The Reconquista - Day 2

Butler Cabin looks like a funeral parlor, badly lit. FRANK HANNIGA

Gee, this Tiger story might actually have legs....  Who knew people were interested?

The Big Picture - Folks continue to outdo themselves with the wide-angle assessments of Tiger's Sunday win, including Christine Brennan:

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It’s a natural question to ask: What was more momentous, Tiger Woods’ first major victory at the 1997 Masters, or his latest at the 2019 Masters? 

Were it not for the first, he certainly would have had a different path to the last, of

course, but I believe Sunday’s victory, a sports comeback for the ages, will end up being more memorable because it was so improbable and so long in the making. 

It’s one thing for a 21-year-old prodigy to burst onto the scene with a 12-stroke victory at a course that was made for him. As spectacular as that was, that’s usually the way sports work. 

It’s another thing entirely for a 43-year-old who has endured personal scandal and four surgeries on his back, including spinal fusion two years ago, to end a nearly 11-year major championship drought by taking on and beating all challengers on the course he first conquered 22 years ago.

The Tour Confidential panel led with a similar question:

1. In case you missed it, Tiger Woods won the Masters; it’s his 15th major title but first since the 2008 U.S. Open. Given all Tiger has overcome in recent years — the scandal, the surgeries, the swing changes, the chip yips — is this his greatest victory?

Jon Wall: Without a doubt. Woods wouldn’t give it the superlative it deserved, but nothing tops this victory. Sometimes you have to lose everything to truly realize what you had. Woods went from rock bottom back to the mountaintop. It’s nearly impossible to pull off what he accomplished on Sunday. 

Jess Marksbury: Well said. The yearning is what makes this the greatest. Eleven long years. Just a year and a half ago it seemed impossible that Tiger could contend again. It truly is the most remarkable comeback ever. The joy and excitement we witnessed today felt like a gift. And now, here we are thinking about the possibilities of Bethpage, Pebble … it’s just awesome. 

Sean Zak: Can we delineate between victory and accomplishment? I’d call it his greatest accomplishment. Greatest victory was probably that ‘97 beheading of the field. 

Dylan Dethier: Thanks for that cold water, Zak. We all saw his reaction on 18. That was absolutely years in the making, and it was pure, and unbridled, and I’m glad he let himself have it. That tells you everything about this W.

That's a ton of pixels wasted, because grizzled veteran Mike Bamberger nails it succinctly:

Michael Bamberger,: You can’t have this one without the first one, and the 14th one. But this was the most meaningful.

They're bookends for an epic career....  I'd be reluctant to argue against that first one, when he....how did Sean put it, beheaded the field.  But it's really the same phenomenon....  that otherworldly talent that, in his youth, allowed him to destroy fields, now allows him to remain competitive in the face of age-related decline.

This Is So Disillusioning -  I was reliably informed that Tiger just won his 5th green jacket.....Turns out that was some of that fake news that the kids on MSNBC are always droning on about:

When Tiger Woods slipped into his Masters green jacket Sunday in Butler Cabin, with an

assist from 2018 champion Patrick Reed, an awkward moment of silence followed, before a glowing Tiger peeped, “It fits.” 

At that instant, you may have asked yourself: How did they have the right-sized jacket ready for Tiger minutes after his win? The answer might surprise you.

It turns out that the green jacket Tiger wrapped himself in Sunday afternoon was the exact same one that he donned after his four other Masters victories.

That’s right, Tiger Woods did not capture his fifth green jacket on April, 14, 2019 at Augusta National. He just put on his old green jacket for the fifth time.

Were you lying about Santa Claus as well? 

Did The Internet Hold Up? - Just barely it seems...  So you're probably assuming TV ratings that were off the charts....  A bit of a split verdict, actually:

Masters Sunday clocks monster TV ratings thanks to Tiger's win

TV ratings for Tiger Woods' historic Masters win hurt by early start time

7.7 Overnight: 2019 Masters Scores Strong Ratings Despite Early Start

You see the issue...  No word on how many folks turned on CBS at 2:00 not realizing that tee times had been moved up....

It was actually a weird week to analyze the ratings.  Saturday's broadcast was the highest rated golf broadcast in four years, but ESPN's numbers on Thursday-Friday were weak.  Shack and others have speculated that streaming coverage might have eaten into the linear broadcast, though that was speculation.

