Monday Memes

We'll span the globe, bringing you all the golf news that fits.... You'll laugh, you'll cry and, if I'm on my game, you might even spit out your coffee....

Tree, Forest - Shack has an HSBC-inspired rant that deserves to lede.....  I don't know what's wrong with that guy, but he didn't find the HSBC to be must-see TV:

The World Golf Championship concept brings an international together four times a year, including the PGA Tour's lone match play event, so it's hard to criticize a concept forcing the best players in the world to show up.

HSBC pours a lot of money in golf, generates discussion about the industry of golf with its business forum, and wants to see the game expanded beyond its current borders, so it seems unfair to blame a company going above and beyond the normal sponsors. 

And top players did show up in Shanghai at the end of a year when they've been asked to play even more weeks than normal, so there is no way they can be criticized. 

Yet in trying to watch the WGC-HSBC Champions, won in resounding fashion by Hideki Matsuyama for his third PGA Tour win, there may be no finer example of the oversaturated product that is elite professional golf. A limited field, no-cut rankings and cash extravaganza watched by few people in person or on television is the product of...too much "product."

And in a splendid "Be careful what you wish for" moment, he goes on to compare it to the.....wait for it.....NFL.  Which inside the walls of Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach, you know is exactly that to which they aspire.  The irony, she burns!

But this is the nut 'graph to me:

Consider this week's 72-hole, no-cut WGC-HSBC. To say it was lifeless would be an insult to life. The competing Sanderson Farms PGA Tour stop in Mississippi offered a more compelling event because the players, who genuinely need these dollars and points to retain their tour status before the next re-shuffle, appeared more engaged. The event exuded a certain small-town charm lacking in Shanghai.

I've been singing this tune for quite a while, and I'm happy to have Geoff join me.  Golf is most entertaining when it matters to the guys hacking it around out there.  Before the insane wraparound season, this time of year was called The Fall Finish, and was dedicated to events for guys struggling for playing privileges, kind of halfway between the big tour and the web.com.  To this viewer, that was not only more logical, it was actually compelling, guys playing for their careers.

Of course, no one with a life is going to be watching....  You're on against the NFL and baseball playoffs, but no one is watching these higher-octane events anyway.  It was Q-School spread out over a few weeks, but it had a logic to it and the guys were deadly serious.

Now, if you can't have golf that matters, the next best thing is golf that's entertaining....  Guys sleep-walking through stroke-play money-grabs is soporific, even if they're named McIlroy, Johnson and Stenson.

But then he got an idea.... An awful idea.  The Shack got a wonderful awful idea!

And it's not as if alternatives are unavailable. 

This week's collegiate East Lake Cup, while obviously a made-for-TV event highlighting top Division I teams, at least promises to entertain thanks to the team match play format. 

What if the WGC-HSBC did something similar, offering two or three days of stroke play to determine an individual winner and to make some seedings. But instead of binding players as a team by their country, allowing them to play for a corporate alliance?

Might we stand a better chance of watching and being entertained by seeing Team Nike featuring Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Jhonattan Vegas, taking on Team Srixon with Hideki Matsuyama, Russell Knox and J.B. Holmes. 

Team Callaway's Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed and Thomas Pieters could take on Team Taylor Made's Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Daniel Berger in another early tournament match? And why relegate it to manufacturers? If the RBC-endorsees are going to get appearance fees elsewhere on the schedule, let them field a team based on having enough players high enough in the world ranking.

Be still my foolish heart!  And please don't forget the badasses of Team PXG.....To sleep, perchance to dream...

A New Value Brand - Have you ever read an S-1?  That's the SEC form used for IPO's and the experienced reader goes straight to the Risk Factors.  That's where the issuer  inoculates itself by describing every possible thing that could go wrong, so the purchaser assumes the risk.

I mention this because I'm wondering if the Accushnet S-1 covered this new competitor:

The fact that you can buy golf balls at Costco is not news, since you can buy pretty much

anything at Costco: food, pants, TVs, car parts. For years, golf equipment, including balls, have been among the hundreds of offerings at the warehouse chain. 

What's different is that there are now golf balls sold by Costco . . . and made by Costco. Technically, it's the store's in-house brand, Kirkland, that has a new line of four-piece urethane golf balls that go for $15 a dozen

The balls, USGA conforming and made by a third-party vendor in Korea, boast what Kirkland is calling its "signature speed-boosting outer core," which helps "maximize impact energy transfer." That could be marketing jargon, but customer reviews on Costco's website and elsewhere have been largely favorable as well, particularly when factoring in the price.

Fifteen bucks a dozen and you get their signature speed-boosting outer core?  How do they feel coming off an XE1 wedge?

My Kind of Outing - Though I'll guess that they have slow-play issues:

In name, at least, it was a competition: the Fore Twenty Golf Tournament. But in practice it was more like a corporate outing, with a vibe about as corporate as a caddie shack. Its

field of 128 was composed of a motley cast of characters who'd spent more time in head shops than they had in pro shops. They ranged from greenhouse growers to dispensary owners, from hemp papermakers to herbal tea producers, to say nothing of a host of recreational users from the booming cannabis industry. Their purpose was a hybrid cross of work and pleasure. Even those who'd shown up buzzed had brought their business cards.

 There's the expected allotment of pot humor, though none on a par with my slow-play jibe above.  But this got my biggest smile:

"The idea is to get together, have fun, and build relationships," said tournament founder Matt Enos, as he stood outside the clubhouse, fielding updates on the action over his phone. "We want to keep it respectful to both cannabis and golf."

Cue Aretha Franklin....

The TC's Get The DT's - The Tour Confidential panel takes on the issues of the day, first as relates to the USGA and a certain presidential candidate:

Alan Shipnuck: I've felt all along that nothing would/could happen until after Election Day. Three to six months ago it looked like Trump might actually win this thing, and if you're the USGA (and PGA of America) you can't cut ties with the leader of the free world. But if and when Trump loses the election, the governing bodies will be free to move their tournaments, if that's what their timid leadership desires.

I suppose it's beyond the pale to suggest that golf just ignore politics?  Because this will only go in one direction.... Equally relevant but ignored is that the ladies actually want to support the man because he's supported their tour.  I know, war on women and all....

Mark Godich: Agree with Alan. This should have happened months ago. The same can be said for the PGA of America and its decision not to move the 2017 PGA Championship out of North Carolina. It's a bad look for the game.

First, I have no problem with the North Carolina law, both because the  states are supposed to be legislative laboratories, but also because keeping adult men out of women's rest and locker rooms seems like a sensible precaution.  

But you know what is also a bad look for the game?  Imitating Colin Kaepernik....

