Whilst your humble correspondent was ensconced in his Prez Cup Cone of Silence, the golf world kept turning. And turning and turning...
Mid-Am Magic - Do you follow much Mid-Am golf? I know, who could possibly have the time? Even I could only pick one Mid-Am out of a police lineup, and that's only because he was paired with my buddy Kent at Sectionals.
But these are guys just like us, they have jobs, children and yet maintain great golf games. Well, like me, except for the job, kids and great golf game, but you get my point. So the USGA held this year's U.S. Mid-Am last week and let's let Jeff Babineau set things up:
Spring was but a faraway concept and the weather hadn’t completely broken up amid thefrozen tundra of Minnesota last April. Sammy Schmitz was watching the Masters with his dad in the Long Branch Saloon in Farmington, where they'd go for years after youth hockey games. His dad had an out-of-the-box idea to share with his son.
Steve Schmitz, who isn’t a golfer, told his son, who is a very good one, a three-time player of the year in Minnesota, that the two of them really needed to find a way to get to this magical place they were viewing on the pub's television screen, scenic Augusta National. Like, soon, as in next April.
“He said, ‘This place looks unbelievably amazing,’ ” Sammy recalls his dad, his former hockey coach, telling him. “We need to go there and watch the Masters.”
And so they shall:
On a long, hot day when neither golfer had his best stuff, Schmitz kept his head down and managed to save a little magic for late in the round. He was 2 up when he stepped to the tee at the 15th hole, his 33rd of the day, a drivable par 4 shortened to 260 yards that had treated him well all week. Dull had just won the 14th with a par, and he ripped a 3-wood that started left and stayed there, settling into a left greenside bunker. Schmitz grabbed driver, hit a nice little cut left of the flagstick, right where he wanted to, and then watched his ball pitch and start racing up the steep hill on the two-tiered green. The flag was on the bottom tier, and he pleaded for his ball to stop running, knowing anything above the hole would be as slippery as ice.
“We (he and caddie Mark Hanner) saw it trickle up the slope and we thought, ‘God, that’s got to be good,’ ” Schmitz said.
Little did he know how good. The ball took a turn high on the slope and began to trickle back toward the hole, finally stopping at … incredibly enough, the bottom of the cup.Ace. Albatross. Double-eagle
In my long experience in this game, I've found that a two very rarely hurts you (though a couple of years ago I did actually make a two on our seventh and managed to lose the hole, though that's not important now).
Now you'd naturally like video, wouldn't you? Good luck with that, as per this Shack rant:
Naturally, the USGA, armed with millions upon millions in revenue couldn't get their partners atFox to share some video recorded or dvote a freelance video team to record some of the final day proceedings. (Or maybe it's all been sent off to the film processing lab for future viewing?)
If there is no video of the U.S. Mid-Amateur final in the 21st century, that's pathetic on a level that is unacceptable for a group with nearly $400 million in the bank. I repeat: $400 million! Yet no video from a championship that is comprised and followed by their core constituency.
The USGA did ultimately tweet this video with one of the great delayed reaction shots.
And the losing finalist, the charmingly-named Marc Dull, is anything but:
Dull is fun, keeps things light, and plays golf with with a boldness that is to be admired. As others tense up in those big, please-remember-to-exhale moments of match play, Dull passes his time in the fairways laughing, singing and quoting playful lines from Will Ferrell movies with his best friend/caddie, a fellow looper nicknamed Spice.
Hmmmm...would that be Posh or Sporty? Just a shame that only the winner gets that Masters invite.
Broadcasting Musical Chairs - Deck chairs are being rearranged, but I'll leave it to the reader's judgement as to whether a Titanic analogy is in order....
This sequence of events was all triggered by the R&A awarding their new television packages at least a year early. In the case of the U.S. rights, the word on the street was that they did so in the hopes that Fox would bid aggressively having not yet realized the extent of their blood bath on their USGA package. That left the BBC and ESPN as lame ducks, and dominoes are tumbling...
Forts, a couple of weeks ago came word that Sky Sports would take out the Beeb a year early and broadcast the 2016 Open Championship. I felt little need to blog that as most of you are on this side of the pond...
Then came this similar arrangement between ESPN and NBC/Golf Channel:
NBC Sports Group will carry the British Open in 2016, a year earlier than planned.Last week, NBC and Golf Channel finalized a deal with ESPN and the tournament’s operator, the R&A, to take over next year. NBC planned to tell its golf production team about the deal on Sunday, and an official announcement is planned this week.
The move comes a little more than a week after the BBC sold its own lame-duck year for next year’s British TV rights to Sky Sports. NBC executives pointed to that move as the opening ESPN and NBC needed to cut their own deal. In order to maintain consistency, the R&A would have been less likely to shift its U.S. rights a year early if the BBC, its main British rights holder, did not do it first, sources said.
Makes perfect sense, and we've previously discussed that with Bristol out of the golf business, their roster of golf talent should be available to those in need, i.e., Fox. But then, I ask, how does this make any sense?
Daytona Beach, Fla., October 7, 2015 - The final round of the final event of the 2015 LPGA Tour season, the CME Group Tour Championship, will air live on ABC from 2-4 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 22. The event will be presented with limited commercial interruptions thanks to CME Group.Tom Rinaldi will call the play on ABC’s telecast, joined by the team that called the RICOH Women’s British Open Championship on ESPN: Dottie Pepper, Judy Rankin, Andy North and Billy Kratzert, led by coordinating producer Mike McQuade - will cover the final round for ABC. The first three rounds will be broadcast on Golf Channel, with ESPN producing the telecasts.
