Monday, December 21, 2020

Weekend Wrap

So, anything you guys want to talk about this morning?  It was good fun, though not without its dark side as well...

Charlie's Angels - And they were both there, the first we've seen of Elin since Thanksgiving 2009.  With no disrespect to the winners, we know who drew the eyeballs:

ORLANDO — They say every golf tournament has one winner and a whole bunch of losers. Whoever said that has clearly never watched Tiger Woods play golf with his son.

“I don’t think words can describe it,” Woods said. “The fact that we were able to have this experience together, Charlie and I. It’s memories for a lifetime.”

On Sunday, Team Woods shot a second-straight 62 to finish the PNC Championship at 20 under, seventh place overall, five shots behind their buddies, Justin and Mike Thomas, who closed with 57 for a one-shot victory. Had the Woodses holed a few more putts on their front nine, perhaps they could have made a run for the title. They made too many pars, and pars simply don’t cut it in a scramble format.

Not really one of those kind of tournaments, but that's what makes it work.  But by my unofficial count, they led the field in both eagles and bogeys, so there's work to be done before next year's event.

But who cares? This week was never about a trophy. Tiger has plenty of those; he only has one son. This was about making sure Charlie had the time of his life playing alongside his dad. The actual golf—that part was extra.

Extra, and spectacular. The younger Woods impressed throughout the week, from his first striped tee shot in Thursday’s pro-am round to the one on the 18th tee on Sunday. He made the first eagle of his life on Saturday, a moment he’ll never forget. A day later, after pouring in a 10-footer, he unleashed a fist pump straight out of pop’s playbook. A moment we’ll never forget

It was good fun, and Employee No.2 and I soaked up every minute... excepting, of course, the bit on Peacock.  

You guys have absorbed it by now, the uncanny similarities of body language and mannerisms.  Yeah, there were a few fist pumps, but this was my own fave:

This was my favorite header from the first day's action:

Charlie Woods shines, carries his dad Tiger Woods in PNC Championship debut

OK, thanks for clarifying, but we knew who his Dad is... Apparently there's no truth to the rumor that Patrick Reed called Charlie to sympathize over having to carry Tiger...

Mike Bamberger has a good piece on the week, which he frames with something I wondered about as well:

When Tiger Woods and David Duval gathered on the 1st tee here Sunday, their sons in the vicinity, they tried to figure out how long it’s been since they’ve played together. Fifteen years, Duval guessed. More like 16 or 17, Tiger said. If you’re doing an over/under, take 16. That’s one of Tiger’s skills. He’s like a human timestamp.

Time heals. It changes us, softens us, slows us. It grows you up, if you let it.

Bob Harig raises an interesting note though, in a bit of postmodernism, Mikey Bams explains it better:

Bob Harig of ESPN was the first to make this point: Charlie’s interest in golf is good for Tiger. It keeps him engaged in the game, his own game, as he tries to hang on, and Charlie’s game, as young Charlie tries to get better. The stakes were high this week for Tiger. Live golf, live TV, a private family dynamic on display for all to see. It went beautifully. It really did, right down to the Justin-Mike Thomas win.

It could, although I still think he'll be as interested as his body will permit...

I was actually quite happy to see this:

Have we seen her since 2009?  I actually think she deserves quite a bit of credit in the aftermath of their public scandal.  Lots of folks talk about it being about the kids, but Elin seems to actually walk the walk.  Oh, and big-sister Sam with her nose in her phone is all too pitch perfect for this generation.

Mike had this moment as well:

As Charlie and Tiger Woods — and Brady and David Duval — were coming up 18, an unlikely sight was unfolding on the cart path on the right side of the fairway: Erica Herman, Tiger’s girlfriend, casually walking up the path alongside Elin Nordegren, chatting about … whatever. At one point, Elin ran her hand through Erica’s hair, as women sometimes do, an old hairdo checkout move that’s been around forever. Erica is close to Charlie and his sister, Sam, who was walking arm-in-arm with her mom. Who saw that coming? Duval, in a manner of speaking. As he notes, none of us is the same now as we were then. 

I understand that Elin became very friendly with Lindsay Vonn as well, understanding that Tiger's squeeze would inevitably spend a lot of time with her children...   

The Tour Confidential guys liked it as well:

1. The Tiger and Charlie Woods Open, formerly known as the PNC Championship, is in the books. Justin Thomas and his PGA professional father, Mike, prevailed, but Tiger and 11-year-old Charlie stole the show. From the forward tees, Charlie, at times, carried his dad, while Dad, at times, carried Charlie with words of encouragement. What’s your main takeaway from watching Tiger in action with his son?

Michael Bamberger: Tiger as a father. He doesn’t baby the kid. He respects him. He’s there, but he’s not all over him. How refreshing in this era of helicopter parenting.

Dylan Dethier: I’m with Michael. When Tiger Woods was 11, he’d already had a competitive golf career that exceeds most full-grown adults, so I think when he sees Charlie, he sees a real person. That makes their interactions more fun to watch.

James Colgan: We’ve benefitted so much from Tiger Woods, the golfer, that it felt almost unfair to benefit from the awesomeness of Tiger Woods, the dad, this weekend. Still, what a unique and special memory the Woods family elected to share with the world.

Sean Zak: That golf is their thing. A lot of sons and fathers have their thing they do together. It’s one of their favorite things to do together. All the smiles, all the time. Warming stuff in this cold season.

There was a long stretch when Tiger couldn't play with his boy, so I expect there's some thankfulness involved as well.  Of course, it's hard to find anything new to say about fathers and sons:

2. It was easy to get swept up in all the Tiger-Charlie hoopla, but the fact remains that this was our first extended look as Tiger in the role of father. Which individual moment most sticks with you from the week?

Bamberger: How nervous Tiger was when he talked to reporters after the Thursday pro-am

round. It told me the stakes were high for him. He needed the week to go well, and there are no guarantees, of course.

Dethier: From the same interview: Tiger was asked an awkwardly phrased question about what’s on Charlie’s bedroom wall, searching for a comparison to Tiger’s poster about Jack’s major championship record. Tiger bristled. Playing in the tournament was one thing; talking about it was more of a tightrope walk.

Bamberger: Well said, Dylan. Tiger knows what it’s like to have your childhood bedroom exposed for the world to see.

Colgan: Tiger talked a bit Sunday about building a “little world” with Charlie in Orlando, away from the noise. It struck me that, in more ways than one, that’s been Charlie’s entire life.

Zak: The reaction to Charlie’s first eagle. Everyone remembers their first eagle. I’d guess Tiger does. Charlie won’t forget his.

I'll still admit to misgivings, as he's only eleven.  Tiger's talk about creating that bubble reinforced that because, the obvious reaction is that, if that's your concern, perhaps you shouldn't be here.

I do wonder whether it would have happened this soon in a different year, one with normal galleries.

Let's dispense with this bit, then circle back to that dark underbelly:

3. With all the attention on Team Woods, it was easy to forget that 19 other intriguing tandems were in the field. Which other duo did you most enjoy watching?

What?  There were other teams? 

Bamberger: Every last one of them, but to answer the question, I’ll go with Lee and Daniel Trevino. Trevino at 81 seems to have every shot. Daniel’s swing is loaded with speed and modern style. Lee’s love of shotmaking shows up every time he’s over the ball. By his own admission, he wasn’t always the most engaged father. He’s engaged with Daniel.

He was a revelation at 81...Wow!

Dethier: Matt Kuchar’s son, Cameron, is only two years older than Charlie Woods, but he was sweet-swinging his way through the weekend.

 Colgan: How about Jackie Langer, who stepped into action alongside her father after a back injury to her brother Jack and contended admirably? Count me on the Cameron Kuchar wagon, too.

Zak: Can they just trot out all these teams again next year? And the year after that? To be honest, the son I’m most anxious to see play big events is Lil John Daly. That swing is fun.

So, it was very much a feel-good weekend, but of course they don't understand the concept of all things in their place:

4. The PNC is always a reminder that competitive family golf is a blast to watch. Would you endorse a new national championship — i.e., one conducted by the USGA — that pits two-man/woman teams of family members?

