Thursday Threads

A swampy day at Whippoorwill yesterday, and strange as well.  A couple of items of note:

1.  The Whip is a Charles Banks design, though the original course was laid out by Donald Ross.  The 8th hole is a Biarritz, and the pin was located at the bottom of the half-pipe.  I've never seen that before, though we don't see too many Biarritz greens for sure.  Admittedly, all the pins were unusual, as the super is clearly directing traffic away from the normal hole locations in the soggy conditions.
2. I had what might well be my first "shankie".  I had myself within ten yards of the green on their brutal Par-4 seventh, and embarrassingly hoseled the chip shot.  Somehow it ended up on the fringe, and I made the thirty-footer for par....  Mind you, I'm not saying it was my first shank....

As an aside, I had always assumed that Banks' nickname "Steam Shovel Charlie" was the result of his moving more earth than was typical in the day.  But according to the club's website, the circumstances were quite different:

Construction began by early 1929 on the new golf holes, new roads and a number of homes. A steam shovel was lost along the way; according to legend it sank out of sight while the pond on the current seventh hole was being built. That loss, coupled with the extensive ground moving work required to construct Whippoorwill, led to the course architect’s nickname: Charles "Steam Shovel" Banks.

 That's way too good to risk fact checking....

There's actually very little going on in our world, so I shan't keep you long.

The New Status Symbol - Everyone will be doing it soon, one can only assume:

Steven Bowditch, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and former Presidents Cup player, announced on Tuesday that he will undergo spinal fusion surgery, the same procedure Tiger Woods had last year. 

“I spent much of the last two years dealing with lower back pain, leg numbness, sciatic pain, loss of control of my right side and tingling in my toes," Bowditch said in a statement. "I had exhausted everything I could think of to diagnose the source of my pain…several MRIs, multiple injections, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy and massage. It would appear to calm down and then flair right back up as soon as I resumed golf activity. 

"But over the last year, the pain has become a constant in my everyday activity with no relief."

Does anyone remember who the first guy to wear white pants was?  Back pain is no joking matter, and yet we insist on joking about it.

Regrets, He's Had A Few -  Joel Beall with the call that Johnny would like back:

In a retrospective interview with the Golf Channel on Tuesday night coinciding with his retirement notice, Miller recalled that miss, which came at the 1999 Ryder Cup. During the Saturday fourball session, Justin Leonard and Hal Sutton were losing their match to

Miguel Angel Jimenez and Jose Maria Olazábal. Leonard had lost his morning battle, promoting Miller to exclaim, “My hunch is that Justin needs to go home and watch it on television." 

Unnecessarily harsh in the moment, yes, especially when Sutton and Leonard were able to halve the match.

"I think that I didn't say the right words about Leonard at Miracle at Brookline about he should be home watching it on TV," Miller said. "I meant really—I did say he should be home, but I meant the motel room. Even then I probably shouldn't have said that. 

"I want so much for the outcome that I'm hoping for that I actually get overwhelmed with what I want to see. Almost the kind of things you would say to your buddies if you were watching it on TV, you know? He just couldn't win a match."

It wasn't so much that specific match, but rather Justin's role in the Sunday comeback that insured the legacy of his harsh words.  But Johnny was only saying out loud that which were all thinking at the time.....

Today In Trump Bashing - Mike Bamberger is one of the grizzled veterans of the golf writing games, and when he sticks to golf he's one of my faves.  But you know I'm going to have issues with this effort:

The clampdown on immigration could have an outsize effect on your golf course

And what clampdown might that be?  We're almost halfway through Trump's first term, and those massive deportations remain an article of faith only in the fever swamps.

Rafael Barajas is the next president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, and the first Hispanic to fill that role. I mentioned to him that, in my

experience, if you see a course worker with a shovel, machete or hose in hand, chances are close to 100 percent that that person’s first language is Spanish. 

“Mmm, not that high,” the mustachioed president-elect said. “Maybe more like 80 percent.” Barajas was born in Mexico, left school (in Los Angeles) at 16 and began working full-time in golf. “I chose survival,” he said. He is now the superintendent of the Boca Grove Golf and Tennis Club in South Florida. His four educated and productive American children — one of whom is a Marine — are making America greater yet.

That's a heart-warming story, but Mike just can't help himself with the Trump bashing....  The problem of course predates Trump, either as POTUS or owner of golf courses, but that needlessly complicates our narrative.

