Day One

The guys didn't torch the place quite as I expected, but pretty boring stuff all the same...

Another putting lesson pays immediate dividends:

While the score matches his best round of the year it wasn’t exactly predictable. In 27 previous majors, Woodland has eight missed cuts, a WD and zero top-10s. His best result was a tie for 12th, at the 2011 PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club and the 2016 Open

Championship at Royal Troon. 

But it was at this year’s Open Championship at Carnoustie where Woodland started working with putting guru Phil Kenyon and began to turn around the part of the game that has given him the most fits. On Tuesday of this week, he added a SuperStroke grip to his putter, and voila. 

“I was trying to fight it the last couple weeks and trying to feel it, feel it, and we put the SuperStroke grip on on Tuesday and Phil said, Don’t change anything,” Woodland said. “I didn’t have to think anymore, I literally grab the putter and go. 

“It helps me release the club different. I’ve been releasing with my hands and this helps me release it more down the line, which has been huge.”

Probably the most interesting aspect is that he rolled it so well late in the day, with the greens chopped up by a full day of foot traffic.  

Scoring was good, just not the Red Sea so many of us anticipated.  Shack takes a shot at why:

Theories abound as to why greens this soft did not yield even lower scores: tougher-than-normal-first-round hole locations, lack of player familiarity with the course and resurgent 

fescue rough from Tuesday’s rains. 

“The rough’s pretty thick out there for the guys if you don’t hit the fairways,” said Jim Furyk (69) when asked if he was surprised only -5 (at the time) was leading. “I probably thought someone would shoot lower and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone still does.”

Granted, only a handful of players tested more than 18 holes in practice rounds and golf balls were seen taking hard dives at the hole on the 10th and 18th greens. But the architectural severity of several greens proved challenging despite the soft conditions. 

“There’s those big spines running through them,” Furyk said. “Although some of them are quite large, they’re cut up into smaller areas and if you get in the wrong spot, it can be difficult.”

The marquee groups, as seems to have become typical, didn't deliver much, though see if you react as I did to this header:

In Thursday’s battle of the past, present and future of golf, Justin Thomas, the future, won

That would be in reference to Thomas' pairing with Tiger and Rory....  so, doing the math, that makes 2014 the present....  Weird.

Shack also took this deep dive into the appeal of Bellerive's 10th hole:

The fans lining Bellerive’s 10th hole could be confused for main street parade watchers. They set up canvas folding chairs at first light to relax in all-day shade and take in a

classy par-4 away from the clubhouse chaos. But casual fans they are not. 

Asked why the 508-yard par 4 was giving 2018 PGA Championship contestants fits, the friendly folks of Missouri gave way more astute observations than the usual.

“Slope of the fairway is right to left, but you really need to hit a nice cut into today’s pin,” said a fellow named Mike when asked why there had not been a birdie in the first four hours of play. “Just an awkward combination.” 

On a course becoming known for way too many Rees Jones-flattened landing areas on what should be beautiful, rolling grounds for golf, the 10th indeed is a nice natural right-to-left tilt that makes hitting a straight or left-to-right fade into the green tricky. The one caveat? Players can cozy up a drive next to the left-hand fairway bunker.

Fair enough, and there's more that might enhance your viewing over the next few days.  Though this is also sadly the case:

Not enough holes at Bellerive enjoy the character No. 10 exudes, perhaps due to one too many renovations. When the big circus leaves town, memories of the 10th’s challenge on the back of subtle slopes should be a model for the club in regaining what appears to be unnecessarily lost charm. 

Because as with the astute Missourians lining the 10th fairway, charm so often comes in quietly sophisticated ways.

Shack seems to apportion blame more on the Rees renovations than on Dad's original work.  He had this bit on his blog:

I spent some time there and was enjoyed its subtle features and likely blueprint for how Bellerive might go in the future should they choose to de-Rees the course. I also got some keen insights from the great fans here.

