Weekend Wrap

This will be blogging as therapy, so can I ask you to adjust your standards accordingly?  I understand that it might have seemed apparent that they could go any lower...

Hall Pass - It's sad to note the mediocrities that were honored before her, but at least they've finally found a spot for the great Marion Hollins:

Marion Hollins’ contributions to golf largely have been historical footnotes deserving greater recognition given her roles in Augusta National Golf Club and Cypress Point Club. 

Hollins in St. Andrews in 1929.

Hollins, who died in 1944 at the age of 51, will finally get her due with the announcement today that she has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, joining Tiger Woods in the Class of 2021. Woods’ election was announced on March 11. 

An accomplished player who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1921, Hollins was working for Samuel F.B. Morse, a distant cousin of the inventor of the telegraph, and helping him develop property he bought on the Monterey Peninsula, including Pebble Beach. 

She was given the task of developing Cypress Point Club, which Seth Raynor originally was hired to design. When Raynor died early on in the project, Hollins hired a British course architect virtually unknown in the United States, Alister MacKenzie. With a notable assist from Hollins, MacKenzie designed a masterpiece.

Cypress Point, Pasatiempo and Augusta National as footnotes?   Even here note the disservice, burying her selection behind that Tiger nail-biter.... I'd like to see the physical ballots on that one.

Some mangled background on how these important personnages hooked up:

“Here enters Bobby Jones,” Dave Kindred wrote in Golf Digest in 1999. “He came to Pebble Beach that fall [1929] to compete in the U.S. Amateur. During preparations, he played at the new Cypress Point and found it ‘almost perfect.’ 

“So while Jones knew of MacKenzie—and shared his admiration for the unadorned subtleties of the Old Course at St. Andrews—he was seeing the architect’s own work for the first time. It was fortuitous because he needed an architect to build a great national course in Georgia.” 

Jones also played Pasatiempo on that trip. “So, the Hollins-MacKenzie-Jones connection was formed when Jones set foot on Cypress Point. From there events moved as if inevitable,” Kindred wrote.

Enters?  More like exits, as the key event might well have been Jones' shocking loss in the first round of match-play in the 1929 U.S. Amateur.  Though there's long been speculation that Jones and MacKenzie may have met previously in St. Andrews.

Our friend David Owen, who literally wrote the book on Augusta National, wrote an engaging profile of Hollins for the New Yorker that I've linked to previously, but it's the header that informs most:

The Woman Who Invented Augusta National

Often times we assess golfers based upon that which their peers think and say about them.  Similarly, the case for Marion Hollins is worthy of a summary judgment based merely upon what Bobby Jones and Dr. MacKenzie thought of her.

Beth Ann Nichols recounts this from David's book:

As reported in David Owen’s book “Making of the Masters,” MacKenzie sent Hollins to

Augusta National in his place after co-founder Clifford Roberts felt that MacKenzie wasn’t spending enough time at the development. 

“I want her views and personal impressions in regard to the way that the work is being carried out,” wrote MacKenzie, later adding, “I do not know of any man who has sounder ideas.”

Nichols argues that Hollins is among the five most important women in golf history...  I'm of two minds on these sorts of things, as I find the category itself a tad demeaning.  But, as the Good Doctor's quote makes clear, it is a higher order of accomplishment given women's lesser opportunities in that era.   For what it's worth, you'll want to know the other four:

Annika Sorenstam: The winningest player in the modern era not only dominated the LPGA but elevated everyone around her, particularly when it came to fitness. The only player in LPGA history to shoot 59, Sorenstam’s appearance on the PGA Tour at Colonial catapulted her into a new level of acclaim among sports stars. 

Mickey Wright: That swing. Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson called Wright’s swing the greatest they’d ever seen – man or woman. Such respect helped to elevate the women’s tour in those early days. There was time when tournaments threatened to cancel if Wright, a 13-time major winner, didn’t play. 

Babe Zarahias:The early LPGA was built to showcase Zaharias, one of the greatest athletes in American history. She wasn’t just a sports star, but a bona fide celebrity. 

