Weekend Wrap

Back in the saddle at Unplayable Lies World HQ, in which we begin our descent into Augusta....  But first, how about that weekend....

The BubbaMaster - A very impressive week for the man from Bagdad:

AUSTIN, Texas – Tiger Woods. Phil Mickelson. Ernie Els. Rory McIlroy. Two already in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Two others who are destined to be there. 

Add Bubba Watson to that list. On Sunday, thanks to his 7-and-6 rout of Kevin Kisner in the finals of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, he became just the fifth player to win multiple World Golf Championships and multiple majors. 

That may seem like trivia but it’s hardly trivial. It’s a neat little list -- not that Bubba has any interest in that. “You don’t think about lists or anything,” he said an hour or so after playing his 109th hole of a long week at Austin Country Club. “You just think about trophies and trying to win.”

Actually, when you put it like that, it makes it seem really trivial.   But it's a match-play win in an even year, so you know where thoughts are turning....

The Tour Confidential gang is asked the obvious question in a curious manner:

1. After going nearly two years without a victory and dropping out of the top 100, Bubba Watson has now picked up two wins in his last four starts following his victory at the WGC Match Play on Sunday. Now he's getting ready for Augusta, where he's already won twice. How many Masters favorites would you put ahead of a surging Bubba?

Sean Zak: Ahead of him? No one. I see it as a six- or seven-horse race between the "favorites." That includes him, DJ, JT, Phil, Rory, Spieth and Eldrick. Rose, too. There is no single favorite I'd rank higher than the others.

Michael Bamberger: I like Rory's chances slightly more than Bubba's. I would put Bubba right alongside Langer, King Louie, Tiger, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Phil and Daniel Berger. And Fred.

Bams has been milking the Langer bit since the Carter Administration, but has he seen the latest Charles Schwab Cup standings?   I'm OK with Fred, as well, but Daniel Berger?  That's crazy talk....

The other guys are mostly on the same page, and who's to argue.  There are few guys scarier on that track than Bubba, though I just can't get my head around the concept of Bubba winning three Masters.  

At Golfweek, Shack takes a shot at the future of this event, including some agronomic insights we don't get elsewhere:

While the format will forever be part of the discussion with this event, Dell and the supportive fans of Austin have been happy to ensure at least three days with some of the world’s best players. The event’s placement close to the Masters also has been a source of griping, but after next year’s event, the calendar could force a move to May, when players can then complain about the less-than-perfect format for PGA Championship preparation. 

A May move likely would make the 1,200 or so members of Austin Country Club happy, as their course no longer would need a cumbersome winter overseeding and they’d get back some peak spring golf season dates. They also will continue to collect one of the PGA Tour’s largest site rental fees.

That's interesting for sure, though he's reading from a different script than anyone else on the subject.  Last I heard, the match-play is in its same slot next year, so the resume the griping, boys.

Geoff has a fine suggestion that a portion of their charitable giving go to save the beloved Muny:

Of greater concern should be ensuring that Dell and Austin remain engaged in an event that also has brought out the best in the PGA Tour’s Championship Management division, operators of all WGC events. The community continues to be invested in the week thanks to more tickets available since Year One, when the Dell was essentially a members-only affair. There have been $2.1 million in charitable contributions made with another million expected from the 2018 tournament. While all the causes are worthy, the event might be invigorated by a short-term charitable backing of the Save Muny cause. 

The sense of community here is stronger and more progressive than most growing cities, best evidenced by a sold-out Friday night fundraiser attended by Ben Crenshaw and hosted by Austin’s Criquet shirt brand. The Save Muny cause is raising funds to protect and restore Lions Municipal, the lovely and affordable course operated by the city where Crenshaw grew up playing. The University of Texas owns the property and wants to bulldoze it for commercial real estate, even as organizations such as the U.S. Golf Association have spoken out to save this ideal city-center American public golf treasure.

Here's his tweet from their Friday fundraiser:

Great idea, just not necessarily what I want to discuss.  

Did you catch Bubba's comments after his semi-final win.  He suggested that Kisner and Alex Noren should go many extra holes to wear themselves out and, while it only went the one extra hole, he played an obviously gassed Kisner in the final.  And Kiz wasn't the only one... did you catch Poulter in his quarter-final or JT all-day Sunday?

Yes, there were extenuating circumstances.  First, as relates to the latter:

But how much was the pressure of getting to No. 1 weighing on Thomas? Apparently, a

lot. 

"I haven't had such a hard time not thinking about something so much," a candid Thomas told reporters after the loss. "And that really sucked. I couldn't stop thinking about it, to be perfectly honest. And I think you're constantly getting questions about it with the media, but I need to be mentally stronger than that, and understand that it's just a match."

Really?  Mikey Bams had this answer when asked in the TC panel:

Bamberger: Very surprised. Maybe there's a major cash incentive to becoming No. 1. Otherwise, it's largely ceremonial, computer-driven and meaningless.

It's not even as important as Mike makes it seem.  Unless, of course, Lee Westwood is your golf God....

I never thought I'd be capable of actual sympathy for Ian Poulter, but this is just so wrong:

"I guess I should never listen to other people," said Poulter. "You finish a round of golf and the press and everybody are telling you you're in the Masters, and then you get a text message 10 minutes before you tee off to correct everybody, to say 'oh, we've made a mistake, actually, no, that was wrong, you're not in.'" 

Poulter lost to Kevin Kisner 8&6 after finding out the math was wrong and he needed to win that match for a Masters berth.

My concern is that this event is just making the guys play too many matches, so the guy that wins is that guy that isn't tested early in the week.  That's the pattern for DJ last year and Bubba this year.  I get that, even with pool play, the early rounds are the best days of the event.  But we need them to have something left in the tank on Sunday. no?

