Let's try to catch up on stuff, shall we?
Hearts of Darkness - By way of background, my Park City landlord has made an invaluable contribution to Unplayable Lies by adding Golf Channel to his/my Direct TV service (he wouldn't even let me reimburse him for it) and allowing me to use his DVR during my tenancy. That allowed me to catch the bizarre finish at the rain-delayed Hero World Challenge
Facing a tough chip from off the front of the 18th green at Isleworth Golf and Country Club, Jordan Spieth turned to an official standing close by in the near darkness.“I think I’ll wait,” said Spieth, who marked his ball and waited as playing competitor Zach Johnson putted out for a 1-under 71.
An 80-minute rain delay pushed play into Friday evening at the Hero World Challenge and left the last few groups rushing to finish before daylight ran out. At 11 under, Spieth will resume play at 10:15 Saturday morning with a two-shot lead.
All true, yet it completely misses the strange scene as the last few groups played speed golf in an attempt to finish. The excerpted report completely omits how the rush to finish affected play, most notably three-jacks on the last two holes by the allegedly experienced Zach Johnson.
The scene on 17 green was the most obvious, where Zach Johnson finished out ahead of Jordan Spieth for the sole purpose of running to the 18th tee and putting a ball in the air before the anticipated horn sounded. All well and good I suppose, except that it caused Zach to hurry and thereby hook his three-footer for par, and with the same result on No. 18 the hurry-up offense can legitimately be assigned the blame for costing Zach two shots.
The Golf Channel crew didn't pull any punches in criticizing the players for finishing in the gloaming, though by the time Spieth picked up we were probably an hour past gloaming. It should also be noted that unlike a full-field event, Spieth will resume play at a thoroughly civilized hour, and in fact he was heard to ask the rules official about the timing before making his decision.
Now I was fully prepared to make the case that this reflects their indifference to what is a simple money grab event. The two shots it cost Zach might be unfortunate, but better that than disrupting breakfast with the family, and we won't be holding a rent party for him any time soon.
That makes complete sense to me....that is until we fire up the way back machine and remember that much the same thing happened at the conclusion to the PGA Championship. And that, it seems clear, is more than a money grab, yet the guys couldn't be bothered to allow their private jets to idle overnight... Does anyone remember how close to the water Rory's drive on No. 18 finished?
In other Hero happenings, Tiger shot a two-under 70 that could have been much better had he not chunked a chip on No. 18 leading to a double. I know, you've seen this movie before.... haven't we all?
Shack has an interesting aggregation post on the linkage between long and short games. which I'll mostly let you explore on an unsupervised basis. I know, it's the deep end of the pool, but I trust you all. I'll just grab this quote from the man himself:
“A chip shot is a smaller version (of the swing),” he said. “So this is a different path than I have been using, and it’s showing up. It’s not quite ready yet. Just going to take more time, more practice.”
When Tiger started working with Sean Foley he indicated that his best-in-the-world (arguably) short game had to be changed because he needed the same "Release point" throughout the bag. To which I shrugged my shoulders and asked, why? Shack has the same question, and I think it's pretty clear that even before the 2014 annus horribilis that his chipping and pitching weren't quite the same.
Stay tuned as this will likely be a recurring subject of debate. I'll go out on this from Hank Haney:
“Sure there is some correlation between the long game and the short game but basically it’s a pretty different approach,” Leadbetter said. “As good as a short game as he’s had during his career, why would he ever want to change that? I think he made a big mistake.”
Caddie Highlights - You make the call: Which is the more surprising, Luke Donald shooting 63 in Euro Tour event in South Africa or this:
Luke has taken some grief for his "panic", though getting out of the baboon's path seems like a thoroughly defensible move to me. But whether it's a shank (Henrik Stenson) or malaprop (Jessica Korda) we love to see the players respond with humor, and in that vein we submit for your approval these tweets from the Lukester:
Well played, Luke. Oh, and a nice 63 as well...
Speaking of Baboons... - A heart-warming story for the hopeless romantics out there:
John Daly got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Anna Cladakis on Friday, and was apparently so happy about it that he got some hashtags going.
These crazy kids and their hashtags. I still haven't figured this Twitter thing out, but I'd like to offer one of my own at this moment of happiness: #nomoresponsorsexemptions.
And for those keeping score at home, this will be Long John's fifth marriage so, well, what could go wrong?
Ten More Years of Waste - Management, that is. as sponsor of the Phoenix Tour event. Good news
for all involved, as it's proven to be a great marriage of sponsor, local organizer (the Thunderbirds) and venue. This event has carved out one of the few viable identities on Tour, not for everyone to be sure, but an antidote to the soporific sameness of week-to-week life on Tour.
Surely You Kidd? - No, and please stop calling me Shirley. But we previously brought you news of an unusual "bake-off" over the design contract for Mike Keiser's second course at Sand Valley, and now we have news of a winner:
After Keiser had three submissions, he removed the names from the plans and solicited feedback from several founding members of Sand Valley, which included Mike Davis,executive director of the USGA, and Josh Lesnik, president of Kemper Sports, which manages more than 100 courses and resorts in America, including Bandon Dunes, Streamsong and Chambers Bay.
"What's amazing is that all three architects gravitated to three different parts of the property," says Lesnik, who was also 28 when Keiser named him the original general manager of Bandon Dunes in 1999. "Mike really likes all three routings, and with almost no overlap, chances are, he'll eventually build all three."
But for now, Kidd and Keiser are together again. The prodigal son has come back with lessons learned and an appreciation for the past. Kidd will break ground in the spring, with the plan to open the second course at Sand Valley in summer 2018. (Coore and Crenshaw's course will open in summer 2017.)
That second 'graph contains the best news, that all three routings will likely be built (obviously presuming initial success when the resort opens). Conventional wisdom assumed that Keiser would gravitate back to Doak, with whom he has enjoyed such great acclaim.
Kidd's career after his breakthrough on the original Bandon Dunes course has been quite checkered, successes mixed in with critical failures, one of which is noted here:
Doak, who recently graded Kidd's work at the Castle Course at St. Andrews a "zero," will be busy building a second course at Forest Dunes in Roscommon, Mich. Whitman and his partner, Dave Axland, will most likely be hired by Coore and Crenshaw to help shape the first course at Sand Valley.
It should be noted that Kidd's most recent offering, Gamble Sands in Washinton state has opened to good press, and that Keiser himself is said to have been impressed by it.
One of the amusing stories from Dream Golf, the surprisingly absorbing tale of the building of Bandon Dunes was Keiser's hiring of Kidd. It's long been assumed that he thought he was hiring the well-known father Jimmy Kidd, as opposed to the obscure son that showed up for work. Fortunately, it all worked out.
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