A golf course exists primarily for match play, which is a sport, as distinguished from stroke play, which more resembles rifle shooting than sport in that it lacks the joy of personal contact with the opponent.FREDDIE TAIT
I don't actually know who Freddie was, but he nailed it. That's Shack's daily quote, always topical and to the point.
Match-Play Madness - It's the one week on the calendar when the guys go mano-a-mano, which means about two-thirds of them absolutely hate it but feel they need to be there. Then there's Patrick Reed, to whom we'll revert in a bit.
One tradition of the week is the search for the Group of Death.... Here's Golfweek's statistical take on the brackets:
1. Group 9: (Fleetwood) 68.832. Group 3: (Rahm) 68.883. Group 10: (Casey) 68.964. Group 5: (Matsuyama) 68.975. Group 8: (Day) 68.996. Group 13: (Noren) 69.087. Group 12: (Hatton) 69.138. Group 14: (Mickelson) 69.149. Group 1: (Johnson) 69.1510. Group 15: (Perez) 69.1611. Group 11: (Leishman) 69.2212. Group 2: (Thomas) 69.2413. Group 4: (Spieth) 69.3014. Group 16: (Kuchar) 69.4215. Group 6: (McIlroy) 69.4916. Group 7: (Garcia) 69.57
Here's the Tour's own breakdown of that top-ranked group:
9. Tommy Fleetwood, England (4-4-0)26. Daniel Berger, USA (1-5-0)33. Kevin Chappell, USA (1-2-0)58. Ian Poulter, England (23-14-0)
ANALYSISPoulter is the lowest seeded player in the group but he has the most skins on the wall, having won the Match Play in 2010 and reached the consolation final in 2013. This will be his first appearance in Austin, though. This group could be the most intriguing of all, given Fleetwood's form and President Cuppers Berger and Chappell. "It's a brilliant group," said Paul Casey.
First and foremost, those referenced skins might as well have been in the Paleozoic era, as he's simply not the same guy. Tommy's a nice player, but does anyone wake up in a cold sweat over playing him?
As for that 13th ranked group:
Group 4
4. Jordan Spieth, USA (9-4-1)19. Patrick Reed, USA (6-5-1)34. Haotong Li, China (First appearance)49. Charl Schwartzel, South Africa (13-9-0)
ANALYSIS
Will the showdown between Team USA teammates Spieth and Reed on Friday - perhaps the most anticipated group match after Monday's random draw - actually mean something? Both will need to avoid stumbles in their first two matches. Schwartzel, however, has never made much noise in his nine Match Play appearances, and Li is making his debut in this event.
Of course, the revised format could make Friday's match no more meaningful than the Keegan Bradley - Miguel Angel Jimenez cage match a few year's back. But this will surprise nobody:
PREDICTIONS5 votes for Reed (Bolton, Glasscott, McAllister, Morfit, Wall)2 votes for Spieth (Everill, Martin)
Reed will no doubt benefit from the chip on his shoulder, and if you've seen Jordan putt from 5-feet in recent weeks..... Unless, you know, he spent some time with Brad Faxon.
More video of dropgate has emerged, though I think our initial assessment remains unchanged. It does add an S-bomb to the vernacular, so good to know that Patrick's vocabulary continues to expand.
I had never previously realized that Jordan was such a conspiracy theorist:
AUSTIN, Texas – Monday’s blind draw to determine the 16 pods for this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play didn’t exactly feel “blind” for Jordan Spieth, whose group includes Patrick Reed.
Spieth and Reed have become a staple of U.S. teams in recent years, with a 7-2-2 record in the Ryder and Presidents Cup combined. So when the ping-pong ball revealed Reed’s number on Monday night Spieth wasn’t surprised.
“It seems to me there's a bit more to this drawing than randomness,” laughed Spieth, whose pod also includes Haotong Li and Charl Schwartzel.
Excuse me, Jordan, but golf is a game of honor played by gentlemen, so that can't possibly be true. Though he goes on to make a compelling case:
“It's not just me and him. It's actually a lot of groups, to have Luke List and Justin [Thomas] in the same group seems too good to be true. It might be some sort of rigging that's going on, I'm not sure.”
I must be really out of touch, because I didn't realize that Luke had accused JT of getting preferential treatment from rules officials.... Oh, and any chance you'd care to respond to the substance of Patrick's comments?
Back to the Tour review of Groups to see what y'all think of this dis'?
Group 1414. Phil Mickelson, USA (22-13-0)17. Rafa Cabrera Bello, Spain (8-4-1)40. Satoshi Kodaira, Japan (First appearance)59. Charles Howell III, USA (7-10-0)
ANALYSIS
Mickelson won the most recent World Golf Championships event in Mexico to end his five-year drought, and he reached the quarterfinals last year after four dominant wins. Howell won his group last year, beating Cabrera Bello 1 up along the way, so the Spaniard gets a chance to avenge that loss on Thursday. Cabrera Bello reached the semifinals in 2016 before losing to Louis Oosthuizen.
