Rumor has it that it might break 60 degrees this weekend, though only by a whisker.... This global warming thing isn't working out as I hoped. Except, of course, in Utah.
Out With The Old - Recently we had a comment related to the distance debate, to wit, that Augusta National could always be defended, but that we should keep our eyes on The Old Course. John Huggan, a curmudgeonly Scot, but I repeat myself, trains his observant eye there, and he leads with a world class appeal to authority:
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Despite—or perhaps because of—its historic trend-setting position in the world of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews will forever be a polarizing subject. Many love and appreciate the unique mixture of strategic subtleties and often-frustrating challenges the most famous 18 holes on the planet presents. Yet, as renowned course designer Alister Mackenzie (Augusta National, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne) pointed out in his seminal work, The Spirit of St. Andrews, “when St. Andrews is at its best, it is always attacked most viciously.”
And this as well:
“Analyze the holes on the Old Course,” Mackenzie wrote. “There is hardly a hole where the correct line is direct from tee to green.”
Indeed, at its heart, the Old Course is a fascinating test, portraying golf in its most interesting and free-thinking form. Every aspect of the game is on display, and every aspect of the player examined, mentally and physically. Because of the enormous width available from the tee, each hole demands and rewards strategic thought, the position of the pin dictating the best placement of the tee shot and, in turn, the most propitious angle of attack into the flag. Moving the pin by as little as five yards can, on occasion, make an 80-yard difference in the location of the ideal drive. Distance can often be advantageous, too, but not disproportionately. The battle between power and placement was, for long enough, pretty much a fair fight.
This is, surprisingly, not his first concern:
Action was taken. As has already been the case in 2015, the 2021 Open at St. Andrews will see players driving from tees located on the Old Course, the New Course, the Eden Course, the Himalayas putting course and, in the case of the previously fearsome Road Hole, a field to the right of the 16th fairway. Take that aforementioned stroll round the Old and the walks between the previous green and the next tee amount to more than 1,000 yards. And that is only half way. After the often long (and annoying) walk back and to the right at many holes, that yardage must be retraced just to get back to where the tee used to be. The next time R&A officials bemoan the pace of play on the Old Course, they should keep that self-inflicted factor in mind.
I knew about all of those excepting the Himalayas.... presumably not from a level lie?
Things are changing though. Or seem to be.
While the vast fairway width for which the Old Course is famous—and which is one part of its inherent appeal—remains largely in place, my latest visit showed things ain’t quite what they used to be. Changes that started taking root in the last two decades have become more glaring in recent years.All told, on as many as 10 holes, fairway bunkers sit beyond the fairway lines. Individually, each change seems relatively minor. But in the aggregate, they lend themselves to the obvious questions: What is going on here? And why?
His point being that in order to ensure that scoring doesn't get too wacky, the R&A has to change the strategic challenge of the most iconic golf course on the planet... But nothing to see here, says Wally Uihlein... Huggan does a lovely job of book-ending his item, with one last appeal to the Good Doctor:
Weirdly, of course, golf, in contrast to the approach pursued by the likes of baseball, cricket, tennis and the javelin, is the only game that has “protected” the equipment at the expense of the venues. Back in the day, Mackenzie warned that there is “no limit to science.” How right he was. But surely even he was not prescient enough to imagine what was coming and the continuing damage it would do to the 18 holes he described as “the only first-class course in the game.”
Science? I've been reliably informed that any distance gains are simply the result of all the time the guys are spending in the gym...
Strange Bedfellows - Ron Sirak, one of the grizzled veterans and good guys of the golf writing biz, has landed a curious new gig:
Any port in a storm, it just seems an odd fit, especially since Ron spent much time covering the ladies. I know Forbes won't be terribly interested in that tour...
Anyway, his first item on Tiger isn't top-drawer Sirak:
He smiles more and swears less. He bumps fists with kids as he walks the golf course and chats up his playing partners. When he made an impossibly long putt in the Arnold Palmer Invitational he laughed sheepishly instead of punctuating his performance with a pumped fist and haka-like war cry. Is the new Tiger Woods a man transformed by the turmoil in his life or is this merely a calculated effort to once again become the most sought after endorsement partner in all of sports?
It's a good question, one many of us have been asking, but Ron does little more than pose it, offering no hint of his opinion.
