Everyone knows how pleasant it is, after striving against a strong wind and hitting harder and harder at each hole with less and less result, to turn one’s back upon the gale for a hole or two and play gigantic shots down wind. After doing this we are refreshed, and feel in a mood to battle with the “brute” who tries to destroy our best efforts.H.S. COLT
It's a grim day in the golf world. As one awakes, the lingering joy that was watching a Portrush Open begins to fade, and the realization that the next golf shot of significance is a full nine months away. I know, how will we ever make it. I'll do the best that I can to help through this interminable drought, but I'm only one man.
Alan Shipnuck has a fine game story piece, betrayed slightly by this over-the-top header:
‘He has united us all’: Irishman Shane Lowry delivered a performance for the ages at this historic Open
For the ages? Eh, not hardly, but a very emotionally-satisfying outcome at a venue where the political overtones rule....
The homegrown heroes put the heart into this Open. McDowell shed a tear on the 1st tee Thursday morning, the Open having returned to his hometown for the first time in 68 years. Rory McIlroy was even more overwhelmed by the moment, posting a ghastly 79 and then, when his furious rally to make the cut fell short, a whole nation cried alongwith him. When another Northern Irish lad, Darren Clarke, botched the 36th hole to miss the cut there was a distinctive heaviness in the air, a reminder that “luck of the Irish” is meant to be ironic. But Lowry changed the mood of the entire island on Saturday with a dazzling 63 that gave him a four-stroke lead. He was carried home on the closing holes with joyous singing that lasted long past the final putt, an instantly iconic scene. Something special was brewing and it was far bigger than birdies and bogeys. “Honestly,” Lowry said, “that’s the most incredible day I’ve ever had on the golf course.”With his red beard, beer belly, big laugh and easy manner, Lowry is easy to root for no matter where you’re from. You had to love the statement he made on Sunday, sauntering around Portrush in short sleeves in by far the nastiest weather of the week. This kind of machismo is usually reserved for offensive lineman displaying naked arms when it’s snowing in Green Bay. “I’m not sure I was feeling anything out there I was so worked up,” he said. (Lowry’s caddie, Bo Martin, from Ardglass, an hour and a half down the coast, outdid his boss, flashing some decent calves in Bermuda shorts.) In the wind and the rain all the would-be challengers retreated: Brooks Koepka began with a shocker, four straight bogies; J.B. Holmes and Rickie Fowler blew their opening tee shots O.B.; Jon Rahm played the first five holes in four over; Justin Rose toured the front nine in 41. But Lowry sailed on. Beneath the soft exterior is a fierce competitor who has never lacked for confidence. Lowry famously won the Irish Open while still an amateur, keyed by a 62 on the same day McDowell shot 61. The brash 22-year-old found the Euro tour stalwart in the clubhouse and without so much as introducing himself said, “I can’t believe you beat me by a shot!” McDowell still rolls his eyes at the memory. He knows more than anyone how hot Lowry burns: “We always used to joke he wants to beat me more on a Wednesday than he wants to win the tournament.”
Was the victory popular? Oh my, what a silly question:
But he wasn’t really fooling anyone. What kind of bloke is Lowry? When he came to Portrush last month to scout the course he showed up in the pro shop carrying “tray bakes” — homemade goodies for the staff. “Caramel squares, rice crispy buns, some chocolatey thing…” says Royal Portrush assistant pro Charlene Reid in a dreamy tone. “That’s not the only reason we love Shane around here, but it didn’t hurt!”
He’s just as popular in the press room, locker room and caddie yard. “This is one of the worst days I’ve ever had and one of the best,” said Finnis, Fleetwood’s looper. “It was an incredible environment to be in. I’m sick for Tommy. But I’m delighted for Shane. He’s one of the top-five best people I’ve ever met in my life.”
Since this is a Shipnuck item, it seems appropriate to remind him of his prediction of an era of U.S. dominance.... Specifically, that a certain Shane Lowry wasn't good enough to be on that 2018 Euro RC team, the one that dusted our broom.
