Thursday Thoughts

It's an immutable law...early golf means late blogging.  Unless, of course, you have the power to change the time-space continuum....  

The Greenbrier - Given the magnitude of the damage last year, a mere two weeks before the scheduled event, it's amazing they're in a position to host again so soon:

The 100-year storm, the 1,000-year storm--whatever. A lethal storm. Howard's Creek rising. A burning house floating down it. 

"It was scary, it was depressing," Watson said in a phone interview. "Where the Greenbrier's at, it's just like where I grew up, Milton, Baghdad, Pensacola. Hard-working people who love their families and love their sports. That storm came in and houses were washed away, people lost their belongings, their pets. People lost their lives. Angie was delivering fresh water to people two hours away from the hotel. It was devastating." 

The flood hit a year and a fortnight ago, on June 23. The Greenbrier Classic, scheduled to begin July 7, was canceled two days later. Large parts of the course, called Old White, a picturesque C.B. Macdonald classic, were underwater. The rest of it was in shambles. Nearly two-dozen lives were lost in White Sulphur Springs, where the Greenbrier resides, and in nearby towns. Jim Justice, the owner of the Greenbrier and then a candidate for governor of West Virginia, mourned the loss. He told a reporter, "We're scarred."

This Golf Channel piece narrated by Tim Rosaforte captures the carnage.   As for the architectural challenges, they hired a very talented hand:

Keith Foster, the architect, dropped everything and came in to access the damage, a

doctor of golf-coursing responding to a 911 call. His first instinct was to say it could not be done. The golf course could not be reclaimed and restored in one year and open for play for the 2017 tournament. The hotel didn't even have hot water and locals suddenly rendered homeless were being put up in its plush rooms. The idea of a golf tournament seemed just...remote. But Jim Justice opened his checkbook and prodded Foster. "We just made one decision after another after another on the fly," Foster said in a recent telephone interview. If you know his name, it might be for the restoration work he has done at Colonial, Southern Hills and Philadelphia Cricket. "We did it the old way, hole by hole. We didn't get everything done the way we would ultimately like it, but it's most of the way there." On the resort guest-Tour player continuum, Foster said he was far, far far on the side of the everyday paying guest, while noting "we have our Bubba tees."

It all starts at the top, in this case with Jim Justice.

A Get Out of Jail Free Card -  I was reliably informed by Yoda that there was no such thing as intent, there was only doing or not doing....  Per Rick Blaine, I was misinformed:

Anchoring, as we all know (and as the USGA knows, with the exception of one word) is when the club, or the gripping hand, or a part of the forearm is held against the body,

relieving the player from making a free swing by restricting the movement of the club as if it were physically attached to the player’s body and thereby providing extra support and stability for the stroke. 

Anchoring is NOT deemed to have happened when and if a player holds the club, or the gripping hand, or a part of the forearm against the body, relieving the player from making a free swing by restricting the movement of the club as if it were physically attached to the player’s body and thereby providing extra support and stability for the stroke … if the player, regardless of having done all of the above, merely states that it was not their “intent” to have done so. That it was not their “intent” to have anchored. 

Intent is the get-out-of-jail-free card for both the player and those who are meant to police the player.

For the record, it was not my intent to double-bogey the 18th holes this morning, especially since I was one over par on the tee.  And yet, despite my clear intent, a six went on the card, so WTF?

It appears as if the USGA and the R&A, anticipating a clog of calls about the club or the gripping hand or part of the forearm accidentally or otherwise brushing against or settling upon one’s shirt, added the stipulation that there must be intent for the rule to have been violated. They thereby exempted themselves from all adjudicating, in effect saying that while we wrote the rule, we will not interpret the rule. 

It appears that the governing bodies in an attempt to soften the blow of taking the long putters away from the world of bad-back and flinch-afflicted golfers, at the very least provided a loophole and at the very worst abdicated the throne of governance.

Egads, what a governing class we're stuck with.  Add this to the botched ball-moving rule revision and the as-yet unresolved issue of outsourcing rules enforcement to guys in their pajamas, and a fellow could almost turn cynical.  Fortunately, Brandel provides an Arnie story to cheer us up:

A few years ago I was practicing in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the TPC and was talking to a couple of past-their-prime touring pros, Gibby Gilbert and Butch Baird. The conversation came around to Arnold Palmer and his legacy, which is a hard thing to quantify – kind of like the spirit of the game or sportsmanship, they are far easier understood in example than they are articulated. 

Gibby said that once he and the King were playing in a tournament and Arnold pointed to an imperfection on the green and wanted to know if Gibby thought it was a ball mark, meaning something that could be repaired, or just an imperfection, meaning something that couldn’t be repaired. Gibby said, “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt." Arnold looked at him as if he had called his honor into question, and then sternly said, “I don’t want the damned benefit of the doubt, I want to know what you think."

Hmmm...did anyone know that Brandel lived in Scottsdale?  I'm just spitballin' here, but they should think about using him in promotional materials for the community....

