Weekend Wrap

Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?  Yeah, for maybe five minutes, after Day's clsoing eagle and....well, you know the rest.  It was annus horribilus for the governing bodies of our game, but let's pay our respects to the winner first.....

Mike Bamberger layers on as much lipstick as the pig can stand:

Years from now, when junior is a grandfather and drivers are made out of wood again,

golf fans will look back at the list of winners of the PGA Championship and see the name Jimmy Walker right alongside some of the most sparkly names in the history of the game. Congratulations, Mr. Walker. You won yourself a major, the 2016 PGA Championship. Nobody can take that away from you. Winning at Napa or San Antonio or Honolulu, that's a fineaccomplishment. But it doesn't make you part of the lore of the game. You, sir, are now part of the lore. Even if it might not feel like it just now. 

Walker, a native Oklahoman who lives in Texas and carries himself with deep reserves of calm, had a remarkable four rounds on the par-70 Lower course at Baltusrol Golf Club: 65, 66, 68 and a rock-solid, bogey-free 67 in the finale, giving him a one-stroke victory over Jason Day, who won the PGA so memorably last year at Whistling Straits, on glimmering Lake Michigan. Walker didn't do much wrong on Sunday, suggesting that he either has ice water flowing through his veins or that he treated this major championship as if he were playing in the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic, an event he won on the Nationwide tour nine years ago. 

It is not Walker's fault, nor anybody else's, that this rain- and heat-plagued 98th PGA Championship felt more like the old Sammy Davis Jr. Hartford stop at Wethersfield Country Club than the grand event it actually is.

Errr...that last sentence screams for a rebuttal, though we can agree that it's certainly not Walker's fault.   

Fact is that the PGA has long been problematic, having no recognizable identity....  The other three majors are firmly etched in our minds with distinct playing conditions and challenges, but the PGA has mostly been a USGA-light.  To be fair it started its life with such an identity, a match-play event, but that proved incompatible with the television era....

The PGA hasn't, in my mind, helped itself in latching on to hand-me-down USGA venues, including Baltusrol, Oak Hill, Southern Hills, Hazeltine and the like.  More recently they've tried to become a Masters-wannabe, with a Champion's Dinner and diluting the field by including past champions.....

They've also tried to make their course set-ups more player friendly, and I don't necessarily quibble with that....except, as Mike notes above, that veers deep into routine Tour event territory....Then schedule it a mere ten days after the Open Championship and apathy ensues....

Now it turns out that the winner and I are neighbors:

In earnest, Walker had already done his work a few weeks earlier in Park City, Utah, where his wife Erin’s parents have a home and where Harmon also has a vacation house.

“It’s so relaxing for us,” Erin said. “He has memberships to two courses there so he can go play and practice whenever he wants.” 

Harmon worked on getting Walker to stand a little closer to the ball as well as the posture of his right leg, which he was straightening and therefore causing him to get outside his right side on the swing.

The two also focused on the six-inch space between Walker’s ears. His season hadn’t exactly gone to plan with missed cuts in half of his last eight starts coming into the year’s final major. Despite a career in which he had won five times in just over 18 months between the fall of 2013 and early 2015 after going 0-for-his-first-187-starts on tour, Walker was down on himself and his game.

Anyone that's anybody hangs in Park City, so no surprise there....   Moving a little closer to the ball and focusing on posture has yielded good results for your humble correspondent this year, though the six inches between my ears remains a no-go zone....

The Tour Confidential panel gives Jimmy his due as well:

Gary Van Sickle: JW did it the old-fashioned, Steady-Eddy way, fairways and greens,

better than anyone else. When your worst score is 68, you played golf.

Cameron Morfit: I'm impressed that Walker was able to hold it together given his lackluster results this year. He'd missed four cuts in his last eight starts. His last top 10 was at the WGC-Cadillac at Doral. He couldn't have been overflowing with confidence, but he was still able to close in the heat. Impressive.

 I quite agree, though the accompanying pic reminds me of the PGA's love of hot, steamy venues....  Let's see, North Carolina in August, discussing nothing but which bathroom folks will use....what could go wrong?

Now it's time to take the PGA to the woodshed...  We'll start slowly, with the TC panel's judicious comments:

2.) On a rainy Saturday at Baltusrol, the PGA of America brought the possibility of a Monday finish very much into play by declining to send players off two tees. In the fourth round, PGA officials elected to institute lift, clean and place, for the first time in tournament history. What did you make of these decisions?

VAN SICKLE: It turned out better than expected, really, but for once the PGA of America left itself some margin of error. Purists will be horrified, but modern golf is a TV show. It's all about that.

GODICH: The lift, clean and place seemed unavoidable, but the PGA dodged a bullet. Going to double tees on Saturday would have allowed for repairing in the final round. Officials were fortunate to get the finish they did and not having to crown a champion who won while sitting in the clubhouse for a couple of hours.

