Open Leftovers

What's the character limit for a post on blogspot?  We just might challenge it today...

We start, appropriately enough, with the winner as captured by the great Jaime Diaz:

What followed was the most improbably-explosive burst of under-par golf I’ve ever seen in the deciding moments of a major. When Spieth nearly aced the 14th with a laser 6-iron 

that led to birdie, “all of a sudden I felt and believed that I could win that golf tournament, when 30 minutes prior and really the entire day after the 4th hole I didn’t feel that way.” He then eagled the par-five 15th with a 48-foot putt, cruised home a 30-footer for birdie on the 16th, and made a crucial eight-footer for another birdie on the 17th that allowed him the comfort of a two-stroke lead while facing a left-to-right wind on the tight tee shot on 18 that could have caused a 13th hole flashback. As an admiring Kuchar would later say, “And he just…he really turned it up.” 

It was all Tiger-like in its resiliency, drama, stagecraft and ultimately, magic. 

That was the external story. The internal one was even better. Upon realizing that the mental and physical command he had shown for three rounds was gone, Spieth was suddenly subject to the doubt, anger, inability to focus and even panic that often hits 54-hole leaders–even major championship winners–on Sunday afternoons, with time rushing by too quickly to stop the damage until the round is abruptly over.

Not sure I agree that it was Tiger-like...  If Tiger started the final round with a 3-shot lead, he wouldn't have found himself one behind after thirteen holes.  Unless, you know, Y.E. Yang....   Jordan seems to come with more drama, whether that's some deep psychological need or a result of the inherent looseness of his swing, I can't discern.  But let's not lose sight of the double-bogey on the 71st hole at Chambers Bay that by all rights should have cost him the U.S. Open....

The Tour Confidential scribes were asked what they learned about Jordan this week, and the answers were about what we'd expect:

Michael Bamberger: He's off the charts for heart and brains. He's not in the class of

McIlroy and Dustin Johnson for golf skill. But he's off the charts for heart and brains. 

Jeff Ritter: His resiliency, which was written about in spades during his historic 2015, remains one of his defining traits. No one else could've bounced back from that weird and wild scene on 13 to play the last five holes in five under. He may not dominate like Tiger, but Spieth has the most unbreakable spirit in golf today, just as Tiger did in his prime.

For certain golf skills, Mike.  You'd of course take his putter and short game over either of their's, though perhaps not inside five feet.

Now to the last query of the confab:

We'll close with a number: How many majors will Spieth win in his career:

Ritter: The Open sets up perfectly for his iron-putter-grit combo, so I will bullishly give him three more of those. I think he'll vanquish his demons in Amen Corner at another Masters, and also bag a second U.S. Open. Somewhere along the way, he'll finish the Grand Slam. That's nine and a heck of a career.

Zak: It’s easy to see Spieth atop the game for the next 20 years. That’s how elite he is at getting his ball in the damn hole. I think he grabs two majors every five years—on average—and one after he's turned 45, so with three already in the bag, I'm ready to crown him a 12-major man when it's all said and done. And then there's the Champions Tour ;)

I guess Jordan hasn't been the only one drinking from the Claret Jug.

It's also easy to see him burning out, or dying as the victim of caddie-player violence.  There's not a jury in the world that would convict Greller....  "Go Get That!"

All kidding aside, there's the obvious nobody knows nothing, but also Jordan's game seems built on the skill set that diminishes earliest.  Add to that the high drama quotient, and I don't think Jordan projects to have the longest career at the top of the game.  But where are those majors being held in 2039?

The Drop - No less an authority than Jack Nicklaus posted extensive comments about Jordan's thirteenth hole on Sunday:

Jordan semi had the wheels coming off on 13 with that tee shot. And while it did take him a long time between the tee shot and the next shot, Jordan figured out what to do. I

don’t know if I would have figured out to go over to the driving range for that shot. That was an unbelievable decision and unbelievable 5. That putt was so huge. Much like Sergio Garcia’s par save at the 13th hole at Augusta National in the final round of the Masters, I believe Jordan’s bogey at the 13th hole today was the key to his round. He made that putt and all of a sudden he turned it on. It was as if he said, "Hey, I’ve let this thing get away from me. I’ve got to get back to work." Then he went boom, boom, boom…. To follow up that bogey on 13 with great golf shots and great putts, and play the final five holes in five under par, I was just very happy for him and very impressed to watch all that guts, determination and skill.

