Midweek Musings

My apologies for not providing warning about yesterday's hiatus from the tyranny of the keyboard.  The Met. Golf Writers held their final meeting of the year at Manhattan Woods in Rockland County, though the bigger issue was that I just needed a day off.  What, you thought only the players needed an off-season?

The Old Gals - A smart move to play midweek, though at this time of year literally no one is watching.  But here's the game story from Round 2 of the Senior LPGA Championship:

Juli Inkster may not be done winning major championships. 

The LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer posted a 3-under 69 Tuesday to take the 36-hole lead at the Senior LPGA Championship at French Lick (Ind.) Resort’s Pete Dye Course. 

At 3-under 141, Inkster is two shots ahead of Trish Johnson (71), Moira Dunn-Bohls (73) and Jean Bartholomew (70). She’s three ahead of Helen Alfredsson (72) and Rosie Jones (74).

OK, a name brand leader is a good thing for this event, though that's about the extent of the good news.  For reasons I can't imagine, beth Ann Nichols led her game story with this anecdote:

Juli Inkster left her putter in the porta-potty off the sixth green at the Pete Dye Course. 

She sent her caddie, Ralph Scarinzi, back to look for it outside. 

“He’s walking all around,” said Inkster, “looked like he was circling the wagons.” 

The putter was inside. Next to the urinal. 

It was that kind of start for Inkster at the Senior LPGA Championship, where she stood 4 over after the first eight holes. 

But if there was ever a place to grind – and that could be the LPGA Hall of Famer’s middle name – it’s here at French Lick, where Inkster said it’s sometimes better to miss big than a little bit.

 See, these legends are just lie us.... I'll bet she puts her skort on one leg at a time....

Ron Sirak is a consistent booster of the ladies' game, but this pre-tourney hype piece comes off as fairly lame:

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Great movements begin with small steps. And it could very well be that when the Senior LPGA Championship presented by Old National Bank is viewed over the expanse of time it will be recognized as a pivotal point in the growth of women’s golf.

The Senior LPGA is sponsored by Old National Bank?  Wow, that's some seriously strong brand activation there...

When the tournament was first played in 2017 it stood alone as a major on the Legend’s

Tour, the circuit for women 45 and older. The next year, the first U.S. Senior Women’s Open, whose minimum age is 50, joined it as a major championship for senior women.

Now, as 78 players prepare to tee it up Oct. 14 on The Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort for the third Senior LPGA Championship, it feels very much like these are not just legends in the game but also pioneers taking their sport to a new day.

But wait, we've not yet hit peak metaphor:

Players from the past showcasing their skills in the present while paving a new path to the future.

I think it's really nice that the gals have this event, but we may need to organize an intervention for Ron.

We've had no shortage of poorly chosen venues in our game, but this might be the high-water mark, as Shack explains:

Any golfer who tuned in to the first two rounds of the Senior LPGA, they would have been treated to the silliness that is legends and other former LPGA greats trying to

navigate a mountaintop mess in rural Indiana. On top of French Lick Resort’s “intense” Dye course, the overall look would make no one want to play this distance-fueled iteration of the game: a dearth of spectators, players taking carts kept on the paths, caddies sending them off with a couple of clubs (because who needs broken ankle?), and no shortage of ridiculous sidehill stances leading to drop-kick hybrids. There was even defending champion Laura Davies taking a tumble in round two (she’s ok, video below).

Here’s the worst part: the resort features a charming, lovingly restored Donald Ross course that would seem more fitting than the 8,102 yard (80.0 Course rating/148 Slope) Dye course that was built in hopes of attracting a modern-game major.

Why aren’t these LPGA greats playing the walkable Ross?

Why would anyone think any tournament should be played on a mountaintop where players are constantly at risk of broken pride or a broken ankle? (Especially two years in a row.) 

Scale is everything in golf. We revere a walkable course that gets the most out of its acreage. We want to play those places and spectate on them. Tournament golf should not be an undertaking in survival. Mountain goats, we are not.

Should slo-mo video of Laura Davies taking a tumble be your thing, Shack has the video at the link.

