Rainy Day Blogging

It's a miserable day here in New York, unfit for man or beast...so with the tape of play from The Dunhill Cup as my background music, replete with short-sleeved golfers, let's dive in to some loose threads.  You'll be glad you came along for the ride...

Speaking of The Beast - Forget Jaime Diaz, Josh Peter is my new bestie, boldly going where other golf journalists fear to tread.  Here's his set-up:

Robert Allenby says he is seeing a psychiatrist to cope with what the professional golfer

has suffered through — on and off the golf course — over the past nine months.

Ya think this might be fun?  I know, just when you've lost faith in the existence of a merciful God, along comes this article...

He rehashes Honolulu and the Canadian Open, when caddie  Nick Middlemo dropped his bag, storming off and dishing to the press.

Back to Josh:

If he’s looking for sympathy or support, he shouldn’t go to the caddyshack, where Allenby is better known as “The Beast” and caddies say he has been inflicting pain and suffering on them for years. 

“The running joke is, ‘Did The Beast get out of the cage today?’ Especially when there’s a little pressure on, Robert becomes that beast even more,” said Cameron Ferguson, one of at least 24 caddies who have worked for Allenby.

Only 24?  Seems like he goes through that many in a season, very impressive when you don't play more than two days a week.  Here's one caddie's story from the 2001 Player's that's typical of the genre:

“All I remember is we made the turn and we get around to the first hole and he misses

the green front right, horrible lie,” Ferguson said. “He takes his lob wedge and I go up to stand in my usual position and he totally whiffs it. Goes straight under the ball. He totally whiffs it. 

“He looks down and it’s still there and then he looks up at me and he’s like, ‘Can you stand any closer? I can’t breathe with you that close. Here, do you want to hit the shot for me?’ That was typical Robert Allenby right there.” 

But things got worse the next day, Ferguson said, when he repeatedly asked spectators following Woods nearby to be quiet as Allenby prepared to hit shots. 

“Will you shut up? I’m sick of hearing your voice,” Allenby snapped, according to Ferguson.

And lest you think that psychiatrist has an easy job, Peter files this second story about Alleby's mental anguish:

Almost nine months after he was found bloodied in the streets of Honolulu, pro golfer Robert Allenby said he has nightmares about two men chasing him down the street during a robbery, trauma he says is the result of a kidnapping for which police said they found no evidence. 

“I fall over maybe 10 times because I’m all drugged out and I don’t know where I am or what happened,’’ Allenby told USA TODAY Sports of the nightmares. “Then this lady grabs my arm and starts pulling me down the street telling them to get away. And then I say, ‘What’s going on?’ She says, ‘We better get out of here. They’re going to kill you. They’re bad people. They do nasty things to people.’ 

“Then they’re yelling at me, ‘We’re going to kill you.’ …It’s just stuck in my head and I’m trying to deal with it. It’s not an easy thing to deal with.’’

 Sheesh!  That had to be one awful lap dance to generate such PTS.

Blindfold and Cigarette, Please - Lance Ringler reviews the circumstances surrounding the death penalty imposed on the SMU golf program.  First, the details of the allegations:

According to the NCAA report, between Dec. 6, 2012 and Oct. 23, 2013, the former

head men's golf coach and an assistant golf coach engaged in 64 impermissible recruiting contacts with 10 men's golf prospects and seven parents of men's golf prospects. The coaches were not named, but Gregory was the head coach and Enloe was his assistant during the period. 

OK, so contacting 10 junior golfers a total of 64 times is excessive. Those actions led to other coaches who were recruiting these same players learning of impermissible contacts, which resulted in SMU's being reported. 

Other infractions detailed in the report included the sale of institutional merchandise and golf equipment to recruits at a reduced cost between March 11, 2013 and Sept. 19, 2013. The discount was determined to be $777.

Ringler goes through the range of penalties, the most severe of which is the ban on postseason play in 2016.  But there's been unanimity that the penalty seems far out of proportion to the "crimes", especially as the kids who will bear the burden are guilty of exactly nothing.

But this is where it gets a little curious:

If you consider the track record at SMU, it might shed more light. SMU has become the most-penalized NCAA school ever, with its 10th major case. The penalty is not necessarily against the golf program and its members but rather more against the institution. 

Also, these sanctions might have been more severe because they were issued along with basketball sanctions.

Wow, that's a really bizarre case of guilt by association, no?  The NCAA's hyper-legalistic recruiting regulations and enforcement mechanisms have generated much ill will over the years, but the previous examples of which I'm aware have all been in the cash cow sports.  SMU is appealing and it will be interesting to follow, and one can only wish them well if only for the kids.

