Midweek Musings

It's an abbreviated version thereof, as it's a getaway day.  I'm absconding with Employee No. 2 for a few days to celebrate our 15th anniversary, so you'll have to absorb The Prez Cup without my guiding insights.  Win-win, Baby!.

Prez Cup Permutations - Shack, writing in Golfweek, tells us to fear not the rerouting, even if it's hospitality-driven:

For starters, the course will open with quite possibly the meanest, craziest start in team golf history. With a tee engulfed by grandstands clad in white dressings, the specter of a loud start is superseded only by what awaits on the 423-yard first: a lake-guarded

fairway. While normally not the way you want to kick off any golf course, in foursomes we may see some very quick second-tee arrivals. 

The finishing stretch, however, is what normally matters at a championship venue and the PGA Tour has crunched the numbers to find most matches end by the 15th or 16th hole. In the Presidents Cup played, only 38 percent of matches have made it to the last. 

Instead of finishing before the glass-and-steel clubhouse overlooking New York Harbor, the 490-yard, 14th figures to be a key test in matches that nearly all will play. This also means all but blowout matches will pass through the driveable par-4 12th, normally the 16th hole for Liberty National members.

I know you've heard this ad nauseum, but the importance of blowout matches reaching the best holes continues to elude your humble blogger.... Here's Geoff on the finish:

What does this leave for the final four holes? 

Not much, which is the point. The best golf holes have been played. Not that the finishing four are bad, they just aren’t as match-play friendly as the previous 14. 

A forced layup at the 398-yard, 15th will be all about the layup. 

A stern par 3 at the 16th features a boldly contoured green that will be very hole location dependent in producing drama. 

The 395-yard, 17th does not exactly stand out as a great match-play hole and was probably best played less.

So, imagine a tightly-contested event such as occurred two years back in Inchon...   Anirban Lahiri will now be vomiting on his shoes (we kid because we love) on a Par-3 finisher....and this is all Geoff can say about that:

Given the short and tortured history of one-shotters to finish off rounds — Congressional and East Lake’s par 3s were both demoted after unsuccessful runs — this one does not have a high bar to overcome to be the scene of fun match-play moments. Playing slightly uphill to a long, well-bunkered green set at an angle, the hole is nice at 193 but appears more fun at the 163-yard tee roped off by the PGA Tour setup team. There is a bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew element that could make for intriguing scenarios in both four-ball and singles play.

Is he saying this is a Cape hole?  Because there's no such thing as a bite-off-more-than-you-can-chew 163-yards shot for these guys, given that it's probably a pitching wedge.  Actually, I though his best comment about the golf course was back at his blog:

This is Liberty National, the slightly schizophrenic Bob Cupp/Tom Kite design full of interesting moments but a bit unsure what it wants to be (Augusta North? Whistling East?).

And how many of those moments are architecturally-driven, as opposed to close-ups of Lady Liberty?

Lest there be any doubt, Knees will not be taken this week, despite the best efforts of our media.  Shack had this from Stricker's presser:

Q. And Steve, not that it's likely to happen, but what would your thoughts be if one

of your players wanted to stage a silent protest during the National Anthem? 

STEVE STRICKER: Say that again? 

Q. What would your thoughts be if one of your players wanted to follow the NFL players and stage a silent protest during the National Anthem? 

STEVE STRICKER: We've had a discussion already and none of my players want to do that.

But Steve, what about social justice?  Puerto Rico hasn't been rebuilt yet and TRUMP!

I have trouble finding even trace elements of ambiguity in that statement, yet he gets asked again later:

Q. You said your team has discussed what to do with the National Anthem this week, and in other sports over the weekend, we've seen it become very contentious. Golfers, by the nature of what you're doing, don't have a National Anthem played at every event but this will be different. Can you elaborate on what the discussion was you had with your players? 

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, I just wanted to know what they wanted to do and how we wanted to proceed as a team. So we were going to do what we always do and that's take off our hat and put our hands across our chest and over our heart and respect the flag. So that's what we're planning on doing.

But Steve, it's working so well for the NFL, and what about the NARRATIVE?  Perhaps the press was unaware that Peter Malnati failed to qualify for the team.

Cart-driver Davis Love had these comments elsewhere:

“I think you’ll see in golf that there’s a little bit more restraint,” he said Tuesday on “Morning Drive”. “We adhere to our rulebook and to our core values and to our traditions, and I think that’s why our sport is so successful." 

“There’s a time for us to protest, and it really isn’t during the national anthem. We ought to take a break during the prayer or during the national anthem to thank our country, to thank our forefathers who went before us. And then we can protest with our votes, with our letters to our congressmen or however we want.

“But I think President Trump is right. There is a time for protest, and it probably isn’t during the national anthem. Our country has fought hard for that right.”

Good call guys.  Or maybe it's just that Golf Channel doesn't want to have to do this.... 

