This And That

Just a quick scan of some headlines as we gear up to watch far too much golf this weekend:

Match Play Mishegoss - A long first day at the Match Play, which Doug Fergus amusingly, though not terribly accurately, refers to as "...the one time of the year golf is like tennis, minus the grunting."  Are we sure that Duf doesn't grunt even just a little?

In any event, here's what went down on Wednesday:

Wednesday: Round Robin scores

BRACKET NO. 1

Rory McIlroy vs. Jason Dufner - McIlroy, 5&4

Billy Horschel vs. Brandt Snedeker - Horschel, 5&4

BRACKET NO. 2

Jordan Spieth vs. Mikko Ilonen - Spieth, 4&2

Lee Westwood vs. Matt Every - Westwood, 1 up

BRACKET NO. 3

Henrik Stenson vs. John Senden - Senden, 19 holes

Bill Haas vs. Brendon Todd - Haas, 3&2

BRACKET NO. 4

Bubba Watson vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez - Watson, 5&4

Louis Oosthuizen vs. Keegan Bradley - Oosthuizen, 6&5

BRACKET NO. 5
.
Jim Furyk vs. George Coetzee - Furyk, 3&2

Martin Kaymer vs. Thongchai Jaidee - Kaymer, 3&1

BRACKET NO. 6

Justin Rose vs. Marc Leishman - Leishman, 3&2
.
Ryan Palmer vs. Anirban Lahiri - Lahiri, 4&2

BRACKET NO. 7
.
Jason Day vs. Charley Hoffman - Hoffman, 4&3

Zach Johnson vs. Branden Grace - Johnson, 2 up

BRACKET NO. 8
.
Dustin Johnson vs. Matt Jones - Johnson, 3&1

Victor Dubuisson vs. Charl Schwartzel - Schwartzel, 5&4

BRACKET NO. 9

Adam Scott vs. Francesco Molinari - Molinari, 5&4
.
Chris Kirk vs. Paul Casey - Casey, 22 holes

BRACKET NO. 10
.
Sergio Garcia vs. Tommy Fleetwood - Garcia, 2 up
.
Jamie Donaldson vs. Bernd Wiesberger - Donaldson, 1 up

BRACKET NO. 11

Jimmy Walker vs. Gary Woodland - Woodland, 19 holes

Ian Poulter vs. Webb Simpson - Simpson, 3&2

BRACKET NO. 12
.
J.B. Holmes vs. Marc Warren - Warren, 2&1

Brooks Koepka vs. Russell Henley - Koepka, 1 up

BRACKET NO. 13

Rickie Fowler vs. Harris English - Fowler, 1 up

Graeme McDowell vs. Shane Lowry - Lowry, 1 up

BRACKET NO. 14

Matt Kuchar vs. Ben Martin - Martin, 1 up

Hunter Mahan vs. Stephen Gallacher - Mahan, 7&6

BRACKET NO. 15

Patrick Reed vs. Andy Sullivan - Reed, 2&1

Ryan Moore vs. Danny Willett - Willett, 3 up

BRACKET NO. 16

Hideki Matsuyama vs. Alexander Levy - Matsuyama, 5&4

Kevin Na vs. Joost Luiten - Luiten, 19 holes

Rex Hoggard summarized it thusly:

SAN FRANCISCO – The new-look WGC-Cadillac Match Play clung to an old modus operandi on Wednesday. 

For all the tinkering – new format, new venue, new sponsor – the basic blueprint was unchanged on Day 1, which is to say the status quo remains irrelevant at the PGA Tour’s only individual match-play outing. 

Put another way, betting chalk at the Match Play can be costly.

I was unfamiliar with that expression, but it appears that betting chalk means to pick the favorite.   But now might be a good time to remind everyone that the sainted Bobby Jones was reluctant to enter events where matches were only eighteen holes, for the very reason that the outcome of each individual match asymptotically approaches a coin toss.  Jones felt that over 36 holes that superior talent would have a sufficient opportunity to prevail...

I should also note that I saw little of it, enjoying one of the best days of the spring with my Met. Golf Writers (the one perk of this gig) homies, including an introduction to Roma's Pizza.

Scanning results I'd note that I'm most surprised by the Kooch and Rose losses (and I'll add Ryan Moore as well), though this is what happened to the former:

I'd also note that those touting players with good match play histories didn't fare well, as that list invariably includes folks like Jason Day, Ian Poulter and the aforementioned Ryan Moore.

Hard to defend against that....So how was the level of urgency?  Rory, who was fortunate to play poorly and win easily against the suddenly-clueless Duf, had this to say:

“I’m not sure the urgency on this Wednesday is right there,” McIlroy said, comparing it to the one-and-done format used in the past. This week, players are guaranteed three matches. “It’s very important to win any match, but obviously your first match. You’re facing a bit of an uphill struggle if you don’t win that one today. … All of a sudden, you’re not in control of your own destiny.”

 For the 32 losers I'd argue that it's more than a bit uphill, but the loss of control is spot-on.  I haven't gone back to look at my picks on a group-by-group basis, but if there's one word that comes to mind from a quick scan of the results, it would have to be "Toast."

Here are your matches for today (times are EDT):

12:50 p.m.: Jim Furyk Vs. Thongchai Jaidee
1:00 p.m.: Martin Kaymer Vs. George Coetzee
1:10 p.m.: J.B. Holmes Vs. Russell Henley
1:20 p.m.: Brooks Koepka Vs. Marc Warren
1:30 p.m.: Bubba Watson Vs. Keegan Bradley
1:40 p.m.: Louis Oosthuizen Vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez
1:50 p.m.: Rickie Fowler Vs. Shane Lowry
2:00 p.m.: Graeme McDowell Vs. Harris English
2:10 p.m.: Dustin Johnson Vs. Charl Schwartzel
2:20 p.m.: Victor Dubuisson Vs. Matt Jones
2:30 p.m.: Adam Scott Vs. Paul Casey
2:40 p.m.: Chris Kirk Vs. Francesco Molinari
2:50 p.m.: Rory McIlroy Vs. Brandt Snedeker
3:00 p.m.: Billy Horschel Vs. Jason Dufner
3:10 p.m.: Hideki Matsuyama Vs. Joost Luiten
3:20 p.m.: Kevin Na Vs. Alexander Levy
3:30 p.m.: Justin Rose Vs. Anirban Lahiri
3:40 p.m.: Ryan Palmer Vs. Marc Leishman
3:50 p.m.: Jimmy Walker Vs. Webb Simpson
4:00 p.m.: Ian Poulter Vs. Gary Woodland
4:10 p.m.: Henrik Stenson Vs. Brendon Todd
4:20 p.m.: Bill Haas Vs. John Senden
4:30 p.m.: Matt Kuchar Vs. Stephen Gallacher
4:40 p.m.: Hunter Mahan Vs. Ben Martin
4:50 p.m.: Jason Day Vs. Branden Grace
5:00 p.m.: Zach Johnson Vs. Charley Hoffman
5:10 p.m.: Sergio Garcia Vs. Bernd Wiesberger
5:20 p.m.: Jamie Donaldson Vs. Tommy Fleetwood
5:30 p.m.: Jordan Spieth Vs. Matt Every
5:40 p.m.: Lee Westwood Vs. Mikko Ilonen
5:50 p.m.: Patrick Reed Vs. Danny Willett
6:00 p.m.: Ryan Moore Vs. Andy Sullivan