Golf Journalism, The State Of -  Perhaps it's the slow season getting to me, but lately I've been struck by the abject quality of the major golf media sites.  Quite a bit of that is the paid infomercials for the equipment manufacturers, but shall we take a quick scan of the current Golf.com homepage?

This is their lede, and I can't wait to dive in:

Game changer: NBA star Steph Curry has game — and a huge stake in golf’s future

Although I'm pretty sure he still has a day job.  So, what else do you have for us:

Crossover appeal: Stephen Curry’s 13 most impactful golf moments, ranked!

 Seems a bit early for the Greatest Hits album, but given today's shorter attention spans...

Care for something completely different?

Steph Curry explains the tiny (or maybe huge?) difference between himself and pro golfers

OK, is there anything else we need the man to explain?

Stephen Curry dishes on swing thoughts, what playing with the pros is REALLY like

I totally get that it's been an awful week for the NBA, but no fewer than four items on Steph, and the words "Hong Kong" do not appear....  In the tank much?

Mixing It Up -  Euro Tour Chief Keith Pelley continues his desperate plea for attention, announcing this new event for the 2020 season:

The European Tour and Ladies European Tour today jointly announce Major Champions

Henrik Stenson and Annika Sörenstam will host an innovative mixed event in Sweden next year with men and women going head-to-head for the first time on the same course competing for one prize fund and one trophy. 

As part of the European Tour’s commitment to inclusivity in golf, the inaugural Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika will feature 78 men and 78 women at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Stockholm from June 11-14, 2020 and will be co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Ladies European Tour. 

Hosted by Sweden’s most successful male and female golfers for the next three years and with a prize fund of €1,500,000 for the entire field, the tournament will offer Official World Ranking points for both Tours, plus Race to Dubai and Ryder Cup points for European Tour members, and Order of Merit points for the Ladies European Tour.

Well, not exactly head-to-head, as the ladies will play from the reds.  That press release fails to note whether Henrik will be permitted to use the Rule of 85...

Alistair Tait is all-in:

About time, too, say I and many more like me who want to see the increasingly moribund professional game shaken up. The game’s authorities need to do everything they can to attract new players, especially younger players. England alone lost approximately 300,000 club members in a 10-year period between 2007-2017, while the proportion of women and juniors has not really moved in all the years I’ve been reporting on golf. 

So, anything that’s different, out of the ordinary has to be good for the game. Why not a mixed-team event, or how about a men’s tournament and women’s event played on the same course at the same time for the same prize money?

Fair enough, though in his haste to qualify for the woke Olympics he might want to see how the event actually comes off.  Like many, he seems a bit eager to spend other's money:

Hopefully this type of tournament will spread to different countries. Imagine Rory McIlroy, Charley Hull, Justin Rose, Georgia Hall, Ian Poulter, Bronte Law and other stars from both the European Tour and LET teeing it up in the same event, on the same course for a huge prize fund somewhere in the British Isles? In a Rolex Series maybe? There has to be a sponsor out there willing to put up a $7 million purse to back such a tournament?

Call when you have that $7 million large in hand.

OK, But What Is It? - Joel Beall has an impassioned plea for us all:

Appreciate the PGA Tour's fall schedule for what it is instead of what it is not

Yet the past five weeks have revealed another truth, one that runs parallel to the above. For all the fall schedule lacks, it still offers a heck of a lot.

In 2019, it has been the best version of itself. Good and spirited golf, sure, but also living up to its billing as a platform for rising talents. Joaquín Niemann became the youngest non-American winner (20 years old) in more than a century at The Greenbrier, Sebastián Muñoz (26) the first Colombian to win on tour since Camilo Villegas in 2014 with his Mississippi conquest, and Cameron Champ (24) showed that last year’s Sanderson Farms victory was no fluke in Napa. It has brought us breakthroughs in Munoz and Lanto Griffin, the latter who went from broke to a millionaire in less than two years, and the promise of young bucks in Akshay Bhatia and Cole Hammer (even if they occasionally fell off the saddle).

And I'd even add some credit for string venues at The Greenbrier and Silverado.   

