Tuesday Tastings

Just when you thought we might have finished dissecting that Ryder Cup rout....

Must Reed of the Day - John Feinstein pulls no punches in his assessment of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, using the 2016 installment as his prism:

When the United States hammered Europe 17-11 in the 2016 Ryder Cup matches at Hazeltine Golf Club, the European team had nothing but good things to say about the Americans. 

“I went home and watched a replay on television,” Rory McIlroy said later. “As I watched I realized they did to us what we had done to them over the years: they made every clutch putt. They deserved to win. They were better than us that weekend.” 

On Sunday night, when the matches were over, the Europeans trooped into the American team room to toast their victory and to thank them for being hospitable hosts. There were warm speeches and handshakes and hugs all around. 

Then the Euros returned to their own team room and presented a poster signed by all of them to Darren Clarke, their captain, as thanks for all the work he’d done to try to help them win. They then serenaded him with the “Ole,” song as a fond farewell to his captaincy.

I'm with you so far, John.  What else you got?

During my research for, “The First Major,” my book on the 2016 Ryder Cup, I asked Mickelson a few weeks after it was over about a comment Justin Rose had made about

how easy the course setup had been at Hazeltine—particularly on Sunday. 

Rose made it clear that the setup wasn’t the reason the U.S. had won, but said, “you would think with 24 of the world’s best golfers out there, they would want to challenge us at least a little bit.” 

Mickelson shot 63 on Sunday—as did his singles opponent Sergio Garcia, in a match that was halved. 

When I asked Mickelson about Rose’s comment, he practically shouted the answer: “It’s called home course advantage!” he said. “We’re better putters than they are so why shouldn’t we set the golf course up to give our guys a lot of birdie chance? My answer to that would be, ‘Deal with it boys.’"

That Phil really packs a punch.  But he's spot on, as we all know that that's why it's so difficult to win a road game....  Any guess where John is heading with this?

And then Phil Mickelson—as always—opened his mouth. After going out of his way to praise Furyk in the post-match press conference, Mickelson decided to put down the golf course setup at Le Golf National. 

The fairways were too narrow to hold tee shots hit more than 300 yards, he said. The rough was "virtually unplayable," he added and said he wouldn’t waste his time in future playing on golf courses with this sort of setup.

But Phil, you had your damn pods.  I don't remember anything in that 2014 presser about fairway width....

And just to show the longstanding pattern of his nonsense, John goes to the Wabac machine:

In non-Ryder Cup events, Mickelson has been a gracious loser for almost his entire career. But losing the Ryder Cup seems to bring out the worst in him. In 2004, when he and Woods lost twice while paired together by captain Hal Sutton, he blamed the loss on not having enough time to prepare for playing with Woods’s golf ball in alternate shot. That didn’t explain, of course, their loss in better ball. Twelve years later, he threw Sutton under the bus at a Hazeltine press conference, using that pairing as an example of a captain not giving players enough time to ‘prepare,’ for playing together.

Nailed it, even though John elides another count of the indictment, which is that Phil changed equipment that very week, from Ttileist to Callaway, which I'm sure was somehow also Hal Sutton's fault.

Although I think John drop-kicked this conclusion:

There’s no shame in losing the Ryder Cup. After Hazeltine, McIlroy commented that he hated losing, but still loved the week because he loved the camaraderie of the Ryder Cup—on both sides. Garcia said virtually the same thing. 

If you look closely at what the Task Force did after the 2014 matches it really came down to this: It recommended copying everything Europe had been doing for years in terms of selecting captains and vice-captains and took the selection of the captain out of the hands of the PGA President and put it into the hands of the players. 

All good. 

Now, the Americans need to copy Europe one more time and learn how to lose with grace, dignity and class. Being bad losers is the one aspect of the Ryder Cup the Americans seem—sadly—to have mastered.

The point of the shiv and Task Force was less about putting control into the hands of "The Players", than about putting control into the hands of certain players.  A very different thing...

