I do appreciate the absence of any whining over my day off from the keyboard. The weathe rbeing what it's been, we need to grab any opportunities that present....
The Holy Trinity - They went to a lot of bother to save the Byron nelson, only to relegate it to also-ran status in the new schedule:
Word of mouth and the PGA Tour's schedule change, with the Nelson immediately preceding the PGA Championship, has strengthened the field. An influx of Europeans created the largest spike.
The Nelson field will feature 14 of the top 50 players in the World Golf Ranking: No. 3 Koepka, No. 19 Patrick Reed, No. 22 Marc Leishman, No. 28 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 31 Rafa Cabrera Bello, No. 33 Alex Noren, No. 36 Jordan Spieth, No. 40 Henrik Stenson, No. 42 Kiradech Aphibarnrat, No. 43 Lucas Bjerregaard, No. 45 Justin Harding, No. 46 Branden Grace, No. 48 Charles Howell III, and No. 50 Thorbjorn Olesen.
That's an improvement over last year, when only five top-50 players were willing to try out the new links-style layout in southeast Dallas. Still, the no-show marquee names are hard to ignore.
Yes, they'll likely see more Euros playing this week, but it's the kind of Euros that only come over for the big events, as opposed to the studs (Rose, Garcia, etc.) that play here full time.
For those hoping the venue will allow its freak flag to fly, not this year per Geoff:
The normally firm and fast course was slowed down last year to ensure players were not turned off by the bold design features. Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch wasn’t a fan of that move and pleads with the PGA Tour to not dumb down the setup. However, this spring the weather has made it nearly impossible to present such a course, with more potentially violent storms expected Wednesday.
And don't forget that Tony Romo will be in the field.... I know, there's a zero percent chance that CBS will go more than ten minutes at a time without reminding us of his presence.
Not only is this guy there, but he's focused like a laser on this event:
Brooks Koepka’s mind isn’t cluttered with thoughts about Brandel Chamblee, the GolfChannel analyst who recently unleashed stingers at the major champion.
Nor is Koepka thinking ahead to his title defense in next week’s 101st PGA Championship and the accompanying media requests, or how he’ll deal with bruising Bethpage Black when the second major of the season begins.
Instead, his mind is focused on a treeless, wind-swept expanse named Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, home to the AT&T Byron Nelson. While other players are resting ahead of the PGA Championship and have taken reconnaissance trips to Bethpage Black, Koepka will ready himself by playing his way into the major.
As long as you're there, Brooksie, I guess this makes sense:
“I’m not focused on shots for next week. I’m here to play this golf course. I’m not trying to manipulate anything. I see the shot I’m going to hit it and you’re not trying to focus on anything else. You just want to play well here. You’re not trying to blow this week off just to make sure you got a shot you might hit two, three times for next week. That doesn’t make any sense to me. You go out and play and see how you’re hitting it and make adjustments and kind of move on from there.”
That makes sense, because there aren't any of those shots you'll need next week. This seems as crazy to me as the guys that would go play the Scottish at Loch Lomond the week before the Open Championship.... at least in that case there was travel and time zones to which the player needed to adapt.
Bethpage On Our Mind - Tiger has been unable to work much golf into his schedule, what with parading around in that ugly green jacket, which he fortunately did not wear on his visit with Orange Man.
He’s since turned his attention to Bethpage Black and the PGA Championship, which begins on the public Long Island run a week from Thursday.
Woods, wearing shorts on a warm April day, was spotted swinging from the tee box at the par-3, No. 3 hole Wednesday. The clip below was posted by Sam Bozoian on his @RiggsBarstool Twitter feed.Bozoian was told by an official on site that Woods “stuck” both tee shots on the 230-yard hole, putting one to within seven feet. The green is perilous on No. 3, given its severe drop off and angulation from right front to back left. Deep bunkers, meanwhile, lurk on the left.
I think there was a Phil sighting as well....
You might be expecting Shack to pop up around now with a history lessong, and you'll not be disappointed. Today's covers Tillie's Grand Tour in the mid-30's on behalf of the PGA:
In the summer of 1935, A.W. Tillinghast commenced a tour of the country’s golf courses as a consulting golf course architect for the PGA of America. Hired by his good friend George Jacobus who was then President of the PGA, this service was provided only togolf courses where PGA members were retained and was service was free of charge. Thinking that it would last just a few months, Tilly would consult to over 500 golf courses over a more than two-year time span. While on the tour, Tillinghast was credited in the news media with the elimination of thousands of sand traps, which he called “Duffer Headaches,” or DHs for short. DHs included obsolete bunkers, unnatural mounds (sometimes called chocolate drops) or other antiquated course features that hinder the higher handicap player, and are costly to maintain. In fact, in the middle of his tour Tillie wrote, “…it is a matter of record that I have condemned nearly eight thousand sand traps.” However, Tillinghast did much more on his tour than pointing out obsolete sand traps. Rather, he provided significant architecture design recommendations and specific plans for improvements to hundreds of the golf courses.Tillinghast made two complete loops of the United States, with some doubling back in a few spots. His mode of operation was to take temporary residence in a hotel in a major city and make daily visits to courses from there. He coordinated his trips in advance through the local section of the PGA, generally with the local PGA section president. His visits were by invitation only, from the host PGA professional, and only authorized if that professional's dues to the Association were paid up in full. If a non-PGA member pro requested his services, he respectfully declined, in each case. He would also let Jacobus know, as he did in Rochester, NY when he wrote Jacobus of two clubs which he had declined and told him that “I am going nowhere unless at the request of your members.”
