Midweek Musings - PGA Edition

A couple of other items before we focus on that little get-together in New Jersey....

A Linksapalooza - If you prefer your golf of the linksy persuasion, and we certainly do here at Unplayable Lies, then this will have you circling date son your 2017 calendar:

As we predicted last October, the 2017 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory

Foundation will return to Northern Ireland with Portstewart Golf Club confirmed as the host venue from July 6-9. 

Founded in 1894 and long considered one of the country’s finest links courses, Portstewart will be staging a European Tour event for the first time when tournament host Rory McIlroy defends his title there next summer. 

The change of date means the events will be the first of three links events in a row before The Open at Royal Birkdale with Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Dundonald Links retaining its prime date, the week before the game's oldest Major.

I simply couldn't be happier, both to have another week of links golf as well as for the good folks of the area....We've played The Strand course at Portstewart several times with our good friend Lowell Courtney, who happens to be a member, and I've little doubt that it will present well for the event.

You can read more of Portstewart from our Ballyliffin journey here (please be polite and overlook the typos), as well as some not-half-bad photos from yours truly.  The only qualification to bear in mind is that it's the outbound nine that provides the eye-candy, some of the most dramatic dunes in links golf.  The inbound holes are stout, but are simply laid out on less dramatic terrain.

This to me is far more significant, as relates to the European Tour, than the golf-on-steroids plans discussed yesterday, as it further strengthens the national open of a golf-crazy country.  It also serves as a further inducement for Americans to come over early and adapt to the seaside game, though we'll have to wait to see if they get it.  The only loser would seem to be the French Open, which moves to the slot on the schedule in May formerly occupied by the Irish.

But Lowell and I are happy, and that's really all that matters....

Olympic Fever - I know, it's really hard to contain ourselves....  Now comes word that another player may not be in Rio.... though this one will mostly affect Maggot:

I just met a girl named Maria....

Another golfer might be canceling her flight to Rio, but not because of scheduling conflicts or the Zika virus. 

Maria Verchenova, a Ladies European Tour pro from Moscow, is the only Russian golfer who qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, but less than two weeks before the start of the Games, the International Olympic Committee determined that "all Russian athletes seeking entry to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 are considered to be affected by a system subverting and manipulating the antidoping system."

Although the World Anti-Doping Agency recommended an unprecedented blanket ban on Russian athletes for what its offcials called "the single biggest doping scandal of all time," the IOC decided to leave it up to each individual international sports federation to vet each Russian athlete under its jurisdiction, so Verchenova's fate now rests with the International Golf Federation.

C'mon, let the poor girl in....She's not likely to contend, and Golf Channel has nine hours a day to fill:

Verchenova, 30, is the No. 338-ranked player in the world and the first Russian golfer to become a full-time member of the Ladies European Tour, where she has competed since 2012.

As I once said of former Yankess catcher Frankie Cervelli, a noted weak stick, if they're using PEDs, they're doing it wrong.

 In other Olympic news, we have this fashion report:

Bubba Watson has said from the beginning that he's excited about representing the

United States at the Olympic Games in Rio, as golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in more than 100 years. He'll be the top-ranked golfer in the world in the field, and from a fashion standpoint, he has already made a mark in the introduction of these shoes. 

The 10-time PGA Tour winner and two-time Masters champion will go for Olympic gold in these limited-edition, Team USA shoes from G/FORE. You know, even further evidence of his intense pride to represent his country.

Given the prevalence of raw sewage, I think the high-tops were a good call.

Fun With Names - We usually focus on the ladies, obviously because of the prevalence of Asian names...  I know, it has to be racist, but a blogger needs content.  So quit with the damning me to eternal perdition and enjoy this SkratchTV video in which Asian Tour players names are entered into Google Translator.  

Shall we turn our attention to the PGA?  Thought you'd agree...

The Long Of It - We've come a long way in the PGA Long Drive competition, heck even Bubba is at least trying to pound one out there.  For most of yesterday Rory was the leader in the clubhouse, and surprisingly seemed to care a great deal about it:

“Obviously, the PGA of America have had this long drive competition for a long time,” McIlroy said. “I know Jack Nicklaus still carries his money clip from 1963. It’s a nice little accolade to have. … It’s a cool concept. It’s a lot of fun and I think the guys enjoy it.”

