Notes From The Flood Zone

I only caught a bit of yesterday's coverage, as we had a nine-hole social outing at our place.  Lots of disappointments among the favorites, but also much golf yet to be played...

And also much nonsense, as usual....  For instance, Golf.com leads their Five Things We Learned on Thursday feature with this:

1. A bearded Jimmy Walker is playing like it's 2014 again. Our unlikely early leader is 37-year-old Jimmy Walker, who shot an impressive five-under 65 in Thursday's opening round. Many saw Walker's play as a return to form, harkening back to his glory days in 2014-15, when he won five titles.

Walker played a fine round of golf and is the deserving leader, but it was one day.... And those glory days?  You mean when he won big-time events like the Sony, Frys.com and Valero?  Jimmy is a nice player, but he hasn't to date done anything that would lead a fellow to expect him to be in the mix late in the proceedings...

Shack has a good roundup of the coverage, but I completely misinterpreted this:

Michael Shamburger has this roundup of the tough day for favorites and stars, beyond Henrik Stenson, Day and Fowlerwho both posted nice scores.

So I'm scratching my chin wondering if there's bad blood between Geoff and Mike Bamberger, perhaps tribal rivalry between the Golf Digest and Golf Magazine teams... But lo and behold, there actually is a Michael Shamburger, and here is that roundup to which Geoff refers:

• E – Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, and Adam Scott
• +1 – Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Sergio Garcia, and Bubba Watson
• +2 – Masters champion Danny Willett
• +4 – Rory McIlroy
• +7 – U.S. Open champion and Vegas favorite Dustin Johnson appears to have completely ejected

That last one is a complete shock, given the recent fine form he's displayed.  Though, like Jason Day, I though it foolish for him to go to Canada last week.

Whoever wrote this link for a worthy Alan Shipnuck piece didn't do him any favors:

McIlroy Can't Keep Pace with Day, Mickelson

Sir, the man is T115, there's no shortage pf players he failed to keep pace with... including several club pros.  But I digress.  Anyway, here's Shipnuck on Rory:

While Day is back to making the game look easy, McIlroy was a woebegone presence throughout the opening round. He had droopy body language by his second hole, already beat down by his season-long inability to convert on his bountiful scoring opportunities. His birdie-less 74 evoked that disastrous birdie-less 77 he had shot on Masters Saturday in front of god and Jim Nantz (and playing partner Jordan Spieth.) On Thursday at Baltusrol, McIlroy took 35 putts and failed to hole anything longer than 6 feet 11 inches, leaving a series a makeable birdie putts short of the hole. He lost a whopping 3.95 strokes-gained to the field and it got so bad that at one point James Corrigan, the salty scribe for The Daily Telegraph, tweeted, "If Carlsberg made putters, Rory McIlroy would pour it down the toilet." To which Ian Carter, a BBC Sport correspondent, parried, "He might miss."

Afterward McIlroy stated the obvious in calling his troubles "a mental thing." He added, "I just need to be a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more free flowing with my stroke. … It's good on the putting green. It's just a matter of getting it from the putting green to the course. Maybe that's why I'm starting to be a little bit more assertive and not quite as tentative." The good news for McIlroy is that he's pounding his driver and his iron game was sharp. But as we saw during his missed cut at the U.S. Open or Saturday 73 at Troon, there is an elemental spark that is missing, and it's hard to imagine he's going to find it on the sweltering practice green at Baltusrol.

 Rory's putting has been simply dreadful, but as Bob Harig notes it's by far not his only issues:

Putting has typically been McIlroy's nemesis, the part of his game that would be considered average or even substandard compared with the rest of his skills. He needed 35 putts Thursday despite hitting a respectable 9 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation. 

His proximity to the hole average of 31 feet is another problem, and for the year he ranks just 84th on the PGA Tour in approaches to the hole from 100 to 125 yards. From 125 to 150, it is even worse, as McIlroy is 148th, averaging 24 feet, 6 inches. 

Considering how far McIlroy hits the ball -- he averages 304 yards off the tee and was 308 on Thursday -- his inability to hit it close with short irons helps explain some of the putting woes.

Hmmm....maybe he could spend some time with DJ over the weekend to work on his wedge play.... Eh, who am I kidding?  he'll shoot 68 today and end up with another back-door Top Ten.

Jason Sobel on DJ's surprising fall from grace:

Johnson opened with a 7-over 77 at Baltusrol Golf Club that included two double-bogeys 

and just a single birdie. He finished the day tied for 143rd place, ahead of only five other players, three of whom are club professionals. 

The score also left him a dozen shots off the lead of Jimmy Walker after just 18 holes.

After back-to-back pars to start his round, Johnson pulled his tee shot on the par-4 third hole and was forced to lay up, then three-putted for double. 

He immediately bogeyed three of his next four holes, then posted another double on the 11th hole, when he left his second shot in a fairway bunker. He even failed to take advantage of his length on the two closing par-5s, finishing his round par-bogey.

It's for sure a surprise, especially that six on the finishing hole, but it's still golf.

Alan Bastable compares Beefsanity to Linsanity here:

Let's recap. Golfer with beard and cute nickname wins tournament. Golfer with beard and cute nickname says he's going to celebrate by drinking copious amounts with friends. Golfer with beard and cute nickname actually does celebrate by drinking copious amounts with friends. Golfer with beard and cute nickname becomes cult sensation. 

Golfer with beard and cute nickname comes to New Jersey to play in his first PGA Championship and receives the kind of greeting usually reserved for players who have won PGA Championships. Golfer with beard and cute nickname loves every minute of it. 

As does everyone around him. That's the thing about Beef. He's the lovable sidekick from your favorite sitcom, and yet there's no shtick about him. His rapport with fans, his accessibility, his joie de vivre -- it's genuine. All of it. You can't not enjoy watching the guy.

He shot a very respectable 70 yesterday amid the ruckus....dare we hope that he'll be on the Euro Ryder Cup team?  I'm not sure that Darren Clarke has that good a sense of humor....