Sorry for the delay in my summary of the weekend's golf. I hope this didn't cause any awkward pauses at the water cooler for you... I had good cause for being delayed, as...
Excused Absence - The Metropolitan Golf Writers Association held it's annual event at Bethpage Black this morning, and you wouldn't have had me miss that.
In the matter of most pressing importance, I'm pleased to report that Stogel/Simpson defeated Lagana/Baum 2&1. I knew you'd be scanning ESPN for live updates on that one...
It's always fun to play the Black, which remains quite the test from tee-to-green. And as I'm sure you're aware, it's got quite the agenda of upcoming events, as The Braclays returns next year to be followed by a PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.
But I remain lukewarm on the Black, at least as compared to its peer group of Winged Foot, Quaker Ridge and even Fenway, as its greens are alarmingly shapeless. The Black was one of if not the last projects A.W. took on, and he had died before the final shaping work was done. Now the named architect was often not on site for much of this work, though it would typically be carried out by someone that worked for him. If you're interested in more of the background, this Pravda article at the time of the 2009 Open covers the ground rather succinctly, introducing us to Joseph Burbeck, the Bethpage Park Superintendent credited by many with the design. All I can say is that the greens give very evidence of having been designed by a government functionary... though I'd be shocked if the rest of the golf course isn't pure Tilly...
Weer I in charge of the world, and we can all agree what an improvement that would be, I'd blow up the greens (except for No. 15) and bring in Gil Hanse (or a comparable) to create a set of greens befitting the track. Yanno, greens that Tilly would have created himself... then let's have a Ryder Cup there.
Day's Day Week Month - I actually parked myself in front of a TV and watched some of the final round from the Barclays, and this Day kid might have a career. Rex Hoggard bats lead-off and reminds us that the bar was always set high:
EDISON, N.J. – Not long after he turned professional in 2007, Jason Day, as only a 19 year old could, announced his goal to someday unseat world No. 1 Tiger Woods atop the Official World Golf Ranking.
On Sunday at The Barclays, after winning for the third time in his last four PGA Tour starts, Day referred to the comment as a “no-no.”
Fair enough, but shouldn't the Golf Channel editors have run a photo of Day with Mr. Spieth? Just sayin'...
And since I know you're bed-ridden with FedEx Playoff Fever, Brian Wacker has a quote intimating that his hot streak might have legs:
“Really trying to manage that has been tough. But over the years it's starting to become a lot easier. The last six weeks, they've been crazy. U.S. Open, The Open Championship, you mix that in with three other wins. The good thing about it is it's not over. I have this great momentum going into next week to a course I absolutely love. It's only positive stuff moving forward from here.”
Careers sure can take funny arcs, can't they? For all the obvious talent and near-misses in majors, for a multi-year period Day's career was defined by a complete inability to win. Jason Sobel seems to have been reading my mind:
"It's not easy, I can tell you that," Day argued after prevailing Sunday by a half-dozen strokes. "Even though it may look easy, it's not easy."
The numbers support his claim. Entering the current season, Day had competed in 151 PGA Tour events and won only twice. For most players, the "only" qualifier in that sentence wouldn't be applicable. That type of victory ratio throughout a career will keep any player employed at the game's highest level and, yes, extremely wealthy.
Day places surprising importance on his play at The Old Course:
Day points to this year's Open Championship as a massive turning point. He didn't win that week, instead leaving a putt short of the hole on the final green, leaving him 1 stroke out of the three-man playoff.
He left St. Andrews emboldened. Maybe a little wiser, a little steadier, a little more confident.
But let's not forget that he won two regular Tour events before the PGA, and that's gotta convince a fellow that he can close...
Rex Hoggard circles back and credits Jason's improved lag putting:
Maybe a more detailed explanation would be dramatically improved lag putting, like when Stenson gave Day something to look at on the leaderboard on Sunday, moving to within two strokes with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 13 and 14. Your new FedEx Cup front-runner answered by rolling in 61 feet of birdie putts at the 14th and 15th holes.
On paper it would explain how Day, who hasn’t ranked outside the top 30 in strokes gained-putting the last five seasons, is second on Tour in putts outside of 25 feet this year, converting 10 percent from that neighborhood.
I checked the Unplayable Lies style book, and found out that we don't have one. I'm not sure what Employee No. 2 does with her day, but since winning the club championship she's been slacking off quite a bit...but I digress... My query was do we call 35-footers lag puts when we jar them? Isn't a lag that putt you cozy to 18" and, as an aside, one of those two putts Hoggard cites was motoring pretty quickly and would have gone at least 7-8 feet by. But Joel Beall seems to have the better perspective on Day's putting:
The 27-year-old was lights-out on the treacherous greens at Plainfield Country Club, rolling in more than 148 feet and seven inches of made putts on Sunday alone in his victory at the Barclays. To put that figure in perspective, Camilo Villegas leads the PGA Tour in distance of putts made per round at a 82' 1'' mark. For the mathematically challenged, that means Day was rolling in his TaylorMade 87 golf ball at a rate nearly double that of the tour's best player for the year.
This is of a piece with Nick Faldo repeating ad nauseum that Jason Day is the best player in the world now...Jordan Spieth was but apparently his time has passed. Sir Nick (and Rex as well), the word you're searching in vain for is "Hottest." Repeat after me until it sinks in, Jason Day is the hottest golfer in the world... When you roll in 148 feet of putts in the final round you're en fuego, but let's all take a deep breath and see how this plays out over an extended period of time including those vents we call majors.
Plainfield Phollies - Lots of crazy stuff this week, especially from the southpaws. First we had a Phil Phlop with an especially high degree of difficulty:
He damn near pulled it off as well....then there was Brian Harman with this:
I guess the first one wasn't caught on video, but he shot 68 for the day. It reminds of legendary college basketball coach John Wooden, who is one of the few people known to have an albatross and an ace in the same round. he shot 77 or some such number that day and noted that when you're five under on two holes, 77 isn't all that good. Same applies here...
And, for the record, Harman met his obligations in full, sending 300 brewskis and a bottle of Crown Royal to the media center:
And the circus came to town as well, as a certain Republican Presidential candidate showed up to mingle with his people, including this guy who when asked his name replied, "I'm contractually obligated to say Santa Claus."
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| 'Tis the season... |
The linked piece is a fun read and, if you're looking for some mid-week action, Shack is running a photo caption contest for this one:
I'm going with, "No, really, it's THIS big."
The 2016 Schedule - One of our recurring themes is the untenable nature of the golf calendar caused by the overreaching Nurse Ratched, which becomes downright absurd in 2016 when one adds The Olympuis to the mix. Want a vignette demonstrating that? Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth used their MC's at Plainfield to scout the site of the 2016 PGA...in 2015:
The took their caddies to fill out the fourball, which is always fun to see....But the point is that they'll not have a chance to do this in 2016, such is the insane schedule. Cute video of Rickie ruining an outfit can be found here.
Is There Anything It Can't Do? - This item is gonna make the bride's head explode, as she's always trying to con me into not having coffee before I play golf. Last time she got me to limit myself to two cups I played quite well, I mean after the the six holes it took me to wake up....
So, take this with a grain of salt lump of sugar:
Auburn University researchers, who we stress were not in any way funded by Starbucks, studied 12 male golfers playing 36 holes over two days. Half were given a 155 milligram supplement of caffeine (about the equivalent of a cup of coffee) and half were given a placebo. According to the study, players who took caffeine scored two strokes lower, drove the ball further, and hit more greens in regulation.
Hon, you don't want to be a science denier, do you?
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