Friday Follies

It's that time again, when we face the weekend with far too many browser tabs open.  So let's dispatch a few of them, shall we?

Ixnay on LPGA - In what seems a good move, the LPGA has joined forces with the PGA of America to jointly stage the event previously known as the LPGA Championship.  From Ron Sirak:

The LPGA Tour's flagship event, the LPGA Championship, will undergo a bold transformation

when it is renamed the KPMG Women's PGA Championship next year, the LPGA Tour, KPMG and the PGA of America will announce Thursday. 

The revamped tournament brings not only new money to the table for the tour -- the purse, which is $2.25 million for the Wegmans LPGA Championship this year, will climb to $3.5 million in 2015 -- but also greater coverage for women's golf. In addition to Golf Channel televising Thursday and Friday play, weekend rounds will be aired on NBC. 

The five-year deal calls for next year's event to be played at Westchester Country Club 35 minutes north of New York City. The tournament will travel, with no permanent home, but the preference for KPMG is to play it in the New York area as often as possible.

Seems like an obvious move, though shouldn't the PGA be held to account for not having a women's championship?  Just askin'?  I'm also quite happy to have it at next door Westchester, and I'm sure Theresa and I will spend some time there.

Though some of the former LPGA players are critical of the exclusion of the LPGA name from the event title.  Most critical is Patty Sheehan, with this tweet:

 Patty Sheehan @gr8parr

Follow

Naming our @LPGA Championship the Women's PGA Championship is a slap in the face. That's my opinion. @KMPG @pgaofamerica

At the risk of sounding mercenary, I can think of approximately 3.5 million reasons why the LPGA made this move, all of them valid.

Low Degree of Difficulty - I could happily spend my days blogging nothing but John Daly stories, but it's

impossible to post a respectable score with such a low degree of difficulty.  Today's trailer-park trash story comes courtesy of Yahoo Sports, in which our hero estimates his gambling losses at a staggering $55 million.  

I'm not at all sure of what's more disturbing in the screen grab at left, the American flag sports jacket or the thought of going in depth with Long John?

I should note that I've not myself listened to this interview, as the explosion of my brain would leave far too big a mess for Theresa to clean up.  But John we salute you for your extensive contributions to humanity this blog.

Hero Worship - I have a long-established man-crush on Mike Keiser, though he unfortunately seems to want to remain just friends.  And of course there's always the chance that he'll seek a new restraining order should the bride stalk him further.

Golfweeks' digital magazine has a short article that's ostensibly about the opening of the Punchbowl, which

we've covered previously,  but breaks two new items of actual news.  First, work on the first course at Sand Valley (which was previously referred to as Wisconsin Rapids) is goin so well that he's going to move forward with the second course.  He's reportedly deciding between Tom Doak (who was Miss Congeniality when it was awarded to Coore-Crenshaw) and the Cabot Links team of Rod Whitman and David Axland.  Doak would seem the front-runner, but Keiser does as Keiser pleases, and he's of course involved with Cabot Links.

The second piece of news is that he's dispatched his son, also named Mike , to Ireland to inspect a property on the Inch Strand of the Dingle Peninsula in Southwest Ireland.  Apparently there's land enough for only one course, which would not conform to the Keiser Kredo that it takes two courses to create a destination.  The Great One seems to think this might work because of its proximity to Killarney, with storied venues such as Waterville, Tralee and Old Head within an hour to 90 minutes.  Except that anyone who's driven Irish roads knows that nothing is within and hour, no matter where you are.

He's Got That Going For Him - For a while, Rickie Fowler's move to Butch Harmon seemed to be paying dividends.  More recently, however, he's reverted to his prior uninspiring form, witness his opening round 75 at the Memorial yesterday, leaving him a mere twelve shots off the lead.  He's doing far better with his Red Bull sponsorship, as we previously saw him doing aerials and now can confirm that he looks as good as ever in a Speedo.  

It's long past time for Rickie to become better known for his golf than his wardrobe.

Don't I Know Him From Somewhere - Shades of Eddie Lowery, but football legend John Elway is in contention at the Colorado Senior Open is attributed to an astute personnel move:

I'm sure orange was just a coincidence.

John Elway’s acumen for soliciting the help necessary to succeed was solidified with his having lured Peyton Manning to the Broncos two years ago. 

The latest shrewd move by the Broncos’ general manager and executive vice president was finding a 14-year-old caddie with an intimate knowledge of the greens at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, site of the Colorado Senior Open.

Davis Bryant, 14, is the son of Green Valley Ranch’s director of golf, Matt Bryant, and plays to a 4.1 handicap index at Green Valley. Elway, with Bryant carrying his bag, shot a one-under par 71 in the first round of the Colorado Senior Open on Wednesday and was one off the lead.

Grabbing Manning was a shrewd move, no doubt, but won't really be a success until they win a Super Bowl, no?

Woods A Go For U.S. Open - Oh, you thought I meant that Woods.  Never mind:

On the same day that her uncle, Tiger Woods, officially withdrew from the U.S. Open, Cheyenne Woods qualified for the U.S. Women's Open that will be played the following week. Woods shot a 36-hole total of 141 at a sectional qualifying at The Country Club at DC Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Woods' second round was highlighted by a back-nine 32 to grab one of three available spots. She will play in her second U.S. Women's Open, having missed the cut in 2012 at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisc.

Deserved Honor -  Shack informs us that Jaime Diaz was awarded the Memorial Golf Journalism Award at a ceremony on Wednesday, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a worthier recipient.  As a further service, Geoff links to Diaz's most recent piece, a typically wonderful profile of Web.com player Byron Smith's unusual golf journey.  Here's the lede:

Byron Smith looks like a conventional modern tour pro -- southern Californian, a youthful 33, trim, good-looking and well-tailored. The kind of un-famous player casual watchers of tournament golf used to call a "clone." 

After he closed with 63-66 to win the Web.com Tour's Rex Hospital Open by four strokes on Sunday, Smith stood before three packed grandstands that served as respectable facsimiles of PGA Tour skyboxes and gave an earnest but conventionally uninspired victor's speech and collected the biggest check of his life, $112,500. 

