Weekend Wrap

They barely wrapped the festivities in Dallas, but lots to talk about...

Wise Beyond His Years - John Strege calls the win preordained:

He was guided by an even keel that presents an inscrutable aura, revealing nothing about how his day might be going. Only a small fist-pump following a par-saving putt on the front suggested he had a pulse. 

“Aaron has a lot of self belief,” Martin said. “He’s extremely mature for his age, very poised. He’s just very emotionally stable on the golf course. Nothing phases him, good or bad. It’s a good trait to have to be successful. 

“There are so many ups and downs in golf, but he’s always in control of his emotions. He looks like he’s doing what he loves to do. He doesn’t freak out. And obviously, he’s got the shots.” 

He’s had them for a while. Wise won five times at Oregon, including the NCAA individual title in 2016. After he turned pro, he won on the Mackenzie Tour-Canada that year and the Web.com Tour the next. 

“He was special the day he showed up on campus,” Martin said. “The guy just knows how to win.”

He's one of those kids that's won at every level, so no surprise to see him break through at the highest of levels.  Even though, to be fair, this field was of a glorified Web.com field strength.

It did allow Sir Nick to add one of those trenchant insights that earned him his knighthood.  It's best to win at the amateur level he somberly intoned, thereby irrevocably altering the career arc of all those kids trying to avoid winning...

The Tour Confidential panel took a while to get to the young man, and even then went a bizarre direction with it:

3. Hello, Aaron Wise. The 21-year-old finished T2 at the Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago and then won the AT&T Byron Nelson on Sunday. Is there a player Wise's age or younger who you're more bullish about?

Say what?  I would think the more logical query would relate to expectations for Wise going forward, but I'm just a lonely blogger...  Fittingly, this was the only substantive response:

Ritter: Not many. Wise had a stellar NCAA career and as we've learned many times over, young guys show up on Tour today ready to win. One name to add to the list: the 19-year-old Chilean Joaquín Niemann, who was the top amateur for about a year and just turned pro. He might win a Tour event before he can legally buy beer.

Unless you consider Lydia Ko and Jon Rahm on point.

Trinity, The Day After -  So, what do we think of the Tour's mad science experiment?  I liked it very much, but first those TC lads get their say:

Ritter: It's a shame the weather caused a late finish, but from my spot squarely on the couch, it was fun to see a fresh and unique layout. It's a shame it didn't draw a better field, but one week after the Players, what are you gonna do? The course added some buzz. I'd be fine seeing a couple more links-style tracks on the schedule. 

Dethier: Bring ‘em on! Courses that look fresh and demand different types of shots should be heartily welcomed. There can be a bit of groupthink on Tour and an aversion to anything different or uncomfortable, and that's part of the reason we don't see more risks taken by the Tour, but Trinity Forest looked very cool. I would have loved more wind and firmer, faster surfaces to really show the course at its best, but I thought it was a fun test and received generally positive reviews. Would be interested to hear a locker room post-mortem.

I might argue that the placid conditions on Thursday and Sunday were more of a factor than the late finish, as was the weak field.  The question included a reference to Kooch, who played poorly and pined for Las Colinas, leading Joe Passove to provide this history lesson:

I'm a tad disappointed with Kooch's reactions, considering how well he solved the puzzle of the Olympics course in Rio, on his way to bronze, a course where ground conditions, thoughtful placement and proper angles also were of critical importance. Remember, Matt, Bobby Jones walked off St. Andrews in frustration his first time there. Later, it became his favorite course.

 This dues-paying member thinks it went swimmingly (no link because Shack provided none):

Q. Lot of questions about Trinity Forest going into this week. What do you think

was accomplished in this tournament? 

JORDAN SPIETH: I think -- I think it was a really positive outcome for the golf course and the tournament here and I say that partly because it really was but also because a year back when the caddy event was here and other players came and played it it wasn't playing the way it's intended to play. It was too new, wasn't ready yet and got some really bad reviews. 

I think compared to the initial reviews what I heard this week, and I know it's been reported differently, I was talking to all the players, I asked a lot of guys, I didn't hear one bad thing said. 

A lot of guys said, "It's grown on me day to day, I really enjoyed it as a change of pace, I had a lot of fun playing this golf course." Those were lines guys were using this week and shouldn't be reported any differently. 

It was an overwhelmingly positive outlook from the players that played. I think as the greens continue to fill in and mature, they'll only be more consistent and the course gets better.

The key will be to improve the field next year, but we can't assess those prospects without knowing where it will fit on the schedule:

JORDAN SPIETH: I think it's going to -- it's a totally different schedule next year and this will be a completely -- I mean it could be a similar time, it could be a different time of the year within a month or two, and I think it will depend on what tournaments it's near. 

