Flotsam and Jetsam™ - Pre-Trip Edition

I apologize to my readers for Friday's unplanned radio silence, but we'll try to make up for it with a higher than typical level of weekend blogging.  And since there's news from our two major governing bodies, I'll take the precaution of removing all liquids from my work area.

Go West Young Man - In recent years the USGA has largely ignored Horace Greeley's sage advice, but this news broke on Thursday:

Los Angeles Country Club is close to a deal to host the 2023 U.S. Open.

 

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the club's membership has been notified via email of an impending vote about hosting the Open, an event that has not been played in the Los Angeles area since Riviera Country Club held the 1948 playing won by Ben Hogan. In 2017, Riviera co-hosts the U.S. Amateur with Bel-Air CC, while Los Angeles Country Club hosts the 46th Walker Cup. A contract with the USGA has yet to be signed.

The North Course is a wonderful George Thomas-William Bell collaboration, that was recently renovated by the team of Gil Hanse and none other than our man Geoff Shackelford.  In addition to his work on the course, Shack also wrote this highly-regarded book on George Thomas, so it's not for nothingthat I link to him so often, he actually knows stuff.

Here's Shack's brief description of the venue:

If ultimately awarded, this will be the first U.S. Open played in the heart of a major American city. The 7,236-yard North Course features views of the Hollywood Hills and west to the South Bay, yet still exudes a rural sensibility with several holes playing along or over a sandy, sycamore-dotted barranca.

 OK, I'm sold and I've been looking forward to that Walker Cup for a while.  John Strege jumps in with a short piece on some of the more colorful history of LACC:

Los Angeles Country Club has a colorful history that includes its proximity to the Playboy Mansion (adjacent to the 13th green) and Groucho Marx’ failed bid to join, prompting him to famously say, “Why would I want to belong to a club that would have me as a member?”

Never realized Groucho was speaking in specifics, but  no doubt it's a snooty place.

Tatum also had an ally in the club president at the time, Judge Charles Older. His Honor was no obscure judge, incidentally. He was the presiding judge in the trial of serial killer Charles Manson in 1971 and was the man who sentenced Manson to death. 

Eddie Merrins, then the head pro at nearby Bel-Air Country Club, once said that Older wished to bring the Open to LACC “so [the public] could see that the members of the club weren't so bad after all.”

For anyone interested, the full text of the letter to LACC members soliciting their support can be found here. All credit due to Mike Davis for widening the net in finding U.S. Open venues, and fingers crossed that certain clubs (cough- Congressional - cough) might be banished from the rota.  The fact is that you couldn't pick a worse date than June in which to try to set up a golf course to play firm and fast, and LA should work nicely.  They'll also maked their new BFF's at Fox happy by allowing for prime time broadcasts.

Binders Full of Women -  Ballots have been sent to the R&A's  2,500 members and there's at least one curiosity.  But before we get to that, Sam Weinman, provides this backgrounder:

More telling than the questions themselves are the revised conditions for voting. For 260 years the bylaws of the club required members to show up in St. Andrews to cast a ballot. Now it says members can vote remotely. Once requiring two-thirds to change a bylaw, this time it's merely seeking a majority.

Both are reflections of an organization that wants to eliminate any risk of an old-school local faction within the club conspiring to halt progress.

This has  me a tad confused, as it's my understanding that the club's bylaws require in person voting on major issues.  So wouldn't they have to, you know, vote to allow voting by mail?  Want some more perspective?

For all the hand-wringing over Augusta National's former all-male membership -- the host of the Masters finally invited women members in 2012 -- the R&A membership issue carries far more significance. As opposed to Augusta National, where women have long been invited to play and stay, the R&A literally bans women from its clubhouse -- a symbolic indignity, sure, but also one with practical and professional consequences.

In July, Louise Richardson, the principal of the University of St. Andrews, described to the New York Times the disadvantage of not having access to the R&A down the road from her office. Her two immediate predecessors were granted honorary memberships to the club, but Richardson said she was often left to conduct important university business from afar.

OK, there's much to unpack here.  Weinman glosses over another reason that this is far more significant, the R&A is/was the governing body for the game on a worldwide basis, excluding only North America.  The is/was relates to the fact thaa in 2004 the members club was spun off from the body that sets rules and stages the Open Championship, but even Peter Dawson has acknowledged that to be mere cosmetics.

As for Ms. Richardson, it seems a bit of a split verdict.  My source informs me that her comments have set off a bit of a firestorm within the membership, as they have been construed to mean that she would use The Big Room to conduct business.  Quelle horreur, regardless she has been deemed "Unclubbable" by certain members, though Weinman sees her as a shoo-in.

But this is how the motion was put to the members:

Are you in favor of women members? And if so, would you be open to letting 15 women in at once?

That follow-up question seems a tad strange, as a "Yes" vote on the first would not be limiting.  Though perhaps Mr. Dawson wants his members clear on what to expect.  It can't be limited to only one, as Lady Bonallack needs someone with whom to have lunch.  My primary source within the R&A will be attending the Fall Meeting so we hope to have reports from The Big Room in the days leading up to September 18th.

Wow, That Was Close - In other R&A news, Royal Portrush has cleared another hurdle towards hosting the Open Championship.  Brian Keogh files this exhaustive report:

All bar two of the 237 members of Royal Portrush who attended Friday evening's Special General Meeting at the Magherabuoy House Hotel voted yes to accepting the R&A's invitation to rejoin The Open rota and the proposed course changes which will see two new holes built on the Dunluce Links for a potential 2019 staging.

