Tuesday Tidbits

Was yesterday's post long enough for you?  Don't expect that every day, but with dry conditions in Utah, there's no need to hurry out there....

Rahmadan Extended By Popular Demand - Lots of continuing coverage of the young Spaniard, and we'll let Geoff play tour guide.  First, some of his comments on the results of this win:

Maybe it's that we've been hearing what a supreme talent he is, or perhaps it's just how impressive Jon Rahm was in his post-round press conference. Either way, his back nine

30 over a host of players who vied for the 2017 Farmers title moves him to the seemingly endless list of emerging talents.

Now at world No. 46 after joining 91 spots (according to GolfChannel.com's Will Gray) and, reports CBSSports.com's Kyle Porter, Rahm is the fastest to make $2 million in PGA Tour history (passing Spieth who passed Woods).

The money is a non-issue, but moving into the top 50 gets him into the WGC's and other self-sustaining events.

This PGATour.com video is mostly fluff, though there's film of Rahm going Yani Tseng with the tourney trophy early in the week, but living to tell the tale.

Doug Ferguson has the lad's background, including his arrival at ASU:

Rahm grew up in Barrika, a town of about 1,500 in the Basque country of northern

Spain. He was recruited to play at Arizona State, which has more than 50,000 students at its main campus in Tempe. Rahm spoke barely enough English to process and sentence and answer either "yes" or "no." 

"When I showed up to my first class, there were 375 people," he said. "And I came from a high school where the biggest class was 30 people. It was pretty different. I thought I walked into a movie theater, to be honest. I thought it was just a movie theater and I was in the wrong place. I'll never forget that." 

Sure, it was intimidating, but not enough to scare him away.

More on his English proficiency in a bit...  As for his aggressive play, he had this in his post-win presser:

Rahm, 22, is an interesting kid, and one heck of a competitor. He has played 17 PGA Tour events, and finished in the top 10 in five (including three top 3s). He plays boldly, aggressively, as if laying up is not a viable option. Rahm jokes that you should have seen him play before he started learning better course management at Arizona State. (“I believe it’s a Spanish mindset. I feel like we are all pretty aggressive, right?” he says).

This quote from caddie Adam Hayes is worth noting:

This is where you mention that Rahm is 22. Justin Thomas, three-time winner this year, already finds himself looking back. He’s 23. 

“The college game is so good now,” Hayes said. “If you win there, you can win here, as long as you don’t change anything.’ 

Rahm won 11 times at Arizona State. At one point he was the top-ranked amateur in the world. 

So was Patrick Rodgers, 24, who shared the 54-hole lead and finished ninth. So was Ollie Schneiderjans, 23, who was in the next-to-last group. So was Cheng-tsung Pan, the 25-year-old from Taiwan who finished tied for second.

Perhaps, but the difference might be that Rahm stayed for the full four years.  But I'll remind all that Commissioner Ratched sought to bury a talent like this on the Web.com Tour for a year...

Shack has been very complimentary of Rahm's performance in his post-win presser, to which you can listen here.  No argument from me on that, though one bit jumped out me as I had it playing in the background.  If I heard correctly, he made that first eagle on the Par-5 thirteenth from a fairway bunker....  That's one hell of a great shot, though it might have been nice if CBS shared it with us....that sound you hear is Frank Chirkinian spinning in his grave....

OK, so you're a Spanish teenager matriculating at ASU, with limited English proficiency.  How do you catch up quickly so yu can manage your class work?  Rosetta Stone?  ESL classes?  Our Rahmbo chose a different path, consulting noted linguistic expert......Eminem.  No, really:

The cadence of rap appealed to the latest winner on the PGA Tour as he memorized tracks, especially two of his favorite songs — Eminem’s Love the Way You Lie, and Lamar’s Swimming Pools. 

“Memorizing rap songs in English … helped me out a lot to pronounce and actually understand what was going on and keeping up with people in conversation,” Rahm said following his breakthrough win Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. “You can look (those songs) up. They're good.”

I'll beg to differ there, young man, but you know these crazy kids....

One last note that I haven't seen any other source cite.  You no doubt have realized that this young man is likely to torture us at Ryder Cups doe the next twenty years, though as recently as November he was singing from a different hymnal (yes, and not a rap song):

But as of now the young Spaniard is not a member of the European Tour and therefore -- like Casey -- ineligible for the Old World Ryder Cup side. And it is a situation that is not likely to alter any time soon. Speaking at the end of the opening round in the World Cup at Kingston Heath -- where he and partner Rafa Cabrera-Bello hold the first-round lead -- Rahm expressed enthusiasm for the Ryder Cup but sees membership of his “home” tour as something that will have to wait at least a year. 

“I’ve thought about the Ryder Cup a lot,” he said, after the Spanish pair combined for an opening foursomes round of 69, three under par and one shot ahead of the United States, France and China. “I so want to play in the matches; who doesn’t? But right now I need to establish myself on the PGA Tour. Hopefully, I will do that and make it into the top 50 in the world. Once I do that, I will be able to play in the eight tournaments that count towards the PGA Tour and the European Tour -- the majors and the WGCs. That is the ideal scenario."

One assumes that Thomas Bjorn has been in contact and that, playing privileges in America assured, that he will be taking Euro Tour membership and slotting in the four non-WGC and major events as required.

Oversight Remedied - I went way long yesterday and neglected the ladies, who provided a stirring finish in their season-opening event:

In four of the past five years, Britanny Lincicome hasn't won an LPGA event. But the

talented 31-year-old made sure early on that she won't suffer the same fate in 2017. 

With a birdie on the first playoff hole, Lincicome beat Lexi Thompson to win the LPGA's season opener at the Pure Silk-Bahamas Classic.

“I worked hard this off-season," Lincicome told reporters in the Bahamas after picking up her seventh career LPGA title. My putting hasn't been as well as it has this week, but hopefully that continues and it's awesome.”

Of note is the fact that top five finishers were all Americans, including Nelly Korda, Jessica's little sister.  Stacey Lewis finished one shot out of the playoff, derailed by a triple-bogey on the 14th hole, something that's become a bit habitual for her.  She needs a win, and she needs it soon....

His Shot - Don't miss this Guy Yocum feature with instructor-to-the-stars Pete Cowen.  His stable includes a fair proportion of the great international players, two of whom (Henrik and Willett) won 2016 majors.