Se Ri Pak: The South Korean single-handedly changed the face of the LPGA, inspiring countless others to pick up the game throughout Asia. When the LPGA faced an uncertain future a decade ago, it was the Asian market that largely propped up the tour financially.

A pretty good list, but with a huge catch.  To see who might have been slighted, I reviewed the listing of inductees, and it's not for the faint of heart.  People, have we no standards?  Does anyone really consider Hubert Green a golfing immortal?

Wither Golf, Professional Division -  There's not a lot that's new here, but the Tour Confidential crew takes a shot at the probabilities of that June restart:

1. The PGA Tour announced its new schedule this week, as it attempts to return from its hiatus due to the coronavirus. Up first is the Charles Schwab Classic in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 11. The first four events will be played without fans, and Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that the Tour will not play without coronavirus testing or clearance from health officials. How realistic is the Tour actually resuming in June? 

Sean Zak: I’ll call it a 50/50 chance right now. Many models would tell you that the death rate of the coronavirus will (hopefully) be under control by late May, which would lend you to think that life could make moves toward “normal” again. Could the Tour create a bubble of sorts at the Colonial, where only the most essential people would be? Perhaps. I think the more pressing question that we’ll have to answer in late May is “Should the Tour do this?” 

Alan Shipnuck: I think 50/50 is optimistic, to say the least. I deeply hope widespread testing is available by the beginning of June, but right now we’re barely scratching the surface nationally. Can that change in five weeks? I’m dubious.

To me this has value, but that has nothing to do with the game of golf.  For instance, Sean cites the models, and if there's one thing we all should have learned by now it's that we should never make policy based upon an epidemiological model....  The best thing you can say about those models is that at least they didn't hold a Chainsmokers concert....

 I did develop an interesting thought about those events to be played without fans, which I thought was still TBD.  One aspect of the modern game that has always frustrated your humble blogger are TIO's, and the extent to which they affect scoring and outcomes.  While the correlation between the quality (really, the lack thereof) of a golf shot and it's outcome has always been weak, we can all agree that most of the drops given from grandstands are overly-generous.  Hopefully no grandstands have been built and we can see how the modern golf professional reacts when he actually has to play it as it lies....

Steve DiMeglio sees the possibility of a hybrid 2020-21-22 season:

But if there are further cancellations and/or postponements, a credible season would be in jeopardy and force the PGA Tour to make major status adjustments, including the possibility of a hybrid season covering 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

“If there is a scenario where we carry eligibility from the PGA Tour over to the following season, that will likely have a profound impact on the Korn Ferry Tour eligibility system and could go as far as preventing promotions from the Korn Ferry Tour and their eligibility would then have to merge into their following season in 2021,” Pazder said. “We’ve had extensive conversations, and at this stage I can tell you that if we are able to resume at the Charles Schwab Challenge, playing nearly three-fourths of our season does give us great comfort in considering it a credible season. But we have not defined that threshold if we fall below X number of tournaments, then Y will happen.”

His focus is more on the Korn Ferry level and the process of graduation its graduates to the big tour.   

But back to the TC panel for some howlers:

Zak: The wraparound season is the biggest winner! Some of those events can’t dream of drawing a top 10 player, but you’d have to imagine more pros might tee it up at the Safeway Open with a major lurking one week in the future. I think the Mayakoba event is unfortunately a loser having to play during the same weekend as Tiger’s Hero World Challenge.

Oh yeah, Sean, that wraparound is going to look like a charm when the FedEx Cup kicks off...

But in a year with no Players and no Open Championship, by all means go the mattresses to preserve the Hero World Challenge.  This is a bit of a nightmare for Jay Monahan, because it forces him to prioritize, and we won't like much of that which we see.

Shipnuck: If things go on as planned, no doubt many non-glamorous will get a huge bump as bored/cash-strapped pros are dying to play more after this enforced off-season. To cite one example, the 3M Open should attract a strong field, as players try to round into form ahead of the PGA Championship. But I think the WGC in China will take a hit as many top players decide to stay home, rest up and try to peak for the ensuing Masters.

Wow, Alan, you think that's why they won't go to China?  No other reasons pop into your mind?