But the follow up question is of more interest, because the guys don't as easily fall into the SJW mold.  Asked about Trump and golf, post-election, they had these thoughts:

SHIPNUCK: It can only hurt. His political base - working class, rural, clustered in the middle of the country - was never going to pay $400+ to lose a dozen balls at Trump Doral or Trump L.A, or kick down half a mill to join one of his new-money private clubs along the Eastern seaboard. But many people of means have found the spectacle of his campaign to be distasteful and I suspect they will vote with their pocketbooks and play golf elsewhere.

BAMBERGER: Trump is crazy like a fox. After Election Day, he'll find a way to turn this brutal campaign into a positive for his golf businesses, including the possibility that some of them will become housing developments. Ultimately, Trump Golf is going to the next generation. Ivanka, anyway, is coming out ahead in this election.

I'm more with Alan in this, as losing is never good for a brand.... especially this brand, which is based on, you know, winning.

Udder Stuff - A few odds and ends, including a seasonal question to that TC panel about the scariest hole they've ever played.... you have the usual answers, but also this from Travelin' Joe:

PASSOV: I live in mortal fear, for good reason, of the Road Hole, the 17th at St. Andrews. I can't stand the idea of having to hit over or adjacent to an active luxury hotel with my tee shot, and then the prospect of hitting onto the road, into the Road Bunker, or into heavy rough next to a stone wall with a full Jigger Inn crowd hovering is almost paralyzing. I have suffered agonies here, including one occasion where my ultra-safe fairway wood tee shot elicited the comment, "Chickens***!" -- from my own caddie. The opening tee shot at Scotland's Prestwick, with seemingly nothing but broken ground to the left and an oncoming train to the right, is nearly as daunting.

OK, I've watched the players from the jigger, and the biggest cheer was for a guy that kicked his ball out of the rough..... But I just love the image of a caddie calling his player out, a mere 20 minutes before he goes into pocket.

VAN SICKLE: I'd say all 18 at Ko'olau in Hawaii, the highest-rated course on the planet when I last played there in the '90s. Its SLOPE was in the 160s and you could lose a ball down a ravine if you just thinned a greenside bunker shot. The record lost-ball count then, the pro told me, was 88 by one unlucky golfer. A beautiful setting but I haven’t been back. If it's still open, I'm not going back, either.

A slope in the 160's?  hard to see why the game isn't growing....

Apparently Lydia isn't the only one interviewing new caddies:

And this showed up in my Twitter feed over the weekend:

I was unfamiliar with the name, and was shocked to discover that he's an American.  Shocked, because I have an uncanny ability to identify British dentistry from 100 paces.....

Sunday Morning Coming Down

A little Johnny Cash to start your day....

GOLF On The Street - The Acushnet IPO is a done deal:

The long-awaited IPO for Acushnet (parent of Titleist and FootJoy) came to fruition

today with the common stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GOLF.” Chairman and CEO Wally Uihlein rang the opening bell with notable Acushnet figures surrounding him, including putter designer Scotty Cameron, top-rated instructor Butch Harmon and Fila Korea CEO Gene Yoon, as well as long-time Acushnet employees Diane Medeiros (who's worked for the company for 51 years) and Carlos Botelho, a 44-year veteran of the golf industry giant.

How did it do?

The first day of trading saw a little more than 6.9 million shares change hands with a day’s range of $16.90 and $18.00. At the close of trading the stock was at $17.95. 

Still, for those associated with the company, today’s IPO was more about positioning the company for long-term success than the glitz of the first day of an IPO.

As for that last bit, errr...not so much.  As I understand things, it was about providing an exit for private equity investors.... not that there's anything wrong with that.

After my Friday morning post on this subject, I dropped Geoff Shackelford an e-mail to point out the comedy gold buried in that Motley Fool analysis that he had seemed to miss (as he noted, his eyes were glazed over from reading the S-1).  He was good enough to update his post and threw me some additional traffic, as well as this short note in response:

Good catch and I should have caught that! Oy!

I particularly love that "Oy", but then again you knew I would....  And with new readers in mind, let me just note that this blog wouldn't exist were it not for Geoff's writings.  My recurring links to him are a function both of the fact that he covers the subjects of interest to me, as well as the fact that he posts in the evening and tees it all up for me when I get to my keyboard in the morning.

Or, as is commonly said, copyright infringement is the sincerest form of flattery.... I mention that mostly because Geoff conducted a Q&A with Acushnet COO David Maher, and seemed to grab some questions from my post (highly unlikely given the probable timing, but a fellow needs his delusions), such as this:

GS: The symbol for Acushnet GOLF, how was that not taken?!

DM: Years ago it was Golfsmith when they were traded on NASDAQ. What else could we be called!

And this:

GS: The target range of the offering price was missed, should we read something into that?

DM: No, that’s left in the hands of the bankers and traders. We go tell our story to investors and we frame the industry in its rightful lens. But really, the valuation, you put out a projection, that falls in the hands of the bankers and traders, so that really has no effect on us. We enter the world a public company today and are committed to what we’ve said all along that we’re a company dedicated to delivering long term growth with great reliability and predictability, so that doesn’t change.

The bench will please instruct the witness to answer the question... OK, what else is he going to say, but trust me, that was a big miss.

There's also a Q&A in the first linked item, though with quite a bit of overlap, but Maher's basic premise is that the business has rationalized and absorbed its excess inventory and retail contraction.  No doubt true to some extent, but that offering price fail indicates that the world isn't completely convinced.

But for those of us old enough to have lived through the TaylorMade Year of Three Drivers, this was refreshing:

Do we think we are going to accelerate the timing of our launch cycles? I think that would be a road to ruin for us.

HSBC Me - Did you watch any of it?  Of course you didn't, how could you?  Apparently Hidecki Matsuyama ran away from the field, winning by a touchdown and PAT.  Rory finished T4, which we'll call a success for his new M2's....  other than that, who cares?

But there was one interesting note...  Matt Kuchar needs to read the fine print, even when it's in Mandarin:

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Matt Kuchar stood on the tee at the par-3 17th hole waiting his turn to hit when his caddie noticed the fine print. 

The shiny Cadillac nearby indicated that it would be awarded to whoever made a hole-in-one during the HSBC Champions. There was just one catch. Because the tee had been moved forward Saturday in the third round, the hole played only 193 yards. The notice next to the car said it would not be offered as a prize on this day because the hole had to be at least 200 yards.

John Wood, his caddie, nudged Kuchar and jokingly told him, "Don't worry about a hole-in-one today. We don't get the car." 

"And then he makes it," Wood said.

On the one hand, this was posted on the tee:

On the other hand, they still had the damn car there....  Kinda mixed signals, no?  But how's this Kooch quote for defining first world problems:

"That was probably one of the saddest hole-in-ones I've ever had," he said. "Most of the time, a hole-in-one you're just overjoyed with excitement. But then there's a car sitting there, the most beautiful Cadillac on a tee."

One of the saddest?  Exactly how many sad holes-in-one have you had, bud?

