He's Baaaack

Well, that was certainly unpleasant.... not to mention expensive and time-consuming.  But I spare no expense for my readers, and with a new desktop and laptop we're hopefully done with computer equipment for the while...

So, where were we?

Schedule Woes - As you might have heard, this year's Arnold Palmer Invitational was supposed to serve as a second memorial service for The King, with the entire golf world to be in attendance.  I was going to type the following, only to discover that Shack already had:

It's a strange state of affairs when Billy Horschel is a voice of PGA Tour reason,

especially after he said he would have passed on playing in the WGC Mexico had he qualified. Somehow, the event carried on. 

But it is fascinating to see Horschel join the likes of Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson in highlighting the lack of star power likely at next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, the first without The King.

Stopped clocks and all....here were Horschel's tweets:

Followed shortly thereafter by this:

A case could be made that 2016 was "the year", though admittedly one needed a prescient Magic eight-ball for that...

So, what's going on?  Have you looked at a schedule recently?  Doug Ferguson has:

The road to the Masters isn't what it used to be. 

For the last three years, Adam Scott has played at least three tournaments in Florida before heading to the Masters. Upon leaving the Honda Classic this year, he will log more than 19,000 miles before he arrives at Augusta National. 

That journey includes a trip home to Australia. It does not include an appearance at the Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas. 

Scott is not alone.

So, who else is skipping it?

Jordan Spieth is another past champion of the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook, only he has decided not to go this year to avoid playing five times in six weeks through the Masters. He finished the West Coast with three straight tournaments, and the Texan has two Lone Star events ahead of Augusta. 

Everyone is mixing-and-matching, trying to find the right formula to be ready for the first major of the year. 

Dustin Johnson has Mexico, Match Play and Houston. Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama are playing Mexico, Bay Hill and Match Play. Sergio Garcia is only playing the two World Golf Championships.

There's little doubt that players are struggling to adapt to the two recent schedule changes, moving the Doral WCG event to Mexico and the positioning the revitalized WGC Match Play event to late March.  The other issue that folks are too polite to note is that the downward spiral of the API has been in the works for some time.  Largely, methinks, because of the quality of the golf course.  It's become the weakest link of the Florida swing, more fitting for the Fall Finish than March prime time.

Think the only effect is in Orlando?  Think again....

Henrik Stenson, the sixth-ranked player in the world, said that he is skipping the WGC-

Match Play for the second consecutive year because of the change in format that took place in 2015. Instead of a knockout-style bracket, there is now round-robin pool play before deciding who will advance to the Round of 16. 

But he's not alone. Justin Rose, Stenson's longtime Ryder Cup partner, told Golf World he won't play, either.

Sigh.  Here is Ernie's take:

However, as Ernie Els pointed out to the Golf Channel at the Valspar Championship, blame the tour schedule, not the players, for the API no-shows. 

“The purse is up, but then the tour has put in a World Golf Championship event last week, and guys need to rest,” Els told Will Gray at Innisbrook. “Then there’s a WGC event after API, and then two weeks later you’ve got the Masters. So all of a sudden, you’ve got all these big events, and if they don’t play the world events then all hell breaks loose."

Now, I have no idea what he means with that last bit, but it seems we're about to find out, as at least three big names don't intend to show up in Austin.  Michael Dell isn't going to be happy, though after the events of the last 48 hours he'll not garner any sympathy from this guy...

There's an obvious adjustment likely to be made, putting Mexico before The Honda, there's another potential complication on the horizon:

Sliding the WGC-Mexico Championship to the end of the West Coast swing would help. Officials last week in Mexico said that would be their first option for the event and it would add a week between WGCs to help alleviate some of the scheduling concerns and return the historic flow to the Florida swing. 

But that does little to address the broader scheduling questions, particularly if The Players, the Tour’s marquee event, returns to its old date in March, which is an option that’s being considered by the Tour. 

Having the Match Play so close to the Masters is already an issue for some players. Trying to shoehorn the game’s “fifth major” into the neighborhood without a dramatic overhaul will only make things worse.

I love that "historical flow" bit of understatement....  You mean our Founders didn't have a side trip to Mexico in their original conception of the Florida Swing?   

