Wind-Aided Blogging

We had another 17" of snow in the last 24 hours, bringing us to 42" for the past three days.  Alas, after heading to the mountain earlt Bob and I found all of the lifts form the base on wind hold, where they remain to now.

We took it as a sign from the deity to give our bodies a rest. but Mitch and Lee exploited  their tactical advantage, having their gear with them, and headed to the Dark Side, also known as Park City.  They were able to head across on the new connecting gondola and texted me this picture of the ghost town:

Yesterday one needed to thread through hundreds of skiers...today it's freshies right out side the lodge.  

You dear reader, are the beneficiary of these winds, so let's talk a little golf.  

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations - Shack takes a crack at discerning where we are on the distance issue, and this opening bit will explain the header:

Those of us pointing out the issue are no longer treated like lepers for suggesting the 

ball goes too far. Enough courses across the land have had to deal with safety or function issues. This has meant a much larger audience does not need the issue explained to them. Even better, many more look down on the governing bodies for continuing to work tirelessly not to act.

You'll agree that's setting the bar pretty damn low, but even sadder is that it's an arguable point.   

Shack does a good job in summarizing conflicting data....Per Dave Dusek, average driving distance hasn't moved much the last ten years:

There was a jump of more than 5 yards from 2000 to 2001 as many players switched into solid-core golf balls, and then a 6.5-yard jump from 2002 to 2003 as more players started using larger-headed drivers. But as you can see, since 2005 the PGA Tour’s average driving distance has fluctuated within a 3.7-yard range, between 287.2 and 290.9. That’s about 11 feet, or, 4 feet shorter than a free throw in basketball.

OK, but the awkwardly-named Shoshana Agus-Kleinman tackles the issue differently, first reminding us of these comments from our stewards of the game:

"What we are seeing at the moment is a fairly consistent percentage of some tremendous athletes who are hitting the ball farther," said R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers in China at this week's HSBC Golf Business Forum. "The percentage of them is unchanged. The average is a lot less than what the media talk about. The average has only moved 3 to 4 yards in the last 10 years. There's no burning desire on our part to make any changes." 

"It's a single-digit number of players who hit over 320 [yards]," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, also at the conference. "The average is in the mid-280s -- this is run and carry.

 She then channels her inner Perry mason and hands the witness this graph:

Don't look like no leveling off to my eyes....Here's her conclusion:

The USGA, R&A, and PGA Tour can all suggest what they'd like, but the numbers don’t lie. Driving distance on the PGA Tour is increasing, and it is increasing rapidly.

I don't know the underlying cause of that discrepancy in the data, but it sure seems like the lads are pounding it further.  In the good old days they used to only measure driving distance on two holes, and I've no idea whether that practice continues in the Shot-Link era.

But let me raise a further issue that might muddy the waters.  We all understand that the Trackman technology has allowed the players to optimize their launch conditions, and more recently this has been used to similarly increase the distance with which the guys are hitting clubs other than driver.  See, for instance, Stenson, Henrik and his thermonuclear 3-wood....  If you hit the fairway wood 300 yards and straighter, I'm guessing you'll hit fewer drivers and I wonder if that's buried in the data, dampening the increases.

In any event, if you're not familiar with the concept of bifurcation, read up as that would seem to be the only path forward.

My Year In Golf -  Is an interesting feature of the Golfweek writing crew.  They all go about the task differently, for instance architectural writer Bradley Klein talks about his efforts to teach his grandchildren golf here.   Can't blame the man, especially since Cabot Cliffs was about the only significant new course opening during the year (though Chambers Bay provided no shortage of commentary opportunities).

Kevin Casey is the new kid on the block, covering amateur golf.  Here's my favorite of his vignettes: 

For the most part, this proved to be my first experience interacting with co-workers in person. It didn’t disappoint, as Lance Ringler, Tracy Wilcox, Alex Miceli and Jeff Babineau were all great company. And because he didn’t mention it in his own “My Year in Golf,” I’ll point out two of my favorite moments that week came from Sir Babineau (disclaimer: he’s not actually knighted, as far as I know).

First, his tracking down of what I felt was the detail of the week: Bryson DeChambeau skipping a barbecue early in the week so he could float his golf balls in Epsom salt. The champion-to-be that week was pretty forthright and offered up several newsworthy nuggets about himself on his own, but discovering that quirk took some expert sleuthing. Well done, Jeff.

Kevin, you're absolutely certain he said "golf" balls?  DeChambeau is one crazy dude and will be turning pro shortly.  Please, God, let him make it out there, as I need the copy.

Jeff Babineau finishes his entry with a Michael Greller story:

If you thought relatively untested Chambers Bay getting to host a U.S. Open was the biggest golf story in the Pacific Northwest this summer, you’d be overlooking a better one. How about Gig Harbor’s Michael Greller, a former sixth-grade schoolteacher, and his happy homecoming? 

Greller had decided to caddie at Chambers in his summer off-days in 2007 with the outside hope that he might land a contestant’s bag when the Open did arrive in 2015. Well, he got his bag. You know the story by now: Greller left the teaching gig to go full-time on Tour with Jordan Spieth, whom he’d met as an amateur. So in June, he not only got to caddie in the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, which was the original goal – he thinks so much of the place that he got married on property in 2013 – but he’s even a significant part of the winning team. How’s that shaping up for a Hallmark after-school movie? 