Ron at Forbes is of interest, because earlier this week I ran across another item on Tiger in an even more unlikely venue. Forbes of course has an obvious interest in the business side of sports, but this one I found in The Weekly Standard, the conservative political publication. See if you react to the lede as I did:
Back in 2008, Tiger Woods was unstoppable. His most astonishing golf victory came atthe U.S. Open that year, at Torrey Pines in California, despite an injury that made his legs and left knee feel “like they had been hit with a thousand hammers.” On the final hole, down by a stroke, Woods hit a putt in a difficult spot for a birdie, tying Rocco Mediate and forcing an 18-hole playoff the next day. Woods pumped his fist, but he had work to do. On Monday, he and Mediate tied for 18 more holes. Woods looked injured and wounded, yet somehow kept swinging. Then, in the first sudden-death playoff hole, Mediate missed, giving Woods a chance to win with a par. He delivered, giving him his 14th major title at age 32. “It’s probably the greatest tournament I’ve ever had,” he said at the time. He was right—and everyone thought he would win again and again. Jack Nicklaus, the famous champion of a record 18 majors, didn’t win 14 majors until he was 35. Woods, no doubt, would break that record, along with everything else.
Here's the bio of the author:
Tom Perrotta writes about sports for the Wall Street Journal, FiveThirtyEight, and other publications.
Mr. Perrotta might write about sports for those august publications, but based upon that opening 'graph (and there are other instances in the body of piece), he's new to the golf world. Because this isn't how golfers talk:
On the final hole, down by a stroke, Woods hit a putt in a difficult spot for a birdie,
We make putts, we sink putts (well, other do), but we don't "hit putts". And a spot isn't "difficult", though perhaps a putt is.... You see my point... He's perhaps writing for non-golfers, but why offend the golfers in your readership.
Similarly, Quicken Loans, which was in the business of sponsoring golf tournaments and advertising on their broadcasts, had something similar in a commercial commercial. It said, "Any time a PGA Tour professional hits a hole in one....". How do they get a commercial written, filmed and aired without someone telling them they sound completely unfamiliar with the game beloved by their audience....
Colonial, Saved? - Good news on the sponsorship front, that may keep Hogan's Alley in play:
Although banking and investment firm Charles Schwab is headquartered in San Francisco, 22 of its 345 U.S. branches are Texas-based, six of them in North Texas.
Most significantly to Colonial, Schwab and the potential for a longterm, mutually beneficial relationship, Schwab is building a $100 million campus in Westlake, north of Fort Worth, that could house up to 2,600 employees. The campus is scheduled to open in 2019.
Much like North Texas' other PGA Tour event, the AT&T Byron Nelson, Schwab would represent to Colonial a sponsor with a long, deeply rooted association with the PGA Tour.
It's not quite a done deal, but close enough for our purposes. It remains unclear, however, which events go away as part of the schedule contraction. Houston remains a possibility, but does the Tour want two events in DFW and none in Houston?
Sat It Ain't So, Ko - We've reached a critical juncture, perhaps the defining moment of young Lydia's career. No, not the arc of her career, that's been quite obvious for some time now. Something far more important, the assignment of blame. Our primary source is the linked ESPN feature on Lydia's fall from the heights of the game, and the guy being fitted for the rap is David Leadbetter:
Leadbetter helped Faldo remake his swing in the '80s, when he was the No. 1 player inthe world, and he was Els' coach for nearly 20 years, when Els won three of his four majors. But he was also given the derisive nickname Lead Poison by tour players and media members after Wie, another teenage prodigy, failed to blossom. Wie, who recently won her first tournament in nearly four years, continues working with Leadbetter.
"Lydia Ko, from the time she was a child, everyone could see where she was headed," says Brandel Chamblee, a former PGA Tour player who now works as an analyst for the Golf Channel. "David Leadbetter completely changed the DNA of her golf swing. Why in the world would you do that? Because you want to put your stamp or signature on the masterpiece that is this kid?"
I'm not sufficiently attuned to the technical details of the golf swing to adjudicate this cage match,but it seems to me the seeds of her difficulties can be found earlier in the item:
Almost as fascinating was how Ko did it. She is, in many ways, the Lionel Messi of golf. She doesn't overpower courses or intimidate anyone. She's 5-foot-5, not particularly muscular, and when she first showed up on tour, she didn't hit the ball very far, nor even particularly straight. Nor did she have a picturesque swing. If you held a casting call for the role of Dominant Athlete, the girl in the thick black glasses, which she wore in her first year as a pro, would not have even gotten a callback.
