Thursday Threads

Spanning the globe, to bring you the wide world of golf...

Dateline: Fort Worth - The great Dan Jenkins is never gonna get that sitdown with Tiger after comments like this from an interview with Mac Engel:

Is Jordan Spieth the next big thing on the Tour, or are we kidding ourselves that, because of the depth of talent at the top, anybody will ever replicate Tiger’s run a decade ago?

Jordan Spieth is the real deal. As I tweeted from Augusta, he appears to be the perfect

Texas pro. He has the will and the focus of Ben Hogan, the likability of Byron Nelson and the putting stroke of Ben Crenshaw. I’m delighted that we now have a youthful Top Three — Rory McIlroy, Jordan and Rickie Fowler. Rickie doesn’t have the physique or the size and strength of Rory and Jordan, but he’s a fierce competitor, a fighter who has to get everything out of himself, somewhat on the order of a Gary Player. Incidentally, there’s much more talent at the top (and the bottom) than there was during Tiger’s peak years. Tiger beat a lot of nobodies to win most of his majors. 

Yeah, there was Phil [Mickelson] and [Ernie] Els around, in and out, but go back and look who was second to him in those majors and tell me where they are now.

Ya gotta chuckle at the fact that the Tiger-trashing comes in answer to a question about....homeboy Jordan Spieth.   Not that he's bitter or anything... Much as wwe love the old curmudgeon, the homer in him comes through loud and clear with this:

After the majors, do you think Colonial is among that second tier of tournaments or does such a thing even exist?

Colonial is still in the second tier of tournaments, despite the fact that the layout has eased up from a very difficult 280 U.S. Open test to a layout where journeymen pros can shoot 61. Age carries it forward, plus a great array of past champions. My current list of important second-tier events would include what I still call the Crosby, the LA Open, The Players, Jack’s Memorial and the Tour Championship.

We could have a serious argument about those Left Bank venues, but Colonial?  The Frys is drawing a stronger field these days...

Dateline: Virginia Water, England -  An AP story reminds us that this week's Euro Tour flagship event is where Rory started last summer's torrid run:

Rory McIlroy is back at the tournament that ''kick-started'' his amazing run over the past 12 months. 

McIlroy defends his title this week at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the flagship event of the European Tour. He won here in 2014 after failing to make the cut the previous two years. 

''This is what kick-started everything,'' McIlroy said Wednesday. ''This win, it gave me a lot of confidence to go on into the summer and do what I did. It was a real catalyst.''

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article21330333.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article21330333.html#storylink=cpy

Ahhhh, the memories....that was of course mere days after Rory channeled his inner Emily Litella and said "Never Mind" to those posted wedding invites.  Alas, this event is played over the desecrated Harry S. Colt course at Wentworth, so I'd suggest you keep your powder dry this week and set your DVR for the Irish Open next week at Royal County Down.

Dateline: Washington, D.C. - We linked yesterday to this item on FCC complaints about Tiger's potty mouth, but in an act of blogging malpractice I failed to make it to the bottom of the article.  There was comedy gold to be found and I left it on the cutting room floor, such as this:

Woods hasn't been the only source of golf fans’ ire. In the wake of the 2014 Arnold Palmer Invitational, a San Jacinto, Calif., viewer lambasted Matt Every’s caddie, Derek Mason, for dropping the f-bomb “several times while discussing a golf shot Every was about to make.”

Multiple F-bombs over one shot?  Well played, Derek...

In 2013, a Spring, Tex., resident took issue with two-time PGA Tour winner D.A. Points using the term “d---ing around” on a segment that ran on the nightly news on the local NBC affiliate. (“This expression is objectionable to me,” the viewer demurred.) CBS Sports announcers David Feherty and Gary McCord were criticized in 2012 by a Brooklyn, N.Y., viewer for appearing in a commercial that made “a mockery of the Roman Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation.”

I'm not now nor have I ever been a Roman Catholic, but does anyone have a clue as to what commercial is involved?  And, of course, this ever-present issue in golf broadcasts:

Two viewers asserted that commercial breaks during golf telecasts are an inappropriate forum for promoting erectile dysfunction medications. (You know the spots -- sunsets, bathtubs, knowing glances.) “Children and young people may be watching,” wrote a viewer from Alexandria, Va.

Well, according to Nielson, there are no kids watching... but I think these folks are bitter that their walls don't magically open to reveal side-by-side bathtubs in the sunset.  How sad for them...

Dateline: Utah - I thought I had my arms around the damage that lightning can do to a golf course, but I stand corrected:

By now everyone’s probably seen a tree or two that’s been hit by lightning: branches severed off, strips of bark missing. What happens, though, when lightning hits a smaller target on the golf course?

This photo from a Reddit user shows what happened to the green at a course in Utah when a flagstick got hit:

 Wow!  I guess that's a good reason to make flagsticks out of non-metallic materials....

