Thanks for your understanding about my need for a few days off.... Still busy, but I'll try to capture anything of interest that dropped during that short hiatus. This post was started on Sunday, so please excuse any continuity errors you might notice.
Breaking Towards Indio - It turns out that running golf tournaments against the NFL isn't a great business model. Who knew? Though this game story makes it seem like it might have been worth watching:
Andrew Landry is back in the winner’s circle.
The 32-year-old notched his second career win on the PGA Tour Sunday at TheAmerican Express after shooting 65-67 on the weekend to win by two. He didn’t make it easy on himself.
After opening with rounds of 66 and 64, Landry shot 33 on his front nine Sunday and added three straight birdies to start the back nine. He had built a five-shot lead that seemed insurmountable given only six holes remained … but then Abe Ancer happened.
Ancer played bogey free and made it look easy shooting 63 to push Landry down the stretch. He buried a 25-footer for birdie on the island green 17th for his ninth birdie of the day. Landry had just bogeyed three straight holes to back up into a tie for the lead at 24 under … and then Scottie Scheffler happened.
You can click through for Scottie's moment in the sun.... Spoiler alert, it was short lived.
The Tour heads Southwest to LaJolla and Torrey Pines, whereas we'll take a more circuitous route, musing on several items of note in conjunction with this event.
Wither Hope? - Or, more accurately, wither The Event Formerly Known as The Hope? Really, it's still big, it's just that the pictures got small....
An Alan Shipnuck mailbag dropped late last week that included this query:
The pro-am format has got to go. This week and Pebble are terrible viewing experiences. Do we really need AmEx clients playing rounds with professionals on the PGA tour? – @DJohnsonsSwag
I fully agree. Decades ago the pro-am was an important part of the Tour’s business model, as much of the money collected from the amateurs went directly into the purse. Those days are long gone, as is the star power of Bing, the Rat Pack, and other A-listers who added a lot to the events. I love Bill Murray, and would miss his schtick if Pebble did away with the ams, but that would be the only real loss. In exchange we could have much more challenging and imaginative course setups and cleaner broadcasts. Sign me up.
Sit tight, as we're likely to go long here. I obviously completely agree with Alan... well, perhaps not completely, as my appreciation of Bill Murray is limited to very small doses.
But if we're talking about Pebble, the blame has to lie with CBS. Why the Tour allowed CBS to co-opt that event as one long promo for CBS sitcoms remains an enduring mystery. As in all such things, the assumption is that money changed hands, above and beyond that for the broadcast rights, but Saturday at Pebble I've long called the most painful day in broadcast golf.
But let's review of few events of this past week and perhaps you'll see where things go off the rails.
Submitted for your approval, our latest installment of This Week In Backstopping:
On Friday night, the tour tweeted video of a spectacular bunker shot by Russell Knox during the second round of the American Express. It didn't take long, though, for people
to focus not on the shot itself, but what happened while Knox's golf ball rolled toward the hole.Knox's ball barely misses hitting playing partner Kevin Na's unmarked ball inside tap-in range. And stoking the flames of a potential controversy is the fact Na can be heard saying, "Hit my ball!" in the clip.
Sigh.
Why was Na's ball not marked? Good question—especially considering the attention the debate over backstopping has gotten the past couple years after several videos made the rounds. In 2018, Jimmy Walker didn't do anything to make the issue go away when he admitted to purposely leaving his ball near the hole to help certain players.
Alex, let me explain. Na's ball was not marked because these guys are all about pace of play..... Let me know when you've stopped laughing and I'll continue. It's OK, I don't mind waiting.
The Tour's cluelessness is perhaps the most amusing part here. This shot was originally aired in a "Playing Through" segment, meaning without Na's....errr, encouragement. But this form of cheating is apparently integral to Living Under Par™, so what's a fellow to do?
