Midweek Musings - Masters Edition

It really is the best week of the golf year, isn't it?

The Pressers - Tuesday is best known for the evening Champions Dinner, but the more interesting occurrences are in the media center, where a endless stream of players cycle through and share their thoughts on the week ahead.

That allows for a new installment of or continuing series, Good Phil/Bad Phil.... But, I hasten to add, never Dull Phil.  And for that, I'm extremely grateful....

So, Good Phil had this to say about the golf course:

Q. You've designed some great golf courses like Whisper Rock, and now that the Club has room to move the tee back on No. 5, No. 2 and possibly No. 13 one day, would you be in favor of that?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, longer is longer. Longer isn't always better. Sometimes it is; sometimes it isn't. I think that you want to make the hard holes harder, but you don't want 

to make the ‑‑ you want to actually make the easier holes easier.

So when you start looking at the birdie holes, which are the par 5s, the last thing you really want to do is continue to lengthen them to where they are not reachable and they become just a wedge game for everybody. Loses a lot of excitement and it loses a lot of greatness. 

But to move a hole back like No. 5 or No. 11 that are designed to be the tougher holes out there and sandwiched in the middle of a round in between birdie holes, like 2 and 3, I don't think ‑‑ I think that's a good thing. So you want to make the hard holes harder, but you've got to be strategic on what holes those are. 

I think when you make an easy hole, like 7, one of the toughest pars on the golf course, it changes the entire dynamic of how the golf course plays.

This is a point Phil has been making for some time, and he's also attributed the concept to Mike Davis' U.S. Open set-ups...  The logic is that it's birdies and bogies that are interesting, so create more opportunities for each.

 He's also correct that the changes to No. 7 are arguably the most significant over the years, taking one of the easier two-shotters and morphing into a hole on which the objective is survival...  I'd add Nos. 16 (though admittedly that's a completely new hole) and No. 18, with it's unusually-for-wide-open-Augusta driving corridor to that list as well.

Now does anyone know who the questioner is?  You know doubt picked up on the suck-up involved, but the real problem is adjectival....  If you carelessly use "great" to describe Whisper Rock, what have you kept in reserve to describe the golf course on which they're playing this week...

But fortunately its blog sweeps week, and we get to the ratings bonanza called Bad Phil, in which our hero is asked to opine on the Lexi Thompson penalty:

Q. Curious to get your reaction to what happened to Lexi, and viewers calling in.

PHIL MICKELSON: So rather than address that specific instance, what I would say is this: I know a number of guys on TOUR that are loose with how they mark the ball and have not been called on it. I mean, they will move the ball two, three inches in front of their mark, and this is an intentional way to get it out of any type of impression and so forth and I think that kind of stuff needs to stop.

But I think it should be handled within the TOUR. I think that the TOUR should go to those players and say, look, we've noticed you've been a little lax in how precise you've been in marking the ball. We'd like you to be a little bit better at it ‑‑ and see if that doesn't just kind of fix the thing.

Because we've all marked the ball imprecisely, especially when you're standing on the side of the ball like she was and not directly behind the ball, in line with the hole, where it's easy to draw a line.

And I think that that should have been handled within the LPGA saying, hey, look, you're a little lax in how you're marking the ball. You need to be careful. Here's a warning and let's go from there.

But to have a tournament be decided like that, with all the scenarios going around, as far as viewers calling in, as far as it being a one‑foot putt with really no advantage, just a little bit of loose marking, if you will, something that happens all the time, intentionally and unintentionally, I just think that's ‑‑ I think it should be reversed. I think that she should be given the trophy.

OK, big guy, but I'm due back on planet Earth....

Now he's right about the incidence of "loose marking" of balls on all Tours, and also correct on the subject of intent.  And perhaps there's a public service involved in saying this out loud...  perhaps.

But the disease he cites is soon to be covered by the new rules, to wit, if players can fix scuff marks and other incidental imperfections, they'll no longer need to be loose with the marking of their balls.  

But of course the gem is that last bit, that nothing that came after the assessment of the penalty should count, and we'll just hand her the trophy.  It must be good to be the Phil, a life in which reality can be wished away....  Now, about that 18th hole at Winged Foot....  Upon further review.....

Shack has the goods on other interesting presser takes, including Jordan:

Q. I'm just curious, what is it about Augusta, Jordan, that appeals to you, that suits your eye and that allows you to elevate your game in such a way? 

JORDAN SPIETH: Well, I like the golf course specifically. I like the elevation changes, the sidehill lies, the pull to Rae's Creek, the way it affects putts. It's imaginative golf. It's feel golf and I really enjoy that; when I can go away from technicality and towards feel, it's an advantage for me personally, compared to how I play other places. 

I really love the tournament. It's pure golf. When we get to the driving range, it's just us. It's myself, my caddie, my coach. No offense; there's nobody else on the range, and that's actually kind of nice for a change to be able to feel like you're not pulled in any direction. You can just get out there and get done what you want to get done. 

And then obviously, just the feel, the crowds, leading into the tournament is second to none. I really like that and am able to feed off that. Rounds like today, just played the back nine, and just had a great time out there. It was just a lot of fun. You don't come away from a lot of Tuesdays saying that. It was just a neat experience in itself.

I haven't a clue how his week will go, but I love the boyish enthusiasm in that last 'graph.  I always warn young professionals (the teaching pros) about the risk of turning that which you love into your job, but it speaks well of him that he can just enjoy being out there.

And this from Adam Scott about reacquainting himself with the golf course:

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, the couple things that really come to mind as I think about that quickly is the severity of the slope on the fairway and standing on uneven lies. Sunday here, my second shot into 2, I had a perfect tee shot and I had a 3‑iron into the green, and as I walked into the bowl, I was shocked at how severe the downslope was and had to back off and completely readjust to how I was going to hit the shot. It's very severe, even though it doesn't look it, because there's so much slope everywhere else, I think you can sometimes be fooled. That's one of the big things.