Dateline: Cape Breton Island, Canada - Cabot Links has been wowing them since it opened, and now Cabot Cliffs will open for preview play in July.  We've got spectacular pics and a video to wet our whistle:

If that voice sounds familiar, it's none other than Jack Bauer.  If Employee No. 2 is so inclined, I'm thinking next summer...

Mid-Week Musings

Just a few items for you today, as we conserve energy heading into the holiday weekend.

Horror Chambers - Next month's U.S. Open venue is a great unknown, and the genus-species Tourus Proffessionalus doesn't deal well with uncertainty...  You'll recall that USGA Executive Director Mike Davis made news by calling this a different kind of Open, predicting that the guy that shows up on Monday and plays two practice rounds will have no chance of winning...

Doug Ferguson surveys our entitled golf 1-percenters, and  you'll be shocked to hear that they're not amused:

"We'll play for second," former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson said at Quail

Hollow with no shortage of sarcasm.

"What's Mike Davis' handicap?" asked Rory McIlroy, another U.S. Open champion and the best player in the world, something Davis is not. It was a playful reminder that amateurs who run tournaments should not underestimate the skill of those who do this for a living.

Does Rory understand that Mike isn't, you know, in the field?   And, by the way, his index is 3.4...

And you'll understand that I couldn't pass on this bit:

No amount of chirping would be complete without Ian Poulter weighing in. Never mind that Poulter has never seen Chambers Bay. He listened to a few players who made scouting trips on their way to the Match Play Championship and tweeted, "The reports back are its a complete farce. I guess someone has to win."

And I'll go way out on a limb and predict, nay guarantee, that it won't be our Poults.   Now I do think Mike's words were ill-advised, not least because of this:

But what about the players who don't qualify until the Monday before U.S. Open week? Or the players — two of them last year — who qualify through the world ranking on the Monday of U.S. Open week?

We obviously assume that such players are not going to be in contention, but it shatters the veneer of democracy, no?  But Doug also reminds us of this over-looked aspect of U.S. Opens:

It's all about attitude.

Jack Nicklaus is famous for saying how he would listen to players complain about the U.S. Open and figure that was one less guy to beat that week.

Fortunately for Poults, Jack is also not in the field... Now we've heard ad nauseum that this is the first time the USGA is taking the Open to the Pacific Northwest, a beautiful part of the country.  But like clockwork comes this report:

Several groups — Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Backbone Campaign, and

the People’s Climate Action Fleet — are planning an offshore environmental protest during the final round of the Open. 

“Join the People's Climate Action Fleet, Sunday- June 21, 2015 off the coast of the Chambers Bay Golf Course in Pierce County,” the Olympia Fellowship website says. “Bring all your watercraft - kayaks, canoes, sailboats, and power boats… 

“More than two hundred thousand people will attend the tournament and one hundred million more will watch the action on television. This is our chance to bring a dramatic climate justice message to the attention of a national and international audience.”

Oh Goodie...I just home they can get the drums onto the boats.   Seattle is notorious for this nonsense, from the 1999 riots in conjunction with the World Trade Organization meeting to the more recent May Day protests earlier this month.  Won't it be lovely spending the week with these gracious hosts?

Back To The Island - Pete Dye has a good quote that Google won't find for me to the effect that while he's most famous for building island greens, he's only built tow of them.  We now have news about the second of those:

Twenty-nine years after the course was played for the one and only time in the old Bob

Hope Classic, the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West is officially returning to the course's rotation in 2016. 

In one of the worst-kept secrets in the desert, the Stadium Course along with the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course will be announced Tuesday as new courses for the 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation.

This may actually be a good call, as this tournament is once again on life support.  At the time of its construction it was arguably the most difficult golf course on the planet, currently featuring a course rating of 76.1 and a slope of 150.  The issue will be what it does to the as the one time it was used in the Hope rotation hilarity ensued as Tip O'Neill did his best impression of a front-end loader in trying to escape a penal bunker.

Of greater import is the future course of this event, specifically the involvement of the Clinton Foundation.  The pairing with prior-sponsor Humana at least passed the laugh-out-loud test, promoting wellness and all.  But new sponsor careerbuilder.com has no such connection to wellness, and we'll no doubt be treated to many further revelations about the Foundation's use as a slush fund for Clinton loyalists (see Blumenthal, Sydney).  Unfortunately, when you lie down with dogs...

Of Rory and Tiger - I know we're in the Jordan Spieth era, but take a minute for a retro item on a couple of the old guys.  If you take Rory at his word, he seems to keep things in good perspective by focusing on his next tournament and not obsessing over career milestones.  Ass he says, we'll just add them up when he's done...

He sounded a similar note in a recent interview:

During an interview with BBC Sport on Tuesday, McIlroy was asked if he could replicate what Tiger Woods did for golf. 

"I'll never be able to do for golf what Tiger did,” McIlroy said. “He was a phenomenon, he brought so many more people into the game because of his background and how he started on Tour and everything…”

Set aside the fact that the case for Tiger bringing people into the game is rather sketchy, but how about this item on other contributions he's made to the game:

Since 2011 the Federal Communications Commission has fielded 22 complaints about profanities heard on golf broadcasts on CBS, NBC, Golf Channel and ESPN, according to FCC records obtained by GOLF.com through a Freedom of Information request. Fifteen of those grievances, or nearly 70 percent, relate to salty language uttered by Woods.

