Weekend Wrap

DJ had reached the 16th hole when the TV was forcibly turned to the Academy Awards.....  Yeah, it's great having Employee No. 2 here.... well, mostly.

DJ In Full - Fortunately Golf.com is there with their 30-second summary:

Who won: Dustin Johnson (five-under 66, 21 under overall) 

How it happened: This one was never in doubt. Johnson led Rory McIlroy by four after 54 holes and made the turn on Sunday leading McIlroy and Paul Casey by five. The back nine was nothing more than a victory parade to the clubhouse. Johnson, 34, made birdies on 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16 to sign for a 66. McIlroy, who made six back-nine birdies, was second at 16 under, five back of Johnson. The three players who tied for third were five back of McIlroy.

Don't know about that "never in doubt" bit.   Rory took all of three holes to shave the lead down to two, though admittedly he did quickly revert to type.  But this was a key bit:

Key hole: The lead was still four when McIlroy and Johnson reached the par-5 6th. They both found tree trouble, although Johnson was awarded a free drop while McIlroy wasn’t. Johnson made birdie and McIlroy made bogey, which increased the lead to six.

Can I just say how much I loved the rules official that Rory drew.  This video needs to be kept handy for those instances when we're told that these guys are all gentlemen....  Rory outright lied about how he would play the shot, the rules official simply didn't buy it, then Rory proceeded to hit the shot left-handed.   Remember that anonymous poll of players?  I'm quite sure that Rory was one of the many that had seen quite a bit of cheating from others, but never from himself.

Dave Shedloski uses this curious lede to argue for DJ's dominance:

Chronicling the exploits of Dustin Johnson is starting to become as challenging as writing about the many achievements of Tiger Woods. That might seem like a stretch,

but bear with us. When Johnson assembles all of the facets of his magnificent game, he, like Tiger, stretches credulity until it whimpers. 

And granted, with his 20th career PGA Tour title Sunday at the WGC-Mexico Championship and second win this year following a breathtaking performance in Saudi Arabia, Johnson isn’t yet in the same stratosphere as the Big Cat, who has those 80 tour wins, 14 majors and a competitive veneer that has been burning holes in other mortal men for two decades. Conversely, Johnson appears as intense as saltwater taffy. And has a body as flexible. 

Tiger stalks the golf course. Johnson ambles along it. Tiger runs hot, like his Sunday red shirts. Johnson is cooler than, well, a cat.

He's only thirteen majors behind, so I can see the comparison....  The talent is so profound that twenty wins seems....well, disappointing.

They NBC gang were certainly hyping the twenty win mark, so I got curious as to how impressive that list might really be.  Props to Wikipedia for the quick update:

That was a complicated copy-and-paste, and Gene Litler, Paul Runyan, Lee Trevino and Henry Picard got lost in the shuffle.  An impressive list, though I'll bet that few of you had Bill Mehlhorn in your fantasy lineups...

Shack makes quite the obvious point:

Now, there are popularity issues that only the committees know how to work out behind closed doors, and we know there are many players who have been overlooked either because they were forgotten or they ruffled someone’s feathers. 

But setting all of that aside, it appears with with No. 20, a U.S. Open, a strong major record and many years of good health and golf ahead, Dustin Johnson has carved out a Hall of Fame career. Assuming such things matter to players today, it’s still worth highlighting.

Well, duh!  Once Monty and Freddie were enshrined, DJ was a mortal lock....   Shack had this on his performance in majors:

Again one feels that there should be more trophies on the mantel...

The Tour Confidential folks are way too early with this:

6. Dustin Johnson cruised in Mexico City, Rory McIlroy logged his fourth straight top five and big-time players like Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler have all won in the past month. And, oh yeah, Tiger Woods is playing well, too. Whose early season form has you believing that he’s most primed to make a run at Augusta?

Egads....that's like months away.  I'm not sure that DJ can keep it in his pants that long....

Today In Backstopping -  The girls have brought this issue to the fore, and Shack makes the moral argument:

Golf has an integrity problem and doesn’t even know it.

Well, some of us know it.  OK, Geoff, you were saying: 

As past backstopping incidents have all made clear, pro golfers are rarely in a hurry except when one of their peers leaves a shiny white ball somewhere around the hole.

Then they turn into Lanny Wadkins. After all, they’re just trying to grow the game by playing faster. When it suits their needs.

The incident is a breach of rule 15.3/1, where beefed up language in golf’s new rules addressed backstopping with a two-stroke penalty option which, so far, has not been called in the Olson-Jutanugarn case.

Geoff interestingly identifies Ground Zero for this trend:

Backstopping started many years ago at Riviera Country Club’s par-4 10th hole. The tiny green had its fringes lowered and players found themselves playing from greenside bunker to bunker. Out of empathy or time concerns, PGA Tour players started leaving balls in the vicinity of, but never in front of the hole. 

