Rio Loco - The Recriminations Begin

We'll move on to some other subjects in a follow-up post, but there's this here dead horse for us to flay at....

Shack seems to be at the bargaining stage of his grief with this:

I know that Zika, the Olympics and scheduling debates do not make the most enjoyable

golf reading, but longtime readers know I've been excited about Olympic golf's prospects in spite of the unimaginative format. 

While I will not defend the selection of Rio, nor be hitting the streets there at night (or day!), I do think the Olympic golf course will send a great message to the world and become an iconic venue of the 2016 games. And once the competition starts, the intrigue will be there to see who wins, who surprises and who inspires. Then, we can go about finding a format that excites players, fans and the IOC, while maybe even peeking the interest of those who have not seen what kind of emotions are elicited by team match play.

Yes, he's been consistent with his thoughts, hoping that 2016 would be reasonably entertaining and that a more interesting format would be implemented for 2020.

Alas, facts on the ground have conspired  against his hoped-for scenario, and he's groping his way towards an understanding of what went wrong.  In his defense, Geoff cites this from Jason Sobel of ESPN:

Here's where the problem with reintroducing golf into the Olympic Games started: The powers that be who saw the benefits of the sport's return after 112 years away -- from the innocence of growing the game globally to the self-indulgence of attempting to infuse the industry financially -- informally surveyed the game's elite players about which format would best suit their tastes. 

Not the most creative bunch, the players answered that they'd like a 72-hole stroke-play format that sounds exactly like almost every other tournament on the schedule. Once it was approved by the IOC, there was no going back.

Does anyone else remember the process this way, because I sure don't.  But his use of the word "innocence" is a real tell, because the powers that be seem to have just assumed that the Olympics would be good for golf, without the need for further explanation....  Kind of like the Temain campaign over in the UK.

They don't want to see how hopelessly corrupt the IOC has become, nor the pay-to-play nature of its site selection.  That golf has enough Major (as well as major) events is not a concern, nor is the fact that so many compromises were made as to render the competition insignificant....

Now, there's little doubt that this is true to some extent:

Use the excuse that it's a crowded schedule and the Olympics are an unnecessary detour from their overall goals, and they'll be criticized for a me-first attitude. Explain that competing in another no-money event (in addition to the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup) is unfair, and they'll be ripped for greediness. Suggest that playing once per year for one's country should be enough, and they'll be castigated for a lack of patriotism. Contend that traveling to a country with an increasingly unstable government is a poor personal choice, and they'll be tsk-tsked for eschewing private resort accommodations. 

And then along came the Zika virus. 

It became the perfect get-out-of-jail-free card for professional golfers. Medical experts have insisted that there is minimal risk of contracting the virus in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympic fortnight, but it's impossible to denounce a player's decision to skip the tournament over concerns on the long-term welfare of his family.

Yes, players, like any other sentient beings, will default to the easiest excuse.... Both Jason and Shack attempt to combat fears with facts, with this from the latter:

I have been in touch with folks on the ground in Rio, and golf course superintendent Neil Cleverly confirms that not a single member of the maintenance crew has contracted Zika. Furthermore, testing done over the last few weeks by the City of Rio health department found after a week of capturing and testing mosquitos that there were no transmitter Mosquitos found in the traps. Meaning that it is unlikely that Zika is in the area. Also, remember, the course is by the salt water and there is almost always a breeze. Not exactly mosquito breeding grounds. 

As of June 7th, according to 2016 Rio Olympics Chief Medical Officer Joao Grangeiro, there have been zero Zika infections reported among the 17,000 athletes, volunteers and staffers participating in test events over the last year. 

Reuters' Julie Steenhuysen reported that researchers at the Sao Paulo School of Medicine project that the risk of tourists contracting Zika during the Olympics at 1.8 cases per million people. Numbers suggest 500,000 international visitors are expected in Rio for the 2016 games.

As anyone that has attempted to reason with a Trump supporter will note, this is a time in our lives when appeals to authority are impotent.  We simply don't trust our elites, in terms of competence but also aas relates to motives.  And I think you'll agree the "Go to Rio, you'll probably live" lacks a certain something as a rallying cry.

And lest you think that there's no reason to think that Rio will be a mess. this is currently what greets arrivals at the airport:

Enjoy your stay.....

So, let's hear from the Scott fellow.... with a name like that, I'm guessing he's quite insightful:

Many players have cited Brazil's litany of woes -- most notably, the Zika epidemic -- as reason for withdrawal. However, Adam Scott, who was the first player to pull out of the 2016 Summer Games, believes some of the blame lies with the competition's structure. 

“I think they should change the format, for sure,” Scott said on Wednesday at Firestone Country Club. “Just having another 72-hole golf tournament with a weaker-than-most field doesn’t really pique my interest.”

Yes, that format is certainly uninspiring.....I had always assumed that it was motivated to ensure Tiger's presence, which is quite amusing at this juncture.  Adam had more:

According to Scott, the qualification system is unsatisfying. Moreover, the tournament's scheduling needs serious overhaul as it relates to golf's season. 

“The big challenge is I think if professionals are going to stay, they’re going to have to find a way to fit professional golf in the Olympic system,” he said. “All the other sports have now somewhat fit in, and all their other events are programmed and based around the Olympics, whether it’s scheduling or qualification, all these kind of things, and ours is not. It’s just kind of shoved in there at a very critical time for everything I’ve ever dreamed of winning, too.”

Which of course reminds of this comment from that guy in orange:

Little by little, the players publicly recited the right words while privately questioning their own motives. Rickie Fowler might have said it best last year when asked about his Olympic goals: "It would be a dream come true [that] I haven't ever dreamed of."

Our Adam is a solution-oriented sort, and offered this poignant observation:

The 2013 Masters winner did have one solution: Make Olympic golf about amateurs. 

“If I think back to when I was 16 or 17 years old and a promising golfer, making the Olympics would be something that I’d want to do very much and also be a very big deal,” Scott said. “I think having a young golfer aspire to be an Olympian is more realistic as an amateur than a professional. It’s just not going to happen for many as a professional, especially the way the qualification system works at the moment.”

Hmmmm.... I feel like I heard that suggestion somewhere else in recent days.   If only there were some place the reader could go for such trenchant insights into our game..... 

Shack challenges that suggestion here, and his caution is worth considering.  And left unsaid in all the discussions of the amateurs,, including my own, the increasing difficulty of earning status on the professional tours might result in the kids not being as available ass assumed...