The other thing for me is when I look at my aim points off tees, I think of 10 especially, there's been a branch up in the top of a tree that I look at every year to get that line. That's an important tee shot to kind of have to move one, and so I just check that that same branch is there and if it's not, I don't know what I'll do. But it was there again this year, a little U‑shape up in the top of the trees there through the fairway.

Those kind of eye lines and comfort things that have obviously been in the last five or six years really comfortable for me here, I check those. I've felt very comfortable getting back on the greens this year, probably more so than ever. I feel like now I'm really getting a good understanding of the fall lines and the few little nuances they have here, because obviously they are very tricky at times. So I feel very comfortable with that.

And they are the kind of things ‑‑ but my level of comfort here the last five years has grown so much, and now it's far less daunting coming here than in the past.

Q. And 13th tee shot?

ADAM SCOTT: It's really condition‑dependent. If there's a little help, I like to hit the driver and aim it at the kind of corner of the trees through the fairway, and if it draws, then it's perfect. And if it doesn't, it's 50/50 it might get a bounce to the left in the grass and it might go in the pine straw. But I think if there's a bit of help, I can hit it long enough. I know I can carry the corner of the trees, not the highest point like Dustin Johnson hits it over, but I can get across the corner and it's worth trying to get a 7‑ or an 8‑iron in on a helping wind. And if it's not helping, I'm very comfortable just hitting a 3‑wood pretty straight. It's now 200‑maybe‑yard run‑out up there, if you just hit a nice 3‑wood, it shouldn't run out. So it's not a real priority for me to turn it around the corner.

If Clifford Roberts were still with us, I'm guessing that a search party would be going after that branch on No. 10, but still interesting.  The discussion of the tee shot on No. 13 should be understood in the context of the potential for it to be lengthened if the deal with neighboring Augusta Country Club is completed, but also in light of Phil's comments above.  I'm not going to say that it's a perfect golf hole as-is, but I'd be awfully loathe to change anything about it....

Alan, Still En Fuego - That Shipnuck guy has really found his voice, so let's see what he's been asked about this week:

"What do you think ANGC tournament officials would do in the Lexi situation if Rory, DJ, Jordan or Jason Day was two ahead with six holes to play?" -- Gavin (@McShoo) 

Notwithstanding poor Roberto de Vicenzo, the Masters has a very long history of offering its stars generous rulings, whether it's Arnold Palmer's embedded ball, Rory McIlroy kicking the sand, Ernie Els's free drop deep in the forest or Tiger Woods not getting DQ'd. So, I'm guessing the dude who received the phone call or email would try to pretend it doesn't exist. If that was impossible, perhaps because multiple folks were alerted, the green coats would finagle a compromise where the two-stroke penalty for mismarking the ball would be applied but the additional two strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard is waived. They always find a way to protect the players…as long as it's not a defenseless 14 year-old boy.

Wow!  Don't be bitter, Alan....  Though I have to admit, that drop that Ernie was given was one of the strangest rulings I've ever seen.  But the slow-play penalty to 14-year old Guan Tianlang was a thing back in the day...  And not to revisit past kerfuffles, but I was Ok with Tiger not being DQ'd, because it was such a revealing look into the world of rules officials and petty disputes.  

But keep all that that in mind as you read this Q&A:

"Has an ANGC official ever reprimanded you for anything you wrote, said, or did on the grounds?" -- @ShutFaceGolf 

This is a sensitive topic and, at the advice of my bosses, all I can say is that twice I have been escorted off the grounds and my absence at the 2013 Masters was not my choice.

I have not the slightest clue as to whether he's pulling our leg, but if he's not on site next year, that answer above might be the reason.  Oh, and @ShutFaceGolf is just a great Twitter handle.

"Does Jack in '86 remain the most exhilarating Masters win of all time?" -- @MarkEglinton 

It's hard to say no, but people forget that Big Jack won it sitting in the clubhouse, as a series of pretenders (including Greg Norman and Tom Kite) faltered on the closing holes. So, it's certainly the most unforgettable victory in tournament history but the ending wasn't very artistic. Exhilaration, to me, means a wild finish. Sunday at the 2011 Masters was the craziest day I've ever experienced in nearly a quarter-century on the golf beat, with eight different players claiming a share of the lead and then Charl Schwartzel blowing them all off the golf course with four closing birdies. If a bigger name/more charismatic player had done this we'd still be singing songs about that day. But unfettered exhilaration demands that the right guy wins *and* loses, so I think the best choice might be Sunday of 2004: Ernie Els's two mid-round eagles to take control of the tournament and then an up-and-down for the ages on 15; Phil Mickelson's mid-round stumble followed by an epic rally in Amen Corner; and, finally, the muthah of all walk-off putts.

Hmmmm.... I'm not sure how old Alan is, but where's the love for '75?  Miller and Weiskopf on the 16th tee as jack holes that snake?  But '04 and '11 were pretty special in their own way.

And, while I've excerpted the entire column except for his ode to the peach cobbler, this is good as well:

"Most overrated tradition at The Masters?" -- Dan (@djdonof) 

Gosh, that's tough because there are so many to choose from! I really don't care what the past champ serves for dinner, and neither do the other guys in the room – almost all of them just order a steak off the club menu. The Par-3 tourney used to be a really cool event, a chance to watch pros of various vintages work magic with their wedges. Now that it's a glorified daycare center I'm out. In theory I like that past champs keep coming back but ever since the course was supersized it's painful to watch them labor to break 80; with the course playing long and soft this year, plus gusty winds, we might need a break-90 watch for some of these cats. Driving down Magnolia Lane is a special experience but I'm over it now that every jabroni in the field videotapes it and puts it on social media. The green jacket retains its mystique but the worst three minutes in sports is the stale Butler Cabin ceremony and the always-awkward chit-chat by the chairman. ("Seve, how tall are you?") Am I leaving anything out?

I couldn't agree more about the Par-3, the second most painful golf broadcast behind only Saturday at Pebble.  The note about the past champs is also worth noting.  I don't much care what they shoot, it's that they dilute the strength of the field.... there's 94 guys teeing off this week, but when you deuct the amateurs and the past champions, there's about thirty that can actually win.

