It's A Wrap

We shan't be wrapping just the weekend, but rather the entire year....  I do appreciate the time off last week, as the batteries needed topping up.  We'll ease slowly into 2019 as the lads head to Maui to kick off the year.

Checking In On The Birthday Boy -  Today a certain resident of Jupiter, FL turns 43, with not a single gray hair to be found.  OK, that was unnecessarily hurtful, as there's not an actual hair to be seen of any hue, but still....

ESPN is airing it's new paean, Tiger Woods: Return of The Roar tonight to celebrate, and Shack has air times and the trailer for those interested.  I find myself burned out on the Tiger comeback nostalgia, though that may well be a result of his horrible play in Paris and Vegas.

For those interested, Golf.com has this review, in which it's apparent they spared no journalistic effort:

Even Tiger’s favorite putter — the Scotty Cameron blade he wielded while winning 13 of his 14 majors, only to banish it when he it betrayed him — gets its 15 minutes, replete with a gauzy voice-over from Van Pelt describing the club’s return to Tiger’s bag.

Appointment TV, for sure.... 

I find myself drawn instead to two other stories, first this from luggage handler Joe LaCava:

Woods on the sidelines meant for several years, LaCava had a light schedule. He caddied just 19 times over a four-year span. During Woods’s down times, LaCava would go visit Woods at his Florida home for support. 

“He had no quality of life. Couldn’t hang out with his kids, kick the soccer ball around, stuff like that,” LaCava said. “That hurt me inside. I came down to Florida and hung out with him — sometimes he didn’t even practice, just to hang out and have a friend, sitting there and going through the pain with him.” 

Woods told LaCava that he was free to find another bag. “He basically said to me, look, if you wanna go find another guy to work for, I’m okay with that,” LaCava said. But, in one of the documentary’s most poignant moments, he explained that the decision to wait was obvious. 

“If I could live another hundred years, I’d wait another hundred years,” he said. “I was never not going to work for Tiger as long as he was going to have me. I just wanted to work for him and no one else. And I think that helped a little bit, knowing that he had a friend that thought that much of him, as a person and with his game.”

Good on him, though I suspect he was well-compensated for the opportunity cost.  Although, as I recall things, Tiger was similarly OK with Stevie looping for Adam Scott, until he wasn't....

I'm far more interested in this Dylan Dethier offering, which isn't in the slightest being oversold:

‘Time to do something really significant’: How Tiger Woods’s newest design venture could change the game 

What, it's not gonna solve global warming?  really then, what's the point?

Dylan does frame the piece beautifully, I'll grant you:

In 1993, a talented young golfer gave a clinic in front of a devoted crowd at Jackson Park, a municipal course on Chicago’s South Side. More than a quarter-century later, that

Tiger and Earl in that 1993 visit.

golfer is back at Jackson Park — and Tiger Woods is looking to make a lasting impression. 

Woods is lead architect on the proposed renovation of 18-hole Jackson Park and nine-hole South Shore, two historic, beloved munis that sit at the western edge of Lake Michigan. Under the plans laid out by TGR Design (Woods’s design firm) the two courses would combine into a 7,341-yard 18-hole championship track.

And this from a 2016 visit:

“He was just mesmerized. I could see it in his eyes; he kept looking out at the Chicago skyline and saying ‘Wow — there’s just no other city in the country where you could do this.’ We drove around the site for a while, and I actually almost killed him crossing Jeffery Blvd., where you’re always having to dodge cars. That wasn’t ideal but it was also perfect because he could see that this was a project that really needed some work. 

“We stopped a few times and just talked big picture, and one of those stops he said this line that really stuck with me: ‘Where are the kids?’ Here it was, a beautiful August afternoon, school was out, and there were no kids playing.”

Fair enough, Dylan, though I've got no shortage of reservations.  But in the interest of full disclosure, let me also share this bit that's cause for optimism:

The community-focused nature of the project seemed to hook Woods. It hooked another

important business partner, too: Mike Keiser. Among golf course developers, Keiser cuts a unique profile: he made his fortune selling recycled paper greeting cards, he’s passionate about speed golf and he now spends much of his time thinking of creative pricing models for golf courses. Keiser’s beloved developments, generally marked by breathtaking scenic beauty and minimalist amenities, include Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia and Sand Valley in Wisconsin. But he has a sweet spot for Chicago municipal golf, too. 