And lest we think it's just the guys, there was this:

Following stars Rory McIlroy and Jason Day bowing out of the Olympics, many around the sport wondered: Why aren't the women dropping out? There are multiple theories, but, given the wave of men skipping Rio, it seems odd their female counterparts aren't following suit. 

That could be changing, as the South Africa's Lee-Anne Pace became the first official female withdrawal from the 2016 Olympics. 

“After weighing up all the options and discussing it with my family and team, I have decided that due to the health concerns surrounding the Zika virus, I will not be participating," Pace said on Twitter.

I'm not expecting wide-spread defections among those with indoor plumbing, as they desperately need the exposure.  But the agenda will be driven by the men....

Olympic Golf, RIP

By now you've heard the news.... Yesterday we absorbed Dexit with a side order of Lexit, thought our indigestion from absorbing Mexit, Ooexit, Schwexit and Scexit had hardly passed....

What went wrong I hear you ask?  That's easy, EVERYTHING.  

Unfortunate. That’s the word that comes to mind as golf’s return to the Olympics

unravels and unwinds like the elastic-wrapped core of an old balata golf ball. 

Unfortunate. Jason Day of Australia, the World No. 1, now out as of Tuesday morning, citing the hovering threat of the Zika virus, stating that his priority is his young family over golf. For each top player eligible to play in Rio, this is a personal evaluation and decision; if you are not Jason Day, or Rory McIlroy, or Adam Scott, do you have any ground to question them? 

Losing the World No. 1, somebody who’d been discussing the Olympics for months with enthusiasm, is a huge blow. McIlroy, the World No. 4, is out for Ireland. Australia’s Scott, gone. Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace of South Africa, out. So is Marc Leishman (Australia), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Graeme McDowell (Ireland) and Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand).

I'm a resilient sort, so I've managed to cope with my disappointment over Tim Wilkinson dropping out, but Vexit was a cruel blow.

His call to pull out of the Olympics wasn’t an easy one. He said it was one made “with a heavy heart.” Shane Lowry? Talking about the possibility of the Olympics a few months back put a smile on the lad’s face that would stretch from Dublin to Dingle. That guy would show up wearing the colors of his beloved Ireland if you were staging a Frisbee competition in a local park. 

But no longer is there an Olympic dream for Lowry, who got married this year and one day soon intends to start a family. Not this time, anyway. So who will be next? Are we really to believe that not a single LPGA player has trepidations about playing in Brazil? If they turn up in unison in Brazil in less than two months, it will be quite a statement.

You sure you want to go with "heavy heart" as relates to Shane?  That's needlessly hurtful in my book, and I'd have softened the blow by using something in the euphemistic range, say a big-boned heart.  But that's not important now....

Let's go back to the Tour Confidential panel and their thoughts on Sunday evening past.  Representing the golf establishment is Alan Shipnuck, responding to the IOC's Barry Maister's comment we had Monday:

Shipnuck: Obviously. The entitlement and point-missing among the top (male) golfers is depressing. They are on their way to getting their dying, boutique sport tossed from the biggest athletic happening in the world. Then they won’t have to worry about playing in the Olympics beyond 2020. A small win for these selfish players but a big loss for the sport to make new fans and reach new markets.

And for the anti-crowd, I give you Boris Johnson Josh Sens:

Sens: I don’t disagree, and maybe this is all Monday morning caddying on my part, but Olympic golf felt like a forced idea from the beginning. It wasn’t hard to imagine all along that many of the top players would opt out for either money or scheduling reasons. We couldn’t have foreseen Zika. But we could have foreseen reluctance on the part of many players, not to mention a certain amount of apathy from fans. So in a sense, you could say that golf set itself up for failure in the first place with its Olympic aspirations.

Luke Kerr-Dineen attributes the defections to these three causes:

1. Zika;
2. Crazy schedules;
3. Lack of Excitement. 

Those are the three principal issues, though Luke isn't inclined to go for the jugular, so let's dive a little deeper:

On the Z-word, I think this fits comfortably into the Brexit and Trump context, whereby the huddled masses have had the bad taste to revolt against the elites.  Everyone in a position of authority has minimized the threat that this presents.....But, and it really should be BUT, is that assessment based upon actual competence and do they have our interests at heart?  

But before we move on from this count in the indictment, let's remember that Zika is hardly the only issue the guys face in Rio.  There was that State of Calamity declaration a week or so ago, and you have dropped the Olympics into a country that is coming apart at the seems..... There are legitimate safety, transportation and public health concerns to be faced...  How confident are you of Brazilian authorities ability to manage those?

On the second point, Luke's construction is oddly passive, as if that schedule is handed down from the almighty.....  What became apparent is that those running the major tours, and of course our Nurse Ratched is first among equals here, refused to make any accommodation in their money grabs.....

I'm actually quite pleased that the Day-break hit during the week of the Bridgestone, which has pride of place among tournaments that need to die a painful death.  Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, has a formulation that is spot-on... In speaking of global warming, he notes that he'll believe it's a crisis when those telling him it's a crisis act as though they believe it's a crisis.....

So our hero, the Patriarch of Ponte Vedra Beach, is telling these guys that they need to show up in Rio for God and Country (and, you know, the children), but you'll have to pry our Akron snooze-fest from our cold dead hands.  I'll point you back to Shipnuck's comment above, which is basically that the guys should suck it up and play and hope that it all works out.  

As the format, well we've been blowing that horn for quite a while....But it's actually far more troubling than that.  Yes, it's dreadfully boring and our thought leaders don't seem to understand our game or the fact that a bad debut could be disastrous.  It's almost like they had other priorities....

But the players know that so many compromises were made that the tournament is a glorified exhibition.  Remember, it's a sixty-player field and no more than thirty of those would have been world class players...  That's much more the Hero World Challenge than the Open Championship....

Our game doesn't fit the Olympic profile, mostly because the best players win so infrequently.  Now there many ways to imaginatively fir this square peg into the round hole, but pretending that it's round isn't helpful.  

So, with my rant winding down, where does that leave us?  Well, that segues nicely into Shack's rant at Jordan Spieth for his comments in Akron:

“No matter what I do, it’s already – there’s already been enough players (withdrawing) that I think it’ll definitely have an impact,” Spieth said. “Pending some crazy, great finish or whatever, I think there’s a significantly lower likelihood now of it staying in the Olympics than there was six months ago.”