A Tradition Unlike Any Other - Coleman Bentley takes it upon himself to rank the Masters Traditions and, while it's hard to argue with his winner, who exactly is picking the photos?

1. The Green Jacket

In the totally imaginary pantheon of American sports totems, only three deserve their own cavernous, echoing wings: the Lombardi Trophy, Lord Stanley’s Cup, and the green jacket -- an antiquated, shoulder-padded swath of Pantone 342 with the power to bring grown men, quite literally, to their knees. First awarded to Sam Snead in 1949, the green jacket is the one Masters tradition without which the Masters couldn’t exist, fitting this number one ranking as if it was tailored to.

That's the picture you choose, with Jack awkwardly adjusting his collar....  Sheesh!  I'd have gone with anything from '63-'65 with Jack and Arnie (you guys know he died, right?) doing the honors for each other.

And Shack continues his tradition of reviewing the swag in the merchandise tent....I'll take one of everything.

Picks - I'm still at sea on this, utterly bereft of insight.  So, the only logical step is to see what others have in mind, and then to punt.

Strangely, I didn't find this flowchart all that helpful:

I have it on good authority that the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.  Yeah, I'll just note that it doesn't bend enough for Sergio to win a Masters.....

This guy is picking Rickie, and here's what passes for logic:

1. Total Distance Efficiency is the ratio of total yards to swing speed, important I believe because those who win the Masters don’t have to be the longest but they certainly have to get every possible yard out of their frame as possible. 

2. Going for it. A stat that measures how often players who go for the green on a par 4 or par 5 in two make birdie or better seems right in line with the aggressive effectiveness Augusta National demands. 

3. Made-putt percentage from 15-25 feet. This distance is where you’re throwing daggers at the field.

I'm sorry, remind me where total distance efficiency goes on the scorecard....  All I remember is that Rickie came into last year's Masters as one of the top picks, and threw up a nice little 80 on Thursday to reward the faithful.  Come to think of it, threw up is exactly the tight term.....

The Golfweek guys try to help me here, but apparently that guy picking Rory hasn't heard the weather forecast... I do like that they have a "Fade" category for those to avoid, and there's much good sense to be found there.  Though I think you sell King Louis short at your own peril....

So, the only logical thing is to kick this can down the road and do it tonight.

Masters Tuesday

OK, we got a little sidetracked yesterday with Lexigate, but we'll be mostly on point today....  Mostly.

Conditions/Weather - Geoff had an interesting post confirming what I've been hearing in recent years:

The club put out News Bulletin No. 1 today, Masters Monday, and it reads..

"Our fairways are mowed at 3/8 inch, the second cut at 1 3/8th inch, the tees at 5/16 inch, the collars at 1/4 inch and the greens at 1/8 inch. All mowings are subject to weather conditions and growth."

That's actually long by today's standards, especially so when you consider that this club has more money than God.  Geoff explains:

As most of you know, the club keeps a surprising long height of cut, especially considering what modern mowers are capable of producing. That cut is pushed toward the tees by a mower brigade, designed to create a grain. This practice slows down roll and does keep the course from producing drives like we saw at Austin Country Club a few weeks ago (where overseeded Bermuda fairways produced incredible roll without the grain).

It obviously helps to control distance off the tee, but it actually makes play around the greens easier...

Via Steve DeMiglio, one of the few golf writers left in America, one critic actually thinks the golf course has gotten easier:

“The golf course has been redesigned and it’s not as difficult as it used to be,” Woods told USA TODAY Sports in an exclusive interview during a promotional tour for his book last month. “The golf course was quicker and faster. All the greens have been redesigned and it’s not as difficult as it used to be; they’ve all gotten bigger and flatter. But at the same time they’ve made the golf course longer so we’re all hitting longer shots into (the greens).” 

The shots around the greens have changed, too. 

“I think that the short shots at Augusta have gotten so different,” Woods said. “The grass has gotten longer. Chipping with Seve (Ballesteros) and Raymond (Floyd) and Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal), showing me how to play all these different shots because you could play those little shots.”

Sounds less like a "redesign" and more like a change in set-up, but whatever... 

Here's a weather forecast reasonably similar to what Golf Channel had last night:

Tuesday (Practice Round): Mostly sunny and warm

Low: 61, High: 86 -- Winds: WSW 10-15 mph

Wednesday (Par 3 Contest/Practice Round): Cloudy, 80 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms, especially after 11 a.m.

Low: 63, High: 80 -- Winds: SSW 5-10, increasing to 10-20 mph 

Thursday (Round 1): 30 percent chance of early morning showers, mostly cloudy and windy

Low: 55, High 65 -- Winds: WSW 15-20 mph with gusts up to 25-30 mph 

Friday (Round 2): Chilly start, then partly cloudy, breezy and cooler

Low: 44, High: 63 -- Winds: WNW 15-20 mph

Saturday (Round 3): Cold start, then sunny and pleasant

Low: 40, High: 69 -- Winds: 6-12 mph 

Sunday (Final Round): Mostly sunny and warmer

Low: 46, High: 78 -- Winds: S 5-10 mph

The good news is that weekend looks much better than in last week's early forecast....  There's quite a good chance that the Par-3 could get washed out, though I think Western civilization might survive.

Golf Channel had higher winds for Thursday and Friday, and that to me is the takeaway....  Back when I thought it would be soft with wee breezes, my mind inevitably went in the direction of, "Well, if Rory is ever going to get that lifetime slam, these are the conditions".  Now, it's more along the lines of does he have back-up plans for the weekend....

Time Killers - Do you have too much time on your hands?  Do you have to wait for Candy Crush to release new episodes?  We've got you covered....

First, have you updated your masters app on your phone or iPad?  Shack and Golf.com explain the

viewing opportunities available.... There's featured groups, Amen Corner and much other coverage you didn't realize you needed....

Short drone coverage here.  Pro tip, turn off your audio for this..... Not sure why they don't have drone video of every hole, but I also don't know why we don't have a blimp or ProTracer....  It will have you salivating, so have a napkin available...

