Thursday Themes

A bit of a hectic stretch for your humble blogger, but I promised to find time for those random musings you crave, so let's have at it...

Thirty Pieces of Silver - Cue your George Santayana quotes, because we have one of those stories.  You know the kind, whereby the leaders of our major golf organizations demonstrate their willful indifference to the history of our game.

Now, it's somewhat generous to consider the LPGA a major golf organization, but that generosity will be scarcer after this:

LPGA Tour making major changes to year's first major, with new name, purse, course and sponsor

Major changes?  I guess that's technically true, as murder can be viewed as, you know, a major change.

he LPGA Tour’s first major of the year is changing in just about every aspect it can. New name, new location, new date and a big new purse, thanks to a new partnership with Chevron, which signed a

six-year contract that the tour announced on Tuesday.

Starting in 2023, the former ANA Inspiration will be the Chevron Championship and will be played in the Houston area, where roughly 8,000 of the company’s employees live and work. Though the date and course have not been finalized, the event will still be the first major of the year. The tour said it will be played later than the usual date of the last week of March, with the goal being to have the event aired on network television (NBC).

Oh, so they have a goal?  Isn't that special....

Of course, they've managed this mess to have one last uber-awkward event at Mission Hills:

The 2022 tournament will be played next March for the final time at the tournament’s home since its inception in 1972—Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The new name will be in place with the overall purse jumping from $3.1 million to $5 million.

So, buried deep is that telling detail, to wit, that the 2022 iteration of the event will be it's 50th anniversary.  Have a great celebration, LPGAers, as you contemplate the birthright that has been squandered for a mess of pottage.

Here's a brief precis of that which they're squandering:

Originally called the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle, named in honor of the Hollywood

celebrity who helped create the event along with then Colgate-Palmolive chairman David Foster to help promote women’s golf, the tournament celebrated its 50th anniversary in March. Previously it’s been one of two LPGA majors played at the same course annually. With that history at one venue comes plenty of traditions; among the most memorable is the tournament winner jumping into Poppie’s Pond beside the 18th hole, begun in 1988 by Amy Alcott.

The winners of the event include a large number of LPGA or World Golf Hall of Fame members: Kathy Whitworth, Annika Sorenstam, Mickey Wright, Juli Inkster, Nancy Lopez, Sandra Palmer, Judy Rankin, Donna Caponi, Karrie Webb, Patty Sheehan, Betsy King, Inbee Park, and Lorena Ochoa.

That's a somewhat air-brushed history for sure, though I have no problem with them letting their freak flag fly... 

But did you catch that bit about it being one of two LPGA majors played at the same venue?  Proof positive that a statement can be technically correct yet utterly disingenuous simultaneously.  Because the comparison to that second single-venue major, the faux-major Evian, should be a cautionary tales for these mental midgets.  Just as they're doing now with Chevron, they made the Evian a major, yet they couldn't make us consider it a major.  Sound familiar?

But the voice I wanted to find on this is Beth Ann Nichols, as there's no more reliable advocate for the women's game.  Beth is supposed to be a journalist, so there's long been a friction between two seemingly contradictory roles.  Here's her take on the move, leading with the obligatory sadness:

That’s the question many are grappling with after news broke that the old “Dinah Shore” event will be getting an extreme makeover. With Chevron in as the new title sponsor, the event will be

moving away from Mission Hills and Poppie’s Pond and the traditional pre-Masters date beginning in 2023.

The new Chevron Championship purse will increase by 60 percent in 2022 to $5 million, putting it in line with the rest of the LPGA’s majors. The ANA Inspiration’s 2021 purse of $3.1 million is only $100,000 more than this week’s Cognizant Founders Cup.

Do you sense a rather sizeable BUT is coming?

Is the money worth it?

In short: Yes.

Because it’s not just about the money. The move to a later date in the spring guarantees network television coverage, which should be at the top of the priority list for all big events on the LPGA’s calendar. Does tradition really matter if not enough people see it?

Wow, it's actually rare that people admit that it's all about the money....  But did you get that subtle move from a goal to a guarantee of network coverage?  Of course Beth ignore the sad reality that no one will be watching  in any event, that's just the nature of LPGA golf.  But the bigger logical failure is the inability to understand that this new event offers no reason to tune in, so they won't.

But there's another actor deserving of our scorn.  The LPGA is making foolish, short-sighted decisions, but their hand was forced by one of those five families:

There were a number of hurdles in moving the event’s dates away from the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and keeping it at Mission Hills, including the club’s flexibility, Coachella, desert heat, a dwindling volunteer base and the need for a week with an available 28 hours of live television.

Well played, Messrs. Payne and Ridley.  In seeking to support women's golf or, more likely, to give the appearance of doing so, you destroyed the most important professional women's event, one that some of those amateurs were invited to play in.  

But Beth Ann is in full rationalization mode, not least with this:

Which is why it’s so important that everyone gets one last hurrah in the desert. One final leap into Poppie’s Pond. Wouldn’t it be special if past champions like Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Annika Sorenstam came back to play? Like the Masters, former champions have a place in the field. At the very least an exhibition seems in order.

Sure, everyone's going to rally around an event that's a respirator... You expect those fans, volunteers and past champs to rally around an event that you've deemed too insignificant to preserve.  I guess you don't get out much...

What traditions carry on beyond Mission Hills depends in part on which course they go to. Is there already a pond on the 18th and room for a small pool? (Serious question!) Perhaps that statue of Dinah should be replicated.

It’s important to remember that the LPGA is only as good as its majors.

Does she hear these words as they're typed in?  Good to know the LPGA is only as good as it's majors, as you're willfully walking away from the one that actually worked.  

I guess we won't be hearing much more from Larry Bohannan in the future, the golf beat writer for the local Desert Sun.  But he at least seems to know where to lay the blame:

The conflict with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was a bigger problem than the LPGA or tournament officials first believed. Augusta National, home of the Masters, is the 800-pouind gorilla of golf, and the minute the Georgia club announced the ANWA for dates that conflicted with the LPGA major, smart people in golf knew a date change for the LPGA would be necessary. Augusta National could hold a cornhole tournament and people would watch.

But, yeah, go ahead and replicate the statue of Dinah.   Because you want a constant reminder of the legacy that was eagerly squandered....  Better yet, build a pond by the 18th green at Evian.

Brooks v. Bryson - You've heard the news:

It’s the showdown the entire golf world has been begging for.

Now it’s happening.

After months of back-and-forth, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are set to face off in golf’s equivalent of a prize fight: a 12-hole match in Las Vegas. Their showdown will be the fifth edition of The Match, each one presented by Turner Sports, and will take place the day after Thanksgiving at The Wynn Golf Club, just steps from the Strip.

The Nov. 26 meeting will be the first one-on-one matchup since the original edition, which pitted Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson the day after Thanksgiving in 2018.

So remind me, how did that Tiger v. Phil match come off?  