Let's agree that they got lucky... but where was that margin for error?  The final tee time on Sunday was at 3:16 and they didn't leave enough time for their three-hole playoff.....

Shack was spewing venom, first with this post exhuming his 2005 vitriol, when the failure to move up the Sunday tee times led to a Monday finish.   

Then there's this provocative header:

Poll: Who Had The Worse Year? USGA vs. PGA Of America

I'm thinking.....they're both so worthy.... Here's Shack's case:

Now I know what you're saying, no one can top the USGA's handling of the Dustin Johnson ruling news (or the ruling itself), the Bethany Lang/Anna Nordqvist ruling delivery, and president Diana Murphy's two warbling trophy presentation speeches. Our late, great friend Frank Hannigan wouldn't even allow that these events could be topped.

But then the PGA Of America arrived at Baltursol where they famously wouldn't move those 2005 final round times up an hour so a 60 Minutes re-run could get a strong lead in, only to finish on Monday because of that stubborness. They repeat the same lack of adaptability on Saturday this year at the same course, Baltusrol, only to salvaged Sunday by weather that didn't come and stellar dramatics from Jimmy Walker and Jason Day. There's more, though! They actually cut a hole in the incorrect location and no one noticed until a group had gone through. As Brian Wacker notes, they also played lift, clean and place (wisely it turns out),but a day after preaching lofty standards about starting on the first tee and playing the ball down.

It's a shame that one has to lose.... But I'm thinking that Diana Murphy's recurring role as the drunk award presenter puts Far Hills over the top.... Maybe we should see how Bethany Lang is going to vote.

As for playing lift, clean and cheat in the final round, does anyone remember this happening previously at a major?  Here was the PGA on Saturday:

It should also be noted that officials on Saturday were fairly adamant the latter would not take place. Remember, this, after all, is major. 

“They will be playing -- it's unlikely, very unlikely unless -- it's very unlikely,” said Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer, at the time. “The Rules of Golf are there to cover wet weather.” 

Less than 12 hours later, however, officials did an about face. Sixth-tenths of an inch of rain had fallen overnight and more wet weather was in the forecast for Sunday. They announced that while the ball would continue to be played down in the third round (once a round starts, it can’t be changed), players would be able to play ball-in-hand for the final round.

Well, This is Major....until it's not....

And as long as they bring majors to the Northeast in the height of summer, this will continue to be a factor...

Alex Myers spent the final round with Erin Walker, an engaging presence on Twitter, and the use of the word torture in the title is understandable:

And not surprisingly, as the day went on, the pressure mounted. "I don't get this nervous

when I'm jumping," Walker, an accomplished horse jumper said. Later, a friend joked, "We need to get you some oxygen. Medic! (Raising a finger) For the wife!" 

There was frustration at times. We got stuck in a bottleneck on the way to the seventh tee, causing us to miss Jimmy's tee shot. "I wish they'd let us inside the ropes. We know where to go!" And then, after hearing some particularly, um, rowdy fans, she said, "Note to the PGA: Do NOT sell giant beers next year." 

Of course, there were thrilling moments as well. On No. 10, after nine straight pars to begin his round, Jimmy looked in danger of dropping his first shot when he found the greenside bunker. Instead, he found the bottom of the cup with his third for an improbable birdie. Erin could finally make as much noise as she wanted.

It's harder to watch than to play....and I can relate to this:

OK, so there might have been some other words in there. Not that you could blame her. Even I now found myself thinking, Holy crap, this really might happen. I'm sure Erin thinks the same thing, but I don't ask her. Instead, I offer her a spot right by the rope on the 11th green. "No, I don't want to be in his line of sight. I don't want him to see me." Jimmy doesn't see Erin, but he sees the 20-footer for birdie perfectly, rolling it in and setting off another series of "WOO!"s from Erin. 

Holy crap, this IS going to happen.

When Employee No. 2 closed out her Club Championship last summer, I was hiding behind some trees....

But all's well that ends well...

And props to Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler for being there to congratulate the winner.... That's very much part of what makes our game different.

And if you think this week was tough, check out this amusing Jaime Diaz item on the history of bad weather at majors.  This sounds like it was quite the week:

In 1986, at the NCR C.C. in Dayton, Ohio, the championship was first delayed after a railroad tanker derailed and spilled a load of phosphates, which raised clouds of poison smoke throughout the community. Shortly thereafter, the area also experienced heavy lightening storms and a 4.2 earthquake. When the sun finally came out, players complained of flesh-eating flies. Somehow four rounds were completed by Sunday, but a Monday playoff was required, won by Jane Geddes.

This is a subject on which my peeps have experience, and it's not really serious until they get to the slaying of the first born.

We'll get to some other golf news later on, but I'll go out with this question from the TC panel linked above:

6.) The first round of the 2017 Masters is only 249 days away. Who's your favorite?

Now I'm really depressed.