But if you're really in the market for a time suck, you can't do better than to watch the videos of the original CBS broadcasts of Arnie's victories,,,  His first in 1958 is here, and is quite interesting having just finished David Owen's history of the event.   I love the crude graphics of the hole layouts, and adore watching a player "we can't identify" hit his tee shot on No. 16.  This was long before they sent the leaders out last, a vestige of the days when the live gate was a meaningful share of fnding the costs of the club each year.

The 1960 video I highly recommend, especially the award ceremony featuring Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones.  My favorite is Roberts correcting the name of the club, but it also features Jack tying Billy Joe Patton for low amateur and the interesting interplay between Arnie and Ken Venturi.   The back story is the Arnold had gotten a strange ruling in 1958 related to an embedded ball, and Venturi went to his grave believing that a Masters had been stolen from him (full details on this incident here).  But in the presence of Jones and Roberts, one plays from the script...

They have 1962 and 1964 available as well.... You can thank me later.

Predictions Are Hard...  - You know the drill, especially about the future.... We'll circle back to the Tour Confidential panel, in which I thought this a better question than the usual one:

2. Masters week is finally here, so we're going all green the rest of the way. What's the biggest storyline of the week? No wavering. Pick just one.

Zak: As for storylines, methinks the career Grand Slam outweighs DJ's impressive run. After all, it's only the most impressive run this side of Jason Day 11 months ago. Rory earns a completely different rank within this game once he wins a Masters.

Spieth and Phil get a bit of love as well.... This question could have been avoided:

3. Fuzzy Zoeller, in 1979, was the last player to win in his first trip to Augusta National. There's a strong lineup of first-timers in the field this year, and it's got an international feel to it. Who is most likely to contend among these four rookies: Adam Hadwin of Canada; Alex Noren of Sweden; Thomas Pieters of Belgium; or Jon Rahm of Spain?

The answers, in the order in which they were rendered, are Rahm, Rahm, Rahm, Rahm and Rahm.....

No question which of these guys has the greatest upside, though my expectations for the Spaniard this week aren't all that high.  Partially because he's a first-timer, and partially because he went through the wringer two weeks ago in Austin.

The answers when asked to pick a dark horse to contend are a trip:

Bamberger: Fred. Swing does not quit. Back does, but swing doesn't. Give the old man a good putting week and let's see what happens. 

Zak: Charley Hoffman has a sneaky-great record at this course. For someone who has never ascended to the top 30 in the World Ranking, Hoffman has placed in the top 30 in all three of his appearances at the Masters. In other words, he's due to miss the cut.

Two things...  Fred who?  And I don't think you're using the word "great" correctly... Really, the effective field at the Masters is so small that an actual successful professional should expect to finish in the top thirty just for showing up.

And the obvious exit question:

7. Step up to the window and give us your win, place and show picks, along with a winning score.

Shipnuck: I'm gonna cite Occam's razor here - sometimes the most obvious choice is the correct one: 1. Dustin Johnson (-13); 2. Phil; 3. Jordan Spieth. 

Bacon: I picked Phil to win before the season started and while my confidence dipped after his showing this weekend in Houston, I could still see Lefty pulling out some magic, and leaning on a revived putter, to get No. 4. I'll say Rory and Paul Casey round out the top-three.

I'm not sure about the picks, but I do love the Occam's Razor citation.... Though how that leads to Phil's door remains a mystery.

As of now, I'm not feeling committed in any particular direction.  I know, channeling my inner weasel...  But I'll throw a roster into Yale Stogel's pool tomorrow, and will share my picks with you.  In the meantime, I'll direct you to this Golf Digest piece from their Masters issue that will steal any remaining time not spent on the videos above.

It's basically players anonymously dishing on each other and assessing their chances this week.  There's so much of interest that I'll let you discover on your own, but there's a couple of things I want to share.  First,as relates to Rory, this is something that has frustrated me for years:

How often do you see him and [caddie J.P. Fitzgerald] looking at each other in shock

after his ball has finished 20 yards over the back?" . . . "If you listen to them on the course, you often hear Rory asking, 'What happened there?' More than once I've heard J.P. saying something like, 'OK, hit a soft draw with a 6-iron off that tree.' And I've immediately thought, This ball is going over the green. And sure enough, it does. So you have to wonder. I see Rory up close only occasionally, and I know he's going to hit the ball over the green when his caddie clearly doesn't. It makes no sense." . . . "Rory needs someone to tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear." . . . "Why he doesn't employ Billy Foster is a mystery. Rory would have 10 majors by now if he did. Of course, we know what Rory is like. He's as stubborn as anyone on tour. The more people tell him that J.P. is not the right caddie for him, the more he'll keep him on."

I also think Rory is terrible reader of greens, and could use assistance there.   

And another player's caddie was also called out, at least as far as this week is involved:

."His biggest problem is his caddie [brother Austin]. At Augusta, you have to really be on your toes. And he's not that experienced there. So I do wonder if they have any idea strategically on the ultimate strategic course. He has already gone for way too many flags."

Having his brother on his bag has obviously worked for DJ, but he could use a Carl Jackson this week...  I don't think either of the Johnson boys is smart enough to at least play a practice round with an experienced Augusta caddie and suck up the necessary yardage, like Spieth and Greller did a couple of years ago. 

Weekend Wrap - Snatching Defeat Edition

Forget that little exhibition on Washington Road, the big news is that Employee No. 2 and I played nine holes yesterday.  It was pretty wet out there, but the test drive of her new Smith & Nephew hip came off without a hitch.  The quality of play was shockingly good, and you humbled correspondent hit the first great shot of the new season.... a 4-hybrid drawn around trees that landed softly under the pin on our seventh green.  There's no particular reason for you to care, but you know the feeling of such a shot and your heart is sufficiently magnanimous to enjoy it on behalf of others....

