Weekend Wrap

Lots to talk about folks, tough we are on the clock....  Anything we don't get to will be teed up for tomorrow....

A Roccaco Finish - From the Italian word Rocca, meaning to chunk a chip but then save the day by darining a snake:

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) -- Brian Harman made a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday to win the Wells Fargo Championship and deny Dustin Johnson the chance at a 

He plays left-handed, but fist pumps with the right.

fourth straight victory. 

Johnson, in his return from a freak back injury that knocked the world's No. 1 player out of the Masters, went from making the cut on the number to a 67-67 weekend at Eagle Point and appeared headed for a playoff with Harman and Pat Perez. 

Harman won it with a birdie-birdie finish, none bigger than the par-5 18th. 

After going so long on his second shot that he needed relief from behind a corporate tent, Harman hit a heavy chip that barely got onto the green. From just under 30 feet away, the putt dropped into the center of the cup and set off a wild celebration, with Harman repeatedly shaking his fists and leaping to share a hard hug with his caddie, Scott Tway.

It was a reasonably entertaining finish, seemingly headed to a fourball playoff, until Harman made his unlikely putt.  DJ made the cut on the number, then almost stole another one.  

The funniest moment of the day was Pat Perez walking his putt in.  

The Tour Confidential panel is hard-pressed to draw any conclusions from it all, though you'll agree that this is a pretty funny story (regardless of how the fact check pans out):

Bamberger: On Saturday, I heard a good one: Harman was playing in the Walker Cup at Merion. On 14, he holes out a ridiculous pitch from the rough. He tips his hat and says, "Brian Harman, ladies and gentlemen. Brian Harman." Can't vouch for it but it sounds right and reminds me of this: these guys know they are good. That putt. OMG.

But this is likely the takeaway of greatest import:

Shipnuck: The big story for me is that Dustin is still playing lights-out golf, despite missing a month. I can't wait to see what he does this summer at the majors.

Yup, though not necessarily next week.... But the big ballpark that is Erin Hills should suit his game, no?

Patrick Reed remains a story though, as trained his newfound minimalist eye on fairways and greens yesterday.  As in, no need to visit them on a timely basis...  But channeling my inner Marty Hackel, who's dressing the boy these days?   he's got flaps on both back pockets of his trousers, adorned with some sort of Scotch plaid....  the result of said adornment is to draw eyes to his buttal region, thereby requiring CBS to employ the widest lens in their quiver.  Not a great look for anyone, but for Patrick?

Tree, Forest - Not gonna spend to much time here, but a compelling week happened without anyone the wiser:

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Sei Young Kim held off Ariya Jutanugarn 1 up to win the 

The winner, coming soon to a milk carton near you.

Lorena Ochoa Match Play for her sixth LPGA Tour title.

After Jutanugarn won the par-5 17th with a birdie to force another hole, Kim finished off the match with a halve for a par on the par-4 18th. 

In the morning semifinals at Club de Golf Mexico, Kim beat Mi Jung Hur 5 and 4, and the third-ranked Jutanugarn topped Michelle Wie 4 and 3. Hur won the third-place match, overcoming a five-hole deficit to beat Wie in 22 holes.

Just a horrible missed opportunity, especially since it was against a middling-at-best big boy tour event.

Telling, the TC panel gets an LPGA question, just not about their, you know, golf:

4. The LPGA Shoprite Classic turned to Twitter to hand out a sponsor's exemption, inviting fans to vote on one of four players. Like it?

Don't you like how they phrase the question?  It's almost like MSNBC questioning Hillary...  And how do those accusations about your e-mail make you feel?   

But this answer kinds of captures it all:

Wood: Uh, no. But we are discussing the LPGA in a way that doesn't involve a rules controversy, a Groundhog Day-inspired playoff, or deliberate slow play. So, I guess it's a win?

Ahhh, the soft bigotry of low expectations....

 A Blogger's Remorse - Headers I never expected to have to acknowledge:

John Daly wins 1st PGA Tour Champions title

OK, here's the game piece...  while you're reading the excerpt I'll try to gather myself:

It took 22 starts, but John Daly is now a winner on the PGA Tour Champions. 