Mike Bamberger has the best dateline to be found:
BAILE MHIC GIOLLA MHUIRE, Offaly, Ireland — The boy, a foot or more shorter than his grandmother, had a soccer ball at his feet, kicking it against a table stand. Around him, engulfing him, was a mass of Irish humanity, emitting the distinct humidity wrought by the ancient marriage of warm bodies and semi-cold beer. The kids were dressed for soccer. The fathers were dressed for Orlando in March. The mothers (and grandmothers) were dressed for church. Mary O’Brien draped her right arm over her grandson’s slender chest and pointed the boy, Daire Garby, to one of the three TVs in the Esker Hills Golf Club clubhouse.
Mike, I do so hate to be critical, but I'd have gone with warm bodies and warmer beer....
Shane deflects some of the credit:
He knew he was lucky to escape the first hole without significant damage, dropping justone shot to Tommy Fleetwood by making a bogey putt of significant length. All afternoon he held his lead, and all afternoon thoughts persisted about how bad it would hurt to see it slip away in front of his countrymen. Some of them were faces he recognized from back home in Clara, County Offaly.
Enter caddie Brian ‘Bo’ Martin.
“He was unbelievable today,” Lowry said. “He kept on my back all day, kept talking to me, he kept in my ear. I kept on telling him now nervous I was, how scared I was, how much I didn’t want to mess it up. All I could think about was walking down 18 with a four- or five-shot lead. And lucky I got to do that.”
Martin is an Ulsterman, and was quite clearly a strong presence on the bag.... Rory, perhaps you'd like to take notes.... Also, if Shane has any curiosity as to how he'll look in about twenty years, he need only take a glance at Bo.
Shall we see what blinding insights the Tour Confidential panel has to offer? Don't answer, it was rhetorical:
1. Shane Lowry blew away the competition and won the Open Championship by six strokes on a wet and windy Sunday at Royal Portrush. It’s the first major victory for the 32-year-old Irishman. What most impressed you about Lowry’s performance?
Sean Zak: His front nines! Every single round Lowry built momentum by owning the front nine. The guy made at least three birdies on that side every round, which was a prerequisite for success at Portrush. The back beat up everyone, and it got the best ofLowry at times, but only after he’d given himself some breathing room.
Jeff Ritter: His back nines! He closed strong each day, even while seeing his name atop the boards and dealing with the emotions of playing in front of the thundering home crowds. It was a complete victory, and he deserved it.
Enough with the whiplash, boys! But this one seems about right to me:
Josh Sens: How, after pulling his opening tee shot, he seemed to decide on the fly to spend the rest of the day hitting the unglamorous cut he knew he could control. A great example of course and game management under serious pressure. On a side note, it was also a good playing lesson for the rest of us — a reminder that we should all forget about trying to be heroes and play the shots we can actually hit.
Some of those shots caught on ProTracer were not terribly artistic, but he kept it mostly in play....
More good answers:
Michael Bamberger: What impressed me most about Shane Lowry wasShane Lowry his own self: unpretentious, honest, funny, talented, smart, grateful.
Luke Kerr-Dineen: He was always going to make bogeys in this weather. But what impressed me most is that he didn’t panic. Each time he slipped he came back better, and that’s something you rarely see in players vying for their first major.
Dylan Dethier: The way he wore the pressure of being an Irish leader and never once blinked. He rode the crowd support instead of letting it get to him — I thought he’d have a tougher time with it.
Alex Myers has a fun piece up, the final day at Portrush in nine sentences.... Some hit the mark:
2.) Brooks Koepka finishes T-4 and is officially in a major championship slump.
So, you're saying the Koepka era is officially over? We'll circle back to Brooks or, more acurately, his playing partner, in a bit.
3.) Rickie Fowler continued doing Rickie Fowler things.
Yeah, though that's just the set-up for the more intriguing bit to come.
4.) Tony Finau is kinda the new Rickie Fowler.
Careful, Tony, you don't want to be THAT guy.
John Huggan has a fine piece as well, with the best lede of the day:
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Swing guru Pete Cowen tells a story of a now far-off coaching session where he cast his learned eye over the Irish Boys squad. The player with the most potential was a wee kid by the name of McIlroy. You might have heard of him. And at the end of the day, the officials present were keen to hear what Cowen thought of their potentially outstanding prospect.
