Disaster At Dornoch

The grounds on which golf is played are called links being the barren, sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank, bent grass and gorse…links are too barren for cultivation; but sheep rabbits, geese and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them. WALTER SIMPSON

Dateline: Pittenweem, Kingdom of Fife, United Kingdom 

Well, this trip is certainly not proceeding according to spec....

John, Ross, the bride and I teed off at Dornoch as planned, on a gloriously linksy day, the sun shining (OK, that's not the linksy part) and the wind blowing, and all was well with the world.  Oh, your humble blogger didn't have much of his game with him, but it's not like that hasn't happened before.  Somebody did bring her game, but tragedy first....  The only bit worth noting, because it might have been a factor, is that I had at least a couple of shots where the long, wispy whins grabbed my hosel and sent balls dead left.  In fact, Ross was good enough to retrieve one of said shots from the rocks....

That's off the ninth hole, a beach I've visited on prior occasions.... Good times.

We make our way to the twelfth hole, Dornoch's second and final three-shotter.  The hole has a right-to-left shape to it, but my second shot fails to draw and heads straight for an evil-looking fairway bunker some 70-75 yards short of the green.  Fortunately, or so it seems at the time, the ball clears the bunker and leaves me a simple pitch to the green.

The lie was a bit funky, surrounded by that wispy stuff but also sitting just a bit down between two tufts of grass.  All of which might explain instinctively tightening that grip pressure, right?  What happens next is quite a blur, but the club stops dead in the grass and pain ensues, and in the immediate aftermath I think I may have damaged my wrist, I was certainly shaking it out immediately after.  It took me a moment to notice the blood, as somehow my grip removed a solid inch of skin from the top of my index finger, just to the left (obviously on my right hand), leaving a nasty wound.  I have pictures, but I'll do you the courtesy of not sharing them.

Perhaps the oddest bit of all is that, despite the obviously sub-optimal club-turf interaction, the shot itself came off beautifully, leaving a 12-footer for birdie.  And, yes, I three-jacked it, though in my defense I had my finger/hand wrapped with a nappie.

The prognosis?  Murky, at best.  With Elsie and John's kit and assistance, we cleaned and dressed it as best we could Friday evening.  A visit to the Strathpeffer chemist Saturday morning provided some useful butterfly-like strips and dressings, but through the drive down from the Highlands the wound continued to seep red stuff.  As of Sunday morning there's only the slightest trace of blood on the dressing, so that's perhaps slight progress.

Our first game at Crail is Monday, though at this juncture I don't thin I'll dare play, in the interest of salvaging the back end golf.  We were also suppose to be entering the Daily Ballot for the Old Course, but all that's on hold for now.  I'll grab a club later and see what's possible, but I'm likely to be a mere caddie and cheerleader for Employee No. 2.  In a moment of pure spite, I even threatened to live blog her round on a stroke-by-stroke basis, though she's done nothing to deserve such scrutiny.

So, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the performance?

Dornoch, which we hadn't been back to for a good ten years, remains links heaven (sorry for the redundancy).  It's a spectacular site, built on at least three different landforms, though all are suitably linksy.  providing an infinite array of shot values and beautiful vistas of Dornoch Bay.  

From l-r, Ross, John and Theresa on the putting green.

Plans are afoot to replace the small clubhouse, which is to be moved the other side of the first tee.  Set aside wind and the pot bunkers, the biggest challenge presented by Dornoch at present might be finding a parking spot, which John accomplished only by virtue of driving a vehicle with higher clearance.

I don't have a full dissertation on Dornoch in me, but I will share some photos with you:

That's your humble blogger's tee shot on the second, one of the great Par-3's in linksdom (although all four one-shotters at Dornoch are quite strong).  Of course, the last thing I heard from Ross was "Don't go left", yet left I went.  Why the warning?

One of the few high points of my golf before disaster struck was successfully extricating myself from this position, a quite credible first bunker shot of the trip.  Perhaps the last, also....

The old joke is that the hardest shot at Dornoch is the second to the second, the humor being that it's allegedly a one-shotter.  So, I pulled off the hardest shot at Dornoch, and no others.

The bunkering is suitably intimidating:

This was a fun, linksy moment on the 5th hole:

That's Theresa's, Rosses and my balls, with mine being away.  I wasn't sure about putting it up that slope, so I hit the terrifying pitch and pulled it off, only to see Ross putt his up the slope, the better play given the tight lies.

The early round golf was pretty ragged for the men, but Theresa played quite the great front nine, including this on the Par-3 sixth:

You can make her ball out in the clouds, and the end result was her first birdie in Scotland since 2019.  But my bride played brilliantly on the outbound nine, racking up 22 Stableford points to my own eight (that won't communicate to Americans, but it's sandbagger territory).  

Ross is a strong player, but struggled heading out.  But, like water finding it's own level, made three birdies on the inbound nine, taking a run at but ultimately coming up one point short of Tessie.  A grand day and we're ever so grateful to John and Ross for arranging our outing, though obviously not the happiest of endings.

I'll just share some photos of this magical venue, beginning with this from the far end of the property looking back towards the clubhouse:

This would be a nice spot to park oneself with a cocktail and a book, though it's a bit of a hike:

Here's Ross playing to the 8th green:

And your humble blogger's best shot of the day, admittedly not an especially competitive category:

My only par of the day, and who knows when the next will come.  This is a uniquely linksy type of Par-3, a very short hole that looks easy on the scorecard, but with any wind one had better strike the shot purely, otherwise the wind will escort the ball to parts unknown.

That's Theresa on the 11th tee, and this below is a wonderful bunker shot:

You think golf at home is cruel?  As good as that shot looks (and as good a shot as it actually was), it ended up back at her feet.

The most famous hole at Dornoch is No. 14, Foxy, a stout (read: impossible) Par-4 with not a single bunker.  The hole features two dunes that kind of just out into the fairway from the right, but the green sits at an awkward angle to the line of play.  Theresa hit two wonderful shots, which rewarded her with this impossible third shot:

She'd have been better served putting or bumping something along the ground, but those contours (and they are more severe even than they appear in the 2-dimensional photo) would make holding the green quite the challenge.