The changes are more extensive than previously detailed, including moving the green back on the Par-5 second fifty to sixty yards, though they will "replicate" the existing green.  Other items that caught my eye:

The eighth and ninth greens, which were not holes designed by Harry Colt, will be changed. The eighth green will become a two-tier green while the (par-five) ninth will become a par-four, as it was in the recent Amateur Championship.

OK, but we're being a tad inconsistent here, as the 17th and 18th ARE Harry Colt holes... not his best, mind you, but the 8th and 9th holes were good enough that the sainted Harry S. left them as is.

The current practice ground as well as the current 17th and 18th holes on the Dunluce and the area right of the first will be used for tentage.

Nothing new here, I've just never heard the word "tentage" (nor, apparently, has Spellcheck).

"Peter Dawson has been very involved and walked the course many times," club captain Simon Rankin said. "He has an opinion on the ground on the decisions that are taken but the course will not look differently to what it does now."

Ummmm...having played Mr. Dawson's 17th green at Birkdale and seen his out-of-bounds tees on the Old, this is not as comforting a thought as you seem to think.  But how about this?

Royal Portrush will retain the current 17th and 18th holes on the Dunluce Links so give members the choice of playing the old Dunluce routing or the new Open course.

 Interesting, no?  Now I was under the impression that the new hole would intrude onto the Valley Course such that they couldn't be played except during the Open Championship.  But if this is the case, I'm hoping that future visits to the Dunluce include twenty holes.

In any event, Unplayable Lies will be making a site visit to Royal Portrush on September 13th and we will scout out these new holes.

Beware the Early Call - Perhaps I jumped the gun in writing off Stephen Gallacher's chances to earn his ticket to Gleneagles.  Gallacher rebounded from his mediocre Thursday round to shoot 65-69, and finds himself currently alone in sixth place.  He's six strokes behind Hennie Otto, and four behind Richie Ramsay in second place.  Still a longshot, but quite doable.... as I complete this post Gallacher has himself within a stroke of second place, so it's very much up in the air.

I suppose the more interesting question is whether Paul McGinley's picks are carved in stone, or whether a high finish would warrant reconsideration of the Scot.  

In other Unplayable Lies bad calls, admittedly a category worthy of a Solzhenitsyn-length tome, Brandt Snedeker missed the cut at the Deutsche Bank, with a putting exhibition worthy of one of Jerry's kids.  With putting as the primary reason to add him to the team, Captain Watson is well-advised to have a five-sided coin available Tuesday morning.  A win by Ryan Palmer could further complicate the plot, though bubble boys Bill Haas and Webb Simpson could also help themselves with a strong finish win.

Good Stuff - We haven't checked in with Justin Leonard lately, because well... why would we?  But set aside the flickering golf career and let's give the entire Leonard family credit for this good work:

His wife and four kids had spent a week in Colorado the last previous two years at Camp Mati, where children with cancer and their families are afforded a brief escape from the emotional, physical and financial strain of coping with cancer. Leonard had been involved in fundraising, though his golf schedule always kept him from going. 

''Last summer my kids came back and said, 'Dad, you've got to go with us,''' he said. 

Leonard couldn't recall his children (ages 4, 8, 9 and 10) wanting him to do anything this badly.

''Other than play Disney, and we don't have that tournament anymore,'' he said with a laugh. 

''No, that was probably the first time. So I said that whatever I need to do, I'll do. There are more important things (than golf). And it was an amazing week.''

Give it a read, as you'll appreciate the entire family.

Say It Ain't So, Ko -  Bad news for my favorite woman golfer in the world:

For years, Lydia Ko has dealt with a cyst on her left wrist. The cyst had grown in recent weeks, causing considerable pain. 

After playing last week in Canada, Ko, already a four-time LPGA winner at age 17, returned home to Florida and visited Dr. Bruce Thomas, the tour's medical director, in his Melbourne office. According to Ko’s IMG agent, Michael Yim, she underwent an MRI and then had the cyst drained. She intends to take a week off to heal before preparing for the year’s final major, the Evian Championship, on Sept. 11-14 in France.

Yim said the cyst resulted from years of diligent practice and that Ko has had it drained before.

Ko's options include continued drainage or, for a longterm solution, surgery. The drawback of surgery is that she would have to take at least two months to heal.

Heal quickly Lydia, we need you out there.

Not a Morning Person? -  I believe that the last time we checked in with Brendon de Jonge it was in conjunction with the fat-boy grouping at the U.S. Open.  Good times, no doubt...  De Jonge was actually in pretty good position to move on the Cherry Hills with a good week, but he started slowly.  And by slowly I of course mean disastrously:

Brendon de Jonge arrived at this week's Deutsche Bank Championship with a good chance of

advancing to the third leg of the FedEx Cup Championship. But by the third hole of the first round at TPC Boston, his 2013-14 PGA Tour season was all but over.

After a 280-yard opening drive in the fairway on No. 10 (his first hole of the day), things went bad quickly for the 34-year-old Zimbabwean. De Jonge found the water with his approach shot and after taking a drop, he took four more shots to finish. 

On the par-3 11th, he found a greenside bunker. His first shot from the sand didn't get out. His second went well over the green. Three shots later, he had recorded a disastrous second straight triple bogey to start his round. "Triple doubles" are good in basketball. "Double triples" in golf? Not so good.

Say Bye-Bye, Brendon.  Thanks for playing...

