Mid-Pandemic Musings

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. 

Winston Churchill

For some reason that iconic Churchill quote, uttered after the second Battle of Al Alamein, popped into my head....   Not terribly encouraging, is it?

Random Acts of Kindness - A while back I had an item, couldn't possibly remember what it was about, but it included speculation about the dark side of Adam Scott.  A man whose original equipment specifications include nothing remotely off-putting, as you'll soon see.

It's a sad story for sure:

Confused? Well, so is 76-year-old Ross Campbell, who is suffering from seven brain tumours and believes 39-year-old professional golfer Adam Scott is his best mate.

In fact, although wheelchair bound, Ross thinks he plays regular golf games with Adam, exchanges tips and joins him in beers at the Riverside Oaks club house. 

Ross and his wife, Pam, lived at Riverside Oaks for eight years but, as his condition worsened, they moved to their son’s 32 acre property near Dural. Pam says: “Ross thinks a shed on the property is the Riverside Oaks club house and he talks about Adam all the time, waiting for Adam’s call to play a round of golf.”

Certainly Adam can do nothing about that, but he did that which he could:

Adam readily agreed to phone Ross and, although initially surprised by Ross’s immediate familiarity, quickly settled in for a chat. 

“You didn’t need me for the game yesterday?” asked Ross, a question which Adam gently deflected. 

Pam says: “I’m standing in the background crying and happy as they chatted away. They talked golf and Ross mentioned that he gets very wobbly in the legs when he goes out to play. 

“He’s in a wheelchair and can hardly stand up but Adam must have sensed this and said he gets wobbly in his legs, too.”

It's actually a hard thing to do, as one can't know what such a call will entail and whether the situation can be made worse.  So, still awaiting evidence of that dark side...

Is This in the Covid Death Count - Alistair Tait mourns another victim of the times:

The death of golf journalism

Well, given that it was already in a nursing home....

Death just seems imminent given what passes for, er, golf journalism these days.

Following on from the Association of Golf Writers’ brilliant book Forgive us our press

passes, the AGW has been asking its members to pen their AGW memories. The result is a treasure trove of stories about the days when golf writing consisted of more than 183-word stories.

One hundred and eighty-three words. That’s the word count for a story on a popular golf website I recently clicked on. The story promised much and delivered absolutely nothing. Not one ounce of substance. I felt cheated. It happens a lot. It was obvious the only reason the story was on the site was to act as clickbait. Another page view was all that mattered. Shame.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still good golf writers producing fine, well-written stories for magazines and newspapers. I count many of them as friends. The problem is the number has diminished, and continues to do so.

The obvious initial reaction is to note that the same could be said about all areas of journalism... If you doubt me, spend a minute watching a White House Covid briefing...  The next thoughtful question will be the first of its kind.

I’ve worked with some fine golf writers over the years. People who knew the game, its history, its characters, people who got out and watched golf, spoke to the players, the caddies, officials. Great wordsmiths who breathed life into the game. One by one they’ve disappeared. No longer required in what one recently departed scribe described a

Hey, why employ an expert when you can hire someone fresh out of college to “recast” content? That’s not a dig at those doing the recasting. I appreciate some of those might go on to become experts in this great game. Unfortunately, too many are simply passing through and have no passion for the game, such as the recent editor of a popular golf website who asked this question in a meeting: “Who’s Ben Hogan?”

He's just some dead white guy, dude.  Really though, when today's opinion makes are banishing Churchill and Jefferson from the history books, it seems petty to worry about Hogan.

I just feel the need to add that we aren't helped in this regard by the major golf organizations, who seem to go out of their way to cut our ties to the deep history of our game.  I don't think Hogan was much for Living Under Par™.

There's Got To Be A Morning After -  A few takes on what our lives might look like if we're ever allowed to leave our homes, first from Mike Bamberger on Tour life, much of it in rebuttal to Scott Stallings:

In mid-June, the PGA Tour plans to resume play, in Fort Worth, for the Charles Schwab Challenge. There won’t be fans. The flagstick will stay in. The caddies won’t touch a rake. You’ll have your temperature taken before you enter the Colonial Country Club grounds, no matter who you are, or something along those lines. It will be different.

But there will be a 72-hole tournament and a TV show and a first-place check for $1.3 million. It will be way better than nothing. Scott Stallings need not worry. 

I know one significant thing about Stallings, and it’s admirable. Five years ago, he admitted to PGA Tour officials that he had accidently used a banned performance-enhancing drug and that admission got him a 90-day suspension. And his admission came after he had passed a drug test. Another example of PGA Tour players policing themselves. 

But what Stallings said the other day to my colleague, James Colgan, makes no sense. Stallings, a three-time Tour winner, said, “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies.” Not to hang on his every word here in a fluid situation — there likely will be caddies, and bunkers can be raked by designated volunteers — but let’s look more broadly at it: 

The human race is adaptable. We the people, for whom the Constitution was written, are adaptable. PGA Tour players are adaptable. The Tour will put in place sensible procedures to ensure safe tournaments, but the show will go on.

That's the voice of experience, and he's quite right that it's too fluid to react to anything....  But isn't the most suspect factor above that the purse can be maintained at $1.3 million large?  

Brad Klein is running a three-part article on the future of golf courses, the first of which we had for you last week (in that instance I had to teach Brad the concept of Federalism).  In this second piece he speaks of adaptation as necessary for clubs and public facilities.  There's good stuff for sure, though he might have done better to not cover such a widely disparate set of facilities.

Beditz is among those who expect to see a wide variety of strategic responses by clubs in how they present themselves. With many public courses now presenting golfers with less-than-optimal playing conditions and the prospects of courses with stationary flags, holes turned upside down and unraked bunkers, it’s a good sign that so many public courses report active tee sheets and busy parking lots. The anecdotal evidence is that with so many walkers, there might well be a burst of activity in the merchandising of light carry bags and push/pull carts.

There has been, as anyone trying to find a push cart online knows well.  The problem is that the manufacturers have been deemed non-essential, so they can't produce additional carts to take advantage of the opportunity that has fallen into their laps.  Do, would you gear up production capacity?  Feels like more of a blip than a permanent change of habits, but who knows given everyone's' reduced net worth.

Cronin counsels against clubs responding to the COVID-19 crisis by reflexively cutting operational budgets and reducing dues and initiation fees. Such a response, he contends, cheapens the value of the club experience and initiates a cycle decline, measured largely in terms of increased “churn”: high member turnover and little capital growth. The answer, he says, is to hold steady, innovate and enhance the value proposition of membership. 

Actually, some clubs might find it rational to reduce services and adopt a model based on a classic English or Scottish golf club: focus on golf, a simple bar and allow public play as a supplement to membership.

It's a little scary to be a member of a club these days, as most of us are in the dark as to how this crisis is affecting P&L's.  Brad notes that private clubs routinely lose big dollars on their food and beverage operations, so we might actually have a short-term crisis that's beneficial....from that limited perspective.

