Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Tuesday Tastings - PGA Reflection Edition

Sometimes stories look different after an additional day of reflection.... Not this one, but sometimes.

Folks are out with their winners and loser pieces, so let's have at them.

Indisputable Winners - Shockingly, this guy appears on everyone's list of winners for the week, including this from Geoff:

Xander Schauffele. Just days after appearing overmatched against Rory McIlroy at Quail Hollow, another back nine bog down appeared imminent when Schauffele aggressively played out of a
fairway bunker on the 10th hole. A bogey six seemed like a disaster but back-to-back birdies eventually followed by the now-legendary birdie at the 18th helped Schauffele ascend to the major mountaintop. His post-round “team” thank yous—an increasingly bizarre element in a sport where only one squad member hits the shots—exuded class and humility while never understating the impact of those around him. Schauffele is the rare top player to make major changes in search of greatness and somehow not make his game worse. Instructor Chris Como has guided a quest for added distance that can so often sidetrack a player. But Schauffele’s performance came down to hitting 60 of 72 greens on a 7,600-yard course with smallish 5,000-square-foot greens. All while managing what looks like an occasionally jittery wedge game. A well-earned first major highlighted by his second major championship 62 in 11 months.

Yeah, it's always shocking when the winner is deemed to be a winner, but there you have it.... You  also have a series of pieces that purport to dig deeper, such as this perennial:

PGA Championship 2024: How Xander Schauffele's hard-luck losses ultimately led to the major title he desperately craved

Predictable stuff for sure, especially given the last two weeks:

Only a week ago, Schauffele was stinging from a difficult Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. He led by two shots over Rory McIlroy to start the final round, but got steamrolled when the Irishman shot 65 while Schauffele could only answer with a 71. “Poor Xander, couldn’t close again,” seemed to be the general refrain.

At that point, it was close to two years since Schauffele last lifted a trophy, in the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open. Wells Fargo could have been a crushing blow to his confidence the week before a major, but Schauffele insisted he only used others’ doubts as motivation.

“Definitely a chip on the shoulder there,” he admitted. “It just is what it is at the end of the day. You guys are asking the questions, probing, and I have to sit here and answer it. It's a lot easier to answer it with this thing [Wanamaker Trophy] sitting next to me now, obviously.

“It's just fuel, fuel to my fire. It always has been growing up, and it certainly was leading up to this.”

Yeah, it's the old "That which does not kill us..." bit.  Likely true enough, though it tells us nothing useful about what might happen next week.

Eamon Lynch has his own formulaic piece, in which it's all about, checking notes, attitude:

The only professional golfer who speaks of what he deserves is Sergio, and I know Eamon isn't looking to make THAT comparison.

Spend enough time around elite golfers and it becomes clear that the ingredients for success – and sanity, for that matter – are a short memory, a thick hide and a stout ego. All three are intimately connected, but ego is the most important component, with the others essential for keeping it intact.

Padraig Harrington isn’t known as boastful or brash, but in a long-ago conversation the amiable Dubliner stressed the importance of self-admiration in professional golf. “I have a huge ego. We all do,” he said. “Do you think we’d go out and risk having our heads chopped off every week if we didn’t want the glory that comes with winning?”

So, they all come in with the same attitude, but somehow the guy atop the leaderboard deserved it this time?  Having trouble seeing where this goes.

It’s a skill Xander Schauffele has had to call upon often in his still-young career. He has seven
PGA Tour wins but twice as many runners-up. His 42 top-five finishes entering the 2024 PGA Championship are almost a quarter of his career starts. That’s an awful lot of time in the mix with not a lot to show for it. In majors, a similar trend. Through 27 starts before this week, a dozen top 10s, half of them top 5s, two of them seconds. Yet no trophy, jug or jacket.

That’s where the thick hide comes in.

If there was crushing disappointment along the way, and there must have been, Schauffele hid it gamely. Every near miss was chalked up as a lesson learned, as experience gained, as steps taken closer to the goal, his wan smile permafixed. Analysis by others wasn’t always so optimistic. He was accused of lacking fortitude, of tilting toward safe options on Sundays, of waiting for others to lose rather than grabbing victory by the throat.

I get that the thick hide is necessary, but Eamon seems unable to explain why this was the week that proved sufficient.  That's actually one of the joys of our game, but it doesn't fit with the sense of predetermination Eamon seems to seek.

Miss Congeniality - Everyone is digging this dude:


Though moving to LIV Golf may have slightly removed him from the limelight, DeChambeau proved for the second straight major that the change hasn't affected his ability to compete for the sport's top tournaments.

After heading into Sunday at Augusta with a shot at his first green jacket and finishing tied for sixth, DeChambeau nearly added to his lone major total this week at Valhalla with an electric final round that fell just one stroke short of a playoff with Schauffele. The 2021 U.S. Open winner has now finished inside the top-10 at four of his last seven major appearances.