This is perhaps the most consequential bit about his unusual fee structure:

WHEN I BEGAN TEACHING OTHER PROFESSIONALS, I immediately formed a fee structure that is quite different from that of many teachers in America. My company, Top Ten Golf Limited, is a service that is strictly performance-based. I get 4 percent of the

players' tournament winnings, but only for finishes in the top 10. If they don't finish in the top 10, I don't get paid.  I cover all my expenses and am available on short notice. I'm very proud of this. What other coach in the world of sports has the confidence to structure their fee schedule this way? There have been times when the results of my coaching have produced revenue for me that the players' agents felt was excessive. This led me to add a corollary to my offer: If the player leaves my camp, for any reason whatsoever, and doesn't leave a token bit of compensation in place, said player cannot come back. This happened several years ago with a very good player I was helping. A Ryder Cupper who became top 50 in the world. The player's agent rang me one day to say his player was going to "do his own thing," was leaving and choosing not to keep a bit for me intact. I warned that said player couldn't come back. Some time later, the player's performance declined. The agent phoned me, asking if I would begin working with his player again. To that I said, "You obviously weren't listening." I couldn't take the player back. But good luck to him. He's a nice lad, and still a good player.

Back in the day that was known as a success fee, but you also have to love the human nature involved in trying to renegotiate it after the fact.... Well, perhaps love isn't what I was after there...

Read the whole thing, as he has a wealth of great stories and insights from a life lived at the highest levels of our game.  As well as one tragic story that will stay with you...

Parsons, Unplugged - Bob Parsons is another interesting golf personage, though obviously not everyone's cup of tee.  You know the back story, after spending $350,000 oe year on sticks, he started PXG Golf, and began throwing huge sums of money at Tour pros to play his gear.

This item in the local press brings us up to date on the company's progress:

Parsons, the billionaire founder of GoDaddy, decided that rather than invest in a new set

of clubs or shafts he’d start his own golf manufacturing company. PXG – Parsons Extreme Golf – was founded in north Scottsdale, and at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week, several top PGA Tour pros will swing PXG clubs, including James Hahn, Ryan Moore, Zach Johnson and Billy Horschel. 

Last year, PXG clubs accounted for 59 top-10 finishes on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tours, including Hahn’s victory in the Wells Fargo Championship. Fifteen tour players will use the clubs in 2017, including Lydia Ko, the No. 1 ranked player on the LPGA Tour, and while PXG officials wouldn't divulge their sales, the company has gone from 33 employees in December of 2015 to 102 today.

No word on how many millions he's lost thus far, but it has to be a big number....  As you know, they don't give them away:

Parsons said PXG spends so much money on materials and technology that the cost of building a set of clubs is equivalent to what companies like PING, Calloway and TaylorMade sell their clubs for. As a result, a set of PXG clubs costs approximately $5,000. By comparison, a complete set of Titleist clubs will go for about $1,700.

But it's this bit at the end that has folks buzzing:

If that $5,000 price tag seems exorbitant, well, that may soon seem like a good deal at PXG. 

"We’re working on a process that has never been done before and is incredibly expensive," Parsons said. "Our next set of clubs are going to cost a lot more."

Incredibly expensive?  Color me curious.... 

Weekend Wrap

Before we get to the main event, he's a short video by ski buddy Bob of your humble blogger enjoying the deep stuff from early last week....

Perhaps after viewing that demonstration of motor skills you'll be a bit more tolerant of the typos in my posts.... Or not.

Rahmadan Comes Early This Year - The latest can't-miss amateur has been out on Tour for about an hour-and-a-half, and I think the incumbants just might have noticed.  Before we get to the events of yesterday, a short precis on the lad's career to date:

He won the Ben Hogan Award his final two years at Arizona State as the top college

player, along with the Jack Nicklaus Award his senior year as the best golfer. He spent 60 weeks at the No. 1 amateur in the world. Two years ago in the Phoenix Open, he tied for fifth while still at Arizona State. 

And when he turned pro last summer, he earned his PGA Tour in four starts, tying for third in the Quicken Loans National at Congressional and finishing runner-up by one shot at the Canadian Open.

That pic above was from last year's Phoenix Open, playing to the home crowd on the 16th hole....  Think they crazies will react to him later this week?

 This win qualifies as unexpected, but shame on Golf.com for not having his image available for their leaderboard:

It seems he bears a striking resemblance to C.T. Pang.... In case you missed it, here's a description of his back-nine pyr0technics:

Rahm made two eagles over the final six holes, the last one a 60-foot putt from the back

fringe on the par-5 18th hole for a 5-under 67 to win the Farmers Insurance Open by three shots for his first PGA Tour victory. 

Rahm, who turned 22 in November, beat Phil Mickelson's mark as the youngest champion at this tournament. He also became the first player in 26 years to capture his first PGA Tour title at Torrey Pines. 

Starting the final round three shots out of the lead, Rahm made up ground in a hurry.

He hit 4-iron into 18 feet on the par-5 13th and holed the eagle putt to tie for the lead. He stuffed a wedge into 5 feet on the 17th to take the lead, and he finished with his long eagle putt that broke hard to the right and peeled back to the left and dropped in on the side of the cup.

Ummm, so much for those layers and layers of editors and fact-checkers, the lad shot 35-30-65, including those two eagles on the incoming nine.

For those of you weary of the hype surrounding the high school class of 2011, please say hello to the class of 2012.... do you feel old yet?

I don't often post the Tour's highlight video, but this one is pretty special:

Hmmmm...Sunday red?  Didn't that used to be a thing?  A 30 on the South's back nine is just sick,

It was a funny week, indeed, and I suspect that the ratings will be on the feeble side.  Most of the name brands were slamming trunks on Friday (including that featured three-ball of Woods, JD and DJ, but also Fowler, Walker and Koepka), and local hero Phil faded on the weekend.

The Tour Confidential panel was asked to assess Rahm's potential and had these responses.... I've occasionally been tough on Joe Passov, so I'll graciously excerpt his victory lap:

Bacon: I think Rahm is in that Brooks Koepka-Tony Finau camp, an extremely talented power player that will catch fire once or twice a year and give himself a good shot at winning. It's nearly impossible to judge where these guys are headed considering how difficult it is to win multiple times a year anymore, but Rahm has insane talent and rare power that makes him a major threat in this generation's PGA Tour.

Passov: There are clouds in every crystal ball...but if you go back to this forum from Oct. 9, 2016, we were asked for "one big, bad, bold prediction for the 2017 season." I tossed out three of them, with one being that the breakout star of the year will be Jon Rahm. I suggested that he had the length, game, and swagger to bag multiple wins in 2016-17. I'm halfway there.

