Monday, June 24, 2024

Weekend Wrap - Spoiled Children Edition

The problem with the youth of today is the absence of respect for golf's traditions.  For instance, the attempted destruction of the 18th green yesterday at TPC River Highlands ignores the fact that destroying greens is Sergio's thing, so perhaps they didn't get that memo on cultural appropriation?

Have the protestors had the charges dropped yet?  If not, it'll happen as soon as the Hartford DA gets into the office this morning.  Probably including a reference letter to support their applications to Columbia.

Scottie, Unfazed - Neither rain nor sleet nor, well you know the rest.  Quite the scene:

In what already has been a bizarre year for golf news — especially news involving the World No. 1 and police intervention — things got even weirder Sunday at the conclusion of the Travelers Championship.

As the final group of Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim and Akshay Bhatia approached the 18th green during the final round at TPC River Highlands, with Scheffler leading Kim by a stroke, five environmental activists emerged from the crowd and stormed the green, spraying a colored powder or paint substance on the putting surface.

Play was suspended for several minutes as authorities apprehended the protesters, who represented the climate activism group, Extinction Rebellion.

Reports are that the protest created a groundswell of support, at least as relates to the protestors' extinction.  Somehow the rest of us avoid moral guidance from those being cuffed....

The Cromwell Police Department quickly apprehended the five protesters, of whom four were wearing shirts that read “No golf on a dead planet.” They were led away in handcuffs as the crowd in the amphitheater-like setting around the 18th green started chanting obscenities, forcing CBS to briefly cut the audio feed.

Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for the protest in a press release sent after the tournament had concluded. The same group had protested outside the gates of the DP World Tour’s KLM Open Sunday in the Netherlands, delaying the final round there by two hours.

I'm so confused.  I had been reliably informed that we had saved the planet by defacing the Mona Lisa, but now this!  I guess, better safe than sorry.  Although, if the planet is already dead, what's the harm in a little golf?

That audio cut-out was funny, as I guess these fine folks aren't so awfully good at reading the room.  There were also a bunch of USA chants which I understand, but still seems odd with Tom Kim in that final group.  Personally, I don't take a protest seriously unless they're gluing themselves to something.....

As you know, regardless of the circumstances, we here at Unplayable Lies seek out the global subject matter experts.  In this case, said expert pulls a Max Homa, critiquing the form of an amateur:

Yes, but as we learned at that recent reunion in Canada, you were the beneficiary of a "soft takedown". 


It’d been a scene, though, on the 18th hole at TPC River Highlands, after Scheffer had worked his way into a one-shot advantage during Sunday’s Travelers Championship final round. On the closing hole,
Scheffler hit just off the green’s right side with his second shot, before Tom Kim, his closest pursuer, dropped to 10 feet. But then play stopped. A small group of protesters stormed the green.

They released a power-looking substance. They were stopped and led off by security. Watching were Scheffler, Kim and playing partner Akshay Bhatia, who later said he was scared for his life. Play was paused. The grounds crew cleaned up debris, though some stains remained. They played on.

And Scheffler missed. And Kim made. Playoff.

There, back on 18 — where a new hole was dug after the interruption — Scheffler shined, as he has all year long. He hit his second shot to 12 feet, while Kim dumped his into a greenside bunker, and on a par, the win was Scheffler’s. It’s his sixth victory before July 1, a feat not accomplished since Arnold Palmer last did so in 1962. In March, Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer and the Players. In April, Scheffler won the Masters and the RBC Heritage. This month, he won the Memorial. There was an incident at last month’s PGA Championship, and a blip at last week’s U.S. Open. But now he’s a winner again, following a five-under 65 in regulation play and a 22-under total he shared with Kim.

One by one by one, quite a few in all, his foes fell short.

Crazy good season, although most of us are still trying to explain his week at Pinehurst....

The Tour Confidential panel might be a bit ahead of facts on the ground:

1. Scottie Scheffler beat Tom Kim on the first playoff hole to win the Travelers Championship to secure his sixth win of the season — the most since Tiger Woods won six in 2009 and the most before July since Arnold Palmer in 1962. With roughly five starts remaining in the 2024 season, how many more wins do you think Scheffler can realistically get?

Josh Sens: Five. Not being cheeky here. Could happen. Odds suggest otherwise, as he has only won a
little more than ⅓ of his starts so far this year. So maybe he will just grab two or three. But Scheffler running the slate would not shock me.