What a great opportunity for the LPGA.  With the big Tour suffering a pre-Masters lull, their iconic first major offering a prime time TV window and a last group featuring the best American player going mano-a-mano head-to-head with Snidley Whiplash Suzann Pettersen, what could go wrong?  

Thompson led the tour’s first major of the season, the ANA Inspiration, by two strokes after 54 holes, but a ruling on Sunday cost her four strokes. 

As Thompson was putting on the 12th hole during the final round, the Golf Channel commentators began talking about a rules infraction that had recently been brought to their attention — but it happened in the third round. 

On the 17th hole on Saturday, video shows Thompson marking her ball before attempting a short putt. In the replay, Thompson’s coin was not visible when she marked her ball, but it was afterward when she placed the ball back on the green, meaning she had replaced the ball in the wrong place. 

Officials retroactively assessed Thompson with a two-stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place, plus an additional two strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard after the third round.

Good news, LPGA. You figured out how to break the Golf.com news embargo of your major... The flip side? Headers like this:

Column: Lexi Thompson mugged by 'armchair weasel' in ANA heartbreaker

Let's break this down into its relevant constituencies, shall we?  I think we have three separate issues to discuss, as follows:

1. Was there a crime?  With the benefit of the Golf Channel video, was the manner in which Lexi marked and replaced her ball deserving of a penalty;
2. How do we fell about fans calling in observed penalties, armchair weasels or not?
3. There's got to be a morning after?  Or perhaps not..... No doubt you were upset about a penalty being imposed in the middle of the final round that related to the prior day's play, but is that fair?

To address the first, I'll first excerpt a portion of John Wood's answer in this week's Tour Confidential:

That being said, Lexi's mark and re-mark was very curious. The putt practically seemed a gimme, and yet it was obvious and plain the ball was placed in a different position than where it originally lay. I just don't get it. In a sense, you could almost understand something like this happening if someone marks, waits, walks around, reads the putt, waits for others to finish, and then returns to their mark to replace their ball. But this wasn't that. This was mark, lift, and replace in practically one motion, with no time elapsing. Like I said, there's got to be more to this.

Let's get some of the obvious stuff out of the way, including that there is no credible allegation of intent....  It's an awkward moment where Lexi seemingly intends to putt out, has second thoughts and throws the coin down but from the side...  Very sloppy and very undisciplined.   

But it is the responsibility of the player to return the ball to its original position, and she screwed that up.  It's horrible tradecraft, and Lexi should be a tad embarrassed.

It's on No. 2 on which we'll have the most substantial argument.  Here's Josh Sens from the TC panel:

From the video replay, it looks like a violation. And I'd have no problem with Lexi being slapped with a two-stroke penalty if a fellow player or a rules official had called her on it. But a viewer call in that results in a penalty the following day? Enough with the couch potato whistle blowers. Let the rules of the game—and the code of golf that Michael refers to above—be enforced by the players and the officials on hand.

And Golf Channel had this seemingly immediately:

Tiger watching women's golf?  Well, he always did have a thing for those blondes....

I agree that I detest the phone calls and e-mails from viewers that affect tournaments, but I've over-ruled myself.  Stick with me and see if I can make you agree.  The basic argument seems to be that there's no other sport in which people can phone in that they saw officials get it wrong.  That's literally true but effectively wrong....

What's happened in virtually every other major sports is that they've reacted to what can be seen on TV by implementing procedures by which that video can be used to change the call.  We still argue about it, but there's a general consensus that if the technology can capture it, that we want to get the calls right.

To me, the biggest takeaway from the DJ fiasco at Oakmont was that in 2016, the USGA didn't have an official in a video booth ready to review anything that might come up.  They literally had to walk in from the golf course....  Talk about bad tradecraft....

Secondly, on this specific subject, golf is different....  I know, it's a bit of a cliche by now, but it really is the only sport where the player is responsible for his own score.  I don't like the optics any more than others, but I simply can't conclude that a golfer wouldn't want all available information before signing his or her card....  It's what separates us from the other primates.

I'll also note that frequently the folks calling in are trying to help the player....  When David Eger called the Masters a few years ago about Tiger's drop, it was to avoid this situation:

And how do you ding Lexi for signing an incorrect scorecard when it was correct at the time she signed it? Give her the two-stroke penalty for mis-marking her ball, if you must, but four strokes was cruel and unusual punishment.

And back then, it was a DQ....   

I know you're upset with me now, but I'm hoping to make things right on our third issue.  There hasn't been a lot of commentary, because this happened late last night.  But no one has hit on an issue that has long troubled me on this subject...

Each round of golf should be played, to the extent possible, under the same rules and conditions....  But in an important sens they're not.  The rules for the final round are different, in that what happened to Lexi in the third round could not have happened in the fourth.... Let me explain.

Hypothetically, let's assume that an avid LPGA fan watches the event on his or her DVR Monday morning, and spots a bad mark of the ball.  He or she picks up the phone and calls the LPGA, and is told, "Thank you, but the tournament is over".  See the difference?  There has to be a point where the round is finished and is in the books, and we don't look back.  

Yes, her infraction was trivial and related to a tap-in that even Lexi couldn't have missed....  But as a golfer that's not good enough.  She failed in her responsibilities, and she risked the penalty.  But like any game in any sport, there comes a time when that round or game is concluded and the results are final.... and I'm thinking that should come shortly after the last group posts but surely before the first group tees off the next morning.

Your thoughts?

Catching Up

With the pile of papers on my desk only marginally diminished, let's sort through some things that slipped through the cracks....

Masters Stuff - We're still a few days away from getting serious about any of this, so we'll lead with Joe Passov's entertaining Eighteen Things You Didn't Know About Augusta National and The Masters, though of course I know most of them.  The fact that I cheated and read the book does not diminish that accomplishment in any way....

Here's a sample:

11. Aside from Alister MacKenzie, 10 other practicing architects have tinkered with Augusta National. Most underrated was Perry Maxwell, who converted the ho-hum par-4 7th into a terror, with its shallow, elevated green fronted by deep bunkers [photo right]. He also relocated the 10th green some 50 yards up a hill and to the right. The most prominent change was made by Robert Trent Jones Sr., who in 1947 transformed the par-3 16th from an easy 145-yard pitch over a creek into a 170-yard shot over a pond, with a brand new tee and a new green well to the right of the original.