We've covered this ground frequently, but the problem is not to be found within ourselves.  The disconnect is that the Tour values these events as highly as in-season events, and that's a bridge too far.  It made much more sense and was actually more fun when it was strictly for up-and-comers to improve status.  

Handicap This - Shane Ryan plays bookmaker on Captain's Picks for the Prez Cup:

Rickie Fowler: 98.7 percent 

In the Presidents Cup, the two teams have unique concerns. Els for Internationals has to

worry about language barriers—if there’s a South Korean golfer who doesn’t speak a different language well, selecting another South Korean has value. That obviously is not a concern for the Americans, but Tiger has something to think about that Els doesn’t: the Ryder Cup. It’s no secret that the Presidents Cup has added value in serving as a staging ground for the slightly bigger competition held in opposite years. (Stricker hinted as much in a Sky Sports interview two weeks ago.) Fowler has now played on four Ryder Cup teams, he’s the backbone of the younger generation, he seems to be everyone’s friend, and leaving him out of the dress rehearsal is almost unthinkable. He had a fine year, came close to making the team on merit, and etc., etc. But the real story here is that Tiger simply can’t leave off a popular Ryder Cup teammate when he has a decent argument to be included. There’s no debate, even when there’s a debate.

yes he's played on four Ryder Cup teams, though not especially well.  Of course there's a decent argument for him, especially since he can putt, but 98.7% is mortal lock territory, and there's also a decent argument against.

Patrick Reed: 97.1 percent 

It seems impossible to believe Reed won’t get a pick, because he’s got everything going for him. He finished 12th in the final points standings, not far from the cutoff, he’s been an absolute stud at match play for his entire life (even amid the Paris debacle, he still won his singles match), and he’s in solid form coming off a win at the Northern Trust and a T-4 at the BMW PGA Championship to close the 2018-’19 PGA Tour season. If he doesn’t get a pick, it’s not about golf—it will be because he alienated enough of his teammates and captains in Paris with his half mutiny to become persona non grata. If that’s the case, and Tiger freezes him out, you can expect he’ll also be left home for next year’s Ryder Cup if he doesn’t make the team on points. But that’s a lot of “ifs,” and regardless of how the rest of Team USA feels about him on a personal level, his exclusion still feels far-fetched.

That win in August might just have cinched it, but I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been more fallout from Paris.  But who, praytell, do you plan to pair him with?

Now we get to some trickier calls:

Jordan Spieth: 49.9999 percent 

Here’s the Spieth Paradox: I can’t see Tiger leaving him off this team, and I also can’t see Tiger picking him. Let’s start with the argument against: Spieth has had a rough two years, full stop. He found his groove, sorta, late in the year, but nowhere near enough to put him ahead of the other worthy picks on this list. On merit alone, he has no argument. But then there’s his stature in the sport, and that pesky Ryder Cup—can you really keep him at home when he likely has such an enormous role to play in future team competitions, and has been so impressive in those gone by? Maybe he shouldn’t be this high based solely on his play, but he’s also Jordan Spieth, and that fact alone makes him a tough exclusion. And know this: If he shows any spark at the CJ Cup or the WGC-HSBC in the next two weeks, that’s all the excuse Tiger will need.

Yes, he's still Jordan Spieth, the guy that has never won a singles match in either cup.   To me, Jordan is very much on the outside looking in.

And this of paramount interest:

Tiger Woods: 33.5 percent 

We want to believe Tiger will choose himself. We’re even looking for secret signs and

symbols that it might be happening, and it’s possible that he might be tacitly encouraged to pick himself by certain powers since he’s ... well, since he’s Tiger Woods. At this point, I truly believe Tiger doesn’t know what he’ll do in regards to himself, but I think when the time comes, he’ll shy away. Maybe that changes if he plays well in Japan, but the truth is that he’s basically been MIA since the U.S. Open in June, he had surgery in late August and it’s hard to see what he gains by calling his own number. If he plays poorly, the optics are not great, and the easiest move for him is to serve out his role as captain and not burden himself with extra pressure.

Secret signs?  You mean like signing blog posts, "Playing Captain"?  He clearly wants to pick himself, but we should just defer this until we see what he brings to Japan.   

Tomorrow?