Golf in the City is the meme of the day....Alan Bastable creates his Fantasy Nine:

NO. 2: "XXX" — PAR 4, 453 YARDS

What you see is what you get on this long straightaway par 4. And by "what you see" we

mean hundreds of blinking, blinding billboards, thousands of selfie-stick-toting tourists mindlessly walking through your line, and one life-sized Elmo tending the flagstick (yes, he/she expects a tip). Times Square has been sanitized since its grimy heyday but the name of this hole pays homage to the neighborhood’s glorious past.

OK, the triple-X is cute, But DJ would still play it Driver-8-iron....

While Alan has a passing nod to Central Park, Ron Whitten goes all-in, designing and routing two 18's:

The DeBlasio (South) Course

The Cuomo (North) Course

Cute, though obviously Ron is not a student of New York politics.  Cuomo and DeBlassio can barely tolerate the other being in the same state, much less the same park.

We've reached a new low in scripting:

Creepy mannequins, that's the ticket....  Or maybe they're taking the mannequin challenge, is that still a thing?

Earlier in the week, the Tour Confidential panel took this query:

3. The U.S. hasn't lost a Presidents Cup this century (it leads the all-time series 9-1-1) and is heavily favored to win again next weekend at Liberty National. Put on your marketing caps and give golf fans a reason to tune in.

I'm in such a generous mood, I'll give you the whole lot of their answers:

Ritter: It's a team event and guys on both sides will be all-in. Pair it with what should be a rollicking NYC-area crowd, and this should be a blast. 

Sens: Mickelson back once more as elder statesman; Tiger as sideline inspiration; Reed

and Spieth paired up again; a U.S. team loaded with young firepower. Strictly from a marketing standpoint, anyway, I think those all beat "Up Close and Personal with Anirban Lahiri." 

Zak: If all is fair in this marketing exercise, I'd just hype up the International squad as much as possible. I'd call them the greatest International team of all-time. I'd call them the greatest threat to the American team the Prez Cup has ever seen. I'd lie and lie and lie about how they're going to keep it close and I'd hope it would make enough people want to watch out of spite. 

Bamberger: I'd suggest this: "This 2017 American Presidents Cup team is so good it will make you forget about the 1927 Yankees." 

Berhow: Do you remember Rory vs. Reed on Sunday of the Ryder Cup!? Well, Rory won't be there, but Reed vs. Branden Grace can get your blood pumping! OK, so it's no Ryder Cup, but team events and match play competitions bring out the best in players. Most of these guys will take some time off after this, so they have a lot to leave out there. If nothing else, the Manhattan skyline can provide you with some A+ views.

The nod goes to Jeff Ritter...  it's team match-play, what more do you need?

The Prez Cup is a perfectly nice little event.  My sense is that the only folks who disparage it do so because it's not the Ryder Cup.  They forget, of course, that it took sixty years and Seve for the ryder cup to become the RYDER CUP.  

Da' Hall - It's Hall of Fame Induction week, which I've completely ignored up until now.  We'll lead with that TC panel:

4. Davis Love III, Meg Mallon, Lorena Ochoa, Ian Woosnam and the late golf writer Henry Longhurst will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Any beefs with this class? And were any deserving candidates snubbed?

You know the issue here....  While Woosie and Davis are just a smidgen below where this analyst would draw the line, once you've embraced Couples, Monty and O'Meara there's no logic to excluding these guys.  

What did the guys have to say?

Ritter: For the past couple of classes, Woosnam was one of the more glaring omissions, so nice to see that finally corrected. I wouldn't call this a snub, but I think John Daly's case is fascinating: two epic majors among eight PGA and Euro tour titles. Of course there are all the WDs and drama, but can you tell the story of the game without him? When Fred Couples got in with one major, his popularity was cited as a contributing factor. I'd argue the same holds true for Daly, and I'd put him in sometime down the road.

Just shoot me now!  Now can you see the issue with those relaxed standards?  You'll not be surprised that this was my favorite response:

Bamberger: It's a good class, to be sure. I only wish we could read what Longhurst would have written for the occasion. Jenkins, when he got it, counted up the Hall of Fame members with whom he had had drinks. Talk about setting the bar high.

Hard to conceive that Henry Longhurst was snubbed for this long, but I'm sure he'll be proud to have his bust next to John Daly's....

The induction ceremony was held last night in NYC, obviously scheduled to coincide with the gathering of the golf world for the Prez Cup.  I'll turn it over to Shack for his very appropriate call-out today's pampered players:

Even though the LPGA Tour is dark this week, their players turned out to support their former rival Ochoa. Besides another stellar turnout of past female HOF inductees,

current stars Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis were in attendance. 

Even though the ceremony was timed to coincide with the 2017 Presidents Cup to allow officials and players gathering in New York to attend, most under-55 male stars failed to take the hint: your attendance is requested at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony. 

As Doug Ferguson highlighted in his AP game story, Love said the night was the greatest honor of his life. Yet not one player or assistant from Love's 2016 Ryder Cup squad or the 2017 Presidents Cup team was able to tear themselves away to show support. 