Obviously this has a certain superficial frisson, and there's nothing wrong with a little bad blood.  But does anyone think either of these guys is sufficiently interesting to carry a broadcast?  I do give Bryson the edge there, mostly because he actually knows a few things.  The next interesting thing that Brooks says will also be the first...

I would also argue that the prior iterations of The Match have led to one inescapable conclusion, that the amateurs are necessary to keep it interesting.  

But the most interesting bit might be the 12-hole format, designed to fit a three-hour TV window.   reverence for history isn't a big thing in our game (see the item above), but twelve holes isn't just some random number, as the original Prestwick course on which the early Opens were played was twelve holes.  Not that I think anyone considered that implication...

But we can find common ground here.  If it's Brooks and Bryson, less is most certainly more...

Scenes From The Class War - I don't have time to do his one justice, but Geoff has a long post up at The Quadrilateral on the USGA public filings, the big reveal being this:

The United States Golf Association has posted a consolidated financial report from the “independent certified public accountants” at Grant Thornton. Based on the required-by-law 501(c)(3) filings, it reveals how the organization weathered 2020 following the cancellation of several championships and a U.S. Open postponement. According to the report, “approximately 75%” of the non-profit’s revenues come from the U.S. Open.

While the organization has yet to post the actual Form 990, other non-profit monitoring sites have: you can find Guidestar’s version here (free registration required).

The biggest reveal? A whopping $323,440,000 was placed in a special reserve fund created after News Corp’s FOX Sports exited a 12-year media deal prematurely. The check from Rupert and friends raised the USGA’s net assets by year’s end to $734 million.

The “termination payment” divides out to $54 million a year for FOX to get out of fulfilling the remaining seven years of deal that stunk the moment news landed at the 2013 PGA Championship. NBC picks up the remainder to get the USGA it’s $1.2 billion.

The numbers also suggest FOX paid the 2020 rights for events ultimately carried by NBC and delivering the lowest rating in championship history.

Leaving them, shall we say, cash rich:

All told, as of December 31, 2020, this brings the USGA’s net assets to $734,234,365. Thanks to a totally unexpected bailout payment from FOX, that’s up from $385,230,116 at the start of the year:

As with the PGA Tour, the treatment of staff seems just a tad inconsistent with that gaudy bank balance:

It’s worth noting at this point that just two years ago, at least 63 employees were offered voluntary early retirement costing the organization $11.8 million to rid the USGA of institutional knowledge and experience. And last week, new CEO Mike Whan relieved another executive-level staff member as part of a reorganization, the third such prominent senior level employee to get pushed out. This follows Chief Brand Officer Craig Annis and Chief Commercial Officer Navin Singh, who both did awful work and should get out of the golf business.

The latest to go was Senior Managing Director Rand Jerris. He was overseeing a a range of important research, including the Distance Insights Study, the USGA’s sustainability efforts and other studies to provide the sport greater wisdom. He also has enormous passion for the museum and a deep knowledge of the game’s history. Losing Jerris amounts to yet more institutional knowledge sent packing all while the reserves swell. Reserves shrewdly designed to prepare the USGA for a lost year or to guard against frivolous legal attacks.

I won't shed any tears for that Chief Brand Officer, as the organization's focus on its "brand" can explain much of its disfunction.  But the guy overseeing the Distance Insights report got canned?   that seems non-coincidental, no?  I'm guessing there's a strong Non-disclosure Agreement involved here as well...

I'll leave Geoff's post open and perhaps mine some further interesting nuggets in future posts.  I'm sure we'll be amused by how they spend their money, no?

It's Not You, It's Me - We've had a run of caddie break-ups recently, so this is timely, if a bit disappointing:

The 13 most prominent player-caddie breakups in golf

This one requires quite the loose definition of "prominent", but it does have the virtue of revisiting one of my favorite moments in golf:

Keegan Bradley and Steve 'Pepsi' Hale

While not nearly as successful as McIlroy and Fitzgerald, Bradley and Hale had a very strong run

together, one that included Bradley's out-of-nowhere 2011 PGA Championship win and two appearances on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. The duo's most famous moment, though, came at the 2015 WGC-Match Play at TPC Harding Park, where Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez got into a verbal altercation over a ruling during a meaningless group-stage match. Hale interjected during the conversation, causing Angel Jimenez to tell him to “shut up.” Bradley quickly intervened, telling the Spaniard “you don't tell my caddie to shut up.” The whole ordeal remains one of the more heated discussions ever seen between two players during an event. Almost exactly one year after the argument, Bradley and Hale split up while Bradley was going through one of his leanest seasons as a pro.

The best part by far was that Keegan sought refuge in his courtesy car, and was last seen taking comfort from his girlfriends lapdog in his courtesy car.  Nothings says nutcase quite like losing it in a meaningless group stage match over an insignificant drop.  

The bigger problem with the piece is the reluctance to delve into the cause of the break-up, not least here:

Phil Mickelson and Jim 'Bones' Mackay

While it's true that all good things do come to an end, there was certainly reason to believe that the Phil and Bones dynamic never would. Up until their split in 2017, Bones had been on Lefty's

bag for all but one PGA Tour win, including all five of his majors prior to the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. Their on-course chemistry was arguably the greatest ever between player and caddie, often making for some of the best televised pre-shot conversations fans had the pleasure to listen in on. Their relationship extended far beyond the course, too, with both Phil and Bones featuring as prominent figures in each other’s lives. But the day we all feared would come came in June 2017, when they each announced it was time to move on. In the post-Bones era, Mickelson has won three times, while Bones will make his official caddieing return with Justin Thomas in the 2021-22 season.

It's seemed to this observer that Bones went to considerable effort to not drop Phil's name, and that close relationship seems a thing of the past.  But the same could be said for the Jimmy Johnson-JT split, which opened up Bones' new gig.

That's it for today.  No blogging will be possible tomorrow, so let's plan on catching up on Monday.  have a great weekend. 

Weekend Wrap

I'm not suggesting that I watched any of that which I'm about to analyze...  I did break down and watch a baseball game yesterday, though that's not something I'll need to do too much more of in the near future.

The Sanderson Farms - You win your second (presumably of many) PGA Tour events and this is the header:

The mustache is gone but Sam Burns remains an outlaw, taking the Sanderson Farms title

It was, admittedly, quite the dreadful mustache:

That sound you hear is your humble blogger's sigh of relief that I can once again embed pictures in my blog posts.  It's not much to ask from a blogging template, but it was more than Blogger could handle last Friday.  But enough about me...

The Yosemite Sam mustache is no more, the whiskers falling like leaves at the turn of the calendar. The outlaw disposition? Very, very much alive. While all eyes were elsewhere on

welcoming the latest young gun to the sport, Sam Burns quietly and confidently captured the Sanderson Farms Championship.

So it may seem odd to claim Burns, 25 and the highest-ranked player in the Sanderson field at 25th, rolled into Sunday under the radar. He was in the penultimate group, one back of the 54-hole lead. But this round, this tournament was supposed to belong to someone else.

