Tuesday Trifles

It's primary day here in the Empire State, so what could go wrong?  I know, that's why I stick to the golf beat...

Masters Hangover - Not his, of course, but if you're so inclined you can watch Shack and Gray Williams discuss our kind's inability to move on here.  I've gotten past it, so I hope young Jordan has as well....

I wanted to share these infrared Sports Illustrated photos of Augusta National, which are quite cool:

The 11th green and scoreboard.

Jimmy Walker teeing off on the 7th.

I did enjoy this James Corrigan item on Danny Willet's half-coach Mike Walker, who almost missed it all.  He apparently missed the memo that the Masters doesn't begin until the back nine on Sunday:

“I actually went to bed at 9.30pm when Jordan birdied nine to go five clear, thinking that

was it,” Walker said. “But then an hour later my phone went mad. I turned on the TV and Spieth was just finishing off his [quadruple bogey] seven on the 12th. Danny was leading and I was like ‘wow’.”

What followed next is already enshrined in golfing folklore. “I had to have a few beers and then Liz [Walker’s wife] cracked open the Prosecco. Even after all that, I couldn’t get to sleep. So much stuff was going through my head. I didn’t hear the alarm. I spoke to Dan about 9am UK time, which was 4am over there and he was still going strong. We were both in a state of shock.”

We'll cut him some slack, as he delayed his honeymoon to help prepare Danny for Augusta...Interesting stuff about how Pete Cowan and he work together.

In another Corrigan piece, James takes stock of the strong state of English golf, including high finished from Lee Westwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick and others.....  This was moderately amusing:

Guess what Danny Willett, the Masters winner from Sheffield, is going to serve up at next year’s Champions Dinner? Roast Spieth and Yorkshire pudding.

But this was rather, how shall I put it, creepy:

And so he was soon on his way back to his wife, Nicole, and two-week-old baby, Zachariah, in Rotherham, where he has gone to ground for a period of nappy changing and reflection.

Rotherham?   Of all the gin joints.... I don'y know what to make of that, so we'll just move on as quickly as possible.... But this, you'll agree, is the soft bigotry of low expectations:

“It is time England paused to think as well and realise that golf is its most successful sport. Indeed, with Rory McIlroy having won four majors, Jamie Donaldson hitting Europe’s winning putt in the last Ryder Cup and with Russell Knox winning Scotland its first WGC title last year, golf is the United Kingdom’s most successful sport.”

And what would be Number 2?  But we leave no nit unpicked, so to support the case that England is ascendant in the game of golf, we cite the accomplishments of an Ulsterman, a Welshman and a Scot.  Well played, James!

Lastly, this is not only wishful thinking, but wouldn't turn out like folks think:

When I was chasing Ernie Els and Bryson DeChambeau and Spieth last week, I was struck by a thought: Wouldn't it be great if Augusta National offered, in the spirit of progress, to host a Solheim Cup there? At a time when the game of golf needs to find ways to grow, and especially increase female participation in the sport, can you imagine how much fun it would be to watch Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen duel on the back nine, with Sunday roars echoing off the Georgia pines?

No only do they err in thinking that the crowds and energy would be the same, but they fail to understand that the ladies' inferior games would be exposed by the comparison.  Exhibit A is the play at the ladies' Ocala, FL event, specifically it's copy of ANGC's 13th hole.  The excitement that comes from the men flirting with disaster in going for the green in two on the Par-5's would be missing, and the results would be quite boring.

What emerges is more a wish for the Lords of Augusta to expiate their sins, and I've long found that trying to satisfy the SJW's of the world is not a fruitful undertaking....  Augusta makes a contribution through the DC&P as well as its support of amateur competitions, but that'll never be enough, Willet?

Forward Press -  Shack tries to work up some energy for this week's golf schedule, but when the high point is a sinkhole.....well, it's really quite a big sinkhole:

And there's this:

Johnny Morris has resurrected the Legends of Golf, which started the Senior Tour. Now it’s the Bass Pro Legends on the PGA Champions (Tour) and the 54-hole event takes place over the resort’s 9-hole par-3 course and its 18-hole Buffalo Ridge Springs Course. 

Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Hale Irwin, Gary Player, Ben Crenshaw and more will be there as will the Top Of The Rock par-3 course, which was hit with a giant sinkhole last May.

It was good fun a few years ago when they played the short course in high winds.... But otherwise... Of course he does provide some of the video highlights of the Valero Texas Open.....  I know what you're thinking, but Kevin Na making a 16 is three hours of your life you won't get back:

And the head coming off Phil's club?  Good times...

Given that, how is this not a major?

But the high point is no doubt the worst-named tournament in professional golf, The Swinging Skirts...  Lydia is double-defending champ, but the real star is the venue, Lake Merced:

Short Takes - Headlines we didn't get to the end of:  Austin shoots 64, beats Short in playoff to win Mitsubishi  Hard to understand why, per Kenny Perry, no one watches that Tour.

Did You Happen to see "The Natural Shoot 80 at Augusta? - The Natural - How a Sunday at The Players Championship made Rickie Fowler the player he was destined to be.

That It's Better To Look Away? - What you can learn from Els' six-putt. A serious piece on his improved putting at Harbour Town can be found here.  The Yips don't show up every day, but once you have them, you have them...

Who To Believe? - Him?

When I first arrived on the scene in Aberdeen, the people of Scotland were testing me to see just how serious I was – just like the citizens in the United States have done about my race for the White House. 

I had to win them over – I had to convince them that I meant business and that I had their best interests in mind. 

Well, Scotland has already been won – and so will the United States.

None of this has been fast or easy in either venue. 

I had reviewed sites in Europe for over five years and had considered 100 possibilities before seeing the links land at Menie Estate.

Or them?

Of course, any mention of Trump's arrival in Scotland is merely a thinly-veiled pretext to run one of our evergreen photos:

Alert the Media, Scotland has been won!