A Team Player - I'm not sure about you, Dear Reader, but I have found Michael Jordan's ubiquitous presence at recent Ryder Cups to be off-putting.  He doesn't belong there and it's unclear what purpose is served.

Per Shackelford, the NBC/Golf Channel series The Road to the Ryder Cup will reveal that Jordan inappropriately and unsuccessfully attempted to heckle and/or physically intimidate Ian Poulter at the 2012 event at Medinah.  Shack has the trailer for the series embedded in the linked post, but Mr. Jordan should be nowhere near any future Cup venue.  Sorry Mikey, it's a game for gentlemen....

A Note to Readers - As I may have mentioned once or a thousand times, the bride and I are Ireland-bound on Tuesday.  I'll attempt to keep posting between now and then, especially as we'll have the conclusion of the Deutsche Bank and Ryder Cup Captains' picks.  But at some point clothes need to be shoveled into a suitcase and trip prep might cut into blogging.

I will be lugging the laptop and intend to blog the trip, so please do stay tuned.  I'll also be blogging our matches, though given the bride's recent strong play I'm quite pessimistic about my chances to keep things competitive.  For a backgrounder on our marital cage matches, read this.  Candidly, I had forgotten the Attila the Hon quip, which I may have cause to trot out in future posts...

On The Road Again

This week has been a great one for golf, as I've had the chance to play two new-to-me venues each of notable distinction.  Monday was the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association August meeting at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, CT.

Tamarack is a 1929 design of Charles Banks, the protegee and associate of Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor.  Banks came to prominence after the untimely death of Raynor in 1926, he finished ten courses in progress and later completed some thirty original designs of his own.  But he continued the practice of utilizing the Macdonald template holes, and a cursory review of the Tamarack scorecard reads like a walk down a familiar country lane, with the expected Eden, Redan, Long, Short, Cape and even a Biarritz.

Banks was nicknamed Steam Shovel Charlie, for his practice of bringing in the eponymous equipment to move earth.  You'll see that in photos of Tamarack, though I've always assumed that practice was a reflection of the greater availability of such equipment after Raynor's death.

One great aspect of the MGWA events is that they're about more than just the actual golf, but always include

Brian Silva

informative presentations from the host club and others.  In this case golf course architect Brian Silva, who is overseeing the course restoration for Tamarack, made an informal presentation on the work completed and under consideration.  I had played Silva's Cape Cod National a few years ago, and enjoyed it greatly.  I can assure you that not a soul nodded off during his presentation, which was little more than an impassioned stemwinder on the greatness of Macdonald, Raynor and Banks.  As far as your humble blogger is concerned, he was preaching to the converted...

The course did not disappoint in the slightest, as you'd be hard pressed to identify a substandard hole.  Tamarack provided a wonderful CD of images of the golf course, but the files are unfortunately too large to utilize here.  So you'll be forced to look at my own photos. 

The 12th green - Biarritz.

A proper Biarritz plays with a long iron or hybrid, such that the player can hit a low running shot through the half-pipe in the middle of the green. Greens keepers tend not to like them for many obvious reasons, including the difficulty of mowing, but also because the pin needs to be placed on the back tier.

The 11th hole green complex - Punchbowl.

A fine example of the genre, where some earth was obviously moved to create the effect.  As at Sleepy Hollow, the approach shot is mostly blind, so the player is denied the pleasure of watching his ball on the ground.  

Missing from my photos is one that adequately shows the shear depth of these bunkers.  After all, there's a reason he was dubbed Steam Shovel Charlie... These two photos of partner Bill Baum show the third green, the Eden Hole, and you can get just a flavor of the depth of the bunkers.  Trust me, this is close to as deep as they get and the camera flattens out the perspective.

There's an amusing reason I'm including two seemingly identical pictures, see if you can spot it

 

As those two exposures were being taken in burst mode, the ball actually fell off the tee.  Amazingly enough, Bill still managed to make pretty good contact, though the ball not surprisingly went left.  

I was hoping to visit with Brian Silva after golf, as I struggled to recognize the design principal in many of the template holes, especially the Road Hole.  The holes are never intended to be replicas, as I'm well aware, but I would have loved Brian's thoughts on what he thought Banks saw in the hole.  Another time, perhaps...

Next up was The Stanwich Club for an Eastern Seniors event.  Stanwich is a younger club, dating back only to the 1960's, designed by William Gordon.  While Gordon's name is not especially well known, he had spent the early part of his career working for Donald Ross, Devereux Emmett and Willie Park, Jr.   But Gordon probably came to the club founders' attention for his more recent work with the firm of Toomey & Flynn (that being William Flynn of Shinnecock, Merion and Pine Valley fame).  Gordon had supervised recent renovations at Shinnecock and The Country Club, as well as at Burning Tree also in Greenwich.

It's a beautifully rolling property with a number of lakes and winding streams, just perfect for it's intended use.  The club is of course first rate, and if you've been with us for my reporting on prior outings there's always a detail that conveys to me the quality of the club.  For Round Hill it was the luxuriously plush towels on the ball washers, softer than anything in my hole, whereas at Baltusrol it was the Fuji apples in coolers on the golf course.  Stanwich has something I've never seen before, pictures something in size midway between a rake and a squeegee used to brush the sand from the bunkers off their perfect greens.

Calling these greens perfect is somehow an insult, as at the start of the day a blemish couldn't be found.  They tend to be severely canted from back to front, the imperative of staying under the pin being quickly apparent to the player.  As has been my experience under such circumstances, sometimes it's the putts across the green that are the most difficult to control, as a certain level of hit is needed to get them started on line.