Life Imitates Seinfeld - A week or so ago, this news broke:

One of the most expensive tee times in all of golf just got more expensive. 

Pebble Beach Golf Links has upped the ante to play its hallowed course from $495 to $525 this month. Though that's just a 6% increase, it’s the first price increase since April 2008, according to Mike Bailey from Golf Advisor. 

As Bailey details, that doesn't even include the caddie fee ($80), which would bump the total over $600. For those without a calculator nearby, that’s more than $33 per hole.

As much as I try to share everything with you, it didn't seem overly compelling since it's a drop in the ocean What difference, at this point, does it make? 

Now comes word of a logical use for these enhanced proceeds:

While ocean free-diving, two young outdoor enthusiasts discovered thousands of golf balls polluting the Monterey Bay.

Alex Weber and Jack Johnston said they removed more than 5,000 golf balls from just one cove in Carmel Bay below the Pebble Beach Golf Links course. 

"The entire sea floor is just white golf balls rolling around," said Weber, who is a junior at Carmel High School.

If any of those are Chrome Softs with three green dots, they're mine.

This is perhaps the best bit:

Mathes said Pebble Beach Company was unaware of the pile up in the cove until the teens brought it to their attention.

“You know we’ve had decades of scientific researchers, recreational divers out off the coast and no one has brought this to our attention, it’s really these two students who have discovered something, and we are really quite proud of them,” Mathes said.

Gambling, Casablanca.....   This video is a bit treacly (it's mostly the music), but worth a look:

Is anyone here a marine biologist?  For those unfamiliar with the classical reference in the header:

Do we think Wally Uhlein is happy for the product placement?

Friday Frisson

Don't blame me, it's really slow this time of year...  In fact, we're not far away from ski blogging...

Have We Got A Deal For You - Today is IPO day for Acushnet Holdings, parent company of many of the most valuable brands in our little fish bowl, most notably Titleist and Foot Joy.  The company will trade under the ticker symbol GOLF, and the fact that that symbol was available might tell us all we need to know.

If I were the company, I'd be a bit miffed with my investment bankers, as this miss was the capital markets equivalent of Spieth's miss on the twelfth at Augusta:

Acushnet Holdings, which manufactures and markets golf equipment under several brands (e.g. Titleist), raised $329 million by offering 19.3 million shares at $17, below the range of $21 to $24. Acushnet Holdings plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol GOLF. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse, Daiwa Securities, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies and Wells Fargo Securities acted as lead managers on the deal.

That's a Hank Haney.  OK, I promise, no more metaphors.... But that's more than $100 million short of the midpoint of their price range, so no small matter.

Should you buy?  Here's Motley Fool's take:

Meanwhile, Acushnet Holdings' fairly static top line and the high level of indebtedness would worry me if I were an investor. I'm also not really a fan of equity cash-outs, as the driving motivation of this activity is to put money in the hands of existing shareholders, not raise funds for the business.

That's my guess as well, especially as their retail channels consolidate.  But then again, there was this later in the item:

Besides, the company is not the only game in town for golf supplies. Ever-powerful Nike(NYSE:NKE), as it does with practically every other sport, offers a line of equipment and apparel dedicated to the links. Like Acushnet Holdings, Nike sells clubs, gear, and even balls. Its products have that sleek Nike edge that is probably more attractive to younger players; Acushnet Holdings' brands are generally more traditional.

Yeah, but you know who proved immune to the charms of those sleek, edgy clubs?   Pretty much anyone that wasn't paid to play them....  shouldn't an analyst opining on this IPO be aware that Nike is exiting the club and ball business?

We have this similar opinion as well (h/t Shack for those two links):

Declining revenue and tough market for golf manufactures make us pass on investing in

Actually, these trend lines aren't all bad.

this upcoming IPO. 

The fact that company insiders are selling 100% of the shares and that Fila Korea will have majoring voting power are additional detractors. 

Its current valuation also looks like quite a significant mark-up from Fila Korea's 2011 purchase price. 

While we do hear the deal is oversubscribed, we suggest investors play golf but avoid the GOLF IPO.

Fair enough, but I'd advise you all to avoid investment advisers that play golf.  Takes way too much time....

Dying On The Vine - Alex Myers has sad news for us:

Twitter is killing Vine. It's a sentence that wouldn't have made any sense about a decade ago, but on Thursday, it was an announcement that saddened many on social media. On the bright side, since the plug wasn't immediately pulled on the video sharing app, for now, you can continue to see those looping clips that have brought smiles to us for all these years (three years to be exact). So sit back and enjoy this compilation of some of the best golf Vines ever (again, it's only been three years) created while there's still time.

OK, perhaps not for us, but I presume it's sad news for somebody.  Alex is obviously a glass-half-full kinda guy, so he takes us down memory lane Vine-wise.  You can choose your own favorites, but for me this is an underappreciated classic of the awkward, unrequited handshake genre:

I like it even more because I've no idea who the dude with the beard is....

I almost missed that golf.com did the same, and their compilation is way better....But how does one choose between this:

Or this:

There's an adage that says every golf shot makes somebody happy...  and both of those did the trick for this guy.

Can't We All Just Get Along? - Since they went to team match play, I've become a fan of college golf.  Alas, my favorite story of the day reveals an unintended downside....to wit, that Tour players are turning into what the great Iowahawk calls screaming campus garbage babies.  So consider this your trigger warning...

Sean Zak starts the ball rolling with this item:

The Worst Golfer on the PGA Tour Last Season Still Made Nearly Half a Million Dollars

You get where this is going, but stay with me....Sean explains:

When you analyze Bowditch's struggles from a strokes gained perspective, his season 

So a guy walks into a bar, and the bartender asks, Why the long face?

looks even worse. The PGA Tour maintained strokes gained averages for 185 players from 2016. Bowditch finished dead last, and it wasn't even close. His strokes gained average was 64% worse than anyone else's. 

Bowditch was 3.209 strokes worse than the field average in the 55 rounds he recorded last year. Robert Allenby finished 184th in strokes gained, albeit in 14 fewer rounds, but lost just 1.95 strokes per round. So the second-worst golfer, strokes gained-wise, was still a stroke better per round than Bowditch was. Just one player in the ShotLink era (David Gossett in ’04—sorry, David!) finished a season with a worse average. Those 3.209 strokes lost per round looks like this.

When you're a stroke per round worse than Robert Allenby, well. mark this date on your calendar, because words fail me.  But this I think is the point that Zak wanted to make:

Alas, there was some good news among all the gloominess. Bowditch still managed to earn $458,891 last season, good for 158th on the money list -- a far cry from his 185th-best form.

Bowditch’s Tour wins in 2014 and '15 earned him spots in the no-cut WGCs that ensure a paycheck. Those three starts alone helped him rake in a cumulative $158,500, slightly more than 34% of his season earnings.

