Open Tuesday

Lots to get to as we approach Thursday kick-off:

I Saw It On TV - Having located the mute button on my remote, I eagerly await the debut of Fox's major championship coverage...after all, what could go wrong?

Let's get the name, rank and serial numbers out of the way, here are the Fox TV broadcast times:

And for those conversant in 21st century technology, here is the schedule for the streaming coverage:

One of the advantages of the Fox package is greatly expanded coverage on Thursday and Friday, which is of lesser importance on the weekend unless a family member is in the field.

Richard Deitsch has a good preview of all the Fox coverage options here.  We're all curious as to how the coverage will unfold,  but shouldn't this guy be in the loop?

“This is a major venture, with a ton of people who have not done a ton of TV and me

who has done a ton of TV but has not done a ton of golf,” says Fox’s Joe Buck, who will make his golf major debut Thursday when Fox airs the 115th U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. “We’ll see how it goes. I’m just as anxious to find out as much as anyone.”

Just lose the football voice, Joe, and we'll all get along... But I'd like like to strap a polygraph on the Shark for this comment from a Tom Hoffarth preview piece:

“Believe me, with play-by-play here, I’m going with a less-is-more approach,” said Buck, who can draw upon experience in calling Major League Baseball here rather than the NFL. 

“I think there will be times when we have Henry Longhurst moments,” said Norman, referring to the late BBC golf commentator who was once added to some of CBS’ Masters coverage. “We’ll give that pregnant pause and let the situations play out. There will be many times when silence is golden.”

If only... actually the lie detector isn't likely to help, as I'm guessing that in the moment he won't be able to help himself.

John Strege sums up the technology to be employed here, with drone video at the link:

Among technologies it will introduce (see video below) are drone flyovers, drop-down remote robotics cameras around the course, a small remote-controlled car with an HD camera attached to it and “set loose on the grounds at Chambers Bay,” rail cams and augmented reality graphics.

Phil Mushnick has a profoundly cynical view of the world you'll no doubt concur:

So we’re left to conclude that what impressed the USGA about FOX were the numbers following the dollar sign. Imagine that, a sports organization leaving a longtime TV partner to shack up with a new one, on the blind, for no reason other than money.

Egads, next thing we know he'll tell us there's gambling in Casablanca... Shockingly, Phil is not excited about the technology on display:

“Fox Sports Loads Golf Bag With High-Tech Arsenal For Network’s First U.S. Open Championship.” That’s followed by “Virtual Reality, Aerial Drones, Radio-Controlled Cars & More Offer Unique Views & Sounds from Chamber Bay.” 

Yikes! Run for your lives! 

The same missive includes all-upper case word that there will be “VIRTUAL IMMERSIVE GRAPHICS,” “118 cameras,” “29 replay servers” “5 production control rooms” “16 transmission paths,” “11 audio mixers,” “156 channels recording simultaneously” and “47 miles of fiber optics,” which, I suspect, is at least one more fiber optic mile than NBC unspooled. 

If this were a manned flight to Venus, I suppose, this would be good, reassuring news.

Mark Loomis, Fox's experienced producer, has indicated an openness to truing things and discarding that which doesn't work.  Of course golf requires a certain tone and pace, and there's a legitimate concern that via Cletis (the robot) and their familiarity with action sports that they've been desensitized to distractions.  Obviously the best case is that the broadcast is needlessly cluttered to begin with, but that they adjust and are better on Sunday than they are on Thursday.  Or not...

Pairings - Fox actually broadcast the pairings... I know, talk about appointment television.  Unfortunately, the USGA seems to have lost it's sense of humor, and the pairings are...just pairings.

Here's what passes for interesting groupings:

7:33 a.m. / 1:33 p.m. – Phil Mickelson, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Bubba Watson, Bagdad, Fla.; Angel Cabrera, Argentina
8:17 a.m. / 2:17 p.m. – Dustin Johnson, Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Adam Scott, Australia; Sergio Garcia, Spain
8:28 a.m. / 2:28 p.m. – Martin Kaymer, Germany; (a) Gunn Yang, Republic of Korea; Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland
8:39 a.m. / 2:39 p.m. – Patrick Reed, Houston, Texas; Chris Kirk, Milton, Ga.; Jamie Donaldson, Wales
8:50 a.m. / 2:50 p.m. – Webb Simpson, Charlotte, N.C.; Keegan Bradley, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Kevin Na, Diamond Bar, Calif.
2:17 p.m. / 8:17 a.m. – Jordan Spieth, Dallas, Texas; Jason Day, Australia; Justin Rose, England
2:28 p.m. / 8:28 a.m. – Tiger Woods, Hobe Sound, Fla.; Rickie Fowler, Murrieta, Calif.; Louis Oosthuizen, South Africa
2:39 p.m. / 8:39 a.m. – Jimmy Walker, Boerne, Texas; Zach Johnson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Ian Poulter, England

