Sunday, Snowy Sunday

It's a Bizarro World Sunday....a powder day were I in Park City.  Let's continue t catch up, shall we?

Dinah Stuff - We give the gals top-billing, because no one else will... But it's quite the little tourney they have going, notably including late fireworks from one of their big guns:

Lexi Thompson rallied Saturday to put herself in position for a run at another victory

leap into Poppie's Pond. For most of the warm afternoon at Mission Hills, it looked as if her new big-headed putter might end up in the drink — or in a twisted heap in the nearest garbage can. 

Overcoming her struggles on the greens, Thompson made two late birdies and curled in a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the ANA Inspiration.

Lexi looked like she was going nowhere the entire day, in it's own way quite the testament to her patience.   And the chase pack has it's appeal as well:

Top-ranked Lydia Ko, In Gee Chun and Ariya Jutanugarn were tied for second, and fifteen players were within four strokes of each at the top of the leaderboard. 

Ko shot a 69, a day after fighting allergies that led to vision problems. On Friday, she continually changed her contact lenses, irritating her left eye to the point that she said she was "one-eye blind." 

"I was a little worried about my eye, but it was great today," Ko said.

So close....as Lydia was dealing with the allergies and the affect on her contact lenses, for a brief moment I thought we might have one last week of Lydia in the beloved glasses, but it's not to be....I'll be OK....I think.

I would have loved a Lexi-Lydia pairing, though they'd have only been in the same camera frame on the tees and greens.  But it would be a priceless tutorial on the differing ways to get around such a long (for the ladies) golf course.  It no doubt favors the bomber, but it's a welcome sign that Lydia can be competitive despite her length disadvantage.  I'm thinking that Sahalee's narrow corridors should suit her when the KPMG event is there in a few weeks.

And Michelle Wie seems to have played three consecutive rounds of golf withour hurting herself, so we've got that going for us...

 Tiger Stuff - As sophisticated consumers of golf news, you've taken in the Friday news dump. to wit:

"After assessing the present condition of my back, and consulting with my medical team, I've decided it's prudent to miss this year's Masters," Woods said in the statement. 

"I've been hitting balls and training daily, but I'm not physically ready. I've said all along that this time I need to be cautious and do what's best for my long-term health and career. Unfortunately, playing Augusta next week wouldn't be the right decision. I'm absolutely making progress, and I'm really happy with how far I've come, but I still have no timetable to return to competitive golf.

That "no timetable" has an ominous ring to it no doubt,  but he seems to be risking the alienation of his core constituency.  Shack had this:

However, we know the circumstantial evidence suggests Tiger drew out this inevitable decision for reasons only he knows. 

Perhaps resisting the urge to tell the folks at Augusta National he can't play keeps him motivated to train and hit balls, even when he has to know that showing up cold at a major after two surgeries is a terrible idea. 

Perhaps he just enjoys the idea that everyone is talking about him, wondering when he'll return? But as I noted in the Forward Press this week, this news is now only of interest to casual fans. Serious golf viewers have moved on.

It's not you, Tiger, it's us....  Luke- Kerr-Dineen differs, noting that Tiger remains at the top of his game:

But outside of all that let’s just appreciate the mastery of the manner in which Tiger announced this news: 8 p.m. on a Friday that also happens to be April Fools’ Day? He may not be teeing it up at Augusta National this year, but rest assured, he’s perfected the art of the Friday news dump.

Well played, Sir!  Though I'm one of those serious golf fans of which Geoff spoke.

But the entree is Alan Shipnuck's Sports Illustrated cover story with the seemingly simple title, "What Happened?"  There's nothing simple about unraveling that mystery and I've got some quibbles about Alan's reporting, but there's enough in there to hold your interest....

Let me first get my biggest concern about the piece out of the way:

Woods's honesty between the ropes came into question after he committed three serious

rules infractions in 2013. The most troubling incident occurred during the second round of the BMW Championship. At the 1st hole his ball settled in a grove of trees, atop twigs and leaves. While clearing the loose impediments, the ball moved. Woods hesitated, recoiled his hand and immediately stepped away but said nothing to his playing partners, Scott and Henrik Stenson. It was caught on video, and in a postround meeting with Tour officials Woods explained that he thought his ball had "oscillated" and returned to its exact same position, which would not have been a penalty. 

When Scott and Stenson viewed the replays, they had no doubt it was a penalty. "It's obvious the ball moved a little bit," says Scott. Adds Stenson, "Like everyone else I saw the footage, and it seemed quite clear his ball had moved." 

In his heated discussion with rules official Slugger White, Woods refused to accept what was apparent to the rest of the world. Over Tiger's protestations, White imposed a two-stroke penalty. For many in golf this moment was window into Woods's soul. He had long been celebrated as a sportsman; now, had he become so desperate to regain his former standing he was willing to commit golf's cardinal sin and break the rules? As always with Woods, there are questions but no definitive answers. But whether it was a kindergarten tale or a misadventure in the trees, it was now clear in the aftershocks of the sex scandal that Tiger would no longer be entitled to his own set of facts.

I'm operating solely from memory here, but this seems to be quite the distortion of what actually happened.  What Shipnuck fails to make clear is that the movement of the ball could not be seen on the replay in real time, but only when the high-speed video slowed it down... and the context of those Stenson and Scott comments seems to me to make quite the difference.