Granted, there are team room table tennis games to play, room service appetizers to devour and naps to take. But given how much nonsense is uttered when today's young players hang around when a buddy wins, the no-show brigade suggests the admiration does not extend to their elders or golf's history, which allows them to play for massive money. 

Or maybe they only show if camera time is guaranteed?

Worse, however, than the younger players not attending was the noticeable absense of longtime Love competitors and Cup colleagues--Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Nick Price, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk--who are all in town and yet were not able to make the short trip from their downtown hotel to Wall Streets' beautiful Cipriani ballroom. The first four are current World Golf Hall of Fame members, the last two will be inducted some day.

It's hard to expect the fan to treat this as important when the players don't....  I'd love to know whether Davis was there for Freddie's induction...  

Enjoy the week. 

Tuesday Trifles

Lots for your delectation this morning, with an emphasis on the Prez Cup of course...

Give Me Liberty (National) - New York, Baby, the city that never sleeps.  An awkward fit for golf, to be sure, the one sport that must be played in daylight.

Oh, where to begin?  Perhaps with this triumph of hope over experience:

The Americans have won more tournaments. They have better world rankings. They are playing before a home crowd. They are big favorites. 

“We’re tired of losing. There’s no doubt about that,” Price said last month under grandstands that were being constructed around the first tee at Liberty National Golf Club from the Statue of Liberty. 

“Adam Scott has been on seven teams in a row and he hasn’t won one yet,” Price said. “That’s an awful lot of golf shots to come up empty-handed.” 

The International team — 12 players representing eight countries from every continent but Europe — gets yet another crack it when the 12th edition of the Presidents Cup begins Thursday across the river from America’s most international city.

The good news is that they're obviously due and that they almost pulled it off last go round in Korea...  The bad news?  Well, there's no shortage of that, as this year's roster seems far inferior to the 2015 version.

Tim Rosaforte catches Captain Nick Price slapping lipstick onto that pig with this:

The 17-hour journey home from South Korea following the 2015 Presidents Cup wasn’t as long as one might imagine for Nick Price. The International team captain kept thinking back to the 1983 Ryder Cup, when the Europeans turned the tide of American domination with an incredibly hard-fought one-point loss at PGA National against a U.S. team captained by Jack Nicklaus that included major winners Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, Ben Crenshaw, Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins and Tom Kite. At least that’s how Seve Ballesteros framed it in the European locker room. 

“All the guys were glum and down,” Price said in a conversation we had recently. “But Seve went in and said, No, no, no. This was big for us. We can compete now.’’ 

I asked Price how he felt on that flight home, and it took him 20 seconds before responding. At one point he said, “I’m trying to find the right words here.” Finally he said, “I think with a lot of enthusiasm for the upcoming Presidents Cups.”

 You'll see the issues with this analogy as well as I, most notably the absence of guys named Ballesteros, Faldo, Woosnam and Langer.... As for the well-liked Mr. Price, this is his third stint as captain, largely because of the dearth of alternatives...  

The other obvious flaw in the argument is that Europe had a chip on its shoulder against the big, bad US of A, being very much a secondary tour.  But their key players were invested in that tour, unlike today's International team members that all reside at either Isleworth or Lake Nona.  What else ya got, Tim?

That was not the feeling I got talking to players on Price’s team. Have things changed? 

“Yeah, definitely,” said Marc Leishman. “My first Presidents Cup [in 2013] compared to my second Presidents Cup [in 2015], I feel like we bonded earlier that week as a team. The feeling around the team room was just a lot better. Hopefully it will work better this time. We’ve got more guys that have played before. We know each other. Everyone on the team knows each other well. It’s going to be very tough to beat the Americans, but I feel like this is a good opportunity for us. There are a few guys in good form that have bonded well, so I’m really excited for the week.” 

Lahiri was part of the thrilling finish at Jack Nicklaus G.C. that most of America’s golf audience didn’t see live because of the 13-hour time difference on the East Coast. His four-footer for birdie on the final hole of his match against Chris Kirk lipped out, otherwise the match and the matches would have ended in a tie.

Things have always changed, at least until balls are in the air...  But my sense is that 2015 was a fairly weak American squad on the road in Inchon, and that the Internationals will rue letting that one get away.

The focus on Lahiri is the tell, because he unfortunately gagged horribly on that 4-footer, and was only selected as a captain's pick this time because there wasn't another viable candidate.  Not a sign of strength...

There are quite a few backgrounders on Liberty National, none of which make me more favorably disposed to the place.  First, the estimable Brad Klein:

You won’t see any of the site’s toxic past during the Presidents Cup. Instead, viewers will 

be treated to emotional images of the Statute of Liberty, Upper New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline and the Freedom Tower. As a backdrop to a golf match pitting 12-man teams from the U.S. and the rest of the world outside of Europe, that makes for a powerful setting.

It’s not just the sense of history hanging in the air. It’s also a knowledge of what lies buried deep below. Such as a century of industrial and petrochemical waste, thanks to a history that included an oil refinery, rusted rail tracks and warehouses, and stints during World War II as an ammunition dump and prisoner of war camp. 