But a few minutes later, the intimacy that makes the Web.com Tour an underrated place to mine the real stuff of playing golf for a living was on display. Smith popped open a beer, leaned back in a chair, and in a scene that would have given Dan Jenkins a vivid flashback to the 1950's, revealed to the three reporters sitting close by his journey in golf.

Notwithstanding that Shack is understandably over-invested in a Pepperdine alum (Shack's alma mater) that know Sartre, you'll want to read this.  'Nuff said?

Anchors Away - A retread title to be sure, but literally true in this case.  Per E. Michael Johnson:

Although Keegan Bradley's change to a non-anchored putter at the Memorial may have seemed somewhat abrupt, fact is Bradley has spoken about practicing with alternatives to anchoring for more than a year. 

Still, to see Bradley with a shorter putter Thursday at Muirfield Village was a bit startling. According to tour sources, instead of the 46.75-inch, 762-gram Odyssey XG Sabertooth with the double-bend ski-pole shaft that Bradley used to win the 2011 PGA Championship (making him the first winner of one of the men's majors using an anchored stroke), he had a putter with the same head style (XG Sabertooth) but a 41-inch shaft. It also had a 21-inch Winn Flat Top Mid grip with a 40-gram counterbalance weight. The putter has 2.5 degrees loft and a total weight of 675 grams.

Such is the state of golf journalism, that John gives us the loft of the putter but fails to answer everyone's first question, namely how did he do?  Well, working down from the top line, he shot a 5-under 67, which doesn't suck.

 More on point, the available putting stats are a mixed bag.  He gained 2.7 strokes putting, good for 5th place, though had 1.7 putts per GIR, putting him in 48th place.  The former is the better measure, though like any statistic it only has value with a meaningful sample size.  But no doubt he's happy with his maiden voyage after pulling up his anchor.  

Dispatches From Planet Rory

My, the lad does seem to be sucking up most of the available oxygen, doesn't he?  

First he bounces back from his break-up with fiancee Caroline Wozniacki by sulking through two desultory rounds and missing the cut winning the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.  Would you like a little more salt in that open wound, Caroline?

Then this hits on Tuesday in the Times of London:

Caroline Wozniacki played tennis in a lovely old arena at Roland Garros yesterday but would

rather have been in Belfast, asking Rory McIlroy to his face why he left her this way. Except that the last time he called, less than a day after telling her how much he loved her, it was a three-minute conversation she thought was a joke.

That 3-minute call has generated some buzz, and Brian Keough takes a stab at identifying the source:

The tale of the three-minute call names no sources but we are led to assume by The Times, that it was her father Piotr: 

"Walking through the ground a few minutes after his daughter had kept it all together, I bumped into her father Piotr, the defining influence on her life and tennis career. “We speak as friends, yes, this is just between us,” he said and tried to explain what had happened in the past few days as much as his limited English would allow."

OK, I'm not completely sure why people read this silly blog, but I'm guessing that relationship advice is pretty far down the list.  That said, I'll agree that a 3-minute call sounds bad, but we can probably agree that there's no good way and that the shock of the announcement precludes a productive discussion.  I actually thought another tidbit, that he had told her how much he loved her in the prior call, was the more damning.  But no one who calls off a wedding after the invitations have been posted is going to be a candidate for sainthood.

 Then there was this from the Keough piece:

In a piece told us that McIlroy was to "let ex fiancee Caroline Wozniacki keep €150k engagement ring", Melanie Finn quotes an unnamed source as saying, “They were together nearly three years and that time meant a lot to him so he would like to see her keep the ring.... There were lengthy conversations in the last few days between them but a joint statement was never going to be a possibility".

Better to just keep quiet, no?  She's not going to want to wear the ring, so while his understandable impulse to make a generous gesture is noted, there's no spoon large enough for the amount of sugar needed to jam this particular medicine down her throat.  And the optics are quite bad, a man for whom money is readily available trying to "buy off" the woman he just publicly dumped.  Who exactly is handling Rory's PR these days?

So, Rory reacts to the circumstances by winning the Euro Tour's flagship event.  We can only hope that Caroline returns the favor....errr, no:

Ummm Caroline, was a Masters green skirt the best choice?

If love is cruel, how about sport? 

Just about anyone who saw Rory McIlroy win a prestigious golf tournament on Sunday, only days after breaking off his engagement with Caroline Wozniacki, had to be cheering for Wozniacki to make a strong statement of her own at the French Open. 

But it was not to be in the gloom on Court 2 at Roland Garros on Tuesday. 

Wozniacki’s agent John Tobias and others recommended that she not play at all. Despite her troubles, Wozniacki, the No. 13 seed from Denmark, showed up at the appointed time and place.

 Given Caroline's recent performance, I was actually surprised that she was seeded.  But it was not meant to be:

In light of the circumstances, she did rather well on Tuesday. As her father and coach, Piotr, watched quietly from the front row of the stands, she kept her composure, served for the first set and eventually won the second. But Yanina Wickmayer hit enough big shots and lines to prevail, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.

Good for her for playing and for fighting back in that second set.  Perhaps the relationship was a distraction or perhaps she's not truly an elite player, but hopefully she stays healthy, puts the callow cad behind her (she is, after all, only 23) and we all se how good she can be.

Back to Rory, who had a decent start yesterday at the Memorial.  As a note, after noting here that Rory is not a terrific fit for the next two majors, it occurred to me that place that is a good fit, especially if they get their usual wet weather, is Muirfield Village, where they just happen to be playing this week.  And Rory throws up an opening round nine-under 63, with a double bogey.  It was quite the colorful scorecard, with two two's and eight threes on it.  Don't know about your experience, but I've found that two is rarely a bad score (I can't say never, because last year I made a two and lost the hole, but I'm not bitter).

Shackelford's got the goods in terms of what made this round special:

Wow, 6.3 strokes-gained putting in one round. That's something one doesn't see every day of the week. And of course it's difficult to do better than 16 of 16 putts inside 15 feet. 

My understanding is that the weather should be good for the remainder of the week, so the course should return to the firm conditions we saw during the practice rounds. So, no predictions, but let's see how he handles those conditions and how dramatically his putting regresses to the mean.

