Tuesday Tidbits

That sound you hear is the barrel's bottom being scraped....  

Love Rules - I don't care if it's mini-golf, 56 is still quite the score:

What they did on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton course here was phenomenal. Yes, it’s a flat, short resort course and the pins were in flat spots. Yes, it’s scramble format from the

teeing ground to the bottom of the hole, which means bogeys are about as rare as a Fred Couples phone call. Yes, you place your ball, so you never have a lie that’s not perfect. Yes, the par-5s are short. Still! The Loves played 18 holes in 56 shots. That’s 16 under par! They won by three over three other teams. 

Father-and-son both were wearing white pants and light blue shirts you could call Carolina Blue, but you wouldn’t exactly call it a team uniform. Davis is a Polo guy, has been for years, and everything fits just so and is perfectly pressed. Dru’s a big boy in every way, kind of half-stuffed into his Sunday outfit, which he might have found under his bed. If this kid, a former Alabama golfer, has ever had a worry in his life, you could not tell.

Like Phil, I can only hope they wear those Championship Belts everywhere....  Dru still has designs on his PGA Tour card, which would disqualify him from future appearances in this event.  

Mike Bamberger has watched many of those guys for decades, and uses his new weekly feature to share observations from the Father/Son, including these:

7. Best use of profanity 

Courtesy of Lee Trevino. Watching the man remains a thrill and a joy. How cool, to see him playing golf with his lean ponytailed son, Daniel, who has a terrific swing that is nothing like his father’s. Lee Buck looks great, by the way, newly 79. He looks like a star and a legend, and of course he’s both. The silver hair and perfect haircut. The hard-collar Texas-made golf shirts with his emblem on them. Everything he does has style. He played for keeps, put his meaty arm around Big Jack at appropriate times, talked and told stories while signing autographs, did a Saturday-night military thing with John Daly on the driving range. When he was done with that, he plopped himself down in a the passenger seat of a golf cart and said to his caddie, “I’m f—ing exhausted.” It’s hard, being a star all day long.

6. Best John Daly quip 

“I gotta great future behind me.”

 This strikes me as unlikely, though perhaps Jack's enthusiastic presence should make me reconsider:

3. Best future Father/Son dream team 

Alastair Johnston is the 70-year-old vice chairman of IMG. The Father/Son event is his

baby. In 1997, when Tiger won the Masters, he and Johnston were neighbors in Isleworth, the Orlando golf-and-housing development. “I saw him the next day and said, ‘Congratulations, you have now qualified for the Father-Son,’” Johnston recalled. Back then, you had to have won a major to get invited. (Now a Players win qualifies you, too.) “He looked at me and said, ‘What?’ He had no idea what I was talking about.” Now Johnston is counting the years until Tiger’s son, Charlie, who is 9, is ready to play. Unless Tiger’s daughter, Sam, 11, is ready first. It’s Father-Son in name only, really.

Though that Isleworth anecdote is just perfect.  Jack was adamant back in the day that he would never be a ceremonial golfer, yet when you get a chance to play with your child or grandchild, who's gonna turn that down?  And we have seen Tiger give in and play the Par-3 at Augusta...

As for this?  Not exactly news, is it:

2. Best Ryder Cup insight from Jim Furyk 

Furyk said that Patrick Reed knew “for weeks” before the Ryder Cup that he would be playing with Woods in Paris. “Tiger, as an assistant captain at the 2016 Ryder Cup and the 2017 Presidents Cup, had seen Patrick on a team. He said, ‘This kid’s tough as nails. I’d roll with him anytime.’ I’m asking all the players, who do you want to play with, who don’t you think you should play with. I knew how much Tiger likes Pat, how he admired his grit. My guys had a real good idea going to the Tour Championship who they would be playing with. They knew well in advance, weeks in advance, who they would be playing with. I thought Pat would embrace it, and he did.”

But, Jim, I was reliably informed that Patrick was blindsided?   This is all so very disillusioning....

Exit question:  Do we ever see Patrick at this event?  

