Weekend Wrap

You see the method behind my madness?  Why should I wrap the weekend on schedule, when the boys at Pebble didn't?

Phil in Phull - It's quite the thing, though caution is urged in terms of what might happen there in June:

Who won: Phil Mickelson (seven-under 69, 19 under overall) 

How it happened: Mickelson began Sunday’s round in the final pairing, but trailed Paul Casey by three strokes. The 48-year-old wasn’t going to be handed the trophy; he’d have to earn it. Mickelson was bogey-free, catching Casey after a birdie on the 10th and

extending his lead when Casey made bogey on the 12th and 13th. Wild weather from the morning kept the final pairing from finishing, so Casey and Mickelson headed back out to Pebble Monday morning. 

Casey made the three-foot putt that awaited him on the 16th green and both players tossed solid approaches inside of 10 feet on the 17th. Both players missed their birdie tries, though. On to 18, where Mickelson’s three-shot lead was just too much. Lefty took an iron off the tee, reached the green in three. Casey made birdie on 18 but so did Mickelson. 

Why it matters: The win is Mickelson’s 44th in his PGA Tour career, good for ninth-best in history. Remember when he won in Mexico last year and said he’d win 50 times in his career? Well, he’s one step closer to that Toal now.

As you folks might have noticed, there's been a time or twenty in which I've been forced to call BS on our Phil....  But hey, that happens in the best of families.  For instance, late Sunday there was this bit:

As daylight faded above and around the Monterey Peninsula Sunday, Mickelson

quickened his pace of play. 

“We could finish 17, I could tee off on 18,” Mickelson said while lobbying official Mark Russell after completing the 16th hole. “Let’s play 17 and see how it goes. I can see fine.”

Casey wanted to stop play with his ball on the 16th green and conclude in Monday daylight after the greens would be repaired and revived. 

Lefty, who had moved on to No. 17, was not happy when the horn sounded.

Shack had some good fun with Casey's facial reactions as well....But when all is said and done, he goes all Emily Litella on us:

“Paul made the tough call, but it was the right decision in that he protected himself and myself for the competition,” Mickelson said. “So we would have been at a severe disadvantage last night where you can’t see the targets, the greens were pretty rough, and this morning we came out and the greens were much better after they have been mowed.” 

Someone in Mickelson’s camp also might have noted that his group was woefully behind and that if finishing the round Sunday was a priority, perhaps they should have played faster. Even then, the prospect of playing Pebble Beach’s 18th in the dark can be a daunting one in daylight. One drive into the ocean and a dispute over the “point of entry” could easy have ensued.

We all get that the guy that's ahead wants to keep playing, but it's this bit that we'll always treasure:

“Sometimes I just get in my own little bubble and I don’t see the big picture and I just, I wanted to finish, I was playing well, and I just didn’t take all the factors into account,” he said after Monday’s two-hole finish. “So I ended up thanking him this morning for making that tough call because I made it tougher for him, but he did the right thing in protecting both of us.”

Sometimes?

As we've all been taught, the camera adds ten pounds and makes it seem that there's more light.

Jeez, there's enough light to play an emergency nine...

From a John Feinstein profile, see if this isn't just the most Phil story of all time:

He insisted he could see in the dark, just as he insisted he could get out of a Dustin Johnson headlock at the Sunday-night post-Ryder Cup victory party at Hazeltine in 2016. So certain he could do it, he tried fivetimes before he was told by everyone watching to please stop before he got hurt. 

“What can I say?” Mickelson said later. “I really thought I could do it. Still do.” 

Of course he did.

I'd pay $20 to watch THAT on PPV....

One of the amazing things about this guy is that he seems to have found an additional six mph of clubhead speed, something that just doesn't happen.  How?  Well, there is this:

He hit the gym to build up his strength and explosiveness, especially in the offseason. He had a biomechanics study done and looked at the kinematic sequence of his swing to

pinpoint his strengths and weaknesses. He spent hours working on his putting and iron play. 

Further, he hired a nutritionist and is steadfastly adhering to a new diet. Sugar, for instance, is a no-no, and for a man who rarely said no to any dish or a second helping in the past, that takes will power. 

“There are a lot of things that you can do to help your body heal, recover, and get strengthened,” Mickelson said.

Is a life without Twinkies worth living?

This doesn't make the cause any clearer:

“So at the end of last year, even though I played poorly, I had something happen where it seemed like overnight,” Mickelson said on Friday, “it had really been a year in the works, where my driver speed, it shot up 5, 6 miles an hour, which rarely ever happens to anybody, yet alone somebody in their late 40s.”

Most of us are currently experiencing the exact opposite.... But at least here, his analysis is spot-on:

“I think that’s going to lead to some good things,” Mickelson said. “If you’re going to be crooked off the tee, you sure as heck better be long and that’s kind of the way I’m trying to approach it.”