The obvious point that Brad makes is that clubs have to make themselves indispensable to its members through this period, though it might no always be apparent how to do so.  I can tell you that several Fairview members have complained to me about the absence of take-out food service (which they are just now rolling out), something your humble blogger doesn't especially value.  Then again, Employee No. 2 and I have been virtual shut-ins long before I had heard of Wuhan.

On the other hand, our Board has done the one thing I wanted from them, they have endeavored to keep our golf course open.  All other things pale in comparison to that, but it's always a shock when the dues bill hits, especially when we're barred from the building.  There's a day of reckoning on the horizon, but having one's membership learn that they can live without their club can't be good for us all...  As the kids say, developing....

Scenes From Sawgrass - Let's play a quick thought experiment, shall we?  If I asked you to name the golf hole least likely to experience drainage issues, your thoughts might turn to sand-based links or similar terrain.  That's a good guess, but this is my vote, and I trust that you'll instinctively grasp the logic:

Island green at TPC Sawgrass to be closed for drainage project

Unless they've repealed the laws of gravity in Florida, how is that remotely possible?

Anyone remember thos plans for a new PGA Tour headquarters building.  Even a year ago when announced, it seem a public relations fail, so egregiously over-the-top, that I made reference to Jay's edifice complex.  A reminder:

The PGA Tour's future headquarters Ponte Vedra Beach has made it past the red tape and is ready for construction. 

A permit for the 187,000-square-foot shell building was approved in St. Johns County last week. Tampa-based Clark Construction is the general contractor on the project.

Shell construction alone is valued at $65 million, according to the permit. 

The PGA Tour unveiled plans a year ago for its new home at 5420 Palm Valley Road, which will consolidate area staff under one roof. The new headquarters, which is expected to be completed in 2020, will be located on a portion of the Tour’s existing property on County Road 210. It will be surrounded by a freshwater lake, similar to the iconic ‘Island Green’ 17th hole from The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. 

Once completed, the building will house the more than 750 employees who currently occupy 17 buildings throughout the area, with the capacity to accommodate several hundred more.

These guys are good, no?  Such strategic long-term thinkers that they anticipated social distancing....

The only point of this is that these grandiose plans seem all the more vulgar in the present moment, and Gary Van Sickle takes a fun swipe at it on Twitter:

I like Fortress of Solitude, but others may differ.

About That Sequel - Eamon Lynch has some previously unknown details about the origins of that Tiger-Phil sequel:

“The Match: Champions for Charity” will pit Woods and Peyton Manning against

Mickelson and Tom Brady to benefit coronavirus relief. The civic-minded charitable component was a late add to a plan that was being pitched to sponsors long before Mickelson teased it on social media last month, and which originally had the foursome facing off at Muirfield Village on Tuesday of the Memorial Tournament, finishing under lights in prime time. 

Covid-19 scuppered the Memorial and the Match, leaving both searching for a place amid the pandemic. The main event has been moved to mid-July, the sideshow will take place in Florida sometime next month. There’ll be other made-for-TV golf events too, and we’ll tune in because it’s all we have while waiting to see if the PGA Tour’s restart — aggressively scheduled for June 11 — actually happens closer to Memorial Day or Labor Day.

They caught a break, methinks.  We've had enough experience with these things to know that the golf itself more often than not fails to deliver.  I'll concede to Eamon that we're likely to tune in, but I'm unconvinced that we'll stick with it....

He trashes that which I've long called the worst day in televised golf:

Celebrity golf is what makes Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am indisputably the worst day of the year for TV viewers, a ceaseless parade of C-tier stars and A-list corporate executives enjoying a level of obsequious brownnosing seldom seen outside the Oval Office. But to a starving man, even rancid meat can appear appetizing. So it says a great deal about what we’re missing that so many of us can look forward to watching four brand marketers (average age: 44) contrive to josh their way around a Florida swamp with no fans in attendance.

It's not so much the celebrity golfers that render it unwatchable, it's more the fact that CBS was allowed to use it to shameless promote their painful slate of prime-time shows.  Who could have seen this coming, but it just so happens that not everyone loves Raymond....

I do need to get going, as there's a long list of chores on my To-Do list,  We did notably get in a Costco run this morning, our first since the onset of hostilities.  

I'll see you for sure later in the week, as I've got some specially curated topics to share. 

Weekend Wrap

The bride and I thank all for your kind words last week.  It's quite the loss, but also time to to move back towards normalcy....  I know, normalcy appears to have left town without leaving a forwarding address.

About That Tour? - Joel Beall and his back-up band take on these important questions:

A Stripped-Down PGA Tour: No Fans, Plenty of Questions 

The PGA Tour aspires to return to competition in June by limiting the number of people on site, most notably by not having fans. But a deeper look at how tour events operate underscores how much uncertainty remains

So, whatcha got?

While the rest of the sports world hibernates during the coronavirus pandemic, the PGA Tour is forging ahead with a season restart on June 11 at Colonial Country Club in Fort

Worth. The reimagined 2020 PGA Tour calendar unveiled last week is an ambitious endeavor: 14 tournaments in 13 weeks spread across the country, a venture many in and out of the game question whether is truly feasible. With any number of moving parts to a professional golf tournament ordinarily requiring the coordinated efforts of 1,500 to 2,500 people, can it be pulled off? 

The decision to move forward is bred by confidence from Tour and tournament officials that their collective footprint can be minimized in an environment filled with new restrictions. Restrictions regarding safety, yes, that the sport can adhere to physical distancing from its competitors and those conducting the events, and by barring fans from at least the first four events. But also economical and logistical concerns, areas whose limits are shifting and evolving. So how does the Tour go about scaling down its operations to meet these unassailable, and uncompromising, new parameters?

Uncompromising?  That adjective seems equally applicable to the Tour brass....See, for instance, that Chainsmokers concert....let's take a couple of bits out of order:

There’s also the acknowledgement that none of this begins without widespread COVID-19 testing. And currently there is a gap between what Tour and tournament officials aspire to do with testing versus the reality of coronavirus monitoring, which health experts say is woefully lagging. There are still seven weeks until the Tour’s restart to bridge this difference, but to go forward without reliable testing is a non-starter, as safety is paramount in every decision.

This is a bit of a Rorschach test, as the listener can impute his own biases into Jay Monahan's conditions.  My own tend to the more cynical, to wit, that Jay wants to give the appearance of restarting, but will not have the stones to do so....

Then there's this:

A spectator-free golf course is the obvious response, but the changes under discussion go deeper than cosmetics. The entire Tour experience is being recalibrated during the

coronavirus pandemic. That includes who is working the events—from Tour staff, tournament officials and volunteers—and what their roles may be. It involves a review of the elements of a modern-day tour event, ranging from tracking scoring data to hosting pro-ams, to determine what are considered vital to running an event and what are deemed comforts. Moreover, which non-players/workers will be allowed, if any, on the property? And what will and won’t viewers see on the television and digital broadcasts, including who will be behind the cameras and mics? As each decision on who or what stays and goes is made—when contacted by Golf Digest, PGA Tour officials acknowledged they’re still in the planning process regarding many aspects of tournament operations—millions of dollars in revenue could be saved or lost, which will have an impact on players’ earnings and charity donations.

