Tryptophan-Impaired Blogging

I hope your feast was as compelling as ours...  Not only will I rise above the effects of that amino acid, but also above the lower-back pain caused by a certain 5-year old.  

Just a quick note about our blogging schedule going forward.  Tuesday I head out to Unplayable Lies Western HQ.  The good news is that I'll be in place to blog the Hero and Prez Cup from there.  Whether I'll blog on Monday and Wednesday is still TBD, based upon my schedule and the existence of anything worth blogging.  As for today, just a couple of items for your amusement.

But I Didn't Get Him Anything - It's a special anniversary, and Mike Bamberger tries to capture the zeitgeist of the day:

Thanksgiving, 2009. That was the low point. Not for Tiger. 

For us. 

Tiger ran over that hydrant and all hell broke loose. That one-car collision brought down more than a water dispenser. It razed all the walls around one of the most famous and accomplished people in the world. In its aftermath, Woods apologized to his wife, to his sponsors, to his fans. It should have been the other way around. 

What gave us the right to spy on him? To read his private text messages? To hang on every interview his various girlfriends gave to Vanity Fair and the network morning shows and TMZ?

OK, Mike, we weren't actually spying on him... We just couldn't avoid the stories.  But if the revelations were that devastating to you, you might want to see someone about that, because it seems you might have been a tad over-invested.

But Mike's confusion does not preclude him from droning on, and perhaps this is an instance in which a strong editor might have been helpful:

The story of Tiger’s Thanksgiving-from-hell is the story of his infidelity. How did his ability at golf make his sex life any of our business? Yes, the way he sold himself in various advertising campaigns, and in his many superficial interactions with reporters, contained layers and layers of misdirection and misrepresentation. Those of us who were supposed to be telling you what he was, quote, really like, did a lousy job of it, and this reporter should be at the front of the line. Still, as Big Jack said, “It’s none of my business.” 

Nicklaus was too well-mannered to use the word sex. As in, His sex life is none of my business. 

That’s not true in every case. Religious leaders, teachers, elected officials, chieftains abusing their power, many of those situations could be and should be viewed differently. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team did the best work reporters can do. The #MeToo movement has righted all manner of wrongs. We properly demand a certain code of behavior from people we view as moral authority figures. 

Tiger Woods was not a moral authority figure. He was just an exceptional athlete. His original sin was saying yes to all those big-ticket contracts that required him to smile for the camera and pretend to be somebody he was not. The rules changed on Tiger, but nobody told him. Name-your-athlete, circa 1997, didn’t get the treatment Gary Hart, presidential candidate, got on the good ship Monkey Business in 1987. Twenty years later, Tiger was fair game, but he didn’t know it. Tiger Woods, married man, father of two young children. Either he didn’t know or didn’t care. But who were we to judge his sex life?

Mike, are you listening to yourself?  Exactly no rules were changed on Tiger, and that suggestion implies that Tiger couldn't have known that what he was doing was wrong.  Do you really want to leave that impression?  Because the very fact of his efforts to hide his behavior, seems to indicate that he might have known it was, you know, wrong...

I will note that Mike does better with this fanciful case for Tiger as POY.  Mind you, I'm not buying the case, but at least he makes a case....

Gobble, Gobble - With the Tour season ending the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, the turkey metaphor is going to get a workout.  We had Golf.Mag's version earlier in the week, and today we have Golf Digest's.  It is very much the rounding up of the usual suspects, including this that I think was omitted from the first list:

Lexi Thompson

Lexi experienced heartbreak at the year’s first two majors, but her worst moment of 2019 

came off the course ahead of the final one. After realizing she left her passport in her golf bag, Thompson had the bag—which was packed in a truck with the belongings of 40 other players competing in the Women’s British Open—tracked down by her caddie, causing all the clubs to be delayed in transit by about six hours. Which meant all those players missed out on a full day’s practice waiting on the clubs arrival. “I can’t apologize enough,” Thompson said after. She now knows you also can’t be too careful when traveling

Or is the bigger turkey a tour that schedules back-to-back majors?  As for this one, where is Abraham Zapruder when we need him most:

Bronte Law 

And one of the LPGA’s rising stars had quite the falling moment during a tournament: 

She’s just lucky no video ever surfaced.

I do love it when they can make fun of their own missteps out there.  It reminds me of Henrik Stenson amusing us all about a shank, after the Tour had strong-armed YouTube into removing the offending video.

But this my fave part of the item:

RELATED: A look back at the biggest golf turkeys of 2018

Talk about your low-impact blogging... A misty-eyed walk down memory lane.  Can anyone remember who we were tweaking at this time last year?  Anyone?  Bueller?

You're gonna hate yourself, because of course there was Patrick:

Patrick Reed

We said there was no particular order, but. . . Seriously, where do we begin this guy? Although, Reed broke through for his first major championship at the Masters, he also managed to eject a European Tour camera crew, throw most of his entire Ryder Cup team — including his idol, Tiger Woods — under the bus, and publicly complain about his complimentary tickets at a Red Sox game.

As I recall, they were seated in the non-existent "line-drive section.... Good thing for PatrcickAnd this guy, whose 2019 wasn't any better: they did this year's awards before the Prez Cup, since he has an issue in playing with others.

And this guy, for whom 2019 wasn't much better:

J.B. Holmes 

Slow play on the PGA Tour is nothing new, but Holmes managed to draw the most ire on the topic during the final hole of regulation of the Farmers Insurance Open. Needing an eagle to tie for the lead on the closing par five, this human rain delay took four MINUTES and 10 seconds to play his second shot from 239 yards out in the fairway.

Given those swirling winds and his drive to win the tournament it wouldn't have bothered me all that much, except....

And after all that, he LAID UP! We know these guys have a lot of money on the line, but c'mon. Playing partner Alex Noren, who actually had a legit chance of winning, patiently waited through all that, but hit a poor second, only made par, and wound up losing to Jason Day in a playoff. A playoff that finished the following day, no thanks to J.B.