I find the use of the term "High Golf IQ" has devolved almost into cliche, but this is what it's meant to connote.  Just take a moment to think about how Rory and his crack caddie would have addressed the situation.....  Rory would have shrugged his shoulders, mumbled "Whatevah" and trundled back to the tee. 

The TC panel takes an oblique approach to the issue with this:

The moment that will define Spieth’s win was his bogey on the 13th hole, where after driving his ball into a dune, he took an unplayable-lie drop in the driving range. All told, it took him nearly a half an hour to play the hole. He apologized to Kuchar on the green and thanked him at the winner's ceremony but are you OK with how Spieth handled the situation?

Really?  Were we not entertained?  I don't even need to excerpt the answers there, a she did what he needed to do.  If a rules official could have answered his questions more quickly, fine, but we all saw the issues involved....

There's also a meme out there that it was somehow unfair to Kooch.  I believe that his reaction tells us everything we need to be reminded of about our crazy game....

The Caddie - Martin Dempster, writing in The Scotsman, gives props to Greller:

“I just told him to go back to the tempo of the Travelers because it was really similar,”

said Greller of the PGA Tour win recorded by Spieth in his previous outing before the season’s third major. “He was leading wire-to-wire and was having some tough things happening. It just so happens this was a major. He knows what to do. This was the 13th time he’s had the lead in a major, so it’s not like this was his first time in this situation. He was easy to work with. He’s matured a lot in the last six years since I met him. It wasn’t that difficult. 

“He’s hurt a lot since that 2016 Masters, and I’m sure somewhere in there some doubts had crept in. He just said, ‘You know what, I know how to do this’. He’s done it twice before and now three times. It was just cool to see him with his back against the wall, more than at Augusta in 2016. To do what he did just shows his character and his grit.”

Obviously after a big win, they've nothing but praise for each other.  But it's an at-will relationship, meaning that we shouldn't be surprised that Greller is offering up what Jordan thinks he needs.

More amusingly, the clueless-about-golf Skip Baylees had this about the team:

Skip Bayless is not a Jordan fan. The Fox Sports host unleashed a series of tweets after Jordan Spieth's British Open victory yesterday taking the three-time major champion to task, in particular for his reliance on caddie Michael Greller. 

"Spieth is the mentally toughest psychological mess in golf history," he wrote. "Never seen such a great player so dependent on caddie. Jordan Greller."

That's rich, as I'd bet real money that he's a Phil-Phan....Not a guy whose opinion matters much in our world, thankfully.

Via Shack, Greller gave this on clubs used to the R&A:

Gotta love that askerisk, no?

The Loser - I know, runner-up is a more charitable term, but what think we of the man who goes by Kooch.  That TC panel was only somewhat impressed:

Kuchar afforded himself respectably in the head-to-head showdown, but ultimately 22 players posted a better score Sunday than his one-under 69. Did Kooch's play elevate or lower his position on the list of best players without a major title?

Bamberger: Playing in the last group is not the same. He handled his game and himself beautifully. As a golfer and I think person, he does not try to be something he's not. He's very good. His game at one point was GONE. He nearly won a gold medal and he nearly won an Open. He should be proud of where he is.

Zak: I think he certainly elevated himself, if ever so slightly. That group of best players without a major title is always led by those who came painstakingly close at least once and often multiple times. This was Kuchar's first one-hand-on-the-trophy miss, and he did it by shooting one under on the back nine. He played great golf and finished well. Spieth just played better. 

Shipnuck: I would say Kucher was solid, not great. He had Jordan on the ropes, but was playing too cautiously to land the knockout punch. Then on the closing holes, he never put any pressure on Spieth.