In a tangentially related note, since starting this blog my handicap has exploded, from the seven I finished last season at to a current twelve (trending). Accordingly, I'm considering renaming the blog "Caroline Wozniacki," since the blog appears to have had the same effect on my game as Caroline did on Rory's.

The Business of America Is Clearly Not Golf

In a recent post we covered the disappointing sales and earnings reported by Addidas and Dick's, both specifically tied to their golf businesses.  It's not exactly a well-kept secret that the golf world is economically-challenged, as more recent items make clear.

Shackelford went on a Unplayable Lies-worthy rant about this Bloomberg item on the state of our game, and while I didn't think it was quite as off-base as he, his points were typically well-taken.  Let's start with their lead:

Once the go-to activity for corporate bonding, the sport is suffering from an exodus of players, a lack of interest among millennials and the mass closure of courses.

As Shack is all over, by mass closings they mean 160 course closed out of some 16,000, so use of the word "mass" could be a tad overwrought.  But as they note later, it's the eighth consecutive year in which more courses closed than were built.  There's no question that too many courses were built, especially in the wrong places, so this smells to me like a much-needed correction.

Next up the authors get into the retail side of the industry, quoting the Dick's numbers and the hit taken by Callaway's stock on the day they announced a "dim forecast" of future performance.  Their forecast is, of course, fair game, and the descriptions of the glut of product in retailers' inventory is troubling, but the authors' point is undermined by the fact that the stock has rebounded to where it was before the announcement.  

But what to make of these numbers?

About 400,000 players left the sport last year, according to the National Golf Foundation. While almost 260,000 women took up golf, some 650,000 men quit.

I'm always puzzled by numbers like these, because we don't know how they define a golfer.  The women numbers seem encouraging, no doubt a reaction to Augusta National ordering two green jackets in women's sizes (just kidding there), but don't we suspect that the 650,000 men were infrequent players, the outing golfer if you will?

I try to focus on the number of rounds played, on which those outing golfers will have no real effect:

The people sticking with the sport are playing fewer rounds than before, often opting for nine holes rather than 18. In total, U.S. golfers played 462 million rounds last year, according to Golf Datatech. That was the fewest number since 1995.

It sounds pretty bleak, but wouldn't you like to see those annual numbers before leaping to any conclusions.  Particularly since this particular article seems to lead with the more dramatic numbers while burying the mitigating factors deep in the text.  For instance, after citing Dick's and Callaway in the opening paragrah, this come later:

TaylorMade, the Adidas AG-owned brand that makes clubs and golf accessories, also is suffering. The business saw a 34 percent sales drop in the first quarter, Adidas said earlier this month. Still, not all golf equipment is in decline. Overall, manufacturers’ sales rose 1.2 percent last year, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. While sales of golf balls fell 4.9 percent, clubs grew 4.2 percent.

TaylorMade has admitted that it somewhat created its own problems through the shortened product cycle, and the full-year numbers indicate an industry that is essentially flat.  Flat isn't great and no doubt they need to do better, but it's also not, as Shack notes, in freefall.

Obviously the authors had limited space in which to make their case, but they also wasted it on tying the industry malaise to one Eldrick Woods.  There's no doubt that Tiger's impact can be felt in television ratings, but to me the case has never been made that he's actually grown the game.

Those television ratings are the subject of a related item, in which the title sponsor of the Tour event at Colonial indicated their decision on whether to renew will be based on those TV ratings:

That question will be answered in September, said Gina LaBarre, vice-president of Crowne Plaza brand management. During her visit to Fort Worth, which concluded with LaBarre handing the ceremonial winner’s check to Scott on the 18th green, she stressed the need to maximize exposure for the brand in exchange for extending Crowne Plaza’s contract as title sponsor beyond the 2015 event. 

She also said television ratings for the 2014 tournament, which will not be available until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend, will be significant in deliberations by corporate executives. 

“It’s all going to be in the ratings because, really, that’s what it’s about at the end of the day,” LaBarre said. “So I won’t know at the end of this week what’s going to happen. We’ve got to see what we do from a ratings perspective … For us, it’s about how do we get more national exposure for the brand.”

Not sure if Son of the Bronx is back in business, but Shack has those ratings for us:

Sunday's final round playoff win by Adam Scott over Jason Dufner drew a 1.5 average, down from a 1.7 in 2013. The tournament drew a 2.1 in 2011 when the event's audience size was last cited as "buzz-worthy." Though the tournament likely delivered the same number of viewers as tournament broadcast windows have expanded. Seems like a wash to me, but we'll find out later this year how the brand managers felt.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/26/5848917/title-sponsor-waiting-on-tv-ratings.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

I've always suspected that golf sponsorships are boondoggles for golf-loving CEO's that couldn't possibly pay for themselves, given the huge financial commitments.  I'd love to do such a post on the economics of of sponsoring a PGA Tour event, if I could somehow access the data.  But of course Commissioner Rtached keeps such data in the same vault as John Daly's disciplinary file.

As an exit question, if the industry is so gosh darn awful, why are presumably smart guys investing to relaunch the Ben Hogan product line?

Tales From The Ridge, Or Learning To Love The Stableford

As frequent travelers to the U.K. and Ireland, Theresa and I have long been aware that the game is played differently there.  For instance, I receive frequent e-mails from my Portrush buddy Lowell telling me he went around Portstewart in x points or when we play with Elsie and John the one quid match is decided by the highest point total.  These points are calculated under the Stableford scoring system, a perfectly reasonable system that is the format for the vast majority of competitions in the old world but simultaneously unknown here in the New World.

A tribute to the Dr. out on the golf course.

This is a timely subject this week for Willow Ridge members, as our Golf Committee has dramatically changed the format for our major competitions.  These two events, our Presidents (individual) and Governors Cups (2-man teams), have suffered from poor participation rates in recent years, attributed by some to the fact that they require commitment to two consecutive weekends, difficult for those with families and lives outside of golf (your humble blogger obviously excluded).

The new format now limits the firm commitment to one weekend, which will include Saturday qualifying under Stableford scoring, from which the top four will qualify and play semi-final matches on Sunday.  The two finalists will play their final matches at their mutual convenience, with a drop-dead date a few weeks out.  Willow Ridge being what it is, we'll see how that latter feature works out.