It should also be noted that Sean included some self-deprecating tweets from Bowditch, indicating that he hadn't lost his typically-Aussie sense of humor.

But the Aussie took offense:

A little thin-skinned there my friend.  I'll also add that if you hadn't over-reacted, I might not have seen the original item and would have had no reason to blog it.  And this reaction might be more preventive, given his level of play and chipping yips:

The PGA Tour is not and should not be a safe space....

Food For Thought - Mark Broadie is well on his way to becoming the Bill James of golf, and he offers this interesting query:

Put another way, if you were paired with a pro in an alternate-shot event and your team was faced with a 30-footer, would it be wiser to (a) hit the first putt yourself, leaving the tester to the pro, or (b) take on the nervy short putt after the pro cozied up his lag?

Whatya think, class?  Anyone?  Bueller?

I actually got it right, but you can't hold yourself to those standards....after all, I'm a renown golf blogger:

To analyze this and similar questions, I've collected a large data set on amateur golfers

like us. Did you choose option (a)? I would have, too. But the fact is, a weekend golfer would be better off having the pro hit the lag rather than the money putt from close range. Why? Not unexpectedly, pros sink more putts from 30 feet than recreational golfers do (about three times as many), and pros leave most of their misses within tap-in distance.

 Mark's got a lag putting drill for you, involving thirty-footers.  My problem is that given my putting to date on Fairview's greens, I need a drill to help me lag those 5-footers....

Thursday Things

I'm a bit worn down by yesterday's blogapalooza, so just a couple of quick items for you...

Golf in the Middle Kingdom - Another interesting piece on our game taking root in China, this time from Forbes with a focus on the PGA Tour's feeder circuit:

PGA Tour China is also benefiting from a key recent rule change that gave young U.S. and European talent an incentive to play in places like Chongqing and Nanjing. In 2012

the PGA Tour dropped its Qualifying School tournament; after that, the PGA’s lower-level tours became a necessary stop for many up-and-comers. Today the Chinese tour has middle-age Chinese with homemade swings who started playing golf late in life, Koreans with picture-perfect swings, and big Americans fresh from college. Often there are players from five continents in the field. 

Charlie Saxon traveled from Edmond, Okla., to China this year. Having put on 40 pounds since his freshman year in college so he could bomb his drives farther, the 23-year-old’s back is as wide as a mixed martial arts fighter’s. “For better or for worse—and for worse for me and other guys—you can’t qualify directly for the PGA Tour anymore,” says Saxon. Instead, players must first play on the second-highest level, the Web.com Tour, before they can reach the top level. Playing on affiliated junior tours like China’s allows high finishers to earn spots on the Web.com Tour in the U.S. without undergoing all of that tour’s rigorous qualifying tournaments.

Got that?  A guy from OK has to go to China to try to play his way onto the U.S. Tour....  I've never understood the logic of the American Tour running even individual events overseas, but controlling entire tours?

And let me just note this sentence from early in the piece:

Since 2014, the PGA, the world’s most prominent golf association, has run PGA Tour China Series, a professional league that gives promising young players a shot at graduating to higher competition in the U.S.

I've a huge smirk on my face thinking about how that sentence is playing in, say, Far Hills, NJ or The Kingdom of Fife.

The appeal is obvious:

In a country of 1.4 billion, the potential for the sport is certainly as vast as anyone’s imagination. Estimates of the number of Chinese golfers fall around 1 million, a small fraction of the 24 million who play in the U.S. If just 2% of China’s population played, up from less than 0.1% today, China could become a $2-billion-a-year market for golf products.

But China remains a very poor country, and the political terrain is treacherous.  The author recounts some of the history of course closures and the like, though the challenge is ultimately demographic.  As Mark Steyn famously noted, "China will get old before it gets rich".  

Only Five? - We haven't poked fun at John Daly in quite a bit, but you know this header is the moral equivalent of Catnip to your humble correspondent:

John Daly admits to drinking mid-round in a PGA Tour event

I'm shocked....shocked I tell you.  

In a teaser for the upcoming "Hit It Hard," which will debut Nov. 1 as part of the popular 

"30 for 30" series, Daly acknowledges there were plenty of occasions when he played tournaments hungover from the night before. But as far as drinking during the round, Daly says it was only one time, years ago in the L.A. Open. 

"It was so slow and I played the back nine first," Daly says. "I think I'm two or three over. I went in the locker room and downed like five beers, and I think I shot four under on the front nine. That is the only time I know I drank during a round, and I played great. I played great that week. I finished strong."

I'm sure it was only the once, and then it was because play was so darn slow.....  At least the sponsor's exemptions have finally dried up for the lout.

I think it's sad the extent to which he squandered his God-given talent, and I'll plead to being immune to his charms.  But in a world where playing privileges were gold, to give them to a man that tanks at the first sign of difficulty was simply maddening...

Now On The Tee... - That Van Cynical guy files a perfect feature for a bitterly raw Thursday, providing 15 new Tour players for which we should keep our eyes open.  As is typical, fifteen overstates the case in that it includes names like Bryson Dechambeau Wesley Bryan and Ollie Schiederjans that are already familiar to this knowledgeable readership.  Oh, and Beef as well...

But you might not know this lad:

Cody Gribble

Age: 26

College: Texas

Gribble is a steady and consistent performer, like his former NCAA champ teammate Jordan Spieth. A clutch fifth-place finish in the final qualifying event earned him a spot on the PGA Tour. He placed eighth at the recent Safeway Open.

Give Gary a click, as it must eat at him that he can't put spawn Mike on that list quite yet....

No, Next Question -  That's in response to this header that I hope is rhetorical:

Do Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson make for good superheroes?

Maybe DJ?  After all, Employee No. 2 calls him Wolverine...  Alas, not rhetorical:

Strangely, it's a fivesome:

Henrik “The Machine” Stenson

Dustin “The Heat” Johnson

Rickie “Eagle Eye” Fowler

Bubba “The Magician” Watson

Haotong “The Force” Li

Not sure how that last guy got in.... event to the tournament.

Deep Thoughts With Rory - At his HSBC presser, Rory was asked why he thought Tiger had won so many of these WGC events (18, in fact).  Here's his thoughtful answer:

Honestly I think because of the no-cut format. I think that's probably a big thing to do with it. You play with a little more freedom.

And I never want to criticize Tiger's game at all, but if there was one thing or one negative you would say about him was that he probably wasn't the fastest starter in the world in normal golf tournaments. 

So here, you don't really have that pressure of trying to play your way into a tournament. It's a four-round tournament. You know you're getting four rounds, so you've got plenty of time to make birdies and play well. And I think just from the get-go, you don't quite feel the pressure. Even though you shouldn't really be thinking about the cut or anything like that, but it is a little bit of a mental thing. But it takes the weight off you you, and you can go and play just that little bit freer.