Most folks are forced to choose between golf and walking their dogs.  This woman has managed to have it both ways:

One last piece of eye candy:

Quite the special place in our game, one that we will need to get back to in less than 10 years.

We are settled in our rental house in Pittenweem, and have been out and bout exploring a bit.  I'll blog those excursions as time permits, but I will be limited to walking with/caddying for Theresa for the next couple of days.  Not the Scotland trip we had planned, but we'll make the best of it.

FOOTNOTE:  As we pulled out of Dornoch headed back to Strathpeffer, my phone buzzed with an alert that Theresa's golf bag had been left behind (it was safely in the boot for sure).  Apparently, AirTag hell is ongoing.  You can't make this stuff up.

In Country

Dateline: Strathpeffer, Ross & Cromarty, United Kingdom

Employee No. 2 and I have arrived safely in Scotland, surviving the Bermuda Triangle better known as Heathrow Airport.  Everything went according to plan, with all passengers and bags safely delivered to their final destination on -time.  Yet, there was a bit of strange technological drama that I'm still struggling to understand.

If you'll recall, at Shack's suggestion I purchased a four-pack of Apple's Air Tags, one of which went into each of our suitcases and golf bags.  As we departed JFK, my phone told me that each of the four bags was .1 miles from my location.  Doing some quick math, .1 mile would be 176 yards or, as I like to think of it, a proper nine-iron (OK, admittedly a nine-iron with forty yards of roll), a logical distance for bags in the cargo hold of a wide-body plane.  Upon arrival at LHR the location date was similarly consistent, and we were digging the air tag experience.

Four hours later we board our smaller plane for Inverness, and this was the readout just before we pushed back, which I made the tempting-the-gods mistake of texting to our hosts Elsie and John:

All good, victory declared.....right?

No sooner had I hit send on the text of this screen shot, but the screen updates and suddenly the two golf bags are 2 miles from our location, as the jetway disappears, and the only logical conclusion is that our bags have gone on walkabout.  I also got a message from the Find My App that we had left Theresa's golf bag behind, so the 90 minute flight was spent realizing that I would achieve a lifelong ambition of playing Royal Dornoch.... with rental clubs.

Upon landing, I immediately check the phone and the two golf bags are reported to 438 miles away, which then quickly updates to 443 miles, so it seems to have updated to that number (I had been warned that they can take time to update, and we had a moment on arrival at Heathrow where Theresa's golf bag was 3,000+ miles aware, which I showed Theresa but only while telling her that it wasn't real).  So, this seemed real, and I was processing the lost baggage claim when Theresa shows up with the two roller bags with our clubs.  Everyone loves a happy ending, but I still can't make any sense of that sequence of data, even allowing for slow updates, especially since the two suitcases were always "with us".

It's a 40 minute drive from Inverness Airport to Strathpeffer, during which I inadvertently turned into the right side of the road just the once.  We had a Hertz bus driver in Ireland years ago tell us, "keep left, look right", and that mantra has stayed with us ever since.  The driving is manageable, but the funnier bit is how at the start of each trip we both walk instinctively to the wrong side of the car, then exchange a sheepish glance over the top of the car.  It typically takes 2-3 days for us to acclimate, then we'll be fine for a week or so, when we'll suddenly revert to our old muscle memory.

At one point on the drive Theresa noted that she had forgotten how beautiful it all is here.  To which I responded, "There's a reason we go through the pain to get here."  

It's been exactly three years since we've seen Elsie and John, when they came to stay with us in St. Monans on our 2019 trip.  We met them playing at Lake Isle when John was working in New York, and, as much as we're anticipating Crail and our rental house in Pittenweem, this return visit to their beautiful home was a much-anticipated return to normalcy.

To say the welcome was warm would be quite the understatement.  As I mentioned previously, their son Ross is a member of Royal Dornoch and has arranged for us to play those hallowed grounds.  What I didn't realize was that Ross, wife Dace and 3 1/2 year-old son Sebastian were up as well, so it was a sweet reunion indeed.  John had the BBQ fired up shortly after our appearance:

As is often the case in Scotland, the late afternoon can often be the calmest part of the day, so set up outside to have cocktails and some noshes, as well as to keep Chef John company:

In 2019, Ross joined us to play Lundin Links, and Dace was sweet enough to drive down so we could all meet Seb, then 6-months old.  I posted this pic then:

This morning I looked outside and caught Seb working on his golf game:

Good call, Seb!  All the greats go left hand low....

But he's a natural at the mic drop:

A sumptuous feast ensued, capped of with Banoffee Pie:

If you told me I could either play Dornoch or have a plate of Elsie's Banoffee Pie, I'd need some time to decide.  

We had a choice of playing Dornoch either Thursday or Friday, opting for the latter because of a more favorable weather forecast.  We all (excluding John, who had a meeting to attend but provided a much-needed ride home), through beautiful countryside:

That's Castle Leod (pronounced, "loud) in the background, featured in Outlander and seat of Clan Mackenzie, in the background.

Over my many years of travel here I've had two photographic obsessions (OK, two in the non-golf category), the formerly ubiquitous red British Telecom phone booths and bales of hay.  The former are scarce on the ground these days, but the latter can still be found:

Of course, maybe it's really three obsessions, because I do loves signs of all kinds, including this from our trail today:

It wasn't nearly as bad a day was the weatherman had predicted, although we did have at least three showers while we were out there.  As I've always explained it, Scotland does have a real summer.  It's just that they're so awfully clever, that to remind us of the pleasures of summer, they mix in a bit of the other three seasons as well.

Our excursion finished at Coul House, a wonderful small inn and restaurant:

The small restaurant was packed with a birthday party, but they set us up nicely in the greeting area, and I quickly forgot that I had assured all i wasn't in the slightest bit hungry.  The bread on our smoked salmon and cucumber was beyond description, as was the small bowl of langoustine bisque:

Dornoch tomorrow then the drive to the Kingdom of Fife on Saturday.  I will for certain blog Dornoch and it's spanking new 7th hole, though I'm just not certain when. But we are safe and sound in Scotland, and we'll take you along with us as we experience it all.