Of course it's that Jimmy Walker quote, "Do you want me to leave that there?" that gives away the game. Of course the endgame is troubling, the folks running the most prestigious golf tour on the planet are content to allow their events to be decided by whether or not Jimmy Walker likes the guy with whom he is paired....
Shack, of course, is all over this, though this first bit is an opportunity for your humble correspondent to maturely note, I told you so:
Just when we thought the whole backstopping thing was over, along comes Kevin Na adding a new layer.To be clear, no violation of the rules took place. But the spirit of the rules? That’s another story.You know the drill by now. Backstopping is the scratch-my-back-I-scratch-yours weirdness that has been endorsed by those yearning for some sort of club membership in the world of professional golf.The practice seemingly subsided since last February’s embarrassing episode featuring Amy Olson and Ariya Jutanugarn. But as fans have come to understand the strange little practice, they don’t like it.
Geoff's (and others') contention that an incident on the ladies' tour would affect the BSD's of the PGA always struck me as wishful thinking. It's the proverbial tree falling in the forest....
But this point has obvious salience:
Now imagine in the near future when sports gambling is legal and Na is heard rooting for another player’s ball to hit the one he purposely left near the hole. Given the reactions to this shot to the PGA Tour’s Tweet there will be an outcry or worse, gamblers wanting inquiries and refunds.All of this would be a non-issue if Na merely walked the six or seven paces to slap a coin down behind his ball. But pretty soon, if not already given what’s going on in sports, this bizarre cultural practice will be put in a different spotlight. And not one with soft lighting or minor consequences.
Yanno, when you're dependent upon professional gamblers to restore the integrity to your events, you might have jumped the rails. Alas, Arnold Rothstein was unavailable for comment.
Alan and his questioner bemoan the absence of A-list celebrities, especially a problem this week. But we've been over this territory before, most notably with Billy Walters, former BFF to this week's host. Obviously there are no standards except that the check must clear, but our host this week was guilty of insider trading, saved only by a technicality.
But, it turns out that we haven't scraped the bottom of the barrel yet, as in the field this week is Yapto Soerjosoemarno and his son Yedidiah. You'll be forgiven for being unfamiliar with those names, but isn't that why we have Wikipedia?
Yapto Soerjosoemarno, full name KRT. Yapto Soelistyo Soerjosoemarno, S.H, is an Indonesian politician who is known as the leader of Pemuda Pancasila (Pancasila Youth),
Good luck finding a mug shot. an organization of quasi-official political gangsters that supported the New Order military dictatorship of Soeharto, while also engaging in other lucrative but non-official criminal acts.[1] Pemuda Pancasila played an important role in supporting Soeharto's military coup in 1965: they ran death squads for the Indonesian army, murdering thousands of alleged communists across the province of North Sumatra.
He was born 16 December 1949, in Surakarta, Central Java. His father, Ir. KPN. Soetarjo Soerjosoemarno, is a member of the Mangkunegaran Javanese nobility. Soerjosoemarno is also an expert in topography and geodesy who finished his education in the Netherlands. His mother, Dolly Zegerius, who is of Jewish Dutch origin is a competitive contract bridge player, and a naturalised Indonesian citizen.
Yapto Soerjosoemarno is known as the leader of Pemuda Pancasila (Pancasila Youth), an organization of semi-official political gangsters that supported the New Order military dictatorship of Soeharto. Indeed, Pemuda Pancasila played an important role in supporting Soeharto's military coup in 1965: they ran death squads for the Indonesian army, murdering thousands of alleged communists and Chinese Indonesians across the province of North Sumatra. The leaders of these death squads, Effendy Nasution, Jan Pahrum Lubis, Roshiman and others selected Yapto to lead Pancasila Youth in 1980. In addition to leading Pancasila Youth, Yapto today leads a political party formally affiliated with Pancasila Youth called the Patriot Party.[2] He is also a lawyer and owns a law firm in South Jakarta, Indonesia. The Patriot Party is known for its loyalty to the family of former Indonesian President, the late General Suharto.
See, this is why I don't fear for the future of our game. It's true we're having difficulty enticing those stubborn millennails into our game but, fear not, we're killing it in the war criminal demo....Yanno, literally.
Lastly, an item not specifically tied to the Hope, but emblematic of the state of our leadership. Shack, in blogging the backstopping item above, had a reference to PReed and the cheating allegations from December. I believe that backstopping is cheating, though admittedly that's harder to pin on a player because those taking the action do so to benefit another party.
Many are bothered that Patrick received no penalty above and beyond the two strokes, an opinion that I don't share. No need to rehash it all, but I thought it all kind of worked as it should. The rules were enforced efficiently, and Patrick was allowed to show his true character.
Of course, his fellow players were also allowed to show their characters, some of whom, shockingly, are put off by shoveling sand away from behind a golf ball:
During the Australian Open, on the eve of Presidents Cup week, Smith was asked about Reed’s rules violation at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Smith didn’t mince words, telling reporters, “If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand, but to give a bit of a bulls**t response like the camera angle … that’s pretty up there. 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. I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that cheats.”
Any idea where this is going? Are you familiar with the term Omertà?
The comments caused a stir, on social media and beyond. According to a source, an official from the PGA Tour spoke to Smith about the remarks, essentially issuing a warning that he would be fined in the future if he made similar statements. The tour, through a spokesperson, said it does not comment about disciplinary matters, though the player handbook does include a section with language that states a player can face sanctions for public attacks on fellow players. Smith, for his part, would not comment on the Reed matter, preferring to move on and put it behind him.
Ya got that? The problem with Patrick Reed cheating is other players talking about it....Nice tour you got there, Jay.... Sure would be a shame if anything happened to it.
OK, I just remembered one more unsavory association that the Tour has no problem with:
Is this a bad time to remind everyone of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open brought to you by the Astros Foundation? Eh, it’s in the fall. We’ll deal with the cheating Asterisks then. Hopefully Patrick Reed is not their headliner. Oh right, Brooks Koepka has to play.
Why, have the Astros been in the news lately? Admittedly MLB hasn't had a good cycle either, with their "player-driven" cheating scandal in which no players were punished.
It's almost like all of our governing organizations (and I'm not limiting myself to golf) are failing us.... Anyone remember Robert Conquest's three laws of politics? The third, specifically, in this case:
3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
That rant took it out of me.... shall we move on to some more amusing items?
Ladies, Interrupted - Beth Ann Nichols, who covers the LPGA more extensively than anyone else, had this heartfelt cris de coeur posted on Friday:
Nichols: If Verlander and Fitzgerald are fans, why aren't you?
I'm sorry Beth Ann, but remind me which team that Verlander guy plays for? You're suggesting that cheater should influence the rest of us? Maybe we could put Patrick Reed in charge of team-building exercises at this year's Ryder Cup?
Beth Ann wouldn't be pleased with this morning's news cycle. Of the three major golf publications, only Golf Digest has a straight game story of the LPGA TOC playoff that will resume this morning. Golfweek has this header that one assumes won't amuse the ladies:
John Smoltz wins celebrity LPGA TOC, pros await Monday finish
Yeah, that's gonna piss off some folks. Golf Magazine is even worse for the gals, with nothing on the the girls but they have pixels to spare for this:
Is John Smoltz’s self-standing putter legal?
I thought caddies lining up players was a bad look, but Smoltz says, "Hold my beer":
The Tour Confidential gang got a piece of this action as well:
Pitching great John Smoltz turned heads in the celebrity event at the LPGA’s Diamond Resort Tournament of Champions with a self-standing putter that helps him ensure his putter face is lined up at address. The putter is legal. Should it be?
Zak: I think it’s obviously being used as an alignment device, which is banned in every other scenario, so while I think the putter should be legal, it should be illegal to use it that way.