Not so much trying to win...

And this, that the truly astute reader will remember that I mistakenly attributed to 2019:

Doris Chen’s mom 

The most bizarre golf rules situation of the year involved Doris Chen, the 2014 NCAA champ, and her mom, Yuh-Guey Lin, who allegedly moved her daughter’s golf ball back in bounds during LPGA Q School. Despite Doris’s claims to the contrary, she was disqualified from the event and her caddie didn’t seem too broken up about it. Maybe Montana was onto something with that rule, after all. . .

You can click through to understand that Montana reference, as well to remind yourself of all of last year's fun.

If you're craving more of this, Golf Channel has a video-filled item on the shots of the year.  It's a bit overly Tiger-centric, but fun.

Giving Thanks For Alan - For his mailbag, in any event....  Shall we?

I’d imagine the PGA Tour is thrilled not to have to spend billions of dollars “Todd- proofing” their courses. How annoyed (if at all) are the non-elite Tour players that Rickie Fowler was picked for the Presidents Cup ahead of much more deserving

players? -@bcunningham0 

This is an underrated aspect to the Prez Cup intrigue. Golf is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy, but the U.S. team increasingly feels like a secret society, ruled by all-powerful cliques. Sure, Todd could have played his way onto the team through the points list, but life/golf doesn’t always conform to prescribed timelines. Capt. Woods was granted a mulligan and could have taken not only the hottest player in the game but also one who has become a folk hero for his inspirational career resurrection. Instead, Tiger made the most uninspired pick imaginable, taking his Jupiter golf buddy who has been 1) idle, 2) sick. Hard not to think that the fix was in.

I certainly agree with Alan on his first bit, what I usually ferer to as Phil's hostile takeover of the U.S. Ryder Cup effort.  Though, to be fair, his absence as a Vice Captain is one of the more puzzling aspects of the event.

But while arguments can be made for and against this pick, but I've always argued to take the best player available, or at least the best player whose skill sets seems to fit.  You want to argue for Kiz or Na, I'm all ears and open to persuasion.  You want to argue for Brendon Todd, then I'm significantly less open to persuasion, because of the weak fields against which he won.  

This is certainly a hot take:

Is Rahm’s year now better than McIlroy’s? -@gogodadgetwilly 

It’s an interesting question. Rahm won four tournaments, including two national Opens, plus the Euro Tour’s version of the FedEx Cup. He also contended to the bitter end at the U.S. Open while McIlroy was never in the hunt at any of the four majors. But I think Rory has a slight edge overall based on the quality of his wins: the Players, a WGC, the Tour Championship (to take the actual FedEx Cup) and a national Open, up in Canada. Great play by both of them…but not enough to wrest POY from Brooks.

I don't even remember where Rahmbo won, but my sense is he had a disappointing year.... 

And this related bit:

Who will win their major first, Rahm or Fleetwood? -@pkeen52 

Rahm is an absolute monster. I love Fleetwood but Rahm is longer off the tee, probably a better chipper and definitely a superior putter. So I gotta go with the beefy Spaniard.

One of the guys wins regularly, and the other never wins, so hard to argue with Alan's call.

A couple of takes on those new course rankings:

What are your thoughts on the top 100 in the World per Golf Magazine (and the next 50)? -@MWhiteLinks 

I’m a company man, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think it’s a really strong list. That Pebble and Augusta National both dropped a little bit is deserved and reflective of a revitalized list that is not built on old reputations. Some overrated courses plummeted, as they should have: Nine Bridges, Trump Aberdeen, Oakland Hills. Others fell off the list entirely, deservedly: Baltusrol Lower, Yas Links, Oitavos Dunes. I *love* some of the courses that are new to the Top 100, especially Sleepy Hollow, Bandon Trails and Yale. Of course I have quibbles: Cape Wickham at 60 is waaay too low. That Royal St. George’s is higher than Cruden Bay and North Berwick West is an abomination. Cape Kidnappers ahead of New South Wales? C’mon. Whistling Straits ahead of Kingsbarns? I think not. And I’m going to have a problem with any Top 100 that doesn’t include MPCC Shore. But second-guessing is what makes these lists so fun.

I think his assertion that this list is not reliant on old reputation is silly, though it might very well be less so than prior versions.  But I'm not even sure that that's necessarily a good thing, as a reverence for designs that have stood the test of time seems appropriate.

How does Augusta National, one of the most recognizable courses in the world, drop in Golf’s 2020-2021, list while Pine Valley, one of the most elusive courses, remain #1? Even Tiger admitted to not having played Pine Valley. -@GoranBarnes 

Well, the folks who do the rating can and do play more or less anywhere. I’ve seen the raw numbers and Pine Valley and Augusta National had almost exactly the same number of “votes,” which is to say, the number of raters who played them over the last two years. What is hurting Augusta National is that the course has increasingly strayed from the vision of creators Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones, who strived to transport the shot values of the Old Course into a parkland setting. What used to be a vast canvas that encouraged artistic impression has been cluttered with trees and rough, and until Augusta National returns to its roots I expect it will keep dropping in the ranking.

Yes, and to their credit they posted an item discussing exactly that fall in ANGC's ranking.  

Also of interest is this take on the perennial top-ranked course by Tom Doak:

Indeed, Pine Valley’s refusal to cater to the weak golfer has always been a huge part of its appeal to better golfers, who are generally the kind of people who work in the golf business (present company excepted!) and travel around to rate golf courses. From the

day George Crump conceived the place, the attitude has been that if you’re not good enough to play there, stay away, just as you should stay away from Mount Everest. That attitude gives the course an air of exclusivity that goes beyond the issue of connections and access. Yes, it’s hard to get on, and a bit hard to get to, its entrance located on a hard-to-find road that runs alongside an amusement park called Splash World in an otherwise nondescript suburban swatch of southern New Jersey. Above all, though, it’s hard to score on.