There's something about DeChambeau that's become evident during these last two majors. His quirkiness and showmanship have only increased since leaving for LIV and the fans seem to gravitate toward it. More than most golfers, DeChambeau appears to feed off that energy.

On Sunday at Valhalla, two things were clear: DeChambeau was the crowd favorite, and the way his game is shaping up, it feels like it's only a matter of time before he wins another major.

Yes, and Geoff had something similar, and some teases as well:

DeChambeau’s “grow the game” efforts online “content” appear to have expanded his fan base despite LIV’s awful ratings. Maturing, humility, a thirst to get better, the 3D printed irons, and kindness to kids is winning him back fans. And now he’s high up the PGA’s Ryder Cup rankings! It’s also pretty clear after weeks like Valhalla’s that the PGA Tour sorely misses a figure like DeChambeau. Even his LIV attire did not look terrible. Or was that just because everyone is desperate to watch someone who’s a little zany play?

OK, didn't even knw they were already accumulating Ryder Cup points, but a little early for 2025, methinks.

But he was a fan favorite, and that's quite the switch from his petulance prior to the LIV jump.  He still owes a certain Golf Channel cameraman an apology, but many pieces like this to be found:

PGA Championship 2024: Golf needs Bryson back

To be clear, golf still has Bryson, it's only the PGA Tour that might need him.  That's a not unimportant distinction.

They yelled his name from start to finish at the 2024 PGA Championship, and Bryson DeChambeau reciprocated with a show they had come to see, punctuated by a pirouette off his
left foot with his hands reaching for the sky as his final putt disappeared. His celebration was too visceral to be choreographed and the same can be said for the guttural cry that putt produced. While that scene at Valhalla’s 18th may have been a surprise for those watching from home, the truth is that had been the sequence all afternoon, the California native and Texas resident turning Kentucky into a home game. As he departed the green and made his way through the human tunnel that was compressing with fans reaching out for a fist bump—many of which he supplied—the indelible, incontrovertible truth is this:

Golf needs Bryson back.

He didn’t win, through no fault of his own. Shooting a final-round 64 for a 20-under total, a score that would have tied the previous 72-hole tournament mark? All DeChambeau can do is tip his cap to the man who came out on top, Xander Schauffele. “I gave it my all. I put as much effort as I possibly could into it and I knew that my B game would be enough,” DeChambeau said. “It's just clearly somebody played incredibly well. Xander's well deserving of a major championship and, yeah, emptying the tank, I certainly love to do that and give the fans everything I can.”

But while not the champ, DeChambeau was the unquestioned main attraction Sunday.

Lots of talk about his improved demeanor, including this long bit from Alan Shipnuck:

They do grow up, but this only reinforces the importance of the four majors, a fact the defectors seem to have minimized to their regret.  Bryson himself likely jumped to LIV for the simple reason that he wasn't healthy, but there's no going back for now (we've further news on that below).

Louisville Forsaken - Shack takes quite the strange turn in his list of winners (we'll have to wait for cut-makers and losers), with an homage to the venue.  he starts with this ode to the jurisdiction:

Louisville. We kid the CBS gang for all of their Louisville references, but the diverse range of things helping to make the city vibrant reinforces how majors are about more than just the golf course. Setting aside Friday’s tragedy and police matter,. Kentucky fans once again brought incredible support and on-course energy. The welcoming hospitality in town was superb. The restaurant scene even more vibrant in the decade since Valhalla last hosted. And there’s a golf with sensational small companies like upstart hand goods maker Bluegrass Fairway and longtime clubmaker Louisville Golf.

 

OK, though I'm not sure there were four long days of local references, but they do have Ali, bourbon and the Derby, not to mention a certain baseball bat.  I mean, where is Slugger White when America needs him?

But this is where I wonder who stole Geoff and what they've done with him:

Valhalla. A magical stage once again produced a thriller even though it played way too soft and slow. The ingredients in no particular order: amphitheater greens, inviting shots for players to tackle, plenty of drivers off the tee, no real bias toward any one type of player, fan enthusiasm, and an 18th hole where weird things happen. As for a return? There is the whole matter of its relevance in another ten years when Valhalla might next host the PGA. We just watched a 7,600-yard course where there was little roll give up record weekend scores even after the PGA tried tough final round hole locations. The field was 113-under-par on Saturday and 135-under on Sunday. With the PGA of America still greedily resisting distance regulation by aggressively advocating for watered-down solutions, they seem oblivious to losing even modern courses where they make gobs of money. It’s a strong irony play by Frisco! But keeping free Titleists coming to their members is apparently all that matters.

