Tuesday Trifles

In which we continue the process of catching up, both ob sleep and blogging.  You'll be on your own tomorrow, as Bobby D. and I will be resuming The Rivalry....  I expect to have new arrows in the quiver, so you'll want to check Sports Center for the results.

Reading Is Fundamental - Here's an item that broke while I was over-served Burgundian Wines:

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — The U.S. Golf Association and R&A plan to severely restrict the information allowed in green-reading books. 

Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, the move will effectively render the books impractical to players who have increasingly leaned on them for reading putts. 

Three golf industry rules experts confirmed the plan to Golfweek. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the move. 

“We announced last year that we were reviewing green-reading materials and expect to be able to give a further update in the coming weeks,” an R&A spokesman said. “We believe that the ability to read greens is an integral part of the skill of putting and remain concerned about the rapid development of increasingly detailed materials that players are using to help with reading greens during a round.”

It's an interesting development, though I've no idea where the line will be drawn.  Presumably it will be limited to the elite game, another example of creeping bifurcation.

Though this last bit seems overly optimistic:

The action regarding the books also gives the USGA and R&A an opportunity to make a joint effort at protecting skill without impacting everyday amateur golf while they also examine the role of technology in driving distance increases.

They're getting a ton of experience at the analyzing thing, not so much on the taking action front though.  No doubt it's a daunting prospect, but it'll be that much harder next week or year.

Bear with me for a slight digression into Alan Shipnucks mailbag:

Are the Web.com courses too easy for these players? -25 wins, -6 is the cut. Tour players acknowledging how absurdly low you have to go. These guys are very good. Maybe it’s time to play some tougher courses? -@MattThis59 

This is the truest expression of how much distance gains have changed professional golf, and that modern athletes with modern equipment are simply too long and too good for the existing playing fields. PGA Tour agronomists can push a setup so it has fast, firmish greens and some decent rough, and that helps control scoring a little bit on the big Tour. The Web venues don’t get that treatment – they’re just regular courses presented with everyday setups, and as a result they get destroyed. Unless the Web starts playing a Firestone and places like that – which it won’t – scoring will continue to get lower.

You see the issue I'm sure....  It rears it's head in places we don't expect it, such as the '05 Open at The Old Course, where play could not continue with high winds.  Just think about that for a moment, a links course that becomes unplayable in wind....  Another fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie.

This Week in Golf - I actually caught some of the Ladies Scottish Open after our arrival on Sunday, and, well, you know how I feel about those links.  This week the girls go to Lytham for their Open Championship, and Shack has posted this newsreel of Bobby Jones winning the Open there in 1926:

Shack had these astute comments in his post:

There is no sound and the Claret Jug ceremony is set in the middle of the footage, but it's still fun to look at the swings, the clothes, the caddies and especially Royal Lytham & St Annes, host of this week's Women's British Open. (Here are the coverage times.) 

Note the bunkering at Lytham then--more sand faced--than the sod wall, typical links style you'll see this week.

 It's a very different look, but this was still the hickory era.  If my memory serves, this Open also featured the following:

1. Bobby Jones forgot his participant badge one day, and was forced to pay admission to make his tee time, and;
2. Needing to hole his second shot on the final hole, Walter Hagen dramatically sent his caddie ahead to tend the pin.  So no, Phil and Bones were not the first.

Closer to home, the Forecaddie tells it like it is in his swan song to Firestone:

While many may get a bit teary-eyed this week as Firestone Country Club’s South

Course hosts its final WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, The Forecaddie will likely not be one of them.

Now, that’s nothing against Akron, Ohio, which has proven itself a wonderful golf city dating to the Rubber City Open, or the tournament, which has produced some great champions, including Tiger Woods eight times. It’s just that Firestone’s South Course isn’t one of The Man Out Front’s favorites on the Tour schedule. 

To support the claim, TMOF likes to reference this quote from Jack Nicklaus: “This is a great golf course, but it’s a boring golf course because, although each hole is outstanding on its own, when you put them all together it seems like you’re playing the same one over and over, and so you have to be careful not to fall asleep.”

I'm sorry, but in what sense is this a great course?  Although, to be fair, the PGA Tour has accomplished  the impossible.... The only thing that could possibly have us waxing nostalgic for Firestone is Memphis in August.  So, we've got that going for us...

I'll not shed a tear for this venue....

DeChambeau Deconstructed - The meltdown was certainly noteworthy, given his bubble-boy status on the Ryder Cup points list.  But I agree that the reaction to the lack of eye contact during the handshake is a bit overblown.  Video is here, along with Shack's take:

Of course his brusque handshake was rude. But any sports fan who watches tennis or college basketball knows there have been thousands of equally as quick and chilly handshakes in the heat of battle. The difference in Bryson DeChambeau's brisk congratulatory post-round greeting: freshly-minted winner McEvoy did nothing to warrant rudeness other than make a putt at the 18th green and finally win when a young, passionate player made a major mess of the last hole.

For this, DeChambeau has apologized. 

But on a weekend when Sergio Garcia could have hurt someone (or himself) tomahawking his clubs, the reaction to DeChambeau's incredible final round meltdown is threatening to get out of hand.

Are folks just relishing the chance to pick on DeChambeau, who makes his share of detractors with extreme confidence? After all, he took of his hat and did shake hands with his playing partner, albeit in rapid fashion. 

When he's not running hot, DeChambeau can actually be one of golf's more respectful young players. He calls adults he doesn't know Mr. or Mrs., studies the history of the game, and wants to set a fine example. That he doesn't exhibit this side more often and to the frustration of many is for him to work out.

In a sport where we have seen so few genuine characters in recent years, it would be a shame to see DeChambeau's individuality and eccentricity muted by a Zapruder-like analysis of a split-second action.

In case you missed it, Sergio's detonation can be seen here.   His post-Masters renaissance hasn't exactly revived The Era of Good Feelings, has it?

As for Bryson, Mr. Shipnuck got a query about the lad:

If he doesn’t qualify on points, do you think Bryson’s meltdown impacts the chance of being a captain’s pick? -Josh (@J_Decker84) 

It’s a fascinating question. On one hand, he went overseas and took on the burden of leading for 68 straight holes, more or less. It’s gotta be encouraging to Cap. Furyk that DeChambeau’s game traveled like that. But the finish was such a spectacular self-immolation it has to be cause for concern. I’ve said it before, the U.S. Ryder Cup is trying to win a road game for the first time in a quarter-century against a very strong Euro squad so I expect the captain’s picks will be biased toward proven veterans. After Germany, DeChambeau better play his way into the top eight if he wants to be in Paris.

The Tour Confidential panel, with Shipnuck in abstentia, also had some thoughts:

2. Bryson DeChambeau led the European Open with four holes to play, but four shots into hazards later he had played that last stretch in five over par and fell into a tie for 13th (and some weren’t fond of how he accepted it). For a Ryder Cup bubble player like DeChambeau (he currently occupies the 9th spot, one out of auto qualifying), how much will/should late implosions like this damage his captain’s pick chances should he need one?

