Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Midweek Musings

Way too many browser tabs open, so let's have at it...

Rut Roh - He's been following the script better than most, but even he has limits:
Rory McIlroy has admitted to concerns over the Zika virus’s threat to the Olympic
Note the perfect lines in his mosquito swat.
Games, conceding for the first time he may reconsider his participation in Rio this summer. The four-time major winner is due to play golf for Ireland in Brazil and has previously spoken of his desire to see the sport embraced on its return to the Games. However, with rising coverage of Zika’s potential impact, the 27-year-old has admitted to a personal dilemma. The virus is said to be particularly dangerous for those looking to have children. 
Speaking to the BBC on Monday, McIlroy said he is “monitoring” the situation. His body language was arguably more telling than his words. McIlroy said: “There’s going to be a point in the next couple of years where we [McIlroy and his fiancée, Erica Stoll] are going to have to think about starting a family. Right now I’m ready to go but I don’t want anything to affect that.”
OK, I'm trying to get the image of Rory "ready to go" out of my mind.....there, that's better.

I don't believe for a minute that Rory isn't going to Rio, as he's been more supportive than most.  But you don't need to be an Einstein to know that his withdrawal might easily trigger a preference cascade among other players.  So, we're one bad news cycle from disaster....

My feelings in this matter are well known, but I'd love to have been a fly mosquito on the wall during all these discussions and/or negotiations.  My more recent thoughts focus on better the 2020 games would have been for golf's encore debut in the Olympics.  They're to be held in a developed country with an actual golf tradition, and no new course would need to be constructed.  It's even possible that the extra time would have allowed the negotiation of a more interesting format.... Nah, that last bit is crazy talk!

And others are paying attention as well...

Couching Tiger - The great Jaime Diaz, with an assist from the Zinger, puts The Striped One on the couch for psychoanalysis.  Here's his lede:
What are we to make of Tiger Woods dunking three straight balls in the water from 100 yards during an ad-libbed closest-to-the-pin contest with two hackers at last week’s media day for the Quicken Loans National? 
Well, to paraphrase Dr. Freud, sometimes—even when struck by the most talented player of all time—a mishit wedge is just a mishit wedge.
Veddy interesting, Dr. Diaz....So sometimes a banana slice is just a..... Her's the gist of the case:
Amid such an immeasurable mix of physical impairment, psychic wounds and simple entropy, a unified theory that better explains the Tiger conundrum has been lacking. But Paul Azinger, one of the game’s original thinkers and a former major champion, has a profound knack for getting to simple and authentic truths about the game and its players. His big-picture take on Woods: He’s stopped being a show-off.

According to Azinger, all tour pros, and especially the best ones, are show-offs. From an early age, putting their talent on display has garnered them praise, prominence and, most important to a competitive golfer, the admiration (and even awe) of their peers. Years of being reinforced by this process builds tremendous confidence and an abiding gratification. Sometimes great players actually do love the game for itself. Very often, though, what they really love is the feeling they get from successfully showing off. 
“I was a huge show-off,” Azinger says. “Especially when I was at my best, I loved showing people how good I was. But when what I was showing off stopped being as good as what I used to show off, and when I realized I was being measured against that old standard, I started thinking less about showing off and more about not embarrassing myself. When you lose that confidence that you will impress people or your peers, then it becomes uncomfortable. You feel way more pressure. And the game stops being fun.
I think this is less profound than folks are making it out to be, as it's merely a different spin on the psychology of ageing athletes.  Tiger is hardly the first great one to deal with embarrassing himself as the skills erode.  I was recounting to Employee No. 2 last night how sad it was to watch Willie Mays in the '73 World Series...  Zinger's point is that injuries can play a role in creating this fear of humiliation after the performer is healthy, but we're of course not sure that last bit applies just yet.

But I'm also guessing that this thought will stay with us when Tiger inevitably returns to competition.... and, as seems with Tiger to always be the case, there's this corroborating witness that always appears to know what lays in store for him:
These words jibed with conversations I had with Earl Woods, who would say, “Tiger is so good in his biggest moments because that’s when he knows he can really show off. He loves that.”
As with the fourteen majors and Tiger getting married, is there anything Earl didn't foresee?

On a related note, the ubiquitous David Feherty was out promoting Golf Now's ad campaign in Ireland, and had these comments on Tiger:
As for Tiger Woods, Feherty reckons the 14-time major winner’s career could be over
but he’s too stubborn to admit it. 
He said: “I am not sure that Tiger will come back because it is a nerve in his back. It’s not muscular or skeletal. It’’s not something you can deal with in a physical way. 
“He is in phenomenal shape - just ripped as usual. But he is not able to make a full pass at it. I saw him a few weeks ago in Houston and he hadn’t played in five months and he hit some good shots and some awful skanky looking things.
With Dr. David on the stump in Ireland as the Ulsterman wins the Irish Open, he's gonna be asked about the kid.... But if you think Rory shared too much information, how about this money shot?
“It’s hard for me to commentate on Rory in the US without a massive boner because I love the kid and want him to do well,” said the 57 year old, who could the 1986 Bell’s Scottish Open among his five European Tour wins but famously lost the trophy.
David, even if I stipulate to the existence of wood, massive?  We're gonna need independent corroboration of that claim...

