Midweek Musings

I'm playing hurt this morning, so forgive me if we just do a walk-through...

Still Within Reach - Tiger's making a renewed push for that elusive record.  No, not Jack's 18 majors, haven't you been paying attention.  It's John Daly's record of 38 WD's that's suddenly in reach, at least if we include press conferences:

The Tiger Woods Foundation benefits from the Genesis Open proceeds and his TGR Ventures is running the tournament now.

Woods was scheduled for a Tuesday press conference even after he chose to miss the event due to back spasms. The presser was moved to Wednesday to coincide with appearances on the property related to his Foundation and Woods Jupiter restaurant's satellite location overlooking the 10th hole.

But this cryptic notice went out at zero dark thirty last night:

After receiving daily treatment the last several days on his on-going back spasms, Tiger Woods has again been advised by doctors to limit all activities and will not hold a press conference Wednesday. It will not be rescheduled.

But Steiny assures all that it's just a few spasms.... 

Aussie Rules - Are you ready for some World Super6?  If so, then get ye to Perth:

Golf is desperately trying to widen its fan base. This is evident in equipment advances, rules changes, broadcast coverage, apparel, and new venues and competitions. This

week's World Super 6 Perth is constructed in this vein, pushing the limits of tournament construction.

The event -- co-sanctioned by the European Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and Asian Tour -- begins like most professional tournaments: the top 65 players and ties after two days of stroke play make the weekend. However, here is where the World Super 6 takes a turn. The 65 remaining players are vying to be in the low 24 that advance to Sunday match play. The top eight players after 54 holes earn a bye to the "Sweet 16." And instead of your typical 18-hole competitions, the matches are played over six holes.

It's that "desperate" part that troubles me, not the experimentation....

The problem here is obvious.  An 18-hole match among world class players is virtually a coin flip....  which makes a 6-hole match....ummm....anyone?

But they got King Louis and Alex Noren (pictured above) to shopw, so let's give them a chance.

Rory At Length - Mike Bamberger got Rory to agree to an extended e-mail interview, and the results are quite interesting.  It's a little tough on a blogger, as each question is really four and the answers are long and thoughtful, the kind of thing we necessarily discourage around her.

But let's give it a go, first on a substantive point:

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I think modern golf equipment has brought players much closer together. It’s more difficult to separate yourself from before. Don’t like hitting long irons? Hit a hybrid. You struggle with a slice with your driver? Put it on a draw setting and watch the ball go straight. So as dominant as Tiger was, do I think he would have been more dominant with a balata and persimmon drivers? I don’t know the answer, but I know modern golf equipment allowed players to get better than they ever were before. Along with advanced coaching techniques, knowledge and objective data, the game has never been played better by so many people than right now.

I completely agree and think this is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the modern game.  The modern equipment reduces the cost of bad shots, therefore making it more difficult to separate oneself from the field in ball-striking.  In the inevitable but inconclusive Jack v. Tiger arguments, this to me is the strongest point in favor of Tiger.

Now on something utterly unimportant, yet cool:

Topic VI

From Michael


Below are two of the most iconic golf photographs ever taken. One is Hogan at the 1950 U.S. Open, at Merion, fourth round on the par-4 18th hole, a 1-iron second shot that led to a 4 that got Hogan in the three-man playoff, which he won. (Hy Peskin, for Life magazine.) The second is Tiger's tee shot on Sunday at the 2001 Masters, which he won for his fourth consecutive major title. (Fred Vuich, for Sports Illustrated.) What catches your eye in these two photographs? Do these photos trigger any emotion in you? Do you have a favorite golf photograph? What feelings does it engender for you?