Yes, and Phil will be crooked off the tee, just as the sun will rise in the East.  Though he was less crooked this week, and will likely only contend on those weeks when he's less crooked than normal.

 About that little event in June.... well, they seem to think that 2010 was a model worth repeating:

It should come as no surprise that the course setup formula for the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links will be replicated almost in its entirety when the 119th national championship returns to the Monterey Peninsula in June. 

First, because it worked so well. Second, because it can be, down to a few blades of grass if so desired. 

A decade after Tiger Woods pummeled the seaside links for a 12-under 272 aggregate score and record 15-stroke victory in 2000, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell emerged with a one-stroke win over Gregory Havret in the 110th U.S. Open at even-par 284. “That was a week when you had to have control of your golf ball on every shot, no mistakes,” McDowell recalled.

Those top two names won't render 2010 remembered like '72 and '82, though the obvious set-up issue was found in the greens, most notably Nos. 14 and 17.  Four greens have been rebuilt, so perhaps we should adopt a wait-and-see strategy.  After all, when has the USGA ever blown a course set-up?

There is one minor tweak to the fairway lines:

One exception is the fairway at No. 11, an uphill par 4 of 390 yards leading to a shallow green that slopes severely from back to front. Hall says the fairway has been shifted to the left, leaving an easier approach, especially for players who take on the hole with driver. “The fairway direction before left a difficult second shot. You weren’t really rewarded for being in the fairway,” Hall said. 

There are new back tees at the ninth and 13th holes that could be used and four greens were renovated a few years ago at Nos. 9, 13, 14 and 17. The latter is the most dramatic, restoring the look and playability the classic par 3 had going back to Pebble’s first U.S. Open in 1972 when Jack Nicklaus hit the flagstick and nearly aced it with a 1-iron shot in the final round on the way to victory.

Eleven is such a short hole these days that, even in the context of Pebble's tiny greens, it's hard to imagine that the change in angle will amount to much.

The Open is being taken to a venue where this week's hero has won five times, and it's the event he needs to fill out his resume, so naturally folks will be curious about his chances:

2. Phil Mickelson nearly won the Desert Classic last month and now seems on the verge of PGA Tour victory No. 44 at Pebble Beach come Monday. Every year we look for narratives that suggest Phil will finally win a U.S. Open, but c’mon, is there an Open venue that sets up better for Mickelson than Pebble Beach, which will host our national championship come June?

Bamberger: No. The moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter is aligned with Mars. I think it will be about tee shots more than anything else. It could happen. 

Ritter: Hale Irwin is the oldest U.S. Open champ at 45, but Phil just might be the greatest 48-year-old golfer ever. A Winged Foot Open is on deck for next year, where Phil has a, uh, tortured history. This summer is probably his last best shot at getting it done. 

Shipnuck: If you’re a golf romantic, it has to happen at Pebble, where Phil’s grandfather used to caddie. Pebble now plays so short he can be conservative off the tee and let his terrific iron game carry him. I’m not saying it will happen, but it very well could. 

Zak: I think Shipnuck makes the proper point here. It’s clear this man can still ballstrike it as good as anyone in the world. And putt it really well at times, too. A Pebble Open is exactly that. 

Sens: Pebble in the summer, baked out with the rough high and in fighting spirits, is a much different course than Pebble in the middle of a wet winter, with the field playing lift, clean and drop. It would be a great story. So would Elvis rising from the grave.

I certainly like his chances better at Pebble than Winged Foot, but that's a two-edged sword.  So will he, I'm guessing, and that adds pressure to a week with no shortage thereof....  The fairways played extremely wide this week, because everything plugged in the sopping wet conditions....  It may well come down to how much the wind blows.....

When They Say It's Not About The Money.... - I know, when is it ever not about the money?  Mike Bamberger has a detailed follow-up item on the Kooch-El Tucan and, well Kooch, WTF!

David Giral Ortiz, the diminutive Mexican caddie who goes by El Tucan, said in a recent phone interview that after being paid $5,000 by Matt Kuchar on the Sunday evening after 

the golfer won the Mayakoba Golf Classic on Nov. 11, he has not received any other payment. 

The caddie said he was offered an additional $15,000, for a total of $20,000, but that he found that unacceptable. He also said he would not want to work for Kuchar at next year’s tournament. 

For both player and caddie, the show-me-the-money aftermath of a magical week has been filled with frustration and disappointment. Ortiz feels he was underpaid. Kuchar feels he has made a fair offer to a club caddie who was with him for only one week. That the pay dispute has played out over social media without either party saying much of anything is a sign of the times. 