Tuesday Tidbits - Departure Day Edition

Preparations are seemingly under control, with boarding passes hot off the printer and all flights showing on-time.  Yeah, I'm sure British Airways has a few surprises in store, but that will just make for good blogging, right?  So, what shall we talk about?

Cool Hand Luke - Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Euros have announced their Ryder Cup captain:

There isn’t much suspense involved—none actually, given that the identity of Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain was widely publicized a few days ago—but now it’s official. Following the recent

removal of LIV-bound Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald will lead the Old World when the century-old contest with the United States takes place at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome nearly 14 months from now.

And yes, he has signed a contract with Ryder Cup Europe. And yes, he intends to see the job through to completion.

I the first casualty of war is the truth, the second would have to be contracts.... Because your humble blogger is old enough to remember when a certain Swede would be unable to jump to the upstart league because he had signed a contract that precluded said move.  Also, because he said he wouldn't, which goes back to that first casualty thing....

He certainly sounded like a grown-up:

“I’m giving everyone my word that I’ll be here for the next 14 months,” Donald said on Monday. “I’m excited about this opportunity. The Ryder Cup means so much to me. So I’m not going to take this lightly. I’ll see everyone in Rome.”

Of course, that only sets aside briefly the wide range of unresolved issues:

Other questions are also on Donald’s “to be determined” list. When exactly will qualifying begin? Will the previous “World” and “European” lists stay in place? If so, how many spots will be allocated to each? Or will another system be put in place? Could, for example, Donald decide to follow the lead of the International team skipper in the Presidents Cup and take the bulk of his side straight from the World Ranking list?

The term poisoned chalice comes to mind, but it's hard to envision what that Euro team might look like, given it's apparent historic weakness.  Sure, Rory, Rahm and Viktor, but after that it's a bunch of randos to be named later.  Of course, someone better have Jon Rahm sequestered in a safe house, because his preexisting relationships with Phil and Steve Loy make him suspect for sure.

But what to make of Henrik, other than what were they thinking in giving him the gig?  These comments after the denouement speak to early-onset dementia, no?

“I don’t feel like I’ve given it up. I made every arrangement possible here to be able to fulfill my captain’s duties, and I’ve had great help here from LIV to be able to do that. And still, the decision was made that I was to be removed.

“I’m obviously disappointed over the situation. But it is what it is, and yeah, we move on from there now.”

Gee, Henrik, I totally get your frustration, notwithstanding the fact that you were informed that you wouldn't allowed to do both and signed a contract pledging to no defect as a condition of employment.  So horribly unfair, for sure.  But, hey, your check cleared and isn't that what's most important?

But this was a bit weird, no?

‘I guess we can agree I played like a captain’ – Henrik Stenson makes Ryder Cup jibe after £3.6m LIV Golf debut win

I can't even pretend to know what that means, given that the job description of a captain doesn't typically include the playing thing....

More importantly, Henrik has developed a reputation as a bit of a wit, though here he seems to have gone out of his way to leave a rather obvious retort.  I'll give the great Tweeter Alliss the honors:

Henrik Stenson - I played like a captain this week, shame you didn’t act like one last week.

— TweeterAlliss (@TweeterAlliss) July 31, 2022

They seem to be banking on some court protecting their membership in the Euro Tour and, who knows, we've seen courts do some really strange things ion recent years.  But we're all reassessing our opinions of these guys on a daily basis, and Henrik has fallen hardest because of his acceptance of that captaincy.

Of course, while we're talking LIV, there was also this:

Greg Norman: Tiger Woods turned down LIV Golf’s $700 million-$800 million offer

No disrespect to Tiger intended, but the man can't actually play high-level golf....  So, remind me again, what's their product?

Ladies Day - A couple of notes about the distaff set, the second of which involves LIV.  First is this Beth Ann Nichols piece from 2020:

Opinion: Why Muirfield matters so much to the women's game

Does it?  Color me skeptical, but let's let Beth Ann make her case:

It was only last year that Muirfield invited its first women members in 275 years. Now the club’s membership will complete the 180-degree change of heart by crowning a female major champion

in two short years. She will join a list of 16 men who have won an Open at Muirfield, including the likes of Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.

“Muirfield is possibly one of the purest tests of golf in the world,” said Catriona Matthew, a former Women’s British Open winner who lives four miles down the road at North Berwick.

I get it as a matter of respect, but I'm also amused by that 275 years of history.  So, riddle me this Batman, if the Saudis hosting a golf tournament is considered Sportswashing, what is Muirfield hosting a Women's Open Championship?  Admittedly, I've never heard an allegation of bonecutters found at the Honourable Company, but still...

A preview:

It is deserving of its reputation, with some of the most penal bunkering to be found, with an imaginative Harry Colt routing.  Well worth a look, especially since it's almost a decade since we've seen the joint.  Though your humble blogger is unlikely to see much of it.

More importantly, this was the state of play at the time of Bet Ann's piece:

2021 Carnoustie
2022 Muirfield
2023 Walton Heath
2024 St Andrews
2025 Royal Porthcawl

The @AIGWomensOpen is heading to some of the most historic venues in golf over the next five years! 🏆

MORE ⬇️ https://t.co/nMf2zlyatt

— LPGA (@LPGA) August 19, 2020

To me, the two most interesting venues on that list are Walton Heath and Royal Porthcawl, for the simple reason that we don't get to see those places otherwise.   We've seen the same reaction with U.S. Opens, though I actually think they do better in establishing themselves at venues of their own, Pine Needles being an example for the U.S. Open.  But I love that the ladies go to places like Sunningdale and Walton heath, despite my links obsession.

But the ladies are acting very needy, though kind of unrealistic as well:

While it might have shocked many to hear LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan say

she’d talk to LIV Golf, Annika Sorenstam thought it was the right call. As did Juli Inkster.