From Rory

The thing about the famous Hogan at Merion photo for me is that it's timeless. With that follow-through you could put him in modern clothes and it could look closer to this century. Obviously it was an iconic golf shot that has remained in golfing lore for over 60 years. You can’t say that about too many single golf shots. The Tiger photo on his way to winning the “Tiger slam” in 2001 just looks like a man in complete control of his world. I’ve always liked photos like these two photos because I think they depict very well the solitary pursuit golf sometimes is. This is one of my favourite golf photos for no other reason than the fact they look so f---ing cool!!

You know what's also f---ing cool?  That Rory knows about this famous photo from the '66 Masters and is able to discuss his favorite golf photos with Bambi.  I mean, could you imagine Tiger doing that?

Alas, Poor (Cap'n.) Furyk - This is a catch-up item, as our new Ryder Cup Captain has made some tweaks to the model:

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk announced changes Wednesday that will affect

qualifying and captain's picks for the 2018 event in Paris, France.

The main tweak involves the selection dates for his four captain's picks.

Three of his picks will come after the second FedEx Cup Playoff event, the Dell Technologies Championship, and the final pick will be made after the BMW Championship a week later. Last year, captain Davis Love III made three captains picks after the first playoff event and his final selection after the Tour Championship, which finished just five days before the first competitive day of the Ryder Cup. 

The previous system, especially the last-minute pick, wouldn't work for 2018, Furyk says. Not with an overseas flight and all that comes with preparing for an event outside of the states.

The logic here is it's an away game, and they're worried that the hottest player on the planet may not have a passport.  I know, kinda silly...

But I'm not a fan of delaying that last pick, at least as things played out last year.  They left Bubba dangling in the breeze, and it became extremely awkward and I thought unnecessary.   I think you should just rip the band-aid off and pick them all at the same time....

But it was Tour Confidential Panel that identified the real news buried within:

3. U.S. captain Jim Furyk announced tweaks to the points system for 2018 Ryder Cup qualifying. There was nothing earth-shattering, but one thing didn't change. No points will be awarded from the 2017-18 Fall Series events. That begs the question: Why should anyone take the wraparound schedule seriously if the power brokers don't?

Sometimes the questions are better than the answers.....

'Tis The Season -  I Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day...  It wasn't much around here, as Employee No. 2 took a short trip to Florida to get away from winter.  But a certain young golfer posted this adorable photo:

And speaking of prominent women golfers (note, I didn't say talented), this news has my back feeling better already:

Michelle Wie is ditching her infamous table-top putting style for something she found on Google. Well, sort of.

It seems Wie made use of a two-week break in the LPGA's schedule to discover and try out different variations of a "claw" grip with a "regular stance" on the greens. Her putting change became public ahead of this week's ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open. Here's a photo shared by the tournament's Twitter handle.

I'm not optimistic about her putting using any style, but I'm sure happy to not have to watch her bent over any more.  It's always hard to tell what's going on, but for my money she's as bad a reader of greens as I've ever seen.  

And while we're on V-Day, the golf press has two extremely silly features on this theme.  The first is the ultimate power couples in golf, and includes worthy pairings like this:

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus met at Ohio State in 1957, married in 1960 and have five children. During all of Jack's success, Barbara was right beside him. She even won the Bob Jones Award in 2015, given by the USGA to recognize distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Jack won the award in 1975.

 If that love story doesn't bring a smile to your face, then you've a heart that's three sizes too small....

And I'm OK with their player-caddy pairings up to a point, Bones and Carl Jackson also make me smile....  But this is their lede:

OK, you're aware that they're no longer a couple, right?  I love awkward high-fives as much as the next fellow, but it was kind of an ugl break-up....  There was a book and all.

Golf Digest might be even sillier with their slideshow on the most romantic moments in golf:

The glint in Tom Rinaldi's eyes when conducting an interview

Really?  You might want to talk to someone about that... I understand thay're making great progress with psychotropic drugs....

To me, the most romantic time ever in golf was the DJ-Natalie Gulbis hook-up at Kapalua a few years back.  You remember, the one where he denied they were together on camera... yanno, with Natalie looking on.  Or maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic?