Thursday Threads

I can't possibly compete with the growing excitement that portends the Sony.... More on that in a bit, but first some amusing trifles.

Greatest Drive Evah! - Shack is having more fun than is seemly with our Brandel's over-the-top assessment of DJ's prodigious Sunday drive on No. 12.  Here's his promising header:

Should We Be Reconsidering Carl Pettersson's 2006 Mercedes Championship Drive On The List Of Greatest Shots Ever?

Hmmmm...I'm leaning towards a "No" here, but I come at with an open mind.... A reminder is perhaps in order, this was the tweet that shook the world:

Now about Carl?

Turns out, shocker of all shocker to those of us who have watched Kapalua for years: players have driven right down in front of, or on the front edge of the 12th green since

ShotLink has been tracking shots (around 2006). I know, I know but never inches from the cup to win golf's 21st major. 

Brandel described the difficulty of the shot in defending his case this way: "It was downwind/crosswind but not into a funnel, the green sits at the bottom of a hill, but the hill propelled balls into the right short bunker, to avoid the bunker you have to challenge the left side of the fairway, where a miss left could easily lead to a lost ball."

Scary! And...how it plays most years. 

I randomly first pulled up the 2006 Mercedes Championship records, went to the pressure-packed round four, and what do you know but three players in one group drove within 54 feet of the hole. 

But only Carl Pettersson converted that drive into an eagle the way DJ did. Granted, he probably had to chip in to do it, but I say, move over Sarazen double eagle! We have a new greatest shot for second place!

I'll see your eagle in a meaningless event and raise you the shot that made The Masters, you know, The Masters.

Perhaps my mind was elsewhere, but I didn't pick up on this framing from Brandel:

As for Brandel's barometer that "nobody has ever hit a longer straighter shot that mattered more," I think "matter" is relative. Maybe to Carl that eagle mattered a whole bunch? For all we know, it could be the lifetime earnings difference between getting in PGA Tour Champions events or having to Monday qualify? Or maybe he paid for a first class upgrade home with the extra dough?

That mattered more?  Shack riffs well on the on his own theory of relativity, but my reaction is to laugh at the concept that DJ's shot mattered in any sense of the word.   Although, he does touch on that above in referring to the event as the 21st major, though I'm guessing it wouldn't tank that highly.

Brandel, keep on doing what you do....

Still Stylin' - The good folks at Golf.com are still milking their Style Week promotion, today with an additional set of awards.  Shall we?

1. BEST SUNDAY OUTFIT AT A MAJOR: JUSTIN THOMAS AT THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Saddle shoes, matching belt, deep navy pants and cap with a simple geranium pink shirt for pop. “He dresses like a player,” Gilley says. “And the results back that up.”

And yet they choose a photo that highlights the mandatory disqualification for wearing no-show socks with long pants....

3. BEST TEAM SCRIPTING: U.S. WALKER CUP TEAM

Their play was sharp. Their dress was even sharper. The highlight, Gilley says, came at the award ceremony, where the guys rocked their bright Sunday pants with crisp white polos and solid green blazers. The result was “simple, classy and bold.”

I'd be in complete agreement, if this happened to be the Algerian team.....  But, red, white and BLUE is sort of traditional.

4. WORST TEAM SCRIPTING: PRESIDENTS CUP INTERNATIONAL TEAM

In a woeful week for the Internationals, Gilley says the worst aesthetic moment came during the team picture, when the players sported a teal-and-white ensemble that “looked more like a crew member uniform on a Disney Cruise Line.” Nearly as bad were the team’s drab black-and-grey Sunday outfits, though — come to think of it — the gloomy color scheme was fitting for the burial service that the competition turned out to be.

Pretty awful for sure, but it isn't in the top ten things that went wrong that week....

Here's one that clearly deserves recognition, but the choice of categories is quite odd:

6. WORST COLOR COORDINATION: SHANSHAN FENG

Silly us. We were thinking John Daly was a shoo-in for this dubious honor, given his penchant for dressing like a one-man clown parade. But Gilley suggests giving Long John a break, because his outfits, while outlandish, are very much in character. As Gilley sees it, this season’s more egregious fashion faux pas came from Feng, who proudly sported a collection of “questionable cow-print pieces.” Gilles believes they were a first for a professional athlete. Here’s hoping they will also be the last.