The postcard-beautiful Par-3 thirteenth.

The approach to the Par-5 seventeenth, candy to the eye of a drawer of the ball.

Two venues with sterling reputations that didn't disappoint in the slightest...and with perfect weather both days.  I call that a fine week.

Thursday Threads

An odd mix of items for you today, delayed by a great day of golf at The Stanwich Club.

The PGA Supercut - Quadrophenia Version - And you thought we were done rehashing the PGA?  Oh you sweet, innocent fools...it's a guy named Michael David Murphy that prepares these, and he's quite outdone himself this time, a quad version covering all four of the primary protagonists.

Do give it a look, as it really grabs you, and offers  a handy rebuttal the next time someone says golf is too slow.  For those of you old enough to remember it, the opening announcements reminds me of nothing so much as the start of Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!... or maybe that's just a flashback.  In any event, enjoy:

Ryder Ruminations - Everyone has advice for the Captains, not that they're exactly asking for it.  We'll deal with the Euros first, and please bear in mind that their points race has not yet concluded.  Welshman Jamie Donaldson grabbed a spot on the squad with his win last week at the Czech Masters, and conversation this week will focus on Stephen Gallacher, who can dislodge Graeme McDowell from the last qualification slot with a win or second place this week in Italy.

Since an opening round 72 has the Scot T66, we'll assume that is not to be.  That will leave matters in the hands of Paul McGinley, who will announce his three picks at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday.  An unbylined piece on the European Tour website tees up the issue this way:

“This is the last lap of qualifying for The Ryder Cup and from the World Points angle this

Paul McGinley

tournament could make a contribution,” said the Irishman who is at Circolo Golf Torino this week to also compete himself after a number of weeks on the sidelines nursing a shoulder injury. All eyes will be on Stephen Gallacher, the Scot needing to finish in the top two to force his way past Graeme McDowell into the final qualifying place, but the likes of Joost Luiten and Francesco Molinari will be among those hoping to impress McGinley in this final week as he weighs up his wild card options.

They may be in the field, but the Joost Luiten ship has sailed, and I find Molinari to be only slightly more improbable.  

Alistair Tait says that the conventional wisdom points towards grizzled veterans:

Conventional wisdom says European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley would pick Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald if he had to make his three wild-card picks right now. As weave seen in the past, though, conventional wisdom sometimes flies out the window when it comes to Ryder Cup picks.

But he also gives us the counter-point logic: 

Stephen Gallacher

However, McGinley will be somewhat torn. A part of him will want to reward the commitment shown by Stephen Gallacher, who is 11th on the Ryder Cup table. 

Gallacher can seal his place with a win or second-place finish in this week’s Italian Open. Should he fail in that attempt, then he will have to rely on McGinley for a wild-card choice. 

Gallacher has something else going in his favor. He’s Scottish, and McGinley would love to have at least one home player on the team he takes to the heart of Scotland.

If your curious about that "commitment" referenced in the excerpt above, here' s the issue fleshed-out:

What some commentators might not be taking into consideration is McGinley’s European Tour loyalty. He’s an establishment figure, serving on the European Tour’s tournament committee for many years. He will feel honor-bound to choose a player like Gallacher who’s fully committed to the European Tour. 

There is precedence for selecting Gallacher over a more obvious candidate. It’s only 14 years since Mark James chose Andrew Coltart over Bernhard Langer for the 1999 match. Although it remains one of the oddest choices ever made by a European captain, James picked Coltart partly because he wanted to reward European Tour loyalty. Like McGinley, James was part of the European Tour’s fabric, serving as tournament committee chairman.

My guess is that Poulter is a lock and that Donald is also on the team.  I think it comes down to a choice between Westwood and Gallacher, a pair that would seem comparable except for the fact that Lee Westwood hasn't done much this year.  But then Jason Sobel gave us this:

Outside of the top 100 on the FedEx Cup points list after finishing at The Barclays, Lee

Westwood won’t advance to next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship and beyond.

When asked his imminent schedule, he was either a bit presumptuous or knows something the rest of us don’t. 

“Off until the Ryder Cup,” he said. “After that, I don’t know.”

 Has McGinley been whispering sweet nothings into Lee's ear?  Stay tuned...

We've gone long discussing the Euros, so I'll be brief as regards the Yanks.  I believe that Keegan Bradley and Hunter Mahan will be chosen by Watson, and in this piece Luke Kerr-Dineen is on the same wavelength.  Luke uses his piece to list the qualifications of five players for that last pick, the catch being that he provides them blind.  It's immediately obvious to the reader that they are completely interchangeable as far as metrics are concerned, good players with successful careers but, in the immortal words of Sneedeker, eight-time major champions are ineligible.  So the Captain will pick based upon a metric known only to him, though a good showing in Boston this week will not hurt.

With a gun to my head I'd guess Snedeker, because they have a good relationship and good putters are never a bad idea.  

Advice for Potus - I had my fun with Obama's golf wars, and am inclined to steer clear of that subject for a bit...unless I can't.  Thanks to Shackelford for catching this John Feinstein rant:

But here's a tip to the White House media office. Never, never again let the president be photographed in a golf cart. What is the wussiest item in all of sports? A golf cart — that electric chaise lounge. A movable divan. Could you ever picture Vladimir Putin in a golf cart? You think Angela Merkel poses in a golf cart? In a pig's eye.

