Thursday Threads

I'm playing hurt this morning, a swollen jaw from an unscheduled partial root canal yesterday afternoon.  No, that's OK, it's my job...

Out With the Old... - The Zurich folks are enjoying their well-deserved moment in the sun, after a highly successful week despite several weather delays.  Ryan Lavner caught up with the man on the hot seat:

AVONDALE, La. – During yet another weather delay at TPC Louisiana, tournament director Steve Worthy passed through the clubhouse to solicit feedback from the players

who had showed up for the first team event on the PGA Tour since 1981. 

The response was surprising, especially for a guy with nearly 30 years of experience running tournaments. 

“I haven’t had anybody say anything negative,” he said Sunday. “I had emails from guys who missed the cut who said that it was so much fun and they can’t wait to get back next year.” 

Nothing negative? From PGA Tour players? 

“I would say that’s probably a first,” he said with a smile.

Apparently there's no truth to the rumor that several teams missing the cut blamed it on James Comey.... But this is really strange from Ryan, an experienced hand:

Of course, having too many outside-the-box tournaments appears gimmicky and could damage the Tour’s brand. After all, a player’s livelihood is at stake, and it shouldn’t necessarily be determined by whether he can hit a 6-iron through a hula hoop while blindfolded. 

“Just once or twice a year, because it adds something different,” Fowler said. “You don’t want to have too many – then it doesn’t have a unique-kind-of-week feel to it.”

Wow, does he really think a two-man event is the equivalent of a circus sideshow?  No one is arguing to replace individual stroke play as the dominant format... correction, recently Jordan Spieth expressed a desire to play a major at match play, but I calmly explained why that is neither feasible nor desirable.

Now, since we're speaking of that tent with the painted lady and other curiosities, pay close attention for one of those world-class segues that you so treasure.  Are you ready for Golf Sixes, an idea of such import it has its own website:

The European Tour recently unveiled the new innovative GolfSixes tournament, which

follows an exciting team-focused match play format rather than the traditional 72 hole stroke play format. Here is how it all works. 

Two-man teams from 16 different nations playing in a Greensomes format. 

· Each nation is represented by its two leading ranked European Tour members from the 2017 Exemption Category List as at Monday March 13. 

· Both players in each team hit tee shots on each hole. The pair then select their favoured tee shot and play alternately for the remainder of the hole.

And here are the groups:

Group A - England, Denmark, The Netherlands, India

Group B - Thailand, Spain, Belgium, Scotland

Group C - Australia, Wales, USA, Portugal

Group D - South Africa, France, Sweden, Italy

For the inevitable Group of Death I'm going with B, final answer.  As will Wally, I'm sure....

Shack and John Feinstein do their Point-Counterpoint thing here on the subject of the the various format tweaks, Geoff lauding the Greensomes (Shamble) format and John drooling over the shot clock.

Before you paint your face red, white and blue, you might want to know that the U.S. team is composed of Paul Peterson and David Lipsky.  Was I remiss in not informing them of my availability?

As for walkout songs, I just feel compelled to remind all that Enter Sandman has been permanently retired.

I love the experimentation, though one gets the sense that it might have been overdone.  Pace Ryan Lavner above, this seems to me to be more of an exhibition than a competition, though no doubt fun.  Whereas the Zurich was a serious competition, just ask Cameron Smith...

The Long and Short of Slow Play - Everyone is against slow play, but it's really tricky to come up with a procedure to mitigate it, even if you're prepared to go nuclear and dish out penalty shots.

Doug Ferguson ventures into the long grass, first by discussing the curious timing of the penalty doled out at the Zurich:

Tour officials assessed a one-shot penalty for slow play last week at the Zurich Classic, the first one at a regular PGA Tour event since 1995. This one was peculiar because it

happened at the first team event in 36 years in a format (alternate shot) that had never been used at an official tournament. 

Miguel Angel Carballo was given a bad time on the 12th hole at the TPC Louisiana. His partner, Brian Campbell, received a bad time on the 14th hole. Typically, it takes two bad times for a player to receive a penalty shot, but the Rules of Golf defines partners in foursomes as one player. 

Once the shock wore off, the dialogue shifted from ''it's about time'' to ''what took so long?'' 

All that was missing was a solution.

OK, then factor in this from Brian Harman, one of the quicker guys out there:

His first two years on tour, Harman was in what he called the "rookie category," meaning 

he was in the final groups of each draw. He said his groups were put on the clock two times all season.

"The next year, I was in the first three groups and I was put on the clock six times," he said. "And I was the 12th-fastest guy based on ShotLink data. They sent me a letter saying, 'See what you can do to help out.' I sent them one back and said, 'What do I do? I'm your 12th-fastest player.'" 

Harman won the 2014 John Deere Classic and was moved into the "winner's category," which is in the middle of the pack. Harman said his group was put on the clock once in 2.5 years. 

"I'm back into the first three groups," he said. "I've already been timed five times this year." 

Being put on the clock can be costly. If a player is put on the clock 10 times in a season, he is fined $20,000 even if he's not the one holding up play.

And, of course, human nature being what it is:

Here's what is not in the book - when players are put on the clock, that's not their first interaction with a rules official. They first are asked to pick up the pace, a courtesy to allow for outside circumstances (such as a lost ball). Secondly, while timing is not an exact science, players are not given a bad time if they go a few seconds over the limit. A bad time generally is a really bad time. 

Either way, it's a bad policy.

''If a slow player gets behind and they're asked to pick it up, the first question they ask is, 'Am I on the clock?' Because if they're not on the clock, they're not going to change,'' Haas said. ''If they are on the clock, they change. I don't like that. Because then all they do is run down the fairway.'' 