These LPGA legends understand one crucial point: If Greg Norman and LIV Golf aim to create a rival tour that’s anything like what they’ve done in the men’s game, it would wreck the LPGA, the longest continuous-running professional women’s sports organization in the United States.

“I think if Norman does do this,” said Inkster, “it’s going to totally ruin the LPGA, because I think most of the girls would go, just because the money is a game-changer.”

Girl, they haven't made a single offer yet, so how do you know you're getting Phil money?

While there have been calls to conduct talks with LIV officials, it’s not clear exactly what the talking points might be – there are many ways this all could shake out. An independent rival tour that poached dozens of top players would cripple the LPGA. Instead, a series of Saudi-backed official LPGA events is one possible way the two could work together, much like the Aramco Team Series on the LET. It’s impossible to know what LIV wants, of course, without having a conversation.

What seems most unlikely, however, is that top players will band together to stiff-arm the Saudis on principle.

“I think you have a handful that feel the same way as me,” said Lewis. “I think you have a majority that would ask, ‘What’s the number?’

Did Greg say he was going to call?  Because when men tell women that they'll call..... well, it's pretty much like when they say it isn't about the money:

Marcoux Samaan told Golfweek last week that she has not yet had a conversation with LIV, and that it’s too early to speculate on potential outcomes or options.

“We’ve been breaking down barriers for a long time,” Marcoux Samaan said. “I think we always fall back on our values and our goals before making any decision.”

I do think that Greg wants to hear all about your values, as does MBS.

Saudi activist Omaima Al Najjar said there’s no denying the fact that conditions have improved for women in recent years, though she maintains that the right to drive and the right to travel are basic fundamental rights and not a sign of substantial progress.

“It’s important to remind the women who are participating in this tour,” said Al Najjar, “that the Saudi women activists who made those changes happen are still on trial, being prosecuted, banned from activism and banned from traveling.”

Al Najjar, now a surgical doctor living in Ireland, was a prominent blogger who took part in the right to drive campaign in Saudi and fled when she felt the risks were too great. It’s still too dangerous for her to return now.

Improved, but not sufficiently for her to practice medicine in the Kingdom.... But I do hope she'll be avoiding any Saudi embassies....yanno, just in case.

It's a funny one, no?  I do look forward to Lexi telling us it's absolutely not about the money.

I'm actually far more sympathetic than my snark might imply, as I quite well understand their financial struggles.  but they lose me with their sill holy grail:

Imagine if the Saudis – a country that’s widely reported to have a gender pay gap of 49 percent – became the first to pay elite male and female professional golfers equally. Or even came close.

I'm going to give you a minute to clean up your spit take, because how funny is that 49%.  Women can't leave their homes without a male relative, but we have a precise calculation of the gender gap.  My problem is that their demand for equal pay is based on victimhood, as they don't want to have to earn their viewership and therefore their purses.  Unfortunately, the rules of life are conservative, so get out there and give us a reason to tune in.

Some Things Are Just Wrong - The beleaguered Euro Tour held an event at the Fairmount St. Andrews, and the winner ended up celebrating at the famed Dunvegan, where the bride and I will no doubt tip back a pint or two in the coming weeks.  That's great, but examine this more closely:

That, my friends, is a Corona.... Ordering a Corona in the Dunvegan should be grounds for immediate deportation, at least in a fair and just world.

Strange Daze - Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column is usually worth perusing, and he ledes this version with a longish bit on the political implications, which are just truly weird.  I'm just going to excerpt it at length:

FIRST OFF THE TEE

Golf has entered America’s Great Culture War.

If there is an enduring image from this week’s LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster, it’s an assembled crowd of spectators chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” as former President Trump basked

in their adulation, flanked by his son Eric, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson.

For the uninitiated, the chant had nothing to do with Branden Grace (although, to his credit, the South African is the unofficial leader of LIV’s money list, earning nearly $7 million through three events). Instead “Let’s Go Brandon” has become code for “F— Joe Biden,” and, well, you can read more about that backstory here.

That was hardly the only example of the weekend’s buzziest tournament turning into something of a political rally. LIV Commissioner Greg Norman egged on chants of “Four more years!” on at least one tee box. Trump was in constant contact with LIV players; he hosted 20 or so for dinner on Tuesday night, chatted them up at the pro-am party Wednesday, shook hands on the driving range, was a constant presence throughout the weekend and even greeted winner Henrik Stenson post-round.

It’s not just that it was a pro-Trump crowd. It was also, in part, an anti-PGA Tour crowd. Trump’s son Donald, Jr. underscored that sentiment when he tweeted a video of Stenson holing his winning putt.

“The greatest F/U in the history of Golf just happened,” he wrote. Stenson “liked” the tweet.

What a strange place we find ourselves! Nobody would have ever accused the PGA Tour, nor golf more broadly, of occupying any space in the left wing of America’s political spectrum. But Trump’s south Florida course was dropped by the PGA Tour in 2016 in the midst of a contentious presidential campaign. And in 2020, Trump’s New Jersey course was dropped by the PGA of America as PGA Championship host after the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Trump, who had always relished golf’s role in his life, felt scorned by its institutions. He had that in common with Norman, who had a decades-old bone to pick with the PGA Tour. The two were natural allies. Perhaps their union isn’t such a surprising development after all.

Getting Trump on board has brought additional attention to LIV, too. He’s popular with many professional golfers and with many of LIV’s early crop of defectors, including Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, his pro-am playing partners on Thursday. And Trump’s endorsement of the breakaway circuit signaled to his followers that they, too, could turn on the PGA Tour. The way LIV has positioned itself even has some similarities to Trump’s own campaign. Traditionalists can’t believe its success. It’s been written off several times, only to survive. There’s no doubt LIV is still gaining momentum. And there’s an anti-establishment bent to the whole thing.