So, the impression is that it's a Corona-induced bit of zero-based budgeting, ruthlessly requiring each person on site to be justified as ..... well, what's the word I'm desperately seeking?   That each be essential to the event....  But, have you noticed how each governor and mayor on TV is impeccably coiffed?  Yup, their essential is just a wee bit different than our own.

As Jay keeps reminding us, golf is contested over hundreds of acres, so you're probably thinking that the CBS/GC footprint will be excessive.  You might be pleasantly surprised at their ability to adapt:

As for the broadcast itself, officials involved in conversations with CBS Sports (in charge of televising the first 11 Tour events after the season resumes) and the PGA Tour said CBS is working on tinkering with its coverage, possibly cutting the amount of on-site staff by 30-40 percent, both to limit interaction at the course and reduce the amount of people traveling across the country. For context, a CBS official said it employs 70-something on-site workers in a normal week. 

“You will still have the talent, production, operation, cameras, audio, technicians, trucks,” a source said. “There won’t be areas cut.” 

However, that reduction will manifest in the coverage itself. There will likely be fewer feature holes and groups and limited camera angles. There’s also expected to be a reduced video replay capacity. “We aren’t going back to the ’70s,” a source said. “But this won’t be the Super Bowl, either.”

Pretend it's the Masters, and therefore there's no need to show us the front nine....  I kid, but hand-held cameras are fine...

But if you believe the Tour isn't really serious about this, here's your tell:

Tournament officials know they won’t have the luxury of their usual corps. They are expecting many will drop out due to ongoing safety concerns, especially retirees, who are more at risk for COVID-19. Yet, at least in the aggregate, there won’t be a major

reduction in volunteers. Officials for the first four events—Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage, Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic—estimate they will need 500 to 700 helpers to run their tournament. 

“It’s not like we can run a tournament with myself and two other people,” says Michael Tothe, Charles Schwab Challenge tournament director. “It takes the majority of our volunteer workforce. We [can get by] without all of them, but we need many of them. There could be as many as 1,000 people on the property at any one time. People probably don’t realize what goes into this.” 

Even in a slimmed down incarnation, that figure may seem high. However, there are areas the Tour has identified as essential, chief among them Shotlink. The Tour’s proprietary data content is key for scoring, stats and its gambling relationships, such as with daily fantasy site DraftKings. A fully-operational Shotlink system, according to multiple officials, ranks only behind the players in tournament priority.

From that 1860 Open Championship, more than 130 years of elite professional golf tournaments were played before the advent of Shot Link, so....WTF!

Geoff is as befuddled as your humble blogger, reacting thusly:

Outside of scoring, I’m not sure how eager fans and players are to have that information versus a simple return to play when it’s safe to do so. Especially if setting up Shotlink impacts COVID-19 testing for those more in need. 

Just as expanding fields are being expanded at a time the size of gatherings is under scrutiny, this is a headscratcher. Hundreds and hundreds of golf tournament are played annually without ShotLink but with some form of live scoring. If a “fully operational” ShotLink system is the only way to monitor scoring, a reassessment of priorities is certainly in order. 

As an aside, DraftKings began public trading on NASDAQ Friday.

Not that I tend towards the cynical, but the Tour is very proud of its deal to sell its data to the online betting houses, but surely that can't be the explanation.... Say it ain't so, Jay!  By the way, how many encores did the Chainsmokers play?

I laughed off this story from a few days ago.  Scott Stallings has some reasonable things to say about the nature of the Tour's restart:

These changes could see players putting with the flagstick in, playing without rakes in bunkers and pulling their own clubs to minimize contact with caddies, among other

adjustments. While the proposed guidelines could allow golf to be played in the near future, Stallings doubts players would get on board with the changes. 

“I just don’t think there’s any way guys are going to do that,” he said. “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies. That’s just not going to happen. 

“I’m fully confident that there are going to be guys who choose not to play.” 

Those same players, Stallings said, might be willing to compete in unofficial made-for-TV exhibitions but to protect “the integrity of the game,” he thinks they’ll “put their foot down and say, ‘No, we have to wait.'”

There's no truth to the rumor that Patrick Reed thought they were playing preferred lies in bunkers all along....

I thought was laughable because it never occurred to me that this was a serious consideration.  But if it's in the Tour Confidential, it has to be a thing, right?

1. As part of its scheduled resumption in mid-June, the PGA Tour told GOLF.com it is exploring expanding social distancing guidelines in competition. Under the prospective mandates, players could be required to putt with the flagstick in, play without rakes in bunkers, and pull their own clubs to minimize contact with caddies, among other changes. Three-time Tour winner Scott Stallings said not all players would get on board with the changes. “I just don’t think there’s any way guys are going to do that,” he told our James Colgan. “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies.” If indeed the Tour enacts these measures, would you agree that players would push back?

Good luck finding a pushcart available?   But seriously, this is not going to happen, but it's a glaring juxtaposition with the position that ShotLink is essential.

Sean Zak: Some probably will, but they’ll really look like sore thumbs. Are you really going to complain about an imperfect bunker when you could just be at home spending your money and not making any? Anyone who complains will not be embraced by fans, but then again, this is the Groupthink Tour. Their opinions tend to all be the same by the end of a tournament. 

Josh Sens: Playing for “their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies.” Egad. The horrors! Not even Dickens could have dreamed up such hardship. I’m sure Stallings is right. Some players will push back, and they’ll look as ridiculous as the above sounds.

Yes....but with an upper case BUT.  Tell a Tour player he can't have a caddie, but you've got 700 ShotLink volunteers on site?  Oh, and the average age of a caddie is X, but that average age of those volunteers is....what?  X+30?  Is it really the players that will seem out of touch?

Of course, Mike Bamberger remains the conscience of our game:

Michael Bamberger: I think the game would be improved at every level without rakes in bunkers. Return to them their dignity. They are traps. They are to be avoided. The players will have to conform, or there won’t be a tournament in which to play.

I'm in his camp, as well, though this might not be the best moment for this debate....

Alan has wise words for all:

Alan Shipnuck: The bunker thing is getting a lot of play, but there could be an easy solution: Why not have one designated raker per hole who cleans up after every player? But the larger point is that sports is going to be different for all of us when it returns, and the players would be wise to get on board.

Why should they, when Jay hasn't?   And for some reason this answer triggers a follow-up question about the R&A:

Dylan Dethier: I don’t see this being an issue, at least from the Tour’s bigger names. Ever since they officially canceled the Players, it’s been mostly sunshine and roses when it comes to Tour players and the rulesmakers. I would say the far bigger issue would be if players felt there was no effort being made to bring golf back, but that’s clearly not the case. I’m sure Stallings will come around.

I'm happy that Jay wants to get us back to professional golf, even if it proves to be overly-optimistic. Alas, that he can't envision PGA Tour golf without ShotLink speaks to a man with priories that aren't likely to overlap with our own....