“Rory’s going to be great,” confirmed the man who these days works with the likes of Brooks Koepka and Henrik Stenson. “But there’s another good one out there. The little fat lad with the glasses.”
Today, the spectacles are gone. And a beard has grown. But the talent so astutely identified by Cowen is still there. In fact, it has matured nicely. Shane Lowry went on to win the Irish Amateur and the Irish Open—before he turned professional. There has been a World Golf Championship victory, too, as well as a couple of other European Tour titles. And now, the 32-year-old County Offaly native is the Open champion.
The only thing missing from the piece is a photo of the fat lad with glasses.
Eamon Lynch, an Ulsterman, has this take on the victor:
The 148th Open Championship was foreshadowed with ample focus on what divides the people of this island —politics, religion, reactions to Rickie Fowler’s wardrobe — so itwas only appropriate that a man who embodies many of the traits that unite them should emerge as Champion Golfer of the Year.
Only his exquisite command of a golf ball distinguishes Shane Lowry from any Irishman you’d get from central casting. He is a dry wit, is fond of a pint, is colorful with his language, is devoted to his family and is a stranger to the gym. He looks like a man more likely to be guarding the Claret Jug than having his name engraved on it, but he’s undeniably a man you’d want to be drinking from it with.Lowry is what McIlroy would love to be (wholly unfiltered) and what Darren Clarke pretends to be (a cheerful, beer-drinking bon vivant). But McIlroy could never sit in a press conference at a major with a four-stroke lead and say what Lowry said on Saturday night:Lowry can speak with refreshing honesty about how the game doesn’t mean as much to him as it once did, and admit to occasions when he was “sh****** myself” under pressure. The same comments would have seen McIlroy spit roasted for not caring. The standards for a global superstar don’t apply to an Everyman from Clara, County Offaly (population: 3,242). Lowry doesn’t need to perch on fences for fear of offending the kind of people who actively seek reason to be offended. He is authentic. All the affability, none of the angst.
Watch it, Shane, this is a family blog.... We've got so many additional story lines, we may have to defer a few until tomorrow.
All Hail Portrush - Y'all know how I feel about the place, but did it deliver on my hype? Let me begin by recounting a conversation from last evening with one of our dinner guests:
Dinner Guest: I assume you watched the golf?Your Humble Blogger: You assume correctly.DG: Did watching it make you want to play that course?YHB: More than life itself, though technically it makes me want to play it again.DG: But all that deep stuff just off the fairways?YHB: Well, you know, you're not actually supposed to hit it there? It is a tougher driving test than many Open venues, but it plays fairly for the amateur.DG: My logic in not going to Scotland or Ireland is that I haven't yet played all the great American courses...YHB: Your logic is irreproachable, and yet the result is that you've denied yourself the greatest pleasure this game holds.
This is a fanciful recreation of an actual conversation, amended mostly to make YHB seem far more erudite than the real world version thereof. But it's completely accurate in the larger sense....
Shack has this provocative header:
Is Portrush The Rota's Best (After St. Andrews) Venue?
I think it's important to draw a distinction between how a course works as an Open venue, as distinct from how it plays for the traveling golfers. As Alistair Tait captures, the players loved it:
Outgoing British Open champion Francesco Molinari has given Royal Portrush the ultimate compliment on its first return to the Open rota after a 68-year absence: there have been no complaints.
“The greatest compliment is that all the feedback I’ve heard from the players has been positive and, especially on a links course, that’s not something you often hear,” said Molinari, who finished his year as Champion Golfer with a closing 5-under 66.
Molinari is not alone in saying Royal Portrush has been flawless for the 148th Open Championship. Jim Furyk and Paul Casey also believe the golf course has stood up to the world’s elite.
“I like the golf course,” said Furyk, who was making his 22ndappearance in the game’s oldest championship. “I don’t think it suited any particular style. I felt like it gave everyone a chance to play. It was mostly straightforward. There’s some blind shots, some hidden humps and bumps but you could figure out the golf course pretty quickly.
