Tiger - It's Go Time

I'm staring at the early stages of a beautiful sunrise over very brown mountains.... Not ideal, to say the least.

Jeff Babineau with the play-by-play of Tiger's Pro-Am round:

Playing alongside Pawan Munjal, CEO of the tournament’s title sponsor, Woods

appeared to be free-swinging, hit his driver fine and even made an eagle (driving the 350-yard seventh hole, which played downwind, making a putt of 20 feet). He added three birdies in his round, hit some terrific approaches into Nos. 2 and 17, a pair of par 3s, and even saved a nice par from the sand at his nemesis hole, the 470-yard 18th, where he made three of his six double bogeys in last year’s event.

How did Pawan arrange that glamour pairing?

Brian Wacker recounts the "YouTube Golfer" comment of Tiger's kids from Tuesday's presser, but also revisits this Groundhog Day aspect:

“Last year I was still struggling with a little bit of pain,” Woods continued. “I was able to hit some good shots, able to play, but in looking back on it now, I look on it as playing in slow-mo but it was as hard as I could hit it. I didn't realize how bad my back had become and how much I was flinching and just how slow I was. I didn't realize it because it's been a slow degrading process. I thought I had some speed, thought I was playing halfway decent, shot some good scores, but now I've looked back on it and man, I didn't even have much at all.”

I'm pretty sure that he told us last year that he wasn't in pain, but I'm sure he's being completely honest with us this time....

And this from Pravda's Karen Crouse:

To try to manage his discomfort, and the insomnia that was a byproduct of the shooting pain that traveled from his back down his leg and into his foot, Woods misused prescription drugs. Between shots during a practice round on Monday, Woods said: “I was just taking drugs on top of drugs, just trying to kill the nerve pain. It was like something hitting your body about 200 times a day. And the thing is that I didn’t know when it was coming.”

Back pain is no joke, so let's first hope he can play with his kids....  To me, the most significant aspect thus far is Tiger speaking of having fun playing for a few shekels with the boys....  when did Tiger ever speak of the fun aspect of golf?  

Mathew Rudy instructs in how to watch Tiger....  With an adult beverage, I might have suggested, though he goes with this:

But even if Woods has recovered a lot of the speed he lost from age and multiple injuries, 

is that the prime indicator that he's on his way to recapturing the form he had in his five-win 2013 season—the last time he looked like his "real" self? Several top teachers say seeing speed is nice, but they'd be looking at different indicators if their own students were in Woods' shoes. 

Tony Ruggiero works with Smylie Kaufman, Lucas Glover and Zach Sucher on the PGA Tour, and says that clubhead speed—and birdies and bogeys—would be the least of his concerns. "Does Tiger have to have enough speed to be in the mix with the average player out there? Sure. But I don't think we'd even be seeing him at all if he didn't have that," says Ruggiero, who is based at the Country Club of Mobile and the Sheraton Bay Point Resort in Panama City Beach. "Even when he had all of his speed, his misses tended to be big, wild ones. What do they look like now? That's a lot more important now, because his short game hasn't been what it was."

I think it's way too early to worry about his misses.....  I've said it before, but last year's performance was pretty damn good, though it ultimately meant nothing.   

I'll leave the dissent to Curmudgeonly James Corrigan, who nails it:

OPINION: When Tiger Woods tees off in the Bahamas on Thursday (Friday NZ time) it

will not merely be a golfer taking on a golf course, or, indeed, taking on the other 17 players in the Hero World Challenge. 

It will be the cynic in us all taking on the romantic in us all. 

In truth, the cynic should be giving a couple of shots as the odds are firmly in their favour. And not just because Woods has not played competitively in 10 months because of a fourth back operation. No, when it comes to Tiger and his comebacks, the cynic has an overload of spin and manipulation at which to roll his eyes.

Thank God it was labelled as opinion.... Want more?

Have we forgotten that 12 months ago he also told us he was "pain free"? Has it slipped our minds that just two months later in Dubai he swore those grimaces and flinches were not what we thought? "I wasn't in pain with my back at all," he said after a first-round 77. And guess what? Woods pulled out of the tournament 18 hours later. Suffering from acute back pain.

Yes, we felt fools then, but we had been played for fools before. In February 2016, a respected golf writer reported that Woods had suffered a major setback and was struggling even to sit. "Absolutely false," retorted Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg. "It's reprehensible that someone makes up something and it's treated like a real story." So we left it alone and, lo and behold, what did Woods admit on Tuesday? 

"I was in bed for about two years," he said. "People asked me, 'why don't you go out to dinner?''I can't', I'd tell them. 'I can't sit'." Now, you tell us what is "reprehensible"?

I don't feel like a fool when lied to, though I do bear it in mind the next time....

In the unlikely event you haven't OD'd on The Big Cat, there's news of a forthcoming biography:

Now, at last, we are going to get a definitive biography of one of the most important and enigmatic athletes of our time, in Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. It

will be released next May by Simon & Schuster, a 150,000-word opus that is the result of three years of painstaking work and more than 400 interviews. "We feel like the book is comprehensive, immersive and detailed," says Keteyian, in the first public comments about the project. "It's a 360-degree panoramic view of his life. And even Earl and Tida's life, which is just as important in many ways."

Is 150,000 words a lot?  I've never heard a word count for a book, only for magazine articles and the like.

But if Hank's opus was The Big Miss, this is The Big Tease:

In golf circles it has long been whispered that Tiger Woods would focus on the question of whether or not the eponymous protagonist used performance-enhancing drugs, which he has always denied. Woods has been dogged by these rumors since the 2009 reveal that he was treated by Anthony Galea, the disgraced Canadian doctor who was arrested for smuggling human growth hormone into the United States. (In 2011 Galea pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of bringing mislabeled drugs into the U.S.) Benedict and Keteyian acknowledge that there is a meaty chapter in the book examining the PED question but at this moment are not at liberty to divulge any specifics.

That's always been a troubling connection, the more so because he's never deigned to explain it....  But we've also never been clear on whether HGH and other PED's would actually help a golfer....

I happened to catch Golf Channel's replay of that '97 Masters earlier in the week, and that kid had the perfect body for golf.  Why he felt compelled to beef up, this observer will never understand. 

There's some other interesting stuff going on, but no time at the present.  I'll be back as time permits.

Clearing The Decks

I count fourteen open browser windows....  with tomorrow a travel day to open Unplayable Lies Western HQ, let's have at it.