But shame on whoever formulates the questions each Sunday night, as it took until the third question to ask about Rahm's win...  You'll no doubt guess the first two, but be patient as we'll get there in a bit....

 Before we leave, here's Phi'l's take on the young man:

Mickelson knew it was coming. His brother, Tim Mickelson, was Rahm's coach at Arizona State and now is his agent. 

''I think he's more than just a good young player,'' Mickelson said. ''I think he's one of the top players in the world. I think there's an intangible that some guys have where they want to have the pressure, they want to be in that tough position, they want to have everything fall on their shoulders. And he has that.''

And while we'll be taking CBS to our woodshed below, I did enjoy Gary McCord's commentary on playing with Rahm at Whisper Rock, where he gets five a side from the young Spaniard....

Other Torrey Takes - As I watched yesterday's coverage, I was taken by the lack of spectators by the 12th green and 13th tee.  Now those are out a bit from the clubhouse, but it was still a Sunday on our....

It turns out that I wasn't seeing things, as Shack explains:

As was noted earlier in the week, the Farmers Insurance Open has made strides since nearly becoming extinct. But the operation, at least for the average paying customer,

A Ghost-town in LaJolla....

leaves much to be desired. 

With a daily ticket price of $50 ($35 for senior), the event does not offer a single grandstand for general admission fans to sit on a green and watching play. Even worse, there is only a small 50-yard long area right of the 18th green for standing to watch action, leaving play to conclude, at a public golf facility, to finish in front of only corporate customers. 

Compounding the problem: many of the corporate guests came dressed as empty seats, even on a gloroius Sunday with a stacked leaderboard. It was that way all week, but here's how it looked when the third to last group was approaching, not long after Jon Rahm's stunning eagle:

Fair use be damned, here's the remainder of Geoff's rant:

This might be moot if Torrey Pines had stadium mounding or even a green complex or two that were not raised surfaces. They do not and with all of the closing holes off limits to fans, this leaves surprisingly few places to comfortably watch action. 

At the $50 general admission ticket price, the Farmers could be the worst tournament experience in golf. Growing the game, it will not.

The event obviously needs to generate revenue to pay off debts and surrounding holes 14 through 18 with corporate tents helps sell premium tickets and expensive packages. But at a public facility that the people of San Diego sacrifice for a few weeks, the anti-grandstand gesture seems in poor taste. And given the game's need to add new fans and keep old ones coming around, is it too much to give people a place to sit down once in a while?

Geoff has frequently written about the on-course fan experience, and this does seem a low point....  Over to you, Jay Monahan.

Lastly, everyone seems to love this video posted by Harold Varner, III, though it's not much until the lout falls flat on his face

Alex Myers notes a couple of better examples of the genre here.  I think he screwed up the link to the Peter Alliss commentary on the streaker at the '85 Open Championship....  It goes instead to amusing footage of a young Nick Faldo abusing his caddie at what looks to be the Old Course at Sunningdale, but this Kevin Harlan football call is pretty priceless:

The high point of a dreadful game.....

Haters Gonna Hate - But how should we react, when the subject of the Twitter hatestorm is, you know, so very deserving....

Shack has a compilation of tweets here, but I'll let Brendan Porath explain in way more than 140 characters:

The broadcast ... it stunk. I’ve tried to slow down and not indulge the constant critiques of golf broadcasts because sometimes that’s a Twitter ball of groupthink that just starts

rolling downhill and we lose perspective of what’s actually happening. CBS is always the primary target of this frustration, which often escalates to anger. They’ve been crushed in recent years for showing minimal golf shots, ignoring contenders entirely, and filling the broadcast with fluff segments and commercials. I sometimes think it’s not as bad as the hysteria on Twitter would have you think and that it’s just more yelling on a social media platform prone to angry yelling. 

With that said, there’s no debating that CBS’ return to PGA Tour coverage this weekend was an unqualified disappointment. There was way too much focus on the scenery, which is a trap you can fall into when you’re at a beautiful oceanside venue like Torrey Pines. But they showed surfers and paddle boarders and whales wayyyy too much, neglecting a bunched-up leaderboard that demanded rapid-fire movement from hole-to-hole to keep the audience informed. That ridiculous 30-minute coverage gap also exists, which became more than 30 minutes as college hoops went way over its block, a predictable and continued problem. On Sunday, we went more than 50 minutes before TV coverage came back on the air. The PGA Tour has fortunately just started putting the world feed up for free online during this blackout stretch as the coverage switches from Golf Channel to CBS. They should be commended for it but it’s still no excuse for TV being absent during critical moments in the middle of a final round in the year 2017.

The reason for that thirty minute gap eludes me, but with their slate of college B-ball games always running into the golf coverage is quite annoying, even when I'm mostly fast-forwarding though it on my DVR.

But, after watching a fair portion of the first three days, I like many had no idea that Jon Rahm was even in the field....

All the commercials, flora and fauna shots, and limited universe of players being shown left you with no real sense of the round or flow of the day. In the end, that has to be judged a failure. I don’t enjoy writing so much about the coverage and I won’t dismiss CBS wholesale, the prevailing sentiment on golf Twitter. But they’re on notice with three more strong events and great venues to cover on this west coast swing before going back in hibernation until the Masters.

The worst bit in my opinion was when they planted Dottie Pepper and Peter Kostis in front of video screens....  again for purposes that elude me.

Before we leave Brendan, I'd like to share some of his thoughts on the golf course:

Is Torrey Pines meh?

Yes.  Next question....

So Torrey’s South Course is a major championship venue with a ton of history and an impressive resume. The assumption is that it’s one of the best courses on the regular PGA Tour rota, which is dotted with monotonous TPC setups. The Rees Jones redesign of this course, however, has been widely panned and it’s conventional wisdom now that he ruined a pretty good thing. What we have now is just a bunch of elevated greens protected by bunkers and a whole lot of pin placements that are tough to access. 

We don’t demand birdie-fests every week and a tough test may have been what we needed after multiple sub-60 rounds in the preceding two weeks. But there’s a difference between being a tough test that’s exciting to watch and one that just becomes a sputtering slog. This also came up on Twitter among regular keen golf watchers.

 All true, and shockingly not all Rees Jones' fault.....

