Tuesday Tastings

Just a quick note to warn about the blogging schedule the next few days....  Thursday will be dark, as it's the Engineer's Country Club Member-Guest.  The club, as is well known, has had its struggles and was sold a couple of years ago to a private investor.  But they continue to treat us well at this event, including last year's delightful addition of a cross-country hole to the afternoon scramble.  But mostly I go for the ritual humiliation on their wild greens....

Tomorrow is also a golf day, though the start is in that gray area in which blogging could be possible if I'm so motivated....  Or I could just drink coffee by the pool....Time will tell.

Motown Mojo - In this year of contraction, Detroit somehow managed to land itself a spanking-new event on the PGA Tour's calendar.  The Free Press with the local angle, beginning with that last Buick-sponsored event in 2009:

When Woods finally left Michigan after the last Buick Open, he left it in darkness. Pro golf had all but deserted the state, which was still in the throes of a global financial crisis that led to General Motors and Chrysler requiring a federal bailout. Corporate dollars to

sponsor tournaments had dried up.

But an hour south of Grand Blanc, there was a quiet wisp of hope. Almost as soon as the lights had been turned out at Warwick Hills, a flicker emerged from Detroit Golf Club. Eventually, it turned into a beacon. 

“So if you go back to right after the demise of the Buick Open,” Detroit Golf Club president Andy Glassberg said, “there was a lot of discussion in the city about how can we get an event back in the area?”

It all came down to two minor variables, a sponsor and a date on the Tour's calendar, and they got lucky with both.  Add in a Tom Doak restoration and, voila, we're in detroit this week.

It's a nice story, because of the game's deep roots in this community:

"It's so huge, because of this state's and the Metro Detroit area's golf roots, that extend all the way back to the 19th century," said Lynn Henning, a recently retired Detroit News sportswriter who was editor of PGA Magazine from 1989-94 and a senior writer and editor of Golfweek from 1996-98. 

"To see that reclaimed and to see the appetite, the hunger for big-name pro golf in Michigan is not only refreshing, but it's deserved."

While that history includes Jack, Ben, Arnie and Gary, it also unfortunately includes this:

Oh, and there have been Ryder Cups, most notably Team Europe's thrashing of Team

USA at Oakland Hills in 2004 — when U.S. captain Hal Sutton thought it was a good idea to team up then-mortal enemies Woods and Phil Mickelson. It didn't go well. 

"One guy goes way to the left, and the other guy goes way to the right," said Berry, the 2007 recipient of the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award. 

"And they hardly ever met again."

Good times.

You might have heard talk that Detroit has fallen on hard times, but that's of course not a golf story.  Until it is:

The employees who are making Detroit Golf Club a playable PGA Tour-caliber golf

course this week are calling for the end of negotiations and a new contract. If it doesn’t happen by the time the Rocket Mortgage Classic tees off on Thursday, then the union says it’s willing to strike. 

“Come (Thursday) when this tournament starts,” said Kevin Moore, president of local union, Teamsters Local 299, and executive board member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, “we’re going to do what we have to do. Demonstrations, strikes, whatever is at our disposal.”

It's their time of maximum leverage, and they will use it to maximum effect.

To steal an amusing meme, the last Republican Mayor of Detroit left office in 1962, and things have gone swimmingly since then.

With Jordan in Remission... - Under Armour needs some sizzle, so this reveal makes sense:

Stephen Curry unveiled his Under Armour Range Unlimited Golf collection at the world’s largest golf facility, Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China, during the 2019 UA

Basketball Asia Tour. 

Under Armour describes Curry’s Range Unlimited Collection as being a combination of his off-court and on-course style and the latest innovations, materials and designs from Under Armour Golf. 

The collection is comprised of 14 total pieces including tops, bottoms, outerwear, a Curry 6 spikeless golf shoe and hats and will be available for purchase Fall 2019. 

“You want to be able to make bold statements with some loud prints… it still has the performance technology with Iso-Chill that makes you feel cool out there on the course,” Curry said. “There is always a performance element to making athletes better and that is what we do at Under Armour, so blending those two perspectives was what made this capsule different from anything else you’ve seen.”