It's hard to argue that he's wrong about that, as it's devolved into a worst-case scenario for him...  No upside and the palpable downside of losing to a weak field.  But here's a sampling of Geoff's vitriol, first in response to Jordan above:

I have an idea for Jordan! Let's get to The Open early this time like you plan, and leave the IOC-politicking to the guys in suits.

You can certainly make the case that Jordan wasn't well-served by these comments, but you'll know where Geoff sides with his earlier snark:

Yes, there's a lot to chew on with all of the Olympic golf WD's by the male golfers. 

There is little doubt that Rio is a dangerous, strange place that isn't high on many summer must-visit lists. The idea of the Olympics landing in the middle of a busy schedule stinks. But we've known that a while. And Zika virus is a scary thing if you want to start a family in the immediate future,though few in Brazil are as worried as male golfers who fancy themselves as possible sires for a future King.

Oh, and no one working at the Olympic golf course has contracted the virus.

Forgive me, but "Go to Rio - No one has actually died yet" leaves me cold as a rallying cry....

 And yes, the LPGA players' reactions have been different:

While the men drop like dominoes out of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, top

LPGA players remain committed to the cause. World No. 1 Lydia Ko said she has to “trust the experts” in handling the health situation. 

“It’s not every week, not every year you get to do this,” said Ko, 19, of New Zealand, “to represent your country amongst the world best athletes in other sports. So I’m super excited about it, and there is just so many positives from Rio that golf can take.” 

To date, no LPGA player has said she will skip the Rio Games in mid-August.

That sound you hear is your humble correspondent slapping his forehead.... This is a "No s***, Sherlock" point, as the women are starved for exposure and will take any opportunity to share the stage with the men.

This is indeed a very sad result....  I just resist the easy temptation to shoot the messenger. 

Weekend Wrap

At least a heartwarming story came out of Congressional this weekend, though I wasn't there to see the denouement.

The Hurley-Burly Man - John Strege with the backgrounder on the winner:

A Naval Academy graduate, Hurley spent five years post-graduate in the Navy, two of

them aboard a destroyer, the USS Chung-Hoon, in the Persian Gulf in a time of war. Last August, Hurley’s father, Bill Hurley Jr., died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Last year, Hurley lost his full PGA Tour exemption. This year, he had fallen to 607th in the World Ranking, had not finished higher than 41st in 11 previous starts. 

Then on a brilliant Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., 44 miles from the Naval Academy in what is now his hometown of Annapolis, he improbably won the Quicken Loans National, a tournament designed to pay homage to those in the armed forces.

I'll add that he was only in the event because Tiger gave him a sponsor's exemption....well done all around.  Tour highlight package here:

Hurley, Jon Rahm, Harold Varner, III and our old friend Vijay punched tickets to Troon with their finishes.  And the tournament host sheds exactly no light on when he might return:

More muscle?  yeah, that's the ticket....

You Ko Girl - You knew I'd bring this one up, right?

Top-ranked Lydia Ko won the NW Arkansas Championship on Sunday for her third LPGA Tour victory of the year, closing with a 3-under 68 for a tournament-record 17-under total and a three-stroke victory. 

The 19-year-old New Zealander has 13 career LPGA Tour victories, also winning the Kia Classic and major ANA Inspiration in consecutive weeks in Southern California. She broke the previous tournament record by two strokes.

Ko has finished sixth or better in each of her four appearances at Pinnacle Country Club, and she has shot under par in all 12 rounds. 

Morgan Pressel, tied for the lead with Ko at 14 under entering the day, had a 71 to tie for second with Candie Kung (69).

I was able to watch a bit of this when I got home from dinner and she seemed in complete control of matters....  though it was only a 54-hole event.

Isn't That Special? - It's all going pear-shaped, and fingers will be pointed:

Golf should lose its place on the Olympic programme unless it can guarantee the

participation of its top players, International Olympic Committee member Barry Maister has claimed.

"I think it is appalling," Maister, winner of an Olympic gold medal in hockey at Montreal 1976, told New Zealand radio station Newstalk ZB.

"I don't like it and I don't think the sport should be allowed to continue in the Games under that scenario. 

"Once they've got in, they have got to deliver. 

"Just getting in with your name, and then putting up some second or third rate players, is so far from the Olympic ideal or the expectation of the Olympic Movement.

"The Olympics is about the best, and they pledged the best. 

"Quite frankly, any sport that cannot deliver its best athletes, in my view, should not be there."

I'm guessing that that bit of Maisterbation at least made Barry feel better... As for the rest of us, I felt like we should have at least gotten dinner and a movie.

Of course there's an inherent truth to his point, if the best players won't show up it doesn't work on any level....  Of course he strangely elides the choice of Rio and all its implications.... minor stuff for sure, Zika, raw sewage, a formal Stae of Calamity and all that...

And just from the latest news cycle there was this:

Six weeks before the Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the laboratory that was set to handle drug testing at the Games has been suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency in a new escalation of the doping crisis in international sports. 

WADA — the global regulator of doping in sports that oversees three dozen testing labs around the world — confirmed the suspension Friday, citing the Rio lab’s “nonconformity” with international standards. 

The lab has a prior disciplinary record and is one of a handful of labs that have had their certification to conduct drug testing revoked in WADA’s 17-year history. Among those is Moscow’s antidoping lab, which was disciplined last fall following accusations of a government-run doping program in Russia.

I did have a possibly interesting thought over the weekend as to how to salvage golf's participation in the Olympics.  It's a retro thought, but make it an exclusively amateur competition....  they'll jump at the opportunity whereas the pros are golfed out.  As for format, since our governing bodies aren't too swift just copy the NCAA's.  Use the individual event to qualify for team match play and then let the kids rock.

Lastly on this subject, Branden Grace is the latest WD from the Olympics..... South Africa, land of Bobby Locke and Gray Player, featuring Ernie & Retief & King Louis & Charl, will field a team of Jaco Van Zyl and Brandon Stone.  Though Gray Player did have a good response:

They could do worse....

I lied, one more note.... The players are finally getting a break in the brutal summer schedule:

The PGA Tour officially canceled the Greenbrier Classic in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., because of the devastating floods that have ravaged the Greenbrier Resort and surrounding areas. 