But here’s the indelible final scene you didn’t get to see: It’s the Monday after the U.S. Open, and Chambers Bay is near-empty save for the bulldozers and construction crews that are taking the grandstands down. There’s just a few things left on the shelves inside the massive U.S. Open concession tent – Half-Off Sale!!! – and Greller, wearing shades and a ballcap, barely recognizable, is there with his wife, Ellie, eyeing what’s left with a few shopping stragglers. He picks up a handful of embroidered U.S. Open flags. And you think to yourself,Wow, there’s a guy who got to live out a dream. 

It was that kind of year. Pass the pudding. Happy holidays.

Martin Kaufman tells of encountering pitcher David Price on the golf course.  Apparently Price is quite the good stick, but since he has signed with the dreaded BoSox he will be banished from this blog in perpetuity.

Looks like he plays right-handed.

The Hypothetical Mulligan - When I saw the header, I immediately knew the answer:

If he could take one mulligan this year, Jordan Spieth knows exactly where it would be – the final round at St. Andrews.

Any guesses which shot?  Anyone?  Bueller?

He had a long birdie putt on the par-3 hole that he ran so far by the cup that it stopped just off the green. He took three putts from there for a double bogey.

"I made a mistake, and it cost me at least a shot," Spieth said. "The wind was sideways and it was into the rain and I was thinking it would be slow. I'd left it short all week and I didn't want to leave that one short. And, obviously, I didn't."

Yup, four-putts really sting when you finish one shot out of the playoff.  Oh, and there was that Grand Slam thing on the table.

POTUS Walk-Off -  If only, I hear you saying... no doubt you've seen this from his vacation in Hawaii:

Now I don'r criticize him for the amount of golf he plays for the obvious reason that I figure the Republic's safe (well, safer) for those four-hour blocks of time.  But you can no doubt guess who did:

"It was reported today he played 250 rounds of golf and he's going to be in Hawaii, I think did they say for three weeks?" Trump said. "Two hundred and fifty rounds, that's more than a guy who plays in the PGA Tour plays. He played more golf last year than Tiger Woods. We don't have time for this. We have to work."

Big deal, Donald, lots of people played more golf than Tiger last year...  after all, Tiger rarely even hung around for the weekend.

Twelfth Night -  This constitutes actual news:

The PGA Tour has planned the most extensive change for a single hole at the TPC

Sawgrass Players Stadium Course since the 2006 renovation project with Monday’s announcement that the 12th hole will be modified to become the first driveable par-4 on the course. 

The new look for the hole, which measures 358 yards for The Players Championship, will be unveiled for the 2017 tournament. It could play as short as 300 to 320 yards during the week of the tournament, with the players teeing off on some days from what is now considered the member tee.

I actually liked the hole, mostly because it was about the only one on the property with an elevation change, however artificial it might be.  Not any more, it seems:

The large bank on the left will be leveled, the green complex will be modified to allow for players to run shots onto the green and there will be a narrow water hazard that will run down the left side of the green.

I can see their point, as I didn't even hit driver on the hole, and the big boys were hitting mid-irons.  At least the change comes with a risk-reward tradeoff.

Nine Days of X-Mas, Cont'd. -  Shack goes with hard goods in his next two installments.  First a trip down memory lane:

But for those of us whose golf skills peaked during the Bush I years, PING made the wedges we adored putting back into our Jones bags. The Eye2 had a thick sole that made bunker shots (almost) a joy. Then they mysteriously abandoned that for a sole and soulless design which did have one positive feature: a huge face.

I'm guessing a combination of those two elements, along with other ideas inspired Roger Cleveland and Phil Mickelson to design this 2015-debuting wedge (you can hear them talk about the clubs here). While all of the Mac Daddy line wedges feel and look great, it's the 60-degree PM grind I'd highly recommend if you're one of those people who misses the old PING's.

I played around with a demo of the PM grind in a 58*.  It's a great club but was so much shorter on full shots than my existing Vokeys, I wasn't sure how to accommodate it in my bag.  

Next Geoff has a suggestion for the traveling golfer:

For the second-to-last product that I enjoyed this year, we go up the price ladder a bit

withSun Mountain's Club Glider Travel Bag. Granted, as more folks use Luggage Forwardand Ship Sticks, a travel cover doesn't seem like a priority any longer. But knowing how fragile clubs can be, you can never be too safe. 

That said, after years of my R2D2-inspired Sun Mountain droid of a travel bag--which thankfully protected my clubs every time they traveled--it was time for an updated travel cover after a wheel finally came off during what was undoubtedly an unusually rough journey. After just one trip using the Sun Mountain "glider" I'm all in (I also bought their suitcase with the same glider wheels and loved it).

 Bought one of these for Employee No. 2 before our Scotland journey in August, and it's a winner.  And really, who deserves it more than she?  He's got one more for us, so I do hope he finishes strong.

Other Holiday Themes - Joel Beall celebrates that other holiday, no not Kwanzaa, occuring this time of year:

Festivus, made popular by the show Seinfeld, is a holiday free of religious or commercial aspects. Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances, where you tell friends and family all the ways they have disappointed you in the past year. 

We are bringing this tradition to our golf world, for as much as I love the game, I got a lot of problems with it. AND NOW YOU PEOPLE ARE GONNA HEAR ABOUT IT! 

Let the Airing of Golf Grievances begin!

Here's a sample to my liking:

Ryder Cup task force

"Task forces" are for parent-run school boards and plot devices in Chuck Norris films. Trying to figure out why your country has lost six of seven team matches is not one of them. And you better believe that self-important title will be ridiculed if the United States falls again.

Ya think?