I'm unclear as to why John thinks images such as the one above won't put the fear of God into Vlad the Impaler.  But thanks for the rant, John.

Memory Lane -  Golf.com has a slideshow of great pics of Tour players before (some way before) they made it big, and it's got some gems.  I'll skip the pic of the Rotund Rory and Rickie from the 2007 Walker Cup, but see how you like these:

Ernie Els [left] beat Phil Mickelson at the 1984 Junior World Golf Championship at Torrey Pines.

John Daly posted this undated photo with Tiger.  The other two boys are not identified.

Rory (here at age 2) apparently had to wean himself from the belly putter, but fortunately grew into his head.

Rickie could hit long irons from a young age.

Keegan Bradley in 2004, apparently before he mastered the stink-eye.

'Dis and "Dat

Man, it's coming at me fast and furious...I can barely keep up with all the important developments in the golf world.  Admittedly, important is a relative concept...

Upon Further Review - Golf.com has a slideshow of golf quotes, including this little smirk from our Phil:

“Hey, Rory. You mind if we hit up?”

--Phil Mickelson to Rory McIlroy after McIlroy teed off on the 18th hole of The Barclay pro-am Wednesday.

OK, I enjoyed the laugh but I keep thinking about that chaotic finish to the PGA (I know, get a life).  And do

you want to know what I've concluded?  Sorry, I didn't catch that...

I've come to belive that Phil and Rickie screwed up.  Perhaps that's a tad harsh, but I believe they erred and should have not played the 18th hole in the dark.  Let's go to the videotape... as they're waiting on the 18th tee Rory rolls in his birdie putt on No. 17, giving him a two-shot lead.  That means that Phil and Rickie needed eagle on No. 18 to have any chance....

OK class, do you like their chances of making eagle better:

1. In the dark of night, or:
2. In the light of day on freshly-rolled greens.

Now you might argue that that increases Rory's chance of making birdie, and you'd have a good point.  But perhaps sleeping on the lead offsets that a bit, but you'd have to conclude that he ain't making worse than par even playing by flashlight.... so I'd shoot craps (an analogy to which Phil will no doubt relate) and stay alive overnight.

Hashtag Humor - These crazy kids today.... It seems the grounds staff at Ridgewood did more than have a little fun with our Phil, they created one of these newfangled hashtag crazes, #Phil was here.  Want to see some examples of the genre?  I thought so:

Here's one:

Personally, I wish they'd put a little more effort into the Photoshopping, though perhaps that's part of the charm.  This next one is far better on that score and they certainly found a photo with an interesting facial expression, but it's disturbing all the same (and will no doubt accelerate attrition amongst my female readership):

You Got a Problem With That, Shack? - Our Shackelofrd is a Southern California boy, so factor that in as we look at his two posts on his travel plans to The Big Apple.  First up is this rather curious deal between the PGA Tour and Liberty National.  From the press release:

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – At a flag-raising ceremony today overlooking the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty, PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem officially announced Liberty National as host site for The Presidents Cup when it is next staged in the United States, in 2017. The announcement is part of a 25-year partnership between Liberty National and the PGA TOUR, which will bring up to 10 PGA TOUR events to the venue over the course of the agreement.

Ten events, UGH!!!!  Haven't we suffered enough?  As Shack reminds, Liberty National was voted the second worst course on Tour in a recent poll of players (actually in the linked piece it appears to be the worst, edging out Dove Mountain).  Shack posts the entire press release, for which the only conceivable logic being he feels he has too many readers, but this little gem can't be overlooked:

One of the world’s most picturesque golf courses, Liberty National is located along the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J., with striking views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Manhattan skyline. The golf club fittingly opened on July 4, 2006, and is guided by the vision and leadership of former Reebok Founder/Chairman & CEO Paul Fireman, currently chairman of Fireman Capital Partners, and his son Dan Fireman, managing partner of Fireman Capital Partners. Designed by U.S. Open Champion Tom Kite and esteemed golf course mastermind Bob Cupp, Liberty National has been the proud host to the first event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs, The Barclays, in 2009 and 2013.

Esteemed golf course mastermind?  I've heard of grading on a curve, but this is many order of magnitudes beyond that.  The good news for Mr. Cupp is that ten events likely means ten renovation projects...

Geoff comes back to the well to remind us of all the golf heading for the Apple, as per this list:

2016 PGA Championship Baltusrol Lower

2017 Presidents Cup Liberty National
2018 U.S. Open Shinnecock Hills
2019 PGA Championship Bethpage Black
2020 U.S. Open Winged Foot
2022 PGA Championship Trump National Bedminster
2024 Ryder Cup Bethpage Black

That's in addition to the Barclays annual rota of Ridgewood, Plainfield, Liberty National and Ferry Point (and at least one more visit to Bethpage).  But there's also the ladies at Westchester for their new event in conjunction with the PGA of America, as well as a Women's Open at Trump's place in Bedminster in 2017.

Geoff, fuggedaboutit and move on.

Are You Ready for Some Football? - Playoff fever, catch it!  Obviously the playoffs provide a rousing coda to the season, and become a can't-miss event.  Except, you know, for the fact that guys skip them when it suites their purpose... Earlier we discussed a few Euros taking this week off so, in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I'm pleased to report that Rory expects to play in the BMW next week at Cherry Hills.  

However, it's his reasoning that's the story here:

When discussing his upcoming schedule, McIlroy said he's "90 percent" to play in the BMW Championship, the third leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs that's being held this year at Cherry Hills CC. Part of his motivation for being in Denver? The Broncos.

