Weekend Wrap

And what a weekend it was, terminologically speaking.  Fairview was as firm fast as I've seen it in my three years of paying dues.  I'd tell you about my three-jack from six-feet on the first green yesterday, but the memory is still a bit raw....

An Emotional Rescue - Hard not to root for the guy:

Cameron Champ plays with a stoicism that suggests an old soul observing the mandate to act like you’ve been there before. But even were he inclined to spike the ball, on this day, in this place, was not the occasion. 

Champ won the Safeway Open in Northern California wine country on Sunday. Hold the sparkling wine, however. But not the tears. He won with the heaviest of hearts and his mind frequently drifting to home, to Sacramento, 65 miles northeast. 

His grandfather, Mack Champ, PaPa as Cameron calls him, “the greatest man alive,” is in hospice, battling Stage 4 stomach cancer. “I got a video of him sitting up and watching,” Cameron’s emotional father, Jeff, said. 

Champ, 24, carried a three-stroke lead into the final round and victory appeared imminent for most of the day. Then Adam Hadwin closed with three straight birdies, forcing Champ to hole a four-footer for birdie at 18 to win at the Silverado Resort in Napa. 

When the putt dropped, the final stroke in a three-under-par 69, Champ briefly raised both arms, Moments later he tearfully embraced his father, who unabashedly wept, too.

It was PaPa that gave him his first set of golf clubs, so we can only hope he was able to take in the win.  As for acting like he'd been there before, it might have been because he has.... Yanno, just a year ago.

I would only add that this wouldn't seem to be a golf course particularly well-suited to the big bopper's game, making the win that much more impressive.

You guys are well aware of my sordid history in fantasy golf, but here's one I nailed on Friday:

CBS’ NFL analyst Tony Romo took Boomer Esiason off the hook early in his round on

Friday, by playing the front nine so poorly that it was apparent he would not make the cut in the Safeway Open. 

Esiason was standing by to work the Bears-Vikings game with Jim Nantz in Chicago in the event that Romo made the cut, which was not out of the question following an opening round of two-under par 70.\ 

Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback playing on a sponsor exemption, made six bogeys on the front nine at the Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif., and went out in four-over 40 to fall to a tie for 113th. He wound up with a six-over par 78 and a 36-hole total of four-over 148. He missed the cut by six and was scheduled to fly to Chicago via private jet on Friday night.

Don't all amateurs fly private?   Of course, our Tony isn't like other amateurs.... he gets to cash large checks for golf shoe commercials and still be an amateur.

But he's had quite a few opportunities to prove out the old Tour range adage that "Scratch ain't S**t!".  Although the usually sensible Eamon Lynch takes a weird tack on such things:

Instead of whining about Tony Romo playing in this week’s Safeway Open, it should be asked if he’s free to play next week, too. 

The arguments against celebrities like Romo competing in PGA Tour events on sponsor exemptions usually begin in one of two ways: they’re either cheapening the game or they’re taking a spot away from a golfer that truly deserves it. 

The critics are wrong on both accounts. 

“Tony Romo isn’t a dilettante,” Lynch says, “he’s proved he has enough game. Not enough to really compete out there, but more than enough not to embarrass himself.”

Romo’s 2-under 70 in the first round of the Safeway Open did more to promote the event and the PGA Tour than any journeyman pro could have achieved. 

“Any players upset that he’s on the sidelines while Romo’s inside the ropes, that’s probably got more to do with his play than Romo’s celebrity,” Lynch said.

Haven't we suffered enough?  Really, this is bizarre logic from top to bottom.

In the first instance, if Romo is really responsible for the buzz from a PGA Tour event, isn't that at its heart a pretty serious indictment of the event?  I mean circus sideshows can be dun, but they're sideshows for a reason...

And notice what he does with the argument about wasting a spot in the field...  It's always put into the mouth of a competitor, so that it can be dispensed with via an admonition to play better.  Haven't we killed off enough straw men?  If you need Tony Romo to promote your event, that seems a pretty sad state of affairs, no?

The funniest part of Romo's presence is this Did He or Didn't He moment?  I find myself kinda hoping he did.

While I'm patting myself on the back for getting Romo right, we had another prediction in Friday's post:

“I’ll shoot 6-, 7-under-par tomorrow, I really believe that,” he said. “I believe the game is close enough to do that.”

Missed it by that much....OK, Phil did shoot a three-under 69, but that's not what he said he's shoot.  And, of course, it wasn't good enough to sniff the cut line.

Dunhill Doings - For reasons that remain unclear to me, I didn't watch even a minute of this, though it sounds kinda ugly:

England’s Matthew Southgate talked about the importance of keeping himself in check

to win the $5 million Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He didn’t, and that allowed France’s Victor Perez to claim his first European Tour title. 

Southgate was also chasing his maiden European Tour victory. He seemed on course for that when he stood on the 14th tee of the Old Course at St Andrews on 23 under par with a two-shot lead after starting the day tied with Perez. 

The Englishman nearly reached the par-5 14th in two. He came up just short and looked odds on to birdie the hole. However, he duffed his chip shot and then missed a six-foot par putt. Perez had no problems on the hole. He two putted from just off the green for birdie to move to the 15th hole tied for the lead. 

Another slip proved costly for Southgate, this time at the 17th. After an excellent iron shot from the left rough found the green of arguably the hardest par-4 in golf, Southgate three-putted the hole to head down the last a shot behind Perez.

And get this:

“The emotions were really high all day,” said Perez, who actually resides in nearby Dundee. “It was really cold, windy and a long day out there. I felt like I was able to battle. It wasn’t easy. Matt played amazing. I was expecting some of the guys to charge, and we were fortunate it was kind of a one-on-one battle on the back nine.

A Frenchman named Perez who lives in Dundee?  I've got nothing here, folks.  

As you likely know, Rory plays in the event with his father, which is quite the sweet thing for the young man.  But, Rory being Rory, the story ends badly:

Rory McIlroy and his father were contending in the team event of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championships in Scotland, but turns out a tiebreaker rule McIlroy wasn’t even aware of decided the winner. 

McIlroy and his father, Gerry, shot 61 on the Old Course in St. Andrews on Sunday and finished the team event 39 under overall to tie Tommy Fleetwood and his amateur partner Ogden Phipps. But there would be no playoff here. The tiebreaker for the team event is the low score in the pros’ final round, and Fleetwood’s 64 beat McIlroy’s 67. 

“Look, we played as good as we should,” Rory McIlroy said. “We shot 61, 62, 61 the last three days. My dad played great. I did what I could for the team. I didn’t have my best this week.” 

Gerry McIlroy, a 2 handicap and member at ultra-exclusive Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., contributed a handful of net eagles and, his son says, shot two or three under on his own ball on the back nine the last two days.