“If I can steal an Irish term, it’s a ‘proper’ links.”
To me, it's the perfect mix of a stern test with off-the-charts eye candy.... But, hey, when it comes to links, I'm a cheap date.
Tait addresses the issue of the timing of the return visit, and Geoff has an incredibly short wish list:
My wish list would be pretty short: maybe soften the back portion of the new 7th green, restore the burn currently piped under the par-5 12th green, lose a few ferns in the roughs and definitely lose the interior boundary lines at the 1st and 18th holes, along with the silly boundary line behind the fifth green.
The interior OB I suspect will go quietly after ruining the local hero's week. But I'm on the fence (pun intended) about No. 5. Mind you, I came into the week blissfully unaware of how reachable that green is for these guys, owing exclusively to all those ab crunches they do. Excluding, of course, this week's winner....
Since there's no land to be found behind the fifth green, I assume Geoff wants it to play as a hazard penalty area. The problem seems to me to be that they'd all make four from there, so the penalty is fairly minimal.... It's only the dreaded stroke-and-distance that had Lowry laying up on Sunday, no? Discuss among yourselves....
Shack took a crack at the winners and losers from the week, and he'll not get any pushback on these winners:
Royal Portrush – While St. Andrews has permanent elite status as the most incredible venue in all of golf — what other sport can contest a modern championship on the place where it all started? — Portrush may just be the R&A’s second finest British Open course. There are no weak holes, a nearly perfect blend of shot shapes, and just enough offbeat design features to exude links charm without annoying today’s fairness-obsessed players. Oh, and it’s visually stunning.Northern Ireland – Not only did the passionate locals validate pre-event projections in terms of attendance—second most tickets sold, all-time—everyone from hole marshals to local restaurants provided warm hospitality and good vibes. The children here got a special shout-out from Tiger Woods for their extreme courtesy. Whatever annoyances caused by the lousy weather was forgotten in this special part of the world.
It helps when you can replace your two weakest holes, for sure. But while I revere The Old Course as much as anyone, I'm quite worried about 2021. The lead was at -16 here after three days of reasonable weather. If they have comparable weather at St. Andrews in '21, it seems like the winning score could be thirtysomething under, no?
On Tiger & Rory - In that W&L item above, Rory isn't in the column you might expect:
Rory McIlroy – After a disastrous opening quadruple bogey, a missed tap-in and overall disastrous opening-round 79, the Northern Irishman battled valiantly to miss the cut by one. The late Friday performance earned him plaudits across the globe and added to his already robust fan base. While his opener here adds to the view McIlroy struggles in first rounds, he’s been better starting out in majors the last two years, going 69-80-69-70-73-72-68-79.
Ummm, Geoff, remind me of how many of those recent majors he's contended in? And wouldn't you consider 25% of his rounds coming in at 79 or higher a problem? Just saying'..
Back to our TC friends:
2. Rory McIlroy missed the cut but made a valiant effort in front of his home fans on Friday, coming up a shot short from sticking around for the weekend. In assessing McIlory’s first-round 79, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said, “The word is choking.” Fair take?
Zak: I’m going to ignore this major for the case of McIlroy. I think there was too much going on for him, and perhaps that’s exactly what Brandel is referring to. Too much. Rory has succumbed to the spotlight in the last few years at majors, though. Whether it’s the first round, his fifth nine or his final 18, Rory has never been the best in the field. Considering he’s done it before and done it elsewhere, yes, it makes you believe he’s choking. So I’m not going to disagree with Brandel.
Ritter: To me “choking” happens near the end of a competition, when stakes are on the line. I’d call Rory’s flameout a lack of preparation for the moment. He didn’t answer the bell Thursday morning, which was a shocker. Then with nothing to play for he predictably lit it up on Friday. He just didn’t seem ready, until he WAS ready, but then it was too late.
It's not the stupidest thing Brandel has said, though that's setting the bar pretty low. But I do think trotting out the C-word is lazy....
I guess what bothers me is that the context was so different, as Jeff Ritter tries to sort through. This week could never be like any other for a man from Northern Ireland, so it seems churlish to use that term. I never expected much from him this week, because I don't know how you prepare for such an event.
