Tuesday Tastings

A bit of a schedule shuffle, as I'll head back to Utah tomorrow.  From there we'll flood the zone on Prez Cup biz....

Reed My Lips - Mike Bamberger has a typically-interesting take on our anti-hero, though he also fills in some background on how Tiger ended up with this gig:

And that overstates it. Woods wasn’t overcome with desire about becoming the 2019 Presidents Cup captain. He was trying to figure out what he could still do in golf to make his life meaningful. As Adam Sandler of Los Angeles, Calif., said the other day, 

explaining why he goes to Lakers games when he’s a Knicks fan, “I like to get out of the house.” Of course, Woods was eventually going to captain teams — Ryder Cup teams, Presidents Cup teams, Walker Cup teams would be nice — eventually. But not in his mid-forties, when he was still chasing Big Jack and 18. Then came the summer of ’17.

If Tiger ever gives a candid reckoning of his life, the summer of 2017 will be an interesting chapter. He was still recovering from his April spinal-fusion surgery. He was home, on Jupiter Island, after completing an out-of-state residential treatment program following his Memorial Day DUI arrest. There was nothing that would suggest he would ever play competitive golf at the highest level again, but he was hoping. On Aug. 4, Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, visited Woods and asked if he would consider being the 2019 Presidents Cup captain. Woods wasn’t interested. 

Almost two months later, in late September, Woods went to the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, as an assistant captain to Steve Stricker, the U.S. captain. It was Tiger’s first extended public outing since the embarrassment of the DUI arrest. He was down about the prospects of his own play. But the warmth of which he was greeted by the rest of the team was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. 

In his long prime, as a player, Woods had been the quintessential lone wolf. Now he was seeing team golf as he had never seen it before. At the 2016 Ryder Cup, as an assistant to Davis Love, he played a significant role, and that was uplifting for Woods. But the 2017 Presidents Cup experience was even more intense, because of what Woods had endured. The process to ‘yes’ had begun. Early in 2018, he asked Monahan about captaining the 2019 Presidents Cup team. He’d be the youngest captain ever in Prez Cup history, but never the matter. His new pro bono job was announced at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with his International team counterpart, Ernie Els, sitting beside him.

That actually makes sense, as one can only play so much Call of Duty....  If you're looking to get out of the house, it's hard to get much further out of a house in Jupiter, FL than the Aussie Sandbelt, it's more perhaps a matter of traveling companions.

 Unfortunately, Mike doesn't spend much time on the problem-child that is our Patrick:

That’s why this whole thing — playing captain at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne — will be like no other challenge he has faced in golf yet. The 2001 Masters was between Woods and his golf ball. He had a lot of training for that. How do you learn to oversee 10 other players, 12 caddies and WAGs at every turn, vice captains, support staff, Tour officials, random others — and then Pat Reed. Woods turns 44 at the end of the month. He has about 42 years of experience in putting himself first. (Being the only child of doting parents gave him a head start.) He has less than two of this Leader-of-Men thing. 

Reed did him no favors in Tiger’s own tournament in the Bahamas last week. And after all Tiger has done for him? That has to rankle. Woods will have to manage that situation publicly, which will be challenging. And privately, which will be more challenging. 

At the Ryder Cup last year, Woods played with Reed in Paris for two days, put his arm around him, did everything he could to make him feel like one of the fellas, only to see Pat get all nasty about upper management and the man, Jim Furyk, who put one of the game’s most polarizing figures together with its most iconic. This year, Tiger spent one of his captain’s picks bringing Reed into the fold. And Reed went to the Hero tournament and committed what you would have to call the most brazen act of lie-improvement in any televised PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

Somehow Mike gets through this piece without a George Santayana reference, as that sh***ing where he eats is pretty much Patrick's signature move, going back at the very least to his college days.  He's thrown his parents off the bus, Tiger should be under no illusions about how he would treat his golfing hero under the right circumstances as well.

Did you catch Rory on Morning Drive?  Me neither, but he was asked about this latest event, one in which he seems to choose his words quite carefully:

But, while McIlroy believes Reed was deserving of a penalty, he's is not so sure Reed deserves everyone's angst. 