There are strange contradictions at play, of course. Here was the “America First” president hosting a Saudi-backed upstart tour that is threatening the future of the U.S.-based PGA Tour, drawing ethical ire for using the presidential seal in the process. Early LIVers who crowed about how they weren’t politicians were taking part in one of the more explicitly political sporting events in recent history. And while everybody likes talking about LIV, and those who have attended seem pleased with their experience, it’s still unproven how many people are or will be interested in watching it; YouTube viewership is averaging under 100,000 and declined from Portland to Bedminster, per one study. But the checks definitely keep clearing (more on that later) and the names will keep coming, too (more on that much later).

What’s the point? Golf is now a sport divided. Trump has aligned himself with the LIV tour. The “establishment” is aligned with the PGA Tour. To be clear, you don’t have to subscribe to one side of the divide or the other. You can like the PGA Tour and LIV. You can like President Trump and the PGA Tour. You can dislike President Trump and dislike LIV, too! I will leave all options available to you. But the battle lines seem to be hardening. And this was hardly a one-off — LIV’s team finale will go down at Trump Doral this October, just weeks before the U.S. votes in midterm elections.

Like Dylan, i don't actually know what to make of this all.  On the amusing side, I'm old enough to remember when the only PGA Tour player that voted Democratic was my namesake, but obviously Trump has been nursing a grievance against the PGA Tour for some time now, and I'll remind all that the last LIV event of 2022 is at Doral in October, smack dab in the midst of our midterms.

Does this work politically for Trump in terms of a potential 2024 run?  It doesn't seem especially helpful, as millionaire elderly golfers are a pretty minute demographic, but a wild ride seems likely to only get wilder....

Trip Preview - It's getting real, as we're approaching twelve hors to take-off.  Are you up for some more Pittenweem photos?

Still a working fishing village, so we'll see if that's of interest.  Not sure what this is all about:

Lots of rocks to venture out on when the tide is out:

And there might be lobster:

The house on the far right is the famous House on the Rocks, available for rental but at quite a dear price.  Our house is just to the left, obscured by that row of buildings on the shore.  Should be a matter of seconds to access the coastal path, but also sufficiently near the water that we should be able to hear it with a window cracked.

I haven't previewed Crail for you, where we will be playing the bulk of our golf.  It's just a weird year, so we're very happy to have impulsively joined in 2019, but I'll necessarily be blogging Crail in great detail while there.

But I was unaware that Crail had received the Cookie Jar treatment, so this will be our home away from home:

The location is just to die for, enhanced by the dramatic elevation changes .  The original course, The Balcomie, has North Sea views, whereas the Gil Hanse-designed Craighead Links feature Firth of Forth frontage.  

Come along for the ride as it should be grand.  See you on the other side (and, if you wouldn't mind, a prayer to the gods of air travel would be a[appreciated).

The Lonely Lives of Cats

As our departure approaches, the excitement of Employee No. 2 and I becomes more palpable, and one assumes more annoying to those around us.  But Napoleon and Tate are understandbly conflicted by that which they see:

Tempting to just close the bag and take them with us, but they will be well provided for in our absence.  The bigger question is whether they'll remember us upon our return.

Prep remains ongoing....

Weekend Wrap

Let me lead with an apology for unintentionally misleading about last week's schedule.  When I posted earlier in the week, it completely escaped me that I had committed to a day at Engineer's Country Club on Friday, a place that I always enjoy, both for the challenge of their green complexes, as well as the company of my host.  Also, it seemed as perfect a place to prepare for Scotland, what with all the collection areas off the greens.  Certainly better than Bethpage Black as prep, which was my 2019 experience.

Big Tone in Tune - Not much drama to be milked from Tony's two-step, so we'll just segue into the Tour Confidential panel's take:

4. Tony Finau won the Rocket Mortgage Classic to notch the Midwest Double after his victory at last week’s 3M Open, too. For a man plagued by “can’t-win” accusations his entire career, what do these two victories mean?

Zak: They mean he’s finally delivered on what many, many people believed: he’s among the most talented on the planet. Between his power, his game and his demeanor, he has always seemed like the total package. Him winning makes so much sense that all his runner-up finishes have been frustrating. What we never know about individual flashes like this is if this is an individual’s peak. Is this Finau’s peak? Winning a couple events while many of the best in the world take vacation? I hope not. I’d love to see him win a major championship. But we never know. It could be his peak.

If by "peak" you mean good putting weeks.... Tony is one of those guys, Will Zalatoris being a current model, of superior ball-strikers who struggle on the greens, but can win when the putter behaves.

Sens: Sean has pretty much nailed it. It would be great if these lower-wattage wins signal even bigger things to come. I can’t imagine there’s a fan out there who wouldn’t be glad to see it.

Colgan: The two wins mean that Tony’s career won’t be included in one of those “best players never to win 3 professional events” lists. Who knows what that means for his chances at a big-time event, but also who cares? He sure doesn’t.

It quite obviously can't hurt, although we're still eight months from any of those "big-time events". 

Dethier: How dare y’all come in here dumping cold water on Tony’s victory party? I can only imagine the relief he feels. Granted, his win in last year’s playoffs was monumental (up to that point he’d only won the Puerto Rico Open) but last week was a nice reminder that he can close and this week was a validation of last week, another testament to his closing ability and brings his win total to a very respectable four. More to come, no doubt. Though he may lose an event at some point.

You actually think he could lose an event?  But isn't the bigger question when he makes the jump to LIV?  Because I just checked my 2022 Bingo Card, and it's either LIV or monkeypox in his future...

Dormie For a While - There were two events on from Scotland this week, but I ended up ignoring them both.  But this one was awfully good:

Wenyi Ding made history on Saturday.

After losing his first two holes during the 74th U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Oregon,

Ding played great en route to his 3-and-2 victory over Caleb Surratt to capture the championship.

Ding is the first male player from China to win any United States Golf Association championship, and he’s the second who made the final of the U.S. Junior Amateur, following Bo Jin in 2019. Ding is also the first international champion since Min Woo Lee in 2016.