Meanwhile, I've suddenly lost any appetite.

Fox Fail - Are you ready for some golf?  Oh, sorry, wrong network....  So did you even know that Fox was showing golf yesterday?  Of course not, because it might as well be taking place on Pluto.

The USGA is holding it's amateur Fourball event (and does anyone know why these events are called a Fourball when there's actually only two?) at storied Winged Foot, and the coverage is buried on FS1, a channel you undoubtedly receive but have never had need for.

Want to know how serious Fox is about televising golf?  Shack is all over it:
Also this week is Fox's return to televising USGA golf, and the programming execs showed their continued passion for the game by scheduling a U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship live window--no weather issues--that left viewers with four quarterfinal matches at one 1-up through 15, 1-up through 13, AS thru 11 and 2-up through 10. That's 2.5 hours of golf with no plans to show the conclusion of matches. #usgaonfox #12years
You know what followed golf on FS1?  Something called Nascar Race Hub...  The thing is, actual people tune in to that.  The promised the USGA 2 1/2 hours of coverage, and they delivered.  perhaps today they can show us the players warming up...

It's easy to blame Fox, but the USGA is unfortunately getting what they deserve for worrying only about the number of zeros on the check.

The Gotcha Olympics - And our winner is POLITICO, the hack media outlet that uncovered this amazing act of duplicity:
Donald Trump says he is “not a big believer in global warming.” He has called it “a total hoax,” “bullshit” and “pseudoscience.” 
But he is also trying to build a sea wall designed to protect one of his golf courses from “global warming and its effects.” 
The New York billionaire is applying for permission to erect a coastal protection works to prevent erosion at his seaside golf resort, Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, in County Clare. 
A permit application for the wall, filed by Trump International Golf Links Ireland and reviewed by POLITICO, explicitly cites global warming and its consequences — increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century — as a chief justification for building the structure.
WOW!  That pretty much seals the deal for Hillary, I mean unless someone has evidence that the other candidate has ever been inconsistent.... Not that you'll ever read any of that in POLITICO.

There's of course no evidence that Trump drafted or reviewed this document, but these world class journalists make you dive deep into their article for this little nugget:
Trump snatched up the golf resort from a distressed buyer in February 2014, after a winter in which an unusual number of severe storms hit the west coast of Ireland.
No need to mention that Doonbeg itself suffered severe damage from these storms.... So the wall might be a wise precaution even before global warming destroys our planet?  Not that anyone should treat The Donald's utterances as anything meaningful, but  please wake me up from this bad dream when they start treating both sides equally.

College Capers - Have you been watching the NCAA's on Golf Channel?  It's really good fun and I highly recommend it.  The girls are good players, though you'll see lots of long putts for bogey...  Love them carrying or pushing their trolleys, and tending the pin for their opponents. as well as their reactions to the many ups and downs....

First we had an unlikely winner of the individual event:
Prior to the start of the NCAA Women’s Championship, the 19-year-old freshman from
Italy had a vision that the individual winner would shoot 16 under par, which turned out to be exactly right when the final round of the individual championship wrapped up at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club. 
Carta, however, failed to see who would be the one shooting the record-setting 72-hole score. Turns out, all she needed to do was look in the mirror. 
“I didn’t think it would have been me,” Carta insisted after posting her fourth straight sub-70 round to win the title by an impressive eight strokes over Arizona’s Haley Moore and Miami’s Dewi Weber 
Envisioning Carta’s convincing victory would have been tough for anyone. In nine starts in the 2015-’16 season, the college newcomer posted a modest 73.12 stroke average, second best on the Blue Devils squad behind first-team All-American Leona Maguire. Prior to late March, she had just one top-10 finish as she adapted to life in Durham, N.C.
But the event really rocks when it comes to team match play.  How was this finish to the semi-finals:
Washington's Sarah Rhee came from three down with three to play, then holes a bunker shot on the 19th to help lead Washington into Wednesday's NCAA women's final againstStanford. And showing proper respect for her opponent and the course, promptly picks up the rake to clean up her bunker mess, just in case the match continues on. Impressive!
I'm sold, Geoff.  Video at the link, and tune in tonight for the final match between Scarlet and Purple.

Cheap Shots - 


Again With Too Much Information - Understanding the Mickelson case: Why Lefty got lucky

Well, The Bibles Says Be Fruitful... - Jordan Spieth ‘laid an egg in his hometown’


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