Thursday Things

No time for pleasantries, so let's dive in...

Scenes From The Riv - The weather forecast is good, but Karen Crouse takes her employer's style book to the extreme and informs that women and minorities are hardest hit:

When the Northern Trust Open field was finalized last week, it looked as if Riviera

Country Club in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood here would be the stage for the latest high-profile duel, between Spieth, the world’s No. 1 golfer, and Rory McIlroy. But a funny thing happened on their way to becoming two more interlocking threads in the brilliant fabric of the Southern California sports scene. With his tie for 11th at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Sunday, Jason Day supplanted an idle McIlroy at No. 2. So McIlroy makes his Riviera and 2016 PGA Tour debut as the world No. 3.

Well then, what's the point?  If it can't live up to O.J. Simpson vs. Gary Beban, and unfortunately most of us are old enough to remember that.  I know she's on deadline and all, but to me that just raises the issue of which of these guys she's calling Gary Beban.

Her point seems to be that World Nos. One and Two don't often play in the same event, seemingly ignoring that they did just last week.... I don't get it, but the Times has prety much been a parody of itself for decades now...

Rory is the pregame story this week, simply because he's making his Tour debut, though purists will also note its his first time teeing it up on the West Coast swing.  That's unfortunate, but a fact of life for a Euro maintaining membership in both Tours (a necessity in a Ryder Cup year).  He has to fit those Euro events in somewhere, but now thoughts inevitably turn to the glide path to Augusta.  Perhaps someone should explain these facts of life to Ms. Crouse.

Rory's presser was quite interesting... we'll get to the gym work presently, but I (and pretty much everyone else) found this quote interesting:

"Sometimes I still get those feelings of -- I don't want to say I have guilt, but sometimes I feel like I haven't had to work as hard to get to where I am as some other people. I don't know if that's guilt or if that's questioning, 'Why is that me? Why am I the one that feels this way?' But I feel now that I definitely have got a ruthlessness on the course that I maybe didn't have a few years ago." 

In the demure world of golf, that's as boastful as a player will ever get.

 Ruthless enough to practice those three-footers?  Just askin'...

As for Rory's response to Chamblee, I asked for a substantive discussion and the lad delivered... You can sort through the long-form transcript, but here was the headline:

Q. You talked about golf being such a thinking game, you take such an analytical approach. In your discovery of yourself in exercise, where did nutrition and exercise become such a foundation of who you are? 

RORY McILROY: It probably started at the -- probably end of 2010 is when it started because I had back problems and as a 19-, 20-year-old having back problems isn't really the -- really you're just at the start of your career, and you don't want to have to keep managing that for the rest of your career.

So it was really the middle of 2010, end of 2010 where I realized that this isn't going to get any better unless I start to take care of myself better. So getting in the gym, eating better, and I think from the start of 2011, the direct correlation between leading a healthier lifestyle and my performance on the course was the same. I won my first major in 2011. I got to the best World Ranking I had ever been in 2011, and then it just continued from there.

So I definitely feel like the more I got into exercise and fitness and everything, the better my game became. And that correlation has sort of -- they have become parallel to me.

Remember, this was our Rory as as recently as 2007:

Anyone know who sourpuss is?  Never mind... But we can all agree that's a lot of wattle for a youngster, and good on him for fixing the problem.

Rory joked about doing squats with Brandel on his back and the latter responded in kind here, going the self-deprecating route.  Best part is the story about Jack handing jars to Barbara because he wasn't strong enough to open them...

This was Shack's take:

McIlroy did eventually speak eloquently on the topic and made his case, but it was with an edge that suggests he is annoyed at having to explain the rationale. Given what has happened to Tiger Woods, he evidently doesn't see why the question comes up.

Wassup with that?

They did a cool thing Tuesday at Riv:

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – It was throwback Tuesday at Riviera Country Club. 

An 8x11 piece of white paper taped to a card table at the tee of the 315-yard, 10th hole explained that “to honor the 90th playing of the Northern Trust Open, please feel free to hit a shot off the 10th tee with any of the historic clubs displayed from the 1920s, 1950s and 1990s.” 

There was one more caveat: “Soft balls are provided to protect these authentic historic clubs.”

Well, it is the 90th anniversary of what Shack calls the Glen Campbell Nissan Los Angeles Nissan Northern Trust Los Angeles Open, though surely he's missing a few sponsor names... But I think this sums up the effects of all those squats:

As if we needed any further proof that golf equipment has evolved, according to TrackMan data, McIlroy’s carry distance with hickory was 226.1 yards; he stepped it up to 269.9 with persimmon; and 270.6 yards with the original Callaway Big Bertha. When the tournament begins on Thursday, McIlroy likely will use his Nike Vapor 3-wood to avoid driving over the green.