That same unapologetic approach allowed Crump — a hotelier with an obsessive streak, willing to devote his fortune and his life to this project — to build 18 great golf holes, with the decisions the golfer must make starkly framed by the native sand and vegetation of the Pine Barrens. Every hole at Pine Valley is dramatic and memorable — even the holes that nobody talks much about, like the par-4 4th up and over a ridge off the tee, or the dogleg 6th playing around the Great Pit of Carkoon on the right, or the medium-length 11th, with its perfect tee shot into a saddled fairway and perfect pitch back up a narrow valley. Any of those holes would be the best and certainly the most dramatic hole on 99 percent of golf courses in the world. 

The standard is incredible. The four par-3 holes are memorable and varied. The long par 4s can kill you, but so can the 330-yard ones. There are only two par-5 holes, because it’s hard to build a great par 5, but there are no risk/reward easy birdie holes here: It took almost a century for either of them to be reached in two shots. At the 7th, you’ve got to carry Hell’s Half Acre with your second shot, and if you miss your second shot to the right at the 15th, you’re in even worse shape. Pine Valley is intimidating from the tee yet Crump never asked the player to make a carry of more than 165 yards.

Crump knew what he wanted and didn't have to answer to anyone else,.  But, if you're going to be a one-ff course designer, it helps to have the right kind of friends:

How did a novice at golf course design get it all so right? Golf was the only priority — the handful of houses inside the gates were an afterthought — and Crump was smart enough to pay zero attention to conventional wisdom as to how things should be done. Instead, he got help from Harry Colt to make sure his routing was sound, and then bounced ideas off his golfing friends, who included A.W. Tillinghast and George Thomas. I don’t mean to imply those guys designed Pine Valley — Tillinghast and Thomas had designed one course each at that point — but it never hurts to spend your days talking about golf design with others who have a real passion for it.

All of this after telling us in his opening 'graph that PV is NOT his favorite course in the world...  But his concluding 'graph is just perfect:

The world doesn’t need a lot more courses that are just like Pine Valley. Designers keep trying to imitate it, and they will forever fall short. But if more golf courses were developed by guys who cared as much as George Crump did, we’d be on the right road.

True that.

The Ladies -  A couple of quick hits, and then I'll let you get on with your day.  This from Alan's mailbag:

The LPGA seems to be on a significant upward trajectory. When will the PGA Tour realize a collaborative tournament with the women will raise its own stature? -@CountDownDave 

This is especially true given that the team format has revitalized the Tour stop in New Orleans. Coed teams would be even more fun. I guess the issue is that non-Tour members (i.e. the LPGA players) would be significantly impacting the fortunes of the Tour rank-and-file, but who cares? I have no doubt Mike Whan can make this happen, but I’m far less confident in Jay Monahan.

It's an obvious play, though there really isn't much in it for the guys, other than some #metoo-inspired good will.  They perhaps run the risk of having a fun week, but are we sure we want to open that can of worms.

In terms of the actual question, that upward trajectory is true enough, though there are no shortage of flashing red lights.  As noted above, back-to-back majors isn't exactly a sign of strength, nor was the deal with Evian that created the fifth major (Nurse Ratched only wished she thought of so designating the Players Championship.  So much better to be the fifth of five than the fifth of four).

Their rousing finish last weekend, with its historic $1.5 million winner's take, was seen by approximately no one.

Shack with the lay-up:

According to Sports Business Journal’s weekend roundup, the CME Tour Group Championship drew a .3 and an average of 395,000 viewers on NBC, down 33% from last year’s final round on ABC. The rating made it by far the lowest rated sports event on network TV last weekend and as Paulsen notes at Sports Media Watch “easily” the lowest since its run on broadcast TV dating to 2015. 

Figure skating, on tape, drew double the audience.

OK, that last bit was harsh but fair.

But I'm actually more focused on that switch from ABC to NBC.  I've previously noted that Whan might be shooting himself in the foot with his desire to have network coverage, because folks don't actually know where to find them.  I did look for them last Sunday...  Unsuccessfully, as it turned out.   

Have a great weekend and I'll see you down the road.

 

Midweek Musings

You'd be within your rights to think that the midpoint of this week was yesterday... But someone was sneaking in his last round of the year.  At least I'm guessing it will be my last round....

Turkey Day - A topical post for sure, though our Golfers Behaving Badly meme is pretty much a daily feature.  But, envelope please, Josh Sens has our Turkeys of the Year, including these notable nominees:

THE BENJAMIN BUTTON AWARD FOR AGING BACKWARDS 

Winner: Sergio Garcia 

After blasting from a bunker, Tour pros aren’t expected to rake the sand. But they’re also not expected to trash it altogether, as Garcia did when he regressed into a tantrum-throwing toddler at the Saudi International, stirring up a sand storm with his sand wedge. Oh, and it was also in that same tournament that he damaged several greens with his club, which led to a “serious misconduct” and, eventually, a disqualification.

I don't begrudge Josh his gags, and Benjamin Button is an amusing reference for sure.  But it doesn't really fit our hero, who has pretty much flat-lined his immaturity and boorish behavior.  But who are we to judge, it's just his own personal take on Living Under Par™...I don't know, Josh, but I might have gone with the lifetime achievement award angle.

This is an eccentric choice, though I'm coming around on it:

THE ANTI-SHIVAS IRONS AWARD FOR VIOLATING THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME 

Winner: Trey Bilardello 

Shooting a single round 131-over 202 at a U.S. Amateur qualifier is nothing to be proud of. But the real embarrassment for Bilardello is that he started out trying but then, after botching a couple of early holes, was deemed to have intentionally run up his score.

My first instinct was to cite the woman caught kicking her daughters golf ball inside the OB stakes, just because of the obvious Oedipal angle.  But this is pretty ugly for sure.

