Late-Week Laments

I'm home safely, and as I walked into our house was greeted by the indescribable aroma of a Cuban Pork Roast.  It just makes the golf thing seem so...well, inconsequential.

Riviera Maya - This header reminds me of Michael Mann's hockey stick graph...  It doesn't pick up the thread where it ought to:

Lynch: Matt Kuchar, once cast as a villain, tries to rewrite latest L.A. story

Aren't you forgetting those twenty years when everyone thought he was the nicest guy on the planet?  Oh, and it was less about him being cast, and more of an audition.

L.A. is the perfect town for sports. It’s a place where every script gets rewritten, where a horror story can morph into a fairytale, where last year’s villain can be this week’s hero. And that’s the movie Matt Kuchar is hoping to see. 

Kuchar shot a 7-under-par 64 in the opening round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club to take the lead over a chasing pack that included both leading men (Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods) and bit-part players (Russell Henley, Wyndham Clark). Kuchar’s score bettered last year’s first round by four strokes, but that wasn’t the only way in which things improved for the nine-time PGA Tour winner. 

A year ago Kuchar arrived at Riviera at the center of the kind of public relations nightmare that would make hardened Hollywood spin doctors cringe. For more than a month, his once pristine ‘golly gee’ reputation had been spit-roasted on social media after it emerged he paid a temporary Mexican caddie a fraction of what his regular bagman would have earned for his victory at the Mayakoba Classic several months earlier.

But wait, we've got more squirrelly headers:

Why Tiger Woods wants this tournament more than anything

Even allowing for an LA-centric amount of dramatic license, that's a howler.

The signs are everywhere — literally. There’s TGR Foundation imagery all over the place, and massive billboards adorned with golf’s most famous face. The host of the Genesis Invitational wants to win the Genesis Invitational. That’s only natural. 

But it goes on. There’s the location: Sure, Woods isn’t quite from L.A., but for a Southern California kid, Riviera Country Club is as close as he can get to the ol’ stomping grounds in Cypress, Calif. During the in-between moments, he smiles at the Dodgers hats in the crowd. “I’m in my hometown,” he says. 

There’s the golf course: Riviera Country Club isn’t just the place his father Earl would bring him to watch the L.A. Open as a kid; it’s the place where Woods made his PGA Tour debut at age 16. (Still a kid, it’s worth pointing out.) Woods is 0-for-13 at Riviera, his worst record at any regular Tour stop. He doesn’t putt well here, he says, though he’s not sure why. “I still haven’t quite figured that out,” he says.

 I happened to catch a bit of his post-round pressser, and he's hit balls for at least ten minutes this week:

After the round, Woods worked a little to downplay the week’s meaning. He cited jetlag, and a poor range session, and a lack of practice. But he also said he’s ready to get back at it first thing Friday.

So, it means more than anything, yet he showed up woefully unprepared.   You square that circle, I've got better uses for my time.

It's quite the loaded field and a great venue, so don't be put off by my crankiness.  This is the best golf course we'll see the lads play until mid-April (though I do like that track outside Tampa), the field is loaded, and it should be a fun weekend.

Wait, one last piece on The Riv....  We all get a little burned out by the focus on the driveable tenth hole... Interestingly, two of the elite players commented on their strategy, and couldn't have been further apart.  First, Rory:

RORY McILROY: The first hole I ever played as a professional golfer was a drivable par 4 was the 10th hole at The Belfry back in 2007. I hit 6‑iron off the tee. I mean, look, this is possibly the best drivable par 4 in the world here at Riviera, the 10th. It's just so ‑‑ it's just as easy to make a six as it is to make a three, but all the statistics suggest that if you do go for the green, you're going to play the hole .3 of a shot lower than if you lay up. All the statistics suggest that it's a hole to go for.

It's hard to tell, reading it, whether he's actually convinced by those stats....  

JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't, personally I've always laid up on that hole. I'll go for it to

that front pin, but I've laid up ever since I've been on Tour. I mean, the way I look at it is I try to make par on the hole and if I happen to make one birdie, then I beat the field for the week I would think. It's a shot shape or the green shape is good for my wedge, my spin that I have on it with the left‑right spin. I've had anything from 4‑iron to 6‑iron off the tee kind of up that left side of the fairway. It's not a very hard wedge shot as long as you can just get your number right.