There are a couple of interesting pieces focusing on sports in general, but with obvious golf implications.  First, Sebastian Audoux, a veteran of sports broadcasting, takes a crack at the sports landscape post-Covid.  I'll limit myself to obvious golf-related themes:

1- The sponsorship crisis will expose fundamental business model flaws for many sports leagues 

ROI is often a dirty acronym in sports sponsorship. This global crisis is already forcing companies to drastically cut sponsorship spending. If a league cannot provide evidence for the direct value they create, with analytics to support their claim, chances are they will lose their sponsors. In sports, sponsorship has often been mistaken with patronage. Patronage will mostly disappear, at least for a few years, post crisis. I see big-time sports leagues suffering from this, and new leagues emerging with innovative sponsorship ideas.

My only problem with this is that I've been predicting it for twenty years in the absence of a pandemic.  It seems obvious that the value of sponsorships and TV rights will crater, because they pretty much have to.  More interesting is to consider how golf will fare on a relative basis.  Golf has long punched above its weight class because it's participatory, and those who play are invariably seduced by the game.  Those CEOs that sponsor Tour events so they can play with Phil in a Pro-Am will still presumably want to, the question is whether they'll be able to justify it in reduced circumstances.

9 - Consolidation among sports league will be triggered 

The need for a world tour in golf is something the industry has been talking about for more than 30 years now. The Premier Golf League might not happen but the PGA Tour will use the crisis to take over its European counterpart and it will happen quickly. The PGA Tour of Australasia, Asian Tour and others would benefit from being regrouped under the same umbrella, as well. We might see other mergers and consolidations happen, NBA and Euroleague? UCL becoming a semi-closed league in a new joint venture with the biggest football clubs in Europe?

Obviously the lesser circuits will be under severe pressure, we need look no further than the European Tour.  While the PGA Tour is the best positioned in our game, I would just caution that I don't expect that the Tour's product will seem all that important as play resumes.  I might be suffering from a fever, but I think we've all developed herd immunity to FedEx Cup fever.

The more interesting part of Audoux's musings relate to the general sports broadcasting world, and are worth your time if that's of interest.

This Wall Street Journal item, sadly behind their paywall, lays out another obvious risk:

Why a Second Wave Could Be Even Worse for Sports 

The darkest shadow hanging over the future of sports, concerts and other mass gatherings is another spike in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths

 Ya think?  Here's an excerpt that Shack had grabbed:

Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who is advising the Trump administration on its coronavirus policy, says he sees a high risk of a second

wave in the fall. He’s been pushing for a staggered return of activities. His plan calls for gradually scaling back up again, based on the size of the gatherings and their significance, and monitoring the effects at each stage.

Mass gatherings for sports games are at the bottom of his list. The sight of fans in stadiums is contingent on a “quiescent” fall and robust system of testing and contact tracing to identify and isolate new cases— as well as measures that include fever guns, hand sanitizer handouts and masks inside stadiums.

“We could bring lawn maintenance crews back at the end of the month with very low risk, but we can’t fill up stadiums,” he said Wednesday. “I think the entertainment venues are going to be some of the last things we bring back… Sports are going to be played with no fans for a while.”

Sure, it's easy to picture disaster scenarios, and I don'y think any of us relish being in large crowds anytime soon.  Though the recent analyses that I've seen have tended towards greater numbers having been infected and accompanying lower mortality rates, consistent with the seasonal flu.  

But if you're the PGA, NFL or MLB, perhaps the bigger risk is that you open your stadia and no one comes?

Scenes From The Twitterverse - I'm winding down here, so how about a couple of amusing bits from my Twitter feed?

First, you'll no doubt agree that Shipnuck's is the more credible case:

A competitive category for sure...

But perhaps of greater import, do we think Whit Watson has ever met Tiger? After all, I don't remember Tiger ever playing an LPGA event.

Care for some great moments in golf course ratings?  I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall of those editorial meetings:

Timeless design is way over-rated.... Little reason to ever take these ratings seriously, but who doesn't like so-called experts being reminded of their bizarre decisions.

Be well, friends, and we'll talk again soon.