OK, the original 16th was quite a weak hole.  But while the hole is more formidable, I still don't like the green much...  There seems to me little reason to place the pin near the water on Sunday, when the slope of the green provides a safer target away from the hazard that feeds the ball towards it.  And the hole location the back-right tier is simply dreadful, unless you're a fan of watching uphill 30-footers all day.

The switching of the nines is also widely misunderstood:

13. Augusta National's nines were switched after the inaugural Masters in 1934. Yet, records show Alister MacKenzie had first conceived of the current configuration, then changed the plan prior to construction in 1931, possibly to have the 18th (the present 9th) finish near the “new” clubhouse. The nines were reversed, to their present order, because the lowest parts of the course (today's 10th through 12th holes) were susceptible to frost and drainage issues. Switching the nines allowed play to start earlier -- and yes, for more drama near round's end.

And this:

17. For years, it was mistakenly written that Bobby Jones chose Dr. Alister MacKenzie to design his dream course on the strength of Jones' positive visits to MacKenzie's Cypress Point and Pasatiempo in 1929. Actually, the two men had met earlier at St. Andrews, and it was their shared love of the Old Course that bonded the two. MacKenzie's last visit to Augusta occurred in the summer of 1932, so he never got to see his completed work. He died on January 6, 1934, less than three months before the first Masters.

Well, both were important.  As was the ever-interesting Marion Hollins...  But two other factoids about Dr. Mackenzie:

1. Of his masterpieces, Pasatiempo was the only one he saw finished;
2. The good Dr. was never paid for his work by Augusta National.  

Less interesting is this slideshow of Nine Things Augusta National Doesn't Want You To Talk About, which seems intended to confirm the worst instincts as relates to the club.

This is interesting:

How difficult the course is

Augusta National is one of the few courses to have never been given an official course rating by the USGA. Its members actually use their own system developed by co-founder Cliff Roberts. However, Golf Digest had Dean Knuth, former USGA senior director and inventor of the rating system, evaluate the course on his own in 2009. He came up with a course rating of 78.1 and a slope of 137.

That slope might seem low to many, but the course is wide open with no rough....  And while the greens will torment the bogey golfer, such players will three-jack on any greens.

I include this one only because my understanding is that this will be another disappointing year:

How the azaleas are so perfect

Rumor has it, Augusta National freezes its famed plants during warmer years to ensure they’re always in full bloom the week of the Masters. However, in 2012, there was a noticeable lack of color when the flowers bloomed before the tournament. So maybe the rumor isn’t true. Or maybe someone forgot to do his job that year. . .

But this is more typical:

Masters attendance

Augusta National is particular when it comes to referring to those attending the Masters as patrons, but it doesn't release the particulars on how many patrons go to the tournament each year. We're not sure why, but we know the exact number is whatever Augusta National decides. The Masters remains one of the toughest tickets in all of sports.

The club's relationship with CBS and the details of the TV presentation remain a subject of interest and considerable frustration to me.  David Owen spends considerable time on this subject and it's really quite ironic in many ways....

The characterization, as noted in another slide, that The Masters traded control of the broadcast for lesser rights fees is both accurate and incomplete.  For much of the period, ABC was the dominant player in golf broadcasting, and Cliff Roberts was concerned that a second voice remain viable.  And while Roberts had very specific criticisms of certain aspects of their work, he was also responsible for forcing many positive changes.  It was Roberts who relentlessly pushed CBS to broadcast in color, as well as pushing for cameras behind the tee boxes so viewers could discern the flight of the ball.

What's maddening is that somewhere on this journey, long after Roberts' death, The Masters lost interest in the use of technology to enhance the broadcast.  Today's broadcast features piped-in bird noises, but no ProTracer, blimp shots or on-course reporters.  I love the limited commercials and can even embrace the delightfully-awkward Butler Cabin ceremony, but can I please see ProTracer on the thirteenth tee at least once before I pass on?

For anyone that thinks I seem a Clifford Roberts apologist, I can only encourage you to read David Owen's history.  There's much that can be criticized in hindsight, but it was his relentless drive and attention to detail that created the greatest golf tournament in the world.  But Roberts was popular with the staff and in the caddie shack of the club, which somehow never gets noted....  And the man had a sense of humor.

The funniest Roberts story from the book covers the introduction of scoring in relation to par, another Masters innovation.  When it was pointed out to him that the use of red and green numbers on scoreboards might be indecipherable to those that suffered from red-green color blindness, he suggested that they could simply ask a club member to explain which was which.  And of course one can always find a member at the tourney, they're the folks in green jackets.  <Rim shot>

Admit it, you laughed...

Da' Girls - From Golf.com's extensive game story..... Not.  For the second consecutive day, they refuse to admit to the existence of a women's major.  Where's Martha Burke when we need her...

From an actual golf website:

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – LPGA fans have seen this coming for months. The tour’s

best and brightest have been lighting up leaderboards all season with unusually low numbers. That steady crescendo has led us to the year’s first major, where American Lexi Thompson holds a two-shot lead over Suzann Pettersen at 13-under 203 heading into the final round. 

Thompson, winner of the 2014 ANA Inspiration, loves the way she can attack the Dinah Shore course with driver, aiming down the right side of the fairways with a baby draw. The 22-year-old’s obsession with the gym certainly paid off on a marathon Saturday in which she played 27 holes and didn’t flinch. The key to Thompson getting a second dip in Poppie’s Pond: her putter.

There's quite a bit of talent just behind these two as well, including Inbee Park.  The young lady in second place has written her script:

“My expectations for tomorrow?” she asked rhetorically. “To get wet.”

Don't you carry and umbrella, Suzann?

Cue The Violins -  Ed Sherman with the details under this plaintive header:

Where have all the golf writers gone?

Long time passing....  

