Tuesday Trifles

Fall is in the air outside Unplayable Lies world HQ, but we've still got lots to discuss....

Forward Press - Shack is doing more with his new feature than I anticipated, including breaking news in this week's installment:

David Feherty may land a new television home this week. Sort of. 

Multiple sources indicate the longtime CBS on-course reporter is close to moving to NBC/Golf Channel where he will continue his interview show and work broadcasts for the network. A spokesman for the Golf Channel did not answer a request for confirmation and Feherty's agent, Andy Elkin at CAA, had no comment. 

Many in the golf television community did not take the CBS breakup at face value, expecting that negotiations broke down with Feherty's 19-year home and would be drawn out over the coming months. But sources say CBS, which does not televise a golf tournament again until next January, was sincere in letting Feherty go. Should Feherty sign this week with NBC/Golf Channel or his only other option, Fox Sports, it will kick off several possible talent moves as CBS looks to replace the highly visible on-course reporter role and its 15th hole broadcast position at the Masters.

Mark this date as it may be the first time that Shack has acknowledged my existence (except if you include that deleted comment related to Dr, V and the magic putter, but perhaps we shouldn't go there), as I was one that was quite skeptical that CBS would let Feherty walk... But assuming that marriage is no longer functional, NBC/Golf Channel made the most sense, not least because he's already on the payroll.

I've no doubt that Fox would have hired him in a heartbeat, but why take on the train wreck that is Fox's ill-advised foray into golf, especially when they have only the one event anyone watches?  Unless, of course, you consider the Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout appointment TV...

'Tis the Season - In that same item Shack tees up the equipment merry-go-round:

With wraparound golf giving little time for players to rest before the 2015-'16 PGA Tour season starts, start looking for a flurry of endorsement activity after more playoff eliminations at this week's BMW Championship (from Conway Farms GC, coverage begins at 3 pm ET Thursday on Golf Channel). 

Several big ticket players will be announcing changes in the weeks following the Tour Championship. The most famous name up for grabs include Dustin Johnson, whose future with longtime partner TaylorMade is a little less clear following last year's sabbatical. Though it's hard to imagine the two breaking up. Also up for new equipment deals are Brooks Koepka (currently with Titleist) and Louis Oosthuizen (Ping).

I always enjoy seeing old footage from 10-20 years ago, such as Ernie at Oakmont in his TaylorMade cap....any earlier than that and there's no cap at all.  But it's inconceivable to me that DJ would be with anyone other than TM, sabbaticals notwithstanding.  That sound track includes George Pataking saying "perfect Together"...at least in my mind.

The other two are kind of interesting in that they're both with manufacturers who notably refuse to pay top dollar....though the Koepka deal is also complicated by his close ties to Peter Uhlein, who has his own close ties to Wally Uhlein....stay tuned.

Millennial Madness - Speaking of the Fox trainwreck, His Sharkness is back to save us from ourselves, granting an audience to someone named after a pickle.  See if you react as I did to this lede:

Props to Shack for the Seinfeldian puffy shirt reference.

The Great White Shark has never played it safe and now Greg Norman is leading the charge to tear up the game's rule book. 

You don't expect the 60-year-old golf legend, who has amassed a $235 million fortune from a sport steeped in tradition, to be so radical. But Norman has always been ahead of the game when it comes to marketing, branding and promotion with tentacles spread across golf course design, wine, property development, eyewear, clothing, premium beef and most recently the launch of a $100 million investment fund, the Great White Shark Opportunity Fund.

Sorry folks, I realize now that I was remiss in not giving a metaphor trigger warning....he's tearing up the rulebook folks, better secure the women and children.

OK, so let's get granular, shall we?  What rules are we transgressing?

"Bring the kids in by letting them put speakers in golf carts, putting headsets on or playing in their board shorts or getting on an electric skateboard or something like that to take their clubs around, have fun with the game, speed it up, do what the kids like to do," the straight-shooting Norman says. 

