Weekend Wrap

Just a few items to get our muscles moving again in the New year.  Nothing too strenuous, as it's a rich full day here getting prepared to head West tomorrow.  We'll prep for Kapalua once I get myself settled in the Wasatch.

Mostly we'll riff off the latest Tour Confidential panel, which is all 2022-centric.  Though our lede will come from this optimistic take:

11 reasons why golf (for the pros and you!) will be even BETTER in 2022

Anyone want to guess where they started?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Yeah, it's a shock:

Tiger on the Prowl. Again

As sweet as it was to watch him in a heart-warming hit-and-giggle, sentimentality only goes so far. What we’re looking for this year is the raw excitement of Woods returning to elite competition. If that strikes you as an unrealistic prospect, you’re forgetting all the ways he has surprised us before.

At least he leaves it hypothetical, as that TC panel gets alarmingly granular:

6. From what you saw and heard from Tiger Woods at the PNC Championship in December, do you think we’ll see him make four or more PGA Tour (or major) starts in 2022, between one and three, or none?

Bastable: I think the 1-3 range sounds right. The big question mark is when and if he can walk 18 holes four (or more) days in a row. That level of recovery feels like it could be six months off.

Maybe even another year. Who knows. I’d be surprised if we see Woods make a start before the Open Championship. The lure of the Old Course will be strong for Tiger, not only because of his record there but also because (in good conditions) it’s the most walkable of all the major venues.

Zak: I think four or more is totally reasonable. But none before March. Once Tiger gets his legs under him, once a month seems viable to me.

Sens: Augusta and St. Andrews. Beyond that, no guarantees.

Melton: Call me a pessimist, but I don’t see him playing in ANY of the majors. Like Basty said, we don’t even know if he can walk 72 holes in four days. The PNC was nice, but the road to a full(ish) recovery is longer than most want to admit.

Piastowski: Between one and three — he’ll play the Open Championship, the PNC and maybe one more. The swing is good to go. But the legs (and the back) need more time, it looks like. Tiger won’t enter a tournament just to enter a tournament. He’ll play to win, and I think it’ll be a while before he feels comfortable doing that more than a handful of times a year.

Bamberger: I agree with Nick. Augusta is a very difficult walking course. The Old Course in July if the weather is good — you could imagine that. And he can shoot something in the low 70s there just on guile and experience alone. Asking for more than that is asking too much.

Mike, have you ever previously agreed with Nick on anything?

My clever (ED: We'll be the judge of that) quip to Employee No. 2, upon hearing that Tiger was playing the Father-Son, was to speculate that his next subsequent start would be the 2022 Father-Son.   Like many, I was blown away by how close to Tour-ready his game looked, but the man seemed a long way away from being able to walk a golf course, not to speak of doing that day after day.

I think these gents are over-the-top optimistic, though I's like to be at a poker table with Sean ("None before March") Zak, because he clearly has only the loosest connection to reality.

So, why else will golf be better in 2022?  Maybe because that back-ordered driver will show up?

For the big boys and girls there is this little birthday:

Another Open at the Old Course

No big deal. Just an epic milestone for the game’s oldest major, staged at the granddaddy of all venues. Postponed for a year by the pandemic, this will be the 150th playing of the Open Championship, and the 30th turn as host for the Old Course at St. Andrews. Past winners here include Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. Suffice to say, we’ll be tuning in.

Of course, we can only assume it will be played, pending analysis of the R&A's business interruption rider.

 I also agree with this, though this is the Tour that can't shoot straight:

Whoa, Nelly! And Other Sources of Excitement in the Women’s Game

Fresh off a season marked by a gold medal, a major and a rise to the top spot in the Rolex rankings, Nelly Korda shows no signs of slowing. Throw in the Kos (Lydia and Jin Young; with no relation aside from their talent), plus the likes of Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson and others, all vying for pumped up purses under new LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, and the LPGA has rarely been in a stronger place.

