Midweek Musings

It is without a doubt the best time of year... Opening Day followed by you-know-what down in Georgia.

Masters Stuff - Doug Ferguson has a useful bit of perspective for us all, though it's unlikely that many will take heed.  The piece ostensibly reviews the major story lines leading into The Masters, though to this reader here's the key bit:

Look at the landscape in 2017. Jordan Spieth won big at Pebble Beach and had never finished worse than runner-up in three Masters. Thomas shot 59, set a PGA Tour scoring record for 72 holes and swept Hawaii to begin his emergence as the next young star. Hideki Matsuyama was on a roll. Jon Rahm was just getting started. Rickie Fowler won again. And then Johnson found another gear and won three straight tournaments. 

And then Sergio Garcia won his first major in his 20th year as a pro.

The message?  Put on your damn shoes before running down that staircase.... But you get my point, it's golf a no one knows anything.

Add this to the list of fun Masters items:

THE MASTERS GREEN JACKET: 13 THINGS TO KNOW

Fair enough... whatcha got?

7. The jackets are made in Ohio, but the fabric is from Georgia – a tropical weight wool. 

8. The estimated cost to make is $250, although not confirmed publicly. Each jacketneeds approximately 2 1/2 yards to make and it takes about a month. 

9. The last time fabric was purchased was in 1990. That’s because it was a 500-yard roll which is enough to make 200 green jackets.

So, every time a guy wins a second or third masters, they save $250....  But wait, there's more:

10. Here’s something we can’t see on TV without zooming in – the three-button, single-breasted blazer has custom brass buttons inscribed with the Augusta National logo. 

11. “Masters Green” is Pantone 342 to match the rye grass of Augusta National’s fairways.

Pantone 342.  Got it.

You know how I'm always harping on the field size?  Get this:

The Masters, perennially the paramount event of the golf calendar, feels even bigger this year with a host of engaging storylines and return of a certain 14-time major winner. Somewhat ironic, as the Masters field is smaller than it has been in decades. 

Four players qualified for the tournament via Official World Golf Ranking following the WGC-Match Play, and one spot is potentially up for grabs at this week's Houston Open. But with Brooks Koepka officially dropping out of the proceedings—the reigning U.S. Open champion remains sidelined with a wrist injury—the 2018 Masters field will feature no more than 87 players, the smallest amount of entrants since 1997.

Unlike any other event, when a player like Koepka drops out his spot vaporizes, as opposed to going to the next guy on the list.

 While 87 might seem adequate to the task, you have to deduct the amateurs and non-competitive former champions to get to the core field.  Gotta ask, do they even need to cut the field on Friday?  

This strikes me as wishful thinking from Joel Beall:

Why Jordan Spieth's putting struggles won't matter at the Masters

But do tell:

Entering the Houston Open, Spieth ranks 172nd in strokes gained/putting. Struggles that

have rendered his ball striking moot, and have correlated to quick outs at his last two events. Though he's experienced short-game troubles in the past, this slump is a different vexation. And one that's taking its toll: following his WGC-Dell Match Play loss to Patrick Reed, Spieth was distraught, conceding he was unsure if he could fix the issue in time for Augusta National. 

The good news for Spieth? It may not matter. 

Analytics and statisticians have long established that "Drive for show, putt for dough," is a misnomer. Tournaments are routinely decided by a player's performance off the tee and in approach, with the work on the greens ancillary, if not downright irrelevant, to the proceedings. The same has not been said about Augusta National, where putting—supposedly—remains paramount. The Georgia confines are suited to bombers, yes, but distance is for naught if a player is lost on the greens. A belief that explains why Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, otherworldly talents not exactly known for their putting prowess, have yet to hit the Masters jackpot.

I've read his whole piece and I have no clue what his point may be.  He throws a lot of date against the wall, and all of it ends up on the floor.  But buried deep si this bit from another guy:

"At Augusta, you don't need to putt great, you need to not waste any shots, no three-putts, hole everything inside five feet," McIlroy said. "You don't need to hole every 15-footer that you look at, you need to be efficient, just not to be wasteful."

Joel, have you seen Jordan on those five-footers recently?  He's been comically bad, not even threatening the hole....  It seems to me that either he's able somehow to fix that, or he's not going to be in the mix.

You'll also want to read this exhaustive John Strege account of media coverage of the Masters from Day One.  It covers the gamut, from Grantland Rice to Frank Chirkinian to...well, Martha Burke.  In a perfect world, you'd have all read this, David Owen's highly-readable account of how it all came to be.