“We are heartbroken by the devastation that the residents of West Virginia are experiencing at this time and the reports of lives lost due to the terrible flooding,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement. 

“Cancelling the Greenbrier Classic is certainly the most prudent course of action as our foremost concern is the well-being of those who are having to live through this tragic situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Damn!  If only it had been the Bridgestone!

Rulesgate, The Story That Won't Go Away -  This item is notable both for its perspective as well as the source:

In the aftermath of the near-fiasco at Oakmont, Slugger White hopes the whole thing

results in at least one rules change that’s seems so obvious, you wonder why it wasn’t set in stone when Old Tom Morris was in grade school. 

“I like to use a par-3 hole as an example,” Slugger said Friday from his Ormond Beach home. “Let’s say your tee shot ends up about 8 feet above the hole and you have a downhill putt for birdie. You mark your ball, read the putt, replace the ball, and before you address the putt, a gust of wind nudges the ball and it rolls forward, down the hill into the hole. 

“You’ve made a 1. But you know what, come on, you haven’t really made a 1. Let’s just put the ball back where it was and let’s go from there.” That’s not how the rule reads, however.

Slugger is of course a rules majordomo for the Tour and was hitred by the USGA to work at Oakmont, so he knows stuff.   And this:

On the flip side, if the ball was to roll into a bunker or pond, well, that’s too bad. You’re stuck blasting from the sand or taking a penalty drop. 

“And that’s not too farfetched with the speed of the greens we play these days,” added Slugger, getting to the root (so to speak) of this whole ordeal.

Farfetched?  Au contraire, that latter scenario is exactly what happened to Billy Horschel on the fifteenth green at this year's Masters....Here's Slugger's conclusion, which sounds remarkably like my own:

Unless and until there’s a philosophical shift on green speeds, Slugger would love to see the rule amended again to allow for the replacement of a ball that moves for any reason without being touched. 

“I’ve been beating that horse for years,” he said.

Good luck with that unless and until bit....The Tour Confidential guys circled back on this issue, first with this little bit of institutional dysfunction:

Alan Shipnuck: It was a brutal public relations hit for the USGA, and Davis’s quasi-apology didn’t really help. I got the first interview with him at Oakmont. Davis was upstairs in the locker room changing into his tie for the trophy presentation and I pounced on him. At that point DJ was on the 16th hole and Davis still hadn’t seen video of the incident! He was just going by reports from other staffers. It was clearly an institutional breakdown in communication and procedures. This will all lead to some soul-searching and clearly the USGA needs to overhaul how it handles things on the ground at big tournaments.

There's much of interest in their comments, including their unanimous panning of the concept of the Tour creating their own rules  regime.  Though this comment from Shack rings very true:

It's fascinating how the rules community continues to see a violation while most golfers I've talked to can't see anything close to evidence of Johnson causing the ball to move. Nor can many even make sense of the entire episode more than a week later, other than to express disdain for the rules of golf.

To me this is the crux of the matter.... The rules guys (and Slugger thinks the rules guys had to act as they did) interpret 18-2/.05 and the decisions relating thereto to mean that the player needs to identify what caused the ball to move.... Perhaps if DJ had only said that he heard a guy in downtown Pittsburgh sneezed....

Turnberry In The Time Of Brexit -  Interesting timing at the least, as our hero flew to Scotland just as Thursday's results were being announced.  Golf Channel's video report is here, though omits the obligatory lefty handing out red golf balls with swastikas on them....so clever....

I'm way tired of the man and all that goes with him, and all I care about is the golf course.... No word on that, but there was this:

Of course it is.....  Now, about that ninth hole?  Crickets....

But this was my favorite photo of the day:

Turnberry: Great again.  British dentistry.....errr, not so much.

John Strege takes a crack at the effect of Brexit on our little game, and has this:

Uncertainty” is the operative word in evaluating the impact of the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, even down to the relatively unimportant matter of golf and the effect it might have on travel. 

“I think, unless somebody wants to be an alarmist, the truth is it probably will have very little impact,” Sam Baker, the founder of Cincinnati-basedHaversham & Baker Golfing Expeditions, said on Friday.

This really misses the point, though later he does get to the issue of Northern Ireland and it's border with the Republic of Ireland.  But as overjoyed as I am at the Brexit vote, it does have long-term implications for Scotland and Northern Ireland.  

Those possible effects are beyond our scope right now, but Scotland has evolved into a liberal enclave, think Austin, TX.  They want desperately to be part of the European Union, or at least they think they do.... but they're also heavily subsidized by Westminster, and with oil prices where they are..... 

Muirfield Fallout - Morning Drive is reporting that Muirfield will hold a second vote on admitting women members.  I had told you that this would not take long, but there's little doubt how this vote will go.  As I predicted, we'll be back at The Honourable Company right on schedule....

Cheap Shots - In which we offer our typically sensitive thoughts on current headlines:

That's Not How You Spell A*****e - Comedian removed from Donald Trump Turnberry event after handing out ‘Nazi’ golf balls

Sending Your Child To UNC Is Parental Abuse - UNC-Chapel Hill Employee Forum cites 'a round of golf' as a microaggression

Has He Told Him That Second Place Sucks? - Tiger Woods’ son finishes runner up at junior tournament

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations - Good USGA News: Record Low Audience Saw '16 Fiasco!

I've Never Liked Tribute Bands - VIDEO: Sergio Garcia makes ace and breaks into Jimenez dance at BMW International Open

Friday Frisson

It's a late start to blogging this morning, caused by a case of Brexit Euphoria..... a previously unknown and unanticipated condition.  But anything toying with a trip to Scotland should jump on it now, before they secede.

I was hoping to be finished with Oakmont, but that is not yet the case....but we will, at the very least, start elsewhere.

Rors, The Fallout - You've all heard the news that Rory will give Rio a miss.... This qualifies as a mild surprise.  he was clearly not excited and somewhat worried, but it seemed that he would suck it up if only to avoid the heat.

Here's Shack's speculation on what changed:

With Rory citing Zika so soon after suggesting it was not a huge issue is, for someone

who was so passionate about the Olympic opportunity, likely to create the possibility of several more players on the fence to withdraw. Brian Keogh at the Irish Golf Desk talked toIreland's team captain Paul McGinley, who spoke to McIlroy last night but was not expecting the announcement today, explains that he was not aware of what changed in the last ten days. 

