Stat So? - Josh Berhow plays with numbers without adult supervision and comes up with this:
Jordan Spieth's keys to unlock the Grand Slam this year will be driving at St. Andrews and approach shots and scrambling around the greens at Whistling Straits.
That's according to how the last two major winners at each of those courses fared during their victorious weeks.Here's how Spieth ranks overall in those categories after his win last week in the U.S. Open. He's T69 in driving distance on Tour (291.1) and 80th in driving accuracy (62.62). He’s also sixth in scrambling (65.23) and T47 in GIR (67.78).
This is all based on numbers from the most recent events held at the venues, but of course is nonsense on stilts. The key at the Old Course is not so much hitting fairways as it is missing bunkers... and if high totals of GIR's are a good thing at Whistling Straits, their a poor man's excuse for proximity to the hole, as we've learned from Mark Broadie's work.
So, to sum up, hit it long and strait and hit more greens than the other guy and you too can win a Grand Slam. Got it...
A Moment In Time - One of Fox's many miscues was not having a camera on Jordan when DJ gifted him the second leg of the Slam. I know, you'd think they'd teach that in Sports Broadcasting 101, but the guys at Fox think they wrote the book...
In a post at the Loop, Shack helpfully points us to some poignant Darren Carroll B&W photos of the moment:
Jordan does look like he's in shock, no? Lots of really good work by Carroll, so do take a look.
In The Present, That's A Good Thing - Cheyenne Woods, yanno the Woods that still regularly breaks 80, takes to Derek Jeter's Player's Tribune website to bare her chest (down Maggot, it's just a figure of speech) about being HIS niece. This is the nut graph for most folks:
I mean, I get it — he’s one of the most famous human beings on the planet and we share a last name as well as a profession. But let me clear something up once and for all: I love my uncle, and I treasure the advice he gives me when we speak every few months, but I am not Tiger Woods.
I actually found this to be the more interesting part:
On that same note, my grandfather Earl (Tiger’s father) and I were very close, but I was never his protégé. In fact, I only went out on the golf course with him twice. Yes, golf provided a great connection for us. I remember talking about the game with him frequently and waking up early with him to watch Tiger play on TV. I even picked up my first club when I was just three-years-old at his house, playing around in the same garage where Tiger got his start. My grandfather always spoke like he knew that I would play professionally one day. He was so sure of it, too — that’s one thing I’ll always remember. In so many ways, he taught me how to truly love golf and instilled an important confidence in my game, but he was my grandfather, not my coach.
Earl got a lot of things right, most notably his prediction while Tiger was still an amateur that his son would win exactly fourteen professional majors.
Doin' The Keegan - For reasons that elude me, my friend Glenn is a big Keegan Bradley fan... Glenn looks far more like Novak Djokovich than Keegan, but he's not giving up anything in the intensity department. So Glenn, it seems you'll have to up your game:
You might hate it or be amused by it. But odds are, you've had trouble taking your eyes away from Keegan's signature up-and-back, club-twirling dance steps before hitting a shot.
This week at the Travelers Championship, Keegan may have displayed his most absurd moves yet. Before addressing his approach shot at the par-4 14th hole at TPC River Highlands on Friday, Keegan took almost a full minute before addressing the ball.We counted 19 mini-practice swings in this rendition of the Keegan. He's playing well this week at the Travelers -- currently T-8 after rounds of 64-69 -- so apparently the refined routine is working. Do what you need to do, Keegs. But for your practice partner's sake, you might not want to do this every time you walk into a shot.
Alas, no video....
Ya Think? - Next thing you know, they'll be telling me that there's gambling in Casablanca....But shockingly, Under Armour is happy to be in the Jordan Spieth business:
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank was understandably thrilled about Jordan Spieth, the face of his golf business, after this year’s Masters win.
“Thanks to Jordan, our company grew up today,” Plank told ESPN.com at the time. “He was challenged by the greatest players in the world on the biggest stage, looked them straight in the eye and never blinked.”
Hmmmm.....wasn't that a blink I saw on the 17th tee? Obviously it's all working out quite grandly for Under Armour, but Shack also has this excerpt but with a broken link:
“Look, culture eats strategy for breakfast,” he said. “Culture isn’t something you justwake up and decide you’re going to be one day. It’s like trust; it’s built in drops and it’s lost in buckets. And you know the kind of people that will help add to that, that will add drops. And Jordan was one of those special, unique people who was a team sport athlete.