As staid and stiff as the USGA can be, they used to amuse us with an annual "Find the a*****e grouping" each year, though they had trouble maintaining the degree of difficulty because in later years you only had to do a Control:F Sabbatini to find said group.  Last year they raised their game with the delightfully un-PC fat boy grouping of Brendon De Jonge, Shane Lowery and Kevin Stadler.  Admittedly those three unfortunate souls were pretty pissed, but the rest of us had a good chuckle... I can't find anything similar in this year's groups...

Cash Is King -  We've often made the case that the USGA went with Fox for the Benjamins... as well as quoting Phil Mushnik to that effect above.  The USGA denied that initially, trashing their former broadcast partner to justify Fox's new approach to the game.  Alas, they were unable to identify a meaningful deficiency in NBC's broadcasts, and they now seem to be falling back on more defensible ground, which is that the extra bucks will be, you know, useful....

So, let's spend a little time talking about that, shall we?  First, it's always helpful to start with how big is the windfall...Adam Schupak spent some time on this issue at Golfweek, and had this:

“Whatever we got from Fox, however you want to do the math, we’re not harvesting money,” USGA president Tom O’Toole Jr. Said. “We’re spending it. We’re putting at least $150 million a year back into the game by governance or supporting it.” 

The USGA’s Sarah Hirshland, senior managing director of business affairs, says the increase in revenue will be closer to $35 million annually. When told that the difference between her figure and the dollar amounts previously reported was more than a rounding error, she replied, “Feel free to correct the inaccuracies,” and said the association, exempt from federal tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, was projecting a 20 percent revenue growth over fiscal 2014.

Interestingly, this substantial increase comes at very much the same time as the R&A's new contracts with Sky TV and NBC, doubling their revenues from the sale of U.S. television rights (though not until 2017).

So, what does the USGA do with its money?  Let's drill down a little:

Money is distributed into four buckets: championships, governance, health of the game and community. Of the $150 million that O’Toole said is invested in the game, approximately 60 percent is allotted to the 14 annual championships that the USGA administers, including the men’s and women’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball events, which debuted this year.

I know, those last three are awfully vague....community?  What the heck do they mean by that?

Fans attending some of those championships will notice video scoreboards and the

introduction of Wi-Fi zones, which allow spectators to bring cellphones onsite for the first time. Other significant investments are budgeted to rebuild the GHIN handicap system, develop and field test the USGA’s pace-of-play flagstick monitoring tool, rules-education material and a water-resource-and-consumption app designed for course operators. Funding for many of these initiatives still would have been budgeted without the inflated revenue – the infrastructure behind GHIN, for instance, is terribly outdated – but the TV money has provided the luxury to think bigger.

GHIN?  My God, these folks are visionaries...Now by far the best part of Schupak's feature is the suggestion from prominent golf personalities as to how to spend the money.  Shack liked these two:

Arnold Palmer, PGA Tour legend

“Spend it on slowing down the golf ball.”

Sandy Tatum, former USGA president

"The question of how to deal with technology advances as it pertains to equipment still must be dealt with. Coming up with the right answer is not easy. It’s certainly important enough to take it on. The guardians of the game have a real dilemma in that everybody loves hitting it 280. But the result is the game got bifurcated into the bombers and the rest of us. It has obsoleted many of our architectural treasures. It really is a miserable problem. The game is more important than anything else and preserving it and all of its characteristics is a vital project. It matters hugely, and while I can’t anticipate the response of the equipment makers, I hope they can be persuaded to join in the crusade."

Cue the theme from Man of la Mancha... Shack ignored this one, but you have to admit that it's way more prudent than you expected:

Donald Trump

"I think Mike Davis and the USGA have a done a fantastic job in reaping this incredible price from Fox. I think it will be a positive thing for the USGA and the championship. One of the things they should do with this fantastic nest egg is be very conservative because the world is going to change and not for the better. Saving it is a positive force. In the old days, it was a good thing to save money. Having money makes it a lot easier to grow the game. That’s the No. 1 thing they want to be doing."

