Thursday Threads

Lots to cover for y'all, so let's have at it....

Under Way - It didn't take long fro the cream to rise:

With Mr. Chairman once again standing behind the tee to witness the opening ceremony and historic start to the event he created, Kupcho striped her drive down the center of the 1st fairway at Champions Retreat. 

“It was very official,” Kupcho said. “I walked up, everyone was very quiet, like no talking to each other at all. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is crazy.’ But yeah, it was a great experience to have everyone there. Mr. Chairman was there. It was exciting to get to hit it. I was a little nervous, but somehow it went straight.” 

Everything pretty much went straight for Kupcho on Wednesday. On a cool but comfortable sunny morning, her day steadily warmed up with the temperature as she fired a bogey-free 68 capped by an up-and-down birdie on 18. She hit every green and barely missed only a couple fairways and posted her fourth consecutive competitive round without a three-putt. 

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever had no bogeys and hit 18 greens together,” said Kupcho, who shares the lead at four under with 16-year-old Zoe Campos. “So probably the first perfect round I’ve played.”

She is the best in the amateur game, and will be coming to an LPGA stop near you after the NCAA's.

This did trigger a thought:

Kupcho has largely been the center of attention since she arrived. The reigning NCAA individual champion already has her LPGA tour card locked up when she chooses to turn pro after leading her Wake Forest team back to the NCAAs this summer. Her frontrunner status landed her at the big table after the full 72-player field got to go shopping in the Masters merchandise “mall” and explore the Augusta National clubhouse, including stops in the Champions Locker Room and the Crow’s Nest where amateurs can stay during the Masters.

They're smaller than the guys, but I guess they can't fit 72 of them in the Crow's Nest....  Couldn't they have done a lottery or something?

Today's a big day for the girls, as they scramble for a Saturday tee time at that other golf course.

Masters Stuff -  In Austin last week, Tiger explained how the ANGC course has changed since 1997:

The changes begin, Woods said, off the tee. “It is way more challenging off the tees than it used to be. And I remember Raymond [Floyd] telling me just on 9, just hit it as far

right as you possibly can. Well, you can’t do that anymore, there’s a forest down the right. 

“On 11 you try to hit the ball up against the gallery. Well, now there is literally a forest that is there. The fairway used to be 80 yards wide, it’s no longer the case.” 

The way the fairways are cut, Woods says, has changed tee shots, too. 

“It used to be down-grained,” he said. “And then it was half into the grain, half down-grain, and they always made sure inside the dogleg was the one that was down-grain. That would bait you into being aggressive. Now everything is cut back into you.” As a result, tee shots don’t roll out as far — Augusta’s own defense against increased driving distance. 

Augusta has added a secondary cut of rough, too, at the edge of the fairway. And the course has gotten longer: “We were hitting one-irons and two-irons off of 7 to get on the upslope.”

Those are the trees about which we spoke yesterday....  There's more, as the club has attempted to Tiger-proof its golf course, and has largely succeeded....  But it's a strange business, because the first year after the most substantial lengthening of the course we were treated to that epic Mike Weir-Len Mattice playoff.  If you don't remember those guys, two of the shortest hitters to be found.

 But it's been fourteen long years since his last win, so can somebody please explain that to me?

Masters 2019: Why Tiger Woods hasn't won at Augusta National in 14 years

It so happens that there are four reasons, beginning with:

Power outage

A two-word excerpt is all you'll need, at least when combined with this graphic:

 If there were an award for effective graphics, this would be a contenduh....

This one is also good, though it might merely be replicating the first:

Probably the most troubling of Joel's four explanations is his diminished 2nd shot performance, though he uses GIR's in lieu of proximity, likely because the latter data is not available.

It's a good faith attempt to see how Tiger's performance against the field has changed over time, reflecting both Tiger's games and the changes in the golf course.  Limited, obviously, by the availability of data....

Let's switch gears and dive into Alan Shipnuck's mailbag for some Tiger-queries, first this quick but amusing hit:

Do you think Tiger missed his putt on purpose? -@Jbayzzz 

Tiger Truthers are a different kind of cat.

For sure, but this one is the meatier offering:

Any credence to the theory that it actually was a good thing Tiger lost in the quarterfinals? Among other things, it let his body rest up, especially given the cold weather on Sunday morning? He showed his game is ready to step up a la beating Rory and no sense risking injury less than two weeks before Augusta, right? -@KeithKHorton 

Put another way, is it better to accrue mental scar tissue or risk pushing his body too hard? I want to see Tiger stay healthy as much as the next guy – more, perhaps, since I still have to put my kids through college – but missing a do-or-die four-footer is the worst imaginable prep for Augusta National. Think of all the important putts Woods has missed since his last Masters victory. It started on the back nine against Y.E. Yang, continued a few weeks later on the 72nd hole at Liberty National, afflicted him badly in Masters near-misses in 2010 and ’11, and perhaps reached its nadir last summer on the 11th hole at Carnoustie. At his peak, Tiger was the greatest clutch putter of all time, and maybe the best pure putter ever. Now he ranks just 78th on Tour in Strokes Gained: putting and he’s even shakier from close range. Beating an overwrought McIlroy was nice but even in that match Tiger did not play great golf. Yes, it’s helpful to keep the mileage down heading into Augusta, but what does it matter if Woods struggles on the greens? My takeaway from the Match Play is that Tiger had a clutch putt he absolutely had to make and he couldn’t do it.

The point I want to make is it absolutely did not start on that back nine against Y.E. Yang....  Tiger had been kicking away majors due to bad putting long before the South Korean became a household name.  The 2005 Open at Baltusrol won by Phil, The Oakmont Open won bt Cabrera and the Pinehurst Open won by Michael Campbell were all events Tiger would have won if he had been an average putter that week.

Golf.com has released their anonymous poll of players, and it's got some fun stuff.  Nothing juicy, alas, but still worth our time:

1. What’s the best hole at Augusta?

No. 12: 28%

No. 13: 20%

No. 15: 22%

Other: 30% 

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“No. 10. It’s such a cool view as you turn the corner.” 

2. What is the worst hole at Augusta? 

No. 4: 33%

No. 11: 15%

None: 12%

Other: 40% 

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“It isn’t that 4 is a bad hole. I just always make a [double-bogey] 5.”

“Come on! Are there any?”

“10. Only because it’s so hard.”

No. 12?  First off, I'm guessing Jordan wasn't one of their forty players interviewed....  You'd have thought No. 13 would win in  a landslide...speaking of which:

3. Would lengthening the par-5 13th make it a better hole? 

YES: 23%

NO: 77% 

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“Fifteen more yards is all you need.”

“It’s hard enough as it is.”

“That’s a tough one. You want to be able to get there, just not with a 7-iron, you know?”

Those comments are really quite interesting.  The issue to me with lengthening is the sharp dogleg that the players have to clear, so it's quite possible that just a little added length would actually be helpful.  Might be just enough to make the guys hit driver, more difficult to turn right-to-left.

But that second comment is simply brilliant, because in no sense is this hole difficult in relation to par.  What it gets at is that the player knows he has to make a four, and it is a tough four.  I've always said that I'd rather they change the par of the hole, than lengthen it substantially, and to the players it seems that it already is.

Remember guys, bet with your head, not your heart:

5. Will Tiger Woods win another green jacket? 

YES: 75%

NO: 25%

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“Don’t bet against the GOAT.” 

6. How many? 

1: 90%

2: 7%

Don’t know: 3% 

7. Will Phil Mickelson win another green jacket? 

YES : 13%

NO: 87% 

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“Phil and Tiger, those guys always have a chance.”

The absence of love for Phil is amusing, though mostly I'd like to talk to those 2.8 guys (7% of forty) that think he'll win more than one more, as I have some swampland that they'd no doubt like.

11. Who wins a Masters first: Rory or Rickie? 

Rory: 78%

Rickie: 15%

Neither: 7% 

AND ANOTHER THING … 

“I am going to win a Masters before they do.”

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you will as well, kind of an amazing statement since I have no clue who you are.

 Good fun, though seems like they stayed away from anything with even a whiff of controversy.

Over To You, Alan - Some good stuff, as usual, leading with gimmegate:

How would you have handled the Kuchar/Garcia brouhaha? Personally, if I’m Kooch, I tell the rules official that I had conceded the putt and move on. #AskAlan -Daniel (@68shooter) 

This was such an utterly fascinating kerfuffle that days later it remains a collective obsession. Of course it had to involve the naughtiest boys on Tour (this year, anyway). If the exact same thing had happened between, say, Xander Schauffele and Marc Leishman, 

no one would really have cared. But for many people Gimmegate amplified and/or confirmed suspicions created by Garcia’s and Kuchar’s previous controversies: the former is impetuous, bratty, entitled, possibly unhinged; the latter duplicitous and fake. Garcia certainly created this mess by blowing his little putt in a fit of pique. To play the victim and blame Kuchar is weak sauce. Garcia screwed up and deserved to lose the hole, full stop. It’s been fascinating to see so many Tour pros and caddies rise up to pin the blame on Kuchar. The common refrain is that he should have lied to the rules official and said he conceded the putt. It’s funny that in a game that venerates truthiness, self-reporting and rigid, rules-are-rules morality, Kuchar is being killed on social media for not perpetuating a bogus falsehood. The whole thing happened so fast I’m not sure Kuchar had time to do a cost-benefit analysis on winning a hole versus getting dragged into another sordid controversy. I think it’s more likely he was acting on instinct, which, despite the omnipresent smile, is to be a hard-ass. For this he has my approval.

Agree.   Not so much with the questioner here, though:

Has anyone in history had a Strokes Gained Controversy as high as Kuchar? He may kick a puppy during Masters week to ensure victory. #AskAlan -@GolfingBrock

I’m honestly much more intrigued by this flawed version of Kuchar. He’s always been a little bit private and somewhat unknowable. We’re finally getting to see the real Kuch – it’s messy and human and way more interesting.

Huh?  Am I forgetting past Kooch scandals?  Mind you, I love the concept invoked, Strokes Gained: Controversy, and am will to ignore the elided colon,.  But if you're keeping score at home, in that category isn't Sergio the GOAT?

As for this?

After Suzann Pettersen and now Sergio should we just retire the gimme? #AskAlan -@GregFlat9 

Oh, gawd no! It’s such a delicious part of match play. I love giving an opponent a bunch of 3- and 4-footers early in a match and then, when an important one arrives, offering stony silence. This kind of strategy (gamesmanship?) was on full display in Austin and it only adds to the intrigue.

I blame Tim Rosaforte for this...  I'm not actually sure that even Suzann understands what she (and partner Charley Hull) did wrong, but that breach of etiquette cannot be pinned on Kooch. 

Lastly...

Listening to Rory the night before he had to play Tiger I really felt like he didn’t want to play him. As a Tiger fan I loved it. Am I alone in thinking Rory psyches himself out? -@Darryl_MacNeil 

You would be alone in thinking he doesn’t.

He played like it as well....

I must run.... See you tomorrow?