Weekend Wrap - Memphis in August Edition

Is it possible that the Tour officials just got the lyric wrong?

Because it's hard to find any other logic for being there in August...

It Ain't The Heat... - Who cares, really, except for one factor.  The rain delay pushed the conclusion deep into the evening, and it made a place to jump between shots in the Women's U.S. Amateur final.  What was harder to watch, Lucas Glovers soaking wet pants or the Yankees bullpen in the ninth inning yesterday?  

In fact, this proved to be the key moment in Glover's win:

Is Lucas Glover the hottest player in golf?

At the FedEx St. Jude Classic on Sunday, he certainly looked to be.

To see how the sweltering Memphis heat was affecting Glover, you needed look no further than his khaki pants, which were so sweat soaked that Glover looked as if he’d run through a couple of sprinklers at TPC Southwind.

It was that kind of week at the PGA Tour’s first of three playoff events, where the heat index threatened 120 degrees. In the second round, which Harris English described as “the hottest I’ve ever felt on a golf course,” English’s own caddie needed to be helped off the course with heat exhaustion. Jordan Spieth said he was “humbled” by the oppressive conditions, adding, “It’s just a different kind of heat.” Said Tommy Fleetwood, “Obviously the disadvantage is just how sweaty it is, how slippy your hands can be and the grips and everything.”

Rain glovers aren't only for the rain, yanno....  But this is the money quote:

The third round wasn’t much better — “I haven’t played in this heat since maybe Memphis last year,” Justin Rose said

And you won't again until Memphis 2024, what conclusions should we draw?  That maybe we should play somewhere cooler this time of year?  Nah, let them suffer....

Even the Tour Confidential panel noticed the thermometer, though this would seem to be the least of it:

6. In Memphis, the players and caddies suffered through real-feel temperatures that were north of 110 degrees. The excessive heat sidelined one caddie, clouded Jordan Spieth’s decision-making and had many asking whether in such sweltering conditions players should be permitted to wear shorts. Should they?

Melton: They absolutely should. Tradition should be thrown out the window when player safety is at stake. When temps get that high, tournament organizers should be doing everything in their power to keep players safe from heat-related illness.

Marksbury: I used to be pro-pants at all costs. But now that I’ve been desensitized by practice-round shorts, they don’t bother me as much. You have my blessing for tournament rounds, too! That said, I’m not sure how much it will help. Caddies can wear shorts, and they were still suffering. It’s just tough to combat temps and humidity that severe.

Sens: When it comes to golf dress codes, I pretty much have a don’t ask, don’t care policy. You want to wear shorts, knock yourself out. That’s between you and your fashion god and your sponsor. Besides, as climate change continues to accelerate, whether to show a little leg is going to be the least of the questions. There will be increasing uncertainty about the viability of certain venues at certain times of the year.

I think the logical change given the last year in Tour golf is that only the top twenty players should be allowed to wear shorts....  Because, if there's one common theme from recent developments, it's that no one cares about any other players.  If their sweat-soaked pants sag around their ankles and negatively affect their games, I'm sure Rory would be happy to offer them a chipper, "Play better!"

As for the event, that TC panel only had this to mull over:

5. Lucas Glover won the FedEx St. Jude Classic, the first of three legs of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Just 50 players advanced from the St. Jude to next week’s BMW Championship, from which 30 more players will qualify for the Tour Championship. Has the new smaller-field playoff format for 2023 made the playoff more interesting, or have fewer players in the mix diluted the drama?

Marksbury: The primary drama-driver this weekend was who would make the top-50 cut, and not because that was the BMW Championship field number, but more so because of the ramifications the FedEx Cup ranking has for next year’s eight signature events, which the top 50 will be exempt into. That was fun to track, even though there wasn’t a ton of movement on either side. I still prefer a bigger field with a cut, at least for the first playoff event.

Sens: I prefer the smaller field. The playoffs already suffer from a sense of manufactured excitement, with nothing much at stake other than money. If it’s going to be a free roll, at least restrict it to a smaller number of players who are performing at their best.

Josh, you mean by including players that racked up their points in October/November?  It actually makes sense that a field would be pared for playoffs, it's just that playoffs make no sense in golf.  Oh, a high-stakes shootout could work, but that would be far too logical and would make them dispense with all the "season-long" nonsense (which, admittedly, is what FedEx is paying for).  Both shills struggling to identify anything that might have actually been interesting, and pretty much spitting the bit.

But wouldn't this have been a far more logical question for the TC panel:

Lucas Glover did not hesitate when asked if he’d pick himself to play in the Ryder Cup

The answer won't shock:

The answer was empatic. “Right now, yes." The question was asked to Lucas Glover, wondering if he’d pick himself to play in the Ryder Cup next month in Rome.

I'd have gone with "emphatic", but that's just me.  I know they don't have fact checkers any longer, but apparently they don't even have spellcheck....

It's not a crazy notion, though cold water is incoming:

Heady stuff for the 43-year-old who didn’t qualify for a major championship this year and was ranked outside the top 100 in the world. Now, he’s up to 30th in the world, just captured his sixth career PGA Tour win, his putting is suddenly a weapon and he’s projected to move up to 16th in U.S. Ryder Cup standings.

When was the last time a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, didn't play any of the majors?  I'm going to guess never, but do you take a guy off two weeks?  I would go back to Josh Sens and remind him that that tiny field size makes it very hard to judge Glover's accomplishment (remember that the field for his first win was quite weak as well).  But could you have dreamed that Zach Johnson could face a binary choice between Glover and Justin Thomas?

The best news?  We shan't see Memphis for quite some time....

Glory's Last Shot - The last major of 2024 is in the books:

After Saturday’s third round of the Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey,

England, it appeared as though Sunday’s final round would be a shootout.

Emergent American star Lilia Vu held a one-shot co-lead alongside local favorite, Englishwoman Charley Hull, and a bevy of contenders were lurking: Angel Yin, Amy Yang, Jiyai Shin and Nelly Korda.

But a stunningly dominant performance by Vu put any thoughts of a nail-biting finish to rest.

Vu appeared calm and collected down the stretch and stepped onto the 18th tee with a five-shot lead, then drained a lengthy putt for birdie to put an exclamation point on what ultimately became a six-stroke win. As soon as the putt dropped, Vu received a champagne shower from her peers to celebrate. Vu’s final-round score of five-under 67 was the low score of the day.

Shack has a Lilia by the numbers for her dominant Sunday:

• 11 of 15 fairways
• 13 of 18 greens
• 25 putts (fewest in the field)
• Final round 67 tied the lowest round of the day during both the third and fourth rounds
• 5 bogeys for the week (fewest in the field)
• 19 birdies (tied for most in the field with Amy Yang)
• Six-stroke win is the largest margin of victory since Jiyai Shin won by nine in 2012 at Royal Liverpool.
• Six stroke comeback after 36-holes ties the largest since the Women’s Open became a major in 2001 (Se Ri Pak, 2001).
• Vu is the fourth American to win the Women’s Open since it became a major in 2001 (Mo Martin (2014), Stacy Lewis (2013) and Sherri Steinhauer (2006))

The TC panel did devote one question to the ladies, but it's unclear why they bothered:

4. Lilia Vu won the AIG Women’s Open by six strokes, dominating the field for her second major title of the season. With the women’s major season now behind us, what performance or story line most sticks with you?

Melton: It’s gotta be Lilia Vu’s entire season. Not long ago, she was on the brink of quitting the game. But after a magical 2023 major season, she’s a two-time major winner and the No. 1-ranked player in the world. An impressive and meteoric rise from Vu this year.

Marksbury: No question, Z. Winning two majors in a year is big-time stuff, to say the least! And now Vu is only the fourth American player to hold the top spot on the Rolex ranking since the ranking debuted in 2006. Bonafide superstar.

Sens: Agreed. Nothing tops Vu’s season. But I also can’t help thinking of Lydia Ko’s entire 2023. She had such a terrific run in 2022, the cap to a remarkable comeback. And then she starts this year with a new caddie and a new swing. I know she’s not the first in golf to make big changes right when things appear to be going great, but Ko’s entire 2023 was a head-scratcher in that way.

Yeah, what would we do without golf commentators....

Fresh Princess Of bel-Air -  I did watch a fair amount of golf this week, just not an event about which the TC panel could be bothered:

Billy Schofill is superstitious by trade. So it’s no surprise to hear Megan Schofill, his daughter,

also is.

Schofill was unflappable Sunday in the canyons of Bel-Air, topping fellow Floridian Latanna Stone 4 and 3 to win the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur. Schofill, who’s set to begin her fifth year at Auburn this coming week, took the lead for good in the 36-hole final on the 15th hole of the morning session during a stretch of three consecutive holes she won to hold a 3 up lead heading into the break.

“I’m definitely still in shock,” Schofill said on the 15th green, where moments earlier Stone missed a par putt to halve the hole. “What an honor. This golf course was unreal. If you would have asked me coming into this week that I was going to be the champion, I would have said I got a long way to go, but you know, it just shows all the hard work has paid off and I really need to be proud of myself and just build on this.”

The Amateur is the ultimate match-play event, meaning that it's what I call an upside-down tournament, where the best parts are earlier in the week.  That's largely because one has so many matches to watch, but Geoff also explains the inevitable course of such a week:

Typical of a U.S. Amateur or U.S. Women’s Amateur conducted over seven grueling days, the play can turn ragged by the weekend as players tire from their ninth or tenth time around the host

course. But early in the week both Stone and Schofill looked to be playing on another level when paired or matched against more accomplished rivals.

