Super Sunday Stuff

Rumor has it that there's a football game later today.... This caught my eye as a pretty good analysis of those rooting for the Falcons:

Tiger, The Post-Postmortem - It's hard to argue that he's not the straw that stirs the drink, as we can't seem to move on.  Now piling on is Butch Harmon, focusing on an issue about which Tiger isn't the least bit sensitive:

BH: When he got bigger and bulkier, the speed of his swing didn't really increase, but a lot of people build up their body to protect their back. You try and work on your torso to

make yourself stronger, but I think the problems Tiger has had didn't come from golf - they could have come from too much work in the gym. 

Only he can tell us that, but there was a definite change in his body through the years, although when I saw him in San Diego he didn't look as bulky. He looked like he had slimmed down and trimmed down, which I though was going to be pretty good for him.

Interesting, and he's not the only one that found Tiger to be less bulky at Torrey, though he seems plenty ripped on Thursday in Dubai.

Shack has Morning Drive video here (maybe if I eat all my vegetables he'll teach me how to embed it), in which two things struck me:

1. Geoff says that Dubai was the second consecutive week in which Tiger looked far better in the ProAm than the actual tournament, and;
2. Watch the video of him climbing out of the bunker.

Now the first, as I'm sure Geoff would concede, could be highly subjective.... But we've heard this from multiple sources, and it wouldn't be the first time we've spoken of stage fright.  We all know that the game is very different with a scorecard in hand, the more so I imagine if you once dominated.

On No. 2, remember his assertion after the round that he felt no pain?  Either he was in pain, or he realized in that moment that he could have had a V8.....

Ron Sirak is one of the nice guys in our game, and has some interesting reflections from the Wabac machine.  Specifically this is Jack ruminating on Tiger's potential career arc back in 1997:

“The frenzy around him is hard, you guys, you gals,” Jack said to reporters on May 27, 1997. “And he’s single. He’s got that issue in front of him. How do you know how he’s going to react to getting married or not getting married? To having children or not having children. You don’t know, he’s just starting his life. All our lives changed when we got married, all our lives changed when we had children, all our lives changed every day.”

“I’m really quite interested in seeing what’s going to happen to him,” Nicklaus continued. “Every single thing he’s going to do will be right in your newspapers. It will under a microscope. It’s a tough way to live. It’s a tough way to perform as an athlete, [to] have to stand over 3 footers all day long after having that hang over you. But I think he’s quite capable of doing so.” 

And asked if Tiger would have the longevity to break his record of 18 professional major championships, Nicklaus said: 

“I think he wants to win. And winning is his objective every time he turns out. So whether he can maintain that for 24 years (Jack won majors in 1962 and 1986), I don’t know. Probably very difficult, but he’s maintained that kind of — he’s been right in the limelight ever since he’s been 15 years old or younger, he’s had it for about six years, so don’t count him out.”

Does anyone remember how that marriage thing worked out for Tiger?  The one guy w ehaven't heard from recently is Jaime Diaz, who thinks Tiger is still battling the shame of fire hydrantgate....

Though Ron is quite the optimist with this:

What lay ahead for Woods? Who knows? That’s why we love sports. You have to play the game. Personally, I think Tiger has one more Jack-Winning-the-Masters-at-46 magic moment waiting for us, perhaps not this year but sometime. But I don’t expect him to become 24 years old again.

Yes, there are those that continue to speak of Tiger somehow regaining his consistent dominance, and we can only conclude that those folks have been into the wacky tobacky.... As Ron notes, the optimistic scenario is that he can position himself to capture lightning in a bottle...  that could happen, but not when he's playing like he has the last two weeks.

Bob Harig had this seemingly in support of Shack's thesis:

At Emirates Golf Club, there would be warm weather and a more benign course. Woods arrived in the wee hours on Tuesday and was at the course by noon to hit balls; he did so carefully and without much intensity, maybe as simple as trying to get loose after a long flight. 

There seemed to be no apparent issues in the Wednesday pro-am, where Woods has never gone all-out. He looked and sounded fine, chatted several times between shots. He didn't hit his irons particularly well, but it was standard fare, no alarms. 

From the moment he hit his first tee shot on Thursday, Woods looked different. He walked gingerly and did not swing freely. On the first hole he emerged from a greenside bunker so awkwardly that Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee said the golfer "looked like an old man."

That's why above I spoke of evaluating him in a ProAm as being so subjective, as we know he's not going all out...  Oh, and for thos ethinking that the mistake was flying commercial... Harig confirms that he wasn't exactly fighting his fellow travelers for overhead space:

He acknowledged it was an important question after missing the cut at Torrey Pines. "How's my body going to handle flights? Flying out here was something I hadn't done in a while. So now we've got a pretty good jaunt, 17 hours. It will be good."