"I don’t think it would be a big deal if it wasn’t Patrick Reed. It’s almost like, a lot of

people within the game, it’s almost like a hobby to sort of kick him when he’s down," McIlroy said Monday on "Morning Drive". 

McIlroy added that he's surprised Reed didn't feel his club brushing back the sand, which eventually led to a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie. Reed was adamant that the violation was unintentional and even blamed a bad camera angle for making the incident appear worse than it was.

Said McIlroy: "I think the live shot isn’t as incriminating as the slow-mo. It’s hard, because you try to give the player the benefit of the doubt, right? He’s in there, he’s trying to figure out what way to play the shot. 

“It’s almost like it’s obliviousness to it rather than anything intentful, in terms of trying to get away with anything.” 

However, added McIlroy, “It doesn’t make it right what he did.”

Watch it there, buddy!  I've been reliably informed that it's just a bad camera angle...

Also on Morning Drive is our Shack, discussing who gets the "joyful" task of being thrown under the bus by Patrick:

He identifies a paucity of candidates, so, Patrick Cantlay, come on down... That does sound right, given that they've played together three times in the Zurich.  Cantlay is not know for rabbit ears, which will come in helpful:

Cam Smith, who is part of the International team in his hometown Australia, took no prisoners in his critique of Reed. He said he had played with Reed before and that while he’s always “been nice to me,” he’s not buying his camera angle excuse.

“If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand, but to give a bit of a bull—- response like the camera angle … that’s pretty up there (inexcusable),” he told the AAP. 

He added it’s nothing against Reed specifically, but against those who break the rules generally, and hopes the Aussie crowd punishes him accordingly during the Presidents Cup. 

“I know Pat pretty good and he’s always been nice to me, so I don’t want to say anything bad about him, but anyone cheating the rules, I’m not up for that,” Smith said. “I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that cheats.”

He's nice to everyone, Cam, until the shiv comes out...Marc Leishman got in on it as well, encouraging the crowd to let Reed hear them.  

This will inevitably recede as an issue, despite the apocalyptic headlines:

Presidents Cup 2019: Patrick Reed is the story the Americans can't kill

And...

Rules violation - and subsequent response - will follow Patrick Reed at Presidents Cup

 And...

Tiger Woods, Ernie Els can’t escape Patrick Reed questions with Presidents Cup looming

Everyone is focused on last week's grievance, whereas Patrick is taking care of business, already creating the grievances of Christmas Future.

The Venue - Reason enough to get excited for what's to come, though John Huggan makes a seemingly odd comparison:

Presidents Cup 2019: Royal Melbourne's composite course 'the closest thing you will ever see to Pine Valley'

Pine Valley?  Not a lot of overlapping design DNA, methinks...

MELBOURNE — Ask Mike Clayton what he thinks are the best holes on the Royal Melbourne composite layout (12 holes from the West course, six from the East) that this

week hosts the 13th Presidents Cup matches and the native Melburnian—one of the most respected voices in golf architecture—is quick to identify all 18. Which is no surprise. Almost universally hailed as the best course in the southern hemisphere, “the composite” is that good. 

“Royal Melbourne is the closest thing you will ever see to Pine Valley, where every hole is great,” says the former European Tour player. “I can’t think of another course where almost any hole would be the best hole on 90 percent of courses anywhere in the world. That’s Pine Valley. And that’s the composite course at Royal Melbourne.” 

Designed by Alister MacKenzie back in the 1920s, Royal Melbourne was the famed architect’s first attempt to create what Clayton calls “an inland Old Course at St. Andrews.” Another effort in a similar vein would follow a few years later at Augusta National, Cypress Point being the third part of what might be termed MacKenzie’s “Triple Crown.”

OK, so like PV only in the sense that there isn't a weak hole, got it.

