Udder Stuff

Believe it or not, there's other stuff going on in our little fishbowl....

Twitter Spat du Jour - Ours is a game for gentlemen, though apparently that doesn't translate to Twitter....  Our Brandel is at it again:

After Billy Horschel got into it with Brandel Chamblee, how long would it take for the Golf Channel analyst to be involved in another Twitter throwdown with a player? 

The answer: 12 days.

That long?  Now Brandel has made a practice of blocking people, which has become something of a badge of honor for those lucky enough to incite Chamblee's ire.....  But at the risk of complicating the narrative, it's the placid Duf that seems to have erred:

Perhaps...just maybe, shut your effing mouth isn't intended to promote a good-spirited debate.  On the other hand, I haven't been sufficiently interested to dive in and see what Brandel said about Cook....

By all means go read the whole thing....  I actually think Duf comes off quite badly in this, though at least we get to see him showing some emotion.  Amusingly, he apologizes for the F-bomb, though we're all way too used to that by Now (and Brandel does reference the profanity).  But to my ear, it's the shut up that's more offensive....

But it's always fun to see golfers behaving badly, no?

News You Can Use - This is way above my pay grade:

Golfers who keep their eyes focused on where they want the ball to go have a higher chance of sinking a putt, Nova Scotia researchers have found.

A team based at St. Francis Xavier University observed that, contrary to common practice, golfers who looked up instead of down while putting were more successful.

By up they mean looking at the line, rather than at the ball.....

They held sessions over four days with 28 experienced golfers who tested the hypothesis with breaking putts — shots where the green slopes and golfers don't aim directly for the hole.

Forty per cent of the putts where golfers looked at the target line went in the hole — three per cent more than when they kept their eyes on the ball.

To put that in perspective, MacInnis said golfers typically make 33 putting strokes a round. 

"It doesn't sound like it's a big difference but if you think about it in golf terms … you're going to save one stroke a round and that's actually very meaningful for golfers," he said.

3% doesn't sound like much, though we'd all take it in a heartbeat....  the above link is to a story, the full study can be found here.   But don't blame me when your brain starts hurting....

'Tis the Season - Derek Lawrenson posts and engaging best and worst of column, but he certainly won't be getting any interviews with Far Hills crowd with this:

Worst Tournament 

Just when you think they can't possibly cock it up for a third year running, the United States Golf Association managed to debase yet another US Open. A shocking, soulless venue in the middle of nowhere and scoring so low the tournament's raison d'etre as the hardest major was lost completely. I recently had to fill in a survey from the USGA asking what I thought of them. It's fair to say they didn't score well.

C'mon, Derek, tell us what you really think.....

I think this is right:

Best Shot 

Isn't it amazing that one stands out from the millions played? Step forward Justin Thomas, and the three wood he struck from 310 yards with a 290-yard carry at the par-five 18th at Erin Hills to set up the eagle three that broke the scoring record at the US Open. Quite simply, only a handful of players have the skill set to even contemplate such a blow, much less pull it off.

That one took one's breath away.....

Best Tournament 

Commendations to The Open, with Jordan Spieth's eye-opening shenanigans plus the amazing, raucous crowd, and a vibrant yet sporting Solheim Cup. But it has to be the Masters for that unforgettable final-round duel between Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose. Everything we love about sport was on show: two men at the top of their game, culminating in a win for a deserving Spaniard who almost won a major as a teenager but, at 37, finally got there.

No doubt they're 1 and 1A, though I'd have gone with that madcap final round at Birkdale.  The Masters made good on an historical injustice, but The Open seems to me more about the future....  But good stuff at both.

Lastly this:

Worst Shot 

Has any golfer won The Open while hitting a shot as bad as the drive Jordan Spieth struck on the 13th at Royal Birkdale in the final round? It finished in such heavy rough that he decided to take a drop beside a club manufacturers' truck in an area not usually considered part of the golf course. The only reason it wasn't out of bounds is that no-one thought it would be necessary to mark off that area. The golf Spieth played thereafter was the mark of a true champion, but he was a lucky one, too.

Really?  I'm guessing that wasn't even close to Jordan's worst shot of the year....

Rory in Red -  This is quite the strange business story:

Superstar golfer Rory McIlroy's management and image rights firm last year recorded a pre-tax loss of $105.4m (€88.3m)

The paper loss stems from a non-cash writedown of $99m in the value of McIlroy's lifetime image rights.

The Northern Ireland golfer is unlikely to be too perturbed with the loss, with 'Forbes' magazine last year estimating that he earned $42.5m in 2016 - broken down between $35m from endorsements and $7.6m in winnings.

Mcllroy is taking a break from the sport having battled with injury for much of the year and hits the greens again on January 25.

The figures show that revenues at Rory McIlroy Management Services Ltd (RMMSL) last year totalled $21.7m - or $418,269 per week.

I have no clue as to how they have access to this information, the companies being private and all.  Though this comment is amusing:

"RMMS Ltd own and manage Rory's lifetime image rights. Each year, the directors review the value of these rights," said a spokeswoman for the four-time major winner. 

"The value the directors assign fluctuates in line with changes in Rory's operating environment."

His "operating environment"?   Isn't the change due more to, you know, his play?  Given his putting, perhaps zero would be a more supportable valuation....

But funny all the same....