Other Bits

Let's clear the decks of some of those loose threads, shall we?

Wither Rory - As noted last week, doesn't the Ulsterman seem poised to rebound in 2016?  First we had these comments via the Beeb:

Rory McIlroy says the exploits of rivals Jordan Spieth - named PGA Tour player of the

year - and Jason Day have given him "a sense of hunger again". 

The Northern Irishman, 26, was deposed as world number one after being sidelined with a broken ankle suffered while playing football with friends. 

McIlroy, a four-time major winner, told BBC Sport: "It's motivating to see what these guys are doing. 

"You want to work harder, hit more balls, and try to keep getting better."

That's why I found the reaction to his comment at the FedEx Cup curious.  he's plenty motivated, just not by the money...why would anyone have  a problem with that?

Next we have Rory trying to justify his special exemption into The Race to Dubai:

“We had to be careful, especially because I’m included in the Race to Dubai now, so number 61 doesn’t get in, number 111 doesn’t get his card... so it was a tough decision for them (European Tour) to make. 

“For me it’s more about the 111th guy, who loses his card. That’s the big thing. What do I do? Send him a bit of a Christmas present? It’s a hard one. I can’t really think of that.

“If I was to look at it really selfishly the 111th guy could have made one more putt or cut to get his card. I just have to think about myself and take a bit of a selfish view of it, I’m afraid." 

“But at the end of the day it’s not about the bonus pool, I want to win the Race to Dubai. If I can win the Race to Dubai playing 12 events... at least give me the opportunity. I would have played more if I could.

I'm glad that at least he acknowledges the collateral damage, though I don't think he's well-served in talking about this.  There's a case to be made that the Euro. Tour benefits from Rory's continued participation and that the rising tide lefts all boats, though of course Nos. 61 and 111 might beg to differ.  I don't particularly like the rewriting of rules for superstars, but it demonstrates the current weakness of the Euro Tour.

Rory also made himself available to James Corrigan, who grabbed these headlines:

“Looking back, I can see the opportunities I missed because of the injury,” McIlroy said.

“Listen, I’m in a fortunate position to have the chance to win trophies many others can only dream about and yes, I will make sure I’ll be a little more careful in the future. I will not be playing football during the golf season again. It’s a shame, as I enjoy playing with my friends, but I’ll limit it to the off-season. We always have our Boxing Day game and there’s no way I’m missing that. That’s our FA Cup final. And in that sense it is important to carry on living my life.”

Hey, it's their FA Cup final and playahs gonna play!   Rory also speaks about limiting his travel in the future, and since he's a Rio lock, good luck with that in 2016.

Lastly, how about this for bad optics?

The PGA Tour successfully keeps its fines and suspensions a secret. Well, let's say most of those fines remain unreported.

In an interview with ESPN, Rory McIlroy revealed that the tour cut the Northern Irishman some slack after being fined by the PGA Tour for tossing his 3-iron into the waterat Doral in March. Actually, the tour saved him $20,000.

His quote: "The fine was reduced from $25,000 to $5,000 because I said I was sorry in the TV interview afterward."

I made light of the club toss at the time, and part of my reaction was that he was genuinely contrite after the fact.  But, for Rory to go public with this, especially on the heels of the special exemption from the Euro Tour, is just an unforced error.

We've established that he's not motivated by $10 million, so why talk about saving $20K?

This Week in Schadenfreude - Josh Scobee is no longer the best golfer in the NFL.  No, his golf game is still pretty shiny, it's just that he's no longer, you know, on an NFL roster:

A word of warning to professional athletes: Karma, as they say, more or less, is a word

that rhymes with twitch. 

Once more, a professional athlete has mocked a player from another sport, only to fail spectacularly and similarly. This time it was karma paying back Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Josh Scobee for having taunted Tiger Woods. 

Earlier this year, when Woods looked to have the chip yips in missing the cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and withdrawing from the Farmers Insurance Open, Scobee, a strong amateur golfer, Tweeted, “Tiger - meet me at San Jose Country Club tomorrow, $100,000 a hole. You get 2 a side.” 

Ouch.

You can read about Scobee's no-good awful Thursday night at the link, but I'd rather share this story that I hadn't heard before:

This brought to mind Jason Dufner in the summer of 2011. “Gotta love that St Louis cardinal bullpen, they are vomit zone every night,” he Tweeted in June.

Vomit zone. 

Two months later, Dufner had a four-shot lead in the PGA Championship with four holes to go, bogeyed three in a row and pulled a short birdie putt on the first playoff hole. He lost to Keegan Bradley. 

Twitter, where no thought goes un-Tweeted. Alas.

The dreaded vomit zone...I might have use for that in the future...

The Pettersen Variations, Print Edition -  Nice-guy Tim Rosaforte doubles down on his journalistic malpractice, penning an article about his interview with Pettersen.  It's a mess of a piece in that the first half is about Allison Lee, including blaming her for sweeping up her ball.

But here's how he closes, which sounds more than a tad defenseive:

When I sat down with Pettersen, one of the most critical questions I asked was, “What would you have done differently?” I asked Suzann three times, three different ways and never got a definitive answer. She said she wanted to apologize for the way she handled it, not for what happened. That’s fine. But we still don’t know what she wishes she’d done instead. Maybe she’s saving that for Alison Lee.

Tim, we don't know the answer because you didn't ask.  Oh, it's fine how you started the questioning, by giving her a chance to explain herself.  But after that you just dropped the ball, not even noting to her that she had failed to answer your question.

