Sunday Supplement

Just think of this as that free standing insert in your Sunday newspaper... Do they still print FSI's?  Heck, do they still print newspapers?

Scenes From Moving Day - Move they did, in all sorts of crazy directions...  When last we spoke Rickie was Colossus bestriding the Earth.... Now, not so much:

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) One bad swing by Adam Scott led to two balls in

the water on the same hole Saturday in the Honda Classic. Even with a quadruple bogey, he managed to be satisfied with a 4-under 66 and a share of the lead with Sergio Garcia.

A bizarre and breezy afternoon ended at PGA National with two players whose fortunes changed mightily in the final hour.

Scott looked better than ever, 7 under through 14 holes and only once having to save par. He was three shots ahead going to the tee on the par-3 15th, and it was starting to look like a runaway. Some 20 minutes later, he was one shot behind Garcia.

''Pretty costly,'' Scott said. ''But fortunately, I had a couple shots to spare. Hopefully, it won't cost me too big in the grand scheme of things.''

To clarify, no matter how bad any one swing is, it doesn't cause two balls to rinse....that requires a second bad swing or misjudgment.  And while I'm as big a fan of alliteration as any, I'll grant him the bizarre but where was this breeze he speaks of?  

Thing is, before rinsing those two Scott was on one of those rolls that looks like he should have a big "S" on his chest.  Remember a few years ago when Kevin Streeleman birdied the final seven holes to win in Hartford?  You watch that kind of streak in some level of awe, but you still know it's Kevin Streelman and he'll regress to the mean.  But you watch Adam birdie seven of the first fourteen, and you think he should do this every day.  

For the first three rounds Scott's Strokes Gained- Putting is +.220, a level at which he's capable of winning due to his superior ball-striking.  But no doubt he was below average before he started holing everything yesterday, so he'll need to keep the putter at least at room temperature to seal the deal.  But still, 66 with a quad is something we don't see every day...

And how about the virus that infected the final pairing?  Shack got video of Jimmy Fowler being introduced on the first tee here,   Though Rickie Walker actually played far worse than Jimmy Fowler, posting a 79 to 74.  Though I might have those mixed up...  Geoff attributes the posting of that video to somebody in Fortress Ponte Vedra growing a funny bone... I don't know, let's give it a day and see if any of the VP's resigns to spend more time with his family.

In giving NBC props yesterday, I forgot to note the use of multiple anemometers to demonstrate wind speed and direction on different sections of the golf course.  Yes, NBC, we know you'll be covering the Open Championship, but still a cool graphic that shows the variability of wind, even on relatively calm days in South Florida.

Given that the two players that have separated themselves from the field both need a win pretty badly but are also known to lose control of their putters under pressure, who knows what could happen out there today?  Blayne Barber anyone?

Open Season on Trump - The intersection of golf and politics has been more than a bit depressing this year, though if you can put aside the little matter of the future of our way of life it offers its amusements.

Exhibit A has been the media's treatment of one Donald Trump.... Spy Magazine, a wonderful publication alas no longer with us, used to call him a short-fingered vulgarian, and that wa sback in the 1980's.... so where are all the exposes of his shady business deals and outrageous and irreconcilable public statements?  That's easy, they're in inventory awaiting the Field Marshall Rodham's order to commence assault...

Though in the last couple of days Chris Christie has informed me that Trump is the one candidate Hillary (and perhaps especially Bill) don't want to have to deal with...  Chris wouldn't lie to me, would he?  

It's that context that makes a couple of N. Y. Times hit pieces so curious.....mostly the timing thereof, though the items themselves seem laughably inept, the first under this header:

Donald Trump in New York: Deep Roots, but Little Influence

So, whattya got?  here's the lede:

It is impossible to miss when you fly into New York City and spot the golf course in the

shadow of the Whitestone Bridge. It is hard to avoid when you stroll along Fifth Avenue, or venture past the skating rink or carousel in Central Park. And it is there in bright lights, no less, when you pass the sleek hotel near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel: the name of Donald J. Trump. 

Mr. Trump has embraced his roots as a New Yorker as being crucial to his presidential bid, and in so doing, the Republican candidate has given the impression as he crossed the country that he is a force to reckon with in the city of his birth.