It’s no wonder there are so many course workers with Jorge or Miguel in script on their heavy work shirts, so many middle-aged men in bandanas who wire home money on flip phones during their coffee breaks. There are at least 125,000 course workers in the United States tilling the soil on more than 14,000 18-hole courses. Green fees and club dues would be only more expensive without golf’s immigrant workforce. I spoke to about a dozen people working in course maintenance and construction on my way here and found nobody who thinks that the current U.S. government clampdown on immigration will be good for American golf. 

Nobody knows the number of course workers who are here illegally, including employees who have presented enough passable paperwork to get a stamp of approval from E-Verify.gov. Many of the immigrant workers, of course, are legal, but a good number are in the United States on H-2B visas, and those visas have a maximum shelf life of three years. Not a recipe for stability on either side of the management line.

This is really lazy journalism, Mike, but if we must..... In allowing millions of low-skilled immigrants into the country, we have necessarily depressed wages for the jobs for which they are qualified.  And yes, there are industries, farming would seem to be of far greater significance than golf course maintenance, but whatever...

But you know who else is affected, Mike?  How about low-skilled Americans?  Why do you so hate poor people, Mike?  They tell us that these are jobs Americans won't do, burying the big lie.  We only know, at most, that Americans won't do such work at the wages being offered, after they've distorted the market by flooding it with low-skilled workers....

Worse yet, Mike finishes by trolling his readership for story ides on this subject....  I guess journalism gets added to that list of jobs Americans won't do.

Fantasyland - The LPGA thought it had died and gone to heaven, with its recent trip to South Korea:

The best women in golf believe they deserve better. 

From prize money to endorsement deals and media coverage, they believe they are undervalued. 

That’s what makes back-to-back weeks in South Korea so exhilarating for players outside Korea. They are getting the red carpet treatment at the KEB Hana Bank Championship, after getting it at last week’s UL International Crown. The rest of the world can’t help but envy the passion Koreans bring to women’s golf. 

“When we show up here, they don’t just treat us like we are stars,” Pernilla Lindberg said. “They treat us like we are superstars.” 

Lindberg said she received royal treatment when she checked in for the KEB Hana Bank Championship at the Sky 72 Golf Club Ocean Course clubhouse. She knew every LPGA pro from the United States to England, Spain and South Korea was enjoying the same adulation. 

“You know that look people have when they see celebrities?” Lindberg said. “That’s the reaction we all get here in the clubhouse.” 

American Marina Alex arrived Sunday for the Hana Bank, stopping at the Dream Golf Range in Incheon, billed as the world’s largest circular range. Alex is just a month removed from winning her first LPGA title at the Cambia Portland Classic. She found herself surrounded by seven or eight Korean juniors and their parents.

It's maddening for them to live in the shadow of the men, and nice that there's one place on the planet where they are treated like royalty.  Just don't, you know, get too used to it....

The British Masters, A Case Study - Although it will prove to be more of a case study of bad journalism, of which we seem to have a bumper crop.  First, the bad news:

The formatting will be a little crude, as the format precludes the normal copy-and-paste.

This is a shame, as it's a venerable event with longstanding ties to the growth of the Euro Tour.  What's the issue?  Well, the equivalent of knee-jerk Trump bashing over there is...wait for it:

Who had Brexit in their office pool?  Notice the complete absence of any justification for the causality, not even the faintest sniff of the logic of the premise.  What's great, is that they're all over the fan support, but guess who isn't coming out in force:

Ya think?  I know it's a slow week, but why do they waste our time with such drivel....  

I'll take His Word For It - Hey kids, anyone remember Martin Kaymer?  No, that's OK, here's a tutorial:

Seven years ago, Martin Kaymer was ranked No. 1 in the world. He had won the 2010

PGA Championship, his first major title, a year prior. He would go on to add the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and the 2014 Players Championship to his collection of victories. 

But recently, Kaymer’s game has plummeted. He lost his PGA Tour card before last season and has just five top 10s in the last two years. In his past 10 worldwide starts, he has missed six cuts and only broken the top 40 once. 

As a result, he has slipped to No. 157 in the world and missed out on his first Ryder Cup team since 2008.

What brings him to mind?   This quote:

“As strange as it sounds, I am a better player right now than I was back in 2011 when I was No. 1 in the world,” Kaymer said. “My problem at the moment is that golf is a sport that is based on results and I have struggled a little bit to put every part of my game together for four consecutive rounds. I just have to continue doing what I am doing with my coach and things will fall into place again.”

He's of course absolutely spot on, in that I do find it strange.  I might have gone with delusional, but let's not quibble.  But thanks for stopping by, Martin.  Write if you get work....