Changing golf courses around a Players Championship, the Colonial, that's very popular, Muirfield, U.S. Open, this allows for a week off with the unknowns and it makes total sense for guys to skip. 

I think having seen the coverage and listening to what I was talking about the other players saying, I mean if it becomes a week before a Major or at least in a better time in the schedule, then the field will drastically change. Otherwise it will get a little bit better.

I'm not exactly sure what he's hoping for there, but this isn't one of Geoff's better suggestions:

It's a shame Dallas turns so miserably hot, but a post-U.S. Open playing in the last week of June or first week of July and serving as Open Championship preparation and Open Qualifying Series would be a great spot for Trinity Forest.

I think all the inland links talk has gone to his head.  Not only is it brutally hot, but there are already two events (the Irish and Scottish Opens) filling that role.  

Also pleased was this guy:

“We’re pleased. It’s off to a nice, quiet start, let’s say,” Crenshaw said. “The week started off very quiet with the wind. This course, we envision that you play it with a breeze. It sort of lends itself to a links style, playing firm and fast, and as you saw yesterday, when the wind got up the scores went up commensurately.”

More wind and a better field, please.

Arnaud Goes Low -  A fun story from this week's Web.com event, in which Michael Arnaud gets into the field at the last possible moment and proceeds to torch his first nine:

That's nine-under through seven holes, which for a guy with limited status typically means they don't even wait for you to get to the locker room to pee into a plastic cup....

As we know, everything regresses to the mean, and Arnaud comes back down to Earth.  Until...

After a 65 on Saturday, the 36-year-old Arnaud added another scorching front nine on Sunday. He made the turn in seven-under 28 and later signed for an eight-under 71 and easy victory at 27 under.

This was only his second start of the season, and in the first he went 81-75-MC.  More importantly, we have another nomination for World's Silliest Golf Trophy:

Excuse me, Michael, but did you never take Drivers Ed?  Everyone knows your hands should be at the 10 and 2-o'clock position....

Tiger Scat - Tiger did something or other at Tiger Jam, but did he deserved to lead the TC Panel this week?

1. Matt Kuchar missed the cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson, snapping his PGA Tour-leading streak of 30 consecutive cuts made. (Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Adam Hadwin now hold the longest active streaks with 17.) Kooch's stellar run calls to mind Tiger's seemingly unbreakable 142-consecutive-cuts-made record. Do you see that mark ever being broken? And what is Woods's most unbreakable record?

Is 30 a stellar run?  Making cuts is what Kooch does, but no one is exactly nominating him for GOAT.... Unless, of course, the category is practical jokes....

Jeff Ritter: That cut-streak record is cemented, and so is winning a major by 15 shots. The 2000 U.S. Open will stand forever.

Dylan Dethier: I would be shocked if anyone even approaches 142 consecutive cuts made. There are more good players than ever and the game's best would be hard-pressed to attack made cuts with the same desperation as Tiger. As for his most unbreakable record? Mark Broadie touched on this for GOLF, but it's the 89 consecutive rounds where he beat the field's stroke average. As Stewart Cink told Broadie, "The field never has a bad day."

That's a good one, Dylan, though perhaps a tad arcane.

Joe Passov: That's a truly astonishing feat, Tiger's 142 in a row. Many thought Byron Nelson's 113 would never be broken...but Tiger isn't just anybody. Ironic connection, that Tiger's streak came to an end at the 2005 Byron Nelson, and Kuchar's at the 2018 Nelson. Tiger's records are ridiculous, as you folks have already mentioned. Another one I like is six straight years of winning a USGA National Championship. Three U.S. Juniors from 1991-93, then three straight U.S. Amateurs from 1994-96.

I've always said that six-year run without losing a match might be the most amazing thing he's ever done.  I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone else has ever even played in six straight....

PGA Memories -  They're all in on this May thing, including posting this item on 51 historic Championship moments.  I didn't have the heart to scroll down far enough to look for Shaun Micheel, but the most interesting are unsurprisingly from it's days as a match-play event

1923 - Hagen vs. Sarazen — Golf’s greatest match?

Pelham Golf Club — Pelham Manor, New York

Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen — believed by many the two finest golfers of their era — squared off in the finals of the PGA Championship. The match lived up to pre-

Championship hype, with Sarazen defeating Hagen in the first extra-hole finale in Championship history. The match was even after 18 holes before Sarazen grabbed a three-hole lead in the afternoon. Hagen birdied the 29th hole to trim the deficit to two holes, and won the 34th and 35th to square the match. The two players halved the 36th hole with pars. Sarazen almost succumbed on the 37th hole, driving into deep rough, just a couple of feet from the out-of-bounds barrier. With a small crowd gathered around him, Sarazen was heard telling the audience, “I’ll put this one up so close to the hole that it will break Walter’s heart.” Sarazen followed with a brilliant recovery shot, with his ball coming to rest two feet from the flagstick. Hagen dumped his approach into a greenside bunker, but almost holed his bunker approach. Sarazen closed the drama by sinking his birdie putt. Sarazen and Hagen landed in the PGA record book, ranking 1-2 for most holes played in one Championship. Sarazen went 194 holes to Hagen’s 188.

