Weekend Wrap

A weekend in which I watched exactly none of the golf... Which of course fails to keep me from having strong opinions thereon....

Wire to Wire at Wyndham - Sneds awakens from the dead, though this header seems a tad overwrought:

Brandt Snedeker survives 29-hole marathon Sunday to win 2018 Wyndham Championship

Got it.  Anything more than 18 holes is now the moral equivalent of the Bataan Death March....

Brandt Snedeker fired a five-under 65 in the final round at Sedgefield CC in North Carolina to win the Wyndham Championship. 

It represents Snedeker’s ninth PGA Tour victory, but it didn’t come easily. 

Storms on Saturday interrupted his third round. When play halted, Snedeker, who shot a historic 59 Thursday, held a three-shot lead. But he still had 11 holes to play in Round 3.

Good on him for converting the 59 into a win, which often isn't the case....  But see if you react to this Tour Confidential panel bit as I did:

1. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup veteran Brandt Snedeker won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday, capping off a big week that saw him shoot an historic 59 in the first round. Does he deserve to get one of Jim Furyk’s captain’s picks and play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in Paris?

No.  Next question.....

Alan Shipnuck: Furyk has to be impressed – both times he broke 60 he failed to win the actual tournament! Sneds might be the most underrated player in golf and he would certainly be an asset to the U.S. team. But in the Task Force era there is a lot of emphasis on planning for the future. Among the top eight automatic qualifiers only one – Justin Thomas – is a Ryder rookie. Given that old lions Tiger and Phil will be captain’s picks, I could see a philosophical decision to give a pick to a young stud like Xander Schauffele or Bryson DeChambeau. But if Sneds stays hot over the next couple of weeks it might be impossible to ignore him.

Alan makes a good point about Captain Furyk, who by the way finished T4.  But regardless of the next few weeks, it's hard for me to see ignoring Sneds as some kind of Herculean task....

This follow up query also answers itself:

2. Speaking of Snedeker, his 59 on Thursday at the Wyndham was the 10th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history. With all the equipment advances and the fact that someone has broken 60 in each of the last three years, is this accomplishment as significant as it used to be?

Give the guys credit, though, as they manage to convey interesting insights in response to the most anodyne of questions:

Wood: Still a magic number, but not as significant as it once was. Al Geiberger first shot it in 1977, and it didn’t happen again until Chip Beck in 1991. I believe it’s happened eight times since 1999 on the PGA Tour (including as noted the last three years) as well as many more on the Web.Com, Challenge, Senior PGA Tour and LPGA Tours. So still magical, but not the same impact as Big Al’s was in 1977.

Zak: Even though it was great, it’s definitely not as significant as the score used to be. He gained some 9.7 strokes on the field average, which is stellar, but less than the 10-plus that Justin Thomas gained on the field during his 63 at Erin Hills. 59 stands for something, but it’s all relative.

Shane Ryan has our must read of the day, focusing on the inherent drama of players fighting for their status at this event, although I'd argue he makes a different case than he'd intended.  He focuses on Billy Hurley, II, a sympathetic figure indeed:

There are a few different cut-offs at the Wyndham—the most notable being trying to get into the top 125 and qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. But the one facing Hurley, the 200 line, was the darkest. Miss it, and your best bet may be the Web.com qualifying school. Fail there, and you’ve gone from the PGA Tour to nothing in the span of a year.

In Hurley’s case, he could use his status as a past champion for partial exemption, so his worst-case scenario was not as dire. But it still wasn’t great, and he still wanted that 200 ranking badly. At the moment when he made his par on No. 9, he had it, and so I expected to find someone happy, or at least relieved, at the scoring tent. 

He was neither. “I thought I had to do more,” he said. “But it looks like Sangmoon did more for me.” 

Bae’s two-over 72 on Sunday took him out of the top 200 as well, and was currently Hurley’s saving grace. But Hurley still wasn’t convinced—he mentioned the possibility of Blayne Barber making a late birdie, and hinted at various unforeseen forces that could diminish his finish by percentage points … enough to put Smylie Kaufman back at position 200, and leave himself scrambling in 2019.

On Shane's underlying point about the inherent drama in watching these guys fight for their professional lives, I'm very much in the amen chorus.  Far more interesting than what will happen at the top of leaderboards in the next few weeks.

However, Shane makes a few other points in passing, which undermine the whole process:

1.  The points formula is so bizarre that one never really knows where anybody stands;
2.   Too many categories of qualification, No. 125 to play next week vs. No 200, and;
3.   Guys like Hurley with back-up status as a past winner.

So, let's see if I have this right.  Billy Hurley has a 22-footer that he desperately needs to maintain his playing status....  OK, I like it...  I like it a lot.  He misses it in agonizing fashion and the crowd groans.  This is getting better....  But never mind, it turns out that he didn't actually need the putt and he has status anyway.  Can you say buzzkill?

