'Dis and "Dat

I feel like the Sisyphus of golf bloggers, no sooner do I get caught up on the backlog of stories than the rock falls to the bottom of the hill.  I know, I'm mixing metaphors as I lean in and put my shoulder to the boulder yet again...

Keep Your Day Job - Did you know that our Phil has a new gig?  Yup, here's the skinny:

Phil Mickelson, PGA Tour star and former NCAA champion, has joined the coaching

Hey, those aren't Sun Devil colors.

staff at Arizona State, Golfweek has learned. Mickelson has been named an interim assistant coach for the Sun Devils, a position that opened in September when assistant coach Joe Prince left the program. 

The connection is Mickelson’s younger brother Tim, currently in his fourth season as Arizona State head coach. Arizona State is ranked No. 29 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings after closing the fall season with three consecutive runner-up finishes.

The key word there is interim, but I'm guessing he'll be a valuable recruiting asset.  Not so much of a guess, 'cause last week there was this notice that he was recruiting 16-year old Ryan Ruffels, an Australian prospect, to ASU.  But, lest you be concerned, there's this:

Mickelson, meanwhile, will still compete on Tour.

Glad we got that confirmed.

These Crazy Kids -  This week's weird golf-related item is this:

At about 3 p.m. on Sunday, two people -- one riding a yellow ATV and the other riding a lime green one -- drove onto the fifth hole of Winged Foot's East Course and began speeding around, according to police.

The vandals went from the fifth all the way up to the green on the sixth hole and caused "considerable damage", according to The Journal News, which first reported the incident. The two holes will be closed for the rest of the season to repair the damage, and local police are hunting for the two individuals involved.

This as most know is our back yard, but why anyone in Mamaroneck would have an ATV is quite the riddle, but how hard could it be to find them?

Channeling Her Inner Elin - Our readers, especially Maggot, like when we run pics of the pretty girls.  There aren't too many prettier than Taylor Swift, and we're always glad when celebrities show an aptitude for our difficult game:

This is the "Ripped-from-the headlines" context:

Such is the case in Taylor Swift's new music video, "Blank Space," which depicts a fairy-tale romance going bad. Very bad. Swift catches her boyfriend texting another girl and she flips out. She cuts and burns his clothes, destroys a painting of him, gives him a poison apple and takes a golf club to his precious vehicle.

Pretty far-fetched premise, don't you think? No details on her yardage and club choice were available.

All Things Keiser - Joe Passov is back with another interesting piece of reporting about Keiser Mike, though he's still running the same photo from Cabot Links.  But this about his Wisconsin project is really quite interesting:

Please, Joe, may we have another photo.

Mike Keiser, the Bandon Dunes domo, says that the architect of the second course at his new Sand Valley project in Wisconsin will come down to a competition. 

Speaking exclusively to Golf.com, Keiser explained that routings have been submitted by Tom Doak, David McLay Kidd and the team of Rod Whitman/Dave Axland. Following an evaluation of all three, a winner will emerge from the bake-off. 

“We’re considering all three entries equally,” Keiser said. “On November 15, I’m going to walk the routings, along with a group of advisors. After we’re done, we’re going to blind rate them. We’ll know more after the weekend.”

I do love the bake-off analogy, but it really quite the interesting concept, though if I were Tom Doak I might be a tad miffed.  I guess doing two widely acclaimed courses for the man warrants little more than a spot in the semi-finals, and Coore-Crenshaw got the first course without such a test.  But life isn't fair and he's about the only guy building new courses, so one might as well enjoy the the passage through his hoops.

In Praise of Caddying - Feel free to dismiss this as a "Do as I say, not as I do" piece of advice, but I've always felt that caddying was about the best temporary job a kid could have.  Turns out that some prominent folks agree with me:

Before Mike Keiser began building monuments to the ancient game, he would ride his

bicycle as a youngster to East Aurora Country Club, south of Buffalo, N.Y., and caddie for the female club champion. Before Peter Jacobsen and Lee Trevino became champions on the PGA Tour, they got their start as caddies. So did Jacob Mosley, a Michigan State junior and one of 870 students enrolled at 19 universities on an Evans Scholarship. 

At the Western Golf Association's 4th annual Green Coat Gala on Nov. 7, these four men shared their individual stories of how caddying helped shape their future.

Kesier shared this amusing recollection:

Keiser, who was inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame, recalled the life lessons he learned on the fairways, such as to be careful what you wish for. Keiser campaigned hard to caddie for Buster Ramsey, the first head coach of the Buffalo Bills, who weighed as much as one of today's defensive lineman. "I got to meet this massive man with an even more massive bag, at least 45 pounds. I weighed 105 pounds. It was the worst marriage of young caddie and bag ever," Keiser said. "I learned another life lesson: The bigger the man, the bigger the bag, the smaller the tip."

 Not only does caddying provide better compensation and more valuable life skills to a youngster, but it also helps create new golfers.