"I'm a big proponent of increasing the speed of the game. Building 12-hole golf courses, reducing the time. Why do we have to build these 7000 metre long golf courses for maybe one week a year or not even one week when the cost of constructing and maintaining these ridiculous clubhouses gets out of hand. We've really got to get our crap together."

The word that first springs to mind is schadenfreude, as is there any current designer more associated with...how shall I put it...7000 metre long golf courses for one week a year?

It's not that there's nothing of merit in those two 'graphs, though there is certainly nothing new.  But I just love how he throws out that we should build 12-hole golf courses, and by that he clearly means that other should...  left unexplained is whether a 12-hole golf course would be viable.  Because he's a visionary and can't be bogged down in such details...

You've heard this rant before as the these appeal-to-millennial initiatives so often show a blatant disregard for the limitations of the time-space continuum.  For instance, even Shack was hyping 15" cups as a way to speed up the game, disregarding the fact that you'll cut those 15" cups into my greens over my dead body.

So while Greg Norman pontificating is tiresome, here's an item on this subject that is just the opposite:

A high-end private facility would not seem a likely place to look for guidance in

growing-the-game efforts and appealing to millennials, but CordeValle, playground for the Silicon Valley set and others, is setting a good example. 

CordeValle, 28 miles south of San Jose, Calif., and the site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open, has embraced the three-, six- and nine-hole loops, among other efforts.

The idea, Michael Marion, director of club operations and membership and a PGA of America professional, said, is “keeping a golf club in their hands.

Golf has been evolving for centuries and will likely continue to do so.  But it's not because of the Shark blathering on, it's because individual course and resort owners and clubs will react to their challenges by experimenting.  These 3-9 holes loops aren't anything that we've all done individually in our evening golf, either as a result of course traffic or time constraints...

But it's easy to say that we should let the kids blast music from speakers on their carts, but back here on planet Earth that's likely to alienate your existing customer base.  

This Week's Cup Fever - It's Solheim Cup week, and while it's easy to make fun of the event, excluding as it does the largest pool of female golf talent on the planet, it is team match play.

Shack helpfully provides the TV schedule:

Golf Channel Solheim Cup Week (all times Eastern) 

Thursday, Sept. 17 - Solheim Cup Opening Ceremony, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 18 - Solheim Cup, Day 1, 2 a.m.-Noon

Saturday, Sept. 19 - Solheim Cup, Day 2, 2 a.m.-Noon

Sunday, Sept. 20 - Solheim Cup, Final Day, 4:30-11 a.m.

Good luck with that 2:00 a.m. audience....no doubt that's why the good Lord invented  Tivo.  Given the U.S. performance in the team events in recent times, our gals will be under some pressure.  They themselves got routed in the home game two years ago by a European team that looked less than impressive...

But it's the venue that provided the biggest smile per Shack's Forward Press item linked above:

Germany's St. Leon-Rot Golf Club hosts the event and if you're looking for a Final Jeopardy stumper, the Dave Thomas-designed course may just provide it: At what course did Tiger Woods post his win in Europe? 

That's right, the club hosted a Woods victory in 1999 at the Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe, his second in a year he won 10 times including the PGA Championship. It's also when his sleeves reached past his elbows:

How 'bout our Shack?  First with the puffy shirt bon mot, then with the sleeve length.... who needs Marty Hackel?

Another Tiger Sighting - Folks he's still big, it's just that golf has gotten small... The NBC crew showed an image of Tiger at Sunday night's Cowboys-Giants game:

This game was in Texas, so the astute reader will intuit where I'm going.  But see that guy to Tiger's right in the red cap?  Any guesses as to the logo on said red cap?

Yup, NBC is in the business of televising golf, in fact, they will be airing this weeks event in Chicago but didn't see fit to identify Jordan Spieth to their audience.  It's hard to imagine, 'cause Tiger with Jordan is far more interesting than Tiger alone, no?  I mean the Shark wants us to bow down to millennials, and there's an actual example of that genus-species in the frame...

Wither the Walker - Shack tries to sort through what to do about this event in a post this morning, and I'm pleased to report that he hasn't lost his sartorial bite:

USA Captain Spider Miller, who has no say over who is picked on the team by a secretive USGA committee, was visibly upset during the closing ceremony. (Though it might have bee the pairing of a green jacket and fire engine red pants that screamed eggnog and caroling more than international team competition). 