Fortunately, Huggan does try to push a little deeper with his analysis:

Okay, let’s talk specifics. What sort of things can we expect this week as 24 of the best golfers on the planet play an unfamiliar mixture of foursomes, four-balls and head-to-head match play over 18 holes as opposed to 72-hole stroke-play? Lots, if Clayton is to be believed. On a course famed for playing “firm and fast” and for the speed of its sloping putting surfaces, this is a time to expect the unexpected. Or at least the surprising. 

“Some of the less experienced players are going to wonder what this place is all about,” continues Clayton with a knowing smile. “For example, they will never have played a course where you never have to fix a pitch mark. We won’t see too many shots finish stiff to the hole. Really good shots will still finish 15 feet away. Closer than that is exceptional. 

“We’re also going to see a lot of three-putting. Often enough you are better off eight-feet below the hole rather than three-feet above it. Four-feet above and eight-feet below are about equal in terms of difficulty. The easy eight-footer is the equal of the difficult four-footer. And I’d rather have the eight-footer. You are never going to three-putt from eight-feet. But you can easily three-feet from four-feet when you start above the hole.”

And it does seem that it's especially firm and fast this week, so lucky us.  But the primary concern might be this:

Perhaps the only misgiving some have expressed going into this biennial contest is that a fast-running composite course at 7,055-yards will not be long enough to provide a tough enough test for the two sides. Indeed, Clayton shares that concern. In this era of rapid technological advance, some of the challenges MacKenzie created have been lost. 

“The course will play short this week,” says Clayton, who won once in an 18-year career on the European Tour, at the 1984 Timex Open. “We will see a lot of wedge shots. If MacKenzie came back now to build a course to test only the best players in the world - and he had the space - he would have to make it more than 9,000-yards long. That would replicate and restore what he created back in the 1920s. Where they are hitting wedges now, they would be hitting 5-irons. And they’d be hitting woods and long irons into the par 5s; not 8-irons.”

And his rousing coda:

To sum up then, Royal Melbourne is going to be an 18-course feast for the eyes of golf architecture geeks everywhere. Especially in match play, it will provide a roller-coaster ride at both ends of the emotional scale. All in all, this Presidents Cup will be as far removed from the norm that is tour golf as one can imagine. 

“You are going to see things that would explode the stats on tour,” says Clayton. “We’ll see guys hitting 90 percent of the fairways. We’ll see up-and-downs from greenside bunkers at only 20 percent. Maybe 30 percent. Three-putt stats will be way up. And proximity to the hole from, say, 150 yards, will be 15-feet worse than any course on the PGA Tour.” 

Sounds like fun. For the spectators at least.

That last bit seems a misfire, as the players will love it...Sand belt golf can very much be inland links, and we know how exciting a ball on the ground can be.   On Golf Channel last night Ernie referred to pins as "destinations, not targets" which is pretty good.

More Mike Clayton in an interview with Jay Blasi:

Blasi: What makes a good match play hole or course from the perspective of the pro or top player? 

Clayton: The key to match play is to pressure your opponent into thinking you are not going to make a mistake.The best courses – and Royal Melbourne is undoubtedly one –

demand clear thinking and it’s not obvious where you should play. Alister MacKenzie loved The Old Course and he understood how to manufacture its perplexing choices onto wildly different looking sites including Augusta and Royal Melbourne. There is always temptation at Royal Melbourne, but the speed of the greens and the reality members never have to repair a pitch mark (because the greens are so hard and not because they are lazy!) makes firing straight at flags fraught with danger, but nonetheless tempting especially with a short iron. 

Blasi: What makes a good match play hole or course from the perspective of a top caddie? 

Clayton: The key for a caddie is to make sure your player doesn’t commit the crime of hitting the wrong club and the wrong shot all at once. The wrong club or the wrong shot is recoverable, but the wrong shot hit with the wrong club is a disaster.

I think we'll see a premium on skills not often valued in match play, such as 3-putt and bogey avoidance.  As Clayts notes, we should anticipate some statistical anomalies....   A player might hit 90% of his fairways, and have done nothing useful off the tee.