While I was Sleeping - Perhaps it's just as well that the few of us that saw that wild finish from Shanghai saw it on tape delay, as it wasn't quick, as per Shack's take:

Reduced field sizes are always declared the only cure for PGA Tour slow play, which, according to Daniel Hicks of APF, hit a new low for Saturday's third round of the WGC-HSBC Champions when the 76-player field featuring a sizeable portion of the world top 100 golfers, took 5 1/2 hours to play. 

There were complicating factors: high, wet rough, split tee threesomes and reachable fours and fives for everyone because the ball goes too far. Still, just 76 players. 76! And they aren't looking for lost balls. 

The leader at the time, Graeme McDowell, called the situation "ridiculous."

Quite ridiculous, but the decision has been made to give the appearance of being concerned without, you know, actually doing anything.  You know you've landed in an alternative universe when Bubba is the one making sense:

"You have to penalize people," he told reporters after the first three rounds at the Phoenix Open earlier this year took well in excess of five hours. 

"Give them a stroke (penalty). It could cause you to win or lose. I think strokes is the only way to do it."

Again, his presumption is that they want to do something about it, for which I see zero evidence.

Golf for the Disabled -  Golf Digest Editor Jerry Tarde has been running a series of interviews with "Golfers Who Give Back," and in his latest catches up with George W. Bush (he's speaking about Chad Pfeiffer, winner of the Warrior Open golf tournament):

GWB: He's a really good player. It's remarkable. One of the most fun things I did was at

the Presidents Cup. Tim Finchem asked me to come to the cup. Or maybe I invitedmyself, I'm not sure. 

Anyway, I went. And I asked him if I could bring the winner of the Warrior Open. And he said sure. So Pfeiffer and I fly up to Columbus, Ohio. And at the opening ceremony, there are two captains, the commissioner, myself and Pfeiffer introduced to the crowd as a winner of the Warrior Open. And it was just awesome. I mean awesome to see this kid, you know.

As usual, W. is a complete gentleman as relates to his successor, and has this to say about the issue of POTUS playing our game:

And I chose not to play because during my presidency after a period of time, a short period of time. I chose not to play because my view was I could find other ways to be by myself, like mountain biking. And I didn't want to send a signal to mothers whose sons were in combat that while they were sacrificing, I was on the golf course. And as much as I missed it, I didn't view it as a sacrifice at all to give up golf. And the reason you have to do that when you are president, or at least I did, is because [the media is] on the first tee and the 18th green. And there's no way you escape the press, and I didn't want to try. And so I chose not to do it. But I agree with the sense that, as the president, you're pretty much in a bubble. And golf is a good way to get out of the bubble. And as I said, in my case, it was mountain biking. And our presidents have used golf, our current president uses golf, Bill Clinton used golf, Eisenhower used golf, Dad used golf to a certain extent, but he also loved to fish. So there are multiple ways to escape. It's important to clear your head as best as you can. So Eisenhower's advice is good advice.

I've always been critical of those who criticize vacations and diversions enjoyed by our Presidents, as the bubble W. speaks of is a significant factor.  I always figure that the time the current holder of that title spends on the golf course is time in which the public is less at risk, though those in the other aisle clearly do not play by the same set of rules.

And perhaps you've heard, there's another public figure that's gotten into a bit of hot water for playing golf... this video will explain:   

 

Don't we love these social media stories?  You have to love the logic of posting the golf video, the utter clueless folly of thinking that this is something people might want to see.  He later posted these comments:

This may be hard for people to understand unless you’ve played NBA basketball, but there is an incredible difference between this game and swinging a golf club, hiking, even hitting a tennis ball or playing basketball at the park. Fortunately those other activities aren’t debilitating, but playing an NBA game usually puts me out a couple of weeks. Once you’re asked to accelerate and decelerate with Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving it is a completely different demand.

And I'm sure that unhappy Lakers fans (sorry for repeating myself) want t=you to tell them all the things they're too stupid to understand.  But you've been ruled out for the season for a recurring back injury, so I'm guessing that golf isn't actually the best thing for your back, and that perhaps you should be, I don't know, resting?

But by all means drop POTUS a note, as he might have an opening in his game.

POTUS Gets One Right - Not a fan, as you've no doubt guessed, but man enough to ackowledge a good call:

Charlie Sifford, who in 1961 became the first African American to earn a PGA Tour card, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the nation. 

Sifford, 92, started his career as a caddy and went on to win six National Negro Opens. Forbidden from playing in most professional tournaments because of the color of his skin, Sifford faced enormous harassment and received death threats as he helped desegregate the Professional Golfers' Association. 

The PGA of America removed its "Caucasian-only" clause in 1961.

That had to be a truly difficult road, and I'me very happy to have him so honored.  Tiger tweeted this reaction:

"You're the grandpa I never had. Your past sacrifices allow me to play golf today. I'm so happy for you Charlie."

Our game has an unfortunate past in this regard, like much of society.  There's no reason that we need to be particularly sensitive on that subject, but we should also take opportunities like this to celebrate pioneers that pushed and sacrificed for such overdue changes.