Tiger Scat - First it was Rickie...then Brad Faron Faxon.  Now add Patrick Reed, who played a practice round with the Big Cat:

“He had pep in his step. He was in high spirits. I was shocked how fluid his swing was and how far the ball was going. He had some speed behind it. He’s always been a little longer than me, but some of those drives today, he got it out there. He was hitting the stinger here and there, hitting bunker shots, hitting balls out of the rough … there just wasn’t any hesitation in his body to hit those shots. That’s key. If he stays healthy, we’ll see Tiger again.”

Hmmmm...if I were Tiger, I'd be trying to dampen expectations.  Reed also had this:

“It will take time for him to get back to his normal ways,” Reed said. “A year ago he seemed like he came back a little early. This time I think he gave himself a little bit more 

Is synchronized chipping now an Olympic sport?

time and built himself up more. From what I saw from him today, as long as his body holds up, I don’t see anything holding him back. His putting stroke looked good, his chipping looked solid, he was hitting it long and both ways. He seemed to have command not only of his swing but his body.

“With what I saw today, he’s going to be rusty. That’s going to happen to anybody. There are going to be some great stretches, some not so great stretches. But he’ll figure it out somehow. And when he does, I can’t wait to see it.”

By "both ways" I assume him to mean that he's missing it both left and right, which would mean that he's really back....

Bob Harig focuses on a question I received on the course on Saturday, Tiger's eligibility...  It's mostly a non-issue, with the exception of the WGC's.  

Although Woods has not finished among the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings or money earnings since 2013 -- the basic barometer for exempt status -- he should have few worries about playing a full schedule, if he chooses. 

For 2018, Woods is exempt based on his 2013 Players Championship victory, which comes with a five-year exemption. Once that expires, his Lifetime Member exemption would kick in, which gives exempt status to a player who has at least 20 PGA Tour victories. Davis Love III and Vijay Singh are using that exemption in 2018.

As for the majors, three of those allow former champions to peg it... as for that fourth, the U.S. Open, Tiger benefits from the rub of the green:

The biggest issue will come at the U.S. Open, where Woods is exempt through only the 2018 tournament at Shinnecock Hills, based on the 10-year exemption he received for winning at Torrey Pines in 2008. Barring qualifying in some other way (world rankings, FedEx Cup), Woods would, in theory, need to go through sectional qualifying.

That 2019 Open happens to be at a place called Pebble Beach, where Tiger played OK in 2000.  As for Winged Foot in 2020, that's three comebacks into the future, so I'll defer on that.

Tiger will be paired with It golfer Justin Thomas for the first two days, so we'll get a quick measure of how far he's hitting it.  Alex Myers does his usual prop bet summary here, though they mostly make my head hurt....

But the weird column of the week belongs to Mike Bamberger, riffing on Brokeback Mountain of all things:

So Tiger Woods is playing in yet another return-to-competition event this week. The event happens to be his own, the Hero World Challenge in Albany, the Bahamas. If it sounds familiar it may be because this website and Golf Channel and most anywhere else you go in golf — actual, virtual and in between — has been murmuring about this homecoming for nearly two months. 

And also because Woods had another of his return-to-competition events at this same tournament, one year ago. It’s a continuing series. The Bill Murray movie that should come to mind now is not the Gone With the Wind of golf movies, Caddyshack. It’s Groundhog Day, about a day in the life of a man who is destined to wake up at 6 a.m. to Sonny and Cher’s "I Got You, Babe" every day, for eternity, no matter what he does to his clock radio. We golf people cannot quit this Tiger Woods. We will continue to gather for these reunions until somebody is kind enough to pull the plug for us, or Tiger Woods shoots 280 over four days at a U.S. Open. The chances of that ever happening again are remote, but you can’t say they don’t exist.

I've been as hard on Tiger as anyone, but there's no need to apologize for tuning in this weekend.  Interestingly, Mike doesn't even hint that some might watch just to catch the next train wreck.... And what else are folks supposed to watch.... The Giants?

Gear Stuff - This was one of the items I didn't get to yesterday was Dave Dusek's year-in-gear feature:

Ten years from now, when golfers recall 2017 and start talking about equipment, they

can say it was the year ultra-premium equipment became a legitimate – and widely coveted – part of the industry. 

“PXG has livened the ultra-premium market again, and all the other guys are (upset) because that used to be their golfers,” said Tom Olsavsky, Cobra’s vice president of research and development. “So now they are saying, ‘We can do that as good as (PXG) can,’ and we’re seeing them offer expensive irons and expensive drivers. Fifteen years ago that was the after-market business, and they made tons of money because it was a better product and people were willing to pay for it.”

It's not just PXG:

In 2017, Callaway released the Epic and Epic Pro irons priced at $2,000 for an eight-club set, as well as the Epic Star driver, which retails for $700 and was previously available only in Japan. Xxio brought the $850 Prime driver to the U.S. market and said there was plenty of demand for it, while Titleist re-released the C16 iron set for $2,700 and debuted the J.P. Harrington line of custom-fit wedges for $500 each.

The one day delay was fortuitous, because today comes word of news on the legal front:

The rancor between PXG and TaylorMade over golf club patents continues, only now legal accusations are being fired from both sides. 

In documents filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona two weeks ago, TaylorMade is now accusing PXG of violating patents. 

According to the documents, TaylorMade details how PXG is violating seven TaylorMade patents in irons and woods. The 189-page counterclaim not only denies that TaylorMade is infringing any of the PXG patents, but also asks the court to prevent PXG from selling most of its current products, including all the PXG 0311 irons (0311, 0311T, 0311XF, 0311X) and PXG woods, including the 0811 drivers and 0341 fairway woods for violations of patents granted to TaylorMade between 2007 and 2016.

From inception, this seemed a battle to the death between Bob Parsons and TM.   While none of us has the technical knowledge to assess the various claims, this seems ominous:

PXG subsequently has brought in new lawyers for its case and its original lawyers withdrew in October. The new PXG lawyers include Brian Lacorte, an intellectual property lawyer with the Ballard Spahr firm based in Phoenix.

So the guys that convinced you to start the war have taken a powder?   All I know for sure is that lots of lawyers will do well off of this....

Old Pics - I had never heard of David Poulton, but fortunately Alex Myers had:

Arguably golf's most famous -- and most beautiful -- hole, it might surprise many to know that Augusta National's 12th wasn't always so pristine. David Poulton, a European-based head pro whose Twitter feed is a gold mine of old photos, shared this throwback pic of the iconic par 3 from 65 years ago. And it looks juuuuust a bit different.

Wow, how about that attractive fence separating The National from Augusta Country Club?  And who is it with one foot in the water?

Poulton also posted this great photo of 7th at Pebble presumably from the Chandler Egan rennovation:

Don't you love that wild, unkempt look?  Great stuff....

