Midweek Musings

A late start to my blogging, which might be a big deal if there was any snow....

Clueless in Kentucky - J.B hasn't been helping himself  with mouth engaged, though he did pick the right guy to sit down with.  Tm, we haven't forgotten that Suzann Pettersen interview:

Two days later, there is more commentary about J.B. Holmes’ slow play than there is Jason Day’s first PGA Tour victory in a year-and-a-half, which I get. Four minutes and

change is way too long to hit a shot – even with the wind gusting on the 72nd hole of a tournament. 

I talked to Holmes on Monday, and he told me he didn’t realize how long it was taking for him to play an approach shot into the 18th hole during Sunday’s final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. He apologized to playing partner Alex Noren but defended himself and offered explanation as to why it took so long to play the shot that lit up Twitter by his peers. 

Watching the replay, it looked like Holmes had zoned out. 

“I didn’t realize how long it was taking,” he said. “We (Holmes and caddie Brendan Parsons) were just trying to make the best decision to play.” 

In other words, Holmes was waiting for the gusts to die down, so he could take the head cover off a 5-wood he didn’t trust, and play a shot to the green. Ultimately, he hit a poor wedge shot and made par to finish fourth.

Which we all get and are fine with, up until about the 45-second mark.  

But this commences the eye-rolls:

“If it bothered Alex, he could have said something and he could have hit,” Holmes said. “If I messed him up, I apologize. He still made a good swing. He smoked it. (Hitting 3-wood over the green and through the tunnel, next to the CBS booth.) I don’t understand what the big hoopla is all about. I was just trying to give myself the best chance to win the tournament. I didn’t want to mess anybody up.”

At which point during the War and Peace length saga as Alex to know that you were never going to hit....  See, J.B., for Alex to do that would take him even further out of his routine.  He naturally assumes that eventually you'll play your shot, mistakenly as it turned out.

 And how about this lack of self-awareness:

Holmes, who had a reputation for being a slow player, feels like he’s changed that habit, and doesn’t want to be incriminated. 

“I used to be slow. I’d agree with that,” he said. “But it’s been years and I’m not slow any more. I don’t get timed more than anybody else.”

Anyone that watches golf knows that J.B. under pressure slows to a speed that can only be discerned through time-lapse photography, though the images of him spitting the bit can be quite dramatic.

And how about our Tim Rosaforte, missing the story once again.  How does a competent observer not ask about how exactly he planned to win by laying up?

Geoff and Matt Adams talk past each other in the video embedded at the end of Geoff's post and, while I love the former's reaction when Adams ridiculously suggests that Alex could have played through, Matt is making an important point.  To with that slow play has many aspects, and we at this point have no mechanism to address this kind of circumstance.  In fact, we may have to acknowledge that we never will, and understand that this was simply en egregious violation of the etiquette of our game.

Fake News, Golf Edition - yesterday's news cycle brought the kind of easy Trump-bashing story that fails to interest this observer.  Ironically it comes from the aforementioned Suzann Pettersen:

LPGA legend Suzann Pettersen is fond of the sitting U.S. president. But she's not so sure 

about his handicap. 

In an interview with Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, Pettersen detailed the many sides to her relationship with President Trump, whom she has known on and off the golf course for over a decade. 

"He cheats like hell," the 15-time LPGA Tour winner said. "So I don't quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business." Pettersen also said the president must pay his caddies well, as drives that are headed for the woods always ends up back in the fairway. She also mentioned his fondness for gimmes.

Interestingly, she actually likes the guy (interesting that they would publish such a sentiment), but this comment will have all the right heads exploding:

"I'm not a supporter of what he says or stands for," she said. "I thought it was very strange during the presidential campaign that he wasn't smarter about how he communicated." 

Pettersen caught criticism for tweeting out congratulations to Trump after his 2016 election victory. 

"He could have won more easily, but made some blunders with his statements," she said. "That's because he is so stubborn. He has not changed five millimeters since becoming president."

You mean smarter like McCain and Romney....  I know they didn't have the good fortune to run against the J.B. Holmes of Presidential candidates.

Of course, good call on skipping this yesterday, because today we have this:

Suzann Pettersen calls Trump cheating quote '#fakenews' but author stands by story

I'm sure Tim Rosaforte will get to the bottom of this.... 

All In Good Fun - Or not, as Eamon Lynch has the obligatory pre-Wasted rebuttal:

Last year there were 118 arrests at TPC Scottsdale, most for alcohol-related incidents, a figure that doesn’t include DUI busts as spectators hook and slice their way home along the highways. The Scottsdale Police Department tried to manage the wasted, offering free Breathalyzer tests at the exit in 2016. Nine thousand fans – roughly 1.5 percent of attendees that week – took the test. Four thousand of them were over the limit.

Wow, I'd never have taken the under....

Like a bar on St. Patrick’s Day, the WMPO is given over to the raucous, many gathered at the Coliseum-like 16th hole, a 163-yard gauntlet in which players are hazed and taunted while TV announcers breathlessly tell viewers how great it is to see such passionate fans.

And this from Sneds, who enjoys the week:

“Everyone loves 16. It’s the other holes. It’s 11 tee box and 14 green, where people are on their way out or whatever, had a few too many drinks, they start getting after you a little bit,” he said. “That’s when you’re like, ‘OK, come on!’ But 16 is great. You’re expecting chaos and it is chaotic. It’s when you’re not expecting chaos it’s off-putting.” 

“Chill!,” cry the enablers. “It’s only one week a year!”

Look, it makes for a different type of week, and no player is required to be there....  Unless, of course, you're sponsored by Ping.

And I also hear talk that there's some kind of football game this week, so one doesn't have to watch it.... I do think their point about enabling the Yahoos at other events is worth noting, but this bacchanal isn't going away, so deal with it.

The Second Golden Age - The estimable Bradley Klein reports from Golfweek's 5th annual architecture conference:

At an opening session, architects Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, David McLay Kidd and Kyle Phillips drew inspiration from the landmark, low-impact, naturalized design of Sand 

Phillips with mic, as Tom Doak nods off.

Hills in Mullen, Neb., the 1995 design by Coore and Crenshaw that all but launched the back-to-basics design movement. Frequent reference also was made to the multi-course resort of Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Ore., as embodying principles drawn from classic British links golf like St. Andrews: walkability, accessibility to all classes of players, and extremely varied from day to day depending upon weather,

mainly wind.