So that's just how I've always look at it. I've never looked at the numbers because my miss with a 3‑wood or sometimes driver is right and right's no good up there. I'm just trying to make 4 and maybe sprinkle a 3 or two.

How great is it that such a discussion is possible in the era of bomb & gouge?   I caught the Golf Center highlights of Koepka playing the hole, which wasn't pretty.  Fetuses in the womb already know that you do't go right, yet the game's alpha dog went right...  It's as if it's a difficult game...or something.

Rory Unplugged - I don't love his game, but it's usually interesting when he opens his pie hole...  Here's the aforementioned Rory on the subject of distance: 

Q. Rory, where do you see the discussion after the distance insight survey evolving and where would you like to see it end up? 

RORY McILROY: How long have you got? 

Q. I have lots of time. 

RORY McILROY: You know, I think the biggest thing that came out of the report for me, a lot of the stuff about the ball going too far and technology, it really pertains to 0.1 percent of golfers out there. So look, if they want to try to contain what we do as touring professionals, I'm all for that.

Selfishly, I think that that's only a good thing for the better players, but for the game in general, I think one of the best things that came out of it was the sustainability aspect and the fact that architects building these golf courses, and not even architects to a degree, but also the people that are giving the architects the money to build these golf courses with this grand ambition of maybe having a Tour event one day. Building these golf courses on these massive pieces of land, having to use so much water, so much fertilizer, pesticides, all the stuff that we really shouldn't be doing nowadays especially in the climate we live in and everything that's happening in our world. You look at what happened in Australia, you look at what happens in this state every August, September, October time with fires and global warming.

I think golf has a responsibility to minimize its footprint as much as it possibly can. For me, I think the sustainability aspect of what they're trying to do is very important and that's the one thing I would definitely stand behind.

 Apparently he also got the memo that this is all the fault of those evil real estate developers...

But the attitude is different and, I think, more realistic.  To me, people seem to misunderstand that some kind of roll-back will make driving the golf ball less important... whereas, i think it will make that import skill all the more important.

Veddy Interesting - The only reference to this is from Geoff, but it seems kind of significant:

Multiple well-placed sources confirmed to GeoffShackelford.com a major change in the next PGA Tour media rights deal. 

Modeled in some ways after the Olympic Broadcast System, production will be handled

by a primary PGA Tour operation providing a world feed to likely broadcast partners CBS, NBC, Golf Channel, ESPN+ and GolfTV. The networks will retain production independence with the final product, along with familiar voices by producing announcers, graphics, replay and other extras beyond the “world feed”. 

The move allows the PGA Tour to more cohesively produce coverage and improve PGA Tour Live streaming presentation that has often looked under-produced.

The change to a more connected production operation will allow for expanded streaming feed options on likely digital rightsholder ESPN+, including an expected instruction channel, a Red Zone style option for highlights, more Featured Groups and a Live Under Par-infused feed aimed at younger audiences. 

When contacted, the PGA Tour, NBC/Golf Channel and CBS, each declined comment, citing the ongoing negotiations. The current media rights deal expires after the 2021 PGA Tour season.

Under-produced is being charitable, though since no one is watching it's a moot point.  Of course, this move could result in that sub-standard production value being aired on the networks' linear broadcast....  Also unaddressed are the majors....  If CBS is no longer producing the broadcast for the genesis, who produces it for the PGA?  Yeah, I ignored that other major CBS airs, since I'm pretty sure Clifford Roberst is still pulling thsoe strings from the hereafter...

I'm also wondering how this plays into Ponte Vedra's Jones to own the network that broadcasts their events....  Mind you, there's nothing wrong with cashing big checks...

The West Isn't What It Used To Be - I don't care, and there's nothing you can do to change those circumstances.  But the people running our game are bloody idiots:

The BMW Championship is heading to Baltimore next season. The news was first reported by the Chicago Tribune. 