I've played Torrey many times, both prior to and after Jones' U.S. Open doctoring....  I always tell people that the property is a ten, but the golf course(s) are barely a six.... Amazingly, the original design of the course was alarmingly bad, failing to utilize the spectacular bluffs on which it sits.  Rees did good work in remedying this weakness, moving greens at Nos. 3, 4 and 14 to bring the Pacific more into play.

His reconstruction of the greens has been far more controversial, with local boy Phil especially critical.  Rees attempted to create more back hole locations, creating what look like Mouseketeer ears on several of the greens.  I don't like them particularly, but I also understand the challenges of making a course able to withstand the best players in the world.

I'll also add that the course plays far better as a U.S. Open track, because in June they can get it running firm and fast.  In January that's a tall order, and this year's heavy rains made cutting the rough difficult.  But the routing is unimaginative, the green complexes are repetitive and one-dimensional, and the holes not easily distinguishable, especially on TV.  In a perfect world they'd bring in Tom Doak or Gil Hanse to blow all 36 holes up, and let them strat from scratch in routing the courses.

But, as you might have noticed, the world we inhabit is somewhat short of perfect...

Life In The Time of Trump - Shack links to this NPR article on a current environmental dispute, and it's refreshing to see that source treat a serious issue with such even-handedness.  Not so much:

In 2015, under the Obama administration, the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finalized the Waters of the United States rule to apply clean water regulations to thousands of new streams, lakes and wetlands. 

Under the rule, the Blue Monster — and all golf courses in the U.S. — would be subject to closer federal regulation. 

The rule is opposed by a long list of industries, including manufacturers, farmers and golf course owners like Trump.

Would it be a terrible bother, NPR, to explain why all those folks oppose this rule?  Apparently, because they're content to let you think that such folks prfer their water polluted...

Now their basic premise is fair:

Donald Trump is not only the U.S. president; he's also a golf industry giant. And like other golf course operators, he has a stake in the legal wrangling over a new environmental rule that could dent industry profits. 

Here's where Trump is different from his peers: He gets to name the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and this week, the president may appoint a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, which soon will hear a case involving the environmental rule.

But of course when the Clinton State Department was urging the sale of a significant portion of our uranium supplies to the Russkis, it was "nothing to see here" mode....

If you're interested in the outrageous power grab involved in the EPA taking jurisdiction over bodies of water the size of potholes, here's a primer.   As for this assertion by the good folks at NPR, well their fidelity to the law of the land seems to have arisen around noon on January 20th:

For the Trump administration, overturning the rule isn't something that can be done through executive order. The EPA would have to restart the lengthy rulemaking process, according to Jon Devine, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

"Repealing a rule requires a full public process and has to be justified by the law and the evidence available. And in the case of the clean water rule, that's going to be rough sledding for the Trump administration," he said.

Please be patient:

May I recommend a version restore to January 20, 2009?  Or, better yet, to the factory settings....

Back to the TC panel, for whom this was the second question:

2. The first 10 days of the Trump presidency were rocked with controversy. Given the spate of protests we've witnessed across the country, is it time for the USGA to move the 2017 U.S. Women's Open from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.? And with Trump's name all over the game, what should golf's other governing bodies be doing?

Of course it was....  but controversy is merely that of which they don't approve.  Some answers:

Ritter: I had hoped last year that golf's poo-bahs would unite against Trump for his views on Muslims, Mexicans and immigrants. This week he began keeping his campaign promises, and many citizens hit the streets (and airports) to respond. There's also a faction of Trump's base that supports his orders. What side is golf on? The time for fence-sitting has expired. This week the USGA should release a statement explaining why they're staying in Bedminster, or announce that they're out.

Bamberger: The time for golf to make a statement about Trump's views and now actions and whether they are an offense to the values of the game and whether his courses deserve to be venues for major championships has come and gone. It had to be done before the election. To pull these championships away from a course because it has the name of the president of the United States on it is I think an affront to the presidency and to the democratic process that elected him. And I say that appalled, as millions of us are, by some of the things he said during the campaign and some of the things he has said and done since the election.

I don't particularly like the guy much, but watching heads exploding has become immensely amusing.   Perhaps when California secedes, the Tour and USGA can move their operations there.  How about this though, that golf's organizations conduct their events without regard to the politics of the individuals involved?  I know, an idea so crazy it just might work....

 A Teachable Moment - I'm a fan of the TC panel and blog their thoughts frequently, but this lead question is kind of pitiful:

1. His chipping prowess aside, Tiger Woods had an uninspiring performanceat Torrey Pines, shooting 76-72 and missing the cut by four shots. Now he's headed overseas for the Dubai Desert Classic. What constitutes a good week?

OK, it's a bunch of middle-aged men stuck in the early aughts, but when Tiger leaves the premises Friday afternoon he's not the most importan subject Sunday night.  And uninspiring?  Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations....

Fortunately those answering seem to get the current state of affairs better than those getting bold typeface:

Shane Bacon: Tiger is so far from contending with his current game that I say making the cut is a great week for Woods. Tiger can say he shows up to win, but that golf swing and two-way miss isn't winning anything right now. Get to the weekend, play in tournament conditions for four days and reassess, but a made cut is a win right now for Tiger Woods.

John Wood: I think it's a successful week if two things occur. One, of course, is making the cut. He needs to play four rounds, obviously. The second is nebulous. It's not a score or a swing or a stat. In my mind, it's if there is a moment when you're watching him on the weekend, and you say to yourself (or he says to himself), "Hey, I can win this tournament." Whether he's leading by four or one back or eight back, it's if he shows that moment when he strings together a stretch of holes that has competitors feel his presence and viewers sit up wondering again.

He's not remotely close to contending.... He's Tiger Woods, so he's earned a little time to see if he can play his way back to the elite level, but let's focus, shall we, on those young guns that made last weekend fun. 

Saturday Stuff

Bonus weekend content for you ungrateful wretches....

Tiger, the Postmortem - It wasn't pretty, my friends:

SAN DIEGO – Tiger Woods’ game was better on Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open, but still not good enough. In making his first official PGA Tour start in 17 months, he

had to do two things that he abhors at golf tournaments: One, pack for home on Friday; and two, depart without a trophy. 

“It’s frustrating not being able to have a chance to win the tournament,” Woods said after a level-par 72 on the North Course left him at 4-over 148 for two days. “I didn’t make the cut. Overall, today was better than yesterday. I hit it better. I putted well again. I hit a lot of beautiful putts that didn’t go in, but I hit it much better today, which was nice. We fixed a few things while playing today, which was nice.” 

