Your Friday Frisson

The party is over.... For the first time in a week, we awake to no new snow.  Fortunately, we'll always have Paris:

Alas, that's not your humble blogger, but rather my buddy Mitch.  

Tough Love - Tony Jacklin is the elder statesman of European golf, the man who saved the Ryder Cup.  He has some thoughts that Keith Pelley and Sergio should, but of course won't, take to heart:

“I’ve been a big fan of Sergio for the last 20 years,” Jacklin told the Daily Express.

“He’s an incredibly talented golfer and I don’t know anyone in the game, including Tiger Woods, who has more ability but unfortunately he made a fool of himself last week.

“It was worthy of more than disqualification. I’d have banned him. Damaging greens on a golf course is an offence that deserves a suspension.

Yes it is, and I don't really see how one could argue the opposite.

“I think he needs time to realise how fortunate he is, at 39, to have everything money can 

buy, a young family and everything to be grateful for,” said Jacklin, the most successful captain in European Ryder Cup history and winner of the 1969 Open and 1970 US Open. 

“To see his frustration spill over the way it did last week shows he’s not in a well-balanced state of mind. There seems to be an anger within him and golf is a game you can’t play angry.

“You can’t start hacking away at the course. It’s wrong from every single angle. If you are a golfer in the same group as Sergio when he’s doing that, it’s not something you want to be dealing with.”

You CAN play golf angry, but it's not a pretty thing, as I can attest from personal experience.  But Tony is making the point to which Shack alluded in that header, that Sergio is showing us that he needs some time away.

I can see where it might be better if Sergio did so voluntarily, but given that he's in the field at Riviera he's not going to do so.  The obvious question to Mr. Pelley is that if this isn't a sin worthy of suspension, what would be?

It Happened in Monterrey - Anyone remember that old song?  To be fair, it was a different Monterrey, but still...  

Phil had a good day, and we of course know where he'll be on Saturday.... But this item could have just as well been called Don't know much about history:

The round was so good, Mickelson said it was momentous. 

“So history was made today,” Mickelson said. “To the best of my knowledge it’s taken me 27 years and a few months to hit all fairways in a single round in a competition. I may have done it before, but I don’t ever recall doing it.” 

Well, Mickelson has done it before. Six times on the PGA Tour, in fact. But let’s cut his memory some slack. The most recent time he accomplished the feat came 21 years ago in the Farmers Insurance Open. 

His total recall aside, Mickelson was impressive throughout his round. His seven birdies swamped his lone bogey on the fifth hole and he stood in a tie for third place behind pacesetters Brian Gay and Scott Langley, who also played the Shore and shot 64.

It only seems like he hasn't hit a fairway since the Carter administration.

I'd recommend that folks get their fill of this guy now, because it doesn't seem like he'll be on the premises on Sunday:

The “Fisherman” has officially arrived on the PGA Tour. 

Korean Hosung Choi and his unorthodox style of play teed off at the AT&T Pebble

Beach Pro-Am Thursday.

He would shoot a par-4 on the 495-yard first hole at Monterey Peninsula Country Club and gyrate and contort his way to a 1-over-par 72. He was 4-over after a bogey on 10 before making a run on the rest of the back nine with three birdies. 

“I definitely felt the love from my fans, and I felt like that pushed me more to focus on the back nine,” said Choi.

Yanno, we have so much fun with his swing that it's easy to forget that he must have been quaking in his Wellingtons (isn't that what a fisherman would be wearing?).  Good for him in salvaging the round, though he's got a tough climb still ahead.

 This week is only partially about the golf, so we have an interesting celebrity sighting to report:

Danica Patrick gamely plunged into the sea with boyfriend Aaron Rodgers recently, as documented on her Instagram feed. “If you jump, I jump, right?” she wrote in the

caption. 

This week she’s following Rodgers as he plays in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 

Patrick took in Rodgers’ opening round with partner Jerry Kelly as the two posted a 4-under-par 67 on the Monterey Peninsula Shore Course. Among amateurs, Rodgers and Kelly were tied for 76th, eight shots behind leaders Scott Langley and Dan Rose.

The goods is that the boyfriend will have his Sunday free.  Because, yanno, he usually works Sundays.... Not in Januray, in recent years.

The most entertaining moment might have been provided by Sneds:

Watch Brandt Snedeker make birdie from the Pacific Ocean at Pebble Beach's iconic 18th hole

Not literally from the ocean....  But low tide is a beautiful thing.