I remain unconvinced that the PGA (of America) will move the PGA (Championship) to May on a permanent basis,though it's quite possible that they'd do so in Olympic years.  I should also note that they might do so in all years upon receipt of a rather large check from the PGA (Tour), but that's idle speculation at this point.  

Even if we're limited to leap years, what's the plan for sorting out this schedule logjam?  While Mexico came off rather favorably, we're seeing erosion in the Match Play, a problem we thought had been solved thanks to Dell and a more interesting venue....  Has anyone heard from Nurse Ratched lately?

Tiger In Hibernation - There was a flurry of speculation that the API would be salvaged by a certain former Orlando resident opting in today, but it's not to be:

For the fourth straight year, Tiger Woods will miss the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a

tournament he has won eight times. 

Woods announced via Twitter and his website on Thursday night that he would be skipping next week's event due to the lingering back issues that have sidelined him since he withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Feb. 3. 

"Unfortunately, due to ongoing rest and rehabilitation on my back, I won't be able to play in this year's Arnold Palmer Invitational," Woods said. "I'm especially disappointed because I wanted to be at Bay Hill to help honor Arnold. This is one event I didn't want to skip."

Just because you're not playing doesn't mean you couldn't show up in support....  Oh, never mind:

Woods missed two tournaments he was scheduled to play, the Genesis Open and the Honda Classic, and now is out of an event he dominated for most of his career. Woods has made no public appearances since the Dubai event and did not appear at the Genesis tournament that supports his foundation.

But this is pretty rich:

"Presently, I have no timetable for my return to golf, but my treatments are continuing and going well," Woods, 41, said.

You couldn't even show up in public in L.A., but things just couldn't be better...As for Augusta, I wouldn't have hopes too high.  Though at this point I'm just relieved that if he does peg it there he won't be taking a spot in the field from a deserving player...

Did someone mention Augusta?  Because Tiger has released some excerpts from his forthcoming reminiscence (with Lorne Rubenstein) of that epochal week.  I'm not sure this is the best excerpt, but poking Monty never gets old:

If I needed any extra motivation for my third round, Colin Montgomerie provided it during his media conference the day before. Monty was in second place, three shots

behind me, and so we were going to play together in the last twosome on Saturday, just after two o’clock. At the conference, Monty was asked about our prospects for Saturday, and he spoke his mind, saying that everybody would see in the third round what I was made of, and that experience was a “key factor.” … His comments only strengthened my resolve to play my best golf the rest of the way. 

I had a clean card, eleven pars and seven birdies, for 65. That was the kind of golf I had been working toward. Monty and I shook hands on the eighteenth green. His 74 had put him twelve shots behind me, after starting the round three shots behind. He was beaten up but cordial.

Beaten up but cordial?  I can't help but think that's a poor choice of words in view of current circumstances....

Mike Davis, Unplugged - Strange days at the USGA, coming off their Annus horribilis, and that's before we get to Erin Hills.  Readers know that I think highly of Mike Davis, though he does leave me scratching my head at times....  The USGA held an Innovation Symposium, in which he had these seemingly contradictory remarks, first this seemingly grounded observation:

In his remarks, though, Davis clearly indicated distance is a concern for the game’s

future. He made specific reference to the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills G.C. next year, where it will play at approximately 7,500 yards—or 2,000 yards longer than it did when it played host to the second U.S. Open in 1896. 

“Anybody is hard-pressed to say that as distance has increased in the last 100 years that that’s been good for the game,” he said. “We all want to hit the ball farther. We get that. But distance is all relative. When you think about the billions and billions of dollars that have been spent to change golf courses, and you say, Has that been good for the game? 

“Is the fact that Shinnecock Hills went from 5,500 yards to 7,500 yards, what has that done good for the game? It’s increased the expenses to maintain it. It’s cost us time to walk an extra 2,000 yards. So you have to say, What has that actually done?”

Should I get my hopes up that we might address this problem?  

“We don’t foresee any need to do a mandatory rollback of distance. We just don’t see it. But that’s different than saying if somebody comes to us and says I want an experience that doesn’t take as long or use as much land, can we allow for equipment to do that?”

Gee, that's awfully accommodating of you.... But do go on...

Davis later even suggested golf was alone among all sports because of the way its equipment has dictated its playing field. 