Daly, 51, won the Insperity Invitational on Sunday at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club. Despite closing his tournament with three straight birdies, Daly shot a closing 3-under 69 to finish at 14 under, a shot ahead of Tommy Armour III and Kenny Perry.

Despite?  Shouldn't that be because of?

Daly began his day with eagle at the par-5 first hole. He added five birdies on the round. But he bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17, and led by just a shot late in the round. After Armour

bogeyed his final hole, Daly had a two-shot lead entering the closing par 4. 

Walking down the fairway, Daly bent down and kissed the grass, which had a large Arnold Palmer umbrella logo painted on it. He made bogey on the hole, but it was enough to close out the win.

I gather he finished with three straight bogeys, not birdies.... What the hell is going on at Golf.com these days?  But if I were the grass, I'd immediately gargle with hot salt water.....

He's always had talent, including a great set of hands.  And there were some great photos:

Is this wise?

The TC gang was asked whether Long John still moves the needle:

Shane Bacon: Anything John Daly has done his entire career moves the needle. He's the anti-modern golfer in every possible way and that fits perfectly on the PGA Tour Champions. In a stretch of golf where the PGA Tour, the European tour and the LPGA tried out different formats, a man in American flag pants with a cigarette dangling took down his first trophy on the 50-plus tour. It seems to fit all too perfectly. There are few names in golf that force the general public to do a double-take when scrolling the Internet like "John Daly" does. Good to see him close that one out.

I don't want to live in that world, but so be it....

Michael Bamberger: The only thing I get from it, and I have been mocked for saying this by people who know of what they speak, that Daly, along with Fred Couples, is likely the single most talented natural golfer I have ever seen.

My point exactly....  The squandering of those gifts is very sad.

Did The Earth Move for You? - It's called Sixes, and Denmark reigns:

ST. ALBANS, England (AP) -- Denmark won the inaugural GolfSixes tournament as 

Speaking of milk cartons...

Thorbjorn Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard teamed up to beat Australia's Scott Hend and Sam Brazel in the final of the six-hole match play event on Sunday. 

Victories over France in the quarterfinals and Italy in the semifinals earned the Danes a place in the title match at the Centurion Club in southern England, and Olesen and Bjerregaard won the last three holes for a 3-1 victory.

Seeking to broaden the appeal of golf, the European Tour was experimenting with GolfSixes, which featured walk-out music on the first tee, long-drive competitions, pyrotechnics and shot clocks. A pink mascot followed teams around the course.

As you can tell from the names cited, they didn't draw much of a field.  The top Euros are stateside for next weeks Players, and it's not a format designed for the creme to rise....  But they seem to have had some fun....

Gun, Not Smoking - The shrieking left, but I repeat myself, continues to grasp at anything that begins with an "R" as part of their #resistance.  It's going to be a long eight years....

See what I did there?  Just the assumption of his reelection and heads on the Upper West Side are spontaneously combusting....

James Dodson, who penned a biography of Arnold Palmer, played golf with POTUS and son Eric, and has the goods on the Russian collusion story:

“Trump was strutting up and down, talking to his new members about how they were part of the greatest club in North Carolina,” Dodson said. “And when I first met him, I

asked him … you know, this is the journalist in me … I said, ‘What are you using to pay for these courses?’ And he just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100m.” 

Eric Trump, the president’s younger son who is now executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, was also present. 

Dodson continued: "So when I got in the cart with Eric, as we were setting off [to play], I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks – because of the recession, the great recession – have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’

"And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.'

So, the answer to an interesting question asked three years ago has now achieved Great Significance, because, you know, RUSSIANS.  Yanno, you're gonna need a little more than that for this to stick, unless he also was financed by James Comey.

"I knew Trump was very interested in golf," Dodson says. "I knew he was buying up golf courses. His M.O. was to find a financially distressed property, buy it, keep it in bankruptcy, do a half-a-million-dollar renovation, fire the entire staff and hire a third back." 

So James Dodson, who grew up a Republican but currently describes his political stance as "radical centrist," knew that. And maybe he thought that’s all there was to know about Donald Trump. But that was before they’d met. Which, as I’ve suggested, wasn’t Dodson’s idea.