With the victory, Ding earned an exemption into the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He and Surratt, who will attend Tennessee in the fall, were both already exempt into next month’s U.S. Amateur.

Ding, 17, is committed to Arizona State and has one year left before his college career begins.

Talk about burying the lede, after losing those first two holes Ding went on a tear, and was 8-up with eight to play.  And then he proceeded to lose five straight holes....rendering his collar more than a bit tight.  It was a mixture of mistakes from Ding and a couple of holed putts, one a dagger, by Surratt, but fun to watch the youngsters attempt to control their emotions and games.

Not to mention it was played on the original Bandon Dunes course, and who doesn't love that?

LIV Nation - The only thing anyone wants to talk about, though I haven't sense much interest in actually watching the product.  Here's a take from the early part of the week:

The good, bad and ugly of being on the ground for the LIV Golf circus

Joel Beall frames it thusly:

Phil Mickelson played in silence—or as silent as it can be with music blaring from two-story

speakers perched above the green—as he made his way up the 18th hole. He is the de facto face of this operation, and in spite of his controversial remarks he endures as one of the game’s more popular figures. That should be especially true here, for though he has California roots Mickelson has long been treated as an adoptive son of the New York metropolitan area. Yet Mickelson was not the primary attraction Saturday afternoon, not when fewer than 60 yards away former President Donald Trump was standing on a porch commanding the biggest gallery on the property and leading chants of “Four more years!” The only cheer louder than this political rally at ostensibly a golf tournament came from the 18th green a short time later, when a hype-man began firing T-shirts from a cannon.

The folks who run this event call it “Golf, But Louder.” Trump calls it a “celebration.” Families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, who staged multiple protests this week outside this course’s walls, call it an abomination. LIV Golf has, frankly, been called a lot of things. But for all the oxygen spent on this entity and its novelty and its drama, little of the discussion has been on the supposed product at the center of this hoopla. You know … professional, competitive golf. For all its noise and promise of disruption, the novelty of the fledgling circuit will wane and drama has only so much juice. Eventually, the product needs to speak for itself.

Three events in, it remains unclear if the product has the ability to do so. Or, judging by the happenings at Trump Bedminster, if golf is even the product being sold.

I'm as confused as Joel as to the game being played by the Saudis, as the purpose seems to be to maximize the Google hits for a search of Jamal Kashoggi....

 So, whatcha got in the "Good" column, Joel:

Let’s start with the selling points, and make no mistake, there are selling points. Chief among them is access. If you’re looking for an up close and personal connection with your favorite

player—or any player—LIV Golf has the upper hand on the major championships and PGA and DP World Tours. Part of that is due to limited crowds, which, depending on whom you ask, is by design, or a byproduct of aversion, or that word has yet to trickle to the masses that there’s a new golf league to be seen.

Whatever the catalyst, the reality is there aren’t many fans on-site compared to a PGA Tour event, giving the ones who are here an unobstructed and intimate view. Even on Saturday, when the crowd seemed to double in size from Friday’s gate, there were no more than 150 people that roamed hole-to-hole with Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.

So, the best part is that there's nobody there?  To paraphrase the great Ian Faith, their appeal is highly selective....

But here's where it gest interesting...perhaps?

Speaking of dynamics, those around LIV are adamant the team component is what gives this staying power. It’s clear LIV is laying the breadcrumbs for these clubs to be regionally centric—with teams representing Australia, South Africa, Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States—with sponsors attaching themselves in a manner similar to the Formula 1 model. While initially conceding the team concept is “a whole intangible that is difficult for anybody to grasp,” Mickelson asserted this was a format to move LIV forward. “I notice how people like to identify with a team rather than just individuals, and so … that's something I don't fully grasp how big that could be,” he said Friday.

Only, at least at Bedminster, it doesn’t seem the fans grasp it either, seemingly not knowing team names let alone who are on those teams. It's confusing to keep up with on-site. And because of the aforementioned field makeup, fans don’t seem that invested in the shot-by-shot outcomes of competition. Heck, they don't know most of the guys inside the ropes. The gallery vibe isn’t to watch a competition; it’s to see professional golfers in person. It almost feels like they went out for a picnic and happened upon a golf tournament. They are here to be entertained, with no attachment to the outcome.

I think this is mostly delusional, obvious from Norman comparing it to the Ryder Cup.  I'm not sure how captivating stroke-play team events could ever be, especially with their rag-tag rosters of has-beens and never-was....  But, still, it's an opening that Jay left them, and maybe they can make something of it over the long haul (if there's a long-haul).

But, isn't this ultimately the issue?

It seems too easy to say because it’s been a common criticism of LIV, yet it rings true at Bedminster: It feels like an exhibition.

Why is that too easy?  And even if so, it's important to repeat, because it's not a bug, it's the essence of their business model, which your humble blogger has been trying to make clear.  Their challenge is to recruit golfers, and they accomplish that by making the players' lives easier.  But what is the appeal in that to the fans?  It inevitably makes the golf itself irrelevant.... Kind of a big issue, no?

 Although I agree with Joel that this is worth noting as well:

Which is fine! Spoiler alert: Even diehards can’t get up for every event of the more than 40 PGA Tour stops. And there are plenty of attendees at PGA Tour and sports events that are there strictly for social purposes. They don’t care to see Bryson and Brooks battle or DJ dominate or if Phil can again find age-defying performances. They are just looking for something to do on the weekend. It may not be for the zealous, and maybe by design. You could make the case LIV does a better job of appealing to the casual or non-fan better than most leagues, and that is a big demographic.

At least that first part.  What I take Joel to be saying is that the Tour's bloated schedule already has many events that aren't much more interesting than the LIV events, with which I agree, though with an asterisk.  The asterisk is that Jay's events at least serve a noble purpose of providing playing opportunities and allowing younger talent to improve their status.   I think it's a dangerous game to think you can have forty events that are all important, and I much preferred to old model where the Fall was exclusively for that purpose.

As for that non-golf audience?  I don't see a hell of a lot of upside there, but the trick in such efforts is to do so in ways that don't alienate your core audience, and that's always harder than it looks.