What Strege misses, and it may be do to space limitations, is the maddening inconsistency of it all.  For instance, there's this anecdote:

Augusta National’s television committee suggested in the wake of the tournament that an effort should be made to show the 12th hole and 13th green, the “most picturesque part of our golf course,” it said, according to a story by Owen in Golf Digest. CBS declined. 

Irony alert: Augusta National in later years took incessant grief from viewers and media for stubbornly refusing to televise the front nine, yet initially it was the club arguing for expanding coverage.

The famed Quonset Hut media center, prone to flooding.

 Biggest laugh?  Has to be this bit:

The year marked the end of Jackson Stephens’ reign as the chairman of Augusta National during which he had grappled with the media over his refusal to allow front-nine television coverage of the Masters leaders. In one such memorable exchange, in response to when it might happen, he explained, “progress is slow.” 

Why? 

“Well, progress is slow because we don’t want it to happen,” he replied. 

His most memorable rejoinder, however, was in response to having been asked what was intended to be a gotcha question. “Do you watch the Super Bowl?” 

“Fourth quarter,” Stephens said.

These guys are good!  But they don't do anything they don't want to do.....

Strege also discusses Masters.org and the Masters app, amongst the most innovative in the game.  Yet, they don't allow ProTracer, on-course reporters or, heaven forfend, a blimp.  It's all quite bizarre.

Lastly, Adam Schupak with a crackdown on the after-market for Masters tickets:

The tournament has long prohibited the reselling of its coveted single-day tickets and multi-day badges, but last year it added a new defense to catch offenders: color-coded strips on the bottom of the tickets that the tournament's ticket police can use as secret decoder rings of sorts to determine the original purchasers. Each of the colors in the six-color design represents a letter and five numbers that match the corresponding ticket number. 

It is unknown whether the club is using the strips to make an example of a few unlucky sellers or to power a wider-scale crackdown. 

Augusta National Golf Club declined to comment for this story.

It would seem inevitable that some unlucky souls will spend a fortune on travel and lodging, only to see the event on CBS.

Tim Herron is back with his highly-anticipated Masters scripting:

Damn!  I'm steering clear of him on Saturday, but I might never be able to get that image out of my mind....

Lastly, before we move on, Shack had this great image from the first Augusta Invitational:

Time To Move On - Lexi is undoubtedly hoping that this is the last time she'll be called upon to talk about it:

Tuesday at Mission Hills Country Club, a composed, smiling Thompson sat in a captain’s chair in the ANA press room and addressed the four-stroke penalty on the back

nine Sunday that ultimately led to significant changes in the Rules of Golf.

“That night was extremely rough,” said Thompson of the hours that followed the toughest loss of her career. “I was screaming, crying. You know, I’ve re-lived it for a while. I had nightmares about it. You know, I still occasionally do.” 

Thompson, 23, cried on every tee shot that followed her encounter with rules officials after the 12th hole. She said it was the fans who allowed her to finish the way she did. 

“I heard them chanting my name on every shot, every tee,” she said. “I heard them on the green chanting my name, and I was like, I have to finish strong for them.”

She handled it well and almost won it despite the nonsense, but I'm not sure the rules changes will prove to be to our liking over the long-term.  

And it's officially on at the year's first major.  How do I know?  Well, they've broken into the sake barrel:

You thought I was kidding?  But can someone whisper to them that barrel has only one "l"?

I'll be watching the ladies this week, as it will be far more interesting than anything in Houston.

Can You Say Unforced Error? - Adjacent to the 18th green of The Old Course sits...well, therein lies the tale.  

Here's what it used to be:

Got that?  The R&A has just scrubbed Old Tom from our collective memories....  Shack has a little spittle running down his cheek over this:

Vandalism in golf takes many shapes and sizes, and while I know the purveyors of The Open will argue that Tom Morris was one of the proud creators and winners of The Open, there is no way to sugarcoat this as anything other than a dreadful, vandalous act as verified by the Twitter replies:

OK, not sure about Twitter as an appeal to authority, but otherwise I;m with him.

Every golf professional and golf shop owes something to this location's historical importance. Furthermore, the change is made all the more appalling by recent Links Trust efforts to restore the shop and highlight it's importance. The name Tom Morris has been an integral part of Links Road for well over a century and golfers from across the globe have come to pay their respects.

I can't even guess what they were thinking....  Setting aside the fact that his son may have been the greatest player ever, was there a man more important to the game of golf than Old Tom?