So Rory, I'm OK with you just being yourself and occasionally flinging a 3-iron (and doesn't that seem like it was ages ago?).

These Guys Are Good -  Our tongue-twister of the day features Troy's Tolver Dozier (really, you can't make that up) who found himself in a playoff for the individual spot out of the the NCAA Division 1 regional at Yale.  Fortunately his teammates had the video going...

With a name that good, I can only hope he has a long career...

Looking For a New Driver? - A promotion from TaylorMade to sweeten the pot for the U.S. Open:

Dustin Johnson is already a fan favorite. But we have a feeling D.J. is about to pick up even more fans for this year’s U.S. Open.

If D.J. wins at Chambers Bay in June, anyone who buys a new TaylorMade driver between May 18 and June 17 at a PGA Tour Superstore will be refunded for the driver’s full price. So, that new R15 ($430) or AeroBurner ($300) could end up being free.

So I shouldn't get "Custom Fit" at Dick's?  You guys have me very confused... 

Party Like It's 1987 - With the Tour headed to Colonial this week, Golf Magazine runs this 1987 interview with Ben Hogan that you'll want to peruse.  I'll just excerpt the opening question:

GOLF Magazine: Next year we'll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of golf in

America. You've been around for 75 of those years. What's your first golf-related memory? 

BEN HOGAN: I guess it goes back to about 1920. I was nine years old and selling newspapers in Forth Worth to make some money when one of my friends told me I could earn more by caddieing. The word was you could make 65 cents just by packing a bag around 18 holes. So one day I walked the seven miles from my home to Glen Garden Country Club to see what it was all about. The established caddies at Glen Garden ran sort of a kangaroo court. For a new caddie to break in, he had to win a fist-fight with one of the older, bigger caddies. So they threw me against one of those fellas and I got the better of him. It was through the caddie experience that I got the golf bug.

A lot of golf history captured in one simple Q & A, especially when you remember that it was in that caddie yard that Hogan met a similarly hardscrabble youngster named Byron Nelson.

The photo is from a 1965 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match against Sam Snead, in which Hogan famously hit all eighteen fairways and greens.  The man could golf his ball...

Odds And Ends

Lots of short bits for you on this dreary Tuesday....

We've got much ground to cover, so buckle in...

Scheduling Snafus - Think it's easy being a professional golfer?  Well if we're talking Rory and Rickie, it pretty much is...but for the lower classes, it's gotta be a grind out there.  For example, the ladies were at Kingsmill this weekend, not that anyone noticed, and were plagued by bad weather.  That necessitated a Monday finish:

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Minjee Lee didn't get the dousing with champagne often

Lee, Minjee

afforded a winner on the LPGA Tour. 

Instead, she signed autographs and posed for photos with fans behind the 18th green on the Kingsmill Resort's River Course, waiting to see if her two-shot lead would hold up through the final pairing. 

When it did, the surprise of victory was more than enough for the 18-year-old Australian.

Funny, she doesn't look, you know, Australian... more on that in a bit.  By winning she punched a ticket to the U.S. Open, but what of those not so fortunate?

Lee, Alison

Alison Lee will fight another day for a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open. The U.S. Golf Association granted Lee’s request to switch qualifying sites after a Monday finish on the LPGA caused her to miss her tee time May 18 at Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va. 

Lee, an LPGA rookie, finished third at the Kingsmill Championship, three strokes behind her friend and contemporary Minjee Lee. The Lees, who are unrelated, met in the final of the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior and were co-medalists last December at LPGA Q-School. Minjee was set to join Alison at Hermitage, but because she won the Kingsmill Championship is exempt into the Women’s Open field. 

Lee now will compete in a 36-hole qualifier on Tuesday at Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma, Calif., sight unseen. She flew in early to Richmond for a practice round at Hermitage but doesn't have time for such luxuries at Goose Creek, where her dad will caddie.

Good on the USGA for accommodating the change, but it's a shame that the schedule is so unforgiving.

Wither Phil - Jaime Diaz applies his considerable psychological skills to man-of-the-people Phil Mickelson, asking the important questions...namely, after a crushing triple at the 18th on Saturday that took him out of contention, would he sign?

After driving into the water and then three-putting on the difficult par-4 finisher,

Mickelson wore a tight smile—his public version of a frown—that left no doubt his chili

was running hot. His normally affable caddie, Jim (Bones) Mackay, went straight to the parking lot rather than be part of a glum post-round scene. T.R. Reinman, Mickelson’s longtime publicist, figured the Sharpie would stay holstered. “Triple at the last?” he winced. “I’m guessing no.” 

But after a couple of minutes in the scoring area, Mickelson appeared with his regular smile and walked out to the appreciative throngs leaning against the barricades, and for 15 minutes accompanied his right-handed signature with some eye contact and occasional conversation. “How about that?” said Reinman, quietly impressed by his man.