A Worthy Mission Gone Astray - A few years ago I took a crack at the Necessary Golf Bookshelf, those books that any self-respecting golfer should read.  Now comes Josh Sens with this version thereof:

14 books every self-respecting golfer should read

But you'll agree that respect and this entry are mutually exclusive:

7. My Life In & Out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me 

By John Daly with Glen Waggoner 

The truth? You can't handle the truth. Well, actually you can, because, sordid as it is, Long John keeps the storytelling brisk and the details entertaining. The gambling. The addiction. The multiple divorces. He even gives the down and dirty on some of the very good golf he's played.

Josh, what are you thinking?  The man is a disgrace....  These two need to be discussed together:

6. Golf in the Kingdom 

By Michael Murphy 

Depending on whom you ask, this 1971 novel about a young traveler's encounters in the Scottish Highlands with the golf pro-cum-mystic Shivas Irons is a either a rollicking tale imbued with deep spiritual meaning, or a bunch of New Age blather with a whiskey kick. We're not taking sides, except to say that it's a must-read if you want to take part in the grillroom debate.

9. To the Linksland: A Golfing Adventure 

By Michael Bamberger 

Less than midway through his life's journey, Michael Bamberger quits his job as a newspaper sportswriter and lights out across the pond on a voyage of discovery that doubles as an inquiry into the game. Along the way, he caddies for a talented oddball, plays some of the world's oldest courses and absorbs the wisdom of a Scottish sage. It's the sort of trip you wish you'd made when you were younger. Thanks to Bamberger's lyrical prose, you'll feel as if you did. [Full disclosure: Bamberger is now a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and GOLF.com contributor.]

I'm very happy to see Mikey Bams' book on the list, the second half of which is what Golf in the Kingdom should have been.  Instead it was impenetrable and tedious, and recommended only for insomniacs and those on Death Row.

There are some good suggestions here, but mostly absent is any reference to the history of the game before Francis Ouimet.  I usually add Tommy's Honor and The Spirit of St. Andrews to such lists, and of course remove Leslie Nielson....

Orphan.com -  That sound you hear are heads exploding over the nefarious Koch Brothers' involvement in the purchase of Time, Inc.  Schadenfreudalicious, for sure....  But some poor souls got left behind, including one of interest to us:

“Time has publicly reported that they have some assets that are currently for sale, the

Time U.K., Golf magazine, Sunset and Essence. And we’re going to allow Time Inc. during this — before the close period — to go for it and consummate those transactions, and we think that they’ll have those done by the end of the calendar year,” Meredith’s chief operating officer Thomas Harty said.

Perhaps the biggest significance is that presumably Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine will no longer be joined at the hip, so we may see some retrenchment at the latter....

Rollback Thoughts -  I linked to the Tour Confidential panel yesterday on Tiger, but they also had some interesting comments on the discussion of rolling back the ball and the economics of longer courses:

Bamberger: I couldn't judge the hurt-the-economics-of-golf question. The modern ball has made Tour golf, for me, less interesting and more of a slog. At my level (92-shooter!) the longer ball with space-age equipment has made the game more enjoyable but at the expense of beauty. I'm in favor of a ball for them and a ball for us. I think a softer ball that curves more is a better test of golfing skill at the highest level. 

Ritter: Totally agree. I've never hit the ball farther than I do today, and that's certainly a blast. But the pros are decimating classic courses. The ball isn't the lone culprit, but it's certainly a factor. I see no harm in a ball for the Tour pros, and one for the rest of us.

Wood: I 100 percent agree with Michael. There's no reason to change the ball for the everyday player. (By the way, if you're a 10 handicap or more, you'll shoot the same score with a decent range ball that you would with one from a $60 per-dozen price tag, speaking of economics.) I can only comment on the competitive aspect of the balls. Shrink the allowable head size of a driver and roll back the ball a bit for the best of the best, and I think the game at that level gets more interesting as well as preserves classic courses for major championships. 

Shipnuck: I've been taking shrapnel for a very long time over my contention that Tour courses need to be 9K yards, but Gil Hanse recently endorsed that number and Brandel just offered 8,500 as the number, so he's coming around, too. Of course it's a ridiculous idea — a course that long would require obscene amounts of water and land and time to play. So if we're talking economics, the modern game has become too expensive to maintain.

Well argued, but certainly nothing too shocking there....  I know I'm a broken record on this, but it's the reduced spin as well as the longer distance that's changed the game....

But this story from Josh Sens is just plain sad:

Sens: Like Michael, I couldn't give you a detailed dollar breakdown. But sure, bigger courses require bigger budgets for the most part, especially given the costly expectations so many people have of what a golf course "should" look like. A few years ago, during the worst of the drought out here in California, Pasatiempo, the great Mackenzie course in Santa Cruz, was required by the municipality to cut back on water use. As a result, the course was browned out in a number of areas where you weren't supposed to hit the ball anyway. The fairways were firm. The greens were perfect. The course was playing very much as it was designed to play, but it was not emerald green, and so, a lot of golfers complained. The grousing was loud and persistent enough that Pasatiempo management offered a rebate on greens fees as an apology. That spoke volumes. More realistic than rolling back equipment would be a continued effort to educate golfers about what's good for the game they love.

To quote Jean Paul Sartre, Hell is other people.  Specifically those people... 

You won't see me tomorrow, and after that is up in the air.  But there's no snow in Utah, so I'm guessing that we'll dissect Tiger's return together.

Weekend Wrap

It's the traditional title for our Mondays, though the absence of weekend action makes this one a bit of a misnomer.

Scenes From Down Under - The only actual golf was played in the shadows of the Opera House:

SYDNEY (AP) — Cameron Davis came from six shots behind going into the final round to win the Australian Open by one stroke on Sunday, shooting a 7-under 64 that included 

a birdie on the 18th and an eagle after holing a 100-meter approach shot. 

The 22-year-old Australian finished with an 11-under total of 273 at The Australian Golf Club, where gusty and unpredictable afternoon winds made scoring tough for all four rounds. 

"I didn't know where I was, to be honest, after the third round," Davis said of his six-stroke deficit. "I'm just glad I did enough today to get the job done."

I won't suggest that this young man was unknown to your humble blogger, but he was no better than the second most famous Cameron in the field....

As for the better known players in the field, Spieth at least picked up a nice check....

As for Jason Day, it's perhaps for the best that he's told us not to expect him at Shinnecock....  He did somehow get himself that 54-hole lead, but during the periods that I watched he looked very fetching in his tight Nike duds....  The golf, though, was fairly painful, as he seems to have lost the ability to find a fairway, even when hitting irons.