The spit take there is the gratuitous Lexi reference.  As an aside, props to employee No. 2 who, with the Jets seemingly in control yesterday, opined that they would still find a way to blow it.  Notable because it reminded me of my own thoughts when Lexi had that 5-shot lead after eight holes on Sunday at the U.S. Open.  To be fair, Danielle Kang doesn't have the street cred of Lexi in imaginatively coughing up titles, but I'm quite sure she'd like the last couple of years back.

But, how will golf be better for we civilians?

Scrapped Trips, Rescheduled

Golf is a global game but let’s face it: 2021 was not the best for seeing what the world has to offer. Here’s hoping for a year in which we get those getaways back on the books.

Really not comfortable saying that out loud.... feels like we're tempting the gods.  But we just so happen to have such a thing on our August dance card....

This piece is unintentionally hysterical because it's like the annoying guy at the party that says, "But enough about me, what do you think of me?"  The header promises to share why golf will be better for all of us, but the only "us" that Josh Sens is aware of are those contemplating the big boys:

A Flood of Live-Stream Coverage

So apparently $6.99 doesn’t buy a lot in the pro shop. But in 2022, it can be spent in other ways. That’s the price per month for viewers of vastly expanded tournament coverage arising from a new live streaming deal between the PGA Tour and ESPN+. Under the arrangement, the total number of coverage hours will more than triple, with live streams of featured groups and marquee holes to complement the main broadcast feed.

If your life has a void at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday mornings, Jay's got you covered.  Who else will be watching remains a mystery...

Shall we get back to the TC gang?

1. After so many wild and wonderful golf happenings in 2021 — Phil Mickelson winning a major at 50, Tiger Woods playing golf at a high level again after a horrific car accident, Bryson and Brooks hugging it out at the Ryder Cup — the mind reels at what 2022 holds in store. Give us one truly bold prediction for this year, something no fan could see coming.

Tiger speaking to the media?  Patrick acknowledging editorial control of the UseGolfFacts Twitter account?   Nick Faldo making an astute observation about the game of golf?  See how easy this game is?

Alan Bastable: Louis Oosthuizen will win two majors. No need to even play the Open at St. Andrews — Louis will be automatic on Ye Olde Course. He’ll also win at either The Country Club or Southern Hills, a pair of designs that set up well for ball-strikers who can putt.

Hard to argue that the man isn't a closer.... Color me a skeptic but, despite Alan's strong case, I'm thinking we should go ahead and play the Open anyway.

 Mike seems to agree with Alan:

Michael Bamberger: That’s not bold. That’s obvious. Hence his nickname, King Louis.

Yanno, Mike, by now that's pretty heavily tinged with irony.  But, more importantly, Mike is the one guy involved whose predictions I'd actually want to hear.

Sean Zak: The Internationals win the Presidents Cup for the first time in more than 20 years. They damn near did it in 2019. Host-site Quail Hollow has been kind to some of their best players, too (Hideki, Louis, Abe). But the real secret ingredient to beating the Americans will be creating a team of common countrymen. In 2019, Els sent out 12 guys from nine countries. This year’s team will pair Mexico’s Abe Ancer with Carlos Ortiz. Korea’s Sungjae Im with Ben An. Hideki will finally be joined by another Japanese player in Takumi Kanaya. Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira will hold things down for Chile. Trevor Immelman will no doubt bring another South African along to play with Louis Oosthuizen. And then there are the Aussies. It could be a phenomenal week in North Carolina.

That seems appropriate.  Not only does the team presumably include the aforementioned King Louis, but both parties are holding steady at just the one victory.

Josh Sens: Jon Rahm wins the Grand Slam. Check out last year’s results. T5 at the Masters; T8 at the PGA; a win at the U.S. Open; T3 at the British. A few strokes shaved here and there, and he gets it done.

That's a bit much for my taste, and it's hard to imagine that a couple of those (SH and The Country Club) set up all that well for the Spaniard.  But he was the best player on the planet last year, so why not? 

