2016/17 Wrap

It was a mere 364 days, but it felt like an eternity....

Is That All There Is? - It was a split verdict from the judges, as you've no doubt heard:

ATLANTA — While Xander Schauffele was on his way to becoming the first rookie to win the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake, the

algorithmists back in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., were hard at work telling us who might win the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes with it. Overnight leader Paul Casey. Justin Thomas. Jordan Spieth. 

At one point with a handful of holes to go, a possible playoff between Thomas and Spieth for all the lettuce and the sterling-silver spun trophy designed by Tiffany & Co. 

“I laughed when I saw that,” Thomas said. “I thought honestly, this probably will happen and the golf world will completely blow up and lose its mind if Jordan and I were in a playoff for the FedEx Cup.”

That's about the only thing that might have saved the hot mess....  But this guy pretty much said it all with this quip:

Schauffele, who came into the week 26th in the points standings and with about as much chance of winning Powerball as the tour’s granddaddy of ’em all, even had an outside shot on Sunday before ending up third. “I almost cheated my way into winning the FedEx Cup when [JT] really deserved it,” said Spieth, who had he finished second and Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman and Jon Rahm all finished T-2 or worse, would have done just that.

Translated into English, that means that the idea of the Spieth v. Thomas cage match would be decided by what others did.  Oh the drama....

Brian Wacker has a good feature on the winner, who seems to be a comer and yet another member of the Class of '11:

ATLANTA -- In June, Xander Schauffele survived a five-for-two playoff to qualify for the U.S. Open. The following month, he birdied the 72nd hole at the Greenbrier to win

by one. Last week outside Chicago, he made four birdies and an eagle over his last six holes to tie for 20th to survive and advance in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs.

The 23-year-old was only a rookie on the PGA Tour this year and already developing a reputation as being awfully clutch. 

Sunday, he only enhanced his stature. Schauffele rallied to win the season-ending Tour Championship, curling in a short birdie putt on the par-5 18th to cap a final-round two-under 68 to win by one over Justin Thomas, who took home the FedEx Cup and its $10 million in the process. 

Schauffele, meanwhile, netted more than $3.5 million in earnings for his victory and third-place finish in the final FedEx Cup standings.

For anyone not with us of Friday, that's a replica of Calamity Jane being held by Schauffele in the photo above.

Shack sets the dial at "Wistful" as he fantasizes how this plays out were it 2019:

Remember, the schedule that year will likely finish on Labor Day Monday, meaning the Tour Championship could start on Thursday and end on Sunday. 

Exceptional choice of photo by Shack...

Instead of everyone trying to figure out who is winning the FedExCup and overshadowing a golf tournament Coca Cola pays handsomely to sponsor, what if Sunday was mostly about the Tour Championship and the need to make it to championship Monday. 

In the case of the 2017 Tour Championship, Xander Schauffele's win would have been a huge way to sneak in to the Monday finish. And what happens Monday? 

Why six players at 18 holes of very simple stroke play for $10 million. 

If the Tour Championship this year had cut to six--other numbers seem awkward--we'd have the guys broken into two threesomes or three twosomes playing Labor Day Monday for the big prize.

Six guys playing for $10 mil large?  Curious that he thinks that might be, you know, interesting....  But the key is this bit:

For those who don't recall the many times I've floated these scenarios where we send the algorithms home and just let the lads play golf, spare me the arguments that season long success must matter to the very end.

At some point we have to cut the cord and just make this a very simple shootout for the big money. 

The entertainment will ensue and even better, sponsors will love it, television will have something to talk about that is actually more interesting than a mysterious mathematical formula, and the average fan will be able to follow along. Best of all, the sun will still rise in the east and set in the west.

Exactly.  The Player of the Year can be used to acknowledge and reward the best player of the season,.  Let's sue the FedEx Cup to have some fun...

JT also had some quotes that sum up how off-putting this whole thing is, first this:

“Feels very weird,” Thomas said. “It’s odd getting something so tremendous, one of my best achievements in my career without winning a golf tournament, so it feels different, but it’s still great.”

It is for sure.... and this one as well:

When it came to this week, Thomas didn’t want to know about all the math behind the FedEx Cup. All he cared about was winning, and he nearly did it for a sixth time this season. 

“I knew if I won, finished second, maybe tied second I probably had a good chance depending on what Jordan did today, but I truly didn’t know,” he said. “It is weird just because I compared it earlier to Q school … you almost get out there not trying to win, you’re trying to finish a certain thing. 

“If you told someone that going into a tournament, you’re like, Yeah, I’m just trying to finish better than 45th, it’s like why are you going? What’s the point of even going? I thought about that out there on the course today. It’s like why am I’m going to try for finish third?”

Stupid is another word that comes to mind....