So, I hear you asking, what is a damn Stableford?  I'll get to that in a sec, but first a short history lesson.  The

The portrait of Dr. Frank hanging in the Wallasey clubhouse.

Stableford is the brainchild of Dr. Frank Stableford, the Captain at Wallasey Golf Club in Liverpool.  It was first used there in competition in 1932, and has become the de facto standard for competitions and friendlies alike.

Wallasey is a delightful links, forever in the shadow of nearby Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), site of this year's Open Championship.  Aside from the handiwork of Dr. Frank, it's best know as the club where Bobby Jones qualified for the 1930 Open Championship, part of his epic Grand Slam.  A portrait of Jones is also on display in the Wallasey clubhouse, notable for being the only portrait of himself that Jones actually liked.

A typical UK scorecard (Brora) with a column for points.

Our conversion to Stableford qualifying has generated quite a bit of conversation at the club.  One member actually confided to me that he was considering dropping out of the event due to concern that the format would put him at a disadvantage.  I don't really see that, but at our age we're not so awfully good at dealing with change.  And my explanations of the format did not seem to help matters any, from which the reader can draw his or her own conclusions.

I'll also refer the reader to this post from my Ballyliffin blog, in which the bride and I played a tourney under the Stableford.  It's a cute post if you can see past the typos, and it'll give a sense of anticipated point totals.  I played at Ballyliffin under my home handicap, which I could never have maintained playing full-time on a links.

So, what is this radical, life-altering format called Stableford?  It's a rather simple format that assigns points for each hole based upon the player's score in relation to par, as follows:

2 or more over par-0 points
1 over par-1 points
Par-2 points
1 under par-3 points
2 under par-4 points
3 under par-5 points and so on..

Now lest you think that four under par on a hole is unlikely, a reminder that this format is typically applied to the player's net score (or nett as they quaintly say over there), and therefore must accommodate the freakish scores of our Sandbagger-Americans.  OK, four under is still absurd, but the concept is pretty simple.  

The big advantage to the player is that it takes big numbers off the table, as once you can't make a net bogey the ball should be placed securely in pocket.  The advantage to the group playing behind is also clear, as we no longer need to see players plumb-bobbing those four-footers for fourteen.

We'' see how it goes with the lads when and if we utilize the format on Saturday.  I say if because the altered format does not, when last I checked, seem to have had the desired effect on turnout.  It seems unlikely we'll have more than eight players in the championship flight, and if that doesn't change there's no reason we can't go straight into match play.

That Was the Week That Was - In Q&A Form

Those pesky Sports Illustrated writers are back at it again, and somehow Joe Passov seems to still be gainfully employed.  Shall we jump in and contribute to his annual performance review?

1. Rory McIlroy ends his engagement, then comes from seven back to win the BMW PGA at Wentworth in England. Are we now looking at the once and future No. 1 in the world?

Joe Passov: What a remarkable week. Maybe a huge sigh of relief, maybe his golf was the perfect

distraction, but this was vintage Rory. A swing so rhythmic, yet so powerful, you want to cry. He was awesome with the driver. He missed a couple of short putts and, strangely, hit some poor irons when it mattered, but just killed it in every other way. Adam Scott was awfully impressive in his own right this week, but consider me sold on Rory.

Michael Bamberger:  Rory's future will likely be like his past, brilliant at times and ordinary at others. He'll contend often and win some percentage of those times, in tournaments major and not-so-major.

Josh Sens: Amazing how life spills into golf. Rory must have been having doubts for some time and it's hard to imagine it wasn't affecting his mindset on the course. But No. 1? I don't think so. 

Gary Van Sickle: It's still a ways to No. 1 for Rory, but he's got as good a chance as anyone. 

Jeff Ritter: He was the once and future No. 1 no matter what happened with Caroline. Talent wins out. 

My Take:  Forget Rory, it's Travelin' Joe that's world No. 1 in my book.  he seems here to have thrown man-crush Adam Scott under the bus (I'm sure he'll do a 180 in answering the inevitable Adam Scott question), and it was "Vintage Rory", except for his iron play and putting, which are like 60% of the game.

As I noted here, this was no doubt a timely win for the lad, and he surely showed great resolve with his play down the stretch.  But serious questions remain about his putting and the number of loose shots.  The other point worth noting about the young man is that his big wins have all come on soft tracks playing target golf.  I still vividly remember watching Rory in the second round at the 2010 Open Championship, where the winds were so strong they had to suspend play.  Strange as it seems for a guy that grew up in Northern Ireland, he seemed clueless in the wind, throwing up moon-ball after moon-ball, not even trying to flight it down.  I don't like his chances anywhere with wind or that plays hard and fast, like say Pinehurst and Hoylake.  Valhalla, on the other hand, could be his spot.

2. The current No. 1 Adam Scott won in a playoff over Jason Dufner at Colonial -- and made a clutch 15-footer to stay alive on the second playoff hole. There was some grumbling when Scott ascended to the top spot despite not playing last week. How much does this win validate Scott's No. 1 ranking?

VAN SICKLE: That was a terrific win for Scott on a golf course that you can't overpower. He got off to a bad start, overcame a few foul-ups and then was Mr. Clutch in the playoff with Dufner. You get to No. 1, and then you rally to win your first time out? Oh, yeah, that validates the ranking big-time.

BAMBERGER: I am on strike from the rankings. I do regard Scott as the best player in the game now, but not by any significant margin.

RITTER: Majors are the ultimate validation, but for a first event as No.1, you can't ask for anything more.

SENS: Scott wasn't topping the best field in the world. Rory wasn't in the event. So I don't see this win as the ultimate stamp of approval. That will come when he loses that broomstick and still wins a major.

PASSOV: This Colonial win was big-time validation for Adam Scott's No. 1 ranking. He needed to close -- or win -- at some point soon, to make up for Bay Hill and the Masters. He won on a shotmaker’s course, at a historic venue, where your name on the trophy means something, and he beat a fellow 2013 major winner in a playoff. Impressive stuff. That said, this whole week-to-week, who's No. 1 thing is just silly. 

My Take:  As I opined previously, Scott deserves credit for adding the event and for hanging tough when +4 on Thursday.  But one win in a tertiary-level tour event no moire validates him as the No. 1 player in the world than climbing a ladder makes me tall.