That condition is known clinically as Luke Donald disease, and it's pretty much fatal. Criticize Lead Poison all you want, and while it's a great moniker I'm reluctant to blame Wie's problems on anyone but herself, but something needed to be done. You just can't excel out there for long giving up that kind of yardage to the field.
The other key to her demise is to be found here:
We haven't seen this pose much from her since she lost the specs.... Was Lead Poison behind that as well?
At his eponymous website, leadpoison.com (kidding, but how great would be if he embraced the insult?), Leadbetter posts a lengthy rebuttal, including reminding folks that she actually won quite a bit while working with him. He heaps blame on her parents, ironic given his continuing relationship with Clan Wie, but closes with this:
The toughest thing from our standpoint is to see the deterioration in her game compared to her first three years as a professional. We might not have all of the answers, but she certainly was on track to become one of the greatest LPGA players of all time. Hopefully, Lydia is able to resurrect her game. She obviously still has the talent, but it’s not always an easy task to climb back up the mountaintop. Lydia is a great young lady, we only wish the best for her. We honestly felt that if the decision was left entirely up to her, that she would still be with us. Not only did Lydia change her swing and putting coaches, but also her equipment company (Callaway), caddy, workout coach, sports psychologist, and putting grip company. So many changes can be extremely hard to absorb. This year, she even changed her swing coach and caddy once again!
In a nutshell, it is an interesting story. One that will probably have more questions than answers. Lydia can certainly win more tournaments, even Majors, but there’s no possible way that she can play better than she played for those first three years. It just goes to show, that not always is the grass greener on the other side of the hill!
As soon as we heard that she was in search of more distance, we knew the party was over. But she always told us she wanted a second career at age 30, and that's well within her grasp.
These Crazy Kids - Shack takes great joy in bashing Millennials, so I picture him in rapture as he wrote this schadenfreudalicious header:
What's More Embarrassing Files: The Rangefinder Usage Penalty, Or That You Were Using It From 40 Yards Out?
From the Sage Valley Invitational, a top junior golf event:
Then, just like he is accustomed to doing in most of his junior and amateur tournaments, Bhatia reached in his golf bag, pulled out his rangefinder and shot his number.
40 yards.
But Bhatia quickly got a sinking feeling in his stomach. His playing competitor, Michael Sanders, asked Bhatia if he had just used his rangefinder. Knowing that rangefinders aren’t permitted this week at the Junior Invitational, Bhatia replied honestly.
“I knew I couldn’t use a rangefinder, but I decided to take it out for some reason and use it,” Bhatia said of the mental error. “… It’s my fault. I should’ve taken it out of the golf bag (before the round). It sucks, but I’m grateful I’m still in this position and not disqualified.”
He shot 68 with the penalty and is the first-round leader, but one assumes he'll lose by one. Golf Gods and all...
For Those With Money To Burn - Jessica Marksbury drew the long straw, a custom fitting of PXG's new irons at Bob Parsons' ultra-exclusinve Scttsdale National, the club that politely asks members to please go away:
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If you've seen any of PXG's latest advertisements or read any interviews with company founder Bob Parsons, then you know the brand (and the man) is unabashedly focused on producing premium golf equipment — cost be damned. So it should be no surprise that the media day celebrating the PXG GEN2 irons, the company's first iron launch in nearly three years, was a luxe experience.The first item on the agenda: education. I joined a gathering of about 17 other media members from around the world to learn about the technology behind the irons, which is extensive. After the presentation, we were invited to the ultra-exclusive environs of Scottsdale National, which Parsons acquired in 2013. The club now includes two regulation courses: The Mine Shaft and The Other Course, as well as a terrifying short course dubbed the Bad Little Nine.
So, if you're playing The Other Course, you can't refer to The Mine Shaft as "The other course".... Or can you. Quite the visit for Jessica, for instance this:
After the round, we gathered for a drinks reception at Scottsdale National's brand new villas — built as overnight accommodations for the club's guests. The day was capped by a spin around the Bad Little Nine, where we played as a ... twelvesome. Attendees included PXG pros Pat Perez, Lydia Ko, Alison Lee, Ryann O'Toole, James Hahn, Archie Bradley and actor Brian Baumgartner. You don't often hit more than a short iron on the Bad Little Nine, but, man, my knees were shaking over each tee shot. Trash-talking was encouraged (Pat Perez is a scratch), and it was a blast to see the pros try to one-up each other.
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| That's the aforementioned Lydia putting on The Bad Little Nine. |
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