McIlroy gave it his all Tuesday, blasting one 345 yards down Baltusrol’s first fairway. He then anxiously watched the leaderboard as players tried to knock him out of the top spot.

But it wasn't meant to be:

Instead, it was Ben An who snuck one out two yards farther, at 347. 

McIlroy heard the news as he was walking out of the interview room. He wasn't pleased.

With An's career earnings of $4.8 million compared to McIlroy's $50 million, it might be the only way the former U.S. Amateur champion will ever get into Rory's pocket.

To be fair, An was in the better side of the draw.....OK, but here's the funniest part.  Golf Channel had the good sense to cover it and use ProTracer, and this was the scatter diagram of the field:

You see that outlier heading straight for the trees on the left?  There was understandable curiosity over whose skank that was....and we have an answer:

One niggling detail?  Bowditch isn't, you know, in the field at Baltusrol....  But good on the Aussie for covering for his mates (though, and I don't mean this to be harsh, if I were Poirot I'd start with the twenty club pros).

The Seventeenth - She's a brute, at 649 yards..... Peter Burkowski planted himself there on Tuesday, and tells of DJ's plan of attack:

Dustin Johnson eats par-5s for breakfast. The longest hitter in the game also boasts a top-

10 scoring rate on par-5s. 

When he came to the tee box at the 649-yard par-5 17th on Tuesday for a PGA Championship practice round, his mere presence elicited a deafening silence of anticipation from the gathered crowd. 

His drive, a 330-yard bomb, drew oohs and ahhs from the people watching. No"Bababooie!" or "Mashed potatoes!" This was shock and awe.

Yet when he got to his ball, he had nearly 320 yards left to the pin, and even for the lanky, angular DJ that was too tall a task.

Johnson took an iron and placed it perfectly short and right of the gnarl of bunkers protecting the elevated 17th green.

If you care about your scorecard, it makes little sense to go for the green.  But this was Tuesday, so why not?

But then he did something I only saw one player do all day: he paused, dropped another ball, and grabbed his 3-wood—to applause from the gallery—and went for it.

That familiar bowed wrist and explosive action at the ball whooshed through impact. He’d pured it … 20 yards short.

Even for the hottest golfer on Tour with a dynamic swing and distance for days, the 17th bared its teeth.

David Dusek looks at the hole differently:

Is Baltusrol’s 17th hole really a 649-yard par 3?

 Here's the obvious logic:

“It becomes a par 3,” said Craig ‘Weeman’ Connelly, who caddies for 2010 PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer. The consensus among Connelly, other caddies and many players is that if everyone lays up on the 17th, it becomes a contest to see who can make the most birdies using a pitching wedge from between 80 and 125 yards out.

That's all well and good, but to get to your 100-yard Par-3, you need to find the fairway with your drive and hit your "lay-up" some 250-260 yards.....Oh, and straight.  What I can't find in these analyses, is the length of third shot for a player that misses the fairway and has to lay up short of the cross bunkers.  That's a much longer Par-3....

To answer your obvious question:

But will anyone go for it and try to make eagle? 

“I think that if it goes down wind, yeah,” said Connelly. “If it goes downwind and you get guys like Dustin, Bubba, Rory, Nicholas Colsaerts, Thomas Pieters, those guys will give it a whack,” he said.

Inevitably a guy like Colsaerts will give it a go....But I think that will be limited to players out of contention and those that need nothing short of an eagle when they reach No. 17.  There's just way too much difficulty around that green, and a better chance of a four with a wedge in hand.

Day Time - I can't find anything written on the curious scheduling of Jason Day, the defending champion this week, though it was the subject of discussion on Golf Channel last night.

Despite the compressed schedule, Day went to the Canadian Open last week, where he was also the defender.  He did not show up at Baltusrol, a golf course on which he has never set his eyes, until this morning.  He asked the PGA to reschedule his press availability from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, after which he will play a practice round.  His only practice round!

What am I missing?  The man has himself too exhausted to play practice rounds at a major in which he is defending, because he couldn't pass up The Canadian Open?  The schedule is insane, but can't these guys say no to easy money?  Sheesh!  I certainly wouldn't have him on my fantasy roster if I, you know, had one....