That said, I can't ignore that those days were an eerie synecdoche for our recent Rory. Is there anything that is more Rory than an electrifying round when it no longer matters? I mean this is the guy that invented the back-door top ten.... Here's a couple more that mostly align with my reaction:
Bamberger: I can’t use the word myself but it’s a free country and these are big boys. Seems to me Rory cares too much but how do you try less?
Kerr-Dineen: Yeah, it’s fair. Harsh, but fair. The pressure got to Rory, but how could it not? Nobody has ever been under as much pressure as Rory was this week. He hit a handful of poor shots at the worst possible time because of it.
As for El Tigre, I'm reminded of a Mark Steyn quip about a certain former President, who flew halfway around the world, only to mail it in:
4. Tiger Woods said his game wasn’t ready for Portrush, and he was right. He shot 78-70 and missed the cutand now plans to take a couple of weeks off before he gears up for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Woods has played just four events since his Masterstriumph, and he didn’t contend in any of them. Given his fragile physical state and what we’ve seen from him since April, how likely is it that Woods’ Masters win will be his last major title?
Zak: Very likely. Take it on everything we know. He beat a limited field of about 60 good players on a course he understands better than anyone. It was a PHENOMENAL win. Of course, he could win a Masters again over the next 10-12 Masters, if healthy. That caveat feels more important now than ever. Warm U.S. Opens and PGAs seem like plausible wins, but if that Tour schedule amounts to just one or two non-major starts in the summer, I think we’ll see a lot of what we saw this week. Up-and-down play leading to a finish around the cutline. One last thing: majors are HARD!
Bamberger: Well said, Sean, and there won’t be any warm PGAs for a while. Seems done. Also, whatever you say about Tiger Woods, he’ll prove you wrong. One of his best traits.
Ritter: I’d say 50% chance the Masters will be his last, but it has nothing to do with fatigue or desire and everything to do with sustained health. His back remains a wild card for these 250-plus days until the next Masters and everything thereafter. How long can this fusion surgery hold up?
He didn't seem invested in any of the majors after Augusta, which has me quite puzzled. And the implication that he limited his Open prep to stay strong fro the FedEx Cup is just bizarre, no?
The X-Files - My vote for the strangest story of the week is the equipment kerfuffle involving Xander Scauffele, in which pretty much everybody comes off looking badly... Lose-lose, baby!
As you might have heard, the R&A randomly tests equipment before the event, in this case including Tiger's M% driver, which passed. The X-Man's Callaway Epic Flash driver, however, failed, and the story is interesting at several levels.
Let's fill you in on the background:
“I had some equipment issues earlier with the R&A and what not,” Schauffele said.Asked to elaborate, the Callaway staffer said, “They tested my driver. Yeah, and it didn’t pass.”
The R&A randomly tested 30 drivers at Royal Portrush and while there were rumors of other clubs not passing the Coefficient of Restitution test used by all tours and governing bodies, the R&A refused to comment on if Schauffele was the only one with a hot driver.
“It barely missed,” Schauffele said of the 9 degree Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero that he put into play just before winning January’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.
“I had a bit of a run-in with the R&A, which wasn’t the most fun,” Schauffele said, though his beef was over the number of players tested and not with the rule or testing procedure.
How can this happen, I hear you ask? Don't blame me if this makes your brain hurt?
The test is designed to prevent more than an 83 percent transfer of energy between clubhead and ball. Any more is a “spring-like effect” with the current COR limit set in 1998 for metal woods at 0.822 with a test tolerance of .008. So any driver exceeding 0.830 fails, even if the effect is accentuated by wear and tear on the clubface.
Incentives matter, so you'll quickly see where this inevitably leads. The manufacturers ignore that COR limit and attempt to max out at the higher limit, at least for their staff players.
What's the risk? Like this week, that the driver will be tested and have to be taken out of play. But they're testing only 30 guys each week, so they leave us unclear as to how many other drivers might have failed. As has become all too common with our governing bodies, they're not exactly covering themselves with glory.