Of course, that header may pale in comparison to the fact that, after winning a PGA Tour event, they make you take a photo holding a chicken... But tell me more about this "outlaw" thing:

Like most outlaws, Burns is not one that emotes or wants for attention, instead relying on the steady undercurrent of conviction to get him to where he wants to go. It is also far from blind faith: Burns is coming off a breakthrough 2020-21 season where he grabbed his first career PGA Tour victory along with eight top-10s. Though his game is complete (14th in strokes gained), the aforementioned stoicism belies a game that is among the more exciting follows on tour (fifth in birdie average, ninth in SG/putting). When Burns gets hot—which has been often as of late—it is a reminder that those inside the ropes can make this beautifully difficult sport look ridiculously easy.

By Joel Beall's logic, Billy the Kidd must have rocked the Strokes Gained: Stagecoach Robberies statistic.... Let me just drop this amusing bit in as well:

Of course, outlaws—as Burns’ performance stated emphatically on Sunday—are cold-blooded, and Burns wasn’t exactly thrilled at being left off the Ryder Cup team. “Hearing the news that I didn't make the team was definitely very motivating and definitely kind of gut wrenching,” Burns said. “And, so, yeah, I think it's definitely motivated me to try to be on the next team and continue to try to improve and hopefully be on it the next go.”

This is textbook stuff, an athlete using (creating?) a slight for motivation.  If you haven't seen it already, I can't recommend The Last Dance , in which Michael's Jordan inventing a grievance is the recurring leitmotif of each and every victory.

But Sam Burns burning to play in an international team competition has a precedent from 2017:

After winning the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Division I college player of the year in June, Sam Burns did what a lot of talented collegiate golfers do: He announced he would not be returning to school for his junior year at LSU this fall, but instead would turn pro. However, the 21-year-old from Shreveport, La., has one more accomplishment he wanted to achieve before making the formal jump: play for the U.S. team in the Walker Cup. So he announced he wouldn't be turning pro until the end of the summer, hoping that his impressive college resume would be enough for him to make squad.

Turns out the wait was for naught as Burns’ name was not among the 10 listed Sunday night when the USGA unveiled the 2017 U.S. team at the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

And it's not like I was the only one questioning the omission:

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) August 21, 2017

I think he's got a ton of game and is very much a candidate to make the team in 2023 and beyond.  But he seems to elicit strong reactions in folks, which remains unexplained at this time.  Is it perhaps the redneck thing, or is there more going on?  But in a world happy to embrace Patrick reed, one can only wonder what it takes to alienate that crowd...

The Dunhill Links - I did watch some of the Thursday-Friday coverage from Scotland.  While it was far too green for this purists taste, Friday was fun because the wind picked up.  It so happens that the guys that made to long trip from the American heartland played better than we might have expected, though it does seem a classic buried lede:

Back across the pond, Team Europe dominated at the Dunhill Links

Errr, a point of order.  Can you dominate without, yanno, winning?

As Team Europe conducted their final press conference at the Ryder Cup a week ago, most of

them were thinking about the longterm future, but a few of them must have been thinking about the short term,. It was already Monday in Scotland.

Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton all competed at the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin, but were also all in the field at the Dunhill Links Championship, which is played annually on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. So, too, were assistant captains Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer, as well as captain Padraig Harrington. And while their Ryder Cup desires didn’t pan out at Whistling Straits, the majority of those who made the trip found plenty of success back across the pond.

Hatton was the high man on the leaderboard, finishing second, just two shots behind a resurgent Danny Willett. “Obviously I was quite tired after the Ryder Cup. So if you told me at the start of the week I’d end up finishing tied second, obviously I’d been quite happy with that,” Hatton said afterward. When you shoot 29 on the back nine at Carnoustie, like he did Thursday, he was naturally ‘quite happy with that.’

Always love when the ski hats come out...

We've been talking about the projected weakness in the European team looking forward, specifically the fall-off in talent after Rahm and maybe Rory and Viktor Hovland, so a return to form of a former Masters champions would seem to merit more than being buried deep in the game story.  Though 2023 is pretty far off....

Especially when he did so on his birthday:

Willet became the first player to win a European Tour event on their birthday since Ernie Els at the 2004 HSBC World Match Play Championship. The birthday boy said he wouldn’t have time to celebrate the occasion or his victory properly as he was catching a flight to Las Vegas for next week’s PGA Tour event. When an interviewer referenced his birthday, Willett smiled widely and cracked, “Just don’t tell people how old I am.”

And they didn't, though I'll break the omertà and inform you that Mr. Willett is 34 years young.

The Long Drive - Didn't watch any of this either, as I gather it was available to be streamed on YouTube or such, though that far exceeds your humble blogger's technical capabilities.  But it was quite the event, apparently. and our Bryson acquitted himself nicely.

By way of background, Long-Drive and Golf Channel seemed, just a very few years ago, to be a match made in heaven.  The network has an obvious Monday-Wednesday void, and the long-drive beasts will show up on any day ending in "y".  However, baby, bath water:

In 2020, Golf Channel dropped the World Long Drive Championships at the beginning of the pandemic despite owning a majority stake in what was then called the World Long Drive Tour. The network’s decision was a death knell. Sponsors scattered and the league quickly folded, leaving many to wonder if the sport had a future. Instead, players and a core group of sponsors came together to form the Professional Long Drivers Association — resuscitating the sport with shoestring budgets and grassroots events.

Hence the streaming-only coverage...

The irony was painful. Here, long drive had waited for 30 years for a missionary in the pro game to jumpstart interest in their niche sport, and now he shows up, with long drive on life support? Word also soon trickled out that DeChambeau had forged a relationship with the brightest young star long drive had seen in years — a long-haired, soft-spoken fire-breather named Kyle Berkshire.

Berkshire is to long drive what Jordan and Magic were to the NBA. He’s the longest, fastest hitter in the world, and if you’re anywhere within several hundred feet of him at the time of impact, you know why. PLDA merchandise features his silhouette in follow-through position, and it’s obvious he’s been asked to carry the weight for the future of his sport, despite being just 24.

“Golf Channel made a mistake dropping us,” he said. “But I also think they had no choice. We had something happen to us, two years ago, that was a once-in-a-lifetime thing [the pandemic]. They’ve got to protect their business. So I think it’d be unfair to say they’re villains in the sport. But I do think we’re on the precipice of a massive resurgence.”

The Tour Confidential panel threw some shade at the PGA Tour this week, but had lots of time for Bryson and long-drive, so let's see what the boys thought:

1. Bryson DeChambeau sent a charge into the world of long drive last week when he advanced to the final 8 of the World Long Drive Championship in Mesquite, Nev. What was your key takeaway from his performance?

