Labor Day Laments

A slow news day means I shan't keep you long....

Tiger Scat - This will shock exactly no one:

Tiger Woods appears to be exploring some alternatives on the greens. The 14-time major champion was testing out a new “Tiger”-stamped putter during Thursday’s practice round at the Dell Technologies Championship. GolfWeek’s David Dusek posted pictures of the new blade. 

Woods made headlines when he switched to TaylorMade’s Ardmore 3 mallet at last month’s Quicken Loans and has been using the same putter since. But he struggled with his putting at last week’s Northern Trust, ranking 79th in strokes gained putting of players to make the cut. 

“You have to make putts,” Woods said on Sunday. “That’s the only way we’re going to shoot low rounds. I didn’t do it this week.” On Thursday, Woods was alternating practice between the Ardmore 3 and the new option, according to Dusek. 

The new putter is a TP Collection Black Copper Juno with “Tiger” stamped in red on the back. The putter resembles the style of Woods’s tried-and-true Scotty Cameron, a blade-style putter with a plumber’s-neck hosel. It seemed to work, for one hole at least: Dusek reported that Woods holed a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 1 in Thursday’s Pro-Am with the new wand.

Similar to his Scotty gamer, but he needs to find one that offers something more than temporary relief.

These guys need to get a room, with the bromance beginning at Hazeltine in 2016:

Woods was there as a vice captain, having missed the entire season due to injury. DeChambeau was simply a spectator, having just earned his PGA Tour card following a

victory at the Web.com Tour’s DAP Championship a few weeks earlier. Still, the quirky young pro with the Hogan cap and single-length irons had enough chutzpah to show up in Minnesota anyway, figuring he’d be on the other side of the ropes soon enough so why not see what the atmosphere was all about. It earned him a cart ride with Woods. 

“To see how smart he is, [I asked him] what are our odds or percentages of X and X, if you put this pairing, in this session, what are the odds of us winning,” Woods said. “And he said I’ll give you half the hole. And he came back with the answer.”

Does anyone understand what the heck he's talking about?  As if there is one answer to a nonsensical question as that....

“He and I playing together would be fantastic,” Woods said. “I know that we think about the game completely differently. I’m very much a feel-oriented guy, and he’s very much a numbers guy, but for some reason we get along great and we work.”

It makes sense. Both are golf nerds. Their games also would match up well. Woods has been wild with his driving much of the year, ranking 119th in strokes gained/off the tee, while DeChambeau has been much steadier, ranking 16th in the same category. Where DeChambeau has been somewhat average around the green, Woods has been much steadier.

It's a tad amusing that he considers himself a feel player, given his technical answers to any swing-related questions.  Remember the "I have to match the release point on my chips with that of my full swing"?  

I just took a quick gander at the venue, and three of four Par-3's are even-numbered holes.  I'm not over the moon about Tiger in foursomes, but I could see this pairing with Bryson hitting the tee shots on the odd-numbered holes.

And, on a different subject:

Safeway Open ticket revenue going to fire relief is as good a reason as there is for Tiger Woods to play

To me, this is an interesting test of Tiger 3.0.  To me, Tiger has never shown much love to the sponsors that pay the freight.  He's always waited until the absolute last minute to commit to an event, thereby limiting the benefit derived.  In 2016 he took a large appearance fee and flew to the Middle East, and DQ'd after one miserable round in which he barely broke 80.

Here's the background of Tiger and this event:

Jeff Sanders, the executive director of the Safeway Open, declined to comment on the possibility of a Woods’ commitment to play other than to say in an email, “We would

love for Tiger to play in the Safeway Open whenever it works for his schedule! Great to see him healthy & playing so well.” 

Woods, meanwhile, has yet to fulfill an obligation to play in the Safeway Open based on his having received a “conflicting event release” from the tour in 2012 to participate in the Turkish Airlines World Golf, an eight-player exhibition event played opposite what was then called the Frys.com Open, the PGA Tour event now sponsored by Safeway.

In turn, Woods, as well as the seven other PGA Tour members—Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Matt Kuchar, Lee Westwood, Webb Simpson, Hunter Mahan and Charl Schwartzel—agreed to add the Napa event to their schedules at some point. The seven all fulfilled their obligations in 2014 and ’15. 

Woods committed to playing in the 2016 event, which would have marked a return from more than a year away from competitive golf because of back surgery. But he withdrew on Monday of tournament week, citing the state of his game. “My health is good, and I feel strong, but my game is vulnerable and not where it needs to be,” he said in a statement then.

You imagine the Chinese Fire Drill his entry triggered, only to have him pull the rug out a few days later....  So, does our new warm and cuddly Tiger do the right thing?  I'm going with "No", but I'd be delighted to be proven wrong.

Euro Scat -  Is this attitude, or has he been assured of a pick?

Sergio Garcia has already been a vice-captain on one Ryder Cup team. He doesn’t plan on doing it again this year if he isn’t picked to play on his fourth consecutive team.