Liberty National, a 2006 design by Bob Cupp and Tom Kite, is a 160-acre engineering miracle of land capping, venting and reclamation. Owner Paul Fireman of Reebok fame spent $250 million to rehabilitate the wasteland for golf. Construction by the firm Heritage Links involved covering the wasteland of oil and industrial debris with four million cubic yards of fill. (That’s enough to fill an entire football field to a height of 1,875 feet.) The hauling required “200 truckloads of dirt per day for two years straight,” Fireman said. Reclamation enabled tidal marshlands to thrive. Twenty acres of nativized fescue areas now teem with wildlife.

I guess it's all for the good, though one really doesn't want to focus on what's beneath the surface.  Brad has lots of good stuff, including this as relates to the event:

Two curiosities of the revision result. The course will now end with a par-3 – though fewer than half of all matches will get there. There’s also something of an asymmetry in the par-71 course, measuring 7,328 yards. The nines total par 38-33, with the front measuring a stout 4,232 yards and the back only 3,096. 

The undisputed gem out here is the 10th hole, only 150 yards to the smallest (3,000 square feet), most tightly bunkered green on the course. The hole has all of the intimacy and subtle terror of Troon’s famed “Postage Stamp” eighth or Merion’s miniscule 13th hole. Aligned south to north, it’s exposed to winds from either side and bears special attention because of the proximity of the harbor along the right side, with the Statue of Liberty providing a stirring emotional presence just over the shoulder of approaching golfers and right in front of stands for 4,000 spectators. It’s possible in a golf tournament to overuse certain beauty shots. Not here.

 Err....OK.  The routing change I find curious, as it ensures that non-competitive matches will reach the best holes only by ensuring that the better matches will be decided on the lesser holes...  Does that make sense to you?

Klein gives a detailed rating of the course on all appropriate metrics, with this conclusion:

Overall: 6.7

An amazing setting in which to play golf, with the story and imagery more impressive than the shotmaking.

Yeah....  about what I figured.

Stephen Hennessy offers up things we don't know about the place, again not helping in any respect:

1. The total cost to construct Liberty National? $250 million. As a past oil 

   

   1937 and 2002.

   terminal infiltrated with petroleum, lead and toxic waste, almost 90 percent of that $250 million comes from the cost of a Superfund clean-up, reported by our Architecture Editor Ron Whitten. Taxpayers took most of the cost. 

1. Yes, the cart paths are really worth more than $1 million. Unlike most golf-course cart paths made from asphalt or concrete, Belgian block pavers were imported for use here at LNGC. Each paver was individually installed around the entire golf course, driving up the cost of construction and complexity of installing it.

I'm certainly pleased to have paid my fair share....  But the first thing I look at when visiting a new course is the quality of the cart paths....

In case you're suffering from a lack of enthusiasm, here's a slideshow of things that happened at previous installments of the event, including this one-off:

That time the Internationals won (1998)
That's not a misprint. The Internationals won this event once. This photo is proof.

It's all there, from Aquaman to Sammy the Squirrel.... My fave, of course, is "Tiger Who?", the one caddie that Veej didn't have the good sense to fire.

But given that photo above, this will not shock anyone:

Liberty National is the site of this year's Presidents Cup. But on Monday, the big news 

centered on the event's next host, Royal Melbourne. More precisely, when the contest will be held. 

Although Melbourne was named the venue in 2015, officials announced that the biennial celebration will be moved to December. Though the Presidents Cup is typically played in early fall, it's a date that has historically worked well with other Australian tournaments. Moreover, the 1998 Presidents Cup—which served as the lone victory for the Internationals—was held during a similar spot on the calendar. 

"Australia has proved to be an incredible host for the Presidents Cup in the past, and we expect nothing short of the first-class hospitality and welcoming culture that our fans, players, their families, our guests and staff have received in each of our previous two events in Melbourne," said Matt Kamienski, PGA Tour executive director.

I think that's a great move....  Interesting that this will be the first year of the new PGA Tour schedule, but it further declutters the calendar and will hopefully encourage more of the lads to play an event or two down under.  Plus, from the standpoint of the host team, a better chance of catching the Yanks off-form....

Alex Myers has lots of fun with the inevitable "WAG's of the Prez Cup" feature.   Yeah, he leads with Paulina, but been there, done that.  Of greater interest are the Rookie WAG's, for instance Rickie finally has a date:

Her name is Allison Stokke and her choice of bathing suit makes it clear that she's a patriot.  Mercifully, we won't have to endure another scene like this from Hazeltine:

This probably wins for most awkward photo:

Looks a little DJesque there, no?

Mickey At The Bat - Guy Yocum has written exactly 111 installments of his My Shot feature, the last page of each Golf Digest on Dead Trees.  I know that, because he counted them up, such was his excitement at this get:

We Finally Got Mickey Wright!