Sean Zak: That it was as healthy a week as Bryson has had in a long time. He’s been a bit battered in recent months by things out of his control, and other things he has definitely inflicted

on himself. This week in Nevada felt like the best week of his year. Smiles all around. Praise all around. At least that’s what it seemed like from afar. James Colgan captured it quite well for GOLF.com.

Josh Sens: Exactly. The striking thing wasn’t that he advanced so far. It was how at ease he looked, and how welcomed he was. On the Tour, he often seems to be working so hard for acceptance. This past week, he was like one of those quirky characters finding a home on the Island of Misfit Toys.

Michael Bamberger: How well said, Josh. An outsider finding his comfort zone, a long-ball hitter finding others with whom he can play, and who can play with him.

James Colgan: That’s very kind of you, Sean! It was hard to leave Mesquite without reflecting a bit on the version of Bryson I saw. He was so stoked to be there, so happy to engage with everyone he met, so grateful for the time and the experience. The big guy gets a ton of heat publicly (a lot of it entirely justified), but man, the long drive was a breath of fresh air I’m not sure he realized he needed.

So, how many people watched?

2. DeChambeau’s appearance had vast reach, driving hundreds of thousands of viewers to the event’s YouTube live stream. Was DeChambeau’s immediate impact on the long drive scene more, less or about as impactful as you had been expecting? And what long-term effect do you suppose his success/support could have on a sport in desperate need of a boost?

Zak: About as impactful as I expected. Forgive me for sitting on the fence there, but we knew he’d cause a stir. We knew people would be tuning in to just see him. His impact might be felt further down the road if, say, Golf Channel dives into the TV rights again. Or some other provider. If Bryson just comes around to Long Drive once in awhile, it might not have sustainable effects for that corner of the golf world.

Sens: It’s a Catch-22. The sport needs a TV deal and sponsors to draw in viewers. But to lock up that TV deal and those sponsors, it needs help from a big draw like DeChambeau. If this was just a one-off for Bryson, I don’t see how it has a sustainable impact. If he makes more regular appearances, different story. But even then, the question I would ask is: has anything in the market fundamentally changed? Long-drive used to have a TV deal and it lost it. Why did that happen? Has anything changed that would make the next TV deal more sustainable, the sponsorships more enduring, whether or not Bryson is in the mix? I have no idea.

Bamberger: Chicks dig the long ball, or so the said the advertisement in less sensitive times. Fellas do, too. It’s always been that way. DeChambeau is sort of an outlaw, or at least marches to his own drummer. There’s a crowd for that. And it’s a circus act, not meant at all disparagingly. Circus acts are at the heart of the American experience.

Colgan: Considering the World Long Drive Championships just owned a week in the golf space, I’d say yeah, Bryson’s performance was pretty impactful. But the path forward to legitimacy isn’t any more clear now than it was last Sunday. There are hard questions about how to make the sport self-sustaining, let alone profitable, that are still unanswered. But I think the hope of many within the sport (including Bryson), is that his performance could spur interest from the rest of the pro game.

That's about what the LPGA draws on Golf Channel, and one assumes those numbers would have been much higher on GC.  Shockingly, they have time for a third Q&A:

3. What did you learn in recent days about professional long drive that you didn’t know a week ago?

Zak: That the wind direction really, really matters. Of course it was always going to matter for distance, but it matters more than just about anything for spin rates on balls struck with 220 mph ball speed. Definitely an oversight for me!

Sens: The wind, for sure. But also the variables of the grid itself. Like golf courses, they all play differently, with some slots that run out better than others. It’s not just about bombing it. It’s also about the nuances of ground game.

Bamberger: That size matters.

Colgan: I learned that long drive as a sport is being propped up by a (mostly) benevolent group of diehards, including a large chunk of the current playing population. I also learned that more than anything, they’re tired of being a golf sideshow. They want to be recognized as more than an entertainment product. A bonus: gas station Mexican food in Mesquite, Nev. is not only trustworthy, but also delicious.

It's its own interesting sub-culture.  In watching a few of these previously, I was surprised that they'd have the guys hitting into the wind at some events.  You'd have thought they'd vary the set-up to ensure the gaudiest distances, but that wasn't the case in my experience. 

I would expect this to end up back on Golf Channel at some point, simply because it seems too natural a fit.  Where else could they go, and where can GC find cheaper programming for Monday-Wednesday?  OK, admittedly they can show Tin Cup again, but how often can you go to that well?  Please, that was rhetorical, I don't really want an answer....

The Ryder Cup - Just a few quick bits, the most interesting being that that vaunted Euro system isn't all that it seemed to be.  For instance, golf balls?

With former captains such as Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn emphasising the imperative for the visiting team to get off to a fast start, Europe lost the Friday morning foursomes 3-1, with the United States gaining a commanding advantage they were never to surrender in their record 19-9 victory.

In defeat, Harrington announced: “The one thing I can walk away with is I am very comfortable with all the decisions all along.”

That's amusing just because of the way we all lock down on our decisions.  Hal Sutton still defends pairing Tiger and Phil (and the golf ball was a huge factor in that one) and Jim Furyk still can't understand why Phil isn't a great fit for foursomes.  But, cynics that you are, this seems like rather poor planning:

However, Telegraph Sport has learnt Harrington’s best-laid plans were ultimately forced to be

ripped up on the Wednesday, the penultimate day of official practice, when it was discovered that Lee Westwood and Paul Casey played different balls and, so too, did Matt Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland. Harrington felt obliged to make a hasty switch in the quartet of duos he named 24 hours later, with Westwood partnering Fitzpatrick and Casey teaming up with Hovland. Both partnerships lost.

Hovland and Casey did not appear together again, but Westwood and Fitzpatrick also went out in the Saturday foursomes, which they again lost.

“Maybe they should have thought about the ball issue earlier, as it is always part of the equation of putting two players together in a foursomes,” an insider said. “But all four play Titleist and you might have thought it would be fine. Yet there are different sorts of Titleist balls.”

Europe clearly needs a golf ball Task Force.   And this is despite the fact that, in the aftermath of Tiger & Phil, the rule was changed to allow for greater felxibility:

Fitzpatrick plays the Titleist Pro V1x issued in 2019, while Hovland plays the Titleist Pro V1 released earlier this year. Westwood and Casey also employ different types of Titleist, by far the most popular brand on Tour. As the source said, the ball has long been a factor in putting together pairings, although interestingly a new rule introduced in 2006 apparently reduced its relevance.

Instead of being required to use one make and model the entire round, team-mates were allowed to switch balls at the end of each hole. That permitted a compromise where the player driving off would use the favoured ball of his partner, who would then have the luxury of familiarity on the approach shots, for which distance control is paramount. However, stats have since revealed that those partnerships who use the same ball do have an advantage.

It would be far easier to enjoy such comic ineptitude if we hadn't lost so regularly to these guys....