Jack Hirsh: Sens, I mean this in the most respectful way possible, but you are off your rocker here! There’s only nine more tournaments plus the Olympics! I say two. My guess is that he won’t even play the Scottish Open so he’s only going to make four more starts. I say he wins the Open and grabs the Tour Championship with his two-shot headstart. Seems a little unfair that he has the most FedEx Cup points ever under this format and he’ll only be start in that staggered start format (of which I am a fan of) two ahead, but I guess they can’t just hand him $25 million.

James Colgan: Ooo, love a good, old-fashioned debate. I’ll take a middle-man answer of 3.5 wins, but if Scottie proves his high-ball game can mesh well with links golf, Sens could be looking real good in a month.

Sens: Well, if he only had four starts then of course he can’t win five. The question was whether it’s realistic, defined as being within the bounds of reason. Doesn’t mean it will happen. But it certainly could. Let’s make it a friendly wager, Jack. If he wins more than two, you apologize publicly for disrespecting your elders. If he doesn’t, i’ll buy you a new lunchbox.

Hirsh: Wow, wow, wow, you say he is going to each of his next four-five starts, yet you win if he wins three? I’ll take that bet, but only if it’s he wins all of his starts vs. two or fewer. Three is a push! Also, I’m assuming we’re talking a Cypress Point logo’d lunch box, yes?

Sens: I was thinking Thomas the Tank Engine.

I'm sure it sounded much funnier as they were hacking away at their keyboards.  But I don't even know if they're including the three playoff events, but their second Q&A raises the bar further on their cluelessness:

2. Five of Scheffler’s six wins have come in non-majors, which means there were no LIV Golf members competing. Years from now, when the PGA Tour/LIV dust (presumably) settles, will not having those full fields with the best players in the world do anything to devalue what’s been a historic season?

Sens: Scheffler has been astounding. But because this is sports, where all topics get picked over and argued about in granular detail, I think there will have to be an asterisk included. Bryson DeChambeau beat Scheffler the last two times they went head to head. How could there not be? But it will be a very small asterisk, mentioned by only the most irritable of cranks. And as with most sports-related debates of that kind, anyone who gets too worked up about it should probably find better things to do with their life.

Hirsh: I think an asterisk is a little strong. Maybe a little, but he did beat everyone* at the Masters and if he beats everyone again at Troon it won’t matter. What he’s doing is absurd no matter who he’s playing against.

*Talor Gooch did not play in the Masters.

Colgan: You guys are nuts. Scottie is playing at the highest level of any player alive right now. Period. End of story. It’d add some luster if he’d won all of these events against LIV players, but six wins in a year is six wins in a year. It’s damn impressive, and it’s NOT earning an asterisk any time soon.

Hirsh: Don’t lump me in with Sens! I said just a little, but agree with you that it does not detract from what he’s doing and would only add if LIV players were in the PGA Tour fields he’s beaten.

It does deserve an asterisk, but these writers are too lame to actually understand why.  It's not Talor Gooch missing from the fields of 4-5 of Scottie's wins, it's the 70 players excluded to keep Patrick Cantlay happy.  To be fair, if we're comparing Scottie to Tiger, in many of the latter's multi-win seasons he racked up wins at the WGC's, whose fields weren't large either.

That's a wrap on Signature Evets for the season, and we can now cue the Tour's frantic efforts to make us care about the FedEx Cup.  

Chasing Amy - Don't fret is that obscure movie reference went over your head, but this is an especially popular win:

The KPMG Women's PGA Championship turned, in a moment, from a neck-and-neck race to the makings of a runaway. On the par-4 eighth at Sahalee Country Club, the hardest hole on the course,
veteran Amy Yang stuck her approach to seven feet, closest of anyone in the field Sunday. Yang, holding a one-shot lead in her 75th major appearance, then watched her inexperienced groupmates buckle.

World No. 276 Lauren Hartlage, in her first major of 2024, chunked her chip from the front of the green and made double bogey. Miyu Yamashita, who plays on the Japan LPGA Tour, had to lay up with her approach from an awkward lie, then hit her third into the greenside bunker. She two-putted for a double bogey.

Yang's birdie turned her one-stroke lead into four, a three-shot swing that started the march to a three-stroke victory, made only close by late self-inflicted wobbling, for her first career major title.

I had quite the afternoon of sports viewing teed up, which didn't exactly pan out.  My Yankees are currently unwatchable, and moving up the tee times in Hartford had me watching that event as Yang's lead went from one to five quite suddenly.

This is one of the more popular ladies on the LPGA, having been there for seventeen years with only some modest success.  It's a fitting tribute to perseverance, though that TC panel went elsewhere with their questions.