But one needs to be judicious in the choice of adjectives, because a Ramnbo Slam seemes inevitable compared to this:

Zephyr Melton: Phil (finally) wins the U.S. Open and retires from pro golf on the 18th green, riding off into the sunset with the career grand slam in hand.

Nick Piastowski: All great predictions. Let’s continue the oldie-but-goodie theme and say that Bernhard Langer flirts with Phil’s oldest-to-win-a-major mark, doing so at either the Masters or the Open Championship (if he qualifies).

But, wait, Mikey Bams does circle back and throw us a bone, and it's better than betting on geezers for sure: 

Bamberger: Greg Norman becomes the Deputy Commissioner of the PGA Tour in charge of its newest division, Global Golf International.

My only concern is with the degree of difficulty score.  Because betting on Norman to sell out is like betting on Lucy to pull the football away...As this last guy notes:

Bastable: That’s not bold. That’s obvious. Hence his nickname, The Shark.

Sharks actually eat what they kill, which is a whole lot more admirable than a bottom feeder such as our Shirtless Shark.  Sharks also don't, at least in my experience, attest to the morality of depraved genocidal governments, but maybe that's splitting hairs...

2. The 2021-22 PGA Tour and 2022 LPGA Players of the Year will be _________ and _________, respectively. Please explain your answers!

Bastable: Justin Thomas and Jin Young Ko. JT’s game has quietly been rounding back into form (four top-5s in his last six starts to close out the year), and I love that Jim Mackay is now on his bag. Bones was in a position to be picky about when/if he would return to looping. Clearly, he sees big upside in teaming up with Thomas. They’ll be a dangerous duo. As for Ko, yes, it’s a chalk pick, but how do you steer away from her after a five-win season? Also, that 63-straight greens-in-reg streak at the LPGA season finale still boggles the mind. Tough to short a player who is so staggeringly consistent.

JT actually needs to show a little something this year.  it's a category error on the men's side, because we really only care about those four majors. 

Zak: Brooks Koepka and Nelly Korda. BK promised us all just a month ago that he hasn’t peaked yet. “Just wait,” he said. I’m listening. And then for the ladies, no one makes it look easier than Nelly. I desperately want to see Yuka Saso make an even bigger splash next year. But the mind says another year of four wins for Ms. Korda.

Brooksie?  Egads, not over-interpreting those good nine holes against Bryson, are we?

Sens: Jon Rahm and Nelly Korda. Rahm opened the floodgates last year. He’ll keep pouring it on. I can’t argue with Sean on Korda. Even if my heart says Lydia Ko.

Bold picks!  Can you say chalk?  I thought you could... 

Melton: Jordan Spieth and Lydia Ko. 2022 is the year of the comeback kids.

Are we off our meds again, Zephyr? 

Bamberger: Dustin Johnson and JESSICA Korda. Johnson’s play at the Ryder Cup was a mere reminder of how good he is, when the pressure’s off. (The U.S. team was so good he didn’t have to do that much, except play as he is capable of playing.) The pressure’s off. Nobody is particularly expecting him to do anything. As for JK, sibling rivalry is a powerful thing, and sibling sharing is, too. It’s a family affair.

Don't much like either of those stabs.  DJ remains unrepentantly DJ, and Jess seems to have settled nicely into her role as kid-sister's cheerleader.

But the prize for dead-ending with a loser foes to: 

Piastowski: Viktor Hovland and Lexi Thompson. Like question one, I can’t argue with any of the above, and I’m adding these two partially for conversation sake. But Hovland continues his strong 2021, adds his first major (at the PGA, in his U.S. “home” of Oklahoma) and tacks on a couple more wins. And while the following may sound like something you’ve heard before, this is the year Lexi figures the short game issues that have plagued her.

Nick, you're a keeper.  That you think Lexi's problems reside in her short game is so delightfully naïve, but here's a little golf history for you...