This strikes me as the least interesting of the three days of matches, the issue will be whether the intensity picks up.   It better for yesterdays losers, or they'll be playing Friday for nothing.

Haters Are Gonna Hate - The players seem a tad apprehensive about U.S. Open venue Chambers Bay.  The hater-du-jour is Ryan Palmer, who had this to say:

But … "We played it soft. The greens were rolling 9s (on the Stimpmeter). If they get it

rolling 10 and 12, it will be interesting," Palmer said of the massive green complexes on the course. The greens feature large mounds, plenty of bumps and are largely unpredictable and will bring luck and plenty of it into play. "Put a quarter in the machine and go for a ride. 

" … The green complexes are something else. With some of the pin placements, you will see some guys play it 30 yards left, 30 yards right or 30 yards long, and next thing you know you'll have a 2 footer. Or you'll be 75 feet from the pin. … You have to spend so much time on the greens, practice rounds are going to take eight hours. Every green has like five or six greens on it."

I speak the native language of Tour pros, and by "Interesting" he means, "Are they out of their effing minds?"  Not a fan of the "Ribbon tees" either:

"(Davis') idea of tee boxes on down hills, up hills and side hills is ridiculous. That's not golf. I don't care what anybody says," Palmer said. "It will get a lot of bad press from the players. It is a joke. I don't understand it. I just don't know why they would do it."

Gotta agree with Palmer here... Though as Steve DiMeglio makes clear in the linked piece, grumbling about U.S. Open venues has a storied tradition...

Future Venues -  The Boston Globe informs that we're going Back to the Future in terms of U.S. Open venues:

If all sides can reach an agreement, the 2022 US Open will be played at The Country Club in Brookline, the Globe has learned. 

The US Golf Association has accepted The Country Club’s invitation to bring golf’s national championship back to the club’s composite course for the fourth time, and first since 1988. The US Open also was held at The Country Club in 1913 (won by 20-year-old Brookline amateur Francis Ouimet) and 1963. The club hosted the Ryder Cup in 1999, and most recently was the site of the 2013 US Amateur.

I agree with the spirit of this comment from Shack:

This sets the USGA for a striking run of historic classic venues, starting with Oakmont in 2016, Shinnecock Hills in 2018, Pebble Beach in 2019, Winged Foot in 2020, TCC in 2022 and Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.

I took the staging of the 2013 U.S. Amateur at TCC as a clear statement that the Open had moved on from that venue.  If the club can still manage an Open, then how do you pass up the opportunity to celebrate the centenary of Frances Ouimet,  The Greatest Game Ever Played as it were, at that site?  You wanna grow the game?  How about seizing the opportunity to teach a new generation about a poor caddie that took down Vardon and Ray?

RIP, Calvin Pete - Wow, first Charlie Sifford and now Calvin Peete:

Peete, who died Wednesday morning at 71, was as unlikely a champion as golf ever

produced. There was his upbringing; he was one of 19 kids from his father’s two marriages and was a high school dropout who worked in the fields “from sunup to sundown,” People magazine once wrote, “or, as he would say, from ‘can to cain’t.’” He had diamonds implanted in his two front teeth and sold jewelry to migrant farm workers. He did not take up golf until he was 23, and in a sport that preaches left arm straight, his was permanently bent from falling off a tree and breaking it.

Peete was an absurdly straight hitter of the ball using equipment that put way more spin on the ball than today's players can understand.  People will remember him for being the first black player invited to Augusta, but it was in no was in no way an affirmative action invite:

He not only took up golf, he became proficient at it, winning 12 tournaments, including the Players Championship in 1985. Eleven of those victories came from 1982 through 1986, more than any other player, and spent 20 weeks in the top 10 in the World Ranking. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average in 1983. Jack Nicklaus was second. He also played on U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1983 and 1985.

RIP. 

Loose Ends

Just a couple of quick notes before heading out to the first Met. Golf Writers Association event of the year...

Match-Play Mishegoss - Golf Channel comes on at 4:00 and will take us through prime time with the kick-of of pool play.  here's your schedule of matches (all times are EDT):

12:50 p.m.: Justin Rose Vs. Marc Leishman
1:00 p.m.: Ryan Palmer Vs. Anirban Lahiri
1:10 p.m.: Jimmy Walker Vs. Gary Woodland
1:20 p.m.: Ian Poulter Vs. Webb Simpson
1:30 p.m.: Henrik Stenson Vs. John Senden
1:40 p.m.: Bill Haas Vs. Brendon Todd
1:50 p.m.: Matt Kuchar Vs. Ben Martin
2:00 p.m.: Hunter Mahan Vs. Stephen Gallacher
2:10 p.m.: Jason Day Vs. Charley Hoffman
2:20 p.m.: Zach Johnson Vs. Branden Grace
2:30 p.m.: Sergio Garcia Vs. Tommy Fleetwood
2:40 p.m.: Jamie Donaldson Vs. Bernd Wiesberger
2:50 p.m.: Jordan Spieth Vs. Mikko Ilonen
3:00 p.m.: Lee Westwood Vs. Matt Every
3:10 p.m.: Patrick Reed Vs. Andy Sullivan
3:20 p.m.: Ryan Moore Vs. Danny Willett
3:30 p.m.: Jim Furyk Vs. George Coetzee
3:40 p.m.: Martin Kaymer Vs. Thongchai Jaidee
3:50 p.m.: J.B. Holmes Vs. Marc Warren
4:00 p.m.: Brooks Koepka Vs. Russell Henley
4:10 p.m.: Bubba Watson Vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez
4:20 p.m.: Louis Oosthuizen Vs. Keegan Bradley
4:30 p.m.: Rickie Fowler Vs. Harris English
4:40 p.m.: Graeme McDowell Vs. Shane Lowry
4:50 p.m.: Dustin Johnson Vs. Matt Jones
5:00 p.m.: Victor Dubuisson Vs. Charl Schwartzel
5:10 p.m.: Adam Scott Vs. Francesco Molinari
5:20 p.m.: Chris Kirk Vs. Paul Casey
5:30 p.m.: Rory McIlroy Vs. Jason Dufner
5:40 p.m.: Billy Horschel Vs. Brandt Snedeker
5:50 p.m.: Hideki Matsuyama Vs. Alexander Levy
6:00 p.m.: Kevin Na Vs. Joost Luiten

