Wrapping Up

'Tis the season to sum up, and up we shall sum....

Shack has a year-end post that lays out his thoughts and provides a multitude of links, so we'll allow him to do the heavy lifting....  First with his own conclusions:

2016 lived up to its billing: a stellar-but-bloated schedule, plenty of sensational 

A little self-absorbed, Geoff, no?

tournament venues and a continued refinement of course architectural tastes skewing toward the natural. But the sadness of Arnold Palmer's passing, which I'm not sure we got to completely take in quietly, just reinforced the sense that there is too much golf and it all went on way too long.

Eh, it should have been a better year than that, no?  I have no clue what he means by sensational tournament venues, do you?  Troon and Baltusrol are kind of a yawn, as is Hazeltine.... I'm happy to celebrate the refinement in architectural tastes, but that's been a multi-year process and Mike Davis and the architects themselves deserve the credit there.  Not only are we blessed with a fine gaggle of talent in that field (think Doak, Coore, Hanse and others), but they're also wonderfully articulate about their concepts and great ambassadors for the game.

Go on, Geoff:

In spite of the pitiful WD's by Spieth, McIlroy and friends, The Olympics exceeded expectations while The Open Championship will go down as a classic (John Huggan and Dave Shedloski have put together a truncated oral history of Troon 2016).

Our game dodged a bullet in Rio, methinks, as a dreadful format and the scheduling fights of the five families were covered by the enthusiasm of a small number of players.  It boggles the mind to recall that our Commissioner Ratched was preening in Rio while holding an event that competed with the Olympics.

As for Troon, that was the single best day of golf in 2016, everything that make sour game great.  Do read the linked piece which has some great reflections, including this early call:

PREDICTION AT OAKMONT 

HENRIK STENSON, who was paired with Mickelson in the first two rounds of the U.S. Open: On the third hole of the second round at Oakmont, we were waiting. Phil turned to me and said I had the game for the majors. Then he said he really hoped that I would win one.

PHIL MICKELSON: I said, "Listen, you're one of the best long-iron and middle-iron players in the game, which is what you have to do to win major championships." I said, "You're going to win your major championship. Just keep doing what you're doing."

HENRIK STENSON: My reply was, while that was all very well, it would be great as long as he wasn't on the receiving end of it.

The obvious negative is that our finest day drew the smallest audience, mostly because of the time of day of the broadcast.  

It's a great piece and you'd be foolish to miss any of it, but I'll just leave you with this silly bit form the victor that's just such a quintessential 21st century moment:

HENRIK STENSON: When I put my U.S. phone back on at midnight, the text message starting stacking up. The phone beeped for ages. I tried to use my Swedish phone to take a video of the American one. It was almost spinning.

Good stuff.... what else you got, Geoff:

The women's side keeps producing young talent but now even Lydia Ko is showing signs of impatience that either could propel her to another level, or rapidly add her to a list of almost-legend status. This overall impatience by and for the youth to take center stage should be a more disconcerting sign for golf given how much damage its done in tennis, but the desperation to ride some under 25-year-old coattails ignores that the average age of the men's major winners in 2016 was..34.

I'm not sure I'd have mixed the men's and women's games, as the latter tend to peak far earlier, but I think the Lydia story should be on our radar for 2017.  Things seemed to go pear-shaped for her the back half of the year, but I find two aspects of it interesting:

1.  The world seems awfully quick to jump on her parents from my vantage point.  They are, after all, the ones that raised her and devoted themselves to her career, and I would presume that they have her best interests at heart.  It may well be that Lydia needs to take greater control of things, or that might be sour grapes from a certain Englishman who got his ass fired.  But they raised a wonderful child even is she never wins again, so how about we cut them some slack?
2. there was the typical criticism of her attempts to change her swing to increase distance, along the lines of "Why change a winning formula?"  But to me the problem was quite real, and Ariya Jutanagarn is a clear and present danger to her continued success.  You know my riff, Ariya could be the love child of Lydia and Lexi Thompson, combining distance with a first class short game.  We've seen this movie before (Luke Donald, call your office) and the results haven't been pretty, but if she doesn't hit it further she'd likely to end up as road kill.  That process to me is very interesting and well worth watching.....

Back to Shack:

On a grander entertainment scale, fewer players and even fewer fans are clamoring for tournament officials to humiliate players via course setup to compensate for inadequacies in their own golf games. Woohoo! Yes, we still have too many green speed fiascos to mask the distance issue, but we also have fewer four-inch rough weeks and grind-it-out bogey-fests.

This increased clamoring for player-produced drama leads to a more positive energy when we tune in to watch golf. The effect has to seap down to the everyday game, no?

Consider the incredible outrage over the USGA's difficult-to-rationalize handling of Dustin Johnson and how quickly the public response produced a local rule introduction that will restore some sanity (though it still won't slow down greens). A less cynical, more sensical golfing public should take a bow.

That's a bit of the soft bigotry of low expectations, no?  yes, the USGA deserves credit for avoiding future disasters with their new local rule, though they apparently didn't learn their lesson from the men's Open in sufficient time to avoid stepping on their you-know-what's with Anna Nordqvist.  And, according to Bethany Lang, the train wreck that is Diana "Open Bar" Murphy remains in play for 2017.

What else you got?

The sport saw minor inroads on the pace-of-play plague and with the greatest single roadblock to progress just a few hours from retirement (woohoo 2!), we may see real reform in 2017. I sense an overall shift in values for the sport: golf is no longer seen by its followers as a sport of inevitable punishment separated by bursts of fun, and instead is expected to be one that aspires to be a lifestyle activity that is fun, sensible and responsible to be part of.

Strange, but that's his only reference to the outgoing Commissioner.  I agree that slow play is an issue and that the Commish has been an impediment, I just don't think it's in my top ten gripes about the man.

This linkage seems weak to me, though I heartily agree with his basic point:

Obviously this is generational and the infusion of many "millennial" values has meshed nicely with the "artisanal" trends that had already begun to reimagine design and experiential elements that inspire our passion for the sport. However, I can't help but think of 2016 without thinking of the incessant desperation the sport has shown in trying to appeal to a new generation while ignoring an aging demographic that loves the sport. In trying so pathetically to be cool to the kids the sport so often comes off as pathetic to the kids. If there's one thing we know about millennials, it's that we don't know what they really like. But they have shown a love for pursuits with soul, timelessness and some backbone. Golf should act more comfortable in its shoes.