Here's video of the fun:

Shack earns his keep with this history of the event:

While we're acknowledging this anniversary, how about a shout-out to the folks who started the event with its eye-catching $10,000 purse, post-Rose Bowl date to attract media before they headed back to Union Station, and the inaugural winner at Los Angeles Country Club, Harry "Lighthorse" Cooper.

And treat yourself to this 1991 profile of Lighthorse, longtime teaching pro at Westchester Country Club.

Tone Deaf Much? - You might envision me as the ultimate cynic, but I really can't believe this... or, more accurately, I really don't want to believe it.

Former Chief Inspector Dawson (that's a Shackism that will have to do until I come up with my own) has mercifully found gainful employment since losing his R & A gig:

Peter Dawson, former chief executive of the R&A and the president of the International Golf Federation, has been appointed as a consultant to explore opportunities that will continue to build on Dubai’s reputation as one of the world’s leading golf destinations. 

Dawson is highly regarded in the industry as a thought leader. He was, and continues to be, in the forefront of golf’s re-entry into the Olympic Games after a gap of 112 years.

Of course, 3.2 seconds of Googling reveals that it's also a leading destination for this:

There are reports of forced disappearances in the UAE, many foreign nationals and

Emirati citizens have been abducted by the UAE government and illegally detained in undisclosed locations.[1][2] In numerous instances, the UAE government has tortured people in custody and has denied their citizens the right to a speedy trial and access to counsel during official investigations.

Flogging and stoning are legal forms of judicial punishment in the UAE due to Sharia courts.[3] The government restricts freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the local media is censored to avoid criticizing the government, government officials or royal families. Freedom of association and freedom of religion are also curtailed.

Seems fair since our Peter is flogging their golf courses... And what, pray tell, comprises Peter's scope of services:

Dawson’s brief is to use his expertise to come up with ideas on how to build on golf’s solid footing in the emirate. “I’ve started by talking to all sorts of stakeholders, clubs, managers there, Government departments, making sure that golf being offered in Dubai is as excellent as Dubai’s 
general reputation,” he said. 

“It’s just making sure that everything that can be improved is improved, and I’ll be making some recommendations in due course. But I have to say that we have the luxury of operating from a very strong base, which is great. There’s 
a lot of good brains, a lot of hard-working people.”

Because, you know, he's a thought leader.  We don't know the magnitude of the quid, but one can't help wondering what the Sheikh considers the quo in this arrangement.  No doubt you're on your seat's edge to hear his latest thoughts on Olympic Golf:

“There is an increasing buzz among the players, men and women, about the prospect of competing,” added Dawson. “Golf needs to put up a good show at the Olympics and secure its position in the Games. Not only have we in golf worked hard on the event and the facilities, but we’ve also worked very hard about being a good member of the Olympic team. That’s very important, too.”

How do you interpret that last bit?  I take it to mean that all the right pockets got lined....

No, Next Question - Poll And Question: "Is the time right for non-conforming clubs?"  OK, maybe I was a little hasty.....Mike Stachura, Golf Digest's Equipment Editor, takes on this question:

But no major U.S. company is looking at the nonconforming market and getting intrigued. Several major manufacturers contacted by Golf Digest said they would not be pursuing nonconforming equipment; others had no specific comment on the issue. Typical was this response from Callaway: “We think there is a lot of runway to give distance and performance while still playing by the rules.” 

Even proudly renegade upstart Parsons Xtreme Golf defended golf’s rules. Said PXG and GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parson, “PXG believes that the USGA upholds the integrity of the game. As such, PXG’s clubs comply with all USGA regulations and we have no intention of introducing nonconforming equipment.”

Shack launches into a rant about the inevitability of bifurcation, which is ground well-covered.  But my interest is in whether this is an unexploited avenue for teaching newcomers our game.

We all understand that there's nothing natural about the golf swing and many folks find our game far too frustrating to see the lifetime of enjoyment to be found.  The trick is to give them that indescribable feeling of a well-struck shot as early in the process as possible...

I haven't put any appreciable thought into this, but I could easily see non-conforming equipment and balls as a pathway into the game.  It's a heck of a lot easier than building short courses, and it's not actually illegal for the game to be fun.  Unlike Geoff, I don't see that there's much money to be made by the equipment manufacturers, but please discuss among yourselves....