Not sure I get that last bit, but what exactly was the appeal of this four-day putting contest?  Calling it a thriller seems a massive stretch, more like a compressed leaderboard where separation wasn't possible.  

There is a case for a return, but it's a green-eyeshade kind of case:

The play rose to the occasion of one of golf’s majors and so did the support in Louisville.

So for all the worry about whether the PGA will return from an event first played here in 1996, I’m here to tell you, it will. Louisville is much bigger than its shortcomings. The proof is in how this community shows up. How this community embraces big sporting events.

If that’s not good enough, well, the proof is in the dollar signs.

“This was the all-time, most-attended and highest-revenue PGA (Championship) in their history,” Valhalla club co-owner Jimmy Kirchdorfer said.

He said they not only set records in general admission and hospitality tickets, but the 700,000 square feet of hospitality tents spread out over the course was record-breaking as well.

Now, try to name a professional sports organization that ignores a potential revenue-generating — a record-setting revenue-generating — opportunity. The PGA of America isn’t one of them.

Just not an interesting case....

With the PGA of America having divested its ownership stake and focused on Frisco, it's hard to see this as any kind of compelling necessity.  And there isn't much of an aesthetic case to be made, the best you can say is that it allows the guys to hit driver.... But is that enough?

While scoring isn't everything, this seems a bit much, no?

The Biggest Loser -  We don't have Shack's entry, but ESPN nails a couple of obvious ones, though there is that dog that failed to bark....


The defending PGA Championship winner was blunt when he was asked to assess his
performance at Valhalla this week.

"Not very good," Koepka said. "I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

Koepka wasn't bad for three of the four rounds, but a 3-over 74 on Saturday knocked him out of contention for a fourth Wanamaker Trophy. He posted a 5-under 66 on Sunday to tie for 26th at 9 under over 72 holes.

It was his third straight disappointing finish at a major -- he tied for 64th at the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and for 45th at the Masters in April.

Still, Koepka believes he's close to putting it together with the U.S. Open about a month away.

"I feel like I'm playing good," Koepka said. "It's just yesterday was just kind of unfortunate timing. But I felt like I'm playing all right. I missed a bunch of putts on Friday from inside like 5 feet, and then yesterday's round was unfortunate. But other than that, I think I'm pretty close to right there."

Like Scheffler, he was derailed by that disappointing Saturday, though we're holding him to a unnaturally high standard.  Still, he only has the four weeks to shine, which was his decision, and now two of those four have been squandered.

But what's up with this guy?


If DeChambeau has been the highlight of LIV Golf in the majors this year, then Rahm has been the disappointment. The two-time major winner missed the cut at this year's PGA after finishing outside the top-40 in his Masters' defense earlier this year.

It was more than just the results: Rahm looked out of sorts, out of rhythm and even threw a club at one point in disgust. It's too early to say whether playing a LIV limited schedule as opposed to the normal PGA Tour routine, which Rahm excelled with in recent years, is the difference. However, it's safe to say Rahm hasn't been performing up to his potential in major championships.

Rahm is still one of the best players in the world, there's no doubt about that. And he could play extremely well at Pinehurst and Royal Troon. For now, however, he clearly isn't playing at the level we've come to expect of him at majors.

"​​There has been times in my career where I would say maybe I wasn't hitting it my best but things just seemed to go your way and you carry that confidence on for a few months and got a lot of great results," Rahm said before his first round at Valhalla. "Then if you're not playing good, if you're not swinging it good, then at that point you maybe need to assess do I need to change anything technically, what's going on? It could be so many different ways to feel like you're in a roadblock that it's hard to exactly pinpoint one of them."

He looks miserable these days, and his game reflects it.  One bit that I left on the cutting rom floor was this from the Tour Confidential panel:

Jon Rahm was heavily criticized by Golf Channel analysts after he said he’s still a PGA Tour member (just a suspended one) and wants to support the PGA Tour. “I don’t feel like I’m on the other side,” he said. “I’m just not playing [the PGA Tour].” Said Aaron Oberholser: “I want to wring his neck through the television. I’m that mad right now; I’m that mad. Every player in that locker room right now on the PGA Tour, if they watched that should be absolutely incensed with him.” Do you have any issue with Rahm’s comments?

Marksbury: When Rahm took the LIV deal, I think he did it with the expectation that it wouldn’t be long before the tours came to some kind of unifying agreement. It’s the only thing that makes sense, given all his pro PGA Tour rhetoric before leaving. But now that he’s hundreds of millions of dollars richer, I can see why his comments would leave a bad taste in the mouths of his PGA Tour peers. The point of all the contention between LIV and the PGA Tour is that you can’t have it both ways — not yet, anyway. Unification seems a little bit cloudier now than it did a few months ago, and that must be frustrating for Rahm.