When did Gerry become a Seminole member?  I'm guessing he's the first member there from Holywood, County Down....

I get that Rory would want the win for his dad, but this isn't remotely the first time that Rory demonstrated his lack of knowledge of the rules, though I have no clue what he means with this:

“We didn’t actually know it was the lowest pro’s score [as the tiebreaker], which I think is a bit unfair,” he continued. “It should be the lowest team score and we would have won it, but it’s been a great week.”

Didn't they tie?  Or does he mean for the day?  Personally, I think Sky Sports should send them back to the 18th tee for a playoff, though we're awfully close to a time when the U.S. Open will be decided by a match of cards.

Rory seems to have had a cranky week, as what should we make of this trashing of the Euro Tour:

“I’m sort of honestly sick of coming back over to the European Tour and shooting 15

under par and finishing 30th,” said McIlroy, who has played only four “regular” European Tour events (non-major and non-WGC tournaments) this season. At the Dunhill, McIlroy posted scores of 70-66-70-67 yet finished seven back of winner Victor Perez. 

“I don’t think the courses are set up hard enough,” McIlroy said. “There are no penalties for bad shots. It’s tough when you come back and it’s like that. I don’t feel like good golf is regarded as well as it could be. It happened in the Scottish Open at Renaissance. I shot 13 under and finished 30th [actually T-34] again. It’s not a good test. I think if the European Tour wants to put forth a really good product, the golf courses and setups need to be tougher.”

As that Eamon guy said, play better!

I think there's a very serious issue to be considered here, but it's a strange week in which to be making this argument.  The event in which he played is a Pro-Am in which the groups are taking six hourse to play eighteen holes, so I think we understand why the course aren't playing tougher.  Also links and the Old Course specifically....  to wit, if it's not blowing there's really not much you can do to protect the old girl.

Rory is usually delightfully candid, but he makes a pretty good hash of things here:

“Winning the FedEx Cup was validation of my decision to play more in the States,” said McIlroy, who also grabbed PGA Tour player of the year honors over Brooks Koepka in a vote of tour pros. “I’m getting stick [for not playing more in Europe], but I’m turning down millions of dollars [by not going] to Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia because I want to do the right thing. I want to play on the courses I want to play at. I don’t think I should get stick for that because I feel like I’m doing the right thing.” 

“It’s been a great year,” McIlroy continued. “I’ve won big events and I've consistently played well. Every week I show up and I shoot good scores and play good golf. If I continue to do that, I’ll be in a good spot. I don't want to travel that much anymore. I’ve done it for 12 years. I want to have easy flights and not have to go across eight, nine time zones and have to get acclimatized. I’m happy to do what I’ve done this year.”

Why so touchy, young man?  

I certainly understand that he's married an American girl and makes his home here, and wants to limit his travel.  I also understand that the home tour in that place that gave him his start expects some continued support, which seems reasonably fair... As to why he felt the need to trash that home Tour, at an event that allows him to play with his father, seems a tad self-centered.

Before we move on, the Tour Confidential panel led with this issue:

1. Last month we debated in this space whether PGA Tour course setups are too one-dimensional. On Sunday, after Rory McIlroy shot 67 and tied for 26th at the Dunhill Links Championship, he went a step further and said Euro Tour setups aren’t tough enough. What’s going on here? Are the elite tours not sufficiently testing the best players in the world? 

Josh Sens: It’s a bummer what the modern pro game has done to so many of the great old courses, but barring rolled-back equipment (not happening) or increasingly tricked

up setups (no one likes those), there’s no going back to the way things were. If it really is so easy, I guess Rory should set his sights on shooting 64 instead of 67. I’m less bothered by low scores on a docile day on the Old Course than I am by deep-red leaderboards on a lot of cupcake layouts in the States that don’t even seem to require a lot in the way of strategy: it’s just bomb and gouge all day. 

Sean Zak: I don’t like that Rory is trying to dunk on the European Tour again. It’s no different here in the States, so why hasn’t he mentioned it in America? If you want to play the Old Course, you have to accept that it’s an easy course (according to par) for professionals when it’s not blustery. That’s the truth! I think the PGA Tour is far worse at creating cookie-cutter setups that don’t challenge pros enough. 

Dylan Dethier: It had been all of what, four days since Rory had done something to upset all of Europe? Zak’s right — the data doesn’t really even back up the idea that Euro events are easier than PGA Tour courses. I love seeing difficult setups, and I don’t think Rory is necessarily wrong. I’m sure they set up the courses easy for this pro-am. But it’s true on Tour, too. 

Michael Bamberger: I don’t blame the courses, and I certainly don’t blame the players — the issue was, is and always will be the ball. It goes too far and has neutered the par-5 out of existence.

It seems that this is the issue of our era, which we seem to addressing with all the vigor that the U.S. Government is summoning to tackle its debt problem... I just wish that some enterprising reporter might have asked Rory exactly how do we defend these course when you're carrying it 330 yards?

Priorities - Tiger sat with Michael Strahan and let us know his focus:

“I got the clearance last week to start full practice, so I played nine holes the other day,” Woods said of his recovery in an interview this week with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan. “It’s sore, yeah, but now I can start lifting and getting my muscle back.”

Lifting?  What, no Navy Seal training?  Shall we pencil in that fifth back surgery?

The Mask Slips - Bryson DeChambeau has demonstrated the deft PR touch of Robert Allenby in handling the criticism of his slow play, and this won't help:

But it’s never all birdies and bogeys with DeChambeau, who acknowledged that he’s had to deal with being at the center of several slow play-related stories. There was Brooks Koepka calling his pace of play “embarrassing.” There was the video that showed him

taking more than two minutes to hit a 10-foot putt. There was evidence against him, and there was his defense, and another confrontation with Koepka, and other players speaking out against slow play. 

But Friday, he said some of that has moved to the past. He didn’t hear any criticism from the Napa Valley crowd. What’s more, he says he has evidence that he isn’t all that slow, anyway. 

“There’s data out there now that shows that I am not the slowest player at all by any means,” he said. What is that data? “Well, the PGA Tour has it. I’ve seen it. I don’t know if I can disclose any of it. I’m not going to, unfortunately, but I’m definitely not in the top 10 percent. I’m not close to that. That’s from ShotLink data, we have that. So I can say that, I know I can say that without a shadow of a doubt.”

In other news, Bryson has a secret plan to end the Viet Nam war...

Really, I'm not sure what's funnier, Bryson setting the standards so low or defending himself with date he knows the Tour will never share?  How about we send Bryson out in a fourball with JB Holmes, and see if they get around in less than seven hours.