"One of the reasons why I want to go to Denver, as well, is the Broncos play the Colts on Sunday night," a smiling McIlroy said after seeing his three-tournament winning streak come to an end at the Barclays. "So I want to go to that first game of the season."

Let's hope they finish on time, so Rory can get to Peyton's Place in time for kickoff.  Me, I just want to see the driving distances at a mile of altitude...

Hat Tricks - The NBC guys had a presser in anticipation of resuming their broadcast duties.  Johnny had some choice comments regarding Tiger's lost "explosiveness," which seems to be his word of the day.  Chamblee also piled on, so he's not getting back on Tiger's Christmas card list any time soon.  But all of that isn't important right now, as Alex Myers performed a great public service by exhuming this old Johnny Miller photo with quite the NBC peacock on his head:

You know this one is going into the permanent archive to be trotted out from time to time.  Johnny, what were you thinking?

David Being David - We link to David Owen more than anybody save Shackelford, and for good reason.  He's actually two separate writers, let's call him Dr. David and Mr. Owen.  Dr. David writes the definitive history of Augusta National and the Masters and long New Yorker pieces on Askernish and the yips.

But today we have Mr. Owen in the building, the guy that covers the Muny beat for Golf Digest and blogs on ridiculous playoffs and barbecues at his home course.  Today it's how to use a golf cart cupholder as an amplifier or some such nonsense.  And, of course, it turns out that the human skull can perform the same function and provides the justification for this picture of the obviously self-conscious David:

Give it a look-see, as we like like sending hits David's way.

News and Notes

With a hectic schedule much as slipped through the cracks... let's see if we can get you caught up on all the strange doings of the last few days.

The Revolution Will Come with Statistics - We've covered the work of statistical guru Mark Broadie in a series of posts.  Broadie, you'll recall, developed the Strokes Gained-Putting statistic now employed by the Tour, and we've got a new one for you:

PGA Tour officials confirmed this week it will launch the new strokes gained/tee to green statistic on Monday following the Barclays, adding to their already growing repertoire of online

metrics. 

Strokes gained/tee to green will sit alongside the tour's current stats like greens in regulation and fairways hit, and like strokes gained/putting, the metric was developed in conjunction with Columbia University professor Mark Broadie. The tour has been gathering this data since 2008 through its ShotLink system, and will publish the statistic starting from that year on its website.

"This is the next step of our evolution," Steve Evans, the tour's head of Information Systems and overseer of the ShotLink system, which is underpinned by CDW, said. "But we're trying to create new performance metrics that are more telling than some of the current statistics."

Initially this metric will be a simple calculation of the player's actual scores plus/minus Strokes Gained-Putting, but the value will increase dramatically when it's expanded to separate each aspect of the tee-to-green game.   Any guesses who will lead this category?  Here are the results from the start of the season through the Bridgestone:

Rank	Player	Average
1	Sergio Garcia	2.160
2	Rory McIlroy	1.936
3	Jim Furyk	1.639
4	Hideki Matsuyama	1.622
5	Bubba Watson	1.511
6	Justin Rose	1.465
7	Graham DeLaet	1.267
8	Charl Schwartzel	1.263
9	Ryan Moore	1.239
10	Matt Kuchar	1.223

That is per 18 holes, so Sergio is +/- nine shots better than the field every week tee to green.  Tell me again how good his putting has become.... Furyk suprises me, given how short a hitter he is, but otherwise it's guys known for being able to golf their balls.

One is the Loneliest Number - No comment from Sean, but Butch and Hank are in agreement as to who should be Tiger's next swing coach.  The choice may surprise you, in that both believe he doesn't need one.  Rex Hoggard had this from Butch yesterday:

“No I would not and he’s not going to call and ask,” Harmon said. “I don’t think he needs a swing coach. If I were advising Tiger I’d tell him, ‘You’re the greatest player that ever lived, just go to the range and hit shots.’”

Then Hank had this to say on Morning Drive:

“He certainly knows enough,” Haney said Tuesday on “Morning Drive". “I think he’d probably

be better off just going and doing it himself. He’s the one that he’ll listen to the most. He’s the one that he’s always listened to the most.” 

Though the former world No. 1 has all the tools to go it alone – access to TrackMan, an understanding of video technology and the swing, etc. – Haney said doing so could potentially pose an issue, because of Woods’ tendency to “get off on tangents and work on things that aren’t really part of the plan.”

“That’s the biggest challenge that Tiger would face in helping himself,” Haney said. “He has trouble staying on point and staying on a plan. ... It’s making a plan and staying on point, that is where a coach really can help, if he can do that.”

That makes it unanimous, no?  As I noted in my prior post, I've always been a bit surprised by his over-reliance on Butch/Hank/Sean, especially as they do you no good inside the ropes.  

How Are Those Playoffs Going? - You gotta be in it to win it, right?  Errr not so fast, as it turns out.  While the Deutsche Bank is supposed to have a field of 100 players, turns out not everyone is coming to the party:

The Deutsche Bank Championship now has a smaller field than the Masters.

OK I wouldn't have used that lede, since the Masters field includes amateurs and former champions well past their sell-by date.  But still...

Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia are getting some rest during a hectic month that ends with the Ryder Cup. Graeme McDowell withdrew because his wife gave birth to a girl on Monday, and Paul Casey withdrew because his wife is due with their first child next Monday. 