Bamberger: No, I don’t think so. Too contrived. But this event works so well. I love how it hands the game down. Imagine what it will mean to Charlie Woods, decades from now, that he got putting tips at age 11 from 85-year-old Gary Player, who knew Hogan and Jones and Sarazen.

 Make this bigger and you can't have Trevino, Player and the other has-beens in the filed.  

Dethier: The Tiger Effect extends to the Champions Tour, as it turns out. Turns out all this event needed was a little injection of Tiger-Charlie eyeballs to get that much more compelling. Suddenly the swagger of Team Daly, the father-son contrast of Team O’Meara, and the rising star of Cameron Kuchar were all on display. The stakes felt about right, though.

Dylan, we're not even sure there was a Tiger effect...  But that doesn't mean there won't be a Charlie effect... 

Bamberger: I’d rather see Gary Player v. Charlie Woods straight up, same tees, Tiger on Charlie’s bag, Trevino on Player’s.

That's good, Mike, but those tees seemed rather... well, let's go with arbitrary.  Did you catch that bit on No. 18 when Cass Singh played a hole 35 yards longer than his Dad, who has done a thing or two in this here game?

Colgan: I loved the PNC, but anything more than the past few days wouldn’t do justice to parents or children.

Zak: I could get behind it! Why not? There are parent-child events in golf associations across the country — why not blow it out?

It works because it's intimate and low-key.  If you "blow it out", you'd be shocked at how quickly it would lose its charm.

Shack has a long post on the darkness descending angle, though your humble blogger is just a tad skeptical.  here's his take:

NBC rode the lad harder than George Wolff on Seabiscuit in the Big Cap, but the coverage was largely tasteful. Mildly distasteful was NBC sticking Charlie and Tiger’s first tee shot behind the Peacock Premium paywall to pimp their latest streaming venture, but that’s ultimately a minor offense compared to what was witnessed on social media.

GolfWRX breathlessly started trying to figure out what was in Charlie’s bag—noted early on they could confirm 14 clubs, eventually posting his specs and brand of choice. I will not be providing that link.

I get that there is enthusiasm for the lad’s game. There is a shared communal excitement at the sight of a young golfer so impressively talented and already better than most of us. But coupled with the modern day need to express excessive enthusiasm like pre-teens squealing at a K-pop concert, it’s embarrassing. With ads being sold, clicks counted and “activation” points with senior leadership as contracts are up for renewal, it’s understandable why restraint goes out the window.

But the examples he provides seem, well, unremarkable:

 How was your swing when you were 11? 😳 pic.twitter.com/vDhphUrudG

Was that so awful?  Or this?

As for this hate crime...

 I've never been addicted to watching a golf swing before...until now pic.twitter.com/xwwp1idkKO

Adam Shupak recommends a chill pill for Golf Twitter:

The Twitter-verse was abuzz at the sight of Charlie’s swing and warm-up session on the range Thursday next to Tiger before their pro-am round as if they’d seen the second coming. Cue the crazy talk that Charlie was going to revolutionize the game while breaking all of his dad’s records.

Simmer down, people. Charlie’s action shows raw promise and it’s evident that he not only has his famous father’s golf genes but his ‘feels,’ and perhaps most importantly, a love for the game. But let’s cool our heels. Let’s allow this weekend to be about a father and son bonding on the golf course.

Of course it's silly to project Charlie as a touring professional, given that he barely comes up to Tiger's knee.  But are we really at that point where we're outlawing silliness?   Because I can't remember a time when we needed it more...

Michael McKewan at Bunkered.UK furthers that theme:

Being the only son of one of the biggest and most successful sportsmen of the last hundred years explains the interest in him, but in no way justifies the obsession.

Interest is wanting to see him hit shots. Obsession is filming him doing something as mundane as walking through the golf club car park.

It troubles me that this needs to be pointed out but devoting so much attention to a pre-pubescent, primary school-age child is not normal behaviour. Unhealthy? Yes. Unnerving? Oh, yeah. Irresponsible? Uncomfortable? Creepy, even? No doubt. But not normal.

Was the reaction to Charlie a little over the top?  Sure, but did you see that swing?  I will say that at least McKewan is consistent with this:

If you were surprised that Tiger allowed his youngest to take part in the million-dollar tournament, you’re not alone. I don’t know what his reasons were, nor do I have any particular desire to speculate about them. That's his business, his decision. What I do know is that he would have expected the move to invite attention. But that shouldn’t vindicate the torrent of sycophancy and hyperbole foisted upon the little lad this week.

 Again - and it bothers me that this requires reiteration - he’s an 11-year-old child.

Thing is, if this creeped you out, then you have to be critical of the parents.  But the answer to McKewan's question as Tiger's motives seems to be, because Charlie wanted to play.  I don't make a habit of criticizing parents for rather obvious reasons, but where do you go with that?

Shack has some fun visuals, though nothing especially creepy, including this riffing on the recent issues surrounding that Tiger Tracker Twitter account:


For the record, I'm pretty sure that LVann is not the aforementioned LVonn.

I'll leave this event wondering about the ratings...  I suspect it'll be quite the stark contrast with, say, last week's U.S. Women's Open.

Tree, Forest - I actually watched quite a bit of this perched on my stationary bike, and it rocked:

Jin Young Ko didn’t play much golf on the LPGA Tour this year. But when she did, she sure made it count — particularly on Sunday, when she blitzed the field at the CME Group Tour
Championship to secure the biggest prize in the women’s game.

Early in the back nine, the CME title was wholly up in the air. Ko and Sei Young Kim were knotted at the top, with big-time names like Lexi Thompson and Georgia Hall lurking within two shots. Then Ko turned on the afterburners, making birdie at 12, 13, 14 and 16 to open up a four-stroke advantage. She added a birdie at 18 for good measure to secure that $1.1 million first prize.

After-burners is an apt analogy, as she just ran away.  However, none of this works very well for the Mike Whan and his tour, as she won the money title while playing in only four events.  Oh, and can we spare a moment to note that the Golf.com editors chose quite the strange angle for their accompanying photo... 

 The TC panel spared a question for the girls, including detail on the recently-announced 2021 schedule:

5. Top-ranked Jin Young Ko capped the LPGA season with a dominating five-under back nine to win the CME Group Tour Championship and the money title (despite playing in only four events.) This comes after an entertaining U.S. Women’s Open, and also in the wake of encouraging news for 2021: The LPGA has 34 official tournaments on the schedule, including two new events, and a record $76.45 million in purse money. What are your hopes for the women’s game this coming season?

Bamberger: Totally completely bullish. The starting point is to get to know the players. That’s our job. Not ours alone, but it is our job.

Yes, and on that note perhaps you could suggest to your editors that they run photos that show more than the girls' butts?

Dethier: My hope is that the game’s most compelling players play consistently well in the biggest events. Sunday’s CME was a good example: Jin Young Ko outflanking a leaderboard of Sei Young Kim, Georgia Hall, Hannah Green, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson is the sort of thing that helps build connection between viewer and player. (The same holds true for the men’s game, of course!)

 It's what we all want, but the only household name on that list is Lydia's, and she's more famous these days for firing people than for anything she does with her clubs.

Colgan: The schedule news was great, but it’s not quite enough. The key to growing purses over time (and my biggest hope for the coming season) is to give the women’s game the exposure it deserves. Some of the weight falls on the players to translate exposure into ratings juice, but much of it falls on the television partners to put the women’s game in a position for success.

Zak: More progress, more TV time, more money, more recognition. Even more pageviews, on this very website! More of everything. More of Mel Reid kicking journalists’ asses … and winning tournaments, too. More people on Twitter freaking out about Lexi Thompson’s athleticism in her swing. More appreciation for these ultra-smooth swings that deliver the clubhead better than anyone else on the planet. More of everything.

More of everything... But, could I suggest perhaps a little less Lexi  Seriously, her athleticism is an awkward fit for this tour, but her emotional fragility is getting old.