I particularly love that new age nonsense about artisinal trends and the like.  Yes, golf should be played more quickly, but we're talking about 20-30 minutes difference for an 18-hole fourball.  Golf is still going to take a long time compared to other pursuits, so deal with it.

But he nails it in the back half of the 'graph, as I've never subscribed to the cultural inferiority complex displayed by our game.  We play a timeless game that has found adherents in generation after generation, yet suddenly we think it will all die.  We see celebrities and athletes from other sports become addicted to the unique challenges of our game, yet we think it necessary to fundamentally change our game to appeal to that 25-year old living in his parent's basement.

Here's his conclusion on the subject, which I endorse:

Ultimately the genius of golf is that it can be played and loved by people of all generations. Probably never a huge audience, but one that spans generations. So perhaps the potential for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to duel one more time with a nice mix of young guns and veteran sticks joining the fight, a microcosm of this cross-generational meeting of minds will calm some of this desperation to get younger or die.

Not necessary to hang our hat on Tiger or Phil, not that Geoff's scenario isn't pleasant to ponder, but we're blessed with a wealth of interesting young talent.  We play a niche sport, but one that has a unique hold on us.  

Let's just enjoy what the future brings, work to make the game accessible where possible, but treasure the greatest game known to mankind.

Geoff has many links if you crave more year-end reflections.  He also has a few other posts that might interest you, so scroll down from his homepage.  I don't know if I'll blog much in the next few days, it will depend upon other demands as well as whether anything catches my eye.

But I head back to Utah on Wednesday, where record-breaking lows are forecast, and balls will be in the air from Kapalua, so I expect that we'll get back a normal schedule very quickly in 2017.

The late-2016 traffic spike has been very gratifying to me, so thanks to all that have made these pages a regular stop.  We've had a difficult Fall and early winter here, with loss and illness taking control of things for a bit.  With that foremost in mind, I wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy 2017. 

Midweek Musings

But those musings will be largely of a year-end nature...

Looking Back - Everyone is out with their best of stories, many of which we've previously covered....   Today we have the most popular stories on GolfDigest.com, and it's a curious lot for sure, beginning with No. 10:

10. Tiger Woods is "flushing everything" in practice sessions, Jesper Parnevik says 

With Woods in semi-seclusion for more than a year, any news on the 14-time major champion was met ravenously, and this encouraging nugget, a tease to a larger "My Shot" interview with Jesper Parnevik, fed hopes of a comeback.

This was the item that broke about an hour-and-a-half before Tiger's WD from the Safeway....

This one I don't even remember:

6. Jordan Spieth stumps golf world with rules question

Golf people love wonky rules issues, and this one about Jordan Spieth asking whether he could wet the bottom of his putter to better navigate "shiny" greens was so unique, left even veteran rules officials stumped. The rest of us were just amused by the question.

I had to click through to see how the matter was resolved, and that's as curious as the question itself:

Due to Doral's conditions, Spieth asked a rules official on Saturday if he could dampen his putter. After five holes of contemplation, tournament officials came back.

“It was a split on the decision,” Spieth remarked. “They called the [U.S. Golf Association] and said that the USGA was going to talk about it further but for now we’re going to rule that you cannot do it.”

How could this be a split decision when we all know that one is not allowed to change the properties of a club during a round...

More interesting is Joel Beall's review of the most controversial moments of 2016, with the USGA and Phil headlining.  I have a vague memory of this instance, though without the all-important details:

Erik Compton Disqualified For Ridiculous Reason

Compton was disqualified from the John Deere Classic for missing the pro-am. However, Compton only became part of the pro-am field when two others had to drop-out, and when Compton was notified, he was hours from the course. Compton ended up losing his tour card, and may quit professional golf. The PGA Tour has such rules to maintain the viability of the pro-am, and rightfully so. That shouldn't come at the expense of compassion and common sense.

You don't really need anything from me on this one...  They've got a cast of thousands on retainer in Ponte Vedra beach, but no one has the cujones to step up and protect a guy like Compton.  Just heartless and, yes, pun intended....

And this one is pretty rich:

Phil Mickelson Rips Tour Championship Layout

Following an up-and-down Tour Championship, Mickelson complained about the stark contrast between East Lake's set-up and Hazeltine. "We're not going to have rough like that -- this is the worst rough I've seen in years. We're not going to have that rough next week. Why the Tour set it up so differently from what we're going to have next week is a lack of communication and working together."

Geez, Phil, you stuck us with that damn task force.... perhaps that's something that they should have addressed?

Mind you, his actual point seems pretty silly...  Good luck getting courses in Georgia and Minnesota set up the same, but there were as many Euro team members in the field as Yanks.  And it didn't seem to hurt Rory's play.....

And while the USGA secured two well-deserved nominations for their treatment of DJ and Anna Nordqvist, somehow Diana "Open Bar" Murphy was not mentioned.  

Golfweek has a very conventional best moments feature, which covers arguably the two most emotional wins, those by Vaughn Taylor and Billy Hurley.  Also this, perhaps the most emotional moment of the year not involving a death:

18. Se Ri Pak earns grand farewell 

Pak ended her LPGA career in 2016, and while it was tough to see a legend call it quits, it gave players and fans a chance to honor the person who is directly responsible for the Korean domination in women’s golf. 

It was a beautiful farewell at the KEB Hana Bank Championship, filled with tears and hugs, but most of all, appreciation.

And while I'm not a fan of the genre, I'm happy to also award her the selfie of the year.

The item includes the Rory-Reed taintfest, but somehow omits the Phil-Sergio shootout.  And it's choice of the No. 1 moment of the year is just lame...  I have no problem with it being on the list, say in the high-teens, but there's no rationale for it usurping golf that actually matters.  Perhaps I was a little too quick to criticize Paul McGinley....

Predictions Are Hard... - Especially about the future....

Golf.com has a series of seven takes on 2017, and we've already covered Phil winning another major....Jeff Ritter suggests the following:

Six months later, it’s still hard to fathom how the putt didn’t drop.

