Flotsam and Jetsam

I feel that I've been a bit of a blogging slacker in recent days, as I'm staring at a long list of accumulated items of some interest.  Shall we dive in and see how far we get?

• Naming Names - Slow play has been in the news, as it inevitably will whenever Kevin Na makes an appearance on a leader board.  I was not pleased to see him heckled at Bay Hill, for which there is certainly no call.  But John Strege captures this Golf Central exchange between Aaron Oberholser and Brandel Chamblee:

Oberholser did not say who he thinks is the slowest player, only that Na "is not the slowest player out here...He is unfairly scrutinized for his slow play."

Chamblee, meanwhile, said that that honor of slowest player probably goes to Jim Furyk.

Now, to be fair (Ed. Why start now?), you can't determine anything meaningful about pace of play from television, as you can't tell how quickly they get to their ball and you're at the mercy of how much of their routines are shown.  But I will say that every time I see Furyk's itchy, scratchy putting routine, my immediate reaction is to yell at his, Yanno, Fluff's not getting any younger."

But you have to laugh at this:

Least-Promising  Masters Post - I rolled my eyes at this initially, but it's actually pretty interesting.  Shackelford, posting at Local Knowledge, provides a pre-Masters playlists.  Fortunately he has the good sense to warn us off the treacly Masters promo music (to ensure the appropriate level of tingles in April 10th, of course).  here's his proposed opening track:

For starters, you must own a copy of the tune that inspired Herbert Warren Wind's branding of holes 11 through 13 as Amen Corner. Mildred Bailey's rendition of Shouting at Amen Corner makes for a perfect playlist opener.

Mildred Bailey and Billy Mac.

I'm a big fan of anyone who throws in a mention of Alister MacKenzie, so run to your favorite online store and download Billy Mac's Augusta Sweet Augusta. This lovely piano ballad is from Mac's 2010 LP, Tee It Up where he also croons with just enough sentimentality without getting carried away. Other tracks include beautifully written tunes about the Old Course and Pebble Beach.

And who knew that James Brown was an Augusta native?

• Huh? -  I'm a bit late to this, but like Shackelford I fail to see the value of the new NBC/Golf Channel graphic:

What am I missing?  How do the numbers on the left add to our information?  And how would they have accommodated Daly's 12 or Kevin Na's 16?  Wouldn't it be better just to add the hole's par, though that is intuitively obvious from the yardage.  

• Spring, Perhaps - David Owen takes us golfing on the Vernal Equinox.  conditions might not be precisely where we want them, but with a couple of photos he shows us the dramatice improvement since New year's Eve:

David's pushcart on December 31, 2013

What a difference an equinox makes - David's cart on March 20, 2014.

Yes, I can certainly see where the golf course is much more playable....but I'm happy for the time being in Park City.

• A Dispatch from Tiger-World -  Tiger made an actual public appearance with news about his D.C. tournament.  Per Ryan Lavner, Tiger confirmed that Quicken Loans would be the new sponsor, and that the event would remain D.C.-centric.  He hopes to play it at Congressional every other year, and rotate to other D.C. courses (TPC Avenel and Robert Trent Jones Club are mentioned).  Feh, the best of this tourney was when they took it to Aronimink, a Donald Ross gem, while prepping Congressional for the U.S. Open.

In other Tiger news, he says it's too early to tell whether the back will improve enough to allow him to play in the Masters.  It's not sounding good, is it?

Speaking of the Masters, is this gonna be wide open or what?  Taking a gander at this post with Masters odds, I'm struck by how all the top players have huge question marks after their names, either injury (Woods, Day), alarmming late collapses (McIlroy, Scott), or desultory play (Stenson, Phil, Rose, Schwartzel).  Should be great fun.

•  Stay Tuned to this Station - Way back in January (I think, I can't put my finger on the post at this time) I rattled some cages with a discussion of how the R&A manages to keep the discussion of exclusionary membership policies on their host clubs, when their own should logically be at issue.  Now comes this Daily Mail (h/t Shackelford) thunderbolt:

Women look set to be welcomed into the world’s most exclusive golf club, ending its men-only status after 260 years.

The hugely powerful Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, which also serves as the sport’s governing body, has written to all 2,500 of its current members recommending they agree to allow women to join.

St Andrews has repeatedly resisted mounting political and commercial pressure to overhaul the admissions policy at its clubhouse, which overlooks the 18th green of the Old Course – the spiritual home of golf.

This will be presented to members at the Spring Meeting, and voted on at the R&A's Fall Meeting, which I believe good friend Mark W. will be attending.  After my earlier post Mark assured me that the membership would never approve the admission of women, so I'll look forward to a lively discussion about Mark's vote over lunch.

• These Guys are Good -  My fantasy golf record is fairly dismal, though my choice of Matt Every as one of my low-point picks last week yielded my best finish yet, No. 97 out of 1,159 entries.  Fantasy tour rabbit status admittedly, but a fellow has to start somewhere.