I hope the guys got in their work during that early, rain-free window, otherwise it was a day that demanded a long afternoon nap.
In other news, the Earth is still round and orbits the sun:
When it was announced that the PGA Championship was moving from August to May, some pundits and fans balked at the idea of holding a major championship in the Northeast or upper Midwest because of days like Monday at Bethpage State Park.
After about an inch of rain fell on the Black Course on Sunday, scattered showers and chilly temperatures persisted as a Nor’easter developed off the coast of southern New England, bringing showers and a chilly eastern wind that kept temperatures in the high 40s.
Bethpage Black’s scorecard yardage is 7,459 yards, but in conditions like Monday’s, it played even longer.
“Hole seven is playing as a par 4 and we played from where the 520 tee is. I hit a really good drive and I still had 255 to 260 yards to the center of the green,” said Billy Horschel, who is currently ranked No. 43 on the Official World Golf Ranking. “And that distance doesn’t even account for the wind and the cold weather, so that shot was probably playing 280 or 290.”
To be honest, that bit about the sun above was just a guess.... After all, it hasn't put in too many appearances lately.
A friend texted me yesterday with the observation that they moved the PGA to May to finish before football, only to therefore play the PGA in football weather. A good one, though I'd liken more to NHL Winter Classic weather....
And to be fair, the forecast for the tourney days is much improved, though still with scattered rain a possibility.
We did have some actual news yesterday, of the most unfortunate kind:
Justin Thomas, who won the PGA Championship two years ago at Quail Hollow,withdrew from the 101st edition of the PGA at Bethpage Black on Monday due to a right wrist injury.
Kelly Kraft will fill Thomas’ spot in the tournament, which begins with Thursday’s first round.
In a tweet, Thomas said his wrist is not yet fully healed. “Obviously, as a past champion, this tournament is extra special to me. It consistently has the strongest field in golf and I’m disappointed to not be among those competing this year but I’m optimistic about a return in the near future,” he wrote on Twitter.
I was caught unawares on this one, though it goes back to the Florida swing:
He injured his wrist and shoulder while hitting a tree when trying to hit a shot at the Honda Classic in March. Thomas considered withdrawing from the Honda but played through the discomfort, tying for 30th.
A tree? In South Florida? What're the odds?
While I'm perhaps overly focused on a certain golfer, this highlights another issue of fairness. Golfers get all sorts of injuries, only a few of which can be remedies by a set of cart keys.... You see the unfairness of it all, but I've been reliably informed that he's good for the game. If he wants to mail it in from the confines of a golf cart, who am I to object?
On my Ballyliffin blog I once did a full post devoted to amusing signs we'd seen in our travels....Oh heck, take a minute and amuse yourself here. Take your time, I'll wait for you to get back... That was good fun, and you'll note that it was before the bots took over the Comments and we actually had Al Z., former official proofreader, and Mark W. having some fun at my expense. Good times.
Now comes this about perhaps the most famous sign in golf:
The most iconic sign in golf hangs on an iron railing at Bethpage State Park, cautioning players of the daunting test that is the Black Course.
“WARNING,” reads the placard, which is fixed to a fence behind the 1st tee. “The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.”
At the PGA Championship this week TV cameras will focus on it and fans will pose for selfies with it. It’s the main attraction every other day of the year, too — a bucket-list photo-op at a bucket-list course.
“Even people who aren’t playing golf, Long Island people who are here for weddings, they’ll go over and take a picture with it,” says Bethpage superintendent Andy Wilson. “It is sort of synonymous with Bethpage. Whoever the starter happens to be on the Black Course on a day-by-day basis, they probably take 30 or 40 pictures a day. The sign is probably photographed more than the course.”
This is the interesting part:
Everyone agrees that the sign is as much a part of Bethpage Black as its gnarly rough and punishing par 4s.
What no one can seem to agree on is how it got there.
“I’ve been here for 35 years and have always seen the sign, for as long as I can remember,” said Rich Eaton, 66, who works in the Bethpage pro shop. “But I don’t know how it started or when it started, and I’ve been here longer than most.”
