It's a national day of mourning, as in a few hours they'll begin the process of punching our greens... OK, perhaps national was a bit of an exaggeration.....
Bryson In Full - Wow, I didn't see this coming, at least not this soon:
Who won: Bryson DeChambeau (five-under 66, 21 under overall)
Why it matters: DeChambeau, 25, has won three times in his last five starts (including
A familiar scene. three times in the last four months). He’s now 3 for 3 in converting 54-hole leads or co-leads. It’s his fifth PGA Tour victory.
How it happened: DeChambeau entered the day tied with Peter Uihlein at 16 under, but when DeChambeau reached the 9th green he was in a four-way tie at the top at 17 under. He went birdie-birdie on 9 and 10 to jump ahead, but Cantlay, last year’s Shriners champ, made birdies on 15 and 16 to get to 20 under and take the lead. That lasted until DeChambeau drained an eagle putt from 57 feet, 7 inches on 16, which followed a Cantlay bogey on 17. DeChambeau made pars on 17 and 18 to shoot 66, beating Cantlay, who birdied 18, by one.
Imagine how he'll dominate once he can leave the pin in? More on that in a bit....Admittedly, your humble golf blogger was more focused on the Saints-Rams game, thereby missing this fashion statement from Sam Ryder:
Let's hope that look doesn't become a thing...
John Strege with more of the patented technobabble that defines our Professor:
Bryson DeChambeau, as we have learned, is an original, wholly unlike anyone else in golf. All golfers are searching for answers, but DeChambeau does his searching in altogether different places.
He doesn’t just read greens, for instance. That would be insufficiently intellectual.“Well, I’ve tried about almost a dozen things to make the [putting] line look right over the past year,” he said during the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open here this week. “Because eyes are muscles, they change. Just like you feel good with your arms one day and feel bad with your arms the next day. Or your legs, or whatever it is.
“It’s just kind of the way it is. You eyes are muscles, and they change and adapt every single day in different lighting, so you just got to find out what works for you that week.”
That, for those who might not know, is an answer unlike any other, identifiably his own. The only surprise is that he did not use the medical term for the eye muscles, extraocular.
How did we blog before this kid came into the picture? But wait, there's more:
It was further affirmation, too, that he has learned how to close, rather than succumbing to the pressure, what he calls “feeling comfortable neurologically."
"I would say just on a general basis that it's something that I've derived in my brain," he said. "It's like I have this black space and it's just of my hands and arms and body and I see it and I just take it back and have this neurological sensation or input that I have for applying force to the club. There is a track to it. I see it and in that vision. Some people look and envision shots, do all that, but I just create it in my brain."
He does it his way, and whatever anything thinks of it, his way is undeniably proving to be rather formidable.
I totally get it, as I had quite the uncomfortable week, neurologically speaking....
It's been a while since we've had an amusing scorecard, but Si Woo Kim provides a classic of the genre. The South Korean got out of the gate quickly on moving day, though found himself disappointingly at even par after six holes. Here's the rather bizarre scorecard:
For those feeling neurologically challenged, that's five straight birdies followed by a quintuple-bogey. I know, I hate when that happens....
It's even funnier visually, as the train wreck begins with a wayward drive into the agua:
But you'll agree that the sequence from the third to the sixth shot demands explication:
It doesn't shed much light, does it, but Nos. 4 and 5 couldn't have been pretty....
Turkish Delight - The reviews are in.... Golfweek gives it one star:
Justin Rose wins ugly in Turkey, returns to World No. 1
Golf Digest concurs:
The finish wasn't pretty, but Justin Rose defends his title at the Turkish Airlines Open and returns to World No. 1
Here's the skinny on that unsightly finish:
Which sounds pretty good only until a wee bit more detailed look at the leader boardreveals Rose reached 19 under par after 70 holes. And that both men were 18 under on the 72nd tee. In other words, Rose, the defending champion and needing a win to get back to World No. 1, finished bogey-bogey; Li contented himself with a dropped shot at the last, taking four shots to get down from just under 150 yards. Pretty this was not.And it got worse.
After watching Rose two-putt for par from roughly 25 feet on their second visit to the 18th green, Li settled down over his 12-footer for birdie and what would have been his third European Tour victory. Would have been. Never online, the ball missed low and left and, not insignificantly as things turned out, ran maybe a yard past. The second putt was … how to put this … awful. Really awful, the ball missing the cup by maybe an inch on the right.
Ironic, no? Rose is to me the most consistent player of his generation, yet he seems to now be specializing in winning ugly. We'll need a forensic audit to determine whethe rthis was a sugly as that FedEx Cup finish...