That said, you can't ask for more than a W in any week, and the fact that he's a soft No. 1 isn't his fault only.  Let's give this a rest and see how this gaggle of top players sorts itself out in the next three months, which just happens to include three majors.

3. Jessica Korda shot 65 on Sunday to steam past Michelle Wie, Charley Hull and a host of others, while Colin Montgomerie held off Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer at the Senior PGA Championship for his first-ever win on U.S. soil. How did you manage your golf viewing on Sunday and which event did you wind up watching most?

VAN SICKLE: Monty played one of the finest rounds I've ever seen him play and Tom Watson made a sizzling run at him. The Senior PGA was riveting stuff and I watched most of that. I caught the playoff of the PGA Tour. Didn't see any of the women.

RITTER: Just a great day for a golf fan to commandeer the remote control. Korda is a nice story, and the LPGA is having a banner year, but I was all-in on Tom Watson's run at the Senior PGA.

PASSOV: I wouldn't switch from major winners dueling at Colonial to watch Jessica Korda -- yet -- but serious golf claps for a sensational performance today. I did go back and forth to see if Monty could hold off Tom Watson and win for the first time on U.S. soil, my task made especially easy by Colonial's weird finish, with only David Toms among the final five or so groups having a chance. Now, this isn't disparaging the ladies. I watch a bunch of LPGA coverage, and the more these talented young players develop rivalries where they bring out the best in each other, like today, the more I'll watch.

SENS: Playing golf takes precedence over watching it live, so I hit the pitch-n-putt with my kids and TiVo'd everything else, giving it all equal time

BAMBERGER: I was on the links myself, but if my cart would have had a TV in addition to its wet bar, and if it somehow did not have split-screen technology, I would have the gentlemen of a certain age. Monty in contention is a beautiful thing.

My Take:  As I noted, my Tivo made the decision for me.  Just a great week of golf across the board, which to me again raises the issue of the ladies finding a way to finish their events on a day other than Sunday, as they can't win this battle.  And note that no one even mentions Rory...

4. At age 11, Lucy Li qualified for next month's U.S. Women's Open. Should the Open have an age limit? If Li was your daughter, would you let her play?

BAMBERGER: I would. She qualified through open qualifying. It's a one-time thing. She's not there for the money. Her parents will be around. She's not missing school to be there.

PASSOV: This just seems insane to me. Yes, the U.S. Women's Open should have an age limit. No 11-year-old should have to endure the kind of pressure that major championship golf commands.

VAN SICKLE: Age limits for sports participation are discriminatory. I'm still surprised Maurice Clarett lost his lawsuit against the NFL. 

RITTER: If you earn your spot you deserve to play, regardless of age. If Li was my daughter I would now be finalizing a seven-figure deal with Oprah and her OWN Network to do a six-part miniseries based on my daughter's amazing life. But I'm not a parent, so what the heck do I know.

 

My Take:  Do click through and  read the rest of Joe's rant, which is a classic of the genre.  It's quite an amazing feat, and I frankly doubt that there'll be much pressure experienced.  After all, if she shoots 85-85 isn't that still kind of amazing...  There are many tougher decisions her parents will face as to how to keep her living a semblance of a normal life, but this one's well inside the leather.

5. The Colonial is the PGA Tour's annual homage to Ben Hogan. Where does Hogan rate on your all-time list of greatest golfers?

VAN SICKLE: The game has changed too much, I don't think you can compare him to today's one-

dimensional power-hitters. Nicklaus and Tiger are at the top of pro golf's all-time hill. Hogan, Nelson and Snead would have to be right there at the next step.

PASSOV: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are 1 and 1a. Hogan comes next. Folks forget that he only entered a single British Open (and won it), missed four U.S. Opens during his prime due to WWII and skipped the PGA from 1949 through 1959, after winning it twice in the previous three years. With his unparalleled ball-striking and demeanor, he might have won another five majors easy -- maybe more.

SENS:  I think Hogan would be a top-20 golfer today. Maybe. A giant of his era, but that was the era of golf as a game played by a small handful of almost exclusively white men. Different times. 

BAMBERGER: Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan.

My Take:  My immediate reaction is surprise that not a single writer put Bobby Jones in his pantheon of greats.  What gives there?

It's good fun but ultimately impossible to compare players across eras, but wherever you place him on your list (and I'd have him somewhere in the 4-7 slot), his place in the game is secured by his character and amazing recovery from the devastating accident.  It took him a while to develop a work-around for his snap-hook, but he dominated his era (it helped that Nelson retired) and he performed at an amazing level for a man who could barely walk the golf course.

6. Jimmy Walker's tee shot on 17 hit a bird in the second round of the Colonial. What's the worst luck you've ever had on the course?

VAN SICKLE: I once three-putted the seventh green at Waupaca (Wis.) CC, walked up a hill to the eighth tee, fired my ball down at the ground in anger … and watched it take two bounces and disappear down a gopher or chipmunk hole, never to be seen again. It would've been hilarious if I wasn't steaming mad at the time. Three decades later, yeah, it's pretty funny.

PASSOV: In the summer of 1980, I tugged a drive at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona and my ball drifted just off the property into the oryx exhibit at the Phoenix Zoo. I was willing to retrieve the ball, but as I approached the course boundary, a huge rattlesnake began to slither in my direction.

RITTER: In a 1995 high school grudge match, my opening tee shot bounded along the edge of the rough and plummeted down a gopher hole. I never recovered and got trounced. Needless to say, college golf was not an option.

BAMBERGER: Shot hits tree and returns to me, most sensitively.

SENS: I once made a hole-in-one with only my wife as witness. She couldn't have cared less. Talk about anticlimactic. 

My Take:  I was playing our 18th hole with Big Break Anthony last summer and in trying to reach the Par 5 in two I put my second into a horribly-maintained, massively-deep bunker, right up against the face.  I of course tried for the hero shot, and when the ball bounced back at me I instinctively caught it, dropped it in the sand and had another go.  No import to it of any note, though for weeks I had to listen to AC telling folks about the funniest thing he had ever seen on a golf course.  