Reed If You Must - Eammon Lynch with this dubious proposition:

19th hole: Patrick Reed will save the PGA Tour - seriously

Egads, here I am this famous golf blogger, and I didn't even know that the PGA Tour needed saving.... But guess whose fault it really is?

Reed’s reputation as a Purple Heart pro took a hit in the aftermath of his lousy Ryder Cup performance, during which he mutinied on his commanding officer, Captain James

Michael Furyk, and shoved two fellow privates (Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods) into the path of shrapnel intended for him. 

The blame shifting was entirely on brand. Earlier this year the Masters champion made two imprudent public comments about his longtime Team USA wingman Spieth, suggesting that his back ached from carrying the Golden Child and that Spieth gets unduly favorable rulings from officials. 

He became the perfect Captain America for the Trump era, bellyaching about shouldering imaginary burdens and thwarting the deep state running the PGA Tour’s rules department.

Really?  Cause I'm pretty sure that Patrick reed bona fides as an a*****e predate the Trump presidency....

Some other amusing bits as well:

His ill-judged Ryder Cup defense was joined by his wife and mother-in-law, who displayed admirable enthusiasm for the keyboard combat of social media. At least Amy and Mary Mickelson stayed above the fray when Phil publicly blamed his captain four years ago.

On the one hand, that's amusing and the snark directed at Justine is appropriate.  But I think we should acknowledge that Phil hid behind Amy's skirt after his U.S. Open kerfuffle, which may actually be worse....

I asked another famously feisty competitor what he makes of Reed. “I’ve always viewed him as sincere. I like the way he handles himself on the course,” Paul Azinger said. Then he added wryly, “I will say it’s not uncommon for players not to like each other on Ryder Cup teams. But they almost always like each other more after.”

Until now.

This is Eammon's conclusion, with which I mostly agree:

Sports fans love to hate, and in golf they finally have their man. They know the day will come when Reed is paired with the teammates he publicly alienated. And we all know he’ll shush any suggestion that the pairing could be as discomfiting for him as for them. 

For all his many failings, we can at least appreciate what Reed brings to a Tour that has too often relied on a menu devoid of spice. 

“His new nickname is ‘Table for One’,” a Tour veteran texted me last week. It might still be a more entertaining table than one featuring some of his peers.

I actually go further and have noted that this dynamic will be used by Patrick and his posse for motivation.  But future team events will be deliciously awkward, and it won't be much fun out there if he plays like he has after the Masters.

Geoff on JT -  Our Shack has a slightly unhinged reaction to JT's alleged dissing of his heroes, which I'll excerpt in full:

I’m not normally one to say today’s players owe eternal loyalty to Tiger Woods or Phil

Mickelson for the purses they play for. Even though Tiger and Phil have pledged allegiance to Arnold Palmer for the chance to profit off of golf when as a case could be made that Walter Hagen and Old Tom Morris put up with a lot more nonsense to make pro golf cool. 

Either way, point is, anyone playing for $7 million a week who couldn’t draw a gallery of 200 on his own, should probably show some respect for his elders who have broader appeal. 

Which brings us to Justin Thomas, incidentally represented by Tiger’s firm.

Brentley Romine with the cringeworthy Twitter reply about watching The Match between Woods and Mickelson.

Cringeworthy?  I might have chuckled, but I sensed no cringe....

I really don't get Geoff's point.  There's been no lack of reverence for Tiger from the kids, but this is an off-campus exhibition, and we can't really evaluate JT's priorities without knowing when Alabama plays that weekend.

But you know who else is kinda, sorta dissing Tiger?  This guy, though we should all be thankful that he was able to do so with his shirt on:

Tiger Woods closed his season with a win at the Tour Championship, but Greg Norman hopes that Woods’s return to prominence doesn’t overshadow the Tour’s new wave of young stars.