The Euro Beat - Lots of news from the other side of the pond, most notably about about the 2022 Ryder Cup. Word on the piazza is that they're scheming up a notable venue for the opening ceremonies:
Inevitably, attention turned to the Ryder Cup, a subject never far from any European Tour official’s mind. The recent event in Paris was, according to Pelley, a resounding success quite apart from the Old World’s emphatic victory. And he was at pains to underline thefact that recent rumors regarding the sustainability of the 2022 match Italy are just that—rumors. OK, the course being built at the Marco Simone Country Club near Rome is behind schedule, but nothing has changed, and the event will not be going to Ireland or The Belfry or anywhere else.
“I’ve said along, the 2022 Ryder Cup is going to Italy,” Pelley said. “Our design team is there on a weekly basis. Construction is underway. People talk about problems, but they are nothing but speculation. We have had discussions about the opening ceremony being held in the Colosseum. Serious conversations with Italian decision makers and officials. It’s going to be spectacular.”
Hmmm.... that sounds quite epic, yanno, in a Are You Not Entertained? kinda way.... But Shack had this photo with his post, making me wonder where folks will sit:
Perhaps they'll have to, at least, keep the ceremony mercifully short....
From day one there have been concerns about Rome, though of course not pertaining to the Eternal City itself. It's that the golf course itself isn't much to speak of, and Shack gets a firsthand report from a reader:
Played it at €90 for the day. Terrible course on an awkward piece of land (hilly) with a clay - read mud - soil base. A real stretch to see a RC here. Kicker is apparently - according to the member I played with - that the massive overhead power lines which blot the landscape are to be relayed underground - a project in itself. I’m no expert, but with less than 4 years to “balls in the air” it seems a real stretch to imagine the event there - unlike other Euro venues which had been there for years and needed a bit of tweaking. Basically a total reconstruction is required - incl the clubhouse IMHO, but is there time ?
I'll admit, the massive overhead power lines are new to me.... So, why are we going there? For the most basic reason of all, the check cleared.
But this isn't even the most pressing concern for Mr. Pelley, he of the rainbow coalition of glasses frames. He had the misfortune to add an event for 2019 in, wait for it, Saudi Arabia:
ANTALYA, Turkey — It wasn’t the most formal session of his administrative career. Nor was it, at least initially, the most comfortable. But seated amidst a small group ofjournalists in the media center at the Turkish Airlines Open, European Tour chief executive director Keith Pelley opened himself up to a generally friendly interrogation.“I’m happy to answer questions on any topic,” he said. “But I want to start with Saudi Arabia.”
And why not? Further to the recent murder of journalist Jamal Khasoggi inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish capital of Istanbul, the European Tour has been under pressure to justify the continued presence of the inaugural Saudi International tournament on the 2019 Race to Dubai schedule.“Like many global companies we monitor situations like this,” Pelley said. “So we have looked at the viability of the golf tournament. I can simply say that the Saudi International is on our schedule for 2019. I really have nothing more to add than that. The Middle East is very important to the European Tour.”
Indeed, as many as five other Middle East events—the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the Dubai Desert Classic, the Oman Open, the Qatar Masters and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship—are all slated to join the Saudi event on next season’s 50-strong tournament roster. Two, Abu Dhabi and the DP World, are Rolex Series tournaments worth a minimum of $7 million each. So Pelley was not under-selling the region’s value to the tour.
Note the perfect match of blue frames with his ensemble.... Credit must be paid.
Awkward for sure, and let's not lose sight of the fact that he was giving this presser in, of all places, Turkey. But of course the Saudis have been exporting their virulent Wahhabi brand of Islam for decades, including the stoning of gays and honor killings. But suddenly they're bad guys, because they killed an advocate of the competition, that being the Muslim Brotherhood? It's a strange world indeed....
Q-School Blues - Beth Ann Baldry has a rant on the just-completed LPGA Q-School that I don't fully understand:
The LPGA threw down a sledgehammer on college golf with the inception of its new Q-Series. Seven of the eight amateurs who qualified for the eight-round event earned full status for 2019. Six college hotshots and one junior.
It’s an unprecedented number.
Two of those players – 2018 NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho of Wake Forest and Maria Fassi of Arkansas – say they will defer status until after the NCAA Championship next May.
They will prove to be exceptions to this rule going forward, with the vast majority of players likely to skip the spring semester to take advantage of every playing opportunity that becomes available their rookie season. With Arkansas hosting the 2019 NCAA Championship, Fassi wants to bring home the program’s first national title in Fayetteville.
I certainly understand her overriding point, which is that the timing thereof will push the girls to turn professional earlier, thereby robbing collegiate and amateur golf of its marquee names. This is a movie we've seen repeatedly in the men's game, so we're a sympathetic audience.
That deferral option I had thought provided the needed flexibility, but I'll defer to Beth Ann, who covers this beat exhaustively.