But not nearly nice enough. Woods will have the weekend off in SoCal due to a sloppy four-hole stretch on the South Course on Thursday that he played in 5 over par. He went from 1 under through 11 holes to 4 over through 15, and on a course that yields very little in return, barring a low round in tough conditions Friday, he basically was done.

It takes some combination of delusion and brass-plated you-know-whats to talk of winning after failing to even sniff the cut line...  And while he perhaps played a little better on Friday, that's setting the bar awfully low...

I'm unable to find it in the coverage, bu is post-round presser was bizarre even by the standards of the genre.  He seemed more concerned with how his body will react to the 17-hour flight to Dubai, as opposed, say, to the fact that he couldn't find a fairway with a sextant....

This is about as optimistic a take as can be found:

“Playing tournament golf is a little bit different than playing with your buddies at home in a cart,” he said. “I need to get more rounds under my belt, more playing time, and that’s what I’m trying to do.” 

It’s progress of a sort, at least, that he’s finally come off the bench. There also are the statistical improvements; he hit 10 fairways on Friday, six more than Thursday, and 11 greens in regulation, up from nine.

More reps, got it....  He'll have no shortage of reps in the coming weeks, unless of course he keeps missing cuts...

Good on Alex Myers, in his preview of weekend sports on TV, for a timely caveat: 

1. Tiger Woods vs. Torrey Pines: Well, maybe. Woods first has to make it to the weekend for us to watch him and he likely needs a great second round after a Thursday 76 at Torrey Pines left him near the bottom of the Farmers Insurance leader board. In any event, this is the first big tournament of the year and a great opportunity for golfers to shine as football fans wait for next week's Super Bowl.

It was Torrey in a TKO.... And to think it was mere days ago that people thought the contract with Tiger might induce Adidas to hold onto TaylorMade.

Golf Channel's amusing Tiger Tracker outshone Tiger himself in his optimistic summary:

• Let’s start with Tiger’s exit. He may have missed the cut Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open, but, dammit, he left with his glutes activating! There’s a victory in that. There’s hope in that when you remember how he left here two years ago, slumped in a cart, withdrawing with back spasms, leading to more physical woes that year.

Good times!  That's why I laugh when folks note that this is Tiger's first MC at Torrey...  Talk about your fake news....

Now perhaps the strangest part of the week was the performance of Tiger's playing partners, arguably the two best players on the planet. both of whom shot 74 on the easier North Course to miss the cut.  We'll turn to the gent using the nom de Twitter Tweeter Alliss for the definitive word on both.  First the Aussie:

Rounds were taking about 5:20 out there, at least on the tougher South course, so I'm sympathetic.  But players aren't allowed to choose with whom they play, and it's probably worse if you're behind him....

As for DJ, the subject is Great Expectorations:

Majestic, indeed.  Tiger has also been guilty of this in the past, and I just don't understand the need....

But we cling to our faves like a dog with a bone, so I must remind all of the high water mark of the genre:

No majors, but he split the uprights with this loogie.....  

Phil, Unplugged - Golf.com has rolled out a platform for the work of Alan Shipnuck called The Knockdown.... Beats me what a platform is, but he's quite good, so more Alan is better than less.

He has a long and wide-ranging interview with Phil that you can listen to here, though it's a full hour of talk.  I haven't listened to it yet, but they've also transcribed some of the more obvious bits, including this on Tiger:

According to Mickelson, Woods' ideas during the Ryder Cup were instrumental in the

game plan that helped deliver the Cup to the Americans after eight years of European domination. One example Mickelson mentioned was moving the tees back on par-5s when shorter hitters were playing, so they could take advantage with their strong wedge play. And, for the bigger hitters, moving the tees up so they could attack the green in two. 

"I don't know what it is but the last three or four years he's been much more approachable and engaging with the guys and really fun to be around," Mickelson said. "Guys grew up, on the team, idolizing him and watching him, and to have him support you and talk to you and be with you has been really fulfilling."

 I know, not exactly rocket science, is it?  But good to know the bromance continues....

But you know your humble correspondent just can't resist....  Because of the long podcast, they cleverly provide this listing of subjects covered:

Why Phil needed offseason surgery (4:01)

How Bones likes to use his yearly veto (17:05)

The dumbest shot he ever played (18:18)

His Tuesday money games (25:10)

Why settling up bets quickly is vital (29:20)

American Ryder Cup strategies (34:00)

His relationship with Tiger (39:32)

Why golf is his therapeutic release (41:15)

And much, much more...

Can you guess which one of these topics intrigued me the most?  Anyone?  Bueller?

It's that one that comes at the 29:20 mark....  If settling up quickly is imperative, Phil, praytell how you came to have such a large gambling debt outstanding to Billy Walters, requiring an insider stock tip to satisfy?  Just askin'...

A Bunched Leaderboard - I've no interest in the event, but funny is funny:

There are bunched leader boards and then there's what's taking place at the Qatar Masters. Through two rounds, nine (yes, NINE) players are tied for the lead at the European Tour event. 

Since we strive for fair coverage, here's a list paragraph of the names currently tied for first at eight under par: Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jeunghun Wang, Jaco Van Zyl, Andy Sullivan, Thomas Aiken, Nacho Elvira, Bradley Dredge, Mikko Korhonen, and Jorge Campillo.

Nacho Elvira?  Who says the best names are on the LPGA?

Sneak Preview - There aren't many new golf courses being built, so it's a delight to be able to anticipate one... and Bradley Klein will have us salivating:

BOWLING GREEN, Fla. – Even at Streamsong Resort, which rests on a massive, 25-square-mile mining site, the newest addition is noteworthy for its vast scale.

 

Architect Gil Hanse’s Black Course, the resort’s third track, fills up a 300-acre stretch that wraps around the south side of the property. The land here is more foreseeable in one big vista, stretching two miles from west to east and transitioning elegantly through three distinct landscape rooms that Hanse describes as “valley, sand ridge and glove.”

Wow, 300 acres is a large site for one course, but don't beat yourself up if you don't know what a glove is, because I'm pretty sure he made it up:

By “glove,” he refers to a central stretch of open, low-lying terrain (holes 1-2, 7-11) with a steady uplift on the western side to dramatic, billowy sand ridges (holes 4-6) and a fascinating little formation nearly sunken in effect – think Tobacco Road in its complexity – at the far eastern end (holes 13-17). The drama of these large-scale landscape rooms is enhanced by the ease with which holes 3, 12 and 18 transition in and out of them.