On a cool, bright afternoon at Royal Troon, round one at the British Open, Phil Mickelson had taken a run at history, shredding the venerable course with eight birdies over 17 holes. For the final act, he sent an 18-foot putt tumbling toward the hole for the first 62 in major-championship history. The ball bent gently right-to-left and tracked at the cup, dead-center. 

A 62 is brewing. This is the year. In 2017, someone is finally going to fire a 62 in a major championship. Maybe even a 61. 

Where might history be made? The year’s first two major venues, Augusta National and Erin Hills, seem unlikely. There have been just two 63s shot in the history of the Masters and four at the U.S. Open.

I think Jeff may be on to something, as the near-misses are accumulating.  My only caveat is that, like Jeff, I don't really see it happening at either Augusta or Erin Hills.  That leaves eight days to get the right combination of weather and course conditions at either Birkdale or Quail Hollow.  But Quail Hollow in August seems ideal for such a breakthrough, so pencil in that Thursday or Friday.

Coleman McDowell offers this:

Each year on the PGA Tour, someone makes the leap.

Hideki Matsuyama entered 2016 ranked 19th in the world, then rattled off five worldwide victories and will enter 2017 at No. 6. In 2015, Jordan Spieth made a similar jump – starting the year ranked ninth and ending it first. In 2014, Rickie Fowler climbed from 40th to 10th. It happens every year; sometimes it’s easy to spot, but occasionally it’s a surprise. 

Next year's breakout star is obvious: It’s Brooks Koepka.

Maybe.  The fact of the matter is that I can't make my mind up about Boroksie....  On the one hand, he looks like he's got all the tools and he sure looked comfortable in the Ryder Cup cauldron.  On the flip side, though, he hasn't exactly been a stallion down the stretch and appears prone to the loose shot when it matters most.

Sean Zak gets no degree-of-difficulty points for essentially taking the field:

So for them, why not now? Here’s my call: Next year, one of these three players will join Spieth as a Class of 2011 major champion. The question is, who?

The three being Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger and Emiliano Grillo....   So Sean, you're not paid for questions....  Do you care to answer your won question:

Therein lies one of the differences between the trio of Spieth’s 2011 comrades and the heavyweight himself. They all would love to putt like him. Spieth has finished ninth and

second in strokes gained putting over the last two seasons. Thomas, Berger and Grillo have never cracked the top 50.

For them, that’s the next step. Whoever takes it first will lift a big trophy next year. And thus, I’m picking Berger. When it comes to the flat stick, Berger seems to be more consistent. In 2016, his best events with the putter were better than Thomas and Grillo’s best events. His worst events were better, too. 

This is his year. He has four opportunities to get it done.

I have little feel for the man's game, but thought the buzz about him as a Ryder Cup pick was silly:

Last we saw Berger, he was on the short list to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team as a captain’s pick. Had he finished off his 54-hole lead at the Travelers Championship, he may have suited up in Hazeltine.

Ummm, what happens in Hartford....you know the rest.  OK, he had a 10th at the Masters, never sniffing the lead, but one win in Memphis and he's a budding superstar?   

Lastly from this series, Josh Sens makes me ponder whether his surname is short for sensimilla with this:

Peace on earth, good will towards men. That would be nice.

Meantime, though, here’s something we’ll actually see next year. In a facility in Vienna, Austria, a team of researchers is working on a weapon designed to rid humanity of a grave affliction, a plague that eats away at minds and bodies, and clouds the souls of good men and women around the globe (children appear to have escaped the scourge). 

Dementia? Arthritis? Reality TV? 

Nope. The yips.

That's all?  But do tell....

At Tyche, Maehr has teamed with experts in computer science, robotics, engineering,

kinesiology and, yes, golf, to concoct a different sort of home-remedy, one that takes the shape of a scientifically tested, portable device. 

Like a Woody Allen movie, or a Tiger Woods swing change, some details about the product are being kept under wraps (it is, after all, a competitive marketplace). But I can tell you its name -- the Tyche T1 -- and that it consists of two components. The first is a swing sensor that not only determines whether you have the yips but also measures just how bad you’ve got them. The second is a mechanism that interferes with the ball and your putting stroke in accordance with the severity of your problem. You can use it almost anywhere: your backyard, your basement, your office, the putting green.

Obviously missing from that list is the actual golf course.... 

Through repetition, the device retrains your body and mind. Maehr and Co. can take quantitative measure of the results, which have been impressive: in extensive field tests on yips-afflicted golfers, the typical jerky-yips motion has decreased by a factor of four, while the “repeatability” of a smooth putting stroke has increased three-fold. 

The Tyche T1 is set to go on sale in Europe in the spring. Maehr plans to introduce it to the United States shortly after. Call me a pie-eyed optimist, but in golf, and in life, it helps to have a rosy outlook, so that’s my bold prediction for 2017: a time of healing for me and countless other addled golfers.

Color me skeptical...  I can see the Golf Channel infomercials already.  You know that chunk-proof XE1 wedge you bought last year, just pair it with the Tyche T1...  add vodka as required.

More challenging is this Golfweek item on golfers under age 21 to keep an eye on, including this familiar name:

3. Maverick McNealy

Whether McNealy, 21, decides to pursue pro golf or not (our money is on that he does

after playing the Walker Cup this fall) remains to be seen, there’s no doubt that McNealy is good enough at this point to play professionally. He’s made cuts on the PGA Tour and Web.com Tour already, and he’s qualified for a U.S. Open, too. McNealy’s mental game stands out, which is no surprise considering he goes to Stanford, and he knows how to manage golf courses. Physically, he’s gotten better year after year since deciding to quit hockey and solely focus on golf. He’s the top-ranked amateur and college golfer in the world, according to the WAGR and Golfweek.

Just a great name, but of course the interesting thing about this young man is that he might never play professional golf.  It's an interesting list, one that I'd like to look back on in about five years....

I need to move on here, but will be back in the next few days as we have things to talk about.

Day-Old Mistletoe

Slim pickings out there as far as the golf thing is concerned....  But it's not always about you, as we've had 21" of snow over the last 72 hours and the skiing has been epic.

Perhaps a couple of my lame photos?  Here's my buddy Mitch grabbing a thigh-high stash:

And here's Bob diving into an untracked section of woods:

For those that don't speak skiing, untracked powder is the equivalent of holing out from 150 yards....

Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

I'll See Your Mac Daddy Santa - Tiger may have opened, but I suspect that he'll be folding after seeing Mac Beef Santa:

As for those manbreasts, I think Phil is the only guy on Tour that's in Beef's league.  No disrespect to Tiger intended....

Although, to be fair, this one may be worse:

Unless it's, you know, ironic....  Does Beef do irony?

'Tis The Season - I speak, of course, of Festivus.  For those that mistakenly believe that Festivus originated on Seinfeld, I refer you to this helpful page that will acquaint you with it's history, including its modern holiday carol, title, appropriately, It's A Pole.

The Festivus tradition of The Airing of Grievances inspired Joel Beall to share his golf-related grievances.  I think we can all agree about this one:

Golfers on their cell phones

Yes, it's here again, and for a reason. You don't play pickup basketball or backyard football with your phone on your person. Check a text or two between holes, and feel free to play music during your round. But if you're making multiple business calls on the course, you're doing it wrong.

I would have also included folks that play music without asking their playing partners if they mind..... Willow Ridge members will not need a name.

This I think was a misfire:

Ryder Cup build-up

We thought the "task force" bunk would die with the American win at Hazeltine. We were wrong. Too much noise for a biennial three-day exhibition.

The build-up is justified by the drama of the event, the best three days of golf to be found.  It's the task force itself that's the crime against nature.....

And here's one for our friends at Quaker Ridge:

Homeowners complaining about their houses getting hit

Buying a house on a course, only to protest about golfers raining ammo into the yard, is like jumping into a pool and grumbling about getting wet.

Would that I had friends at Quaker.....  Oh well, maybe that'll be on my grievance list for Festivus '17.

Presents For 2017 - I know, we missed that deadline by this much...  Shack finished his list of X-mas gifts for golfers with this worthy entry:

Last year the craftsmen and women of Seamus Golf kindly offered a Christmas discount

to readers of this site. And after noticing their dapper new ties I reached out to company co-founder Akbar Christi who kindly offered a holiday discount for all purchases. Enter code RUSTICCANYON to get 20% off. 

Everything by Seamus is made with care, thought and class, but I'm digging their new ties in fabrics sourced from the best (Loch Caron, House of Edgar). They come in both skinny and regular sizes and the website notes the lineage of the patterns so that you can do your best Smailsimpersonation at your next cocktail party. 

Personally, I love a good tartan tie because nearly all look good with a navy blazer, they are guaranteed to liven up an otherwise cookie-cutter outfit, all while giving you a fun story to tell about the tie's inspiration.

The folks at Seamus are obviously working the ref, as Rustic Canyon is Geoff's best-known course design.  The ties are quite nice, though at this point I only wear them at weddings and funerals, and unfortunately it's mostly the latter.  But do check out their tartan headcovers....

In a similar vein, Alistair Tait suggests gifts for Euro Tour players:

Danny Willett: A consistent season and an eraser for his brother.

Willett came out of the gate fast this season (winning the Masters helped) and slowed down big time toward the end. He had a commanding lead in his bid to become European No. 1 but finished No. 2 for the second consecutive year. He needs to be more consistent if he wants to reach the top of the European Tour mountain. 

As for brother Pete, he’s entitled to write whatever he wants, but his attempt at humor before the Ryder Cup did Danny no favors. I wonder if Danny bought Pete an eraser for Christmas?

Wouldn't a muzzle be more helpful?  

But this seems a tad passive-aggressive:

Matthew Fitzpatrick: A miserable year on the PGA Tour!

Fitzpatrick says he’ll concentrate heavily on the PGA Tour next season, which is bad news for European Tour fans. So maybe Santa should bring him bad luck for his PGA Tour chances so he can spend more time in Europe? Just kidding! Let’s hope Fitzpatrick has success on both tours so everyone can watch his precocious talents.

Get over it Alistair, you can't keep the kids on the farm any more....

Good Riddance - Josh Sens mourns not for golf trends that went the way of persimmon.  Though this first one gets an official "If Only":

Yelling "Ba-Babooey!" at Tour Events

Not that "You da man!" or "Mashed potatoes!" is much better. But at least we’re past the days when a bellowed version of that Howard Stern-ism echoed from the gallery at every shot.

What, you think them yelling "Mashed Potatoes" demonstrates continued evolution of the species?

And this is curious as well:

Tasseled Golf Shoes

Remember the days when every pair of golf shoes seemed to come with tassels? We recall them vividly. And, like you, we’ve been trying to forget.

Talk about burying the lede..... Anyone notice something else on these shoes that we no longer use?

This one gets another "If Only":

200-Yard Forced Carries and Island Greens

As if parachute pants and shoulder-padded pinstripe suits weren’t bad enough, the ‘80s also marked the hey day of sadistic golf design, the basic idea being that a course was not a course if you didn’t lose a dozen Titleists along the way. Thankfully, that cruel fashion has faded, and a kinder form of architecture now holds sway, one that allows you to hit a ball, then find it. Call it modern minimalism. We call it a better way to play.

Their Year - Golfweek has a nice annual feature in which each of their writers pens a column called My Year in Golf.  It works because it allows each of them to highlight under-reported events that made an impression.  Jeff Babineau devotes a portion of his to The King:

There’s another guy who we’re really going to miss. There are two indelible scenes I’ll carry with me for some time that involve Arnold Palmer. The first is the sight of

watching Arnold seated in his cart alongside the grandstands left of the 18th hole at his beloved Bay Hill, site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, in March. He was watching World No. 1 Jason Day complete his victory.

Since the mid-80s, I’d always try to stand somewhere nearby Palmer on Sunday when the winner came off, to hear the words of wisdom and encouragement the King would offer his newest champion. Mr. Palmer appeared frail when Day shook his hand, but he gave him the trademark smile and thumbs up. A real trooper. 

Moments later, as the crowd thinned out, I also shook Mr. Palmer’s hand as I left the green to head to the press tent, barely able to get these words out: “Thank you, Mr. Palmer. For everything.” It needed no more expansion than that.