If I were a budding course designer, I might be tempted to focus on deReesification.... Gotta be a HUGE market there.

As has become common, the Ryder Cup captain was paired with a couple of lads that will be on the short-list for Captain's picks.  Of course, with two picks seemingly preordained for Task Force members, that list will have to be even shorter than is typical.  

ST. LOUIS – Thursday was supposed to be a time for Ryder Cup hopefuls Xander

Schauffele and Tony Finau to build upon their cases to make U.S. captain Jim Furyk’s team. 

However, it was the 48-year-old Furyk putting together the round of the grouping on a sweltering Midwest summer day at Bellerive. Furyk shot 1-under 69, a shot better than Schauffele and five fewer than Finau, in the opening round of the 100th PGA Championship.

This is pretty rich:

“He’s a really easygoing guy,” Schauffele said of Furyk. “He’s not putting any pressure on us.”

If you say so... Shack had the best (or at least the most concise) description of the the auditions:

As I noted yesterday for Golfweek, Jim Furyk was well aware of the intriguing first-round grouping at Bellerive pairing him with two strong Ryder Cup hopefuls: Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele. Furyk even detailed an identical tryout scenario he experience in 2016.

The latter recovered nicely from a poor start to post 70 while Finau strggled to a 74 that included a shank. Meanwhile geezer Captain Furyk glided around in a smooth 69.

To be safe we better keep Finau out of the team room... That crap can be contagious.

 Golf.com is doing a daily Tour Confidential panel and had this from last night:

Gary Woodland is your 18-hole leader, Rickie Fowler played a strong round andTiger Woods salvaged a rough start, and that was just a small sample of what 

Easily the best Zach Johnson in the field.

happened Thursday at Bellerive. What was the biggest surprise of Day 1 of the PGA Championship?

Jeff Ritter: I’m surprised by the variety of big and short hitters at the top. DJ, Rickie, Woodland, Day … and ZJ, Gay and Kisner? Looks like Bellerive is more than a bomb-and-gouge setup, which is what you want at a major.

Michael Bamberger: Zach Johnson. Sneaky long. Tiger Woods, post-round, with reporters, ready to talk golf till the cows come home. The town. St. Louis is the greatest baseball town in the country. But the enthusiasm for this event is off the rails.

Dylan Dethier has some takeaways for us all, including this for anyone who didn't get the caption above:

5. Johnson & Johnson & Johnson

It was a good day for the two more-heralded Johnsons, as Zach birdied 18 to shoot 66 while Dustin made two late bogeys but still posted 67. It was less good for Zach J. Johnson, club pro from Davis Park Golf Course in Fruit Heights, Utah, who posted 76.

And this about one of the club pros:

7. Triple-double

On a relatively calm day at a relatively calm golf course, there were only four dreaded “others” recorded — that is, scores of triple bogey or worse. But poor Matt Dobyns made two of ‘em. The New York-based club pro actually got off to a red-hot start; he birdied 1, 2 and 3 to share second place. “You start dreaming,” he said. “You see your name up there — I’m two back of the lead — you never know. Feeling fine. What the hell? I could shoot five under. But it wasn’t in the cards for me today.” That was an understatement. Twin 7s at Nos. 5 and 12 undid his round en route to a 76.

You start dreaming... ain't that the truth.  

Joel Beall has the must-read of the day, the premise of which is... Oh heck, it's not like you pay by the pixel, let him explain:

There’s a scene in “Hoosiers”—which is an odd conduit into a golf article, but bear with us—where Coach Norman Dale, played by the incomparable Gene Hackman, introduces his ragtag high-school basketball team to the town. Only, instead of acknowledging the group before them, the locals chant the name of an absent star, the cries crescendoing into a full-blown chorus. Hackman, in a look and tone that can only be described as righteous indignation, responds: 

“I would hope you would support who we are. Not who we are not.” 

Which sounds like a fantastic slogan for the PGA Championship.