Teddy Greenstein writes that Caves Valley, located in Owings Mills, Md., will be named as the BMW host in 2021 in an announcement expected on Monday. The Tom Fazio design—which has the reputation of a player's course—has previously held the 1995 U.S. Mid-Am, 2002 U.S. Senior Open, 2005 NCAA Championship, 2009 NCAA Women's Championship, the inaugural International Crown in 2014 and the 2017 Senior Players, but never a PGA Tour event. It is ranked No. 152 in Golf Digest's America's Second Greatest 100 list. 

The tournament, one of the tour's three FedEx Cup Playoff events, is run by the Chicago-based Western Golf Association. Since the BMW's rebranding from the Western Open in 2007, the WGA's philosophy had been moving the competition outside Illinois—with trips to Indiana, Missouri, Colorado and Pennsylvania—every other season. That cadence was paused this year, as the tournament goes to Olympia Fields after visiting Medinah last summer.

For those anticipating a broadside directed against Fazio, be patient.  We'll have no shortage of future opportunities there...

It's that rebranding away from the Western Open that has me seeing red.  That Western Open was the second oldest professional tournament in the U.S., one that for several decades could be considered a major.  That was long before we used the M-word so promiscuously, but it was easily one of four most prestigious tournaments in the world.

 More maddening still, was that it was a very viable tournament even in the maid-aughts, featuring a strong venue, a good date two weeks before the Open Championship and that Tiger guy showing up readily.  So why was it sacrificed to the FedEx Gods?  Not only do our folks not understand the importance of this history (and don't get me started on the rebranding of the Tom Morris Golf Shop in St. Andrews), but the apparently too stupid to understand the one fixes that which is broken, not that which is doing well.

Left unsaid is the amusing fact that they seem to finally understand that unforced error, and have been trying to rebrand this event back to the Western Open.  But good luck with that with the event in friggin' Baltimore.....  Can't anyone here play this game?

Drafting on Alan - My desk is piled high, so thank God we have Shippy's mailbag to slake your thirst.  First, back to Rors:

Does Rory have the demeanor for a real, heated rivalry with Brooks? -

@TheTexasSteve 

Alas, not anymore. Dude has gone so Zen on us he won’t engage in the necessary woofing and shenanigans to stoke the rivalry. While this is probably good for Rory’s mental health and a longer reign at the forefront of the game it definitely feels like we’re getting cheated because those two have by far the most alpha energy in the game. But if Rory and Brooks keep going head-to-head in the biggest events it will become a pretty spicy rivalry whether they like it or not.

Is the childhood friend still on the bag?  Well then, I'll have to agree with Alan....

More to the point, don't we think Rory and Erica will be announcing the arrival of a child soon?  I'm just guessing here, but I would think his life will get more family-oriented, rather than less so....

Brooks, on the other hand, won't even kiss his girlfriend before a round of golf....Which guy would you take in a street fight?

Good luck with this one, Alan:

Hi Alan, long time, many time questioner here. Here’s mine: the Tour and the AT&T pro-am has just announced that you are the new authoritarian Zsar of the tournament and broadcast. What do you do? I’ll hang up and listen… -@harryarnett 

First thing I do is change the name back to the Crosby Clambake. So evocative and cool. Next, I jettison the amateurs. Can you imagine how pure that event would be if we could set up the course for only the pros, with firm, fast greens and tough pins? This year’s final round offered a taste of how glorious it would be. 

But if by law I’m forced to keep the ams, the key is to change up the energy. The jocks are fine, because it’s always interesting to watch professional athletes get humbled by the game. Bill Murray is great. But no other actors or singers or other psuedo-celebs shall be allowed, because none of us really care. Nor do we want to have to watch nameless, faceless rich white guys. If there are going to be amateurs they need to be golfy public figures. It was compelling to watch Jerry Tarde on Sunday because he’s been writing about golf for going on four decades, so some/many of us are invested in his experience. Imagine if he had a social presence and had written a Sunday night piece about the experience. Now add me, Bamberger, Dethier, Zak, LKD, J-Wall, Soly, Tron, Lavner, Beall, Porter, Porath, Lynch, Huggan, Riggs and a few other media folks to the field. The blast of content would be awe-inspiring and the golf viewing morbidly fascinating. Then put George Gankas in the field. Bones. Jeff Knox. Fred Ridley. Tom Doak. Mike Keiser. David Kidd. Claude Harmon. Mike Whan. There are amateurs that golf fans might actually care about. We certainly know their backstory. 