This should be nominated in the "Truth is No Defense" category:

THE WE AREN’T THE WORLD AWARD FOR CULTURAL INSENSITIVITY 

Winner: Hank Haney 

“I’d go with Lee,” Hank Haney said on his SiriusXM radio show, offering his prediction for the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open. “If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.” The remark earned Haney a rebuke from Michelle Wie, among others. It also cost him his radio job.

Yet the event was actually won by Jeonjeun Lee6, kind of, you know, making Hank's point.  In the immortal words of Johnny Rivers, "They've given you a number, and taken away your name."

THE DEREK ZOOLANDER AWARD FOR GOLF PROS WHO DON’T KNOW THE RULES TOO GOOD 

Winner: Kendall Dye 

Some say the Rules of Golf are too complex and arcane. But there was nothing esoteric about the dictate violated by Dye at the LPGA Q-Series this fall, when she requested info from another player’s caddie on what club that player had hit. Even casual golfers know that intel-seeking of that kind is a no-no. But apparently not Dye, who said afterwards that she’d been oblivious to the prohibition. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. But dang if it isn’t embarrassing.

An extremely competitive category.  My personal favorite was the old lady that had her caddie line her up for a day and-a-half at that senior event, but at least she has the excuse that she doesn't compete regularly.

This one I saw live, a slow-motion train wreck that could have ended so badly:

THE PAUL BLART AWARD FOR OVER-ZEALOUS SECURITY WORK 

Winner: Unidentified security guard at Augusta National 

Even now, watching the replay, it’s hard not to cringe at the alternate history that was nearly written Friday at the Masters, when a security guard, rushing to shield Tiger Woods from the masses, slipped on rain-slicked turf and came this close to sending Woods back to surgery. In the end, it all worked out. Tiger hop-skipped the slide-tackle and went on to an historic win, and the security guard avoided becoming golf’s Steve Bartman. But he left us with a lingering image of a nightmare that might have been.

 I forget, who won that Masters? 

When I first saw Josh's item, especially the photo of Sergio, my immediate thought was long the lines that he's at least have the grace to skip the Saudi event this season.  Wrong yet again:

The Telegraph and ESPN report that Garcia, as part of a stipulation from the European Tour following last year's disqualification, will waive his appearance fee to play in Saudi Arabia. Garcia reportedly received $650,000 for the 2019 Saudi International, which he was able to keep. A Golf Digest request for comment to Garcia's representatives has not been returned.

Hard to see why they feel so entitled.... Not!

Fall Fans -  ESPN's Bob Harig is auditioning for a gig in the Tour's PR Department:

From Tiger to Todd, why the fall season in golf mattered so much

To whom?  Brendan Todd's family?   

Go ahead, Bob, make your case:

Golf needs an offseason, one longer than the blur between the end to one and the start to

another, a chance to appreciate what just occurred while taking time to soak in what will be new. Fans need a chance to miss the game to truly appreciate it. 

That said, if you are going to cram 11 tournaments into 10 weeks prior to Thanksgiving and call that the start to the new year, then it could not have gone much better for the PGA Tour during the first stretch of the 2019-20 season that began in September in West Virginia and ended Sunday in Georgia.

Can we go back to the need for an offseason?  

So, what are the tangible results of these eleven events?  Start with this:

Joaquin Niemann (Greenbrier), Sebastian Munoz (Sanderson Farms), Cameron Champ (Safeway Open), Lanto Griffin (Houston Open), Todd (Mayakoba) and Tyler Duncan (RSM Classic) are the six players who earned invitations to the 2020 Masters by winning full FedEx points events in the fall.

Rock my world, baby!  Young talent needs the opportunity to rise, but I gather I'm supposed to be more excited than I am.

In another hot take, we have on offer five take-aways from the Fall:

Wolff/Hovland/Morikawa aren’t the only phenoms we should be excited about 

Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa deserve all the hype they get, but they’re not the only youngsters worthy of our fawning. 

Joaquin Niemann, who turned 21 earlier this month, is more than a year younger than Hovland and Morikawa, and he’s only six months older than Wolff. Still, we don’t think of him in the same breath as the other three because the Chilean didn’t play college golf and because he turned pro right after the Masters in 2018, 14 months before his age counterparts. 

We probably should. Niemann picked up his first PGA Tour victory in the first event of the season at The Greenbrier, a performance that earned him a captain’s pick for what will surely be his first of many, many Presidents Cup appearances. He has the highest World Ranking among the four (57th compared to 68th for Morikawa, 97th for Hovland and 115th for Wolff). Most importantly, he’s found his footing on tour—in 46 starts as a pro he has nine top-10 finishes, 14 top-25s and has earned $4.2 million—which suggests the former No. 1-ranked amateur could become a top-10 player before long.

Yeah, though some pretty weak fields involved.  

As for this, beware the early call:

Patrick Reed is not a pariah, after all 

In the aftermath of the Americans’ blowout loss to Europe in last year’s Ryder Cup,

Patrick Reed broke a sacred omerta by complaining to the media about his teammates. After calling out Jordan Spieth, the conventional wisdom was that Reed’s time as Captain America was over, that he had alienated himself, perhaps beyond repair, and that the only way he would play on future American teams if if he did so on points.

Isn’t it amazing how winning seems to fix everything? 

Reed played some terrific golf toward the end of 2019, culminating in a victory at the Northern Trust, his first W since the 2018 Masters. That victory, along with some impressively consistent play—he’s finished in the top 25 in 13 of his last 14 starts—convinced Tiger Woods to select him with one of his four captain’s picks for the Presidents Cup. 

Reed, who has since apologized for his post-Ryder Cup behavior, now has a precious chance to get back in good graces with a solid and uneventful display down under. The takeaways? One, we tend to exaggerate any golf scandal, probably because they’re so few and far between. Two, there is very, very little that good golf cannot fix.

