First world problems for sure, but this hit yesterday afternoon:
The funny thing is that I almost didn't ski yesterday. I had blinds installed in the mancave in the morning, and none of the usual suspects could be convinced to come out and play. But I decided that cabin fever didn't accomplish anything, and took a few runs on the lower part of the mountain, finding some very pleasant Spring corn. Very glad of my decision, especially with the benefit of hindsight.
Interestingly, skiing would seem to be a pretty safe sport in these times, given that we're covered from head-to-toe out there. But three cases were reported in Summit County yesterday, including at least one predictably in the resort hotels. I know of that because a friend's wife works there and was sent home early on Friday.
I fly home tomorrow morning, and thus ends a bizarre ski season. Bizarre even before I had heard of Wuhan... Of my six trips out West, half ended with an early return East. But I'll be happy to get home to Employee No. 2.... We might as well watch then end of life as we know it together....
Let The Rationalizations Begin - Lots of folks eager to carry Jay's water, such as this from Joel Beall:
On the day the sports world stopped, golf walked on. Less than 10 hours after the NBA halted its season and 12 hours following the NCAA's announcement to host its MarchMadness fan-free due to coronavirus concerns, players went off the first and 10th tees Thursday morning at TPC Sawgrass. The PGA Tour decided, a little before midnight on Wednesday, to conduct its Players Championship as scheduled, galleries intact.
Reception to the decision was mixed from the field, sources tell Golf Digest, with a handful of players—Lucas Glover, Harold Varner III, Lee Westwood, Zac Blair, C.T. Pan—publicly airing their grievances on social media. Pan ultimately decided to withdraw, citing worries for himself and his family.
The decision to forge ahead looked markedly different as the day progressed, as the MLB, NHL, MLS, ATP and the NCAA suspended or canceled operations. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced at noon on Thursday that while the Players would continue, spectators would be barred from the property in Ponte Vedra Beach for the final three rounds as well as the next three Tour events; nevertheless, as the day was coming to a close, the PGA Tour stood along with NASCAR and the UFC as the only major sporting leagues to press on in the face of a pandemic.
Next Tour advertising slogan: We Care About Our Fans Just as Much as the UFC™. But Joel, does Jay speak slowly enough for you to take dictation?
The criticism is easy, sure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,part of mitigating the spread of the coronavirus is by limiting social interaction, which is why business entities and political bodies are stopping mass gatherings, a description that varies from 100 to 1,000 people. So the Tour's decision to open the gates on Thursday, as other sports closed theirs, was questionable.
Yet sources tell Golf Digest, the Tour's belief, which was supported by dialogue with federal and local agencies, was that the sport's outdoor environment made it less conducive to transmitting the virus than indoor activities. It was a sentiment that Monahan relayed during Thursday's press conference.
Jay was willing to subject the public to contagion over the advice of the CDC seemingly to protect the feedlot so, yeah, the criticism is pretty damn easy... It's also pretty damn...errrr....damning.
Alex Myers wants next.... Jay for Time Magazine's Man of the Year? This comes with a reader warning, it won't make you feel any better:
1. International players' worries and two Florida theme parks shutting down played a key role in the decision to cancel the tournament.
“But when you get to, when we got to late in the day and players came off the golf course, and to some of the questions that we received here yesterday, particularly from international players who were trying to figure out, [there was] a lot of uncertainty, trying to figure out what they do with their family, how they get home, how they get their families here, and just uncertainty for a number of players generally. That coupled with the fact that, as I said yesterday, we're talking about the Players Championship, but we're also talking about a number of events going forward, when you looked to that moment in time where you have two theme parks [Disney World and Universal Studios] that are located between Jacksonville and Tampa cancel, to me that really was the thing that was the final … that was the final thing that we had heard that said, you know what, even though we feel like we have a safe environment and we've done all the right things, we can't proceed, and it's not right to proceed. And when you use doing the right thing as the litmus test, to me that was the final …those two things together were really the things that drove the decision.”
Got that? A matter which should never have been about the players was driven by concerns about international players' private flight home.... I simply don't have the words to express how effed-up this is.
The players were never at risk.. It's the fans that you encouraged to congregate in large numbers, because one can't truly Live Under Par™ without exchanging bodily fluids....
Well, I warned you:
4. Although Monahan says he hasn't “gotten much” sleep the past week, he doesn't regret the decision to play the first round with spectators.