Yet all the local commentators could talk about was his comments that he wants to get back to dominating the game.  Ironic that, for a guy that hasn't won anything in 18 months....  

The Tour Confidential panel took a break from leftover turkey to opine about Day's prospects for the future, and 

Bamberger: I don't. He's a terrific young guy, good with fans and reporters and playing partners. A huge, big-hearted talent. I just have the feeling his highest priorities are elsewhere. 

Wood: Possibly not all the way to No. 1 in the world again, but he will compete and win more major championships before he's done.

Sens: All the above rings true to me. But let's not forget that Day has also been battling a litany of injuries. You can't be a world-beater if you're not healthy. Day says he's feeling better physically than he has in a while. Let's hope he stays that way.

I can only respond here with a baseball analogy, and not a new one...  Does anyone out there remember Pete Reiser?  In evaluating players, Bill James would typically consider injuries a randomly-occurring phenomenon.... But not for Reiser, who ran into walls with the frequency that other player sued the dugout spittoon.  Like Reiser, Day's full-tilt-boogie golf swing is gonna result in injuries...it's just who he is.

The Tiger Beat - It is, of course, all that anyone in the game wants to talk of at the moment.  You might have caught word about his social game last week:

Hey, I'm sure Mr. Faron was grateful for the invite and Twitter call-out.  Was it an all Taylor-Made foursome?

Mr. Faron Faxon had some fun in a follow-up interview, including this on the game for the day:

We played a casual best ball match with a small wager – President Trump and I played Dustin and Tiger. They played from the back tees at 7,600 yards and we played up to the blue tees at about 6,500 yards. The President was gracious and entertaining. He told some stories, things he loves about the job and things he doesn’t love. I think he was excited to be in that group and we had a lot of fun.

So he's playing the Tiger-tees....  good to know.  But this is the bit that has folks aflutter:

Tiger looked great to me. He was happy and, more than anything, he’s finally pain-free.

The issues he had with the back the last couple of comebacks seem to be gone. He looked effortless, he looked free, he had some power.

I was impressed with how far he hit the ball. Probably on the 10 holes that they were both hitting driver, Tiger hit it past Dustin half the time and Dustin hit it past Tiger half the time. He looked great. I think more than anything, he looked at ease. He was not concerned about swinging hard and going at it with driver. The ball flight, the sound off the club, all of it was right there.

Was DJ testing that new tourney ball?  Otherwise I'm not buying....

That TC panel is milking the subject, first asked to project whether it'll be fantastic or flop:

Michael Bamberger: Such extreme options! Fantastic, I guess. By which I mean he plays four rounds, doesn't hurt himself, shows that the game still brings him some

pleasure, hits good shots, goes 72 holes without a yip.

John Wood: I'll lean toward the fantastic. The three things I would love to see is a pain-free golf swing, a lot of drivers off the tee and, like Michael said, joy. I hope he looks like a junior golfer out there sometimes, with a smile and having fun. I think that'll be a good starting point.

Alan Shipnuck: It's fantastic that he's back. The words of Faxon and, before that, Fowler, have helped stoke the anticipation but they're not helpful for Tiger. The expectations — his and ours — should be very, very low. It's gonna be fun to watch him play golf again and, for now, that's all that matters. One more point: I think the rehab stint was more important for Tiger than we can know. The DUI report made clear how out of control his prescription drug use had become. Tough to play golf like that. If his mind is clear and his body flushed-out from all of those toxins, that could make this comeback much different from all the previous, aborted ones.

Playing the role of Debbie Downer, our own Alan Shipnuck.... I suppose it needed to be said.  The this:

2. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that Woods just needs to play four injury-free rounds for his Hero campaign to be deemed a success. Given all the positive reports we've heard about Tiger's health and game, would you agree?

Bamberger: I haven't seen any positive reports. I've seen some orchestrated PR efforts. It's silly. (Ridiculous, really.) Let him play 10 tournaments and by June we might know a little something. This is four days of easy golf.

Wood: I would. There's also the X-factor in all of this, his caddie Joe LaCava. I mean, the guy has repainted his basement about six times in the last year, his lawn must look like a fairway at Augusta National, he's been to 342 sports and school functions for his two awesome kids, Joe Jr. and Soupy, but has he picked up a golf bag for any reason other than to move it from his trunk to the golf cart? If you didn't know things ain't light. Perhaps we will get him his own pull cart for the practice rounds and pro-am, just so he can ease back into it. We're all here for ya, Joey. Pace yourself. (And congratulations to Joe's wife Megan for finally getting the old man out of the house for a while.)

Shipnuck: The chip-yips still lurk. When Tiger made his return at last year's Hero — deja vu — he looked shaky around the greens. It's folly to expect him to be razor-sharp, but it's important that he doesn't flinch on the shorties with his wedge.

We're all gonna watch, because it's either that or watching It's a Wonderful Life, and we know that has a happy ending... 

But here's the part requiring the irony alert....  We'd all be over the moon if he played exactly as he did last year.  Four rounds with no apparent pain.... decent length and lots of birdies.  yeah, he'll hit a few way crooked and his score won't be anything to speak of, but he'll smile the whole time.   The irony comes when you realize that that meant exactly nothing last year, kind of what Mike Bamberger was getting at above.

And, lastly, this:

3. Assuming Tiger does stay healthy this week, when and where are we most likely to see him play next? 

Bamberger: I would hope and expect Torrey Pines. 

Wood: I agree, Torrey Pines. 

Shipnuck: Why wait til Torrey? Waialae is a perfect course for Tiger to shape shots and play Hoylake-style small ball. He's had so few reps the last four years — if he's truly healthy he should go hard on the West Coast swing and try to build some momentum.

I'm actually concerned about the West Coast, as those early morning rounds are a killer....  Though Passov informs us that Torrey and Dubai are the same week.

Everyone is focused on the lack of a cut at the Hero World, but I'm thinking the bigge rissue for Tiger is no 7:30 tee times in the gloamin'....  because it's cold before the sun comes up and he wa sneeding about two hours to loosen up the back.

I'd also like to share a couple of the more interesting takes on the comeback, first from Golf Digest gearhead Michael Johnson:

As we ready for Tiger Woods’ return (again) to competitive golf, it is not an outrageous

assumption that injury and time have robbed Woods of some clubhead speed. After all, Woods’ last full season in 2013 saw him average 118.3 miles per hour. In limited play in 2017, it was down to 113.85 m.p.h., a number he is more likely to return at. That equates to a distance loss of some eight to 10 yards, begging the question: How can Tiger keep up? 