The practice eventually started happening on other holes with a few high-profile examples, most notably Tony Finau rushing to hit a buried lie bunker shot that successfully hit a ball, stopped closer to the hole and saved him a stroke that cost Chesson Hadley and Phil Mickelson six figures in the 2017 Safeway Open. The practice should have come to an end in June, 2018 when 2017 PGA Champion Jimmy Walker admitted to leaving his ball down as a backstop for players he likes and thinking nothing was untoward about that.

Oh, Geoff, what Jimmy admitted to was so much worse than your description.  He admitted to asking other players, "Would you like me to leave that there?"  Now hold that thought for a second, as we circle back to the Confidentialistas:

1. Pro golf’s latest backstopping controversy took place at the Honda LPGA Thailand on Friday, when top-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn didn’t mark her ball before American Amy Olson chipped on. (As Jutanugarn was preparing to mark, it appeared that Olson waved her off.) Olson’s chip proceeded to hit Jutanugarn’s ball and nestled close to the hole. The women fist-bumped before knocking in their birdie putts. In a statement, the LPGA said no breach had occurred. “Rule 15.3a clearly states that for a breach to occur, that two or more players must agree to leave a ball in place to help any player on her next stroke. This was not the case between Olson and Jutanugarn.” Olson later said they were just trying to speed up play and wasn’t even aware of “backstopping.” Did LPGA officials get this one right?

Dylan Dethier: At this point, the tours need to make a collective announcement that they’re going to start enforcing this rule, because calling a penalty here would have broken with precedent, if not the letter of the law. Players simply do this all the time. I’m fine with a stricter enforcement — it’s probably the right move at this point — but I think the pitchforks came out a bit too fast on this one. 

Josh Sens: I buy Olson’s claim that she was unaware of the rule and that there was no conspiracy at work. But as Michael notes below, not knowing the rule is not an excuse. I thought it was a violation and should have been treated as one. No precedent? True. But you’ve got to start somewhere. Establish a precedent, and incidents of that kind will become a lot more scarce. Agreed on the overheated online pitchfork wielding, though. Those social media mobs sure do form fast.

It's very hard to prove a conspiracy, unless you get your hands on the minutes of the meeting....  Though I keep coming back to Jimmy's comments.  

The Tours need to proactively tell their players to cut the crap, then bring down the wrath of Khan when they don't.  Otherwise we'll have a major tournament or, worse, a Major, decided by this.  And that's not a good look....

Schedule Stuff - Compression kills...  The Forecaddies apparently has the same instincts as your humble blogger, looking for the bodies:

With so many playing options in so little time, The Forecaddie wondered what

tournaments would get squeezed this year. The PGA Tour player jury has returned its first verdict of 2018-19’s schedule change: the Honda Classic. 

At least, as far as star power goes. 

The Man Out Front used to receive press releases touting the amazing Honda fields but this year only got a rudimentary player list. Upon crunching the numbers, The Forecaddie counted three of the world top 10, six of the top 25 and just 13 of the top 50. 

The 2017 Honda Classic drew 12 of the top 25, while the 2016 event lured four of the top 10 and 11 of the top 20. Just four years ago, the Honda touted the best field “in the modern day history of the tournament” when 16 of the top 25 players in the world teed up just a year after 13 of the top 25 were entered.

I was initially surprised to see Tiger give a pass to the home game, but with Bay Hill and The Players following immediately thereafter.....  I expect that Arnie's event will have troubles over the long haul, especially given that it's the weakest of the Florida courses.

It would be quite telling if a certain Monday event drew a stronger field:

With Honda’s deal only extended to 2021, expect conversations in the coming week about the role of World Golf Championships in Mexico City and Austin have played in undermining the strength of such a stalwart event. 

Expect even more if next Monday’s annual Seminole Pro-Member draws more top-25 players than the once-vaunted Honda.

During my hiatus, Shack had these thoughts on a certain football announcer being granted a sponsor's exemption:

Many sent the news of Tony Romo’s sponsor’s invite to the AT&T Byron Nelson expecting me to join the outrage, and while I still think it’s bizarre an amateur golfer can have his own golf shoe commercial and Under Armour deal with the USGA’s blessing, I

get why he’s been given a spot this year. 

Romo, after Jordan Spieth, may be the AT&T Byron Nelson’s biggest draw.

It’s the right move.

Placed in a new schedule spot the week before the first May PGA Championship, it may be the worst possible tune-up for Bethpage Black. Which is sad, given that Trinity Forest is a fantastic, architecturally brilliant piece of work on otherwise average ground. But it’s the perfect tune-up for The Open, not the PGA and players are likely to pass the Nelson in droves.

Oh, to be a coffee cup on the dark cherry wood conference room table when AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson brings up the new schedule at a future PGA Tour Policy Board meeting.

As you know, I'm not usually a fan of such things.  These are two events that have solved many problems in recent years, only to be thrown to the wolves by the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach.  Though I suspect that Tony Romo won't be a silver bullet......

I have been informed that I have to go...  Sorry, but perhaps we can meet again soon.