There's only one thing that Patrick needs to do to ensure acceptance by his fellow players, and that's to stop acting like Patrick Reed.  Oh, and a divorce wouldn't hurt as well.

But about that last 'graph?  Has Patrick ever apologized for anything?  Seriously, I must have been away that weekend, because I sure don't recall it.  As for his prospects for Oz?  Patrick doesn't do uneventful...

First World Problems -  Golf is so flush, that even second tier tours are faced with high-class problems.  Keith Pelley explains:

There’s a contradiction here. The Rolex Series was set up precisely to try to get Europe’s top stars to play more on their home tour. 

The problem? The top players earn so much money they can afford to turn their noses up at tournaments worth $7 million and more. 

The three final Rolex Series events came on the back of the $10.25 million WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. There was a time when the tops stars would have built their schedules around a quartet of events worth a combined $32.75 million. Not now. These guys are so rich they don’t have to play four in a row. Even players who are not box office names can afford to skip Rolex Series tournaments, a fact Pelley acknowledged. 

“I had an interesting discussion with Victor Perez, who is ninth in the Race to Dubai. Last year he was a Challenge Tour player but he got into the WGC-HSBC Champions but he doesn’t want to play four in a row, so he made a decision not to play in Turkey or South Africa.”

But for those dismayed at the absence of nonsense MBA-speak since the retirement of Nurse Ratched, your train has just arrived:

“If we expected the top players to play on a weekly basis, then out expectations would be 

unrealistic,” Pelley said. “There is unbelievable optionality for the players right now. There are probably less than 10 golf tournaments in the world now that are mandatory. And there are 35 tournaments offering prize money of at least $7 million. So there is no point in us obsessing over any of the above.”

Optionality?   But all-square is too complicated for millennials?  His Diversity id Our Strength message is inspiring, but good luck with this:

“If top-player participation was the only metric that our sponsors and partners look towards, then we are setting ourselves up for disappointment,” he concluded. “But Rory [McIlroy] is here this week and Justin [Rose] is here and Jon [Rahm] is here. We have 49 of the top 50 [in the Race to Dubai rankings], and we celebrate when they play. But we recognize the multiple choices they have about where to play. There is no simple solution. And that is being realistic.”

Yes, Mr. Sponsor, you only think you want Rory in the field....  

The Fifth Major - Have you ever heard of The Wishbone?  

It ended in a dramatic walk-off.  Now, this is a Fall event I can get behind...

Memories - Hmmm...Thanksgiving 2009?  Why does that ring a bell?  

Nov. 27, 2009 is a date that lives in the surreal outer reaches of sports infamy. It is a date that marks the most bizarre self-induced sabotaging of an athlete’s image, career and lifestyle in the history of sports. 

It is the date that Tiger Woods ran his car into a fire hydrant at the end of his driveway, triggering a cascade of scandalous revelations that forever altered the way tens of millions of people around the world viewed him as a golfer, pitchman, husband, father and cultural icon. 

In other words, the 10th anniversary of Tiger’s drive off the metaphorical cliff is one that undoubtedly will pass without his celebration. 

Some might believe that because Tiger has won several high-profile tournaments since those dark days of 2009 – including, finally, another major at this year’s Masters – he has bounced back to where he once was and that everything is the same today as it was the moment before he tore out of his house in his Cadillac Escalade in those early morning hours after Thanksgiving.

Right.   Josh Peters takes a popular route, following up with the major protagonists of the story.  Of course, few were more critical than this one:

The Escalade 

The SUV, which can be tracked by its VIN number, rolled off the General Motors assembly line in 2008. GM still owned the vehicle during the time of Woods’ accident. From there things get murky, although CARFAX offers some tidbits.

The Escalade has made its way from Michigan to Florida, and from Tennessee to Missouri, and finally to Arkansas, with its sixth owner.

In fact, it serves as the piece's lede:

In May, on a rainy evening in Springdale, Ark., a 2009 black Cadillac Escalade with an infamous history headed south on Carlton Street. 

A 1997 Chevrolet Blazer headed east on the perpendicular street, McCray Avenue, and both cars approached the intersection. 

When the driver of the Escalade failed to yield the right of way, the vehicles collided, and it wasn’t the first accident involving the Escalade. That came about a decade earlier, when the SUV was driven by the most famous golfer on the planet. 

Tiger Woods was behind the wheel of that 2009 Escalade on Nov. 27, 2009 when at about 2:30 a.m., outside his former mansion in Windermere, Fla., he collided with a row of hedges and hit a fire hydrant. The vehicle finally came to rest after hitting a tree.

How about a tearful reunion?  Throw in Elin and that seven-iron, and we've got a ratings bonanza....No word on how Tiger will celebrate the anniversary.

Gotta run.  Have a great Thanksgiving and I'll blog as content is available.

Weekend Wrap

It wasn't perfect, but Bobby D. and I managed to get in fifteen holes on Friday, with the rain commencing as we played the 18th hole... Better yet, maybe another go tomorrow.

It's A Wrap - The Fall has finished, with yet another surprise winner:

Who won: Tyler Duncan (five-under 65, 19 under overall, second playoff hole) 

How it happened: Simpson, the only 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup member playing on the

weekend, made birdies on 1 and 3 and, after Todd made bogey on 5, led Munoz and Todd by two at the turn. Simpson made four straight pars to start the back nine but he failed to get up and down after missing the green on 14 and made bogey, dropping into a three-way tie at 17 under with Tyler Duncan and Munoz. All three then made birdies to get to 18 under, and Simpson made the second of his back-to-back birdies on 16 to get to 19 under. But Duncan birdied the 18th to match Simpson at 19 under and take the clubhouse lead. Simpson and Munoz both teed off on 18 with the tournament title within reach. Simpson could win with a birdie, and Munoz could enter a playoff with a birdie (as long as Simpson made par or worse). Munoz missed his birdie putt, and Simpson two-putted for par to force the playoff. Both players two-putted for par on the first playoff hole (the 18th), but Duncan made birdie the second time around to win the playoff.

