Thursday Threads

Match play, you see, is much more of a joust. It calls for a doughty, resourceful competitor, the sort of fellow who is not ruffled by his opponent’s fireworks and is able to set off a few of his own when it counts.

HERBERT WARREN WIND

H/T again to Shack for the timely quotes.  And at least this time I know well the source....

Wild Wednesday -  The carnage included DJ, Phil and Rory, and might have grabbed JT as well if not for a bent putter shaft....

Rory McIlroy put together another flawless back nine, running off five straight birdies.

This time, it wasn’t enough. 

Former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein built a 5-up lead against McIlroy and held off his late charge with enough key shots of his own in a 2-and-1 victory, one of several surprises Wednesday in the opening session of the Dell Technologies Match Play. 

Defending champion Dustin Johnson hit two shots out-of-bounds on the same hole, another tee shot in the hazard and couldn’t make the putts that he couldn’t afford to miss on the back nine. He wound up losing on the 17th hole to Bernd Wiesberger. 

Justin Thomas also got a scare, mainly because his opponent had to putt with a sand wedge over the last 12 holes.

No one will worry much about the Ulsterman, who displayed that recent good form on the back nine.  But DJ and Phil looked curiously disengaged...

Thanks to the format change, they're still among the living, though the odds aren't great:

McIlroy, along with Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Tommy Fleetwood, now have to do

some serious clawing to win their groups. All of them lost the opening match in their four-man groups and will need some help to advance to the weekend. 

In the two years this round-robin format has been used, only four players have lost on Wednesday and won their group. 

One of them was Johnson two years ago.

And there were some really close calls for big names... We noted JT eking it out against a guy with no putter, helped by this rather unlikely up-and-in.  Paul Casey won only because Russell Henley's drive on the finishing hole made a ninety-degree turn into a hazard.  

Everyone's favorite storyline remains intact as both Spieth and Reed won their matches, but the former had a strange conclusion to his match:

The match ended with a peculiar twist. Schwartzel missed his birdie putt on No. 17, meaning Spieth had two putts from 5 feet to win the match. Schwartzel made him hit both putts, the second one from just over 2 feet. 

“I missed some shorties to start the round. I don’t hold that against Charl,” Spieth said. “I didn’t enjoy hitting that second putt, and that’s the point.”

Obviously Charl has seen Jordan's recent putting form....

I dodged a bullet for sure, as it appeared that Keegan was determined to make me eat my harsh words.  Then Keegan did what Keegan does:

Keegan Bradley was 2 up with three to play against 2017 finalist Jon Rahm when he bogeyed two of the last three holes in a match that ended in a tie.

When the going gets tough, you'll find Keegs curled up in the fetal position....

Geoff had this interesting quote from the guy that took down Rory:

Q. Why do you like match play? What is it about it that you enjoy? 

PETER UIHLEIN: I just think you make double, you're not dropping about 40 spots, it helps. I think it kind of frees you up a little bit in a weird way. It's different because you're -- obviously in match play you're playing the golf course. But you're really not. You're trying to play your opponent. You're just trying to put pressure on them as much as you can. 

And a guy like Rory who is obviously going to be a lot longer than me, I can kind of come in the greens first. I felt like if I executed and put some pressure on him that would eventually kind of maybe go more towards my favor. But I think I'm playing Harmon tomorrow, it will be the total opposite. He'll be coming in first on every hole. 

Yeah, I think you kind of mix and match your game plan based on your opponent or the situation, really. If I was in Rory's shoes on 13, I would probably dry to hit driver on the green. You definitely change based on where you're at in the match, for sure.

I was trying to explain to a friend over coffee yesterday why most of the guys hate this week, and it's hard to capture.   

Alan Shipnuck had a couple of queries about the event in his weekly mailbag:

Do you prefer groups or immediate knock-out for the Match Play? — @JJ_Slice 

I still flip-flop on this. I'm old enough to remember a 36-hole final between Jeff Maggert and Andrew Magee that was tedious even for the most strident of purists. For sure, in single-elimination it's problematic to have so many stars eliminated right off the bat, and you can get to the weekend with some unappealing draws. I've grudgingly come to appreciate the glut of matches early in the week. But in my heart of hearts I still prefer the brutal win-or-go-home ethos of the old days.

I don't think it's as close a call has he, but he elides one important detail, which is that there was no sponsor and therefore no match-play event under the old format.  I used to call it the upside down tourney, because Wednesday was the best day of the week and Sunday was an anticlimax.

But to the Tour's credit, they found something that works for Dell and most of the players, and it's a reasonable compromise.

I know the schedule changes quite a bit for the 2018-19 season but where would you like to see the Match Play positioned? Two weeks before the Masters doesn't seem ideal. — @BobEstesPGA 

Yeah, the top players are trying to peak for Augusta and this is a different kind of golf that takes them out of their normal tournament-week rituals and routines. The rejiggered schedule that is coming next year puts the PGA Championship in May and the Players back in March. It will also move the WGC-Mexico up a week in February, so it follows right after Riviera and thus doesn't disrupt the Florida swing. So, every month from February to July is anchored by a major, a WGC or the Players, and then the FedEx Cup kicks in. So why not move the Match Play to January, to kick off the season with a bang? The Hope has lost its identity and relevance, but a match play event at PGA West could be a blast. Or can you imagine the bedlam if it was conducted at Phoenix? Moving the Match Play into January would also be great for the Australian Open, South African Open and other cool international events conducted in November and December because more top players would turn up to solidify their World Ranking.

Bob Estes doesn't have your cell?  There could also be a gap after the Open Championship, but it's a hard event to slot in, especially before we know for sure which events will go bye-bye.

