Midweek Musings

I've taken my preliminary scan of open browser tabs, and the landscape is awfully barren....  

Co-ed's On Parade - We had a charity outing yesterday, but got home in time to watch the last hour of the ladies team match play from soggy Rich Harvest Farm....  They're not getting much love from the weather gods:

Semifinal action was suspended due to darkness at 8:03 p.m. CT Tuesday at Rich Harvest Farms, with both matches still in progress as the day came to a close. The 

Stanford's Shannon Aubert

semifinals will resume Wednesday at 9 a.m. CT, with the finals slated for the afternoon. 

Second-seeded Stanford leads third-seeded Arizona State 3-1-1 with just holes to play in their match. The other semifinal is in the middle of the back nine, with No. 5 USC up 4-1 on top-seeded Northwestern. 

The Trojans began the day with a difficult 3-1-1 victory over Ohio State and now have the Wildcats (who beat Kent State 3-2 in the quarters) a bit on the ropes. What does a coach tell her players with a shot at the finals looming overnight? 

“They’re exhausted, there’s nothing more you can say,” said Andrea Gaston, USC’s head coach. “Let’s go eat, let’s get some rest, let’s figure out what time we’re leaving in the morning, what are we wearing and dry clothes.”

What we are wearing?  These girls are troopers, lugging their bags through the rain, I'm guessing that they're not all that concerned with the fashion choices...

Those match summaries don't quite do it justice, as many are one-up with golf yest to be played.  

This I thought was the best "That's so Match-play" moment I saw:

In the other contest, with Stanford already leading 2-1 in finished matches and Arizona State’s Monica Vaughn 1 down to Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela on the 18th, the Sun Devils decided it was best not to finish out the hole. 

“I wanted to play, (but) I don’t care,” Valenzuela said. “I can come back tomorrow. … It’s match play. I would have probably done the same thing.”

Monica Vaughn won the individual title on Monday, and had a two-up lead when play was suspended.  Understandably tired, she had nothing when they were sent back out on the course, air-mailing one green by several city blocks.  Standing in the 18th fairway one-down, she decided to let her less-experienced sleep on it.  Good stuff, and Golf Channel even grabbed the audio of the discussion.... It's simply too much fun to not watch.

Beth Ann Nichols files this profile of Stanford's Casey Danielson:

SUGAR GROVE, Ill – Casey Danielson wanted her entourage to get loud. She needed

an energy boost at the NCAA Championship and, well, the Stanford senior always has loved a good crowd. 

“The bright lights she enjoys,” said Danielson’s father, Craig. “When she was a little kid it was always ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ ” 

Danielson, a bubbly competitor, certainly knows how to deliver. She has an impressive overall match-play record of 7-1 at the NCAA Championship, helping the team win it all in 2015 and finish runner-up in ’16. 

“I love giving a little wave to the crowd and a smile,” said the affable Danielson. “It’s more fun.”

It's a very golfy family, as her brother Charlie played for the strong Illinois teams and her big sister is also making her way as a pro.  Do yourself a favor and watch the girls, if you have the opportunity.

Make Wentworth Great Again - Wentworth's West Course, an harry S. Colt classic, has been the victim of serial desecrations by the affable, though thin-skinned, Ernie Els.  The European Tour's website provides an update on the latest changes:

Located less than an hour from central London, Wentworth has long retained a reputation as one of the world’s foremost golf and country clubs with its castellated, ivy-clad cream

clubhouse and lush green fairways lined by native woodland of pine, oak and birch.

This week, though, marks the first time the historic event will be contested over the newly redesigned Surrey layout after numerous changes were made in the months since the 2016 edition.

Ahead of the 37th BMW PGA to be hosted on the West Course, the alterations were designed in accordance with feedback given by European Tour players to Thomas Bjørn and Paul McGinley and the two European Tour stalwarts played an advisory role, along with Wentworth’s Director of Course & Grounds Kenny Mackay, to Ernie Els Design and European Golf Design.