I've been harshly critical of Phil when I thought warranted, the Ryder Cup nonsense being the best example.  But this is Phil at his best, and it matters in the example it sets for younger players.  It's Jaime, so you'll of course read it all.  His basic thrust is this:

Lately, Mickelson doesn't trend as much as he suddenly spikes.

This is a normal career arc as players age, and in Phil's case there's the added complication of his battle with psoriatic arthritis.  It's completely understandable that normal Tour events don't get his juices going, but peaking at the right moment has its own challenges.  The good news is that it can provide for dramatic viewing, never more so than next month at Chambers Bay (Career slam and all that).

Speaking Of Which... - Local station KIRO provides this teaser 30 days out from the Open:

That road is the key, as it's the only way in and out... we'll definitely hear some grumbling throughout the week from those on site.  As for the golf course, it looks other-worldly...

Media Notes - We recently discussed the R & A's bidding process for the U.S. television rights to the Open Championship.  This is newsworthy because they're doing it a year early, as they hope to award the package before this year's Open but the contract commences in 2017.  That means that ESPN could well be a lame duck for two years, raising the likelihood of a completely unhinged Chris Berman... That'll ruin your day, no?

So, why go to market early?  Obviously the bidding is expected to draw the usual suspects, with Fox (new to the biz) and NBC/Golf Channel (newly without a major) seemingly needing it most.  Ron Sirak outlines the R & A's concerns:

And multiple sources tell GolfDigest.com that the price tag on the Fox deal with the USGA - averaging $93 million a year - has something to do with the timing. 

“They are going to lose their shirts,” a source in the advertising community familiar with the ad rates said about Fox. The fear in the R&A, according to a second source, this one in broadcasting, is that heavy losses on the U.S. Open by Fox would hurt the market value of the British Open.

Translated to English, the premise is to keep Fox in the mix before they realize how much they screwed up on the USGA package.  There's lots of back and forth in the piece about that contract, and also a fair share of USGA nonsense about maximizing the value of the package to fund their grow-the-game initiatives.

But they also may have this wrapped up before the U.S. Open (though, unlike the USGA, they make clear that they won't announce anything during U.S. Open week), meaning that they won't even give themselves the benefit of watching the Fox broadcast.  You know what's also good for growing the game, competent broadcasts of major golf events...

In other media news, Callaway is going into the live broadcast business, as explained here by Harry Arnett:

The first episode featuring Dick Enberg can be viewed here, and rumor has it that some guy named Shackelford will be the guest on E2.

A Work in Progress - The aforementioned Shack has some photos of the work on pebble's 17th here:

He's got more photos at the link, and in an addendum he adds that the new green appears to be an even more severe hourglass shape than the 1929 Chandler Egan versions.

It's Supposed To be a Global Game - John Paul Newport beats me to a subject long on my radar, the differences in handicap systems around the world.  According to JPN, global handicaps are on the horizon:

“The handicap system is effectively a fourth set of rules,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s point man for the initiative. Not all golfers keep a handicap, of course, but for those who do the score-posting requirements enforce a rules-like discipline. Yet those rules deviate from country to country. “We feel it would benefit the game enormously, and add to its enjoyment, if golfers everywhere had a single, portable handicap number that worked the same wherever they traveled,” Bodenhamer said.

It's obviously a complicated subject, but this also ties in to yesterday's discussion of conceding putts,  and the American's allegedly myopic focus on holing out and posting a number.  I'm often asked whether we post our scores from Scotland and Ireland, and the answer is that one can't, because the courses don't have the ratings and slopes needed for posting under USGA jurisdiction.

The other big difference is that players in GB&I only post tournament scores, typically from their monthly medal competitions.  Inevitably that means that handicaps are based on fewer scores and can be quite outdated at times...  

Newport's piece goes into some good detail, and for anyone that wants to dive in deeper I'll refer you to Dean Knuth, who devised the USGA's rating and slope system and is known affectionately in the biz as The Pope of Slope.

Never Up... - We all know the drill, you need to make a putt and end up leaving it short.  It's a trite, oft-repeated event in our game, from the Tour to the fourball at your club... But I think you'll agree that this one is especially agonizing:

We watched Rory McIlroy threaten a round of 59 on Saturday at Quail Hollow, where he 

settled for a course-record 61 to put himself in position for another PGA Tour win. But on the Web.com Tour on Sunday, veteran Roland Thatcher got even closer than Rory to hitting golf's magic number. 

Thatcher stood on the 18th green with a 12-foot putt for a birdie and a 59. It scared the hole, but missed on the low side. "I’m actually ashamed of myself that I left it short for chance at 59," Thatcher said after.

So, he's ashamed about shooting 60?  Frustrated is probably a better word... Video can be seen here. 