“When him and his father came up…two or three years ago, and we sat there having a conversation about how would you like to turn pro and be an Under Armour guy, he just said look I am an Under Armour guy. I am an athlete. He goes, ‘I’m your golfer.’ “
OK, I am my mother's son and she, a grammar Nazi, is now spinning in her grave. Him and his father? Repeat after me... When his father and he..... Sheesh!
But culture eats strategy for breakfast? Next you'll be telling me that paper covers rock....
Worst, a Highly Competitive Category - I very much liked this gallery of worst major championship venues, as it hit most of my suggestions.... Bellerive, check. Olympia Fields, check. Medinah, check.
The also nail Congressional, which on a recent Morning Drive Kara Robinson proposed as the place she'd most like to see get a major....because of, you know, all of its great architectural features.... Please Mr. Kotter, I have a follow-up question for Kara....
Not Just a River in Egypt - Bernhard Langer has grebbed himself a share of the 54-hole lead in the U.S. Senior Open, so you'd think he'd be in a good mood. But he's got troubles ahead, and he just doesn't understand:
Rule 14-1b sounds obscure, and it doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2016. But the newUnited States Golf Association rule that prohibits amateur and professional players in USGA events from anchoring a putter against any part of their bodies continues to reverberate throughout golf, with one top player in contention at the U.S. Senior Open frustrated.“I just don’t
understand,” said Bernhard Langer, who shot a 4-under-par 66 in Friday’s second round at the Del Paso Country Club and is 3 under for the tournament. “I’ve been using (the long putter) for 18 years, and it’s a real issue. If it’s easier, then why are we not seeing more players use it? I don’t see anyone using persimmon woods. And who is using hybrids now? Everyone.”
Langer had some issues with yips in his putting stroke almost two decades ago and switched to a long putter that enables him to grip the top of the club to the center of his chest, with his right hand on the middle of the club. The club then looks as if it’s on a hinge, resulting in a more consistent stroke.
Bernie understands perfectly well, as the solution for his yips was to jam the putter into his sternum. Now the USGA and R & A waited far too long to address this, and there's plenty more they've gone all see no evil on, But Bernie has had a great run. I feel far worse for the younger guys that came up using anchored strokes, but glad they developed a little back bone in this one area.
Outing Follies - I'm not a huge fan of Member-Guests or charity outings, as the combination of bad golfers and alcohol consumption is off putting. For instance, at Willow Ridge's Member-Guest last week I almost got hit by an 80-yard wedge that ricocheted off the terrace awning and whizzed by my ear, then ended with an incident that resulted in a three-week suspension for a club member.
But this one from a charity outing is a tad difficult to explain:
Obviously it's the pants that should have gone into the garbage receptacle....
GPS Follies - I prefer a GPS watch to a hand-held laser, as it's one less item to stuff into my golf bag... our caddies carry lasers, so the watch is mostly for evening golf and its less precise feedback is sufficient for that purpose.
Based upon the recommendation of Unplayable Lies reader Phil Drogin I bought a Bushnell new generation watch last season but had become increasingly frustrated by it. One problem is that the mechanism to change holes is somewhat awkward, and evening golf involves much hole jumping.... but I was also getting yardages that just had to be wrong, most notably standing on the 72-yard sprinkle head on our ninth hole and having my watch read 82 yards to the center of the green.
So I popped for a new Garmin S6, which is way more watch than I need but has the longest batter life. It's got some useful functions, but it's mostly way overkill as I really just want yardages... So I was out Friday playing a match and hitting my third into the Par-5 ninth from near that sprinkler head. After hitting a tasty little wedge to 8-feet (and yes, I made the putt) I decide to check the Garmin against the Bushnell and stood on the sprinkler...and my watch read 81 yards. That's a very expensive way to pick up one yard of accuracy, but it gets worse...
On Saturday I played with buddies Bruce and Colin and our caddie was Nick, who also wears a Garmin watch. I had told them the story and as were walking up No. 9 (our finishing hole) I decided to give it another go...this time standing on the very same sprinkler head my watch said 76 yards. WTF!
During the round we also noticed that our watches had different yardages, though wouldn't you think that all Garmin watches would use the same satellites? I knew they were imperfect, now I'm wondering if they're so imperfect as to be useless...
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