We're criticizing her color coordination for a black and white outfit? 

Now this category sounded promising....

7. BEST OLD-SCHOOL LOOK:

Until one keeps reading....

THE CAST OF TOMMY'S HONOUR

Yeah they looked great, but they're called costumes....

And how does this facial hair....

Differ from this......

Strangely, their dental work doesn't seem to be improving.....

All in good fun.

Not As Surprising As It Sounds - The Forecaddie has an architectural note to ponder:

The Man Out Front will be watching the Sony Open for all of the usual reasons: the year’s first full field, the warm breezes and Waialae Country Club’s mysterious ability to produce eclectic leaderboard and eccentric finishes. 

The club’s Seth Raynor-light design has started to take on more old school characteristics in recent years thanks to gradual execution of a Renaissance Golf Design master plan, with nudging from the PGA Tour Rules staff. But not until recently has the club allowed the design firm, headed by architect Tom Doak, to inject more extreme Raynor features into Waialae. 

Besides the fun of getting to see the par-3 17th turned into a more exacting Redan homage after years as a pretty sleepy one-shotter, TMOF realized this will be the PGA Tour’s first real taste of Doak design work. That’s right, the architect of Pacific Dunes and Sebonack (with Jack Nicklaus) has never designed a course hosting the PGA Tour’s finest.

It's called Minimalism for a reason, and that reason is largely incompatible with the current state of professional golf.  But restoring the 17th to its original design concept as a Redan green does provide a reason to watch.....

Mr. Hawaii had this as well:

It's really a simple concept, but balls bouncing on the ground adds excitement.

While we're on this, Sony Tee Times can be found here.  I'll just focus you on this seemingly innocuous pairing:

5:40 p.m. -- Justin Thomas, Jason Dufner, Kevin Kisner

Poor Kiz can't catch a break:

Understandably, Kevin Kisner is probably going to need some time to get over Georgia's

heartbreaking loss in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday night. The Bulldogs blew a 13-point lead twice before losing on a long touchdown in overtime to SEC rival Alabama. And Kisner's playing partner at this week's Sony Opencertainly isn't going to help heal those wounds.

The PGA Tour brilliantly evilly paired Kisner, whose last tweet as of this post was a jab at the refs during the tense title game, with Alabama product Justin Thomas for the first two rounds. That means there's no escaping the Bama bragging or the bet the two made ahead of the big game. Thomas proposed the loser would have to wear the jersey of the other's school and not only did Kisner agree, but he said he'd do it on the 17th hole at this week's PGA Tour stop.

Yet another reason to watch....  though which day?

 Fools Rush In - Shane Ryan spends far too much time developing this:

Introducing the Historical Domination Scale: Measuring the greatest years in golf history

Let's see if the astute reader can see where he goes astray:

Here’s how it works: In the HDS, a golfer earns points for each win during a calendar year according to the following scale:

5 points: Major championships

4 points: WGC tournaments, Players Championship, BMW PGA Championship

3 points: Championship series events (FedExCup playoffs, European Tour finals series) and season-long PGA or European Tour titles (money list used in pre-FedExCup/Race to Dubai finals series years)

2 points: Any “regular” PGA Tour or European Tour event

Wow, those WGC's must be important..... except they're not.  And buried in the playoff is an event with a 30-player field.

But no doubt you're dying for some actual results:

Shane acknowledges his recency bias, what with WGC's and playoffs.  But he doesn't seem to get that his system rewards those that play a ton of golf, which of course the greats almost never do.  For instance, nowhere to be found is Tiger's epic 2008 season, in which he won four of six starts..... Ryan, to his credit, seems to understand that this is nonsense, adding this outlier:

• The most hilarious year ever is Ben Hogan in 1953. He entered five tournaments, three of them majors, and won them all. His point total? Nineteen.

There are many adjectives available to describe Ben Hogan's 1953, but hilarious is pretty far down the list.