*“And as it relates to any regrets, you know, I go back to … think about this: What has transpired has really transpired in a matter of 24 hours. We were at a reception on Wednesday night, and I got a text that the NBA had suspended play. And we felt like at that point in time, given, as we had talked about on Tuesday, we had taken all the right steps and we were comfortable playing. So at 11, later that night, we determined that, one, we were going to proceed, we were going to play, we were going to continue to follow the path that we were on.
“And then as it relates to fans, we wanted to … we had taken a number of precautionary steps. We were going to come in yesterday and we were going to do everything that we had done that preceded that, which is, let's continue to stay close to this, and if we need to make adjustments, we will. So we quickly determined that we were not going to have fans today and through the weekend. I was really proud of the plan that we have in place. And ultimately we used [Thursday] to get as much information as we could to make the right decision, and we made the decision, and we're obviously not playing today and we're not playing through the Valero Texas Open, and it's a really hard decision. But listen, anytime you make a change to a decision that you originally made, there's an element of maybe we could have done that earlier. But I continue, and we talked about this as a team last night, you go back to what was your decision-making process, how committed were you to it, and what was the criteria that caused you to change. And for me I'm very comfortable that we made the right decision at the right time—or made the right decisions at the right time over the course of the week.”*
Jay, here's a Pro Tip absolutely free of charge. You might want to wait a short while to ensure that there isn't a body count before patting yourself on the back....
Eamon Lynch has this interesting premise:
OK, this should be good:
What we saw was a number of wrong decisions made for the right reasons. There was nothing ignoble about a desire to get one of golf’s biggest tournaments in under the wire before the world went sideways. But as events accelerated, the decision making stuttered. Playing the tournament without spectators would have seen a winner declared at TPC Sawgrass, but it would also have seen both the Tour and golf itself branded as losers. The image of disconnected, tone-deaf golfers blundering on with reckless indifference to public health would have been a future stain just as difficult to erase as those in the sport’s past.
Is anyone buying any of this crap?
First, no one needs to explain their desire to get the tournament in.... The need for normalcy is a healthy instinct, but the issue of exposing the public to enhanced transmission risk is even more obvious. Unlike Eamon, I think the enduring image is of out-of-touch elites prioritizing their cash flow over public safety.
As for that last bit, I think he has it exactly backwards. I believe a decision to go forward without spectators would have been perceived as the Tour taking steps to go forward, but only under a scenario where outsiders were not endangered. I don't actually know how that would have felt, but at least they weren't encouraging folks to take unnecessary risks.
Even Eamon knows how thin the ice is, as per this:
An overabundance of caution endangers no one. A slight overreach imperiled many. It took until Thursday night, but in the end commissioner Jay Monahan made the right decision for the right reasons. For all the criticism coming his way, there should also be an acknowledgement of his willingness to reverse himself barely 10 hours after so publicly declaring a course of action.
Yes, Eamon, he imperiled many.... isn't that the only point that really matters?
That right decision for the right reasons is also rich, given how late he got there. Sheesh, I can't even imagine how in the moment Jay rationalized letting thousands of people take such risks.
And by the way, Jay's continual harping on the outdoor nature of the game is...well, I don't actually know what to call it. It seems almost like a harmless verbal tic, except that it might not have been so harmless:
“It’s different than other sports, right?” Spieth said. “There’s no contact, like even in basketball you’re right next to each other obviously, and so I think it’s a little bit different. You have a much wider space that you’re playing in.”
But is that true? Does being an outdoor sport make it less likely that the coronavirus can spread? According to one scientist, that is not necessarily the case.Dr. Frank Fornari, who is the co-founder of BioMech and is a leading expert in pharmacology, drug testing, genetics and disease, explained the risks associated with hosting a golf tournament amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
One concern with hosting a tournament is the large congregation of people. This can allow for spreading of the airborne disease. While fans are not consistently in close proximity at golf tournaments like other sports, there is still an overwhelming amount of close contact.
“If we did not stop the massing of people,” Fornari said. “The virus would spread much much faster … If you prevent people from getting together in large groups, you’re going to slow down the process of that spread.”
Honestly, what it reminds me of most are the illogical fixations of an Asperger's patient.... because what Jay elides are the grandstands and courtesy buses where fans are in close proximity and transmission risk is excessive. Also not noted by Jay is the unique demographic of golf fans and volunteers, with a bug whose lethality is greatly enhanced among the elderly.
My bottom line is that our Commission showed great indifference to fans of and volunteers at PGA Tour events. Does anyone interpret the actions of the Tour differently? At every decision point, Jay put the needs of the Tour and its players and networks above those of the fans.... Until the point where he couldn't any longer.
Want one last example of that?
Of course they do.... Eamon, maybe you're worried about the optics of the wrong things.....