Earlier he had this:

The usually tough Norwegian admitted she was crushed to the point of tears. Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez, Butch Harmon and Phil Mickelson were among those that have counseled Pettersen through her trauma. No stranger to Cup controversy, Mickelson was one of the first to reach out. “I don’t think I can thank him enough for the words and the hours on the phone and the conversations we had for good and bad; this went both ways,” Pettersen said. “He wasn’t trying to pat me on the shoulders and say this will be fine. He asked me some critical questions, and I had to answer them.”

Gee, Tim, did you consider asking her what questions Phil asked? or what they could have possibly discussed for hours?  You clearly had no questions of your own, maybe you could have piggybacked off Phil?

This is obviously not the most important issue in the world, but I'm kinda curious whether Pettersen actually knows what Charley Hull and she did wrong.  Maybe Suzann knew what she was doing when she agreed to sit down with Tim...

Gambling In Casablanca - Lance Ringler with this inevitable story:

SMU senior Bryson DeChambeau may have played his last college event. DeChambeau,

whowon the NCAA individual title last year, learned last week that the NCAA had banned SMU from postseason play, leaving him out of the college golf postseason and unable to defend his individual title. 

With that announcement, it’s easy to see why we may not see much of DeChambeau playing for the Mustangs this year, if at all. The All-American did play in the Golfweek Conference Challenge a couple of weeks ago, finishing in a tie for 13th place, and was expected to be with SMU this week at Erin Hills. However, DeChambeau decided not to play in the event, allowing teammate Austin Smotherman a spot. 

“He may play the Royal Oaks event in Dallas as an individual, then most likely done," SMU coach Jason Enloe said. "He wants me to play the other guys. It’s a good thing for both the team and him. He can focus on his future, and we can focus on getting better.”

Sigh!  Well played, NCAA, driving the most recognizable collegiate player out of the college ranks just has to be good for business, right?  A reminder, there isn't so much as an allegation that Bryson or his teammates were at all culpable in the violations, which themselves seem fairly trivial.  It's just that SMU has had some bad actors in other sports....

Don't Tell Te Chinese -  A fun story from the NY Times:

Three scientists who used modern laboratory techniques to discover anti-parasitic drugs long hidden in herbs and soil won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday. 

Their drug therapies “have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases,” the Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said in announcing the winners. They are William C. Campbell, formerly of New Jersey, and Satoshi Omura of Japan, who share one-half of the $960,000 award; and Tu Youyou of China, who won the other half.

Don't panic, this is still a golf blog....and yes, that Chinese awardee is a red herring, because this is the golf hook:

Omura said the key substance was taken from a microbe contained in the soil sample at a golf course near Tokyo. He says he always carries a plastic bag in his wallet so he can collect soil sample any time.

Asked if he likes to play golf, he grinned, and said "yes.”

Extra Spin -  Is a new feature from Golf.com, "Golf With a Little Bite," get it?  We'll see about that...

My first dip in the pool was with this bit on golfers' names that are mispronounced, and it makes me eagerly await Tin Rosaforte's next expose.  Not only would they have had to look hard to find a more monotone voice, but Paula, nee Cosmo, Kramer?  I don't think so.... and the fact that they labeled it Vol. 1 seems more like a threat than a promise.

My second click-through was a little better, featuring the 18 worst golf snobs.... you'll be relieved to know that an outside auditor has determined that no more than five can be linked to your humle correspondent.  This one has the best lede:

13. THE HERBERT WARREN-WINDBAG

Having swallowed a thesaurus at some point during childhood, he still speaks in overblown poetic lingo, every phrase a stilted paean to the past. He refers to golf as “the game of golf” and relies heavily on the phrase, “I had the great good fortune of.” As in, “I had the great good fortune of using the same locker room urinal from whence Bobby Jones once relieved himself.”

If it was truly from whence, I think he might have been using it incorrectly....

2. THE OUTRIGHT ARSE

An equal opportunity blowhard, he treats all club employees like indentured servants. The fault for every shot he misses lies squarely with his clubs or his caddie, who, of course, he never fails to stiff.

I think he misspelled Allenby.

And lastly, Josh Sens goes to the effort of creating a fictitious Pine Valley Police Blotter, but the truth is far more interesting than the humor:

The police department of Pine Valley operates from a small white house with lime-green 

The Chief.

office walls, where Richard Rauer, the 5-foot-11 police captain with a handlebar mustache, answers the phone. 

He and his five officers share one squad car. Each wears a light-blue uniform and pants with a gold stripe, and carries a radio and a 9mm Glock pistol. 

But Rauer's department is unlike any other in the state. Even some law enforcement officials outside New Jersey say they've never heard of one like it: 

Its job is to protect a golf course - albeit the world's best, according to Golf Magazine - which occupies most of Pine Valley's one square mile and is the reason for the Camden County borough's existence.

 It's actually even weirder than that:

The 12 residents barely outnumber the six officers. That makes Pine Valley the second-smallest municipality in New Jersey, and the smallest to have a police force.

And this: 

Rauer insists his department's mission is the same as that of any other. His officers undergo firearms and pursuit training each year with two bordering police departments, Pine Hill and Clementon. And Pine Valley's residents - who must be members of the famous invitation-only golf club - need protection, too, he said.

"It's no different than any other town," he said.

Oh don't be modest, Chief, yes it is... Read the whole thing, you'll be glad you did.  But if an editor comes as suggests you write a parody, run, don't walk, away.