While I think Xander makes some strong points, in other aspects he comes up as just a another guy crying out for victim status:
“It is an unsettling topic,” Schauffele said. “I’ve been called a cheater by my fellow opponents. It’s all joking, but when someone yells ‘cheater’ in front of 200 people, to me it’s not going to go down very well.”
Still, Schauffele feels the R&A purposely leaked the news even as no reports were written until he stepped up to a media flash area interview microphone.
“So the R&A, they pissed me off because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private,” he said. “This is me coming out and treating them the exact way they treated me.”
Oh, boo-friggin'-hoo.... It was a joke, because it could happen to any of these guys, and that's why they busted your chops over it. Then he violates the first rule of holes:
Schauffele suggests his was not the only driver to fail the random testing of 30 players this week.
“Other drivers failed,” he said. “I’ll just say it, I’m pretty sure a PXG driver failed and a TaylorMade driver failed and the Callaway driver failed. This matter should be private.”
Did they? And, by the way, why is this stuff not routinely disclosed? But Xander, you're sounding more than a little guilty.... is there something else you'd like to share with us?
The TC gang jumped on this one as well:
3. Xander Schauffele ripped The R&A after alleging that it leaked his failed driver test at The Open but not the results of other drivers that also failed. (He was one of 30 randomly selected for testing.) “They pissed me off because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private,” he said, adding that he was jokingly called a “cheater” by a fellow pro. Two big-picture questions: (1) Should failed equipment results like this be made public to avoid such messiness? (2) Schauffele said he doesn’t think it’s his duty to personally ensure his driver is conforming. Agree?
Zak: Yes, this situation feels similar to a corked bat (like Andy Johnson wrote on Twitter). I think most things are better when brought to the public. We ask the appropriate questions: was it non-conforming by 1%? .1%? 3%? It’s not right to just sweep this under the governing body rug. I’m with Xander to an extent. I don’t know if it’s fair for him to check every week if his driver is conforming. That’s why he signs a deal and some of his likeness to Callaway — they’ll have people take care of it. But if Xander has been pimpin’ that Epic Flash for two months without issue, should Callaway be out hawking him on the range this week saying “Hey, buddy, we gotta get that driver head into our bucket of water before you tee it up.” Thankfully, other people make these rulings because I can’t quite seem to.
Ritter: Yes, publicize it. This would also spark players to take ownership of their gear, because — wait for it — they wouldn’t want a failed test to become public. The idea that a player isn’t responsible for his gear would immediately dissolve if disclosure became the norm.
Mikey Bams makes the case that it's the player's responsibility:
Bamberger: It is the golfer’s responsibility to make sure his or her clubs comply but in my limited experience virtually none ever do, they assume that the manufacturers give them conforming clubs. I have heard that there was a near-epidemic of non-conforming drivers in play from certain manufacturers but I had chalked that up to Tourtalk but now I am much less sure and much more suspicious. All the failed clubs should be announced. I don’t think for a minute Xander was willfully cheating but the good thing that can come out of this will be for players to be more diligent about checking their own clubs and calling out instance where they think other players have nonconforming clubs.
Everything is the player's responsibility, though back her eon Planet Earth things are a bit more convoluted. Because, you know, there aren't many players capable of testing the COR on their drivers..... really, where ya gonna go with this?
Dylan Dethier takes what I assume will be a minority position:
Dethier: The most interesting part of this whole saga was what it said about Xander Schauffele: he’s found a voice. Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas have spoken this year about how they needed to build up some cache before they spoke their mind freely. Feels like Xander has made that same leap now.
So, I guess the good news is that the X-man has found his voice. The bad news? Well, it's a whiny, annoying voice....
Here's a simple solution to resolve the bad incentive system. Test the drivers of the top ten after the event, and DQ anyone whose sticks are non-conforming. Think that might cure the motivation to push the limits?
One last thought occurs to me.... Xander, a snoted above, plays the Cally Epic Flash driver. You know who else plays that non-conforming driver? Fairview's own Bobby D. Coincidence?
I'm going to leave you here and save J.B. Holmes for tomorrow, which will allow me to savor his final round meltdown for another 24 hours.
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