Really?  Tiger did have a Thursday problem for a while there, though my recollection is that that was mostly at the majors.  But Ror's answer seems like a bit of weal tea...what?  Oh, Rory wants to add something:

Can I just add one more thing to why he won so many? Because he was the best (laughter). There's another reason.

I would have gone with best by far, but I think he nailed it at the end.  But on a serious note, don't forget the small fields...

Today In Trick Shots -  Maggot thoughtfully shares this Paige Spiranac trick shot.  It's an Instagram video, and until I find a teenager to teach me how to embed same, you'll have to click through.

Now I fully get that it's Paige Renee and her two big honkin' spiranacs, but the shot itself isn't that much....  

Shack, in contrast, had this rather exceptional example of the genre.  Again it's an Instagram video that I'm clueless about, but see if you can figure out what he's doing just from this screenshot:

That's all for today, kids.  Time for us all to go contribute to society...

Midweek Musings

The traffic numbers continue to astound....  The only changed circumstance that could account for another hundred sets of eyeballs each day is our move to Fairview, though to date I've met about eight of the guys.  Though I was quite taken back when one of the kids in the open-air bagroom (sorry, that's an insider reference) told me he loved the blog and that everyone there was reading it.

I'll admit, though, that it puts a fellow under a little pressure....  I feel I need to be especially trenchant in my comments....  What's that?  Why start now?  Good question....

In The Bag/On His Feet - We don't do a lot of equipment blogging here, but the Nike exit has left some very prominent players homeless.  One of those appears to have found some new sticks:

Following months of speculation about when or where Nike’s biggest-name staffers might switch equipment after the company's decision to exit the golf-club business, it

appears Rory McIlroy is ready to replace some of his Nike clubs. Golf Digest's Tim Rosaforte reports that the 26-year-old was warming up for the WGC-HSBC Champions in China on Tuesday with a TaylorMade driver and fairway woods in the bag.

The M2 driver that Rory was spotted practicing with is similar to the Nike Vapor Fly Pro, which Rory had previously been using, in that it offers a simpler, relatively limited amount of adjustability. Both M2 and Vapor Fly Pro feature an adjustable hosel only, no adjustable weighting. There’s also a similarity in that both drivers feature a channel in the front part of the sole designed to enhance the way the face flexes at impact. The Vapor Speed fairway wood and M2 fairway wood also have a similar channel.

 Like Rory, I much preferred the M2 to it's sibling, though these numbers make me suspect we weren't swinging the same shaft:

Carry Distance: 310.9 yards. Club Speed at Impact: 122.3 m.p.h. Initial Ball Speed: 181.9 m.p.h.

I top out just a little under that....

Of greater interest is his footwear, also a great moment in product branding.  For a few years Nike has been going with Lunar Control as the name of its golf shoes and last year introduced the Vapor Fly branding of its woods.  Now out of the club business, why let a good name go to waste?

Submitted for your approval, therefore, is its unwieldy-named new shoe, The Lunar Control Vapor:

According to Nike, McIlroy put the shoe through extensive testing in the Bahamas in

August. In a nine-hole on-course session, he hit shots from various uneven lies, as well as bunkers. The shoe appears to have passed his test. 

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve played golf in spiked footwear, and up until two years ago those spikes were metal,” he is quoted on Nike's website. “Through its drive to innovate and bring the sport to new places, Nike has created a new traction system that provides me with a stable base to push off the ground and deliver the distance I need off the tee.” 

Nike says the sole was inspired by the tread on snowmobiles. The upper is lightweight microfiber with a two-year waterproof guarantee.

It's just a mouthful, no?  I've found the Nike shoes extremely comfortable, but this one looks like a snowmobile....

Trading Up - Good news on the horizon in Tour venues:

DALLAS — Trinity Forest Golf Club, a new Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw design south of downtown, will play host to the PGA Tour's AT&T Byron Nelson Championship in 2018, a year earlier than expected.

The scheduling change was confirmed to GOLF.com by senior members of the sponsoring Salesmanship Club. The formal announcement will be made at Trinity Forest on Wednesday and will include Dallas resident Jordan Spieth and Andy Pazder, the Tour's executive vice president and chief of operations.

This is a highly-anticipated new course, and I'll give you a little more, if you promise to ignore the "L-word":

Trinity Forest sits on a reclaimed and remediated plot of land owned by the City of Dallas. Coore and Crenshaw built a links-style layout with no trees and little water, but the layout features undulating terrain and intriguing hole designs.

Members of the USGA's championship committee, including Executive Director Mike Davis, have toured the property and were impressed with what they saw. The club is actively seeking the U.S. Amateur, which has never been held in North Texas, and possibly the U.S. Mid-Amateur. There has also been discussions about the course landing a FedEx Cup tournament or perhaps even a PGA Championship.

It's not a links, OK?  I wish they wouldn't do that, as heat-resistant grasses make it impossible to create a links.  But Bill Coore is one of the good guys in golf course design, so let's just enjoy it for what it is...

But the appeal of this news is that the Tour will be leaving Las Colinas, one of the worst venues in their rota.  It will also be interesting to see if the new venue helps revitalize this event, which has become a sad imitation of itself since we lost its namesake.  

It's In Their Nature - The header refers to the parable of the scorpion and the frog, but I had options aplenty.  I could have gone with politics is show business for ugly people, or the most dangerous real estate is that between a U.S. Senator and a microphone.

Today's installment of Senators Behaving Badly is this:

A group of U.S. Senators is calling on the U.S. Golf Association to move next year's

U.S. Women's Open from Trump National in Bedminster, N.J. 

Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Dick Blumenthal (D-Conn.) signed the letter addressed to Mike Davis, USGA executive director and CEO. 

“The decision that the USGA makes is more consequential than simply the geographic location of a golf tournament,” the Senators wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “In declining future association with a brand that degrades women, the USGA and LPGA have an opportunity to make clear to the world, and most especially young Americans, that our nation will not tolerate nor do business with any company that condones or excuses action that constitutes sexual assault.”

Sigh.  This is the business of the U.S. Senate because...... well, that escapes one, doesn't it?   Because they're so good at their chosen line of work?  Nah, it would need to be something else....

This is far from our first item on this subject, and no doubt our Mr. Trump brings it upon himself.  But it's a golf tournament, and is it possible that we could have, what do the kids call it, a safe space from politics?

Oh, and do the ladies have any say in this?  Because in a recent item we found out that the LPGA players quite overwhelmingly want the event to stay at his course, because he's been a big supporter of their Tour.  So posturing gadfly Senators, do we believe the women?