That's a lot of golf, and just the first of three such days, so please pace yourselves... Ya gotta love Bubba v. Miggy, no?  

I'll highly recommend this Sean Martin article on the predecessor event at this week's venue:

The City Championship has been held every year since 1917. Its endurance through the

Second World War is why it can claim to be golf’s oldest consecutively-played championship. Its former competitors range from World Golf Hall of Famers to taxi drivers, NFL quarterbacks to airport baggage handlers.

 And forgive the length of this excerpt, but we like our local flavor:

Archer, the 1969 Masters champion, also is a past City champion. Miller and Tom Watson, a Stanford alum, competed in the tournament, but never won it. Juli Inkster, a seven-time LPGA major champion, won the women’s division twice. 

Frank Mazion, a 6-foot-3 baggage handler at San Francisco International Airport embodied the blue-collar contingent that makes up a large part of The City. He won the City in 1979 and 1983. In addition to scratch flights for men, women and seniors, there are multiple net flights for higher-handicap players. Hundreds of players participate each year.

Mazion befriended John Brodie, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who later played the Champions Tour, after beating him in The City in 1974.

“Mazion looks like could have run interference for Brodie, or better yet, caught a lot of passes during a long National Football League career,” the Milwaukee Journal wrote in 1977, when Mazion was playing the U.S. Amateur Public Links there. “His golf clubs look like toys in his hands.” 

The friendship between Mazion and Brodie, forged at The City, is testament to its diversity. Riveters, roofers and cops are among the tournament’s past champions. Stephen Molinelli’s opponent in the 1993 semifinals was a man nicknamed “Scarecrow.” 

“He played in overalls, a flannel long-sleeve shirt and a straw hat. And he beat me,” said Molinelli, a former Olympic Club champion. “That’s the greatness of The City Championship.”

Broadie was the first athlete from another sport that I remember taking up and excelling at golf.  Steve Elling comes at it from another vantage point, filling in the background on its namesake.  Gotta love the header:

Harding Park: A presidential-caliber course named after a complete golfing lout

Careful there, Steve, I resemble that remark...

At least now we know where Michelle got
her putting stance.

The reasons why Harding was honored as the venerable course’s namesake aren’t nearly as apparent. Even among White House golfers, Harding was a mediocre player, and he ranked even worse as a U.S. president, according to pretty much any historian who ever drew a breath. His tenure was rife with corruption charges, presidential arrogance and a complete disregard for the public sector.

Hmmm...that last bit strikes me as more of a feature than a bug...

The course opened in 1925, two years after the widely scorned Harding – whose short term in office was marked by accusations of larceny and prison terms of a key cabinet member – died in the city’s Palace Hotel. Harding loved the city so much that … he was immediately hauled off by train and buried in Ohio. 

Having a lousy namesake hasn’t hurt the course in the eyes of players. It was designed by Willie Watson, who built the nearby U.S. Open venue Olympic Club, and Harding will host the 2020 PGA Championship. 

Overall, Harding was generally considered the second-worst American president in history, behind U.S. Grant, though some put Harding at the top of the list, given the scandals that engulfed his short term in the White House.

Let's hold that award for now, we've got an extremely strong contender right now.

Alan Shipnuck has a weekly Heroes and Zeros feature, and he awards the event One from Column A and one from Column B:

5. The Match Play draw. Ya know, that was kinda fun, and it’s created some nice pre-

He seems a nice enough lad.

tourney chatter. (Group 1 is a doozy! Shotmakers galore in group 4! Three sleepers in 8! Great matchups in 11!) The only thing that could have made it better was Steve Sands with a dry-erase board.

 And:

1. The Match Play Championship. Better city, better course, better date, a new format ensuring more stars on the weekend, but somehow it’s a lesser tournament, having lost its defining win-or-go-home urgency.

We'll see about that loss of urgency... but we get more actual golf as the trade-off.

Dateline, Chambers Bay -  Lots of chattering from the chattering class about the U.S. Open venue.  First Steve Hennessey posted some photos, including this one from the mouth-watering Shane Bacon:

Then Mike Davis jumped in by commenting about pre-tourney prep:

"I would contend that there is no way a player will have success here at Chambers Bay unless he really studies the golf course and learns it," Davis said Monday during media day for the U.S. Open. "The idea of coming in and playing two practice rounds and just walking it and using your yardage book, that person is done. Will not win the U.S. Open."

As Shack noted, that puts qualifiers at a significant disadvantage.  Davis had these comments in an interview with Luke Kerr-Dineen:

The routing itself is very interesting on this property. If you really study it, on the front nine, twice you climb the hill and you come back down and then on the back nine you traverse your way up the hill and come back down one time. And it really does make for interesting ebb and flow to the test of golf and certainly it adds to the endurance in terms of walking the golf course too.

But there are some neat things. I mean, for instance, one of the things that's unique to this is the architects put in what they refer to it as ribbon tees, these tees that just kind of meander. And it allows us to put tee markers where we want. And in some cases we may end up putting tee markers on slight slopes as opposed to you think, well, you're always going to have teeing markers on very flat areas. But there may be some where we give the players a little downhill slope, a little uphill slope, a side slope. So that's interesting.