“Not a single person knows,” said Bethpage historian Philip Young, who wrote a biography of Bethpage Black architect A.W. Tillinghast as well as two other books about the Black Course (with another on the way). Young, who is 65, grew up on Long Island and has logged more than 400 rounds on the Black Course. “I have searched high and low, up and down, every which way.”
Lots of great history, but no one is left who knows.... But, of perhaps greater import, is it the most famous sign in golf? I can't even think of any other contenders.... Maybe the signs keeping out the riffraff at places like Muirfield and Troon back in the day, but what else?
This is our "beware the early call" story of the day:
PGA Championship 2019: Every player in the Top 100 is in the field for the first time ever
Thanks a lot, JT! There goes the narrative....
Now comes the "Who you got?" portion of our programming. Golfweek's Steve DiMeglio has five, which of course translates into Four + Tiger....
Koepka ready for defense
Brooks Koepka will defend titles in two consecutive majors – this week at Bethpage Black and next month in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He comes to Long Island off a fourth-place finish in the AT&T Byron Nelson. He finished in a tie for second to Woods in the last major. He’s won three of the last seven majors he’s played. He’s long, he’s strong and he sure looks ready to give a stout title defense.
Easy finish?
 |
| Glover played it with a six and nine-iron. |
The par-4, 411-yard 18th – a downhill shot to a flat fairway up to an elevated green – hasn’t exactly struck fear in the players in two previous majors and two FedExCup events played on the Black. It just hasn’t stood in line with the previous 17 holes, which basically beat the best golfers in the world to a pulp.
“With the 18th there, it’s like, ‘All right, we’ve put you through enough trouble today. Thanks for coming,’” Rickie Fowler said.
An iron off the tee and a short iron into the green? That’s not how major championships are supposed to end. But this year may be different. Two new fairway bunkers are in play and the fairway has been re-contoured in hopes of forcing more players to hit driver off the tee.
It's a stern test, with a really difficult finisher that makes one hope the matter is settled before that final group trudges down then up on Sunday. The funny thing is it's a very good and really difficult test for the amateur, but there's little that can be done here. At Met. Golf Writers outing there, I once asked the Park and PGA officials if they'd ever considered using Red No. 18 instead, and they weren't terribly amused.
Golf Digest has nine "sneaky" picks for us, and this certainly qualifies as sneaky:
Jorge Campillo (250-1)
You could make an argument that there is no “hotter” player in the world than the 32-year-old Spaniard, given his recent performances on the European Tour: T-2, T-2, T-20, third, win, third. They have allowed Campillo to jump from 112th on the World Ranking to 59th. Yes, the competition he’s faced has been void of many of the Euro Tour’s marquee players, but such success has created a quiet confidence in a player who had a notable amateur career, playing college golf at Indiana. Expectations remain low for Campillo, which might make him even more dangerous this coming week.
He'll be the only one to have Campillo in his office pool, but what to make of this one:
Rob Labritz (3,000-1)
OK, the chances of the 47-year-old director of golf at GlenArbor Golf Club winning the PGA Championship are slim (and that's being generous). But if you’re in a PGA Championship pool where you have to pick one of the 20 club professionals in the field, Labritz is your man. This is his sixth PGA start (he was the low club pro in 2010) and he has probably played more competitive rounds at Bethpage Black than any other player in the field, having won the New York State Open on the course in 2008, 2011 and 2016.
Rob is an actual club pro, so good luck with this one...Of course it segues from Rob to guys like Bubba and Patrick Reed (Cantlay came earlier), the latter of whom won the Barclays on this track. Not sure they meet the sneaky definition, though maybe so because neither has shown much form recently.
The Grlfweek writers give their picks here, and only two names come up....You can easily guess which two.
Elsewhere at Golfweek, they have something called a heat index:
Golfweek’s Heat Index rankings heading into the PGA Championship shows Rory McIlroy as the No. 1 player in golf.
McIlroy is fourth in the Official World Golf Rankings and is third in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, but should be considered the golfer to beat at Bethpage Black.
OK, heat has been in short supply this week, so we've got that going for us....