Bob Harig does a deeper dive on the product, worth considering:

Shotgun Starts: This has been the subject of considerable derision, and there’s no doubt it is awkward for those used to watching a traditional golf tournament. LIV Golf officials maintain that in their considerable research before launching, they consulted numerous people in the broadcast industry who all suggested that the tighter window for a shotgun start was beneficial for viewers. All the golfers can be shown and a viewer can commit to a tighter timeframe.

The problem is following it. Despite the best attempts on the broadcast – which shows the number of holes remaining – you need to constantly be looking at a tee sheet to see where players started and where they are playing. It can be confusing. LIV Golf maintains we will get used to it, that they are following the Formula One model that has everyone on the track at the same time. Of course, in racing, everyone starts from the same spot.

The view here is that they should scrap the shotgun. Putting eight groups of three off each side (16 groups equals 48 players) only stretches the window by a small amount, perhaps an extra 90 minutes. And it allows you to follow the flow of a player’s round, all starting from the first or 10th tees.

At the very least, they should go to a two-tee start on the final day. That would help the team aspect that LIV is sold on, as players on the top teams playing the final holes could actually be cheered on by their teammates who are finished and waiting. That can’t happen in this format.

Excuse me, Bob, but have you never heard of "Pole position"?  Of course they don't start at the same spot, some drivers have many more cars in front of them than others...

I haven't wasted much time on the shotgun start because that seems merely a symptom, as I'm more offended by the small fields.

 Already with my eye on the clock, let's circle back to the TC folks:

1. LIV Golf’s third event wrapped up on Sunday afternoon at Trump Bedminster, with Henrik Stenson winning in his first event since trading his Ryder Cup captaincy for a slot in LIV. Three events in, what’s working — and what isn’t?

Working for whom?  Because it's certainly working for Phil and those that have cashed checks.... 

Sean Zak:  The money is working! The money has allowed LIV to make an initial splash and then continue to make ripples every week. They’ve continued to add new features, whether they’re pushing the schedule up, adding new players, or just flexing on more gaudy activations at the events. The money is working. The golf really isn’t. Henrik Stenson played well, sure! But was it exciting? Was Turk Pettit’s top 10 finish meaningful? It’s hard to draw any stories from this other than The Money. That gets old.

Somehow Sean sees overt money-grubbing as "working:, whereas your humble blogger sees it repellant.  Seriously, these guys are cashing nine-figure checks and they look like they've sold their souls to the devil... 

Josh Sens: It’s working as spectacle and a conversation-starter and it has certainly prompted changes from the PGA Tour. The problem with LIV is that it’s an unnatural market. We can pretend that there’s a giant viewing audience out there dying to watch (insert name of your favorite anonymous professional golfer here). But is there really? In that sense, LIV golf has demonstrated something similar to what the Tour’s wrap-around season has shown — that the calendar could probably use less golf, not more.

Are those changes for the better?  Or even effective?  Because this was pretty funny from Shack:

Rough times for PIP… https://t.co/sKbg0YfkZA

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) July 28, 2022

Don't ya hate it when the guys don't stay bought?

James Colgan: The recruiting tactics are working! Turns out, pro golfers REALLY like seeing tens of millions appear in their bank accounts out of thin air (who woulda thought?!). The team aspect gets an incomplete grade from me. I’ll give the entertainment product a C. It seems like people are enjoying attending the events, and the broadcast product is undoubtedly fast … there just aren’t that many people actually consuming it.

Dylan Dethier: Player recruitment is working better than I would have expected, and they’ve siphoned (and will continue to siphon) some of the PGA Tour’s biggest names, if not its most in-form talents. Honestly, it’s all working somewhat better than I’d expected. Since LIV’s near-demise in February, when Phil Mickelson’s remarks were released to the public, there haven’t been many significant hurdles in LIV’s way. And the checks are clearing, even if the golf feels relatively inconsequential. Inconsequential except for the prize money, of course.

Like Dylan, I thought it was over back at Riviera.  Still, what have the Wahabis actually accomplished other than enriching some miscreants?   Is the Kingdom more respected?

As for our favorite piñata?

2. Phil Mickelson made his most expansive remarks since the U.S. Open and criticized the PGA Tour on two fronts: failure to bring the game to an international stage and its failure to target a younger audience. What did you make of Mickelson’s remarks — and does he have a point?

Just a quick pro tip here, guys, Phil says a lot of things.... The bigger question is why anyone would still be listening.  

Zak: I think Mickelson is a bit off when it comes to the international stage. The Tour is hosting events in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Japan and Bermuda this year. They’ve repeatedly visited China in the past. Is LIV being so much more international by visiting the country that is putting up all the money? I don’t buy that, pun intended. Should the Tour have annual event(s) in Australia and South Africa? Probably. But let’s not act like Mickelson was actively campaigning for those extra trips over the past decade. As for the younger generation, he probably has a point. But it’s not like LIV has snapped their fingers and automatically solved that dilemma, too. We’ll need a significant body of data before we can deduce a youth movement in golf viewing habits.

Not only is he quite obviously wrong on the facts, as Sean notes above, but the Tour has actually damaged foreign tours in its aggressive control of the full-year calendar.  Why should the American tour be bring events to Asia or Australia, when those regions have their own golf ecosystem?

Sens: I think there’s merit to a lot of Mickelson’s criticism. What undermines the impact of his complaints is what Sean points to — they don’t come off as issues that have long been near and dear to him. More like his justifications for having joined a rival circuit that could help bail him out of a mess he appears to have created on his own.

Colgan: I’m not sure having a neon-green colorway automatically qualifies you to speak with authority about what young people like, but I do think LIV is smart to target both of these groups. Simply “being” in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Japan and Bermuda for a week doesn’t mean you’ve made an earnest effort to grow the sport or its audience there. I think there’s a real opportunity for growth in those markets, but the skeptic in me wonders if LIV is truly invested in growing the game — racially, socioeconomically and across gender and generation lines — or if they’re simply brushing with a neon-shaded coat of paint.

