Thursday Thoughts

Lots to go over, so give some thought to firing up a second pot of coffee...

Awphil Reax - The Earth has spun for the last 24 hours and Jay Haas' pick of Phil seems, upon further reflection, to make even less sense... That Van Cynical guy channeled Mark Broadie and threw these numbers at us:

You remember Phil. He last won a tournament a little more than two years ago and in the last two seasons, has managed all of four top-10 finishes. 

This year, Phil ranks 182nd in greens hit in regulation and 187th in proximity to the pin, an awful display of ballstriking for a guy with 42 wins.

But Gary, he's great in the team room.... But at least Gary didn't give vent to that irksome millennial guilt trip as did Pravda's Karen Crouse:

Jay Haas, the United States Presidents Cup captain, held up a finger to gauge which direction the wind was blowing and somehow missed the gales of change that swept through the PGA Tour in 2015, toppling the established stars and allowing 20-something players like Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day to grow toward the spotlight. 

Given the choice between the 25-year-old Brooks Koepka, a 2015 tour winner with top-10 finishes in the last two majors and a No. 17 world ranking, or Phil Mickelson, 45, who has not won since the 2013 British Open and is ranked No. 23 globally, Haas chose Mickelson, who had qualified for every previous Presidents Cup dating to the early 1990s.

Gee, I thought you didn't need a weatherman to know which way the wind was blowing....then there was this overwrought gem that I assume was lifted verbatim from her paper's flood-the-zone coverage of Martha Burke back in the day:

The selection of Mickelson was an affirmation of the old boys’ club that characterizes golf at its most galling.

I think what's most galling to the chin-strokers on Eighth Avenue is golf's continued existence.  The only saving grace is the knowledge that POTUS' love of our game must make certain heads there spontaneously explode...

Like Crouse I think it's a really stupid pick, I just don't feel the need to cloak it in generational angst.  And here's Shack's response to the Crouse piece:

But while I think that's a bit strong, there is plenty of social media outrage over Captain Haas not helping to develop Koepka as a future American star by selecting him. I would buy that view if he just missed the team or there was a sense that we are depleted in the young talent department.

So why is there no outrage over the omission of players ahead of No. 19 Koepka on the Presidents Cup points list? They include J.B. Holmes, Charley Hoffman, Billy Horschel, Brandt Snedeker, Webb Simpson, Robert Streb, Kevin Na or Harris English. While all were on the outer cusps of the constantly shifting millennial age range, none are seen as a young, burgeoning, photogenic, marketing-friendly player that Koepka is seen as. Therefore, none were really backed by those upset at Mickelson's suggestion. 

That's a bizarre, dangerous and slightly unseemly trend to ponder.

Geoff, now that you've had the night to think about it, are you really unclear as to why the Twitter mob has coalesced behind Koepka?  Did you read that list as you were typing?  Koepka has far and away the highest ceiling of any of those, the majority of which have been out there for years and whose career arcs are pretty obvious.  

There's an arguable case for Sneds if you want to take the best putter or for J.B. as a birdie machine, but those guys are what they are and won't be anchoring teams of the future.  Koepka is the one guy that could be a star in the making, and did you really want to see Webb Simpson again?

Walker Cup Fever - It's no secret that I think Commissioner Ratched has blown past his sell-by date, but the effect on amateur golf is a lesser understood phenomenon.  The PGA's scorched-earth scheduling has left precious room for the younger set, but don't hold your breath waiting for Karen Crouse to come to their aid.

Today's discussion relates to The Walker Cup, an event I'll speculate that you weren't even aware was on this week's calendar.  Shack devotes a post to its ills, as follows:

-- A small TV presence (the ESPN details are in my Forward Press column), few star

amateurs sticking around 

-- Players selected choosing college events over the Cup 

-- A secretive selection process that engenders no awareness of the competition to make the team or the rationale for why the USA team was picked 

-- A trip to a links that isn't the more interesting links the R&A could go to for this event 

Matters this week weren't helped with the news that Sam Horsfield, who was the fourth-highest GB&I player on the team before withdrawing for "personal reasons," just played five qualifying rounds and is on for Florida's first travel squad of the fall.

The shame is that if you talk to many of the young players breaking through on Tour, they universally cite their Walker Cup participation as a career highlight.  And yet:

Sam Horsfield, coming soon to a carpet capital near you.

Sam Horsfield will play his first college tournament for the University of Florida this weekend, despite withdrawing from the Walker Cup due to “personal reasons.” 