How's that for a panel?   

David McClay Kidd has many of the best sound bites:

All of which was presented during the conference in contrast to the American-inspired focus of the 1980s and 1990s on difficulty, length, aerial play and intensively lush maintenance. Kidd admits that after he debuted with the initial Bandon Dunes course in 1998, he reverted to creating more demanding courses, in large part because, as he says, “that’s what clients wanted.” Lately he’s made a reversion to classical form with the likes of such wide, generously spaced courses as Gamble Sands in Brewster, Wash. (2014) and Mammoth Dunes (2018), the second course at Sand Valley in Nekoosa, Wis.

That's his excuse for The Castle Course, and he's sticking to it....  All tweaking aside, there's always a client and often their desires are what drive some really ill-considered design.

The eye-opener, said Kidd, was a thorough re-examination of his own work that led him to see what had made his inaugural effort at Bandon Dunes so successful. “We had tees at 6,300 yards, 6,600 yards and 7,000-something, and it turns out that everyone, I mean 99 percent of golfers there, were playing it from 6,300 yards. They wanted to have fun.” 

While clients and certain publicity-seeking sectors of the golf industry were focused on making courses difficult and defending par, Kidd realized that golfers “just want to break 100. They want to find it, hit it. Not lose it.” His new mantra, he said, is “not defending par but defending birdie. That still allows the vast majority of players to get around.”

Defending birdie?   I like it....

And do read about the great work being done in restorations, most notably historic Inverness.

Ready to get on with your day?  See you tomorrow....

Tuesday Tidbits

I do hope that J.B. isn't on Twitter.....

That Didn't Take Long - Somehow this header doesn't seem quite right:

Jason Day beats Alex Noren on first hole of Monday playoff to win Farmers Insurance Open

Well, it was a Monday playoff if you've the misfortune to be an Xfinity subscriber...  and the lede isn't much better than the header:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Jason Day sank an 18-inch birdie putt on the sixth playoff hole to beat Alex Noren and win the Farmers Insurance Open in front of empty grandstands on

No. 18 at Torrey Pines on Monday morning.

Oh yeah, that was the shot that was being replayed in an endless loop on Golf Channel.... 

Noren tried an aggressive second shot from the first cut, but his ball landed short of the green and rolled into Devlin’s Billabong, a pond that protects the hole.

Never knew that the pond had a name.  Noren played the right shot, trying to win the thing....  Let's hope that J.B. was taking notes.

Per Shack, boffo ratings for the event:

According to CBS Sports, Sunday's final round coverage of the 2018 Farmers Insurance

Open earned a 2.9 overnight rating/6 share, up 38% from last year's Jon Rahm win and the highest-rated Sunday for this event in five years. 

Saturday’s third round coverage earns highest rating for the Farmers in seven years with 2.3/5, up 53% from last year. 

And when coverage shifted to Golf Channel during the Jason Day-Alex Noren playoff, a record audience for the cable network tuned in.

Well, we know they weren't watching this.   

Gotta be Awkward in the Locker Room - The players are not fans of J.B.'s icing his playing partners, at least those taking to Twitter:

Didn't you guys hear, he was trying to win....errr something.  Steve Flesch also said they were a hole behind, which begs the question of whether a tour official was warning them.  The round was approaching six hours in any event, and one should eb able to get to the clubhouse in that window.  

And Golf Channel was all over it as well:

Let's see, J.B.'s a Kentucky guy, so that second one should hit home.  Again, 4:10 to wuss out and lay up.....

He'll no doubt be pegging it this week...  Think the drunks at No. 16 will have anything to say?

Is There No One Else? - I like Juli Inkster as much as the next guy, and I was very impressed by her demeanor two cups ago.  Most notably, when the Yanks were getting their tails kicked, and especially during Suzanngate....  But still?

If it worked not just once, but twice, then why not try a third time? That's the clear

message driving the American Solheim Cup team, as Juli Inkster has been announced as the team captain for a third consecutive edition of the biennial event. 

Inkster was the winning captain in each of the last two Cups, the first coming in Germany in 2015 and the second coming this past summer in Iowa. The announcement came live on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive Tuesday. 

Inkster was a member of nine Solheim Cup teams, racking up 18.5 points across 34 total matches. As a captain — and get ready for this to be referenced constantly in the run-up to the 2019 event — she is undefeated, and beloved by many of the American players expected to take part.

Where are they playing it?

The 2019 Solheim Cup will take place in mid-September at Gleneagles’ PGA Centenary Course in Perthshire, Scotland.

What, was Celtic Manor unavailable?

A Torrey Mulligan -  The U.S. Open is on its way, so that means another Rees Redo or perhaps not.  

It was 16 years ago that the Torrey Pines South Course was renovated in a successful effort to attract the 2008 U.S. Open. 

Another U.S. Open is scheduled for San Diego in 2021, and in preparation for it, some significant work is expected to happen again over the next couple of years. 

On Thursday, the city will ask the California Coastal Commission to approve its plan to go forward with a project to replace the entire watering system on the South Course, rehabilitate all 84 sand bunkers, add as many as 10 new bunkers, regrade and add some tees and make grading adjustments to several holes. 

The cost of the project will be at least $12 million, according to San Diego Golf Operations Manager Mark Marney, and the money will come from the golf enterprise fund.

Pending approvals, Marney said the construction would be accomplished in two phases, with the watering system likely going after the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open, followed by the bunker phase following the 2019 Farmers.

That was from last October, and things didn't go off as planned, per Geoff: 

The good news? The bids to update irrigation, install completely unnecessary bunker liners and to tweak many of the holes Jones didn't get them right the first time, came in too high. Work planned for 2018 will not happen until contractors come back with better pricing, which means the work will be a rush job, more disruptive to play and do little to enhance the course for daily fee golfers. 

This work should not happen until the City of San Diego catches up with the rest of the world and earmarks this money to creating more sustainable architecture that takes turf out of play. And more importantly, takes one of the great sites for golf on the planet and finds a design that accentuates this beautiful place.