Tiger was quite churlish in not acknowledging that the ball moving on high-speed video was apparent, but Shipnuck's implication that Tiger was trying to cheat seems off the mark.  Tiger has long had a chip on his shoulder about being held to a higher standard than other players because his every move is on camera, and it directly supports the basic premise of the article, which is captured here (Haney is speaking of Tiger's return at the 2006 U.S. Open after Earl's passing):

"That's one interpretation," Hank Haney said in a recent interview. "I see it a little differently. That was the only time in his career there were no expectations, the one time he had an excuse to not be Tiger Woods. I think this guy was already tired of living in his life, and here comes a free pass to not be Tiger Woods for a week. He jumped on it so fast it's unbelievable."

Alan, if you're going to accuse Tiger of cheating, this is the far better instance.  

You'll want to read the entire piece, as there's so much there that might be new to you.  Admittedly you'll learn more about Earl than you may have wanted to know, but it's hard to argue that it's not relevant considering what ensued for his son... and how prescient was this (from 1995 after Tiger's second of three U.S. Amateur titles)?

A couple of hours later Tiger's father, Earl, was at a victory party. Intoxicated by the moment, and perhaps his champagne, he said, "I'm going to make a prediction. Before he's through, my son will win 14 major championships." 

It was an interesting number, given that Nicklaus had always been the family measuring stick. Perhaps Earl knew that the great Bobby Jones had won 13 majors, and that exceeding this total had been Nicklaus's lifelong goal. When he did, the Bear fell into a period of ennui before he went back to rewriting the record books. Did the number 14 set Tiger on the path to greatness or somehow stunt an endless future? Earl had a knack for predicting the future, but even he couldn't have known all that awaited his boy. Yet on a long ago night in Newport he had already seen enough. "To my son, Tiger," Earl said, raising the Amateur trophy in a toast. "One of the greatest golfers in the history of the United States."

He was certainly that....

Bryson Stuff -  This Jim Nantz interview is well worth your time, though I'm not sure he's doing the young man any favors here:

Casey Reamer, the head pro at Cypress Point and a mentor to Bryson, asked if I would speak to him about the history of the Masters. It was an amazing two hours. He asked every question imaginable about every significant player in Masters history, with an emphasis on tales of amateurs such as Billy Joe Patton, Frank Stranahan, Ken Venturi and Charlie Coe. I have DVDs of all the recent Masters, and Bryson asked to borrow them, not for entertainment so much as to study hole locations, how putts break, where players were laying up on the par 5s. This young man is obsessed with winning the Masters as an amateur. His mind works in a unique, scientific way. It all reminded me of Bert Yancey and how he constructed clay models of the greens at Augusta and studied them. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this young man contend.

he is a fascinating young man and obviously not one to do things as others always have, but contending?  This year?  Kind of a big ask, no?

 But there's also news on the lad's equipment, which is always interesting:

Bryson DeChambeau, the world’s No. 1 amateur who will play in next week’s Masters,

used a customized, same-length set of Cobra King Forged MB irons for the first time at the 19th annual Georgia Cup on Tuesday. 

DeChambeau previously used a set of highly specialized, same-length Edel irons, with which he won last year’s U.S. Amateur and NCAA Championship. He had put a new set of the Edel irons in play in March at the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational before trying out the Cobra irons. 

DeChambeau is expected to turn pro after the Masters and play the RBC Heritage, which starts April 14.

I'd expect an endorsement deal to be announced right after the Masters, as it's no easy thing to create a set of irons for this man.

Equipment Stuff -  A couple of quick notes on those in the know hinting that perhaps the powers that be have lost control of the game.  First, the estimable Barney Adams:

A shorter-flying ball brings dozens, if not hundreds of great venues back into play for our nation’s championship. The USGA can give all kinds of altruistic reasons, but the reason I use to justify is the media. Each venue is a repository for stories on how it will be played with a shorter ball that spins more. The stories, the build up, the after stories about next year’s course… one objective, the No. 1-rated major golf tournament.

See, I'm old enough to remember when the hope was that the mujaheddin at Augusta National would save us by using a tourney ball.  I think the USGA has made it very clear that, while they covet the Masters' TV ratings, they don't have the cujones to take on the equipment industry.

Adam Scott comes at it from the alternative angle in this interview:

BW: If you were equipment czar of the game for a day, running the USGA and R&A, what would you change? 

AS: I think it's possible that you could make an argument for having different equipment rules for us than the amateurs. I think that's almost logical to do that. I’d re-implement anchored putting because until I'm given facts that it actually is a game-improver, performance-enhancer, then I'm going to have to say I'd put it back in. Maybe driver head size is something I'd look at. That’s a massive difference now. When I was a kid, pulling the driver out of the bag was a concern, like you're going to have to make a great swing to hit a good drive. Now it's the go-to club. It's the most forgiving club we have. That's a huge difference in how you get off the tee to start a hole of golf.

Yanno, there wouldn't be a problem if we could keep you guys out of the gym.  The logic for bifurcation is beyond the obvious, given that no one believes the game at the club level is too easy.  And most of us realize that we can't possibly play the same equipment as the best in the world, but there's no indication that anything will change in the forseeable future.