I'm more with Sean and Alan on this one, as he played OK on Sunday.  Nobody will remember it after the events on No. 13, but the outcome might have been decided on the 18th green on Saturday, when Jordan shocked Kooch by dropping his putt, and caused the latter to miss his shortie....

But I think the answer is buried in Sean Zak's answer.  As long as he's been out there running up Top-tens and cashing checks, this was his first real chance in a major...  Doesn't that tell us all we need to know?

Takeaways - Mike Bamberger has much of interest in his 12 from the week.  First up, one with which I am in complete disagreement:

6. Rory’s coming back, and not a moment too soon. He was all swagger last week, swinging the club beautifully, knocking down flagsticks, taking aggressive lines. He’s too good to go too long without winning again, and soon.

What event were you watching, Mike?  Let's first deal with the fact that Rory has developed a Thursday problem at majors, and he raised his game this week by positioning himself at 5-over after six holes.  In the better part of the draw!  Yes, he deserves some credit for hanging around, but if you're dependent on J.P. Fitzgerald to ring your bell, that's not gonna end well....

Yes, he played some actual golf over a few days, but in the half of the draw without serious wind and on a softened Birkdale.  But, to paraphrase the aforementioned J.P., he's Rory McIlroy, he's supposed to do those things....Then, having worked his way back to the fringes of contention, hits a drive every bit as bad as Jordan's on No. 13.   

One assumes that Quail Hollow in the August heat will be perfect for him, and it's a place where he has lots of good memories.  But there's nothing in his preparation or game that looks like he's set up for a run, except that which he used to be....

This is offered with apologies to P.G. Wodehouse:

9. Where does this endless supply of the Oldest Members come from at these old-line British clubs? It is a generation that does not get older and will not die. The fluffy white eyebrows. The striped ties with striped shirts. Shoes in a distinct shade of old-money brown. Accents with shades of Oxford and Eton and the RAF circa 1942. Henry Longhurst.

They die, there's just an endless supply ready to take their place at the bar....

This is an interesting take on the relationship, far more so than Skip's:

5. I can’t claim this as my own: Most caddie-player relationships have, at their heart, a built-in antagonism. It is not logical but it’s there. Many marriages are much the same. There’s competitiveness, there’s resentment, there’s an undercurrent of unhealthiness in them, amid the often many things that go well. The Michael Greller-Jordan Spieth relationship is a true partnership, in good times and in less good. I believe the root of the relationship is not golf but faith.

Careful, Mike, I don't think we're actually allowed to use the "F-word" these days..... 

Obviously Mike doesn't subscribe to the John Huggan theory that the R&A is playing the long game:

1. The R&A has it right. Select a course, let 'em play. Royal Birkdale was perfect. That does not mean the U.S. Open and the USGA should do what the R&A does. What is evident is that Augusta National really knows what it wants the Masters to be. The R&A, for the Open, the same. The USGA needs to define what it wants the U.S. Open to be. These three events must each have a truly distinct identity. As for the PGA Championship, I point you to the August issue of GOLF (on newsstands now!), and the short piece on its last page.

This has always been true, except when it isn't....  See Carnoustie, 1999.  But there really isn't much they can do when a links is defenseless, so they let 'em play.

The Network - Martin Kaufmann shares some in-depth thoughts on the NBC/Golf Channel crew, starting with some praise:

NBC stuck to what it does best: showing a lot of golf. It’s hard to find fault with that formula. Under ESPN, which held the Open rights until 2015, the quality of the

productions was excellent but too often felt like studio shows with some live golf mixed in. 

NBC, by contrast, kept its focus on the course. We saw all 156 players over the first two days, and having watched some 45 hours of Open coverage, I’m hard pressed to think of a moment when I thought NBC was not showing me enough action. On the rare occasions when NBC did leave the course – for example, to show David Feherty’s train ride along England’s Golf Coast or his visit to a course where the Beatles played – those features were short and well done.