Do you have enough time for their follow-up?  Just kidding, I'm well aware that you have nothing but time on your hands:

2. We’re about 40 days out from the Tour’s scheduled return, at the Charles Schwab Challenge. What’s the biggest challenge the Tour faces between now and then to make that event successful?

Sean Zak goes right for the jugular:

Zak: The biggest challenge is obviously making sure 100 percent of the people involved are virus-free. Not 90 percent that is “probably” 100 percent. Not even 98 percent of people tested. 100 percent. Assuring 100 percent of anything in this world is difficult. Can the PGA Tour do it during the most uncertain of times? I think I am properly a skeptic.

Well, that straw man's jugular, in any event:  Here are a couple of guys more tethered to reality:

Dethier: This is sort of ambiguous, but the biggest challenge is the same that every business and governmental entity in the country faces: knowing the trade-off between opening and staying closed. It’s always going to be a calculation. At the moment, it’s clear it would be irresponsible to gather large groups of people at PGA Tour events. In 40 days, it’s probably going to be murkier. There are plenty of positives to holding a Tour event (and plenty of negatives that go along with canceling one) so the biggest challenge is how to balance those forces against the very real threat to human life that is posed by the coronavirus. Not an equation we learned in school. 

Bamberger: That’s well-said, Dylan. Life offers no guarantees, and the idea of any environment being 100 percent safe is unrealistic and has never been realistic. So, as Dylan says, a trade-off. Life carries risks. We manage them.

As thoughtful as these guys are, there's one thing they instinctively fail to cover, which is the threat to human life caused by keeping folks under house arrest and destroying their livelihoods.  I'm sure our media will get right on that one...

About That Ryder Cup? - We've seen some pushback on that potential sound stage Ryder Cup, one from each side as it so happens.  First, Rory:

“I get the financial implications for everyone involved … there’s a lot that goes into putting on the Ryder Cup that people don’t probably know or appreciate – but having a Ryder Cup without fans is not a Ryder Cup. 

“For me I would much rather they delay it until 2021 than play it at Whistling Straits without fans. And that’s from a European going to America, knowing that I’m going to get abuse!”

This guy as well:

A @CTScoreboardPod exclusive. Hear from @RyderCupUSA Vice Captain Jim Furyk on the prospect of playing the #RyderCup with no fans. Full pod to come as we go hole by hole breaking down his 58 at @TravelersChamp pic.twitter.com/qoKxZZMv23

— Jared Kotler (@JaredKotler) April 21, 2020

You can add Tommy Fleetwood and Padraig Harrington to that list, as well....

But then we get pushback to that pushback.  Paul McGinley writes at SkySports...well, his subhead says it all:

"This is a moment for all stakeholders in golf to collaborate, communicate and support each other. Having open minds could well protect the sport and some of its historic events from spiralling into crisis"

 He's surprisingly upbeat about the PGA's chances of pulling this off:

The PGA Tour have scheduled four tournaments, starting in June, to be played without spectators. They will be most fortunate to have access to several hundred thousand testing kits ahead of these events. Combined with quarantining, social distancing and restrictions allowing selected key personnel on site, I actually think they may well be able to pull this off. 

It will take a lot of work and careful monitoring but is achievable if everyone involved accepts and abides by the measures that will be essential to create a safe environment for players, caddies and officials.

Alongside our becoming acquainted with watching other sports played behind closed doors and, assuming that this is successful, a "new norm" for watching sport will likely be created. We will be able to visually enjoy our sports again through TV coverage, with no spectators; a welcome return to our enjoyment of sport from our sofas, albeit not like we are used to.

Selected key employees?  It's true enough, as Jay apparently picked the "all of the above" option.... 

I actually wish that he kept the Ryder Cup out of the mix, because to me he's really making the argument to support the efforts to restart the games, including this on the long-term economic prospects:

The suspension of play in men's professional golf is made even more complex by the number of different independent governing bodies involved. There are seven different owners of the elite golf events and Tours in the world. Each relies heavily for their sustainability on incomes derived from the playing of events they administer. 

Their insurance policies are unlikely to include a worldwide pandemic like this which gives rise to a number of questions for each organisation: 

• In the face of the financial implications that could potentially range anywhere from cash flow issues to bankruptcy, can they realistically afford the extreme measure of cancellation?
• Do they have enough in the coffers to put everything on hold for the rest of an uncertain 2020?
• Have they got the financial resources to tide them over and ensure employment of their staff until professional competition resumes in its entirety?
• Can they feel certain that 2021 will definitely be back to normal?

There are obviously folks who think that PGA Tour is moving too aggressively, mostly out of concern for safety.  Of course, there's always a few who will be outraged at the thought of anyone not having a boot on their throat, but those folks presumably don't read this blog.  

But many have focused on McGinley's comments in relation to the Ryder Cup, most notably Shack in this post.  But there's only this one reference to that event:

The recent talk of playing without spectators has been mainly around the staging of the Ryder Cup in September. The proposed restrictions envisage the exclusion of crowds extending to all the major golf championships, including the Masters, as well as to other sports including football and the English Premier League.

To me, that's just an acknowledgement of the sate of play, but he himself doesn't make that specific case.  And those profound economic concerns?  I don't actually think we need to worry about the Ryder Cup, that elite event with no purse.  But come to think of it, perhaps that explains the PGA of America prioritizing the Ryder Cup over the PGA Championship...

Also making the case for a no-fan Ryder Cup, is that same Shack:

Shack Show Quick Take: Why A Fan-Free Ryder Cup Might Be The Right Thing

After a few guests I felt there was an opening to consider the Ryder Cup/fan matter as a

first world news distraction. In part, because after watching some of the recent replays and considering the times, maybe this is the year to tone things down. 

It’s only about 9 minutes of my thoughts, so your input on both this Shack Show format and today’s topic is always appreciated.

Before half of Wisconsin sends hate mail, understand I was initially in the no fans/no Cup camp, and after looking through photos from Versailles in 2018, it pained me to offer this perspective knowing how many American fans were eager to root on their team at Whistling Straits.

To be clear, this is Geoff's new podcast, to which your humble correspondent has not listened.  As such, I'm not clear on that which Geoff thinks needs "toning down".  Those thoughts were much in evidence after the 1991 War by the Shore, but recent installments have reverted to an intense but friendly competition, no?  Though, perhaps Geoff is, like your humble blogger, worried about Bethpage...

Of course, Geoff isn't always of one mind, as there was this comment in discussing a postponement:

A postponement obviously pushes all cup events back a year. Or, I’ll be the first to say what most of us think: cancel the 2021 Presidents Cup and play the Ryder Cup in 2021 and 2022. It’s what we all want anyway.

So, tone it down or turn it up to eleven?  Whatever your call, Geoff agrees.

About That Sequel? -  It's far from the first Hollywood tent pole to bomb, though it might be the first to still warrant a sequel:

The PGA Tour won’t be back until June, at the earliest, but in the meantime we do have one golf event to predict, dissect and discuss over the next month. 