I do love this from CBS:

The final round — which culminated in Tiger Woods’ first win at a major championship since 2008 — also registered a 21 share, which means 21% of television viewers at the time were watching the event. It peaked at a 28 share between 2:15 and 2:30 p.m. ET. 

CBS touted the ratings as dominant, calling the Masters “the highest-rated morning golf broadcast in 34 years.” However, it is worth noting that the majority of golf broadcasts occur in the afternoon or evening; The British Open is one notable exception. 

CBS also showed an encore presentation of the final round from 3 – 7 p.m. ET Sunday. It delivered a 3.4 overnight rating and an 8 share.

Was the 1986 Open Championship especially memorable?  Sandy Lyle at Sandwich wouldn't seam to be the stuff of dreams....Curious, no?

Geoff had this chart, which I'll not presume to understand:

 
 This analysis from Sports Media Watch is interesting as well:

Keep in mind that ratings are the percentage of homes watching a program out of the total number of television homes. Those numbers will be inevitably lower when fewer homes are watching television (as is the case during the morning). 

Using the share, which is the percentage of homes watching out of the number of televisions in use, Sunday’s telecast fared much better. It had a 21 share, up 17% from last year (18) and tied with 2013 as the highest for the Masters since 2011. 

An encore presentation of the final round delivered a 3.4 overnight from 3-7 PM ET. Combined, the live and encore telecasts grossed an 11.1 overnight. That would be the highest for the Masters since 2010, which marked Woods’ return to golf following his marital infidelity scandal (12.0).

Those numbers for a replay seem especially impressive.

Not sure where The Forecaddie and Martin Kauffman are this week, as they usually pop up on Tuesdays to confirm our disdian for the CBS coverage.  Instead, we have Golfweek posting Bill Goodykoontz's thoughts from the Arizona Republic:

But once it was clear that Woods was going to win his first major championship in 11 years the CBS coverage became so downright gooey the television screen practically dripped. 

After sinking his final putt, the crowd went wild and started shouting, “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” To be sure, this is not Masters behavior. This is Phoenix Open behavior. But it was unstoppable. Woods has overcome addictions, injuries and some pretty horrible choices since the last time he won a major, and now he was back. 

He walked off the green and his young son ran to him, at which point CBS analyst Nick Faldo, himself a former Masters champion, said, “That will be the greatest scene in golf forever.” 

Uh, really? 

Dude. It wasn’t even the greatest scene in golf Sunday.

So you're saying our Sir Nick is a little excitable?  Weird that.... But CBS is excessively treacly in their coverage of the Zurich, you weren't expecting them to controls themselves at The Masters, were you?

And yes, watching Woods embrace his family was indeed moving. You can bet that within a couple of minutes someone in the production truck had put together quick snippets of Woods, winning his first major in 1996, embracing his late father, with a cut to Woods embracing his son. Someone give that person a raise. 

Of course that wasn’t enough. Jim Nantz, who hosts CBS coverage of the Masters and treats Augusta National Golf Club and the tournament itself as if it were some sort of church and he its most devoted member, went back to it again and again. He even asked Woods about it — not the hugging itself, but the compilation. For Woods’ part, he repeated that he was, in the moment, speechless.

C'mon, they didn't have to put together, as they had it teed up and ready to roll....  From the moment Molinari's ball went kerplunk  (on 12, not 15) they had the narrative set to go. 

This is pretty spot-on as well:

After Brooks Koepka finished his round, and he tied for second, CBS reporter Amanda Balionis conducted the post-match interview. The first thing she asked him was how Woods must be feeling. Imagine what that must be like.

The thing is, I give them a pass this week, because the result did in fact justify their breathless worship.  It's when they apply the same tone to lesser events or to a Trevor Immelman win that my head explodes.

Sam Weinman has a very personal investment in this story:

The history books choose to ignore this, but Tiger Woods and I turned pro on the same day. In August 1996, the morning after watching Woods come from behind to win his third straight U.S. Amateur, I drove my Nissan Sentra to my first real job at a now-

defunct monthly sports magazine. Woods flew to the Greater Milwaukee Open in Phil Knight’s jet. 

By Thanksgiving, Woods was a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and my first gig was over almost as soon as it began. The magazine went under—I refuse to take all the blame—and I had already migrated to cover golf at a local newspaper. 

I suppose it’s weird to only have covered golf through the prism of one incredibly disruptive figure. It would be like if your introduction to covering presidential politics was through the Donald Trump Administration. And then if Trump remained president for the next 22 years.

 Sam, have you considered the possibility that this has never been about you?

Professionally, though, I have never known golf without Tiger Woods, and those of us who work in golf media have been tethered to him in some capacity for decades.

OK, I'm gonna take that as a "No:.

But here's the gist of his argument:

But I do feel like I’ve been afforded a certain perspective on Woods, and particularly, how wildly we swing from one extreme to the next when charting his progress. Turns out at his height, even in playing golf better than anyone in history, Woods was destined to fall short of the image we projected on him. And in the depth of scandal, injury and addiction, he was never that bad. People tend to deal in absolutes these days, but Woods is just another guy who struggles to navigate the vast space between his best and worst self.

It all reminds me of those heady days early in both of our careers when the possibilities seemed endless. But I hope, for everyone’s sake, that we recognize the patterns that brought us down this road in the first place. Even as Woods continues to deliver on the spectacular, it's still as someone who fights many of the same flaws as the rest of us. The last thing he needs is a breathless public equating an improved driver swing or stabler family life with new expectations even he can’t sustain. 

Golf is hard. Life can be, too. Rather than put Woods back on a pedestal, I choose to admire the man for simply finding a way back to his feet.

What I love about is he's basically saying that the sporting press isn't very good at their profession...  and by extension, and he made the reference to Trump, neither is the rest of the media.

I find myself disagreeing with his basic premise.  Yes, as a golf writer, he was "tethered" to Tiger who was the largest story i the game.  That he couldn't find other subjects or explore other aspects of the Tiger story is his own failing, not ours.

Most of us long ago came to the realization that we don't really know our sports heroes.  It turns out that Mickey Mantle was a drunkard and womanizer, and I'll just have to deal with that.  He's still my baseball God, because he was Mickey Friggin' Mantle....

Same with Tiger.  I recognized and loved his brilliance on the golf course, but I also realized that he never let us in enough to know him as a man.  Unlike Sam, I don't need to excuse the Tiger that we learned about at Thanksgiving 2009....  You know what, it really was that bad.  I'm not suggesting that he should be banished from polite society, but let's not trivialize destroying ones' family....

The Hyperbola Begins - Mike Stachura tells us that it's the pictures that got small:

“Tiger winning Augusta is huge for our brand,” said Dan Murphy, president and CEO of Bridgestone Golf. “Seeing our Bridgestone ‘B’ rolling toward the hole on international TV is a big boost. The victory pays off a big bet we made in not only contracting with Tiger but in featuring him in all our ads this year. In a word: Wow!” 

That immediate excitement also was echoed by Buddy Christensen, president of Golfdom, the large independent golf retail store outside Washington, D.C. 

“Tiger moves the needle like no other, and a win like this over big names, all while he looked as much like the Tiger of old as ever, will get golfers excited,” he said. “The Masters weekend always provides a ‘pop’ and starts our season, but this takes it to a whole other level. I can't wait to open our doors.” 

Some believe that needle is poised to move with a velocity it never has before—precisely because he had been written off multiple times for multiple reasons. Christensen called it “a more ‘real’ Tiger, more accessible and fun-loving.” David Pillsbury, CEO of private club company ClubCorp and a former top executive at the PGA Tour and Nike, sees the transformation of Woods as more appealing than the original phenomenon.

The Bridgestone comment is amusing, because back when Tiger was unable to play, their Chairman stated that Tiger was more valuable as a non-plying spokesman.  Really, and from all accounts he said it with a straight face....

Te AP sees an investment opportunity:

Apex Marketing Group, a branding consulting company, estimated the media exposure for Nike to be worth more than $22 million. Nike Inc.’s stock rose less than 1% Monday. 

Shares of energy drink maker Monster Beverage Corp., a sponsor whose green logo appears on Woods’ golf bag, gained about 2%. 

