Tuesday Tastings

In case you're reluctant to dive in, I promise today's post will not feature any Greg Norman photos....

I Got The Horse Right Here - John Feinstein has today's must read, the story of how this week's D.C. Tour stop went from sure thing to DOA.  He starts, well, at the start, when life was easy:

It started out in 2007 as a slam dunk for the PGA Tour and for Tiger Woods. It will end this coming Sunday as an embarrassment for both. 

The host with H.W. at that 2007 inaugural event.

When the PGA Tour awarded what was then known as the AT&T National to the nation’s capital area, tour officials clearly expected the tournament to become one of their signature events. It would take its place alongside Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament and Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Invitational as an annual tribute to one of the game’s greatest players—in this case, Woods, who at 31, had already won 12 major titles and become an iconic figure worldwide. 

Congressional Country Club, which had shied away from hosting the tour’s previous D.C. area tournament (which had run from 1980 to 2006 under several corporate flags), willingly signed up to host an event that Woods would be tied to and that his charitable foundation would run. 

Like the Memorial and Bay Hill, the tour gave it “invitational” status, meaning only 120 players would take part and a spot in the field would be coveted. And that first year, top players indeed flocked to Washington, D.C. The premier event had 19 major champions—15 players with at least one major already to his credit and four others who would go on to win one in the near future. K.J. Choi was the inaugural champion, with Woods finishing T-6. Phil Mickelson, Woods’ longtime antagonist, played but missed the cut. 

The crowds were massive. 

It was all good.

It was all good until it wasn't....  You know the sequence, the fire hydrant, the nine-iron to the Escalade, and suddenly lots of elite players see it as a good week to get some rest.

In his blogging of the item, Shack implies that Feinstein is unnecessarily tough on our Tiger.... See what you think.  First this:

With that, tournament officials were now in the challenging spot of looking for a new

sponsor and a new course. Quicken Loans agreed to a four-year deal just prior to the 2014 event, counting on a healthy Woods (he had won five times in 2013) to anchor the field. But injuries prevented Woods from playing in three of the next four years. 

Yet that was only part of the problem: Without Congressional as a draw, and with Woods no longer king of the golf world, the number of stars in the field dwindled. What’s more, it became apparent that Woods was losing interest, too. In 2016, when Woods couldn’t play after back surgery, he made two appearances during the week, showing up for the opening and closing ceremony but flying home to Florida in between. In 2017, after his DUI arrest in May, he didn’t show up at all.

Wouldn't you perhaps be a bit miffed is you threw all that money at the guy's event, and he couldn't be bothered showing up?

And this:

Nicklaus and Palmer worked very hard to make their events difficult for players to say no to. They went out of their way (Nicklaus still does) to engage players throughout the week, whether they were playing or not. Woods never showed that kind of enthusiasm in Washington. He did the absolute minimum, thinking—correctly to some degree—that as long as he could play, the tournament would stay afloat. 

In 2015, after he had shot 66 in the second round at the Robert Trent Jones course, he sat in the back of the players dining area by himself at the height of the post-morning-wave lunch hour. The room was packed. When Woods finished eating, he walked the length of the room, looking straight ahead and didn’t pause to greet anyone.

“Our congenial host,” said one veteran player as Woods walked past the table where he was seated.

Ironically, he did the same to the folks in LA last year, when he was unable to play.  I actually thought it way too early for Tiger to host an event back in '07, when he seemed in the middle of his career.  But I do hope those folks in LA are taking notes, because he'll be your friend for only as long as it remains in his interests....

Did Someone Mention D.C.? - Is this a coincidence?  Because I don't really believe in coincidences:

The PGA Tour currently enjoys tax-exempt status in the eyes of the federal government, 

Senator Ernst.

saving them millions of dollars a year. But the free ride may come to end sooner rather than later. 

Last week, Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Angus King (I-ME) announced new legislation, the Properly Reducing Overexemptions for Sports Act (or the PRO Sports Act). If passed, the bill would strip professional sports leagues like the PGA Tour of their tax-exempt status, resulting in $100 million in savings for the federal government over 10 years. 

In a press release about the bill, Ernst used a golf term to underscore the importance of the legislation. "Professional sports leagues – which are raking in millions of dollars from television rights and membership dues – shouldn't also be scoring a hole-in-one with their taxes. The PRO Sports Act amends the tax code to revoke this unnecessary exemption."

Senator Ernst famously rode her credentials at....errr... cutting pork to a seat in the U.S. Senate.  That's not especially relevant, though it is funny....

This is a far more complicated topic than we can deal with here, especially in the absence of underlying data.  I'm highly skeptical of that $100 million tax revenue estimate, as it implies something on the order of $400 million of profitability that's going untaxed, which is not remotely possible.

It might be easier to focus on the NFL or MLB to explain this.  It's only the leagues that have tax exempt status, not the underlying franchises.   The leagues award the national TV and radio broadcast contracts, but most of that revenue is then shared with the franchises.  It simply doesn't make sense that the league itself is wildly profitable, because its shareholders (the teams) wouldn't presumably allow it.

That said, the leagues and the PGA Tour take their 501(c)(6) status very seriously, and we saw the Tour aggressively fight the prior attempt to change their tax status in last year's tax bill.  Perhaps an enterprising reporter can supply us more information on which to base our analysis?