The TC panel took on this one as well:

3. Bryson DeChambeau was in the middle of a slow-play controversy at the end of last season, but he said he gets a bad rap. “There’s [ShotLink] data out there now that shows that I am not the slowest player at all by any means,” he said. “The PGA Tour has it. I’ve seen it. I don’t know if I can disclose any of it. I’m not going to, unfortunately, but I’m definitely not in the top 10 percent. I’m not close to that.” Thanks to this new data players seem to know where they stand when it comes to pace of play, but would making this information public force pros to play even faster and be more conscious of it, or would it do more harm than good? 

Zak: Yes. Undoubtedly it would. Because we the media would ask them about their pace reputation. And we’d ask their playing partners about it. We would blow out the pace of play topic even further, and in a more proper way. It would set the record straight(er), and perhaps inspire the Tour to crack the whip a bit more. 

Sens: Publicize it all. What’s the downside, other than some red-faced moments for players who deserve them. 

Dethier: Every player should be able to justify his pace of play or else he should be playing faster. Simple as that. Release the tapes! 

Bamberger: The PGA Tour does not enjoy a reputation for being open, so this would be a good place to start, but not very meaningful. If you want to know who’s slow, just watch. I’m not sure why B. D’C is bragging about not being on the bottom 10 percent. When you’re playing partners say your pace is appropriate, that’s when you know your pace is appropriate. The idea of going to ShotLink to figure out who is slow is illustrative of the problem.

OK, I'm a little hung up on interpreting Zak's "Yes"....  

But while Mikey Bams makes his typically trenchant observation, I'd add a caveat.  Of course we know who's slow, all we need to do is ask Brooks.  But ShotLink has been held out as a possible technology to help regulate pace of play, so it would be helpful to get a look at that data.

I don't know much, but I'm pretty sure nothing positive can be accomplished under the present protocol.  All we're doing is catching innocents in the net through the luck of the pairings, and we shouldn't impose penalty strokes based upon that protocol.

 Time to get on with my day, but I have a few items teed up for tomorrow... See you then.

Your Friday Frisson

Another week winds down, but it looks to be a great weekend...  So, without further ado...

Scenes From Silverado - Golf.com is here to tell me what I missed:

Adam Scott and Andrew Landry share the lead 

Adam Scott and Andrew Landry lead the Safeway Open field at seven under par after the first round. 

Scott carded six birdies, and eagle and a bogey on Thursday, while Landry’s card was blemish-free, with seven birdies. Scott is seeking his 14th Tour victory, while Landry is seeking his second win, after claiming the Valero Texas Open in 2018.

Tony Romo impressed 

In his fourth PGA Tour appearance, Romo fired his career-low competitive Tour round — a two-under-par 70 that included five birdies and two bogeys. Perhaps most impressively, three of those birdies were made on Romo’s final five holes. 

Romo is playing as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption, so prize money isn’t a factor for him this week, but in the event he makes the cut on Friday, he’ll have to miss a scheduled gig to call the Vikings-Bears NFL game on Sunday alongside Jim Nantz.

As I flipped between the Packers-Eagles and the evening replay, it did appear that the golf course is as firm and fast as we've seen it, perhaps a reason to tune in.  If, that is, you're looking for one.

You might expect a reaction from your humble blogger to Tony Romo's round....  You know how I feel about him taking up a slot.  Here's the statistics that I was able to find:

There's not much to be had there, though he obviously putted lights out for the day.  That seems unlikely to continue, so I'm going to predict a harsh regression to his mean today....  

On the flip side, he beat Phil by five... perhaps yesterday's jest was more on point than even I realized.  Which leads to this recurring header:

Despite a round-ruining 9, Phil Mickelson finds reason for optimism at Safeway Open

Just Phil being Phil, a role he plays to critical acclaim.  But the how behind that nine is unusual, even for our Phil:

No one can spin a bad round and make it sound like he’s on the verge of finding the

secret to golf like Phil Mickelson. 

Thursday’s opening round was a perfect example. Mickelson is mired in a terrible slump that dates back almost to the moment he holed his winning putt at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. At the opening round of the Safeway Open, he recorded a round-ruining 9 on the par-5 fifth hole and signed for a 3-over 75. 

That score was his highest 18-hole score in 15 rounds at the Safeway Open at Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course. How bad was the nine, which included two shots out of bounds? Well, according to the PGA Tour, in more than 38,000 holes he has played on Tour, Mickelson has only posted three scores higher.

OK, but that's not the weird part....  and this isn't either, though perhaps it offers a clue in how to react to his happy talk:

Mickelson also has made some swing changes. He’s been working on hitting a low-cut with his driver to try and keep the ball in play. 

“It’s getting rid of the big miss,” he explained. 

Not so much on Thursday – he hit only 3 of 14 fairways in the first round. 

“Every lie in the rough was a jumper and so I couldn’t attack the pins the way I wanted to,” he said.

And he's so on top of things that he laid down this marker for today:

So, in Phil’s world a 75 in his first competitive round of the 2019-20 season is no reason to hit the panic button. He wants everyone to believe that he’s “close” and “the game is coming around.” As a matter of fact, he’s expecting to take advantage of fresh greens in the morning and go low. 

“I’ll shoot 6-, 7-under-par tomorrow, I really believe that,” he said. “I believe the game is close enough to do that.”

We'll see about that....  but the weird part, and admittedly it's not to be found in the print coverage, is that he did the exact same thing last year from the same spot in the rough on the same hole.  Only then he made a putt to save his quad.

Scenes From St. Andrews -  They're playing the Dunhill Links this week, and the Old Course has been torched:

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — South African golfer Justin Walters shot a 9-under 63 for his lowest score on the European Tour in six years, giving him a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday. 

Walters, ranked No. 444, has not recorded a top-20 finish in 23 events on the tour this season but found some form on the Old Course at St. Andrews, one of three Scottish venues for the pro-am event. 

Every player in the field plays 18 holes at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, before returning to the Old Course for the fourth and final round Sunday. 

Three players — Victor Perez of France, Jordan Smith of England, and Ryan Fox of New Zealand — shot 64 at St. Andrews, with Adrian Otaegui shooting the same score at Kingsbarns.

With the amateurs playing, there's no way to protect the old girl....  But the name brand players won't see the place until Saturday, so we'll see how low they go then.

I love this event, and would choose to play it over that comparable Pro-Am at Pebble in a heartbeat, though there is this one nagging detail:

Heading that star-studded cast is world No 2 Rory McIlroy, who has been a fairly regular 

supporter of the event since using a third-place finish in 2007 as the launchpad for his professional career as that effort gained him a European Tour card. “It’s a very relaxed week,” observed McIlroy, who is teaming up in the pro-am event with his dad, Gerry. “St Andrews is a great town to spend a bit of family time and spending a lot of time with him on the course will be really cool.” 