Zak: It’s definitely something to consider. Also worth considering will be the many people on that bubble who haven’t recently played their way into contention. Getting there, regardless of the outcome, has to be worth something to Jim Furyk. 

Dethier: Bryson, like Jordan Spieth, tends to get extremely, uh, verbal when things start going south. That made this implosion all the more compelling: we could hear his internal monologue. A bad finish is just a bad finish, unless it proves to be something more. How will DeChambeau respond? 

Ritter: It was captivating TV and I certainly felt bad for him. But this would only cost him a Ryder Cup spot if it happened the week before captain’s picks and it was clear a spot was on the line. Final-round bust-ups happen. He has a few more weeks to make a statement and in the process make the team. 

Bamberger: Bigly (if I am using that correctly). Significantly.

I didn't see it, but it sounds like a fairly epic collapse, not your run of the mill bad shot at a critical time.  But I think Shipnuck has it right, Bryson will have to play his way into the top eight to be in Paris.  Regardless of how Cap'n. Furyk feels about the lad, he's instinctively gravitate to the Koochs and Kisners of the world, as he likely should.  

What Legacy? -  The TC Panel searches in vain to define the Bevaqua Era:

4. Pete Bevacqua is stepping down as the PGA of America CEO to take on a new role as president of NBC Sports Group. Bevacqua has been the head man of the PGA since 2012. What was Bevacqua’s crowning achievement during his time with the PGA, and what’s one task you would love to see the new hire tackle?

Sens: I’ll always think of him as a savvy negotiator (witness the mega-TV contract he nailed down for the Ryder Cup with NBC). In terms of challenges, there’s the matter of boosting the PGA Championship to the status of something more than the afterthought major, and of finding the right venues for the newly rejiggered schedule. There’s also the ever-nagging question of how to grow the game. With so much money floating around the upper echelons of the pro game, I’ve heard grumblings about the PGA seeming increasingly out of touch for the everyday member, to say nothing of the everyday golfer. I think there’s some truth to that.

Zak: I guess the movement of the PGA Championship to May will be what we remember him for in the immediate future. As for the next person up, I’d hope to see that certain sites that have hosted the PGA in the past don’t get completely nixed because of that deal. I’m biased and really enjoy Whistling Straits.

Dethier: I’ll remember the new shorts-in-practice-rounds thing and the time everyone freaked out about Phil Mickelson’s calves. I’d love to see some unified identity in the PGA Championship’s course rotation going forward. With the U.S. Open headed back to a series of heavy-hitter classics, maybe the PGA could seize the chance to travel to the country’s best innovative newer tracks. Or just ship the fourth major to Australia, like they do in tennis.

Well, we'd certainly get better venues in Australia....  But this from Mike Bamberger, touched on by Josh Sens above, is the key bit to me:

His most significant work is the hardest to measure: Are there more and better opportunities for the 29,000 PGA of America members? That becomes especially difficult when the game is struggling in quarters. More than anything, I think Bevacqua added a certain gravitas to the position and to the organization.

The move of its marquee event to May will no doubt affect Pete's legacy, though we remain in the dark as to whether his organization benefited from its accommodation of the Tour.  I don't find the love affair with hand-me-down U.S. Open venues interesting or helpful, and he certainly hasn't carved out an identity for the event.

The organization remains in never-never land it seems, the beneficiary of a huge revenue stream that's an historic accident, but lacking any direction on behalf of its membership.  Curious, and perhaps unsustainable....

And, as the world considers the implications of new leadership for this organization, this very worthy candidate has thrown his hat into the ring:

For Club Pro Guy is a living embodiment of the ideals and ethics the PGA of America promotes. A mini-tour legend, CPG eschewed the temptation of fame for teaching, his Learning Center becoming golf's Lyceum, a place where 65-and-older women's leagues can practice the proper punch-out technique in peace. His acumen is not confined to instruction. CPG is also a savvy businessman, owning an inherent perception of what the weekend warrior wants. How else can one explain his clubhouse devoid of $500 drivers and performance gear, instead stocking his shop with Snake Eyes and PowerBilt clubs and walls adorned with Tabasco polos? And his crusade to deflate the pretentious stigma that engulfs the sport cannot be overlooked, with his "No shirt, no shoes, no problem" Thursdays garnering universal acclaim. 

Like all geniuses, some consider his guidance divisive—like when Phil Mickelson used CPG's patented quick-rake method at this year's U.S. Open—and you'll never see him self-promoting his works on Golf Channel (mostly due to Damon Hack's restraining order). Nevertheless, if the PGA of America is searching for a enlightened mind that keeps the people's voice in his heart, CPG is the perfect candidate.

They can and probably will do worse.....  But he's got specific programs in mind:

GD: Speaking of which, there are whispers that you plan on reviving the PGA Championship’s match-play format, adding the caveat of net scoring. Any truth to those rumors? 

CPG: I think the success and raw emotion of the Tavistock Cup has proved once and for all that matchplay is a much more exciting format from a fan perspective. So making the change from stroke play to match play is a no-brainer and one that I would implement rather quickly. Now, converting the PGA Championship to a ‘net’ event is a bit more controversial, but it really shouldn’t be. The reality is that there are players on the PGA Tour who are more talented than others. We need to accept that fact and deal with it accordingly. The handicap system was created so that players of different abilities are able to compete on a level playing field. Why shouldn’t this apply to a major championship? If Alex Cjeka is battling Dustin Johnson down the stretch on Sunday, Alex is gonna need his pops. I don’t understand why this is so controversial. What could be more exciting than a 4 net 3 on the 72nd hole to win a major championship? There are some logistical issues to overcome (dotting scorecards, etc.) but overall I think the change is needed and something you will eventually see under my leadership.

Gonna take a lot of effort to get the dots right on scorecards.....  And don't miss this rousing call to arms to the membership:

In closing, what do you want to say to the 29,000 professionals across this country that will now look to you for leadership? 

CPG: I want to say hold tight, because help is on the way. I want them to know I’ve been where they're at. I’m just like they are. I’ve shot 94 with a group of members who mistakenly assumed I was good, I’ve been busted watching porn on the GHIN computer, I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last three years, I’ve made on-course rulings when I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, I’ve "mailed it in” during the last seven member/guests. There isn’t another person being considered for this position that can identify with the rank-and-file club pro like I can and I look forward to representing them.

He's got my vote....

Golf in the Kingdom -  This Pravda feature on the intersection of golf and railroads is appreciated, yet it could have been so much better:

The railroads are a big part of the history of golf in this region that is so rich in golf

history. The game, of course, predates the tracks: Golf was played in one form or another here for centuries before commercial train travel began in the 1800s. 

But the railroad accelerated its growth as courses and hotels were built on the coasts of Scotland and England to appeal to a newly mobile leisure class. 

The first hole at Prestwick, the site of the original British Open, in 1860, is so close to the railroad that trains have had to be equipped with reinforced windows to withstand the occasional impact of a golf ball.

