Weekend (and Wales) Wrap

Back to business as usual....  Let's catch up on the weekend, but also some important stories that went down during our travels.

Duh Playoffs - They got everything they could have dreamed of, no?  The two biggest names in the game mano-a-mano down the stretch, and I believe that soporific is the word you're looking for....  Shack led with this:

What a strange weekend at the immaculately groomed Glen Oaks, as the first Northern Trust to replace Barclays fell a tad flat despite a fantastic leaderboard.

Maybe it's the time of year on Long Island (better things to do), the venue (exclusive club), every fan turning into a documentarian (cell phone video and photos allowed), chip-out rough (ugh!), but for a showdown with two top players this one seemed a bit low on energy.

If I had to pick an order, I'd blame time of year impacting Long Island fan interest, player fatigue at this point of a long season and a lack of urgency in the playoff format that might inject some life. Plus, Glen Oaks Club did a nice job but it's hard to beat Bethpage energy.

It was more than a tad flat, my friend...  Especially considering the back-to-back bombs they dropped on each other on Nos. 17 and 18.

Then Geoff dives deeper in this post:

Dustin Johnson won in a playoff over Jordan Spieth, and while the August timing is

tough when the weather screams "family-day-at-the-beach," the event fell flat for another reason: the "playoff" word.

We connote playoffs with excitement in sports.

With do or die.

With drama.

With upsets.

With play well or go home.

He goes on at length, so feel free to dive in...

Now's not the time to for a long-form piece, but there's a reason that I always tried to acknowledge two things when deconstructing Commissioner Ratched.  The more substantive is that despite controlling the most important golf tour on the planet, Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach has no control over the 4 1/2 meaningful events each year.

It's not hard to imagine how frustrating that must be, the indignity of it all.  But under the control of a non-golfer like Tim Finchem, we've ended up with the proverbial camel.  The events can be appreciated as big-money tourneys with strong fields...  But as a coherent climax to the season, they're a joke.

Finchem also erred in reacting to the early events, most notably the Vijay win that was locked down before East Lake.  The events are structured to ensure that the winner isn't chosen until Sunday in Atlanta, but that yields Billy Horschel and Brandt Snedeker...  And while Shack focuses his wrath on "Playoffs", perhaps the more telling phraseology is "season'long."

Because a true playoff concept is alien to golf, where any one week is a crapshoot....  I actually think they'd do better in embracing the big-money shootout option, but that involves giving up the pretense that it's meant to reward long-term performance.  The only drama to be found is guys scrambling to get into the field for Boston, but that requires a fan to care about the guy sitting in the 101st slot...  Oh, and he might finish his round before CBS comes on the air.

So, it's a hot mess that we'll pray Commissioner Monahan can somehow make rational.  Limiting it to three events and ending earlier can't hurt...  At the very least we won't have the guys talking about their vacations... Maybe.

Changing Of The Guard - Easily the biggest story to break while I was away, was the announcement that Billy Payne ha stepped down as Augusta National and Masters Chairman.  Jaime Diaz with a typically-strong profile of the man and his significant tenure:

In his relatively short time, Payne has fulfilled an enormous to-do list, ranging from admitting the first women into the club in 2012 to the successful development of the

Drive, Pitch and Putt Championship, demonstrating vision, grit and nuanced gifts for leadership.

Under Payne, the position of the Masters and Augusta National among golf’s major organizations has climbed in stature and import. The club has a bigger voice in the game’s issues and seems to operate with more autonomy. By shrewdly blending its increased revenues with a broader, more culturally current vision, Payne pushed the previously often hidebound club and its tournament into the 21st century with a vitality that in retrospect is stunning.

You'll need to read the whole thing, though the list of accomplishments seems a bit forced.  Yeah, he took down a damaged tree, but we're not yet at the point where that warrants a Nobel Peace Prize.  He got the cub through the women membership issue with grace, inviting substantive women and ensuring that they're visible and welcome.

I do think his most substantive legacy will be in opening ANGC to the Drive, Chip & Putt, which was quite the stroke of genius.  It shows the club in a different light, one that's open and welcoming.... Combined with the club's role in promoting amateur golf, this might be how Billy is remembered.

The enhancements to the club I'm of mixed minds about....  I have no problem with improving the patron's experience and the new driving range was no doubt much needed, though that has had the unintended result of keeping the players out of the locker rooms.  The media center seems like overkill, and on this I think Jaime misses the point:

• Media innovations including, in 2016, the first live 4K broadcast of a sporting event in the United States, and the first live virtual-reality experience made available to the public for a professional golf event with Masters Digital.

