Apologies for the delayed onset blogging today, but family matters required my attention. And you might not have had this had a storm not rolled through this afternoon.
Your Afternoon Laugh - Has anyone heard of Tiffany Oshinsky? I don't know whether she's a golf fan, but I'm pretty sure she's got a sense of humor, participating in this dramatic reading of everything Jordan Spieth said to his ball at The Masters...
It's a form of video the embedding of which I've not yet mastered, so you'll want to click through. The joke of course is that her reading is far less dramatic than the urgency employed by the author in the play's original limited run. Though even with that caveat, I found her "Fore Right" to be dramatically flat and, to be hyper-technical, I don't think his ball was the intended audience for that.
Turnberry, You've Been Trumped - Alistair Tait brings news that the previously-discussed changes to Turberry's Ailsa course will go forward:
The biggest change comes at the most scenic part of the golf course. Turnberry’s iconiclighthouse will provide the backdrop to a new par 3 to replace the current quirky par-4 9th.
The hole currently plays at 452 yards from a tee perched on the edge of the Firth of Clyde. It’s a dramatic setting with nothing but water separating golfers from the distant, beguiling hills of the Isle of Arran.
Next year, the hole will play as a 235-yard par-3, most of it over water, with the lighthouse providing the backdrop to the green.
Many will applaud the change given the current ninth is unfair. A camelback fairway means good drives often end up in the rough.
Here's the thing, that ninth fairway is profoundly unfair, as the tee shot plays down the spine of the aforementioned camel, and unless you're accurate to the inch there's no way to hold the fairway. But of course there were other solutions to be had, such as regrading the fairway, that would preserve one of the great tee boxes in golf:
Secondly, a long par-3 over water sounds great, but you don't find them in Scotland or Ireland because the wind is such a factor. In fact, you find precious little water actually in play on a proper links, trust me, there's sufficient hazard without it... I don't have a dog in this race, as with Trump's acquisition I assume I've played the Ailsa for the last time...
Most folks assume (including Tait's headline writer) that this is being done to ensure that the Open Championship returns to Turnberry. Trump has coordinated his plans with Peter Dawson, who has publicly supported the notion that the Open will naturally return to Turnberry. But Mr. Dawson will be riding into the sunset after this year's Open Championship and his successor, Martin Slumbers, has of course been the silent man during this interregnum. I'm not saying that the R&A won't jump into bed with Trump, I'd just like the word of someone other than Trump himself...
Too Much Information - Shack posts the entire Fox press release detailing the additions to it's on air programming for coverage of the USGA events, and it's about the size of the cast for Ben Hur. No really...
Here's just the high points:
Familiar FOX Sports Personalities Tim Brando, Charles Davis, Joel Klatt, Robert Lusetich and Curt Menefee Also Added
Natalie Gulbis, Gil Hanse, Buddy Marucci, Scott McCarron, Morgan Pressel and Tom Weiskopf Headline Additions.
Shack remembers Charles Davis as being a grating presence on Golf Channel, otherwise that first list isn't, to this observer, quite as "Familiar" as Fox might hope...
Weiskopf is always interesting and Buddy Marucci is a lifetime amateur and Walker Cup captain, who lost to Tiger in the finals of his middle U.S. Amateur. You'll have your own opinions as to the exact qualifications of Natalie Gulbis, but I'd suggest instead that you focus on Sam Weinman's far shorter post on those that won't be appearing on Fox's telecasts. He starts with Johnny Miller and Jim Nantz, but then gets to the important stuff:
Tow truck-hating ESPN reporter Britt McHenry
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The Poultergeist On Twitter - These crazy kids with their Twitterstorms... our story starts with Derek Lawrenson, who mans the golf beat for the Daily Mail. He uses Jordan Spieth to take three prominent European players (or, perhaps more accurately, two prominent players, namely Sergio and Henrik, plus Poulter) to task for skipping the Euro Tour's premiere event at Wentworth:
In the past all three have made no secret of the fact they don't care for Wentworth and all three have poor records in the event. Doesn't that make it an obvious event to cut from a busy schedule? You can see the argument. But, equally, as Spieth at the age of just 21 is effortlessly showing, sometimes it's simply about doing the right thing.Yes, Poulter and Stenson, in particular, can put forward persuasive cases as to how they do their bit for European golf.
Poulter is doing plenty behind the scenes to ensure the relaunched British Masters at Woburn in October will be a great success; Stenson plays more tournaments round the world than any other top player and the nasty bout of flu that ruined his chance at the Masters was a sure sign he needs to cut back. All the same, the feeling lingers this admirable pair have got this one wrong.
OK, now Derek gets at the heart of the matter in that first graph, which is that while nobody doesn't like Ernie Els, opinions are similarly unanimous about his desecration of what once was a Harry S. Colt classic.
But our Poults has come out firing on Twitter, with this authoritative takedown:
Ian Poulter ✔ @IanJamesPoulterFollowSimple terms. I've won 19.11 world ranking points from poss 832 over 13 years. & for tied 3rd at Open in 2012 I won 28.50 Points.
1:35 PM - 21 Apr 2015
@IanJamesPoulter And you have played in how many majors ? and won none will you give up on them to ? fool.
CompleteBalls
What he said!
Shot of the Week - At the Players Championship media day, Jacksonville Jaguars mascot Jaxson DeVille went pinseeking on the 17th hole:
The rumors that it was actually Jags placekicker and plus-handicap golfer Josh Scobee are just that...the actual mascot is a gent named Curtis Dvorak who plays off scratch himself. And we all know that the chicks dig mascots that can spin the ball back...
Bad Choice of Words - All eyes turn to San Francisco, at least those focused on golf, for the next three weeks...
San Francisco will become the game’s epicenter, with three tournaments in rapidsuccession. Thursday’s opening round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic launches a 14-day stretch in which fans can watch world-class golf on a near-daily basis — all within a radius of a few square miles.
“It’s almost like golf month in San Francisco,” USGA executive Bill McCarthy said.
Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis and their LPGA cohorts begin the action this week at Lake Merced. Then the Match Play Championship — featuring Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and the rest of the world’s top 64 players — begins a five-day run April 29 at Harding Park.
Finally, as punctuation, the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship takes place May 2-6 at the Olympic Club.
Lake Merced is the least known of the three, though Harding Park is likely the weakest... I'll defer to Ron Kroichik because he actually lives there, but you'd think they'd steer clear of the "E" word.
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