This and That

It seems to be a particularly snarky day in the golf world, so feverish anticipation is the order of the day.  As the Donald would say, I'm a plus 10 at snark:

• The Walk Back - In a tradition as old as our game itself, Patrick Reed has begun the process of walking back providing the wider context for his pre- and post-game comments.  Per this Shackelford post, Reed now says that he was in "game mode" and only meant to say that he can be a Top 5 player (Note: Shack's link to the Ryan Burr interview in which these comments were made is broken).

That's all for the better, as we do make allowances for youthful exuberance.  But Reed will be better served by the ancient tradition of letting his clubs do the talking.  All of the airtime devoted to his comments merely detracted from his great play and the amazing start of his PGA career.

To show why it's good that he's taking steps to head it off, take a gander at the screenshot Shack grabbed of the latest fake Twitter account:

• Haven't We Suffered Enough - This item is only for those who appreciate fine cuisine.  Peter Finch informs us of the following:

Open wide, Orlando. Loudmouth Grill, a restaurant spinoff of the Loudmouth Golf clothing brand, opens March 22.

I won't speculate as to what's involved in the Signature Burger, but we know with absolute certainty that Loudmouth makes its pants in a wide range of waist sizes.  The flagship branch will open in the Orlando area in the site of a former Perkins Restaurant.  But not just any Perkins:

Sound familiar? Yes, that's right. It's the same Perkins restaurant outside Isleworth where the No. 1-ranked golfer began an infamous relationship with a waitress a few years back. (Suggested slogan for the new restaurant: "Keep your pants on." Nah, maybe not.)

 Exit question:  Which puts you more off your feed, The Loudmouth Grill or John Daly Pizza?

• Can't We All Just Get Along - Sam Weinman with the troubling news that, press reports to the contrary notwithstanding, Tiger and Stevie have still not buried the hatchet.  

Even when his new boss is the reigning Masters champion, it's fair to say Steve Williams is still more of a draw as Tiger Woods' spurned former caddie. At least that would explain his guest appearance on Australia's Fox Sports' Golf Show this week, in which the veteran caddie says he and the world No. 1 are still not on the chummiest of terms.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice at Doral last week.  

 Weinman continues:

"It's just personal things and a difference of opinions on how things went down . . . and I need to sort that out with him," Williams said.

Of course, whether Woods feels the need to sort anything out with Williams is another story. Plenty of tour caddies get fired, and very few are given forums on TV shows to air their grievances (let alone three years later). And it's fair to say NO caddie got as rich as Williams did when he was earning a percentage of Woods' $88 million in on-course earnings between 1999-2011.

Estimates have put Williams' take at more than $8 million during that time -- which could explain why Woods might feel there's nothing left to say.

 My response to Stevie:

I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor Tiger. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

• The Grind - Alex Myers' weekly feature at Local Knowledge always has some bits worth plagiarizing excerpting:

Kiradech Aphibarnrat: There are no cuts at World Golf Championships, so golfers playing bad have nowhere to hide on the weekend. As a result, Aphibarnrat finished 26 over(!) for four days at Doral. We probably shouldn't be too surprised. After all, he is known as "Asia's John Daly."

Add this to the laundry list of problems with the WGC.  The fields are small enough to be problematic, but then they set aside precious slots for foreign players not up to snuff.  OK, rant over so back to Alex:

Random tournament fact: How about a random PGA Tour fact? Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker have won six of the past 21 official tour events. Amazing. Also amazing? That clip of two players' combined hot streaks is just slightly better than Tiger Woods' career winning percentage. Yeah, he's pretty decent.

I'd put is slightly differently.  Since Tiger last won, Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed have each won three times on Tour.  Wow!   

Lastly is the picture below, which Alex characterizes as the saddest Tiger picture ever:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the Windemere Police Department has a sadder photo of Tiger from, oh, December 2009.

• David Does Doonbeg - David Owens has a post up on Doonbeg, which includes this stunning photo of the green at the Par 3 14th:

If this doesn't make your heart skip a beat, you might have stumbled onto the wrong blog.

Here's David's lead:

In 2006, I traveled to Ireland with three other Golf Digest editors, and among the courses we played was Doonbeg, about an hour and a half down the coast from Lahinch. (A useful rule of thumb, when estimating travel times on older Irish roads, is to think of the kilometers as miles, and multiply by two.) In the magazine I wrote that, after playing the course twice, I wanted to take back nearly every unkind thought I’d ever had about Greg Norman, who designed it. Several of the holes, I said, were permanently memorable, including the teensy but murderous fourteenth, a par 3, which has a green scarcely large enough to contain a foursome (shown above). 

 As always, you should read all of David's work.  He liked the course, hated the clubhouse/hotel and finishes on the upbeat tone:

A downside with Trump is that he names or renames everything after himself. But the rest of us can continue to call the course Doonbeg, and I think the members and the Irish and golfers in general ought to be pleased, because, as Trump demonstrated at Doral last week, when he buys a struggling golf property he doesn’t fool around. No matter what you think about him, he has been extremely successful—and shrewd!—at cleaning up golf messes made by other people. So good for him.

• By the Numbers -  Jim McCabe posted a by-the-numbers piece at Golfweek, serving mostly to summarize the carnage at Doral.  Best bit:

The 11: Aussie Brett Rumford, who had three water balls off of his first tee, the par-5 10th, and was 6 over one hole into the championship.

Admittedly another player not deserving of his slot, but one can sympathize the first tee jitters the poor guy had.  Of the brutality of this game.

•  Moneyball, Continued - Shackelford has a teaser post on the use of Trackman, and also links to his Golf World story on the same subject, which I've yet to read.  He leaves us with this shameless come-on:

Check out the story and check back here over the next few days because I’m going to follow up with a few posts about how to get on a Trackman at decent cost, Sean Foley’s most important “numbers,” and a look at the amazing Trackman web community.

Geoff, you had me at hello.  It's not like he's my first read of the new day or anything.