Jason Dufner withdrew with a neck injury. Dustin Johnson is on a "voluntary leave" for "personal challenges."

First of all Commissioner Ratched, I don't notice any NB teams deciding to give the second round of their playoffs a miss.  So the whole thing is way lame...

But of greater importance, anyone pick up on the fact that the guys missing it for convenience (i.e., not a baby or injury or nose problem), are Euro Ryder Cuip stalwarts.  They would rather forego one of the weekly money grabs to ensure they're not burned out come late September.  Meanwhile Captain Tom couldn't even get one of our guys to take a day off to go see the course at Gleneagles.  Any care to guess which team will be better prepared?

Phil Being Phil - Thank God this wasn't broadcast by CBS over the weekend, otherwise we might have been treated to Sir Nick's further movie reviews:

Phil Mickelson felt like a betting man on Saturday as he stood left of the 18th tee at Ridgewood C.C. at The Barclays. Knowing he wasn’t going to make the third-round secondary cut and facing a second shot from deep rough, Mickelson decided to make the home hole interesting by making a side bet with a fan in his gallery. 

The bet? Mickelson had to get up and down from the rough for birdie or pay up. 

“Just $20. I gave him 4-to-1 odds,” Mickelson said after the round. “I would have made $5 if I made birdie. A par was a push; bogey, I lost; birdie, I would have won.”

Unfortunately this will have him in Dutch with the aforementioned Nurse Ratched.  The reader will understand that I hate these kind of stories because it forces me to act like an adult.  But while it's obviously good fun and it's likely that the loss won't dent Phil's lifestyle, you really can't have this going on.  I know, it gives me chest pains to have to sound like a scold, but was Phil gonna take the fiver if he made birdie?

On a stream of consciousness basis, in the old days Sam Snead reportedly paid all his gambling losses by check, secure in the knowledge that the vast majority of said checks would end up behind glass in the lucky stiff's living room.

Trick Shot Central - Kudos to Shackelford for posting this trick shot from Clarkie Carroll after ten months of chemo:

Yes, of course we've seen better, but probably never enjoyed it more.  Hope to hear more from Clarkie going forward...

Ulster Updates - We'll soon be heading in that direction, though most of our time will be spent in the Republic of Ireland on this trip.  But of course we want to be current as relates to their favorite sons, and we just happen to have a couple of items.

In the first instance, Pravda's John Koblin checks in on the jilted one and finds her gracious and in good spirits, with this to say about Rors:

“I was like: ‘How can you be so nice?’” Ms. [Serena] Williams said. “She said: ‘I could never hate him. He’s been a big part of my life and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hate him.’ I was really influenced by that.”

And here's the wrap of the piece:

“It’s important in relationships to talk,” she said. “If there’s a problem, you talk about it. That’s normal. Obviously, I didn’t have that chance. At the end of the day, I couldn’t have done anything different. I couldn’t have done anything more. I gave everything I had. And if that’s not enough, that’s fine. I’ll find someone who will.”

Yes she will.  There' really only one note of profound sadness in the whole matter, that I'll have precious few opportunities to run this picture again in the future:

 It's hard out there for a blogger, and we hate moving on from comedy gold.

In other long-running stories, this came over the wire but has generated no comment:

Graeme McDowell is set to leave Horizon Sports Management to manage his own affairs. In contrast to the acrimonious departure of world No 1 Rory McIlroy from Horizon last year, McDowell insists he’s leaving on good terms when his contract ends on December 31. 

The Ulsterman joined Horizon from Chubby Chandler’s ISM in December 2007 and went on to play in three Ryder Cups and win 11 times, including his first major at the 2010 US Open.

Hmmm...I'm a bit surprised that Shack and others haven't been all over this.  Here's more from the piece that will provide background to anyone new to the story:

The news will be seen as a blow to Horizon Sports management, who have lost McIlroy,Michael Hoey and Gareth Maybin in recent years and now manage only Shane Lowry and Ross Fisher. 

But insiders insist that the McDowell has been ruminating his decision “for months” and that while he was unhappy with the way the McIlroy camp has gone about its business, his decision has no direct connection to the High Court battle between the world No 1 and the boutique agency set up by Conor Ridge. 

The Dublin agency has countersued McIlroy for $3 million in unpaid fees and damages after the four-time major winner left them in May last year claiming he signed his contract under “undue influence” when he was just 22 years old and inexperienced. 

Horizon also dispute McIlroy’s claim that he paid more than $6.8 million in fees which his lawyers claim was “many times greater” than the norm.

The gist of Rory's dispute is that he found himself on commercially-inferior terms to his former BFF Graeme, despite promises that they would be treated identically, and that McDowell had an ownership interest in the agency.  It's also a bit of a surprise that this would surface just as Graeme and his wife are welcoming the arrival of their first child.  Stay tuned to this station for further developments. 

It's Not You, It's Me

I do hope that Tiger took personal responsibility for the break-up and that the two can remain friends...

By now you've no doubt heard the news that the fraternity of former Tiger swing coaches has gained a new member, one Sean Foley.  I'm both surprised and not surprised, as we here at Unplayable Lies always stake out a clearly demarcated stance on the issues of the day.  But enough about me...

The announcement was made by Tiger in a brief note on his website:

Tiger Woods is leaving swing coach Sean Foley after four years and no majors. 

The couple in happier times.

Woods said on his website Monday he will no longer work with Foley, the Canadian whom he hired when his game was at its low point following the upheaval with his marriage.