Helpful as ever, Geoff offers these alternative allocations of the $12 million large:

Option 1: replace the maintenance yard tent erected for the 2008 U.S. Open (logo still emblazened on the side, see photo). I can't think of a more absurd sight than the 2021 U.S. Open returning with the same lousy makeshift facility for story expensive equipment. If nothing else, the taxpayers of San Diego deserve not having to drive Torrey Pines Road and looking at a tent. 

Option 2: Invest in a mutual fund, Apple or a penny stock to buy time and reconsider how to remedy the misuse of this magnificent site after the U.S. Open. 

Option 3: Pay Rees Jones and friends $1 million to take three-year vacation, then give $11 million to spend on other rundown city courses and leave Torrey Pines alone. 

Option 4: Put all of the money into saving the Torrey Pine, which, based on the bark beetles efforts at Torrey Pines Golf Course visible this year, is in serious trouble of existing as the primary tree by 2021. 

Option 5: Donate to the Century Club in hopes they can buy another grandstand for Farmers Insurance Open fans who paid $55 to (stand) and watch golf. Two would be better than one! 

Option 6: Cash out the $12 million, tease the briefcase full of green in front of Rees Jones, then ask a paraglider to dispense all of it over citizens sunbathing at Black's Beach. At least in that scenario you'd be giving back to the people.

I'm sure he fells better after venting his spleen, but it doesn't do all that much for me.  At this point, I'm not sure there's much to be done.

I've never been a fan of the Open Doctor, but this effort was more palatable than many.  The old routing made zero use of the cliffs and canyons, and at the very least he moved greens such as the third and fourth closer thereto.

I could embrace a complete re-routing, but San Diego doesn't have the money or the stomach for that.  With that impossible, I'd love to hear from Geoff what could be accomplished by a good architect, say his friend Gil, but I'd challenge him for some specifics.  Other than that, adding bunkers is what Rees does....  flat, non-penal bunkers that look out of place with the existing architecture.

I'm going to leave you all there...See you tomorrow.

Weekend Wrap

I know, a curious post title when the weekend didn't, actually wrap....

It was an aggravating Sunday for your humble correspondent, as Xfinity seems to not understand this sports thing.  They have changed the software on their DVR's to allow me to only add a half-hour to the end of the scheduled program....  The first this smacked me in the face was the Vikings-Saints game a few weeks ago...  anyone remember how that game ended?  

As for yesterday, I was lucky enough to capture every moment of J.B.'s pre-shot routine....  you know, the EP version.  More on that in a bit, for sure.

Tiger, The Reviews - First from Shack in Golfweek:

Little about Woods in the Farmers Insurance Open looked old. Sure, we saw some woeful driving by a legend’s standards, a record number of “feels” references and the old

Tiger future schedule vagueness. But those standbys almost seemed like charming reminders of the old Big Cat in an otherwise wildly successful competitive golf return.

“After not playing for a couple years and coming out here on the Tour, playing, you know, a solid four days, I fought hard for these scores,” he said after a T-23 finish. “This was a lot of fight.”

I got old watching him playing from the rough....  As for the schedule, here's Geoff's take:

As he maps out that run for a fifth Masters title and pursues other career-defining moments, you can pencil in this creature of habit for appearances at Riviera due to his foundation’s ties to southern California, the Honda Classic near his Florida home, and Bay Hill where he’s won eight times. It’s very possible he may just turn up at Augusta having played only four times. Few can picture him adding a Valspar in Tampa or Houston the week prior to Augusta.

Given this opening performance, a little progress at Riviera should bake in the light-schedule approach. Assuming, Faldo says, if the “sync” is there with Woods’ swing and driver play.

While everyone was all over the two-way miss, only Rex Hoggard was able to quantify it:

This new version of Woods looks something like the old version of Phil Mickelson, a player who is prone to miss fairways by first downs, not paces, yet someone who seemed to relish the challenge of escaping from even the most precarious of situations. 

Woods was an equal opportunity offender, missing fairways right (62 percent) and left (37 percent), and appeared utterly baffled by his driver, which seemed so promising the last time he played at the Hero World Challenge.

First downs?  Tiger was missing fairways by post routes....

This from a guy in the front row sounds about right:

“Obviously, he has to drive it better. The short game looked pretty tight, and that’s always a plus. And he looks comfortable putting. He just needs to get some reps,” his caddie, Joey LaCava, said. “He needs to get back to Florida to get more practice in, get more reps, and get tournaments under his belt. It’s like when I started with him in late 2011 and early 2012, he just needs some time and he just needs some competitive rounds.”

As for this?

“He's young, he's 36. I guess it's all relative,” Woods joked when asked about Federer’s victory. “In that sport he's very old, but in our sport, I'm only 42, that's not that old.”

 It's not that young, either....  

Bob Harig also got some quotes from Joe LaCava:

"He felt good,'' said Woods' caddie, Joe LaCava. "Ninety holes over five days in a row. I know he did that in the Bahamas, but those were three and a half hours, and now we're playing five-hour rounds. That makes a difference because you're adding about seven, eight hours on your feet, playing golf, thinking about what to hit and hitting shots. So I'm glad he got through that.

Fair enough, Joe.  Harig also sums up some of the stats for the week:

Like Saturday, Woods found just three of 14 fairways during the final round. On Sunday,

he hit only one over the final nine holes. For the tournament, he hit just 17 of 56 fairways -- the fewest he has hit in a PGA Tour event in which he played four rounds. The previous worst was 20 at the 2004 Tour Championship. 

He hit 12 of 18 greens during the final round, 42 out of 72 for the week, and he got up and down 19 of the 30 times he missed a green. It is just the third time since Woods' win at the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational -- his 79th and last PGA Tour victory -- that he shot all four rounds at par or better.

The Tour Confidentialistas were asked to assign letter grades:

Jeff Ritter: Tiger's return last month at the Bahamas was a feel-good birdie-fest on a gettable course against a small field. Torrey was the real deal. I expected him to be rusty

and figured he was 50-50 to make the cut. Tiger's play wasn't always pretty — in fact, it was rarely pretty — but he survived the cut and despite playing the better part of four rounds out of the rough pulled out a top-25 finish. You can pick away at individual parts of his game that need improvement, but this week, on this course, I give him a solid A.