This amusing London Times item is accessible through a free trial, though I'll just excerpt the bits not requiring such effort:

Ryder Cup: Not one fan was thrown out of this drunken hellhole

Alasdair Reid in Wisconsin is baffled as to why officials failed to react to record levels of abuse for Europe team

Wisconsin bills itself as “America’s Dairyland”, so it was only to be expected that the galleries at the 43rd Ryder Cup would feature some kind of bovine behaviour. Throw in Milwaukee, the nearest city of any size to Whistling Straits, and a boorish backdrop became even more predictable.

It is not exactly news that American golf fans enjoy a beer and can get a little noisy at times. When that is as far as it goes, then nobody should get too pious about behaviour that offers a welcome counterpoint to the sport’s stuffier, old-world traditions. But it went far, far further here, as fans scraped the barrel — in every sense — with their deepest dive into outright obnoxiousness yet.

Fact is, I don't really have a sense of how bad it got out there.  I heard the complaints from Shane Lowry, though there really weren't any specifics on offer.   

I actually think this event is at some risk going forward.  There's a potential problem with competitiveness, but the more important issue might be crowd control.  In a world where the PGA Tour is promoting loutish behavior, this event poses particular challenges because of its format.  Fans are allowed (which is really required, because of the need to grab a viewing spot) to be there for some ten hours with precious little golf to watch.  

While Bethpage 2025 seems to promise profound issues in this regard, Marco Simone is not without its issues.  I'm worried about the Euros going over-the-top in their course set-up, which I assume would mean narrow ribbon fairways and punishing rough, but I would expect European galleries to become increasingly Americanized in the process.  Combined with on-site gambling, where does this lead?  I'm certainly not clear on that, but neither seemingly is Jay Monahan or anyone else in a position of authority.

Just one last bit of woe for those Euros, courtesy of Alistair Tait:

I didn’t make this statement up. It seems to be accepted fact. Here’s another accepted fact: Ian Poulter will captain the 2025 European team in New York.

Most will have no problem if those two scenarios play out. However, Europe has an embarrassment of riches waiting in the wings to step into the skipper’s role.

Here’s the problem: some great candidates are going to miss out. They can’t all be Ryder Cup captain.

Look at the quality on offer in Padraig Harrington’s back room staff at Whistling Straits. Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Robert Karlsson (pictured) and Martin Kaymer all served as vice-captains. All have a wealth of experience. All are potentially great captains.

Throw in Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey. They played this year but, at 41 and 44 respectively, are obviously approaching the end of their Ryder Cup playing days.

That's what happens when you win nine of twelve, the supply of deserving captains exceeds demand.  Though an interesting choice of photos, because Karlsson  would seem to be an easy one to skip over.

But, given my love of the man I call "Mumbles", you knew I'd include this excerpt:

Here’s another thing: not every player with a glowing Ryder Cup record or great individual playing career achievements turns out to be a great leader of men. Everyone expected Nick Faldo to make a brilliant Ryder Cup captain but he was a disaster at Valhalla in 2008. Darren Clarke? He looked out of his depth at Hazeltine in 2016.

Whisper it, but there are those currently pointing fingers at Padraig Harrington as partly responsible for Europe’s lopsided loss.

I completely agree that Faldo projected to be a great captain.... I mean, yeah sure, as long as you weren't hung up on the fact that he had no friends amongst his peers and isn't very bright....  I know, niggling details.

Certainly that golf ball bit above won't help Padraig's reputation, but he was never going to win an away game with that roster...

Keiser Rules - The public golf course project has been on and off for years, but it just keeps getting better in Oregon:

A year after the Sheep Ranch opened at his Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, golf developer Mike Keiser has the itch to start building even more courses along the Oregon coast.

Next up for Keiser is a new 18-hole public-access layout on the opposite side of the town of Bandon named New River Dunes, which will be designed by David McLay Kidd, plus a new par-3 course designed by Tom Doak at the main resort.

Both are in the early stages as Keiser, plus his sons Michael and Chris, navigate state and sometimes federal permitting processes. There is no schedule for when a shovel might be stuck in the ground to start construction.

Keiser said demand for tee times at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has convinced him to add more holes.

Here's the background on that public course:

The second project, the 18-hole New River Dunes layout, is the resumption of a plan Keiser had more than a decade ago. He owned what he describes as a superlative piece of golfing terrain south of town, and he worked with state officials for eight years on a land swap to expand his contiguous holdings to accommodate a 27-hole course.

But after reaching agreements with the state, complications with the federal Bureau of Land Management – and its ability to possibly reclaim the swapped land – halted the project in 2015. Keiser’s interest shifted to other projects, such as Sand Valley in Wisconsin and the under-construction Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, which is slated to open in 2022.

Keiser is now ready to resume the project with just 18 holes on land he already owns, making for far fewer headaches in the approval process than if he had stuck with original plans for 27 holes.

And who else would build a SECOND Par-3?  The problem is that one needs to stay for a couple of weeks to play all the courses at least once, and once is insufficient for some of them, especially in light of the arduous journey.

That's it for today, kids.  I'll be back later in the week although, the schedule being jam-packed as it is, I'm not exactly sure when.  have a great week.

Your Friday Frisson

Lots to cover, including a few bits that have been out there for a while.  We still have some Ryder Cup leftovers, but we'll get back to our usual mélange as well.

As Autumn unfolds, you should expect to see me here a couple of times a week.  No need to enflame my incipient case of blogger burnout, but no need to miss important or amusing bits as well.

The Caddie Shuffle - Actual breaking news on the loopage front:

Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay will return to caddieing full-time for Justin Thomas, a representative from Thomas’ management agency confirmed to Golf Digest on Thursday.

“It came out of left field very recently. I have just tremendous respect for [Thomas] as a person and a player,” Mackay told Golf Channel. “It was an incredible phone call to get, and I said yes.”

Mackay has spent the last four years as an on-course analyst for Golf Channel/NBC after spending 20-plus years caddieing for Phil Mickelson. Mackey has caddied sparingly since then for a number of different players including Thomas, who won the 2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational with Mackay on the bag.

Thomas has had Jimmie Johnson as his full-time caddie since turning professional in 2013, and Johnson worked for him at last week’s Ryder Cup.

Thomas, 28, is a 14-time PGA Tour winner and the reigning Players champion. 

Note To Readers:  Every day blogging is like a box of chocolates, as I never know what function of Blogger will be misbehaving.  As of this moment it's the inability to embed pictures, so you'll understand that absence should it continue.

This comes as quite the surprise.  He's obviously filled in some looping for Thomas, Matthew Fitzpatrick and others when his announcing services were not required.  But there hadn't been a hint that he wanted back in the arena, though Thomas would be considered a top get in the caddie yard...

But, Bones, when you say you respect Thomas as a person, have you been paying attention lately?