Turner Sports made it official on Wednesday, announcing a match between Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning dubbed “The Match: Champions for Charity.” It will air live on TNT with no spectators on site, and it will benefit coronavirus relief efforts. The team event will put Woods and Manning against Mickelson and Brady. 

GOLF’s Michael Bamberger reported three weeks ago that this match was in the works and it’s picked up steam since, so Wednesday’s announcement was hardly a surprise. But there are still some elements of this match that have yet to be announced or figured out. Let’s break them down.

This is to happen sometime over Memorial Day weekend, and figures to be played at Medalist (sadly, those Seminole rumors have not panned out).  The other point to note is that the PGA Tour has not yet signed off, awaiting their satisfaction as to the safety precautions.   Oddly, Tiger and Phil have no hesitation in playing this event in the absence of ShotLink....  weird, because I had been reliably informed that professional golf cannot be safely played without that Yangtze Division of volunteers.

This is only of the most modest of attention, basically taking refuge in the assumption that it can't be any worse than the original... Another key assumption is that by Memorial Day, Big Break will seem Oscar-worthy.

But here's where it could get modestly interesting:

What’s the format? 

Tiger and Phil played match play in Las Vegas two years ago, and this format will likely be a four-ball. Playing foursomes (alternate shot) would be a fun addition for half the match, especially to see how Brady and Manning perform under that kind of pressure. If handicaps are involved, The Action Network reports Manning is at a 6.4 while Brady is an 8.1. This can’t just be the Tiger vs. Phil show with Brady and Manning tagging along, so we’re likely to see something level the playing field.

It gets a bit complicated, no?  Those indexes are only half the story, though, because Tiger and Phil are legitimately +6-7.  It's a bit tricky to ensure that the QB's matter....  in fact, I'll go out on a limb and predict that it's their play that will provide the most interest.  That seems a safe call, because I can't conceive that Peyton and Brady could possibly play more poorly than Tiger and Phil did at Shadow Creek.

 Shall we see what the TC gang thinks?

4. The Match II is on. Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning will face Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in May in Florida for charity. We don’t know the exact format, but what bells and whistles would you like to see in play to improve the event from its first iteration? 

Zak: Make it wacky as hell. One of the best aspects of the Skins Game in Japan was when four amateurs hit tee shots in a quick, sweet scramble with the pros. Force Tiger and Phil to hit tee shots and sit out the rest of the hole. Force the quarterbacks to be all-time putter for three holes. Anything creative will be better than The Match 1.0. 

Sens: Zak is onto something there. I’d add at least a few holes of alternate-shot competition. Make Brady leave Phil in some impossible position and see how he gets out of it. Also: sprinkle some football skills challenges into the mix. We know Mickelson can throw the pigskin a bit. Can Tiger? Can either run a post pattern? Or at least limp their way through one? 

Shipnuck: Yeah, the problem with the first Match was that it couldn’t decide if it was hokey entertainment or hard-core competition so it wound up being neither. By introducing amateurs, this edition is clearly the latter, so they need to mix up the format and have fun with it. 

Dethier: They should just hold a “run-through” practice round match with these four guys, not tell them they’re filming it, and air that one. I’m excited for this, don’t get me wrong, but I’m already cringing at the forced banter. 

Bamberger: Golf is complicated enough, and this event will draw viewers who don’t know it well. I’d have all four players hole out and count every stroke and add ’em up. In other words, not a better ball. So what the QBs do really matters. That will bring out their athleticism and their competitiveness. We will see them as they really are.

For what its worth, I think Alan misfires pretty badly there.  The problem with the first match was far more profound than he seems to realize.  It was a shameless money grab, which perhaps they could have weathered, but combined with technological glitches and 10-handicap golf left exactly no one happy... well, maybe Phil.

I think they can have some fun with the format, if they can let themselves...  alternate shot could be the ticket, as it checks off many of the boxes.  And I've got a further tweak, have them draw blindly for the batting order, so that Tiger and Brady hit the tee ball on the odd-numbered holes, and Phil and Peyton on the evens.  Let us see how each team manages under those constraints, and we might have something worth watching.

Although this doesn't inspire confidence:

Tiger Woods says match with Phil, Brady, and Manning will be about helping relief efforts—and needling one other

The former is timely.  But who wants to tell them that the latter isn't nearly as interesting as they seem to find it?

About Those Long Reads - Today is all about closing browser tabs, and you're the lucky beneficiaries.  Lucky, because there are some great reads to be savored.

First, a deep dive on a scandal that I'd heard of, but knew nothing about:

The sandbagging scandal that shook golf 

From the archive (March 2001): Decades after padding his handicap and almost making off with thousands, the man behind the Deepdale Scandal was still paying the price

Better yet, the story comes via the late Dave Anderson, the former Pulitzer-winning N.Y. Times sportswriter.  This bad photo is a wonderful memory for me:

That's Employee No. 2 foisting an Unplayable Lies business card off on Dave at a Met. Golf Writers awards dinner.... Of course that was a few years ago, back when she actually read my little blog.  Not that I'm bitter...

It's a wild story, though the dollar amounts will seem laughably small.... 

Next up, the Sands of Nakagima.  Does that ring a bell?  The story begins on the 13th hole at Augusta National in 1978 and, be forewarned, there's haiku involved:

The story began on Friday, April 7, at Augusta National. It was a day of infamy in the life of Tsuneyuki Nakajima (pronounced Tsuneyuki Nakajima) who damn near

committed hara-kiri in Rae’s Creek. 

According to the record, Nakajima, at 23, was the youngest Japanese PGA champion … before he stepped in the water. He is now the first man, of any age, to make a 13 on a single hole at Augusta during tournament play. That eclipsed the record of Frank Walsh, who made a 12 on the par-5 eighth in 1935. 

Nakajima, playing in his first Masters, opened with an 80 on Thursday. On Friday, he was even par going into No. 13, “the Azalea Hole,” a 485-yard, dogleg-left par 5. A long drive around the corner leaves an iron to the green and eagle possibilities. Nakajima didn’t need a calculator to know that he had to have an eagle for any chance of making the cut. All or nothing. And as they say in aerial warfare and boxing, “He went the kamikaze route!” Attempting to hit the longest drive possible, Nakajima duck-hooked it into the creek. 

Wild goose, wild goose 

At what age

Did you make your first journey

—Issa 

He was forced to drop the ball out. Penalty shot. The third swipe went less than 100 yards. The fourth sailed into the creek in front of the green. 

On the shingle

Beaten by waves

He sleeps with his head

Amongst the rocks

—Hitomaro

Perhaps feeling his luck would change, he attempted to blast the ball from the water. Everything flew straight up, and the ball came down on top of one of his FootJoys. Penalty! Oh! Oh! Unsnap calculator case … push on button … clear! … click … click, click, click, etc. … Total! He now lay 7! Maintaining his composure, he handed his sand wedge to his caddie, for cleaning, but they muffed the exchange, and the club was accidentally dropped in the water. Ground club hazard! Penalty! Clear … click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click … Total! Nine! Finally, Nakajima wedged it out of the creek and over the green, chipped on and two-putted. Final audit. Clear! … Number of times ball struck … click, plus eight … number of penalty shots … click, plus five … push add … click. Total … 13! 

