Saturday, February 25, 2017

Saturday Stuff

Just a heads up to readers about the next week.  Tomorrow I leave on a road trip with one of my ski buddies, in which we'll hit Jackson Hole and Sun Valley.  As of now I'm planning to lug the laptop and I suspect I'll find time to blog, especially as the ski buddy in question is not exactly a morning person....

But if it's a choice between powder and blogging, a guy's gotta do what he's got to do.

Speaking of which, honorary FOG Les Gingell is in town with his camera, and the man has skills....  From yesterday's powfest, here's your humble correspondent amusing himself in the deep stuff on a line called Trance:


And Mitch shredding as only he can:


Of course, there's much that only he can do, as here he is nailing one of his signature face plants:


The good news is that the the landings were quite soft....

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Hugging It Out - I'm not sure it's quite "Peace in Our Time", but Pat Perez is sparing no effort to get that "pudding" off the soles of his shoes.  First there was this:
Pat Perez went on the SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show “Katrek & Maginnes on Tap” to clarify his previous comments criticizing Tiger Woods. Here’s the full interview on Brian 
Katrek’s and John Maginnes’ show. 
The gist was that Perez wanted to note he has major respect for Woods and is still in awe of what he’s accomplished. In fact, Perez, said “it sucks” to see Woods like this and he actually thought the 41-year-old might be done with golf by this time because he had already accomplished too much. 
Perez reiterated, though, that at this moment, Woods looks nowhere near ready to play.
Of course he said words to that effect in his preamble, but then stepped squarely in it.... Then there was this:
“I’ve never badmouthed Tiger. I don’t badmouth him,” Perez said. “I stick up for him, even though he would never know that. I argue with people about him.” 
Toward the end of the chat Perez possibly quipped(?) “maybe I’ll just cancel my show and all my other stuff so I don’t have to worry about saying something that is just a friendly opinion.”
Can't you people see that's it's Pat that's the victim here.... That "friendly opinion" is a bit of a howler, though, after accusing Tiger of showing up to make the cash register go ka-ching and of fabricating an injury....

But you'll be relieved that the two men sorted things out:
Perez sent a text message to Woods on Thursday expressing that same sentiment to the 14-time major winner, and the two exchanged multiple texts about the comments. 
Woods was not pleased, according to Perez, but in essence told him he understood and that Perez is entitled to his opinion.
Shack's got the full exchange of texts here, and Tiger is every bit as loquacious as you'd expect.  Though Geoff might have earned himself a spot on the updated enemies list...

I'll just add this Will Gray item to your required reading, though it's a bit overwrought:
“When you say certain things, I think you’ve got to figure out if you’re saying something to create controversy, or are you saying something that is actually a great point that no one’s ever made before,” said Billy Horschel. “I think you run the risk sometimes of saying something just to be heard. I think people don’t like that, and they criticize you for that.” 
Horschel is not one to shy away from sharing an opinion, and he faced his own barrage of scrutiny for his critique of course conditions during the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. Horschel said he knew at the time that his comments would create some blowback, and he prepared accordingly.
On the one hand, social media has no doubt created a feedback loop of trolls that don't deal well with nuance....  But the other reality is that perez accused Tiger of two things that just aren't done, and there's gonna be blowback for that.  

Brendan Steele, among others, seems to get it:
It all creates a unique dynamic where players will critique course setup or organizational decisions, but will rarely step out and discuss a peer like Perez did earlier in the week. 
“I definitely don’t share any opinions or thoughts about other players. I don’t think that’s ever really a smart thing to do other than just really positive things,” Steele said. “The USGA I will smash anytime I want, because I feel that’s my right. But that’s really the only time you can get a true, true opinion out of me.”
They haven't repealed the laws governing human nature, though Pat seems blissfully unaware, so let me briefly explain.  When you call out another guy, he's gonna defend himself, either directly or thorough proxies.  And if it's gonna be Perez v. Woods, we know who's got the bigger megaphone...

Also, not to get too territorial here, but criticizing Tiger is why I'm here.

Today's Sob Story - Hope yu have a box of Kleenex at the ready, because this one will tug at your heartstrings:
That's also the least of his worries at the moment. Poulter, so emotionally charged during
a Ryder Cup, managed a small dose of self-deprecation about his world ranking. Of a more serious nature is that he is running out of time to keep his full status on the PGA Tour.

When he returned in the fall, he had 10 events on a major medical extension to keep his card. He played four times on the PGA Tour and missed two cuts. Going into the Honda Classic, he has six tournaments remaining to earn either $220,301 or 154 FedEx Cup points.

That's in the neighborhood of a fifth-place finish.

