Tuesday Tastings

We missed a few things yesterday, so buckle up....

Good Thing A Spot Freed Up - As we eagerly await California's Secession The Genesis Open, a couple of early week stories not typical to Tour life.  First this item that we've seen in previous iterations:

Pepperdine sophomore Sahith Theegala will make his PGA Tour debut this week at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. 

Theegala, who is from Chino Hills, Calif., won the Genesis Open Collegiate Showcase Monday at Riviera to earn an exemption into this week’s Genesis Open. 

Others competing in the event were Colorado’s Jeremy Paul, Kentucky’s Tyler McDaniel, Texas’ Gavin Hall, UCLA’s Tyler Collier and Washington’s Corey Pereira. PGA Tour players Jordan Spieth, J.B. Holmes and Kevin Chappell were among those who played alongside the collegiate players from their respective alma maters.

We love the college kids and this has to be quite the thrill for the young man...No word on whether spectators were allowed in for this event.  For at least one of the prior versions, the golf course was completely empty.

Next up, this young man is also in the field:

The first deaf player on the PGA Tour, Hall is this year’s recipient of the Charlie Sifford

Memorial Exemption, an award given to one outstanding minority golfer. Sifford was the first African-American to play on the PGA Tour. He won the Genesis Open in 1969. 

“It’s an honor,” Hall said. “Awesome. A lot of history on this course, Tiger and so many golfers.” 

Hall met Tiger Woods in 1999.

Shack notes that this award was helpful to Harold Varner III early in his career, so they've got that going for them.... But as inspiring as this is, Kevin Hart is 34-years old, so we probably should delude ourselves that we're helping a young kid find his way to the Tour.

I'm very conflicted on these stories as, despite the volume of evidence to the contrary, it's great to see golf reaching out to other constituencies.  The asture reader will, however, sense a "But" on the way, and won't be disappointed....

My issue is that spots in the field are a precious limited commodity, in shorter supply than unobtainable.  There are 50 newly-minted graduates of the Web.com Tour struggling to put together a reasonable schedule, and we're giving slots to guys because of the color of their skin....  I don't know how to resolve this issue, but if I were among the fifty I'd be concerned at the least....

Lastly, and not connected to the two items above, we had a sighting up there with The Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot.  No, not Anthony Kim....  Anyone?  Bueller?

Mac O’Grady, for those who remember him, delightfully remains a puzzle with pieces missing. He played in the Genesis Open qualifier on Monday, though with no hope of

actually qualifying. 

O’Grady, who last played a PGA Tour event in 2006 and played four times on the PGA Tour Champions in 2008, would have had to shoot around his age — he’ll be 66 in two months — to make the field. But he shot an 80 at Industry Hills Golf Club in City of Industry, Calif. 

His name on the leaderboard, incidentally, was Phillip Mac oGRADY. We don’t know if “oGRADY” was just inputted wrong or if it was his doing. We also don’t know if he was playing right-handed or left-handed, or a combination of the two.

If there's a God, Mac should be playing with a Sasquatch driver.... Anyone too young to remember the wild man?  Here's a very concise summary of the fun:

O’Grady won two PGA Tour events playing right-handed, while putting left-handed. He also was an excellent left-handed player, who said he was an amateur from that side of the ball and wanted to play in the U.S. Amateur as a lefty.

In 2002, Thomas Bonk wrote in the Los Angeles Times that, “O’Grady tried to qualify for the B.C. Open under the name Mac O’Grady II and was going to do it left handed. Again it seemed logical to O’Grady. He wanted to play with Mac O’Grady I, who could get in as [with his PGA Tour past champion status]. O’Grady played as a right hander, but wanted to enter under the second name as a left hander. The tour informed him he would have to choose one of his personalities and he stuck with the right handed version.” 

O’Grady, incidentally, had a swing widely admired. He became a highly-regarded instructor who counted Seve Ballesteros as a student at one point.

This is all an abridged version of one of golf’s most complex and eccentric characters, but it’s still good to see his name turn up occasionally, appropriately in odd places.

He's a blogger's wet dream....

Musselburgh On My Mind -  The only negative in this story is that it may force me to recount one of my more embarrassing moments in golf... Have you read Tommy's Honour? Why not?  I don't want to have to have this discussion with you again...

Mussleburgh is a place unfamiliar to modern audiences, but in the era of the two Tom Morrisses it fought St. Andrews and Prestwick for primacy in the game of golf.  Not only did the Musselburgh links host six Open Championships, but have you ever been curious as to why a golf hole is exactly 4.25 inches in diameter?

Why is the size of the hole four and a quarter inches? Prior to 1893 holes on golf courses could vary in size. It all depended upon where you played. The Musselburgh hole had been cut since 1829 with a converted piece of drain pipe and the diameter of the hole cut was four and a quarter inches. This standard was adapted by the Royal & Ancient Golf club in 1893 when they began the business of standardizing the rules of golf. So, next time your putt lips out, you can now blame Musselburgh for not having wider drain pipes!