Portstewart, Ready For Its Close-Up - Lots of video showing off the other-worldly outgoing nine of this Ulster gem:

And don't feel obligated to stay with these clowns for long, but it is worth watching a bit to see the splendid first tee:

Of course, once the camera scans to capture the buggies, I emotionally checked out.....

As we've discussed previously, the best viewing might proved to be Thursday and Friday, because the outgoing nine is where we find the dramatic dunescape.  The inward nine has some challenging holes, but nowhere near the eye candy that precedes it.  Though this gent makes a good point:

This week’s Irish Open – now part of the European Tour’s Rolex Series, which carries a $7 million purse – figures to be a similarly festive affair. Portstewart is best known for the Strand’s front nine, but the closing three holes are ideally suited for tournament viewing because they run parallel on open land, with the 16th and 18th greens resting at the base of the clubhouse. 

“The final day, people are going to be here in this big stand,” Moss said, pointing to the viewing area extending down the 18th fairway, “and they’re going to get the 18th green, the 17th tee and the 16th green,” Moss said. “There’s not many tournaments where people get that. . . 

“We want it to be a party. The European Tour is very keen on that. It’s changed from golf being played in cathedral hush. They want a bit of noise and a bit of fun.”

Not terribly interesting from a design perspective, but if it's close they'll be able to see much of that final three hole stretch.

They considered alternative routings, but with the exception of moving one tee left it as guests will remember it.... 

Friend of the blog and Portstewart member Lowell Courtney is marshaling on the 18th hole, though as of yesterday afternoon during the Pro-Am he seems to have already lost his will to live.

We'll Always Have Memphis - Phil is at The Greenbrier with brother Tim on the bag, but is appropriately taking the high road as relates to his recent divorce:

"I'm hesitant to talk too much about anything because I'm so appreciative of the time that 

I've had with Bones for 25 years, that anything I say positively about what I'm looking forward to with Tim and so forth I feel would be taken as a shot at Bones, and I don't want to do that," Mickelson told reporters Wednesday. "I have too much respect for him and our time together over the years. The thing I would say is that Tim is one of my favorite people. I love being around him. He's one of the people I respect the most, and throughout my career he's been so supportive of me."

I think that's really great, and I hope the two can remain good buddies for the long-term.  But a mere two 'graphs comes this, and I'm just wondering on what planet it isn't, you know, a shot at Bones:

"I would say that after having not won for four years, knowing that my game is at a level that is good enough to win but not having done it, I think the one thing is an element of maybe being comfortable with my brother," he said. "Maybe he gets me a little more relaxed and takes a little pressure off me, and maybe I'll play my best that way. But there's no replacing Bones. He's phenomenal."

That Bones guys is phenomenal, unless you feel the need to win.....

And this won't hurt me reputation as the master of the seamless segue, but Golf Digest has reposted a 2009 item on Bones' 10 Rules for Reading Greens.  It's worth a read for anyone that struggles on the greens, including this:

04. Develop an insurance read. One of the toughest reads is the six-footer that has a small but telling amount of break -- half a ball outside the edge, for example. After reading from my customary angles and making a decision, I use a final insurance read that gives me a feeling of certainty. Your insurance read can be any technique you like, but for me it consists of lining up the putt in the standard way -- squatting behind the ball -- and then imagining how the ball would behave if I started it dead center. I'll almost always see the ball peeling off a certain amount left or right, so then I know to aim that far out on the other side. Like I say, the insurance read can be anything, but you should have one.

Please tell me he's just effing with us....  I'm lucky to commit to one read, as wrong as it will inevitably be.

 A Good Call - Apparently Rory has failed to internalize the maxim that one should never punch down:

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland – Rory McIlroy has banned himself from twitter and social media following his online public spat with Steve Elkington and given over

control of his Twitter account to his new wife, Erica Stoll. McIlroy made the big reveal ahead of the $7 million Dubai Duty Free Irish Open which he is hosting this week at Portstewart. 

Elkington accused McIlory, No. 4 in the world, of being bored with golf and more interested in money after the four-time major winner missed the cut in the U.S. Open.

“Rory is so bored playing golf, without Tiger the threshold is prolly four majors with 100 mill in the bank,” Elkington tweeted. 

McIlroy couldn’t resist replying: “More like 200 mill, not bad for a ‘bored’ 28-year-old, plenty more where that came from,” Rory replied while adding a list of his considerable achievements in his 10 years in top flight golf.

Let Rory explain:

“It’s not what was said,” McIlory explained. “It’s who said it. Anyone that’s been in that environment should realise how hard golf is at times. That’s the thing that got to me more than anything else. 

“If it was written by a member of the media or something I could let it slide, because I can sort of says to myself ‘they don’t really know how it is and the don’t know what you have to deal with.’ But a former player that has won a major and been successful? That’s sort of why it got to me and why I sort of retaliated a little bit.”

Yeah, technically that's true, but it was in a galaxy far, far away....  

Of course Elk's not the only alter kocker he's misunderstanding:

Rory McIlory says Tiger Woods taught him to be 'ruthless'

 Is that what he called it?  'Cause, you might be in need of a refresher course....