Six-hour rounds will guarantee they do indeed do that on the course and, though someone who likes to play the game at the proper pace, this is one week when McIlroy doesn’t really mind taking a chill pill. “I try not to take it too seriously because, if you take these pro-ams too serious, you start to get frustrated with how long you’re out there and all that sort of stuff,” he added. “So I try to keep it lighthearted and, hopefully, that’s the key to playing some good golf.”

I cannot imagine why it should take six hours to play either The Old or Kingsbarns, though admittedly Carnoustie is a different animal entirely.... 

Don't miss this aerial view of Lee Westwood's ace on the 8th at Carnoustie, taken from a plane.  Way cool.

Scenes From The Business Side - Sports Business Journal is the go-to source on the business side of our game, but since their content is behind a paywall, we'll allow Shack to guide us:

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reports in great detail that some network heavyweights are descending on Ponte Vedra Beach to make initial PGA Tour,

Champions, Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and LPGA Tour media rights pitches.

Ourand lays out the schedule to include sessions with Warnermedia chairman Jeff Zucker and Turner Sports head Lenny Daniels, CBS’s Sean McManus and David Berson, ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro and Burke Magnus (EVP programming), Eric Shanks and president Mark Silverman from Fox Sports, Amazon’s Marie Donoghue and Jim DeLorenzo, with NBC Sports Group President Pete Bevacqua and Golf Channel President Mike McCarley helming Comcast’s effort.

Curious, since the elephant in the room, the NFL, has just created uncertainty by advocating for an expanded schedule, including a 17-game season and an additional bye week.

The tour is coming to market after a year that saw weekend television viewership (excluding the majors) drop considerably. NBC’s weekend coverage was down 18% this season; CBS’s was down 10%. 

The looming NFL rights negotiation also could have an effect on these negotiations. All the networks are prepared to pay a lot more to keep the NFL when its rights come up in 2021 and 2022. The risk is that the prospect of those rights could keep networks from committing as much money as the PGA Tour is hoping for.

The Tour's desire to accelerate negotiations could be seen as an expectation that those numbers might not improve going forward. 

AT&T has told tour officials that it has looked into flipping one of its existing channels (Headline News or truTV) into a golf channel that would pick up the rights that currently are on Golf Channel. It’s likely that AT&T would offer the PGA Tour a stake in that channel. 

ESPN is expected to make an aggressive pitch centered on streaming rights for its ESPN+ platform. CBS has carried PGA Tour rights since 1970 and wants to maintain that relationship. Finally, NBC has built a healthy business around PGA Tour rights, like Golf Channel and GolfNow, and is expected to be aggressive in trying to keep them.

Methinks they'd be better served taking the cash, but it's human nature to covet that which others control.

Alan In Full - Despite the paucity of news. Shippy's weekly mailbag has a full compliemnt of snark:

Is Rory the best backdoor top 10 player of all time? #AskAlan-@coachkirbychs 

I used to think it was Furyk, but McIlroy is making quite a bid for this bad news/good news title. It’s highly commendable that when Rory gets off to a slow start he keeps grinding and patiently plays himself onto the first page of the leaderboard. The maddening flip side is why isn’t he more ready when the bell rings, especially in big events?

yes, there are his Thursday woes for sure, none more obvious than that home game last July.  But there were also enough times that he got himself into contention, then laid an egg on Sunday (Memphis comes immediately to mind).   

Here's a couple on the same wavelength:

With Willet’s return to form making it more interesting, which of the last five Masters champs (Tiger, Reed, Sergio, Danny, Spieth) do you think has the best chance of winning another green jacket? -@bdb822 

Oooh, this is interesting. I’ll take the guy currently playing the worst: Spieth. Jordan putts Augusta National’s crazy greens better than anybody this side of B. Crenshaw. He is too smart, tenacious and too talented not to figure out his swing woes. When he does, look out. 

If I told you that since the ’16 Masters, Spieth would win a major and have two other top-3s in majors, and Willett wouldn’t have another top 10 in majors over that stretch, would me telling you that Willett now has a higher OWGR than Spieth make you laugh, cry, or vomit? -@miller_bud 

It would certainly make me question your sanity. But all credit to Willett, who has won a couple of big tournaments in the last calendar year. There are plenty of other ways to slurp up World Ranking points besides high finishes in the majors.

Alan certainly has more belief in Jordan than I do.... His tee-to-green game is fairly dreadful compared to his peer group, and that seems a difficult matter to fix.

And this on a fave pinata:

How effective will Billy Horschel be in getting other American players to compete at Wentworth? He seemed genuinely thrilled with his experience.#AskAlan -@pcaseysafc 

Word of mouth among players (and caddies and wives) is massively important to the success of any golf tournament. So is the venue and the date on the schedule. All three factors are suddenly working in favor of the Euro tour’s flagship event. I fully expect a bunch more very-good-if-not-quite-great Americans to make the trip in the future, and the occasional superstar may be tempted, too. That’s good news for a tournament that deserves a stellar field.

The image of Billy Ho as some global ambassador is amusing, but it does seem that this event has been revitalized by the date change.  It's a good event and it used to be a great H.S. Colt golf course, before Ernie took a knife to it.  

This is a good one as well:

What tour will Akshay be playing on in the ’20-’21 season and why? Boom or bust? #AskAlan-@EthanZimman 

I’ll say the Latinoamerica Tour — even if it’s just Mondaying — which is a perfectly respectable place for any young player to ply his trade. I love the kid’s swing and attitude but, man, professional golf is way more cut-throat than the Matt Wolffs of the world make it appear.

Magic 8-ball says, "Outlook Cloudy."   

And now we deal with first world problems:

What’s the one invite you had to turn down that you still haven’t played? If one exists! -@pmmasc 

Haha, there have been a few. Next month I’m going on an epic New Zealand/Australia journey and will cross off a bunch of mind-blowing courses that have been on my to-do list for years. With that in mind, this is my current bucket list, roughly in order of lust: Fisher’s Island, Maidstone, Cabot(s), Oakmont, Chicago GC, Diamante Dunes, Morfontaine, Swinley Forest, Prairie Dunes, Sawgrass Stadium.

Good luck with Swinley...  I've bene told that, unless you're intimate with the Royal Family, you'll not see the inside of their gate.

I’m still in awe of the Solheim Cup finish. Doesn’t it seem like that was criminally undercovered? PTI didn’t even mention it. What are the odds after all those shots, it would come down to one putt on the final stroke of the whole tournament? And Suzann Pettersen would make it? -@gkellynyc 

That’s funny, just yesterday I got sucked into a whole highlights package of the Cup. It really was the most exciting event of the year. (The Masters was the most meaningful.) It played out like a movie, which is what you can say about the most transcendent sports moments. Hopefully this Solheim will be like the Shawshank Redemption — the more it gets replayed over time, the more it is appreciated.