For starters, it’s not that 114 m.p.h. is slow. In fact, it’s the tour average. But 10 yards is 10 yards. Fortunately for Woods he has one thing going for him in his quest to regain any loss of distance: He’s a very inefficient driver of the golf ball. 

Despite the endless hours pros spend getting “dialed in” to their equipment, not all players have reached their maximum efficiency off the tee, and Woods is a prime example.

We all remember when Phil called Tiger's equipment a joke, as he seemed to leave yards on the table intentionally, partially from his choice of a higher-spinning ball.  Here's a sense of the potential impact:

Woods’ distance efficiency that year was 2.503—meaning he got that many yards per mile per hour of clubhead speed. However since the stat was introduced in 2007, the leader in the category has averaged 2.690 yards per mile per hour. Let’s assume Woods comes back swinging at 114 m.p.h. At the 2.503 number that’s a driving distance of 285.3 yards. However at 2.690 that would increase to 306.7 yards. Those numbers are not fantasy land, either. Last year Shane Lowry had an average clubhead speed of 114.6 m.p.h. and a distance efficiency number of 2.660. That put him at 304.6 yards off the tee.

 Twenty yards is two-less clubs into a green, most certainly not chopped liver....

Jaime Diaz, alternatively, thinks the key for Tiger is to reclaim his inner artiste:

Beyond the “you know it when you see it” yardstick, genius is a difficult thing to measure. As Walter Isaacson, the culture’s leading chronicler of the phenomena, wrote last week in Time Magazine, genius goes beyond simply being really smart. It helps a lot 

when someone is demonstrably the best in the world at something, and perhaps the best of all time. Isaacson, who has written best-selling biographies of Ben Franklin, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci, offered two definitional tenets: “The ability to apply imagination to almost any situation” and “to think like an artist and a scientist.” 

Woods possessed those tools. He was naturally analytical, described by his father as “systems oriented,” who as a teenager became consumed by the mechanics of the golf swing. But all through his best years, he retained a powerful, childlike gift for visualizing his shot and where he wanted his ball to go. In 2007, he described for Golf Digest the process he developed as a grade schooler when playing in the late evenings with his father. 

“Even to this day, when I’m out there struggling and I don’t have my best stuff at all, I’ll go back to, ‘You know what, Daddy, I’m going to put the ball right there. Right there. I’m going to put that little 2-iron right there, Daddy. No problem. I got it.’ Boom, I put it right there …” And the proof would be in shots like his miraculous hole out from left of Augusta’s 16th green in the final round of the 2005 Masters. When asked to define his greatest weapon, Woods would say, “my creative mind.”

In Tiger-speak, that would require him getting in enough reps to get back his golf feelz.....

I'm going to suggest baby steps right now....Let's just hope that this from ESPN's Bob Harig is and remains the case:

"The fact that I don't have any pain in my lower back anymore compared to what I was living with for years. ... it's just remarkable,'' said Woods, who underwent a fourth back surgery in April, which essentially removed the disk that has been causing nerve pain.

"It could be the next step, I just didn't know [when the pain would occur],'' Woods said. "That's tough to live with. And it's been a struggle for years. To finally come out on the good side of it is exciting. I am stiffer. Of course, [his lower back is] fused. But I don't have the pain. Life is so much better.''

As a wise man once said, it is what it is.

I hope to be with you tomorrow, but Wednesday is a travel day. 

Your Friday Frisson - Tryptophan Edition

Feeling a little sluggish this morning.... less likely the tryptophan than chasing a 3-year old all yesterday.  I think he had fun, though I was a little put off that he doesn't read the blog.

First, One Has To Admit to the Problem - Joel Beall puts in the effort to save the Tour's Fall schedule, though the effort suffers from profound logic gaps.  His lede demonstrates this quite vividly:

There's a common refrain this time of the year: "Does golf need an offseason?" It's a tired, witless argument because 1) the PGA Tour and commissioner Jay Monahan are

emphatic that autumn play is here to stay and 2) from a player's standpoint, there's no obligation to compete, with many using the fall as de facto downtime. 

But, at the core of this debate lies is a genuine concern: The fall portion of the wrap-around schedule is an imperfect conceit, a sentiment cemented by TV numbers and the absence of star power. That doesn't mean it's worth scrapping. In practice and in principle, this part of the calendar can set the stage for the campaign to come.

It could I guess... But since the first event of the new calendar year is the TOC, I'm already confused as to the objective.... 

I like this suggestion, not that it's remotely feasible:

Move the third/fourth rounds to Monday and Tuesday night 

It's no secret that golf is trying to reach new audiences. In its present staging, the fall schedule is not helping that effort. If the two-month season is here to stay, the broadcast slate is in need of desperate overhaul. 

The argument can be made that the (relative) lack of big names in the fall events doesn't help, but that's far from the root of the problem. Despite its own tribulations, the NFL remains king of the fall, with college football drawing similar eyeballs. Baseball’s postseason also takes a bite of the pie. Fighting this beast is, has, and will be a futile endeavor. Which is why the PGA Tour should experiment with final rounds on Monday and Tuesday, aired at night.

I've been arguing for this for years, but not for the big Tour.  The NCAA's have jumped on this opportunity, and created one of my favorite events of the year.  It would help if Mr. Beall could develop a rudimentary understanding of time zones and sunlight cycles, as the only possible location for this I can see is Hawaii, and that's on the dance card for January.

But here's where he really loses touch with planet Earth:

Create a crown jewel 

Starting in January, every month of the golf season boasts at least one event that's a must-watch due to the field, course or stakes involved. No, seriously. Go take a look. We'll wait for you ... even in the depths of winter, there's Pebble Beach to save us from February's gloom and two WGC events in March to quench our thirst until Augusta. 

Why do we bring this up? All due respect to the eight tournaments under scrutiny, there is nothing on the fall schedule that warrants such attention.

Cause and effect can be very subtle, but there's a reason none of those events are crown jewels.... It's the friggin' off-season Joel, and you want what, the U.S. Open?  But he goes on....

How does the tour rectify this? Location is part of the problem, one that's somewhat unsolvable. Despite the WGC designation on the HSBC Champions event, the travel will keep a sizable contingent of top American stars from visiting on a consistent basis (two of the game's biggest draws, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, were noticeably absent this year). The courses on this trek aren't worthy of the early-a.m. rise for American viewers, either. Conversely, the Asian swing is essential to the tour's global growth; touching these events is a non-starter for the foreseeable future.

But riddle me this, Batman, why do we....and by we I mean you, accept the premise that the Tour needs to grow globally?  I understand that we want the game to grow globally, but why should the U.S.-based tour be holding events in China and Malaysia?  Isn't that, after all, a big part of the problem?  