Keiser Kaput - Loyal readers will know of my respect for Bandon Dunes developer Mike Keiser, I've occasionally touted Stephen Goodwin's highly-readable book on the creation of the Bandon resort, Dream Golf, because it's such an improbable success.  Not the commercial success, that's quite improbable as well, but the fact that he was able to build anything at all, given the site's location in the jurisdiction of The People's republic of Oregon.  In fact, Keiser bought the initial property fully aware that he might never be allowed to build... How's that for a set of brass-plated you-know-whats?

Here's the skinny from a statement released by Keiser:

BLM officials told Keiser's team that, in keeping with federal regulations, fees charged on the golf course must compete with other nonprofit golf courses on federal land, while revenues generated must be used on the property. 

Keiser added that recent well testing on the property turned in disappointing results, which would make it difficult to meet Oregon land use rules that protect land zoned for farming. 

"As a result of these problems, I am abandoning the Bandon Links project and will seek a site where the same programs would be viable," Keiser said. 

"This project had great promise for boosting the local economy and providing employment opportunities and job training. And the golf experience would have rivaled that which is present at Bandon Dunes Resort 15 miles to the north. So it is with great regret that I make this announcement."

Here's the background on the tentative deal that had been reached:

The Oregon State Parks Commission agreed in 2014 to give Keiser a chunk of the 878-acre park in exchange for $2.5 million, 216 acres of land elsewhere on the coast and money to control an invasive plant known as gorse.

All the usual suspects were lined up against the project, as they were against the building of the resort.  Public land is involved which of course requires appropriate due diligence, but this project was conceived to benefit local residents through reduced greens fees and funding college scholarships.

And Keiser has proven himself to be a good partner and steward of the land, and his project pretty much save the local economy.  You'd think that local officials would figure out a way to make this work, but their DNA is that of an apparatchik.

Cast Change - You may have been aware that Jim Furyk pulled out of the last two FedEx Cup events to rest his injured wrist for the Prez Cup next week.  Alas, Poor Furyk will not be with us:

One day after U.S. captain Jay Haas said that Jim Furyk was still testing his wrist and a

backup was in place in case Furyk couldn't suit up, a change has been made. 

Furyk withdrew from the Presidents Cup on Friday, citing an ongoing wrist injury that dates to the BMW Championship. The 45-year-old hit 35 balls on Thursday, but it was apparent that his health was not where he wanted it to be.

Jim has been added as a cart-driver assistant captain (Hey, they'd already made his close) , though he'll need to watch that wrist when Jay orders him to take water to the players.  And, drum roll please, replacing Furyk is:

Replacing Furyk on the 12-man roster will be J.B. Holmes, who finished No. 12 in the American team standings and missed out on a captain's pick the first time around. 

The 33-year-old won earlier this year at the Shell Houston Open and pieced together top-10s in the final two FedEx Cup playoff events.

Jay Haas is obviously not a member of the Brooks Koepka fan club.  I've no particular gripe with selecting J.B., though I think in choosing from similar commodities it makes sense to opt for youth.

Phil's Bad Week -  Not only did he apparently get sucked into the Suzann Pettersen imbroglio, but he seems to have gotten himself royally screwed by his home town.  The reasons for his exclusion form the Torrey Pines North Course renovation project have gotten more lawyerly...see what you think of this:

Wierenga declined to address whatever reasoning would be behind excluding Mickelson from the bidding process, even though he said he was offering to do the work for less than half the city’s $12.6 million budget. 

However, contract law contains a “reasonable person standard” that might apply in this case. A reasonable person might conclude that because Mickelson was involved with the design, he would have an unfair advantage in the bidding process on the actual work, based on his familiarity with the project and his having already established a working relationship with the city officials involved.

According to this local report, the City is blaming a recent Court decision for a revised interpretation of these regulations, requiring them to disassociate themselves with Phil's design business.

But that decsision surely doesn't require them to act like idiots, running a bidding process that specifies the $12.6 million contract price and allows the contractors to define what can be done for that price, presumably with no actual golf course architect supervising the work.  I know, what could go wrong?

No doubt this will inevitably turn into a massive clusterf**k, and Phil may end up considering himself lucky to avoid the blight on his resume.  But was Phil actually paid for his design work?  

The Best Office In Golf - You'll be shocked to know that it's not located at Unplayable Lies World Headquarters, but rather in the Kingdom of Fife:

Many offices around the world contain golf memorabilia and views of famous courses on the walls. However, the office of Martin Slumbers trumps them all. It might just be the best office in golf.

OK, Slumbers is the newly installed chief of the R&A, replacing Peter Dawson, though I'd have avoided any use of the word "trump."  Here's the office:

Nothing too opulent it seems, though it's really the view that makes it special:

Not too shabby at all...