Make the time to read it in full, as you'll not be disappointed. An extensive listing of the more than 500 course visited and a summary of changes recommended can be found here.
In history of this specific championship, Ryan Herrington does a deep dive into a strange premise:
The most PGA moments in PGA Championship history
Weird, that, because to me the PGA Championship is like Tuesday, by which I mean:
Kramer: What's today?Newman: It's Thursday.Kramer: Really? Feels like Tuesday.Newman: Tuesday has no feel. Monday has a feel, Friday has a feel, Sunday has a feel....
The event has no identity, except perhaps for the recycling of former U.S. Open venues...Think I'm being harsh? Take a gander at these three sequential entries:
1996 — Instead of preparing on the range for a potential playoff at Louisville’s Valhalla Golf Club, Kentucky native Kenny Perry watches the final groups come in from the CBS TV booth. He promptly loses said playoff to Mark Brooks on the first hole of sudden death. An entire state goes into mourning.
2002 — Rich Beem clinches his first major title at Hazeltine National. As much as he will remember his performance over the 72 holes, the collective golf audience remembers the best hula dance from a major winner since the days of Hagen.
2003 — Shaun Micheel wins the PGA with one of the most memorable shots in the championship’s history, a 7-iron to two inches on the 18th at Oak Hill. Making the victory all the more amazing is the fact it was his lone PGA Tour win and one of just two top-20 finishes he would ever post in 31 major championship starts (the other being a runner-up at the 2006 PGA).
Wow, that's some powerful golf history there.... Brooks, Beem and Micheel.... All tourneys have accidental champions, but I'd guess that the PGA is the leader in the clubhouse here.
Ryan does get to some fun history, but it's mostly from the days of yore:
1928 — Walter Hagen finally loses the PGA, but the bigger story might be that he has lost the Wanamaker Trophy. Literally. After being beaten by Leo Diegel in the quarterfinals at Five Farms outside Baltimore, ending a run of four straight victories in the event, it surfaces that the Haig actually has misplaced the trophy, claiming he had given it to a driver to deliver to his hotel after an earlier victory. The PGA of America is forced to eventually make a replacement, but two years later, workmen going through boxes at a Detroit sporting-goods warehouse found the trophy in a sealed leather case.
Jack won five of these, though I'm thinking that Hagen is the guy for whom the trophy should be renamed.
Joel Beall gives us a definitive ranking of PGA Championship venues, which promises to amuse. They're a pretty dreadful lot, but certain folks will take pleasure in this venue being dead last:
No. 15: Trump Bedminster
This ranking is not reflective of its layout, championship merit (it hosted the 2017 Women's Open and will host the 2022 PGA Championship) or its controversial owner. Rather, it's correlated to its age, or lack thereof. Opened in 2004, Bedminster remains a relative unknown to the scene. However, the early reviews have been positive. Don't be surprised if it quickly becomes a favorite.
To me the funniest bit is that Bedminster is a 36-hole facility, and this is known as The Old Course. By contrast, The New Course in St. Andrews opened in 1895.... There's also the small fact that it hasn't yet hosted the PGA, and it should be one hell of a week should Orange Man prevail in 2020.
i watched some of the replay of last year's PGA from Bellerive, which richly deserves its ranking as second to worst. As for Oak Hill in the No. 2 slot, I'd wait to see how folks like it in May. What a depressing list of fifteen venues....
I must say that I'm not a fan of this:
For the first time in almost a decade, a player will be using a golf cart during a major championship. According to the AP, John Daly has been granted permission by the PGA of America to ride in a cart during competition in next week's PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.
The 53-year-old, who is in the field thanks to the lifetime exemption earned from his 1991 PGA Championship victory, received access to wheels under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the AP. Daly suffers from osteoarthritis in his right knee.
Of course Bethpage Black is famously walking-only, and I'm a little unclear as to how he'll get around that course in a cart. It's a little tight in spots, but at least there's no risk of it being cartpath only....
