Tuesday Topics

It's back to work after the long holiday weekend, so here you find me at my keyboard....

Karsten Kreek, The Lads - An afternoon mixed event at the club denied me the opportunity to watch the conclusion of stroke play for the men.  Unfortunate, but the silver lining is that I also wasn't able to watch Justin Verlander cause Aaron Judge to do that uncanny impression of Mario Mendoza.

In his last start of as a college golfer, Augusta’s Broc Everett finally got his wish. No, it wasn’t to claim the NCAA individual championship. It was simply to win a collegiate event. 

Of course, that it was the biggest title in men’s college golf makes the accomplishment all the more sweet. When the redshirt senior from West Des Moines, Iowa, rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Auburn freshman Brandon Mancheno, it wasn’t just for posterity. It was for history. In the process, he became the first Jaguar to win an individual NCAA Championship and the first golfer to make the NCAA title his first and only college victory since Florida’s Nick Gilliam in 2001. 

Everett, a walk-on at Augusta who shot a closing 71, his fourth straight sub-par score, to get to seven-under 281, had five top-five finishes during the 2017-’18 season prior to playing nationals, including his last three starts. The lefty was runner-up at MEAC conference championship (the third time he’d finished second in the event) and the NCAA Raleigh Regional. He also lost a playoff last October to teammate Alex Shead at the SSU Tiger Fall Invitational. And for his career, he had posted 17 top-10s.

That's so golf!  Shack had some helpful advice for all:

If you were wondering why play seemed slight faster than last week's women's championship--key word seemed--turns out they handed out some slow play penalties in this year's event. Though players in some cases were never warned and as Lance Ringler writes for Golfweek, the NCAA Championship time par system differs from regular season policies. 

One thought for the next coaches meeting: using a coach as a rangefinder target for a par-5 layup shot on national TV isn't the best look. Especially on a playoff hole taking 30 minutes to play.

The qualification for match play seemed to mostly follow form, though these drama queens had a bit of a close call:

Doug Ghim and Scottie Scheffler have had illustrious careers at the University of Texas.

Ghim and Scheffler each made closing birdies Monday on Karsten Creek’s ninth hole that proved to be the difference for the Longhorns, who avoided a playoff for the final match-play berth by two shots. Texas will be the seventh seed for match play, which begins Tuesday, and will face second-seeded Duke in the quarterfinals. 

On a day when as many as nine teams found themselves within a shot of the cut line, Texas climbed four spots on the leaderboard. With Scheffler and Ghim through 17 holes, the Longhorns were tied with Vanderbilt and Alabama for sixth. The Commodores were in the house and the Tide were grouped with Texas.

And now it's just a crapshoot, with form meaning exactly nothing.

Mudders Needed -  The ladies are playing their U.S. Open this week and, while I hate to throw a wet blanket on it....

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The USGA has never implemented lift, clean and place in a U.S. Women’s Open, but a couple of its champions believe Subtropical Storm Alberto may force the governing body to do so at Shoal Creek this week. 

“They are going to have to play it up,” said Cristie Kerr, winner of the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open. “It’s already soaked out there. There are puddles everywhere. Around the greens, it’s super muddy.” 

Kerr played 18 holes in a practice round Monday in mist and light rain. The course was soggy, with close to 3 inches of rain having fallen over the last week. There is more rain forecast for late Monday and early Tuesday, with Alberto’s passing. The USGA’s meteorologist said anywhere from 1 to 3 inches could fall during the storm. 

“Frankly, I don’t think this golf course can take much more water,” Kerr said.

Lift, clean and cheat for a national championship.  Next thing you'll tell me is that they've backed off on Monday 18-hole playoffs.... Yeah, Mike, no problem, take all the mulligans you need.

They're battling more than just a recent onslaught of rain.  Tough spring conditions have created turf issues, then add water and mix.  Tough week for the gals.

Rory, The Post-Mortems - Rory gets the John Feinstein treatment under this header:

For Rory McIlroy, 2018 is turning into a year of what might have been

John, has it occurred to you that we might posit the same query about his entire career?  I know, in this modern age four majors is virtually GOAT-worthy, but it feels like he's determined to underachieve.

Rory McIlroy has had a remarkable four months—almost. On Sunday, for the fifth time

this year, he had a chance to win a golf tournament. After losing to Francesco Molinari by two strokes at European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, he’s now 1-for-5. On one hand, he’s had five top-fives—a win, two seconds, a T-3 and a T-5—already this year. On the other hand, he could be running away with all the player-of-the-year awards if he’d been a better Sunday closer than he’s been. 