Competition for Van Cynical - Alan Shipnuck is reviving his old mailbag feature, and this first go has a few items of note.  Apropos my earlier post, he had this when queried as to who in the current Top Ten would make the HOF (Rory excluded):

I expect Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, and Jordan Spieth to comfortably play their way in. Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson are, as of this writing, strong maybes. Of course, who will make it and who actually deserves to be in are separate questions. The basic problem is that the Hall of Fame enshrinement has become a glitzy spectacle, and every two years a handful of warm bodies are needed so the show can go on. Therefore, almost every marginal candidate is likely to get in sooner or later. Dominance is hardly required, or even otherworldly talent; a good, solid, long career is now pretty much all it takes to pile up the requisite credentials. If the bar continues to be lowered and the Pavins and Zoellers get in, then Stenson, Scott and Watson become better bets, too.

You know who else is in?  Zach Johnson by current standards....  I know, no other-worldly talent there.

Forgive me for not including the questions, but they're from Twitter and the copy-and-pasting is tedious.  Asked whether the PGA would ever adopt the Euro's social-media friendly andtics Alan had this:

The Euro tour has perfected the art of having fun. The pre-tourney festivities are so absurd they're made for social media, and the tour employs some very clever lads who know how to make the most of these photo (and video) ops. Hard to imagine similar hijinks catching on over here because a) the players are a lot more uptight and b) the PGA Tour doesn't pay appearance fees as is the custom on the Euro tour. The players over there have hundreds of thousands of reasons to put up with the silliness. On the eve of the 2014 Shanghai Masters I attended a spectacularly cheesy night-time gala at which a handful of top players were forced to mingle and then hit ceremonial tee shots from a platform hovering in the middle of a lake. There party dragged on forever and at one point I turned to Lee Westwood and said, "Whatever they're paying you, it's not enough." He shot me a devilish grin and said, "Oh, but it is."

I love the Westy bit, but I don't really think it's the appearance fees.  They're the Avis of the golf world, and they have to try harder....  But I alos think that's a bit due to our Tour's leadership, specifically the criminally humorless Commissioner Ratched.  

And this in response to the Spieth Masters hangover:

It is clearly a major setback from which he is still trying to recover. If Spieth had nabbed the green jacket he would've been a year ahead of Jack Nicklaus's pace for career majors and only the fourth man to win back-to-back Masters. He would have been on the greatest major championship tear since Tiger Woods around the turn of the century. That moment is long gone. Beyond the lost opportunity to make history is that Spieth's self-immolation in Amen Corner destroyed his hallowed position among his peers. His brand had been built on possessing the clutch gene, being a closer, having the best head in the game, etc. Now Spieth has a lot to prove, to himself and his competition. The fact is that Day, McIlroy and DJ have so much more firepower than Spieth. He can still beat them but from top to bottom his game has to be razor-sharp, as it was throughout 2015. This season there was just a little bit of slippage and Spieth was a non-factor at all of the most big events post-Augusta. He's too smart, too talented and too driven to not remain an important factor in this game but the hard truth is that Spieth may never again recapture the kind of career momentum he had through 63 holes at this year's Masters.

Boy, I'll bet he doesn't write many short letters (read the prior post if that goes over your head).

But lots of good stuff, so give the hard-working man a pageview. 

Hall Pass

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time. - Blaise Pascal

That sums up this post, in which I went a bit long.... I mean really long.  See if it holds your attention.

Hall of Fame mebership requirements is a recurring subject in just about all sports, and I find myself often thinking back to Bill James' voluminous writing and analysis of the baseball version thereof.  That's especially appropriate here, as in assessing the World Golf Hall of Fame the great Jaime Diaz leans heavily on baseball analogies.... though his grasp of that game may not be up to his usual standards.

Here's his lede:

Consider the following 20-name roll call: Tom Weiskopf, Corey Pavin, Mark Calcavecchia, David Duval, Graham Marsh, Mike Souchak, Jug McSpaden, Johnny

Revolta, Dutch Harrison, Jim Ferrier, Bill Mehlhorn, Doug Sanders, Johnny Farrell, Macdonald Smith, Max Faulkner, Bobby Cruickshank, Willie Macfarland, Hal Sutton, Susie Berning, Jan Stephenson, Sandra Palmer. 

It’s a list, surely random to nongolfers, but also probably underwhelming to most golfers brought up in our current celebrity culture. Among the men, none won more than one major, and only Marsh (who had one PGA Tour victory but 45 more on assorted international tours) had more than the 24 official victories of the major-less Smith. But by definition, or at least my estimation, all are or were great golfers. And, very likely, in coming years most if not all will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Regular readers know that I think quite highly of Jaime, and one of our few rules in this joint is that you read his entire piece when I link to him.  That said, if he's making the case that Jan Stephenson, who remains best-known for photos like the one below, belongs in the WGHOF, we're going to have to dissent:

Not that there's anything wrong with that...  And while the attractive Aussie did have an actual career, winning sixteen LPGA events including three majors, one of those majors was something called The Peter Jackson Classic.  One assumes it's not this Peter Jackson, but one doesn't really care...

OK, so we've availed ourselves of some morning cheesecake, let's let Jaime finish his thought:

To some hard-line golf historians, including some former players, the new criteria is too

watered down and accommodating, so that golf’s pantheon has at best become a “Hall of Very Good.” 

However, it’s a narrow-minded view. The practical reality is that golf, like any major sport, needs a vibrant Hall of Fame. The problem is that golf long ago ran out of truly iconic players to be enshrined. They all got in a long time ago, unfortunately in bunches. In 1974, the WGHOF's first induction class included 13 such icons: Patty Berg, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Francis Ouimet, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Harry Vardon and Babe Zaharias. The next year, 11 greats of slightly lesser fame and accomplishment went in. Talk about blowing your savings account. 

In comparison, baseball inducted only five players in the first Cooperstown class of 1936: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.

Did he just call me hard-line?  For thinking that maybe, perhaps Johnny Revolta is not Hall of Fame material?   I'm sorry, this isn't even close to Jaime's best work.... And that difference in first-year classes can be explained by all that occurred between, say, 1936 and 1974.

But here's the serious point that James has been so good on and that Jaime elides, we can have great intellectual discussions about where the line should be drawn.  From his list above, I'm open to persuasion on guys like Weiskopf and Duval, as I was open to Couples and Montgomerie.  Each involves specific accomplishments measure against the perception of his (or her) era.  The challenge is that each time you make an exception, you've effectively lowered the bar....

Shall we let Jaime continue digging?

There is no doubt the WGHOF has set minimum victory requirement that is lower than what had unofficially been imposed. But it had to. While 15 lifetime victories seemed

like a pittance when the game’s giants—several with more than 60 victories and in some cases double-digit majors—were being inducted, it’s also become clear that winning 15 times in the post-1975 era is a greater achievement than it would have been before, much like a .280 lifetime batting average is now more worthy of a spot in Cooperstown. 