Well sure, but only because Live Under Par™ is taken....

He also had this deeper into the piece:

But we haven't touched the most vital facet of all, and this deserves to be underlined, highlighted, bolded. The PGA Championship, no pun intended, is a major. Golf, for better or worse, has conditioned the sport to raise four tournaments above the rest. They are career makers, and breakers, and what other tournaments aspire to be. The PGA might be the Ringo of this bunch...but it's still pretty damn good to be Ringo.

Well, it was good for Ringo....Very arguable what it did for the rest of us...

More good stuff:

Even against such a backdrop, this year's PGA Championship seems particularly short on pizzazz. Bellerive's lack of history doesn't help, nor does following Shinnecock Hills and Carnoustie in the major rotation. The stresses felt by the greens brought on by a heat wave caused it shares of head shakes. Telling that one of the talking points this week revolves nextyear's PGA, when the championship heads to May. In a way, it's further indictment, because you'll see Jim Nantz streak across Amen Corner before the other three majors contemplate changing dates. The move has generated its share of derision, with worries centered on weather concerns. Most of which is desultory; it's hard to be agitated at something you don’t care about. 

Perhaps this is best summed up by a sight outside of Bellerive at a local church. On its front lawn a brick marquee reads, "All are welcome." Next to it, a temporary sign, announcing "NO PGA PARKING." Even God is struggling to get up for the Wanamaker.

It all pretty much comes down to the fact that it's important because....  well, because we're told it's important.  

Let me clarify that I have no issues with St. Louis and appreciate their support of the event.  It's just a dreary place in August with no realistic hopes of conditions that allow for interesting golf....  a far better choice of venues in May, but that's reserved for Rochester. 

And am I the only one that finds this excessively lame?

A dinner in which the prior year's champion picks the menu?  How original.....  Not to worry, we're not close to finished making fun of the PGA of America.

Udder Stuff -  We'll get back to having fun in a sec, but I do want to acknowledge the passing of Jarrod Lyle.  I don't have anything meaningful to add about the loss of a 36-year old with a young family, it's just unbearably tragic.

It's been heart-warming to see how many lives he's touched, which at some future point will be appreciated by his girls.  I just don't have words suitable to the occasion:

R.I.P.

The Frisco Kids - They're on quite the roll, lately, so let's pile on, shall we?  If it seems like they can't get out of their way, that would be a logical conclusion, as this rather large decision looms:

ST. LOUIS — In his final PGA Championship news conference as CEO, Pete Bevacqua

addressed possible a headquarters move to Frisco, Texas. 

“That’s still certainly a possibility, but it’s also a possibility that we’ll stay in southern Florida or even look at other opportunities around the rest of the country,” Bevacqua said. 

Opening up the potential for a move to other parts of the country added a new twist to the organization’s push to modernize its buildings in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. 

“This is something that started two years ago, where we all came to the conclusion that our current headquarters, those current buildings, although they’re in a wonderful part of the country, just weren’t getting — not getting it done for us,” said Bevacqua, who is moving to a new role at NBC Sports overseeing multiple properties, including Golf Channel.

One doesn't need to be a Viennese psychiatrist to diagnose a case of Edifice Complex.  Yanno, those guys in Ponte Vedra built themselves a palace, so we need to go one better....  But even the guy who's got one foot out the door notes it's tough on the peons:

“It’s difficult on the staff to be in this period of limbo where we don’t know exactly where we’ll be,” he said. “Are we going to stay put? Are we going to move to Frisco? Could we move somewhere else? So I know the goal is to resolve that and come to a conclusion as soon as possible, but we’re just not there yet, unfortunately, because we would like to have made that decision.”

We're all just hoping you make a better venue decision for HQ than you've been making for your marquee events.  

I Have A Gub - This is pretty funny as well, if only for the timing:

Shadowy bandits have hijacked the PGA of America’s computer servers, locking officials out of crucial files related to this week’s PGA Championship at Bellerive

Country Club and the upcoming Ryder Cup in France. 