"I'm on borrowed time," Poulter said. "Yeah, I need to perform well. ... A win would be nice. I have to think that I've got a chance, I really do. The situation I'm in, I have to be aggressive, but I've got to be careful. I can't make many mistakes."
Like me, you might be shocked to hear that he once rose as high as No. 5 in the OWGR.  That seems like a galaxy far, far away...Of course, Poults being Poults, there was this:
Poulter reached as high as No. 5 in the world after the 2010 Masters, where he shared the 36-hole lead. The joke was that he got to No. 2 when he once said in a British magazine interview that when he reaches his full potential, it will be just him and Tiger Woods.
How'd that work out for him?  Making $200K in six events should be doable if he's on form, though I don't expect him to be a factor any longer... even in the Ryder Cup.

To his credit, though, he did have this amusing story earlier in the week:
Then there was the time Palmer autographed a $100 bill for Poulter, who intended to frame it -- Poulter had gotten the idea after seeing a famous picture of Palmer and Jack Nicklaus exchanging money. 
There was only one problem: Poulter's wife spent it. 
“She didn't realize it was actually signed by Arnie,” Poulter said Wednesday from the Honda Classic. “So it's out there somewhere. 
“But it was shock [and] horror when I actually did go in [my office] to put it in the frame. You can imagine what I said: ‘Where has the $100 bill gone?’ ‘What hundred?’ So I go in there, and it's not in there. She says, ‘I don't know. I must have spent it.’”
Submitted For Your Approval -  This Skratch Video with cameos of folks you might know is fun, especially since they had the good sense to keep it short.  Who knew Kooch had those kind of moves, but Davis takes the Oscar...

And if you missed it in yesterday's telecast, you'll want to catch the video of Shawn Stefani going Full-Stenson.... Though the purist in me has to note that it's just not the same without Fanny being there....

Golf and DFS, An Odd Marriage - As a fan of irony, one can't help but watch the awkward dance between the PGA Tour and Daily Fantasy Sports, i.e., legalized betting.  The first irony is that the Tour has tried it's best in the Ratched era to discourage betting on its events, whereas we all bet to some degree when we play our weekend fourballs....  Golf is so perfect for betting, but it also has its challenges...

So, the new Commish showed an openness to the concept not heretofore seen:
“Is it something we look at? Absolutely, we always look at something that other sports
are doing, having success with, trends in the industry. It’s something we’ve spent a lot of time on up to this point in time. You look at DraftKings and FanDuel, you look at gaming in the international markets, there’s a lot of opportunity there.” 
“There’s some complexity, and that complexity has held us back from moving forward. But we will look at it and have an open mind towards it.”
The prior attitude has always been that gamblers are somewhere between icky and not our kind....  and there's no shortage of truth to that, see for instance Walters, Billy.

And there's a technical issue, one that will have your eyes glazing over:
Some experts believe DFS golf contests, in particular, may constitute illegal gambling. Why? A single PGA Tour tournament arguably would not qualify as “containing multiple events,” a condition of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), which DFS companies initially argued contained an implied carve out that made DFS okay.
You'll have to go elsewhere to dive deeper into the long grass, but my guess is they'll work something out.  Why?
While the laws on whether or not golf is legal as a daily fantasy sports game of skill may still be in question, it is quite clear that there is a market for it and the PGA Tour could benefit from joining and becoming less rigid to younger viewers. 
People who bet on sports tend to watch them with greater interest. More viewership would not be a bad thing for golf.
Ya think?

The Blame Game -  I simply can't figure out what's going on with the Professor, can you?  That's of course the ever-interesting Bryson DeChambeau, who has forsaken his side-saddle putting style:
“It [was] a long conversation,” DeChambeau said after a 71 to miss the cut by four shots. “But the USGA essentially doesn’t like me doing it. 
“I’m pretty much done with it. They’re not a good organization, and you can quote me on that. I’m part of their family and as family it’s very frustrating to see them stunt the growth of the game.”
 But a couple of 'graphs later there's this:
“We talked to Bryson in mid-January to discuss both his putter and his method of stroke,” USGA spokesperson Janeen Driscoll said via email. “In that conversation we confirmed that his method of stroke (side-saddle) was fully compliant within the Rules of Golf, and he could feel confident in continuing to employ that method.” 
With respect to the stroke, Rule 14-1a states that “the ball must be fairly struck at with the head of club and must not be pushed, scraped or spooned.”

DeChambeau first employed the method -- also used by Sam Snead late in his career -- at the Franklin Templeton Shootout in December. He said at the time he was eager to give it a try in competition and see how it went. He also said then that short putts felt like “cheating.”
Complicating matters was the fact that one putter submitted to the USGA was deemed non-compliant, but several others were approved.

I don't understand his issue at this point, and he's not helping himself, appearing to blame his poor play on others....

Cheap Shots - You know the drill, trenchant commentary on the biggest issues of the day:

What Part of "Don't Try This At Home" Don't You Understand? - Man tries, dramatically fails, to recreate Phil Mickelson's famous flop over Dave Pelz




It's Ben Crane, So We'll Call It The Longest Day - Clean living: A day in the life of a PGA Tour pro

If They Have Brains, They'll Choose Not To Play - Study says bees -- bees! -- have brains to play golf
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