He's got this guy's endorsement, though I find the two cases not at all comparable:
John Daly said he is worried about the reaction of fans when he rides in a cart at nextweek’s PGA Championship, but he has the support of Casey Martin, the last competitor to ride a cart at a major championship.
“I’m happy for him because I know John a little bit and I know for certain that he’s not trying to get an advantage,” Martin told GOLF.com in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. “He just wants to play in a tournament he has a rich history in. He just wants to be part of the action. I’m grateful that he’s going to get that chance.”
Martin, now the head coach of the men’s golf team at the University of Oregon, was born with a circulatory disorder for which doctors advised him against walking golf courses. He was permitted to compete in two U.S. Opens while riding a cart, finishing tied for 23rd in 1998 and missing the cut in 2012, both at the Olympic Club.
It's just shocking, because Long John has always taken such good care of himself.... But now he can drive himself around Bethpage as he phones it in.
Weird, That - A bit of a strange story via Shack, as relates to a ten-month old Golf.com story about Phil's U.S. Open antics. The story has been taken down, though you can read it in full via this Google cache version, including this:
There are many things in golf and life I don't get. Phil Mickelson consorted with a known gambler, Billy Walters, now a convicted felon, but did not, as far as I know, ever get suspended from the Tour for that association, even though the Tour's bylaws explicitly prohibit Tour players from consorting with known gamblers. Of course, the issue was complicated by the fact that Walters has played in the AT&T tournament at Pebble Beach. Lots of Tour players have played with Walters, at a sanctioned event. But Walters was more than a golf buddy to Mickelson. He was, court documents make clear, his bookie.
Now comers this from the publisher:
On June 17, 2018, GOLF.com published an article with the headline “It’s complicated: To understand Mickelson’s controversial actions, you must first understand Phil.” The article refers to Billy Walters as Phil Mickelson’s “bookie,” the accuracy of which Walters disputes. The court records referenced in the article do not specifically refer to Walters as Mickelson’s “bookie” and GOLF.com has not been able to substantiate the claim. GOLF.com has removed the article and retracts the reference to Walters.
Taking down an article based upon a dispute originating from a convicted criminal is always a good look, but if we accept Walters' contention, how did Phil end up owing him that rather large sum?
I maintain that the largest unanswered question about this affair is the reason the debt remained unpaid, and why Walters felt he needed to share the juicy stock tip with Phil to get it paid.
On the subject of sports journalism, are you current on the meme du jour that certain members of the profession, Brandel Chamblee of course, are not qualified to opine. That this meme originates with Steve Elkington, whose Twitter feed often begs to be ignored, makes the whole discussion laughable.
Alan Shipnuck takes this on in his mailbag feature:
Which major do you intend to win in order to give you the requisite credibility to cover golf, and until that day comes, how do you intend on spending your time? -@hwGT9
What is so delicious about Steve Elkington braying about Brandel Chamblee not being “qualified” to discuss major championship winners is that, by his own reasoning, Elkinington is unqualified to comment on TV commentators because he’s never been one himself.
We can quickly go down a rabbit hole here in which basically no one is qualified to say anything about anything. It’s true that I have never won the Masters. But I’ve been covering the tournament for a quarter-century. I’ve written a book about the host club’s history. I’ve done in-depth interviews about the tournament with innumerable players on a wide variety of subjects. I’ve studied the old telecasts in forensic detail. Do I know exactly how it feels to win the Masters? No, but very few people on the planet do. Still, I think I can add something to the conversation, even if the likes of Steve Elkington is dubious.
Alan actually sounds a tad defensive.... Chill, guy, it's only Elk...."Ignore" is the default setting.
And more:
How has Elkington not blocked you? One of the great unexplained mysteries of Twitter life. -@RobertLusetich
Here I shall defer to Twitter user John Brock (@TheTexasSteve) who came up with a reply that cannot be bettered: “If he blocked everyone who doesn’t like him, there’d be nobody left to read his tweets.”
Irrelevant Elk aside (say that 3 times fast), how much does Golf Channel worry about the feelings of Tiger, Brooks, DJ, etc re Brandel? -John (@jaspar13)
The reason Brandel is such a lightning rod is because the rest of Golf Channel’s commentators are very, very deferential to the players, which is what makes his piquant commentary stand out so much. If the players en masse suddenly start boycotting the post-round interviews out of protest perhaps the Golf Channel suits will get worried, but until then Brandel will remain the network’s biggest star and continue to offer much needed balance to all the other rah-rah commentary.
Deferential is a polite word for it, but it's not just sports journalism. Since about Nov. 9, 2016, you might well have notice that the media has hardly covered itself in glory.
Can you believe this question?