In a Jan. 24 email Ortiz sent to Mark Steinberg, Kuchar’s agent, the caddie wrote, “I am a humble man, who takes care of his family, and works hard. I am reaching out to you to see if you can facilitate me receiving a fair amount for my help with Matt winning $1,296,000. I am not looking to disparage Matt or give him a bad name. Fair is fair, and I feel like I was taken advantage of by placing my trust in Matt.”

We'll get to Steiny's typically sensitive handling of the matter, but first some interesting details:

A $3,000 weekly payment for a fill-in local caddie would widely be considered generous pay by Tour standards. The sticking point is the size of the bonus. A Tour caddie typically receives five percent of a player’s winnings, a higher percentage for a top-10 finish and 10 percent for a win. These arrangements are usually handshake deals. 

Ortiz said that Kuchar said at the start of the tournament that he would be paid $3,000 for the week, plus an unspecified percentage of his winnings. 

On that basis, in the euphoria of victory, Ortiz had hoped to make as much as $130,000. When Kuchar left Mexico, the caddie said, he was under the impression that he would still receive a bonus. 

By Sunday night of the tournament, Kuchar’s smiling face was sunburned and covered in stubble. He and Ortiz posed for pictures together with the winner’s trophy. Later, Ortiz said the golfer handed him an envelope with his payment in cash in it and said, ”There you go. Thank you. Bye.”

So it would seem that Kooch's first instinct was to give him a massive bonus of $2,000 for his first "W" in four years?  Wow, how do you save anything for your family with such generosity?

El Tucan is playing this in a reasonable, more-from-sadness-than-anger tone, which certainly allows him to stake out the position of being reasonable:

Asked how he felt about the offer to receive what he said would be an additional and final $15,000 payment, Ortiz said, “No thank you. They can keep their money.”

Ortiz said he did not expect to be paid what a Tour caddie would have made, but said he believed his work and contribution toward the win was worth $50,000. The win was Kuchar’s first in more than four years. He has made over $46 million in Tour prize money in his career and is 10th on the career money list. 

Speaking through a translator, Ortiz said, “Matt is a good person and a great player. He treated me very well. I am only disappointed by how it all finished.” 

Shortly after the tournament, Ortiz said he hoped and expected to work for Kuchar when he defends his title this year. Asked recently if he would want to caddie for Kuchar again, Ortiz said, “No thank you. I’m a little bit pissed, a little bit confused.”

Let me just note that Oriz' ask of $50,000 seems to me reasonable, in fact it's the arbitrary number that I came up with when the story first broke.  That said, there are other numbers equally reasonable, and if Kooch had offered him $25,000 I'm not sure there's any basis to be critical.

But I think the story perhaps is even uglier for Kooch than that, because I get the sense that Kooch though that envelope was sufficient bonus, and I'm guessing even the $15,000 wasn't offered until the social media circus pulled into town....

As for Steiny, well he is doing Steiny things:

Ortiz said he wrote to Steinberg because he did not have contact information for Kuchar. He shared with GOLF.com three emails he sent to Steinberg, one on Jan. 24, one on Jan. 29 and one on Feb. 5. He said he has received one email from Steinberg, on Jan. 29, which read, “I am out of the country. What Matt has offered is fair.”

You got that?  He helped Matt win for the first time since the Carter administration, then Matt skips town without giving him even an e-mail address.   Which is worse?  Not paying the man or making him deal with Steiny.... 

To The Riv - Is that a first Talking Head reference here at Unplayable Lies?  I can't imagine that there hasn't been a Life During Wartime reference, but it's not like I've been paying attention.

The Tour Confidentialistas see all of golf through one specific prism:

1. Tiger Woods is back in action at this week’s Genesis Open for his second start of the season. Last year at Riviera Woods shot 72-76 for one of his two missed cuts of the year. Coming off a T20 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open last month, will Woods’s week at the Genesis be better, or worse, than his T20 at Torrey Pines? 

Michael Bamberger: I know he’s masterful at putting things in compartments, but it’s a lot, to play a difficult course where you have never won while serving as host, and I don’t think the weather will favor him. Playing four rounds would be an achievement.

Jeff Ritter: I’m bullish on Tiger for the season, but I’m with Bamberger on this one. A healthy Woods could contend anywhere, but his history at Riv isn’t strong. This is a ramp-up week for Florida. 

Alan Shipnuck: I think he’ll contend. He’s refreshed and rested and watching Phil play so well has to get him fired up. 

Sean Zak: Tiger’s T20 required a helluva Sunday charge through the backdoor. I don’t think that happens at Riviera. Something a touch worse could be in store or — gasp — a missed cut! 

Josh Sens: Riviera has never been kind to Tiger. His game is in much better shape this year than it was last year at this time so I expect him to make the cut. But if we see much of him late Sunday, I’ll be very surprised.

Mark me down for a trunk-slammer....  While the reasons remain unclear, this golf course has been living rent-free in Tiger's brain.  Also, it should be very soft, resulting in a shootout....  which I don't think plays to his strengths.