“Think about baseball in the United States,” Davis said. “If they were using titanium bats and a hot baseball, and they had to go to Fenway Park and say move the Green Monster out another 75 or 100 feet? That’s exactly what’s happened in the game of golf.

“And you have to say what good has that done? I can’t think of a good reason for it. 

Maybe it’s helped architects and construction companies, but by and large it’s cost a lot of money.”

So, please remind me, who exactly let this happen?  Oh, right.

But the dichotomy with baseball is instructive, because MLB controls their supply of baseballs.... As well, as the composition of bats.  I could go on, but you get my point...

But get this:

Davis imagined a scenario where courses even could reduce their footprint by adopting a shorter golf ball for use on their course, reducing water use, maintenance costs and time, noting that a future of longer, harder, overwatered courses is foolhardy. “People want to see a dark-green, perfectly manicured, overwatered golf course,” he said. “That can’t be the future of the game, not the way water is going to be.” 

Davis referenced Dustin Johnson playing historic Myopia Hunt Club, site of four U.S. Opens between 1898 and 1908, which now measures at 6,539 yards. “Throw him an 80 percent golf ball and go play the back tees, and guess what? It would be a great experience for him, and he would be able to play this wonderful historic golf course that by and large he can’t play anymore.”

That's a great image, isn't it?  So great that it obscures that fact that he wants individual golf clubs to do the USGA's job...  I guess there really are jobs that American's won't do....

But wait, there's more....

Would one of those options include bringing the best players in the world to a course like Myopia Hunt Club for a U.S. Open in the future with a reduced-distance ball?

“We haven’t talked about that,” Davis told GolfDigest.com, “but if we were closed-minded to that, shame on us.”

The USGA: Not aggressively closed-minded to someone else figuring out how to protect our game.  Kind of catchy, no?

Interestingly, players seem open to the concept...  First, a certain South African:

Charl Schwartzel views Davis’ idea as an added opportunity to help pace of play if new tees built well beyond the course’s original design no longer have to be used.

“Now you have to walk 150 yards back and then walk this way, so you’re walking 300 yards and you’re still at the same place,” Schwartzel said. “If you can make the balls and clubs go shorter, and you can play the old courses, then the game will be 3 ½ hours again. It’s simple. But you’ve got to walk so far, how are you going to play quick? It’s impossible to play quick.”

Fair enough, though the walking seems less important than the maintenace costs and water usage.

“Something’s got to happen,” McDowell said. “We’re starting to lose the integrity of some of the most beautiful courses in the world. They’re becoming outdated, which is just a little scary, really.”

Starting?  That's a good one....

Making Matters Worse... -  As we've touched on occasionally, we're now at a stage where ancillary devices, most notably TrackMan, are driving distance and scoring gains.  So, what might be around the corner?

Jerry Yang, founder of Yahoo, addressed that Innovation Symposium and tried to provide a glimpse into the future:

“If you look at the categories of things that are coming across our investment activities and how people are understanding their bodies, every element of that is applicable to

golf,” he said. “Measuring brain waves, measuring all the body metrics and understanding those things, I think is all very interesting.” 

Yang imagines a near future where laser-rangefinder technology is incorporated in your sunglasses, where a golf simulator in your garage “will let you play St. Andrews in a way that really feels like St. Andrews.” 

But Yang thinks that sort of development is only a start. He talked about a coming “smart ball” technology that would track every shot and its launch conditions, direction and distance. He also suggested that the kind of “haptic suits” designed to help the disabled walk could “be the same suit that can make you become a super person where you can literally swing like Dustin Johnson if you wanted to.”

A few years ago, back before he was a happy family man, the option to swing like Dustin Johnson would have had a whole different meaning, more attractive to some for sure.

The larger point, perhaps, is that these innovations are beyond the ability of the governing bodies to control, thereby magnifying the effect of their prior dereliction of duty.  But this might be better than curing cancer:

Yang said he has “plenty of golf gadget investments, some of them haven’t done very well, but there’s a new one every day” and mentioned a company that is researching tremors—“I’m convinced that they’re going to fix the yips, so we’ll have to see.”

They'll be lining up at the doors to the Mayo Clinic for that Yipechtomy....