Doubling Down on Stupid -  The USGA and R&A have issued a revision/clarification/obfuscation of the new rule relating to caddies helping players align, and I fear we're not yet out of the woods:

In the clarification released jointly by the USGA and R&A, the governing bodies

reiterate that the purpose of the rule is “to reinforce the fundamental challenge of making a stroke and to limit the advice and other help a player may receive during a round.” 

Whereas before, what constitutes “taking a stance” was not clearly defined, the new clarification includes specifics. Now, if a player backs away from a stance, “the player is not considered to have begun ‘a stance for the stroke.’ Therefore, a player can now back away from his or her stance anywhere on the course and avoid a breach of Rule 10.2b(4) if the caddie had been standing in a location behind the ball.”

There is also no penalty if a caddie is not “deliberately” standing behind the ball when a player begins taking a stance for a stroke. 

“We believe there is widespread acceptance that it is for the player alone to line up a shot,” said David Rickman, executive director – Governance at The R&A.“These clarifications are designed to improve the operation of the Rule and give the players more opportunity to avoid a breach while remaining true to the purpose of the Rule.”

That sound you hear are my eyes rolling uncontrollably, as I try to parse the concept of a caddie standing behind a ball but it not being "deliberate".   Everywhere I stand is quite deliberate, but then I have an enhanced sense of personal responsibility....

There's been no shortage of finger-pointing, and you'll no doubt enjoy this Rex Hoggard lede:

Everyone can agree that this is a mess. Like an Adam Levine caught-in-the-headlights, halftime-show super-mess.

That's very hurtful, Rex....

“It is clear that there is a great deal of confusion among players and caddies on the practical application of the new rule during competition, as well as questions surrounding the language of the rule itself and how it should be interpreted,” the Tour announced in a statement on Saturday. “As a result, with the full support of the USGA and the R&A, the rule will be interpreted whereby the two aforementioned situations as well as future similar situations will not result in a penalty.” 

Thomas called the potential penalty “ridiculous.” It was. The Tour’s decision to subvert the rule made sense, but before we grant the circuit “smartest person in the room” status, consider how rules, including this clunky caddie alignment rule, are created.

This might be good....

But despite its swift and strongly-worded response to last week’s ridiculousness, it’s also worth pointing out the circuit’s culpability. 

Although the Tour has had a voice in the rule-making room for some time, the USGA and R&A agreed to give the circuit, as well as the PGA of America, more influence over potential changes when the organizations found themselves at odds during the anchoring debate a few years back. The Tour, which is represented on the rule-making front by senior vice president of competitions Tyler Dennis, may not have veto power over potential changes but it does have a prominent seat at the table. 

For the Tour to dig in against the new rule, or at the least the rule’s ambiguous language, just as public opinion against it was poised to reach a crescendo, seems opportunistic if not duplicitous. 

The circuit had a voice in the room throughout this entire process and the best minds from the USGA, R&A and, yes, PGA Tour hit a rope hook – or worse, they did speak out and were ignored which is an entirely different concern.

In the words of the immortal Casey, can't anybody here play this game?

Shack continues to beat the drum for beta testing,  which obviously couldn't hurt.  But his thought is to use those Fall events, but that risks an admission that those events can be sacrificed to the gods of poor rules drafting.  I think the linkage of this rule to the player assuming a stance is right up there with the NFL's rule on catches, and will cause ongoing issues of interpretation.

Here's another of Geoff's takes illustrating the ongoing confusion:

So here’s a quick summary since my initial reading assumed Haotong Li would not have been penalized. Turns out, he still would be under this reading because his caddie was aware he was deliberately behind him when he took his stance and proved this awareness when he tried to walk away as Li moved into his stance.

Li could have backed off and things would have been fine. This escape clause now extends to all shots, not just the putting green exception.

But if Haotong's caddie said he wasn't deliberately there?  Yanno, some kind of out-of-body experience....  Sheesh!

On Alice - I'm not even going to give you ungrateful wretches an excerpt, just read this N.Y. Times obituary of Alice Dye.  

Amusingly, the Times informs me that I only have four free articles remaining....  Not to worry, that should last for quite a while.

I need to run, but want to warn you that Monday is a travel day.  Not sure what that means for a blogging schedule, but we'll play it by ear.