Sens: The comments definitely have the ring of a guy who wants to have his cake and eat it. But they’re understandable if you think of them as proof that Rahm, at some level, is torn up about his decision. He made it thinking there’d be a truce, and now he’s playing on a circuit whose format/intensity doesn’t seem to suit him. Golf’s a mental game. And whatever inner-conflict Rahm has stewing inside seems like the best explanation for how he has played in the two majors we’ve seen him in this year. But if he’s got buyer’s remorse, he should just say it rather than trying to have it both ways and act like he didn’t bail on the Tour.

Melton: I mean, he can feel like he’s still a part of the Tour all he wants, but that doesn’t make it true. Leaving for LIV only divided the golf world further, and now he’s responsible for some of that division. I’ve always liked Rahm and appreciate that he speaks his mind, but I think he missed the mark on this one.

Dethier: Definitely didn’t think we’d have any calls for neck-wringing on Golf Channel this week, but these are the tense golfing times we live in. I mostly wasn’t surprised by Rahm’s comments. He’s a significant chess piece and his departure for LIV was therefore a big blow to the PGA Tour. But he hasn’t really acknowledged that piece of the story; to Sens’ point, he’d like some cake.

Perhaps a reminder that this is a man with deep personal relationships with Phil and Sergio.... He speaks eloquently about our game and its history, but at the end of the day he had no issues walking away from all those things he told us he holds dear.  My conclusion is that, like Groucho, he has principles.  And, should we not like those, he has others....

So, Jon, you have a nice life in the LIV Cone of Silence.  It so happens that we don't miss you at all...

But the biggest surprise in that ESPN list of losers is the absence of one certain Ulsterman, who to my mind had the worst week possible.  They have guys like Wyndham Clark and Max Homa, who had what I would consider disappointing weeks.  But those disappointments don't tell us much about their futures, just a week that didn't pan out.

To your humble blogger, this week had outsized importance to Rory, due to his decade in the wilderness.  Most folks don't remember much about his four majors, but in each case he caught extremely soft conditions and low winds (no small thing at Kiawah and Hoylake), the kind of conditions in which he thrives.  He's not going to replicate those conditions any better than he did this last week, on a track with good memories for him and a week in which he was obviously on form.  Even with everything optimized for him (except perhaps for his personal life) he wasn't remotely a factor on the weekend.  As I've been observing for a while, when he wants it most he plays his worst.

Face Plant - I can't emphasize how bad a face-plant this was amongst the purist community:

This is so much more than a mere mangling of a club's name.  It shows a profound misunderstanding of that 1860 Open and the origins of professional tournament golf.  That event could hardly have been played at a club with a royal charter, not that there were even many such royal charters at that early date.   Jim unfortunately revealed himself as a poser pretending to knowledge, while actually demonstrating the absence of said knowledge.

Rats Being Rats - Is our ship sinking?

Mark Flaherty resigned from the PGA Tour's policy board on Sunday, becoming the second independent director to step down in less than a week.

On Monday, independent director Jimmy Dunne, who helped negotiate the PGA Tour's framework agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment fund last year, resigned, effectively immediately.

In Dunne's resignation letter to PGA Tour members, he wrote that "no meaningful progress has been made towards a transaction with PIF" and that "my vote and my role is utterly superfluous" now that player directors outnumber independent directors on the policy board.

So, two of the five independent directors resign at the same time?  Sure, nothing to see here....

Color me suspicious that this is merely a result of the lack of progress with the Saudis, though Rory had these bizarre comments:

“Yeah, honestly I think it's a huge loss for the PGA Tour, if they are trying to get this deal done with the PIF and trying to unify the game,” said the world No 2 of the framework agreement that was struck last June.

“Jimmy was basically ‘the’ relationship, the sort of conduit between the PGA Tour and PIF. It's been really unfortunate that he has not been involved for the last few months, and I think part of the reason that everything is stalling at the minute is because of that.

“So it is, it's really, really disappointing, and you know, I think the tour is in a worse place because of it. We'll see. We'll see where it goes from here and we'll see what happens.

“But I would say my confidence level on something getting done before last week was, you know, as low as it had been and then with this news of Jimmy resigning and knowing the relationship he has with the other side, and how much warmth there is from the other side, it's concerning.”

Because if there's one thing the Saudis are renown for, it's their warmth.  Has Rory lost it completely?

What do I think is going on here?  I suspect that these professionals are looking at the dysfunctional players, determined to seize control but divided among themselves, and the exit looks pretty inviting.  There seems to be a cabal of Cantlay, Spieth and Tiger that is hindering a deal, which may be defensible, but certainly puts them at odds with Rory.  The Tour rank and file hate all these guys, so I get Jimmy Dunne wanting to spend more time at Seminole.

Stay tuned, because it feels like it'll be a rocky road ahead.

See you later in the week.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)