Pinehurst Flyovers - Holes Nos. 4-6

Shall we wet our collective whistles with another series of Flyover videos of the holes at No2?  The question just answers itself...

Hole No. 4 - Par 4 - 529 Yards - This might be my favorite tee shot at Pinehurst, playing from an elevated tee box the fairway turns gently from right-to left, golf porn for those of us that draw the ball.

Shack helpfully provide this photo from the tee, in addition to the video below.

What's interesting is that Mike Davis has reversed the pars on the 4th and 5th holes, so that this will play as a long par-4, whereas it's a par-4 for resort play.  The green is sufficiently large and receptive for the long shots in, though at this point that probably means a 7-iron.

Hole No. 5 - Par 5 - 576 Yards - Another tee shot that suits your humble correspondent's eye, they've added a new back tee to convert this into a very reachable par-5.  It played as the third toughest hole in 2005, though of course a a three-shotter it will statistically play as one of the easiest this time.

Eye-candy for those that draw the ball.

Shackelford had this to say in anticipation:

That said, most of the field should have a go at this demanding and artistically perfect green complex, and that should make for some very satisfying viewing come U.S. Open week at Pinehurst.

Praise from Caesar, indeed.

Hole No. 6 - Par 3 - 223 Yards - The first par-3 on the course, this hole was actually added by Ross in 1923 as he modified his original work.  Another hole that favors a right-to-left ball flight, the key design feature is the swale just short of the green, making it difficult to run the ball onto the green.  

Tuesday Trifles

Some loose threads out there from the weekend and otherwise, so what say we throw them at the wall and see what sticks:

The NCAA's - It seems to have finally stopped raining in Kansas, and I was able to watch the conclusion of the individual competition last evening.  In that event, Stanford's Cameron Wilson prevailed over Georgia Tech's Ollie Schniederjans, as Brentley Romine describes in his game piece:

Stanford senior Cameron Wilson missed a par putt at his 54th hole that would have clinched

the NCAA individual title Monday at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. A little more than an hour later and after missed mid-range birdie putts on the first two playoff holes, he rolled home an 8-footer for birdie on the third playoff hole, the par-5 17th, to defeat Georgia Tech’sOllie Schniederjans for medalist honors.

Quite a finish, as they were about out of daylight.  Shackelford was singing Wilson's praises this morning, noting this mature reaction to the disappointment on the 18th green:

Q. How disappointed were you after No. 18, and did you kind of have to regroup a little bit on the range going into the playoff?

CAMERON WILSON: I was disappointed, sure, but I hit a couple shots that I liked on the last hole. The tee shot I hit almost exactly how I wanted to. Didn't hit it that much further left than I was hoping to. And the second shot I did what I meant to, and the rough caught my club. I really didn't stray from my plan that much, and I didn't beat myself up. Then when we got to the playoff, I was just thinking how cool it was. The sun was setting and the fescue was everywhere. We had the American flags out, and I've known Ollie for a while. He's a friend. As much as I wanted to win, Ollie is a friend and so I was just thinking how cool it was. It was a really cool scene.

But of course this is where my ears perked up:

Wilson's mother, Myra Gelband, was a longtime journalist working for Sports Illustrated and no doubt was depicted in fictional fashion as one of the smart, brilliant women in Dan Jenkins'You Gotta Play Hurt. Gelband was Dan's longtime researcher/reporter/confidante during his SI days. Dan noted this in a Tweet a couple of years ago.

Gotta love that, so I'm officially a Stanford fan 'till the conclusion.  Yesterday was also cutday for team match play, the quarterfinals of which were this morning.  Golf Channel comes on the air at 5:00 showing the semi-final matches.  Give it a look if you read this in time, either for the spectacular Prairie Dunes or for the excitement of team match play, which might have well redeemed Olympic golf.

Who Had the Best Week in Golf? -  Rory?  Monty?  Adam Scott?  Actually my vote goes to Josh Beckett, the Los Angeles Dodger pitcher (of course I type this while grinding my teeth, still bitter over Game 6 of the 2003 World Series).  Beckett, as baseball fans may be aware, had a memorable Sunday:

The Dodgers didn’t really know what to expect from Josh Beckett after major surgery that cost him a rib and most of a season. 

But not even Beckett thought he had this in him. 

The veteran right-hander, who went 20 months between major-league victories, pitched the 11th no-hitter in Los Angeles Dodgers history Sunday afternoon, dominating the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-0 victory.

But it's this nugget buried deep in the story that ties it to our game:

Beckett laughed off the suggestion that he should take pride in being the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter minus one rib. 

“I didn’t think about that,” Beckett said. “I played Pine Valley (Golf Club in southern New Jersey) two days ago. That’s what Paul Maholm and I were talking about. I wonder if I’m the first guy to play the No. 1 golf course in the country and then throw a no-hitter? I probably am.”

Yes, you likely are, but that's no solace for the fact that I haven't played Pine Valley.

Bad Karma -  In a post buried in the wayback machine I noted the forthcoming retirement of ESPN's Rick Reilly, noting the criticism of many of his recent phoned-in efforts, but also giving props for some of his older pieces.  He's posted a sort-of interview with Phil that's well worth a click-through.  See if this doesn't sound like our Phil:

What's not to learn? Mickelson seems to have somehow cornered the market on happiness. He

Reilly with the current Open Championship Holder.

has a bucket of sunshine for a wife, three gorgeous kids, $48 million per year coming in (according to Forbes), 51 worldwide wins, five majors, a jet, a compound the size of Rhode Island, a clean arrest record, and an optimism that would floor Little Orphan Annie.

He met me at his house, which is not like your house. 

His house is more like a Spanish village with Winged Foot attached. Outside his front door he has four chipping greens, a lavish putting green with every kind of putt you can think of, and a tee box where he can hit drivers up to 450 yards, usually in flip-flops. He might have the only house in America with its own greenkeeping staff. 

He greets me in his golf cart, which is not like your golf cart. 

His has a satellite dish on the roof and a TV in the front, so he can get 1,000 channels and XM radio. Gift from his wife, Amy. "This way I can watch football and still play," says Mickelson.

But it's this from Phil that's drawing pixels:

And then he said something bizarre: "The next five years are going to be the best of my career."