" Golf is a game that is played on a five inch course, the distance between your ears" 

- Bobby Jones

If you're looking to fix Lexi, that's where you need to look.  As for that other pick, Viktor has some talent and he's certainly a likeable guy, but I'm not sure that short game is quite up to Top-5 standards.

This isn't a bad question, though you'd expect more from the responses:

3. Which player not currently in the top 100 of the OWGR has the best chance to be in the top 20 by this time next year?

Bastable: My heart says Jason Day; the game is better when he’s in the mix. But I fear despite a couple of flashes of hope in 2021 that he’s still in the wilderness. Instead, I’ll vouch for Danny Willett, another major winner who lost his way before rejoining the winner’s circle (at the Dunhill) in 2021. If Oosty doesn’t win the Open Championship (but he will, see above), Willett might.

Zak: It would have to be someone who wins multiple Tour events or is a mainstay in contention all season. Really trims the candidates. I’ll invest my hopes in Gary Woodland, your 2019 U.S. Open Champion who, at 37, still has some good golf ahead of him.

Sens: Matt Kuchar. At 43, he’s getting up there. But he’s still too good not to bounce back from 2021’s precipitous slump.

Melton: Sam Horsfield. Every time I talk with his coach, Sean Foley, he’s hyping up Horsfield to be the next big thing in pro golf. And after seeing how he’s changed his swing recently to protect against injuries, I’m buying his stock.

Piastowski: Harry Higgs. The fan favorite gets a breakthrough victory this year.

Bamberger: Lucas Glover. Still long. Great iron player. He goes as his short-putting goes, and his short putting is getting way better. (One of my favorites.)

I didn't see that leading to only retreads, as Sam Horsfield is the only youngish talent to be found in all those answers.  Not really interested in retreads such as Lucas or Kooch, or in guessing whether Jason Day can stay healthy for two consecutive weeks.

This one is curious:

4. As recently as a few months ago, at least one new elite professional tour seemed destined to become a reality in 2022. Now, that picture is less clear. In the next 12 months, will a legitimate PGA Tour rival officially come to fruition?

I don't think that's actually even true, as I for one have remained convinced that none of these initiatives would be implemented, and certainly skeptical about that specific time frame, given that they have yet to sign their first actual player (although they apparently had Phil at hello).

Bastable: Gosh, with the frequency at which Greg Norman-helmed LIV Golf has been loading up its C-suite, it’s hard to figure they’re not getting close to a big announcement. Then again, we all thought that news was coming three months ago. Did LIV’s would-be signees get cold feet, or did all the new money the PGA Tour is throwing at its top players convince those stars to stay put? Both explanations seem plausible. By the second half of ’22, I think we’ll see a stripped-down version of what LIV had wanted to launch, with fewer events and fewer notable players.

Zak: Yes, it’ll happen. We’ll see many elite Tour players fly across the world for the Saudi International in early February. The Tour’s reaction to player requests might be a good sign of things to come, too. Big money, elsewhere … play it if you’d like … these are your member-privilege consequences.

Sens: Events will happen. Big names will play. But not as many as we might once have believed. And not to the point where the events will come off as the existential threat to the Tour that they originally seemed to be.

Melton: I hope so. Competition breeds innovation, and I’d love to see some shake-ups to the structures of pro golf. Do we really need ~45 weeks of the year to be filled with the same 72-hole, stroke-play formats? I’d love to see some variety.

Bamberger: I agree, Dr. Z. Competition would be good for the PGA Tour. A big hit of creativity would be, too. But I don’t see a league starting in ’22. The mindset of the golfer is too pondering and careful.

Piastowski: Yes, and I think we’ll get an announcement from the Norman LIV Golf tour in the first week of February, during the Saudi International. Some of golf’s biggest names will already be there, some (all?) of them will likely be part of the deal, and it’s the week before the Super Bowl, so the news cycle will be dry. What it all looks like is hard to say. Does it go head to head with the PGA Tour? Does it run a fall schedule, which is after the majors, but competing with football. All good questions, and I think we’ll learn the answers in about a month.