Udder Stuff - A few more bits of the Year in Review variety, including the winner of that Golf Digest Newsmakers of the Year series.  To refresh your memory, Bryson logged in at No. 2, which tipped us that they'd try to make some kind of point with their golf medal:

No. 1: THE ‘NEW’ GOLFERS

Two decades ago, a golf boom was spurred by a magnetic young star named Tiger Woods and an expanding real estate market. The 2020 version, borne from a pandemic in which no one could do

much else, was never part of anyone’s grow-the-game strategy. But a year in which COVID-19 disrupted so much of life provided an unlikely opening for golf. According to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Datatech, there will be some 50 million more rounds played in 2020 than 2019, an increase partially attributed to good weather, but mostly the serendipitous ways golf fit a social distancing world. Those who couldn’t go to work or the gym could still meet up with friends and play 9 or 18. Handshakes were replaced by elbow bumps and a whole new cottage industry arose in developing creative ways to safely extract a golf ball from the hole. Other than that, the game remained blessedly intact. While the year-end statistics point to an encouraging influx of new players—about 20 percent more beginners and junior players, respectively—the surge appears to have been driven more by core golfers who were simply afforded the chance to play more. Yet one could argue those of us who had played all along were still “new” golfers this year. Because we were suddenly around to play at Wednesday at 2. Because we stored our masks and our hand sanitizer in the same golf bag pocket as our keys. And because every trip to the golf course was a welcome refuge from a distressing new world. We might have always loved golf, but in 2020, we savored it like never before. —Sam Weinman

How can they be so right and so wrong at the same time?  Did you catch that bit where he undermines his own point?

I do very much agree that the biggest story in the game this year was the extent to which our moribund, not-for-this-generation game found itself the perfect solution to the pandemic and associated lockdowns, notwithstanding the attempt of numerous public officials to keep us locked inside.  But as Sam himself notes, this wasn't really about new golfers, but more about millions of occasional golfers finding refuge in the rhythms of our game and getting themselves hooked on it.  I can tell you from personal experience how much I enjoyed seeing the women of Fairview out there every day, many of them with pushcarts or actually carrying their bags.  It never failed to bring a smile to my face, and those were scarcer than toilet paper in April.

As a related point, I heard Jay Monahan actually posit that the professional game drove this resurgence in recreational play, which is delusional in the extreme.  This factor owes nothing too and is completely removed from the professional game, and it's a dangerous thing if Jay fails to understand that basic point.  While the Tour deserves credit for the reboot, the ratings tell a story that should be troubling to the suits in PVB.  Locked at home with nothing to do and nothing to live for, the public stubbornly refused to tune in.... 

Jay is not that far removed from his disastrous oversight of the Players Championship.  You'll remember, where he robotically kept repeating that golf is played over hundreds of acres, while allowing thousands to mingle in close quarters during the infamous Chainsmokers concert.  See what you think of these comments on the vaccine:

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Thursday said he does not envision requirements for players, officials or spectators to be vaccinated for the coronavirus as they look to slowly bring
back more fans as tournaments continue into 2021.

 "I think vaccination is a choice, and I would apply the same logic and the same amount of care to that subject as we have to every other subject, and that is to try and do our best to educate our members on vaccination and the pros and cons associated with it,'' Monahan said during a conference call with reporters. "But ultimately it's an individual decision.''

Cons, Jay?  What exactly would those be?  This guy draws $8 million large per year, and is perfectly happy to let his anti-vaxxer freak flag fly...  

As for "choice", were those that have been locked in their homes since march given a choice?  It goes without saying that choice and vaccines are incompatible... vaccines only work if everyone takes them, but no need to worry about folks who have lost their jobs or businesses.  As long as those in the Ponte Vedra bubble are good, and as long as the sponsor checks keep clearing...

 I'll release you here and see you further down the road.

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Snow-Day Blogging

It's a winter wonderland out there...  Here, anyway, not in Utah, of course.

Scenes From The Class Struggle - When last we checked in with the Euro Tour, Keith Pelley was assuring us that, "He did not have financial distress with that woman."  Who are we to argue with John Huggan, who has obviously received his talking points:

European Tour prepares for ambitious tournament schedule in 2021

Ambitious, eh?

It's that high expectation bit that has me struggling... 

There are a few gaps, five tournaments and/or venues still need to be confirmed and the number of Rolex Series events has gone down to four, but the 2021 European Tour schedule, formally
revealed on Tuesday, contains a minimum of 42 events in 24 countries. As many as 18 tournaments that were either postponed or canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic make welcome returns, although only eight events occupy the three months leading up to the Masters in early April.

The good news on the Rolex front is that the three of the four events now under that heading—the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open and the BMW PGA Championship—will each offer prize funds of $8 million, up by $1 million. But the biggest purse on the Old World circuit outside of the World Golf Championships and the majors will be the season finale. The DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, scheduled for Nov. 18-21, will still pay $3 million to the winner, but the total purse will go up to $9 million, another rise of $1 million.

Pro tip: If your lead sentence begins, "There are a few gaps", perhaps ambitious will trigger too much cognitive dissonance?  As the kids said a few years back, Hide the Decline.

Shack is all over the issues in his long post on the press release, beginning with the good news:

The obvious positives? The 2021 European Tour is going to play 42 times, with 18 events lost to the misery that is 2020 returning. Scheduling is designed to reduce travel and the European Tour sounds like it continues to take COVID very seriously.

The other good news, and it bears repeating, is that they are not now nor have they ever been in financial distress... Which is a very good thing, given all the bad news contained herein:

Just four Rolex Series events featuring the PGA Tour-level purses attracting top players, down three from last year’s plan. Low purses dominate and sadly, several events are TBD on the payout front but the tour is touting “increased prize funds” given the slight bumps from 2020.

Those were the events that were to be competitive with the U.S. Tour, and we'll get to the most curious omission in a second.  But see if you can detect the whiff of desperation?

Elsewhere on the 11-month schedule that kicks off in Abu Dhabi Jan. 21 (with Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas in the field), some details regarding price money are a little more vague. What is for certain is that new events during April in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, as well as the following Portugal Masters, will all offer €1.5 million purses. The British Masters hosted by former Masters champion Danny Willett is worth €2 million, up from €1.25 million. And both the Irish and Italian Opens prize funds have risen to €3 million.

One other promise has been made. The second (and so far unnamed) event on the seven-week summer U.K. Swing (one that clashes with the Olympics in Japan) will be co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA.

They're smart to beat Jay to the punch on this, though it's very much the kind of thing we do more because we have to than want to...

 Can anyone name those Rolex Cup events that have been lost to the memory hole?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Fortunately, Alistair Tait can, and it's a cautionary tale:

That wasn’t part of the narrative when France was awarded the match in May 2011. The Ryder Cup was painted as the key to delivering French golf to the land of milk and honey.

The French contingent was jubilant in the Wentworth Club Ballroom nine years ago when France
beat out bids from Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain. The French bid team could have been forgiven if they’d broken into the "La Marseillaise."

Jean Van de Velde was part of the bid team. He was in no doubt about what the match would bring to French golf. The 1999 Ryder Cup player said:

 “This will be a huge inspirational factor for French golf. It’s a dream come true for France. There are a lot of good young French kids coming through the French ranks and this will push them harder.”

Fellow Ryder Cupper Thomas Levet was equally ebullient:

 “It’s like getting the Olympics for us,” Levet said. “For the development of golf, for all the kids that are playing golf in France, it’s unreal. If we can get one million people playing the game, then I will be so happy.”

As long as you're happy, it's all good.  And they only missed it by, holding thumb and index finger an inch apart, by that much:

That one million figure was perhaps a wee bit optimistic. According to KPMG’s Golf Participation Report, there were 410,377 registered golfers (golf club members) in 2010. One year before the match, the same Participation Report showed a slightly lower figure of 410,171. Last year, KPMG reported a French participation figure of 412,726, a 0.62% growth year on year.

Strangely, Mr. Levet, in fact, nailed it.  It is remarkably just like the Olympics, each of which produces two new golfers.... At that rate of progress... 

What does this have to do with the French Open? Good question, but I would have thought Ryder Cup success would have had companies queueing up to sponsor the French Open. The
tournament, one of the oldest on the European Tour calendar, wasn’t played this year for obvious reasons. Perhaps it’s not surprising it isn’t on the 2021 schedule considering its fall down the European pecking order last year.