I didn't watch any of it, though I did later see the lad's winning putt when flipping away from commercials on the Packers-Niners game.

Notably, Brendon Todd's pact with the devil seems to have lapsed:

Costliest hole: Todd started the day with four straight pars but took a disastrous double bogey on the par-4 5th. After finding the fairway he pushed his second shot into the native area right of the green. He had to drop and it led to a 6, which at the time left him two back of Simpson. Todd shot 72 and finished 4th.

Which will hopefully put an end to this little boomlet:

Should Tiger have waited and picked Brendon Todd for the Presidents Cup?

No.  Next question, please....

Shack has this curious take from Steve Scott that's more than a little curious:

Brendon Todd’s average driving distance for last 6 seasons= 278.3. This year it’s up to

294.5, but still ranking him 136th...well behind more than half of the @PGATOUR. (And this is before the big guns start to play) ‪ 

These last 3 courses he has conquered are amongst the top 7 shortest on TOUR, all under 7,100 yds, so his timing couldn’t be better as far as his game matching up with these courses like Port Royal, Mayakoba and Sea Island. ‪ 

He’s on a remarkable run, but sadly it wouldn’t even be possible at venues like Torrey Pines, Quail Hollow or Bay Hill which boast venues north of 7,450 where the bombers almost always rule. ‬ ‪ 

It’s just sad that the correlation between distance and world ranking are so tight nowadays and we miss out on more great potential stories like Brendon. ‪Keep it up B Todd and close out that rare trifecta tomorrow!‬

It's a nice story for sure.... But how can it be a great story, when all the great players are home with their families?  Steve, who by the way is most famous for taking Tiger 38 holes back in 1996, seems not to factor in the glaring weaknesses of the fields against which Todd has succeeded.

As Eamon Lynch notes, the amperage is lacking:

This is a head start initiative for journeymen, an opportunity to bank points and coin before the elite return to vacuum up both in the New Year. 

Even one of the more prominent guys in the field admits struggling to get amped up. 

“I probably have the old-school mindset that the Tour doesn’t start until January,” said Zach Johnson, one of the many players enjoying a home game at Sea Island. “I’ve got to get out of that because there’s a lot of competitive golf and motivations to play in the fall.”

Awkward, as this tells us less about the event and more about the stage of Zach's career.  Very rude of Eamon to make Zach admit that.

My feel good story of the week involves Employee No. 2's heartthrob:

Less than three months away from turning 50, Lumpy arrived at Sea Island with seven consecutive missed cuts and having posted one sub-70 round in past 15 starts dating back to 2018. On Friday, however, he looked like the player who won four times on the PGA Tour from 1996 to 2006, shooting a bogey-free 64 to move inside the top 20 heading into the weekend. 

Making things even better for Herron? Having his 17-year-old son, Carson, on the bag.

Notwithstanding my bride's inappropriate feelings for the man, who doesn't love the Lumpster?

And for the record, this was not a Lumpy sighting:

That is an actual scuttled cargo ship that caught fire a couple of months ago.  Although, I believe the cargo ship and Lumpy displace similar volumes of water.

Also, for the record, I've been planning that little bit all weekend, and did not pilfer it from the article linked above.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Girls Gone Wild - The LPGA honors the traditions of our game by awarding a big honking check:

Sei Young Kim may not have a major championship, but Sunday she had a major payday. 

The 26-year-old from South Korea sank a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to win the largest check in women’s golf history, taking the $1.5 million at the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club. 

Kim came to the 18th with a two-shot lead over playing partner Nelly Korda, but did not know that Charley Hull had finished at 17 under to tie her. 

“I was thinking ‘What if Nelly made (a birdie on No. 18),” said Kim, who won for the 10th time in her career and third time this season. “I tried to make two putts. That was my mindset. After I made it, I saw the leaderboard. I didn’t know that Charley (Hull) finished at 17 under. So what if I didn’t make it, we would have gone to a playoff and that wouldn’t have been good for me. So, wow.”

That's existentially challenging, no?  She makes the ultimate clutch putt, but is it clutch when you're blissfully unaware that you need to sink it?

Big money for the girls, for sure, though Charlie Hull's second place purse was a mere $480,000, quite the drop-off from the winner's check.  Commence griping in 3,2,1....

Be Sure To Check It Twice - 'Tis the season, and the Tour is embracing said season by... Well, they're gonna make a list:

The PGA Tour confirmed that the policy board “has approved a number of modifications to the Pace of Play Policy.” While not all of the details have been revealed, Golf Digest has learned a few key aspects, including that the tour is moving away from a group-based system to one that focuses on individual players.

So far, so good...  As were recently lectured, the integrity of the Tour cannot be questioned, so naturally they've got this nailed, right?

The focus will result in the creation of a list, another source confirmed, of the slowest players—those who repeatedly average more than 45 seconds to play a shot. The list

would not be made public, not even to the membership. But once a player is on the list, he is more likely to be timed by a rules official and would incur a one-stroke penalty for a second bad time during a round. 

One player told Golf Digest that the tour is considering the addition of two more rules officials, one assigned to each nine throughout a tournament, for more thorough monitoring. 

“We’re not trying to blacklist anyone,” said the player, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But it’s going to be much more fair to the majority of the players.”

So, you're gonna put Bryson and JB on double secret probation, and time them more than other players, and that meets your definition of fair?  I had high hopes for the Jay Monahan era, but the Tour's penchant for secrecy remains impenetrable, and their contempt for their audience is really off-putting.

