It's a travel day, as we're off this morning to Sun Valley... I don't think there's going to be much fresh snow, but we'll soldier on. Shall we sort through the last couple of days in the golf world?
Montezuma's Revenge - The A-list is in Mexico City, and Alan Shipnuck is perhaps a little quick to declare victory:
Thankfully, this year the WGC brand exported its product to Mexico, and the tournament has been reborn as a lively social gathering on a refreshingly quirky venue. Club de GolfChapultepec is a stately oasis for Mexico City's ruling class, dating to 1921. It is an old-school, tree-lined course that conjures Harbour Town… were it built on the side of a mountain at nearly 8,000 feet of elevation. Thus pitching wedges are carrying 180 yards and 3-wood is too much club for some of those trying to knock it on to a couple of par-4s.
And could they have chosen a standard-bearer more poorly?
These kind of cross-cultural exchanges are the whole point of taking a World Golf Championship out into the world. "It's important to the brand of the PGA Tour," says Casey. "There are so many fantastic events in the U.S., but it's almost to the point of saturation. PGA Tour members get a bad rap that they don't like to travel but plenty of us do. It'd be a shame to miss out on a week like this. Mexico City is damn cool and so is this event. It has a different flavor, just a nice feel to it. And it's still in its infancy. It's going to be fun watching this tournament grow up."
That would be the Englishman who found the travel necessary to maintain his Euro Tour membership too taxing?
Perhaps a little history might help... Yes, these events are called World Golf Championships, though their differentiation from weekly PGA events is mostly non-existent. And while they have struggled to site these events outside the U.S., that's not caused only by the American players. Nobody went to the match-play in Melbourne that gave us that riveting Steve Stricker-Pierre Fulke final match, including the so-called International players.
Alan also engages in far too much Trump-bashing for my taste, both the man himself and the changes to the Blue Monster. But Alan, the Tour assured me that the move was made because of the lack of a sponsor, not because of any failing of Doral? Commissioner Ratched wouldn't have lied to us, would he?
Now I'll take him at his word that the venue (though the comparison to Harbor Town might have someone's nose growing) and event organizers are creating a good experience for the players and fans, and that's good for everyone. I won't get much of a chance to watch any of it, but I just wish the Tour's ties to Miami and Doral would have carried more weight.
A couple of other quick notes from Rex Hoggard... Maybe Billy Horschel wasn't all wrong?
1. Henrik Stenson’s return to the PGA Tour in 2017 was short-lived. The Swede withdrew after just 11 holes with a stomach virus. Stenson was 3 over par when he withdrew and wasn’t the only player slowed by illness on Thursday. Rory McIlroy, who is also making his ’17 Tour debut in Mexico, said he’d been awake since 3 a.m. “worshiping the porcelain bowl.”
Did you ask about driving distances?
4. Although no one cracked the 400-yard threshold in the thin air, there were 39 drives over 350 yards on Thursday. Jhonattan Vegas paced the field with a 387-yard drive at the first, followed by Roberto Castro, who was just shy of that mark at 386 yards at No. 1. Not surprisingly, McIlroy had three of the day’s 10 longest drives.
Bob Harig checks in with those left behind:
And, of course, there is the backdrop that can't be ignored: Did the PGA Tour decide lastspring to move the tournament from Trump International Doral because of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's ownership of the resort?
"The people at Doral feel like they got caught in the middle," said Joel Paige, a former vice president and managing director at Doral. "It wasn't the venue. It wasn't the community. It was the politics. The political thing was a lot more.
"Did both sides really work hard on trying to work it out? I don't know what the timing triggers were, but did the guys in Mexico have a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and the tour decided they had to take it?"
But Harig might find his welcome at Fortress Ponte Vedra a tad cold, given that he comes dangerously close to identifying where things went wrong:
There was a nice vibe to the place, the first signs of true warmth anywhere in the country, the Masters a few weeks down the road.
Some of that luster was lost when it became a WGC event -- no cut, limited field -- but it was still a staple of the South Florida sports landscape. Trump's purchase of the resort in 2012 meant a huge upgrade for the facilities and a makeover of the course. The "Blue Monster" remains an iconic name in the game.
The tour will not confirm the details of negotiations, but it is generally believed that Cadillac wanted to stay on at a reduced sponsorship rate. The WGCs come with high price tags, typically in the range of $12 million per year. The purse this year is $9.75 million.