Meanwhile, Q-School provided on of the more bizarre rules issues in recent times:
A former NCAA champion was disqualified from the LPGA’s qualifying event after hitting a ball that had been moved by an outside agency from out of bounds back intoplay.
The outside agency?
Her mother, according to two reports.
The ball in question belonged to Doris Chen, whose drive on the 17th hole of Pinehurst No. 7 in the seventh round of the LPGA’s Q-Series came to rest beyond the O.B. stakes.
The LPGA said in a statement: “An outside agency moved her ball back in bounds. Ms. Chen and her caddie were made aware that the ball had been moved. Doris elected to play the ball, which was a wrong ball by definition, from its altered lie.”
What in God's name was she thinking? Yes, it's unclear what exactly she was told, but you always call for the rules official to inoculate yourself from the ramifications. Amusingly, though perhaps that's not exactly the right word, it seems that Mom might have lied to her:
UPDATE: Chen told Golf Digest on Sunday morning that she did know that someone had kicked her ball from its original position but that she did not know that the ball had been moved from out of bounds to in bounds. She believed she could play her second shot as it laid without penalty.
Regarding the allegation that her mother moved the ball, Chen said, “She told me that she didn’t and she doesn’t know. And if she did, it may be by accident and she wasn’t aware.
“I was not trying to cheat and I am not a cheater.”
Noted, but still.... Gotta be an awkward Thanksgiving dinner, no?
The Tour Confidential panel took this one on as well:
3. Doris Chen, the 2014 NCAA champion at USC, was penalized and eventually disqualified from the LPGA’s Q-Series when she hit a ball that was previously moved by an outside agency from out of bounds back into play. Chen and her caddie were told the ball had been moved, but they played it anyway, which led to a penalty. But because Chen didn’t penalize herself before teeing off on the next hole she was disqualified for a breach of Rule 15-3b. Making this story all the more bizarre are the reports of who moved Chen’s ball: her mother. Where does this episode rank in the pantheon of crazy rules episodes? And should Chen face more repercussions beyond just the DQ?
Dethier: What makes it particularly bizarre is that it was in the midst of golf’s most bizarre tournament in recent history: the 144-hole LPGA Q-Series. That’s a hell of a pressure cooker, and it sounds like desperation got the better of Team Chen. I think it will be hard to get beyond “he-said, she-said.” But the idea of a dialed-in neighbor defending the Rules of Golf is particularly delicious. Mike Davis should award this onlooker with some sort of service award.
Irony Alert: This random neighbor did a better job of protecting the field than many of our elite professional players... And yes, JT, I am talking about you.
Cry Me A River - Golf Digest has rolled out a series that call Golf, Interrupted, and...well, let's let them explain it's objectives:
Editor's Note: This is the second story in our "Golf Interrupted" series exploring the unique challenges of the modern golfer. In our first story, Tadd Fujikawa opened up about his decision to come out as the first openly gay professional male golfer. If you have a story that you think is right for "Golf Interrupted," send us a note and your contact info to golfinterrupted@golfdigest.com.
Fair enough, though this offering seems not of a kind with the Tad story:
THERE'S A CLASS DIVIDE IN JUNIOR GOLF, AND WE'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF IT
Yeah, you know I'm unlikely to enjoy the pity party:
But golf gets more complicated as your kid progresses. And if they really want to get better, it can get expensive in a hurry. We saw it in those early junior tournaments, the next level up when the kids not only had their own clubs, but sometimes their ownmental coach or short game teacher. Full entourages sometimes! You occasionally would see kids show up toting their own TrackMan worth upward of $25,000. I remember one time standing next to a mother who lamented a small fix that her daughter needed to make to her swing. “I could tell her what’s wrong, but she won’t listen to me,” the mother said. “I’ll have to pay her coach a couple of hundred bucks to tell her.”
Hannah knows better. We invested in some clubs and started taking her to different tournaments, but it became apparent we couldn’t afford for her to compete without an ACE Grant from the American Junior Golf Association that covers much of her travel expenses. But even then, the grant only covers the player and not the parent accompanying her. And we’re still left with choices to make. There are tournaments still out of our range that we’re forced to skip. When it’s time to practice, it’s usually just a couple of buckets at the local range. Other kids are custom-fit for clubs every year or so. That’s not in our budget. All in, we probably spent a couple of grand on Hannah’s golf last year, but some of her contemporaries—for travel, fittings, full-time golf academies—are spending north of six figures.
I get that it's frustrating that others have more to invest, but if this class divide is insurmountable, how come the story of Hannah has a happy ending:
Now she’s back at the level she once was and recently made a verbal commitment to a great Division I school. The other night she came into my room to read me a text she was sending to a friend who was struggling with her golf game. Hannah’s reply was full of encouragement. She told me it wouldn’t be possible if she hadn’t been through the same type of struggle.