Josh Sens: I said last week that I thought he'd finish right around the cut line, and that he'd hit enough good shots to give the optimists cause for hope and enough poor ones to give the doubters cause for skepticism. That's pretty much how I think it played out. I'd give him a C- for ball-striking and an A for his short game. B overall.

Michael Bamberger: A for effort.

Fair enough, though everyone has their own scale on which to grade him.   I think he got much of what he needed out of the week, and has a right to be optimistic.  It sets up Riviera to be of interest when the circus goes there....  will he be able to find a fairway without a compass, as well as whether the chipping can survive the Kikuyu.

Chip Beck, Call Your Office - Playing the role of arch-villain, we offer up the carcass of J.B. Holmes....  But where to start?

Shack is spewing saliva with his rant on the topic:

Tim Finchem famously discouraged slow play penalties during his reign as

Commissioner. Other than Glen Day in 1995 and an odd slow play stroke penalty at last year's Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour has used a secret fining system to protect player brands and breed a culture of entitlement.

Rarely have things spilled over into as loathsome a display of self-centeredness as J.B. Holmes taking four minutes and 10 seconds to play one shot in the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open final round. He faced a decision of whether to go for the 18th green in two shots or lay-up. Two strokes back and needing eagle to make an eventual playoff, Holmes ultimately chose to lay up and did so terribly.

But in dog years, that's.....  It felt like an eternity.

This kind of situation is why we invented social media, right?   Though I'm mostly underwhelmed by the reactions, except for this guy:

I'd suggest the one his caddie was smoking....

The TC panel had some thoughts on the matter as well:

Ritter: All tournaments grind at a slower pace in those final groups on Sunday, but 4 minutes to play a shot — from the fairway! — is over the line. I look forward to Holmes receiving a swift and severe punishment from the Tour to ensure he learns his lesson. Oh, wait… 

Sens: A rigidly enforced shot clock is long overdue on Tour. (And in all play, frankly.) The dilly-dallying J.B. did was a glaring reminder as to why. 

Passov: So late in the game, I'm more tolerant for some indecision and delay. Wind blowing, lots of considerations, all that. But I draw the line here, because I did get the feeling that Noren was "iced" by Holmes' tardiness, and that ain't right. Yes, major ethical error here — needs a fine, and something more. 

Bamberger: A joke. Play the shot. Be aware of other people. That's a central ethic of the game.

The problem we have is that we don't have a proper mechanism for addressing slow play.  We all instinctively understand that the combination of late-round Sunday pressure and challenging conditions will create some indecision and therefore take a bit longer.  On the clock, J.B. would have had 30-40 seconds to play his shot, and we can all agree that he shouldn't be limited to that in swirling winds playing 238 yards over water..... But what he did was completely abusive to Alex Noren.  

But this tweet seems to indicate that J.B. doesn't get it:

The world has done a fine job of slamming J.B. for his glacial decision-making, so I'd like to focus on two other aspects of this hot mess:

1. 4:10 to make that effed-up decision - Contra Ryan Lavner's tweet above, if you're not trying to win, I'd rather watch the friggin' Grammy's....  and if you're needing a three and not going for it, you're not playing to win.  I get that he didn't like his yardage and that the winds were swirling, but you're a PGA Tour professional and can hit a golf ball 238 yards.  I'm very charitable with letting him take some time, lots of time, to hit the dramatic shot to try to win.  To lay up?  
2. J.B. Under Pressure?  Not Pretty - One of the pleasures of watching professional golf is the graceful manner in which these guys perform exceptionally well under conditions that we can only imagine, with cameras and microphones in their faces and over-hearing Dottie Pepper describing ow difficult their next shot is....

Did you watch J.B. on that final nine?  Tugging wedges thirty yards left and mis-hitting putts?  And this is a movie we've seen before...  It's like he stops breathing and his pace of play and decision making suffer as well.  It really makes one appreciate how good these guys are, and kudos to Alex Noren for surviving all that he saw.....

I do hope that Jim Furyk is paying attention, because this is a guy to skip when it comes to Captain's picks.

Rory, Denied -  It was apparently quite the rousing finish:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Haotong Li held off Rory McIlroy to win the Omega Dubai Desert Classic Sunday by a single stroke, denying the Northern Irishman's

bid to win his first title in 17 months.

Haotong finished a tournament-record 23-under-par 265 after a final-round three-under 69 to win by one shot over McIlroy, who also shot a 69. 

The 22-year-old from China made a 10-foot birdie putt on the last after McIlroy had ramped up the pressure by reaching the par-5 18th hole in two shots.

The early season has given life to Euro Ryder Cup hopes.  Not only have Rory, Rahmbo, and Fleetwood played well, but the supporting cast looks promising as well:

England's Tyrrell Hatton finished third on 20 under after hitting his second shot into the water on the 18th hole, while France's Alex Levy was fourth with a 269.

Paris is unlikely to be a walkover, which is for the best....

I'll leave you there, and we'll catch up on other stuff tomorrow. 

Bonus Weekend Content

Just a few stray thoughts, with the tape of the Australian Open women's final playing in the background.  Do we think Rory watched it?  How about Erica?

Cutting It Close - I suppose it was more entertaining than the average Friday on Tour, but let's start with with Patrick Reed's acknowledgement of his role in the proceedings:

Patrick Reed has never disguised his hero worship of Woods. Three years ago they were paired together at Torrey and Reed had to watch with abject horror while Tiger suffered

through the chips yips. It was the golfing equivalent of finding out that Santa Claus is actually your mom. Reed and Woods were paired again this year, and even though he dusted his idol by four shots during the first round, Reed was giddy talking about Tiger’s play afterward. It was a sharp contrast to a decade earlier, when Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, et al were palpably oppressed having to continually discuss Woods’s greatness. After answering a bunch of questions about nothing but Tiger, Reed excused himself to sign autographs. As he was walking away a reporter said, "By the way, good round.” Reed laughed at the joke and said, "Don’t worry, I know it’s all about Tiger.”

It is, Patrick, though I took time out of blogging the first round to worry about your game.   