But even with these changes, the Saturday telecast has to be more about the pros. And it’s criminal that neither the Tour or Golf Channel will invest the money to properly cover Spyglass and the Shore Course over the first three rounds. Both are wonderful tests and so telegenic, but all we get is chintzy video of dudes putting, because there are only a couple of cameras on the grounds. It’s absurd and infuriating.

OK, the only party Alan seems to have no problem with is CBS....Curious that.

I actually like his idea about golf writers, as I too was struck by Jerry Tarde's (he's the longtime editor of Golf Digest for those unfamiliar with him) awkward role in that final.  Of course, about all we saw was him raking away badly-missed putts...  I'm nor being critical, I just assume that Steve Young and he were doing their best to stay out of the pros' way....

But the amateurs are in the DNA of this event, and it didn't go off the rails until CBS began to treat as one long promo for their Prime Time schedule.  The sad reality is that not everyone loves Raymond, as hard to believe as that may be...  

As for the name, I simply don't understand why you wouldn't call it the AT&T Bing Crosby Pro-AM?  Clambake always was and should be for informal use, but there's that disdain for golf's long and rich history again...  Oh, and can't we work Cypress Point back into the rota?

Of course, Alan reminds us of his local knowledge on this:

If you could transport one hole from Pebble to your home course which one would it be? -@GoDuckYourself 

Ummm, Pebble is my home course!

Not sure that's technically true, but he worked in the cart barn as a young punk.

I'm taking these out of order for thematic continuity:

Dirty Harry gets a lot of flack each year at this event for his performance on TV. Can you confirm:

1. That’s he watching the golf on a monitor in the upper corner of the booth.

2. He could, at 90, still kick the sh!t out of all these nerds mocking him.

– @fakePOULTER

Yes, Clint always gets caught staring at a TV when he’s actually on TV. Someone needs to give him a heads-up! It’s clearly time to retire this tradition, which CBS seemed to realize about 30 seconds into this year’s interview. But it is sad to see Eastwood being mocked because, as you point out, he’s still vital at 89. The dude is an O.G. and should be accorded more respect.

Always amusing that golf insiders, including one for whom Pebble is home turf, watch this thing on TV like the rest of us.  But missed in the Q&A is that Clint just doesn't care, and I think that's just great.  

Speaking of point-missers:

Zika in Rio, Coronavirus for Tokyo… is Olympic Golf cursed? -@TurtleTraderBR 

Gawd, I hope not. Of course, Zika turned out to be a curse only to male professional golfers, to the great shame of the game. Every other athlete from every other country showed up and had a great time in Rio. Hopefully the coronavirus will be contained well before the summer and a non-factor for these Games, thus compelling all of the men’s game’s point-missers to come up with another milquetoast excuse for snubbing the flag they otherwise love to wrap themselves in.

Alan, if we're gonna discuss PM's, you're gonna need a mirror.

Why were those weight lifters, cyclists and tracksters willing to risk Zika infection?  Let me help you out here, it's because the Olympics are the biggest event in their sport.

To be that important for golfers, the Olympics need to be a big-time golf event....But, with a hard cap of thirty elite players and top ten players not invited (think Tiger under current OWGR), it doesn't plausibly meet these standards.  So, by all means keep calling the guys unpatriotic, or you could devote your heartfelt efforts and keen intellect to making Olympic golf a plausibly meaningful competition....

I didn't see any of this, but it does sound promising:

Doubles and eagles, firm, fast and windy conditions, a commentary that doesn’t make you want to throw up – is the Vic Open now the best golf tourney on TV? -@theboyslater 

It was indeed deeply satisfying. And you didn’t even mention the coed aspect which made the telecast that much more interesting and added a lot of buzz to the event. It’s time to start our campaign for the Vic Open as the Fifth Major.

That Fifth Major tag is the kiss o' death....