After two years as a $7 million Rolex Series tournament, it came with a $1.78 million prize fund last year. The 2018 French Open featured Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Graeme McDowell, Tommy Fleetwood, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Matt Wallace, Lee Westwood and winner Alex Noren. It had a strength of field rating of 288, fifth strongest European event outside the majors and WGCs. Last year that rating fell to 51, joint sixth lowest on the schedule, as Nicolas Colsaerts won in a field short name players.

Completely unfair, as the only reason they played in 2018 was the Ryder Cup scheduled for that Autumn, but that just makes all the promises all the more laughable, not that we didn't know that at the time.   

Yes, the event has a modicum of history, but Alistair seems to be overly upset, likely because he made the classic mistake of believing their nonsense:

Maybe so. However, it’s sad day when a great tournament dating back to 1906 with illustrious winners like Arnaud Massy, J.H. Taylor, James Braid, Walter Hagen, Sir Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Sir Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, McDowell, Fleetwood and Noren drops off the European Tour schedule.

So much for France’s Ryder Cup legacy.

We'll just consider it the Maginot Line of golf... But the check cleared, which is pretty much the whole point.

The other point worth repeating is that the Euro Tour is not in distress.  But one ironic aspect of this Tour remaining vibrant and viable, is that the only asset that seems to have value to potential investors was that ownership of one-halve of the Ryder Cup.  As I note often, the existential angst that permeates Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach comes from the premiere world golf tour having no control of the four and one-half events each year that actually matter.  The good news is that Jay Monahan has made progress there, obtaining a beneficial interest in one of those events, though ironically on the wrong side.  

Scenes From the Class Struggle, Distaff Edition - The ladies are playing their version of the inane FedEx Cup this week, which features much...what's the word, oh, inanity.  But first, we had some speculation about the TV ratings for their uncontested U.S. Open.  In a nutshell, there were none, though I've been unable to find any data on the ratings for that Monday final round.

Geoff has the skinny (that being all too apt a descriptor)

Beth Ann Nichols thought that the event would be lit without the big Tour as competition, which is misguided in the extreme.  Not least because on Friday there was limited coverage of the ladies due to Golf Cannel's commitment to, and this will sting, that QBE Shark Shootout...Hey, the Shark Shootout is practically a major...

Shack won't make many friends with these harsh comments:

The rescheduled U.S. Women’s Open ratings reality was obvious to everyone but, apparently, those behind last week’s ill-timed “Women Worth Watching” campaign.

2020 has taught us that sports fans just aren’t into championship golf outside of their normal playing windows. So even though we’ve seen declines for all of the rescheduled majors—with the Masters and U.S. Open taking the biggest plunges—it did not take a doctorate to know that 2020 U.S. Women’s Open ratings would set record lows due to the timing, competition and overall trends.

Not the year to tell everyone Women are worth watching when nothing could reverse the trend. Which made the suffocating rollout of a “brand campaign” perplexing, particularly knowing how many meetings and dollars are spent to orchestrate the pretend-to-be-natural “content” (aka paid filler). The relentless hashtags, paid influencer endorsements, and force integration of the campaign even by media covering the event was all a really cool new thing back in 2018. But in 2020? It came off as desperate and ill-timed. At best. With 3000 Americans dying a day from COVID-19 last week, this would have been a good year for the USGA to remain quiet in the branding onslaught department.

By way of comparison, those viewership numbers above (and I'm not sure which coverage window they capture, as for Saturday that 11:00 a.m. time was the Golf Channel window, but might include the NBC window as well) compare to these from 2019:

New record-low for US Women’s Open

The final round was no match for the corresponding days of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur (0.9, 1.36M) or last year’s Women’s British Open (0.7, 964K).

Third round action last Saturday had a 0.45 and 609,000, up 15% in ratings and 12% in viewership from rainout coverage last year (0.39, 543K), but down 6% and 7% respectively from 2017 (0.48, 653K).

It's apples and oranges for sure, but they seem to have lost more than half their audience, that was already a record low.  What Ian Faith would refer to as their appeal becoming more selective.

Of interest to your humble blogger is how the LPGA keeps shooting itself in the foot.  First, as I've noted previously, Mike Whan's network coverage fetish seems sill given the number of eyeballs he can deliver, especially in view of the audience that one shed every time you make them change channels.  Of course when you make them switch to a streaming service to which they don't subscribe, you kiss those viewers goodbye...

But perhaps of greater import, they keep undermining their product, this being the latest:

Natalie Gulbis excited for sponsor invitation to CME Group Tour Championship

Who?  It turns out that the pointy-breasted one is still technically an LPGA member, and completely deserving, as this attests:

Who says modern players are inconsistent?

Just a reminder that this is a tournament intended to reward season-long achievement, to for which there really shouldn't be sponsors' exemptions.  But they picked the right girl, because.... well, really how do you justify this

The selection of Gulbis, 37, and CME ambassador Sarah Kemp as sponsor invitations resulted in
some controversy and some columnists taking the tournament to task for not giving one to Sophia Popov, who came out of nowhere to win the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open and also calls Naples home.

And she would have been in the tournament if her points from winning the British Open had counted in the Race to the CME Globe, but she wasn’t a member of the LPGA then.

Gulbis said she was unaware that Popov was not in the field, but she said she still would have accepted the sponsor invite.

She's excited, and isn't that really all that matters?

But Eamon Lynch has the most curious of takes on this imbroglio:

Lynch: Sophia Popov's exclusion from CME isn't Natalie Gulbis' fault; it's 'technically' her own

Technically?  That seems an admission against interest, but here's Eamon's description of that technicality:

Let’s try explaining this over the din of muskets being loaded on Twitter.

In a typical year, the top 60 point-earners on the LPGA tour qualify for the season finale. In this most atypical year, the field for the tournament was expanded to 72 players. For the first (and apparently last) time, two of those spots were reserved for sponsor’s exemptions. Since Popov wasn’t an LPGA Tour member when she won the Open, her points from Troon didn’t count. So she didn’t make the top 60. Or the top 70. Nor did she receive one of those exemptions.

Does Eamon think this helps?  We can all understand that technical issue will arise when the world is torn asunder, but apparently said rules are inviolable.  Except that this is an organization that throws the rules aside when it suits them, not least with that fifth major.

We've previously covered some of the Golf Digest nominees for Newsmaker of the Year, the most recent iteration of which is here.  Ranked No. 10, which just happens to be the top ranking of anythingrelated to the women's game, is this young lady:

No. 10: SOPHIA POPOV

There isn’t a story from 2020 that more exemplifies why we love sports than Sophia Popov’s win at the AIG Women’s British Open. A player no one had ever heard of, who wasn’t a member of the LPGA Tour, who was on the cusp of quitting the game a year ago, who struggled with weight

loss and other complications as she battled Lyme disease for years, plays her way to a two-shot win over the best players in the world. It’s hard not to root for that story every time. Popov wasn’t even supposed to be in the field at Royal Troon. The 27-year-old had been bouncing around tours since graduating from USC in 2014. She lost her LPGA Tour card in 2019 and was going to be spending 2020 on the Symetra Tour—likely 2021, too, once the pandemic hit, limiting the number of spots Symetra Tour graduates would get on the LPGA Tour for 2021. But LPGA Tour players not wanting to travel during the pandemic opened up some extra spots in the early tournaments when play resumed. Popov caddied in the first event back and then got a start the next week at the Marathon LPGA Classic. She took full advantage, finishing T-9. It was enough to get her into the field at Royal Troon. With her boyfriend on the bag, she started out with a 70, good enough for T-2. At that point, she was just a name near the lead no one had really heard of, the kind of player who has one good round in a major and then falls away. But Popov didn’t go away. She shot 72 on Friday, staying in the T-2 position. A 67 on Saturday gave her a three-shot lead. She remained unflappable on Sunday, winning by two to become the first German woman to win a major championship. She also earned full LPGA Tour status. No more Symetra Tour events, no more considering giving up all together. Popov had finally, officially arrived. —Keely Levins

And yet they wonder why no one watches...  We saw this both at the Dinah Shore and now at the year-end event, and it seems a two-level failure.  Mike Whan seems not to grasp that his job is to surmount those technical issues and present the ladies' events in the best light possible, which logically includes having the strongest field and including those notable players whose recent performance obviously argues for their inclusion.  As for the CME folks who think Natalie Gulbis adds luster to their event, she's a little older now and their beginning to sag....