That's from Alan Shipnuck's game piece, in which there's much to mull over.  First, the inevitable "G" word:

2. Tiger can still grind 

The back-nine of his second round was about as tense as a Friday afternoon in January

can be. After playing his first nine hole holes (having begun on the North Course’s 10th hole) in two over par, Woods and everybody else knew he needed a rally to have a chance of making the cut. Birdies at the 1st and 5th had the crowd in full-throat, but on the 6th hole Woods whipsawed a drive miles right. Still well short of the green after his recovery shot, Tiger summoned an impossibly towering pitch that stopped stone-dead on the devilishly firm green to save par. 

“That was special,” said Charley Hoffman, citing that shot as Woods’s best of the round. “That’s who he is.”

Well, I'll stipulate that that's who he used to be.... But there's little doubt that his making the cut is a result of that short game.  And quite a bit of luck.... 

This to me gets at the heart of the matter:

3. Tiger’s up-and-down play should bring a healthy recalibrating of expectations 

It is utter madness that the current odds at vegasinsider.com list Woods at 15-1 to win the Masters, with only Dustin Johnson (8/1), Jordan Spieth (8/1) and Rory McIlroy (10/1) as heavier favorites. A couple of days before the Farmers Insurance Open began, Tiger’s old swing coach Hank Haney predicted a top-10 finish. From a guy who hadn’t played a meaningful golf tournament in a year. On a tough, tight, penal golf course. Riiiiight.

Yup.  Folks were way too giddy after Albany, so where do we stand, Alan?

While it’s fun to partake in all of the hype, the hard facts are that Woods is 42-years-old with a fused spinal cord. It is indeed encouraging that he is generating more clubhead speed than before his back surgeries began, but over the first two rounds at Torrey Pines there was a perceptible awkwardness to many of his follow-throughs. He had a dreaded two-way miss going with his driver and his full-swing wedge shots were maddeningly imprecise. Across the first two rounds, he ranked 125th in driving accuracy, hitting only 39.3% of fairways, while reaching 58.3% of greens in regulation, to rank 101st. (On the bright side, his wedge play around the greens was reliable and occasionally spectacular, and both Hoffman and Woods chalked up his bogey on the 8th hole to a maddeningly firm green.)

Woods recently jettisoned his swing coach, Chris Como, and he is clearly still trying to figure out how to play with a reconstituted spinal cord. “I’d like to meet somebody [else] who can swing it over 120 miles and hour with a fused back,” he said during a pre-tournament press conference. “Do you know anybody? That’s what I mean, no one understands that. So I have to rely on my own feels and play around with what my body can and cannot do. It’s not going to look like it used to. I don’t have the mobility that I used to and that’s just the reality. Now it’s just a matter of what can I do, and that [takes] practicing and getting my feels and trusting and experimenting a lot to try to figure out what can this body do.”

This is going to remain a work in progress, perhaps for the rest of this season. It is folly to expect too much too soon.

Tiger talking about his swing has always been a curious thing....  remember a few years ago, when he had to retool his short game to match the "release point" of his new swing?  Yeah, I'm still scratching my head over that one.... He retains enough flexibility to generate that clubhead speed, you would think the GOAT could settle on a swing within any constraints.

Alan also channels his inner Jaime Diaz (forgive the long excerpt, but he does have great anecdotes):

5. For all the talk about Woods’s back, this comeback may be determined by the metaphysical

Tiger has not been the same player or person since Thanksgiving 2009. Something fundamentally changed after he suffered the worst public shaming of the Internet age. This new frailty played out between the ropes even in 2012 and ’13, when he was still whole, at least physically. Woods won eight times during those two seasons and summited the World Ranking, but he repeatedly failed in the tournaments that mean everything to him, the major championships, making the kinds of miscues that were unfathomable before the scandal, when his mental toughness was his greatest difference-maker.

He developed a palpable stage-fright, the nadir coming on his first hole at the 2015 British Open, on the Old Course, site of some of his greatest triumphs. On the tee, wielding a mid-iron, he hit it so fat the gouge that was left behind became a macabre monument to a lost genius. Then Tiger duffed his next shot into the burn, effectively ending his tournament after one hole. Now he has to transcend more humiliations, returning to golf just months removed from both hacked nude photos and the dash cam video of his DUI being on public display.

On Friday morning, Tiger was pounding his driver long and straight when he was just one of the guys on the driving range, but there was nowhere to hide once his second round began, on the North Course’s 10th hole, a benign par-5 he needed to birdie to build some momentum. Instead, he hooked his drive so far left (60 yards? 70 yards?) it almost reached a bunker on the South Course’s first hole. On the 13th hole Woods uncorked another vicious hook, into the canyon. That necessitated a penalty drop and begat a double bogey. On the 17th hole he blocked a drive 40 yards right, squandering another par-5.

After a lovely up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 5th hole, which gave him a fighting chance to make the cut, Woods flared a drive on number six so far right it again almost reached the wrong hole. (He managed to save par with an against-all-odds pitch.) No player is going to hit every fairway but misses of this magnitude feel more like much more than technical imprecision.

Is there no statute of limitations on that fire hydrant?  It's almost a decade ago and he's made his peace with his family....

Also, as I've long wanted to ask Jaime, Y.E. Yang predates the fire hydrant, but is never mentioned in this context.  

Amusingly, he give Elin props in another context....

Josh Berhow again posts nine number from the round, though this seems more of stretch than yesterday.  This does provide some needed perspective:

886 — Days between Tiger's last PGA Tour weekend round — Aug. 23, 2015 — and his next, Saturday.

But this one understates the issue:

3 — Fairways hit out of 14, which includes only one on his final nine.

I'd love a stat that told us by how many aggregate yards he missed the centerline of the fairways.... He missed badly and both ways.  

In some ways, Tiger's play has been the opposite of expectations.  The concern about is short game has obviously not proven out, though there was that one poor chip from a tight lie, but his full swing looks to be a mess.  I expected a little better yesterday, but I'm guessing so did he.