Last week we were talking about those silly Players Championship as a major memes, but no one articulated the best argument, which is that the PGA Championship has somewhat abdicated their status.  It's not entirely their fault, as they had a seemingly viable position staked out as the Match-Play Major.  Until, you know television....

But U.S. Open-lite doesn't do much for me, especially at hand-me-down U.S. Open venues.  So, what does this event want to be when it grows up?  Having voluntarily ceded the Glory's Last Shot hook, will the PGA feel any different than the Valero Open next year?

In terms of the May date, Shack has a thought:

While poking around and looking at weather in PGA Championship cities one year out from its new May playing, I found one part of the country without significant weather issues.

I can reveal it to you in a screen grab of my radar app today and say definitively that this is very typical for May. 

FYI, the west coast hosts two PGA's in the next decade, too!

The west coast also delivers a prime time finish, meaning about another 1 million or so viewers. 

On Sunday nights, too. 

Shame we only have two on the schedule in 2020 and 2028. Next TV contract bidders budget accordingly!

And both of those are up North.....  At the very least you'd hope they might get more imaginative with venue selection,  but these are the same guys that think Bellerive deserves another major...  In August, no less.

I, Brandon - I just hope that when they make the movie they cast Allison Janney as the mother....here's the story from the Florida Mid-Amateur:

The Florida State Golf Association's 37th Mid-Amateur Championship was decided on

May 13, but the odd manner in which it finished has just come to light: a rules dispute followed by an alleged assault. 

Marc Dull won the title at Coral Creek Club in Placida, Fla., after his opponent, Jeff Golden, withdrew. Dull and Golden were all square through 16 holes, but heavy rains delayed play for 2 1/2 hours. When the weather cleared, Golden was unable to continue "due to an unfortunate injury," according to a report on the FSGA website.

You know there's more coming....  Did you puzzle at what they might mean by unfortunate?

According to the police report, which was originally obtained by Golf Channel and can be read below, when a rules dispute unfolded on the 9th hole of their match, Hibbs "recused himself from the course as he had caused the rule infraction." 

When the rain delay stopped play on the 17th hole, Golden said he used the break to stop at his car in the clubhouse parking lot. When he did, according to the report, "Hibbs approached him, apologized, then punched him on the left side of the face causing Jeffery to fall to the ground." 

Golden, 33, chose not to press charges and refused medical attention. 

Hibbs also provided a statement to the police, saying that after he recused himself from the round he was in the clubhouse until Dull returned. He said he never went to the parking lot and denied punching Golden.

You might think that the Tonyaesque aspects of this story are the best part, as do most.  But I'm laughing over the concept of a caddie "recusing himself"....  Bizarre, especially with what follows...

Of course it's Florida, so the victim....errr, excuse me, the alleged victim may well have had it coming:

According to Golf Channel's Ryan Lavner, who spoke to those involved (Hibbs did not return a call), the rules infraction occurred on the 9th green, when Golden asked Dull if the hole was damaged or surrounded by loose debris. 

"Don't worry about it," Hibbs reportedly told Golden, according to Lavner. "If you're going to make it, you're going around it." 

Golden told a rules official that he thought Hibbs' statement should be deemed advice, and Dull lost the hole and Golden took a 2-up lead. That's when Hibbs removed himself from the match.

Advice?  More like entrapment..... Set aside whether the hole was damaged, but isn't the remedy for loose debris to, you know, remove it?

 I had been reliably informed that golf was a game for gentlemen....

Highly Recommended - if you've never watched the NCAA's, do yourself a favor...

Suffice it say, Monday could be rather manic. 

Alabama and UCLA are the lone schools that will get to play Monday without much

pressure (don’t tell them that, of course). With eighth-place Kent State at 27 over par, the Crimson Tide and Bruins are 29 and 21 strokes inside the eighth-place cut off, their match-play chances fairly certain. 

“You’ve just got to get into match play,” said Alabama women’s coach Mic Potter. “It’s always good to be the No. 1 seed, I think, and it’s good for me to be able to sleep tonight. Other than that, I just think any time you can build momentum and build confidence, it helps and it’s good.”

Today is just the appetizer.... yes, the individual championship will be won, but it's the next couple of days of team match-play that really rocks.  And this week lots of cute young girls as well, though I'm sure my readership has no interest in that...