One parting shot.  Also not qualifying and snubbed for those sponsor exemptions?  A Lim Kim.  But what has she done lately?

Scenes From the Class Struggle, TV Edition - Am I the only one shocked at Comcast defenestrating Golf Channel?  It seemed to be a success, but they're pretty much tearing it to the ground.

It's 1 minutes that you'll never get back, but Brandel Chamblee posts this last wistful tour of the Golf Channel Orlando studios, including that named for The King, before heading to...well, Stamford, CT:


Full disclosure: I've not watched it, so you're on your own.

I'll just throw in this tweet from Eamon Lynch which seems awfully well-timed given the snow currently on the ground:

 Someday I'll learn how to center embedded tweets... Anyone have a teenager to loan me?

One might have thought that the channel's Morning Drive feature would survive the trip North, but you'd be mistaken:

Golf Channel has a new face and a new program debuting in January.

NBC Sports and Golf Channel announced in a news release on Wednesday that a new show "Golf
Today," will replace "Morning Drive" on Jan. 4. “Morning Drive” had been the channel’s featured morning programming for a decade. Joining the NBC/Golf Channel team as a co-anchor is Shane Bacon, who formerly served as a host of Fox Sports’ golf coverage. Others in the studio will be previous “Morning Drive” contributors Damon Hack, Jimmy Roberts and Anna Whiteley.

The news release did not specify a time slot for “Golf Today,” though it appears that the program won’t start as early as the previous 7 a.m. ET "Morning Drive" start. Golf Channel executive producer Molly Solomon hinted that a later slot would allow for more live tournament updates and guest interviews to be part of the show. “At midday, we can lead the daily golf conversation with access to newsmakers in all time zones. Tour players on the range preparing for upcoming tournaments and live press conferences,” Solomon said in the press release.

 They seem awfully quick to toss that bath water...  

One of the truly curious bits about this obvious downsizing is their cluelessness about their own operation.  I'm far from the perfect tour guide here, but there's a baby in that bath water.  At least there was:

There was a game within the game, one centered around a seemingly simple question that proved to have a surprisingly elusive answer: Who is Tiger Tracker?

This social media thing is above my pay grade, but this is an interesting take on what's called the most influential social media account in golf.  The account had gone silent, but then enjoyed a brief renaissance during the Masters, only to once again go dark. This sums up the current state of play:

“It’s very much still a clusterfuck,” Tracker said about the handle’s fate remaining in limbo. “They sort of want it but they don’t want to be responsible for it. And nobody wants to do the work. These are people who, at the executive level, never fully appreciated it in the first place and were never fully aware of how it works, how much time went into it, never allowed us to monetize it. ”

 As Joni said, we don't know what we have until it's gone...  

As long as we're on Tiger, this will likely be my last post before Charlie has his coming out party, which no doubt will lead my Weekend Wrap post on Monday.  Have you put any thought into who should caddie for Charlie?  Somebody has, and it's perfect:

If you follow golf, you know the name Joe LaCava.

He’s the caddie for Tiger Woods, and has been on the 15-time major champion’s bag for almost a decade. Apparently looping runs in the LaCava bloodline.

This week when Tiger and his 11-year-old son, Charlie, tee it up at the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, LaCava’s son, Joe Jr., will also there. On the bag for Charlie.
“There is one fun nugget that Tiger mentioned to me a number of months ago when he was kind of debating whether or not they would play in the PNC this year,” said VP of TGR Ventures Rob McNamara to Golf Digest. “He said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if I had Joe LaCava Jr. caddie for Charlie?’”

Has it really been a decade?  It should be fun, so one more thing to enjoy over the weekend.

Scenes From the Class Struggle, 2020 Edition - From that Golf Digest Newsmakers feature, they've gotten as far as No.2, who'd your humble blogger would have pegged to take the gold:

No. 2: BRYSON DECHAMBEAU

Where do we begin? There’s so much to talk about with Bryson DeChambeau that we created a separate list of 101 things that happened to him in 2020. But first and foremost, Bryson became one of the game’s biggest stars. Literally. A process of putting on pounds that began in 2019 revved up even more during quarantine, and when DeChambeau returned, he was some 40

pounds heavier than the previous year. And the gains were apparent in places other than the scale. DeChambeau overpowered golf courses—and even driving ranges—in ways we hadn’t quite seen before. The 27-year-old wound up leading the PGA Tour in driving distance in the 2019-’20 season and, more importantly, strokes gained/off the tee. But Bryson didn’t just drive for show, he also putted for some serious dough by improving to a career-best 10th in strokes gained/putting. Not surprisingly, that dangerous combination eventually led to a pair of wins, first at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July and then his maiden major title at the U.S. Open in September. Winged Foot’s treacherous rough was supposed to be this golf zealot’s kryptonite, but it proved to be no problem for mighty Bryson as he swatted driver after driver on his way to a dominant six-shot victory. And in doing so, he may have ushered in a new era in which extreme length isn’t just an advantage, but a necessity. “What he’s done in the gym has been incredible,” Tiger Woods said at the Masters in November. “What he’s done on the range and what he’s done with his entire team to be able to optimize that one club [driver] and transform his game and the ability to hit the ball as far as he has and in as short a span as he has, it’s never been done before.” Beyond all the results, though, was Bryson’s knack for creating buzz. From those booming drives to his crazy diet to an aggressive shirtless photo to run-ins with rules officials to continued run-ins with Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau was constantly in the news. And whether you’re a fan or not, this overpowering and analytical golfer isn’t going anywhere. In fact, there will undoubtedly be a lot more like him to follow. —Alex Myers

Upon further review, that makes complete sense... Given how many times his behavior begged comparisons to, yanno, No 2.

Of course the top spot will now go to Covid or something equally stupid.  And how did that Chainsmokers concert not grab a slot?

 Alex Myers has done a deep dive into that pile of No. 2, in the unlikely event you find yourself wanting more:

101 things that happened to Bryson DeChambeau in 2020

You're on your own there, kids, as the year has been sufficiently tedious already.

This by far is the most curious Year-in-Review piece, at least yet, which starts like any run-of-the-mill golf item:

Professional golf was at the mercy of evolution in 2020

Punctuated Equilibrium (n) — the hypothesis that evolutionary development is marked by isolated episodes of rapid speciation between long periods of little or no change

The idea of punctuated equilibrium, which Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge first posited in 1972, is that evolution, in fact, does not happen steadily on some uniform, predictable trajectory. The theory answered some lingering questions, such as why the fossil record doesn’t seem to support Charles Darwin’s notion of gradualism—a reality that puzzled Darwin in his lifetime as well. In fact, Gould and Eldredge argued that stasis is the natural order of the world, and evolution as we understand it only happens in rare cases. And when it happens, it happens fast.

It’s safe to say that when their influential paper was published, they were not thinking about the sport of golf. And yet, how else can you explain 2020 on the PGA Tour if not by punctuated equilibrium? How else can you explain a year where so much happened, and so quickly?

I actually don't agree with his premise, but the terminology will get confusing.  Here's his basic argument:

When we talk about agents of change, it starts with Bryson DeChambeau. The revolution he
instigated in 2020 is about more than just becoming a bigger version of himself. It’s about more than his diet, or his workout regimen, or the clever techniques he’s used to become one of the longest hitters in the sport with an impressively improving short game. These are all examples of the changes he’s ushered in, and they are examples that may persist or may become outmoded when someone else has a better idea.

DeChambeau’s true contribution is how he changed the paradigm. With one fell swoop, he changed not just how he approached the sport, but how everyone must now approach the sport. Speed training wasn’t quite a thing until Bryson made it a thing. He already has a legion of imitators (and a legion of detractors, of course), and they’ll be following his example in more than just lifting weights. DeChambeau’s lasting legacy, even if he quit golf tomorrow, is that he has changed the way that a professional golfer must think about the game. It wasn’t just about gaining more distance, but how to gain that distance in integrated manner that allows for sustained results and improvement beyond what many thought possible. He’s willing to try anything to achieve the ultimate goal of shooting low scores, and what seemed radical and perhaps even gimmicky at first now just seems necessary.