The most likely scenario: locker room chatter at Oakmont and a lack of reassurance that the golfers will be safe. And continued disdain for the schedule. And no peer pressure to play had their been a team format. 

Still, it is hard not to conclude that the expansive world schedule in golf and the lack of any need for golfers to view golf as the ultimate in their sport, is making the decision easier. I explained some of the dynamics that went into not rearranging the schedule when Adam Scott withdrew.

Charl had recently warned us that the locker room chatter had turned decidedly negative... And while Rory might have been excited originally, but his words were far more equivocal recently...To complete the news cycle, the McDowells are expecting a child shortly after the Olympics so your Irish Olympic Golf Team will seemingly be Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington.... 

More silliness ensues from other Irish athletes:

Irish Olympic sailor Annalise Murphy said making it to the games to represent her country was her dream and she was unconcerned about the Zika virus.

Murphy, who will represent Ireland in the laser radial event, pointed out the Olympics are taking place in the middle of winter in Rio - when there will be fewer mosquitoes. 

"I've been in Rio four times in the last seven months. There are not that many mosquitoes in the city.

"The Olympics are in August, which is the middle of winter for Rio. The Zika virus is not really a concern for me," she said. 

"The Olympics are my dream, I've been working the last few years of my life for this. Most athletes would be the same," she said.

I completely get that the Olympics are her dream, but can she not see that it might not be everyone's?  Would it be too much to ask some enterprising journalist to stick a microphone in the lady's face and ask her how she feels after she experiences the raw sewage through which she will be sailing?

 Alan Bastable provides a helpful scorecard on where folks sit, but to me this is the guy to watch:

Jason Day:

"It's difficult to say right now. We're just really trying to monitor what's going on because we're not done having kids. I don't want to have to bring anything back and have the possibility of that happening to us. Obviously, it can happen here. But if you put yourself down there, there's a chance of you getting it. … You don't know how long [the virus] is going to last in your body. So I'm a little wary about it.”

A Jason Day withdrawal, Dexit anyone, would at this point be a crippling blow, depriving the event of much of its legitimacy.

If I were Golf Digest,  I'd have Jaime Diaz working on a backgrounder as to how this all was botched so spectacularly....  Peter Dawson, Commissioner Ratched, Ted Bishop, George O'Grady and the rest have some serious explain' to do....

Justice Swamped - Not one of my better puns, but while Congressional was spared yesterday, another Tour venue wasn't:

Major flooding in and around The Greenbrier in West Virginia has raised the possibility

that the resort may not be able to host the PGA Tour's The Greenbrier Classic in two weeks.

Thursday rains in Greenbrier County, in the southeastern portion of the state, led to the declaration of a state of emergency. A number of residents in White Sulphur Springs, the town in which Greenbrier is located, were stranded in the highest rooms of their homes, awaiting rescue and hoping to avoid the flood waters. 

In addition to the flood damage, landslides have been reported in the mountainous area, with more anticipated by the National Weather Service, which maintains a Flash Flood Emergency for the area. Officials said anywhere from 1-4 inches of rain fell in a three-hour period on Thursday evening. 

“It’s like nothing I’ve seen,” said Greenbrier owner Jim Justice in a Thursday statement. “But our focus right now isn’t on the property, the golf course or anything else. We’re praying for the people and doing everything we can to get them the help they need.”

There's a Bubba video (he has a home there) at that link.  It's not pretty, but there are far greater concerns than a Tour event at this point....

Rahmbo Rocks - ASU grad Jon "Rahmbo" Rahm was the low amateur in the Open last week, after which he turned pro and teed it up at Congressional.  It went reasonably well, as these things go:

Jon Rahm’s got it going on. 

Last week, he earned the low-amateur honor at the U.S. Open as the only non-professional to make the cut and finished T-23. He then turned pro, to much fanfare, earlier this week, and on Wednesday was named Golweek‘s College Player of the Year for his 2015-16 senior season at Arizona State. 

But then he one-upped himself on Thursday. 

In his first round as a professional, Rahm, 21, of Barrika, Spain, fired a 7-under 64 in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National, taking a one-shot lead. 

Rahm never made a mistake all day at Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course in Bethesda, Md., with seven birdies and 11 pars.

He's a really strong player, though of course this is just 18 holes....

Trumped Again -  That Trump guys is in the news again, and I can't figure out why he gets the 24-7 coverage.  He's just an egotistical real estate developer..... What?  You're kidding.... at least I hope you are....

Donald is heading to Scotland for 36 hours, principally for the re-opening of Turnebrry's iconic Ailsa Course.  Time Magazine puts its cluelessness front and center with this lede:

There are no voters to woo here on Scotland’s wind-beaten coast, no donors to court or

party officials to lobby. The schedule contains no huddles with foreign dignitaries, nor a visit to a sacred Scottish site—unless you count the golf courses that Donald Trump came to promote. 

The man does things differently, and his first foreign trip as the presumptive Republican nominee is no exception. Trump’s 36-hour journey to his mother’s ancestral homeland is about publicity, not politics. Like so much of Trump’s approach, the brief visit, bookended by visits to a pair of trophy properties on opposite sides of Scotland, is a sharp break from the norms of presidential politics.

Yes, there's no reason for him to go there, and yet you're giving him free media.... Well, at least the six ninety-year-olds that still wait for Time Magazine to be delivered to find out what happened last week...

Reuters takes an interesting look at the economics of these properties, and here's a flavor for their reporting:

How great his golf course investments have been is debatable. A Reuters examination of them shows that Trump has likely lost millions of dollars on his golf projects. The analysis shows high costs and modest current valuations. Using conservative estimates of the amount Trump has spent, he may be breaking even or making modest gains; on higher estimates – based on whatTrump has said he is spending – he’s losing money.

Trump disputes the analysis. He said Reuters’ calculations overestimated what he had spent and underestimated the value of his investments. He declined to provide figures for his expenditure on courses or their current or future market values. 

“The golf courses are doing very well. Every one of them makes a lot of money,” said the author of the “Art of the Deal.” “They are not really golf investments, they’re development deals.” 

He added: “I have the right to build thousands of homes on the various properties I own, and I haven’t wanted to build them (yet) because frankly I’ve been busy doing other things, like running for president.”

There's a wealth of data, the gist of which is that Trump is overstating the income and valuation of  his three properties in Great Britain & Ireland.... and once you get over the shock that there's gambling in Casablanca, it's the man's M.O....