 Well, that is important.....  Maybe somebody could remind CBS of that.

But he hits on some things with which I quite agree, the most important of which was this:

It really is astounding that NBC’s experienced crew of announcers can, at times, be so undisciplined. Everyone knows how chatty Spieth and caddie Michael Greller are; the announcers often joke about it. And Matt Kuchar and his caddie, John Wood, are almost as talkative. With all of the attention on that final twosome, one would have thought we would hear plenty of great on-course audio, especially given that this is a point of emphasis for NBC. But we didn’t. 

How bad was it? We heard Spieth griping about his opening tee shot (“That’s crap, not getting rewarded for a good shot”), but that was about it. On Sunday morning, I saw two texts from Golf Channel/NBC employees, exasperated that their colleagues at Royal Birkdale insisted on talking over Spieth and Greller. Afterward, a friend quipped: “Just surprised NBC’s announcers didn’t talk over the trophy presentation.” 

My advice (which I’m certain will be ignored): Have the NBC team study tapes of Golf Channel’s LPGA crew, which does the best job of capturing on-course audio. That’s one reason those live LPGA shows, despite limited resources, are some of the best on TV.

I just love that last suggestion....

I knew that would be a problem as soon as I heard that both Maltbie and Feherty would follow the last group.  Too many talking heads, which pretty much sums up NBC's crew at this point.  Add in Johnny's increasingly disjointed commentary, and I'd love to know their long-term plan.

I think this criticism is fair, but his example is off-base:

Sunday’s coverage of the final group did not get off to a good start. On Jordan Spieth’s opening drive, Johnny Miller said, “That’s a confidence-builder. That’s exactly what he was hoping to do.” 

A moment later, we saw Spieth’s ball plunge into some deep hillside rough. Miller’s tune quickly changed: “He’s not going to be happy when he sees where that ball is.” That’s like calling a home run, only to have the left fielder catch the ball on the warning track. 

This is one of the problems with NBC’s sporadic use of shot tracers. It’s quite possible I saw more tracers used during Saturday afternoon’s two-hour U.S. Junior Am championship match on FS1 than I saw during the previous 13 hours of Open coverage on Golf Channel and NBC.

Yes, more tracer for sure....  There's no better tool for the viewing audience, especially when paired with icons denoting the target and/or hazards.

That said, tracer would not have helped Johnny on Spieth's opening drive, as the issue was whether it would carry the dune.  And with the player's club-twirl in obvious self-satisfaction, what's an announcer to assume?  Oh, and we've criticized their audio capture, but they got Spieth's "That's crap", which struck as fairly whiny for the circumstances.

And Martin was not at all impressed with the artist known as Bones, filing an in-depth assessment here.   If this were the Supreme Court, I'd be working on a concurring opinion.... But here's the funny bit:

Let’s start with two assumptions. First, we all have warm feelings for Mackay. There are so many memorable moments from his 25 years working for Mickelson. Plus, how can you not like a guy named Bones? (A former colleague called me on Friday and posed this question: If Mackay didn’t have a cool nickname, would he get a TV job? I didn’t immediately rule out the possibility. Would he be so prominent if he were known simply as Jim Mackay? Is part of his appeal that anchor Dan Hicks can say, “Bones, what does Spieth have?”)

Guys have been hired for less....  Martin reacts to that 2015 McGladrey event in the same manner as I did, mostly that Kooch's man John Wood was the far better of the two (which Wood has also displayed in written form with the Tour Confidential panel).

That said, of course the guy deserves a little time to find his voice.  But I didn't hear anything over the weekend to make me particularly optimistic on that subject.   

And our first peek at the ratings show them as boffo.... I'm not surprised, as Jordan can move the needle:

Wow!  Given the difference in the time of day of the broadcasts, this can't possibly happen....

But what epic irony....  The USGA went to Fox because they coveted the Masters' ratings, and they end up with an audience smaller than the Open Championship.  For the Good of the Game, indeed!

I've actually got some non-Open items, but they'll have to wait....  I'm only one man.