WTF!  Interesting is an....ummm...interesting word for it.   Now this will shock you, but Ian Poulter has ignited a Twitterstorm with his reaction to other players' reactions...yeah, I know.  Shack has the relevant quotes here.

I must say, it's profoundly discomforting to be on the same side of any issue as Poults, but tee boxes should be on level ground.  After that it's every man for himself, but you should be guaranteed eighteen level lies with your greens fees.

It's A Growing Field, At Least in Baltimore - In recounting a bizarre story, let mu just note that the last thing in the world that I need is another unpaid position.  Yanno, I got one of those already....

But yesterday afternoon Christopher Ridgers and your humble correspondent formed the Willow Ridge Volunteer Fire Brigade.  Chris is our assistant manager and here's the story... The bride and I went out yesterday afternoon to enjoy the glorious weather, and were directed to the back nine before a high school team took it over.

In teeing off on No. 12 I noticed an acrid smell that seemed like someone firing up a charcoal grill with far too much lighter fluid.  But it just got stronger and as I returned to the cart my bride screamed "Fire" quite loudly and directed my attention to a tree behind and above the 11th green.  I grabbed the cell to call the starter and headed over.

Chris was about to tee off on No. 10 and had the good sense to grab as many water bottles as he could from the cooler there.  We were able to douse the fire with that water, though the club's recent decision to go to smaller bottles seemed regrettable in the moment.  As it was still smoking, Chris pulled a cigarette butt out of it that suspect was the culprit, though for how long it smoldered remains a mystery.  Yesterday was quite blustery, so it's easy to see how it got the required oxygen.

That's another first for your humble correspondent.

Dunluce Dreams - An Update

We've discussed often the plans to bring the Open Championship back to Royal Portrush's famed Dunluce links, which continues to move froward.  The Dunluce is a first-class links with challenge and charm to spare, so my only question is, how soon can you get there?

We've also touched on the fact that the terms and conditions agreed to with the R&A require the construction of two new holes to replace the existing 17th and 18th.  Those two holes are a noticeable letdown after the glories that precede it, though they are not weak holes in the sense of being a lesser challenge.  They are simply built on flat, less-interesting terrain, and thereby far less interesting and appealing to the player.

Brian Keough provides an update on the planning for the two newly-created holes needed to return the Open Championship to Royal Portrush, having downloaded and absorbed the 45.5MB brochure prepared by architects MacKenzie and Ebert.  What's great is that they start at the...errr...start:

Not only are the proposed changes fascinating, the brochure takes us down memory lane to the days when the golf course was almost part of the town itself and the old clubhouse was on Dunluce Street, within 50 yards of the (still existing) railway station. 

PART OF THE OLD LINKS. ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH (TOP LEFT) IS NOW PART OF THE STREETSCAPE OF MODERN PORTRUSH

The issue for purists is the potential desecration of a Harry S. Colt classic.  Here's why they bothered to start at the beginning:

“Two of his original holes - the key 1st & 18th holes - are now lost. They provided a link from the old clubhouse to the current 17th and 18th. The existing 8th and 9th holes did not exist. Although Harry Colt was consulted over the addition of the replacement 8th and 9th holes, they were the conception of the Club’s professional, P.G. Stevenson, and Colt was not involved with the detail of the holes. This shows that Harry Colt was open to adjustments to the course required by changing circumstances.”

Here's the graphic they provide to show the relocation of the clubhouse:

It's that triangle drawn on the left that shows the land given up by the club which included H.S. Colt's original 1st and 18th holes, taking the players out towards the dunes.  This may seem like over-kill, but in any iconic club such as Royal Portrush there's going to be a subset of the members that don't want anybody to touch that which Harry Colt created, and it can be helpful to remind such folk that many changes have already been made.

Here's M&E's description of the two new holes:

If there has been a criticism of the Dunluce Course over the years, it has been that the 17th and 18th holes are slightly weak after such an amazing tour of the dunes over the first 16 holes. 

It is proposed to address this by creating two new holes that would continue to improve Colt’s finest links. The dunescape which they would occupy is second to none, giving rise to two holes which will be more in-keeping with the other 16 holes on the course. 

Firstly, a new par 5 hole would play down into the valley, over the route of the existing 6th hole of the Valley Course and rising gently up to a new green, hugging the enormous dunes to its right. It is proposed that ‘Big Nellie’ from the existing 17th hole is recreated to the right of this new hole. It would fit in very well into the huge dune bank. 

Secondly, a new par 4 hole has the potential to become one of the most dramatic in championship golf and one of the main feature holes of the Dunluce. From a tee position close to the existing 5th tee on the Valley, the golfer would face a demanding drive played across the chasm of the valley between tee and fairway to a green close to the existing 8th green. 

The two holes fit in perfectly between the existing 6th and 7th holes and make up for the considerable loss of length from the removal of the existing 17th and 18th holes. There is a possibility that they could be played between the 13th and 14th holes instead and that is something which can be reviewed as the holes take shape. These holes have the potential to become not only famous but iconic throughout the world of golf.

And here's their visual of how it will look:

I'm as much an insufferable purist as the next guy, but these holes are to be cut into stunning dunes, and replace aesthetically mundane holes.  I know they're aesthetically mundane HARRY S. COLT holes, but all the same....want a sense of where we're going?  The picture below is of the existing thirteenth green:

There's much more room between the green and the water than it appears, and the new 7th hole will go from right to left through that duneline.  And just because we're here, I'd like to note that the barely perceptible false front on the right of this green is the cruelest architectural feature ever devised by the hand of man... Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I had previously read that after construction they were going to allow guests to play existing the existing routing or the Open routing, and I couldn't imagine how that could be practical.  The new holes are to be cut directly into the Valley Course, so it would seem that the second would be out of commission any time the two new holes were played.  M&E have made recommendations as to how to reconfigure the Valley without that land, and they've advised against using the existing Dunluce Nos. 17 and 18.  Accordingly, assuming these plans are in fact executed, that would mean that the club could offer either routing, or 20 holes of play....

The brochure has a wealth of information and additional visuals.  I've not dealt with the changes to individual holes here, though many of those are substantial.  It will serve as a wonderful guide to the Dunluce to those unfamiliar with her charms.