“In the old days, the gentlemen would work in Glasgow and take the train to the golf and back,” said David Fleming, the club professional at Prestwick. “It was the only way of getting around.” 

Too small for a major sporting event these days, Prestwick has not hosted the Open since 1925. But the railroad connection lives on in places like the 11th hole at Royal Troon and the ninth hole at Carnoustie, a 474-yard par-4 named Railway for reasons that quickly become apparent.

And yet, the photo at the top of the article is of Chambers Bay.  ARGHHH!

 British Rail used the golf resorts a spart of an active marketing campaign, and I don't know how you write such an item without including the great posters from the era, such as the one I've included above.

But color me surprised, give the source I expected the item to conclude with a rousing call for light rail to transport golfers in an environmentally sensitive manner....  Miraculously, we were spared that.

See you Thursday.

Vacation Wrap

As we dip our toe back into the blogging thing, I'll caution you that I've been drinking heavily...  At least heavily for me.

It was a grand adventure, though not helpful to my day job at all.  Open Sunday found us travelling form the Loire Valley to Dijon, catching sporadic updates from Carnoustie.  One said update coincided with Tiger taking the lead after the tenth hole, which as I understand things broke the Internet.  But if Tiger broke the Internet, can someone explain who broke the Yankees while I was sans WiFi?

The Open, A Retrospective - In no particular order, some fallout from the week:

First, the Tiger effect lives:

NBC SPORTS’ FINAL ROUND COVERAGE OF THE 147TH OPEN:

TIES BEST OVERNIGHT RATING AT THE OPEN IN 18 YEARS, SINCE TIGER WOODS’ CAREER GRAND SLAM CLINCHING WIN

Sunday’s Final Round on NBC (9a-2p ET) from Carnoustie Golf Links earned a 5.0 Overnight Rating. This ties it for the highest-rated Final Round Overnight at The Open since Tiger Woods completed the Career Grand Slam with his win in 2000 at the Old Course in St Andrews (7.4, ABC); and tying Tiger Woods’ win in 2006 at Royal Liverpool (5.0, ABC).

NBC Sports’ coverage in 2018 was up 38% vs. 2017, Jordan Spieth’s win at Royal Birkdale.

The Open becomes the highest-rated Final Round for any major championship since 2015(excluding The Masters) with Jason Day’s win at Whistling Straits at the PGA Championship (5.1)

The gist is that the Open Championship will likely be the second-highest rated final round of a major, despite the morning broadcast window.

The irony, she burns!  The USGA was motivated to hop into bed with Fox due to their coveting The Masters' TV ratings....  Their move has been financially lucrative, but the ratings are more akin to those of Memphis and San Antonio....  

Withering Heights - Shack has some deserved fun with this Tim Dahlberg column on our hero, the header of which tells all:

This version of Tiger Woods seems like a nostalgia act

OK, the guy did finish T6 yanno, and that's worth more than a participation ribbon....  But do tell.

Woods had the tournament in his hands after hitting a brilliant fairway bunker shot to make par on No. 10. He walked to the next tee with a one-shot lead.

In hand?  This is a classic of the genre, as he makes very good points, but buries them in nonsense such as that.

Another major would have validated years of struggles. A tie for sixth means nothing.

As Shack notes, the difference between validation and purgatory is all of three strokes, but apparently Dahlberg didn't get the memo that golf remains hard.

Shack had this in his wrap-up column at Golfweek:

5. Tiger Woods is rounding into his old self 

No, he’s not 2000 Tiger. He probably never will be as dominant given the number of top players and his life priorities. Lost in the focus on his back-nine mistake at the 11th hole and struggles at the 12th, was his righting of the ship and his mostly outstanding rhythm under intense pressure in high winds. Woods did not press as he fell behind and made a magical birdie save at the par-5 14th to remain within shouting distance of Molinari. The difference in his overall game since January is profound and he’s a good bet to win for a ninth time at Firestone.

I think reality lies enigmatically between those tow extremes, rendering the near-term future quite interesting.  I think Geoff's case is quite convincing, that the level of play has improved dramatically, and the results are quite encouraging...

And yet....  Tiger's inability to finish off a round is quite troubling and inexplicable, given his quals as arguably the best closer in golf history.  Let me refer you back to this January 2014 post, which I think holds up quite well four-and-a-half years on (please click through only if you're not put off b blurry photos and typos).  

My conclusion is that 2018 Tiger reminds me very much of 2013 Tiger, really 2009-2013 Tiger....  The putter woes, the weekend woes and Par-5 woes remain very much in place, but let's remember that he won five times in 2013.  I do know that seeing him take the lead at Carnoustie, my first instinct was to remind folks that the man has struggled to get his Thursday rounds to the clubhouse....  I was right in this instance, but who knows what might happen next time....

Ryder Cup Implications - Staying with Shack's takeaways, he had this rather obvious point:

4. Europe overjoyed to have Molinari win 

The crowds were obviously rooting for Tiger Woods, but Molinari had strong backing here as a predominantly European Tour player. But something else was in play: the Europeans are terrified the matches will not be close. The Ryder Cup obsession here has never been stronger and with veteran stars of recent Cups struggling, the Europeans were thrilled to have Molinari become Champion Golfer of The year.

Of course.  Yanks had won the prior five majors, which means absolutely nothing come September.  And yet....

This guy thinks it's all over except for the fat lady singing...  though if you've seen him in a golf shirt lately, you'll no that he can fill that role as well:

With just two months left before the Ryder Cup in Paris, the teams are taking shape, and Colin Montgomerie loves the European team’s chances. 

Monty spoke to reporters before the Senior British Open this week, and he was asked about his confidence level in the squad Thomas Bjorn will lead in late September. “Very confident. Very, very confident,” Montgomerie said. 

This, of course, follows Francesco Molinari’s impressive two-shot win at the British Open at Carnoustie. “Amazing what an Open victory does to a team mentality, and not just him,” Montgomerie said. “It was him and McIlroy, and Rose came through very well, and you put all those three together with Molinari’s win, Thomas is probably looking at the best team that we’ve had assembled for, well, almost ever.”

Best team almost ever?  I'm going to need a ruling from the judges on that one, or an Oxford comma at the very least.   I'll remind that Ray Floyd famously introduced his 1989 team as the Twelve Greatest Golfers in the World, only to see the matches halved and Europe retain the cup.

But news flash, the U.S. will have the stronger team on paper and the deeper roster, and the Euros will punch above their weight class.  The result?  We'll just have to watch and see, won't we now?

On the Yank-centric front, Rex Hoggard and Shack do a deep dive, with Shack providing this helpful update of the point standings after The Open Championship:

My educated readers don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing, yet my wet index finger is raised.  

The eight automatic qualifiers are determined after the PGA, leaving a mere two weeks for Webb Simpson to mercifully regress to his mean.  Admit it, he's a nice player and guy, but we'll never trust that putter in Paris....

Ideally, you'd like to see one of those bubble guys take Furyk off the hook, and by "one of those bubble guys" I really mean Phil.