“I hope they don’t put all their eggs in one basket again and just be all Tiger, and forget about all this other wonderful, fantastic talent,” Norman said. “I’d hate to see them get lost again in that Tiger talk.”

I guess there's a penumbra of a point there, but it's mostly incoherent. It assumes that some nebulous "They" controls public reaction, whereas I believe, as the wise man says, it is what it is.

Here he makes a stronger point, though failing to read the fine print:

While many are quick to cite Tiger’s return as the catalyst for this year’s spike in golf’s TV ratings, Norman credits it to more than just Woods. 

“TV ratings are up because of what Tiger Woods does to every other player,” he said. “It’s not just about the one player, it’s about all the supporting cast who are equal if not better than him. He’s just pulling them along.”

Yeah, I don't buy it either... These guys were already pretty damn good when Tiger had his back fused, and the argument that his comeback made them better is pretty thin.

But you might be amused with this photo from the celebration after Tiger's Tour Championship win, whereby some of the kids made the stronger argument that causality runs in the opposite direction:

I think they have the far stronger case....

Nothing To See Here... - Alex Myers spends some time sorting through the data from the newest bomber on tour, Cameron Champ:

When it comes to average clubhead speed and ball speed, Champ was easily No. 1 at

129.66 mph and 192.67 mph. Fellow bomber Brandon Hagy, who sat out most of last season with a wrist injury, was second at 125.14 and 186.32. And winner Kevin Tway showed he can really move it off the tee as well, finishing seventh and eighth in the two metrics. 

To put these numbers in better perspective, Keith Mitchell led the PGA Tour in average clubhead speed last season at 124.67 and no one else was above 123. Trey Mullinax led the tour in ball speed last season at 182.22, followed by Tony Finau (181.81) and Rory McIlroy (181.57). Simple math tells us that Champ's Safeway Open average numbers were five and TEN mph faster in those two categories. Remarkable.

He really sends it, as the kids like to say.

Champ only hit 50 percent of his fairways (88th in the field), but still led the field in strokes gained: off-the-tee. In other words, Cameron Champ's driver might be the most effective — and fun to watch — weapon on the PGA Tour this season.

It works at most of the places they play, though he'll be completely unsuitable for road game Ryder Cups....

I Saw It On TV -  Martin Kauffmann with an item that should be mandatory viewing for every member of the CBS crew:

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you perhaps recall that one of my least favorite days of the golf season is the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 

That should be a great day for golf fans. The venue is iconic and usually attracts a decent field. CBS, however, long ago decided that the third round would be the day that it focuses on the celebrities rather than the pros. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of Bill Murray, along with a procession of B-list celebrities who stop for sit-down interviews during the round and watch as Peter Kostis breaks down video of their swings. (It doesn’t hurt that many of these celebrities appear in CBS shows, promoting synergies between the sports and entertainment divisions.) 

All of this tends to leave me in a foul mood. During the third round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, friends and relatives know not to call me. Even the cats know not to come out from under the bed.

What does he mean by one of?  It is the most painful day in golf on TV, right down to easy chairs and couches by the 17th tee at Pebble.

 Here's just a sample of the type of banter possible with the right commentators:

Later, during a discussion of the Old Course’s history, Donnelly noted that the links originally was 22 holes, and later was cut to 18. That led Donnelly to rhapsodize about one of those 19th-century anomalies golfers still can enjoy – 12-hole Shiskine Golf Club on the Isle of Arran. 

“It’s just the most wonderful golf course – one of my very favorites anywhere in the world,” Donnelly said. “The 12-holer at Shiskine is beautiful.” 

Shiskine has been on my to-do list for a few years, and after hearing Donnelly, I suspect many viewers have added it to their wish lists for their next visits to Scotland.

It just went on mine. And it should work well, since The Machrie on Islay is already on my list....

I'll leave you there as I need to get on the road to Long Island, for a Met. Golf Writers outing at Fresh Meadow.