To be fair, much has been made of Woods flying commercial, but consider that he was in first class in his own suite. (Emirates Airlines prices such tickets from Los Angeles to Dubai, roundtrip, in the $30,000 range.) That kind of luxury might be better than flying on his own plane, which would have had to make multiple stops to make it this far. The question is whether he should have come at all, not how he did it.

Harig had this on the question on everyone's mind, what happened after Albany?

Woods arrived early and played golf every day. On the Sunday before the tournament, during a two-hour practice session, Woods had no trouble carrying drives more than 300 yards, shaping shots in both directions with his various clubs while showing no pangs of discomfort. 

When a reporter remarked that he didn't look bad for an old guy, Woods quipped: "I'm not dead."

I'd love to have some comparable data on clubhead or ball speed, 'cause he looked like a different guy.

Alex Myers has one of his fun items on prop bets here.  I'll let you read the actual data, and instead excerpt Alex's analysis:

According to BookMaker, Woods undergoing another back surgery this year is a favorite

(-140) and Woods withdrawing from another tournament is an overwhelming favorite at -350. 

Then there's how low his performance expectations have dropped. The over/under for cuts made is 2.5? That's it? The over/under for his best finish in a full-field event is 20.5? That's it? He's more likely to shoot an 80 than not? Yikes. 

And finally, the saddest bet revolves around Woods possibly retiring. "Yes" is a big underdog at +290, but the fact that it's even a possibility is, again, well, sad. Hang in there, Tiger fans.

Not just Tiger fans, Alex, but all golf fans....

Today in USGA News -  It's the Good, Bad and the Ugly for sure, but I'll let the reader guess which is which.  First, I take great pleasure in announcing that Diana "Open Bar" Murphy has been elected to a second term as USGA President.  This ensures a great year of awkward awards ceremonies....

I was hoping to put together a highlight reel from YouTube, but of course the USGA has scrubbed those videos.  Diana first wormed her way into our hearts when she was noticeably tanked at the

men's Open awards ceremony, which featured slurred speech and a complete inability to come up with anything to say about Jack Nicklaus in connection with his eponymous award.  

Not one to rest on her laurels, she proceeded to call the Women's U.S. Open Champion Bethany Lang several times, though her articulation was noticeably crisper.  Mores the pity, though I attribute that to a switch from brown liquor to the clear stuff....

Next was the U.S. Senior Open, after which she disappointed her legion of fans by managing the name of the winner, Gene Sauers, without incident....  Though the trophy happens to be named for one of the immortals of our game:

Oh, who cares, he's just some old white guy.....  Perhaps it was all intentional misdirection to take our attention away from their rules snafus.....

Now, since you mentioned rules, Ryan Herrington tell us that D-Day is in March:

What’s expected to be revealed is nothing short of the biggest restructuring of the Rules

in decades. “It doesn’t fundamentally change how you think golf is played,” Davis said. “What it does do is fundamentally change the understanding of the rules, why they are the way they are, and how they’ll be communicated.” 

That includes a re-organization of the Rules that is expected to blow up the current 34-rule structure. 

Published reports last month acknowledged officials at the European Tour, privy to an early review of the USGA/R&A work, had begun talking about potential changes with members of the tour. Among those discussed were changing how players dropped a ball when taking relief, eliminating club length as a measurement for taking relief, decreasing the time players can search for a lost ball from five to three minutes, allowing players to repair marks left by shoe spikes on greens and altering the emphasis on yellow and red stakes for water hazards.

We've been over this ground recently, and the changes seem much more like small-ball to me.  There will be a six-month comment period, so there will be time to gauge reactions....

There was also this:

Murphy also announced that Bob Ford, the long-time head professional at Oakmont (Pa.) C.C. and Seminole G.C., has been named the 2017 Bob Jones Award winner, the highest given by the USGA. Ford, 63, will receive the honor in June during U.S. Open week.

Ford is quite worthy, I'm just wondering how she'll mangle that monosyllabic name....

We can all agree that this is a worthy endeavor:

Next in the works, according to various USGA officials, are national championships for men and women involving disabled golfers. There are a lot of details to be worked out, most of it having to do with what would count as “disabled.” But as Davis said, “there are million and millions of disabled people in the U.S.,” and it would make sense to recognize them. The USGA already works with the National Alliance for Accessible Golf and Special Olympic and is concerned to make everyday facilities more amenable to disabled golfers. 

“But we can do more,” said Davis. He admitted that planning is still a few years out, describing it as “not ten years, closer to three or four.” Such an event might also be undertaken in tandem with rules modifications for playing equipment for disabled golfers.

Fortunately Murphy will be long gone before this occurs....  I don't want to even contemplate the cosmic significance of her mangling the name of a disabled golfer...

 Enjoy your Sunday and that game.