Staff realized Tuesday morning that their systems had been compromised when attempts to work on the files generated an ominous message: “Your network has been penetrated. All files on each host in the network have been encrypted with a strong algorythm [sic].”

Any attempt to break the encryption could cause the loss of all of the work, the hackers warned. “This may lead to the impossibility of recovery of certain files,” the message threatened.

 This makes the hackers sound a bit amateurish, so I'm guessing we can rule out the Russians:

The message also included a Bitcoin wallet number, but no specific ransom amount was demanded for the return of the files. Bitcoin wallets are not linked to a particular person or entity and cannot be used to identify suspects.

For anyone unfamiliar with the classical reference in the header, we're a full service blog:

From back when Woody was funny and before he became creepy....

Clowns To The Left Of Me... - It's not just the PGA of America beclowing itself, as you'd think a thing like this couldn't happen:

Tommy Fleetwood received more than $154,000 in his bank account, not a shocker since it matched the winnings for his British Open purse. 

The problem: It went to the wrong Tommy Fleetwood. 

The money went into the account of Tommy Fleetwood, who is a pro at a Florida golf resort. Greg Thorner, one of Florida pro Tommy Fleetwood’s friends, posted a picture of a Wells Fargo account summary to his Twitter account Wednesday. 

“I told him he should keep it,” Thorner, a golf school owner, told USA TODAY Sports. “He said, ‘No, no no.’ He called the bank.”

So, how much did my namesake get for winning that 1987 U.S. Open?  Sufficiently small that I might have overlooked had it ended up in my account...

Curry On -  Josh Sens had this good bit in that TC one-off linked above, the question being surprises Thursday at Bellerive:

Josh Sens: I’m surprised anyone was watching, what with the live stream coverage of Steph Curry on the Web.com Tour.

I had seen that he was pegging it again and was quite content to let it get lost in the shuffle of the PGA.  No surprise, since Josh was exiled to Siberia this week:

He’s got range: 13 things I learned from walking 18 holes with Steph Curry

So why is he included in the panel's commentary on the PGA?  So he pens this fawning profile from his day with Steph:

4. He Can Work the Ball

Curry plays with a strong left-hand grip that has hook written all over it. But on the

course, as on the court, he can move the ball both ways when it’s required. He showed as much on the 193-yard par-3 12th hole, where he played a gentle fade with a six-iron to a right pin that would have made Ben Hogan proud. 

7. He’s Mentally Tough

We saw it last year, when he put on a Seve-like masterclass in scrambling. And he showed it again Thursday, when he fell to four over through 11 holes, only to rebound with three back-side birdies to finish with a 71. Like the hoop team he stars on, Curry plays best with his back against the wall. You could spend a lifetime taking lessons, but that’s a skill that can’t be taught. 

9. He’s a People Person

Amid the camera-clicks and shout-outs and whirlwinds of commotion, Curry was a model of poise and pleasantry, tipping his cap, fist-bumping young fans and tossing out golf balls as souvenirs. He is wise enough to know that if you let people in, even just a little, they’ll be more respectful when you need your distance. It’s a lesson other stars could stand to learn.

 OMG, that's quite a thing.  I can't wait to see how he'll hold up over the weekend....  What?  

13. But He Still Looks Destined to Miss the Cut

So, yeah, Curry’s good, and he played a gutty round. But even after scratching out a score he should be proud of, he’s T107, eight shots off the lead. There’s a chance he’ll make the weekend, just as there’s a chance that Mike Weir could beat him in a game of one-on-one.

In the immortal words of Emily Litella, never mind.

Schedule -  Tomorrow will be a normal morning golf day, so no blogging is possible.  But on Sunday it'll be couples golf in the afternoon, so there's a chance I'll throw some thoughts out into these Interwebs.  No promises, maybe I'll be feeling lazy, but it might be worth you checking in if you're so inclined.