Friday Fun

Just a few quick items before we start our weekend....

You Don't Know Boo - We covered philosopher-king Boo Weekly's comments last week reagrding the Tour's wraparound schedule, to wit, that it sucks.  And that's not a paraphrase, he actually used the "S" word, though I think this was the more substantive bit:

BOO WEEKLEY: It's just, it's stupid. I still ain't figured out this FedEx -- what does this

FedExCup stuff do? It ain't doing nothing, but it is what it is. It's supposed to be the players tour. It's Tim Finchem and them's tour is what it is. 

It's aggravating having to play this much, but yet it's important to come out and try to get a good start. I mean, it's good for the rookies, I think. It gives them something they can up can out and get their feet wet before they actually get into the bigger tournament. I think that's a good thing.

There's a lot of Yogi-like wisdom packed into those two 'graphs, but I take his comments to mean that he preferred the old Fall Finish schedule, where the Tour ran these events and players could improve their Tour status, but they didn't count towards the following year's FedEx Cup or perhaps Ryder Cup points.  

Jim McCabe picks a fight with Boo, with coherence hardest hit...  He has three basic points

When Weekley bombed out as a PGA Tour rookie in 2002 (he missed the cut in 19 of 24 events, was 200th on the money list), he had the luxury of playing a Web.com Tour that provided the opportunity to play golf for a decent living and eventually earn his way back to the PGA Tour. Seems fair to say that the Web.com Tour is a nice safety net provided by the same PGA Tour people Weekley rips for these long golf seasons.

I've read Weekly's comments several times now, and  Boo doesn't say boo about the Web.com Tour.  McCabes point seems to be that because Boo benefited from the one that he shouldn't criticize the other... and that's his lead argument.  But maybe he's saved his killer ap:

In 2007 Weekley returned to the PGA Tour and struck gold — a win, four other top 10s, and $2.6 million. He played in the Tour Championship and no one would have blamed him had he shut it down in late September and gone hunting and fishing. Only he teed it up in Mississippi, then at the Disney event when there was no reason to do so. Oh, and he then played in the World Cup of Golf. In China. Starting on Thanksgiving. Refresh my memory: Is it good fishing or good hunting that gets you to Shenzhen in late November?

OK, this is only marginally better...  Yes, Boo made a voluntary decision to play some late-season golf eight years ago.  But his point wasn't that there shouldn't be any golf played, it was that one shouldn't need to play golf to keep up with the Jones...And lastly:

During lean years, 2011 and 2012, Weekley was struggling and very much needed good play late in the year. The PGA Tour was there for him, offering fall events; Weekley played four of them in ’11 and four more in ’12.

 Boo spoke of it being a good thing to have events for the kids, and it's not such a leap to add struggling vets to that logic...Shack has a good summary of the dismal ratings here, so I'm not even sure with those kind of numbers how one keeps the gravy train going.

CONCLUSION: Advantage Boo.

Scenes From the Class Struggle - I might pull something patting myself on my back for this world-class segue, but the point that Boo and I are trying to make is that it's far more interesting to watch the young kids fighting for their careers than to have the Boo Weekly's playing because they're supposed to play.

Thus this dispatch from Web.com Q-school from Gary Van Sickle is a worthy example of the genre, focussing on the struggles of former U.S. Amateur champ Bubba Dickerson (and we can't have too many Bubbas in the game):

Shooting 65 in the first round of Web.com Tour second stage qualifying isn’t necessarily the best thing that can happen to you. At least, not if you’re Bubba Dickerson, former U.S. Amateur champion and part-time Tour player. 

"I showed up with no expectations because I hadn’t played much lately," Dickerson said after Thursday’s third round. "I shoot 65 and all of a sudden I have expectations. I always play better without them."

There was nothing more gut-wrenching that Q-School, but we simply couldn't have that much drama on TV.   Nope, wouldn't be prudent...

Adding fun to this is that Dickerson was paired with Cameron Wilson and Mike Van Sickle, the latter being Gary's spawn.  Mike and I share a recurring problem:

Mike, 28, and a Pittsburgh resident, is a big hitter and said his drivers typically last less than a year before the face caves in. 

"Who makes Thor’s hammer, I don’t remember that ever cracking," Mike joked. "I check my driver pretty closely during the year because of that and I try not to hit too many range balls with it. Because of that, I had a backup driver ready to come in from the bullpen, or the back of my car. The one that broke today made it well past the ‘best by’ date so I’ve been checking it pretty carefully." 

He’ll be trolling online to see if there are any more 9° Classic 290 drivers on the market. Other than that, he had a quiet day. The pins at Southern Hills Plantation were in the toughest spots in three days and a stiffening breeze made the closing holes a little more challenging.

I just hate when that happens...

No Discovery? -  Maggot was so looking forward to coverage of this lawsuit on Court TV:

A Playboy model who sued when she was left with a crimson keister after a bum rap

with a golf club in an ill-advised stunt settled out of court, the Associated Press reported.

It is not known whether she got a buttload of money; terms of the settlement were not announced. 

The incident in question, reported here by Golf Digest’s Alex Myers, occurred at a Playboy function at Industry Hills Golf Club in the City of Industry, Calif. We’ll let the actual lawsuit pick it up from there: 

“Early on at the event Plaintiff [Elizabeth Dickson] was requested to lie down and pose for a photograph with defendant Kevin Klein. The photograph was supposed to depict the Plaintiff lying flat on her stomach with her buttocks partially exposed. A golf tee was then placed between the cheeks of her buttocks and a golf ball was balanced on top of the tee.” 

The suit claimed that Klein was only supposed to pose. Instead, “unbeknownst to the plaintiff and without her permission or consent…swung the golf club and struck the Plaintiff on the buttocks, causing her injuries and damages.”

Yep. He hit the tee shot fat.

Now there's a grow the game initiative we can all get....errr....behind.

Perfect for Each Other -  It's deja vu all over again:

John Daly's ex-wife, Sherrie Daly, has been arrested. If you feel like you've heard that before, that's because you probably have. 

Among several run-ins with the law, Daly served five months in federal prison in 2006 for money laundering, and in September, she was arrested for harassing a woman who had a relationship with a man she was seeing. And it appears that feud hasn't gone away.

According to the Palm Beach Post, Daly was arrested on Tuesday night in Memphis, Tenn., for breaking into a man's house and attacking him with a golf club. There was also a female witness in the room with whom Daly has a restraining order from and against. Daly was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and violating an order of protection, according to the report.

I'm so confused as I thought all his exes live in Texas...