That was a well-timed thank you.  And this typically-Arnie story from the Waybac machine:

At the reception afterward, former PGA Tour player Robert Damron, one of Mr. Palmer’s longtime Bay Hill neighbors and frequent golf and card partners, told a story about Palmer helping to get him into the old Bob Hope event in Palm Springs. Damron played well in his first round in the desert, and had barely signed his card when an official told him there was a fax waiting for him. (Remember those?) Damron unfurled it and saw it was from his Bay Hill pal. “Great playing,” it read. A small gesture that sums up Mr. Palmer’s caring and kindness. Damon choked back tears telling the story.

He is truly missed by everyone in the game.

Cheap Shots -  You know the drill, this is where we react in Snark Mode to curious headlines:

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations - Number crunching: Jodi Ewart Shadoff becomes cut-making machine in 2016

Dude, Everyone Knows He's Cabilasian - George Lopez calls Tiger Woods a 'white dude'

I Suggest She Re-Crunch - Number crunching: Stacy Lewis counts 2016 as good year, despite drop in rankings

I Got Nothing Here - Jason Dufner defends Grayson Allen ... by admitting he once tripped a friend to win a race

Seems An Over-reaction To That 12th Hole Quad - Why Jordan Spieth is working on his jumpshot

One of Life's Enduring Mysteries Unless, You Know, Winning Your First Major Is Significant - Number crunching: Why Henrik Stenson considers 2016 his best year ever

Friday Fragments

And to think a mere 24 hours ago we were speaking of lame alliterations.... The irony, she burns!

Did Steiny's Head Explode? - We all know that there's something in the water down in Florida, but get a load of this:

WTF?  For those unfamiliar with the reference, Shack helpfully fills us in on the etymology:

There the image sits. For no rational reason, a stern, shirtless Tiger Woods is wearing a Santa cap, invoking his children and referencing Mac Daddy, a phrase Merriam-Websters defines as "a conspicuously successful pimp." Or option two, "a slick womanizer." The Urban Dictionary also weighs in (gloriously).

So it's a wholesome family Christmas tradition.... Geoff has two full posts of Photoshop fun for your amusement, I'll just share a couple of tweets:

Geez, Eammon, I'm having breakfast here!  Not a good image....

And I think Rory speaks for us all:

What he said!

Speaking of Phil.... - For all you aspiring bloggers, note the deft touch on that segue.... And my hands never left my wrists.  But enough about me...

Our Phil may just be the luckiest man on the planet...  Or, if this isn't luck, then there may be really dark turn to the story.  Remember a few days ago when we had the story of the FBI leaks in his insider trading case and we noted our interest in the motive of the leaker?  It seems that the case against Billy Walters is about to unravel because of these leaks:

A dismissal would represent a significant blow to Mr. Bharara’s efforts to revive vigorous insider trading prosecutions two years after an appeals court overturned the

convictions of two hedge fund managers and imposed stringent limits on prosecutors. 

The case against Mr. Walters has been marred by revelations this month that a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation leaked details of the inquiry to reporters at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times two years before Mr. Walters was indicted. 

That agent has told federal prosecutors that he was a “significant source of confidential information” for the reporters, who produced articles about the investigation in 2014.

I've run into something I've not seen before, the Times piece linked will allow me to copy-and-paste an excerpt, so I'm limited to that which Shack excerpted.  

The agent's motivation is believed to be to jump start a stalled investigation, yet Mr. Walters has some history of skating from serious allegations, as per this from Shack:

This would not be the first time Walters was charged only to have the case not made. More importantly, Phil Mickelson would not have to take the stand and Billy could return to the AT&T Pro-Am!

Set aside that dig at the Tour's embrace of the shady Mr. Walters, Phil testifying would be troublesome for him and the Tour.

Commitments Run Wild -  Golfers all over are committing, first the aforementioned Phil:

Despite two recent surgeries, Phil Mickelson has officially committed to his first event of 

2017. On Thursday night, Mickelson announced he will play the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January. 

Recently it was reported Mickelson went under the knife for a second time this fall to repair a sports hernia and that there was no immediate timetable for his return. According to an announcement from the event Thursday, Mickelson will be ready to go in just one month.

That's good news on a couple of levels.  First, that he thinks he'll be physically able to go that soon.

Secondly, he's always hated the Rees Jones redo of the South Course and then had the disappointment of not supervising the redo of the North.  Glad he's not holding a grudge, since it's a home game for him.

 Then there's Rory:

It appears Rory McIlroy has a wedding date. 

According to a report from the Irish Daily Mail, the Northern Irishman and fiancee Erica

Stoll recently sent out wedding invitations, with the ceremony reportedly to be held some time in April 2017 at Ashford Castle in Ireland. The pair has actually spent New Year’s Eve at the five-star luxury hotel, one of the country’s most exclusive wedding venues, the past two years. According to the Irish Independent‘s rundown on this development, the pair will spend this New Year’s Eve, too, at Ashford Castle to get a feel for it ahead of the wedding.

So, invitations would go out when?  C'mon, it's the Christmas season, this was mean-spirited:

Of course, this isn’t the first time McIlroy has released wedding invitations. The 27-year-old infamously called off his engagement to tennis star Caroline Wozniacki in May 2014 just days after wedding invitations were sent out. (McIlroy recently received a pretty nice ribbing about this from a 9-year-old.)

 Then there's this prediction from Josh Berhow, what at first glance you might think doesn't fit:

Phil Mickelson will play the 2016-17 season as a 46- and 47-year-old PGA Tour veteran, but age won't stop him from winning a major in 2017.

He hasn't won a major (or Tour event) since the British Open at Muirfield in July 2013, but that will change in the coming months. A player with his resume, which includes 42 career Tour wins, isn't going to get skunked for the remainder of his 40s. Mickelson is too good for that, and his recent play justifies it.

I suspect you'll agree that this makes Josh a strong candidate for commitment.

If Wishes Were Horses... -  Posting under the nom de tweet of Nosferatu, comes this analysis of what the Official World Golf Rankings would look like based only for the last year's play:

The rankings are far from perfect, but while his season-ending streak was impressive, does anyone really think we should only include twelve months of play?  

Fairways Lives, Siriusly - I've never listened to a minute of it, nor do I have the PGA Channel as a preset on my car radios, but reports had surfaced that Matt Adams' Fairways of Life show was going bye-bye (or that Matt was going away).

Apparently fans of the show expressed their displeasure:

We like a happy ending as much as the next guy....

