Thursday Threads

It's a light news day, so just a couple of items for your delectation...

Tommy's Day - Tommy's Honour opens wide tomorrow, and Joel Beall is on the case...  Of course he can't help but use the odious canon of golf films as his framing device:

The golf film canon is a short, mostly infamous body of work. "Caddyshack" is the unchallenged monarch of the kingdom, a movie that's quoted daily on golf courses despite its 1980 release. There's a precipitous drop-off from there -- "Follow the Sun," "Dead Solid Perfect," "Tin Cup," and "The Greatest Game Ever Played" -- with every other film on the sport a disaster. Depending on your age, the standing of "Happy Gilmore" varies. And don't get us started on "Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius." There's already enough anger on the Internet. 

There's a simple reason for this scarcity: it's really, really hard to make a good golf film. Case in point: "The Legend of Bagger Vance." Great book, a unique narrative with historical figures, phenomenal cast in Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron, beautiful cinematography; it seemed to hit all the requisite factors for a winning formula. And yet, it all went to hell because Damon -- playing a supposed amateur prodigy -- swung like this:

Yeah and, while it had its moments, Caddyshack is actually mostly tedious....  How much Ted Knight can a fellow take?

So, I'm hoping that Joel will get to the point:

So whenever a golf movie is released, we try not to get our hopes up. Yet, "Tommy's Honour" has been an exception. 

Based on the award-winning eponymous book, the story centers on Old and Young Tom Morris, the legendary father-son Scottish duo that changed the face of golf in the late 19th century. Between the clips that have been released, along with director Jason Connery joining us to talk about the film, we hoped "Tommy's Honour" could be the rare triumph in the genre. Set for an April 14th release, we decided to check the status of early reviews.

Is that wise?  

And according to critics, the movie lives up to the hype. 

"Tommy's Honour" currently owns a 77 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a figure indicating positive reviews. For context, "Caddyshack" is at 76 percent, "Tin Cup" at 69 percent and "Happy Gilmore" 60 percent. 

"An engrossing and accessible celebration of the game's modern origins, enhanced by striking locations and a standout cast, led by Scottish actors Peter Mullan and Jack Lowden," wrote Hollywood Reporter's Justin Lowe. Added Ray Greene of The Wrap, "The rare sports biography that keeps its eye on the ball of character and milieu."

There are a few negative reviews, those tending to point to the movie's slow pace. 

Nevertheless, anything in the 70s on the TomatoMeter is generally considered a success.

I've been a tad skeptical, just because it seems like such a daunting prospect.  And while I'd still prefer you to read the book, there's little doubt that all involved exerted tremendous effort to ensure the authenticity of the film.

Shack previously had a good Q&A with Kevin Cook, who answered a few questions for the USGA's Michael Trostel as well:

Was it a challenge to adapt the book into a film?

It was hard to choose which stories to cut. The book covers Old Tom’s entire life, so we had to pick the events that were central to the story. In a book, you can fill in background about the characters, but in a film, it’s not as leisurely. All of the information has to come on the screen or through dialogue. But when I saw the talented actors delivering their lines, it sounded even better than I had imagined in my head. 

No doubt some of those stories will be sorely missed, as Old Tom live a long and significant life.  Let me add this as well:

Did you uncover any new information?

I discovered that Tommy made the first recorded ace in golf history. I was also amazed at how strict a divide there was between classes in that era. The biggest events at that time were the gentlemen’s matches at clubs, but Tommy gained attention by barnstorming Great Britain with other caddies that were the game’s best players. He was the forerunner of the modern professional golfer.

That strict divide between the classes is still resolving itself, witness the recent membership issues at the R&A and Muirfield, among other vestiges of times gone by.  But golf was a Gentleman's game in this time and place, and while Young Tom Morris would be no man's caddy, he also would never be a gentleman.  

But this class struggle remains with us, and it was no less true with Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen or those that followed their trail.  Vestiges of this class system can be seen through all three of mark Frost's golf histories, indeed to the current day as noted above.  But this is also why I'm mostly unmoved by the Martha Burke's of the world, as they come to the struggle so late in the game that their concerns seem trifling to what came before...

In terms of the film, here's what I mean about their efforts to make it authentic:

It was filmed entirely in Scotland, utilizing three different St. Andrews locales.  

I hope it's good...  In fact, I hope it's so good that people are motivated to read the book.

Not April Fool's Day - Thanks to Shack for this link summarizing all that afflicts our game:

That "For the good of the game" has me grinding my teeth....  Here's Shack's micro-rant:

Especially given how we know green speed is dangerous to turf health, pace of play and architectural character, all things we know because of USGA research and experience! 

Some in the superintendent community, who will have to deal with members perhaps buying the devices, were not pleased.

 Don't be fooled by any of the those gray market stimpmeters....

This is an organization that so desperately wants to move on from last summer's annus horribilus, but not if it precludes selling officially branded merchandise.  Who does there PR?

The Breakdown - That this constitutes a record says much:

I tracked the number of strokes that CBS aired per player during the Sunday round of the Masters. The telecast began at 2pm ET and I counted a total of 430 strokes televised by CBS during regulation. The final putt in regulation was holed at 7:05 which worked out

to an average of 1.41 strokes per minute - not only an increase over the rate from the 2016 Masters, but a new record high for all major tournaments I have tracked since 2014. 

Note: CBS televised all eight shots from the playoff, but I did not count these in the table in order to provide a fairer comparison to the tracking for other tournaments. 

CBS covered 66 regulation strokes from both winner Sergio Garcia (skipping two tap-ins) and runner-up Justin Rose (skipping two layups and a tap-in). Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth were featured next most frequently. Those four players (comprising the final two pairings) accounted for slightly more than half of all televised shots. Early in the telecast, CBS seemed quite consumed with the competition for low amateur honors and wound up devoting a total of 17 strokes to the two amateurs who made the cut. 

The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Kevin Chappell who tied for 7th. CBS televised strokes from 27 different players. 13 players were covered for at least 10 shots.

Given the limited commercials, that doesn't seem like a lot of golf....  and doesn't deal with the issue of showing shots live vs. on tape...

And in other breakdowns:

It wasn't quite the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, but

Sergio Garcia's back-nine rally to beat Justin Rose at the Masters was highly unlikely. Garcia trailed Rose by two shots as the final pair on Sunday headed to the par-5 13th hole at Augusta National -- and then his tee shot caught a tree and wound up under a bush. Meanwhile, Rose was in perfect shape and appeared on his way to extending his lead to at least three shots. 

At that point, Garcia's win probability dropped well below 20 percent, according to The Economist's golf forecasting model, EAGLE. Just how low is tough to pinpoint (EAGLE only calculates based on the final outcome of holes), but the model had Garcia at 20 percent before that potentially disastrous tee shot. Garcia responded by making an incredible par, though, and then caught Rose with a birdie-eagle stretch on the next two holes. 

It probably won't make Rose feel any better, but the Falcons blew a 98.9 percent chance of winning in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN. OK, so that definitely won't make Rose feel any better, but for the purpose of this post, we had to mention it.

Even better, his shirt wasn't stolen.....

I wouldn't have given him a ten percent chance of winning after his drive, but that opinion was no doubt influenced by the fact that it was, you know, Sergio....

OK, but this is veering into dangerous territory:

The publication also came up with a "choke index," which calculates how often a player of a certain skill wins a tournament when they're in a certain position entering the final round. According to that metric, Garcia should have won 1.55 majors since 2001 (when every shot of every major can be tracked).

Does Johnny know about this?