Tuesday Trifles

The road trip is on, as our threeball will be skiing The Bird today, where they've already broken 200" for the season.  

Paddy Time - For fans that can't get enough high-pitched men's voices, we've gotcha covered:

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Padraig Harrington will captain the European team that will defend the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in 2020. At a press conference on

Tuesday held in the clubhouse at the Wentworth Club just outside London—next door to the European Tour’s headquarters— the three-time major champion was unveiled as the successor to Thomas Bjorn. 

The third Irishman to lead the Old World side after Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, Harrington was a racing certainty to be offered the job as soon as main rival Lee Westwood announced that he would not be a candidate until the 2022 matches in Rome.

The announcement comes less than a week after Harrington revealed he suffered a broken wrist in December that will prevent him from playing until at least February. 

Harrington is using a one-time exemption for being in the top 50 on the career PGA Tour money list in order to secure playing privileges in 2019 in the U.S., and hopes to return to play at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am next month.

I, for one, want to know if he'll follow his predecessor and commit to a butt tattoo prior to the commencement of hostilities.

Shack, on the other hand, raises another issue, one well suited to a drinking game:

Over/under on the number of times during his Captaincy that Padraig is asked if 2020 Ryder Cup venue Whistling Straits reminds him of Irish links? 

450…ish?

I'll take the over.

When You Lie Down With Dogs... -  I meant to pair this with his comments on distance yesterday, but lost track of it in the excitement over discovering that our game is thriving.  But Commissioner Jay is all in on gambling:

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan doubled down on his support for the legalization

of sports gambling on Saturday during his annual roundtable discussion with the media at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, stating that sports betting and gaming will lead to more interest and investment in the sport of golf. 

“Where we are from a gaming standpoint, I’ll break it down to two points. We have for the last couple of years put all the systems in place from an integrity program to monitoring program to our ShotLink technology in place so we can be in a position to participate,” Monahan said. “The reason we would do it is because we think gaming leads to more engagement.”

Engagement with whom?  Has our game benefited from its involvement with, say, Billy Walters?

Now I understand that legalized gambling is going to happen, and that the Tour can't just stick its head in the sand, but this feels unseemly.  I hope I don't sound like I'm being needlessly cynical, but is this really about engagement, or is it just perhaps about the vig the Tour expects to receive?  I know, I feel dirty even asking the question....

But he does stay on script:

Monahan said that he expects sports gambling in golf to be a “second-, third- or fourth-screen experience,” meaning that fans would follow any potential bets alongside the actual tournament broadcast. 

Monahan admitted during his press conference on Saturday that the side bets made between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson during and before The Match made the event a particularly interesting experience for himself. He did not, however, place any money on the showdown between Tiger and Lefty back in November. 

“The one thing that I thought was interesting was at their press conference when Phil challenged [Tiger] to a first-hole birdie wager,” Monahan said. “To me, I was really interested in that as much as I was anything else. Obviously, it was a match and it was between the two of them, but it was an interesting way to start out the day.”

Yeah, perhaps, but it was the last interesting thing to happen that day, partially because Jay's Tour saw fit to limit the number of side bets.   

My sense is that gambling on golf will prove a non-event, because the professional gamblers have many better options.  Ironically, our game which is so conducive to gambling among participants, is uniquely ill-suited to the daily wagering needs of the addicted....

An Inevitable Header - It's a profile of a longstanding player-caddie relationship, and you'll understand my header about this one:

Bubba and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Of course, it hasn't been without its challenges: 

They survive everything. Watson and Scott are entering their 13th year together, one of the most prominent duos still intact. Among major winners, Lucas Glover and Don

Cooper are believed to be the most enduring team, approaching 17 years, but their recognition level doesn’t approach Watson and Scott. Meanwhile, consider some of the high-profile pairings that have dissolved in recent years: Phil Mickelson and Jim (Bones) Mackay, Jason Day and Col Swatton and, most recently, Zach Johnson and Damon Green. 

“You think of perfect teams, and Bubba and Teddy are like that. They are fabulous together,” said Paul Tesori, who has caddied for former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson for eight years.

 I especially liked this about their early days:

Their first golf tournament together was the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, where Watson finished tied for 12th. The following week at the Canadian Open, he was T-14. Scott didn’t have to do much—just tote the sticks and bark out yardages. 

“I gave him two things: Don’t talk about money and know that if I have a swing I have a shot,” said Watson, 40, who lives in Pensacola, Fla. “Very next week in Canada he came to me, and he said, ‘I know we’re not supposed to talk about money, but we haven’t talked about pay yet.’ Yeah, that was kind of important.” 

Never mind that Scott was unsure of his value. 

“I didn’t really feel like I was being a caddie at first, just carrying a bag,” Scott, 45, recalled. “But then I saw him play, the shots he would hit, some really wild shots, the curves were even bigger then, but it was enjoyable for me to watch a guy with that much talent, and I knew he had potential. Eventually, he got to asking me about certain shots or reading putts, and the thing is I had to see how he could play and then I could help him.”

What would prepare someone to caddie for Bubba?  Maybe looping for Hogan in the fifties, but there's nothing remotely comparable in the modern game.

Bubba draws a lot of hate, unfairly in my mind, but these two are well n their way to getting Bubba into the Hall of Fame.  Not bad for a kid from Bagdad.

Nothing To see Here -  One wise man said, referring to the distance explosion, that Augusta would always be defensible, but not the Old Course.  Submitted for your consideration:

That sound you hear is the grinding of my teeth....

Miss Congeniality - Did you hear about the award given to a couple of golfers last week?  You'll quickly get my header:

5. Justin Thomas and Lexi Thompson graced the National League of Junior Cotillions’ list of the “10 Best-Mannered People” of 2018. According to your on-job experience, which two golfers (male and female) would you award for such an esteemed honor?

My understanding is that they're both excellent dancers and make their own clothes....I'm guessing that JT will take some grief over this, and most of the actual answers are what we'd  expect. 

Sens: Lydia Ko and Tony Finau. If there are more gracious Tour pros out there, I haven’t met them. 

Ritter: Two great picks, Josh. I’ll take Stacy Lewis and Bernhard Langer.

OK, Stacey had a time when she was prone to some whining, but she's obviously a wonderful ambassador for the game.  But, just as one's eyes glaze over, comes this:

Bamberger: Hard not to go with Vijay. On the women’s side, another older-but-goodie: the Hall-of-Famer Meg Mallon.

Veej?  I certainly never saw that one coming...  Next we know, he'll be nominating Robert Allenby for the Payne Stewart award....

 Time to pack up the boot bag.... Catch you tomorrow?