Odds and Ends

I'm back in Western HQ, and there's even some fresh snow....  likely what the kids call dust on crust.

Tiger, The Yin and the Yang - Brady Riggs has four reasons that The Big Cat's new swing is built to last:

1. BUILT TO BLAST

Over time, Tiger has gone from a wiry dynamo to a mature, physically imposing veteran. And it's not just for looks — his new swing demands that his upper body produce most of the speed. His legs help support more than they "work" (see No. 4), which is perfectly fine if you're strong up top.

Yeah, but why?  That wiry dynamo had the perfect body for golf, no?

It's mostly technical, but there's little doubt tat he can hit if far enough, but plenty as relates to him keeping it on the planet.

 This guy takes a Lion Tiger in Winter tack:

In the years since, we've come to know him this way: the busted Escalade, the tabloid

revelations, the infidelities, the divorce; the dropped sponsorships, the press conference, the campaign to resuscitate his image; the long absences, the last-minute withdrawals, the loose drives, the wonky putter; the lost years, the sense that we were watching the finest golfer of his generation come undone in real time. But during that week at Torrey Pines, 10 years ago this June, we were still enjoying the glow of his halcyon days, and when night fell on Tiger Woods's performance at the 2008 U.S. Open, the legend was amplified.

OK, but that Escalade was almost as long ago as Torrey....

Now, as Woods mounts yet another comeback, with the most recent of his 14 major championship titles nearing its 10th anniversary, it's hard not to feel sorrow; his has become a story about what it means to achieve and then to lose greatness, a tragedy of hubris in the face of those fickle creatures we call the sporting gods.

I get it, but athletic careers almost always end on a downer.....

He had what seems a decent day on Wednesday, going the full eighteen:

Woods was the first guy out in the Wednesday pro-am, teeing off with a group that included actor Mark Wahlberg at 6:40 a.m. As the hours progressed, his gallery swelled, and even included PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. He put together a tidy round, hitting 8 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with three birdies against just one bogey. 

But the wayward driver that crippled him in his comeback three weeks ago at Torrey Pines was still on Woods’ mind. After hitting his tee shot on 18, he handed the club (sans headcover) to a rep to be taken away for an adjustment. He was hitting it again on the range shortly afterward, with four young kids quietly gathered on the grass behind him watching intently. Between shots, Woods tapped keepsake balls back toward them.

It is what it is and we'll see what we see....unless, of course, we're watching the Olympics instead.

As noted, Tiger played the event with the Artist Formerly Known as Marky Mark, and he brings his own weirdness to the proceedings:

Let’s start with the entourage. 

His personal chef never was never more than 30 feet from Wahlberg, carrying two coolers the entire way. Inside? One of his client’s eight daily meals at the ready. (Eight!) The nuclear codes drift further away from the president of the United States than Wahlberg’s lunch boxes. Sea bass is Wahlberg’s preference and TMOF can say that watching a chef carving up fish mid-round was certainly a first. 

Then there’s Wahlberg playing the entire round with Apple AirPods in his ears. Fans, fellow players and even commissioner Jay Monahan, who stopped by to say hello, asked what he could be listening to while still paying attention to his fans, playing partners and Tiger.

Of course he has an Entourage, he wrote the book.   No word on whether Turtle was in the gallery.....

But The Forecaddie didn't stop digging until he got to the bottom of the obvious issue:

The Forecaddie asked Wahlberg’s playing partner, super-friendly CAA partner Rob Light. But even one of the music business’ most powerful figures was not sure. Turns out, after talking to many sources, TMOF learned Wahlberg was not listening to anything. He’s just prepared if his iPhone should ring and a little double tap of the wireless headphones might turn up Jack Nicklaus or Will Ferrell on the line. 

This naturally begged another question: Who would be important enough to accept a call when you’re playing golf with Tiger Woods, someone Wahlberg calls the greatest ever (don’t tell Jack)?

 Where's Stevie when we need him?  

Riviera Loco - Shack loves The Riv, in fact you'll probably see him sitting with the AP's Doug Ferguson in the bleachers on the tenth hole most of the week.  He's posted two video in which he talks about the two most famous features of the golf course.

First, as relates to the maddening tenth hole:

Why there are still non-native shrubs on the fascinating 10th at Riviera is a question for another day, but the obvious answer is that they now serve as a defense of a hole rendered too easily drivable. They were planted long ago for no good reason and have been kept to keep the hole from becoming even more of a bomb-and-gouge-fest than it already is.

Bottlebrush, they call it....

Then that famous sixth hole bunker.  Good stuff.

Problem Identified - Doug Ferguson with news that the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach have realized a conundrum:

The problem with a postseason bonus program in golf is making the system volatile enough to come down to the final tournament while rewarding the player with the best season. The PGA Tour Champions might have a solution for the Charles Schwab Cup.

The amusement value comes from two obvious points...  First, that it took Kevin Sutherland to awake them to this issue and that, secondarily, it only seems an issue with the Schwab.  

Though they deny the first:

But this wasn’t a response to Sutherland winning.

What made officials rethink the playoff points system was that two players, Paul Goydos and Lee Janzen, had a reasonable chance on the last day to win the Schwab Cup even though they were outside the top 20 in the standings. That would have looked even more awkward in light of Langer’s big season.

I'm having trouble understanding how those two could be any less deserving a season-long honor than the actual winner, but have at it boys.

Then maybe you can understand that the FedEx Cup has the very same issues....  Unless, of course, Billy Ho is your idea of the best player in the game.

I'm going to go get myself some of that powdery goodness.....See you tomorrow.