It was great, but I can't see it having much of a shelf life...

Lastly, asked for an insider anecdote, he throws a Tour rabbit under the bus:

Give us an anecdote. The player(s) in question don’t have to be named. Gambling story. Crummy reputation. Best shot you’ve seen in person. Etc. An opportunity to humblebrag about your 25 years of access. Or outright brag. -@CHFounder 

This was more of a fluke than anything, but here goes: At a long ago Las Vegas Invitational, when it used to be the final event on the schedule and thus determined who finished in the top 125 on the money list and kept their job, I wound up staying on the same floor of the same hotel as a longtime Tour journeyman. We knew each other a little. With a strong Sunday he leapfrogs up the money list and keeps his card by less than a thousand bucks. He decides to celebrate with a comely cocktail waitress, which is fine until his wife arrives at his room, having flown in for what was supposed to be a joyous surprise. It’s late and I’m in my room typing when I hear an almighty ruckus in the hallway. I peek outside to see what’s going in and it’s said player and wife having a shouting match. He and I lock eyes. He gives me such a pitiful look of terror that I have never put the story in print … until now.

Alan, we're going to pull off your fingernails one-by-one until you give us a name....

Enjoy the beautiful weather, and I'll see you on Monday. 

Thursday Threads

Shall we get back to our regularly scheduled programming?  Not that there's all that much going on....

Bobby D. Hardest Hit - It made quite the splash initially, but the latest isn't quite up to snuff:

Costco can generally do no wrong in the eyes of its supporters. With one of the most relaxed return policies in the industry, reasonably-priced pizza and jars of mayonnaise the size of a beach ball, there’s very little to quibble about when it comes to the

wholesaler. The lone exception might be their updated four-piece Kirkland Signature golf balls. 

The initial four-piece offering Costco rolled out in 2016 drew rave reviews for its performance, but as quickly as the ball took the industry by storm, it became swept up in a lawsuit with Acushnet Holdings Corp., maker of Titleist’s popular Pro V1 ball, over claims Costco made that the ball “meet[s] or exceed[s] the quality standards of the leading national brands.” Acushnet also asserted the Kirkland ball violated 10 patents. The case was later settled out of court in 2018. 

Costco’s golf ball business went dark briefly before resurfacing with three-piece and four-piece offerings ($29.99 for two dozen) under the same Kirkland Signature name. While few have complained about the quality of the three-piece ball, the cover of the four-piece was brought into question on Reddit’s golf page recently, where user archsplinh posted a photo of two Kirkland Signature balls resting side-by-side on a couch under the headline “After 3 holes, Costco…”

We're all getting older, and who among us wouldn't like to be able to go back to the balata era?

I hadn't heard that the companies had settle the lawsuit, but it never figured that Costco could have an appetite for such a Bataan death March litigation.  

The original product was a Nike ball, built using excess cores after Nike exited the ball business.  But when they came back into the market with K-Sig ball, no details were available as to the construction of the ball.  So, color me unsurprised....  

But while Costco doesn't come off looking great for selling the ball, at least they stepped up and made good:

Perhaps they could give Cablevision a tutorial on customer service?

Today In Branding - Are you Living Under Par™?  Have you discerned what it means?  Because the Euro Tour has rebranded, and it might be just as bad as our home Tour's branding, though at least the Euros didn't abandon the best marketing program evah.

So, hope you're sitting down, because her it is:

They must have burned the midnight oil coming up with that, though I do need to point out Keith Pelley's brilliant matching of frames....  He wrote the book on that narrow skill set.

Shack does a righteous Fisking of the associated press release here, and it's got the full quota of nonsense MBA-speak, such as this:

The European Tour has launched a creative new brand strategy, with the aim of broadening the Tour’s appeal to new and existing fans and commercial partners. 

Golf’s global tour has unveiled its new identity, which includes a modern, fresh logo alongside a new website and App, all underpinned by the Tour’s guiding principles of Innovation, Inclusivity and Globality.

Now Shack drops a Saudi Arabia reference here and that's pretty good, though I'd have been tempted to add something about Sergio being unavailable for comment.  Having never encountered the word "Globality", I consulted the obvious source:

Globality is the consciousness of the world as a single place.

Careful what you wish for, Keith, because if the world were one place, Jay Monahan would have no need for your services...

But here the mask slips and they tell us what really matters:

The European Tour’s new identity was unveiled at the Tour’s recently refurbished, state-of-the-art headquarters during the BMW PGA Championship, the fourth event in the Tour’s Rolex Series – an alliance of its eight premium events. It will be rolled out on October 1, coinciding with the launch of the Tour’s revamped website and App.

Designed to stand out from the rest of the busy golfing category whilst retaining its golf context, the bold, simple aesthetic is modern and flexible, suitable to be used across all platforms. It comprises a suite of assets, with a new logo, avatar and a range of graphic devices.

I'm shocked... Shocked, I tell you, that Pelley is just another CEO with an edifice complex.

Shack also riffs off this news to remind us of the unsuccessful efforts to use Seve's image in the Tour logo after his death:

Or, you know, the image of Sergio spitting into the cup?  Never gets old, does it?

How Many Cameras Died As A Result? -  An interesting bit on what might have been:

That's part of the intrigue behind a great recent story by the Caddie Network on all-time great caddie Tony Navarro. The story, worth a longer read on its own on Navarro, details

how Navarro declined the opportunity to be considered for Tiger's caddie. Navarro was Greg Norman's caddie in 1998, and Tiger had just decided to part ways with Mike "Fluff" Cowan, leaving the most desirable opening in looping circles open. 

In the story, the Caddie Network details how Butch Harmon, then Tiger's swing coach, was asked about potential replacements for Fluff, and Butch recommended just two names: Stevie and Navarro. But Navarro's candidacy for Tiger's caddie ended immediately after Butch first talked to Navarro. 

As Butch told the Caddie Network's Craig Dolch: 

“I told Tiger there were two guys he should hire – Tony Navarro and Steve Williams. I spoke with Tony first. But he said, ‘No, I’m still working for Greg.’ 

“That’s the kind of guy Tony is.

Of course, that was back in a more innocent time, when Norman would at least keep his shirt on.

Heads, Exploding -  I'm not convinced that this will be built, but I am surprised that with all the bad publicity it was even approved:

A new Donald Trump golf course in Scotland has been approved, the first major project that has been given the green light since he’s taken office. 

Plans for the 18-hole MacLeod Course, named after the president of the United States’ Scottish mother Mary, were unveiled back in 2013 but ground has never been broken.