Here's Rex Hoggard's take on the current state of play:

Depending on what transpires over the next two weeks, it’s a safe bet that Phil Mickelson, currently No. 10 on the points list, and Matt Kuchar, No. 12, are on the short list of potential picks. Both players bring a wealth of experience to a team that’s trending young.

I'm resigned to the fact that Phil will be on the roster, but Kooch to me is somewhat short of a mortal lock.  He hasn't been a factor anywhere this season, and further think that age and experience isn't much of a consideration.  Kooch would do well to have some urgency the next few weeks, though I have one further suggestion for NBC.  Should he not be picked, I'd scoop up looper John Wood to add to the broadcast team....

After the nod to the guy we discussed up top, Rex sorts through the bubble boys:

Kevin Kisner, who finished second at The Open and is finding his form at the perfect time, could be a good fit, as could Brian Harman, another fairways-and-greens type whose reputation as a fierce competitor would fit in well with Furyk’s no-nonsense approach. Kisner and Harman rank 13th and 15thon the U.S. points, respectively. 

Given his play at Carnoustie, Furyk will also give Xander Schauffele (No. 11), the reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year who also finished runner-up last week in Scotland, a close look; and Zach Johnson (No. 18), a veteran on five U.S. Ryder Cup teams, would be a popular addition to the team room.

The guy that jumps out at me is Brian Harman, a fairways and greens kind of guy and easily the best putter of the group.  

Finau and DeChambeau leave me cold, especially after the latter spit the bit and behaved poorly.  Bubba is the guy who supposedly doesn't travel well....

Schedule Thoughts - Shack had some further thoughts in that piece linked above:

2. A year from now the major season will be over 

When the Claret Jug is raised on July 22, 2019, the world will say goodbye to the first British Open played in Northern Ireland since 1951. We will also say addio to the major season. There is no concern in these parts about The Open losing stature and what an annual send off it will be. But there is already no shortage of grumbling from players, broadcasters and the people around professional golfers that the the intensity level from March to July will be taxing. Maybe too taxing.

yeah, methinks that'll be a bit weirder than folks realize....  The PGA is quite easily the least interesting of the four, so it all might come to a more rousing crescendo.... 

And this:

1. PGA Championship is going to have a tough act to follow 

While a Molinari win might be hard to list with with 1960 at Cherry Hills or the 1986 Masters, Carnoustie gave us a clash of golf’s micro-generations and intrigue each of the four days. The players were engaged in ways only a firm, fast and strategic test could muster. The course brought Jordan Spieth out of his slumber, Rory McIlroy out of his mechanical ways, Justin Rose out of his links troubles and Tiger Woods out of his major contention vacation. Will hot and humid Bellerive, where the greens are struggling, stand a chance of creating anything remotely as thrilling? Probably not.

It's Bellerive in August, so what could go wrong?  That St. Louis will host the final August PGA is beyond ironic....  Only the PGA of America would go to St. Louis in August and Rochester in May.

 Udder Stuff - Another loss for our game, Bruce Lietzke, this one far too early:

When word circulated a little more than a year ago about Lietzke’s cancer, it was a jolt to 

his friends, and one could make the case that few players of his era were as beloved as this big man who never took himself too seriously. He was once asked to compare his golf game to one of the many cars he kept at his farm. “An old El Camino,” he laughed. “Half ugly, half decent. It fits me more than anything.” 

“He was a classic, and that’s the right word,” said Rogers, who along with Jerry Pate – Lietzke’s brother-in-law – and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw accompanied Lietzke for some early hospital appointments more than a year ago. Curtis Strange visited and kept in touch with Rogers, and the Wadkins boys – Lanny and Bobby – were part of the close circle, too.

“In the end,” said Rogers, “the Good Lord felt 67 years was enough, that he was satisfied Bruce deserved eternal peace. It’s a good place to be.”

In a game filled with nice guys, one of the nicest.  RIP.

Update Your Resumes -  A rather unusual career move broke while I was under the influence:

PETE BEVACQUA NAMED PRESIDENT OF NBC SPORTS GROUP 

New Role Will Oversee Programming, Marketing, Digital, NBC Sports Regional Networks, and all Golf Businesses 

STAMFORD, CONN. -- July 24, 2018 -- NBC Sports Group today named Pete Bevacqua to the newly created position of President, NBC Sports Group. In this role, Bevacqua will oversee several key areas, including programming, marketing, digital, the NBC Sports Regional Networks, and all Golf businesses under the NBC Sports umbrella. He’ll report to Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports, and will begin his new role in September. 

“With the expansion of NBC Sports Group over the last seven years, and our continuing investments in new and existing businesses, adding Pete to our already strong management team will help us organize for future growth,” said Lazarus. “We are thrilled to have someone with his experience and reputation join our organization.”

NBC already has the Ryder Cup, but when does CBS' contract for the PGA Championship run through?

Alex Miceli does a deep dive on the move, focusing on the unresolved issues facing the organization.  First the good:

As the PGA’s coffers overflow with money, Bevacqua leaves the organization of nearly 29,000 club professionals in better financial shape than he found it. Bevacqua’s signature deal came last year, when the PGA renewed its contract with NBC for the biennial Ryder Cup through 2030. The deal is worth $440 million, according to sources.

That's a lot of benjamins for a three-day event every other year, half of which have an early broadcast window.  Am I the only one that smells a pay-for-play angle here?  

Then the inconclusive:

Bevacqua also worked a deal with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to move the PGA Championship from August to May, beginning next year. The move was necessary so that the Tour could end the FedEx Cup playoffs before the NFL season, which dominates American TV viewers’ attention. The recently released 2018-19 Tour schedule, in which the playoffs trim from four to three events, ends Aug. 25, which would not have happened without the PGA of America’s cooperation with its annual championship. 

When the PGA Championship move was announced, there was no disclosure about any benefits that the PGA of America might receive from the PGA Tour, but some sort of recompense is likely.

Likely isn't the same as actual, but am I the only one that smells a get-out-of-Dodge before the ramifications become clear angle here?

And the pending:

One will be the reported move of PGA headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to Frisco, Texas, near Dallas. The next CEO surely would want a say in the decision. Considering that it took more than five months for Bevacqua to be named CEO, the move to Frisco might be on life support while waiting for the PGA’s new boss. It still could be an issue for the new CEO, if a move is determined to be necessary. 

Another issue is the PGA Championship’s broadcast contract with CBS that expires next year. The new CEO would expect to have some input on a new deal. I’m sure that Mike Whan, the LPGA’s commissioner, wishes that he weren’t saddled with the current contract with Golf Channel that was negotiated by his predecessor.

Am I the only one that smells... Oh, never mind.  remember, this organization's mandate is to represent the club professionals, yet its revenue stream is dependent upon the professional game.  Odd, at the very least....

Considering The Source - Or, in this case, the sources....  The Guardian and environmental activists maintain about the same fidelity to facts, so we're gonna need a bigger grain of salt.  This just in, neither of the aforementioned parties likes Donald Trump:

The spectacular dunes system picked by Donald Trump for his golf resort in

Aberdeenshire has been “partially destroyed” as a result of the course’s construction, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed. 