I hated Tobacco Road as much as any place I've played, but I'll not overreact.... and it gets only better:

Streamsong Black includes a full practice range, something the resort badly needs. 

There’s also a clever six-hole short course Hanse completed and a Himalayas-style putting course. It all makes for a major enhancement of a resort that already had established itself on the golf map.

It just moved up a few notches on my list...

The Merchants of Orlando -  The PGA Merchandise Show is winding down in Orlando, and there's no shortage of technology to be found.  First up, a cure for the obvious weaknesses in simulator golf:

Virtual Green from Full Swing Golf

One of the shortcomings of golf simulators has always been the lack of realistic putting surfaces. That’s not the case with Virtual Green, which is more realistic and adaptive than others before it. Made by Full Swing Golf simulators, which has found its way into the homes of PGA Tour players like Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, the Virtual Green product (starts at $38,500) allows golfers to choose the type of break and speed of a putt. Thousands of pinpoint undulations on the green replicate the putt the user selects —downhill, uphill, left-to-right, right-to-left, etc. — all that’s left to do is practice your stroke. -- SH

Get that sucker down to 500 smackers, and we can talk....

This seems pretty clever:

ToughLie 360

Replicate any lie with this portable teaching aid. Just rotate the device around to simulate downhill and uphill lies, and when the ball is above or below your feet. The ToughLie 360 is designed to be used as a tool to help you practice your short game or full shots. -- SH

Usually you have to go out on the course to try the gamut of shot conditions, so that's impressive in a simple way.

Friday Frisson

I'm sure you know where we'll start.....

Tiger In Winter - The Cat is back, though its thunderous roar has been reduced to a mere whimper....  You think my metaphors are hurtful, here's Alan Shipnuck's lede:

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The Tiger Woods reunion tour has returned to Torrey Pines, site of many of his greatest hits. Yet his sloppy 76 on Thursday left him in 133rd place, and

afterward it was impossible not to wonder if this Woods is going to be akin to the late-period Elvis, a diminished figure who the crowds come to gawk at even if he can no longer summon the right notes.

Ripped Tiger as fat Elvis?  That's harsh even by my elevated standards, though I'm guessing that even fat Elvis could find more than four fairways....

Here's the carnage in graphic form....Most notable is that from the apex of his day, back-to back birdies on Nos. 10 and 11, he crashed and burned on the taxing stretch from 12 through 15.  

 Back to Alan:

Woods has rightly been preaching patience as he toils to piece back together his game and competitive identity, but how long can he -- and we -- endure such middling play?

It's been nearly 3.5 years since his last victory. In that time he has suffered three back surgeries, the chip-yips and countless other on-course setbacks. This week's Farmers Insurance Open was supposed to be a fresh start on a course where Tiger won the Junior Worlds as a teen, eight subsequent Tour events and the epic 2008 U.S. Open, the gutsiest performance in a career full of them. (It must be noted that this Open was his last major championship victory, when Woods was 33 and looking to enjoy many more prime years.) The sense of optimism around Torrey was unmistakable.

On the one hand that's fair, on the other it's merely one round, is first in an actual PGA Tour event in an eon....  More from Shipnuck:

But Woods's clubhead speed is down to 114 mph, and playing partner Dustin Johnson routinely blasted drives 30 or 40 yards past him. Woods once changed the game with his power but now, at 41, will have to reinvent himself as a finesse player. Alas, short and crooked doesn't work anywhere, especially not on a tough track like Torrey South.

Short and crooked is the dreaded Luke Donald Disease, which is terminal if left untreated.   

Bob Harig has Tiger's upbeat take on the day:

“I fought my tail off out there,” he said. “I fought hard. It was nice to put together a round when I wasn’t hitting it that great early." 

The South Course can’t be played effectively from the rough in the aftermath of a series of storms and an unusually wet winter that have left it gnarly. Woods, who hit only four of 14 fairways, demonstrably proved that. He hit only nine of 18 greens in regulation.

That Custer guy also fought his tail off, though I forget how that turned out...

If you watched any of the Golf Channel coverage, you probably caught Sir Nick and Peter Kostis analyzing his set-up, in which he appeared to be aligned to the left.  Such faults can lend themselves to quick fixes, so we'll see if he looks any better over the ball today.

I remain skeptical that he can regain enough of his prior form to be competitive out there on any kind of consistent basis, but I'll readily note that we shouldn't draw sweeping conclusions from 18 holes.

It'll be warmer on Friday, which should help the old guy, but he'll need to show us something to hang around for the weekend.  As he always tells us, it's all about getting the reps....

I'll be Back - Costco channels its inner Ahnuld:

According to a comment from the Costco co-founder, the retailer's highly-popular golf

balls will return to stores.

Jeffrey Brotman, co-founder and chairman of the board at Costco, reached out to Seattlepi.com to clarify that though the golf balls are sold out for now, the Kirkland Signature brand balls aren't gone forever.

"The golf balls will return," wrote Brotman in an email.

Though the exact details are under wraps, this is good news for cost-conscious golfers who eagerly snapped up the supply.

Left unsaid is whether it'll be the same ball at, most importantly, the same price point.... That seems unlikely.

Wither the PGA - Rex Hoggard does a deep dive on the golf calendar, specifically focusing on the issue of the PGA moving from August to May.  First, some history:

Before the 2016 edition, the PGA had been played in August every year since 1971, when it was held in February at PGA National in South Florida. In the championship’s

earliest days it hopscotched around the calendar, with stops in October (1928), November (1927), December (1929). But it has been its place as the anchor of the major championship season that has been the championship’s identity. 

Even when the PGA gave up the tag line “Glory’s Last Shot” in 2013 in an odd give-and-take with the Tour, it was the championship’s cleanup spot in the lineup that defined it. 

The Masters holds its status as the season’s first major played on the same iconic venue each year, the U.S. Open is always the game’s toughest test and The Open stands as the oldest championship. If the PGA Championship were to move to May what happens to the event’s persona?

Like Tuesday has no feel (life imitates Seinfeld yet again), the PGA has no identity....  They had a perfectly good niche carved out, as the match-play major, but then television came along....  They haven't helped themselves in that by their choice of venues, an oglio of hand-me-down U.S. Open sites and a bizarre predilection for warm-weather sites in August.  

Bevacqua explained it’s not a single factor that could see the PGA move to a new spot on the calendar, but instead a collection of data points – from golf course availability to how a May vs. August date could impact TV viewing. 

“What would it mean to the quality of the broadcast, what would be a more powerful timeframe to broadcast the PGA?” Bevacqua asked hypothetically.