But the Turnberry Resort has been problematic for years, frustrating a series of owners and consistently losing money, which is why he was able to buy it for a song.  It's inevitably the course visiting golfers like the most because of its spectacular beauty, but it's a pretty remote location by Scottish standards.  

But it's fairly silly to attempt to evaluate the investment at such an early date, as he only bought the place in 2014.  

If Trump isn't your cup of tea, you'll also enjoy this WaPo feature that revisits all of his skirmishes with his Aberdeen neighbors....I, for one, am far more interested in his changes to The Ailsa, and we'll have to wait a few weeks to hear more on that.

The Onion On Oakmont - To paraphrase Nixon, when you've lost the Onion.... 

Two days before the U.S. Open began last week, The Onion, America’s Finest News Source, as the satirical news website bills itself, posted a brief story with this headline:

Nation Demands More Golf Highlights Where Ball Lands On Green, But Then Rolls All The Way Back Down Hill

“Stressing the urgent need for an increase in such clips both on television and the internet,” the story said, “Americans across the nation fiercely and unanimously demanded to see more golf highlights where the ball lands on the green, but then rolls all the way back down a big hill, sources confirmed Tuesday.

“‘I love it when the ball lands on the edge of a hill pretty close to the hole, stops for just a second, and then starts rolling backwards faster and faster until it’s all the way in the rough,’ said 33-year-old Trevor Burkin of Frederick, MD.”

What does it say that our simple game is mocked this way, and before that which actually deserved mocking?

Gary Van Sickle is back, and has chosen to not accept Mike Davis' apology:

Sorry, USGA, apology not accepted. 

The USGA crew got it right by admitting they got it wrong -- yay! But they still got the most important thing wrong. Johnson should not have been penalized. 

According to an amendment announced in January to Rule 18-2b (Ball Moving after Address), a one-stroke penalty should be applied only when the facts show that the player has caused the ball to move. 

In Johnson’s case, there was nothing in the slow-motion replay of his actions to factually prove that he caused the ball to move. Fox Sports and Golf Channel had USGA rules gurus Jeff Hall and Thomas Pagel on the air to explain the ruling. While the USGA guys said they were “confident they got it right,” they had nothing to hang it on. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee clearly felt strongly that the USGA duo had erred. When Chamblee pressed them, all he got from Hall and Pagel was doubletalk. The two hid behind the phrase, “It’s more likely than not” that Johnson caused the ball to move.

That's certainly my take after seeing the video, though I'd express it differently.  If Dj's action was sufficient to cause his ball to move, then that could happen to any player in the act of putting and farce will ensue....Given that we had three such incidents this week, I perhaps erred in not using the past tense.

This was to me the gist of his argument:

The second, bigger issue is, Why is this even a penalty? No advantage is gained. No player is trying to improve his lie on the green for his next putt. The rules were rewritten on this recently to protect the players in this ball-moving situation (after Padraig Harrington had an awkward after-the-fact decision) but they weren’t rewritten well enough. 

If a ball on a green moves even slightly before a player’s stroke, why not allow him to adjust the ball to its previous position without penalty? The player wasn’t trying to make a stroke. It’s like accidentally nudging a ball off the tee with a driver at address. There was not intent, so that’s not a penalty. You re-tee and play on. The rule should be consistent on the putting green, too.

This is consistent with my previously-expressed thoughts, though Gary is heading down a dangerous path with his analogy.  The problem is that the ball on the tee is the exception, if you nudge your ball at address anywhere else it is a penalty, and realistically should be on the green as well.  But the act of walking, standing or putting while in proximity to golf ball should not cause it to move....unless it does.

 I'll leave you with questions posed by a couple of thoughtful items, first from Dottie Pepper:

If the new mantra is being "innovative," why not be trulyinnovative and stop messing with these courses? Move the tees back to the tips, let mother nature dictate the condition of play (we don't play golf in a dome after all) and let a four-day slugfest produce a winner. 

People aren't glued to the World Series, NBA Finals or Super Bowl to watch the referees or hear the messaging about changes to the field of play and its sustainability. What'snot sustainable is 150 plus superintendents keeping Oakmont in form for U.S. Open week.

What is the harm in checking our egos and messaging at the front door and simply letting the best players in the world showcase their talent to identify the champion? 

Absolutely nothing.

She well knows the answer, the guys are hitting it fifty yards further than they did twenty years ago....  and straighter as well, because the ball spins so much less.  

I think we all agree that if the U.S. Open morphs into the FedEx St. Jude Classic that that's a bad thing, as it won't be a proper test of skill for a national championship.   But once we get past the generalities it gets very difficult so see a clear path forward.  

Do read Dottie's descriptions of the last few Open venues, and the related set-up issues.  I have no problem with the criticism that Mike Davis garners, especially this week, but I do think he has been a positive force in this process.  People seem to have forgotten the dreadful Tom Meeks years, when six-inch rough left the players grabbing their sand wedges on the tee after missing as fairway.... And Meeks wasn't dealing with 4460cc driver heads and Pro-V1's....

Lastly, see what you think of this interesting argument:

On that other issue, one cannot avoid addressing the actions of the USGA, both in terms of their course set up as well as Johnson’s infamous fifth hole ruling. 

Right now the industry in the US is hemorrhaging golfing memberships, many of the younger generation deciding to spend their money elsewhere. 

Hence it is incumbent on the USGA to use whatever opportunity they have to showcase the US Open and everything good and attractive in the game of golf. 

Of course the US Open should be about finding the best player and I would even go along with it being a true test of all the golfers’ arsenal, but the Oakmont test has done little to attract new fans to the game. It was penal. It was tough and for most of the game’s best professionals playing last week, it was both demoralising and humiliating - so you can I can only imagine the turn-off it must have been for the half interested golfer! 

In my opinion, the golf authorities from top to bottom must now take a long hard look at their job descriptions and ask themselves are we doing everything we can to promote greater participation in the game of golf?

I don't think I agree with him on his broader point, but it's an interesting premise.  I think he does a disservice in linking the two issues, because there's little doubt that the rules issue alienated people.  The USGA seemed rigid and inflexible and, to my mind most important, placed the players generally and DJ specifically in an untenable position....