Team U.S.A. - Per Shane Ryan, it's already going sideways:

Presidents Cup 2019: Why the U.S. team is already off to a rocky start

Of course he leads with Mr. Table for One, but he's got more:

And what about Tiger? He called his own number when it was time to make captain’s

picks, and deserved to do it. But in this age of high-concentration media, where the captain’s role becomes more difficult and more involved with each passing year, is it really possible to have it both ways? You could guess that he’ll cede many of his normal duties to assistant captains Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker and Fred Couples,, except that doesn’t jive with Tiger’s personality. And even if he does function mostly as a player, he will still be the one who explaining at the press conferences each and every decision made throughout the week. Will he be able to focus and deliver quality play while serving in dual roles? More importantly, will he convey a sense of calm assurance to his players, or will his attention be scattered?

Up and down the lineup, there also seem to be minor issues that could become major concerns. The best American player, Brooks Koepka, is out. Dustin Johnson is coming off knee surgery, and however minor that operation may have been, it was enough to keep him out of this weekend’s Hero World Challenge. Can he really play at his normal level, or will he have to be used sparingly, costing Tiger yet another of America’s most reliable Cup players?

DJ seems to me the most under-reported story of the event, unable to go at Albany, but suddenly 100% in Oz a mere week later.  He just has to be rusty, on a track that wouldn't seem to play to his talents especially well.  Tiger can't be happy with DJ, can he?

And, of course, the self-inflicted one:

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there’s the travel. Golf Digest’s Daniel Rapaport thoroughly documented the draining ordeal the Americans will undergo just in getting to Australia, an odyssey that will take 24 hours and see them scheduled to arrive on Monday morning in a strange time zone with only three days to acclimate (the first of which will be spent in the struggle to stay awake and establish a normal sleep schedule). I’m writing these words aboard a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, and though my accommodations are far less impressive than the team charter, I can tell you that even in the lushest circumstances the prospect of a 17-hour flight can only inspire ennui and dread. Recall last year how an American team fresh off playing at the Tour Championship looked lethargic in making the trip the next week to Paris, which was only six time zones away, not 16. 

All of this taken together—the bad luck, the unexpected controversy, the questionable form, the long travel—starts to look a bit foreboding. A neutral observer would conclude that the Americans have managed to make the Presidents Cup a bit of an uphill battle before it even begins. The constancy of their triumphs over the years remains the best counter-argument, but this year, in this situation, it might not necessarily be enough.

But, hey, think of all the team-building that went on over the Pacific....

Shane Ryan does a deep dive on pairings, leading with this linkage to Albany:

Pretty clear that Tiger wants to play with JT, and those others could make sense as well.  This we can consider a done deal:

Reed and Cantlay would be a fascinating if dubious solution to the P-Reed “problem.” Reed’s history in these events is well-documented, from his (usually) excellent play to

the interpersonal drama that has made it difficult at times to find him a good partner. Cantlay is a tough man to read—his career has been slightly snakebit, and he’s not someone prone to smiles and good cheer. If these two play together in Melbourne (they finished T-14 as a duo at the 2017 Zurich Classic), I would expect it to be in four-ball, mostly because it allows them to play “separate” more than foursomes … which is best for both of them, and the team.

You simply can't play Reed in foursomes....  He has an extreme case of Luke Donald disease, short and crooked off the tee.

 Shane ends up predicting these rosters for the first two days:

Thursday Four-ball:

1: Fowler/Thomas

2: Reed/Cantlay

3: Simpson/DeChambeau

4: Schauffele/Woodland

5: Kuchar/Finau

Sitting: Tiger, DJ 

Friday Foursomes:

1: Woods/Thomas

2: Schauffele/Reed

3: Simpson/Woodland

4; Cantlay/DeChambeau

5: Kuchar/Johnson

Sitting: Fowler, Finau 

That’s plenty of game theory for now. Spending too much time in Tiger’s head is dangerous, and in a week the speculation will give way, at last, to the real thing.

I think Tiger plays Thursday with JT....  Sitting Finau in foursomes is silly, as his game actually suits the format.  At least if you believe the old adage that foursomes requires ball-strikers, and fourball demands good putters.