OK, Boomer, I understand each and every word of your answer, but I have no idea what point you think you're making. This putter does one thing, and one thing only. You the genius think it should be legal in every other way..... Remind me never to argue politics with you...
Bamberger: The only bigger golf nerd than John Smoltz is Charles Howell III or Tiger Woods. I love that the Hall of Fame pitcher-turned-broadcaster cares so much. It’s a brilliant idea and I wish I had thought of it. But it should be illegal.
Sens: It should definitely be illegal for John Smotlz. Where’s the pride? I have a hard time getting too worked up about this one. Players hold the putter down all the time and pivot around it to check their alignment. You could argue that that’s using the putter as an alignment device as well. Just musing aloud here, but maybe this is another argument for bifurcation. Let the average Jane or Joe do it but keep it out of formal competitions.
Dethier: You guys nailed it. Since we’ve determined that golfers lining themselves up is a skill, this shouldn’t be allowed. If caddies can’t line up players from behind, players shouldn’t be able to, either.
And you wonder why I'm worn down by our governing bodies. At the very moment that were mangling the rules to stop caddies from lining up their players, somehow this got on the conforming list.... Can't anyone here play this game?
Bryson v. Brooks - These two guys seem destined for a cage match, I'm almost expecting the UFC to promote it. I don't understand much about Bryson, from the single-length irons to his glacial pace-of-play, though as a blogger I'm happy to have him around.
As you know, Bryson has embarked on a project to get "huge", another thing I won't pretend to understand. A few weeks ago he picks a fight with Brooksie:
On Tuesday, Koepka and DeChambeau posed for a series of photos in lab coats. This was not a photoshoot about nuance; each player leaned into his respective Tour caricature, with Koepka holding a dumbbell and DeChambeau some sort of faux chemistry beaker. The two smiled for the cameras; all seemed well.
On Wednesday, DeChambeau was asked about Koepka during his Fortnite Twitch stream, comparing their relative physiques. They get along, DeChambeau said, but just don’t really “see eye-to-eye.” Still, several months after acknowledging Koepka would “kick his a–” in a fight, a bulked-up Bryson pointed out that he outweighs Koepka now — and has a better core.
“I don’t know if his genetics even make him look good,” DeChambeau said. “Did you see the Body Issue? He didn’t have any abs. I have abs.”
The PGA Tour morphed into Mean Girls so slowly that I barely noticed.... seriously, Bryson, who gives a you-know-what. More importantly, have you figured out yet how to play a shot in less than ten minutes.
Brooksie, who has never struck me as the sharpest knife in the drawer, came back strong:
Heh! So good, Brooks, who came up with that for you?
Those Confidentiialistas spared a moment for this as well:
The Brooks Koepka-Bryson DeChambeau feud that seemingly started after last year’s Northern Trust with Koepka remarking on DeChambeau’s “embarrassing” pace of play escalated last week with some mud-slinging between the two on social media and DeChambeau’s Fortnite stream. (Yes, the digital age has changed how players smack-talk, too.) What’s going on here? Legit beef, or light-hearted jousting?
Sens: Probably a little bit of both, and Brooks has been getting the better of it. For all the falsehoods on social media, I like Twitter as a kind of truth serum for Tour pros. The tone of their e-exchanges has been playful, but it’s not hard to pick up on some genuine dislike.
Zak: I think it’s legit beef. It sounds like they truly don’t see eye-to-eye on Bryson’s pace, and Brooks seems rather unforgiving on that topic. I didn’t consider this an issue until our colleague Luke Kerr-Dineen cited it as a potential future locker room issue during the 2020 Ryder Cup. It’s exactly the kinda thing that could make the American team chaotic again.
Bamberger: The beautiful and revealing thing is DeChambeau cares and Koepka does not. Koepka is toying with a puppy who cannot scratch him.