The premise is a take on evolution, but Shane actually considers Bryson revolutionary, which is the source of our disagreement.  I've previously characterized Bryson as evolutionary, largely because of the limited magnitude of his distance gains over the field.  Really the only real change from the pack is that this is the first direct linkage of weight gain to distance.  While we've seen too many players bulk up, we never before had direct correlation to substantial increases in distance...

This brings us to the conclusion of this week's blogging.  Get out and play in the snow, enjoy your weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

U.S. Open Wrap

Hey, it at least gave us something to do on a Monday... But now this winter thing gets very real.

Beth Ann Nichols introduces us to the surprise winner:

A Lim Kim’s first professional title fittingly came at the 2018 Se Ri Pak Invitational. It might have been Pak’s 1998 U.S. Women’s Open victory that ignited a golf surge throughout South Korea and
an eventual dominance of America’s national championship, but it’s another golf icon – Annika Sorenstam – who stole Kim’s heart .

After little-known Kim aced the U.S. Women’s Open in her first attempt, becoming only the fifth player in championship history to do so, the USGA set up a video call with Sorenstam.

“Thank you so much! I love you!” a giddy Kim exclaimed.

Over in the clubhouse, Champions founder Jack Burke Jr., the oldest living Masters champion, offered Kim a membership. The 25-year-old let out a scream.

That Annika bit is my favorite part, except of course for my typical abhorrence of cultural appropriation...Equally great is living in a world where A Lim Kim and Jackie Burke know each other.

But a serious style book question for you: If it's J.Y. Ko and S.Y. Ryu, shouldn't it be A. Lim Kim?  Or A.L. Kim?

If you didn't watch, Doug Ferguson recounts that late blitz that took us all by surprise.  Of course, if you weren't watching, you won't be able to appreciate the shock of that closing birdie binge, contrasted as it was with brutal conditions and crooked numbers:

By then, Kim was on her way, attacking flags. Her 5-iron on the 16th settled 4 feet away. She hit
8-iron that rolled out to just under 2 feet on the 17th to tie for the lead, and she closed with a pitching wedge to just inside 10 feet, pumping her first when her third straight birdie dropped.

“I've been eyeing the leaderboard throughout the round and I knew how many shots I was back,” she said through a translator. “That's probably the reason why I tried to hit more aggressive, tried to attack the pins.”


But riddle me this, Batman, how was she even in the field?

A two-time winner on the Korean LPGA, Kim got into the U.S. Women's Open off the world ranking when the pandemic kept the USGA from conducting open qualifying. She had slipped to No. 94, the lowest-ranked player to win the Open since the women's world ranking began in 2006.

She is the second non-LPGA member to win a major this year, joining Sophia Popov at the Women's British Open. She also is the third South Korean to win a major. Second-ranked Sei Young Kim won the Women's PGA and Mirim Lee won the ANA Inspiration – also at No. 94 in the world.

These are chits that should be stored away for future strength-of-field discussions, say early next April?  On a conceptual basis, no one cares about players ranked in the nineties, but any one of them can do this on any given Sunday Monday.

Writing at the USGA's site, Justin Ray has lots of statistical insights on the event, including these on the magnitude of the comeback:

1. A Lim Kim assembled one of the most memorable finishing flurries in U.S Women’s Open history, birdieing the last three holes to win by one stroke. Kim is the first player since Eun Hee Ji in 2009 to birdie the final hole and win by one. Kim’s final-round, 4-under-par 67 gained 7.43 strokes on the field, the most in the final round by a U.S. Women’s Open champion since Meg Mallon in 2004 (7.88).

2. Kim was tied for ninth place entering the final round, making this the largest 54-hole comeback to win, by position, in U.S. Women’s Open history. The previous record was eighth place by Laurie Merten in 1993. She was five off the lead entering the round, tying the largest comeback by strokes in championship history, done by six players previously and most recently by Annika Sorenstam in 1995.

Well, no doubt you see the enormity of Mike Whan's challenges...  The historical touchstones aren't exactly Hogan and Nelson.... They're trying to stick with Annika and Se Ri, but your humble blogger's mind inevitably turns to accidental champions such as Birdie Kim and, yes, Laurie Merten.

 This is, in one 'graph, how she grabbed it:

3. Kim improved her precision iron play every day on the Cypress Creek Course. In Round 2, she had an average approach shot proximity of 44 feet, 8 inches. Saturday, that number improved to 40 feet, 11 inches. The final round was another level altogether, though, as her average proximity was at about 31 feet. On a day where the field averaged fewer than 10 greens in regulation, Kim hit 14.

I'm actually surprised that the field hit more than 50 of the greens in regulation, though these greens are huge. But while the winner averaged 31 feet, it's those last three holes at four, two and ten, respectively, that determined the outcome.

 As we all face the winter of our discontent, how about the winter golf fashion show the girls put on for us.  Just think of Champions Golf Club as a runway, and enjoy the glamor:

Phenom Yealimi Noh spared no effort in protecting her ears:

Of course, I'm old enough to remember when we didn't wear white after Labor Day...

Defending champion Jeongeun Lee6 gave no quarter when it came to protecting her ears as well:

The winner went a different route, donning a puffy jacket between shots:

It stubbornly remains 2020, so folks will want to talk about the mask:

“Every time I practice, I usually wear a mask, so I’m kind of used to it,” Kim said through an interpreter during her champion’s press conference. “I’m OK to get positive tests for COVID-19, but I don’t want to affect other people, players, a caddie that’s playing within the group, so that’s the reason I wear the mask throughout the round.”

So then, why did she remove it when hoisting the hardware?  She's a young girl, so it might seem churlish to criticize her caution and consideration, but has there been a single confirmed case of transmission on a golf course?  Good thing she's not an established moral authority... yanno, like Greta Thunberg.

Dylan Dethier has nine winners above and beyond the winner, some of which we can all agree on:

1. Amy Olson (and her resilience)

If you watched any of Monday’s broadcast, you heard Dan Hicks talking about Amy Olson playing the final round with a heavy heart. Her father-in-law died unexpectedly over the

weekend, so Olson competed under particularly trying circumstances — and showed inspiring resilience. After bogeys at 2, 3 and 4, Olson birdied 5 and 6 and then held steady with a string of pars that eventually left her with a two-shot lead.

Kim’s final three birdies changed the entire complexion of the event, but Olson stayed right in the mix until a bogey at No. 16, where she barely mis-clubbed and her ball trickled over the back of the green and into a poor lie in the rough. She needed to eagle 18 from the fairway to force a playoff, and gave it a sporting effort.

But you’d be hard-pressed to find a better moment than Olson pouring in that final birdie putt to finish in a share of second place.

Obviously she was hit by issues bigger than a golf tournament, but for much of the day it seemed to be hers for the taking.  It's just hard to understand how she hasn't won a gaggle of events, so hopefully this will prove to be a building block for her.   

But what do we make of these?

5. The broadcast (and no commercials)

There was some understandable consternation when the second round of the U.S. Women’s Open didn’t get much time on television. But that shouldn’t take away from how good the coverage was when the tournament was going. Dan Hicks was an excellent anchor, Paige Mackenzie hit all the right notes as color commentator and the supporting cast was great, too — Cara Banks is a strong interviewer and Bones Mackay gets extra points for working in multiple “Fargo” references.

What’s more, the broadcast itself was incredible because it was uninterrupted. Thanks to an investment from Rolex, the entire tournament was shown commercial-free, which is wild. The continuity of the broadcast, the continuous drama, the ability to ping from shot to shot to shot — it all made for a fantastically cohesive experience. And we know viewers don’t like change, but NBC’s streaming app, Peacock, provides a pretty seamless viewing experience during off-broadcast hours.

The experience of watching the entire final round on Monday was almost surreal. Speaking of which …

6. Monday finishes (and hours of coverage)

Can we do more of these? Especially while everybody is working from home, there’s something delightful about having a tournament finish to ease us into the week. Golf makes for a terrific second-screen experience; it’s the perfect corner-of-your-monitor sport.