Just months before his 22nd birthday, Jordan Spieth was the talk of golf in winning the 2015 Masters. And he definitely became the biggest star in his hometown of Dallas. 

In another time, the Dallas Morning News would have owned the story. Golf once was a significant sport for the paper. For a long period through the mid-2000s, the Morning News golf writer might travel to 15 tournaments, if not more, during the season. When most papers were limited to two writers at the Masters, the Morning News was “grandfathered” in with three seats in the press room. 

Yet on the Sunday when Spieth put on the green jacket, the Dallas Morning News did not have a single reporter in Augusta to cover the hometown kid. Their coverage of Spieth’s triumph, which included a 1-A piece, came from staffers based in Dallas with the exception of a story from a freelance reporter on site. 

“Over the last 10 years, that might have been the most telling thing I’ve seen when it comes to what’s happened with golf and the media,” said Doug Ferguson, the longtime golf writer for the Associated Press. “Jordan Spieth wins the Masters, and the Dallas Morning News isn’t there? Are you kidding me?”

Well, cry me a river....  Obviously the media landscape has changed dramatically, but this rending of garments seems especially myopic to me.  It may be notable that a once-venerable institution no longer employs golf writers, but it's barely a first-world problem.

And, of course, you know where the blame lies:

The new media world also has seen the rise of numerous golf blogs, and everyone being

able to voice an opinion on social media. That means more people than ever are talking about golf, which is a good thing. However, there are plenty of minuses. 

DiMeglio is among the mainstream writers who complain that several of these blogs will throw anything out there in the interest of traffic. 

“Some blog will post, ‘Tiger Woods is making a major announcement on Friday,’ ” DiMeglio said. “Then we have to chase it even though 99 percent of the time it isn’t true. It irritates the agents and it irritates the players.”

Mean to me, why must you be....  OK, I promise, I'll stop with the song lyrics, but golf writers complaining about the lack of opportunities for golf writers is just tedious.

The media landscape has changed pretty dramatically and legacy media have adapted horribly to the new environment.  I don't have a ton of sympathy for these institutions, because they seem determined to not have to change....

But to me the relevant question is whether there's sufficient interesting content available on our game, and I think there is.  The best golf writers out there may have had to scramble to find a platform, but supply very much exceeds demand....which, after all is said and done, seems to be Mr. Sherman's complaint.

Best April Fool's Day Prank Evah - Twitter followers of a certain Englishman were delighted to see this:

Poulter in the Masters?  Ha, that's a good one.... Who's gonna tell him that it's a professional tournament?

Back In The Saddle

Apologies for the unexpected hiatus....  A bit of a scramble wrapping things up in Utah, then yesterday was our travel day.  But we're home for good, and we'll commence our flood-the-zone Masters coverage immediately....

All Roads lead To... - Magnolia Lane, Final Answer.  Even though no one actually drives down Magnolia Lane during Masters week....

Before we get to the actual coverage, I'm just a few pages from the conclusion of David Owen's The Making of the Masters, quite the enjoyable read.  Here's David's opening sentence:

The modern golf season never ends, but it does begin.

True that, even back in 1999 when the book was written and the wraparound season was just a glimmer in the eye of Nurse Ratched.... David's subtitle might surprise some folks:

Clifford Roberts, Augusta National and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament

To many, there will be a name missing, but if you read the book it seems appropriate.  Golf.com offers up this column on Roberts to "fact-check" his reputation, and though they cite Owen's book as

the most accurate history of the club, they differ on a couple of important stories.  First, they perpetuate the myth of a rift between Roberts and Bobby Jones before the latter's death, to which David devotes several pages to refute.  If there were a rift, it was because Roberts didn't want a disease-ravaged Jones to be embarrassed on TV, a desire consistent with his decades of devotion to the man.

More substantively, the authors see fit to use this incendiary quote from Roberts:

"As long as I'm alive, golfers will be white, and caddies will be black." 

And that's all they have to say on the subject, which is journalistic malpractice....  The reality of Roberts, Jones and Augusta National's roles in race relations of their era is complicated, but no worse than that of, say, The PGA of America, which by its own bylaws was open only to Caucasians.   

The club was frequently criticized for not inviting black golfers to the Masters, but the reality is that they simply waited until a black golfer qualified under their criteria.  It's perfectly fair to suggest that they could have done more, but so much of the criticism seems unhinged from the era in which they lived, especially given their Southern location.

In fact, after Lee Elder qualified for the Masters by winning a PGA Tour event, a member wrote to Roberts suggesting that he host Elder at the club in order that he feel more comfortable when he arrived for the Masters.  Roberts responded that he thought that a great idea, and hosted a lunh or dinner for Elder during that visit.  Perhaps of greater interest, he reminded the member that he had the right to bring any guest he wanted to the club, and didn't require Roberts' approval.

Roberts has long been accused of nefariously intervening in the infamous Roberto DeVincenzo scoring incident, with the purpose being to ensure a victor of the Aryan Nation.  I jest, but you get the gist of the assumptions involved.  Curiously Roberts was actually very close to DeVincenzo, and quietly worked after the fact to ask ANGC members to help Vincenzo (and Bob Goalby, as well), to create opportunities for them that might have been lost due to the controversial finish.

No doubt the biggest takeaway from the book is how much the club and its little tourney are an accident of history.  Oh, Bobby Jones thought big and had so many great instincts, but breaking ground on a new golf course in 1932 was a pretty risky proposition.  The club logically should have failed, and almost did many times throughout the depression.  Looking back it seems as if the Masters has always been with us, but it just ain't so....

Shall we move on?

No doubt you've heard this:

Woods announced on his website Friday that he'll miss the first major of the season for

the third time in four years. He also missed it in 2014 and 2016. 

"I did about everything I could to play, but my back rehabilitation didn't allow me the time to get tournament ready," Woods said. "I'm especially upset because it's a special anniversary for me that's filled with a lot of great memories. I can't believe it's been 20 years since I won my first green jacket. 

"I have no timetable for my return, but I will continue my diligent effort to recover, and want to get back out there as soon as possible."