I know, enough with the history lessons, but here's the news item that triggered it:

AN EDINBURGH-BASED company is hoping to tee off with a £10 million plan to

restore Musselburgh Old Course, a six-time Open Championship venue, to its “former glory”. 

Regarded as the world’s oldest golf course and the oldest on which play has been continuous, Musselburgh Links, The Old Course is on Common Good land, surrounded by Musselburgh Racecourse, and is managed by enjoyleisure on behalf of East Lothian Council.

It's a complicated story, because at least some of the town folk are opposed to the project.  Shack, who has posted from Musselburgh numerous times (I'm surprised he didn't link to those posts) had this:

One councillor, John Caldwell, is already “vigorously” opposed to the plan. However, given that the course has been in danger from elimination, has been neglected at times and has recently seen plans approved that will alter the historic Mrs. Forman's, the plan should be considered. 

Most of you know I think this is one of the great places in the game and a model for the kind of intimate community golf we need more of. Oh, and it's an immensely important place in the history of our sport and the golf business.

 Mrs. Forman's is often considered the first halfway house, nd has (had?) its own special place in our game.

Now my confession....which Ive' shared previously in these pages.  A long time ago I drove past Musselburgh en route to St. Andrews.  I was familiar vaguely with its place in the game's history, and went looking for the links....  Now, I need to add that one can always find the local links in a Scottish village.  Not only are they, you know, by the water but there's invariably a Links or Golf Road leading thereto...  But no luck here, so I gave up and got back on the road.

Only later did I learn that links are entirely within the boundaries of the race course:

I know, but I was a much younger man then....

I Should Have Expected This - The New York Times never disappoints, as they frantically grasp for any blunt-force weapon to deligitimize our President.  But how do you feel about this header?

The ‘Caddyshack’ President

I know, so much for that "When they go low, we go high" misdirection.... So,  what offended these sensitive souls?

That’s President Trump, crashing a wedding party at his Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday night, immediately after holding a news conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of

Japan to address North Korea’s firing of a missile, which flew 310 miles before dropping into the Sea of Japan. The news conference took place after Mr. Trump held a meeting with Mr. Abe and their entourages out in the open in the club dining terrace, examining documents and talking on a commercial cellphone as guests drifted by and took photos, servers reached over the papers to deposit the entree, and Mike Flynn, his national security adviser, held up his phone, on flashlight setting, so everybody could get a good look.

It apparently never occurred to Mr. Trump, Mr. Flynn or Steve Bannon, another member of the National Security Council, who also trained his cellphone on the paperwork, that holding a cellphone camera over these documents might allow foreign adversaries and hackers to get “some pretty good pictures,” too. Cellphones aren’t allowed even in secured areas of the White House. Yet there they all were, playing Situation Room in the open air, for a random crowd in Palm Beach, Fla.

Oh, so they're just genuinely concerned about national security issues, like when the SecState had an unprotected server in her bathroom....  Oh, never mind, they are what they are.

Here's the best bit, where the spittle meets the road:

One would think leadership of the free world would have scratched Mr. Trump’s itch for publicity. But this is the man who called reporters using a fake name to generate stories about himself; who introduced a member of one of his clubs to a Golf Digest reporter as “the richest guy in Germany,” instead of by name; who looks pained when having to share the podium with anyone, from Sarah Palin to the prime minister of Canada. This is rule by Al Czervik, Rodney Dangerfield’s character in “Caddyshack”: a reckless, clownish boor surrounded by sycophants, determined to blow up all convention. But this is real life, and every time Mr. Trump strikes a pose, the rest of the world holds its breath.

A reckless, clownish boor?  And to think I was skeptical that they could remain even-handed on Eighth Avenue....   remember, this is on the news pages of the paper.  Good thing we took care of all that fake news....

SOP - I'm sorry, but this is a dog-bites-man story....

Withdrawing from a tournament is nothing new to John Daly. In his PGA Tour career, JD

posted a WD in 38 events. That spirit has carried over to the senior circuit. 

On Sunday at the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Daly began his round miles behind the leaders. The two-time major winner's day was off to an ominous start, with three bogeys in the first seven holes. According to Links Magazine, that's when the 50 year old tossed his putter into a lake off the seventh green at the Old Course at Broken Sound. Links Magazine reported that Daly left the grounds, telling tournament officials he was suffering nerve pain.

It's not the first time Daly has helicoptered a club into water, as the Lion launched his 7-iron into Lake Michigan at the 2015 PGA Championship. 

A move to the PGA Tour Champions hoped to bring a career revival for Daly. Instead, he's failed to post a top 10 finish in 17 events.

Isn't it amazing the medical progress we've made, where the protocol for nerve pain includes helicoptering one's putter?

I'm sure the sponsors and his playing partner(s) were entirely on board with his antics, because he allegedly puts people in the seats....  I just hope these people know that they better catch him early in the day.

I've got more that I'd like to cover, but time has become an issue.  Can we reconvene tomorrow at the same time?