Thursday Threads

I was thinking that I'd take the day off, but why deny my readers their daily amusement....

Rory, The Yin and the Yang - Being a public figure is no picnic, and it's perhaps even more intense when one hails from a smallish country starved for prominance in the sports firmament.

You, Dear Reader, have never heard of Mary McKenna, but he's big (or, more accurately, was big) in the fishbowl that is Ireland... a little intro:

There was a time when Irish women’s golf got huge coverage and names such as Philomena Garvey, Kitty MacCann and later Mary Gorry, Claire Hourihane and Mary

McKenna were household names from Malin Head to Skibbereen. 

Mary McKenna is still a household name in golfing circles but one wonders what the name recognition factor would be for Paula Grant, Mary Doyle or Danielle McVeigh, or for 2016 Curtis Cup stars Maria Dunne and Olivia Mehaffey or even our Olympians Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow. 

Post Rio, it’s possible that the names Leona and Stephanie will ring a bell with the sports nuts and the young girls they are inspiring to fly the flag. 

A former president of the Irish Ladies Golf Union, Miss McKenna is thrilled to see how Irish women’s golf has blossomed competitively over the past 20 years.

I know, I see those eyes drooping.... bear with me a sec.  After reviewing Rory's unfortunate comments at the Open Championship and his fear of mosquitoes, here's the money quote:

“The problem is the coverage we get in the press,” Mary says of the women’s game. “Stephanie was joint second after the first round in the Canadian Open and yet RTE covered every other golf tournament on the planet and there wasn’t a word about it at 8am news the next morning.

“If they are covering it, people get to know about and come to watch it. They become interested in it. But all we get is Rory, Rory, Rory. I mean Rory has let us down so badly it is not funny. 

“His remark about not being in the game to grow the game — Come on, Rory. Where is your head?

Now those comments of Rory's were ill-considered, but media coverage is hardly his doing....  But you're never going to make everyone happy, and I have no dog in this hunt, I'll just note that this is my adjacent browser tab:

Is Mencap a more worthy cause than supporting Irish girl's golf?  I have no idea and am not so much as Googling the organization.  I'm just shining a brief light on the dilemma a figure like Rory faces...

Trick Shot Fails - This one came and went before I could blog it....  But it's a pretty epic fail that might amuse you:

 Metal spikes might have helped....

The Tiger Beat - Paul McGinley is a smart, interesting observer of the golf scene, though his comments here about Tiger seem unnecessarily churlish:

Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley has dismissed Tiger Woods ’ comeback as “showbiz” froth – and warned the former world No.1 will never dominate golf again. 

McGinley, who sank the decisive putt for Europe 14 years ago and captained the side to an emphatic win at Gleneagles in 2014, says the new generation of big hitters are no longer afraid for the Tiger cult – and they all “want a piece of him.”

Hmmmm....why the bitterness?  But do continue to dig:

“Personally, I think the reaction to the way he played in the Hero World Challenge was

over the top. - his performance level was here (waist-high) and the reaction was up here (above the head). 

“He has further to jump if he is to get back to the top level, where he was, and can he do it at 41 years old? Nobody has ever done it before at his age – there have been sporadic performances, like Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters at 46, but it’s not as if he was dominating the game then. 

“Tiger’s a little bit like a footballer who reaches 32: He can still play the odd great game, as Steven Gerrard did at Liverpool, but can he do it day after day? That’s the big hurdle."

Is it "Over-the-top" to wonder what the greatest player of our generation might have left in the tank after two back surgeries and a year away from the game?  

More substantively, is there anyone out there that expects a 41-year old man to dominate the game?  Paul is correct that players in their forties have rarely competed consistently, with Vijay, quite the late-bloomer, and Snead being the notable exceptions.

The more common model is for them to recapture the magic intermittently, but that could be plently exciting, no?  But w eall knew the harder part would be after the debut, when the expectations would rise.  Setting straw men on fir can be fun, but the pleasure fades quickly....

 Alan Shipnuck addresses a similar question in his weekly "Ask Alan" feature...  Apparently I'm not the only one to react to the lame alliteration, as he ledes thusly:

Welcome to another #AskAlan. Hey, I didn't come up with the name, I just work here.

Glad we see things the same way, so whatcha got for us? 

"Does Tiger contend in the majors in 2017? If so, prediction on how many he will win?" -@BeatSC

OK, let's get the obligatory Tiger question out of the way early. It's a very interesting slate of major championships this year: the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, a long, quirky, untested track; the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, maybe the truest test in the rota; the PGA at Quail Hollow, where Woods had some success in the old days but more recently some notable struggles. Quail Hollow will be narrow and choked with rough, while Erin Hills demands a ton of drivers off the tee. Given that Tiger's driving has been a weakness for years, neither would seem to suit him. Birkdale is a thinking man's course that plays short. At the Hero Woods's iron play was the sharpest part of his game, so the Open is probably the best fit among the summertime majors. Though who knows how Tiger's body will be holding up by then after months of grinding? Given his track record at Augusta National you have to say that the Masters is the most likely place for Woods to contend. 

It's looking like Woods's early season schedule will be Dubai, Riviera, Honda and Bay Hill -- that's only four tournaments to piece together his game ahead of the Masters. Hard to imagine he can find it by then. To answer the question, I certainly don't see him winning a major, but his best chance to at least get in the mix will be at the Masters and British Open.

I got a prediction for ya, @BeatSC, zero!   Alan's analysis is on the mark, though I will remind that we're a bit unclear as to what kind of track favors Tiger right now.  It wasn't all that long ago that we thought he'd struggle at places like Hoylake and Southern Hills, so who really knows?  But I do agree that Erin Hills seems a stretch....

Of perhaps greater import, does Alan know something the rest of us don't?  Conspicuous by its absence in that last 'graph is Torrey Pines.... I can't imagine him giving that a miss, so perhaps it's just an oversight.

Before we move on, other noteworthy Q&A's from Alan:

"Your early guess for POY in '17?" --Anna (@AnnH247)

Let me answer by asking a few questions of my own: Matsuyama has already peaked, right? Can Spieth recapture that certain magic he had in 2015, even as he's giving up so much yardage off the tee to other guys in the top 5? Will Rory's putting (and interest) hold up across a long season? Can JDay remain healthy? The only guy who has more answers than questions is Dustin. I think 2016 was just the beginning and next year he will be an even more dominant force. And so he's my (admittedly very early) pick for POY.

