Weekend Wrap

That was a decent game last night, no?  But of course we have far more weighty matters with which to concern ourselves...

His Koepka Runneth Over - It's been apparent foor a while that it was only a matter of time before Brooks Koepka became a household name.  Gary van Sickle leads his game story with an amusing tangent:

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee hosted the NBC Sports Group Super Front

Presentation for bigwigs and their golf and football guests Saturday night at the super-swank Phoenician Hotel. The on-stage celebrity guests included golfers Billy Horschel and Brandt Snedeker. Chamblee, as emcee, asked Horschel for the strangest thing he’d ever seen at the infamous par-3 16th hole. 

“Not seen,” Horschel replied, “heard. I heard that 19 people were arrested last year for having sex under the stands at 16.” 

Chamblee waited for the riotous laughter to die, then asked the room, “Is anyone else concerned about that being an odd number?”

Apparently Brandel hasn't heard that these days families come in all shapes, flavors and configurations....Back to Gary:

Koepka, who played his way onto the American golf scene last summer with a good showing at Pinehurst during the U.S. Open, is a full-fledged star now. He’s 24, he’s big, he smashes drives a mile, he got his first big pro win last year in the Turkish Airlines Open with a closing 63, he was already going to the Masters before this win, he played college golf at Florida State and you can add him to the list of young guns who are replacing the PGA Tour’s middle-aged guns even as you read this.

Koepka and Peter Uhlein, son of Acushnet CEO Wally, are famously BFF's and together chose to use the European Tour as a means to earn PGA Tour playing privileges, avoiding a minimum of a year of indentured servitude on the Web.com Tour.  It seems to have worked well for Brooks, but with that level of talent he wasn't going to be denied the big stage for long.  I'll be interested to see whether other young players follow suit.

In other Phoenix news, remember this name:

What a week for Jon Rahm at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The Arizona State junior carded a 3-under 68 en route to a tie for fifth place at 12-under 272, three strokes behind winner Brooks Koepka. 

“Lifetime experience,” said Rahm, 20, of Barrika, Spain. “It just shows me that I’m a lot better than I thought.” 

Rahm, who received a sponsor exemption into the field, made par on TPC Scottsdale's first eight holes Sunday before a bogey at No. 9 to make the turn in 36. “I was kind of mad,” he said. “On 10, I said, ‘It’s a new day, so really start over again.’ ”

I'm guessing that he'll torment us many times in Ryder Cups to come.  And lastly, there's much that golf can learn from other sports... but contra Rory, Marshawn Lynch is not the appropriate role model:

After knocking-in a birdie putt on the par-3 16th hole, Jason Bohn, who is apparently really excited for the Super Bowl, turned to the crowd and recreated Seattle Seahawks running back's Marshawn Lynch's crotch grab celebration.

Considering Marshawn Lynch got fined for doing it, it's not exactly a stretch to wonder if Jason Bohn will suffer a similar fate. But, in any case, the crowd seemed to like it.

Now maybe I'd feel differently if it were Lumpy... 

Wasn't That A Time - Let's take a quick trip in the wayback machine back to a more innocent time.  Remember when Rory was one of the young guns?  I know, seems like a lifetime ago....But Luke Kerr-Dineen reminds us by posting some fun side-by-side photos of Rory from his first win at Dubai in 2006 (his first Euro Tour win) and yesterday:

The first thing everyone will notice is the hair, but perhaps the more significant change is in the body.

It also reminds me of the first commercial Nike produced after Rory signed his mega-dela, featuring that other Nike player on the range with Rors.  The funniest line was when Tiger asked "Is that your real hair?"

Now, pay attention class, because we're going to make one of our subtle segues from the Ghost of Rory Past to the Ghost of Rory future... specifically this Derek Lawrenson Daily Mail primer on Rory's impending lawsuit with Horizon Management:

How did it come to this?

Everything in the garden was rosy in October 2011 when Rory left Chubby Chandler’s

stable to team up with his mate Graeme McDowell at Horizon. Rory even signed a contract amendment until 2017, with Horizon getting the industry standard of between 15 and 20 per cent for contracts. Given that the five-year Nike deal McIlroy signed in early 2013 was worth at least £16million a year, it’s not hard to see why things began to unravel.

