Mid-Week Musings

If you think that I seem a bit full of myself this morning, it's a big day here at Unplayable Lies, as I'm the recipient of my first link from Shackelford related to yesterdays Pine Valley Police Department story.  I'll be running to the mailbox shortly to see if that first Google Ads check has arrived...

Prez Permutations - The first day foursomes pairings are out and...well, did I mention that the foursome pairings are out?  See what you think before I....tell you what you think:

• Bubba Watson/J.B. Holmes vs. Adam Scott/Hideki Matsuyama, 10:05 p.m. ET
• Matt Kuchar/Patrick Reed vs. Louis Oosthuizen/Branden Grace, 10:18 p.m. ET
• Rickie Fowler/Jimmy Walker vs. Anirban Lahiri/Thongchai Jaidee, 10:31 p.m. ET
• Phil Mickelson/Zach Johnson vs. Jason Day/Steven Bowditch, 10:44 p.m. ET
• Jordan Spieth/Dustin Johnson vs. Danny Lee/Marc Leishman, 10:57 p.m. ET

Sitting out for the U.S. are Chris Kirk and Bill Haas (a nepotism defense strategy no doubt) and Charl Schwartzel and Sangmoon Bae ride the pine for the Internationals (there's a free subscription to the blog for the lucky soul that can suggest a good name-shortener for the team from everywhere but Europe).

OK, we'll all agree that Cap'n. Price will have to take Marketing 101 in summer school, as leaving the one South Korean player on the bench when you want the crowd to be vocal seems like a missed opportunity.

Secondly, folks will no doubt be surprised that Phil is not with Rickie, though I think the bigger mistake is to play Phil in foursomes.  The biggest mistake, that is, once you get past the actual use of a Captain's Pick on him...  But he still makes a lot of birdies, so I can see him as a fourball contributor, I just expect to see Zach chipping out a lot.

Here's what passes for logic from Jay Haas:

“I don’t want Phil playing 36 on Saturday, and if he didn’t play on Thursday, then it's kind of limiting him to just three matches, and if he’s playing well, he will probably play four,” Haas said. “I just wanted the opportunity to use him in four matches.”

I certainly wouldn't let the fact that he can't find a fairway with a GPS get in the way of your master-plan, but it seems like quite a big "If."

Most ink will be spilled on the Spieth-Johnson pairing, though I guessed this was in the works when I saw them together in the last day of practice rounds.  Here's how it came about:

U.S. captain Jay Haas broke up the dynamic duo of Reed and Jordan Spieth from last year's Ryder Cup, but the reasoning was understandable. 

“Jordan and Dustin, they have been wanting this for a while, wanting this pairing. And what Jordan wants, Jordan gets right now," Haas said, drawing laughter from the media. "So that was our thinking there."

The golf course is plenty long, so no doubt Jordan loves the thought of playing DJ's tee ball.  

Rex Hoggard tells of the great match-ups that didn't happen:

What won’t happen on Day 1 is the much-anticipated duel between Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, who traded titles and the top spot in the world ranking to close the season. 

In Group 4, Haas dealt first and sent out Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson. Price, knowing that the U.S. would then go with Spieth in the final match, instead sent Day with Steven Bowditch out to play Lefty and Johnson. 

“I’m not going to put match ups out there that the media wants,” Price said before adding, “I wouldn’t do that right now.”

Rex, there's plenty of time for that, and there's little doubt that the J-Boys will be spending five hours together on Sunday.

 In other Prez Cup news, Van Cynical tackles reader questions about the outcome:

Van Cynical, What’s going to be the final score of the President’s Cup. U.S. 77 ½, Jason Day 2 1/2 seems like a legit score, right? -- Brian Bailey via Twitter 

Wow, who’s the cynical one here? Yeow. Give the International team some credit. I’ve never bought the excuses that they’re outmanned and don’t have enough depth. You’re talking teams that have featured Greg Norman, Ernie Els, Nick Price, Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel, Stuart Appleby, Craig Parry, Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, Louis Oosthuizen, K.J. Choi and plenty of other top-notch sticks. I’ve been puzzled why they have repeatedly underperformed. This is the International team’s Ryder Cup, their chance on the big stage, and they haven’t risen to the occasion. The Americans probably have an edge because they play a team match-play event every year. Using that logic, of course, the Americans should do better in the Ryder Cup. But Europe has been fielding a better team for the last decade. I do not expect a blowout win: U.S. 16, Internationals 14.

OK, it's not uncommon for the question to be funnier than the answer, but Craig Parry is quite the howler... Was it not about the very same Craig Parry's swing that Johnny Miller famously said that Ben Hogan was spinning in his grave?

In other Prez Previews, Cam Morfitt opines that the event's future hinges on a U.S. loss and Steve Elling warns us about the ubiquitous cell phone cameras.  