Now one minor quibble with Shack above....  You'd still need Steve Sands because on Sunday you'll have a rugby scrum to get into the Monday shootout, but perhaps some simplification could enhance the players ability to know where they stand.  It's fun to see the best players in the world under intense pressure, but only if they can understand where they stand and what they have to do...

The Tour Confidential lads were asked for their highlights from the full year, and the answers are interesting:

Jeff Ritter: What I'll remember most: JT became golf's newest star, Spieth became the player of his generation, Rory began breaking down and Tiger hopefully got the help he needs to have a healthy and happy next chapter, whatever it may be. 

Sean Zak: I'll (hopefully) remember this year as the first real public acceptance of the post Tiger-Phil era. For two decades we expected those guys to carry the PGA Tour torch, but we can't legitimately expect anything from them anymore. That's OK, because we can now expect DJ, Spieth, JT, etc., to carry the sport. They've made it pretty fun, too. 

You're giving we whiplash here...  Jeff seemingly can't move on, though  Sean clearly has.  Can you guys just work this out between yourselves?

Josh Sens: Nicely said, Jeff. In the women's game, a couple of Lexi Thompson moments will also linger with me. The embarrassing rules kerfuffle at the ANA, but also her riveting comeback in singles at the Solheim Cup. Oh, and on the men's side, how about that epic U.S. Amateur?

Glad to see the love for two epic matches tat I missed while we were overseas.  It's hard to argue with these two old pros, isn't it?

Michael Bamberger: The most impactful and memorable day of the golf year was the Sunday of the British Open, from start to finish, and by finish I am including Jordan Spieth's post-round remarks, and Kuchar's, too. That was sport at its best. 

Josh Berhow: I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but what a season it really was. Sergio got the monkey off his back, Lexi became even more of a superstar in the women's game and Thomas and Spieth proved they should be around for the long haul. Sean hit it on the head that the torch is unquestionably in the process of being passed to the young guns. Twenty years from now, will I remember all of this? Who knows. But I will remember vividly walking with Spieth and Kuchar at Royal Birkdale on Sunday and seeing some of the most fascinating golf of my life on that back nine.

Props to Mikey Bams for both keeping it brief and mentioning to post-round sportsmanship.

Silly Outtakes - Dylan Dethier has the silliest take on this hot mess, with this promising header:

A 6-step plan to put some fire back into the FedEx Cup finale

Whatcha got, Dylan?

The Tour Championship? More like the Bore Championship, am I right?

Maybe it's East Lake's forgettable series of tree-lined par 4's that lulls me to sleep. Maybe I've seen so many 72-hole stroke-play tournaments this summer that this one, with just 30 players, leaves me unfulfilled. Maybe it's just the event itself that lacks prestige—it's football season, after all, when on Sunday afternoons golf doesn't just take a back seat, it's in the trunk.

Or maybe there's a larger problem. The entire premise of the FedEx Cup finale—the cartoonish $10 million dollar prize, plus a bonus pool of $25 million spread to the rest of the players—lacks meaning. It's millionaires making more millions. That isn't to say the Tour isn't onto something with a high-stakes format, because it is. Problem is, the stakes aren't high enough.

Embrace the magic of "and", Dylan, it's all of the above....

2. No more ho-hum East Lake. There will be multiple sites of play...

…determined by whatever course the lowest seed has moaned about most in the past. And the aggrieved greenskeeper of each venue will set the pins. Good luck at Chambers, Billy Horschel!

He's not going for realistic here, but the prospect of forcing BillyHo back to Chambers brings a schadenfreudalicious smirk to this writer's mug. 

And this:

6. And the winner still gets $10 million…

…but—and this is the key to the entire event—it's paid in full by the guy who comes in last. The parallel Loser's Bracket will become the marquee event, and the 30th-place match instantly becomes a MUST-watch. The loser will have to deliver the prize in a wheelbarrow of cash to the champion on the 18th green.

Simple as that! Ratings will skyrocket, and the Tour Championship might just become the fifth major. Sorry, Mr. Commissioner, sixth major.

The concept of the guys playing for their own money is an evergreen fantasy...  Not gonna happen, but perhaps it will help us forget the mind-numbing conclusion to the season.  

Did Someone Mention a Split Verdict? -  Just another in a series of seemingly-effortless segues from your humble correspondent:

In the pantheon of tough finishes to a round of golf, Jason Dufner's day at the Tour

Championship ranks right up there. 

For most of his second round, the 40-year-old was sailing along, four under through 15 holes and climbing the leaderboard. Then something strange happened. At the par-4 16th, Dufner putted out and didn't retrieve his ball from the cup. After making a bogey on 17, he did the same thing. 

This wasn't Jordan Spieth's famous "Go get that!" moment from the British Open. Something was clearly amiss. Was Dufner angry? Injured? Concussed? 