Me: Let me get this straight. From age 43 to age 48, you're going to play the best golf of your life? 

"I think so. I'm going to win a bunch of tournaments. I'm going to win at least one U.S. Open, maybe two. And I'm going to make the 2016 Olympic team. And really, I'd love to make the 2020 Olympic team. I'd be 50. How cool would that be?" 

Is this man on crystal meth?

Hmmm...he doesn't live that far from Albuquerque, or maybe after my Tin Cup post I just have Heisenberg on the brain.  Phil, I don't object to any of the over-the-top optimism, irregardless of the practicality of it all.  But even you are profoundly unwise to tempt the golf gods, one simply doesn't speak of winning a second Open until one has, you know, secured the first.  I'll be rooting for you at Pinehurst nonetheless, but ixnay on such talk between now and then.

But do give the piece a read, as it's Reilly at his best (and it's Phil).

The Shark Tank - I sometimes go months without checking John Garrity's delightfully droll Top 50 blog, but it's only fair since John seems to go months between posts.  But I meant to check in with John after Trump's purchase of Turnberry, since last we visited John he was crowdfunding the purchase of Ailsa Craig.

John believes that the Donald's purchase of Turnberry represents hubris, as he explains:

The valuable Ailsa Craig is on the right.

Why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because Trump — a so-called “business genius” who now owns and operates 17 golf properties — has made the worst decision of his storied career. He has acquired Turnberry’s elegant cliff-top hotel, it’s true, and he now owns the resort’s three golf courses, including the incomparable Open Championship links that hosted 1977’s legendary “Duel in the Sun.” But he didn’t buy Ailsa Craig, the muffin-shaped island that dominates the view from the Turnberry lighthouse.

With the eighth Marquess of Ailsa looking to dump the rock for a paltry $2.4 million, what is Garrity seeing in the way of opportunity here:

... which is more than reasonable when you consider that the island is the exclusive source of microgranite for Olympic-class curling stones. Imagine its worth if some genius entrepreneur — not Trump! — captures the international market for game-improvement curling stones.

Aha, you'll regret sharing that intellectual property secret with me, John, as I've already instructed the Unplayable Lies graphics department to work on mock-ups of a cavity-backed, counter-balanced curling stone.

As I said, delightfully droll.

Flop Sweat - Rory is crediting a new Nike wedge for his down-the-stretch heroics at the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday, the mellifluously-named Nike VR X3X Toe Wedge, better-known as the Toe Sweep wedge:

McIlroy credited his new wedge for his up-and-downs from the rough on Sunday and also his bunker shot on 18. 

"I’ve always been someone with not a lot of bounce to my wedges but I think it’s helped my bunker play as well," he said.

The shape of the wedge is quite different ythan those with which we're familiar, not readily apparent from this photo.  But watch the Nike video here to see it from the necessary angle.

Job Envy - I think Travelin' Joe's would still be my job of choice, but this ain't half bad:

Haircuts are still $13 at Mick's Hair Surgeons in Bandon, Ore., and Mick Peters, its 69-year-old proprietor, is still the man nearby Bandon Dunes Resort turns to when it debuts additions to its spectacular property along the southwest Oregon coast. 

Peters (left), who has hit the first official shot at Bandon Dunes (1999), Pacific Dunes (2001), Bandon Trails (2005), Old Macdonald (2010) and the par-3 Preserve (2012), was back in action last week when Bandon opened the Punchbowl (below), an 18-hole, 2.3-acre putting course designed by Tom Doak and Jim Urbina adjacent to the first tee at Pacific Dunes.

They also republish this amazing photo of the Punchbowl, which I've shared previously.  But it is that good:

Loud is the new Tasteful - Loud appears to be the order of the day in golf clothing and accessories, at least judging from recent blog posts.  First up we have fashion guru Marty Hackel extolling the virtues of Nautica's cotton twill shorts:

What stands out for me is their modern, comfortable cut that makes them attractive and functional. The cotton material is rugged enough to hold up through a full day on the course, yet still maintain a soft feel. (The company, which has tour pro Cameron Tringale on staff, markets off the premise that the more you wear the cotton shorts, the softer they will feel.)

 I like twill shorts in all but the hottest weather, though perhaps not those twills.

Next up are golf grips guaranteed to give Loudmouth Golf a run for theirs money, only fair when they're made by the very same Loudmouth Golf.  

Not if it puts a penny in John Daly's pocket.

Admit it, you've wanted to try those outrageously psychedelic pants from Loudmouth Golf but weren't sure you've got the game to pull them off. For those shy souls, there's an alternative: Loudmouth grips. 

Forget technology—scour the company website and all you'll learn is that the grips weigh 90 grams and come in regular and oversize. But you're not putting these on your clubs to improve your score. It's the look that counts. Whether it's Paint Balls, Liar Liar, Captain USA or Lucky (top to bottom above) or other models such as Just Peachy or Shagadelic Black, these are sure to make any club an eye-popper.

David Being David -  If I had my druthers, every one of these catchall posts would end with a David Owen item, as they invariably leave me with a smile on my face in the naive belief that I've pointed you to something you'll enjoy.  Or not, as always your mileage may vary...
Today David promises to explain the origins of a golf club's logo, specifically Co. Louth Golf Club north of Dublin.  David draws us in with his typically picaresque account:
County Louth Golf Club is an Irish links course near the intersection of the Boyne River and the 

The unfortunate (ker) Plunkett.

Irish Sea, about 35 miles north of Dublin. It's often referred to by the name of the nearest village, Baltray, which is sort of a suburb of the ancient port of Drogheda -- a city whose name is easier to pronounce correctly if you have a mild case of bronchitis. Drogheda was founded by Vikings more than a thousand years ago. In medieval times, it was surrounded by a wall, a few substantial parts of which remain. And if you visit St. Peter’s Church, on West Street, you can see the preserved head of St. Oliver Plunkett, an Irish clergyman, who was drawn, hanged, and quartered in England in the late seventeenth century.

True story.  I had a college friend named Marian Kerr who married a guy named Kerr, become forever more Marian Kerr-Plunkett.  But I digress...