The Path Forward - Here I'm focused on the professional game, we'll dive into the club game in a bit.
Probably the most interesting aspect of this in the current is the status of The Masters, which has been postponed. But postponed until when, I hear you ask? At first blush, the most obvious answer would be October. Bob Harig has this good column on the issues for this event, including this on the agronomics involved:
Augusta National is considered a "winter club'' and traditionally closes in late May and reopens in mid-October. That doesn't mean the Masters could not be played at a time when the club is traditionally closed. Augusta National can do just about anything itpleases. But the summer months are not ideal due to the extreme heat in Georgia and less-than-ideal playing conditions.
Augusta's primary turf is Bermuda, but the entire course is overseeded with perennial ryegrass in the fall before the club reopens, giving it a pristine look that is maintained through the Masters. Would that hold into May, for example, if the club chose to pick a month to six weeks after the original Masters date? And how would it look if, say, the tournament were played in September or October, with less time for the rye to take hold?
It is possible this is part of the decision-making process going forward.
The greens are bentgrass, which is less tolerant of heat but regulated by a pipe system that Augusta has underneath its greens.
But did you catch Bob's mention of May? Geoff has a discussion of this here, the premise being that an optimistic scenario might have us believe that northern Georgia could be doable then (perhaps without patrons), but that there's no sense that California would be habitable by then.... Yeah, I'm sure you'll quickly grasp the multiple moving parts here, in which the PGA of America would graciously cede its May date to the Masters under the logic that they can't do anything useful with that date in any event....
I'm actually of the belief that this nightmare could pass in time to make this feasible, especially given the ability of the ANGC poobahs to control their environment. What does seem a stretch is that they would know that with enough lead time to pull it off....
As for the Fall, isn't that an interesting concept? What I mean by that are the dynamics between and among the five families. Jack had these comments:
Nicklaus said he hadn’t decided yet if he would have attended the Masters had it went on as scheduled, but he did say he had previously withdrawn from the club’s jamboree two weeks before the Masters, but Augusta eventually canceled that anyway. He said he talked to Ridley about the decision to go on with the Masters and that it was debated a long time. Ultimately, Nicklaus said, “I think they made a wise decision, and I support it.”
The club said the postponement puts them in position to perhaps host the Masters “at some later date,” which many have speculated could be the fall, as long as all goes well. Nicklaus, however, didn’t see how that could happen.
“In all practicality, they are postponing, but I can’t see any way they would play it at a later date,” he said. “How in the world could they work it into the schedule? It wouldn’t be fair to any other tournament that are later. I think we are probably going to miss the Masters this year, that’s just my opinion, but I think it makes logical sense.”
Amusing, no? Jack thinks we can't hold the Masters in October because it would be wrong to bigfoot the Sanderson Farms Championship.... Let me know when you're finished laughing at that. I can just picture the conversation:
Fred Ridley: Hi Jay, how's everything in Ponte Vedra Beach?Jay Monahan: Did I tell you about the Task Force that we turned into a Business Unit?FR: (Sighs) Only about twenty-six times...JM: But did you know that since golf is played over 400 acres there's no health risk to our spectators?FR: Jay, you might want to see someone about this rather obsessive focus on things that don't matter...JM: Well, yanno, we're pretty committed to this Live Under Par™ thing....FR: Committed seems a good call.... but Jay, before we announce it publicly, I wanted to give you a courtesy heads up that we're going to play the Masters the first weekend in October.JM: You can't do that, that's the Shriners Hospital for Children's event, which is almost considered a major these days.FR: And that affects me how?JM: Or is it the Safeway? Yanno, I can't really tell these events apart....FR: Yeah, none of us can, but it doesn't matter because there's no reason to watch.JM: Or is that the Sanderson Farms? OK if I get back to you with the actual reason you can't hold the Masters?FR: Excuse me, Jay, I have to take this call from Seth Waugh....Can't wait to see when he holds the PGA Championship.
Not bad, eh? It'll be good fun seeing whether these guys can actually cooperate for the greater good, though the first thing to walk from should be the Olympics.
Golf In The Time of Corona - This is a time when the lonely golf world turns its eyes to Mike Bamberger:
That there will be no live golf tournaments on TV for at least the next few weeks is, of course, practically meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But for many of us, it will leave a hole. I have three suggestions on how to fill the void: watch more golf, read more golf, play more golf.
As for the watching, YouTube has it all. The 1975 Masters, just for starters. Spoiler alert: Jack Nicklaus wins over Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller. Everybody, players and caddies, are talking to their ball way more than they do today.