Dethier: I had the pleasure (?) of watching Bryson’s Twitch stream as this was going down; it was interesting how open he was and honest about not seeing eye-to-eye with Koepka. It’s nice to have two distinctly different personalities as prominent figures on Tour, and these two are certainly that. Koepka’s disdain and dismissiveness seems very real.
Of course I love Mike's answer most, because it so perfectly characterizes the relative positions of the two in the game, especially with Bryson's form in remission. But Sean Zak goes off the rails again... I'm not losing sleep about Bryson and Brooks screwing up that team room, that's why we have PReed.
All well and good, if only it had stayed among the two of them. But there's this needy guy in South Florida requiring little excuse to show us his six pack:
Did The Brooks V. Bryson Ab Spat Awaken Shirtless Shark To Resurface?
Bryson, you'll pay for starting this.
Alan In Full - It's low aerobic blogging for sure, so sit back and enjoy:
Odds on Charlie Woods winning a major? – @AdamPeters_Golf
10,000-1. Maybe longer. That Zapruder-like video sent a charge through the golf world but if you’ve ever been to an AJGA event you know there are an endless army of kids who swing the club like that. Pretty much every Tour player ever has taught their sons and grandsons the game. These kids had access to the best practice facilities and instruction. Only a handful have made it to the Tour, and none have won a major, at least not since the Dark Ages when the Willie Parks and Tom Morrises were roaming the countryside. Certainly Tiger himself is an X-factor. Can he transfer to his son the unparalleled course management skills and mental toughness and other intangibles that made him so great? Sports history says no.
I felt no need to blog that video when it hit, but pretty swings are a dime a dozen. One needs a swing that repeats under all kinds of circumstances, impossible to discern from that short video. Truthfully, the video of Charlie and Dad making duel fist pumps at the U.S. Open tennis made a bigger impression on me, but all good fun.
#AskAlan: My favorite Pete Dye course is Harbour Town. What is yours (to play, to spectate, and for tournament play)? – @David_Troyan
To play: Teeth of the Dog. Dye’s masterpiece.To spectate: Harbour Town. Such a pleasant stroll and demands shotmaking.Tournament play: Sawgrass Stadium. Maximum architecture makes for a great stage.
Fair enough, but the more important point is that Sawgrass is far more playable than folks realize. And that, to me, is the essential challenge of building golf courses.
Why didn’t Ryan Palmer hit a provisional from the bunker on 18? Palmer had to have known the chances of finding his 1st ball were slim. Couldn’t a rules official mandate he hit one prior to searching? In the name of pace of play, that was excruciating to watch. #AskAlan – @Aroma_Bean
That was an excellent window into the entitlement of Tour players, as well as their optimism that the fans or marshals will alway be around to bail them out. More charitably, Palmer was so locked-in trying to win a tournament it didn’t occur to him that his ball might be lost. A rules official can’t mandate a provisional but he can certainly encourage it. Palmer’s caddie or playing partner could have done so as well. Everyone swallowed the whistle at a critical moment.
I didn't see it live, having tuned in during the search (and yes, the search was in an area that doesn't see much incoming). It's OK to call it entitlement, but equally valid to call it personal experience. I just have trouble being overly critical here because these guys are conditioned to expect their balls to be found, because in the vast majority of cases they are....
Which is more likely: Phil qualifying for the U.S. Open via his season performance/world ranking or via sectional qualifying? P.S. If he doesn’t qualify, does he play the U.S. Senior Open as a backup plan? #AskAlan – @EthanZimman
I think Phil is going to have a very strong West Coast swing and play his way into the Open. Failing that, I’m sure the USGA would come through with a special exemption and spare him qualifying. I’d have no problem with that. Mickelson has been a keynote player at the Open for going on two decades, and for better or worse he is at the center of every recap of what happened the last time the tournament came to Winged Foot. He has to be there for the encore.