Jordan Spieth is in Australia this week playing an event unrelated to his home tour?  Is that a problem?  Not unless, like Commissioner Ratched, you think your organization should control golf year and worldwide....  Which, I argue, is part of the problem....

More Rollback - More Geoff Ogily on where we might be headed....

For those that don't want to deal with a long video, here's Shack's summary of the comments:

His comments on that come at the 15:50 mark in response to a question from Mark Hayes. Ogilvy believes a "rollback" can be achieved in a way that slows down distance for his ilk, while not harming the recreational golfer. But he concedes that should bifurcation of the rules be the only way, then "it's the way we need to go." 

He goes on to discuss how this is a complicated thing but that based on the players, manufacturers and influencers talking, that a rollback of some kind "seems like it’s going to happen." 

Ogilvy's stances is to take action "purely so we don’t have to change our stadiums," noting that when he started playing major events 300 yards "was a massive hit" and is now "legitimately short. Mostly, he reiterates how the distance gains have "changed the way we play the great courses" and how it has made "Augusta not function" as it was intended, reminding us that "Brooks Koepka didn’t hit more than 7-iron on the longest course in history" when winning the 2017 U.S. Open.

But he also--Wally take note--points out the opportunity in this for manufacturers to sell more product and solidify their market position by making a great ball under specs different than the current rules. Though as he notes, "the implementation is going to be interesting." 

Ogilvy was also asked about Brandel Chamblee's assertion this week that 8,500 yard courses are a must in golf to properly test today's players with strategic decisions (he still has not outlined who will pay for this expansion of major venues). Ogilvy agree that is the yardage to test players, but no with the idea of changing courses to fit today's player and equipment.

Greg Norman takes time out from posting topless photos on Instagram to tell us how a certain "influential club" can save us:

“I remember the eighth hole at Augusta was nearly impossible to reach in two and now these guys are hitting irons in there,” said Norman who finished second three times at The Masters, perhaps most notably in 1996 when he blew a six-shot lead and Nick Faldo took the green jacket. 

“Augusta can’t lengthen itself anymore but the tech is going to allow these players to keep hitting it longer year after year. 

“If they sent out an invitation to the players and said ‘you’re going to use a gutter percha ball and a hickory shafted golf club, go get them worked out, practice before you get there, the best player will still win that week.

“The best players have that ability to make that adjustment no matter what they’re using.”

I guess he didn't hear about the land purchase from Augusta Country Club, because ANGC has in the past and can if they so choose add more length.   Though, and this is likely the fault of auto correct or the reporter, but that "gutter" is a nice touch....

More substantively, the question is whether they should do that, especially in the face of the dereliction of duty from the governing bodies....  Ogilvy, of course, touches on the importance of getting the manufacturers to buy in, which will also help get the players supporting the forces of good.

Second Time, Much Improved - The second installment of the mellifluously-titled Yo, Gear Guy! is much improved, including this topical subject:

OldSportGolf on Reddit: How much distance should I expect to lose on balls in colder weather? Is there a variance, based on ball type (surlyn/urethane or high/low compression)? Is there a best type of ball for winter play? 

Cold weather can affect ball performance in a couple of ways, and neither of them is good. First, cold air is denser than warm air and will typically cause shots to fly a shorter distance (according to Titleist you'll lose about 1.5% of distance for every 20-degrees of air temperature drop). To combat this issue, it's best to play with balls that are stored at room temperature (the car trunk is also bad in cold weather), as "cold" balls will have less resiliency, speed, and distance. It's also smart to keep a ball in your pocket on cold days and rotate it with another ball to help maintain a somewhat consistent temperature.

And speaking of balls in the pocket (which I practice in the cold weather), I received this golf joke from a most unusual source yesterday:

A man got on the bus with both of his front trouser pockets full of golf balls and sat down next to a beautiful blonde.

The puzzled blonde kept looking at him and his bulging pockets.

Finally, after many glances from her, he said, "It's golf balls."

The blonde continued to look at him for a very long time, thinking deeply about what he had said.

Finally, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she asked,

"Does it hurt as much as 'Tennis Elbow'?

They might be onto a strong feature there, as long as they can stay away from the phrase, "That depends."

Home for the Holidays -  Justin Thomas with a great find from an old photo album:

OK, some cute stuff in the retweets, such as this common theme:

I know, I had the same reaction...And this of course:

How come Polo didn't think to sign HIM?

Asked & Answered - Alan Shipnuck's weekly mailbag starts with queries about his provocative Ryder Cup projection:

"Do you think your Ryder Cup piece would have been met with more than a shrug had you swapped the sides?" - Andrew (@andyjamesdalton) 

A few hard-core Americans would have registered their displeasure but there would not have been anything like the outrage that flowed across the Atlantic. The Euro golf fans take the Ryder Cup (and themselves) very, very seriously. There was an undercurrent of Ugly Americanism in many of the comments, which I found curious, because I said explicitly in the piece the U.S. dominance would not be a good thing for the event. When it comes to the Ryder Cup I travel on no passport and am merely an impartial observer. In fact, I was often quite satisfied with the European victories in the aughts because it made for a better story, at least until those wins became repetitious. But I certainly enjoyed all the frothing-at-the-mouth from the European fans and no doubt my Twitter feed will be quite lively when the Cup rolls around.

"What’s the most credible death threat you received after your Ryder Cup article? #AskAlan" - Steve (@_SMisner) 

Well, I got a text from a veteran of multiple European teams and all it said was, "I can’t wait to shove Sam Ryder's trophy up your ass next year." Does that count?

Poulter?  To me the reactions are unsurprising, as the event has since the Seve days meant more to the Euros than to the Yanks.

This also on the subject:

"Is It crazy for Euros to just do away with Ryder Cup points and let the captain pick the hottest 12 hands?" - Laz (@Laz_Versalles) 

I recall Paul Azinger floated this concept a decade ago for the American side. It certainly makes sense for the captain, who could avoid the nightmare scenario of a guy piling up a bunch of points nine or ten months ahead of the event but then falling into a deep slump and bringing his bad form to the matches. But Ryder Cup qualifying is a way to ensure continued support for the European tour — see Paul Casey’s recent announcement — so the season-long points race will never go away. It also provides a weekly drumbeat of hype for the event, as points are at stake at every tournament. It would definitely make sense to grant the captains more picks, though.

Not sure I agree about the value of hot hands, though mostly you'd end up with the same twelve....