According to reports on BBC and Bunkered, committee councilors in Aberdeenshire, 

Scotland, approved plans for the second course on Tuesday. The Trump Organization have also submitted plans for more than 500 luxury homes to be built on the site, with a vote to come on Thursday. 

The second course will be right next to Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, which opened seven years ago in 2012.

My skepticism is because of how little play the first track is getting.  Plus, from our 2015 visit, the land for the second course didn't seem nearly as interesting as that for the first.

Perhaps of greater import, they've been using Trump as a cudgel against Mike Keiser's application to build the Coul links up near Dornoch.   What doe sit say about those efforts if Aberdeenshire allows Trump to build his second course.

Predictions Are Hard... - Especially about the future, but Shane Ryan takes his best shot at predicting Ryder Cup 2020.  Good luck with this, Shane:

1. The United States squad will place a huge emphasis on team unity … or at least it should. 

Two of the last three Ryder Cups have ended in humiliation for the Americans, and I’m

not just talking about the lopsided losses on the course. It’s been worse than mere defeat; in 2014 it was a team-wide rebellion against captain Tom Watson. In a vacuum it would be easy to dismiss that as one hard-headed leader failing to gel with his team. But for four years, the American narrative was that this was a good thing, in the sense that it spurred change in the form of the infamous task force and woke them up to some truths about organization and continuity that the Europeans had learned decades earlier. Then, in Paris 2018, under a very steady and well-liked captain armed with the best-laid plans, humiliation struck again, with an alleged fight between Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, a mini-rebellion from Patrick Reed and general discord leading to another blowout.

I'm thinking that Shane misinterprets just about everything.  First, it wasn't a team rebellion in 2014, it was one a******e.  Second, were those that sowed controversy, such as Phil and Patrick, punished or rewarded?   As the old saying goes, that which gets rewarded gets repeated....

4. There will be controversy about the fans at Whistling Straits. 

More than 250,000 people attended the last American Ryder Cup in Minnesota, and

when you have that many people in a tense venue where alcohol is flowing all day, there are going to be some ugly incidents. And it’s not any kind of commentary on the nature of American fans, or anything like that—it’s just math. The rotten 1 percent, or one-tenth of 1 percent, or whatever, are going to make their presence felt. Rory’s war with the crowd at Hazeltine National provides a blueprint for what we’ll see at Whistling Straits, except I suspect it might be worse four years later.

I'm truly worried about Bethpage in 2024 in this regard.  What people forget about this event, is how little actual golf there is to be seen.   For Friday and Saturday there are only four groups on the course at any time, so much alcohol will be consumed.  

Like Shane, I assume that the home team will win, because a loss is the kind of thing that could bring Tom Watson back for another encore.  

Cheap Shots - Just a couple of snarky items and I'll let you get on with your day:

7 big-name PGA Tour pros who are making their belated season-debuts at the Safeway Open - Belated?  More like three months early, or am I off-base to suggest that a year should start in January?

Phil Mickelson gives glowing review of Steph Curry's golf game - Pity Steph can't respond in kind.

You’re probably breaking this little-known airline rule about golf shoes - They're justifiably picky about that which they'll lose.

Catch you tomorrow. 

The National - Further Thoughts on A Return Visit

Almost exactly two years ago, Nick Frelinghuysen and John Knox treated me to a day at The National Golf Links of America, the C.B. Macdonald masterpiece.  As a confirmed Macdonald geek, this was bucket list stuff, for which I remain grateful.  When they suggested a return visit this year, I couldn't even pretend to play hard to get....As an added bonus, Nick's Aunt, Barbara Israel, the actual member who got us on last go around, joined us for our day, making it that much more enjoyable.

After that 2017 round, I wrote this post on our day.  Typically, when I have cause to revisit old posts, they're far less insightful or humorous than my memory thereof.  Ain't life like that?  But in this case, I think its rather good, so perhaps my standards have been systematically lowered to that point where my writing can actually live up to expectations.  Or perhaps it is that good.... I know, seems unlikely. 

If you're curious as to all things Macdonald and the creation of this very special club, do read that old post.  As for this post, I'm merely going to throw up some photos and tell some stories of our day.  The golf was decidedly a mixed bag, especially on the upwind homeward holes, but craziness ensued.  Curiously, much of the craziness involved play from the many bunkers....

As most of you will know, it was a perfect day for golf.  Temps were in the mid-70's, with blustery winds but nothing like the gale force winds of that prior visit.  Lunch remains quite the event, the cold lobster and mac and cheese/creamed corn customs to hopefully never succumb to political correctness.  Jackets are required in the dining room, and the pairing with golf short remains an amusing look.

The property is special, overlooking Peconic Bay, but it's the clubhouse and the windmill that demand attention:

There isn't a bad hole to be found, but this photo shows my view or, more accurately, the lack thereof, to the third green, The Alps:

The line was the partially obscured tree on the far left.  You really need to commit, to say the least....

The craziness starts at the Par-3 fourth hole, which is NGLA's Redan.  I hit a no-good, God-awful iron, so far right that we screamed "Fore" out of concern for those on the fifth tee box, but it came up short of them in a bunker.  Now this is a Redan and I'm far right, so it's straight downhill to the green.  I've no clue how far to carry it, but in such circumstances one swings and prays.... Or maybe I have the order reversed.

I was trying to carry it about halfway, but completely chunked the explosion shot, which barely trundled out of the bunker.  Apparently that the shot called for, as it rolled down and nestled next to the pin, thank you very much.  The crowd loved it, but dumb friggin' luck is what it was.

If you've read that 2017 post, you'll have seen a picture of your humble correspondent in their version of the Road Bunker.  This one:

After my faux-heroics from the bunker on No. 4, Barbara got herself up and down from this very bunker.  She's a very good stick, but that was pretty special.

We were all amused by this tee box, as the long grass was quite close, requiring her to get the ball airborne quickly, which she accomplished without any stress:

Next up on our bunker heroics is the ninth hole, CBM's tribute to the Long Hole on the Old Course (No. 9 here).  This is an important hole for scoring, not only because it's a three-shotter, but also because it's our last downwind hole.  The fairway cants sharply from right-to-left, but my drive seems on a perfect line.  Only, when we get out there, my caddie Ian isn't sure where it is.  We spend 2:59  searching for it, before Barbara finds it in an unexpected location, an inch into the first cut on the right of the fairway.

I subsequently pull my third shot into a deep, greenside bunker.  I hit a good bunker shot, but it's clearly too much of a good thing, but it seems from my subterranean vantage point to be headed for the flag.... I then catch the flag, unfurled because of the wind, but can't see what happens next.  But I can guess from the reaction up on the green, it drops straight down and in.  Are we paying for junk in this game?  Alas, not, but not something one sees every day....