Was there any way Tiger could have gracefully declined the Medal of Freedom pony show? -@ScottMichaux
Why should he? It’s a thrill to take your mom and kids to the White House to receive the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed upon an American. Tiger clearly has no issues with the President – he designed the golf course for Trump World Golf Club Dubai and they teed it up together just before the Masters. The ceremony was about Woods, not Trump. Even the golf fans who hated Obama’s politics had to be gratified to see him award the Medal of Freedom to Charlie Sifford. Same principle applies here.
I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that such stories are only an issue when the Prez has an "R" after his name, and Alan handled it well.
I do like this question:
What do you think Dan Jenkins would have written after Tiger won the Masters? I miss his Twitter feed. -@JoelBShaw
I said this Sunday night at the Masters: good thing Jenkins is already dead because that definitely would have killed him! His dislike for Tiger was well chronicled. But he was also a student of golf history and had a keen appreciation for transcendent performances, so I think Jenkins would have (grudgingly) given Tiger his due.
I always thought that a mark against Tiger, that he couldn't develop a working relationship with a man whose roots in the game ran so seep. But the antipathy ran both ways, an neither was the better for it.
I'm clueless on this one:
Who is less clutch, Rory or Daenerys? -@theAleMarcoli
Yeah, it’s been a bummer to see both of them diminished this season. They each have enjoyed one important victory but on every other Sunday their frailties are further revealed.
I had to Google it, but this Daenerys must be quite the horrible putter....
Alan seems in a generous mood these days:
What do you think about walking vs. riding? Is it a dead issue? Bandon Resort makes quite a statement with their commitment to the hike. On the other hand, I see a LOT of riders. Could we/should we try? -@RLMgrandpa
I’m a live-and-let-live kinda guy. Those who make a big deal about only walking are like the annoying vegans I know who want to impose their views upon everyone else. I like walking – it’s easier for the whole group to engage in conversation, it’s underrated exercise and a more pure way to experience a course. But I’m also lazy with weird feet that make it hard to find comfortable golf shoes, so if my playing partners want to ride I’m happy to kick up my heels and spread out my snacks in the cart cubbies. People get too hung up on this issue – just do whatever helps you enjoy the day more, and keep your opinion on this topic to yourself.
I've never been analogized to a vegan before, but for those that have broken bread with me it's an amusing concept.
Why is the best course in Scotland? (See why I did there?) -GeorgeBooth73
Jeez, I tweet one typo and the people never let me live it down. Anyway, when it comes to these debates I’m not a fan of “best.” What’s the best painting in the Louvre? We would probably disagree but there is no right answer. Same goes for golf courses. My *favorite* course in Scotland is Cruden Bay. But the wild terrain, blind shots and sheer quirkiness are too much for some folks, who prefer the thoughtful, tactical questions asked by Carnoustie or the straightforward elegance of Muirfield. They’re all great, but it’s hard to say one is the best. When I put together my golf course lists, either in my head or in print, the order is based on only one question: Which of these courses is more fun to play? That’s all I really care about.
Fortunately we don't have any of those typos here.... Every time I reread a post I cringe in embarrassment at the typos. I even went so far as to memorialize one of said typos in this post. Good times.
As for the best course in Scotland, it's pretty much all of them... at least the links.
This is an interesting one as well:
Everybody loves an underdog until it comes to golf. Then nobody watches. Are the C.T. Pans and Max Homas only placeholders while we wait for the stars, or do they serve a greater purpose in the game? #AskAlan -@linksplayers
Well, casual fans need the superstars to drive the narratives, but us die-hards – and if you’ve submitted a question to #AskAlan you are by definition a golf tragic – should always find joy in the unlikely breakthroughs and charming underdogs. Pan has one of my favorite swings on Tour and, as has been exhaustively documented, Homa was already a Twitter legend. Maybe they’re just one week stories, but I still enjoy them deeply. Maybe they’ll grow into forces in the game; think about the relatively slow starts to the pro careers of Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jason Day and plenty of others. Superstars are great fun but they fail to win a lot of the time. It’s important to invest time and emotion in the other guys, too.
It goes without saying that the show ponies of the world only become that after they play the role of C.T. Pan or Max Homa.... But, like Alan, I find these guys clawing their way up the rankings to be very interesting... But I'm the guy that thought the old Fall Finish, lesser knows fighting for their professional status, far more interesting than the current money grab. But I'm weird that way....
And a couple of silly ones on which to exit:
If Jason Day weren’t a golfer and instead went into the military and then Australia went to war, what would be the cause of his draft deferment? -@WallDwarf
Bone spurs, obviously.
#AskAlan. You have a dog called Monty. When will he attack the press? -@DungsauPing
Luckily he’s all bark and no bite, just like his namesake.
Have a good one... Hope to see you on the morrow.
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