A Delicate Subject - In ostensibly non-golf reading I ran across this item:

The desire is multiplied by the millions in her native Seoul, often called the world’s capital for plastic surgery. In a new exhibition on display in New York, Yeo showcases photographs that document the experience of plastic surgery in South Korea, where 20 percent of women have had some form of cosmetic work, compared to 5 percent of American women, according to widely cited data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

This highlights how creepy it is:

In raw numbers, Brazil performed the most procedures overall in 2013, followed by the United States, but the plastic surgery industry in South Korea is legion. The New Yorker profiled it earlier this year, reporting that among the reasons for getting surgery on a questionnaire to prospective patients was "preparing for a job," "wedding" and "regaining self-confidence."

It's obviously troubling that so much cosmetic surgery is being performed on young women...Loyal readers will anticipate the direction I'll go with this, to wit, is it still inappropriate to note that the South Korean LPGA players all look alike, when the country goes to great expense to make their women all look the same?  And, if you're in the shop for a nip and tuck, perhaps you might consider another procedure as well?

Please direct all hate e-mails to Employee No. 2.

A Concession Or Two

There is much about the origins of our game that remains elusive, but we're able to nail down one minor quirk.  Writing for the USGA website, Michael Trostel and Victoria Student share "That's Good": A History of Conceding Putts.  Spoiler alert: the stymie figures prominently...

First the deep background:

The phrase itself, “concede putts,” was first mentioned in the Rules of Golf in 1909.

Interestingly, the USGA was strongly against it. The section Special Rules for Match Play Competitions reads, “The Rules of Golf Committee recommends that players should not concede putts to their opponents.” This was mentioned in each subsequent Rules book until 1933.

Color me surprised that it's that recent....and as noted above, the dreaded stymie (and I'd like my mates to consider allowing the stymie for amusement purposes sometime) plays the villain in our tale:

At one point, conceding a putt was used as a way to play around the “stymie rule,” which was in existence until 1952. On September 1, 1920, the USGA added a provision that allowed the stymied player to concede his opponent’s next putt, and it was incorporated into the 1921 Rules of Golf: “If the opponent lay the player a stymie, the player may remove the opponent’s ball; the opponent shall then be deemed to have holed in his next stroke.”

What's most amusing is that this issue quickly devolved into an Old World-New World spat.  First, representing GB&I, is the great golf writer Bernard Darwin:

“American golfers have been criticized for holing out in all matches, which is done for the practice thus gained, and to keep accurate scores for club handicaps. For doing this, American players have been accused of ‘being passionately fond of keeping scores’ and delaying the progress of the players behind by holing out. There is no golf player in the world today who is so good on the putting green that he can afford to lose a large percentage of putting practice that he is deprived of with an opponent who picks up his ball whenever he pleases, or knocks his opponent’s ball away from the hole and concedes the putt.”

British writer and GB&I Walker Cupper Bernard Darwin felt differently. Darwin contended that “the holing out of putts which cannot affect a match, but which are holed purely for private satisfaction, is ‘frankly a bore.’”

Those damn colonists....but wait, shouldn't we give them equal time?

Golf Illustrated writer George Trevor vehemently opposed Darwin’s views. He described the American practice of always holing out a result of values integral to American culture, writing: 

“This American insistence on keeping personal scores is basically sound as well as satisfying to the soul. It is the cornerstone upon which our national golf progress is founded, making, as it does, for the precision of play rather than sloppy, slipshod habits. The American feels that anything worth doing at all is worth doing well. Holing out putts breeds confidence and puts the stamp of finality on a man’s game. Not holing out cultivates a sloppy mental attitude.”

 Now I lied to you above, for what's in reality most amusing about this subject is of course the reaction of players.  As the authors relate:

“Refusal to concede a three-footer may be constructed as poor sportsmanship. It doesn’t seem right to burden a contestant with such a delicate decision. A sensitive golfer fears to be pilloried as a poor sport. He will lean over backwards in conceding missable putts rather than have his sportsmanship questioned. Conceding putts may relieve course congestion and speed up play, but it also takes the joy out of life for the typical American golfer.”

And then there's the reaction of the players whose putts aren't conceded....I recall a quite silly though mercifully brief conversation with a member of our club.  When I made the tactical error of asking how his match went, the first words out of his mouth were, "He gave me no putts."  Putts was exactly the perfect word for him, albeit with an alternative spelling... 

I Saw It On TV

Do you remember the sound of one hand clapping when the USGA awarded its television package to Fox?  Turns out that it was Martin Kaufman's hand flapping in the breeze, and he's struggling with a case of buyer's remorse:

It’s been 21 months since the U.S. Golf Association announced that it had awarded its

television rights to Fox Sports. I was one of the few (only?) people who regarded the move as a masterstroke. The USGA got a television partner dedicated solely to its championships, and, more importantly, the golf world would get a fresh perspective on how to present the game. Everyone would benefit. 

I still believe all of that. But I’ll admit, my faith was tested by Fox’s coverage of the recent men’s and women’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Because of travel, I had to watch recordings of the matches, but what I saw left me wondering: What has Fox has been doing these past 21 months? The network promised so much and, so far, has delivered so little.

