Weekend Wrap

Let's cover our loose ends before we flood the zone on Chambers Bay coverage...

The Three-peat - The cream rose next door, as the best player in the world (sorry, Lydia) put on quite a show:

HARRISON, N.Y. (AP) -- Inbee Park shot a final round 68 and finished at 19-under par

to win the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for the third consecutive year and retake the No. 1 ranking in women's golf. 

The 26-year-old from South Korea made five birdies and shot a bogey-free round at the Westchester Country Club, finishing the season's second major five strokes ahead of 22-year-old compatriot Sei Young Kim on Sunday. 

Park, who shot a 273 for the tournament, tied the Tour record for the lowest score in a major in relationship to par and finished the four rounds with 22 birdies and just three bogeys. 

It was her fifth major championship in the last 12 played on the LPGA Tour since the beginning of 2013.

If only watching her tempo would, you know, rub off on your humble correspondent... As I walked the grounds early in the week I didn't see those kind of scores out there, and I think the most amazing factoid above is the three bogeys.  That's really golfing your ball...

No doubt you heard that A-1 girlfriend Lydia Ko missed the cut, but do take a moment to appreciate the auspicious start to her career:

Shooting one of the worst rounds of her professional career, a 3-over-par 76 at Westchester Country Club, Ko missed her first cut on the LPGA Tour after qualifying for the weekend 53 consecutive times as an amateur and pro.

Ko's performance came on the heels of lackluster finishes in her three most recent tournaments, in which she tied for 41st, 16th and 27th after winning the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in April. Ko tied for 51st in the year's first major, the ANA Inspiration.

In an ill-fated attempt to threaten the Mendoza line, I'll remind you that I had this to say earlier in the week:

She's quite the talent but I'd suggest keeping expectations in check for her this week, as she's still one of the shorter sticks out there.

As her 51st place finish at Rancho Mirage also confirms, Lydia continues to struggle when she's on big-girl golf courses.  Though it's logical to assume that she'll narrow the distance gap as she continues to grow up, but for now I'd assume that the Women's British Open will be her best shot...

Rory, Honorary Cheesehead.

No doubt the week was a big success for the ladies, including some actual network television during their ladies event....sheesh!.  The explanation was that this was all due to Rory's schedule, but if I were Mike Whan there'd be steam coming out of my ears...

exposure (only the second of their events to warrant over-the-air coverage, the other being their U.S. Open).  But in a sign of how little respect they get, the PGA of America held their PGA Championship Media Day

Lastly, you've no doubt heard that the event will be moved around the country going forward, specifically at Sahalee outside Seattle next year.  

Memphis In June - Ignore the wistful Hoagy Carmichael lyric, as any pleasure derived from the sweet oleander will be obscured by the sweat running into your eyes...  But they held a tournament and guys actually showed up:

Fabian Gomez of Argentina won his first PGA Tour title Sunday at the St. Jude Classic, beating England's Greg Owen by four strokes. 

Gomez, 36, started the round tied with Owen atop the leaderboard at 9 under with 23 players within four strokes. Gomez shot 4-under 66 for a 267 total for the win. He carded a five birdie-one bogey round for his first PGA title in his 70th start in a season already featuring three top 25s.

Fabian who?   Do catch Phil's lovely moment with a Little Looper after finishing his round, the kind of gesture that we've come to expect from Phil.  John Strege assesses the state of Phil here:

Age is working against him. The oldest ever to win the Open was Hale Irwin, at 45

years, 15 days. Mickelson, should he succeed next Sunday, would be 45 years, 10 days. That fairway is narrowing quickly. 

Yet Mickelson has reason for optimism, not least the fact that he finished second in the last two major championships, last August in the PGA Championship at Valhalla and in April in the Masters at Augusta. 

Then there’s his confidence in the wake of a final-round 65 in the FedEx St. Jude Classic on Sunday. It showed his game rounding into form as he heads off to a course that he likes and one that will look more favorably on those, like Mickelson, with imagination and short-game magic.

I'd caution against over-interpreting his final round in Memphis, though my biggest concern is his wanting it too much...  Really hard to play for your place in history, or so I've heard talk.