Now, the thought might occurred to some of you, wasn't there an incumbent?  Well, yeah, and an incumbent who was treated as a member of the family:

pic.twitter.com/9IE2YOo35U

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) September 30, 2021

Well, obviously Jimmy's been watching...  Was it the whining about unconceded putts ( we'll have a bit more on that below) or the shotgunning on the first tee?  Perhaps all of the above.  Or was it the backstopping, that bit where JT asserted his constitutional right to play quickly before an opponent could mark his ball?  So many choices...

It so happens there's another player-caddie break-up of note:

They have been like the brothers in the neighborhood who are wrestling in the dirt one minute,

about to send each other home bloodied and crying, and the next moment they’re united against the world. Bubba Watson and his caddie, Ted Scott, are among the most recognizable pair on the PGA Tour, and they're also the couple about whom everybody scratches their head and says, “How have they stayed together for so long without clobbering each other?”

Success, mutual admiration and a whole lot of forgiveness in the partnership overcame the occasional public tiffs, and it was a good run for Watson and Scott, who won two Masters and 10 other tour events together over the last 15 years. Now, it’s time to go their separate ways.

Watson announced in a Twitter post on Thursday that he and Scott decided to “end our on-course partnership.”

“We recently came to the decision after some deep talks, not only about golf but life,” Watson wrote on the post. “When we met I don’t think we ever imagined how much we would experience together. Teddy deserves more credit than anyone can imagine for our success on the golf course, but I am just as grateful for his friendship and the way he has helped me grow as a person.

This might be the more interesting of break-ups, just because of Bubba's anxiety and Scott's importance to him on the golf course.  But Bubba is about the unlikeliest of major champions, so Scott deserves much of that credit.

Ryder Cup Remainders - No shortage of follow-up stories, and we can pick up some time without the need to add photos.  First up, the U.S. rout, explained:

Anatomy of a Ryder Cup blowout: How the U.S. found its mojo and throttled the Europeans

So, what's he got?

1. The U.S. team has better players

Obvious, yes, but it must be our starting point: the U.S. players are superior. More firepower, better putters and more in form than their European counterparts.

Heading into the week, the Europeans had just one player in the top in the world ranking (Jon Rahm) and their third-highest ranked player, Rory McIlroy (No. 15), had admitted to being run down in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the U.S. team’s average world ranking was a staggering 8.9. “It was really just getting out of their way,” U.S. captain Steve Stricker said Sunday evening. “Let them go. Provide an atmosphere and camaraderie that they enjoyed and wanted to be a part of.”

Simple formula, devastating results.

Ya think?   Of course, they always have the better players, so that doesn't explain much.

2. The U.S. rookies played like veterans

Better on paper hasn’t always translated into Ryder Cup wins for the U.S., but this U.S. side was buoyed by the fact that most of the team hadn’t been exposed to the U.S. team’s past baggage. With six fresh-faced but undaunted rookies, this was a markedly different squad from the fractured team that Europe hammered in Paris three years ago. Having experience never hurts in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup but it also has proven not to be a requirement for success. At Valhalla, in 2008, the Paul Azinger-led U.S. team also had six first-timers and cruised to a six-point win.

“We have a team with no scar tissue,” Tony Finau said earlier in the week. “There’s only a handful of us that has even played in a Ryder Cup, and the few of those, we have winning records. So we actually don’t have guys on our team that have lost a lot in Ryder Cups … We’ve got a whole different group of young guys that are hungry. You guys see six rookies. Man, in this team room, I don’t see any rookies. I see 12 guys that are confident and none of us are wide-eyed. We want to win.”

And win they did. The half-dozen rookies combined for a gaudy 14-4-3 record: Collin Morikawa (3-1-0), Xander Schauffele (3-1-0), Patrick Cantlay (3-0-1), and Scheffler (2-0-1), Harris English (1-1-1), Daniel Berger (2-1-0). “The notion that rookies can’t come out here because they don’t have the experience can kind of be thrown out the window,” said Daniel Berger, who won the record-setting 19th on Sunday, dispatching Matt Fitzpatrick on the 18th green, 1 up. “All of these guys are competing at the biggest events, the major championships, and winning big golf tournaments. That’s what it comes down to is being able to perform at the highest level.”

Kinda silly to think of Cantlay, Schauffele and Morikawa as rookies....

While I think the team bonding is way over-emphasized, it's always hard to be in the pro-cancer lobby:

6. Patrick Reed stayed home

Of all the calls Stricker made to alert potential captain’s picks that they didn’t make the team, Stricker said his call to Reed — a Ryder Cup dynamo — was the toughest. “Kind of lost sleep over that one,” Stricker said. Left unsaid, however, was that leaving Reed off the squad reduced the chances of any more Team USA weirdness. Reed is as gritty a match-player as any top American and might well have been a force for good in Wisconsin, but that pettiness in Paris won’t soon be forgotten by the deciders of future U.S. teams.

Do we think Patrick as watching at home rooting on his mates?  Yeah, not a team player, so to win one without him is a plus for civic hygiene.

 This comparable offering from the Euro side will prove silly:

What now? How Team Europe’s Ryder Cup system broke down

I doubt that the author, Englishman Luke Kerr-Dineen, wrote the header, because it's clear from the lede onward that it's not so much the system:

World War II general Douglas MacArthur once said that generals are only as good or as bad as the troops under his command make him. There’s a parallel that tracks between MacArthur and the current European Ryder Cup affair.

The 2021 European Team had no shortage of generals. Stalwarts like Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, and Sergio Garcia. World No. 1 Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy are undoubtedly the now-and-future leaders of this team, too, despite the latter’s struggles this week.

Generals are not the issue for this European team. It’s the lieutenants — or lack thereof. The class of golfers who could one day be tapped for a leadership role, but until then are will serve an essential supporting role upon which the rest of the system relies. It’s a system, intentional or not, that they’ve had for decades.

But the real issue is that the cupboard is bare:

The issue is that that there’s not much beyond that, because those who should be around have gone missing.

Three of Europe’s last six major winners: Francesco Molinari, Danny Willett, and Martin Kaymer should all be primed for this role. Rafa Cabrera Bello, a once-trendy dark horse major pick who impressed at Hazeltine, isn’t far behind. Matt Wallace, whose form ahead of the 2018 contest had some clamoring for a captain’s pick, seems further away than ever. It has left the European team in an unenviable position of needing to default to the old guard once again.

Try as they might, it was one battle too many. It was the opposite of the problem during Europe’s last loss in 2016, but of the six rookies on that team at Hazeltine, only one of them — Matt Fitzpatrick — made it to Whistling Straits.

Lots of criticism of Padraig taking the old-timers Poulter and Sergio (Westy automatically qualified), but that's truly misguided.  Not only did his picks not play any worse than the other nine, but who else was he going to pick?  It's profoundly silly yo think that the alternatives, Oliver Perez or Robert McIntyre, would have changed the results.

Shall we set aside the players for a second, and focus on the more important aspect (at least to Phil), the captains?  Eamon Lynch makes a case that should have us screaming, "Hell, No"!

Lynch: Win or lose, Ryder Cup captains are out of a job. It’s time to let winners stay.