Recognizing the greatness in players who were stalwarts but didn’t win as much as the very best helps one understand the immense challenge of the game. Lowering standards increases appreciation, and keeps up the supply of candidates. It’s all good.

Wow, I'm really fit to be tied at this point...  His basic premise would seem to be that golf's greater depth argues for relaxing standards (and he's appropriately drawn the distinction that wins are about the only stat we have in golf), and I agree.  Though he doesn't seem interested in making the case that fifteen is the right number....  Amusingly, Hal Sutton won fourteen PGA Tour events, and he doesn't remotely seem to this observer to be the kind of guy demanding a bronze bust....

This is also what I meant by Jaime misunderstanding baseball, as he seems to think that batting averages move only in one direction.  The great insight that Bill James brought to bear was to analyze a player's output compared to the standards of the day.  A .280 batting average in 1968 was an achievement, in 1935 it was barely average.

But it's that last 'graph that has me grinding my teeth, as lowering standards is, well, lowering standards.  It's not all good, it diminishes the accomplishment....  again we can have a spirited debate about the optimal standard, but Jaime completely elides the damage done by lowering them.  And one can easily see the reductio ad absurdum argument of why fifteen?  How about anyone that's won on Tour?  How about anyone that's played on Tour?  That would really increase appreciation and you'd have an endless supply....

Jaime makes a series of very specific arguments, which I'll discuss in brief.  he takes the Hall to task for honoring players in their forties who aren't done, such as Phil, Ernie and Vijay.  That is indeed an unforced error, and just made the Hall look silly.  But again, perhaps that's why there's a supply issue....

Additionally he makes the case for specific players, with this being the most interesting to me:

The Hall’s veterans committee should not delay in voting in the late Calvin Peete (above), before Woods the greatest golfer of African-American descent in history, who with a completely self-made game won 12 times including a Players.

Hey, at least he hasn't called me racist.  This is a difficult case because of golf's unfortunate ties to exclusivity....  Peete did just enough that his case isn't laughable, but it's also not quite the level one would like.  But I'd like the Hall to recognize Peete, I'm just slightly uncomfortable with it being purely on his playing record.

But then he makes a series of cases that have my eyes rolling uncontrollably:

Take for example Doug Sanders. OK, he didn’t have a major among his 20 victories (though he was second in majors four times). But not only was Sanders one of the great shotmakers of all time, he was a genuinely colorful and charismatic character who brought fans to the game.

You're kidding, right?  Is there a single human that watches golf because of Doug Sanders?  I mean if colorful is the standard, then I guess Billy Horschel is a lock.... he makes a similar case for Bubba the shotmaker, but two green jackets opens my mind more in that case (plus the little detail that he might add to the total).

He also makes the arguable case for Euro stalwarts Westy, Sergio and Stenson, that remind of Colin Montgomerie.  These are no doubt serious players who should be considered, but my point is to understand how Monty's selection becomes the pivot point in considering these guys.  

I'm also amused that the one name missing in all this is John Daly....  a man with two majors but only five Tour wins....  But great shotmaker: check.  Long hitter: check.  Colorful: Jesus, are you serious?

I've always assumed that Daly was the guy that would ultimately undermine Hall standards, but regular readers know how he's always irked me for his squandering of talent.

In any event, I think this is an interesting subject for the off-season wraparound portion of the schedule and an important lesson for us all.  Even the best occasionally shank one.

Loose Ends

Sorry about that absence yesterday, but we'll make good this morning....

Weekend Wrap, Abridged Version - Justin Thomas is one of those guys with obvious talent that's taken longer than expected to make his mark....  perhaps he should play the Malaysian Tour exclusively:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Justin Thomas completed a fairytale return to the CIMB Classic with a successful title defense after eight birdies in the final round Sunday

earned him a three-shot victory over closest rival Hideki Matsuyama. 

The American did not match his record tournament score of 26-under 262 in 2015, but still finished with an impressive 23 under for only his second PGA Tour title. 

"It's great to win again here. It's a place I'm comfortable with ... Hopefully I will be able to come back next year," said Thomas, who shot a 64 to match his first-day score.

 What was interesting, admittedly in the loosest possible meaning of the word, was the manner in which he salvaged a potentially disastrous third round, finishing with five straight birdies.  Of course, the immutable laws about trees falling in the forest remain applicable.....

Then there was the ill-fated Anirban Lahiri:

For a second consecutive week, Anirban Lahiri found himself in an unusual situation. And for a second consecutive week, Anirban Lahiri walked away with a painful loss. 

Seven days after birdieing the final seven holes of regulation only to lose an Asian Tour event on the first playoff hole with a layup into a water hazard, Lahiri seemed poised to win his first PGA Tour title. The Indian star took a four-shot lead into the final round of the CIMB Classic, but disaster struck on the third hole on Sunday. Lahiri hit a wild tee shot on the par 5, and to make matters worse, it never came down:

 Yeah, I thought gravity was another of those immutable laws...my bad.

And on the Euro Tour, everything old is new again....  Brian Keough, who mans the Irish Golf Desk, had this game story in The Independent, capturing Paddy's signature move:

"I am delighted," Harrington said after getting up and down for par at the 16th and for birdie at the 17th to go to the 18th with a one-shot lead over defending champion Sullivan, who parred the last to shoot 65 and set a target of 22 under par. 

With his trademark 'crazy eyes' popping, Harrington got a flyer from the right rough at the tough finishing hole, hit the advertising hoardings with his approach before playing a superb chip to five feet past the flag and confidently stroking home the winning putt to the delight of a large Irish crowd.

That's a large Irish crowd for the Portugal Masters?   But this might be the most significant aspect of the win:

What pleased him most about his win was his mental attitude and he credited coach Dave 

Alred with the turnaround having read his book, The Pressure Principle: Handle Stress, Harness Energy, and Perform When It Counts, earlier in the week. 

"I feel really good," Harrington said. "I was very relaxed all week. I was in a nice place mentally. 

"I've been reading Dave Alred's The Pressure Principle and it gave me a few pointers that maybe I'd been missing out on and I stuck to those all week. It was a big plus for me. 

"I just realised how poor my own language is about myself and my game. So I was very focused on my self-talk this week and what I was saying to myself and very focused on my posture walking around on the golf course and it was a tremendous help."

Yeah, but it's that posture and poor language that makes Paddy so damn entertaining....  Can't he just take one for the team?

Tiger, The Reviews -  The Tour Confidential gang took on Tiger this week, first a srelates to the media tour:

SHIPNUCK: The notion that Tiger will win five more majors is fanciful at best, wildly delusional at worst. That's the *career* total boasted by Seve Ballesteros, Byron Nelson

and Phil Mickelson. Is Woods gonna fit their entire careers into his 40s, with a broken body, diminishing skills and a mountain of scar tissue? I wonder if he believes this stuff or just feels compelled to keep spouting the party line.