Masterstroke?  Egads, our Marty is a tad excitable, isn't he?  What, pray tell, is the value of a network devoted exclusively to USGA events, especially when only one of their events is, you know, profitable?  On the flip side, the problems of amassing the necessary personnel and infrastructure to cover a mere eight events are obvious...

The irony, it's burning Marty right now..

The evidence suggests otherwise. I don’t recall seeing any gauges showing wind speed and direction, an obvious omission on a seaside links such as Pacific Dunes or during the windy final at The Olympic Club. The graphic showing yardages was good, but rarely used. There were few interesting camera angles, no graphics to illustrate green contours and, despite the intimate nature of amateur golf, we heard no conversations among teammates or between players and caddies – something Loomis has said would be a point of emphasis. And there was little or no background on the players. You can do that when you’re showing Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie. But when you’re showing anonymous amateurs, you need to introduce them to viewers and share their personal stories. We didn’t get any of that during the Four-Balls. 

The one innovation Fox tried at the Four-Balls seemingly backfired. The network has placed an emphasis on enhancing ambient sounds to bring viewers closer to the action. That seems like a good idea, but at Pacific Dunes, in particular, the sound of crashing waves became a distraction at seaside holes such as the par-3 11th. At The Olympic Club, a helicopter provided the background accompaniment for much of the final match.

I really don't know what Marty expected, but he seems a bit untethered from reality.  Hold that though and allow me to intersperse a related thought:

Good news for Fox Sports 1, as it appears that the one Nielsen home watching the inaugural USGA Women's Four-Ball was joined by another Nielsen family tuning in for Fox analyst Pete Rose's second historic appearance, only to find the four-ball going extra holes. 

According to Nielsen, Tuesday, May 12th's day one USGA Women's Four-Ball coverage from 7:00-10:22 p.m. on Fox Sports 1 drew a .05 (50,000 average viewers).

Given the prospective audiences tuning in to the two fourball events, there had to be real constraints as to how much could be invested in the broadcast of those two events.  Now there is an argument to be made that it should have been done regardless of the losses incurred in order to prepare for Chambers Bay, but it isn't our money to spend.  

Now here's his rant on the on-air talent:

I also have to question some talent choices; there were some real issues, particularly on the B team that worked the Women’s Four-Ball. 

I think lead anchor Joe Buck will be fine. He’s a proven commodity, and he knows golf. I do wish he hadn’t dwelled repeatedly on the favorite baseball and football teams of competitors in the Men’s Four-Ball. Once is fine; when it’s done repeatedly, some might question whether he’s more interested in talking about baseball or golf. But I’m not worried about Buck, and I’ll reserve judgment on lead analyst Greg Norman until the U.S. Open, the first time we’ll see him in a setting where he’s talking about players he actually knows.

Buck is a proven talent on football and baseball, I'd consider it more of an open issue whether those skills translate to golf.  Golf is the only game where the action is spread over 200 acres, and the lead tower announcer is more of a facilitator than dominant voice.

See what you think of this rant as well:

I’m so weary of producers continually trotting out former players to do godawful post-round interviews. I’ve made this point repeatedly for years. Week after week, we have to listen to Roger Maltbie, David Feherty and Peter Kostis do dreadful post-round interviews. And now we can add Gulbis and Pavin to the mix. I suppose Fox could argue that Gulbis and Pavin are new to TV and their interviewing skills will improve with time. But that’s probably not true, if our experience with Maltbie, Feherty and others is any indication. And so we go through this exercise every week – former players suddenly thrust into the role of interviewer rather than interviewee. Enough! Is Steve Sands the only TV personality capable of asking a couple of coherent, concise questions? Isn't that why Fox hired Holly Sonders? Why was she sitting on the sidelines when she should have been doing all of those interviews?

Did he not see Holly's dreadfully painful interviews from the men's fourballs?  And it's not like Steve Sands blows me away either...those rushed post-round interviews are about the least important parts of the telecast, and Maltbie, Feherty and Kostis aren't that terrible at it.  Gulbis and Pavin were that terrible, but it was the first time they had live microphones in their hands and maybe they'll improve.  It's just gonna take a while at best... At worst, well let's not go there...

This is his rousing coda:

Rightly or wrongly, Fox is under the microscope. There are those who view Fox as

nothing more than a monied interloper who crashed golf’s cozy little party at the country club, flashed enough Benjamins to make Al Czervik blush, and walked away with the USGA’s TV rights. Then there are those who believe that all knowledge of how to televise golf resides in the mind of NBC producer Tommy Roy. (News flash: It doesn't.) And then there are the simpletons who invariably freak out at the mere mention of the brand name “Fox.”

Oh Marty, it's a shame that they no longer have editors in journalism, because you are in desperate need of some tough love.

Shack almost spit out his drink when he read that last excerpt, because guess who Fox tried to hire within hours of the award of the USGA contract... Anyone?  Bueller?  That's right, one and the same Tommy Roy.

