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.