Scottish Natural Heritage, which has been under pressure for years to speak out on the issue, now acknowledges that serious damage has been done to the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Foveran Links on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen, since the course opened in 2012, the documents show.

Yes, I'm sure they do, but are they credible?  

“Construction of the new golf course involved earthworks, planting of trees, greens and fairways, drainage, irrigation and grass planting,” states one of the reports released by Scottish Natural Heritage inspectors. “This has affected the natural morphology of the dunes and interfered with natural processes. Most of its important geomorphological features have been lost or reduced to fragments. Nearby marine terraces have also been reduced to fragments.” 

“These documents show that considerable damage has been done to Foveran Links, and that it is very unlikely that it will retain its SSSI status,” said Bob Ward, the policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, who obtained the reports under FoI. Ward has also asked the Scottish government to investigate whether proper environmental monitoring has been carried out at the site since 2012.

Oh dear, marine terraces as well....  I bring no qualifications to this item, other than an understanding of how the outrage machine works, but all of its hallmarks are to be found, such as:

He also claimed that, when completed, the land there would be “environmentally enhanced and better than it was before”. The Trump Organization said last year its environmental approach to the course had been “first class”. 

That view is disputed by conservationists. “It’s been ruined from a virgin, undeveloped wilderness site into something that’s relatively manicured,” said Dr Jim Hansom, a specialist in coastal ecology at Glasgow University. He told a recent BBC Scotland documentary the site had lost the key features that led to it being given protection. The decision to approve the course was met with anger by conservation groups. “It appears that the desires of one high-profile overseas developer, who refused to compromise one inch, have been allowed to override the legal protection of this important site. And we fear this sets a precedent that will undermine the whole protected-sites network in Scotland,” Aedán Smith, head of planning and development at RSPB Scotland, told the Times.

Anger is their default position whenever anybody tries to build anything, so I'll need just a little more data than is provided herein.  

But Trump is also taken to task in this very article for not producing the number of jobs promised, a fair criticism until you gaze from the shore to those ugly and useless wind turbines.  

Scotland remains a far poorer country than most folks realize, and a period of lower oil prices has exacerbated those concerns.  I'd prefer to live in a world where projects are evaluated through a cautious assessment of the offsetting economic and environmental concerns, but this isn't such a world.

To me the tell is their treatment of Mike Keiser and the application to build Coul Links up near Dornoch.  The environmental lobby and the media, but I repeat myself, made a transparent decision to equate Keiser, a man that satisfied the environmental concerns of The People's republic of Oregon, with Trump.  The fact that they didn't want this built is a classic dog-bites-man story, since they don't want anything built...  And yet, people need employment and the economy of Scotland is highly dependent upon tourism.

 I don't know how history will judge this project and the elected representatives that approved it.  But we all know enough to not take these folks' word for it.

See you tomorrow.

Open Championship Thursday

Yesterday we had a reference to the color yellow....  In the first ever Unplayable Lies correction, I would like to clarify that the only thing yellow on this golf course are the pin flags and scoreboards....  Everything else is brown, trending browner.

South African Erik Van Rooyen has it to -5 as he plays the final three holes, and Jon Rahm has removed a headcover on every tee thus far, driving the green on the Par-4 third.

Actual Journalism - Frank Nobilo and the Golf Channel crew tell us that, stimping 9.5, these greens are really slow.  Except, they weren't stimping the greens:

"Baked out" and "fast and firm" will be the buzzwords of the week at the 147th British Open, where the fairways are plenty speedy. 

A Scottish drought has made conditions so fast that Tiger Woods even said that the fairways are faster than the greens. 

So Golf Channel decided to find out if Woods was right. A member of the groundscrew said the greens were Stimping at 10 on Wednesday; all that was left was testing the fairways. The maintenance crew said it tested the fairways on three to four different spots on the course and was getting about nine feet. When they tested the 11th fairway in the video below, they said the reading came up 9 1/2 to 9 3/4 — just barely slower than the greens.

Define "barely"!  It begs for a rather obvious follow-up, but perhaps Frank wasn't allowed on the greens...

Rhetorical, One Hopes -  Golf.com with this header/query:

Could we see a 500-yard drive at a baked-out Carnoustie?

Nothing to see here, I've been reliably assured.... 

Before jumping to any conclusions, 500-yards drives are not unknown, even on this side of the Atlantic.  And, you might be surprised to learn, the record is way longer than that:

Before ShotLink, another golfer posted a very big number on the Tour: Carl Cooper's 787-yard drive at the 1992 Texas Open. But not everyone includes Cooper's drive because the distance was aided by the presence of a downhill, concrete cart path.

It's good fun to go ga-ga over the length that these boys can send it, but the required skill is obstacle avoidance, in most cases the pot bunkers.

Martin (Golden) Slumbers -  The R&A majordomo addresses the curious testing of drivers:

The R&A has had capabilities at previous Opens to test drivers for COR (coefficient of restitution) and CT “characteristic time.” In laymen’s terms, the spring-like effect of

driver faces. But the governing body is becoming more proactive this year. 

“We’ve always had an equipment test capability down on the range, certainly since I’ve been involved in the Open,” Slumbers said. “It’s been an option for players or the manufacturers to take their equipment in and have it tested. We felt it was an appropriate next step to more actively seek to test players’ drivers straight out of the bag.”

Testing is fine, it's action that that's scarce....  But this is curious:

It was a request to players, and I think many of you underestimate, we have a very good relationship with our players, and it's a very collaborative relationship, and we had absolutely no problems with the players coming and were interested in what we're doing. A lot of them actually wanted to know how does the test work, and what is it really testing for?

Yeah, I'm sure the first reaction was, "Gee, I wonder how they do the testing?"  But I can't help but hope that Bryson deChambeau was one of the thirty tested....

Rory, fresh off telling the world he wants to get back to a more freewheeling style, notices something on the grassy knoll:

However, according to Rory McIlroy, those tested may not have been picked by coincidence. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, McIlroy, who won the Open in 2014, suggested one particular company was targeted. 

"No, I wasn’t selected. I did have a look at the board and see who was selected. I think there was one manufacturer that was singled out a bit more than anyone else. The one that I’m using," McIlroy said. 

The 29-year-old is referring to TaylorMade. The company's M3 and M4 line is used by bombers like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Kopeka, Jason Day and Jon Rahm. According to the Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte, 16 of the 30 drivers tested were TaylorMade products. In a given week, somewhere between 33 and 36 percent of the field uses a TaylorMade driver.

I for one am comforted to know that those 500-yard drives will be coming off the face of a conforming driver....  Unless, you know, it's Rory that sends it.

Mr. Slumbers also made clear that decorum will be maintained:

“We understand the USGA and the referees’ decisions that were made at Shinnecock, and we completely respect those decisions,” Slumbers said. “In the event of a similar situation this week, clearly, the first thing is you understand the facts because you never get the same situation and there will be lots of reasons. But we have looked very carefully at the Rules, and I don’t think it was good for the game and not the right way to have played this wonderful sport, and we would make a decision based on the facts of any incident that happened later in the week.”