So consider me a mere simpleton, though I don't think that my opinions were in any sense a "Freak out."  I'm not familiar with Kaufman's work, but this piece doesn't increase the probability that I'd seek out more of it.  He pats himself on the back for being sufficiently enlightened to see the masterstroke behind the Fox contract, then throws them under the bus as he confirms all of the critics' concerns.  Then he circles back and tells us it will all be great, because they figured out football or something...

Weekend Wrap

Ho hum, another week, another dominating performance by the Ulsterman.  Please bear in mind, though, that according to Sports Illustrated we've entered the Jordan Spieth era. 

I like Jordan as much as the next guy, but it seems clear that if each plays at their best that Rory wins because of his ability to turn 7,500 yard golf courses into pitch and putts.  After Rory torched Quail Hollow for a record-breaking (and it was his own record) 61, J. Held posted this chart of the clubs Rory hit into greens:

He's highlighted the par-3's, but how about playing a 508-yard hole with driver-nine iron?  Then on Sunday he pulverized the difficult 16th, leaving our Shack braying at the moon:

For the millionth time, all kudos to Rory McIlroy for the gym time and to his team for launch monitor work allowing him to turn a 514-yard par-4 into a drive and gap-wedge hole. Still, does it not at least raise a few eyebrows of those wondering when the distance chase will end? 

On Quail Hollow's 16th, en route to a dominating Wells Fargo Championship win, McIlroy's overpowering of the 16th is impressive. But is there a point when the numbers become so silly that the fan finds them farcical and views the game as juiced? 

Either way, as long as it makes Johnny Harris spend more money on new tees for the 2017 PGA and prompts him to send the bill to the USGA and R&A, I'm good with it!

Feel better now that you got that off your chest, Geoff?  Here's the CBS tape of Gary McCord suspending his disbelief:

Rory averaged 321.1 yards off the tee, leading the field.  His longest of the week was 364 yards, but that was only good for second place...and he hit 55% of his fairways.  Good luck beating that combo...

Now, the obligatory note of caution, as the summer sets up to be incredibly exciting.  But as for Rory, this year's major venues seem uniquely designed to perhaps stall his momentum.  The Tour Confidential was asked to speculate on what we might see from Rory thus summer, and that Van Cynical guy caught the nail right on the sweet spot:

Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: The guy just shot 61 and won going away. Kinda hard to be objective this minute. I say he wins both Opens by a touchdown. Unless it's windy at either place, in which case all bets are off.

Chambers Bay is a wild card, as none of us know what to expect.  But the fact that Rory opened 63-80 on The Old Course in 2010, pretty much sums up the range of potential outcomes there.  If it's calm, he's got five Par-4's that he can potentially drive, but if the wind is up....

We don't spend much time on equipment here at Unplayable Lies, But Golf Digest's E. Michael Johnson tells us that Rory is in a good place:

It took a little bit, but Rory McIlroy seems to have found the right driver-shaft combination. At the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy used his Nike Vapor Pro with a Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board S+ 70 TX shaft to lead the field in driving distance with an eye-catching 321.1 yards.

I'll speculate that, Rory's dominance aside, over the long term this event's greatest significance might turn out to be the emergence of Patrick Rodgers among the group of challengers for Rory.  At 22 he's struggled to get opportunities to tee it up on the big tour, but add him to your list of challengers for the aged Rory (who just turned 26).  Rodgers was a great collegiate player at Stanford, tying a record of eleven winds held by Eldrick Something-or-Other.  With Spieth, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, and now Rodgers in the mix (and I'm obviously skipping many names that could be added to this list), we should treated to some great rivalries over the next few years.

I expect to be back with more later.

Bonus Weekend Content

I stiffed you nice folks yesterday when I got immersed in a couple of projects (and yes, some golf was played as well), so how about I make it up to you today?

Pebble, Back To The Future - Those that have been fortunate enough to hear my Pebble rant, will remember that there are two greens on that iconic course that require demolition, to wit the 14th and 17th.  The 14th requires more time than available, but the 17th is a short analysis.  It's an hourglass-shaped green that sits at an awkward angle to the tee, and the back section has become untenable in recent years.

It's not a big factor for the Crosby, as the softer winter conditions and the fact that they only play the pin there on Sunday (the same hole locations are used the first three days, always on the front on this green).  But at the 2010 U. S. Open it became painfully evident that the best players in the world couldn't hold that green in the space available.

I had previously read of plans to deal with the 14th, so I was glad for this news:

A project that will see the iconic 17th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links have a new, but

also familiar look continues to move forward. 

Since April 29, Pebble Beach Company has been busy refurbishing the green of the par-3 17th that will result in a wider and more playable surface—expanding to approximately 5,000 square feet from its current size of 3,600 sq. feet. 

In addition to the green expansion, the front left bunker face will be lowered by approximately 2½ feet and the mounds in front of the bunker will be lowered, allowing golfers the view of the lefts side of the green from the tee. Players will now be able to see their ball land on the left portion of the green.