Not only does the secrecy of the list indicate a lack of seriousness, but they haven't even indicated that they're willing to impose penalty strokes on the offending players.  But they also seem to not understand the nature of the problem slow play presents:

“The goal isn’t to move the needle on Thursday and Friday from 4:45 to 4:30 when you have 156 players in the field,” said another player with basic knowledge of the policy. “It’s just not going to happen. What we are trying to do as a tour is pinpoint where we are lacking, where certain individuals are lacking, in pace of play.

The Tour has actually started reducing field sizes because of the combination of pace of play and availability of daylight, so that fifteen minutes could actually six more players in the field.  So, when you eliminate the possibility of actually improving anything, this is the plan one ends up with.

Rank This - Some interesting follow-up on those Golf Magazine course rankings, not least one rater explaining the fall from grace of Augusta National.  Regardless of how we react to his points, this is exactly the kind of analysis I'd to see more of.  But first, let's all just admit that this golf course is the ultimate one-off:

Augusta National still ranks among the top 10 courses in the world, according to GOLF’s

just-released ranking of the world’s Top 100 courses — but just barely. After climbing to 3rd in 2009-10, the iconic design dropped to 5th in 2017-18 and now to 9th on our 2020-21 list. 

What’s going on here? Why have my fellow raters and I soured, relatively speaking, on Alister MacKenzie and Bob Jones’ legendary collaboration? 

Augusta’s dip can be explained by the club’s unspoken dual mandate to preserve the historical integrity of the course while also running a tournament every April that must test the best players in the world. It’s a challenging, if not untenable, juggling act: simultaneously protecting the game while protecting par.

For every other track on the planet, I really only care about how it plays for its members.  For this place, I'm only barely cognizant that it even has members....

Take, for example, the par-4 7th, which was designed to be a drive-and-a-pitch, like the 18th at St. Andrews, but now is a tree-choked straightaway 450-yard grind. The 11th, another par-4, has been “Tiger-proofed,” whereby with the addition of trees, rough and a new back tee, it has been squeezed and stretched into a perfunctory affair. The famed par-5 15th, which Jones intended for strong players to always go for in two, is now pinched by budding trees, resulting in too many buzz-killing layups. Others might lament the loss of the boomerang green on the 9th or the scope of the original 16th green, which allowed for more hole locations.

I've always had misgivings about No. 15, as that wedge from a downhill lie is just a horrible condition.  As for the 16th green, I've been arguing that it should be blown up for years.  Yes, the drama of the ball feeding to the pin is fun, but that pin position is the only one that works, so they use it twice during the week.  The back right pin is the worst, unless you're fascinated by watching the entire field hitting the same forty-foot putt.

But, at a certain level, this is just a category error, judging Augusta somehow on the same basis as real golf courses.  If you look at that top ten, you'll find a number of tracks (yes, The Old for sure, but also The National, Dornoch and Cypress Point) that share DNA with Augusta National, yet have evolved in quite different ways over the ensuing decades. 

As a News You Can use feature, one of the raters offers this tutorial:

Want to think and talk like an expert course rater? Use this guide

Hmmm....shall we see what he's got?

1. You Must Have an Underrated Favorite Course by a Famous Architect … 

Any bleeping idiot can see the glories of, say, Pacific Dunes or Old Mac at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, and questioning Tom Doak’s artistry, while a ballsy move, will get

you banned from design chat rooms faster than professing a love for fivesomes. But to brag on a little-known example of his work, preferably an early course that hints at where his craft will lead — now that’s the stuff. In this vein, mine used to be Doak’s Black Forest at Wilderness Valley, a heaving, rugged 18 in Northern Michigan. It was auctioned off by the IRS last year, so, hey, you have to follow the news, too!

2. …And Have a Contrarian Opinion About One, Too. 

Bill Coore is a huge jerk! Okay, terrible example — he’s actually the nicest man in golf, but you get the idea. A course rater sometimes has to go against the flow to show that he’s got a mind of his own.

One thing that has long amused me is the Fairview memberships loathing of Quaker Ridge.  So, is that the contrarian view, or is my respect for it?  But I actually think he's wrong about Old Mac, which I think most folks struggle to understand.... 

This one won't surprise you:

3. But Know the Sacred Cows 

From Bobby Jones to Rory McIlroy, many prominent professional golfers have hated the Old Course at St. Andrews at first sight. It’s flat, it’s boring, it’s quirky, whatever. Eventually, they come around, and you’d better, too, if you know what’s good for you. It’s the “cradle of golf,” and you might as well criticize motherhood while you’re at it.

On the other hand, I read a piece not long ago in which it was posited that anyone that tells you they like the Old after one or two rounds is full of it.  Since the place takes an eternity to understand, naturally any pleasure derived from early exposure must be suspect.  You really can't win with this crowd, so it's best not to worry too much.

Of course, some things are beyond dispute:

9. Have a Favorite Strain of Grass 

And it must be fescue. Case closed. 

10. Study the Templates 

Biarritz and Narrows, Alps and Cape — the rater knows his template holes like the back of his golf glove. He can recite his five favorite Redan holes at the drop of a bucket hat, with brownie points for a non–Macdonald- Raynor-Banks track. (Name-checking No. 2 at A.W. Tillinghast’s Somerset Hills in New Jersey will earn mega snaps.) Why are template holes so crucial? Because course raters know that even a bad template will have strategic interest, and strategic interest is to cracking the Top 100 as sweet vermouth is to a killer manhattan.

I'd imagine that there are knowledgeable folks that don't worship at the altar of links golf, though I can't imagine why.  Enjoy, it's all meant to further our enjoyment of the game, otherwise what's the point?

Go Aussie! -  Shipnuck's mailbag hit over the weekend, but had a couple of Prez Cup bits of interest.  First, you know he'll have fun with this query:

What would be the worst-suited pairings for the U.S. President’s Cup team? -@GolfBurner 

Tiger-Rickie. Because Fowler now knows the Capt. didn’t think highly enough of his game to pick him the first time around. 