Those Other Guys -  Still kind of funny, this deep into the event, at how awkward it is to characterize the other squad....  And yet, we expect them to get bleary-eyed at the concept of playing for their "countries"....

This is of course their hoped-for template:

Presidents Cup 2019: What the Internationals' stunning (and lone) win in 1998 meant then and now

It was a bit of a stunner at the time...

That loss, or at least the team's poor play, is pretty easy to attribute to a lack of readiness:

Poor U.S. preparation

The Presidents Cup that year was contested Dec. 11-13. The last putt of the 1998 PGA Tour season dropped at the Tour Championship at East Lake on Nov. 1. Few of the U.S. players competed in between, if they picked up a club at all. Woods, playing captain of this year’s U.S. team, remembers it well, saying only a few days ago prior to the Hero World Challenge, that “we just weren’t ready to play.” Davis Love III, who went 1-3-1, apologized to U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus when it was over, admitting that he and his teammates hadn’t properly prepared for the highly talented International squad that not only had Norman and Price, but Ernie Els and Vijay Singh in their primes. It didn’t help that stifling heat blanketed Royal Melbourne on Day 2, taking even more sting out of the ill-prepared Americans. They were outscored that day 7½-2½, and trailed 14½-5½ overall entering singles. Good night USA.

Golf channel had a feature on that week as well and, as familiar faces such as Norman, Price, Singh, Els and Appleby flashed by, the thought that comes is why shouldn't those guys win?   

This guy, though, might be taking more of it on than is helpful:

Adam Scott: The Presidents Cup saved me, now it’s time to return the favor

This is the back story, though Angel Cabrera is denied his cameo:

Then came the call that turned everything around. 

It was from Scott’s idol, Greg Norman — the two-time Open Championship winner whose influence on Scott was so profound that Scott paid tribute to him in his Butler Cabin interview, moments after his historic Masters win in 2013. 

Given Scott’s woeful results in 2009, then International skipper Norman raised eyebrows when he handed his compatriot a captain’s pick for the event at Harding Park.

“Greg really put himself on the line to pick me in 2009,” Scott recalls. “I think I only won a point for him [in the Thursday foursomes]. But, for me, that kind of pressure brought out the weaknesses in my game and from there it was easy to work out how I could get my game back.” 

A decade later, Scott is no longer searching for his game. Two runner-up results among nine top-10s on the PGA Tour this year have helped him climb back up the World Ranking to No. 18. But he is searching for his next title. His worldwide winless drought stretches back to early 2016, when Scott won in back-to-back starts during the Florida swing. He’s also had trouble finding that extra gear in contention at the majors, as was the case in the Masters, PGA Championship and U.S. Open this year.

Scott, along with the other would-be stalwarts such as Day, Matsuyama and King Louis, have simply never played well in this event.  Just one of life's little mysteries....

Seems a little harsh to bring this up:

Presidents Cup 2019: Ernie Els is used to finishing second to Tiger Woods. Can he avoid doing so again?

Tiger Woods grinned and nodded knowingly after Ernie Els, following a long and glowing assessment of his rival’s career, ended by saying, “All that being said, you know, we’d like to kick their asses this week here at home.” 

And so the first press conference at this week’s Presidents Cup finally hit at the heart of this whole exercise. No one has finished second to Woods more times than Els—seven in all, including four in majors—so naturally Els, the captain of the International team at Royal Melbourne, would love to go one up on Woods, the U.S. playing captain, in at least one capacity in their storied careers. 

It won’t be easy.

Nothing worthwhile ever is....

Who Ya Got? -  We had Shippy's pick yesterday, so how about his colleagues at Golf Magazine?

5. Prediction time: Who wins the Presidents Cup, and name your winning team’s MVP. 

Berhow: It will be closer than most are expecting it to be, which will make for thrilling Saturday night TV in the States. The U.S. will win because it’s that much deeper and the chemistry thing is a real factor. It’s not as easy for a team that consists of players from several different countries to gel, so it’s always an uphill battle for the International squad out of the gate. As for your MVP? Xander Schauffele, who surprisingly has not played in any Ryder Cups or Presidents Cups until now. He’ll be psyched for his debut and will pile up some points. 