When I went out

In the spring meadows

To gather flowers

I enjoyed myself

So much that I stayed all night

—Akahito

Bit of an overly long excerpt, but thirteen strokes takes a bit of time... and where else will you turn for your golf-infused haiku?

Of course, the indelible nickname comes from trauma endured later that summer on the iconic Road Hole.... He was safely on that green in two, and then....suddenly not.  Give it a read if you don't remember the circumstances.

Next up, the Land of the Lefties:

Badenoch. The Scots accent the first syllable and dwell gutturally on the last: Bay-de-nochhht. The word means “drowned land” in Gaelic; back in the 14th century, a local

laird known as The Wolf of Badenoch brutishly held sway over the district. It is now fine deer-stalking country, with Britain’s best ski slopes near to hand, but to me “Badenoch” means one thing alone: The Land of the Left-handed Golfers. 

I first heard of this mysterious district from a left-handed veterinarian named Peter Stuart, an expatriate Scot who lives near London. A stalwart of the Left Handed Golfers’ Society of Great Britain, Stuart twice had won its coveted Quaich Bowl, a silver replica of a vessel owned by Charles I, which is said to be the oldest golf trophy for left-handers in the world. Remarkably, Stuart considered his left-handedness to be quite—well, unremarkable. 

“I don’t feel I’m a freak,” Stuart had said. “I come from the District of Badenoch in the Central Highlands, which is sort of a left-handers’ Brigadoon. I’d say about 40 percent of the golfers up there are lefties.”

If you guessed "Shinty" in your office pool you're a winner... but what were you doing in your office?

Last up for today, have you noticed the success of European golfers at the Masters?  But it wasn't that long ago, 1980 to be exact, that the Masters was for locals only to win....

The year was 1980 and this would be the 44th Masters, an invitational tournament which gave the Americans the chance to show off their skills and, all being well for the folks watching on TV, win on home soil.

On all bar two occasions this had been the case. Only Gary Player had broken the deadlock, in 1961 and 1978. 

Only four Europeans were in the field – and one of those was an amateur, Peter McEvoy. Mark James was playing in his first and only Masters, while Sandy Lyle was making his debut. Finally, our own reigning Open champion was Seve Ballesteros. 

This would be the Spaniard’s fourth appearance in Georgia. His uncle Ramon Sota had finished sixth in 1965, which at the time was the best performance by any European. Hence Seve’s early love affair with Augusta National.

This bit made me laugh, mostly because had I typed such a thing they'd be calling me a racist:

At 13 he had an iron left into the par 5, a shot which was caught heavy and which resulted in another visit to the famous strip of water while Newton two-putted for a birdie to be within three of the lead. 

“The fight was on the inside. What I say was ‘son of beech!’”

I get that that's how he pronounced it, but there's no call to make fun of a man speaking in a non-native language....

Think of the names that follow him on that honor toll, Lyle, Faldo (3x), Olazabal (2x), Woosie and Langer (2x).  OK, I didn't include Danny Willett there, but I'm guessing you'll agree that he's not of the same stuff as those other guys.

Lots for you to digest and we'll see each other down the road.

In Memorium

Ray Charles Robinson Reeves-Simpson

June 27, 2004 -April 21, 2020

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

'Dis and 'Dat

It's a tough week at our end, so I do hope that you all are doing better.  The best thing right now is to lose myself in the blogging...  If only we had Nurse Ratched to kick around a little....  What?  Maybe there is a God after all?

A Hard (Hall) Pass - The World Golf Hall of Fame has been doling out the good news, first with Tiger (Duh!) and Marion Hollins (Amen!).  I'm sure their next selection will be equally worthy:

Longtime PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has joined Tiger Woods and Marion Hollins in the 2021 World Golf Hall of Fame class, announced by the WGHOF Monday. 

Finchem joins the Hall in the “contributor” category, and is quite deserving. During 22 years overseeing the Tour, Finchem’s career aligned almost identically with the Tour career’s of Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Thud!

Timing is everything, but see what you think of this:

It has been widely noted how prize money in professional golf increased exponentially during Woods’ ascension, but Finchem also helped the Tour extend its fingers into all pools of pro golf. What was once three tours under one umbrella became six.

Are we so sure that that's a good thing?

To my surprise, Eamon Lynch has sprung to the defense of this selection, though a cursory glance indicates that the straw man body count might well be excessive.  See what you think:

That much was evident with the news that former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem 

will join Tiger Woods and Marion Hollins in the next class to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. The announcement was greeted with griping that was as predictable as it is tedious, an exercise in collective eye-rolling intended to suggest not only that Finchem is undeserving but that his inclusion dilutes the Hall’s credibility. 

That argument is familiar and has been leveled against more deserving targets who got a call to the Hall, like George H.W. Bush, Bing Crosby or Bob Hope. But there’s no sound basis for raising it against Finchem. 

There is a sentiment that says lockers in St. Augustine ought to be earned for exploits on the field of play, and the only field of play that matters is a golf course. Not a boardroom or a factory or a production trailer or a media center. It’s an absolutist position that would disqualify plenty of current Hall of Famers.

What would happen if we challenged Eamon to identify a single person making that absurd argument.   But wait, the heavy ammunition is yet to come:

Like C.B. Macdonald or Pete Dye, who only designed those fields of play, 

Like Karsten Solheim, who innovated the instruments used on those fields. 

Like Dan Jenkins or Herb Graffis, whose only mastery was of a typewriter on the sidelines. 

The reality is that most sports halls of fame are intended to acknowledge not just quantifiable achievement but immeasurable impact. Charlie Sifford wasn’t inducted for his two PGA Tour victories but for what his presence, courage and determination symbolized in golf’s ugliest era. Frank Chirkinian wasn’t given a locker to store his Emmy awards, but because the legendary CBS producer’s influence far exceeded that of most players he put on living room TVs.

Wow, what a killer argument.   C.B. Macdonald was the father of American golf, so as long as Finschem's accomplishments are of that order of magnitude, then he deserves to be enshrined.  But just in case I'm having memory issue, what exactly are those contributions?

This is hardly to say Finchem is beyond criticism. He forged a colorless culture at Tour HQ and enforced a level of secrecy around disciplinary proceedings and drug testing that would have been envied in Pyongyang. But it can’t be argued that he didn’t leave the Tour in a considerably better place than he found it.

Yes it can.  All those things have hurt the game, but I assume you'll get around to telling me what contributions he did make:

When he took over as commissioner in 1994, total prize money on Tour was $56.4 million. Toss in the Champions and then-Web.com Tours and the fund was just over $90 million. This season the Tour’s prize money is nearing $400 million before bonuses, at least until COVID-19 upended things. He created the oft-maligned World Golf Championship events, which if nothing else helped temper Greg Norman’s plans for world domination, and the FedEx Cup playoff system 13 years ago.