The Show -  Lots of coverage of the annual PGA Merchandise Show from Orlando, such as this Golf Digest offering of cool stuff.  Your mileage may vary there, but who doesn't like the super luxe aisle, with the inevitable pimped out golf carts:

The Golf Digest gearheads take a shot at the broader trends to be discerned from the show, such as:

Technology Continues to Expand Our Game

So much for paralysis by overanalysis. After years of existence on the sport’s periphery, the application of statistics and data-driven technology is no longer a novelty in golf. Judging by its presence at the show, it’s a mechanism at the heart of all things golf, be it instruction, management, equipment or just plain recreation. Examples include more in-depth output from launch monitor and simulator readings; digital apps that track your playing performance with your clubs and share the info with your mobile device; smart systems in golf carts to identify what parts of the course act as bottle necks; and suits that deduce what parts of your golf swing are causing problems like hooks and blocks. These breakthroughs have been talked about for years, although always using the future tense. As this week’s show proved, the future is now. —Joel Beall

Don't we kind of hear this every year?

But is this because they're all going on Shark Tank?

The Inventor’s Spotlight Lacked its Usual Punch

The designated area for entrepreneurs and creators is one of the most popular and intriguing areas of the convention floor. Though that remained the case in 2018, the showcased appeared to have fewer participants than usual. Two exhibitors blamed the costs associated with a booth license for the sparse crowd; another mentioned the ease of direct marketing to one’s target base via email, social media and other digital channels versus the cattle call environment of the show. While the former is understandable, there’s still value in the face-to-face rapport the show offers. Moreover, the PGA of America does its best to give this group its own platform, highlighted by a separate awards ceremony. With some of the show’s most memorable products and pitches deriving from the Inventor’s Spotlight (to say nothing of the cast of characters it tends to attract), let’s hope this field gets a bit of rejuvenation in 2019. —JB

Or perhaps it's because, as it appears in this photo, they were displaying in the mens' room:

Bad Lie of The Week - Shack has lots of good photos in his latest Instagram round-up, featuring Joe Louis of all people.

But how about this lie that Paul Dunne drew at Emirates Golf Club:

I'm kinda curious as to how this one turned out....  That's all for today, folks.

Late Week Laments

The remotely programmed DVR captured the Golf Channel coverage, to my great surprise...

Torrey Daze - I thought he was hitting on all cylinders:

Tony Finau quietly went about his business on the North Course, cruising to a seven-under 65 to take the solo lead after 18 holes. Finau faces the South Course on Friday,

where he'll begin with a one-stroke edge over Ted Potter, Jr. and Ryan Palmer. 

Finau, 28, began his round with consecutive birdies, and followed up a dropped shot at the difficult par-4 fourth with back-to-back birdies once again. He made another at the eighth, and finished the front nine with a par to turn in four-under 32. Finau added four more on back for a field-leading nine birdies, none more impressive than his last at the par-4 18th that he rolled in from long range to finish with 65. Barring a disaster on Friday, the 2016 Puerto Rico Open winner can extend his PGA Tour made-cut streak to 18, with his last miss coming at the Players last May. He's already on pace for another strong season, having finished solo second at the Safeway Open and T-11 at the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Oh, were you interested in someone else?  Plus, Tony's wasn't even the round of the day, as Ted Potter takes that honor with his 66 on the South (and yes, the North is less of a pushover than it was pre-Weiskopf).

Alan Shipnuck might want to keep some metaphors in reserve with his game story lede:

LA JOLLA, Calif. — For the first round of the rest of his life, Tiger Woods was paired with Patrick Reed and Charley Hoffman, in a 10:40 tee time on Thursday morning. But as Woods toured Torrey Pines, he was mostly accompanied by old ghosts. Tiger has more history at Torrey than any other championship venue, going back to when he was a teen phenom lording over the Junior Worlds. In a career defined by reinvention, Torrey Pines has always been a constant, the place to measure the ebbs and flows of a career unlike any other.

That's true enough, though I didn't sense the ghosts intruding as Alan did.  Here's what Alan saw:

On Thursday, Woods looked nothing like the wunderkind who 19 years ago went a

tournament-record 22-under par, ramping up for a stretch of the most dominant golf ever played. Woods, 42, is now thicker and less supple. His reconstituted swing remains powerful but is no longer an astonishing act of violence. In the mid- to late-aughts, when Tiger won four years in a row at Torrey, the game was almost too easy for him. Thursday's even-par 72 was an almighty struggle, as Woods often whipsawed drives into the juicy rough, airmailed a couple of greens with a wedge in his hand and never made a putt over four feet, often meekly missing on the low-side, including an itty-bitty par putt on the 13th hole, one of his three bogeys. But he never stopped fighting, and that alone was a victory; it was at Torrey in 2015 that an injury-riddled (and emotionally spent) Tiger withdrew mid-round, famously citing deactivated glutes, though the horror of the chip yips may have been what really chased him from the course.

One round is not a large enough sample size to know whether Woods is merely rusty or if his skills have eroded appreciably. Afterward, he was unblinking in assessing the shortcomings of his play, but Woods summoned just enough quality shots that there were times during the round when he strolled down the fairway smiling and jauntily twirling his club. The vibes at Torrey Pines are not all ancient history: the last Woods renaissance, in 2013, began with a win here, launching a Player-of-the-Year campaign. That remains one of the tallest mountains he has climbed, rising from the wreckage of his sex scandal to make it back to No. 1 in the World Ranking. (His 74-75 weekend at Torrey in 2011 was a measure of how far he had fallen.) Five years and four back surgeries later, can Woods go back to the future and be anything like the player he once was? One of his playing partners on Thursday, Patrick Reed, believes so.

Shack is a tad more upbeat in his Golfweek Take:

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – An even-par 72 will hardly register in the pantheon of great or even slightly memorable Tiger Woods’ days at Torrey Pines. In more than a hundred rounds here from his Junior World days to his remarkable professional success, Woods’ 2018 season-opening round looked and felt infinitely better than last year’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to return from back surgery.

Although it's an awfully low bar, the comparison to last year is apt, since yesterday triggered n such concerns.  He looked like the same guy we saw in December in the Bahamas, so that's a start.

John Strege with Tiger's reaction to his best shot of the day:

At the par-3 16th on the South Course at Torrey Pines, 190 yards across a chasm, Woods nearly made an ace. He hit it to eight inches of the hole, a tap-in birdie that was the

highlight of an indifferent round of even-par 72.

“It’s just a full 6-iron, throw it up in the air,” he said. “The greens are really springy, so I was trying to land it soft. And we can’t see anything land from back there so we’re just listening for some noise and people started cheering.” 

That’s why they were here.