I'm sure that  Steiny's apology to Brian Wacker is in the mail....   It's the twentieth anniversary of his 1997 win and you know he'd love to promote his book, but better not to embarrass himself.  

I'll just note that the calendar doesn't get an easier for the man, if he still wants to give it a go.  Erin Hills is a notoriously difficult course even to walk, and Open Championship weather can't be a pleasant prospect for an old guy with back issues....

Are you ready for some Masters scripting?  I know, but trust me here....First the obligatory stuff:

And here's the payoff:

That's of course one of Geoff's April Fools Day posts...  Not quite up there with Tim Herron's scripting, but that's tough standard to match.

Dinah Doings - The ladies are playing their first major of the year, the one that mirrors the Masters in all important ways.  Here's an update from Golf.com....  Not.  Because in their infinite wisdom, Golf.com has nothing on the event to be found on their home page....  Oh, they've got real estate for that master scripting and they'll help you stop shanking, but women's golf?  Not cool, guys.

So, here is a game story from Golfweek, focused on the Korda sisters:

Rookie Nelly carded a pair of 69s in the first two rounds of the year’s first major to sit one shot back of leader Suzann Pettersen, who paces the field at 7-under 139. Meanwhile 

Jessica, 24, posted a sizzling 67 on Friday afternoon to get to 3 under for the tournament. 

The Kordas endured a marathon day as half the field had to complete the first round Friday morning after high winds suspended play. 

The leaderboard heading into the weekend features a host of big-name players, including major winners Michelle Wie, Inbee Park and Cristie Kerr in a share of second place with Nelly at 6 under. Play was called at 7:03 p.m. local time Friday evening due to darkness. Fifty-six players have yet to finish the second round.

There's also a gaggle of talent at -4, including Lydia and Lexi...   Should be a fun weekend, if the ladies interest you.  And perhaps you should give them a look, as the only thing coming out of Houston is social media nonsense.

Media Fails - Anyone out there a Grayson Murray fan?  He's been beclowning himself on Twitter, and he doesn't have the game to back it up.  It started when fellow rabbit Kelly Kraft tweeted to the effect that those playing on the Euro and Asian Tours were overrated in the OWGR and therefore able to gain access to the majors and WGC's.  Now this is an arguable point, but the logical reaction to it would be to, you know, go play in Europe or Asia.  Instead, Mr. Murray got personal:

Ben An with the tip-in:

The full exchange is here, which also drew in Thomas Pieters.  But this is probably all you need to know:

For the record, Pieters is ranked 34th in the world, An 55th, Murray 155th, and Kraft 178th.

Next up, Jordan Spieth, who stunk up the joint in Houston and missed the cut.  Asked about next weeks event, he had this to say:

“I think we know, and the other players that are playing next week know, that we strike fear in others next week,” Spieth said. “So that’s our idea, that’s going to be my confidence level going in, and we’ll step on the first tee ready to play.”

I'm not sure which is the more curious, the concept of fear or the use of the first-person plural adjective.  There's no need for him to be defensive about missing a cut, but all that he really needed to say was that he'll be ready next week.  

We haven't had a Shark citing in a while, so good to see the Great White One on Fox continuing to bloviate about his partnership with Verizon and the disruptive technology that will change the world of golf on October 1, 2017.   Video here....

Shack also delights in this inconsistency:

Thanks to reader LC for this BBC interview with Greg Norman explaining why Rory

McIlroy was right to accept President Donald Trump's invitation to play golf. Apparently this was a placeholder discussion as we await Norman's Q3 plans to revolutionize the game. 

More mesmerizing is Norman recounting the story he's told many times about not wanting to golf with Bill Clinton, only to have President George Bush set him straight. Norman admits to that round changing his perspective of Clinton and even becoming friends with the former president. 

Why that experience didn't stop Norman from suggesting more than once that President Barack Obama was playing a "hefty" amount of golf, is a mystery. Or worse, hinting Obama's supposedly flippant approach to keeping score was the sign of character issues. Or the Shark weighing in on any of this!

Heaven forfend that I put a damper on any Shark-bashing, because Lord knows he has it coming....  But given that the entire media treats Presidential golfing in the mirror image to this, I'm gonna give him a pass.

Journalism Fail - If you're going to write an article, is it too much trouble to connect a few dots?  Someone named Kevin Cunningham writes for Golf.com (not a good day for them) with this "news" about Phil Mickelson and the trial of Billy Walters:

Phil Mickelson's name has once again surfaced in the federal insider-trading case involving professional gambler Billy Walters.

Court documents revealed that Mickelson gave Walters $1.95 million in the summer of 2012 to pay off gambling debts, according to the New York Post.

Last year Mickelson was forced to pay federal regulators $1.1 million for benefiting from investment tips received from Walters, though the golfer was not charged with any wrongdoing. According to the feds, Mickelson paid off his large gambling debt just months after earning nearly $1 million through Walters' tips.

To be clear, Mickelson is not facing any charges in the trial, and last week his lawyer said that if called as a witness, Mickelson would keep his silence under the protection of the Fifth amendment.

Now, that's the entire article, Fair-Use be damned.

Those court documents that that revealed the payment?  I'm guessing there's a context to this payment, perhaps the prosecution alleging that the money came from the illegal stock trades?  Perhaps your item might have been better if you had shared that?

There does seem to be a little newsiness here...  First, the amount is higher than I've previously seen.  I had thought it was just over $1 million from previous accounts.

Also, the intention to refuse to testify I'd not previously seen, and I have to wonder if it's accurate.  I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on television, but there's a concept called use immunity, which requires testimony but precludes the use of such testimony to prosecute the individual.  I understand that golf writers might not be well-versed in such subjects, but one assumes they have Google and a telephone.

Lastly, the coverage of this story continues to evidence a stark lack of interest in what I consider the most intriguing unanswered question, which is why this gambling debt was not satisfied.  My highest regard goes to that intrepid journalists that asks Phil, perhaps at his Masters presser, whether it his practice to not pay his gambling debts....