The TV schedule being what it is, I'd expect to watch the taped coverage in the morning, which will obviously impact my blogging schedule.  How?  How would I know, this is my first overnight rodeo...

The Duf Abides - We piled on Duf yesterday for his "Vomit Zone" comment, but while way overrated as a player, he does have the ability to laugh at himself, a feature we like to encourage.

Apparently Oak Hill has unveiled a plaque celebrating his 2013 PGA Championship, and it's kinda weird... maybe not even kinda, it's flat out bizarre.  So here's the Duf's take on it:

Alex Myers (or his headline writer) called it "Positively frightening", and Shack added this:

Look, I'm a lover of golf history. Not depicting things accurately bothers me, but this calls for special measures. After all, Duf has shed a few pounds, cleaned up his look, and definitely does not resemble Laura Davies with dark hair (as the artist apparently thought). 

Charlie's rallying cry: Dat Ain't Duf!

Though Alex thought this was the better Separated at Birth, and I'm inclined to agree:

I'm OK with that, as long as none of them tries to sing....

This Week In Viral Videos - Both of these clearly qualify for the Don't Try This at Home disclaimer.

Shack had this one last week, but when I went to share it there was a rights issue on YouTube.  But it's available, and let's "jump" on it while we can:

She certainly did stick the landing...

And on this one I won't even object to the use of portrait mode....OK, I'm not able to embed the video, so here's a screen shot of it:

You can see it here.  Just be sure to clean your spikes if you try this yourself....

On The Marks - Jessica Marksbury is a writer at Golf.com and recently wrote up her participation in the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur.  It didn't go swimmingly, but that makes it more fun, at least for us.  Here's Jess' lede:

After completing the second and final round of stroke play here at the U.S. Women's 

At least she treat her caddie better than Allenby does.

Mid-Amateur championship, I can report that Arnold Palmer and I now share a special distinction: We both carded a 12 in competition. 

Arnie's occurred at the 1961 Los Angeles Open. When he was asked how a player of his caliber could possibly make such a number, he famously replied, "I missed a three-footer for an 11."

Give it a read, as she deserves credit for owning that twelve, which she takes us through on a stroke-by-stroke basis.  But it's the angst that's quite endearing:

I'm still away. Poor Paul is trying to speak soothing words to me but I can barely hear him. At this point, I'm thinking of those nine-hole scores being posted at the turn and how, despite all my confidence heading into today, I will likely post an even worse score than yesterday. "Play happy" has officially left the building.

Paul reads the putt and I stroke it about five feet wide of his line. Eleven.

I now have a 10-footer, down grain, to save a 12. Somehow, by the grace of the Lord, it goes in. Twelve. 

I look at Martha Leach, who's keeping my card, and I tell her the number. She puts her hand on my shoulder and says, "It's okay, honey." Let me tell you, my playing partners are some of the classiest women I've ever met. The next hole is a downhill par-3, playing about 160 yards, all carry. I'm last to hit of course, and as it turns out, it's my best swing of the day, a towering hybrid that lands three feet from the hole. When I sink the putt for birdie, Patricia and Martha are genuinely thrilled for me. "What a comeback!" they said. I think there's a word for going from a 12 to a 2. Oh yeah: Golf.

That's the thing about our sport that non-golfers can't grasp, there's way too much time to think....Thanks Jess for sharing.

Torrey, Torrey, Torrey -  Like Jessica's twelve, the renovation of Torrey's North Course is a slow-motion train wreck:

In a city with too few things to cheer in sports, it was to be a signature scene in San Diego: 

Phil Mickelson, hometown hero, gathers with the mayor and other dignitaries on the first tee at Torrey Pines to cut the ribbon on his renovation of the North Course. The project is hailed as a huge success and Mickelson’s name will be forever linked to the municipal course on which he grew up playing. 

That was the dream. The reality has become something of a nightmare. For Mickelson, and probably even more so for the city. 

Mickelson announced last week that he was being barred from completing his vision for the North because of California regulations that don’t allow those who create initial plans for work on construction projects such as this to finish them.

While Phil's legitimately pissed off, this would seem to be the bigger issue:

Mickelson wanted to redo the North for what he figured would be about $6 million when he first proposed it in early 2012. That seemed reasonable. The South Course underwent a much more extensive overhaul in 2001 for $3.5 million. 

The current price tag for the North: $12.6 million in hard construction costs, while the soft costs raise it to more in the range of $14.6 million. 

Amid this fiscal and public relations mess, the city’s golf division is charged to make this work. Four bids have been received for the construction work. Some big names are rumored to be associated with those bids, including Tom Weiskopf and Robert Trent Jones Jr. 

The problem is that no matter how esteemed the architectural firm is, they didn’t sit through two years of public meetings with real golfers, who felt they were heard by Mickelson. They’re not going to have the time to painstakingly study play on the North, as Angus did.

As Ronald Reagan famously noted, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."