Harlan Coben, Call Your Office - Coben, noted writer of hard-boiled detective thrillers, famously set one of his novels at Merion Golf Club.   However, in matters of both golf and procedurals, the Brits got there first:

A man was discovered in Carnoustie Golf Links' Barry Burn on Sunday afternoon. According to police, the person is believed to be Dean Morrison, a police officer in Scotland’s Tayside Division. 

“Dean was a highly respected officer, who was extremely well liked and popular with his colleagues. He was thoroughly professional in his work," said Chief Superintendent Andrew Todd, Divisional Commander for Tayside Division. "His death is a great tragedy and he will be sadly missed by all who knew him and we will do all we can to support them during this distressing time." 

While there is no suggestion at the moment that foul play was involved, police are hoping to speak to a taxi driver. Morrison was last seen leaving Broughty Ferry, about 25 minutes away from Carnoustie, at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night. Morrison was not discovered until Sunday afternoon.

Hmmmm...can Jean Van de Velde account for his whereabouts?  As I understand these things, the first question goes to motive.....

Bubba on Bubba - Our Bubba has previously threatened to retire early, though I think we're safe for the time being:

Bubba Watson once hinted that he might retire if he ever reached 10 wins on the PGA

Tour. He was joking, for now he's at 12, and Watson has a new target with a goal that is out of his hands. 

He wants to get to 15 victories, which might be enough for the Hall of Fame. 

''Am I Hall of Fame worthy? I'm going to be dead honest with you - it would be the most joyous occasion in my life when it came to the game of golf,'' Watson said. ''I can't tell you if that's in or not. But my new goal is three more, see if I can get to 15.'' 

But he's not going to retire. 

''They keep giving me money,'' Watson said. ''So I'm going to keep playing.''

Here's the thing, Bubba....  they keep giving the money because you earn it.  Interesting that he sets his sights at three more wins, given that that's exactly how many he won this year.  As for the Hall, he's already well past the lowered bar created by admitting Freddy, Monty and Retief.

Is This A Positive? - Egads, haven't we suffered enough?

Report: Web.com Tour to move to FedEx Cup-like points system

According to a report from the Golf Channel, the Web.com Tour will move to a FedEx Cup-like points structure to determine which players receive PGA Tour cards. The move was approved by the PGA Tour policy board in November, with the system to be implemented for the upcoming campaign. 

The Golf Channel reports this move was based on a player survey that supported a points system over earnings.

Please tell me that we'll have some of those exciting points resets that render the season-long results irrelevant?   

There is, however, one silver lining:

The Web.com Tour Championship is not expected to put the Tour Championship's new scoring system—where the leader in points gets a head start over the field—into play.

 Why not, if it's gonna be such a winner?

April On My Mind - I've long compared the wait from the PGA Championship to The Masters to Moses' thirty years in the desert.  Some find that analogy overwrought, but we don't need to bend to the will of the haters.  It doesn't help that the exile will be month longer in future years....

With the calendar winding down and golf finished until Maui, we have this graphic projection of the top fifty as of year-end:

Significance?  These lucky thirteen have assured themselves of tee times the second week of April:

Alex Noren

Tyrrell Hatton

Rafa Cabrera-Bello

Eddie Pepperell

Kiradech Aphibarnrat

Matthew Fitzpatrick

Ian Poulter

Li Haotong

Thorbjorn Olesen

Matt Wallace

Lucas Bjerregaard

Emiliano Grillo

Branden Grace

It's ironic, but often the most difficult part of winning a Masters in actually getting into the field....

And here's a short list of notables still on the outside looking in:

52 Ben An

53. Shugo Imahira

54. Brian Harman

56. Abraham Ancer

57. Luke List

59. Alexander Bjork

60. Daniel Berger

They've got two ways to qualify:

Between January and April, winners of any PGA Tour event awarding full FedEx Cup points will earn a spot. Also players inside the top 50 in the World Ranking a week before the Masters will be added to the field.

 That's all for today, kids.