PREDICTIONS6 votes for Cabrera Bello (Bolton, Everill, Glasscott, Martin, McAllister, Wall)1 vote for Mickelson (Morfit)
Did I mention that it's a Ryder Cup year?
Next up is on ode to gamesmanship, though the definition seems far too expansive for my taste. As a fer instance:
Jason Day, for example, is a two-time winner of this event and although he was reluctant to go into details about all of his “tricks,” he did explain his mindset if he finds himself trailing in a match.
“Always walk forward in front of the person that you're playing against, just so you're letting them know that you're pushing forward and you're also letting them know that you're still hanging around,” Day explained. “People feed off body language. If I'm looking across and the guy's got his shoulders slumped and his head is down, you can tell he's getting frustrated, that's when you push a little bit harder.”
OK, how is that gamesmanship? As a contrast, Tiger invading Y.E. Yang's personal space on tee boxes back in the '09 PGA, that qualifies....
The Forecaddie is all over this as well, including a new take on my favorite natch of all time:
The Forecaddie senses there won’t be any pockets full of noisy coins this week, nor will there be extra close scrutiny of a free drop. Then again it wasn’t that long ago when Miguel Angel Jimenez and Keegan Bradley were barking at each other when this event was played at TPC Harding Park, with Bradley seeking refuge in his courtesy car where he was seen petting his girlfriend’s dog.
As they say on Tour, if you want a friend get a dog. But what all accounts of this incident fail to remind of, is that this was a Friday match with both players having gone 0-2.... so it meant exactly nothing.
And here's Jordan's take on it all:
“There should be some gamesmanship,” he said. “That’s the way it is in every other sport, we just never play one-on-one or team versus team like other sports do. That’s why at times it might seem way out of the ordinary. If every tournament were match play, I don’t think that would be an unusual question.”
See, I think we're talking past each other here. These guys have gotten so comfortable with the non-confrontational nature of stroke play, heck they're even leaving their balls on the green when it can help their playing partner.
But in match play it's you or him.....that's a shock to their systems, and they don't always handle it well. Right, Keegs? Lots of golf to watch, as the revised format gives us 32 matches each of the next three days. The problem is, if a player makes it to Sunday afternoon, that's seven matches in five days.... A lot of golf, especially if the matches are intense.
I caught this late, but it's a fun read. Golf Digest interview six top players and asked what makes a good match-play player:
Plenty of players have succeeded in both formats (of recent vintage, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy), some seem much better in stroke play (Jim Furyk, Brandt Snedeker), but still others seem to rise to new levels of greatness in match play (Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed). What accounts for the special success of this last group? Is there an identifiable personality trait, a playing style, or some ethereal quality that explains why they excel at one-on-one play?
In the search for answers, I asked six of the world’s best players heading into this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship. What they offered was almost universally uncertain and halting, but inside the clouds of doubt were nuggets of wisdom that may help us approach the truth.
The fun for us is that it takes the players out of their comfort zone. Most of them, in any event.... And even though they presumably played a ton of MP growing up, they still seem ill-at-ease.
Paul Casey: “It’s a good question, but I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen the guys who are sort of… the quiet assassins who show nothing, the poker face. I think of Luke Donald, doesn’t matter if he’s hit it in the trees or holed it out, he’s got the same expression every time he plays. And that’s very difficult to play against. And I’ve seen the guys who ride the wave of emotion, like a Poulter. I think again that’s the beauty of it. Maybe the guy who has the poker face is able to … I was just thinking … I don’t know if it matters.
“Ultimately, it’s about eliminating mistakes and making the crucial putts and pulling it out when you need to. I think that the only thing you need to do as long as you figure out what works for you because I would never...I’m somewhere between those two extremes, anyway.
“I don’t know. Good question. And if I had a secret I wouldn’t really tell you.”
And yet, like pornography, we know it when we see it. For instance, I remember Bubba and Luke on the first tee that Sunday at Medinah. Bubba was whipping the crowd into a frenzy, and yet there was an absolute certainty in my mind who would win that match.
Good stuff. As is this, in which they seem to go out of their way to make enemies:
Ranking the watchability of all 96 matches from the WGC-Dell Match Play group stage
The Extreme Torture Tier: To be used only on captured enemy combatants96.Charley Hoffmann—Brendan Steele (W) — If you happen upon this match, destroy
The moral equivalent of waterboarding? your TV.95. Kyle Stanley—Russell Henley (F) — Only avoided last because their names are kinda similar.94. Kevin Kisner—Adam Hadwin (W)93. Chez Reavie—Keegan Bradley (F)92. Sotashi Kodaira—Charles Howell III (F)91. Johnattan Vegas—Peter Uihlein (F)
OK, Employee No. 2 will be pissed, as she loves her Charley.... But careful with Keegs, you never know when he'll end up in a car petting a dog....