But of course this is the bit that folks are still buzzing over:

Last October, the judge involved was so struck by the implications if all McIlroy’s financial details were made public he sent the two sides to arbitration. Still, no common ground was found. 

And so a case that is expected to last six weeks will begin with McIlroy’s senior counsel outlining the reasons why they believe the original contract he signed with Horizon Sports in 2011 and the subsequent amendment two years ago were ‘unconscionable and an improvident bargain’.

And just to remind you that they're different than the rest of us, there's this:

If the judge rules the contract binding, the damages awarded to Ridge could run into tens of millions of euros — and that’s before any award for costs or punitive damages. But given Rory’s earning power even a £35m hit would be a relative pin-prick.

 As George Carlin famously observed, you can prick your finer, but you better not.....well, you can finish the thought.

The Tiger Beat - Once you've had 'em, you've got 'em." HENRY LONGHURST on the yips

Now, you knew that Hank couldn't stay out of it, right?  Adam Schupak listens to Hank Haney's SiriusXM radio show so we don't have to, though no word on where Adam is with avoiding his big miss.  But I digress...

Count golf instructor Hank Haney among the legions who think Tiger Woods is suffering from the chip yips, and he says there’s no quick fix. 

“When you have the yips, you have issues,” Haney said. “This isn't going away. This isn't just a turn of the switch.”

 But wait, there's more....

Haney cited Woods’s decision to play a bump-and-run shot with a 4-iron on the first hole of the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open as particularly telling. “That told me he’s got a serious issue and he knows it,” Haney said. “This isn’t just going to go away.”

Does Hank have that right?  Because that would be quite damning, wouldn't it?  We all saw him using the putter and that uniquely linksy bump shot, which was a somewhat understandable work-around to get through a round.  But if he shied from hitting the conventional chip on his first hole of the week, then you have to question whether the practice was going as well as has been indicated to us.

 Hank has much to say, none of it of the positive variety.  Of course, there's history there, but he's not expecting much at Torrey.

The Tour Cinfidentialistas took a swing at this one as well, and there was much of interest in their responses.  The best was perhaps Mike Bamberger, though you might assume that's because he confirms many of my thoughts:

He's confused about what he wants to do with these little shots in mechanical terms and

now the confusion has become a mental problem. It is an extraordinary development. But the fact is, for several years now he has not chipped and pitched with anything like the authority he once did, even when he won five times in '13. He might have won one and maybe two Masters post-hydrant if it were not for scoopy chips and balky short putting. Golf's hard. We know it and Tiger knows it, now as never before. It will humiliate you, all of us. This episode could humanize Woods in a way nothing else has. We've seen a hint of that already.

Yeah, but while I enjoyed the Marshawn Lynch reference as much as anyone (and even appropriated it for use here), wowing them at the post-MC presser is gonna get old in a hurry. But this didn't start at Isleworth in December, but it will make this Thursday and Friday very interesting....

Now, the last thing Tiger needs is another complication...and you know how he likes his familiar tracks.  Doug Ferguson fills us in on the issue:

Tiger Woods, coming off an 82 for his worst round as a pro, will be out of the top 50 in the world ranking for the first time in more than three years. 

And if he doesn't turn his game around quickly, he will be ineligible for a World Golf Championship for only the second time in his career.

Here's the deal....He's got Torrey and the Honda to earn enough World Ranking points to get back into the top fifty is he wants to play Doral.   

TV/DVR Alert, Architectural Nerd Edition - It's Architects Week on Golf Channel's Morning Drive, must-see TV for all of us Dweeb-Americans.  This morning featured the always-interesting Tom Weiskopf, although I'll confess that the TPC-Scottsdale victory lap has reached its sell-by date.  

Shack made his usual Monday appearance and once past his Super Bowl whining made some news by opining that neither Pine Valley nor Augusta National deserved to be the top-ranked golf course in the world.  It's the trees, dammit, and his choice for the top spot is The National Golf Links.  As a C.B. Macdonald fanboy of impeccable credentials I can get behind that choice, though I'd really need the opportunity to do an extensive amount of due diligence to be sure.

Shack will make another appearance on Thursday, and other guests include Robert Trent Jones, Jr. tomorrow to discuss Chambers Bay, as well as the usual suspects including Gil Hanse, Tom Doak and David MacLay Kidd.  

Worth tuning in if the subject doesn't bore you.