Typically when we get Monday finishes, it’s just the end of a playoff or a final few holes because of weather or darkness. But this time, we saw the leaders play the entire final round, uninterrupted. It was awesome, it was terrific exposure for the event, and it was a chance to get to know the competitors in a longform way. Big win for all involved.

Dylan, you ignorant slut...

It's true that the ladies got the extensive, full-Monty coverage of their final round that they deserved, but it was only because of the happy accident of the Sunday washout.  Otherwise, we would have experienced two awkward segues, first from Golf Channel to Peacock, then to NBC, which would have sliced and diced the audience.  

As for Paige Mackenzie.... errr, where Dylan sees her hitting her notes, I see a woman who struggled to put the simplest of sentences together.  

The Tour Confidential panel actually gave this event its due, and you know I can't resist the siren song of low-impact blogging:

1. With three birdies over her final three holes, A Lim Kim won the U.S. Women’s Open, the final major of the year. Down five strokes to start the day, Kim shot a four-under 67 in Monday’s rain-delayed final round, winning by one over Amy Olson and world No. 1 Jin Young Ko. Put Kim’s 2-3-3 finish in historical perspective.

Alan Shipnuck: I give it the highest praise: Schwartzelesque.

Josh Sens: It was nails, all the more so when you consider how tough the course was playing. Only one other player in the top 10 was under par for the day.

Zephyr Melton: Pretty spectacular. That course was breathing some serious fire on the weekend, and on Monday, it was playing with a bone-chilling northern wind. No other player played that three-hole stretch in 2-3-3 this week, making it all the more impressive. Gotta rank up there with some of the best finishes of all time.

James Colgan: I’ll raise Shipnuck — Kim’s performance was Brysonesque. OK, not in the literal sense, but a brilliant final-round performance in a national championship while the rest of the field stumbles? We’ve seen that already this year.

Dylan Dethier: All correct — but what struck me about Kim’s fiery finish was how it came from completely off the radar. NBC’s Will Gray was in touch with PointsBets Sportsbook, which listed Kim as a 66-1 underdog at the beginning of the day on Monday. They didn’t take a single bet on her. Not one!

Everyone and their brother has thrown out the Charl analogy, but that was on a day when birdies were made by the bushelful.  That anyone made three in a row amid wind chills in the 30's is quite the thing.  As for that Bryson analogy, remind me of when A Lim went and added forty pounds

2. Kim became the second non-LPGA member after Sophia Popov (AIG Women’s Open) to win a major this year. What does that tell you about the strength of talent in other corners of the women’s game?

Shipnuck: As with every level of golf, the depth is nuts. And don’t forget the Dinah Shore was also won by a woman (Mirim Lee) who makes only cameos in the U.S.

Sens: What Alan said. Crazy deep and global, though there’s no doubting the power center. At what point will we get a spin on the Solheim Cup: South Korea vs the world?

Melton: Women’s golf is seriously well represented internationally, and the KLPGA has some crazy-good depth. It’s always fun when other sports leagues around the world stand up — and even surpass — the talent that comes from the U.S.

Colgan: Remember Will Zalatoris at Winged Foot? Who says it’s just the women’s game? As far as I’m concerned, gone are the days of card-carrying Tour members creating a de facto barrier to entry at the sport’s major championships. That’s a great thing, not a good one, for golf.

Dethier: I remember looking at the leaderboard at the end of Friday and wondering when the last LPGA Tour event was without any South Korean women in the top 10 at the halfway mark. That was clearly temporary — four South Korean women finished in the top six by week’s end. The KLPGA is absolutely chock-full of talented golfers. (Sidenote: Seven Swedish women made the cut this week. Seven! If that’s Annika Sorenstam’s legacy, it’s an impressive one.)

That's true and glorious, in its own way.  But, at the risk of triggering the Antifa crew, can we not also agree that it's quite the nightmare for Mike Whan and others trying to build the women's game  The LPGA needs recognizable stars to emerge, hopefully a mix of all God's children from all corners of the world.  Instead we have one small country dominating, and their players, don't shoot me as I'm only the messenger, are so hard to distinguish that they have to give them numbers.... Did you notice that, not only did we have defending champion Jeongeun Lee6 on the leaderboard this week, but also ladies named MinYoung2 Lee and JiYeong2 Kim.  If you wanted to make Hank Haney's point for him, how would you make a stronger argument?

They actually take on the mudball issue:

3. Soggy conditions later in the week at Champions GC led to mud balls during Saturday’s third round and also Monday’s final round. Lift, clean and place was not in play, and players were critical both days. “It’s frustrating,” Bronte Law said Monday. “It’s a great golf course, tough setup, the pins were tucked and the added element of mud balls. … Everyone is going through it, [but] I do think that it then ends up being who had the fewest mud balls as opposed to being who played the best golf.” Preferred lies at a major — something some players also lobbied for at the 2020 Masters — would rankle traditionalists, but given the outcry from players, should an exception have been made this week?

Shipnuck: Yes, it should have. The point of these tournaments is to identify the best golfer, and mud balls actually penalize you for hitting fairways and introduce too much luck into the game.

Sens: No. I appreciate Alan’s point but wonder how much of a factor these mud balls really were. They get a lot of attention, but I suspect a Mark Broadie-style analysis would show that they didn’t have as big an influence on results as they might have appeared, except in the way they got into certain players’ heads. And besides, dealing with bad breaks is a skill, too.

Melton: Yes, it should have. After the torrential downpours on Friday and Sunday, the course was EXTREMELY saturated. It made for some ugly shots and bad golf. A number of players told me throughout the weekend that they’ve never seen that many mud balls in all their years of competitive golf. When it gets that soggy, to hell with the traditionalists. Golf needs to be more malleable.

Colgan: Nope. Every major champion posits a portion of their win to luck, and part of the fun of the majors is their sheer unpredictability. Why alter the playing field so as to remove that?

Dethier: Blech. Preferred lies are terrible. I totally sympathize with the players not wanting mud balls, and Shippy is completely right that you shouldn’t be punished for hitting the fairway, but I’m with Colgan on this one. Whenever possible, play the ball down.

I was convinced that the USGA would knuckle under to the whining after the third round, especially given their deep resume of course set-up blunders.  All credit to them for making the girls play real golf, though I'll also admit to a measure of relief that the outcome wasn't decided by a mudball.

Lastly, an issue I've been hawking for years:

4. There seemed to be additional attention/buzz around this Women’s Open, in part because the championship didn’t have to compete with an official PGA Tour event. The jury is still out on TV ratings, but might an “off-season” major make sense as a permanent add to the LPGA calendar?

Shipnuck: Definitely, and as I’ve typed a million times, the LPGA should play its events Saturday-Tuesday. Why compete against more popular products when you could have the stage to yourself?

Sens: Sure, or, if the tricky logistics could be worked out, more women’s and men’s majors played back to back on the same venue, as at Pinehurst. Part of the buzz around that year’s U.S. Women’s Open had to do with Michelle Wie winning. But there was also a lot of interest from the back-to-back scheduling alone.

Melton: I’d be all for it. This was my second women’s major of 2020, and I’m falling more and more in love with the women’s game. They have a play style that is more relatable to the average golfer, and that alone is enough intrigue for me. Add in the awesome personalities that are out there, and you’ve got the ingredients for a seriously sweet product.

Colgan: Seems like a no-brainer to me, and while you’re at it, let’s adjust the schedule for a Monday finish. Enough of golf trying to battle it out with the NFL for ratings — it’s a losing battle 10 times out of 10.

Dethier: It makes literally zero sense for golf to try to compete with the NFL by putting final rounds on Sundays in the heart of football season. Even the Masters had a hard time keeping up! So if you’ve got a marquee golf event in the fall, it makes a ton of sense to me that you’d want to shift it to stagger the finish to a weekday, when we can all collectively put it on the screen in the background at work. (Or, in our case, in the foreground, because watching it is part of work, but you get the idea.)

I've been arguing Alan's bit for years, though there are profound issues related to fans and volunteers that get ignored here.  We'll table these thoughts for a later time, I'll just leave you with one question.  Given the absence of galleries (and the associated need for volunteers), shouldn't Mike Whan have more aggressively reconfigured the LPGA schedule to allow for non-Sunday finishes, especially those on the Left Bank that could be broadcast in prime time?   I continue to believe that his fetish about network coverage actually hurts the ladies in ways such as this.