The greatest female golfer of all time has rarely spoken at length since her mysterious retirement in 1973, but at long last she opens up in a compelling conversation

Mickey is now 82, so this was nice to hear:

I STILL LOVE SWINGING A GOLF CLUB more than just about anything. For years after my last competitive appearance in 1995, I'd hit balls from my porch. When the USGA Museum put together the Mickey Wright Room in 2011 and needed a few mementos, I sent, among other things, the little swatch of synthetic turf. I hit balls off it one last time and figured that was it. Then some good friends of mine in Indiana heard about it and sent me a brand-new practice mat. You know how it works: Put out a mat, some balls and a club in front of a golfer, and the temptation to use them is going to be too much. So I keep my hand in, five or six balls at a time. Just enough to remain a "golfer."

She's still a fan of the game, though this seems on target:

I'VE BEEN TRYING the new swing ideas I keep hearing about, things I see players doing on TV. They leave me cold, to be honest. I watch the way players keep their feet planted, their backs perfectly straight and rigid with their lower bodies hardly moving at all, and just know they're going to get hurt. They look overly "leveraged," not the perfect word perhaps, but one all those angles bring to mind. It's just the opposite of how I learned, which is the swing happening from the ground up. I guess I just don't understand the modern way. One thing's for sure, I see an awful lot of players wearing medical tape. Hands, arms, legs, back, everywhere. That can't be a good sign.

No it can't....and this:

IN 1954, while still an amateur, I was paired the final 36 holes of the U.S. Women's Open with Babe Zaharias. I was 19 and scared out of my boots. Can you imagine suddenly competing against the greatest athlete of all time? Babe was larger than life, almost like something from another planet. She was coming back from surgery a year earlier for colon cancer but still was phenomenally athletic. Her arms and legs had a muscular quality I had never seen before. She was a showman and completely owned the galleries. On one hole she called her husband, George, over to shield her while she removed her girdle. I was naive and blushed when she did that, but Babe thought nothing of it. She showed it to the gallery and said, "Just watch me hit it now." She was rough and tumble, competitive, and kind. And my, could she play. She's often remembered as a long hitter, and maybe it was true before I saw her, but at that U.S. Open it was her short game that stood out. She won that championship by 12 strokes. I finished tied for fourth, 17 strokes back. It seems like such a privilege to have seen her play close-up. Only two years later, she was gone.

But this might be my favorite bit of all:

WHEN I SEE A YOUNG PLAYER standing with her hand on her hip after missing a

putt, I feel like jumping through the TV screen and giving her the talking-to Betsy Rawls gave me shortly after I came on tour. I was an exceptional ball-striker already, and it annoyed me to no end to get beaten by someone who didn't hit it as well but chipped and putted better. I had this arrogant attitude that if I hit it better I somehow deserved it more. After I'd complained for the umpteenth time to Betsy about this, she finally had heard enough. First she reminded me that the basic premise is to get the ball into the hole in the fewest number of strokes. A simple fact, but one lost on a lot of good ball-strikers. Then she told me to start taking responsibility for every shot and stop feeling sorry for myself. When the pity parties stopped, I immediately started winning. I would have won some tournaments, but I'm certain the total wouldn't have reached 82.

What about tamping down imaginary spike marks?

 Why are you still here?  Its Mickey Effin' Wright, go read the entire thing.

Wally World - One of the titans of the golf world is moving on:

Acushnet Holdings Corp. announced today that current president and CEO Wally Uihlein is retiring effective January 1, 2018. Uihelin has been with the company since 1976 and a 

senior executive (and major player in the golf industry) since 1995. According to the company's release, Uihlein will continue with the company as a member of the Acushnet Board of Directors and Advisor to the Chairman.

During Uihlein's run a number of exceptional products were developed at Titleist, most notably the massively successful Pro V1 franchise, which started in 2001 with the original Pro V1. Scotty Cameron putters and Bob Vokey wedges also came to the forefront during the Uihlein era.

A consequential figure for sure, he also saw the brand through its sale by Fortune Brands and subsequent IPO.  He also avoided some of the excesses of his era, letting players like Tiger and Rory walk when they commanded nine-figure endorsement deals.

Probably the best testament to his role in the game is that son Peter, pictured above who has just earned his way onto the PGA Tour, will be forever known to those in the biz as "Wally's kid".

Hide Those Cameras - It speaks well of him that he'll do this:

Steve Williams is starting a new chapter in his caddying career—looping on the LPGA. And another chapter, with Adam Scott, won't last much longer. 

Williams will be on the bag for Danielle Kang at this week's New Zealand Women's Open. Kang explained how the two teamed up at her press conference on Monday. 

"I needed a caddie, a local, because my caddie isn't able to be here," she said. "Someone said, 'Would you mind having Steve Williams on your bag?' I thought it was a joke at first. Eventually I emailed him, and that was that. I had hopes of finding a local caddie, and he's as local as it gets. I think I did pretty well there." 

Williams, a New Zealand native, has never caddied in a women's event before.