This is a fun question, I mean fun if train wrecks are your thing:

"Have you seen a pro putt to win a tournament worse than Lexi's yesterday? #AskAlan" - @Joey1970 

Amazingly, yes. There are plenty of horror shows in golf history: Scott Hoch’s blown two-footer that would’ve won the 1989 Masters, Doug Sanders' yippy 3-footer to boot away the 1970 Open Championship, Stewart Cink's whiff from 18 inches that ultimately cost him a spot in the playoff at the 2001 U.S. Open. But nothing can top the 1-footer for victory that I.K. Kim missed at the the Dinah Shore in 2012. I’m sorry all this misfortune befell such accomplished players but honestly it makes me feel much better about myself every time I miss a short putt.

This will be very much in the eye of the beholder....  My only issue with I.K. is that she seems to putt a fairly confident stroke on the ball....  

The one I can't watch is Doug Sanders, even though Jack is my golf God.  It plays out in slow motion to me and I find myself screaming at him to step away....  See what you think:

But of course many will default to Scott Hoch, merely because the name rhymes with.... well, you know what.

I'm off....  A busy Monday morning, so not sure when we'll meet again. 

Midweek Musings

We went long on the ball yesterday, leaving much to cover...  I currently have eighteen browser tabs open, so you might want to fire up a second pot of coffee.

Going Under - OK, make that nineteen....  A glowing feature on Jordan Spieth from the local press under this header:

How Jordan Spieth’s love affair with the Australian Open was sparked by his Victorian swing coach

Hey, we're all suckers for a love story....Perhaps a bit more:

“The tournament is not getting a top player on a holiday because we’re talking about a kid who loves golf history. 

“With those names, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and others, on the trophy it’s definitely not just another event for Jordan. He doesn’t come here for second.” 

McCormick gave an insight into Spieth lapping up Australia away from the spotlight with restaurant visits on Sydney Harbour, tackling a rip at Bondi Beach and slipping away for some bucket list golf.

“I’ve got to say the funniest afternoon on the 2015 trip was Jordan and (caddie) Michael (Greller) bodysurfing at Bondi and being shocked at the extent of the rip when slightly outside the flags,” McCormick said with a chuckle.

He does love golf history, and that's one of the lovable things about him.  Though there was that time back in '15 when it was more important to play the Deere than chase said history.  Not that I'm bitter...

Of course, there are presumably other things the young man loves, and I'll leave it to the reader to interpret this:

Report: Jordan Spieth's Australian Open appearance fee is larger than the total purse

Cameron McCormick will be toting the luggage this week, as Michael Greller is welcoming a new addition to his family.

Golf is Dead, Japanese Edition - Shack had this item last week, which I almost missed:

Back in the 1980s, when golf was booming, Japanese clubs regularly required a deposit

of $400,000 or more for a membership, according to industry analysts at Rakuten, the Japanese Internet giant. 

The deposit was supposed to be returned after a decade. But when the Japanese economy went bust after 1989, many private golf courses were unable to honor their commitment. Since then, dozens of courses have been bought out; others have been redeveloped, and some have closed down entirely. 

"They're just abandoned," says Tomita Shoko, who covers the golf industry for the Tokyo Kezai, Japan's oldest business magazine.

The source of this item is NPR, and it serves as a proxy for why journalism is dying.... those practicing the craft suck at it.  Now, perhaps that strikes you as harsh, but bear with me.

Far down in the article the writer speaks of the perception of golf there as "Your Dad's sport".  But guess what Japan has precious few of...  Anyone?  Bueller.....  That would be, wait for it, Dads:

'This is death to the family': Japan's fertility crisis is creating economic and social woes never seen before

The daily constraints have made for a worrisome trend. Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years. If left unabated, experts forecast severe economic downturn and a breakdown in the fabric of social life.

From the great Mark Steyn, this has always been to me the starkest factoid distilling the truly scary demographic death spiral under way in Japan:

By 2020, in the Land of the Rising Sun, adult diapers will outsell baby diapers

So golf clubs dying is troubling, but in the context of Japan itself dying off seems a mere anecdote.  Keep on rocking, NPR, how would we ever understand the world around us without you?

Your Weekly Tiger Scat - Golf Channel has expanded its broadcast times, so we can subject the Big Cat's swing to more analysis than the Zapruder film... The Tour Confidential Panel took this crack at his prognosis earlier in the week:

1. Brandel Chamblee told our Ryan Asselta that Tiger Woods's back injuries will prevent him from being competitive again. "If you do an Internet search of the greatest sports comebacks from injury, you'll get a litany of injuries" Chamblee said. "The one thing you will not get is a bad back followed by great athletic achievement." Do you agree?

Michael Bamberger: Chamblee's analysis was trenchant and reasoned and I do agree with it in every way except one: it doesn't allow for Woods's extraordinary will. He's diminished. He'll never chip as he once did. But like Johnny Miller winning at Pebble with the yips in his mid-40s, I think Woods will win again, sometime in the next 10 years. Maybe even a Masters. But I don't see him becoming anything like a week-in, week-out figure in the game, not as a player. Maybe in other ways, though.

Josh Sens: And if you do an internet search on guys who came back from the yips and waning confidence, the list of success is even shorter. The mental side of the game, the loss of the so-called "edge," is as much of a hurdle for Tiger as the injuries. Yes. His competitive drive and confidence were incomparable in his prime. But that swaggering Tiger is no more, and I don't see him coming back.

None of us know enough for our opinions to mean anything, so do you want to know mine?  

I'll not linger long here, but there is one thought that I had....  Even if he is healthy and can regain most of what he once was, it's entirely that that won't be sufficient for him to win....But as Mike notes, there's a long history in our game of guys catching lightning in a bottle in the late stages of their careers, and that to me is really the upside here.

 Alex Myers has some fun revisiting stats from Peak Tiger, and the do take one's breath away:

13: The number of years -- that's right, YEARS -- Tiger has spent at No. 1 in the Official

World Golf Ranking. To be exact, Tiger has spent 683 weeks in the top spot, which is more than double Greg Norman (331 weeks), who is second on the list.

Yowser! And this, which might be Tiger's most amazing feat:

6: Consecutive USGA titles won by Woods from 1991-1996. Woods claimed three straight U.S. Juniors and three straight U.S. Amateurs.

If not most amazing, then least likely to be replicated.... 

On a sillier note, these folks have a summary of the seven worst scandals in golf, and Tiger can claim two of them.  Even though I linked, feel free to skip that one....  though John Daly did say that it's an honor just to be nominated....

If you have money to waste, get your bet down before a strong performance eat The Hero moves the odds:

Jordan Spieth is the overall favorite to win a major in 2018 at 3-2, according to odds posted this week. Rory McIlroy is close in at 5-2. 

