchester-based development giant, are ready to spend vast sums transforming an 800-acre, historic estate on Bolton’s rural border with Wigan.

They have already drafted in renowned designer Ross McMurray to draw up plans for an 18-hole championship course, along with a hotel and cabins for players, like at Augusta.

Planning permission has been obtained, but, following opposition from some locals, new proposals will go before the town hall in January. The Government have given the scheme — which includes 1,000 new houses — the green light, as long as the Ryder Cup bid is successful.

In short, by May or June’s decision day, what sounds like a dream may become a reality.

A trip to the site quickly reveals the idea as far from outlandish. Behind long walls and an innocuous gate, a rolling expanse of mature woodland appears ready made for a course.

You already know it looks horrible from that image above, a virtual clone of Le Golf National.   Lord knows that will undoubtedly have great appeal to the Euros, who will inevitably over-interpret the U.S. futility in 2018.  Of course, European Ryder Cup venues are determined by a systematic evaluation of the architectural quality of the proposed venues.... Kidding, it's the number of zeros on the check.

As bad as it looks, the experience might be far worse than that:

‘The aim is to host what we’d call the People’s Ryder Cup,’ says PGA professional Pete Styles, who runs an academy at the nearby Peel-built Trafford Centre and who has been closely involved in the project.

‘We’d be looking at 75,000 people a day (around 45,000 attended each day of last month’s US romp at Whistling Straits). This golf course can house an awful lot of people.

‘It has the connectivity, it’s close to international airports and it will have the hotel beds in and around, with Manchester down the road. As long as Ryder Cup Europe have the appetite we think we can get to 100,000 a day, but we want to make sure it’s still a good viewers’ experience.’

To clarify, that's 75,000 people with four groups on the golf course.... Should be great, no?

Dreadful, right?  So, why do I consider it amusing?  Because this is the property today:


 It is, literally, a cow pasture.... 

That's it for today, kids.  have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday.

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