From there, keep going. Annika at Colonial. Hogan hitting balls into the ocean from George Coleman’s backyard. Bobby Jones riding through a ticker-tape parade. JFK’s golf swing. Get lost.
Sound advice for sure.... and more on that '75 Masters below. And a welcome reminder that nothing is really new:
There was no Masters in 1943, ’44 and ’45. There were cows grazing on the course. Byron Nelson had to wait until 1946 to try to defend his 1942 title.
This too — this COVID thing — shall pass. Things will be different, but we’ll get through it. Golf will help.
Yeah, the cow thing didn't work out too well....
Golf Digest gearhead Mike Stachura has the skinny on whether it's safe for us to play:
What does “social distancing” mean with respect to playing golf?
Generally, the key is to be more than six feet away from others. Stay out of gimme distance. “As much as we know anything for now, we know that if you’re more than six feet from somebody, they’re not going to spread it to you. So even within your foursome, you just stay a little bit farther away than you might ordinarily,” Troisi said.
That sound you hear is Bobby D.'s head exploding at the concept of a six-foot gimme...We kid because w elove.
This is amusing as well:
What golfers need to remember is that the benefits of social distancing aren’t explicitly about protecting yourself as much as they are an effective means of controlling spread of the virus. For an otherwise healthy 35-year-old, “the odds are very high that even if you did get sick, you would be fine.” The problems come with infecting more vulnerable members of the community, and of course, as you age, your immune system doesn’t work as well. Of course, the average age of an American golfer is older than 50, and in some communities like private clubs there’s a high percentage of players who are 70-plus. At the mammoth retirement community The Villages in Central Florida, a drive-thru coronavirus test center opened on Friday. Nurse technicians will swab patients without them having to get out of their cars.
Amusing only because The Villages is a noted hotbed of STDs...can they test for those at the same time?
Here's another one for the aforementioned Bobby D. to mull over:
Doesn’t the virus linger on surfaces for long periods of time, like, say, a cart or flagstick?
Though Dr. Troisi does think golf is a relatively safe activity in the current situation, she does advocate some changes in behavior from how people currently enjoy the game. Riding in a cart with a friend, for instance, puts you within the six-foot range, which is reason to consider walking or taking your own cart. We normally support taking caddies, but that dynamic poses new risk under the current circumstances.
As for the flagstick, despite our scientific evidence that leaving the flagstick in hurts your chances of putts being holed, it’s probably best to leave the flagsticks untouched for the entire day.
In Florida a few weeks ago we never touched a flagstick, even in the wind. Of course, we didn't care about scores and our default setting is to "Lazy"....
Of course, the real risk is before you get to the golf course:
What about the 19th hole or the locker room before and after the round?
Experts are unequivocal on one thing with regard to coronavirus: These are unique times, and they quite simply require fundamental shifts in behavior. “If you go to a crowded bar where you’re up one against another, that’s a lot different from going to a bar where you’re spread out,” Albert Ko, the chair of the epidemiology department at the Yale School of Public Health, told The Atlantic. “Bottom line, there’s no absolute indication not to go to bars and restaurants, but in practicing good public health—which is kind of a responsibility for everybody in the country—really think about how we can decrease those close contacts.”
That's where we're all most at risk.... Mike Bamberger above suggested that private club golfers play a muni, but while that sounds like a good thing to suggest, I'm think that none of us should be suggesting public outings.
Sean Zak does have a suggestion for filling those lonely hours:
They're all available on YouTube, so dive right in...
Though I'll beg to differ with Sean on this ranking:
If you enjoy Jack Nicklaus’ 1986 victory, 1975 is not too different. The Golden Bear races out in front of Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf with an epic back nine. That’s how you win the Masters. No one knew it better than Nicklaus.
OK, that's just silly....in '75 Jack was in green whereas in '86 he wore yellow. So you can see they're not remotely alike....
More importantly, you had the three biggest names in the game at the height of their powers, slugging it out on that back nine. As an added bonus, a young Tom Watson played an uncredited yet crucial role. Playing with Jack in front of the Miller-Weiskopf group, Watson rinsed his ball on No.16, and the ensuing time to take his drop had the result of allowing the chase pack to make their way to the 16th tee to watch Jack sink one of the most improbable putts in golf history....Yanno, the one that had Weiskopf refer to seeing Bear Tracks on the 126th green.
This might have been the greatest Masters ever, though of course that's quite the competitive category....all good suggestions, even if your humble blogger might order them differently.
Y'all be safe and I'll hope to see you during the week from home.
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