One last note if you're not familiar with Big Nellie noted above by M&E.  Nellie is the rather massive bunker on the right side of the 17th, a long Par-5.  Nellie is the place scorecards go to die, as it's far bigger (perhaps taller is more the issue) even than it appears in the photo below.  

Thing is, it's barely in play, so close to the tees that it takes a truly terrible shot to be in it.  The only professional I've ever heard of finding it was Gary Player in one of the Senior Open Championships played on the Dunluce, and questions remain about his compliance with the rules of golf whilst within its confines.

I have no objection to a faux Big Nellie as part of the new Par-5, I'm just awfully curious as to whether it will be functional or ornamental.  

I'm hopeful that this progress means that 2019 is a reality.  

Match Play Madness

Everything to do with the WGC Match Play event is new and shiny this year, including:

1. A new sponsor;
   
2. A new venue
3. A new format; and
4. A new date.

And I'm probably forgetting something... To dispense with the more temporal aspects, the Tour lost Accenture's sponsorship after last season's event and Cadillac jumped in to help the Commish out for this year only.  Dominoes were scattered in the process, mostly to our benefit...

The Commish was able to blackmail impose upon valued sponsors and organizers to move dates to fit the event in here, and Harding Park provides an acceptable venue for the proceedings.  It's way over-rated as a golf course and there's little in the way of risk-reward holes that scream Match Play, but the strongest argument in its favor is that it's not Dove Mountain.... the importance of that can't be over-emphasized.  And it's unlikely to snow, though it was plenty cold at nearby Lake Merced for the ladies last week... 

The most substantive change is to the format and brackets, which changes the event substantially...the event was previously a basic single-elimination bracket with the players seeded based upon their world rankings.  This created a bit of an upside down tournament, where Wednesday was an all-you-can-eat buffet of epic proportions (32 matches of win-or-go-home intensity), but the event lost intensity and interest as the week progressed.  I was fine with that, but one readily acknowledges the issues this creates for sponsors and players, especially given that 18 holes of match play is as close to a coin flip as you'll get.

The solution is one that I last year called the least-bad proposed fix, though as I see the plan closer up I'm thinking I might have undersold it.  The new format creates sixteen groups of four players, (pods anyone?), that will play round-robin matches Wednesday through Friday, with the winner of the group advancing to Saturday morning's quarter-finals.  

So we've given up one day of 32 matches for....three days of 32 matches.  Boy, that seems like the kind of trade you run rather than walk to make....  Of course it's not quite as simple as that, for it's the do-or-die of it that creates the intensity... But as I think about it, those first two days should still be plenty intense.

To win your group you'll of course need to win a minimum of two of the three matches, and that may not suffice.  Hard to find, but this is how ties will be broken:

• Two-man ties will be broken by the winner of the head-to-head match;
• Three-man ties will be broken by a sudden death playoff.

Forgive me, but I can find no reference to whether matches can be halved or will be played off to a conclusion.  The former would obviously lead to fewer ties...

What are the chances of a player losing on Wednesday and still making the Sweet Sixteen?  Pretty bad I'm thinking... A Day One loser obviously would need to win his next two matches.  Even then, if the guy you lost to splits his nest two matches, you'd need a draw-to-an-inside straight three-way tie to have a chance.  One of the things I may try to revisit over the weekend is to see how many of the thirty-two Wednesday losers have a Saturday tee time...I'm guessing a small number..

The other change they made was to create a blind draw... the top sixteen were seeded, but after that the brackets were filled out with a random draw as follows:

The new format will include 16 four-player groups, with the top 16 players in the World Golf Ranking anchoring each group followed by players picked randomly from one of three pools. Pool No. 1 included players ranked from 17th to 32nd, followed by Nos. 33 to 48 in the second pool and Nos. 49 to 64 in the last pool.

So, without further ado, here are your groups pods:

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4
Rory McIlroy	Jordan Spieth	Henrik Stenson	Bubba Watson
Billy Horschel	Lee Westwood	Bill Haas	Louis Oosthuizen
Brandt Snedeker	Matt Every	Brendon Todd	Keegan Bradley
Jason Dufner	Mikko Ilonen	John Senden	Miguel Angel Jimenez
Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8
Jim Furyk	Justin Rose	Jason Day	Dustin Johnson
Martin Kaymer	Ryan Palmer	Zach Johnson	Victor Dubuisson
Thongchai Jaidee	Anirban Lahiri	Branden Grace	Charl Schwartzel
George Coetzee	Marc Leishman	Charley Hoffman	Matt Jones
Group 9	Group 10	Group 11	Group 12
Adam Scott	Sergio Garcia	Jimmy Walker	J.B. Holmes
Chris Kirk	Jamie Donaldson	Ian Poulter	Brooks Koepka
Paul Casey	Bernd Wiesberger	Webb Simpson	Russell Henley
Francesco Molinari	Tommy Fleetwood	Gary Woodland	Marc Warren
Group 13	Group 14	Group 15	Group 16
Rickie Fowler	Matt Kuchar	Patrick Reed	Hideki Matsuyama
Graeme McDowell	Hunter Mahan	Ryan Moore	Kevin Na
Shane Lowry	Stephen Gallacher	Danny Willett	Joost Luiten
Harris English	Ben Martin	Andy Sullivan	Alexander Levy

Those hoping for a FIFA-like Group of Death will be drawn to Group 1, all the better because Rory and Billy Horschel have some history going back to that Royal County Down Walker Cup.  For public consumption we've been told that that's all been patched up, but still...

I'll pick Group 8 as the most interesting group, though I'm a tad mystified as to how Miggy is even in the field.  I assume you've heard that Phil was a late scratch and Tiger of course has sunk far too low in the world rankings, so enjoy your time with Tommy Fleetwood.

In Forward-Looking Statements (and Rule 144 remains in full effect), a couple of the Loopsters have posted the nine best matches from pool play.  And while they make some very valid points about not writing off Mikko Ilonen vs. Jordan Spieth, that's still a tough sell...at least until the Finn has the future of golf three down with five to play.  Remember, you heard it here first...

But this one we can all agree on:

Group 8: Dustin Johnson vs. Victor Dubuisson

Dig the long ball? Well, these are two of the longest hitters in the world. Dubuisson announced himself to golf fans around the world with his uncanny recovery shots in last year's WGC-Match Play final when he took Jason Day to 23 holes. And he took down another fellow bomber, Bubba Watson, last year. DJ is 2-6 in past WGC-Match Plays, but his game wasn't really suited to the past venue, the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain. He's been solid in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups and has been playing great in 2015, so this should be an interesting match. --S.H.