Dethier: In my mind, LIV’s best selling point is its scarcity. Only 14 events in a season means that if people are excited for said events then each one, on its own, is a big deal. That’s the model for Formula 1 races, after all, and F1 is clearly the league from which they’ve drawn the most inspiration. But that’s a big “if” and everything else — the international spread and the younger audience — will happen only if they’re able to make these must-see events.

C'mon, guys, it's just more Phil BS.  The whole point of Jay's stupide Live Under Par and legalized gambling efforts was to go younger, it's just a hard sell(and, as I noted above, much of it scares away the long-term paying customers).

Dateline: Charlotte, NC -  LIV now goes quiet for a bit, but isn't the Prez Cup the next flash point?  Captain Love is in an awkward moment, though he threw out quite the IED:

3. Presidents Cup captain Davis Love III, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, reiterated that LIV players would not be eligible for his September roster and face an uncertain future. He also floated the possibility of PGA Tour players boycotting majors if LIV pros were also in the field. Do you think boycotts are a realistic possibility for pro golf’s future? Where does the PGA Tour/LIV divide go from here?

You're expecting Rory and Scottie to skip the Masters because Phil is there?  Excuse me, but I'm due back on planet Earth.... Back to this in a moment, but first what Isee as a bigger issue.

Zak: I would put the chances of a boycott at about 1%. Basically zero. The whole reason this entity exists is because it’s damn near impossible to get dozens and dozens of Tour pros to spring to action. You think 40 of the 2023 Masters invitees, their caddies, their families, their agents and coaches, etc. are ready to say “Nope, not playing!” Good luck. September will be the key month, I predict. We’ve seen plenty of smokey rumors around Australian players, and with LIV thus far, when there’s smoke there’s almost always been a fire. The Aussies probably wouldn’t commit to LIV until after the Presidents Cup, which takes place mid-September. The post-FedEx Cup, pre-October calendar could be filled with LIV news.

Sean, that last bit is curious, no?  let's assume you're a top-flight Australian player, and we'll call said player Cam Smith just for illustrative purposes.... You're planning to cash a big LIV check but there's a money-grab in Atlanta, which concludes on August 14th.  The Prez Cup is more than a month later, but why would the fictional Cam Smith wait for that?  More importantly, why would he skip two LIV events?

He's going to skip two events, each with a $25 million purse, for an unpaid week in Charlotte?  Unless he's Trevor Immelman's love child, why would he do that?

Sens: I don’t see boycotts. Increasingly, where this divide seems headed is a world where pro golf is a lot like pro tennis, with a small handful of events having all the cachet.

Colgan: It’d be a hell of a move by the PGA Tour if they did stage a boycott — and a decidedly savvy Hail Mary. It’s also the exact sort of thing a group of mostly self-interested professionals would have absolutely zero (0) interest in doing.

Dethier: Boycotts? No. Where does the divide go from here? Into uncertainty and limbo. More high-caliber pros will leave, the core of the PGA Tour’s best will stick around, and LIV players will slowly see their world rankings sink while some number of them remain exempt for major championships. I understand why plenty of players are pushing for cooperation between LIV and the PGA Tour but at the moment I’m not sure I see much incentive for either side to sit down. LIV’s goal is to make the Tour irrelevant, no matter what they say.

Wow, the guys kind of miss what a bombshell this is.....Not that I think it will happen.

But I call it a bombshell because of how it separates the interests of the Tour from those of its members.  Remember, the Tour lives in an unfair world, the most prestigious golf tour on the planet, yet it doesn't control those events that folks actually care about.  So, awfully tempting for Jay to attempt to diminish the status of these events, but quite the high risk strategy as well, since he needs those organizations to help him fight off the Saudis.

That said, no player is skipping majors.  And Jay would be very foolish to suggest such a thing....

Trip Preview - Not mcu time left but Mikey Bams has a characteristic piece up at the Fire Pit that is right up my alley:

The Essence of the Game

Playing hidden gems in Scotland reminded the author of the many pleasures that golf provides

He's obviously preaching to the converted, but I do love his dateline:

Fellow linksters will immediately recognize that as the opening tee shot at glorious Machrahanish, a venue that figured prominently in Mikes' enjoyable To The Linksland.  

This seems to be the gist of Mike's thoughts right now:

But the point here is that, in this summer of golf’s discontent, the upheaval over the “rebel golf league” (per London’s Daily Telegraph) has washed up on the shores here, along with the dead birds. And influenced nothing. Because I have news for all of professional golf: You are a Weight Watchers slice of the world’s golf pie. The draw of the game is the game. The game! This difficult cross-country game that has never been a mainstream sport and never will be. But the game is so great that the course here, expanded to 18 holes by the senior Tom Morris in 1879, has hung on through hard times and good ones, in sickness and in health. Machrihanish — MACH-rah-HON-ish, with a gentle guttural ch, like the proper pronunciation of J.S. Bach—is a sliver within the niche.

It would be too rugged for some visitors. It has no driving range, no cart culture—Tommy (below) has a bad foot—no fancy hotel, no caddie program, no dramatic closing hole. But the land tumbles and heaves, the wind changes from day to day, and if you’re not allowing for it on every shot, you’re not really playing golf.

I’ve been on a wee golfing bender here, and if you’ll indulge me, let me share this observation. Bobby Jones famously said, “You may take from me that there are two types of golf. There is golf — and tournament golf. And they are not at all the same thing.” That’s from Down the Fairway. Yes, one of the greatest golfers ever was also one of the game’s best writers.

And very much looking forward to my won wee golf bender, the key bit being that middle 'graph.  It's that process of battling those "rugged" elements that is so captivating, notwithstanding a rathe lopsided won-lost record against in said battle.  But the pleasure of pulling off a shot in such circumstances cannot be readily explained, one needs to feel it in one's own bones.

That's all that time permits.  I have no clue as to whether I'll attempt to blog tomorrow, as that will depend on progress packing today.