So the basis for him being Hall-worthy is that he cashed a bunch of checks?  You know what else is oft-maligned?  Yeah, that FedEx Cup....Not much to those legacies, is there?

Get this reductio ad absurdum:

It’s a popular though specious suggestion that Finchem owes his success to coat-tailing on Tiger Woods. Sure, he was dealt a strong hand, but he played it well for what was demanded of him. If subsisting on crumbs from Tiger’s table was sufficient to earn a spot in the Hall, then Mark Steinberg would have his own wing.

I'd never previously seen logic water-boarded, but I can now see the logic for banning it.  So, playing a strong hand well is grounds for immortality?  Good to know.

Adam Schupak has a more typical response:

And why should they be? Just days ago, my colleague Beth Ann Nichols and others applauded the World Golf Hall of Fame for finally electing Marion Hollins also through

the contributor category. (Quick aside: If the Hall is going to continue with this category, please at least limit it to a max of one per induction.) Hollins was a trailblazer and while her inclusion won’t send people turning off I-95 at International Golf Parkway in droves, hopefully some of those visitors who spring for a ticket to go and see the locker for Tiger Woods will learn her story too.

But the World Golf Hall of Fame needed another plaque of an administrator about as much as it needed one for Augusta National chairman Billy Payne two years ago. This isn’t so much a knock on Finchem as much as a wider complaint that we’re honoring the wrong people. The Hall of Fame should be for the greats of the game, the players who achieved the moments etched in our memory. There is still one more inductee to be named later this week, but all of the other players who will be left on the outside looking in are far more deserving of recognition in the Hall of Fame than Finchem.

I have no problem with administrators who have made substantial contributions to the game being honored, and the case for Billy Payne is actually far stronger.  But our Nurse Ratched is a dour, humorless man, who's legacy cannot be articulated without the use of a dollar sign.

Tell Us What You Really Think -  The article itself is unfortunately behind a paywall, but see if you can suss out how Curmudgeonly James Corrigan really feels about this issue:

A Ryder Cup without fans is a ridiculous, wretched concept that should be put to bed

You sure you only want it put....to bed?   Seems like you'd want a more....what's that felicitous phrase, a more final solution?

But this is where eyes start rolling:

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh joined “Talking Golf with Ann Liguori” on WFAN in 

New York on Sunday and said the PGA of America is mulling the idea of a fan-less Ryder Cup if the current environment under the COVID-19 pandemic calls for it. 

“[Ryder Cups] are pretty unique, and the fans are the Ryder Cup to a certain degree,” Waugh said. “It is hard to image one without fans. We have begun to talk about whether you can create some virtual fan experience, and we are going to try and be as creative as we can. 

“To be determined, frankly, whether you’d hold it without fans or not,” he continued. “For the Ryder Cup it’s particularly important, so we will be very careful about that. It’s a very unique thing, and I think if we can pull it off this year it will be an amazing exclamation point to the year.”

A virtual fan experience?  Yeah, that's the ticket....

You mean like this?

Thank God golf is played over several hundred acres, because you'll notice that these fans are not practicing safe social distancing....  But what can we expect from soccer hooligans.

We all love this event, but isn't it the obviously safer route to push it until 2021, when the Ryder Cup can be the Ryder Cup?  By the way, Seth, has that Ryder Cup Task Force approved of your tossing away home field advantage?  

Fighting Words - Shane Ryan takes on the terminology battles of our game, though he goes far easier on the USGA/R&A than he should.

1. “Golf” … can it ever be a verb?

I would argue that nothing quite fires up the golf language police like this one, and it has been covered endlessly, including at this very outlet. Golf, the language police say, is a game, and “playing golf” is the activity. Therefore, to say that you’re “golfing,” or that you “want to golf,” or that you “golfed yesterday,” is fundamentally incorrect. (It’s true that you can run or swim or ski or canoe, but those aren’t ball sports and, to me at least, they belong to a different category.) You wouldn’t tell your friends that you “basketballed” or “tennised,” the logic goes, because that would sound weird. 

So the question we really need to ask is this: Why does it sound less weird when golf is used as a verb? Why, to the outside world, does it seem pretty normal?

Permissabilty is limited to the compliment, "He can really golf his ball".   All other uses of the word as a verb are specifically proscribed.

But this is where Shane gets into the dumbing down of our game by our rules makers:

4. Tied vs. All Square (vs. Halved)

This may sound contradictory to the sand trap/bunker debate, but part of what makes a sport like golf fun is that it has its own terminology. Why on earth would you sanitize the game’s patois by saying “tied” like everyone else on the planet? All square is so much better! The USGA and R&A recently implemented an official change in an effort to simplify the language, though they still allowed the more traditional terms. But for me, saying a match was “all square” or that a hole was “halved” was already very intuitive, and unique terms like those are more likely to draw outside fans in because they create, partly through language, a distinct and intriguing world that is nonetheless simple to understand. Reverting to bland terms like “tied” just takes the color out of that world.

Verdict: Given the choice, “all square” and “halved” are better every time.

Yes, exactly, why on earth would you abandon terms that have been part of the golf culture for centuries?  It's almost like they consider that history a double-eagle around our neck....(you'll have to click through to understand that bit...

But methinks Shane missed the worst single term introduced into our game, the replacement of the term "hazard" with the awkward, infelicitous "penalty area".  Yuck!  What precisely was wrong with hazard?  I cringe every time I hear an announcer use it, and doubly when they apologize for reverting to habit and using hazard first.

Alan To The Rescue - Shippy's latest mailbag was posted during the day on Friday, and it slipped my mind yesterday.  It's not up to his usual, "ripped-from-the-headlines" standards, but we're plenty starved for anything that amuses.  Shall we dive in?

Alan, it was great to see Tiger and Jim Nantz talk about the 2019 Masters win. However, what was more visually distracting: the low-tech feed or Tiger’s pencil thin mustache w/beard combo? #AskAlan – @forearmshivers 

I actually enjoyed the low-tech vibe; it felt authentic and very of-the-moment. But I agree Tiger’s facial hair needs work. And it’s time for that patchy poa annua atop his head to finally go, too. Tiger with a shaved dome will look badass, if he ever works up the courage to do it.

Poa is basically a weed, so pretty much....  I didn't see Tiger, but I'm going to hold my ground and maintain that Brooksie's porn 'stache was the more embarassing.

Hi. Do you see merit in Rory McIroy’s belief that a potential November Masters may improve his chances at Augusta? -Scott from Scotland – @fyfescott1 

Well, if it’s cold and damp the course will play really long, so certainly it’s advantageous to be the best driver of the golf ball in the game today. More than that, if we get an autumn Masters the run-up and rhythm of the preceding months will be unprecedented. The old way of having Augusta be the first major in eight months clearly hasn’t worked for McIlroy so any change has to be welcome.