Before I jump in, this is Shack's take:

Since the PGA is now usually the second highest-rated major, August would seem more logical. But clearly there is a piece in this puzzle luring the PGA to consider a move to May and Mothers Day weekend. Only time will tell what that piece is.

That's less impressive than it sounds, because the Open Championship is far less watched because of the time of day of the broadcasts.  But for the PGA to outdraw the U.S. Open, that has to be the date of the event.....  Irony alert, as the USGA jumped into bed with Fox because they coveted the Masters' ratings....

But Geoff knows what the piece would have to be, money....  The unkown is how much would it take....

So Donald Turns to Bernhard.... - POTUS is blaming his popular vote shortfall on....yup, Bernhard Langer.  Sort of:

Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be

allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members — but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. The president threw out the names of Latin American countries that the voters might have come from. 

Mr. Langer, whom he described as a supporter, left feeling frustrated, according to a version of events later contradicted by a White House official. 

The anecdote, the aides said, was greeted with silence, and Mr. Trump was prodded to change the subject by Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Like most, I wish Trump would act more Presidential, though it's quite amusing to watch the media and lefties, but I repeat myself, dive after the bait.  Langer of course wanted no part in this scrutiny:

"Unfortunately, the report in the New York Times and other news outlets was a mischaracterization by the media. The voting situation reported was not conveyed from me to President Trump, but rather was told to me by a friend. I then relayed the story in conversation with another friend, who shared it with a person with ties to the White House. From there, this was misconstrued. I am not a citizen of the United States, and cannot vote. It’s a privilege to live in the United States, and I am blessed to call America my home. I will have no further comment at this time."

So the NY Times published a poorly-sourced story designed to hurt Trump?  That's what we professional bloggers call a dog-bites-man story...

But, while I'm assured by my betters that voter fraud is a unicorn, I'm guessing that there's ugliness to be found under that rock...  shall we turn it over and see?

Ask Alan - I'm not any more in love with the title, but he's got some interesting stuff this week:

"Give me your top 5 most overrated players of the last 15 years. Same question for under appreciated." –Brad (@bachy333)

Overrated:

1. Rickie Fowler

2. Hunter Mahan

3. Camilo Villegas

4. Webb Simpson

5. Jim Furyk

Underappreciated:

1. Tim Clark

2. Brian Gay

3. K.J. Choi

4. Miguel Angel Jimenez

5. Kevin Na

Not sure of the timing, but on yesterday's broadcast they were revisiting that famous players' poll released before Rickie's masterful Players' win.  The five on the second list are all guys with limited physical gifts, who made a career for themselves, at least for a while.  I get where he's coming from, but there's no majors and barely a significant win (KJ's Players is about all), so the lack of appreciation, to this observer, seems dserved.

“The perfect golfer: i.e. Driver... irons... 100 yard-wedges... short game... putter...” –Rob (@Roblawless) 

If you’re talking about right now, I’d take Dustin’s driver, Stenson’s irons, Zach Johnson’s wedge game, Luke Donald around the greens and Spieth’s putter. All-time? Nicklaus’s driver, Hogan’s irons, Tom Kite’s wedge game, Seve around the greens, Tiger’s putter.

Luke Donald?  How would you know about his recent short game?  Now like we're seing much of the lad these days...

Tiger was a great putter for sure, but best ever?  I'd go with Bobby Locke or Crenshaw....

Alan also has some good thoughts on writing on deadline and Jay Monahan, worth a few minutes of your time.  He closes with this bit of mirth:

“Could you pull off wearing a logo of yourself like Phil? What would the logo look like?” –Ryan (@therealsneek1) 

Well, I’d like to think I could. It would look a little bit like a tripod, if you know what I mean. And would have enough to hair to make both Brandel and Robert Rock jealous.

As for that tripod, we'll need independent verification....

Cheap Shots -  In which we pick our way through silliness:

And yet it's done increasingly frequently by actual humans - PGA Tour commissioner on barrage of sub-60 scores: "Those are super human feats"

I'll concede the "Oddly" part - This video of Tiger Woods watching a Tiger Woods commercial is oddly mesmerizing

Talk about a slow news day - Chris DiMarco's nephew is a key player for the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI

Way too much information - Beef Johnston battled a bad case of "the man flu"

There's really only one way to prove that - Tiger Woods proves mortal in PGA Tour return

Thursday Threads

The storms have moved on, though the skiing remains pretty damn good....  In fact, Bob caught this one yesterday of your favorite blogger throwing himself into a pillow of powder.

Oh well, back to that golf thing....

The Greatest Torrey Ever Told - The event formerly known as The Andy Williams would seem to be a mainstay of the PGA Tour, but this item from the local paper informs that things were grim just a few years ago:

The longtime sponsor, Buick, had abruptly pulled out after its parent company filed for bankruptcy. Four months later, the tournament’s reliable rock star golfer, Woods, exited

the game following a lurid sex scandal. And the Great Recession was still battering the economy. 

While the Torrey Pines tournament secured a new sponsor — Farmers — just days before the 2010 event, what isn’t well known was the PGA Tour’s financial rescue, which included a $1.7 million loan that is still being paid off today. 

“Back then when the world was imploding around us and all these things were happening at once, it kind of exposed the weaknesses within our business model,” acknowledged Brian O’Callaghan, president of the Century Club, the local nonprofit host of the tournament.

OK, so you managed to screw up an event that had everything going for it, including Tiger and Phil showing up every year.  

I have two reactions to this story, one frivolous and one serious...  See if you can guess the first from this excerpt:

By 2015, the Century Club’s net revenues had soared to more than $354,000 compared to a negative $755,000 as of early 2012, according to the organization’s tax returns. But its net balance, after taking into account debt, stood at more than $2.5 million at the end of April, 2015.

I'm going to assume that the San Diego Union-Tribune publishes a business section, and would it have been so difficult to run this 'graph by them.  The author has no clue as to the meaning of revenue, and one is left to guess that she's referring to some measure of profitability.  But it's quite amateurish...

My more substantive point is a long-term concern I've had about the even-handedness of Ponte Vedra's relationship with its host organizations.  At the inception of the FedEx Cup it was obvious to me that the Tour had in effect gone into the business against it's sponsors, promoting events that competed with pre-existing events.

I also remember the gentleman who ran The International, the event at Castle Pines, CO, who couldn't get his phone calls returned...  My sense was that a partnership with the Tour, at least under Commissioner Ratched, was a one-sided affair once the ink dried....