I love the melding of these two 'graphs....  But has the writer ever considered that there was areason those projects were in bankruptcy and sold out on the cheap?  I'm glad to know that Dodson grew up a Repub, but you know who didn't?  Yeah, that Trump fellow.... 

I'm Going With Yes - From Pravda, this query:

Can Sand Valley Make Wisconsin the Next Golfing Destination?

Mind you, they don't exactly approve of golf, because...well, Trump, or something.  Here's what should have been the lede:

But nestled near the tiny towns of Rome and Nekoosa, about 100 miles from Madison, hidden away for decades under vast rows of red pine trees planted to produce pulp, was

something extraordinary: a stunning section of the exposed sandy bottom of a prehistoric glacial lake that, geologists say, flooded a large area of central Wisconsin about 18,000 years ago, when an ancient ice dam collapsed. 

Mike Keiser, who made a fortune in the greeting card business, is known to avid players for creating the golf mecca Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast, a long 250-mile drive from Portland. He found his way to this equally far-off-the-beaten-path spot in Wisconsin in 2013. It lacked the year-round playing possibilities of places like Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Scottsdale, Ariz., and the picturesque seaside locale that Mr. Keiser had considered essential to luring golfers away from home, but he fell in love with the place anyway.

What the land had, in spades, was immense tumbling dunes, some 50 feet high or more. And the potential, once the nonnative trees were cleared, of becoming home to not just one but four or five spectacular courses. The firm, sandy fairways, long open views, and exposure to strong winds would evoke the famous links of Scotland and Ireland and pay direct homage to the less well-known but well-loved “heathland” courses outside London. Mr. Keiser bought 1,700 acres from a tree plantation owner. He commissioned the golf design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, a former touring pro, to create a new course, to be known as Sand Valley. It opened last week.

Given the source, we need to wade through two graphs and multiple sightings of the term "dirt-poor" before getting to the interesting part...

And let just share this with you before we move on to our next story:

Mr. Coore, in a later telephone conversation, said Sand Valley was one of those relatively 

rare sites that “feels like golf in a natural state. You can lay it out pretty quietly on the land to bring the golf course to life.” 

The course, he said, is intended to appeal to players of any caliber, particularly those with average skills. When he and Mr. Crenshaw started designing golf courses decades ago, “everybody was trying to build courses to test the best players.

The point that eludes the writer is that if not for golf, no one would ever see this majestic scenery....

But yes, combined with Whistling Straits and Erin Hills, Wisconsin is very much on the map.

Stopped Clock - Mark this date on your calendar, I'm going to largely be in agreement with the NY Times.  I know, blind squirrel and all,,,

Lots of folks, our Shack included, have been excited about the Chicago project involving Tiger and The Obama Presidential Library, and I just don't get it.  Watch as Pravda does their "Women and minorities hardest hit" thing to it:

On a recent morning at the 18-hole Jackson Park Golf Course, two employees lingered in the building near the first tee, where golfers could buy a $1 cup of coffee and a $6 Polish sausage at the snack bar. 

Keith McGrue, 60, a South Side resident, said he had heard chatter from regulars who wonder what a Tiger Woods-designed course could bring. 

“A lot of people have been playing here for 25, 30 years,” Mr. McGrue said. “The question becomes, Who benefits from the change? Who loses out and who wins? Most people that play here, especially the black folks, live in the neighborhood. This is our golf course.” 

Alan Brothers, 71, who was playing at the South Shore course, said that he was hoping for the sort of growth that a new facility could bring to the South Side.

“This neighborhood has been in need of economic development for a very long time,” he said, pointing to the south, where several blocks away, four people were shot dead in a restaurant in March in an apparent act of gang retribution.

They're taking two course played by locals and converting them into one course so they attract the Tour once every 5-6 years.....  

They're paying lip service to affordability, but so did NYC when building Ferry Point.  Color me as highly skeptical that this will pan out in way that those currently playing the course will appreciate.

Now if they could spruce up the two courses in conjunction with the Obama Library, more power to them.  But the last thing we should be encouraging is the creation of another 7,500 yard monstrosity.