"It'll be a good experience to see if I can learn something from how they do things," Williams told the New Zealand Herald. "Danielle is a good player, and once you start the tournament, you want to win, so nothing will change there."

On second thought, maybe this is a better fit than I first realized., because there won't be any of those pesky spectators for him to bully....

Today In Rules Fiascos - Do we love this game because of or despite it's inherent cruelty?  Did you hear about that unfortunate soul on the Web.com Tour?

A leaf led to one player's four-stroke penalty — and even worse — it might cost him a PGA Tour card as well. 

Matthew Southgate was one over through 14 holes during the final round of the DAP Championship on Sunday, which is a part of the Web.com Tour Finals. 

While Southgate was putting on the 15th at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio, his ball was struck by a leaf that blew across the green, and it pushed the ball off line ever so slightly.

Do watch the video, because it was a short putt and the change in direction is rather dramatic.  In fact, I'm guessing that Mickey Wright would find no fault with his reaction...

But the key bit is that the leaf was moving.....  Ouch!

Matthew's putt was deflected by a leaf in motion and the putt was missed. Rule 19-1 requires for the stroke to be cancelled and replayed. Matthew proceeded to tap in his next putt and continued on with his round. The committee was made aware of the situation after Matthew signed his scorecard and prior to the close of competition. The result was the following: Two penalty strokes for a breach of 19-1 (Matthew did not cancel and replay the stroke, see Decision 19-1/3) plus an additional two penalty strokes for a breach of 6-6d (see the exception for Rule 6-6d). 

This all led to a quadruple-bogey 8, and it got worse when he bogeyed 17 and tripled the 18th to shoot 79 and fall into 66th place. Now he has even more work to do to jump into the top 25 at next week's Web.com Tour Championship to secure his PGA Tour card.

The author attempt to link this to Lexigate, which is quite unnecessary and only distorts the matter.  Players should understand the rules, though this one is admittedly a bit obscure and I assume that on their Tour rules officials aren't quite as ubiquitous.

But the two-stroke pile-ons seem unnecessarily cruel, no?  Especially in this case as it seems we're penalizing the young man for signing for a higher score than he would have made....  I get that he technically did not proceed as required under the rules, but had he followed the rules his score would have been lower than or equal to that which he signed for, no?

The National Golf Links of America

There can be no really first class golf course without good material to work with. The best material is a sandy loam in gentle undulation, breaking into hillocks in a few places. Securing such land is really more than half the battle. Having such material at hand to work upon, the completion of an ideal course becomes a matter of experience, gardening and mathematics. - C.B. Macdonald

The National Golf Links of America is the crowning achievement of Charles Blair MacDonald, generally acknowledged as the father of American golf architecture, a term he originated.  But while

Macdonald in 1895.

that honorific is non-controversial, I've long believed that Macdonald might be more accurately thought of as the father of American golf, for it is he that set the path the game would take in the New World.

As a young man, Macdonald was fortuitously sent to St. Andrews, where he learned the game from none other than Old Tom Morris.  He quickly developed into a strong player, and tested his skills against the best players of that era, including Young Tom.  

Ran Morrissett, the proprietor of Golf Club Atlas, has this to say about Macdonald from his 2003 review of the golf course:

For some reason Golf Club Atlas precludes copy-and-paste, which will necessarily limit my use of Ran's insightful thoughts about the course and its holes.  But it was to the benefit of American golf that Macdonald was introduced to the game on the most strategic of golf courses, then made trips back to Scotland in 1902 and 1906 to study the great links before beginning work on what he always intended to be a masterpiece.  And that which he learned he put into practice, naming the holes after the source of his inspiration.

There are only four or five good holes in golf. The local scenery supplies the variety. - C.B. Macdonald

The use of what he (and his acolytes Seth Raynor and Charles Banks) called template holes is often misunderstood to be mere replicas or copied holes, a gross distortion.  Macdonald decided for himself what were the great holes and, more importantly, why they were great.  And in laying out a course he would look for natural land forms that would allow him to employ such timeless strategic concepts....

Our day at The National begins with an arrival at approximately 10:30 a.m. and an immediate conundrum as to how to order our day.  The National is famously old school as relates to it's renown luncheon, requiring a jacket, and we're trying to avoid changing into golf clothes to hit some balls and back again into proper attire.  In earshot range of his guest, the friendly locker room attendant informs us that we'll only have to change shoes, as the jacket can be worn over shorts and other golf clothes.  Amusing, that.... but alas, no pictures to share.

We take a quick spin through the clubhouse which is about what one expects, with this mural on the ceiling of the entry hall:

The Founder has pride of place in the impressive library:

Though that table in foreground had an interesting artifact on the day of our visit:

That would be the Walker Cup, whether the original or a replica I can't say, though since it was just contested on the Left Bank I'll guess the latter.  You might be aware that the inaugural Walker Cup match was contested at The National in 1922, with an American team that included Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans, among other luminaries of the day.  