But on the broader issue of whether a penal U.S. Open inhibits participation rates I'll remain skeptical....  Did rounds played go into a tailspin after the 1974 Massacre at Winged Foot?  Golfers understand that a U.S. Open is intended to be a stern test, and many of us derive actual pleasure from seeing the world's best battle difficult conditions.  

But just to demonstrate that the other side of my pie hole functions just as well, we can all learn from The Masters, whose reputation for excitement draws viewers who don't play the game.  There is an irony that the USGA covets the Masters' rating without understanding from whence they derive....

Open Detritus

In which we deal with that lingering bad taste in our mouths....

Fox as Savior - Yeah, I'm gagging on this one a bit, but since I didn't actually see it I'll have to defer to those that did.  More accurately, a carefully chosen subset of those...specifically including Martin Kaufmann and John Strege.  From the former:

We certainly can’t accuse Fox Sports of carrying water for the U.S. Golf Association.

These television “partnerships” between networks and sports properties tend to be cozy relationships, but when the whole Dustin Johnson kerfuffle busted out on the back nine Sunday, Fox dealt with the situation head-on. 

Jeff Hall, the USGA’s managing director, Open Championships, was brought into the 18th tower to be interrogated. OK, they kept it civil, but Fox announcers Paul Azinger and Brad Faxon made clear they were not happy with the prospect that the USGA would dock Johnson a penalty stroke because his ball moved on the fifth green. 

“It sounded like Jeff Hall (indicated) they’ve already made the decision that it’s going to be a penalty,” Azinger said after Hall had departed. 

“I’m really fired up. . .” Faxon said. “They have to take (Johnson’s) word for it that it didn’t move. … What other sport would wait until the end to make a decision. This is ridiculous.” 

Fox anchor Joe Buck read tweets from Rory McIlroy and other prominent players blasting the USGA.

And from the latter: 

We certainly can’t accuse Fox Sports of carrying water for the U.S. Golf Association. These television “partnerships” between networks and sports properties tend to be cozy relationships, but when the whole Dustin Johnson kerfuffle busted out on the back nine Sunday, Fox dealt with the situation head-on.

Jeff Hall, the USGA’s managing director, Open Championships, was brought into the 18th tower to be interrogated. OK, they kept it civil, but Fox announcers Paul Azinger and Brad Faxon made clear they were not happy with the prospect that the USGA would dock Johnson a penalty stroke because his ball moved on the fifth green. 

“It sounded like Jeff Hall (indicated) they’ve already made the decision that it’s going to be a penalty,” Azinger said after Hall had departed. 

“I’m really fired up. . .” Faxon said. “They have to take (Johnson’s) word for it that it didn’t move. … What other sport would wait until the end to make a decision. This is ridiculous.” 

Fox anchor Joe Buck read tweets from Rory McIlroy and other prominent players blasting the USGA.

Good on them.  I'm not surprised to see that from Zinger and Faxon, but you never know what orders are being barked into their headsets.  It was disconcerting and disturbing, and to have pretended otherwise would not have played well...

Any guesses on how The Shark would have handled it?  OK, that was harsh....

Shack gives them those and other props in this post, specifically citing their successful use of technology, including this:

—Flight Track, showing the player teeing off with a side graphic depicting the flight of the ball and various numbers. Easily the biggest innovation in golf viewing based on the viewer reaction on social media and in the press center.

Couldn't agree more.... very effective, though to be fair you couldn't do that when we ere all watching 13" screens.

I expected to see more attempts to capture the contours of the greens, and with Gil Hanse and Bob Ford available they could have done far more to set up the holes as players were preparing to hit approach shots.  

From my limited viewing, I find the Fox pacing a bit jarring at times, though that's admittedly inherently subjective.  Shack has some coverage critiques as well, and they're typically thoughtful and well worth your time.

He touches on Mark Brooks as well, who was easily the weakest link in their coverage and also to my mind extraneous in some of "Let's go to Holly" moments....Apparently Brooks' work last year on featured group coverage earned him the field promotion, and Shack speculates that he's uncomfortable in front of the camera...  If Mark Loomis thinks he can grow into the role then he should let him do so, but this is yet another instance where Fox only covering USGA events is a limiting factor....

Were you aware of the Saturday fiasco?

Never?  Well, except for the next ten U.S. Opens....  And to be clear, they didn't switch for a regular-season baseball game, they switched for a regular-season baseball game's pregame show... I've read about contractual commitments, but don't they have the same commitments to the USGA?

Ultimately One has to concede that Fox was far better this time around.... they also get props for their bonus coverage, as they were on for thirteen hours on Friday.  But to this viewer Joe Buck is simply an unwanted presence, with a booming voice ill-suited to the gentle rhythms of our game.  I think we under-appreciate the job that Jim Nantz and Dan Hicks do in managing the traffic flow on their networks, while not overtly intruding on the proceedings.

Rulesgate - I gave you a day off from any discussion of 18-2/.05, so you're going to eat your spinach and you're going to like it.... Though I'll amuse you with this quote that Shack has as a header today:

Sometimes the closer one sticks to the letter of the rules, the farther one gets from the spirit.

S.L. McKINLAY

We're going to start with Max Adler, who I think gets it as wrong as is humanly possible:

If the naked eye cannot be trusted to detect whatever it is you are trying to see, then what you are trying to see does not exist, at least in the realm of sports. In this case, the subatomic physical relationship between air, grass blade and TaylorMade. Microscopes are essential in science and engineering, but when it comes to comparing the athleticism of men and women and calling a winner, reliance on gadgetry diminishes the contest. When a downhill skier loses a race by .001 of a second, does he really lose? Because the mind is incapable of conceiving such an abstraction, the contest is flawed. When a wide receiver’s toe is judged oh just a fraction of a fraction out-of-bounds on what the ref originally called the game-winning catch, does that result sit well? A few years ago or in a different league the catch might’ve been called the other way, and record books start to read like fiction.

Does any part of that ring true?  When I see that wide receivers toe come down out of bounds on the slo-mo replay, I'm glad that the technology allows for that level of accuracy, though I might regret the time it takes to do so.  The other basic flaw is that DJ himself saw the ball move, so in some manner we're forced to deal with it...