Nothing To See Here -  Shack review recent history on the subject here, but James Hahn is the latest to weigh in:

Hahn took to Twitter to claim that on the second-to-last hole of his match against Dufner, a "guy yell[ed] purposely on my back swing." The tweet was later deleted, but the full

text read, "Fought hard today after a bad start. 2 down, 4 to go, guy yells purposely on my back swing. Whether we like it or not, this is where the game is going. My fault for not expecting the worst from fans. Just sucks to lose a match that way." 

It's unclear which shot Hahn is referring to, but he did make a bogey 5 on the par-4 15th hole while Reed made par to move to 3 up in the match.

Eammon Lynch will no doubt be receiving a call from Ponte Vedra Beach:

This isn’t a referendum on growing the game or about tweedy killjoys debating alcohol sales policies. It ought to be a simple solution for the Tour: Welcome all fans, let them enjoy a drink, but broom the jerks immediately. All it requires is extra security deployed around the high-profile players who attract the beer-goggle boors. 

No genuine golf fans will be driven away by such an approach.

Excuse me, Eammon, but I've been reliably informed that this is indeed a good problem to have, caused by all the new fans drawn to the game by all the time the guys spend in the gym.  These new fans are not yet familiar with the nuances of our game, so we have to accommodate ourselves to their need to scream "Mashed potatoes"on Jame's backswing, otherwise we're all gonna die.  Or something...

Thud - Did we all enjoy that Friday Spieth-Reed match?  Here's the TC panel on it:

4. Longtime Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup partners Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth faced off in a highly publicized duel on Friday of the WGC Match Play, with Reed winning 2 and 1 and knocking Spieth out of the tournament. Earlier in the week video surfaced of Reed taking a (light-hearted?) jab at Spieth while taking a drop at Bay Hill, and at the WGC Reed also joked that his "back still hurts from the last Ryder Cup," insinuating he anchored their pairing. Is their "feud" all in good fun, or is there more than meets the eye there?

Zak: Well, considering Patrick Reed doesn't win as many tournaments, OR contend in majors, this is one of those moments (as is the Ryder Cup) where he can exert how great a player he is (or even how great a player he thinks he is). So, I'd surmise there is more than meets the eye on Reed's end... but we all know who owns a bigger piece of the American golf pie. They know it, too. 

Sens: Just speculating here but Reed sure sounds like a man with a mini ax to grind. Probably some professional jealousy there. Again, though, I appreciate the honesty. 

Bamberger: In humor there's almost always some truth. Good fun, yes — but not all in good fun.

They're way off in the long grass, methinks.

First and foremost, it was reminder of how crazy our game, and match-play is our game on steroids.... 

But guys, who cares that Patrick needs his little grudges, because none of us really expect much from that guy at Augusta.  But can we not agree that Jordan is officially a mess?  Shane Ryan is the only guy out there that is on this case, and he's all over it:

• The two times he had a chance to add to the Patrick Reed match-play mythos, he showed the most subtle kind of reluctance. When the Golf Channel asked him how

"tough" the match was, he said, "I mean, I don't think it would have been that tough to beat me today. I just didn't have a really good day. You know, sometimes that happens." And later, when the question was more explicit: "I didn't feel like his match-play toughness had much to do with the match today. There were a lot of holes given to him. He had a lot of pick-the-ball-up throughout the day." Of course, Spieth went on to praise specific shots Reed made, but the way he took the air out of the broader theme hinted at some residual annoyance with the match, and maybe—to read perhaps too far—with Reed himself. At the very least, we know that Spieth does not want to think of himself as one who couldn't rise to the occasion, or who was intimidated by his opponent.

• The higher the stakes, and the more nervous Spieth feels, the more he talks with his caddie, Michael Greller. On the first few holes Friday, the two were staging one-act plays on every tee box. The wind didn't help, of course, but that alone doesn't explain the dynamic, which almost seemed like seeking reassurance. These talks shortened and finally dried up on the back nine, though by then, even as he fought on, there had been some faint emotional concession. 

• Spieth is a constant self-talker, but these dialogues verged on begging. On the par-3 seventh, he urged his ball with words and gestures to stay up, and spun in a circle—"God dangit...God dangit"—when it wouldn't oblige. As he watched his second shot on the par-5 12th sail to the green, he exhorted it onward, and was upset when it didn't run very far toward the hole.

I have no interest in Jordan at Augusta....  In fact, it could get very ugly.  Though he is playing Houston this week, so maybe he'll find something.

Scenes From a Train Wreck - It's sad when bad things happen to nice people, but I think retiring at age 30 is well within reach:

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Lydia Ko’s changes in 2018 weren’t limited to her team. The 20-year-old is 15 pounds lighter thanks to a new cardio routine. 

“For somebody that does zero cardio to just a little bit made a huge difference,” said Ko.

“I don’t feel bloated, which I think is a huge thing,” she said. “I’m trying to gain more muscle and lose a bit of the unnecessary fat. Everybody seems like they are hitting it longer and longer.”

Well, everyone but you, that is.  

Ko finished the 2017 season ranked 137th on the LPGA in driving distance at 243 yards. She was 126th the year before. In 2015, when Ko took all the year-end accolades and was No. 1 in the world, she ranked 60th in driving at 250 yards. In her rookie season she was 66th.

Our little girl has contracted a virulent case of Luke Donald disease...  she's shorter than the other girls and doesn't hit too many fairways.  Short and crooked is a bad combo....

I don't wanna say it's the glasses, but it's the glasses.