TigerMade - You've no doubt heard the news:

TaylorMade and Tiger Woods jointly announced Wednesday morning that the 14-time major winner signed an endorsement deal with the Carlsbad, Calif., company and will use TaylorMade woods, irons and wedges. 

Woods will use a 2016 TaylorMade M2 driver (Mitsubishi Rayon Tensei White 70X shaft), a 2017 M2 13-degree fairway wood (Tensei White 90X shaft) and a 2017 M1 19-degree fairway wood (Tensei White 90X shaft). He is not expected to start using TaylorMade irons or wedges this week, according to an official with the company, but plans are in the works for Tiger to start developing new irons with Tomo Bystedt, TaylorMade’s senior director of iron development.

OK, I had thought that he'd be irresistible to Bob Parsons, the badass of the equipment business, but what do I know?  After all, according to my predictions Sergio is a six-time Champion Golfer of the Year.

But this, methinks, is expecting far too much:

Instead of selling, might Adidas just hold on to TaylorMade, after a double-digit sales

rise in the second quarter of 2016, and now that it boasts the most famous active golfer on the planet in its portfolio? Adidas still says no. “There are no changes to our plans for TaylorMade,” a spokesperson says.

It might help the company climb back market share, which would make it more attractive to a buyer. And it makes the brand more relevant and will surely give it new exposure, as all eyes are on Woods whenever he competes. The 41-year-old this week said he is “looking forward” to playing at The Masters in April. 

The result could be finally finding a buyer, as Adidas hopes, or a cancellation of that effort.

Who wants to break the news to the writer that it's no longer 2002?  As we've discussed several times, the 2017 Tiger is an interesting get, but the dilemma was in the price tag.  Given his recent history, how confident can one be that he'll even stay healthy, much less contend?  

I'm also finding it interesting how these contracts have involved.  Historically, the TaylorMade staff players have been in Adidas from head-to-toe, making their affiliation clear.  

For now, his contract is strictly an endorsement deal, with price tag not disclosed, for Woods to play in tournaments with TaylorMade woods, irons, wedges, and driver. (He will continue to use the Titleist Scotty Cameron putter.) The deal does not cover apparel; Woods is still a Nike-outfitted athlete. That means you won’t see the TaylorMade logo on his clothes or bag. Down the road, Woods will “co-create with TaylorMade’s club engineers and have an integral role in the design and development of a new, personalized iron model that will make its debut in Tiger’s bag at a future date to be determined.”

So what is the value in this for TaylorMade?  Tiger will still be adorned with swooshes when he appears on TV (same with Jason Day, with whom he'll play the next two days), and he'll be playing his Bridgestone ball and putting with his treasured Scotty....  Color me skeptical....

Walter Travis, Call Your Office - Anyone remember the Schenectady putter?  We'll get to it in a sec, but here's a strange story relating to the admittedly strange Bryson Dechanbeau:

Shortly after noon on the eve of last week's CareerBuilder Challenge in LaQuinta, Calif., DeChambeau was practicing on the putting green when he received a call from a PGA

Tour official informing him that the center-shafted putter which he intended to use in the tournament was deemed non-conforming to the Rules of Golf. 

"They basically threatened him that if he showed up on Thursday, they would DQ him," said Mike Schy, DeChambeau's longtime instructor. "I think they thought he wouldn't have a backup and he'd have to go back to conventional and it would be over. 

"The week before, they made him put lead tape and mark it up," Schy said. "Every week, they've been inspecting it. It's bad. It's really bad. I'm telling you, they do not want him putting this way. For some reason, they think it is an enormous advantage, and it is not."

Let's pack this a bit....  As you likely know, Bryson has been putting side-saddle, which is what Schy means by "this way".  Here's Bryson's take, in which he reminds of Ernie Els:

DeChambeau has been experimenting with the sidesaddle technique, which involves standing and facing his target, for more than three years. He contends that having the face of the club square to the target throughout the stroke is more efficient and repeatable than one that opens and closes. DeChambeau has said that once he commits enough time to practicing his new technique, it will "be like cheating."

Young man, perhaps you're not as bright as we all thought, because you're daring them to address this issue.  

But this further complicates the incident:

DeChambeau, who won the 2015 NCAA championship and the 2016 Dap Championship on the Web.com Tour, submitted several putters for USGA approval, and only one was deemed non-conforming. The USGA would not comment on why the club failed to pass inspection. 

"The circumstances surrounding the club's non-conformance are confidential and between the USGA and Bryson DeChambeau," said USGA spokeswoman Janeen Driscoll, noting such policy was in compliance with its agreement with manufacturers and those who have submitted clubs for approval. Driscoll would confirm only that the putter which DeChambeau used last week in competition was conforming.

 At this point we're left to wonder what's going on here.... was Dechambeau using that one model the USGA deemed non-conforming, r was the PGA not allowing him to use a putter that had the Far Hills seal of approval?  

In his post on this item, Shack indicates that the method of putting has "anchoring elements", but that he's been successful at using it.  I only know that this success notwithstanding, I've not seen the lad recently on TV or a leaderboard.

This Just In, I'm a Hater - In recent days I had the temerity to crack wise about a certain Web.com Tour player, which apparently requires that I be cast out from polite society:

Greg Eason didn't get off to the start to the 2017 Web.com Tour esason he was hoping

for. Battling extreme winds in the Great Exuma Bahamas Classic, Eason shot rounds of 91 and 95 and said after that he lost 32 of the 36 golf balls he began the tournament with. His next event got off to a rough start as well as Eason shot 90 -- including a tour-record 15 on the final hole -- in the first round of the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic on Monday. 

But don't be fooled. Eason, a former All-American at UCF, is a great golfer. And he's even better when it comes to persevering on the course. 

On Tuesday, he fired a 68 to pull off the largest turnaround in Web.com Tour history. 

Then he fired back at the haters.

There's a broken link to a Twitter page, so I'm not actually sure about the firing back part....  I'm certainly happy for the man that he found his game, perseverance and all, but what would the evidence be for him as a "great golfer"?

For the record, Greg Eason has a solid track record in two full years as a pro with three top 10s in 50 Web.com Tour starts entering this season. He knew those three rounds were just a blip, but still, that 68 -- and that Tweet -- must have felt really good.

Oh, that's different....  Look, this game has a lot of failure to be absorbed, but posting three straight in the 90's is gonna make one look foolish.  If that makes me a hater, I'll just have to live with that....