Friday, September 15, 2017

Friday Frisson

A little of 'dis, a little of 'dat for you this morning....

This is Major Bush - The Little Tour That Can't steps in it again:
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) -- Rain and strong winds have forced Thursday's play to be scrapped at the final women's golf major of the season, which will start afresh on
Friday as a 54-hole event. 
LPGA Tour Commissioner Michael Whan said what the little play was achieved Thursday morning at the Evian Championship is wiped from the record. 
Whan announced the abandonment at 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) almost 4 1/2 hours after players had been called off the wind-swept course overlooking Lake Geneva. 
"Nobody even played half a round," Whan said, adding that a 54-hole championship finishing Sunday offered the "cleanest, fairest, most competitive" option. 
"We know that if we said 72 holes and we start again tomorrow (Friday), we're probably looking at Monday and Tuesday, and that's not great for anyone," Whan said.
Anyone?  The "Most competitive option?"  Call me cynical, but isn't the original 72-hole format used because it's the most competitive format?

Beth Ann Nichols gets the money quote:
This was the best decision, Whan said, to “have the cleanest, fairest competitive round that’s still going to finish on a Sunday with somebody jumping from an airplane with a flag behind them.”
Say what?
That last statement, which refers to the elaborate 18th green celebration that includes a
parachutist, shows the importance to the sponsor of having a Sunday finish. No tournament on the LPGA schedule has more glitz and glamour than Evian, where there are galas and cocktail parties and fireworks that rival Disney World throughout the week. Evian rolls out the pink carpet here, and it’s lovely to see.

But, as one player put it, “it’s never been about golf here.”
It's never pretty when they let us see behind the curtain, but this is an epic fail.  Mike Whan has generally been a strong leader for the ladies' tour, but this is all on him.  The original sin was obviously granting major status to this event, which always seemed contrived and ill-advised.  Not only did it create an awkward five majors, but the event itself never seemed especially worthy of elevation.

But in prioritizing parachutists over actual players, he's deserving of all the incoming fire he's receiving.  The players react here and the fans here....Ryan Lavner had this:
If you want the Evian to be viewed like a major – and, to be fair, its worthiness was debated long before this week – then you have to treat it like one. Every attempt should be made to play 72 holes.
Even that comes up short...  It shouldn't be over until they play 72, full stop.

 And Shack had this:
While this is a credibility killing moment for the Evian and LPGA Tour's bid to force unwanted major status on us since 2013, but the episode also reminds us that for all of our quibbles with the various majors, they have earned credibility by insisting on playing 72 holes and never shaping the conclusion around a parachutist.
Although I think the most damning line was Lavner's intro:
It seems not even the LPGA views the Evian Championship as the fifth major in women’s golf.
Yup.

Keeping Them Down on the Farm -  Conway Farms, that is, where the weather was far more benign:
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – It was a chamber of commerce type of day Thursday at the BMW Championship. Sunny skies, perfect temperatures, little wind – and Conway Farms could
do little to put up a fight. 
In each of its first two chances at hosting Chicagoland’s FedEx Cup playoff event, Conway Farms had never allowed a scoring average below 70.176. On Thursday, though, the scoring average was 68.855 as players feasted on those ideal scoring conditions. 
“I’m a little surprised,” Charley Hoffman said. “During the pro-am, the greens were real firm. Got out there this afternoon and the greens were a little more receptive. I don’t know what they did, but the greens were definitely way more receptive today than yesterday. That usually leads to low scores.”
In terms of those about whom we may care:
Phil Mickelson: Lefty went bogey-free and made five birdies to shoot an opening 5-under 66. He began the week at 36th in FedEx Cup points, and at T-10 after the first round is projected to climb to 29th. “To make it into East Lake would be great,” Mickelson said, “and also great to play the week before the Presidents Cup and help me keep my games sharp.” 
Rory McIlroy: Battling the injury bug and seeming like he’s ready for a break, McIlroy looked uninspired in Round 1, shooting 1-over 72. He opened with a double bogey and added four more bogeys. At 51st in points to start the week, McIlroy is projected to fall to 58th. 
Jason Day: New caddie, no problem for the Aussie on Thursday, as he fired a 7-under 64. Now, Day was 28th in points to start the week, but now he’s in a more comfortable position, projecting 10th after 18 holes.
Rory should have shut it down after the PGA, as opposed to sleepwalking his way through the ass-end of the schedule.  But the concept of projecting their status after 18 holes is comical.... Jason Day will be fine as long as he's posting 64's, but anybody would be.  He hasn't been able to stay on form for 72 holes, nor has our Phil for that matter....  The only good news for those two is the absence of a cut.