OK, I don't care much about his clothing line, but can you make out that logo on that hat?  Maybe this will help:

I do so try to stay current on these razy kids and their memes.... and I seem to remember that that symbol had some darker meaning....  What was it now?  OK, perhaps "darker" wasn't exactly the right term....Straight from the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh:

Really, you can't make this crap up....  Steph Curry: Worst.  White.  Supremacist.  Ever.

Golfers Behaving Badly - Matt Wallace is known as a bit of a hot-head, but this is straight from the Jordan Spieth playbook:

Hotheaded Englishman Matt Wallace drew the ire of fans on social media on Sunday when he berated his caddie while in contention on the back nine of the BMW International in Munich. 

Wallace’s visible frustration was caught on the SkySports broadcast throughout the round, coming to a head several times. On the par-3 12th, viewers reported Wallace’s anger with caddie Dave McNeilly after his tee shot sailed long. 

Wallace, the defending champion, still stepped to the 18th tee very much in contention, needing a birdie to rejoin the lead. Instead, he hooked his tee shot into the water and went on to make bogey. Cameras picked up a tense moment with Wallace going at McNeilly again. 

Wallace would go on to make bogey, finishing two shots outside the playoff between Matthew Fitzpatrick and eventual winner Andrea Pavan. 

The behavior was the second time in as many weeks that Wallace has run hot on the golf course. Despite a strong T12 finish at last week’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Wallace was captured in several moments of frustration, tossing a putter on one occasion, turning his hat backwards on another. The behavior drew pointed criticism from SkySports analyst Rich Beem. “I’m sorry but I just don’t enjoy watching that,” he said. “I know you’re intense, but get over yourself.”

That last bit is good advice for all of us, but boys will be boys....

As an aside, I heard nothing of how Jordan and Greller got on in Hartford after their issues at Pebble.  Of course, they only had to suck it up and pretend to like each other for two days....

Golfers Behaving Really Badly - It's no fun watching caddies being berated, though this unbelievable story will render that quaint in comparison:

According to Santa Maria police, a long-standing feud between three men boiled over Friday at the golf course of the Casa Grande Estates. Minutes after the trio was witnessed arguing, gunshots were fired. One man was fatally shot inside the Casa Grande clubhouse while another was found dead on the grass nearby, according to the Santa Maria Times. 

After the shooting, police believe the suspect returned to his home. Moments later his home went up in flames following a small explosion, Police Chief Phil Hansen told the AP. The fire spread to nearby homes before it could be put out by firefighters. A situation made worse as ammunition was exploding from the gunman's home.

"All throughout the firefighting efforts, ammunition was cooking off," Hansen told the AP.

Authorities initially found two bodies— one of which is believed to be the gunman’s— in the rubble, but officials said on Saturday an additional victim had been located. Their names will be released after the coroner’s office confirms their identities. 

Neighbors told the Santa Maria Times that one of the victims is likely the suspect's son.

Guys, please don't do this....

At the risk of sounding a tad insensitive, Casa Grande Mobile Estates is just an epic name for a trailer park, no?  It's enough to make one forget Del Boca Vista Phase II.

And how about this closer:

Santa Maria police have not released any other information, including what started the argument, at this time.

Shouldn't we be more interested in what started the fire?

No Relief In Sight - He's no closer to his thirty-nine weeks of network coverage, and now comes word of the towel in the ring for next year as well:

The ANA isn’t moving. LPGA commissioner Mike Whan shared that update at a media

roundtable on Friday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. 

Officials discussed moving the LPGA’s first major because it conflicts with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which in its first year overshadowed the ANA in every way possible. Next year’s event will be played in its traditional slot of the week before the Masters, April 2-5. 

That’s a shame, because two of the most celebrated weeks in women’s golf shouldn’t have to compete against each other.

As Mike explains, the adjoining weeks all cause issues:

Why not move it one week ahead? 

Because of TV. Going against the Dell Technologies Match Play would move the ANA to three nights of tape-delayed coverage and the overall televised hours would drop from 26 hours to nine or 10. 

Can’t have that. 