Yes, though I'd agree more if he had kept his pie hole shut.  The problem is that Rory's performance seems inversely related to how badly he wants it, so I'd think he's not be raising expectations... Just sayin'.

Related, is this about his and Bambie's series:

Regarding the fantastic “Masters that Never Was” series, who needs it more at this stage in their careers: Rory at the Masters, or Jordan getting any big win? How did you reach the Rory decision? – @reverett013 

That was a fun experiment for Michael and me. Writing fiction on deadline nine days in a row is no joke! Thanks for reading it. McIlroy has another decade to try to win a Masters, though we all know the scar tissue builds up over time and it certainly doesn’t get any easier. But Spieth’s slump had gotten so bad the whole golf world was reaching for the PANIC button before COVID offered him a needed chance to reset. So, to your question, I’d say Jordan. As for our fictional Masters, me and Bamby both wanted Tiger in the mix but since he won last year (for real!) it didn’t feel that fun to follow the same script. We kicked around a few potential winners but Rory’s quest to win a jacket is so compelling and he’s a fun guy to write about so it felt right.

I guess that's a spoiler, though if you hadn't read it by now....  It just veered way off the deep end, and that bit about Jordan rediscovering the magic at Augusta was just so darn 2019...How did that work out?

What effect will this current COVID crisis have on the ridiculous amount of money the players compete for these days? I imagine companies will be reeling for a long time from this and not be so keen to pay $1 million plus to 1st place when their own employees are suffering. – @dunehigh 

European Tour czar Keith Pelley recently sent a letter to all of his players more or less making your exact point and preparing them for the harsh realities of the forthcoming golf landscape. A loss of corporate support, reduced (or no) ticket sales, perhaps the abolition of the pro-am, a macro-recession … all of these things are sure to put a dent in purses. The PGA Tour is insulated in the short-term because of the mega-deal it recently signed with FedEx but every other tour is vulnerable. And for sure PGA Tour players will feel the pinch in the endorsement market.

FedEx sure, but were the network contracts actually signed?  That seems the bigger issue, especially given the long term involved.

If play resumed with no fans and no caddies, which players would benefit the most, and which would be hurt the most by the changes? – @Golfingbrock 

No fans will be a boon for the Patrick Reeds and Ian Poutlers of the world, as well as any and all of Tiger Woods’s playing partners. Guys who thrive on the energy of the crowd, like Phil and Rory, figure to be adversely affected. The caddie question is intriguing. I would assume feel-players like a Shane Lowry and Marc Leishman would thrive, but it’s very idiosyncratic. The player who would be hurt the most is certainly Pat Perez — his career-long caddie Mike Hartford pulls every club for him!

No caddies?  That would actually be kinda entertaining, just make them play with maybe four clubs.

Funny how Alan makes the same mistake as many do.  Playing with Tiger isn't a big problem... the place you don't want to be is the group ahead or behind him.  I'm not sure he's right about our Patrick, who might wither away if denied to oxygen of hatred.

Based on the Fauci guidelines, it would seem that sports need to be based in one city to resume, with athletes quarantined. Would that even be possible for golf and if so, what city are you putting the Tour in because of the number and quality of courses? #AskAlan – @brianros1 

Apparently the lords of Ponte Vedra Beach haven’t consulted with Dr. Fauci, because the revamped schedule has the Tour barnstorming all over the country, per usual. (Of course, this could just be wishful thinking; we shall see.) But yours is a fun thought exercise, and my answer is Levittown, Long Island, the picture of middle class suburbia. An incredible schedule awaits: Shinnecock Hills is an hour’s drive to the east, and there are a dozen world-class courses along the way. Bethpage is right around the corner. An hour’s drive to the northwest are the fantastic courses of Westchester County. And the media capital of the world is nearby, too, adding more juice to the whole enterprise. You could have a full schedule without anyone having to get on an airplane.

Come soon, because we've even solved our traffic issues.  

Covid golf has forced a lot of courses to remove rakes. When this [gestures everywhere] is all over should they be brought back or left in the maintenance shed? – @Carr4thecourse 

I guess I’m going soft but I prefer a nicely raked bunker. Trying to get up-and-down out of a size 13 footprint is not my idea of a good time.

I can't put my fingers on the quote right now, maddening since Geoff had it atop his blog just a day or so ago.  But the great C.B. Macdonald hated bunker rakes, opining that he would prefer to run a herd of elephants through them before play begins.

The problem, of course, is we've gotten used to them being perfect...Now, without rakes, most of us have reverted to preferred lies in the bunkers.  So, it's a nice thought...

If/when they decide to restart the Tour without galleries, is there a chance they try to go to some special venues which could not accommodate big galleries? Imagine seeing a Tour event at Pine Valley, Philly Cricket, etc etc etc!! – @pintosjavi 

That would be spectacular. Alas, the venues are all locked-in for the rest of this year. But if the COVID era lasts into 2021 it could lead to some creative thinking.

Never happen.  But it's highly disturbing to think of this continuing until 2021....  Basically, there are already insurrections breaking out around the country, this can't go on much longer.

Does the PGA Tour have a dress code against wearing face masks? And who will be the first player to compete wearing one? – @HarryArnett 

It’s already happened — Matt Every went full face mask a while back, either for sun protection or because he was going to knock over a 7-11 after the round … I can’t remember which. And years ago there was that exceptionally cold Match Play in Tucson when Martin Kaymer was rocking some kind of tunic which covered most of his face. But we all know which hypocondriac will be the first to wear a COVID-inspired mask. It’s gotta be Jason Day, right?

That was pretty weird:

I'm pretty sure that's not an N95... 

Best round of golf that you’ve seen live where you’ve walked away from it going, Wow, I may never see anything like that again! – @phump72 

Probably Tiger’s 65 on Friday at Hoylake. The control, precision, discipline and course management in those extreme conditions absolutely blew my mind. Still does.

 Craig Perks?  Hey, the guy laid up to a perfect yardage every time.

Who on the golf.com staff would you want by your side in a bar fight? Who on staff is most likely to have started the fight? – @jackryderparis 

I’ll take J. Wall as my wingman — the dude is a beast, as Rory found out when our equipment czar crushed him on the Peloton bike. The most likely instigator has to be Sean Zak. He seems as goofy and likable as a Labrador puppy but dude talks just enough smack to get us in trouble. Plus, that slicked-back hair is a provocation.

When they asked that of Tour players, the runaway choice for wing man in a bar fight was Ernie.  I know, I didn't see it coming either.

Can you please explain how anyone could love Pebble Beach over Cypress Point and Tin Cup over Caddy Shack? #CantMoveOn – @SHistorians 

I guess some of us just have more discerning tastes.

That's easy, they prefer Pebble because they can't get on Cypress....  But Caddy Shack is just a horrible movie...really.

If I can’t play golf or watch golf, why am I still asking a question? – @kyechsports 

Because you literally have nothing better to do. And neither do I, which is why I’m answering your (non-) question.

Somehow that doesn't cheer me up at all....

Stay safe and I'll see you when I see you.