Unfortunately, competition (really, the threat thereof) is pretty much leading to anything but innovation, at least as far as the actual product is involved.  I do think the big story here is Jay Monahan's reaction to the threat, and my prediction is that those steps will ultimately lead to Jay's demise.  That and that fact that separating your fans from their money and encouraging them to behave badly in public demonstrate a profound contempt for the actual game of which he is a steward.

Good luck here:

5. Now that USGA CEO Mike Whan has had several months to get acclimated to his new role, what would you like see him make his top action point in his first full calendar year on the job?

Bastable: It’s hard to figure that a big distance announcement isn’t forthcoming in 2022, in terms of some kind of modification at the elite levels of the game. The Distance Insights movement, of course, long predates Whan’s tenure, but he seems on board with measures to dial back the big boys. He’s on record saying he’s not afraid of bifurcation and that “some degree of reining in” wouldn’t be a bad thing. My guess is Whan has already spent many hours analyzing the topic and discussing with key stakeholders. A local rule on distance is surely coming soon.

I'm not quite as sure, though I'm also a little uncomfortable with the abdication aspect of this.   

Zak: Make it all make sense. Make all the rules changes make sense. Make it make sense to me, and to Phil Mickelson, and to my father, who plays twice a year but watches most Sundays. Make the greens book changes feel like they were obvious. Give us plain, clear reasons why Bryson’s caddie measuring the slopes of the 14th hole during a Tuesday practice round in Jacksonville doesn’t align with the purity of the game created in Scotland. Same for distance control and how far the golf ball flies due to technology. I think the reasoning is somewhat understood, but the announcements have become controversial enough that it’s still not quite hitting home in the way it should.

Sens: Admirable goals above. Meantime, though, I’ll go with something within easier reach: Strictly enforce a shot clock. Pick up the pace.

Melton: Give us a clear picture of what the U.S. Open rota will look like. We know Pinehurst and Oakmont will be heavily featured, and I’m curious where else the national championship will stake its roots.

Add Pebble and Shinny, rinse and repeat.  The wild card might only be where they stand with Merion and The Country Club, which I think they probably should move on from unless they're seriously going to take action on distance.  

Piastowski: Set a deadline for the distance decisions. Talk about a bold move in year one, but it’s time to move on from this.

The deadline was actually 2005, how are they doing? 

Bamberger: Recognize that the elite game and the regular-joe game are different. Create a MUCH simpler handicap system. (Write down your scores. You can’t make worse than a triple bogey on a hole.) A stroke, not distance, penalty for lost balls and OB balls. A slower ball for them. A WAY faster game for us. Preach ready golf and proceed to your ball.

I agree they mad the handicap system way overly-complicated, it's just that it doesn't matter all that much.  They certainly do seem like they're embracing Mike's first point, though that's not without peril, as each local authority might take a different position on their proposed model local rules.

 Maybe one more?  I thought this slightly interesting:

Updated: Our list of the best 8 players without a major

You want category errors?  Got you covered.... I'm just going to excerpt the full list, and you can click through if you're so inclined.  

8. Paul Casey

7. Patrick Cantlay

6. Tony Finau

5. Matt Kuchar

4. Tommy Fleetwood

3: Lee Westwood

2. Rickie Fowler

1. Xander Schauffele

Are you done laughing yet?  Imean, Kooch?  That's a good one, though Tommy-Lad and Rickie are almost as comical.  He just obviously can't decide if good means right-now good (X-Man and Patrick) or lifetime body of work good (Kooch, maybe, and Rickie, meh).

Obviously the two names of interest are Xander and Cantlay, both of whom are officially due.  Some might add Finau, though he's struggled to win anything.  That puts those guys under a bit more pressure when we get to major season, so stay tuned.

As for ranking Kooch above Cantlay?  Hey, comedy gold.

I shall leave you there and catch up from later in the week from Utah.