And if you only partially respected their decision?

Slumbers understood these specifics, but when pressed on them, he implied that perhaps there were alternatives in the Rules that could also have been applied. 

“And Rule 1-2 says you can’t use 1-2 if you've used another rule, so they used 14-5, which doesn’t have a DQ option in it. But there are other ways, there are other parts of the rule book which refer to etiquette and the powers of the committee, and we’re fully aware of those clauses that are in that rule.”

And he's the committee.  But Phil would never have acted out in Martin's sandbox, nor would he have at Augusta.  

You've likely seen this, but even the Carnoustie scoreboards are getting cheeky, as per the photo that's blown up Twitter:

 Coincidence?  I don't believe in coincidences....

Now On the Tee... - But barely...Don't they have people to do this for them?

Likely no round will be more impressive than that of Jhonattan Vegas Thursday. While the Venezuelan golfer is at Carnoustie just like every other golfer, the way he arrived is rather incredible. 

Vegas was set to fly to Scotland a week ago on July 12, but it was only that morning that he realized his visa to travel there was expiring that very day. An issue, sure, but he had a full week to resolve the issue. A quick visit to the UK Embassy should do the trick. But the visa was just the beginning of his bad luck. 

Things weren’t looking good as of Tuesday afternoon. His passport had been held up and weather was worsening in New York, which was where he would be connecting. His 10:31 a.m. Thursday tee time loomed eerily in the distance. 

Well, New York to Edinburgh to Carnoustie wasn't going to cut it. Vegas's clubs were checked baggage by now, but he needed to get his body to Carnoustie first and foremost, so he took a different route: Houston to Toronto to Glasgow to Carnoustie. He detailed it all for people to watch on his Instagram story.

He arrived without his bag, so the gang in the TM trailer will be assembling a set for him...  Lucky his name wasn't picked, as there's no time to test that driver.

They Can't Help Themselves - The Open returns to Carnoustie for the first time since 2007, but our press nabobs find this the perfect time to trash Trump:

The Ailsa Course at Turnberry is one of the finest links in the world, and a member of

the Open rota. At least, ostensibly. 

Turnberry has not hosted the Open Championship since 2009, and is not scheduled as a future venue. A matter that lies, at least in part, with the resort's ownership. Before he ran for president, Donald Trump bought the property in 2014. His political foray has complicated matters, a sentiment acknowledged earlier this year by R&A chief executive Marin Slumbers. 

“Turnberry is a fantastic golf course and will be a great venue when we get there,” Slumbers said in February. “It would be very complex having an Open at Turnberry at the moment. You’ve got the ownership issue of the course and the staging there. But there are a number of other courses we haven’t been to for a few years, and we are looking forward to going back to all of them."

OK, but the Ailsa wasn't a particularly great golf course, Kind of the Torrey Pines of Scotland (great piece of land, poorly utilized).  The more interesting question is about the successful rennovation, and we can't touch on that because you'd have to credit Trump.

Prop This - This has historically been Alex Myers' home turf, but Golf.com has the skinny on how to lighten your wallet:

British Open prop bets: From low lefty to best Brit, here's how to invest for Carnoustie

Lowest lefty I've seen is either Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, but it's admittedly an extremely competitive category.

Mixed Message -  There was this note about Justin Thomas, justifiably concerned about contracting Yani Tseng disease:

Justin Thomas openly admits he's superstitious about touching a trophy before he's won it, so drinking wine from the Claret Jug two years ago should be a bad omen for this week.

By the way, we're talking about the newly-hirsute Justin Thomas:

Last player with a beard to win the Open Championship:  Bob Ferguson at St. Andrews.... wait for it, in 1882.  he looked like this:

First place purse: £12

I'm just saying that I wouldn't obsess over drinking out of the claret jug....

Note to Readers - This will be goodbye until +/- July 30th, as I've determined not to bring the laptop.  We anticipate dodgy WiFi on too much of the trip, and it's one less thing to lug.  Enjoy the Open and we'll catch up when we can.

Midweek Musings - Open Championship Edition

Lots to cover, so buckle up and let's have at it:

Ever wonder about the origins of the town's name?  Mike Tirico (via Shack) have you covered....

Go ahead, blame it on the Vikings.  I had always assumed that only the Russians could be responsible for such a dour place....

What should we expect?  Experienced linksologists know it all begins on the spectrum.... the color spectrum, that is:

Yellow, on its way to brown....  Purge '99 and '07 from your memory banks, this will not in any way resemble those weeks.

The Forecaddie, a/k/a The Man Out Front, expects lots of birdies:

The Forecaddie finally took a stroll around Carnoustie and got a close look at the conditions. As Tiger Woods said Sunday, the fairways are faster than the greens and, for The Man Out Front, the look is hard to like. 

As magnificent as the firm, yellow-beige-dead fairways look in person to lovers of links, the poa annua and fescue greens are too green, too soft and holding shots enough that TMOF can’t envision players trying many long run-up shots. In practice rounds, The players have been attacking hole locations with ease and appear unfazed by the ground firmness. 

Also of note is the rough. The tall stuff is not very tall in most places and pretty harmless. In spots, like the 18th, some denser grasses might complicate matters for the bomb-and-gouge approach. And certainly there will be flyers, but overall The Forecaddie won’t fault players who attack Carnoustie.

Here we pause to contemplate our first major surprise, to wit, the guys are planning on hitting more drivers than assumed from all the Hoylake '06 comparisons.  Brooks Koepka, as an example, could hit as many as nine drivers per round, and he's not alone.  Bomb-and-Gouge on a baked-out links?  We'll see how that works out....

It smells like a wide-open Open, as seconded by Alistair Tait:

According to Rose, anyone can win the 147th Open. 

“The beauty of this golf course is that length isn’t a necessity, which brings the whole field into it,” Rose said. 

Carnoustie is so hard and dry bombers such as Johnson aren’t necessarily going to have an advantage. Anyone who hits fairways this week is a bomber. There’s absolutely no grass or soft areas to stop the forward momentum of tee shots. Johnson and 2007 champion Padraig Harrington hit tee shots into the Barry Burn short of the 18th green in practice rounds – 475 yards off the tee. 

Forget obvious favorites. Sixty-year-old Bernhard Langer is a 500-1 shot. He’s won three Senior Opens in the last eight years. His first came in 2010 at Carnoustie.

“It’s going to favor a patient one for sure because even if you play this golf course aggressively, you’re going to have ups and downs during the week,” Rose said.

OK, but it isn't THAT wide open....   Here's a guy that intends to B&G his way around:

Not everyone seems intimidated though.

“The rough isn’t as thick as I expected,” said Harry Diamond, who caddies for Rory McIlroy. “It’s playable.” 

He expects his man to hit a lot of drivers to take some fairway hazards out of play.