I'm guessing this is a one-off, though it's not addressed in the press release. As I'm discovering in the present moment with the baseball playoffs, it's hard to score big ratings when no one knows where to find the broadcast. But while the desire for network coverage is understandable, I think this is an unforced error on the part of Mike Whan. I just think it's better to stick with a broadcast partner to whom you're important, as the ratings are going to underwhelm regardless.
How Cam We Miss You... - Boy, didn't winter just fly by? It must have, because it says here that the PGA Tour season starts on Thursday:
The PGA Tour’s opening day is here! With just a week off between Web.com Tour finals and the start of the new season, the fall’s Frys.com Open at Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course (on Golf Channel Thursday from 5 to 8 pm ET) is headlined by Rory McIlroy fulfilling an obligation to the PGA Tour after having played in a competing event in Turkey a few years ago. Appearances by Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka add life to a field vacated by Tiger Woods following back surgery.
Defending champion Sang-Moon Bae will be reporting for military duty after representing the International team at last week’s Presidents Cup.
Shack also gets off this good one:
Here’s a mildly-awkward Silverado promo video featuring some fun Johnny Miller footage early on, including wearing a white belt before they went out of style, before they became cool again and before they went out of style again.
They'll have to pry my white belt out of my cold, dead hands.... but there's nothing wrong with Silverado, it's just way too soon.
Woe-Burn - Alas, the revived British Masters got zero coverage, despite a worthy venue. I take my shots at Ian Poulter, but he deserves great credit for his efforts here, as not long ago this was a marque event on the Euro Tour. But the news is in the winner, per Martin Dempster:
EUROPEAN golf has another baby-faced star. Seven years after Rory McIlroy made hisprofessional debut in the same event, Matt Fitzpatrick won the £3 million British Masters supported by Sky Sports with a polished performance on the Marquess’ Course at Woburn, rewriting the record books in the process.
With a closing 68 for a 15-under-par total of 269, the 21-year-old from Sheffield became this event’s youngest winner, claiming that achievement by 267 days from 2002 champion Justin Rose, and that alone is quite a feat given it was first held in 1972 and has been won by some of the game’s greatest players.
Fitzpatrick won the 2013 U.S. Amateur and attended Northwestern for what Shack characterizes as "about twenty minutes." Like many, the struggle is to find playing opportunities, as per James Corrigan:
Fitzpatrick also said this week that he wanted to earn enough to replace his Ford, which is the source of some “banter” in the locker room, with his fellow pros nicknaming him “Mondeo Man”. Yet this son of a bank manager has a bigger prize in mind.
Since playing in the Masters as an amateur two years ago it has been his mission to get back there as a pro. This victory lifts him from 111th in the rankings to the top 65 and within sight of the top-50 placing he requires. He knows what is at stake in the next couple of months.
“If you’re in the top 50 it opens so many doors and my dad says it’s self-perpetuating,” Fitzpatrick said. “The money is bigger, ranking points are bigger and your card is easier to keep.
So many good young players, so few tee times...
The good news is that the English players are all on board to host this revitalized event. The bad news is that I can't imagine how they'll jam it into next year's crowded golf calendar.
This Week in Funny (and Weird) Golf Stories - Know any golfers with anger issues? OK, I meant besides your humble blogger... but how's ya like to be in a regular game with this guy?
According to Reuters, Kevin Hornbuckle was arrested and accused of planting two homemade bombs at the Foxtail Golf Club, which is approximately 50 miles north of San Francisco. Hornbuckle, 49, faces charges of possession and manufacturing of a destructive device.
Club members discovered one of the devices on Saturday on the 18th hole. The club was evacuated and police destroyed the bomb. The second device was found Friday night after it had already been detonated.
I'm unsure what it means to find a device that's already detonated, but Golf.com had this video of the incident:
I'm sure you'll join me in screaming "landscape mode."
We've all noted that Rory likes to hang with other sports stas but, not to worry, this bit doesn't involve the Woz:
On Monday, Rory McIlroy hung out with Ireland's National Rugby Team. Presumably, the fitness buff was impressed by the players' physical statures, but as for their golf, that's another story.
McIlroy hit balls and gave pointers to the guys. Apparently, star Luke Fitzgerald needs a few more lessons. Check out his attempted drive that had the four-time major champion and everyone else in attendance cracking up:
Pretty funny, no? But look at this pic that Rors tweeted...how's that for squaring up the club face?
Now if only our rugby star had this to help with his swing:
One thought is believed to be about the extent of what the brain can process in the course of executing a golf swing. As Adam Scott once said, “whatever I’m working on, I like to keep one swing thought in my head when I’m on the course.”
So Graham DeLaet, playing in the Ricky and Suzanne Barnes Foundation charity pro-am on Monday, found two pages of an amateur's rather extensive swing keys, suggesting a golfer who might be overthinking things. Of course, he shared them via Twitter, meanwhile accusing them of belonging to Colt Knost:
Found this on course today at @RealRickyBarnes charity tourney. I assume it's yours @ColtKnost
Wonder how that worked out for the poor guy? And how's he doing now that he's lost his bible?
I'm forced to play Quaker Ridge this afternoon, so gotta run...
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