Shack is our go-to source this week, having written the book about the club as well as it's designer, George Thomas.  At Golfweek, Geoff tells us a slow-play story from the intital playing of this event at Riviera:

When the Los Angeles Open — now known as the Genesis Open — was first played at Riviera Country Club 90 years ago, the game’s top professional took a similar stand. Minus references to private parts. 

Macdonald Smith (who won), der Bingle and The Haig.

Walter Hagen was not having a great L.A. Open week after opening with a 77. The reigning Champion Golfer of the Year was announced on the first tee by actress Fay Ward as “the Opium Champion of Great Britain” and was paired with Tommy Armour during the third round of that 1929 L.A. Open, the first at Riviera. 

Back then, groupings were notoriety-driven, so The Haig and the Silver Scot were the main draws and put together for Saturday’s round. Armour infamously set up shop over his shots after he triple-bogeyed the first hole and watched a lead slip away. Hagen was out of contention when organizers planned to put him with Armour for Sunday’s final round. 

Knowing January days were short and not wanting to suffer another day with Armour, Hagen threatened to withdraw before suffering through another 18 with the Silver Scot. Organizers caved.

Some thing never change, though it's not often that the Scot is the slowpoke....Shack also had this image of the program from that inaugural event:

Thanks, Gil.

For those that want to let their architectural freak show, this post is for you, first with some perspective on the venue:

A few things to remember about Riviera when it hosted its first Los Angeles Open 90 years ago. 

—The course was in the “countryside” and a bit of a gamble as a location so far from the city center downtown. 

—Riviera was just a year-and-half old with a reputation for extreme difficulty (“Where do the members play?”-Bobby Jones).

—The course underwent modifications prior to the tournament by George Thomas and Billy Bell despite concerns about the difficulty.

THE 10TH HOLE AS BUNKERS ARE ADDED AROUND THE GREEN IN 1928. THE LEFT “LAY-UP” BUNKER HAD ALSO BEEN RECENTLY INSTALLED. THE TWO FOREGROUND BUNKERS AND FAR RIGHT BUNKER WERE PART OF THE ORIGINAL DESIGN.

The changes in the bunkering are interesting, though his comments on how it plays for the modern pro might be of more pressing concern:

That decision proved a brilliant one, though as the bunkers have become deeper, the green smaller and more pitched with modern speeds pushing 13, the 10th has teetered on the edge of silliness.

Playing now as a long par-3 due to modern driving distances, some of the lay-up strategy is gone as well and silly bottlebrush bushes are needed to defend the hole from even more tee shots driving near the green without regard for accuracy.

Rain this year may take some of the fire out of the 10th green, and that’s not all bad given how it has teetered on the edge of sanity in recent playings. Regardless, the changes made 90 years ago have held up well and are a credit to the original architect’s willingness to make adjustments. And, contrary to an attempted scam designed to reduce the role of Thomas and Bell, the changes were very much made by the original designers as documented at the time.

Shack's got some archival press accounts that you'll enjoy, as well as this great old photo from behind the tenth:

:

Great stuff.  

Care to talk pairings?  Don't worry, i won't keep you long....  This repeat grouping shows a lack of originality:

Tiger Woods – Rory McIlroy – Justin Thomas

NOTABLE: Woods (2), McIlroy (1) and Thomas (1) have four FedExCup titles among them.

The Genesis Open is the lone PGA TOUR event where Woods has made 10 or more starts without producing a victory.

With 80 career PGA TOUR wins, Woods is two shy of Sam Snead’s all-time wins record of 82.

McIlroy, the 2016 FedExCup champion, enters the week with top-5 finishes in each of his last two starts on TOUR (T4/Sentry Tournament of Champions, T5/Farmers Insurance Open).

The 2017 FedExCup champion, Thomas has three top-5 finishes in six starts in 2018-19. He is making his fifth start at Riviera Country Club and is coming off his best result, a tie for ninth in 2018.

Wow, four FedEx Cups?  I know that's the Tour's preferred measure of accomplishment, but nineteen majors seems more on point.

But this is the grouping I'd watch:

Cameron Champ – Dustin Johnson – Bubba Watson

NOTABLE: Watson and Johnson have combined for four of the last five wins at the Genesis Open.

Champ, who leads the TOUR in Driving Distance (318.6 yards) and won the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, played the 2018 Genesis Open as the recipient of the tournament’s Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption.

Including his victory in 2017, Johnson has seven top-10s in 11 starts at the Genesis Open.

A three-time winner and defending champion of the Genesis Open, Watson looks to join Lloyd Mangrum and MacDonald Smith as four-time winners of the event.

How embarrassing to be the short hitter in this pairing... Fortunately, there isn't one.

See you tomorrow.