Apologies for the unexplained absence yesterday, as it was Fairview's member-Caddie tourney. I've not written much about the new joint, but the caddie corp is really quite exceptional. Not only are they good at their day jobs, but most are really good players in their own right....
Member and caddie alike attribute this to the caddie master Ralph, who no doubt keeps everyone in line. But he also works hard on the scheduling side, saving them unnecessary trips to the club and ensuring there's no excess sitting around time, especially important in our case with no convenient train station.
Like many clubs, we have a group of local caddies that are there all year, enhanced by Jamaicans that come North before Memorial Day. I found it surprising that the local guys would talk up the latter group, telling me that they're great caddies and guys.... You don't see that often....
Four of the guys tied for low gross with 74's, one of whom I had the good fortune to be paired with. Our second caddie Dwayne was fighting his driver, but still managed three natural birdies en route to a 78.... Good stuff, and one of the better days on the calendar.
R.I.P., Sandy Tatum - We lost one of the really good guys in our game:
Frank “Sandy” Tatum, who had a profound influence on golf in Northern California and throughout the United States — including spearheading the renovation of Harding Park — died Thursday morning. He was 96.
Mr. Tatum, whose deep voice, sharp intellect and abiding passion for the game were well known across golf circles, was an accomplished player at Stanford. He won the NCAA individual championship in 1942 — an honor only Cardinal golfers Tiger Woods (1996) and Cameron Wilson (2014) also have accomplished — and helped the school take the team title in 1941 and ’42.But Mr. Tatum’s lasting impact on the game occurred in other ways. Most notably, he served as president of the United States Golf Association in the 1970s and spent eight years (1972-80) on the executive committee of the USGA, golf’s national governing body and the organization that annually runs the U.S. Open.
Tatum is responsible for one of the most widely-quoted bon mots about U.S. Open course set-ups:
Asked about ringing criticism of daunting course conditions, Mr. Tatum succinctly offered one of the most memorable quotes in golf history.
“We are not trying to humiliate the best golfers in the world,” he said, in a line repeated often since then. “We are simply trying to identify who they are.”
The Stanford connection led to a longstanding friendship with Tom Watson, and perhaps this is his greatest contribution to our game:
When Tom Watson was at Stanford, Tatum, a Cardinal alum who won the NCAA title in1942, developed a friendship with him. Watson credits Tatum with selling him on the joy of links golf. Tatum recounted a trip the two of them made to Ireland and Scotland in advance of the 1982 British Open.
“We played Ballybunion, Troon, Prestwick, Dornoch,” Tatum said. “When we got to Dornoch, it was blowing and raining. We teed off about three. We're coming up 18 about 6:30 and Tom says, ‘let's go out again.’ So we did, and we’re out there, the two of us, in the rain, walking along the third fairway, Watson walking ahead of me, when he called to me. ‘What do you want to say, Watson?’ I asked. He said, ‘This is the most fun I’ve had playing golf in my whole life.’ ”
Five claret jugs later, we can all agree that turned out well....
R.I.P.
The Antidote - Always tough to lead a days blogging with death, but Sandy deserved his place of honor. But we'll take your mind off that pesky mortality thing with story so sublimely amusing you'd think it was a parody:
THE VILLAGES, Fla. - Five people were arrested at a residence in The Villages on Wednesday in connection with an undercover drug investigation, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said.
Investigators said undercover deputies had purchased drugs from the home in the 1900 block of Antonia Place three times before Wednesday’s raid.Once a search warrant was served, deputies said they found evidence that an illegal golf cart chop shop was also operating out of the residence.
“We actually found some golf cart parts, as well,” Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Robert Siemer said. “There have been some golf carts stolen in the neighborhood in The Villages here, and we’re trying to tie some of the parts to some of the stolen vehicles.”The elderly homeowner did not appear to be aware of what was going on in his home and was not one of the five arrested Wednesday, investigators said.
His niece, Kathleen Unrath, had moved in saying she was going to take care of him, but instead was allegedly running the illegal drug and chop shop businesses behind his back, deputies said.
Where to begin? Can you say golf cart chop shop without laughing? Who knew there was such a thing...
Perhaps most amusingly, and that's admittedly quite the competitive category, the drugs are not specified.... Leading us to conclude that it was most likely little blue pills.
People Not Moving On - Alan Shipnuck had this from his weekly mailbag feature:
I'm crushed. This can't happen. Please say it ain't so. - @makinthappnbdd
All will be revealed eventually, and I don't really want to traffic in speculation. Let's just take a moment to appreciate the partnership of Phil and Bones, two of the game's great characters. They enriched the experience of being a fan with their nerdy strategy sessions and palpable brotherhood. There may never be another player-caddie combo like it again, with such a pair of outsized personalities, both of whom were willing to take us inside the ropes with their insights about the game. Phil and Bones will both be all right going forward, but I'm definitely going to miss watching them do their thing.
Would a sawbuck change your mind about trafficking in speculation?
