Tuesday Tidbits

Biblical rains have cancelled just about everything.....But neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night... eh, what am I thinking, those things increase the frequency of blogging cause they keep me indoors.

Zurich Zeitgeist - I didn't see a minute of the golf this week, though I'm guessing that 300 million Americans could say the same.  But they did finish (54 holes, so that's a loose definition of the word) and gave the lads a chance to move on:

AVONDALE, La. (AP) Brian Stuard made steady golf pay off on a waterlogged course

in the haunting cypress swamps outside New Orleans. 

The 33-year-old Stuard birdied the final hole of a largely unspectacular final round to sneak into a three-way playoff on Monday, then beat Jamie Lovemark on the second extra hole to capture his maiden PGA Tour triumph at the Zurich Classic. 

Stuard never bogeyed a hole throughout the tournament on the long (7,425-yard), par-72 TPC Louisiana course, which was drenched with more than 4 1/2 inches of rain during the tournament. Weather delays on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday not only forced a Monday finish but also led officials to shorten the tournament to 54 holes.

Wow!  Makes a fellow wish he hadn't gone with the Biblical descriptor in the lede....  Shoulda kept my powder dry, in a manner of speaking.   But that's a lot of rain in a place the buries their dead above ground because...well, water table.

If you've hot heard the name, I'll let the man himself explain:

Stuard's best previous PGA Tour finishes were a pair of second places in Mexico, one in 2010 and the other in 2014. He arrived in New Orleans with conditional status on the PGA Tour, meaning he could only play in tournaments that had room for him when enough higher-ranked players skipped the event. His victory not only earned him $1.26 million, it also gives him a two-year exemption allowing him to play in majors and any other Tour event he wants. 

''I've always been, I guess, a journeyman kind of player, just always grinded it out,'' said Stuard, who became the seventh first-time winner in New Orleans in the past 11 years. ''You just had to have the confidence to say, `One day, it's going to be your time.'''

Nailed it in his first try.  I might have gone with rabbit, but journeyman works.... But I always enjoy these stories because this game is just brutal.

How brutal?  Watch this video of Cody Gribble's demise in this weekend web.com event.  Did you see where he landed that ball?

And I'm so old, I remember when one of the playoff losers was tagged with the dreaded Can't-Miss label:

Long past the expiration date on the can’t-miss label he wore at the outset of his professional career, Jamie Lovemark is still demonstrating that he can miss. 

Lovemark, 28, missed a 10-foot birdie putt to win, left it short, on the last hole of regulation in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Monday. He missed another 10-footer there to win on the first hole of a playoff with Brian Stuard and Byeong-Hun An.

He's showing up on some leaderboards, so I'll be rooting for him to revive his career.

The Ultimate Mulligan - Jaime Diaz is a far nicer man than I, but no doubt you'll need a moment to recover from that shock.  He demonstrates his humanity in discussing John Daly's Senior Tour Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (h/t Shack for the strikeouts - how stupid is that name?) debut this week:

But when a professional athlete has prodigious physical talent, with the captivating

power and larger-than-life qualities of a potential folk hero (mixed with a fragility and self-effacement that makes him sympathetic no matter how badly he screws up), he gets chances. 

Golf wise, this might be John Daly’s last chance. The PGA Tour Champions is a small stage that doesn’t have room for many sideshows. Except in the case of Arnold Palmer, for whom the then-Senior Tour was basically created in 1980, galleries for the 50-and-older league don’t follow non-contenders. If the legend of Long John is to add a happy chapter, he’s going to have be on the leader board come Sundays. 

That won’t be easy. Daly hasn’t played well in a while, especially since losing his PGA Tour card in 2007. There have been injuries and money problems and erratic scheduling. He can still hit it long and true; Daly led the tour in driving distance 11 of 12 years starting in 1991, and beginning in 1999 he averaged at least 300 yards off the tee for almost a decade while no other player passed 300 until 2003. But Daly’s wedge play has lost its sharpness, and his putting has become problematic. 

“It’s not good,” Daly told PGATour.com about the state of his game. “So I’m going to really work my butt off to get it back.”

There's little question that the round-belly tour needs something good to happen, as it's disappeared entirely from golf's radar screen.  Could it be that the market has been flooded with far too much product?  Nah, what was I thinking?

Jaime is too good a journalist to omit what he calls the "messiness", and he adds his own anecdotes to it.  But his tone is wistful and hopeful, and I'm more inclined to make you remove a grudge from my cold dead hands.

Bob Harig  also sees the upside, but only after quantifying that messiness:

But as he has turned 50 last week, many of the numbers associated with Big John were not typically so flattering, such as the numerous warnings, fines and suspensions that have littered his path over the years. 

Seven times the PGA Tour ordered him to undergo counseling or enter alcohol rehab, according to a personnel file that was only made public because of a lawsuit. 