For once the guy screaming "Get in the hole" can't be criticized, as it almost did just that.....  Let's see how he deals with the rock-hard greens of the North later today.

 Golf.com posts some interesting numbers from the round..... this confirms that the speed that we saw at Albany remains:

314 — Tiger's average driving distance in Round 1, which tied for ninth among the field.

And these:

8 — Greens hit in regulation on the back nine, after he hit just four in regulation on the front side. 

1 — Times Woods has missed the cut at Torrey Pines, which happened last year when he shot 76-72. He'll likely need to shoot under par to have a chance, although the North Course historically plays easier than the South.

Obviously that last item is a tad misleading, as it ignores 2015, when his glutes famously failed t activate.

Bob Harig captures some interesting quotes from playing partner Patrick Reed:

Reed, who has developed a bit of a bond with Woods since the 14-time major champion mentored him at the 2016 Ryder Cup, was keenly aware of what was happening. 

"There were some things out there that were pretty cool to see,'' said Reed, who was grouped with Woods and Charley Hoffman for the first two rounds. "He hit a high, tight draw driver. He hit that low cut that went miles. Some of those cuts he hit off the tee today were insanely long. You're thinking a cut isn't supposed to go that far. He's hitting a flat cut out there 30 yards past your driver and you're like, all right. ...''

May I just interject at this point, what the eff is going on with Patrick?  He's done exactly nothing since that Ryder Cup and, while it is still early, he may put Captain Furyk in a tough spot if he doesn't start playing better.  And he amusingly made his caddie, who doubles as his brother-in-law, lie down on the green to read putts, which went from amusing to spit-out-my-coffee hsyterical when they missed a three-footer.... badly.

This from Tiger may be the most revealing:

"I didn't think there were going to be that many good scores out there,'' he said. "I mean I'm in over 80th place and shot even par. There was no wind out there to actually kind of give us any trouble.''

Errr.... you're surprised that in perfect scoring conditions that even par is worth nothing?  Have you been watching any golf the last few years?  These kids can golf their balls.....

Tiger's first tee troubles have not gone away, kind of endearing, no?  Also a throwback was his obviously faster tempo with the driver.  As for the putting, his speed looked good most of the day, but he sure didn't make anything.  The worst of that was the par miss on thirteen that provoked much discussion about his alignment....  Little doubt that he didn't start that one where he wanted, but I couldn't see a trend there from my couch.

Today shapes up as a quasi-important round, methinks....  The world won't end if he misses the cut, but he needs to show some progress to keep the weight of the world off his shoulders, I'm thinking.   Not only will visible progress keep everyone calm, but his next start is at dreaded Riviera, where he's never played well and the grainy Kikuyu grass could expose any hesitation in his short game.

As an aside, I thought Nick Faldo was mostly at his babbling, incoherent worst on yesterday's broadcast.  In fact, if I had the time, I'd like to go through a transcript for you, as at times it was hilariously funny....and his inability to distinguish Justin Rose from Brandt Snedeker was the least of it.  

But the one place he made sense was in his plea to let Tiger get at least 36 holes in before putting him under the microscope.  Of course, that's not the world we live in, but let's at least keep in mind that his objective is to have it come together in April, not this week.

Putter Headcovers at Twelve Paces - The best story of the week broke Wednesday night from the Web.com event that finished that day in The Bahamas.  Here's the original account:

When players lose their cool, it’s certainly not a pleasant time for the caddie. What

occurred Wednesday, though, was certainly a rarity. 

The Web.com Tour’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic was finishing up with Rhein Gibson in position for a potential win or at least a high finish. The Aussie pulled off the latter with a solo third showing at 15 under, two shots behind winner Adam Svensson. 

But the performance included a bogey at the closing par 5 when a birdie would’ve likely forced a playoff. Gibson’s second shot found a hazard and he took a penalty drop.

The drama really began to simmer when Gibson was assessed an additional one-shot penalty after his caddie, Brandon Davis, retrieved the ball in the hazard before any drop had commenced. That’s because an official ruled that the looper breached Rule 18-2 by picking up a ball while it was still in play.

OK, so Gibson actually apologizes for the unprofessional behavior, but that doesn't stop a Twitterspat from ensuing.  And the rule itself, not to mention the ruling, are really quite bizarre.  The best I think is for you to watch this Morning Drive video.

The basis for the penalty seems to be the specific interaction between the player and his caddie, which in this case is overheard by the rules official.  This is Davis' take on it:

I'm finding this a bizarre juncture in the evolution of golf rules.  Remember back at the Hero when Matsuyama tamped down his divot after chunking a chip, potentially improving his lie?  He was not penalized for that because he looked the rules official in the eyes and said it wasn't his intention to cheat....  It seems here that the penalty is a result of the wrong words coming from the player, that "Well, I guess I'm not playing it now" as opposed to "It was never my intention to play the ball".  This is profoundly silly as a way to structure the rules, word will quickly get around as to how to speak to rules officials.

But perhaps Mr. Davis should have left it that, as this hostage video is unlikely to do him any favors:

He makes the same good points, though he rambles on interminably.... But it's mostly the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed homage that so off-putting.  Remember?

At least KSM had a shirt on.... or something on.

As the writer notes, this is likely to be the most exciting Wednesday in golf this year.

Peace In Our Time - Tiger may be OK with his even-par 72, but this news had him absolutely giddy:

There was an extra pep in Tiger’s step over the last five holes of his Farmers Insurance Open pro-am round and The Man Out Front completely understands why. 

Woods learned on the 14th tee of his pro-am round that it may be one of the last times the 42-year-old PGA Tour veteran will ever have to play 18 holes with three or four amateurs. He was informed of a policy change by the PGA Tour’s player liaison, Ross Berlin, who came out on the course to tell Woods that the Tour has officially implemented a rule starting next week allowing all Tour events to install a “nine and nine” format. 

That means players will only have to play nine before handing their group off to another player, a format used successfully by the LPGA. The first official pro-am played under the new format will be at next week’s Waste Management Open.

 That'll make a lot of the guys happy as well.  

I shall leave you there, my friends.  

Midweek Musings

I'm seriously on the clock, so without further ado....

