Midweek Musings

We've got the goods for you, starting with the youngsters:

And Then There Were Two... - It's match play finals day, and shame on you for missing the exciting semis... I've jumped on the Ducks bandwagon, as Casey Martin's squad took down the deep Fightin' Illini in one semi-final, while Texas' win was dependent upon their best player keeping his clavicle in its socket:

It was painful just to watch Texas junior Beau Hossler finish his NCAA semifinal match

Tuesday at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club against USC’s Andrew Levitt. One can only imagine how painful it was for Hossler to actually play as he tried to secure the winning point to send his team to Wednesday’s NCAA finals while struggling with a left shoulder injury that appeared to get worse with each swing. 

Somehow, Hossler managed to birdie the par-5 15th hole, chip-in for birdie on the par-3 16th hole and then get up-and-down for par on the par-4 17th hole from a bunker—using his putter for both shots—to beat Levitt, 2 and 1, and set up a championship-match showdown between the Longhorns and the host school, Oregon. 

Whether Hossler, a first-team All-American in the running for a pair of national college player-of-the-year awards, will participate in the final, however, remains to be seen.

It was painful for sure, but also oddly captivating.... He improvised some modern dance moves that I'd not previously seen, and managed to gut it out.  As for this, we used to do this all the time at Lake Isle:

Good move by the kid...  By the way, if his name sounds familiar it's likely because he hung around the leaderboard at The Olympic U.S. Open far longer than most ams....

Here's the matches for today:

If Hossler can't go, there's no provision to replace him and Oregon would be awarded that point.  Those are PDT times, so it's Prime Time coverage.  Go Ducks!

This Tine It's Personal - Shack's new podcast is playing in the background as I dive in on this Trump-related item, which began in an offhand comment to Sean Hannity:

What a guy! Most would be angered at losing the event, but our hero offers constructive suggestions to ensure that their insurance binder is comprehensive...  I din't understand why folks are put off by him.

Back at his blog, Geoff is holding his breath until he turns blue with this rant:

Now, the serious (golf) issues at hand here: 

--The PGA Tour has been going to Miami since at least 1961 and Doral was an important event before being turned into a WGC by Commissioner Tim Finchem. WGC's are costlier to sponsor and therefore prone to be moved, altered and stripped of identity. 

--Trump has invested heavily into the resort and course with great results. While he may have intervened in course setup and may have been too high of a profile for the tour or sponsors, the event is seemingly is a great sponsorship opportunity due to its place on the schedule, the status of Trump Doral and the Miami market. Apparently the tour no longer can convince a sponsor of that. 

--At a time the PGA Tour is considering opting out of its current TV deal with the networks, it is considering saddling a network with a WGC in a country other than the United States and one that only gives candidate Trump more fodder for one of his key campaign themes. I'm not sure how that creates leverage for the tour, only headaches.

--Instead of just letting the Doral event die and opening up a spot on the schedule, a replacement event is the goal because executive bonuses are tied to playing opportunities. Even when the playing opportunity might be in Mexico City! 

--Finchem is possibly positioning the PGA Tour to become a focal point of the presidential campaign as he's preparing to opt-out of a television contract. A wiser commish less-focused on his golden parachute would have had the tour self-sponsor the event for a year to ride out the campaign. 

Let the fun begin!

Feel better, Geoff?  I'm going to half agree with Shack, as I think he's way over-stating the extent to which this ties in to the political campaign, but so be it.  Who knew that Mexico had enough money to both pay for the wall and sponsor a WGC event....

But it is yet another example of the blatant disregard for Tour and golf history....  Anyone but me remember The Western Open?  It's...strike that, it WAS the second oldest professional tournament in the U.S.first played in 1899, at one point having a credible claim to being a major.  In more recent times it had everything going for it, a great date on the schedule, a fine venue and that guy named after a predator showed up.  But Commissioner Ratched sacrificed it to the FedEx gods seemingly without the slightest hesitation, though there's some good, clean Schadenfreudistic fun in hearing the announcers on the BMW telecast unconvincingly attempt to tie themselves to the storied history of The Western.

You Don't Know Jack - jack held his annual presser yesterday at The Memorial, and he remains as gracious as ever.  The highlights are here, but I'll offer this bit:

“(Sam) Snead, (Ben) Hogan and (Byron) Nelson wasn’t too bad.” — When it was suggested that Nicklaus joined Arnold Palmer and Gary Player to form the first “Big Three” in golf.

Hate to play the uptight schoolmarm, but is there any doubt about the original Big Three?

My personal favorite was his candid assessment of his performance in the 1960 U.S. Open:

“I proceeded to fall apart like a $3 suitcase.” — Reminiscing about the 1960 U.S. Open, which he led as an amateur headed to the back nine at Cherry Hills. Nicklaus finished second, two behind Palmer.

He got paired for the final 36 holes with Ben Hogan, so that had to be quite the experience....

On a related note, the Tour Confidential crew took on this question earlier in the week:

5.) With the Tour this week visiting Jack’s place, Muirfield Village, in Dublin, Ohio, let us pause to reflect on Nicklaus’s signature accomplishment, his 18 major wins. In the hierarchy of sporting achievements, where does Jack’s mark rank?

OK, this is one of those questions.....obviously there's no real answer possible, though this goes at it exactly wrong I think:

Sens: Or the occasional fire hydrant, for that matter. So many roadblocks can get in the way. But in the grand hierarchy, I’d say DiMaggio’s hitting streak will outlast Jack’s 18 majors.

Apples, oranges.... It's an amazing feat of durability compared to the ultimate in-season streak.  Both amazing of course, but not of the same ilk.  But this answer is the reason I circled back:

Shipnuck: The fact is, most of the greatest players tend to win all their majors in a six- or eight-year burst. Even Tiger topped out at 11 years from start to finish. So by that math Rory is already halfway through his run. Is he going to win 15 majors in the next five years? I kinda doubt it. So many things about Big Jack broke the mold; his longevity is just one of them.

Got your abacus handy?  Because 1962-1986 is twenty-four years....  You can decide for yourself what it means, but it's quite amazing....

Burying The Lede - We were all over The Beef yesterday, except that we missed the photo of his parking spot at Wentworth:

I promise it won't happen again....

Naming Names - We love our golf names, but trolling for new ones is most productive among the ladies, their game being the more international.

First, we'd like to congratulate LPGA rookie Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras on her T27 at last week's LPGA Volvik Championship.  All I know is that she's Thai, 5 '6" tall and has $12,972 in career earnings.  In case you ever have need to pick her out of a police line-up, here's her tour profile headshot.

Of course, she's no Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong, but it's not fair to hold folks to those unattainable standards.  We noted the later for you earlier when she won the Symetra Tour Championship, but I still find that given name a tad weird.