Bryson-Dustin. They speak entirely different languages. 

Reed-JT. They’ll spend the whole time bickering about who gets custody of Spieth after the divorce.

My immediate instinct was that Patrick-JT dream team, for the same obvious reasons.... 

We've been down this road before, and there's some baggage for sure after Paris.  The obvious issues are with Patrick and Bryson, so watch that space.  Also, for different reasons, who Tiger himself plays with, and in what format.

Do you agree that the Big Easy could be the competitive and inspirational spark to forge an International Team victory at the Presidents Cup? And do you believe that Royal Melbourne offers the International Team any advantage? -@wordofmouth_tv 

No doubt Ernie is beloved and respected, but I think the Americans will feel more “spark” playing for (and alongside) their collective boyhood hero, Capt. Woods. Royal Melbourne is a bigger factor. It is the opposite of a typical bomb-and-gouge PGA Tour setup. The ball will run for days there, most especially after landing on the terrifyingly sloped greens. It is a design full of nuance and subtlety, where the best way to get the ball close is often by not aiming at the flag, and a drive leaving an advantageous angle is more important than bashing one long and wrong. Els happens to have won three times at Royal Melbourne and holds the course record of 60. The Internationals will have a home-field advantage but, alas, I still don’t think it’s enough to counter a powerhouse U.S. team.

I agree with Alan's notes on the venue, but of course there's only a couple of guys on Ernie's team that know the place.  It seems to me that the biggest advantage the Internationals have is the date, a time of year when players' games aren't finely honed.  That's a gamble that the underdog takes to level the playing field, so we'll see how that plays out.

And on a related note, meaning that other team competition:

Would you like to see U.S. Ryder points allocated to regular Tour events (Sept-Dec 2019)? It seems a bit harsh on all the winners to-date, especially Brendan Todd? Is this deliberate to suit the elite players while they holiday and ensure no undesirables sneak onto the team? -@bcunningham0 

Nailed it. And I’m perfectly okay with that!

I've long been decrying the extent to which the Tour has evolved into a closed shop, but this I'm OK with.  The fields are awfully weak and the big names aren't playing, and this year part of the reason they're not playing is to pace themselves leading up to the Prez Cup.  No good answer here, but the underlying question is why do we have this portion of the schedule?

Do you think the likes of Stenson and Sergio will have a chance for 2020 Ryder Cup? Where is your money for DP World Tour Championship this week? -@goufit 

Man, I don’t even care about the FedEx Cup — how am I supposed to muster any interest in a lesser cash-grab? But while the Race to Dubai is meaningless, I am appreciative that we get to watch Rory do his thing on a course he has often overwhelmed. As for Stenson, 43, and Garcia, 39, they loom large for 2020. They have been the backbone of so many great European teams. Both have suffered dips in form — Stenson hasn’t won in over two years! — so Capt. Harrington’s toughest decisions will be whether to go with proven but aging warriors or pick young, ascendant talent in better form. There’s too much golf still to be played between now and Whistling Straits to know the right answer just yet.

Funny, that aging of the European stalwarts was the premise for Alan's prediction of an era of U.S. Ryder Cup dominance.  Remind me, Alan, how did that work out for you in Paris?

Garrigus Unplugged -  Robert Garrigus endured a drug suspension during the peak of the season, and vents his frustration.  I love a good rant as much as the next guy, but I prefer them to be factually correct and coherent....  Maybe that's setting the bar too high, but here's the gist of his case:

But Garrigus claims that he was prescribed marijuana to treat knee and back pain, and had been monitoring his THC levels to make sure he remained within Tour guidelines. 

“There’s something new that hurts every single day. Being a golfer for 25 years I guess that’s going to happen,” he said. “But I could be on Oxycontin on the golf course and get a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) for that. I think that is ridiculous. The Tour can talk to me all they want about it but that is a double standard. If you think I’m better on the golf course on Oxycontin than I am on THC then you’ve lost your mind. It makes me laugh.”

Think of that as Count One of his indictment, and we also have two more:

“The fact that it is socially unacceptable for cannabis and CBD right now blows my mind. It’s OK to take Oxycontin and blackout and run into a bunch of people, but you can’t take CBD and THC without someone looking at you funny. It makes no sense,” Garrigus said.

And this:

“I get suspended in the middle of the year. Matt Every gets suspended at the end of the year and he misses three tournaments,” Garrigus said. “There also needs to be some discrepancy there. There’s a gray area there, but the Tour has always been black and white.”

Discrepancy?  Consistency?  Whatevah....

I've always been uncomfortable with the Tour testing for recreational drugs, though the illegality and the association with criminal elements in the acquisition of said drug being perhaps the strongest argument.  Garrigus unfortunately finds himself in a moment when the treatment of THC is being reevaluated but hasn't been resolved.  I'm also highly skeptical about any alleged medical benefits, but there's obviously a difference of opinion there.

But our hero isn't always a reliable narrator.  For instance, that TUE is a bit of a red herring

“Under the WADA guidelines, there are exemptions for narcotics (such as Oxycontin) under certain circumstances but those circumstance would have to be extreme,” said Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of administration. “Those aren’t the type of medications that would be given an exemption on an ongoing basis. It would be a limited time exemption.”

And the narrator has some troubling history with drugs of abuse as well:

Garrigus, whose lone Tour victory came at the 2010 Children’s Miracle Network Classic, has a history of drug problems and has spoken publicly about it numerous times before, dating back to when he checked himself into a rehab program in 2003.

But really, I'm only smoking this doobie for my pain, officer.

But then again, the rules are known to all and ignoring them can have consequences....  And while he's within his rights if other were treated with more leniency, I'm thinking that the next Robert Garrigus-Matt Every meeting at the urinal could be quite awkward.

I'll most certainly be blogging this week, though perhaps not each and every day.  Check back when you can, and you'll find some of those musings you so crave.