At least one wily veteran of ’99 agrees with Diamond. Back then Duval opened 79-75 and made the cut. He eventually finished T-62. He was 22 over par. He still shakes his head ruefully at the memory, the pain of which hasn’t faded with the years.

As always, consider the source....  That sentiment would be sufficient to take Rory off my list, but of course with childhood friend Harry Diamond on the bag he hasn't sniffed my list of picks.  I don't know the right strategy for the week, I just don't expect our Rors to trip over it until Monday at the earliest.

That Golfweek item has quite the good lede as well:

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — This dour Scottish links, named for the dreary town for which it provides the sole reason to visit, is not an aesthetically handsome course. But Carnoustie has never been about beauty. It’s about brutality, the medieval rack of British Open venues, designed to stretch knights of the golfing realm to breaking point. 

Many competitors snap early in the tournament, others late. Some aren’t even intact when they step onto the first tee Thursday. There may not be a course on the planet that can intimidate the world’s best golfers as readily as Carnoustie. 

Much of that repute owes to the infamous 1999 Open, when superintendent John Philp defended his beloved course in much the same way that a pitbull defends its master: without favor, restraint or regret. But that was almost two decades ago. Is that reputation warranted?

Dour?  Dreary?  I'd have used "grim" as well, but let's not quibble...  It's less than an hour from St. Andrews, but a world apart.

Ryan Herrington likes this guy:

Still, the case can be made that Rose is playing the best golf of his career right now at

age 37. Since the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs last August, the Englishman has had four wins, 17 top-10s in 22 worldwide starts and moved up to No. 3 in the World Ranking. 

For this reason, Rose comes to Carnoustie with an abundance of confidence, if also a little caution. He acknowledges his record in the Open hasn’t been what he hoped: just one additional top-10 (T-6 at St. Andrews in 2015) since his finish in 1998. 

“I don’t believe in superstition or anything like that, but I just feel like my game is in a good spot,” Rose said. “I feel like I’m playing well and creating chances regularly. So, yeah, it’s up to me, really. Not stats or not records. It’s just about me and playing this golf course this week and creating my chance to win.”

Fair enough, but after picking him in both The Masters and U.S. Open, we're through....  Bizarre though, that his only Top-5 in this event was at Birkdale as an amateur.  Burn me once, shame on you....  Of course back in the day I picked Sergio to win 7-8 Opens, and we know how that worked out.

Rose remains unsettled on strategy:

Despite his familiarity with the course, Rose says he has yet to finalize a game plan for how he’ll approach it this week. The unusually firm-and-fast conditions of the course has Rose trying to decide how aggressive he will be off the tee. 

“It’s probably going to be a mixture of [drivers and irons],” Rose said. “Definitely for me it’s going to be knowing when to attack, and I think it’s going to be about good strategy, knowing which pins are your birdie opportunities, which pins to respect. 

“I always start off quite conservative in my game plan, and by the time I get to Sunday, I’ve changed it dramatically through the week as well. So it is always a fluid situation. I think, until you see the forecast on a links course, you can’t really make too much of [it].”

Luke Kerr-Dineen does a deep dive into the finishing hole in an attempt to make this rather insignificant case:

British Open 2018: Breaking down one of the most underrated shots in golf history

Meh!  His point is that Lawrie had a one-shot lead in the playoff, and hit an underrated shot to the green to win his claret jug.  We can stipulate to the fact that the shot didn't get its due, and still not care very much.  It's Paul Lawrie, for God's sake, there's no reason for us to care...

I want to use his work in support of two other points, the first being the misunderstood nature of the finishing hole at Carnoustie.  It's a bear, often called the toughest finishing hope in either Open Championship or major championship golf, a justifiable premise.  But mostly it's justified based upon the meandering Barry Burn, which the player crossed three times on the hole:

The Barry is a factor for sure, but I would argue that it's to OB stakes left that raises the threat level from Red Zone to Soiled Undergarments.  

My second point is to reargue the Van de Velde meltdown, of which you'll see much this week, which is largely misunderstood.  The Frog made a horrible mistake off the tee, in my opinion, in hitting driver.  All that accomplished was to bring the narrowest section of fairway and the burn on both the left and right into play.  I'd have hit an iron to that section of fairway short of the burn, but he got away with that mistake.  If my memory is correct, the ball actual wa son the ealking bridge but ended up playable to the right of the burn.

From there, most of us would have had him play short of the burn, pitch onto the green, and collect his hardware.  He opted for a different strategy, one that is employed by tour pros far more than any of us realize, he hit a two iron deliberately towards the grandstand to the right of the green.  They do this to take advantage of the generous drop they get when impaired by a TIO, and Van de Velde successfully pulled off the shot, easily clearing the dreaded Barry Burn.

Alas, just as the French didn't envision the need for the Maginot Line to protect their border with Belgium, Jean neglected one niggling detail....  His ball struck a handrail, crazily bouncing to the other side of the burn into an unplayable lie.  This has to be one of the all-time worst breaks in the history of our game....  You go out there with many large buckets of balls and never hit a handrail, and even if you did, the odds of that bounce are infinitesimal.....  If the ball bounces into the burn, he likely still wins the Open.

Enough on that, shall we get to Alan's Mailbag?  You know the drill...Alan Shipnuck cracking wise enabled by his Twitter feed.  before we get to the main event, Alan took a side trip en route to Dundee:

I'm especially excited because en route to Carnoustie I'm stopping in Portrush to peep all the preparations for next year's Open. I shall report on what I find. Until then…

Portrush will be a great venue...  I can't wait for hsi report, but also for next year's Open.  Hold that thought.... 

I think guys who played the Scottish Open last week benefit greatly from a week of links style play. Agree/disagree and why..... -@MikeInTheCouv 

For sure it's better preparation than the John Deere. You can never give yourself too much time to acclimate to the bouncy turf and slower greens and omnipresent cross-winds, to say nothing of the jet lag and English breakfasts. I'm honestly still bitter that Jordan Spieth played the Deere in 2015. When it comes to the Grand Slam, history has shown that even the greatest players only get one bite of the apple: Nicklaus, Woods and Palmer each had only one season in which they won the first two legs of the Grand Slam, as Spieth did in 2015. Not arriving until Monday morning of Open week on the Deere charter simply isn't the best preparation, for any player.

There are different ways to prepare, though we can all agree that none are to be found in the Quad Cities.  There is a risk in playing either the Scottish or Irish, if you draw a bad weather week it's easy to lose your will to live.  Jordan has confirmed that mistake by going over early in subsequent years, and it kinda work out for him last year, no?