Good questions for sure....  as well as a reasonable guess when he finally gets around to it.  But our game is notoriously fickle, so let's just enjoy the unknown.

And this is intriguing:

"Will you be employed in 2017?" --Paul (@ghostofhogan)

In fact, I'm going to be busier than ever in January. I'll share further details soon but we have exciting things in the works: something that will be a must-read for every dimplehead on the planet. Stay tuned!

Kinda passive-aggressive, no?  I guess that guy really hated the lame alliteration.... But as a card-carrying dimplehead, I'll certainly stay tuned.

What Took So Long? - Exciting news from the Windy city... well, news in any event:

The Daily Herald reports that Bill Murray and his brothers are opening a "Caddyshack" sports restaurant in Rosemont, Ill. The clan already owns one golf-themed restaurant in

St. Augustine at the World Golf Village. 

Though the comedian has a rich and storied career, Bill's role as Carl Spackler in "Caddyshack" is arguably his most iconic performance. The movie, which was co-written by his brother Brian, was inspired by the brothers' experiences as loopers at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Ill. The Murrays were inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame last summer. 

The restaurant news is the latest in Murray's 2016 golf adventures. He played in the Celebrity Ryder Cup match, was paired with Jordan Spieth at a pro-am, opened a new clothing line, and took $5 from President Obama in an Oval Office putting contest.

The Dalai Llama was unavailable for comment.

 A Slow News Day - Putting the silly into Silly Season is this scientific ranking from the usuallly Josh Sensible:

The 14 Most Athletic Golfers of All Time, Ranked

I have a bad feeling about this.....  For instance:

13. LEXI THOMPSON

As happens with a lot female athletes, Thompson's image has been sold to the public largely on the basis of her sex appeal. But those swimsuit photos have a way of distracting from the fact that Thompson is a fitness and workout fanatic, known for pounding range balls for three hours a day -- before squeezing in 18. Is she pretty? Sure. But she's also a power player who led the LPGA in driving distance in 2014.

See, there is such a thing as bad publicity....  Though at least he didn't go for Shanshan Feng....

This one is excerpted only for the wonderful 1994 photo:

7. ERNIE ELS

Before settling on golf in his childhood home of South Africa, the Big Easy made rugby and cricket look, well, easy. He was also an accomplished junior tennis player, capturing a prestigious regional title at the age of 13. But never mind sports. Let's talk blood sports: in a 2016 GOLF.com survey, Els was chosen by fellow Tour pros as the player they'd most want to have their back in a bar fight.

But his choice for Number One is an outrage.... as is the lack of respect for Lumpy.  

First World Problems -  Here's the header:

DJ's Kid Wants Nothing To Do With Santa

 I have a question.... was Tatum breast-fed?  Because if the answer is yes, I fear that all of life, Christmas included, will be a significant disappointment to the young man.

Midweek Musings

You didn't expect me here every day during ski season, did you?

The Golf Ball Wars - One of our recurring themes her eat Unplayable Lies is the "Sky is falling" nature of the ubiquitous obituaries for our game.... while our game faces challenges, the facts are rather less interesting.  Our game endures because of its unique hold on those that play it, but we remain a niche sport as ever.

I've always felt that sales of golf balls, as opposed to clothing and clubs, was the best metric for the health our game.  So what do we make of this from Shack:

Bidding more for a dozen of Costco balls than the top-priced ball on the market? 

America the beautiful!

The ebay prices are giggle-worthy. However it's mostly the notion that Costco, which sells a lot of vice-worthy items in bloated sizes, had its website bog down Tuesday as golf junkies jammed the servers trying to order the new low cost ball that has tested well. 

Reader Guy reports that the 11 am-to-1 pm ET sales window today did offer the opportunity to buy the ball, but as many noted below, the website was lagging badly. Imagine that, bogging down a site that sells almost anything, only larger. 

Who says golf is dead?

Twitter is exploding over a value-priced golf ball, and it's December!   Some of the funnier tweets:

But will you use your Costco nball, my bad, your Kirkland Signature ball, when you land that ANGC tee time?

Ummm, who said it was named after Mr. Kirkland?  Kinda misogynistic, no?

And as Geoff notes, the E-bay prices are YUUUUUGE!

Rio Loco - To the surprise of no one, prospects for the Rio Olympic Golf Course are flat-lining:

RIO DE JANEIRO — Rio de Janeiro's Olympic golf course took three years to build as

the project was slowed down by environmental lawsuits, Brazilian bureaucracy and stop-and-start funding by a billionaire real estate developer. 

Four months after golf's surprising popularity at the Olympics, an even larger test remains: What to do with an acclaimed course in a country where few play the game, and in a city that can't pay to maintain it.

"You know that it's not going to be easy," Paulo Pacheco, head of the Brazilian Golf Confederation, told The Associated Press. "It's challenging. It's not easy to do. It's very hard. I think it's the only opportunity we have to improve golf in Brazil."

Fair enough, but improving golf in Brazil, a country with the most tenuous of connections to the game, belongs way down the list of priorities, below basics usch as feeding and housing your citizens.

Isn't this the crux of the matter?

Another problem: Who will pay to keep the course running? Out-going Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes says the city can't pay. He has said repeatedly he would not have pushed to build the course were in not for the Olympics. 

"It's not a popular sport in Brazil," Paes said last year. "But there are some things you need to do when you deliver the Olympics." 

Last week, a state court froze Paes' assets as a public prosecutor investigates whether he improperly waived an environmental tax for the course builder. The builders' assets were also frozen.

Remind me of how golf is helped by its association with the corrupt oligarchs that run the Olympics?  At the very least, wouldn't it have been better to wait for 2020, when the games are held in a country with an actual connection to the game (not to mention suitable venues).

Billy v. Rory, The Outtakes -   Remember Little Billy's interview of Rory?  If you've already been doing a deep dive into the eggnog, here it is:

Good fun.... In fact, Alistair Tait had this reaction from Rory to the grilling:

“I definitely had to put my thinking hat on a couple of times to try to wiggle out of a couple of them as best I could. 

