Kapalua Kibbitzing

My bad for misstating the Kapalua Kick-off in yesterday's post.  I don't remember a Monday finish in prior years, a seemingly curious decision in that the finish will compete for eyeballs with the Ducks and Buckeyes....

Maui Musings - Jason Sobel laments the diminished status of the Tournament of Champions in a GolfChannel.com article, with this strong lede:

Welcome to the 2015 golf year, which shouldn’t be confused with the 2015 season that

has already started, nor compared with the big-bang beginnings of other sporting calendars. Mahalo to the good people of Maui for hosting the annual rainbow-infused, whale-outlined kickoff, but let’s face it: This is really more of a soft launch. 

It wasn't always this way. 

Fifteen years ago this week, the year began with an epic battle against the backdrop of paradise. Millions of jealous snowbound fans huddled under blankets in prime time as two of the game’s superstars parried on their television screens. Tiger Woods eagled the final hole of regulation;Ernie Els matched him. Els birdied the first playoff hole; Woods matched him. Woods rolled in a 40-foot birdie on the second playoff hole, punctuated by his habitual massive fist pump; Els, finally, couldn't match him.

The on-air GC crew made a good point yesterday in revisiting the epic 2000 finish, that Ernie and Tiger had very comparable records at that point.  Tiger had just held off the young, scissor-kicking Sergio at Medinah for his second major, and Ernie had his two U.S. Opens, and this was perhaps the kick-off for Tiger's epic 2000-2002 run of dominance.  But that was all in the future as this unfolded...

But here's Jason's real point:

Back in 2000, there were 12 major champions owning 30 titles in the field; this week, there are just four, representing a grand total of six majors. 

It’s not just that the game’s best players are choosing to start their years elsewhere. It also serves as an exemplification of the state of today’s game.

This week’s field owns a world ranking average of more than 15 spots higher than that of 15 years ago, just one simple statistical example of the parity which has enveloped the game.

No doubt this is partially caused by parity, though it's also a function of changes to the Tour schedule, as well as the simple fact that quite a few recent majors have been won by non-Americans who have other scheduling complications.

But if you're snowbound (in NY, alas no one is snowbound in Utah) there's far worse ways to spend 22:43 of your life than watching this:

Jim McCabe files this amusing description of the Kapalua Plantation Course, a wild ride to be sure:

“I thought it was ridiculous that we played golf on a piece of land like this. It was just absurd. I thought it was so extreme,” Ogilvy said. “I thought the course was cool, but not to have a scorecard in your hand. Nobody plays really well their first time, I don’t think. It’s pretty extreme. Five-irons from 140 going that way, and wedges from 200 going that way, it takes a bit of getting used to. It took a while for me on this course, yes.”

Extreme? Oh, let us count the ways. 

• How about a par 4 (No. 17, at 549 yards) being longer than both par 5s on the front (the fifth, 532; the ninth, 521).

This is a great companion piece to the Ogilvy item I linked to a couple of days ago.  Do give it a read if you're going to watch the golf, as it will help you appreciate what you're seeing.  This is a wonderful antidote to the mind-numbing sameness of  the Tour's venues, I just wish that we had more of them.

His Tigerness - Some follow-up to yesterday's story of Tiger playing the Phoenix event... Shack helpfully posts this transcript of Notah Begay's comments on Golf Channel:

"It would add an element of fun," said Begay, who noted that the last year was anything

but that for Woods. 

"Dealing with injury, and all the scrutiny, and the poor play really have taken a toll," he said about Woods’ bad back that required surgery, forced a lengthy hiatus, and contributed to the former world No. 1’s worst season as a professional. 

Begay would recommend the Phoenix event to his friend, who would enjoy the "super-friendly," if "boisterous" fans. "It’s a fun place to play and it’s a place where Tiger could really thrive and figure out where his mechanics are." 

The WMPO makes sense from a golf perspective as well, what with the "minimal wind [and] wonderful practice facilities," added Begay, who, purposefully or with a slip of the tongue, made it sound as if Woods’ appearance were a fait accompli. 

"He’s going to be able to get some wonderful work in as far as his mechanics and get some game reps, which is all the more important," he said.

Well, it might be good fun....more on that in a sec.  I think Notah makes some good points about the lack of wind and the practice facility, though the purist in me is always troubled by GC's use of Notah to cover Tiger.  I get that this is golf and the fate of the free world doesn't hang in the balance, but he's Tiger's buddy and that ought to somehow be disclosed.

As for Tiger and Phoenix, everyone remembers the ace on No. 16 (though it's strange to see the hole sans enclosed grandstands) and that great moment in golf rules interpretations when a boulder the size of Manhattan was deemed to be a losse impediment and moved by twelve of Tiger's closest friends.

John Strege thinks it's a match made in heaven:

Imagine the reaction at the most boisterous hole in golf were Tiger Woods to emerge from the tunnel and into the stadium at the TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open later this month.

“I think it could be the sporting event of the year,” tournament chairman Danny Calihan said, “to watch Tiger come back to the place where there were just people standing around the tee when he made a hole-in-one there [in 1997] and now it’s a full stadium.”

Speaking of which, how about this time-lapse video of those aforementioned changes to No. 16:

But, just a reminder that there was perhaps a reason why Phoenix disappeared from Tiger''s dance card.

As Golf.com notes, however, Woods has not returned to the event since an unruly and presumably over-served fan threw an orange onto the green as Woods was putting in 2001.

Hey, at least it wasn't a watermelon.

Your Weekly Quota of Cheesecake - Golf's most eligible bachelor has been romantically linked with a lass named Erica Stoll.  Erica and Rors know each other since September 2012, as this backgrounder will fill in:

Erica Stoll was the PGA employee who famously saved Rory from missing his singles

Erica presumably holding Rory's....errr...Wannamaker.

match tee time during the 2012 Ryder Cup, and according to multiple newspapers in Ireland, the two have been spotted together during New Year's celebrations. Interesting considering how, a year earlier, Rory proposed to Caroline Woznicaki on New Year's Eve 2013.

A source close to McIlroy told the Sunday Independent that the story couldn't have had a better ending - as the pair are now quietly dating.

Keegan Bradley, whom Rory beat in singles that fateful day, could not be reached to comment on whether the ending was, in fact, happy.

In other golf babeage, Golf.com devotes one of their ubiquitous photo galleries to Golf's Most Beautiful Women of 2015.  You're welcome, Maggot.

All Things ESPN - I'm not a college sports fan, something to do with the broadcast blackout of my Alma Mater's, the Tufts Jumbos, games.  Accordingly, I rarely have cause to watch anything on ESPN and am mostly unfamiliar with their current generation of personnel.

For that reason I didn't note the tragic passing of Stuart Scott, which elicited a notable outpouring of affection and grief in the sports world.  To remedy my shortcomings, Alex Myers helpfully posts this old Sports Center promo featuring Scott with a professional golfer I've seen somewhere before:

Alex adds this simple but apt tribute:

In the ad, Woods is seen with the huge following, but as we've learned the past few days, Scott had plenty of fans of his own.

In other ESPN news, I just love this elegantly simple Masters promo:

In case you don't recognize the voice, that would be the defending champion.