“Jackson Park was my favorite place to bring our youngest son,” said Keiser, who raised his kids in Chicago. “He didn’t want to drive all the way to the suburbs, but if we could whisk down to Jackson Park from Lincoln Park in 15 minutes, he was all in.”

No, Dylan, the only thing at Bandon that's minimalist is the architecture....  It's true that Keiser's resorts aren't opulent, but the he doesn't exactly give it away....

Regular readers will remember that I'm extremely skeptical about this project.  It's not a day for long rants, but it feels like a celebrity vanity project being sold as "For the children."  The Tour Confidential panel was convened the last Sunday of the year, and asked to assess this project:

Our Dylan Dethier went deep on Tiger Woods’s design venture at Jackson Park, a municipal course on Chicago’s South Side. It will be $50 for locals, kids 17 and under will play free and those behind it are one day hoping to host a BMW Championship and President’s Cup. This project represents Woods’s first foray into affordable public-access golf. Was it overdue? And what kind of impact could Tiger have on the game if he attached his name (and influence) to more of these types of courses?

The encouraging aspect of Tiger's nascent architectural career has been his focus on playability and short course, for which he is to be commended.  That said, if this is really for the children, then why does it need to be 7,400 yards and why does it need to take 9 holes away from said children?

Bamberger: Overdue or not, I’m glad it’s here. It sounds really good. It sounds like a step into the direction I had always hoped Woods would go, bringing golf to the masses, as Arnold did before him. 

Zak: Of course it’s overdue, but I don’t want to put that on Tiger. I’d rather put that on other stewards in the game north of 43 years old. Clearly, he’s got as much juice as he’s ever had since the scandal. It’s also clear he plans to use it. I played the Jackson Park portion of Tiger’s course in August. It’s ready … and waiting … to be taken over. Sooner the better.

Shippy begs to differ:

Shipnuck: It’s totally fair — he found time for ridiculous cash grab projects in the desert of Dubai, a gated-community in Mexico, etc. The so-called Tiger Effect — bringing more people of color to the game and the Tour — hasn’t exactly panned out. Just being Tiger on TV isn’t enough to change things; he needs to be at the grassroots level, affecting change. This Chicago project is a fantastic first step and hopefully a template for Tiger’s future in growing the game.

To me it's quite obvious that this big-boy golf course will have maintenance requirements far beyond what a $50 greens fee for locals can sustain, so what's going on here?  Is it that they've been able to raise sufficient private resources from Obama's Rolodex to cover these shortfalls?  If so, that's not a model one can replicate, so at best we're looking at a one-off....  And one-offs don't change the game.

But the history of such projects makes one inevitably skeptical...  at least it renders your humble blogger skeptical.  I've already gone longer on this than intended, so we'll see how it evolves.... 

Golfers Behaving Badly - Strange days in the golf world, as this story broke on the heels of architect Keith Foster's guilty plea for smuggling goods related to endangered species:

Indian pro golf star Jyoti Singh Randhawa has been arrested and jailed on charges of illegal hunting at a tiger reserve. 

Randhawa, 46, was a top-100 golfer in the world as recently as 2009. On Wednesday, he was traveling with his caddie, Mahesh Virajdar, through the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in an Isuzu pickup truck that was pulled over for suspicious activity. Forest officials, range staff and officials from the Special Tiger Protection Force searched the vehicle. 

They seized a dead bird, the skin of a boar, a .22 rifle, binoculars, three empty cartridges, 80 live cartridges, magazine, rangefinder, two mobile searchlight torches, and 36,600 rupee (just over $500) in cash, according to Zee News. An official also alleged that Randhawa appeared to be inebriated.

Are you allowed to use a distance measuring device in a tiger reserve?  Not sure where the R&A comes down on that one....

 This will not be one of my more memorable segues, but it feels like a good fit for that first item:

But administrators in Michigan are looking to make a difference here. 