Here's Max's conclusion, which isn't as off-base as the above excerpt would lead you to believe:

But here’s a better idea: Let’s simply get rid of any rules that require a camera. Rule 18-2, which deals with a ball at rest that moves, is absurd. If the five human senses are inadequate, than whatever we are trying to discover is unimportant.

here's the question I'd pose.... is there another rule in sports that requires officials to judge the relative likelihood of causation? And remember this from the decisions that we had a couple of days ago:

If the weight of the evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the player caused the ball to move, even though that conclusion is not free from doubt, the player incurs a one-stroke penalty under Rule 18-2 and the ball must be replaced. Otherwise, the player incurs no penalty and the ball is played as it lies unless some other rule applies (e.g. Re 18-1).

That highlighted clause is to me the crux of the matter.  If we want to analogize to other sports, if there remains doubt after a video review the decision on the field is upheld.  

But before we jump to conclusions, you should read Gar Van Sickle's piece on the mess, which provides a necessary existential overview of that which Gary calls a perfect storm:

The whole only-in-golf situation was set in motion the moment Johnson informed a USGA rules official that his ball on the 5th green of the last round of the 116th U.S. Open moved incrementally and that he was not responsible for its movement. From that point on, four basic and competing conditions came into play: 

I. A tenet of golf is that you play the ball as it lies.

II. Every time the ball moves, no matter how insignificantly, there must be some accounting of the movement.

III. The player is assumed to be a person of integrity, trusted to mark his card with complete fidelity to the rulebook.

IV. The goal of every player is to turn in the most accurate scorecard possible and to that end the golfer should use all available information.

I know, but is there another sport where the player is responsible for posting his own score?  And this is pitch-perfect:

To the public at large, the decision turned into Faceless Bureaucrats v. Stylish Long-hitting Touring Pro. In the court of public opinion, the USGA had no chance. In making the decision it made, the USGA was rejecting Johnson’s own analysis of what happened. This is where the conflict between Condition III and Condition IV comes into play. 

Yes, this minutia is deeply tedious. It is not Johnson’s stock-in-trade, or most people’s. But the actions of the USGA were intended to preserve the integrity of the game and the outcome of the championship. The next time a player is in a similar situation, he or she will now have a further understanding of the importance of determining what actually made the ball move. Not that the USGA was trying to teach any sort of lesson. It was trying to sort through the situation it faced with all the available evidence.

I think that Gary's defense of the USGA is helpful, as much of the criticism is needlessly personal.  But I have one mega-caveat, namely that the conditions of the greens makes this an increasingly  common, not a perfect storm.  

Shack has a curious post about Mike Davis that seems unnecessarily personal... here's his framing of the issue:

The USGA became the story over the players and Oakmont.

The USGA jeopardized their reputation over a strict reading of their rules, instead of taking into account the spirit of the rules or other similar situations from the round, or just simple common sense that said this did not meet the threshold set by Decisions 18-2/0.5. 

They risked the reputation of the sport and the United States Open over an obscure "Decision" in a situation brought on by their love of unsustainable green speeds. 

A select few people went out on a limb to penalize Johnson, ultimately embarrassing their staff, USGA members and the volunteer referee who agreed with Johnson's view that the player had not caused the ball to move. 

The USGA essentially called Johnson a liar by insisting on penalizing the eventual champion.

There's much to be critical of, but you to war with the rule book and decisions thereon that you have.... I'm arguing for a change to the rule, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with the concept that rules officials should defer to the nebulous "spirit of the rule".  Now on this I agree completely:

So it was on Monday that Davis finally went public and tried to repair the situation Golf Central, but then inexplicably asked for a "mulligan," a violation of the Rules of Golf!

In other words, the rules sticklers were asking for forgiveness in the spirit of the rules, the same lack of forgiving spirit they would not apply to the Johnson situation. This, even as any combination of factors could have been taken into account--green speeds, referee's decision, DJ's on-course track record--and were not.

Again, very little discussion of the conflict with Rule 34-2.... I think Randall Mell, to whom Shack linked, has it about right:

With the USGA’s credibility so under assault right now, with the world’s best players poised to revolt, with some pushing for the PGA Tour to take charge of their own rule making, it’s more important than ever for Davis to be out front. You may not agree with some of his U.S. Open setup philosophies, some of the creative tweaks he has added to an old formula, but Davis is a persuasive figure. He is a true believer. He is committed to his principles, and he knows how to sell his ideas. He can give eloquent, thorough explanations for the most controversial decisions (i.e., anchored strokes). That’s why his voice is needed to soothe all the angst, to reassure the faithful that reasonable complaints are being heard and reasonable solutions are being sought. 

Rule 18-2 – balls at rest moving – needs addressing again. Is the USGA content with the language, with “weighted evidence” and “51 percent” probability, all that’s required for a rules committee to overrule decisions players and referees make on the course? Video review needs some serious wrangling, to prevent or limit the kind of damage Sunday’s review could have done.

Stay tuned, but I think you'll agree that it's time to move on...

Murphy?  Is That an Irish Name? - On Monday we featured Employee No. 2's trenchant insights on the Sunday awards ceremony.  Now of course her use of the "V" word garnered the strongest feedback, but remember this about the USGA Prez?

Employee No. 2's take: Has she been drinking?

The bride's family hails from County Mayo and I defer to her experience in such matters, but this is now an official Internet meme.   

Watch the painful video and see if you can identify any other cause....

Anger Management - Did you catch Spencer Levin's meltdown in the second round?  It was pretty epic, and Shack had it here.  Apologies for my technical limitations in not being able to embed it, but Levin is a bit of a frequent offender on this score:

 Good times.

But get a load of this:

A man and his putter in better times...

Danny Willett admitted frustration got the better of him after smashing the putter he used to win the Masters during the US Open at Oakmont. 

A closing 71 left the 28-year-old on nine over par alongside Argentina's Angel Cabrera, who was five over par in winning the US Open at Oakmont in 2007. 

"Unfortunately it's now in two pieces," said Willett, whose patience ran out in the closing stages of Saturday's third round of 73. "We'll have to get it refurbed and then I won't be using it again.

 I completely get it....after all, what had that putter ever done for him?

The Fashion Beat - Marty Hackel narrates a slideshow on U.S. Open fashions, the hits and misses.  I made a snide comment about this on Thursday, but I'm now wondering is they were flannel:

Once you saw the header, you knew that Billy Horschel would put in an appearance:

I do like the shirts, but I guess the octopus pants were at the cleaners....

Does Make Van Sickle get a pass because he's a Pittsburgh native?

I'm gonna go with no here....

Did you know that Tommy Bahama makes golf shirts: