Thursday Threads

Exciting news just hit...our range opens this afternoon and our greens open on Saturday.  Finally, a reason to live...

Asking The Important Questions - Here's Geoff's header and lede on the most important issue in the golf world:

Why Isn't There More Lydia Ko Hoopla And Hype?

As far as female athletes on the planet, it's hard to fathom any woman in her league right now. And there certainly is no male golfer posting the kind of numbers Lydia Ko is turning on the eve of the LPGA's first major at Mission Hills.

Well, I've certainly done my bit... He links to a very good Doug Ferguson piece on the young lady, which is mostly about her attempt to break Annika's record for consecutive rounds under par:

The 17-year-old sensation already is the youngest golfer, male or female, to be ranked

No. 1. She has finished in the top 10 in her last 10 starts on the LPGA Tour, including two victories. She has broken par in 28 consecutive rounds, one short of the record set by Annika Sorenstam in 2004. 

As she made her way around Mission Hills for her first practice round at the ANA Inspiration, swing coach David Leadbetter heard a peculiar sound from his teenage pupil.

She was humming a children's song. 

"The wheels on the train go 'round and 'round," Leadbetter said Tuesday, laughing at the latest example that Ko is not bothered by much in life and in golf.

I've mostly ignored this potential record because it's one of those curiosities that mean little in the long run, and also because it's happened in the softer part of the schedule.  Her consistency is amazing, but this impresses me more:

She has yet to miss the cut in her 48 events on the LPGA Tour. That includes 15 starts as an amateur, and she won two of them, both at the Canadian Women's Open.

And how about the fact that she seems to be a perfectly normal young lady that can be as gracious in defeat as in victory:

Ko has such an even temperament that when Leadbetter saw her Monday morning for a practice round, the first thing Ko told him was how great it was that Cristie Kerr won the Kia Classic the day before. In the final event before the first major of the year, Kerr and Ko were tied for the lead midway through the back nine when Ko stopped making birdie putts. She didn't mention that part. 

"Most players would be complaining about how they should have holed a couple of more putts," Leadbetter said. "She's different. Every other player I've known or have observed has this intensity. She's intense, but she also has a humble side. She doesn't lose her head. I told her, 'You can't be this calm. Go throw a ball in the pond.'" 

That's what led Leadbetter to jokingly say, "We sent her to anger management school so she could learn how to get angry."

To break the record, she'll need to be under par on a tough track under intense scrutiny...let's hope she knows about the Indio effect.

And this is pretty darn cute, no?

On a related note, the Tour Confidential panel was asked about the golf record least likely to be broken, and these three answers swept the panel:

1. Jack's 18 professional majors;
2. Byron Nelson's 11 straight wins in 1945;
3. Tiger's streak of making 142 consecutive cuts.

Wow, apples, oranges and even a plantain thrown in for good measure.  I'm thinking none of the above.

Water, Water Everywhere... - No doubt you caught the news that California is in a spot of bother over their diminished water supply, but no worries as Governor Moonbeam is on the case.  

PHILLIPS, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history, saying the state’s four-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions after a winter of record-low snowfalls.

Mr. Brown, in an executive order, directed the State Water Resources Control Board to impose a 25 percent reduction on the state’s 400 local water supply agencies, which serve 90 percent of California residents, over the coming year. The agencies will be responsible for coming up with restrictions to cut back on water use and for monitoring compliance. State officials said the order would impose varying degrees of cutbacks on water use across the board — affecting homeowners, farms and other businesses, as well as the maintenance of cemeteries and golf courses.

OK, obviously when water is in short supply golf course come under severe scrutiny.  But this is best understood as a challenging situation turned into a crisis by bad public policy... after all, it's the Peoples Republic of California.  I'm by no means an expert, but there are two obvious examples of such public policy malpractice...

First, the overly-aggressive application of the Endangered Species Act to "save" the Delta Smelt has had ruinous results:

In a misguided scheme to help a fish that’s on the Endangered Species Act list—the delta 

This scene from Tahoe hits home to your humble blogger.

smelt—federal restrictions have severely cut the pumping into the water system that serves millions of people in Central and Southern California. 

These are “the most drastic cuts ever to California water … the biggest impact anywhere, nationwide,” according to the California water agencies. 

While farms and businesses are starved of water, more than 81-billion gallons of water have been allowed to flow out to the ocean—off limits to human use or consumption, thanks to federal regulators’ environmental extremism. That’s enough to put 85,000 acres of farmland back into production.

Got that?  In order to save an organism of uncertain use in our ecosystem, they've pumped water into the Pacific Ocean rather than send it to the farmers in the Central Valley.  And the deeper you go into the issue the more outraged you become, as the environmentalists have no clue about the number of smelt killed in the pipeline, the remaining population and have rejected all offers to create an alternative habitat for the smelt including basic cable and high-speed Internet.

Oh, and just to make sure this misallocation of resources inflicts maximum damage, those Central Valley farmers are provided no guidance during planting season as to how much water they can expect to receive....so go ahead, plat that acreage and we'll get back to you.

Now of course the farmers aren't blameless, as the agricultural lobby has significant power (just not against the enviro wackos), to wit:

Over at Marginal Revolution, George Mason University economist Alex Tabarrok argues that California’s current water woes are best understood as a direct consequence of the unbelievably low prices California’s utilities charge for water. The chief beneficiaries of these low prices aren’t households, which spend a negligible share of their total income on water, but rather agricultural users, which (per a February article in The Economist, which Tabarrok cites) consume four-fifths of California’s water while accounting for 2 percent of the state’s GDP. Lo and behold, California farmers are using extremely cheap water to cultivate low-value but extremely water-intensive crops, like rice and alfalfa. Moreover, a large share (43 percent) of California farms use inefficient irrigation methods, which makes perfect sense when you consider that these farms aren’t bearing the cost of their profligate water usage. Imposing sensible pricing would swiftly bring these wasteful practices to an end, and it would likely force a shift to other crops that are a better fit for California’s semiarid regions, or it would force some farms out of production entirely. Yet households would be almost entirely unaffected, and low- and middle-income households could easily be shielded from what would likely be a pretty minimal price hike.

Gee, low water pricing promotes excessive usage....who knew?  If only there was a field of scholarly endeavor that could explain such things to us...

And this graphic is generating all sorts of tut-tutting:

.

I'll bet you never thought I'd post anything from Mother Jones here...strange days.

So just focus a bit on that clarification below the header, this chart covers all of 20% of California's water usage.  Yes, Palm Springs uses a lot of water, but:

1. Comparing an affluent retirement community to Oakland seems to be rigging the game, no?
2. Palm Springs also has it's own aquifer, so while they do draw some of their water from other sources much of it is their own.  That actually drove it's development, as for a long time they were self-sufficient.

But the same political class that created the problems is going to solve them...good luck with that.

Masters Musings - News and notes at the one-week out mark:

Par-3 No-Show - Unfortunately the King will have to skip the Par-3 event next Wednesday:

One of the most joyous days on the golf calendar, the Par 3 contest at the Masters, will

be missing one of golf's most beloved players. Golf Channel reports that Arnold Palmer won’t be joining Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player this year.

Palmer had an unfortunate fall last December, which resulted in a dislocated shoulder. Among his other duties at the Masters is hitting the ceremonial first tee shot along side Nicklaus and Player. He’s been making that first swing since 2007, and luckily this injury isn't stopping him from doing it again this year.

 Pity that!  I'd put Gunn Yang with Jack and Gary.

The Broomstick Lives - Surprising absolutely no one, Adam Scott will be doing his Wicked Witch of the West thing next week:

Adam Scott is abandoning his switch to a short putter for next week's Masters, returning to the soon-to-be-banned, anchored style he won the 2013 green jacket with. 

Scott confirmed to AAP via a brief email he plans to revert to his trusty long-handled putter at Augusta National after using a short putter for his first three tournaments of 2015 with mixed results. 

The Queenslander putted exceptionally in his opening tournament, the WGC-Cadillac Championship where he tied fourth, but struggled on the greens at the Valspar Championship, missing a cut for the first time in almost three years, and at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he tied 35th.

It was quite the amusing sequence, as he putted well for a few rounds, but then regressed past his mean and putted badly even compared to his historically low standards.  The thing is that Scott has always been a bad putter, but in those few weeks where he putts average he'll likely contend.  

Illness and WD's - Tim Clark is the first official WD from the event, indicating that his elbow is recovered but hasn't had enough time to prepare.  A shame because Tim might not have too many more opportunities, though it's not a place you expect him to be competitive.

And did you hear about Henrik Stenson's flu bug?  He WD from Houston, and assuming he's recovered by early next week, perhaps it's not a bad thing... he plays a lot of golf and it's a long week.  Consider that when making your fantasy picks...

It's an honor just to be nominated - Amuse yourselves with Josh Sens' list of ten greatest Masters Meltdowns.  It's the usual mixed bag of Ed Sneeds and Scott Hoch-as-in-you-know-what, though somehow Roberto de Vincenzo is a different kettle of fish.  But I do hope that The Shark is proud to hold down two spots on the list...

Best Masters Ever? - Gary Van Sickle sings the praises of the 1975 Masters, the epic duel between Jack, Johnny and Tom (no last names necessary):

“The Augusta National Golf Club has seen some marvelous finishing rounds,” Scully

intoned at the broadcast’s start, “and this fourth and final round of the 1975 Masters might very well be a story that will live for many years to come.” 

Do you still call it hype if it comes true? Maybe not. Either way, Scully nailed it. The 1975 Masters was something special in a year better remembered for events such as the end of the Vietnam War and the debut of Saturday Night Live. 

It was a Masters that packed an emotional punch. The only modern Masters I would rank ahead of the 1975 edition would be 1986, when Jack Nicklaus made an unthinkable charge to his sixth green jacket.

That's Jack celebrating after draining a 40-fitter on the 16th green.  Miller later famously said that when he got the green all he could see were Bear tracks.

I'm a fan of the ebb and flow of tournament golf, and this was one of my favorite moments.  It made roe dramatic television because Miller and Weiskopf were standing on the 16th tee watching Jack, waiting because Jack's playing partner, a young Tom Watson, had rinsed his tee shot and required a ruling.  Upon further review, it might be the last time Jack ever beat Tom, but in this instance Tom did him a solid.

Required Read of the Day - Modern golf fans know of Bobby Jones, but it's my opinion that they don't know a fraction of what they should about the man.  But Cliff Schrock has remembrance of a late-in-life event here:

Six years before he died, Jones was featured in "a rare television appearance" that gave a

glimpse of what Bobby Jones as a TV star would have been like. This Sunday will be the 50th anniversary of "An interview with Mister Golf," a TV show Jones did with Atlanta's WAGA-TV 5 and its acclaimed sports director, Ed Thilenius. The show had been recorded on Jones' 63rd birthday (March 17, 1965) and played back at 9 p.m. on April 5, a Monday evening. (WAGA was a CBS station at the time and is now Fox.) Show producers even brought out a birthday cake for Jones.

Just read it, but it leaves me wondering if there's atpe of the broadcast.