Maybe I should have linked this one to the Crosby thread above:

The CBS crew took big step back in DL3–nice guy but golf needs a smartass that knows enough about golf—you would be the perfect fit—did you offer your services? -@WayneOW66L67 

I’ve done just enough TV through the years to know that I hate the medium — it’s so shallow and ephemeral. But I think you’re on to something here: golf telecasts are so *serious,* with all the whispering and mock solemnity, as if the tournament is being conducted in a cathedral. Feherty’s zingers are always welcome. Raja brings a nice, light touch. So does J. Foltz. Otherwise, every other announcer has Cronkite’s the-President-was-just-shot vibe. (McCord tried a bit too hard but suddenly he is missed, too.) Golf is the most internal of sports; beyond swing analysis and occasional course management second-guessing, there not that much that needs to be said. It would be helpful to have more wit and more insight into who these guys are; basically, journalistic chops should be more important than a long playing resume, though the latter criteria seems to be the most important to the television decision-makers.

We all should understand that personalities like McCord and Feherty can be issues over the long term, but that seems a strained logic to put guys without any behind microphones.

But DLIII is an afterthought, there's simply no saving the train wreck that is CBS' 18th hole tower.  So, what is to be done about Jim Nancy-boy and Mumbles Faldo?

When David Duval shoots 84 and WDs at the AT&T what happens to his pro-am partner? Does he go out as a single? Does he have to find a substitute pro? Antiquing in Carmel with DD? -@seanK13 

There are always a couple of pros on standby ready to step in. Their score counts only toward the pro-am portion. One regular in that role is the aforementioned Horowitz, who has been called upon a couple of times in the past.

I saw that he shot 84, but they must have put an embargo on the WD.  It's actually rather disgraceful on DD's part, and he should be called out for wasting the spot in the field.

This is awfully cute, though of course off-topic:

Having seen you court-side, I have to ask, which coaching icon are you modeling? You had the fatherly appearance of John Wooden when in the huddle but the outwardly appearance of Bobby Knight (sans folding chairs) with the red V-neck sweater. Please do tell. -@Turnacliff 

One of the fun aspects to last week’s Crosby Clambake was that a lot of golfy folks came out to cheer on the Carmel High JV girls basketball team, for which I’m the head coach, and the varsity squad on which my daughter Abby plays and my best friend Kevin Price coaches. (KP is a part-time caddie at Pebble Beach and last week looped for one of the amateurs in the Clambake, rushing from the links straight to practice and games.) Joe Horowitz, who was recently featured in the pages of GOLF Magazine, sang the national anthem before one of our games. Gotta love how the golf community supports their own. 

Per the question, I think I’m Tark more than anyone else. I try to sit on the bench and be mellow, though I bite my knuckles instead of a soggy towel. It’s a player’s game and you gotta let them do their thing. But Wooden’s name has definitely been raised in practice a few times, too…though it requires a bit of a history lesson since none of the teenage girls on my team know who he is.

You're a golf writer, so tell them about Wooden's ace (I know, touchy subject for Alan) and albatross in the same round.   But good to know that girls' high school basketball is a "players' game"....

And lastly:

If he decided to make the move, how many PGA Tour Champions events would Phil win? All of them? -@jeffvalois 

Many to most. Phil is still Phil and subject to wild unpredictably. But he’d be one of the handful of longest hitters, have among the best iron games and clearly still possesses plenty of short game magic. It’s not an accident that the most dominant Senior golfers ever are Jack Nicklaus, Peter Thomson, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer, all Hall of Fame talents. If you can’t beat someone when you’re 25 or 35 you’re not gonna suddenly start beating them when you’re 50. Phil has spent the last three decades dusting all of those guys so nothing would really change on the Senior tour if he was motivated.

Don't you think Langer would dust him into Bernhard's 90's?   

Cheap Shots - So many promising headers that I was able to burn the Kooch header in our lead item:

So much for growing the game -  Justin Thomas wants to beat you so badly that you quit golf

You're still away? - The worst thing a caddie can say to a golfer, according to Open champion Shane Lowry

 Just, please, no putting.  There are some things a child shouldn't see - Michelle Wie #swingingfortwo in new Instagram post

What, you think that's mean?  Have you seen the girl putt?

Well, it's not crow, because that comes over lunch - The 5 worst things you can eat before a round

That In My Next Lifetime I Want To Be a Member? - 6 things I learned playing Cypress Point Club

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.