Now it's our David, so there's no shortage of detours and there's even some poetry.  I know, but don't let that put you off as there's fun to be had.  I could excerpt until the cows come home, but just go read it all.  Just don't harbor any silly illusions that by the end you'll know the origins of the logo.

Great Places in Golf - Musselburgh

When I started this blog it was my intention to write about many of the wonderful places in the game, especially those with which the reader might be unfamiliar.  I did a small number early on (Cabot, Cruit Island and Brora), but then lost the plot...

A Shackelford post from a few days ago tees up just such an opportunity, one that has the added benefit of

allowing your humble blogger to make fun of himself.  Win-win, as they say.  Shack's post consisted of nothing more than an old postcard he ran across, an image of  the golf course that is partially within the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, yanno the one where they were racing this past weekend.  Currently known as Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, it dates back to 1929 and four holes remain within the racetrack.

I find stuff like this to be great fun, and I'm quite sure that Shack's postcard collection should be donated to Golf House.

The astute reader is now scratching his chin wondering how this has anything to do with the post title, to which I can only urge patience.  In 2001 I took my future bride to Scotland for the first time, and we spent some five days in East Lothian, the region surrounding Edinburgh and home to many first-rate links, including Muirfield, Gullane, North Berwick and Dunbar.  While there we drove through the town of Musselburgh, and a bell went off.

I knew that Musselburgh was a storied name in the game's history, the original location for the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (Muirfield), the oldest golf club in the world.  I believed that golf was still played there and suggested we detour to take a look at the links.  However, we were unable to find the links, and as a male of the species I am lawfully enjoined from asking directions.  Now, in a typical Scottish town, you can always find the links.  First, they're going to be down by the water and second, there's always a Golf Road or Links Drive off the town's main square that takes you there.

Why couldn't we find the?  Because the links are completely contained within the horse racing oval, a minor detail that became known to me later.  Now you can see the link (pun intended) to Shack's postcard, though in this case the entire course is within the oval.  Here' more on the history from the club's website:

The earliest documentation of golf being playing on Musselburgh Links is from 1672, which has earned Musselburgh Links the Guinness World Record for being the oldest golf course in the world. However, it has been reputed that Mary, Queen of Scots played on Musselburgh even earlier in 1567. 

Musselburgh Links was originally seven holes, with another added in 1838 and the full nine-holes coming into play in 1870. The first three holes stretched eastwards from the grandstand at the racecourse, the site of the former clubhouse of the Honourable Company. 

To the right is the main traffic route through Musselburgh, onto which the Musselburgh golfers used to slice their shots, then played back to the links using brass-soled clubs. The metal plate on the ‘brassie’ wooden club was invented in Musselburgh in 1885 to deal with such shots.

At the fourth green there still stands Mrs Foreman’s Inn. There used to be a hatch in the wall through which refreshments could be passed to the early golfers. 

The course turns northwest with the next three holes following the coastline and the eighth returning south towards the Home Hole, which is now the present first hole. 

The four and a quarter inch diameter hole became standard during the 19th century, its seemingly random size was just that, it happened to be the width of the implement used to cut the holes at Musselburgh and in 1893 the R & A made the size mandatory.

 I know that's a long excerpt, but you'll no doubt agree that's a lot of golf history (and we'll return to Mrs. Foreman's Inn below).  And after all, what were you doing in 1567?

In conjunction with last year's Open Championship at Muirfield, Shack wrote this typically fine piece on golf in East Lothian, a truly wonderful cluster of great and historic links conveniently located in the Edinburgh suburbs.  It's typically the first place I send people when helping them plan golf trips to Scotland, as the older we get the less time we can bear on the roads.

But more on point, Shack has posted extensively on Musselburgh on his blog, including videos of his time there.  One day he played the nine-holer in the a.m. and stuck around for the afternoon race card, where the turf meets the turf, as he put it:

Here's his videos from that day:

And as for the aforementioned Mrs. Foreman's, it warrants its own video:

Geoff kind of leaves us hanging, no?  Wonder if he ever got that drink as well as how he did on his bump-and-run with the hickories...

One last not from The Cradle of Golf.  an ancient skull was found on that same fourth hole by greenskeepers, believed to be some 2,500 years old.  Jim Moriarty amusingly provides the details:

In a discovery of nothing less than hickory-shattering significance, the longest suffering bunker

The bunker in question, with Mrs. Foreman's pub in background.

player in the history of golf has been unearthed by greenkeepers on the fourth hole of the world's oldest golf course, the Musselburgh Links. Not unexpectedly, the 2,500-year old skull was found beneath the lip of the bunker which the ancient player, it has been theorized, was unable to clear after what can only be surmised were sufficient attempts to result in extreme agitation and, ultimately, death.

Musselburgh's fourth hole is known as "Mrs. Forman's," so called because drinks were served through the window of a nearby house, thus making it not only golf's first fourth also its first 19th. The comity for which The Old Golf Course's fourth was celebrated made it a favorite place for golfers to linger during a round so it's not terribly surprising evidence of such lingering would continue to, well, linger. While anthropologists at Dundee University were unable to immediately ascertain the cause of death, there is little doubt among historians that it was a case of atypical mortification. While the partial remains from 500 B.C. predate Mrs. Forman's hospitality, in light of current discoveries there is every reason to believe the area surrounding the fourth green served as a traditional clan gathering point for the passing of animal skins filled with meade and the ritual hurling of insults at inept bunker play.

We'll go out with Moriarty's final words:

Old bones are not a rarity at the Musselburgh Links. The second hole of The Old Golf Course, dubbed "The Graves", is thought to be the final resting place of the soldiers who perished in the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. The bodies were supposedly buried on the golf course to discourage the playing of golf a thousand years after it was determined the bunker on the fourth, alone, wasn't going to get the job done.

Archeologists are in hopes further excavation will yield the entire remainder of the fourth holes' Iron Age skeleton. Already found were the phalanges and metacarpals frozen in an overlapping position while, nearby, a crude implement thought to be the tool the unfortunate golfer was attempting to use has also been discovered. While the wooden shaft of the club, quite naturally, has not survived centuries stuck in the ground, the iron head has. Carved into the back of the somewhat larger than normal club were the words, "Modus Eugenius Saracenius."