Ummm, no it's not, but the rationale is even weaker than you might expect:

Bruce Arians stayed on as head coach of the Bucs after their Super Bowl LV victory last winter, just as Andy Reid remained in charge of the Chiefs after winning LIV. Success in the biggest game tends to provide job security, unless you’re a Ryder Cup captain. In which case even winners must step aside because, well, it’s just someone else’s turn.

Eamon is literally comparing the captain in an exhibition match to the coach of a professional team?  

But Eamon's control of logic is even more fleeting than the above demontrates:

The problem with treating the Ryder Cup captaincy as an entitlement is that it sometimes means swapping a proven leader for the promise of a glittering résumé. Some of golf’s most accomplished individuals, notably Nick Faldo and Tom Watson, had much less impressive turns as Ryder Cup skippers than men with more slender curricula vitae.

Nick Faldo is a babbling moron, so no argument there.  But that Tom Watson reference is pretty dicey, because it actually is an admission against interest for the logic-challenged Ulsterman.  Why?  Because Tom Watson got his ordinary-course-of-business captaincy in 1993, which remains the last away-game win for the U.S. team.  Then in 2014 the U.S. brought back the...what's Eamon's phrase, the proven leader, for another go in 2014.  How'd that work out?

Eamon, it might just be that the players matter more than the captain or the system?  I know, it'sd quite the radical thought, especially since it means that Watson was correct, and Phil was blowing smoke.

So, who will be the captains in 2023?

The leading candidate to lead the U.S. side in 2023 is Zach Johnson, who served as an assistant captain again this year and has been groomed for the role. Phil Mickelson is considered a shoo-in for the 2025 Cup at Bethpage Black. Tiger Woods, who led the Americans to victory at the Presidents Cup in 2019, should have his pick of the litter down the road.

That seems to be the prevailing logic right now, as the alpha dogs will, I expect, gravitate to the home games.  I'm not over the moon about it, but Phil seems to have a lock on Bethpage.  Tiger could certainly have Adare Manor in 2027, though my guess is that he'll opt to wait for Hazeltine in 2029.   

And for those other guys?

What of the Europeans? Englishman Lee Westwood, who tied Nick Faldo by playing in his 11th Ryder Cup, already has raised his hand for the job of replacing Padraig Harrington.

“I’m assuming I’ll get 3-4 months to think about,” Westwood said Sunday evening. “People keep coming up and saying you’re going to be the captain in Rome. I’d prefer to play. I don’t want to let go yet. But father time is not kind.”

Logical.  I know Tiger would have a yen to be a playing captain, so it would be funny if Westy beat him to it.  But 2025 will be lit:

Ian Poulter is presumed to be in line for 2025, and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell could get his home game at Adare Manor in 2027 much like Stricker getting to play host in his native Wisconsin.

Memo to World:  As with Shane Lowry winning at Portrush, calling a Graeme McDowell captaincy in the Republic of Ireland a "Home game" is eliding quite a lot of real-world complications.

As we touched on in the prior post, the aforementioned Shane Lowry was noticeably pissy at the end of his singles match with Patrick Cantlay.  He explains:

Unfortunately, after Europe ultimately suffered a 19-9 defeat, Lowry’s perspective on the experience apparently darkened. In an Instagram Live appearance with Paddy Power (a restricted profile in the U.S.), Lowry vented about the gamesmanship employed by several members of the U.S. team — especially Sunday singles opponent Patrick Cantlay, who defeated Lowry 4&2.

“Yeah, [Cantlay] pissed me off a little bit on the 8th, to be honest,” Lowry said. “I was lining up my putt and he was riling up the crowd which I didn’t think was great. In Rome, we’ll hopefully win and win in a different style, that’s how I’m looking at it.”

Lowry’s frustrations didn’t end with Cantlay’s cheerleading. Tension over unconceded putts became a major theme of this year’s Ryder Cup, with U.S. players like Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas visibly measuring their putts with their putter shafts to demonstrate that the length they were being made to putt was “inside the leather” — that is, a length that is widely viewed as being deserving of a concession.

OK, so Cantlay failed to maintain the high standards of sportsmanship set by....Seve?  I had heard elsewhere that Lowry's wife was the recipient of abuse from the crowd, and I'm way more sympathetic to Lowry on that than this bit from the 8th green.  But you know who else whined about putts not being conceded?  Yeah, though he's now saying he meant it ironically:

“For a start Bryson Dechambeau’s putter shaft is about four feet long so it was definitely not a gimme,” Lowry said. “Justin Thomas did the same thing and then I did the same thing but purely because Justin Thomas did it. They made me hit a putt from literally 18 inches on the 1st so I did the exact same thing as Thomas did just because I was annoyed with the picture I’d seen of him that morning.”

Lowry also said that the charged atmosphere made him less inclined to concede putts.

According to Mike Bamberger, the putt was "literally" 28 inches, which data I assume comes from ShotLink.  Is an Irish 18-inches anything like a Jewish 6-inches?  I know, it's gotta be a hate crime in this day and age.

For anyone inclined to think through those 2023 rosters, there's this that I'll link to without excerpting:

Ryder Cup 2023: Our way-too-early predictions on who plays for the U.S. and Europe in Rome

All I can say is that, after Rahm and Hovland, the talent pools falls off rather dramatically....

So, was Steve Stricker a captain for the ages?  I think he probably was a good fit for the team and he dodged a bullet or two with alacrity, and by bullet I of course mean Phil.   But strategically?

Ryder Cup 2021: 7 smart decisions Steve Stricker and Team USA have made (and one word of caution)

Shall we see what passes for strategic brilliance these days?   

Choosing the correct captain's picks

Jim Furyk has said that his main regret in his Paris captaincy was not selecting picks that fit the course—the Matt Kuchar/Kevin Kisner types whose accuracy would have been more suited to the narrow fairway at Le Golf National. That said, Furyk’s hands were tied. How do you not pick Tiger after he won the Tour Championship? How do you leave off Bryson DeChambeau when he won two playoff events? Maybe it would have been easier to leave Phil Mickelson at home, but Phil is Phil—a mainstay. So he took those three, the course baffled them, and they combined for a startling 0-9-0 record. (His fourth and most controversial pick, Tony Finau, was better at 2-1.)

Stricker vowed early not to make this mistake. In his case, the situation was reversed, with a Whistling Straits course that rewarded length. As such, he left players like Kevin Na and Kisner at home, bypassed Webb Simpson and passed over Patrick Reed. Easier choices than Furyk had to make, but the fact is that he learned the important lesson and chose the right players for Whistling Straits.

Alas, poor Furk, though he should take solace in the fact that his was far from the first captaincy ruined by Tiger and Phil.  But Mr. Furyk was beholden to those two guys for his gig, so their selection was assured.  But picking him is oe thing, playing him in alternate shot is Suttonian in its stupidity.  In fact, after grabbing a 3-1 lead in morning fourballs, Furyk put together some of the worst foursome steams I've ever seen, the Phil-Bryson pairing being the high-water mark, and lost all four matches by 3&2, 4&2, and 5&4 twice.  Yeah, those captain's picks weren't great, but they were the least of it.