Is Phil not exempt into Winged Foot? Wow, that could be quite the dilemma for the Far Hills Liberty Corner crowd.... Remind me, has Phil behaved himself at Prior U.S. Opens? Of course, Alan's "strong West Coast swing" began with Phil not sniffing the cut, continuing last year's late-season collapse.
Over-under on how many stroke penalties will be applied under the new pace of play rule by the end of 2020? – @TurtleTraderBR
One. These guys can all play faster when properly incentivized. It’s basic human nature. I’m coaching high school basketball and we do a competitive shooting drill in which the losers have to run. No matter how much I exhort the girls to practice at game-speed they don’t quite get there until I start counting down the final 10 seconds, at which point the players begin sprinting around like the young Cheryl Miller. Same principle applies.
Of course they can play faster when threatened, but a bit of a misfire from Alan. The issue is the Tour itself, which wants more than anything for this issue to go away. For as long as I can remember the Tour has structured disciplinary and drug testing polices to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Not to penalize said impropriety, but rather to keep it out of the public eye. In fact, this iconic Iowahawk tweet, about the media, applies here as well:
.
Same with the Tour, though occasionally a sacrifice must be made to the gods. However, the sacrifice will always come from the expendables.
Players will always respond to incentives and penalties, provided they are meaningful. As long as the Tour protects the slowpokes, and refuses to impose penalty strokes, there is no rational reason for a player to give a fig about pace of play.
But riddle me this, Batman? Has the Tour warned Brooksie that he'll be fined (per the Cam Smith bit above) if he continues to call out JB and Bryson for their glacial pace of play? Shouldn't some enterprising journo ask Brooks? Alan, I'm thinking you should take one for the team....
Why is there such a lack of coverage for the Korn Ferry Tour? One would think the PGA Tour would want to promote the stars of the future, especially given how marketable many of the young guns are… – @KyechSports
I feel the same way about the Latinoamerica Tour, which plays in truly exotic places. Ultimately the dearth of coverage has been more of a Golf Channel issue – they haven’t wanted to spend the considerable resources it takes to have full broadcast teams on the ground and then allot the necessary time slots. I’m hoping this will change with the new TV contracts. There has never been more attention paid to the KFT and the Tour has the power to make increased coverage part of any new package. Most of the golf fans I know, in real life and on Twitter, would prefer to watch the Korn Ferry over the Seniors. For decades I have been saying the LPGA should play their events Saturday-Tuesday. Maybe the KFT will fully embrace such an idea, making it easier for the tour to get the exposure it deserves.
Is there a dearth? Seems like they're on Golf Channel all the time, obviously excepting when GC carries the big tour. But forget that bit about promoting future stars, is the questioner aware that the PGA Tour owns the Corn Fairy Tour? I don't think motivation is a complicated issue in this case....
This next one is good, very funny but off-the-charts silly at the same time:
Should the Euros flex their superiority and select Trinity Forest as a future Ryder Cup location, then bake it out like its meant to be played? #askalan – @JKnox_59
This is my favorite idea in a while. Nothing speaks to the poverty of Tour player imagination more than the neutering and now rejection of Trinity Forest, which could have been a fun and fascinating venue but is now a cautionary tale for any setup that strays too far from the bomb/gouge template which allows for the mindless repeating of Trackman-honed swings.
A good belly laugh, making fun of all the right folks.... But, is JKnow aware that they have these golf course in the UK and Ireland, they're called links, the Trinity is attempting to replicate inland? Is it too much to hope that I'll live long enough to see a Ryder Cup on The Old Course? Or really, any top tier links would do....
How many 4 year cycles ’til Olympic gold sneaks ahead of the Players in the‘unofficial 5th Major’ stakes? Will 2028 in L.A. seal the deal? – @askival812
Depends a little bit on who takes the gold. If it continues to be a major championship winner, and they celebrate their Olympic triumph as lustily as Justin Rose did, it won’t take long for the recalcitrant factions of the golf world to embrace what a big deal the Olympics has already become for the sport. Same thing if it’s a player from a smaller country that rarely wins gold in any sport and the champ is feted like a king. Rio was a homerun despite all the pathetic fear-mongering of the top players who selfishly and myopically skipped the Games. They’re all gonna come crawling back this time, making golf a marquee event in a country that is mad for the game. The interest and prestige will only continue to build.