The small range is located down by the water, a nice spot to spend some time, except for the gale force winds.  I exaggerate slightly, the winds were north of 20 mph and I couldn't hazard a guess at the strength of the gusts, but our warm-up is straight into the teeth of it.  The knockdown seems to be working, but doesn't it always on the range....

The clubhouse viewed from the short-game facility near the first tee.

We're the first in for lunch and our anticipation is great, as the waiter greets us in welcoming fashion.  "Our lunch begins with an appetizer of a cold lobster", he informs, and we nod mutely in agreement.  It is a full, unshelled lobster served chilled, with a mustard-mayo sauce to accompany it.  Lobster bibs are not on offer, and suddenly being in my golf clothes seems rather foolish.  But the lunch is an amusing juxtaposition of the staid with comfort food such as creamed corn and macaroni and cheese served ladled onto your plate.  It's a great experience, just perhaps wiser to have the lunch after golf and prior to a well-earned nap.

We sat in the far right corner, watching the flag on the 18th green approach horizontal.

There's a body of thought that The National is more museum piece than modern golf course, an opinion with which I strongly disagree.  We played their middle set of tees at 6,500 yards, but it will play as long as 6,900 yards, long enough for all but the beasts of the PGA Tour, especially in the wind.  The fairways are generously wide, but the prevalence of bunkers, many small and irregularly-shaped, makes control of the ball essential.  

More than three blind shots is a defect and they should be at the end of a fine long shot only - C.B. Macdonald

People also take umbrage at the blind shots, ironic given his feelings on the subject.  He also named names, noting that courses such as Prestwick and Royal St. Georges had far too many of them.There's also the issue of whether you consider the tee shot below to be blind:

That's one of my hosts, John Knox, bashing his tee ball over the caddies' heads on No. 2, Sahara.

Note what Macdonald has done in giving us a view of the fairway to the right.  Our mind instinctively extends it so that we're acutely aware of the landing area, though we can't actually see it.  Blind, not blind I say...

The crowned green complex is also pretty special, difficult to hold but appropriate for the short club in:

The third hole is among the most revered, Macdonald's homage to the Alps hole at Prestwick.  Many, including Ran Morrissett and Tom Doak think it far better than the original, if only because the drive is more interesting.  Doak had this to say in describing his Alps hole at Old Macdonald:

"Alps” -- Macdonald's third hole at National Golf Links was not just an homage to the Alps at Prestwick, but an improvement on the hole -- instead of making the approach over a dune completely blind, his arrangement of the hole allowed a long drive down the right to get a peek at the green, while allowing a way around the dune for short hitters trying only to play the hole in three installments.

I don't disagree, though I'm not terribly impressed by the original, in which play is over a huge dune that obscures any view of the green or immense bunker that fronts it.

Here's the view from the tee:

It's a tad wider than it seems in the photo, but it simultaneously feels narrower because of the imperative of finding it.  

Here's the view of the green, with my second shot just through it.  I'll venture that I'm hardly the first to over-club:

I do not believe anyone is qualified to pass on the merits of any one hole, let alone eighteen holes, unless he has played them under all varying conditions possible – varying winds, rain, heat, etc. – C.B. Macdonald

I think this is very true, especially about courses built where the wind tends to blow.  But I also think it's perhaps even a bit truer about holes where the reaction of the ball on the turf is a defining feature, so I'll not opine on the Redan, also regarded as one of the finest examples of the genre.  

My shot was played too conservatively to the right, yet a favorable kick left it on the right fringe.  Nick Frelinghuysen, our hero that arranged access to the club, is seen below dealing with the after-effects of veering too far left with his tee ball.

I did enjoy the Short Hole, No. 6, with it's manic, three-section green.  John was able to get this photo of my tee shot there:

What I like most about this tee is that I noticed what surely must be the Eden Hole, in far right of the frame.

Unfortunately, things then started getting a little ugly for me....  I know, a first world problem for sure, but I caught a fairway bunker on No. 7, called St. Andrews but in reality their Road Hole.  My overly-long approach shot found their road bunker, which wasn't large enough for my golf ball and me at the same time:

With the ball on the downslope and my swing partially impaired by the back face. I managed to get the ball up to the shorter cut of grass, not a bad effort though it inevitably tolled back in.  Is the bunker unfair?  Certainly.....  Is that relevant?  I'll defer to the expert:

The object of a bunker or trap is not only to punish a physical mistake, to punish lack of control, but also to punish pride and egotism – C.B. Macdonald

I've just been taken to the woodshed by none other than Charles Blair Macdonald, so perhaps we should move on?

The other interesting design element of the Road Hole is the use of a large, deep bunker behind the green in lieu of a road and stone wall.  Having experienced their road bunker I would imagine that this back bunker does a fair amount of business, despite the staircase leading into it.  It'll be no easy up-and-in, but the competent player should be able to secure a bogey from its depths.

The routing is largely straight out and back, though Macdonald slightly alters the line of certain holes to accordingly change the effect of the wind.  But we've been warned from the moment we enter the locker room to enjoy the outbound nine, because the trip home will have challenges.