“It was going nicely at the start with a couple of hairstyles. I thought, ‘that’s actually not too bad, I don’t mind laughing about this.’ Then he got on to some other stuff and I thought: ‘Oh, Christ!’ 

“We were supposed to do it for half an hour and I was there for an hour and a bit. It was all good fun and I had a great time. It’s great to do things like that. It’s nice to be able to show people I can still laugh at myself.”

When we speak of the Euro Tour players seeming to enjoy themselves more, this is exactly the kind of thing we have in mind.  While I'm still disappointed that we don't know who Rory's current favorite woman tennis player is, it speaks well of the man to laugh at his missteps with us all.

With the interview going viral, it was perhaps inevitable for them to release this "The Making Of..." video, which is also good fun:

PXG, Unplugged - Mark McCluskey has a deep dive on PXG that's worth your time, if gear is of any interest to you.  It's billed as a review of the clubs, but it's also a history of the effort and much more.

This is the bit that's been most excerpted:

The company has grown to 70 people, and Parsons says the response has been beyond what he had hoped. He predicts that the company will finish the year at a $60 millionannual run rate. The challenge will be to continue to innovate, and fight a market that’s usually driven by an annual set of new gear to entice golfers to spend more. 

“We don’t have a product cycle,” says Parsons. “Our product cycle is that we have to make sure that we have breakthroughs in performance. When we do, we’ll release something new. Who knows when that will be with our irons?” Until then, he’ll sell the same model.

That's actually pretty impressive, from a standing start.  Here's his bottom line on the sticks:

So, after all of that, how do PXG’s clubs perform? In my experience, they perform very, very well. The standouts in the set are those innovative irons. As you stand over the shot, the top edge of the club offers the appearance of the thinner blade irons most pros prefer, but the hollow construction gives the clubs much more forgiveness than those models. When I would catch a shot off the toe of the club, I’d still get the majority of the distance that I expected, and they held their line well.

I hit them once, on the back range at Willow Ridge with reduced-flight balls.  I can tell you that the clubs look and feel great, though unlike the author I couldn't see any yardage gains versus my Mizunos.  His take on the rest of the bag isn't as enthusiastic:

The other clubs in the set suffer in comparison to the irons. It’s not that they aren’t good clubs—in fact, the driver, 3 wood, and hybrid club are all terrific. It’s just that they aren’t the sort of leap forward that the irons represent; they’re much more similar to other clubs on the market, especially some Ping clubs, which comes as little surprise given Nicolette’s involvement with those clubs. 

I was less enthusiastic about the wedges. Again, they’re beautifully designed and built clubs, but they come in a limited number of lofts and bounce angles, which is the grind of the sole of the club. Wedges are a club where players have a lot of idiosyncratic preferences, and the PXG wedges just never really fit my eye when I was preparing to hit a shot.

A fun read, but no reason to break the bank to have these in your bag, methinks.

'Tis The Season -  We'll be all over the place with year-end reviews and gift guides....

It's An Honor Just To Be Nominated - Shack and Gary Williams review the nominees for Trick Shot of the Year, and the winner is.... Hey, no spoilers here, give Geoff a click.  He's also got some late submissions....

While You Were Sleeping - Golf Wire has a year-end trivia quiz, which starts with this important question:

Thanks for playing, Peter.

Joel Beall has a more conventional and therefore less interesting quiz as well.  Ryan Herrington has this slideshow of fifteen things we undoubtedly forgot happened in 2016:

In the days leading up to his Northern Trust Open victory at Riviera C.C. in February, Bubba Watson also 1) passed a kidney stone, 2) filmed a cameo on the TV show “Girl Meets World” and 3) went to a Clippers-Warriors basketball game.

The thing is that after Riviera, it was a kidney-stone of a year for the Bubbameister.

Doug Ferguson has an interesting take on the year-in-review identifying the best shot with each club in the bag.... The thing is, though, that page is jumping around so much on my new laptop that it's making me nauseous.  perhaps your viewing experience will be better....

It's The Thought That Counts - Shack is in the middle of his nine days of Christmas bit, and it's quite the mixed bag.  There was State Apparel Fairway Pants and Athletic Collective's layering pieces, which are fine suggestions and at least he didn't go back to the Lululemon well.....

But candles, Geoff?

But let's ignore that classic bit of satire and focus on the product of 12-year-old, Shark

Tank-inspired entrepreneur Lily Green. She has created a line of golf candles evoking scents based on the game, including a special edition sold by Seamus Golf, and her candles are all lovingly packaged with Josh Smith-art of Cabot Links' 16th hole. 

So in maintaining the annual Christmas gift guide theme here, buy yourself a golf candle or be bold and gift a collection of candles at a better price. And support a young entrepreneur.

Geoff put his money where his mouth is and ordered for himself, and posted this:

**Received my candles today and they get A+ on all fronts: packaging, scent and longevity. The fescue definitely stands out if you're looking to provide a golfer a distinctive gift.

Fescue?  Egads, there's even a candle named after William McGirt...  I just can't imagine who besides Employee No. 2 would appreciate that.

 Far more conventional, considering the source, is this:

So while the new Simpson & Co. biography published by Rhod McEwan is one that you can proudly gift, I'm fairly certain that golf architecture aficionados will be placing this

stunning production alongside their collection of classics. Scoop up a copy while they last! 

Written by the late Fred Hawtree, the book is embellished by Donald Steel's foreword and afterword along with a long list of contributors featured in the Acknowledgements. The resulting sense of finding a fun visual or factual surprise on every page is befitting of Simpson's rich-but-mysterious life. 

McEwan has put together a sturdy volume which, as with his other golf publications over the years, will age gracefully. Best of all, we have a highly readable, visually engaging tribute one of golf architecture's least understood characters.

Sounds wonderful, though my pile of unread golf books is a tad too tall as of now...

This last one (for today) I find oddly wonderful:

I was especially glad to hear Marty single out a multi-purpose gift from Digest.com's annual slideshow of products: the Golf Sketch Swing The Club Decoupage Glass Tray from BensGarden.com. 

Besides the cleverness, originality and versatility of this tray subversively laden with every swing thought imaginable, this classy piece could serve as an intervention tool. A glass tray that saves lives!

That's a bit of a stretch, but I just love the look:

Any of you that haven't yet bought that special gift for your favorite golf blogger can use those links above.