On the 18th hole, Dufner gingerly plucked his ball from the cup after putting out, and the mystery was revealed: He had split his pants near his back pocket and was attempting to conceal the evidence. 

But nothing gets past those Golf Channel television cameras.

Now how do I get this image out of my mind?

Rant Warning -  Sorry folks, but I am unable to take a knee on this nonsense....  You're well within your rights to get on with your day...

No doubt you're aware of the controversy swirling around the National Football League...  It has to do with symptoms of brain damage for sure, just not CTE and the like.  We are talking about the national anthem and players using the moment to protest, and for some reason Tour rabbit Peter Malnati feels compelled to opine:

Here is his statement in full:

Before I commence the defenestration of Mr. Malnati, let me share some of the equally-clueless responses of that TC panel I linked above:

Ritter: No matter how you feel about kneeling during the anthem, it takes guts to be the first in your sport to voice an opinion, so I applaud Malnati for stepping up. It was a thoughtful post and one that will hopefully spark a healthy discussion from both sides of the issue. 

Sens: Good for him. When people get all hot and bothered about the importance of "keeping politics out of sports," they ignore the fact politics and sports have always been entangled. If you doubt that, read up on the origins of the Olympics. Plus, what those complaining are usually saying is, "I don't like your political views, so please shut up about them." So, yeah, good on Malnati. It took all the more courage given how conservative the world of golf is.

Wow, Josh, you really need to get out more....  Because political leaders have co-opted sport for their own purposes in the past, sport should willingly engage politics?  Good luck with that...

Circling back to Malnati, let's set aside his diatribe against Trump, which is hardly the stuff of courage.  He'll now be a hero on the left for his brave stance....

But of course he's had to obscure the origins of this moment to make his point.  When a certain San Francisco  baller first took the knee, Trump wasn't on anyone's radar.  The country actually had elected a black man president, but there was frustration with the policing of minority areas in Democratic-controlled strongholds.  But that's all Trump's fault for sure.... 

In fact, Malnati is cluelessly playing into Trump's hands, as it's an argument POTUS can't lose.  In fact, I would note that Kaepernick is a good proxy for how we got Trump, and as one blogger frequently notes, this is how you get more Trump.  Of course I wish Trump had used different language on this subject, but he is what he is.

It's always funny when the left tries to stand behind free speech, as there's always a disconnect with reality.  They'll go to the barricades to protect themselves from speech of which they don't approve, but they'll elide and limitations on that which they do.  For instance, in the instant case these guys taking the knee are not on their own dime...  They're in uniform playing for their teams, not a time when they are free to wax philosophic about the state of the country....  and the league and teams is free to control it as they see fit.  I believe Roger Goodell is making a tragic mistake in not shutting this nonsense down, but I'm amused that Malnati can't see the cause and effect between Colin Kaepernick and Donald Trump.

I'd also note that his analysis of the purpose of playing the anthem also suffers from a serious misdiagnosis, but that's far from unusual on the left.  And if you can't accept why we play it, then you'll not understand why a large subsection of the population is outraged about a man with a $7 million contract disrespecting his country....  Ironic, no, that Malnati credits himself with empathy, when he has no understanding of or appreciation for the strongly-held feelings of half the country?

The Tiger Beat - Let's be clear, I have not and will not read Tiger's 1,500 word blog post.  Here's some highlights:

Tiger Woods’s health is progressing. 

In a 1,500-word update on all things Tiger (and more), the 41-year-old golfer said he has

started to hit 60-yard shots, and that he's chipping and putting every day and is working out six times a week. Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, who live nearby, have joined Woods for putting contests and short-game practice. 

As for Woods’s full-game playing prospects, the jury is still out, and Woods isn’t locking in on any future plans. In fact, Woods said he’s unsure what "kind of swing" he’s going to use. Six-month X-rays from his April surgery are on the horizon, but Woods said he is sleeping better because he does not have "any nerve pain going down" his leg.

What kind of swing?  He's always telling ius that the pain is gone, yet no word on whether the meds to treat said pain are similarly gone...

Shack found this the most interesting point, and for clarity I'll include his lead-in:

Given his recent book and the extensive chapter on technology taking away much of the Augusta National he knew, this Woods line regarding new Chairman Fred Ridley suggests he's looking for changes. 

All of the players are looking forward to becoming better acquainted with his successor, Fred Ridley. He’s an accomplished player and I look for him to be more instrumental on the golf course side of things and how it plays.

 I'm amused because it was Ridley that botched the enforcement of the penalty for his bad drop at the '14 Masters...  Perhaps he's moved on.

I'll be back tomorrow to talk Prez Cup, and I still owe you a post on last Thursday's wonderful outing.