Moving it to the week after the Masters would put the event up against Coachella, meaning higher hotel costs and limited availability. Not to mention warmer weather and even fewer fans and volunteers as many residents have left the desert for the summer by then.

I think it sucks that the poobahs at Augusta National did this to the LPGA, especially since the ANA has had that date for eternity and the club has greater flexibility.  

On the flip side, though, I would expect the amateur event to lose some luster in subsequent years.  There was a thrill at seeing the girls playing the iconic venue, but I don't anticipate the same buzz in future years, and perhaps Mike is right to wait it out.  Still, it's gotta be frustrating to be ignored by the Five Families.

Dreams Do Come True -  Just promise that nobody will tell Employee No. 2:

 Lump likes a beer now and again?  Never saw that one coming....

He was always the bride's favorite player, and I expect she'll want the full set.

The Office - This long piece doesn't really deliver on its premise, but nevertheless provides some color for life on Tour ranges:

How each guy goes about doing so can be revealing as well, for there are few formal policies for this office. The rules are unwritten ones, tenets everyone who steps foot on the range understands or quickly absorbs so that the office can run efficiently.

Casey, for example, qualifies as a talker. “He’ll spend an hour-and-a-half here and hit 10 minutes of golf balls,” says veteran caddie Mark Fulcher, who until recently worked for the past 10 years with Justin Rose. 

Or as the British say, faffing. Which is why Casey’s caddie, John McLaren, texts his boss a minute-by-minute itinerary that includes the precise time to arrive at the range, putting green and tee box, each day, also accounting for the time it takes to walk from one to the other. 

“Once I start, I won’t talk to anybody,” Casey says. 

He’s not the only one. 

“People know if I’m quiet to leave me alone,” says Jason Day. “If I’m talking, I’m more relaxed and don’t mind it. But if I’m trying to concentrate, I’ll go to a quieter spot. Or, sometimes there are some guys you just don’t get along with or don’t click with or don’t talk to.”

Worth a read, if the subject of how these guys go about their business is of interest.

Bally Bandon, Indeed - Anyone that has made the trip is familiar with the lure of the Bandon Sheep Ranch, a site just north of the resort.  here's why the excitement:

There never was a question that the land immediately north of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is stunning with a mile of shoreline, 100-foot cliffs above the Pacific Ocean and plenty of sand for a bouncy, rollicking American links. 

Previously the site of a somewhat secretive 13-hole, play-’em-as-you-like routing known as the Sheep Ranch, the property is being turned into the 18-hole Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch, set to open in the spring of 2020. Grassing has commenced at the design created by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, which will feature nine greens on the cliffs’ edges. 

You read that right: nine greens on the cliffs. That’s three more than any of the 18-hole courses at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s foursome of 18-hole courses, all of which rank in the top 14 of Golfweek’s Best Modern list of U.S. courses

“The secret is out, it seems. It was kind of fun, the mystery and the mystique of it,” said Phil Friedmann, the owner of the property and its previous version of the Sheep Ranch that was built by Tom Doak. 

“We’re going to have some more design sophistication, some really cool holes. Before we had some really cool sites, and now the greens themselves will be improved upon.”

It's a more interesting section of the coastline than the original two tracks, leading to all sorts of interesting sites for tees and especially greens.  But how will I ever get to Keiser's Wisconsin resort, if he's making me plan a return trip to Oregon?

 Need more incentive?

“I told Bill when I last saw him that it is a collaboration between him and God,” Friedmann said. “God created the land, and Bill chose where we get to walk on it.” 

The highlight probably will be the double green situated atop Fivemile Point, which juts into the Pacific Ocean. Unlike the oceanfront at Bandon Dunes, where the existing holes are plotted alongside the cliffs but never really offer a view back at the cliffs or a shot over the steep rock walls, the Sheep Ranch will require balls fly over the cliffs from tees and to greens set on the promontory. 

“It’s certainly a dramatic addition,” Keiser said. “Fivemile Point is out in the ocean, and isn’t it exciting to see breakers rolling past you and internal to you? It has always beckoned.”

Should be great, but with five full tracks and The Preserve Par-3, one needs to stay for en eternity to get one's fill. 

I'll see you when I see you....