Hell yeah!  I'd pay money for that one, though I'm not sure that the Mystery Man has shown us much form recently. 

They also include Jimmy Walker v. Ian Poulter, and there I'll beg to differ.  No question that Poults has been a match play stud at times, but he couldn't summon the magic at Gleneagles and did you seem him with the lead at the Honda?  Shankopotamus is in the building... 

Jim McCabe is also riding the Poulter bus, with handicapping advice here:

• Ian Poulter has made it to the semifinals three times, is 1-0 when getting to the final and is 22-12 overall.

• Matt Kuchar’s overall record is 17-4 and includes a championship win.

• Hunter Mahan may not shine in the majors, but he’s 17-7 in the Match Play, and that includes a championship.

• Henrik Stenson has made it to the final twice, and his overall mark of 13-7 includes one championship.

• Defending champion Jason Day boasts a 14-4 overall record.

• Before he fell from WGC status, Paul Casey had proved quite good at this match-play stuff; though he lost two trips to the final, he is 16-9 overall.

It's not that I hold a grudge, but Day was my Masters pick and well...maybe we just need a little time apart.  It's not you, Jason, it's me...

Jim also had this:

The escape from Dove Mountain? Let’s have a party: If Johnson (Dustin) & Johnson (Zach) and Adam Scott are walking around with the biggest smiles this week, there’s good reason. The mountainous greens of the Dove Mountain Golf Club in Marana, Ariz., simply did not agree with any of them. Scott lost in Round 1 five times in seven visits; Zach Johnson did similarly six times in eight starts; and Dustin Johnson was one-and-done five times in six trips. Combined, they were 6-21. Scott and Zach Johnson never made it past the second round, and Dustin Johnson got as far as the third round once.

Fair enough, though only one of those two has shown any form at all... Anyone know what Adam is putting with this week?

Are you liking Rory's chances?  He came out of the Masters on a roll, but be advised that he's got Saturday evening plans:

Rory McIlroy is going the extra mile to ensure he's at ringside for Saturday's mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas. 

The world No 1 will be playing in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship in San Francisco this weekend, but will make the 570 mile trip to the MGM Grand before heading straight back after the fight.

This will mean, if McIlroy is still around after the quarter-finals of the Championship on Saturday, the sports fan will fly by private jet to the fight, before completing the 1,140 mile round-trip in order to get up early for the semis the following morning.

With the semis and finals jammed into Sunday, that's gonna be an early tee time...and he's just daring the Commish to put him in the first group out.  

Dell is running a bracket challenge at PGATour.com here, and Shack has a leaugue withing the Dell challenge here.  Seems like they're missing an opportunity, as they only require picking the group winners.  Why not have folks pick every head-to-head match, which would create separation and allow for daily results.  As it now stands, no interim results are available until late Friday.

I've just completed my bracket and it's....eccentric.  But it should be a fun week, so enjoy.... and no excuse to not watch, as they'll be a ton of prime time coverage.

The Weekend Games

I don't often recount much about our weekend fourball matches, as life is far too short for that...  But this was an unusually interesting weekend at The Ridge, plus Maggot was off in L.A. and he's the one guy that actually will listen to a blow-by-blow account of our matches...so while we've had Maggot-approved content often, typically involving Kate Hudson (don't ask), you should feel free to consider this Maggot-only content.

Saturday we were short-handed, with a three-ball comprising Bruce Berman, Steve Fox and your humble blogger.  Bruce is the best player at our club, a three-time club champion that is not the current holder only because his mother scheduled her birthday party on an unfortunate weekend last year.  Though to be fair, Bruce's handicap has ballooned a full 50% this spring...to a three.

Steve is a five or six that is most on form early in the season, no surprise since he worked all winter with a former assistant pro at our club.  As I do regularly when we're less than a golf minyan, I invited Kent St. Charles, d/b/a Kunta Kente, to join us.  The balls were tossed and Kunta and Bruce were partners, a formidable opposition team for sure...

We started on the back nine, and Steve was fortunately en fuego...  fortunate because I was no better than carry-on baggage.  We won the back side two-up, but here's what amused me to no end... On No. 12 Bruce pushed his drive OB Right (actually, it got even wackier, as Kent's drive took two bounces in bounds and then somehow hopped the stone wall) and on No. 15 he topped his drive and it didn't reach the fairway... why the amusement?  Those are the two holes on the back on which he got a shot, and Bruce NEVER gets shots...  as he noted over lunch, he typically feels that he has to birdie those holes to halve, and the weird circumstances obviously had him off his feed.'

Steve did not play nearly as well on the front, but fortunately my game showed up at that point... I had a one-over 35 on the front, with a silly 3-jack to boot.  And it might have been better had my partner not decided to inform me that I got a shot on the fifth green.... as I was taking the putter back on a 12-foot birdie effort.  Thanks partner...

We closed the bums out on the overall on No. 8, and came to No. 9 all square on the second nine.  Our ninth is an uphill Par-5 and Kent of course bombed his drive and put a hybrid on the front fringe in two.  The mere mortals in the group played the hole cleanly, and had short wedges to an accessible middle pin.  Steve putr his to nine inches, and I followed with a tasty offering that snuck inside his..Bruce's wedge looked great in the air but ended up some 15 feet behind the pin.  Kent made his simple up and down and when Bruce's putt caught the lip and fell, we all realized at the same moment that all four players in the group had birdied the hole.  I think that's a first...

Sunday was a different cast and fortunately quite a bit warmer...  we had five players in our group for Sunday, the worst of all situations.  Warren Light was Interim Fuhrer and exercised his authority by selling me to another group for $24 in beads and trinkets... admittedly a group that he knew I'd relish.  That group included Bruce, as well as Phil Drogin and Mitch Cohen.  Phil is a two-time club champion that hits the ball a bloody mile and Mitch is also a good stick, though he's had some physical issues and is struggling 

Now Mitch thought our time was an hour later and didn't get there until the third hole, so just set up a simple match for the remaining fifteen holes (our 7th hole is closed).  In this case we did the high-and-low handicap thing, so Phil and I took on Bruce and Mitch.  After butchering the first two holes, I found some actual form and won us the third and fourth with pars... we gave them the fifth when neither Phil nor I could convert simple up-and-downs, but that was the only hole where neither of us made a par.  We then started halving holes through the eleventh, with some really good golf being played, though thankfully Bruce was struggling a bit with his short putts.  