Winning score? And who finishes second behind Tiger Woods? -Jake (@winfreyjake) 

The average winning score over the last four years has been 16 under and I'd be very surprised if it's not even lower this year, unless the winds howl, which is not in the forecast (and right now rain is expected on Friday, which will take some bite out of the course). Per Tiger, this sets up as a very intriguing test. His weaknesses with the driver were exposed at the Masters and U.S. Open but he can holster it this week, if he is so inclined, though that will put him at a big disadvantage if Rory and other super long hitters do in fact bomb it over most of the bunkers, as has been happening in the early practice rounds. But we haven't seen a firm, fiery test like this since Hoylake, which remains one of Tiger's transcendent performances. His iron play remains the foundation of his game (he's third on Tour in Strokes Gained approach-the-green) and no one is as adroit at thinking their way around a fiery links. But the fact is, Woods is now below average off the tee and middle of the pack on the greens. He needs to have his best week of his comeback with the putter and driver (even if employed infrequently) to even have a chance. That's a big ask.

There's a couple of cross-currents in play here, let me just insert here these comments from Tiger himself:

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — Continuing his Refreshingly Honest World Tour, Tiger Woods returns to Carnoustie for a fourth British Open and for the first time, admitted this 

event is his best chance for major championship No. 15. 

“As far as long term, certainly, I would say yes because of the fact that you don’t have to be long to play on a links-style golf course, and look what Tom (Watson) did at Turnberry at 59, I believe he was,” Woods said. “Greg (Norman) was there at Birkdale, I think about 54-ish, somewhere around there. It certainly can be done.” 

Even as Woods sits 28th in PGA Tour driving distance (304.9 yards) following four back surgeries, he suggested distance will eventually be an issue at other majors.

Ironic, in that we've all been shocked at how long he's been hitting it, but he seems prepared for the continuing ravages of Father Time.  I do think hes' right though, and I's add that his ability to play in the wind and use the space between his ears also leads to this being the most likely....  I don't, however, expect that much from him this year, and would also not his career is defined by struggles on slow greens.

Back to Alan:

What percentage of the PGA Tour pros actually like links golf? -David (@davidtfbarry)

Less than you think. These guys are all about precision – they want their nine-iron to fly exactly 158 yards and stop dead, because that's what they're used to and how they usually prepare. The quirky courses and unpredictable bounces wreaks havoc with their golf OCD. Now, almost every pro is too politic to tell reporters that they don't like links golf, because they know they'll be branded as Philistines. But the candor still leaks out in quasi-private settings. To be sure, plenty of guys do love links golf, and it's no accident they tend to be the better players who have the well-rounded games and mental acuity to answer the unusual questions presented by the Open.

It's easy and good fun to dump on them, but who can blame them?  It can be so quirky and I can't imagine how maddening it would be to get stuck on wrong side of the draw....  It's the greatest golf in the world, but it presents challenges with a scorecard in one's pocket.

Is another 62 likely? -Ernie (@efahey81)

If a hard wind doesn't blow, it's very likely. The course is effectively playing about 6,000 yards, the greens are pretty flat and very pure, and the rough is not particularly penal. Nasty weather is the course's only defense. Here's hoping.

No kidding... Add in some rain on Friday to take the heat out of the place, I could see a guy with an early tee time Saturday and nothing to lose threatening that 62.  Do we think that will wake up our governing bodies?   Time for another segue, this time a curious story:

Thirty players, including seven major champions, arrived at the 147th Open and received a letter from the R&A notifying them to bring their respective drivers to the equipment standards office located on Carnoustie’s practice ground by 5 p.m. on Tuesday. 

Keegan Bradley, Brendan Steele and Brooks Koepka all confirmed that their drivers all passed the COR test (coefficient of restitution, or spring-like effect) administered by the R&A.

This was the first time the R&A took measures that were not part of the distance insight project being done in conjunction with the USGA. 

The PGA Tour has been testing club for approximately five years but has not done random testing to this point. The Tour’s rules department works in conjunction with manufacturers and tests clubs from manufacturer fans at tournaments on a voluntary basis. The USGA assists the PGA Tour in this process.

I don't know what to make of this, but here's Shack's take:

Thirty players were greeted with letters from the R&A ordering them to offer up their drivers for a COR test. It's not clear if the tests were random or if the players were specially chosen by their manufacturer affiliation or driving distance average.

Welcome to Scotland!

There are two ways of looking at this.

The sunny side up take would believe this is just part of normal monitoring and amidst some rumblings that this year's distance increase could be fueled by hot drivers. 

The cynical take says this is the act of a desperate governing body looking for something to blame this year's increases on, instead of simply anticipating that a combination of technology, athleticism, fitting and a generation of players reared on modern clubs have passed the testing procedures by. AKA, anything not to do something about the Joint Statement of Principles.

 OK, let's not harsh the mellow any more than is necessary.....  Back to Alan:

Which non-rota links courses most deserves to host an Open Championship? I acknowledge logistics, access, accommodation and other unfortunate factors limit the field but setting those aside... which course should welcome the Champion Golfer of the Year? -Ian (@DizzyG1964) 

It has to be Royal Dornoch, given the course's grandeur, history and the stern test it presents. It has a special feel and some truly epic holes. The raised, crowned greens – which local boy Donald Ross would export to Pinehurst – make Dornoch unlike any other championship course in the linksland. It's high time it gets the ultimate championship, remote location be damned.

I love Dornoch as much as the next guy, but find little value in these types of discussions.  So much of Dornoch's charms lie in its remote location and small-town vibe, why even speak of ruining that.

There's more:

Is our guy IJP just a poor misunderstood soul. -@fakePOULTER 

To some degree, yes. But how many other players are compelling marshals to fire off persnickety letters to tournament directors?! There's no doubt that Poults has become a magnet for yahoo fan behavior and it's unfortunate he has to deal with that. But at some point you have to ask, why does all the bad juju swirl around this one player?

Hey, I'm still wondering why that dark cloud follows Robert Allenby everywhere.....

Do you think Tom Watson's near-win in ‘09 at age 59 would have been the greatest accomplishment in golf history? -@JoeGunter 

How about sports history? This is the one week each year when we get to rue what might have been. But I've come to believe it's better that Watson didn't win. He's such a crusty character, I think the tragic hero role suits him better.

He certainly took it well, reminding all at his post-loss presser that nobody had died.

Golf was meant to be played firm and fast like at the Open Championship. Is there any way to have golfers in the U.S. embrace this? #BrownIsOk -@RonVyse 

I believe that this century water is going to be what oil was in the last century: a precious resource over which wars are waged. As the global population continues to explode, lush, emerald-colored golf courses are going to become more rare, so I think golfers everywhere are going to have to learn to love burnt-out conditions. I mean, who doesn't enjoy getting an extra 20 yards of roll off the tee? But one problem in this discussion is Augusta National. It has become the paragon of golf in this country and brainwashes viewers into thinking that's what a course is supposed to look like. The USGA is trying to fight back – Pinehurst, Chambers Bay, Erin Hills and Shinnecock were all varying shades of brown. This Open Championship is going to be so much fun to watch I think it will help further nudge folks in the right direction.

One thing I was quickly taught out in Utah, is that in the West everything already is about water.....  This is too big a topic for today, but American courses are already learning how to use less water, but within limits.  We're constrained by heat and the resulting grasses used, so I'll have to continue to trundle to GB&I to satisfy my links Jones.

More tomorrow, I think, but I really must start the packing thing....