Alan is spot-on about the personalities, and we should add this bit from Mike Bamberger:
Bones's job was to get Mickelson in a place where he could play his best golf. That's why he is unlike any other caddie that came before him. It was a deeper role than any of us had seen before. But Mickelson was a prodigy even before the two had met, good enough to win the Tour's Tucson stop as an amateur, in 1991. In their quarter-century together, Mickelson has often needed to dance to songs he recorded himself and Bones never wavered in his support. So whether it was carrying two drivers or practicing away from the site of a major or playing catch as a warm-up exercise, Bones was all in. Phil needs somebody to look at him, and Bones did.
As your resident curmudgeon, I feel compelled to note that while always entertaining, this team left quite a bit on the table. Most of the off-the-wall stuff, the two drivers and no drivers, didn't exactly work out well.
Most recently Bones was quoted as still endorsing the strategy employed on the 18th at Winged Foot. Phil's body of work is quite impressive, but it's not hard to see where it could have been even more substantial....
Josh Sens shares his Bonesiest moments with us, including my namesake's role:
PHIL, BONES. BONES, PHILAs in a Hollywood bromance, the two meet cutely during a practice round at the 1992 Players Championship. Bones is caddying for Scott Simpson, who is playing with Gary McCord and a certain four-time All-American out of Arizona State. Phil has his father, Phil Sr., on his bag. After the round, Phil is signing autographs when he turns to Bones.
"Are you interested?"
Um, you think?
"I mean, everybody was," Bones recalls.
Then this classic of the genre:
FROM ONE GOLF NERD TO ANOTHER"Caddying at a molecular level," David Feherty calls it, after microphones capture a not-atypical conversation between Bones and his man at the 2012 Northern Trust Open in L.A. Should Phil hit a normal hook? A rounded hook? A standard "Pelz"? What about the wind? The ball could come out hot, or "side-slash" toward the flagstick. On and on it goes. Their chat is catnip for golf nerds. As for the shot itself? Ho-hum. Six feet from the cup.
Lastly, this "Trouble in Paradise" moment:
THE BREAKING POINT?In announcing their split, Mickelson emphasized that no single incident led to the decision. But you know the Internet: people speculate. One moment commentators have zeroed in on took place on the 17th tee at TPC Sawgrass during the second round of this year's Players Championship, where Phil and Bones engaged in a testy exchange over club selection. ("I understand what I need to do," Phil said at one point. "I need numbers right now.") Mickelson wound up hitting a hard wedge. Bones had reportedly suggested nine-iron. The ball found the water behind the island green.
They'll always have Memphis....
Rickie In Extremis - Bones as savior? More from Shipnuck:
Does Rickie need a caddie more like Bones to manage him and veto Sunday decisions? Or is it a problem of execution not strategy? - Mike (@frantzy13)
Bones makes sense for pretty much any top player, though the Fowler-Joe Skovronpartnership appears as solid as they come. (But like Hollywood marriages, there's no way to know for sure.) Fowler's Sunday struggles have become metaphysical. I talked to his swing coach Butch Harmon on Sunday afternoon at Erin Hills, right after Rickie finished his warm-up session and headed to the first tee. I asked if Fowler was better prepared for the final round crucible because of the hard lessons of Masters Sunday, which he entered one shot out of the lead, only to blow himself out of the tournament with a 76. "We learned from Augusta that he got a little anxious on Sunday because he wanted it so bad," Butch said. "He just didn't let himself relax and play. He started out trying to push early because he was so jacked up. It wasn't nerves, it was anxiety. We've talked about it all week. He's relaxed, he feels good. At this moment he's playing the best he's ever played. Now he has to go out and get the job done, and he knows that."It only gets harder from here, as the next time Rickie has a shot at a major he'll have to block out the memory of all the loose shots and timid putts he hit at Erin Hills. I love the way Rickie carries himself; golf has no better ambassador. He has too much game not to break through at a major some day. Right?
Has no one considered the possibility that one can't win a major in orange?
I'm reminded that DJ hired Joe LaCava a few years back to provide the kind of adult supervision that Alan's questioner suggests, and that didn't seem to work out. It was only when he hired a fellow slacker that he broke through, though that admittedly was likely more a result of the influence of The Great One.
As relates to the fragile player-caddie dynamic, I think Tolstoy said it best:
"All happy player-caddie relationships are alike; each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way."
Or something along those lines....
Linksy Goodness - Via Shack, the boys (and girls) are headed back to Gullane:
There will be no excuses next year when the men can tee it up at Gullane, then drive a short ways to Carnoustie for The Open Championship.The 2018 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Opens are headed back to Gullane, a first for the women. Rickie Fowler took the men's edition at the historic links in 2015.
They're playing the Women's Scottish Open at the same venue two weeks after the lads, and co-sanctioned with the LPGA.
This year, the men's Irish Open is at Portstewart the week before the Scottish, offering three weeks of linksy goodness for those adventurous souls that aren't put off by the ground game and a wee breeze.
Gullane is a first-rate facility next door to Muirfield, though I've never seen Dundonald Links, the site of this year's Scottish Open.