The USGA's Moment - Not the best of times for our governing body, and the hits keep on coming.  First up is a little mini-dispute, one in which the relative credibility of the parties need be carefully judged, as summed up in this tweet:

To further buttress their point, the USGA informs us that Scott Verplank went through the same process, provided the follow-up information, and was granted a waiver to use a cart.  This seems rather black and white, though in then absence of publicly disclosing the submissions we're unable to adjudicate the matter.....  But after his Phil-like incident at Pinehurst in 1999, Mr. Daly should assume he has no friends in Far Hills, NJ.

Next, we revisit the DeChambeau contretemps, in which your humble correspondent was last seen deriding the PGA Tour for reviewing the situation for an extended period of time.  Perhaps that wasn't completely fair, then again this blog wouldn't be much fun if we treated people fairly.  Once you start with that precedent...

It turns out that the Tour has referred the matter to the USGA and, I hope you're sitting down kids, because the underlying rule is not a model of clarity:

In case you missed it, DeChambeau has been employing a handheld elementary school-

By the way, guys, this is not a compass.

style compass to help him more accurately map hole locations. Can we get a ruling? Um...no, actually. Not even two days after DeChambeau's charting technique came to light. 

"There is no clear precedent," the PGA Tour said in a statement to reporters Monday evening. "The USGA is reviewing the matter, with our feedback, and is expected to make a ruling on its conformity with the Rules soon."

When reached by GOLF.com Monday, USGA officials declined to comment specifically on DeChambeau's case. But Thomas Pagel, the USGA's senior director for the Rules of Golf and Amateur Status, did say in an e-mail that this type of situation is covered under Rule 14-3, which says that a player may not "use any artificial device or unusual equipment, or use any equipment in an abnormal manner."

Egads!  Normal normal or normal to golf?  It only gets worse when they provide an example:

The key word in DeChambeau's case is "abnormal," as in was he using the compass in an abnormal manner that might give him an unfair advantage? 

Said Pagel, "A good example is a bottle of water; by itself, no problem, but a player could not use the bottle of water as a level."

Not to mention as an alignment aid....

I really don't care in this case, but that could be a as result of the fact that I have no clue as to the purpose a compass serves.  That said, if the deem it illegal, it would seem to taint the young man's strong play in the last year.

The Mask Slips - This could have been included above, but we had a public siting of Phil Mickelson, and he even took some questions.  Here's the part that's of interest:

Mickelson intimated his intentionally hitting a moving ball wasn’t really about saving

strokes. 

“At the time, I didn’t really care about the stroke difference,” he said.

Yeah, Phil, we knew....  It's just a little insulting that you thought we'd buy it.  So Phil, Todd Lewis is way too polite to ask, but what exactly were you thinking?

And as long as we're speaking of Phil...

Hal Sutton, Call Your Office - Jim Furyk throws cold water on a recent meme:

Jim Furyk will lead the United States Ryder Cup team later this year in Paris. and based

on his comments on Monday, Furyk doesn't want his team to resemble anything close to the squad that was routed in 2004. 

That year, the U.S. team was throttled 18.5-9.5 on home soil. American captain Hal Sutton famously paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together in the early matches. They were easily the best two players in the world at that time, but they lost both of their matches, and didn't seem to enjoy themselves in the process. 

Speaking on Golf Channel's Morning Drive Monday morning, Furyk made it clear that he does not plan to make the same mistake this year. 

"I hope they're both watching, because they just fell off the couch laughing. I wouldn't guess that would be a good idea as a captain, I'm just saying."

C'mon, Jim, pair them in foursomes....  The over-under for fairways hit is like two....

We were all over this yesterday:

The rivalry between Tiger and Phil has calmed in recent years as both players have become elder statesmen on Tour. Woods will be wearing red, white and blue in Paris this fall no matter what, as Furyk has chosen him to be one of his vice captains. Despite his poor Ryder Cup ranking (currently 39th), it's hard to imagine Furyk not choosing Tiger to play on the team as long as he's healthy. 

Mickelson is currently ranked 10th (the top eight players earn automatic spots on the team), but his solid play of late and team-event experience mean he's also likely to make the squad.

Last I heard, the Ryder Cup is not being contested in Florida.  So, unless Tiger starts putting better, I have no difficulty imagining Tiger not being chosen.  

Introducing The Barn Rat - Sometimes the best part of a feature is the tease....

That's pretty good, as is his lede, featuring the modern Tour player's spin on an old Lee Trevino bit:

"Pressure," Kiradech Aphibarnrat says, hammering the gas pedal of his orange Lamborghini Aventador, "is when you book a $150,000 car but you only have $15,000in 

the bank." We are roaring around the boulevards of Bangkok, where the rules of the road are treated as mere suggestions. Riding with Aphibarnrat is like living in a slightly terrifying video game, as he weaves in and out of traffic and, whenever open road presents itself, races to 110 miles per hour — enough force to pin his utterly helpless passenger to the seat. 

The Lambo cost considerably more than a buck-fifty; over the howl of the 12-cylinder engine, Aphibarnrat, 28, was reflecting on the first flashy car he ever bought, a Mercedes coupe, back when he was 19 years old and just embarking on a pro career. Thailand is a matriarchal society, and Aphibarnrat is a little bit of a mama's boy, so his mother, Supunnikar, has always been heavily involved in his finances. She was not pleased with the teenager's extravagant purchase and gave him 90 days to make $150,000 on the golf course, otherwise the Benz was getting sold off.

You'll of course want to read the whole darn thing. 

I'll let you get on with your day.  Though, if you have just a bit more time, feel free to enjoy this greatest hits compilation of the irreplaceable Hosung Choi.