So, how bad was the beatdown?  Shack makes a strange case that is was closer than it appeared:

As we drive away from the USA’s record 19-9 win, something about this Ryder Cup blow-up has bothered me: the 43rd seemed much closer than it appears. I might even have a stat that proves the Europeans fought pretty hard.

Subscribers who opened Wednesday’s letter laying out a case for The Ideal Ryder Cup design may recall what I wrote about routings and the desire to re-route courses with the finish in mind:

Of the 28 matches at Whistling Straits, all reached the 15th hole. Five matches finished at the 15th, five ended at the 16th, nine called it a day at 17 and nine went all the way to 18. These were closer matches than 19-9. Yet we often see Cup courses re-routed to ensure the best or most dazzling holes are played, though this is nearly always a corporate chalet play with little regard for the design flow.

Going back to 1979 when the rest of continental Europe joined the party, I checked to see how many times all 28 matches made it to the 15th tee. You guess it, this year’s Ryder Cup was the first time in the 28-point, all-Europe era where every match made it to at least the 15th tee.

Here’s how the Ryder Cup played out by year:

1979 - 23 of 28 made it to the 15th

1981 - 25

1983 - 25

1985 - 25

1987 - 27

1989 - 26

1991 - 26

1993 - 25

1995 - 25

1997 - 24

1999 - 26

2002 - 26

2004 - 25

2006 - 26

2008 - 27

2010 - 25

2012 - 25

2014 - 24

2016 - 25

2018 - 22 🤭

2021 - 28

If Captain Padraig Harrington and his squad want to feel less nauseous about the beating they suffered, maybe knowing they were competitive in every match will help? Doubtful. But I do think it speaks to a certain doggedness displayed by Team Europe.

There's a point to be made I suppose, but losing on Nos. 15 or 16 is itself a beatdown.  Perhaps not the level of futility from 2018 cited above, but I wonder what aggregate holes won and lost numbers might look like.  But if you're looking to convince me that Europe 2021 was no worse than U.S. 2018, I'm on board.

Tod Leonard posts data that cuts very much the other direction:

• The three par-5 holes at Whistling Straits played a huge part in the U.S. win. The Americans won 34 times on them, shooting 46 under par. Europe captured only 14 at 22 under.

• The U.S. won or tied all five sessions for the first time since 1967.

• The six American rookies combined for a record of 14-4-3, including three who went undefeated—Collin Morikawa (3-0-1), Patrick Cantlay (3-0-1) and Scottie Scheffler (2-0-1).

• Nine of the 12 Americans had winning records. Those who didn’t: Jordan Spieth (1-2-1), Harris English (1-2-0), Tony Finau (1-2-0).

Though this one is pretty sad:

• It’s the first time the U.S. has won two consecutive times at home since 1983.

This one took me by surprise:

• The three European rookies—Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Bernd Wiesberger—combined to go 1-8-2.

Only Spaniards emerged with winning records, but those three rookies I thought played reasonably well (though Hovland is going to have to figure out the putting).

Geoff covers the ratings, which I think were pretty bad.  

Television ratings for the 2021 Ryder Cup are in and they’re solid given a number of factors.

• These were the first matches played this century without Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson

• It was Sunday runaway going up against some stellar NFL action

•  The Friday to Sunday broadcast windows were all 11, 10 and six hour

• Plenty of cords have been cut since the last domestic playing and almost all ratings are down

They're up from 2018, but that was in France with the associated late-night and morning airing times, but down from 2016, when I'm pretty sure the NFL played as well.

Bowing to Reality - Shack has the news that the PGA Tour has decided to duck the behemoth:

The PGA Tour, Farmers and CBS have wisely decided not to fight the behemoth that is the NFL, moving up the Farmers Insurance Open to a Saturday finish. In previous years the NFC and AFC Championship games finished the Sunday oftheHope/Clinton/Phil/Chrysler/Humana/Careerbuilder/AmEx. In one of the many mysteries to rule the day in Ponte Vedra, that event stubbornly stuck to its Sunday finish and rarely saw much of a final round audience.

With the NFL’s expanded schedule for 2020-21, the Championship games have been pushed into Farmers weekend, the traditional start of CBS’s broadcast schedule.

How about that formatting from Blogger in the top 'graph?  Just crazy how bad the template has gotten.... I've spent more time arguing that the LPGA should stagger their schedule to avoid the PGA Tour behemoth, but whatever.

Back To Portrush - This story broke a few weeks back and I never worked it into my blogging:

Royal Portrush previously had to wait 68 years to host another Open Championship. Its current wait won’t be nearly as long.

The R&A announced Wednesday morning that the Northern Ireland links, which hosted The Open in 1951 and 2019, will get its third major-championship hosting duties, in 2025.

“We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025. There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again,” said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A. “The Open in 2019 was a massive success and showed just how much collective enthusiasm, passion and commitment there is to make Royal Portrush one of the leading venues for the championship.”

I'm personally delighted by this, bot on account of the quality of the venue, as well as its importance to Northern Ireland.  Employee No. 2 and I have a strong tie to the community where our friends Lowell and Carol live, but it's also great to see them move past those times of, well, Troubles.

But what's most curious in all this is delay in a return to the Honourable Company.  I had assumed that 2025 was being held back for a return to Muirfield, where the event has not been since 2013.  This site speculates on awards past 2025, though there's one that undermines any faith that they know what of they speak:

Potential future British Open Championship sites

2026 -- The Old Course at St. Andrews: There's no reason to believe the R&A will stop its tradition of hosting the Open at St. Andrews every five years.

2027 -- Muirfield: The Scottish links, and the shortest course in the modern Open Rota, gets the Open about once a decade nowadays. Phil Mickelson, who won there in 2013, will be 52 years old when the Open returns. It could be a good send-off for the lefty.

2028 -- Royal Lytham & St. Annes: From 1952 until 1979, Lytham was hosting the Open practically at the same frequency at St. Andrews. Then it fell off and seems more of a fill-in than a a regular venue.

2029 -- Turnberry: Site to Tom Watson's 2009 close call at the age of 59, Turnberry is going to see the Open sooner than later, not face the 15-year gap it did between hosting in 1994 and '09.

Absent a change in ownership, that 2029 projection seems unlikely, no?  It is a pity, because the changes to the Ailsa were very well received and some of the venues, Lytham and Troon most notably, seem a bit tired.  

As for The Old Course, it skipped 2020 for 2021 in order to host the 150th installment, so I suppose they would leave it on that schedule to be teed up for future anniversaries...

That's it for today, kids.  Check back Monday to see if we can embed photos and otherwise manage our way around Blogger's 20th century technology.  Have a great weekend.