VAN SICKLE: Tiger isn't delusional, he's utterly competitive. What's delusional is that he regrets leaving Stanford, where he was mugged at knifepoint on campus by someone who knew his name, and that he could've possibly remained eligible for NCAA or amateur golf after his first two years and all that went on. Other than that, it was close to the vest and, to be honest, kind of a snooze despite Rose's best efforts.

Yeah, none of that stuff looks good in the light of day....  On the former, he'd have avoided looking delusional if he simply stated that his focus was on his 15th major...  No one would begrudge him his competitiveness.

As for his regrets, he's had a few, but then again, too few to mention....  What?  Oh, I guess Frank got there first.  I just don't get why they allowed the interview to go there....  Just stay the heck away from anything that leads there....  I'm also amused at the praise for Rose....as I noted, it was his annoying tic of repeating back the answer that allowed Tiger to play with his answer on the majors... Like Nixon/Frost, the interviewer was chose less for his acuteness than his compliance....

But this first question for the panel was a little more interesting:

1. Tiger Woods last week unveiled his new brand, TGR, which unites all his businesses--philanthropy, design, events, etc.--under one umbrella. From what you've seen thus far in Woods's commercial pursuits, how would you assess his business acumen?

I don't see where Tiger has done much that even attempts at displaying business acumen....  Let's see, he opened his course design business, but pretty much anyone that won a major has done that....  Then there's the restaurant, but that was only because he was tired of other restaurateurs making money when he showed up.  So he opened his own and reportedly never shows up.... Yanno, Call of Duty and all...

Shall we see what the paid staff thinks?

Alan Shipnuck: Clearly he was a powerhouse endorser in his prime but I've been disappointed in Tiger's business choice, particularly through his course design work. Instead of chasing money with ill-fated projects in the desert of Dubai and an exclusive enclave on the Mexican coast, I wish Tiger would devote himself to redoing muni and military courses. The best way to grow the game is to have interesting, cheap places for the public to play. Donating his services in this way would be a wonderful way for Woods to give back to a game that has given him so much.

First reax is why couldn't he have done both?  But this seems to be what that South Side of Chicago project with Mike Keiser should be,, no?  or perhaps not.... as the citations of Harding Park indicate a level of grandiosity that will likely exclude the local golfer.  I'm guessing those $13 walking rates will prove unsustainable....

And I'm shocked, shocked to see this guy go all Van Cynical on us:

Gary Van Sickle: I'm still wondering how Tiger or Nike failed to bring Tiger Woods Junior Clubs to the marketplace, missing a huge sales spike in the '90s. Of course, neither Arnie nor Jack ever stood behind a signature line of equipment that succeeded, either. Tiger has top people building his empire for him, while Norman was more of a self-builder. Who's behind Tiger? As they say at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie -- "Top people!"

I thought all those top people were working for Trump?  At least until November 8th.

Shack, Disillusioned - Geoff shares his disappointment with us and I think we need to respond with some tough love.  Because given the context, it's truly the triumph of hope over experience:

I held out hope that the PGA Tour adding an event in Korea with "cup" in the title might

give us something to get excited about. Instead it's following the same old script beyond the massively unsustainable ($9.25 million) purse: limited 78-player field, 72-holes of stroke play. 

The CJ Cup "@" Nine Bridges does bring us closer to our first tournament title including an Emoji in the title, and as far away as possible from a format that will inspire interest. It also just adds more clutter to the fall wraparound that isn't working well for players or fans, as we discussed on Morning Drive.

 Geoff, did you forget who's our Commissioner?  This is the relevant excerpt from the press reales:

The 72-hole tournament will feature competition Thursday through Sunday, with a pro-am on the Wednesday of tournament week. The host site of the tournament will be announced at a later date.

Wow, a Wednesday Pro-am?  Forget my bon mot above, these must be those Top Guys....  But I'm not sure how to square that @ Nine Bridges with a venue to be named later....  Not that I care.

The TC panel took on this announcement as well, and these guys are welcome to guest-post at Unplayable Lies:

SHIPNUCK: I guess. But isn't there already an Asian tour? I guess I'm just biased toward golf that ends in the afternoon in California, not the middle of the night.

That just has to be xenophobic, no?

VAN SICKLE: On the surface, this looks like a smart scheduling convenience. But it may signal a troubling trend that the Tour has to go international--Korea for this, Mexico for the former Trump-hosted WGC event--to find a willing sponsor. How's that heavy overseas schedule working for the LPGA's profile in the U.S.? That tour is successful but losing the battle for headlines here.

You know heads are exploding in Ponte Vedra, as they so love to be compared to the LPGA....

Royal Dornoch Channels Golf In The Kingdom - You know what's wrong with Royal Dornoch?  That's right, absolutely nothing.... So see if you think this helps in any way:

GOLFERS at one of the world’s most prestigious courses are being given spiritual advice by a Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen. 

Rev Susan Brown, who also wed Madonna and Guy Ritchie, has written thought provoking reflections for each of the 18 Championship Course holes at Royal Dornoch Golf Club in the Highlands to help inspire players and “exercise the body, mind and spirit”.

Hmmmm....I forget, how did that marriage work out?  But wait, it gets better:

The 57-year-old walked the course at different times of the day to capture the unique feel of the stunning landscape to create the so-called “Holy Round” as part of celebrations to mark 400 years of golf in the area. 

Royal Dornoch Golf Club general manager Neil Hampton described the “inspiring and uplifting” reflections in the Champion Course guidebook as an “tremendous asset”.

It's a Holy Round, Batman.... But I'm glad to see that she starts off optimistically:

The glossy course guide entry for the first hole states “In the beginning… draw breath and enjoy the clean score sheet and all the possibilities that lie ahead. “Choose now to take one step at a time and enjoy what that step holds.”

It's called a scorecard.... But at least they popped for the glossy finish, which had to cost extra:

But this seems like a bit of a downer:

Hole 6 (Whinny Brae) Be warned! A bunker with a magnetic draw awaits you. Choose your club carefully and think of the choices you have made in life. You have to live with the consequences!!

OK, there's way more than the one bunker to mess with your head on this hole, but a reflection on the long volume of regrettable decisions we've all made doesn't seem likely to help.  But this does make me want to play the gem again, perhaps a Sunday morning tee time?

Cheap Shots - A couple of sillies to send you out of the theater laughing....

First, we haven't heard much of long-hitting Alvaro Quiros recently...  I'm going to go way out on a limb and guess it's because he's off-plane.  And by off-plane, I mean spit-out-your-coffee hilariously off-plane.... Just click through and you can thank me later....  Oh, and he's gonna need a new 3-wood.

I'm quite certain that this is how The King wanted to be remembered:

When Gary Met Yao:

Anyone know which is which?  'Cause I always assume that the guy in black is Gray Player....