Yeah, great, but still no shot-tracer, on course reporters or blimps on the flagship coverage....  Remember, when Bubba hit his famous gap wedge we had no clue where he was, his yardage, his lie or his path to the green.

But this I think was always an unrealistic expectation:

On creating a rolled-back Masters ball: “That would be a very drastic step, and we would hope before that was necessary, there would be a collaborative decision. We love to follow collaborative decisions. Not be a loner. But we reserve the right to do so if we think it’s needed. We retain options about our course. So, I would suspect we would exhaust those before we would unilaterally jump ahead of others.”

No one wants to see those fifty yards added to No. 13, but to expect one club to blaze this path is really a bit much.  They're not just any old club I know, but we have governing bodies for a reason....

But I'll just leave it that this picture is an enduring legacy for the man everyone knows as Billy:

Yes, we do need to discuss Fred, but how about we circle back to that tomorrow?

The Solheim Cup - I was disappointed to be away for this, though it was mitigated by the Suzann Pettersen no-show.  I'm still unconvinced that she's been made to understand her sins, but until she starts reading this blog that may remain the case.

Two items have jumped out at me in the aftermath, excluding the obvious issue of how the event survives in light of Asian dominance of the women's game.  While I like Juli Inkster everywhere but as an on-course reporter, her inclination to share her inner Stacey Lewis is off-putting:

Juli Inkster used her post-Solheim Cup press conference to sound off about the lack of

respect she feels the women's golf game gets in the sports world. 

"As women golfers we always get shortchanged, and it irks me," Inkster said sitting next to the trophy, not long after the 16.5-11.5 American victory. 

"Even from the PGA Tour down, I just don't think we get the respect we deserve," she continued. "I'm going to say it right now, and I probably shouldn’t say it, I just don't understand how all these companies get away with supporting PGA Tour events and not supporting LPGA. It makes me a little upset because I think we've got a great product, I think we do a lot of things really good and I think the golf is fantastic, and I think we deserve our due."

The good news is that she didn't go Full-Stacey and pretend that the women are as good as the men....  But the implied threat of blackmail should not go unremarked.  How do they "get away" with it?  It's actually quite simple, you have to compete for their support, and prove that associating with your product enhances their business....

Or you can unleash the dogs of social justice war on sponsors, and makes us hate everyone involved....

And Annika also garnered some good press:

When I remember Sorenstam’s captaincy, I won’t remember the final score as much as I’ll remember seeing Annika open herself up to us like we’ve never seen before. 

This is one of the all-time greats, a Hall of Famer who won more LPGA titles (72) than anyone except Kathy Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82), but Sorenstam distinguished herself in this losing effort. She showed her team how to lose with grace and dignity and how to put up a fight even when you are overmatched. 

I’ll remember Sorenstam for her inspiring appearance Saturday in the media center, where this captain, who was so measured her entire playing career, let her guard down and invited us into her head and heart. She was as good as you could possibly ask a captain to be answering questions with her team getting trounced worse going into singles than any European team in the history of the Solheim Cup. Chin up, jaw resolutely set, she let us hear how a champion thinks when her back’s to a wall. She struck such a genuine tone. There was a bonus, too, there was her unexpected good humor that night, which sent a couple jolts of laughter through the interview room.

I'm glad, because she was kind of an a******e in prior versions, especially in Pettersengate.  Randall Mell particularly like this scene when all was over:

 Although these events do thrive on a little bad blood between the teams....

Amateur Hour - Did you catch that great U.S. Amateur Final?  Unfortunately, not too many did...  Shack was all over it here, but then he also offered options to enhance the event:

--Ranking incentive? As mentioned in the Golfweek piece, the it may be time to

consider some exemptions to match play for top-ranked amateurs, which would incentivize them to remain amateurs and reward summer performance leading into the U.S. Amateur. The World Amateur Golf Ranking would also get a huge credibility boost. 

--Day and date change. The U.S. Amateur has always fallen near the start of school for those on the semester system and traditionally falls on a Sunday finish against other golf. Perhaps being played a couple of weeks earlier and finishing on a less competitive day will restore some prestige. Other events on the USGA calendar may be moving (Herrington/Golf World) so why not consider the Amateur as well? 

--Perks for semifinalists and finalists. We know that exemptions to the U.S. Open disappear when a player turns professional, as do free passes to U.S. Open sectional qualifying. This is why winners of semi-final matches seize on the Masters invitation and not the U.S. Open exemption, prompting the USGA to bring the U.S. Open trophy to the first tee. It's time to reconsider. 