It wasn’t until the late antics when the finalists ever seemed jittery or tired. That the finalists carried the sharp play into Sunday was an accomplishment given Stone’s injury and Schofill’s equally tough bracket to reach Sunday’s final at Bel-Air. Even more refreshing: the players chatted throughout the round and other than the lost ball search at the 14th, referees Dave Podas (morning) and Kendra Graham (afternoon) were reduced to announcers overseeing to first rate players out for a Sunday match on a George Thomas design surrounded by some of the world’s most expensive real estate.

And Bel-Air looked and played great, making for just a great week.  I also think Geoff is onto something here:

After watching a full week of golf I can (again) comfortably say the women have better etiquette, sportsmanship, attitudes and are more enjoyable to watch since they play a more relatable game. During the midday break of Sunday’s final, both competitors had the option to eat separately in a private space but chose to lunch along with the Bel-Air members, volunteers and other dignitaries in the club’s temporary clubhouse.

It's not like the men are deficient in sportsmanship but, like Geoff, I tend to enjoy the women's events (the NCAAs as well), more than the men's, and there's most certainly something to his comments on etiquette and sportsmanship.  The girls seem to especially like each other, and that really translates on screen.

Other thoughts from Geoff:

• Watching golf played a course that meshed with modern women’s distances (and maybe even set up too short at times), reminded those in attendance how much more beautiful the sport is when the equipment, skill and architecture all come together. Overall the players were tested but never did the course need to be pushed in some silly way to remain relevant. Without the smoke and mirrors so often employed on the men’s side to maintain intrigue, the golf on display was more pure and a lot more satisfying to watch. It also helps that all of the women don’t walk up to their ball and beginning mashing the grass down behind it with their club!

• As Bel-Air did in 2017 when serving as the U.S. Amateur co-host, the club stepped up as they did when Riviera member support was limited due to disdain for the aloof ownership. Despite not having their clubhouse reconstruction complete in time—it’s looking incredible and historically representative of the original rambling Spanish building—the club arranged an ideal setup with UCLA across the street. Players stayed at the Luskin Center (“the best hotel in the world” according to Bill Walton). There was free access for spectators, members and family members of players wanting to spectate and Masters-like prices for concessions. The club just gets it.

• Bel-Air’s impeccable fairways and greens are the product of superintendent Justin DiPeppo, his top assistant Penny, and a small but devoted staff. Carts stayed off the course for ten days prior to an event and the club gave up its course for a total of nine days in the name of amateur golf. Based on the positive feedback from those watching Golf Channel’s east coast prime time shows, Bel-Air will reap the benefits of opening their doors and giving all who visit the impression that hosting the U.S. Women’s Amateur was a privilege. The club next hosts the 2026 Curtis Cup.

• The USGA once again instituted a Model Local Rule “prohibiting the use of materials to help read line of play on putting green.” The G-12 MLR used at all amateur championships “prohibits the use of any written, printed, electronic or digital materials to help with reading the line of play for any stroke to be made from the putting greens.” Players could consult their notes up to the putting surface but in the interest of promoting green reading, skill and skill, the MLR prevented one more unnecessary layer that fails to make the game better. It was noticeable how much faster players were and since a stroke play scoring record was set and multiple matches saw players on pace to post a 65, it hardly seemed like the MLR in any way impeded players. Might it have even made them putt better?

• The official comment period for the multi-year distance saga has concluded. With USGA folks on site at Bel-Air, naturally I tried to get a read on where things stand. But for legal and ethical reasons, the blue coat crowd remained mum on where things will go with regard to a possible rollback of the ball via a Model Local Rule where elite players use a ball tested under tighter parameters. However, I did sense the recently announced positions of the PGA Tour and PGA of America did not dent the resolve to do something in the name of what’s right for the sport. We’ll know in a few months.

• An audio outage of 40 minutes on Thursday’s telecast was one thing for Golf Channel. But no drone shots (live or B-roll) over five days on the most drone-delicious course imaginable? Or showing “Golf Films” reruns Sunday morning instead of dipping into the last hour of the morning 18? In the entertainment capital of the world?

OK, so it wasn't perfect, but it beat Lucas Glovers drenched pants by 5&4, at least to this observer.

Phil's Phollies - Gotta blast through a couple of bits, but firth the TC panel's take on those gambling revelations:

3. A new book from famed gambler Billy Walters alleges that Phil Mickelson — with whom Walters had a betting partnership — racked up $100 million in sports-betting losses and even tried to bet $400,000 on a U.S. win at the 2012 Ryder Cup, at which Mickelson competed. (Mickelson said in a statement that he did not bet on that event but did not address whether he tried to bet on it.) Mickelson’s gambling addiction is not news — in the past he has acknowledged that his habit became “reckless and embarrassing” — but Walters’ allegations add more texture to the breadth of Mickelson’s recklessness. What’s your biggest takeaway from Walters’ account?