When they lead with the clubhouse,  you know the proper conclusions to be drawn.  But don't be surprised if that august panel produces yet another camel....

The gist of the changes seems to be the removal of and/or the shallowing of bunkers.... 

Now, when we speak of Wentworth, we're often alluding to the Euro Tour's signature event held there, currently under BMW sponsorship.  John Huggan, a crusty Scot, but I repeat myself, has the must-read on this event, initially depressing me by reciting the wonderful links on which this event was once played.  I must not be bitter....

But here's the current sad state of affairs:

Today, the BMW PGA is the biggest event on the world’s second biggest tour. OK, so Wentworth’s re-re-re-vamped West Course isn’t anyone’s favorite, but the combination

of a top-class field, a big purse and a venue that is iconic if not loved is potent indeed. But not perfect, given that the PGA Tour’s apparently terminal insularity has long precluded many Americans from making the trip. 

This week, only four of Uncle Sam’s nephews will compete at Wentworth—Paul Peterson, David Lipsky, Peter Uihlein and Daniel Im—all European Tour regulars. Nowhere else in the 156-man field will there be a U.S. twang, the likes of Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and all the rest seemingly having something better to do this week. Even worse, that something isn’t necessarily playing in the competing PGA Tour event, the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial. For the leading Americans, the PGA Championship at Wentworth isn’t even an afterthought.

Perhaps even more depressing, the BMW PGA has failed to attract all of the leading European players. Rory McIlroy’s on-going rib injury absolves the four-time major winner, but Masters champion Sergio Garcia is absent through choice, as are Jon Rahm, Paul Casey and Rafa Cabrera-Bello. On the upside, Scotland’s Russell Knox has made the trip from his Florida base and, of course, Englishman Chris Wood will be there to defend his title.

I particularly like that stuttering in the first 'graph, though I think he's a couple of "re's" short.  Wentworth is the Euro-Medinah...  We're told it's one of the great golf courses in the world, but every time they go back it's been redone.

OK, so what do you kids think of this from Ken Schofield:

“The European Tour has had a lifetime of putting on great events no one in America seems to care about,” Schofield says. “It’s time to put an end to that. I see a closer relationship between the BMW PGA and the Players as a way of further cementing relations and cooperation between the tours. It’s just the right thing to do for the game. 

In other words, Schofield would like to see the Players become part of the money list on the European Tour and, in turn, the BMW PGA become part of the PGA Tour’s money list. “That would provide further validation for both,” he says.

What cooperation?  I can see where the Euro Tour wants to do this, as their top guns are going to be at The Players regardless....  But what's in it for the U.S. Tour?  With contraction looming, it's even less feasible....

Shack links to Curmudgeonly James Corrigan, now annoyingly behind a registration paywall, who had this about the greens:

Reignwood put up the £5 million for improvements and the European Tour and its design team did the rest, together with Ernie Els Design. Each of the 18 greens was relaid and a sub-air system, as used at Augusta, was installed under every one as well. The result is startlingly firmer surfaces and a much more consistent roll of the ball. Tyrell Hatton, the young world No 16 from nearby High Wycombe, summed up the elation in the locker room. “The greens are 100 times better,” he said.

Magic Eight-Ball says: Outlook Cloudy.

Irony Alert - 2009 was a more innocent time....  Tiger was still bestriding the world like a colossus, at least until Thanksgiving, and the world cried for more golf courses to be built.

The site of what was intended to be Tiger Woods's first U.S. course design will be auctioned off, following a number of developmental setbacks and failed sale attempts.

The former Cliffs at High Carolina in Asheville, N.C., was renamed Majestic Highlands, and the 795-acre property, complete with mountain ranges, hiking trails, and an eight-acre lake, is now being offered in one tract. The deadline for sealed bids is June 12. 

Woods announced the design almost 10 years ago, but environmental concerns and a difficult housing market impeded the project from getting off the ground. Much of the property is scraped land, and only 40 homes in the residential portion were sold.

 Apparently inspiration is required to deposit a rather large check....But Motel 6 seems quite apt.