Spieth won the British Open in 2017, while McIlroy disappointed himself and his fans in failing to win at all this year. 

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, continues to find favor with oddsmakers and bettors. He sits at 20-1 to win a major in 2018.

Egads, I don't like him at 100-1.

Enough is Enough -  Remember back when Steph Curry played in that Web.com event?  I feel about celebrity sponsor's exemptions the way that Bill Clinton said he felt about abortion (his lips were moving so he was lying), that they should be safe, legal and.....RARE.

The Web.com tour has another celebrity joining its ranks — this time from the world of 

Where he belongs, in a Pro-am.

country music. 

The Nashville Golf Open Benefitting the Snedeker Foundation announced Mondaythat Jake Owen will compete in the 2018 event, which is held at Nashville Golf & Athletic Club the week of May 21-27. 

Owen will maintain his amateur status in the event and will compete on an unrestricted sponsor exemption. 

Owen was a serious junior golfer before a wakeboarding accident forced him to put his focus elsewhere, but still plays to a 3-handicap. Without the childhood injury, he told GOLF.com, "I probably would have just continued to golf, that's why I'm still playing it. I love it so much. It's something that I really enjoy, but I'm happy the way life worked out.

The argument is that this will increase interest in the event, yanno the rising tide argument.  I just don't buy that there will be tangible benefits, and they're taking a spot in the field from a player that desperately needs it.

Media Meltdown -  I don't remember whether I covered the fact that Time, Inc. has been attempting to peddle Golf Magazine, along with the Golf.com website.  As you can imagine, that's a marginal title within the declining media landscape, but with the added benefit of upscale demographics.

Time itself has been on the block, as the concept of waiting for a weekly news magazine to arrive in one's mailbox is straight out of the 1950's sepia-toned hues and all.  Amusingly, the industry has been rocked by the revelation that someone actually thinks Time, Inc. has value:

But as the Time Inc. folk dined on a standard-issue banquet meal of crab cakes, steak, mashed potatoes and string beans, there was one topic that came up in just about every

conversation: the previous evening’s reports that a pair of billionaire free-market warriors, Charles and David Koch, were backing Meredith Corporation in its third attempt to buy Time Inc. 

Meredith, the Des Moines-based publisher of magazines like Better Homes & Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Midwest Living, and Rachael Ray Every Day, has developed an Ahab-like passion for acquiring Time Inc., which is attractive because it owns analogous monthly titles like Real Simple, Southern Living,Cooking Light, and Food & Wine. Meredith made a play for the company’s lifestyle portfolio back in 2013, but the deal collapsed, and Time Inc. was instead spun off from Time Warner into an independent public company that has struggled gravely in the face of deadly print-advertising declines—down 18 percent in the most recent quarterly results announced last week—and tepid digital revenue growth (up 2 percent).

Be still my foolish heart....  These folks would rather the business die than have to deal with the evil Koch Brothers, making it a match made in heaven.  And the linked Vanity Fair piece is just a classic of the genre, filled with overwrought accusations and outright inaccuracies.

Shall we have some fun?

If you’re a reporter or editor at Time Inc., particularly at the company’s legacy news brands, you wouldn’t be crazy if you were feeling at least a pang of anxiety at the prospect of being tied up with the Kochs, whose generous bankrolling of deeply conservative causes and candidates, and think tanks opposing climate change, have fueled their characterization as villainous boogeymen who threaten the liberal world order. Journalists who cover the Wichita-based Koch Industries, a sprawling if mostly colorless consortium with chemicals and petroleum at its core, have accused them of combative media tactics, including New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s description of a “boiler room” operation, reportedly involving several close Koch associates, to discredit her.

OMG, they oppose climate change!  The inhumanity of it all.... The Ministry of Truth has not approved that opinion...  But I especially like the appeal to authority in the form of Jane Mayer without, you know, mentioning this.

One other quick excerpt before we move on:

The Kochs, it’s worth noting, already have something of a relationship with Time. They have thrice appeared on the magazine’s Time 100 list, in 2011, 2014, and 2015. David Koch, known as the bon vivant of the two—with a $17 million Park Avenue pad in Manhattan, where he has donated astronomical sums to institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and New York–Presbyterian Hospital—once did lunch with former Time editor Rick Stengel, and he is a regular at the annual Time 100 gala. Several attendees shared with me their recollections of David having a grand old time at the soirée, comfortably rubbing elbows in a room filled with the types of celebrity, business, and philanthropic elites who tend to be on the opposite side of the Kochs’ ruthlessly capitalist ideology. “He was kind of swaying in the way you’d expect a gangly conservative billionaire to dance,” said a person who had their eye on him at one of the galas. “He obviously has some personality and some life in him. There are other extremely conservative people who come to that event and don’t feel comfortable there. He was.”

Can you sense the disappointment at that last bit?  OMG, he danced....he has a personality.  Forget the fact that if an outsider is at your party perhaps it's your obligation to try to make him feel comfortable....  

But by far the best bit is the reference to his "ruthless capitalist ideology".  Yanno, that capitalism that has taken mankind out of the clutches of grinding poverty.  And, for those not keeping a scorecard at home, the Kochs are more libertarian than conservative.  A libertarian is someone that wants to claim political power for the purposes of leaving you alone....  Good fun.

'Tis the Season - For Golf.com to revisit the turkeys of the year, a fun stroll down memory lane.  We'll start with an award that's highly insufficient, as only a lifetime achievement award seems appropriate:

The Elk Award for Lamentable Tweets 

Winner: Grayson Murray 

Playing golf is hard enough without keeping your foot crammed in your mouth. But Murray seems content to multi-task. After a self-imposed (Tour-imposed?)exile from social media (brought about, in part, by a regrettable war of words with European tour players and an icky tweet he sent to a female high school student), the 24-year-old Tour pro returned to Twitter this fall, just in time to make an enemy of himself again with an offending message about the Champions tour. "Does anyone really care is the real question... These guys were relevant 10 plus years ago." Murray apologized two days later. But how many mulligans does one man get?

Though the naming of the award is an appreciated homage.

This is kind of a twofer:

The Dustin Johnson Award for Bizarre Off-Course Injuries

Winner: Henrik Stenson 

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No. Wait. It’s Stenson, draped in a cape and dangling from cables as part of a goofy publicity stunt in advance of the WGC-HSBC Champions. Hilarious. But like mom used to say: It’s only fun until someone hurts a rib and pulls out of a tournament.

Good times.....  Enjoy your Thanksgiving.  Not sure what the blogging schedule will be, so reader beware.