 Hey, you got Zamboni's with your name on it?  But here's the gist of Pravda's case:

His real estate holdings in New York are modest; he did not make the top 10 in lists of major condominium developers and power players in real estate in the city, as judged by several publications. He does not belong to trade groups like the Real Estate Board of New York or the Association for a Better New York. He rarely interacts with top politicians or government officials, or contributes to campaigns. Discussions about a bid for governor in 2014 never got off the ground. 

Though he portrays himself as a major developer, his companies’ highest profile ownership stakes in real estate in New York include an office building on Wall Street; part of another on Avenue of the Americas; commercial space at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where he lives; and parking below the Trump Plaza on East 61st Street. 

“It’s a very successful garage,” he said in a telephone interview.

I love the image of a group of Times' editors sitting around and talking as if this is some powerful indictment....  Really, he doesn't belong to the Real Estate Board?   The scandal...  And he might be leading the Republican race for President, but his feelers about running for Governor went nowhere.

And, as they make clear later on, Trump is no Bill de Blassio, and they say it as if that would be a negative.... he's not like the guy that decided to honeymoon in Castro's Cuba.  I'm OK with that...

And the latest hit piece by Joe Nocera does have a golf connection, though with this detour through the USFL:

When last we left Donald J. Trump, at least here on the sports page, we were recalling

the time he owned the New Jersey Generals in the short-lived United States Football League. Trump bought the Generals in 1983, after their first season, and immediately began pushing the league to move its season from the spring to the fall and take on the mighty N.F.L. His campaign generated a tremendous amount of publicity for Trump, but produced nothing but misery for the other owners. After a Trump-orchestrated antitrust suit against the N.F.L. backfired spectacularly, the once-promising U.S.F.L. went kaput.

Got it Joe, you're just following orders, but the USFL?  And a professional sports team owner promoting himself, I'll alert the media...Oh, right.  

But to the heart of the matter:

But I was recently alerted to a dispute at a Trump-owned golf resort in Jupiter, Fla., which suggests that his football follies weren’t a one-off. In this dispute, members say Trump, who in 2012 bought what is now called Trump National Jupiter from Marriott Vacations Worldwide, basically stiffed them out of their refundable deposits, many of which were in the range of $200,000. Some of the members had to swallow the loss (in return for some paltry benefits) because they had bought time shares or homes that were part of the resort development. Others negotiated settlements. Still others sued. One suit has gained class-action status, and if a federal judge doesn’t dismiss the case between now and June (unlikely), it will go to trial.

Did tat alert happen to come from a private server in a bathroom in Chappaqua, NY?

To be clear, Trump's business should be a gold mine of oppo research opportunities....  In a world where Mitt Romney was an ogre for running a reputable private equity firm, how is a NYC real estate developer going to look to the masses?  Wow, he didn't pay his subcontractors in full....get out much, Joe?

It's equally perplexing that his Republican took so long to start attacking him for this stuff (and really, Trump University and the serial bankrupting of the casinos seems like lower-hanging fruit) and that these Democratic operatives with bylines are seemingly attacking him just a tad too early.  Of course, they're under orders, and maybe Christie is right....

Thirteenth Reax - Will Gray talks to few players about yesterday's news from Augusta, and they seem really excited:

After completing his third round at the Honda Classic, Billy Horschel offered a candid dissent to potential changes. 

“If they move that tee back any more, if they buy land and move the tee back and move it back by 40 yards – I may get kicked out of there, but it’s the dumbest thing in the world,” Horschel said. “I mean, I’m being nice about it. I think it’s a great hole already. Golf is going in the wrong direction by adding length to the golf course.”

And Phil:

“Wow, I thought it made a big impact when they moved it back already,” said three-time Masters champ Phil Mickelson when told of the possible changes. “But there are still guys that can take it over the corner and take it over the trees. I mean, there’s only like five of them, but there’s still some. So I guess I understand it, they’re trying probably to eliminate that for the entire field.”

Like many, the shot that came to mind was Bubba's monster tee shot in the final round in 2014, but here's Horschel again:

According to Horschel, the aggressive tee shot those changes might eliminate is just an example of the risk-reward nature that makes No. 13 one of the best holes in its current form.

Bubba was more than  a little fortunate that that shot cleared, but we certainly wouldn't want to encourage players to take aggressive lines off the tee.... wouldn't be prudent.  Far better that they hit 5-irons off the tee and all lay-up to the same spot on fairway.

A Fun Day of Golf - Via Shack, I'll go out on a limb and guess that this guy didn't break the course record:

Do we think that the TaylorMade guys subscribe to the old adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity?