Tuesday Trifles

In which we give the girls their due, and cover other odds and ends.

In Praise of Minjee - As well as the venue....  Geoff had this great quote about the joint topping his blog:

…a golf course designed by Norman Macbeth, an amateur golfer and member of the club. He was limited to using 105 acres in a developing urban environment. He also had to deal with a barranca that had carved its way through the property. He came up with a brilliant design using the barranca as a prime factor in the play of thirteen holes. The result was and is a unique golf experience loaded with stimulating challenges and related rewards. SANDY TATUM on Wilshire

And a delight it is.  First, the game story:

The second edition of the HUGEL–AIR Premia LA Open lacked the drama of a Hollywood script thanks to the exquisite play of Minjee Lee. 

Her missing polo – soaked from the 18th-hole celebration – was the day’s biggest mystery. 

The young Aussie held a five-shot lead when she made the turn at Wilshire Country Club, and while Sei Young Kim tightened it up down the stretch, the 22-year-old collected her fifth career LPGA title with a leisurely walk up the par-3 18th. 

Lee is projected to move to No. 2 in the world. 

“I’m mean it’s pretty cool,” said a grinning Lee, “going to be my PB (personal best).”

Funny, she doesn't look Australian....  At least not any more so than Vijay looks Fijian or Lydia looks like a Kiwi.  Of course w elive in a day and age when Rory Sabbatini is a proud Slovak, so looks can deceive...

Better yet, Wilshire should be a fixture on the LPGA schedule for the foreseeable future:

Maybe it’s the Golf Channel shots of the old movie studio lots or perhaps it’s Wilshire

Country Club’s charming architecture, but The Forecaddie is ecstatic to hear the mid-city club has extended its commitment to LPGA golf for an additional five years. 

Initially, the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open was signed for three years in December 2017 as part of the club’s centennial celebration. The Man Out Front worried that might lead to a little fatigue with members after two years, but from informal surveys around the lively clubhouse area, the club is gladly hosting the world’s best female golfers. With the extension, the club will host through 2025. 

It has not hurt that late afternoon tee times put the course on Golf Channel’s East Coast prime-time coverage, earning a new level of national respect for a course typically in the shadows of Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club.

That's indeed great news, though did you catch the caveat?

The small, pitched greens and glorious bunkering once again produced a worthy all around winner in new Rolex world No. 2 Minjee Lee. Now The Forecaddie just hopes the event locks up sponsors Hugel and Air Premia for years to come. 

Hugel is a South Korea-based maker of beauty products, including Botox, and has hopes of entering the U.S. market soon. The Forecaddie hears all are happy with the sponsorship, with hopes of an extension beyond next year to join Wilshire’s commitment for tournament operator Eiger Marketing Group. 

Besides highlighting a great track, the return of the “LA Open” moniker is proving relatable to a longtime southern California audience. Since that was the name of the PGA Tour stop for more than 70 years and abandoned in 1995, it’s helped boost the LPGA’s return to the city after a 10-year absence. Now The Forecaddie hopes there are many more years to come.

Botox?  The jokes just write themselves, but the guys had no issue cashing checks from Cialis, so let's be fair here.... (Ed: Why start now?).

Isn't it funny, though, how important a simple little thing like that LA Open moniker can be?  It's hard to keep sponsors happy, but hopefully here it'll work for them all.

Gearhead Central - As you know, I don't blog equipment all that often, only when there's something of specific interest to me.  Jonathan Wall does a weekly roundup on the subject, called Wall-to-Wall... Clearly they stayed up nights thinking up that title, which is marginally more imaginative than Ask Alan...So, we've got that going for us....

A couple of interesting items this week, none more so than this take on those rich equipment deals:

Ryan Palmer isn’t hurting for an equipment endorsement check after his Zurich Classic victory with Jon Rahm. Then again, Palmer hasn’t been worried about equipment deals for some time now. Back in December, Palmer made it clear on GolfWRX’s ‘Gear Dive’ podcast that there was no longer a need to sign for 13 or 14 clubs. 

“Well the problem today is, you’re having to sign the full bag,” Palmer said “With TaylorMade, you’re having to sign the full staff, the ball. Titleist, full clubs, the ball. Callaway will get you in a driver deal. TaylorMade doesn’t have driver deals out there. Ping is obviously full staff, full clubs. So it’s just, guys, are not wanting to sign away every club in their bag. I mean, for me, I got an Odyssey putter, Vokey wedges, Srixon irons, TaylorMade woods.” 

Palmer had four different brands in the bag on Sunday, including a TaylorMade R15 5-wood that’s nearly a decade old. The club dates all the way back to Palmer’s 2010 Sony Open win and highlights the importance of having clubs he trusts in the bag, regardless of their age or wear.

“You know, honestly, some of the contracts aren’t worth what the money we’re playing for,” he said. “That’s the way I’ve always looked at it, the last few years, and I’d rather take the clubs I’m comfortable with and have confidence in than going out there with something I’m not used to just get a couple hundred thousand more dollars.”

Clearly, the times they are a-changin'....  We've always been more focused on those equipment changes resulting from a player chasing large checks...  Now we have two major brands, TM and Titleist, effectively under private equity ownership, and those marketing dollars will be rationalized....

 I like this one as well:

Seven heaven 

Tommy Fleetwood’s stellar approach shot from 269 yards into the par-5 18th at TPC

Louisiana left partner Sergio Garcia an eagle putt from just inside 30 feet. Right before Fleetwood pulled the trigger on the shot, on-course announcer Dottie Pepper noted the Englishman was going to execute the shot with a Ping G410 7-wood. 

Whether you want to believe it or not, the 7-wood continues to have a spot in the professional ranks. In fact, Fleetwod was so enamored with the club and benefits it offered, he dropped the lone Nike club (Vapor Fly 5-wood) left in his bag earlier this season. 

What makes the club even more interesting is that Fleetwood only needed two shots on the range to feel confident about the setup change. While the 7-wood remains an uncommon sight on tour, that hasn’t stopped some marquee names from using it in competition, including Bubba Watson, Marc Leishman and Jason Dufner.

I have great memories of my old Big Bertha 7-wood....  though I wonder if any of the shots I remember actually happened.

More Ladies Stuff -  They're ready for their close-up in Dubai:

Golf's seen its share of made-for-TV spectacles played under the lights, most recently at the infamous "wedge-off" between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson last November at Shadow Creek. Yet there's never been an official, professional golf tournament held at

night. At least until this week. 

The Ladies European Tour is set to host the first ever day-night event—dubbed the Omega Moonlight Classic—on the Faldo Course at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai. Formerly known as the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, the new-look 54-hole tournament has been switched from December to May so it can be played in both the sunshine and floodlights. 

“We think playing under lights is going to be absolutely awesome," said tournament director David Spencer. "Playing the tournament in May and under lights further showcases what an incredible golfing destination Dubai has become and how long our golfing season lasts each year.

Fair enough, though wasn't it just yesterday that we were agonizing over that Carly Booth story?

Thirty seconds of Googling leads me to this page:

According to human rights organizations, the government of the U.A.E violates a number of fundamental human rights. The UAE does not have democratically elected institutions and citizens do not have the right to change their government or to form political parties. There are reports of forced disappearances in the UAE, many foreign nationals and Emirati citizens have been abducted by the UAE government and illegally detained and tortured in undisclosed locations. [1][2] In numerous instances, the UAE government has tortured people in custody (especially expats and political dissidents).[3][4][5][6][7] and has denied their citizens the right to a speedy trial and access to counsel during official investigations.[1][2] 

Flogging and stoning are legal forms of judicial punishment in the UAE due to Sharia courts.[8] The government restricts freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the local media is censored to avoid criticizing the government, government officials or royal families. Freedom of association and freedom of religion are also curtailed. 

Despite being elected to the UN Council, the UAE has not signed most international human-rights and labor-rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

So, they seem like bad guys, but Carly's Tour is in bed with them....  And while I suppose there's a case to be made that the Saudi's are worse, nobody is actually going to the trouble of making that case.

So, here's a thought...  How about we put the rules down on paper before we crucify the players for violations thereof?  I know, an idea so crazy that it just might work.

Still More Ladies Stuff - Beth Ann Nichols agonizes over that awkward weekend in April:

Lauren Stephenson had a hard time tearing herself away from the final-round telecast of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to go warm up for Round 3 of the ANA Inspiration. Everything about it was bigger than she’d imagined, and the LPGA rookie’s peers were putting on one heckuva show. 

“I had major FOMO,” said Stephenson, who left Alabama a semester early to join the

LPGA. (That’s “fear of missing out” for non-millennials.) 

Word is out. The Augusta women’s event is the best amateur tournament in the world. It far exceeds most women’s professional events too in every measure that counts outside of a purse. 

Will the allure of the ANWA die down next year? Not a chance.

Not sure I agree with Beth Ann's last bit there.  I do think undue attention was paid to the ANWA because it was the first opportunity to see women play the venue, and I do expect that to wane next year.  Of course the LPGA is poorly positioned to allow any depletion of their viewer base, and the bigger point is to avoid the dilemma it poses for the players.

Beth Ann doesn't mince words:

It’s a battle the LPGA simply can’t win. 

The argument that the ANA shouldn’t move simply because they were there first isn’t good enough. LPGA veterans are tired of having to move their events around to fit within the PGA Tour schedule. The tour moved the ANA previously to get it away from The Players Championship. Augusta National coming along and bigfooting their major left plenty of players steaming and for good reason. 

The LPGA didn’t create this schedule conflict, but they’re going to have to be the ones that fix it. 

Moving the date forward seems to be the best option. Crowds at the ANA have been dwindling for years. It’s a bad look for TV and makes for a flat atmosphere on the ground. If the ANA moves further into April, even more of the seasonal desert folks will have left town. That cuts into the number of fans and volunteers. It also puts the event up against Coachella, which presents a whole host of extra headaches.

All true, though those of us who care about this stuff should keep in mind that Fred Ridley's gift to women's golf came with one heck of a price tag.....

Jay Monahan, Perhaps? - Pravda had an interesting piece on sports gambling a few days ago, which included this bit:

The reluctance of state lawmakers, gambling analysts say, is based on a growing consensus that legal sports betting may not bring the windfall that economic forecasters predicted only a few months ago. 

“There were a lot of people who didn’t know what they were talking about,” said Allen Godfrey, the executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, which oversees the sports betting ventures around Tunica.

That is Tunica, MS, a town that is..... well, all in, on sports gambling.   As you know, I've been skeptical as to the effect this would have on our little game of golf, but it turns out to be a far bigger yawn in total:

Since the Supreme Court’s decision last May, which raised the prospect of hundreds of millions in new tax revenue, just six states have given final approval to allow legal sports betting. In a seventh state, New Mexico, Native American tribes have begun offering

sports betting with federal approval. 

In all, about a dozen states are considering sports gambling bills. But lawmakers and gambling analysts say only two or three of those states are likely to approve sports betting this legislative session, in part because of disappointing experiences in states where betting was recently made legal.

West Virginia, for instance, has collected only one-fourth of the monthly tax revenue it projected. Pennsylvania and Mississippi have received only about half of the tax revenue they had anticipated, according to data from those states. 

Rhode Island has done even worse: State budget officials had assumed that sports betting would bring in nearly $1 million a month, but only about $50,000 is coming in each month.

It's also predatory and regressive.....Not a good look and something the PGA Tour, should, I believe, be uncomfortable with as a profit center.  It's quite the cautionary tale, not that anyone's paying attention.

I'll let you get on with your day.  I'm not sure about blogging tomorrow, as there's talk of a 9:30 fourball....