The Detroit Free Press reports that the golf committee of the Michigan High School Athletic Association has made a recommendation in light of concern over high school golfers posting inaccurate scores. 

And that recommendation will be in play soon in Michigan high school golf.

Inaccurate?  But I had been reliably informed that golf was a game for gentlemen.... 

This I suspect will prove to be quite amusing, because a bunch of adults will use technology, in the form of a cellphone app, to try to stop teenagers from cheating.  Yeah, that's the ticket.... 

Upon Further Review... -  Golf.com, like every other media site on Earth, is recycling its top pieces from the year.  This one might be worth your time, given how differently it reads after September in Paris:

Inside the day (and press conference) that changed the U.S. Ryder Cup team forever

You gotta admit, I nailed this one pretty well.  Even at the time, the triumphalism evinced in the wake of the U.S. victory in 2016 seemed...well, at best, premature.

But after the desultory loss and the amusing assignment of blame, it seems quite pathetic.   Repeat after me, Phil, it isn't about pods, it's about twelve players.  Has Tom Watson received your apology note yest?

One last amusing note on that Ryder Cup....  I don't recommend this, but opposing Captain Thomas Bjorn got cheeky where the sun don't shine:

I don't think he expects to be dating any American women....

Bottom Story of the Day - This might be my favorite story today:

Rory Sabbatini was born in South Africa and represented the country in the World Cup

five times—winning it with partner Trevor Immelman in 2003—as well as on the

International team at the Presidents Cup in 2007. But in 2019, his official home on the PGA Tour will be listed as Slovakia after the 42-year-old became an official citizen of the European country earlier this month. 

Sabbatini, a six-time winner on tour during his 21-year career, is married to Martina Stofanikova, his second wife, who is from Slovakia. 

By taking Slovak citizenship, Sabbatini could represent the country in competitions, including the 2020 Olympics. According to an AP report, the Slovak Golf Association is sending proof of Sabbatini’s citizenship to the International Golf Federation to make the process official.

Now you might attribute this to ambition or a frantic desire of an aging athlete to maintain relevance, but, wait for it, it turns out that he's doing it for the children:

Beyond playing in the Olympics, Sabbatini believes he can help grow the game in his new home. 

“I believe that I will be successful for Slovak golf and will be a source of inspiration for Slovak youth,” Sabbatini said at the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York. 

Sabbatini instantly becomes the first Slovak to play on the PGA Tour. He is currently 143rd on the FedEx Cup points list and is likely to play his first PGA Tour event for his new country at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

That sound you hear is South Africa gratefully slamming the door on his butt.

Hope Springs Eternal -  News broke that our prayers have been answered:

It looks like The Match will return in 2019. And probably 2020. 

Bank on it. 

Were the subscription numbers for golf's first pay-per-view program that good? Neither Turner nor its parent WarnerMedia have released official figures, but knowledgeable sources told Golf World that the $9 million showdown between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on Nov. 23 in Las Vegas drew nearly one million customers who paid the $19.95 fee.

Who paid and then were refunded the $19.99, that is.... 

That doesn't mean we'll see a rematch of the affair that Mickelson won on the 22nd hole in the dark on a makeshift par-3 hole. But to keep both involved, a team showdown is "almost a certainty," said one confidant of the two men. The conventional thought is that they pair together against two challengers. But another option apparently is that they remain on opposite sides and each chooses his own teammate. 

Regardless of the format, every indication is that the show will go on.

I'm assuming that Tiger would take Patrick....  Too soon? 

Just as I'm starting to salivate, Steiny pops in to throw cold water on it all:

Mark Steinberg, who represents Woods via Excel Sports and was among many entities involved in putting together The Match at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas on Nov. 23, won by Mickelson, said that report from Wednesday "is not true at this point,'' with many issues to be sorted. 

The website speculated that the format could expand to include other golfers, and that Woods and Mickelson could possibly play as a team or play with a partner on opposing teams.

Oh, the drama!  Obviously they'll work this stuff out, though my guess is that they'll ditch the PPV...  

Glad we could find this time to catch up, but no promises on blogging in the next few days.  I head back to Western HQ on Thursday, so we'll catch up from there if not sooner.