Russian Roulette - Great Russian Golfers sounds like it belongs in one of those old World's Shortest Book jokes (yanno, Great Jewish Athletes or Great Black Yachtsmen), so I was amused to see a Russian playing in this week's Euro tour event.  But he comes with a sterling pedigree:

No one was expecting much when Andrey Pavlov teed it up at the European Tour's Lyoness Open in Austria. After all, the Russian golfer is tied for last in the Official World Golf Ranking at No. 1,598, and he hails from a country where former World No. 1 tennis player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, has a claim to being the top golfer.

And no, all evidence to the contrary, it's not Tiger with whom he is tied.  So, why mention him?  It seems he got off to a bit of a slow start:

But what he did Friday was, um, special. 

Pavlov put six(!) balls in the water on Diamond Country Club's opening par 5. When it was over, he recorded a 17 on his scorecard. Take a look:

And that's a guy with his name on his golf bag, even if it's in Cyrillic letters.  Gotta be a record, no?  Errrr, not so much:

Fortunately for Pavlov, his score didn't set a European Tour record. That distinction stays with Philippe Porquier, who made a 20 at the 1978 French Open.

Now if we can somehow get Pavlov and Porquy on the Ryder Cup team, we might have  a chance... 

Dispatches From the Auld Grey Toon - The hardest tee time in golf is a Sunday round on the Old Course:

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — For those who arrive at the birthplace of golf on a sunny Sunday morning, the rules of play are simple. You can pretty much do anything you want on the historic grounds of the Old Course, as long as it does not involve actually hitting a drive or rapping a putt. 

Frisbees are fine. Picnics, too. Locals might tell you that pushing a baby stroller (or pram, in the vernacular) can get a little challenging on some of the more uneven parts of the course, but if your little one will be soothed by the strong winds whipping in off the North Sea then, well, so be it.

It's public land and golf is simply not played there on Sundays, except of course for the Open Championship.  Why?

“Why is it this way?” Alastair Matheson, 86, said as he led a small group of visitors on the daily guided tour of the Old Course in the spring. “Because that’s the way it has always been.”

I've heard worse reasons...Though these two 'graphs go a bit further in filling in the background:

Historians trace the Old Course’s Sunday closure to religious laws dating at least to the 16th century, when some residents of St. Andrews were cited in town criminal logs for playing on the Sabbath. According to Gordon Moir, the director of greens keeping at St. Andrews, it was not until 1941 that the other courses at the complex were opened for play on Sundays.

Matheson said he had never heard of any serious discussion about changing the Sunday rule. He noted that Old Tom Morris, the legendary player and greenskeeper who revitalized the Old Course in the mid-1800s, was said to have preached, “Even if the golfers don’t need a rest, the course does.”

Do give the piece a read as there's lots of great local color, including the locals using the grounds for all manner of day-to-day life.  

Fun With Handicaps -  A while back I introduced you to Dean Knuth, the Pope of Slope.  Here's Dean opining on the index for the world's 191st-ranked golfer:

Dean Knuth is the USGA's former Senior Director of Handicapping, and a Golf Digest

contributing editor (he also developed the formula for our popular Golf Digest Handicap). In analyzing Woods' 20 most recent scores on tour and adjusting for the difficulty of tour setups -- so not counting the rounds Woods has played for fun -- Knuth was able to arrive at the 14-time major champion's handicap.

So what is Tiger? According to Knuth, Woods' handicap based on the 10 best scores of his last 20, is a +5.9.

OK, so Phil would give him one a side....Humiliating much?  But as with all things Tiger, the present is utterly forgettable but what was is truly amazing:

"In 2000, Tiger's Handicap never dropped below +10 the entire year," Knuth said.

Has anyone ever heard of a plus double-digit handicap?  That just staggers me...

Weird Doings -  It seems like one can't get through a round of golf without seeing something new.  Now those new things are not universally good, but this one has a happy ending:

A foursome was playing a casual low-ball match at Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. They all hit their tee shots on a par 3 when this happened.

The ball came in with a little steam, at the perfect angle, and dented the cup liner, and ended up wedged between the liner and the green.

So, play it as it lies?  Declare it unplayable and drop within two club-lengths?  What's the call?

Ultimately, the shot was ruled as a hole-in-one, because the entire ball ended up below the level of the green.

I agree with the ruling, though it doesn't look to me that all of the ball is below ground level... 

Back later with more U.S. Open discussion.