You got that? The Tour created the problem when they tried to make it something it wasn't. As it did with the iconic Western Open, the second oldest professional golf tournament in the country, when it made it part of the FedEx Cup. They keep fixing things that aren't broken, and then move on to greener pastures....
But before we go, you might enjoy this promo video for the last time Phil and Sergio played in Mexico.
OK, I lied, this is the last item... It's for sure been done before, but it just never gets old...
Rules Reaxes - Opinions are like you-know-whats, though it seems like many of these folks have more than the one they got as original equipment. In no particular order....
General agreement that the the proposed change to prohibit caddies from aligning their players is for the greater good. However, as per that perennial N.Y. Times header, women and minorities hardest hit...Randall Mell checks in with the ladies and most are sanguine about the change. One, however, goes to Defcon-5:
Brittany Lincicome, however, didn’t seem pleased.
“I disagree!” Lincicome tweeted. “Lining up players has nothing to do with pace of play. I get 40 [seconds], I should be able to do what I want!”
Lincicome tweeted a pair of angry emojis after her comment.
Wow! Angry emojis, better put NORAD on alert.
Mell also checks in with Jerry Foltz and Karen Stupples, who spend most of their airtime with the LPGA, and they have interesting and, I think, logical reactions. Though this bit of sociology from the latter might draw some fire from the SJW's:
Karen Stupples, the 2004 Women’s British Open winner, has her theories. Stupples used to alternate between having her caddie line her up and doing it herself.
“I think women in general are more likely to delegate stuff to other people,” Stupples said. “I think it’s about reassurance more than anything else. I think that’s just conditioning. When you have someone behind you saying, `You’re good,’ that’s just confirmation.”
Stupples was asked if there is, perhaps, a macho element to the men using caddies less to align them.
“I think a guy is more likely to say, `I don’t want anyone else having any kind of influence over my game,’” Stupples said. “I think women are quite happy to have the reassurance someone’s confirming their alignment.”
Karne, I have good news for you, we have an opening in next month's reeducation camp sponsored by The Ministry of Truth. Perhaps you didn't get the memo, but gender is just a social construct created by the patriarchy to oppress women....
I have to say that most of the commentary leaves me perplexed, including this seemingly encouraging header:
9 essential things you need to know about the new USGA/R&A rules changes
Though the author imediately loses my sympathy with this:
1. The headline-grabbing change relates to the "DJ Decision." To recap, Dustin Johnson was hit with a one-shot penalty in the 2016 U.S. Open under Rule 18-2. His ball on the putting green moved after he had addressed it, and while he gained no discernable advantage, he was assessed one penalty stroke. The proposed change will eliminate the penalty for accidentally moving a ball on the green. Yes, this rule was being looked at before the Open debacle, but that public incident certainly expedited the process.
Excuse me, DJ did not "address" his ball as that term has been used to date. He placed his putter to the side of the ball. Equally importantly, what happened to DJ doesn't affecy us, because we don't play on greens that tightly mowed....
Joe Passov proposes five more rules that need changing, including this:
4. Rule 6-6(b) and Rule 6-6(d) -- Scoring in Stroke Play; Signing and Returning the Scorecard and Wrong Score for the HoleGolfers are supposed to have integrity. When Bobby Jones was once commended for calling a penalty on himself for something that only he saw happen, he replied, "You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank." So why are the penalties so harsh for failing to properly sign a scorecard or for signing an incorrect scorecard? We're talking DQ -- golf's version of the death penalty. Why punish someone so severely out of proportion for the size of the mistake?
Nobody like what happened to Roberto DeVincenzo, but even he recognized that he was a stupid...
But more importantly, the player should keep his own score to compare with the markers, and by that process errors should be discovered. We always hear about golfers being gentlemen, but I find the distinction is more that golf is the only sport where the player is responsible for his own results, and I think that's a feature, not a bug.
There's been pushback from some Tour Players, most notably Graham DeLaet. Unfortunately, said pushback comes on Twitter, and we can all agree that 140 characters isn't sufficient for the topic. I have littyle idea what these guys are concerned about, though many are calling for a separate professional rule book. I would just like them to explain the where's and why's....
That's going to have to do you for now....I'll see you next from Idaho.
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