One of the caddies got this of our group on the 17th tee....  Upon further review, lass us and more Peconic Bay might have been a better call.  Yanno, something like this:

Got time for one last amazing sandie?  I was out of position on the finishing hole, having caught a fairway bunker off the tee.  With 200 yards for my third shot into the fan, I pulled it so far left I had ask Ian if the destination was still on the golf course, to which he could only answer, "Yes, but....".

We found it at the far end of a bunker, where there was no stance inside the bunker.  I had little choice but to squat a slow as my flabby thighs allowed, and try to catch the ball cleanly.  Shockingly, I pulled it off, putting the ball with about fifteen feet, from which I made my putt.  It was that kind of day...

After the chip-out but before putting, I had this brief exchange with Barbara:

Barbara:  You had yourself in a number of awkward spots out there, Scott.  But you handled them well, which I can only attribute to a misspent youth. 

Me:  It's actually worse than that.  Since I didn't really play golf as a kid, it was mostly a misspent adulthood.

Just a wonderful day, for which I thank my hosts.  There's a reason that my bride frequently reminds me that I'm a lucky bastard...  Very lucky, indeed.

We finished late, but the clubhouse was quite spectacular in the late day sun:

Weekend Wrap

The Most important event this past weekend occurred far from a golf course, as we were delighted to attend the wedding of Bobby D.'s daughter Lindsay.

It was a beautiful day in all respects, and we wish all good things for Lindsay and Rob.

The Sanderson Farms - No way to smooth out this segue, as the decision to hold a PGA Tour event in conflict with the Lindsay's wedding remains controversial: 

The Sanderson Farms Championship went to a playoff but that ended quickly as Sungjae Im hit his ball near the base of the grandstands on the first playoff hole, opening the door 

When does he get the real trophy?

for Sebastián Muñoz to get up and down for par and win for the first time on the PGA Tour. 

Muñoz made a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 to force the playoff on Sunday, the first on the PGA Tour in 39 events. 

Muñoz, from Colombia, shot a 63 on Saturday, the best score of the week, and then Sunday, closed with a 70 to force overtime with last season’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. 

Im, from South Korea, shot a final-round 66 and was the only golfer all week to shoot all four rounds in the 60s.

I saw none of it, but did you realize that there had been a playoff drought on tour?

Best streak that ended: The Sanderson Farms was the PGA Tour’s first playoff in 39 events and the first since the 2018 RSM Classic when Charles Howell III beat Patrick Rodgers.

Curious, though perhaps not all that interesting....

Danny's Song -  Likely the more significant event of the week:

VIRGINIA WATER, England — The road to restoration has been both long and arduous for Danny Willett. Masters champion and ranked among the world’s top 10 when he

arrived at Hazeltine National in 2016 for his Ryder Cup debut, the then 28-year-old endured a spectacularly traumatic week courtesy of his older brother’s ill-advised public rant regarding America and Americans. From there, the news, apart from the odd respectable week and a surprise victory at last year’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, has been almost unremittingly bad. 

Until now anyway. With a final-round 67 that took him to 20-under-par 268, Willett held off the burly challenge of Spain’s Jon Rahm by three shots to win the biggest tournament on the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. As well as earning a check for $1,166,660, the Englishman will move back inside golf’s top 50 for the first time since the PGA Championship in 2017 and, albeit just one week into the year-long process, sit atop the European Ryder Cup qualifying list. At this event only 16 months ago (what turned out to be his fourth missed cut in succession), he was as low as 462nd.

It's been a tortuous path since that Masters win, which seems like it was decades ago.  But the talent has always been there, or at least so I thought.

And our Rory is still doing that which he does:

A little further down the board, Rory McIlroy sneaked into a tie for ninth with a final-round 67 that meant the Northern Irishman played the final 54 holes in 15 under par. All of which only highlighted the sloppiness of an opening 76 that instantly left him with way too much to do if he was to win this event for a second time. Still, heading off to Scotland for next week’s Dunhill Links Championship, in which he will partner his soon-to-be 60-year-old father, Gerry, McIlroy was cheery enough. Although he claimed not to be the most contented member of the family.

Another back-door Top Ten, his signature move.

The runner-up had much the same reaction as Rors:

While Rahm rightfully was upset to come up short — “I’m not going to lie, it hurts; it stings,” he said — he found some positive perspective, which he told the media about

after his round at Wentworth in Surrey, England. 

“It’s a little painful. Nothing a good dinner and a bottle of wine can’t fix,” he said. “And at the same time, tomorrow I’m flying to St. Andrews with my dad. I’ve never been to St. Andrews before. I’m going to play the Old Course with my dad for the first time, so there’s a lot of positives to look at. It will be in bad weather, which I believe how golf is supposed to be played in Scotland I guess, right? It is what it is. There’s many reasons why I should be smiling.”

Sweet.  The Dunhill is a great event, and comes at a perfect time of the season for the guys to be relaxed.

As you might have heard, the Euro Tour has been stepping up its efforts to combat slow play, including this:

One month after announcing a four-point plan—regulation, education, innovation and (reduction of) field sizes—to counter the calamity that is slow play in professional golf, the European Tour is proving as good as its word. At this week’s BMW PGA Championship, two of those four building blocks will be in play. 

Because of the tournament’s shift from late May to September, the field at Wentworth has dropped from 156 to 132. That has to do with the availability of less daylight, but another variable in the tour’s equation—innovation—is also part of the plan to get everyone around Wentworth’s West Course in timely fashion. All 44 three-balls will be tracked by a GPS system that will help the referees monitor pace of play and pinpoint each group’s position relative to those ahead and behind. 

“A lot of the time players are unaware that they are out of position,” said John Paramor, the European Tour’s chief referee. “So we felt that we would like to find a method that would tell them when they are. So we are trialing this week a system where they will have that information on five tees [Nos. 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16]. The previous group’s time will be recorded when they walk off the green. Then that time will be deducted from that of the next group, who will then be able to tell if they are within time.”

OK, it's certainly good to hear them trying things out, though I'm a bit skeptical that they'll take one players helpful suggestion:

Not surprisingly, this latest move by the European Tour has been met with almost universal approval from the players, especially the faster-moving members of the community. But there are doubts, too. And maybe a little cynicism. Only a little tongue-in-cheek, former Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts suggests attaching a buzzer to the body of potential slow players. And when they are deemed to be out of position, an electric shock is administered to a part of the body best left unmentioned here.

So, how did they do?  Not so great, per this guy (h/t Shack):

Hey, it's a process.... as is watching paint dry.