We pick up the match on No. 12, where Phil pulled his drive a titch and got and awful left bounce. Now No. 12 is our toughest Par-5 by far, because a little creek fronts the green.  Almost anything that hits short risks kicking back into the water..

 After playing my second I saw that Phil's ball was next to a tree between two roots.  Now he only needed to advance it twenty or thirty yards to have an iron in, but being of sound mind he flinched on the shot, topping it forward maybe ten yards and leaving it in the rough.  Bruce immediately starts goading him that "He's got this" and I see Phil look at his GPS watch so I instinctively check my own, which shows 241 yards to the center.

Phil pulls his three-wood and simply crushes the ball....it's immediately obvious that he has nailed it on the screws and the ball flight is a thing of beauty, with a second-stage booster kicking in when needed... Phil instantly starts walking after it and, with a pronounced smirk on his face, informs that, "I had to take a little off it."  

Back in control of the tee, I hit a solid drive on No. 13 and Phil gives me a "Good shot."  To which I respond, looking towards Bruce and Mitch, that by "good shot" he means that I'll be no more than forty-five yards behind his.  Of course Phil pulverizes one, and despite my saying "Make that fifty" while it's in the air, he ended up with exactly forty-four yard less in.  Yanno, I'm far from the longest guy out there, but I'm not a particularly short-hitter either...

We closed them out in embarrassing fashion, when a horrible pulled putt of mine on No. 15 went in after hitting an aeration hole and somehow picking up some needed speed.  We also grabbed a $10 press on the last three holes mostly courtesy of my partner, but I nailed it down by putting my wedge into No. 18 to six feet.  

It's always fun to attempt to summon your good stuff when out with the stronger players, especially when they're also delightful company.  Lots of laughs, lots of trash talk and lots of good golf involved... and some bad golf as well, but amongst friends.

Weekend Wrap

This weekend was more about golf, playing thereof, than the watching thereof, so let's deal with the weekend that was rather quickly...

This Story Is At Least A year Old - A realy weird thing happened last night, as I found myself talking to Lydia to the effect that this was one she could let get away...As Morgan Pressel hadn't won since the Carter administration.  I know, your humble blogger rooting against Lydia must presage end times, no?

With the tournament finally in her capable hands, Ko rolled in a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to beat Pressel on the second playoff hole and cap off another birthday week in style. She turned 18 on Friday and is only getting better. 

She played the par-5 closing hole at Lake Merced three times and made birdie twice, the first one an 8-foot putt in regulation for a 2-under 70 that set up the playoff. Pressel played it three times and made par. Knowing that Ko was in tight for a likely birdie on the second playoff hole, Pressel missed from 8 feet.

Must have felt surreal to Pressel, who at age 26 has seemingly been out here forever, battling the just-turned-18 Ko and the 17-year old Brooke Henderson...  After missing a putt to join the playoff, Henderson is incongruously off to Monday qualifying for the next event, as she has no LPGA playing status.  Something is amiss there, though she'll hopefully garner enough sponsors exemptions to put together a reasonable schedule.

Here's the account of her near-miss for the game piece linked above:

Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old Canadian, holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 14th to stay close to the lead and she had a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to join the playoff. It missed on the low side and she had to settle for a 74.

She was no doubt feeling more pressure than she previously knew existed, but at one she had gone bogey-bogey-eagle-bogey.  Cards like that make me laugh...

So Lydia wind her first event as an eighteen-year old and wins her first title defense.... she might have a career out there.

 Video highlights here:

The Big Queasy - I had little interest in the events in New Orleans, but it seemed that every time I picked up my iPad ths week there was another announcement from the PGA Tour app that play had been suspended.  So, given the short week and long-flight ahead, some sort of tribute is warranted just for finishing the damn thing...

The winner, Justin Rose, found inspiration in an unlikely place:

“Great athletes you look up to, that’s what they do,” Rose said moments after extending his streak of years with a PGA Tour victory to six. “In the big moments they want the ball. And they make big shots and big putts and that’s luckily today what I inspired myself to do.” 

He took his inspiration from a shooting guard of renown who came through with an assist that won this one for Rose. On Friday night, Rose attended the Warriors-Hornets game in New Orleans, where Curry salvaged an off night shooting with an improbable three-pointer to tie the game at the of regulation.

Fair enough, and Mr. Rose certainly seems to have found his form.  Not a bad bet in the coming match-play event...and here's video of the Tour's highlight package, including D.H. Lee's ace:

Does The Winner Get a Bass-O-Matic? - Say you have a bass... Oh never mind, but most of you are old enough to remember that from way back when SNL was actually funny.  This is a horribly-named Champions Tour Event that's actually kind of interesting because they mix it up a little:

Not only did Joe Durant record a hole-in-one in the final round of the Champions Tour’s

Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf Sunday at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Mo., but he teamed with Billy Andrade to win the title. The pair played nine holes of modified alternate shot and nine of better ball and leap-frogged the team of Sany Lyle and Ian Woosnam, a duo that had the lead at the start of the day. 

Durant aced the third hole on the second nine, using a 7-iron on the 167-yard hole.

OK, Joe Durant and Billy Andrade aren't exactly appointment TV, but it's a team event utilizing different formats and the final round is played on a spectacular Par-3 course.  Or we can just play 72 holes of stroke play week after week until we lose our will to live...

Last year's final round was actually great because the winds were blowing at 30-35 mph... with lots of elevated tee boxes and the like, it was really challenging and great theater.

Other Stuff - Tiger is in China promoting his new architectural effort, but we're far more interested in amusing photo ops:

That's of course former NBA-er Yao Ming.  

And in fun litigation news, there's this on a lawsuit of which I'd not heard:

Almost a decade after the incident, John Daly says he is still pursuing legal action

against the PGA Tour for a mishap involving a fan who took his picture during the first round of the 2007 Honda Classic. 

Daly first took legal action in 2010, targeting the Tour and the organizers of the Honda Classic, including PGA National Resort & Spa. 