Pounding it at Pebble - This is the golf I'd have watched were I at home, the Amateur at Pebble.  Dave Shedloski on the champ:

The irreverent nature of the newly crowned U.S. Amateur champion, Viktor Hovland,

readily poured out on Sunday afternoon at Pebble Beach Golf Links after he defeated Devon Bling, 6 and 5, such as when he was asked about adding his name to the Havemeyer Trophy along with the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

“Tiger who?” he said with a laugh. 

And later, when it was pointed out that he bears a striking resemblance to 2011 U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, Hovland replied, “I’m a little better-looking.” 

It’s obvious that laughing and smiling come easily to the 20-year-old from Oslo, Norway, but the kid has serious game, and he proved that in steamrolling through six matches in just 104 holes, tying Danny Lee in 2008 at Pinehurst No. 2 for the fewest needed to win the championship since it adopted its current format in 1979.

Shack has a great roundup of the coverage, including this compilation of his match results:

3&2

2&1

7&6

7&6

3&2

6&5

Factcheck.org Unplayable Lies rules his use of the term "steamrolling" to be supported by the evidence. 

Shack has some typical-for-him comments about the lost architecture of pebble, but of greater interest is this comment:

The nostalgic fan of golf history in me welcomes any chance to celebrate the 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, arguably the tournament I'd most love to go back in time to experience. So check out Joe Bissen'sstory about the winner back then, Jimmy Johnston, a stockbroker from St. Paul.

Yowser!  More than The Match?  More than The Greatest Game Ever Played?   More than Ben Curtis' Open Championship at Sandwich?  Strange that nobody has written a book about that last one...

But do click through that link in the excerpt and you might see Geoff's point. though the header might need some work:

The story of a St. Paul stockbroker and the greatest shot in Minnesota golf history

I know, sounds like the lead-in to a world's thinnest book contest.... But let me tease you with this bit:

“After playing a provisional shot just short of the green,” Johnston was quoted as saying in Rand Jerris’ book “Golf’s Golden Age,” “my caddie came running through the gallery and said he thought I might play my original second shot, if I hurried.”

Spoiler alert, but it seems that he did, in fact, hurry:

Good stuff.  Do yourself a favor and give it a look.

Let me just close with a discordant note from the event.  As you know, the USGA and R&A have expended considerable effort in rewriting the rules of our little game, yet crap like this keeps happening:

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – One of the hottest players in amateur golf had his U.S. Amateur run end Wednesday under unusual circumstances. 

Akshay Bhatia, the 16-year-old left-hander who has been dominating the junior golf circuit over the past year, squandered a late lead in his eventual 19-hole loss to Bradford Tilley in the Round of 64. 

Bhatia was all square against Tilley as they played Pebble Beach’s par-5 14th hole. After knocking his second shot onto the green, Bhatia and his caddie, Chris Darnell, stopped to use the restroom. Bhatia walked up to the green afterward, but Darnell asked what he thought was a USGA official for a ride up to the green. 

“The gentleman was wearing a USGA pullover,” Darnell explained afterward. “I asked if I could get a ride to the green to keep up pace, and he said yes. So I hopped on the back, got up to the green, hopped off and thought nothing of it.” 

Conditions of the competition prohibit players and caddies from riding on any form of transportation during a stipulated round unless authorized. 

It turns out that the cart that Darnell rode on was not driven by a USGA official. Rather, it was just a volunteer wearing USGA apparel. A rules official who was in the area spotted the infraction and assessed Bhatia an adjustment penalty, so instead of winning the hole with a birdie-4 to move 1 up, the match remained all square.

Sigh!   And, as if we couldn't hate this more, this little detail:

“I had already seen the other caddie in our group do it on the ninth hole,” Darnell said. “Same thing – USGA pullover, drove him from the bathroom up to the fairway – so I assumed it was fine. I didn’t point it out at the time because everything seemed kosher. He had the USGA stuff on, and I didn’t think anything of it.”

Does the USGA not get how badly this reflects on our game?  

The Weeks Ahead -  Back to that TC panel to see if they're able to contain their excitement over the forthcoming playoffs:

3. Next season the FedEx Cup Playoffs will be reduced to three events (sorry Deutsche Bank Championship) and move to August, thanks to the PGA’s own move to May. Is the schedule shakeup a good or bad thing for the playoffs? 

Zak: Great! Less events adds greater meaning to all three surviving events. Thankfully the Tour figured out a way to not ignore Boston entirely. And finally, no Tour Championship on an NFL Sunday. That’s the point everyone has been making for years. 

Shipnuck: Looking at how dead the sports calendar is these days it’s kind of incredible the PGA gave up its August date, so from that standpoint alone it’s a good move. And three weeks is a better change – how much foreplay can fans be expected to endure?

First prize is a week in Philadelphia...  Seriously, the less the better.

4. As for this year, are you more excited for this FedEx Cup Playoffs than in previous seasons, or does it still leave you feeling underwhelmed?

Could you set the bar any lower?

Sens: I’ve always been lukewarm on them. It gives me the feeling of watching the already rich count their money. It feels even less exciting in Ryder Cup years, when so much other excitement is brewing.

Except that the jockeying for captain's picks is the only interest to be found....

Golfers Behaving Badly -  We've got a wide selection from which my dear readers can choose:

We briefly touched on Lexi Thompson's return to the game last week, having taken some time to deal with a series of personal issues.  We were appropriately sympathetic given the nature of said issues, illness and death most notably.  Of course I felt deeply for the girl when I read this lede:

Lexi Thompson can’t catch a break. 

The LPGA star had another run-in with the Rules of Golf on Saturday at the LPGA’s Indy Women in Tech Championship.

Oh no, what did they do to this poor girl this time?  Turns out that this wasn't so much a bad break as.... well, its own kind of regression to the mean:

Thompson hit a wild tee shot on the 10th hole that sailed all the way into the 6th fairway. 

Due to wet conditions, the tournament instituted a lift, clean and place rule for the event. Based on that, Thompson cleaned her ball when she found it, then dropped it within a club-length of the original position.

At this point it seemed Thompson had followed the rules perfectly. But a local rule that was distributed to players before the start of the event changed things. The rule stated that lift, clean and place only applied when a player’s ball was in the fairway… of the hole they were playing. 

Since Lexi was in the wrong fairway, she was not allowed to clean her ball. Fortunately, a rules official caught Thompson’s error before she hit her shot, according to Golf Chanel’s Kay Cockerill. That prevented her from being hit with a two-shot penalty.

So frustrating.... Despite all the amazing advances in medical technology, we're still decades away from a cure for stupid.

Where's the Beef?  Here, alas:

Professional golfers are sometimes required to go to great lengths to execute the shots they attempt. And occasionally, those lengths include stripping down to your underwear in front of a gallery full of people. (Who could forget Henrik Stenson’s infamous disrobing at Doral in 2009, or more recently, Justin Rose’s own underwear moment this year in New Orleans)? 

Such was the case for Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston at the Nordea Masters on Friday, when, after hitting his ball into a hazard, his ensuing muddy lie necessitated a change into his rain pants. 

Luckily, Beef is no shrinking violet, and he decided to make the change right then and there, with the gallery cheering him on.

Video at the link, though I'll completely understand if you don't feel the need to click through. 

This also amused your humble correspondent, though we all acknowledge that I need to get out more:

The European Tour’s golf announcers’ easy rapport and refreshing candor have garnered them a cult following here in the States, but apparently, some viewers believed things got a bit too lax during the broadcast of the the Nordea Masters on Golf Channel. 

Soren Kjeldsen had just hit a poor shot the par-3 12th hole at the Hills Golf Club in Gothenburg, Sweden, when the announcer chimed in with some thoughtful reasoning. 

“I think the change in wind direction just f—ed Soren,” the announcer says.

Well, it's a technical term.... Gain, video at the link, but I can't make out what he really said, though it might have been an F-word, but not THE F-word:

Wait, what? Given a closer listen, it sounds as though he actually says “foxed,” a word meaning “deceived” or “tricked,” which, contextually, makes a whole lot more sense than uttering a potentially career-ending expletive.

Yeah, foxed, that's the ticket....

Here's a header you don't see every day in our game:

‘So much blood:’ Fan cut with broken club after pro slams it into ground

Egads!  This won't be pretty....

Shaun Micheel played alongside fellow PGA Tour veteran Kevin Stadler during the second round of the Web.com Tour’s WinCo Foods Portland Open. 

According to Micheel, Stadler slammed his 7-iron in anger after a poor shot on the par-3

15th hole. The club snapped and the head flew off past Micheel into the crowd, hitting and cutting a spectator.

In a Facebook post, Micheel said, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen so much blood,” and speculated about a “possible skull fracture.” 

Fortunately, EMTs were on the scene quickly, and the group continued the round once the they had the situation under control. The fan received stitches for the wound and was released from the hospital in good condition, according to ESPN. 

Micheel said that Stadler was “absolutely shattered” by what happened, and the rest of the group tried to “keep his spirits up” as they finished their round.

No more shattered than he should be....  But talk about your buried lede, who knew that Shaun Micheel still plays golf?

We'll close with the TC gang riffing on this subject:

6. In light of a recent spate of golf course brawls and club slams, what’s the worst thing you’ve done — or witnessed, if you prefer to remain anonymous — on the course out of frustration with your game (or your competitor?)

This could be good...Whatcha got, guys?

Sens: Clubs wrapped around trees. Windshields kicked out of carts. Bags tossed in lakes. And most depressing of all, a guy taking his frustrations out on a goose.

Yuck!  Gonna take a while to get that image out of my mind....

See you tomorrow?