The 38-year-old Spainard has struggled this season. He’s dropped from 10th to 27th in the World Ranking and missed the cut at all four majors. He won’t auto qualify for the European Ryder Cup team, so he’ll need to receive one of Thomas Bjorn’s four captain’s picks if he wants to play in his fourth consecutive Cup. 

And if he’s not selected but instead asked to help out as a vice-captain again, like he did in 2010, Garcia said he’d likely pass. 

“Probably not,” he told Alan Shipnuck on the GOLF.com Podcast. “I have done that already and I know how hard it is to be an assistant captain, so probably not.”

I know, I'm tempted to jump on that last bit as well.  But if you're hoping to play,  I can see where it would be tough with nothing to do except ferry sandwiches to the boys.

 The Euro's automatic qualifiers will be set as of the close of play Sunday in Denmark, though their masterful plan of pairing candidates for captain's picks with the captains went awry as folf got in the way.  Here are the scores:

Westwood, -4/68

Pieters, -3/69

Olesen, +1/73 

Karlsson, E/72

Fitzpatrick, E/72 

Bjorn, -2/70

Pepperell, -2/70

So, just let the captains play....  It's one round, so this for amusement only.  But on a more serious note, these are the guys that our task force are copying...

Lastly, I'm pretty sure that Phil isn't playing in Denmark, though this feature seems tailor made for him:

The tee is in the hospitality tent, saving Phil the trouble of playing into it...

Setting A Low Bar - It's a curious piece for sure, but I guess we'll let Sam Weinman explain:

The 9 features of an actually not terrible golf course

Great golf courses are easy. Design, conditioning, simple beauty. The ingredients that comprise our best courses, whether by feel or by scientific criteria, are firmly established. The tricky part is everything else; the vast middle tier of quirky, scruffy-around-the-edges layouts that feature just enough redemptive qualities to draw people back. What “best of” lists they crack don’t cover more than a few zip codes. But for one reason or another, they work. 

To understand what constitutes an actually not terrible golf course, consider how you would use it in this sentence: “Yeah, it’s not great, but…” The rest is mostly subjective, but there are some common elements that allow us to stomach everything else.

All righty, Sam whatcha got:

“Good bones”: Like a once grand colonial fallen into disrepair, here you could squint from the first tee and detect the vague outline of greatness. A gently-winding dogleg cutting through the trees. A face bunker strategically guarding the right side of the green. It’s all there if someone could just put actual sand in the bunkers, and clean up the beer cans in the creek.

Fair enough.   I'll even enthusiastically agree with him on this:

Walkability: The only thing worse than a bad golf course is a bad golf course comprised 

of absurd elevation changes or tedious stretches between greens and tees. At least when walking, you’re privy to exercise and moments of quiet reflection, and you don’t have to trudge back across the fairway because you brought the wrong wedge. You’ll grade the whole experience on a more favorable scale, especially since they can’t ding you $25 for the mandatory cart.

But he loses me here:

Casual vibe: Golf often has to fight off its pretentious instincts of collared shirts and prolonged silence. We’re not saying those elements are bad. But they likely heighten expectation. By contrast, those courses that defy convention—T shirts, portable speakers, allowing you to bring a thermos of some mysterious homemade concoction—take some of the pressure off. Vital to this equation, of course, is that they’re not charging much at the door, otherwise you’re just overpaying for the right to not iron your clothes.

No thanks.  I don't actually think a collared shirt is too much to ask....

As Are We All -  From Alex Myer's weekly feature The Grind, watch him traverse the first two stages of grief:

WE'RE BUYING

THE MATCH: Phil and Tiger (But let’s be honest, mostly, Phil) have brilliantly teased this event for months before finally making it official. Is a $9 million match between two aging stars a total money grab? Yes. But is it still worth watching (At least, the first one)? Yes. It’s Tiger vs. Phil with a LOT of money on the line. And besides, it’s been a decade since the Skins Game went away. This fills that silly season void on Thanksgiving weekend.

WE'RE SELLING 

THE MATCH on Pay-per-view: I understand these guys were never going to actually risk that much of their own money, but it’s a shame this won’t be shown to the masses for free. Well, relatively free. My cable bill is a total joke. Here’s what Tiger had to say about it. "I think they can afford it and I think it will be done differently. You know, how many times have we all purchased fights, whether it's MMA or it's boxing, whatever it may be. We all purchase those fights.”

I've been hearing that from other as well.  Do we sense a face-plant coming?

Alex also has a funny item on DJ & Paulina, which begins with DJ being interviewed by Amanda Balionis:

Admittedly, the body language doesn't look great, but surely she has nothing to worry about...  Apparently the reaction on social media was such that Amanda felt compelled to post this photo showing everyone getting along just great.

I'm just glad that the girls are getting along....  Not to mention the fact that, after two children, Paulina is still happy to show off her lady parts.   

Have a great holiday weekend, and we'll catch up on Tuesday.