Global Golf Post reported that Miller took the approach of getting each team member into three matches during the two-day, four-session Walker Cup. So while I admire his passion, it's hard to understand what the USGA's goal is with the team it hands to its captain and what the captain does with his roster. Carrying a required two mid-amateurs and taking a bit of the modern "everyone wins a trophy" mentality (by not necessarily putting the best team out), appears admirable in spreading the experience of this historic once-in-a-lifetime event.

The most compelling of Shack's arguments is his link to this David Fay article from two years ago to the effect that without the Walker Cup we'd likely have no Bobby Jones:

Simply put, without the Walker Cup—specifically the matches of 1926 and 1930—there

would have been no Bobby Jones story as we've come to know it. There would have been no British Open and Amateur titles. No New York City ticker-tape parades, and no Grand Slam. Bob Jones would not have been regarded as one of the giants of the 1920s sports scene along with Babe Ruth, Red Grange and Bill Tilden. And who's to say how or if the Augusta National Golf Club would have been formed and whether the Masters Tournament would have been organized.

You'll have to read the piece to understand his logic, but you'll be glad you did.  It's a brief golf history lesson and we can't have enough of those.

I'm glad that Shack is sharing these warning shots, though I'm not convinced that his diagnosis is correct.  He seems more worried about the competitiveness of these matches (citing the President's Cup), whereas the struggles on the links aside, I don't really think we're at that point.  

I think the future of this event will hinge on the following two factors:

1. The strength of the teams, and;
2. The quality of the venues.

The first is undoubtedly the most important, as nothing will drive viewers more than a knowledge of and interest in the specific players on the team.  I agree with Geoff that a season-long points race couldn't hurt, though we should be realistic as to how much visibility that would garner.  The requirement of two mid-ams on the team is a conundrum for sure, but it's not like those last two spots would be filled by marque names...

The next two U.S. venues are terrific, LACC and Seminole.  But the R&A, which in recent years has given us gems such as County Down, Ganton and Porthcawl, seems to have suddenly reverted to recycling Open rota courses (Lytham and Hoylake in 2019).  It's a small-scale event that allows them to visit venues off the beaten track, so why the retreads?

You Ko, Girl - Alan Shipnuck's Heroes and Zeros feature this week is notable mostly for my favorite Lydia pic of a big week:

Who are those guys and how do I get their job?  Although Alan's Zeros did get off a good one at our Walker Cuppers' expense:

2. The U.S. Walker Cup team. I know these guys look up to the pros, but do they have to play like it’s the Ryder Cup, too?

I know, but at least the ams won their last home game...and this one:

3. The World Ranking. It might’ve just usurped the BCS rankings as sport’s most annoying algorithm.

Admittedly this last item was only included because when I first saw the pic I thought that the No. 1 ranking wasn't the only thing that was, you know, flipped...

The King Rules - I didn't note the occasion of the King's birthday over the weekend as I was in wedding hell, but Arnie turned 86 and is still The King.  But the Tour Confidential panel paid homage with a couple of stories you might enjoy:

VAN SICKLE: I once did a story on Bob Lendzion, a former senior tour player. When he was young years earlier, he and another assistant pro hitch-hiked and hopped trains from California to Latrobe, Pa. They were walking through a subdivision to Latrobe CC and a woman picking up a newspaper in her driveway asked the two disheveled men carrying golf clubs what they were doing. Then Winnie Palmer invited them inside--it was Arnie's house--and Arnie himself cooked breakfast (eggs) for them. You can't even make this stuff up.

And I do like this refreshing bit of candor:

RITTER: Every interaction with Arnie is special. I remember once asking him, tongue in cheek, "What do you like to drink after a long day on the course?" I expected him to respond with his eponymous tea drink. Instead he exclaimed, "Grey Goose on the rocks," which brought down the room.

Make mine a Kevin Nealon....and if you don't get that reference, you clearly don't watch enough golf on TV.