But this comment from Tiger is delightful in retrospect:

According to a WLOS News report, Woods was bullish about the prospects for the property when his involvement was first announced. "You really can't mess this up, OK?," he said at the time. "Even an idiot can't mess this up, so, I think I'm a little bit above that."

Got it.

Viewer Warning -  One of the many annoying aspects of CBS' golf coverage is the overt pimping of the network's programming, think Ray Romano at Pebble.  But this is a new ploy, one I have no need to abet:

Ex-Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo will make his CBS broadcasting debut this weekend at the PGA Dean & Deluca Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort

Worth, Texas. 

CBS Sports Producer Lance Barrow dropped the news nugget that Romo would spend time at the 18th hole during this weekend's coverage while speaking at a black-tie event at the country club.

"I will give you a little note," Barrow told the audience while glowing about Romo. "This weekend for the first time ever he will be in the announce booth at 18 for a few moments. And it will be the first time that he will have the CBS Sports blazer on and he will be introduced as our newest addition to CBS Sports, right here at Colonial."

Don't you just love their priorities?

Hogan Unplugged - With Hogan's Alley hosting the Tour, Golf.com posts this revealing 1987 interview with the legend.  You'll of course want to read it, but I'll just excerpt this first question to frame the world in which Hogan grew up:

GOLF: Next year we'll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of golf in America. You've

been around for 75 of those years. What's your first golf-related memory? 

BEN HOGAN: I guess it goes back to about 1920. I was nine years old and selling newspapers in Forth Worth to make some money when one of my friends told me I could earn more by caddieing. The word was you could make 65 cents just by packing a bag around 18 holes. So one day I walked the seven miles from my home to Glen Garden Country Club to see what it was all about. The established caddies at Glen Garden ran sort of a kangaroo court. For a new caddie to break in, he had to win a fist-fight with one of the older, bigger caddies. So they threw me against one of those fellas and I got the better of him. It was through the caddie experience that I got the golf bug.

 A seven mile walk and a fist-fight for the right to earn 65 cents....  Of course, that was quite the caddie yard, giving us Byron Nelson as well.

OK, I lied.... I think it would be great if some of today's pampered snowflakes read this about motivation:

GOLF: What was it that drove you so hard? 

HOGAN: Three things. One, I didn't want to be a burden to my mother. Two, I needed to put food on the table. Three, I needed a place to sleep.

OK, so after oxygen and water, it covers the basics of Maslow's hierarchy of needs....

TopGolf's Growth Plan - They seem to be clever fellows...  No doubt their investors are happy campers, including Callaway, but there's a severe constraint on growth.  Each of their traditional sites requires a large footprint and a gazillion dollars of capital, so the company can't roll them out as quickly as they'd like.

I'm guessing that this will work out for both parties:

Topgolf is out to top itself. 

As part of deal announced earlier this month, the company known for its popular golf-

themed entertainment complexes revealed its plans to make golf simulators a growing part of its customer experience. 

The move is tied to a new partnership between Topgolf and Full Swing Golf, whose simulators Topgolf will use as it seeks to expand a new concept called the Topgolf Swing Suite lounge. 

The first Topgolf Swing Suite, equipped with two simulators, lounge seating and high-def televisions, opened in January at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston. Topgolf plans to open dozens of new Swing Suites around the country in the next few years, all of them powered by Full Swing simulator technology.

Puns aside, the nice thing is that they're not trying to hit another home run...  It's more of a single or double, but a clever use of their established brand. 

Justin, Fulfilled - When you're a member of the Class of '11, doors open for you:

Golfers do not have a reputable track record testing their mettle at baseball (remember Phil Mickelson's "tryout" with the Toledo Mud Hens?) and vice versa (John Smoltz's ill-fated Web.com Tour foray). So rather than stepping into the cage or trying to bust the radar gun, Justin Thomas enjoyed his time at Citi Field on Tuesday by just hanging out. And by doing as much, lived his day as a New York Met to the fullest.

How great is that?  I mean the only thing better would have been if t was with a major league team....  Angry text from Wally will follow.