--Lose the logos. While it's difficult to pin down the impact, the sight of players sporting company affiliations does not exactly cry amateur golf or improve the event. Years ago the NCAA made players cover college affiliations in non-NCAA competitions, but it may be time to ask players to not look like professional golfers at the U.S. Amateur.

There was a day when the Am was a more important event that the Open, but admittedly that was many generations ago.  The event has been badly hurt by the Tour's changes to its qualification process, notably doing away with Tour Q-School.  Guys just don't want to hang around as amateurs, given the increased time to make it to the big tour.

But the other ting that has diminished this event are the NCAA's, which have seized the role of primary amateur competition, thereby complicating the USGA's options for finding new dates.  

But the USGA has also been shooting itself in the foot with its Walker Cup selection process.  No sooner was the Am concluded than they announced the team for this year's event at LA Country Club, when the inevitable occurred:

Among those left out were Sam Burns, who earned the Nicklaus Award as the top player in college golf and recently tied for sixth in a PGA Tour event; mid-am Scott Harvey,

who was part of the 2015 Walker Cup team; and Illinois senior Dylan Meyer, ranked No. 4 in the world. 

The USGA’s International Team Selection committee does not make its points list public, and no USGA official was made available for comment Sunday to discuss how the roster was constructed.

Not only would a points list provide a news peg after each event for amateur golf, but how can w expect players like Burns to wait around only to take a shiv from the USGA?

Millennial Nonsense, A Continuing Feature - Strange Daze leading up to September 1st, as the Tour takes steps to suck up to millennials....This I suppose was inevitable, so bring those cameras:

The Northern Trust is the first FedEx Cup playoff event, but it’s also a first in another

way. 

This week’s event marked the first one in which a new spectator phone policy was introduced by the PGA Tour. Beginning with the action at Glen Oaks Club, spectators will now be allowed to take photos and video of on-course action during tournament rounds. 

Photo and video of practice-round action was previously allowed, but this new policy extends that permission to actual tournament play.

It's the posting to social media where the Tour was so clueless, so this is mostly for the good.  Obviously the players will have to deal with the cameras...  I did see a guy using his iPad on yesterday's coverage, and I just don't get how lugging that around all day is any fun.

Then there was this that reeks of desperation:

Alexandra Dieck is known for touting the latest fashion trends on her blog Lexicon of Style. Later this week, she'll be tackling a rather unexpected subject: golf. 

Dieck, 26, is among a handful of social media influencers hired by the PGA Tour to tout the sport to younger audiences during the Northern Trust tournament this week. Dieck's social media peers will include other fashion writers, foodies and mommy bloggers. 

"We are creating a totally new experience in addition to great golf that is inherently more social and fun, and we want more people to know about it," said Julie Tyson, PGA Tour's senior vice president of championship management. "We are widening our circle of storytellers to include influencers we know our fans already look to for insights and information."

Mommy bloggers?  Yeah, that's the ticket...  But see if you find this even funnier, as Ms. Dieck provides her golf bona fides:

For Dieck, golf isn't just another subject matter. She grew up watching her dad play on Sundays and earned a scholarship to compete for the University of Houston. However, it's remained a hobby for her. 

The PGA Tour social media team discovered Dieck's passion for the sport after she posted a few Instagram pictures from the Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, which she regularly attends for fun with her friends and family. 

"People always get super surprised when I play," she said. "I'm not really good at golf – but I can hit under 100."

Yards, I assume?  They're hiring her to promote golf, and not even smart enough to correct her language to something a golfer won't cringe at....

This is her day job, in case you need help folding a scarf...  Just screams golf, doesn't it?

On Deadline - The more significant deadline has thus far been noted only by Shack, that Friday is the expiration of the PGA Tour's opt-out of its network TV contracts with CBS and NBC.  In a year of declining ratings and with the parameters of the schedule remaining unclear, if I'm the Eye or the Peacock I'm begging Jay Monahan to pull the trigger.  Which means he won't.... With Fox choking on their USGA contract and the horrible demos, it's hard to see where he could do any better.

The second deadline, also this week, is for public comment on the proposed rules changes.  Geoff had these personal comments:

'm still not a fan of dropping the ball one inch from the ground or tapping spike marks, and we'll see if the governing bodies heard from many on those topics.

Yeah, it's just a silly look and what problem is being addressed?  It's the second though, about which I'm curious, given his coverage of the ball-marking fiascoes.  If we maintained the inability to fix spike marks a scuffs of the green, we're enabling those that choose to be "loose" with their marking technique.  I'm unhappy that this is the state of play for the next sixteen months.

I've got way more, but I'll entertain a motion to adjourn until tomorrow morning....