But this might be the funnier bit from the Euros this week, attempting to ensure that their players have the most basic knowledge of the rules:

Anyway, in conjunction with this week’s efforts, every tour player, from rookie to veteran, is also going to be tested on what Paramor calls “the six or seven basic rules.” The 45-minute interactive test—taken by phone or online—will involve a series of multiple-choice questions, with 75 percent success representing a passing mark. Sadly, however, the results will not be made public. 

“We are allowing the players to use the rule book,” Paramor said. “All the answers are in there. If they don’t make it to 75 percent first time around, they get another go at it. Exactly the same test. But if they fail again, they get 45 minutes to an hour sitting down with myself or [fellow referee] Andy Macfee. Personal tuition. If they want to avoid that—and most will—they need to pass the test.”

I certainly agree with Mr. Huggan that it's sad that the results will not be released publicly, but what does this say about the modern professional.  We're talking about the basics here, like a drop from a cart path, and we need to give them all sorts of time and the rulebook at hand, and they only need to get five of seven correct.  Talk about grading on a curve...

What happens when you fail?  You just take it again...  Wow, those are some pretty punitive consequences...

All-Tiger, All The Time - Who wants to break the news to the Golf Magazine crew that there are other players in our game?  This is their lede for this week's Tour Confidential panel:

1. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day will face off in a skins game next month in Japan, ahead of the Tour’s inaugural ZOZO Championship. Dubbed “The Challenge: Japan Skins,” it’s supposed to be the first of a series of annual skins-game challenges held globally. The last time we saw this (Tiger vs. Phil) the reaction was mixed. What Tiger exhibition would you most like to see?

Haven't we suffered enough?

Josh Sens: The prospect of Tiger in another silly-money exhibition bores me to tears. How about an exhibition of non-golf sports/games? Pit him against Paddy Harrington or

Frederik Jacobsen in ping pong. Or see if he can hit John Smotlz’s fastball or how he fares against Charles Barkley in a free-throw shooting contest. We always hear how great an athlete he is. Let’s see some other skills. This skins thing is a snooze. 

Jonathan Wall: Unless Tiger’s going head-to-head at Pine Valley or National Golf Links, I honestly don’t think there’s a single exhibition scenario that excites. Well, maybe a three-club challenge or something that requires some skill. A skins game doesn’t do anything for me. 

Dylan Dethier: Jeez, tough crowd! I’ll happily watch Tiger play some skins. It’s something different, at least, and because there’s actually less money on the line and more than two golfers on screen I think the product could be better than The Match. The best Tiger-related exhibition, though, would be mic’ing up the guy without his knowledge and Zapruder-style filming a Medalist fourball with Rickie, JT, whoever’s around. Maybe I’ll pitch this to my bosses. 

Michael Bamberger: With all due respect: this question itself suggests a co-dependence on the man that cannot be healthy. We may need to find or start a program.

You'll be shocked to know that I'm with Josh on this... and Mike.

But this the craziest suggestion:

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Ideally one without a slightly questionable name. But in all seriousness, I’m excited to see this “Japan Skins” game, but as for a Tiger exhibition I’d most like to see? How about this: A 15-match series where Tiger Woods plays the runner-up from all his major championship wins. Sure, you’d get Ernie, Vijay, Phil and Sergio, but I’m more interested in getting a Tiger vs. Bob May re-match cooking, or Tiger vs. DiMarco, or Tiger vs. Rocco, Part Two.

An interesting premise, but I'd go 180 from this.  How about Tiger v. Y.E. Yang, Franco Molinari and Brooksie...  Yanno, the guys that have stared him down.

There's a quasi-serious aspect to this issue, which is that the golf is seldom sufficiently compelling to support these events, so they need additional hooks.  The venue can be such a hook, 

Wither Phil? - The TC panel briefly suspends its Tiger obsession to consider the prospects of another alter cocker:

3. Phil Mickelson is among the headliners for this week’s Safeway Open in Napa. It’s Mickelson’s first start of the new season, one in which he’ll turn 50 in June. Is there any reason to believe that Old Man Time will finally catch up with Mickelson this season? 

Kerr-Dineen: Old Man Time has already caught Mickelson, unfortunately. That’s why he’s gone chasing driving distance. He’s succeeding on that front, but unfortunately more swing speed won’t help him keep it on the planet, which is what we saw last season. The good news is that when you’ve got Phil Mickelson’s short game, you’ll always have moments when you vault into contention, but those will be few and far between at this point. 

Sens: Words plucked from my mouth. I thought we already saw Father Time catch him last year. What we should hope we don’t see are injuries, and that seems unlikely, given that low-stress swing of his. 

Wall: I’m not so sure. Mickelson has been spending an inordinate amount of time building up his core, which makes me believe he may have one more good season in him. I’ve learned to never count Lefty out over the years. 

Dethier: I think he’ll play well in spots, like he did during last year’s West Coast swing. More than his swing it feels like Mickelson’s enemy has been fatigue, whether mental or physical. Maybe the new workout regimen will help with that, at least early in the season? We’re not rid of Lefty yet. 

Bamberger: I agree, Dylan. He didn’t forget how to play golf or lose his putting game or get injured. He just played poorly, likely had the wind taken out of him by his Pebble Beach U.S. Open play. I think he’ll be spotty for years to come, and more spotty over time, but he’ll have weeks where he can contend. And if he contends enough he could of course win. As the young people say, 50 is the new 46.

It's really hard to imagine him playing any worse than he did in the back half of last season, but isn't the real question how Tiger will handle Phil for the Prez Cup?   

Per Steve DiMeglio, we should be watching the man's thighs:

Come for the calves, stay for the golf. 

OK, that pithy pitch more than likely wouldn’t pass muster on Madison Avenue, but it’s

not completely out of touch for this week’s Safeway Open in California wine country. 

It directly plays to tournament headliner Phil Mickelson and his ongoing braggadocio on social media about his bodacious calves, the envy, it seems, not only of any 49-year-old, which Mickelson’s birth certificate reveals to be his age, but anyone period. 

And that includes Tom Brady and Steph Curry, who recently exchanged light-hearted tweets with Mickelson about beefing up each other’s legs below the knee.

Hard to find a guy that looks sillier in a pair of shorts, but there's a close-up of the calves in question, if you've got the stomach for it.  Don't say I didn't warn you...

On Cue - Up pops this slideshow at Golfweek:

28 golf landmarks that you must see in person

OK, it's a list of the usual suspects, such as the Bethpage sign and the Swilican Bridge.   Mixed in are some thing you never need to see, such as the bear that gives name to the Bear Trap.  There's even a couple that are landmarks having little to do with golf, such as the Lone Cypress.  But this is the one I needed to share with y'all:

For the simple reason that I'm headed there tomorrow, and need to warn you that there will be no blogging tomorrow.  There's a reason that Employee No. 2 calls me a lucky bastard.