Nice job with the categories:
 |
| He's not playing the 2012 Poults. |
The Beer After Mowing Your Lawn Tier: The most satisfying of all beers10.Matt Kuchar—Zach Johnson (W) — This one’s for you, dads.9. Sergio Garcia—Xander Schauffele (F)8. Jason Day—Jason Dufner (Th)7. Rory McIlroy—Brian Harman (F)6. Tony Finau—Thomas Pieters (W)5. Jason Day—Louis Oosthuizen (F)4. Jon Rahm—Kiradech Aphibarnrat (F) — Spain and Thailand: The ancient rivalry.3. Phil Mickelson—Rafa Cabrera-Bello (F)2. Tommy Fleetwood—Ian Poulter (W) — Winner gets a date with the queen.
Kooch and Zach is a good one, for sure.... remember the Michael Phelps story?
And this inevitability:
The “Stop Everything and Watch It Burn” Tier
1 Jordan Spieth—Patrick Reed (F) — Well, yeah.
Of course. If you're looking for proof of a divine deity, let them both come in 2-0.
Nothing To See Here - Early last week we had Rory pointedly taking on the drunkenness of golf spectators. We have a clarification of the Tour's policy, and you'll immediately see the resemblance to it's drug testing protocol:
The PGA TOUR has a detailed policy as it relates to alcohol sales and responsible drinking at our events. Of note, our policy requires tournaments to end sales of alcohol to the general public one hour before the scheduled completion of play, each day, which is consistent with other major sports leagues.
You'd almost wish they'd just come out and say they don't see a problem and folks can drink all day if they want. Geoff points out the 45-yard wide holes, saving me the trouble:
A few things to note: the general public refers to non-corporate tent folks. Alcohol is served differently to those paying more money, and sadly, also known to make their share of noise when a chalet is placed too close to play.
As for the idea of stopping sales one hour before the scheduled completion of play as a policy? That's too late to have an impact on the behavior we've been seeing at tournaments and will continue to see. In an arena or stadium sport, the time windows are generally much tighter than an all-day golf tournament. Also, as we know golf is a different sport than those events where rival teams are playing each other.Finally, the real damage is done when sales start first thing in the morning and drunken idiots are out soaking up the sun, reduced to half-melting morons by lunchtime. What could go wrong?
It's a policy seemingly designed for the sole purpose of ensuring that the cash registers keep kachinging, while allowing them to state with a straight face that they have a policy consistent with other sports. Which is fine, as long as drunken spectators don't become a problem....
Nothing To See Here, Really - Well, Olympic Ratings can't get any worse, can they?
AUSTIN, Texas – Potential Olympic golfers for the 2020 Games in Tokyo were informed on Monday that the qualification process for both the men’s and women’scompetitions will remain unchanged.
According to a memo sent to PGA Tour players, the qualification process begins on July 1, 2018, and will end on June 22, 2020, for the men, with the top 59 players from the Olympic Golf Rankings, which is drawn from the Official World Golf Ranking, earning a spot in Tokyo (the host country is assured a spot in the 60-player field). The women’s qualification process begins on July 8, 2018, and ends on June 29, 2020.
The format, 72-holes of individual stroke play, for the ’20 Games will also remain unchanged.
Yawn. The most exciting part might be the fight over the host club's membership policies....
Tiger, Uncovered - Via Shack, an interesting Pravda review of the new Armen Keteyan -Jeff Benedict bio of Tiger:
It’s a confident and substantial book that’s nearly as sleek as a Christopher Nolan movie.It makes a sweet sound, like a well-struck golf ball.
I found it exhilarating, depressing, tawdry and moving in almost equal measure. It’s a big American story that rolls across barbered lawns and then leaves you stranded in some all-night Sam’s Club of the soul. It reminded me of a line from Martin Amis’s new book of essays: “How drunk was Scott Fitzgerald when he said there were no second acts in American lives?”
Unfortunately, I can't copy-and-paste from the Times these days, not a frequent problem for me. But if I could, you'd probably read more about Earl than you'd care to know.
Of perhaps greater interest might be their take on Tiger's misrepresentations, specifically they discredit the Stanford mugging story. They also devote their investigative skills to the subject of PED's, which the media never had much interest in pursuing, though the review doesn't hint at their conclusions. Interesting, though not sufficient enough for me to actually pick the book up.
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