I know, I didn't peg the Donald as a save it for a rainy day kind of guy...

I believe it was Frank Hannigan who made the point that the USGA's Achilles Heel is its profound need to be loved....respected isn't enough apparently.  Far too much of it's windfall will go to this:

The United States Golf Association (USGA) is launching a new tentpole campaign that takes a new slant on the game.

The golfing organization is reaching out to a broader, ethnically and economically diverse audience who might just perceive the game as a lily-white pastime for the Greenwich, Conn. demographic. The message -- sometimes implied, sometimes stated -- is that the game is for all regardless of race, ethnic background, and income, and you don't have to be a pro to enjoy it. 

The campaign -- “There’s a Lot to Love About Golf,” via DDB -- centers on four TV ads launching on Monday, whose media rotation reflects the broader message. It also benefits from the organization's new 12-year contract with Fox signed this year: the USGA will run the raft of new ads way beyond the traditional tactic of limiting rotation to golf coverage.

Sigh!  Can't you feel the game growing already?  I suppose there's a case to be made for the USGA using PSA's to communicate with golfers, but the idea that this will help grow the game is just nonsense on stilts.

Weather and Conditions -  Here's the Accu-weather forecast for the weekend:

As you'll guess from those RealFeel numbers, we're talking single-digit wind all week.  And as they are known to say in Far Hills NJ, Nae wind, nae rain, nae golf.

The site is designed for wind, and for amusement we'll share this video of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940:

Shack had this update on conditions:

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- The almost-eight-year-old U.S. Open venue is right on

the edge. And that's precisely where the USGA wants Chambers Bay.

On a glorious practice round Sunday pushing 80 degrees, the place exuded the shine you’d see on a Sunday…after 72 holes of U.S. Open golf. Just a few weeks ago the maintenance team of Eric Johnson and Josh Lewis were concerned about lost balls in the rough. But recent warm weather and consistent sun have thinned out the natives. Throw in the sandy soil, Washington’s long summer days and the tendency for the fine fescue greens to lose moisture as the day goes, and this is quite possibly the fastest, firmest golf course ever seen in American championship golf.

Shack then segues into handicapping mode, with this from the Big Easy:

“Creativity is going to be huge this week,” the two-time U.S. Open and British Open winner said after getting his first look at Chambers Bay. “You can putt some, you’re going to have to lob some, you can use the contours for the lower running shots. I think it’s going to be a great course for a guy with a great short game.”

 So, why don't we segue as well...

Handicapping - Weather and conditions are a necessary predicate for assessing performance for any major championship venue, but even more so on a links.

Shack takes a shot at picking a group of twelve players from whom the winner will emerge, though with these caveats:

Handicapping any U.S. Open is a tall order when half the field comes through qualifying. But prognosticating on a course almost no one has played? Nuts! Even the ones who have been to University Place, Wash., can't even agree if it's really a links-style test. (Tiger hinted that it's less linksy than you might think, Phil Mickelson says it's a full-fledged British Open course).

There are, however, clues to who might be worth focusing on as potential winners. One of these dozen should win the U.S. Open, but with the tournament's propensity for producing surprise winners, just about anything seems in the cards for the 2015 U.S. Open. Have I prefaced this enough? On with the picks ...

Unlike at the Masters, Shack went pretty far afield here, including household names such as Morgan Freeman, Bernd Wiesberger and Byeong-Hun An (if that last one seems a stretch, he was a semi-finalist at the Chambers Bay U.S. Amateur).  And conspicuous by his absence from the list is one, McIlroy, Rory.

Alex Myers files this piece on how the course will play, and throws out these names:

So what type of player should we expect to succeed at Chambers Bay? Most of the golfers we talked to were reluctant to predict a winner, but all agreed that being long off the tee, having a high ball flight, and possessing an imaginative short game will be an advantage. The three names that did come up? Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and six-time Open runner-up Phil Mickelson.

I'm more in Shack's camp here, as while I think Rory benefits from the forecasted low winds, he still struggles on firm and fast tracks.  All of his major wins were on soft courses, and that specifically includes Hoylake last year 

I do think these combined weather and course conditions set up about as well as possible for Phil, and this may well be his last best chance to complete the career Grand Slam.  There aren't a ton of historical precedents for guys in their forties winning U.S. Opens or other majors, but I'm guessing that Phil has become a Julius Boros fan...