Bamberger: Internationals, because of jet-lag, Reed hangover, and the unique challenges of the course. Leishman for MVP. 

Sens: Internationals in a hard-fought upset, for the reasons Michael cites. You could also argue that late changes to the teams — Koepka out; a birdie machine named Ben An replacing a struggling Jason Day — benefits the Internationals on paper. This one is not as lopsided as the oddsmakers have made it out to be. 

Zak: The Americans win when, from the final match, Tiger Woods closes out Adam Scott in a GOAT ball-striker singles duel — 16-14, MVP is Reed. 

Dethier: The U.S. in a squeaker. I liked the look of Justin Thomas’ short game this week, and he’s likely to play every session — MVP!

If, like me, you belie that an 18-hole match between top touring professionals is virtually a coin flip, then things just have to even out... Right?  

Steve DiMeglio has a lede for our times:

Remember… 

Buster Douglas knocked Mike Tyson’s block off. 

Joe Willie and the Jets trampled the Colts in Super Bowl III. 

Chaminade chopped down Ralph Sampson. 

The Miracle on Ice, the Miracle Mets. 

Glorious upsets, one and all. Shockers in sports that give hope to all of us who seemingly have no chance whatsoever of conquering a mighty foe. Timeless reminders that faith lives, that on any given day, anybody or any team can beat anyone. 

Or, in the optimistic words of Lloyd Christmas in “Dumb and Dumber”: “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

Funny, but that Ralph Sampson reference hasn't aged well....  And let's be honest, this isn't an especially impressive American team...  he finishes on the same note as well:

Well, remember … 

Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan to win the U.S. Open. 

Appalachian State pipped Michigan in the Big House. 

And David did kill Goliath with a single stone. 

As long as the odds, a case can be made for the Internationals to pull off a stunner. Yes, even as hard as that may seem.

No Ouimet?  I though you were a golf publication?

I really have no sense of which way this one might go. I have long expected a regression in results, but both teams seem historically weak to this observer.  

News You Can Use - The good news is lots of golf in prime time, but good luck seeing any of the sessions finish:

How to watch (ET)

Wednesday: 5:30 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (Golf Channel)

Thursday: 7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (Golf Channel)

Friday: 3:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. (Golf Channel)

Saturday: 6:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (Golf Channel)

They'll be on the golf course when I get to Unplayable Lies Western HQ tomorrow, but I'l have to pick up the matches and watch them finish each morning.  Not sure when that gets me to a keyboard, but we'll make it up as we go along.

Worst Hot Take - Eamon Lynch, an Ulsterman with no seeming dog in the hunt, tells us how to fix this event:

My two cents: make the Presidents Cup co-ed, adding the best women to the squads. It would give the event a unique flavor while elevating women’s golf. The LPGA Tour is a global circuit, but too many of its finest players are ineligible for the Solheim Cup, being neither American nor European. Let’s see an alternate shot format where Jin Young Ko plays off Adam Scott’s drives, and Tiger plays off Lexi Thompson’s. 

A co-ed Presidents Cup would pair men and women in a genuine competitive setting, not a hit-and-giggle like the long defunct Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge. It would also make real the prospect of superstar golfers playing for a female captain. Golf could use some optics like that. 

It’s been 40 years since the Ryder Cup was resuscitated when the old downtrodden Great Britain & Ireland team morphed into a triumphant European squad, but the Ryder Cup also had the advantage of its dull decades coming long before the dawn-to-dusk TV coverage of every swing. The Presidents Cup enjoys no such luxury and won’t survive many more years of mundanity. It may be time to consider that its saviors may not be guys like Woods and Els, but women like Nelly Korda and Sung Hyun Park.

Hasn't Lexi done enough to women's golf?  A mixed event would be fun, but it won't be this event for sure....

Lots to do to be ready to leave tomorrow, so enjoy the first fourball session and we'll pick it up from the other side.