Compare and Contrast - The routing for Tiger's Chicago project has been released, and Travelin' Joe is in full-hype mode:
It's still early, but Tiger's new Chicago course could become the best urban track in America
After months of speculation and chatter, Tiger Woods Design's new Chicago project has revealed specifics. As first reported in the Chicago Tribune, the still-unnamed project has multiple hurdles left to clear, but the plan on how to do so is now in plain view. The new championship course will attempt to combine two tired, if well-situated munis on Chicago's south side, Jackson Park Golf Course and South Shore Golf Course. Could this new course rise to the top of Chicago's tournament tracks? My early call is a definite "maybe." If it gets built, it will be challenging, scenic and fun.
At first blush, the numbers make it sound like a classic U.S. Open test: 7,354 yards, against a stern par of 70—a Monster of the Midway. However, comments from his design team and Tiger's design philosophy tell a somewhat different story.
Isn't this what we're supposed to hate about golf? Before I resume my rant, here's that routing:
Let's review the recent history of Chicago golf.... Home to the perfectly successful and historic Western Open played at a public venue that the Tour players loved, that was sacrificed to the Gods of the FedEx Cup. The venue was Wentworthed in an attempt to land a u.s. Open, so it's not all Commissioner Ratched's fault....
Now we're taking two local courses and combining them into one gargantuan monstrosity, just so the big boys might stop by once every five years... Just when I had been relaibly informed that w ehad an issue with participation rates in our game.
Back to that Shipnuck mailbag:
Besides Bethpage, Torrey, and Chambers are there any other truly public/muni courses that could host a major? #AskAlan - Gus (@CCGabriel1)
By definition, these class of courses are meant to be played by average golfers, which is to say, crappy golfers. Deep bunkers, crazy greens, waste areas, forced carries, long fescue and the like are not user-friendly to the average 90s shooter. So, no, there really aren't any other courses out there that are suitable. Erin Hills was built expressly for an Open and it just got torn to pieces, so that tells you just how hard it is to challenge today's players.
Like Alan, I have trouble squaring this circle.... If it's built to challenge the pros, then it's not going to be fun for the hackers, nor is it likely to fit within their budgets.... Unless it's heavily subsidized by the city, which I'm sure has no better use for those funds....
A Very Competitive Category - We have a winner, at least according to Stephen Hennessy:
Donald Trump driving on the green with a golf cart is the most Donald Trump thing ever
Meh! We're five months into his first term, I'm a little worried that La resistance won't be able to maintain this pace....
This is bound to be controversial. Donald Trump, president of the United States, hascertain freedoms and liberties that come with the job. This act, though, will make a golf-course superintendent -- and really, anyone who cares about golf-course maintenance -- raise an eyebrow or two.
Trump owns more than 19 golf properties around the world, and this video, shared by Barstool Sports and originally by Mike Frank on Twitter, appears to have come from Trump Bedminster, where this year's U.S. Women's Open will be held in a couple of weeks. We hope this green is not one being used in the tournament (Bedminster has 36 holes).
At the end of the day, when you own a course, we suppose you can do whatever you want. And if you're Trump, on that list is driving your golf cart on the greens.
I know, they're only concerned about the greens.....
This guy had the more amusing take, ranking this with other great DGAF moments..... A word to the wise, a soupçon of humor makes the relentless Trump bashing more palatable. Though humor isn't a strong suit for our betters.....
Only The Lonely - This is a pretty sad story:
Woods was in contact with World No. 4 Jason Day during the U.S. Open last week. Day, a fellow Nike athlete and friend of Woods, shot a seven-over 79 in the first round.
"He texted me after I shot 79 and said, 'Hey, before you work on something call me because I saw something,'" Jason Day told Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard Wednesday at the Travelers. "I was like, 'Yeah, you saw 79 shots.' I didn't call him because I was so angry."
I'm just not clear on which is the sadder part, that Tiger is reduced to swing tips for a guy barely breaking 80, or that Day couldn't be bothered dropping that dime.
Hartford Rising - I was surprised by many of the names in the field at Hartford, including Rors, Jordan and DJ, though two of those had last weekend off. Here's the background on that:
CROMWELL, Conn. – One of the strongest fields in years have gathered for this week’s Travelers Championship thanks, at least in part, to a new PGA Tour rule.
The circuit initiated a strength-of-field regulation this season, which requires players who didn’t have at least 25 starts in the previous season to add an event to their schedules that they hadn’t played in the last four seasons.
I've had many opportunities to note the Tour undermining its sponsors, so it's only fair to highlight a change that actually supports them.
Though Rory's Spider is officially on notice:
CROMWELL, Conn. -- Rory McIlroy's flashy new putter has been put on notice: Start working or go to equipment heaven. Or be turned into a fire poker. Or be melted into scrap metal. The flat stick's fate is still to be determined, but the club is running out of time to impress its owner.
"I come off the golf course a little disappointed with a 67, because I gave myself so many chances," McIlroy said following a three-under round to open the Travelers Championship.
"Tee to green game is where it needs to be," McIlroy added moments later. "It's just a matter of converting the chances I'm giving myself."
He putted poorly at Erin Hills as well, it's just that by the time he reached most greens folks had looked away in horror....
I'll leave you nice folks there.... See you down the road.
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