Melton: The Ryder Cup allegation is crazy! We’ve seen other high-profile athletes black-balled from their sports under similar circumstances, so hearing that Mickelson tried to not only bet on golf, but a competition he was playing in, is jarring.

Marksbury: Reading about Walters’ and Mickelson’s alleged gambling hijinks was like being transported to a different planet. I can’t even begin to try to relate to or comment on that kind of lifestyle. Obviously, betting on a competitive event you’re participating in is beyond the pale, and I certainly hope Phil’s penchant for gambling never crossed that line. He’s a beloved figure in the game, and he seems to get more and more bulletproof as time goes on. Judging by social media reaction, this latest allegation appears to have only added to his lore for his fans.

Sens: A lot of the social-media criticism of the excerpt I’ve read has focused on the fact that Walters is a convict with an ax to grind and not to be trusted. True about his criminal background and that ax. But those comments ignore how destructive and irrational gambling becomes when it turns into a disease. Mickelson clearly had the illness. Having known many people with that same ailment, and having seen what the disease did to them, I did not find Walters’ account hard to believe at al

Has Jessica been in an isolation tank for the last 18 months?  Is Phil still beloved and bulletproof?  I'm sure to some, but as a blanket statement?  One thing for sure is that she probably doesn't read this blog....then again, who does?

But the most perplexing thing is that I seem to be the only guy harping on the fact that Phil simply doesn't pay his gambling debts.  Sure, Walters is a bad guy, or ta least should never be welcomed into professional sports circles.  But the whole axe to grind evolves from the fact that Phil made bets and then apparently refused to pay, something that's on public record in three instances, but one assumes happened with regularity.

Eamon Lynch takes on this issue with his characteristic bluntness:

Lynch: Phil Mickelson’s gambling is a problem — for every major organization in golf

I can only conclude that LIV is not a major organization in Eamon's mind, because this is likely more of a feature than a bug for them....

Given the specificity of Walters’ account of their shared exploits, Mickelson was warily broad in his response.

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game,” he wrote on social media.

Warily broad?  More like disingenuously evasive..... Obviously evading the question of whther he tried to place that bet, but here Eamon is on far more solid ground:

It demands considerable generosity of spirit to accept that a confessed addict who bet enormous sums on multiple sports, running up huge losses in the process, drew the line at betting on his own sport, in which he had access to inside information gleaned in the locker room or even the ability to impact outcomes. Has Mickelson earned that benefit of the doubt? The hell he has.

Two basic problems here:

1. You can't believe an addict.  About anything;
2. You can't believe Phil.  About anything.

Here's the broader take:

When he moved to LIV Golf last year for a reported nine-figure sum, Mickelson insisted with

characteristic insincerity that he was motivated by growing the game and seeing players fairly compensated, not any financial need. He recently made clear that he has no desire to return to the PGA Tour, regardless of how negotiations with LIV’s Saudi backers pan out. But the fact that commissioner Jay Monahan has no jurisdiction over him shouldn’t matter.

The reputation of golf, and the integrity of its competitions, must be of concern to all stewards of the game. The issue presented here is not the PGA Tour’s alone. It extends to the PGA of America, the USGA, the R&A and the Masters — organizations that run events in which Mickelson continues to compete. Golf’s stakeholders have an obligation to investigate if one of the sport’s greats wagered on tournaments in which he played and to what extent, if any, those events were compromised or corrupted.

Hopefully, he didn’t and they weren’t, but that can’t be left to his word.

Much as golf likes to pat itself on the back about values and integrity, it is no less susceptible to nefarious conduct than any other major sport. Studies have shown that hundreds of soccer matches in Europe were fixed. Tennis had to establish an “Integrity Unit” to address a “tsunami” of corruption. Tim Donaghy, a mob-affiliated NBA referee, bet on games he officiated for several seasons and tipped inside information to associates. He was exposed in a separate FBI investigation, but the case still demanded a policy response by the NBA, which hired an outside law firm and ultimately established guidelines on gambling and the monitoring of officials.

I'm sure we can take his word on that.... when has he ever lied to us?  

I would actually argue that golf is more susceptible to nefarious conduct, just because of the ability of spectators to impact events.  Which makes golf's embrace of legalized gambling an awkward thing, one that I worry about.  Or at least I did way back when I cared about the PGA Tour....

I'm going to hold some bits on the Tour, Jay, Tiger and LIV for tomorrow.  See you then?