There's more good stuff in Doug's piece, most notably Harman's attributing slow play to green speeds.  Hold that thought for a bit....

Pat Perez suggests an official time every shot without warnings, but that's an obviously expensive solution.  The only other thing that I'd like to add is, at the risk of joining #kerrnation, there are conditions that require more thought, most notably swirling winds.  They don't require the amount of time Christie needs, but we've seen enough of rules officials determining outcomes....

I have no problem with them tackling this in a serious manner....  It's just if they're not going to be judicial, then it'll be better if they just continue to ignore it...

Did Someone Mention Greens? - I was admittedly taken by surprise by the USGA/R&A's statement that they're looking into the use of green-reading books...  and by looking to, we of course mean considering the banning thereof.

Ryan Lavner finds the players not at all opposed to this, including some unlikely suspects:

Although green-reading books are becoming more common on the PGA Tour, most players asked on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Championship were in favor of any rule

that would outlaw its use.

“I think probably we should ban the book,” Adam Scott said. “If they feel that reading the green needs to be more of an art and it's an advantage to a player who's a creative, great green reader, then I wouldn't have a problem with that.” 

Some have suggested that banning green-reading material would help speed up play, but Scott said it was only a “small contributing factor to slow play.” 

“I don’t know that pace is the issue with those things,” Lucas Glover said. “It’s more the powers that be see it as a possibility of losing the art of the game. It’s just like judging the wind or reading a lie, there’s got to be art to it. Science has already taken over enough.”

Adam Scott is a poor putter by the standards of his peers, and when one putts poorly I assume it's to some extent a result of being a poor reader of greens.  One would think he would need such tutorials more than the average bear, so I tend to give his opinion weight.

Via Shack we have this from Justin Leonard:

JUSTIN LEONARD: I played last week at the Texas Open, and Steve Hulka was caddying for me, and he had one of those books with, you know, the arrows and everything. I looked at it twice and I couldn't -- it was too much information for me.

I think the reason they are looking at it -- and I'll tell you that I had a putt on Friday on No. 9 to make the cut, about a 25-footer. And Steve told me what the book said, and it did exactly what it said. 

Q. Did you make it? 

JUSTIN LEONARD: I made the putt. Absolutely I made it. Of course I did. I made the cut and played on the weekend. 

But that being said, I think to me, it's a slow-play issue. It takes too much time. It takes the feel away from the game. I know we're in a time where technology plays such a role in all sports, and it's certainly playing a role in golf with TrackMan and everything.

Tripp Isenhour does a good job demonstrating the wealth of information available to the players, including updates about that day's hole location.  As Tripp notes, this is information and we've never prohibited the sharing of information wit players.  I'd also add that the players will still see this data, as we can only prohibit the use of the books during play.  Instead of low score wins, will we be going to a best memory wins environment?

Timing Is Everything - So while there's still tee times to be booked, the bones of our summer linksapalooza are in place.  We have a sentimental reason to be in London in early August, and will piggyback with an excursion to the great links of Wales and Southwest England.  Be prepared to learn about names like St. Enodoc, Westward Ho! (exclamation point mandatory) Pennard and Porthcawl.

There's plenty of time to wet your whistle (and my own) before then, but Coleman McDowell has this at Golf.com today:

How to pack for a golf trip

Let's see how this comports with my own experiences....

TRAVEL BAG

The two best bets for travel bags are made by ClubGlove and Sun Mountain. Yes, they’re pricey. Are they worth it? It depends. Is this a one-off trip, where the bag will collect dust once you return? Then just use ShipSticks, Luggage Forward or some other provider that can handle your clubs for you.

Fair enough, and he goes on to recommend a couple of worthy products.  But the key mistake to avoid here is getting sucked into a plastic travel case, only to find out there's no way to fit them into your rental car.

And shipping one's clubs is a great idea, in fact that's on my list to look into for our trip so we don't have to trundle them through London, but the real world problem is that shipping can take longer than you'll want to be apart from for weaponry.

GOLF BAG

One theme throughout this guide is prepping for unexpected inclement weather. On a golf trip, rain shouldn’t stop you. Be proactive and get a waterproof bag.

He actually recommends a bag from Vice Golf, which is interesting in its own right.  But not everyone will want to get a new bag, and much of one's needs can be accommodated by using Zip-loc bags for everything except balls and tees.

Speaking of rain, weather-proof gloves are probably the cheapest thing in this guide, but perhaps the most indispensable. When it rains, the ratty glove you were wearing will further deteriorate.

True that, though travelers headed to the UK and Ireland need to appreciate that temperatures might be such that wearing rain gloves will be painful.  I'm of mixed minds on umbrellas, more helpful in Scotland (because caddies don't double bag) than Ireland, but when it's windy.... you can fill in the rest.  I always bring and rarely use.

I found his discussion of clothing and shoes to be useless, as he was too busy pimping specific brands for my taste.  If one is truly writing for newbies, there are some real basics to offer, for instance:

1. Synthetics over cotton:  The latter wrinkles too much and takes far too long to dry.  Not to mention breathability...
2. Colors:  Stay in one subset, so everything matches everything.  
3. Layers:  The weather is highly changeable, so be prepared to don and undon layers.  Also, layering under waterproofs is its own art form.  
4. Shoes:  Two pair are mandatory as Coleman notes, but shoe trees as well.

Of course, your mileage may vary.... One of the worst things that's happened to me on our trips was when the weather was warmer than expected....  Employee No. 2's job decsription often includes a smell test for your humble bloggers daily ensemble.  That might be TMI, but by the second week of a trip it's a necessary precaution.