It isn’t as if McIlroy doesn’t know how to get to the finish line. He just turned 29 earlier this month and has already won four major championships, two WGC events, a FedEx Cup title and 24 tournaments worldwide. He’s been a lock future Hall-of-Famer for a while now.

John is putting in a lot of effort to grade Rory on a curve, as we're mostly speaking of second-tier events and third-tier opponents.   Feinstein makes the point that three majors and the Ryder Cup remain in front of us, which is true... or maybe true enough.  But while Bellerive could set up well for Rors, I just can't see him in the mix at Shinny or Carnoustie....  He's still not a big fan of the wind.

Tiger Scat - Or, what a difference a year makes:

OK, we get it.... 

He spent his Memorial Day doing his homework:

The Tour Confidentialistas tried to tie this week to the Open:

3. Next up on Tour: Jack's Memorial Tournament and Woods's (likely) last start before the U.S. Open. Woods is no stranger to Muirfield Village — he's never missed a cut in 15 appearances with eight top 10s and five wins. How much will this week tell us about the likelihood that he'll contend at Shinnecock June 14-17?

What, you think he might go to Memphis? 

Zak: Like at Bay Hill, I expect Tiger to play well at Muirfield. If we've learned anything this year, 2015 was an aberration. Don't even think about that 85. He's so much better, different, etc., than he was then. We can see it in the grinding to make cuts, and then tossing up low numbers on the weekend. In other words, I don't expect a made cut or missed cut at Muirfield to tell us much about Shinnecock, a wholly different course that will be in a wholly different shape when he plays it. 

Bamberger: Muirfield is a hard course where a lot can go wrong. Tiger has not shown he can play 72 holes. I imagine he'll play well and have some serious hiccups on his way to Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't venture any comment on Shinnecock Hills without seeing the course and how it is set up.

So Mike, you think one needs actual knowledge to opine on things?  Interesting, though it kinda undermines the logic for this here blog....

Wood: I think he will contend at both. 

Shipnuck: Memorial demands a lot of drivers and punishes wayward tee shots, which is not good news for Tiger. Shinnecock will demand a lot of drivers and will severely punish wayward tee shots, which is really bad news for Tiger.

I'm surprised that Alan thinks Shinny will have the guys hitting lots of drivers, which is not my expectation.

That said, Shack is already posting hole flyovers, which we'll get to in good time.  Best part is that he's gone back to his programs from the prior Shinny Opens and is posting the comments from P.J. Boatwright in 1986 and David Eger in 1995.  

Also amusing is this add he scanned from the 1995 program:

IZOD!  Rocco!  Lots of....errr yeah, champions, that's the ticket, in that ad.  

Good stuff as is this on the famed Stanford White clubhouse, today's installment of Who Moved the Flagpole?

No date is given for the older photo.

Nothing To See Here - Shack provides this interesting data set, though without an explanation as to its source:

Year  Tour Average At Colonial Time

2018        294.8
2017        289.2
2016        288.1
2008        283.2
1998        269.0

Assuming, which seems reasonable, that the data for 2016-18 is consistent, that's seven yards over two years, which has to be significant.  Here's Geoff's take:

We all can see where players are hitting the ball and why--bicep curls!--so it's always fun to see where today's linebackers rank with the engineers of the past. If nothing else, the stunning increase this year theoretically means the governing bodies will have to act based on past commitments. Theoretically. 

Note the PGA Tour driving distance average through the Colonial this year versus past years if you are looking for perspective on the influence of pilates, core work and lean protein diets.

So we're up five yards from where we were last year at this time, a year the USGA and R&A said showed the first spike in some time. Maybe all of the mowers on the PGA Tour have been sharpened? Lowered? Infused with special oils to make the ball run more?

Oh, and traditionally the average goes up as the weather gets warmer.

That last bit would apply to all years, and shouldn't increase the differential.  

My concern with these numbers is that it seems that we're seeing more fairway woods and driving irons off the tee, so that the increases are understated by failing to account for the club mix.

But while we had a building drum roll of anticipation of action, that seems to have passed with the announced opposition of  various organizations with PGA in their names.  

Tomorrow is a golf day, so I'll likely save everything for Thursday.