Click through if you care about Jamie Lovemark and/or Tony Finau...


Say What? - We have an all-time great reason for a suspension of play in a professional golf event:




Matt Griffin is an Australian that was playing in the event.  But good luck with sanctions when Kim Jong Un holds the Japanese Tour hostage...


Damage Assessment - The First Coast, the area around Jacksonville, FL, was hit hard by Irma, including TPC Sawgrass:

Among the courses sustaining the most damage were the two at the TPC Sawgrass, the
Players Stadium Course and Dye’s Valley. Although the PGA Tour said on Thursday that it was still assessing the situation, it did report that 18 inches of rain fell on the property between late last week and Monday, with 200 trees lost on the Stadium Course and 100 at the Valley.

The Tour issued a statement on Wednesday that said it did not expect any damage to affect the 2018 Players Championship, which will be played May 10-13. 
Three of the area’s most historic private courses also had significant tree loss. The Sawgrass Country Club lost about 100 trees, mostly on the East nine holes, the Timuquana Country Club lost around 75 trees and the San Jose Country Club lost around 40 trees — with three of them along the 18th hole falling down on San Jose Boulevard before they were cleared.
 I'm just praying that no trees are blocking the assigned parking places for the Tour's suits...

PXG v. TM, Opening Gambits - Golf Digest gearhead Mike Stachura has an informative account of the opening salvos in this oh-so-interesting cage match:
The sale of TaylorMade’s new P790 irons may be put on hold as early as tomorrow evening, the first day they will be available, pending a decision in U.S. District Court in
Arizona. 
The P790 irons are the focus of a patent infringement lawsuit filed this week by Parsons Xtreme Golf that requested a temporary restraining order stopping TaylorMade from selling the clubs. 
After a teleconference with attorneys representing both sides on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John J. Tuchi set a hearing on the TRO for Friday at 2 p.m. in the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. District Courthouse in Phoenix. Prior to the meeting, TaylorMade’s representatives were given a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday to file a response to PXG’s complaint. Both sides will get one hour to argue their cases before Judge Tuchi on Friday.
That still seems highly unlikely to me, but Taylor Made's private equity investors can't be too happy about this mess.

Mike does a good job of explaining what would be required for such drastic relief to be granted:
PXG’s burden is to emphasize that timing is critical, said Allan Sternstein, professor of
intellectual property and director of the IP and Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of Arizona. 
“It’s essentially telling the court that we can’t wait until the trial in this matter, which might be several years off, because we’re going to be irreparably harmed,” he said. “So they have to show one, that they’re likely to win at trial, not that they will win, but that they’re likely to win. 
“They have to also show how they will be harmed if they have to wait until the trial occurs.”

The former seems an extremely heavy lift, after all IP cases are notoriously complicated and highly technical....  There will be paid experts on both sides, arguing their version of the merits to an overwhelmed judge.

But it's the latter hurdle that I find more interesting at this point, the case that PXG cannot be adequately compensated by money damages awarded at a later date.  I'll be interested to see how they argue it, given the differing price points and distribution channels.

And, if granted, it would not be a freebie for PXG:
Of course, even if PXG were granted a preliminary injunction and/or a TRO against TaylorMade, it would likely have to file a bond with the court to cover the possibility of repaying TaylorMade for lost revenues caused by the TRO if it was later determined that the TRO shouldn’t have been granted in the first place.
Stock up on popcorn, because I think this will be a fun ride.

We Have a Winner -  Sometime PGA Tour player Steve Wheatcroft tweets out video of a Pro-Am partners swing from the Boise web.com event.  And, miracle of miracles, I may have finally figured out how to embed it.


The comments include some comedy gold, and Shack had this apt reaction:
It's sort of Moe Norman meets Happy Gilmore.
 Although the one-handed finish is more Matsuyama than either of those.

Have a great weekend.
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