Udder Stuff - Just a couple of bits, then I'm thinking you'll want to give me a few days off.  First, we might as well stick with those TC guys, with this preview of the next televised major:

5. It’s PNC Championship week, notable this year for two newcomers to the event: Tiger Woods and his, 11-year-old son Charlie. Which part of Charlie’s game — and/or the overall father-son dynamic — are you most intrigued to check out?

Shipnuck: I’m looking forward to the trash talk; supposedly Charlie has quite the needle. But it will certainly be fascinating to see Tiger in this new context.

Sens: Is he as cold-hearted as his father in the clutch?

Melton: Dad-Tiger is best Tiger. Can’t wait to see his human side a little more.

Colgan: If you’ve watched (LeBron’s son) Bronny James’ AAU highlights, you know exactly what I’m excited about. Does Charlie swagger like his dad? I can’t wait to see.

Dethier: I’m looking forward to everyone having an extremely measured response to Tiger Woods’ son playing golf. Hah — just kidding, half the internet will be giving him a dozen majors come Saturday afternoon. But I am genuinely excited to watch Tiger and Charlie interact. I talked to Derrick Payne, who caddied in the Woods group in a local junior event in Florida, and was glowing about their dynamic. It’ll be enlightening to see them compete together.

OK, Alan, but I'm old enough to remember how his father's trash talking was going to drive The Match.  How'd that work out?  It should be good fun, but I hate seeing the youngster tagged wit expectations at his young age...

Once last bit from the gang, only because Shipnuck's answer is such a great memory for your humble blogger:

6. Michael Jordan’s golf course, The Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound, Fla., made waves last week when a video of its snack service made the rounds on social media: The club delivers food and drink to golfers by way of drone. What’s the most lavish/over-the-top perk you’ve encountered at a golf course?

Shipnuck: Probably the lobster at National Golf Links — when you sit down for lunch, instead of bringing bread and butter, a big-ass lobster gets plopped on your plate.

Sens: I was at a fancy course in Cabo a few years ago where they gave you a choice of the brand of golf ball you wanted to hit on the range. Four or five options. Turns out I stink with all of them.

Melton: Played a course down here in Texas last week that had a bar-b-que smoker on the 10th tee waiting to dole out brisket tacos. Not a bad way to make the turn.

Colgan: I’m not one for particularly lavish golf clubs, but there’s something to be said for a series of well-placed water coolers and a strong craft beer selection. I hear some of the nicest places even give out divot tools … maybe one day.

Dethier: This isn’t quite what’s demanded by the question, but once you finish 36 holes at Bandon Dunes, your third round of the day is on the house. What’s a better perk than a free loop at one of the dreamiest golf sites in the country? Running around Pacific Dunes at sunset (for free!) remains among my fondest golf memories.

Zephyr, we're going to need a name, just on the off chance I'm in Texas anytime soon...

Golf Digest continues to roll out its list of 2020 Newsmakers, including this guy about whom I have profoundly mixed opinions:

No. 8: PHIL MICKELSON

It’s been one of pro golf’s favorite parlor games for years: What will Phil do next? Trying to anticipate the mercurial Phil Mickelson’s next move is a bit like playing charades blindfolded,

and there were at least the usual number of questions surrounding Lefty in 2020—most notably because he celebrated his 50th birthday in June. That opened up the possibility of Mickelson venturing onto the PGA Tour Champions for the first time. Phil was coy about it the season’s outset, saying he wanted to focus on the regular tour. But after a pretty lackluster effort before and after the COVID-19 shutdown (the only highlight was a solo third at his personal playground, Pebble Beach), Mickelson decided the time was right in late August for his senior bow. And boy was it a show. In the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National, Phil drained 11 birdies and shot 61 in the first round and then cruised to a wire-to-wire victory at 22 under for 54 holes. Tiger Woods’ reaction? “There’s no reason he can’t win every time he plays out there.” To prove that plausible, Mickelson played on the Champions again in mid-October in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic—and won again. Feasting on wide fairways and benign pin placements, Lefty is 2-for-2. Now about still competing with the youngsters … that’s becoming a bit more daunting. Mickelson has posted only two top 10s in his last 21 starts on the PGA Tour. Probably more disappointing was never being a factor in trying to pad his resume of five major victories. In 2020, Phil tied for 71st in the PGA Championship, started the U.S. Open with a 79 to miss the cut, and had no chance on Sunday in the Masters after a third-round 79. Boasting that his swing speed is better than ever, any power gain has been erased by erratic play in virtually every asset. For the 2019-’20 season, Mickelson was better than 75th in only one of the tour’s important strokes-gained categories (around the green). He was poor with his irons (129th, strokes gained/approach) and putter (124th, strokes gained/putting). He’s going to have to get a lot better to contend very often on the big tour. So, what will Phil do now? Here’s betting he beats up more on the graybeards and picks his spots with the kids. —Tod Leonard

As you know, I think in terms of Good Phil and Bad Phil, so how would we view his 2020?  I'd say pretty favorably, though the focus on his Senior Tour debut is the least of it.  I think his biggest win of the year was his hostile takeover of The Match franchise from Tiger, in which he provided the energy to both 2020 installments.  To which I would his broadcast booth appearance at the PGA, in which he provided similar energy.

In a bit of curious timing, Euro Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley exhumes the sin qua non of Bad Phil:

Paul McGinley, the mastermind of Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles, believes that Phil Mickelson may live to regret his criticism of American skipper Tom Watson when his turn to captain the side comes around.

Mickelson was widely condemned for using the US team’s losing press conference at Gleneagles to take eight-time major champion Watson to task for his handling of the team that year.

According to Mickelson, none of the players were involved in any of the decision-making that week, adding that the USA had “strayed from a winning formula”.

Well, not widely enough for my taste, but do tell, Paul:

The ensuing fallout prompted the formation of the Americans’ much-vaunted ‘Task Force’, which helped deliver victory at Hazeltine in 2016, before Thomas Bjorn’s Europeans inflicted a 17½-10½ victory on the US in the most recent match at Le Golf National in 2018.

McGinley added that Mickelson’s timing of the criticism was wrong, and used the European team’s behaviour following the 2008 defeat to the US at Valhalla to help illustrate his point.

“Of course it was wrong for him to bring it all up at the press conference,” he said. “There’s a time and a place.

“In 2008, when things went wrong for us, not one player stood up at the press conference and blamed Nick Faldo. Everybody closed ranks, even though they had lots to say. Even now, you won’t hear any players criticise Nick’s captaincy.

“So of course it was wrong of Phil to do that. Of course it was. It was unedifying to bring down one of the greats of the game, only half an hour after the final putt. But that’s Phil’s way. He shoots from the hip. He’s very opinionated.”

He's quite right that it was the wrong venue, but also the wrong message and the wrong messenger.  Other than that... Interestingly, McGinley lays this marker for 2025:

"They won in 2016 and then went over to Paris two years later and lost by a bigger margin than Tom Watson’s team had lost at Gleneagles. And yet nobody said, ‘Wait a minute, Phil. You said in 2014 that if you got control you’d fix everything. But here we are now, four years later, and you’ve lost by a bigger margin. What do you have to say about that?’

“Tom could easily have done that. He could have gone on the Golf Channel and said, ‘I’ve got a question for Phil Mickelson’. But he didn’t. He took the high ground.

“You know, what goes around comes around and it will be interesting to see how Phil approaches it when he is captain. Whenever that time comes, he’s going to be under a lot of pressure because of what happened at Gleneagles.”

Always happy to revisit this incident, one in which Phil's behavior hasn't aged well, at least in your humble blogger's opinion.  But I don't quite agree with McGinley that there will be ramification... Phil is being protected by his captaincy being a home game, and not just any home game, but at Bethpage which I expect to rival Kiawah for nastiness.  But the Americans had better win under such conditions, otherwise Phil's post-Cup pressser could be, in the immortal words of Patrick Reed, lit.

I'm about out of energy and motivation, so I'll see you again, probably later in the week.

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)