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.