Horsfield, 18, has qualified to play for Florida in the Carpet Capital Collegiate, which begins Friday at The Farm Golf Club in Rocky Face, Ga., the same day as the opening ceremony for the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. 

Horsfield, ranked 26th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the fourth-highest ranked Great Britain & Ireland player, was born in Manchester, England, but lives in Davenport, Fla. He was named to the 10-man GB&I team on Aug. 24. Four days later, he withdrew citing “personal reasons.”

Hey, Lytham & St. Anne is exciting, but it's no carpet capital.... Adam Shupak cites more examples of players skipping the event:

The decision by former Georgia Tech All-American Ollie Schniederjans to turn pro in July after the British Open and forgo a spot on the American side doesn’t portend well for other top collegiate golfers. Bradley Neil, the 2014 British Amateur champ, also elected to turn pro after the U.S. Open in June. No one is saying that American Brian Campbell or GB&I’s Ben Stow were locks to make the team, but they didn’t bother to wait and see, either.

Before taking a shot at a fix for the problem:

The Walker Cup’s September date, which is during the school year for most of these college-aged players, seems antiquated. Sure, a May date would take some of the luster off the amateur summer, but winning the U.S. Amateur would be just as prestigious, and it doesn’t seem as though the hot hand gets picked for the team anyway (See Aaron Wise, winner of the Pacific Coast Amateur, runner-up in the Western Amateur; Derek Bard, finalist in the U.S. Amateur). 

Why does having the best players represented matter, you ask? This has long been an event that elite amateur golfers from the U.S. and GB&I aspire to be part of before they turn pro. Hall termed it “a bucket list item in an amateur career.” It should remain that way. But don’t just take my word for it. Patrick Rodgers represented the American side in the previous two Walker Cups.

“I wish more people had the experience I had playing in two Walker Cups,” he said. “Not only is it the pinnacle of amateur golf, it may be the most fun you ever have playing golf. I wouldn’t pass up that experience for any kind of money playing professional golf. I think kids who skip out on that opportunity are making a big mistake, to be honest.”

Like Shack, I'm a bit skeptical that a date change will have a big effect, though I found this suggestion the more interesting:

Here’s a slightly less radical idea but one that the USGA’s executive director Mike Davis should run with and fight for with all his political capital: exempting U.S. Walker Cup players that have completed their college eligibility into the four-event Web.com Tour Finals. It earns these potential stars of the Tour nothing but a chance to prove they are ready for the big time while allowing them to stay amateur for one more shot at U.S. Amateur glory and the Walker Cup experience. 

“That could definitely be a game changer,” Schniederjans said when I ran this scenario by him. “That could make a difference.”

Of course that's not Mike's call and Nurse Ratched is outraged that any golf is played that's not under his complete control.... but we've closed the entry gates to the big Tour and that requires the elite amateur players to adjust their plans and inevitably to turn pro earlier.

Now Lytham is an uninspiring venue, as the USGA and R & A have at least invested the event with more interesting venues in recent years, including Royal County Down and The National Golf Links of America.  In two years they'll be at L.A. Country Club's restored North Course, a great preview for it's U. S. Open a few years hence.  There's nothing particularly wrong with Lytham, it's just that we see it often enough and the smaller footprint of a Walker Cup offers a wider range of options than an Open Championship.  Waterville, anyone?  How about Lahinch?  Just spitballin' here....

Forward Press - Shack uses his weekly feature to promote Scott Van Pelt's new SportsCenter show at midnight East Coast Time:

SportsCenter fans have probably noticed: golf has been getting plenty of airtime on ESPN’s nightly highlights show. This matters because -- like it or not -- SportsCenter sets the agenda for (American) sports water cooler chatter. 

Insiders say the change is a result of golf fan Rob King taking over as SportsCenter’s managing editor, supported by no shortage of golf lovers on the team. Or, all of golf’s exciting new blood. 

“It’s really simply a reaction to people’s interest,” says Scott Van Pelt, who kicks off a new nightly one-man-band SportsCenter Sept. 7. “The people out there winning -- Jason Day and Jordan Spieth -- are filling the Tiger vacuum quite nicely.”

Yes they are....Geoff also has an interesting Q&A with Scott that includes this:

Is golf cool? “It can be. Cool is entirely dependent on a person that is involved. A trombone in my hands is useless. In Trombone Shorty’s hands, it’s cool. Visors and Sansabelts are not cool, but Jason Day and Jordan Spieth strutting their stuff? Cool.”

Yes it is.... 

I've got more for you folks, but have run out of time for now.