And he added these gratuitous sentiments:

''I'd like to thank Sean for his help as my coach and for his friendship,'' Woods said. ''Sean is one of the outstanding coaches in golf today, and I know he will continue to be successful with the players working with him.''

 From the dumpee's perspective, at least it happened the week after another of his prized pupils, Hunter Mahan, won.  

Jaimie Diaz has a typically thoughtful piece on the pair in which he highlights the importance of timing:

As science based as his teaching is, Foley soon enough learned that his biggest challenge would 

be fixing not the physical, but the mental. Which was actually a challenge and opportunity he welcomed. Naturally open and gregarious, a self-described searcher who enjoys sharing his own life lessons, Foley had openly looked forward to getting to know Woods well as a person and helping him through what he knew was a difficult period. He saw that dynamic as part and parcel of a successful coach/student partnership. 

"I want to be a teacher who teaches his guys more about life and themselves than just about the game," Foley said. "By helping them become better people, they're going to become better at their sport by having less conflict." 

But based on reliable observers, what Foley had hoped for didn't happen. Though their working relationship never showed any public strain, it remained more clinical than close. It follows that as a result, Woods never dealt with the root of his problems, which are not about technique or injuries, but rather about his wounded psyche and how it has changed his once supreme gift for competition.

Sean comes off well in the affair, making these comments about his now former pupil:

"We both sensed it," Foley said. "I know the world won't want to believe that two people can go in different directions without being upset with each other. It was a wonderful opportunity. I'm very grateful. This is not a sad day."

C'mon Sean, we all saw that Seinfeld episode.  Nobody will believe that the break-up was mutual....  No reason not to be gracious, but I also liked this bit of perspective on their relative importance:

"It's not frustrating," Foley said of the back issues that kept Woods from finding form or being

able to practice. "It's unfortunate. Tiger has been going at it for a long time. He's been playing golf at a high level since he was a kid. There's probably 50 or 60 golfers out there now who have a bulging disk or back problems. We weren't supposed to twist and turn like that for all these years. This is not an acute injury, like the leg injury that happened to Joe Theismann. This has happened over years."

"We showed what we could do together when he was healthy," added Foley, "but it's all credit to Tiger. He is the one who did it, not me. I didn't do anything. It's like Hunter Mahan [winning] yesterday. I've been saying the same thing to him [Foley is Mahan's coach] for five months. He put it together recently and won. If he hadn't won, that doesn't mean I'd say something different to him this week."

Sean will be just fine, he seems to get that it's not all about him and the limits of his ability to control events.  The evaluation of the "Foley Era" leaves us with an insoluble conundrum.... Tiger didn't win a major, so on that all-important metric the era was a failure.  But he also took Tiger from the emotional wreckage of Thanksgiving 2009 to his five-win, Player-of-the-Year season in 2013.  And the fact that Tiger stunk up the joint on the weekends at majors, is that on the teacher or the student?

Even harder to evaluate is Foley in the context of the 2014 train wreck.  From my vantage point, I'd be content to attribute his travails to the back, both pre and post-surgery.  There seems little doubt that he came back too soon after the surgery, and it's awfully hard to practice hard and play well with a bone shard pressed against a nerve.  Of course there are folks such as Brandel Chamblee that believe that the Foley swing caused the back injury, so we'll have that to argue about for the foreseeable future.

Paul Azinger, in blustery buffoon mode, tells us he can cure Tiger in ten minutes:

“There are only three things great players have done the same with their swing, the three

fundamentals,” Azinger said. “That’s physically. There’s a mental side. Of the three physical things, Tiger has lost track of one, and he’s got to fix it. It’s a very easy fix.”

What is it? 

Azinger says he isn't sharing that publicly, but he would tell Tiger Woods.

Yeah, thanks Paul... I'm not holding my breath on Tiger dropping that dime anytime soon.

Zinger does make the point that Tiger has always seemed overly-reliant on swing coaches, with which I agree.  There's also a sense that he's become too mechanical, playing swing instead of golf as they say....

Enough of this funeral dirge, how about we have a little fun with the melodrama... first, Butch Harmon shows us how to be a mensch:

In the moments following the announcement on Monday that Tiger Woods and swing coach Sean Foley had parted ways, Harmon reached out to the Canadian with a simple message.

“Sean’s had great success. He has nothing to hang his head about. I called him and told him that. I told him he worked his tail for this guy,” Harmon said. “Nothing lasts forever.”

And that bit of graciousness reminds of this story from the Diaz piece above:

But two years later they met a messy end, and early in 2004 Harmon approached Woods' new teacher, Hank Haney, to wish him well. 

"Hank, good luck," Harmon said, according to Haney's account in "The Big Miss." "It's a tough team to be on. And it's harder than it looks."

 Butch seems like the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with.

For those of a more analytical bent, Luke Kerr-Dineen posts this gif of Tiger's swing from three different eras:

I'd take any of those swings in a New York minute.

And lastly, thank God as always for the U.K. bookies.    Want some action on where Tiger will turn now?

Here's your racing form from our friends at Paddy Power:

What, no Rachel Uchitel?  That's the best I got, but here's Shackelford's reaction:

Nice to see David Feherty rewarded for his loyalty...

Ouch!  That's gonna leave a mark....

The Butch things is quite curious since I suspect that Butch doesn't need the aggravation.  In fact, as we found out when Butch took on Snedeker, he asks his stable ob players to approve his new students.  So Phil, are you OK if I also work with Tiger?  Wouldn't you love to have the NSA recording of that conversation?