A five-time Tour winner whose career high points came with victories at the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 British Open, Daly contends he was hurt when a female spectator jumped in front of him to take his picture as he was teeing off at the 12th hole at PGA National. He says he tried to stop his swing, hit behind the ball, and fractured two ribs and separated his right shoulder, negatively impacting his career for the rest of that season and years to come.

That seems imprudent on the part of the photographer...but just another reason not to give him any more sponsors exemptions, the poor boy might hurt himself.

And this certainly increases the likelihood of a capital expenditure in July:

It's getting quite eery 9sic) how closely video games resemble real life. We're not just talking about swings, or facial expressions, or how tightly Sergio Garcia wears his shirts, although that's all factored in as well.

Instead consider that the new EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour coming out in Julyalso forces you to adjust how you play depending on the firmness of the turf. No joke. With a greater focus on "Course Personalities," the game features different conditions depending on the region. For instance, courses in Florida will be soft, forcing you to play the ball more in the air, while Scottish links courses like Royal Troon will encourage a ground game.

That's way cool, though I can't resist noting that despite his place of origin, Rory himself seems incapable of playing such shots.

That'll have to do you for now... I've got obligations, but hope to be back with more on the weekend as well as the forthcoming match play.

To The Linksland - An Appreciation

The passing reference to Golf in the Kingdom in the Van Sickle post has reminded me of my intention to discuss Michael Bamberger's wonderful To The Linksland - A Golfing Adventure with you.  

Mike has long been one of the senior golf writers at Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine,and this is

far from the first time you've seen him mentioned here.  Originally published in 1992 and long on my list of required golf reading, I opened it with the conviction that I knew exactly what lay in store.  Of course my certainty was completely unwarranted.....In fact, it's actually two quite separate books, neither of which was what I had anticipated.

Based upon the title (especially the subtitle) and the evocative cover photo, I anticipated a mystical paean to the primal glories of ancestral links... and to be fair, there is some of that to be found.  But the book is structure around two distinct plot lines and broken up into nine chapters....so there's an outbound nine and an inbound nine...kinda like a ...I think you get it at this point.

The outbound nine is the tale of Mike's budding caddie career, looping for American Peter Teravainen, an American journeyman struggling to make cuts and support himself on the European Tour.  Mike had himself just gotten married, so he took a leave of absence from the Philadelphia newspaper (for my younger readers, newspapers used to be a thing) for which he toiled and he and his new wife took off on a grand adventure.

Peter Teravainen

He had contacted Teravainen beforehand, who agreed to take him on for two events.  After that he was on his own, so off to the Mediterranean Open in St. Raphael he went, intending to make a sufficient impression on his client to be retained at least through the Scottish Open, after which Mike had other plans.

A reminder that this was the Euro Tour in 1991, when the money was small, the travel hard and the trade a tad rough.  Teravainen was known in the day for a particularly violent action through the ball, but was also known to be one of the tighter guys with a buck.  In fact, the best story in this section is when the three of them, including Peter, traveled on the "Caddie Bus" between events, when violence was narrowly averted.

You'll understand how readily hooked I was when Mike tells us of losing Peter's 7-iron during the second round of that first tournament... Oh Mike, what a colossal rookie mistake.  It does happen out there, but a word to the wise, when losing one of your player's weapons, the 8-iron is the club of choice.

Fortunately for Mike (and the reader), Peter reacts with similar equanimity to my client, and the partnership continues through the Scottish Open with some limited success.  At that point point they part ways and Bamberger sets off on his journey-withing-the-journey, to cure his own golf game.  he describes himself as a seventies shooter in the midst of a thirteen-year slump, and is referred to John Stark at Crieff Golf Club.  

John Stark is a minor legend of Scottish golf, an iconoclastic student and teacher of the game who also played an outsized role in the growth of golf in Sweden.  His first lesson with Bamberger, during which they never left Stark's cramped office ends with this exhortation, one of my favorite passages of all time:

Do you know what I mean when I say linksland? Linksland is the old Scottish word for the earth at the edge of the sea—tumbling, duney, sandy, covered by beach grasses. When the light hits it, and the breeze sweeps over it, you get every shade of green and brown, and always, in the distance, is the water. The land was long considered worthless, except to the shepherds and their sheep and the rabbits, and to the early golfers. You see, the game comes out of the ocean, just like man himself! Investigate our linksland, Michael, get to know it. I think you’ll find it worthwhile. Drop in on your travels. I’ll be curious to know what you learn.

I excerpted that passage more than once before actually reading its source, as it captures the primal beauty of linksland better than I could ever hope to.  

Bamberger does as Stark suggests, making his way to holy shrines such as Cruden Bay, Machrihanish and Royal Dornoch.  He also stops back in to see Stark and their "lessons' do move to the practice tee, but always with a twist.  There's even an outing to a magical private golf course...

These lessons, for which Stark would not take payment, involved aspects of psychotherapy and other unconventional means, such as recreating the sound of a proper swing.  But about halfway through this back portion of the book I had a minor revelation, that this is what Golf in the Kingdom should have been...ironic considering that Michael Murphy provided the cover blurb.

It hits all the right notes, while remaining completely, and I can't emphasize this enough, readable and believable...  This is no doubt because it actually happened, but is also a testament to Bamberger's writing skills.  His descriptions of Stark and his office ("Surrounded by boxes of shoes awaiting feet") are vivid and quirky, as is his initial bewilderment at Stark's methodology.  John Stark, a Shivas Irons for the rest of us...

I'm unable to find a photo of Stark online. but I did find Bamberger's remembrance after his death in 2008:

You know the cliche of the Scottish golfing man: all tweedy and trim and austere. Stark favored bright red polyester pants, cheap cigars and gold fillings. He taught by asking questions. Like, "Whatarya tryin' to git from the gahm?" He did not use the word laddie.

He taught me, at first, with mealy balls and a hickory-shafted club. He'd accept no money from me, as he was already rich, although not in the conventional sense. 

Eventually, he took me to a secret place (and course) called Auchnafree, not far from Crieff, where he was professional emeritus. There was a primitive six-hole golf course at Auchnafree, tended by sheep. Stark drank water from the river that ran through the Auchnafree glen. His swing looked downright regal in that setting, his bright red pants against the lush green grass.

A delightful trip with all manner of interesting characters, faithfully rendered by a man as tormented by the game as any of us.  It took me far too long to get to it, but I'm glad that I finally did...