As we make the turn and grab a beverage at the halfway house, the senior caddie takes his best shot at convincing us to move up to the forward tees.  He wasn't wrong, but I just pegged my ball from the middle tees and got on with things.  In this case, three consecutive 420-yard Par-4's back into the teeth of the wind, all played Driver-4-wood.  In two cases that left me short of the green and on No. 11 I managed to dribble my pellet onto the front of the green... But, alas, that's the famous double-plateau green, and all I accomplished was to leave myself a 32-yard putt up to a small tier at the very back of the green.  Can you say 3-putt bogey?

Putting greens are to golf courses what faces are to portraits – C.B. Macdonald

The greens are huge, a combined total of some 170,000 square feet, and always a logical conclusion to the hole involved.  Most are without excessively severe contours, the exceptions being the Alps, Short and Plateau holes.  The latter is to me the most interesting case, because it's found on a long Par-4.  But the green site is in the middle of a featureless field, and one can see the need to mix it up a little just for interest....

When a controversy is hotly contested whether this or that hazard is fair, it is the kind of hazard you want and has real merit - C.B. MacDonald

Does that include your version of Strath Bunker?  I'll try not to be bitter....

The bunkering, as noted earlier, is original as it is maddening, with all sorts of odd contours to create issues for the player.  Occasionally there are land-forms within the bunker, such as these:

In other cases they are oddly-shaped, thereby creating nooks and crannies to torment beleaguered players.  But, despite Macdonalds reverence for all things Scottish, they're not especially linksy....  or perhaps more accurately, there's a wider array of style of bunker than is found on a typical links.

Did I mention the wind?  This from the tee of the Eden Hole (No. 13) might communicate better than my whining:

The only minor disappointment I'll express is with the 14th, the cape hole, the more so as that's a design concept first articulated by Macdonald.  Translating for those that aren't architectural geeks, a cape hole is one where the fairway angles away from the player requiring a decision of how much to chew off.  I'll acknowledge that Ran Morrissett disagrees and finds the hole retains its strategic import, though acknowledging that equipment and ball-driven distance gains have merely moved the aim pint to the right.

To me it's a fine golf hole in isolation, but it's such a short par-4 that there's insufficient reward for taking extra risk.  It's only 393 yards from the tips, and we played it at under 350, so it's a short iron in regardless of club hit and line taken off the tee.  And, in one of the few changes since Macdonald's demise, this green has been pushed back some 35 yards from its original location.

The other interesting aspect of this hole is the water short of the green, seen in this photo looking back towards the tee:

My first thought was wondering how high the stakes would need to be to cause me to wade out to play a ball miraculously landing on terra firma.  But the younger of our two caddies told us that at low tide that area would be sand, and a miss short can be played from there.

The view looking home from the green also doesn't suck, including the iconic windmill:

A better view of the windmill with the 15th green and 16th fairway in the foreground.

The holes coming home, with the exception of the 16th hole Punchbowl, are original but no less captivating.  Here's the view of the punchbowl from back in the fairway, most certainly with a head cover removed:

And from on the green, which is directly under that windmill:

The shortish Par-4 17th is a hoot, though I would have been better served had I waited to get a line off the tee from our caddie.  The second shot is played over a sand bar with a bunker on top, out of which your humble correspondent was required to play.  The proper line was further right for an unobscured view of the green.  I'll know better next time...

The 18th is even more dramatic, a not overly-long three-shotter sweeping along Peconic Bay to finish at an infinity green, though I doubt that term was in use in Macdonald's day.  In fact, no less an authority than Bernard Darwin called it the best finishing hole in all the world:

The 18th green in the late day light.

It's a staggering accomplishment, that a layout from the early 1900's remains, with unbelievably minor alterations over the decades, sufficiently relevant that it can successfully host the Walker Cup in 2013.  Though I should note that Macdonald continued to tweak his baby for the remainder of his life.  The course measured 6,100 yards when it opened in 1909, but by Macdonald's death in 1939 it had grown to 6,700 yards, and each and every hole had been changed to some extent.  

I would speculate that a player unaware of the club's lineage and reputation would, having just played its course, walk off the 18th green exhilarated by the shots presented and challenges taken on, and would find the characterization of this golf course as some kind of museum piece laughable.

I'll conclude with this from the legendary Bernard Darwin on the merits of The National:

How good a course it is I hardly dare trust myself on a short acquaintance; there is too much to learn about it and the temptation to frantic enthusiasm is so great, but this I can say: Those who think it to be the greatest golf course in the world may be right or wrong, but are certainly not to be accused of any intemperance of judgment.

I think Macdonald would be very pleased with that assessment, especially given the authority of the source.  But the thought of giving it the kind of detailed study envisioned by Darwin is a very pleasant one indeed.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  In conjunction with my September 2019 visit to NGLA, this post has been updated to correct typos, as well as replace a couple of photos lost to the ravages of time.  In one case, I couldn't find the photo referenced, so I left the placeholder.