Back in the day this venue, playing long and soft with relatively tame greens, would be right up Rory's alley.... Sounds like Congressional 2011, though with cooler temperatures. But our Rory doesn't same the same guy, so I'll take a pass.
This seemed promising but turns out to be worthless:
PGA Championship: These 14 pros have played Bethpage Black better than anyone
Yeah, unless you're a Lucas Glover dead-ender.... Sample size is a killer.
Udder Stuff - Kind of a boring day, though at least the pressers will kick in today. But a couple of fun non-PGA stories to kick around.
Golf Digest Saved - Of course we're happy to know the presses will keep rolling:
For only the third time in its history, Golf Digest has a new owner. On Monday our sale was completed from Condé Nast to Discovery, Inc., the media company best known forits suite of real-life entertainment networks like Discovery Channel, HGTV, and the Food Network, and which has successfully expanded into golf. In joining forces with Discovery’s GOLFTV, the company’s new live and on-demand video streaming service, Golf Digest now stands to reach more golfers in more ways, and in greater depth, than ever before.
“Golf Digest is a world-class brand that has become the go-to authority for millions of golf enthusiasts, professional players and global advertisers,” said Discovery, Inc. President and CEO David Zaslav. “It’s a natural strategic fit with Discovery’s goal to be the leading golf media platform in the world.”
Media being what it is these days, it sold for the loose change found in Discovery's couch cushions:
Keith Kelley reported on Page Six (link not live) that Discovery paid $30 million for Golf Digest, Golf World and assorted elements after a “bidding war” with NBC/Comcast. Multiple sources tell me, however, that no bid was even made by Comcast.
The $30 million figure noted by Kelley, if his reporting is accurate, marks a steep plunge from the $430 million Conde Nast paid for Golf Digest in 2001. But they were also buying a robust monthly then with millions in lucrative monthly ad sales and a staff full of must-read writers.
The purchase price also looks particularly paltry given Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s pay the last two years: $42.2 million and $129.5 million in 2019.
OK, Geoff, the obligatory slam at CEO pay is beneath you, unless you'd like to back it up with a sense of how he's done for his shareholders?
But this might be the buried lede:
The Discovery acquisition will also feature the introduction of a new sales structure in which Golf Digest and the PGA Tour will combine to create a one-stop digital network in which advertisers can engage with fans across Golf Digest, PGA Tour, and GOLFTV platforms.
Say what? Let me see if I have this straight. Golf Digest publishes a magazine that covers golf, mostly meaning the PGA Tour, which will control their revenue stream? Dod you guys actually take the ethics class at J-School?
We all understand that sports journalists are compromised by their need for access, though I think to date they've mostly avoided money changing hands with the Tour. Combine this with the PGA Tour's panting over a cut of the betting take, and I'm unclear what business Jay Monahan thinks he's in...
Stay tuned.
The Euro Beat, Ryder Cup Edition - It worked so well for Tom Watson....Why not?
The Tour’s Tournament Committee met on Tuesday night, where they ratified CaptainPadraig Harrington’s wish list which included the one significant change from the 2018 qualification process, namely the reduction in the number of Wild Cards from four to three.The 12-man European Team will comprise the first four players from the European Points List, followed by the leading five players from the World Points List, leaving Harrington with three names to complete the line-up, a decision which will be unveiled in the week after the final counting event.
Harrington said: “I have said on many occasions that one of the reasons for recent European success in The Ryder Cup is continuity. It is a theme that will be prevalent across my captaincy and I think you can see that in the overall qualification process for the 2020 team.
“Having said that, I am pleased that the Tournament Committee agreed to the change of Wild Card numbers. I have spoken to a number of people regarding the ninth player automatically qualifying for the team and in my experience, a player is more comfortable when he has qualified, hence my reasoning behind this change.
Shack captures the amusement value with his header:
Captain Harrington Improves The Chances Of Not Having To Make Sergio Garcia A Captain's Pick
Shack walks it back since they're allegedly all kissy-kissy now after their 2018 win, but old grievances have a way of lingering....Its further amusing because our side always assume perfect harmony among the Euros, whereas there's all the natural pettiness of humankind to be found there.... they just make more putts.
Catch you tomorrow?
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