What happens is that over time greens shrink, in this case that front bunker has actually expanded greatly from the years of bunker explosions shots seems to be the main culprit, but mowing patterns can also be a factor.  So this green is far smaller than after the Chandler Egan redesign in 1929, though they're playing the hole at longer yardage.

Shack has been all over this issue over the years, including this article and this blog post. Here are comparison photos I've run previously, that readily depict how that bunker has encroached.

Although it's not been said publicly, I have to believe that this was a condition of the U.S.G.A. awarding Pebble the 2019 Open (to celebrate their centenary) as well as the 2018 U.S. Amateur.

Welcome To My World - Getting my clock cleaned by the Missus is a longstanding family tradition, and after last Sunday's play friends Wally and Teddy can see all too easily how it happens.  But it happened to some gents for whom it's quite the new experience, and we can only thank reader and friend Mark W. for sharing this posting from the R & A Members website:

The Monthly Medal played over the New Course on Friday 15th May 2015 was won

Lady Bonallack

by Lady Angela Bonallack with a Net 71 (80-9), and after count-back over the

last nine holes against Mr F H (Fraser) McCluskey (71-0). The significance of

this result within the context of the Club’s history really speaks for

itself and it simply remains, on behalf of all her fellow Members, for the

Club to offer its congratulations to Angela.

Fraser McCluskey was by no means left empty handed. His Net 71 made him the

winner of the 2014/15 Monthly Medal Final (Derek Macleod Trophy), contested

in the same competition by the Winners of the Monthly Medals played over the

last twelve months. He was also the winner of the 2014/15 Monthly Medal

Scratch prize, for the lowest cumulative four scratch scores (75, 68, 70, 73

= 286) returned during the 2014/15 Monthly Medal Season. His total of 286 was

12 strokes clear of Mr J T (James) Bunch in second place with 298.

I'm guessing that Fraser will be the subject of a good amount of ribbing, good-natured or not...

Great Minds Think Alike - Have you caught Rio fever yet?  Don't be selfish now, I have it on good authority that it's going to save our sport.  Turns out that one guy see it as it is:

In an interview with Reuters at the Wells Fargo Championship, Scott referred to the

Olympics as an 'exhibition,' and said he doesn't think golf belongs there. 

"Most of the athletes at the Olympics, probably have trained four years specifically to peak at this one event," said Scott. "It’s the pinnacle of their sport...They get one crack at their big thing every four years. They have put their life on hold for this event and it’s so important to them, and I feel it’s their time." 

Scott still has a shot at making the cut for the Australian Olympic team, but says he won't rearrange his schedule just because of that. 

"I'm not definitely ruling it out but certainly I'm not planning my schedule around playing the Olympics,” Scott said. "I’m planning my schedule around playing majors the best I can. If I can fit going to the Olympics into that, it might be a bit of fun, then lucky me if I qualify.

Wait until he sees the 2016 schedule, the only saving grace for him being that he's unaffected by the Ryder Cup.  And while I like his concern for the other athletes, not to worry, Adam, no one will be watching the golf.

Moves Like Jagger - Recent pugilist and acknowledged gamer Miguel Angel Jiminez can still play a little golf as well:

Though to be fair those seem to be more the moves of Chi Chi than Mick.

For reasons that remain unclear to your humble correspondent, Miggy's prize for this feat was...288 bottles of beer.  Don't they know he's more of a Rioja kind of guy?

The Reviews Are In - Whattya know, the Apple Watch is a hit with golfers... well, at least with one particular golfer.  Geoff is the anti-Stephanpoulis, as he makes his conflicts of interest immediately known to his readers:

Full disclosure: The author is a First Team All-Conference, Executive Platinum, Apple Fanboy.

Noted.  So what's the deal with this crazy watch? It turns out that Geoff's experience (three weeks) with the watch is very positive, but in a very narrow manner:

Since Phil Mickelson is about the only golfer on the planet who doesn’t seem to mind wearing a watch as he plays — it helps to be paid to wear one — the idea of the Apple Watch embellishing a golf experience was not on my radar. Instead, the promise of text and email notifications, safer directions or inspirational fitness tracking seemed more appealing. Because we all need to look at our phone less. 

To date, the notification software has been incredibly seamless, with several fun software touches adding to the pleasure of owning the watch. In the case of a few apps, like rain-forecaster Dark Sky ($3.99), the notification element can be downright jaw-dropping. In other situations, simply sitting at dinner waiting on one person who texted their ETA, allowed an interesting conversation to go on uninterrupted.

OK, but as the Lady asked, Is that all there is?  Though admittedly the Dark Sky app (pictured at right) looks interesting.  We all struggle with controlling the invasive outside world while on the golf course, but so far this just seems to be a an alternative that may appeal to some.

But Geoff makes us wait on that which is most important:

Some big-name golf-specific apps are already Apple Watch-compliant and field testing with Golf Now and Arccos will be a necessity before drawing conclusions about the accuracy and speed of yardages provided. But on the surface, they appear to be well thought out and compelling.

Get back to us then, Geoff.