How about we do a strength of field comparison between The Players and The Olympics? Alan I'm not going to take you to the woodshed today, I'll wait until Tiger gets left off the US team and watch you pout.
Who from the PGA Tour is most likely to want to be mic’d up for an event? – @Sam_Beishuizen
Conscientious brand-builders like Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau. Dudes in desperate need of image-rehab like Matt Kuchar and Sergio Garcia. DGAF types like Shane Lowry and Pat Perez. Nice guys who can’t say no like Marc Leishman and Tommy Fleetwood.
Pat Perez in a landlside, though you'll not be airing any of that sudio live.
The Suicide of Expertise - One assumes that folks who cash a paycheck from Golf Magazine know a thing or two about golf.... Not women's golf, of course, as we noted above. Incorrectly, as I so frequently am required to point out. Luke Kerr-Dineen, their editor of instruction, beclowns himself for our amusement today with this:
Even if he has his facts down, you might wonder why such advice would ever be rendered.... I sure did.
Admittedly, he starts off on solid ground:
1. Putt everything outPractically every golfer sweeps up tap-ins that, over the course of the season, turn into two and three and four footers. But if you want a more accurate handicap, putt all those short, tickle putts out.
2. Play by all the rulesLost a ball? Go ahead and drop one. Carve one out of bounds? Play it as a hazard. Breakfast ball off the first? All these rules-bending practices help pace of play — and also your score. Follow the rules to a tee and you’ll soon be signing for higher numbers.
True, though it may not be all that impactful... Much of this brand of nonsense occurs when individual hole scores and aggregate scores have gone pear-shaped, affecting holes where the player still makes his max or scores unlikely to be used in the calculation.
But this?
4. Don’t warm-up
Just think of the first few holes as your warmup holes. Or heck, even the front nine.
First and foremost, that warming up improves scores is a huge assumption. But if you're that player that rolls onto the first tee with seconds to spare, then your index properly reflects the player that you are.
But get a load of these:
6. Borrow clubsClubs that aren’t fit to your specs, that feel uncomfortable and fly different distances than you are accustomed to requirer an adjustment period that will probably cost you a few strokes.7. Enjoy a few beveragesEnjoy responsibly, of course. Having a few beverages while you play will certainly make the game more fun, but your game will quickly deteriorate if you’re not careful.
Lessons are great. Every golfer should take lessons. But taking a lesson and then immediately trying it on the course is a disaster in the short term.
9. Forget about the target and focus on five swing thoughts insteadOne or two swings thoughts is great. Three swing thoughts is pushing it. Five? An implosion waiting to happen.
Luke is a piker...Based on his advice, I'm going to play left-handed and post my score. Is that 100% legal as well, Luke?
I don't care how the damn thing is written, and am too lazy to look it up. But we all understand that the handicapping system assumes that each player is trying to play as well as he can, and posting a score in which you've intentionally tanked is in no way "100% legal". Are there no editors at Golf Mag? Or even, you know, adults? Do you really want to be perceived as abetting, nay encouraging, sandbagging?
Best Golf Header Evah - I have to retire the prior winner, because the unfortunate subject just won again on the Corn Fairy Tour. Hey, I'm not judgmental, I just hope there was a third glove involved.... Be safe out there, kids.
Here's your new winner:
Hosung Choi accidentally hits playing partner with thrown club
Amusingly, no need to click through there, as the video has been taken down.... But why the long face, you can see it here. Golf Twitter was not amused....
I'll leave you there, with more of those musings you crave to come. I do have some things on my plate that could impact the blogging schedule, but any absences will be short.
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