Eleven times he was cited for conduct "unbecoming a professional," 21 times for "failure to give best effort." The missed cuts and withdrawals were only outdone by the sponsor exemptions that tournaments continued to give him, his drawing power still that great.

It's that Blackjack that really irks me, understanding that each time he phoned it in he was taking up a precious spot in the field that someone more worthy, that might actually try, could have used.  To take today's example, he could have kept Brian Stuard from having a tee time...

 I'm man enough to admit that I didn't know this story:

That is the thing about Daly: He has a soft, generous side that is often overshadowed by all the dubious decisions. He often partakes in clinics and makes himself available for tournaments' charities. It is often forgotten, but during that 1991 PGA Championship, a spectator was struck by lightning and killed; Daly set up a college fund for the victim's two daughters by donating $30,000 of his winnings. Nobody knew that story for nearly 15 years.

But think how generous he could be if he weren't broke?  If he applied himself and took his craft seriously, he could do a world of good...  I don't exactly wish him ill, but when he says above that he's going to "work his butt off", I'm inclined to be just a wee bit skeptical.

And this won't increase the chances of my tuning in:

How great is that? If there was even more reason to go see Daly tee it up on the PGA Tour Champions, a Daly bobblehead seals the deal. 

The event also has a Loudmouth pants day, in which it's encouraging fans to wear the brand of pants Daly does to give away prizes. 

Call it the JD effect.

It certainly does seal the deal for me, just not perhaps as the writer envisions.

A Different Kind of Mulligan - If I have to pick stories from the Senior Tour Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions, I'll go with this impromptu nuptial one over Long John any day of the week.  It takes place at Bass Pro Shop event and involves Scott McCarron and his longtime squeeze, Jenny Klein:

During dinner that night, Bass Pro Shops owner Johnny Morris, who also owns the Big

Cedar Lodge, stopped by the couple’s table and confirmed that the chapel was available for a Saturday evening wedding. While McCarron played his Saturday round, Klein went into Branson and found a gown and bought two rings at Kohl’s. 

Faxon had a friend who lived in Branson and knew a harpist. Morris provided the resort’s bagpipe player. The resort also supplied a wedding cake and hors d’oeuvres. The Stadlers pitched in with champagne and the Frosts with the wine. “Pretty soon we had a party,” McCarron said. “By the time I was on the ninth hole, the wedding was planned. It was how to plan a wedding in 24 hours.”

Now that's what I call a happy ending...

Shipnuck Fatigue -  I'm getting a little tired of this Alan Shipnuck fellow, first he gets to play in The Swallows and now gets a sneak preview of Monterrey Peninsula CC's restored Dunes Course.  Yanno, at some point you've played enough great golf courses and you didn't build that.... What?  Sorry, wrong blog...

But he does seem to be a lucky bastard, you'll agree:

America's next great golf course is here: the reimagined and reborn Dunes Course at

Monterey Peninsula Country Club. The name will be familiar to enthusiasts of the old Crosby Clambake, as from 1947-64 the Dunes was one of the tournament's host venues. In recent years MPCC has developed a national profile as its other course, the Shore, has joined the Pebble Beach Pro-Am rota and become one of the favorite tracks among PGA Tour pros because of its artistic holes and endless views. It was the success of the Shore renovation -- overseen by the late architect-poet Mike Strantz at the turn of the century -- that helped convince MPCC it was time to polish its other jewel. 

The Dunes dates to 1925 and has a strong pedigree. The course was drawn up by Seth Raynor but he died in the early phases of construction. Fortuitously, Dr. Alister MacKenzie was working on Cypress Point, just a few bends down 17 Mile Drive, and his collaborator Robert Hunter oversaw the completion of the Dunes, which like Cypress winds its way through the forest and down to the sea. But unlike Cypress Point’s sandy soil, the Dunes was built largely on clay. Back when it used to rain in California, drainage could be a problem. In the late 1990’s MPCC retained Rees Jones to help avoid the winter quagmires.

At least that last bit cheers me up, another Reestrocity has been removed from the face of the planet.  There's a slideshow here, and the place looks to die for.  

Think I'm being a tad rough on the Open Doctor?  My first attempts at writing about golf history and architecture were published on Larry Gavrich's website a few years back.  Included was this review of Sleepy Hollow after playing in the Met Open Pro-Am with Big Break Anthony.

Admittedly I'm taking you down this path with an ulterior motive, as two of our Willow Ridge professionals are currently playing in a match-play event at Sleepy Hollow, and I mentioned the desecration of Sleepy's most memorable hole, the Par-3 16th, a classic C.B. Macdonald "Short" hole.  Here's what it looked like initially:

 

And it looks much like this today, fortunately:



It's in the middle where things went awry, as both the great Tillinghast and the dreadful Rees turned a classic into...well, you decide:

Tilly's on the left isn't great, but Rees had to add those strange saucer-like bunkers of which he is so oddly enamored, creating the first known golf course emoji.  

Sorry for the detour, but you have to admit it was worth the trip, no?