 Lastly, before moving on, do give Tweeter Alliss a moment of your time, revisiting the best match evah.  Handbags at ten paces, well played, Sir! 

Say It Ain't So, Romo - There ain't enough lipstick for this pig, but I for one am relieved that I won't have to wait to hear how he does:

Tony time: Live updates on Romo's PGA Tour debut in the Dominican Republic

For those of you thinking that this is similar to Steph Curry, let me remind you that this an actual PGA Tour event.  We have players who graduated from the Web.com Tour with cards that can't get tee times, but by all means let's use a precious spot on a football announcer.

Brain Costa in the WSJ does a good job of sorting through the issues, but to me the key bit is Tony's self-absorption:

At a news conference in February, Romo said he hoped that PGA Tour pros would withhold any skepticism until they see him play.

 

“It’s not rocket science,” Romo said. “If you can hit a golf ball and you can hit it—if you hit a 5-iron, you hit it 205 yards and you can put it to a back-right pin and fade it in there, they’re going to respect you. And if you can’t, then you’ll probably get some blowback.”

Gee, Tony, could it be because they have seen you play, and then not play:

Romo is listed as a 0.3 handicap, which requires only a bit of rounding to make him eligible. On the other hand, handicaps are based only on the scores players choose to post. Romo hasn’t posted any scores since last September. He withdrew from a mini-tour event in Texas last month after shooting an opening-round 81.

And I actually think the WD is more disgraceful than the 81.  You take a kids place, and then can't even see it through.

MTGA -  Remember those Make Tiger Great Again tees?  

The recipient, Dr. Richard Guyer, is the guy that fused Tiger's back....  I know, but it's the thought that counts.

Tiger, Unplugged - A bizarre excerpt from that new Tiger bio, one that has me actually sympathetic to Bill Clinton.  read the piece for the back story, there was history between the two, but there's no excuse for this:

On the day before the official opening of the learning center, Woods met Clinton, Doug Band, sports agent Arn Tellum and Wasserman for the promised round of golf at Shady

Canyon Country Club in Irvine. Tiger was having breakfast with McLaughlin in the clubhouse when Tellum and Wasserman approached. At that point, Woods had never met either man. Dispensing with introductions, Tiger wanted to know if the president had arrived. When told Clinton was on his way, Woods replied with a straight face, “I can’t wait to talk about p----.” 

The situation got even more awkward after Clinton arrived. Tiger’s behavior did nothing to bridge the gap between him and Clinton. At the outset, Clinton started carrying on, monopolizing the conversation, as he was known to do, before Woods interrupted and said, “How do you remember all that shit?” Once they got onto the course, Tiger acted completely indifferent to the entire group, mostly riding alone in his cart and spending an inordinate amount of time on his phone. After finishing a hole, he would routinely exit the green while others were still putting, a major breach of golf etiquette. When the president hit a wayward drive, Woods snickered. He also told a series of off-color jokes. 

“He was really obnoxious,” said one observer. “It was so clear to me that day who Tiger really was. I’ve never seen the president more put off by a person than that experience.”

To make matters worse, about a week later, Clinton’s office sent a picture of Clinton and Woods on the course together and asked Tiger to personalize it and send it back to the president for framing. Whether Tiger forgot or simply ignored the request remains unclear. Many months later, a staffer for Clinton called Tiger’s office in exasperation and asked, essentially, what the f--- was going on. At that point, Tiger scribbled his name on the photograph and sent it back. Years later, a longtime Clinton staffer had unpleasant memories of the entire situation. “Clinton hauled his ass out West, and you can’t sign a picture? The whole experience was a lot of ‘I’m Tiger Woods, king of the world, go f---yourself.’ ”

He's always had that side to his personality, but that's an awfully public display of it, especially when the underlying transaction was supporting his Foundation's initiative. 

No Dog Was Harmed - The only surprise here is that it wasn't United Airlines:

We've shared tales of airlines damaging professional golfers' clubs or misplacing their bags right before critical tournaments. But the story of In-Kyung Kim's sticks is quite the saga. 

Kim, the seventh-ranked women's player in the world, was on an American Airlines flight in January when her equipment was lost. The company suggested renting clubs in the meantime, easier said than done given it was the same set Kim used during her Women's Open Championship victory last summer. Also unfortunate, as Kim's bag featured a few clubs that were no longer in production. 

A few weeks following the incident, Kim shot a "What's in my bag?" segment with Alison Whitaker, where she relayed her plight. A video that serendipitously caught the eye of three San Diego golfers, who discovered Kim's clubs at a Play It Again Sports store in California.

In this case it was American.

They're Different -  Geoff at Golfweek with a very interesting item:

A year ago at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, many players were concerned about golf’s governing bodies taking away their green-reading books. Nothing much has materialized since regarding the legality of those supplemental books. The players

increasingly rely on the pages full of arrows. 

Except at Augusta National. 

In discussing upcoming preparations for the Masters, both Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth noted that they won’t be able refer to the detailed readouts. 

“Augusta doesn’t provide you with a green-contour book, like the other tournaments do,” McIlroy said. “So you’ve got to sort of figure it out yourself.” 

Spieth noted the absence of green-reading books at Augusta as well, forcing him to rely on notes.

Big deal, those greens are so flat that this doesn't matter much....  Yeah, just playin' ya.

But this still seems a big ask to me: 

The discussion provided a fresh reminder that Augusta National sets its own standards and players willingly comply for one special week a year. That could be noteworthy when folks say the Lords of Augusta would never make players comply with different rules, like, you know, asking them to use a different golf ball during Masters week.

Could and should are two very different things.....