I agree that the venue is notable.  In our little world we can't grow grass with a single tree on our golf course, but did you get a load of Sahalee?

4. Amy Yang had 21 top 10s in 74 career majors played before she finally won her first, when she pulled away from the field at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club outside of Seattle, Wash. Where does the tree-lined and tight Sahalee rank among your favorite (or least favorite) major venues?

Hirsh: Golf in the Pacific Northwest just rules. Why? Because it’s different. Where else are you going to see trees that big and that narrow, but the key that makes Sahalee fair is that the limbs aren’t overhanging. It’s mostly evergreen trees where it’s clear where you need to hit it. I love the challenge Sahalee presented because it asked you to narrow your margin for error. Aim small, miss small as they say. The last two women’s major hosts have been home runs in the same year they get to play St. Andrews.

Sens: Aesthetically, I’m with Jack. It’s a different look, and a beautiful one. From a strategy standpoint, it’s not as interesting as some other major venues. The ‘angles’ crowd have a point when they gripe about Sahalee. But it’s a course with a cool sense of place, and it made for a nice change of pace.

Hirsh: Sure, it doesn’t present the options to hit all different kinds of shots like Pinehurst does. But it does force you to be precise and hit it in the right spot. Is it not worth something from a strategic standpoint?

Colgan: Sorry to our readers in the PNW, but I’d be okay if major championship golf never returned to Sahalee. We should demand our major hosts test all factors of a player’s game: from precision and shot-making to temerity and strategic intelligence. Sahalee got half the way there, but it fell short where it mattered.

Technically, each fairway is wide enough to fit a golf ball on, so they've got that going for them.  Not only do the trees choke every fairway and green, but many of them are more than 100' tall, so you-re not escaping over them.

But maybe the oddest note is that Golf Magazine's Dylan Dethier usually partakes in these festivities, and he actually lives in Seattle.  If we're trashing PNW golf, wouldn't you want him involved to offer a rebuttal?

They also touch on this girl, who admittedly had a bi-polar week.  Ironically, the player dominating both tours crashed and burned at their respective U.S. Opens, but Golf Digest might have jumped the gun with this Thursday evening header:

After starting poorly in her last 2 events, Nelly Korda jumps out quickly in search of second major this year

Well, that header went south quickly:

Nelly Korda misses third straight cut by matching highest score as a pro

She went rather quickly from winning every time she pegged it to having her weekends off.... Almost like it's a tough game or something.

5. After winning five straight starts — and six in a seven-tournament span — Nelly Korda has now missed the cut in her last three starts, with two of those six rounds in the 80s. Have you seen something different from her this past month? What’s going on?

Hirsh: Could just be more exhaustion than she is letting on. Winning is hard. Heck, golf is hard. You
never own it, you can only rent it. You find something for a couple months and then you lose it. She could get it back next week. She may never get it back. That’s just the reality of the fickle game we love.

Sens: Just before her recent torrid run, she took a self-imposed break to recharge. My best guess is she could use another one of those, golf being 90 percent mental and 10 percent mental.

Colgan: I have seen something different. Nelly has withstood some withering critiques of her public image, witnessed her game fail her at two major championship tests, and has still spoken honestly and eloquently after each of those failures. Competitively, she’s in a rut. But after so much talk about her standing as the face of the sport juxtaposed against her introverted personality, it’s pretty awesome to see her putting her money where her mouth is.

I saw some of that Friday round, and it would be hard to overestimate how out of sorts she looked.  

Be Careful What You Wish For -  This is what you sign up for:


Yet this is how you react to it:

Look on the bright side, Jon.  At least you don't have any of those pesky spectators to distract you....

The ironic bit is that the idiots protesting the use of oil targeted the PGA and DP World Tours, but couldn't be bothered doing this to the tour owned by the Saudis..... Hmmm, how to explain that?  Is it the absence of spectators and television viewers?  Could be, or maybe they've heard about the bonecutters....

Of course I'm terribly saddened that it's not working out for Jon.

Today In Memes -   Golfweek has helpfully compiled social media reactions to Hartford, providing your humble blogger with an elegant exit strategy.  Obviously watching police surround Scottie Scheffler had a Deja Vu all over again feel to it:

I was quite relieved to see that no one was wearing $80 pants....

Yeah, Kim is an engaging personality, but there is this dark side:

While we're young, Tom.

Quite a few along these lines: 

This one I should have paired with the Hadwin bit above:

But this is my fave:

Most folks instinctively assume that the cops are there to protect us from the criminals.  The reality, in fact, is that they're there to protect the criminals from us.   

I'll leave you on that last happy note.  Have a great week.

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