I suppose that’s one great advantage people like us can provide our kids. What we deprive them in terms of private lessons, custom-shafts and mental gurus, we make up for by providing them a foundation in how to work and to never taking anything for granted. They might find themselves lagging behind the competition because of the lack of resources, but for that reason, I like to think they end up being the most resourceful kids of all.
I'm having trouble seeing the problem..... Especially since there were grants available to help her, and she'll no doubt be on scholarship at her Division I school.... Is this a great country or what?
Pinning Our Hopes On.... - OK, I promised more for the pinheads in our readership... First, that TC panel leads with this all-consuming issue:
1. Bryson DeChambeau, who won for the third time in his last five starts on Sunday in Las Vegas, told GOLF.com he’s going to putt with the pin in when the Rules of Golf allow for the change beginning in 2019. “It depends on the COR, the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick,” he said. “In U.S. Opens, I’ll take it out, and every other Tour event, when it’s fiberglass, I’ll leave it in and bounce that ball against the flagstick if I need to.” Will this technique actually benefit his game? And do you see many other pros following suit?
Josh Sens: So, it’s come to this: we are discussing the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick. I assume he’s done his research, and even if it happens to be ill-founded, as long as HE believes it is helping, I suspect it will.
Luke Kerr-Dineen: Bryson will probably be disappointed in my lack of academic notations, but I do think there’s some solid science floating around supporting his conclusion. Leaving the flagstick in the hole effectively has a back-stopping effect. If the ball’s traveling toward the hole at speed, it’ll either clang into the stick and drop in or bounce a few inches away. The flagstick absorbs the brunt of the force; when it’s not there, a fast-moving ball just sort of flies over the hole and keeps rolling. So, yes, it helps around the margins — slightly. But not enough for most people to notice or care.
It perhaps helps on a certain type of putt, as well as in certain circumstances (such as when a two-putt is good enough). But I don't intuitively see how it makes the hole wider.
They also had this:
2. DeChambeau said he thinks the governing bodies will regret the new flagstick rule — which was created to speed up pace of play — because it will, in effect, make putting easier. “The USGA’s gonna have to go back on that one,” he said. “Like, ‘No! We made the hole bigger!'” Do you think the rulesmakers will want to have this one back?
Sens: What’s most interesting to me is how it runs counter to conventional thinking — how many times have we seen pros have their caddies pull the flagstick when they’re trying to hole a chip? You would think the same would apply on a putt. As for repealing, if it really does prove to give undo advantage, it could be repealed easily enough. But these rules aren’t just for pros. And if it is going to quicken the pace of play for all golfers, then I would say that it stays. And I’d be disappointed if it didn’t.Kerr-Dineen: If the anchor ban provides the precedent, we can deduce that golf’s rules are decided — at least in part — by how the powers that be want the game to look. It’s not something that’s specific to golf. The NFL is a classic example of legislating the game in a way that makes it more marketable. If the bosses upstairs see Bryson putting with the flagstick in and don’t love the look of it, don’t be surprised to see them “revisit” this rule.
I do think this subject is inducing some category errors, as one early account included the precedent of Bones tending the pin for Phil on a wedge shot into the 18th at Torrey Pines. Obviously that kind of shot comes in with a whole bunch of spin, not that I'm sure of the distinction, but I just know it's a very different thing.
Amusingly, The Forecaddies gives us the skinny on Tour standard flagsticks:
The PGA Tour’s stock flagstick is 7 ½ to 8 feet in height, though The Forecaddie’s friends on the Tour rules staff say that 7 ½ feet will be the standard height within a few years. All flagsticks at PGA Tour-operated events are half an inch in diameter along the length of the pole and should have a slotted ferrule at the bottom to help reduce sticking when removing the flagstick from the cup.
While no manufacturer is the Tour’s official supplier, the most regularly used flagsticks each week are by Par Aide, longtime maker of many golf course products which has patented its ferrule design.
So if you’re DeChambeau or Dave Pelz or some other pro golfer looking to conduct coefficient of restitution tests on fiberglass flagsticks before 2019’s rules allow for them to be left in the hole, here is the place to request a quote. TMOF eagerly awaits to see how all the flagstick fun plays out.
That's not especially helpful without the coefficient of restitution....
I had thought the Tour would go the local rule route, which the Forecaddie also notes as a possibility, and Shack also notes this additional concern:
I certainly can see where the sight of some players wanting the flag tended and others leaving it in could turn greens into a weird game of Twister as caddies navigate through lines and wait to hear from the player if they want the stick in or out.
Gives us a reason to watch Kapalua....
I think that's enough for one day.... Catch you tomorrow?
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