Other golf companies that aren’t connected to Woods also saw a boost. Club maker Callaway Golf Co.’s stock rose 1.5%. And Acushnet Holdings Corp., maker of golf balls and other golfing equipment, added 1.7%.

Unclear whether that's just Tiger, as Molinari and Koepka were similarly swooshed-out as they rinsed their balls on No. 12.

In another Sam Weinman item, he correlates Tiger's early career with the NASDAQ index:

Sweet Sixteen - While I disagree a bit, I'm very glad that this got kicked around by the writers:

6. Our Sean Zak made the case that the ace-friendly Sunday hole location at the par-3 16th is too predictable. Is Zak on to something or on something?

I've been questioning this green for years, so let's see what Sean had to say:

The current Sunday location at 16 has been manufactured for excitement rather than

plotted to display skillful golf shots. By the modern player, it is played quite simply with a straight wedge, carrying some 170 yards, cozying to the hole with a touch of spin. Adam Scott knows it. “They know exactly where to put (the hole) for some excitement,” Scott said back in 2018. “It’s a funnel pin. If they put it right there, it all kind of feeds towards it. And, guys are good, they hit the right line and right number.” 

And then we wait. Gravity tells the golfer if they’re lucky enough for the one instead of a two. Fans who tune in for their annual dosage of early-April golf adore it, but that’s not what major championship golf is about. Is the Masters about chasing entertainment, or a test of peak golf performance? Is a “funnel pin” good enough for the 70th hole of the greatest tournament in golf? Through five hours of play Sunday morning, the only holes at Augusta playing easier were the par 5s.

He makes excitement seem like a bad thing....  In fact, a ball on the ground is about the most exciting thing in golf, and we should recognize that.  But there's a strategic flaw in the green.  With water in play, a hole location near the water is chosen to force the player to negotiate the risk-reward trade-off....  That's not in play here, because the contour allows for a line away from the trouble, which will then feed the ball towards the pin. 

So, what does Sean suggest?

The Sunday pin location should be moved back to its roots, deep right on the green, where it used to be played. Want some history there? Think of Jack Nicklaus and his excited caddie in 1975. Getting close to that hole is as tricky as it gets. And the short-sided bunker long right? A book-it bogey.

Ugh!  The real problem with the 16th green is that the Sunday pin is the only one that works on any level.  When the pin is back right, we see the entire field have the same 35-40 foot uphill putt....  Talk about a snoozefest. 

The gang is a little tough on our Sean:

Bamberger: No. He is incorrect. But points for the original thought! It has to be one of the top-100 par-3s in tournament golf. 

Wall: I love Mr. Zak, but this is a terrible take. Part of the magic of Sunday at Augusta is the outside chance a player could make an ace that alters the course of the tournament. That pin position is always good for some fireworks, which is what the back nine is all about at the Masters. Sure, returning to the back right pin would add a degree of difficulty, but this isn’t the U.S. Open. I want to see guys firing at flags, not hitting shots to strategic spots for a routine par.

Dethier: Yeah, I kinda dig this one. If any course besides Augusta National had a hole in a collection area exactly like this, we’d give it a hard time. It is super fun, and part of the tradition — but sometimes new traditions are good, too. I’m game for a change. 

Ritter: Zak has had several great Masters-themed ideas over the years, including an oral history of the 1997 event and a podcast that celebrates its history. I never thought he’d do anything more offensive than eating 21 of Augusta’s fried chicken sandwiches in a single week (link?) a few years back, but this might be it. The 16th is the easiest hole out there, but it’s still a blast. Don’t mess with it.

 Don't mess with it unless you're inclined to blow up the green and start fresh.  I don't think it's near as good a hole as Mike, but it's very much a part of why that back nine on Sunday has such a track record of delivering the goods.

On a similar subject. I have been coming to the conclusion in recent years that the twelfth hole's days of terror had succumbed to the modern game.  I grew up in the game with Jack's admonitions in my ear, never go at that right pin on Sunday.  Of course, Jack was hitting mid-irons back in the day, whereas today's brutes are hitting pitching wedges. 

Yeah, we had Jordan back in 2016, but he's unusually high strung.  But four of six in the last two groups?  I assume this is just a blip on the rend line, but four out of six is one heck of a blip...