Tiger Tune-Up - He passed one test yesterday:

On Tuesday, Tiger hit the range when it was still dark out. He followed that session with a practice round alongside Bryson DeChambeau and Jason Day on the South Course at Torrey, the site of Woods's most recent major championship victory at the 2008 U.S. Open. 

You can watch slo-mo videos of Tiger's swing from Tuesday, as well as other social media reactions to Tiger's first practice day below.

As noted, video at the link...  No word on whether he started his warm-up with the driver.  

Any thoughts on why the fat boy pairing? 

Clear your calendars: Tiger Woods returns to the PGA Tour at 1:40 p.m. (ET) Thursday. 

Woods, who last played at the Hero World Challenge in December (he tied for 9th out of 18), makes his first start of 2018 at this week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. It's his first PGA Tour start since he missed the cut (76-72) at the Farmers last year. What followed was a WD a week later in Dubai and another back surgery in April, and he didn't return to the course until the Hero in December, which is an unofficial event. 

Woods, who has won eight times at Torrey, including the 2008 U.S. Open, tees off alongside Patrick Reed and Charley Hoffman on the South Course for his first round on Thursday. That trio then hits the North Course at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Though I'm not surprised that they gave him the afternoon time on the South course, though I had thought that for TV window reasons that might be on Friday.

For those with far too much time on their hands, Josh Sens has this little quiz to determine whether you believe:

3. At Torrey Pines this week, where Woods has won eight times as a pro, you predict:

A. Yet another Tiger victory, this one even more heroic than the U.S. Open he captured on a broken leg. (10 pts)

B. A solid top-10 finish, and an important stepping stone on his return to form. (5 pts)

C. Fairways missed by yards. Putts missed by inches. And a cut missed by a mile. (0 pts)

I'n worried that his back isn't sufficiently recovered for a proper trunk-slam. 

Pat, Being Pat - With the circus in town, wouldn't you think that Pat Perez would be there?  No only is he a local, but he and Tiger spent years going at each other in junior golf.

John Huggan is with Pat, and late in his item tells us that Pat is enjoying the vibe:

On a happier note, Perez is not surprisingly enjoying what he calls the “relaxed vibe” on

the Old World circuit. Well, apart from the jet lag. Although flying in Sergio Garcia’s G5 plane from the U.S. to Singapore then to Dubai doesn’t sound like it was too taxing.

“The camaraderie out here in the European group is fantastic,” he said. “I have a lot of friends out here. And I’ve had a lot of people come up and say, hey, great to seeing you here. It’s just a different vibe out here. It’s great. I like it. It would be nice to mix in a few more.”

So, Pat has found contentment, that's great....  What?  Oh, it's Pat. so the world continues to conspire against him:

DUBAI — Not for the first time in his life, Pat Perez is a little peed-off. Winner last October of the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic and T-5 in the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges one week later, the 41-year-old iconoclast received not one Ryder Cup point in so doing. And that, it seems to him, isn’t really fair. 

“That kind of upset me a little bit; the fact that I’m 13 on the [Ryder Cup qualifying] list, but I should be probably three or four,” he said, two days before teeing up in the Dubai Desert Classic, his second regular event as an affiliate member of the European Tour last July. “So it kind of put a bitter taste in my mouth. The fact that you win on the PGA Tour and you beat some good players, yet you don’t get any points because of whatever our committee has decided to do. 

“If you win the same year of the Ryder Cup, you should get the points. I think the reasoning is a lot of top players don’t play in those fall events and so our, whatever you call that, committee … I don’t know, whatever it is, whatever they came up with …”

Pay attention, Pat, because this is a little tricky.  The points system for the Ryder Cup, check that, for the American Ryder Cup team, are awarded in a process that's publicly available and, not surprisingly, involves playing the American Tour.  And, you ignorant slut, you knew that when you decided to hop the ride on Sergio's G5.

If you really want on the team, how about setting your schedule accordingly?  Or you can just keep whining...

Merch Show -  The big one is in progress in Orlando, and there's lots of tech to be found...whether it's helpful remains speculative:

Can you believe they lead with an umbrella?

Weatherman Golf Umbrella, available in 62-inch ($89) and 68-inch ($95) options.

TV meteorologist Rick Reichmuth has designed a golf umbrella that does all of the basic things really well. It’s made out of teflon-coated fabric to keep you (and your clubs) dry. It also has extra supports attached to the ribs so that it can withstand high winds (up to 55 mph). And it’s available in four different colors. 

It’s the small details, however, where this umbrella really shines. Up in the canopy there’s a mesh pocket where you can store your glove between shots or while you’re on the green, so it’s staying safe and dry. You can also store your scorecard there. One of the ribs is coated with silicone, making it nonslip. Hang your towel there, and the silicone keeps it from slipping out and falling to the wet ground.

Cool, but didn't I say something about tech?

If you’re the kind of person who has a tendency of losing things, you’ll like the Bluetooth feature that umbrella has as well (yes, we said Bluetooth). The umbrella has Bluetooth tracking that pairs with an app on your phone to show you the location of your umbrella if you lose it. The app also can tell you the weather at the course you're going to be playing, letting you know if you actually need to bring your umbrella or not. That's next level. —Keely Levins

Pro Tip:  If that course you're playing is in Scotland or Ireland, bring it regardless of the forecast.

Doesn't everyone feel the need for an interactive putter?

TaylorMade's Spider Interactive, powered by Blast Motion, $399. 

We've seen a handful of major manufacturers partner with golf-data companies in recent years to create smarter products that offer significant knowledge to the golfer.

TaylorMade did so with Microsoft in creating MyRoundPro fitness tracker a couple of years ago. Now, the company is bringing intelligence to a putting product.

TaylorMade has partnered with the motion-capture company Blast Motion, and SuperStroke, to create Spider Interactive, allowing golfers to analyze their putting strokes based on data captured in each stroke. 

Blast Motion's sensors have been built into the grip of TaylorMade's Spider putters (similar to Arccos' sensors within Cobra's drivers) to deliver information to golfers via an app that will be available on iOS on March 1 and for Android devices in Q2 of 2018, according to the company. —Stephen Hennessey

You make or you miss.... I don't need no stinkin' motion capture to tell...

There's a second photo of Pat Perez in shorts as a bonus for those that click through.  What were the odds of two in one day?

I'll see you all from out West.